COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE City Hall, Room 400 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, March 25, 2025 10:00 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT KENYATTA JOHNSON COUNCILWOMAN NINA AHMAD COUNCILWOMAN CINDY BASS COUNCILWOMAN KENDRA BROOKS COUNCILMAN MICHAEL DRISCOLL COUNCILWOMAN JAMIE GAUTHIER COUNCILWOMAN KATHERINE GILMORE RICHARDSON COUNCILMAN JIM HARRITY COUNCILMAN CURTIS J. JONES, JR. COUNCILWOMAN RUE LANDAU COUNCILWOMAN QUETCY M. LOZADA COUNCILMAN NICOLAS O'ROURKE COUNCILMAN ANTHONY PHILLIPS COUNCILMAN ISAIAH THOMAS COUNCILMAN JEFFREY YOUNG, JR. HELEN LOUGHEAD, INTERIM CHIEF CLERK - - -
Good morning, everyone. Good morning. This is the public hearing and public meeting of the committee of the whole regarding bills number 250195, 250196, 250197, 250198, 250199, 250200, 250201, 250202, 250210, 250211, 250212, and resolution number 250214. Ms. Loughead. Can you please take the roll for attendance?
Present. Thank you. A quorum of this committee is present and this hearing is now called to order. Ms. Loughead, will you please read the title of the resolutions, please.
Bill No. 6 250195, an ordinance amending Chapter 191500 of the Philadelphia Code entitled Wage and Net Profits Tax by revising certain tax rates under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. '24 -- 250196, an ordinance 12 adopting the operating budget for fiscal year 2026. Bill No. 250197, an ordinance to adopt a fiscal 2026 capital budget. Bill No. 250198, an ordinance to adopt a capital program for the six fiscal years 2026 through 2031 inclusive. Bill No. 19 250199, an ordinance amending Chapter 192600 of the Philadelphia Code entitled Business Income and Receipts Taxes to revise tax rates and end certain exclusions from the tax on receipts in all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250200, an ordinance amending Chapter 12100, the Philadelphia Code entitled Traffic Code to revise the fee for the use of the parking meters all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250201, an ordinance amending Chapter 191800 of the Philadelphia Code entitled School Tax Authorization to provide for an increase in the tax of the Board of Education of the School District of Philadelphia, is authorized to impose on real estate in amending Chapter 191300 entitled Real Estate Taxes to establish an equivalent reduction in the tax rate for the city real estate tax all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250202, an ordinance amending Section 191806 of the Philadelphia Code entitled Authorization of Realty use in Occupancy Tax to eliminate certain exemptions, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250210, and ordinance amending Section 101101, the Philadelphia code entitled Fees of Commissioner of Records to increase the portion of fees for the recording of deeds, mortgages and relating documents to be used for housing trust fund purposes, under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250211, an ordinance amending Chapter 191400 of the Philadelphia code entitled Realty Transfer Tax by revising the rate of the tax all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250212, an ordinance to amend Chapter 194400 of the Philadelphia of code entitled Development Impact Tax to end imposition of the tax under certain terms and conditions. And finally, resolution No. 2 250214, resolution providing for the approval by the Council of the City of Philadelphia of a revised five- year financial plan for the city of Philadelphia covering fiscal years 2026 through 2030 and incorporating revisions with respect to fiscal year 2025, which is to be submitted by the Mayor to the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority pursuant to the Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement by and between the city and the authority.
Thank you very much. Today, we begin the public hearing of the Committee of the Whole to consider the bills read by the clerk that constitute proposed operating and capital spending measures for fiscal year 2026, a capital program and a forward looking capital plan for fiscal year 2026 through fiscal year 2031. Today we'll hear testimony from the administration on the five- year plan. We also have the Department of Labor on standby for questions as well. They will not read their testimony but they will be available for questioning. I want to also welcome the administration as well as the departments who will be joining us for this testimony today. Ms. Loughead, would you please call the first witness to testify from the administration?
Good morning, Council President Johnson and members of City Council. My name is Tiffany Thurman and I have the honor of serving as Chief of Staff to Mayor Parker. I'm honored to testify in support of the Mayor's operating budget for fiscal year 2026. Bill No. 250196 and the proposal FY 2026 through 2030, five- year plan resolution number 250214 along with the supporting budget and revenue bills introduced on March 13th. Joining me today are my colleagues, Chief Deputy Mayor Sincere Harris and Vanessa Garrett Harley, Finance Director Rob Dubow, Budget Director Sabrina Maynard, cabinet members and department heads from across the administration. The proposed five-year plan builds on the historic investments we made together in the fiscal year 2025, One Philly Budget, to pursue our shared vision of Philadelphia and delivering tangible results that residents and businesses can see, touch and feel. 5 billion in new capital investments over six years. This is an ambitious proposal that will continue to advance key initiatives underway, elevating five critical priorities around housing, fair and fiscally responsible multi-year contracts for city workers, tax reform, the wellness ecosystem, and preparing for special events in FY 2026. The proposed plan also balances the major investments in these priorities with an ongoing commitment to the city's fiscal stability. Despite the end of the American Rescue Plan Act funds last calendar year and a legacy pension obligation bond balloon payment due in fiscal year 2029, the plan builds reserves that meet our internal goal of at least 6-8 percent in each of the next five years. This is an improvement over last year's plan. All of these steps have been carefully measured amid an uncertain federal and economic environment. As with everything we've accomplished together so far, collaboration with this Council, state and federal partners, organized labor, businesses and neighborhood and community leaders will be paramount. Only as One Philly, a united city will we be successful. As Mayor Parker laid out in yesterday's housing address, this five-year plan includes two $400 million borrowings as part of an overall $2 billion financing strategy for the Housing Opportunities Made Easy or HOME initiative. As every member of the body knows well, access to safe quality housing that is affordable and meets an urgent need for thousands of residents, both homeowners and renters and for Philadelphians across income bans is important. This is why prior approaches to housing, the standard of -- the standard operating procedure will not suffice to meet the need. We have with us today Chief Housing and Urban Development Officer Angela Brooks, Director of Planning and Development, Jessie Lawrence, and Chief of Staff John Mondlak who would be happy to discuss further the details of the proposed housing plan. During this budget process, we cannot stress enough how intergovernmental and cross-sector collaboration will be instrumental, dare I say, paramount in reaching the 30,000 housing units that need to be built or preserved across the city. City workforce. With regard to the city workforce, Chief Administrative Officer Camille Duchaussee and Chief Human Relations Officer Candi Jones have been working intensively with departments to change the way we recruit, train, and retain public employees. This work will continue until we've addressed the vacancy rates that have been -- that have persisted for years in the city. That said, the city's head count has increased from the end of fiscal year 2024, marking a continued departure from the decreasing head counts in recent years. From the end of June through December, the city's general fund head count increased by 573 people suggesting that the targeted investments we're making in recruitment and retention are paying off. We've also made this progress as several thousand employees return to office creating better opportunities to collaborate and innovate together.
We're especially grateful to Commissioner Joe Brodsky and the team at public -- at Public Property who supported this transition so effectively and continue to upgrade city workplaces. Meanwhile, Chief Deputy Mayor Sincere Harris and our labor team are working to negotiate fair fiscally responsible multi-year contracts with the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, International Association of Firefighters Local 18 and AFSCME District Councils 33 and 19 47. The five-year plan includes a 20 $550 million labor reserve as the 21 administration continues to work 22 through negotiations. This is the largest labor reserve in the city's history. Turning now to tax reform. Tax investments and job creation is important to Mayor Parker and our team, and we're also grateful for the leadership of President Johnson and this body and the members of the Tax Reform Commission for their efforts in recent months. Following the guidance of the commission, this administration is proposing historic changes to the city's business and wage taxes with dramatic savings on the horizon from a pension fund that will fully fund -- that will be fully funded in fiscal year 2033. We're in an unprecedented position to significantly decrease both the gross receipts and net income portions of the business income and receipts tax over the next five years, while codifying further reductions to eliminate the former and cut the latter in half by fiscal year 2039, seven years after the pension fund reaches full funding, which is important to our administration. At the same time, we'll restart steady decreases in the wage tax from fiscal year 2026 through fiscal year 2030. This would be the first time in years that a Mayor 9 and City Council have concurrently 10 reduced all these rates in the same 11 year and with the long-term 12 certainty that businesses need. 13 This is a key priority to increasing 14 access to economic opportunity by 15 attracting, retaining and growing 16 businesses that will create jobs 17 with family sustaining wages. Boosting the city's competitiveness in today's economy through tax investments is a major lever to growing the economic pie and putting more Philadelphians on a path to self-sufficiency. Now is the time to jump start business growth and job creation for Philadelphians. Turning now to Wellness Ecosystem. For those Philadelphians who are among the most vulnerable, the new Riverview Wellness Village is already providing comprehensive care, treatment and supportive housing, thanks to the $100 million approved by City Council in fiscal year 2025. The Wellness Village is a centerpiece of a campus that will, with the investments in the proposed plan, eventually be able to host 640 residents and support them with medical care and clinical support, as well as education, workforce development and other onsite programming. Staff in the Managing Director's office including the Capital Program's office, Procurement Department, Department of Behavioral and Intellectual Disability Services and other agencies have worked tirelessly including L&I to create this new capacity. The fifth of the new major investments areas lifted up in the proposed plan is the acceleration of preparations for 2026. This Council and numerous other key stakeholders have diligently kept this work in the forefront of our minds as the first of the major events begin later this year. This fiscal year, 2026 budget, puts forth another $40 million on top of the nearly $60 million already committed to ensure Philadelphia realizes the full potential and benefits of the special events in 2026, and bringing the total investments for preparations to $100 million. And this is part of the $500 million put forth together to work at the Philadelphia International Airport with travelers at -- in waiting areas, roadways and signage, SEPTA platforms, video surveillance, and other improvements to ensure a top class guest experience.
