Legal News

By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff

After 14 months of meetings, a task force on ethics and campaign finance has recommended multiple tweaks to the city's still-young ethics regime, including making the Inspector General's Office independent from Philadelphia's mayor.

The task force was convened by Mayor Michael A. Nutter in October 2008, and the task force's members included appointees selected by City Council President Anna C. Verna and the Philadelphia Bar Association.

Nutter made no promises today about what reforms recommended by the task force he'll champion, and Nutter said he had not yet discussed the report with Verna.

Among the task force's 36 recommendations:

- Because of the fact that Philadelphia is the only large American city without any regulation of lobbyists, the task force recommended that a city law be passed to require lobbyists to register annually.

- The Board of Ethics should receive more financial support.

- Restriction on political activity should be expanded to boards that exercise significant power over the city, such as the Zoning Board of Adjustment and the Board of Revision of Taxes.

- City financial reports need to be on a more user-friendly Web site.

- Allow Philadelphia Police Department officers to make voluntary campaign contributions since a court ruling overturned a similar ban on contributions by workers with the Philadelphia Fire Department in 2003.

Despite the expansion of ethics regulation, partly because of Nutter's work on the issue as a city councilman, Nutter said more work is needed. Ethics is "an every day, every week, every year, lifetime" activity, he said.

Several lawyers were involved in the task force, including Michael Schwartz, a partner at Pepper Hamilton; Nolan Atkinson Jr., a partner at Duane Morris; Stephanos Bibas, a professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School; Brian McCormick, a partner at Sheller; and Stephanie Resnick, a partner at Fox Rothschild.