Committee Hearing, April 10, 2012

COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, April 10, 2012 10:16 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT DARRELL L. CLARKE COUNCILMAN CURTIS JONES, JR. COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS-BROWN COUNCILMAN BILL GREEN COUNCILWOMAN CINDY BASS COUNCILMAN KENYATTA JOHNSON COUNCILMAN DENNIS O'BRIEN COUNCILMAN BOBBY HENON COUNCILMAN W. WILSON GOODE, JR. COUNCILMAN MARK SQUILLA COUNCILWOMAN MARIA D. QUINONES-SANCHEZ COUNCILMAN DAVID OH COUNCILMAN JAMES KENNEY COUNCILMAN WILLIAM K. GREENLEE 2 NO. 120164- An Ordinance to adopt a Capital Program for the six Fiscal Years 2013-2018 inclusive. NO. 120165- An Ordinance to adopt a Fiscal 2013 Capital Budget. NO. 120166- An Ordinance adopting the Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2013. NO. 120167- 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 2013 through 2017, and incorporating proposed changes with respect to Fiscal Year 2012, which is to be submitted by the Mayor to the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority (the "Authority") pursuant to the Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement, authorized by an ordinance of this Council approved by the Mayor on January 3, 1992 (Bill No. 1563-A), by and between the City and the Authority. 3

Good morning. This is a continuation of the Public Hearings on the Committee of the Whole regarding bills No. 120164, 12165, 12166, and resolution No. 5 12167. Good morning, and the first Department to -- I would like to ask Ms. Lewis to please read the titles of the bills and resolutions.

Bill No. 120164, an Ordinance to adopt a Capital Program for the six Fiscal Years, 2013 to 2018 inclusive. Bill No. 120165, an Ordinance to adopt a Fiscal 2013 Capital Budget. Bill No. 120166, an Ordinance adopting the Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2013. Bill No. 120167, 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 2013 through 2017, and incorporating proposed changes with respect to Fiscal Years 2012, which is to be submitted by the Mayor to the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, (the 4 "Authority"), pursuant to the Intergovernmental Cooperation agreement, authorized by an ordinance of this Council approved by the Mayor on January 3, 1992. (Bill No. 1563-A), by and between the City and the Authority.

Thank you, Ms. Lewis. The first department today will be the City Representatives Office. Will they please approach the desks and we can begin our ambitious agenda for today. Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Please state your full name for the record and begin your testimony.

Good morning Councilman Jones and Ms. Lewis. My name is Melanie Johnson and I'm the City representative for the City of Philadelphia. With me is Deputy City Representative Margaret Hughes. I am here today to present testimony on behalf of the office of the City Representatives FY13 5 Operating Budget. Request of $889,611, which provides no changes over our FY11 (sic) estimated obligations. The OCRs of Marketing Public Relations and branding arm for the City events are developed and promoted to attract customers, visitors, and new residents to Philadelphia, and enhance the quality of life. We work with a number of different organizations in the City, including PCVB, GPTMC, CCD, IVC and HPI to promote Philadelphia. Over the last Fiscal Year, we have had a number of great events that have really promoted the City, including Wawa Welcome America, which attracted -- Well, according to the Temple University study, Industry Research Center, the economic impact of Welcome America for FY12 was $65 million dollars with about 3,000 hotel room nights and about expenditures of $347 per person. The Philadelphia Marathon weekend, which takes place every year, its 18th year have economic impact of more than $20 million dollars. 5,000 hotel room nights, and the 6 new one that is coming up this year, the weekend of the 16th through the 18th of November, we also had our second year of the Philadelphia Collection, and it was extremely successful. We received a lot of national attention on that event. The OCR Budget Appropriations request of $889,611 represents zero increase over FY12. The breakdown is $338,000 Class 100. $506,000 plus Class 200. $45,000 in Class 300/400. The OCR is committed to supporting the administration goal of percent minority 13 woman, and disabled-owned businesses, 14 participation in City contracting. It has 15 exceeded the 25 percent goal with a 16 participation rate of 65 percent. A 28 17 percent increase over FY11. 43 percent of 18 that total is with the woman owned 19 businesses. 20 The OCR serves as a managing conduit 21 for a number of stakeholder entities that 22 engage in cultural City-related marketing and 23 development activities, including the Greater 24 Philadelphia Film Office, and Historic 7 Philadelphia. The stakeholders and the OCRs produced Wawa Welcome America!, as I said earlier, Philadelphia Marathon, and we participate in the M/W/DSBE goal through budgets that are not reflected in the General Fund. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. If you have any questions, I will be happy to answer them.

I take it you abbreviated?

I did.

I am looking through --

Considerably.

-- through this written testimony, which happens to be like seven, eight pages. It wasn't seven, eight pages worth of testimony, but we appreciate that in light of our agenda. Couple of questions before I open up to my colleagues. These various events; Wawa Welcome America!, and some of the newer ones that you have established. I know you have 8 done a great job working in my particular district dealing with the bike race and others. Have we quantified what these events are worth? Not in the sense of what is spent, but, how do you then negotiate with sponsors that may want to participate, or is that your responsibility?

For the events that I do for the City, yes. We try and work with an organization. In this instance it was Temple University. Last year was the first year since we have been here that we were able to do a research study on Welcome America! We are doing a partnership with Temple to do that again. We have done it for the last four years for the marathon. When it's an event that the City supports, but does not produce, we talk with the organizers and producers to see whether or not they will do a partnership or pay for that study. But it's a very expensive study, depending on how the event is. So, some of these organizations haven't had one in quite a few years. 9

On the Parkway, what was the largest event by way of population that we have had?

Welcome America.

How many people in the course of the day?

In the course of the day, about a million people.

So, is there a quantifiable marketing piece that says this is what one million consumers are worth?

Yes. We do have that from 2011.

What -- So, if I am BK Tires and I say, look, I want to participate. How do you price point what kinds of sponsorship levels? There is no 18 right or wrong answer at this point. I just want to see where we are with that kind of analysis and see where we are gonna go with it.

Well, we look at the overall event and what we are selling. For that particular event, we have a huge 10 footprint. So, we can talk to individual sponsors and say to them, depending on what we are offering. For Welcome America!, its televised. So, we work with our partner, our TV partner, to say, we need a certain number of ads for our sponsors. Our big sponsor is Wawa. So, with Wawa, they get the benefit of having a huge promotional piece attached to their name. We also look for the demographics. What is their marketing goal for that year, so that we can say to them, okay, this is what we can offer you. This is our demographics. We have a family of four who makes $80,000 plus. Educated --

That is a profile of the participants?

Yes. Our demographics give them that. So, we try and make sure that our goals -- but, some of them just want to get into a crowd, depending on what the sponsor is, and who it is. For Wawa Welcome America! because we have such a large footprint, not only at the Parkway, but at 11 Penns Landing. We can offer the space and the people come. We get about 200,000 throughout three days for Taste of Philadelphia. So, we have a large number. We have the people that the sponsors want to come and present their products to or do samples.

So, my question is, what is the price? If an event costs -- We kind of are beginning to put our arms around the costs of an event, meaning the logistics of the police, the disruption of traffic maybe, and you know, I always hear from the museums as to what it costs to shut down the Parkway. So, at some point, we'll say the costs are X and, therefore, the sponsorship has to be Y. Have we done that yet? Have we said, here's what we are paying, here is what we need from you in order to do this?

Yes, if you are talking about events that are not produced by the City, because that would be the City service costs. 12

Okay.

Yes.

So then, there is a equal. We are not trying to make money, but there is an equal amount charged to the vendor and, therefore, any sponsors that participate know, all right, so this is what your price point is. Example, if we close down the Parkway and we do those big Jumbo Trons and in between the X that we have. Then, if I am BK Tires and I get a little banner -- I am not opening up a tire company. But, if I am BK Tires, I should be able to spend $500 a ten second blip. It would be helpful if we broke it down to that kind of price point because there are people that would pay that to the City for -- to be exposed to one million people.

It is really the impressions on the Jumbo Trons. When we are selling space on the Parkway during Wawa Welcome America or even during the marathon, it is different. It really depends on the event. With Wawa, we have Jumbo Trons. So, 13 we can say to someone who is giving us $15,000, in your price point that will give you two impressions on the Jumbo Tron that you can promote your product, and that is a million impressions because we have a million people who come throughout that day. So, does that answer your question? Each event is really individual and while the City service costs, if we are not producing that event, the only thing that the producer is charged for are City services, but they have to find the money to put their event on themself.

So, you don't get involved in the detail of that particular BK Tires?

It really depends on the event. But, no, only if we are producing that. We have offered assistance in the past, marketing assistance.

All right, I will shift gears and then -- I see one of the lights is lit up, but how do you encourage the prosperity of an event on the Parkway to 14 be shared with the ten districts in the City of Philadelphia? So, if we are having an event in Center City, how do we encourage tourists to come out to the various venues in the neighborhoods?

Well, again, it depends on the event. With Wawa Welcome America, we do a lot of different activities. Go Forth And Learn, Philly at the Movies, in the neighborhood surrounding Philadelphia. So that we have partnerships, and then of course everyone is invited to come to -- everyone is invited to come to the 4th of July celebration or any celebration that we have, which is centered right here in Center City. We also do partnerships with a number of different organizations. Last year for Wawa Welcome America, we worked with the Uptown Theater for an event that they were doing. So, we try and reach out to the different organizations to allow them to be apart of what we are doing, whether it is a venue or they're a partner and they bring their stuff to the Parkway for the 4th of 15 July.

So, if you could provide to The Chair, and I will distribute to the various members of Council, what I would like to see is, if we have having something in Center City, what can the connectivity be to, for example, the 8th District, Chestnut Hill area, restaurateur. In my case, we have a philosophy that if you are in town and you are a doctor and you are at the Marriott Hotel, if you come out outside and you go left, you have adult entertainment. You have things that are casinos and other more mature activities. But, if you turn right and start heading up the Parkway, you can go to the museums. You can further go to the Zoo. You can then go to Please Touch, you can go to the Mann Music Center, and one of the ways that you promote that is the Flash bus, and I understand they are negotiating -- they had some financial challenges. How are we working that negotiations out?

