WALKING THE BEAT: Controller As Superhero

BY JOE SHAY STIVALA/ That Jul. 4 piece in the daily press on remembering the TRUE HEROES all around us was just GREAT! Is it not REFRESHING to see an upbeat story, and especially a LOCAL one? The greatest TRIBUTE WE CAN GIVE our heroes, living or dead, is to always REMEMBER them!… A PHILLY HERO is the unassuming City Controller Alan BUTKOVITZ. When he exposes wrongdoing, he gets verbally attacked. It has gotten so that out of MANY so-called investigators and probers of various agencies, he is THE ONE to BELIEVE. His finding of valuable taxpayer-paid for equipment left in shuttered schools (is this the tip of an iceberg?) IS SHOCKING! Someone wrote wishing the school Superintendent a happy summer vacation. Maybe they wondered how he could vacation with our schools at a NADIR.

Maybe you wonder how the Governor could want to sell the LOTTERY – which helps so many seniors. Is he cold, without feeling? I don’t think so. It could be an age-old DISCONNECT that many of wealth have, and do not realize the plight of the poor. Remember the story of President REAGAN who read a letter written to him by an old woman in fiscal distress? He opened his desk drawer, took out a $5 bill and directed that it be sent to her.

A.V.I. TAX INCREASES: It is ANNOYING when TIME-ADJUSTED sales ARE USED to develop your market value. Sales from 2010, 2011 and 2012 are the germane ones, not adjusted earlier ones from BOOM YEARS. The economic downturn years, and recent slow upward movements, are relevant. WHEN YOU APPEAL, make sure during your hearing that the City DID NOT use sales from earlier years to develop your value! Board of Revision members, PLEASE be on the lookout for ONLY the three most-recent years of sales in the assessor’s reply to the taxpayer’s appeal!

The G.O.P.-DOMINATED State Senate and House record of “assistance” for Philly reminds of a time when the GOP had an iron grip on the US Senate and House. There was a lot of pro-1% legislation. Then voters took control away from them. A quote by a GOP lawmaker in the Washington Times was, “We blew it.” YEP. When a rural lawmaker calls SEPTA a “black hole,” it may be the MAGNITUDE of a SEPTA operation is not known to folks from smaller counties. As a soldier, I visited many of our counties. One county had nearly all of its population living in one town. In another, I asked a businessman if he liked us in Philly. He answered in the negative. I asked, “Why not? You send us your tired and poor with a bus ticket.”

THAT TRAFFIC COURT closure article seemed too DRAMA-filled with descriptions of the court’s “long illness.” REALLY? How about our citizens thinking together of the courts’ mockery of justice? WHEN was that? And lawmakers voted to close it in a deserved unanimity. THEY DID? And we discovered the City Democrat Party had an absurdist wing (?). You know, writers would be NOTHING if they did not have PHILLY to pick on. But sipping a martini on the Main Line does not make one a critic. And to score State Rep. MARK COHEN, a true student of Democracy and Mensa member! Cohen, a scholar, mourns the loss of elective offices. He’s right; it seems royalist; but could it also be about BIG FAT PAY hearing-officer jobs for the GOP? I watched so many, MANY people have their cases adjudicated honestly adjudicated there – no politics. The income stream from the court satisfied the overseers. It must REALLY BOIL the critics that no HARD CASH changed hands. I remember critics who hated the court – UNTIL their son got a ticket.

ABOUT EDITORIALS: Some preach a moralist line for you to follow. Many are unsigned by a nameless and faceless writer, who might be a non-Philadelphian – without local perspective. Exercise care reading them. Henry ADAMS, great-grandson of the second President and grandson of the 6^th Commander-in-Chief, did not accomplish a lot in life – for “nothing was new under the sun.” But he WROTE EDITORIALS. He felt that “Any man who was fit for nothing else could write an editorial…” How about the REVELATION that the Dept. of Conservation & Natural Resources no longer gets its budget from the state general fund – but from a natural-gas development fund!

LOCAL 19 SHEET METAL WORKERS have published a boycott list on their website: SMULU19.org. Please use it and help them in their struggle! Contact Joe RISPO with questions…. It was moving! that US Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) played TAPS at the funeral of war hero Sen. Daniel INOUYE. Tester is an accomplished musician. Our fallen hero was properly sent to Heaven.

Hats off to State Rep. MARK COHEN for his new law protecting remains of soldiers fallen in the line of duty!… Anjali CHAINANI, capable aide to Councilwoman Jannie BLACKWELL, had a fine Northern Liberties birthday bash. She is a future star.

BIRTHDAYS: Civic Leader Lawrence CLARK, who scored a few wins over the parking Adjudication Branch! (JUL. 16); Judge Dan ANDERS, Olympian (17th); Jim NIXON, Esq. of State Superior Court (18th); Pearl McKINNEY, Californian (19th); Judge Fran SHIELDS and Eileen HURLEY (20th for both); and Northeast Committeeman Fred MARI (21st). BEST-est to them!… WELL DONE to the Delaware River Waterfront Corp. for the 4^th of July long weekend of activities. Thousands attended. Citizens deserve these events and many cannot afford the shore on weekends. Penn’s Landing had two 4^th-weekend events ending with fireworks. There is NEVER a report of shots fired or of stampedes as in other city events. All is done in a manner of caring dedication in as evolved by the late Stanhope BROWNE, and carried on by Tom Corcoran.

Remember the Penn Praxis idea to open up the waterfront by extending streets to the river? HOW MANY have been opened in the last few years? Existing Race Street was fancied up. Callowhill Street from Columbus Boulevard to 2nd Street is only one way. IS THIS ALL TALK? Proposed removal of the elevated Walnut to Market roadway which brings many people to PENN’S LANDING is NOT SMART. The Praxis idea was to make Penn’s Landing a place for people to gather. So MAKE IT a place for people to GATHER!… After the fireworks, motorcycle police raced into Penn’s Landing, and moments later they exited, sirens howling, with what looked like the Mayor’s vehicle. If it was NUTTER, where was he going that was urgent? During Pennsylvania Society Weekend, I saw the very same event on Park Avenue when His Honor was in the Big Apple. Moving around with sirens is not megalomaniacal, just OUT-OF DATE. At least the Mayor in The Last Hurrah was at ease with no siren. He did offer a siren to a prospective Fire Commissioner, because he thought the person might enjoy it.

LABOR: Good news is that Temple Hospital nurses and techs issues with management are resolved. John DOUGHERTY, Local 98 leader, noted the City might have been more successful with the legislature if the Mayor had included the congressional and City Council delegations in an appeal for funds…. Hotels in our state are fourth in low wages…. 3,500 US AIR Mechanics can vote on unionization…. State Rep. Vanessa BROWN hosted an anti-voter-ID-law rally in the Capitol…TWU Local 234 hosted the discussion group on workers in a globalized trading world.

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