Committee Hearing, October 17, 2007

COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, October 17, 2007 1:20 p.m. - - - PRESENT: COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER, CHAIR COUNCILMAN WILLIAM GREENLEE COUNCILMAN JACK KELLY COUNCILMAN JAMES F. KENNEY COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO BILL 070275 - An ordinance amending Title 6 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Health Code," by adopting certain provisions of the National Fire Protection Association Standard... BILL 070025 - Resolution authorizing City Council's Committee on Public Safety to hold public hearings to examine and evaluate the feasibility of equipping emergency call centers... BILL 070330 - Resolution remembering, memorializing, honoring and mourning the 32 people slain at Virginia Tech... - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services Eleven Penn Center 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 2

Good afternoon, everybody. The Committee on Public Safety, the public hearing is now in session. William Nesheiwat.

Good afternoon. We will begin by holding Bill 070025 at the request of the sponsor. Then we will move to the -- excuse me. That was a resolution. Then we'll move to Bill 12 070275. We will close the public hearing, move into the public meeting to vote that out and then go back into the public hearing to go over Bill 070330. We're going to begin with Bill 17 070275, an ordinance amending Title 6 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Health Code," by adopting certain provisions of the National Fire Protection Association Standard on Fire Department Occupational Safety and Health Program, NFPA 1500, related to hearing protection measures for firefighters and paramedics, with amendments thereto, all under certain 3 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. terms and conditions.

Thank you. I just want to, for the record, state our quorum. Councilmembers in attendance, to my left is Councilman Rizzo, who is a member of this Committee. Also to my left, to my immediate left, is Councilman Jack Kelly, who has been appointed to this Committee, and to my right is Councilman Bill Greenlee, and I am Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, and we are both members of this Committee. I am Chair of Public Safety. We have a statement from Councilman Kelly. Councilman?

Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the Committee. My bill aims to ensure that the men and women of the Philadelphia Fire Department are provided with the necessary hearing protection to protect their eardrums in the long term and short 4 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. term from constant exposure to loud sirens, air horns, apparatus engines and the power tools that are used in forcible entry. This here protection is vital in enabling firefighters and paramedics to perform their duties in protecting the residents of Philadelphia. Anyone who has ever been passed by a fire truck on the street can tell you that the sirens are loud, extremely loud. I routinely see citizens hold their hands over their ears to dull the sound of the sirens. You can only imagine how loud and damaging those sirens and horns can be for the men and women who staff those vehicles. Currently, firefighters and paramedics do not have the proper protection for their ears, and they have not for years. Many suffer from long-term hearing damage as a result. Every day they exit the vehicles and enter directly into emergency situations with their ears still ringing, which 5 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. creates a dangerous situation where they could miss faint cries for help, putting the lives of men, women and children and even their pets in grave danger. This dangerous situation must stop, and I think now is the time. As we can see for many other municipalities across the country, the cost of this hearing protection is a very, very small price to pay for any administration. I want to protect our citizens and especially the men and women who protect them. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Kelly. We're going to begin with our witnesses. Commissioner Lloyd Ayers, Philadelphia Fire Department, and Brian P. McBride, President of Firefighters Local 22. Will you please come up to the witness table, identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony. 6 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. And also at this time, I'd like to state that Councilman Jim Kenney, who is also a member of this Committee, is in attendance. Commissioner, if you want to go first, you're perfectly welcome to do that. COMMISSIONER AYERS: I'm Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers, Commissioner of the Fire Department of the City of Philadelphia. I'm here to answer any questions that you may have, to the best of my ability, and to support, where I can, those things that's necessary to maintain the health and safety, operational health and safety, of the members of the Philadelphia Fire Department. We see it as a high level of focus for us. We train our members on the things that they should do to protect themselves. We charge them with learning those processes, and also we charge them 7 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. with maintaining their personal safety with the gear and the equipment that we supply to them. And we see it as paramount, because we recognize the danger of fire, the danger of responding, the danger of overhauling and all of those things, and we recognize that. And more specifically on the hearing, we understand that it is very important, and as far as with the Committee, we would like to have the opportunity to work with and support you and supply you with all the materials and information that we can so that you can make the right decisions.

Thank you, Commissioner. We're actually going to hear from both witnesses before we ask questions. So, Mr. McBride, would you proceed with your testimony. MR. McBRIDE: Thank you, Madam Chair.

You're 8 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. welcome. MR. McBRIDE: Good afternoon. My name is Brian McBride. I'm a Lieutenant and 32-year member of the Philadelphia Fire Department. I'm also proud to serve as the President of IAFF Local 22, the union that represents 2,400 active firefighters and paramedics who proudly serve the citizens of Philadelphia. I appear before this Council today for two reasons. First is offer thanks to this Council for your longstanding support of the City firefighters and paramedics, as well as your support of workplace safety issues, most recently by passing comprehensive protections against smoking in the workplace and trans fats. Second, I am here to support Bill No. 070275, which would amend the City's Health Code to impose and enforce standards intended to protect hearing of Philadelphia's firefighters and 9 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. paramedics. Anyone who has ever passed by a fire truck on the street knows the sirens are loud, extremely loud. From the cabs of our trucks, firefighters routinely see citizens hold their hands over their ears to blunt the sound of those sirens. You can only imagine how loud those sirens can be for firefighters and paramedics who staff the City's fire apparatus and how damaging the cumulative exposure to that noise can be over the course of a career. Talk to any 20-year firefighter and you'll find yourself repeating things because he simply cannot hear you. As many of you know, when you speak to me, I usually lean into you and turn my ear to you. It's just so I can hear you when I speak to you in person. Clearly, hearing loss for firefighters and paramedics is a very serious issue. Over the past year, IAFF Local 22 has sponsored free hearing tests for 10 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. all its membership. Unfortunately, but just as we expected, those tests confirm our suspicions that more than half of the City's firefighters and paramedics have suffered measurable hearing loss during their careers. More than half. This makes sense. Firefighters and paramedics are constantly exposed to noise from sirens, air horns, apparatus engines and the power tools used in forcible entry, ventilation and extrication activities. Excessive hearing loss in the fire service may also stem from the interaction between noise and the many chemicals found in our work environment. Many of the chemicals that we are exposed to at a fire scene produce a greater hearing loss than would be otherwise expected, when firefighters are exposed to the double whammy of both excessive noise and toxic agents at the same time. Shamefully, despite these obvious risks, despite the fact that good hearing can be a matter of life and death 11 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. for firefighters and the citizens we serve, and despite the availability of the quieter apparatus, protective equipment and increased awareness, noise exposure within the Philadelphia Fire Department remains a significant hazard. For years, IAFF Local has 9 attempted unsuccessfully to secure 10 adequate hearing protection for all our 11 members. The City's response? Cheap 12 foam earplugs that you can get from CVS 13 that also have a tendency to melt when 14 exposed to heat, which makes them a 15 ridiculous choice for firefighters. 16 Because the City Administration 17 has refused over the years to step up to 18 the plate and provide adequate hearing 19 protection for the firefighters and 20 paramedics, IAFF Local 22 believes that 21 it's time for City Council to act where 22 the Administration failed. To this extent, Local 22 enthusiastically endorses Bill No. 070275, which would require the City of Philadelphia to take 12 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. common-sense measures to protect the hearing of its firefighters and paramedics and develop a program to reduce unhealthy noise exposures in the future.

The bill will require the City to provide earmuffs, like I'm holding here, that would be worn on apparatus, during non-emergency operations of tools and other equipment; provide similar protection and equipment for use on emergency scenes; and develop a program to identify and eliminate sources of harmful noises in the workplace. These common-sense requirements are based on the consensus standards and regulations by the National Fire Protection Association and OSHA. All of this credible evidence on the issue establishes that the risks posed by excessive noise exposures are significant and that there exists common-sense and cost-effective steps available to mitigate these risks. This is why 13 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. similar protections and requirements have been adopted in other jurisdictions throughout the country. I mean, you can go as close as Upper Darby and see this on their fire trucks, Gladwyne, many other places. The list goes on and on and on. I firmly believe that Bill No. 10 070275 will mark a significant step in addressing an obvious area of concern for the City's firefighters and paramedics and may very well save lives. Because of this and on behalf of the City's 2,400 firefighters and paramedics, I ask this honorable Council to pass this bill. In closing, let me thank you again for your efforts on behalf of the City's firefighters and paramedics. We look forward to working with you on this critical initiative in order to provide a safer Philadelphia for everyone, firefighters and paramedics included. If you'd like me to, I can demonstrate real quickly how easily these 14 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. would work. They're easily installed. You put your firefighting hood on. You would install the unit. It provides voice intercom, and you'll be able to hear the radio, protect my ears from the noise. And I actually can have my helmet on and remove the unit very easily with my helmet on when I got to the fire. So I'd have that hearing protection the whole time I was in the apparatus.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. McBride. So right now the only thing Philadelphia provides are just the earplugs you can just go to any pharmacy or any drugstore and buy? MR. McBRIDE: Yes. The foam earplugs that they provide, you actually have to twist and squeeze and stick them in your ear. Now, if you're donning firefighter protective equipment, you'll be wearing a hood and your helmet. When you get to the fire scene, you'll have gloves on, your hood on and your helmet. 15 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. Now you're going to have to remove that and stick your glove in your ear to get these out, because you're not going to want to go into a fire scene with them, for obvious reasons. You won't be able to hear a faint cry of an infant, the creeking of a floor ready to collapse, a fellow comrade crying out for help. So you need to have your full hearing when you get there.

Thank you. Councilman Kelly.

Thank you, Madam Chair. First of all, let me just say that, Commissioner Ayers and President McBride, I want to thank you and commend you for supporting this bill. I really do. I think you have the best interest of all of your men under you, and I want to commend you on that. You mention something about the earplugs, which, Madam Chair, I have 16 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. samples of them right here, and if you could look at these earplugs, I think they're about 37 cents, if I'm not mistaken, and these are the protection that our firefighters use in going into a fire. There's only one drawback, and, that is, that they melt in extreme heat. And that's for a firefighter. Now, just imagine that. And this is one of the things that was brought to my attention, and I think all the members should have a copy -- have a sample of that. And this is the only protection you're now currently using; is that right? MR. McBRIDE: Yes.

Commissioner, I want to ask you something. As far as the cabins go in a fire truck, are they soundproof at all? COMMISSIONER AYERS: They are not soundproof, but the apparatus that we have purchased since 2000 meet the requirements of NFPA, the hearing 17 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. standard, that those apparatus protect up to 90 decibels. That's with the siren on, that's with the windows up or down. So we are meeting that. All of the apparatus don't meet that standard yet --

How about the placement of the sirens themselves? Are they placed in such a way that most of the sound would be going away from the firefighters? Because it seems to me -- this was brought up in 1999 with the national protection of firefighters throughout the country, and there was some reluctance on the part of manufacturers to do anything to help improve the safety of the hearing of the firefighters. And that was documented and I have the facts right in front of me, that the manufacturers could make, I guess, adjustments or they could make changes to help, and for, I guess, cost reasons they never did. As far as you know, did they ever come to you and recommend that they 18 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. make some adjustments or put something onto those sirens to make it less deafening? COMMISSIONER AYERS: Our apparatus officer who specifies the apparatus and looks at those specs, that we are aware that there are some technological improvements to the siren direction and how much noise level is getting to the firefighters, that they are starting to build some of those products and we'll have the opportunity to use those in the future.

The other question I have, and either one of you gentlemen can answer it, do you know personally that firefighters have problems with their hearing after three, five, ten years or more of being on those fire engines? Have you heard from any of your firefighters about the problems that they have? COMMISSIONER AYERS: Yes, we have. 19 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC.

Especially retired firefighters. COMMISSIONER AYERS: We have heard that. Not only have we heard that, but we have an interest arbitration. We have dealt with that issue. Currently, this last interest arbitration, the arbitrator directed us to formulate a Health and Wellness Committee, which we have been meeting up until May of last year -- of this year, May of this year, we were meeting with consistency. However, since the election, we have not been able to meet consistently. It's been sporadic. But that is one of the issues that is on the table, that we were directed to sit down and work out together a process. Now, this is post-foam earplugs, that we should be sitting down now working all of these issues out so that we can find the best remedy for the issue with hearing, make sure that we have all of the studies 20 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. correct, make sure that we have the right apparatus for our firefighters. So we're looking forward to coming back to the table and getting those things done. That's what we're looking forward to.

