John Street says it's time for Sam Katz to stop bragging about the role he played as an adviser to the newly minted Rendell administration on how to dig the city out of its financial crisis in early 1992.

In a lively exchange between the two mayoral candidates on KYW NewsRadio yesterday morning, Street said Katz had "no significant involvement either in the writing or the selling" of the five-year plans that Katz's firm, Public Financial Management, helped the city to develop.

For Democrat Street, the story of the city's financial recovery is a tale with a happy ending, starring himself and Mayor Rendell. In the Street version, Republican Katz doesn't have even a bit part. But Katz, seated next to Street at the radio station during the hour-long debate, shot back that Street had forced the Rendell administration and PFM to keep Katz away "because you were so threatened by my presence."

The back-and-forth between the two candidates was the latest in a series of joint appearances during which the two men have been honing their messages at the other's expense. Lately, Street has been hammering Katz as a Republican who's yoked to the state and national agendas of his party.

Katz contended yesterday that Street's harping on party affiliation "is merely a crutch for a campaign that has lost its way." But Street wasn't about to give up the portrait he's trying to paint: Katz might have been a financial consultant when he traveled the country drumming up business for his company, but in Philadelphia he was viewed as a Republican politician, pure and simple.

"You are now misleading the public into thinking that you did the five-year plan," Street said. Katz said he had been involved behind the scenes until "Mr. Street informed the mayor that my presence is no longer acceptable, but the fact of the matter is that I was the CEO of a company that consistently advised the mayor and I provided help to my company in the course of doing that."

Street urged listeners to call F. John White Jr., the principal at PFM who handled most of the city consulting work, to get a first-hand account of how little Katz, who left the company several years ago, had been involved in the city's recovery. (F. John White Jr. is a former business parter of Katz and is no relation to John White Jr., who ran unsuccessfully for mayor in the Democratic primary earlier this year and is now supporting Katz for mayor.)

F. John White, who is supporting Street, said Katz's role was indeed minimal, "and billing records would show that."

White said that he had been the company's principal executive on the project and that Katz worked on the city plan only during the first year. As for any demands by Street to keep Katz away, White said, "I don't think that John Street feels threatened about anything, particularly matters of municipal finance."

Rendell said he had no recollection of any such prohibition being communicated to the administration or the company. David L. Cohen, Rendell's chief of staff at the time and a Street supporter, said he could not recall any conversation about excluding Katz from private meetings. Indeed, there were few meetings of top-level city and company personnel, though Cohen recalls at least one at which Katz was present.

Within days of the 1991 election, Cohen said Rendell announced PFM's role in helping the city. Katz, who had run for mayor in 1991, was specifically present at the announcement for symbolic reasons. "We wanted to be bipartisan," Cohen said. "And Sam was a centerpiece of the news conference, precisely because he was a Republican."

In general, high-level meetings were limited to Rendell, Street and Cohen, the former chief of staff said.

Staff writer Dave Davies contributed to this report.