The Pennsylvania Supreme Court suspended without pay on Friday afternoon three of the nine judges indicted Thursday for what federal investigators called a massive "culture of ticket-fixing" at Philadelphia's Traffic Court
The judges suspended included Michael Sullivan, who had been administrative judge until he was removed from the leadership post in December 2011 by the Supreme Court while the federal probe was still going on. Also removed were Judge Michael Lowry and Chester County District Judge Mark Bruno, who heard cases in Traffic Court.
The three judges "were relieved of all judicial and administrative duties without pay pending further action by the Supreme Court," a news release said.
The Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board on Thursday filed petitions to have those three, along with three more indicted judges in the case, suspended without pay. The other petitions were for former Traffic Court Administrative Judge Fortunato Perri Sr., Bucks County District Judge H. Warren Hogeland, and Delaware County District Judge Kenneth Miller.
A week ago, City Finance Director Rob Dubow said that the administration had all but completed its citywide review of properties for the Actual Value Initiative and that district Council members would receive neighborhood breakdowns of those numbers by the end of January.
Well, it's Feb. 1, and there's still no word on what the city's new property-tax system will mean for different areas of the city.
"It's frustrating. We were told we were going to have this in September, then we were told that that wasn't going to happen until Christmas, and now it's a month after that," Councilman Brian O'Neill said on Thursday. "We're just left to sit and wonder like everyone else."
So what's taking so long?
On Monday, Mayor Nutter said he's already seen a "very preliminary update, kind of a top-level overview." While he couldn't remember specific neighborhoods that would be affected more or less than others, he did say he doesn't think there's going to be much reason for concern.
"I don't necessarilly know that there are any big surprises and in some instances a bunch of folks are going to be actually pleasently surprised," he said. "I would characterize what I've seen as nowhere near as bad as folks may have been anticipating."
After years of stalemate, the Nutter administration on Friday asked a judge to allow the city to impose his "final offer" on the city's largest union.
Nutter is seeking permission from a Common Pleas Court judge for the city to implement the plan he presented to District Council 33 two weeks ago. The plan includes incremental pay raises in exchange for cost reductions in overtime rules, possible furloughs, a less generous pension plan for new hires and other changes.
"Union leaders have held our public employees and the taxpayers hostage," Nutter said at a press conference. "We are no closer to an agreement today than we were four years ago."
DC 33 President Pete Matthews said that his union is still willing to bargain and that Nutter's desire to implement terms unilaterally is typical of the way he negotiates.
"That does not surprise me. I’ve said it in the past: He tries to act like a dictator. He dictates terms," Matthews said.
It looks like an uphill battle for the administration. In 1993, a Commonwealth Court ruled that the Housing Authority was not allowed to impose terms on its workers as long as they didn't strike, and the state Supreme Court took a pass on the case.
Nine Philadelphia Traffic Court judges, the court's former top administrator and two businessmen are charged in a sweeping indictment of what federal investigators called a "culture of ticket-fixing." One familiar name that popped up in the probe: Jimmy Tayoun. Ronnie Polaneczky reads the indictment and considers a few key points.
Gov. Corbett was already having a bad week: His poll numbers look weak, his fellow Republicans in the legislature don't back all of his plans. Now this: His son-in-law, a Philadelphia cop, was reportedly caught in a sting operation Thursday taking money from a car he thought was impounded in a drug case.
And former Philadelphia Housing Authority chief Carl Greene's lawsuit against the agency is turning into a contentious grudge match between him and his old boss, former Mayor John Street.
A 20-foot-tall inflatable rat and a few hundred union protesters made their presence felt on Mayor's Nutter's block in Wynnefield on Thursday evening.
The mayor likely wasn't there, spokesman Mark McDonald said, but District Council 33 got its point across anyway. The union, which represents 11,000 blue-collar municipal workers, has been working without a contract since 2009 and without wage increases, and they aren't happy about it.
"Workers got to stand up. You can't just keep taking this," shouted DC 33 President Pete Matthews. "Labor is the new civil rights issue."
