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DROP candidates can stay on the ballot
Common Pleas Court Judge James Lynn ruled today (at almost 7 p.m.) that Councilman Frank Rizzo, Councilwoman Marian Tasco and City Commissioner Marge Tartaglione can stay on the primary ballot.
DROP candidates can stay on the ballot
Common Pleas Court Judge James Lynn ruled today (at almost 7 p.m.) that Councilman Frank Rizzo, Councilwoman Marian Tasco and City Commissioner Marge Tartaglione can stay on the primary ballot. In three ballot petition challenges before Lynn, a group of Philadelphians argued that because the aforementioned candidates are enrolled in the Deferred Option Retirement Plan (DROP), they're ineligible to run for office.
The challengers included everyone from Stan Shapiro, the former chief staff attorney for City Council, to Matt Wolfe, a Republican ward leader.
City solicitors have argued in the past that public officials can remain working while enrolled in the program by collecting a giant sum of cash from DROP, “retiring” for a day and then running again.
Republican ward leader Wolfe, who filed the petition challeneg against Rizzo, says, "Judge Lynn listened carefully to the arguments made on Friday and certainly seemed to understand our argument. He disagrees with our core assertion that 'irrevocable' means 'irrevocable' and that 'rehire' and 'reelect' are two separate and distinct terms with separate meanings."
Wolfe said he is considering an appeal to the Commonwealth Court.
Read the judge's decision in its entirety here.
This article is part of our new, expanded coverage of this year's exciting election season. Grab this link for more "ElectionEar" pieces and look for the new column in our print edition.
