>> jim from the block is now at the top. "inside story" begins right now. ♪ good morning, everyone. i'm matt o'donnell. it is sunday, january 10, 2016. let's meet our insiders of the week here on "inside story." george burrell, a nonprofit executive. >> good morning, matt. >> good morning, george. jan ting, temple law professor. >> hey, matt. >> hey, jan. >> nelson diaz, attorney. >> happy new year, matt. >> you too, nelson, and to all of you, of course. and sam katz, documentary-maker. good morning, sam. >> yes, i'm a maker. [ laughter ] >> he makes things. let's talk about james francis kenney. he is now the mayor of philadelphia. the 57-year-old was born in south philadelphia, attended st. joe's prep, la salle university. he spent more than two decades in city council. now he's at the top of philadelphia politics. now, kenney has an ambitious agenda focused on elevating the poor and those discriminated against, fixing schools,

revamping policing, but the thing that maybe i wanted to start the discussion with is maybe not so much policy-driven. he's really short-winded when it comes to big things. his inauguration speech was only about 10 minutes. he left his inauguration party before, basically, everyone else, and back on election night -- remember when he won? you could have missed his acceptance speech if you went to the restroom. so you have a couple of guys -- one who ran against him, one who almost did. what does this -- is a humble -- >> and another one who ran for mayor, so... >> before this, yes. and one who ran in delaware. so now we got all four of you guys. is this a humble mayor? >> i've known jim for probably over 25 years when he was working in vince fumo's office as a staffer, and he's always been sort of a short-talkative person. he's never been long-winded. he just goes to the point, and he really doesn't have much time for busy talk, and so that's just his style.

that's just his personality, and he's not willing to spend a lot of time with anyone or anything -- just let's get the job done and let's go on to the next program. so, that's the way he's always been. >> i think it will be a refreshing change. you know, look. everybody's talking about this first week. if you don't have a good first week if you've been elected to an executive office, things are gonna go downhill pretty quickly from there, but i think the highlight for me is that he has to come to grips with the fact that public financing of pre-k is gonna be a really tough chore, and what he did with the fundraising that he led for private support for pre-k, his focus on that, his presence in the public schools in the first week i think accentuates his commitment to doing something on all of those things that you mentioned. education is the best way to close the inequality gap and to address poverty in the long run. short-run attacks on poverty from a municipality's perspective are unfundable,

but i think he's off to a good start, and the most important thing to me is he's surrounded himself with good people, and jim took great advice during the campaign. you have to admit that. >> i agree with that, but at the end of the day, what mayor kenney is gonna have to decide, because of the limited resources, it's really what are his priorities and what is he going to focus on? if you look back at mayors before him -- you look at ed rendell, ed rendell decided, "i'm gonna build 2,000 hotel rooms, i'm gonna finish the kimmel center and the constitution center and the visitor center and start the avenue of the arts, and i'm gonna redefine center city and the business district in philadelphia." >> and free parking on wednesday nights. >> and john street said, "i'm gonna get all of the abandoned cars off the streets. i'm gonna take the snow off of every street in the neighborhoods. i'm gonna refocus on neighborhoods." he went to be chairman of the housing authority and redefined public housing and got private investments -- schuylkill falls, brewerytown. northern liberties going on, and so he focused on that and focused his time and energy and resources, and if mayor kenney is going to focus

on gentrification and growing african-american businesses and re-entry in education, he's going to have to decide what resources -- what things he's not going to do, 'cause you can't do it all. >> right. >> yeah, i'm concerned that the new mayor is maybe too much of an insider, that he is aware of the problems, and i think there's a -- i'm concerned about a lack of passion, about attacking the fact that philadelphia remains the poorest big city in the united states, and at the root of the problem is not just deep poverty, but deep poverty has a reason, and i think it's the lack of good jobs. i think there are a number of things that could be done that, you know, the mayor didn't want to go into a lot of detail the first week. maybe i can understand that. but i think he's gonna have to, and i think what philadelphia needs is a head-on attack at the root causes of deep poverty, including the absence of jobs

and what's gonna be done about that. i think there are things that can be done about it, and i think we can talk about it. >> whether or not we agree with that point of view, the two major issues that came out of the campaign was poverty and deteriorating schools, and he's tried to focus on the good schools. you know, he went to anne frank school, and he's talking to central, and that's not getting to the poverty issue. but if he decides to do what he said he would do at the inauguration, which is the emphasis on poverty, which is mostly all north philadelphia. one out of every four persons in the city is under the poverty level in the city of philadelphia. that's 20% of the city, one of the poorest cities in the country. >> the poorest big city. >> and a lot of it happens to be in brady's district, by the way, who is a leader of the democratic party. >> you getting ready to run

