COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Monday, May 5, 2025 10:10 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT KENYATTA JOHNSON COUNCILWOMAN NINA AHMAD COUNCILWOMAN CINDY BASS COUNCILWOMAN KENDRA BROOKS COUNCILMAN MICHAEL DRISCOLL COUNCILWOMAN JAMIE GAUTHIER COUNCILWOMAN KATHERINE GILMORE RICHARDSON COUNCILMAN JIM HARRITY COUNCILMAN CURTIS JONES, JR. COUNCILWOMAN RUE LANDAU COUNCILWOMAN QUETCY M. LOZADA COUNCILMAN NICOLAS O'ROURKE COUNCILMAN ANTHONY PHILLIPS COUNCILMAN MARK SQUILLA COUNCILMAN ISAIAH THOMAS COUNCILMAN JEFFREY YOUNG, JR. BILLS: 250195, 250196, 250197, 250198, 250199, 250200, 250201, 250202, 250210, 250211, 250212 RESOLUTION: 250214 - - -
This is the public hearing and the meeting of the Committee of the Whole regarding Bill Nos. 250195, 250196, 250197, 250198, 250199, 250200, 250201, 250202, 250210, 250211, 250212 and Resolution No. 250214. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the roll and take attendance please.
Present. Thank you. A quorum of the Committee is present. This hearing is now called to order. Ms. Loughead, will you please read the titles of the resolutions.
Bill No. 11 Bill No. 250195, an ordinance 12 amending Chapter 19-1500 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Wage and Net Profits Tax," by revising certain tax rates, under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250196, an ordinance adopting the Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2026. Bill No. 250197, an ordinance to adopt a Fiscal 2026 Capital Budget. Bill No. 250198, an ordinance to adopt a Capital Program for the six Fiscal Years 2026-2031 inclusive. Bill No. 250199, an ordinance amending Chapter 19-2600 of The Philadelphia Tax Code, entitled "Business Income and Receipts Taxes," to revise certain tax rates and end certain exclusions from the tax on receipts, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250200, an ordinance amending Chapter 12-100 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Traffic Code" to revise the fee for the use of parking meters, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250201, an ordinance amending Chapter 19-1800 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "School Tax Authorization," to provide for an increase in the tax of the Board of Education of the School District of Philadelphia is authorized to impose on real estate; and amending Chapter 3 19-1300, entitled "Real Estate Taxes," to establish an equivalent reduction the tax rate for the City real estate tax, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250202, an ordinance amending Chapter 19-1806 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Authorization of Realty Use and Occupancy Tax," to eliminate certain exemptions, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250210, an ordinance amending Chapter -- amending Section 10-1001 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Fees of the Commissioner of Records," to increase the portion of fees for the recording of deeds and mortgages in related documents to be used for Housing Trust Fund purposes, under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250211, an ordinance amending Chapter 19-1400 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Realty Transfer Tax" revising the rate of the tax, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250212, an ordinance to amend Chapter 19-4400 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Development Impact Tax" to end imposition of the tax, under certain terms and conditions. Resolution No. 250214, resolution providing for the approval by the Council of the City of Philadelphia of a Revised Five Year Financial Plan for the City of Philadelphia covering Fiscal Years 2026-2030, and incorporating revisions with respect to Fiscal Year 2025, which is to be submitted by the Mayor to the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority pursuant to an Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement by and between the City and the Authority.
Thank you, Ms. Loughead. Today we continue the public hearing of the Committee of the Whole to consider the bills read by the Clerk that constitute proposed operating and capital spending measures for Fiscal Year 2026, a Capital Program and a Forward- looking Capital Plan for Fiscal Year 2026 through Fiscal Year 2031. This morning we will hear testimony from the Register of Wills. And this afternoon we will hear testimony from the Department of Public Health and from DBHIDS, the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disabilities. Before I start, I just want to acknowledge the presence of Councilmember Curtis Jones, Councilmember Rue Landau, Councilmember Kendra Brooks. With that being said, Ms. Loughead, will you please call the first panel for testimony.
The first person to testify is John P. Sabatina, Register of Wills and Clerk of Orphans' Court. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)
Good morning, Mr. Sabatina. How are you this morning? REGISTER OF WILLS SABATINA: Very good, sir. Good morning, President Johnson and members of City Council. I'm John Sabatina, Register of Wills, Clerk of Orphans' Court. I'm here with my staff and I'm pleased to provide testimony on the Register of Wills Fiscal Year 2026 operating budget. First off, we have some plans for Fiscal Year 2026. With additional funding requests made to the Administration, the Register of Wills Department's plans for Fiscal '26 are to continue the restoration and preservation of historic archives. And to speak with that, I have Emilio DeGregorio and Erald Dika. The other next area that we're going to cover would be to enable the outreach program to guide and explain to the public our services and new Title Clearance Unit that we have established. Working with that, the program, I have Myasia Williams with the title clearance and Kyle Sampson for public engagement and outreach. Next subject I have is onboard a Legacy system vendor to replace the current system. It's basically just a new software system that we hope to enable us to have better document requests. Fourth, we have make capital improvements to the office that are urgently needed and prepare a space to showcase and display our historic documents in commemoration of America 250. In addition to all of this, I would like to mention that a request has been made to the Administration for additional funding for the above current appropriation level. No additional funding has been granted for the previous year and we're asking that we now get some funding to help provide funds for our programs that we have come up with for this year. Thank you for your continued support and consideration.