Our thanks go out to City Representative and Special Events Director Jazelle Jones, 2026, Director Michael Newmuis and so many others who are working the long hours to ensure we're making history yet again. These major investments in housing, labor, tax reform, wellness and 2026 preparations will help shape our city's future. At the same time, we're pressing forward hard on key initiatives and programs across our mainstay priority pillars, public safety, clean and green, economic opportunity, education and core support, each of which have new targeted investments in the five- year plan. We also have with us today Managing Director Adam Thiel, City Solicitor Renee Garcia, Chief Public Safety Director Adam Geer, Public Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, Director Carlton Williams of the -- Office of Clean and Green initiatives, Director Alba Martinez from the Commerce Department, Chief Administrative Officer Camille Duchaussee, Chief Education Officer Dr. Debora Carrera, and other senior administration leaders who look forward to discussing further with you the massive amount of exciting work underway. Our shared vision remains steadfast to make Philadelphia the safest, cleanest and greenest big city in the nation with access to economic opportunity for all. On behalf of Mayor Cherelle Parker and our entire team, thank you for your partnership and the opportunity to present our testimony. We have also submitted testimony for the Mayor's office and the Department of Labor. Council President, I'd like to ask Octavia Howell to provide testimony on the fiscal year 2026 capital budget and FY '26 through 30 capital program, after which we and our colleagues are here today and are available to answer any questions you may have.
Good morning, Council President Johnson and members of City Council. I am Octavia Howell, Executive Director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. I'm joined by my colleagues from finance and from departments across the city. We're here to present, for your review and consideration, the recommended capital program for fiscal years 2026 to 2031 and the capital budget for fiscal year 2026. These budgetary proposals were approved by the Planning Commission on March 11th, 2025. The Parker Administration's inaugural recommended capital program and budget strove to make Philadelphia the safest, cleanest and greenest big city in America with access to economic opportunity for all. The recommended fiscal year '26 to '31 capital program and the fiscal year '26 capital budget represent the administration's continued commitment to advancing that vision. The recommended program is a six-year plan for investing in neighborhood and community facilities like parks, libraries and recreation centers, specialized vehicles including medical units and trash compactors, repairs to city streets and sidewalks, maintenance of city owned buildings and technological infrastructure. The recommended budget reflects the spending appropriations for the first year of the six-year program as both the program and budget are key instruments of planned physical development by city agencies and institutional partners. The Philadelphia Home Rule Charter directs that their initial preparation and submission to the Mayor be a function of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. Beginning in October, 2024, planning commission and budget office staff receive an evaluated funding request from city 20 departments. We then work with each 21 of these departments to produce a 22 capital program and budget that aligns with the administration's priorities, addresses the city's capital needs and long-term goals, and reflects the city's financial resources and spending capacity. 4 billion in new city tax supported general obligation bond funding to support public improvements throughout Philadelphia. When possible, city funds are used to leverage additional resources provided by regional, state, federal, and private partners. 8 billion in total improvements. For fiscal year 2026, the recommended capital budget calls for $337 million of new general obligation bond funding. The recommended budget makes critical infrastructure investments while reflecting the city's financial constraints and ability to support new debt service. For fiscal year 2026, the recommended capital budget -- excuse me -- excuse me. 9 million over the full program for clean and green. This funding area prioritizes energy efficiency retrofits, sanitation facilities and equipment, improvements to city parks, trails, pools, and playgrounds, and investing investments at Lemon Hill in anticipation of the FIFA World Cup fan fest. Funds for street paving, ADA ramps, traffic calming, and Vision Zero are also recommended to ensure the residents can safely access these amenities which improve the quality of life in Philadelphia and make all neighborhoods cleaner, greener, and more vibrant. 7 million over the full program for public safety. These include investments in the Riverview Wellness Center to complete a new tower, a multi-year project to renovate the fire academy, critical improvements to the city's prisons, fire and police facilities and replacements of fire vehicles. These recommended investments will increase public safely across the city. 7 million over the full program for core support. Recommended capital investments for core support include information technology upgrades to optimize and streamline the city's financial and procurement systems, improvements to city owned vehicle fueling and electric charging stations and safety improvements to municipal buildings. 2 million in fiscal year '26 and $145 million over the full program for economic opportunity.
To expand access to opportunity for all, the planning commission recommends capital investments and neighborhood commercial corridors throughout the city, critical repairs and maintenance of improvements to local public, transit infrastructure, unlocking state and federal grants and matching funds, industrial and waterfront land redevelopment including the continuation of the I-95 CAP project. 7 million over the full program for education. This priority advances investment in city-owned facilities at the Zoo, free library, African American Museum, as well as cultural institutions including the Mann, the Dell, the Please Touch Museum and the Art Museum. We are pleased to propose these investments, which balance fiscal constraints of the city with the immense needs of its physical plant. The recommended city new CN, general obligation bond funded spending and our recommended capital program and budget is higher than in previous years, reflecting the city's efforts to invest in its aging infrastructure while also -- while also -- excuse me, while also investing in infrastructure for new initiatives. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. We would be happy to address any questions that you may have regarding the recommended fiscal year '26 to '31 Capital Program and the fiscal year '26 Capital Budget.
Thank you very much for your testimony, and also, we will be doing three minutes per member each round just to make sure everybody gets their questions in. First question, I want to start off with -- is regarding the five-year plan and the question is to Mr. Rob Dubow regarding job growth and development as a part of five-year plan. How are you doing, Rob? How are you?
I'm doing fantastic. Can't complain. So I remember, during our fiscal stability hearing, we talked about how last year's five-year plan gave a forecast of negative job growth, right, based upon S&P Global Market intelligence, the consulting firm that we use. And so I just want to get an idea as we move forward, kind of, you talked about that will be adjusted -- that approach will be adjusted. What are we doing, as a city, to attract more jobs as relates to us eliminating poverty through job creation and development?
I'll take the "what we project part, and then hand it back over to the chief of staff or the commerce director to talk about what we're doing to try to attract jobs. So in the five-year plan, we -- based on what we -- feedback we got from our econometric firm, IHS Global Insight, and a meeting we had down at the Fed economists, we're projecting relatively flat growth for jobs over the five years. For the five years, have small growth, and one year has a small decline. So, kind of, based on all the economic uncertainty that we're seeing and the feedback we got, those are the projections in our plan. I see the commerce director coming up to talk about what we're doing.
It's an honor to be here. So on the question of job growth, I'll start by saying that the commitment of this administration and Council to do something around tax competitiveness is going to be really critical to stimulate and spur growth. And the fact that businesses will be able to project their obligations is extraordinarily important. And, you know, I personally, this is a commerce director speaking, if we can accelerate the rate of growth of revenue in jobs and wages, we can always look at accelerating the speed at which we fund -- you know, fully fund our pension fund and reduce taxes, you know, more quickly. So I'll start there. The second thing I'll say is that our investments in workforce are really critical and this budget makes a big commitment to the workforce space. And it is also -- this budget -- this five-year plan and this coming budget also will make an extraordinary commitment to the idea of positioning Philadelphia as a business hub, as a world class business hub. It'll be the first time where we're proactively marketing Philadelphia as a business hub. This work is underway, we call it the Brand Attraction campaign and I look forward to sharing more details about our aggressive work across the board in commerce testimony. Thank you.
All right. Thank you very much. I want to do an overview of when you take into account part of your testimony, Tiffany, you talked about the work that has been done, the investment around the recruitment and of retention of filling out vacancies. Most folks may or may not know that the vacancies play a major role in terms of how much we take in, in terms of our overall budget and is calculated in terms of how much we have available. I know two members in this body particularly Councilwoman, Majority Leader Gilmore-Richardson, the Majority Leader - Majority Leader, Gilmore-Gilmore-Richardson and Majority Whip Isaiah Thomas, worked on a -- worked on a working group to address the vacancy issue and so just do a double back on what that looks like, you talked about some growth in that area and maybe put some dollars and cents around that figure.
Absolutely. And so, I'll give the top line and then I'm going to ask our new Chief, HR Officer Candi Jones, to come up as well as Camille Duchaussee who heads our CAO unit. So --
And one additional follow-up, and just give me an idea of also we know what the federal government laying off a lot of individuals in the city of Philadelphia, and the Mayor stepped up and said, well, we have vacancies and went on and did a recruitment tour. I want to get an idea of -- also how did that work in terms of -- because I had several constituents who called me who lost their jobs, and so that particular initiative gave people a safety net, one opportunity to come work for the city of Philadelphia. So please give us an update on that as well.
Absolutely. So we are -- we've been very, very intentional over the last year in our recruitment efforts, not just in the traditional sense of posting on the traditional platforms like LinkedIn and through social media. We've also been very intentional on using -- doing ad buys and deploying radio station ads talking about, you know, the opportunity to come and join the workforce. We also have a mobile unit that goes out and does hiring fairs where people can go onto this bus of sorts and apply, in real time, for critically needed positions, hard to -- hard to fill positions. So we've been really intentional in that. We've seen a decrease in our vacancy rates overall and we've also been intentional seeing what's happening at the federal level doing recruitment fairs. We've done a recruitment -- we had a recruitment initiative, a fair that we did down in DC earlier this year, and then we had another one that occurred just last week. Candi Jones will now take over and talk about the number of job fairs that we've had to date and where those numbers are. But I will say, I'm proud to share that we've hired a significant amount of people over the last year, closing that vacancy rate.
So I'll start, just generally, about the vacancy rates. So as of March, 2025, we have about 5,700 vacancies, so that closes the gap to about percent, 9 whereas the prior vacancy rate was 10 about 19 percent. Our application 11 numbers are increasing 12 significantly, partially due to the 13 "Philly On The Move" campaign with 14 the hiring bus and also our 15 recruitment efforts, and billboards, 16 and digital advertising at the 17 airport and at the stadiums. We've increased our application count from 53,000 applications in 2023 to about -- to over 60,000 applications in 2024. In 2024, we've attended over 155 events and engaged over 3,000 candidates. And since January of 2025, we've already attended over events also in partnership with some of the Councilmembers, to do very targeted recruitment in some of the districts. Sorry. For the federal recruitment events, we've had two events, one in January and just one this past week. We've engaged over 250 potential employees that are either in transition or looking to transition in from the federal government. So at this time the Office of Human Resources is kind of intentionally creating partnerships with those candidates who've come out to our events and some of those who have not made it to align them with City Department heads and leaders so that we can make intentional connections and fill some of those vacancies.
24 Thank you. I'm going to follow-up, but The Chair at this moment recognizes Majority Leader Gilmore- Richardson.
Thank you. I don't know what's wrong with this thing. Thank you. Thank you very much, Council President. I just had a point of clarification. I was trying to take notes on what you were stating. If you could just repeat for me the amount of vacancies and then repeat for me the actual percentage that you notated. And based on what I thought I heard, if you could just, for the record, tell us for FY '24 and '25 the budgeted vacancy rate versus the actual vacancy rate. Thank you, Mr. President.
So for -- as of March of 2025, there are 5,791 vacancies which is approximately percent of the vacancy rate. I apologize, I missed the next question.
