7th PDAC hears from
city’s financial watchdog

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

With the Philadelphia mayoral campaign and several hotly contested City Council races in their final stages, a lot of folks have turned their attention to local politics for the moment.
But it’s been business as usual for City Controller Alan Butkovitz, whose job is to keep a close watch on city government long after elections are over. Butkovitz shared many of his latest findings with members of the 7th Police District Advisory Council on Oct. 18 during the group’s monthly meeting at Boulevard Diner.
When it comes to public safety, the city’s fiscal watchdog believes that no expense should be spared when it comes to enabling police to protect citizens and themselves from violence.
"Our police are being forced because of a lack of backup into situations that are unacceptable," said Butkovitz, referring to the city’s generally acknowledged shortage of patrol officers.
Whereas in some suburban communities, even a so-called routine car stop warrants response from four or five police cars, he said, police in Philadelphia often find themselves doing it with little or no immediate backup.
He offered the killing of 15th district Officer Gary Skerski as an example. One night in May 2006, Skerski and a partner responded to an armed robbery at a Northwood bar. Skerski’s partner watched the front door while Skerski went around to a side door.
As Skerski entered, the robber wounded him fatally in the neck and head with a shotgun. The assailant then fired at Skerski’s partner as he fled the scene before other police arrived. The suspect remained on the lam for 10 days before his capture.
Butkovitz thinks there should be more uniformed officers available in the city’s neighborhoods. That could mean hiring more police or re-assigning officers from specialty units to patrol duties.
"We’re going to do a review of deployment patterns," Butkovitz assured PDAC members.
The controller views the controversial "stop-and-frisk" proposal as another positive public safety measure. A stop-and-frisk law would allow police to search paroled convicts, that is, those former prison inmates still under supervision of the court system.
City Councilman Brian O’Neill, whose district includes most of the 7th Police District, has called for public debate in Council on the topic. Civil liberties advocates have challenged the constitutionality of such a law.
Butkovitz, who is an attorney, doesn’t think stop-and-frisk violates a parolee’s privacy rights.
"It is not a civil liberties issue because criminals on parole are not regular citizens," he said, explaining that stop-and-frisk laws in other states have been upheld by the courts.
The controller estimates that there are 50,000 Philadelphia residents on parole. An even smaller group would be subject to a stop-and-frisk law, he added. However, the result would be much larger, he claims, as individuals with prior criminal records commit more than 70 percent of the homicides in Philadelphia.
Butkovitz further argues that a Philadelphia stop-and-frisk law would send a message to state legislators that the city is serious about addressing violent crime. Legislators, in turn, might be more willing to support state-level initiatives like stronger gun control within the city.
Switching topics, Butkovitz reported that short staffing is a problem throughout city government. Fire department rescue squads are struggling to keep up with demand for emergency medical services, while the Department of Licenses and Inspections is 50 percent understaffed, he said.
The School District of Philadelphia faces the challenge of reining in a large budgetary deficit and managing billions of dollars of debt incurred under the direction of recently departed CEO Paul Vallas, Butkovitz said.
Vallas, who is now running schools in New Orleans, convinced the district to borrow $2.7 billion for a building program that he said would result in 75 "new" school buildings, the controller claimed.
"Later, we learned that it would take seven billion dollars just to fix the existing schools," Butkovitz said. "We got five new schools, not seventy-five."
Butkovitz was long skeptical of Vallas’ seemingly continuous plea for more school funding despite seeing the annual budget increase from $1.5 billion to $2.2 billion in his tenure.
"The more he got, the more he spent," Butkovitz said. "The school district’s deficit at the start of this year was as large as the city’s was in 1991 when it enacted the one-percent sales tax."
Unfortunately, he continued, most folks weren’t critical of Vallas’ fiscal policies sooner.
"We were really alone for a very long time in this fight," the controller said.
Butkovitz, a Castor Gardens resident and former state representative, wants to hear directly from residents about any problems they encounter with city facilities or services. The controller’s hot line is 215-686-8888.
"We need specific kinds of information about neighborhood deterioration," he said. "We’re trying to put the (problems) on a map so we can figure out trends of things that need attention."
• The 7th PDAC honored the district’s Officers of the Month for July and August.
Officer Stephen Gantz earned the July award for chasing down two car theft suspects on foot. The vehicle, a Mercury Mountaineer, was reported stolen from the 10600 block of Evans St. on July 3. That evening, Gantz spotted the SUV parked near the 11000 block of Haldeman Ave. Two males were inside.
When Gantz approached the vehicle, the occupants jumped out and ran to a nearby pet store, where the officer arrested them.
Also in July, Gantz arrested a summer school student who showed up at George Washington High School carrying a knife.
Officer Joseph Walker won the August award for foiling a burglary on the 9800 block of Clark St. The crime occurred on the evening of Aug. 3. When Walker arrived at the scene, a victim met him outside and informed him that an unknown man was inside the home.
Walker entered the home, went upstairs and found the place ransacked. The burglar was still there, too. Walker arrested him on the spot.
• Capt. Joseph Zaffino, the police district commander, reported that the district is planning to organize a fund-raiser after the new year for the families of slain Loomis armored-car guards Joe Alullo and Bill Widmaier.
Both guards were retired Philadelphia police officers who worked in the 7th district. An armed robber shot both men to death next to an automated teller machine at a Wachovia Bank branch at Bustleton and Bleigh avenues on Oct. 4.
Details about the fund-raiser will be forthcoming, Zaffino said. ••
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com