New Philadelphia officials sworn in
Camille Cates Barnett and Andrew Altman took over their new posts in a ceremony.
New city Managing Director Camille Cates Barnett formally began her job yesterday, three weeks later than expected after the death of her husband earlier this month.
And she immediately got down to business.
"We are going to make Philadelphia the model for the most effective government around," she said, promising to implement a city 311 phone-information system by the end of the year. Similar to the 911 emergency system, the 311 nonemergency system would give residents a simple way to call for all types of city services.
Noting its existence in cities such as New York and Baltimore, Barnett, the city's second-ranking official, said: "We don't have to invent it, we just have to install it."
Her comments followed an emotional ceremony in which Barnett was sworn into her job in a crowded City Hall reception room.
Political and business leaders, as well as several members of Mayor Nutter's administration, applauded frequently and loudly in a sign of moral support that Barnett acknowledged.
Through brief and teary-eyed remarks, she said she had believed she made a good decision to accept the job early on, but that "in these last few weeks, I know I have."
Her husband, James Barnett, was killed Jan. 3 in a car crash in Maryland while on the way from Washington for Nutter's inaugural activities.
Of the loss she suffered, Barnett said, "I hope it makes me more sensitive to the losses people in this city have every day."
The sentimentality of the moment was not lost on Nutter. After praising Barnett's management skills, he started to say more. "On a personal note, it is -" he began, then paused for nearly 10 seconds before simply saying, "We are very glad to have her."
Also yesterday, Andrew Altman, the city's new commerce director and a native of Germantown, was sworn in, though he will not begin his job for two more weeks.
"I came here because of the mayor," Altman said, adding that he was inspired when he heard Nutter explain his vision for a Philadelphia renaissance at a campaign forum last year.
Altman, whose other title will be deputy mayor for planning and economic development, was a former city planner in Washington.
