Mayor Cherelle L. Parker marked her 1,000th day in office by breaking ground on a $21.7 million improvement to the McPherson Square library, a symbol of the Kensington opioid crisis, to send the message that her administration’s “commitment to this community is firm.”
“The Kensington that I’m standing in today — this is not the Kensington that I walked in January of 2024. Quality of life is improving here,” Parker said at a news conference on Monday.
Although she did not focus on Kensington while campaigning for mayor in 2023, Parker has, since taking office, embraced the challenge of addressing gun violence and substance abuse in the neighborhood, which has made international headlines, and eradicating what is often referred to as the largest open-air drug market on the East Coast. She rode the El to an event at a Kensington middle school to mark her first 100 days in office.
The McPherson Square park and library became a highly visible marker of the crisis in the mid-2010s. People in addiction were a constant presence in the six-acre park, near Kensington Avenue and Orleans Street. Library staff learned how to administer Narcan, which reverses overdoses.
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker exits the Allegheny station before walking along Kensington Avenue on April 11, 2024. Parker took the El to attend an event marking her 100th day in office in the Kensington neighborhood in Philadelphia.Heather Khalifa / Staff Photographer
Parker ran on a tough-on-crime platform, and her approach to Kensington has featured a mix of police-focused tactics and novel strategies aimed at getting people off the streets and into recovery.
She cut city funding for syringe exchange services in her first budget, and her election effectively ended the city’s efforts to open a supervised drug consumption site, a priority of former Mayor Jim Kenney. The police department has doubled the number of officers who patrol the area, First Deputy Police Commissioner John Stanford said Monday.
Parker has also launched a Neighborhood Wellness Court program, which is designed to encourage alleged offenders to choose addiction services and avoid criminal proceedings, and she has launched the Riverview Wellness Village, a 20-acre recovery house in Northeast Philadelphia where more than 200 people live.
“People are beginning to see that we are at least trying to make a difference, and we are not acting as if we don’t see what’s happening,” Parker said. “We’re looking it straight in the eye and trying to figure out a way to make sure that we are solving a problem.”
Since Parker took office, the Kensington-based 24th Police District has seen a 48% decrease in violent crime, a 63% decrease in shootings, and a 47% decrease in homicides, Stanford said Monday.
After peaking in the wake of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, rates of violent crime and homicide have fallen across the country. This year, homicides in Philadelphia are on pace for a 60-year low.
People using drugs are still a common sight in Kensington, and crime rates in the neighborhood remain higher than the city as a whole, a reality Parker readily acknowledges. And her approach has drawn criticism from some harm reduction advocates and public health experts, who contend that heavy-handed policing can be counterproductive to saving the lives of people in addiction.
But few doubt Parker’s commitment to cleaning up the neighborhood, and the prospect of a revitalization of the dilapidated library, which was built in 1917 with a copper dome and classical columns, could be a potent symbol.
The renovation of the McPherson Square library is being funded through Rebuild, the parks and recreation center renovation program championed by Kenney and supported by Parker when she was on Council. Rebuild is one of three programs Kenney proposed while pitching the city’s tax on sweetened beverages, which was approved in 2016 and is more commonly known as the soda tax.
Workers set out to clean after the Office of Clean and Green Initiatives kicked off the summer edition of the One Philly, United City Citywide Cleaning Program in McPherson Park on May 4.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
The first phase of the library renovation, which included a new roof and a restored dome, was completed in 2025. Parker on Monday broke ground on the second phase, a “full-gut renovation” with “new HVAC, plumbing, electrical, fire alarm, and security systems” and many other improvements, according to the Philadelphia Capital Program Office.
The project will take two years. In the meantime, the Free Library of Philadelphia will set up a temporary location on Allegheny Avenue, said Kelly Richards, the library’s president and director.
City Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, whose 7th District includes much of Kensington, said she spoke to Parker about addressing the long-neglected neighborhood’s challenges in 2023, and recalled being “skeptical” that Parker would follow through on her promises as mayor.
“She made a commitment on that day that if she were to become the mayor of this city, that she would make Kensington and this community a priority,” Lozada said at the new ground-breaking, “and she has stood by that commitment and that promise.”
Staff writer Anna Orso contributed to this article.
In the five years he spent researching his book Mobilization Politics, Haverford College political scientist Stephen J. McGovern interviewed former Mayor Jim Kenney and other Philadelphia elected officials, political activists, campaign consultants, labor leaders, and protesters.
The book, which covers events from the 2010s through Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s victory in the 2023 election, uses Philly as a case study to examine the national rise of grassroots progressive politics over the last two decades. McGovern details how local activists employed bottom-up tactics to win major policy victories in areas like criminal justice reform, helping to decrease the jail population, and immigration, leading to Philly becoming a so-called sanctuary city.
The activists often used an inside/outside strategy, McGovern wrote, of leaning on officials they helped elect, like District Attorney Larry Krasner, and publicly pressuring more moderate ones, like Kenney.
Haverford College political scientist Stephen J. McGovern authored the 2025 book “Mobilization Politics,” on grassroots activism in Philadelphia.Sean Walsh
McGovern also explores areas where progressives have fallen short of their goals, and the problems associated with a brand of politics driven by groups that tend to be more affluent and white than the city as a whole. Much of the new type of political organization has been driven by millennials born outside the city, McGovern found, leading to tensions over gentrification.
McGovern recently spoke with The Inquirer about his 2025 book, the rise of the local progressive movement, and what it all means during Parker’s administration. The interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
Your book describes how grassroots activists are really driving the agenda in Philadelphia City Hall, and, as you say, across the nation in local government. Is that an accurate summation of your thesis statement?
I think that’s fair, and what I want to call attention to is how significant that change is. There may be a lot of people today who assume, “Well, hasn’t that always been the case in city politics?” But no, for much of the mid- to late 20th century, city politics operated in a very different way. It was much more of a top-down phenomenon, and the shift towards more bottom-up politics has been a relatively recent one. And increasingly it’s pretty widespread throughout the United States. So as a scholar of urban politics, I was interested in trying to explain how and why that happened.
In the book, you describe various political science theories that have sought to explain urban politics in the past. Can you explain how your thesis is different from those previous schools of thought, such as “regime theory”?
Many scholars have argued that downtown-led regimes wielded a great deal of power over urban policymaking. Regimes were led by business leaders and their allies — law firms, accounting firms, mass media relations firms, and interest groups that had an interest in promoting growth, especially pro-growth labor unions, and, of course, public officials. Basically from 1970 on, every Philadelphia mayor headed a downtown-led regime in a relatively top-down fashion, in terms of governing style. So that’s the backdrop. My book is all about how that pattern began to change around the turn of the century, and then picked up in the 2010s with a burst of social movement activity. Occupy Wall Street really started things off, but then it picked up, especially with Black Lives Matter, the immigrant rights movement, and all of that social movement protest had a catalytic effect on grassroots organizing in cities with respect to a whole host of public policy issues.
As your book points out, much of the activism has been driven by millennial transplants who have moved into the city. Is it fair to say that trend is the main driver of this change, or one of several factors?
