Committee Hearing, April 20, 2004

COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC HEARING - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, April 20, 2004, 9:50 a.m. BILL 040255 - An Ordinance adopting the Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2005. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT ANNA C. VERNA COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN COUNCILMAN W. WILSON GOODE, JR. COUNCILMAN DAVID COHEN COUNCILMAN JACK KELLY COUNCILMAN JAMES F. KENNEY COUNCILMAN JUAN F. RAMOS COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO COUNCILMAN FRANK DI CICCO COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE L. BLACKWELL COUNCILMAN MICHAEL A. NUTTER COUNCILMAN DARRELL L. CLARKE COUNCILMAN RICHARD T. MARIANO COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER COUNCILWOMAN MARIAN B. TASCO - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 2 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255

Good morning everyone. This is the continued public hearing of the Committee of the Whole regarding Bill No. 040255. Before we start our hearings, I would like to acknowledge students from the Discovery Charter School who are up in the balcony. If they would stand, we would like to recognize them. (Applause.)

Welcome. Our first department to testify will be Fairmount Park. Good morning. Welcome. Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.

Thank you. President Verna and Members of City Council, my name is Karen Lloyd Borski and I am the Interim Executive Director of the Fairmount Park Commission. I am pleased to appear before you today to present on behalf of the Fairmount Park Commission our recommended Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 6 million operating budget for fiscal year '05. While our commitment to care for the City's green spaces continues to be our primary focus, there are major new initiatives on the horizon for the Fairmount Park Commission. Negotiations and planning continue for the occupancy of Memorial Hall by the Please Touch Museum. This project will not only expand a popular children's activity destination, but also invest millions of dollars into the restoration and stabilization of one of Philadelphia's most treasured landmarks. Scheduled to open in 2006, the Museum will greatly enhance the public's ability to visit and learn about Memorial Hall. Together with the Philadelphia Zoo, the Mann Center for the Performing Arts and neighborhood development in the Parkside area, this will breathe new life into West Fairmount Park. Plans are being made to create a Centennial District among these cultural 4 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 institutions on the very same grounds where our country celebrated its centennial anniversary in 1876. The Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis Center, currently on Main Street in Manayunk, will soon have a new home in Fairmount Park on the site of Gustine Recreation Center. Operated by Philadelphia Youth Tennis, this development will not only create an ultra-modern indoor and outdoor tennis facility, but also replace the existing 40-year-old recreation center with a new building with enhanced athletic and community use spaces. Savings will also be realized in maintenance costs, as the tennis center will become responsible for the entire Gustine site. A partnership with the School District of Philadelphia may also yield an important first for Fairmount Park. Sponsored by the Microsoft Corporation, plans are underway to create a state-of-the-art, technologically complete high "school of the future" on a seven-acre campus in West Fairmount Park. 5 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 Such a development would foster a tremendous environment for advanced learning and also provide great benefits for the Parkside and West Philadelphia communities, while underscoring our belief that the Fairmount Park system really is the City's largest classroom. Most notable, of course, will be the implementation of the Fairmount Park Strategic Plan. Developed over the last months with 12 a vast outreach effort, this plan will provide 13 important recommendations to the Commission 14 and City Government on the management and 15 operations of the Park system, increased 16 revenue generation and opportunities for the 17 enhancement of partnerships and volunteer 18 support. 6 million in all classes. The Class 100 request of $9,398,448 is $264,248 below the fiscal year 2004 estimated obligations, due to decreases in overtime and temporary/seasonal preparations and savings created by the Deferred Retirement Option 6 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 Program, DROP. These decreases are partially offset by an increase in staffing levels from 202 on the November 2003 increment run to 205 in fiscal year 2005. The Class 200 request of $2,742,509 is $300,000 below the fiscal year 2004 estimated obligations due to the non-recurring preparation for our Strategic Plan. The mission of the Fairmount Park Commission is to preserve, protect and maintain the woodlands, watersheds, landscapes and physical infrastructure of 469 buildings and over 200 sculptures throughout its 9,100 acres, while providing Philadelphia citizens and visitors with opportunities for quiescent and active recreation. More than 60 parks managed by the Commission comprise one of the largest municipally operated landscaped park systems in the United States.

Each of these parks falls into one of 11 different classifications as they are outlined in our Strategic Plan, dependent upon size and use, from the smallest 7 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 neighborhood mini park to downtown plazas to regional parks to our largest natural watershed areas. Our major accomplishments in fiscal year 2004 include the transfer of recreation facilities to the Department of Recreation. In FY03 and into '04, the Park Commission completed the transfer of six indoor recreational facilities and all three of its swimming pools to the Philadelphia Department of Recreation. Only the recreation facilities at Lloyd Hall and Memorial Hall remain under the Park's purview. These transfers have helped to eliminate the overlapping and duplicative responsibilities between the two departments and allowed the Commission to focus on its mission of preserving open space and natural land preservation. PDR's expertise in recreational programming and facility management has resulted in improved opportunities and service within the transferred facilities. In FY04, the Park Commission 8 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 established three special project crews to provide dedicated service for the upkeep of hard surface trails, our restroom facilities and playground sites. These crews were established from existing Park staff and are supplemented with seasonal employees. The restroom crew enables us to provide service to 27 outdoor restroom facilities on a daily basis from April through October. In FY03 and into FY04, the Park also provided an additional 41 temporary restroom facilities for park users. The trail maintenance crew cleans and sweeps 50 miles of hard surface trails and removes dangerous tree limbs over those trails throughout the Park system on a biweekly basis, providing a safe environment for trail users. The playground maintenance crew provides biweekly inspections and repairs to all 30 playground sites. Our goal is to reduce the number of potential injuries that may occur to children by eliminating the number of hazards at the playgrounds. 9 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 In addition to this crew, 15 Park staff members have been trained in playground safety inspection by the National Playground Safety Institute and we have developed a playground safety policy for all of the playgrounds in the Park system. Our initiatives for fiscal year 2005 include implementing the Strategic Plan. As mentioned earlier, the Fairmount Park Commission began developing a Strategic Plan in January 2003 to serve as a guide for the next five years. To be completed this spring, the vision for the Park was framed by input from park users, community members, staff advocates and business and civic leaders. Existing facilities and service areas were mapped, and recommended modifications have been made based on demographics and national standards. A significant review of the Department of Recreation was also conducted to determine if and where any overlaps or redundancies exist in the delivery of services. 10 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 Based on recommendations from the Strategic Plan, the Park and PDR have already begun work with the Managing Director's Office to improve coordination and eliminate redundant efforts. Plans for consolidating administrative functions, payroll processing, personnel transactions, budget preparation, and purchasing are underway and the Park Recreation Administrative Service Cluster should be operational by early FY05. Also in fiscal year '05, the Park will begin planning to assume the responsibility of maintaining the grounds and trees at 47 recreation centers, 112 playgrounds, 54 parks and 113 breezeways and cul-de-sacs currently managed by PDR. When the entire transfer of these sites is complete, the total acreage that Fairmount Park is responsible for will increase by 900 acres.

The Streets Department will also become responsible for trash collection at PDR and Fairmount Park facilities in an effort to take advantage of the strengths of all the City's departments 11 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 and eliminate duplicative tasks. Caring for and maintaining one of the largest and most diverse park systems in the country is a challenging task that requires professional, committed staff and legions of dedicated volunteers who support our efforts because they love their parks. Our City is fortunate enough to have both, and I look forward to the positive impact of the Strategic Plan on our Park system in the year and long-term future. Madam President, I would like to acknowledge that several of our Commissioners are present for today's testimony, along with many members of our various friends groups and thank you for their support.

Thank you. Before we recognize the witnesses, I am told that we have students from the Elwood Elementary School with us. If they would stand, we would like to recognize them. (Applause.)

12 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 Welcome. I would like to remind my colleagues that with the first go-around, everyone will be given five minutes. I am asking that we respect that rule. If you're in the middle of a question, you can finish your line of questioning. And, please, we have a very, very busy day, so I am asking everyone to please cooperate. Commissioner, you mentioned in your testimony the implementation of the Park's Strategic Plan. What additional resources has the City committed to this endeavor in the FY05 budget and the proposed five-year plan?

