What Knox said:

Jump to his initial statement

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His statement issued Jan. 9:

KNOX ENDORSES COMMITTEE OF 70 ETHICS REFORM AGENDA

PHILADELPHIA – Mayoral candidate Tom Knox met this morning with the board of The Committee of 70, the local election watchdog group, and “wholeheartedly” endorsed their recent ethics reform agenda after a lively discussion with board members about the nuts and bolts of how the plan would affect the operation of city government.

Knox served as deputy mayor for management and productivity in Gov. Ed Rendell’s first term as mayor of Philadelphia, and saved the city millions of dollars in renegotiated leases and contracts.

“I have one vision of ethical government in Philadelphia, which differed slightly from the Committee of 70’s,” Knox said after the meeting. “But after a candid discussion, they’ve addressed my concerns and I’m fully on board with this plan.”

Knox applauded the group for “making ethics reform the important issue it is in this election, and that’s a much-needed contribution to the discussion. Ethics reform is one of the key pillars of my own campaign because we need to stop the whole ‘pay-to-play,’ ‘business as usual’ culture in city government.

“As mayor, I’ll be fully committed to holding my employees to the highest standard of ethical behavior. I will see that the Board of Ethics is filled with citizens of the highest integrity, and will give it all the resources it needs to do its job.

“I oppose anyone using their office to enrich their friends, family and campaign contributors, and it won’t be tolerated in my administration.”

In a wide-ranging question-and answer session with community and business leaders, Knox covered issues such as crime, finance, education and relationships with state and federal government.

The candidate told board members his first priority is making the streets of Philadelphia safe. “I believe long-term solutions are more important,” he said. “We’re not going to arrest our way out of this.” He spoke about expanding career training in the public schools, through Philadelphia Community College and for the incarcerated. “We do not have a trained and educated workforce,” he said. “People with jobs don’t shoot people.”

At one point, he compared Philadelphia to Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities.”

“We have two cities right now,” he said. “A beautiful, vibrant downtown where people want to live and work, and then there’s the other city.”

 Knox, a multimillionaire who grew up poor in public housing, spoke of his vision of bringing those two cities together.

“I grew up in one world, and I’m living in the other one,” he said. “I’m not going to forget where I came from. People pick up a gun and buy drugs because they don’t see opportunity.”

He said he believed there was $400 million wasted in poor city management. “Philadelphia is the highest-taxed city in the country. Does anyone in this room believe we have the best city services in the country? No.”

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His initial statement: “I applaud the Committee of 70, this is a good start.  Ethics reform is one of the key pillars of my campaign because I think it’s important to stop the pay-to-play culture in Philadelphia, and to take down the “For Sale” sign off City Hall.

“We’ve been busy working on our own plan.  In some instances, this plan doesn’t go far enough, and you’ll see that shortly when we release ours.

“When I was the CEO of a business, it was my experience that it’s important to hold people accountable.  The farther you go in keeping them accountable, the better off you are.”

(from Daily News story 1/4/07) Knox, through a spokeswoman, provided several quotes from an interview with another media outlet. "We've been busy working on our own plan," he said.