What holds them all together is an obscure but politically potent sinecure: the Register of Wills office.
The Register's office provides jobs for a cadre of loyal aides who also service Donatucci's plumbing-supply firm, his $2.5 million real estate holdings, and the South Philadelphia ward where he is Democratic leader.
It provides an entree to a major bank in which Donatucci, the Register of Wills, has deposited millions of dollars in public funds since 1981 and from which Donatucci, the businessman, has received more than $2 million in mortgages.
It provides often-lucrative estate cases that Donatucci passes out to business associates, former law partners, and ward leaders.
And, through a quirk in state law that exempts the office from the City Charter's civil-service rules, it provides 86 appointive jobs - giving Donatucci patronage power second only to the mayor's.
The biggest beneficiary of Ron Donatucci's patronage clout is Ron Donatucci.
He has used the clout skillfully, extending his political influence by hiring Democratic ward leaders or their favored committeepeople from 32 of the city's 69 wards.
They, in turn, have helped keep him in office for 15 years, deterring any rival from gaining enough backing among ward leaders to replace Donatucci as Register.
This is the sort of patronage system that reformers thought they had banned
from city government 40 years ago by imposing civil service - but that is still practiced openly in the Register's office.
Donatucci says it is the most efficient way to run government. Payroll and disability records suggest otherwise. Donatucci's patronage workers cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in salaries and sick-leave and on- the-job injury claims.
"Patronage works in our office," said Donatucci, a dapper man who wears fine Italian suits and, when not in his city sedan, drives a gold 1991 Mercedes-Benz.
