Clout: The sheriff wants an SUV. Wanna chip in?

PHILADELPHIA has a new sheriff, but Jewell Williams says that Mayor Nutter's bean counters are too stingy to let people know it or to allow him to cruise the city's streets in comfort.

Williams, sworn in as sheriff last month after serving in the state House since 2000, said that the city had refused to buy him a new $38,000 Chevy Tahoe SUV with a souped-up law-enforcement engine, known as a pursuit vehicle.

Instead, he is stuck with a 2012 Ford Escape SUV that had been used by acting Sheriff Barbara Deeley, who is retiring today.

The Sheriff's Office has been mired in scandal, accused of misplacing millions of dollars while mishandling the sales of city properties in foreclosure. A Sheriff's Office staffer and three accomplices pleaded guilty in federal court last month for a bogus-check scam that bilked the agency of $400,000.

And the City Controller's Office in November asked the U.S. attorney to examine how the Sheriff's Office ran real-estate sales from 2006 to 2010.

Williams had a solution to the image troubles: Have the city pay $3,000 to put decals printed with his name on the doors of all 54 sheriff's vehicles.

"I would tell you that the public deserves to know that there is a new sheriff," Williams said. "I should not have to take on the negative past of the Sheriff's Office."

The city shot that down, too.

Rich Negrin, Nutter's managing director, called the new vehicle decals "pure vanity" during a time of strained finances.

"We're not going to do anything special, especially when we're making budget cuts and getting additional budget cuts from the state," said Negrin, who added that he also saw no "practical, legitimate business reason" to buy Williams a top-of-the-line SUV.

Williams counters with two reasons: The Ford Escape SUV is too small for his 5-foot-10 1/2 frame and not safe enough for his law-enforcement work.

"I'm transporting inmates, murderers and rapists," Williams said, before we pointed out that his deputies drive inmates from court to jail in other, more secure vehicles. "I live in North Philadelphia, in the 'hood. What's to stop someone from grabbing me and holding me hostage to get a prisoner let go?"

Williams said that Nutter got a new car when he took office for his first term in 2008. We pointed out that Nutter's new car was a Chevy Tahoe Hybrid SUV paid for with campaign funds and then donated to the city.

"I wish I had campaign funds like that," Williams said. "If I had all the friends he has, maybe they would buy me a car."

Then Williams had another idea: Philly Clout might spur people to make campaign donations so he can buy the Chevy Tahoe.

When you break out the checkbook, remember that the new sheriff spells his first name with two l's, unlike his daughter, Jewel Williams, who is running to replace him in North Philly's 197th House District and who uses just one l.

Williams said that Nutter's staff should be more focused on the 35 unfilled deputy positions in his office than on what kind of SUV he drives. The Sheriff's Office, he said, doesn't have the money to pay for those deputies, either.

"Maybe I'll have someone donate me a horse," said Williams.

If we've learned anything about government in Philadelphia, it's that City Council is incredibly sensitive about its work schedule, especially the long holiday and summer recesses and the tradition of skipping its weekly Thursday meetings on those weeks containing a holiday.

The Daily News wrote about that this week, noting that Council was not meeting yesterday because Monday was Presidents Day. Our editorial page decried the tradition yesterday.

It was just too much to bear for new Council President Darrell Clarke. He had his new spokeswoman, Jane Roh, email each Council member yesterday to have them submit by Monday an estimate of how many hours they work per day and a tally of how many meetings and events they attend each week, including any events that start after 5 p.m. or take place on weekends.

To which we thought: That's a lot of work for Council on a Friday of a shortened workweek.

Roh, in her email, slammed the Daily News editorial as a "lazy and baseless attack," adding that each Council member was working yesterday and that there are just as many public meetings this year as there were last year. If Council breaks up its summer recess, she noted, there would be even more sessions.

"We cannot change how that paper conducts its business, but we can set the record straight ourselves," Roh wrote.

The Pew Charitable Trusts last year issued a report comparing our City Council to other large cities' governing bodies, and found that Philly "has the most weeks during which no hearings or sessions" are held.

- Staff writer Jan Ransom

contributed to this report.

brennac@phillynews.com.

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