Thank you very much, Commissioner. Thank you, President McBride. MR. McBRIDE: To expand on your question, there also is -- I sit here right now before this Council with ringing in my ears and significant hearing loss that is the type and consistency of occupational exposure to sirens. And the ringing in my ear is always there.

You can hear them now. They're loud enough here. MR. McBRIDE: And we're on the fourth floor of City Hall. There's also two other witnesses. I don't know if you have them on the list or not.

Well, 21 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. Councilman Rizzo has a question, and I just want to know, how much are those earphones, earmuffs? MR. McBRIDE: These units here?

Yes. MR. McBRIDE: Well, the price the manufacturer gave me was about a thousand dollars. So in order to outfit the entire Philadelphia Fire Department, you're talking under a half a million dollars.

How much? MR. McBRIDE: Under a half a million dollars to outfit the entire Philadelphia Fire Department. Because we have 60 engines and we require four on each and 30 ladders, require five on each, and then 45 medic units, two on each.

Thank you. Councilman Rizzo.

Thank you, Madam Chair. 22 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. Commissioner, as the Commissioner of the Philadelphia Fire Department, you could make this decision to do this without any other approval. In other words, if you want to change a piece of running gear or something within the Fire Department, as the Commissioner you could just do this, correct? COMMISSIONER AYERS: What we would do is, we would request that this product be used on the engines. For me to just say we're going to do this, I still have to sit down, work everything out, find out exactly what apparatus would have to be outfitted based on that, and then I would have to submit that to budget.

Commissioner, this seems to me not to be something to be installed in the -- it seems to me this would be like a personal piece of safety equipment. I think every firefighter should have their own. You don't necessarily want to be wearing 23 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. other people's personal equipment. Would you agree that every firefighter would be issued a set of earmuffs to be personal to them? COMMISSIONER AYERS: Well, we don't see it deployed that way in all of the departments where every firefighter has their own personal earmuffs.

It doesn't seem to me to be something that should be shared. MR. McBRIDE: They do have disposable covers that go over the earmuffs so that you actually -- and these will be worn most times over our hoods, which is a personal piece of equipment. So the exposure from one person to another would be limited.

Commissioner, other cities, Chicago, New York, Detroit, volunteer companies, do other people do this? Mr. McBride indicated you could go just across the City line and see this type of equipment. 24 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. COMMISSIONER AYERS: Some jurisdictions have that equipment and some don't. That was one of the things that we wanted to sit down with in the joint management/labor committee and work those things out, do all of the studies, bring all the information to the table so that we can make those proper decisions based on not just looking at other jurisdictions but what's important for Philadelphia.

Have you conducted any decibel level studies to actually identify what the exposure is? I'm trying to recollect. I don't believe municipal governments fall under the Occupational Safety and Health Act. I believe that they're exempt from those regs. If this was a private business and employees were exposed to what I believe are extremely high decibel levels, even though they're of short duration in some cases, but could be a 25 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. number of runs at long durations, I think you could probably be cited by OSHA. COMMISSIONER AYERS: We have done the study. Risk Management has studied the noise level in the firehouses. We took samplings in the firehouses. We utilized engines, 9 single-engine companies, 13 ladder 10 companies, which would actually be double 11 house. We utilized six medic units, a 12 medic unit where there are medic units running, as well as two battalion chiefs. We did the noise level studies over an eight-hour period, which is one of the things that's important, is frequency, is loudness and the time duration that you receive this when you start talking about injury to one's hearing. And those studies have been completed, and we want to revisit those things and look at those studies again and sit down and take a look at it so that we can do the right thing in a joint committee.

10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. Commissioner -- COMMISSIONER AYERS: But we have looked at them, yes.

-- as a member of this Committee and a member of the Council, I would really appreciate the fact that this get on the fast-track and that you as the Commissioner recognizing -- and I know you do -- the need for protective devices for our employees' hearing. Again, I mention the private sector. This would probably be something that would be done yesterday if this type of exposure was in the private sector. So possibly you as the Commissioner can get this on track and get it approved. I'm sure there's a way if the money is the issue to get that there in an emergency transfer of funds. And my last question, if we would go to that device that obviously there's been a lot of research done, would it be mandatory to be worn? 27 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. COMMISSIONER AYERS: Well, if the Council would adopt what is put in NFPA, you would force each and every one of our members, absolutely, to wear that. They would have to wear that. It would be mandatory if you looked at -- NFPA is a guideline. It's really guidelines. It's things that we look at and say how can we best use this to help ourselves. And what we do is, we not necessarily adopt the whole line of things. You don't want to get stuck in a corner or you wouldn't have to -- you wouldn't want us to look at every time you turn around, we have to discipline one of our members. We're not looking for that. We're looking for a situation where you have a good guideline, which we've used with our apparatus as well, and you want to say this is what we want for our members. So the complexities that go into the program, when you read NFPA 1500 in that section, when you read that, you understand that it's more than just 28 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. saying we want earphones. It's audio studies that's done. It's all hearing tests, baseline tests. It's a lot of things that go into that, and it's a very complex subject. So I would say the first thing that I would like to do is to do what we've been instructed. The arbitrator said we need to sit down together and figure this thing out. But to say that I want to purchase those and this is the model and this is the one right away, I would like to have that opportunity to do it and fast-track it. I'm fine with fast-tracking, and I think that we can work together to get that done.

Commissioner, one last thing is, the sirens are very, very loud, and I'm not sure they need to be as loud. I know some people say the louder, the better, but maybe Fleet Management should do a little research to see the type of sirens that we are specking on the equipment, 29 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. that they protect and do what they're supposed to do, project, like Councilman Kelly said, to the front of the vehicle, possibly some engineering research on the type of equipment that we use. Because our police officers are similarly using sirens, maybe, again, in a different way than the Fire Department, but I think Fleet Management should undertake a review of the type of equipment that's being purchased to make sure that it isn't excessive, that it's doing what it's supposed to do and that it's positioned properly, that it's installed properly, that it's not overkill, in other words. COMMISSIONER AYERS: Right. I believe that that is correct. We have our apparatus officer who works in conjunction with Fleet Management, and each and every specification that goes into an engine and a ladder, a medic unit or a phone unit or whatever it is, they not only go over each and every one of 30 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. those specs, but they have been instructed that we want the highest and best specifications for our members. We just got our apparatus officer, he just came back from Carolina where he's looked at several pumpers that we're getting ready to purchase. We've been down there. We've rejected preliminarily engines because they didn't follow a spec. We've returned and they fixed them. So it's a very intricate and detailed process that happens. And I guarantee you as far as the sirens, I will be looking at that, making sure that we have the highest and best for our members. We have our Captain who works up at Safety who is involved with that as well. And right now tell this Health and Safety Committee that we will be doing that, not just at your request, but I'll double-check and make sure that that's squared away.

I knew that 31 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. would be the answer. Thank you, Commissioner.

Councilman Greenlee.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My questions were pretty similar to Councilman Rizzo's, but if I could just ask Mr. McBride along the same line. You mention the nearby municipalities that have these now, and apparently the Commissioner said there were at least some cities that have them, too. Are you aware of any studies or anything that shows the difference these have made so far? Maybe there aren't any, but I'm just wondering, are you aware of the success that these have had? MR. McBRIDE: No, I'm not aware of any particular study. I didn't do research on that fact there. I do recognize that these are actually the specs to provide proper noise, and the 32 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. people that wear them are very happy with the systems that they have.

I mean, just visually this compared to that looks like a big difference. So, I mean, that's obvious, but I'm just wondering in real numbers if there has been anything that you're aware of. MR. McBRIDE: Yeah. The foam plugs, I don't look at that as any kind of long-term solution. It might have been a stop-gap measure or whatever, or just a way to get out from under cheap, but they're just not feasible. They're just absolutely not feasible at all.

One last thing. Thank you. On your testimony here, you say, Point 2, "provide similar protective equipment for use on emergency scenes." What do you mean by that? What would be the difference, I guess, is what I'm trying to get at. MR. McBRIDE: There are some units that have hearing protection on one 33 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. side and don't have hearing protection on the other side. It's like a hollow cone where you could hear on the one ear, and the other ear you'd be able to hear -- you have the hearing protection and the radio. That's one of the things I didn't point out and I should have pointed out on these units here, is these units will not only provide hearing protection, but they increase the communications on the apparatus between the driver, the officer and the members on the apparatus, whereas if you were driving down the street with the siren going, the air horn going, everything loud, you had your earmuffs on, you could hear that they are calling for rescues at the rear of a building, we need to put a ladder back, the officer could give you orders, you could clearly understand the orders. Imagine us driving down the street roaring to a fire trying to yell out orders, trying to get communication 34 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. from the guys in the front of the truck to the guys in the back of the truck. And we've done that for years. And the Commissioner, bang, bang, bang, bang on the glass, let them know we have a fire. That was our sign, bang on the glass behind you so the officer could notify the members that there was actually a working fire. But he can't tell you that there's a woman and a child at the back window, we need to get a ladder around there as fast as possible. Another thing would be driving down the street with the sirens, the air horns or even just on the regular days with the noise of the diesel engine itself and have, say, a child come out on a Big Wheel. And myself being on the back trying to yell to the driver, it may be too late. With this, it's an intercom. I could yell "stop" and the driver would know to stop. So there's just so many things, so many things that this will be good 35 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. for, so many things.

Thank you. That makes sense. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Councilman Kenney.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This ordinance requires the adoption of certain provisions of the NFPA standard on hearing protection. Why haven't we adopted them already, or have we? Why do we need an ordinance for the Fire Department to adopt that standard? Why has not the standard been adopted to date? COMMISSIONER AYERS: Well, the standard hasn't been adopted because, for one, it's a guideline. It's not something that you just grab and do. We do a lot of things within that standard, NFPA standards, that are guidelines. We don't adopt them and say, This is our 36 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. rule, that we will follow each and everything in there. This is something that changes constantly. You have committees, technical committees, that absolutely review these standards on a regular basis.

I'm talking specifically about the hearing protection standard. COMMISSIONER AYERS: Oh, okay.

Why have we not adopted to date the hearing protection standard? COMMISSIONER AYERS: Well, we wouldn't need to adopt the standard. What we would need to do is comply with the standard if we agreed with it.

Why haven't we complied with the standard if that's what the standard is? I mean, this NFPA is pretty well respected. COMMISSIONER AYERS: Yes.

So why would we not have complied with them to 37 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. date? COMMISSIONER AYERS: Well, I think that since the last arbitration, as I said, we were meeting pretty consistently, and since May, we haven't had regular meetings, and that's one of the things that is part of the whole health and wellness that we are trying to work through, and that's an item that's on the table. We haven't been able to do it.

But this item -- and this precedes you -- from 1999, there's been discussion about issues relative to hearing protection. And the other question I have -- and this is something that you probably don't direct because you don't run the arbitration -- why is this an arbitration issue? I mean, an arbitration issue for me is salary, benefits, how much we contribute to the health plan. I mean, we don't arbitrate the quality of our ladders. We don't 38 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. arbitrate the quality of our Scott packs. Why would we arbitrate this? Someone in the Law Department has said or in the Administration has said, We need to argue about this with the union through a contract process? I mean, to me, it's kind of simple. The guys are going deaf as a result of not having protection and we have to now have meetings to discuss whether we're going to arbitrate it or not? COMMISSIONER AYERS: I don't have any intention on arguing whether or not we need protection for our hearing, but I do look forward to following the orders of the arbitrator and sitting at the table in meetings and getting it done.

Who in the Law Department that's handling this arbitration said that this should be on the list of things we need to arbitrate? I mean, obviously if the professionals in 39 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. the Department and the union itself and the NFPA all agree that this is something we should have done or do, who in the Law Department says, All right, put that on the list of things that we can trade? Because this is not a trade. To me this is not a tradable issue. I mean, how many days off they get a year is a tradable issue. But the protection of their hearing, like the protection of their other parts of their body, how is that -- who in the Law Department negotiating this or arbitrating this said, You know what, we can get something back for this? I mean, because that's what it seems like. And, again, you're not the person at the table who is hashing out this arbitration, but I would love to hear from the Law Department who is running this arbitration that this in fact is something that we think we can trade. It's just beyond me. I would like to know -- and I don't know if the 40 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. person is here or not, but I would like the person to appear at some point in time before this Committee to explain why that's something that should be on a give-and-take list. Who is the lawyer who runs the arbitration for the Law Department? COMMISSIONER AYERS: Well, we had several lawyers, but the point on arbitration, I'm going to repeat it, that we are -- we have been sent to the table by that process. This is where we are now.