Yes, based on what I 7 thought I heard you state, if you 8 could just, for the record, notate 9 what the budgeted vacancy rate and 10 the actual vacancy rate is for FY 11 '24 and FY '25? 12
I don't have 13 those numbers in front of me, but I 14 can certainly follow-up with those. 15
And I do know that we have a hearing coming up with CAO and OHR so we can -- we're prepared to certainly follow-up in writing, but then answer any further questions you have during that hearing as well. But really proud that we were able to decrease the vacancy rate by to percent, and that number will continue to decline as Candi Jones and her team continue to be intentional about our recruitment efforts here locally.
8 Can we expand that mobile 9 bus? Like, we have one, but based 10 upon the central urgency and 11 addressing the issue of poverty 12 through job creation, could we 13 possibly maybe get two, three, maybe 14 four, five, maybe one per Council 15 district? 16
Listen, the 17 demand calls for that. The demand calls for that so we will not -- we will not say no to that, absolutely.
Because -- so there's a $10 million investment for workforce. Could somebody give a detail on what that $10 million in this budget are going to be for?
Absolutely. I'll call on now Camille Duchaussee, our Chief Administrative Officer.
Good morning. Camille Duchaussee, chief Administrative Officer. The $10 million allocation or ask is relative to this considerable work that we're doing in terms of workforce development. The City College for Municipal Employment, while it is a bespoke program that has partnerships with the Community College of Philadelphia, it's also the umbrella for our workforce development efforts. So this is making sure that we have partnerships with all of the stakeholders throughout the city, our labor partners, the philanthropic community, the School District of Philadelphia as well as CCP. This -- we really have a comprehensive plan for ensuring that we are not leaving any stone unturned and that we are leveraging the talent within the city of Philadelphia to fill our workforce needs. In combination with the work of CCME, we are working very closely with the Office of Human Resources, the Commerce Department, to leverage all of the existing partnerships that we have and create new partnerships.
Can you give me an update on where we're at with the Municipal College?
Sure. So we are very early in, as you know, we stood up CCME on September. We launched September of 2024. Successfully, we had a first cohort that included approximately 75 students across three different program areas: IT, our health services, specialists and our administrative officers -- administrative support staff, right? The administrative professional program was the first and only thus far to be completed. The candidates in that program are in the process of interviewing for municipal employment. And so we are hoping by spring we will have the first cohort of programs completed and have better numbers for you, more accurate numbers. But the response was extremely positive with very little by way of advertisement. There was a lot of word of mouth. We had just under a thousand candidates express interest. Again, we are constantly in -- and again, the funding would go a far -- go pretty far with expanding the programs that we're able to offer. We are aligning the programs that we create to the vacancies that are existing and have been critical and difficult for us to fill, traditionally, in the city. And so we are moving forward with things like paramedic, our EEO professionals, and of course, we continue to partner with prisons and the police department to ensure that we are creating spaces to upskill and provide on-ramp and pathways to employment in those areas where we have significant vacancies.
Okay. Well, thank you very much. And again, you know, my single, like focus is around job growth and development that specifically tackle poverty, right? Erase that moniker is best being the largest poorest city in America, and I believe this administration, this body, is at the right time in history to actually erase that moniker. And so that's why I want to get some additional follow-up questions particularly around those particular issues, which before I turn over to my colleague, I just want to talk about FY '26 celebration. You know, the world will be watching us, so I want to get an idea, One, I know we did a midyear transfer, the exact amount that we transferred, just for the record. And then also how much is in this budget to support the celebration, the 250 celebration. But most importantly, just making sure that the dollars that are transferred, the dollars that are budgeted, that the organization they're going to are equitable across the board. So as we celebrate the birthplace of America and we celebrate, you know, Betsy Ross and Rocky, we're still also supporting Paul Robeson and Joe Frazier within the same context, right? And these organizations that are out there are doing the same work. And so as I observe and pay attention to this process and I talk to different people, you know, they want to make sure they're a part of it, and that this process is very, very inclusive while we're utilizing the taxpayers' dollars to celebrate the birthplace of America. So we want to celebrate everybody and make sure everybody has a seat at the table and advocating, promoting and participating in the celebration. So can I just get an update on where we're at?
Absolutely. And we have Budget Director Sabrina Maynard for any additional details, but generally speaking, specifically speaking, Councilman, you're absolutely correct. We -- the administration is proud to have already devoted over $60 million towards celebrating 2026, but we're not done, so that's why you'll see in FY '26 we call for an additional $40 million. So over $100 million dollars in investments that the city is putting to making sure that we have the best celebration and put on the biggest party in America. The birthplace of America was here and we're going to make sure that we shine and Philadelphia is adequately reflected. But that entails addressing 2026 investments from a three-prong standpoint, making sure that all of the events are exciting. So we get kicked off this summer with the Club World Cup rolling into the fall with the 250th founding -- the anniversary of the 250th founding of the U.S. Marines and Navy. So actually events start this year and we are prepared to meet that challenge. Then we have a great New Year's Eve 2026 extravaganza planned for New Year's Eve, and of course, in 2026, we have the semi sesquicentennial which is a lot to say and it's just a fancy way of saying celebrating America's 250th birthday on July 4th of next year. And then we also have the MLB world -- MLB All-Star game taking place here. So while we have those big events, we're also going to be having and sponsoring and partnering with organizations that will be having -- putting on smaller events across the city. So we have the events that are happening in terms of the special events, but we also are significantly invested, as you will see, in the security around those events, and that can't be taken lightly. We've seen the headlines, we've seen this past New Year's Eve and some of the unfortunate attacks that have happened in other cities. We want to make sure that Philadelphia is more than prepared to meet this moment. We want to have fun, but we got to make sure our residents are safe. And then last, but not least, it touches on what you mentioned. Our approach has been to make sure that, yes, we know downtown there's going to be a lot of things going on. Center City is going to be a popping place. But that's not all. For the Parker administration, our priority is making sure that every neighborhood feels the lasting impact of the 2026 experience. So from uptown to Southwest Philly and Nicetown and Overbrook and Northeast, we are going to be focusing on commercial quarters and partnering with organizations that are, yes, the traditional arts and cultures organization that we all know and love, but some of those community groups. And you'll see that as we continue through this budget and beyond.
All right. Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilman Curtis Jones.
Thank you, Mr. President. And I know I only have three minutes so I'm going to cut all of the flattery I wanted to give all of them off of my -- off of my time, but I would be remised in not thanking the Mayor for putting together this team. I call you my musketeers, of which Porthos is the budget director, who has been here budget testimonies. Rob 12 Dubow is an amazing steward of the 13 budget. 14
15 Hey, before you start 16 giving them props, we got to get our 17 stuff first. 18
Well, 19 yeah, all right. So I just didn't 20 want to come off my time but -- 21
What I want to say to you is that I am proud of what the direction this city is going in. I listened to Mayor Parker's projections on housing, and you don't have to answer this question, but I want to know that you are contemplating the answer to this question. All of these projections depend on what number 45 -- 47 actually, does up in the White House. And I want to know and be assured that there is a plan B so that this modest surplus that we have is in position to be the stop- gap if he decides to attempt to bully the city of Philadelphia. Because we -- my leader, Mayor Parker, is not going to be bullied. She's not going to compromise her positions on her core values. But fiscally, are we preparing with a plan B? That's question number one. Number two, I want you to know that during the course of this budget, I will be revisiting the blueprint for safer Philadelphia. I always -- I already talked to our Police Commissioner to, kind of, look by department, how we're doing. There's a 39 percent reduction in shootings. I know it's a combination of things, but I'd like to know in a granular detail, what things are working, what things we need to double down and do more of? And Vanessa, I know you've been on this for a very long time. And second -- third thing is that something that I've always been concerned about is our capital budget and how long it takes to do any one thing. I'm excited that a partner, who is my shero, that has taken on that goal but we've had all these iterations with rebuild and this build and that build, but we ain't -- we haven't built enough. And so how do we get rid of that 10-year backlog of capital projects? And is that, in effect, a way to help stimulate the local economy by putting shovels in the ground. And then along with Rob Dubow, I've been here now budget 8 -- no, 17 budget presentations. And 9 I always pick one department -- not 10 to pick one but to hope to do -- 11 motivate to do better. And one of 12 them is -- and I couldn't do their 13 job, I say it with authority, the 14 office of homelessness. We've got a 15 homeless problem in the city of 16 Philadelphia and it is wedded to the 17 mental health problem that we face 18 in the city of Philadelphia. And if we're going to be a great city for FIFA, if we're going to be a great city for -- there you go see, I got them all in.
How do we take on that task so that when people visit our city, they're not stepping over the downtrodden and we have to kind of work with both hemispheres of our brain to solve that. And I'll drop the mic there. Thank you. You can answer that now, you can answer that during the budget. You can answer both.
So I have four different buckets that we are -- we're mapping it out. First, we'll start with housing. The Mayor has this process of ensuring that whenever we proffer a plan, we've gone through -- we've put it through a rigorous test, a very rigorous test. She calls it a geometric, if then, statement.
A geometric, if then, statement. So this is the plan, but then if this happens, what do you do then? And then if that happens, then what do you do then? And so, whether it's our housing plan, our Kensington Revival plan, the Wellness Center plan, the Wellness Ecosystem plan, even tax reforms, our five-year plan overall. Every plan that we proffer as an administration has gone through a rigorous geometric if then statement . So to answer your first question, our housing plan, the address that was delivered yesterday, the plan that is being uploaded as we speak, are the plans that we will go into greater detail on April 21st. It has gone through that rigorous plan such that it will stand the test of time, should federal cuts happen at the federal level, should proposals that we're hoping, you know, be put forth and passed, including the governor's budget being adopted at the state level, should those things happen, great. But if they don't, we always have another plan. I don't call it a plan B because the mission is the mission, and we're going to continue on the mission but we will employ different tactics. We're happy to discuss that in greater detail on April 21st regarding housing. As it pertains to the blueprint, I'd now like to call up our director of Public Safety, Adam Geer, to talk about how we've actually adopted many of the principals in that plan. And I know that the Mayor gave you a wonderful -- a nod, a shout out, a recognition for the hard work that your team did to bring that plan to bear. So Adam Geer can talk about that and then we'll go to the third bucket.
