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The ax falleth … or doth it? Unnamed group may sue Mayor Nutter over library closings
The rallies didn't work. The speeches didn't work. The figures and numbers and counter-arguments didn't work. The City Council resolutions didn't work. It seems that Mayor Michael Nutter is as resolute as ever in terms of his plan to close 11 Free Library branches.
Pink slips for the libraries went out last Friday, and the mood among library supporters and branch librarians I've been talking to has swung from anger to defiance to glum weariness. The libraries are scheduled to close on Dec. 31 in just a few weeks.
The ax, it seems, hath fallen.
But one more — and possibly one last — challenge appears to be waiting in the wings. According to my sources, it's likely that this week or the next will see a lawsuit against the administration over building closures.
The basis of the suit, I am told, will be the obscure, yet-untested City Council "Bill 226," which says that "no City-owned capital facility shall be closed, abandoned, or allowed to go into disuse without specific approval therefor from City Council, by Ordinance."
It may be a long shot.
The city law dates back to 1988, when then-Mayor Wilson Goode, Sr. and then-Fire Commissioner Ulshafer closed two city fire stations, drawing the wrath of Council. It responded by passing Bill 226, which aimed to prevent the mayor from such actions in the future and provided for the retroactive reopening of the fire stations.
Goode vetoed the bill, and Council overruled the veto. The city, with the backing of the City Solicitor, then declined to enforce the bill.
And so Council, in coalition with the Philadelphia Firefighters Union and a few neighborhood groups, sued the city administration.
The suit was dismissed by Judge Charles Mirarchi in the Court of Common Pleas before it ever went to trial. But it was appealed to the higher Commonwealth Court, which found Mirarchi's dismissal unfounded. The case was sent back to the Court of Common Pleas, where it ended in a draw: By then, Ed Rendell had been elected mayor and was able to reach a compromise.
The lawsuit was dropped, and the legality of Bill 226 remains untested.
It's not clear who would be filing this suit, and I won't speculate just yet.
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