Rendell speaks to students at Community House

Ed Rendell -- Philadelphia Mayor and aspiring actor -- spoke to approximately 40 Community House residents in a question-and-answer session in McClelland Hall last night. Rendell arrived -- as is his custom -- late. He said he was delayed by the wardrobe personnel from Jonathan Demme's new movie, which is being filmed in and around City Hall. He said he will be playing a minor role in the movie, which will star Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington. Rendell said he has been cast as the mayor of Philadelphia. He hinted that this would not cause him to stretch too much as an actor. "It's something I think I could do," he said. "I thought I was getting a free suit out of it," he complained, adding that the wardrobe personnel told him to bring his own. After apologizing for his lateness, Rendell fielded questions from students ranging from the possibility of a baseball stadium on 30th Street to municipal and economic reform to community service. In answering a question about the University's relationship with the city, Rendell said he thought the University, which he called "a good corporate citizen," was "clearly right" in its position in the Mayor's Scholarship lawsuit. "The new agreements . . . are absolutely terrific," he said. "It means we will not lose a good, poor student from Philadelphia to any other Ivy League school." In answering a question on civil reform, he said that he favors altering the rules under which civil service employees are evaluated. Because of the inordinately long grievance procedure, supervisors are prone to not evaluating employees as "unsatisfactory," he said. "Short of machine-gunning down four of your co-workers," he said, "you're going to get a satisfactory [rating.]" He also said he favored the abolition of obsolete departments, citing the Sheriff's Office as an example. On the possibility of a West Philadelphia Stadium Complex, Rendell told the mostly freshman crowd, "I don't think it's going to happen during anyone's undergraduate tenure." Rendell urged students to get involved in community service efforts only if they thought they could "apportion a significant amount of time." He said that for those who had the time, serving the community is highly rewarding, providing what he called "psychic income" as opposed to monetary gain. He referred to his former job as an assistant District Attorney, when he made $5900 per year, as the "best job I ever had" because he felt he was doing something positive for the community. "[I represented] good, poor, disadvantaged people who'd never had anyone to speak for them," he said, recalling that some murder victims' families literally embraced him after he finished his closing arguments. Students said afterward that they were glad they had come to hear Rendell speak. "He was very impressive," College senior Ben Bewick said. "You could see he's very focused on bringing money into the city." "I thought it was really interesting," College freshman Mey-Yen Wong said. "It was a great opportunity." "It was definitely worth listening to," she added.