When public officials betray the public trust, their reward cannot be a taxpayer-funded job

Look, I’m no prude. I can appreciate a lot of the oh-Philly-you-so-crazy things our city has to offer — those greased lamp poles, the familiar chip on our shoulders, our absolute adoration of a certain, mid at best, convenience store.

But the Philly Shrug — that voice I named back in 2013 that lives in the back of our minds that whispers, This is how it has always been, so this is how it must be — isn’t cute anymore.

It never was, but it’s even uglier with Donald Trump busting through all kinds of guardrails on his way to a second term in the White House.

Instead of shrugging, we need to do even more to hold local politicians to account — and we need an even higher standard (or any standard some days) for our elected officials.

We can start by demanding that the city stop charging us, the taxpayers, to secure soft landing spots for disgraced elected officials.

In a lot of ways, the recent story by my colleagues Ryan W. Briggs and Max Marin about three convicted former elected officials hired for new city jobs was a familiar one. Change the names, a few details here and there, and the story of a city comfortable with its corruption has been playing out for decades.

» READ MORE: Another Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office scandal. Another shrug. | Helen Ubiñas

This time it’s former Traffic Court Judge Willie Singletary and former State Rep. Leslie Acosta, both working for Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration, and former State Rep. Movita Johnson-Harrell, who is now working under Sheriff Rochelle Bilal.

Despite getting kicked off the bench for sexual harassment in 2011, and convicted in 2014 of lying to the FBI about fixing a ticket, Singletary is now employed as a deputy director in the managing director’s office at $90,000 a year.

Despite helping facilitate a money-laundering conspiracy at a low-income mental health clinic, for which she pleaded guilty in 2016, Acosta landed a community outreach job within the Department of Commerce at $70,000 a year.

And despite pleading guilty to theft and perjury after being charged with taking $500,000 from a nonprofit she founded, this summer Johnson-Harrell started as a public information officer in the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office. She makes $75,000 a year.

In response, Parker spokesperson Joe Grace said Acosta and Singletary would not have direct access to public funds nor would they supervise any employees. He added that the administration “supports” second chances.

The city, however, apparently doesn’t support transparency in their hiring process and declined to say if Singletary and Acosta’s jobs were publicly advertised — or if they are just the latest participants in the Soft Landing for Corrupt Public Officials Program.

And despite now employing two spokespeople, including an outside communications consultant, no spokesperson at the sheriff’s office responded to The Inquirer’s requests for comment.

I don’t know Singletary, a pastor, or Acosta, the first Latina elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, but I do know Harrell-Johnson, whom I’ve written about, and who was previously hired as a consultant for three months at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office in March. She has an inspiring backstory of someone who overcame poverty and drug addiction — and the trauma of losing two sons to gun violence — to commit herself to the anti-violence work she is still doing in and around her West Philadelphia neighborhood. I wish her well.

I, too, believe in second chances.

But when a public official betrays the public trust, when they abuse their offices and positions, whether they’re working for the people of this city or the people of this country, they cannot and should not be rewarded with another taxpayer-funded job.

» READ MORE: Nostalgia — nor a dusty pink hat — won’t save us from a second Trump presidency | Helen Ubiñas

We should not “consent to corruption,” and instead follow in the footsteps of Brett Mandel, a one-time top aide to Bilal who was fired after he questioned the slush fund expenditures, and was paid $465,000 after he filed a whistleblower lawsuit.

Unfortunately, shrugging off corruption is exactly what half of Americans just did when they voted to reelect Trump, the first former U.S. president convicted of 34 felony crimes and found liable for rape, to a second term.

In cities from San Francisco to Philadelphia, public officials are now assessing the risks posed by the Trump administration to their budgets, their economy, their infrastructure, and their people.

I was heartened to learn about Rue Landau, the city’s first openly LGBTQ City Council member, calling for public hearings focused on how we can protect our immigrant, LGBTQ, and other marginalized communities in advance of the impending Trump administration.

Here’s one way: Stop shrugging off the integrity (or lack of) of local politicians. Stop demanding so little of the public servants whose courage and character we will need now more than ever.