Study: Phila. outspends its neighbors on elections

At $9.18 per voter, Philadelphia spends more on its election system than the rest of the state's 15 most populous counties.

That slipped out during a discussion yesterday of a draft report being prepared by the city's state-created financial overseer, the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority (PICA).

To be publicly issued in a few weeks, the report compares how the functions carried out by Philadelphia's six independently elected row officers are handled in Pennsylvania's 15 most populated counties. It also analyzes what it costs to carry out that work here and elsewhere, and how much Philadelphia would save by eliminating or consolidating the jobs of some of the elected officers: the sheriff, the clerk of quarter sessions, the register of wills and the three city commissioners.

Yesterday, PICA board member William Leonard offered a preview of the report when he asked about some of the contents in the draft during the board's regular monthly meeting.

Among other points, Leonard focused on a chart that compared the 15 counties' number of registered voters and the annual spending by their election administrators.

In Philadelphia, where the city commissioners and a staff of 97 oversee everything related to elections, including training poll workers and preparing ballots and voting material, that figure is $9.18 per voter.

That amount is nearly twice as much as the median spending in the other counties, $4.68, and nearly three times the $3.26 per voter spent in Montgomery County, which has half as many residents as Philadelphia.

That prompted Leonard, an appointee of Democratic state House Speaker Keith McCall, to question Philadelphia's efficiency and suggest the creation of a five-county regional authority to run elections.

"The mayor has always talked about regional efficiencies," Leonard said.

Then, turning to Philadelphia Finance Director Rob Dubow, an ex-officio PICA board member, he added: "Rob, I think we ought to do that, I really do."

Dubow did not respond.

A spokeswoman for Margaret Tartaglione, the city commissioners' chairwoman, said she had no comment since she had not seen the report.

The Committee of Seventy, the nonprofit governmental watchdog group, issued a report last March that also closely examined the six elected offices. In past years, other cities and counties have abolished or consolidated some of their functions, while Philadelphia's system has remained relatively unchanged for decades.

In the case of the city commissioners, the report compared how nine other major U.S. cities operate elections, including Baltimore, Boston, and Chicago.

Noting that Philadelphia was the only major city where local elected officials run local elections, the committee also suggested eliminating the Philadelphia city commissioners.