Council Starts Hearing Public Comments, Attorney Complains Not Public Enough
Get inside the halls of Philadelphia power with PhillyClout: Inside City Hall, the blog by the Philadelphia Daily News' city hall reporters.
Council Starts Hearing Public Comments, Attorney Complains Not Public Enough
Catherine Lucey
Today was City Council’s first weekly meeting since the state Supreme Court has ruled that they must provide a public comment period during the sessions. But the attorney who fought for the change stood up to argue that Council still isn’t doing enough.
The state Supreme Court, in a 4-3 ruling made public last month, said Council has been violating the state's Sunshine Act by refusing to allow people to comment on legislation during Thursday's weekly sessions. Council President Anna Verna today announced that members of the public could testify, but only on items on Council’s legislative ca lander for the day.
Darrell M. Zaslow, the attorney for the Homeowners Association of Philadelphia, which challenged the previous practice in 2007, today said that members of the public should be allowed to speak on a broader range of topics.
“The proposed temporary regulation will not allow public comment on items of concern to the public generally,” Zaslow said. He said he hoped Council would work to improve the rules.
Verna said she had received an opinion from the City Solicitor that the current set-up was in compliance.
Follow Chris on Twitter
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
Follow Dave on Twitter.
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
Follow Jan on Twitter
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
Follow Sean on Twitter
