Today, just as in decades past, the BRT is run as a political jobs bank, an operation that has proved far more effective at taking care of the connected than in setting accurate assessments, an Inquirer investigation shows.
Though most major cities and counties long ago turned over the task to trained professionals, the BRT has remained a relic of the city's past, steeped in patronage and controlled by a board largely handpicked by party bosses.
The BRT's offices in the historic Curtis Building are filled with insiders, from the seven board members who run the agency to the workers who answer the phones.
Joseph A. Russo, a friend of former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo's, got one of those board seats, a part-time job that pays him $72,000 a year.
That leaves Russo plenty of time to serve as president of Fumo's nonprofit and stay active in judicial politics, even though that violates city rules.
Nearly half of the agency's payroll is made up of untrained patronage clerks who, like Foglia, owe their jobs to the city's Democratic and Republican organizations. Studies have shown the agency is bloated with such jobs. Nevertheless, to pay for them, the agency takes millions each year from Philadelphia's struggling school district.
At tax appeals hearings, for example, property owners are signed in by William Strykowski, son-in-law of the late State Sen. Francis Lynch and, with 37 years on the job, the BRT's longest-serving patronage worker. He is paid $45,140.
During the hearings, Republican Committeeman Martin McCrossen, from South Philadelphia's 26th Ward, helps keep track of paperwork and tells people to turn off their cell phones. A BRT employee since 2003, he is paid $31,319.
