Mayor-elect Cherelle Parker unveils a ‘roundtable’ of top Democrats from Philly, Harrisburg, and Washington

Philadelphia Mayor-elected Cherelle Parker on Tuesday unveiled what she’s calling her “intergovernmental roundtable,” an advisory board made up of top Democrats in local, state, and federal government.

Standing alongside the group of two dozen lawmakers, Parker said during a news conference in City Hall that the roundtable will meet regularly and work together to achieve her legislative priorities on issues like public safety, housing, addiction, workforce development, and cleanliness.

She said the group will focus on “delivering results that people can touch, see, and feel, and not just when it’s a crisis.”

West Philadelphia State Sen. Vincent Hughes will chair the roundtable, which he said is a new concept that hasn’t been used by past mayors. The group is made up of a who’s who of Democratic politicians, including both of Pennsylvania’s U.S. senators, three members of Congress, state Speaker of the House Joanna McClinton, and soon-to-be City Council president Kenyatta Johnson.

But while Parker strongly emphasized “unity” during the news conference, most of the lawmakers who appeared alongside her on Tuesday endorsed her in the heated Democratic primary for mayor — no surprise given she amassed significant support among elected Democrats.

The roundtable did not include any Republicans or members of the Working Families Party, the progressive third party that won two seats on City Council in November.

Parker, a former state representative who ran for mayor as a moderate, said she has long enjoyed working relationships with Republicans, including State Rep. Martina White of Northeast Philadelphia, who is the House GOP caucus secretary.

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The roundtable also did not initially include members of the more progressive wing of the city’s Democratic party.

For example, City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, a West Philadelphia progressive, was the only incumbent Democrat from Council who was not included on the list of roundtable members distributed at the news conference. And State Sen. Nikil Saval, another progressive who represents parts of Center City and South Philadelphia and chairs the Philadelphia delegation, was the only city Democrat in the Senate not on the roundtable.

Gauthier and Saval endorsed former City Councilmember Helen Gym in the mayoral primary. Gym, who was also backed by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), finished third.

Aren Platt, a senior adviser to Parker, said the makeup of the roundtable was not complete and that the transition committee first sought out lawmakers in leadership roles and “others she has a strong working relationship with.”

Then, shortly after the news conference, senior transition staff called Gauthier and invited her to join the roundtable.

In a statement, Gauthier thanked Parker “for retroactively inviting me to her intergovernmental roundtable” and said she’s looking forward “to working closely with the mayor-elect on several issues we both care deeply about.”

Still, the roundtable members who attended the news conference praised Parker and vowed to work together to support her administration.

Hughes, who backed Parker for mayor after deciding in January not to run himself, said Parker’s convening of such an advisory board is “precedent-setting.” He said such a structured committee of lawmakers from three levels of government “has never been done before.”

“It goes to two things,” Hughes said. “The vision of this mayor, and the attributes that the city offers up with key people with great knowledge in leadership positions, all designed to bring resources and make transformational change for the residents of Philadelphia.”

State Rep. Donna Bullock, a North Philadelphia Democrat, said the group is not “just meeting to meet.”

“We’re not just here to see ourselves in our suits,” she said. “The formation of this roundtable is a pledge to those neighbors, to our neighbors, that we will do more than play nice in the sandbox. This is what government looks like when it’s working for the people.”