Rebecca Rhynhart on Mayor Jim Kenney's historic spending spree

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On the eve of budget season, a new study by Controller Rebecca Rhynhart looks at Mayor Jim Kenney's historic spending spree. Do you trust him with your money?

Feb. 27, 2020

A couple of years ago, when it was unearthed that the city couldn't, uh,locate some $33 one thousand thousand in its central banking concern account, and that some seven city accounts hadn't even been reconciled for years, and that the crevice CPAs at City Hall had committed $924 million in accounting errors, I called for the dismissal of longtime Finance Director Rob Dubow on this theory: What are the chances that this egregious instance of rank incompetence was a one-off?

What confidence could any of us have that, if nosotros were to truly audit local government, we'd notice an otherwise unblemished commitment to handling taxpayer dollars as a sacred trust?

Of form, the problem wasn't actually Dubow. Information technology was, and remains, a culture of local governance that practices slipshod management and is allergic to accountability, equally evidenced by the Kenney administration'southward response at the time: When asked if anyone would be fired over the bookkeeping mistakes, Chief of Staff Jim Engler said, "No, that'due south not how nosotros operate."

Now, on the eve of budget season, comes a report from City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart that dives deeply into the historic spending spree of Mayor Kenney. Past post-obit the money, Rhynhart shows what the same accounting scandals hinted at: If you're a taxpayer, you're seen equally little more than than an ATM car for career politicians and apparatchiks. There is no one looking out for your interests in city regime.

How bad is Kenney'due south spending addiction? He'south added over one billion dollars to the city's budget since taking office four years ago—the largest spending binge in our history. The last two years alone, spending has increased by xiv percent, and is expected to jump another 7.6 per centum this yr.

Payroll expenses surged 8 pct the last 2 years, equally Kenney has added about ane,000 workers to the metropolis workforce—at the same fourth dimension that overtime costs have exploded, which, in itself, ought to be a reddish flag connoting that no ane is really in charge when information technology comes to managing the levers of government: In reasonably-run governments, when total-time workforces shrink, overtime justifiably rises.

In governments where bloat and waste rule the day, however, total-time workers and overtime simultaneously expand, which is the story of 7 of 11 of our biggest city departments. Reading Rhynhart's report is like reading a science fiction novel, only in this story the giant wrecking ball of a monster that keeps growing and marauding is a municipal government.

"The terminal few years, we've seen this significant increase in spending, and it prompted the question, 'Where is all this money going?'" Rhynhart said when I caught upwardly with her this calendar week. "I heard people say that we're merely getting back to pre-recession levels of spending, or that the increase was due to union contracts. But there hasn't really been a transparent reply to the question. As the city watchdog, we decided to provide one."

If you're a taxpayer, yous're seen equally footling more than an ATM machine for career politicians and apparatchiks.

Rhynhart's research refutes those ii suppositions. She goes back to 2006 and finds that, nether Mayor Kenney, spending has far surpassed what had come earlier. And as for those matrimony contracts?

"They're roughly 3 per centum raises, with police and burn getting a little more," she says. "Yous can argue that they were marginally higher than inflation, but they weren't completely unreasonable, and don't explain such a celebrated jump in spending."

So what does? Reading between the lines of Rhynhart's findings can only lead to one conclusion: Managerial incompetence. The notion that so many departments are adding full-fourth dimension employees while setting records in overtime expenses?

"It shows a lack of management over time that raises real questions," Rhynhart says.

Since 2017, the Fire Section has added 279 total-time employees and, at $51 1000000, more than doubled its overtime spending. This at a time when, nationwide, the number of fires responded to by municipal fire departments has dropped by a 3rd over the last 40 years, essentially remaking many firefighters into medical responders.

Fifteen years ago, a blue-ribbon panel convened by then-Mayor John Street recommended endmost some firehouses, finding that, in a city that averaged a handful of fires a day, in that location wasn't enough work for lx fully-staffed, 24/7 engine and 29 ladder companies. When Michael Nutter tried to close some down, the firefighters union went haywire.

Rhynhart isn't making policy prescriptions like calling for the closing of firehouses, but her study makes clear that, in this aforementioned-erstwhile, same-old town, no one is diving deep into these problems and asking questions, permit alone questioning answers.

"I'g not criticizing whatsoever spending priority the Mayor and Metropolis Council are making," she says. "That'southward their chore to practise. I'chiliad just saying that, any the priorities are, there should exist transparency and accountability and discussion. Budgets are choices, and when you invest in one matter, you're non putting that money into something else, like wage tax reform that can grow jobs."

Reading Rhynhart'due south study is like reading a science fiction novel, only in this story the giant wrecking ball of a monster that keeps growing and marauding is a municipal regime.

There are some good signs in Rhynhart's study, but fifty-fifty those feel like pyrrhic victories. The Department of Prisons reduced its payroll past $10 million—a skillful offset. Merely, when the prison population is down 42 percent, and the House of Corrections has been closed, shouldn't more savings exist establish?

And, it turns out, the city has fabricated some "pay every bit you go" payments to fund uppercase projects, rather than infringe. More often than not, that is a fiscally sound exercise. But even when beingness fiscally responsible, Rhynhart finds the urban center'southward transparency sorely lacking.

"A city budget document describing the uses for a proposed $47 million payment to the Capital letter Fund in FY19 includes descriptions of 21 separate projects across more than x departments, the largest of which is $12M for vehicle purchases in the Fleet Department," Rhynhart writes. "Publicly available information for the remaining payments could not be identified."

When a Controller with subpoena power can't follow the money, we've entered Banana Republic territory.

Rhynhart'south written report is not her sexiest, but, as a snapshot of unthinking authorities at work, it may be her most important. She'due south followed the money, which begs the follow-up question: What render have we gotten on all this investment?

"That is the question," she says. "Considering it's not clear. I would recall the assistants would exist showing how these investments are moving the needle, and what the outcome measure is. And if they're not moving the needle, you terminate doing it and attempt something else. Merely they're not doing that."

And so Rebecca Rhynhart says something, almost to herself, that a long line of watchdogs before her have likely said to themselves. "I could think of doing something on that question from my end," she says.

Photo courtesy Jared Piper / Philadelphia City Quango

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Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/rebecca-rhynhart-jim-kenney-spending-spree/

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