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November 17, 2016

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City & State Pennsylvania

November 17, 2016

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EDITOR’S NOTE / Contents

Greg Salisbury Editor

In the fall of 1990, when I was an overeducated and underemployed 20-something, I was a contestant on a TV game show. “Trump Card” was a bingo-style contest filmed at the Trump Castle casino – one of Donald Trump’s three Atlantic City casinos at the time. I made it to the final round, only to be beaten to the buzzer by the other finalist who answered the question (“What is the capital of South Africa?”) incorrectly (Pretoria, not Johannesburg). I lost, and the SLR camera consolation prize was a poor salve.

I hadn’t thought about this for years, until last week’s election results. As I found myself trying to make sense of the first truly successful post-factual and post-data election victory, this long-ago incident suddenly sprang to mind. And I think I know why.

Whether it’s a game show or the presidency of the United States, facts matter. Just because candidates and their followers might try to obliterate them, it doesn’t mean that they can. And it sure as hell doesn’t mean the media should let them.

The temporary triumph of ersatz news sites at drowning out stellar reporting by the likes of Newsweek’s Kurt Eichenwald and the Washington Post’s David Fahrenthold – is just that: temporary.

To make sure of that, we need to remember why the press was originally called the Fourth Estate by Edmund Burke in 1787: to call the three branches of government to account and to safeguard the democratic process against those who would subvert it.

8.

REGULATION BATTLES

Gov. Tom Wolf, Senate Republicans face off over who maintains regulatory primacy.

4.

POLITICS AT THE DINNER TABLE

Restaurateurs take a gamble when they put their politics front and center.

11.

VIDEO BAIL

Why Philadelphia still uses a system proven to be prejudicial.

14.

SPOTLIGHT ON VETERANS

How Pennsylvania is putting veterans to work and helping them get health care.

22.

PERSPECTIVE

Tom Ferrick on voter registration fraud and Sabrina Vourvoulias on how sanctioning sanctuary cities won’t make anyone safer.

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November 17, 2016

PITTSBURGH’S CONFLICT KITCHEN OFFERS SPECIALITIES FROM COUNTRIES THAT HAVE BEEN IN CONFLICT WITH THE U.S., AND CHANGES ITS EXTERIOR WHEN IT CHANGES ITS MENU.

Restaurateurs risk alienating their clientele when they put their politics on the menu.

But sometimes the gamble pays off.

By NATALIE POMPILIO

BEFORE CRISTINA MARTINEZ and Ben Miller decided to make the move from selling tacos from a street cart to opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant last year, a well-meaning friend offered some advice: Don’t mix politics and business.

Instead, the husband-and-wife team behind the nationally lauded South Philly Barbacoa and its younger sibling, El Compadre, decided to serve up their social causes along with their food – primarily immigration reform, a nod to Martinez’s status as an undocumented immigrant, and right-to-work issues, acknowledging the thousands of people who toil in America’s hospitality industry.

It turns out that pairing politics with housemade corn tortillas stuffed with the

slow-cooked marinated lamb that Martinez learned to make as a 6-year-old in Mexico works – and it works well. The restaurant’s food has received rave reviews while helping draw the spotlight to Martinez and Miller’s issues of choice.

When the restaurant hosted one of its monthly “right2work dinner series” events during the Democratic National Convention in July, locals, an overflow crowd of delegates and visitors spilled into the streets.

After choosing South Philly Barbacoa as one of the nation’s best new restaurants of 2016, the usually politically neutral magazine Bon Appetit acquiesced to the couple’s insistence that their social mission be included in the article.

“By mixing politics and business, we’ve attracted customers who are engaged with us, who are loyal and supportive,” Miller said. “They’re writing about us in non-food publications and television programs …

We’re thriving as we support the community, and the community supports us back.”

Miller’s response to those who choose not to visit the restaurant because of his and his wife’s politics is direct and to the point: “The racists who don’t want us to even exist in the first place? I don’t want them anyway. …

You want to come in here and hate my wife and hate her people and you want to enjoy good tacos? Go to fucking Chipotle.”

Food and politics have long been intimately entwined. The Founding Fathers

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November 17, 2016

probably made more decisions while drinking and eating at The City Tavern and its ilk than they did in Independence Hall. The National Restaurant Association, representing more than 500,000 restaurant owners and operators, is often compared with that other influential lobbying group with the same acronym as it successfully fights efforts to raise the minimum wage or change overtime compensation laws. And when the owner or founder of a high-profile food organization gives to one political group over the other or makes statements that reveal distinct political leanings, consumers respond with support or disdain.

In 2012, after Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy talked about opposing same-sex marriage while his company’s charitable foundation donated millions to anti-LGBT rights politicians, the fallout at the more than 1,600 Chick-fil-A locations across the country was swift and varied. Protesters marched on a Washington, D.C., franchise with signs like “I used to like Chick-fil-A… But I love my gay friends more.” A California store was vandalized with the words “Tastes like Hate.” Elected officials in cities like Boston and Chicago pledged to fight efforts to bring or expand the chain in their owns.

But the franchise had its share of supporters, too, like former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who called on customers to show support for Cathy and “the godly values we

espouse by simply showing up and eating at Chick-fil-A” on a Wednesday in August.

The privately and family-held company later said it set a sales record on the the so-called “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day,” but declined to release any figures.

JUDY WICKS, who owned and operated West Philadelphia’s White Dog Cafe from 1983 to 2009, said she was initially discreet about promoting her social concerns through her business. She would host speakers to address issues like climate change or the war on drugs, but in a separate dining room. If she needed more space, she’d hold the talk on a night when business was typically slow.

“People could come in and eat, drink and be merry without being confronted the problems of the day,” Wicks said.

“The whole restaurant wasn’t about politics. You could have easily not known what was going on. … It wasn’t like a hippie cafe where we did poetry readings while you sipped coffee.”

Wicks changed her strategy over time.

After a customer complained about the anti-war message she’d had printed on diners’ checks – “You make me feel that by paying my bill I’m agreeing with your politics,” the man complained – Wicks made her supportive statements more neutral. Who could argue with having the phrase “blessed are the peacemakers” on their bill?

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“The beauty of it was that I had the respect of conservatives because I was a successful businessperson with a well-run business; they appreciated that,” Wicks said. “It makes sense to use your business to advance your thinking. This is where we’re spending our time. It’s the center of our energy and our power and where we can have a voice and affect change.”

Miller, too, holds that businesses have an obligation to promote positive social reform because of the platform they’ve been given, “whether it’s immigrant rights or Black Lives Matter or environmental justice, you have so much more reach in business than a civilian.”

“When I was growing up, the rock stars were the guitar players,” Miller said. “Now these chefs have thousands of Twitter followers and their own line of knives and books, and this huge cultural platform. But they’re not radicalized. It’s very neutral. You mostly see the chefs use (these platforms) for self-promotion.”

Jonathan Deutsch, a professor in the Department of Culinary Arts, Food Science and Hospitality Management at Drexel University, understands why some in the food industry choose to put business first. “My job is to provide great food and hospitality.

I’ll serve anyone. I’m not political,” Deutsch said. Car dealerships, he noted, don’t promote vehicles as conservative or liberal.

–South Philly Barbacoa co-owner BEN MILLER

SOUTH PHILLY BARBACOA CO-OWNER BEN MILLER TALKS WITH PHILADELPHIA MAYOR JIM KENNEY DURING AN EVENT.

Still, he believes that there’s something very intimate about the hospitality industry that encourages self-expression.

“Feeding people is a very intimate act – you’re inviting someone into your place and you’re nourishing them,” Deutsch said.

“Our whole social structure is based around having meals together. That can be wonderful and healing, and there are numerous examples of people finding comfort in togetherness around food after Hurricane Katrina or 9/11.”

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In his 2014 book, “Barbecue: A Global History,” Deutsch writes how barbecues have long been backdrops for political rallies, with food being used to curry favor and get people to listen to a particular candidate.

What is served is as important as who serves it – and where. The popular menu items in New York City may not gain traction in Dallas. It’s important to know who is eating.

“That’s a common trope: I eat your food, therefore I respect you,” Deutsch said.

FOOD CAN SHOWCASE our common humanity. Pittsburgh’s Conflict Kitchen has brought that point home for the last six years, offering specialities from countries that have been in conflict with the United States like Iran, North Korea and Afghan-

November 17, 2016

istan. The nonprofit eatery, co-directed by artists Dawn Weleski and Jon Rubin, is also a socially engaged art project that aims to build community by sharing the “unique perspective from people in our community we don’t usually get to hear from,” Weleski said.

