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Talking corruption with Philadelphians for Ethical Leadership founder Ben Mannes
In Philly, patronage is hardly seen as a sin. Newspaper headlines that warn of local pay-to-play, missing government funds or extortion barely quicken our heart rates. We're home to cops who sell drugs, a former Housing Authority director who covered up sexual harassment settlements, and a Sheriff's Office that couldn't find $53 million in assets.
Talking corruption with Philadelphians for Ethical Leadership founder Ben Mannes
In Philly, patronage is hardly seen as a sin. Newspaper headlines that warn of local pay-to-play, missing government funds or extortion barely quicken our heart rates. We're home to cops who sell drugs, a former Housing Authority director who covered up sexual harassment settlements, and a Sheriff's Office that couldn't find $53 million in assets.
It's gotten so bad that one local columnist said Philly is afflicted with "corruption fatigue." But is there anything we can do about it?
A. Benjamin Mannes, founder of Philadelphians for Ethical Leadership, certainly thinks so. He's holding a forum, which was featured in our Agenda section this week, so that folks can ask the local experts charged with rooting out corruption — City Controller Alan Butkovitz, FBI Special Agent John Roberts and the D.A.'s Office Chief of Special Investigations Patrick Blessington — what they're doing about it and how to squash it once and for all. (See the bottom of the post for event details.)
City Paper reached Mannes over the phone and asked him a few questions about corruption in our fair city.
City Paper: How do you see Philly? How corrupt do you think it is?
A. Benjamin Mannes: Philadelphia is a place that's teetering on the return to the greatness. We could go the way of Baltimore or Washington, or we could go the way of New York.
[Conservative blogger] Aaron Proctor says we're headed to Detroit, but I disagree: That was a one-industry town and everyone went jobless at once. Philly is not that. Philly is the most untapped resource on the Eastern seaboard. But the government is not exploiting that. We're not attracting business.
CP: Are Philly's investigative officias doing enough to fight politicial corruption?
ABM: They need to consolidate.
The Inspector General's office is too small. [Philadelphia Housing Authority]'s Inspector General is completely useless. The Ethics Board is completely useless, doing miniscule reports and settlement agreements.
Merge the PHA's Inspector General's office, the Inspector General's office, the Ethics Board and possibly the City Commissioner's office into one agency — and now you have enough bodies to do what you need to do. And it saves money because there are advisory boards for all of those.
CP: You've argued for the need for a true-blue two-party system in Philly. Do you think that could combat corruption here?
ABM: The way things are doesn't provide a checks and balances. That's necessary to keep a ruling party honest. Corruption is never going to go away without it.
CP: Taxpayers end up paying, literally, for corruption — for former PHA head Carl Greene's sexual harassment settlements, for instance. How much do you think the city has paid in "corruption taxes"?
ABM: Over $2 billion. It's a simple formula, actually. There's the $1 billion in bail the city hasn't collected. ... There's the $629 million shortfall in the School District budget. ... And the $53 million the Sheriff's Office lost and then suddenly found. ... The Sheriff's Office budget is $15, $20 million a year — it should be bringing in five times that. And it’s estimated by several online sources that upwards of 45 percent of city residents are in rears of some municipal tax.
CP: This all pretty dire. Is there anything be hopeful for when it comes to battling city corruption?
ABM: [City Commissioner candidates] Al Schmidt and Stephanie Singer. They could run the office the way it needs to be run. If the office had transparency and published reports, you wouldn't even need to file with the Ethics Board.
The event is tonight at 6:30 p.m., free, Free Library, Central Branch, 1901 Vine St., 202-413-2367, freelibrary.org.
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