Morning esteemed Councilmembers. Absolutely, Councilmember Jones, we have been doing a lot in this administration, right? It started with a lot of the work that this body had been doing and leading on, and we built on that. Our anti-violence prevention grants program, that $25 million that you all gave to the city to dispense is making a difference. The leadership of this Council is making a difference. The leadership of our Mayor, making a difference of our police commissioner, of the folks you see here on the table, right? It is all of these things. It is cleaning, it is greening, it is sanitation. None of them are having an effect in their silos. They're all collectively contributing along with, yes, our back to work, right? Along with -- I would even go so far as to say the Eagles winning, lifting up a morale. All of this stuff matters as a city, but leadership matters. We're leaning into your plan. We're really excited to talk about all of the other work the Office of Public Safety has been doing for the past year built again upon the work that this Council and others community members have been doing for years.
I have a question on that same line of questioning. So I know we start off with -- I think it was 22 million last year, and then we 23 advocated for an additional 30. And we know in this budget, it's for the fact -- for the Violence Prevention grants. How much did we spend for -- on the Violence Prevention grants for Boots Center Ground organizations? And then also -- and I know we have a chance to talk to you about the Office of Public Safety, but also give us an idea about the consultant work for regarding evaluating the effectiveness of our investments with organizations from the violence prevention money.
Absolutely. So we're not done spending the money, right? We have already gotten through our CEG, our largest grants. We made those awards and also our second largest grants, the CCG. So that money is ramping up and getting out the door, we're signing those contracts, and we are finalizing probably within the next 10 days the organizations that are going to be receiving the TSIG, those smaller micro loans to do their work. We intend to spend all, if not most of the money.
For the TSIG and the CEG. I know that we have that available. So I will -- I will make that available to you.
Second part of your question, Councilmember, if you could repeat?
-- of the organizations. And to be frank, this is being asked since Vanessa was in the position so I got asked a question, so I want to just put on a record and see where we're at in terms of moving that process forward under this administration.
Most of our major programs have been evaluated or are currently being evaluated. That includes P3, that includes GVI. So it's either in process or it has been completed. Now, a lot of this is new territory that the city is leading on, right? And so what I mean by that is, we have hired a Director of Performance Management. We did a nationwide search. We brought up gentleman back home to Philadelphia who's doing -- leading the work in the Seattle DA's office. And we have tasked him with now our grants team, which we'll talk about it more, but we've pulled together all of our performance management folks from all of the agencies. They used to be in each of the agencies. They now operate together as a group. We pulled them out of their silos so that we could all be speaking the same performance language. And his task is going to be to continue to evaluate and understand how our groups, how our anti-violence program groups work, what effect they have, the lives that they are saving. And so we will talk more about that, but we are engaged in that work and we'll lead on that.
So at some point in time we expect a report to say, from the investments that we have given, here's our dashboard on how we're being effective in terms of investing and supporting Boots on the Ground Organizations and how that ties into saving lives, correct?
As a first step, we're going to have prepared for April 8th, the number of what our city's anti-violence spending is. As a next step, we're going to continue the evaluations of those programs and then be able to report back to Council what we think works and what we think does not work and where we're going.
And then also -- because I also believe that what gets measured, gets done, right?
But then I'll have another follow-up conversation which we just -- to also make sure when we talk about quality and we talk about quantity and numbers and evaluation, right, it can sometimes be a little complicated when you're dealing with also, like, you know, mom and pop organizations that are actually doing the work, right, but also need the back office support compared to, like a pin that might get millions of dollars from PCCD, but they're not in the neighborhood, right? Where they're partnering with groups in the neighborhood and using their list to say, during our outreach, we touch 300 people, but that's off the partnership of working for organizations like NOMO or Unity in the Community. And so -- but, so we can be fiscally responsible, we would like to see a thorough evaluation to make sure that our investments are put in good hands. And so I look forward to working with you on that.
Mr. President, 83 million a year from the federal government goes to PCCD goes to those groups. We have to be cognizant of that kind of impact. And I'm sorry to take --
No, you're absolutely right and those are the -- those organizations that even the Council President referenced, NOMO, that work is really important. We want to make sure that we have all the right levers and supports in place to ensure whatever changes at whatever level, that organizations that are the boots on the ground that have been doing the work and doing a significant amount of work and doing a really good job can continue doing that. So whether that's Unity in the Community under Anton or NOMO, under Rickey Duncan, we want to continue -- and EMIR, Chantay Love and on and on, we want to continue to support those organizations because it's proof positive that it is working. And Council President, I really like what you said. What gets measured, gets done. That's the impetus for Philly Stat 360. And we have -- we have our standard 31 stats and measures that we measure on that site, but also we build out story board. So I know we were here recently in this room 23 discussing our public safety plan and our commitment to Kensington and even the Kensington Caucus. And we have a story board up to show how we're measuring our success. And so I can tell you that, you know, it's exactly as Director Geer said, April 8th is D-Day. That's when we'll provide that report to you on those numbers. Accountability is important. What get measured, gets done. That's going to be my new mantra.
Can we defer the third bucket so that my colleagues can get in? I'll circle back.
So we'll make sure that we submit, in writing, a response around the efficiency of our new Capital Programs Office.
Under the leadership of Aparna Palantino. And then of course, all of the amazing work that's happening under Cheryl Hill for our Office of Homeless Services. We will submit that.
So we can do that on round two, if it's okay with you, Mr. President.
The Chair recognizes Majority Leader Gilmore-Gilmore-Richardson.
Thank you. Thank you, Council President. And I wanted to start off with a thank you to the administration and to each of you for the work throughout the year. It's been a wonderful year to work together on a number of constituent issues. So I just wanted to put that on the record. I wanted to go back to the point around the vacancy rate so I could properly put my question on the record. I asked this because of our overall financial picture and outlook over the next several years based on a number of things. And, you know, I heard you talk about the end of the one-time federal funds, the new uncertainty in Washington, the new contracts, our new union contracts, our pension obligation payment in FY '29, the service department demands, the weaker tax base, maintaining the positive fund balance, and then also the investments in the BSR and the Federal funding reserve. And so just for the record, for the vacancy rate, because this will be important to me and I know I talked to Rob and Sabrina about this as well. If you could just detail for us the vacancy rate versus actuals for the last two years. And then what you have budgeted for this year in addition to the budgeted vacancy allowance for this year. I'll start there. And then I wanted to ensure that I put on the record, my concern and consternation regarding the workforce development change. You all know, and this is prior to this administration, that during the COVID years, during our budget process in the previous administration that the workforce development department was eliminated and then became a unit under the Commerce Department, much to the push of members of City Council. And now, we are just getting back to a space in place where there's real investment in workforce development both from the commitment of the Mayor and of your administration, but also from a financial perspective and how we are working, both internally and externally, on recruitment. And so I want to put on the record that I do have concern regarding the transition of the workforce development department in that, I thought the thinking was, initially, for that department to work under commerce to talk about all the things that the commerce director mentioned earlier today from a business growth perspective from commerce, but also if, in the Commerce Department, you're working directly with the businesses that will hire the individuals, who will work at those businesses, if that was the reason why workforce development stayed with commerce. And I get CCME is sort of the umbrella to do the recruitment work for the city overall but I'm talking about from an overall financial picture of commerce is working with the businesses, and the businesses are the ones that will hire the workforce here in the city. So I'll go back to -- I just wanted to paint that picture for you. I'll go back to the question regarding the vacancies and then if we could go to the commerce workforce development question next.
Yeah. So I think we know what you want. Probably, we look at vacancy by division. So we can get you something that shows how what we had in the budget compares to actual, and you want that for '24 and '25?
And we're still getting some of that back from the department. So the '26 part may take a little longer, but '24 and '25 we can get to you.
Right. That's why I started with '24 and '25 because I figured wasn't completely 17 finished yet, but I think that'll 18 help us sort of understand what 19 actual wiggle room we may have per 20 se. And I also wanted to address -- 21 go ahead. 22
Sorry. 23 Remember we're going -- we'll say 24 part of the trade off on vacancy allowances depending on the department between that and overtime.
So we'd probably then need to look at, kind of, how overtime compared to projection too, just to give that fuller picture.
Right. And I -- and I think the other reason why I was asking that question is because when you go through the materials and in reading everything, there are a number of new positions slated for a number of departments based on priority. And so, for me, I'm seeking to understand how many of those positions are brand new positions to city government versus a position that can address a vacancy that has already been allotted for in the budget process.
Yeah, understood. And that was one of the things that working with OHR we looked at as we looked at each budget request.
So I was actually working under the previous administration prior to the Office of Workforce Development being established during the process of the office being established, being the department that stood up a program, the first program under that office and then seeing it successfully grow. As I was transitioning out of government at that time, that's when COVID hit and then the decision was made to put it in commerce. Coming back in this role, you know, drawing on my experiences both in government on the previous administration, but then also working with other local governments across the nation and in my consultant role, I realized that enterprise-wide roles, enterprise- wide work should rest and reside in enterprise-wide focused departments. And so that was the impetus for the change. So yes, the work that is led under Gianna who is here today, Gianna Grossmann it is -- it was doing really well in the Commerce Department, but it was siloed because it was only focusing on those businesses tied to commerce. That work continues but it's more enterprise-wide now. So not just focusing on the businesses externally or external to government and looking at job growth, but also internally as well. So we are -- and we're doing the same thing as well in our restructuring with our HR practices. We find that when we centralize it, and we can -- we can then ensure that there's a common practice, a common north stars if you will, common guidepost and guidelines that each department will be held accountable for. And so under the leadership of Carol De Fries and CAO, in partnership, of course, with Gianna Grossman. There it is, Grossman. We are -- we are ensuring that that work is -- it is not just siloed to businesses. And so that is really important to us, not just focusing on those businesses, but enterprise- wide across all of our many departments.
