I think we talked about a variety of issues. I'll get back to you specifically on what the contents of those issues were, but we've talked about attendance, we've talked about participation, we've talked about liaisons. Not that we want to restore all the Museum liaisons that the School District once had, but at least having an office, our Office of Cultural Affairs, who can liaison with basically museums and cultural institutions. But I'll get you a summary of what we've talked about since we got started, but our conversations have actually gone beyond just the African-American Museum. We've met with the Marian Anderson Society, for example, and a number of other institutions to partner with for purposes of enhancing our curriculum and supplement our curriculum.
You're welcome. Councilman Nutter? 170 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
First, Mr. Vallas and Mr. Harris, it would be, again, just kind of speaking for myself, it would be tremendously helpful if both at budget time and then I'll talk about other times -- I don't know when these books were produced, but I think we got the big white ones and possibly the smaller ones on Friday.
I think you received the large document on Wednesday. I believe it was delivered here on Wednesday, a week ahead of time, which I think is traditionally what happens. The executive summary/overview, I think, was here on Friday, if I'm not mistaken.
That's what I was talking about. The PowerPoint document was here on Friday, I do believe. 171 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
The larger point I guess is, whenever you produce them, it would be helpful to get them a little earlier. I'm sure you probably know, this year our process started much later. We got our City budget much later. So we're still in the midst of that and doing a few things on taxes and the like. So getting some of your information a little earlier would be helpful. The second is, the smaller book, what are you calling this?
You can call it an executive summary or an overview of the document.
Again, not to drive up your printing costs, but, I mean, there's a lot of good information both in this book and the smaller black book, and I would only suggest to you, maybe talk about it back at the shop, actually a bit of a mid-year what's going on with the School District with some of this information I think would also be very helpful.
Be happy to. I 172 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 hope this document actually was more useful than what we've presented last year, and we certainly would like to do quarterly or mid-year updates.
That would be good. Thank you. Let me ask you about the line item from with regard to the sale of administration buildings. I know it's 21st and the Parkway. I think it's -- what's that address, 734 Schuylkill?
The third building is the Stevens Building. It's a building that houses early childhood education. Its address is --
Doesn't 173 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 that have that incredible mural on it?
You might want to check on that. What's the total proceeds from the sale of the three properties? Is that the 20?
Total proceeds of the sale will be million, ballpark. That 15 appears to be what's under contract and what 16 we should expect. We expect that the closing 17 will happen -- it's scheduled to happen, I 18 believe, September of '04 to consummate the 19 deal. So that's why we were recognizing the 20 full 25 this year, but then, like I said, 21 spreading out the -- putting 20 in reserve to 22 be used over a course of the next four years. 23
Yes, because what 174 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 we did was, we recognized the 25 in the revenues and we netted 20 back out there in the bracket and then spread that 20 over the next four years. So we absorbed five into the '05 column.
Okay. And you are then going to consolidate everyone into space on North Broad Street?
The all-in project cost is 80 million. I did not bring the detailed project budget with me. It is a project under project management with the SRC and we can bring you the project detail and project budget from that.
The purchase of the building, yes. We're in the process of doing build-out right now and actually to take possession of the building, I believe, moving 175 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 December of '04.
No. It's going to be at least an eight-month process to, I think, fully move everybody from the three buildings.
I'm sorry. Well, what did you say was going to happen in December?
I think we will take possession of the building, officially purchase the building and take possession of it. Right now the contractor is doing interior build-out and tenant improvements and going through that phase right now.
I think IT starts moving in in December of '04 and the final move-out will be somewhere around August of '05. I'm doing this off the top of my head, but I believe that's the schedule.
And you 176 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 said the total project. Is that renovations plus purchase price?
