Seventy Turns One Hundred:
Established in 1904
A History:
Compiled by: Seth Brostoff, Lauren Burrows, Emma Garrett [Former Committee of Seventy Interns] and Christopher Barrett Sheridan, Esq.
"[One] must acknowledge the Committee of Seventy . . . because it will not go away."
These words of a former City Solicitor have been ringing true for over a century.
The Committee of Seventy is a non-partisan, non-profit organization of concerned citizens founded in 1904 and dedicated to research, education, and concerted action in the interest of good government. For one hundred years, Seventy has fought for fair elections and efficient municipal government in Philadelphia . Seventy has maintained its independent character while adapting to the changing needs of a society which has moved from the telegraph to instant personal communication and from the soapbox to radio, television, e-mail, and the Internet. In its long history, The Committee of Seventy has worked to narrow the gap between what government is and what it ought to be. While the structure of government and the character of politics in Philadelphia have changed significantly during the last century, Seventy has evolved with the times and remains an influential force on the City's political scene.
The Origin and Early Years of The Committee of Seventy : 1904-1920
The Industrial Revolution, the Civil War, and large waves of immigration combined to turn William Penn’s “Greene Countrie Towne” into a sprawling city and manufacturing center. Robust and largely unregulated capitalism as well as rapid population growth resulted in a number of undesirable side effects including: overcrowded tenement housing, widespread poverty, dangerous working conditions, and the exploitation of child labor.
As the situation became more acute, a national reform movement started to grow among the working classes and some members of the urban elite who opposed the injustice and sought to remedy it as the abolitionists has successfully done a generation earlier. This movement, known as Progressivism, started in the late 1800’s and gave rise to the formation of the Committee of Seventy . The Industrial Revolution also facilitated the creation of the new middle class who rose to the forefront of Progressivism. The early Progressives were largely young, urban professionals who "sought to apply [the] principles of professions [such as medicine and law]" to alleviate societal ills.
One of Seventy’s precursors was the Citizen’s Municipal Reform Association (CMRA). Henry C. Lea, who was strongly supported by business leaders Wheeler, Baird, Drexel, and Lippincott, was largely responsible for the organization of the CMRA in June 1871 and the Reform Club in the spring of 1872. The CMRA was created in response to the establishment of the Public Buildings Commission by the state legislature in the summer of 1870. Citizens such as Reform publicist George Vickers feared that the government had created a body with unlimited tenure of office and that it had the ability to leisurely dole out taxes. Businessmen reformers, in particular, feared that because the city’s out of control finances would destroy their credit, and that the burden of taxation would destroy their future prosperity. The CMRA was concerned with arousing “public indignation” toward wrongdoing occurring within the Philadelphia government.
The 1880’s also marked the advent of Quayism, or the politically corrupt practice of using government through patronage to fund elections so that the state becomes accountable to Harrisburg , and not to the electorate. This model of government represented a severe blow to citizen participation. This is the context in which The Committee of Seventy operated when it first took up the cause of reform.
Moreover, the growth of the modern city and the simultaneous rise in immigration drastically changed the face of urban America ; the nature of tenement housing and ethnically segregated ghettos bred crime, disease, and poverty. Toward the end of the 19th Century a change in the ethnicity of immigrants also occurred. An increase in Southern European and Eastern European immigrants and the northern migration of African-Americans further diversified the political climate of Philadelphia at the turn of the century. Disfavored racial and ethnic groups were crowded into those areas of old housing and low paying industries.
The Progressive Movement arose in response to these changes in the form of many different organizations. The groups attacked and nationalized the issues of available education, racial discrimination, women's rights, child labor, and temperance. The CMRA and the Committee of Seventy made challenges on the governmental level, whereas the Citizens’ Committee of Fifty for a New Philadelphia (1890-1892) and the Citizen’s Committee of Ninety-Five for Good City Government (1895) worked to challenge the supremacy of the electoral arena. While the efforts of individual reformers (such as Jane Addams, the founder of the Hull House which aided the poor) and groups (such as the Women's Christian Temperance Union) made noteworthy advances during the heyday of Progressivism, The Committee of Seventy was Philadelphia’s only Philadelphia's progressive era civic reform organization to maintain its cohesion and relevance throughout the 20th Century.
