Government watchdog: eliminate City Commissioners, reform election system

With the May primary a done deal, Philadelphia’s government watchdog group is calling on the City Commissioners to move local elections into the 21st Century.

With the May primary a done deal, Philadelphia’s government watchdog group is calling on the City Commissioners to move local elections into the 21st Century.

Five simple and common sense steps.

The President of the Committee of Seventy, Zack Stalberg, says that’s all it would take for the three City Commissioners to improve Philadelphia elections.

“We want to see them do a number of things which have been obvious for quite some time,” says Stalberg, “fixing their website, clamping down on the number of people who besiege voters at the polling places, making sure that polling place workers are trained and that all the slots are filled at the polling places, and genuinely inviting public feedback.”

Stalberg says in the long-term, he wants the elected City Commissioners replaced with a professional and modern elections office – a move he says would save the city money, but requires amending the City Charter.

Through a spokesman, the commissioners declined comment.

Read Seventy’s report here