That is one of the main factors in explaining why there is this big shift. But there are also some underlying changes in the local political environment, what social movement scholars sometimes call the “political opportunity structure.” One of those changes is a decline in the organizing capacity of the downtown business community, which had been so dominant. It started to create a vacuum. Into that vacuum steps young people. Populations had been steadily declining in virtually all big American cities. They started to stabilize around 2000, and you see an influx of young people who are relatively well educated, more likely to be professional, more likely to be progressive, more likely to get involved in local politics. Some people call it the “back to the cities” movement.
What’s different about these newcomers compared with other left-leaning groups that have sought to impact city politics in the past?
In the past, a lot of young people tended to get involved in protest politics. People on the left were very wary about engaging in electoral politics. The folks who are moving into Philadelphia after 2000 increasingly are participating in more conventional politics, including electoral politics, and that’s a big change. That escalates when Bernie Sanders runs for president in 2016. One of the lessons learned for lots of people who volunteered for him is: This is something we can do at the local level.
As you note, the groups driving this style of politics tend to be more affluent, more educated, and more white than Philadelphia as a whole. That’s created a lot of friction. There’s a debate over whether this is a phenomenon that will be limited to gentrified areas, or whether it will grow into a cross-racial or cross-class coalition. Is it fair to say that’s the central question going forward?
Absolutely. So much of this is turf-oriented. The millennials and Gen Zers moving into Philadelphia tended to congregate in neighborhoods that attract a lot of white, middle-class people who were relatively well educated, and so those became significant bases of progressive politics. The challenge then becomes organizing in other neighborhoods. Some of the grassroots groups made impressive inroads. I’m thinking about campaigns for Larry Krasner, in particular, in lower-income, predominantly Black and brown neighborhoods, where a group like Reclaim Philadelphia or the 215 People’s Alliance were pretty effective. But in many cases, it was fairly difficult for a group like Reclaim Philadelphia to venture into neighborhoods beyond their comfort zones, if you will. They were mindful of some of the skepticism that residents of those neighborhoods felt towards the millennials and Gen Zers flocking into the city and contributing to gentrification. Somebody from Reclaim Philadelphia might be knocking on the door talking about the affordable housing crisis, and people answering the door might look at them and say, “You’re actually a big part of the problem here.” This tension between so-called new Philadelphians and old Philadelphians became more pronounced, and navigating those tensions becomes a real challenge.
Your book finishes with the 2023 mayor’s race, when Cherelle L. Parker defeated more progressive candidates and won the election with a “law and order” platform. So perhaps that was a surprising twist on your thesis at the end of your research.
She’s obviously fascinating. She’s a shrewd operator. In the primary election, two progressives split the vote. And being the only prominent Black candidate worked to her advantage. But since she’s been elected, she’s been very skillful about maneuvering in ways that have brought back a return of the traditional kind of urban politics — a top-down governing coalition led by a somewhat resurgent business community and pro-growth unions, the building trades unions, and a somewhat resurgent establishment-oriented Democratic Party, all of which is led by Parker. This is very reminiscent of standard politics of the mid- to late 20th century. So in some ways, Philadelphia is a bit of an aberration in that it’s moved backwards, if you will, recently. But I still see lots of evidence that bottom-up grassroots activism remains a force, and will become much more impactful in the next four years.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker speaks at Vare-Washington Elementary School to highlight the historic education investments included in the 2026-27 state budget, in Philadelphia, July 14, 2026.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
For what it’s worth, Parker herself seems to be mindful that grassroots politics are still relevant. We reported last year that she ordered a bunch of copies of a book called Performative Outrage: How Manufactured Fury Undermines Local Government and Public Service, and was handing it out to people. So I think it’s safe to say she isn’t a fan of the trends you described. You alluded to Parker returning to a “regime theory” style of politics. What’s an example of that?
The 76ers’ arena, for example. She was siding with the Sixers and other downtown-oriented interests that wanted to see the arena in Center City on East Market Street, and discounting the views of community groups, most prominently Chinatown. There’s a general mode of governance style associated with Parker that’s very uncomfortable with dealing with grassroots-oriented groups. That’s just not her style. She’s much more comfortable dealing with downtown business elites and people in the building trades unions. Her whole mindset is much more comfortable with the old ways of governing cities.
Parker won in 2023, when Joe Biden was president. Progressives in Philly and elsewhere seem to do better when Trump is in office. This spring Democrats just elected Chris Rabb, a progressive firebrand, in a high-profile primary for a Philly congressional seat.
Politics is cyclical. Donald Trump has had that effect of reinvigorating lots of activists. So there was a lull in progressive activism in the city for a while, but it’s on the rise again. But it takes time to regroup, especially on the activist side. Some groups last for a long time, but the norm is for groups to be quite ephemeral. New groups have to pop up, often involving activists who had been involved in the old groups. The transition costs are pretty steep. Somebody like Chris Rabb winning doesn’t surprise me at all. There will probably be more successes in the next two or three years. That said, progressive activists have lots of challenges. They’re in a holding pattern right now.
Thanks for your time. That’s all I’ve got. Is there anything I didn’t touch on that you want to include?
I’m an urban politics specialist. I wrote this book. I devoted five years of my life to it. But in the last year or two, I’ve been so fixated on what’s going on in national politics and Donald Trump and the threat that he and his administration pose to democracy. With that in mind, I just want to say that urban politics in general offers some hope for people who are increasingly demoralized. At the local government level, partisan polarization isn’t nearly as intense. We’ve got divisions between progressives and moderates, but that’s nothing like what we’re seeing in national politics. There’s real hope for city governments to address big problems and offer real solutions. There’s a path forward. One can make a case that right now, democracy in American cities is actually thriving.
Eleven years ago, Carlton Williams was, to some, a symbol of government dysfunction.
He was leading the troubled Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections, an agency engulfed in controversy over safety lapses and staffing issues following the deadly 2013 Market Street building collapse. The city controller called on Williams to resign, and Jim Kenney, then a candidate for mayor, promised that he’d get rid of him.
And yet Williams remained.
In July, he was named Philadelphia’s managing director, one of the most powerful positions in city government, second only to the mayor. He is assuming responsibility for L&I again, plus dozens of other agencies and thousands of employees who carry out the day-to-day operations that make the city run.
It is perhaps an improbable outcome for a longtime city employee who absorbed a level of scrutiny that could have easily ended his career.
But Williams proved durable, cycling through leadership positions across several departments while establishing himself as a City Hall insider. He has politically powerful allies and a reputation among City Council members as someone who will quickly act on their needs. That goes a long way with 17 politicians who value responsiveness and omnipresence, traits that they did not see in Williams’ predecessor, Adam K. Thiel.
Newly appointed Managing Director Carlton Williams interacts with city officials during a correctional officer graduation ceremony at FOP Lodge 5 in Philadelphia on Friday.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Perhaps most importantly for Williams’ ascent: he is all-in on Mayor Cherelle L. Parker.
The ties between Parker, 53, and Williams, 57, stretch back to their childhoods in Northwest Philly — he played football for the Oak Lane Wildcats, and she was a cheerleader. The team remains a part of both of their identities: Williams has led the Oak Lane Youth Association for 20 years, and the mayor often says proudly that she is a “Wildcat for life.”
Later in life, both found allies in the storied Northwest Coalition, a powerful political family. Williams said that he has known for 20 years that Parker would one day sit atop City Hall. And he most recently led Parker’s Office of Clean and Green Initiatives, overseeing the implementation of some of her key campaign promises.