Thank you, Mr. Sabatina. And I know that my office partnered with your office on several different housing fairs regarding educating individuals regarding tangled titles. And so, I thank you and your team for that. I thank Jewel Williams for serving as a liaison with members of City Council regarding the operations on the Register of Wills office as well as Ms. April Scott Street on Public Engagement, Senior Advisor, who've also partnered with us as it relates to communicating and teaching the public, educating the public regarding the process that deals with tangled titles, as it relates to building generational wealth and people not losing their homes, and also Mr. Roger Poe, who makes sure that the Register of Wills office from a communication standpoint keeps the public well- informed of your operations. And so, I want to start off by thanking those individuals, at least that my office works with, and get into our questions. Give me an update -- well, I'm going to let my Majority Leader talk about tangled titles since that's her space.
Not yet, sir. I'm glad you're eager to respond, but I'm going to let my Majority Leader talk about the tangled titles. But give us a more indepth overview of the archive preservation and digitization software that you want to use to make sure we're keeping our records up-to-date and also making sure we modernize the Office of Register of Wills.
Good morning, Council President. My name is Erald Dika, Finance Director. For as far as the archives, we have restored few records. We had a one-year term contract with a vendor about 300,000 but they did an analysis on the entire archives, the one in City Hall on the 9th floor, also the one at 6th and Spring Garden, and they kind of came up to a conclusion that you need a lot of money to restore its files. In the few millions of dollars, let's put it that way. We have been asking for funding every year to restore the ones that require immediate attention because there's files that the paper is decaying or bad order and it doesn't really make it a good working condition, especially for the people at archives. So we want to address those, but we also want to prepare for the American 250 anniversary to commemorate the independence from the Great Britain. As far as the Legacy system update, we went through the last audits. There's some recommendation from the auditors to make some upgrades. But the current system doesn't have the functionalities that we need, especially for internal controls or better recordkeeping or record- viewing. My deputy can speak to deeper detail because he's the one in contact back and forth with OIT for the requirements, but a general overview is that we need to replace it for internal controls recommended by the auditors and also for better recordkeeping.
When you update and modernize and digitize these records, how will it improve public access from the public for the historical and legal records? And also, I know you have an RFP that's put out for a new system. And what's the timeline and the scope of the RFP as well?
Thank you for the question. I'm going to let my Deputy answer that, Emilio DiGregorio. MR. DiGREGORIO: Good morning, Council President. Emilio DiGregorio, Register of Wills. And good morning, City Councilmembers. So we are at I could say the finish line with the RFP with respect to OIT putting the final touches to make sure all the City's technical specifications are, so I think we would release that RFP hopefully June and then leave that open and let it go through the vendor process, vendor selection interviews and see all the features that some of the vendors that are in the arena have available to us with further modification to our needs. This new system would allow us to bring the City's records to a public portal, which we don't have at the moment. It will utilize our existing database that we work with OIT in maintaining and then give the public full free access to view records, request records, streamline payment processes. So it would really bring Philadelphia to the forefront with that.
Okay. In terms of the recent state audit that came up with different findings regarding some internal controls regarding Register of Wills, how are you actually addressing it? MR. DiGREGORIO: So currently we use an inhouse auditing process according to their standards, but they would like a more robust system auditing process where we can quickly get to solutions. Our reports are a little dated as far as transaction- wise. So it would modernize today's standards as far as the financials, reporting and ordering process.
Thank you very much. To lead this round, I want to call on Majority Leader Councilmember Gilmore Richardson. Then Dr. Anthony Phillips, Councilmember.
Thank you. Thank you very much, Council President. And thank you to our Register of Wills and the entire team. I wanted to start off first with the thank yous that I received from my team, but I don't have to read them to know that I always start off with Lou DiRenzo. He is the best in the business, the absolute best and I will never forget his work and we really appreciate him. But also Bernice Bradley, Colleen, Colleen, Probate clerk. She is excellent, excellent. She's stellar. She's very knowledgeable. And my team says every department needs a Colleen. Bob Stewart and April Scott Street, she was at our Wynnefield event. So I just wanted to put those names on the record. All of you are here. We know we thank each of you. But I wanted to -- oh, there you are, Bob. I wanted to put on the record the names that I received from my team because I've asked them to pull for every department we work with each year who we've worked with. Okay. I wanted to start with tangled titles. You all know that that's an issue that I've been working on really closely since the last term. And thank you, Council President, for the opportunity. We had given you all additional funds last year to stand up the Title Clearance Unit and you all have given us detailed reports regarding the families that you've been able to assist, even down to the Council District and the areas. If you could talk about how you all are continuing to work with families to clear tangled titles for the remainder of this fiscal year. And then you know this is my real overarching concern. I've spoken to the Register about this, is how your office is working directly with the legal service aid organizations. Because how we set up under the funding with NPI for tangled titles is not just through the City department, but it's also to give funding to the legal service organizations to help us clear tangled titles and deeds. And I wanted to ensure that as we do this work we are prioritizing making that process as easy as possible when you're able to emailing documents instead of having them walk over to get the documents. So could you just talk about how you all are streamlining the process with working with the legal service organizations around tangled title clearance? REGISTER OF WILLS SABATINA: Yeah. At this time, I'd like to call up Myasia Williams who basically handles the tangled titles. We call it a little different name, but it's basically the same as used to be the tangled titles. We have it as -- we call it the Title Clearance Unit. Oh, here you are.
