Clout: Councilwoman's aide plans technical defense against ethics charge

THE COMMUNICATIONS director for City Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller has a technical defense planned to counter charges that he violated the city charter by using public resources for a political campaign.

Michael Quintero Moore claims the Philadelphia Board of Ethics wrecked its case when it raided Miller's offices in May.

The board's staff used a subpoena to collect documents from Miller's office. The subpoena was for City Hall rooms 312 and 318.

But Moore works across the hall in room 317A. He says the ethics staffers collected evidence in violation of their own subpoena.

"The Ethics Board, of all people, should follow the law," said Moore's attorney, Tom Kenny.

The board's staff last month accused Moore of 16 ethics violations, including producing on City Hall stationery an endorsement letter from Miller in the Democratic primary election for Verna Tyner and a news release about that endorsement.

Moore allegedly printed thousands of political fliers in Miller's office and used his city computer to email the Tyner endorsement and the fliers.

Moore is also accused of deleting computer files to hide his actions and of refusing to cooperate with the board's staff, as required by the city charter.

That requirement will probably be an interesting sticking point when Moore has a hearing with the Board of Ethics on Dec. 13.

Does it matter if the wrong room number is on the subpoena if Moore is required to cooperate with the ethics investigation?

Moore, in a response he filed to the ethics charges, denies not cooperating and says that he was only "refraining from offering evidence against himself."

Moore denied "wrongdoing" when we asked if he had created and printed the endorsement, news release and fliers. He declined to discuss specifics about that.

Kenny said he offered to settle the case for a fine if the board would assure Moore that the case would not then be referred to a law enforcement agency for possible criminal prosecution. Kenny said the board turned that down.

Nedda Massar, the board's deputy executive director, declined to comment yesterday on Moore's planned defense.

Losing the Republican primary election for governor last year could be a major asset in former state Rep. Sam Rohrer's run for the U.S. Senate next year.

Rohrer, who is expected to announce on Monday his plans to run in the 2012 Republican primary election, won just 31 percent of the vote against then-Attorney General Tom Corbett last year.

But that still makes Rohrer, of Berks County, the only candidate in the GOP primary who has run for statewide office. It gives him valuable name recognition.

Rohrer in February became the state director for Americans for Prosperity, a group that has hosted tea-party events here and across the nation.

Rob Gleason, chairman of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania, has been seeking the perfect candidate, someone who is well-known and has deep pockets to challenge U.S. Sen. Bob Casey. The race has drawn the interest of some wealthy businessmen, but Gleason's dream candidate has not materialized so far.

"That newspaper says that if this is what democracy looks like, then we don't need it!"

- An Occupy Philly protester outside City Hall yesterday, complaining about Daily News coverage that this week included an editorial calling for the protest to end and a story on unsanitary conditions at the camp.