Republican Bosses and Machines
One of the main reasons that there was a need for Seventy was because the Republican bosses and machines had come to dominate Philadelphia government. It is important to first look at the Vare brothers. George, Edwin and William Vare had initially set up a small contracting business in South Philadelphia which quickly developed into a major street-cleaning operation. Between 1888 and 1921 they collected $18 million from fifty-eight street-cleaning contracts. In total, Vare interests received 341 public contracts worth more than $28 million. This profit gave the Vare brothers a chance to influence Philadelphia politics. For instance, William S. Vare and Joseph Klemmer donated their annual salaries of $10,000 and $5,000, as recorder of deeds and register of wills, respectively, to their organization’s coffers.
William Vare’s wealth allowed him to generate a lot of publicity and organize effective campaigns. “Service” became his personal slogan and in order to show the Organization’s readiness to accommodate the common citizen, its candidates promised everything and anything that would appeal to the populace. Whether it was better traffic conditions, a high school stadium, more efficient government, the return of the five-cent fare, and of course lower taxes, the Organization would promise it. These promises were made on a ward-by-ward basis, to further satisfy specific needs.
The Republican Organization’s control of city government was almost complete. For example, of the 254 bills reported favorably by the Organization in 1912, only 4 were rejected and 200 were passed unanimously. With the exception of a few defeats between 1905 and 1911, the Republican Party secured all city and county offices in Philadelphia between 1887 and 1933 (except where a statue required minority party representation). It was also not unusual for the Organization to prevail by landslides in local elections. For instance, in 1899, 1903, 1919 and 1923, mayoral candidates Ashbridge, Weaver, Moore, and Kendrick all were credited with well over 80 percent of the votes cast.
In addition, in 1905, the Republican Organization managed to not only win all of the judicial elections, but by shifting 55,000 voters over to the Democratic Party, the Organization also undermined the City Party’s effort to be the second party in Philadelphia. One of the Seventy’s early members, George W. Norris, had observed in 1915 that even the Democratic Party had become little more than a bi-partisan adjunct of the Republican Organization. They basically traded votes in return for a few salaried positions. William Vare, in fact, paid the rent on the Democratic Headquarters.
The Committee of Seventy ’s Mission Statement
The longevity of Seventy is partially a product of its clearly stated and carefully reasoned goals. In order to pave the way for an organized and efficient organization, the Committee created a clear mission statement in 1904. The statement included four important goals:
(1) to protect the ballot through vigorous enforcement of State election laws, and by working to improve the voting and registration process;
(2) to work for the election of City officials devoted to the public interest, regardless of their political affiliations;
(3) to aid honest city officials in the performance of their duties; and finally,
(4) to gather and disseminate accurate, non-partisan information on municipal affairs.
It seems that Seventy’s goals were more a matter of rekindling civic concern and involvement in Philadelphia than a matter of legislative change or investigation and litigation.
There are several reasons why there was a need for the Committee of Seventy to form. By many accounts, Philadelphia was the worst-governed city in the United States at the turn of the century. The Republican Machine ruled politics and government. Public elections were routinely bought and sold. The fraud, graft, and political favoritism that riddled the City's government were publicized nationwide when muckraking journalist Lincoln Steffens published his expose, " Philadelphia : Corrupt and Contented" in 1903. Existing civic organizations were unable to limit the corruption. In reaction to the deplorable condition of government which prevailed in Philadelphia , a group of business and community leaders formed the Committee of Seventy to fight for civic reform. Seventy was a product of a town meeting on November 14, 1904 that brought together the reform spirit of Philadelphia , to dramatically improve Philadelphia ’s political climate. The meeting, which was held in the Bourse building, was attended by many prominent Philadelphians, such as Calvert, Strawbridge and Fels. Also in attendance were members of the Municipal League, which was, at that time, one of Philadelphia ’s oldest reform organizations.
Seventy Stands Out Amongst Other Reformers
Although the Committee of Seventy had goals similar to those of other civic organizations in Philadelphia, it was unique in structure. Whereas other groups were formed to address single, more ephemeral issues, Seventy was designed to be "an organization of permanent character," conducted on sound business principles. Membership was limited to seventy men who would supervise the work of a nine-member "Executive Board ." Decision making power was vested in the Executive Board , which would be able to act with speed and cohesion due to its small size. Seventy was organized as a self-selecting body. The first members of Seventy were prominent civic leaders, businessmen and professionals. Although they may not have been representative of the common man, they did have concern for the common man, and many were involved in other civic groups. Primary sources indicate the enthusiasm of those involved, they truly believed in their cause, in the city, and in the guiding hand of providence.
