Karen Heller: Who's a help and who's not By Karen Heller Inquirer Columnist Let us now praise famous local politicians. Oh, what are we thinking? The problem with, say, City Council is that they make it so very, very hard. Like being a legislative body that took off 24 weeks from legislating last year, including such notable holidays as Memorial Day Week. Or that by playing Retired Princess for a Day - but what a day! - Joan Krajewski collected $274,587 through the Deferred Retirement Option Plan. The good news about Krajewski is that, of the seven members in DROP, she's the only one who is making good on her promise by planning to retire in 2012. Last week, Krajewski announced that she's joining the ranks of Council members taking a 5 percent pay cut in these difficult times. She joins W. Wilson Goode Jr., who already trimmed his payroll an impressive 23 percent, including laying off an assistant. That's something that most Council members, with their inner court of staff, are loathe to do. To her credit, Council President Anna C. Verna was the first to do so in November after Mayor Nutter announced he would reduce his salary by 10 percent. This leaves, for those keeping score, the following members who have yet to reduce their checks: Darrell L. Clarke, Maria Quiñones-Sanchez, Jannie L. Blackwell, Blondell Reynolds Brown, William K. Greenlee, Jack Kelly, Donna Reed Miller, Brian J. O'Neill and Frank Rizzo, titans all. Actually, I had thought better of Clarke and Quiñones-Sanchez, both self-styled reformers. So the next time you hear one of these elected officials wail about brutal economic times, or how we all have to do our part, please remind them that they have not. Not telling Not that these officials are alone in their hubris. Philadelphia's district attorney, Lock 'Em Up Lynne Abraham, has refused to prune her $156,441 annual salary. She's another elected official who will be enriched mightily by DROP, entitled to $416,496 when she leaves office next year. That's on top of her pension of $8,677 a month. See! Crime prevention does pay. Her office's statement is as brusque and superior as you might expect. "Every year since Lynne Abraham became the district attorney in 1991, this office has lived within its budget. A number of other city agencies have not. The district attorney has committed to live within the budget reduction requested by the mayor for the current fiscal year," the statement reads. "Because we are a law enforcement agency, the details of how we achieve that reduction will not be made public." Like the bad guys would see the reductions and know where to strike? Philly Auto Show This is the kind of attitude that drives hardworking taxpayers bonkers. You know what else drives them crazy? City cars. Rina Cutler is the deputy mayor and managing director for transportation and utilities. Guess what? She doesn't have a city car. "I walk or takes cabs, carpool or take SEPTA," Cutler says. Imagine that: a public official supporting public transit. Goode, Bill Green, James F. Kenney and Frank DiCicco are all doing without city cars. They set the standard, especially since all but DiCicco are members at large, their territory the entire city. Council's 13 other members are tooling around in a Crown Victoria, Taurus, Escape or Impala. Kelly is the lone Chevy driver because, according to a staffer, he didn't like the Crown Vic. Yes, being on Council is like winning a beauty pageant where you get to select the car of your choice. In November, Reynolds Brown was secretly taped by Fox29 driving her daughter almost daily to a suburban private school in her city-owned Ford Escape, as well as having a $29,000-a-year staffer serve as a driver, pick up flowers, and haul dry cleaning. Perhaps this explains why she used more gas than any other Council member. The city's entire fleet is worth $285 million. The cars are bought, not leased. Most are used for essential services: police, fire, medics, streets, prisons. Many other vehicles are necessary for performing vital jobs: tree trimming, street lighting, L&I inspection. The number of vehicles operated by elected officials totals 119. The annual cost of maintenance and fuel is $270,000. That's not much when the city faces a $2 billion shortfall over the next five years. It's hard to be in touch with the common man when you're living so much larger, earning $112,233 annually or more. And members can't be surprised they're getting pelted with criticism when they're entitled to a city car, can transform staffers into drivers, are able to hold outside jobs and, as members of a legislative body, have so much time off. Officials, and Council members in particular, would build considerable political capital - since they have so little - if they took a pay cut, trimmed the fat, gave up entitlements, and learned to use SEPTA. Karen Heller's column appears Tuesday and Saturday. Contact her at 215-854-2586 or kheller@phillynews.com.

