December 23-29, 2004

loose canon

Stealth Attack

Who slipped a pro-billboard bill past sleepy Harrisburg legislators?

by Bruce Schimmel

Center City state Rep. Babette Josephs is taking hits from a warm can of Diet Coke. As a vegan, Josephs usually enjoys more organic fare. But at 2 o'clock on a Sunday morning just before Thanksgiving, Josephs is struggling to stay awake, as are the other 200 representatives in the General Assembly chambers.

"We have these easy chairs, kind of like Barcaloungers, that some [of the legislators] sleep in. Others are flat out on couches in the back. After three days [of voting], I was exhausted."

In the final hours, bill after bill flickers onto the legislators' computers. Except to staff wonks, many are incomprehensible and most are inconsequential. Josephs, like other Philly legislators, has an eye open for the big one, SEPTA, to light up her screen.

"I kept going down to the front, where most of the leaders sit, and asking when the mass transit bills were coming."

House Bill 1954 is called. Unrelated to mass transit, this little bill let Philly raise fines, a measure which Josephs co-sponsored. It has come back from the Senate tagged with a new amendment.

Rep. Greg Vitali from Delaware County rises to ask the bill's primary sponsor, Rep. Angel Cruz from Philadelphia, about the amendment. According to the official transcript, Cruz assures Vitali that "the only addition from Senate" is an increase in fines. HB 1954 passes unanimously, and the assembly moves on.

Within three days, Josephs will write an angry letter to Rendell urging him to veto the bill, saying she was tricked. She voted for the bill "without being aware of a stealth amendment." Other legislators, also crying foul, even declared that the text of the bill never appeared on their screens.

The stealth amendment to HB 1954 makes it expensive, if not impossible, for neighborhood groups in Philadelphia to challenge zoning variances. HB 1954 pertains only to the city of Philadelphia, and with it, outdoor advertising companies have gotten the green light to erect more billboards. In 2001, Mayor John Street vetoed a similar City Council measure shepherded by Frank DiCicco. So HB 1954 is a big win for the billboard companies who got from the state what they failed to get from the city.

Who screwed the city in Harrisburg? Veteran politics watcher Ed Goppelt has collected some of the evidence on his Web site, www.hallwatch.org. According to published reports, Sen. David "Chip" Brightbill — the Republican majority leader from Lebanon County — added the amendment in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

But the real issue is not who did it, but who looked the other way.

In a letter to Ed Goppelt, Democratic Appropriations Chair Sen. Vincent Fumo writes he was essentially blindsided and that he became aware of the bill being amended "as it was occurring." Fumo voted against HB 1954 in committee but later supported it, saying that it would increase revenue to the city through additional fines.

But for Goppelt, there is something about this explanation that doesn't add up. "If you do the math, Philadelphia would not gain that much, maybe a half-million, three-quarter million a year." And Councilman DiCicco, who failed in 2001 get a billboard bill through, says Goppelt, is a "protege" of Fumo.

"If Fumo didn't want this legislation, it would have been stopped dead in its tracks," says Goppelt, adding that there are plenty of others to blame.

Why didn't Angel Cruz say anything about the amendment on the assembly floor? Why didn't the Democratic leadership flag the bill as it came to a vote? And why are there so few of Philadelphia's 33 legislators on record for the bill's appeal? To date, only five — Reps. Bishop, Cohen, Thomas, Manderino and Josephs — have responded to Goppelt's query about an appeal.

Josephs says she will introduce an appeal when the Assembly reconvenes in January, though its prospects appear dim. In his letter to Goppelt, Fumo writes that he would not favor appealing the entire bill because it benefits the city financially and doubts that any appeal would make it through. Still, Fumo writes that he intends to "conduct research ... to see if there is some other avenue or tactic available to address this concern."

Meanwhile, late last week, some 30 people from neighborhood associations met in the offices of SCRUB, an anti-billboard group, for some research of their own. According to Lou Coffey of the Center City Residents Association, they will be contacting legislators to appeal this "outrage."

Coffey also wants to know "why are the people of Lebanon County interested in who has standing in Philadelphia to appeal zoning decisions?" It's a question that Coffey might ask of Philadelphia's legislators.