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DiCicco Property Tax Meeting Well Attended, But Ends in Uproar
By Jack Morley & Ed Goppelt
Wednesday, 09/11/02
(1031764911149)
Councilman Frank DiCicco told a crowd of 300 people last night
that his office would help them appeal their property tax increases
by filing a mass appeal.
The meeting ended in uproar
after a representative of the powerful Electricians Union began
to heckle the Councilman.
Ten days ago Councilman DiCicco promised the 31,000 people who received property tax hikes in his district that he would help them appeal.
Yesterday, the Councilman began to make good on his promise by holding the first of four promised community meetings yesterday in South Philadelphia.
Although the Councilman clearly stated that the meeting was to be about the recent tax hikes, Electrician Eddie Kirlin once gain suggested that DiCicco's low property tax was somehow improper. Kirlin, who is employed by IBEW Local 98 at a salary of $135,000 per year, has done this before (see story on the July 17 community meeting.) This time the Councilman had prepared by sprinkling staff and supporters in the audience. When Kirlin began his spiel, DiCicco's troops booed him down. Kirlin may have achieved his objective, however: the derailed meeting ended abruptly after just 45 minutes.
"Eddie is just a professional heckler. He heckled me twice in public." says Morley. "It's vote for Dougherty [the head of the Electrician's Union] or else. He's going to follow him around and heckle him everywhere he goes. To me it's not right." Kirlin has suggested that the Councilman's low taxes were somehow improper, but I think the worst that can be said of DiCicco in this instance is that he is a sharp businessman: he got his abatement fair and square.
Morley, who has been a sharp critic of DiCicco in the past, thinks the Electricians' attacks on the Councilman are below the belt. "Elected officials deserve respect in public."