PGW Needs Our Support

The Philadelphia Gas Works seems to be everybody's "badboy." But "bad boy" or not, it continues to serve.

California Utilities with their brown outs and threatened black outs, reeling under deregulation, serve to remind us all just how fragile our energy systems really are. They supply us all, keep us warm in winter, cool in summer, and give us the power we use for everything else in our lives, all these things, which we take for granted.

Rather than berate the Philadelphia Gas Works for getting a much-needed transfusion in rates, we should wonder why the rate hike granted wasn't more. It's time for all of us to bite the bullet, and pay our fair due to a utility that has served us well. We have only ourselves to blame for its bad management in the past, for picking its pockets for socially redeeming purposes, and for "waiting until imminent collapse" before moving in to help. 

Let's get behind our Philadelphia Gas Works, give it the necessary financial backing it needs, and patiently work with those now in charge to correct its chronically error loaded computer billing and everything else that can and has gone wrong.

Well Done, Judge Alex Bonavitacola

When June rolls around, Judge Alex Bonavitacola will take his judicial robe off for the last time. He plans to resign after a distinguished career, 25 years of meritorious service in the various divisions of this City's Court of Common Pleas. He has served the last five as President of that Court.
Last week, his peers gathered to toast him for his distinguished service. They held the event in the Law Library, which had recently been refurbished under his direction. Newly elected President Judge Frederica Massiah-Jackson, who succeeded Alex hosted the event along with Joseph Evers of the Prothonotary's Office.

They surprised Judge Bonavitacola by taking him to the entrance of the Library where they showed him a new nameplate for the library with the legend below crediting him with its restoration.

He did more than that during his five-year term as President Judge. He finished what he had begun as an Administrative Judge, hacking away at a backlog that had gone as high as 28,000 cases awaiting trial. He moved in veteran arbitrators, pushed judges to implement stricter deadlines, and integrated technology within the courts. In the early 1990s the court still had manual typewriters and rotary phones. Today the court is state of the art high tech with its own web site. 

If we were to label his tenure, we'd have to use the humbling word "self-effacing." He never took the time to enjoy the credit due him, he was always to busy looking to better his beloved judiciary.

Proud to Be A Union Town!

Bruce Crawley, a member of the Mayor's business community team, said it well when the announcement was made that an agreement had been signed among all of the city's unions at the Convention Center. "This will make conventioneers know they'll save money and time when they come to this city for their conventions." He went on to say, "The unions finally have a mayor they know and trust, who will not try to disenfranchise them. That's why they have adopted a supportive attitude and are willing to agree to concessions and working rules that make better things happen for us all." 

Our congratulations go out to the union leaders who knew they could sit at one or more conferences around the mayor's table and understand they were finally dealing with a city leader who treated them as partners in the equation, a partnership that continues to produce economic boons for this city.

Now it's up to Convention Bureau Chief Tom Muldoon and his counterpart at the Convention Center Bob Butera to take advantage of the smooth sledding they can now offer new and repeat convention customers. 

Talking About Spin

The two dailies loved former Mayor Ed Rendell. If he sneezed, they bragged it was from the pepper sprinkled on the hoagie he was eating. Whatever he touched was to them a miraculous happening. Nothing could go wrong. Fortunately much of it didn't, thanks to the efforts of City Council and its then President who pushed mightily to achieve all those good things.

Now, that President of City Council is the Mayor of this city and his first year of accomplishments should be listed as top rate, we find their editorials addressing the actions of the mayor salted with, "ifs, ands, buts, and we need to sees." And, "Of course, it is all due to the efforts of…" Come on guys, call it quits, give the mayor his due. 

Of all the mayors of recent memory, going back to Jim Tate, he has faced the toughest and highest of hurdles and succeeded in crossing them and all on schedule. Of all those mayors, he has proven he has the pulse of the people. His innovations-including a budget for children, placing their pertinent programming under one umbrella, the blight initiative, the junkers removal, the drive to revitalize our city schools, snow removal measures that reached into neighborhoods, and most recently, the capital offense reward program funded with an initial $50,000-set him apart from his predecessors. 

He's made disbelievers into believers. He makes converts wherever he goes. He has a style, unique to John Street that will be copied in the future by others who hope to do as well as he is doing. 

We noticed the press did comment he had appeared in front of two segments of the Mummers' Parade, but they failed to note he is probably the first mayor in the history of this city who spent a part of New Year's Day visiting prisoners at the prison complex in the Northeast giving them hope for the new year as well.

He's put a pounding, sympathetic heart into the Mayor's Office. His "Year of the Children" commitment continues. His vow to make needed changes in the criminal justice system, including the replacing of the Juvenile Detention Center on the Parkway, is earnest and is shown by his most recent comments and moves to back up those comments.

He's already earned a lot of A+s, but seemingly not enough to please the editorial boards of our two dailies.