Judge rejected acting city controller’s bid to avoid Philly’s ‘resign to run’ law

A Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge on Friday rejected acting City Controller Christy Brady’s request to treat her like an incumbent who does not have to resign to run for a full four-year term in the post in an upcoming special election.

Judge Anne Marie Coyle said the City Charter has “plain, unambiguous, clearly stated language” that requires someone not elected to office to resign from their post if they want to run for the job as a candidate.

Brady, a Democrat, was appointed to the post by Mayor Jim Kenney in November after her former boss, Rebecca Rhynhart, resigned as city controller in October to run for mayor in the May 16 Democratic primary.

Brady is now mulling three options. She can appeal to the state’s Commonwealth Court. She can remain acting controller and not run for the office. Or she can resign and run for the job.

» READ MORE: A look at the race to replace former City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart

Philadelphia’s Democratic City Committee will likely issue an endorsement in the race next week, which gives Brady a short time frame to make a decision. A party endorsement could prompt some of the three other Democratic candidates in the race to withdraw.

Four people met Wednesday evening with the party’s policy committee, which makes a recommendation for an endorsement to the city’s ward leaders, who then vote on the issue.

Brady, after her 90-minute hearing Friday, said she introduced herself to the the policy committee but did not declare herself a candidate or seek the endorsement.

”I made a statement about who I was and what I do,” she said. “That was it.”

The policy committee also heard from Karen Javaruski, an enterprise risk-management professional for Citi; Jack Inacker, an Air Force veteran who was a nuclear weapons systems specialist; and Alexandra Hunt, a public health researcher who generated national headlines last year by raising hundreds of thousands of dollars in an unsuccessful campaign for Congress.

Inacker and Hunt declared their candidacies in public events this week. Javaruski has been seeking support from ward leaders.

Democratic Party chair Bob Brady on Friday predicted the ward leaders will make an endorsement sometime next week. He confirmed Christy Brady did not specifically seek the party’s endorsement Wednesday.

She sued the city last week, seeking to avoid the charter’s resign-to-run provision.

» READ MORE: Who is running for Philadelphia mayor in 2023?

Her case hinged on a 1963 Supreme Court ruling that allowed former City Council President James H.J. Tate, who had been appointed mayor a year earlier to fill a vacancy, to run for a full term while serving in office. Brady’s lawyer, Sam Stretton, also noted repeatedly that she has all the full duties and salary now of city controller.

Deputy City Solicitor Aimee Thomson pointed to news releases and city documents for Brady’s appointment to show they all referred to her as “acting” or ”interim” in status. And she noted the Supreme Court in 1963 said Tate could not hold the position of City Council president while also serving as mayor, a conflict that does not apply to Brady.

Coyle rejected a bid from Brady to have former City Controller Alan Butkovitz, a Democratic ward leader and the local party’s finance chair, testify on her behalf about the history of vacancies in the office.

”History is nice, but right now I have to deal with what’s in the present,” Coyle said.

The winners of the Democratic and Republican primaries for city controller will face each other, and any third-party or independent candidates who later qualify for the ballot, in November’s general election.