Kenney looks back over 100 days

On Day 100 on the job, Mayor Kenney was running as hard as he has since Day One.

Kenney, the longtime city councilman who won the mayoral race last year by double digits, formally greeted an Israeli peace drums steel band in Hebrew on Tuesday morning in City Hall. He was then whisked away by his security detail to the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia for a media tour in preparation for the Democratic National Convention in July.

Then it was off to a library party in Southwest Philadelphia before heading back to City Hall to announce the new commissioners for the Fire Department and prison system.

The packed schedule is something Kenney has had to learn to deal with.

"Nancy Pelosi told me once, relative to my campaign schedule, that it is OK to complain and then comply," he said. "So, I complain a lot and I comply all the time."

He also offered a 22-page assessment of his first 100 days, despite reporting that he dislikes the artificial measure.

"Personally, I find that to be a little silly," Kenney wrote in the opening letter of the report. "The true test of what our city will accomplish is still ahead."

Nevertheless, the report goes on to highlight some of the things the mayor has done since Jan. 4, including:

Signing an executive order on his first day that barred almost all cooperation between city law enforcement and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to detain arrested immigrants who would otherwise be released on bail.

Launching an effort to create a universal pre-K system, which would be mostly funded through a tax on sugary beverages.

Completing an inspection of all 609 boilers in 240 Philadelphia School District buildings and ordering repairs on more than half.

Ending Fire Department "brownouts," or planned periodic closures of stations.

Creating a talent development unit within the Commerce Department to help train Philadelphia's workforce.

Uploading the salaries of all city employees onto the city's open data portal.

Kenney was tested as a big-city mayor in the first month he was in office.

A former Mummer himself, Kenney publicly shamed the Mummers by expressing his displeasure with a skit this year about Caitlyn Jenner that was deemed offensive to the LGBT community. Kenney asked the Human Relations Commission and his director of LGBT affairs to take the lead in cleaning up the Mummers' act.

Days later, Kenney took heat over his comments about Edward Archer, who shot Officer Jesse Harnett with a stolen police firearm. Kenney said Archer's actions were no reflection on Islam, despite Archer's telling investigators that he had acted "in the name of Islam."

A massive winter storm hit the city on Jan. 22 and 23, dumping 22.5 inches and taking $8.5 million from the city's budget for cleanup efforts. It was Kenney's first big team effort in coordinating response by various city agencies.

Since March, Kenney has taken on the heavy task of selling his sugar-sweetened drink tax plan as a way to fund universal pre-K. City Council has pushed back on the tax during the ongoing budget hearings, but Kenney remains committed.

When asked Tuesday if he was enjoying being mayor, he said the children are what makes the job enjoyable.

"I enjoy the children that I have had an unbelievable amount of contact with from pre-K, kindergarten, high school. It is rewarding to see the quality of our children and the potential that they have, and given the right resources they can meet that potential," he said. "It's sad they haven't been given those resources to date."

cvargas@phillynews.com

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