Political Reform

We cannot make real progress on all our goals if we do not reform our political system. The critical task is for Council members to work closely with issue and community activists and especially those who want to see politics transformed in Philadelphia. Council should also reform itself. Council members, hearings, and meetings should be more accessible to the public. We also must also adopt a 311 call system and the CitiStat program as part of an effort to reform every city agency. Every citizen deserves fair, efficient, and effective government–government that is not influenced by political and economic connections. And finally, we must take money out of politics by creating a system of public financing of political campaigns and by reducing the cost of campaign advertisements.

Political reform will not take place unless our politicians work continuously and energetically with outside groups, with issue activists and community activists. Political change will happen in this city only if we adopt what I have called the inside / outside strategy in which political leaders help outside groups to build movements for change that in turn influence the insiders. I cannot be effective in Council without the support of a broad citizen’s movement for change and reform. I intend to do everything I can to help sustain such a movement. I promise to dedicate two staff members to working with community and political activists in the city. I will help the community activists in the city finally create a city-wide organization that can represent their interests in Council.

Council must also reform itself.

• Council members should be accessible to citizens. As an at-large member of Council, it would be difficult to meet people throughout the city. But as I have told people on the campaign trail, if you have a place to get a decent cup of coffee in your neighborhood that stays open late, I will visit your neighborhood frequently and hold evening office hours accessible to everyone.
• Council should hold hearings in the evening and in the neighborhoods. Most people cannot take time off in the middle of the day to attend Council hearings.
• Council should start treating people who come to hearings and City Council sessions with respect. Meetings should start on time. The endless ceremonies that often start City Council sessions should take place at the end.
• Council should provide information online. They should make all bills and amendments to be considered and its complete proceedings, include votes of council members available online.

City agencies must provide fair, effective, and efficient service to the public, service that is not influenced by political connections.

• City Council should investigate. Council has the power to subpoena witnesses. It should use that power to investigate the operations in each and every city agency, starting with the Department of Licenses and Inspections. 
• City Workers Want To Help Make Government Better. Many city workers are eager to take part in efforts to re-engineer their departments so as to make them more efficient and to better serve the public. And they have the on the ground experience we need to improve services. Their union representatives have requested that the city partner with the unions to improve city agencies. Their requests have often been ignored.
• Institute a 311 System and CitiStat. I favor instituting a 311 system for all non-emergency phone calls to the city. This would take some of the burden off the 911. Together with the adoption of Baltimore’s CitiStat management technologies and mapping software, the 311 system would also give the city a mechanism to track all requests for service to city agencies. Those agencies could then keep track of all cases and analyze their performance so as to improve service. And the Managing Director and Council could use the system to determine whether the agencies are effective in meeting their responsibilities.
• Internal Review. At periodic management reviews—and the Council hearings I mentioned above—the objectives of the agencies would delineated, the problems they face evaluated, and the effectiveness of the department in meeting them reviewed. We would know where city agencies might need more resources and where we might be spending more than we need. Mapping technologies would enable us to discover whether the city is providing services fairly to all neighborhoods and whether certain neighborhoods have special needs that are not being met.

Reduce the role of money in politics

• Political campaigns should be publicly financed. Every candidate that chooses to enter the system of public finance will be required to raise a certain amount of money in small contributions. After meeting that threshold, contributions up to a certain, relatively low amount (say, $250) will be matched by the city on a 4 or 5 to 1 basis. Contributions above that amount will be prohibited to all candidates, whether they enter the public financing system or not.  The match will be doubled if a candidate enters the race who chooses not to enter the system of public finance and who spends substantial sums of his own money on his campaign. The money we save in reducing the costs of pay to play and the graft tax will more than pay for public financing of campaigns.
• Cable companies should reduce the cost of political advertising. The cable companies in Philadelphia hold their franchise as a public trust. They should radically reduce the cost of political advertising. We Can’t Improve Government Without Political Reform. While management technologies can be useful, I can not stress too much that they by themselves, they will not be effective in the absence of a significant movement for political reform. The ineffectiveness of government agencies and the inability of our elected officials to reform them is no accident. Council members and ward leaders benefit from the current system. If we citizens have to go to Council members and ward Leaders in order to get basic services from the city, then those political leaders can take credit just for making city agencies do what they should be doing anyway. And these political leaders can also play favorites, helping citizens who support them and ignoring those who do not. If we had fair, efficient, and effective government that served everyone, Council members would have to focus on the big picture, on the broader public policies that would make their district and the city thrive.