Wharton leaders will try to help city out of financial jam

A former Wharton administrator and a former Wharton professor are beginning their work as appointees to the state's newly created Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, trying to obtain bonds for a city judged a risky investment by many. Carol Gassert Carroll, a Wharton graduate and eleven-year University administrator, and Bernard Anderson, a Wharton graduate and fourteen-year faculty member, were appointed to the five-member board last month. The Authority was created to oversee Philadelphia's budget plans during the city's current fiscal crisis and help assure outside lenders of the goverment's stability. But the board is empowered to withhold millions in state funding from Philadelphia if it is dissatisfied with the city's fiscal progress. Carroll was the first official named to the authority, when she was appointed by State Senate Democratic Floor Leader Robert Mellow in early June. Carroll served as a Wharton administrator from 1974 to 1985. She received her MBA from the school in 1980 and served as the Director of the school's Executive MBA Program. She currently directs Schulco, Inc., a computer training and consulting company based in West Conshohocken, PA. It was from this position that she met Senator Mellow, when her firm was responsible for computer in his Harrisburg office. In a press statement released last month, Mellow said that Carroll is "uniquely qualified to serve in this critically important position." Bernard Anderson is the other member on the five-person council with ties to the Wharton school. A Wharton doctoral graduate and a professor 1969 to 1983, he was named to the Authority last month as Governor Robert Casey's appointee. Anderson, an urban economic expert, said last month that Philadelphia's fiscal problems will be around for a long time to come. "It's a problem that has built up over time," Anderson said. "It's been exacerbated by the reduction of federal assistance." Anderson described a city that is still undergoing a painful long-run transition from a manufacturing to a service economy, while in the short run facing the effects of the national recession and its effects on employment. As if to indicate Philadelphia's frailty before this recession, rates of employment started to decline in Philadelphia over six months prior the rest of nation, Anderson said. He also said the recession has meant a soft real estate market due to a lack of businesses to fill the buildings popping up along Philadelphia's skyline. And on the horizon, Anderson said research indicates that employment growth in the suburbs is likely to continue outpacing growth in the city, but that the gap between the two may eventually narrow.

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