Sam Katz

The candidates are the same, but the 2003 Philadephia mayoral campaign has been as bizarre and chaotic as the one four years ago was earnest and satisfying. For The Inquirer, though, the better choice for Philadelphia is the same as in 1999: Republican challenger SAM KATZ. The newspaper endorsed Katz over the incumbent mayor, Democrat John Street, last Sunday. It is customary for us to recapitulate the mayoral endorsement on the Sunday before Election Day. The preference for the wonkish businessman from West Mount Airy over the competent but uninspiring incumbent has little to do with the FBI probe of City Hall.

Sam Katz is wading through the Republicans at Edward O'Malley Boys Club, gripping hands like life preservers, when suddenly the unmistakable voice of South Philly rises to stage whisper. "Sam," cries Madge, a denizen of 10th and Passyunk. "Sam in four years! He'll get it. He'll get it. " Around Madge's table the women smile in silent agreement. None of them needs a pollster or a pontificator to tell them that Katz may have lost the Republican primary but still has the look, feel, handshake and speaking schedule of a man who wants to be mayor someday.

SAM KATZ is a political poser. The partisan actions of his Republican pals in Harrisburg to seize control of the Convention Center are now as transparent as glass. It is crystal clear that John Perzel's midnight raid on the Convention Center was not about fixing the center's problems, but about grabbing power and giving a non-entity like Sam Katz a hastily assembled platform to demonstrate his "leadership" skills as he prepares to embark on another futile campaign for political office.

IAM A lifelong, die-hard Democrat, someone who does not easily pull a Republican lever. But, having worked on two of Ed Rendell's campaigns, and having served in the Rendell administration's first term as his director of constituent services and as Councilman Frank DiCicco's chief of staff for nearly eight years, I quit my job and am now working on Sam Katz's campaign for mayor. Over the past four years, I have become increasingly disillusioned with how our government is being run. To be blunt, this is a government that is dysfunctional.

RE THE Sept. 15 letter from Kendall Wood: At what point did Sam Katz become a racist? Did his campaign throw an un-lit Molotov cocktail through one of Mayor Street's campaign offices? At what point did "Mayor Katz" say, "the white people are runnin' the city"? At what point did Sam Katz have city employees working on his campaign? The answer to every one of these questions is "never. " The reason the recent covers of the Daily News regarding Mayor Street are consistently negative is because of the facts, not the color of his skin.

SAM KATZ, a three-time mayoral candidate who considered a run against Mayor Nutter this year, will be taking a seat on the state panel that oversees city finances, the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority (PICA). Gov. Corbett announced Katz's appointment yesterday, praising him in a news release as "a proven civic leader whose well-established financial expertise will clearly benefit the authority and the city. " Katz, 61, who is traveling in Israel, could not be reached for comment.

In this week's Commentary Pages, Mayor John Street and his challenger Sam Katz will answer a series of questions about issues in the mayoral race. The question for today is: The Neighborhood Transformation Initiative is still a work in progress. Mayor Street, what is your standard of success for NTI over the next four years, and what needs to be done to meet it? Sam Katz, would you continue NTI? If not, why not? If yes, how would you change it, if at all? In the 1990s, Mayor Ed Rendell concentrated on improving Center City, and because of his vision and leadership, Center City is thriving and continues to improve.

I AM WRITING not as a Republican leader, which I am, but as a neighbor and fellow Philadelphian. We are now considering which candidate for mayor is the most qualified to rejuvenate Philadelphia. Our city has so much to offer, yet we fail to utilize our greatest assets - ourselves. Over the last 50 years our population has decreased by more than 1 million people. As other major cities continue to grow and become stronger, ours declines and becomes weaker. The fifth largest city in the United States is in danger of being surpassed by Phoenix.

Sam Katz, the recently appointed chairman of the city's financial oversight board, sent a pointed letter to the City Council president Tuesday, ripping Council over its failure to abolish or trim the city's expensive deferred-retirement program known as DROP. "To allow the perpetuation of DROP despite the clear evidence of its ineffectiveness and its cost sends a powerfully negative message to citizens, taxpayers, the credit markets, and to PICA," Katz said, referring to his organization, the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority.

Sam Katz may not be the businessman you think he is. In his campaigns for mayor, governor, and now mayor again, the Philadelphia Republican has crafted a picture of himself as a buttoned-down corporate type, a manager primarily. It is true that he built a business, created jobs, and balanced a budget. Public Financial Management Inc., the government-consulting firm he helped lead for 18 years, grew during his tenure to include 178 employees, $27 million in annual revenue, and branch offices in 16 cities.

