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Alan Butkovitz, City Controller

In his second 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.

During his first term, Controller Butkovitz's investigations and audits have identified more than $400 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.

Butkovitz won national recognition for his audit of Philadelphia's Emergency Medical Service (EMS) - which found EMS units were arriving late forty percent of the time - and made recommendations for the city to re-coup millions in lost revenues from private insurance carriers.

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 be 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. As a freshman lawmaker in 1991, Butkovitz led the fight against his own party and successfully repealed a tax that required senior citizens to include social security, pensions and veteran’s benefits as taxable income.

It was Butkovitz’s proposal to create harsher penalties for drunk drivers who kill that became law and mandates ten year prison terms for any drunk driver who causes an automobile accident that results in a death.

Butkovitz was also widely praised for leading a three-year bipartisan investigation into violence in Philadelphia public schools. He authored legislation 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 and monitor the School District of Philadelphia’s compliance with the Safe Schools Act.

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 and their two children Rachel and Edward.