Behind-the-scenes shuffle at City Hall

Not much official has been happening at City Hall since the inauguration - Council doesn't hold its first meeting until Jan. 26 - but there has been plenty of behind-the-scenes activity.

Members have been swapping and remodeling offices, the six freshmen have been going through orientation and getting acclimated, and lots of staff have been changing addresses.

Staff who worked for departing Council members have found jobs sprinkled throughout the administration, and some have been retained by the incoming freshmen.

But perhaps the most important changes are yet to come. New Council President Darrell L. Clarke must find replacements for Charlie McPherson, who was Council's chief financial officer, and Rick Auerbach, who was Council's top lawyer. No one had Council members' ears more than those two, and both have retired, leaving with previous Council President Anna C. Verna.

During their time, if a Council member was talking about policy, there was a good chance he or she had been briefed by one of them beforehand.

Clarke told other Council employees that no personnel decisions would be made before mid-January, and he has not given a timetable for filling McPherson's and Auerbach's roles.

- Troy Graham

The open microphone can be a politician's worst nightmare, capturing unguarded moments and unvarnished opinions, like candidate George W. Bush calling a New York Times reporter a major league a-hole in 2000.

OK, maybe that one didn't hurt him with his base, but plenty of other embarrassing and unintended comments have been broadcast over the years.

Mayor Nutter dropped that same anatomical curse word last week on Fox29, perhaps correctly applying the label to a 30-year-old man accused of firing into a carload of teenagers, killing three.

This was about the umpteenth time Nutter has used what his spokesman called an "earthy tone" when talking about crime and corruption. Over the summer, for example, he used the same salty term to describe the gunmen who shot up city recreation centers.

In each case, however, Nutter clearly knew the remarks were being captured by reporters and microphones. These were not slips of the tongue.

Was he so angry at the egregious nature of the crimes that he simply didn't care? Or, as Nutter is ordinarily a rather composed figure, we wonder whether the selective use of obscene language has been intentional.

After all, people tend to reward so-called straight-talking pols who "tell it like it is."

So, we put the question on Twitter: "Emotions getting the better of him or calculated response?"

Among the handful of tweets in response came one from Nutter himself: "Honest, clear, direct response - nothing more, nothing less. It is what it is."

- Troy Graham