Curtis Jones' other foe: IRS

Curtis J. Jones Jr., who defeated Councilwoman Carol Ann Campbell in a hard-fought Democratic primary last week, is in the midst of a another battle with a more intractable opponent.

The IRS.

Jones, 49, who served as president and chief executive of the Philadelphia Commercial Development Corp. for 15 years, has federal tax liens totaling more than $25,000 against him, according to public records.

Jones, who was earning $110,000 when he resigned from PCDC last January, disputes the overall tax bill, noting that he's paid "something like $7,000 to $10,000" on his tax debt, which he declined to specify.

Also listed on the tax debt is Jones' wife, Jazelle, who holds a $77,000-a-year job as an assistant managing director in Managing Director Pedro Ramos' office.

Randy Schulz, Jones' campaign spokesman, said Jones has made "substantial payments" and was in the "final stages of resolving it. We've been in constant contact with the IRS."

Jones said that when he prepared to run for office, he put money into an account to cover fully the tax debt in case he couldn't work out a reduced payment plan with the IRS. He disclosed the debt on a financial-disclosure statement filed in March.

"We are regular people," he said. "We get behind in things like that I guess. I have been paying my bills and when they tell me what my final [IRS] note is, I am prepared to pay."

Jones won perhaps the hardest-fought City Council primary of the year, a three-way race pitting Jones and East Falls attorney Matt McClure against Councilwoman Campbell, who won a special election in November, to represent the district, which stretches from West Philadelphia to East Falls, Manayunk and Roxborough.

"Despite attempts by his opponents to politicize his personal finances," Schulz said in a written statement, "voters in the 4th District decided that his long career in public service and proven ability to bring economic opportunity to the community were more important than anything else."

But the tax problem isn't the only debt that Jones and his wife have confronted in recent years. Schulz said there was a $28,000 dispute with a car-leasing company, finally settled when Jones bought the car.

There was also a 2003 judgment of $3,943 that listed the city Revenue Department as creditor. Jones said his mortgage had been sold to another company, which didn't pay his annual real-estate tax. That issue has been resolved, Schulz said.

Public records also listed a $2,696 debt to the University of Pennsylvania and a $6,333 debt to Work to Ride Inc., the nonprofit organization that runs the Chamounix Equestrian Center in Fairmount Park.

Jones said he had no idea about the Penn debt and was equally surprised by the horse bill.

"It might have been a stable bill. I don't know, but half of this stuff is news to me. But whatever it is, we will deal with it," he said.

But Lezlie Hiner, executive director of the Chamounix Equestrian Center in the West Philadelphia section of Fairmount Park, hasn't forgotten a dollar of Jones' debt.

"Curtis had two horses here and he basically abandoned them," Hiner said.

"He kept telling me to hang on, hang on, and that he'd pay the stable bill," she said of the debt from 1999. "Frankly, I don't think too highly of Mr. Jones. He's a snake."

She noted that the nonprofit center, which runs a program for disadvantaged youth, had a budget of about $100,000 when an attorney working pro bono for the center won the $6,333 judgment against Jones.

After helping Jones buy one of the horses, Hiner said Jones stabled the two horses at the center and ran up an enormous stable bill. Eventually, Hiner said she had to sell the horses, "but it didn't come close to covering our costs."

Without a paying job since January, Jones pledged not to take a job until he wins the Council seat. As the Democratic nominee, he's the clear favorite to be elected in November over Republican opponent Melvin C. Johnakin Jr.

If elected, Jones would not see the first paycheck from the $102,000 City Council job until January.

"I could be working as a consultant," Jones said. "That would be an easy thing to do right now, but while I have not taken a vow of poverty, I have dedicated myself to getting elected. I'm just not going to take a job."

Between now and January, Jones said, he and his family will be engaged in some serious belt-tightening.

"We're not going to get to go on a vacation this year," he said, "but there won't be a question about who owns me. I'll be able to make decisions with a clear conscience." *