Budget battle made Green a veteran

Bill Green started his rookie year on City Council by ticking off many of his new colleagues.

He began 2008 with his famous name, confident style and legislation to eradicate the controversial Deferred Retirement Option Plan for elected officials.

What a difference 18 months makes for Green, who always seems to revel in political and policy battles with Mayor Nutter's administration, but has found a way to work with Council colleagues.

Green mended fences, playing a lead role in budget negotiations that forced Nutter to give up a temporary property-tax hike.

"I think it just took a while for everybody to get to know each other," Green said of Council. "Especially in the budget battle, we all divided efforts and everybody did what they did."

He has also learned to pick his battles. The DROP legislation, he said, was not a smart move.

"Introducing that bill my first week in Council hurt my ability to build a relationship with people and probably didn't recover until the mayor introduced his DROP bill," Green said.

Jim Kenney, Nutter's most vocal ally on Council, introduced legislation for the mayor this year to eliminate DROP for future elected officials. Kenney said that Nutter's DROP legislation was going nowhere fast. *

- Catherine Lucey & Chris Brennan