Good morning, Councilmembers. Our Title Clearance Unit is working with constituents from start to finish with the process of clearing their property titles. At this time we are not working closely with the other community organizations because they're income-based organizations, whereas we are working with the working-class members or citizens of Philadelphia. Anyone that comes to our office or we receive a call from someone that fits within their income range, we do refer them over to the Community Legal Services.
Right, so -- because I want to get this on the record and make sure we're all clear because you know we already had meetings about this and I'm really just putting this on the record more so than anything. You all if you receive a case for title clearance, if the individual does not meet the income requirements for legal service assistance, then you all have the ability to help them traverse through the process in your department through the Title Clearance Unit, correct?
And then if they do meet the income requirements for the legal service organizations, then you all refer them to the legal service organizations, correct?
Okay. And then if the individual meets the requirement to work with the legal service organization, then you all then will work with the legal service organization relative to any of the documents needed to help with the resolution of their case that may be housed in your department; is that correct?
Okay. And then as much as possible when records are able to be emailed when possible, do you all email records to the community service organizations that the City contracts with, i.e., Community Legal Services, VIP Bar Association and others?
Okay. All right. Thank you very much for that. I wanted to also mention I saw that I think my colleague Councilmember Phillips is having an event with you all around the Real ID, and we actually had another event at a church recently regarding Real ID. I went for another purpose and they asked us to come back strictly around Real ID, and we found that a number of seniors in particular having issues with getting their Real ID because they need I guess the copy of their marriage license that has the raised seal. Have you all noticed that you've been getting additional requests for that? And then how should we work with you all to expedite those requests for individuals who are seeking to get their Real ID? I mean, I know we only have two days until the May 7th deadline, but I'm sure more folks will as they find out about the necessity of Real ID will be coming in. How do we work with you all to ensure that we're helping folks get an expedited copy of their marriage certificate? MR. DiGREGORIO: Thank you for that question, Councilmember. We've received such an influx of requests, mail and inperson. We normally process 40 records a day prior. We're doing roughly 75 to 80 in person, in addition to 75 to 80 pieces of mail per day. So we've dedicated additional staff for this. We're processing as many records as fast as possible as we can. Any requests for urgent matters we pull to the front of the line, whether it's visa or passport situations, Social Security. But if any requests come through, please make it to my attention or anyone in the office and we'll definitely address it as soon as we can. But we've committed additional staff to kind of take over the overflow of this process, which we know is frustrating for a lot of people.
I figured you all would have to do that because that's how many people we have actually heard from over the last several weeks as the deadline continues to approach. So thank you very much for availing the additional team members to ensure that we can help as many constituents as possible. I'll come back on the second round. Thank you, Council President.
Thank you. Just had one question I wanted to ask and I wouldn't be a leader if I didn't ask. And we do got a good relationship, but there was this recommendation saying that the state says, PICA says they should get rid of the Register of Wills Office. Now, I don't agree with that. I want to be partners in making sure that the Register of Wills Office work most efficiently as possible, and you just came on as the leader of this particular office. And so, what is your response and what are you doing differently to counter that actual recommendation that came from PICA?
Thank you, Council President, for the question. We believe as with you that this is not the action to take --
So the questions they bring up about our office don't really apply to our office. There's no issues where net positive, you know, revenue, we take care of. We're self-funded essentially. We're taking care of the constituents with title clearance. We collect inheritance tax. We do all these various things that the PICA Board didn't seem to want to ask us about, you know, they reached out to other offices that they were investigating but didn't reach out to us. And I thought that would have been a smart thing to do. As a former journalist, I usually ask the source do you want to comment and we would have been able to assure them of each and every point they made, that that really didn't apply to us. So we're always improving the office --
-- contacted to say, hey, here's our issues, here's our concerns, here's our official response?
Okay. Thank you. I'm glad you said that for the record.
Okay. All right. But finish talking about the things that you are actually doing to show that your office is efficient as you counter that particular narrative.
So just a great example is the one that was just brought up about the marriage certificates. And a lot of city departments people have certain job descriptions and it's rigid in the way you can apply how to move people around. But I was able to recognize, there was a problem brought to my attention, that we have a line for people who need marriage certificates for Real ID. Okay. Well, I relocated several people to there -- if you go in there right now, you'll see that every desk is occupied. That's not necessary in January of any given year. We're not that -- we have 40 a day. We don't need full staff, but every table is full. I have people in the back room. We have our archives and staffed up, because anyone prior to 2000 needs a marriage record and we have to literally go up a ladder to get that. So I have a team over there that gets it, gets it scanned in immediately so that no one's waiting. So much so that we actually have been able to do some events at some of your offices and actually get them in hand either right there or just a few days later, which is something we couldn't have done if I wasn't able to pivot so quickly. So sometimes when people are talking about the office is inefficient, again I don't understand what they mean. We're able to -- if something happens and we need to move somebody to marriage licenses, everyone starts to get married, that happened last year when the federal election went in. Some people were afraid immigration purposes, they wanted to get married. Guess what? The line out the door for marriage licenses. Guess what? Bob puts in two more people to go help and get that room staffed up. So I think when they talk about operational efficiencies, it's really completely unfounded and we're able to move people quicker than other departments. Where I talk to other people who have my position, hey, how do you guys do it. You know, we're always exploring better ways and more efficient ways. And they're like, actually you're able to do it faster than us, so we do that. So it's really about just being efficient as being nimble and we're able to do that on a dime. I have people I can send up to Orphans' Court. I can text them right now, and before I'm out this room they're walking by me going to Orphans' Court. A lot of the departments don't have that flexibility because of the way things are in the hiring practices and the rules.
