Nutter

DURING a City Council hearing Tuesday, the first of six on tax delinquency, members questioned Mayor Nutter's proposal to spend millions as part of a massive effort to collect from tax deadbeats. Nutter's plan, announced last month, includes investing $40 million in new employees and a new database to bring in $260 million from tax delinquents by 2018. Members asked Revenue Commissioner Keith Richardson about the goals of Nutter's plan and why no portion of the anticipated revenue was included in the mayor's proposal for the coming fiscal year's budget.

Philadelphia police have committed "an intolerably high level" of civil rights abuses through their stop-and-frisk program, the American Civil Liberties Union said Tuesday, threatening new court action against the city. The state chapter of the ACLU, which has monitored the program for nearly three years, said in its first public report to U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell that nearly half the police stops in 2012 were unconstitutional and that few guns were found in the searches.

Gov. Corbett told reporters Monday in Philadelphia that he found it "disappointing" that municipal union protesters drowned out Mayor Nutter's budget address last week in City Hall. "It's disappointing when individuals will not allow a mayor or an official to give an address that he's supposed to give," Corbett said. "Individuals certainly have their opportunity to be heard, but it was certainly disappointing that he did not get to deliver his budget address. " Hundreds of chanting, whistle-blowing protesters drowned out the mayor Thursday as he attempted to present his annual budget proposal to City Council.

The big public-employee unions and the modern Democratic Party are woven together like the strands of a sweater. At many points during last year's Democratic National Convention, the arena floor in Charlotte was a kaleidoscope of AFSCME green, SEIU purple, and NEA blue. Those unions provide loyal election troops for Democrats up and down the ballot. So it was jarring when hundreds of union members, carrying posters depicting Mayor Nutter as Bozo the Clown, jammed the galleries in Philadelphia's City Council chambers last week and shut down his budget address.

IT'S GOOD to be the mayor. I've been told that Mayor Nutter 's car got a parking ticket. And that he doesn't have to pay it. Hold up. Before you get up in arms over any special treatment the mayor gets, keep this in mind: The vehicle, which Nutter uses only for official business, is technically a cop car, driven by a member of his security detail. "It's like one of the city's blueand-white cruisers, so it shouldn't be ticketed," said Nutter spokesman Mark McDonald . "[Nutter's security detail]

I LIKE Mayor Nutter. He's always been nice to me. Our kids go to the same school. We exchange pleasantries when we see each other. That's why I felt so bad watching city union members jeer him as he tried to deliver his budget address last week. Maybe if he'd reprised his inauguration performance of the Sugarhill Gang classic, "Rapper's Delight," things would've turned out differently. Because, frankly, it's hard to boo a brother when he's delivering lines like: "I said, a hip-hop the hippie to the hippie The hip hip a hop, a you don't stop The rock it to the bang, bang boogie Say up jumped the boogie To the rhythm of the boogie, the beat.

By George Parry You have to admire the nerve of Robert Huber, the intrepid writer who dared to present a white perspective on Philadelphia race relations in this month's issue of Philadelphia Magazine. His article, "Being White in Philadelphia," explores white Philadelphians' attitudes about black residents and crime, asking what, if anything, they are allowed to say about these subjects in public. Apparently they'd better not say anything. At least that's the position taken by Mayor Nutter, who, having lost a battle with his inner Mussolini, has directed the Philadelphia Human Relations Commission to investigate and "rebuke" Huber and the magazine for raising these issues.

After performing the gubernatorial role of ribbon-cutter-in-chief at a science conference in Philadelphia Monday morning, Gov. Corbett told reporters he found it "disappointing" that Mayor Nutter's budget address last week was drowned out by municipal union members' loud protests in City Hall. "It's disappointing when individuals will not allow a mayor or an official to give an address that he's supposed to give," Corbett said. "Individuals certainly have their opportunity to be heard, but it was certainly disappointing that he did not get to deliver his budget address.

AS LAST WEEK ended, after Mayor Nutter was the guest of honor at a virtual Whack-a-Mole festival, he turned and fired. Not at the Inquirer for its lengthy series documenting his failure to collect almost $300 million in unpaid real-estate taxes owed on 100,000 delinquent properties, not at unions that condemned him as a union buster, not at an acidic cartoon by Signe Wilkinson and a scornful column by Your Favorite Columnist. Instead, Nutter fired off a letter late Friday afternoon to the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations that brutally bashed (better late than never?

Mayor Nutter has had a tortured relationship with City Council since the outset of his first term, when he asked the members to give up their city cars, a hallowed perk for many. Council members since have sued him (to stop library closures), frustrated his policy goals (twice blocking a tax on sugary drinks), and ignored him (refusing even to introduce a scaled-back pension program that is a cornerstone of the city's offer to municipal unions). On Thursday, they literally walked out on him as he attempted to deliver his annual budget address over the din of protesting municipal union members.