The phases of Mayor Parker’s relationship with City Council, according to TikTok psychology

From a honeymoon period to a power struggle over school board nominations, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s relationship with City Council has gone through some ups and downs during her first six months in office.

To understand what’s happened so far, we’re taking a page from Tiktok users who have drawn wisdom from psychologist Susan M. Campbell’s 1980 book, A Couple’s Journey, which describes the five stages of a relationship.

Spoiler: Parker and Council have not yet reached the final stage — called “co-creation” or “bliss” — and it’s entirely possible they get divorced before getting there.

A mayor’s relationship with Council can make or break the executive’s agenda, so Parker’s bond with Council President Kenyatta Johnson and the other 16 lawmakers will be critical to her administration’s success for the rest of her term.

Council is scheduled to adjourn for its summer recess on Thursday. When lawmakers return in September, they will be faced with plenty of issues that will test the strength of the relationship, from the 76ers’ proposal to build a Center City arena to Parker’s planned crackdown on the Kensington drug market this summer.

Here are the key moments that show the phases of Parker’s relationship with Council since she took office in January:

The mayor’s annual budget address to Council is Philly’s version of the State of the Union. But this year, it felt more like a pep rally for Parker’s agenda.

When Parker unveiled her $6.29 billion spending plan in a March speech in Council chambers, no lawmaker went on record criticizing the proposal. Councilmember Mike Driscoll was even seen enthusiastically slapping his desk with two open palms when the mayor called for dedicated crews to address illegal dumping in each Council district.

The uniform praise was partly due to the mayor being in her honeymoon period and partly due to Parker, a former Council member herself, proposing exactly what most of her old colleagues wanted to hear: Hire more cops, clean the streets, and don’t make me vote on new taxes.

Parker’s honeymoon period ended in mid-April.

Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson tore into officials over the Office of Homeless Services’ overspending scandal, at one point taking the extraordinary step of requiring members of Parker’s administration to testify, one by one, that they never stole city money.

News also broke that charter school advocates, including an organization led in part by Johnson’s wife, Dawn Chavous, were lobbying Council members to defeat two of Parker’s school board nominees. (Council members rejected one nominee, Joyce Wilkerson, but Parker asked her to continue serving until she names a replacement — which still hasn’t happened.)

And over the following weeks, lawmakers’ concerns about the vagueness of Parker’s request for $100 million to build drug rehab facilities as part of her plan for Kensington turned from questions to complaints.

For a moment, it felt as if the relationship was in trouble.

In the end, neither Johnson nor Parker let those tensions get in the way of their main task: reaching a deal on the city budget.

After pushing through some sticking points — Parker ended up providing plenty of details about the rehab facility plan — the mayor and Johnson struck a deal on a $6.37 billion budget with hours to go before the legislative deadline to approve the plan.

A Council committee gave the budget preliminary approval about 1 a.m. last Thursday, and it is slated to get a final vote at today’s Council meeting.

Johnson was sworn in as Council president on the same day Parker became mayor, and as new leaders both benefited from appearing able to ignore distractions and take care of business.

Parker said the budget deal was “a milestone” that helped “make good on my promise to the people, in partnership with the Council president and all members of the City Council, to deliver in a very tangible way.”

Johnson said it was “a win for both of us being new to both of our positions.”

This fall, Council is expected to take up the 76ers’ controversial proposal to build a new arena on East Market Street.

Very few lawmakers have made their positions public. But City Hall insiders believe a majority on Council could be convinced to vote for it if some political obstacles are cleared.

Parker and Councilmember Mark Squilla, who will play a pivotal role because his district includes the proposed site, have said they are still undecided on the project. But both are widely expected to come out in favor of the arena sooner or later, given their close ties to the building trades unions that stand to land thousands of jobs from its construction.

If they want to push it through, they will likely have to survive a gauntlet of opposition from Comcast, which want the 76ers to stay where they are in the Comcast-owned Wells Fargo Center; from Chinatown and other nearby neighborhood groups, none of which has endorsed the project; and from city planners and architects, who say an arena is the wrong answer for East Market Street.

To ensure they stick together, it might be helpful for Parker and Council members to exchange some vows, such as: “I, the mayor, take thee, fearful Council members, to have and to hold, to protect from Chinatown doomsayers and snooty architects, no matter how many hours of public comment, till Comcast’s lobbyists do us part.”

And if they get the arena over the legislative finish line this fall, Parker may forge a lasting bond with those who take the plunge with her.

It’s been a long time since a Philly mayor has reached this final, blissful stage in the relationship with Council. Mayor Ed Rendell’s 1990s bromance with Council President John F. Street might be the last time.

So there’s no guarantee Parker will get there. And there are some reasons to believe her tenure is likely to follow the pattern of the mayors since Rendell and see the relationship with Council worsen over time.

Parker and Johnson are from different political camps that have clashed for years. And the mayor has been buoyed by larger trends — a falling homicide rate and a relatively healthy city financial outlook — that began before she took office and could change course at any point.

Parker need only look at her two most recent predecessors to see how crises can unravel an administration’s agenda: Mayor Michael A. Nutter’s already strained relationship with city lawmakers was done for once the global financial crisis struck, and Mayor Jim Kenney’s once-strong ties to Council fell apart due to his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the civil unrest of 2020.

So Parker may need some luck to reach the “co-creation” stage with Council. But if they get there, here’s what one TikToker said they can expect: “It is when you are so in tune with each that you’re literally — you’re one.”