COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON STREETS AND SERVICES Remote location using Microsoft® Teams Monday, November 13, 2023 10:00 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCILMAN ISAIAH THOMAS, CHAIR COUNCILMAN MARK SQUILLA, VICE-CHAIR COUNCILWOMAN CINDY BASS COUNCILWOMAN KATHERINE GILMORE RICHARDSON
Good morning, everybody. Today is Monday, November 13, 2023. This is the Committee on Streets and Services and we're ready to get started. I understand that the state law currently requires that the following announcement be made at the beginning of every remote public hearing as follows: Due to the current public health emergency, City Council Committees are currently meeting remotely. We are using Microsoft Teams to make these remote hearings possible. Instructions for how the public may view and offer public testimony to public hearings of Council Committees are included in the public hearing notices that are published in the Daily News, Inquirer and Legal Intelligencer prior to the hearings and can also be found on PHLCouncil.com. I now note that the hour has come. Ms. Golden, thank you for being our clerk today. Would you please call the roll to take attendance. Members that are in attendance will please indicate that you are present when your name is called. Also, please say a few brief remarks when responding so your image is displayed on the screen. Madam Clerk.
Good morning, Mr. Chair. Good morning, colleagues. I am present.
Thank you. A quorum of the Committee is present and the hearing is called to order. This is the public hearing of the Committee of Streets and Services regarding Bill Nos. 223 --
Okay. So that's a little mistake. So Bill 17 No. -- is it 230717?
230515 and 230429. Ms. Golden, will you please read the titles of the bills.
230717, an ordinance extending the term of existence of the Philadelphia Parking Authority. 230511, an ordinance 3 authorizing encroachments in the nature of a sidewalk café in the vicinity of 4001 Cresson Street, under certain terms and conditions. 230249, an ordinance 8 establishing -- I'm sorry, 230249, an ordinance establishing a no truck parking regulation on both sides of 52nd Street between Arlington Street, West Berks Street; and a no parking truck regulation on both of 53rd Street between Lebanon Avenue and Arlington Street.
Thank you. Before we begin to hear testimony from the witnesses we have today, everyone who's been invited to the meeting to testify should be aware that the public hearing is being recorded. Because the hearing is public, participants and viewers have no reasonable expectation of privacy. By continuing to be in the meeting, you are consenting to being recorded. Additionally, prior to Members -- additionally, prior to recognizing Members for questions or comments they have for the witnesses, I will note for the record at this time that we will use the chat feature available in Microsoft Teams to allow Members to signal that they would like to be recognized. In order to comply with the Sunshine Act, the chat feature must only be used for that purpose. Ms. Golden, will you please call the first bill and set of witnesses to testify this morning.
The first bill is 230717. And our first testifier is Ms. Rich Lazer.
Good morning, Mr. Lazer. Please state your name for the record and you may begin with your testimony.
Good morning. Executive Director of the Philadelphia Park Authority. Good morning, Chairperson Thomas, Vice- Chair Squilla and members of the Philadelphia City Council Committee on Streets and Services. Again, my name is Rich Lazer, Executive Director of the Philadelphia Parking Authority, and I'm here to testify in support of Bill No. 230717. I want to thank Chairperson Thomas and the Committee for this hearing and Vice-Chair Squilla for introducing this legislative proposal that will extend the term of the Authority and position us for long- term success and enable the PPA to sustain its recent progress. Under the strategic direction of the PPA new Board of Directors and our Chair Lynette Brown-Sow and the dedication of the staff I have the privilege to lead. The pace of the positive change in the interest of residents, visitors and commerce in Philadelphia has been fast over this past year. Together we prioritized determining how we can work with external stakeholders more collaboratively. We emphasized the importance of critical partnerships with members of the executive and legislative branches of government as well as the School District of Philadelphia and the general public in order to move the Authority and be a bigger contributor to the City's successes. I would also like to publicly thank Chairperson Thomas for your leadership and outreach that resulted in the PPA developing and improving our more user-friendly ticketing payment option and other business systems. Additionally, I would like to thank Chairperson Squilla for the help of advancing the new Bike Lane Enforcement program that's been very successful throughout the City. They are only two of the several examples of PPA activity with our City Council partners over the past year that have helped make life better in our great city. Poised for additional growth, PPA has developed (inaudible) must depend on