I believe the City is 16 working to find the hole in the budget in order for Flash to continue for another fiscal year.

Those are the ways that we promote neighborhoods.

Mm-hmm.

Whether it is in the 3rd District or the Zoo or in the 4th District of Please Touch, that is how family visitors get to go out there. We have the Japanese House Horticultures. All of that row depends on that Flash, and I'd like to see a list of ways that we hit Germantown Avenue, hit Passyunk Avenue in South Philly, to try to encourage people to go beyond Center City to enjoy the taste and sounds and sites of Philadelphia. So, if you can provide us a list of how you intend to specifically do that, I would appreciate it. The Chair now recognizes Councilman Kenny.

Mr. Chairman, I know we have been through the history of this 17 administration. We have been going around and around with all these events and their costs and their value and all that stuff. Have we looked at other cities and what price Chicago does. For example, is everyone charged if they are doing an event? The other issue is, is there a way to analyze or at least attempt to analyze the additional benefits of an event for the City's revenues? So, as opposed to analyzing it simply on the cost of police overtime, recreation, sanitation, is there a way to figure out what the return on the investment is if it fills hotel rooms, if it fills restaurants, if it does various things. Because, I think a lot of times, and rightfully so, I am not being critical at all, I think we have to look at the costs of our City services and what -- Do we ever do a return on investment kind of analysis to see if in fact there is a return or to debunk what some groups say is a return? I mean, would some analysis -- we have GPTMC, PCVB and all those organizations 18 those two organizations that are wonderful in figuring out the benefits of an art exhibit or parade or something? St. Patrick's Day, for example. People don't come in and probably stay overnight unless they're out-of-towners who are performing in the parade. I doubt, it is a more regional approach, but when you look at, you can't get into a restaurant or a bar in Center City on that day of that parade. What is our liquor by the drink return investment? What is our wage tax return on investment? All that seems not to be part of the analysis, or is it?

Yes, to all of your questions, except for St. Patrick's Day. Yes, we have looked at other cities and in the economy that we have had for the last four years, almost every City, including Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, are charging for events. In terms of, is there any analysis for some of the events? We recently did one for Wawa Welcome America and we hope to do one 19 again and those are the things that you mentioned that we do ask for analysis of, for instance, the economic impact, which I think you are talking about for Wawa Welcome America is a little more than $65 million dollars with a ten-day period. For Philadelphia Marathon, it's a little over $20 million. 5,000 hotel room nights, ec cetra. For events that the City does not produce, we do not have that information.

Do you think it would be worthwhile from the City's perspective, making an argument that people should pay or from the City's perspective that we didn't realize it had this economic impact for us that we could find a way to either defray costs or defer costs. Mummers parade for example. We always have this ongoing argument every year. People come in, they stay in a hotel. Do they? I don't know.

They did at one point. I don't think they have had analysis for the last four years.

No, I'm saying an 20 independent analysis or not or done by the City or GPT, I would trust GPTMC to do that.

There has been discussion about trying to do that for some of the larger events. It has not been done as of yet.

Same thing for St. Patrick's Day. You can't move in town when that parade is on and anytime you get great weather, it is even bigger. So, I just think -- I also think sometimes that people who are native Philadelphians or regional natives, they're offended by being asked to pay because they feel like it's the one thing a year that they get or they've had that is now being a bill being given to them. Again, I am not -- I understand your side of it. I am not being critical. I am just saying it is hard to translate that to folks who, you know, get that one day a year on the Parkway and then get a bill. So, I really would like to drill down deeper into trying to determine what the economic return is and hopefully we can do that going 21 forward.

I will certainly speak to the Mayor about it during the analysis.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Councilman. The Chair now recognizes Councilman Henon.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning.

Good morning.

Thank you for being here. You know I certainly recognize, you know, the good work that the department and how they especially handle the high profile events and recognition for the City --

Thank you.

-- in promoting, in some cases receiving national exposure. I think Councilman Kenney is absolutely correct. You know, having an analysis, impact study on the amount of revenue that you can actually, you know, tie into a 22 specific event or at least percentage wise for like events or smaller events is extremely important as we, you know, try to manage our cost analysis to what the City spends, you know, on resources and services that is supporting the events. You know, in your testimony, you had on , you had mentioned one of the paragraphs here, supporting program development and strengthening strategic marketing plans. What types of programs would you be developing? On , third paragraph from the bottom.

Well, we do partnerships with a number of different organization. Without the partnership of the Center City district, we would have never been able to do the Philadelphia Collection. Without the partnership of GPTMC, PCVB, and a number of others organizations, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The With Art Philadelphia program, which is being launched, will not happen. So, those kinds of partnerships allow 23 us to take an event to really target Philadelphia for either art or for athletes to show our running past throughout Philadelphia, which the Philadelphia marathon does. Partnering with Parks and Recreation. Any number of organizations. Without the partnerships of the hospitality and tourism industry, a lot of the things we do could not happen. So, that's really what I am talking about when I say strengthening.

At the same time, you mention increase and impact of the various City's departmental initiatives. Is that sort of collaboration similar?

Absolutely.

What are some of the examples on departmental initiatives?

The Mayor's office is sustainability. We worked with them last year to make our Philadelphia marathon more sustainable. We did composting for the first time and will do so again. We actually created this organization with the office of the Mayor's Civic Engagement Office, what we 24 call Waste Busters.

Waste Watchers.

Waste Watchers? Well, either one is okay, but they, basically, sorted through the trash. They were volunteers so that we could take that trash and turn it into compost. We also have done partnerships with the Mayor's office of Education on their graduation; caps and gowns on the steps of the Art Museum where the college students tossed their caps, which is the name of the event, we are working with them on something else that will happen this year for high school students. Parks and Rec are also one of our big partners that we work with.

So, in addition, we have, and I think everybody should be exited about the Barnes Museum. Is there an aggressive campaign, you know, that we can -- that we are gonna publicly address and promote for the most prestigious art collection in one location in the world?

Absolutely. That is the With Art Philadelphia program that we are working with GPTMC, PCVB. I can go through all these alphabets. But, basically, it's all the art organizations. Not just the ones on the Parkway where we are launching a million dollar campaign with money that was raised from all the organizations to position Philadelphia as a place with art. So that we highlight every kind of art with the Penn Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, the African-American Museum. Everybody gets a chance to be apart of this big launch because Barnes is opening on the Parkway and we are taking advantage of that and the fact that Traveling Leisure made Philadelphia, No. 1, in culture and arts to really push our position.

Would that be private dollars raised, or --

No, it is --

-- money received from, you know, subsidies that the City --

The City is part -- The money is from the different organizations that are participating in this event. Well, not the event, but this piece.

The rate of return on dollars, I think, goes to, you know, Councilman Kenney's suggestion on the rate of return back to the City for his resources when you are taking a look at something like that, some sort of impact study financially on our rate of return for dollars spent, dollar received. Again, I think it will go a long way in promoting the City as a world destination.

Yes, and the With Art Philadelphia program, I think we will be able to figure out people coming in for that year. But it's a two-year program. So, yes, and, you know, your point about the analysis for the different events is well heard.

Okay. I have no 20 further questions at this time.

Thank you, Councilman Henon. Chair recognizes Councilman Oh.

Thank you very much, 27 Chairman. Could you explain how your office is setup in relation to other governmental entities? Is this a stand-alone independent office or is it part of another department?

As of 2009, it's a stand-alone department.

In terms of its strategic goals, how do you set out to arrive at your strategic goals, and what are they for the next two or three years?

To contain and promote the City of Philadelphia through partnerships, events, marketing, branding for the City.

Any particular demographics that you are trying to reach or to attract?

Well, we work with a number of different organizations for the tourism industry. So, the Mayor recently started the Hospitality Advisory Board to talk about some of things, not just in the City, like homeless, but how to attract more 28 people. So, a large number of the organizations that I talked about earlier are part of that Advisory Board.

Okay. Would you then describe your office as an entity that supports the efforts of other private and nonprofit sector initiatives, or as an organization that fills in or leads in creating events where some may be lacking?

We actually do both, Councilman. We create a number of different events. We have created the Philadelphia Collection. We work with a number of different organizations to support what they are doing and they also support us. We are creating -- we also try and make sure that we are within the guidelines for the Mayor's initiatives. His fight against obesity. We are going a Mayor's 5k run/walk this year. We are looking to promote Philadelphia's industry in terms of good health, nutrition with Philadelphia Home Grown program that we are trying to work with 29 GPTMC to launch this year as well. So, we create a number of different events and have for the past four years and plan on continuing to do that. But, we also offer support, not only internally, but externally.

Do you believe that the efforts that you make are returning to Philadelphia far greater dollars than are spent?

Well, I can use the Philadelphia Marathon to show the example of that. When we first came here in 2008, there were 14,000 runners in the Philadelphia Marathon. As of last year, 2011, there were 27,000 runners and we are one of the few marathons that is still growing for the full and not just the half. Throughout the country, almost every marathon has dropped in numbers, but the half has increased. Not the Philadelphia Marathon. We are still getting at least 1,000 people per year for that marathon and it is about 20,000 -- $20 million dollars economic impact and we have an agreement with almost every hotel during 30 that time and we use about 5,000 rooms nights. So, I will say that, yes, the effort that we put out is very good on the return.

Is there more that you can could be doing?

You know, I am struggling how to answer that question because I think we are doing more. We are adding two new events this year and we have a very small staff. So, we are already kind of overwhelmed, but we keep pushing because the Mayor inspires us to do what we need to do to make sure that we are offering something to the citizens of Philadelphia and also attracting tourism.

Do you think you need a bigger staff?

I could always use a bigger staff. I think every department in the City could say that.

Is your office kind of the central point of all these different entities; hospitality, arts, in terms of promotion, gaining international tourists, 31 things like that?

Yes, I would say that. I sit on most of the boards of the hospitality organizations in the City or work with them in partnership one way or the other, and we, IVC, International Visitors Center, that is run by Nancy Gilboy, we have worked with her on the sister City's program and an ambassador program that we started two years ago that's really given us more than what we ever put out, and also Commerce is working with us on that as well.

