No City Charter re-write question for November ballot

The "We the People of Philadelphia Committee," a Tea Party and clergy led group, today said they will be unable to place on the Nov. 8 general election ballot a question asking voters if they want to re-write the 60-year-old City Charter.  Peter Wirs, a spokesman for the group and Republican City Committeeman, said it had collected about 16,000 of the 20,000 signatures from registered voters needed by tomorrow to get the question on the ballot.  But that wasn't the sticking point, he added.

The group had also sued the state in Commonwealth Court, claiming a Pennsylvania law that gives the mayor and president of City Council the power to appoint a 15-member Government Study Commission to re-write the Charter is unconstitutional.  The Commonwealth Court, Wirs said today, was unable to schedule a hearing on that lawsuit in time for tomorrow's signature deadline.

So now the group will shoot to deliver 20,000 signatures to Council by Sept. 22, which will trigger the creation of a Government Study Commission without a ballot question, Wirs said.  But the group will only do so if it can reach agreement with Mayor Nutter and Council President Anna Verna that "only exemplary civic leaders" are allowed to be named to the commission, which would have 10 Democrats and five Republicans.  Wirs said he group would insist that no elected officials or ward leaders be appointed.