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Committee of Seventy Urges Eliminating Elections of the Clerk of Quarter Session, City Commissioners, Sheriff and Register of Wills

03/17/2009

 PHILADELPHIA – The Committee of Seventy today recommended the elimination of six obscure but costly elected positions: the Clerk of Quarter Sessions, the Sheriff, the Register of Wills and the three City Commissioners.

The goal is to save money during Philadelphia’s financial crisis and to help prompt the city to think courageously and creatively about remaking government. Seventy’s 56-page report, which calls for phasing-in the eliminations beginning with the Clerk of Quarter Sessions, comes two days before the Mayor’s presents his budget address to the City.   

“We agree with Mayor Nutter that the fiscal crisis gives us a rare opportunity to significantly restructure the government,” said Zachary Stalberg, Seventy’s President and CEO, noting that the mayor raised this point when talking last December about the possibility of eliminating certain elected row offices. Stalberg said that merely doing away with the salaries and benefits of the six officials who would be impacted – three City Commissioners and the heads of the other three row offices – could save as much as $5 million over the life of the City’s next five-year plan. “Smartly reassigning the necessary functions of the four offices to other City departments or to the courts will produce other efficiencies and cost-savings, as they did when Allegheny County eliminated three of those offices,” added Stalberg.  

“After studying these offices carefully, and talking to two of the six officeholders who agreed to meet with us (Clerk of Quarter Sessions Miller and Register of Wills Donatucci), we found no reason why the offices need to be elected,” said Stalberg. He said the recommendations contained in “NEEDLESS JOBS: Why Six Elected City Positions Should Die” were also driven by the need for increased accountability and transparency. “The four offices are off on their own, and virtually anonymous,” he said. “There is patronage and nepotism that shouldn’t sit well with the public and that can’t be reined in.” Stalberg observed that moving more employees under the City merit-based civil service system would be a big step forward.”

Stalberg said the timing was right because four of the six officeholders (Clerk Miller, City Commissioner Chairperson Tartaglione, Sheriff Green and Register Donatucci) are all enrolled in the City’s DROP program and scheduled to retire before their next term would start in January 2012.

Stalberg acknowledged that Seventy’s recommendations could be a tough sell. “But the middle of a financial crisis is not the moment to put political and personal relationships above the need to make government leaner, more efficient and cost-effective,” he said.

Eliminating the Clerk of Quarter Sessions’ office requires Council legislation, while dismantling the offices of the City Commissioners and Sheriff must also be approved by Philadelphia’s voters. According to the City’s Law Department, legislation in the General Assembly may be needed to abolish the Register of Wills office.

The Committee of Seventy is a non-partisan organization fighting for clean and effective government, fair elections and informed citizens. The copy of Seventy’s report, the second in Seventy’s “Roadmap to Reform” series, can be downloaded at http://www.seventy.org/OurViews_Needless_Jobs.aspx.

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