Clout: Council boot camp: It's a win-win ...but who pays?
THE CITY offers training for people taking jobs as prison guards, lifeguards, police officers, firefighters and many other occupations. But until four years ago, new City Council members had to figure out the job on their own.
THE CITY offers training for people taking jobs as prison guards, lifeguards, police officers, firefighters and many other occupations.
But until four years ago, new City Council members had to figure out the job on their own.
Tommy Massaro, a housing director under then-Mayor Bill Green, spent eight months tutoring new Council members Bill Green (son of the former mayor), Curtis Jones Jr. and Maria Quinones-Sanchez on the machinations of City Hall and government.
School is back in session now that Council in January will have the biggest class of freshmen in two decades. Massaro is instructing seven potential new Council members, aided by nearly 100 former City Hall Cabinet members and four former mayors.
"It's an intensive course," he said. "I make them work."
Massaro says the class allows new members to "arrive prepared, well-informed and data-driven" in their new jobs.
Something else happens too: They enter Council as trusting colleagues. That could have an interesting impact on the selection of the next Council president in January, if the classmates form a voting bloc for one candidate.
Two of Massaro's students, Democrats Mark Squilla and Cindy Bass, are probably headed to Council seats because they had no Republican opponents in the May 17 primary election.
Two more students, Democrats Kenyatta Johnson and Bob Henon, are favored to win in the Nov. 8 general election.
Democrat Bill Rubin is seeking a seat held by Councilman Brian O'Neill, a Republican.
And the top two Republicans in the primary election for at-large seats, state Rep. Denny O'Brien and David Oh, are in the class.
One unresolved question: Will someone fund the eight months of Council training sessions?
Council President Anna Verna, who is retiring at the end of the year, called Massaro "quite knowledgeable" but frowned upon the city funding the class.
"I think we could do it in-house," Verna said of the class.
Massaro said he didn't ask the city for money but hopes to find someone to help pay for the class.
"We have faith that whatever resources are required, we will get them," he said.
Street advising GOP nominee
Former Mayor John Street is still "making the rounds" as he considers a run in the general election as an independent for mayor or City Council at large.
Street also met this week with Karen Brown, the longtime Democratic committeewoman recruited this year by the Republican City Committee to run for mayor.
Street said he was helping Brown refine her positions on taxes, school funding and public safety. A frequent critic of Mayor Nutter, Street says that Brown is "on the right track" questioning the recent push for tax increases to fund the school district.
"I was impressed with her enthusiasm for the task, her commitment to fundraising as a necessary evil in the political business, as well as her openness, candor and sincerity," Street told us. "If she gets the help she deserves from Republican Party regulars and fundraisers, she will represent her party well."
Brown told us that she intends to unveil her "Vision for Greatness" plan during a July 14 fundraiser at the Vesper Club.
Brown's plan calls for changes in the contract for public-school teachers, an elected school board, better training and discipline for police and firefighters, abolition of the city's gross-receipts tax and "major cuts" for anything she does not consider a core city service.
"Our city leaders think this is Scandinavia," Brown's plan declares. "It's time to end the socialism and get real about delivering core services."
Another day, another GOP fight
Marie Delany, a Republican who ran for the Philadelphia City Commission this year, threw her support this week behind Al Schmidt, a former state party official who is part of a local insurgency that calls itself the Republican Party of Philadelphia.
Delany, director of a transitional-housing center for homeless women and children, finished third with 29 percent of the vote.
The top two GOP candidates, four-term Commissioner Joe Duda, with 36 percent, and Schmidt, with 35 percent, advanced to the Nov. 8 general election.
Delany, who had considered running for Council but was encouraged by Republican City Committee members to run for commissioner instead, was widely perceived as being on the ballot to help Duda defeat Schmidt.
"Basically I was supposed to be Duda's running mate," said Delany, who accuses the longtime Northeast Philadelphia ward leader of cutting her from his Election Day sample ballot.
Duda, who also serves as managing director of the Republican City Committee, said that he and Delany were never a ticket but that he backed her because the local party endorsed her.
"I didn't cut anybody," Duda said. "I pushed the whole ticket, everybody who was endorsed. It's just sour grapes."
The city charter guarantees a seat on the three-member commission for someone from the minority political party. That has meant Duda for the Republicans for the last 12 years. Will Delaney help swing the seat to Schmidt and his GOP insurgents?
Delany said she admires Schmidt's crowd but doesn't want to bash any Republicans.
"I don't want to be in any camp," she said. "We're one party in flux. I'd like to be party of a bridge between the two."
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