ElectionEar

DROP candidates can stay on the ballot

POSTED: Wednesday, March 23, 2011, 8:40 PM

Filed Under: Elections | ElectionEar

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.

Posted by Holly Otterbein @ 8:40 PM Permalink | Post a comment

The mysterious Point Breeze building moratorium

POSTED: Sunday, March 20, 2011, 5:41 PM

Filed Under: Elections | News | ElectionEar

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.

For a few weeks now, controversy has been simmering over a bill sponsored on behalf of Council President Anna Verna that would impose a one-year moratorium on construction of buildings higher than two stories in Point Breeze.

The purpose of the moratorium, the legislation says, is to "give Council the opportunity to explore ways to preserve the uniformity of the streetscape and the current scale and density of the area."

The proposal comes amid ongoing tension in the neighborhood over gentrification. A moratorium on buildings higher than two stories would, presumably, halt many or most new development projects. It also comes amid a hotly contested battle for Verna's seat on Council as she prepares to retire — a battle in which racial neighborhood dynamics will likely play a significant role (the ticket features 2 black and 3 white candidates right now).

Click for more »

Posted by Isaiah Thompson @ 5:41 PM Permalink | 2 comments

Councilman Clarke petition challenged

POSTED: Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 4:07 PM

Filed Under: City Council | Elections | ElectionEar

Thanks to Adam Lang of "The New Commonwealth" blog for this one.

The nominating petition of 5th District Councilman Darrell Clarke has been challeneged by former State Rep. Andrew Carn, husband of Suzanne Carn, who is Clarke's sole challenger for re-election in the 5th District.

According to the docket, the case should be before the City Commissioners on March 19, 2010 — which may present temporo-astro-physical problems for all parties invovled.

Posted by Isaiah Thompson @ 4:07 PM Permalink | Post a comment

DROP lawsuit will be filed to kick Tartaglione off the ballot

POSTED: Monday, March 14, 2011, 1:00 PM

Filed Under: DROP | Elections | ElectionEar

Gloria Gilman, the chair of Neighborhood Networks, tells City Paper that she's filing a lawsuit tomorrow against City Commissioner Marge Tartaglione to kick her off the ballot. She argues that because Tartaglione is enrolled in the Deferred Option Retirement Plan (DROP), she's ineligible to run for office.

A legal loophole has allowed Tartaglione and other public officials to remain working while enrolled by collecting a lump sum of cash from DROP, "retiring" for a day and then running again.

Republican attorney Matt Wolfe filed a similar lawsuit on Friday challenging Councilman-at-Large Frank Rizzo, as CP reported, which argues that Rizzo can't run because he's enrolled in DROP. And Councilwoman Marian Tasco is now facing a suit that makes the same argument.

Gilman says Stan Shapiro, who was chief staff attorney for City Council for more than 20 years, is also joining her as one of the suit's plaintiffs. Their attorney is Joseph Doherty, from Spector Gadon & Rosen, who is also representing the two people filing suit against Tasco.

These suits mark the first time that city solicitors have been challenged in court over their opinion that elected officials can be enrolled in DROP and run for reelection.

"The city solictor has come up with a tortured argument that you can somewhow fully retire by leaving for a day and then coming back," says Doherty. "I'm fully confident the court will see it [our] way."

Posted by Holly Otterbein @ 1:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

Ward leader files challenge to kick Rizzo off ballot

POSTED: Friday, March 11, 2011, 7:02 PM

Filed Under: DROP | ElectionEar

Councilman-at-Large Frank Rizzo has seen better days.

Not only has Rizzo lost the backing of his own party, but Republican ward leader Matt Wolfe has officially filed a petition challenge to try to kick Rizzo off the primary ballot. He's arguing that because Rizzo is enrolled in the city's politically-poisonous Deferred Option Retirement Plan (DROP), he is ineligible to serve.

A legal loophole has allowed Rizzo and other officials to remain working while enrolled by collecting a lump sum of cash from DROP, "retiring" for a day and then running again.

Heard in the Hall first reported on Wolfe's intention to file the suit, but Wolfe hadn't done so until today. Wolfe says he originally intended to file the challenge on Wednesday, but ran into "logistical problems" with the City Commissioners' office.

According to Wolfe, he tried to obtain copies of petitions from the office on Wednesday, but he says they told him they only had so many copy machines and thus couldn't get him the documents until Thursday afternoon. Then, he asked if the office could scan them, and he says they said no: Apparently, the office doesn't have a scanner. "When I got them on Thursday, they were on legal-sized paper, printed on both sides and the back of each petition was upside down," he said. "Each of these things makes it more difficult to scan them into the PDF document needed for electronic filing."

Wolfe further mused over the phone, "Nevermind that scanning them would be cheaper for the city," and then gave a plug for his candidate of choice: "All this will change when Al Schmidt becomes Commissioner."

The challenge's hearing is scheduled for March 30.

Posted by Holly Otterbein @ 7:02 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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Here at The Naked City, you'll find breaking news, analysis, gossip and surprises about everything from crime and politics to the beating pulse of city life itself. We're good listeners, too:

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