Nutter's managing director to resign

In a major change on Mayor Nutter's leadership team, Managing Director Camille Cates Barnett - the administration's second-in-command - will resign effective June 30.

At a City Hall news conference yesterday morning, Barnett said she was leaving for personal reasons, citing her persistent grief from the death of her husband, James M. Barnett, in a car accident on the eve of Mayor Nutter's inauguration in 2008.

"It's a personal decision. I hope that's evident," an emotional Barnett said after the news conference. "I really do need to get to a place to rebuild my life, and I need to get out of the public eye to do that."

However private her motivations may be, Barnett's departure had been rumored for months, and not solely because of personal tragedy.

Barnett's forceful style won her few allies, either in the mayor's cabinet or in a city bureaucracy resistant to change. At times, she struck some in City Hall as having a misplaced sense of privilege, as on those occasions when she asked members of her staff to walk her dogs.

She also seemed to lack the sweeping supervisory authority of some managing directors. Nutter created four deputy mayor positions to oversee large sections of city government, and those officials did not report directly to Barnett.

Still, in 25 months on the job, Barnett has led the creation of the city's 311 call center, advocated for major technology investments, and established a system for monitoring the performance of city departments called PhillyStat.

"I'm very proud to be part of this battle-tested team the mayor has put together, and I'm sure these beginnings will be carried over successfully by the people that remain," Barnett said.

Several times during the news conference, Nutter approached Barnett to comfort her as her voice cracked and tears came to her eyes. At one point, Barnett's chief of staff brought her a handkerchief.

"We have benefited tremendously from her commitment to this city government," said Nutter. "And for that, I just want to say thank you."

He declined to answer questions about how Barnett's replacement would be chosen.

Barnett came to Philadelphia with a checkered reputation. Though she was known as one of the nation's most prominent professional city managers, she had collected as many critics as admirers at her earlier stops, which included Austin and Houston, Texas, and Washington.

Nonetheless, expectations were high when she arrived on the job in Philadelphia three weeks after her husband's death.

From the start, it was clear her role was to be different from that of past managing directors, such as Phil Goldsmith or W. Wilson Goode Sr., who served as chief operating officers and ran the city on a day-to-day basis.

Barnett's focus was on reforming city government and making it more efficient. PhillyStat was central to that effort. At regularly scheduled meetings led by Barnett, department heads have been expected to show - with plenty of maps and data - what progress they were making on the city's most stubborn problems.

"I think she came here with a pretty clear sense of the priorities she wanted to accomplish for the mayor, and they really were 311 and the PhillyStat system," said Rina Cutler, deputy mayor for transportation.

Day-to-day operating responsibilities, however, were left to the deputy mayors.

"From an operations perspective, she was pulled in when it was appropriate for her to be pulled in. But I think the day-to-day operational stuff really lives at this moment with the deputy mayors," Cutler said. "Whether that changes or not now, I have no idea."

Some Nutter administration observers think that structure deprived Barnett of the power she needed to be completely effective.

"My perception from the outside is that she didn't have the authority, which I think is a shame, because I think with the authority, she probably could have done a hell of a job," said Zack Stalberg, president and CEO of the Committee of Seventy. "She's impressed me as a smart, energetic person who is skilled in government in a way that some of her predecessors were not. Personally, I don't view this as Camille Barnett having failed."

Stalberg is among those who think the city would be better served by restoring the managing director's traditional role, which, according to the City Charter, is to serve as the day-to-day supervisor of all operating departments.

"I believe the City Charter and founding fathers were very clear that the managing director is the chief operating officer of the city. This mayor has had a different vision," said Goldsmith, who served as managing director for 21/2 years in the Street administration.

At the news conference, Nutter rejected the idea that Barnett's lack of operational control made her less effective.

"We do have a slightly different structure. That has not impacted in any way, shape, or form her ability to do her job," Nutter said. "I think each executive gets to put together the team and the structure that he thinks works best. This one works for us."

Barnett also said she was comfortable with her role in city government, the deputy mayor system, and the authority Nutter gave her.

"I had enough to do, I had enough power to do it," Barnett said.

Indeed, there were occasions when Barnett seemed happy to let other officials take the lead on important operational matters, such as snow cleanup and the city's Fourth of July festivities, both duties that past managing directors supervised directly.

Despite his managing-director pedigree, Goldsmith would not criticize the way Barnett stepped back from such traditional duties.

"She served at the behest of the mayor, and that's obviously the way the mayor wanted it," said Goldsmith. "It's a tough job, and she should be commended for doing it."

Barnett's salary this year is $181,693, making her one of city government's highest-paid public officials.

She will not receive a severance package, as she did when she left Washington.

Nor will Barnett automatically receive a pension, since she has not vested in the city's pension system.

Barnett does have the option of buying into Philadelphia's retirement system - a perk available to her because of her accrued years in public service elsewhere - though it would cost her more than $100,000 to do so. If Barnett makes that payment, her pension would be $49,880 a year, said Finance Director Rob Dubow. If she does not, Barnett will be remitted the $27,266 she has contributed to the pension system.