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Category: Philadelphia Politics

  • Mayor Parker’s former DEI chief sues the city for discrimination in tell-all lawsuit

    Mayor Parker’s former DEI chief sues the city for discrimination in tell-all lawsuit

    Philadelphia’s former chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer has said before that Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and top administration officials scapegoated her after she reported sexual harassment in City Hall and then fired her “unjustly.”

    But in an explosive new lawsuit filed in federal court in Philadelphia this week, that officer, Brandee Anderson, claimed her termination was part of a coordinated effort to “suppress” or rebrand diversity work and came as a top Parker administration official made derisive comments about other DEI leaders.

    She claimed Parker — a centrist Democrat who is Black and the city’s first female mayor — said in 2025 that she “did not care about Ms. Anderson’s ‘DEI ideology,’ only minority business.”

    And she alleged in the lawsuit that the mayor threatened to remove any administration official who expressed dissenting views, telling a gathering of senior officials that no one “has a right to have an opinion about where we are going.”

    The suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, seeks unspecified damages and payment of lost wages as a result of her firing. Parker is named as a defendant, as are Deputy Mayor Vanessa Garrett Harley, Inspector General Alexander DeSantis, and communications director Joe Grace. Anderson claimed DeSantis and Grace defamed and retaliated against her in statements to the media after her firing.

    Anderson served as Parker’s chief DEI officer beginning in 2024, advising the mayor and administration on matters such as workforce diversity, community engagement, equitable budgeting, and minority business opportunities. She also oversaw offices that serve LGBTQ+ residents and people with disabilities.

    She was fired in 2025 after Tyrell Brown, then the director of the Philadelphia Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs, reported to Anderson that they had received a “semi-nude” photo from a senior administration official. Anderson says in the lawsuit that she was fired days after elevating the matter to Garrett Harley and human resources officials.

    Why Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration fired its top DEI and LGBTQ affairs officials due to a ‘semi-nude’ photo neither sent

    The city declined to comment on the lawsuit and generally does not answer questions about pending litigation.

    The lawsuit was the second filed against the city by a former DEI official during Parker’s tenure. Leslie Marant, the Philadelphia Police Department’s first DEI chief, who was fired in the first days of Parker’s administration, said in a federal lawsuit filed in October that she was a victim of the systemic discrimination that she was tasked with addressing. That litigation is ongoing.

    It was also the second time this month that a former Parker administration official accused senior administration members of fostering a toxic work environment.

    Shania Bennett, the former director of the Philadelphia Office of Youth Engagement, last week posted on social media that working for the city was “the worst experience of [her] life” and that she had quit her job after “unprofessional harassment.”

    Bennett could not be reached for comment.

    ‘Stand down’ on DEI matters

    Anderson, an attorney who founded a firm that creates anti-racist trainings, was hired in October 2024 to lead the city’s DEI efforts. In the lawsuit, she alleges that Parker officials undermined her authority from the outset.

    She claimed Parker forbade her from contacting members of City Council with whom she had existing relationships. And she said Garrett Harley, one of Parker’s most senior officials, told her and other DEI leaders to “stand down” if they expressed dissenting views, saying “if you can’t align with the mayor’s strategy, DEI may not be the job for you.”

    Deputy Mayor Vanessa Garrett Harley speaks during a news conference in Philadelphia, Pa., in June 2024.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer

    Anderson also claimed Garrett Harley made discriminatory comments about a transgender official, Celena Morrison-McLean, former director of the Philadelphia Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs, who reported to Anderson. Garrett Harley, the lawsuit alleges, instructed Anderson to “document Celena [Morrison-McLean] out,” or create a paper trail leading to her dismissal.

    According to the lawsuit, the deputy mayor also mocked Morrison-McLean during a meeting with several other officials, saying she used a “deep male tone” to intimidate staff.

    Morrison-McLean left her post in November 2024, roughly eight months after she was pulled over by a Pennsylvania State Police trooper in a traffic stop that went viral and resulted in her and her husband’s arrest.

    She is now a consultant, according to her LinkedIn profile. She could not be reached for comment.

    Celena Morrison-McLean reads a statement with Darius McLean (rear) Thursday, Mar. 7, 2024. The married LGBTQ leaders were arrested during a contentious traffic stop over the weekend.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    Anderson said in the lawsuit that Garrett Harley also made comments to her in early 2025 that she saw as fostering a hostile work environment. She claims she disclosed to Garrett Harley that she was the victim of rape and asked for time off to attend a hearing in the criminal case against her alleged assailant.

    “Ms. Garrett-Harley responded,” the lawsuit says, “by questioning how one woman could rape another.”

    In a separate instance, Garrett Harley also instructed Anderson to delete emails documenting dangers to children in the city’s care, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit did not elaborate on the content of the emails.

    Harassment report and press fallout

    Brown was appointed in March 2025 to succeed Morrison-McLean as the city’s director of LGBTQ+ affairs. In July 2025, Brown reported to Anderson that Christopher Dailey, then a deputy chief of staff in the mayor’s office, had sent them a sexual image on a cruising app.

    At the time, Anderson said Brown told her they did not feel harassed by the photo, partly because it was not clear whether Dailey knew to whom he had sent the image, which included Dailey’s face. Brown’s profile was anonymous, Anderson said, but the app used geolocation, meaning that users would have known they were contacting someone in or near City Hall.

    Anderson elevated Brown’s report to human resources roughly a week later, the complaint says, leading DeSantis, the city’s inspector general, to launch an investigation.

    By July 22, Anderson was fired. DeSantis has said Anderson never possessed the photo, but allowed Brown to display it while another employee besides Anderson, their supervisor, was in the room. That decision, DeSantis said, constituted a violation of the city’s sexual harassment policy.

    Mayor Cherelle Parker, right, hugs Tyrell Brown, left, the new Director of LGBTQ+ Affairs, during a press conference to announce new appointments, at City Hall, in Philadelphia, March 21, 2025.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer

    Brown was fired the same week as Anderson. Parker tasked Garrett Harley with handling the office’s work through March, when the administration named a replacement.

    Anderson’s lawsuit claims racial discrimination, noting that Dailey, who is white, was not fired, but was instead moved to a new role in a different office. Brown and Anderson are both Black.

