Local 22 of the International Association of Fire Fighters asked two courts this morning to order Mayor Nutter's administration to stop plans to eliminate five fire engines and two ladder trucks until the safety of the budget cuts can be further studied. Rick Poulson, Local 22's attorney, said actions were filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and the state Supreme Court.
The local lawsuit, Poulson said, cites contract language added in 2005 that allows the fire fighters to file a grievance on workplace safety issues. The union did just that on the budget cuts on Dec. 3. The city has not responded, Poulson said. The lawsuit asks a judge to issue an injunction stalling the cuts until the grievance process is completed.
The filing with the Supreme Court also asks those judges to step in and stop the budget cuts because the fire fighters are appealing a decision on another lawsuit. The city appealed a 2005 contract provision on the procedure for closing fire companies but lost in the Court of Common Pleas. The city appealed that decision and won in 2007. The fire fighters appealed and the Supreme Court this year agreed to hear that case, which is scheduled for a March hearing.
The fire fighters, Poulson said, consider that hearing a good sign that they could win. "We think the city is attempting to ram through these closures before the Supreme Court renders a decision," he said. "In our view, we see it as an end-run around the court."
Nutter and his staff have emphasized that no fire fighters are being laid off and no fire stations are being closed. The engines and ladders being eliminated are currently staffed by fire fighters working overtime, who will be reassigned to other posts in the department.
UPDATE: City Solicitor Shelley Smith just responded to the fire fighter legal action this way: "I think the fire fighters should acknowledge that they’ve already lost this issue. The current state of the law is that the city has the right to close fire companies. That’s what it has done. And it had done it, mindful of the safety of the fire fighters and the safety of the citizens."
I agree with firefighters -- the city has not in fact done it's job in collecting overdue property taxes. There is $522 million, half a BILLION, owed the city in overdue property taxes that can be sold at sheriff sale. The city must foreclose on this debt and collect. To risk public safety to avoid collection of property taxes is morally bankrupt and wrong.— CleanupPhilly- The city allows empty houses to sit for years, decades, even, and not pay taxes because they are being "inherited." This is nuts. You can stop a sheriff sale for back taxes if you are "heir" to a property that owes property taxes, and this is killing the city right now. The city needs to change this judicial order by law or in the courts: "Joint General Court Regulation No. 2008-01: Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Diversion Pilot Program DEFENDANT’S CERTIFICATION THAT PREMISES ARE RESIDENTIAL and OWNER OCCUPIED and REQUEST FOR CONCILIATION CONFERENCE (Prothonotary Code: CERDO) Pursuant to the Order issued by President Judge C. Darnell Jones II and Administrative Judge D. Webster Keogh on July 17, 2008, I hereby certify as follows: 1. I am the owner or an owner or an heir to a deceased owner of the property...." from the CERDO form on www.phillysheriff.com -- that's how to pay for a quality fire department in a city full of 100+ year old housing stock. Property tax collection makes a lot more sense to me than cutting the fire department. Let's use common sense and not easy votes to dictate public safety.— CleanupPhilly
- Here's the money the city needs now: $522 million is owed now by 130,000 owners in long overdue unpaid property taxes: http://www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/summary— CleanupPhilly
- Shelley Smith will be pleased to find out that the city is in violation of state law on the implementation of full market value property tax assessments, and the firefighters might contact Brett Mandel of Philadelphia Forward at wwww.philadelphiaforward.org to get in on the lawsuit to force the city to do it, and request that cuts be postponed until such a time as the city has fixed the problem standing in the way of a balanced budget.— CleanupPhilly
- I would bet dollars to donuts that these house are mostly in west and north philly, which is the home of the "working poor" so they claim they can't pay the tax's. They get state assistance, which delays things, and delay things and delay's things. you want those house gone, you get rid of them. you want them to pay their taxes you knock on their doors. the city sure as hell won't do it. They are still trying to get the eagles to pay off their 8 million dollar debt.— alcsmith
- The city doesn't have the right to make critical cuts before making every reasonable effort to 1. collect what is owed it in overdue property taxes and 2. update its assessments according to a legal, objective means.— CleanupPhilly
Comment removed.- Cleanup, WHo is going to buy this property at sheriff sale? There are really no buyers.— Manny-Mann
- Shabba Rommel - see comment from CleanupPhilly.— betsy72
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David Gambacorta spent a small eternity writing about cops, drug dealers and serial killers. Now he’s writing about power and politics – which sometimes reminds him of the old crime beat. He joined the Daily News in 2005. And yes, he knows you’re not quite sure how to pronounce his last name. E-mail tips to gambacd@phillynews.com
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Catherine Lucey joined the Daily News in 2002 and has written about murderous drug gangs, political protesters and Harry Potter. After covering the 2007 mayoral election, she moved over to the City Hall bureau where she has been reporting on the Nutter administration.
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Jan Ransom, a native New Yorker, joined the Daily News in 2010 after graduating from Howard University. She has since written about the difficulty of filing police complaints, tax deadbeats and life after violent home invasions. She joined the Daily News City Hall Bureau in 2011 and has plunged headfirst into reporting on administration budget battles and City Council shenanigans.
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