Philadelphia announced that the city's finance director, Janice Davis, willleave to become Atlanta's next chief financial officer, taking the position during oneof Atlanta's busiest borrowing years in some time.
Philadelphia Mayor John Street, who said Davis is expected to stay onboard through thesummer, made the announcement late Tuesday. He said Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin hasrecommended Davis for the position. She would replace Rick Anderson, who has beenAtlanta's CFO since 2002.
The Atlanta City Council must still confirm Davis, as she would report to the council aswell as to the mayor.
Davis would bring finance experience from a myriad of jobs she's had during her career.Street credited her with re-engineering the operations of the Philadelphia Gas Works andrestructuring the city's relationships with the Philadelphia School District.
Davis was unavailable to comment yesterday, and no one from Franklin's office returnedcalls to discuss the mayor's selection, which was announced earlier this week. Lastmonth, The Bond Buyer reported that Davis was one of the candidates in the running forAtlanta's CFO position.
Davis would be the second CFO to serve under Franklin's administration. In October,Davis confirmed that her office was among several in Philadelphia searched as part of awide-ranging Federal Bureau of Investigations probe into corruption in city government.At the time, federal agents requested various financial documents from the financedirector's office.
Philadelphia's acting treasurer John Nacchio said Davis' departure should not interferewith plans to sell about $150 million in new-money debt along with up to $75 million ofrefunding bonds on behalf of PGW in July or August. But he said it will be difficult toreplace Davis.
"What I find uncanny is her ability to understand the full situation with only a traceof information," Nacchio said. "I think she's going to be missed as part of a veryimportant team in Philadelphia."
Davis, if confirmed, would assume the position with Atlanta as it is in the midst ofseveral large financings. Just this month the city completed issuing almost $750 millionof revenue bonds for Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and there are tentativeplans to sell an additional $1 billion of debt for the airport by the end of the year.
One of the next transactions could entail the sale of commercial paper, which would be afirst for the city or for any Georgia issuer. Authorization for Georgia issuers to usecommercial paper was just signed into law last month.
Davis also will have to deal with one of the most pressing financial issues facingAtlanta - funding more than $3 billion of water and sewer system repairs. Approximately$700 million of water and wastewater bonds could be coming to market at about the timeDavis comes to Atlanta. The deal has been in the works for months, and officials are nowpreparing for feasibility studies.
Anderson said that Davis would also be on board as budget deliberations for fiscal 2005,which starts Jan. 1, get underway. He said that he intends to work with the city throughDavis' first day, and will then stay for a short period during the transition. He isalso considering doing contractual work for the city.
After that, he said, "I will re-retire," pointing out that he was already semi-retiredwhen he agreed to be Atlanta's CFO.
The job has been challenging but Anderson says there are several things he is proud of.
First and foremost is restoring fiscal balance to the city. For the third year in a row,Atlanta is on track to end this fiscal year with an operating surplus. Three years maynot seem like a lot, but for a city that for 20 years has had more deficits at the endof the year than it has had surpluses, this is a major accomplishment, Anderson said.
Jill D'Ambrosio contributed to this story.
