Inquirer Editorial: Still a game of who you know

Like a nest of cockroaches huddled where no one can see them, Philadelphia's political insider culture still exists, despite the Nutter administration's efforts to kill the seedy relationship between money and politics.

Take the case of a politically-active lawyer who got a $150,000 loan from a now-defunct, quasi-governmental agency to expand his law practice. Prosecutors say he spent some of it on his credit card bills, a $50,000 party for his wife, and tickets to Eagles and 76ers games. They will lay out their charges in a trial scheduled for September.

The same agency, the Philadelphia Commercial Development Corp., lent $90,000 to a public-relations professional and friend to politicians. She says she hasn't paid anything back because no one asked her to. Ridiculous as that sounds, she wasn't alone.

City records examined by Inquirer reporters Joseph Tanfani and Mark Fazlollah showed that nine of 12 people who received money from the fund paid back nothing.

Deputy Commerce Director Kevin Dow said once the federal criminal probe is over, he will collect the unpaid balances on the loans. And the city will take control of future loans so a well-intended program is not completely derailed.

PCDC's Minority Ventures Partners program was set up with a $1.5 million state economic development grant to help capitalize minority businesses. It lent money until 2009 when Mayor Nutter shut down PCDC for what Dow called "mismanagement" and a "lack of transparency."

Mismanagement and a lack of transparency are the warm, dark places where political insiders like to conduct their business.

They are enabled by tone-deaf government officials.

Apparently, one of those officials was Councilman Curtis Jones Jr., who formerly served as PCDC's director. But Jones says politics played no role in doling out the money. He left the agency in 2007 to run for political office.

Former agency deputy Aqil Sabur, who vetted and approved the loans, also said politicians never tried to interfere in his decisions. That comment flunks the laugh test.

All too often, what happens in Philadelphia is a product of who you know, not what you know. The more visible the decision-making process, the more the public knows about the people involved, the better for Philadelphia.

That way, those in charge of city hiring or contracts will be more likely to stop and ask, "How will this look when the light is turned on?" Then, maybe fewer of them will be mistaken for cockroaches.