No. I understand that. But I'll restate it again. How could this particular issue be something that the arbitrator sends back? Because if the City agreed that it's in fact necessary, we'd all be in agreement and there would be no need for arbitration. Do you understand where I'm coming from? I mean, to me -- COMMISSIONER AYERS: I 41 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. understand where you're coming from.

-- this standard and this protection is not something we can trade for something else. It's something that should be required. And I don't know why we have to even ordain this in a form of a law. Have we cost it out what that particular item would cost? Do we know what the cost is? COMMISSIONER AYERS: I have not. MR. McBRIDE: The estimate I come up with was just under a half a million dollars.

I mean, to me, in the scope of the budgets that we put forward and the amount of money the government wastes, to me this is like really kind of silly to be arguing about. COMMISSIONER AYERS: Well, I said again -- I'm going to say it again, I look forward to sitting down, working this out and having the opportunity, 42 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. share all this information with you to work this out. That's what I'm looking forward to.

Is this something within your ability to demand as Commissioner? COMMISSIONER AYERS: I say yes.

And would you think that someone in the Law Department or the Administration would say, Commissioner, you can't demand that because we're arbitrating that? COMMISSIONER AYERS: No. I don't think that way.

Well, I would like to know if you can find out for me who the lawyers are or the law team that's dealing with this arbitration, because that should be taken off the table right away by both sides. Do we know who it is? This is a memorandum from the Law Department saying it's not legal for City Council to tell the Administration what it is they 43 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. have to do with operating departments, but we won that case already in the Supreme Court, so I don't know why they keep writing this. It no longer applies. But I would like to know if you could find out for me or if staff could find out what lawyer or lawyers said that this is an arbitration issue and that we need to fight and trade this back and forth, like how many days off or how much we contribute to the healthcare fund. I mean, I understand the money side of it, but there comes to a point where the money is not the issue. I mean, I think you agree. I think you do agree. But somebody in the Administration or in the Law Department said, Nope, we're not going to do this because we're going to get something back for this. So I would like to find out who it is that's doing this. Thanks.

Councilman Kelly. 44 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC.

I just want to follow up with what Councilman Kenney was saying. And, Councilman Kenney, I think you're absolutely correct. It's a shame that we even have to introduce a bill to do this. This is a no-brainer. It should have been done probably years ago. And I think right now, I think, as Councilman Kenney said, that there's someone over there somehow or other trying to block it, for whatever reasons, probably economics more than anything. But I think this is a safety issue, and in my opinion, this bill shouldn't have been necessary. The Administration should have made that mandatory probably years ago. Thank you.

And I agree with that, too. I just wanted to know, have you ever used anything other than the earplugs? Has the earplugs just been 45 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. standard for ear safety protection over the years? MR. McBRIDE: If I may, we actually won the earplugs in arbitration at least --

The 37 cent earplugs? MR. McBRIDE: It was some measure of protection. A lot of the safety items that we fought for over the years, including diesel exhaust removal from the station source capture, as you're all well aware that the Mayor has given us. So we're very happy with that, and we're hoping to get hearing protection. And I'll make a request of this honorable Council to give this bill a favorable ruling and suspend the rules and pass the vote, suspend the rules tomorrow and get this moving on so that future firefighters don't suffer what I'm suffering right now and they have the option of hearing their grandchildren, an 46 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. option that I don't have.

Thank you. Any other questions? Councilman Rizzo.

I just want to follow up and reiterate what I said earlier, Commissioner. I have the highest respect for you, but this is sad that we even have to be involved in something to protect the health and welfare of employees of the City of Philadelphia. Commissioner, I bet you could point out to me since these issues have surfaced throughout the years -- 30 years ago coal mining was a whole different type of an industry. Firefighting was a whole different type. Electrical work for utility companies, hard hats became -- nobody had to arbitrate, when a bolt went through the head of a lineman, to provide them a hard hat. I'll bet you could list many 47 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. things along the way that you've introduced in your career to enhance the safety of an employee of yours. This seems to me to be such a sad situation, that we know that we are dealing with hearing loss and in the normal process of doing business, we have not introduced personal protective equipment to ensure the health and safety of our employees. You could probably list many things that you as the Commissioner or when you were Deputy Commissioner that you have requested to enhance your employees', again, health and safety. You could probably just spit them out. And I don't know why -- and I don't want to get crude, but I don't know why we're jerking the firefighters around on this particular issue. It just seems as though it's part of doing business. COMMISSIONER AYERS: I understand that, and we have been moving forward with sitting down, doing all of those things that we have to do to make 48 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. sure that we find out what's required, what needs to get done in that Health and Wellness Committee. I charged my deputies to sit down and work this out. But at the same time, we have to have the meeting, and if we can't have the meeting, then it's problematic. We have to have the meeting. Since May, we haven't had an opportunity, and I've been trying to ensure that we do this, and that's part of it.

Well, I hear you. We'll have to do what we have to do, but it's, again, I repeat, a sad situation that we have to even involve ourselves in this issue. Thank you.

Councilman Greenlee.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I wasn't going to say this, but as we go on, I just keep thinking about it. Mr. McBride talked about our trans 49 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. fat legislation. I won't get into all of that, but it just gets me that -- and this isn't for you, Commissioner. But the Mayor came in, made a big deal, the only time I remember him signing a bill, and he talked about how it was important that Council stood up for the health of people. And, again, I'm not going to get into the pros and cons of the trans fat bill, but here we're talking about the health of employees who are out there in dangerous situations and the Administration saying we got no 15 business -- you didn't say that, but the Administration, the Law Department saying we have no business getting involved in this. Give me a break. That's all I'll say. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions from any Committee members of these two witnesses? (No response.) 50 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC.

Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. MR. McBRIDE: I have one request for the Chair, if I may.

Okay. MR. McBRIDE: That we vote this out favorably tomorrow and vote for it tomorrow to suspend the rules for the first calendar reading tomorrow.

Okay. That's been noted. I think you did say it a little earlier. MR. McBRIDE: Thank you. I'm sorry. Thank you.

Thank you. The next two witnesses -- COMMISSIONER AYERS: Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Ayers. Thank you, Mr. McBride. Captain Dennis Merrigan of the Philadelphia Fire Department and Michael Dryden, Esquire. And we'll bring a third 51 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. up, Dr. Lisa Blackman, audiologist. Please come up to the witness table and have a chair. Please proceed. Identify yourself for the record and please proceed with your testimony. And it doesn't matter who goes first. CAPTAIN MERRIGAN: My name is Captain Dennis Merrigan, Captain, Philadelphia Fire Department, Ladder 12 located in Chinatown, 10th and Cherry. 13

I'm Michael 14 Dryden. I'm the head of the Workers' 15 Compensation Department at Willig, 16 Williams and Davidson, the law firm that 17 represents Local 22, and I've been 18 involved in a series of workers' 19 compensation claims for hearing loss for 20 members of Local 22 and also testing of 21 about 1,100 members from Local 22 as far 22 as testing their hearing at first-level 23 screenings at the union hall as well as in a sound-proof booth. CAPTAIN MERRIGAN: First of 52 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. all, I want to thank the Council for their attention to this matter and for listening to our testimony today. It's a privilege to be here. As a Captain in a ladder company, it's my job to directly supervise the firemen that ride the apparatus. Some years ago I did a survey. Not only am I sitting here as a Fire Captain, but I'm also a disabled veteran, and you wouldn't know it looking at me that I'm disabled. My disability is my hearing. I lost part of my hearing serving in the United States Army as a tank crewman. Ironically, you might think that the guns of the tank are what really did my hearing in, but it wasn't. It was the diesel engines. Very rarely do we go out and actually shoot the tanks. Ninety percent of the time you spend doing your maintenance. The high-intensity noise from the diesel engines similar to the diesel engines in the fire trucks and the high-intensity 53 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. noise that we're constantly exposed to left me with a condition called tinnitus, constant ringing, like President McBride has, in your ears. Right now in this quiet Chamber I can hear the ringing in my ears. I have significant hearing loss in high frequencies. I can have a conversation, but in a noisy room, like President McBride, I'll have to lean in, listen for you. So protecting what I have left of my hearing is a very high priority for me. We've talked about the earplugs today, and I know they seem to generate a lot of scorn. This is the gloves -- this is one of the gloves that we have to put on. These are just about as fireproof as you can get, and they've had a little exposure. Imagine trying to put that in your ear, trying to jam that in and trying to pull it out on the way to a fire in a busy fire truck. It's not really possible. 54 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. They do have their place, however. Working around the station every day testing equipment I'm not so scornful of them, because I think some protection is better than none. So if you're working on your apparatus in the bay around doing your normal checks and service, that's fine. But the intercom system is what we really need for inside the crew compartment. When I did my study a few years ago, I come up with inside the cab of 107 decibels at times. The chainsaws that we use come in around 119 to 120 decibels. And I don't know how you feel about The Who, but that's like being at the front row of a Who concert. So you're doing this day in, day out, year after year, and it leaves you basically with a condition called industrial deafness. You become deaf over time. The time-weighted average that you're exposed to on any given day is one thing, but the repeated, 55 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. long-term, high-frequency noise is what really takes a cumulative effect. So this intercom system will address part of the problem. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to this. We can't wear plugs inside of a burning building. We can't wear an intercom system inside of a burning building. There's nothing that could make it out of that would resist the heat, but by addressing pieces of the problem, earplugs maybe for around the station, intercoms for inside the cab, we're knocking it out piece by piece and we're decreasing our overall exposure, and hopefully this will be able to make a large, large movement forward in complying with the national standards. Thank you.

Thank you. Please identify yourself for the record.

Michael Dryden. 56 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. I'm from Willig, Williams and Davidson. I'm an attorney. I represent Local 4 members in workers' compensation cases. 5 Primarily, for purposes of today, 6 workers' compensation cases involving 7 hearing loss. 8 We tested 1,100 Local 22 9 members, Philadelphia firefighters, and 10 found that more than 50 percent of them 11 had a level of loss that would impact 12 their ability to be in a conversation 13 with their children or their wife or 14 anybody else. As the Captain indicated, 15 his loss is in the high frequencies. 16 In the workers' compensation 17 world, workers' compensation law doesn't 18 compensate anyone for a high-frequency 19 loss like the Captain's. The test is set 20 in the lower and mid frequencies. So we 21 brought a number of cases, but there are 22 still literally hundreds of firefighters who have deficient hearing because of the noise that they experience on the job. There's a certain type of 57 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. hearing loss, sensor and neural hearing loss, which is the type of loss caused by noise that all of these firefighters have. It's no accident that that type of loss is the loss that we found in this testing, because it's a type of hearing loss that's caused by noise exposure. And one of my interests in coming over here and speaking to the Committee and, prior to this, talking to President McBride is that I knew that the Committee would ask questions about the decibel level testing that had been done by the City and I believe that Councilman Rizzo asked. The study that was referred to, I have a copy of it, because we got it in the litigation of the case. It was done in 1994. The study was conducted by the City of Philadelphia Finance Department, Risk Management Division, Safety and Loss Prevention Unit, and it was actually engaged because of an increase in hearing loss cases in 1994. The study was done between 58 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. December and -- really I should say August and December in 1994 over about a three-month period. They went to different stations in the Fire Department and stayed there for one, two or three shifts. The study, though, concludes with recommendations that the City has never followed, and the recommendations are very, very close to what the Captain and what President McBride are suggesting, that firefighters get noise exposure in a lot of different areas, right from when they walk in. The Department requires them to check all of the equipment every day at the beginning of every shift. That means if you're in a double house with an engine and a ladder, that the engine and ladder firefighters and officers are on the apparatus floor, which generally is a poured concrete floor surrounded by cinderblock walls, checking all of their equipment at the same time. So when you test -- when you say that a K-12 saw is 59 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. 100 decibels, well that K-12 saw is now running at the same time the pump is running and the radio is on and somebody else is checking a chainsaw. It's a very, very loud environment. We can do better at protecting hearing during that time by wearing these foam plugs. I actually think you could wear these during the equipment check, particularly at the pump. One of the loudest parts of firefighting would be a firefighter on an engine who is required to rev up the pump. They call it PTO, power take-off, where you convert the engine that moves the vehicle to powering the pump. That person has to stay at the pump and then hear a radio to tell them what pressure to put so that the guys inside can have the right amount of water. That is, as I've been told by firefighters, countless firefighters who have that assignment, is a terribly loud spot to be standing right next to that engine as it revs throughout 60 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. all of service on the fire ground or during training.

