Accountability at Philadelphia DHS; with luck, 34 South 11th Street will follow

"If you are not prepared to take the action that needs to be taken, if you cannot keep up and stay on top of things, then you should leave this city government right now. We don't need you, and we don't want you."

Today, Mayor Michael Nutter announced that as of yesterday he's suspended 7 employees, all management-level, at DHS. The suspensions follow resignations and criminal charges arising from the Danieal Kelly case (do not read).

I don't think a lot of public employees in Philadelphia know what accountability means. I've worked at Family Court at 34 South 11th Street, and I've worked at City Hall. I use SEPTA buses and subways daily in town, and I use the regional rail to get to various suburban destinations a couple of times per month. Whatever kind of active dysfunction that could possibly exist in an organization, you find it in Philadelphia city government and the other regional authorities here. Whether Peter Principle, nepotism, institutional inertia, turf wars, resentment at other workers who make you look bad because they simply do their job while you sit on your ass and collect your paycheck and health insurance -- it's all here, often in combination in a single office.

No one ever gets fired, and a negative evaluation of a worker means nothing. Letters to SEPTA customer service must be placed in a specially designated circular file, for all the change they effect. Ticket agents are still rude and still can't do math.

And I hope you never have to try to get a Protection from Abuse order in Philadelphia. First, you go to 34 S. 11th St., where the security guards are unintelligible (or inexplicably rude when they are intelligible). You navigate a warren of corridors with misleading signage to find the correct waiting room, which smells of cigarettes because city workers smoke in their cubes behind the security door. You wait your turn and then fill out the form with a largely unhelpful and unsympathetic city employee -- note that a lot of women come in with limps and fresh bruises -- and then you wait. You wait hours for the paperwork to be transferred to the judge down the hall. In the meantime, the clerks smoke more cigarettes and the judge goes to lunch. If you leave, you may miss getting your paperwork back, and you'll have to start the entire process over again. If you stay, you can't eat, because no food or drink is allowed in the waiting room. Note also that a lot of women, along with their limps and bruises, must bring their children along with them. There's no nursery; the bathroom by the elevators is filthy and outdated; and you can't have food with you.

When you get your paperwork back, though, you don't have a Protection from Abuse order. You have to serve the papers on the person you're taking the order out on, so that he knows to come to court for the hearing where you're pleading for the actual order. Got that? You've been beaten up, and now you have to go find the abuser and personally serve papers on him.

Philadelphia is the only major city in the country that requires you to do that. Everywhere else, either you get the order right away because your bruises and your story are plausible enough, or you can serve the abuser by mail or the sheriff will serve him for you.

Why is there no electronic transfer of paperwork between the clerks and the judges? Why is there no judge or master seated 24/7 to hold hearings immediately? Why is there no nursery? Why is no food allowed in the waiting room? If food can't be allowed, why not have a cafeteria or vending machines? Why do abused women have to serve papers on their abusers in person?

Nothing at 34 S. 11th St. has changed in decades because there's been no accountability in Philadelphia city government. And the clerks and judges there don't want people to know how horrible the situation is, to the point where they won't let law students help abused women fill out their petitions for Protection from Abuse orders. Students are allowed only to give out information about shelters and agencies and listen to horror stories. And court employees come over to the student table and "test" the students by asking, for example, if it's possible to get a Protection from Abuse order against a rowdy neighbor. (Answer: no, you go next door to get a restraining order.)

Family Court at 34 S. 11th St.: Outdated facility, turf wars between departments, resentment at workers who actually do their job, and institutional inertia against improvement and change. Plus abject fear that people outside the building will find out how bad the situation is. It can't possibly be a surprise that DHS was -- and is -- any different.

I say "is" because yesterday's suspensions came from the mayor, when they should have come from DHS Commissioner Anne Marie Ambrose on the day she was hired. Ambrose wept during the grand jury indictment press conference. That's sweet. But what was she doing in June and July? She should have been firing people left and right. She should have fired every last person who was involved in Danieal Kelly's file.