A city employee was suspended for a week without pay on Wednesday for taking part in Mayor John Street's re-election campaign.
Tumar Alexander, one of the assistants to the city's Managing Director Philip Goldsmith, was aiding Street's son Sharif in scouting for campaign office locations last week.
Making the story even more controversial is the fact that Alexander was seen that night at mayoral candidate Sam Katz's North Philadelphia campaign offices, on the 1700 block of 22nd Street near Cecil B. Moore Avenue, just hours before the offices were vandalized when a projectile was thrown through the window.
Alexander and Sharif Street drove near Katz's office while they were out searching for campaign locations on the day of the incident, according to Fee.
While there was a brief altercation when the pair passed Katz's office, Fee said that neither Sharif Street nor Alexander had anything to do with the vandalism.
After police found an oil-soaked rag inside the broken window, rumor spread that the vandalism was an attempted firebomb, but it is still not clear exactly what happened.
Philadelphia Police Department Sgt. Roland Lee said that the investigation was continuing, and they hoped to have more details within a week.
Alexander's trip to North Philadelphia violates the city charter, which states that city employees cannot in any way participate in campaign activities.
"There is no question that he violated the prohibition," said Frederick Voight, executive director of the political watchdog group Committee of Seventy.
"It isn't like you can take free time or do [anything campaign-related] on the weekend. The nature of the prohibition is that it's a term and condition of your employment."
Voight added that Goldsmith's punishment of Alexander was fair, and that Alexander should have known better.
"You don't have to be a city employee, you choose to do that, and thus choose to take the limitations imposed on it," he said.
Though Alexander was traveling with Street's son and helping him scout for new campaign offices, Street campaign spokesman Dan Fee said that the two were acting on their own accord.
"Tumar is not an employee of the campaign," Fee said. "He was not up there at the direction of the campaign. He was up there in his own vehicle."
Mayoral spokeswoman Luz Cardenas stressed that Alexander's actions were not precipitated by any order from Goldsmith's office.
Goldsmith "would never send a city employee to participate in any kind of campaign activity," she said.
Neither Alexander nor Goldsmith returned repeated calls for comment.