This would be perfect for that. You plug this in, hear what pressure they need and yet protect your hearing. So my point is, what Local 8 has consistently done has asked to have 9 these safety issues addressed by just 10 contacting the Department. I think 11 Councilman Kenney alluded to the fact 12 that why are we even here and why is this 13 even an issue that requires a law or why 14 is it even a subject of interest 15 arbitration. The reason it is is because 16 there's never a response any other way. 17 We didn't as a law firm go in 18 and say, Give us the 37 cent plugs. We 19 didn't ask for that. For years they 20 would ask for hearing protection for 21 firefighters, and we went before an 22 arbitrator and the arbitrator decided that this was good enough in an arbitration setting. We don't agree with that. That's why we're here. 61 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. So there is a role, I think, for the Committee and for Council to play, because at the end of the day, an arbitration, there's somebody making a decision over presentations of facts from both sides and --

Excuse me, sir. Just on that point, Councilman Kenney had a question.

On that point. How is the arbitration items list put together? When you do the negotiation, I understand you say, On Item A, we agree. B, we agree. D, we don't agree. I guess that goes on the list. So when do you get to the point -- who says, We don't agree?

For me, I'm not one of the labor lawyers in our firm, so the only thing I can tell you is I get called to testify at the interest arbitration over safety issues. And what will happen is, they'll come to me and say, We're asking for things that we ask 62 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. for every day, that firefighters and presidents of this local for years have asked for safety, have asked for -- I was told as I was sitting back there that even washing their bunker gear, they had to go to arbitration to get that, Local 22. They had asked for it for years and nothing was ever done on it. It's sort of the next step.

Again, I know you're not the contract negotiation lawyer, but someone -- and I don't think it's the Fire Department professionals themselves. It's got to be somebody who is handling the other side for the City.

It absolutely does. We put it on the list as something we want. We want hearing protection.

And they say no. 22

Somebody has to say no, and then we go fight about it. That I can tell you is how --

I just want 63 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. to know who the person is that said no. 3 I mean, because I can't believe that that issue was sent to the Mayor's Office and the Mayor said, Nope, we're not providing hearing protection. Some lawyer made a decision that this is something we should argue about, and I just need to know who that person is and what their rationale is, other than money.

I don't know who it is, but I'm pretty sure the contract will be coming back around relatively soon and we'll all be in a room again together.

All right.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you. And I think you see where this Committee is going, but before you leave. Councilman Kelly.

I just want to say, do you mean to say that this has been in arbitration since 1994? 64 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC.

No, I don't. What I found in preparing to run these cases was a City study that they had pursued --

And recommended that this be actually --

I had stopped before I came to City Council today, but I'll read them off. In the Recommendations section, it talks about a hearing conservation program in accord with what FEMA has developed, a hearing conservation program manual for the fire service. It talks about different types of hearing protection available for different types of firefighters. Like if you're the marine engineer, if you're on the fire boats, that's a terribly loud place. They do wear muffs, and the City provides muffs there, but there are other places where that can be helpful. So there are multiple recommendations that were made in 1994, 13 years ago.

Thank you.

65 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. Councilman Rizzo.

Just one last thought. I mentioned this earlier. After what you described with possibly wearing this gear in the firehouse when doing testing, et cetera, I'm still convinced that this is personal protective equipment. This is the same as a firefighter's hat. And if this is adopted, I would really push to get each firefighter equipped with these devices rather than it become a shared device.

Well, I agree with you that in the best of all worlds, it would be a great thing, but I think if we're sitting here with the chance of losing the possibility of having that on an apparatus because somebody does the math and -- not you and I, Councilman, but somebody does the math and doesn't like how the number comes out, then we'll take -- I think that Local 22 has come with a reasonable position to say, Just put it on the apparatus and we'll deal 66 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. with it. But, again, I agree with you. I'd like to have my own set, but I don't know that we're going to get our own set, and if the choice is the 37 cent plug or if I was a firefighter, the Captain and I are sharing a set of headphones, I think we both would want to share the set of headphones. CAPTAIN MERRIGAN: Councilman, if we had one of these on all the crew stations on each apparatus, we would be advancing our cause light years.

Okay. That's like the camel with his nose under the tent, right? CAPTAIN MERRIGAN: Absolutely.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Thank you. CAPTAIN MERRIGAN: Thank you.

I think Dr. Blackman is next. And if I could say to her and any other witnesses, we have 67 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. another resolution on a different matter that's coming up and there's a lot of people here, so if people could be as brief as possible in their testimony. Again, not to say how we're going to vote, but I think you see where we're coming from on this. Dr. Blackman.

Good afternoon. I'm Lisa Blackman. I'm Director of Hearing Healthcare. I've been Director for Moss Rehab, Einstein, the Board of Ed, Jefferson Health System. I'm a Director for the Council of Accreditation for Hearing Conservationists, who train people to prevent hearing loss, who are nurses, for instance, as well as a Director for the American Tinnitus Association. My specialty is rehabilitation, tinnitus and hearing loss. I have been involved in the field for 32 years. As far as all of this is concerned, you must understand that the 68 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. average cab that a firefighter experiences has a siren that was made years ago, and it's very, very loud. Federal Signal is the manufacturer of these, and in 1999, there was a suit against Federal Signal in which I did have some part of, where they sued the manufacturer of the sirens for their hearing loss. Hearing loss and tinnitus are compensable under the state and federal laws if it is job related. However, Federal Signal's feeling was that many firefighters, specifically in the military, had noisy hobbies and that, therefore, that should be taken in account. While this is true, everybody in the world has noisy hobbies, and personally I have seen thousands of firefighters and policemen and emergency medical techs, EMTs, who have hearing loss secondary to this noise. Out of this '99 situation, the 69 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. lawsuit, what happened was, it was agreed that the City of Philadelphia was to make the cabs less prone to being affected by noise. Therefore, they would have a certain decibel or intensity rating. They were going to look at all the firefighters' equipment to see how loud each of the equipment was, and also they were to have ear protection. I hate to tell you this, I'm even ashamed, but those earplugs that you showed before, Councilman, they're only three cents each. They are not 37 cents each. And when you buy bulk like that, it's really a terrible thing for firemen to use. They have grease on their hands. They put it in their ear. They can get an itchy ear. Number two, I have stopped absolutely when I do hearing conservation programs for industry -- and I have done them for Boeing, for Lukens, for Bethlehem Steel. I've done it both for the manufacturer and for unions, so I sit 70 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. on the fence, and I can tell you that these are terrible for firefighters to use, because if you put any match even to those -- I use them for temporary ear molds all the time. You put a match into it, it melts it, it can melt the eardrum. We see this with welders all the time who use these. And furthermore, it can perforate the eardrum and then perforate the balance system of the inner ear, making a firefighter dizzy. So they absolutely should be thrown out yesterday. Number two, because of the intensity of the noise, if you were to go literally by OSHA standards, these people who have sirens at 120 decibels or loudness should only be in it for 1.87 minutes. Above that it's in violation of the Federal Noise Act. It's also in violation of the Heavy Equipment Transportation Act. It's also in violation of just quality of life issues. The quality of life issues I 71 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. see all the time with this is that as noise exposure gets more on a daily basis, et cetera, as the years go on, the high frequencies or the consonance -- which, if I can approach the bench, or whatever you call yourselves.

We don't know what we call ourselves either, but go ahead.

I didn't know if I could. What happens is, as the years go by, understanding gets worse. You have to understand the following: If you've been at a cocktail party even or a wedding where you've had trouble understanding people in noise like that, these people have trouble in quiet like that. They answer what you ask, but it could be a totally wrong answer to what you question them. They're answering what they hear. So, unfortunately, if they hear right there and then on the communicator to go to a certain block, 72 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. it's very possible that they go to a different block because they did not clearly understand the message. Number two, because of the wires, et cetera, they do have what's called FM or frequency modulated systems now. No wires. You can hear from here to three floors away with this system, and it's clear as a bell. Also out of this whole thing, the pumps when they're fixing the engines, et cetera, fire stations should be more designated to have a lower DBA rating, meaning that you have to put things on the walls, you can't just have concrete cinderblocks, because the way that we do hearing conservation is to limit the noise at the source and not have to worry about the employees. By doing this both in the environment of the cab, in the environment of the station itself, you try to prevent it. Ear protection is secondary. Out of this '99 meeting -- so I just 73 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. don't understand what's happened in the last eight years. I'm sorry. I have no 4 patience for something that takes this long. When I establish hearing conservation programs, we go in, we do a DBA reading. At each machine, suggesting just oil the machine, it brings down the level of noise. Just put an enclosure on it brings down the level of noise. Just elevate it from the floor so that the machine doesn't have a vibratory effect so that you can work on the machine such as in the pump rooms, the engine rooms, and it isn't as loud. The sound doesn't reverberate against the walls, and as you can even hear in here, the echo sound is enormous. So --

Ma'am, could I just say, you support having these mechanisms basically, right?

Yes. But I'm saying that not only do I support it, but you have to go a step further and realize 74 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. that these folks have a hearing loss and you should put in the statute that these people should be covered for hearing aids so that they have quality of life and don't have that annoying tinnitus, which some people get so depressed from and commit suicide from.

I understand, and that would be something that probably would have to come in another bill, but I appreciate that.

Well, you can always ask. I mean, it doesn't hurt.

No. I agree. Thank you.

While you're putting it on the board.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony.

There are no more witnesses to testify on this bill? (No response.)

Okay. 75 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. Seeing none, we will now adjourn the public hearing and -- we will now recess the public hearing on Bill No. 070275 and go into the public meeting. Councilman Kelly.

Madam Chair, I move that Bill No. 070275 be reported out of this Committee with a favorable recommendation and also request that the rules of Council be suspended in order that this bill may be read at the next session of Council. (Duly seconded.)

It has been properly moved and seconded that Bill No. 070275 be reported out of this Committee with a favorable recommendation and, further, that the rules of Council be suspended so as to permit first reading at our next session. All in favor signify by saying aye. (Aye.)

Opposed? 76 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. (No response.)

The ayes have it. The motion is carried. (Applause.)

Thank you. Thank you to all those that came in to testify on Bill No. 070275. And I just can't figure out either how health and wellness is a part of arbitration. I really can't. The next resolution that this Committee will hear is Resolution No. 14 070330. And we have a whole list of witnesses for that resolution and we want to call our first probably three witnesses to the table. Will the Clerk please read the title of the resolution.

Resolution 070330, remembering, memorializing, honoring and mourning the 32 people slain at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007, and authorizing City Council's Committee on Public Safety to hold public hearings to investigate 77 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. how safe the college campuses in the City of Philadelphia are; and, in furtherance of such investigation, authorizing the issuance of subpoenas to compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of documents to the full extent authorized under Section 2-401 of the Home Rule Charter.

Thank you. We're going to proceed in a second. Councilman Kelly has a statement regarding this resolution.

