COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, April 8, 2026 10:27 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT KENYATTA JOHNSON COUNCILWOMAN NINA AHMAD COUNCILWOMAN CINDY BASS COUNCILWOMAN KENDRA BROOKS COUNCILMAN MICHAEL DRISCOLL COUNCILWOMAN JAMIE GAUTHIER COUNCILWOMAN KATHERINE GILMORE RICHARDSON COUNCILMAN JIM HARRITY COUNCILMAN CURTIS JONES, JR. COUNCILWOMAN RUE LANDAU COUNCILWOMAN QUETCY M. LOZADA COUNCILMAN BRIAN J. O'NEILL COUNCILMAN NICOLAS O'ROURKE COUNCILMAN ANTHONY PHILLIPS COUNCILMAN MARK SQUILLA COUNCILMAN JEFFREY YOUNG, JR. BILLS: 260199, 260200, 260201, 260202, 260203, 260204, 260205, 260206, 260208, 260209 RESOLUTION: 260227 - - -
This is the public hearing and public meeting of the Committee of the Whole regarding Bill Nos. 260199, 260200, 260201, 260202, 260203, 260204, 260205, 260206, 260208, 260209 and Resolution No. 260227. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the roll.
Present. A quorum of the committee is present. This hearing is now officially called to order. Ms. Loughead, will you please read the titles of the bills and resolution.
Bill No. 12 260199, an Ordinance adopting the Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2027. Bill No. 260200, an Ordinance to adopt a Fiscal Year 2027 Capital Budget. Bill No. 260201, an Ordinance to adopt a Capital Program for the six Fiscal Years, 2027-2032 inclusive. Bill No. 260202, an Ordinance amending Chapter 19-2400 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Hotel Room Rental Tax," by providing for an additional excise tax on hotel room rentals, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260203, an Ordinance amending Subcode "A" (The Philadelphia Administrative Code) of Title 4 of The Philadelphia Code (The Building, Construction and Occupancy Code), by adding and revising Zoning Board of Adjustment fees and provisions regarding hearing scheduling, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260204, an Ordinance amending Title 3 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Air Management Code" to modify the amounts of license and permit fees, under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 2602055, an Ordinance amending Section 19-1806 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Authorization of Realty Use and Occupancy Tax," to clarify the imposition of the tax on the use or occupancy of real estate with respect to cell towers, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260206, an Ordinance amending Chapter 6-600 of The Philadelphia Code ("Asbestos"), by adding and providing provisions related to various fees, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260208, an Ordinance amending Chapter 19-1800 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "School Tax Authorization," to a add a new Section 19-1808, entitled "Authorization of Rideshare Use Tax," to authorize the Board of the School District of Philadelphia to levy a tax upon the use by a passenger of a transportation network company for a prearranged ride that originates in Philadelphia; all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260209, an Ordinance amending Title of The 4 Philadelphia Code, entitled 5 "Finances, Taxes and Collections," 6 to add a new Chapter 19-4800, 7 entitled "Retail Delivery Tax," to 8 establish a tax on orders for the 9 delivery in Philadelphia of retail 10 consumer and other tangible goods, 11 all under certain terms and 12 conditions. 13
Thank you very much. 15 Today we will hold the public 16 hearing of the Committee of the 17 Whole to consider the bills read by 18 the Clerk that constitute proposed 19 operating and capital spending measures for Fiscal Year 2027, a Capital Program and a Forward- looking Capital Plan for Fiscal Year 2027 through Fiscal Year 2032. This morning we have scheduled testimony from the Department of Aviation and the Philadelphia Water Department. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the first panel to testify from the Administration.
The first panel to testify from the Administration is Benjamin Jewell, Water Commissioner and Tracy Borda, Interim Chief Executive Officer for the Department of Aviation. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Good morning. We're going to go with ladies first. And so, I'm going to ask for Tracy to just state your name for the record and please begin your testimony.
Good morning. Tracy Borda. I am the Chief Financial Officer and Interim Chief Executive Officer for the Department of Aviation. Good morning, Council President and members of City Council. I've just introduced myself so I won't say that. As some of you know, I'm a lifelong Philadelphian and have served our city and airports for most of my career. It's an honor to be here today leading the airports during this monumental time for our city. I'm pleased to present testimony on the Department of Aviation's Fiscal Year '27 operating budget. The City of Philadelphia Department of Aviation owns and operates Philadelphia International Airport and Northeast Philadelphia Airport. We are an enterprise fund operating efficiently with no local tax dollars, independent of the city's General Fund. Both airports are self-sustaining, earning revenue through operations onsite. We're on the tail-end of the busy spring break season and about to enter the busiest summer in our history. As our city's gateway, we are ready, not just to move people, but to make every interaction a reflection of Philadelphia's energy, pride and heart. As many of you are aware, federal employees at our airports have continued their hard work during the budget impasse. We applaud these dedicated employees for their service to the PHL Airport community and for doing an outstanding job keeping PHL's wait times below the national average. Our strategic plan has guided our airport-wide preparations in advance of the exciting events of this year, some of which are already underway. Key focus areas include: Improving our facilities through more than 500 million in upgrades at PHL. I'm confident you will be proud of the work our team has done. Elevating the guest experience by providing passengers with first-class amenities and a taste of Philadelphia. Our concessions program has a unique, founded-in-Philly focus in order to bring local flavors, iconic brands and uniquely Philly experiences to the terminals. And finally, engaging local small businesses. Last year we completed our third PHL Concessions Academy in alignment with the Mayor's goal of creating economic opportunities for all to engage local, small businesses and prospective vendors around the ins-and-outs of operating in a unique environment like PHL. We're also committed to building a strong customer-focused culture. Behind the hard work of keeping both of our airports operating smoothly is the dedicated team at the Department of Aviation. The Department holds an 8% vacancy rate, one of the lowest in my history at the airport. Staffing levels have now surpassed 900 individuals in total for the first time, and we launched workforce development programs to provide training and advancement opportunities for our employees. We're proud of the role in creating good-paying, family- sustaining jobs for the residents of Philadelphia. Over 17,000-badged employees work within the full PHL and PNE Airport community and help our team maintain an important economic asset for the region. As our team continues to grow, so is our connectivity around the world. Last year American Airlines started direct service from Philadelphia to Milan and Edinburgh. You can now connect directly to different 7 destinations in Europe, a number 8 which will grow to 19 this summer 9 when routes to Budapest and Prague 10 commence. 4% over our Fiscal Year '26 15 estimated obligations. 16 This budget reflects our 17 commitments as we focus on building for the future with modernization updates to our terminals and facilities, advancing sustainability, furthering our air service development efforts towards connecting Philadelphia with more global destinations and key markets in South America, Africa and Asia, and continued efforts to develop a premier workforce that will lead our efforts towards future progress. Thank you for the opportunity to deliver testimony here today. I'm happy to take any questions that you may have.
Thank you very much. Please state your name for the record and please begin your testimony. COMMISSIONER JEWELL: Good morning, President Johnson and members of City Council. My name is Ben Jewell. I'm Commissioner for the Philadelphia Water Department. Joining me here today are members of PWD leadership team, and I'm pleased to provide testimony on Philadelphia Water Department's Fiscal Year 2027 operating budget. As you're aware, the Water Fund is an enterprise fund of the city and is supported by revenues generated through charges to our customers. The Water Department's operating budget is a component of the Water Fund, and it's the operating budget for which this testimony is provided. As the Commissioner, I have the honor of working beside over 2100 of the best Water professionals in the nation, including nearly 1500 members of District Council 33, nearly 500 members of District Council 47 who all worked diligently to protect the health and safety of our community. They do so by ensuring the delivery of safe, high-quality and reliable drinking water and treatment of wastewater and stormwater to protect our rivers and streams. I'm proud to report that the Water Department has been publicly recognized for leadership on a variety of programs during the last year including, but not limited to, successfully completing our 27th consecutive year of voluntarily complying with enhanced drinking water quality standards under the Partnership for Safe Water Program and receiving multiple awards for the completion of our Flat Rock Dam Renewal Project, which has delivered water quality and quality-of-life benefits to the Manayunk Canal. 4 million or 2% over the Fiscal Year 2026 estimated obligation levels. This increase is primarily due to Class 100 or personnel costs to provide for, among other things, labor rate increases, movement of staff from capital to operating and hiring of critical positions to support operations and regulatory compliance as well as Class 300 expenses for chemicals, for the treatment of water and wastewater. These increases under Classes 100 and 300 were partially offset by a reduction in Class 200 due to reclassification of grant funding from operating to capital. The Water Department's operating budget supports our three core services, treatment and delivery of top quality drinking water, collection and treatment of wastewater for the health and safety of our population and the environment, and management of stormwater to reduce pollution. Proper maintenance of our massive system of infrastructure is critical. Our system includes three drinking water treatment plants, three water pollution control plants, dozens of pumping stations, over 3000 miles of water mains, almost 4000 miles of sewers and 25,000 fire hydrants. The Water Department must comply with existing laws and regulations set by state and federal governments, and we anticipate additional regulations in the future. Furthermore, future challenges such as climate change and (inaudible) level rise complicate planning. The department embraces integrated planning as a means of prioritizing limited funds for the most beneficial and cost-effective projects. This allows reasonable and affordable schedules for making progress towards long-term goals consistent with the department's mission and vision. The department remains fully committed to water affordability and access. The city has been successful in increasing enrollment in the Tiered Assistance Program or TAP, with roughly 65,000 customers now enrolled in TAP. In addition, more than 23,000 customers are enrolled in our Senior Citizen Discount Program. In 2022, new policies were introduced that greatly reduced the number of customers eligible for payment-related water shutoffs and we are continuing to work collaboratively with the Revenue Department and the Managing Director's Office to finetune those policies and increase outreach to customers facing shutoff or who have growing debt.
To help keep debt service manageable, the department has been actively pursuing available state and federal infrastructure, low-interest loan funding. 6 million in forgivable loans. The department has also submitted $283 million in grant applications and has been awarded $120 million thus far. Furthermore, the department is prepared to submit additional applications for state and federal funding in the next few months. In closing, I'd like to thank the Philadelphia Water Department's workforce, whose efforts hours a 21 day, seven days a week keep the 22 water running, the sewers clear and 23 our waterways clean. 24 Our workforce is dedicated to improving quality of life for everyone in the Philadelphia region and showed exceptional resilience during the extreme, prolonged cold of this past winter. PWD is consistently working hard to operate in a manner that is cost-efficient, operationally effective and thoughtful of our environment and economic impacts in the present and the future. This budget will allow us to meet our essential charge of providing the water, wastewater and stormwater services that are the cornerstone of public health in Philadelphia and foundational to making Philadelphia the safest, cleanest, greenest, big city with economic opportunity for all. This concludes my testimony. Thank you for your time and I'm happy to answer any questions.