The original members in 1904 included:
(1) Frank Prichard : a law partner at one of the city’s outstanding firms.
(2) George Woodward : physician who was later responsible for developing the Chestnut Hill area as quality housing for low-income families.
(3) Samuel S. Fels : not only active with the Fels Naptha Company, but he also became one of Philadelphia ’s most prominent philanthropists. He took an active interest in, and gave generous support to, civic, scientific, cultural and educational causes. In 1936 Fels established the Samuel S. Fels Fund to continue financial support in these areas.
(4) William H. Pfahler : successful stove manufacturer.
(5) J. Percy Keating : prominent lawyer.
(6) Frederic H. Strawbridge : of Strawbridge & Clothier fame (dry goods merchant) and was insistent on perks for his employees in a time of labor unrest.
(7) Alfred D. Calvert : a printer and trade unionist who was an unsuccessful mayoral candidate in 1903.
(8) John C. Winston : book publisher and the first chairman of Seventy, who served until his death in 1920.
Other members included Morris L. Cooke, a mechanical engineer, George W. Norris, a banker, J. Henry Scattergood, a dye manufacturer; and former Mugwumps, Joshua L. Bailey, William W. Justice, William H. Jenks, Lewis Madeira, Walter Wood, and Francis B. Reeves.
Highlighted Member : Samuel Fels
Samuel Fels, manufacturer of the Fels Naphtha soap, was one of the early leaders of the Committee of Seventy . Fels was among the initial Committee of Seven that evolved into Seventy. He was at first a member a small group of well-bred Philadelphians committed to reform and was the group’s only Jewish member. In one of the group meetings, a “Committee of Seven” was appointed to explore the possibility of creating a new organization that would fight to revamp Philadelphia politics. Among the initial Committee of Seven members were the principal founders of Seventy, including Samuel S. Fels, J. Percy Keating, W.H. Pfahler, George Woodward, Alfred D. Calvert, Frank P. Prichard, and Frederic H. Strawbridge.
Fels suggested broadening the scope and terms of the Committee’s work because unlike the other members he was not tied to the methods of the reform movements of the late 1800’s which enjoyed mature leadership, but took a more cautious approach. Fels would later suggest that the reason the reformers had failed in routing the machine before 1933 was because the average age of Seventy’s members was fifty-five. Even the Committee’s 1911 success in electing Blankenburg mayor, the first un-bossed city executive elected since the machine assumed power, was indicative of the maturity of it supporters: Blankenburg was himself over seventy years of age.
The Battle is Joined at the Polls
As its first priority, Seventy worked at the base of the situation to eliminate the blatant voter fraud that was prevalent in Philadelphia elections. In contrast to other reform groups that had experienced little success because they limited their efforts to public condemnation of the Republican Machine bosses. Seventy attacked the problem at its roots on the streets of Philadelphia .
In 1905, Seventy began to monitor the polls on Election Day and helped to prosecute individuals who violated the law. Seventy hired attorney Thomas Raeburn White, an expert on election law, and proceeded to collect evidence to ensure convictions. In 1906, Raeburn White testified in Harrisburg in support of ward realignment. Seventy enjoyed early success, having over one hundred elections officers and Republican ward leaders indicted on charges ranging from stuffing the ballot box to buying votes with shots of whiskey. As a result of the prosecutions, each of the ballot box stuffers who were convicted received 2 year sentences.
Similarly, before the Personal Registration Act of 1906, local newspapers and reformers estimated that the number of fraudulently registered voters in the city numbered between 30,000 and 80,000. These fraud votes consisted of forged signatures that included dead people, children and non-naturalized foreigners.
In 1909, Seventy's investigations revealed that 108 policemen had violated the Election Code by standing inside polling places and, in some instances, subjected poll workers to brutal assaults and unwarranted arrests. Many of these officers were later fired. By using the existing laws to clean up elections in Philadelphia, Seventy won citywide respect and forced the Republican Machine to develop new schemes for fixing the vote. In the 1911 election, the Committee investigated more than 1,500 alleged violations of the Shern Law and filed complaints against police officers and other city employees with the appropriate head of department. Despite these efforts, no action was ever taken against the offenders.