businesses such as financial institutions in order for its operations to be adequately resourced. Because PPA's existence is only authorized until the year 2037, its term must be extended 50 years, which is a sufficient enough period to conduct business transactions and secure multi-million dollars in financing for costly infrastructure improvements. The enactment of Bill 230717 would enable PPA to accomplish this. Doing so also enables the Authority to conduct its affairs as any similar state authority needs to and will help us sustain over 1,000 union and management jobs, public safety programs and quality of life initiatives over the long-term. The Authority has onstreet operations where we must manage meter parking throughout the City and onstreet operations with parking garages and lots and garages in high demand locations. This Committee and City Council's support of Bill 8 No. 230717 is particularly important regarding the latter. Our case in point is the autopark at Jefferson garage. Located at 10th and Ludlow Streets, the garage supports Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and the Health System's flagship facility in Center City's only Level 1 trauma center. In order for the autopark at Jefferson to continue meeting Jefferson's critical parking needs, an immediate upgrade is required. We need to conform plans for the autopark at Jefferson garage this fall, and this requires the support of the City Council and the Administration before the year's end so that we can seek financing in the first quarter of 2024. Extending the term of the Authority will help us in many ways -- in many other ways as well. As referenced earlier, such an extension would allow us to guarantee protections for the Authority's represented and management employees to support traffic management, promote roadway safety and improve conditions for citizens in many other ways. Beginning in 2024, the Authority will begin to look at engaging City Councilmembers, other government officials and community leaders to expand the beneficial community impact.
In closing, the Authority is focused more than ever on expanding its areas of support in engagement, programs enhancing the quality of life for Philadelphians and visitors and serving in a fiscally responsible manner with our stakeholders. We are effective in promoting both traffic- incurred management, safer intersections, ADA-compliance and much more. We deliver community benefits by efficiently operating the Red Light and Speed Camera programs, tractor trailer enforcement in our neighborhoods, abandon (inaudible) auto and bike lane programs, and we look to bring more convenience to the residential parking permit program, airport garage management, our meterUP app and our enhanced ticket and payment service. They are but a few ways that PPA provides value to the City and communities it serves. With the support of this Committee and City Council's ongoing partnership in extending our term, we look forward to accomplish much more. Therefore, I respectfully request on behalf of the Authority that the Committee on Streets and Services recommend passage of the bill. Thank you for your consideration. Let me please take any questions at this time.
Thank you for your service and thank you for your testimony. Are there any questions from members of the Committee for this particular witness? (No response.)
This -- well, actually two things: Number one, you spoke about the term of this bill. You said it will be 50 years, correct?
Okay. And then if you could just take maybe 30 seconds just to talk about some of the things that have approved over at PPA since you've taken the head.
Yeah. I think the one -- I think our partnership with the School District has definitely greatly improved. We meet with them monthly to continue to talk about the operations and the finances of the Authority and how we can be helpful. We've also done a lot of work with some principals in different neighborhoods as well to try to get abandoned cars and nuisance cars that are in and around schools and try to open up safe corridor (inaudible) and make sure we're clearing corners and ADA ramps so that folks can get to school safer. But also like I mentioned in our testimony, the Neighborhood Enforcement programs have been really successful and it's something that I really love to work on, again with the abandoned and unregistered vehicles, tractor trailer parking in residential neighborhoods, which I know a lot of Councilmembers, we tackle with them, and then the bike lane enforcement. And also, the Speed Camera and Red Light Camera programs have been extremely successful with major drops in speeding violations on the Parkway and also red-light-running intersections in the City where they are in practice.
Okay. Thank you. One more question, 30 more seconds, 30-second response. There's been some high profile hit-and-run issues that we've seen in the last couple of weeks. Clearly a lot of people are talking about the Sixers player, but we can all agree much more tragic is the teacher from the accident who unfortunately lost his life just recently. 30 seconds, just talk to us a little bit about what you're doing on your end to address some of the issues we're facing around hit-and- runs.
