From the second-floor news conference still going on, Inquirer City Hall reporter Patrick Kerkstra tells us that Mayor-elect Michael Nutter has chosen Camille Barnett of Washington D.C. to be his managing director.
Barnett currently works as the Strategic Consulting Director for Public Financial Management - the company co-founded in 1975 by none other than three-time mayoral candidate Sam Katz (a Nutter supporter).
It's an unusual move for an outsider to be appointed to this position, which is the go-to job for day-to-day government matters from snow removal to policing.
From her resume online with the company:
Most of her 24 years in city management - after some early stops in Grand Rapids, Mich., and Sunnyvale, Calif., were in the Texas hot-spots of Houston, Dallas, and Austin. While in Austin, she broke the city manager mold with her customer service orientation, public visibility, emphasis on public participation, regional development strategies and her ability to broker all the competing interests that maneuver for power.Subsequently she worked with the Center for International Development at the Research Triangle Institute - one of the nation's largest not-for-profit contract research organizations - traveling the globe counseling governments on transferable, city government innovations, a major share of her consulting work focused on developing and transitioning citistates in eastern Europe and Russia.
Late in 1997, the Congressionally-designated Financial Control Board of the District of Columbia turned to Barnett to serve as Washington 's Chief Management Officer during a period of transition back to home rule for the Nation's Capital.Barnett now works with public sector clients to improve governance-through strategies as varied as the federal, state or local governments themselves. She has been associated in recent years with the Public Strategies Group, with a particular interest in using budgets to focus on results and transform organizations.
She encourages collaborative approaches to growth, disaster recovery, economic strength, environmental sustainability and other issues that cross-governmental jurisdictions. She has written numerous articles on emerging networks in governing and thinking differently about government and speaks often to audiences around the country.
Comments (8)
outside blood is good if you ask me.
Posted by sj | December 12, 2007 11:18 AM
Posted on December 12, 2007 11:18
Sounds brilliant and talented. How can we run her out of town?
Posted by The B Man | December 12, 2007 11:49 AM
Posted on December 12, 2007 11:49
A breath of fresh air!
Posted by Anonymous | December 12, 2007 12:16 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 12:16
??????????????????????
Posted by Anonymous | December 12, 2007 12:32 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 12:32
Good, a paradigm shift is sorely needed in this City.
Posted by anonymous | December 12, 2007 1:15 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 13:15
Hurricane Camille: Oh boy, you are going to hear some stuff about Camille Barnett from down in DC. As you can imagine, grafting the consulting firm mentality (and she was high-end, very well compensated) to the nuts and bolts operations of a city government like Philly or DC (think: old-school dealmaking) makes for a lot of entertainment. She did not wear well down here.
Hold onto your wallets Philly taxpayers, the salaries she will drop on others (and herself) will be like watching someone lubricate an old V8 engine with caviar - expensive and pointless. She was widely regarded, particularly by insiders, as a disaster down here who got nowhere on any of the key projects under her control (which was most of the city government at the time), but she did recruit several department heads who stuck around to work for Mayor Williams, who was elected around the time she was being driven out of town. The Control Board had a lot more money than your average city government - basically an unlimited budget - even then she overspent it.
Posted by Fleeced in DC | December 12, 2007 1:45 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 13:45
I hope Marcia's reading your comments, Fleeced in DC. Don't know if they're valid (she seems extraordinarily qualified and talented) but I'd really like to see some deep research on her background.
Posted by Goose | December 12, 2007 2:37 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 14:37
Fleeced in D.C.'s comments sound a lot like somebody's comments I saw when Charles Ramsey's appointment as police commissioner was announced. I for get if it was on this blog, though. Might want to check the IP address.
Anyway, that's a pretty impressive resume. It'll be interesting to watch the next 4 years unfold. Here's hoping for the best...
Posted by Anonymous | December 12, 2007 4:28 PM
Posted on December 12, 2007 16:28