Yes. Madam Chair, Councilman Greenlee and fellow members of this Committee, I think that I can speak for everyone on this Committee in saying that we're absolutely horrified over the incidents in Virginia that took place at Virginia Tech back in April of this year. I would also like to express my sincere condolences to those who lost their sons and daughters. When I first heard this tragic 78 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. news, I was shocked. My first reaction was that I never want to see anything like that happen here in Philadelphia, or anywhere else for that matter. When this horrific incident occurred, I, along with many of my colleagues, received numerous phone calls from parents who have children in colleges and universities in Philadelphia. They had a lot of questions and concerns as to their children's safety. As a proud parent who had children in college, I understand their concern. Although I am confident that universities in Philadelphia have been working tirelessly to ease and address the concerns of students, parents and professors, I want to in a public, collaborative forum investigate how safe our college campuses are and inquire what extra measures universities have taken to protect students in the event of an emergency at a Philadelphia campus. 79 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. I am concerned about the well-being of our future leaders, and their parents deserve to have peace of mind while their children are at school. I want to thank all of our university officials who were kind enough to testify before this Committee, and I want to thank you for your continued commitment to public safety. I know your time is very valuable and, again, I commend you for coming in here and to sharing your ideas with this Committee. And perhaps other universities can take your ideas and also adhere to them and put them into their system. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank 80 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. you. Thank you, Councilman Kelly. And certainly I can empathize with all those parents that called you, because at the time, I had a daughter in Temple, and all I thought about was suppose something like that happened at Temple University. We're going to start and we're going to call our first witnesses, and it's my understanding that LaSalle University has requested to go first because they need to leave. And on my list I have Arthur Grover, Director of Security and Safety; Ed Turzanski, Assistant Vice-President of Government Affairs. And I think there may be one other person from LaSalle? No; just the two? Okay. Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony, and don't forget to talk into the mike. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. My name is Edward 81 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. Turzanski. I'm counsel to the President for Government and Community Relations at LaSalle University and I'm senior fellow at the Center for Terrorism, Counterterrorism and Homeland Security of the Foreign Policy Research Institute. And I'm joined by my colleague, Arthur Grover, former Commandant of the Philadelphia Police Academy and the Director of Safety and Security at LaSalle University. Madam Chair, I'd like to thank the Council for giving us the opportunity to address the Council on this very important issue, and if you'll allow, by way of background, when the attacks happened at Virginia Tech, one of the first phone calls I received that day was from the then-Managing Director of the City, Mr. Pedro Ramos, who wanted to know what assistance LaSalle University needed from the City of Philadelphia, specifically Police, Fire and Rescue, to make certain that, first of all, we had 82 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. communicated to the public in a very open way what we were doing to enhance safety and security on our campus, and he also wanted to discuss what other steps could be taken to make our colleges and universities safer. You'll note the term "safer" is a relative one, and there's always something more that you can do, but every time you increase some measure of safety and security, you run the very real risk of restricting movement. And the fact is that colleges and universities are open places because they want to foster the free exchange of ideas. The key for us is to maintain the proper balance between safety and security on the one hand and providing a free environment so that people can come live, work, study and exchange ideas on the other. And in the years since the attack at Virginia Tech, I'm pleased to note that our university and I know our colleagues have been working very closely 83 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. with the City, with subsequent Managing Directors and the Office of the Managing Director and the Police Department to try to maximize procedures that increase interoperability between our safety/security departments and those City entities responsible for safety and security. And I would just say that this whole question of safety and security in some respects is more art than it is science. But, I mean, we want to maintain that proper balance between safety and security and free and open environments and expression on the other. And we continue to remake best practices and share them as an industry. And my colleague, Mr. Grover, would be willing to address any questions you have in terms of steps that we've taken since the occurrence at Virginia Tech.

Good afternoon, Madam Chairwoman and distinguished members of Council. As Ed mentioned 84 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. earlier, my name is Art Grover and I am the Director of Security and Safety at LaSalle University. And as he also mentioned, prior to my coming on board at LaSalle, which is my alma mater, I'm a graduate of LaSalle. I spent years in 8 the Philadelphia Police Department, and 9 the last six of those years I spent as 10 the Commanding Officer of Recruit 11 Training at the Philadelphia Police 12 Academy. So I'm not unfamiliar with 13 emergency preparedness, and I would like 14 to share with you some thoughts about 15 this, and I'll attempt to be brief 16 assuredly. I know we have a number of 17 distinguished colleagues that need to 18 speak to you today. 19 But on the 16th of April, as 20 you mentioned, a number of you, I 21 received a number of calls at my office 22 from concerned parents, concerned members 23 of staff in the LaSalle community about 24 the events at Virginia Tech. And as I 25 reflected on them at the time, my mind 85 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. went to my formative training in the Philadelphia Police Department and I immediately determined to reach out to colleagues in the Police Department, in specific on that particular day to the commanders of the Northwest Police Division, who I enjoy a very cooperative and good working relationship with. But the purpose of those calls were to determine the resources that would be available in the immediate term should such an incident occur at LaSalle or that there would, God forbid, be some sort of a copycat incident. Thankfully, these type of incidents are rare, but they're not unheard of, as is obviously the case here. So my reflection was at that time and my mind was on that basis, and I determined immediately after reaching the Inspector of the Division and the Captain from the 35th District in particular that my memories of the things that would be available from my own experience were in 86 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. fact correct, and, that is, that there was divisional representation in Northwest Police Division from the SWAT unit and that there was an Emergency Operations group divisionally that would be available to respond for LaSalle in an emergency on this basis or similar basis. However, I determined, as a result of that conversation and experiencing the knowledge that the unthinkable was in fact true, to host a meeting as soon as possible with the commanders already mentioned and with the additional presence of the commanding officer of the SWAT unit, who I had known and worked with for a number of years. So the week preceding the incident to the day in fact, on the 23rd of April, we hosted at LaSalle, Ed and I, these various commanders, including the SWAT commander, with three purposes in mind. A, as Ed mentioned, to increase the interoperability between LaSalle security and administration and the police, but, 87 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. secondly, to ensure that our emergency plans were synchronous and up to date. I at that time had been at LaSalle about two years and although enjoying, as I mentioned, a very good working relationship with these commanders, having an experience extemporaneously like what occurred at Virginia Tech gets you thinking about those type of things and there is a desire urgently to meet on the basis that I described. So we exchanged plans and maps, and we determined that we needed to be able to communicate more readily on an emergency basis, and we've even gotten to the point where we've exchanged radios so that we can have the sort of instantaneous communication beyond the reliance on cell phones and so forth as we may need to do in the future. After doing that, it became apparent early on without -- and this statement is without any intent to 88 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC.

reflect negatively on the actions of the administrators or safety professionals at Virginia Tech, but it became apparent early on that there were issues with respect to emergency communication at that particular facility that we could learn from and that we could have the basis -- have the opportunity in fact to improve on in our own venues. And a couple of the things that we did on short order was to institute a system of emergency text paging at LaSalle so that students, administrators, faculty and staff can now sign up and be notified by someone like me in an emergency and be given three important and critical pieces of information. We're able now to tell someone by text message the information that we have that's bona fide and verified as to what is occurring. We can tell people what to do and, as importantly in some instances, what not to do and where they should go to be safe to await further information from us. 89 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. We have had a campaign to have people sign up, and we have more than 1,200 people already signed up. But -- and I'm sure some of my colleagues will appreciate this -- it is difficult in some instances getting people to appreciate, particularly some of our students, that this is a necessary thing to do. So we're working on that. Another thing that we did immediately on the level of enhancing emergency communications is, we outfitted all of our patrol vehicles with a public address system. Now, I was used to that in the Philadelphia Police Department, because all of the cars had that capability, but at LaSalle that was not the case. We did that immediately, and now we have the additional opportunity to use our vehicles to go to those public locations that we have identified as giving us the best opportunity to communicate to the campus on an emergency basis, again, to furnish those three 90 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. critical pieces of information: the information that we have that's bona fide and verified about an incident, what to do and what not to do, and where to go to be safe to await further information from us. We have another initiative on the public address component that is in stages of being completed, and that is using our bell tower, which St. Joe's University does, and we communicated with them to determine what they are doing, as I have with all of these professionals behind me at one time or another. To use our bell tower as well to give us the opportunity -- and I was thinking about it in a previous hearing -- to use a siren blast type of opportunity where we won't need any ear protection, but we will be able to communicate the idea to people that there is an emergency, that they need to look at their text message opportunity and to move forward with that. 91 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. In addition to that, this gave us an opportunity to look hard at our emergency plan. Emergency plans are not something that you look at every day, but something that you should look at regularly, because they become dated. Individuals' roles change. In our case, the campus has grown exponentially since we've purchased Germantown Hospital and moved west and have acquired other satellite campuses as well. So we're looking at that and we are taking the opportunity to enhance that emergency plan in consonance with a national incident command system, which is the operational gospel really for people like Chief O'Connor and other police professionals, and has been for years in the Fire Department. So in short measure, with respect to what we've done, those are the things that I want to focus on for the testimony today. I've been in public safety for 28 years, and this is the 92 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. first time I've really had the opportunity to speak to a City Council committee. I appreciate the opportunity, and I would be happy to take any questions that you may have.

Great. Councilman Kelly.

Yes. Mr. Grover, first of all, LaSalle has grown. I just was lost in there about a week ago. I just want to let you know that your university has really, really grown. But according to your testimony, it seems to me that you're certainly taking steps to be well prepared for, of course, a tragedy such as happened at Virginia Tech, and I commend you for that. Evidently you have a strong working relationship with the Police Department, I believe.

This is true, sir.

Is that true? Mr. Turzanski, I have one 93 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. question for you, and today we've heard that -- and it has to do with infectious diseases. It's not terrorism, but it's infectious diseases. I just learned today that schools in Bedford County, 7 Virginia have closed and one student has 8 died because of MRSA, and that's 9 something that, of course, I'm very 10 familiar with because I just introduced a 11 resolution for making September MRSA 12 Awareness Month. And it's unfortunate 13 that that happened, but is there any 14 policy that you have to deal with 15 infectious diseases? And I will ask all 16 of the colleges and universities. 17

Councilman, we 18 have recently -- and Security Director 19 Grover has been part of this -- have been 20 reviewing our emergency procedures. And 21 by the way, it's an all-hazards review. So it's not just a Virginia Tech situation or a MRSA or an avian flu or, as we had a number of years ago, a gas fire. 94 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. We've gone through all of our procedures, and infectious disease is one of those things that we've been studying under an avian flu review. In fact, you're not anyone if you haven't been doing avian flu in the last year, trying to figure out what happens in the event of worst-case scenarios, and that's where the national incident command structure model comes in in terms of our responses. So through our School of Nursing and our student health departments, we've closely monitored MRSA, avian flu and other infectious diseases, and we have protocols to deal with each of those occurrences.

Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Thank you.

I have a question regarding video surveillance cameras. I believe what I heard after Virginia Tech was that the universities were getting together to talk about 95 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. additional if they didn't already have video surveillance. Have you added additional video surveillance cameras?

We have, Madam Chairwoman. We have more than 100 now deployed on our campus and we in particular have a significant expansion associated with the west campus initiative at Germantown Hospital. We feel -- I know that there was some -- I won't use the word criticism, but some questions about the way that they were deployed and the dearth of them really at Virginia Tech. We feel that we are very well prepared in that regard, and we look to add them each budget cycle wherever possible.

Plus I think I see, because I live near LaSalle, I thought I saw an additional or a couple additional security booths --

That's correct.

-- that were not there. You've added those also, 96 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. correct?

We have. We have made a determination to place booths strategically to strengthen our perimeter in terms of our security, but to also add an additional safety dimension to the neighborhood. So we've not just done that, but I would also like to indicate that we have signed an agreement with AlliedBarton, which we hire on a daily basis to do bicycle patrols on our perimeter and even out into the community, as we realize the unmistakable trend that more and more of our students are choosing to live in the adjacent communities, typically in rental homes. And we've gotten real good feedback from the community about their appreciation for our doing that.

Madam Chairwoman, I think not only LaSalle University but every one of our college institutions is in a situation where we are in very strong partnership with our 97 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. communities and with the Police Department that has ultimate responsibility for safety and security, and more and more of our assets are used in a way that treats the community and the university as one and the same. So wherever we have capabilities, our interest is overall safety and security, and that's why, if you'll allow, we have had excellent support from the Philadelphia Police Department and from the Managing Director's Office, and we'd just like to note that.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Councilman Greenlee.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and very quickly. Slightly off the point, but I have to say to Mr. Turzanski -- and I'm probably taking chances there's going to be lightning come and strike me down here, but over the many years in my first job, 98 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. as you know, you and I interacted a lot wherever there was issues -- this goes back before Councilwoman Miller was the District Councilperson -- on issues with community and students, and you were always very responsive, and I just want to say I appreciate that very much.

Thank you very much, Councilman, and we hope that interaction continues for a long time. Not just with complaints, but also with opportunities.

Right. Thank you.

Get away from that window.

Thank you. Thank you for coming in. Thank you for your testimony. Next we'll have Chief Inspector Joseph O'Connor of the Counterterrorism Bureau and Maryann Marrocolo, Director of Emergency Preparedness from the City Administration. 99 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. Anyone else from the Administration?

I think we're it. Good afternoon. We did not prepare formal testimony, but I am able to go over some of the key initiatives that the City has undertaken with universities around emergency preparedness.

Okay.

