Nutter eyes $$ for pools, backs Ayers

Mayor Nutter can't please all the people all the time, according to a poll conducted for Pew Charitable Trusts that shows the city is split over how to handle the budget crisis.

About 44 percent of the 1,600 people surveyed last month for Pew's Philadelphia Research Initiative said they were willing to pay higher taxes for more services, while 45 percent said they wanted lower taxes and fewer services. Another 11 percent didn't know.

And those contradictions were evident yesterday. Nutter earned praise for a new effort to keep city pools open. But ads bashing Fire Department cuts debuted on KYW radio, courtesy of the firefighters union. Nutter launched the "Splash and Summer Fund" campaign, a fundraising effort to keep open 20 pools that were scheduled to close.

"This is what community is about," Nutter said. "This is what people do when you have a crisis."

In November, Nutter said he would close 63 of 73 outdoor pools as part of his cuts to shore up the first budget gap.

So far, the city has raised $120,000. Donors include TD Bank, Tasty Baking Co., Caplin Family Charities, United Concordia and Ameri-Choice. The United Way is collecting and administering the money for free.

If the city hits $600,000 by March 1, it can keep the 30 pools open three days a week for six weeks. If the total gets to $1.25 million by March 6, it can keep the 30 pools open six days a week.

Individual donors can start at $10 if they want to chip in.

On another budget front, Local 22 of International Association of Fire Fighters kicked off an ad campaign on KYW radio urging Nutter to reconsider fire cuts.

The ad features a dramatization in which a woman calls for fire help and is told that her local station can't assist her. A narrator then says: "Mayor Nutter says his cost-saving plan is safe. The facts say otherwise."

Nutter eliminated seven pieces of fire equipment as part of his November cuts. The city said the cuts would save $10 million a year without laying off firefighters or closing fire houses. But the union contends the cuts put residents in danger.

Nutter slammed the ad as a scare tactic, saying it "is akin to someone shouting fire in a crowded theater."

Local 22 President Brian McBride said the union wants citizens to know that service has been reduced. "Right now we have five fire stations in the city of Philadelphia that cannot put out a fire," McBride said.

The radio ad buy cost about $7,500, said union recording secretary Dave Kearney. The union also plans billboard ads, he said.

The union also has taken a vote of no confidence on Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers, but Nutter said he wasn't swayed.

"Fire Commissioner Ayers is the fire commissioner," the mayor said. "I get to appoint the fire commissioner. He is the fire commissioner. He's going to stay the fire commissioner."

For more on the pools: www.phillysummerfund.org

For more on the firefighter ads: www.savepfd.com *