Seventy’s Election Day oversight was needed even more because of a giant increase in Philadelphia’s population. The city’s population had continued to grow in the 1920’s at approximately the same rate (20 percent) as it had in the early post-bellum period. This thus resulted in Philadelphia ’s population to rise from 1,000,000 in 1890 to almost 2,000,000 by 1930. In 1910, Seventy concluded an investigation regarding illegal voter assistance during the 1909 election. They also finished conducting an ongoing review of voter registration lists to strike invalid names. The Committee was able to get convictions and one year sentences for numerous violators. In addition to its efforts to clean up elections, Seventy also successfully advocated for the 1913 creation of the Philadelphia Municipal Court.
Furthermore, by 1916, the Committee had nearly 5,000 volunteers to monitor the city’s electoral processes, aided by the Committee’s offering rewards for information leading to the arrest of election law violators. The Committee also reinforced election-related legislation by sending warning letters to municipal officials. The Committee’s work was aided substantially by the inauguration of Mayor Blankenburg in 1911; Blankenburg proved much more responsive to the Committee’s agitation for reform than the previous mayor. Indeed, during Blankenburg’s term, 187 civil service employees were discharged for electoral law violations.
Perhaps one of the highlights of the Committee’s first 20 years was its first Charter reform in 1919; the chairman of the Charter Reform Committee was Seventy’s then-chairman, John C. Winston. The 1919 charter is widely considered Philadelphia ’s first “modern” charter and was created with the intention of correcting issues such as under-representation in certain districts, and the contracting of municipal services, such as garbage collection, to private companies. The 1919 Charter revised the city council system by decreasing membership, limiting terms, and restricting council members to that single municipal position. The charter also ensured that municipal services such as street maintenance, garbage collection, and city repairs were the responsibility of the city, and not to be assigned to individuals on contract. The punishment by fine or imprisonment for politically corrupt activities by city employees was formally documented, and municipal agencies were placed under the authority of the city’s controller and thus independent of mayoral control. The 1919 Charter also required the mayor to submit an annual budget to the City Council to be reviewed in public hearings, and instituted a Department of Social Welfare to aid individual citizens. In essence, the 1919 Charter was designed to eliminate many of the predominant methods of political corruption such as had been the focus of the Committee since its 1904 inception.
Seventy’s “City Party”
As a second strategy for civic reform, Seventy employed an unusual measure for a nonpartisan organization: it established and financed its own independent political party in 1905. The “City Party’s” formation played a major role in harnessing the reform insurgency that hit Philadelphia following Durham ’s proposal to lease the city’s gas works to UGI. Seventy's "City Party" financed and managed candidates in six elections and succeeded in electing reform-minded citizens to municipal office. Despite the success of this endeavor, Seventy disbanded the party after 1907, when it learned that such direct participation in electoral politics jeopardized its non-partisan status.
Seventy also sought to improve elections and government in Philadelphia by drafting and lobbying for reform legislation in Harrisburg (the City's laws were in the hands of State legislators until 1949). Seventy's efforts were instrumental in winning key election and civil service reforms, and in the creation of a municipal court for Philadelphia . After several years of lobbying for a revised form of government in Philadelphia , Seventy won a major victory with the passage of a new charter for the City in 1919. This charter incorporated many of Seventy's proposals for reform. The centralization of power in the hands of a much smaller City Council and the increase in the City's ability to operate its own public works was a step forward in tracking responsibility.
A Push for Honest Elections: 1920-1939
As an organization, the Committee of Seventy changed little in the 1920s. It attempted to strengthen its ties to other civic organizations in Philadelphia and chose to diversify its membership by including women.
Early in the 1920s, the Committee of Seventy began to expand its scope of interest to include City finances as part of its concern for good government. At first, Seventy reviewed public works contracts that the City granted to private businesses. For many years, Philadelphia taxpayers had paid exorbitant sums for the construction and management of second-rate public works, such as the trolley and subway systems. Much of the money went to line the pockets of Republican bosses and select businessmen. Acting as a fiscal watchdog, Seventy went public with its criticism of fraudulent contracts and excessive spending.
