HARRISBURG — The former financial custodian for Pennsylvania’s cash-strapped capital said he abruptly resigned in part to avoid being fired, and he told a packed courtroom that solving the city’s massive debt as a financial problem, and not a political problem, will take commitment from the state’s most powerful politicians.

David Unkovic’s testimony was allowed by Commonwealth Court Judge Bonnie Brigance Leadbetter to clear up “speculation, gossip and rumors” that followed his March 30 exit in an eyebrow-raising handwritten letter to her, she said.

The hearing before Leadbetter was scheduled so she could decide whether a retired Air Force general nominated by Gov. Tom Corbett will be Unkovic’s successor as the leader of an unprecedented state takeover of one of its cities.

Leadbetter did decide to appoint William B. Lynch, but Unkovic’s testimony was the focus of the hearing, especially because two days before he resigned he called for a federal or state investigation into the financing of a retrofit for the city’s municipal trash incinerator — a massive debt that has dragged the city into insolvency.

Under questioning by Leadbetter, Unkovic, a career municipal bond lawyer who was appointed to the job in December, said he quit partly because he had expected to be fired shortly.

But he also opened a window into the political forces surrounding the debt, suggesting that he’d been under pressure by the area’s state senator, Jeff Piccola, R-Dauphin, and a lobbyist for Dauphin County and Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp. of New York, two of Harrisburg’s biggest creditors.

They wanted him to approve a recovery plan that he did not view to be in Harrisburg’s best interests, Unkovic said.