Yeah. So one is the Speed Camera Program and the state (inaudible) that's up for renewal, that's something that we're working hard with our legislators on to get that re-up so that we can expand that program because that's a 95 percent drop in speeding where these cameras are working at and then the Red Light Camera program. But also the dollars that go into these programs from fines go back to PennDOT, then back to the City for enhancements, for traffic enhancements and pedestrian safety enhancements. So I think those dollars come back and we can continue to make the roads safer. But also, it's clean and clearing corners and try to get double parking and clear our lanes, so that's something we're working on again with the new bus camera legislation that Councilman Squilla did with the support of the Council, that these different programs hopefully can change behavior so that we can open up and make it safer to kind of transport through the City.
Thank you. We appreciate your testimony. I'm assuming there's no other questions from members of the Committee as no one has signaled. I will ask you to be on standby in case questions come up. And I also want to kind of pin that. We do want to do a deeper dive into the paper tags. We understand that that's an issue that's not just relevant to Philadelphia. I know Councilmembers all across the country in major cities that are having similar problems. So at some point we're going to want to do a deeper dive when we have that hearing and that conversation around what we can and cannot do to address that issue. So I just want to say thank you for your testimony. Thank you for your service to the City of Philadelphia. And thank you for working with my office and other Councilmembers to improve the work that's being done by the Philadelphia Parking Authority. It's greatly appreciated and we very much notice the difference that we're seeing since you've been at the top of the food chain over there. So thank you, sir.
Oh, I'm sorry. Chair recognizes Councilmember Gilmore Richardson. I apologize.
No, thank you so much, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to echo your sentiments in thanking Executive Director Lazer for all of his great work since he's been at the helm at the Philadelphia Parking Authority. We truly appreciate your work and thank you for how you were working with the community in addressing some of the longstanding issues that we are seeking to correct. So thank you very, very much.
Are there any other questions from members of the Committee for this particular witness? (No response.)
Hearing none, I want to say thank you again. We appreciate you. Madam Clerk, will you please call the next witness and next set of bills.
The next two bills are 230511 and 230249. Both are Pat Callahan from the Streets Department.
I'm good, good. Hey, Patrick, if you could do us a favor, state your name for the record, offer both bills consecutively, that will be appreciated. And then I'll open it up to members of the Committee for any questions they may have.
Sure. My name is Patrick Callahan, Assistant Traffic Engineer for the Streets Department. Good morning, Chairman Thomas and members of the Streets and Services Committee. My name again is Pat Callahan. I'm the Assistant Chief Traffic Engineer for the Streets Department. I'm here to offer testimony on Bill No. 230249 introduced by Councilman Jones. This ordinance 21 establishes a no truck parking regulation on both sides of 52nd Street between Arlington Street and Berks. Also, a no parking truck regulation -- no truck parking regulation on both sides of 53rd Street between Lebanon Avenue and Arlington Street. The Streets Department has no 5 objections to this bill. The signage for these locations were placed in June 2023. This concludes my testimony on this bill. I'm pleased to answer any questions you may have.
Councilman Thomas, there's a question from Councilmember Gilmore Richardson.
Thank you, Chairman Thomas. I just wanted to come on to thank our District Councilmember, Councilmember Jones for this ordinance. I know that the community had been asking for this, particularly a block captain Sheila Wilson. And so, I just wanted to thank Councilmember Jones for his work and also the Streets Department. As they stated, the signs are out and visible and we appreciate their work. Thank you, Chairman Thomas.
Thank you, colleague. Are there any other questions around this particular bill or comments? (No response.)
Hearing none, Patrick, can you move on with your testimony around the other bill 15 please.
