Nutter Signs Ethics Bill: No More Big Gifts to City Officials

It appears 2014 will be the year 20th century civic ethics came to 21st century Pennsylvania. The same week that state House and Senate  both indicated they’ll impose gift-receiving bans on their members, Mayor Nutter in Philadelphia signed a bill restricting gifts to officials here. “If any City Council or row office employees accepted cash or pricey gifts in the last couple of days, they could be in big trouble. The new ethics code gifts regulation – which bans cash as gifts and limits the value of gifts to city officers or workers at $99 – was quietly signed into law by Mayor Nutter on Monday. It went into effect immediately.” The state bans were prompted by revelations that Philly Democrats had accepted cash in an abandoned sting operation; the city ban passed, because, well it’s probably about damn time.