Mayor: I made phone calls, but not to silence anyone

MAYOR NUTTER yesterday angrily denied that he asked Philadelphia NAACP president Minister Rodney Muhammad to scrap a Thursday news conference at which the civil rights official planned to discuss allegations that a company that won state approval to build a South Philadelphia casino discriminates against black patrons in other cities.

The Daily News reported yesterday that after Nutter made phone calls to Muhammad and to an official at the national NAACP office, Muhammad pulled the plug on the news conference that would have painted the Cordish Co. of Baltimore in a bad light.

Nutter, who at times swore and slapped the table in his office, confirmed that he made phone calls to learn what Muhammad's concerns were with Cordish, but not to pressure him into silence.

"I never, ever asked president Rodney Muhammad not to have his press conference," Nutter said.

"I said, 'I understand that you are planning some kind of statement or something with regard to this particular development in the city. I would have appreciated, minister, the opportunity for us to have a conversation before you do whatever it is that you're going to do,' " Nutter said.

"I don't even know what the objection is, what the concern is or nothing. And I would just have appreciated the opportunity for us to talk before anything happens. That was the conversation," Nutter continued.

The mayor also refuted information from a Daily News source that, during his phone call Wednesday with the Rev. Gill Ford from the NAACP's national office, that he made a veiled threat, saying that the news conference would be bad for the organization a month before meeting here for its five-day national convention, which begins July 11.

"What I said was, 'It's not good for us to be in conflict, publicly, while we're the host city for the national convention,' " Nutter said.

"That's not good for any of us. That's not a threat, that's a reality. It's not good, it doesn't look good."

Nutter declined to discuss the racial-discrimination allegations against Cordish that Muhammad had planned to discuss Thursday, and he also would not say if he and the minister plan to meet.

Although the Daily News article reported that he spoke to Muhammad on Thursday morning, the conversation actually happened Wednesday night when the mayor was on a plane in Denver before takeoff, Nutter said.

Muhammad said he decided against the press conference after speaking with Nutter and Ford. He said he believes Nutter "did want me to hold up on the press conference," although it was Ford who expressly asked him to do so.

"My home office, after talking with the mayor, felt that we should not have it until we have a meeting with the mayor. Now that I'm going to meet with Cordish, that's even better," said Muhammad, who was elected president of the local chapter in December.

Muhammad said the NAACP has been having meetings about Cordish for two months and as part of his investigation, he plans to meet with company officials and visit their Power & Light District venue in Kansas City.

The NAACP wants to "put the brakes" on zoning approval for Cordish's South Philly casino until the allegations of racial discrimination against the company can be thoroughly looked in to, Muhammad said.

"We want to alert the community to be prepared to lobby your City Council person to vote 'no' on zoning on Cordish until we can have some real discussions about many of the allegations that have been presented to us," he said.

"I like the idea of companies coming to Philadelphia and setting up and the opportunity for people to be employed and the city to extract revenue," Muhammad said.

"But our sense of dignity and self-worth is more important. If the allegations on my desk are anywhere halfway true, then I just have reason to be concerned," Muhammad said.

Lawyer and lobbyist Dick Hayden, a close friend of Nutter's who was legal counsel to his transition team after he was first elected in 2007 and is regarded as his political godfather, has been hired by Cordish to get the casino deal through the zoning and permitting process.

Hayden this week declined to comment about the discrimination allegations about his client.

Meanwhile, Cordish chairman David Cordish denied allegations of racial discrimination Thursday but declined to be quoted. In November, the company and its partner won a state license to build the city's second casino in South Philadelphia.

Since 2011, nine lawsuits and one formal complaint have been filed against Cordish venues in Kansas City, Mo., and Louisville, Ky., by black patrons alleging they had been kicked out after being harassed or flagged for arbitrary dress code violations, according to an NAACP report that lists the names of 24 plaintiffs.

Four of those lawsuits and the complaint are still active, according to the report.