Gale Warning

by Daryl Gale

Four More Years!

For a few weeks at least, there was a school of thought that the contentious bloodletting of the mayoral campaign was behind us. That with John Street re-elected by a landslide, maybe things would settle down and folks would start being nice to each other again.
I even wrote in this column two weeks ago about the mayor’s assertion that the pundits were wrong and race relations in Philadelphia were just fine following the racially charged campaign.

While the mayor had a point about race relations, he failed to mention the trail of broken political relationships left in the wake of the campaign, and whether his second term would also be one of mending political fences as well as racial ones. If the spectacle at Monday’s inauguration ceremonies was any indication, political throat-cutting and partisan backstabbing will continue unabated well into the Street administration’s second chapter.

Just after 10 a.m., prior to Street being administered the oath of office in the magnificent Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center, members of City Council were sworn in, with the Council session being more formal than most, and usually conducted with great dignity and restraint. Usually. But not Monday.

Eighth District Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller nominated her colleague, Third District Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, for temporary chair. Technically, President Anna Verna can’t preside over her own swearing-in, so Council appoints a temporary chair who oversees the proceedings until the president is nominated and sworn in.

In a move so rife with symbolism that the impact of the moment couldn’t possibly have been lost on political insiders, Verna turned over the gavel of Council President to Blackwell, who had mounted a concerted but failed effort to oust Verna during the fall. Once she had the gavel, and the microphone, Blackwell went to work. Judge Frederica Massiah-Jackson quickly swore in Council, including new members Jack Kelly and Juan Ramos, and Blackwell’s first five minutes as temporary Council President went off without a hitch. Then, Fifth District Councilman Darrell Clarke spoke up. Shortly thereafter, all hell broke loose.

Clarke offered a resolution providing for changes in the way Council conducts business, specifically, limiting and redistributing the powers of the president.

Those changes have been written about ad nauseam lately, so I won’t bore you by repeating the details. Suffice it to say that the rule changes would dramatically increase the power of the Minority Leader and Majority Leader in Council, making them, in effect, equal partners with Council President on important decisions involving policy and personnel.

As soon as Clarke had offered the resolution for vote, Fourth District Councilman Michael Nutter, who is often at odds with the mayor, interrupted the proceedings with, "Madame President." Once recognized by Blackwell, Nutter went way off the script and sent the place into a tizzy.

Why, Nutter demanded, were the rule changes being railroaded through? Who wrote the rule changes, and why hasn’t Council clearly been told why and who benefits? Clearly taken aback, Blackwell reminded Nutter that the rule changes had been discussed at an earlier meeting. Yeah, maybe so, Nutter shot back, but those questions weren’t answered then, and they’re not being answered now.

He asked whether there would be further discussion before adopting the rule changes, and whether those discussions would be public. Clearly angry, Blackwell was just about to read Nutter the riot act when David Cohen, City Council’s grumpy old man, got into the act. Cohen is no stranger to fights with the mayor’s office, and jumped in to back Nutter.

"These new rules need discussion, and on a regular business day," Cohen barked. Cohen asked that the vote be tabled until there could be public hearings and discussions on proposed rule changes, but Blackwell, now clearly steamed, would have none of it.

"There was a meeting where all this was discussed at length," Blackwell said, reiterating her intention to bring the subject to a vote. Then First District Councilman Frank DiCicco, another Verna loyalist and sometime enemy of the mayor, added his two cents. Nutter and Cohen are absolutely correct, DiCicco fumed, and at the meeting Blackwell referred to, no vote was taken on the rule changes. Who drafted the rules, DiCicco repeated, and why do we need to strip the Council President of power? Seventh District Councilman Rick Mariano interrupted to say that he’d written the rule changes, but was immediately called a liar by DiCicco.

"You told me that day when I asked you who drafted the rule changes that it was the guy up on the second floor," DiCicco spat. During the entire exchange, Mayor Street sat impassively at stage right, not even blinking at being so clearly implicated in the brouhaha. Soon, Councilman at-Large Jim Kenney entered the fray, also calling for full public discussions, and even the normally quiet Ninth District Councilwoman Marian Tasco denounced the rule changes as political skullduggery.

"These changes to the rules have been proposed to change the behavior of certain Council members, not advance the democratic process," Tasco said. Meanwhile, the crowd began to get ugly. Cries of "Traitor" and "Shame" were hurled at Nutter and company, while Blackwell’s stern rebukes were greeted with thunderous applause.

In the end, Nutter, Kenney, Tasco, Cohen, DiCicco and Verna were outvoted 11-to-6. Council adopted the rule changes, and simultaneously set itself up for a long and ugly turf war. Battle lines have been drawn, and unless someone comes to turn City Council’s swords into plowshares, you can bet on some fireworks in Street’s second term, too.

Thank goodness.

For a minute there they almost had me fooled.