Keystone Intelligence Network, Inc.
No lie, DiCicco's taking a polygraph
Insists Mariano slurred Irish-Americans
By MARK McDONALD
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/2700345.htmmcdonam@phillynews.com
DID CITY Councilman Rick Mariano refer to residents of Irish descent in the 31st Ward in Kensington as "trailer-park Irish trash?"
Councilman Frank DiCicco is so sure of it, he's taking a Daily News-sponsored lie-detector test today to prove it.DiCicco says Mariano made the remark during a meeting with Mayor Street, Councilman Darrell Clarke and others.
Mariano denies it. Clarke says he never heard the comment. A mayoral source said Street had not heard the comment either.
Still, DiCicco is so sure of himself that he'll be strapped to a polygraph today. The test will be administered by Nate Gordon of the Keystone Intelligence Network.
And to put some heft into his assertion, DiCicco said he'll pay $5,000 to the charity of Mariano's choice if he fails the test.
But there's even a dispute over the money because DiCicco says the $5,000 he proposes to put up is a campaign loan his own campaign committee made to Mariano's re-election campaign in April 1999. DiCicco says Mariano has stiffed him on the loan.
But campaign records for both men list the transfer as a contribution, though DiCicco says the transfer was a loan, and his bookkeeper listed it the way she did merely for convenience.
Shortly after DiCicco made his challenge, Mariano said: "I'm not getting into personal stuff with Frankie DiCicco, and if he wants to, OK, but I'm not going down that alley. I'm not taking any lie-detector test. It's not something I'm into. I am not being baited into any kind of contest with him."
Yesterday, Mariano declined to comment on the impending polygraph test or to respond to a slashing news release from DiCicco.
Mariano's alleged trash talk is the latest chapter in a political struggle that has pitted the two men - once friends - in a quest for support among Council members. Each backed a competing plan to redraw Council district boundaries.
Mariano complained bitterly that a plan supported by Council President Anna Verna and DiCicco would deny him his key base in Frankford and give it to DiCicco.
In the end, Mariano gained support from Street, and an alternate plan was approved by Council and signed by Street last week. After more than four months without pay because of the redistricting impasse, Council members got their back pay Friday.
As the weeks passed without a political solution and the pay drought lengthened (Street vetoed two Council redistricting bills starting in early October), Mariano became increasingly bitter in his descriptions of DiCicco, calling him a "little weasel" and a host of epithets questioning DiCicco's manhood.
Finally, almost two weeks ago, DiCicco struck back, alleging that during a Dec. 20 meeting in Street's office aimed at searching for a redistricting compromise, Mariano made the offensive reference.
The group was looking at the 31st ward, one of the river wards in Kensington, an area now represented by DiCicco.
"The mayor was pointing to the map," DiCicco recalls, "And saying, 'Darrell tells me that this is a bad area for him; people would throw rocks at him.' The idea was that he is African-American and wouldn't be accepted there."
DiCicco said he then told the group, "Some people have said that they don't like Italians there, but I have served them and been accepted."
At that point, Mariano chimed in, "That shouldn't even be an issue. What do you have to worry about? They are nothing but trailer-park Irish trash anyway."
DiCicco said the mayor cringed and walked away from the table after Mariano made his comment.
Yesterday, in a news release,DiCicco hammered Mariano for a sampling of his past verbal gaffes, including a comment that union members would have supported Hitler if it meant more jobs and his description of Councilman David Cohen as a vampire who eats children.
More recently, DiCicco recalled that Mariano had threatened Councilman Angel Ortiz, who opposed Mariano's redistricting proposals, saying he would knock his teeth out and throw him out the window.
But even if DiCicco passes the test, what does that mean? DiCicco may truthfully believe that he heard Mariano say something, but in fact he may have misheard Mariano.
That's what Seamus Boyle and Bob Gessler, two officials of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, are hoping.
They don't want to call DiCicco a liar, but they can't believe that Mariano, who is half Irish on his mother's side and a member of the AOH, would have made the comment.
"I hope it was something that maybe Councilman DiCicco didn't hear exactly," said Gessler, who pointed out that Mariano is a member of his Irish-Catholic organization.
Gessler said that on the day DiCicco's allegation became public, Mariano called him and wrote a letter strongly denying ever making such a statement. "Who could imagine someone insulting his or her own heritage in a meeting?" Mariano asked in his letter.
Sure, Gessler said, Mariano has lost his temper on occasion, "but if he's said something off-key, he admits it and apologizes."
But what if he did make a comment about "trailer-park Irish trash?" It's not quite the same as linking the Irish to excessive drinking.
And within the Irish-American community there's a long-standing distinction between the "shanty Irish" and the "lace-curtain Irish," the poor versus the well- off, Gessler noted.
"If he said it, definitely he shouldn't have," said Gessler. "You don't want to categorize anyone by their ethnic heritage. If something was said . . .we ask for an apology to the community and a demonstrated commitment to the community. We already have that with him. It's not like he's a stranger to the Irish community. He's one of us." *