How do you interface with Commerce? Does the Commerce Department have its own promotion and whatnot? Is there duplication or is there something that is unique to what you are doing?

It depends on what the event is or what we are doing. For the Ambassador Program, we work on -- I don't think there is duplication. They work with us on the Philadelphia Collection and the Philadelphia Fash Incubator at Macy's. So, there are a number of things we work with on 32 them. The office of the City Representative was a part of commerce for so long we are still, in the past four years, since it became independent. We are still figuring out how to work together, but because that history is there, it is good.

Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Sure. Thanks. The Chair now recognizes Councilman Johnson.

Good morning.

Good morning.

How are you doing today, Ms. Johnson; pretty good?

I am doing well, thank you.

I want to start off by commending you on the work that you have been doing.

Thank you.

Just a couple statements or a couple things to take into consideration as you move forward. 33 Obviously, your particular position is a very important position as it relates to the City of Philadelphia as we stick out our claim along the east coast. Particularly Philadelphia being in between DC and New York, it is quite obvious that we have to promote aggressively our City as a destination City. So, I do commend you on your past efforts and just wanted to point out a couple things from a supportive standpoint on how some things, I think, could enhance your particular department. I think as we struggle with the issue of revenue for our City, you are in a key position because travel and tourism are one of the main ways we can always bring in additional revenue. People come for the various events that you organize, they stay, they spend their money, they stay in the hotels, they eat at our restaurants, and our establishments. One thing I would like for the City Representatives Office to pay attention to is also a plan regarding the recruitment of 34 young professionals who attend our major universities as well as some of our local two-year college universities whether it be Pierce or whether it be Community College, but more importantly on another level, individuals who attend University of Pennsylvania, La Salle, Temple, who decides to not stay in Philadelphia when they graduate, when they receive their degrees. So, if you can just take into consideration as y'all plan, as y'all move forward, not only throughout this administration, but a long term plan beyond this administration to recruit and also maintain some of the young professionals who received professional and graduate degrees from our local universities. If you are already working on some of those issues, can you elaborate?

Certainly, Councilman. We actually have a really robust internship program where we work with our large number of universities. We get a lot of Temple students and actually last year we hired one 35 of those Temple students who had been an intern since 2008 for Wawa Welcome America, and she was a volunteer in my office for almost the entire four years. So, she's turned out very well. We also just talked with someone from Fox Business School, they want some of their graduate students to work with us and they worked very closely with us during Wawa Welcome America to provide us with students and internships. We have had students from LaSalle, from Villanova, and from University of Penn throughout the time that I have been there and we couldn't do what we do without the help of these students. So, they come through during different times and we have them working on public relations and the different events.

Good.

We also work very closely with Campus Philly. They are actually bringing back their -- what do they call it? It is their fair that is on the Parkway and 36 their, as you know, goal is to retain those students here in the City. That is another thing we work with Commerce on.

That is good. Also, just want to commend you on the partnerships with the other various City agencies that you work in conjunction with, whether it's the Department of Commerce or the various other agencies, such as Greater Philadelphia Tourism and Marketing Corporation, Philadelphia Convention of Visitors Bureau, Philadelphia International Visitors Council as well. I think, because as a lot of times you see City agencies working independent. So, there is no communication or no synergy amongst the various agencies that all have the same goal and mission. So, again, I just wanted to commend you, but I am a real advocate for making sure that when individuals receive those graduate degrees, I think if we have a concrete as Mr. Majority leader has shown me thus far on coming in as a member of Council. 37 Is there an actual plan? Like, what is our plan to retain college graduates in the City of Philadelphia and so something like that can be explored, my office is more than willing to be supportive of that process. So, we can do away with the reputation of sometimes being viewed as having a brain drain --

Yes.

-- in the City of Philadelphia, recruiting our best talent and keeping our best talent. So, from a supportive standpoint, if I can be supportive of that type initiative, I offer myself. More importantly, I do believe as we move forward as a City, we need to have a plan to keep our best and brightest in the City of Philadelphia, but Melanie, keep up the good work.

Thank you so much, Councilman.

Thank you, Councilman. The Chair now recognizes Councilwoman Brown. 38

Thank you. Good morning.

Good morning.

I will start with this, what I call a big picture question. Revenue aside, if you have to look into a crystal ball and wanted to create a new initiative of the office, what would it be?

The Philadelphia Home Grown, because it takes into consideration not only promoting the produce, but -- let me start from the beginning. GPTMC kicked off Philadelphia Home Grown -- Is walt here? Two years ago. It's a campaign that has promotion with it, but one of the things that she and I have talked about is actually bringing it into the City so it is actually into Love Park and renting booth space to not just produce, to show off what Philadelphia and its region has to offer, but also Philadelphia clothes that are made here.

Sure.

Textiles. Any kind of thing that Philadelphia makes or the region, 39 so that we can take that and grow it. Because one of the things that is very important is to show that we are a sustainable City and that we do have manufacturing here. We do have farms here. We have things that we can sell. So, that is something that we have been looking at for the past year, and talking about it, and we hope that we will be able to launch that this year in September.

Terrific. How are new ideas vetted in the Commerce Department; new ideas?

In Commerce?

Yeah. How are they vetted?

You will have to talk with Alan about the Commerce, but.

I can wait. I can wait. Let's move to talk about the Christmas Village. Last year questions were raised regarding whether or not it looks like Philadelphia, and it is no secret that we are asking this of every single department. 40 So, for the Christmas Village, two years I asked about the processes in place to certify that companies participating in the Christmas Village abide by City standards after the initial award of the contract. What steps has your office taken to ensure that these companies represent themselves accurately when they apply for City contracts?

Are you talking about minority? It is in the contract that they have, I believe. When we talked last year, we checked. They do. If you go to any of the booths during that time when they are selling, they actually recruit here in Philadelphia. Some they bring from Germany and other places, but a lot of the booths are from Philadelphia.

So, they're local?

Some of the booths are local, yes.

That is one important check off. What about cultural 41 diversity?

Well, we have talked about some of the stuff that they do. They have brought in entertainment. Last year they had that, and I would say that the entertainment that they provided was definitely --

Was rich in terms of culture?

Absolutely. They had everything from African-Americans to some Asian dancers, I believe, or the dragon that they have. So, it was very, very diverse last year.

Can you submit to The Chair the listing of those contracts and stipulate whether or not they were local MBEs or WBEs?

You want the contract that shows that they have --

Each of the booths that were setup.

I don't have those because those are individually done by the 42 contractor, because we don't produce that event. It's an individual contractor who does, but I do have the contract between them and the City of Philadelphia.

You have access to that contractor, who then ultimately -- I hired those folks?

Yes.

We would like to think that this is an expectation that they provide a listing of who they are doing business with, because only hard factual data shows the true story. So, the ask is that you will get that information and submit it to The Chair so that we can see it for ourselves. The Christmas Village moved to Love Park this year during preparation for the construction at Dilworth Plaza, the outcomes at the Village changed as a result of the move in terms of revenue.

I believe so. They were very busy, much more so being in Love Park than they were in Dilworth Plaza. It was 43 really an eye opener. It worked very well in Love Park. They had a lot of people coming in and out. Probably because Love Park, people walk through it, but they did very well this year -- last year.

So, you have information that shows an uptick in attendance, as well as revenue generated?

I can get that from the contractor.

Please, and if that can be a part of the testimony next year so that we can actually see what the yield and outcomes are with those kinds of decisions. I will stop, Mr. Chairman, and I will be back. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you, Councilwoman. We are gonna recognize Ms. Bass and then we will be on our second round of questioning, which will have a three-minute limit as opposed to a five-minute limit. Councilwoman Bass.

Thank you, Mr. 44 Chairman. Good morning.

Good morning, Councilwoman.

How are you?

I am well. Thank you.

Good. I just have a couple of really quick questions. One was already touched upon by Councilman Johnson in reference to attracting people to Philadelphia because, you know, I'm a firm believer that the only way we kind of get out of the financial situation that we are in is we have to grow our City. We have to grow our economy and part of that is getting people to come here, see how great it is, and then connecting them with the idea of living here and calling Philadelphia home. So, and again, I know that there was some discussion already had. But, I guess I just wanted to ask a little bit further. Is there any sort of comprehensive effort to get people to come to our events and activities and then stay here? 45 Is there any organized, strategic effort beyond the college graduate, you know, which is great, you know, because we need to to do something about the brain drain, obviously. But also for other groups. For other families, young families, individuals. Is there any sort of comprehensive effort that your office works with, you know, another department to, you know, attract and recruit folks to come in to Philadelphia to stay?

Do you mean to live, or?

Yes, to live.

It's something that's been discussed, but there is not a promotional piece attached to that as of yet. It is something that we have been talking about for the last few years and trying to find funding for, but it hasn't moved. So we do a number of different things through events and promotion for tourism, but not a specific program to attract people to come to Philadelphia to live. No. 24

Okay. All right. 46 But, it is something that is not off the table. Something that you have discussed, but just sort of getting your hands around it right now, it may take a moment to get there; you think?

I think that it was shelved for a number of reasons, but it is not something that is dead. There just hasn't been any funding or agreement as to how it could be resurrected, so-to-speak. But, it is certainly not completely off the table, no. 13

Okay. The other question, can you speak to specific marketing techniques or projects that you all may do, particularly towards certain nitch communities, specific communities whether it is the African-American community or LGBT or the Hispanic community, which is growing throughout our City and our region. You know, Philadelphia experienced population growth, and that was one of the communities that really had a significant growth. So, how do we market to them with the 47 events that we have? You know, I notice some of the events that you have mentioned here, but nothing that was specifically, you know, geared towards specific communities; like I said, the African-American, LGBT communities, and groups that want to come in and spend money and see Philadelphia?

