On the Street, Wasi Seemed to Rise Up

The Central Germantown Council, which administers city funds for Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood, has not dismissed its president, Steven Vaughn, from his position of fiduciary responsibility, though he has pled guilty in federal court to defrauding the city. The Council thus becomes part of the national laughingstock which is Philadelphia politics. Until a year ago, I lived in Germantown, and I know the people involved. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

When I tell people here in West Virginia about Philadelphia's Vince Fumo ridiculing other politicians for not having thought of a bribery scheme as good as his, or Steven Vaughn setting up tax collection kickback contracts on taxes he had already been handed, people are bemused. What’s hard to convey is Philadelphians’ acceptance of this criminality.

I could imagine the Central Germantown Council being legitimately headed by a convicted felon who had rehabilitated himself. But Steven Vaughn, who as a city official defrauded the city of over $60,000 which could have paid for crossing guards, school nurses, or library help for kids, denies that he did wrong. "I was just doing my job," he told the Chestnut Hill Local, on the same day he pled guilty to setting up the fraud. He told the Philadelphia Inquirer that his "politically motivated" critics wanted to use what he called a "hiccup in my career" as an excuse to embarrass him. Now, being generous, one might excuse as “hiccups” his history of reflexively starting racial conflicts to smokescreen political difficulties. But turning over $650,000 of a taxpayer's money so a con-man can milk it for kickbacks is not a hiccup. It's morally wrong, unlike a hiccup. And it's destructive of the public trust, unlike a hiccup. And it's a federal crime, unlike a hiccup.

In Philadelphia, there seems to be no shame in pleading guilty to a crime and then on the same day publicly denying any wrongdoing. “Hey," he seems to be saying, "That was just a legal thing. It don’t mean nothing.” I don’t know how a federal judge will respond to Vaughn’s denial when it comes to sentencing, but some Philadelphians seem to be buying it.

Was Vaughn “just doing his job?” Or was he defrauding us? In his own Guilty Plea in federal court, he denies taking a kickback himself, but he admits setting up a fraudulent contract to collect taxes he already had been handed, channeling $60,595.61 in kickbacks to “Imam” Shamsud-Din Ali. Vaughn was not being the straight-shooting guy we thought he was. He was secretly stealing from us, and he was taking a salary from us while he was stealing from us. He was not “just doing his job.” In fact, in some places, he would be prosecuted for malfeasance in office as well as for fraud.

It’s crucial for him to acknowledge that what he did was not only legally wrong but morally wrong. He needs to see that he isn’t just being persecuted for political reasons. He needs to regain people’s trust before he should again be in positions of moral and fiduciary responsibility like the presidency of the Central Germantown Council.

I always liked Wasi, as he is known, even when he was spinning stories of racial conflict in which I was a villain. I think he’s a good guy who made a mistake, like everybody has at one time or another. He can get past this. He’ll start at street level and rehabilitate himself. And he’s very good on the street. In fact, he’s great on the street. He’s passionate and idealistic, believe it or not, and he galvanizes people with a sense of purpose. On the street, where people often get brought down, Wasi seemed to rise up.

It was among the pillars of the community that an insidious influence befell him. Twisting round those pillars was the serpent Shamsud-Din Ali, "the Imam," who proffered the illusion of power beyond the rules of good and evil that bind ordinary fools. Wasi took a bite of the apple, and is now cast out of the garden to toil for redemption, along with the rest of us.