Philadelphia officials this week demanded that D.C. Inspector General Charles Willoughby retract an audit that accuses a former District planning director, now a deputy mayor in Philadelphia, of an ethics violation.
The District’s IG concluded in a July 31 report that Andrew Altman, former chief of the now-defunct , violated rules in 2005 when he signed a contract for real estate management services with a firm that had used him as a reference in its bid, and included a partner who was said to have formerly worked under Altman.
Altman, who led the public development outfit for 10 months in 2005 and previously directed the D.C. Office of Planning, is now the deputy mayor for planning and economic development under Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter.
“The accusation unfairly and without basis sullies the sterling reputation of Mr. Altman, who is held in the highest regard by both the [Nutter] administration and the public Mr. Altman serves here in Philadelphia,” Joan Markman, Philadelphia’s chief integrity officer, and Amy Kurland, the city’s inspector general, wrote this week in a letter to Willoughby.
They called on Willoughby to reissue the audit “with a retraction of your conclusion that Mr. Altman committed any ethics violation in his service…”
“We will respond to the letter,” said Austin Andersen, D.C. deputy inspector general. “But we are standing by the findings in our report.”
The audit concluded that Altman’s actions raised the “appearance of conflict of interest or impropriety” and did constitute an “ethics violation.” Altman should have had no involvement in the deal with Hamilton, Rabinovitz & Alschuler, auditors said, which ultimately paid out nearly $1 million for services the IG could not substantiate.
But the Philadelphia officials charged that D.C.’s findings, which The Examiner first reported earlier this month, were “simply not true.”
They claim the partner at the real estate firm never worked for Altman, but had a contract to provide advice to Altman during his time in the city planning office. And while the firm may have listed Altman as a reference, Philadelphia officials wrote, there is no evidence to suggest Altman even knew his name had been included as a reference in the company’s pitch.
The Philadelphia officials said they based their response on interviews with Altman and a partner in the firm involved in the questionable deal, “neither of whom, surprisingly, was contacted by your office about this matter.”
The Anacostia Waterfront Corp. was a quasi-independent agency charged with guiding the redevelopment of real estate fronting the Anacostia River until its dissolution in 2007.