Okay. All right. Thank you very much. And just state your name -- I know it, but just state your name and title for the record.
I'm sorry. I'm Bob Stewart, Chief Deputy for Register of Wills.
All right. Thank you very much. Chair recognizes Councilmember Dr. Anthony Phillips. Then Councilmember Isaiah Thomas and then Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad.
Thank you all so much. I just have a few questions regarding some youth work, community engagement as well as some contracts. Let me just start with the contracts on of my budget. I notice about 10, maybe about or so 14 consulting contracts that are here; 15 Scoop USA, Urban One Inc., Box Sourcing, IBM Production, Buzz Communication. What are these contracts about and what do they do to serve the office?
Good morning, Councilmember. So those contracts are from FY24. Some of them are no 23 longer with the department, but the majority of the contracts that perform some sort of public outreach or posters like let's say, Scoop, they did the banners, the big banners that you see down the hall with the big wheels and portraying the information it belongs to. Some of the contracts were advertising about the program --
Yeah. Some contracts were about advertising about the program from the previous person and with a new program that we currently have, the title clearing. And so, it's mostly like public engagement and public outreach. But the deputy can answer a little bit better for the contract piece.
How are you measuring the effectiveness of these contracts, Urban One, Cofile Technologies. We have a technology service in the city. MR. DiGREGORIO: Thank you for the question, Councilman. But the Cofile Technologies was the restoration and digitization preservation contract. So it's more than actual document work. It's not a tech firm, so to speak. Only the scanning aspect of the old documents, which are full scale large image scanning are handled by them. Some of the other contracts you mentioned were for advertising and public engagement. So we're engaging those contracts with the response we get from constituents, the number of cases that we're getting from those engagements.
So, for example, Urban One was $58,000. What engagement are we doing with that? MR. DiGREGORIO: So I believe the Urban One was public radio awareness campaign that was done from the prior administration.
Okay. Is that proposed -- and that's taken out for this year, but a -- okay. So I just want to make sure -- okay, that's fair. Last question I had is, has the department considered partnering with schools, libraries or youth organizations to introduce basic estate planning awareness to younger Philadelphians? MR. DiGREGORIO: We definitely would be more than ecstatic to have the opportunity to kind of curtail a curriculum for estate planning. We've had some discussions with Temple in the past when our probate officer Lou DiRenzo attends some of their real estate events to discuss this and the outpouring of information that they received it's tenfold to be needed. We've had conversations a couple years ago with Dr. Watlington from the School District. It sounded like a great idea but we've never really been able to kind of scale up the curriculum to really push this through. And with your help, we would love to do something like that.
Absolutely. I mean, you have these community engagement specialists and I think that could be part of their process to create a program that could be specialized, going into schools and the community and these youth organizations and teaching them about this. I wish I'd have known this information as a young person, as a young adult. I mean, that could be really how it could change our city, but that's just something innovative. I'll stop there. Maybe that's a follow- up. Thank you. Council President.
You're welcome, Dr. Phillips. The Chair recognizes Councilman Isaiah Thomas. Then Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad.
Good morning, Council President. Thank you for your line of questioning as well as Majority Leader Gilmore Richardson and my Councilman Councilmember Phillips. I want to start by thanking Lou DiRenzo. I know he's not here right now, but I personally went through some personal tragedy and Lou really was there for myself and my family and Lou also supports us when we have other people who are going through these issues. So I wanted to start by putting that on the record. In the same spirit of Councilmember Phillips -- well, before we get into contracts, first question: So your budget is about $5.9 million with another million or so that you get to deal with us in the General Fund through the city. In the recent midyear transfer, we also gave you guys another $80,000. We asked some questions during that midyear transfer. Not quite sure what the answers are. Still waiting on some of those questions to be answered around the midyear. But in the Register's testimony today, the Register is asking for increase in this year's budget. How much more money are you asking for on top of the about 6.8 million you have, which also includes the 800,000 you just got? And what do you plan on doing with the new revenue?
So this year we're asking for $1.2 million. We need about 500,000 for the Legacy system replacement --
I'm sorry. You got to speak into the mic a little bit more.
This year we're asking for $1.2 million. We're asking for 500,000 to replace the system. We're asking for 500,000 for the archives project to restore records. We're asking for 150,000 in Class 100 given that one of our all time employees retired and they have accumulated substantial time in their book to pay their retirement, terminal leave and vacation. We also asked for 100,000 in Class400 to replace computers. Our computers are crashing so we need to replace and get up-to-date Windows. For FY25 it's about $81,000 that's to amend the current FY25 budget to include the exempt raise increases that were given July 1st for the exempt employees. That's about it.