For the first year, Madam President, the Strategic Plan is looking at the ways that it will invest in the Park system. So the FY05 budget does not reflect any increases in investment at this time. We will spend this first year examining operational ways to improve Park delivery, and that will lead us to make some guideline decisions for the coming years. 13 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255

Has the Strategic Plan been made public, and if it has, can we have a copy of it?

Our hope is to roll out the Strategic Plan mid-May. We are in the final draft revisions right now. I believe that there are plans underway to present to both Commissioners, Council and the conservancy in the very near future, so that we can meet a mid-May target date for presentation to the public.

Thank you. You state in your testimony that in FY05, the Park will begin planning to assume the responsibility of maintaining the grounds and trees at 47 recreation centers, 112 playgrounds, 54 parks and 113 breezeways and cul-de-sacs currently managed by Recreation. When is it anticipated that you will actually take over and do you have the amount of staff that would be able to do all of this?

It is one of the recommendations of the Strategic Plan to 14 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 combine services, reduce redundancies wherever possible with other departments, and this is the beginning of that effort. It will continue through fiscal year '07, I believe, but we are beginning the process right now effective July 1.

Well, does the plan indicate the projected cost of this and how you'll be able -- or how will you be able to absorb it?

Good morning. My name is Brian Albert. I'm the Administrative Services Director at the Fairmount Park Commission. This is a recent initiative of the Managing Director's Office in conjunction with the Strategic Plan. The actual costs are still being determined at this point, and we would anticipate a revision of our '05 budget at some point, depending on costs that we assume. Certainly for '06 those costs would be reflected, but we're still at the initial planning stage at this point. 15 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255

Can you tell us the operational impact to the Park on your proposed reductions and temporary and seasonal workers of 30,000 and $229,000 in overtime?

Again, we thought that we could eliminate some of the temporary positions. It amounts to nearly percent, 10 and we thought that by reevaluating the season, that we have the temporary, maybe starting them later or having them finish earlier would reduce our costs in that area. We are still, again, trying to determine what impact that would have on services and we are just trying to manage those resources.

Are any of the Recreation employees being transferred to Fairmount Park?

That's not the current plan, no. While we will be assuming some services, and one of those is tree crew, we have worked closely with the one tree crew that Recreation currently has throughout the winter months with snow emergencies and other 16 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 things, and there is the idea that that crew would be transferred.

Thank you. I'll come back later. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown.

Thank you, Madam President. Good morning.

Good morning.

Let me first continue with the line of questioning around the Strategic Plan and indicate that I too look forward to the unveiling of that plan, and all of us should be mindful or reminded of the fact that we have introduced a resolution calling for hearings so that we as City Council can hear about it, learn more in detail about the recommendations and how we can monitor the implementation of the plan. So we look forward to that official unveiling. And let me go on record to salute the leadership, and specifically Debra Wolf-Goldstein, for the very intimate 17 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 involvement with the Please Touch Museum and it finally moving through the process at the Fairmount Park Commission. On the topic of the Please Touch Museum, could you please share with us a time frame at least that you will anticipate seeing the legislation transmitted to City Council? Because Councilman Nutter and I look forward to these hearings on this particular matter.

At our Commission meeting last week, we did approve the lease arrangements with Please Touch Museum, and my understanding is in the very near future, Councilwoman, you will be seeing legislation come down the pike. Sometime within the next two weeks the Chairman is telling me. I also want to acknowledge your calling for hearings on the Strategic Plan. We welcome the opportunity to present in that format. We're very excited about what the plan has to offer, and it will be a good format for getting word out.

So do we, because we know that I think the last plan was 18 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 1980?

Yes.

And all of us are set on the fact that this plan does not sit on a shelf, but that it actually gets realized, given all the work that's gone into it over the past two years. Discuss with us what is happening with the staff or the anticipated action plan for transitioning Fairmount Park staff from Memorial Hall to wherever they are going.

Plans for the move are underway. Based on Please Touch's time line, we are looking to try and have staff out of Memorial Hall by late fall, mid-fall, October and November. And plans for most of the administrative staff will move them downtown to 1515 Arch. There will be some staff changes that will take them into other places in the Park, and we do want to maintain a Park presence at our Case building on the corner of Belmont Avenue and Girard where people are used to coming for permits and such. 19 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255

It looks like I have one more question. The Microsoft high school, a number of us in City Council attended the public hearing around that. Give us the status to date on where that is in the process.

Negotiations are continuing with the School District at this point. We have as a Commission granted concept approval to the idea of the school, a future happening there. So the School District has entered into some negotiations with us regarding right-of-entry to the site to look at test borings and surveying, things like that. We're also in conversations regarding what that will entail from the School District to the Park to have this site, which, of course, among other things, would entail a land swap where we would not overall lose acreage to the park because --

A land what?

Land swap. The 20 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 idea is that we would never give up park land without having it replaced somewhere else in the park that was beneficial to the Park system as a whole.

I recall a bump in the road with regards to a piece of Federal regulation around that. So you're saying we've gotten over that bump?

We are in negotiations right now with the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. DCNR is sort of the enforcing agency for Federal policy on that line, but Fairmount Park Commission itself would also have a policy where we would want to retain land if land was used for another use.

Okay. With regards to the restroom, trail and playground maintenance section in your testimony, and you've established three special crews to provide dedicated service to trails, restrooms and playgrounds, what did we do with these items previously?

Good morning. My 21 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 name is Sam Curry. I'm the Interim Director of Operations. Prior to implementing the three special crews, we did it within districts. We handled restroom cleaning, we handled trail clearing and playground repair and inspection within the district. But at that point, we weren't able to do it as timely and as efficiently as we can do it with the three dedicated crews. These three crews are dedicated to making sure that the restrooms are open and cleaned daily, that the trails are swept biweekly, and the playground safety crew inspects and repairs the playgrounds biweekly. So we're making the playgrounds a lot safer, the bathrooms a lot cleaner and the trails a lot nicer for the trail users.

So can we surmise from that that the staff reconfiguration has moved to an improvement in those areas?

That's correct.

Playground 22 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 safety policy, is that universal now, is it applied universally across the Fairmount Park system and where are we in terms of making sure all of our playgrounds are up to standard?

Yes, it does. The policy covers the entire Fairmount Park playground areas. There are some playgrounds that we have gone in and inspected. We've removed some pieces of equipment that are hazardous that we felt were beyond repair. We've made repairs to some of the equipment, and some playgrounds are designated for capital improvements.

So if you had to give yourself a grade on where the City is with regards to the application of the playground safety policy, what would it be?

What grade would I give Fairmount Park's playground policy in the work we've done?

Unbiased.

I'll give it an A.

So let us 23 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 know then which of those playgrounds are not where they should be in terms of a playground safety policy, because I'm sure that might be of interest to our District Council Members.

I don't know if I have that information in front of me right now. We do have several that are scheduled for capital improvements.

You can forward that to the Chair?

We can do that. That's no problem.

Please.

Councilwoman, your time is up.

Thank you, Madam President.

The Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter. Five minutes, sir.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Ms. Borski, I understand that you laid out that the Strategic Plan for the Park 24 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 will be completed sometime in mid-May; is that correct?

Yes. Good morning.

Good morning. I'm sorry. But I take it from your testimony that there must be a draft of the plan already that you're working from?

Yes. It is in draft form.

What are its major conclusions?

Some of the things that I mentioned in my testimony, which is this idea of consolidation and transferring of responsibilities with other City departments to reduce duplicative efforts. Specifically, we can point to trash removal along with Streets Department and the idea of Fairmount Park assuming turf maintenance and tree maintenance responsibilities at rec sites, as well as the Fairmount Park sites we do already. They would be some highlights. 25 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 But the plan in its current form still needs to sort of bring its priorities to the surface, and that's what the draft is doing. And, actually, as I also said, I'm not sure if you were quite here yet, we do plan to bring that to Council in the very near future.

Right. No; I did hear that. What does the Strategic Plan talk about in the context of funding? I thought one of the major issues that we were seeking to grapple with was what is the real need from a funding standpoint to run a first-class world-class Park system?

Well, it does two things. It certainly identifies revenue generation and new revenue generation as a sort of key component of bringing up the standard of the Park system, and it does also look at operational review to sort of streamline current financial practices within the Park.