Well, when we do, for instance, something for the Philadelphia Marathon, our promotion has to be very broad. But in working with GPTMC, they market specifically to those communities; LGBT, as well as 360. We work with 360 for every event that we do, as well as GPTMC. They really work closely with us to do promotions on all of our events. From the Philadelphia Collection to Wawa Welcome America to the Philadelphia Marathon and now for Philly Home Grown. So, they have segments where, I am trying to think of a for instance for you with 360, something that we did. I am drawing a blank. Can you think of something? 48 We work with them because their job is to promote Philadelphia specifically through funding that they get. So, they have been great partners for us. We work with the Multi-cultural Affairs Congress. When the National Association of Black Journalists were here, we worked with them and hosted a reception for them to show them the things that we do. We did, during Welcome America, a block party in Chinatown and marketed that. So, we try and hit every demographic that we can through a lot of different ways. We went to New York with GPTMC for With Art to promote that to the African-American Journalist. We have done that in the past. We have done media tours and things along those lines. So, we try ran hit every one we can, but we, in my office specifically, we kind of keep it broad when we are trying to do a marketing program because of the funding involved.

Sure, okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, 49 Councilwoman. We are going to begin the second round. I have a few brief questions. First of all, let me compliment you and take a page from one of the Serious 6, Councilman Johnson, and complement you. But also one of the veterans, Councilman Green, and say we are trying to learn how as a body to say, "yes, and", as opposed to "no, but". So, we're trying to -- there's a kinder, gentler spirit in chambers these days.

Thank you.

To compliment you. You have grown as an administrator. Your presentation is concise. You have been telling us what we need to hear. We are trying to tell you what we'd like to see. That connection to the neighborhood, we're a City of neighborhoods, and Councilman Squilla's district. I know about the Italian Market and things that are part of our fabric. In Chestnut Hill, Germantown, there are things to see, and in my district. We'd like to look at the groups, figure a connect, and get 50 them to come out to these neighborhoods where we have commercial shopping strips, we have restaurants and places that are unique. Every City has a gap, but every City doesn't have Denise's Bakery. So, we want you to come out to parts of the district and get people to really, you know -- Pat's and Geno's is nice, but there are other cheesesteak places that I would argue are better, Councilman Kenney. So.

Can I tell you about our Philadelphia Marathon fan pass, Councilman?

Yes.

We created that four years ago. The first year was specifically the course where we approached a number of different retailers to highlight what they were doing during the Philadelphia Marathon. That year we had about 40,000 people who, basically, they're a captive audience. 27,000 of them are because they have to come and pick up their bags from the Expo. But, they bring their families, which is why the Philadelphia Marathon is the gift that keeps 51 on giving. The year after that, we expanded the Philadelphia Fan Pass. The Philadelphia Marathon Fan Pass to make it City wide. So, that we had over a hundred retailers and hotels that signed up to give discounts so that we could promote them during the Philadelphia Marathon Expo. We also use Temple University students to promote the City and the different organizations. There is a booth at the Expo that talks about not just what is going on during the marathon, but what happens in the City. There are some events or something at the Please Touch Museum, because again, no 16 runner comes alone. They always bring a support team.

Exactly.

So, those support teams are not going to be at the Expo all the time, so we found a way to try to really give them something they can do. So, that is one of the things we do.

When you do an event 52 like the marathon or the Delgado, we benefit on City Avenue in our hotels. So, we book out there. So we understand the connectivity to that. Couple of the events; one, the bike race. I want to thank you for your involvement with that. It comes through the neighborhoods and everybody isn't always happy to see it, but you have made it a little more palatable. One of the things that we would like you to -- that was an innovation last year was the court. We opened up the bike court. It is not a night court, but a bike court, and a lot of the enthusiastic members to watch the bike race, you know, tends to throw them back a little hard. We had to let them know that that kind of behavior was going to be put in check because the neighbors who live there didn't necessarily appreciate it. You worked with that group, we would like that bike court again. So, we would like you to follow up with that and do that. The other thing is, when one of the Council persons talked about, I think it was 53 Councilwoman Brown talked about new events. Ike Johnstone who runs the Belmont stables in my district is having a roundup and he's invited close to 500 equestrians to come and stay for three days in the City of Philadelphia, and they are going to do a horseback tour all the way up to Valley Forge and back, and during those three days, I don't know if you are working with him yet, but we --

I haven't talked to him.

We would like you to contact him and reach out to Mr. Johnstone, and that is 300 families that are gonna here, camp out, and we want them to have a pleasant experience, because as mentioned, our Fairmount Park trails, you would be surprised, you know, if you go in some of those back trails that aren't always traversed, it is like being in some place in the mid-west. It is really beautiful. So, we would like to you take a look at that.

May I contact your office to get a contact number? 54

Absolutely. In fact, one of my staff will give you the number before you leave chambers. Second round. Chair now recognizes Councilman Kenney.

Thank you. I know you interact with various departments in the City during events, whether it's Rec or Streets, police obviously. Do you have much interaction with L&I relative to events? The reason I raise it is the issue of a Doom Day, which is again one of those neighborhood events that started and now it is this huge event for the City and it is great for the City on many levels. They used to be able, the vendors used to be able to purchase a couple day business privilege license or vending license on site when they showed up, and now L&I is saying they have to do it weeks in advance. When you have these small entrepreneurs, they choose at the last minute where they may go to vend. Is there something you could do to see 55 if we can't get that reinstated? It makes planning that much easier for them because they can encourage people to come the day of and get the license they need? That would be a big help.

I will certainly inquire.

Secondly, a Stark Philadelphia, Incorporate, with the exception of individual events. Whether it's an art exhibit, whether it's Vango, or any of those, it is probably, the stark area is probably the single biggest 12 month a year draw. Always folks coming, no matter what month it is and they're coming and they're staying in hotels and doing the weekend. They have really gotten smashed, as many entities have, by the State. You see those folks walking around doing the tours in period costume and the Betsy Ross House and the bell, Franklin Square, it really does bring lots and lots of families and individuals, foreign tourists, national tourists to the City. Is there any possible, a small bump for them would be -- right now because of the 56 State cut, they are probably out of August. August is gonna be shut down for their programing. I just think it is one of those things we sometimes take for granted because we own all those entities and it just always went on and the State took care of them. Now the State has no interest, for the most part, west of Harrisburg. Could you please look at something? Maybe we can give them a little bit of a bump to save August?

I will certainly look in to it. They have just asked me to join their Board.

Oh, good.

They are stakeholders under my budget. I worked very closely with Amy Needle and we are looking at different things to see what we can possibly do.

Great. So, your attention to it is appreciated.

Yes.

Thank you. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. 57

Chair thanks Councilman. The Chair now recognizing Councilman Henon.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A couple of my colleagues had mentioned some of their more local events that they have. Does your office continue to help support? So, I have, for instance two concerts, two big concerts a year up in the district in conjunction with Penny Pack Park. You know, Parks and Recs. So, if I were in need of some sort of promotional support or some kind of assistance in some way or another, would I call your office?

Yes, sir. You can certainly call our office.

Okay. That is great. Now, I have a few quick questions on the marathons. It has become so big, you know, in the City. So, you have, you know, you have the Philadelphia Marathon, you have the Broad Street Run, you have many other runs, you know, that goes on. 58 Have you considered expanding it more of a, you know, national to match like the Philly Marathon, more of a national level because it seems like more people are becoming more health conscious these days. If we are generating that kind of money and there is a rate of return on the, I guess, registration fees. I think the registration fees have to be, you know, a substantial amount?

Actually, they are only $85. We have managed to keep it that way by changing the length of time we offer before we go to a bump for the next one. But the Philadelphia Marathon is national. We attract runners from all 50 states and 40 countries. Canada and Mexico are our largest. It's grown by about 2,000 runners for the last four years, give or take a few hundred here or there. There are four races. The Rothman 8k they are going to sign up for another three years and are very happy with it. We are looking at ways to expand that because of the 59 course that we currently use will be tapped out in a few years if we don't make some changes. So we are looking to possibly move the half marathon to a Saturday and do Sunday so we can grow both races.

You had the Broad Street Run --

The Broad Street Run is done --

They had 30,000 participants in five hours or something like that. Somebody in my office made it in by the wire, you know. I have an avid runner. I am going to give Chris a shout out, and he wanted to know, do you cap -- how do you determine the number of capping in the amount of runners in all these marathons?

Well, the Broad Street Run is run by Parks and Rec and they capped out at 30,000 because I don't think Broad Street can handle a larger number. We cap our number, we will cap out probably 20, 29,000, if we keep both the half and the full on the same day. Which is why we are looking 60 at seeing if we can move the half marathon so that we can grow both races. Otherwise, we will probably reach 29,000, maybe this year. So, we have to be careful because the course, while the Parkway is huge, the streets that that they go through, some in Center City, right around the historic district are not so big. So, we have to be very careful.

But, you are considering maybe attracting some more national, like, more beneficiaries for a large marathon or running event here?

Do you mean doing another Philadelphia Marathon?

Well, not another Philadelphia Marathon, but of the like. You know, attracting more -- just continuing on. Welcome to the City, this is what we have to offer. Look what we do, Philadelphia Marathon, look at the Broad Street Run, et cetera, et cetera.

I am actually not looking to do another large race like that at the 61 moment. What we are are trying to do is figure out a way to promote Philadelphia's pathways. Philadelphia is a great running City, so we have talked to the Broad Street Run and when the Philadelphia Distance Run before it was owned by an outside company, we talked about trying to do a promotional piece that showed all these three races that we can, basically, train at one in order to reach the last one, which was the Philadelphia Marathon. We are still talking about that. The Broad Street Run is going to do a promotion with the Philadelphia Marathon this year, whereas if you run the Broad Street Run and you run any one of the three races -- or two races, the half or the full, you get a special metal or something. We talked about a certificate. So, that is one of the ways that we are cross-promoting. But, at this point, putting another race on of that size just is not doable with the staff that we currently have. There have been other people, there is a half marathon 62 that is produced outside called the Odyssey. Odyssey a half marathon. But, to do another race of the Philadelphia Marathon size or the Broad Street Run, I just don't think we have the resources to handle that at this time.

Is that it, Council? Your time is up. Respecting the clock. I don't feel like the substitute teacher today. Thank you. Councilwoman Brown.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to underscore the importance of our interest in whoever the contractor is for the Christmas Village.

Absolutely.

That they know what we are looking for in terms of numbers.

So, you want the list of the people they do business with and --

Who they contract with.

You also want to see how they have improved their numbers?

