A hold placed on Philly city charter change on witness intimidation

A Philadelphia City Councilman has put on hold a bill to force a referendum to change the city charter when it comes to witness intimidation.

A Philadelphia City Councilman has put on hold a bill to force a referendum to change the city charter when it comes to witness intimidation.

Councilman Curtis Jones says there have been several recent moves to help intimidated witnesses in the city and that has made his charter change unnecessary for now.

Jones:
The mayor has given us $200,000 to establish a fund that would include witness intimidation and relocation. We’re happy with that the district attorney is happy with that because it would have taken us ten years to collect the fines at the rate we were.

The Councilman says there are also state and federal bills in the pipeline to address the witness intimidation problem, so for now his move to change the city charter is on hold. Shelving the proposed change means that even if Jones wants to revive it, the question probably would not go to voters until next year at the earliest.