They are lawyers, veteran police commanders, advocates for children and charity; a high school principal and a former human-services commissioner. One ran for office before; one is running now.
More than 100 people are on a transition team announced Thursday and tasked with helping Philadelphia Mayor-elect Jim Kenney hire personnel and prepare to take office.
State Rep. Dwight Evans, who this week declared a run for Congress against embattled incumbent Chaka Fattah, is to cochair the transition committee along with Alba Martinez, former city human services commissioner. Jessie Bradley, who worked on Mayor Nutter’s 2007 campaign, is transition director and the only paid member of the large squad.
“These groups will be focused on ensuring objectivity, community involvement, diversity, and excellence in the Kenney administration’s policies and personnel,” spokeswoman Lauren Hitt said in an email announcing the names.
Some members will focus on hiring – including vetting current city employees reapplying – some only on policy, some both. Hitt said some 200 resumés have come in.
A steering committee for the team includes former City Solicitor Ken Trujillo and Estelle Richman, whose career in government has included tenures as city managing director and state welfare secretary.
Trujillo, who ran briefly for mayor but pulled out for personal reasons, said his goal was to have everything lined up so that when Kenney’s administration takes office Jan. 4, the mayor can hit the ground running on his policy ideas.
“I’m not looking to get anything out of this other than having the best possible government,” Trujillo said.
It was only after he quit the mayor’s race – and City Council President Darrell L. Clarke decided not to run – that Kenney saw an opening and launched his campaign.
“Jim and I have developed a very good relationship. He and I have similar minds to the talents we choose,” Trujillo said, a reference to his campaign staff that went on to work for Kenney. “We saw a lot of things very similarly.”
Evans, too, figured in a pivotal moment of the campaign. The longtime Democratic legislator was the most prominent of several African American political leaders who endorsed Kenney over five other candidates in the May 19 Democratic primary.
The transition team announced Thursday is sprawling, with committees on everything from education and economic development to safety, environment and sustainability, immigrant and multicultural affairs, and planning for next summer’s Democratic convention.
Kenney is to sit with the team Friday to take reporters’ questions. On Thursday, many members were hesitant to talk about the process or said it was too early to know their exact marching orders.
Sister Mary Scullion, executive director of Project HOME, is on the human services committee and tasked to look at hiring. She said that applicants from near and far are interviewing, and that the committee has talked of seeking “experience, vision, ability to manage significant budgets.”
Also on the team are two Philadelphia police alums: SEPTA Police Chief Thomas Nestel and Maureen S. Rush, vice president for safety at the University of Pennsylvania. The lawyers include civil-rights expert David Rudovsky and government ethicist Ellen Mattleman Kaplan. Among the educators: Otis Hackney, principal of South Philadelphia High School.
Members focused on policy will serve in advisory roles until a transition report is released in January, Hitt said. Others will stay on to advise as recommendations are implemented. Those assisting with hiring will serve until Jan. 4.
Some committees have begun work; cochairmen Evans and Martinez were in the office most weekends this summer, Hitt said. Others are just starting.
After Nutter’s election in 2007, he named a transition team with seven cochairmen, an executive director and a lawyer, but opted not to release the full list of members. Two of his cochairmen – Nilda Ruiz, president and CEO of Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha, and Common Pleas Judge Ida Chen – are also on Kenney’s list.
Donna Cooper, executive director of Public Citizens for Children and Youth, will look at child welfare, education, and homeless policies as part of the human-services team.
“In general, we’re looking at how the administration can continue to build on the good work the Nutter administration did in terms of improving outcomes for children and access to public health services,” she said.
Cooper, who worked for Ed Rendell when he was mayor and governor, commended the range of people named.
“I’m very excited about the Kenney approach to building these transition teams. . . . They’re extraordinarily diverse,” she said. “Not just racially, but experience-wise – people with government experience, provider experience, consumers, lots of cross-section points of view, which will serve the city well.”
A list of the entire team is at http://kenneyforphiladelphia.com/transition-team/
The Philadelphia Inquirer – November 6, 2015 – Read article online