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CityAndStatePA.com
December 15, 2016
FRANK IANNUZZI Legislative Director
OFFICE OF PHILADELPHIA CITY COUNCILMAN AT LARGE DEREK GREEN TEMPLE UNIVERSITY AND BEASLEY SCHOOL OF LAW
If you didn’t work in politics, what would you do?
Aspirationally: voice acting; actually: cooking
You could say that Frank Iannuzzi loves to talk policy, that he loves the nitty gritty of public policy. It would just be a massive understatement. In his words, policy is politics. “Some people are more worried about the competitive aspect – I don’t want to call it the ‘game’ – of politics. Others are more technocratic,” he said. “I see myself as someone who likes to sit in the overlap between those two things.” The son of a restaurant owner, Iannuzzi worked his way to a law degree through night classes at Temple University. Iannuzzi said he’s always been interested in government – in fact, he first came to Philadelphia City Council through a fellowship program run by Council President Darrell Clarke in 2012. He eventually crossed paths with longtime Councilwoman Marian Tasco, who said she needed a lawyer for her council office, and wanted him. When Tasco retired and Iannuzzi’s fellow staffer Derek Green left to run for her seat, he knew just where to turn for a policy director. During his tenure with Green, those policies have ranged from social impact bonds and publicly financed elections to medical marijuana zoning and anti-discrimination bills. His motivation, and interest in governance, is simply to help his fellow citizens. “It’s a way of helping people that I really like. To me, helping a thousand people with a new law is more fulfilling than doing that sort of one-on-one constituent service,” he said. “The real marker for me will be, ‘Have we enacted good policies?’ That’s the question I measure myself against.” – R.B.