    Brown could not be reached for comment.

    Additionally, Anderson claimed that Parker, DeSantis, and Grace each made “false and defamatory” statements in the media after she was fired.

    She cited a July 2025 Inquirer article in which Grace said Anderson’s allegations about the reason for her termination included “outright misstatements of fact.”

    The lawsuit also mentioned an interview with iHeart Radio’s WDAS 105.3 FM that DeSantis participated in last year about the firings, during which he said that Anderson had “mishandled the photograph” and “did something wrong.”

    Anderson, in the lawsuit, said those statements were false.

  • A new live stream camera at the Liberty Bell increases access, but raises questions for privacy experts

    A new live stream camera at the Liberty Bell increases access, but raises questions for privacy experts

    Strangers took photos of families in front of the Liberty Bell, as others took close-up photos of the iconic symbol of U.S. independence.

    A little boy in blue shorts and curly hair ran up to the bell to point out the crack. A National Park Service staffer looked at his watch. It was almost closing time at the Liberty Bell Center and the crowd began to dwindle as 5 p.m. approached Tuesday.

    The boy posed next to a little girl for the last photo of the day, and the room cleared.

    The bell received a reprieve from visitors until 9 a.m. Wednesday, when it all started back up again.

    These moments were captured by a new camera that transmits a 24-7 live stream of the Liberty Bell on EarthCam, a website that live streams various iconic sites around the world.

    “At Independence National Historical Park, the livestream provides the public with a real-time virtual view of one of the nation’s most iconic historic sites, expanding public access and engagement,” said a spokesperson for Independence National Historical Park in a statement.

    The Liberty Bell live stream is Philadelphia’s second on EarthCam. A camera set at the Franklin Institute that points toward the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway has been live on the internet since 2018.

    The Eagles Super Bowl parade down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway as captured by EarthCam from the Franklin Institute. February 14, 2025.EarthCam

    The camera pointing at the Revolutionary-era relic was set up ahead of the United States’ 250th anniversary celebration earlier this month, and adds to the website’s collection of iconic travel destinations that includes Times Square in New York City, the Temple Bar in Dublin, and the crosswalk at Abbey Road, London. There is also a camera streaming Andy Warhol’s grave in Bethel Park, Pa., outside Pittsburgh.

    The streams, while an effort to increase access to historic sites, also raise questions for surveillance experts and are part of a growing number of live streams in public places.

    “The general trend of video surveillance [is] becoming pretty ubiquitous in common public spaces and across cities,” said Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the Security and Surveillance Project at the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology.

    EarthCam, a New Jersey-based web-camera technology company, installed the Liberty Bell camera and live stream as part of a donation of 250 cameras for the United States’ 250th birthday.

    “Taking people to that park and showing that view is amazing,” said Brian Cury, EarthCam’s founder and CEO.

    The Liberty Bell cam has racked up more than a quarter million streams since it was installed about a month ago, Cury said, including 80,000 virtual visits on July Fourth.

    Cury said EarthCam donated the camera to the National Park Service at no cost. The company streams from national parks throughout the country, including the Flight 93 National Memorial in the Shanksville, Pa., area.

    The streams are a way to bring iconic sites to people in a way that is more compelling than a photo, Cury said. And hopefully, he said, they can entice people to step outside.

    “There are lots of kids that should get out of the house and go explore our amazing country,” the CEO said. “But they are online.”

    Visitors to the EarthCam website can view the live stream, a video archive of the last 24 hours, and a collection of still images from previous days since the camera has been installed (a “hall of fame” of sorts, Cury says.)

    Still images from recent days show the bell at night, families visiting, and groups gathering in front of the bell for photos.

    Also on the “hall of fame”: a park ranger taking a photo of a law enforcement officer in a black uniform posing in front of the bell after hours.

    A law enforcement officer poses in front of the Liberty Bell after hours.EarthCam

    Some surveillance experts say the archive raises privacy concerns, especially because people are identifiable in the image.

    “The longer those pictures are kept, the more it makes me uneasy,” said Rachel Levinson-Waldman, director of the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program.

    “The more it’s susceptible to even a private company just collecting those pictures and using them for some other purpose,” she said. “Or just people scrolling through and seeing the pictures for who knows what purposes people might use them.”

    There is no information posted at the site about the live stream, but a security sign at the center’s entrance advises: “video surveillance in effect.” Online, the live stream is advertised via a small link at the top of the National Park Service’s Liberty Bell web page.

    EarthCam does not place cameras in private locations where people have an expectation of privacy, Cury said. And the camera itself — on the wall in front of the bell — is not hidden, he said. Visitors, the CEO said, view the camera as an attraction.

    “When you are looking at a lot of our cameras,” Cury said, “people are standing in front of them and waving.”

  • Philadelphia’s top lawyer is resigning from the Parker administration

    Philadelphia’s top lawyer is resigning from the Parker administration

    Renee Garcia, the top lawyer in Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration, is resigning from her job as city solicitor to work in the private sector, the mayor announced Tuesday.

    The reason for Garcia’s departure was not clear Tuesday, and she was not present at a news conference announcing the staff change.

    Garcia, who served in the Parker administration since the mayor took office in 2024, has recently led the city’s strategy in several high-profile matters, including a protracted legal battle with President Donald Trump’s administration over slavery exhibits at the President’s House Site at Independence National Historical Park.

    In some ways, Garcia carried out Parker’s approach to the Trump administration, which has largely been cautious and conflict-averse. At Garcia’s urging, the mayor did not sign legislation supported by City Council that bans federal immigration enforcement officers from wearing masks in the city. But the legislation took effect without Parker’s signature, and the federal government last month sued the city over the provision.

    Garcia will be replaced at the top of the city’s law department by Monique Galloway, who most recently worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in Philadelphia. Galloway’s resume also includes stints as counsel at the federal General Services Administration and the Federal Transit Authority.

    Parker said Galloway’s experience working in the federal government was a key reason for her selection as the next city solicitor.

    “These are challenging times for cities and states as we all have to interact with the federal government,” Parker said. “On any given day, we can never be sure if we’re going to face a legal filing, a summons, or a subpoena out of Washington on a range of different issues.”