“I’m bringing the ‘One Philly’ brand to the managing director’s office,” Williams said in an interview, echoing the mayor’s oft-used slogan. “Not to say it wasn’t being done under my predecessor. But I want to make sure it’s completely aligned with the mayor’s goals, because I believe in that vision.”
New Philadelphia Managing Director Carlton Williams speaks at the podium after being announced by Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker during a July 28 news conference at City Hall.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
His appointment as managing director marks a new stage for the Parker administration that has seen significant turnover at its highest levels. And it is indicative of what Parker values in her inner circle: vast institutional knowledge and loyalty.
For the mayor, trust in Williams’ ability to operate within the bureaucracy and advance her priorities may outweigh his mixed record of management.
“Whenever we had a crisis of any kind in this city, he has been on my speed dial,” Parker said when she announced Williams’ appointment last month. “No matter who’s been leading, I’ve always called him for his counsel.”
Overseeing ‘a very broken’ L&I
Parker’s bet on Williams would have seemed almost unimaginable a decade ago.
A year after Williams was appointed to lead L&I, an excavator demolishing a wall on Market Street in Center City toppled the building onto an adjacent Salvation Army store, killing six people and injuring a dozen more. The inspector responsible for the demolition project died by suicide a week later.
Calls for reform abounded and questions swirled about whether the city’s agencies were responsible. There were multiple investigations launched and commissions convened to probe the disaster, and within days, Council members were pressing Williams to institute reforms that would bolster safety on private construction sites.
In response, Williams sought to hire more inspectors, increase their training, raise demolition standards, and create new specialized units within L&I.
Today, he says the collapse on Market Street was “one of the saddest moments” of his time in government.
“You have to lead through some tough challenges when you’re a leader,” he said. “You don’t get to pick and choose when you lead.”
In this June 2013 file photo, then-Philadelphia Commissioner of the Department of Licenses and Inspections Carlton Williams (second from right) waits in line to attend a memorial service for Anne Bryan, who was among the victims of the Market Street building collapse.JOSEPH KACZMAREK / Associated Press
By fall 2015, then-City Controller Alan Butkovitz was calling on Williams to be fired. He said at the time that L&I had long been troubled, but that his office’s audit of the agency found that Williams had not made enough improvements.
In this 2013 photo, then-Deputy Mayor Everett Gillison (left) and then-Commissioner of Licenses and Inspections Carlton Williams listen to members of City Council during a hearing.TOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer
Butkovitz now says that he blames former Mayor Michael Nutter instead, and that Williams was “caught between the mayor and me.” He said Williams had promised to provide the controller’s office with documents to assist in an audit, and then did not.
“I took it out on Carlton Williams at the time,” Butkovitz said.“His inclination was to cooperate with me, but at the time, it looked to me like duplicity. And I don’t think it was. I think he was overridden by higher authority.”
Nutter did not respond to a request for comment.
Estelle Richman, a former Philadelphia managing director who has held a variety of roles in local, state and federal government, said L&I is “one of the most difficult city departments.” She noted that past agency leaders have been pushed out, fired, indicted, and jailed.
“We can go back and say ‘maybe [Williams] should have done this or that,’ but the reality is it was a very broken department,” she said. “I think he did more to try to get it restabilized and back on track than any other commissioner at that time could have done.”
‘You have to be accessible’
Before taking the helm at L&I, Williams was a career bureaucrat.
Born in North Philly and raised in West Oak Lane, Williams started with the city at age 19, working in Fairmount Park as one of the first-ever members of the Philadelphia Ranger Corps. The program paid for part of his tuition to attend Temple University and marked his foray into public service.
Jeffrey Montague, who led the Philadelphia Ranger Corp. and has been a mentor to Williams for decades, said that at a young age, Williams showed potential.
“He didn’t try to fit in. He always stood out on his own independence,” Montague said. “He wasn’t trying to fit into a crowd.”
After working as a ranger, Williams spent three years running a Harrisburg youth program for AmeriCorps — the first and last time Williams lived outside the city.
He returned to Philadelphia to work for the Parks and Recreation Department, rising to become a deputy commissioner in both the recreation and streets departments.
Then came the four-year stint leading L&I, and when Kenney took office in 2016, he moved Williams back to his old job as a deputy in the streets and sanitation department.
But it didn’t last. Five months after Kenney took office, the streets commissioner was arrested for assault. Williams ascended to the role, and suddenly, the person who Kenney said he wouldn’t retain to lead L&I was in charge of one of Philadelphia’s most visible departments, overseeing transportation and sanitation operations citywide.
Carlton Williams, then the director of the Office of Clean and Green Initiatives, speaks during a news conference at Bigler and South 15th Streets on July 7, 2025.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
It was there where Williams solidified himself as a City Hall fixture. He said that as an administration staffer,he has “one primary that I listen to” — the mayor — but he has always tried to be attentive to Council.
That may be a key difference between Williams and Thiel, his predecessor. Thiel was the former fire commissioner and a nationally recognized expert in emergency management who was seen as a skilled behind-the-scenes operator.
But Council members said thatThiel did not foster close relationships with members of the city’s legislative body who are often conduits between residents and the mayor’s administration.
In addition, Thiel was often absent during major events in the city and he was frequently on leave — he joined the Army Reserve eight months into his tenure, and held several jobs outside city government, including as a consultant and professor.
That was a departure from prior administrations, when the managing director was often the public face of city operations.
On several occasions during the Parker administration, it was Williams who was in the spotlight. As director of the Office of Clean and Green Initiatives, he played a key coordinating role during the eight-day municipal worker strike that halted city services — most visibly, trash pickup.
And he oversaw the city’s response to a severe winter storm earlier this year that left much of the city encased in ice, despite weather emergencies typically falling under the managing director’s purview.
New Philadelphia Managing Director Carlton Williams (left) stands near the former director, Adam Thiel, before an introduction by Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker during a July 28 news conference at City Hall.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
City Councilmember Anthony Phillips, whose district includes Northwest Philadelphia, said that prior to Thiel’s resignation, members of Council were “gravely concerned” about his frequent leave.Some members said that, in Thiel’s absence, Williams was their primary contact among Parker’s top staff.
“You can’t get certain things done and you can’t expect an efficient and effective city when you’re not present,” Phillips said. “Carlton is going to be the complete opposite of that.”
Williams said that his role as managing director is his only job aside from volunteering.
“It’s a full-time, 24-hour, seven-day-a-week job,” he said. “You have to be accessible.”
Williams’ coziness with elected officials has also drawn criticism.
A former city employee who previously worked for Williams said his relationships with Council amount to a “favor machine.” The staffer spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to preserve relationships.
“There is this cycle of Council getting calls from constituents, like ‘there’s a pothole,’ and then they get it fixed, and that’s the main work,” the former staffer said. “It’s not actually setting up systems that are solving the problems. It’s reacting to them.”
But Williams said some of his proudest achievements have resulted in systemic change: he led the installation of some of the first spraygrounds in the city, overhauled the recycling program, had BigBelly trash cans placed throughout Philadelphia, and started the annual Philly Spring Cleanup.
“He is probably one of the most well-prepared managing directors that the city has had,” Richman said. “He knows not only how operations work within the city departments, he knows the political structure of the city. And I believe a managing director has to know both.”
John Dougherty, the former leader of the politically powerful Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and his ally, ex-Councilmember Bobby Henon, were on trial for bribery and other corruption charges. Prosecutors accused Henon of taking official actions as a Council member at Dougherty’s behest in exchange for a salaried, no-show job with the union.