Here's a helpful, holiday tip that won't cost you a cent, ideal in these difficult economic times.

It will restore hours to your life and joy to your heart.

This Thanksigiving, give up the Birds.

On Turkey Day, go cold turkey on the Eagles. Say no to astonishingly bad football.

You can thank me later.

Instead, let us return to an earlier, easier, happy time.

That would be October.

Remember October?

October was swell.

Think about the our beloved Phils, our championship Phils.The phrase still manages to amaze and delight.

Remember how happy you were? Access that joy, the physical memory of yelling from happiness.

Let your frustrations go. On Thursday night, sated from too much food, you'll want to turn on the Eagles.

Don't. Fight the feeling. Extend the love, the warmth, give thanks to everything great that has brought you to this moment. Turn on White Christmas or the yule log. Read a book. Pat the dog.

When you abandon the Eagles, you'll reclaim 18 hours of your life. That would be the five remaining games in the season -- each, if history is a guide, proving more dismal than the last. You'll reclaim even more hours if you're prone to masochism, indulging in the pre-game insanity of false hope and the post-game ether of drowned faith. 

You won't have to listen to Merrill Reese go through Elisabeth Kubler-Ross' five stages of grief, sometimes in a single play. You can skip directly to acceptance.

When you flip the Birds for good, you will find joy in your heart, a bounce in your step, a calm in your sleep. Give thanks to great seasons of the past, ones that contained playoffs, and relish the glory of the Phils.

Give up the Eagles, the gift that keeps on giving. It's the right thing. It's a free thing. And it will make these holidays so much brighter, happier and free of frustration. And, remember, you can always look forward to Valentine's Day.

Next year, a veritable feast of love when your championship Phils' pitchers and catchers report to spring training.

 

 

 

With all the problems in the world, and especially in our fair city, you might think that Andrew Rosenberg's garden might not amount to more than a bunch of weeds.

But here, you would be wrong.

I met Rosenberg, a retired equipment salesman disabled with spinal stenosis, at the Office of Administrative Review. He was there to fight three tickets, two for violating Section PM-302.3 of the Philadelphia Property Maintenance Code.

That ordinance states that it's unlawful to have weeds or grass exceed 10 inches in height. It's enforced by not one but three city departments - L&I, Streets, and, in a city of 295 murders this year, the police. When a police spokeswoman was asked about weed enforcement, imagine her joy. Sighing ensued.

Except Rosenberg didn't have weeds, but prized heirloom plants - sunflowers, heritage raspberries, roses, herbs - lovingly installed by neighbor Sally Siddiqi, an honored landscape architect who created the West Mount Airy garden four years ago, along with neighbor Victoria Frain, as a gift to the community.

Siddiqi tended the garden, spending a few thousand dollars on plants, until this summer, when she broke her arms and Frain was caring for an ailing relative. The small corner plot became overgrown and unattended.

Let your garden grow

"This is the classic kind of ridiculous story. There are so many vacant spaces in the city, but we build a community garden and get tickets from the city," says Siddiqi. She took a day off from her Manhattan job to fight City Hall with Rosenberg. The irony is that "community gardens are there to stop crime and bring neighborhoods together."

Except this garden became the crime and failed to bring the neighborhood together. Someone complained. The Streets official issuing Rosenberg the ticket said, "It's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease."

Rosenberg was fortunate in that he was assigned Shawn Murphy as hearing master. A most compassionate fellow, Murphy is a product of Mayfair, son of an ironworker and a junkie mother. He used to be a marketing analyst at Goldman Sachs, where he advised clients with accounts of $25 million or more. Then he returned to "do something good for the city, and give something back."

Murphy hears cases on spitting, public urination, smoking violations, trash, dog waste. "It's a lot of everyday life," he says. "I wish the mayor could spend a few hours here."