Although Seventy had some success reforming Philadelphia 's elections in the first part of the century, many problems remained. Seventy continued to monitor elections in the 1920s and 1930s, and it acted on complaints received during each election. Cases were prepared and presented to the District Attorney if sufficient evidence was available to pursue a conviction. Seventy’s investigation of the 1926 U.S. Senatorial contest ended with the ouster of the newly elected Republican boss William Vare on charges of voter fraud. The Senate refused to seat Vare because his family had a notorious reputation for fraudulent voter registration, purchase of votes from poor citizens, and ballot-box stuffing, among other illegal practices. After three years of investigation and delay Vare was still denied his seat in the U.S. Senate, due to the fact that he had spent too lavishly on the Republican primary. The public awareness of Vare Machine misconduct can be accounted to the efforts of the Committee.
Between 1925 and 1927, Seventy secured the convictions of approximately forty registrars and election officers on Election Code violations. Seventy also continued to push for long-term election reform through legislation. Because of the efforts of Seventy, the procedures for voter registration were tightened to discourage vote fraud through the misuse of registration binders.
As an extension of its concern for honest elections, Seventy launched a campaign in 1928 to have mechanical voting machines installed in every Philadelphia voting division. Seventy argued that the machines would standardize voting procedures across the city, and would eliminate some methods of falsifying election returns. Against the stiff opposition of the Republican-controlled County Commission, the agency in charge of elections, Seventy eventually prevailed. Although voting machines would not be installed city-wide until 1946, they were used in most wards in the 1930s.
In the 1930s, Seventy sued to stop the political manipulations of Mayor S. David Wilson with the City's Sinking Fund and gas works and even drew up plans by which the City could relieve its indebtedness. In the 1930s, Seventy also made an effort to recruit young citizens, recognizing that many of its members were elderly veterans of the reform movement. These new members worked as volunteers to collect and analyze data on numerous topics, and gave Seventy the ability to conduct its investigations at little expense. Seventy received some of its funding from foundation grants, but members continued to supply the majority of the funds for its operating budget. Moreover, near the end of the decade, Seventy also organized a War Time Round Table to discuss the issues surrounding WWII on the radio.
Recruiting Community Support: 1940-1959
The Committee of Seventy continued to monitor elections in Philadelphia throughout the 1940s and 1950s. As Seventy began to recruit hundreds of high school and college students, for its election day efforts, it was able to patrol the City's polling places more thoroughly. Seventy also worked to ensure the accuracy of the election count by sending staff and volunteers to inspect municipal voting machines prior to each election and to observe the official recounts of election returns. Election fraud remained in Philadelphia : in 1945 and 1953, Seventy's investigations uncovered thousands of fraudulent signatures on the nominating petitions of various candidates. In 1952, Seventy sponsored a successful voter registration drive, bringing 162,000 new Philadelphians into the electoral process. In 1956, Seventy prompted a federal investigation of illegal voting in one city ward and was able to compel the purging 136,000 invalid registrations citywide.
Working Through Philadelphia ’s Economic Distress
By the 1940s, Philadelphia was in desperate financial straits as was the rest of the country after the unbelievable blow of the Great Depression. This correlation between Philadelphia ’s wellbeing and the state of the rest of the country was expressed in the Committee’s 1941 literature piece, “What Makes It Tick?” “History shows that in times like these, when the public’s attention is centered on national affairs, local governments have been able to take unwise steps in the administration of their affairs because of the relative lack of public interest. The cost and results of these unsound actions is usually felt for many years after the national emergency is over. Our Committee is an effective brake against this type of opportunism” (What Makes It Tick?)
Burdened by its huge $500 million debt and a $44 million budget deficit, the City was spending almost half of its revenues to service its debt. Inefficient management of municipal government worked to waste the remaining revenues. Seventy continued to advocate sound fiscal planning for the City. It fought the City's attempts to impose unfair taxes on the population and proposed specific methods by which the City could improve the operation of its government. When the Mayor and City Council commissioned a thorough investigation of Philadelphia's financial situation in 1947, Seventy carefully monitored its progress. This investigatory group, "The Committee of Fifteen," uncovered a web of embezzlements, bribery, vice, and ties among machine politicians and city officials that confirmed Seventy's own findings. The revelations of the Committee of Fifteen prompted the radical reshaping of Philadelphia government under the 1951 Home Rule Charter.