One of the schemes prosecutors presented during the trial focused on efforts by union officials in 2015 to halt the installation of an MRI machine at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a project that was being completed with nonunion labor. Williams, at the time, was at the helm of L&I.
Department of Streets Commissioner Carlton Williams exits federal court on Oct. 12, 2021, after testifying in the John Dougherty and Bobby Henon bribery trial.Thomas Hengge / Staff Photographer
During the 2021 trial, Williams was called to testify. He told the jury that Henon called him in August 2015 to report that an unlicensed contractor was working at CHOP, and that he dispatched an inspector to investigate.
The inspector, Williams testified, issued a stop-work order on the construction of the MRI machine. But he insisted that he did not direct the inspector to do so, and told the jury that responding to complaints from Council members was a routine part of his job.
Ultimately, L&I reversed the stop-work order, and the MRI machine was built.
Prosecutors said Dougherty paid Henon to be his “man on the inside” in City Hall and used the episode at CHOP to establish evidence of a corrupt agreement between the two.
“You heard what happened,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Costello told the jury during closing arguments. “Henon contacted Carlton Williams, Carlton Williams sent inspectors out and they issued orders — they issued orders to shut the job down.”
But defense attorneys said one public official asking another to take action doesn’t constitute a crime.
“Carlton Williams was the recipient of information just passed on to him about the MRI and the unlicensed contractor,” said defense attorney Brian McMonagle. “That ain’t a crime.”
During the 2023 mayoral campaign, when a half-dozen Democrats could have plausibly won the party’s nomination, Williams nearly left the city.
He said he got a job as the public works director in San Francisco, but before he accepted, Parker won the primary election. Williams decided to stay.
“I wanted to work for Cherelle Parker,” he said. “I believed in her vision.”
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker is applauded by members of her administration at City Hall on July 9, 2025, hours after reaching a tentative contract agreement with District Council 33 leaders overnight, ending the workers’ strike. At left is Carlton Williams, director of the Office of Clean and Green Initiatives. Chief Deputy Mayor Sinceré Harris is behind the mayor at right.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Parker took office in 2024 and created a new role: director of the Office of Clean and Green Initiatives. Williams would carry out her campaign promise to rid the city of its “Filthadelphia” moniker by implementing twice-weekly trash collection, an expansion of illegal dumping enforcement, and a biannual citywide program to clean every block.
As managing director, Williams’ portfolio will grow substantially. He will be responsible for the city’s response to public health and homelessness, as well as overseeing large agencies like the fire department and the prisons.
He will also coordinate the city’s strategies in Kensington, the beleaguered neighborhood and the site of an open-air drug market that the Parker administration has spent more than two years working to shut down. Williams said there is inherent pressure that comes with being responsible for addressing such long-entrenched issues.
“But I work best under pressure, and so I take that as a badge of honor,” he said.
Williams said he intends to prioritize communication with residents because they “understand that everything can’t get fixed at one time.”
“But at least we can say what needs to be done, when it’s going to [be] fixed, what’s the timeline,” he said. “I manage through the eyes of everyday citizens. I want what they want.”
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has seen more than twice as much turnover among top officials in her administration than her most recent predecessors had at the same point in their tenures, according to an Inquirer analysis of personnel moves.
Come September, when City Solicitor Renee Garcia’s resignation takes effect, more than half of Parker’s highest-level appointees will have departed in the two years and nine months since she took office in January 2024.
Following last month’s announcement that Managing Director Adam K. Thiel and Garcia would soon be leaving Parker’s administration, The Inquirer compared turnover at the top level of city government under Parker with former Mayors Jim Kenney and Michael A. Nutter. The analysis included chiefs of staff, deputy mayors, and the half-dozen other positions designated by the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter as part of the mayor’s cabinet.
The analysis found:
Of the 11 people Parker appointed to those jobs, six have already left the administration or are poised to leave by September. Kenney had lost three of his 11 top appointees by the same point in his tenure, and Nutter had lost two of the nine officials in comparable positions.
Most strikingly, Parker has lost three of the top four officials in her government: Chief Deputy Mayors Aren Platt and Sinceré Harris, the architects of her 2023 campaign, and Thiel, who oversaw most of the city’s operational departments. By this point, Kenney and Nutter both had lost two of the six people who held comparable roles in their tenures.
For the director of the Philadelphia Department of Labor, a cabinet position, Parker is on her third appointee, after her first two left city government after short stints leading the agency. (Parker has also had three directors of LGBTQ+ affairs, a non-cabinet position, after firing the first two people who served in that role.)
In another cabinet role, that of commerce director, Karen Fegely has been serving on an interim basis since May 2025, when Parker’s original appointee, Alba Martinez, resigned to produce a musical.
Tiffany W. Thurman, Parker’s chief of staff, said the turnover has not raised “any red flags or alarms internally.”
“It’s cyclical, and it’s part of the process,” Thurman said in an interview Thursday morning, after the initial publication of this story. “The work is continuing, and it’s strong and it’s good, and the vision hasn’t wavered despite the turnover, and so I’m very, very pleased with the team that we have right now.”
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Although the top rung of Parker’s administration has seen high turnover, the analysis found that the next two tiers of city government leaders under Parker have seen less churn.
Of 18 key department heads not included in the charter-designated cabinet under Parker, three have resigned from or been forced out of city government. (A fourth, former Fire Commissioner Craig Murphy, stepped down as part of a scheduled retirement after Parker appointed him on an interim basis.)
Of the 76 additional political appointees, smaller department leaders, and deputies identified by The Inquirer — including all of the officials whose appointments Parker publicly announced as she filled out her administration — at least 12 have resigned, been fired, or moved to a new role in a discipline-related transfer. (Others have received promotions or switched roles to fill vacancies.)
Major officials who remain in the administration hold some of the most critical posts in city government, such as Police Commissioner Kevin J. Bethel, the first appointment Parker announced after her election, and Finance Director Rob Dubow, who has held his role since the start of Nutter’s administration in 2007.
While smaller in number, the departures among the second and third tiers of city government leadership under Parker have included losses in important positions, including Water Commissioner Randy Hayman, Licenses and Inspections Commissioner Basil Merenda, Chief Policy Officer Sophie Bryan, and Budget Director Robert McDermott.
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There is always turnover in administrations, but it is often clustered around the end of mayors’ four-year terms. (There are exceptions: A majority of Philadelphia city solicitors since 1992, for instance, have served around two to three years, putting the length of Garcia’s tenure on par with her predecessors.)
Traditionally, deputy mayors and chiefs of staff work most closely with the mayor, and the posts have often been filled by people in the mayor’s inner circle or top campaign aides. They often do not have deep city government experience, which was the case for Harris and Platt, both of whom have since returned to politics.
Appointments for operational positions, such as managing director and police commissioner, usually go to people with experience in their fields. Thiel led the fire department and the office of emergency management under Kenney. Bethel was a former deputy police commissioner.
Parker, at the helm of City Hall, has said she has a demanding leadership style.
“With my team, am I always stretching and pushing and requiring that homework is done?” Parker said in a 2024 interview. “Yes, but I also believe I have the best and the brightest people with me. So naturally I have very high expectations for them because, quite frankly, they’re smart.”
