City Council meets again in secret
By Jeff Shields
[Philadelphia] Inquirer Staff Writer
City Council continued to assert its right to meet in secret yesterday with an "administrative" session to discuss budget hearings in the neighborhoods.
Council leadership - President Anna C. Verna, Majority Leader Marian B. Tasco, Majority Whip Darrell L. Clarke, and Minority Leader Brian J. O'Neill - followed a lunchtime briefing with Mayor Nutter by inviting Council members to a closed-door meeting in Verna's office.
Council members emerged from the session after about 90 minutes to announce they had been talking about whether Council would hold budget hearings in the neighborhoods, and if so, where and when.
"I think we can talk about Council process without having the press in the room," Tasco said after the meeting. There were at least 11 Council members in the room. "It's administrative as far as this is concerned."
The only catch, according to Barry Kauffman, executive director of the state watchdog group Common Cause Pennsylvania: That interpretation doesn't match the state Sunshine Act.
"I'm not aware of any exemption for administrative matters – that's public information," Kauffman said. The exemptions include labor negotiations, personnel matters, real estate purchases or leases, and litigation.
"They should have not closed that meeting," Kauffman said. "What it would suggest is that they're saying something different in public than they're saying in private."
The private meeting continues a battle between reporters and Council over what constitutes a public meeting. Council held a similar meeting that members said was about "process" in a closed-door committee session in December. They said at that time it was not subject to the Sunshine Act.
That was after The Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News in November mounted an unsuccessful legal challenge to the mayor's right to brief Council in private.
Mayor Nutter did agree to open Council budget briefings this year to the media, though he did not make them formal public meetings, and he has promised an open process.
"It is irrefutable that the mayor has crafted a very public . . . budget process, including his interactions with City Council," Nutter spokesman Doug Oliver said. "Our position remains steadfast and is in no way undermined by Council's decision to hold a meeting or not."
Verna said there was some discussion on Council that the media should be invited, though some felt "there's nothing there."
"If this is against the law, it is news to me," Verna said, adding that Council still had not been given numbers about the budget. Four Council members interviewed about the meeting said it was about the budget process. Verna said leaders met with Nutter about similar budget process issues: how the hearings would unfold, on what timetable, and where they would be held.
"To be honest with you, it never even occurred to me that it should be an issue," Verna said.
Council's afternoon gathering followed a regular session in which Councilman Jim Kenney proposed tax breaks to environmentally friendly companies.
The bill would exempt from the city's gross-receipts portion of the business-privilege tax "a business that meets higher standards of social and environmental performance and higher levels of corporate accountability and transparency to all stakeholders."
Councilman Bill Green also offered a bill to raise the permit fees for Dumpsters from $50 to $500. The legislation also requires "new monitoring technology utilizing a computerized tagging system, making it easier to identify Dumpsters that are not properly licensed."
[Philadelphia] Inquirer Staff Writer
City Council continued to assert its right to meet in secret yesterday with an "administrative" session to discuss budget hearings in the neighborhoods.
Council leadership - President Anna C. Verna, Majority Leader Marian B. Tasco, Majority Whip Darrell L. Clarke, and Minority Leader Brian J. O'Neill - followed a lunchtime briefing with Mayor Nutter by inviting Council members to a closed-door meeting in Verna's office.
Council members emerged from the session after about 90 minutes to announce they had been talking about whether Council would hold budget hearings in the neighborhoods, and if so, where and when.
"I think we can talk about Council process without having the press in the room," Tasco said after the meeting. There were at least 11 Council members in the room. "It's administrative as far as this is concerned."
The only catch, according to Barry Kauffman, executive director of the state watchdog group Common Cause Pennsylvania: That interpretation doesn't match the state Sunshine Act.
"I'm not aware of any exemption for administrative matters – that's public information," Kauffman said. The exemptions include labor negotiations, personnel matters, real estate purchases or leases, and litigation.
"They should have not closed that meeting," Kauffman said. "What it would suggest is that they're saying something different in public than they're saying in private."
The private meeting continues a battle between reporters and Council over what constitutes a public meeting. Council held a similar meeting that members said was about "process" in a closed-door committee session in December. They said at that time it was not subject to the Sunshine Act.
That was after The Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News in November mounted an unsuccessful legal challenge to the mayor's right to brief Council in private.
Mayor Nutter did agree to open Council budget briefings this year to the media, though he did not make them formal public meetings, and he has promised an open process.
"It is irrefutable that the mayor has crafted a very public . . . budget process, including his interactions with City Council," Nutter spokesman Doug Oliver said. "Our position remains steadfast and is in no way undermined by Council's decision to hold a meeting or not."
Verna said there was some discussion on Council that the media should be invited, though some felt "there's nothing there."
"If this is against the law, it is news to me," Verna said, adding that Council still had not been given numbers about the budget. Four Council members interviewed about the meeting said it was about the budget process. Verna said leaders met with Nutter about similar budget process issues: how the hearings would unfold, on what timetable, and where they would be held.
"To be honest with you, it never even occurred to me that it should be an issue," Verna said.
Council's afternoon gathering followed a regular session in which Councilman Jim Kenney proposed tax breaks to environmentally friendly companies.
The bill would exempt from the city's gross-receipts portion of the business-privilege tax "a business that meets higher standards of social and environmental performance and higher levels of corporate accountability and transparency to all stakeholders."
Councilman Bill Green also offered a bill to raise the permit fees for Dumpsters from $50 to $500. The legislation also requires "new monitoring technology utilizing a computerized tagging system, making it easier to identify Dumpsters that are not properly licensed."