Thank you. So I see that my time is up. I just want to go ahead and I didn't get the chance to ask about contracts, but Councilmember Phillips has pretty much captured my sentiment as well too. I think there's a lot of contracts that you guys have out there --
Excuse me, Member Thomas. I have a point of information by Councilmember O'Rourke.
Thank you, Mr. President. How old are your computers? You said they were crashing. Do you have a general idea about actually how old they are? MR. DiGREGORIO: So we've had a lot of --
Excuse me. One second. I asked my team to work on this. Y'all have to fix your microphones and then speak into the microphone because we can barely hear you over here. You got to fix them and then speak into them. Adjust them and speak into them. MR. DiGREGORIO: All right. Sorry about that. Thank you, Council President.
There you go. That's okay. MR. DiGREGORIO: We've kind of handled our equipment on a cycle basis. So we've technically ordered maybe or more, so 20 to 8 25 every other year. And a lot of 9 our computers I'd say are roughly 10 around the 2012 range of computers. 11 They work majority of them, but 12 we've tried to utilize them until 13 their life ends, cycle them out, 14 new ones in. 15 The pandemic we 16 purchased I'd say about 15 to 17 17 laptops to kind of deal with the 18 whole transition, some working from 19 home, some not. So we have an 20 influx of laptops, but we really 21 want to overhaul all of our 22 technology to be modern and to 23 date. 24
My time is up, Council President. I want to be respectful. I just want to close out by saying you're asking for $8 million this year. That's a significant amount of money. I just wanted to echo the sentiments of Councilmember Phillips as far as contracts, but also just to put on the record we did put in writing that there have been a number of complaints that came to our office around contracts for Black and Brown businesses as well as issues with Black and Brown staff members. And we understand that because of pending litigation you can't have that conversation right now publicly so we appreciate you responding and giving us that information, but we do look forward to having a conversation off the record where you don't have to have the conversation in public prior to us passing a budget so we can make sure that we're addressing some of the concerns that's been communicated to myself, members of Council and clearly going out to the public as well. Thank you, Council President.
As a follow-up to the line of questioning, could we just get an update on the percentages of minority participation in terms of contracts that comes through the Office of Register of Wills?
Thank you for the question, Council President. Based on policy from the Law Department and our advice from our attorney on Friday, this is actually a very important point to the plaintiffs' lawyers, and our lawyers asked us not to comment publicly, but more than happy to provide any of these answers privately. It's actually part of the case at the moment.
So, Council President, in the same spirit I do want to just confirm that we are a part of a lot of confidential meetings and conversations as members of City Council, so you might not be able to give the information publicly but I think what we're asking for is off-the-record conversation so we can look at the numbers, look at the data, see what's going on with contracts and staff, because again those are complaints that were sent to us so --
I just thought in general -- because I didn't know about the lawsuit, I just thought in general just as a matter of practice, right, like any department that would come in front of us there's just public information on diversity, equity and inclusion in terms of participation. And you're saying you can't speak generally about the participation that your office provides because it's part of a litigation so you can't speak on it publicly, but you can speak on it privately, correct? MR. DiGREGORIO: Yes.
Okay. All right. I mean, we can have a follow-up conversation, but I just thought as just a matter of general practice rather it's your office or anybody else's office that comes, those numbers would just be generally a part of the record because it's a standard practice unless I might have missed something.
Correct. With that said, the way you're stating the question maybe it doesn't seem as --
Like for instance, if it was the police department, the District Attorney's Office, L&I, Commerce Department, members would just generally ask what's your goals around participation and then the agency or the department would say our participation numbers are 30%, this many women, this many people of color, this many people who are veterans, this many people are LGBTQ. And so, I just thought we just had that information, that's just --
I think that's a fair question. And I'll have Erald Dika come back up to answer that question the way you phrased it. I appreciate that.
I'm a little nervous myself not being a lawyer making sure I'm not going to run afoul the Law Department.
Thank you for that question. So as far as the contract, we are about $157,000, about 40-something percent -- 46 closest percent in minority, diversity, disabled --
And how are your contracts broken down? You said 46%?
We have about four to five contracts -- I got to pull the budget -- in minority and disabled. We have one disabled person, and we have four minority contracts, minority local businesses.
Okay. And just one last part. And in terms of those four, right, one is someone that's disabled. Let's check the box. The other one is what, women? Another one African American? Another one Latino? Another one LGBTQ? Can you explain that?
Okay. Obviously they have to be minority if I'm asking that question. Okay. So you have three Black males?
That was easy. That was like -- that's all we were asking. So I'm not trying to, you know, try to play Peekaboo. I just wanted to ask a general question, follow up on the line of questioning of my Majority Whip. And that's good information to have so that's good. The Chair recognizes Dr. Nina Ahmad and Councilmember Jim Harrity.
