Moments earlier, Verna, proud of her reputation for fairness and honesty, had faced the question most offensive to her: Did she quit rather than face public backlash for her participation the city's DROP program, which would allow her to collect nearly $585,000 in a lump sum pension payment and still seek reelection?
"Ab-so-lute-ly, un-equivo-cably, no!" she said, clearly fed up with the subject as she called for the next question.
"I have always known when the time to step down would be right," Verna said from the Council chamber lectern she has owned since 1999, when she succeeded John F. Street to become Council's first female president.
That time will be next January, at the end of her ninth term. She turns 80 on April 15.
"I really think I have done what I want to in life," she said.
On Monday, she was surrounded by a half-dozen ward leaders from her area of South and Southwest Philadelphia, who have been the glue of an effective organization that she inherited from her father, William Cibotti, and her political mentor, longtime U.S. Rep. Bill Barrett. She lunched with ward leaders in her office, thanking them for their support, before meeting with reporters.
"She was at her best when it came to her constituent service," said Anna M. Brown, leader of Ward 40B, whom Verna helped land a job for Council President Joseph Coleman in 1984. That devotion to constituent service, rather than larger policy issues, kept returning her to office, and it was that service of which she is most proud.
Verna was first hired by City Treasurer Richardson Dilworth - the future district attorney and mayor - in 1951, and was hired by her father when he took office. Her father, Barrett's top lieutenant, held the Second District seat from 1967 until 1975, when he died and his daughter succeeded him in a special election.
