Daniel McQuade: Pettiness reigns on the City Council

I'm starting to get very tired of this city.

Actually, it's not so much this city that's beginning to annoy me. Oh, sure, there are things about Philadelphia that bug me more than any other locale, but that's part of the charm of living for 21 years in the same place: You begin to love its foibles.

The thing that's really annoying me -- and, trust me, that's a pretty tall task -- is City Council, specifically the backdoor deal that's preventing any good from being done in Philadelphia.

If you didn't know, new rules were voted on by the City Council that effectively force Council President Anna Verna to share her power with Jannie Blackwell and the "majority bloc" of the council. Blackwell, of course, is backed by Mayor Street.

The Street bloc contains eight Democrats and three Republicans; the Verna bloc contains all Democrats. But, in Philadelphia, almost everybody's a Democrat, so it's not a party-line issue. What is worrisome about the new council is that things don't seem to be getting done.

This all came to a boiling point at Mayor Street's inauguration in January, when Councilman Michael Nutter -- the motorcycle-riding antithesis of John Street -- caused a stir by trying to vote to shelve the new rules before they began. Yes, during the inauguration.

Unfortunately, Nutter's banter toward Blackwell -- and other statements flung by many council members that day -- was typical of Philadelphia politics. Hopefully, however, it was simply a one-day call to attention by both sides to the new rules. Hopefully, things would subside and City Council would be able to, um, govern again. At least that's what I hoped.

Unfortunately, I was wrong.

An article in The Philadelphia Inquirer on Sunday detailed the frustration that the minority -- who call themselves a tongue-in-cheek "loyal opposition" -- is having with the new rules.

Last week, after lunchtime, only seven members reported back to City Council chambers. Most of the other members were upstairs continuing to have cheese and crackers and discuss strategy -- and, unfortunately, continuing to slack on the job.

Minority council members have argued that the new rules put them in a place of no power and that which bills get passed are determined by who sponsors them, not what the bills say.

Majority members say that the minority members aren't giving the new rules -- which were voted on -- a chance.

City Council has come a long way. When John Street got into a fistfight on the council floor with Francis Rafferty in 1979, the organization reached a pinnacle of disgrace. But Street, atoning for his mistake, made City Council into a useful city government body. Sure, he has his failings, but overall he helped turn City Council around.

City Council now is returning to its roots, so to speak. In theory, the balancing of power between Verna, Blackwell and Minority Republican Leader Brian O'Neill is a good idea, but in practice, it's just turned into a mess: The main consequence so far has been a few missed meetings by many council members. It could get worse.

Now, Nutter has been kicked out as chairman and vice chairman of several important committees simply because he opposes the mayor. Of course, however, this comes at the same time that Street's Neighborhood Transformation Initiative takes away $1 million from Nutter's district.

The message: Mess with the mayor, and the taxpayers suffer. That's scary.

That's no way to run city government. Philadelphia politics is nothing less than hardball, and that's fine. It's never going to change. But when pettiness gets in the way of actual governance -- wasting tax dollars and hurting taxpayers -- something must be done.

It's too late to change the rules. Both sides need to stop their bickering, focus on issues and make sure this city can stay on track in Street's second term. If not, everything Street ran on in his re-election platform will fall flat, and he will have betrayed those who voted for him.

There's still time, of course, and I hope that the mayor and City Council will resolve the problems and focus on improving the city.

The fact that this is a problem at all is disappointing, however. It's something that makes you just want to leave the city after graduation.

But I guess that's what everyone does anyway. Oh well ...

Daniel McQuade is a senior English major from Philadelphia, Pa., and former 34th Street managing editor. Lone Wolf McQuade appears on Thursdays.

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