So what else should we learn
about John Dougherty? He reads a book every two weeks and just finished one
about a president who shepherded a judge onto the Supreme Court. No, it’s not
an autobiography about a union president (actually, John Dougherty’s title is
business manager) helping his brother Kevin campaign for a seat on the
Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The president was Lyndon Johnson and the
U.S. Justice was Thurgood Marshall.
In my Executive Q&A,
published in Sunday’s Inquirer, I asked Dougherty, who leads the International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98, to talk about his family and some
of his personal interests and philosophies. What follows are excerpts with my
comments and some left out words in brackets for clarity.
"My whole family got off
the boat from Ireland right on the Delaware," Dougherty said. "Thirteen
aunts and uncles lived in a two bedroom row home on Cross Street and I raised
my daughter in that same house. Now I live on Moyamensing Avenue. [Moyamensing
means pigeon droppings in the
language of Lenni Lenape Native Americans who used to live in John Dougherty’s
South Philadelphia neighborhood.].
He talked about his wife,
Cecilia, and daughters, Erin, and Tara Chupka, who works as a lawyer for the
union.
Question: Are your parents
still alive?
Answer: My mother passed a
few years ago. My father is 81 years old and travels with me on a regular
basis. He's very active. You can find him outside the party at the Pennsylvania
Society [the annual meeting of Pennsylvania politicos held in
Manhattan] at 2 in the morning. He's good, he enjoys life. Both my brother
Kevin and myself describe ourselves as Mommy's boys. My sister Maureen lost her
husband in his mid-40s, left her with four kids.
Q: What was your life like in
South Philadelphia?
A: In the summer, my mom
would always help out -- it was a furniture place. She would go a couple days a
week and work. My Dad worked for the city, so he would leave at 8 and get home
at 5. The playground was right around the corner from where my Mom would work
and it was a really great playground. It was the Burke playground. Every
summer, my brother Kevin and myself would be in the playground every day all
day, from 9 to 5. My Mom would come home and make us lunch, but I would rather
... back in them days, the lunches they supplied were pretty good. They always
had great apples and bananas and cold chocolate milk. So you'd rather stay
around the school yard and them kids in that playground were Billy Keller [Democratic state representative from
South Philadelphia], Jimmy Kenney [incoming Mayor]. The kids in that playground were
some of the kids I grew up with and some of the kids that work for me -- some
of the kids are in fantasy leagues with me today. I learned to play pinochle
and chess, wiffle ball and football in that playground. I learned about life in
that playground. I learned to win and lose. I learned if you didn't play hard,
you didn't play in the next game. I learned you had to play fair and you
didn't cheat. Some people were jumping in pools; we were running under a fire
hydrant. I wouldn't give back any of that today. I believe that everything I
learned at an early age was in that neighborhood.
Q: Is your brother Kevin (the
one running for judge) older or younger?
A: Younger, two years
younger.
Q: Did you beat him up?
A: No. We'd beat other people
up. We always fought together, just me and Kevin.
A: I went to the Prep [St.
Joseph’s Preparatory School on Girard Avenue]. I wasn't the smartest
kid in the room. But the thing that kept me from being real successful was my
work ethic. I should have been better at school. I always kick myself, because
my Mom and Dad struggled to send me there.
Q: I always had a good
impression of that school.
A: It makes you think. It
make you question. It's a Jesuit thing. Jesuits are passionate. They care about
what they do. They taught me if you are going to do something… It took me
actually to get out of high school before I learned that.
Q: Did you go to college?
A: I started a family and
went to work...I was registered to go to La Salle and I never went.
I know what my SAT scores was
as a kid. [He brought it up, so I had to ask, right?]
Q: What were they? Let's
hear.
A: It was high. Higher than
almost everyone that works at the Inquirer. I can tell you this much.
Q: What was it?
A: It was right around 1400,
right below it.
[Dougherty told me he began
working as an electrician because he had started a family and he had a
connection into the electricians' union. These days, he only does electrical
work at home or for charity events, but he wanted me to understand that he
knows how to do the work. He said he was a general foreman on the Liberty tower
complex.
Q: What don’t most people
understand about the building trades?
A: Part of our problem is
that we don't care. Most of our guys work really hard, go home. The majority of
our guys are good family people. They work really hard. They go home. They
coach soccer and field hockey, and baseball and basketball programs. They don't
really care [what people think]. They just want to go to work and we work
ourselves out of a job. I just think people don't really care about the
politics and the pizzazz and the editorial opinions. I think a lot of
leadership don't care. It doesn't generally affect what we do.
People like myself, I think
that on any given day, people will never give me the benefit of the doubt.
Q: What do you mean?
A: When I was the chairman of
the board of the redevelopment authority, I put on the best government economic
development program that Philadelphia saw in recent years. That's how you got
Domus up at Penn. That's how you got a lot of university opportunities. My
tenure was the forefront of building the Ritz Carlton. You saw what I did on
East Market Street. We started a lot of them programs early on.
Q: What do you mean that
people will never give you the benefit of the doubt?