Weleski said there hasn’t been any negative feedback directed at the restaurant.

Conflict Kitchen is currently featuring the food of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, a collective of six indigenous North American nations also referred to as the Iroquois Confederacy. That means dishes created with venison, quail and “the three sisters”: corn, beans and squash.

“People think of Native American culture as something of the past, something that’s been erased, an invisible people,” Weleski said. “What we’re offering is an outlet to remind people that there are contemporary Native Americans and … the opportunity to showcase the great diversity between us as Americans.”

OF COURSE, the sharing of food can still go horribly awry. Think back to when Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry visited Philadelphia, one of the bluest of blue cities, in 2003. It was nothing but love – until he ordered a cheesesteak with Swiss.

Kerry still took Pennsylvania in the general election, but how much newspaper ink and TV time focused on Kerry being out of touch, instead of focusing on his policies?

More recently, in May, Donald Trump

–Drexel culinaty arts professor JONATHAN DEUTSCH

PITTSBURGH’S CONFLICT KITCHEN PROVIDES A LITTLE EXTRA WITH THEIR TAKEOUT PACKAGES.

also had a food-related misstep. In celebration of Cinco de Mayo, Trump tweeted a photo of himself and his lunch: a fried tortilla shell filled with meat, cheese and salad fixings. His message read, “The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!”

Critics called that condescending. His supporters seemed nonplussed.

And it’s not just presidential candidates who make food-related missteps: When he entered the political arena, Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey often referred to the Allentown restaurant and bar he ran with his brothers as a way to showcase his business acumen. That was later used against him, with opponents calling the establishment an out-of-control trouble spot under the Toomey family’s ownership.

Business owners, too, have to be careful. In 2015, the owners of The Out NYC, a hotel that promoted its LGBT-friendly politics, hosted a fundraiser for Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz. The fallout was immediate, said Mike Sheridan, assistant professor at Temple University’s School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management. Groups like the New York Gay Men’s Chorus and AIDS Walk cancelled planned events. The social media shaming was constant.

“It caused so much strife the owners actually had to sell the property. They knew there was no way for them to get beyond that,” said Sheridan.

Sheridan said the public politics of a restaurant owner or chef do affect a diner’s decision-making, his included. He won’t eat at Red Lobster, for example, because he doesn’t support the way its parent company harvests lobster. He’s also chosen to go out of his way to eat and drink at an establishment supporting a cause he believes in, as he did this summer when many Gayborhood businesses donated a portion of their sales to help victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando.

But politics aside, the food on offer at these restaurants remains at the heart of it all.

“I used good food to lure innocent customers into social activism,” Wicks recalled.

“I didn’t publicize it, but that’s what I would tell my friends.”

South Philly Barbacoa has a limited menu featuring the titular offering – lamb cooked overnight in custom-built steamers and served with fresh toppings and corn tortillas – and consommé made from the drippings.

Bon Appetit described the tacos as “unimaginably delicious.”

“If I had a bad product, I couldn’t really stand on a soap box,” Miller said.

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City & State Pennsylvania

November 17, 2016

A CAPITOL CELEBRATION Harrisburg will be party central all month in honor of the General Assembly’s bicentennial session.

With the beginning of its term in January 2016, Pennsylvania’s General Assembly celebrated its 200th consecutive session.

During the month of November, a formal celebration is taking place at the state Capitol in Harrisburg where a commemorative flag are being flown over the Capitol and the front of the building is illuminated in red, white and blue after dark.

Both the House and Senate passed resolutions commemorating the anniversary at the end of the current Legislature’s fall voting session.

While the General Assembly has held 200 sessions, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, having its roots in the Provincial Assembly started by William Penn, has met for over 334 years.

Here are some important dates relating to Pennsylvania’s General Assembly.

PENNSYLVANIA’S GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1682

1776

1812

1897

1959

The Provincial Assembly (Pennsylvania’s Colonial Legislature) met for the first time on Dec. 4 in Upland, Chester County, for four days.

The Pennsylvania Assembly meets for the first time as a state Assembly in Philadelphia following the Declaration of Independence. Sessions are counted annually.

Harrisburg is formally made the capital of Pennsylvania. Legislature begins to meet at the Dauphin County Courthouse while a Capitol building is being constructed.

The Hills Capitol building burns down during a February snowstorm, Capitol moves to local Grace Methodist Church on Harrisburg’s State Street.

Constitutional change states that sessions, though continuing to be held for two years at a time, will be counted in each calendar year as a distinct session.

1878

Construction began on Pennsylvania’s first official “state house” in Philadelphia. The building is now called “Independence Hall” … maybe you’ve heard of it.

1732

SOURCE: 200TH SESSION COMMEMORATION FACT SHEET

Legislature transforms from a unicameral body to a bicameral body with the creation of the state Senate on Dec. 7.

1790

On the run from British troops, the Assembly met at the Lancaster County Courthouse on Sept.

7, where it continued to carry out business until the end of the Revolutionary War. 1777

After 102 annual sessions, the Legislature begins counting individual sessions by two-year periods.

1821

The first state Capitol building is completed, built by architect Stephen Hills.

1901

Construction of a new Capitol is halted due to cost. Construction on current Capitol begins.

1906

Current Capitol building in Harrisburg is completed by architect Joseph Huston.

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November 17, 2016

WOLF VS. THE WORLD In the latest skirmish over who maintains regulatory primacy in Pennsylvania, standoffs have become the status quo

ON OCT. 28, just a day after he was handed Senate Bill 562, Gov. Tom Wolf returned it to the Legislature – without his signature – and included a veto message excoriating the attempt by the General Assembly to grapple away additional legislative control over the executive branch’s regulatory authority under the Pennsylvania Constitution.

This latest dustup between the GOP-dominated Legislature and the Democratic governor was part of the Legislature’s longstanding effort to retain some authority – and, ideally, to expand it – over how the executive branch implements and enforces the laws.

This conflict led to the creation of the Independent Regulatory Review Commission in 1982, a legislative commission given authority to review and approve or disapprove regulations (except those from the Game Commission and Fish and Boat Commission) based on the public interest.

Senate Bill 562’s journey through the Legislature to its ultimate fate started at the very beginning of the current legisla-

tive term in January 2015, when the bill’s prime sponsor, Senate Majority Whip John Gordner, a Republican, circulated a co-sponsorship memo seeking support for the measure among his Senate colleagues.

According to Gordner, the idea behind the the legislation came from his experience serving in the state House of Representatives. While sitting on the House Professional Licensure Committee, he saw greater legislative involvement with the oversight of regulations than any time before or since in his state service.

“It really showed me the importance of the Legislature giving serious consideration to the regulatory process and to making comments and suggestions as a regulation was being proposed, rather than complaining about regulations after they were finally adopted,” he said.

He noted during his service in the Senate, which started in 2003, oversight committees in the chamber rarely shared regulatory text with members.

This led to Senate Bill 562, which would alter the current regulatory review process to provide for greater legislative oversight

By JASON GOTTESMAN

by requiring oversight committee chairs to distribute copies of regulations to members within five days of receipt, outlining the committee process regarding the adoption of comments to regulations, dissuading the introduction of regulations during the Legislature’s July recess and prohibiting the publishing of statements of purpose and interest in regulations.

Importantly, the legislation provides a process for legislative committees to halt or delay the regulatory process by allowing notification to the IRRC that it disapproves or wishes to further review a regulation.

Through this simple notice provision, a legislative committee could effectively halt or seriously delay the implementation of a regulation.

Additionally, the bill would extend the time by which the Legislature, through concurrent resolution, can take steps to stop a final form regulation from b eing published.

The current regulatory review process allows for, but does not mandate, legislative review or comment of regulations.

According to information provided by

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November 17, 2016

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“If you really want to improve our economic climate you have to reduce government red tape, AND THAT STARTS WITH MAKING SURE THAT WHEN THESE REGULATIONS ARE BEING CRAFTED, THAT’S BEING DONE IN A SENSIBLE, BALANCED MANNER.”

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

– KEVIN SUNDAY, Pennsylvania Chamber of Business director of government affairs

GOV. TOM WOLF DELIVERS THE 2015-2016 BUDGET SPEECH IN THE STATE CAPITOL.

the IRRC, both the commission and standing legislative committees review dozens of proposed and final form regulations every year.

In 2015, the commission reviewed 32 final form regulations and 42 temporary regulations, which are also reviewed by standing committees.

“Legislators can and should be involved in the process, and not wait until all of a sudden it’s before IRRC and you’re now complaining about what’s in those regulations,” Gordner said in response to ques-

tions about the bill.

