Unethical to halt reform

Philadelphia's most powerful woman has sure been doing a good job lately of ignoring what Philadelphians have to say.

Jannie Blackwell, the outspoken city councilwoman who happens to represent Penn's district, is mounting a misguided charge against the ethics reform that is so badly needed in City Hall. This is exactly the wrong message for a government to send that has seen its fair share of indictments over the past few years.

It is no small wonder, then, that an angry cadre of voters -- around 90 percent if you are scoring at home -- said enough is enough earlier this month. Philadelphians stood up to the politicians they elected in the first place and said in no uncertain terms that the pay-to-play culture around here has to stop.

Now that the City Charter has been amended, the real work has begun -- passing specific legislation. Councilman Michael Nutter has been right on in setting a framework for greater accountability and oversight of political activity. The council's Committee on Law and Government passed most of the proposals 6-0.

Yet Blackwell is still not convinced. She has even gone so far as to say such simple measures as requiring the disclosure of campaign contributions would "frighten small businesses."

Come again?

"Instead of coming to me directly, as they always do, they will go through consultants they can't afford," Blackwell told The Philadelphia Inquirer last week.

This is exactly the type of problem all of this ethics talk is trying to root out -- the attitude that there is a cover charge for getting things done in government. Why should anyone feel as if he has to pay anything?

That is what years of corruption will do for you. And that is the precise reason why the city needs an independent ethics board and all of the other things citizens expected when they pressed "yes" Nov. 8.

Not surprisingly, it was Blackwell who cast the only vote against advancing the charter amendment to the voters in the first place. But it passed, and she needs to get over that.

Trying to derail real reform when it goes to the full council next week is not the answer, either.

Many cities have set good examples with programs to keep government activity above board. San Francisco has had an ethics-review board for years in its city administration, and three years ago, voters overwhelmingly approved tighter guidelines on the reporting of campaign contributions. Los Angeles and San Diego have similar watchdog bodies in place.

There is still room, though, for Philadelphia to be a leader in crafting good government -- a goal that seems fitting for the city that crafted the U.S. Constitution more than 200 years ago.

It all starts with being honest with taxpayers. There is no harm in reporting who gives money to whom and how much. The Federal Election Commission figured this out years ago and now lists contributions online in a searchable database.

Philadelphians deserve to know, for instance, which members of City Council received healthy checks from the electricians' union.

Beyond contributions, citizens have a vested interest in how their tax dollars are spent. To that end, more scrutiny and transparency are needed in the bidding process for city contracts. A detailed history of the bids and justification for choosing anything but the lowest offer should be made public.

However, it may not be that easy with the current politicians in charge.

Mayor John Street, who backed the charter amendment and pays lip service to ethics reform, came out last week whining about the added $1 million cost the new oversight would have. He has also strong-armed the council into watering down provisions that would bar nepotism in city appointments. But the most glaring contradiction from Street's office was the admission by his legal chief that these reforms would not cover municipal bond work -- the source of more than $900,000 in deals for Ron White, who was indicted last year and passed away before standing trial.

This may have been genuine oversight. Then again, we would have been naive to think that the mayor and his closest ally, Blackwell, would give anything more than a half-hearted effort to clean up City Hall.

The rest of us, it seems, will have to hope that someone who really cares about good government, like Nutter, can pull out a victory on what could be the most important city issue in a generation.

If they fail, we may be stuck with who knows how many more years of rule by pocketbook.

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