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City Council
In a resolution yesterday, City Council decried the city's involvement in the federal Secure Communities program, which requires that Philadelphia police hand over the fingerprints of everyone they arrest to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the FBI.
All 17 Councilpersons voted for the non-binding resolution, which urges the city to end the agreement when it is up for renewal on August 31. That decision will ultimately be up to the Nutter administration.
Though Secure Communities — used by other state and local police throughout the country — was billed by ICE as a way to rid the U.S. of criminals, a study recently showed that 61 percent of the immigrants deported from Philly with this program had no criminal record whatsoever. Meanwhile, 82 percent were either non-criminals or low-level offenders. Studies have revealed similar statistics throughout the country.
Supporters of Secure Communities argue that states and cities that are refusing to participate in the program — like New York and Massachusetts — are threatening the safety of their citizens. But critics argue that instead of fighting crime, Secure Communities has actually led to immigrants avoiding police when they are victims of crimes, witnesses or potential informants.
Councilman Jim Kenney told City Paper that he believes the program is "un-American." He continued, "They say they're rooting out the criminal elements, the terrorist elements, but really they're rooting out poor, innocent people."
What happened to the 9 votes that supposedly had been gathered to pass the mayor's sweetened beverage tax? Was there a behind-the-scenes connection between the paid sick days bill and the passage of a hike in property tax? What was Councilman Bill Green up to last Thursday morning? And what is the strange force skewing politics in every direction (hint: it's the Council presidency).
Answers to those questions and many more in this week's Man Overboard!
Mayor Nutter's making a list and checking it twice ... thrice ... a fourth time ... a couple more times ... — trying, apparently, to woo one or two more votes for his proposed tax on sweetened beverages before an imminent vote by City Council today.
The vote was put off about fifteen minutes ago while Council members take a recess — another one, that is — to, apparently, negotiate what's going to happen.
According to sources, the vote has been remarkably fluid all day — it's looked like a proposed property tax hike was the favored measure by Council; then the "soda tax" seemed to be making a comeback.
Even within those choices are more options. It's possible Council would pass a smaller tax on beverages than proposed by the mayor in addition to a smaller property tax hike. It's possible Council will pass neither, and instead focus on finding a way (or leaving it to the Mayor to find a way) to provide funding to the schools some other way.
Council could also choose not to provide extra funding to the schools at all — but such a decision could have serious consequences. If the city is seen as failing to pony up for its own schools, officials in Harrisburg are even less likely to help out.
Follow me on Twitter for updates.
News editor Isaiah Thompson is live-tweeting today's City Council hearings on the proposed sweetened beverages tax, school funding and paid sick leave. Follow him @isaiah_thompson or look for the tag #phillycouncil.
One of the arguments being put forth in favor of the Mayor Nutter's proposed sweetened beverage is that we already tax beverages — the ones with booze in them.
The "Liquor By the Drink" tax takes 10% of every alcoholic beverage and hands it over to the School District, generating more than $42 million last year alone, according to this fine blog post by the Daily News' Chris Brennan.
We tax alcoholic drinks, which are unnecessary to human health and well-being — so why not sugary drinks, which share that quality? It's an argument that's been making the rounds in the last couple of days, as the beverage industry, unions, and, of course, regular folks have voiced opposition to the mayor's proposed tax.
On the other hand, the liquor tax only applies to drinks consumed at restaurants and bars — not to take-out or grocery items, as doe the proposed sweetened beverage tax.
Mayor Nutter, as you've hopefully heard by now, has re-proposed a tax on sweetened beverages — the so-called "soda tax," — to raise money (somewhere between $60 and $80m annually) for the Philadelphia School District, which faces a GIGANTIC $629 million budget shortfall — a hole that undoubtedly represents an emergency for the District and Philadelphia children.
The emergency is real: but the evidence that the mayor's proposed tax will do much to solve it is less clear.
The beverage bill was introduced by the mayor as the solution to an announcement by School District superintendent Arlene Ackerman [Yes, I accidentally wrote 'Axeman' in a previous draft; that was a spell-check error, and not an intentional jibe at Dr. Ackerman] that she'd have to cut full-day kindergarten if the District couldn't get more money — like from, say, the city.
The problem is that the narrative — that this tax will pull the district from the brink of doom — isn't adding up very tidily. First, Ackerman restored kindergarten herself, overnight, without any additional funding.
But then, in budget hearins over the last two weeks, Ackerman also revealed that other serious cuts — notably a move to bring some 2,000 at-risk students in "accelerated" non-district schools into "in-house" programs — come while the District is expanding other programs, like so-called "Promise Academies," a key part of her Imagine 2014 plan for the District.