I don't recall -- again, I did not bring that project budget with me. If I say a number, I'm going to guess. I think it was around -- but let 11 me -- if you indulge me, I'll get the actual 12 project budget back to you, because I don't 13 want to misstate for the record. 14
We have secured 17 $80 million in financing. We have taken as 18 part of our capital -- not as part of our 19 capital improvement program, but as part of 20 two of our borrowings this year -- actually, it's spread across three borrowings. I apologize. We took 20 million out of our Dauphin County initial borrowing, 20 million out of our state public school building 177 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 authority borrowing and the SRC has authorized us to engage in an additional hundred million dollar borrowing from Dauphin that we'll take another 40 out of. So total is $80 million that we have borrowed for this project.
No. This is like any other capital improvement. I mean, we are using it for the purchase and build-out of the property.
Yes, we do. Again, that's built into the project budget. I do apologize. I just didn't bring that with me. It's not intentional, but it's built in.
Can you provide to the Chair all the information related to that?
Absolutely. Yes. It absolutely has an operational savings as well as a debt service cost to it. 178 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Also, notice I decided not to provide any commentary on that question.
I greatly appreciate that. I really do. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam President. I have a couple of questions regarding teachers and certification, recruitment and retention. And in your comments in the black book, the School District of Philadelphia Budget Presentation book, you say that, under Certification for 2004, percentage of new teachers highly qualified is at 73 percent. What is the School District's definition of highly qualified teachers and what are the educational requirements? 179 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Highly qualified refers to a teacher who is certified by the state, number one. Number two, the state is also allowing us to include as highly qualified a teacher who is in an approved intern certification program. So, for example, the teachers who we brought in from Teach for America, the 97 who are with us, they are considered highly qualified because they are under intern certificates. That means they've taken most of their licensing exams, most of the Praxis exams. They are not fully certified, but it's what we refer to as the No 16 Child Left Behind highly qualified loophole where you're not fully certified, but you got most of the work done.
Okay. What is the salary range of a highly qualified teacher, the certified teachers?
I'd say about 90 percent of our teachers are considered highly qualified. So you're talking about on the high side of the spectrum. 180 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Right. The salaries start at about 35, 36,000. I think actually 37. $37,000 plus, and they can run into the 60's. They top out at about $68,000, I thought which was the top. There may be some exceptions to that, but they range from about 37,000 to about $68,000.
What is an emergency permit? And you said emergency permits are at 27 percent. What is the process for issuance of an emergency permit?
An emergency permit is issued when, let's say, a person who wants to change careers comes into the District. We apply for an emergency permit for them. They are enrolled in a certification program, but have yet to complete the Praxis exams. So they are not in an approved certification program, although they are in an approved program at a local university.
Okay. So how long does that permit last? How long is it valid?
It varies. I mean, 181 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 we have up to two years where the state allows us to issue emergency permits for teachers.
All right. Thank you. I have other questions, but I'm just going to wait until Monday, Madam Chair.
That will be fine. I think we have Councilwoman Brown and Councilman Nutter and then we're going to recess until then, unless they would like to wait until Monday. Their choice. All right. Councilwoman Brown and then, Councilman Nutter, it will be your turn. Councilwoman Miller, it's up to you, but Monday would be fine. Councilwoman Brown?
Sure. I'll go back to the issue of arts education. I do know that -- no. Let me go back to the issue of violence in the schools. We learned last week that the District Attorney's $100,000 for her truancy program is very much in jeopardy because of cuts to her department, and my side-bar 182 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 conversation with her was to have a conversation with you since we know -- we know what happens if we catch young people at the truancy stage and what doesn't happen. Have you had a chance to have a conversation with District Attorney Lynn Abraham around the potential discontinuation of that program?
I met with her a couple of weeks ago at the request of Representative Evans, who is the point person on this legislative task force, to come up with solutions for problems of violence in the community, and we touched on that, but we actually went over a whole host of proposals that we're going to present collectively to that committee. So we actually -- I view this working group -- because they're scheduled to reconvene, I believe, later on this month and, in fact, it's my understanding that it may be hosted by the Governor. But we were tasked with coming up with specific recommendations that the 183 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 Legislature could respond to designed to alleviate violence in the communities, and I believe the funding for that will probably be one of those items.