Thank you very much. I want to start off by acknowledging the work that Tracy Borda has been doing as Interim Chief Executive Officer. I know you have been a part of the Airport operations for a significant period of time. And I'm a big fan of the Airport since I became a Councilperson. And although I enjoy being the City Council President, over other bosses that I have, 14 as a District Councilman, I'm proud 15 to represent the Philadelphia 16 International Airport and also being a frequent flyer, I'm a firm believer that we continue to improve and make progress of moving the Philadelphia International Airport forward. And thank you for being part of the overall operation and being at the helm at this particular point at such a time as this.
I want to talk about the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, where they closed multiple TSA checkpoints, particularly Terminal C closing on March 12, and Terminals A West and F closing shortly after. Now, we know they are back open. Give us an idea of the operational and financial impacts that took place during those closures. We also know that the morale of TSA workers dropped during that period and how individuals resigned. Some individuals called out how those types of issues have been addressed.
Yes. Thank you for your question, Council President. Sadly, we've had to do this twice in the last year. And I want to say that in Philadelphia we've been really fortunate compared to other parts of the country where you saw incredibly long wait times elsewhere. Our team -- what I'll talk about first is internally as soon as we see this happening, we mobilize many of the folks you're familiar with. Shane Doud has helped lead the efforts. So kudos to that team for the --
I want to add an additional aspect as well. We also know we have ICE working at the Philadelphia International Airport, and I have a strong immigrant population, actually that comes from Southwest Philadelphia that work at the Philadelphia International Airport. So can you also address what are we doing to make sure individuals feel safe or the immigrant population that work at the Philadelphia International Airport and if ICE is following all protocols, but also not creating an atmosphere of intimidation, fear and confusion?
Yes, I can address that as well. But dealing specifically with TSA and the checkpoints first, I was just starting to say the team here I know had mobilized to reopen our pantry, once again which we were able to accept donations. Many of us gave from our hearts to help that. I know both times TSA was really appreciative. They were able to take full use of the pantry that we had set up to supply, you know, fresh and dry foods for them to take. I think our relationship with TSA has been really positive. We've had some of the lowest call- out rates that were experienced across the country, so we never saw some of the wait times that were being witnessed around the country. And in fact, I want to say one of the highest I saw one day was maybe 50 minutes, which was long, right, than what you would expect, but clearly during that time was not nearly as long as some other places. We really were hovering for the most part around minutes. It was really good. 15 And now, our wait times are back to 16 normal at this point with all the, 17 as you pointed out, all the 18 checkpoints are reopened. 19 We were also able to 20 work with TSA to operationally divert the 17,000 badge holders that we have, so that's a lot of employees that have to go to work. So we were able to move them to one specific checkpoint so that they weren't also part of the lines where passengers needed to be processed. So there was a couple of good things that many on this team behind me were able to help execute. And with that said, we saw passengers thanking folks. We thanked them for being here. And I think all of that just lends itself to having people show up to work even in a time where they're not being paid. So that was one issue that we've worked through. And I'm hoping we don't have to do that again, but we would be prepared if we had to go there again. Separately, with regard to your question with ICE, we recognize --
Before we get to ICE, were any financial impacts with the closing of Terminal A-West and F and C?
Nothing material on our end to the Department of Aviation. So we did not incur -- I'm not aware of any material impacts that came to us, other than things we had to set up to close those checkpoints and possibly station folks at exit lanes and things like that. It wasn't material is what I would say.
Okay. Continue regarding the ICE operations at the Philadelphia International Airport.
So when we became notified that we were one of the airports selected that would have ICE deployed there to assist with queue management and other things just related to the passengers being backed up in many airports, first and foremost, I had sent a letter out to all of the badge holders at the airport, so that's 17,000-plus, to just say, they're here, we're going to continue to do the job that we do every day and we're going to continue to do it really well and we're here for you. So I heard back from quite a few folks that they were glad to have gotten something, so we were happy to get that out there. The officers that were sent to Philadelphia were, from what I understand, really well-trained officers. Our view of them in the terminals where they were being very supportive of queue management, handling some of the exit lanes, advising people -- it's called divestiture, like, you know, the folks that remind you to take off this or take the jacket off or make sure you put your laptop in a bin. We really had no issues. We made sure our Chief Operating Officer and others here were in the terminals pretty much full-time during that time, chatting with passengers, chatting with the agents themselves, chatting with TSA, chatting with our various vendors that work there just to make sure that everybody knew we were okay. And right now, I mean, the good news is we're at a point where we're told that as of tomorrow we won't have any more ICE officers at the airport. They should be gone. There may be other parts of the country that are still seeing lines. We're not sure. I know the call-out rates are dropping for TSA pretty quickly. We never really suffered with a tremendous amount of call-out. We had some, but again not compared to other parts of the country where they may still be needed. They're not needed in Philadelphia. And my understanding at this point is they'll be gone tomorrow.
I want to talk about DEI, right, diversity, equity and inclusion. From my understanding, on a federal level we can no 15 longer -- from the Philadelphia International Airport's standpoint use that type of language as well regarding our contracts and procurement; is that correct?
Well, at the federal level we still do have a DBE and an ACDBE program. The issue is people have to go through an evaluation process, which I do have a person here who can speak to that even more --
Can we please? Because we want to still continue to make sure, even with the current climate, still making sure local businesses --
What I will point out while Deatrice comes up, I'll say this out loud, it's a part of our DNA at the airport.
Thank you for saying that. Appreciate it. In the meanwhile, I want to give a shout- out to Shane for all his hard work and dedication and making sure the lines of communication between Council and the Airport is open. Always good to see you. Good morning.
Good morning. My name is Deatrice Isaac, and I'm the Vice-President for Procurement at the Philadelphia and Northeast Airports. Question?
Good morning. Just the diversity, equity and inclusion number and I want to see how we are making sure irregardless whatever changes have taken place in terms of on a federal level and the reevaluation of individuals having a chance to participate in the procurement process, how we're still making it a priority for local, small businesses to participate, but also that process is still diverse and inclusive in terms of people of color and women?
So as Tracy began to say, we are going through a reevaluation process, which is going on throughout the country for all UCPs. The DBE, ACDBE program is still going on, but people have to go through a reevaluation. They have to resubmit where it's race and gender-neutral to prove that they are disadvantaged. We are reviewing those applications as quickly as we can. The Philadelphia International Airport had about 100 applications that we had to re-evaluate. We're in that process. We held outreach events to help them understand the process because a lot of people were obviously confused about what was going on, what was needed. So we held three virtual sessions to help move them through, help them to understand what was needed. And again, we're re-evaluating currently. Until that reevaluation process is concluded for everyone in the state, we are unable to assign goals to any contracts. So it's not just the airport. Every certifying agency in the state has to go through the same process. I will say that in spite of us not having an up-and-running DBE program where we're able to assign goals, our intent at the Airport is the same, right. Economic opportunity for all means everyone. And so, we are looking for opportunities to issue contracts that can be awarded to small and local firms, looking to rightsize contracts as opposed to debundling, because once you have a large contract, it's difficult to take it apart, right. But if you start it right, then you'll end right. So our hope is that we're able to look at contracts where we can rightsize and find those smaller contracts for firms to be able to participate.
Has this had an impact on the highly successful business economic opportunity forum that you host every year? You have hundreds of businesses that show up that want to do business with the airport. I've known we had a track record of actually hitting some specific targets and goals. I call it being a model for other city agencies as well to show that we can get it done. Have these new changes impacted that process and those particular businesses that normally participate?
So right now, we can't really see the impact. We know that the economic opportunity forum or business opportunity forum as we call it every year, it's still planned for this year. We think that we have good content that we'll be able to present. Hopefully, we'll be able to talk about the federal SBE program at that time. We know that local programs are supposed to be coming up as well. So there are still things happening in spite of us not having that DBE, ACDBE opportunity right now. So where we are at the airport is looking at our federal small business program and trying to ramp that up, hoping to increase the pool of vendors within that space so that we'll be able to have SBE goals assigned while we're not able to assign the DBE goals. We still have contracts where we have firms that are subcontracted and that participation is still going on, on most of those contracts, not all. We can't say all because some people are pulling back. But for the most part, our vendors are still utilizing those subcontractors and we're encouraging them to do so.
Thank you very much. Chair recognizes Councilmember Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson, then Councilmember Dr. Anthony Phillips, then Councilmember Curtis Jones, Jr.
Thank you. Thank you so much, Council President. And thank you to each of you for your presentations. As always, wanted to quickly begin with our thank-yous starting with the Airport. Tracy Borda, thank you for your years of service and congratulations on your new leadership role. We know that you are built for this task as you are a Girls' High girl. Shane Doud -- I had to add that in, Prez. Shane Dowd, thank you so much for all of your help and hard work on behalf of the entire airport team. You are just amazing and really help us to stay connected to the work at the airport, and particularly for the TSA workers over the last several months. It's been an honor to work with you. Delicsha Wilds, thank you for your continued commitment. We appreciate the presentations, the information, everything that you do on our behalf. And Api, thank you so much for your continued sustainability work at the airport. And for the Water Department, to our new Commissioner, Commissioner Jewell, thank you for your help on the emergency complex cases that we have. Even as late as this Friday, thank you for all of your help. Sarah Stevenson, Laura Copeland, Glenn Abrams, Brendan Riley, Dave -- I'm messing this up, he helped us on the Main Street -- Pandya. Thank you for all your help with the water leak for those businesses over that eight-month period. It was a very complex issue and we appreciate all the work that you all did on that particular constituent case that was very hard and complex. And I also have to thank Michelle and Renee from the Water Department team. We truly appreciate them being at every single community event. Even as late as this Saturday, we were at an event together. So thank you all very much for being in the community and being willing to just be there to help our community. I wanted to start very quickly with the airport. And so, Prez talked about our local vendors and we appreciate you all continuing to prioritize our local businesses here in the city for the concessions program for the airport. And you have referenced in your testimony the PHL Concessions Academy as well as the work that you all are doing to ensure that we're having local vendors open up shops across terminals in the airport. We know and recognize that things in this space are everchanging, as you discussed with Council President. So what are you all doing from the perspective of helping and assisting our local businesses to stay at the airport, right? That's one thing to get there, but to stay. And then also, to identify additional new local vendor opportunities. And secondly for the Airport -- and I'll come back for Water -- I recall that the Department of Aviation came before Council about a solar farm proposal, and I think it was at PNE, not for PHL. And so, if you could just give us an update on that project, if it's been completed and has it helped you all to achieve your carbon neutrality goals?