    She added that Garcia’s law department has been “Philadelphia’s frontline defense on many of these issues.”

    Galloway said she was “moved by this moment.”

    “Integrity, sound judgment, excellence, and a key focus on public service are who I am,” she said. “And they are the anchor through everything that I do.”

    (left to right) Charlie Ellison, Director of the Office of Immigrant Affairs, Renee Garcia, City Solicitor, Francis Healy, Deputy Police Commissioner, at the City Council hearing about ICE Out legislation, in Philadelphia City Council, Monday, April 13, 2026.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer

    Garcia’s departure was the second major leadership change Parker announced Tuesday. Managing Director Adam K. Thiel, who oversees much of the city’s day-to-day operations, is also resigning to take a job in the private sector. He will be replaced by Carlton Williams, a longtime city official who most recently led the Philadelphia Office of Clean and Green Initiatives.

    Taken together, the changes represent a significant shift in the top rungs of Philadelphia’s government. The managing director is in charge of implementing much of the mayor’s agenda, and the city solicitor is responsible for a host of matters, including overseeing litigation and advising both the mayor and City Council on legislation and policy.

    Parker also on Tuesday formalized her appointment of Ralph DiPietro, a deputy commissioner in the Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections. The administration announced last month that DiPietro would replace Basil L. Merenda as commissioner.

    The mayor said Tuesday that she is “excited to welcome this next generation of leadership.”

  • Philadelphia Managing Director Adam Thiel resigns from Parker administration

    Philadelphia Managing Director Adam Thiel resigns from Parker administration

    Philadelphia Managing Director Adam K. Thiel, a top mayoral appointee who supervises many of the government’s day-to-day operations, is resigning from his job in Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration, the mayor announced Tuesday.

    Parker said Thiel is leaving his city role to “reenter the private sector” after serving as managing director for about 2½ years.

    Thiel will be replaced by Carlton Williams, a longtime city official who currently leads the Philadelphia Office of Clean and Green Initiatives. Williams, 57, will assume oversight of a 550-person staff and a vast portfolio of city operations, including health agencies, homeless services, the streets department, parks and libraries, prisons, and the fire department.

    Parker praised Williams’ work implementing new initiatives such as twice-weekly trash collection, and she called him “the individual with all of the attributes the position requires.”

    “Whenever we’ve had a crisis of any kind in this city, he has been on my speed dial,” she said.

    The transition, Parker said, will take place over the next “four to six weeks.” It was not immediately clear who will lead the Philadelphia Office of Clean and Green Initiatives.

    New Philadelphia Managing Director, Carlton Williams speaks at the podium after being announced by Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, left, during a news conference at City Hall in Philadelphia on Tuesday, July 28, 2026.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer

    Thiel, 54, has been the city’s managing director since Parker took office in January 2024. Prior to being appointed to the role, Thiel spent eight years as the city’s fire commissioner under former Mayor Jim Kenney.

    In the early days of Parker’s tenure, Thiel emerged as a key crisis manager, often flanking the mayor when she responded to emergencies. He was the face of the administration’s strategy in Kensington, where Parker campaigned on ending the sprawling open-air drug market that has persisted in the neighborhood for decades.

    His office also played a critical role in preparing for an array of major events that the city hosted this summer, including FIFA World Cup games and events related to the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding.

    Details of Thiel’s new job were not immediately clear. He is a major in the Army Reserve, and he has worked as a consultant and an adjunct professor, in addition to his role as managing director. His city salary is $310,000, and last year, he made more than half a million dollars in additional income through his other jobs, according to his financial disclosure.

    Philadelphia’s Managing Director Adam Thiel was once everywhere. Now, he’s largely faded from public view.
    Managing Director Adam Thiel, center, gives an update on the Northeast Philly plane crash, during a press conference on Tuesday Feb 4, 2025 at the Fire Administration Building in Philadelphia, Pa.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer

    Since Thiel joined the Reserve in August 2024, he has been one of the administration’s least visible senior officials and was frequently on leave. He did not oversee the response to a January snowstorm that was the city’s worst in five years — despite emergency services falling under his purview — and parts of the Kensington strategy are now led by other offices.

    The Inquirer reported in February that Thiel was absent for a total of about five months last year. Of that, six weeks were for military leave — the maximum the city covers for employees — and an additional 13 weeks were for general paid leave, according to city records obtained by The Inquirer. A spokesperson for Thiel said he used most of that time off for military service.

    Thiel refused to discuss his role in the Army Reserve with The Inquirer. A spokesperson for the Army said Thiel is a major assigned to a civil affairs unit based in Staten Island, N.Y. Last year, the Army Reserve paid Thiel about $32,600, according to his financial disclosure paperwork.

    In addition to his jobs with the city and the Army, Thiel has worked on the side as a consultant. Last year, he earned $390,000 as president of Pantheon Global Strategies, an opaque company with little in the way of an online footprint. Thiel has in the past refused to discuss the business in detail.

    He also earned $120,000 last year from FACETS Consulting LLP, an Arizona-based firm that is publicly advertised as a fire safety consultancy. Thiel is a founding partner.

    Philly city managing director Adam Thiel in the bowels of the stadium during the France vs. Iraq 2026 FIFA World Cup Group 1 soccer match at Philadelphia Stadium on Monday, June 22, 2026.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer

    Thiel has said his consulting work takes fewer than 10 hours per week and did not interfere with his responsibilities as Philadelphia’s managing director. When The Inquirer first reported on Thiel’s consulting work in 2024, he would not disclose his clients but said he followed the city’s ethics guidelines related to conflicts of interest.

    How Adam Thiel became Mayor Parker’s right-hand man — and held a six-figure side job

    Before coming to Philadelphia in 2016, Thiel worked in a variety of firefighting, disaster response, and emergency preparedness roles around the country, including as Virginia’s deputy secretary of public safety and homeland security.

    He is the third top official to leave Parker’s administration since she took office in January 2024. Former chief deputy mayors Aren Platt and Sinceré Harris, the architects of Parker’s mayoral campaign, each left their posts for jobs in politics outside government.

    In some administrations, the managing director has been the mayor’s clear No. 2, while other mayors have preferred for power to be concentrated among deputy mayors or other staffers in their office.