Yeah. I'm sure that will be on a list of a number of things that we will request to the Legislature that they provide support for. Because if you remember in -- not only was Lynn Abraham there, but Sylvester Johnson was there, U.S. Attorney Neeham was there, Vince Fumo, John Perzel and others.
They said specifically that they will fund initiatives that they feel can have a positive impact. So we're going to include that item among a list of recommendations that we're going to submit to the task force.
The reason why that resonates for me is, when I hear in 184 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 your testimony that the number of young people in the alternative schools is going from 850 to, I think you said, 3,500, it just -- it begs the question for the need for a truancy program.
I agree. There's 2,800 students in alternative placement right now. Let me point out that about half of those students, they're in alternative placement because of Act 88, which bars us from allowing individuals who have been released from correctional facilities to return to their neighborhood schools. So that's why the number is what it is. But I agree with you 100 percent, we have got to invest more resources in truancy, and the School District can't do it alone. So I'm with you, and that is one of a number of initiatives that we're going to at least present to the working group when they meet again later on in the month.
Okay. The bell hasn't rung yet, so let me go to arts. I learned that the Art Museum at one 185 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 point prior to your arrival, the Philadelphia Public School District supported two arts teachers at the Museum for an after-school arts program, wonderful program, and that no 6 longer exists. So I am asking you, as you move to achieving the operational budget goals of the next five years, if you will relook at and particularly as you move to standardizing the arts curriculum, relook at the possibility of involving the Philadelphia Art Museum and their two art teachers that they had there.
Before this budget is done, we'll get back to you specifically on that proposal.
Okay. Vocational programs: To what extent is training in the vocational trades offered in our schools? A lot of questions have been raised around the decline of vocational training options for young people.
Let me respond very quickly, and just indulge me with the answer here because some of these questions require more than a yes or no answer. 186 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 We're revamping vocational ed like we're revamping everything else. Those who have said vocational ed have declined are absolutely right, not only in terms of quantity but also in quality. Our approach towards vocational ed is to, first of all, get rid of the junk that's there and to reinvest in the programs that work, number one. Number two, expand our relationship with the academies, the Philadelphia academies, but expand that relationship in the legitimate programs, because every program can be streamlined. Number three, to expand the number of out-of-school placements for our vocational education. Craig Williams is joining me quickly. What we want to do is, we want to buy classroom space in vocational and technical educational institutions off campus. So that when you're in your junior and senior year, just as we're enrolling seniors in universities for dual credit, we want to begin, and we've begun this this year and 187 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 we're going to be expanding it next year, we want to enroll our juniors and seniors in off-campus vocational and technical educational programs. This is one of the reasons we're partnering with city colleges, community colleges in setting up like a five-year high school diploma and Associate's degree program. The final thing that we're going to do, if you can just indulge me, is, we are obviously going to build a new Dobbins High School and perhaps revamp Bok so we can have more quality vocational educational programs. So Dobbins in particular is on the drawing board. We're going to, in effect, replace the old school with a new school on that same campus, and we've already approached a number of the trades, including Johnny Dougherty and others, to basically put together a planning group so when it's built, there is no --
There's a pipeline. They help us design it, they help 188 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 us equip it, they help us staff it. So those are the things that we're going to be doing and that we've begun to do in vocational ed.
That addresses my final question on that, what relationship is being put in place with the building trades so that we don't hear the horror stories we hear now, young people get the vocational training and there's no place for them to go.