Does it make any recommendation or speak to the issue Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 of the need for increased funding from the City for the Park system? Wasn't that part of the point?

Councilman, it probably will, but that language is not really there now. Like I said, in the draft forms, things are still in a sort of very general state in terms of saying park systems can always do better with more, but it does not to date identify specific areas.

Well, I thought that was part of the goal of the Strategic Plan in the first place. I mean, is the Park working on the draft or is the consultant working on the draft?

The consultant in conjunction with the Managing Director's Office and the Park staff are all looking at it.

Well, is there a recommendation in the report that would propose the need for additional funding for the Park system?

I mean, at this 27 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 point, I can't point to sort of a line item that says what that is, but, yes, they will definitely make recommendations for increased revenue from all sources, and one of the ways I think that they will look at the Park system is being able to generate more on its own. They point to percentages that would say that we could generate -- a Park system could generate up to 30 to 40 percent its operating revenue.

I understand you want to maximize your revenue generation. I think I'm asking a slightly different question. I'm asking you, how much money does it really take to run a 9,100-acre Park system at the level of service that citizens of Philadelphia should expect? That's the question. I thought that was the question we were trying to answer by going through a Strategic Plan.

And ultimately I think the Strategic Plan will look to provide those numbers, but in its draft form now, they have not. They haven't really gotten into 28 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 specific numbers at all. They'll talk about benchmarks, they'll talk about what other cities do best, but they haven't sort of culminated into that final piece. They can look to number recommendations.

Okay. But you expect it to be completed by mid-May?

Yes, we do.

your testimony talks about the transfer of recreation facilities to the Department of Recreation.

You got it started.

Complete your question, sir.

Thank you. It says, "Only the recreational facilities at Lloyd Hall and Memorial Hall remain under the Park's purview." I thought that was -- maybe that statement is true in terms of major buildings or facilities, but the Park system still has a variety of what any of us would consider to be 29 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 recreational facilities under its jurisdiction, right?

They were identified as our indoor rec centers, that the transfer started last year and is completed now. And with the exception of Memorial Hall and Lloyd Hall, that's the case.

But you transferred some outdoor recreational facilities in the most recent transfer of assets, didn't you?

We tend to take care --

Parkside Evans is an outdoor recreation facility. You transferred that from the Park to the Department of Recreation.

That's correct, but the relationship is still for the Rec Department to take care of the actual building facility and Fairmount Park still maintains the grounds.

And Rec is going to do the programming as well, right? 30 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255

And Rec is going to do the programming as well.

Because I want to talk to you about a number of other facilities in my district and I know you've had some contact with some of my constituents about places like Daisy and Boyce and Arrow.

Yes.

And whether or not they should stay within the purview of the Park since they are active recreation sites that you've historically had, but I think the question still remains whether they should be with Fairmount Park or with Recreation. We can continue that discussion. Thank you, Madam President.

You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Miller.

Thank you, Madam President. Good morning.

Good morning. 31 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255

I have a couple of questions about the street tree removal program. What is the process and criteria for the removal of street trees? I know under NTI, I think we've been a little bit more aggressive about removing street trees, but if you have 250,000 trees, I don't know how you keep up with this.

I can answer that, Councilwoman. In FY02, three years ago, we developed a heavy-duty street tree removal program with help from NTI, and at that point, we had approximately 8,500 hazardous trees lining the streets. Each year we remove approximately 4,000, but we anticipate an additional 2,000 to 2,500 trees decline and die as the year progresses. So we kind of take a lot -- remove a lot of trees, but others die and take its place. We have figured out a number that we probably remove a total of 1,500 trees per year. Presently we are in -- FY05 will be the fourth season. We have greatly reduced the 32 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 backlog of hazardous trees on the streets of the City of Philadelphia.

What is the current backlog; do you know?

We perceive the current backlog to be about 2,000 trees. We anticipate over the next year, as trees decline and die, to increase that by approximately 2,000 trees. So by the end of the year, it will be 4,000. If we can remove close to 4,000 trees, our backlog at that point will be at a manageable number of several hundred. And then you have to anticipate the following year more will decline and die. So it's an ongoing task, but I think that we have reduced that hazardous backlog greatly.

Well, that's very good. How do you keep up with -- I notice in the five-year plan you're talking about putting together a geographic information system for asset management that doesn't exist 33 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 now. So how do you keep up? How do you know what trees are dying? Is it by complaint driven, by people calling or do you survey?

Actually, both ways. If we get a call, we would go out and inspect it. We do still receive calls for not only tree removal but tree pruning, tree planting also. We also go out and inspect certain areas, especially with the pruning. We do 14,000 street tree prunings per year. We don't get quite that many requests, but we will go out and inspect complete blocks. So as we go out, we also make indication of trees that are dying, declining that we should be removing. So we get it twofold, one by inspection that we do and also by requests through citizens, through Council, through others, et cetera.

In previous years -- I guess what is the criteria for the removal of a street tree? I know that one time someone said that a tree is 34 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 determined to be in certain categories, like imminently dangerous and this and that, sort of like a building, a structure. Can you tell me what those are again?

Yeah. I can help you out there I think a little bit. Each tree, we send a professional arborist out to inspect each and every tree that there is a request for removal. If there is an indication that the tree is declining or dead, then the tree would be listed for removal. If it is hazardous, it has a crack in it, it could be alive, but there's a large crack, then, of course, that would be imminently dangerous and we would remove that tree. Other than that, it really depends on the tree health. We have to go out and take a look at the tree, inspect the tree, and each tree is an individual and we make that decision upon inspection.

Is there a routine list? When you plant a new tree, is there a routine time frame that you go back to 35 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 prune?

The question is after we plant a tree, when do we prune?

Yes; routinely.

After how many years or something like that?

Yes.

Actually, we try to do that within the first few years. It's really a benefit to the tree. It structurally enhances the tree. We take out the branches that we do not want. It's also a little less costly to do it at that point, and it's great for the health of the tree if we go back and do it within two to three years.

And all trees on sidewalks are yours, correct?

All street trees, yes, between the curb and the sidewalk come under the jurisdiction of the Fairmount Park Commission.

Okay. Thank you. 36 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you. Commissioner, you mention in your testimony that plans are being made to create a Centennial District among cultural institutions. Would you share with us your concept of what this district would be?

Currently we are looking at calling something a Centennial District that would span from the Art Museum to the Mann Center for Performing Arts. It would, therefore, include the zoo, the Mann, the upcoming Please Touch Museum, existing horticultural centers there, as well as the Japanese House and Garden, and look at that area in a more cohesive fashion to maybe even be considered a zone in Fairmount Park where you could enhance the maintenance and care of the area through some sort of contributing effort of the entities that are in it and also the Park itself as the landlord of that piece of ground. There is a study currently underway 37 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 to do that. We are very excited about what the potential is to look at areas of the Park in terms of a zone that can have attention focused particularly on its care, maintenance and upkeep.

Thank you. The gentleman to your right, I'm sorry, I don't recall your name.

Brian Albert.

Brian, in your testimony you indicated that at some point the budget would have to be revised. At what point would that be? Would it be before we consider the budget or after we consider the budget?

I think I was alluding to during the fiscal year 2005. Say, for example, we took over the street tree crew from the Department of Recreation. Obviously the dollars would need to follow as well. I would anticipate that that would need to be part of, say, a mid-year transfer ordinance. How much would be required to be transferred would depend at what point in the 38 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 year that happened. I hope that's clear.

I just wanted to clear that point. Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Clarke.

A point of information from Councilman Rizzo.

A point of information from Councilman Rizzo.

I'd like to go back to the street tree issue. There's nothing, in my opinion, worse that when we have a wind storm, that we read about a person that's killed by a tree that's fallen, and I know that in my community on Bells Mill Road many years ago a large tree came down and struck a person driving a vehicle and killed them instantly. As I drive through the City, I see in the -- not necessarily street trees. I'm talking about park trees -- that, in my opinion, are very unstable. Yesterday driving on Germantown Avenue on the east side of Germantown at 39 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 Hillcrest, there's an embankment there and there's some large oaks. I believe they're oaks. And their root system is showing, and it jumped out at me that here's an accident waiting to happen. What are we doing as a Fairmount Park Commission, especially the trees that are on our property, assuring that we're going to not have future fatalities with these falling trees?

