Singer toppled as city elections chief
Republican Al Schmidt and Democrat Anthony Clark make themselves "co-chairmen" of the city commissioners.
Singer toppled as city elections chief
BOB WARNER
The city’s top election official, Stephanie Singer, was toppled from that role Wednesday when her two fellow city commissioners, Republican Al Schmidt and Democrat Anthony Clark, voted to dump her as chair of the three-member panel and make themselves co-chairmen.
The move was a surprise to Singer and apparently to Clark as well, who said he knew nothing about replacing Singer until Schmidt made the motion at the commissioners’ first post-election meeting, Wednesday morning.
Schmidt gave a brief speech praising the commission’s staff for their work guiding the city through the demanding general election, “literally working through the eye of a hurricane.” Then he spoke of studying the agency’s performance to look for ways it might improve, and made a motion to “reorganize” its leadership – replacing Singer with himself and Clark.
Clark and Schmidt voted in favor, Singer against, and she pulled back her chair, allowing Schmidt and Clark to preside for the rest of the meeting.
The commissioners had been bickering for months at their weekly public sessions, over what appeared to be small issues – most recently, Singer’s bid to give a $12,000 raise to her top deputy -- an effort shot down by Schmidt and Clark.
Singer was elected commissioner last November after toppling the commission’s longtime chair, Marge Tartaglione, in the 2011 primary. Clark, who served one term with Tartaglione, had been interested in becoming chairman, but Schmidt and Singer had both developed reform agendas for the agency and Schmidt supported Singer for chair when the trio was sworn into office last January.
“It’s no secret we’ve had a bumpy time this past year and we’re looking to resolve that issue,” Schmidt told reporters after the meeting . “Each commissioner is independently elected, none of us has any more votes or influence than any other….We had disagreements at times over the role of the chair and making sure that all of the commissioners are equal to each other. “
“It was a surprise,” Singer said. She said she didn’t know what would happen next. Asked about her own plans, she said: “I’m here to serve the people of Philadelphia, I’m here for free and fair elections and an informed engaged electorate and a respectful and effective workplace. There are many, many different ways to do that job. I am honored to have that job.”
Does she have to give up that huge office too??— TheShadowKnows- she is a disaster— kornbread
- Can they do that? (Only we can do that to our pledges). Seriously, Committee of 70? Hello? Please get on this and report back ASAP. We certainly know this paper won't.— boroughboy
- of course they can. sic semper tyrannis
Schmidt and Clark joined in June in a series of measures to limit her power in meetings. They also clarified that Singer's election in January to the chairwoman's post could be undone with the votes of two commissioners. Singer had checked with the city's Law Department and found that to be accurate.— hannibal barca - BTW, someone put a picture of the guy from the Buggles in there by mistake.— boroughboy
- Lol, boroughboy.— CiceroSpuriousDeodatusTheSecond
- good riddance to the petty tyrant singer. al schmidt is the kind of leader this city needs— hannibal barca
- Singer is a mess. gone!— Tyrone Biggums
- the city is beyond broken. It will have to sink even lower before it can be fixed.. what a shame. No hope, no future, no justice.— jaydg22
- Good move. The inexperienced Singer had no idea what she was doing. She should go back to teaching math.— anti-tax
- "Its only 66 Wards in Philadelphia and Romney only got votes in 7 of them, go figure." ~~ Employee in Commissioner Singer's Office, 11/12/12
I read this on FB and was shocked beyond belief because it was quite obvious the employee ran with the misleading 'headline' on this link http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20121112_In_59_Philadelphia_voting_wards__Mitt_Romney_got_zero_votes.html?c=0.7372481068731814&posted=y&viewAll=y#comments . If the employee had reviewed the unofficial election results on http://filter.phillyelectionresults.com/comprehensive.aspx (a City Commission website), said employee would have seen that Romney received votes in EVERY WARD! Now I seriously wonder if the employee knows the difference between a ward and division and how much Singer's staff pays attention to detail.
— Cleodine Velvet Jackson
