No quorum for PICA... again.
For the second consecutive month, the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority (PICA), the city’s fiscal overseer, is not meeting because the majority of its members have not been appointed.
State officials seem to be too busy to remember that they have a stake in how Philadelphia manages its finances.
For the second consecutive month, the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority (PICA), the city's fiscal overseer, is not meeting because the majority of its members have not been appointed.
Three of the five seats on PICA's board are empty. That's because members haven't been appointed or reappointed by the designated state appointing officials, PICA's executive director, Harvey Rice, said. The board's March meeting was scheduled for Tuesday.
"We don't have a board… the appointing authority needs to send a letter," Harvey said.
Greg Rost was the only one for whom a reappointing letter was sent. He is an appointee of state Rep. Frank Dermody, (D., Allagheny), the state House minority leader. The PICA board's chairman, Lawrence Tabas, was appointed last year by then-Gov. Tom Corbett.
The other three board members are appointed by president pro tempore of the state Senate, the minority leader of the Senate, and the speaker of the state House.
Sen. Joseph Scarnati III, (R., Jefferson) who is the Senate president pro tempore, has interviewed a few candidates to fill the vacancy of Joseph A. Diangelo, who resigned from PICA board late last year. Scarnati hopes to appoint a new member within the next two weeks, his spokesman Drew Crompton said Tuesday.
Stacey Witalec, spokeswoman for Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, (D., Allegheny) said: "The senator is currently working on making an appointment to this board."
Michael Karp was Costa's appointment until the January board meeting.
State House Speaker Mike Turzai (R., Allegheny) could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Rhonda Hill Wilson was previous House Speaker Sam Smith's appointee.
PICA's February meeting was also cancelled for lack of a quorum.
Former PICA chairman Sam Katz had this to say Tuesday about the board's having gone two months without a quorum: "I'm amazed at how dysfunctional it's become."
The next scheduled PICA meeting is April 21. That's if they have a board by then.
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