Good morning, Councilman. It's a difficult situation that the Park finds itself in, because this is sort of the situation that occurs anywhere where you have a park boundary, a hillside, Lincoln Drive, Kelly drive, West River Drive and throughout the entire City. It's a vast area. If we come upon or someone tells us that there is a potential hazard of a tree either at that location on Germantown Avenue or along Lincoln Drive and we go out and inspect that tree, we need to remove that tree, one way or another. Because we 40 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 certainly do not want that tree to hurt, especially kill, anyone. Some of these areas are very difficult to get at. We may go in there and make the tree safe to a point where it wouldn't fall, but if we are aware of a situation like that, we will try to rectify that situation.

Thank you. Could you please take a look at -- because I would hate like heck to have something occur -- Germantown Avenue between Bells Mill and Hillcrest on the west side of the street. It's terribly undermined there, and the tree must be three or four feet in diameter. And if that fell, even a part of it, it would be, I believe, fatal. Thank you.

If I just may, sometimes the trees may lean. They're actually leaning for light. But we will take a look at it and determine the hazardness within that tree.

This one looks dead, because it has no vegetation at 41 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 all on it at this time of the year. Thanks, Madam Chair.

You're welcome. Sir, I don't know whether the question was asked, but what is the backlog for tree removal?

It was asked. I will go back over that. We presently have a backlog of about 2,000 dead or hazardous street trees. We've reduced that greatly from 8,500 three years. We started in FY02. We anticipate by the end of FY05 to have that number down to a manageable several hundred number, keeping in mind that additional trees will continue to die and it's sort of a never-ending fight.

That's good to hear. Thank you. Again, the Chair recognizes Councilman Clarke, if he ever gets the chance to ask his questions.

No problem, Madam President. I'm a very patient 42 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 gentleman. Thank you. Good morning.

Good morning.

I actually have a couple of questions and I'll come back on the next round and ask the remainder. First I want to ask about trees to follow up on that. In substantial portions of my district, I actually have problems with trees in alleyways, and I have yet to find out who is responsible for the trees and who ultimately will be responsible for removing them if they're dead and dangerous. And the other question, I want to talk about dogs on leashes. If you could do the tree one first.

I'll try to handle the tree. Vacant lots, alleys, rear yards of abandoned properties, tree removal and lot clearing comes under the heading of the NTI and the Community Life Improvement Programs. Fairmount Park manages two tree maintenance crews, one for the NTI and one for the Community Life Improvement Program. 43 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 Both of these crews have the duties of going in and removing alley trees, vacant lot trees and abandoned property trees. One of the problems we have is access to some of these locations, and that sometimes is the difficulty. If we can get at it, we can do it.

Okay. So I call you guys or I call the NTI office?

Call the NTI office. It funnels through --

I knew that was going to be the answer.

It's easier that way, because we get all our information through NTI. We keep all our information. When we complete a task, we give that information back to NTI so they can record that the work is done.

Is there a particular individual in NTI? I mean, NTI is pretty expansive. Is there someone that I can call over there and get some expeditious response? 44 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255

A lot of the information we get out of either from NTI or from the Community Life Improvement comes out of the Managing Director's Office, Tom Conway.

Tommy? Oh, okay. Thank you. Dogs. This is a little personal. Every now and then I get enough energy to go jogging, and from time to time, I find myself jogging out up in Valley Green. And it seems like every time I go out there, I get attacked by a dog, who is supposed to be on a leash, but the person just feels it's okay to just have the dog run loose and the dog rushes me, and more often than not, the dog is just bluffing, but I'm running. It's difficult enough for me to run, but when you have to stop and then you got to start up again, it's extremely difficult, and I want to talk to you about the leash law. First, what portions of the park are individuals required to have their dogs on leashes? Is there a distance in terms of the leashes, 10 foot, 20 foot? I mean, they have 45 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 these new things where they stretch out like 50 feet. So you really have to be a substantial distance away from them to be safe from a dog, particularly on the pedestrian path such as Valley Green.

Councilman, again, it's a difficult situation, but, yes, we do have dogs on leash laws that cover all areas of Fairmount Park. And the basic length of a leash is six feet, no longer than six feet, and it's usually posted in most park areas on our information signage. Enforcement is a problem, trying to be places everywhere at the same time to cover this. Our park rangers are told to inform people that have dogs off leashes that it is a requirement of the Fairmount Park Commission to make sure that their dogs are on leashes. So we do have a policy in place. It's just very difficult to enforce it all in areas, but we do try to inform the public that this is the policy.

On Valley Green in particular, you tend to have a park 46 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 ranger or a police officer ride down the road on a pretty consistent basis and I have yet to see them stop a person and say, Put your dog on a leash, let alone telling them not to use those 40-, 50-foot leashes. Is there something you can do to reinforce that? I mean, I know it's personal, but I have to assume that I'm not the only person being attacked by a dog.

It's not just personal. It is our policy. It is our regulation. And if we see that happening, we should enforce it, not only with the park rangers, but also park staff. And we will reinforce that with in-house that that is our policy and what we should be doing.

Do you know off the top of your head what the penalty is?

$25 probably.

$25? Okay. I'll come back. Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you. 47 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Tasco.

Good morning.

Good morning.

On of the budget detail, a CLIP crew is identified as part of the Fairmount Park staff. What jobs and responsibilities do these employees perform?

CLIP crew is Community Life Improvement. It's a tree maintenance crew that provides services. We just spoke of removal of trees, pruning of trees. These could be street trees, alley trees, backyard trees, hazardous park trees or hazardous recreation trees. The CLIP crews work in the Northeast section of the City of Philadelphia.

Are they working solely in the park or are they doing trees on the street?

Both.

Both? 48 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255

That's correct.

If the City proposes to expand the CLIP program to the other seven councilmanic districts, how will this impact on your department? Are you aware that they want to expand the program?

If they would expand the CLIP, the Community Life Improvement Program, how would it affect -- presently we have one tree maintenance crew that works under the jurisdiction of CLIP. We manage the crew, but it's funded through the Community Life Improvement Program. If it was expanded throughout the City, we can only do what one tree maintenance crew could do at that point. We would make every effort to look at all requests. And we also have the NTI tree maintenance crew, which services similar situations in the other sections of the City of Philadelphia. So, actually, we have two NTI/CLIP tree maintenance crews. One crew tends to work towards the Northeast, the other one works in the other sections of the City of 49 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 Philadelphia.

Well, how many people do you have just doing tree trimming, tree removal that are not associated with NTI or CLIP?

Each district has one tree maintenance crew, and there's five districts.

And then were these people who are assigned to the CLIP program, were they employees, current employees, of the Fairmount Park staff and then deployed to CLIP or were they hired to do CLIP?

The Community Life Improvement tree maintenance crew and the NTI tree maintenance crew were both hired through the NTI funding through the Managing Director's Office, and it is -- they were placed under our jurisdiction because we had to staff the arborists to oversee that part of the project.

So you have not been given any additional dollars to 50 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 hire additional people to handle the quality of life program if it expanded to other districts?

Not directly. We only handle tree situations. The Community Life Improvement Program also runs outside of Fairmount Park. So if they expand it on that end, I really don't have a handle on that. I know that we manage the tree maintenance crew, but there are other vacant lot clearing crews, there's anti-graffiti crews. There's other crews that also work under the Community Life Improvement that are outside the jurisdiction of Fairmount Park.

But do they take care of trees?

No. 19

My question is about the trees. Granted, there may not be the demand in some communities as in others, but if you have two people that are assigned to the Northeast, how do you plan to expand to accommodate the new program, or have you been asked? 51 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255

Good morning, Councilwoman. There is no increase in funding. I don't know whether we have been asked to do so. Obviously we would need an increase in funding to do so.

Has there been any discussion with your department about the expansion of the CLIP program to other Council districts?

Not directly, no. 13

Thank you, Madam President. I'll come back.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell.

Thank you, Madam President. I know that there has been question with regard to Microsoft School, and I'm following up on that. As you know, it would include both districts, Councilman Nutter's and my own, and 52 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 we are interested in the progress in that regard with the Park. I understand it was already okayed, the land was already okayed, through the Commission?

