Watch CBS News

Rift Between City Government And Business Community Opens For Unexpected Reason

CITY HALL (CBS) -- Bill 160840 attracted only enthusiastic supporters when it came up for a hearing, last fall. Witnesses testified that the bill, which would bar employers from asking about a job applicant's wage history, would go a long way to correcting historic inequities in pay for women, African-Americans and other vulnerable groups. There were no witnesses against it.

It was only after the bill passed unanimously that Chamber of Commerce Rob Wonderling says he began hearing from members that the bill had pushed them over the edge.

wonderling_rob DL
(File photo)

"It was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back," he says. "Our members are red hot on this issue. There's been a visceral response."

Relations between business and city government have been fraught over the years but have recently achieved a working accommodation. The Chamber engaged city officials for its "Road map for Growth" and supported, or acquiesced to, some taxes that the business community might have united against in the past.

For that relationship to falter over an anti-discrimination is both surprising and perhaps inevitable.

"It's an accumulation of activities by the city," says Comcast executive vice president David Cohen, Chamber chairman, "including seven tax increases in nine years, which we've largely been supportive of as an organized business community, and a whole series of pieces of legislation that inject the government or have the government intrude into common business practices that are just creating a reputation for Philadelphia as being anti-business and not being a business-friendly environment."

Comcast has taken the lead in trying to pull back the wage history legislation. An attorney it hired sent the city a memo that threatens an expensive legal challenge if Mayor Jim Kenney signs the bill, according to a report in Tuesday's Philadelphia Inquirer.

Kenney has until January 26th to sign it or veto it or it becomes law without his signature. He says he hasn't made up his mind what he'll do yet but he supports the bill's intent and thinks steps should be taken to overcome past wage inequity.

Still, he says, he was willing to give Cohen and Wonderling a chance to meet with council members about the bill.

"There was a request made by the Chamber for an opportunity to talk to (bill sponsor) Councilman Greenlee about the impact of the bill and I gave them that opportunity," says Kenney.

Leaving that meeting Tuesday, Cohen said he did not think Greenlee had changed his mind but he hoped the councilman might consider alternative legislation that Cohen and Wonderling presented.

"It would be a broader approach that would enable the city to be a leader in this particular space," Cohen said.

Cohen and Wonderling admitted it was highly unusual to ask a council member to withdraw legislation after it had passed unanimously.

Wonderling says he submitted written testimony opposing the bill during the Committee hearing but most of his members were unaware of the bill until after it passed. He blamed the end of year rush-- the bill was among more than 60 bills and resolutions that passed in council's final session of the year-- and the ensuing holiday.

When they became aware, Cohen says there was a "very strong, negative reaction," which he says spans local employers,"large companies, small companies, non-profit, for profit organizations and people who are thinking about locating in the city, being approached by the city to locate here: 'what's going on in this place?'"

Mayor Kenney disagrees that the city is over-regulated.

"There's lots of regulation that's necessary and probably some that isn't but we'll see what the result of this conversation is," he says.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.