Brian Rudnick for City Council- and Beyond

Where I Stand on the Issues

Public Safety

• Ban firearms within city limits
• Increase number of police officers while increasing their community involvement by requiring participation in community meetings, educational visits to schools and the like
• Leave no children behind who are in need of after school supervision by expanding programs at libraries, schools, parks and recreation centers
• Leave no ex-convicts behind by expanding programs to train and re-integrate them into workforce

Schools

• Increase funding to public schools to reduce school sizes, class sizes, provide for librarians, art and music teachers and adequate support staff and, specifically, pass Councilman Goode’s Public Education Reinvestment Bill which would shift 2% of Real Estate taxes to School District
• Take back control of School District from State and create a democratically elected local School Board with mandatory representatives from the Home and School Associations
• Expand conflict resolution programs city-wide
• Establish Student Environment Corps in each school to keep the building and grounds clean and safe and where space is available to plant flowers, vegetables and shrubs
• End school bussing because it is a huge waste of money, time, exacerbates traffic and air pollution and does not produce ethnically or racially diverse student bodies and furthermore, is currently being used to subsidize the transportation of children to private schools both within and outside the City!

Taxes

• Take legal action to collect the hundred millions dollars owed to the City in taxes
• End tax abatement for new construction; establish incentives for rehabilitation of brown fields and abandoned property
• Adopt full market valuation of real estate because it is more consistent while simultaneously capping real estate taxes for seniors and economically disadvantaged, deferring collection of those taxes until they sell or move out of their homes
• Institute a blight tax against owners of property who keep vacant commercial storefront property in a Business Improvement District
• Simplify and unify tax system

Environment

• Establish a cabinet level position in the Mayor’s office of Secretary of the Environment
• Restore full staffing to Fairmount Park and create a democratically elected Park Commission with mandatory representatives from neighborhood park associations
• Require new construction to be LEED certified (conform to “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” standards)
• Adopt weekly, multi-stream, curbside, citywide recycling now.
• Establish dedicated funding sources for public transportation and promote bicycling and pedestrianism

Government Transparency, Responsiveness and Fairness

• Continue improvements to the City’s website to provide easy access to all notices and documents relating to pending legislation, hearings and disposition of funds
• For elections, require dual system of paper ballots until all questions relating to the security of electronic balloting have been resolved by an independent commission
• Re- establish neighborhood mini-city halls with hours to accommodate working people

Brian Rudnick- Biography

I am a 53 year-old educator, community activist and attorney. I grew up in Philadelphia, graduated from Northeast High, completed my Bachelor and Law degrees at Penn and my Master’s in Information Systems from Drexel.  I have lived in Philly most of my life and in Mt. Airy and Chestnut Hill for more than 15 years. My wife is a branch head for the Free Library of Philadelphia and we have a 9-year-old son, a ten-year-old daughter and a 22 year old daughter who lives out of town. We enjoy the outdoors, travel, reading and, by a slight majority- politics!

I work as computer and  environmental educator. During the current year I have developed programs for the Philadelphia Water Department and the Overbrook Environmental Center. From time to time I assist other organizations such as Delaware Valley Earth Force. My focus is developing the motivation and ability in youth and adults to become good stewards of our natural environment.  In addition, I am an adjunct professor at Philadelphia University in computer information systems. My community activities- organizing park cleanups, promoting recycling and pedestrian safety, volunteering in our public school, agitating against the Iraq war – I consider just as much my work as my for-pay employment.

As an attorney I represented single mothers in child support cases and helped restore social security disability benefits for individuals whose benefits had been cut off.  As a law student, I interned for a U.S. Congressional office in Washington, a trading company in Japan and, upon graduation clerked for the New Jersey Courts before joining a practice then starting my own. My pro bono work in the law has been diverse -assisting war refugees on asylum claims, doing research for a disabled rights coalition, serving as Secretary of the Philadelphia Bar’s International Law Committee, and providing individual legal assistance in a wide variety of matters.

For five years I operated a bookstore in the Reading Terminal Market and was politically active in opposing the siting of the Convention Center. I have worked on many successful individual political campaigns from those of former Mayor Goode to Congresswoman (then State Senator) Allyson Schwartz, State Representative  Babette Josephs and on a few unsuccessful campaigns - Joe Vignola for U.S. Senate and John Kerry for President.

A few years ago I switched my registration from Democrat to Green and was forced to give up being judge of election in my 9th Ward, 10th Division. I support the "Four Pillars" of the Green Party: Ecological Wisdom, Social Justice, Grassroots Democracy, and Nonviolence.  And these values, which I try to express and exemplify in my daily activities, support and sustain me and those of us who our helping our City grow Greener through my candidacy.

Full length background here