While the bill originally passed the Senate unanimously, provisions inserted by the House that increased the controversial nature of the legislation made subsequent legislative action fall largely along party lines.

When the bill was finally sent to the governor at the end of October, it did not have the support of a veto-proof majority in either chamber.

In vetoing the bill, Wolf said he could not put his signature on the measure since

it could grind the regulatory process to a halt and impede the ability of the executive branch to implement laws passed by the Legislature.

“In promulgating regulations, executive agencies are simply exercising legal authority already granted to them by the Legislature,” he explained. “Existing law already supplies the Legislature with significant influence in the regulatory process. The General Assembly has acted in many instances pursuant to this process to object to and significantly change regula-

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November 17, 2016

“Legislators can and should be involved in the process, AND

NOT WAIT UNTIL ALL OF A SUDDEN IT’S BEFORE IRRC AND YOU’RE NOW COMPLAINING ABOUT WHAT’S IN THOSE REGULATIONS.” – state Sen. JOHN GORDNER

tions that members have felt exceeded the authority of the executive branch.”

The veto drew a mixed response from organizations outside the Capitol. Business groups like the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry were disappointed with the governor’s action.

“We support efforts to reform the regulatory review process – this made a lot of sense to have the legislators who originally craft the law that authorizes agencies to craft regulations to have a direct role in making sure the regulations do (what they intended),” said Kevin Sunday, director of government affairs for the organization.

Sunday argued Pennsylvania’s current regulatory structure is overly complicated and hurts business development in the state – something he believes could have been alleviated by Senate Bill 562.

“At the outset, the regulations are so complex,” he said. “While we definitely support sensible regulatory programs, if you really want to improve our economic climate you have to reduce government red tape, and that starts with making sure that when these regulations are being crafted, that’s being done in a sensible, balanced manner.”

Supporting the decision to veto the bill were environmental groups, who felt their agendas were being targeted.

“Senate Bill 562 would have given lawmakers the ability to block critical environmental safeguards that have broadbased support – including efforts to tackle

the pressing problem of climate change and providing health protections for families and children from the negative impacts of fracking,” read a statement from the Clean Power PA Coalition, which includes environmental advocacy groups like PennEnvironment, PennFuture, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Clean Air Council and the Sierra Club. “The legislation was designed to give powerful special interests and big polluters an outsized role in our political process while shutting out Pennsylvania families.”

Earlier this legislative session, the General Assembly began the initial legislative steps needed to stop the publication of controversial new oil and gas regulations.

Spanning the administrations of Wolf and former Gov. Tom Corbett, the state Department of Environmental Protection was working on the regulations seen by the environmental community as essential to protecting Pennsylvania due to the recent expansion of natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania.

Opponents of the regulations saw the process as a means to stifle growth in the oil and gas industry while placing especially unfair new requirements on Pennsylvania’s oil drilling industry.

“We have one branch that is disrespecting the other two branches; that calls for disapproval,” House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee Chairman John Maher, an Allegheny Republican, said in May. “The

(environmental) protections already exist in statute.”

The start of the legislative process to overturn the regulations drew the ire of the environmental community.

That move was stopped after an agreement between the Wolf administration and the General Assembly allowed for a portion of the new regulatory scheme to take effect while the Department of Environmental Protection worked on some areas of legislative concern.

As for what the future holds for his attempt to rein in executive rulemaking authority with additional legislative control, Gordner said he plans on reintroducing the bill in the next legislative session, which starts in January.

This time, he said, he is hoping for more cooperation from the Wolf administration to develop something that is palatable to both sides.

“I guess my frustration is not having a good dialogue with the governor’s staff in regard to seeing how to make it acceptable,” he said. “So, I’m hoping that process is better in the coming calendar year.”

Wolf press secretary Jeff Sheridan noted both the governor’s office of legislative affairs and the governor’s policy office weighed in on the legislation before final passage.

The General Assembly will hold its first legislative session day of the 2017-18 session on the first Tuesday in January for the annual swearing-in of legislators.

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November 17, 2016

Video bail has been proven to be more prejudicial than live bail hearings. So why is Philadelphia still so determined to use it?

By RYAN BRIGGS

City & State Pennsylvania

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November 17, 2016

In 2010, a study found that when Chicago switched to video hearings, bail increased: $20,958, OR 51%

$74,699, OR 58%

ON AVERAGE

IN ARMED ROBBERY CASES

$53,274, OR 90% IN RESIDENTIAL

BURGLARY CASES

$73,024, OR 70%

IN AGGRAVATED

BATTERY CASES

$26,592, OR 64%

IN NONRESIDENTIAL

BURGLARY CASES

$54,227, OR 86% IN UNARMED

ROBBERY CASES

$25,605, OR 78% IN POSSESSION OF

A STOLEN MOTOR

VEHICLE CASES

SOURCE: MACARTHUR JUSTICE CENTER STUDY PUBLISHED IN NORTHWESTERN LAW’S JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL LAW & CRIMINOLOGY

ON A COLD January night in 2014, Muhammad Custis was keeping watch over the Village of the Arts and Humanities, a sculpture garden nestled in a tough stretch of North Philadelphia. The midnight silence of the neighborhood, pockmarked by vacant lots and boarded-up buildings, was suddenly broken by a banging noise from a nearby storefront.

He walked across Germantown Avenue to investigate.

“A lot of times, people spray-paint at nighttime. But this time, I heard banging,” Custis recalled. “Someone was vandalizing the store. I saw there was a small security gate raised up, so I screamed, ‘Who in there?’”

From inside the darkened store, a man rushed at Custis and then took off down the street, brushing within inches of his face. Just then, a police cruiser, apparently summoned by neighbors, pulled up and saw Custis standing next to a jimmied security grille. His employer hadn’t issued him a conventional security guard outfit, so he explained what happened to the police officers and even offered to call his employer.

They didn’t bite.

“They just assumed that it was me that broke in,” he said.

He was charged with burglary and

would sit in a holding cell in a nearby police district for two days before coming face-to-face with a familiar sight: the closed-circuit television system Philadelphia uses to set bail. With a police officer looming over his shoulder but no lawyer present, a faraway judge on a small TV screen would determine Custis’ fate as he watched, silently.

To those unfamiliar with Philadelphia’s backlogged criminal justice system, this process, more like a Skype call than a typical court proceeding, may seem bizarre.

But reform advocates describe it as a borderline unconstitutional practice that deprives people – often poor people of color – of their right to adequate legal representation. Worse, a growing body of research indicates that the system routinely leads to higher-than-average bail amounts.

Some big cities have abandoned the use of similar tools. Yet as Philadelphia moves ahead with plans to mitigate the use of excessive cash bail and decrease the county jail population, this controversial practice will likely be preserved.

People like Custis know the system all too well: The 39-year-old had been in and out of jail in his younger days, mostly for theft or fighting. He says that before his arrest, he was trying to turn his life around by working an honest job. He wanted to

explain that to the police, to a defense lawyer, to the magistrate who would set his bail, but he couldn’t.

“It was just me. I’m on one end and they in a courtroom somewhere,” he recalls.

“I could see the judge up on the bench, I could see someone handing them a piece of paper off-camera. That’s it. I didn’t have any representation, I couldn’t even hear them. Nobody said anything to me at all.

They just read some charges off and gave me bail. I didn’t say anything.”

It would take a long time for him to get a chance to tell his story. Because he was on the tail end of a five-year probation sentence at the time of his arrest, Custis would be held in county jail for one and half years, awaiting trial.

He was found not guilty in May 2015 and released.

VIDEO BAIL SYSTEMS were supposed to make the system better – to help avoid the kinds of delays endemic to an overburdened judicial district where the average criminal case can take nearly 100 days to go to trial.

“The government’s interest is in saving time and money,” said Edie Cimino, a former Maryland public defender. “But these systems do not measure up to a defendant’s right to a fair trial; there are serious draw-

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November 17, 2016

backs to not being physically present in a courtroom.”

Cimino co-authored a study with two law professors about her state’s use of a similar system for certain bail review hearings. The researchers found that defendants in the state court system were more likely to have bail reduction requests denied than those in circuit courts, where hearings were conducted in person.

The paper suggests the obvious: in-person hearings to allow a defendant time to speak to a lawyer and present oral arguments to a judge, which could lead to reduced bail. In CCTV systems like Philadelphia’s, defendants almost never get to see a lawyer. A public defender is technically present, but they’re on the other side of the TV screen and usually off-camera.