Thank you for all those questions and thank you for the thank-yous. So first, we're going to talk about the concessions that you just asked about. Again, we have a great team behind me who handles a lot of the outreach. We do outreach pretty much year-round. Many of you are familiar with our Business Opportunity Forum, which is kind of the mega event we do in the fall. And many of you have attended and/or possibly spoken at it, where we try to make sure that as many vendors can attend so people can partner on contracts. They get to hear about our upcoming opportunities. They get to learn more about how to do business at the airport. We have a lot of smaller outreach programs we do where it might be a very specific topic. Deatrice, who was up here just a little while ago, her team really spearheads that outreach. So it can be as little as meeting with just a handful of vendors or a large room of vendors where they're speaking about something specific. It could be something on sustainability. It could be something on concessions. It could be all different types of things. Because again, we're a city within a city. So everything you need at the city level, we kind of need at our level, at a smaller level at the airport. If you need anything more specific than that, let me know and clearly we'll provide information. I do want to get to your question though about the solar farm.
So if I could pivot there real quick. And I'll have Api come up and speak a little bit to it. But, yes, we have achieved our Level 3 accreditation at PNE and PHL, and solar farm is part of that.
That's awesome. So while Api is coming up, I cannot neglect to say thank you to Deatrice. Deatrice, I see you there. Thank you. I didn't see you behind the chair initially, but I do see you there. Thank you so much for all of your hard work on our behalf. We appreciate you.
Good morning. My name is Api Appulingam. I'm the Chief Development Officer for the Department of Aviation. Great question, Councilmember. And, yes, we released an RFP for the solar farm at Northeast Philadelphia Airport last November, and we had a handful of vendors that proposed and we selected a company called Reactivate LLC. They're going to be entering into a Power Purchase Agreement with us to build, operate and maintain a 1.5 megawatt solar farm in a 10-acre space at Northeast Philadelphia Airport. So we just selected that vendor. There's a few months still of work to do with them to negotiate those terms. Our goal is to begin construction January of 2027 and complete the construction by December of 2027 so that we can actually get some tax credits along with that or the vendor will get some tax credits. And as a result of building the solar farm, it's going to help us move forward with our carbon accreditation goals. And As Tracy mentioned, we did go up a level for Northeast Philadelphia Airport to Level 3, joining PHL at Level 3, the only two airports in the state of Pennsylvania to achieve Level 3, our airport carbon accreditation which is optimization, which is where we're starting to look at Scope 3 emissions. I'm incredibly proud of the DOA team and our commitment to sustainability in meeting the city's goals.
Thank you. Well, thank you very much for your work. I heard the bell and I'll honor the clock and I'll come back on the second round.
Thank you for honoring the clock, Majority Leader.
Such a strong example of leadership. I have a question in the spirit of my Chairperson of Public Safety, Member Jones. What are we doing as it relates to the 250th celebration as it relates to heightened security? We know as a country we're in war, right. And it was a specific statement saying we're going to target key places in America, right. What is our preparation plan to make sure our customers, workers and overall Philadelphia International Airport is safe during this time?
Well, I'll start off by -- that's a great question, and I'll start off by saying just in general whether it's this time or other times, in order to get a badge at the airport, we all go through safety training, and we're all aware that our facilities care workers, who are sometimes a line of first defense, right, they're out there walking the terminals, cleaning the terminals and they keep their eyes and ears well-trained to notice anything abnormal, right, and how to report it very quickly. Our Chief Operating Officer who is here today, Greg Phillips, and his team from operations, safety is their number one priority at the airport. So again, it's ingrained in us. Because being an airport, that has to be what we think about. So as we prepare for this year and expecting the highest levels of traffic --
Yeah. I wanted to push a little more because you said we do this regardless. However, this year, especially with FIFA, more than anything else folks will be coming internationally to our country and will be coming through that airport.
Can Greg come on up and talk about are we working with FBI, DEA?
I'll keep talking while he's on his way up. But I mean, their job is to be part of the FIFA operations plan. So there's work being done on that end. Of course, we also have the Philadelphia Police Department and the Fire Department assigned down at the airport that work there and they're a part of that plan as well. So, yeah, we're on it.
From the Administration's side, what's the role of FEMA and the Managing Director in terms of the operations and partnership with the leadership team at the Philadelphia International Airport to just monitor operations, just in general? And are we on high alert, moderate alert or low alert?
I'd have to get back to you on that. I don't know that we're on a different alert, but we are definitely all being trained and working closely with city officials as well as we prepare for a wonderful thing of an onslaught of people. And hopefully everybody is here obviously safe and secure. That's our main goal.
Greg, can I put you on the spot, sir, to get your perspective?
Thank you, Council President. Greg Phillips, Chief Operating Officer for the Department of Aviation. What an important question and something we absolutely view as critical as we prepare for these summer events, and particularly for FIFA when we welcome the world here. So we're working closely with the police department to ensure that we are training, that we are preparing and that we will be prepared for these events here. We recently, within the last month, held an active shooter drill. We put together an operational plan that addresses security for the airport and we will continue to prepare, working with TSA, working with the Customs and Border Protection Service, CBP, and also with our own operations department and the police department to ensure that we're providing a safe facility for these operations. We recognize the potential for bad actors during this period and we want to be prepared.
Do we have a plan to educate staff to pay attention, is there a focus around human trafficking, especially during this time?
So we recently -- and, Tracy, I don't know if you want to speak to this here. But we recently initiated a human trafficking education program, and that is an ongoing effort that we will continue to highlight. We highlight it on our website. We highlight it across and through the airport, and we will continue to recognize that as an important effort as we move towards summer events and really beyond that at all times.
I will add, again, when we go for badging, we go through human trafficking training, so again all 17,000-plus badge holders understand what to look for and how to act upon that if something is noticed. We have signage everywhere throughout our airport so that we're pretty much alerted to that just being an airport. And again, I would say to your point, on a higher alert now that we know we have a ton of traffic coming our way this summer.
I want to thank Member Dr. Nina Ahmad for her leadership on it. Brief point of information.
Thank you, Council President, for highlighting this. And I want to thank the Airport for -- I was at the press conference when you announced this campaign. And as you know, our campaign here in the city is just going to be rolled out. We have awarded the RFP to the three firms that are going to work on it, and we're connecting you to them to make sure we are all consistent in the messaging across the City of Philadelphia, including for those who are visiting. So I just wanted to say that that is ongoing. And I thank the Council President for making sure I got that allocation.
Thank you for your support at the airport. Very much appreciated.
Critically important issues. Chair recognizes Councilmember Dr. Anthony Phillips and Councilmember Curtis Jones.
Thank you, Council President. Madam Mayor, if you're listening, really appreciate the work that you're doing. I really want to help you with the support that's needed to help the Water Department's leadership continue to grow.
Member Phillips, could you speak into the microphone?
Oh, can you hear me now? All right. Commissioner, I've met with your team to address ongoing concerns around customer service and communication with our neighbors. And I want to be direct about what we're seeing in the 9th District and also what I'm hearing from colleagues across the city. And just the last four months, I can point to at least two serious breakdowns and there are more. One on Rodney and Wister in West Oak Lane. There was a sinkhole that developed in December. The department was aware. Yet it was not addressed until weeks later in January. During that time, residents had their water shut off without notice, families were left scrambling rely to on our relatives and my office and community partners just to access basic water. Then on Michener Avenue, we saw another case of a broken lateral that limited communication, and there was limited communication from the department. And again, water service disrupted. And despite all of this, the neighbors are still receiving bills. The question that I have is, when you have -- and you can take note of this because I'm about to give another one. When you have a water main break, why isn't there a credit that can be given back to the neighbors for their disruption for weeks on when it comes to water? And then also another question that I have is that we have a public affairs team with the Philadelphia Water Department, but I don't see anything reflected in this budget that says we're going to do a couple things, we're going to go walk neighborhoods and help people understand what they're responsible for, from laterals and so forth, and maybe they can get insurance on this if something happens. And then number two, with the public affairs team we don't see a sense of understanding like let's Councilmembers know on a weekly basis when disruptions are happening in the neighborhood. I was just driving by Sedgwick and Rodney today, didn't know anything about this whole Water Department construction that was taking place. A lot of the public affairs team members should be there to make sure that individuals understand exactly what is going on for the timeline for water disputes. Also, I appreciate the groundwork ladened by this body and then former Councilmember Parker, including efforts to connect residents with American Water Resources. But let's be honest, that's not enough if people are still left paying out of their pockets for issues they did not cause or being billed during periods when they didn't even have access to water. Now, I want to be clear. C. 33 and 47. I know you stepped into this role, Commissioner, but leadership is really important during moments like this. So given the reality of our agent infrastructure, I just have the first couple questions. Can you provide clear, proactive communication when service disruptions occur? Are you working on addressing that? What are the immediate support systems, including access to water, for residents impacted by shut-offs due to emergencies like sinkholes? And most importantly, can we provide real financial relief so neighbors are not billed or burdened for circumstances completely outside of their control? COMMISSIONER JEWELL: Thank you, Councilmember. I know we've had a couple of meetings. I appreciate the challenge and the push to move this department to do better and steps forward and really try to reach all of the Councilmembers here and all of our residents. I do think I met with Councilmember Thomas a couple of weeks ago and kind of talked about how we can help people understand right. Government is complicated and sometimes government is hidden, and that is fine if government is working effectively and efficiently to serve our residents. And at the times when it's not, it's incumbent upon us, it's coming upon me as a leader to set the tone for our department that is customer-focused and service-oriented.
