March 11-17, 2004

city beat

Hunter or the Hunted?

Peer pressure: Some fellow politicians and city department heads have been abandoning John Street's ship since his landslide re-election victory. Illustration By: Bill Westervelt

No mayor is an island. But John Street is becoming isolated like one.

by Daryl Gale

In December, in a meeting with the editorial board of this newspaper, Mayor John Street made a profound statement about his affinity for public office.

"I love politics," said an effervescent Street, just a month removed from his re-election landslide. "And you know why? Because politics is like nature. The weak become food."

Since then, the mayor's words have been proven true time and again -- usually by him.

A few weeks ago he lost a very public battle with state House Speaker John Perzel over control of the Philadelphia Parking Authority, and to make matters worse, his predecessor and old friend Gov. Ed Rendell took Perzel's side. Then his longtime political nemesis, state Sen. Vince Fumo, ended his feud with Street supporter and fundraiser Johnny "Doc" Dougherty.

In City Hall, where federal agents still lurk in the shadows, where the city's commerce director, solicitor and treasurer all have abandoned ship, and where weekly City Council sessions are marked by finger-pointing and name-calling, the weak have become food.

And the feeding frenzy, say City Hall insiders, has just begun. But the question left to be answered is whether Street remains atop the food chain.

City Councilman Frank DiCicco regularly found himself on the mayor’s bad side during Street’s first term. Today, he’s openly questioning the mayor’s involvement in council affairs. In January, 11 of the body’s 17 members voted for rule changes that would greatly diminish the powers of City Council President Anna Verna, while transferring unprecedented decision-making power to majority leader Jannie Blackwell and minority leader Brian O’Neill.

"The mayor orchestrated this whole thing. That’s not a secret," grumbled DiCicco, one of the six who opposed the rule changes. "That’s really the shame of it. The level of pettiness and backstabbing in City Council just means we’re moving further and further away from a debate on the issues and more into personalities and who’s on whose side."

DiCicco is not alone in blaming Street for being the chief architect of the present rift in council, but despite whether legislators side with the mayor, DiCicco says voters are getting the short end of the stick.

"You can’t possibly use a dollar amount to measure the amount of loss to the city as a direct result of greed, stupidity and the quest for political power," he says. "I’m sure the figure would be astronomical."

Interestingly, DiCicco speculates that the rule changes have less to do with reining Verna or her supporters in, as had been considered a rationale. Rather, he thinks it has more to do with rigging the line of succession should the mayor be forced out of office before the end of his term.

"Maybe," DiCicco hypothesizes, "the mayor is looking out for his agenda if the FBI probe goes badly for him."

According to Philadelphia’s Home Rule Charter, if the mayor is unable to complete his term of office, the City Council president will act as mayor unless there’s a special election. If for whatever reason Verna can’t, or won’t, assume the office, then the chair of council’s Finance Committee -- in this case, Blackwell – would become mayor.

While not necessarily going along with DiCicco’s line-of-succession theory, other council members nod in agreement when pressed about who -- and what -- is behind the mess in which council, and by extension the city, finds itself.

This includes some of those who voted for the rule changes, like Republican Councilman-at-large Frank Rizzo who, as a councilman and son of one of Philadelphia’s most famously controversial mayors, is in a unique position to assess Street’s predicament.

"For Mayor Street, this isn’t about Republicans or Democrats," says Rizzo. "This is about him advancing his agenda. The mayor has manipulated a group of council members into helping to make him difficult to oppose. He uses his formidable political skills to assemble people loyal to his issues. With Jannie, Darrell [Clarke] and Brian talking strategy with the mayor all the time, and with [the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative] and the budget coming up, he’s trying to stack the deck in his favor. That’s just the business of politics. These people look at it as a game, and I have to admit that because of all the inside stuff, we haven’t always done what’s best for the people."

Rizzo says City Council infighting is not only a direct result of the mayor’s behind-the-scenes manipulation, but that it’s the worst he’s ever seen.

"Oh, it’s horrible. It’s just embarrassing," he laments. "My only consolation is that voters are more sophisticated than we tend to give them credit for. They see what’s going on and they can figure out who’s behind it."

Rizzo then gets philosophical for a moment and adds, "Look, I need the mayor. In a lot of ways, we all do. Without him, my programs and initiatives would be dead. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to eat out of the palm of his hand."

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a highly placed council source voiced what some council members may be thinking privately.

"The John Street who was president of City Council would never in a million years have let the mayor get away with what he’s doing now," the insider says. "He’d be screaming from the rooftops and fighting tooth and nail. Maybe it’s that things look different from down on the second floor, but that’s not the point.

"To silence your critics and punish dissenters doesn’t help the cause of democracy one bit. How is stacking the legislature with your puppets and crushing debate from the opposition any different than anything done by some Third World dictator? The bottom line is that it’s just too difficult to have an open and honest discussion in this environment."

Street spokesperson Barbara Grant concedes that while the wheels of city government seem to have fallen off lately, it’s all in the cycle of politics, and what goes around comes around.

"There are always little factions on City Council," Grant says. "Could council be more united? Sure, but I don’t think council is any less united now than they have been in the past. Some members have not been friends of the mayor, and never will be, but council is its own legislative body."

Citing the mayor’s famous discipline, drive and spartan work ethic, Grant says that her boss still enjoys the support of the majority of council and that she thinks the ship of state will right itself quickly. She also downplays Street’s recent spat with Rendell, saying the mayor simply won’t allow friendship to cloud his advocacy for the city, and that the pair will put aside their differences for the public good. On that, Rendell spokesperson Kate Philips concurs.

"The governor has enjoyed a long relationship with the mayor," Philips says. "They’ve had their ups and downs, but the governor looks forward to continuing their friendship and working relationship for many years to come."

But whether John F. Street will be even a blip on the political radar years from now could depend on what happens over the next few months. And whether -- like in his own analogy -- he remains a predator, or becomes the prey.