Thank you, Council President. I want to pivot to your role as the clerk of Orphans' Court. I know there's been a lot of issues around guardianship and problems with that. So I hear that there's a PA Act 61 that is supposed to make it safeguard the alleged incapacitated persons. So I wanted to hear your comments and any data around how well this Orphans' Court guardianship is working and how many complaints we have gotten or how they have been resolved, and does this Act 61 help you in making sure that the rights of those who receive guardianship are being protected? MR. DiGREGORIO: Thank you for that question, Councilperson. The Register of Wills as the Clerk of Orphans' Court is more like a filing center. We don't really engage in any kind of guardianship issues. We have the guardianship tracking system which we monitor to ensure that the guardians are filing the correct forms periodically to ensure that there's an accounting of what's going on. But as far as any issues revolving around guardianship, we would have to forward those questions to the Orphans' Court judges.
But you would have numbers to see because you track it, how well the guardianship program is working or who has that information? MR. DiGREGORIO: We would have that information. We don't have it readily available to you, but I can give it to you offline.
That would be very helpful because there has been some constituent inquiries around that to say that people are being taken advantage of basically. And I wanted to -- and maybe you aren't able to comment on Act 61 that is supposed to make that a better process. So I'll take that response from you when you can. And then finally, just to circle back on the percentages that were discussed around the M/W/DSBE contract, on your testimony here it says 21% FY25 and then projected 36, but the numbers that were shared were different.
Yes, because those numbers were as November 2024 and we were talking year-to-date. Normally, our goal is 21% but we always succeed on minority data.
So this projected FY26, you're saying you reached 46, not 36?
The data is as of November when the budget was put together with the actual data that I had. But as we move forward with the new year, obviously those numbers increase.
And my last question on that is do you have Asian American and Pacific Islander community represented in your office in your minority numbers?
Thank you, Council President. Good morning, everyone. Just like everybody else, I'd like to thank you guys for all the outreach you're doing. Had time to work with April Street on numerous events so far this year. She does a good job representing. And again Louis, forget about it, you can't say enough about him. He's like the man when it comes to getting things done over there, and just your staff overall. But like some of my colleagues, like our leader I'm interested in the tangled titles. There are still -- my numbers are saying there are still 10,000 active tangled titles in Philadelphia. These properties cause blight, property tax revenue loss and displacement mainly affecting Black and Brown families. Compared to FY25, because of the quantity of the tangled titles are these titles being litigated at a faster rate? And if not, what would it take for us to do that? Your budget this year I see only goes up a slight bit from FY25 to FY26's appropriations. I'm just trying to figure out are you going to have enough in this budget to handle the tangled title aspect of it and also the influx of people with the real IDs? You guys got a lot of traffic. My office is right down the hall from you guys and I see them out there. I mean, you guys make a good job of getting them in and out, but there's a lot of people coming in there. And tangled titles it's important. We need to keep this intergenerational wealth. So I'd just like to know how much actual money is going towards the tangled titles and is it going to be expanded? Are we going to be able to litigate these and get them taken care of faster?
Thank you for the question, Councilmember. We asked for additional funding. None was granted. The slight increase is due to the contract increase for the exempt employees, the estimated cost. But as far as the title clearance, I'm going to let Myasia Williams. She can speak better to the influx of cases --
Excuse me, sir. My member Rue Landau asked me could you speak into the microphone.
So here's what y'all can do, don't be shy. Just pull the microphone over. It can move. It's not attached to the desk. You can go like this and get in front of it. Is that better, Member Landau?
Sorry about that. So as I was saying earlier, the slight increase is due to the contract increase for the FOP employees and for the exempt employees. That's why it's like a slight change on the FY26 budget. But as far as the Title Clearance Unit, the influx cases, I'm going to let Myasia Williams, our Director of Title Clearance Unit, to answer that.
Thank you for your question, Councilmember. In the past four months we have successfully transferred 29 property titles. Additionally, we have screened over 100 complex multi-level cases and currently have several active cases that are expected to be ready for deed transfer in the next few months. One of our primarily challenges is the lack of available funding to assist families who cannot afford the costs associated with fees such as inheritance tax, title reports and delinquent liens. Currently we are actively seeking funding through grants from nonprofits, financial institutions and legislative initiatives. This report would allow us to assist constituents who do not qualify for low income-based tangled title programs but still lack the financial means to declare their property titles independently.
I have a point of information, Member Harrity, if that's okay. Mr. Sabatina, Sr., is your office in line or in partnership or at the table regarding tangled titles and the Mayor's H.O.M.E. Initiative? Because we're about to borrow $1 billion if this body approves it. And if we're talking about people staying inside their homes, right, I would think that this would be an intricate part of the strategy of helping individuals stay in their home as well as helping them build generational wealth and for the most part when it comes to housing preservation from one generation to the next, that this will be a part of the actual strategy, I would think. MR. DiGREGORIO: Council President, we have not had any discussions regarding the Project H.O.M.E. But as you stated, keeping people in their homes a lot of times these are the most affordable homes for people, the ones they're living in. And overcoming this hurdle of title clearance for a person would mean a wealth of possibilities and accessing capital that they do not have access to at the moment. So that would be a welcome partnership.
Thank you. I'll relinquish the time back to Member Harrity. But also want to defer to Majority Leader Gilmore Richardson for a follow-up conversation. Member Harrity.
