At this rate of ‘transparency,’ Philadelphians will need a drawbridge to access City Hall

The Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council was a crucial early supporter of Cherelle L. Parker’s successful campaign for mayor. Now that she’s in office, maybe those unions can offer some help with the information moat Parker’s administration is digging around City Hall.

You might recall that during her campaign, an errant email exchange between Parker staffers revealed that her team was putting off reporters from small local media outlets while trying not to get tagged as “ignoring Black women journalists and truly independent media.”

As I wrote at the time, the only thing more certain than a politician loudly insisting they’re all about “transparency” is that they’re also likely doing their best to make sure that tough questions don’t become, as the email put it, “too much of a narrative.”

When the city officially transitioned from Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration to Parker’s, much was made about her fondness for committees and roundtables and three-person-deep leadership structures, but where her staunchest supporters see collaboration, I worry her insular style only distances City Hall from public reach and scrutiny.

And then, in late January, an even bigger transparency flag was raised.

In a rather aggressive all-caps email, Managing Director Adam Thiel informed department leaders that all public statements — from press releases to social media posts — need to be approved by the monarchy, er, I mean, the administration.

“To be absolutely clear, NO MEDIA INTERVIEWS, SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS, OR STATEMENTS OF ANY, KIND-UNTIL/UNLESS APPROVED IN ADVANCE BY MAYOR’S COMMUNICATIONS,” Thiel wrote on Jan. 18.

Color me NOT IMPRESSED with the former fire commissioner’s five-alarm approach, or this over-the-top gag order. This kind of edict usually follows an incident that has left an administration reeling from some sort of public embarrassment or controversy. And it almost always backfires.

Parker and her team, however, are still in the honeymoon stage.

That grace period might explain why there’s been so little outcry when a Philadelphia police officer fatally shot Alexander Spencer, 28, on Jan. 26 during what police described as a “scuffle” inside a corner store — and what witnesses described as a questionable stop-and-frisk encounter. During that interaction, police said Spencer fired a shot, hitting one of the officers in the leg, prompting the injured officer’s partner to return fire.

Questions about the police narrative arose when a short video of the shooting was posted on social media. Police officials responded by holding a news conference and airing additional surveillance footage of the incident — with the permission of Spencer’s family — for the sake of “transparency,” a word that was used repeatedly.

“Our goal is to be transparent in this work,” said Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, who was named by Parker to be the city’s top cop.

But after playing the longer video, which showed the theft of the gun that police say Spencer fired — an act that was not visible in the much shorter video posted online — Bethel and other officials didn’t take any questions.

As police walked off, one reporter could be heard saying, “How is not taking questions in the vein of transparency?”

It was a fair point.

I understand that the shooting is under investigation and that it’s still early in a process that includes the district attorney’s office. It serves no one, least of all a grieving family that wants answers, to potentially compromise an investigation by saying or doing the wrong thing.

But too often “under investigation” becomes code for stonewalling.

On the heels of the police department’s listen-but-don’t-ask presser, Parker’s Educational Nominating Panel, which will help choose the next school board, held its first meeting last week at City Hall.

Residents — who had already complained that this selection process had not been adequately advertised or explained — were not allowed to ask questions or comment at the meeting.

So, I couldn’t help but shake my head at a telling repetition in the city’s press release about the panel, presumably sent out with Thiel’s BLESSING.

“In a public meeting today, the Educational Nominating Panel appointed by Mayor Cherelle L. Parker held its first public meeting …”

If you say so ...

Parker’s staunchest supporters argue that critics (and journalists) need to give her a chance to find her footing, appoint her team — at whatever glacial pace she chooses — and try to restore a sense of functioning governance that the city seemed to lose during Kenney’s second term.

I can appreciate that argument — to a point. But the danger of this kind of precedent being set a month into Parker’s administration should be cause to sound the alarm.

Questions aren’t attacks. The public is not the enemy — neither are the journalists doing their jobs on behalf of Philadelphians who deserve more than just a promise of transparency.

During her campaign, Parker was often touted as a bridge builder. But so far the irony is that her administration seems intent on sealing off City Hall from the public who elected her.