Mayor Mike Purzycki thought Tuesday’s news release about the city issuing $43 million in bonds for capital projects exemplified “routine.” The city doesn’t sell bonds every year, but this issue was approved in the 2016 budget, and as news events go this was on a par with the altered trash-pickup schedule for holiday week.
But when your city has a case of the Potters, nothing is routine. Especially when it’s Velda.
City Treasurer Velda Jones-Potter apparently believes in the power of the press release, because she issued one Wednesday blasting the mayor for — um, putting out a press release. His plan, she wrote, “has not been vetted by city council or subjected to public scrutiny. My office is still outlining financing strategies for the city’s capital budget. The mayor’s statement shows disregard for legislative authority.”
She didn’t stop there. “I cannot advise authorizing a debt issuance of this magnitude for new money while unspent proceeds from 1998 remain in the City coffers, not to mention the $22 million unspent from the $43 Million bond issue of 2015,” she said. “We must stop the practice of borrowing more than we demonstrate a discipline or capacity to expend and do a better job prioritizing city needs.”
Funny thing, though — she never talked to City Council President Hanifa Shabazz about being disregarded. Shabazz joined Purzycki in pointing out that Jones-Potter is both wrong and overstepping the authority of her office.
On Thursday, the News Journal suddenly had a copy of Jones-Potter’s budget request for the treasurer’s office. It included a pay increase of more than $20,000 for Velda herself, which would bring her salary to $139,000 — more than the same position pays in the City of Philadelphia.
Show of hands: How many think the timing of Thursday’s story was a coincidence?