As one of the premier civic reform groups in the City, Seventy had a prominent role in the formulation of the Home Rule Charter. It rallied public sentiment for the new charter, testified several times in the hearings of the Charter Commission, proposed a comprehensive plan for reorganizing the government of Philadelphia, and lobbied hard for the implementation of its recommendations. Ironically, the passage of the Home Rule Charter represented both the culmination of Seventy's municipal reform work and Seventy's greatest defeat.
Representatives of Seventy found themselves outnumbered by those who favored the strong-mayor form of municipal government and the Charter Commission rejected a substantial portion of Seventy's recommendations. Even so, after the passage of the Home Rule Charter in 1951, Seventy demanded enforcement of the provisions of the new Charter and helped to defeat three separate attempts to amend it.
In the 1940s, Seventy expanded its focus from elections and municipal finances to a general concern for the structure and function of Philadelphia government. Its work on the Home Rule Charter is but one example of this evolution into a public policy organization. Seventy first emerged as a general civic watchdog when it challenged the city's Civil Service Commission in 1938. Throughout the next decade, Seventy battled this agency to institute uniform hiring practices for municipal employees and to eliminate inaccurate scoring of the civil service examinations. Later, in the 1950s, Seventy launched a vigorous but unsuccessful campaign to reform Philadelphia 's Traffic Court .
Reform Through Education
Beginning in the 1940s, Seventy also made a major effort to educate Philadelphia 's youth and adults about their civic responsibilities. Voter turnout in the City's elections was low and public support for municipal reform was waning, Through its educational outreach, Seventy sought to teach Philadelphians about their local government and to increase the number of active voters, leading to the election of more competent City officials. To reach the City's students, Seventy worked with the school district to develop a comprehensive program of civic education for its students. In 1943, Seventy developed a series of local radio debates on civic issues featuring panels of high school students—the "Junior Town Meetings of the Air." These debates won national acclaim and were soon duplicated in 160 cities across the country. Several of Seventy's members also helped to establish the Youth Civic Council, a civic reform organization for high school and college students. For adults, Seventy produced a' series of radio broadcasts entitled Your Right to Vote for station KYW, published a series of articles in the Germantown Courier, and offered a course in Practical Politics free of charge to civic and professional organizations. In 1943, Seventy began to publish a monthly newsletter called Civic Affairs, which discussed issues of local government. By 1952, Seventy distributed almost five thousand copies each month. The Committee of Seventy celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1954 and was awarded the Lane Bryant Award in that year for public service to the citizens of Philadelphia .
Reorganizing and Revitalizing the Election Process: 1960-1969
In the 1960s, Seventy's energies were directed towards winning two major improvements in Philadelphia’s electoral system: the realignment of the City’s wards, and the reapportionment of the state legislative districts. The Reapportionment Act of 1965 gave Philadelphia voters equal representation in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, a privilege long denied the City by a state legislature biased against urban areas. The Ward Realignment Plan of the same year increased the number of wards, loosened the grip of Center City ward leaders on the Democratic and Republican parties, and enabled residents of other areas of the City to have a greater voice in party affairs. Both of these reforms were enacted only after years of political and legal battles, and considerable effort on Seventy's part.
Taking an Academic Approach: 1970-1989
In the 1970s and 1980s, Seventy's commitment to civic education took on a new form. Seventy sought to educate Philadelphians about their government and about elections primarily through its publications: the Governance Studies, the How to Run for Political Office handbook, the How to Vote and Guide to the Conduct of Polling Places pamphlets, and Seventy's annual Election Calendar, which is distributed to over 50,000 voters in the Delaware Valley. Representatives of Seventy also furthered its non-partisan education efforts through speaking engagements, radio, and television appearances. Seventy also began its partnership with the International Visitors Council, serving as a professional resource for the State Department’s Leadership Program which brings rising international leaders to the United States to discuss a wide range of issues, including the democratic process, municipal governance, and economic development policy.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Seventy acted as civic watchdog on two recurring issues. The organization worked to defeat several attempts by City Council to increase its own salary and pension benefits, and joined with other good government groups to denounce the proposed increases as unnecessary and overly generous. Seventy has also taken action many times to ensure that municipal employees refrain from engaging in partisan political activity, as mandated by Philadelphia’s Charter.
