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Inspector General: Worries about office's independence aren't just hypothetical
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Inspector General: Worries about office's independence aren't just hypothetical
Yesterday, City Councilman James Kenney introduced legislation for a ballot initiative to make the Philadelphia Office of the Inspector General an independent branch of city government. Currently, the Mayor appoints the Inspector General and can just as easily remove him or her, setting the office's budget and theoretically able to direct its agenda. The bill would provide for a more independent office that negotiates its own budget with City Council, and requiring a hearing to remove the Inspector General before the end of his or her five-year term.
Philadelphia's Inspector General, Amy Kurland, says that the perils of having her office tied to closely to that of the Mayor's are not just hypothetical. When you look at how the office, tasked with unearthing corruption and fraud in city government, functioned under previous administrations, the consequences of that political influence appear to have played out already.
"There have been Inspectors General before me, and they were hardworking, good people, but no office has ever had the kind of support Mayor Nutter has given to our office. So who knows what could have been done in the past," Kurland says.
When she was appointed, there were just three investigators on the staff; now, 20 people work out of the office. On a $1.3 million annual budget, Kurland says the office has saved or recovered more than $9 million per year for the city over the past five years. And she says because of that success, more and more tips have been coming in. "I think having a strong office has been a deterrent," she says. "In the last five years, not a single employee we've investigated and recommended to be fired has appealed and gotten his or her job back with back pay. And that was something that occurred quite a bit in the past. That sends a message: If we investigate it's going to be fair, it's going to be thorough, and the administration is probably going to accept the recommendation, and it will be upheld."
The bill, which has the mayor's backing, would bring Philly in line with most big cities in the country, but it has a shortcoming: Elected officials aren't subject to investigation by the office. That includes City Council, which in the future will be setting the office's budget. Kurland says that's an acceptable drawback, for now. "Our primary concern is for independence. This new bill addresses that; it protects us from politics. It makes us permanent. Whether City Council is included is really a secondary concern."
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