“You can’t see the attorney,” Cimino said. “You can barely hear them. And you can’t have a conversation with them that isn’t being recorded.”

In fact, public defenders sometimes specifically instruct defendants not to say anything at all, as their recorded statements are admissible in court and could be self-incriminating.

Cimino added that she believed there were other intangible factors at play.

“When you look someone in the eye, there’s a human connection that happens,” she said, referring to the constitutional right to face one’s accuser. “That’s the reason for the confrontation clause. When you’re relegated to being an image on the screen, you’re dehumanized.”

CCTV systems were introduced for preliminary court hearings in Philadelphia as early as 1974, and were initially hailed as a high-tech reform. However, even then, the deficiencies of the system – the first were blurry black-and-white security monitors – were immediately apparent.

Public defenders at the time were “strongly against switching to preliminary arraignments via CCTV,” said Mark Houldin, director of policy at the Defender Association of Philadelphia. “We pushed back against it unsuccessfully at the time.”

Other big cities would come to embrace similar technology, sometimes funded by federal modernization grants. Chicago notably embraced CCTV systems in 1999, which ultimately attracted a legal challenge from the MacArthur Justice Center in 2006. In preparation for that suit, the group compiled data on more than 600,000 cases filed before and after the implementation of televised hearings.

Their findings were striking: For offenses that were shifted to televised bail hear-

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“WHEN YOU LOOK SOMEONE IN THE EYE, THERE’S A HUMAN CONNECTION THAT HAPPENS – THAT’S THE REASON FOR THE CONFRONTATION CLAUSE. WHEN YOU’RE RELEGATED TO BEING AN IMAGE ON THE SCREEN, YOU’RE DEHUMANIZED.” – EDIE CIMINO, former public defender ings, the average bail increased 51 percent within a year of the system’s introduction.

Violent crimes saw larger increases of anywhere “from 54 percent to 90 percent, depending on the offense.”

Meanwhile, certain bail hearings that continued to be conducted in person saw no change.

The data went public in 2008, in a Chicago Tribune article. The city voluntarily abandoned its CCTV systems four days later, but the arbitrary higher bail amounts enforced after the introduction of CCTV systems with the city remained as accepted practice for years to come.

PHILADELPHIA IS ONE of the last big cities that fully embraces closed-circuit television systems for preliminary arraignment hearings. In the basement of the Criminal Justice Center, across from City Hall, one of six court magistrates sit in front of a flat-screen television behind a glass pane separating the small courtroom from a public viewing area. A public defender, a few clerks and reams of paperwork give the room a cramped feeling.

Day after day, night after night, the magistrates take turns watching a parade of miserable-looking individuals appear onscreen, cycling from one person to the next every few minutes. Like many counties, the magistrates here are appointed to this position – one with no prerequisites – by court administrators. One of Philadelphia’s magistrates was formerly a court crier before his elevation to the position.

These robed figures watch a television screen filled with mostly young black men.

The concrete walls of the eight different police districts equipped with CCTV hearing equipment create a shifting backdrop – beige bricks switch to yellow bricks, then back to beige again, as the parade continues, hour after hour.

City court administrators declined repeated requests to comment on the city’s use of video bail – the pros, the cons, anything at all. Both the courts and reform advocates are locked in a delicate effort to overhaul aspects of the city’s bail system that has left people on both sides reticent to speak too critically for fear of disrupting that process.

However, civil rights attorney David Rudovsky, who has monitored Philadelphia’s court system for decades, acknowledged that dumping CCTV was not on the table for the current round of reforms, funded in part by a $3.5 million MacArthur grant.

Instead, he said the local public defender’s office would launch an independent program designed to give arrestees brief contact with a lawyer assigned to central booking.

“The new system will have ‘defender bail advocates’ providing information and argument to the bail commissioner on behalf of all persons being arraigned,” he said.

“The first set of advocates will be starting within the next couple of months.”

But some advocates said a few minutes of prep time with a lawyer was still no replacement for actual legal representation at in-person bail hearings. For the foreseeable future, men and women arrested in Philadelphia will remain nothing more than images on a screen.

Custis has been one of those images before. Sometimes he was guilty, as he freely admits, but at least once he was innocent. It didn’t seem to make a difference, he says – no one watching cared to listen to his story.

Today, again working for an arts organization and trying – again – to get his life back together, the experience still haunts him.

“It feels like they don’t even have time to have you in front of them,” he recalls. “They just look at you like, ‘OK, he did it.’”

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November 17, 2016

SPOTLIGHT ON

VETERANS contents If you want to understand the importance of veterans in Pennsylvania you need to start with a number: 894,681. That is how many veterans call the Keystone State home. In fact, only three states – California, Texas and Florida – are home to more.

Serving those who have served their country requires government organizations like the VA and the Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs to not only offer assistance in everything from housing to mental health to money management, but to work hand-in-hand with organizations like the Veterans Leadership Program of Western Pennsylvania.

This month’s issue spotlight reveals what it takes to take care of veterans – and what is needed to do the job even better.

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TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SHEET METAL WORKER

A SUCCESSFUL MIX OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE JOBS PROGRAMS ARE PUTTING VETERANS TO WORK IN PENNSYLVANIA.

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MISSION-CRITICAL CARE LED BY A CROP OF NEW DIRECTORS, PENNSYLVANIA’S VA MEDICAL CENTERS ARE UNDERGOING A TRANSFORMATION.

City & State Pennsylvania

November 15, 17, 2016 2016

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T

S CHIRASAK TOLERTMONGKOL

Tinker, tailor, soldier, sheet metal worker A successful mix of public and private jobs programs are putting veterans to work in Pennsylvania

By CARMEN DEL RAVAL WHEN EVAN M. WILSON was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy in 2013, the native of Pennsauken, New Jersey, thought he had the world at his fingertips, thanks to his experience as an aircraft logistics specialist.

But the transition to civilian life proved complicated. In his mid-20s, with a young son to support and another on the way, Wilson needed better income than he’d once earned with sporadic construction jobs. Like most veterans, however, he lacked both a college degree and the recent work experience many employers seek.

Wilson’s lucky break came when his best friend tipped him off to apprenticeships of-

fered through Sheet Metal Workers Local 19 in Philadelphia, a union that partners with the nonprofit organization Helmets to Hardhats to fast-track veterans into construction careers.

“All I needed to do was provide all my credentials from the military,” said Wilson, who in 2015 began his four-year paid apprenticeship with Air Concepts, an air-conditioning contractor in Bristol. “I just knew I had the discipline from the Navy to catch on quickly, and I was good with my hands, which really helps.” As a full-fledged journeyman sheet metal worker, Wilson can eventually expect to earn an annual salary in the neighborhood of $100,000 with solid union benefits – pre-

cisely the kind of stable, middle-class career that so often eludes U.S. military veterans.

Connecting vets like Wilson with those hard-to-find jobs is a cause that has steadily gathered momentum over the past 15 years, both in Pennsylvania and nationally.

The employment landscape has long been “a complicated and challenging place” for the state’s 364,000 working-age ex-service members, said Joan Nissley, communications director for the Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.

But even as veteran-friendly industries like manufacturing have declined, other opportunities have presented themselves, giving rise to a crop of public and private initia-

CityAndStatePA.com

THE STATE OF VETERANS

IN PA

NO. 4 AMONG U.S.

STATES IN TOTAL VETERAN POPULATION

916,600

VETERANS IN THE STATE

$33,000:

MEDIAN INCOME FOR PENNSYLVANIA VETERANS IN 2013 (VS. $28,000 FOR NON-VETERANS)

364,000 ARE WORKING AGE (18-64)

74.7 PERCENT OF THEM ARE WORKING

$359 MILLION:

AMOUNT THE VA SPENDS ON EDUCATION, VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION AND EMPLOYMENT SERVICES (IN 2015)

6 PERCENT

OF ALL VETS ARE FEMALE SOURCE: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

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1 IN 4 ADULT MALES IS A VETERAN

U.S.MILITARY DEMOGRAPHICS 24.4 MILLION

U.S. MILITARY VETERANS

NEARLY 2 MILLION

(9 PERCENT) ARE WOMEN

2 MILLION

VETERANS ARE UNDER AGE 35 SOURCE: NATIONAL BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS

U.S. VETERAN UNEMPLOYMENT RATES 4.3 PERCENT: VETERAN UNEMPLOYMENT RATE (SEPT. 2016, UNCHANGED FROM 2015)

4.7 PERCENT: OVERALL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE (SEPT. 2016, DOWN FROM 4.8 IN 2015)

SOURCE: HELMETS TO HARDHATS

FLYSNOWFLY

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tives to ensure that military vets, including those who are disabled, take full advantage.

