Phila. information officer stepping down

The city's chief information officer, one of the highest ranking holdovers from the Street administration, is stepping down at the end of the month.

A spokesman for Mayor Nutter said Terry Phillis was giving up his post voluntarily, describing the decision as one of "mutual consent between Terry and the administration that it was time to go in a different direction."

Administration sources, however, said Phillis was being forced out of his position.

Nutter said no specific issue or incident triggered his departure, but sources said Phillis was at odds with Managing Director Camille Cates Barnett over the scope of a planned 311 call center Barnett is overseeing.

As a national search gets under way for a successor, the administration said it would name someone later this week to an interim position to succeed Phillis.

Hired in 2005, Phillis was one of a handful of senior department heads from the Street administration who were reappointed by Nutter in January.

He was also among the most well-paid, with a salary of $197,600.

Phillis yesterday declined comment, except to highlight some of his key achievements, including the recent replacement of two 30-year-old computer systems - one overseeing the city's water billing, the other related to human-resources data.

He also said, "I improved the morale of a very disorganized and depressed organization." As chief information officer, Phillis oversaw a $43 million budget this year, and about 173 employees.

Former Mayor John F. Street considered Phillis' position significant enough to warrant a cabinet seat, giving Phillis direct access to the mayor every week. In the Nutter administration, Phillis is not a cabinet member and reports to Barnett.

"Terry's help during the first six months of this administration was invaluable," Barnett said in a statement that noted Phillis would submit a transition report.

Nutter, in the same statement, said: "I sincerely appreciate Terry's service to the City of Philadelphia and his efforts, most recently, around the successful transfer of the wireless network."

On the verge of disappearing altogether, Philadelphia's wireless network is expected to be rescued by a group of local investors. Phillis would have played a major role in leading city efforts on that initiative.

Phillis' departure coincides with the administration's decision to overhaul its technology services. Nutter in late May signed an executive order disbanding what was known for decades as the Mayor's Office of Information Services.

That office has been renamed the Division of Technology, and will report to the managing director. As of today, the executive order also creates a nine-member technology board made up of Nutter's senior aides.