What's more, Ackerman's case for the extra funding from the city hasn't been particularly detailed: a number of about $50 million was being bandied about before the $100 million request materialized. During budget hearings, a little prodding by Council members (notably, Councilman Bill Green and Councilwoman Maria Quionones-Sanchez) revealed that a few accounting tricks solved much of the District's supposed $50 million transportation problem — a victory for the kids, but one which made some members of Council question how carefully Ackerman and her team had gone through their own budget before coming to the city for funding.
Take those doubts, add widespread criticism of Ackerman's leadership, and then add mix in a popular reception to the beverage tax that's been lukewarm at best (and, in many corners, reviled) and you don't exactly get the Beverage bonanza Nutter needs to pass this thing.
Before you start crying or cheering that Marge Tartaglione is done-zo, consider this: Provisional and absentee ballots have not yet been counted — plus, some precincts have not been reported — and three big races (including the City Commissioners) are still close.
"You might remember that the official count in the City Council at-large race between David Oh and Jack Kelly in 2007 was not finished until November 21," said Ellen Kaplan, vice president of the Committee of Seventy, via email. "The election was on November 5."
The close races are:
- for City Commissioner, between incumbents Anthony Clark and Marge Tartaglione. With 96 percent of the precincts reporting, Clark is beating Tartaglione by 980 votes. (Conversely, Stephanie Singer, the top vote-getter in the Commissioners' race, seems in like flint.)
- for the 2nd Council District, between Barbara Capozzi and Kenyatta Johnson. With 97 percent of precincts reporting, Johnson is winning by just 72 votes!
- for Republican mayor, between Karen Brown and John Featherman — which is really a race between the old guard and new guard of Republicans. Brown is winning by 59 votes!
Is it possible that some of these races could flip — especially the ones that seem less resolved, i.e. for the 2nd Council District and Republican mayor?
"It depends," says Kaplan. "The closer the race, the greater the likelihood."
Due to a miscommunication, an earlier version of this story reported that the FBI was raiding Miller's office. In fact, it was the Ethics Board. CP regrets the error.
The Ethics Board is raiding Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller's office right now.
Her office could not share any more details, but City Paper will confirm more as it comes. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: According to PhillyClout, the Ethics Board was there to investigate Miller's office allegedly using printers to create campaign materials for Verna Tyner. Just this week, Tyner was endorsed by Miller.
Outside of Miller's office at City Hall, Ethics Board director Shane Creamer declined to comment, and Miller's attorney said she was cooperating with the investigation. Laura Frank, the spokeswoman for Tyner's campaign, meanwhile, says, "We dont know anything about it," adding "No one's talking to us about it."
It's election time, folks!
For four weeks, the ElectionEar has brought you (increasingly hard to find) coverage of this year's primary election, in which nothing less than the future of the fair city of Philadelphia is at stake.
For a list of all candidates on the ballot, go to the Board of Elections website. For extremely helpful voting information (including polling places and a list of who you'll get to vote for) visit the Committee of Seventy.
And for fun, exciting, amazing City Paper coverage, read this week's cover story by Holly Otterbein and Isaiah Thompson — and don't forget the special edition of ElectionEar, which looks at the battles behind the battles.
And now: Dozens of candiates are running for a slew of offices — Mayor, City Council, Sheriff, City Commissioner, Register of Wills, and city and state and judicial races.
But who are these candidates? And why should you vote for them?
To find out, read the candidates' responses to ElectionEar's 2011 Ultimate Primary Candidate Questionnaire below. You'll find out their thoughts on everything from the city's biggest weakness to the Philadelphia School District — and even whether or not they can spell.
Big news: Former Mayor John Street is going to endorse Verna Tyner in the 8th Council District race, sources tell City Paper.
This is the second high-profile endorsement that Tyner has secured today: Earlier, incumbent Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller announced her endorsement of Tyner, saying she "knows what it takes to make things happen in city government."
Tyner is one of the percieved front-runners in the race, along with Cindy Bass, who's been racking up big political endorsements for weeks now — from Mayor Michael Nutter, District Attorney Seth Williams, state Rep. Dwight Evans, and, just announced today, Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Hoeffel.
Tyner's two new endorsements surely change matters — though in what capacity, we won't know until May 17's election. It's also worth noting that Tyner has vowed to not support a DROP-enrolled official for the next Council president — i.e. Marian Tasco, who is Nutter's presumed choice. Councilman Darrell Clarke — a Street protégé — is also expected to run for president.
Bass, meanwhile, has declined to say who she'll support for Council president — and, as mentioned before, has been endorsed by Nutter, who ran for office as the "anti-Street."
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