Philadelphia City Councilmember Isaiah Thomas was confronted at his parking spot near City Hall on Thursday morning by two staffers in Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration who Thomas said accosted him in a “negative and disturbing interaction,” according to an email the lawmaker sent to administration officials that was obtained by The Inquirer.
Thomas identified one of the staffers who approached him around 9 a.m. when he arrived to work for Council’s weekly meeting as Hassan Freeman, Parker’s director of neighborhood and community engagement. In the email, Thomas said he did not know who the other city employee was.
Thomas, who declined an interview request, said in the email that he had never met either of them before, but was aware that Freeman had recently made several “unscheduled and unannounced” visits to Thomas’ Council office before the parking spot confrontation.
Thomas, a Democrat who is Council’s majority whip, has been at odds with Parker’s team since at least June and has emerged as one of the few city lawmakers who occasionally criticizes the administration in a Council that has largely worked in lockstep with the mayor’s agenda.
Freeman and the other person approached Thomas’ car and “spoke to me in a disrespectful manner, a hostile tone, and addressing me outside my name and title,” Thomas wrote in the email.
“Unfortunately, this doesn’t surprise me as it’s reflective of the treatment I have been receiving from the Parker Administration since June,” Thomas wrote, adding in bolded text: “This is another example of the lack of respect for me, my office and my position as a member of City Council.”
Freeman did not respond to an interview request through the administration.
Tiffany W. Thurman, Parker’s chief of staff, declined to comment Friday on the specifics of Thomas’ email.
“The Parker Administration takes all allegations of employee misconduct seriously,” Thurman said in a statement. “However, we don’t comment on personnel matters. It’s our standard to review any information shared, and take any action deemed appropriate under City policy.”
A tense conversation
In his email, Thomas did not provide specifics on what Freeman and the other man said to him. But he wrote: “I believe the goal of the conversation was to communicate his concerns about a conversation I had with another member of the Parker Administration.”
A week before the alleged parking spot confrontation, Thomas had a tense conversation with Chief Deputy Mayor Sinceré Harris at an event at the Laborers’ Training Center celebrating the start of Council’s fall session, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve relationships.
Freeman reports to Harris, whose portfolio includes legislative affairs.
While speaking to Harris on Sept. 11, Thomas complained that the administration had frozen him out of a variety of decisions following the budget negotiations, the source said. One issue discussed, they said, was allocating funds for the city’s preparations or the major events coming to Philadelphia in 2026, such as the Semiquincentennial and the FIFA World Cup.
Thomas had previously championed making 2026 preparations a priority for the city and felt that the administration was now excluding him from the process, the person said.
It’s common for mayors to extend favors to legislators who help their agenda and use their executive powers to exclude or punish those who oppose them. But it’s uncommon for administration officials to confront an elected official outside of a work setting and make them feel “uncomfortable,” as Thomas alleged.
Council President Kenyatta Johnson declined to comment on the alleged confrontation but said he holds “every member of this body and every employee of City Government to the highest standards of professionalism, integrity, and respect.”
“I will not tolerate actions that compromise the reputation of the City of Philadelphia or undermine the public trust,” Johnson said in a statement Friday.
A spokesperson for Johnson declined to elaborate.
A changing dynamic in City Hall
Thomas’ most public break with Parker’s team came during this spring’s city budget negotiations, when he said “fundamentally” disagreed with major planks of her signature housing plan and tried unsuccessfully to push for deeper cuts to the business tax than the mayor had proposed.
» READ MORE: Councilmember Isaiah Thomas says he ‘fundamentally’ disagrees with Mayor Cherelle Parker’s housing plan
After Council approved a $6.8 billion budget deal in which Parker got nearly everything she wanted, the mayor held a celebratory news conference in which she made clear she wouldn’t be forgetting Thomas’ transgressions. Without naming Thomas, she criticized a lawmaker who tried to play it both ways with interest groups, promising deep tax cuts to business leaders and more money for schools to education advocates.
“Every constituency that comes to you, you say ‘yes’ to them,” Parker said. “You can’t lead … and then say things where you’re only going to get a huge round of applause. You have to make some decisions, and that means tough decisions.”
It was a clear shot at Thomas, who chairs the Education Committee and is a backer of charter schools. Despite Thomas being a member of his leadership team, Johnson didn’t object to her comments.
Parker and Johnson have been working hand-in-hand since both took office in January 2024. The alliance is a major shift from the longstanding City Hall dynamic that prevailed under former Council President Darrell L. Clarke, who clashed with former Mayors Michael A. Nutter and Jim Kenney.
» READ MORE: Mayor Cherelle Parker and Council President Kenyatta Johnson are trying to bring back the ’90s in City Hall
The assumption that the Council president is working with the mayor puts a magnifying glass on instances when Council members speak out against Parker’s agenda.
Other members have had conflicts with the administration over specific issues, such as Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson’s efforts to increase transparency around the city’s nonprofit contracting processes. And some have little political incentive to refrain from criticizing Parker, such as Councilmembers Kendra Brooks and Nicolas O’Rourke of the progressive Working Families Party, who have objected to a variety of the mayor’s policies.
But among mainstream Democrats, Thomas is emerging as Parker’s most prominent antagonist on Council.
“I’m confident there will be no direct action or resolution around this issue,” Thomas wrote in the email, “but I did want to document because I am frustrated with the treatment I am receiving and do not see any action being taken work towards a positive and collaborate resolution.”