The building trades, for instance, are actively seeking to replace a retiring generation of skilled laborers. Aided by groups like Helmets to Hardhats – which has placed more than 22,000 ex-service members in jobs over the past decade – Pennsylvania’s powerful unions are recruiting veterans to fill plum spots in carpentry, electrical, and sheet metal work, as well as in related hands-on fields like transportation.

“Around 2002, there was a huge push to understand where skilled labor was going to come from, where we were going to get the next workforce,” noted Darrell Roberts, the executive director of Washington, D.C.based Helmets to Hardhats. One logical answer: workers discharged from the military, who are accustomed to physical labor and eager to “earn while they learn,” as Roberts put it.

While about 10 percent of Helmets to Hardhats registrants aim for managerial roles, “these apprenticeships are our bread and butter, and where the majority of our vets want to go,” said Roberts.

His own career makes a good case: Having learned welding and sheet metal skills in the Navy, Roberts joined Local 19 while continuing to serve the Pennsylvania Army National Guard and eventually was hired as the state’s first program director for Helmets to Hardhats. Along the way, he was deployed to Kosovo, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business – and became an example of how skilled labor can build not only houses, but also serious careers.

“The opportunities are boundless; it’s what you want to do and where you want to take it,” said Roberts. That’s true to some extent – but it’s also undeniable that government programs play a critical role by subsidizing trainees, incentivizing veteran hiring and bringing employers and workers together through placement offices, websites and job fairs. Since the early 2000s, there have been stepped-up efforts at both the state and federal level to reintegrate vets into the workforce, making success stories like Roberts’s far more likely.

Trainees like Wilson, for instance, pay their rent with housing stipends thanks to the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill, which expanded the traditional college-tuition benefit to include financial support for on-the-job apprenticeships. And the Vow to Hire Heroes Act of 2011, which was recently renewed, offers tax credits for employers who hire ex-service members, along with increased funding for training in high-demand specialties like machine operation or heating and ventilation.

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“AROUND 2002, THERE WAS A HUGE PUSH TO UNDERSTAND WHERE SKILLED LABOR WAS GOING TO COME FROM, WHERE WE WERE GOING TO GET THE NEXT WORKFORCE.” - DARRELL ROBERTS, executive director of Helmets to Hardhats

In Pennsylvania, state policy has long favored veterans for hiring and promotion in government jobs; soon that preference will likely expand to the private sector as a result of the Pennsylvania Startups for Soldiers Act, which passed both houses of the state Legislature this fall and is expected to be signed into law by Gov. Tom Wolf.

“We all owe a debt of gratitude to those veterans who fought for our nation,” explained state Sen. Randy Vulakovich, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee, and a champion of the bill. (The committee’s minority chairman, Democratic Sen. Jay Costa, declined to comment.) “A veteran is likely to possess courage, constancy, habits of obedience and fidelity – valuable qualifications that translate to the private sector.”

Employers are evidently persuaded. Even with the ongoing erosion of manufacturing jobs, veteran unemployment declined significantly in recent years and is actually slightly lower than that of the overall population, both statewide and nationally. Only 4 percent of ex-military workers were jobless in September 2016 – a nearly 50 percent decline from five years ago, when double-digit rates inspired the Vow To Hire Heroes Act. And while Pennsylvania’s median income was $28,000 in 2014, the last year for which figures are available, veterans did much better, bringing home about $33,000.

None of this surprises Mark Pinkasavage,

who oversees apprentice training for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 743 in Reading. “Ninety-nine percent of the time, when we’ve hired a vet, they’ve worked out well,” said Pinkasavage, who served in the Air Force and counts roughly nine ex-service members among 65 IBEW apprentices.

Ernest J. Menold, who routinely employs veterans at his eponymous third-generation sheet metal business, prizes the maturity that accompanies military experience. “I find that the vets who come in, compared to their counterparts of similar age, have more sense of responsibility,” said Menold, who co-chairs the Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee for Philadelphia-area sheet metal contractors. “Some of them even come in with job skills. We owe it to them to find them employment.”

Gary Masino, Local 19’s president, said the union tries to recruit a half-dozen apprentices each year from the military to join its 4,300 workers throughout Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. Regardless of experience, “we find that the apprentices that come to us through Helmets to Hardhats bring a real work ethic,” explained Joseph Frick, the training coordinator for Local 19, where the average ex-military apprentice is about 25. “They follow orders and directions well. And that’s half the battle – getting people to show up on time every day.”

Requirements and pay vary, but even

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starting apprentice pay is often higher than the low-wage service jobs many non-college-educated men might otherwise take.

“Most of us take a pay cut to come into the local, but we know at the end of our apprenticeship it’ll pay off,” explained Wilson, who draws on his G.I. Bill benefits to fill the gap.

New hires at Local 19 start at 40 percent of the journeyman wage, with a 5 percent raise every six months. At IBEW Local 743, the $12.17 starting hourly wage rises to $34.77 by the end of the five-year apprentice program, with health and pension benefits paid by the employer – “and at zero cost to the taxpayer,” Pinkasavage pointed out.

Still other unions recruit for apprenticeships run through employers like SEPTA, which offers VA-approved programs to train overhead linemen and signal maintainers.

George Bannon, who organizes SEPTA apprenticeships as business agent for Transport Workers Union Local 234 in Philadelphia, said veterans are attractive to many industries not only for their leadership qualities, but also for transferable skills, like driving large vehicles. “It’s just the environment that’s different, trains as opposed to an active combat zone,” explained Bannon, who served in the Marine Corps. “But the veteran has a lot of resolve. He’s willing to learn, take risks.”

Bannon’s use of the masculine pronoun is no accident. Ninety-four percent of Pennsylvania veterans are male; apprenticeships reflect that reality, with female representation in the low single digits (though employers and union trainers “are actively trying to recruit more women,” said Roberts, a sentiment echoed by his peers). Julie Fernández, a 22-year Air Force veteran who counsels ex-military job seekers at the Montgomery County PA CareerLink office, speculated that women are likely to focus on family rather than career after discharge.

And popular fields for ex-military personnel skew heavily male. Nancy Dischinat, executive director for the Lehigh Valley Workforce Development Board, said a majority of veterans find work in manufacturing, transportation, construction, logistics and technical occupations. The mechanical bent of many ex-service members has inspired large technology companies, like Microsoft and Amazon, to create special military recruitment tracks.

But outside of the big cities, Pennsylvania is still better known for fading factories than tech startups, and Fernández said rural veterans face an uphill climb to land middle-class jobs. “Geography can really work against them,” she noted. “When we get to East Greenville, up in that area, when

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the factories closed, that’s it for those folks.

They have to start coming south to find employment.” Fernández said her office was recently flooded with veterans laid off from the Quad/Graphics factory in Atglen and the Harrisburg plant of Bimbo Bakeries, both of which recently shuttered.

The uncertain employment landscape is why ex-military job seekers get prioritized, one-on-one employment assistance from specially trained counselors like Fernández at the state’s 61 PA CareerLink job centers, and from the state’s Disabled Veterans Outreach Program, which works with CareerLink to employ special-needs vets. “We have always made veterans a priority, and we will continue to do that,” said Sara Goulet, the communications director at the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, which administers PA CareerLink.

“We’re a big state, we have a diverse economy and a lot of industry. There are areas where factories are closing, but there are also areas where we hear the need for a pipeline for skilled labor because a generation is retiring.”

To get that pipeline flowing, PA CareerLink cultivates close ties with area employers. Fernández recently heard from FedEx about a soon-to-open facility in Conshohocken, where the shipping giant is hiring operations managers, packers and drivers.

Meanwhile, Goulet hopes local vets laid off from coal mining jobs will find work at the petrochemicals plant Shell Royal Dutch is building in Beaver County. And companies

with strong local roots – like Pittston-based Benco Dental, an 86-year-old dental distributor – have long been known for hiring veterans.

Judy Harvey of Kingston is one of 100 veterans employed by Benco nationally – and when she was hired last year, she beat the odds for a 50-year-old job seeker in this economically struggling region. But the Wilkes-Barre CareerLink office knew Benco favored military personnel and placed Harvey in customer service at the Pittston headquarters, where employees in the military reserves receive paid leave for annual training. “Being from a small town in Northeast Pennsylvania, traveling around the world with the Navy, and then returning to my same hometown, was very rewarding,” Harvey said.

