It's almost unbelievable -- The DN took that crap about John Fenton violatingUCD's "code of ethics" that Wendell Lewis threw in his recent interview in the UCReview and somehow considered it gospel. Al (It must be true, I read it in the paper) Krigman --------------------------------------------------------------------- Univ. City official loses post He used community-service workers for Tom Knox rally By BOB WARNER [EMAIL PROTECTED] (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) 215-854-5885 The director of operations at the University City District, a nonprofit community organization, has lost his job after using community-service workers to set up a pre-election rally for mayoral candidate Tom Knox.
It didn't take long for John Fenton to find another position. He's now on the payroll at City Council, working for Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell as director of community activities, at $45,000. Blackwell had formed a pre-election alliance with Knox and, in an interview with WPVI-TV, took responsibility for the rally that cost Fenton his job. Sources say that Blackwell pressured the University City District to give Fenton six months' pay — about $34,000, under his old $68,141 annual salary — in a settlement leading to his resignation. But the councilwoman is still angry about the controversy, blaming the University of Pennsylvania, which is the district's biggest source of money. "I am at war with Penn," Blackwell reportedly told a group of political and community leaders two weeks ago, in a meeting at Turner Middle School. "No one even talked to me about [the district] or John Fenton." Neither Blackwell nor Fenton has returned calls from the Daily News going back to May 16, when the newspaper published a story based on the experience of a Penn graduate student, Luke Walker. Walker showed up at the district's offices last month to begin 20 hours of community-service work. After cleaning streets for an hour or two, Walker and others were assigned to set up barbecue grills, coolers, signs and inflatable bounce toys at a Knox for Mayor rally at Malcolm X Park in West Philadelphia. "It was bizarre," Walker told the Daily News. "All of a sudden I found myself working for the Tom Knox campaign and wondering, 'How did I get here?'...It wasn't even in University City." The district's executive director, Lewis Wendell, ordered an internal investigation. In an interview published last week in the University City Review, Wendell reported that Fenton had been involved in several other activities "involving a misuse of [district] resources and violations of several [district] policies." Wendell said he was barred by Fenton's resignation agreement from providing any details. But in general, he told the Review, Fenton had violated the district's code of ethics; policies forbidding the private use of district vehicles, equipment or facilities; and IRS guidelines that prohibit charities from participating in political campaigns. ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.
