The Brief: Jim Kenney’s Council Record Comes Back to Haunt Him
Former City Councilman and mayoral candidate Jim Kenney.
Back in 2007, then-City Councilman Jim Kenney sponsored legislation that required Philadelphia’s pension fund to give bonus checks to retired workers if it surpassed its investment goals.
Today, the city’s pension system is less than 50 percent funded — but the checks are going out anyway, perhaps as early as April, the Inquirer reports. Kenney, now a mayoral candidate, defends the bill through a spokeswoman, who says, “It will take a multiple-solution approach to get to a place where [the pension fund] is stable. We should not do it on the backs of our seniors.”
With a mayoral field full of longtime elected officials, expect to see more stories like this come out before the May 19th primary. How will former District Attorney Lynne Abraham‘s tough-on-crime record go over in today’s smart-on-crime world? Will state Sen. Anthony Williams‘ pro-charters record hurt him or help him more in the race? Charter schools are a drain on the school district’s budget at a time of great financial distress, but, then again, 64 percent of city residents polled by Pew in 2013 said charters “improve education options and help keep middle-class families in the city.”
And maybe long-shot candidate Doug Oliver, who has never held elected office, will get a small boost because he has almost no record to speak of. (Seriously. As WHYY’s Dave Davies points out, it worked for Tom Wolf.)
Don’t Miss …
- Today at 10 a.m. on WHYY’s Radio Times, Committee of Seventy CEO David Thornburgh, Democratic political consultant Dan Fee and former mayoral candidate Terry Gillen will chew over Philadelphia’s campaign finance law.
- Better late than never: Mayoral candidate/ex-con Milton Street filed his campaign finance report Wednesday. It was due at the beginning of last week. Oh, and his sole cash donation was from … Ori Feibush, the developer running against Councilman Kenyatta Johnson in this year’s primary election.
- Who are Council members supporting in the mayor’s race? No word yet from Council President Darrell Clarke, who had more cash on hand at the end of 2014 than any of the mayoral candidates.
- Former Mayor W. Wilson Goode, Sr. says he has met with all of the declared mayoral candidates. “[When I asked one candidate if they really wanted to be mayor], someone said, ‘I never thought about that,'” says Goode.
On Twitter …
Former gov @TomRidgeNews on my flight to New Orleans. Hope we can party together at the Mardi Gras !
— Donna Cooper (@DonnaRCooper) February 11, 2015