Mayor Nutter Receives Integrity In Government Award From Committee Of Seventy
By Steve Tawa
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Committee of Seventy, which champions fair elections and political accountability, brought together the outgoing and incoming Mayor at its annual post-election luncheon.
Hundreds of supporters of Seventy and its better government advocacy agenda saw Mayor Michael Nutter receive the first ever Champion of Integrity in Government Award, presented by the organization's Chairman of the Board, Stephen Tang.
"As mayor, he set the tone from the top, that members of the administration would meet the highest standards of integrity and ethical behavior."
The award is named after Joan Markman, the city's first Chief Integrity Officer, whose office investigates complaints of fraud, corruption and unethical behavior. She passed away earlier this year.
Nutter, who appointed Markman, says he 'misses her greatly.'
"Joan's moral compass never, ever failed her."
Mayor-elect Kenney backed then Councilman Michael Nutter years ago to support the creation of the City's Board of Ethics.
As a mayoral candidate last March, Kenney's first policy paper centered on strenthening ethics policies. They included what he called Driving Down Pay-to-Play, referring to the practice of awarding government contracts in exchange for campaign contributions.
"We are going to go forward and build on the things that the nutter administration has done on transparency, ethics, and integrity in government."
Kenney, who spent 23 years on City Council, first introduced pay to play legislation back in 2003.
In 2007 and 2011, Seventy distributed an "Ethics Agenda" to the mayoral candidates, and it is pleased that many of its reforms recommended in its agendas have been achieved.