The stats and data 63 --

In Love Park.

-- of the outcome. I visit the Christmas Village every year because I like international arts and crafts, but I also visit to see if they look like Philadelphia.

Okay.

My assessment summary is different from yours. So, we need to see the hard data.

I will get that for you.

I have been looking here at the table of organization of the City, and Councilman Good tried to help me find the Office of Arts and Culture. Where is the Office of Arts and Culture in the midst of the Commerce Department?

It is not, it is in the Mayor's office.

It is in the Mayor's office?

Yes.

Okay. All right 64 then. What is the level of interface with your department and the Commerce Department?

Through a number of different things that we have worked on. Which would be the Ambassador Program, Campus Philly. What else did I talk about earlier? The Philadelphia Collection, the Philadelphia Fashion Incubator at Macy's. We work on a number of different things together.

Very well. I will say that the discussion about the celebration of smaller arts and cultural organizations with Commerce. What is the level of interface with the Office Of Arts And Culture?

Well, we work with them. We created a program last year, the Jazz Coalition, where there is, this Friday, I believe. This April is Jazz month. Last year we had a press conference on Jazz Day, which was -- we launched on the end of March and then we had Jazz month, which was in the middle of the month and we pulled together a number of different Jazz groups and 65 organizations in the City and announced it Jazz month, which is the U.S. Conference, the Mayor does Jazz Day.

Okay.

The Smithsonian does Jazz month.

That's a new initiative of the partnership between those two departments?

Exactly.

Very well. I want to put on the record here today that my office has been doing its du diligence around a City wide Children and Youth Arts and Music Festival. They're about 12 celebrating different cities around the county. Philadelphia is not one of them. I was struck by the work of In Liquid (ph). They had a community arts festival last May or June and thought about the value of making it a City wide effort where you celebrate talents of children and youth. So, know that that document is coming to you. I believe I had a preliminary 66 conversation with GPTMC, I simply can't remember, but when I looked at what other cities are doing around the country and celebrating the works and talents of children and youth. I think that is a great opportunity for our City, and when I looked at the different sponsors, some of those sponsors are right here in the region. So, know that that document is coming to you as well as to the leadership of GPTMC.

Yes.

Okay. Lastly -- That may be it. I think that is it. So, let me close by also acknowledging the important work that you do and the reach that your office has for it to be such a small -- small in terms of numbers. But, your reach is wide and deep and I know that because I see it often in the work that you are doing.

Thank you, Councilwoman. Very much appreciated.

You're welcome. Thank you, Chairman. 67

Counsel now recognizes Councilman Oh.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My concern is that your office is small and that it seems like there is so much more work that needs to be done. I am not sure who else does it. I guess we have the Commerce Deputy Mayor coming up as well. But, in terms of our need as a City to bring dollars in and to create new employment and opportunities and to attract the type of residents that we need for our growing creative and innovative work force. With all the opportunities to brand Philadelphia, you know, how does your office, in terms of size and activity, compare with cities like New York or smaller cities like Boston, which are well-branded?

We do the best we can.

What do their offices look like, comparable office to yours?

Well, New York has New York City Marketing, which is an agency that 68 was created quite a few years ago and was an outside agency that pulls together convention tourism and hospitality. It is a very different setup because they have the different bureaus. So, it is even less comparing apples and oranges to compare this office with what New York City Marketing does. We work with, in this City we have PCVB has a separate organization, GPTMC is a separate organization. You also have Center City district. All of whom work together to try and do that promotion and branding, which is what With Art Philadelphia promotion is all about. All of those organizations for the first time really came together. So, we recognize exactly what you are saying and try to pull together to do that, which is also what the Mayor's Hospitality Advisory Board is trying to do. There is not a comparison between us and New York or even Boston in how it is all setup. Each City is set up differently. Philadelphia is definitely unique in the way that we have it 69 setup in terms of promotion and marketing.

Is that unique good, unique bad?

Well, for four years I think it is good since we have been working very hard to make a difference and I think we have in a number of different ways. With what we have to do, yes. But I don't think that you can compare New York City marketing to what we have here because it's a very different kind of setup because of the different boroughs.

All right, thank you very much.

You're welcome.

One moment. I actually think Councilman Oh is on to something. That thematically many of the Council people here today have said is that we are not different than New York. We have different analogies and different definitions of neighborhoods, boroughs versus neighborhoods. But, pretty much, each one of these districts is unique from all around the 70 City and if we thought of it that way to market it in that way, like one of the things we are proud of in the fourth is we have more park land, more waterfront than most districts and as I work with the commercial corridors there, they are trying to push that. Main street is pushing the riverside of things and every time we do a promotion for the arts festival, which you help us with, and others, we are really selling that location and there is a uniqueness about each one of the districts or boroughs if we look at it that way, and I am encouraged by the fact that you have all of these different promoting agencies that should kind of report thematically to you and kind of get that branding kind of out there. We have envy of New York and Washington DC, and we shouldn't. We shouldn't. Councilman Johnson stated that we are uniquely position between the financial and Governmental capital of the world. We are within one truck day's ride between one third 71 of the City, the nation's population. We are unique in ourselves and we need to start branding that in a way that captures some of the creative culture that we are trying to attract, some of the young professionals that we are trying to retain and brand ourselves as something special, and the cheesesteak and hoagie debate should continue.

I absolutely agree with both of you.

Chair recognizes Councilman Squilla.

Thank you, Chairman. Thank you guys for coming out here and I do believe this is an important role for the City to grow and it does seem like we have a couple different organizations doing similar things and it's good to hear that we are now working together to try to coordinate that to -- so we don't have a redundancy of operation between different organizations. But, my district is pretty big and has a lot of different museums throughout the district from the African-American Museum, 72 the Jewish Museum, the Philadelphia Museum, the Mummers Museum, Polish Museum, a million museums. I was just wondering how do you market each individual museum and how do you pick or choose, you know, which ones you highlight at certain times?

Well, we do a lot with the museums in your district. I actually sit on the Board for the African-American Museum. We just did their gala, and I worked on the committee to create a new event for them that we did in the museum to attract younger people to the museum. So, I have worked on that and that turned out to be a really good thing to do. We are gonna do it again next year. We actually have Quest love in to spin and we attracted a large number. I think about 200 people, and they also got a membership with their cost. So, working with them, I worked very closely with them. As for the Mummers Museum, some of the things we do with Wawa 73 Welcome America, we have a program called Go Forth and Learn. Each year we do different venues, to talk about Go Forth and Learn about history, Go Forth and Learn about music. We did something at the Del last year. This year we're doing Go Forth and Learn about the Mummers at the Mummers Museum. So, we try and come up with different things and partner with the different organizations to figure out, well, if we are doing an event, how can we include this district or this neighborhood. So, you know, we are not able to do every single one, but in the four years that we have been here, I think we have probably hit most of the districts or had a partnership with some organization in that district. We are still continuing to do that.

So, you, try to market, every year try to market a different museum?

We try and market a different venue. We are going to Smith 74 Playground this year as well as the Mummers. We are going back to Franklin Square where they just did a pavilion and we did a big press conference with them. We did -- We are doing something at the Please Touch museum this year. We did something at the Franklin Institute last year. The Academy of Natural Sciences. There are a lot over the last four years that we try and do a partnership because we think it is important to work with the Recreation Department to bring at least two to three hundred kids, depending on the location, to each of the these Go Forth and Learns, where people come out, they read to them, they get a book. They usually get some kind of bag and they get to see the venue, whereas a lot of those parents would not be able to afford the fee for those kids to come in. We try and make sure that it happens.

You also market them to people from outside the City coming in. We have the Philadelphia Museum, Atwater Kent Museum. A lot of people don't even 75 realize what that museum is.

Absolutely.

It just seems like we need to be more proactive in marketing all of them to the people, not just the programs in them, but marketing every one of the museums to all the people who come in so they can actually know this museum has this, this is what this museum is.

GPTMC does a really good job with You Wish You Knew. Different places that might not be well known to people, and there is an organization called Hidden City that does that as well to show -- Actually, they are a little bit more extreme because you would not even know some of the places that -- They promote the Met. There are places that might be unfinished or ajeweled (ph) Rine to Rain Hotel. So there are quite a number of different ways that that gets done. We also try and do something to do venues there. We work with both organizations for that.

So, you do work 76 with them to see that is happening?

Well --

I just feel like sometimes people come and, I never knew that was there. We never knew that was there. A lot of people living in Philadelphia a long time don't know it,.

I know.

Hopefully we can work together to make that better.

Absolutely, Councilman. I'd be very happy to do that. We are still trying to figure out ways in order to do so.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman Green.

Thank you. I just wanted to briefly ask what the policy is of the administration with respect to our City sister program? How are we utilizing that existing program, you know, in what way? There was mention of ambassadors in the testimony that are related to that, but specifically those cities that are our sister 77 cities, what proactive things are we doing every year?

With the current or are we trying to get new ones; is that your question?

Well, with what we have got.

Nancy Gilboy does an absolutely incredible job. She has interns that come. We have people that come for visits where she arranges tours from our sister cities. We are trying to arrange for the Mayor to do some travel to maybe one of those sister cities this year. I don't think that some our sister cities has ever had a visit from one of the Mayor's of the City. So, we work with them, with IVC for what they do. We are not currently taking on any other sister cities because I think your point is is that the nine that we have, we try very hard to keep those going and those relationships going. It is not as simple as, you know -- We actually have a program with our Poland sister city where we did a 78 photography exchange, where we sent a photographer from here and they the sent someone over here to show our culture and there was an an exhibit. There is the Polish Mayor came over. There are a number of different things that happen two or three times a year. Our Kovai City in Japan. We did coincidentally, our marathons happened on the same day. We did a big promotional exchange of our running shirts with them. So, with anything else that we do in terms of organizations, we try and find promotional pieces and work with IVC to see how we can keep it going, to show that we are still very interested.

Well, what is the purpose in the City Reps view, not IVCs view of having a sister program, because they are the city sister cities. What are we doing -- Is there a stated ex goal, expectation, policy with respect to what we hope to achieve from these programs and what resources are we investing in attaining those 79 goals? From your response, it doesn't sound like there is an over-arching policy and set of goals with respect to sister cities and that of course, if there is not, there is not. But, I'd like that to be something that we explore for the future. I think they are valuable, potentially not just cultural, but commercial exchange programs and we should have specific goals with respect to them.