And I read the bill and I want to be respectful of the clock and I do have a lot here that I want to try to get through today, but it was my understanding that OHR handle more of the internal coordination of workforce development, that it was not just the business coordination under the Commerce Department, but it was also the nonprofit partner round table that, you know, collaborated with the Commerce Department. It wasn't just business. I think commerce was more external, I should say. It included the nonprofit partners, they had a round table, a robust round table of nonprofits that they met with on a daily basis. We work with even the life sciences and tech industry folks with commerce as well. So I didn't look at it as commerce being in a silo. I thought that OHR did the internal portion, which would be more of the CCME work, and that commerce focused on the external to city government the nonprofits and the businesses, obviously that are coming to the city. So I say that because I also was looking at the additional positions for it as well along with recognizing the work that commerce, I think, has done a good job around ensuring that we are properly investing in workforce development, even creating outside opportunities for these organizations with the money that we and Council had put into that work under the previous administration because of what happened during COVID. So --
Yeah, it wasn't a punitive decision. They were doing a great job under commerce, and they're doing a great job but it's expanded. We've expanded our approach. But the focus is both internal and external under CAO. So that hasn't -- that hasn't changed. Just last week, we met with over a hundred nonprofits to circle back to them and remain accountable to the work that we were doing around our contracting and procurement process. There is a workforce development component tied to that as well. So we were able to seamlessly address one issue and then talk about the additional work that we want to expand with our workforce development. So it's just -- it's a different model but it certainly doesn't take away from all of the different organizations across a myriad of sectors that we were engaged with under commerce. We're still -- actually, our engagement has grown in these last few months under our new CCME model. I think that we've been able to attract more external partners in that -- with that model as well. And so I just want to, you know, just state for the record that it is -- that I'm really proud of the direction that we're going with workforce development. We're even being more intentional in how we are engaging with our labor unit -- union. So we have some exciting work coming ahead that we'll be announcing pretty soon around partnerships with SEIU, Unite Here, CARP, Rosie's Girl, Sam Staten Jr. So we have those investments already in our -- in our budget, in our portfolio. We're able to expand it at record clip because of that enterprise-wide focus that the CAO team brings, that was a bit more siloed under commerce. So we just increased our effectiveness but it didn't take away certainly from all of the work that was happening within the Commerce Department.
Okay. I appreciate the response. I'll come back on the next round but I'm happy that you stated for the record regarding sort of the thinking around workforce development, which was -- I have to be honest, it's one of my babies since I've been here.
This has been the work that I have focused on, legislation that I have passed, and so I just wanted to ensure that you all understood the importance of it by placing it on the record. And in addition to that, I'm happy that you stated that investments are already in this process for the pre-apprenticeship work because I know that we had to talk about that last budget cycle.
Particularly for the Sam Staten, Jr. Apprenticeship Program, for Rosie's Girls, for the CARP program and also for -- it's one other program, one of the workforce development program that we support is a pre-apprenticeship program. But I'm happy that you put that on the record that the support is already there for those organizations.
They're there for those organizations. We're really excited about that work. It's tied also to our housing agenda. So we are really thinking about how we can be more comprehensive with our investments, right? Ensuring that our dollars, that we can stretch it as long and wide as we can. So through CCME, we have -- the same way we have -- we have a funnel of showing, you know, starting through partnering with the school district and schools like it, our charter schools, creating that funnel at the early ages through CCME, working from that enterprise wide approach to putting them in critically needed positions, ensuring that whether it's within government or with our -- with our third party partners and then making sure that it's tied to our housing agenda and other agendas around clean and green to advance that work. That's what we mean by economic opportunity for all. So I appreciate that, your ongoing support and that acknowledgement there.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Council President. I'll come back on the next round to talk about more of my finance questions. Okay. Thanks.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Cindy Bass.
Thank you, Mr. President. Good morning. How's everybody doing? Good to see everyone. I just had one quick question and I want to just refer back to the Mayor's conversation yesterday or her speech yesterday, regarding housing and the $400 million borrow that was going to be coming up. And she really did emphasize that that money would not sort of sit around which is, kind of, something that happens over and over and over again. When we have these projects, when we did rebuild, you know, we had this, you know, borrow a $100 million and then we couldn't get it out the door and then we borrowed another hundred. And meanwhile, we're paying debt service, and people aren't seeing projects done as promised. And, you know -- and, you know, I'm not blaming you. Obviously, that was another administration. But how do we make sure that this money gets out the door which is critically important to ensuring that the full scope of her plan and project to provide, you know, 30,000 units new and refurbished existing units? How do we make sure that that actually happens and get those dollars out the door? Because we have a problem with spending money. You know, we're the only people who have a problem with spending money. Most of the time you -- you know, you've got some money and is burning a hole in your pocket and it's not really a problem to spend it down. But the way that we operate, and I think Councilman Jones had done a chart which showed from beginning to end. How many steps was it councilman?
Too many. Okay. It was a lot to be able to proceed with a project. You know, I don't want to, you know, guesstimate but it -- you know, I want to say 30, 40, somewhere in that range steps in the city of Philadelphia to be able to get a project up and running. Anytime we can build 95 and, you know, rebuild parts of 95 in a couple of days. And, you know, we see private developers who can get their projects up and running, you know, in a few months, and then our projects take forever. So how are we fixing that to be able to accomplish her goal and vision?
So I'm going to call up Jessie Lawrence, our Director of Planning and Development.
By successfully adopting our HOME Initiative, that's how we do it. So that HOME Initiative -- jokes aside, but no, seriously, that -- the HOME Initiative does that. So the first thing that we did was over 30 days ago, we -- the Mayor executed or delivered an executive order, which called first on us, it called for introspection, for plus 18 departments to look at how we do 19 business, what are the bottlenecks? 20 What are the barriers? What's going 21 to prevent us from having shovels in 22 the ground? How do we learn from 23 rebuild and initiatives like it? 24 And then what are we doing really well? And then how do we learn from that and adopt that. So on Friday, we received those recommendations from those departments. We're now operationalizing that work through our -- in the Mayor's office, we have a new office of Policy Planning and Delivery. That D stands for delivery. It's the implementation that's really important. So they are working in partnership with the plus departments and partnership 14 with a Philly Stat 360, because as 15 the Council President said, what 16 gets measured, gets done. 17 So we are holding ourselves 18 accountable with all of those 100 19 plus recommendations. We're making 20 it public. It is going to be on our 21 Philly Stat 360 website. And by 22 streamlining processes through those 23 recommendations and more, we're 24 going to be able to get shovels in the ground, but also through the successful passage of the recommendations that we've put forth. So two $400 million bonds and then I'll give it over to Jesse to talk in more detail.
Well, before you do that, let me just ask a follow-up. So, with the introspection that's been done, will there be -- and I know you said you just got sort of, like, a report or, you know, a plan last week. And so, will there be a report to Council detailing how we're going to change things, how we're going to take it from, let's say 40 steps to, you know --
-- a reasonable number? So you will be reporting back to Council on that?
Absolutely. And in fact -- so under Jessie Lawrence's leadership along with his Chief of Staff, John Mondlak, here recently, they showed me all of those steps and my mind was blown at the number of steps it takes to bring a project to bear. So we are streamlining that process. We have proffered a recommendation. We're not touching councilmanic prerogative, but we are -- we are looking at how we address that through a new recommendation that we're putting forth that the Mayor teased yesterday, that we will go into greater detail on April 21st. But I'll kick it over to Jessie to talk in greater detail now.
One last question. When do you -- when do you think that you'll be able to report back? How long do you think it'll take you?
That's not the type of department or that's not the type of city that we're running.
So I just looked over to my right a few minutes ago and saw our CIO, Melissa Scott. So as quickly as Melissa Scott and Kristin Bray, our Chief Legal Counsel and head of Philly Stat can get it up, it will be up there. But we really are a government that we want residents that can see, touch, and feel. We're a government of transparency. So as quickly as we can get it up, it will be there and we'll make sure that Y'all have that.
And just to give the bottom line to the top line, you just got. We have done a significant amount of research on the pace in which the program spending associated with many of the programs that we're carrying over, continuing investing and expanding. We have a great sense of how money and funds have been spent over. A lot of that has been -- a good amount of that's being carried over from NPI, so we have a sense of the spending whether it's on a weekly basis, quarterly basis. And then also with the new programs we've quantified how we need to staff up to respond to that as well. My particular unit will give it 30 some odd positions to be able to support what we're doing there.
And we will be -- you know, we're looking at it in terms of the executive order report that you've -- that the Chief of Staff just described, understanding where the different departments are already aligned to carry out a lot of that work when it comes to the programs. So, you know, we were tasked with providing the finance and budget department a specific spend down schedule. So we've looked at that understanding, where we're going to be able to bridge the gap, with whatever's left over in the existing MPI draw down, but also understanding on a quarterly basis and fiscal year basis when we'll be hitting certain marks. Because it's going to take some time to stand up some new programs, but we also have the capacity to maintain the existing programs as well. So with the existing programs, we're expanding them, understanding what monetarily and staff-wise it is going to take to move all of that out. The key here is to minimize our finance department holding on to funds way longer than they should be because they're the ones paying out the debt services. So we need to make sure that that timeline aligns, so we're closely monitoring that as we finalize our budget, make sure that we are on the same page about what programs are being rolled out. We are looking at every single one of those programs to be sure about when they'll actually start, when they need to be funded, and how soon we can fund them.
Well, excellent. Well, I just want to thank you for your work. I'm really excited. I'm very excited because it's -- you know, it's been a minute, you know, Rebuild had great promise potential and expectations. And so it's been way too quiet for the liking of most, you know, it's been quite like a cemetery. It's been way too quiet to move these projects along to get them where we had thought we would be by now. Rebuild was debuted, I think in 2016, and it's just -- it is just not where we had hoped it would be. So I'm excited about the possibilities that you're presenting here today. So this is -- this is good. Thank you.
Thank you, Member Bass. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Jamie Gauthier.
Thank you, Council President. And good morning to Y'all. Thank you for being here. I wanted to talk about homelessness in our city. Despite past stumbles, we cannot deny how crucial the Office of Homeless Services is. As homelessness becomes a more urgent and widespread issue, we need to ensure that the department has the tools it needs to serve our neighbors who don't have a place to call home. It was heartening to hear the Mayor speak about the unprecedented amount of investment in housing in our city that will come through the HOME Initiative, especially in light of early impressions from the recent point in time count that homelessness in our city is rising. So, I wanted to ask as it relates to the HOME Initiative, will eradicating homelessness be a part of this huge undertaking? What additional resources and tools, if any, are being deployed in this effort? And can you explain the proposed $5 million decrease in OHS funding over the next five years?
So I'll take that two -- there's a two-prong question. First, I want to, you know, thank you, Cheryl Hill who is -- who is seated at this table who was not here last year. We -- when we started in this administration, of all of the departments that we wanted to see a quick and fast turnaround, it was OHS. And we are really grateful for Cheryl Hill and her leadership and all of the dynamic work that's happened since she's arrived here in this role. So Cheryl will take the first question, and then the second question around eradicating homelessness as a part of our HOME Initiative, I'll call on first, Crystal Yates-Gale to talk about this proof of concept that we're socializing. And then Jessie Lawrence and our new Chief of Housing and Urban Development Officer, Angela Brooks, will talk about our -- the supportive housing component of the HOME Initiative. So, Cheryl, first, then Crystal, and Jesse and Angela.