To your points and your questions, we have done a couple things recently to try to address communications around emergency disruptions. I will note that with the Rodney and Wister situation, we were working for a prolonged period of time to try to understand exactly what the issues were there in the effort to try to prevent what happened. It was an unfortunate incident. I appreciate you being out onsite in the neighborhood talking to your constituents at that time while our employees were working to repair that water main as quickly as possible. And so, our standard operating procedure for water disruption is for the staff that are onsite to go door to door and knock to notify folks that water will be turned off. There are times when it cannot be avoided, and that is a part of our business. And our goals are to restore water as quickly as possible. Our service level goal in our five year plan is less than eight hours. I think we exceeded that goal this past fiscal year. But the expectation from us, from my leadership level and down is that our crews that are in the field are making notifications. To that end, we've been working recently to update leave behind that we also have. So first, step 1 is knock on the door and try to talk to someone. The only way you know your message is received is if you talk to a human being and they understand, you receive the message. In the event that we can't do that, which is fairly normal because we're all at work -- something happened at our house, we wouldn't be there either -- we have a leave-behind that notifies folks of what we're doing, why we're there, that it's the Water Department who's here and that we're working in the neighborhood to resolve the issue. We very recently just went through a process of our operations team working with our public relations team to update those leave-behinds. I think I just approved the bid award for the new print for those, so we should have updated content to deliver to our customers in the field. I have had unequivocal conversations with my field superintendents, that every time we get on the phone and they say, water main break at this location, water shut-off, my first question is did we knock on doors, did we leave them behind. We're trying to change culture a little bit here on a customer-focused, service-oriented organization. It's going to take a little bit of time, but we are actively working to ensure that we are stepping forward in the instances when we are inconveniencing --
Is it possible to have a dedicated phone number for water main shut- offs when they can -- or a contact person, an individual that is their friendly Water Department representative that they can contact to get all the information necessary needed during that troubling time of a water main shut-off? COMMISSIONER JEWELL: So in emergency instances, we have our emergency phone number 215-685-6300. It's where our call center is. It's where folks are to call when they have an issue. That is staffed with a very robust staff during the business day. It extends a little bit before, a little bit after the work day and then overnight we pivot over to our emergency support services. Those folks have access to our operational information and so should be able to see what kind of work is happening and provide some kind of expectation. We already provide that service. I'm happy to -- and I know we're going to meet in a couple of weeks. I'm happy to continue this conversation and figure out what more we could do. On the capital side, if we're doing planned work and there are planned shutdowns, they should have a dedicated phone number to a direct person, not our call center, that is provided well in advance of projects happening and reiterated regularly during the course of the project in order to ensure that there is a connection between someone who is physically present managing the contractors who are delivering the services for us and the customers, should they have issues.
That's incredibly important because we have people who are unclear on the timelines. So is part of your plan to help residents be more clear on timelines whereas, yeah, there's being work done, but you're like what work is being done, what's step 1, what's step 2, what's step 3 and 4? That's never been communicated to a lot of our residents, and they're just thinking you're not doing anything. They just see the debris and they don't see anything else happening. COMMISSIONER JEWELL: Sure. So again, differentiating a little bit between emergency work and planned work, I think on the planned work side we've done some efforts internally to try to establish real, measurable standards for when we're going to contact folks, at what phases, before construction, during construction, and we should be able to set those expectations. We have a planned meeting with Better Services Philadelphia coming up later this month to make sure that our practices are aligned with best practices around the city. So I think to answer your question simply, certainly for planned work we can and should be able to do that. For emergency work, it's a little more fluid because it's, like, we open up the street, we see what's there and then we have to respond in realtime. And so, our goal is really to as quickly as possible deploy folks who are prepared to do the work so that we can restore services.
I'll have to come back for another round. But I just want to get this in for seconds. If I could say, 20 think about this as well. I just learned about a resident that's not even in our district that has a $65,000 water bill that is from a previous owner. And so, $65,000 and now it's attached to the property. We need to get to a point where we reach the person that caused it as opposed to you're putting people more in debt. Yes, you're inheriting this property, but why should they be responsible for a $65,000 bill 9 that a previous owner didn't do. And I still need a response on getting a credit, if I can quickly, a credit basically back for the water disruption. If they didn't have no water because of disruption, why are they still paying their water bill? So go ahead. You can answer. I'll wait for my second round after that.
No. The Chair extends additional time to Councilmember Dr. Anthony Phillips.
The Chair recognizes the Water Commissioner. COMMISSIONER JEWELL: So I've got Susan Crosby, Deputy Commissioner in Revenue for Water Revenue Bureau, who can provide some context on real estate transfer and how we handle transitioning meters.
And don't forget the credit question. COMMISSIONER JEWELL: Of course.
Good morning, Councilmember. In regards to the real estate transfers, we deal very closely with --
My apologies. Thank you. Susan Crosby, Deputy Revenue Commissioner for Water. We work very closely in revenue with our law department to work with the title insurance agency to educate them on how to get the total amount that is due on water bills as part of the real estate closing process. We've actually created a special process where they can request a payoff amount that would clear any outstanding liens or court judgments associated with a project. And as part of that, we also let them know if there is an active meter reading. In many cases where you get those large bills, those surprise bills, there may not have been a meter reading for a period of time because they have not been upgraded to the new meters. We let the title insurance agents know that so that they can make sure --
Excuse me, ma'am. Councilmember Kendra Brooks has a point of information.
I just want to add a similar situation that I want clarity about. We had a constituent who inherited a $3,000 water bill from the builders of a brand new home. They went through the process of the department to contest the bill 14 to try to find answers for it. And eventually, what led was that the builders ended up getting a $2,000 discount. So theirs was dismissed, but the new homeowner, a new build, had to pay $1,000 which was the portion that was left. So I would like to understand also to Councilmember -- who decides what gets dropped off, what doesn't get dropped off, who has to pay, who doesn't have to pay? Because I was thinking it was a one-off thing, but his situation that he mentioned is very similar to mine and the lack of communication between the two departments between all of this is concerning.
Yes. Thank you, Councilmember. So to continue with the title insurance industry, we work very closely with them to try to let them know if there is going to be a situation where the bill might change and you might have a new meter reading that would give a new higher bill amount as part of the closing. And so, we work very closely with them to try to get these issues resolved at the closing table so that when the new owner takes possession of the property, they start with a zero bill and the prior owner pays what they're responsible for and the new owner starts fresh. The issue comes in is when people are not dealing with a title insurance company and they're dealing at arm's length. In those cases, we see those transfers. We do encounter many of those problems, and we work with both sides of the transaction to try to resolve the issue to determine who is responsible for that water bill. Inevitably, the person who owns the property takes responsibility for that water bill. If that person believes that they are not responsible and it does belong to the prior owner, there are several levels of review to challenge the responsibility of that water bill. We have an account analysis unit within the Water Revenue Bureau that will review the title transfers, the timing of the transfers and who is responsible and if an adjustment needs to be made from one account to another. There's also an informal hearing unit where they can speak to a hearing officer to determine who is responsible for that bill.
The account analysis unit is usually between three to six weeks. The informal hearing is the next level. I believe we're scheduling out a month to two months for a hearing, and we hold those multiple times a week. And then the next level is with the Tax Review Board. And the Tax Review Board, I'm not certain of their scheduling, but I do know that they schedule Water hearings several times a month at both the master's level and the full Board level. So there's a robust review process.
So the same way that the Register of Wills Department advertises tangled titles, I believe you all should be advertising this process as well, because homeowners are buying these new properties and they're inheriting water bills of this magnitude that they're probably like, oh, well, I guess I got to figure this out, and they also don't have the support. And it'll be helpful for our Council offices to give that support. And then also, Commissioner, if you can answer the question about the credit line?
Just one more thing briefly, Councilmember. If there are specific situations of customers who have experienced this issue, please do let our office know. Let me know and we will work with them to help untangle the water bill issue or help guide them through the dispute resolution 5 process.
No, I just think it's something that the public affairs team should be doing. I think we need a stronger leadership team that has experience with public connection and outreach. I feel like it should be reflected in this budget, someone who's going to come in and change customer service relations as a deputy that we can work with, because that's more proactive communication, including I saw reflected in the budget FY27 you're going to be doing more social media outreach about the laterals. But why don't you have a public affairs team just going door to door or making sure to tell Council offices, every neighbor you see, let them know to be more aware about how who's responsible for what in the city of Philadelphia. But I just don't think that's happening. But I want to know are you looking into expanding that operation and being proactive when it comes to communication about these things? And please answer the question about the credit. COMMISSIONER JEWELL: I promise I will. But on this communication question, I think the simple answer is, yes. We are here to push out an understanding of how things work into these neighborhoods. And also, I know y'all are real, trusted messengers for your constituents. And so, we also want to kind of invest in you. I know one of my Assistant Deputy Commissioners came back from a meeting with Councilmember Bass just two weeks ago where we talked through our capital program and how it works. And she came back and was like, it was fantastic. We had a dialogue. We exchanged information. It felt like there was understanding. I had a meeting with Councilmember Thomas just a couple weeks ago, same thing. So we are committed, one, to helping everyone in this room understand how we work. And also my hope is by kind of like solidifying those working relationships and coming to a common understanding, that we can walk out into the neighborhood with you all side-by-side, lift each other up and help make sure that our customers, your constituents, the residents of the city of Philadelphia, the friends, families and neighbors of our employees, all understand what we do, how we do it, what kind of assistance is available, what our capital program looks like when it's coming into the neighborhood. We heard some of this in the Streets Department budget hearing yesterday. I think we're here for it. And it might not be reflected in an increase in funding in our budget request, but it will be reflected in the actions that our employees are taking as we try to figure out how we can work together to try to reach those folks in the neighborhood.
And that's why I'm relatively -- the $12.3 million that's been reflected as an increase for funding, I'm all for it going to our D.C. 33 and D.C. 47 workers Class 100. That needs to happen, if not more. However, that Class and Class 200, I think that needs to be reconsidered because we have other departments in the City of Philadelphia that are doing a great job or trying to do a good job but they are lacking. They're being sustained through the typical funding they normally always get, including our Parks & Rec, including our Libraries. They need that boost. So even if it's that 12, you take 5 and you put it somewhere else. We need to do something and your projects need to wait until you get customer service together, you know what I mean. I need to have a better understanding of why that 300 is so needed as well? So that's another question. COMMISSIONER JEWELL: So we're an enterprise fund fee-for- service, right. So the exchange of money across the General Fund boundaries is not something that drives our services. I did want to get back to your question about credits just because you want an answer and that's why I'm here. So our bills are based upon a rate structure. That rate structure is based upon findings of the Water and Sewer Rate Board, and it fits into a larger legal context that governs how we collect the fees for the services that we provide. In an instance where -- so they comprise of a couple of different components, but one of them is the amount of water that you're using. And so, during water outage obviously the water flowing stops. And so, there is a nominal savings there, not the kind of savings we want. But the reality is right now today the way that our rates are applied in the city does not allow for a credit to be given during water service interruption. All of the bills are calculated based upon the rate structures that are put forward in our rates and charges that have been put before the Water and Sewer Rate Board in a public process that was passed by referendum years ago. 10
Yeah, that's -- wow. I mean, you could at the very least put in your budget give bottles -- Rep Carroll and I were out here giving out bottles of water to people when they didn't have any water. I mean, that should be your team walking and giving water when their water is disrupted and they have no 20 control over. And you can't give them a credit back on their bill? I don't know. I think that needs to be investigated. It just doesn't -- it's just not publicfriendly. So thank you. I have more, but I'll wait. To my other colleagues, I want to be respectful.
