PHILLY NOW: As part of his effort to decriminalize marijuana, Councilman Kenney has promoted a hotline for citizens to call detailing how arrests for minor pot possession have negatively impacted their lives. Folks are encouraged to call 267-570-3726 and leave voicemails detailing their own personal experiences with marijuana criminalization. The councilman hopes these stories will motivate Mayor Nutter to sign Kenney’s municipal decriminalization bill. […] In response to 
Kenney’s vox populi pressure on the mayor, Nutter’s office seemed unimpressed. Nutter press secretary Mark McDonald [pictured, below right] is quoted in the Philadelphia Inquirer this morning, saying, “The first thing I would recommend is maybe [Kenney] should urge people to not walk the streets carrying pot.” The Inquirer also reports that McDonald antagonized Kenney with the not-so-blind item by calling Kenney’s bill, “legislation a particular Council member, who does not have a very extensive history of legislative victories, is attempting to promote as he tries to figure out if he has the resources and vision to run for mayor.” PhillyNow contacted Kenney for a response to the jab. “You know what’s sad,” Kenney says to PhillyNow. “When Mark McDonald was a reporter for the Daily News, he was one of the more decent, fun people I dealt with in journalism. He’s turned into a bully, and that’s the hallmark of this administration. They’re generally bullies, and they love to try to muscle people. As opposed to taking a sophisticated approach and dealing with things in a rational way, they’d rather be snarky.” […] Kenney concluded, “Mark McDonald’s probably the most unfortunate mayoral spokesman in the history of Philadelphia. He’s the master of disaster.” MORE