Wading into the swamp

By an impressive 4-1 majority on Tuesday, Philadelphia voters put city leaders on notice that citizens want to drain the ethical swamp created by the city's pay-to-play political culture.

Now the challenge for Mayor Street and City Council will be the follow-through - that is, making high-caliber appointments to a new, independent ethics board to replace the present panel.

Let's have no more debate, for starters, as to whether city residents really care about ethics. Their overwhelming approval of the City Charter change paving the way for the stronger ethics panel occurred without prodding from any sizeable "vote yes" campaign. And it followed a similar groundswell in November for a charter change to stem the influence of big-money donations in no-bid city contracts.

The mayor and Council - led on this issue by Michael A. Nutter- deserve credit for coming up with the vote-winning framework for tightening ethical conduct.

The caliber of their picks for the ethics board will tell whether they're really serious about draining the swamp.