Preservation of Democracy instead of Choosing Sides
Over the years, Seventy had established such a reputation of non-partisan activism that it was called upon by both sides in the highly-charged 1976 effort to recall Mayor Frank Rizzo to supervise the counting of the recall petition signatures. In 1978, Seventy launched an all-out campaign to save the Charter from those who sought to change it, and emerged as a leading voice in one of the most important political battles of the time. Nearing the end of his second term, Mayor Frank Rizzo advocated amending the charter provision limiting the Mayor of Philadelphia to two terms. Some believed that this move was Rizzo's attempt to secure a third term in office. However, Seventy had long opposed this type of piecemeal Charter change, and it viewed the situation as a strong challenge to the integrity of the Charter, and to comprehensive reform efforts. It began a two-year program of research, radio and television appearances, public speeches, and non-partisan info informational pamphlets discussing the proposed amendment. The electorate of Philadelphia ultimately voted to defeat the amendment in referendum. By focusing attention on the merits of the proposed Charter change rather than on its political implications, Seventy shaped public debate on the two-term limit.
In the late 1970s, Seventy sought an additional electoral reform: the redrawing of Philadelphia's voting divisions to reflect recent shifts in the City's population. This reform was intended to equalize the number of voters in each division, and save money for the City. When the City would not redraw its voting divisions voluntarily, Seventy sued. Seventy won the lawsuit after an eight-year legal battle, and the new divisions were established in time for the April 1988 Presidential Primary.
Conducting Studies
Seventy moved into a new phase of activity in 1979 when it began an intensive research project on municipal governance in Philadelphia . Studies in this "Governance Project" identified the major problems in the structure of the City's government, evaluated the problems, and proposed solutions. Studying each municipal department and agency in turn, Seventy amassed a comprehensive body of objective information on the way government functions in Philadelphia . Governance studies on economic development, housing, the port, municipal utilities, civil service and personnel, transportation, and the state judicial system were published. Seventy also published advocacy pieces on the Philadelphia school system and the port. To improve its research efforts, Seventy initiated a program called the “Practicum” in 1976. This program hired salaried student interns each year to research and report on matters of political and governmental importance in the City. Each of Seventy's Governance Studies originated in the Practicum.
In 1983, The Committee of Seventy finished its first statewide governance study, the Judicial Selection Governance Study. To carry on the work of statewide judicial reform that it first addressed in this study, Seventy helped to create a permanent, independent, statewide organization, Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, to work for long-term structural reform in the judicial system of Pennsylvania. The new organization began its first full year of operation in 1988 and is still thriving to this day. Seventy remains active in this endeavor as the group continues to grow.
By the 1980s, Seventy had recognized that the mechanical voting machines it had successfully advocated for in the 1930s were nearing the end of their useful life and it was time to upgrade to state of the art voting technology. This would therefore provide a higher degree of reliability and greatly reduce the cost of maintenance and storage. Thus began the long campaign of public education, research and consensus building which would be necessary to get both city officials and citizens to approve of a significant public expense for equipment which is used just twice per year, but whose reliability is an essential component in choosing a legitimate democratic government.
Making Politics User-Friendly: 1990-1999
In the 1990s, Seventy continued to advocate for electronic voting and began to take advantage of new technologies to inform the electorate and decision makers on a regular basis.
In September 1995, The City of Philadelphia Election Reform Task Force issued its Final Report, concluding that the city "should move as expeditiously as feasible to procure a Direct Recording Electronic ("DRE") system with full ballot-face display capability, paper audit-trail printing, and a physically durable design."
In October 1996, a new publication, News You Can Use , was launched primarily as a fax-based newsletter addressing current events with a non-partisan voice. As e-mail became more widely available, News You Can Use subscribers receive almost instant publication. This same year, Seventy was an early entry into the Internet age as evidenced by the simplicity of our website name (www.seventy.org). The Internet has been a major advance in Seventy’s efforts to provide civic education and empower the public.
In 1998, Philadelphia voters approved the purchase of new machines. The city then formed another blue ribbon task force, the Voting Machine Procurement Team, to work out the details. This team, like the Election Reform Task Force, also consisted of a mix of experts from the public and private sectors, including the Committee of Seventy .
In the second half of the 1990s, Seventy also directed its energy to addressing the significant issues of public education and policing. In Governance Matters: School Reform for the Urban District (1997) , Seventy revisited the work of its 1981 Study No School Today, advocating for a “strong-mayor” model of school governance to increase accountability and streamline decision making within the school district. In the Philadelphia Police Department Governance Study (1998), Seventy reviewed the history and development of the Philadelphia Police Department and relied upon comparative analysis of the police departments of the twenty largest U.S. cities to identify a number of reforms which have the potential to enhance policing in Philadelphia.