Commission gave concept approval to the plan, yes.

Okay. Now you're waiting for the School District, or what's the next step?

Well, negotiations will continue with the School District. There is also the idea of actually what the school would look like. So there are design considerations for the site that would need to come back before the Commission. And we do need to clear the hurdles of exactly what this transfer of land would look like, what the Park would get in return for "school of the future" on the site. One of those things I addressed with Councilwoman Brown was the idea of an appropriate land swap where we are already identifying other acreage that would be beneficial to the Park. 53 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255

You say that the Park is already involved in that discussion about other land you're interested in?

Yes.

Would you keep us informed? And we're happy to help to facilitate this issue in any way we can.

That's wonderful. Thank you, Councilwoman.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam President.

You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter.

Thank you, Madam Chair. In the same area, Ms. Borski, and I heard the earlier response, with regard to the land swap, where is the other land?

One of the parcels we are looking at is one that's come before 54 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 Council before, the 11-acre tract. We refer to it as Waddington. It is at Algon and Krewstown. It is contiguous park land in the Northeast.

And who is the owner?

We are currently trying to purchase that land from the Waddington family.

I'm sorry. I'm not hearing you. From the who?

It's a tract of land that we are currently in the course of trying to purchase from the Waddington family.

Waddington? I just couldn't make that out. Okay. And what does that have to do with the school?

Well, this idea of using park land for another use would require that we have a replacement of equal or greater value of land within the Park system as a whole.

So are you 55 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 saying that the Microsoft School proposal is contingent upon you getting land from another party that has nothing to do with the transaction?

No. No. Just it would be Fairmount Park policy always to be able to identify other land in the course of using this sort of creative reuse for park land, and that is one of the tracts that we've identified.

I understand that. I'm just trying to understand why the two things end up in the same conversation.

Our conversations with School District are still continuing on what will be required of them.

I understand that. And then in the next breath you said and you're looking at a land swap because you don't want to have X amount of acres of park land go to a school use without either replacing it acre for acre or even more. 56 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 What I'm trying to understand is, what does the one have to do with the other? Does the school issue have anything to do with this other tract of land, which, based on those boundaries, is that somewhere in the Northeast?

It's in the Northeast, bordering the Park system up in Pennypack.

Well, I guess the more direct question is, if that proposal for whatever reason doesn't come to fruition, does that have any negative impact on your negotiations and a final agreement with the school system?

I don't think so. I don't think that's the only parcel of land we're looking at. That's just one of them.

So let me make sure I'm absolutely clear. Your discussions and negotiation with the School District about the Microsoft School are separate and apart from any thought, proposal, idea, policy pursued of another piece of 57 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 property even though you would like to get another piece of property around and about the same time that you're concluding a transaction with the School District, but one is not dependent on the other; is that correct?

One is not dependent on the other, but they -- yes, one is not dependent on the other.

Do you want to add something to it? It seemed like you're eager to get to the microphone.

Feel free.

I think just to clarify the point --

I'm sorry. What's your name?

I'm sorry. My name is Brian Albert. I'm the Administrative Services Director at the Fairmount Park Commission. I think it's just in principle, we would like to have land of equal size, but it's not contingent upon any particular site.

But currently that 58 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 site is in the works, so it's a good one to identify for this, is my point.

I understand that. It just gets us extra discussion about two items that have nothing to do with each other, but if we're talking about the Microsoft School and you tell me you'd like to get another piece of property to replace it, then I'm led to believe that the one is contingent on the other. If it's not, then I don't know what it has to do with the other issue.

Fairmount Park as a result of previous studies would have a sort of catalogue of many pieces of property that would be potential acquisition sites.

Right.

So there are a lot of them out there that we would look at. This is one that we're looking at currently. So it's just happening coincidentally.

Okay.

I'm not trying to be obtuse. 59 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255

I know that you have a follow-up question, Councilman, but I think we're going to have to wait.

I understand.

The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Miller.

Thank you, Madam President. I just want to ask a couple of questions in follow up to the street tree removal. Whose responsibility is it if it's your tree and the tree with the roots are breaking and cracking up the sidewalk, whose responsibility is it to do repair to that sidewalk?

It's my understanding that it is the property owner's responsibility. They have the responsibility of the sidewalk.

Okay. And when a tree is removed, you do replace it 60 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 if the property owner wants it replaced or if -- I mean, do they have a say in this whether they want the tree replaced, another planted?

Yes. We actually only plant a tree upon request in front of a property, a homeowner's property. If we were to remove a tree at a location, sometimes it's difficult to find an area to replace the tree because of the size of some of the sidewalks.

So you don't really plant it back, replace it in the place that you took it out of?

We can't always guarantee that, no. 17

All right. I have some questions. I'm just a little bit confused about the Recreation Department and Fairmount Park. So you're going to put together what's called Park Recreation Administrative Service Center to consolidate and not be redundant in terms of tasks, correct?

That's correct. 61 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255

So if there's a program going on in a particular center, who will be actually running that program? Will it be Recreation or Fairmount Park?

Typically it will be Recreation that will run programming.

Okay. So, for example, Allens Lane Art Center, is that a place that you would give to Recreation or you would keep? I'm confused. I'm real confused here.

Allens Lane Art Center --

I'm just using that as an example.

We tend to run the programming out there and would continue to.

So there are some places that you'd continue to operate the programs?

That's correct.

Can we get information as to what you will be doing 62 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 versus what the Recreation centers will be doing? When we get calls, we need to know who to call and it's easier if we know exactly who is going to be responsible for what particular center --

Absolutely.

-- or playground.

And I believe that's what we're trying to do, is sort of streamline this effort so that it is -- it's seamless, that there will be one place to call that can generate the appropriate information back to Council and the citizens so that there's not the sense of is it Fairmount Park or is it Recreation or some other entity. So we are actively trying to pursue that.

All right. That's very good. And I do want to commend the cleaning of the restrooms. I was at Blue Bell Park last summer. I go there every year for a neighborhood reunion. And I really took notice of the bathroom. So whatever you're 63 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 doing differently, last year was really -- I mean, the bathroom was clean, it was well stocked, because I had actually taken my own soap and whatnot, but there was already soap in there. I was really kind of shocked. So I just want to commend that crew who is going around, doing that type of clean-ups. And I have some other questions, but it will run over my time, so I might as well stop now and wait.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Ramos.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I, like many Philadelphians, am so proud of our park, and the gift of the creator to put this park in the middle of our City is quite an honor for us to have this beautiful greenery all around us, yet so underutilized, and yet certain parts of it, as there was reported I believe in the Daily News a few 64 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 weeks ago, of how some of our citizens like to trash our park. Can you talk to me about what is your -- I know you made mention of it in your statement. How is your clean-up going, how much of a burden, a physical burden, is this on you? What are you doing, and can you tell me a little bit about it? What are you doing to promote monitoring of our parks, how you're doing it?

Good morning, Councilman. We have an extraordinary responsibility towards maintenance of the park. I believe it does fall under the category of just keeping it clean. And we spend a great deal of time, grounds maintenance crews, doing exactly that. We also have a really wonderful volunteer force in the City of Philadelphia that, among other things, the Strategic Plan has found that no other system that they've ever come across has the level of volunteer support that our system here at Fairmount Park 65 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 does. (Applause.)

Thank you. Without them, we would have nowhere near the level of clean and green that we do. And that's sort of person to person environmental education on what it takes to keep the City and its parks clean is critical to our efforts. And also the recent sort of news reports that you referred to help us in that regard, because otherwise it would be an overwhelming effort. Part of our Strategic Plan, if we look at it, is to look at our sort of operational activities to make sure that we are doing everything we can to keep it up to standards, but the idea of citizen education I think is probably the biggest piece of that whole puzzle, the idea of leave no footprint. You also made mention of being a park within a city, but one of the things that the consultant says, and I think the Managing Director also adopted it, is that we are a city within a park, so we are particularly 66 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 lucky.

I can handle that part as well. What also are you doing besides your volunteer work? Is there anything that you do outside of your volunteer work to educate and enlighten our citizenry that we all need and it's not -- it's our citizenry. We all have to do -- this culture has developed in this City, and I'll be addressing this in my days here in City Council, of cleaning up this City. The sub-culture of unloading McDonald wrappers, throwing them as we go by the park, we all have to be a part of this cleanliness effort in making Philadelphia a more beautiful place to look at. I mean, what other things are you doing besides your volunteer core?

