Philadelphia City Council passed a resolution Thursday urging District Attorney Seth Williams to fire three officials in relation to the “Porngate” scandal. The resolution further requests the state attorney general’s office to appoint an independent special prosecutor to investigate the “demeaning, misogynistic, racist and homophobic emails sent on state-owned computers.”
Applause followed the bill’s passage.
The three local officials named in the resolution for exchanging and circulating the emails are Frank Fina, E. Marc Costanza and Pat Blessington. The men were state prosecutors while the emails were allegedly exchanged. All now work in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office.
“I very enthusiastically move for the adoption of the resolution,” said Councilwoman Cindy Bass at the Dec. 3 meeting. She sponsored the legislation along with more than half of her Council colleagues: Maria D. Quiñones-Sanchez, Jannie Blackwell, Marian B. Tasco, Blondell Reynolds Brown, William K. Greenlee, W. Wilson Goode Jr., Curtis Jones Jr. and Kenyatta Johnson.
Two days before Council passed the bill, embattled Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane visited the National Constitution Center in Old City to announce she had appointed Douglas F. Gansler to lead a team of special prosecutors tasked with investigating the emails.
Gansler has served as attorney general of Maryland. He currently works as a private practice attorney in Washington, D.C.
Williams has declined to fire Fina, Costanza and Blessington, saying they received sensitivity training. The full-day training, led by Paul Meshanko, the chief operating officer of Legacy Business Cultures, took place last month, according to a press release from the district attorney’s office. The release said the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys facilitated the training, which focused on “respect and workplace civility.”
Meshanko noted exercises explored blind spots with stereotypes and biases.
“I believe the entire group is now much more aware of steps they can take to minimize the degree to which subtle demonstrations of sexism, racism and/or homophobia can taint the otherwise-outstanding work done by your office,” he said in the release.
Two representatives from the Philadelphia chapter of the National Organization for Women said during public comment at the City Council meeting that the training is not enough to restore public trust in the officials.
“I certainly agree with and support the resolution in spirit and intention,” said Councilman David Oh, but he added he could not fully support it.
Oh said he thought the resolution did not paint an accurate portrait of Blessington, with whom he worked in the late 1980s. Oh said Blessington was in an email chain that received the questionable content, but “he did not forward them. He did not circulate them.”
Oh said Blessington “has worked long hours, weekends and holidays for the last 29 years on behalf of all victims, including women, minorities, persons with disabilities and LGBT people.”