Bob Warner
Vito Canuso, the chairman of the city’s Republican Party for more than a decade, announced his intention to resign Tuesday night at the GOP’s spring fundraiser in Northeast Philadelphia. He indicated state Rep. John Taylor – the only surviving member of the party’s delegation in the state House -- had agreed to take the position.
Canuso’s last election to the chairman’s post in 2010 was contested by party dissidents and ultimately ruled invalid by the state Republican organization, a dispute that continued to percolate with the dissident faction electing another man, Rick Hellberg, to the same position.
But sources said Hellberg has agreed to step aside for Taylor, who is widely respected in both factions of the local GOP.
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Troy Graham @troyjgraham
The Philadelphia Office of Inspector General has found 11 prime contractors that used the same supply company as a “pass-through” to circumvent the city’s minority-contracting rules on work done for the Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation.
The contractors paid JHS and Sons Supply Company, a certified minority-owned business, merely to satisfy the requirement, while JHS provided no work to the jobs.
In all, Inspector General Amy L. Kurland’s office has found 19 PHDC contracts that included JHS as a pass-through. In most of those contracts, a local heating and plumbing supply company, William Betz Jr. Inc., facilitated the arrangement and provide the actual supplies necessary for the work.
Through that arrangement, Betz received $640,000 worth of business intended for legitimate minority-owned businesses, Kurland said, while JHS was paid $70,000 to serve as the pass through.
Troy Graham @troyjgraham
Councilman David Oh introduced a resolution Thursday giving Council the authority to subpoena the Office of Property Assessment for more detailed information about the recent citywide reassessment that was key to Mayor Nutter’s property tax reform, the Actual Value Initiative (AVI).
The office (OPA) on Friday released a 15-page document on its website that included an explainer of how properties were assessed, as well as “the formula.” Council members, some hearing from angry homeowners confused by AVI, had been clamoring for weeks to see "the formula" for assessing properties.
“We have asked many times in many different ways to get the data set that was used so we can see exactly how the assessments were done and we can verify that they’re accurate and done properly,” Oh said.
In a Council hearing last month, Chief Assessor Richie McKeithen warned that mass appraisals involved higher mathematics, and the formula would do little for the layman’s understanding of the process.
Troy Graham @troyjgraham
City Council passed a bill Thursday to allow advertising on municipal property – an idea championed by Council President Darrell L. Clarke to raise money for the city coffers without hiking taxes.
The bill is just the first step in the process, giving zoning permission and setting up a task force that would explore which city buildings and other property would be appropriate for advertising and what kinds of ads would be allowed.
Ultimately, Mayor Nutter would have to sign a contract with a vendor that would seek and manage the advertising.
“At the end of the day, it’s up to the administration to implement this particular program,” Clarke said.
Troy Graham @troyjgraham
A City Council committee gave unanimous approval Wednesday to two bills – one that would extend until mid-September the deadline for homeowners to apply for the homestead exemption, and one that would allow people who buy homes after the new deadline to apply as well.
By mid-April, the city had received more than 287,000 homestead applications and approved more than 192,000, Finance Director Rob Dubow said. There are an estimated 340,000 homeowners who are eligible for the exemption, which deducts a set amount from a property’s assessment before the tax rate is applied.
Mayor Nutter has backed a $15,000 exemption, while current law allows Council to set the exemption at $30,000. The exemption will be finalized as Council works on passing a budget by June 30.
Council and the administration want as many homeowners to take advantage of the tax break as possible. In some areas of the city, the exemption could mean the difference between a higher and a lower tax bill, as the city moves to a new property tax system this year.
Bob Warner
Dozens of distraught public school parents, teachers, advocates and students pleaded with City Council Tuesday to come up with $60 million in additional local revenue requested by the Philadelphia School District, while lamenting that even with the money, the proposed school budget will be a disaster for the city’s children.
One speaker after another criticized Gov. Corbett and the legislature for reducing state aid to education, and allowing the diversion of public school dollars to charter schools.
“Looking back it seems that in the last ten years our schools have been like a medieval village that has been encircled by an outside army, put under siege and steadily starved of resources and support personnel until we have been weakened for a final assault,” said Ken Derstine, who retired in 2011 after 37 years as a public school teacher, most recently at Meredith Elementary in Queen Village.
Derstine cited a provision of the Pennsylvania Constitution, stating: “The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public education to serve the needs of the Commonwealth.”
Bob Warner
Julia Chapman, an attorney and longtime aide to Michael Nutter, was tapped by the mayor Monday to become chair of the city zoning board, replacing Lynette Brown-Sow, who stepped down last week.
Chapman was chief of staff for Nutter when he was a city councilman from 1995 through 2006 and was his main emissary to City Council, as director of legislative affairs, for the first year after Nutter became mayor.
Nutter credited Chapman with much of the behind-the-scenes work on zoning and development issues that led to a ballot initiative in 2007 to create a Zoning Code Commission, leading to enactment of a new zoning code in December 2011.
She’ll become chair of the five-member Zoning Board of Adjustment, whose other members include Carol Tinari, Martin Bednarek, Sam Staten Jr. and Greg Pastore. Its duties include hearing and deciding appeals in zoning cases and granting variances as it sees fit.
Troy Graham @troyjgraham
Schools Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. presented to Council today the “cold, harsh scenarios” facing the district unless the city and state contribute $180 million in new money and the teachers’ union agrees to enough concessions to cover a $304 million budget shortfall.
He said the district would have to axe such fundamentals as athletics, guidance counselors, librarians and summer programs. He noted that he was asking for funds to fill “a hole, a gap.”
“They will not allow us to provide the education that our young Philadelphians deserve,” he said. “It will not allow us to fully invest in our teachers and principals, and improve their working conditions.”
Council members then proceeded to ask Hite and School Reform Commission Chairman Pedro Ramos a series of questions about the district’s $60 million request, noting that the city has raised taxes two years in a row without the state kicking in new money.
Bob Warner
Tom Knox, the wealthy businessman who ran second to Michael Nutter in the 2007 mayoral primary, has registered a political committee, Knox for Mayor, to mount another mayoral campaign in 2015.
“I love this city and am deeply concerned about its condition,” Knox said Thursday in a press release announcing the committee’s registration. “Our economy is stagnant, the level of taxation is a barrier to business, our public education system is in shambles and the level of gun-related violence is unacceptable.”
Knox, 72, spent $10.5 million of his own money on his 2007 effort and was running atop the polls until the last weeks of the campaign. A costumed figure calling himself “Tommy the Loan Shark” began appearing at Knox’s campaign events, raising questions about Knox’s business history, and his opponents targeted Knox’s 19-month experience in government, as a deputy mayor under Ed Rendell.
His release said Knox is now recruiting "seasoned campaign professionals" to join his team.
Troy Graham @troyjgraham
Council today passed by a 14-3 vote an LGBT equality bill that chief sponsor Councilman James F. Kenney called another step on the road to civil rights, and Philadelphia Gay News Publisher Mark Segal hailed as providing the nation’s strongest LGBT protections.
Kenney said the most important aspect of the bill was a tax incentive for businesses in the city to expand certain health benefits to members of the LBGT community, but the bill also contained provisions to provide gender neutrality on certain city forms, provided for the right of transgender individuals to request gender changes on records and other measures.
Council members Brian J. O’Neill and David Oh, both Republicans, and Bill Green, a Democrat, voted against the bill.
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