That is a huge piece of it. We have a Preserve Your Park piece of the puzzle that is company volunteer units that really do learn the process of taking care of the park from beginning to end, and it is a huge division within Fairmount 67 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 Park that is looking at those kind of entities that can take on the responsibility for saying this segment of the park is clean, its standards are up, not only from a cleanliness perspective but even from a restoration perspective, to improving park land.

I know you have these little signs on the pole that says Keep Your Park Clean. Are you going to have more of them put into the park? Maybe you should put one up Keep Your Dogs Leashed so Councilman Clarke won't get chased or bit while he's trying to keep in shape.

You know, one of the things that Sam Curry briefly mentioned was even within the work force of Fairmount Park, I think that our employees do everything in their power to sort of enforce the rules and regulations.

Yes, but they're not around all the time. You jog through the park at 2 o'clock in the morning and a citizen has got his head who knows where and he or she is getting ready to throw one of 68 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 those cups out the window, but if you have a little sign out there, if we get a few more of those nice aesthetically good-looking signs Keep Philadelphia -- you know, somebody is going to say hold it. Probably not all of them, but someone will say, I am not going to throw this because I was reminded.

Signage is important.

Councilman, maybe I can elaborate a little bit. Most of our parks do have some type of regulation sign, which indicates no littering, things like that on the signage. Other things that we have done --

Do you think you have enough of them? I guess that's my question. Do you think you have enough of them, and if you don't, can you get more?

We probably do not have enough signage. There's always that give and take with signage. You don't want to over-sign areas. It takes away from the aesthetics, but you want to have enough 69 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 signage so people can see it at certain entrances, certain areas where they'll be. Another thing that we've done, we have a lot of picnics in the park and we issue picnic permits. On the permits, it asks the people to clean up after themselves. Not to take the trash away, we will do that, but at least to pick the litter. Also, on weekends when we come upon someone that's having a picnic, our employees are instructed to go up and, if they can, give the people a trash bag or two so they can utilize the trash bag.

I think that you should consider more aesthetically appropriate signs reminding our citizenry to keep our park clean.

We can look into that.

Thank you.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Clarke. 70 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255

Thank you, Madam President.

You're welcome.

Real briefly to follow up on Councilman Ramos's question with respect to cleanliness in the park. Does the Park have any relationship with the City's community service program? I know in some areas throughout the City we have programs that individuals who receive alternative sentencing are targeted for cleaning up vacant lots and other things throughout the communities. There's some sort of structured program, I believe, run out of the City's -- I'm not sure what office exactly oversees that. Do you guys have any relationship with that program that you specifically --

You mean vacant lots or actual in-the-park locations?

No. I'm talking about in the park.

Okay. At this 71 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 point, no. One of the relationships we do have is with a group known as Ready, Willing and Able.

I'm familiar with them.

They're a great resource within the park.

We're paying them, right?

I believe there's a City grant, yes.

I'm talking about volunteers. The alternative sentencing programs where we don't have to pay, they're mandated by the courts to provide community service, and right now I know that we utilize them throughout neighborhoods, and my question is, does the Park have a relationship with that organization or that entity in the City so we can get assistance in the park in cleaning up the park?

We don't currently, but that is something we can look at. 72 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255

Can you look into that?

Absolutely.

I think it's a resource, free resource.

Yes. In the course of doing some reorganizing within the Park itself right now, we are trying to look at a sort of environmental division, and I think that the capacity to put clearer relationships with volunteer groups, which even this could fall under, the potential for expanding that effort is going to be out there, so we can certainly look at it.

Because I believe the program is substantially underutilized and we need to take advantage of that. The question I wanted to ask, and I actually asked this question maybe last year or the year prior to that, marketing in the park. I think last year I talked about the fact that we have this wonderful resource, a jewel, so to speak, in the middle of our City. 73 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 And when you talk about the fact that most people beyond the region don't really know about the park, particularly its name as compared to New York City, which is a much smaller park. Everybody knows about Central Park. I think it's known internationally. But nobody knows about Fairmount Park once you get beyond 60 miles. And my question is, are we going to enhance our marketing strategy or have we attempted to enhance it? Do we have a relationship with the visitors in the Convention Bureau or the other agencies who are responsible for marketing this City? Because I haven't seen a noticeable increase in marketing in the commercials that I see both here and outside of the City as it relates to the park.

Yes. Marketing the park is the most important thing we can do in the future, and I think that we're sort of on our way. We just developed a new logo, which we are going to roll out, along with the Strategic Plan, which we're very excited about. We're also working intensively on a 74 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 web site that is truly the way to get the word out. This is not only sort of a citizen service where we are trying to look at how we do permitting and things, it is what people outside of the area go online to find out what they're going to do in Philadelphia. And we have to have a major presence in that form. We also are closely involved right now with the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation in a study for outdoor destinations in the region, which is clearly what we are, and we are sort of undermarketed in that respect. So we're working closely with them to get the word out in a big way.

Are you included in any of the documents? I know they put these pamphlets out in other hotels and surrounding areas. Are you included in any of those?

Right. Our sort of presence in the hotels is simply not there, and that's one of the things we're trying to upgrade substantially. I think even some 75 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 funders are probably in the room, but Penn, Pugh, Lenfest have been very helpful to us and other organizations in that sort of study level to really look at how we get the word out and do a better job marketing the park as a destination location in and of itself.

Who are you working with in the Tourism Bureau?

There's a study out at GPTMC right now that -- I mean, heading up the group is Patricia Washington on this particular study. The results will be out in September. And then we'll look at the next stage, which is really implementation of some good marketing ideas. And we've also been in contact with PCBB as well.

Can you keep me abreast of that? Because I'm very interested in that, since part of the park borders with my district and is in my district.

Absolutely. One of the other things that we're looking at doing as we've been in 76 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 conversations with Independence Visitors Center, they have open spaces, we are trying to figure out a way to promote our historic homes in the historic home tours with some sort of location in sight at IBC, so that for a two-month period, there's some sort of installation or exhibit there that says, Take the trolley, do the tours of the historic homes and really sort of pick up the effort all the way around to just get people in the park for the things you can do here.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President.

You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman Rizzo.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Could I ask Mr. Nicks to come to the table?

Certainly. 77 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255

Good morning, Councilman.

Hi, Commissioner. One of the concerns that many people have with the anticipated financial condition of the City, I'd like for the record to get the position, your position, the Commissioner's position, on the potential sale of any Fairmount Park land for development to raise money.

I guess historically, and Commissioners Wolf-Goldstein, Tucker, Price, Baum, Bloom are all here, and I think if any of them disagree, they can step up and say. But we don't develop or sell park land. The furthest we've considered or gone would be the "school of the future," which is maybe an inch past cultural and recreational use, but still what we believe was a public use. And even in those situations, we require acre for acre replacement. So in that case, I would say that 78 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 there's going to be no sale of any land for any budget requirements. (Applause.)

The Strategic Plan does say revenue enhancement and that 20, 30 percent of our budget should be generated outside of the City funding dollars, which I personally -- I think most of the Commissioners agree with -- and that can be done absent of selling land. We can do that by -- I think Councilman Clarke hit on it -- is creating what I would call destination points, cultural, recreation destination points. We work daily with our friends at the Art Museum, for instance. The Chairman is here, Gerry Lenfest, where when the Museum does those type of events, they're a destination point. What we want to do is, we want to create other destination points in our park that people come to that generate revenue for the parks.

That's good 79 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 to hear. The other point that you reminded me of, the development of some of the historic homes for use, which I think has turned out to be a pretty good --

Well, continue to do what we call alternative reuses of historic houses, and our Historic Preservation Trust is constantly looking for opportunities to put mostly non-profits but businesses, anyone who is willing to come into a house, restore it to its grandeur. I want to say the Please Touch is the perfect example.

And an appropriate business.

I would stand by our record that we've done nothing but appropriate businesses.

You can understand there are a lot of nervous elected officials, constantly people are concerned about the future of the park, especially if times get tough, and it's good to hear that, Commissioners, your position on that 80 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 particular issue. I think you heard the recognition of the audience today supporting that statement.

