From Whom the Belle Tolson

Nutter risked alienating the greens, and won.

by Bruce Schimmel

I can't remember reading anything in the paper recently quite so shocking, and quite so brief. It was a WTF moment that took just two words: Clarena Tolson.

Most Philadelphians don't know Tolson. But everyone knows her work.

As Philadelphia commissioner of Streets, Tolson created a legacy of rocky roads, piles of trash, and just about the worst recycling program among big American cities.

When I first read that Michael Nutter would be retaining Tolson's services, I honestly thought it was a misprint. So did many of the Greenistas, at meetings the following day of the Next Great City coalition and of the Recycling Alliance. These are the leaders of the same constituency whose early support ignited Nutter's campaign.

With Tolson's reappointment as commissioner of Streets, they felt kicked to the curb.

"This is the very antithesis of a new day and a new way," said one advocate. "Tolson stymied every effort to create a viable recycling program," another added. Stunned, and I think humiliated at having been blindsided, no one would speak on the record. Saying instead they needed to speak with "one voice," they found no voice at all.

For recycling advocates, Tolson is the Dirt Devil incarnate. Their rage is so huge that last year the Recycling Alliance asked all mayoral candidates to pledge not only to replace the Streets commissioner, but her deputy and the recycling coordinator, as well.

In addition to demanding a "national search" for the "most qualified" candidates in their five-point agenda, the Alliance also had mayoral hopefuls promise "total transparency," by promoting cooperation between the new Streets commissioner and the very groups whom Tolson had shut out.

Nutter was first in line to endorse their agenda. He lauded the coalition as "an outstanding example of working together, inside government and outside." Now, these same leaders have been wondering how he could expect them to work with Tolson. For days after the announcement, advocates privately palavered behind closed doors, trying to come up with a letter of inquiry (which was not finished at press time).

Apparently, nobody dared to simply call and ask.

"I have to state in the strongest terms that I did not break any promise," Nutter told me on the phone. "I did conduct a national search. I interviewed numerous people, and national still includes Philadelphia. Clarena was the last person I spoke with."

Nutter reaffirmed his commitment to recycling, saying that "Philadelphians will be very pleased with the plan that's coming from the Streets Department."

"The bottom line is this: Commissioners get to do what their boss allows them to do. If you have the resources, support and funding from the top, then departments can do a lot of things. But if you just give lip service and no support, it's virtually impossible for departments to do anything. And as a result, the commissioner is left holding the bag, and ends up in bad conflicts with the public."

Told of Nutter's reassurances, Recycling Alliance board member Christine Knapp still expressed concern that he did not "conduct a national search," but she essentially reserved further judgment.

By keeping Tolson, Nutter risked alienating the greens. He hoped they'd swallow their pride, and apparently they have. For despite their coalition of dozens of organizations, despite their 10,000-signature petition for weekly recycling, they were too timid to ask the obvious: "Yo, Mike, what's up with this?"

Nutter may be eager to defend his actions, but for green leaders, that barely seems necessary. For they're playing the same, sad politics: a politics of fear with a willingness to trade quiet acquiescence for the hope of a seat at the table.

(bruce@schimmel.com)