While most veterans, like Harvey, hope their skills will transfer to a good civilian job, a few are looking for a fresh start – as Roberts discovered when a recent Navy discharge approached Helmets to Hardhats about an elevator apprenticeship. “He’d operated a bulldozer and small cranes in Afghanistan and Iraq,” recalled Roberts. “This person had a lot of training and was really proficient. He had a lot of the skills you’re looking for.”

But the veteran declined to pursue lucrative construction work, even though his new choice of field required starting from square one. “He was really adamant,” said Roberts with a chuckle. “He never wanted to operate a bulldozer again.”

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ERNEST D. MENOLD INC.

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A VETERAN WORKS AT ERNEST MENOLD’S SHEET METAL BUSINESS.

City & State Pennsylvania

November 17, 2016

BRIGADIER GENERAL TONY CARRELLI Adjutant General, Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs

BEN STAHL Executive Director, Veterans Leadership Program of Western Pennsylvania

What is your purview?

We have two: the National Guard and veterans. We have 900,000 veterans in Pennsylvania – it’s the fourthlargest contingent in the country – behind California Florida and Texas – which all have temperate climates.

We routinely deploy thousands of soldiers overseas – since 9/11, we have placed 42,000 soldiers overseas. With the National Guard, we also help protect the commonwealth from disasters that overtax normal first responders.

What takes up most of your time and concern on the job?

I’ve spent a lot more time in the veterans arena. I’ve been to lot of the homes, been to the events. I can see my entire

What is your purview?

We provide veterans in Western Pennsylvania with housing, employment and utility assistance. We also provide emergency basic needs. We are a tax site – we will be doing taxes here in January – we assist with transportation needs, bus passes and gas cards.

Any services a veteran could need in any phase of transition, post- or pre-separation, we are able to facilitate that inhouse. If we’re not, we make a referral through PA Serves, a coordinated network of veterans service providers.

Last year, we provided almost 700 veterans with housing, nearly 1,200 veterans with supportive services through Stand Down, which is a one-day resource fair for veterans who are homeless or at risk of being

term planning to spend a lot more time on veterans issues, finding the veterans that need the help. There are plenty of organizations that want to help veterans; we are concentrating our efforts on outreach – finding the veterans who need help and connecting them with the organization that can help them.

You’ve been in the military for 31 years – how has the governmental approach to veterans changed in that time?

There is a much larger emphasis on taking care of our veterans than when I first came into the military. I came in during the Reagan boom years – the emphasis was on the war fighters. The federal

homeless, and 500 veterans with employment services.

What are the most pressing issues facing the veterans you serve?

Homeless prevention and the intermittent nature of some veterans’ employment that causes adverse economic situations. Studies show a recently released veteran will have up to three positions before they find a job with some form of stability. During that time, keeping rent current, utilities current and not entering into any type of arrears is a significant challenge for them.

We have really gleaned the importance of holistic case management – we try to identify the root of why that adverse incident occurred. Then we drill in on their skill set so

government has done a good job of providing relief and programs for families and vets, and the state Legislature has done a great job as well – that is partly a measure of why we have the fourth-largest concentration of veterans in the country.

There’s a great wave of support for veterans throughout the country, especially in Pennsylvania. It wasn’t always that way – go back to the Vietnam era, vets were not treated that way. Today, anyone in uniform will tell you, people come up all the time to say, “Thank you for your service.”

There are a lot of people out there who want to help veterans but who don’t know how. The biggest challenge is connecting them to the right person.

we can express it in civilian terminology and help them find a career, help their family, and earn a living wage.

What is the one thing you would like people to know about helping veterans?

Not every veteran is a charity case. A lot of them are having trouble transitioning and reintegrating into civilian society. But these veterans transitioning into your communities bring with them a great skill set of leadership and commitment and technical skills that go a long way to assisting communities and organizations.

Don’t think of them as a liability or a burden – think of them as an asset to not only the country’s national defense but to the communities to which they come from.

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November 17, 2016

MISSION-CRITICAL

CARE

Pennsylvania’s VA Medical Centers are undergoing a transformation under a crop of new directors

By MELISSA JACOBS ON THE MORNING after Philadelphia’s Veterans Day parade, the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in University City was quietly cheerful. A day-after-Christmas high imbued staff and patients alike. The facility itself, from the emergency room to the “canteen,” was brightly lit and spic-and-span clean. Her tone slightly suspicious, Public Affairs Director Fern Billet asked, “What were you expecting?” Well …

Mismanagement of the Department of Veterans Affairs has been public knowledge since the 2014 scandal that originated in Phoenix, where more than 80 vets died while waiting to receive medical attention. In truth, VA health care has been a punching bag for decades, going back to the Vietnam War.

It’s become a stereotype: The vet whose medical needs are dismissed, ignored or lost in bureaucratic red tape. And while there is truth behind that characterization, it’s also true that the VA has a monumentally difficult task. Sources who asked for anonymity confirmed what is now generally recognized: The VA was unprepared to treat the thousands of veterans injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Before 9/11, we thought our biggest challenge would be servicing the needs of aging veterans in the baby boomer generation,” one source said. “The system was not prepared to help the thousands of vets who came home with traumatic brain injuries, missing limbs and PTSD.” Consider the magnitude and diversity of

the VA’s patient population. Veterans Integrated Service Network 4 is composed of nine VA medical centers and 44 outpatient clinics across Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and Ohio. VISN4 encompasses more than 300,000 vets ages 18 and up. In fiscal year 2016, VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System served 70,119 veterans. And according to the VA, more than 57,500 veterans from their defined Southeast Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey region receive care at the Philadelphia VA medical center each year.

The Phoenix scandal was met with bipartisan reform from Washington. The Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014, sponsored by U.S. Sens. John McCain and Bernie Sanders, quickly passed through

HARRY L. MAXWELL FOR THE PHILADELPHIA VA MEDICAL CENTER

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November 17, 2016

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“IF VETERANS ARE HOMEBOUND FOR ANY REASON, THEY CAN REACH OUT TO US FROM THEIR LIVING ROOMS. YOU CAN’T GET TO US? WE’LL COME TO YOU. ” – DANIEL HENDEE, director of Philadelphia’s VA Medical Center

Congress and was enthusiastically signed

by President Barack Obama. The Veteran’s Choice Act set a 30-day maximum wait time on appointments, rewrote protocols so incompetent managers could be fired and funneled $5 billion to the VA to improve care and hire much-needed physicians, nurses and other medical professionals.

The sweeping changes generated grousing among some VA executives, but not Daniel Hendee. The director of Philadelphia’s VA Medical Center welcomed the reform and the appointments of Robert McDonald as secretary of Veterans Affairs and Dr. David Shulkin as under secretary for health.

“Dr. Shulkin set new priorities for VA medical centers that addressed the immediate and long-term medical needs of our veterans,” Hendee said. “In our world, that kind of leadership has to come from the top – and it did.”

Hendee’s accomplishments over the past year include the establishment of a triage call center. Based in Butler, the call center serves all of VISN4. “When a veteran calls, the phone is answered by a skilled medical professional with the knowledge to help that veteran get the service he or she needs,” Hendee explained – no more voice mailboxes overflowing with unanswered requests for assistance. That call center powers the Philadelphia VA center’s new same-day service policy. Veterans in crisis are seen in the emergency room, which is now divided into two areas: one for physical health and another for mental health. Less dire situations are addressed by making sure that veterans are seen by medical professionals within 30 days of their request for an appointment.

Ophthalmology and audiology are big areas of concern for aging veterans. To address them, Hendee’s staff rolled out a new direct scheduling policy in October. Veterans can now make appointments for hearing aids and eyeglasses without first getting referrals from their primary care physician. Up next: an expanded women’s clinic scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2017. Staffed

by female physicians and nurses, the clinic will be dedicated to the physical and mental health needs of the 6,000 female veterans in the Philadelphia region.

Pittsburgh’s VA medical center opened its women’s health center in 2011. “VA Pittsburgh has been ensuring women veterans using our services receive comprehensive and excellent health care for more than 60 years, whether in-house or through community providers,” said Karin McGraw, the medical center’s director. “We were one of the founding VA health care systems in the development of a national women veterans’ health program in the early 1990s.”

McGraw took command of the Pittsburgh VA medical center in January 2016. Like Hendee, she is part of a relatively new wave of VA health care leaders. Mental health is a big priority for her. “Our understanding of the mental health challenges veterans face has grown significantly over the past several years,” McGraw said. VA Pittsburgh’s newer programs include drop-in clinics, community-based care and home-based care through telemedicine.