I think what you'll see is, the Commission will support a Strategic Plan that does not dilute the responsibilities of the Commission. As long as there's an independent body that oversees the parks, I think then that the vision of the park will continue to be that vision.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Ms. Borski, just very quickly, the last question on the, quote/unquote, swap 81 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 issue was, with regard to the location that you've mentioned on the record, who would pay for the purchase of the property, or in what other way would it be considered a swap?

At the moment, we have a grant request in to pay for that property. It hasn't been responded to yet.

Okay. Are you in a position to say who the grant is into, grant request?

The grant request is into DCNR.

I'm still struggling a little bit with some of the terminology that was used earlier. Normally in a swap, if you're dealing with the School District on their site, in a traditional swap, then you'd be talking to the School District about another piece of property that they owned adjacent to the park and you're trying to construct a deal. So that's, I guess, my notion of a swap. I don't understand a swap where you have one transaction going on with one party, 82 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 another transaction going on potentially with another party and what those two have to do with each other. In my experience, that's not a swap.

I think I confused the issue unintentionally. In our discussions with the School District, we will be talking to them about identifying and acquiring land in exchange for the parcel that they are looking at developing as the "school of the future."

So they may own some land close to Fairmount Park?

They may own some land. We may identify some land and say, This would be a good piece, please provide it to us.

All right. That, I understand. I didn't understand the other concept. What are some of the other proposed revenue generators for the Park as laid out by the Strategic Plan or any other thoughts or ideas that the Park Commission has come up 83 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 with?

Concession agreements that have a good return to the Park. I think we can improve them in a lot of ways.

Well, you didn't get that out of the Strategic Plan.

Well, but the Strategic Plan will say, Look at broadening your concession arrangements.

Well, how many concession arrangements do we have?

Not enough. We do a golf course concession right now that covers our six golf courses. We have driving range concessions. We have a park-wide food concessionaire.

So one concessionaire for the entire park?

That's the current format, yes, and that's something I think we need to look at.

How long are these concession contracts or leases? 84 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255

As a general rule, they've been set up to run for ten years and then have renewal options on the end of them.

Ten years?

Ten years. Particularly because it was --

Well, what's the revenue generated out of the golf courses?

In the area of a million dollars a year.

And do we think that that concessionaire is doing a good job, a poor job or an okay job? And what do we think we could really generate out of the golf courses?

I think we want to generate more. I think we want to be -- I think we have been fairly passive in those efforts, and that is one of the places we can sort of bump up our interests and our efforts, to have our concessions produce more for the Park so that we can turn it back into the parks. 85 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 So I don't know how to give it a grade other than to say that I know we want to do better. I don't know if the Chairman wants to add to that.

I think, Mr. Councilman, we would say that the golf concessionaire has done an okay job, that courses are probably not in the condition we'd like them to be. And myself and a few other Commissioners are currently negotiating with the golf concessionaire to make some substantial capital improvements, which should turn around and create increases in the revenues generated under the contract, that we would receive under the contract.

When does that contract expire?

That contract expires 2009 or 10, and there's two five-year options at the end at the City's discretion.

Can you provide to the Chair a list of all of the concession contracts in the park, all of the present concessionaires, what the revenues 86 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 were for the last three years at least from each of those concessions, when the contracts expire and what the plan is to reinstitute them? Do we have competition in our concession contracts?

We have competition probably before we award them, but we've awarded them -- what the Strategic Plan will say is we probably awarded them on too large a scale. Rather than having one golf concessionaire, they may say we should have three. So they're some of the things that will be recommendations back. Like any consultant, what works in Indianapolis may not work here, so I hesitate to tell you exactly what we're going to do until we see the final plan and then we see if it will work here.

Do we have any concession contracts that are about to expire?

I don't believe so, nothing imminent. 87 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255

Tell me about any amount of diversity in the concession contracting area.

I mean, we make -- for example, there is an RFP recently that went out for the 33rd Street driving range. What is it, 33rd and right off of Girard, that was long run by the Friends of East Park where the respondents were all minority companies, of which the award will go to a minority company and it will be up in operation this summer.

You're pretty much assured of getting a minority company if everybody who applies was minority.

Good point. Well taken. I think what I will do is, I will in the information supply our participation numbers on the contracts as well.

Are there any present concessionaire contracts -- how would I say this -- that were prime bid by minority, female or disadvantaged business? 88 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255

I don't know. I know, for instance, most of the contracts are done strictly through -- directly through Procurement, so they'd be in the regular City system. I know that our maintenance, some of our grass-cutting crews are minority companies. I know our maintenance crews in three or four of the park houses are done through a minority-owned maintenance company.

I understand. I was speaking again specifically about the concession area.

I don't believe so, but I will make sure.

Okay. You're going to provide to the Chair all the information about concession contracts?

Yes.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll be back.

Thank you. Before recognizing Councilwoman 89 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 Brown, I just have a very brief question. In going through the budget, I did not see any mention of the park rangers.

They are a Class 500 grant.

How many do we have?

How many rangers? at the moment. 11

So 12 would you say that that's the same amount that 13 we had last year? 14

Yes; no change. 15

Thank 16 you. 17 The Chair recognizes Councilwoman 18 Brown.

Thank you, Madam President. I need to go back because I'm not completely settled with the question around playground maintenance just to be sure I'm clear in what we are hopeful to receive from the Fairmount Park Commission. And I'm struck 90 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 by the fact that you gave yourself an A, although you could not tell me how you arrived at that. And I appreciate your professional judgment, but we know that that has to be based on some kind of checklist or something. So with those playgrounds that are not currently up to code, that list will be forwarded to the Chair, correct?

We can provide a list of all of our playground sites. In that list we can tell you to a point what the condition is of the site. We can include areas where we are going to be providing capital improvements to the playground sites. We can probably tell you some of the things that we have done at the sites over the past year as far as repairing, removing hazards, putting in some type of fall protection, whether it be wood chips or a matting, rubber tires. That type of information we can provide.

That would be extremely helpful. And how do you use the Playground Safety Policy? I mean, 91 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 procedurally what happens?

In the Playground Safety Policy, we have several individuals on staff that are certified playground safety inspectors.

Okay.

We actually go out and do an evaluation, and we did that about a year and a half ago, and that resulted in how we prioritize what we do at certain locations.

Okay. I will look to that with interest when it's submitted to our Chairperson. Lastly, Schuylkill River Park, what is the role, if any, with the Fairmount Park Commission knowing that there are mixed jurisdictions around the Schuylkill River Park activity?

The grounds of Schuylkill River Park are Fairmount Park to Locust Street currently. I know Schuylkill River Development Corporation has plans to expand further south than that, but the current park goes to Locust, and that ground 92 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 is Fairmount Park ground.

With the responsibility of Fairmount Park, is there any activity that you're engaged in right now up to Locust Street?

The path is in.

The walkway?

It's not really an officially opened park yet. They are still in process of getting to the point of the grand opening of the park, but it is something that we're in constant conversation with it because it is Fairmount Park ground and we are working with SRDC right now, Schuylkill River Development Corporation, to see what sort of arrangement we would like to put into place for the continued maintenance of that facility.

Okay. All right, then. Thank you very much.

Thank you. 93 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 The Chair again recognizes Councilman Nutter.

Is it my turn already?

Yes.

Ms. Borski, you mentioned earlier, and I can only echo your comments when you said that the consultant report -- I'm sorry; the Strategic Plan made mention of that Philadelphia, unlike any other system they had observed, had the highest level of volunteer support, which, again, is to be commended. (Applause.)

And we are clearly the beneficiaries. What I'd like to understand, at least from the draft or from your own knowledge and information, what did the Strategic Plan tell us about the level of funding support for the Fairmount Park system as compared to other systems that they've observed across the country?

We're low.

I'm sorry? 94 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255

We're low in funding support. We're near the bottom.

How low?

I don't know. They do comparisons to some other sort of major urban environments, and we would be near the bottom, but I don't have, for instance, a list in front of me of the cities they compared us to or things like that. I can try and get that to you.

I'd appreciate that. Based on your own experience or other knowledge or information, what do you think the funding level should be to support a 9,100-acre park and the many amenities that we have in this quite unique Park system? What does it really cost to run the Fairmount Park system at a high level?