against him? >> no, i'm not -- you know, i learned my lesson, by the way. >> let me throw another name in here -- darrell clarke. now, for all intents and purposes, he and jim kenney are buds. they were allied together during the campaign. philadelphia magazine, in a blog, noted when listening to darrell clarke's speech right after jim kenney's -- called it more mayoral, and even went so far as to say upstaged kenney because it was more detailed and longer. what do you make of that? >> the question for jim kenney is whether he's going to exert his will or moderate it to the point where darrell exerts his will. i think part of darrell's calculus of not running was he already thought he had the better job, and, in many ways, he does. >> council president clarke, during the nutter years, began to make the council more policy-directed, more program-directed, and so this is a continuation of what he's done. it's not something new, but

the council president himself is also in a new world. in the last council, council was very responsive in following, you know, we're gonna see what councilman henon's election as majority leader means. there's division in the council on who they supported over in the mayor's race. so how do you bring that back together? so i think you have a different council now than you had before. so i think it's gonna be more challenging for the council president, and the challenge, as always, despite the fact that we've had former councilmen who've gone down to the second floor, the relationships between the second floor and the fourth floor just, historically, have been poor. >> and more recently, too. >> i think there's incredible influence by johnny doc because henon is a johnny doc person, and i think darrell and the mayor both have a strong relationship with johnny doc. you got his brother -- >> kevin dougherty. >> ...kevin dougherty, who had a coronation for a supreme court position. i mean, it was a two-hour

coronation. and so you have great influences occurring from, really, the outside and the union relationship there, so... and i've heard that this is gonna be darrell's last term. so i think darrell's really working on making sure that his legacy, which is trying to promote housing and community development in his district, and that's really the emphasis. if you look at the 20/20 model at the philadelphia housing authority, almost 70% of all the developers happen to be in darrell's district. >> johnny doc -- you bring up johnny dougherty. kenney really hasn't tiptoed around his relationship with him. he went to kevin dougherty's inauguration or swearing in, so -- >> there's no way to tiptoe around it. i mean, it was decisive. you know, george might have a different view. i'm sure nelson will. but when mayor nutter tried to impose a contract on district council 33 in the courts, almost immediately

after, all of labor, all the labor leaders in the city convened on spring garden street at i.b.e.w. 98's offices to rally them behind district council 33 and 47 and against nutter, and at that instant, the coagulation, if you will, of all of philadelphia's major labor leaders from dougherty to henry nicholas and the healthcare workers union came together, and that was a decisive moment in the political calculus because perhaps had alan butkovitz run, they might have gotten behind him. clearly if darrell had run, they were gonna be behind him, and when neither of them stepped forward and jim stepped forward, all of that went behind jim, and he owes his election to a large extent to the existence of that infrastructure. >> and that's a concern, i think. it ought to be a concern. again, where's the attack on deep poverty in the face of entrenched interests that kind of like things the way they're going right now? that's the problem. >> but i think that -- and i

don't disagree with what sam said. i think you have seen labor consolidate, but john dougherty has emerged not just as a labor leader. he has emerged as a leader in the city who has interests and has had for a long time charitable interests, neighborhood interests, and so i think that you have to recognize that he is a leader who is going to be formidable and responsible in this city for a long time to come. so jim kenney as mayor or whoever as mayor is going to have to deal with john dougherty's interests. >> he's a force. no question about it. >> you talked about nutter, and i think -- >> actually, i didn't. >> you did. you said that nutter with regard to the union issue. isn't that what you said? >> yeah. >> okay. so you talked about nutter, and nutter's issue also was, the african-american community really was not very happy with nutter, and after having 30 years of african-american real control of the voting process, there was a feeling on the street -- 'cause i was

on the street -- that there was no need for another black mayor because nutter had been so disappointing, and i think that with the fact that dwight decided to take on and be a part of the whole johnny doc climate, it really allowed some of those voters also -- >> i disagree. i think had there been a really high-quality candidate, irrespective of the color of their skin, who appealed -- >> you don't think i was a high-quality candidate? >> who appealed to -- i don't think that you had -- this is probably not the right place for this conversation, but i think that tony williams did not produce the kind of candidacy that appealed to people, and had there been someone, had there been a john street or had there been a george burrell or had there been someone who really did speak to and had a track record that spoke to that community, i don't think that would -- >> i think there's -- very quickly. i think there is an issue, and it's not just a michael nutter issue. the african-american community in the mid 1970s were sold on

