Street ally linked to resignations of city officials

Attorney Ronald White, a close ally of Mayor John Street, has emerged recently as a central figure in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's probe into corruption in Philadelphia's government.

Since mid-October, when the probe became public, the manner in which the city hands out contracts has been under constant scrutiny.

City Treasurer Corey Kemp resigned suddenly last Monday as a result of the investigation. He was supposed to have his last day on the job today, but decided last week not to honor his two weeks' notice.

Kemp "said that he was getting a lot of pressure from reporters and was uncomfortable, so he decided to leave," according to Barbara Grant, spokeswoman for Mayor John Street.

Kemp has recently fallen under media scrutiny for possibly accepting an illegal gift from White.

Many have alleged that Kemp accompanied White to the Super Bowl in either 2001 or 2002.

City officials are prohibited from accepting gifts worth more than $100 from anyone doing business with the Philadelphia government.

White has been awarded contracts to do significant legal work for a number of municipal organizations.

"There are a great many city contracts [which] are competitively bid by law," Grant said. However, she added that there are "personal services contracts that are not subject to competitive bids. I imagine that this is the kind of contract that Ron was able to get."

A number of White's close family members have also received city contracts to do work at Philadelphia International Airport. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported last week that his wife, Aruby Odom-White, was awarded a partnership in five airport bars and a number of other shops that bring in millions of dollars in annual revenue.

The Inquirer also reported that White's brother-in-law, Edgar Bridges, who works for the Philadelphia Housing Authority, was awarded a contract to operate a coffee shop at the airport.

Neither White nor his wife returned calls for comment, and Bridges could not be located.

Beyond the questions surrounding the contracts given to the attorney and his friends, White has done business with at at least two Philadelphia firms that have also been investigated in the wide-ranging FBI probe. He has been a significant fundraiser for Street.

The Philadelphia Housing Authority, the City Treasurer's Office and Penn's Landing Company -- three organizations that have either worked extensively with White or have been approached by the FBI -- have all seen top officials resign their posts in the last week.

At the PHA, General Counsel Mark Woolley resigned yesterday. PHA spokesman Kirk Dorn said that Woolley had received a number of other job offers but had not chosen one yet.

"He's been in [the] public sector for five years," Dorn said. "He felt he'd done his time."

Dorn added that neither Woolley nor anyone in the PHA had been questioned by the FBI or been subpoenaed. However, the Inquirer reported that at least some of White's $534,000 in legal work for the firm has been subpoenaed.

Records show that White has been a major contributor to Street's political campaigns. The Inquirer reported that, since 2000, White and his political action committees have donated $137,000 to Street.

Additionally, Kemp's offices were raided by the FBI just after the investigation became public, but the FBI has refused to comment on what was found during the raids.

President and Chief Executive of PLC Dominic Sabatini has also announced that he will retire next year. While Sabatini denied that his decision was related to the investigation, lawyer and Street confidant Leonard Ross acknowledged that the FBI had asked him about PLC.

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