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City peers deep into life at BRT

By Jeff Shields and Mark Fazlollah

Inquirer Staff Writers

Mayor Nutter, in an effort to learn what goes on inside the secretive and embattled Board of Revision of Taxes, is asking all employees to describe their jobs in detail.

As part of a review process Nutter outlined to City Council in a memo this week, the Department of Human Resources e-mailed a questionnaire to all 200 BRT employees, asking them to describe their responsibilities, supervisors, subordinates, and decision-making process.

The questionnaire seemed to rattle BRT employees concerned about job security and how the reforms would affect them, but Nutter said that was not his intent.

"We're trying to figure out how the organization functions and operates," he said in an interview last night.

Among proposed reforms are shifting some BRT patronage jobs to civil-service positions and requiring certification for other positions.

Earlier this month, Nutter reached an agreement with the BRT's six sitting board members, who formerly ran the agency as an independent body, to allow a city takeover of the BRT's assessment function under Finance Director Rob Dubow. BRT members did not return calls seeking comment on Nutter's proposals.

An Inquirer series in May documented decades of political cronyism, mismanagement, outright corruption, and wildly inaccurate assessments. The ensuing crisis of faith has left city leaders unwilling to raise property taxes even in a year when they were desperate for new revenue.

The BRT historically has set property values for taxing purposes and also hears appeals on those assessments.

The board would still hear appeals of those assessments, pending permanent changes proposed by City Council. A hearing on Councilman Bill Green's bill is set for Tuesday.

City Human Resources Director Albert L. D'Attilio, in a three-page memo that Nutter circulated to Council this week, suggested two major changes could be in store for BRT employees.

First, the 78 school district jobs at the BRT - an arrangement that allows those employees to remain free from restrictions on political activity - would "likely" become civil-service positions.

That would subject those clerical jobs - long a haven for the politically connected from both parties - to the same Home Rule Charter restrictions on political activity as other city workers. That means the three dozen committee people and ward leaders working at the BRT may have to give up their party positions or their jobs.

Nutter said he was awaiting a formal opinion from City Solicitor Shelley R. Smith on whether those workers were properly employees of the school district or the city.

In addition, D'Attilio wrote that 85 BRT positions currently covered by civil service "may require significant revision" to require professional certification. Current rules allow the board to circumvent normal requirements of a college degree for those positions, which are more directly involved in actual assessments.

The low-paying clerical school district posts, which require no qualifications, have long been divvied up between the Democratic and Republican City Committees. Critics have questioned why the school district should spend $3.8 million a year on those positions, and why political parties should control jobs in an agency whose function is assessing properties for tax purposes.

The school workers at the BRT were confused yesterday about how they might be integrated into the civil-service system. "I have to wait and see," said Helyn Cheeks, 84, a former Democratic ward leader who has worked at the BRT for 15 years.

Some of the workers have serious health problems.

Democratic ward leader Donna Aument, who has worked at the BRT since 1982, has said she needs the health benefits from the job because she is recovering from cancer. "I'm not interested in being a city employee," Aument said. "I'm a very happy school board employee."

And because school district rules allow workers to live outside the city, some may face residency issues.

Resistance to D'Attilio's expected recommendations could come during Council hearings on reforming the BRT. Green's legislation, scheduled for a hearing on Tuesday, would transfer the BRT's job of assessing properties to a new Office of Property Assessment under the mayor and would leave the board only to hear assessment appeals.

Council members have repeatedly said the school district employees are not the problem - that mismanagement at the top is their primary concern, and that the patronage workers were unfairly targeted.

"That part of the BRT has not been troublesome for me," said Councilwoman Marian B. Tasco, the Democratic majority leader. "I'm more concerned that the little old lady living near me gets a fair assessment on her property."

The wild card is U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, chairman of the Democratic City Committee, who is responsible for getting jobs for most of those patronage workers. Brady has not spoken publicly on the issue and could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Sources on Council and in the administration, however, said Brady may not object to relinquishing control of the jobs if the workers were taken care of. City unions support the move - the new workers would be represented by AFSCME District Council 33, District Council 47, or both.

Judy Hoover, the District Council 47 union representative for the BRT assessors, said she told her members that they should not fill out the city questionnaire until after a meeting scheduled for Monday by her local to clarify how the changes at the tax agency may affect them.

"People are going crazy. They believe [city officials] can fire them all," she said, referring to about 75 property evaluators on the BRT staff.

Hoover, however, said she would support transferring the school workers to the civil-service payroll because it often has been difficult for her members to work with the patronage employees, who act as assessors' assistants.

"A lot of them are good workers. They want to do a good job. But a lot of them don't feel that way," she said about the school district workers. "Give us real support clerks."