    Under Parker, chief of staff Tiffany W. Thurman is seen as the mayor’s top adviser and the central figure in her administration. Parker has called Thurman her “chief air traffic controller.”

    She has also placed the execution of much of her agenda on Williams’ shoulders. Earlier this year, he oversaw the city’s response to a major snowstorm, despite that work in the past falling squarely in the managing director’s scope.

    Mayor Cherelle L. Parker walks along Kensington Avenue with Adam Thiel, managing director of city, on Thursday, April 11, 2024. Mayor Parker took the El to attend an event in the Kensington neighborhood in Philadelphia.Heather Khalifa / Staff Photographer

    Still, Thiel oversaw a large team, and the leaders of more than 30 city agencies and offices reported to him.

    One of his major initiatives was coordinating the administration’s efforts to improve quality of life in Kensington. Thiel’s office worked to expand homeless shelter and recovery bed space throughout the city, and he led the development of the Riverview Wellness Village, a city-run recovery house in Northeast Philadelphia that dramatically grew the city’s capacity to house people with substance use disorder.

    Initially, Thiel absorbed scrutiny from community groups and, at times, members of City Council. Lawmakers grilled Thiel on the efforts in Kensington, and they occasionally criticized what they saw as a lack of details coming from the Parker administration about the plan.

    Despite those early hiccups, more than 200 people live at Riverview, which has been open to residents in recovery for more than a year.

    “I’m grateful for what you did,” Parker told Thiel on Tuesday. “And I’m grateful that you had thick skin.”

    And while the drug market in Kensington persists, there have been other markers of success in the neighborhood, including a plummeting shooting rate and a reduction in the number of people living on the street.

    Williams recently toured parts of Kensington alongside Parker and other administration officials to get a sense of the challenges ahead. He said Tuesday that his goal is to be accessible to all residents and to look at the delivery of city services “through the eyes of everyday residents.”

    “You just don’t take these jobs because of the glamour,” he said. “You take the job because you believe that you can make a change.”

    Staff writer Sean Collins Walsh contributed to this article.

  • Philly’s city budget is balanced, but structural deficit and federal funding concerns loom, board warns

    Philly’s city budget is balanced, but structural deficit and federal funding concerns loom, board warns

    A state board that oversees the City of Philadelphia’s finances signed off on Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s five-year financial plan on Tuesday, despite a structural deficit and significant uncertainty about future federal funding.

    The Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, which was established in the early 1990s to monitor the city’s finances amid a severe fiscal crisis, must every year approve the five-year budget plan agreed to by the mayor and passed by City Council. The board voted 5-0 to green-light the plan.

    In June, Parker and Council agreed to a $7.1 billion budget for the fiscal year that began on July 1, as well as a five-year financial plan in which the city is projected to spend more than it generates in four of those years. This fiscal year, the city is projected to spend about $550 million more than it brings in.

    As has been common in recent years, the city’s budget relies on reserves and an existing surplus to avoid a significant deficit. The city is projecting that this year it will have a $364.6 million fund balance, which is the amount of money left over in the city’s general fund after liabilities are accounted for. That balance is set to decline in each of the next five years.

    Parker administration Finance Director Rob Dubow said the city is on track to unlock hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue once its pension fund is fully funded, a major milestone that is projected to take place in fiscal year 2033.

    Philly City Council rejected Mayor Parker’s proposed taxes on Uber and Airbnb while advancing a $7.1 billion city budget

    Also on Tuesday, Alan C. Kessler was unanimously elected to serve as chair of the PICA board after Kevin Vaughn, who has chaired the board for a decade, announced he would not seek reelection to the position. He intends to remain a board member, he said.

    Kessler, who has also served on the board for about a decade, is a commercial litigation attorney. He is a prominent fundraiser in the Democratic Party and has long been active in local and national politics.

    As for the city’s financial position, board members on Tuesday also discussed potential risks that are largely outside the Parker administration’s control, such as the funding issues that both SEPTA and the Philadelphia School District have faced in recent years. The transit authority has warned of the possibility of debilitating service cuts, and the public school system is borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars just to pay its bills.

    Parker had earlier this year proposed implementing a tax on rideshare services to generate about $50 million a year for the district, but Council members rejected her plan.

    Administration officials identified existing funding for the district to stave off planned staff cuts. Dubow said Tuesday that cuts were made in each year of the five-year plan to make up for that money, but that the hope is to reach an alternative, recurring revenue generation plan before the cuts would take effect.

    The biggest uncertainty for Philadelphia’s finances, the board said, is the federal government and potential policy shifts affecting funding under President Donald Trump. PICA officials warned in a report that while the city has so far sustained only limited losses as a result of slashed grants under the Trump administration, the city “will not be able to absorb federal funding reductions at a greater scale without significant service reductions.”

    The city received more than $2.2 billion in aid from the federal government in fiscal year 2024, the most recent data available. More than half that money was for healthcare and other social safety net programs for poor and disabled residents.

    The president has repeatedly threatened to cut off federal funding to cities like Philadelphia that are led primarily by Democrats and have relatively permissive local immigration policies. However, those efforts have been tied up in litigation.

    Poll: Most Philadelphians support sanctuary policies

    A more pressing concern for the city, PICA officials wrote, could be the changes made last year to the enrollment criteria for social programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

    Philadelphia is one of the poorest big cities in the nation, and hundreds of thousands of residents rely on government assistance. The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services has estimated that changes to Medicaid instituted under the Trump administration will leave more than 73,000 Philadelphians without coverage by next year.

    And, the PICA report warned: Changes to federal programs can have ripple effects.

    “The fiscal crisis that precipitated the creation of PICA in the 1990s,” officials wrote, “was in part due to dramatic reductions in federal programs for vulnerable individuals that the City tried to manage but was incapable of replacing.”

  • The city plans to pay up to $75,000 to help measure the economic impact of Philly’s major events in 2026

    The city plans to pay up to $75,000 to help measure the economic impact of Philly’s major events in 2026

    When Mayor Cherelle L. Parker faced questions about spending on Philadelphia’s Fourth of July concert, she promised a “fiscal impact report” that would help determine how the economic benefits of the concert and other major events in Philadelphia during 2026 compared with their cost to city taxpayers.

