It’s not exactly news that the Boy Scouts have been told that they need to vacate their offices on the Ben Franklin Parkway on or by June 1 — that was reported back in December — but here’s what is: 1) That the City seems to be making a point of getting the Scouts to stick to that date, and 2) that the Scouts actually have the balls to be asking for money in return for repairs made when the building was in their posession. And the City’s considering it. In an article in Friday’s Philadelphia Gay News, Doug Oliver, speaking for City Solicitor Shelley R. Smith, told the paper that “There’s no knee-jerk reaction to [the prospect of paying out to the Scouts]. If there’s one thing consistent about this administration, it’s that process is important.” But one could argue that the Scouts have been flouting “process” since 1982, when their homophobic policies officially became illegal in the City of Philadelphia. But before you chalk this all up to the Nutter admin taking the high road here, and listening to the Scouts’ bullshit for one more afternoon between now and June, let’s talk about the money: The Scouts claim that they sunk $2.6 million into building renovations in the late ’90s — which is $2.6m of renovations the City would be taking advantage of when/if they sold the building after the Scouts left. What you’re looking at here, then, is potentially just as big a controversy as the initial one. Should the City be forced to pay out to a group that flouted its regulations (and yay, even its spirit) under any circumstances? Something tells us we have not seen the end of this story by half…
EPGN: You Guys HAVE To Do Something About That Web Interface

This entry was posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 12:03 pm.