The news is often said to provide the “first draft of history” and as such, journalists always find the really big events interesting.  Often, though, because of the immense amount of information and number of events that happen on a daily basis, we sometimes miss the first few moments of the really big events.

Blogging gives us the luxury of finding the little bits that could turn into big things and keep them all in one place.

One of my biggest hopes as a “journalist,” blogger and admitted policy wonk is that this city’s “big story” in the next few years will be the most massive civic engagement process of the past 50 years - a complete rewriting of the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter.  It would be a big story because it means some pretty serious legislation would have to be passed after a LOT of debate and a huge civic engagement process because the authors of a new charter would be a commission of Philadelphians.  And if the Central Delaware planning process or these budget town hall meetings have taught us anything, it’s that Philadelphians - all of them - want to be heard.

The current charter was put in place in 1951 and came about after decades of corruption by the dominant GOP party.  People like Richardson Dilworth, Joe Clark and the rest of their allies in the Americans for Democratic Action (described in this month’s Philadelphia Magazine as “a bizarre coalition of down-and-dirty union guys mixing with rich liberal housewives from Chestnut Hill and funded by old money”) came together to tear down a government apparatus made for patronage and build one based on professionalism, merit and civil service.

And for a while it worked.

Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will never have rest from their evils…

As it turns out, the 1951 Home Rule Charter, like any code of laws can’t keep flawed humans from making very flawed errors in judgment.  Since 1951 there have been thousands of people involved in selecting elected officials, running for office, running the city and doing city work.  Odds were against ALL of them - or any of them - being perfect.  The creators of the Home Rule Charter knew that to be the case so they created a document that would make it hard for the very basest among them to run rampant with the public trust and treasure.  It was a document that had no idea about cable television, fax machines, sustainable living, or even the internet.  Heck, that charter couldn’t know that manufacturing would soon be on its way south and then overseas.

So maybe it is time for a new one.  I don’t pretend to be the one who should make that decision.  It’s a choice that must be made by all Philadelphians, led ably, honestly and frankly by the elected officials who will ultimately make the process happen.

With the mayor starting to casually mention about how the current budget crisis and global economic situation could require us to completely rethink the way this government works, with editorial boards and other commentators talking about doing away with row offices and reorganizing their functions, now is the time to start watching.

“New Charter Watch” will try to keep track of every mention of the possibility of re-do.  From Dan McQuade’s half-joking reference to “Neo Philadelphia” to the Daily News Editorial about reforming row offices, you can find them all here under the category “New Charter Watch.”

If you start to see “New Charter Watch” in the tag cloud to the right, you’ll know that the buzz is growing.