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Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, disliked for deep cuts to education and social services among other things, has really low approval ratings. Ratings so low (Pennsylvanians disapprove 47-38 percent) that two former Democratic Secretaries of Environmental Protection think they can beat him in 2014 (who? exactly).
And though the governor had a rough news week (more on that below) he has received a soft landing on Philly.com. Today, he was named one of its "Voices of Philly.com" and will serve alongside other local notables who will also likely not be paid for their contributions, such as pot activist Chris Goldstein (Philly420!).
Luckily for Corbett, "Voices of Philly.com" is "the most popular news web site in Philadelphia."
The ranks of Curby Buckett, Safety Paws and other city government mascots you've never heard of, will soon grow by one as the Philadelphia Water Department searches for a new "spokesdog" (ha ha, get it? DOG!).
It gets even better: it could be your hideous pooch that graces the cover of glossy PWD intra-office brochures, threatening collection letters, PSAs about the dangers of excessive water consumption and whatever the hell else a utility company would need a mascot for.
An ad that has been appearing on Philly.com, and which contains at least one poop joke, is searching for dogs with the right "scruff" (ha ha ha) that also, oddly, happens to reside in either University City or Fitler Square. Bougie dogs only, please.
City Council asked nicely for the city Office of Property Assessment to share all of the methodology and data that went into the citywide tax assessments. Now, they're done asking. Council President Darrell Clarke and City Councilmen David Oh and Bobby Henon introduced legislation to increase the transparency of OPA. Under pressure from Council and community members, the OPA did post some information to its website about how it arrived at assessments, but Council members aren't satisfied.
The bill comes a day after the Crosstown Coalition of Taxpayers, a coalition of civic groups citywide, released the latest analysis damning the assessments as inaccurate and as disproportionately affecting poor homeowners. The study found that the average home selling for less than $50,000 is assessed at double its market value.
“There are significant and legitimate concerns about the City’s assessments as relates to the Actual Value Initiative (AVI). A fair and accurate assessment is not possible when OPA does not know how many bathrooms are in a particular home, for example,” Clarke said in a statement.
Henon put it simply in Council this morning: "I'm excited about finally having some answers from OPA."
Liquor and cigarette tax hikes, part of Mayor Nutter's scramble to fill a $300 million budget shortfall for the Philadelphia School District, were introduced in City Council today. The liquor-by-the-drink tax would go from 10 percent to 15 percent; cigarette taxes would increase by $2 per pack. The bills must pass two hurdles, the most daunting being in the state General Assembly, which would need to approve enabling legislation before Council's bill can be enacted. Some are skeptical that the state legislation will come through in time to be factored into the city's budget — but even if it does, would City Council pass the bills?
City Council President Darrell Clarke, who previously said there was no appetite for additional local taxes, sponsored the legislation, however, with an amendment that eliminated a proposal to direct some of the cigarette-tax revenues to smoking cessation efforts. However, he has said repeatedly that the state needs to provide funding, not push all the responsibility back onto the city.
People who represent themselves in court not only hurt their own chances, but throw a wrench into the entire legal system, judges, legal-aid attorneys and their clients testified today, at a State Senate Judiciary Committee hearing held by Sen. Stewart Greenleaf. Greenleaf is holding three hearings on the subject, with an eye to designating a state budget item for legal-aid services. Currently, such services — which help the poorest Pennsylvanians in the most critical cases, where basics like access to their children, their homes or their livelihoods are at stake — meet only an estimated 20 percent of the need. They operate with funding from IOLTA (Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts), which has been running low in recent years.
"There have been efforts to expand IOLTA, but it's based on interest," Greenleaf noted today, "and we all know what's happened to interest [rates]."
A source familiar with Philadelphia politics notified City Paper that political fraudster John McDaniel had been spotted at Brett Mandel's campaign headquarters during yesterday's primary — to the displeasure of some high-profile Mandel backers. McDaniel, a former campaign manager for Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds-Brown, was recently sentenced to a year in jail for his role in stealing political donations, while Mandel ran a second unsuccessful campaign against incumbent Controller Alan Butkovitz, painting himself as a squeaky-clean reformer.
Reached over the phone, Mandel denied that McDaniel had anything to do with his his campaign — although he acknowledged that he knew McDaniel.