My name is Maryann Marrocolo. I'm the Deputy Managing Director for Emergency Management. With me is Chief Inspector Joseph O'Connor, who is in charge of the Police Department's Counterterrorism Bureau. I want to thank you for the opportunity to present some of the initiatives that we are working on with universities. I'll be very brief. We have four main initiatives with universities. We have established 100 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. in the Office of Emergency Management formal liaison relationships with the Public Safety departments for many universities in the City, including Drexel, St. Joseph's University, Temple and the University of Pennsylvania. Shortly we'll be meeting with LaSalle. I have a few more universities I need to meet with over the next couple of weeks, but we are in the process of scheduling those. Those formal liaisons, of which those universities have designated individuals, in some cases more than one, they assist in developing the City's emergency plans by reviewing them and participating on planning committees. They receive information about our training and exercise programs, so they may participate as either players or observers. And they also are the notification point for incident information that we provide to a variety of emergency management liaisons, not 101 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. just universities. So we provide instant information to those individuals so that they may take that information and analyze whether or not it will impact their facility or organization and then respond appropriately. We have also very much involved the universities in our emergency planning. One project that I'll highlight is evacuation planning. Over the past several months, we have gone through a process to develop evacuation routes for the City. We've had a planning committee that actually just finished its work yesterday. This included several universities, including active participation from the University of Pennsylvania's Public Safety Department, as well as Temple University's Public Safety Department. Separately we briefed St. Joseph's University on the evacuation routes, and we'll be doing a very similar process with the other universities. 102 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. Our third initiative is where there is a system that exists, we receive emergency text message alerts. For example, key members of my staff receive the Penn alerts from the PennAlert system, which Maureen Rush, who is the Vice-President of Penn Public Safety, will, I'm sure, be speaking about shortly. And then, lastly, not related to emergency preparedness per se in the context of response, but as a way to coordinate academic research around emergency preparedness, the Office of Emergency Management has formed an academic consortium to look at various research activities and expertise within the faculty of universities across the City, and we formed a consortium that started in September, and we have several goals, including cataloguing emergency preparedness programs, and, in fact, Mr. Turzanski is a member of that academic consortium, along with many 103 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. other universities. And we are going through a process now of surveying universities to identify their academic programs and areas of expertise, their research activities, in an effort to coordinate those across the universities so that we can harness the academic power of the City to help make preparedness more effective. So that's what we're doing on the emergency management side. I don't know if Chief O'Connor wants to talk about some of the things they're doing related to active shooter training. Now would be a time to do that. CHIEF O'CONNOR: Thank you, Maryann. Good afternoon, members of Council. This is the first opportunity I've had to address the Committee, and I appreciate the opportunity.

With regard to the Virginia Tech incident, when we look at it overall, there's a lot of people that 104 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. have found fault with various aspects of it, whether it be law enforcement or the university administration, their crisis plans or whatever. But I submit to you as a law enforcement officer, what took place initially at Virginia Tech was that they were under the misimpression that it was a domestic dispute. Hindsight is 20/20. Certainly if the powers-that-be had decided to go into lockdown status, cancel classes, had the students either remain inside their dormitories and stay off the streets, the carnage would have been less. That's not just my opinion. That's the opinion of various studies that have been done since the incident took place in April. The Department for our role -- and we go back -- we have a history with school violence, which I can't say it began with the Columbine massacre, but the Columbine massacre alerted us, realizing that's a middle school, a high school, not a university. School 105 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. violence is school violence. We at that point went out. We got the blueprints for just about every school within the Philadelphia area. They are kept in one central repository. So that should we have an incident similar to Columbine or Virginia Tech, we have those blueprints. Now, we haven't quite done that with the universities, but we're in the process and we will do that. We've conducted exercises last August 31st. We did an exercise with Community College, and that was an active shooter. You say to me, Well, what's the difference between an active shooter and a normal-sized barricade or hostage situation? An active shooter is when you get to the scene and you actually know people are being killed or seriously injured. You have to respond immediately. That means our policy, which takes care of barricades and hostage situations, has to be revisited, 106 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. and we're looking at that and we're practicing that. We have an exercise planned with Philadelphia University in the spring, very similar but a different type. I think the one thing I'd like to leave this panel with is the idea that regardless of what administrators do with their crisis management and their planning, there's just not one size fits all with these situations, because all of them are so very different, and it's dependent upon what you're faced with. I can tell you this: The exercise that we conducted on August 31st was a success. It was a success for this reason: Our uniform officers contained the situation. We had a containment in an area where the shootings had taken place and people were killed, and we neutralized the perpetrators, and it worked out very well with regard to the practical exercise. There will be more exercises, but I just want to set your mind at ease 107 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. with regard to the liaison that exists between the Philadelphia Police Department and the surrounding universities. There's colleges and 6 universities that we interact with on a 7 regular basis as part of our outreach 8 program, and school violence and 9 utilizing the resource of the Secret 10 Service, who have taken the lead as far 11 as -- I don't want to use the term 12 "profiling," but I will. Their profiling 13 abilities have assisted us with 14 identifying behavior. 15 Forewarned is forearmed, and 16 had people at Virginia Tech, counselors 17 specifically, taken notice of the 18 aberrant behavior of this young man, that 19 tragedy may very well be averted, such as 20 the tragedy out in Whitemarsh I feel was 21 averted because a concerned citizen came 22 forward and alerted the authorities, and 23 the response was very quick. What that 24 young man had in mind and could have 25 accomplished we can only guess. But I 108 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC.

want you to know that the Police Department is ready, and, again, we attempt to anticipate every and all situations, as impossible as that sounds. If you have any questions of me, please feel free to ask.

Some of this we could actually listen to all day, because it's very interesting, but I guess the main question I have is for the colleges. The point you just made, that it was clear that something was happening with that young man at Virginia Tech -- and I will ask the college this -- if someone pays their tuition, but they have clear signs that there are some issues, such as that young man's, what can you do with him? Do you have to keep him as a student? Do you make him go out for some testing and put him on medical leave? I just don't know. CHIEF O'CONNOR: There are two roadblocks, Councilwoman. Those two roadblocks are the HIPAA Act and the 109 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. FERPA Act, and they have to do with privacy issues. They have to be overcome. They have to be overcome not just for the universities but also with regard to our licensing of people to carry weapons.

Okay. Councilman Kelly.

I just have a follow-up on that point. Are you saying that this could have possibly been, I guess, defined as profiling if universities take any action such as really getting into a student's behavior or background or whatnot? CHIEF O'CONNOR: The two acts I referred to, there's many --

Are they prevented from doing anything? CHIEF O'CONNOR: No. They didn't. And the problem was the unfamiliarity that the staff at Virginia Tech had with those acts. They weren't sure exactly what they could solicit and 110 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. get as far as information. And each state with regard to licensing of weapons has -- some of the states are more stringent than the federal government with regard to release of information, and this is to prevent discrimination against someone that may be mentally disabled.

So what are you saying? A mentally disabled person in certain states could get away with acquiring a firearm? CHIEF O'CONNOR: Yes, sir. They did and they have.

Would Pennsylvania be included? CHIEF O'CONNOR: Yes, sir.

That's something that our state legislature should look at very seriously. Thank you.

When situations such as what happened at Virginia Tech happened and everybody sits 111 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. back, I just -- and tries to figure out what they did right, what they didn't do right to assess the situation, I think it would just be great if we could think of some of this preventive type of action prior to. Because right now it's copycat, as you said, or it's just things that are just extreme, and I don't know how we prevent it. CHIEF O'CONNOR: The way we prevent it is early warning.

But we educate people. CHIEF O'CONNOR: Early warning and education. You're absolutely right on the money. And the early warning comes into play when people notice aberrant behavior. The young fellow we're speaking about with regard to Virginia Tech set up a number of red flags. Unfortunately, the staff either did not recognize them or did not know what routes to take. And therein lie the problems. 112 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. You can't anticipate with regard to a situation that took place in Virginia Tech or, for that matter, any of the past shootings that we've had experienced through the years. You can only see what the building blocks were to get to that area and then try to stifle them in some way, and the way you do that is with information, good communication between your healthcare people and your university people and good counseling on the universities itself to ensure that someone like it showed doesn't slip through the cracks and do an act untoward his fellow students.

And all the public schools here have some type of plan or are they working on a plan? CHIEF O'CONNOR: To the best of my knowledge, yes, ma'am.

They're working on or they have one? CHIEF O'CONNOR: They have a plan, but they're attempting to refine 113 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. it. You have to understand, Virginia Tech was such an aberration with regard to -- it's not anything -- I think you have to go back to 1966, Charles Whitman in the tower in Houston -- or Austin. I'm sorry.

Texas. CHIEF O'CONNOR: University of Texas. Before you get the carnage -- and the carnage was horrific -- you had 32 people, not counting Cho, killed, 13 others wounded and six seriously injured 14 by jumping out of windows. 15

Thank 16 you. Thank you for your testimony. 17 Any other questions? (No response.)

Thank you for your testimony. Maureen Rush, Vice-President of University of Penn's Police. We need more than one. Bill Mattioli, Director of Security, St. Joe's, and then Randy Merced, Management of College Security, 114 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. Community College. And then after that, we'll have all of Temple.

Go ahead.

Good afternoon, esteemed members of City Council. My name is Maureen Rush and I am the Vice-President for Public Safety at the University of Pennsylvania. I would like to thank you for this opportunity to address the increasingly diverse challenges we face in an effort to provide safety and security to university students and the community. I have been a law enforcement official for 31 years. After joining the force as a member of the first class of women to graduate from the Philadelphia Police Academy, I spent 18 years rising through the ranks of the Philadelphia Police Department. For the last 14 years, I have been at Penn, where I have spent the past seven years as Vice-President for Public Safety. Since becoming Vice-President, 115 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. I have seen our fledging organization transform itself into a state-of-the-art Division of Public Safety. During my tenure as Chief of Police at the University, I witnessed the Penn Police Department become the first university police department in the State of Pennsylvania to receive international accreditation with CALEA, which stands for the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. Rising to international standards has solidified our legitimacy within the University and law enforcement communities, allowing us to further develop the vision and capabilities of our Police Department. I am proud to acknowledge Division of Public Safety's maturation into a technologically advanced, multi-faceted operation, requiring the coordinated efforts of several Philadelphia universities, the University City District, the City of Philadelphia, as well as national organizations and 116 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. federal agencies. Penn's Division of Public Safety comprises six departments, all of which fall under the Office of the Vice-President. Between the Penn Police Department, Fire and Emergency Services, Penn Communications Command Control Center, which is known as PennComm, Security and Technical Services, Special Services and Finance and Administration, we employ 175 full-time staff, of whom 116 are sworn, armed police. In addition, we employ over 450 AlliedBarton security officers across campus to secure buildings, as well as providing the community with a visible street presence, including bike and foot patrols, walking escorts, motorist assistance and general crime deterrents. As the largest private police force in the state, we patrol a two and a half square mile open campus, spanning from 30th Street to 43rd Street and between Baltimore Avenue and Market Street. 117 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. Adding another layer of security, we employ 83 pan-tilt-zoom and 200 fixed cameras comprising our closed-circuit television network, which operates 24/7 through our PennComm Center, allowing our operators to virtually patrol our campus. Our state-of-the-art technology is complemented by electronic access control card readers, burglar alarms, blue light emergency phones and duress alarms installed in restrooms of Penn-owned buildings throughout the campus. These advances in technology and best security practices would not have occurred without the meaningful support of the University administration, which currently entrusts us with a $21 million operating budget. The ability of my division to cost-effectively use its resources has not gone unnoticed. After an unfortunate incident in 2006 during which a student was struck in the leg by a stray bullet, Penn President Amy 118 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. Gutmann extended an additional $5 million to the Division, bringing the operating budget to its current level. The funds allowed for the creation of a new initiative termed Operation Safe.