Candi Jones, the administration’s chief human resources officer, said that Thiel and Garcia’s tenures are roughly in line with the average length of their predecessors’ over the last four administrations.
“Turnover is not turmoil,” Jones said Thursday during the interview with Thurman. “What is of most importance is that the city has an obligation for operational continuity. … Everyday, our operations are continuing to be managed daily, weekly, monthly. There has been no gaps in service.”
She also emphasized that key officials like Bethel, Dubow, and Thurman “since day one have been in place and really have been moving the government forward.”
The Inquirer attempted to reach all of the former administration officials mentioned in this article. Many declined to comment for this article or did not respond to interview requests. Attempts to reach several others were unsuccessful.
‘Big Three’ loses two
Even before Parker took the oath of office, intrigue over personnel matters became a defining aspect of her administration.
After winning the mayor’s race, Parker announced in late 2023 that she would appoint a “big three” of senior advisers to lead her administration, rather than a single “big mahoff,” an all-important aide who touches almost all major decisions, as had been the case in past administrations.
“No one like me has ever been elected mayor of our city, and no one has ever organized their senior staff this way,” Parker, the city’s first Black female mayor, said at the time.
Parker tapped City Hall veteran Vanessa Garrett Harley to fill Platt’s role, while Harris has not been directly replaced.
Despite Parker’s initial vision for a triumvirate of top aides, Thurman has by all accounts become Parker’s indispensable No. 2. Parker has referred to Thurman as her “chief air traffic controller.”
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker walks from her office at City Hall on Wednesday, Jul. 9, 2025, to speak hours after her administration struck a tentative contract agreement with District Council 33 leaders overnight, ending a workers strike. With her are: Chief Deputy Mayor Sinceré Harris (from left); Chief of staff Tiffany W. Thurman; and Chief Deputy Mayor Vanessa Garrett-Harley.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Thiel’s tenure with the city, meanwhile, has been one of the most perplexing sagas of Parker’s first term. In the administration’s early days, he often appeared alongside the mayor at news conferences during emergencies and major announcements.
But his public role overseeing many of the city’s day-to-day operations faded over time, and his obligations outside City Hall grew. In addition to working as a high-paid consultant and adjunct professor — as he had since the start of the administration — Thiel joined the U.S. Army Reserve in 2024 and took multiple leaves from the city for military service, including during this winter’s prolonged snow and ice emergency.
In July, Parker announced Thiel’s resignation, noting that he is leaving to “reenter the private sector.”
Philadelphia Managing Director Adam Thiel updates the latest from garage collapse at 30th and Grays Ferry with Mayor Cherelle L. Parker on Thursday, April 9, 2026.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
New positions, new faces
Parker, who has also greatly expanded the mayor’s office staff and increased salaries, created numerous new roles after taking office. Several people left those positions shortly after becoming thefirst people to hold them.
Kafi Lindsay resigned as director of the Philadelphia Office of Strategic Partnerships just nine months after being appointed, according to her LinkedIn profile. Rachel E. Branson resigned as the director of the Philadelphia Office of Minority Business Success after a year and three months, according to her LinkedIn profile. And Hassan Freeman last fall was let go as director of neighborhood and community engagement after an altercation with Councilmember Isaiah Thomas outside City Hall.
Some signs of strain within the administration emerged during Parker’s second year in office.
Parker last summer fired Brandee Anderson, who was the chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer, and Tyrell Brown, the director of LGBTQ+ affairs, amid a thorny personnel issue that also led to the deputy chief of staff, Chris Dailey, moving to the managing director’s office in a disciplinary transfer.
Last month, Anderson sued the city, alleging her termination was part of an effort to “suppress” DEI work in the administration. Around the same time, Shania Bennett, Parker’s former director of youth engagement, a non-cabinet position created by Parker, posted on social media that her time with the mayor’s administration was “the worst experience of [her] life” and that she resigned due to “unprofessional harassment” from a fellow staffer.
‘What’s the bench?’
George R. Burrell, a lawyer and former City Council member who held senior roles under two mayors, said the personnel churn under Parker will test the leadership skills of the behind-the-scenes city officials who have been elevated to fill vacancies.
“The question you have, when you have this kind of turnover, is, ‘Well, what’s the bench?’” said Burrell, who served in the administrations of former Mayors William J. Green III and John F. Street. “The question of what happens next and the quality of what happens next is the quality of the bench.”
Veteran city staffers now occupy four of the six top roles originally held by Parker appointees who have since left City Hall. Harris’ position was not directly replaced.
The exception is former Assistant U.S. Attorney Monique Galloway, a newcomer to Philadelphia government, who will replace Garcia as the city’s top lawyer next month.
Burrell said he expects longtime city bureaucrat Carlton Williams, who has replaced Thiel as managing director after serving as Parker’s director of clean and green initiatives, to succeed in his new role.
“I watched him evolve into what is a productive public servant,” Burrell said. “So I think that’s a bench member who is going to perform at the level that’s needed.”
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker announces Carlton Williams as the new Philadelphia Managing Director, replacing Adam Thiel during a news conference at City Hall in Philadelphia on Tuesday, July 28, 2026.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Once in office, Parker took nearly a full year to fill out her administration with appointments to key positions. She did not announce her selection of Kehinde “Kenny” Solanke to lead the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services, or DBHIDS, until July 2025, a year and a half into her tenure.
During that process, Parker said she was seeking the “best and brightest” and conducted national searches for some roles. A vast majority of her appointees, however, had strong ties to Philadelphia.
In 2024, when Parker was filling out her administration, she said she attended a training for new mayors at Harvard University. Some leaders from other cities, she said, were interested in recruiting Hayman, who had been appointed water commissioner by Kenney in 2019.
When Parker took office, it was unclear if she would keep Hayman in command of the water department. She announced she was retaining him in March 2024, and relayed the Harvard anecdote to demonstrate how Philly already had some of the country’s top public servants.
“He’s not going anywhere,” Parker said at the time. “We were able to hold on to some of the best talent in the nation.”
In July 2025, Hayman left Philadelphia to become the executive director of the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board.
Staff writers Ryan W. Briggs and Anna Orso contributed to this article.
In the case of Frank Rizzo, out of sight does not always mean out of mind.
The former mayor and police commissioner died 35 years ago. A 10-foot bronze statue reminded Philadelphians of his presence for decades, until civil rights protests in 2020 culminated in the monument’s removal from public display.
It might have lost its prime spot outside the Municipal Services Building, across from City Hall. But, six years later, the statue remainsa subject of interest, leaving reader JJ Cutuli to ask Curious Philly, The Inquirer’s forum for questions about the city: “Where is the Frank Rizzo statue, right now?”
The short answer? Now that repairs have been made, the search for a new home is on. Here’s how we got here.
The last thing Cutuli heard on the Rizzo statue saga was that it was set to be returned to the Frank L. Rizzo Monument Committee, after a settlement was reached with the Philadelphia Art Commission last summer.
“I am very much against the statue, against the man, against what it all represents,” Cutuli said. “But sweeping it under the rug or sending it to a scrap yard might take away the opportunity to deal with the issues that it represents.”
Rizzo has long been a controversial figure. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was accused from different fronts in the city of having allowed police to function with little oversight, putting people of color in a vulnerable spot.