A: For example, for 15, 18 ,
20 years, I've been crying for privatization -- the largest advocate at the
Convention [Center, which is now privatized, managed by SMG in
West Conshohocken]. I'm also one of the largest advocates, long
before Gerry Sweeney and them guys were talking about changing the tax structure. [Sweeney,
who heads Brandywine Realty Trust, along with union leaders and other civic
leaders, advocates charging commercial businesses a higher rate of real estate
tax.]
Pensions, I balance my
pensions. I've continued to give increases and keep my unfunded liability
within reason. I don't know why municipalities and big entities can't. I spend
$80 million on Blue Cross. I cover my people whether they are working or
not.
Subway into the Navy Yard,
I've been talking about that. I couldn't understand why we haven’t done the
Navy Yard. I still don't understand why we haven't done the waterfront right.
I've been at the forefront of them conversations.
[During our interview, his
phone keeps ringing. He turns away calls from Rabbi Solomon Isaacson, a
politically-connected rabbi in Philadelphia, Drew Katz, the son of the deceased
philanthropist Lewis Katz, and former Mayor Ed Rendell.] “Those were the three
calls that came in since you were here and I'm not even Jewish,” Dougherty
quipped.
[Dougherty also told me about
the time he got to meet a previous Pope.]
I was representing the city.
John Street couldn't make it, so he asked me to go with his wife to represent
the city in the canonization of the Blessed Mother [Katherine] Drexel. So I sat 11
rows on the altar. I was holding umbrellas over everybody. It killed my arms.
After the sun came out, when the Pope was leaving, I don't know how I did it. I
was here and the Pope was at the TV [cameras] and I ran over and I got a chance
to hold the Pope before they got my arm. I looked out and there were 3 million
out in the Vatican way. That was crazy.
Q: What do you do to
relax? You told me about your two fantasy sports leagues.
A: A couple things I do, I'm
a late night guy. It takes me an hour or two to unwind. So, if I'm out to 11,
which is an average night for me, I'll go home, take a shower, do the
normal nonsense that you do when you show up at home. Then I'll either read or
look at my iPad or go over my stats at night. I'll watch Homeland.
I might have some mild
attention disorder, because even when I'm relaxed and I'm burned out at the end
of the night, if I'm watching TV and if it starts to bore me, I'll start
reading and keep it up there.
Q: Do you fight your wife for
the remote?
A: We're very compatible,
Q: Do you do anything like
cooking? Do you play an instrument? Do you sing?
A: I have a couple of
guitars. I learn to play a little bit. I've been teaching myself a little bit.
I would like to write music some day.
Q: Can you read music?
A: It's funny, I'm more of an
ear person, but if someone was in the room, I wouldn't be. It's like my control
of the Spanish language. I know enough to be dangerous, but not enough not to
embarrass myself. I went to the Prep. We had a little bit of Spanish, a little
bit of French. I had a lot of Latin.
[Part of the reason that
Dougherty agreed to the interview with me is because he’s taking on a new role
as the head of the Building Trades Council, which I cover. One of his
publicists, Kelly Boyd, recommended that he do the interview so that I could
learn more about him. One thing – every interview with Dougherty includes food,
which we reporters can’t really take for ethical reasons. So I looked longingly
at, but did not grab, a pumpkin doughnut. However, I did enjoy a cup of tea.]
“Kelly already told me that I
have to be more open to you because you think I'm not as open as Pat
[Gillespie, the current Building Trades Council business manager],” Dougherty
said, joking, as Boyd, sitting across the table, smiled. “C'mere, we'll get
closer.”
Q: That's fine as long as he
doesn't ply me with beer [joking].
A: Stereotype. Bang.
Q: Potatoes. Bang.
A: Stereotype. Bang
Q: Well, I'm German, so I
like beer.
A: You don't wear clogs and
Birkenstocks.
Q: No, but they made fun of
me at work, since my braids [I had two French braids connected into a bun] make
me look like Heidi. Speaking of beer, what kind of beer do you like?
A: Miller Lite.
Q: Really? Why?
A: Because you can't get
Ortlieb's anymore. I liked Ortlieb's when I was a kid and I like Miller Lite
now. I liked Ortlieb's when I was a kid because that's what my Dad had in the
icebox and me and my brother Kevin used to steal it and drink it.
Q: Favorite steak? Pat's or
Geno's.
A: I'll tell you after my
brother's election.
Q: Do you like cheesesteaks?
A: I used to eat a lot of
them. I try to watch what I eat now. This campaign, I put on 10 pounds. Come
back in six weeks, I'll be back in fighting weight. I'll lose 10 pounds in six
weeks.
Q: How?
A: My diet, no junk food, no
afternoon snack. Get back to going to the gym, run a little bit, sweat a little
bit.
Q: Do you do Zumba?
A: I do hot yoga.
Q: What's your favorite
position?
A: I'll actually give you my
favorite position -- the deep-breath, bend over, touch your toes. Most people,
if you try to touch your toes in that position, you take three to five deep
breaths, it actually relieves your whole body. I'm pretty flexible for my old
age.
Q: Do you dance? At a
wedding, are you on the dance floor?
A: It depends. Do you want to
dance?
Q: I love to dance.
Source: Philly.com
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