May 3, 2007 Issue
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Classified Chestnut Hill Local Online Editor Don't Miss an Issue, Tell us what you see or Winner of One |
Inside the 8th Donna Reed Miller: Veteran pol
looks for fourth term
It’s one of the first warm April days Philly has had this spring, and the dark stale air in City Hall is even warmer than the sun-laden air outside. On the third floor, Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller’s office is quiet, except for the drone of the intercom from the council floor and the occasional ringing phone, answered by an intern. Vernon Price, Miller’s administrative assistant, breaks the silence a bit when he walks into the office with another intern in tow. It’s the intern’s first day, and he is given his first assignment — reinvigorating a human resources board, which will provide job and career information for the 8th District’s constituents who visit Miller’s office. I wonder how many people from Chestnut Hill, Mt. Airy and Germantown travel to City Hall seeking career information. I’d imagine not many. A rotating information rack holds copies of Miller’s latest newsletter, new brochures and an old flyer for Miller’s Yahoo! Group, which, while visiting online later that day, I discovered hadn’t been updated since last May.
Irv Ackelsberg: Community lawyer,
activist looks for new chapter
In 2006, Irv Ackelsberg hit a significant personal milestone and, the more he thought about it, the more he felt he needed to make a change. That milestone was his 30th year as the managing attorney for Community Legal Services, an office of 35 attorneys at Broad and Erie in North Philadelphia that has fought for consumer and economic rights for the city’s low-income residents — it’s been recognized as one of the best such public law offices in the country. (Ackelsberg won the Vern Countryman Award in 2005, given by the National Consumer Law Center to an outstanding consumer advocate.) “I got to my 30th anniversary as a legal aid lawyer, and it felt like it was a marker of some sort,” he said during a recent interview at InFusion Coffee and Tea in Mt. Airy, a few storefronts down Germantown Avenue from his campaign office.
Cindy Bass: Volunteer, congressional
staffer redefines the myth
For some, it comes in the form of inheritance — those with politically connected parents grow up to be politically connected themselves. For others, it comes in the form of mythology — the American Dream where a boy is born in a poor rural community and struggles to grow into a life of ivy-leagued educated public service. For Cindy Bass, it came with a knock at the door. When Bass, 39, senior policy advisor on urban and domestic policy to Congressman Chaka Fattah and one of three Democratic candidates challenging Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller for the 8th District council seat, was a teenager, a would-be politician knocked on the door to her family home in North Philadelphia.
Greg Paulmier: Germantown lifer
takes (another) shot
The third time is a charm. That is the headline Greg Paulmier would love to see on May 16, the day after the Democratic primary election for 8th District councilperson. Paulmier, 48, is running in his third straight race to unseat incumbent Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller. In both previous races, Paulmier came in second, losing by 3,800 votes in 1999 and 1,200 votes in 2003. This time, Paulmier said, his chances are better because Miller does not have the backing of a strong mayoral candidate as she did in the previous two races. But with two other challengers in the race, Cindy Bass and Irv Acklesberg, it will still be difficult for Paulmier to gain enough votes to top Miller.
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