Between 1970 and 1978, police shot civilians at a rate of one per week, according to an Inquirer investigation. That led critics to condemn Rizzo as a racist, and protesterseven put a Ku Klux Klan hood on the statue’s head in 2016.
“The statue is a deplorable monument to racism, bigotry, and police brutality for members of the Black community, the LGBTQ community, and many others. The treatment of these communities under Mr. Rizzo’s leadership was among the worst periods in Philadelphia’s history,” then-Mayor Jim Kenney said in a statement in 2020, when the city removed the statue overnight.
For supporters, however, the South Philly native was a beacon of Italian American pride whose tough approach on crime could have been misunderstood.
“He was a brute in some respects. But it wasn’t racist,” George Bochetto, an attorney for the Frank L. Rizzo Monument Committee, told The Inquirer in 2016. “It was law and order, it was crime, and I think he got a bad rap, frankly.”
The agreement left the committee with an $80,000 payment from the city for damages caused to the statue during its removal.
“They put it on the back of a flatbed truck and a piece of the base broke off so they had to replace that base,” Bochetto said. “There were also a lot of scratches and gouges on the body of the statue, which had to be repaired too.”
The bronze Rizzo has been at a foundry undergoing “expensive five-figure repairs,” Bochetto said.
Restorations are now done, according to the lawyer. The next frontier is finding a new home for the Rizzo statue.
As part of the 2025 agreement, the statue should be displayed on private property, and in a way that makes it “not visible from the public right of way,” the agreement states.
An exception can happen if the committee gets approval from Mayor Cherelle L. Parker or the managing director. Bochetto said that’s something the committee is working on. Bochetto did not describe locations being considered for the statue.
The city did not reply to a request for information. So, the status of the monument’s home remains uncertain.
Controversy aside, Bochetto said, it’s important to recognize that the statue is part of Philadelphia’s history.
“People say that symbols like this from the past are a part of our history and that is true,” Cutuli said. “But as part of history perhaps these things do have a place in museums or perhaps they don’t, perhaps the story and the facts can exist without the statue.”
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 byCarlton 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.
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.
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.
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’sdeputy 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 postsfor 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.
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.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker on Wednesday defended the city’s upcoming July Fourth concert, a seven-hour outdoor spectacle featuring performances from Christina Aguilera, Jill Scott, The Roots, and more, amid concerns over the nearly 100-degree forecast and revelations that the event will cost taxpayers millions more than in years past.
The city has dealt with high temperatures before and has battle-tested personnel and protocols prepared for the evening, Parker told reporters at a news conference in front of the stage at the foot of the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps.
She also addressed the detractors head on.
“I do not apologize to anyone about making sure that the city of Philadelphia, as the sixth-largest city in the nation, the birthplace of democracy, we were going to have a celebration that is fitting to and for our historical significance and prominence,” Parker said. “One that could be seen, respected, and honored, not just in our city and commonwealth and nation but in the world.”
Parker described the concert as the largest July Fourth concert in the city’s history. For an occasion as momentous as the nation’s 250th anniversary in the city that bills itself the birthplace of America, Parker said Philadelphia must rise to the occasion and prove it can achieve ambitious undertakings.
Parker said her administration scaled up the experience, including moving the stage back to accommodate an estimated 300,000 concertgoers, and made the stage larger.
“We won’t get a second chance to do this over again, Philadelphia,” Parker said. “We only turn 250 years old once in a lifetime.”
Ground crews set up speakers on the stage on Wednesday in preparation for the July 4 concert expected to draw thousands to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Parker recalled feeling the mounting pressure to prove Philadelphia could rise to the occasion of honoring the nation’s 250th anniversary shortly after the start of her tenure as mayor.
“‘Philadelphia lacks ambition. They’re thinking too small. We need a leader. Where is the legacy project?’” Parker recalled from the discourse of the time. “The critics were right. Philadelphia, as the birthplace, we couldn’t do what every other city was doing. We couldn’t just do something that was average, something that was mediocre. What we did had to be a reflection of this moment and our history.”
Parker’s news conference came hours after The Inquirer reported online that this year’s July Fourth concert will cost taxpayers millions more than in years past because the mayor’s administration hired ESM Productions, a for-profit company, to put on the annual show. For years, the concert has been produced by Welcome America, a nonprofit established by the city.
The Inquirer reported that the city is set to pay ESM $15.5 million to put on the show, and that last year’s iteration of the Welcome America concert cost the organization about $3 million.
Parker defended ESM and its founder, Scott Mirkin, as “the gold standard in planning large-scale global events, not just in America but across the world.” And she vowed that the city would produce a “fiscal impact report” after the event to account for how much money the city spent on this year’s festivities.
Mayor of Philadelphia Cherelle L. Parker speaks during a news conference under a tent Wednesday, July 1, 2026, in Philadelphia, outlining public safety and transportation plans ahead of a July 4 concert expected to draw thousands to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
She also noted that former Mayor Jim Kenney put his own stamp on the annual July Fourth concert when he took office in 2016 — and took some heat for it. The Roots had headlined the concert since 2009, but Kenney’s administration went a different direction and The Roots were sidelined.
Roots drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson didn’t mince words at the time, writing on Facebook that the decision was “arrogance in the HIGHEST order courtesy of your new leader.”
When Parker took office, she knew she wanted the spotlight back on the beloved local hip-hop group.
“I’m proud to have The Roots back home,” Parker said.
In terms of weather and safety, the city has proven this summer that it can host large-scale events in the heat seamlessly, said Philadelphia Police CommissionerKevin J. Bethel.
The city has already hosted five World Cup games, which have gone off without a hitch, Bethel said. For the July Fourth event, the department will be executing one of its largest deployments since the papal visit in 2015. That will include hundreds of officers across Center City and many more at the stadium and along the Parkway.
“I want everybody to come and have a good time. Don’t mess up the party,” Bethel said.
In order to keep people cool, the city will run 40 air-conditioned cooling centers, 150 pools and spray grounds, enhanced homeless service outreach, and extra fire department medics, said Dominick Mireles, Philadelphia’s deputy managing director for community safety. Along the Parkway, there will be misting fans and shade structures, he added.
Parker said she’s confident every Philadelphian interested in participating will be able to do so safely and will look back on the day fondly.
“I want people to remember where they were when America turned 250 years old and what we did here in the place when it all happened,” Parker said.
With the eyes of the nation on Philadelphia for America’s 250th birthday, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration this year took over management of the city’s free July Fourth concert, which for years was produced by a nonprofit established by the city: Welcome America.
The mayor instead hired ESM Productions, a for-profit company, to put on the annual show featuring musical acts and fireworks over the Ben Franklin Parkway, and she changed the name from Wawa Welcome America to the “One Philly: Unity Concert for America” — a version of Parker’s well-known slogan, “One Philly: A United City.”
Another change: It will cost taxpayers far more than in the past.
The city is due to pay ESM Productions about $15.5 million for the show, which will be headlined by Christina Aguilera, Jill Scott, and The Roots, and feature rapper Meek Mill, according to a copy of the city’s contract paperwork with ESM, obtained by The Inquirer. The city in March signed a $10 million contract with the Philadelphia-based company, as well as a $5.5 million contract amendment.
By comparison, Welcome America’s budget for all of 2024 — including that year’s July Fourth concert,the numerous other events it manages in the build-up to the concert, and the salaries of its staff — was about $6.6 million, only about $5.3 million of which came from government grants, according to the group’s most recent federal nonprofit disclosure.
