City Council passes bill to reform vaccine transparency after Philly Fighting COVID scandal

Philadelphia City Council on Thursday passed legislation to increase transparency and oversight of vaccine distributors after the city’s controversial, ill-fated partnership with the group Philly Fighting COVID.

The bill, authored by Councilmember Cindy Bass, requires the city to notify Council shortly after finalizing contracts for groups to hold clinics using vaccine doses provided by the city. It also requires publishing details about every vaccine provider on the city’s website every two weeks, including how many doses were provided each group, how many doses were distributed, and demographic data about vaccine recipients.

Passage of the bill is the latest fallout from the city’s relationship with Philly Fighting COVID, the vaccine distribution group run by a self-described “bunch of college kids” that Philadelphia cut ties with after learning it had quietly moved to form a for-profit arm that could sell patients’ data.

The scandal drew embarrassing national headlines and led to the resignation of the city’s acting deputy health commissioner, Caroline Johnson, who was found to have given the group improper assistance in its application to partner with the city.

The bill passed unanimously and is expected to be signed into law by Mayor Jim Kenney, whose administration testified in support of it.

» READ MORE: The city trusted a group of ‘college kids’ to lead its vaccine rollout. But Philly Fighting COVID was full of red flags from the start.

Also Thursday, Council unanimously approved a bill by Councilmember Derek Green that will significantly increase transparency around income that top city officials receive from side jobs or advisory roles outside of their official responsibilities.

Currently, elected officials, top bureaucrats, and members of boards and commissions must reveal the sources of income they collect outside of their city jobs on annual public financial disclosure forms. But they don’t have to say how much money they made.

Green’s bill requires the amount of income received from each source of income to be disclosed, greatly increasing the public’s ability to assess whether officials’ outside activities pose a conflict of interest with their official duties.

Despite earning an annual salary of $130,000, Council members, for instance, are allowed to hold side jobs. Many who are lawyers have held “of counsel” positions with city law firms. Others have served in paid advisory roles or on boards for corporations. When he was on Council, Kenney received compensation for sitting on the board of Independence Blue Cross, a position he gave up when he became mayor.

“Substantial income from existing business relationships should be known, especially when Council members can hold second jobs,” said Patrick Christmas, policy director for the good-government group Committee of Seventy. “When it comes to judging whether or not there’s a potential conflict of interest, this additional transparency can matter.”

Green’s bill also adds some agency officials to the list of those required to submit the financial disclosure forms, and nixes the requirement for members of some advisory boards and commissions whose official positions don’t wield significant direct power.

Council also approved a series of midyear budget transfers, including a $50 million allocation for the city’s pandemic response and $4 million in funding for Council President Darrell L. Clarke’s “New Normal Jobs Initiative.”

Councilmembers Allan Domb and David Oh voted against the bill to provide additional pandemic response funding, which passed, 15-2. They called for a more detailed and ambitious plan for vaccine distribution from Kenney’s administration for continuing to fund its current efforts.

The funding for Clarke’s jobs program, which passed unanimously, includes $1 million to improve neighborhood commercial corridors and $1 million for PowerCorpsPHL, a Philadelphia Energy Authority workforce development program for at-risk youth.