Telemedicine, a secure network through which veterans can video chat with their physicians and nurses, was recently introduced at the Philadelphia VA and is scheduled to expand in 2017. Its first component is My HealtheVet, an online system through which veterans can access their electronic medical records, manage their appointments, email with providers and refill prescriptions and track their delivery.

“If veterans are homebound for any reason, they can reach out to us from their living rooms,” Hendee explained. “You can’t get to us? We’ll come to you.”

All of these recent accomplishments are points of pride for McGraw and Hendee, none more so than their staff’s work to help homeless veterans. Their plight was a stain on the VA nationwide. “The VA had a program, but it was bogged down in red tape,” Hendee recalled. “We needed a new way to work with the City of Philadelphia, and we

KARIN MCGRAW, DIRECTOR OF PITTSBURGH’S VA MEDICAL CENTER

DANIEL HENDEE, DIRECTOR OF PHILADELPHIA’S VA MEDICAL CENTER

found it.” Hendee credits the swift success of that initiative to former Mayor Michael Nutter and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro. In December 2015, Nutter, Hendee and Castro announced an end to veteran homelessness in the city.

More than 1,390 vets had been given safe, clean housing.

McGraw is working on the problem with similar fervor. “Ending veteran homelessness is a top priority for VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System,” she said. “No veteran should ever be homeless, and we are committed to helping those who are to find their way to a safe, stable lifestyle.”

While reform seems to be in effect in Pennsylvania, that is not the case nationwide. Phoenix’s VA is still in crisis, and there are horror stories about others. It remains to be seen what President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican Congress will do to meet their pledges of caring for veterans. But Hendee expressed confidence that Pennsylvania’s systems are on the right track. “We are 100 percent dedicated to acknowledging any problems that arise and accepting responsibility for creating solutions for them.”

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November 17, 2016

‘RIGGING’ ROLLS PERSPECTIVES

THE

Voter fraud is rare. But voter registration fraud?

That’s another story.

BILL DOWLING

By TOM FERRICK

PEOPLE LINE UP TO CAST THEIR BALLOTS IN THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION EARLIER THIS MONTH IN MOUNT PLEASANT TOWNSHIP.

WE ALL LEARNED a lot about voter fraud in the run-up to this election. Despite histrionic claims to the contrary (see: Donald Trump and his surrogates), the experts tell us that elections are not rigged and instances of fraudulent voting are rare. But what about fraud involving voter registration and voter petitions? Well, that is another story.

The week before the election, allegations of voter-registration fraud were raised in Delaware County, with the complaints centering on the activities of a Washington, D.C.-based group called FieldWorks, which conducted a voter registration drive for the Democrats in the area. The allegations were serious enough to prompt state police to visit multiple FieldWorks area offices and cart off records.

As of this writing, there is no proof of wrongdoing.

FieldWorks issued a statement saying it had “zero tolerance for fraud,” while Republicans in Delco said the organization was trying to game the system by filing

thousands of faulty (or fraudulent, if you prefer) voter registration forms.

To quote Yogi Berra, it was déjà vu all over again.

In the first decade of this century, a nonprofit leftist grassroots group called ACORN was famous – or, depending on your party affiliation, notorious – for its voter registration drives, many of them targeted to minority communities. ACORN was a group with national scope – in one election cycle, it claimed to have registered 1.3 million voters.

Included in that number were bad registrations – with phony names, false addresses, the wrong date of birth, etc. ACORN caused headaches for election officials because they would bundle their voter forms and drop them on the desks at election bureaus, often close to the registration deadline. In Philadelphia, election officials would moan every time ACORN showed up at their door, making them process thousands of voter forms in a matter of days – at the busiest time of year,

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natch. Inevitably, some of those phony registrations were entered into the official voting rolls.

There was never much concern among election professionals that this would unleash a wave of fraudulent voting. Since some of the voters were phony, it’s doubtful someone who filled out the form would show up at the polls. If they did, they would have to go through the process of identification as required by law. (In Pennsylvania, first-time voters are required to show a photo ID.) ACORN’s problem wasn’t its mission, but its methodology. The organization hired part-time workers at an hourly rate and (though ACORN disputed this) gave them quotas to fill, with bonuses for those who exceeded their goals.

Let’s assume you are one of these hourly workers and you decide to station yourself with a clipboard on a busy street corner in Philadelphia to get people to register to vote. Under optimal conditions, you would only get 10 takers for every 100 people who passed by.

Why? Because most Philadelphians are already registered. We have 1.2 million people over the age of 18 in the city – and 1.1 million, or 90 percent – are registered.

After standing on that corner for a few days with hardly any new registrations, what would you do?

If a person said they weren’t sure if they were registered, you might say: “Well, sign up anyway, just in case.”

And you would create a duplicate registration that would just have to be sorted out later.

Another thing some ACORN workers did was to sit down with a telephone book, copy names and addresses, and make up dates of birth and other required information. Some wouldn’t even bother with a phone book – they would just use their imaginations.

The result: the workers would meet their quotas, and the registrations would be handed in to the election bureau. Though ACORN said it checked all applications for accuracy, junk registrations couldn’t help but wind up in the system.

The ACORN effort had reverberations far beyond the streets, thanks mostly to President George W. Bush’s chief political aide, Karl Rove. Rove, often referred to as “Bush’s brain,” took voter-registration fraud and conflated it with voter fraud.

Republicans argued that those phony registrations weren’t the result of ACORN’s flawed methods; they were prelude to a massive outbreak of voter fraud. Rove pushed U.S. attorneys to prosecute voter registration cases; when some attorneys refused, they were removed from their positions by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for being insufficiently loyal to the Republican cause. (Gonzales himself was forced to resign in 2007 after Congress began to look into the firings.)

Virtually every anti-voter-fraud effort – particularly voter ID laws – dates from this era. The fact that ACORN targeted minority communities was the principal motivation. But, with its flawed method of collecting registrations, ACORN handed its enemies a cudgel they used with skill and vigor.

As an aside, ACORN dissolved in 2010, though not because of anything related to voting. A conservative documentarian filmed an ACORN employee giving a prostitute and her pimp advice on how to avoid taxes.

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I’VE KNOWN OF INCIDENTS WHERE THE CANDIDATES OR THEIR STAFF SIMPLY GO DOWN THE VOTER ROLLS AND FILL IN THE NAMES OF VOTERS ON THESE PETITIONS. IN POLITICAL CIRCLES, THEY ARE KNOWN AS “KITCHEN TABLE JOBS.”

It was a set-up – the two were actors – but funding for ACORN sank to zero.

Petition fraud is also fairly common – at least in Philadelphia. To get on the ballot, all candidates must file petitions signed by registered voters in their district – the number varies depending on the office. But, why go through all that work?

I’ve known of incidents where the candidates or their staff simply go down the voter rolls and fill in the names of voters on these petitions. In political circles, they are known as “kitchen table jobs.”

If a large number of signatures is required, campaigns will turn to part-timers who work for hourly wages, hand them a clipboard, and tell them to rustle up voters. That can cause grief because these workers often could care less if a signer is registered or even lives in the state.

There is a check against this kind of fraud. An opponent can challenge the petitions in court and seek to throw out enough invalid signatures to get the would-be candidate knocked off the ballot. They often succeed.

In primary election season in Philadelphia, they even set up a special courtroom in the Election Bureau and assign a judge to hear the challenges that come in. Often there are dozens.

In the past, committee people would handle signing up voters and getting signatures for candidates’ petitions, but that practice has largely fallen by the wayside.

Now, we use the free-market system of hiring contractors to do the work – with predictable results. And the post-election question becomes, will we have to wait another four years to see substantial changes to address the issue, or will we be reading about FieldWorks as the most recent example of this type of election fraud?

■

Tom Ferrick is an award-winning reporter and columnist who has covered state and local government politics since the 1970s.

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CityAndStatePA.com

November 17, 2016

PERSPECTIVES

SANCTIONS

AND

SANCTUARIES

DHS doesn’t distinguish between harmless undocumented immigrants and those who are actually dangerous. So a bill to penalize sanctuary cities won’t make anyone safer.

By SABRINA VOURVOULIAS

WAY BACK IN the early 2000s, a TV ad for Dr. Scholl’s massaging gel insoles – stay with me here – depicted a series of (mostly) men at a party extolling the relaxing virtue of the insoles by asking other partygoers,“You gellin’?”

One of the revelers, a smiling, clean-cut white guy, answered the question with, “I’m gellin’ like a felon.” It was a startling (and unfortunate) word choice that created such an uproar, the ad was soon recut and “felon” was replaced by “Magellan” in the rhyme scheme.