Thank you. Member Dr. Anthony Phillips. Councilmember Curtis Jones.
Thank you, Mr. President. Let me start by saying thank you to the Parker Administration. Maybe not on taxation, but at least on operations. This has been in my history in Council one of the least contentious back-and-forth about operational issues. So thank you for that. I want to start with the Water Department -- let me start with Aviation and say thank you for the experience. Many of us who travel throughout the airport feel proud of the appearance, the welcoming nature of the airport. My staff over there has been to 41 nations and ranks you very high by way of ambiance and importance and efficiency. Istanbul and Dubai and Atlanta, you need to work on getting up there with them. But those are high, high marks. Two things: One, thank you, Mr. President, for asking about security. But I'd like to switch to the air traffic controllers. How are we keeping up? We took a tour, our staff went to the airport and we actually went up in the towers to see the incredible job they are asked to do. How are we keeping up compared to other airports with keeping those personnel in there, refreshed and not overworked to the point of exhaustion? And then number two, I'd like you to talk to, you know, the 250th birthday of this nation. We're going to a lot of visitors and some of them have visual impairments. How are we accommodating those individuals who may have issues with signage? Overbrook School for the Blind is producing signs that actually have Braille on them. And are we going to incorporate that? And can they be asked to assess the airport like they've done SEPTA? SEPTA does a really good job with the audio, you know, bus is turning or this is your stop, kind of audible prompts that help people that are visually impaired. So those are your two questions. And then I'll run over to the Water Department.
I'll start with the last part first because it's top of mind right now, with making sure how we're prepared to receive all types of guests who may have visual impairments, hearing impairments, physical impairments of some sort. I mean, as a public facility we do our best to make sure that, first of all, as we do new builds or we refresh parts of the terminal, we're incorporating all the standards that are required of today, right. So there could be city, state and federal standards that we have to incorporate. We do have Braille in certain places in the facility. We do have audio announcements that you'll hear made to have multiple ways to reach our passengers and our employees that are located throughout the terminals. And we also have language assistance lines dedicated at our informational booths that are manned by both staff and volunteers. So we have a wonderful volunteer program that's present there and they're well- equipped to handle the different needs that may be associated. We also have a full communication center so that if we have to refer them down to somebody who has more capabilities, we can get to somebody who can help with individual passenger needs. So --
Would you be willing to let the Overbrook School for the Blind come down and give you an opinion on how you are doing with the Braille and other amenities for people with --
Yeah, this is obviously a nationwide issue that we have to deal with our federal partners on that because they're not our employees. Again, I think in Philly at least we do -- again, through the teams here we do a great outreach. And working with our various federal partners, including the air traffic controllers that are here. In fact, if you recall, I want to say it was last year, I might be mistaken, because of the problems in kind of the New York air service area, we've even had to take on some work -- I don't think it's happening currently, but about a year or so ago we were taking some of that -- I don't think the traffic, but the air traffic controllers were handling some of the air traffic there. So I don't have anything specific on that, but I'm happy to look into it. And we can get back to you with what we know. But we're well aware that we need more air traffic controllers around the country. So, yeah.
Same thing for the Northeast Airport in light of what we went through with Driscoll?
Yeah. I mean, the air traffic controllers were very responsive there and on top of that issue. I mean, that was a horrible situation, but also wonderful in its outcome because it could have been much worse, right. So we were thrilled, you know, they worked very closely with the flight school, with the fire department, with police department, all who were there, along with some of our electeds here and others who were present, and our Chief Operating Officer, myself and the Northeast airport management were all there. So we're really supportive of our air traffic controllers.
So I'm going to switch because my time is up. Thank you for those responses. Commissioner, first of all, thank you as well. Some of your dedicated employees have worked under tremendously harsh conditions in the weather. I remember a water main break in my district where I was riding by and there was a man with a jackhammer in the 52nd Ward actually with a water main break, and the ice crystals had frozen around his beard. And he continued to work. And he was out of the 29th and Chalmers Street depot. We went out and recognized him because of that. Question I would have simply is -- and thank you for when we have water emergencies because sometimes we harp on the things you don't do and don't memorialize the things that you do. When we had water threats that your sensors picked up along the Schuylkill, you were quick to respond to that and scared to bejesus out of us. Everybody made a run to Walmart to get water. But it's better to know than not know when we have an issue. So thank you for that. There is a project in the 4th District I'd like you to update us on. There is a drill from the City Avenue Water Treatment Plant that is going to go under the Schuylkill River and up to East Falls. Can you tell us where we are with that? COMMISSIONER JEWELL: Yes, and thank you for the kind words. Greatly appreciated. I constantly try to remind myself that 99% of what we do isn't seen. And so, it's nice to know that people appreciate all the work that's done. The project that you're specifically asking for is referred to as our Schuylkill River Crossing. This is part of our water revitalization plan and is one of the phases necessary for us to be able to upgrade water treatment facilities in the Northwest and also a phase of an interconnection or the ability to supply the City of Philadelphia from either the Schuylkill River or the Delaware River should something happen that prevents us from accessing water from one of them. That project kicks off its design phase during this winter. And so, the design is started. The work as currently scoped will be kind of like two shafts that are connected by a tunnel that runs under the Schuylkill River. It leaves one of our properties at the City Ave -- the Belmont Water Treatment Plant and the other shaft is at our Queen Lane Water Treatment Plant. So we're probably five to six years of design into a very complicated project that is just a long tunnel in rock that will eventually have a water main run through it and a pump station at one end and storage on the other that allows us to move water effectively, efficiently from one side of the Schuylkill River to the other side of the Schuylkill River. It also provides redundancy for us for some infrastructure that we don't currently have redundancy for. So we're five to six years of design. Once design is complete, you're talking bid, construct. So years probably at least. 7
Okay. 8 We can wait. 50% of our water -- 9 Mr. President, I'm turning over the 10 mic. If you live on the west side of the city, it comes from the Schuylkill River. If you live on the east side of the city, it comes from the Delaware and that's two different water sources. So upgrading this infrastructure that is 3000 miles you mentioned and some of the actual infrastructure is still made of wood from the ancient days of water treatment, so thank you. And real quickly, how much water pipe do we replace every year? And that's it. COMMISSIONER JEWELL: Our goal is 32 miles a year. Last fiscal year I think we accomplished -- Fiscal Year 2025 I think we accomplished 42. But it is a balance between cost and capacity. So our current goal is 32 miles. I don't know if I'm allowed to do a point of information, but there are no water mains in the city of Philadelphia carrying water that are made of wood. But there is a long history of public water in the city of Philadelphia that at a time included wooden water mains. Those were all taken out of service and replaced with cast iron pipe. We are about to do a project, I think it's going to kick off after the events of 2026, on South Street. The last time we did South Street work, we found wooden water mains. Because what they did when they replaced them or when they took them out of service was they simply laid a cast iron pipe next to it and switched the service over and abandoned those pipes in place. So as we're going through doing a necessary project to upgrade some old infrastructure in order to do it, we're excited about the possibility of finding some of the history that has been in a city full of history. Finding a wooden water main is still pretty special. But no wooden water mains in service today.
Thank you very much. Jeffrey stepped out. Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, Jim Harrity, Kendra Brooks and Lozada. (No response.)
Oh, I didn't even see that. Councilmember Jim Harrity.
Amen, amen. Look, I have a ton of questions for the Water Department. More after Phillips' line of questioning. I too am kind of trying to figure out all this stuff. We're going to get a raise in our electric bill. They're saying it's going to come out to about $35 a month. And now, water supposedly another $20 a month going up, and then we're imposing taxes on rideshare and other things. So my people, I don't know how much more they can handle. So let me just get the questions on the record that way for the sake of time, get them out of the way. When was the last time the Water Department underwent a management audit to find operating inefficiencies? Which services and operations does the Water Department combined with other municipal-owned utilities such as PECO to cut costs down, like when they're digging up streets and stuff like that? How much cash is in the Water Stabilization Fund as we sit here today? How are these funds invested, as in are they invested in local banks that give loans to local people or are we investing it in outside state banks? What happens to the interest those funds earn? And some contractors have complained that their work has been delayed because of a backlog in water sample testing that is required to complete projects. Are there any plans to streamline the process and is this a staffing issue or procedural issue? Got them all out. COMMISSIONER JEWELL: Thank you, Councilmember. So the first question was about a management audit. The last management audit was done around 10 years ago. We are constantly looking at the work that we're doing and looking for efficiencies and trying to find some effective strategies. If you get really way into the weeds in our budget this year, there is a type of project that we have been funding for about the last eight or nine years to the scope of a couple million dollars a year to perform some maintenance at our wastewater treatment plants. And over the course of the last three years, we've had a really strong leader in our department step forward and be like, we can do this differently, give me a chance to try. And so, we've allowed him some latitude to work with his co-workers and try an inhouse maintenance practice that we've seen success on multiple occasions with. So this year in our budget, there is not $2.5 million to $3.5 million in services as a result of the work that he has done. A really great benefit of that has also been a recognition that maybe sometimes the way we think about who's qualified to do jobs is a little outdated. And so, because of his leadership, we've taken a new look at how we provide promotional opportunities to folks and opened up some career paths that were traditionally closed off. So specifically, the management audit years ago. More generally, this is the work that we do. Combination of services, again we are a fee-for- service utility that has requirements on how we're allowed to spend our money. We do work regularly and routinely in coordination and communication with other utilities. There are regular operational meetings to make sure that we understand what's happening in the field, that if there are interdependencies, we're able to effectively communicate at the working level, supervisors in the field getting work done, like picking up the phone, talking about it, getting things to happen. And then on our capital improvement program, we are submitting our engineering drawings to other utilities to identify conflicts in order to make sure that if this work can be coordinated, those utilities are provided the opportunity to do so. So in my neighborhood, there's a water main relay project that people probably thought of as a PGW project because they just came through and relayed all their gas mains. But the reason they did that is because we're going to come through and do our water mains, and it makes sense to do it in a coordinated effort.