a notion that if we establish an independent movement and elect african-americans to public office, life will change. poverty will be dealt with. economic opportunity will be dealt with, and there's a frustration that with all african-american elected officials, not just mayor nutter, former mayor nutter, which, i think, reflected itself in part in the 46% of the voters who voted for jim kenney. >> let me tell you on the history of that. you talk about me not being too qualified -- >> i didn't say that, nelson. >> let's do this later. back to the show. back to the show. >> don't put words into my mouth. >> we got a new police commissioner here. kenney swore in richard ross with the top job at central high school, which is ross' alma mater. ross succeeds a very popular charles ramsey, and already ross had to be tested when a police officer was ambushed and shot this week. with the new job also comes a bit of a conflict. commissioner ramsey was a supporter of stop-and-frisk for a long time, along with mayor nutter. kenney was elected with the promise of ending the practice, and, for all intents and purposes, we assume that richard ross is going to bring a new day to the philadelphia police

department. so, is this a big conflict and how do you think ross is going to deal with this? >> stop-and-frisk was something that nutter actually said as a candidate in 2007. he used those words as a policy. do we actually think that before that cops didn't stop people and frisk them? [ laughter ] this whole thing is a judgment call by a police officer on the street assessing the situation, and to think that you're gonna impose a policy on either side of this question that's going to change the way a cop on the street dealing with a threat either to themself or to the community is suddenly gonna take out a policy manual and read it is ridiculous. so we're not gonna have stop-and-frisk anymore, except there are gonna be people who get stopped and who are frisked. believe me. >> i agree with that, but with respect to commissioner ross, who i've know for a very long time and consider to be a friend, i think he's smart. he's been committed to the philadelphia police department when he could have gone other places when he didn't necessarily get the jobs that he needed, but like every

police commissioner in the example that you just gave, his service will be defined by unexpected events, things that you can't anticipate. he'll do community policing, he will, i think, be aggressive at trying to incur greater participation by african-americans applying to the department. there'll be diversity at the top. he will follow on. he's youthful, he's vigorous. i think he'll be out among the people, but, again, it's defined in baltimore, in new york, in ferguson by events in today's world that are unpredictable and how he reacts to those. >> i think there's a consensus that this is a great new police commissioner. part of the problem is there's only so much a great new police commissioner can do, and, as you say, events will intervene, and his responsibilities are limited. he can't take on some of the city's deep problems because he's only the police commissioner. >> not if you look at my prior "inside stories." i basically predicted before

the election that ross was gonna be the police commissioner. this was a foregone conclusion. the labor union loves him, the f.o.p., the rank and file loves him, the african-american community loves him, and, to some extent, he had been passed over twice -- one by johnson and then one by ramsey. this is a guy who has done what he has had to do no matter what, despite the fact that sometimes he felt he should have been the number-one person and still worked in a way in which he was extremely cooperative. what i'm hoping that they do, and it has more to do with the issue of stop-and-frisk than anything else, is that they're talking about community policing. if they get back to the community policing operations, which requires a lot more personnel. if they get back to that, i think it will be a healthier climate. that's been the problem in most of our cities where people talk about black lives matter. well, there's no relationship between the police and the community, and until that relationship really gets

established in a way in which there's that respect and that relationship where they cooperate, which was what he talked about when he got sworn in. >> we got to go to break. >> just one quick thing. in african-american neighborhoods, zip codes in philadelphia, 50% of the murders go unsolved. if you want to attack the problem and the perception of crime in the city, homicide is the number-one problem, not stop-and-frisk. the guys who are committing murder are getting away with it in african-american neighborhoods. >> "inside story" will be right back. >> "inside story" is presented by temple university. temple fuels students with academics and opportunities to take charge. plugged into the city, powered by the world. temple.edu/takecharge. ♪

♪ >> back with "inside story." jim with joe. our jim gardener traveled to washington to speak with vice president joe biden about north korea, president obama's new directives on gun control, and during many discussions, mr. biden lamented not running for president. he made the decision last year. he said that he regrets it, while, at the same time, says it was the right decision for his family. so what do you make of that, sam? >> probably he regrets it, and it was the right decision for his family. it's really hard in the throes of the grief that he was experiencing over the death of beau biden, his son, to think that you could gather the forces

necessary to do what would have been required to run, but i do think that joe biden would have made the democratic primary more competitive. it might have been an outcome through this primary. >> joe biden was my senator for more than 30 years, and i think everything he said is consistent with who he is and who he has been all along. of course he has regrets. looking at the race that has developed, you know, it has to heighten his sense of regret that he sees a role that he could have played in that ongoing debate. on the other hand, i think it's still true what he says, that it was the right decision in the end for his family. so i think he's been acting consistently throughout. >> and in the end, i think, probably, if he had to make the decision over again, he might make the same decision. i think what he misses is being -- this is kind of like his kobe bryant moment, you know, that he would have the opportunity to go around