President Gutmann was able to give such a generous amount of money knowing that it would be well spent on infrastructure upgrades to lighting, which has been accomplished through the University City Lighting Consortium. In combination with the University City Lighting Consortium, a collective effort has been made to improve the quality of life and to address the concerns of our neighborhood residents. The Lighting Consortium has illuminated Penn's strong connections with neighboring institutions, including University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, the Science Center, Drexel University and the University City District, along with donations and in-kind services provided by PECO and the Philadelphia Streets Department. 119 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. Operation Safe has also included the addition of strategically deployed security personnel, as well as the hiring of more police officers. Accordingly, our six departments have achieved a level of synergy allowing for the implementation of a comprehensive Public Safety Program comprising four main components. Three of these components include Crime Prevention, Abatement and Investigation, Community Engagement, and Communications and Education. Under the first three of these four components, some specific initiatives have helped us to realize our vision for Penn. These include a full-time detective unit, a community liaison program, a sector integrity program, daily police sign-in logs at local retail stores, free safety education presentations on multiple subjects ranging from general safety to emergency preparedness and sexual assault 120 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. awareness, and the continued support provided through relationships with law enforcement agencies. In fact, due to Penn's high level of transparency, as evidenced by our Division's strict and exemplary adherence to the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, we felt that is not only an obligation but our civic duty to provide correct and accurate information on crime activity within Penn's campus. We also take it a step further and report on crimes that occur outside of our patrol zones and campus boundaries extending into the 18th Police District. In 2003, our innovative use of technology in designing and implementing the closed-circuit TV network of cameras, along with our campus and community patrols, were lauded by Security on Campus, which named Penn the recipient of the Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Award. This award honors schools and individuals 121 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. that have done extraordinary things to make college and university students safer. Such recognition has led outside agencies to confer with Penn regarding adherence to the Clery Act. In this past August 2007, the Department of Education and the Federal Bureau of Investigations requested our Division's consultation regarding procedures which could be used to most effectively report on crime in regards to the Clery Act. We anticipate that this high level of information sharing will provide other educational institutions with valuable models for success. Over the years, my experience at one of the nation's leading universities has afforded me the insight necessary to understand the unique challenges Penn faces in protecting our community. The fourth component of our Public Safety Program is dedicated to emergency preparedness and crisis management. The Division of Public 122 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. Safety maintains and continually fortifies its comprehensive emergency preparedness and crisis management plan for the University. The team of DPS personnel responsible for emergency preparedness has worked diligently to provide recommended policy and operational responses to various types of crises that could affect the life, property, conservation and business continuity of the University community.

A robust and precise Crisis Management Plan dictates the procedures through which the University would operationalize its efforts in the case of a localized or University-wide emergency. The crisis plan has been in development since early 2001 and has continued to evolve and improve as necessary in order to meet and respond to the constantly changing challenges which an emergency situation could present. The Division's involvement with Crisis Management Plan initially and 123 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. primarily focuses on prevention. One month prior to the Virginia Tech shooting, we conducted an active shooter drill which eerily mirrored the events that would transpire in Blacksburg, Virginia. This particular active shooter drill was one of many which we have conducted in order to prepare our officers for responses that need extreme tactical coordination and precision. The active shooter training tool utilizes live simulated ammunition in a contained environment in which, prior to entering the situation, the officers are unaware of the scenario that has been created. Through such examples of tactical, strategic and logistical planning, tabletop and field functional drills, and emergency response training, we can increase the chances of preventing an adverse situation from occurring and most certainly from escalating. The University of Pennsylvania has two levels of responders, the Crisis 124 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. Management Team and the Incident Management Team. The former serves as the executive branch led by the Executive Vice-President and Provost of the University. The Crisis Management Team is responsible for decisions involving communications, evacuations, University closures and business logistics and normalization. The latter group, the Incident Management Team, offers support to the Crisis Management Team as the first responders, providing on-site tactical responses to the emergency. Perhaps the most challenging aspect of emergency response is the recovery process. In addition to a Critical Incident Stress Management Team, Penn has ample resources providing support to its community. Some support groups include the Division of Public Safety, the Vice-Provost for University Life, Counseling and Psychological Services, Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, Student Health, Student 125 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. Intervention, College Houses and Academic Services, and Faculty Advisors. The goal of the recovery process is to stabilize the community in the wake of tragedy while working to regain a sense of normalcy, allowing the mission of our University to provide the continuity necessary to move forward. Despite all of the proactive measures in place highlighted by our Crisis Management Plan, our University strives to address additional needs for security and avenues of communication. Virginia Tech brought into the public consciousness a sense of worry regarding both security and communications. On the day which saw 32 university members murdered and many more injured, Penn was inundated with calls from parents and concerned community members who wanted to know what systems we had in place to effectively handle a similar situation. Specifically, concerns focused around instant communications. People 126 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. wanted to know more about Penn's ability to immediately notify them while an incident was taking place. Therefore, after a careful screening and selection process of many potential service providers offering advanced notification systems, the University chose MIR 3 Intelligent Notification, a company based out of California. We have since branded our new notification system as the PennAlert Emergency Notification System. During a major emergency, PennAlert enables fast and efficient dissemination of critical information within minutes to approximately 52,000 members of the University community.

It works by delivering these messages via voice, text messaging, which is known as SMS, and e-mail. Users can register phone numbers and e-mail addresses for multiple devices, and students can also include other emergency contact information for their parents, guardians, spouses and others. When the message is 127 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. delivered, it is capable of providing the recipient with the option of responding to the prompts relayed in the message, which would allow us then to know they got the message. Another feature of PennAlert is called call-bridging, which enables a group of users to instantly and automatically connect to a conference call. This greatly reduces the time needed to make decisions, which in turn minimizes response time. In a scenario where a major incident can occur in the span of a few minutes, call-bridging provides the Crisis Management Team, the executive branch, with a critical tool allowing them to convene via cell phone en route to campus, which would be a major time-saving feature. In order to develop a comprehensive, well-organized system of crime prevention, emergency response and crisis management, it is important to recognize that no institution is an 128 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. island, especially in the City of Philadelphia. At Penn, we embrace the close collaborative relationships we have had with other stakeholder institutions, including, but not limited to, other universities, hospitals, City of Philadelphia partners in safety, including the Philadelphia Police Department, Philadelphia Fire Department, Office of Emergency Management -- in particular, Maryann Marrocolo has been terrific -- and state and federal agencies. These relationships will form the cornerstone of our responses when we are all tested by a crisis. Yesterday marked the six-month anniversary of the senseless killings at Virginia Tech. While it is unfortunate that such a tragedy may serve as the impetus for these discussions, it is my sincere hope that my testimony before you today will help the City gain superior insight into what universities, especially those in this region, are 129 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. doing to proactively safeguard their faculty, staff and students. Thank you so much for your time and attention.

Thank you. It doesn't matter who goes next.

Thank you for having me here. My name is Randy Merced. I'm with the Community College of Philadelphia. I don't have quite the same audience that some of my colleagues have. We are a non-traditional institution, and our students are commuters who come in and out. We have a safe institution just by the physical area it's in. We're bounded on the north side of Spring Garden, by some upscale homes on the north side, and the south side is bounded by Center City. East and west has some buildings also. So we have a physical 130 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. advantage as far as safety goes. In response to what happened at Virginia Tech, we've taken some steps before the incident happened going forward. Virginia Tech, I think, heightened the awareness, the agenda, if you will, to get things done. What we've done, we've dedicated our Professional Development Day at the College, and Professional Development Day is a day where all instructors and personnel, faculty get together and try to speak on things, try to collaborate some information. We dedicated our Professional Development Day this year to safety and security in the college. We had a large auditorium session. It was well attended. In light of what happened to Virginia Tech, people wanted to know what are we doing as an institution to protect our students, faculty and staff. And we're able to broadcast that information to our 131 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. community quite well, I think. We spoke to instructors. Then we had some break-out sessions where they talked about issues that were unique to them. It went from trying to identify red flags in the classroom, trying to identify disruptive students and trying to identify areas where a student's behavior may become disruptive. And I think that whole information session brought us uniquely together to try to communicate better at a higher level. And after those sessions, I did get a lot of information from instructors that I wouldn't have gotten before. So I think it was just an education process that we did for our instructors and staff. We also meet with the Spring Garden Safety Committee every month, which is a committee that's comprised of a lot of high school principals in the City, along with lieutenants from various the districts and some captains, and we discuss things and try to collaborate, 132 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. try to get some information back and forth, try to get a handle on what trends are out there, what's happening with our city. We did practice -- we do have a working living document called our Emergency Response Plan, and when I say "a living document," every month we meet with our emergency response team and we're always going over the intricacies of that document. Some of the things are outdated or some of the things are old, so we kind of try to adjust to whatever is needed. Like I said, we had an emergency response drill -- I think it was brought up earlier -- on August 31st. I work closely with the people, the folks, at the Counterterrorism Bureau. They were terrific helping me out, designing the entire drill. It worked very well. We did identify -- actually, there were two steps in this drill actually we're trying to identify. Our 133 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. collaboration with the police, which is the campus security, our communication with the police and trying to make sure that the outside agencies understand what's going on, and we can get that information to our administrative body. We also wanted to understand and try to see if there was any problems with our policy, decision-making, our cabinet people, the assembly of the emergency response team. We wanted to see if those things worked.

And having the drill showed that we do have some work to do as far as communication, and in response to the drill and some other things and some information we got from some other areas, we've taken some initiatives to go forward with communication. Mainly, we have to identify what are we trying to say and who are we trying to say it to. So we are using E2 Campus, which is a service to do a mass messaging, emergency messaging, and I think the audience for 134 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. that is our faculty, staff and students. So we'll send out a message and it will be out to all those folks who will sign up for the service. We also invested in a product called Alerta System, which the population that's going to be targeted there is those folks who are walking into our building. They will see a flashing light and an LED image on the wall saying we do have an emergency, you need to please leave the building or shelter in place, or whatever the nature of the emergency calls for. And that's also done through E2 Campus. We're going to try to integrate those two systems together. We also have access to Channel 53, which is a public broadcasting area. We are trying to integrate that also with our emergency response team. We purchased seven plasma TVs to put throughout the campus. That's also going to be integrated into our emergency alert 135 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. system. We also got some -- we also purchased an item called Linx Mass Communication System, and that target audience is for employees, staff who are sitting at a computer. If there is an emergency, we'll be able to sort of send a pop-up message to each computer to show that there is an emergency, either leave the building or shelter in place or whatever the situation calls for. On campus we have 126 video cameras, looking at everything on the main campus. We have six digital video recorders, capturing about two weeks of information. That's a good tool to have, because we are an open campus and we like to see who is coming in and out, and if anyone does something wrong, it's quite effective for our investigation system. The college has also invested in a new ID system. We are using our ID system that's going to be linked to our database, that if there is an issue -- 136 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. and then going forward, that ID system is going to be sort of a one-stop ID system where you can use it for purchasing and things like that. But what's important as far as the security goes is, that ID system, we're going to be able to swipe into doors and swipe out and we can have a count of who is coming in and out of the buildings. We have 80 contract security officers. We contract out with AlliedBarton. We have two bike patrol officers who, after Virginia Tech, we extended our patrol to go all the way to Broad Street and back. So we extended our patrol a couple blocks. We have in-house security 19 specialists who manage our life safety 20 systems, who are a little more technical 21 savvy. They're trained in crisis 22 management. So if there is an issue in a 23 classroom, they'll be able to understand 24 how to resolve that issue as quickly and 25 quietly as possible and also getting that 137 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. information to the appropriate authorities. Again, I just want to finish up by saying we have a terrific, terrific relationship with our Ninth District, our main campus. And our regional centers, we also have a great relationship with them. We meet as often as we can. I speak with Captain Cullen quite often, and they are very responsive to whatever we need. They're only two blocks away from our campus. As soon as the events of Virginia Tech happened, I received a call from Captain Cullen asking if -- that they were there for our support. If I needed anything from the City, they will be responsive to us, and they have absolutely been terrific.

I can't say anything better about the Ninth District. Thank you very much.

St. Joe's.