    It turns out the city will have to spend a bit more taxpayer money to get to the bottom of that inquiry.

    The finance department is looking to hire a consulting firm for up to $75,000 to provide “economic analysis services to better understand the economic and fiscal impact of Philadelphia’s 2026 events and related activity on the local economy,” according to a contract opportunity posted on the city’s website last week. Responses are due Aug. 5.

    Mayor Parker changed things up for this year’s July 4th concert — and it’s costing Philly’s taxpayers millions more

    The contract solicitation calls for an evaluation of “event-related visitation, tourism activity, and associated economic activity” and estimates of “state and local tax revenues generated by event-related economic activity,” among other things. But it does not ask the consultant to produce an accounting of the city’s spending on those events.

    Andrew Richman, a top attorney in the city law department, said the administration will also produce an analysis of the city’s spending related to the major events hosted in Philly during 2026, including the nation’s 250th birthday, FIFA World Cup games, and the MLB All-Star Game.

    Fans celebrate after Mexico scores against South Africa while watching the FIFA World Cup opening match on a giant screen during the opening day of the FIFA Fan Festival at Lemon Hill on Thursday, June 11, 2026, in Philadelphia.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer

    “As a standard operating procedure in the Parker administration, there will be financial accounting that details every dollar and cent spent on 2026-related activities, analysis including all expenses, and economic impact of all activities and investments associated with 2026,” Richman said.

    The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment on when that accounting will take place.

    Parker’s administration this year took over management of the July Fourth concert and fireworks show on the Ben Franklin Parkway, which for years had been handled by the nonprofit Welcome America, a public-private partnership created by the city in the 1990s.

    Parker instead hired ESM Productions, a for-profit company led by well-known concert producer Scott Mirkin, and renamed the event the “One Philly: Unity Concert for America,” a version of her slogan, “One Philly: A United City.”

    Mayor Parker changed things up for this year’s July 4th concert — and it’s costing Philly’s taxpayers millions more
    Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Philadlephia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker at the One Philly: Unity Concert for America on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway on Saturday, July 4, 2026, in Philadelphia.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer

    The changes resulted in a much more expensive concert than in years past. The city agreed to pay ESM about $15.5 million to put on the show, The Inquirer reported after obtaining the contract. The previous year’s concert cost Welcome America about $3 million, a source with knowledge of the event told The Inquirer.

    Those sums did not include costs related to city employees, such as sanitation workers and overtime for police officers who worked the event.

    Inclement weather, including extreme heat in the afternoon and a thunderstorm that disrupted the concert for hours in the evening, limited attendance at what Parker had hoped would be a major event.

    Philly’s delayed late-night fireworks were prompted by safety and weather concerns, city says

    The city’s coming analyses, however, will include all of 2026’s major events, not just the concert.

    Parker has said her administration will spend $120 million on this year’s celebrations, and she has pledged to ensure communities across Philadelphia, not just Center City, benefit from the investment, which includes beautification projects in neighborhood commercial corridors and funding for block parties and events across the city. The administration has not yet provided details on how much was dedicated to the concert or any other specific event this year.

    “At the end of our celebration, you will be able to see an accounting of how that $120 million was spent,” Parker said at a July 1 news conference.

    Jill Scott takes to the stage for One Philly: Unity Concert for America on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway on Saturday, July 4, 2026, in Philadelphia.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer

    Economic impact analyses produced by paid consultants often include rosy estimates that public officials use to justify priorities. Academics who study their work for years have cited issues including inflated assumptions for visitors’ spending and understated or omitted opportunity costs for economic activity displaced by a large project or event.

    “Most economic impact studies are commissioned to legitimize a political position rather than to search for economic truth,” John L. Crompton, a professor at Texas A&M University, wrote in an influential 2006 paper published in the Journal of Travel Research. “Often, this results in the use of mischievous procedures that produce large numbers that study sponsors seek to support a predetermined position.”

    This year’s July Fourth concert was supposed to be headlined by Christina Aguilera, but the pop star ended up not taking the stage after the city paused the event around 9 p.m. due to the storm. The show resumed shortly after midnight, pushing the fireworks to about 2:30 a.m. July 5.

    Parker’s office on Wednesday did not respond to a request for comment on whether the city would receive any refund in light of Aguilera not performing.

    All other scheduled performers went ahead with their sets, including the Roots, Jill Scott, Meek Mill, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and Will Smith, who said Parker reached out to him personally to ensure he came back after the weather delay.

  • President Donald Trump denied Johnny Doc’s request to be let out of prison early

    President Donald Trump denied Johnny Doc’s request to be let out of prison early

    Convicted former Philadelphia labor leader John J. Dougherty has taken a variety of steps to try to cut his six-year prison term short, including by taking the witness stand this spring to tell a federal judge about the unique health challenges faced by his wife.

    But one other avenue he pursued last year — an appeal to the White House for mercy — apparently hit a dead end.

    President Donald Trump earlier this month denied Dougherty’s request for a commutation, according to the Office of the Pardon Attorney’s website, meaning Trump — at least for now — will not use his broad powers of clemency to clear the way for Dougherty’s early release.

    Dougherty — who, nicknamed Johnny Doc, was once a singular power broker in the city’s Democratic Party — was one of about 5,600 people whose commutation applications were denied on July 10, according to the pardon attorney’s site. A commutation keeps a defendant’s conviction intact but ends or reduces their sentence.

    Trump, a Republican, also denied about 300 applications for a pardon, a broader form of relief that is added to the record of the case and reverses any restrictions stemming from a conviction, such as limitations on voting or seeking public office. The New York Times first reported on the wave of denials this week.

    Presidents have broad authority to issue pardons and commutations in federal cases, and Trump has shown a willingness to grant them to political allies during his second term in office.

    One of his first actions after being sworn in again last year was to issue pardons to nearly every person charged with participating in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump has also bestowed clemency on political figures convicted of corruption and those he maintains were “persecuted” by the Justice Department under former President Joe Biden.

    Biden also used his clemency powers in unique ways, granting nearly 1,500 commutations during his final weeks in office, commuting dozens of death sentences, and, controversially, granting a wave of preemptive pardons to family members and allies.

