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Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA) February 1, 2002 A Webmaster vs. City Hall Author: Monica Yant Kinney Edition: CITY-D Section: PHILADELPHIA Page: B01
Index Terms: OPINION
Estimated printed pages: 3
Article Text: In the year since Ed Goppelt launched a Web site aimed at demystifying Philadelphia city government, he's learned a lot about how public officials view the public. Namely, he's figured out that some pols don't take kindly to regular folks stirring up the government stew. These powermongers believe anyone asking for public information must be stalled and stopped at any cost. Covering City Hall, I found these characters in both the Rendell and Street administrations. But David Glancey is not one of them, which makes his dust-up with Goppelt all the more intriguing. Since 1989, Glancey has been chairman of the Board of Revision of Taxes, the agency charged with determining the value of all 567,000 pieces of property in Philadelphia. Those values are the basis for the $800 million in yearly property taxes that fund city services and the school district. It's an arcane world Glancey toils in, but the guy never fails to take the time to explain it to the certifiably confused. He realizes that the records are public. He's not hiding them. This much, Goppelt doesn't dispute. It's when the Harvard-educated computer whiz tried to put the data on the Internet that he caught the attention of the Philadelphia Police Department and city Law Department. Goppelt is a South Philly library volunteer. His Web site, www.hallwatch.org, is a rich repository for government information. Want to track a bill in City Council? No problem. Curious about campaign finance? Snoop around the site to see who's giving whom what. In December, Goppelt decided to add real estate assessment data to his Web site. Glancey didn't oppose putting the information online. In fact, the day after Goppelt launched his effort, the board followed suit on the city's Web site, www.phila.gov. Where Goppelt and Glancey clashed was on the issue of how to search the real estate records. Goppelt wanted to allow residents to search by owners' names. Glancey feared that would give stalkers and criminal types a virtual road map with which to hunt down domestic-abuse victims, trial witnesses, judges, and city officials. (The board's site only allows address searches.) Glancey shared his worries with the police, the D.A.'s Office, and a couple of women's advocacy groups. All had similar concerns. Goppelt heard Glancey out, and agreed to limit the name-search option to all but the 60 known "registered" users on his site while he studied up on the issue. Goppelt figured the Web-site dispute was settled. Then the cops called. Whether Goppelt is under criminal investigation - and for what possible crime - remains unclear. Glancey swears he didn't sic the cops on Goppelt, even though Glancey knows Goppelt is using an unlicensed copy of the database. A police spokesman confirmed that a lieutenant in the Major Crimes Unit sought an interview with Goppelt, who chose not to talk. Yesterday, the cops said the Law Department had taken over the inquiry. Goppelt suspects a scare tactic. He says he's uncovered "serious skulduggery" involving how the board reports assessments to the state. He's accusing the board of cooking the books and overcharging taxpayers. "If I'm right," he says, "a lot of people are going to be owed big bucks." How big? As much as 25 percent in tax refunds, he claims. I asked Glancey about Goppelt's mind-numbing numerical findings. Glancey's response? "He's not right." Goppelt could be onto a scam City Hall figured was too complicated to be uncovered. Or, he could just be an off-target gadfly being swatted at by pols who find such buzzing irritating. Either way, my guess is that trying to silence a guy like Goppelt will only make him dig deeper and type faster. And when he does, you can bet he'll put the results on the Web. Contact Monica Yant Kinney at 215-854-4670 or myant@phillynews.com.
Caption: Ed Goppelt put tax data online. PHOTO
Copyright (c) 2002 The Philadelphia Inquirer Record Number: 7003405453 |