Compared with others, Phila. spends more on election commissioners

Philadelphia spends nearly $400,000 on salaries for three elected city commissioners to oversee the dozens of city employees who prepare year-round for elections.

That is $100,000 more than is allotted for New York City's 10 commissioners, who oversee a system more than four times larger than Philadelphia's.

Chicago also spends much less ($246,819) than Philadelphia on its three elections commissioners.

And across the state, Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, spends $108,000 on the three members of the election board, who also have other county legislative and administrative duties.

"What strikes me is how much of an outlier we are," said David Thornburgh, executive director of civic watchdog group Committee of Seventy.

Thornburgh is renewing the Committee of Seventy's call to abolish the city commissioners' office and replace it with an appointed professional to oversee the city's election operations.

The call followed a series of Inquirer articles about city commissioner Anthony Clark, who has become a political pariah for not showing up to work and not voting in six recent elections while still managing to be reappointed to the position of commission chairman.

Al Schmidt, the Republican board member, nominated Clark to remain chairman over newly elected commissioner Lisa Deeley, who, like Clark, is a Democrat. The bipartisan alliance between Clark and Schmidt has isolated Deeley, who had hoped to be the chair.

Thornburgh has called the board "a dysfunctional three-headed monster."

"It's time to get rid of the office," Thornburgh said.

The Philadelphia Citizen, an online publication, joined the chorus Friday, by launching a petition to abolish the office of the City Commissioners. The petition asks City Council to pass legislation to allow voters to get rid of the office through a Charter change.

The commissioners have pushed back on that proposal, saying that the three elected positions, with at least one going to the minority party, allow for a bipartisan oversight of elections. An appointed official would give power to one party, they say.

"This setup has worked for all these years and it serves a purpose," Deeley said. "I think that the appointed position sounds attractive if you like the appointer."

Philadelphia's city commissioners serve as the city's board of elections. The chairman is paid $138,612; the two others receive $129,373. Each commissioner is allotted a personal staff. The commission has a $9.6 million budget and 98 full-time employees who work year-round to prepare for primary, general, and special elections.

Other major cities in the state and throughout the country run their election operations differently. Typically, there is a single appointed professional to oversee the office, while policy-setting commissioners are mostly part time and are paid accordingly.

New York City. New York City's Board of Elections has 10 commissioners, with a Democrat and a Republican from each of the five boroughs, who are appointed by the City Council to four-year terms.

The commissioners meet weekly and are paid $300 per meeting, for a maximum of $30,000.

The board sets policy; votes on the ballot style; and appoints a staff of 661, including temporary workers, to oversee the day-to-day functions, spokeswoman Valerie Vazquez said.

Chicago. Chicago's Board of Election commissioners are appointed to three-year terms by the Cook County Circuit Court. At least one commissioner must be a Democrat and another must be a Republican. The chairman of the board is paid $91,223, and the two other commissioners are paid $77,798.

The commissioners are in charge of setting policies for the $30 million elections operations that includes 130 full-time employees.

Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh's board of elections is at the county level and made up of the elected Allegheny County executive, who has a $90,000 salary, and two elected at-large County Council members, who are paid $9,000 annual stipends. The county executive and council members have administrative and legislative duties other than overseeing elections. As a board of election, the trio meets only four times a year.

The county executive and County Council appoint a county manager, who in turn appoints the Allegheny County Elections Division manager. The elections manager oversees a $5.5 million operation with 34 full-time employees.

Myrna Perez, deputy director of the Brennan Center's Democracy Program in New York, who has studied how elections are run throughout the country, said it's hard to say what the best model for election oversight is.

"There's no one way that it's done," Perez said. But she added that what is needed is a "professionalized elections official - whether it be a board or a clerk."

When asked whether Philadelphia might consider the models used elsewhere, Clark said: "We're not like other cities."

Philadelphia's city commissioner positions should be full time, Clark said, because "we have a lot of responsibilities."

Former commissioner Stephanie Singer, who was ousted last year when she couldn't get enough valid signatures to get on the primary ballot, said that from her experience, being a city commissioner is a part-time job.

"The only full-time part of it is the pay," Singer said.

Singer said running the day-to-day operations of the Board of Elections is delegated to the civil-service staff.

The commissioners just "show up to meetings and vote," she said.

Per the state election code, the commissioners' responsibilities include selecting polling places, purchasing and maintenance of voting machines, issuing certifications to poll watchers, and publishing notices on forthcoming elections. Most of the actual work is delegated to the Board of Elections staff, and board members vote to approve. The commissioners also have to certify election results.

The commissioners often take on voluntary service duties such as teaching high school seniors to vote or publishing election guides and reports on election trends.

"All of this is elective," Singer said.

But for Deeley, educating the public on voting is an important part of the job.

"There's a great opportunity to engage the public in voting," Deeley said on a recent Thursday after spending the day at Masterman High School teaching seniors how to vote. "For me, that's 60 percent of the job - engaging people in the process."

That would be 60 percent that is not required by law.

cvargas@phillynews.com

215-854-5520@InqCVargas