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Tuesday, October 20, 2009
PICA Eyes Row Office Reform

The city's elected row offices were the hot topic today at the monthly meeting of the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority.

The state agency, which provides oversight for the city budget, is readying an analysis of the city’s elected row offices. Today’s discussion provided some insight into the report, which is expected to be released within several weeks.

One thing the report looks at is the cost of elections in Philadelphia, compared with the 14 other biggest counties in the state. According to PICA, in Philly, where elections are run by three elected commissioners, elections cost $9 per every registered voter, compared with an average of $4.60 per voter in the other counties.

More detail on all the city row offices – and the savings on consolidating some of them – will be provided when the full report comes out, said PICA Executive Director Uri Monson.

There are six row offices in Philadelphia. In a report released in the spring, the watchdog group Committee of Seventy recommended that sheriff, register of wills, clerk of quarter sessions and the city commissioners — which are run by six elected officials — be eliminated.

In 2005, voters in Allegheny County — which includes Pittsburgh — approved a plan to get rid of the clerk of courts, coroner, jury commissioners, prothonotary, recorder of deeds and register of wills. The offices were consolidated and elected officials replaced with three appointed posts, for a savings of over $1 million and reduced political influence in city government.
 

Posted by Catherine Lucey @ 2:02 PM  Permalink | 2 comments
Comments   
Posted 05:17 PM, 10/20/2009
CleanupPhilly
I agree that the elected row offices should be eliminated. It was put in during Lincoln Steffens' time as a progressive reform to limit the power of corrupt, all powerful boss type mayors. The only problem was that the party of the boss quickly learned to co-opt the offices under their control by funding the election of their hand chosen candidate, a system that exists in Philly to this day. Boss politics in big American cities became machine politics. The problem with the machine is that they are notoriously ineffective, unprofessional forms of government, and Democracy has evolved considerably since the early 1900s. The political machine disincentivizes and even dismantles proper functioning of those offices, as you see time and time again in Philly. Whole sets of data are simply thrown out or ignored in every elected office if it contains inconvenient or incriminating details. What you'll find when professional auditors get into these offices is the need for forensic reconstruction, often times, of data that simply was lost or never implemented. I think its important to now prevent still more sabotage of data as this reform occurs. This is also why deed fraud is so easy in Philly. Elected officials fight reform that professionalizes and upgrades systems, because it's less easy for them to manipulate an objective well-protected data set that uses best practices, upon request by the party leader such as Fumo.
Posted 05:21 PM, 10/20/2009
CleanupPhilly
It is time for Philly to evolve from a political machine system to a professionalized government where the rule of law is enforced because data has integrity. This is possible because of information technology, such as a 311 system, online reporting and data capture, and quality controls. This will lead to professionalized budgeting by objective and outcome, and revenue using objective assessments based on real data.
2 comments
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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