Absolutely. Good morning, Chairman Thomas and members of the Streets and Services Committee. My name is Pat Callahan. I'm the Assistant Chief Traffic Engineer for the Department of Streets here to offer testimony on Bill No. 230511 introduced by Councilman Jones. This bill 25 authorizes WF 4001 Cresson, LLC or a subsequent owner to install, own and maintain encroachments at the Rook, Manayunk in the nature of a sidewalk café at 4001 Cresson Street, all under certain terms and conditions. The sidewalk café will consist of tables, seats along the east 8 sidewalk of Cresson Street in front 9 of 4001 Cresson Street. The Streets 10 Department is not opposed to this 11 proposed sidewalk café as it will 12 maintain the 6 feet passable sidewalk 13 space, which meets the required 14 complete streets minimal width. This 15 concludes my testimony. I'm pleased 16 to answer any questions you may have. 17
Thank you 18 for your testimony. Are there any questions from members of the Committee for this witness? (No response.)
Hearing none, Patrick, thank you for being here with us today. It's greatly appreciated.
Madam Clerk, do we have any other bills to be discussed today?
Okay. Before we go -- before we transition, I understand that there's somebody for public comment. So Tech team can we queue up the public comment and then we can transition into the next phase of our hearing today. COUNCIL TECH SUPPORT: Yep. We're calling them in now.
Good morning. Please state your name for the record and you may begin with your testimony.
Wow. Good morning. Judith Robinson here to talk about the Parking Authority. My goodness, who knew that somehow this process is being renewed. My main focus is the money that I understand over the years was supposed to have been going to our School District. The SRC, I heard it back when we were under the SRC and I hear it now. So I think this is an appropriate time to ask about the money from the Parking Authority that was supposedly to go to our school children over all these years. Have we been receiving it, how much money is it, where is it being directed? Hopefully, it's not being directed towards capital projects. I understand that is all the rave now, talking about environmental issues, et cetera, and building new buildings. Okay. I'm a preservationist. I graduated from Simon Gratz High School. Please don't try to tear that down. Okay. Gillespie is next door to it. Okay. We're going to save some things and we might demolish some things, like over at Pierce School with that new modern building. But I ask the question when you're building, are you including the graduates of these public schools? Are you including Black people who have been building and banging for 400 years in this country, before you jump ahead to do all these other things with monies that should be going towards our children being educated. Learning how to read, for instance. Over all of these years, and I'm not digressing too far but just to focus in on my concerns with the money, so all these years we've been receiving money from Title 1, and you continue to tell Black parents after over 30 years that our children are not reading on grade level. So when we're talking about this money, which I know it would be coming from parking authorities taking people's cars. That's when I get clarity a little bit on what that driving equality bill was about. I read it more thoroughly and it was about taking Black folks' cars and doing all kinds of nefarious things, but that's a whole other story. I won't digress too far on that. But PPA took people's cars, ran all kinds of scams. It's like Parking Wars. We're going through all of that. First, you see it on television, indoctrination and then it's reality. So I'm going to sum all of this up by asking a question. Where is the dollars at? Where is the money from PPA that is supposedly going towards the School District of Philadelphia? How much is it? And I got one of my Councilpeople down there that really gets to the bottom line, so please answer these questions: Will the money still be coming from PPA to the School District of Philadelphia is my first question? How much money over all these years was supposed to go to the School District of Philadelphia or the SRC before this time? Where are the monies, how much is it? If they're back on their arrears, on their payments, how are we going to get them up to speed and up to the right amount to this day and time of today's date? Will that be ongoing into the future? Okay. The money, the money that PPA was supposed to give to the School District, I want to stay right there. Please find out about that before we proceed, okay, into the future because that's very important. It was set up to give money to the School District of Philadelphia. We want to know where the dollars are. I mean, this goes back like 20 years. I remember being on the Mary Mason Show and, wow, a long time ago, asking the questions where are the dollars for our school children. Then last but not least, we might need the Parking Authority up here in North Philadelphia. We are being overrun by people parking on the sidewalk, parking literally the whole car on the sidewalk. So I would like to know if in this hearing and as we reactivate PPA, if they can move into the neighborhood and help us solve some of these traffic and parking problems. With that, I'm going to put a pin in it. And thank you so much for the time and I appreciate you all and I will see you all soon. We got a lot of work to do, y'all.
Thank you for your testimony. We appreciate it. Executive Director Lazer, I don't know if you want to respond to anything, if you want to add anything based on the public testimony. That's up to you.