Welcome America, which is a public-private partnership with the mayor serving as a board member, receives city and state funding, as well as a corporate sponsorship. The organization has been involved in Philly’s July Fourth celebrations since 1993.
Fans react to the music as the Wawa Welcome America Festival concluded July 4, 2023 with a free concert featuring Ludacris on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.Charles Fox / Staff Photographer
Last year’s iteration of the Wawa Welcome America concert cost the organization about $3 million, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to disclose that information.
The Philly taxpayer money paid to the concert’s producers does not cover additional expenses borne by the city, such as pay for police officers and sanitation workers staffing the event.
Parker’s office declined a request from The Inquirer for a copy of the contract or information on the cost of this year’s concert. Chief Deputy Mayor Vanessa Garrett Harley said in an interview that the administration would publicly disclose the costs and economic benefits of the concert after it was over.
“At a later time, we could certainly be doing a full accounting, as we’re not trying to hide anything and always want to be transparent,” Garrett Harley said.
Chief Deputy Mayor Vanessa Garrett Harley speaks at Belmont Plateau in Philadelphia on May 28.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Following the interview with Garrett Harley, The Inquirer later obtained the contract, and the mayor’s office on Tuesday did not respond to follow-up questions about the cost of the concert.
ESM’s original $10 million contract with the city included a breakdown of costs, ranging from $5,000 for “furniture” to nearly $3.4 million for “talent.” It also included $1.2 million for “ESM Productions Fees” and $1 million for “Above the line Producer’s Unit.”
The contract amendment for $5.5 million, signed June 26, did not include details on costs.
A spokesperson for ESM declined to comment.
Founded in 1996 by Scott Mirkin and Jenny Woo, ESM has previously produced numerous high-profile events on the Parkway, including the 2015 papal visit and Jay-Z’s Made in America concert.
David L. Cohen, a Philly political powerbroker and former U.S. ambassador to Canada, said he has hired ESM to produce events going back to when he was chief of staff for then-Mayor Ed Rendell in the 1990s.
“They’re incredibly competent; they’re incredibly good; they do an excellent job,” he said. “I really do think they’re the best event producers in Philadelphia.”
In paperwork submitted to the city, ESM said it “has a long standing relationship” with Cohen and pointed to events he hired the company to produce at the U.S. embassy in Ottawa, Canada, as examples of its past work.
Michael DelBene, president and CEO of Welcome America, said that, despite no longer being the producer for the concert, his organization is still managing more than a dozen Semiquincentennial-related events in partnership with the city. The events kicked off on Juneteenth and will run through the Fourth.
“The celebrations that happen in the city are the implementation of the mayor’s vision, and if she chooses a team to implement that vision, that’s great, and we all support that person and that team,” DelBene said in an interview. “We’re all going to row in the same direction to make sure the city shines.”
Drama and infighting had plagued a series of nonprofit efforts and federal commissions meant to coordinate the festivities. And the COVID-19 pandemic pushed party-planning way down the priority list for the city and for state leaders who could have previously led the charge, former Mayor Jim Kenney and former Gov. Tom Wolf.
Those delays likely squandered any opportunities for a monumental building project, such as the Please Touch Museum building, which was constructed for the 1876 Centennial Exposition, or the Ben Franklin Bridge, which opened for America’s 150th birthday in 1926. They may have also cost Philly the chance for an appearance by a high-profile dignitary, such as when Queen Elizabeth II visited for the 1976 Bicentennial.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker heads to the stage at the Independence Visitor Center Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025 to announce a new initiative that puts city neighborhoods at the forefront of the city celebrations of America’s 250th birthday in 2026.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
But the mayor eventually embraced the task in a more public way — following some public prodding from City Councilmember Isaiah Thomas — and the city’s Semiquincentennial celebrations will very much bear her stamp.
Parker has pledged to spend $120 million this year to mark the occasion, and she has made investing in communities across the city, not just the historic district, a major focus as Philadelphia this summer is also hosting World Cup games and the MLB All-Star Game. Much of that spending will pay for street work and beautification projects in neighborhood commercial corridors, 250th-themed block parties, and extra funding for annual events like the Odunde Festival.
“We want to make sure that any and everybody can participate in this regardless of your station in life,” Garrett Harley said.
‘This is her big concert’
With the official Independence Day parade — still organized by Welcome America — scheduled for Friday, July 3, there is surprisingly little in the way of official patriotic proceedings taking place on July Fourth itself.
Parker at 10 a.m. will lead a Philadelphia Freedom Awards ceremony at Independence Mall, honoring seven people, including Cohen and actor and Philadelphia-native Colman Domingo.
At 5 p.m., the concert will kick off on the Ben Franklin Parkway. Performers include Aguilera, Will Smith, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Jill Scott, The Roots, Meek Mill, and Seal. The city’s official fireworks show will begin at the show’s conclusion, around 11:30 p.m.
Fans during the Wawa Welcome America July 4th Concert on the Parkway in Philadelphia, Pa. on July 4, 2022.ELIZABETH ROBERTSON / Staff Photographer
Parker has several times compared this year’s show to Live Aid, the 1985 benefit concert staged in Philadelphia and London that featured in its 10-hour stateside lineup Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Madonna, Phil Collins, the Beach Boys, the Four Tops, Santana, Run-D.M.C., and many other musical A-listers.
“If you remember Live Aid and you think about the legacy experience we’re trying to create … that’s what we’re trying to do on July the Fourth,” Parker said in March.
Garrett Harley on Tuesday conceded the concert lineups may not be exactly comparable, but said the mayor was “really talking more about the scope and the magnitude and just the memories.”
“But to certain kids it’s gonna be bigger than Live Aid, because Christina Aguilera means to them what Stevie Wonder and some of the folks who ran Live Aid meant to others,” Garrett Harley said.
Garrett Harley disputed the notion that renaming the concert “One Philly: A Unity Concert for America” meant that it now bears Parker’s branding.
“I don’t know how a ‘Unity Concert for America’ is Parker’s branding because the whole point of this is about unity,” Garrett Harley said. “The branding is really about reminding people that we need to unify, we need to be one America, despite everything that may be going on in the country right now.”
The mayor frequently concludes speeches by asking crowds to raise their index fingers and say in unison, “One Philly: A United City.” She has also had the slogan printed on city trash trucks and cans, along with her name.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker raises a finger with her call-and-response “One Philly, A United City” mantra ending her speech during a ceremonial meeting of the Pennsylvania Senate at the National Constitution Center across the mall from Independence Hall on May 5.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
“Even if it is Parker’s branding, if that’s how people see it, what would Wawa Welcome America be if not branding?” Garrett Harley added.
(Wawa, a longtime corporate sponsor for the city’s July Fourth festivities, pays Welcome America to include its branding in the event, defraying costs for taxpayers.)
Branding or not, Parker’s vision guided the planning for the concert, Garrett Harley said.
“At the end of the day, this is [Philadelphia’s] 100th mayor,” Garrett Harley said of Parker. “This was her biggest concert, and probably will be the biggest that she will ever do. She’s the first female mayor. She’s the first African American female mayor. This is her big concert.”
A significant majority of residents want Philadelphia to remain a sanctuary for immigrants, according to a new poll that shows the overwhelmingly Democratic city is undeterred by President Donald Trump’s threats to defund so-called sanctuary cities.
