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When Mayor Cherelle L. Parker<\/a> took office in early 2024, William F. Dunbar Sr.<\/a> became one of the most important people in Philadelphia politics. <\/p>\n A confidant of Parker who played an important advisory role<\/a> in her 2023 campaign, Dunbar was also a registered lobbyist with a growing client list. <\/p>\n When other key figures in Parker\u2019s campaign took top roles in her administration, Dunbar stepped into an official, but unpaid, role managing People for Parker, the mayor\u2019s political committee. <\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: William Dunbar, a key adviser for Mayor Cherelle Parker\u2019s 2023 campaign, pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion charges<\/a><\/p>\n Those dual roles created an unusual circumstance: Someone who raised money from donors for the mayor\u2019s campaign was also a lobbyist whose clients paid him to influence her administration. <\/p>\n And they were physically embodied in a 2,250-square-foot office in the Penn Center complex<\/a> one block west of City Hall. Dunbar\u2019s lobbying firm, Dunbar Public Affairs & Associates, rented the space in March 2024, and People for Parker paid half of the $3,750 rent through a sublease agreement, according to lease documents obtained by The Inquirer. <\/p>\n But the heady days for Dunbar didn\u2019t last. Parker let Dunbar go from her campaign in August 2024. Neither side has publicly explained what led to the separation. And last week, he pleaded guilty to federal tax fraud charges<\/a> unrelated to Parker\u2019s campaign. <\/p>\n A plea agreement Dunbar signed allows U.S. District Court Judge Kelley B. Hodge to consider three instances of \u201cadditional misconduct\u201d \u2014 separate from the tax fraud scheme \u2014 that did not result in charges when she decides his sentence in January. <\/p>\n One instance stemmed from a dispute over the sublease agreement for the Penn Center office. (In the other incidents, prosecutors said Dunbar falsified a document for a mortgage application and submitted false financial information to receive additional financial aid at a private school.)<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: https:\/\/www.inquirer.com\/politics\/philadelphia\/william-dunbar-mayor-parker-campaign-lease-payments-20260901.html<\/a><\/p>\n In the plea agreement, Dunbar stipulated that he \u201cfalsely modified the terms of the lease agreement\u201d to increase the notice the campaign was required to give him to terminate the lease, a move that could have resulted in the campaign paying him money he was not owed had it not been discovered. <\/p>\n City law prohibits officials from using government resources, including City Hall office space, for political purposes. By renting space with Dunbar\u2019s firm, Parker and her team could pop across the street and attend to political tasks without running afoul of ethics rules. <\/p>\n In a letter from March 2025 that was obtained by The Inquirer, an attorney for Dunbar wrote that his firm \u201chad no need for an office space that was close to City Hall other than to support the Mayor\u2019s needs.\u201d <\/p>\n The dispute culminated in the final breakdown of their already-strained relationship, an exchange of emails between lawyers for Parker and Dunbar shows. <\/p>\n \u201cIt has come to our attention that Mr. Dunbar has misrepresented that he continues to have relationships with People for Parker to current and prospective clients,\u201d Timothy J. Ford, an attorney for Parker, wrote to Dunbar\u2019s lawyer, Mark Jaffe, in March 2025. \u201cMr. Dunbar must cease and desist immediately from making incorrect statements of any affiliation with People for Parker, Mayor Parker in her political or personal capacity, or staff or consultants related to People for Parker.\u201d<\/p>\n Jaffe fired back. <\/p>\n \u201cRespectfully, my client asks that the Mayor cease and desist from contacting all donors and personal\/business contacts that Dunbar Public Affairs supplied her immediately,\u201d Jaffe wrote Ford in response. \u201cIt has come to Mr. Dunbar\u2019s attention that the Mayor continues to misrepresent that Dunbar is still supportive of her efforts and that said relationships should still support her.\u201d <\/p>\n Dunbar asked for \u201ca letter of formal apology from the Mayor [for] the harm she has caused as to his reputation and financial losses to his company.\u201d<\/p>\n Dunbar declined to comment for this story.<\/p>\n From Lincoln to \u2018kitchen cabinet\u2019 <\/p>\n Dunbar, 42, first met Parker, 53, around 2005, when he was a student at Lincoln University<\/a>, he said in a 2023 interview. Parker, a Lincoln alum, was a Pennsylvania state representative, and she visited her alma mater to speak to political science students. <\/p>\n \u201cShe was a star to the folks at Lincoln then,\u201d Dunbar said in the interview. \u201cCherelle is the big sister. She sometimes call me the big little brother. I\u2019m very, very protective of Cherelle.\u201d <\/p>\n Both were elected student government presidents during their time at the historically Black university in Chester County<\/a>. <\/p>\n They maintained a connection over the years as they made their way up the ladder in local politics, Parker as an increasingly high-profile elected official and Dunbar as a well-connected operator. <\/p>\n By the time Parker began preparing to launch her mayoral campaign, Dunbar had become a lobbyist for Comcast. He volunteered as part of her \u201ckitchen cabinet\u201d of informal advisers<\/a>, and he made a key contribution by championing a strategy of Parker leaning into her life experience, from growing up in a household that needed public assistance to being a single mother.<\/p>\n \u201cI always would come back to that we need to continue to define Cherelle as the authentic Black woman working mom,\u201d he said. \u201cCherelle is able to live with that every day, so I knew and believed that the message would always resonate more, in particular with Black women, who obviously are the No. 1 voting bloc in our city.\u201d<\/p>\n An unexplained separation <\/p>\n When the top aides in Parker\u2019s campaign joined her administration, preventing them from managing or being paid by a political group, the mayor turned to Dunbar to run People for Parker in 2024. <\/p>\n Although Parker is not up for reelection until 2027, her campaign has remained active, raising and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars each year since she became mayor. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, Dunbar\u2019s lobbying practice grew: the School District of Philadelphia<\/a>, which employed him a subcontractor, and an ATM company became clients in January 2024, according to the public records. (Dunbar is no longer representing the district because the primary contractor terminated their agreement, according to the district.) <\/p>\n