THE LIFE STORY of Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown could be adapted into a Broadway musical about a hardworking showgirl who breaks into politics with the help of an ambitious congressman. Let's call it "Blondie!" (Spelled out in glittering gold lights.) Like the best shows, it's true. Brown, a Democrat who just began her fourth term as an at-large councilwoman, is a former professional dancer and teacher who counts U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah as a political mentor. After 12 years in office, she has risen to a leadership position in Council and has made education and health care her signature policy issues.

Editor's note: Due to a production error, this story did not appear in Tuesday's Daily News. It is being repeated in full today. PHILADELPHIA: THE GREAT EXPERIMENT. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, 6ABC. By ellen gray Daily News Television Critic IF FILMMAKER Ken Burns had had Sam Katz's budget, we might still be in the early innings of "Baseball. " But Katz, the former mayoral candidate, who, along with his son, Philip, has been at work for a few years on a documentary series on the history of Philadelphia, is making progress.

In the summer of 1793, people in Philadelphia began dying of a mysterious disease, later identified as yellow fever. By the end of the year, the illness had killed one in 10 Philadelphians, yet the devastation also strengthened the city. Determined to prevent future outbreaks, leaders created the Water Works, revived public parks and improved hospital care. Former mayoral candidate Sam Katz and his son Philip tell this tragic, gruesome, yet inspiring story in the latest installment of their 12-part video documentary on this city's history titled, Philadelphia: The Great Experiment.

BY 8:01 p.m., a minute after the polls close on Tuesday, Nov. 8, Mayor Nutter will be projected as the winner of the general mayoral election, entitling him to another four-year term in City Hall. For the people of Philadelphia, that should be very disappointing. Not the result, the process. Like the former heavyweight champion Joe Louis, who repeatedly won by fighting a "bum of the month," Nutter coasted to re-election by defeating a convicted felon, Milton Street, in last May's primary and now, in the general election, is doing the same with an unknown, last minute Democrat-turned Republican, the inexperienced Karen Brown.

Sam Katz, chairman of the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, is trying to jump in front of a parade already being led by Mayor Nutter. The Inquirer should know better ("Pension shortfall big worry, Katz says," Wednesday). For more than a year, the mayor and I have met, at least twice in private, to discuss a commission to review city assets and propose a plan to dispose of non-core assets. During budget hearings for two years, and in a colloquy between city Finance Director Rob Dubow and me on Oct. 26, we discussed the specific benefits of strategic asset sales to shore up the pension fund.

YESTERDAY, after an ugly journey that included a dramatic school-funding crisis and ended in yet another property-tax hike, Philadelphia's second in two years, the city finally passed a budget. Two days earlier, Sam Katz had threatened to blow it all up. Back in March, Gov. Corbett appointed Philly's most famous Republican to head the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, Philly's least-famous important watchdog. PICA's power is narrow, but considerable: It tells the city whether it has enough money to cover the spending proposed in its budget and five-year plan.

Sam Katz, the recently appointed chairman of the city's financial oversight board, sent a pointed letter to the City Council president Tuesday, ripping Council over its failure to abolish or trim the city's expensive deferred-retirement program known as DROP. "To allow the perpetuation of DROP despite the clear evidence of its ineffectiveness and its cost sends a powerfully negative message to citizens, taxpayers, the credit markets, and to PICA," Katz said, referring to his organization, the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority.

Sam Katz may not have been able to win the mayor's office or the governorship, but he has done something maybe even more difficult: Pry a half-hour of time out of the 6ABC schedule for a show he has produced. And not just any half-hour. Tuesday, instead of Wheel of Fortune, which on some nights gets higher ratings than any of the ABC network offerings on 6ABC, the channel will present the pilot episode of Philadelphia: The Great Experiment, at 7:30 p.m. It's the first step of what Katz hopes one day will become a seven-hour series on the 400-year history of the city.

PHILADELPHIA: THE GREAT EXPERIMENT. 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, 6ABC. DOCUMENTARY filmmakers don't often come from the world of politics, but maybe they should. Because to listen to Sam Katz describe his latest campaign - to film a seven-part, multiplatform series on the history of Philadelphia - is to realize that what the three-time mayoral candidate, longtime businessman and new chairman of the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, sees as his third act doesn't sound all that different from his second: trying to stir up interest among his fellow Philadelphians, one community group at a time.