Well, that goes back to the comments that you were making earlier and hopefully now that we have engaged a Strategic Plan, are in an 18-month process, we will come up with some viable numbers to 95 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 look at to tell us exactly that. We know that we're low now. We know that if they do things on a per capita basis, and studies have been done to say that, that the numbers do come in very low. Every system is sort of unique and different. We collaborate with a lot of other city agencies. There are other cities that, for instance, would have a complete capital planning department solely within the Park system. So there's some shaking out of apples to apples and oranges to oranges in terms of making a comparison, but hopefully the Strategic Plan will be providing us with exactly those kind of figures.

Well, I understand that. But with about a month to go and after 18 months of study, what is it that we're going to find out in the next month that we don't know today?

Honestly, Councilman --

Where is this information coming from that will shine 96 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 the complete light, that will open all of our eyes to better understand how we get to a brighter tomorrow?

I could tell you that the drafts that I've seen have not laid out that sort of a graph or chart to say that. They talk in general terms and do offer guidelines that says that the Park system itself should figure out a way to raise more money within the Park system. I think that they would go so far as to recommend that the City would let the Park system keep some of its newly generated revenue solely within the Park system. That, for instance, would be a recommendation that I think they're going to come up with. Whether or not they are going to --

I understand that, but many of us have been talking about that for many years. Is there a proposal on the table? Is there a discussion within the Administration to create now a separate funding source for the Park or a separate statute for the Park to allow it, 97 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 even under the best of circumstances and with your good efforts, to put all of these revenue-enhancement provisions in place, to change all of your concession contracts, to enhance the golf courses, the food concessions and everything else that you do? Don't those dollars presently go into the general fund?

Yes.

And so what mechanism will be created to insure that Park-generated revenues stay in the Park?

That will be a recommendation of the plan. I am not sure of the real technical details of how you might make that happen.

Well, have there been any discussions with the City Administration about that?

Yes, I'm sure there have been. The Strategic Plan, while it reflects Fairmount Park, I'm sure you know, was really directed out of the Managing Director's Office. So discussions happen on a couple levels at the same time. 98 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 And I know that the sort of financial analysis of the Strategic Plan certainly is looking at making those sort of recommendations, but how it then happens, I cannot tell you.

Okay. My last concern with regard to funding is, of the five-year plan shows the Park's budget declining every year for the next five years. How do you propose to deal with that in the context of all of these discussions?

I mean, it's a harsh reality and I think that that's -- I know you're saying I'm referring to a Strategic Plan which sort of is on the cusp of coming out, but I think we really were looking down this alley. Municipal governments are fairly strapped in what we can provide. We have a particularly unique Park system that deserves to shine. So while we're looking at the harsh reality of these numbers and potential decline, we have to take this opportunity to look at how we're going to boost that revenue. 99 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 The Park has existed for many, many years now on an operating budget from the City of Philadelphia, but that has also been enhanced by philanthropy from foundations. And I think as we look down the line, we have to look at ways to generate revenue outside of these sources.

Okay. I'll come back.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown.

Thank you, Madam President. Safety in the park continues to be an interest to many of us, and given the regrettable horror stories we had to endure this past year, I'm curious to know, A, the level of coordination with the Police Department and, B, what kind of adjustments did you make internally to respond to those realities?

It is always hard 100 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 to hear about crime in the park. That affects all of us. It certainly reminds us that we are in an urban environment and the park is part of a city and things can happen in it. We have had good relationships with the Police Department over the years, and particularly 92nd District affects the area where the murder that you're referring to happened last summer. We are now working with the Police Department to have a single liaison for issues that happen within the Park system anywhere, and I think that will be tremendously beneficial to us.

And that's unprecedented, that's one adjustment?

It is unprecedented, yes. So at this point, the Commissioner has identified a captain within the Police Department who will be our liaison for activities that we have questions about within the Park system. I think that will be tremendously helpful. We always try generally to put out 101 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 the word about safety and how you have to be mindful of yourself and your possessions when you're in the park. We are constantly looking at ways to sort of improve the efforts of saying the park is a safe place and you should be there, but you have to be aware of your surroundings, like you would be anywhere else.

And park rangers still have as a part of their duty the role of safety, or do they?

They do. I mean, they're stewards of the park in a variety of fashions. The very fact of the uniform is a helpful enforcement tool. It should be something that you take into account, though, that safety within the Park system really does sort of fall to the citizens and their behavior in the park. We take crime to the police district. The rangers do not really have an enforcement mechanism in terms of serious criminal activity. In terms of park rules and regulations, that is their enforcement capacity. 102 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255

Is the number still of park rangers? 4

We have 18 active 5 park rangers at the moment. I'm saying that 6 number. 7

That's a 8 decrease over year 2000 when I first came 9 here. 10

I'm sorry. 11 They're telling me that with supervisors, 12 we're more like 22. I apologize for that. 13

And your 14 budgeted for what number? At one point, you 15 were budgeted for 24. 16

There's currently 17 one vacancy, so that would put us at 23. 18

Final 19 question: You say the level of coordination 20 with the Police Department would be that of an 21 liaison. In terms of systemic change, is that 22 individual a part of executive-level staff 23 meetings in the Park so that there is an 24 integrated approach to this whole issue of safety in the park? 103 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255

The police have been attending Commission meetings and are invited to attend at all times. This sort of conduit for information I think will be tremendously helpful for us. There are some places in the park where we're bounded by four police districts, sort of a crisscross right in the center of a park. So it does become difficult sometimes to try and get the information from the appropriate police district about an event. So I think this will be immensely helpful to us in terms of getting the word back and forth between the agencies quickly and then we can put it out.

So you're saying with a police liaison information will be more streamlined?

Absolutely.

Thank you for your testimony. Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman 104 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 Nutter.

This is getting to be kind of fun. Ms. Borski, you mentioned the DCNR grant earlier, that you were looking to use that as a funding source to purchase some additional property. We don't have to go through back the swap discussion. Are there any other components of the DCNR grant that you're making application to the state for for use in the Park system?

We probably have a few DCNR grants in the pipeline right now.

Is it just one grant?

No. There would be separate grant applications.

Can you tell me then specifically about the reviewing stance on Kelly Drive?

Yes. I would ask Stephanie Craighead to respond to your question. She's capital planning for us and has done the grant application on that issue. 105 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255

Thank you.

Good morning. Kindly identify yourself for the record.

Good morning. I'm Stephanie Craighead, Deputy Director for Planning, Fairmount Park Commission. I'm sorry, Councilman. Could you repeat your question?

DCNR grant application as it relates to the reviewing stance on Kelly Drive.

Yes. That application is pending. We hope to hear this month.

This month?

Yes. We were told April, maybe early May.

And that grant request is for how much?

We requested 450,000.

And is there a match requirement or do we have City 106 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 funding available as well? What's the total cost of the project?

900,000. We already have the City match.

Okay. So you're going to find out, you said, this month?

We were told later this month or early May.

Okay. If for some reason things don't go well with the state, what's the back-up plan?

Well, we were given very positive feedback on that grant, so we're very hopeful. We don't have another park grant competing with it. The DCNR grant for the acquisition is out of another pot of money.

Got you. Okay. Ms. Borski, with regard to further purchases of land, do we feel confident that we can take care of additional acquired land? I mean, we have the resources to take care of 107 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 an expanding Park system?

I think as we look at acquisition of land, we also talk about how we are going to maintain it, because that is the big issue. So, for instance, in the sort of Schuylkill River conversations, serious discussion about maintaining that parcel is sort of the crux of the matter, because that's what we're looking at down the road. Acquisitions along watersheds is really what the mission of Fairmount Park was from the get-go, and protecting the watershed. So I think that, yes, we are comfortable with the idea that land that we acquire, we will look long and hard at what those pieces are, make sure that they work well with the Park system and our mission and our ability to maintain them.

Now, the Benjamin Franklin Parkway is technically within the jurisdiction of the Fairmount Park system; is that correct?

That's correct.

Tell me 108 Whole - 4/20/04 - Bill No. 040255 about your maintenance programs up and down the Parkway. I notice on my way home just about every night -- I won't get into whether the lights are on or off. We had that discussion yesterday, but obviously --