PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Mayor Jim Kenney has already started cleaning out his office to make way for the next mayor, who takes office in six months.
Room 201 in City Hall has been closed to tourists for several weeks, which is a shame, because it’s not only a grand room — appointed with the chandeliers, marble and statuary that typifies City Hall — but it also has a wonderful history. Known as Conversation Hall, it was built so that citizens standing beneath it could hear city leaders discuss government, and so leaders, in turn, could hear the citizens’ opinions.
Lately it’s been a storage room for stacks of boxes from the mayor’s office, so staff can go through them to decide what should be kept and what should be discarded.
“It’s just a process that happens every 7 ½ years,” Kenney said. “Nothing different than the last administration or the administration before that.”
Kenney says a lot of stuff can accumulate over the course of eight years.
“They need to go through it. And if there’s boxes piled up, they don’t want people walking in there and getting hurt,” the mayor said.
Kenney announced even before the May primary election that he had named a transition team. He says the early planning is to assure a smooth hand-off to the next mayor. But this early start to house-cleaning plays into the narrative that the mayor is anxious to leave his job.
He insists that’s not true.
“We announce something every day. We’re fixing up libraries and rec centers. I mean, I go to work every day. And we work hard every day, and everyone in the administration works hard every day. And they’ll do it till Jan. 1 of 2024.”
Related
Related
