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Posted on Fri, Aug. 05, 2005

Moves in Pa. House to stand

Those who voted against a pay raise lost leadership roles. DeWeese said he would not reconsider.

By Amy Worden, Tom Infield and Tom Fitzgerald

Inquirer Staff Writers

Pennsylvania House Democratic Leader H. William DeWeese is standing by his decision to remove 15 Democratic subcommittee leaders who voted against the recent legislative pay raise, despite a personal request from Gov. Rendell to reverse his action.

And that may not be all that DeWeese has done to penalize wayward Democrats.

Rep. Greg Vitali (D., Delaware), who was stripped of his position as chairman of the subcommittee on energy, said yesterday that a $3,700 request to cover postage for his quarterly constituent newsletter and a separate request for salary for a part-time staff person were denied on July 28, the day he was quoted in an Inquirer article about the reassignments.

Vitali, who has been in office 13 years, said DeWeese had orally approved the requests only days earlier.

"I haven't spoken to DeWeese, but I can put two and two together," he said.

The letter from DeWeese's office notifying Vitali that his request had been declined said only that "the current allocation was adequate to provide services to the district."

Mike Manzo, DeWeese's chief of staff, said the rejection of the postage request had nothing to do with Vitali's vote on the pay raise and that he had not seen a request for the staff position.

"I'm sure Rep. Vitali is going to do everything he can to try to prove his erroneous point that Bill is out to punish him," Manzo said. "It's incorrect."

DeWeese, of Greene County, made an unusual midterm move two weeks ago, stripping 15 Democrats of their minority leadership posts on 16 House subcommittees and replacing them with those who voted for the 16 percent pay raise on July 7. Subcommittee chairmen, under the pay raise, will make an additional $4,050 a year.

Several former subcommittee leaders have said they were told they would be punished if they did not vote for the pay raise.

In an interview yesterday, Rendell called the demotions "unfair" and said he had asked DeWeese in a phone conversation to rescind the committee reassignments DeWeese made after the approval of the raise.

"I think a pay raise is always a matter of conscience. and it shouldn't be a leadership issue," Rendell said after an appearance in Norristown yesterday. "It should be... left to the individual members."

Manzo said DeWeese was "comfortable with the decision."

DeWeese, who has been minority leader since 1995, has a history of retaliating against Democratic members who do not vote his way. In 2002, Rep. Rosita Youngblood (D., Phila.) sued DeWeese, claiming he cut funding for her district office by $25,000 because she did not toe the party line. That suit was dismissed in federal court.

In 1997, then-Rep. Lisa Boscola (D., Lehigh) said she was removed from committee positions by DeWeese for voting in favor of several Republican-sponsored bills.

Two other Democrats who were demoted and later critical of DeWeese said they had not yet submitted funding requests since the vote but were concerned about retribution. DeWeese controls a $19 million annual budget for salaries and expenses.

"Now that I know about this, I'll be watching," said Rep. Thomas F. Yewcic (D., Cambria), who lost his position as minority chairman of the economic development subcommittee. "When I request something, I'll be interested in what happens."

Rep. Robert L. Freeman (D., Northampton), who also lost his subcommittee position, said he thought that pulling a member's funding was a bad tactical move.

"It creates long-term lingering divisions, and we have to think about the big picture - that there are differing opinions," he said.

Rendell's request came as fallout from the pay raise continued across the state, almost a month after Rendell signed the bill into law.

In Philadelphia yesterday, a group launched a petition drive to pressure the General Assembly to roll back the pay raise.

Members of Neighborhood Networks, a Philadelphia-based group of liberal activists, gathered 350 signatures in 90 minutes of petitioning outside City Hall to demand that the legislature raise the state minimum wage as penance for its pay raise.

"The legislature raised its pay 16 to 34 percent, and the minimum wage hasn't gone up since 1995," Marc Stier, an organizer of the group, shouted through a bullhorn at passersby. "It's time to tell our state legislature: No 2 a.m. raids on the treasury."

The group, which voted to take up a minimum-wage hike as its first cause, hopes to seize on public anger over the legislature's pay raise to gain momentum.

"We hope they're going to be embarrassed," Stier, a Temple University professor, said. "We hope our senators and representatives will realize that the only way to get off the hook on their pay raise is to raise the minimum wage."

Said Michelle Quattlebaum of Philadelphia, who signed: "It kind of stinks, giving themselves a raise in the middle of the night when people are not aware." She said that many people are "in poverty, struggling to make it on $5.15 an hour."

Stier and other activists are planning to travel to the district offices of Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer (R., Blair) and House Majority Leader Sam Smith (R., Jefferson) with their petitions this month.

They will end the campaign in early September and take the petitions to Harrisburg to present to the legislature when it comes back into session, Stier said.

Find out how your legislator voted and read previous stories on the pay raise issue at http://go.philly.com/payraise.