- And this blank page where my fingers move
- Pennsylvania Hunger Games Diet: Cash for Corporations, Cuts for Kids
- The Incredible Shrinking Mayor
- Multi-tasking with the 1% … killing the schools AND making the poor pay for their funeral.
- Council Can Give the SRC the Money to NOT Privatize the System
- Predatory Payday Lending Bill Flies Out of Cramped PA House Committee
- Let the Games Begin: PA Senate Announces Details of Budget Proposal
- Good News on PA Revenue But Don’t Count Your Blessings Just Yet
- Defeat Corbett
- Set off without a Paddle: Unpacking the School District’s Disaster Capitalism
The Order
Submitted by Dan U-A on Tue, 12/30/2008 - 5:31pm.
Wow
Amazing victory - kudos who all who led the charge on this!
Matt
Nutter leaving the door open to shutting the libraries tomorrow
I'm concerned that he's still being "vague" about what they're going to do tomorrow regarding the libraries, despite the court order:
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/cityhall/Nutter_Says_City_is_Reviewin...
Library fight hits drudge
Check it out -- Drudge links to "Philly mayor under fire for threatening libraries..." in the left column.
I'm running out of outrage
And parts of this article have gone a long way towards depleting my supply. http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20081230_Judge_orders_11_lib...
So, Nutter trots out a lame "alternative uses" plan, last minute, seemingly because he wants to find alternative ways to provide important services currently supplied by the branches he wants to close -- and it turns out that in reality, it is merely a strategy to ramrod his plan through against legal opposition. I mean the cynicism behind this tactic is unbelievable.
And this is a beaut:
I mean, seriously, how hard is it to sit down with ruler and use couple of scaled maps to figure out the distance between branch libraries?
What criteria did they use for "fairness" other than distances from the nearest library? As far as I know, no other criteria were mentioned for choosing which branches to close. Is this administration really so incompetent that they had to "work their butts off" to come up with the two-mile distance s a criterion? With this kind of "work" ability, no wonder there is a budget shortfall.
You'd think that maybe, the Mayor would take this court finding in good faith and work out ways to accommodate public sentiment. I am becoming more and more convinced that Nutter is a serious control freak.
Yeah
You could see the 'alternative use' defense shaping up in Shelley Smith's public comments since the suits were filed: she would draw the distinction that the libraries were not necessarily being 'closed' and so the law would not apply (after she'd say the law was invalid because conflicting with the charter).
Sure there are reasons the mayor's office would dislike the law--it cuts at his powers--and want see it curtailed.
But yeah his comments to Catherine Lucey, ugh:
Great job by Green's legal team
Of course I am happy that the little bearded fella did ok in Court...
But, just so it doesn't get lost in the shuffle: Sophie Bryan and Lauren Vidas, who wrote and argued the brief for Councilman Green and Co., did a great, great job in their argument.
Great work by all those
Great work by all those involved.
But, as the order says, the legal issue has not yet been resolved. Hopefully the Court will make the right decision on the 5th.
The Judge was clear
The Judge issued an injunction, and was very unambiguous about her ruling and the harm and the law.
She simply said that she needed until Monday to write her full order.
OK. Well, there is some
OK. Well, there is some context I'm missing.
I was going to add that the issuance of the order is a great indication of where the judge is going. Since she said were that was, even better.
Potental legal objection?
My wife, who is an attorney, questions whether the Hon. Judge Fox has the legal authority to make the ruling that she did; specifically, whether the plaintiffs in this suit had the requisite standing to sue to prevent the library closures.
Her other objection is, if you allow this suit to continue, and allow Council to prevent mayoral budget cuts, you are potentially handcuffing all mayoral budget decisions from this point forward. You could, in effect, render the mayor a figurehead.
Mind you, my wife does not want to see the libraries closed, but in her legal judgment the mayor has the right to make such cuts w/o Council or judicial intervention.
Can anyone with more familiarity with the Home Rule Charter clarify this matter?
-Z
The standing arguments were
The standing arguments were made in Court and dealt with, and resolved favorably for the plaintiffs.
The other stuff- its hard to summarize days worth of arguments- but- yes, they tried to raise that, too. And if the Mayor wants to argue that again in a full hearing, he may. (And he will.) But, he was in clear violation of the ordinance (which the City basically admitted to), and given the clear showing of irreparable harm to the plaintiffs and a reasonable chance of success, the Judge ruled for the good guys.
The City Should Not Be Ruled By A King
All the judge ruled was that Council has a serious legislative role under the Charter. How does that render the Mayor a figurehead? He remains in charge of the entire executive branch and its management, he gets to propose a budget based on revenue estimates that can't be questioned by Council, and he has the veto. He also gets to negotiate labor contracts with the City unions all by himself. Just because he can't close facilities without Council's approval doesn't mean he can't pick and choose among services that flow to different Council Districts, nor that he wasn't able to trim the rest of the $108 million he wanted to trim from the budget without Council interference. The Mayor is an incredibly powerful individual in the system of government we have, and this decision only slightly changes that. The question really is, do we need Charter change to further move the balance of power away from the Mayor and toward Council.
Really, why should one person have unilateral power to spend or not spend whatever he wants that's been appropriated by Council because, in his opinion alone, the spending threatens a balanced budget? Who is the figurehead when that kind of thing goes on? It's the Council.
Institutionally, the Mayor Has Too Much Power
Institutionally, the Mayor--any Mayor-- has too much power. He is far more powerful in his sphere than the Governor of Pennsylvania or the President of the United States. He is so powerful that he--whoever he is-- is publicly referred to do with awe and admiration by an army of sycophants in city government, establishment law firms, the media, the business community, the political structure, community groups, non-profits,the blogosphere, etc.
Those who dare criticize the omniscience or omnipotence of the mayor are held up to ridicule and hatred by his army of sycophants.
One point of significance that should be noted: the Inquirer and the Daily News have not treated Mayor Nutter as a Godlike figure whose wisdom must be accepted without question. Given past press coverage of other mayors, this is a remarkable and welcome development.