Dear Mayor Nutter: 'I am owed a public apology'

DEAR Mayor Nutter,

I have read the full statement that was distributed to the media in your name concerning my testimony before the special committee of City Council investigating the recent fatal tragedy on Market Street. I would assume, and I would hope, that the statement was not prepared by you and did not represent your personal evaluation of either my written testimony or my responses to questions from Council.

Had you and/or your staff read my prepared testimony, or listened carefully to my responses, you and/or your staff would have reached a far different conclusion than that which was espoused in your statement and, as a result, was reported in the media.

I was very careful to craft my remarks to specifically note that they were not to reflect upon the current Licenses & Inspections commissioner. I was also very careful to claim that the current situation had its genesis long before your administration; more precisely, during the second term of Mayor Rendell.

I was also very careful to bring to the attention of members of Council that any success that I may have achieved as commissioner was solely as the result of the hard work and the achievements of L&I employees. It is a belief that I have strongly held for many years.

With respect to my testimony, I offer the following excerpts from that testimony for your edification:

1. "To start my testimony I want to be perfectly clear that my appearance before you today is not to be interpreted in any way whatsoever as a commentary on the current Commissioner of the Department." That particular statement was underlined for emphasis.

2. "L&I employees, at least in my experience, are for the most part not bad people."

3. "I was very proud of the abilities of both Mike Fink and David Perri [both currently high-ranking members of your administration] who rose to positions of authority during my tenure and remained to serve our citizens with dedication and integrity."

4. "I believe that today's IG and her staff (Amy Kurland and Kathy McAfee) represent a much higher ethical standard than that maintained by the person who held that position during my tenure as commissioner."

Can you tell me who do you believe I "slandered"?

You and/or your administration were not mentioned in any of the almost 20 exhibits that accompanied my testimony.

I am not only a "private citizen," as you contend in your statement, but I am also a taxpayer. Even more important, I am a concerned citizen who has strong feelings about the city I grew up in and in which I spent my adult working life. I grieve for the inspector who took his life and left behind a widow and young child. I also grieve for the honest and hardworking people who work at the department I led for nearly four years. I cannot fathom the weight and the anguish that the inspector's death places on the current commissioner.

My remarks were not an indictment of either you or your administration. They were a history lesson tempered with almost 25 years of experience as a member of the Board of Building Standards, then its chairman and finally the department's commissioner.

Regrettably, that department has been burdened with incompetent leadership, which was initiated during Mayor Rendell's second term and which was held over by your predecessor. I never commented on your leadership or any of your appointments. My comments were directed at the organizational structure and circumstances in place long before you took office. As you were first elected to Council the same time as I was appointed commissioner, you have had the opportunity to observe and experience, from an insider's perspective, the decline of L&I during the 12 years that elapsed between the time of my departure and your election as mayor. What went on during that period of time should not come as a surprise to you.

When I assumed the position of commissioner I inherited a department racked by scandal, drowning in paranoia, fully dysfunctional, and a department that stood as a prime example for every stereotype of what was wrong with government. When I departed, at the end of 1995, Governing magazine recognized L&I for its "professionalism, efficiency, and respect for [its] customers."

I wasn't "out of touch" at that time. I firmly believe I was not "out of touch" during my testimony. If anyone was "out of touch," it is the person or persons who prepared the statement that was released in your name.

If anything, the responses of Fran Burns to questions from members of Council confirmed the basis of the testimony which I presented after she concluded her appearance. To a great extent she proved my case.

As a "private citizen," I am owed a public apology.

With all due respect,

Bennett Levin