Yeah, that's kind of what I was getting at. While you had the hole open, as a highway guy it would be easier to do it all at one time rather than do the others. How about the funds? How are our funds invested in the Water Stabilization Fund and where is the money put? COMMISSIONER JEWELL: So I'm going to ask my Deputy Commissioner of Finance Lawrence Yangalay to come up and take that question.
Thank you so much. I'm Lawrence Yangalay, Deputy Commissioner of Finance, Philadelphia Water Department. The first question I remember was how much we have in our Restabilization Fund. As of June of 2025, Fiscal Year 2025, we have somewhere around 140-something million in the Restabilization Fund.
How the fund's invested, we do it through the collaboration of the City Treasurer's Office. We have fund managers that manage the fund for us. And whatever interests accrue to the fund is going to support our capital project, and that helped to defray some of our capital cost to help reduce the burden of our (inaudible) repair.
I know you said through the Treasurer's Office and it's invested. Where is it invested? Who does the investing? What is the company? What is the bank? Just trying to see if we're putting our money into local businesses, local banks that are going to then lend that money to local people.
I don't have that detail. We can work with the City Treasurer's Office to provide you the detail of banks and financial managers that handle these funds.
Okay. So currently, right now about 145 million in the Stabilization Fund. You don't know what banks they're in right now. And most of the interest earned goes to the capital costs. That's a right rundown?
Let me just make a quick comment on the Restabilization Fund. The purpose of that fund is to provide some funds in case there are difficulty in meeting revenue targets or in meeting our debt coverage requirements. As we know now, anything could happen. And because the Water Department is self- funded, if anything were to happen, any emergency, it is in that fund that we go to be able to settle the emergency. Just before the COVID hit, we have 217 million in that fund. Because of the COVID and the difficulty in meeting our revenue target, we drew that fund all the way down to 121 million. So now that we are seeing good light, we are trying to build on that fund to prepare for any other event that might come, and that is a way of building resilience in our financial management and operational system of the Philadelphia Water Department.
That's very interesting. So why during COVID did we have to go into the Stabilization Fund? Wasn't much going on then. That's a lot of money. It was 200-something million, and we bought it down to 105 million or something like that. Listen, I get it. It was a pandemic and stuff has to still be done. But for a good while there wasn't anything being done. So just trying to figure out where the money went. Follow the money, right.
I didn't get part of your question. But if I understand why we went into the fund during COVID, of course -- I don't know the exact year, because of the COVID and the hardship it brought to the ratepayers, rate increases were minimized and in one year it was suspended. So because we didn't have all the revenue to operate, we have to go to Restabilization Fund to draw down on it.
Okay. So that was because there was no water bills at that time, so you had to make up for the loss of revenue from people not paying their water bills; is that what we're saying?
Yes. If people are not paying their water bill or the rate that is approved is not sufficient to cover cost, then the Restabilization Fund is the reserve that we count on to be able to meet cost increases. COMMISSIONER JEWELL: Can I -- it's a combination of factors, right. It's a decrease in revenue coming in the door. It's also --
Speak in the mic. COMMISSIONER JEWELL: My apologies. It's a combination of factors. It's a decrease in revenue coming in the door, but also an increase in operational costs. I mean --
Yeah. What the operational cost was because people weren't working, but okay.
So can you clarify that just for the record? The member is saying there wasn't a significant -- can you clarify what operational costs that determined why you went to the Water Stabilization Fund? I do understand the rate question because this came up before, I actually remember, as to why we want to support for going into the Water Stabilization Fund so we don't have to have increased rates. But he's also asking about what operations were taking place during that period of COVID that warranted you to go into the Water Stabilization Fund? And it's coughing. Anybody got any Halls? (No response.)
Mr. Michael Carroll, just state your name for the record please as part of the response to Councilmember Jim Harrity.
Michael Carroll, Deputy Managing Director for the Office of Transportation Infrastructure Systems. Good morning. And, Councilmember, I just want to be clear, there was a lot going on during the pandemic, especially in the area of costs. Commissioner was not in his role then, but I do have some direct knowledge of some of the things driving costs. One of the big things was the cost of treatment chemicals skyrocketed and because the supply chains were all breaking down around that kind of thing, but also some of the materials and equipment for construction projects. Those projects were suspended for about three or four months, but the impact lasted for several years and we're just getting past those impacts and costs. So the fact is that these things were in the field. So even though we had shut down a lot of what was going on indoors, a lot of this field work, this construction work, had to move forward, but had to move forward in an environment where it was hard to get people to show up, so you had to pay them more. The supply chains were breaking down, like I'm saying. And then the day-to-day operation when people turn their tap on to make sure that that water was safe was much more expensive than it was previous to the pandemic. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Chair recognizes Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, Brooks, Lozada.
Thank you, Council President. Good morning to all of you and thank you so much for the work that you do on behalf of the City of Philadelphia every day. My questions are for the Water Department. Last November, based on direct feedback, my Constituent Services team heard from West and Southwest Philadelphians. I introduced a legislative package that strengthens water equity by expanding eligibility to the Tiered Assistance Program protecting residents from extremely expensive water bills caused by long-term meter failures and calling on the Administration to explore ways to give rental tenants more control over their water bills. I started this conversation with the Administration during the first week of budget hearings and I'd like to continue that conversation with you today. I'm still working on understanding the inputs that the Administration used to come up with the $23.5 million cost estimate for my bill. Your FY27 testimony projects an average monthly discount of $63 per current TAP participant for a total projected program cost of $53 million covering roughly 70,000 households. Current participants are at or below 150% of the federal poverty line. Newly eligible households between 150% and 200% of the federal poverty line earn more so their discounts under the income- based formula would be smaller than $63. So my questions are, can you outline all of the factors you used to arrive at the cost estimate of $23.5 million in additional expansion cost? And can you confirm if your calculations relied on the average discount of $63 for the population that would become newly eligible under this Act or did you use a different number? And then finally, I wanted to see what enrollment numbers or enrollment percentages you are using to estimate the $23.5 million cost estimate for the expansion? COMMISSIONER JEWELL: Thank you, Councilmember Gauthier. When preparing for this budget hearing, I went back to last year's budget hearing which I was a participant in and appreciate your dedication to this effort and your consistency and as an advocate. It was informative for me. The fiscal note that the city put out has been published. I know that we have a meeting scheduled coming up in a couple weeks. Unfortunately, I was thinking this morning I don't know exactly when it is. But I think if we can in that context have this conversation about cost estimates and formulas, we rely on some financial specialists to help us both through our rate cases and for a budget process. And I think having those specialists in the room would be helpful. Also because we are currently in a rate case and have just provided formal notice on our TAP, our reconciliation process, I think we have a legal responsibility to be careful and delicate with the kind of information we're putting forward, especially in light of the fact that Community Legal Services is a legal participant in that process as well. So if we can, I'd be happy to provide information in that scheduled meeting so that we can discuss this in more detail.
Understood, and I'll give you that space. But I will say if the Administration is going to continue to use fiscal notes as a means of discouraging legislation from City Council, then the Administration should be at the ready to give us details on the fiscal note and what calculations you used to come up with it. And so, I know that is not just for you. But if we're going to go forward with this process, you all should be able to back up your assumptions, but we can wait for the meeting. My next question, PWD's FY26 budget testimony stated that the September 2025 and September 2026 rate increases are needed in part to pay for the increased enrollment of participants in the Tiered Assistance Program. Every water customer in this city is already paying for TAP expansion through their bills. And so, I just want your thoughts on if expanding eligibility is too expensive, then what are the ratepayers, what are they paying for, what are the taxpayers paying for? COMMISSIONER JEWELL: Thank you for the question and I'm going to try to do my best to respond here. So the department, through the Water and Sewer Rate Board -- Water, Sewer and Stormwater Rate Board engages in kind of two independent deliberative processes for rate increases. One is our standard- based water and sewer stormwater rates and the second one is the TAP reconciliation process. And the TAP reconciliation, which is what we're currently engaged in, is looking back at the previous year and assessing the amount of revenue that was lost when people who had need and were eligible for this program were afforded the opportunity to move into that program. We've done a lot of really great work to really grow the number of participants that are in that program. And then through the TAP reconciliation process, we through this again deliberative process with community advocates and the Water Department and community stakeholders involved, what we do is we take the lost revenue, the revenue that was not brought in through bills, through delinquency, forgiveness, through penalty forgiveness, and we then distribute that burden, because we have an obligation, to pay for our services through the fees that we charge to our customers across the rest of the rate base. So 400,000 accounts, 65,000 people in the TAP program, it's an amazing thing that we're allowed to do. It's not something that is common around the country. My understanding is the state of Pennsylvania has a specific legal enabling legislation that allows us to do that and it also protects our revenue. It helps us have a stable revenue source. So for the folks who are incurring this nominal increase, and I appreciate nominal is perspective-based --
We're a very poor city, yes. COMMISSIONER JEWELL: I think what they can take pride in paying for is that I think, 2.8%, is directly supporting people in need in this community and providing stabilization to this department so that we can continue to deliver services to everyone regardless of their abilities.
I think I understand the methodology and I commend you and Revenue for the expansion that you've already done of TAP. But we also have been raising rates pretty significantly annually. And so, before we say no to helping more people in a time where they're just under siege by the federal government, by other factors, I think we have to look at how much we're raising rates, how much we're asking people to pay and increase bills and then truly consider whether we can do an expansion of relief programs. And again, I don't think it can just be sort of a knee jerk no or that you all can say it's too expensive, it's $24 million, without really backing that up. I think we have to have a strong case for saying no to people in this moment where so many people need relief. So I look forward to continuing the conversation with you all. COMMISSIONER JEWELL: Thank you.
Thank you very much. Councilmember Kendra Brooks, Councilmembers Quetcy Lozada, Mike Driscoll and Rue Landau.
Thank you, Council President. I think I'm going to start with the follow-up for the water question. So I know you said we can get back to it, but I think the question that we have is we were trying to understand who makes a decision to prioritize which portion of a bill gets dropped off. So they went through the preliminary hearing. The $2,000 that was supposed to go to the $2,000 of the bill from the builder was completely eliminated. The new homeowner was still responsible for $1,000 of this $3,000 preexisting bill. So we're just trying to determine, because you said we could follow up, but even after it went through preliminary hearing and it's already in litigation or is it a done deal?