That's right. I have to make one point, though. It's very important that the nature of vocational ed, just like the nature of automotive mechanics and as the nature of most blue collar jobs, they necessitate -- a prerequisite is 10th to 11th grade reading and math mastery. So the bottom line is, we've got to -- unlike 20, 30 years ago, there's no 22 substitute for mastery of math or mastery of language arts if our young people are even going to get into these vocational and technical education jobs. 189 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 In order to become an automotive mechanic, where or 30 years ago you didn't 4 need any technology skills, you need it now. 5 You didn't need math skills or language arts 6 skills. You need literally an 11th grade math 7 mastery to get into legitimate, quality 8 automotive mechanic programs, you see. 9 So a big focus on our curriculum 10 reforms will help expand vocational 11 opportunities for our kids, because they'll 12 have the prerequisites for getting into these 13 programs. 14
Did you 15 want to add anything, Mr. Craig Williams? 16
Yes. Craig 17 Williams, Deputy Chief Academic Office. 18 A tremendous amount of work has 19 already taken place with the upgrading of our 20 vocational and technical education programs. Currently we have about 179 programs throughout the City. This year we've made a substantial investment in the amount of equipment and the upgrading of supplies and all of the things 190 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 that we know that are necessary to make those programs current. So we're well on the way, and we envision within a two-year framework that we would have developed some very serious quality vocational technical education programs with the kinds of laboratories and equipments needed that are necessary to carry those young people forward.
I visited Swenson and it's a five-star, in that it is well equipped and great options with the tools for those young people there. So to know that that's going to become universal with Bok and a couple of the others, that's progress.
Absolutely. We're very pleased with that. And might I note, I think Chairman Nevels indicated our new partnership with Sunoco where we're going to add there will be 180 programs with Sunoco with the Petroleum Academy that we're going to put in the Bok High School.
Very well. Thank you. 191 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 Thank you, Madam Chair.
You're welcome. You will provide us with the minority participation goals for our new schools, too, correct?
Thank you. One small issue. Would you have somebody confirm that the Librarian Association is clear for games at West Philly High on Saturday, the 15th and Saturday, July 24th? They can call me on that.
Thank you. Councilman Nutter, you, sir, are the last speaker today.
That's a wonderful feeling. So, Madam Chair, I can have the rest of the afternoon?
That's a different question. 192 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Oh, okay. Mr. Vallas, we've established what the budget is. You and I have had some discussion about the individual schools. I don't want to talk about the one that we discussed the other day. What I do want to talk about is, I've received inquiries from a variety of schools in my district with regard to, quote/unquote, cuts in their respective budgets, and part of what I'm trying to grapple with here is, given the District's finances, which on the one hand are pretty decent, on the other hand realistically they are not perfect, why would certain schools be experiencing, quote/unquote, cuts in personnel areas, whether it's library services or music or art or some of the other programs. And so I'd like to frame the question in the context of, are there now standards for each school with regard to art, music, physical education, sports programs and library services that no 23 matter what else is going on in the school, there is a certain minimum amount of service that should be provided, and why would anyone 193 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 be getting a cut given the present fund balance of $118 million?
Right. Fund balances are designed to sustain budgets over multiple years, not a single year. So the worst thing you can do is spend on your fund balance in a single year. But let me point out that with regards to standards, there are now standards for our core curriculum subject areas, and we're in the process of developing or refining our standards for our art and music programs, which, incidentally, we're restoring, we're not cutting. There's no cuts in music teachers, there's no cuts in art teachers. The trick for us is trying to figure out how we can get more art and music teachers into the schools within our current budget constraints. And we're certainly going to be purchasing new musical instruments and things 194 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 like that. But let me point out with regards to libraries, there is not a standard for -- we do not provide libraries for the elementary schools. So if the libraries -- if there are librarians in -- I mean the librarians. If there are librarians in the elementary schools, it's because the schools have elected to have a librarian. They can have a librarian or they can have a LIMA, which is a --
Why wouldn't we have or insure that there is a librarian in an elementary school?
