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Mayor Nutter's Last Mic Drop

On the eve of Jim Kenney's swearing-in, our outgoing mayor drops a few chuckles and swear words of his own.

AFTER 24 YEARS in office - 16 as a city councilman, eight as mayor - Michael Nutter will leave City Hall on Monday when Jim Kenney is sworn in as Philadelphia's 99th mayor.

In this candid interview with Ronnie Polaneczky, Nutter talks about what it was like to raise his daughter, Olivia, while in office; how his wife, Lisa, made Pope Francis laugh; why he curses so much; and why he has no opinion about Chip Kelly.

Here is the edited transcript:

Q: You're from 55th and Larchwood. What has it been like to be mayor of your hometown?

A: You have much more history and relationships here; there's an expectation that you'll know the heartbeat of the city. So there's that pressure. But there's also an enormous amount of pride.

Did you have to set boundaries with folks who knew you when? Did they ask for favors?

My true friends have been tremendously respectful; they don't call with nonsense.

It was the reverse with people who weren't really close to me. They'd call my receptionists [Melvee Freeman and Delia Seward] and say, "Have Michael call me; we're friends." Miss Melvee and Miss Delia would say, "Oh, so-and-so called." I'd have no idea who they were talking about.

One time, the police called and said, "We want to let you know we arrested your nephew." I said, "Really? What did he do?" They said, "He beat up his girlfriend and took some money." I said, "That's interesting, because my nephew is 3 years old and he lives in New Jersey." True story.

What could no one have told you before you became mayor?

Well, certainly that you can't run a government without money, so the recession was a real eye-opener [chuckles].

Beyond that, until you're sitting here you don't have a sense of how fast and furious the information comes at you, how quickly you'll have to make decisions without always having all the information you'd like to have.

The mayor of Philadelphia is basically the CEO of a $7.3 billion service organization with 28,000 employees, 1.5 million "customers" and multiple lines of business - the public-safety line and so forth. If we were a corporation, we'd be the 360th largest on the Fortune 500.

So, we've come a long way since your first term.

We navigated the city through the worst recession since the Great Depression. Our bond rating is the highest it has been in modern history, with an "A" rating from all three rating agencies. Our wage taxes are at a 30-year low. Crime is down, high school graduation rates are up. The hard work is paying off and people see it. Equally important, they recognize that we made it through a really bad time.

Speaking of bad times: Chip Kelly's firing - yea or nay?

For eight years, my policy has been: I leave the management decisions for our teams to the owners, and they leave the running of the city to me. I am sure Jeff Lurie will figure it out.

Your daughter, Olivia, is now a college junior. What was it like to raise a child while you were in office?

Olivia was literally born into this in 1995 while I was running for re-election in City Council. When she got older, she loved when we'd race down the City Hall steps from the fourth floor. Lisa and I tried very, very hard to give her a normal life. I told her school principal, "When I come here, unless I'm on official business, I am just Olivia's dad."

Did she ever balk at being the mayor's daughter?

Not often. She had a great time, she got to meet people like the president and first lady, and she had a great group of friends who protected her.

Sometimes, though, we'd have to say, "Look, you're getting some experiences and advantages that a whole bunch of other kids don't get. With that comes the responsibility that we'll have to go to some things you'd rather not go to. But this is the deal: We're in the public eye, we're very public people, and sometimes you just gotta grin and bear it." On the other hand, she also got to go to the Academy Ball and she had her picture taken with Gerard Butler.

Not bad.

Not bad.

What are your three biggest regrets as mayor?

No. 1, my initial decision to close the libraries was a huge mistake. Two, we could have done a better job explaining the AVI [the city's confusing, revamped property-assessment system]. And three . . . I'll have to get back to you on that.

Who are you proud of?

The team we put together in City Hall, and that so many stayed for so long. We have had one of the longest-serving groups of local government officials in recent history.

What does that mean for the city?

Stability, maturity, continuity, history; I have serious adults around me. We know each other well, it's a team environment and it's made a huge difference.

We've seen Ed Rendell scrub toilets in City Hall and jump into city pools. We've seen you charm audiences with "Rapper's Delight." And Mayor-elect Jim Kenney isn't in office yet but - God help us - we've already seen him in a Buddy the Elf costume. Is it important for the public to see a mayor get his goofy on?