Thank you. Susan Crosby, Deputy Revenue Commissioner for Water. Without knowing the specific facts of that case and at which level of review it was at, there are different people who make those decisions. And at the end of each level, the customer, if they are not satisfied with the outcome, does have the ability to appeal and move on to the next level. So if it is at the first level of the account analysis, it is the accounting staff of the Water Revenue Bureau who is reviewing the file and making the decision. If it is at the informal hearing level, it is a Department of Revenue hearing officer. We basically split the house so that the person who is hearing the case is an informal hearing officer, so they're from the tax side, not the Water side. And that informal hearing officer is the person who is making the decision on the matter. If it goes to the TRB, then it is the Tax Review Board Master or the Tax Review Board as a whole who makes the decision.
Okay. So I will have them follow back up, because I'm not understanding how we would let the builder go scot-free on the bill 14 and the new homeowner gets tagged with $1,000 bill. That just does not make sense to me at all. So I'll make sure to have my constituent services reconnect them back to the office to figure out how did we get to that decision. Because if we're going to eliminate the bill, we should have just eliminated for everyone. My other questions are for Aviation. Hi. So you guys know I'm with the ICE situation and I do appreciate the fact that they're gone, but we do have a hearing coming up and I just have a few things I want to get on the record that could be supportive in our hearing. So, one, I know you said that they are gone, but the question is what authority did they have to enter the Philadelphia International Airport and is it through a contract or Department of Homeland Security or express permission under federal law? And if so, what law that is? And have ICE or any federal officers made any arrests in the Philadelphia Airport? And if so, how many? Council President asked about the presence of ICE and our immigrant workers that are at the airport. We were wondering, was it an uptick in people missing work because of the presence of ICE when they were at the airport? And the last question is, we've seen the videos of violent ICE arrests throughout airports in the country. Was there any training for airport workers about interacting with ICE or federal agents around their rights? Those are my questions.
Okay. I'll try to get to them all as quickly as possible. If not, we can get back to you. So obviously, being an airport and a federally- regulated agency in a sense, we have Department of Homeland Security working throughout our airport on a regular basis, you know, Customs and Border Patrol when you're coming back from an international trip, TSA agents right there, as we've talked about frequently, so we're very familiar just with their presence naturally. Obviously, we got selected as one of the airports that was going to have ICE present, and I apologize for it because I'm probably going to have to have you help me with some of the questions again. But firstly, I do know one of the questions was you asked about arrests. I'm not aware. I don't think my staff and I have not been told of any arrests that were made at Philadelphia International Airport. So we're not aware that anything like that took place. If you could, I would appreciate you telling me again, just to make sure I'm answering them.
Were people still showing up to work with ICE being present at the airport or was there a degree of change in people -
We did not see a significant change in people working -- not showing up for the airport or calling out. On our own staff, we did not have a tremendous call-out. And for our own vendors that work like concessionaires and stuff like that, again I did send out a letter to the whole airport community just trying to calm everybody's fears. And we did not get feedback from our various partners at the airport that there was a huge uptick in any sort of call-out. So operationally, we were well, we operated well during that time.
Okay. And some of these, I can send them in writing. And I've been to the airport several times and I can honestly say Philadelphia was not the worst airport I've been in. It was not bad.
So, you know, I understood their concerns. They had to let people -- we had to let you all know to come earlier, but it might have in some ways made it worse because we were operating pretty well. People were getting through the security checkpoint lines in Philadelphia.
That's why -- a big shout-out to TSA. I have not had a problem getting through TSA and the service at the airport has been amazing. But I'll put them in writing so you can follow up. And if we can get them before Monday, it would be helpful.
Okay. Thank you very much. Councilmember Quetcy Lozada and the Chair of Transportation and Public Utilities Councilmember Mike Driscoll.
Thank you, Council President. Councilmember Brooks asked very specifically the question that I was asking or I was going to ask about as it relates to ICE in our airports. But I will add to that how grateful I am for the TSA teams at the airport. I also was traveling during that time. And I have to tell you that while there was tension and you could feel the tension, the TSA workers were very intentional about making sure that people were kind of getting through. And I think that being in that situation is a difficult one. So I just wanted to express gratitude to all the TSA workers --
Thanks. My questions are more for the Water Department. I appreciate the work that we've been doing together over the course of the last few months and I can see that the frustrations that we are experiencing in the 7th that I'm going to assume are being experienced across the city just through the line of questioning that my colleagues have made, I want to change a little bit from the residents' frustration and kind of shift to the businesses along the commercial corridors in the 7th Council District and their frustration as it relates to service work interrupting their businesses because of the same type of lack of communication that they're experiencing from the department or from the contractors. And so, my question to you is how do we better improve the lines of communication for our business commercial corridors across the City of Philadelphia, but in particular in the 7th Council District, many of whom have lost revenue as a result of work that has been performed along the commercial corridor without notice? COMMISSIONER JEWELL: Thank you, Councilmember Lozada, for the question. Thank you for your continued advocacy, for your Councilmanic district, and I truly appreciate the really open communications coming our direction. You've got us thinking differently about how we deliver services and striving to look for opportunities to change for the better in a way that are responsive to some of the issues that have been seen in your district and others, but also are financially responsible and timely. As it relates to commercial corridors, again there's planned work and there's emergency work and those two things are different. But it is from my seat looking down, and I have in the past specifically overruled operational decision-making in order to be attentive to our commercial businesses in the city of Philadelphia, that if we have an opportunity to make a choice about when we're performing work that will interrupt services or we have an opportunity to choose to deliver that work in a way that is thoughtfully considering the needs of these commercial businesses, that is our obligation. So I would love to talk through specific commercial corridors with you so we can get a better sense of whether this is planned work for which we are, again and as I mentioned with Councilmember Phillips earlier, we're working with Better Services Philadelphia to try to improve our communication practices and ensure we're meeting standards, there's a real opportunity to look forwards and ask questions before we move in and do work. It's my expectation particularly for planned work, we have the opportunity to reach out to our customers, right, like we are the only place they're going to get water from. But our mentality should be we are providing a service and we are here to help do that in the most amenable way possible. There will be times when we cannot. But if we have the opportunity to do so, we should be reaching out to our commercial businesses. We should be talking to them. We should be notifying them in advance. We should be providing them with a contact to express their concerns about timing. The specific example a couple years ago was right before the Super Bowl. We were going to replace a fire hydrant that was leaking and it was going to take out a hoagie shop. And they were like, hey, this day is my busiest day of the year. And should we have been in that space and had that conversation before and never planned that work? Absolutely, we should and that will be our goal moving forwards. But also, when we had that conversation, my first question was do we need to do this on Friday. And the answer was no. 23 And I was like, good, then we're not, have a conversation with them, talk to all their neighbors. And that's my expectation, that we're a part of this community, like the community isn't there in spite of us.
And so, I think as we move forwards with future conversations and again happy to sit down with your office and talk through any particulars. Happy to learn lessons from any district. We're here for all of it. If we can do better, we're here for it.
I appreciate that. I guess my follow-up question would be how do we better send that message down from leadership to those who are working on the ground, right. Because I believe that folks, whether it be residents or commercial businesses, consistently reach out and follow up when there are issues on the ground, and there's all of these excuses around why we can't do something and then it gets escalated to the commissioner. And all of a sudden, there are boots on the ground and things are being resolved. I'll use Lesher Street as an example. Those residents on the 4600 have been struggling for months, months around not just one pothole, but multiple potholes on their block that prevented cars from coming in and out. It prevented a mother with a handicapped child from being able to park in front of her home. It caused a lot of issues and there were many excuses around the why we could not do the work until you and higher levels of the Streets Department actually got them out. And then it was resolved within days and probably resolved because we had news cameras out there, right. So what are we doing to prevent that? How do we prevent the press from having to get involved? How do we prevent stress from residents who have family members who are disabled, who depend on the block to be clear for their handicapped children to be brought in and out without it having to be escalated to the higher levels, right? There should be a process. And what is that process? And what do people do in order to get their services responded to without having to go to the media? COMMISSIONER JEWELL: And thank you. Lesher Street is a great example because I was involved and we're doing things because of it. Lesher Street was an example of water repair work that was completed and then street restoration work that was delayed, and it did cause significant issues in the neighborhood and I recognize that. And for that, we're trying to do better. So one of the tasks we've taken up is I had kind of the privilege of watching PGW work for eight days on my block, hours a 10 day and it was hard for the 11 neighbors to deal with emergency 12 work, and many neighbors had them 13 coming in and out of their house 14 every hour taking gas readings to 15 ensure they were safe. 16 But when PGW was done, 17 the street got closed up in 48 18 hours. And so -- and Councilmember 19 Phillips asked a little bit about 20 cooperation lately. Because we do 21 coordinate in the field, we've got 22 working relationships with folks in 23 the Gas Works. And so, I tasked my 24 Director of Field Operations Brendan Riley, who's in the back of the room, with contacting PGW and figuring out how they did it. And we are moving forwards with pursuing some new procurement tools to allow us to contract for services for street restoration in a way that we hope will yield the same kinds of results. We have some opportunity -- the way that government works in the City of Philadelphia, we are in the public right-of-way if the Streets Department is the operator and maintainer of the roads. And so, in our normal business process today when we're done, we're responsible for temporarily restoring the street and we make a referral and we pay the Streets Department for that work. And so, what I'm hoping is we can find kind of like a revenue neutral or some way to just take some of that workload off, not impact our rates and provide a higher level of service. So we're in conversations right now trying to understand how they specify those procurement documents so we can start working on trying to implement some of that ourselves so we can provide a better level of service, because it is my belief that many of the issues on Lesher Street would not have happened if we had simply been able to quickly close that street and move on, so we are working on it.
I appreciate that. And like Lesher, there are many other situations like that in the 7th and I'm sure across the city of Philadelphia. I guess my last question will be American Water Resource.
Every time we turn around American Water Resource -- we are encouraging residents to sign up to the insurance like American Water Resource, but it is such a confusing process sometimes and we're depending on residents to just reach out directly. Is there a process where the Water Department takes a more active role in encouraging residents who we know infrastructure is really old and is within that I guess assessment that you all talked about during the hearing that is done where you can tell what needs to be repaired based on the data that you're collecting, is there a way for you to proactively encourage residents to enroll in American Water Resources? Is there a way for you to support and help them get enrolled in that? And if so, how do we support that process as well?
