Philly mayoral candidate Jeff Brown threatened to sue the city’s Board of Ethics during a live debate

Philadelphia mayoral candidate Jeff Brown said during a live radio program Thursday morning that he may sue the city’s Board of Ethics, which is pursuing a case against a super PAC supporting his bid for mayor.

Brown, a grocer and first-time political candidate, is not a party to the board’s case but says it orchestrated a “political hit job” when it accused the PAC and a related nonprofit of illegally coordinating with him. He said the board should not have pursued a lawsuit in the midst of the campaign.

“I still think it’s politically motivated, and I want to know who was behind it,” he told reporters after the event.

» READ MORE: Inside the Board of Ethics’ case against the super PAC supporting mayoral candidate Jeff Brown

Brown was one of five top candidates for mayor who participated in a forum broadcast by KYW NewsRadio. The others were former City Councilmembers Allan Domb, Helen Gym, and Cherelle L. Parker, and former City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart.

The event was the final live, broadcast event scheduled ahead of the May 16 primary election. Recent polling has showed a neck-and-neck race between five contenders, and the winner of the primary will be well-positioned to prevail in November given the city’s heavily Democratic makeup.

During and after the 90-minute forum, Brown doubled, tripled, and quadrupled down on an untrue statement he has repeatedly made, claiming that the city’s lawsuit filed against the super PAC supporting his bid has been “settled.” The lawsuit, filed against the group called For A Better Philadelphia, has not been settled. The group agreed that it would stop spending money to influence the outcome of the election, but the case remains pending.

A KYW reporter pushed back on Brown’s contention during the debate, and two other reporters corrected him afterward, yet he continued to dig in, saying “we have a dispute” and “I think it’s nuanced.”

The Board of Ethics last month accused For A Better Philadelphia of breaking the city’s campaign-finance rules by coordinating with Brown and members of his campaign team. Independent-expenditure groups, also called super PACs, can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to influence an election if they do not coordinate with the candidates or campaigns they support.

Both the group and Brown have repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

Shane Creamer, executive director of the Board of Ethics, reiterated Thursday that the lawsuit against For A Better Philadelphia has not been settled, but he declined to comment “on any other remarks that any candidates made during this morning’s debate.”

The candidates debated several other topics Thursday morning, including their leadership qualities and public transit. Here are the takeaways.

KYW City Hall reporter Pat Loeb asked every candidate to respond to “the case against them.” She asked Brown how he’d repair his relationship with City Council after spending much of his campaign railing against City Hall and its current leadership.

Brown said he doesn’t blame newer members of Council, but does believe that some “career politicians” took his criticisms personally.

“I do have a job to do after the elections over to build rapport with them,” he said. “And I don’t think it’ll be a problem.”

Loeb asked Rhynhart to elaborate on her gun-violence plan to use so-called Group Violence Intervention, a program of Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration that targets people at-risk of being involved in a shooting. Rhynhart said she would expand the system to operate citywide and pair it with other programs, including cognitive behavioral therapy.

Gym, who has amassed support from progressive organizations, was asked about her “passionate voters” and whether she risks “creating a cult of personality that would blind you to your own missteps.” Gym said she is “proud to have a supportive group of people.”

“This isn’t just a fan base,” she said, noting that in 2019 she won more votes than any candidate for City Council had in several decades.

Loeb asked Parker why she has expressed some support for stop-and-frisk by saying that she does not want to remove a crime-fighting tool from police, but has also strongly opposed supervised-injection sites, which are considered a tool to prevent opioid overdoses.

Parker pointed out that she championed a symbolic resolution to ban the unconstitutional use of stop-and-frisk. She said people in addiction need long-term treatment to stop using drugs, “not a safe place to do it.”

The final critique was of Domb, a real estate magnate who has poured at least $7 million into his own campaign. Loeb asked: “What signal are you sending to voters about your ability to reach out, convince people to contribute, get folks behind you, by self-funding?”

Domb said he has raised more than $1 million from donors, and said he’s “traveled the whole city to reach out to every neighborhood.”

The candidates were asked several questions about public transit and transportation, including whether they would support the Roosevelt Boulevard subway, an ambitious, multibillion-dollar proposal aimed at better connecting Northeast Philadelphia to the rest of the city.

All except Brown said they are supportive.

“There’s no way to fund this thing,” Brown said, “and what will happen is, if we set this as a priority, we will waste an incredible amount of money planning something that’s never gonna happen.”

Domb pushed back, saying, “If we don’t think big, then big things won’t happen.”

The candidates also gave varied answers on how they’d tackle safety and cleanliness on SEPTA, a top concern for many city voters who use the system to commute to school or work.

Rhynhart, Parker, and Gym each emphasized that SEPTA — which is largely funded by state and federal dollars — needs stronger support from the city to improve safety on trains and buses.

Parker said, “Everything that SEPTA has done thus far, it is inadequate, and they need more resources.” Gym said SEPTA’s response isn’t enough “without a coordinated effort with the city” so that people in crisis can be directed to mental-health supports or treatment.

Domb pointed to New York City, saying Mayor Eric Adams has improved coordination between the New York Police Department and that city’s transit police. Domb said Philadelphia “should copy what they’re doing, because they’ve had success.”

When asked a yes-or-no question as to whether they would call back city employees to work in-person, every candidate said yes.

Brown elaborated, saying, “You can’t have a substitute for working together as a team … and I think the city’s setting a bad example by not having everybody back.”