No matter how many times I've done "Rapper's Delight," people are always like, "He dropped the mic!" [chuckles] One of the big challenges with this job is that there's no pleasant face you can put on when you're talking about a shooting or about kids not getting a great education. So the "up" moments are less public than the serious ones.

I think there are moments when people want to see the mayor happy. But it's a fine line.

Do people analyze your moods?

People around here ask my security detail, "What's he listening to in the car? Is it hip-hop or are we on sad songs today?" They try to get a bead on me.

Why? Are you moody?

I think I'm even-keeled. Regardless, to the public, no matter what craziness is going on back at City Hall, no matter what f----- -up meeting I just came out of, no matter what asinine phone call I just had, when I walk out of here, (a) people don't know about what just happened and, (b) people don't give a s--- about it anyway. They're more like, "If you're coming to my event you'd better be happy. So all the crap you're carrying around with you? Leave it at the door."

You've sworn a lot as mayor. You're frequently "pissed off" and you're quick to refer to loathsome people as "a--holes." Do you use profanity on purpose?

It's not planned. Over the years, I've become much more emotional in my reactions to things.

I trace it back to Olivia's being born. With the Danieal Kelly case [the abused child under DHS care whose death was the subject of a 2008 grand jury report], I just thought, "If someone had done that to Olivia. . . ."

In each case, I was reacting not as the mayor but as a father or a husband or a citizen.

Is that what happened when you called Donald Trump "an a-hole" in that press conference?

Yes. [sighs] I was like, "How the f--- can I take anything seriously from this guy on foreign policy?"

What were some of your worst moments in office?

There were a lot. The first was when Police Officer Stephen Liczbinski was killed. I lost two friends [Chief Integrity Officer Joan Markman died of cancer, as did Gloria Casarez, director of the Mayor's Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Affairs]. There was the collapse at 22d and Market. We've lost police officers and firefighters and a PGW worker. There was the Amtrak disaster.

What's it like to have the city look to you in a time of crisis?

A: Your job is to be calm, strong, and clearheaded for the families and laser-focused on what needs to be done. It doesn't mean your stomach isn't churning.

Q: How do you decompress afterward?

A: I'll go somewhere with the team and we'll have a meal or a beverage and we're just there for each other.

Q: What did you do after the Amtrak derailment?

That night was chaos. By the time we finally left the crash site, it was after 1 a.m., no restaurants were open and we were starving.

So we pulled up to a 7-Eleven, I think, and all I wanted was a bag of chips and an orange juice. But the doors were locked; they were restocking or something. My guys knocked on the door, and the manager waved them off and said, "We're closed!"

So I get out of the car and go to the door and I just kind of look at him and say, "Please?" And he was like, "Mayor Nutter?!" And he rushed to open the door.

Tell us about some celebrity moments you've had in office.

The night of my first inauguration, people were standing in line at City Hall to meet the new mayor, and I look up and there's Joe Frazier. My dad and I were huge boxing fans, and I was like, "Joe Frazier! You should have come to the front of the line!" And he said, "No, it's all right."

But the best was Pope Francis. Talk about a warm, humble man - just being in his presence was incredible. When he was leaving, at the end of that amazing weekend, Lisa and I were at the airport saying goodbye to him. No one wanted him to go!

Lisa took his hand and said, "Pope Francis, you really should come back next week."

He threw back his head and let out the longest belly laugh and said, "No! I can't do that!" He was just beside himself.

What did you miss out on, being mayor?

I could've done a much better job with the at-home stuff, whether it was helping with homework or things around the house.

In the beginning, your tendency at work is to see everything as an emergency; you've got to do it now. And then at some point, you get confident enough to say, "I know this is important but we really need to reschedule this for another day. I have to go."

I'm not complaining, but people don't realize that life goes on away from work. I'll be in the supermarket and someone says, "Hey, Mayor, what are you doing here shopping? Don't you have people do that?" And I'm like, "No, I am the people."

My best story was when I was at TJ Maxx on City Ave. I was buying some underwear and I'm looking at the packs in the bin and someone said, "What are you doing?" And I said, "Truth be told, I'm trying to buy some underwear."

They burst out laughing and said, "Let me leave you to that."

Final question: Would you ever wear an elf suit in public?

Fortunately, no one has ever asked me to. And I don't think they ever will.

Email: polaner@phillynews.com

Phone: 215-854-2217

On Twitter: @RonniePhill

Blog: ph.ly/RonnieBlog

Columns: ph.ly/Ronnie