And I want to give a point of information. They send me -- two, three times I may get a letter to actually make sure I'm signing up. And then when I remember it was time for me to resign up, they -- and it's just a form. You just check a box and return it to American Resource. But for all those listening, it's a great resource, right. When that lateral break outside your house, you just assume it's the Water Department, the Water Department has nothing to do with it. You need to bring in a private contractor/plumber to address the issue. So I encourage more individuals to sign up. But your response to Member Lozada, sir. COMMISSIONER JEWELL: Sure, and thank you. I also am a customer of American Water Resources --
I think we all are. COMMISSIONER JEWELL: -- who repaired my water service when there was a leak in front of my house in a very timely manner at no 12 cost other than my monthly fee. I think we can help. We do provide literature as it relates to customer assistance programs and American Water Resources is one of those. We'd be happy to meet, to attend community meetings and help push that message out. We also are pretty tightly coordinated with the Energy Authority, which is actually the entity that put that contract out. I believe they're getting ready to put out another RFP for the next generation of that contract. It is a really beneficial program. I think we'd be happy to have a conversation about whether there's a role for us or the Energy Authority or all of us to be at the table. And also, as a city we should be able to push American Water Resources forwards in a way that brings them into this room, and we've done that in the past. We've had community meetings with Councilmember Driscoll's district where we brought AWR into the room 16 to speak directly to the customers, and I'm sure that we can help facilitate something like that for your district.
Yeah, there has to be a way. If we're doing an assessment and we know that people's infrastructure, their pipes are extremely old, I mean, we said the housing stock here is 80 years old, right, and we know that the infrastructure underneath those structures are just as old, if not older, then there has to be a way for us to proactively reach out to those residents to say, you may want to do X, right, and not wait until there's an emergency that not just causes a problem for their own home, but for everyone else on the block.
Thank you, Member Lozada. I want to ask this as a follow-up to her line of questioning: Can it be a part of the actual water bill where people receive the water bill, and this is an option, that they can enroll into the program? Because I know in the other departments, the Mayor's team has a one-stop shop for all things related to tax relief for individuals who are homeowners. So if you want to be in LOOP, if you want to be in Homestead, if you want to take advantage of the various Senior Citizen Tax Freeze, now, there's a one-stop shop for that type of resources for individuals, for those types of resources for individuals. So could that be an option to add this service to our actual water bill? COMMISSIONER JEWELL: So thank you for the question. And I'll be perfectly honest, I don't know the answer to it. But Susan Crosby just tapped me on the shoulder so I got the feeling she does. But I will point out that I think some utilities and some insurance providers are providing services directly to the customers through that organization and this is a little bit different. This is a separate contract with a separate entity.
You're talking about American Water Resources, correct? COMMISSIONER JEWELL: Yeah, American Water Resources. But I'll let Susan continue the conversation.
Thank you, Council President. Susan Crosby, Deputy Revenue Commissioner for Water. Because it is a separate company and we only bill for the services that we provide, we cannot include it as a line item on our bill. However, in the past we have included literature in our bills as a bill stuffer and we had been in discussions with American Water Resources to undertake that again. And that is definitely something --
Well, a bill stuffer is good. You get your bill -- you hear that, Member Lozada. You also have the option to see when you get your bill information, if you want to sign up for American Water Resources. And honestly, that's the most you can ask. Because if it comes with your bill and you're reading your bill, and you say, oh, okay, maybe I'll sign up for this particular program as well. What about anything digitally? Because we live in a digital society now and most people also are technology savvy. How is that as an option, maybe a QR code that goes directly to American Water Resources as a way to inform people if they want to sign up or not? Are we going in that direction?
My apologies. As part of our ebilling platform that we have, any bill 2 stuffer that comes in your regular paper bill is also available when you view your bill online.
And so, any type of collateral that American Water Resources would work with us to provide into the bill, if they wanted to provide a QR code or something of that manner within that piece of collateral to go in as a bill stuffer, that would also be transferred directly into the ebilling platform for those electronic customers to see.
Thank you very much. Chair recognizes -- does that satisfy your response, Member Lozada?
Thank you. Chair recognizes Councilmember Chair of Transportation and Public Utilities Councilmember Mike Driscoll. Then Councilmember Rue Landau and then that would be -- then Councilmember Bass.
Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank Tracy, your team for the rapid response last Wednesday. You guys were onsite right away and can't thank you enough. And you're right, that could have been a lot worse so we appreciate that. Now, Shane -- not to take time today, but Shane's going to set up a meeting for the increased traffic up there in the Northeast and safety concerns. We'll have a separate meeting on that one. And I want to add to that meeting, Shane, when I was on site that day, the fire department had said they unsuccessfully in the past had talked to the Northeast Airport about getting some space for rapid response in times of tragedy up there somehow. It wasn't the time to get in depth about that, but maybe we can chat about that when we meet. So I just have one question and a couple for Ben and the Water Department. It's great that your team is doing all the work to bring the local concessions to the airport and we appreciate that. Have any thoughts been given to expanding the academy to include other business sectors? There are plenty of local businesses out there looking to do business at the airport.
Yeah. So again, I might ask Dee to come up and talk in more detail about it. But we are pivoting this year from the Concessions Academy to actually a Construction Academy, especially in light of the construction program that Api's team is leading. We've done a lot of rehab throughout the terminals really to brighten up the place, have everything look fabulous for the visitors that are expected this year. And we continue to plow through our capital program, almost $2 billion capital program. So the Concession Academy, that Dee's team who will be leading that. Dee, if you want to step up and tell a little bit about it so you can give you some information.
Good afternoon. Again, Deatrice Isaac, Vice-President for Procurement. Thank you for the question, Councilmember. Yes, as Tracy mentioned, we are pivoting to construction this year. A lot of thought was given to the fact that with all of the activities happening for 2026 in the city, some of those concessionaires may not be able to commit the time to coming into an academy. They're out trying to take advantage of the opportunities that will be available to them. So in the past, about a couple years ago, we actually had a construction workshop that was a one-day workshop. It was very well received. And so, we thought it was a good time for us to pivot back to that topic and form a three module academy around construction. It will be free to participants and it will delve into not just construction specifically at the airport, but also construction opportunities throughout the city. So we're partnering with some other departments to come in and talk about their opportunities as well as our concessionaires' construction projects as well. So we are definitely focusing on other topics in the academy format, and we're looking forward to this academy starting in April.
And your whole team, thank you. We had our committee down there, the Transportation Committee, a couple months back and we were very impressed with all the improvements coming, not only for 2026 for the days ahead. So thank you for that. So let me pivot to Ben, and thank you for your efforts during the deep freeze. I know that was a challenge, believe me. And I want to add, I guess you were talking to Councilmember Lozada about that Super Bowl shop. Add Irish bars to your list for St. Patrick's Day, March 17th. That might be a good idea. Quickly, can the department provide the City Council with a month-by-month breakdown of the average turnaround time for constituent inquiries made via the email over the last 12 months? And again, you don't have to go today. Specifically what percentage of these inquiries were resolved within the department's stated internal service level agreements? And then how does this turnaround time vary for concerns that are elevated from our Council offices, because we seem to get the real urgent ones? So you don't have to answer that today. Two, you may be able to answer today. With the second half of 2025 general rate increase scheduled to take effect on September 1, 2026, what specific steps is the department taking to ensure that middle-income residents who may not qualify for TAP but are still facing the rising cost of living are protected from these compounding annual increases? COMMISSIONER JEWELL: Thank you, Councilmember. And we can certainly get back to your first question in writing after the hearing. As far as how -- I will restate the question to make sure I understand it. So your question is, how are we helping middle- income customers with their ability to pay their bills as we're raising rates. So I think we spoke a little bit about operational efficiency earlier. It's something that we're working on right now and actively seeing some benefits for. I think from our seat the way that we provide relief is by trying to do everything we can to control costs. We had a lot of -- and Deputy Manager Director Carroll spoke about it a little bit earlier. We had a lot of costs that were outside of our control, right, like, we are all living in a world where affordability is a buzzword and we all buy groceries in that world. The Water Department buys ductile iron pipe and reinforced concrete pipe and treatment chemicals in that world, to the tune of well over $40 million. We've seen some of those costs start to stabilize a little bit. But we're also kind of taking a look internally at what we're doing and how we're doing it to try to see if we can make sure that we're making the best investments at the time to provide, one, the best return on those dollars, but, two, getting ahead of issues that haven't happened yet. And so, we launched our strategic plan. You can see it on our web page. And one of my focuses for a strategic plan is a real kind of capital improvement program back to basics, so we are working through all the way down how many pipes do we have, how many valves do we have, what is our asset inventory, what are our condition assessments, what's our risk profile as it relates to those things, so that we can be confident that when we are taking the money that is entrusted in us as operators of the system and investing it in our infrastructure, that we feel like that investment is going to yield the maximum benefit. So it's a process. We are in year 1 of the strategic plan. For our facilities, we are literally going through pipe by pipe, valve by valve, performing condition assessments, looking at architectural assessments to create that baseline from which we'll launch the next phase of our capital improvement program. And then for our linear assets, and we talked about this a couple months ago in this chamber, we have a really long history of utilizing data to inform decision- making, and this winter was a really difficult winter for the department in a lot of ways.
It was difficult for the city in a lot of ways, right. I said the other day every Philadelphian was traumatized this winter by winter, but we're kind of like going back and looking at the assessments that are baked in. So we in the Water Department wake up every morning if you're in operations or connected operations and you see a list of all the water mains that broke overnight. It's used to prioritize work during the day. In the winter, those lists are very large. And I spent a period of time looking at our risk scores for those water mains when I got that (inaudible) sheet in. And it was good. We do really understand where our risks are. But what I'm trying to do is kind of create -- we're a very large organization that on an org chart is siloed in a lot of different ways. And one of the things that I'm really trying to work on is creating like connective tissue that has someone who says this water main is going to be a risk in years. I'm going to program 5 this through the process that is 6 design, bid, build that needs 7 communication along the way to make 8 sure that the residents who are 9 impacted are going to understand. 10 And so, that's part of 11 this program right now that we're 12 working on, is really a self- 13 assessment to make sure that we're 14 investing these dollars in the best 15 way so that we don't have 16 emergencies, so I don't have to bid 17 a job that -- and we will always 18 have emergencies. It comes with 19 the 6000 miles of pipe, but trying 20 to minimize those because those things come at a cost to us. And if we can be preventative with how we're investing those dollars and avoid the reactive work, it should over time dampen in -- these are the things we control, right. The internal things we control should hopefully yield financial benefits to the city of Philadelphia. We don't control the globe and what's happening in the world. And so, as costs of gasoline goes up, cost of materials goes up, cost of chemicals, everything. So I think we need to do what we can to make sure that we're being as efficient, effective and making the right decisions, because that will help in the world where supply chains break down and chemical costs go up.