Nutter's Managing Director Has Long Career in Management of Cities

   
by KYW's Mike Dunn

Mayor-elect Michael Nutter has chosen a woman who has helped run Washington, DC in the late '90s to be his managing director.

Camille Cates Barnett was the chief management officer for Washington, DC when that city was transitioning from Congressional rule to home rule in the late '90s: 

"I'm really good at running things."

Barnett has also run things in Houston, Austin, and Grand Rapids.  And now she'll be running things in Philadelphia:

"My experience is in management and in operations, with the particular emphasis on two things -- one, improving customer service, and the other is reaching across boundaries to think differently about how we govern."

Nutter, for his part, is not concerned that Barnett has not lived in Philadelphia.
  
"Good management is good management, wherever you are."

Barnett currently works in the DC office of Public Financial Management, the firm that helped steer Philadelphia out of its financial crisis in early '90s. Nutter met her several years ago when she spoke at a seminar on city management:

"He asked me the question, 'What happens if you produce a budget that the public can't understand?'  And I said, 'I think that's a failure of leadership.'  And he said, 'Yes!' "

Barnett said she owes her existence to Philadelphia: when her mother worked in the maternity department of the Strawbridge and Clothier department store, she got the idea to raise a family.