    Dougherty’s attorney, George Bochetto, said Tuesday that he was not involved in the effort to petition for a commutation and did not know about it. It was not immediately clear if Dougherty submitted an application himself or if he had another associate help with its preparation.

    The pardon attorney’s website made basic information about Dougherty’s application available through its case search system, showing Dougherty’s name and his Bureau of Prisons register number and saying his application was filed last year.

    Bochetto has been overseeing a different relief effort: Dougherty’s attempt to have a judge grant him compassionate release.

    In court documents and in testimony before U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl, Dougherty has been saying for months that his wife, Cecilia — who has long suffered from a debilitating brain injury — has seen her condition worsen while he has been imprisoned. Dougherty has asked to serve the rest of his sentence on house arrest in order to oversee her care, saying if he is not allowed to do so, his wife will likely die.

    Schmehl denied that request earlier this year, but has been reconsidering after Bochetto appealed.

    Dougherty, 66, was sentenced in 2024 to six years in prison after being convicted in separate trials — the first after a jury found that he had spent years bribing former Philadelphia City Councilmember Bobby Henon, the second over nearly $600,000 he and others embezzled from his union, Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

  • Inquirer journalist’s notes appeared in files of N.J. Attorney General’s Office in a case against Norcross

    Inquirer journalist’s notes appeared in files of N.J. Attorney General’s Office in a case against Norcross

    An Inquirer staffer’s interview notes came into the possession of the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office during an investigation that led to the high-profile, and recently abandoned, racketeering indictment against South Jersey power broker George E. Norcross III.

    News organizations typically treat unpublished reporting material as confidential and often fight government demands for it in court.

    Inquirer editor and senior vice president Gabriel Escobar on Wednesday confirmed that state investigators had obtained interview notes typed in 2019 by Nancy Phillips, who currently edits the Justice and Injustice Team. The Inquirer “did not turn over notes to state prosecutors” and was never subpoenaed by authorities for them, Escobar wrote in a note to the newsroom.

    “We do not definitively know how the notes ended up with the state, but we do know it was not from us,” Escobar said in response to questions from an Inquirer reporter.

    A person with firsthand knowledge of how the notes came into the possession of the authorities said Phillips had shared the notes with someone outside The Inquirer.

    “Nancy Phillips shared the notes with a third party. It was not for the purpose of sharing the notes with authorities. It was for her own edification,” said the source, who is not an Inquirer employee and requested anonymity due to ongoing litigation threats related to the case. “The state did not receive the notes from Nancy Phillips directly.”

    A second source with direct knowledge of the evidence discovery file related to the Norcross investigation said the interview notes were included in an electronic file titled “Stier Documents.”

    Edwin Stier, a former state and federal prosecutor in New Jersey, has been quoted previously in The Inquirer, including as part of its coverage of Norcross. He is mentioned elsewhere in the discovery file, said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to publicly discuss the discovery material.

    Stier declined to comment on why his name appears in the evidentiary documents.

    Phillips declined to comment, saying she was “not comfortable talking about the process of newsgathering.”

    Gabriel Escobar became The Inquirer’s top editor in 2020.JESSICA GRIFFIN / Staff Photographer

    Escobar — who joined The Inquirer in 2007 as metropolitan editor and was appointed its top editor in 2020 — declined to respond to questions about whether Phillips shared the notes with anyone outside the newsroom, including Stier. Escobar did not respond to a request for a phone interview and instead answered questions in writing.

    ‘False and outrageous’

    BigTrial, a blog authored by former Inquirer reporter Ralph Cipriano, first reported on Wednesday that the 10-page typed interview notes were in the state’s hands. Norcross’ legal team obtained the notes from the state through evidence discovery, and Norcross is considering a lawsuit against the state for malicious prosecution, BigTrial reported.

    The notes do not indicate the name of the author but appeared to summarize August 2019 meetings between a journalist and longtime Cherry Hill mayor Susan Bass Levin, who shared information critical of Norcross, according to the BigTrial report. Bass Levin is the former president and CEO of Cooper University Health System’s Cooper Foundation, where Norcross serves as a board member.

    “I have never seen the notes,” Bass Levin said. She declined to comment further.

    An Inquirer reporter was not able to obtain a copy of the notes. Escobar said he did not have a copy of them.

    Cipriano’s report claims that there are “only a couple possible explanations” for how prosecutors obtained the notes: The Inquirer supplied the notes in response to a subpoena; or Phillips was “voluntarily helping the investigators trying to pin a racketeering indictment on Norcross and associates.”

    Cipriano included no evidence to support either claim.

    In his email to the newsroom, Escobar wrote that Cipriano’s theories amounted to “unfounded and irresponsible speculation.”

    “Speculation that Nancy Phillips, who has a long and distinguished track record as a reporter and editor, was working with state prosecutors is both false and outrageous,” Escobar wrote. “When we learned that state investigators had the notes, we conducted an inquiry and determined that the material was not provided to them by The Inquirer.”

    He declined to give further details.

    (Escobar recused himself from involvement in this story, as did the reporters and editors who led The Inquirer’s coverage in 2019 of the investigation into Norcross.)

    Asked whether Phillips or any other staffer had faced discipline after the internal inquiry, Escobar wrote: “We do not comment on personnel matters.”

    Norcross spokesperson Dan Fee said Norcross’ legal team was not aware of how the state obtained the notes.

    The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office declined to comment.

    The Norcross investigation

    New Jersey state prosecutors, led by then-Attorney General Matthew Platkin, in 2024 indicted Norcross and five others in a racketeering case centered on alleged corruption in economic development tax breaks for projects connected to Norcross in Camden.

    A judge in 2025 dismissed the charges. The prosecution, now led by acting Attorney General Jennifer Davenport, effectively dropped the case earlier this year when it declined to appeal a state appellate court decision upholding the dismissal.

    Beginning in 2019, Inquirer reporters Andrew Seidman and Catherine Dunn wrote a series of articles on the tax break deals and the investigation into Norcross.

    Norcross spokesperson Fee said Seidman told him at the time that Phillips was not involved in the coverage. Phillips had a longtime romantic relationship with the late New Jersey billionaire Lewis Katz, who clashed with Norcross when both were co-owners of The Inquirer in the early 2010s.