the country making his points. when he said, "i'm not going to run, but i'm not going to be out of the discussion," he has not found a way to get in the discussion, and i think he misses -- he's a politician. he has ambition. he misses that limelight. >> derek jeter moment, too. >> derek jeter. right, right. >> derek jeter. [ laughter ] >> one of the things that i know about joe is he's a family man. he traveled back and forth on amtrak when he had the death of his wife. i think he realizes that these grandchildren really need him, and as you could see during the funeral, all he could do was keep touching them and sort of keep figuring out how he can hug them, and i think that he realizes that the growth of his grandchildren are more important than the possibility of a race that he may not win. >> the mummers aimed for diversity at their parade this year, and instead got a lot of controversy. organizers were more inclusive to minority groups this time around, but their efforts backfired when the actions of a few gave the 2016 edition of the parade a black eye. a mummer shouted gay slurs and held up an offensive sign

along the parade route. he was a member of finnegans, which put on a routine parodying caitlyn jenner as transgender. mayor kenney, who is a mummer himself, opined, "making people feel bad about who they are is not a part of the mummers' tradition." do the mummers need to have -- >> i'm not so sure if it's true. [ laughter ] >> do the mummers need to have a quality-control person to oversee things or can they figure this out themselves? >> ban beer for one year and see what happens to the mummers parade. [ laughter ] look, the mummers parade -- i think the inclusion of more ethnic and racial groups in the mummers parade is a really important step. it has for some of the comedy groups, as opposed to the fancy and the string bangs, oftentimes gets a little out of hand. it can be funny, it's also very offensive, and if mayor kenney, who is like nixon going to china -- you know, his credentials in that community give him credibility beyond anything. if he can help improve that,

he's also, i think, going to try to make some moves to modify the audience appeal of "welcome america!" and the concert. these are things that i think will make people feel better about some things that embarrass us the day after new year's to be in a situation like this. >> as an african-american, i've gotten to the point now where i'm much more concerned about substance than symbol. you know, the mummers' thing is offensive, but i don't want to spend a lot of time and energy fixing a mummer issue 'cause it's not gonna change the quality of life with respect to poverty, with respect to african-american business. i want the mayor to spend his time fixing things that are substantive and measuring those things, not doing the symbolic thing. >> but it's not gonna take a lot of energy to fix this. >> it takes time. >> no, it's just gonna take a word. the city has a lot of leverage over the mummers. >> we've been having this mummers discussion for more than a decade, so it's gonna take time. >> the new mayor just has to send the word, "fix this problem. don't embarrass the city again. if you do, there will be problems down the road."

>> real quick, nelson. >> well, there's hundreds of years of tradition of the mummers, and, you know, i enjoy the string bands, and it's really something that appears almost on every stage whenever we have an event. there's no question that there's a lot of offensive activity, and i believe that times are changing, and just like we accept it, a lot of issues that we didn't accept in the past, i think the mummers are beginning to accept that just by including some different groups at this point. >> "inside story of the week" coming up. ♪

>> "inside story" is presented by temple university. temple fuels students with academics and opportunities to take charge. plugged into the city, powered by the world. temple.edu/takecharge. >> "inside stories of the week." we start with george. >> a dartmouth tuck professor wrote an article "when minorities become the majority," stating that that will happen around 2050 in this country and that unless we begin today to educate minorities and get them integrated into the business

community of this country, the consequences to this country itself are gonna be dramatic, unpredictable. >> thank you. jan. >> philadelphia is again a sanctuary city. this was a policy instituted by mayor nutter. he realized it was a mistake. he tried to back off from it, but mayor kenney has reinstated it. we're going to protect illegal aliens in the city of philadelphia even if they're criminals. >> thank you, jan. nelson. >> talking about immigration, jennifer rodriguez, who was the head of the immigration office under nutter, has just been appointed as the president of the hispanic chamber of commerce in philadelphia, which is a great achievement. the commerce is extremely successful, and to have jennifer there, i think, will be a great push in terms of the economic opportunities of the latino community. >> nelson, thanks. sam. >> two words -- anthony clark. an unbelievable expression of arrogance and stupidity. to bring drop at this moment in time back to the public's consciousness is an extraordinary accomplishment

for a guy who rarely shows up to work, and it should be time to get that guy out of office and not make sure he doesn't get the drop payment, which, of course, he probably will. >> have to end on that. thank you, sam, nelson, george, jan. i'm matt o'donnell. that's "inside story" for this week. we'll see you next week. and i'll see you monday morning on action news at 4:30 a.m. see ya! >> 4:30. ♪ i'm alicia vitarelli along with gray hall. coming up next on "action news," the powerball jackpot keeps growing and growing. it is expected to reach more than a billion dollars. we're live. police in camden county search for answers after a double stabbing sends two people to the hospital. president obama is preparing for his final state of the union address, we have a preview. those stories and the the

exclusive accuweather seven-day forecast with meteorologist chris sowers next on "action news" this sunday. good afternoon everyone, it

is sunday, january 10 i'm alicia vitarelli along with gray hall. nydia is off. here's some of the stories we're following for you right now on "action news." powerball fever continues t