Thank you. So first I want to say we can end homelessness in Philadelphia, and that is our intent. And so one of the things that we are currently doing is we're looking at our processes, we're looking at the services that we provide and make sure they're the right ones for the people who are unhoused in Philadelphia. So we take what you say seriously and we definitely appreciate your efforts that you have also had in trying to end homelessness. But one of the things that we are looking at is how we spend the money and making sure that it goes to the right places, to make sure that it's serving the right people. And so we are looking at how much shelter that we provide, how we can target permanent housing. And as the Chief of Staff said, we will be working closely with Jessie's team in order to do that. But also we have been engaging PHA, we've been engaging other providers to really talk about it. And on Thursday, we are actually having a community meeting to engage the service provider community as well to be able to talk about how we can do things different in order to end homelessness in Philadelphia.
Good morning, Councilmember. Thank you for always caring about the unhoused in Philadelphia. When we first heard or when I first heard about the proof of concept, I'm like, let's call it a proof of concept to end street homelessness in Philadelphia. And that is our plan. So as part of Mr. Lawrence's department plan to add 30,000 units to the system, OHS is working very collaboratively with them to make 3000 of them -- at least 3000 of them part of OHS's supply of housing for people. The other thing is related to what Councilmember Bass has said is that part of our proof of concept is to provide these things at what the Mayor says is I-95 speed. So that's the answer to what we're trying to do to eradicate homelessness in Philadelphia.
I will also note, for the record, that the budget was not cut. We can talk more about that. But before we get there, we'll talk about supportive housing as it's part of this initiative. And I'll call on now Angela Brooks, our Chief Housing and Urban Development Officer.
Sorry. Good morning and thank you. So I would just like to refer to the section of the plan. So first, prevent housing instability and homelessness is one of the north stars of the HOME Initiative. And we have quite a bit of focus that's on that. But we have specific recommendations in the plan that are a part of that. So it would be the existing programs that we have, eviction diversion, homeless prevention. We want to invest and expand in EDP targeted financial assistance. We've got the Philadelphia Eviction Prevention Programs and Right to Counsel that will be continuing transitional housing and homelessness prevention, permanent housing and supportive housing services, tenant-based rental assistance, and rapid rehousing and foreclosure prevention. And just to -- just, kind of, note for me, prior to coming here, I worked for the Corporation for Supportive Housing for -- so for the last four years I've been working on preventing and ending homelessness on a national level. So this is something that's very personal to me, but something I have a lot of experience in. So it will be a hyper focus of some of the work that we're doing, but we're also looking forward to working with you and some of the things that you've been doing as well, Councilmember Gauthier. So certainly, I look forward to having conversations with you around that. But it is a huge north star of this plan. It's a hyper focus and it's one of the biggest things that the Mayor has talked about since I've started in some of her key focus areas. So I look forward to thinking about how we end homelessness in Philadelphia. It is an achievable goal. I think a lot of the funding, increasing units and some of the plans that we have outside of that, that aren't explicitly tied to ending homelessness will be very applicable as well, and really help to eradicate homelessness.
And then finally, which is part of your question, but also I certainly want to also shout out Councilmember Lozada. We are investing additional dollars into Code Blue, and I know that, that is something that is really important to all members of Council especially in Kensington and the work that you are doing under your leadership there, Councilmember Lozada. We also learned through statistics, that were provided under Cheryl Hill's leadership, that two-thirds of the people that actually come into our homeless shelters are first timers. And so through our HOME Initiative, we are looking at ways to do that eradication by ensuring that we have pathways that prevent them from going into our homeless shelters but that can provide supportive housing as a -- as a solution. So we're working on that initiative in coordination with OHS, other departments of -- including under Angela's leadership and Jessie Lawrence's.
Good. And I established a working group around this particular issue that I want to work in partnership with the administration on, one, about the point in time count.
Who gets count, who doesn't get count. Two, the quality of our shelters. Because when I was out on the street doing Code Blue, talking to individuals, some to be quite frank what you said, I prefer to be here than to go and deal with what's going on in some of the shelters. And so the evaluation standpoint, taking a look at that. And then also our system, making sure everybody has an opportunity to talk with one another and share information. I know some people say it may impact the HIPAA law. I see Renee Garcia over there. But other cities have a system where service providers are able to talk to one another through a particular portal while you have individuals going from one service or one shelter to another. So I want to be a partner in that. And not so much because we're about to celebrate on the birthplace of America, but because it's the morally thing that we should be doing. And also not looking at homeless as just a quality of life issue but also from a moral standpoint. You have children, young people sleeping from house to house, couch to couch, families particularly young ladies with children not on the street, but staying from house to house on people's couches because they don't have a home. And so I want to be a partner in that with my colleagues in the administration.
Thank you very much. Chair recognizes Councilmember Jones, and then I'll go back and relinquish your time to Councilmember Jamie Gauthier.
Thank you so much, Mr. President, and thank you, Jamie, for reinforcing this issue. When you went out on Code Blue, 30-plus people contacted. Only one went in and said he felt safer in prison --
-- than he did in the shelters because of assaults and robberies. I told you there would be one department that I, kind of, got to drill down on, and that is it. We can't -- we cannot -- I could not do that job. You find people at their most vulnerable, but we have to do a better job of making them feel safer. Thank you.
I'm hoping that -- I'm trying to understand the FY '26 proposed budget as related to the FY '25 budget. It's showing a $5 million decrease in class 200 which is contracts and leases. Can you explain the $5 million decrease?
Absolutely. I'll call on Rob. I'm sorry. Our Budget Director, Sabrina Maynard. Absolutely.
Thank you so much. So we are working with OHS on their budget as you can imagine. We meet with them weekly. There was some funding they did not need that was recurring. We can follow-up with some of the details.
Okay. I'm challenged to understand how we would be dealing with increases in homelessness by chopping the OHS budget for -- by 5 million or that OHS doesn't need -- doesn't need the money that they've had even in past budget years. I think it's very important to have that detail and to look at it critically given the state of homelessness in our city.
Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from the northwest, Dr. Anthony Phillips, Councilmember. Y'all clap for that.
Y'all don't know already. You all don't know already I love this man. Thank you all so much. Council President, thank you. I want to thank the administration for honing on important things to our communities. The housing plan is incredible. The wellness plan is credible. We also have done some significant work in public safety. When you put a lot of sense of time into something, things start to move. So I want to applaud you on that. I want to bring forth attention to something that has been very important to me since I was 8 years old. And that is civic 9 engagement. There's an office that 10 I've been with ever since I was a 11 part -- a young person, in civic 12 engagement that I've been looking at 13 for so many years. And I always 14 questioned how are they moving a 15 needle in civic engagement in the 16 city. And that is the Office of Civic Public Engagement, civic engagement, which is now known as the Neighborhood and Community Engagement Office. I am proud of the leadership that's been taken to put together the town -- the town halls that we do in the community. I'm also proud of the fact that we have these neighborhood action centers, which are doing quite well. But the one part of the -- and this is -- I want to take this as like -- I put this on record for incredible feedback and how we could work together to make this happen, the one part of that office that has still yet not moved the needle is the commissions and terms of the commissions over the years, even though I -- as I've seen this since a teenager, people have showed up to events, they've hosted discussions, and they've also just done, you know, publicity things, right? But actually, having significant programs that can change lives and have impact and move some of the Mayor's initiatives, you know, across the table, we haven't really seen that. So, Mike, the only two commissions that have really been impactful this year with programs is Abu Edwards, the Director of Black Male Engagement, where he's literally organized a program that you could see impact. The Office of Women Engagement has programs and so forth. Thus far, when we talk about, this is a -- this is in the -- I want the public to hear this. In the highlights of what these commissions have done, the Office of Black Male Engagement created a program for middle school students to help them become leaders in their schools and communities. Abu Edwards is doing an amazing job. Office of Women Engagement, they're launching an app that will help women get real time support and so forth around crises. The youth engagement, they're working on something around safe quarters with discussions with the -- with the school district. Latino engagement, Muslim affairs, discussions around tables. Yet again, it's always discussions around tables, what -- with no 6 particular impactful programs. However, what bothers me about this budget is that we're asking for about close to a million- dollar increase in their -- in their budget, while an impactful program such as the Mural Arts Program, which has been around for 40 years, colleagues 40 or so plus years, decades, they're being slashed significantly close to a million or so dollars, and then in the next couple years, they're going to be slashed 2 million or so dollars. So -- and coming from the nonprofit world, you don't reward people who have not shown impact. You reward people who have been impactful. So I'm going to give my questions really quickly, and I'm hoping that the commissions this year actually do a better job. So the question I have is, the budget outlines a plan for 300 community meetings and events to be hosted. I know, personally, that 120 of those meetings are going to be local meetings in the town halls, the Community Action centers, what are the other meetings are going to be about, and how do you plan to work with Councilmembers to engage in those -- in that space?
Also, I'm also concerned about the next question is: What data or key performance indicators are being used to evaluate whether or not the neighborhood and communication office strategies are making a tangible difference in residents' lives beyond the towns that -- beyond the centers? I want to learn more about the commissions. And then also what are the commissions specifically going to be doing to make sure that they're engaging the diverse populations around the city to actually have impactful and thoughtful things because, you know, we -- I love the geographic if, and then, and also the rigorous plan, but I just have not seen, even from this report, a rigorous plan for what the commission is going to look like, and I'm looking forward to hearing from you all about that. Thank you.
So my colleague, Chief Deputy Mayor Sincere Harris will answer that question in full. But let me just start by saying we don't see funding our budget as a reward. So last year, each of those commissions, many of them are new received class 100 funding, but they did not have class 200, 300, and 400 funding to actually do their jobs. So on one hand, you're saying there's no 3 impact, but on the other hand, you're saying, why are we rewarding them? They need money in order to operate, in order to deliver those services. But we by no means see class 200, 300, and 400 as rewards to our leaders. Secondly, in our five year plan, we have constraints. We are constrained to word counts. And our budget director, Sabrina Maynard and her team under Ami Patel, they make sure that we adhere to those word counts. What that means is oftentimes we -- we can't, in its totality, talk about all of the great work that's happening, detail by detail. Each of those commissions and neighborhood engagement teams that you mentioned, they have reports on our website showing the impact that they made with only enough money in their budget just to cover their salaries and benefits. And so our -- my colleague, Chief Deputy Mayor, will go over those statistics because as you all know, we do measure our impact. So she will share that. But I just wanted to clarify for the record, the Parker Administration, we don't see the budget as a reward, it's how we deliver services.
