Outspoken, outgoing Committee of Seventy interim head has some last words

After nearly a decade of haranguing Philadelphia government officials on issues of ethics and transparency, the policy director and interim president of the watchdog group Committee of Seventy is stepping down. But not without speaking her mind.

Ellen Mattleman Kaplan, 60, a Philadelphia-area native who lives in Chestnut Hill, has no plans yet for what she'll do next, other than visit her former boss, Zack Stalberg, who recently moved to New Mexico after stepping down as president of the committee. He will be succeeded Monday by David B. Thornburgh.

A graduate of Lower Merion High School with a bachelor's degree from Princeton University and law degree from Temple, Kaplan worked for two groups, Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, and Greater Philadelphia First, which later merged with the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, before joining the Committee of Seventy in 2005.

An Inquirer reporter sat down with Kaplan on Tuesday and asked her to reflect on her years with the organization.

Question: You are stepping down after nearly 10 years at the Committee of Seventy and numerous fights. Which victory are you proudest of?

Answer: The victory I am proudest of is something that shouldn't have happened, which was making sure cash gifts are not accepted in city government.

Q: Which defeats trouble you the most?

A: I think what has troubled me most has been the growing divide between the legislative branch and the executive branch. . . . There's such dysfunction between the two branches that they can't get together to say, "OK, these problems are more important than our relationship and we are going to work together to solve them."

It was embarrassing. You had the City Council president and the mayor in Harrisburg the same day - they won't even go together. What does that say to Harrisburg? If Philadelphia is so divided, why would they be compelled to help out?

Q: Any regrets over stances you or the committee took?

A: We haven't been able to convince people that ethics are important. . . . Look at what happened in Harrisburg and that people are doing political activity during the day. Look at the legislators who allegedly took gifts.

Q: You've seen many elected officials come and go. Who would you say did the most to restore public trust in government and root out corruption?

A: Michael Nutter has done a good job of that. I think he's been disappointing in some other aspects of his administration - but in terms of ethics, I think he's done a good job.

This government could be a lot more transparent. . . . Getting a Right-to-Know request approved by the city government has not been terribly easy in this administration.

Q: Mayor Nutter ran on a reform campaign. Do you think he has reformed city government?

A: I think Michael Nutter has established a strong ethical culture and expectations that, to me, should be just instinctive. . . . He's been successful in that regard. . . . I don't know that I can say that overall government is better.

Q: He's had this ethics cultural shift, but has he been effective in governing?

A: I don't think he's been as effective as he could have been. . . . Nutter has been thwarted in some of what he has wanted to do by a City Council that increasingly decided we're not going to move or even introduce some of the initiatives this mayor wants.

At the same time, some of his own self-righteousness and belief that he knew the right way . . . that his own vision was the correct vision, and not sitting down with members of Council, certainly the Council president, to just say, "Hey, let's try to see if we can work this out." So I think there's this sense of this side and this side, that he almost promoted.

Education and jobs, all these issues that plagued the city when he first started . . . the big issues are still there. He did tackle the property assessment, but it wasn't without a huge amount of . . . contentiousness.

Q: The committee strongly criticized Council's decision not to hold public hearings on the proposed sale of the Philadelphia Gas Works. Why?

A: Citizens deserve to hear the facts. . . . We have a very disturbing pattern where City Council has now decided that a strong-mayor form of government doesn't work . . . at least with Nutter. We'll see what happens when the next person comes in. To me, the fact that they wouldn't hold hearings on PGW was a huge, huge disappointment.

Q: Have there been other times when Council's actions or inaction disappointed you? Gave you hope?

A: It's been disrespectful to the taxpayers that Council refuses to air out its budget detail. . . . There should be an honest debate, and I find that the agreement, the so-called unanimity [on the 17-member Council], that's not healthy. We already don't have healthy, competitive elections, and I think that's a real problem in this town. [On the plus side,] Council is taking more and more responsibility for the Philadelphia public schools.

Q: You were always a presence at the Board of Ethics meetings and tended to get particularly loud and sometimes frustrated with the board. That's surprising, given that the Board of Ethics and the Committee of Seventy have similar missions. Why the friction?

A: The Ethics Board has not, in my mind, been as aggressive as it should be in terms of helping to shape the city's ethics and campaign-finance laws. . . . They should be the ones saying to Council these are the improvements that need to happen. And the fact they don't take a more aggressive role with Council is a disappointment.

Q: The gifts rule was a big fight you had recently. Did anyone ever offer you anything improper? Ask you to do anything improper?

A: No.

Q. Given all the ethics reforms and the existence of a group like the Committee of Seventy, why is it that Philadelphia still has so much corruption? . . . The Traffic Court judges, state legislators allegedly taking bribes. Why does this still happen?

A: There's a pervasive belief that, "This is the way it's always happened and why shouldn't it continue to happen?" And this is what happens in a one-party town. . . . When people continue to get elected by huge margins, or races don't even have opponents . . . it develops a sense of entitlement.

Q: If you had unlimited powers to clean up city government, what would you do first?

A: Competitive elections.