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Wednesday, November 4, 2009

What Philly voted for in the Controller's race
Butkovitz

For a moment there, it looked like it might get interesting, but in the end, it wasn't close: Incumbent Democrat Alan Butkovitz retained his job as city Controller last night, beating Republican challenger Al Schmidt with nearly three-quarters of the vote. We thought it might be useful to review what the main arguments in the race were, and what, in essence, Philly voted for.

The Controller is the city's fiscal watchdog, charged with making sure taxpayer money is being spent ethically and efficiently. Butkovitz has served one four-year term; his erstwhile opponent charged that during that time, the Controller failed to perform the office's central function: conducting fiscal audits of every city department every year, as the city charter requires. Butkovitz's response to this attack was to say that the Controller's office is simply not adequately funded to perform those audits.

So, under Butkovitz, the office performed in-depth, targeted performance audits of individual agencies. Butkovitz argued that these audits are actually more useful than fiscal audits, because they can turn up inefficiencies and save money by finding better ways of doing things.

(We've written before that, if Butkovitz is going to continue down this road, he might as well request that his job description, as defined by the city charter, be changed. It seems silly to us to have a charter provision that's just ignored.)

The other major charge Schmidt levied against Butkovitz was that the Controller is, essentially, a fox guarding a hen-house: A Democratic ward leader who's supposed to act as a watchdog over a government run by a Democratic political machine. Butkovitz supporters responded by questioning whether an opposition party Controller would be able to get any recommendations implemented, or whether all of his reports would be dismissed, as the Daily News said, "as partisan potshots."

Frankly we have no idea how many voters were tuned in to these distinctions yesterday when they voted for Butkovitz. But in any case, what Philly chose was targeted performance audits over universal fiscal audits (Butkovitz has said he wants to look at police deployment), and a promise of same-party oversight rather than opposition party oversight. And that's what we should expect from our fiscal watchdog for the next four years.

Review city services on our sister site, City Howl.
Posted by Doron Taussig @ 7:27 AM  Permalink | 3 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:31 AM, 11/04/2009
    Ah, come on--the average voter in Philadelphia yesterday just went in and punched that D button because they were told to do so, NOT because they had any understanding whatso-freaking-ever about this. If they did, they would not have rewarded this hack, who has NOT DONE THE JOB, with another four years. Someone help this City, because its citizens seem incapable of it.
    — anon
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:32 AM, 11/04/2009
    Let's face it - most of the voters in Philly had no idea they were "voting for Butkovitz". They just pulled the "D" lever like they were told to do by their reverends, union bosses, and ward leaders. It beats thinking.
    — fafafooey
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:59 AM, 11/04/2009
    the average voter didn't vote. the people working the polls seemed genuinely shocked to see a voter when I walked in, and my polling station serves thousands of people. This is the work of the machine, getting out the faithful (heck, city workers alone could have gone in to elected the D's yesterday, maybe even just the patronage jobs. the Republicans are run by the same hack family they have been run by for generations...the Meehans. they have no base, they don't support their candidates, and they don't do groundwork. they have sold their soul to the machine for a portion of the patronage jobs.Everyone blames "the average voter" but we know we have no choice, there is no opposition.
    — dreinterests


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About It's Our Money
Every year, city government spends slightly more than $4 billion. Where does all that money come from? More importantly, where does it go? Are we getting the most bang for our tax buck? “It's Our Money” is a joint project between Philadelphia Daily News and WHYY, funded by the William Penn Foundation, designed to answer these questions.




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Contact:

Doron Taussig:
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