I absolutely agree, Councilman.

Thank you.

You are welcome.

Thank you, Councilman. The Chair recognizes Councilman O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Leader. I would just like -- I talked to Holly Kinser, your wonderful advisor sitting in the back and there is a -- I'd like to explore the possibility of bringing a big event to Philadelphia, and that is in the City of Pittsburgh, they have what is called 80 the Vintage Car Racing and it was started by Myron Cope, the former voice of the Steeler's, and Dan Torisky, who is head of the screen writer's guild. He wrote the movie MASH, Golden Girls, and a number of other things. But, the only place on the planet that this race takes place is Monaco and the City of Pittsburgh. They have 250,000 individuals who go to Chenerey Park and they set all these car clubs up on the golf course in Pittsburgh over a weekend. It grew from an event that took place on a Saturday morning to an almost all-week celebration. They have vastly outgrown their venue in Pittsburgh and they would very much like to come here. There is also another issue I would like to discuss with you with great specificity and that is making Philadelphia a diverse autism or disability friendly City and I think we can explore all the venues that come under your umbrella of responsibility. So, without belaboring the conversation here, I would just like to have 81 the opportunity to explore those opportunities with you in the near future.

Absolutely, Council, and I would be happy to setup an appointment with your office.

Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Henon.

I just have two final questions. One, do you have in-house public relations person on staff?

Yes, we do.

But, for the vast majority of your larger events, I guess you contract out the professional services?

Yes, we do.

That answers my questions.

Okay.

You know what, I am sorry. I apologize. The Film Office; does that fall under the purview of the City Solicitor's Office or is that more Commerce?

It is actually under my 82 office as a stakeholder.

It is as a stakeholder?

Yes.

Just more in line, as some of the earlier questions about a dollar return in an investment on, you know, promoting Philadelphia, you know, attraction as a place where, you know, rich in history and, you know, in producing of movies and documentaries. If you could take a look at some kind of study analysis and provide that to the Chair as well, I would appreciate it, because I would imagine -- I mean, it seems like -- I think the Film Department has done a wonderful job and it only seems as it's growing, you know. Especially with -- I hope the State brings it back, the tax credit, you know, for the movie, which is a board that I sit on actually. So, I can help promote, you know, being at the table and working hand in hand with your department and sharing on more of a working type relationship. 83 So, I look forward to that, and if we could definitely put, you know, dollar values to some of the great things that we are doing and continue to do, I can help champion in another venue.

I think that actually exists, so I will try and get that for you.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Reynolds-Brown.

Thank you. Quick point of information regarding your sister cities initiative.

Yes.

Or activities -- Councilman David Oh has created a new committee for City Council that deals with global opportunities and global thinking. So, I think an opportunity exists there to create a linkage between that office and the work of his committee. I am sure he can give you greater detail on that. Lastly, you state in your testimony that your department works with a number of 84 not-for-profit, including Welcome Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Marathon. Cite or state, provide a couple of examples of other not-for-profit that you work with.

Well, um -- the GPTMC, the PCVB --

Okay. Here's the subsequent follow-up and ask, there continues to be, in some ways, a concern, in other ways an interest for City agencies that are doing business with not-for-profits, that those not-for-profits in their practices, they are embracing or honoring Mayor Nutter's Executive Order around doing business with MBE, WBE. So, the question is, with those not-for-profits, is there some system, some practice, some oversight where you know that that is happening in a deeper way with those not-for-profits?

Well, I can speak on the Wawa Welcome America and the Philadelphia Marathon as absolutely, as a person who runs both those groups that we've way exceeded -- 85 I am looking for it to give you exact numbers.

Sure.

The percent, I believe 5 we are 65 percent, but I am going to give you 6 -- 7

Well, that is 8 great news, because unfortunately, that is 9 not the norm for City agencies. 10

We have for, and even for 11 the for profit for my office, the money that 12 we use for programing we have exceeded the 25 13 percent in dealing with minority and 14 women-owned businesses. I think the number 15 for that was 43 percent, the number for 16 Historic Philadelphia, they received money 17 from us and I have that number here, which is 18 why I mentioned that. 19

Sure. 20

48 percent overall for 21 minority business, and women-owned business 22 46 percent. I can certainly give you 23 percentages on some of the others. 24

Well, the evidence 86 is clear for your department. So, one final follow-up on this matter, Mr. Chair person. If you had to look at the one quality that helps make that happen, what would you say it is?

We aggressively look for minority in women-owned businesses to do business with. When we send out done an RFP, we keep a log of businesses who have contacted us or people that I get business cards from and anytime we do an RFP, we send out an e-mail letting them know that there is an opportunity for the kind of product or service they provide, and that is how we actually get our numbers. We work with a lot of women and minority owned businesses before those two events because we just think we should and we go after them to try and keep those numbers up.

Agreed. That boils down to leadership. It really does take leadership that doesn't talk it, but walk it in terms of honoring the tenants of the 87 Mayor's Executive Order. So, every chance we get, we need to acknowledge that and say thank you because it is not the norm yet in City Government. So, thank you for the work that you do.

Thank you, Councilwoman.

Thank you, Mr. Chair person. Are there any other questions?

I just found it in there.

Are there any other questions? Seeing none -- whoops Councilman Goode.

That is for the next.

You are getting in fast. I know how that works. Thank you both very much. Thank you for you being here. Thank you for all the work you do.

Thank you.

And the next offices are Commerce and OEO.

Good morning. Could you state your name for the record and begin 88 your testimony, please.

Good morning, Council. Good morning Councilman in the room. I'm Alan Greenberger, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, and with me are Angela Dowd-Burton, Executive Director to the Office of Economic Opportunity and momentarily should be Kevin Dow, Chief Operating Officer. But, I will start. He stepped out for a moment. He should be back shortly. I know that you have testimony from us and you have asked -- Here he comes. You have asked us not to read that, so I am going to summarize that testimony as he runs up and I fill air time until he gets here. Let me give you the larger overview of the testimony. As I said, Kevin Dow, Chief Operating Officer and Angela Dowd-Burton, Executive Director Of Office Of Economic Opportunity, and our senior staff who are in the front row and also available to answer questions. Also, several of our more important economic development partners are with us today as well. 89 The broad picture on the dollars is that an awful lot of money flows through the Commerce Department. $252,000,000. If I can just parse that for a moment so that it's a little more understandable to everybody. $152,000,000 of that is aviation, it goes directly to the airport. That is overseen by my colleague, Deputy Mayor for Transportation Infrastructure, Rina Cutler. $48,000,000 is also passed through on the hotel tax fund, that goes to various convention center and promotional agencies associated with hospitality. $15,000,000 is passed through directly to the Convention Center supporting its operations. $24,000,000 of grant funds, and that represents a whole assortment of grants that comes into the Commerce Department for use on commercial corridors, environmental remediations. Kind of a grab-bag collection of things that goes to specific purposes and Community Development Funds $9,000,000. Those typically embody the CDBG and other related 90 funds. Pull all that out it's about $4,000,000 left that is direct Commerce operations. That is --

Could you repeat that?

About $4,000,000. $4,000,000 plus dollars. That is the actual Commerce budget for operations. The mission of the Commerce Department I think can be pretty simply stated and that is to improve, and you have heard me say this before. To improve the business climate of this City. So that Philadelphia is seen as a place of choice by businesses that aren't here, but could relocate here. Businesses that are here and want to expand. Businesses that are here and have choices about where they want to be in the future, which include places outside the City. We are trying to make this a place of choice for businesses. There are a number of ways that that mission gets implemented. I apologize, it's not a simple tiny little package of things. It's a fairly broad 91 package of things that we have to do that range from advocacy. We have to talk more about businesses. We have to go to their events. We have to show that we are serious about wanting them here because we know that they are the source ultimately of the jobs produced in the City, which is the ultimate goal. The tax policy. There have been a number of measures that come out of Council this year that the administration has worked that are on all intended to advance or incentivise businesses to either start up here, stay here or relocate here. Some of them specifically tied to certain types of businesses, they are being implemented and we appreciate Council leadership on that. There are Government operations, regulatory operations. These are things like reforming the zoning code. Making it easier to develop here, creating a business portal with Licenses and Inspections to make it easier to understand how to have a business here. 92 The development services that are offered through the Commerce Department, basically, to hand hold large and small businesses through our regulatory maze, as well as streamlining operations wherever we can. There are other kinds of Government operations that are also very instrumental and they range from business attraction, both internationally as Councilman Green had brought up, to local, regional, national. There are the efforts of the Office Of Business Services to support concierge type activities, for mostly small businesses across the entire City. Corridor, neighborhood corridor improvement programs. There are dozens of neighborhood corridor in the City that we are involved with through various programs that include storefront improvements, corridor management, community development corporation leadership. A whole variety of things that we can talk about, and then there is the indirect things that are related to simply 93 quality of life. A question was asked earlier about attracting people and a lot of that is vested in the quality of life in the City and the perception that it is a good quality of life, which is among the key reasons why people come and stay in a place. Two other things I would like to mention. Integrity of government is an important one that sometimes get overlooked in discussions about businesses. But it is absolutely critical that businesses understand that both now and in the future, government has a light level of integrity. It has a direct relationship to their willingness to invest and stay invested in a place. Lastly, and possibly most importantly is work force itself. On one hand we have a tremendously skilled work force and on the other hand we have a tremendously under-skilled work force that is in need of assistance for it to us. In terms of both work readiness, connection to jobs, and 94 retraining for the new kinds of jobs that are out there. That is a huge agenda and an agency like Commerce, which has 64 people in it, cannot execute that agenda by itself and so the way we have to do it is by forming critical partnerships with a number of agencies outside of the Government or quasi Public Agencies and this is what we do. Just to cite four of them, probably our most critical economic development partner is PIDC.