Yeah. Yep, I appreciate that, Councilman. So the State delegates the formula on how the onstreet dollars from the Authority flow from the Authority to the City, and the City gets a certain percentage of that. And then once we hit this threshold which changes every year, then that portion that's over the threshold gets sent to the School District. So we've always made payments to the School District, and it's usually some number between 7 million and probably 12 million depending on that threshold number a year. And like I said, we meet with the District monthly with the City, Finance department to continue to work through that relationship. But, yes, that's the State formula that governs the onstreet dollars. Red light and speed camera dollars go to PennDOT. That's because they're state programs. And the offstreet, the garage that the Authority runs and owns, that's separate and that continues to help fund the Authority's operations on the offstreet side. Regarding sidewalk parking, if I can get Ms. Robinson's contact information, we'll make sure we have somebody reach out to her. We've been really focusing on one sidewalk parking, ADA ramp blocking, crosswalk blocking, so we can definitely make an effort to try to tackle some of those issues she's talking about in her neighborhood.
Thank you, Mr. Lazer. We'll make sure you get her contact information. And I just want to also provide a little clarity on the public testimony. Driving equality has nothing to do with taking people's cars. I think if anything, we're trying to limit the number of interactions that we have between law enforcement and people committing motor vehicle code violations that are minor violations that don't require things that will have a negative impact on public safety. We actually want to rely on you, Mr. Lazer, and other folks to be able to provide enforcement for minor motor vehicle code violations that's not a public safety hazard. So literally driving equality is doing the opposite. We're trying to support citizens and not take their stuff away. So I just want to make sure that we have clarity to the public testimony. And more importantly, thank people for being engaged in their government. So with that being said, are there any other questions, comments or statements from members of the Committee around any of the bills that we heard today? (No response.)
Okay. There being no further questions from members of the Committee and no other witnesses to testify, I will ask if there is anyone else present in this hearing whose name we have failed to call that wish to testify on these bills, please speak up now. (No response.)
Hearing none, I want to thank all the panels of witnesses for their participation today. We value your opinion. I now invite all panels of witnesses to disconnect from the meeting before we go into the public meeting. We will now pause proceedings briefly as multiple participants leave the hearing. As this concludes the public hearing of the Committee, we will now go into the public meeting to consider the action to be taken on the bills before this Committee today. Ms. Golden, will you please call the roll to take attendance. Members that are in attendance please indicate that you are present when your name is called.
Good morning, Mr. Chair. Good morning, colleagues. I am present.
I'm present. Thank you. A quorum is present. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Gilmore Richardson for a single motion to approve the amendments to the bills that are being considered today.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I offer an amendment to Bill No. 2 --
Councilmember Gilmore Richardson, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Coun -- just wanted to be marked as present for the Committee. Thank you. Mark Squilla.
Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you, Vice- Chair Squilla. I offer an amendment to Bill 21 No. 230511. A copy of the amendment has been circulated to all members of the Committee. I move that this amendment be approved.
Councilmember Squilla, Councilmember Bass, can I get a second? (No response.)
Councilmember Squilla, Councilmember Bass, can we get a second from one of you?
Thank you. It's been moved and properly seconded -- I'm sorry. Hold on one second. I apologize. It has been moved and properly seconded that the amendments to the bills just read by Councilmember Gilmore Richardson be approved. All those in favor will signal by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the motion has been carried and the amendment has been approved. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Gilmore Richardson for a single motion on the bills that are being considered today.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that Bill Nos. 230717, 230511 and 230249 including any amendments that have just been approved be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading of these bills at the next session of Council.
It has been moved and properly seconded that the bills just read by Councilmember Gilmore Richardson including the amendments that have been approved today be reported from the Committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit the first reading of these bills at the next Council session. All those in favor will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the motion carries. This concludes the business before the Committee on Streets and Services today. I want to say thank you to everybody for being here. Thank you to our public comment as well as Mr. Lazer for the work that he's doing with the Parking Authority. Very much appreciate it and have a good rest of your day everybody. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, colleagues. Thank you, Committee. Have a good day. Thank you, Tech Team. You guys are amazing. Have a great day everybody. (Hearing concluded at 10:33 a.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. __________________________________ TANEHA CARROLL