Citizens Agenda on Leadership and Reform

Nowhere are expectations higher for Mayor Michael Nutter than in the public’s desire for ethical governance and a collaborative leadership style.

Nutter got himself elected largely on the promise to clean up City Hall. He brings credibility to the task. Even as the Street administration mired itself in pay-to-play scandals, then-councilman Nutter pushed reforms to limit the influence of money in city politics. He helped set up the city Board of Ethics as a watchdog and referee.

The indictments, trials and outrage spawned by The Bug scandal shattered the Street administration’s ability to act as a regional leader or a persuasive city advocate in Harrisburg and Washington. Nutter appealed to many as a figure who might rebuild dynamited bridges and repair Philadelphia’s tarnished image.

The challenge is to sustain the momentum and goodwill the 2007 elections spawned. Many more good-government reforms need to be enacted. Nutter has to confirm hopes about his leadership by moving from talk to deft gestures to real actions – inside and outside the city.

Nutter’s efforts will be buoyed, but also sternly judged, by an army of aroused citizens. They clamored for reform and backed the noise with votes. They flocked to campaign forums and experiments in meaningful citizen input such as the Central Delaware visioning project and GreenPlan Philadelphia. Expectations are high for government that will be transparent, responsive and clean in ways novel for Philadelphia.

Citizens are hopeful but not naïve. They know how their city usually works; they know old, hardball habits die hard. Any backsliding on ethics will dismay those now cheering Nutter’s advent; any fresh scandal will be devastating. Cynicism is ever ready to pounce. People want this dawning era of citizen engagement to produce real action, real progress.

High hopes. High stakes. And many ideas …

The No. 1 Priority

Defend, tweak and extend the new city campaign-finance law.

Why it matters: The freedom to throw unlimited amounts of cash at candidates, with the expectation that you’ll be repaid in favors and contracts, is the root of pay-to-play corruption. It’s also the key to how inept or unethical incumbents stay in office. The effects of out-of-control election spending ripple through the day-to-day workings of government. Pay-to-play exacts a hidden tax on law-abiding citizens. It breeds cynicism and apathy in the city workforce. The new campaign law clearly enabled the recent election, which was clean, competitive and issue-oriented, and produced a mandate for reform.

What to do: Defend the current law against legal and political attack. Tweak it to address loopholes exposed by this year’s campaign, but don’t let that effort become an excuse to gut it. Form an independent panel, with appointees who support the spirit of the law, to recommend changes aimed at strengthening it.

Near-term actions

Feed the watchdog: Fully fund the new ethics panel, which proved its mettle in 2007. The ethics board should keep levying stiff penalties for violations. It could also create an ethics hotline for citizens to call with complaints and tips.

Explain the rules: Provide clear, serious ethics training to all city employees, backed up by an online guide to which they can refer.

No more golf clubs: Enact a permanent, stiff ban on gifts to city elected officials, managers and workers.

No jobs for cousin Paulie: Ban nepotism in non-Civil Service, appointed positions. Few practices breed more citizen contempt than putting relatives on the payroll. If they’re so talented, they can find a job somewhere else.

More sunlight: Post all official city documents and reports online. Post Council members votes on all matters on the Web. Post campaign-finance reports in easily searchable form. Put all Council meetings and hearings on public access cable television. The sunlight principle should extend to the many powerful local authorities (e.g. Parking) and to the shadowy, quasi-public agencies such as the Penn’s Landing Corp.

Lobbying reform: Require those who lobby the city to register with the Board of Ethics and disclose clients and expenses.
Bring it in the house: Create a full-time, staff team to do the city’s lobbying in Harrisburg and Washington. Contracting out lobbying is just another opportunity for pay-to-play and conflict of interest.

Long-term efforts

Reach out I: Tap the civic energy demonstrated this year by seeking genuine, timely citizen input into policy and decisions. Give citizens a chance to shape solutions, not just gripe about results. Make sure someone representing the ordinary citizens affected by the decisions of a city commission or board gets a seat on that panel.

Reach out II: Begin regular, informal chats among city officials, suburban leaders, Harrisburg leaders, and the state’s Washington delegation. A rule for city officials in these talks: No whining, more listening. It’s about discovering mutual goals, not just listing the city’s needs and demands.
Metro caucus: If “Reach out II” works, create a formal caucus of the region’s elected officials, a la Chicago and Denver. Begin with the Philadelphia mayor and elected leaders in suburban counties, then add in township and borough leaders as needed. Ask South Jersey if it wants to play, too. Create that list of mutual goals, then have the caucus work on one or two promising ones. Achieve some early wins to build trust and hone the reflexes of cooperation.

Bury the electoral “race card”: Race will never not matter in a city this diverse. But it doesn’t have to be painfully divisive. Things do change. A black man just got elected mayor because a lot of white people voted for him over three white candidates. A recent Pew-funded report on the city said it has two leadership cohorts – one black, one mostly white – that walk down opposite sides of the street, eyeing each other warily. Citizens want elected leaders who can get everyone walking down the same sidewalk.

Moonlight burns: Limit outside employment by city workers and elected officials, as Los Angeles did. City workers shouldn’t work for any concern with which they deal as part of their city duties. Elected officials shouldn’t get paid by any company that does business with the city. Period. Grandfather Council members’ existing deals for the extent of the current term in office. Then, if they can’t live with the rule, they shouldn’t run for reelection.

End feudal fiefs: Place reasonable limits on “councilmanic prerogative,” the tradition of district council members having nearly absolute say on what gets built or done with public money in their districts.

The ultimate reform: Make the case for public financing of city elections. It works pretty well in Los Angeles and New York City. This will be a long-term effort for this reason: Scandal-weary Philadelphians are in no mood to give their tax money directly to campaigning pols so they can do what they do. The case as to why public financing actually saves tax dollars in the long run will have to be made over and over until it sinks in. But public financing is a more secure reform than the current limits, which pay-to-play will find ways to circumvent.

Ideas from citizen forums

The night shift: Regularly hold meetings of Council and city commissions in the evening, so that ordinary citizens can actually, you know, go to them.

The pledge: Ask elected city officials to sign a vow that, if any person they appoint to a position of public trust is convicted of official corruption, they too will resign.

Party, party: Citizens are desperate for a viable, second political party to rise up in town to compete for city offices. In this bluest of cities, though, they are not eager for that party to call itself “the Republicans.” Some are willing to experiment with non-partisan elections for city office.

Good foundation: Citizens appreciate the support local foundations gave to efforts like the Central Delaware visioning process and Great Expectations. They think these civic dialogues helped make 2007 a year of hope and change in Philadelphia. They would like to see such citizen dialogue grow in scope and official support, so that asking citizens what they think becomes a Philadelphia reflex as ingrained as booing bad sports teams.

(Illustration by Tim Ogline)