Battle for control of BRT escalates

The war between Mayor Nutter and the leaders of the Board of Revision of Taxes escalated Thursday with a new City Council bill that would slash the salaries of the part-time board members from $70,000 to $18,700 a year.

The salary reduction could take effect in as few as two weeks if Council acts briskly.

The prospect of that whopping pay cut is perhaps Nutter's biggest bargaining chip in his attempt to rein in what he has called a "rogue board." But the mayor is pursuing other tactics as well.

On Wednesday, his administration seized all non-payroll money left in the property-assessment agency's budget, preventing the board from hiring workers, approving contracts, or buying supplies without the administration's consent.

Meanwhile, negotiations between Nutter and the BRT picked up Thursday, though there were no signs that any settlement was imminent.

The source of the dispute is an agreement that both sides signed in the fall. The memorandum of understanding gave the Nutter administration day-to-day control over the troubled agency, and the board itself was relegated to hearing appeals of property assessments.

Nutter had expected the BRT to extend the agreement.

Instead, the board let it lapse Monday, infuriating the mayor and bringing an abrupt halt to the administration's attempts to overhaul the city's wildly inaccurate and inequitable property-assessment system.

"I'm an optimistic person, but I'm also a realist. I'm going to continue to exert as much pressure on the BRT board members as possible until we get a signed memorandum of understanding so that we can get back to reforming that agency," Nutter said.

Conspicuously missing from the public back-and-forth has been U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, the city's Democratic Committee chairman.

As head of the party, Brady played a central role in putting members on the BRT. The city judges who make the appointments have historically given considerable weight to Brady's recommendations.

Last year, after an Inquirer series documented widespread problems at the BRT, Brady gave his tacit approval to Nutter's plans to overhaul the agency, which led to the memorandum of understanding.

Now, even members of the board who are closely aligned with Brady are balking at renewing the agreement.

The party chairman has plenty to lose if the BRT is overhauled. During its brief turn at the helm of the agency, the Nutter administration began converting patronage workers into civil-service employees. Those were jobs that for decades Brady and other city ward leaders had handed out to party activists.

Brady spokesman Ken Smukler said Thursday night that BRT leaders had made up their minds before the congressman spoke to them about the matter at Nutter's request.

"They had already made the decision not to re-up the memorandum of understanding on the advice of counsel, so he wasn't going to say anything one way or the other at that point. Their decision had been made and it wasn't negotiable," Smukler said.

BRT chairwoman Charlesretta Meade has also consistently declined to comment, but she did send a letter to the city Thursday that partly explained the board's position.

She wrote that the board welcomed "a resumption of the status quo" that existed before the memorandum of understanding expired, but that the board had "great concerns" about the legality of the agreement.

The letter also invited Richard Negrin, whom Nutter had named interim BRT executive director, to resume his work. Negrin and Nutter have said that would be "untenable" without a signed agreement guaranteeing that Negrin could operate with independence.

"The one thing the letter made crystal clear is that their current bizarre behavior is all a function of their lawsuit machinations," Nutter said.

BRT members filed a lawsuit against the city with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court last month.

The suit is an attempt to halt a May ballot measure that - if approved by voters - would disband the BRT and split its duties between two new entities, effective Oct. 1.

The suit argues that dissolving the BRT would be illegal. It says the legislature specifically vested assessment-appeals powers with the BRT and required that the city judiciary appoint its leaders.

Nutter considers the lawsuit irrelevant to the question of a renewed memorandum of understanding, but the BRT clearly does not.

As they have all week, the seven members of the BRT declined to comment Thursday, even though four were questioned in person by reporters.

"No comment," Alan K. Silberstein said at BRT offices in the Curtis Center. "What don't you understand about that?"

Anthony Lewis Jr., whom city judges appointed to the board last month, said: "At this point, all the questions are being answered by the chairperson."

Howard M. Goldsmith, who also was named to the board in March with Brady's support, said he would not discuss the BRT on the advice of his lawyer. "No comment," he said.

The board's lawyers were not talking, either. Howard K. Goldstein, who represents board members, declined to speak on the record and then hung up on a reporter.

A hearing on the proposed pay cut is scheduled for Thursday, the earliest slot permissible under Council rules.