Well, quite frankly, because we would prefer to spend the money in class size reduction rather than putting libraries in all the schools. We can't afford it. So the old Board had eliminated all librarians throughout the School District. I restored the librarians in the high schools, but in the elementary schools, we decided to focus on class size reduction and we told the 195 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 schools that if they wanted to hire a librarian or a LIMA, which is like a less -- an aide. It's an aide who can also basically do elementary school librarian work. It's a less expensive position -- they would need to do so with their Title I money. So as you pointed out --
Isn't it true that some schools have also experienced changes in Title I funding, deseg funding and --
And based on very clear formulas. Let me point out that if schools lost money, this is how they lost money: The most obvious and the most major impact on their budgets is, if they lose students, they lose money. That's number one. Number two, a school's budget might have been affected by the modification in the Title I minimum funding guarantee. Last year we did something that was unprecedented. We 196 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 raised the minimum funding level for Title I students in all schools from $75,000 a school to $250,000. The argument being made that all of our schools have at least 37 percent poverty, so all of the schools should have some discretionary Title I money. And we also rationalized that by arguing that since we were pumping $90 million of support programs into the schools, that would be a small minimum standard to set. We were threatened with legal challenges from a number of organizations who claimed that we had no right to do this and claimed that -- well, whatever. So we decided to negotiate a compromise with them that, in effect, lowered that minimum funding level from 250,000 to 175,000. The bottom line is, it's still $100,000 higher than it was two years ago. It's just $75,000 lower than it was last year. That could have also affected some of the school's funding levels. The third way that schools might have had their funding impacted is, obviously 197 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 their Title I numbers change because of change in poverty. And then the fourth way that they might have been impacted is through the change in the special education formula. And what we did for the first time, long overdue, was, we said the special education monies are going to be allocated to the schools based on the number of special education kids, because under the old formula, schools got money based on the demographics. So you could be a magnet school with select enrollment and you would be getting a ton of money in special education dollars despite the fact that you only had a handful of special education kids. To hold the schools harmless through the changeover in this formula, we provided all the schools with, in effect, a funding guarantee. We provided them with at least 75 percent of all the money that they had received the previous year, and then we went into the individual budgets and made additional adjustments just beyond that 75 percent hold harmless so that we would 198 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 minimize the City's loss and the School District's loss in revenue. I have effectively run you out time. I apologize for that, but those are the four ways that the schools could have been impacted.
I appreciate your apology. I think, though, that we've reached that point in the day where the bell may not actually save you.
Thank you. Well, as I indicated, a number of schools in various parts of my district are reaching out, mostly parents, concerned about -- are we still providing what in the past was referred to as the non-teaching assistants or did we get rid of those a while ago? 199 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Last year we eliminated a number of SSA positions and literacy interns and we purchased 500 new teachers. But there's been no change in those positions this year. We haven't done any additional cuts this year. We haven't restored those cuts, because we have a lot of support staff in schools and better hire a teacher than have a literacy intern and an SSA, where we can afford to do that.
Supportive services, the teacher aides, teacher assistants, the positions that I thought you were referring to.
No. No. If schools are laying off NTAs, they're doing it on their own. We don't necessarily -- the schools get an allocation, but schools fund most of the NTAs themselves. They buy the NTAs themselves. 200 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Well, if they don't have them, why wouldn't they be providing them or why would they be getting rid of them? I mean, obviously, there's something going on at their individual school at the budget level that causes them to make these decisions.
If you give us the name of any one of those individual schools, I'll tell you specifically how much money they lost and why. And, once again, it's probably due to enrollment changes, number one. Number two, it might be due to the fact that the special education formula change might have impacted them, which is long overdue.
I understand that, but I thought I heard you earlier talk about a hold harmless provision and --
That doesn't mean -- I mean, they might have lost $20,000. That's the cost of an NTA. So while we held them harmless, we didn't hold them 100 percent harmless. We held them 75 percent harmless 201 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 with some adjustment above that.
Okay. Well, the two I have here are talking about NTAs, school police officers, assistant principal and the librarian. As I indicated, you and I have had other discussions about similar situations. So I guess what we may have to, unfortunately, do is go through each of the schools --
-- and see what's going on at the school level with regard to their budgets and what they have, what funding they have available for purchase of services and why they don't have certain things. Now, at the same time, I know we've had some discussion today about safety and security. Is there a safety or security plan for each individual school?
All the schools are supposed to have a school safety and security plan, just like they're supposed to have a school improvement plan. 202 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Okay. How often are they updated? How often are they reviewed?
So we know for a fact that each school has a safety and security plan?
Well, they better. We actually go in and we do evaluations. We do our own school audits. When we do quality reviews, we look at the school improvement plans, and that not only includes the academic plan, but the teacher recruitment and retention plan, as well as the safety plan or the student behavior plan.
