media kit ALAN BUTKOVITZ, City Controller

OFFICE OF THE CITY CONTROLLER
CITY OF PHILADELPHIA
media kit
ALAN BUTKOVITZ, City Controller
Office of the City Controller
City of Philadelphia
Alan Butkovitz
I
n his third term as Philadelphia’s chief fiscal watchdog, City Controller Alan
Butkovitz remains focused on exposing as much waste, fraud and mismanagement as possible, while making recommendations to do more with less - and saving
taxpayers’ millions.
This includes the precedent forensic audit of the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office that
uncovered millions of dollars in questionable financial transactions and led to a
complete structural and procedural overhaul of the Sheriff’s Office. Findings from
the Controller’s forensic became the essential components that allowed the U.S.
Attorney to file criminal charges against employees and others connected to the
Sheriff’s Office.
Since elected City Controller, his investigations and audits have identified more
than $700 million in potential revenues and savings for the city. He proposed hundreds of recommendations to improve the delivery of city services -- aimed at making them more efficient and cost-effective.
Other firsts for the City Controller’s Office under Butkovitz’ leadership include:
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conducting one of country’s most extensive investigations into charter school
operations, which uncovered numerous cases of financial mismanagement
questionable spending practices and fraud and abuse, all at the expense of
taxpayers;
implementing the city’s first employee withholding program to collect
delinquent taxes, which generated almost $4 million in unpaid taxes;
launching the nation’s first fraud reporting app for smartphones that has
allowed citizens to report fraud and waste directly to the Controller’s Office.
“The City has a fiduciary
duty to taxpayers to control
costs and ensure services are
being provided in the most
economic manner.”
Butkovitz has been nationally recognized on several occasions by the Association of Local Government Auditors for several
performance audits, including: the Department of Licenses and Inspections’ (L&I) Oversight for Private Property Demolitions (Distinguished Honors), Provisional Ballots Case in the 2012 Presidential Election (Gold), Philadelphia’s Emergency
Medical Services (Bronze), Subway Safety: Protecting Our Citizens (Silver), Review of Conditions of Police Facilities (Silver), Review of the City’s New Water Billing System (Silver), and for having the Best Website (Gold). In addition, the City
Controller received the Award of Excellence from the National Association of Government Communicators for developing
the Philly WatchDog app.
He was widely praised for his groundbreaking audit of the city’s Minority Business Enterprise Council (MBEC) that found
MBEC had failed in its mission to remove barriers to minority participation in city contracts. He led the fight to divest Philadelphia pension funds from companies doing business in Sudan because of the Sudanese government’s genocide against
their own people in the Darfur region. He also initiated the Bank on Philadelphia program that works with community and
financial partners to provide financial literacy and access to mainstream banking for “unbanked” Philadelphians.
Prior to being elected as City Controller in 2005, Butkovitz served 15 years in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
where he acquired a reputation for independence, hard work, and innovative ideas. Butkovitz was also widely praised for
leading a three-year bipartisan investigation into violence in Philadelphia public school that led to creating
the Office of the Safe School Advocate, the first of its kind in the nation with the authority to fight for
victims of school violence.
Alan Butkovitz was born and raised in Philadelphia. He is a graduate of Overbrook High School,
Temple University and Temple University School of Law. He lives in Northeast Philadelphia with
his wife Theresa.
The City Controller’s Role
The City Controller is one of seven popularly elected offices in the City of Philadelphia government. The term of office of
the City Controller is four years, and is not subject to term limitation.
The City Controller is independent of the Mayor and City Council, whose operations the City Controller audits.
This independence is reinforced by legislatively mandated staggered terms, the election for City Controller and District Attorney falling midway between the elections for Mayor, the other five executive branch officeholders and the 17 members
of City Council.
Authority & Responsibility
The current Home Rule Charter, approved by the voters in 1951, established the Auditing Department, with
the City Controller as head, and assigned it traditional financial auditing duties, as well as the powers to audit
payment requisitions before payment, and to conduct management audits and make recommendations.
The Office of the City Controller pre-existed the 1951 Charter, and some of its responsibilities are defined
by the state First Class Cities Act, often called the “1919 Charter”, and other state legislation. While the City’s
internal budget process refers to the “Auditing Department,” for all other purposes the department is known
as the Office of the Controller.
In addition to auditing municipal government, under the Home Rule Charter, City Council ordinance and state
legislation, the City Controller has the following duties:
• Trustee of the nine-member Board of Pensions and Retirement, which oversees the management of
investments and the payment of benefits.
• Commissioner of the five-member Philadelphia Gas Commission, which approves the Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) operating budget and short-term financing and reviews and recommends to City
Council PGW’s capital budget.
• Member of the Sinking Fund Commission, which oversees investment of revenues paid into a sinking
fund for payment of bond principal and interest and investment of the PGW Retirement Reserve.
• Member of the Bond Committee, which approves bond issues. The City Controller certifies the City of
Philadelphia’s debt capacity and the capital nature and useful life of projects built with bond proceeds.
• Post-auditor of the School District of Philadelphia. Auditor for PICA in evaluating the reasonableness of the assumptions and estimates in the City of Philadelphia’s five-year financial plans.
• Consultant to the Finance Director on features of the accounting system.
• Investigate and determine bona fide residency of civil service employees.
Fiscal Responsibility
Since the Controller has been in office, he has uncovered millions of dollars in potential savings unrealized by
the City. Butkovitz’s audits have revealed more than $700 million in one-time collections and recurring payments. Some of the these revenue generating recommendations include:
• Uncollected court fines and fees amounting to a one-time collection of almost $70 million.
• Failure to properly bill by the Licenses & Inspections Department for demolition services amounting to
an annual savings of $20 million.
• Not increasing EMS collections as well as increasing ALS services by $150 for an annual savings of
$46 million.
• Failure to adopt a policy for depositing tax payments within a timely manner amounting to an annual
savings of $1 million.
• Not selling Health Center #1 amounting to a one-time payment of almost $4 million.
To Learn More About the City Controller’s Office,
Visit:
www.philadelphiacontroller.org
OFFICE OF THE CONTROLLER
12th Floor, Municipal Services Bldg.
1401 John F. Kennedy Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA 19102
Phone: 215-686-6680
Fax: 2115-686-3832