Thank you. Tiffany took the first point, and we never want to pit any of our offices against each other. They all do very valuable work. I'm going to call up the Engagement Director, Hassan Freeman. And while he's making his way to this to this stage -- to the stage, I just want to correct the record on some things and give an overview and some clarifying. So to your point about the budget edition for the portion that is considered constituency engagement, that's your Black Male Engagement, that's your youth engagement, the women's engagement who handle many of the commission work that you're referring to, when the increase is not a million dollars, it's about 200 and some thousand dollars. If you see last year's budget, they're working off a shoestring budget. And we pretty much held them flat from FY '24 to FY '25. And that's why we needed, to your point, to kick these programs into high gear, to invest in all of those programs, which -- what does that investment look like? You talked about Black Male Engagement, Abu launching the Ben series. What we didn't talk about is Latino engagements pushing through PHLTCB and providing economic opportunities for folks in that community who otherwise don't have the resources and the opportunities to enter the workforce. The Muslim engagement has done a number of things, and Hassan you should join me, including launching the three-day Muslim Business Expo in partnership with the Commerce Department. Again, focusing on economic opportunity that is deliverable and ways that we can impact the community outside of roundtables and advisory councils and those important public meetings, because yes, those are important. In addition to, you mentioned the Women's Engagement Team launching the app, how we can deliver on safer, cleaner, greener, all of them, including our Interfaith Roundtable, who launch for the first time ever, a series of community kitchens over the holiday, partnering with religious institutions, synagogues, churches, and masjids to provide food and resources to local communities. So these are tangible results that these commissions were doing, these commissions and these engagement offices were doing with minimal resources, which is why in FY '26, we are proposing that their budget increases. Now, that is separate from the initiative of -- the initiative of the Neighborhood and Community Action Team, or NCATs, as we kind of commonly started to call them. And those are the 10 district focused community teams where we were very responsible in making sure we conserved as many resources as possible, maximizing our use of parks, and recs, and libraries, and one school, and one outside partnership with a faith-based institution. And we've set up an organizing team so that we can actually deliver on Mayor Parker's commitment to a government that Philadelphians can see, touch, and feel. They address community issues right there on the spot. Potholes, we had a tenant who -- a resident who was overrun, Councilmember Gauthier, in your district with raccoons, so much to the point where they had to board up the whole house. And those are valuable problem solving engagements that residents are getting their issues handled. We don't wait for them to come to us. We canvas the neighborhood, we engage local businesses. These teams get out and get to know their local police captain, their local fire chief, all of the Parks & Recs in their district. They are responsible for being sort of the mini City Hall and working with our local and state and federal partners to make sure that Philadelphians know we're all in this together. When we talk about a government, you can see, touch, and feel. So, I don't know if I did you justice, Hassan, if you want to add any additional detail or Councilmember, if you have any clarifying questions.
Yeah, just one part. I do think the head of Office of Community Neighborhood Engagement hails from South Philadelphia. And when --
Yeah. When our current -- when our current commissioner and I and Mr. Freeman we were in the trenches in early 2000s, when the homicide rate was skyrocketing in South Philadelphia, and you had gangs from Tasker, and gangs from 27th Street and Wilson Park killing each other day in and day out. And we spent like many, many, many evenings trying to stop them gun wars in South Philadelphia. And so to Mr. Freeman, for your hard work, your dedication. And most importantly, with the neighborhood, many, many city halls working in partnership with District Councilmembers to make sure we're working collaboratively around community engagement and addressing the issues and concerns of the people in our own individual districts. So the floor is yours, sir.
I appreciate that, Councilman. My name is Hassan Freeman and the Director of the Mayor's office of Neighborhood and Community Engagement. As you can see, I'm not used to this. But I'd like to answer your question. Chief Deputy Mayor Harris actually talked about some of the work that we do, but we go a little bit further. We actually just partnered with your office in addressing the sinking homes up on Johnson and Mansfield, if I believe. So we are out there doing the work. In addition to the great work that our women's engagement and doing our black male engagement, our Latino engagement is actually having those round tables to discuss empowering a community that has been historically marginalized and underserved. So it takes time to put them back in their place. In addition to that, our faith-based and interfaith affairs community just had approximately 200 faith-based people from all walks of life come together and collaborate on doing things like feeding the homeless, like reducing gun violence, like counseling. So they are actually doing the work as well. In addition to that, our Muslim engagement goes beyond, and I think our Chief Deputy Mayor talked about it. He's also, not only was he feeding the homeless, he also made it recognized in schools to recognize Ramadan. He's working to do things to empower people, again, being historically marginalized and underserved in our community. So the work is getting done. Sometimes when you deal with relational organizing, it's just that relationships, you got to build it, you got to rebuild the trust. So it takes time for us to always make it manifest. It can't happen as quickly as we really want it, sometimes it takes time.
Thank you. I just want to quickly just say, thanks for the clarification. I do want to add, again, just for the record, again, I am congratulating you all for the neighborhood towns -- oh, gosh, I want to say town centers, but it's --
-- Community Action Centers. But I just look -- I just think of someone like Abu. I mean, he didn't have much money and found a way to create a program. You know, I'm assuming that things are going to be on the upper end this year, especially with more funding, but I still didn't get the answer to, well, we'll talk about when Mural Arts comes up. But I am curious to why such a significant program with an annual report of success is getting completely, you know, I mean, like, they're losing a million, I think close to that. Yes, it's a significant amount of money. Significant amount of money. And I'm actually looking to see how we can expand the money -- expand that, because it's really important to the see, touch, and feel that we talk about. So --
And thank you. And that's why we are calling for the increased budget to help the tutoring program, the mentoring program that Ben is doing to increase that Ramadan -- ready for Ramadan Toolkit that we provided with the school district in partnership with the school district, and to do some of the other work in terms of faith-based outreach with our prisons and partnership with the clergy program.
Good afternoon, Vanessa Garrett Harley, Chief Deputy Mayor for city of Philadelphia. I just want to address your question, Councilman Phillips, around Mural Arts on why it appears that there is a cut in the funding in Mural Arts is receiving this year. Essentially, there is no 15 real cut to the funding that they were receiving. The proposed budget for Mural Arts for this year is approximately $3.7, 3.8 million. And what you're looking at is that last year it looked as if it was $4.2 million in FY '25, but that was because of a one-time fund infusion. That is the difference of approximately $500,000 or so. But the difference in those numbers, and that was one time funds that they received for 2026 beautification of the gateways into FY '25. So essentially, they're remaining flat funded other than that pop that was given in FY '25 so that they could begin the work for the FY '26.
And I'm sorry, I would be remissive if not putting on the record. In addition to all of the programs that we outlined previously, the Interfaith and Muslim Affairs Offices, both do respond a lot of times on every hour of the day whenever there is a -- they're part of our rapid action team, so any event of gun violence, whether a police officer is shot, or whether someone in the community is shot, they stop what they're doing and show up to help that community and that family as much as possible through their grieving time as well.
So they're out in the community, they're doing things and we're -- we look forward to approving the budget where we can add to the resources that they bring to the table.
All right. Let's hopefully get some of that more work publicized in a, I don't know, decent way. We'll figure it out. Thank you, Council President.
Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilmember, Jim Harrity.
Thank you, Council President. Thank you everyone for coming. My man, Hassan, what's happening? I have to say, actually, I've been having dealings with the Office of Muslim Engagement. Imam is everywhere. I mean, me and Sharif have been giving out 300 meals a day since Ramadan started, and he's been at almost every event, especially on Saturdays and Sundays when we're doing it. So I just want to give them a shout out. And, Hassan, of course, is doing good work. I'm going to ask my questions. They're kind of technical and I will let you get back to me on those, but I just want to ask them to get them on the record, okay? And so you'll know where I'm going. First, is we're short 5,700, which is down to 17 percent in the jobs employment are hiring. Was your number down to 17 percent, 2 percent down? But what confuses me is we have 60,000 applicants. It was said in 2024. That's 12 times the amount of vacancies we have. Why aren't we hiring? Which brings me to my next question, and again, you can give me this later if you want to answer. What is the time between application to interview to hire? I've asked for this before in the last budget, I just want to see if it's changed any. All right. And then that's my questions for that. And now my other question is: What is currently the total debt that we are carrying for rebuild? And also I would like to see the numbers for the initial bid and the overrun. So I want to see what the bid was initially to complete the project, and what the actual final cost of the project was, okay?
So for the -- your last question around the initial bid to final cost, that's for all rebuild projects, you'd like to see that?
Well, how about all for that we've done in 2023, and that we plan on doing 2000 -- Well, let's say 2000, when did rebuild start?
How about we go from 20, I'll throw a number 2022?
-- calendar year, whatever you want to tell them. All I'm looking for is the number of what the initial bid was and what we ended up paying at the end of that initial. I'm in construction, so I know about overrides --
-- and stuff like that. That's all I'm trying to get is actual numbers.
Yes. We can submit that to you. So for each year -- each fiscal year, starting in FY22, what the initial bid was and final bid?
We can definitely submit that to you in writing through the Council President's Office.
And then the total cost that we're carrying now from inception of Rebuild.
What is our total debt that we are carrying right now from inception of Rebuild? All right. And then you got the ones about the employment stuff. I just need to know, I want to feel how long it takes. I've sent a lot of people, is what I'm saying. I -- like, I get a lot of people and I give them the website and I'm getting texts every day. Oh, dude, I'm 500 and something on the list as of January, can you find -- and I don't even know how to actually find out for them where they're at on their list. So just trying to get a hold of that because, you know, with 60,000 applicants, I think we should be able to find 5,700 employees. So that's it. And you can get back to me with that, I don't want to waste time on numbers.
Well, Councilmember, I certainly don't see it as a waste of time. And if you'd like, I can call up Candi Jones now --
Thank you, Member Harrity. Okay. Sorry. Ms. Jones?
Okay. Thank you. Candi Jones, Chief Human Resources Officer. So there's a lot to unpack there. So I'm going to start with just new hires in general. So we are hiring. The 60,000 in applications really speaks to our level of engagement, which we've significantly increased.
So we're -- thank you. So we are -- so we -- so our new hires have gone from about 2,400 to about 3,300. So I will provide -- thank you. So we'll provide our new hire information year-over-year, so you can see visually kind of that our trajectory upward. What's going to be really important and what I would also like to provide is our separations information. So as we're seeing that we're hiring new candidates, we're hiring over 3000 people, we're losing 3000 a year as well.