I am reminded of that ad every time I hear people refer to the undocumented immigrants targeted by the Department of Homeland Security’s Priority Enforcement Program (PEP) as “felons.” Since DHS claims that PEP targets only dangerous and violent criminals, folks often argue that Philadelphia’s status as a “sanctuary city” – requiring a judicial warrant before local law enforcement will execute an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) hold – jeopardizes public safety by protecting the felons gellin’ on our streets.

That’s the tenor, anyway, of HB 1885 – the bill authored

by Rep. Martina White (R-170) of Northeast Philadelphia that sought to impose sanctions on “sanctuary cities” that do not comply with PEP, and further facilitated reporting of suspected undocumented immigrants to ICE. The bill stalled out before its final vote but is coming back up for a vote in what’s left of the session after the elections.

Though White’s been a leading voice on the issue, she wasn’t the only anti-sanctuary-city state legislator hoping to be re-elected on Nov. 8. Rep. Kevin Boyle sent out pre-election flyers hyping his own anti-sanctuary-city bona fides.

But here’s the thing: There is no consensus that if PEP were in place in Philadelphia (or any other municipality) it would actually do what it advertises – that is, prioritize dangerous criminals, or even those convicted on felony charges, for deportation. In actuality, according to many immigration advocates and lawyers, the program mostly targets undocumented immigrants with no criminal offenses on their record.

November 17, 2016

“The Priority Enforcement Program has been billed as a way for the federal government to work with state and local law enforcement to take custody of individuals who pose a danger to public safety prior to their release into the communities,” said Matthew L. Kolken, a trial lawyer and member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “In practice, however, there is little evidence that ICE is limiting its resources to individuals with serious convictions. In fact, the Obama administration's definition of ‘criminal alien’ includes people with traffic tickets.”

Looking at the statistics compiled by Syracuse University’s non-partisan Trac Immigration Project bolsters Kolken’s assertion. Late in 2015, Kolken blogged Trac Immigration numbers: “According to ICE detainer-by-detainer records released to Trac, during April 2015, only about one-third (32 percent) of individuals on whom detainers were placed (nationwide) had been convicted of a crime. And only 19 percent had a felony conviction. Fully two-thirds had no criminal conviction of any type.”

I took a look at the Trac numbers for U.S. deportation proceedings in fiscal 2017 (through October) for Pennsylvania. During that time, the commonwealth had charged a total of 137 people with immigration violations. Forty of those were for entry to the United States without inspection; 61 were for other immigration charges, which include overstaying visas or being out of status for a variety of reasons. In the same period, Pennsylvania had charged a total of 16 people with criminal violations: six of those were for aggravated felonies; 10 were on other criminal charges. (The total for fiscal 2017 overall is a dramatic reduction from the 2016 total of 4,727.)

None of this is really news to those who have been engaged with immigration concerns. When Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson was in Philadelphia on May 3 for closed-door meetings with Mayor Jim Kenney and city immigration advocates, he heard plenty of unfettered criticism about PEP’s priorities.

“His framing was, ‘these are security threats,’ (but) he left questions unanswered,” said Erika Almirón, the executive director of Juntos, the South Philadelphia-based Latinx immigrant organization.

Peter Pedemonti, the executive director of the New Sanctuary Movement, who was also at the meeting, said that Johnson was “visibly agitated” by the advocates’ refusal to budge on the city requirement that ICE holds have judicial warrants to back them up.

Despite its PEP talk, DHS cannot deny it prioritizes deportation of undocumented immigrants without any criminal background whatsoever.

When questioned by advocates about the DHS home raids initiated in January that resulted in expedited deportations of mothers and children who had recently fled violence in Central America in hopes of securing asylee status in the United States, Johnson defended the priority even without any attendant security threat.

One of the problems in addressing concerns about PEP and about “Operation Border Guardian” (as the January home raids were designated) is that, according to Pedemonti, Johnson “doesn’t think deportation is a punishment.”

City & State Pennsylvania

25

State Rep. Martina White (in pink), who celebrated her re-election on Nov. 8, is a driving force behind the proposed anti-sanctuary city bill.

UNTIL LEGISLATION IS PREDICATED ON A LESS FLAWED FEDERAL POLICY, NEITHER HB 1885 NOR ANY OTHER ANTI-SANCTUARY CITY BILL WILL BE A GENUINE PUBLIC SAFETY MEASURE.

Neither, it seems do White, Boyle or any of the other 136 Republican and Democratic PA House members whose vote sent the bill through for a Senate vote in November.

HB 1885 doesn’t make a distinction between undocumented immigrants with decades of residence in a U.S. community, thriving businesses, citizen family members and no criminal background, and those who are actually committing crimes, because PEP doesn’t make that distinction. And until legislation is predicated on a less flawed federal policy, neither HB 1885 nor any other anti-sanctuary city bill will be a genuine public safety measure. Neither will it have the moral authority its author thinks – and would like us to believe – it does.

■

Sabrina Vourvoulias is an award-winning metro columnist at Philadelphia Magazine and an op-ed contributor to The Guardian US.

26

CityAndStatePA.com

November 17, 2016

CITY & STATE PENNSYLVANIA Publisher David Alpher dalpher@cityandstatepa.com Editor Greg Salisbury gsalisbury@cityandstatepa.com

Finance and Office Manager Allison Murphy amurphy@cityandstatepa.com Chairman Steve Farbman President/CEO Tom Allon tallon@cityandstatepa.com

LOSERS PAT TOOMEY – Despite spending the entire campaign playing defense over his refusal to either endorse or disavow Donald Trump, the GOP U.S. Senate incumbent eked out a victory over challenger Katie McGinty. Based on how long it took him to give his approval, maybe he’s telling the truth when he says he won’t be a rubber stamp for Trump.

OUR PICK

OUR PICK

WINNERS

Last week’s shocks will make for an interesting January in Harrisburg.

That’s when Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and the newly elected Democratic attorney general, treasurer and auditor general will serve alongside a House with a Republican majority not seen in 60 years, and a Senate with a Republican supermajority for the first time in generations.

Though the mind boggles at choosing from among the election’s myriad Winners & Losers, the following stand out from the pack.

Staff Reporter Ryan Briggs rbriggs@cityandstatepa.com

Editorial Director Michael Johnson mjohnson@cityandstatepa.com Managing Editor Ryan Somers rsomers@cityandstatepa.com KATIE MCGINTY – Like Democrats across the country, McGinty’s fortunes seemed assured by polls, pundits and prognosticators, right up to the point when they weren’t. Missteps throughout the campaign prevented her from gaining enough separation from Toomey to escape becoming another victim of Trump’s surprisingly long coattails.

THE BEST OF THE REST

THE REST OF THE WORST

STATE SENATE REPUBLICANS - Now

GOV. TOM WOLF - See above. Staring

in possession of 34 out of 50 seats, the

down a Republican Legislature for the

GOP can override any vetoes from the

duration of his term is one thing; knowing

Governor’s Mansion. And one of their

that the Senate now wields veto override

own, Sen. Scott Wagner, announced that

authority is another.

he will be taking on Wolf in 2018.

AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

STATE ROW-OFFICE CANDIDATES -

PLAN-HOLDERS - For two million

Ticket-splitting was key for Democrats,

Pennsylvanians, health care just got a

as Josh Shapiro overcame the stigma of

lot murkier. With Republican majorities

disgraced former A.G. Kathleen Kane

in both the U.S. Senate and House of

to defeat state Sen. John Rafferty; Joe

Representatives and a president-elect

Torsella fended off Republican Otto Voit

expressing a desire to end the ACA as

to become treasurer; and incumbent

soon as possible – despite failing to

Eugene DePasquale beat Republican

come up with a viable alternative – it

challenger John Brown to win a second

doesn’t look good for those currently

term as auditor general.

covered by “Obamacare.”

Creative Director Guillaume Federighi gfederighi@cityandstatepa.com Digital Manager Chanelle Grannum cgrannum@cityandstatepa.com

Vol. 1 Issue 8 November 17, 2016 spotlight on

veterans

doing screen time The injustice of video bail

CIT YANDSTATEPA .COM

@CIT YANDSTATEPA

November 17, 2016

Cover by: GUILLAUME FEDERIGHI Copyright ©2016, City and State PA, LLC

CityAndStateNY.com

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Malik L. Boyd Congressman Brendan Boyle Michael Bronstein PA Rep. Donna Bullock Leigh Chapman Mary Chicorelli Joseph Corrigan Brittany Crampsie Joseph DeFelice Alex Egner Leslie Elder Ori Feibush Rob Ghormoz

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