What Makes an Ideal City Council Member?

Energetic voters debated and brainstormed together while mapping out the good, bad and ugly of neighborhood politics Tuesday at First United Methodist Church of Germantown. Defining what they feel is an ideal candidate for the soon-to-be vacant 8th District seat covering Mt. Airy, the electorate emphasized the future councilperson's significance in aiding Northwest Philadelphia. 

“There is a wealth of information—and I’ll call it a brilliance—in our community,” said John Churchville, interim president of the Greater Germantown Business Association. “And if the council person could be half of what we talked about tonight, we’ve done our job.”

WHYY's online news website NewsWorks, along with political watchdog group the Committee of Seventy, organized the “Eyes on the Eighth” forum to prepare voters for the May 17 primary election where Democrats vie to replace Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, who is retiring.

The seven declared candidates for City Council, all of whom are Democrats, are: Cindy Bass, Bill Durham, Andrew Lofton, Greg Paulmier, Robin Tasco, Howard Treatman and Verna Tyner. Recently, candidate Jordan Dillard was declared ineligible after failing to secure enough valid signatures on his nominating petitions.

“The election is something that happens in your mind, in your heart, sometimes in your gut,” said Chris Satullo, executive director of news for WHYY/NewsWorks, while opening discussions.

“And it’s really a process of conversation with your family, with your friends, with people in your neighborhood… And that culminates on Election Day when you go in there and you flick that switch.”

The crowd of about 30 split into two groups to take part in a series of brainstorming exercises moderated by members of the Penn Project for Civic Engagement.

The first exercise was to have every voter use one word to describe the qualities of an ideal candidate. Ambition, transparency and compassion were all mentioned.

Moderators then read the names of each candidate and asked participants to say the first thing that came to mind. Candidates were labeled everything from  “competent” to  “devious,” “honest” to “puppet,” which were written out and posted to the wall as the groups narrowed in on what they want in a representative.

Housing specialist Greg Paulmier, one of four candidates present on Tuesday, walked into a debate room after the exercise was finished to survey the charts.

He likes the idea of sharing immediate, unfiltered thoughts in the name of promoting dialog, and he found it interesting to see “real, honest depictions of a taste I left in someone’s mouth,” he said.

In another exercise, voters imagined what they would ask each candidate if they had only 60 seconds to get an answer. Then they shared, debated and edited it all down to the essentials. These questions will be utilized in a NewsWorks debate April 27 at First Presbyterian Church on West Chelten Avenue, which will be streamed online at G-town Radio.

Churchville is most concerned with comprehensive tax reform, redevelopment of town hall, and voting in a councilperson with whom residents can easily communicate. His ideas for realizing this last point include a requirement that the councilperson to keep an office in the Eighth District, meet with the public every other month, and issue weekly e-mail updates and a quarterly newsletter.

During the discussions, some participants stressed the importance of promoting new and diverse businesses. One voter was angered that Philadelphia International Airport received $26 million of the city’s stimulus funds, while his neighborhood has seen no development or job creation. The need for transparency, by way of direct communication between councilperson and residents, was brought up many times throughout the evening.

“The Northwest has been deprived of opportunity forever,” community activist Renee Workman said.

She sees economic and housing issues high on the list of the neighborhood’s most urgent problems, which continuously go unacknowledged.

Additional forums will be held March 28 at Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill and April 5 at Commodore Barry Club.