We see them and they see us as full partners in economic development in the City. They are also the City's financial transactor involving loan programs and movement of money. We are together pretty much every single day, either formally in regularly scheduled meetings or informally on the phone, in person, in e-mails. You name it. Every day. Another critical partner is Philadelphia Work Force Development Corporation and as you probably know, there's been a substantial effort in the last year to 95 start to merge the efforts of the Work Force Development Corporation with the Work Force Investment Board into a single unified entity. I am on the combined boards of both the Work Force Development Corporation and the WIB, along with many other people from the private sector. Mark Edwards, the Executive Director of PWDC is here today and John Grady, President of PIDC is also here today as two of our critical partners. At a broader level, we partner with quasi Public Development Corporations and CD, Business Improvement Districts all over the City. Delaware River Waterfront Corporation, Schuylkill River Development Corporation, Center City District in their capacity as a development agency, and of course at the neighborhood level with numerous community development corporations, corridor managers, business improvement districts. All the entities that help to manage the commercial activities in the neighborhood. So, what are the results thus far? The 96 last couple years I think there is some very good news to report. Our institutional sector, which typically is referred to as Eds and Meds. I do like to separate them, but for this conversation we will leave them together; they do rhyme and I am not sure -- sometimes I think that is the reason they get said together, represent 32 percent of our employment base in this City. That is the highest percentage of employment in any major City in the United States. The only City that is even remotely close is Boston in the high percentiles. 14 Those are very big numbers. They are doing 15 well. 5 billion dollars in 20 clinical and administrative and research practices in the City of Philadelphia, to the major universities; Penn, Temple, Drexel, all teaming up and building tremendous projects that are part of an expanded employment 97 base. Part of an expanded student base, and then we're seeing it in the smaller institutions as well. From things like a very aggressive plan to expand institutions like Chestnut Hill College and Holy Family College to name two. We are also seeing increased activities, certainly compared to the last -- the two years prior, might even say three years prior, in both real estate investment and in business investment. We see that in the form of our loan portfolio, which is largely executed through PIDC. We see it in the number of developers who are coming to us with projects that are starting to look financed. They are not there yet. We can talk more about that. But, we are certainly seeing far more activity on both of those fronts and I think a particularly good piece of news on the real estate side is we're seeing investments from major outside developing entities that we have not seen, at least in my memory, in the City, and just to give you a couple of 98 examples. Buck company in Chicago, major national international developer broke ground a couple weeks ago on a significant -- probably the first speculative development in the City since the recession began at 22nd and Chestnut, a 30 story market rate rental apartment house with commercial activity below and replacing with a new facility, the Sydney Home and Medical Center that had been there for many years.

The Rose Company in New York, and I think in fact the reason Council President isn't here today is because he went to the ground breaking of this great mix use, residential and commercial development project that sits astride the Temple University train station, to things like Kimpton Hotel, a San Francisco based hotel firm that is now finishing its second development project in Philadelphia. The Kimpton Monaco at 6th and Chestnut. Very, very enthused for Philadelphia. They see a market here that other hotels frankly have not seen as clearly. 99 They are investing. They are putting their money where their mouth is and I think there is more to come from Kimpton. It's a terrific organization. We are seeing a rise in entrepreneurship in the City. This was not a City that was known as an entrepreneurial City. We ranked poorly in major cities in the number of start-up businesses. We ranked very high in research, extremely high in research, particularly biomedical research. Poorly though in commercial activity that comes from that research. But, we are seeing that change and to kind of give you a marker on that, currently in the City, there are 43 separate physical locations that are specifically there to support entrepreneurial activity, either through as incubators, as places for co-work and sharing, or as places as multi-tenant operations for small start ups. Commerce Department is not involved in every single one of them, but we have been involved in many of them really helping to 100 get them started, helping to find entrepreneurs to populate these things and giving them support. We have -- In partnership with PIDC, we have a program called Smart City Smart Choice, which is a set of promotional materials that were developed in-house that really talk about Philadelphia as a great place to locate a business, a great place to live, and we think it's created several opportunities that are of interest. One of the most important ones is that we are seeing an explosion of the number of young people who are originally from out-of-town who come to the colleges and Universities in this area and stay. The percentage increase over the last ten years has been from about the high percentiles, 19 27, 28 percent to 46 or 7 percent. It's an 20 enormous increase in talent that is staying in the City. We need to support them and they are the kind of talent that is attractive to a lot of businesses, many of whom are not located in the City. 101 What those businesses are starting to see and what we are -- we have a strategic program to go talk to them, is to say, all right, you have got an established business in the region somewhere. You have got a happy work force perhaps, that is located out there on a more senior level, but you have got a talent problem in terms of attracting new people and that talent is more interested, generally speaking, in being in the City than being out in the deep suburbs. Businesses are starting to recognize it. With PIDC, we went out and visited a pretty big software company about a month ago. They are clearly in the market now looking for such a gateway enterprise in the City. We intend to go out to another dozen or so businesses and have that same discussion, as well as having discussions with, I would say midsize to large private enterprises that are actually talking about relocating their operations wholesale, and we are actively talking to some of them about relocating in the City. 102 The City is getting great notoriety for this. It is in the national press, it is hot. We are winning awards. People are recognizing Philadelphia for a lot of the initiatives that are going on here and they are seeing it as the place that we all want it to be. We sometimes wish that was a little more known in the City of Philadelphia, but we can have a discussion about that. One of the critical markers of that is the City's own bond rating.

As you know from news article, I guess in the last week, our lowest bond rating which is with Standards and Poors and I don't profess to understand how these bond ratings exactly -- what all these markers mean but it was a B,B,B rating. It was the lowest of three major rating agencies. It was just moved up to a B,B, B plus, with a positive outlook, which means we hope that within a year's time there is opportunity for further growth and we get an A somewhere in that equation. This has a direct impact on costs for 103 the City of borrowing money, therefore, has a direct financial benefit as well as a standing that we see differentiating ourselves from the plight of many American cities indeed the plight of many countries in the world. Our office of economic opportunity, I think is, and we will talk more about this, has become a very highly organized machine. We can't do everything we would like to do, but we are actively working with every agency, with projects that require EOPs. We are setting goals. We are monitoring and in places where there had been problems, we are doing enforcement actions. Unemployment rate, the one big marker that I can't say is doing as well as it should be is stubbornly high. percent. Our Unemployment rate typically tracks about percentage points higher than the national average. That's been going on for 20 years. Sometimes right before the recession it 104 got down to about a 1 percent differential and then it grew again. With the confirmed numbers coming out post-holiday season, I'm a little nervous that the numbers are going to go up some because of temporary employment that has ended, and as we all know, that is an average rate. The unemployment rate in some sectors in the community, in some of the poorer communities, some of the minority communities are much higher. Hard to get a grasp on the numbers, but they are much higher and they are appallingly high. There is a lot of work to do and unfortunately we don't control all that action. We are subject to the flumes of the national economy as well, obviously. I would say that is the one critical thing that in our view is a very big problem that needs work. You asked us to comment on both contracting and staff demographics, this the last part of my summary. The Commerce Department contracts with very few non Governmental entities. In fact, we only 105 contract with one and that is E Consult, that does our annual disparity study. That is an $80,000 contract they have. Minority participation is about percent. Through a firm -- am I saying that right, Angela Melligan?

Melligan? 8

Melligan. 9 Lastly, staff demographics Commerce is 10 in operation of 64 people, with what I would 11 characterize as 12 people in leadership 12 positions. Of those 12 people, 50 percent, 6 13 out of 12, are minority members, and 7 out of 14 12, approximately, 60 percent, are women. 15 That concludes my summary and I would like to 16 open it up to your questions. Thank you. 17

Thank you very much, 18 and I must say that I listened intensely to 19 your testimony and it answered many of the 20 questions that I had by way of a grade. I 21 don't think in my history, I am gonna check 22 with my freshman colleagues, in our term -- a 23 first term we have ever applied the term 24 "hot" to the City of Philadelphia. I guess 106 --

And we don't mean climate change.

That is a good thing. I guess we're gonna have to dig down a little bit to kind of get a grade on some things and I'll go with the first one that you said, employment. Employment is always the last indicator of a recovering economy to swing back to right the unemployment levels in the City of Philadelphia. I had a statistic that was given to me when we took a ride up to Lehigh Valley and we went to an industrial training school where they had 3,200 students being trained from everything from shops, electric, plumbing, things like nano technology. When I talked to the head of that particular department, they said their No. 1 place where they are placing their graduates is in the City of Philadelphia. That a best kept secret about Philadelphia is that we are one of the hubs for nano technology, and I was wondering, 107 since we are talking about unemployment and I know attraction is important, but retention is also important. Young people who graduate from Philadelphia high schools and graduate from Philadelphia universities, and what they said was that there was a disconnect between that emerging industry and our ability to train a work force that can, at the entry level, deal with some of the math that is required for nano technology. I would like to also ask John from PIDC to come on up. Some of these questions are going to be directed at you. But, where is that connection between the two -- Another shovel from the President. A sign of the economy. So, I want to know, are you working with the School Board to design curriculum for future jobs, present jobs as opposed to preparing work force for 8 track tape players that no longer exist?

I hope we are not training for 8 track tape players, but I 108 remember those. I think, actually, if I could ask Mark Edwards to come up and talk about a little bit about that from the work force side, because this is something that is of intense interest on that side and this is our critical partner in this. I would summarize it though by saying, and I think you mentioned it in your comments just now, we see three major problems out there. There is a work force readiness issue, and I think you alluded to something that you might have even seen in the last couple weeks that was in the news about math skills that some businesses apply to incoming candidates for employment and they are finding a shockingly high rate of inability to do things like -- I think the thing I read was calculate the area of a cylinder because the cylinder had something very critical to do with their business. Or the other one I think was, how many pallets can get on a forklift that has a weight limitation? The numbers were really 109 shockingly high, inability to do that. So, we are seeing that kind of problem in work readiness. We are also seeing problems in work readiness related to simple things about job behavior. Get there every day, be on time, dress appropriate to the job. There are those things. At the other end of the scale, there are obviously very big changes going on in the work force, both -- something like the industrial work force where the nature of industrial jobs is changing dramatically from a person who used to be able to do something very directly with their hands and now has to apply that knowledge abstractly to a computer that controls a box that does the same thing. So, there is a retraining issue and then in the middle is the whole problem of connecting people to the jobs that are out there, and with that summary, I would ask Mark to talk about some of the things that are going on, if that is okay.