    The combination of the notes and subsequent stories in The Inquirer indicate that Phillips had not just met with Bass Levin but also passed her notes to the reporters covering the story, showing that Phillips did play a role in coverage of Norcross, Fee said.

    Fee said Wednesday that Escobar’s statement “confirms the two most important things in the BigTrial story: Nancy Phillips’ notes ended up in the hands of prosecutors and that despite her bias against George Norcross being clear and known, Phillips was part of the reporting on stories involving him.”

    He called on Inquirer leadership to conduct a “public investigation” and questioned whether “there will be some effort to cover everything up.”

    Cipriano’s report quoted brief portions of the notes, including that Bass Levin suggested requesting certain public records, and that an Inquirer reporter later requested those records.

    Escobar’s note to the newsroom Wednesday said that Phillips “was not directly involved in the [Norcross] coverage but served as a conduit for information only she could access.”

    “Nancy has established a network of sources in her long career, and the information she has been able to gather has aided our journalism across many fronts,” Escobar wrote. “In 2019, she was approached by a source who was offering unique insights on a significant and running story. Nancy conducted an interview, typed up the notes, and then shared them with two Inquirer reporters who were working on the story.”

    Inquirer staffer Nancy Phillips walks alongside H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest, the newspaper’s late owner. ALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / Staff Photographer

    Cipriano, Norcross, and Phillips each have complicated Inquirer tenures.

    Cipriano, who was fired from The Inquirer in 1998, sued his editor for libel following a dispute over his coverage of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The suit was settled in 2001 with both sides declining to disclose the terms of the agreement, according to a New York Times report. Cipriano frequently criticizes The Inquirer’s coverage and its reporters and editors on his blog.

    Norcross was a co-owner of The Inquirer from 2012 to 2014, a tumultuous period in which he battled with Katz over control of the company.

    And Phillips, who scored legendary scoops as a crime reporter and now edits the Justice and Injustice Team, was involved in a relationship with Katz during his public fight with Norcross.

    Katz and cable mogul-turned-philanthropist H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest ultimately prevailed in the dispute over who would own The Inquirer. Katz died in a 2014 plane crash, just days after he and Lenfest bested Norcross in an auction organized to settle the ownership matter. (The Inquirer since 2016 has been owned by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, a nonprofit endowed by its namesake before he died in 2018.)

    Camden coverage

    Escobar, who did not become The Inquirer’s top editor until a year after Phillips’ meeting with Bass Levin, said that he “did not have firsthand knowledge” of any arrangement barring Phillips from involvement in Norcross coverage.

    “But I could see a situation where a judgment call was made that placed priority on gathering information in a limited way,” Escobar said.

    He added in a separate response: “Gathering information from all quarters on a story always yields better and more complete journalism and, as the [newsroom] note says, this particular source was in a position to know and would only provide it to Nancy.”

    At the time of the 2019 interview, Phillips was a deputy regional editor overseeing reporters covering the Pennsylvania and New Jersey suburbs. In that role, Phillips would not normally be involved with stories concerning the Norcross investigation, which was handled by reporters from the politics and business desks.

    In a statement, Seidman noted that Norcross and the Camden tax breaks became a matter of public debate in the spring of 2019 and that he and Dunn began their reporting in May of that year — three months before Phillips met with Bass Levin.

    “Our reporting was based on interviews, emails, bank documents, property records, appraisals, and other government documents,” Seidman said. “I stand by it 100%.”

    Dunn, who left The Inquirer in 2022 and has been a reporter at Barron’s for about four years, declined to comment.

    Fee said he repeatedly disputed Seidman’s and Dunn’s coverage of Norcross, including an October 2019 article Cipriano highlighted regarding a land deal in Camden.

    The Inquirer publishes corrections when it discovers that its reporting contained factually inaccurate information. No corrections were made to the 2019 article.

    Former Inquirer editor John P. Martin, who was the lead editor on that story, said he and the reporters “talked at length with Mr. Norcross’ spokesman and several lawyers representing him.”

    “At no point, to my recollection, did Nancy Phillips offer input, advice, editing help, ask questions, or even engage in small chat about that story or any involving Mr. Norcross,” said Martin, who is now with Bloomberg.

    Escobar concluded his note to the newsroom by saying the episode offered “an important lesson.”

    “The information we gather in the course of reporting should always be safeguarded,” he said. “And no matter how well established a source-reporter relationship is, each interaction should establish clear parameters for the use of the information.”

    Asked for clarity on how those comments related to prosecutors obtaining Phillips’ notes, Escobar wrote: “The notes ended up with the state so something went awry. That part of the message is intended as a general reminder and not specific to the circumstances.”

  • Philly DA Larry Krasner taunts House Republicans in Washington after getting a subpoena

    Philly DA Larry Krasner taunts House Republicans in Washington after getting a subpoena

    WASHINGTON — Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, thumbing his nose at national Republicans on the morning after they subpoenaed him, rallied protesters on Capitol Hill on Thursday as one of his counterparts in Virginia, who had also been compelled by a subpoena from the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, prepared to testify behind closed doors.

    Taunting both Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), the committee chair, and President Donald Trump outside the building where the committee meets, Krasner railed against Republicans generally and the ongoing legal maneuvers he said are intended to ensure progressive prosecutors like him “roll over and play dead.”

    “Jim Jordan, can you hear me?” he asked as he stood before a crowd of mostly Virginians outside the Rayburn House Office Building. “Why don’t you come out here? We miss you. We haven’t seen you, and apparently, you don’t like us when we’re with you in public.”

    The monthslong war of words escalated on Wednesday, when Jordan ordered Krasner’s office to produce documents about its handling of immigration issues. The Republican-led committee requested the documents in May as it accused the district attorney — as well as Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel and Sheriff Rochelle Bilal — of protecting criminal immigrants through sanctuary policies.

    Republicans have similarly targeted multiple jurisdictions, including Arlington County and the city of Falls Church, in Virginia’s Washington suburbs.

    The committee subpoenaed the area’s top prosecutor, Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, in March for documents related to protests outside the home of deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller. After a back-and-forth in which Dehghani-Tafti requested a public hearing, the committee wrote in a July 1 letter that it was compelling her to appear to answer questions about “politicized interference in a doxxing investigation and your preferential treatment of illegal immigrants accused of criminal conduct in your district.”