In one of these documents, maybe it's the small black book, there is a section on safety and security. Tell me a little bit about, what happens out of these many incidents that are reported? I mean, some of which are obviously pretty serious. Half of them involve assaults on either other students or a teacher, and you've got hate crimes, bomb threats and a 203 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 variety of other issues. Tell me what happens or do you have any information with regard to, I guess, it's Tab 10? How many people have been prosecuted for these things and what were the results?
Dexter Green, School Safety. Last year alone, approximately 3,600 kids were arrested in our schools, and part of the reason we ended up on the persistently dangerous list was because of those arrests.
There are different levels of prosecution. In some cases, the cases are discharged. In other cases -- if the kid brings a gun to school, in most cases they're incarcerated.
Okay. Can you get to us, to the Chair, an analysis of -- you've got and in Tab 10 of the 204 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 small black book. I'd be interested to know what the follow-up is on these incidents.
And I'm going to let Ms. Morris take some of this. Again, some of this ends up in prosecution and then some of the cases will end up in disciplinary action -- all the cases end up in disciplinary action.
Let me point out that the reason that we have 2,800 students in alternative schools is regardless of what action the courts take regarding the students, even if they're arrested and they're found innocent, if they have violated school policies, that does not preclude them -- that does not prevent us from expelling them to alternative schools. So the reason we have 2,800 students in alternative schools, at least insofar as the schools' discipline policies are concerned, we're enforcing our discipline.
Okay. I just 205 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 wanted to add that in terms of those violent incidents, most of those youngsters are the youngsters in alternative schools. We're different somewhat with youngsters that are under the age of 10. Those youngsters cannot be arrested. Typically we will process those youngsters through the Office of Alternative Ed. If those youngsters are violent or dangerous to other students, we will remove those youngsters to other settings, but not to the traditional alternative schools.
For 2003-2004, you have a total of 5,424 incidents. Would you be able to provide to us since you've made a great distinction between the under 10 --
Could you split those out for these incidents just for that one year between the under 10 and over 10 category?
We could divide it 206 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 up K to by incident, the number of youngsters that were suspended, the number of youngsters that were expelled, and if there were other actions that were taken, we can provide that for you.
Okay. But you would do it based on the way you've laid out the chart?
Yeah. We do that. We should also try to break it out based on incidents that occur in the schools and outside the schools, because our discipline policy is hours a day, meaning if you're 16 caught with a dangerous weapon on Sunday, 17 you'll be facing expulsion on Monday. 18 I also want to point out, though, 19 for definition purposes, we probably have the 20 broadest definition of serious incidents in 21 terms of reporting requirements as any school 22 district in the country. So threats, throwing 23 an orange, I mean, the bottom line is, we're 24 very aggressive and we probably arrest more aggressively than any other school district, 207 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 too. That doesn't mean that the police follow up with a police arrest, but just one slight example, in Philadelphia, we arrest for every two and a half students. In Allegheny County, which is Pittsburgh, they have one arrest for every 95 serious incidents. So the bottom line is, we do a lot of follow-through, and even though you may not end up being arrested by the Philly police or prosecuted, we initiate disciplinary action so at least we have a record.
Okay. In going through your budget, even though I commented that I only received it the other day, your format is slightly different than the City format. So I could not for the moment find -- the way the City budget is laid out by department, you can go into the departmental detail and it will tell you about private contractual services and lay out who the contractor is, what it's for and the dollar amount. Quickly going through this, the big 208 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 book, I could not find that. Where would I find those kinds of contracts in this book?
I don't know that they are broken out that way in this book. I think there's a summary up front which we'll refer to, but while Wayne is looking for it, let me say that in all my years, this is the most unwieldy document I've ever seen. We are instituting a new budget program this year. It's currently underway, and we plan on next year to have a much more usable, readable, informative document. This simply is -- it doesn't provide -- I mean, it's a lot of pages without providing clear information, and I am not pleased with it myself. But it's what we inherited at the moment, so...