Yes.

Thank you. 110

State your name for the record, please.

Mark Edwards. I'm the President and CEO of the Philadelphia Work Force Development Corporation. The short answer to your question is, yes, we are beginning to work with the school district in light of some of its own reform that it is going through right now, to look at ways in which we might change. Work with them to change their curriculum to be more responsive to the needs of employers in the area. It is a challenge that we have for all of the reasons that Alan has already indicated. We, in terms of the public work force system, are beginning to prioritize our training dollars to support the same kinds of opportunities that might exist in a smaller -- on a smaller scale outside the School District of Philadelphia, where there are opportunities for us to connect with smaller employers through the kinds of skill building and other kinds of areas of improvement that people who would be a part of the work force 111 needs in order to be able to fill the needs of smaller employers. I am familiar with the project that you visited. It is a model that we are looking at as well. It is the kind of thing that we would like to replicate here in the City of Philadelphia, and as we strengthen our relationship with the School District through it's reform efforts, we are looking to do just that.

It was incredible that in the daytime, high school students attended these various skill enhancement training programs, but they kept running right after the school hours right into the night and adult populations occupy the same shops, learning the same skills that they did, and it prepared them. There was not a metal detector in the place. 3,200 students with ten feeder schools going to there. Their placement ratio was -- The kids didn't get in fights because they knew at the end of the rainbow, there was a real job with a real paycheck. 112 So, that kind of concept, that kind of thinking from the Work Force Development from the Commerce Department, to prepare young people for jobs that are really out there. We have a lot of lights lit, but I want to ask one more question. Commercial corridors. What is the vacancy ratio on our commercial -- We have a hundred plus commercial corridors in the City of Philadelphia. What is the vacancy ratio on our commercial corridors?

Karen, do we have a number on that?

Overall, about percent. 16

Karen Fegely, who is 17 the Executive Director of our office of 18 Neighborhood Economic Development oversees 19 commercial corridors, and what she just said 20 was the vacancy, on average, is about 20 percent.

Is that up or down over the last three years?

I think that is up 113 for sure.

What are we doing to address that?

I think there is a number of things that we are doing that are instrumental in this. This too is a bit of a complicated story. These commercial corridors throughout the City grew at a time when there was, I believe, when, A, the City's population was much bigger and, B, people shopped more locally than they do now. One of the results is that most of our commercial corridors, both the healthy ones and the not so healthy ones, are probably bigger, longer than they ought to be and that's a source of a problem when you have less people shopping at them, both in terms of raw numbers as well as in terms of, well, I am getting in my car and I'm going to a big box that is in, you know, Cheltenham or something. So, I think there is a couple things you do about it. One is that we are finding that corridors that have corridor managers 114 are more successful than ones that don't. So we need to work with local business associations, whether it's the Business Association, the Community Development Corporation, a bid in some cases, to do better management on these corridors, and this sometimes is very simple stuff. It is picking up the trash, it's having people out on the street. It is showing people that good things are happening there. It is safe to come there and it's a good healthy shopping environment. We are doing that. We are offering technical assistance to groups who are not as organized to try to get them organized to do more of this. These corridor managers also, I think, the successful ones, are also thinking long and hard about trying to attract businesses that they think will compliment a kind of natural market that exists there that would be productive. I know that you have all seen, for example, vacant -- stores that are going vacant that wind up being rented to things 115 that are sort of less vital to a commercial corridor, but important for other reasons. Whether that is a local church, day care center, doctor's offices, you see this kind of stuff happening all the time. I have heard personally people express anxieties about it and the fact is, it's a result of vacancies and landlords looking for some way to create an income stream. On the zoning level, I think one of the things that we have to do, and this is gonna take years to do, but is to start compressing the commercial zoning so that it's a better thing if a corridor is smaller, but less vacant, that's 100 percent corridor. That ultimately, we think, is a better thing. You do that through strategic remappings and over the years, you are not putting anybody out of business, but as those that are outside that zoning that are grandfathered-in, go out of business, those corridors start to shrink. So, I think those are among the techniques that you have to use.

I am gonna reserve 116 my questions for the next round and get some of my colleagues. I am gonna recognize Councilman Goode.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Councilman.

All my questions is pointed for the Office of Economic Opportunity. So, whoever wants to answer that can answer that.

Thank you, Mark.

First question is, for the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter, when are the annual Disparity Study and Participation Goals due?

You said when are they due?

For the Home Rule Charter.

Well, the disparity study is due 30 days before the end of the fiscal year.

So, that would be 117 the last day of May?

Yes.

When will they be done this year?

They should be done by the end of April in anticipation of the need to review the document.

My question is, when will it be done? The Home Rule Charter says that the annual Disparity Study Participation Goals must be done --

Yes.

30 days before the end of the year. They have not been done 30 days before the end of the year over the last two years. So, my question is, when will they be done this year?

It will be done by the end of May.

So, we will receive it by the end of May?

If not before.

Okay. Last year it was done in October; is that correct? 118

That's correct.

According to the Disparity Study that was released in October, which area of contract had the highest recommended goal for DB participation? Was it Public Works? Was it personal and professional services or was it service, supplies and equipment?

It was probably service, supplies and equipment with the Waste Management contracts.

The question was the goal. For the Disparity Study that was released in October, which area of contracting had the largest recommended goal for DB participation?

Typically it is professional services.

I can hand it to you.

The goal here stated in the Disparity Study was 30 percent for service, supplies, and equipment.

My first question 119 was -- That is my next question. The first question was, what area of contracting had the highest recommended goal?

The area of contracting was service, supplies, and equipment.

What was the recommended goal?

30 percent.

What was the goal established by OEO?

percent. 13

Okay. Why is that? 14

Looking at the 15 Disparity Study and looking at the 16 availability of companies that are in our 17 registry who actually sell what we buy, we 18 are -- 19

Ms. Dowd-Burton, 20 that is what the Disparity Study does. It 21 looks at all that and Econsult makes a 22 recommendation. Econsult recommended 30 23 percent. 24 What gives you the authority, either 120 administratively or legally, to change what the Disparity Study says?

The ultimate -- Obviously, the goal is for the office of Economic Opportunity to maximize level participation on all contracts that are awarded by the City, and we drive our goals based on the past history of --

My question was, first of all, administratively, who authorized you not to accept the recommendation from Econsult, which said it should be 30 percent?

We work with the Mayor's Office of Economic Opportunity.

So, the goal came in at 30 percent, who said -- I'm sorry. The recommendation came in at 30 percent. Who said you can change it to 25?

We adopt the City's goal of percent, which is a stretch goal. 22

I am talking about 23 services, supplies, and equipment. 24

I understand that, 121 sir, and we apply that goal across all departments and across all commodities.

That's not true. I am sorry. I have asked the Chair for special disposition. So, he's gonna let me go through my line of questioning. The Disparity Study came in October, several months late.

Yes.

The recommended goal for services, supply, and equipment was 30 percent. Who has the authority to not accept that recommendation from Econsult, administratively? In fact, who made the decision administratively?

The Office of Economic Opportunity.

Who specifically made the decision administratively not to accept Econsult's recommendation?

I did.

Can you legally do that?

I believe we can, 122 sir.

The legal frame work for setting goals, period, means that they have to be based upon Disparity Study. So, if the availability is 30 percent, how do you think you justified in setting the goal at 7 percent? 8

Well, the 9 availability that they have identified for 10 service, supplies, and equipment for all MBEs 11 is 26 percent and for women, it's 15 12 percent. So, the fact that they have 13 identified 30 percent utilization, we could 14 not address and, therefore, went with an 15 overall goal of 25 percent for the City. 16

So, you are saying 17 Econsult's recommended goal was wrong, was 18 technically flawed? 19

I am saying in some 20 fashion it is technically flawed. That's 21 correct. 22

Okay. Good. We're 23 gonna go down that line then. 24 What was the overall participation goal 123 recommended by Econsult?

25 percent.

What was the goal established by OEO?

percent. 6

So, they were right 7 then, right? 8

Overall, yes. 9

How was the goal 10 established? 11

It's established 12 based on the utilization of companies in our 13 registry, along with the availability of 14 firms based on what we buy from one year to 15 the next. So, we are looking at past history 16 along with driving a number of companies in 17 our registry. 18

Who does that work? 19 Econsult does that work. 20

Who -- 21

Econsult does that 22 work to determine what the availability is? 23

Econsult looks at the 24 level of availability based on the 124 information Office of Economic Opportunity provides them in terms of our participation reports and our OEO registry.

Then they make a recommendation?

Yes.

Have they ever made a recommendation of more than 30 percent -- I'm sorry, of more than percent for the 10 overall goal? 11

They prepared a draft 12 that was higher than what we have previously 13 achieved and they revised that draft down to 14 25 percent. 15

So, they gave you a 16 draft recommendation. What you are referring 17 to is a draft recommendation, and said the 18 overall goal should be 30 percent a couple 19 years ago and you changed it to 25 percent? 20

They changed it, 21 sir. And they changed it after for the 22 recession -- 23

That was one of the 24 late Disparity Studies we got, right? 125

The Disparity Study you received last year was actually delayed because we asked Econsult to go back to the drawing board and look at the commodities we actually buy, look at the services we actually buy.

So, you talked them out of the 30 percent goal?

I think what we did was deliberate and concluded that based on the information that we have, the history that we have been able to drive, and if you look at the soon to be published Disparity Study --

So, you don't trust -- I am talking about past now. We're not going into the future yet. You don't trust your consultant to make the right recommendations if you have the same consultant?

Well, no, I do not agree with that at all.

If your consultant says 30 percent, then how or why do you 126 change it to percent; unless there is some reason the administration chose to create and arbitrate 25 percent goal? 4

What we looked at, 5 Councilman, was the history of the 6 participation that we have been able to 7 drive, and as I have indicated earlier, we 8 will maximize the level of participation 9 across the board where we can. 10

But, you are not 11 going to set the goal above 25 percent? 12

If you look at -- 13