Ethics Board finds link between Johnny Doc's union and inflammatory flier

A mysterious flier that surfaced in last year's mayoral race comparing Michael Nutter's stop-and-frisk proposal to an infamous police raid on the Black Panthers was created by a consultant for the city electricians union, the city Board of Ethics disclosed yesterday.

The consultant, Tommie St. Hill, said yesterday he had prepared the flier on his own, without financial support from the electricians or anyone else.

But the Ethics Board, an independent agency responsible for enforcing the city's campaign finance laws, appears to be investigating the possibility that the electricians' political-action committee paid for the leaflet and filed misleading financial reports to conceal it.

The union is led by John J. Dougherty, now a candidate for the state Senate. During last year's mayoral race, Dougherty was a prominent backer of Tom Knox, the insurance tycoon who finished second to Nutter in the Democratic primary.

The Black Panther flier was one of two anonymous leaflets, both criticizing Nutter, to appear in the closing days of the campaign.

It shows six black males stripping off their clothes in front of two white police officers, with their guns drawn.

"Welcome to the Reality of Mike Nutter's 'Stop and Frisk' Philly," the flier says. "If he's elected mayor of Philadelphia, Mike Nutter will institute a controversial 'stop and frisk' program that will give police unlimited powers to stop and search any citizen, for any reason - or no reason - at all. A vote for Nutter is a vote for racial profiling. A vote for Nutter is a vote against our civil rights."

The leaflet itself contained no information on its origin. But the Ethics Board found the company that printed it and traced the leaflet to St. Hill, who now runs RCS Diversified Consultants, and was an aide to the late U.S. Rep. Lucien Blackwell .

In sworn testimony last summer, St. Hill told the Ethics Board he spent at least $8,800 of his own money to print 125,000 copies of the flier and pay 25 or 30 people to distribute it on Election Day, in North and West Philadelphia.

In a filing yesterday in Common Pleas Court, the Ethics Board identified $22,500 in payments from the electricians' political-action committee to St. Hill and RCS within two months of the flier's printing.

On the PAC's financial reports, the payments were described as "GOTV" - the term normally used to describe "get out the vote" activities on Election Day.

Also, the union paid $49,000 to RCS from the union's Job Recovery Account. And St. Hill received another $15,000 in October from Philadelphia Phuture, a PAC run by Dougherty's daughter, Erin.

The Ethics Board sought a court order requiring St. Hill to produce any computerized records he used to create the flier and his correspondence with three union officials: Dougherty, the union's business manager; Bob Henon, its political director, and Frank Keel, a union spokesman.

St. Hill dismissed the inquiry yesterday as an effort by the Ethics Board to damage Dougherty's Senate campaign.

"It's blatant politics," he said.

An effort by the Ethics Board to get detailed spending records from the union PAC is tied up in a federal court case. The PAC contends that providing more details on its spending would undermine its right to free speech.

Dougherty did not return a call yesterday from the Daily News. Campaign spokesman Brian Hickey said he was unable to provide information about the union's payments to St. Hill but questioned the Ethics Board's timing and "whether this supposedly apolitical organization is trying to affect the election." *