DA seizes Philly Veterans commission documents, director fired

This story has been updated since its original publication.

The director of City Council's Philadelphia’s Veterans Advisory Commission, Scott C. Brown, has been fired shortly after the District Attorney Office seized documents and at least one computer from the obscure City Hall office.

The commission was established by a City Council resolution in 1957 to advise the city’s veterans on various entitlements and services and is administered by Council President Darrell Clarke’s office.

Council sources told City&State PA on Tuesday that agents from an unspecified law enforcement office had removed materials from the office within the last week. The Commission has come under fire of late over alleged mismanagement, but Clarke declined to say anything definitive about Brown’s status on Tuesday afternoon, promising to release a statement the following day.

Clarke's office released a statement confirming Brown's dismissal and indicating that the commission would be overhauled. 

“The Office of the Veterans Advisory Commission is being reorganized in an effort to provide even more responsive and efficient service to Philadelphia-area veterans. As such, the position of Commission Director has been eliminated," Clarke said, through the press release.

Later, Congressman Bob Brady confirmed, in an Inquirer article, that the DAO had seized records. Brady did not comment on the nature of the investigation.

Vietnam veteran Ari Merretazon, who publicly criticized Brown and the commission in a February Inquirer article, said he had spoken to a commission employee who had incorrectly described “FBI agents” seizing records and equipment from the Commission's office, adjacent to the City Hall courtyard.

“He said they took his computer out of the office,” Merretazon said. The veteran is also involved in a lawsuit over the commission's alleged failure to properly store veterans' burial records. 

A DA spokesperson refused to comment on the office's involvement with the search.

The commission had long existed simply as a desk inside the Council President’s Office, which oversees and funds its work, but expanded its operations during Brown’s watch. As it is administered by Council, which controversially does not make its budget public, details of the Commission's revenues and spending are not available. 

The former director's signature project appeared to involve spinning off a parade (and a nonprofit that collects large donations on behalf of the commission) with the help of Congressman Brady.

"Are you kidding me? No parade for veterans? Let's have one," Brady apparently told Brown, when the former director asked for his support.

City Hall sources described Brown as a “patronage hire” with apparent ties to South Philadelphia political players. According to the Inquirer, he was hired at the recommendation of Councilman Mark Squilla.

Former Councilman Frank DiCicco said Brown's sister had worked in his Council office around 2006.

"I've always known him to be a very nice, mannerly person," he said, commenting that he recently submitted an inquiry to Brown about his mother's veteran's benefits.

Corporate filings show Brown registered a construction company in the Pennsport neighborhood some 20 years ago and a website listed Brown as a 2012 officer in the Philadelphia Mummers Fancy Brigade.

A call to a number listed under Brown's name was not immediately returned.