Because the clerks do not technically report to the assessors, "it's a dysfunctional arrangement," District Council 47 President Cathy Scott said. Scott said exemptions on qualifications for civil-service workers were pushed by the administration, not by the union.

But folding the school district workers into civil service will be a tricky process. D'Attilio wrote in his memo that moving the school board employees to civil service requires analysis of the pay scale and workload.

Some of the workers are as old as 84 and would be required to take a competitive civil-service test. The city would have to decide whether to credit those employees for years served with the school district for seniority, salary, and accumulated leave, according to D'Attilio.

Contact staff writer Jeff Shields at 215-854-4565 or jshields@phillynews.com.

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Comments

Posted 06:30 AM, 10/23/2009

psyrus

Its about time something was done but I have other questions. Who will peer deep into life at the City? How much financial waste and patronage jobs exist through the mayor and council? How many "deputy mayors" do next to nothing and get paid for it?

Posted 06:52 AM, 10/23/2009

fortunate1

IT IS ABOUT TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted 07:06 AM, 10/23/2009

principled

How many Deputy Managing Directors positions were Started during and after Mr Fast Mayor Eddie Rendell. Afterall he tried to change the City Charter and the voters said NO! But he and is band of MerryMen found a way to circumvent the Charter. I also hope they transfer the BRT to Civil Service positions. In five years i'll be 69 years old and will qualify for a job under civil service.

Posted 08:54 AM, 10/23/2009

cindym507

this should be just a start to long overdue over hauls of that decrepit, crony filled agency. They're worried for good reason. they know they aren't qualified, they're overpaid, and they do little to earn the overly generous benefits given.

Posted 09:24 AM, 10/23/2009

jet3to

Democracy=Patronage,if someone helps elect me I will try to take care of them legally,give a kid a job-it is the right thing to do-depending on how you were raised

Posted 09:46 AM, 10/23/2009

2012 ~ Ron Paul

I think former mayor John Street said it best..."The brothas and sistas are runing this city. We're in charge here."

Posted 10:14 AM, 10/23/2009

rkeskula

Why fool around with this pit of vipers! Can the whole bunch and start over with a professional staff. Enough of these political hacks!!! As for the "poor" clerical clowns: they have always known the are useless drones sucking on the public teat! Throw them out and don't give them pensions. They have done nothing to earn them.

Posted 10:15 AM, 10/23/2009

Mark Chalupa

The mayor is asking the workers what they do? Great research. Just more delaying on his part. Must be waiting for Brady to tell him what to do.

Posted 10:18 AM, 10/23/2009

jnixon05

Brady's leadership shines through on this one: He is OK with the changes, as long as people aren't left out in the street. What is wrong with that? Sounds to me like good personal ethics, not cronyism... We're talking about lower paying clerical jobs here, not CEO's.

Posted 10:18 AM, 10/23/2009

CleanupPhilly

The article seems to give weight to the argument that the BRT and the School Board, and the city government itself is designed to provide lifetime employment and health benefits to all city employees. The mandate of the BRT is to do property tax assessments. It's not a charity. It's not a social service organization. It's not a senior center. The ax is the appropriate route here.

Posted 10:22 AM, 10/23/2009

CleanupPhilly

Neither the Philly School District nor the city government can afford to absorb the BRT's dead wood. An early retirement package would be in order, but simple terminations will be necessary to cut the excess. The contractor hired to do this work should give consideration of former BRT employees in a competitive process, but that is the limit of what the city "owes" these employees.

Posted 10:25 AM, 10/23/2009

CleanupPhilly

That said, if employees do any work, I'd document it completely in the requested questionnaire asap. When your boss asks you to give him information, you put it on his desk pronto. Waiting for the union to tell you how to answer this says "I don't really do any work here and I refer all questions to my political handlers."

Posted 10:30 AM, 10/23/2009

CleanupPhilly

District Council 47's Judy Hoover seems to think that the city can't fire them. Wrong. There's no contract here. The city is not negotiating actively. The city can fire without cause even at this point. I'd be sure to make myself look useful, if I ever was at some point in the BRT. If any requests to reassess have come in, for example, online, I'd process them fully, for example.

Posted 10:32 AM, 10/23/2009

CleanupPhilly

If Brady is deliberating slowing or tampering with any effort to fix the BRT, he's stealing municipal services from the taxpayers. Ask Vince Fumo how that worked for him.

Posted 10:36 AM, 10/23/2009

CleanupPhilly

Donna Aument can use her COBRA to continue her health benefits, but it is not the job of the BRT to continue to employ her, nor the job of the School District or city to continue to employ her because she has cancer. I'm sorry, but the job of the City is to perform tasks at the best cost to the taxpayer. The days of having city government be a jobs bank are over.