Yeah. I'll just get to what I'm trying to get at. I just thought I'd see a little bit more money because I know the lawyers were part of the problem, like you guys had testified with Community Legal, a lot of the people because they're middle class and actually work, can't qualify to get the lawyer but it doesn't mean they can afford to go get the lawyer on their own. I'm for one, I'm going to vote for an increase so that we can handle this tangled title stuff. Look, you're giving these people a lawyer is just leveling the playing field. The idea I believe is we should think about how we keep this money in these families. So just saying I was just a little confused. I thought I'd see a little increase going towards the lawyers part of it. MR. DiGREGORIO: Thank you, Councilman. For the legal side of things, we are full scale operational. We're following through with every case as fast as we can. Once we get to the finish line, real estate, transfer tax, inheritance tax, those fees that are somewhat at times non-negotiable with certain entities, that's where we hit the hurdle. So that's why we're continuing to talk to legislators, government grants to try to get funding to dedicate towards those purposes or develop some sort of --
Maybe we need to put some money there so that we could do some grants for these people. I mean, that's the bottom line. Yeah, anything that we can take out of the process that they don't have to pay for it will make it easier for us to keep that house in that family so it gets passed down. MR. DiGREGORIO: Absolutely.
The Chair recognizes Councilmember Cindy Bass. Then Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, Councilmember Rue Landau, Councilmember Jones.
Thank you, Mr. President. I just had a couple of quick questions and some of my questions were mentioned earlier in terms of the hiring and the numbers, but I really wanted to ask your Director of Human Resources Ms. Roseborough to step forward. I had a couple of questions for her. And the first thing I wanted to say is that one thing I've noticed, because my office is up on the 5th floor, when I come downstairs to come to chambers, that 4th floor hallway is always full. And it's full in a way that it's never been before. And through when Donald Tucci was the Register, through when Gordon was the Register and now with you all, there's definitely an uptick in the work that you all are doing. And so, I wanted to ask you about hiring and just really sort of what's the office strategy in terms of managing the needs, because there's a lot of people out there and they start early in the morning and they're there all day long, you know, different people coming and going. But that busyness is happening all day long. So how are you hiring to keep up with the need? And I'm assuming that part of what the ask is for is to make sure that you are able to hire enough people to provide the services to our citizens.
With that being said, with the Real ID situation it's a lot of chaos. So what we need to do, we had to hire at least 15% more than we had at the Register of Wills. So at that point we're sure we have plenty enough people getting into the situation.
Okay. I thought everybody was getting married all of a sudden. I said, oh my, everybody wants to be married now. Okay. And so, it's the Real ID that's driving people to the office --
Okay. But when you're thinking about the strategy of hiring to make sure that you hire people of different ethnic backgrounds, you make sure you have African American and Latino representation, that you have representation from the LGBTQ community and so forth, just talk about what your strategy is and sort of managing all of that?
Well, far as all the different diverse acquisition of (inaudible), we have plenty of -- we have Latinos, we have Asian, we have different people who speak different languages that we do not have a problem at all.
Clearly, it's a part of your strategy. And the numbers that you've given us thus far are promising and I know that there's some question about additional hires that may happen and sort of beefing up those numbers, so we look forward, Council looks forward to working with you all in the future to help you realize what it is that you need to making sure that there's representation from all parts of the city. So thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Member Bass. Playing it safe in the 8th. At this time, I would like to call Councilmember Rue Landau. Then Councilmember Jamie Gauthier and the gentleman from the 4th Councilmanic District. And then we will be -- I'm sorry, Councilman Jones and Councilmember Brooks. I'm sorry. Then we'll go into our second round.
Thank you so much. Thank you all so much for being here. I have a question about Title Clearance Unit and also about fee waivers. So with the Title Clearance Unit, can you explain a little bit more of exactly what role your office plays on this, what your successes have been, what your challenges are? Do you step in the role of basically being the lawyer for the person who isn't income-eligible for legal aid? Wanted to talk about that. And then in more detail for that one, are you still asking people to raise intermediary risk estates? So the loved one dies and they want to raise the estate. But after that person passes, someone else passes, a couple other people pass, you're asking people to raise the estates of the other folks, the heirs, who have post-deceased the deceased. I know this is a practice that doesn't happen in other counties. And so, I'm curious if you could talk about that. And then finally, the fees are quite high at this point. If there's a modest estate family home up to $200,000, it's costing over $490 to raise this estate. Have you thought about establishing some version of an IFP fee waiver process like the Court of Common Pleas does? Thank you so much.
Good morning, Councilwoman. I am Frank Campese, the Chief solicitor here at the Register of Wills. I wanted to address the issue that you've raised regarding our position with respect to these intermediary estates. And I believe we discussed this last year and our reasons and rationale. We have recently attempted to try to circumvent as best we can with the assistance of Orphans' Court to try to appoint a neutral early on in that process. And what that neutral administrator does is able to sort of bypass some of the requirements but eventually they will have to satisfy those requirements. But it makes it I assume get on a quicker track. So that's what we're obviously trying to do. And realize, Councilmember, that these issues are new to us and to all of us, because I feel that the value of these properties obviously in all of our districts, has increased tremendously. So 20 years ago, 23 years ago we weren't discussing 24 this because the value of the home was not as important and there were multi-generational folks living in there. So what we're attempting to do now and because we're in the situation that we're in, in some cases, it's an all case-by-case basis, to see if we can assist by appointing a neutral to start the process quicker. Now, some of these estates are 25, 30 years old, even beyond that. And by law, if it's beyond years the first step is 14 Orphans' Court. So you cannot even 15 come into our offices until you get 16 approval by Orphans' Court. As a 17 private attorney doing this work 18 for a number of years, 19 unfortunately that process -- and 20 it's not their fault. I mean, 21 they're busy like everyone else is busy, but you can file a petition. Sometimes the turnaround time is quicker than others. Sometimes not so much, but you have to start the process somewhere. So it is a long, arduous, costly process that we're trying to assist in our own way. Thank you.
