Although he’s best known for being the opportunistic rich guy who’s clothed the world in “Jesus Is My Homeboy” T-shirts, Urban Outfitters CEO Richard Hayne has another reputation in South Florida: water abuser.

Hayne’s property on Jupiter Island was flagged as one of the South Martin Regional Utility’s top-20 water users. The list has been released in the hopes of pestering rich folks to curb their unnecessary water usage (like daily hosing of their expansive acreage), which will hopefully prevent South Florida from looking like the Sudan in 20 years.

According to the utility’s calculations, Hayne used 254,360 gallons of water last month; the average South Florida resident uses 179 gallons per day. Luckily, Hayne is in good company: Other environmentally defiant Floridians include golfers Tiger Woods and Greg Norman, and Lehman Bros. CEO Richard Fuld, Jr.

Tiger Woods, Greg Norman among top water users of South Martin Utility [TCPalm]

One story overlooked in yesterday’s press conference with new managing director Camille Barnett was her promise of delivering a 311 phone system by year’s end. “We don’t have to invent it,” Barnett said. “We just have to install it.” (more…)

Days after his loss to incumbent City Council at-large member Jack Kelly was certified by the city’s Board of Elections, candidate David Oh isn’t backing off his voter fraud allegations or his criticism of an absentee ballot process he considers flawed — and he says he’ll continue to gather evidence to expose the people he thinks are behind the “shenanigans.”

“I’m actually OK with the fact that I lost the election — that is Philly politics,” Oh tells the Daily Examiner. “When I entered into this election, I knew I wasn’t going to get the kind of support that I needed to win because of the shenanigans involved in it, and quite frankly, we counted on shenanigans going on.”

(more…)

It’s no secret that, in a city grabbing national headlines for its high murder rate, one of mayor-elect Michael Nutter’s most important (and most scrutinized) decisions will be whom he chooses to succeed Sylvester Johnson as top cop.

According to a source close to the Philadelphia police department, the most recent front-runner for the position, Dean Esserman — chief of police of Providence, Rhode Island; a former protégé of New York City supercop (and current L.A. police commissioner) William Bratton, and someone whose name has barely surfaced in Philly media — has turned it down.

A lifetime public servant who’s been friends with Nutter for a long time, Esserman has honchoed Providence’s department since 2003, gaining national attention for his hard-nosed, community-policing philosophy. He wouldn’t confirm to the Daily Examiner that he had even been asked to take the job — “I’ll leave that answer up to the mayor elect” — but did emphatically say he isn’t coming: “I’m committed to my city, my mayor, and my department.”

Not wanting to completely diss us, Esserman softened the blow a little: “My experience has taught me that police commissioners are only as good at their mayors let them be,” he said. “So, whoever takes that job will be fortunate to have such a man like Michael Nutter as boss.”

Whatever pow-wowing might have gone on between Esserman and Nutter, this looking to the outside for solutions at least suggests Nutter is serious about clean-slating the top level of our beleaguered police department.

Colonel Dean Esserman [Providence Police Department]
Dean Esserman [Governing Magazine]
Politcis 911 [Philly Mag]

Finally! Some interesting news on this lackluster Election Day, courtesy of the Next Mayor blog: Apparently, a veritable Upper Darby donnybrook erupted at the Highland Park Fire Co. polling place in Delaware County this morning. According to the Daily News’s Bill Bender, Upper Darby councilman Jack Shingle was hospitalized after Democratic leader Steve Smith “thumped him.” Other Democratic leaders, however, are saying that Shingle was the one who started it, and they’re accusing Eastwoodian Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood Sr. of “partisan policing”:

“When the police arrive, of course they arrest the Democrat and don’t arrest the Republican,” said Ed Bradley, campaign coordinator for the Upper Darby Democrats. “This is Chitwood’s police department.”

It’s not election day in Delco unless someone gets his face smashed.

Fisticuffs at the polls in DelCo [The Next Mayor]
Not in My Town, Scumbag [Phillymag]

SugarHouse began the strong-arming phase of its attempt to erect a casino along the Delaware yesterday by filing a suit against the city in an effort expedite the zoning legislation process so they can get building, damn it.

As first reported by the scrappy Metropolis, SugarHouse slapped together the suit just a week after Mayor Street nudged City Council to hurry up.

This action will undoubtedly further endear the casino owners to certain neighborhood action groups. This must be what SugarHouse means by “Pure Fun.”

Casino Files Suit on Zoning [Philly.com]
Sugarhouse Suits and the Magic of PDF [Sugarhouse]

Buried in the middle of the Inquirer’s A3 Rick-Santorum-blasts-brown-people story this morning is a bracketed announcement that the former U.S. senator, our state’s preeminent Islamo-Fascist Warrior, will begin a biweekly op-ed column for the paper starting next month.

Philly Mag writer at large Jason Fagone first broke the rumor of a Santorum-penned column in early April in a followup to his massive Tierney exposé. Tierney confirmed to Fagone that the Inquirer was in “low-level” discussions with Santorum at the time, but seemed overly confident that Santorum’s blandly ignorant musings would never be printed in his paper:

Tierney put the chances of Santorum’s column ever appearing in the paper at “one out of 1,000. We’d probably be more likely to have Dan Rather write a column for us. Seriously. And I’m not being facetious.”

By “one out of 1,000,” he apparently meant “starting November 1st,” and anyone smart enough to play those odds just got a hefty payout. So, is it safe to assume that Dan Rather shot Tierney down?

Santorum Presses His Case Against Islamic Extremism [Inquirer]
Santorum to Pen Inky Column [Phillymag.com]

Yesterday’s “10,000 Men: A Call to Action” rundown erroneously reported that Rep. Chaka Fattah wore a white T-shirt to Sunday’s event at the Liacouras Center.

“No,” says Fattah’s press secretary Ron Goldwyn, who tracked the Daily Examiner down at 8:34 p.m. last evening to clarify the rep’s wardrobe: “It was gray.”

Goldwyn also said that Fattah was not one of the speakers who bashed the media in his speech. The Daily Examiner regrets the errors.

10,000 Black Men Itchin’ to Get Busy [Daily Examiner]

Yesterday morning, embattled state Sen. Vince Fumo’s Green Street mansion went on the market, via Prudential Fox & Roach, with a list price of $6.995 million. (Fumo will reportedly use the money from the sale to pay the mounting legal fees stemming from his federal indictment.) Unfortunately, real estate porn enthusiasts who want a Cribs-style view of the castle will have to wait.

Fumo’s realtor, Joanne Davidow, says no definite time for the photos to be taken has been scheduled, but she’s bringing in a special photographer to do both interior and exterior shots. Davidow says she’s hopeful that it could all be completed by next week, but she still needs to get permission from the Senator as to which rooms can be photographed — and which ones can’t.

Green Street Mansion [Prudential Fox and Roach]
Will $7 Million be Enough to Cover Fumo’s Legal Fees? [Daily Examiner]
Fumo Puts Mansion Up For Sale [Daily News]

Word is that’s going to be the asking price for Vince Fumo’s legendary four-story, 29-room, 19,000-square-foot, gold-ceilinged 2220 Green Street monstrosity when superagent Joanne Davidow lists it tomorrow. (Do homebuyers become accessories to sleaze at the time of settlement?)

Hopefully the listing will actually show a picture of the place, so we don’t have to keep resorting to these shady, hide-from-the-goon photos that seem to be the only ones available.

Fumo Still a Force [DN]
For Sale! The Fumo Mansion [Philebrity]
Castle Fumo [CP]