A recent Suffolk University/Philadelphia Inquirer poll that surveyed 500 city residents asked respondents if Philadelphia should remain a sanctuary city, “even if it means losing federal funding.” A commanding 59% answered “yes,” with only 28% saying “no” and the remainder undecided or unwilling to say.
The support for Philadelphia’s sanctuary status was consistent across age and racial groups. The only geographic region where a plurality of respondents answered “no” was far Northeast Philadelphia, which is among the most politically conservative areas of the city.
The survey question did not elaborate on what a loss of federal funding could mean for the city in terms of the impact on residents. Philadelphia received $2.2 billion from the federal government in fiscal year 2024 to pay for a wide range of critical services, including infrastructure needs, as well as healthcare, food, and housing assistance for low-income people.
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Still, the results of the poll show relatively widespread support in Philadelphia for the city’s sanctuary policies, which include its practice of not complying with detainers issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement without a court order. Those detainers are effectively requests submitted by federal agents to local law enforcement agencies that ask to hold undocumented immigrants in custody.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration does not refer to Philadelphia as a “sanctuary city” — she and her top aides instead call it a “welcoming city,” language that has been increasingly adopted nationwide as Trump and his allies in the Republican Party have sought to crack down on sanctuary cities.
President Donald Trump travels to the Lehigh Valley to visit Mack Trucks in Macungie on Tuesday, June 23, 2026.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
The sanctuary policies predate Parker’s tenure and were in place under an executive order signed by former Mayor Jim Kenney. They were codified into law earlier this year after City Council passed a package of legislation aimed at limiting ICE’s operations in the city and instituting some of the nation’s toughest restrictions on ICE.
In May, Parker signed six of the seven bills in the package, but took no action on one that bars law enforcement officers from concealing their identities, including by wearing masks. City Solicitor Renee Garcia wrote in a letter to Parker that the legislation may not be legally enforceable, but the mayor did not veto the bill, allowing it to become law.
Last week, the Trump administration sued Philadelphia and some of its top officials, including Parker, over the mask-ban ordinance. The Trump administration contended that the law is “blatantly unconstitutional” and undermines federal law enforcement’s ability to do its job.
The lawsuit is one of several filed across the nation by the Trump administration challenging local laws related to immigration as federal authorities carry out the massive deportation campaign promised by the president.
That effort is also tied up in litigation. Last year, a federal judge issued an injunction blocking the Trump administration from denying funding to jurisdictions that limit cooperation with ICE, saying the White House could not impose funding conditions without authorization from Congress.
Staff writer Sean Collins Walsh contributed to this article.
Sick of being charged with “processing” or “transaction” fees when shopping online?
So is City Councilmember Rue Landau, and she introduced a bill Thursday to help Philadelphians avoid so-called pay-to-pay fees for online transactions.
“This will keep money in people’s pockets,” Landau said in an interview. “Oftentimes, people are paying these fees every single month to simply pay their bills to an entity that only allows you to pay it in a certain way. They are unnecessary. We are making them unlawful.”
The legislation aims to ban fees that are not related to actual costs to the seller. That means standard credit card processing fees, which retailers must pay to credit card companies, would not be banned under the bill. Instead, the bill aims to tackle additional fees beyond those processing charges by:
Mandating online payment portals have at least one option that involves no additional fees.
Requiring “cost justification” for fees, which Landau’s office said would essentially ban convenience fees by necessitating proof they are related to real costs borne by the seller.
Compelling online retailers to disclose all fees up front in “total-price advertising” before a transaction begins.
To enforce the bill’s provisions, the city’s law department would be authorized to sue businesses charging illegal pay-to-pay fees. The bill would also allow private individuals to sue for damages from companies charging the fees, including as part of a class-action lawsuit.
Next, Council President Kenyatta Johnson will refer the bill to a committee, where it could get a hearing as soon as this fall.
Philadelphia City Council members inside the caucus inside City Hall in Philadelphia, Pa. on Thursday, June 11, 2026.Aidan T. Gallo / Staff Photographer
City budget negotiations wrapped up last week, and Thursday’s votes were largely procedural.
But the fallout continued Thursday from Council’s decision last week not to adopt Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s proposal to plug the Philadelphia School District’s budget deficit with a new $1-per-ride tax on rideshare services like Uber and Lyft.
Council President Kenyatta Johnson speaks during an announcement at the School District of Philadelphia Headquarters on Wednesday, June 10, 2026 in Philadelphia. Philadelphia School District officials will move to restore 340 classroom-based jobs that were slated to be cut, despite top district leaders saying last week that they did not have the recurring funding needed to keep the positions.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Council instead pulled roughly $50 million, the amount the tax would have generated next year, from the existing city budget to help fund the schools. District officials, however, said after that vote that they would have to move forward with cuts to 340 classroom positions because Council did not provide recurring revenue.
The Tower of Taxpayers: The city will soon own the 18-story tower at 400 N. Broad St., the beaux arts landmark that is the Philadelphia Police Department’s headquarters and was dubbed the “Tower of Truth” when it was the home of The Inquirer.
Council on Thursday voted 17-0 to approve legislation authorizing the city to borrow $200 million so it can own the building, part of a complex and controversial deal in which the city is buying outstanding debt on the property that is currently held by developer Bart Blatstein.
The Philadelphia Public Services Building (PPSB) at 400 North Broad Street is the historic former Inquirer and Daily News building. It will soon be owned by the city of Philadelphia.TOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer
The purchase stems from an agreement inked in 2017 during former Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration. Under the terms of the deal, the city’s current $15 million annual rent on the building was set to nearly double if the city did not exercise a one-time option to buy the property.
Parker administration officials testified to a Council committee last week that, while the building is appraised to be worth $21.5 million, in order to purchase the structure, the city was required to assume the debt that Blatstein incurred to renovate the property.
Council members on the Finance Committee balked at the $200 million price tag and initially held up the proposal, but eventually approved the measure.
The city will issue bonds to buy the debt and will pay roughly $15 million a year in debt service.
Expanding the definition of ‘the line of duty’: The city appears poised to offer death benefits to the families of first responders who die by suicide, a change that amounts to an expansion of how the government defines a death that occurred “in the line of duty.”
Council approved legislation to offer pension payments, healthcare coverage, and other forms of compensation to the families of city workers who either had a diagnosed psychiatric disorder due in “significant part to exposure to one or more traumatic events in the line of duty” or died by suicide within 45 days of exposure to a traumatic event at work.
That was despite the city’s risk manager testifying last week to a Council committee that the Parker administration opposes the change. Sharolyn Murphy told Council members that the administration is focused on suicide prevention, and that expanding who is eligible for death benefits would result in higher costs to the pension fund.
On Thursday, Council approved the bill in a 17-0 vote, sending it to Parker’s desk with a veto-proof majority.
Quote of the week
Philadelphia City Council members inside the begin the session inside the chamber at City Hall in Philadelphia, Pa. on Thursday, June 11, 2026.Aidan T. Gallo / Staff Photographer
A bittersweet Pride: That was Mark Segal, the publisher of the Philadelphia Gay News and one of the most recognized leaders of the city’s LGBTQ+ community. He spoke Thursday during a Pride celebration in Council, and he called for accountability following the police response to Pride festivities on Sunday that many have called heavy-handed.
