Can Bob Brady run this city?

IF PHILADELPHIA elects U.S. Rep. Bob Brady as mayor, they'll get a likable man with a strong work ethic and connections among the political elite.

As a four-term congressman and 20-year Democratic Party chairman, Brady has proven himself a master of personal relationships, resolving political conflicts and mediating labor disputes.

But an important question arises: Can he run an organization?

As mayor, Brady would have to run a government with 25,000 employees and a budget of nearly $4 billion.

The Democratic City Committee, which Brady has led for two decades, is hardly the model of a professionally run organization.

Though its Walnut Street building is prime Center City real estate, the building is known for leaky plumbing, worn carpets and inadequate air conditioning.

The party still doesn't have a Web site.

It also for years has had trouble paying taxes on time. A 2001 review of its finances by an accounting firm found that the party had failed to maintain a formal budget, that bank accounts had not been reconciled on a monthly basis and that although checks require two signatures they usually were issued with just one.

Neither Brady nor any other party official has been able to explain how the party decided to donate $20,000 to Brady's mayoral committee in December, weeks before the party endorsed him.

A party fundraising committee was more than a month late in filing its 2006 campaign-finance report, and the report failed to list the occupations and employers of 35 donors who gave the party $30,000, even though that information is required by state law.

Also, the political committee that funds Brady's Overbrook ward organization failed to make legally required campaign-expense filings in 2002 through 2004, effectively concealing $414,000 in contributions and $371,000 in spending.

Zack Stalberg, president of the Committee of Seventy, a political watchdog group, said problems with political committees associated with Brady are relevant to his ability to lead the city, but not a perfect predictor of performance.

"I think voters have a right to look at Democratic City Committee and wonder if this guy can run a $4 billion organization," Stalberg said. "It seems he hasn't tried too hard to find the right kind of help to make this a finely tuned operation.

"On the other hand, his personal skills can be quite handy in running something as big and nutty as the city and all its related agencies," Stalberg said. "And there's something to be said for the fact [that] in a time of declining patronage, he's been able to keep a party organization hanging together and headed roughly in the same direction."

Brady was unavailable for an interview, but he has often said in response to past questions that he has "nothing to do with money" at city committee because of restrictions in federal campaign law.

Since the McCain-Feingold law was passed in late 2002, members of Congress have been prohibited from heading political committees that accept donations in excess of federal limits, except when a member campaigns for another office.

But a number of the financial missteps of Democratic City Committee pre-date McCain/Feingold, and the law doesn't prevent Brady from ensuring that competent people administer the party.

In response to questions from the Daily News about the management of committees associated with Brady, campaign spokeswoman Kate Philips provided a written statement that notes that Brady's leadership has been repeatedly affirmed by the Democratic Party's 69 ward leaders, and has been demonstrated by big wins for Democratic candidates in Philadelphia.

Although the party does have several employees, Philips said Democratic City Committee was "essentially a volunteer organization" running on a "shoestring budget," and she argued that the financial issues the Daily News raised were no real gauge of Brady's "executive ability."

Among the issues presented for Brady and Philips to review:

* From 2000 through 2004, the city committee failed to pay its real-estate taxes. Thomas Nocella, an attorney who is a past and present judicial candidate, said he looked into the problem in 2004 and discovered that the city may not have sent the tax bill to the right address.

It's not clear why no one at city committee noticed it wasn't paying property taxes before then, but Nocella got it to pay the back taxes and convinced the Tax Review Board to forgive more than $10,000 in interest and penalties, provided that city committee paid a little over $3,100 to cover nonrefundable costs.

Nocella said he told city committee staff that it needed to write a $3,177 check in October 2005 to clear up the issue. For more than a year, that somehow never happened. It was finally paid last month.

* A March 2001 review of city committee's financial procedures by the accounting firm Thomas Havey LLP found that city committee was consistently late in paying withholding taxes to the government. From 1997 through 2000, the committee paid penalties and interest for these totaling over $19,000.

* The report found that W-2 forms had not been filed for 1997 or 1999, and that city committee often failed to make quarterly payments for withheld state income taxes, Social Security and Medicare taxes, and city wage taxes.

The Havey report also found that cash balances reported to the state on financial-disclosure forms did not match the committee's bank balances for five years, 1996 through 2000.

The difference was less than $10,000 for every year except 1996, when the committee reported $18,641 more than the committee's bank-account balance showed.

* The Havey report found that a majority of charges on committee credit cards weren't supported with receipts or a description of the purpose for the charge. The report noted six charges totaling $1,403 that "lend the appearance they may not be for committee business," including $492 for Small's Formal Wear and $500 in cash.

All of the Havey report's findings pre-dated any federal restrictions on Brady's involvement in the local party's finances.

Party rules provide that the treasurer is chosen by ward leaders, though Brady undoubtedly exercises influence on that choice. In addition, the rules state that the party chairman is required to "countersign all checks for the disbursement of any funds of the County Committee."

While Brady has said he never signs checks or even knows what happens to party money, it isn't clear who makes decisions like the one in December to contribute $20,000 to Brady's mayoral campaign.

Brady referred questions to the party treasurer, state Rep. Frank Oliver, who has repeatedly refused to discuss the issues.

Brady similarly said he has no role in running Unity 2001, the political committee whose listed address and phone number are those of Brady's ward headquarters, and whose reports are signed by a congressional employee of Brady's.

When the Daily News asked Brady about the committee's failure to file required financial reports in 2005, Brady declined to make the employee available in an interview, and said he didn't know how its spending decisions were made.

Brady also says he has no involvement in the Democratic County Executive Committee Finance Committee, a political committee formed in 2005 when Brady and other leaders hoped to isolate then-party treasurer John Dougherty.

That committee filed its finance report for 2006 a month late and failed to list employers and occupations for 35 donors who gave roughly $30,000 worth of contributions.

The committee is one of two political committees directly associated with Democratic City Committee. The other is the Democratic Campaign Committee.

In December, both donated $20,000, the maximum allowed by law, to Brady's mayoral campaign. *