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Thursday, May 14, 2009
Council Committee Finally Approves City's New SEPTA Board Members
Deputy Mayor Rina Cutler with Mayor Nutter last year.

A City Council committee this morning finally approved Mayor Nutter's appointees to two seats on the SEPTA board after letting the issue linger for nearly three months.  Nutter sent to Council on Feb. 26 his appointments of Rina Cutler, his deputy mayor for transportation and utilities, and Beverly Coleman, executive director of NeighborhoodsNow.  Council, which has been brawling with Nutter on the city budget and other issues, held a hearing on the appointments on March 23 but didn't vote to approve or reject them.

Cutler did not enjoy a smooth ride from Council during today's hearing.  Councilmen Wilson Goode Jr. and Bill Green peppered Cutler with questions about a long-running dispute between the city and SEPTA on expired leases for city-owned subway stations.  Cutler refused to take a position, referring questions to the city Law Department.  Goode and Green said they could not support her appointment until she took a stand on the issue.  In the vote, Green supported Cutler's nomination but complained that he should have had a meeting with her before the hearing.  Goode cast the lone vote against Cutler's appointment.

Cutler and Coleman still need to be approved in two votes by Council during regular sessions.  It appears likely that Coleman will get those votes quickly while Cutler will not.

Council President Anna Verna told PhillyClout three weeks ago that the appointments had not moved forward because "some Council members thought they wanted to hold off on it."  Verna denied that the delay was tied to any disagreements between Council and Nutter but said she did not know why some of her colleagues didn't want to move the issue forward.

SEPTA's 15-member board includes two appointees each from Philadelphia and the surrounding four suburban counties along with members selected by the governor and the four legislative caucuses from the state General Assembly.

Posted by Chris Brennan @ 10:36 AM  Permalink | 1 comment
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About Chris Brennan and Catherine Lucey
PhillyClout
Chris Brennan, a native Philadelphian and graduate of Temple University, joined the Daily News in 1999. He has written about SEPTA, the Philadelphia School District, the legalization of casino gambling, state government, the mayor, the governor, City Council and political campaigns.

Catherine Lucey joined the Daily News in 2002. Since then she has written about murderous drug gangs, political protesters and Harry Potter. For the past two years, she covered the 2007 mayoral election. Now that the battle is over, she has moved down to the City Hall bureau where she will report on the Nutter administration.

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Catherine Lucey
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