Thank you. My name is Bill Mattioli. I'm the Director 138 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. of Public Safety at St. Joseph's. We also have an emergency preparedness plan that we did last year, and it was a tabletop exercise done last January and it was revised, updated and is on our website, and that also includes an infectious disease. We have a room 9 designated on campus where we stockpile. We have over 12,000 masks. We have thousands of rubber gloves. We have alcohol, cleaning supplies. And each year there's money set aside in the budget to stock that room even more. So we are prepared for, as best we can, for an infectious disease problem. St. Joseph's made a decision about a year ago prior to Virginia Tech to make a commitment to public safety, to increase -- do everything we could to increase the safety of the students on the campus. And the first thing we did was hired a consultant to look at the department, the University, what we needed to do, what we had. And I'm happy 139 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. to say that the Board, the Cabinet, the President all supported this consultation report and they gave me, in the last six months, an awful lot of money to make some changes to the department. We hired three officers. We had 67. We have 70 now. But the big thing is, most of our officers were in dorms. We now have resident hall attendants we hired for the dormitories, and officers are now out on patrol 13 where they're supposed to be. 14 We hired four supervisors. We 15 hired two bus drivers to extend the 16 shuttles for the buses until 4:00 a.m. in 17 the morning to get the students to campus 18 safely. 19 We worked with the City and 20 with PECO and we added lighting to the 21 whole perimeter of campus, those lights 22 that are focused on the sidewalks that 23 Maureen referred to all around Cardinal 24 Avenue, City Avenue, 54th Street. We 25 added about 20 lights in the middle of 140 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. campus to increase the lighting. We added about 90 or 100 more cameras. We're close to about 250 cameras on campus. We added emergency phones. 6 We're about 90 now total on campus. 7 We bought two vehicles. We 8 made them white Ford Escapes to kind of 9 mimic the Philadelphia Police, and they 10 ride the area off campus 24/7 in the 11 blocks immediately around the campus, 12 just as a deterrent to crime. 13 We changed our uniforms. We 14 copied the University of Penn's that has 15 bright nice blue jackets. We have card access now in every building. Our dormitories are locked 24/7 with card access. The bell carillon system in the tower was replaced this summer with a PA siren system, so we'll be able to have a loud, audible alert with information immediately following from our office. We installed a -- purchased an EEN, an electronic event notification system, a text messaging that we can send 141 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. now to all students immediately to give them any information that we need on emergencies. And we're also working on a reverse text messaging system that we should have up in about a month or two before the next semester begins, where a student, if anything were to happen in a classroom, they could be in the back of the room text messaging us with the information that we needed. And we also hired the Philadelphia Police 24/7. They work from 7:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m., for two big reasons. One, the safety of the students, but another one is to protect the community from our students. We get a lot of complaints about their moving into the areas, renting the houses and the apartment complexes and causing some problems for the neighbors. So they know to call us. And we use the Philadelphia Police detail every night to handle the noise complaints, parking complaints, anything that involves the neighbors and our students. 142 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. Thank you.

Great. It sounds like so many of the schools have cameras, video surveillance. In fact, when we went to look at video surveillance cameras for Philadelphia in Baltimore, when we were in Baltimore, they told us they came up here and looked at Penn's. We're two hours away. We could have just went out West Philadelphia.

Should have come over for lunch.

And we actually keep saying we're going to come out, we're going to call and come out, but we just haven't made the time to do that yet.

We're happy to have you.

But we do want to do that. What does Community -- you have so many satellite schools. 143 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC.

Yes. We have three regional sites in Philadelphia, one at West Philadelphia, one at Northeast Philadelphia and one at Northwest Philadelphia, yes. And we definitely try to mirror -- all the things we do on main campus, we do on regional sites. Again, the populations are different and there are some dynamics there that are different than others, but the emergency -- the planning is customized to each site, but also takes in account the main campus plan. And part of the plan -- I didn't mention, part of the plan addresses specific emergencies. Again, we look at it all the time. Years ago, anthrax was on there. It was a big emergency. That kind of took a back seat. We're working on a pandemic flu plan now. We're pretty much almost done with that planning. And most of the plan centers around communication and trying to keep the folks safe that are visiting our campus. 144 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC.

Councilman Kelly.

Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to thank you for your testimony today. I think it's encouraging for everyone in this Council to see the steps that you have been taking to improve the safety of the students and professors and everyone in there. It's very interesting that, Mr. Mattioli, St. Joe's, mentioning that not only does his, I guess, security people help the students, but it also helps the community. I'm sure, Mrs. Rush, you're in the same venue. And I think it's a win-win situation for not only the students but also the community, and sometimes we forget that there is a community around there. But, again, I want to commend each and every one of your testimony. I think it was very, very encouraging. 145 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, all. Carl Bittenbender, Executive Director of Public Safety, Temple University; Mike McFall, Operations Manager of Campus Security, Temple University; and Charles Leone, Deputy Director of Campus Security, Temple University. Mr. Bittenbender, do you want to highlight the main points in your testimony and not read the whole thing?

Sure.

Thank you.

Madam Chair and parent of a Temple student and Committee members --

My daughter graduated in May.

So did mine. I'm a proud parent of a daughter that 146 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. graduated. In terms of highlighting, then, my operation in so many ways mirrors Penn's, after hearing their testimony. I think one of the things in terms of the Committee's looking at Virginia Tech is to be aware that since Virginia Tech, universities throughout the City and the Commonwealth have taken many steps, and all of us, you have heard, have testified to several things that have actually been outlined in the Virginia Tech Review Committee that was submitted to their Governor, including notification systems, the MIR 3 notification, which is a three-pronged approach. It will send a text, an e-mail and a phone message in the event of an emergency. We are also exploring, Temple's exploring, the use of an audible siren. We've already ordered that siren, and that will be arriving and we will test that and then see if we place a siren at our other campuses in the county. 147 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. As you see from our preventive methods, the large size of our Police Department, the amount of technology that we've implemented, including 475 cameras that are spread between our two campuses -- and I would say on your way down Broad Street on your way to Penn, you're welcome to stop at Temple as well.

We intend to.

Thank you. One of the things in Virginia Tech was an issue about guns, and, unfortunately, we do not allow guns on campus. Across the country there are some counties and state governments that are looking to allow guns on campuses. We do not have that opinion. We don't want any guns on campus, including people that have licenses to carry a firearm. We also last year had a handler, and we now have an explosive-scent-trained dog, Jake.

Excuse me, 148 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. Mr. Bittenbender. I just want to follow up on something you just said, that there are some states or universities or colleges that would like to have students bring guns into the universities and colleges?

Yes. Actually --

And what would be the purpose of that? I just don't understand it.

It's probably not the -- I probably won't have the word to describe it other than idiotic.

I just don't understand the rationale.

No. I guess that's in the event of an incident, then everybody behind you -- I would never want to sit in a front row at class if everybody behind me had a gun.

I'm sorry. I just wanted to clear that. 149 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC.

But it is, and I've seen it. And we have a zero tolerance for guns. And I'm an ex-Philadelphia police officer. Even Philadelphia police officers who have a permit to carry, we don't want the guns on the campus. We have several safety awareness campaigns, including an Emergency Preparedness Fair. You see we have our annual security report that outlines all our Clery requirements. Some of the other universities, as well as Maryann Marrocolo, spoke of liaisons and partnerships. We attend meetings regularly with the Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management. We're in close contact with Philadelphia Police, the Fire Department, PEMA, all of the -- we're an ATAC member. But I think one of the big things I would like to highlight and not gloss over is, something out of Virginia Tech was people -- a criticism, which I'm 150 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. not saying whether it's founded or unfounded, that pieces were not put together regarding a student behavior. And what we do at the University is, we have something that currently is called the Care Team. I am a member of the Care Team. We meet regularly. It's Police, Counseling Services, it's Judicial Fairs, it's Residential Life, Disability Services, University Council, Student Health Services, the Dean of Students and a representative from the Provost's Office. And what we look at is any type of student behavior that is brought to our attention from the University community that maybe some people may consider a little off-center, and what we'll do is, we'll collectively meet each week, go over that behavior, look towards intervention methods and try to take a proactive approach in the event that a student's behavior is questionable. And then part of that Care Team, as you'll see there, Tuttleman 151 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. Counseling Services, we've added an additional full-time psychiatrist. We have walk-in services. We have triage services. We have many counseling services. And we are providing faculty and we will be doing educational programs with the faculty in the future about how to recognize and identify and how to bring to the attention of the Care Team students that have those issues. In terms of our response, naturally we have emergency response plans that include many scenarios, including a pandemic influenza plan, which would cover MRSA. We do many tabletop exercises. They've been rehearsed in-house and also with state, local and federal agencies, and I participated with other universities in their tabletops, including Penn. We're connected directly -- ourselves and Penn are two institutions with Police Departments that are connected. We see the City 9-1-1 calls 152 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. in addition to the calls that come to us. So if you're standing on Temple's campus and you dial 9-1-1 from Broad and Montgomery, the minute the Philadelphia Police call-taker receives that call and sends it for dispatch, simultaneously it shows up at our headquarters. We see it as well. And we are actually able to pull some assignments from the City. The relationship, it's been nothing less than a home run for both institutions. We've recently purchased 30 satellite phones in the event that there's a major outage in terms of cell phone or land line communication. We've seen it happen in New York, not only during 9/11 but also after the power failure, and recently with the bridge collapse, entire cell phone service was lost because of the intense volume of use. So we have 30 satellite phones that are being given to all persons that are on our Emergency Response Task Force that will be with them. 153 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. Another issue from the Virginia Tech report was, there was mention of active shooter. All our police, as are Penn's, are active-shooter trained. And actually over the coming holidays, we will be doing another two-day training with the officers.

And in conclusion, I would say that safety is utmost important to us. As you see, we also have a wonderful trauma center in the event of something at Temple Hospital. Thank you.

Thank you. Are you two going to testify or you're just here to support?

Just for support and any questions.

Councilman Greenlee.

Thank you, Madam Chair. First, I must say as a Temple 154 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. graduate, I congratulate you on all that you do up there. I have a lot of students that live in my immediate home area in Fairmount. They rent apartments, and a number of them have told me that they feel -- the question of safety was raised with them before they came there, that, Oh, you're in North Philadelphia, but they feel that the University does a great job in security up there and that they really do feel safe when they're on campus.

Thank you.

Just a question on the Care Team issue, and that sounds like certainly a great idea and your proactive approach that you talk about. When the police officials were up here earlier, they talked about some -- the acts. I forget what they were.

HIPAA and FERPA.

Have you found that as a problem? 155 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC.

Part of our education is going to be relative to FERPA. FERPA protects educational records. That's the basis of FERPA. It doesn't prevent us from reaching out to a parent if there's a student in crisis. If we have a student that we feel is in crisis, there is no issue with us contacting the parent for that support.

So you have not found that to be a problem. I wasn't real clear on what they were talking about.

Frankly, there is a lot of misunderstanding across the country on FERPA. But we're making a concerted effort to make sure that all our faculty, staff and administration are aware of the parameters and the restrictions on it.

And you have not seen any real problem with that?

At this point, no. 156 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC.

Great. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

I too want to say that I think Temple surely gives you the perception of being safe. I mean, you have those booths everywhere. And actually, I think you're the first school that I really noticed had so many booths and phones.

We have 13.

They just seem like they're everywhere. I used to go to the gym. I still should, but I haven't been in a while at --

IBC, right at 15th and Cecil B. Moore.

Right there at 15th and Cecil B. Moore, and I just feel safe whenever I'm there. University of Penn in their testimony said they have about 52,000. That includes students, faculty, 157 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. everybody. How many people are on Temple's main campus?

I would say in the area of 44,000 to 46,000. There's about 34,000 students on main. It's about 36,000 if you add all the campuses. Actually, I'm sorry. Actually, 34,000 would include the main and Health Science Center.

Okay. So altogether, though, somewhere around 40?

Somewhere in the mid 40's, 45,000 students, faculty, staff.

All right. Thank you. Councilman Kelly.

Thank you, Madam Chair. First of all, I want to thank you and commend you for your testimony today, and also for your patience. It's been a long, long day and you were very, very, I think, patient for waiting this 158 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. out. I just want to get to one point, and that's bad behavior with students when you identify them as such. Could you tell me, if they continue this pattern or if they continue bad behavior or whatnot, what's the final disposition?

Well, there's a judicial code of conduct, and students that have conduct issues are referred through the judicial process. Students have due process as well. And then there are sanctions, anywhere from probation to expulsion. And what you do is, though, you base it -- it's based on a student's conduct. It's not based on their mental health condition.

You mentioned you have, what, 36,000 students?

Yes.

Out of that, could you give me a ballpark figure of how many students were actually expelled 159 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC. over the last year or so?

Last year I think through the judicial process, I would say somewhere around a half a dozen or so.

That's it? All right.

But there's expelled and then you'll have suspension of a semester or two.

Yeah. I'm not interested in that. I'm talking about the real rotten apple there. And there's not too many of them, thank God. So, again, I want to commend you for your testimony and for, I guess, the programs that you put in. I think that all of us here feel much better about the safety and security of all our students in our colleges and universities in Philadelphia. Again, thank you.

You're welcome. 160 10/17/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - BILL 070275, ETC.

I just want to say one more thing before we close. I think it is important to include the siren in on your notification, because everyone doesn't know how to access a text message or may not have a cell phone, and sirens are just so simple and easy and hopefully everybody can hear them. So don't forget the good old-fashioned people that don't walk around with these cell phones. I have a cell phone that someone tried to -- someone told me they sent me a text message. I told them, I don't do text. And I don't. But somebody like me, I need a siren. I just want to thank you for coming in today. This Resolution 070330 is being held to the call of the Chair. Thank you.

Thank you. (Committee on Public Safety adjourned at 3:50 p.m.) - - - 161 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on October 17, 2007, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)