What happens when Philly's most controversial developer runs for City Council

Point Breeze is about to become the epicenter of what may be the strangest, most expensive and, perhaps, the most dramatic City Council race Philadelphia has seen in a long time. The contest has already morphed into a referendum on gentrification, as pugnacious developer Ori Feibush bragged last week about plans to raise $2 million to defeat 2nd Council District incumbent Kenyatta Johnson, whom the challenger has tried to paint as a crony politician who holds back development.

With the Democratic primary still more than a year away, Feibush’s early posturing was likely intended as a warning shot to Johnson, who has been viewed as a weak incumbent since his razor-thin victory in 2011. But it also caught the attention of members of the city’s political circles, who say the young real-estate mogul’s candidacy could be undercut by political inexperience and potential ethical quandaries that stem from his business interests. Feibush, whose company, OCF Realty, has built and sold dozens of homes in Point Breeze, vigorously countered those characterizations.

Let’s begin with the money — $2 million is a particularly large number for a district Council race, where the average candidate typically drops about $100,000 to $200,000. To an untrained political observer, Feibush’s pledge to raise $2 million could seem like either brash ambition or a gambit to “buy” the election. But veteran political observers simply laughed.

“I don’t know where you get to that number and I don’t know what you’d even do with that money,” said Adam Bonin, a local attorney who specializes in campaign finance law. “He’s telling political figures that he’s amateur.”

Bonin says that the small number of voters in a City Council district (fewer than 17,000 of the approximate 150,000 residents in the 2nd District turned out for the last Council primary election) severely limits the amount of cash that’s useful in campaigns. Saturating neighborhoods with political advertising can backfire because “voters start to tune out” repeated messaging, he said. 

Another source familiar with City Council said that while he believed that Feibush would exhaust his donors’ generosity well before reaching his goal, $500,000 to $600,000 was generally considered to be the maximum amount that is useful for such a narrowly defined election.

Others commented that making a bold announcement so early in a Council race was foolish because it riled opponents who view Feibush as the face of gentrification and gave more motivation to Johnson to focus on his own fundraising. Feibush was unfazed by all these points.

“No one has ever gone to war complaining that they had too much ammunition,” he said, responding in an email. He added that his backers, who include a number of realtors and contractors with business in the 2nd District, were continuing to donate.

The developer described himself as attempting to orchestrate an upset victory against established political interests by running a wildly unconventional campaign. Feibush said he would buy TV time and push for support among younger voters who typically ignore local races by opening “10 or 11 campaign offices” across the district, which includes about half of South Philly and nearly all of Southwest Philly.

But a political hopeful’s ability to raise or spend a lot of money is ultimately less important than whether or not they can be a good, ethical candidate for office. Lawyers like Bonin, who has defended Council members in ethics proceedings, aren’t so sure about Feibush.

“I don’t see how he can remain a developer and sit on Council. Councilpeople have a great deal of sway over the developments that occur in their district,” said Bonin. “Whether it’s approving stuff that benefits him and his company, or screwing over opponents, there’s a lot of potential for real problems here.”

Bonin cited councilmanic prerogative, the unwritten ability of council members to have final say over development in their district, and City Charter rules that prohibit city employees from profiting from city contracts as particularly thorny issues. When asked what he thought Feibush could do to present himself as an impartial candidate, Bonin took a long pause.

“Sell [his] company to a disinterested third party,” he said.

From a purely legal standpoint, Bonin is being strict. Although the city’s Board of Ethics declined to speculate on specific issues presented by Feibush’s candidacy, a board official indicated that the rules were clear for legislators with financial interests.

“If something … requires Council action and that councilperson has a financial interest in it, he or she needs to recuse themselves,” said Michael Cooke, director of enforcement at the Ethics Board. “That’s what’s required by law.”

Feibush responded that he would not only recuse himself, but also accept a host of other self-imposed restrictions. He promised OCF Realty would cease bidding on city-owned land, he would resign after serving a single, four-year term, and would voluntarily forgo councilmanic privilege. He said he believes these steps would actually make him more ethical than sitting councilpeople.

“I believe that councilmanic privilege is an anachronism and should be abolished,” he wrote in an email. “As a councilman, I would not involve myself in the decision-making of who gets to purchase any city lots nor the zoning process of any individual property.”

Feibush also said he would refuse political donations from developers, if elected, and would take blocks of city-owned land to open auction. He criticized the recent transfer of public land to affordable housing developer Innova, whose president donated $1,000 to Johnson in October 2013, as a common practice for sitting council people. 

The councilman’s office called the accusation “baseless” and said the developer was selected out of a group of affordable housing agencies through an opening bidding process managed by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority.

However, Bonin and others say that even if the developer’s assurances sound like they exceed the baseline for ethical conduct, they were hardly reassuring. In fact, they raised even more questions about how effective a councilman Feibush could be if he were unable to use a power other pols take for granted.

“Being a councilman is about all the issues that face the district, not just councilmanic prerogative,” he said.

Another source close to Council said, even assuming Feibush had purely virtuous intentions, that it might be impossible to ever truly quell public skepticism.

“When you’re a sitting city councilperson, you’re not on a level playing field with anyone. You have people who might normally oppose your [development] who will now be afraid to oppose you because you’re a councilman,” she said. “You have to pick. You either want to be a developer or you want to be a district councilperson.”