    “I’m here because I respect the law, and I’m here because I upheld the rule of law,” Dehghani-Tafti said Thursday as she walked by the gathering of about 75 people, some of whom wore shirts and held signs reading “No Secret Hearings.”

    Krasner said the committee was afraid to conduct the questioning in a public setting because Dehghani-Tafti, whom he described as a top-notch prosecutor and communicator, would “wreck them.”

    “And they are not just trying to do it to her,” Krasner said. “They’re trying to do it to a whole bunch of us — pretty much anybody who they see as standing in their way.”

    Krasner did not otherwise address his own subpoena while speaking in Washington.

    Asked for comment, a spokesperson for the committee said Thursday: “We look forward to Mr. Krasner’s compliance with the subpoena.”

    In an interview after his speech, Krasner said it was important for him and other local prosecutors, some of whom were in attendance Thursday, to join together to show that “none of us are backing down.” He said that he has the same legal representation as Dehghani-Tafti to deal with the situation, and that if he was compelled to testify he would answer the committee’s answers truthfully.

    “I’d be shocked if these cowards wanted a public hearing,” Krasner said. “Not because I’m so important, but because the questions are so stupid, and the truth harms them so much.”

    In a private setting, he said, the committee can control any transcripts or videos and decide when and how to make them public. He compared the situation to “Putin’s Russia,” mocked Jordan for not completing law school, and repeatedly called Trump the “criminal-in-chief.”

    Krasner also alleged that part of the reason he and others are being targeted is because of their ability to prosecute state-level crimes, for which Trump does not have the power to pardon. That includes potential crimes related to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender and former Trump associate who died in 2019.

    “Make no mistake, Epstein class, we are coming for you,” Krasner said in shouting distance from federal lawmakers. “We’re coming for you now, or we’re coming for you later.”

    Epstein’s private islands were in the U.S. Virgin Islands and his mainland home was in Florida, outside Krasner’s jurisdiction in Philadelphia.

    Late Thursday afternoon in Philadelphia, Krasner said he was in the process of complying with the subpoena.

    “It encompasses an infinite number of documents, many of which they’re not entitled to have, but there’s little doubt they’re entitled to have some of them, and what the law requires is what we’re going to do,” he said. “It is very likely that sooner or later we’re going to turn over some documents.”

    He derided Jordan as “the criminal-in-chief’s little helper” and accused the House committee of being on a “silly mission” to try to show fault with how honest prosecutors are handling immigration issues in their jurisdictions.

    “If they want to mess with Philly, they’re going to come through me,” Krasner said. “My job is to protect Philadelphians. I’m going to do that. We’re not going to have ICE agents or federal agents murdering people on the streets of Philadelphia with no consequence.”

    This month ICE agents fatally shot two men in six days during traffic stops in Texas and Maine.

    The House committee gave Krasner a July 29 deadline to provide the documents it requested. In a letter Wednesday, Jordan said Krasner’s “refusal to cooperate” included “bizarre and baseless demands and conditions.”

    “The Committee has no obligation to entertain your unreasonable demand because as federal courts have explained, it is exclusively the prerogative of the Committee to determine how and in what manner it conducts its oversight,” Jordan wrote.

    Staff writer Jeff Gammage contributed to this article.

  • Philadelphia to take over sexual assault response center after years of funding uncertainty

    Philadelphia to take over sexual assault response center after years of funding uncertainty

    The city government will assume control of the Philadelphia Sexual Assault Response Center, the only program in the city that offers free sexual assault exams, after years of uncertainty over how the center would be managed and financed.

    Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration announced Wednesday that the Philadelphia Department of Public Health will take over PSARC, a nonprofit program that is currently operated by Drexel University and serves about 300 patients a year.

    The center is staffed 24-7 by nurses trained to conduct sexual assault exams that are performed to collect DNA and other evidence, sometimes known as “rape kits.” The center is located at 300 E. Hunting Park Ave., in the same building as the Philadelphia Police Special Victims Unit; patients are not required to report sexual assault to police, however.

    PSARC was founded in 2011 and contracts with hospitals that do not have staff specially trained in handling sexual assault response. It was previously managed by Hahnemann University Hospital, the historic Center City facility that shuttered in 2019 after filing for bankruptcy.

    Philly’s only dedicated center for treating adult sexual assault never has enough funding, its leader says

    Since then, Drexel’s College of Nursing and Health Professions has managed the center.

    But PSARC has struggled to survive amid years of funding challenges. Prior to last year, it did not receive dedicated funding from the city — it was funded entirely by Drexel, and the state reimbursed the center $1,000 for each patient treated there.

    Drexel officials told members of Parker’s administration last year that the university could not continue managing the program, according to two sources involved in the conversations who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter. Last fall, Drexel was in the midst of cutting staff and benefits university-wide amid a massive operating deficit and low enrollment.

    The Parker administration explored transitioning the program to the control of another crisis center, the sources said.

    But other nonprofits were facing their own funding-related disruptions last year. For example, in October, Philadelphia’s only rape crisis center, the Philadelphia Center Against Sexual Violence, paused some of its services and laid off staff amid the monthslong state budget impasse.

    Ultimately, Drexel continued operating PSARC, with the city allocating $250,000 in emergency funding last year to support the program.

    This year’s city budget, which took effect on July 1, includes $300,000 in funding for PSARC. That money was allocated to the health department.

    Amid record-low violence, Mayor Parker’s policing budget invests in more technology, funds sexual assault center

    In a statement, Crystal Yates-Gale, the city’s deputy managing director for health and human services, thanked Drexel “for supporting PSARC since its founding and for making this transition seamless so there is no pause in operations.”

    Emily Roper, the dean of Drexel’s College of Nursing and Health Professions, said in a statement that the transition “has been thoughtfully planned in close collaboration with the City of Philadelphia to ensure continuity of services for survivors.”

    “For more than a decade, PSARC has provided compassionate, expert care to survivors of sexual assault,” she said, “and we are deeply grateful to the dedicated clinicians and staff whose unwavering commitment has made that possible.”