The disaster that is the District Attorney's office

[gren]

Resurrecting this since HG mentioned it in another thread and I don't want to take that off topic.

Curious where this currently stands. I saw this Superseding Indictment from March 15, 2011. Is this only at the Grand Jury stage now? I did laugh at their interstate commerce justification though--Danny's Bar makes food, food comes across State lines.

[Hospitalitygirl]

Time to resurrect this thread since the District Attorney's Office is indeed a disaster (even worse than under Abraham, despite what her haters wish to think).

Meet Seth Williams’s $75,000 Party Planner | The Philly Post

She makes more than most assistant district attorneys with well over 10 years' experience make.

Morale is not good in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office. In fact, it’s downright dismal. Lower-level staffers complain they are overworked and underpaid, having not received any cost-of-living raises for years while the amount of work they do has risen sharply. And there’s trouble at the top, too, with a series of high-level departures, most recently that of Deputy District Attorney Brian Grady—who either resigned or was fired and escorted out of the offices—just one week ago. And what do people do when morale is low? They complain. And they’re complaining about Monique Wescott, whose role in the office is, ironically, to boost morale.

“You’re going to have to fill out a right-to-know request,” instructed District Attorney spokesperson Tasha Jamerson when I started asking questions about Wescott, who was described by multiple D.A. sources simply as a “party planner.” And when mouthpieces like Jamerson start telling you to fill out right-to-know requests about how taxpayer money is being spent, well, usually that means they don’t like you sniffing around.

Fortunately, the Office of the City Controller, whose very charge is to sniff around, was more forthcoming. According to Controller spokesperson Brian Dries, Wescott, whom Seth Williams hired in 2010 from her post as special events and community relations manager at Community College of Philadelphia, receives an annual salary of $75,900. (Wescott did not immediately return a call this morning seeking comment.) She also gets an office on the top floor, which, according to one source who works in the office, “means it’s big and fancy.” Assistant district attorneys—the worker bees charged with handling the actual cases that come through the office—start out at $48,975.

Wescott’s job title is less certain than the money she gets. On her Facebook page and outgoing voicemail message, she lists her job as “Director of Community Engagement and Employee Enrichment.” (Aren’t you glad your tax dollars are being spent on employee enrichment?)

According to an internal staff list, Wescott heads up “community outreach and government relations.” Meanwhile, as far as the controller’s office is concerned, Wescott is simply an administrative assistant. I asked Dries if he thought it was peculiar that an “administrative assistant” would be paid $75,900 each year. “Yes,” Dries confirmed. “It is odd.”

But what does Wescott actually, you know, do? “She stands at the bottom of the steps and collects money for the Christmas party,” says one disgruntled employee. “And she did send out a blast [two weeks ago] for discounted tickets to the upcoming Sesame Street show.” Wescott also helped coordinate a toy drive during the 2011 holiday season. And in January 2011, she was the point person for the District Attorney’s suit drive, part of the Martin Luther King Day of Service efforts. Both good causes. But $75,900? Really?

“If Seth would just give out some raises, nobody would care about Monique,” says one former A.D.A. “When she came on, she was originally just an event planner, but to assuage the storm, she got the additional title of employee enrichment. And now, she’s just the whipping girl, the poster child for the new DA’s top heaviness and poor management. The fact that her name comes up is almost unfair.”

Yeah. Almost.

I highly doubt that people would stop complaining if only they received raises too. It's much worse than that.

[annie]

Deputy D.A. Brian Grady resigns from Philadelphia District Attorney's Office

HG, I meant to dig up this thread earlier this month and ask you if Grady was one of the problems you alluded to. Was he?

[Hospitalitygirl]

Deputy D.A. Brian Grady resigns from Philadelphia District Attorney's Office

HG, I meant to dig up this thread earlier this month and ask you if Grady was one of the problems you alluded to. Was he?

Yes, but only one.

[governphila]

I would suggest that when you have people like Bob Brady who are Congressman hailing from Philadelphia's 1st Congressional District which runs in the top 4 in the nation for crime and poverty who do nothing to speak out, or fight to educate and push for our city to make the changes needed to bring down crime and poverty, you go no where.

Bob Brady has the power and the people to influence but is more concerned with his family and friends and their welfare which is why 29% of his district live in poverty while his ex-Philadelphia Cheerleader wife makes six figures on multiple boards including the corrupt PHA. I would love to compare her skills to some the poor in his district, I guarantee we would find better qualified people.

Congressman Bob Brady for Retirement

[DCnPhilly]

I would suggest that when you have people like Bob Brady who are Congressman hailing from Philadelphia's 1st Congressional District which runs in the top 4 in the nation for crime and poverty who do nothing to speak out, or fight to educate and push for our city to make the changes needed to bring down crime and poverty, you go no where.

Bob Brady has the power and the people to influence but is more concerned with his family and friends and their welfare which is why 29% of his district live in poverty while his ex-Philadelphia Cheerleader wife makes six figures on multiple boards including the corrupt PHA. I would love to compare her skills to some the poor in his district, I guarantee we would find better qualified people.

Congressman Bob Brady for Retirement

Someone's been busy campaigning today.

[Jayfar]

Someone's been busy campaigning spamming today.

Fixed that for you.

[Litter Box]

Fixed that for you.

How about shill ?

[Hospitalitygirl]

How about shill ?

Someone's been busy campaigning today.

Fixed that for you.

Does it invalidate the basic premise? If it is someone campaigning, it's always better to be upfront about that, but the basic points are true.

[Litter Box]

Does it invalidate the basic premise? If it is someone campaigning, it's always better to be upfront about that, but the basic points are true.

When someone becomes a shill in my eyes they lose credibility.

[mixiboi]

Yeah, true or not, thread after thread of nearly the same paragraphs, its like, yeah we got it the first 15 times.

[eldondre]

House panel approves corrections system improvements - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

[mixiboi]

and then there is this from the Daily News:




Seth Williams is hosting a cocktail reception fundraiser Wednesday night in the Penthouse on the 57th floor of The Residences at Two Liberty Place. Of course they'd use a "Sex in the City" references, because, why not? DA's 'Seth in the City' fund-raiser draws scrutiny