Established in 1995, the hearing office last year handled 10,000 appeals of 85,000 violations. "Most of these disputes are quality-of-life issues," executive director Paula Weiss says, including the matter of a disruptive goat in the Northeast.

Greene Country Towne

Of all the commandments, "Love thy neighbor" may be the most challenging, especially when houses are small and attached, and tensions run high. Rosenberg has a next-door neighbor, Barbara Pearson. It would be fair to say the two don't get along. As in many neighbor disputes, dogs are involved.

"The guy is impossible. The guy is nasty. I phoned about the dog waste and he got caught with the weeds," she says. "He just doesn't take care of his property. The weeds are growing everywhere."

In a matter of minutes, Murphy dismissed the two tickets from the Streets department, one for the "weeds," another for Rosenberg's leaving dog waste in plastic bags on his property. Rosenberg says he was too incapacitated to reach the trash can. Murphy couldn't do anything about the other weed violation, which L&I issued on a different day and hadn't come through the system. Perhaps they will all meet again.

Curious, Murphy asked for pictures of the garden.

Alas, Rosenberg had none.

After the violations were issued, the community garden was torn up. It just seemed easier to do.

---

Contact staff writer Karen Heller at 215-854-2586 or kheller@phillynews.com.

Ed Rendell jokes that when he was mayor and "the Eagles were in the playoffs, I could've raised the city wage tax and nobody would've cared."

This week, with the city euphoric from the World Series, Mayor Nutter did not joke. Instead, faced with a $1 billion deficit in five years, he ruined many a resident's lunch.

Business and wage taxes will not be raised, but citizens will enjoy no cuts until 2015, which seems a long time from now, especially in this economy. The reductions were to have made the city fiscally competitive and to stimulate growth.

So, shortly after noon, Nov. 6, 2008, the honeymoon officially ended, a year after Nutter was elected.

The city will cut 820 full-time and 2,000 part-time positions, and chop 200 unfilled police vacancies. Police overtime will be slashed. Five engine and two ladder companies will be shuttered. Plus no more underwriting the Mummers' plumage.

The city will be less clean, kind, generous. Snow plowing will stop on small streets. Bulk trash collection will end. Eleven libraries will close, some in the poorest neighborhoods. Most city pools will be drained, along with three of five ice rinks.

Golden oldies

Pennsylvania, I've long observed, is more generous to its older citizens than to its young. The same can be said of Philadelphia. The city's budget is shackled by pension payouts, costly cement shoes that impede the administration from implementing progressive initiatives.

In 2006, the city had more pensioners than active employees - 33,907 versus 28,701 - with annual compensation ranging from $29,000 to $42,000, in addition to Social Security. Most employees contributed less than 2 percent, far less than employees do in other cities.

The disparity will increase with job cuts and an aging workforce, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts and Economy League of Philadelphia's report, "Philadelphia's Quiet Crisis: The Rising Cost of Employee Benefits." By 2012, pension and retiree health-care costs are projected to devour 28 percent of the city budget.

If radical measures aren't taken, one in every four tax dollars will support retired employees - the city's past - yet we won't provide pools for children or libraries in Mantua and Fishtown. Who knows? Maybe the casinos can go there.

The kindest cuts

On Saturday, at a benefit for the Free Library of all places, I asked Mayor Nutter if I could help trim the budget. He looked alarmed - perhaps because he has chosen to hold hearings in private, perhaps because he doesn't known how well I can shop a sale - but I was serious. My thoughts:

No city cars unless they're essential for work. Take SEPTA. Bike.

The mayor and top staff are taking pay cuts. Since Council takes the summer off, their paychecks should be suspended, too.

Reduce the size of Council, beginning with the seven members who are double-dipping - or is it dripping? - through DROP, the Deferred Retirement Option Program. Don't defer retirement. Retire now.

Frank Rizzo introduced a bill to limit nepotism. No. Eliminate it. Cronyism, too. Of course, this would end Rizzo's career. And that of a third of the city's workforce.

