No Green-Katz City Council ticket in November

It was an interesting prospect — three-time Philadelphia mayoral candidate and current School Reform Commissioner Bill Green running as a slate for City Council at large this fall. But it’s not happening.

Katz has confirmed to me that while he was intrigued with the idea, running for Council is the wrong move at this point in his life.

“At the end of the day, I felt that there will be better ways for me at this stage of life to contribute to policy debate in the city and civic life,” Katz said.

Katz, 67, is producing a video history of the city.

What coulda beenKatz and Green both registered as independents this spring, and both considered third-party mayoral runs.

After they decided against it, Green proposed that they form an alliance to shake up City Council.The city charter ensures that two of Council’s seven at-large seats will go to minority parties, since each party can nominate only five candidates.

For decades those two seats went to Republicans.

To win, Katz and Green would need only to muster more votes that the Republican with the most votes in the race. In 2011, that threshold was 48,675 votes, far less than the 110,000 it would have taken to beat the most vulnerable Democrat.

Some of the possibilities were ably presented Sunday by our bud Patrick Kerkstra at PhillyMag.

But Katz has decided he won’t run, and Green isn’t going on his own.

“Without multiple voices like mine on Council, I would be spitting into the wind, sometimes, but rarely, effectively,”Green wrote in an email last night. “My highest and best use is on the SRC at this point.”

That leaves former city transportation official Andrew Stober and Green Party candidate Kristin Combs as the two declared independent candidates for Council at large.

While they lack the name recognition of Green and Katz, both are determined.

They’ll begin by presenting nominating petitions, which are due Monday.