Frank DiCicco
- City Hall
Room 332
Philadelphia, PA 19107-3290 - P: (215) 686-3458
- F: (215) 686-1931
- DiCicco's Website
Council Member, District 1
| 1 | Ken Goldenberg & affiliated entities | $20,500 |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America | $15,050 |
| 3 | LP Isle of Capri Associates | $15,000 |
| 4 | Comcast | $14,500 |
| 5 | New Urban Reform PAC | $10,750 |
About DiCicco's Top Donors
Ken Goldenberg & affiliated entities
Ken Goldenberg is a developer and major contributor to Democratic candidates. In the late 1990s, Goldenberg tried to build a DisneyQuest indoor amusement park in Philadelphia. The venture floundered and wound up costing city taxpayers an estimated $44 million, according to a 12/20/07 article in the Inquirer. With $14.35 million in city financing, Goldenberg later partnered with the West Philadelphia Financial Services Institution to help bring a development that includes a Lowe’s home improvement store and the city’s largest ShopRite grocery store to fruition. From 2001-2008, the following entities based in Goldenberg’s Blue Bell, PA office gave to Philadelphia City Councilman Frank DiCicco: Swanson Street Associates, $13,500; Mifflin Street Associates, $5,000; Vandalia Associates, $2,000. Once Pennsylvania finally establishes limits on campaign contributions (Philadelphia has already done so), a potential loophole for developers and others to exploit is funneling contributions through multiple entities under their control. This loophole can be closed by treating entities owned by the same person or people as a single entity when tabulating their campaign contributions.
United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America
With over 12,000 members, the UBCJA is one of Philadelphia’s largest and most influential unions. U.S. Rep. Bob Brady has been a member of UBCJA since 1964 and the union has continued contributing to his pension for work performed, according to a 2/6/08 article in the Inquirer. Lobbying by the union’s leader Edward J. Coryell, Sr. was instrumental in getting the Philadelphia Convention Center built, yet Coryell also led a strike that halted work on the Center for three weeks in 1991. High labor costs, including wages for carpenters, have been blamed for the dearth of new home construction in Philadelphia. According to a 8/12/01 article in the Inquirer, “The wage rates for union workers who build houses in Philadelphia are as much as 50 percent higher than the rates the same unions charge in the suburbs. The long-standing but little-known wage disparity, combined with union domination of the city building trades, increases the overall construction cost of a new single-family house in Philadelphia by 30 percent when compared with the suburbs, according to interviews, labor contracts, and cost data . . . Builders and city officials say the disparity is one reason that new-housing construction in Philadelphia is virtually nonexistent, threatening Mayor Street's ambitious effort to build 16,000 units and attract 75,000 residents to a city that has suffered a 40-year population decline.”
LP Isle of Capri Associates
LP Isle of Capri Associates
Comcast
"They have PR firms and strategy consultants that they can pull into any given issue very quickly," said Ben Scott, policy director for Free Press, in a May 17, 2009 Philadelphia Inquirer article about Comcast’s strong lobbying arm."If Comcast decided to get in front of the 435 members of the House, they could do that in a week. I don't think I could do it in a year." And if Comcast can personally lobby every member of Congress in a week, imagine how easy it is for them to make their case to the Philadelphia City Council or the state legislature. In Congress, they have lobbied against the Shareholders Bill of Rights, which would give corporate shareholders the ability to reject executive compensation packages, like Comcast CEO Brian Roberts’s annual salary of $25 million. Meanwhile, across Pennsylvania, Comcast has lobbied against opening up markets to competition from other cable companies. On what issues has Comcast lobbied the Philadelphia City Council? It would be nice to know. Unlike New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and many other major cities, Philadelphia does not require lobbyists to register and disclose the issues on which they have been lobbying.
New Urban Reform PAC
New Urban Reform PAC
Missing provisions in ethics legislation
Posted April 2, 2010On March 5, City Council Majority Leader Marian Tasco, along with Councilman Bill Green, introduced multifaceted ethics legislation that Green estimates addresses 80% of the recommendations set forth by the Mayor’s Task Force on Ethics and Campaign Finance Reform, discussed here yesterday in regards to lobbying regulation and oversight ...
The soda tax and lobbying reform
Posted April 1, 2010The issue of a soda tax in Philadelphia has quickly become a central dispute in city politics. Notably, citizens and the media have increasingly commented on the soda tax as an issue that will draw lobbyists to City Hall. The Inquirer, in a March 5 article by Patrick Kerkstra, confirmed ...
Hurry Down Sunshine
Posted Jan. 6, 2010Think of the scaffolding that has moved around the walls of City Hall in recent years as the building was cleaned. Every part of the exterior was cleaned, not just the face you see from the Convention Center, or the face that tourists see from the steps of the Art ...