Trying to get a city to play by the rules

In a city widely known for an unethical approach to politics, a Philadelphia watchdog group is doing its best to make sure the next mayor provides a change.

The Committee of Seventy released a 28-point ethics agenda last week, asking each of the six potential Democratic candidates to sign off on the document.

The document is meant to indicate things the next mayor "ought to commit [in order] to regain the people's trust in government," Seventy policy director Ellen Kaplan said.

She said she believes Philadelphians have lost trust in their government over the years due to a series of ethics scandals and want to know that the next leader of Philadelphia will be above the wrongdoings of the past.

"Unless you citizens believe your government is one of integrity, it's very difficult to trust" its initiatives, Kaplan said.

She noted that this issue of trust extends to efforts to tackle the rising murder rate, which she said has put Penn in the awkward position of being "a world-renowned university in a city that has an upwardly spiraling crime rate."

The 28 points focus on three key areas: improving hiring and contracting practices, improving governmental transparency and reducing conflicts of interest among city officials.

To that end, the agenda asks the next mayor to draw up a set of rules for awarding city contracts and clarifying city campaign-finance laws that have been thrown into disarray by recent court rulings. It also asks the next mayor to take a set of steps designed to give teeth to the recently created city Board of Ethics.

Two potential candidates - Rep. Bob Brady (D-Phila.) and state Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Phila.) - have completely committed to the ethics agenda, while Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Phila.), former Councilman Michael Nutter and businessman Tom Knox have said they support the principles of the agenda but plan to release their own versions of ethics reform in the near future.

Union chief John Dougherty has publicly stated that he does not support the plan specifically but does want to advance ethics reform in general.

Brady, the first to throw his weight behind the proposal, couldn't be reached for comment yesterday. In a statement to Seventy published on the group's Web site, he pledged to "bring people together to create genuine ethics and campaign-finance reform that will pass any constitutional test."

Brady is widely expected to declare his candidacy sometime in the next several weeks.

Evans campaign spokesman Tim Spreitzer said that Evans' "basic philosophy is that government should be open -- it should be transparent," and that he would draw on his 26-year-long "unblemished track record" in Harrisburg if he were to become mayor.

For his part, Nutter added that "the citizens of Philadelphia deserve honesty" in their government, something he says has been obscured over time.

He said it's up to the mayor to "send the right message" that corruption isn't tolerated, and, in a statement also posted on Seventy's Web site, he noted that he is the only declared candidate who accomplished city ethics reform by leading the effort to create the Board of Ethics.

Knox will also be doing his part to "take accountability even further," Knox campaign spokeswoman Susan Madrak said.

But Kaplan, Seventy's policy director, is more skeptical that all of the candidates will follow through on their promises.

"I don't think anyone's going to say, 'I don't support ethics reform,'" she said, adding that candidates will have to prove they mean what they say.

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