A 1970s effort to recall Mr. Frank Rizzo, a polarizing political figure in Philadelphia, impacted voters’ rights in the city and state.
—
Yesterday a stage play about Mr. Frank Rizzo, a South Philadelphia beat cop who rose through the ranks to become Police Commissioner in the late 1960s and then Mayor in the early 1970s, ended its more than three-week run in the City where his likeness remains, among many ways, in the form of a statue positioned across the street from our seats of government and halls of power.
Mr. Rizzo, who throughout his tenure as both the City’s top cop and its chief executive was known for his brute force and grandiloquence, is often remembered for his impact and larger than life presence—both positive and negative—in all of Philadelphia’s neighborhoods.
But what’s rarely discussed about Mr. Rizzo, who some say was indifferent to police brutality (others say he endorsed it), is his impact on democracy in the land where it was born.
Mr. Rizzo, a two-term Philadelphia Mayor who had twice sworn to support the City’s Home Rule Charter, in the late 1970s threw his weight around the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in order to defeat an uprising against him: the Citizens Committee to Recall Rizzo.
According to a November 1977 issue of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review:
“… The Pennsylvania Supreme Court declared the Charter’s recall provision unconstitutional by one vote. The decision was written by Chief Justice Robert N. C. Nix, elected to the court with Rizzo’s support in 1971.”
Before this action, Philadelphia’s Home Rule Charter considered the recalling of an elected official a democratic process as germane to the election of one.
Since the ruling, there’s been virtually no movement to amend the Constitution of Pennsylvania in order to provide a legal basis for the recall of local elected officials.
The reason being for the lack of activism on this issue, suggested Ms. Stephanie Singer, one of three Philadelphia City Commissioners whose job it is to oversee fair and free elections, is that “it’s an uphill battle.”
“The last stop is a ballot referendum, but before the question is asked to the public, the State legislature has to approve the amendment twice. There’s no way to get something on the ballot without it first going through elected officials, and asking elected officials to vote on a measure that allows people to recall them… well… it’ll be an uphill battle.”
It was the Philadelphia Board of Elections in the 1970s that rejected, due signature irregularities on the petition, the recall effort, which then landed the movement in a lower court before being heard by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. In the present-day, Ms. Singer says the Board of Election, when it comes to signatures, only analyzes the quantity, leaving the argument of quality reserved for the courts.
Ironically, the Philadelphia Board of Elections played a critical role in what is today’s unbalanced political landscape, yet the board has no role in remedying the malady, despite one of its members being an ideal candidate for recall. Mr. Anthony Clark, a City Commissioner, has admitted to not voting in many of the past elections and is rarely seen doing his job of encouraging voter turnout at City Hall or in the City’s various neighborhoods.
So famous is Mr. Clark’s derelict of duty, that the City’s outgoing mayor, Mr. Michael Nutter, condemned him in the Philadelphia Daily News a day after the City’s General Election, where Mr. Clark, an incumbent, was re-elected.
“I think we do better as a city government encouraging people to recycle than [Clark’s] office does in encouraging people to vote. It is just absolutely pathetic.”
Mr. Clark’s work ethic is pathetic, I agree, but so is the concept of the bureaucracy lauding voter turnout yet standing in opposition of voters’ right. Voters, in essence, are staffing government when they vote, thus they should have the right to fire, too, it’s only logical.
* Tune into 900amWURD or 900amWURD.com every Friday evening at 6:30pm to hear me relive #TheWeekThatWas*
Thanks for reading. Until next time, I’m Flood the Drummer® & I’m Drumming for JUSTICE!™
—
Photo: Hand-drawn signs and cans of Arizona Iced Tea, used at a Trayvon Martin vigil in 2012, surround the statue of Mr. Frank Rizzo, a former Philadelphia Police Commissioner, and Mayor./C. Norris – ©2015