Oh, and Latrice Bryant. Particularly after Wilson Goode Jr.'s chief legislative aide wrote that the entire summer is "a period in which I was not even contractually required to work. But I did." Gone! That's $90,000 saved. Fox29 could hire her as a commentator.

The mayor proposes a private-sector task force to increase efficiency and work with the unions, while encouraging individuals and corporations to become involved. Great. See if smart, rich people can figure out new revenue streams before next year, which is essential. That's when all four union contracts expire - those workers collect 58 cents of every city dollar - and the fighting will begin anew.

---

Contact staff writer Karen Heller

at 215-854-2586 or kheller@phillynews.com.

What a night.

In Philadelphia, what a week.

Possibly, most memorable week ever.

Barack Obama, a master orator, gave a beautiful, uplifting speech that was characteristically inclusive and uplifting.

John McCain also gave a beautiful, uplifting speech that was inclusive and uplifting, celebrating a patriotism that includes everyone, not voters of a specific demographic.

What struck me watching them both speak was how far one man had come in America, and how much the other has given.

John McCain has given far more to this country than it has ever asked of him. He has served the nation almost every day of his adult life.

Barack Obama is the son of an immigrant from Kenya and a middle-class family mother from Kansas. For the first time in 12 years, we are looking at a man who ran for the nation's highest office who is not the son of a president, a senator, a millionaire or a four-star admiral. The same holds true for Joe Biden.

This has been a historic campaign, not only for the distinction of its candidates -- the first African American candidate of a major party, two women running for president and vice president, a war hero -- but also its length, cost and character.

We can only hope, as both men suggested, that we can put such divisions and petty partisan politics behind us, as well as the bile that came to characterize so many attack ads. And that McCain, in his return to Congress, can also return to his true maverick status, finally free of the choke of this administration's policies, and be the true leader he is.

The economy effects us all. The current crisis is color-blind and indifferent to class, religion or background. The same is true of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and America's place in the world.

There are already hate-filled posts up today on the website, as if this will change anything. Consider the elegance and grace of both men's speeches last night. Think how charitable President Bush was in extending congratulations to Obama. Remember that anger and hate impoverish us. They never really get citizens anywhere, that these are the emotions that fuel terrorists and thugs, and can  

With any luck, we'll say goodby to Joe the Plumber, "the real Virginia," slurs about socialism, deciding who is a true patriot and American, questioning someone's motivation and religion (as if being Muslim, as Colin Powell memorably argued, is wrong in a democracy founded for freedom of faith), Acorn stealing votes (didn't happen), and trying to divide America into a color war.

By the time polls opened, there were 170 voters waiting at our local polling location. The neighborhood cafe was bringing coffee to voters. Inspiring. The candidates have spent record amounts of time, money and stars courting Pennsylvania voters. The least we can do is return the favor by turning out in record numbers.

By Karen Heller

Inquirer Columnist

Buzz up!

Karen Heller: Halloween Phillies Parade

By Karen Heller

Inquirer Columnist

Serves 1 million

25 premium players, Grade-A talent including:

Almost a dozen pitchers, a bouquet garni of a refined MVP, a seasoned hurler, a flawless closer

1 versatile centerfielder, Hawaiian

1 effervescent shortstop

1 full-bodied first baseman

1 catcher, Panamanian, slow to rise

2 bunches of zesty sluggers

1 manager, aged and russet

1 heirloom general manager

1 announcer, robust yet mellow

1/4 gross acidic sports reporters

1 entire region of previously shredded, extra-bitter, overly coarse, diced, sliced and julienned fans (plus ex-pats generously sprinkled across globe)

1. Preheat city to roasting.

2. As appetizer, prepare several half-baked, semi-collapsed and also-ran tasteless seasons.

3. For additional agita, fold in 10,000 acrid losses.

4. Stew sorrows in toxic, turned swill of Von Hayes, Freddy Garcia, Lance Parrish, David Bell, J.D. Drew and - if sparing no expense - the Chateau d'Yquem-priced, but plonk-performing, Adam Eaton.

