PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — In a surprise move, the Philadelphia City Commissioners have elected a new chairman and voted for new rules that strip the chairman’s office of most of its responsibilities.
The changes came at Wednesday’s organizational meeting, a session held at the beginning of each four year term of the city commission, which runs the city’s elections.
Commissioner Omar Sabir defeated the incumbent chairperson, Lisa Deeley, with the help of Republican Seth Bluestein.
A minority party is guaranteed one seat on the three-member board, which gives the minority member outsize influence when it comes to picking commission leadership because that member can break the tie between the two Democrats.
The vote for Sabir was 2-0, with Deeley abstaining.
“I’d like to say thank you,” Sabir said after the vote. “I’m honored to serve the people of Philadelphia.”
Bluestein said he voted for Sabir to make the office “more inclusive and collaborative.”
Deeley was elected vice chair and Bluestein, secretary.
Bluestein also proposed a new structure for the election board that includes a director of operations and a director of administration. The motion passed 2-1, with Deeley voting “no.”
The commission then voted, again 2-1, to appoint Joseph Lynch, currently the election board executive director, to be director of operations and Stephanie Reid, who formerly ran the city’s census office, as director of administration.
Lynch will run day-to-day operations, which he has been doing as executive director, essentially changing the name of his job.
Reid will take on responsibilities previously run out of the chairperson’s office, such as budgeting, procurement and communications.
The moves come as the city enters an especially fraught election year. The presidential contest appears to be headed toward a Trump-Biden rematch with potential for the same turbulence as in 2020, when Trump targeted the city with false accusations of election fraud. The commission’s effective operation helped squelch any doubts about the results.
Lauren Cristella, of the election watchdog group Committee of Seventy, said the changes should make the commission’s operations even better.
“Philadelphians should be confident that we have experienced leadership,” she said. “All three (commissioners) have been there before so from the voter’s perspective, I would expect it to be smooth sailing.”
She called Reid a “fantastic” choice for the new role of director of administration.
“She was instrumental in standing up the satellite election offices in 2020 and was just such a competent administrator,” said Cristella. “Her experience and good judgment is going to be a huge asset to that department and I think she’s going to create a lot of efficiencies and more effective administration of our elections.”
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story identified the new director of operations as John Lynch, rather than Joseph.