The rat was loaned from the stagehands union currently fighting its own war against the Philadelphia Theater Company. But DC 33 officials say they'll be getting a rabblerousing rodent of their own soon.
(So don't worry. Even if labor rats are going out of style elsewhere - they're here to stay in Philly.)
The stakes are getting higher in the stalemate between Nutter and the union. Wednesday marked the Nutter-imposed deadline for the union to agree on his "final offer," which included pay raises, possible furlough days and reductions in pension costs.
At the moment, sources say City Council has no intention of dropping Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown from her leadership post just several days after a report released by the Ethics Board detailed a series of campaign finance violations.
PhillyClout posed the question earlier this week and still today sources say members are supportive of Reynolds Brown maintaining her leadership post, for now. Reynolds Brown an at-large Democratic Councilwoman was selected by her colleagues to serve in leadership as majority whip, with a salary of $126,366.
“At this point I think its way too premature to discuss anything related to Councilwoman Brown’s tenure as leadership,” said Council president Darrell Clarke. “Councilmember Brown has continued to carry-on her duties as a Council person as a majority whip. I don’t know at what point we need to have that level of discussion, but at this point I don’t think it’s time for that.”
Additionally Clarke said he had “no personal opinion” about Reynolds Brown keeping her leadership post.
Clarke also said he has no “personal opinion” as to whether Council’s Ethics Committee should review Reynolds Brown’s actions. The last time the Ethics Committee took any action was in 1982, according to Council’s Chief Clerk.
“I don’t have a personal opinion at this point,” Clarke said. “I don’t think there is a basis to move ahead with any other investigatory matters at this time based on the particular action taken by the Ethics Board.”
The politically-connected newspaper publisher had three reasons for two calls to the president judge of Philadelphia Traffic Court in the summer of 2011.
Jimmy Tayoun, publisher of the Philadelphia Public Record, wanted an interview with Judge Michael Sullivan about his new leadership post, to take his picture and to seek help for an “associate” who was in danger of losing his license due to a traffic ticket.
Sullivan was one of nine judges indicted Thursday on corruption charges for alleged ticket-fixing.
Tayoun, a former City Councilman who served time in federal prison in the 1990s on corruption charges, says his calls to Sullivan were no big deal.
“The call to a Traffic Court judge is the same in my opinion as me being a character witness in a court case,” said Tayoun, identified in the 79-page indictment only as “Ji.T.”
Judge H. Warren Hogeland dismissed the $152 ticket for driving with an expired vehicle inspection, even though Tayoun’s associate, identified in the indictment as “G.C.” didn’t show up in court. Hogeland was also indicted Thursday.
Tayoun, who has published at least three columns critical of the Traffic Court probe since it became public in late 2011, said charging judges for doing political favors “shows a definite weakness in the efforts of the U.S. Attorney’s Office to really find something wrong with that court.”
Philadelphia will have a bike race this year and it’ll include the Wall in Manayunk.
The new 2013 race dubbed the Philly Cycling Classic will be organized by a team of sports event professionals with experience hosting cycling races, cycling advocates and local business and community leaders, Congressman Bob Brady announced today.
“The Mayor has called for a premier cycling event and the team we have pulled together intends to deliver nothing less for the City of Philadelphia in 2013,” Brady said in a statement. “As long as there is a Wall in Manayunk there will be a world class cycling event in Philadelphia.”
Shortly after David Chauner, founder of the Philadelphia International Cycling Championship announced there would be no race this year due to rising city costs and loss of sponsors, Brady immediately sprang into action to save this year’s race. Brady held a series of meetings with local elected officials, cycling enthusiasts and corporate leaders.
The new team of organizers for this year’s race does not include Chauner, of Pro Cycling Tour, who owes the city over $300,000 for last year’s race. Chauner’s relationship with the city has soured over the years.
The team includes Alan Morrison, business leader and founder of the Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon in 2005, Richard Adler, head of Philadelphia Triathlon, LLC, Karen Bliss, vice president of Marketing for Advanced Sports International, Ryan Oelkers, co-founder of the Cadence Cycling Fondation, Bob Clowry, a Manayunk-based businessman and certified cycling coach and Jane Lipton, executive director of the Manayunk Development Corporation.