5. Wait 28 years.

6. Blame Billy Penn. Blame Phillies. Also: Other teams. Especially: New York. Of late: Boston, as puffed-up, caloric as cream pie. Rinse acrid aftertaste in salty tears. Resume blaming.

7. Begin anew and in earnest. Assemble the aged richness of Charlie Manuel, Pat Gillick. Marinate.

8. Reduce boil to simmer.

9. Add rack of flavorful, colorful, intoxicating, young and, if we may add, winsome players. (Why sports-writing brethren have failed to mention the team's overwhelming pulchritude is puzzling. These are the best-looking Phillies in history. Irrelevant to winning recipe? We think not.)

10. Believe.

11. Savor delicious postseason. Dredge Brewers. Pound Dodgers.

12. Experience Series. Saturday: Reduce ballpark temperature to freezing. Soak repeatedly. Chill for six hours overnight into early hours.

13. Sunday: Recover from too much baseball, too little sleep. That night's menu: Filet-O-Rays. Delectable.

14. Monday, closure interruptus. Begin. Sprinkle. Douse. Drench. Drown. Wait. Freeze. Boil. Smoke. Burn.

15. Curse Bud Selig. Also Rupert Murdoch. Joe Buck, too, especially for favoring Floridian fish.

16. Wednesday, after 1 hour, 18 minutes, at 9:58 p.m., pure perfection! Cooked! Finito! Forget woes! Forget fried economy! Love world! Though not Selig, Murdoch, Buck. Inhale Mardi Gras spectacle of Pattison Avenue. High-five strangers. Hug, too. Experience surreal Fellini-like carnival on Broad. Watch 20 people riding north atop one car. Weird. Also: Kind of great. Marvel at the restraint of police, the (relatively) peaceful behavior of fans. Sea of scarlet. Ocean of love.

17. Savor Harry Kalas calling the game repeatedly, as joyous as a Mozart aria. Learn to fancy Queen.

18. Voila! Relish Halloween Phillies Parade at noon today, bonding fans of all ages, cultures, classes, politics, races together in heady ambrosia of delight, two years shy of three decades in the making.

For optimal enjoyment, wear red, don caps, wave towels, exhaust lungs. Repeat. Bring kids, exult.

Per serving: 5 million calories of joy, countless grams delayed gratification, 100 percent of daily requirements to repair 25-year loss of faith.

Saturday was loopy enough, hydroplaning, an epic rain delay, frigid temperatures, a 10 p.m. start, an almost 2 a.m. Sunday finish.

No one could argue, though, that it wasn't fair.

When beer sales were cut off in the fourth inning, fans began to protest until they realized it was 11:30.

Around midnight, the longest lines at the Bank were for the men's room (a welcome change, that) and hot chocolate.

Still, it was an epic evening, something to brag about already and to tell the kids and grandkids later.

We got home at 3 p.m.  On Sunday, we nursed a baseball hangover, but in an entirely good way.

This was after nly two beers during six hours at the ballpark. We were simply woozy from the win and the strangeness of the late night and early morning.

Last night, if you'll pardon the expression, was a whole different ballgame. 

The evening began deliriously. I've never been to a game where people were so thrilled, and I was fortunate enough to be at the final sixth game of the 1993 epic pennant race. (And went into labor the next day after more than three hours of yelling and jumping.) It was like the whole crowd was jacked up on Red Bull. Fans were making friends with strangers on the Broad Street Line, hugging each other on the walk from the station to the park.  

Then the rain came, at first a drizzle, then Biblical. Our seats -- presumably, we hold them still -- are in the pavillion level, a couple stories above the field. The wind started ripping something fierce. Still, no bozo would call the game.

Most of all, the sheer greed of Bud Selig or Rupert Murdoch (two men one would like to blame for almost anything) was cruel to the ballplayers. In football, players know they get hurt. Any game might end a career. They play in all sorts of  nasty business. Fans and athletes brag about the snow, the sleet.

