Doug Oliver in a LIHEAP of controversy

 DOUG OLIVER 'S role as the face of PGW in a television commercial has turned up the heat on his impending candidacy for mayor.

PGW's board members held an impromptu discussion yesterday about Oliver's future with the utility after City Councilman Jim Kenney, who is still mulling a run for mayor, complained about the commercial giving Oliver an unfair political advantage by raising his name recognition in the city.

Oliver, after launching a mayoral exploratory committee in November, this week said he will resign from PGW at the end of this month and formally declare his candidacy in February.

We hear the board was mulling an ultimatum yesterday for Oliver to resign immediately.

PGW Chairman David Seltzer said there was "no formal board meeting" and declined to comment on what he called "internal matters" about employees.

"We as a matter of policy don't discuss those with the press or the public," Seltzer said when asked if Oliver was going to be forced out of his PGW job as senior vice president for marketing and corporate communications.

Oliver said he hears the board expressed concerns about his political planning that he believes have already been put to rest.

"They had concerns with the appearances," Oliver said. "It's more of a perception than it is anything I've done or I can fix."

Oliver said his boss, PGW CEO Craig White, is still talking with the board about his future.

That may be a little awkward.

Four of the six members of the board worked with Oliver when he was spokesman for Mayor Nutter during his first term.

Kenney, who first went public with his complaints to WHYY's Newsworks.org, said PGW should have stopped running the ads with Oliver touting the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP, as soon as he said he was exploring a run for mayor.

"You don't get free face time on the rate-payer's dime," Kenney said. "It's not complicated."

Oliver counters that he explained his plans in detail in an Oct. 17 letter to Howard Lebofsky, PGW's ethics officer.

In a Nov. 18 memo, Lebofsky noted that PGW policy said Oliver could not run for public office while working for the utility.

But Lebofsky, noting that Oliver had not by then publicly announced his candidacy or filed nomination papers, said his exploratory committee "does not, in and of itself, rise to the level where you would be considered a 'candidate for public office.' "

A group of Philadelphia business executives have formed a new nonprofit group that could raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to influence City Council races this year.

And the source of all that cash may never be publicly disclosed.

The group is called - for now - Philly Rising Inc., a problematic name due to be replaced.

Marc Brownstein, a Philly Rising spokesman, said more than "120 leaders in the community" have been briefed about the group, started by Joe and Rob Zuritsky, the father and son who run Parkway Corp, a real estate and parking lot company.

The group is looking for pro-business candidates, hoping a change in Council's point of view will draw businesses and jobs.

We hear Paul Steinke, who recently resigned from the Reading Terminal Market, and Isaiah Thomas, who works in education, are two City Council at-large candidates being considered by Philly Rising for support in the May 19 Democratic primary election.

"We are in discussions with endorsing several candidates and our focus is on City Council," Brownstein said when asked about Steinke and Thomas.

Philly Rising registered on Sept. 12 with the Pennsylvania Department of State as a political action committee, declaring that it "intends to operate as an independent, expenditure-only committee" and would not coordinate with any candidate or campaign.

A 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling allows the group, acting in that uncoordinated fashion, to work around the city's campaign contribution limits of $2,900 for individuals and $11,500 for political action committees.

The group then registered with the Department of State on Nov. 6 as a nonprofit corporation, declaring its purpose to be "To ensure good government and to promote strong policies to improve the City of Philadelphia."

There is a very important distinction here in which from Philly Rising chooses to operate.

Acting as a nonprofit, the group can raise unlimited money from individuals, corporations and labor unions to spend on influencing elections as long as there is no coordination with candidates. And the group would not be required to disclose where the money came from.

Acting as a political action committee, the group will fall under the state's requirements to file periodic campaign finance reports disclosing its donors.

Brownstein said "no decision has been made" when asked if the group would be a nonprofit or political action committee.

Philly Rising won't be the group's name for much longer.

The city's Managing Director's Office operates the PhillyRising Collaborative, a grassroots effort to improve 19 neighborhoods with chronic woes.

"They apologized and agreed to change their name" Managing Director Rich Negrin said after his staff had a conversation with the group. "I can see why people would try to ride the coattails of a program like that."

Brownstein said the group is "trademarking a new name."

The group is staffing up.

T.J. Hurst, formerly of the Philadelphia School Partnership, and Ali Perelman, a former staffer to then-City Councilman Bill Green IV, have been hired.

A Republican candidate for City Council is asking a judge to clear the way for his candidacy.

Lou Lanni, a retired cop running for a Council at-large seat, pleaded guilty in 1997 to a felony count of insurance fraud.

The state Constitution bars felons from holding public office.

Lanni, vice chairman of the 5th Ward in Center City, where he lives, and chairman of the 20th Ward in North Philly, briefly ran for Council in 2011 but dropped out due to his felony record.

He argues in a lawsuit filed Nov. 8 that a neighbor took his car without permission, prompting the stolen-vehicle police report that lead to his prosecution.

Lanni, who is suing the District Attorney's Office and state Attorney General's Office, also claims he pleaded guilty, not knowing his lawyer was also representing the neighbor in a different case.

Lanni was sentenced to five years of probation and a $5,000 civil fine. His suit says that punishment was "so mild . . . that it would reasonably tempt an innocent person who desired to end an ongoing prosecution."

He's asking the Court of Common Pleas to issue a declaratory judgment or a "writ of coram nobis," a legal term for a court reopening a case to address a previous error in the proceedings.

The Attorney General's Office asked a judge to toss the case, deriding Lanni's claims as a "drama worthy of Hollywood."

The D. A.'s office joined in that request, adding that Lanni was trying "an end-around" on an appeals process he failed to take advantage of.

A judge overruled both of those requests last month.

The case is not listed for trial until October while the deadline for candidates to get their names on the May 19 primary election ballot is just 60 days from today.

Lanni said he hopes to settle the lawsuit well before trial.