"I want the best and brightest to join me in this new administration."
His pitch was directed at a room packed with some of the region's most senior business leaders, and, at least for the moment, Nutter seemed to have persuaded many to get involved.
"We've already volunteered," said William Sautter, president and chief executive of Elliott-Lewis Corp., a Northeast Philadelphia construction-management firm. "I told him I would be glad to give him some young people and old people to help in the administration, including me. This is a new beginning."
Chip Marshall, chairman and chief executive of the Temple University Health System, called Nutter's invitation "a great opportunity for our executives to experience something different. It's not corporate charity."
And though Nutter is a Democrat, his request was well received by heavy-hitter GOP players as well.
"I think there will be people who step forward and want to help," said businessman Manny Stamatakis, a finance cochair of Republican Rudy Giuliani's presidential bid.
But how they can helpwasn't clear. Business leaders said that until Nutter makes plain how his administration will be structured, it's difficult to see how they might fit in.
"There's a variety of ways business people can help. It depends on the ways the Nutter administration pursues it," said Mark Schweiker, president of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce.
Nicholas DeBenedictis, chairman and chief executive of Aqua America, led a similar business-support program for Mayor Ed Rendell in 1991. For much of Rendell's first year, about two dozen executives acted as free consultants for the city, taking on tasks as mundane as reviewing its vehicle fleet and checking the heating bills of city buildings.
There were some drawbacks.
