A six-figure salary for doing half the work

City Commissioners have only two big jobs to do. But when they are up for re-election, they are permitted to do only one.

2014 primary election day in Philly
Mark Stehle

Next year, if the three Philadelphia City Commissioners run for re-election as expected, they will be prohibited by state law from performing their most important role: running the Board of Elections.

However, they still will be entitled to receive their full salaries — $134,000 for the commission chair and $125,000 each for the other two commissioners. For this pay, they will perform their only other duty, overseeing voter registration in Philadelphia.

Decrying full pay for less than half the work, the Committee of Seventy has once again called on the commissioners to voluntarily reduce their salaries during the years they are up for election, and to announce their candidacies early. The committee made similar entreaties in 2007 and 2011, to no avail.

"We have commissioners that are making full salaries during the year in which they are working significantly less than full time," said Ellen Kaplan, interim CEO of the local government watchdog group. "That's a slap in the face of taxpayers in this town."

In letters sent last month, Seventy called on all three commissioners to reduce their salaries "by a reasonable amount when you are not performing your job."

Only Commissioner Al Schmidt, a Republican said to have designs on higher office, has pledged to take a 25-percent pay cut. Schmidt already reduces his salary by 10 percent in the form of a treasurer's levy, which is the somewhat-convoluted procedure for city officials who want to voluntarily reduce their pay.

Commissioner Stephanie Singer said she has no plans to reduce her salary if she runs. Instead, the Democrat intends "to keep working full time between continuing the voter registration, education acti­vities and focusing on the registration commission." Singer also mentioned her role as the Democratic co-chair of the Elections Re­form Committee of the County Commissioner Association of Penn­sylvania (CCAP). That committee is one of the CCAP's 25 committees.

The Commission's other Democrat, Chairman Anthony Clark, did not respond to City Paper's requests for comment.

All three are up for re-election in 2015 and, should they run, Court of Common Pleas President Judge Sheila Woods-Skipper will select judges to supervise the city elections, for extra pay. The judges would oversee the logistics of operating over 1,600 polling places, 109 full-time employees, 239 part-time election aides, approximately 8,435 election-day poll workers and countless accusations of partisan tomfoolery. That's in addition to their regular judicial duties.

Kaplan called the current system "anachronistic" and expressed support for abolishing it and replacing the elected offices with ap­pointees, which would resolve the conflict of interest that affects the commissioners during re-elections. Such a reform would require City Council to propose an amendment to the City Charter, which would then be presented to voters for ratification as a ballot question.

In a follow-up email, Singer said she would support a change in the law, reducing the City Commissioners' salaries during re-election bids, "in the context of wider public understanding of the duties of the City Commissioners."

Schmidt said his decision to reduce his salary was personal, and would not ask other commissioners to do the same, or even for the law to be changed, because "there are all sorts of data and management of the department besides serving on the Board of Elections."
For her part, Singer does not agree with Seventy's call to make the office unelected. "If you ask the voters of Philadelphia," she wrote, "they will tell you that they don't want to give up their right to vote for this office. They are not in favor of more appointed officials."

Over the years, most of the City Commis­sioners' other duties have been transferred to other offices, leaving just voter registration and election administration.

In interviews, neither Schmidt nor Singer — both in their first term — seemed exactly sure what actions they could or could not per­form while running for re-election. The Elec­tion Code does not specify which duties the com­missioners may not perform. Schmidt said that only official policy decisions would be effected, but Singer was concerned that hiring and firing decisions would be included. Singer emailed the Law Department seeking clarification, but has yet to receive an official response.

When asked why she felt it was necessary to put in a request with the city soli­citor instead of asking Clark, the chair, Sing­er said, "Commissioner Clark does not answer my phone calls. And he very rarely has."

"It's the city solicitor's opinion that protects me," she added.

Neither Singer nor Schmidt would say whether they intended to run for re-election — Schmidt cited Board of Ethics guidelines regarding what constitutes a declaration of candidacy in explaining his caution — but all three commissioners are widely expected to run again. Kaplan noted that the law says "year" in which they are running, which arguably would mean the calendar year, "so, as of January 1, any one of the three, or all three, [who are running] are not supposed to be making decisions."