Corbett names Sam Katz to PICA panel

SAM KATZ, a three-time mayoral candidate who considered a run against Mayor Nutter this year, will be taking a seat on the state panel that oversees city finances, the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority (PICA).

Gov. Corbett announced Katz's appointment yesterday, praising him in a news release as "a proven civic leader whose well-established financial expertise will clearly benefit the authority and the city."

Katz, 61, who is traveling in Israel, could not be reached for comment. But in the release, he said: "Philadelphia again finds itself in a precarious financial moment. For too long, Philadelphia financial problems have been left untended in the hopes that a better day would arrive. The runway for that better day keeps getting shorter."

Katz was more specific in a Philadelphia magazine blog post last week, focusing on the $4.9 billion deficit in the city pension fund.

"Philadelphia's bold and visionary political class has a strategy for dealing with this problem," Katz wrote. "They use a can and kick it in a hard forward swinging motion. Hey, it's worked up until now."

PICA was created in 1991 to float long-term bonds to ease the city out of a cash-flow crisis. Every year since, the city has been required to get PICA's approval for five-year financial plans, tied to each new city budget.

Traditionally, the governor's appointee serves as chairman of the five-member PICA board, but yesterday's announcement did not address the chairmanship, and the governor's office failed to return calls from the Daily News.

The board is expected to elect a new chair at its next meeting, March 15, replacing former Gov. Rendell's appointee, lawyer Jim Eisenhower.

Katz, now working on a film project documenting Philadelphia history, ran for mayor as a Republican in 1991, 1999 and 2003, coming closest in 1999, when he lost the general election to John Street by 9,547 votes. He's been a registered Democrat since March 2008.

Nutter, asked yesterday if any lingering political ambition would pose a conflict with Katz's role at PICA, told reporters: "I do not believe so, because Sam is a person who has the city's best interests at heart."

Staff writer Catherine Lucey contributed to this report.