DiCicco Will DROP Out Of Council Race Tomorrow
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DiCicco Will DROP Out Of Council Race Tomorrow
Chris Brennan
City Councilman Frank DiCicco will announce tomorrow that he is dropping his bid for a fifth term, convinced he could have won but saying he doesn’t have the “fire in the belly” to face the coming battle over his participation in the controversial Deferred Retirement Option Plan.
DiCicco said a poll he did last week showed his popularity in City Council’s first district was still strong enough to win re-election but that it would have been a tough fight in a crowded field.
“I made a bad decision three years ago to get into the program,” DiCicco said of DROP, which has become a political liability for several Council members this year. “Had I known it would cause all this trouble and confusion, I never would have done it.”
DiCicco, who is set to receive $424,646 in a lump payment for DROP, has attempted in the last 18 months to come up with a politically feasible way to reach reelection. He had suggested that, if reelected, he would donate his Council salary back to the city and only collect his pension payments.
DiCicco said he would have needed to raise about $500,000 for his reelection bid. He is being challenged in the May 17 Democratic Primary Election by Joe Grace, former communications director for Mayor Street, attorney Vern Anastasio, Mark Squilla, president of the Whitman Council in South Philly, and Jeff Hornstein, an official with the Service Employees International Union.
“I don’t want this to be what Frank DiCicco is remembered for,” he said of the anticipated battle over DROP. “I don’t have that fight in me to have to go 24/7 and raise half a million dollars.”
For more, read tomorrow's Philadelphia Daily News.
Now only if the members of City Council would have the decency to bring the DROP program to an end.— riles1875
Comment removed.- Now here we have a smart man...very smart ..take the money and run,run run......This is what the PHA board should have done months ago.— STEVE5444
Vote for Lou Lanni.- He saw the handwriting on the wall, and decided to cut and run!! Now he gets $425K lump sum, plus an outrageous pension!!— Pete H
- Did you notice the list of candidates for the Dem. primary? Looks like more of the same-old same-old!!— Pete H
- This post by "Pete H" is of a familiar type: "All politicians stink! I'll never be satisfied." At first these seem like the words of a tough, skeptical citizen. But by accusing all politicians equally, this person is undermining those who would single out individual acts of malfeasance -- like taking a fat payoff on a broken promise to retire. In a perverse way, this comment is equivalent to saying, "We shouldn't care about how Frank DiCicco worked the system to get a fat payoff." But that's wrong; we should care. Let's by all means notice the list of candidates. And let's choose carefully among them. They aren't all the same. And it's our job, as citizens and voters, to judge each one and make our choice. If you're a Democrat in the First District, start doing your homework. And Pete H. should do the same in whatever party he's registered with. (Perhaps the Do-Nothing Complainer Party?)
- Now if we could only find a way to get rid of Jim Kenney, Dicicco's back room partner.— jbeast1996
- Marion Tasco is next on the hit list.— Smokey
great job frank- i don't blame you but everyone else will...schools among the worst in the nation and operates under a reform commission and still hands out no bid contracts, corrupt property tax assessment system that you refuse to fix, sheriff's office can't find $53,000,000, Drop program cost taxpayers $250,000,000, PHA out of control patronage and put under HUD control, PGW bleeding red ink, and thousands of criminal cases dropped because the system can't handle the prosecutions, let alone collect the one BILLION in skipped bail payments the city can't collect...you did a fine job my man!- Frank DiCicco couldnt get elected on his own. Fumo carried him for years...Now with Fumo in jail he has no choice.....he isnt smart enough to get elected on his own.— chuntz
- Comment removed.
- but it is what you will be remembered for Frank ... for whining about DROP doing something to you when it was you who did something to yourself ... DROP means you drop, you retire, you're out ... thanks for finally recognizing that if you take the money, you then gotta go ... money talks for you, that we know sure— Marchus
- DiCicco is a piece of sheet! Nice wig Frankie.— surfoc
- A public official is about to receive $425K in PUBLIC, TAXPAYER money in one lump sum. Where is the outrage? (Crickets chirping...)— chrissmith
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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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