After a year filled with the trials and convictions of political officials and bankers for political corruption—and the recent indictment of Councilman Mariano—one might think that the worst ofPhiladelphiapolitics is almost behind us.
One would be wrong. For the most serious problem with politics inPhiladelphiais not what’s illegal. It is what’s legal. A great deal of political activity in this city is both entirely legal and morally corrupt.
After all, our former treasure Corey Kemp, and his late partner in crime, Ron White, were primarily guilty of impatience and bad timing. There is nothing illegal about trading campaign contributions for government contracts, provided that neither our politicians nor our contractors—whether they are business owners, real estate developers, or lawyers—ever explicitly make such a deal. Nor is there anything illegal about a former political official benefiting from the contractors in return for past favors after he leaves office. Had Corey Kemp gone to work for a bank or a law firm after leaving the Treasurer’s office, he would have been in the clear. Had he been willing to wait until he left office for a low-interest loan he did not deserve, or Super Bowl tickets, or to have a deck built on his house for free, he would have had no legal troubles at all.
In Philadelphia, legal responsibility for corruption is simply a matter of timing.
In the November 8 election, the voters ofPhiladelphiahave an opportunity to vote for a Ethics Reform Charter Amendment that is a first, small step towards reforming our politics. It requires that those who receive no-bid contracts from the city refrain from making campaign contributions over a certain limit.
This proposal is not entirely adequate. No doubt those who work for the city will eventually find ways to divide up their contributions among various distant relatives, so as to avoid the new rules. The proposal also does not go far enough in reforming the contracting process. It is not clear why we need no-bid contracts for professional services (or other goods and services) at all. InMontgomeryCounty, legal costs were substantially reduced by the elimination of no-bid contracts.
Nor does this proposal address many other kinds of political reform we desperately need. We need to create an independent ethics board, adopt strict ethics regulations, institute tighter limits on campaign contributions and adopt some form of public financing of political campaigns. We also need to register our lobbyists, open up our political process to publicity, and find a way to draw district lines for City Council, the General Assembly, and Congress that is non-partisan and that does not overly protect incumbents.
But, as inadequate as it is, we must pass the charter change proposal with big numbers. And then we have to implement it. Unless we take this first baby step toward political reform, we will not take any other steps. The issue is not just a matter of passing the charter change. Even more importantly, in the words of the great historian of populism, Lawrence Goodwyn, we Philadelphians have to “see ourselves acting together” for reform. We have to see—and our politicians have to see—that there is a movement for reform, one that can bring people not only to vote for reform but to take to the streets and work at the polls for reform. Without such a movement, we have no way of getting from here to there, from our current state of distrust and despair, to a rebirth of democracy in the city that first gave birth to it in modern times.
We must take this small step towards political reform so that we can make great leaps later. Neighborhood Networks, along with other civic groups such as the Committee of Seventy, Philadelphia Forward, One Philadelphia, PhiladelphiaNOW and many others is organizing a campaign to encourage people to Vote Yes for Reform. You can help by working at the polls, by distributing literature to you neighbors, or by attending a rally on election eve. If you would like to volunteer for these or other activities, or for more information about the Ethics Reform Charter Change Campaign, go to the Neighborhood Networkswebsite at www.phillyneighborhoodnetworks.org.