We're pleased with the budget. We're not pleased with the format. Next year we'll be pleased with the format.
The way we show it is not the best. 209 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 Page A-24, it does not break out -- there's nowhere in this document that breaks out individual firms, contractors or contracts. We can provide that through the documents that -- our contracts through purchasing and our limited contract authority. Certainly we can provide you a whole report off of that, but it's not in the budget document.
A-24 has broken out professional and contractual expenses, computer contract expenses, contractual labor expenses, but I think that's as low as this detail goes on this.
So is there a document somewhere that would tell us -- you're estimating $14 million in professional and consultant expenses, plus another $16 million in professional and consultant fees. 210 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Yes. I can give you the background of that. It's not in this document, though.
It may be the difference between -- I don't know. Let me find out what the differentiation is. It may be the difference between law firms and other firms, but I don't know. So what we can do is give you the background report that supports these two numbers. Obviously they're exact numbers, so there's supporting documentation we can provide for you by Monday.
Is this page, A-24, a summary of all of your outside contracts?
Categorical budgets and capital. 211 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Is there a document somewhere in this budget that would show -- you said categorical and what else?
For instance, consultant contracts through -- if we consult with PEF, contract with Philadelphia Education Fund, under Title I or under any of the -- say the Accountability grant, that's not reflected here because those are categorical grants. This is simply operating.
They are not in 212 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 this document. This document does not incorporate categorical expenditures either.
I know you've only been there for a little while, but is this the same budget that goes to the SRC?
How can you put together a budget that doesn't show who you're contracting with?
Well, some of the contracts are going to be prospective. I mean, they'll be subject to RFPs and ongoing process. So I don't think there's any budget document that can provide you sort of a lock-in ahead of time all your consultants and contractors unless you have multi-year agreements with them, which really we don't.
Well, no. 20 I understand that, but you would probably show either on the executive side or in these categories you're talking about a lump sum amount that you anticipate spending. You may not have identified the contractor, but you know you're going to provide for the service. 213 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
Councilman, what we can do is also run a report that shows -- under each of these blue pages under each agency, there is contracted services, professional/technical. Turn to any page and there is three categories of contracted services, professional/technical, property and transportation and other.
No. I saw those, but they didn't tell me who was getting the money.
Look, we can do two things. Pick a category and a department or program and we can pull the contracts for it. We can also give you a list of all the contracts approved by the SRC, because it's recorded in the manner that the SRC approves those contracts. So, for example, if you want to know in the Office of Accountability what they're spending their contractual service money on and who the contractors are, we can print that out.
And I can do that 214 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 for '02 and '03, but I'm saying for '04, there may be some that are already determined, but there's probably a great number of them that haven't been determined and will be determined through Kim Sangster's process.
For '04-'05. But for the first two columns, '02 and '03, those are historical numbers and we can show you what was spent out of those and show you the list of --
But you must have some idea of who you're probably going to contract with for services next year because you probably are contracting with them this year.
It depends. Some we want to get rid of as well. So we basically -- yes. There are some multi-year contracts that -- I can --
Why don't we do this: Again, not that ours is the Holy 215 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262 Grail or Ten Commandments or anything else, but if you -- we're going through the budget process at the same time. If you look at the City budget, we know in the departments who is lined up to get what, what is the contract for, what's their name, dollar amount, and it tells us if they've got anything in the past couple years, even though most of them are technically one-year contracts. We just --
That's the format I'm used to seeing, but this is not the format we inherited. But I can give you a background report and promise you that in the upcoming document.
Is that the $2 million figure that has trash and rubbish removal?
Was that in place when you arrived? 216 Whole - 5/11/04 - Bills 040259, 040260, 040262
And am I correct that at some previous point in time, the City of Philadelphia used to pick up trash of the District?
My understanding is either yes, they did or there certainly have been discussions to that effect. Yeah. Jim can -- yes, they did. When did they stop? Five years ago is when we started paying our own way. Did we reimburse the City? There was a reimbursement to the City.
And going out in the private sector you were able to save a significant amount of money; is that --