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Thursday, May 23, 2013

Heard in the Hall

BRT flexes muscles, shrugs off Nutter's control

Philadelphia City Hall and political coverage from the Philadelphia Inquirer City Hall bureau.

41 comments

BRT flexes muscles, shrugs off Nutter's control

POSTED: Monday, April 5, 2010, 3:24 PM

Patrick Kerkstra

In a surprise move, the seven judicially-appointed chiefs of the Board of Revision of Taxes have refused to renew an agreement that temporarily transferred day-to-day control of the beleaguered agency to Mayor Nutter, the Inquirer has learned.

Although the implications of the decision are not yet clear, the upshot is that the same board that made the BRT into one of the most chronically mismanaged agencies in the city is back in charge of property assessments.

At least for now.

The voters of Philadelphia are still slated to approve or reject a proposal on May 18 that would abolish the BRT effective Oct. 1, and replace it with two new entities.

Until then, however, Nutter’s handpicked choice to overhaul the agency, attorney Richard Negrin, will officially be off the job, possibly as early as this afternoon. And the enormously important work of repairing a property assessment system that is among the most inaccurate and inequitable in the nation could be further delayed.

It was unclear how Mayor Nutter would respond. Administration officials declined to comment immediately. BRT members were not immediately available for comment.

Last fall, the BRT and Mayor Nutter reached an accord — they called it a memorandum of understanding — that turned over all duties and responsibilities associated with property assessing to the Nutter administration for a period of six months. The board’s remaining job was limited to hearing property assessment appeals.

Since then, however, City Council passed the legislation that — if approved by city voters in May — would abolish the BRT altogether. The overhaul would deprive board members of their $70,000 a year part-time jobs.

Last month, the BRT sued the city in an effort to stop the May vote. The suit, which the courts have not yet acted on, contends that the city does not have the authority to strip the board of its appeals powers.

The city, the suit claimed, had “usurped the established exercise of independent judicial power,” since it is judges who appoint BRT members.

Yet the BRT’s refusal to extend the memorandum is not supported by Common Pleas Court President Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe.

“I don’t expect that the members of the board will come out looking too good here,” said Common Pleas Court President Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe.

Extending the memorandum, Dembe said, would be the “prudent and professional thing to do to.”

41 comments

Comments (41)

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:09 PM, 04/05/2010

BRT = Bureau of Rediculous Taxation.

— Citizenc92

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0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:14 PM, 04/05/2010

Free opinion is long gone.

— anotherdrug

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:17 PM, 04/05/2010

If Nutter had stones, he'd go Rizzo on them and send in dogs, water cannon, and riot police to evict BRT.

— DennyP

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:17 PM, 04/05/2010

Does Councilman DiCicco STILL want to raise property taxes?

— Nick19128

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:17 PM, 04/05/2010

Prudent and professional are not in the vocabulary of the people running the Detroit of the east.

— Catch22

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0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:32 PM, 04/05/2010

Water Board Them!

— CrashTestCorzine

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0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:41 PM, 04/05/2010

Nutter is over-matched with his daily responsibilities. He should not be Mayor. It is a good call not to cede anything to him. He and his staff are collectively incompetent.

— OldSchoolG

Comment removed.

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:42 PM, 04/05/2010

$70,000 a year PART-TIME jobs for the BRT. That says it all. Police and Firefighters don't make that much FULL TIME. No wonder this city is going down the toilet.

— Smokey

Comment removed.

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:48 PM, 04/05/2010

Do you idiots realize that the BRT is appointed by the court system? No matter how much I despise the BRT that still doesn't give Nutter the right to illegally dissolve them. Unfortunately we will have to wait to the BRT is abolished, and these pieces of scum should be banished from the city.

— Capsulef