"I have no reason to believe that [John McDaniel] was anyplace associated with the campaign yesterday. He has nothing to do with anybody I know that was associated with the campaign," said Mandel. He said the last time he had seen McDaniel in person was when he "bumped into him on the street a few weeks ago."
Earlier this week a Philadelphia preschool distributed a zealous letter to parents, complete with a striking graphic, claiming "the imaginations of our preschool children are becoming dangerously overactive." Citing the physical safety of its students as its primary concern, Tuny Haven International Early Learning wrote that it would be banning "wrestling, super hero play and monster games." (Did little Bobby get too excited about the hammer that came with his Thor costume?)
Outraged by the news, one parent posted the letter to the Philly subreddit under the username Oremor and tacked on the ire-provoking title, "So my son came home and told me make-believe was not allowed at school anymore." Ravenous Redditors proceeded to rip apart the school's plan and harp on the glaring typos in the letter. Later in the increasingly vicious thread, Oremor, the Redditor who started it all, expanded on why he had found the letter so disturbing in the first place: "It is this constant dialogue of ours [son and parent] regarding superheroes that has allowed us to address concepts such as right and wrong, good and bad, justice and injustice. You can therefore well imagine my anger when my son showed me the flyer with superheroes crossed out. I was livid!"
Thinking this could be a case of poor phrasing, we contacted the school to get a straight story. After repeated phone calls to Tuny Haven's site director, LaTanya Bernard and executive director, Adrienne McKinney we were unable to reach either for comment.
Brett Mandel & daughter Rose at a (desolate) polling place at 22nd and Spruce.
This morning, Controller candidate Brett Mandel hit some polling places alongside Larry Farnese, who happens to be not only a state Senator but also a Democratic ward leader. What's unusual about that? The Democratic City Committee, overlord of the ward system, has a candidate — and it's not Mandel.
If you could use one word to describe this morning at the polls, it might be "sleepy." If you could pick another, it might be "confused."
CP caught up with some of those scant handful of voters who bothered to show up at the polls for judge elections, the uncontested District Attorney primary and the city Controller race. They did not, in general, seem to have much knowledge of the candidates for whom they had voted.
That didn’t diminish the democratic spirit of John Taylor, who voted in the 15th division of the Northeast’s 64th Ward early this morning. When asked what brought him out to vote, Taylor said, “I came out to vote for Seth Williams for District Attorney.” Though Taylor had stepped out from the voting booth only moments before, he could not recall any of the other candidates for other offices he voted for. “I think I voted for Butkovitz. Probably.” Had he heard anything about the Traffic Court in recent months? “Yeah. All the corruption and everything.” Did he vote for any of the nominees for Traffic Court judge? “I probably did. I can’t remember who for, though.”
Was it a joke, or a dire violation of election law? The election court at Court of Common Pleas has issued an injunction against Controller candidate Brett Mandel and his campaign to stop distributing election materials inside polling places.
Only, Mandel says he wasn't. He says it was a friendly gesture taken out of context by the opposition.
The complaint was brought by Second Ward, Fifth Division, committeeman Sal Deluca and Friends of Alan Butkovitz. Deluca, who was working the polls today, would not speak to a City Paper reporter. However, his complaint alleged that Mandel toured the inside of a polling place, spoke to election officials and gave out stickers inside the polling place. Flaster Greenberg lawyer Abbe F. Fletman says it's simple: “The law says that you’re not allowed to give out election materials within 10 feet of a polling place. If you’ve ever been in a polling place you can see that the posters and all that are outside the polling place. So we just put on evidence that Mr. Mandel was inside a polling place handing out election stickers.”
Mandel has a different memory of the incident, centered on some temporary tattoos he'd had made up for the campaign. He tells CP: "We're certainly not electioneering in any way," and in fact, "I had resolved not to go into any polling place." But a committee person asked him to step inside to say hello to someone, and while there he saw someone who had some tattoos. Mandel says he said, "Hey, you're inked up, have a [Brett Mandel for Controller] tattoo.' And that was the extent of my electioneering that caused multiple lawyers to run into court."
He chalks it up to the other side being "petrified."
Turnout has been low at polling places CP reporters visited. However, there have been a handful of other issues. Committee of Seventy also reports: "The Second Ward had another problem in the 21st division where the Judge of Elections refused to seat a Minority Inspector. The D.A.’s office had to intervene." And, "A number of divisions are having a tough time rounding up the five members of an Election Board to work at the polls. It may be time to revisit whether five people are needed during off-election years."
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