But not baseball. These elite players hadn't come this far to slip and slide away in the primordial soup that was Monday's weather. They don't practice in such conditions and never play in such torrents, so why allow such foul conditions in the most important game of their lives?

You wouldn't keep your dog out in this weather. Not even your cat. And to what end? Baseball ratings are dropping. Kids can't stay up to watch these games. Loving fans, as devoted as you can find, could barely endure such wet and cold. It's a very good thing no one was injured. All these players, the Phils and the Rays, have worked too hard and played too well to get to this.  

Can someone vote Selig out of office next Tuesday, too?

As of early afternoon Tuesday, tonight's forecast calls for SNOW.

 

 

Karen Heller: Bill Green's raucous arrival

By Karen Heller

Inquirer Columnist

The current incarnation of City Council, birthed with the 1951 Home Rule Charter, has its own entrenched traditions. The place can appear old, too. Some members and staff look as if they're auditioning for the road company of Guys and Dolls.

There are rules, and certain ways of doing things. Freshmen members, for example, are supposed to be quiet, observant, respectful.

Bill Green doesn't play that game.

His father, the former mayor, said last year of his son, "He's going to make a mark so fast and so strong that they'll be stunned." True, that.

When the son talks - which is often; rare is the microphone he fails to court - eyeballs roll. Heads shake. Blood pressures spike.

"I'm not here to make friends," Green says. Good, because there isn't a lot of love in the room.

"I don't understand this constant need for attention," says Council veteran James Kenney. When Green speaks, Kenney's face approximates the severe ranking on the homeland security chart. "It's extremely important to have collegial experiences. You need friends, and to be open enough to their experience to learn from what others know. And you need nine votes to get legislation passed."

This summer, Frank DiCicco accused Green of "attempting to grandstand and gain public notoriety." He continued "to marvel at your inexperience, your political naivete, and your inability to see an issue for what it truly is." Furthermore, "I have reached the end of my rope."

All in six months!

And they say it takes ages to accomplish anything in Council.

A man with a plan

Pols are in the popularity business. Being liked is essential to getting elected, getting stuff done. So there's something curious, admirable even, about Green's not going along. He doesn't seem to care. His was the lone vote opposing privatizing the biosolids plant, one of two against the Fairmount Park and rec department merger.

Sitting in his dinky, dreary office, Green, 43, gives the impression he isn't planning to grow mold, like some peers. Council, after all, is a sinecure, where members die in office. Joan Krajewski retired for a day - but what a day! - so she could legally collect almost $300,000 in retirement benefits.

"I'm still innocent enough to believe I can make a difference," Green says. "We're a policy-oriented office. Most people on City Council work harder at constituent service." Frustrating? "The disappointing thing to me is that people make decisions based on personality." Council, he admits, can be a "lot like high school."

Although he's formed an alliance with fellow freshmen Curtis Jones Jr. and Maria Quiñones-Sánchez, Green is not about to be voted prom king any time soon.

Having moved back to Philadelphia from Atlanta four years ago, Green strikes observers as a middle-aged man in a hurry, possibly eyeing a bigger job. In his office, he has a large whiteboard listing a weekly "to-do list," an ambitious new proposal every week. It's going to drive his colleagues bonkers.

Can't we get along?

Some wags argue that every fight in this city boils down to one: Vince Fumo vs. John Dougherty. Still. This, even though Fumo is standing trial in federal court - facing time in the big house much bigger than his Fairmount manse - while Johnny Doc can get elected only by electricians.

Kenney and DiCicco are Fumocrats. Green is pals with Doc. Within seconds, each will disparage the other's association.

In defense, Green says, "John Dougherty hasn't called my office and asked me for anything." And Kenney says, "Am I here because of Fumo? Sure. But I think, after 18 years, I'm my own person."

So let's put that in the past, the rearview mirror of politics. Time to move on, broker peace. I'm willing to do what I can. Drinks are on me.

---