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Karen Heller: Who's minding the minders?

Let's get this straight: School Reform Commission member Heidi Ramirez was thrown under a big, yellow bus, forcing her resignation Wednesday.

Let's get this straight: School Reform Commission member Heidi Ramirez was thrown under a big, yellow bus, forcing her resignation Wednesday.

Ramirez, with a doctorate in education, was the board's "most qualified" member - Gov. Rendell's words - and the only one willing to ask tough questions and challenge decisions of Schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman about no-bid contracts, teacher employment, and how the district is going to implement an ambitious five-year plan in a world of diminishing resources.

So the widely admired Ramirez resigned in frustration, and Ackerman now has an SRC board that doesn't question her actions, as Ramirez did.

Ackerman's love for being supervised is well known. In San Francisco, where she previously labored, she labeled school board members "gnats." Here, she routinely bristled at Ramirez's questions and requests for information.

Ramirez strikes me as the sort of bright, young, engaged reformer this city needs. Now that she's gone, the SRC may devolve into a rubber stamp, defeating its very purpose.

A true leader listens to knowledgable and fearless professionals, the type of people who seem to be in short supply in political circles, especially in Philadelphia.

It's good to be the king. But when leadership is isolated to such a degree that differing opinions are quashed, judgment can be impaired while authority goes unchecked.

So it's time to ask whether anyone is serving this role for Ackerman.

However, in a positive development, the commission approved Tony Danza's turning Northeast High into a So, You Think You Can Teach reality show.

Right, because Parking Wars has done so much to burnish the reputation of the Philadelphia Parking Authority. Meanwhile, it's also time to wonder whether anyone is asking hard questions and offering differing opinions to Mayor Nutter.

This endless, tedious summer of a budget quagmire placed the city in temporary foster care under Harrisburg Republicans with other paramount interests - like their own constituents - and inherent distrust of Philadelphia. This situation, beneficial to none, might have been avoided had the mayor and City Council worked much harder, and more harmoniously, to do the difficult job of governing in arduous times.

Such as raising business taxes or property taxes.

They could have cut, cut, cut as other businesses have, instead of now repeatedly crying doomsday while continuing to do business as usual, retaining city government as a sinecure of patronage, pensions, and perks.

Speaking of perks, I was truly crushed not to be invited to the South Philly event of the summer.

I speak, of course, of Wednesday's engagement and prison farewell party - how often are these events twinned? - for former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo at Popi's Italian Restaurant.

No gifts, please.

"At the end of every storm, there are calm seas," the tasteful cream-and-celadon invite reads, though I've never heard of a federal penitentiary described exactly that way before.

Fumo appeared tan, rested, and happy with fiancée Carolyn Zinni on his arm. Two days earlier, his lawyers filed papers stating that Fumo was "a poly-substance abuser" of Xanax, Ambien, Prozac, Darvocet, and at least two glasses of wine nightly. Because of these addictions, they argued, his scheduled Aug. 31 report to prison should be delayed so he can detoxify.

At first, it seemed poor judgment to claim drug and alcohol dependency and that same week stage a bash for 350 where spirits flowed.

But then, as it always is with Vince, there was an inspired catch. Under federal policy, he can shave a year off his 55-month term by enrolling in a prison substance-abuse treatment program.

Cause for celebration indeed.