Nutter Announces Plans for BRT Patronage Hires
Get inside the halls of Philadelphia power with PhillyClout: Inside City Hall, the blog by the Philadelphia Daily News' city hall reporters.
Nutter Announces Plans for BRT Patronage Hires
Catherine Lucey
Mayor Nutter today addressed the controversial issue of 76 patronage workers for the Board of Revision of Taxes who are paid through the School District so that they may do political work.
Nutter said those employees -- who mostly get their jobs through the recommendation of Democratic and Republican elected officials -- must be brought into the city civil service and will have to reapply for their jobs and take a written test. He said that others could apply for the jobs, but the positions would require experience performing real estate appraisals and assessments.
“These are somewhat specialized positions. I would want someone with some experience doing this kind of work,” Nutter said, when asked if the job descriptions were purposely detailed to deter outside applicants.
Still, it is unclear that all the current workers will have jobs at the end of the process, which will likely take several months. Nutter said he could not promise there would be 76 jobs available.
The city has made a temporary arrangement with the BRT board to take over the property assessment functions of the BRT. The announcement today comes as part of the Nutter administration’s review of the BRT operations.
The issue of the patronage employees has been a hot topic in City Council, as the legislative body works on legislation that would completely overhaul the BRT. That bill was almost held up last week at the committee level due to requests from members that the patronage hires be protected.
The BRT legislation – which, if approved by voters, would create an assessment body under the mayor’s supervision and an independent assessment appeals board – is up for final vote on Thursday.
Comment removed.
Hopefully the literacy test will weed out the idiots who can't read or write. I can think of one councilman's aide/main squeeze seen on TV holding a sign in front of her face with misspellings. Now's the chance, if this is for real, to hire QUALIFIED employees.— snjgwmc- Comment removed.
- There should be a permanent, city-wide ban on any patronage job. Period.— tonyS
- Comment removed.
- City of Philadelphia, want a job? Know somebody, otherwise forget it, it's just like Boeing or Lochead Martin, try getting in those places without knowing anybody, thats why so many imbeciles work there.— neddyflanders
- Why not save the time, money and effort and fire the whole bunch of patronage leeches?— DonQ
- Comment removed.
Good for the the Mayor.- Comment removed.
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
