Inside Philly Mayor Cherelle Parker’s first full day in office: Staff meetings, a news conference, and a call with the governor

It was her first full day on the job, and Mayor Cherelle L. Parker was running behind schedule.

Packed into a room at Girard College, dozens of people — the city’s school superintendent, a City Council member, top administration officials, and two dozen teenagers — were waiting for Philadelphia’s brand new mayor. She was supposed to appear at 10:30 a.m. to begin the city’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service.

By 11:35, they started the event without her.

“I wanted to welcome the mayor; she’s not here yet,” said David P. Hardy, interim college president. “I welcome her anyway.”

Fifteen minutes later, as students unveiled a banner depicting a mural they’d created, Parker rushed into the room. She stood next to Dyymond Whipper-Young, an artist and educator, who looked at Parker and said she felt inspired: “I have never seen a mayor represent Black women the way Cherelle has.”

Such is the emotion — and the chaos — of leading the sixth largest city in America.

Wednesday was Parker’s first full day in office following her historic inauguration Tuesday, when the former City Council member publicly took the oath of office to become the 100th mayor of Philadelphia and the first woman to ever hold the job. After a packed schedule Tuesday that ended with a late-night party in Fishtown, Parker had a public schedule Wednesday that was decidedly lighter — the MLK Day of Service event was the only appearance her office publicized.

Parker said her day was filled with phone calls and staff meetings. Asked about her schedule, she said she was following her staff’s lead.

“So, one, they didn’t tell me,” Parker said with a smile in front of a gaggle of reporters. “I thought that after the campaign, that I would — full disclosure — have just a little bit more discretion over controlling my schedule. But it happens that it really doesn’t work that way.”

In the morning, Parker talked with Gov. Josh Shapiro and with national and statewide organizations that work with city governments. Right before heading out to Girard College, she received a briefing on the state of affairs at a city agency she declined to identify.

» READ MORE: Familiar faces and an unusual structure: How Cherelle Parker is shaping her mayoral administration

After Parker arrived at Girard and flipped through her prepared remarks, she was animated, veering off-script seconds after beginning to speak. She said she was “super-duper excited” to present the annual Harris Wofford Active Citizenship Award to Edward J. Hazzouri, the chairman of the lobbying firm Hazzouri and Associates.

And she told the crowd about her favorite Martin Luther King Jr. speech — his 1968 “drum major instinct” sermon, during which he talked about how everyone has “a desire to be out front, a desire to lead the parade, a desire to be first.”

Parker stuck around and glad-handed with attendees. She posed for photos, on several occasions summoning new City Council member Jeffery “Jay” Young to stand alongside her. She told the art students how “so super proud” she was of them. She signed a copy of her administration’s 100-Day Action Plan for a woman who wanted the new mayor’s autograph.

And, as she tried to leave, she was bombarded by reporters who wanted to know about her crime plan, her education plan, and her plans for the day.

After the event, Parker arrived at City Hall for the part of her new job that features far fewer selfies: meetings with her staff. Their tasks included scheduling interviews with candidates for some of the key administration roles that remain vacant, including the commissioners of the Streets Department and the Department of Licenses and Inspections.

”I’ve got to work on Streets,” she said while walking into her new City Hall office on the second floor, “and I’ve got to work on L&I.”