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Joan Markman, 57, the city's first chief integrity officer

As a former federal prosecutor, she handled municipal-corruption cases.

Joan Markman
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JOAN MARKMAN stood in a large, drafty city-owned room in Hunting Park in January 2009, telling 30 Licenses & Inspections workers that the days of tips and freebies were over.

Shouting to be heard over blowers from a heating system in the ceiling, Markman was flexing her new muscles as Mayor Nutter's first chief integrity officer.

"If you work for the city of Philadelphia, there's no such thing as a tip," she said. "That word shouldn't even be in your vocabulary."

The workers, bundled up for their foray into the cold city streets, applauded her, but it wasn't clear how many actually got the message.

Joan Markman, who died of cancer yesterday at age 57, also showed her devotion to her new job by arriving as early as 6 a.m. to talk to Streets Department workers in sanitation yards.

One truck driver who hauled debris from vacant houses told Daily News reporter Dave Davies in 2009: "People flag you down and say they'll give you a couple hundred dollars to take some stuff. You look around, don't get caught, you're fine. But we're going to have to be more careful, with this mayor coming in."

That was the idea when Nutter took office the year before, determined to restore ethics to city government.

In addition to Joan Markman, an assistant U.S. attorney for 20 years specializing in municipal-corruption cases, Nutter named Amy Kurland as inspector general. Kenya Mann was appointed to the city's Board of Ethics. All three were federal prosecutors.

Joan was battling breast cancer when she announced she would have to leave the city job last January. The effects of her treatment were making it impossible to do her job.

"We're devastated and deeply saddened at the news of the passing of our friend Joan Markman," Nutter said in a statement. "While we knew that Joan had been very ill, she also maintained an incredible level of activity and focus in a huge battle against the disease that has challenged her for the last few years.

"Joan was tough, a fighter, and an exemplary public servant who believed in integrity, who believed in the goodness of people, and she loved her work. We will miss her. Philadelphia is a better city because of her."

Joan expressed her public-service philosophy to Davies: "I spent 20 years mostly coming in after the fact, dealing with crimes that had already been committed. Now I get to be proactive and affect behavior. If the rules are fair, and you communicate them clearly, you find most people want to do the right thing."

When he appointed her, Nutter placed Joan's City Hall office next to his, and pretty much let her define her job.

"I wanted to repair the damaged reputation of public service in Philadelphia," he said at the time.

When she stepped down in January 2014, Joan said: "It's been a privilege to serve the citizens of Philadelphia in Mayor Nutter's administration. I'm gratified that over the past six years I've been able to work with so many administration officials and city employees who have done the city's business with honesty and integrity. And I believe that the public appreciates the good work that has been done."

Joan was also a member of the Philadelphia Housing Authority's Board of Commissioners.

A highlight of Joan's career as a federal prosecutor was the prosecution of 10 city officials in a wide-ranging corruption probe in 2005.

"I kept looking for the Jolly Roger flying over the defense table when a federal prosecutor finished her opening statement in the municipal-corruption trial yesterday," Daily News columnist Elmer Smith wrote on Feb. 23, 2005.

"Former City Treasurer Corey Kemp and his alleged co-conspirators sounded as brazen as a band of pirates in Assistant U.S. Attorney Joan Markman's detailed, 90-minute summary of this latest municipal-corruption case."

Kemp was among those convicted. He was sentenced to 10 years in a federal prison.

Joan graduated from Wesleyan University in 1979, and from the University of Virginia Law School in 1983.

She was an adjunct lecturer in trial advocacy at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and an associate attorney in the Dechert law firm. She also was an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia.

She is survived by her husband, James Becker.

Services: Memorial service 3 p.m. Sunday at Society Hill Synagogue, 418 Spruce St.