Guide to the condensed Knox interview

Tom Knox Interview

With the Inquirer Editorial Board

Monday, April 16, 2007

Running Time: 57 minutes. 

Note: This is an edited version.

Guide to the Q & A

Time: 0:00 to 9 minutes-45 seconds

Editorial Page Editor Chris Satullo opens by asking the Democratic candidate for mayor what city government will look like 4 years from now, in the event he is elected.  Knox responds with a long list of things – large and small –he wants to accomplish.

Time: 9:47 to 15:50

Satullo follows up with several questions about how Knox is going to raise the money for this ambitious agenda.  Knox responds by talking about ways to save money through increased accountability and wiser allocation of city resources and investments.

Time: 15:50 to 20:50

Columist Tom Ferrick asks about questions revolving around Knox's personality or lack thereof. Do you have the skill sets to be a public politician? Knox responds that he does have a winning personality, but says that personality doesn't count as much as results.

Time: 21:00 to 22:30

Satullo asks Knox the difference between running a business and running a government.  Knox responds with a business you care solely about the bottom line, with government people are the bottom line.

Time: 22:31 to 26:03

Editorial Board member Russell Cooke asks Know about how he plans to rid the campaign process and City Hall of pay-to-play politics.  He asks what additional steps Knox plans to present.

Time: 26:00 to 29:54

Satullo asks about the $5 million that Knox has given his campaign and whether or not he plans to fundraise after the election to recapture that money.  Knox says that no matter how much he spends this year, "I am never going to pay byself back one dime."

Time: 29:55 to 32:00

Satullo asks the steps Knox would take immediately, as opposed to long-term, to reduce crime in Philadelphia.

Time: 32:15 to 33:55

Asst. Metro Editor Dan Biddle asks Knox whether he has asked Gov. Rendell to endorse him for mayor.  Knox replies that he has not – but might in the near future.

Time: 33:56 to 40:08

Cooke opens with a question about Knox's business dealings with government agencies.  He replies he did very little business.  It shifts to an extended discussion on Knox's businesses, including his role at Crusader Bank in payday loans.

Time: 40:10 to 42:00

Satullo asks how Knox will handle and improve relations with Harrisburg and suburbs,

Knox says that eliminating pay to play would be a big first step.

Time: 42:00 to 44:34

Satullo asks Knox for the lessons he learned from John Street and Ed Rendell as mayors.  Knox says that he believed that Street was personally honest by "clueless" and that Rendell was the best cheerleader the city ever had.

Time: 44:35 to 47:13

Satullo asks Knox how he planned to handle relations with City Council.

Time: 47:20 to 53:40

Biddle asks about Knox's large political donations to Rendell and Marty Weinberg, a mayoral candidate in 1999.  It leads to s series of questions about Knox's political and financial dealings with candidates and public officials.

Time: 53.40 to end

Biddle mentions that Knox had said he contributions got his "access" to public officials and asks what he used that access for. Knox that he never used it to advance his own businesses.