Stop Pay-to-Play in Philadelphia

To:  Philadelphia City Council

In the midst of glaring headlines about corruption in Philadelphia's City government, City Council had the opportunity to make a statement about our tolerance for "pay-to-play" behavior. Councilman Michael Nutter introduced a bill that would force City agencies to make disclosures about no-bid contracts and would place limits on contributions to candidates and political officials by those wishing to do business with the City. The bill needed 12 votes to pass, but unfortunately, only 11 members of Council voted yes. Those who voted no were Clarke, Miller, Blackwell, Mariano and Tasco. Krajewski did not vote.

Hallwatch.org estimates that 2 of every 3 dollars in our City's budget were used to fund no-bid contracts. That's almost $2 billion of City dollars--our tax dollars--that funded no-bid contracts.

Council could have sent a message that pay-to-play behavior will not be tolerated. It didn't, but we can voice our displeasure with them. The taxpayers of this City do care about disclosure, fairness and ethics. Our City is not for sale!

We, the undersigned, are disappointed that the Philadelphia City Council--specifically Clarke, Miller, Blackwell, Mariano and Tasco--have decided that ethics are not an important issue to the City of Philadelphia. We believe that it is, and hereby urge Council to reconsider bills 040771 and 040772, and make Philadelphia's government more accountable to its residents.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Stop Pay-to-Play in Philadelphia Petition to Philadelphia City Council was created by Stop Pay-to-Play in Philadelphia (S3P) and written by Terry Blastenbrei (terry@stoppaytoplay.info).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.

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