A federal grand jury has charged six Philadelphia Traffic Court judges, the former court director of operations and two businessmen in a ticket-fixing case unsealed Thursday morning. Three more Traffic Court judges were also charged in separate documents. Those indicted are:
- Former administrative Judge Michael Sullivan, who was removed from his leadership post by the state Supreme Court in December 2011 but was still hearing cases.
- Judge Michael Lowry, the son of a ward leader, who admitted to an investigations firm hired by the Supreme Court that ticket fixing happened in Traffic Court.
- Judge Robert Mulgrew, who was suspended by the Supreme Court in September after being indicted on unrelated charges.
- Former President Judge Thomasine Tynes, who retired in July.
- Former Administrative Judge Fortunato Perri Sr., who is retired.
- Bucks County District Judge H. Warren Hogeland, who hears cases in Traffic Court.
- Delaware County District Judge Kenneth Miller, who heard cases in Traffic Court until 2008.
- Chester County District Judge Mark Bruno, who heard cases in Philadelphia's Traffic Court.
- William Hird, the director of operations, who retired in November 2011, two months after FBI and IRS agents raided his home, office and a bar he runs in South Philly.
- Henry "Eddy" Alfano, a tow truck company operator who also operates two strip clubs.
- Robert Moy, a translation company owner who provides services in Traffic Court.
The eight defendants are charged with conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud and aiding and abetting a crime. Tynes, Lowry and Mulgrew were also charged with perjury, accused of lying to a grand jury. Singletary and Hird face charges of making false statements to the FBI.
Perri, Miller and Hogeland were charged through "information" documents, which means they waived their rights to have their cases presented to the grand jury, a sign that they are expected to take a plea deal.
Update: Defense attorney William Brennan said he reviewed the indictment against his client, former Traffic Court Judge Willie Singletary, and was struck by the fact that "it does not allege that my client took one thin dime."
"Apprently the allegations set forth the government's perception of a scheme that defrauds the state out of potential fines," Brennan said. "I'll read it again, but it seems to me it's like speculating on pork belly futures."
Brennan said that as he read the 79-page indictment, he "kept waiting to get to the part where money changed hands, but I haven't seen it. My understanding is that my client's conviction rates were fairly high."
Earlier: As the Daily News predicted on the front page of Thursday's newspaper, Philadelphia Traffic Court judges and at least one employee have started surrendering at the federal courthouse in Center City and will appear in court later today once charges are unsealed in a grand jury indictment.
Defense attorney William Brennan and former Traffic Court judge Willie Singletary arrived at the William Green Federal Building about 8:20 Thursday morning. Singletary, wearing a dark overcoat and gray suit, looked solemn and said nothing.
They left the building shortly before 10 a.m. Brennan said Singletary had been allowed by prosecutors to surrender "as a courtesy." The other option, Brennan said, was for federal investigators to "kick your door in and drag you out by your hair, and that's very unpleasant."
Brennan said the federal indictment was still sealed, so it was unclear what Singletary would be charged with. Brennan also said that Singletary would appear in court at 1:30 Thursday afternoon and plead not guilty to "whatever he's charged with."
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David Gambacorta spent a small eternity writing about cops, drug dealers and serial killers. Now he’s writing about power and politics – which sometimes reminds him of the old crime beat. He joined the Daily News in 2005. And yes, he knows you’re not quite sure how to pronounce his last name. E-mail tips to gambacd@phillynews.com
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Jan Ransom, a native New Yorker, joined the Daily News in 2010 after graduating from Howard University. She has since written about the difficulty of filing police complaints, tax deadbeats and life after violent home invasions. She joined the Daily News City Hall Bureau in 2011 and has plunged headfirst into reporting on administration budget battles and City Council shenanigans. E-mail tips to ransomj@phillynews.com
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Sean Collins Walsh is from Bucks County and went to Northwestern University. He joined the Daily News copy desk in 2012 and now covers the Nutter administration. Before that, he interned at papers including The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News and The Seattle Times. E-mail tips to walshSE@phillynews.com
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