So about the process of raising the intermediary estates is this across the board that you're doing it for everyone? What are the successes? What are the challenges that you're seeing? And also, have you considered an IFP fee waiver?
Councilmember, thank you. But it really depends on the estate. Some of them are easier to handle than others. Every one of these estates has a mind of its own and has a character of its own that we need to address case-by-case. So that's how we're handling that. As far as fees are concerned, we're working with various organizations to either pause those fees or maybe hold on to those fees until the property is sold. And if the property has significant value, obviously when the property is sold the fees can be recouped, but that's an ongoing process that we're still trying to work with.
Chair recognizes Councilmember Jamie Gauthier.
Thank you, Council President. I had the same questions as Councilmember Landau.
Thank you, Mr. President. You do notice the bling on Jamie today?
Congratulations, Member Gauthier and Member Rue Landau for completing the Broad Street Run. Let's give them a round of applause. (Applause.)
Thank you so much, Councilmember Jones and Council President. And thank you for having your team out there with water for us and to cheer us on. We really appreciated it. I had the same questions as Councilmember Landau so I won't go through asking them again. But I think you're seeing this morning how important the tangled title issue is for City Council and it has been for several years now. I think that we understand as you do that this is one of the biggest barriers for low-income homeowners accessing wealth and to be able to take advantage of the great home repair and other programs that the City of Philadelphia has available to them. Moreover, this issue impacts my District in a huge way. I think that the 3rd District, if I'm remembering correctly from the Pew report, has the most tangled titles. And I also want to acknowledge our Majority Leader's great work and focus on this issue. And so, we all are in communication with not only you all but the legal service organizations about the barriers to this work. And it's been highlighted that this intermediary estate issue, the fee waiver issue and the email communication issue are some of the biggest barriers for us being able to help people. And so, I think what we're trying to get on record today is that there is a real and concrete commitment from the Register of Will's office to knock down these barriers, right. And I think that's something that we would want to see over the next budget year from you. And so, I'd love for you to just comment on your commitment to that and how maybe we can get to a different place over the next budget year, and then since some of these are state issues I wanted to hear about whether there's been any advocacy at the state level or whether you're planning on any advocacy over the state level to knock down some of these barriers as well?
Thank you, Councilmember. If I can address the issue of what it is our offices are attempting to do to assist the tangled title crisis. So we created this Title Clearance Unit. And as you've heard testimony today, the number of tangled titles I don't feel gives justice to the reality of the situation. So if we assist one tangled title, we untangle a title. You're not just affecting one person. You're affecting 10s, 20s, 30s, maybe more, multi-generational people who with now that total being cleared have the assets to continue to reinvest and protect the family wealth. So when you hear numbers we cleared so many tangled titles in a particular month, multiply that number by 30, 40, 50 people. That's the constituents that we're assisting every day, and that's something that we're continuing and are committed to continue to do. Regarding the state issue, an interesting question arose recently about that very issue because the Register of Wills Office is responsible for collecting inheritance taxes for the Commonwealth. So an issue was raised and brought to the attention of the Commonwealth, well, what about these intermediary estates. Do they have to pay inheritance tax because that's important, right. If you have a situation where the grandmother passes and passes her assets to three children who then passes their assets to six grandchildren, we know that when grandmom dies we have to pay inheritance taxes at the child level of 4.5%. But then we have been told, because we asked that question specifically to the Commonwealth, does that next level have to be paid, so does the grandchild have to pay for their parent. And the answer was a resounding yes. That is something that we are responsible for collecting. So because that is an issue at the state level, obviously we can only do so much in what we're trying to protect, which is to assist --
Just for clarification, I hope I didn't make it sound as if I don't appreciate your work. I do. I want to be very clear about that. Thank you for the work that you've done on every single title that you've cleared. I think what I'm asking is how we do more. As the Council President just highlighted, we are embarking on an ambitious housing plan, but the most affordable home is the home someone lives in. And so, I don't misunderstand that the issue is a state issue. I'm more so asking about if there is advocacy that has been done or that will be done to change that dynamic, and what we can do in the office to also knock down some of these barriers as we attempt to grow the work?
Thank you, Councilmember. And again, we are again assisting all of our constituents with the Tangled Clearance Unit and continue to address is intermediary issues on a case-by-case basis.
I look forward to talking more. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Brooks and Councilmember Jones.
Thank you, Council President. So my questions were on the same lines. So I just have a question also about the tangled titles. I remember last year you guys said it was a two-year backlog. And I heard you say 29 cases were cleared. Where are we with the two-year backlog though?
Thank you for your question. The two-year backlog I believe refers to the PDI program that the previous administration had in place. That program is no longer active. We replaced it with the Title Clearance Unit because that program ultimately deferred probate fees and placed a lien on people's properties, which weren't beneficial to the families. The PDI program also referred cases to the low-income --