Expanding to all of Pennsylvania : 2000-Present
The new millennium has seen the expansion in the scope of Seventy’s constituency to include all residents of the Commonwealth. For most of its history, the focus was solely on the City of Philadelphia and upon Harrisburg to the extent that decisions made at the state capital affected Philadelphians. The addition of the Suburban Supplement to the Election Calendar marked the beginning of service to surrounding communities in the four adjacent Counties and the publication of the Judicial Selection Governance Study in 1983 represented its first effort to serve all Pennsylvanians. While Philadelphia will always be the central focus for Seventy, its role as a statewide educational resource is a source of pride and satisfaction and the number of information requests from around the Commonwealth continue to increase.
In 2000, Seventy revisited the issue of judicial merit selection in Who Chooses? The Need for Judicial Reform in Pennsylvania.() This study used a focus group and survey to measure the extent to which most voters in judicial elections lacked information about the candidates and to support the position that a merit based appointment system would not deprive the electorate the opportunity to make info informed choices about who should serve on the judiciary. The recommended reform advocates nomination of candidates for appointment by a bipartisan commission, selection among qualified nominees by the chief executive for a limited initial term, and finally retention in a public election where the voters can make an informed choice based on the judge’s professional record. This proposal enjoys the support of a wide range of reformers in the state government, the judiciary, and the organized bar, and Seventy is working to expand this coalition and preparing for an opportunity
In early 2002, a massive public education campaign lead by Seventy and the City Commissioners helped Philadelphians adjust to the age of electronic voting. In May 2002, the Danaher ELECTronic 1242 machines made their debut in a closely contested Gubernatorial Primary Election. The machines and the tabulation equipment worked very well and the results of most races were known well before the 11:00 pm newscast. The machines have performed just as well in four subsequent elections and Philadelphia can fairly be considered a national model for election efficiency and accuracy.
Making Pennsylvania Politics More Accessible
In 2002, Seventy also created a comprehensive electoral database covering every Pennsylvania County. Entitled 67@Seventy, this section of the website contained very detailed profiles of every county, including demographic information, election results and voter registration statistics. For over thirty variables the counties are ranked to facilitate comparison. Contact information for elected officials, election officials, political party offices and the local media is also provided, and Seventy plans to frequently update and add new information the site, so that it becomes a progressively more valuable resource for voters, candidates, the media, students and academics. Last year also saw the development of the first issue of The Committee of Seventy Democracy Leadership Kit , a fully linked online empowerment resource which is updated for every election and designed to help community and political leaders register voters and get out the vote on Election Day.
In 2003, Seventy redesigned its website to be more user-friendly by reorganizing the more than 400 pages of maps, stats, articles, publications and election materials on the site. News You Can Use now reaches over eighteen hundred subscribers, including many from around the Commonwealth who would not have known of Seventy prior to the World Wide Web. The increased capacity of the redesigned site is also facilitating an ongoing effort to expand the historical resources available to the public, students and educators.
In recent months, the Committee of Seventy has also embarked on a comprehensive study of the Commerce Court Program of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. The primary objectives of this study are to identify further opportunities for judicial efficiency, determine which aspects of the existing program can serve as models for other Pennsylvania jurisdictions, and publicize the availability of the program as an efficient dispute resolution mechanism for the business community.
This year also marks the beginning of preparation for a very special event, the Centennial anniversary of The Committee of Seventy . A number of programs and publications are planned and this should be a very exciting and productive year for Seventy’s members, staff, volunteers and friends.
Commemorate Seventy’s Centennial on Election Day
Friends of Seventy are also reminded that Election Day is November 2, 2004 and in honor of our Centennial and to meet the demands of this Presidential election year - where nearly 600,000 voters are expected to go to the polls in Philadelphia , Seventy is commencing a major volunteer recruitment drive. This will be the first Presidential election since electronic voting was implemented in Philadelphia and new regulations mandated by the Help America Vote Act will be in effect for the first time in a General Election. Seventy’s Board and staff are asking everyone who is able to donate a few hours of their time on November 2nd to sign up as a Committee of Seventy volunteer and serve with a field team or as an office volunteer
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