Points to Ponder

Always Darkest Before the Dawn

Can honest city government ever return to Philadelphia?  If you review the general activity in Northwest Philadelphia since the last election there is plenty of evidence that the city continues to circle the drain at an increasing rate with any number of questionable practices by well known elected officials misusing power and public money. Some recent convictions underscore the point, and then we have manipulation of state and city codes, zoning laws and some of the craftiest use of City Council that makes a mockery of fairness and justice that would make even Bernie Samuels and George Schwartz wince.

Thanks to the efforts of investigative journalism, a portion of the most corrupt monopoly enterprise in the Northwest, Germantown Settlement was closed down by state mandate, two of its major corporations filed for bankruptcy, and its President Emanuel Freeman was charged and convicted of failure to withhold tax payments. Most of the Germantown Settlement story remains buried in the U.S. Attorney’s Office and there is plenty of reason to believe that has been arranged at the highest levels of government.  Hundreds of millions in misappropriated dollars and non-compliance are paved over so the public will never know how much was wasted and who the recipients were.

Two local individuals, Hugh Clarke and Ina Walker have pled guilty to fraudulently conveying federal funds they received through a local charter school that had political support, but they were also involved in some very questionable dealings with State Representative Dwight Evans’ CDC known as OARC as it funded a twice-failed bar and nightclub in East Mt. Airy with public money. Rep Evans, former Chair of the State Appropriations Committee, was stripped of that title by his own party only weeks before he would have lost it to the newly elected Republican majority in what most consider a clear message that the Democratic Party has serious internal strife. It must be mentioned that a million dollar funding for a Jazz Festival in West Oak Lane and other Evans’ disbursements without justification have angered more than one citizen and elected official across the state. We can’t leave the Evans’ issue without mentioning campaign contributions and what has been widely reported and characterized as a back door “shakedown” of the School Reform Commission to keep an arrangement in place for a group that was contracted to run the local Martin Luther King High School, despite almost universal administration/ parent/teacher objection to the company based on their track record.

Foundations Inc gave Dwight Evans $57,660 in contributions and during the same period received contracts totaling $8,700,000.  Pat Burns of Fresh Grocer and his associates made $74,500 available to Dwight Evans and got one of the most corrupted and contemptible deals through city and state government in years as the Chelten Plaza project wound its way over and around the law with the help of L & I, two Governors, the Mayor, City Council, and of course Dwight Evans and Donna Reed Miller who sponsored it in the first place.  I could go on with contributions that bought contracts and wheelbarrows of pubic money, but the president of the United Food and Commercial Workers stands out at $400,600. Pay to play is alive and well, and almost everyone knows that it is and wants it that way for it finds its way back to them somehow - - or at least that has been the claim of the Democratic machine since the late 60s and most simply accept it and vote for it time and time again - - no important questions ever asked.

Now the city Republicans are so far from an opposition party that they are of no consequence in challenging the culture of corruption that has metastasized itself to almost every department and contract, and participants are often protected by judges who throw out evidence and make questionable rulings.  When there is no formal opposition, then it becomes the responsibility of the local press to do even more due diligence in bringing forward abuses and power grabs that shortchange the public. Our one major local newspaper, the Inquirer, abrogated that responsibility for years after the 1980s but returned to true investigative reporting after new ownership in 2006 brought back Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter Bill Marimow as editor. For four years (2006-2010) multiple exposes of individuals and departments forced law enforcement to do its job and some high profile individuals, like Senator Vince Fumo, went to prison. Much more should be done, but sadly the renewed political takeover of the Inquirer last year cut Marimow loose and silenced all but the most trivial investigations.

In a most unexpected turn of events, new local management bought the Inquirer in its fourth reincarnation in five years and are actually re-hiring Bill Marimow from his Arizona teaching location and bringing him back to this city to prioritize investigative journalism. The press release made it crystal clear with this specific language: “signaling to readers and leaders alike that investigative journalism will be a key to the company’s revival”.  I can’t believe for one minute that Bill Marimow is returning with anything less than a free hand journalistically.

What we witness here in the corrupt and slimy Northwest is pervasive in all neighborhoods and the machine rumbles along spending the peoples money and distributing WAM and favors for those who quietly hold fund raisers with regularity in the homes of committeepersons, ward leaders, developers and friends that “cash up” those who run for election and who knows how much of it goes unreported.  Some estimate more than half.  At the very least those who run for office learn early who pays their campaign bills and who they will have to “take care of” in the future.

There was about an 18 year period when the reform Democrats took power from the entrenched Republicans from 1950 to 1968. Since then the Democratic Machine has done the Republicans one better and has an even greater stranglehold on power and the courts.

But there is a new journalistic sheriff in town.  Hope springs eternal.

Jim Foster,

Editor/Publisher