Rally in Harrisburg calls for mayor's resignation

HARRISBURG - The city is nearing bankruptcy. The Securities and Exchange Commission has subpoenaed its records. The city solicitor and the mayor's spokesman have quit in the last two weeks.

Harrisburg's troubles don't stop there. The Anti-Defamation League wants the mayor to answer allegations that she made anti-Semitic and antigay remarks.

And Monday - in an unusual civic protest, especially by central Pennsylvania standards - several hundred residents gathered noisily outside City Hall to announce that they had had enough and to urge Mayor Linda Thompson to step down.

"Quit, Linda, quit!" they chanted. But Thompson came to her office window and mouthed, "I'm staying."

"This job is too big for her," said Linda Jackson, 50, carrying a Valentine's Day sign that read, "My heart is breaking for HBG."

"She needs help, but she is too headstrong to get it," Jackson said.

Claire Jones, a board member of the Harrisburg chapter of the NAACP, held a sign that read, "Lead or Leave."

"Her energies should be devoted to saving the city and dealing with its financial woes," said Jones, a former school board member who has known Thompson for many years. "But they are being diverted into inconsequential things."

A cluster of a dozen Thompson supporters carried signs that said "We Linda." Several said the community was not giving her a chance to succeed.

"She's only been in office a year," said Khaldun Rasheed, 52, a lifelong Harrisburg resident. "She didn't come in here waving a magic wand to fix things."

As the crowd waved signs and shouted (some chanted "bigot") toward the mayor's second-floor office, Thompson pulled the blinds open, mouthed her message to the protesters, and pumped her arms downward in a hunkering-down gesture.

Thompson has no plans to resign, her newest spokeswoman, Brenda Alton, told the Associated Press. "She was praying for this city and the people, and she is staying right here," Alton said.

Thompson, a former City Council member, defeated Stephen Reed, a longtime mayor, in the 2009 Democratic primary and won in the general election that November.

When she took office as the capital city's first African American mayor just over a year ago, Thompson inherited a $282 million debt - the legacy of a failed incinerator project. Also, this city of 47,000 people is struggling to close a budget deficit.

But Thompson's combative style quickly alienated the City Council and the independently elected controller, touching off internal political warfare even as the city was facing significant financial challenges.

In December, Harrisburg was declared "financially distressed" under the state's program for fiscally troubled cities. The so-called Act 47 program gives the city access to loans, grants, and long-term financial planning.

Meanwhile, investigators from the SEC are looking into whether city officials supplied proper information to municipal bond investors.

Within months of her taking office, sparks flew in Thompson's administration with the ouster of the school superintendent - followed by the abrupt departures of four key staff members, including three spokespeople.

Most recently, spokesman Chuck Ardo, who worked in Gov. Ed Rendell's press office for almost eight years, quit on Feb. 3. Soon thereafter, City Solicitor Phil Harper resigned, leaving a less-experienced deputy in charge of legal affairs at a time when the city faces mounting litigation connected to its debt and personnel matters.

"This city is in deep, deep trouble," Ardo said after his resignation.

He also set off fresh controversy by telling reporters that Thompson had called City Controller Dan Miller, who is openly gay, "that homosexual, evil little man," and said a Jewish developer was "bringing Israeli money into the city."

"I don't speak for bigots," Ardo said. "She has a right to her religious beliefs, but when those beliefs affect public policy, it becomes problematic."

The Anti-Defamation League wrote to Thompson last week asking for an explanation of the alleged remarks, said regional director Barry Morrison.

"We want to make sure that if she made those comments, she should acknowledge them and apologize," he said.

Last week, Thompson issued a statement in response to Ardo's comments. While not directly addressing his allegations, she said: "I have a passion for all people and have surrounded myself with a diverse group of people."

She pledged to "faithfully discharge my duties and let the people decide."