Right. So it's important, so we're looking at our tremendous recruitment efforts, we're looking at new hires, but we are bleeding out, right? And so we're losing people to voluntary resignation, drop retirements.
So we're trying to compete with the number of people that are --
Exactly. And so we have some really, I think helpful visuals of that, just seeing that our recruitment efforts are not for naught. We are getting there, but we also have to kind of -- where we can kind of address our separations.
Yeah. Because I mean, 3000 hires at that -- that's great stuff.
I mean, especially since you guys are really a new administration.
I just need the -- I want the time frames between ads and I know some of it's civil service, so that's a little different too, right? That takes a little longer?
Correct. So it's a -- and I have a great visual I can share with you after this.
And so for our visual, what we look at, there's four pieces in the process.
There is the part that OHR owns, which is the initial part where we're putting up our applications to when we're developing that eligible list. There's a part after that where once that eligible list is established, the departments are reaching out to us to request a certification. There's a very small period of time where we're providing those names from the eligible list, and then from that interview to first hire. So we break down the process into four parts and we have some really lovely visuals that I can share --
-- that shows the full comprehensive time to hire, and then it really gives you an opportunity to see who owns the process at which time and the time that that owner is taking for the process. And we have that also broken down by department.
Exactly. And so we're looking at those hang ups to be very specific and intentional in how we're going to address those hang ups. I'll also provide it by department, because I think it's important to also recognize that for some positions, some roles, we have the application period significantly longer to align with improvement --
Exactly. Others are shorter. So we can provide all of that information.
Yeah. Just trying to find a disconnect. So that would be great.
I did have another one, but it, kind of, went from my mind. So if I could just get the numbers for the Rebuild when you come back, that would be great. And if I think of my senior moment I just had and the other question I had, I'll get back. Thank you, Council President.
And Council President, we'll make sure that the visual aid that Candi referenced will be submitted to your office. So all members of Council will have access to that. And I would like to call up Rob, if that's okay now, our Director of Finance to answer the Rebuild question around our rebuild debt that we're carrying.
And we're going to double back on this question as well on the second round. And then also, Member Harrity, you'll have the opportunity to address this because on Parks & Rec, they have their own time to also address it as well. Go ahead.
There's $155 million of outstanding Rebuild bonds. We actually are probably planning to do one this summer because --
Since, yeah. Since inception. We're probably doing another borrowing this summer because Rebuild has run through its funds.
Okay. All right. And then you'll get back to me with the bids and --
-- that's technical, it may take a minute. So I appreciate that. Thank you, Council President.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Member Brooks, then Member O'Rourke.
Good morning colleagues, and thank you everyone from the administration for testifying today. My office appreciates all the work you've done to prepare this year's proposed budget. I look forward to hearing more about the administration's priorities and being in conversation with my colleagues to ensure that we put forth the best possible budget for Philadelphia. Before I move into the questions I have regarding the five-year plan, I want to start by stating some of the things I'm thinking about as we enter the budget season this year. We are starting this budget process with every finance expert saying or citing uncertainty regarding the federal budget. And we have seen the Trump presidency emboldened by the work of the billionaire Elon Musk to quickly target and dismantle federal agencies, federal jobs, and in certain case individuals who disagree with them. Therefore, my north star in this budget cycle is to protect Philadelphians, their rights, their finances, and their livelihood. That means to make sure that city agencies like the Department of Labor and the Office of Immigrant Affairs are fully funded and preparing for any challenges that we might have to fight right here in Philadelphia. That means prioritizing city services and investments that would put cash directly into the pockets of our city's poorest and ensuring we remain fiscally sound, footing up to 2.8 billion in federal grants could be at risk this year. That means making sure the investments we are making prioritize our small businesses, working class families, and insuring corporations and the wealthy are paying their fair share in the face of this growing oligarchy. With that being said, I want to start with my question, which focuses on why the administration is asking Council to codify years of tax cuts into 6 law. When I think back to the last 7 17 years, we saw a great recession, 8 a COVID pandemic, supply chain 9 issues that led to historic 10 inflation, and now a federal 11 headwinds and another possible 12 recession caused by this Trump 13 administration. Is this the 14 fiscally responsible thing to do 15 now? 16
Yeah. So the 17 reason that we're proposing the tax investments and proposing to put them in legislation is because we need jobs. And as the commerce director said when she came up here that is a really -- a really positive sign to our businesses to hire people and putting their legislation in until we get to the point where the gross receipt tax is gone, and then net income cash is cut in half, shows businesses that we're committed to them and should help us draw businesses and draw jobs. So it's really about job creation.
So by speeding up the tax cuts after the pension funds is made whole, the administration is also effectively trying to -- or tying the hands of future mayors and City Council. Why should the city prioritize BIRT cuts over a historic opportunity to invest in city services and programs?
Yeah. And I mean, if you look at the budget and plan we're proposing, there are significant investments in a number of areas, right? So the biggest investment that we're making is the $800 million commitment to housing. But we're also committing to our workforce with $500 million in a labor reserve. We're committing to wellness with the hundreds of millions of dollars of funding there. So it's not a budget and plan that is really about -- just about tax cut investments. It's about a whole range of investments.
So why should this Council be tying the hands of future administrations and other City Councilmembers moving forward?
So what we want to do is -- and one of the things we've heard consistently from businesses is they want predictability. And so the idea of showing those cuts through 2039 is to give that predictability to businesses, that's the rationale.
So businesses dictating that Council should be tied up for years? 3
Businesses 4 aren't dictating anything. It's our 5 attempt to show them a commitment 6 and our attempt to make them feel 7 confident about doing business here 8 and adding new jobs. 9
10 Okay. The administration 11 proposed setting aside $95 million 12 in emergency reserves, which is less 13 than one week of the total operating 14 cost of the city. Can someone from 15 the administration detail on how 16 they settled on $95 million and what 17 calculations went into it?
Yeah, and I'll acknowledge there wasn't a lot of science. We wanted to put a number to give us a little bit of runway for if things started to go bad. We are not going to be able to put in a number that makes up for all of the federal money we get, but we wanted to give ourselves a little room for if things were to start to get really bad.
So what examples do you have on how the city could use this $95 million?
Well, for example, if a grant were cancelled and we thought that it was a service that we really needed to provide, some of that funding could go to make up for the loss of that grant.
So has the city run projections on revenue loss from unemployment impacting the federal workers and the Eds and Meds sectors in our economy?
Yeah. So our econometric firm that gives us our projections, one of the things they look at is, you know, what's happening with employment. And so they have built some projections around that into the numbers they gave us, which is why we're looking at really flat -- one of the reasons we're looking at relatively flat growth over the next five years.
And my last question is, has the administration asked departments to prepare for cuts either due to federal funding or due to a recession?
We went through a process earlier last year where we asked departments to give us cut scenarios so that we could be prepared for, you know, if things went wrong, and that's a process that we typically go through every year.
Thank you. Councilmember O'Rourke and Councilmember Ahmad, I mean, Dr. Nina Ahmad, then Councilman Rue Landau, and then we will take a break. But just for the record, I want to be clear on your statement. Prior to the administration and put a pause in BIRT and wage tax investments, right? The -- prior to this, but previous years rather on the last administration before them. Every year there was a wage reduction investment as well as a BIRT reduction in investment has services and spending increase or decrease?
Yeah. So to your point, really since the mid '90s, there have been reductions in the wage tax and/or the burden in almost every year and we have seen consistent increases in our revenues.
As relates to services not decreased, correct?
Okay. I just want to kind of frame that just for the record. Councilmember Nick O'Rourke.
Thank you, Mr. President. That's an interesting point. Some might find it tacky or taboo to say, but I have to say how much I appreciate and find springtime refreshing. In these times, the fact that the lions share of this leadership team are powerful black women. I want to hat tip y'all. I take great pride in seeing you up here, also in our Council as well, our majority leader, our minority leader. Your leadership is glowing and I -- and I appreciate just saying it. Just wanted to state that for the record. Thank you to Mayor Parker for her leadership, as well as your team for being here today. And I especially want to acknowledge the team for taking the time to meet with me and understand our office's priorities. These are -- these budget decisions carry real weight, as we say all the time, budgets are moral documents, where your treasurer is, your heart will be also, they reflect our values and determine who we choose to protect and uplift in this moment of uncertainty that we have spoken at length about today. And with that, I want to dive into questions about the uncertainty and frankly, the fear that many Philadelphians feel right now. And they say as much, nearly every day, I hear the same concern, some variation of this question with everything happening at the Federal level, what is the city doing to protect us? Something like that. We know that Philadelphia relies heavily on federal funding, yet major cuts are looming. So I do have questions about what's at stake? In 2024, the city received $2.8 billion in federal grants. For the record, Chief Thurman, what percentage of our annual budget does that represent?
So it's -- it's a slightly complicated question because not all of that is in our general fund, a lot of it it's in grants funds.
So we went to look at kind of our all-funds budget, which I believe is about $11 billion.
And that should be a major alarm bell for all of us. And I hope those -- the viewing public that actually watches these things, recognizes that. The city also collected a billion dollars in wage taxes from federal workers and employees in the Meds and Eds sectors, many of whom have already faced layoffs of -- or financial strains. I think I saw an article in the Inqie or somewhere talking about, you know, Philly basing its fiscal future on Eds and Meds, and that being in question. Does the administration have data on how many jobs have already been lost due to federal layoffs? And how many more are currently at risk, including jobs in our Eds and Meds sector that are heavily reliant on federal dollars?
We don't -- I mean, we have it. And you cited the stats. We have it by dollars collected.
Could you submit it in writing for the record, you know?
I -- let me talk to the folks in revenue, because we don't -- we receive our revenue from employers in a group. Tell me just see what we can get you on in accordance.
I understand. If we don't know how many jobs are already gone or at risk or don't -- aren't really clear about that, how are we supposed to plan for what's coming in a row, since I know that you said there are, you know, you run things, I guess year-after-year to kind of think about a plan B or not a plan B. The mission is the mission Chief Thurman said, but what other tactic you may take. But it really does raise a question about how we -- how we should plan thoroughly across the Council. We can't afford to be caught flatfooted with federal dollars disappearing and layoffs continuing. And we're three months into this administration. I guess that's about 3 percent into the four-year term. That's rough. Can you tell us how many federal grants have already been terminated?
I'm going to actually -- I just want to say one thing about, we're not being caught flatfooted, we know that there are risks and you kind of cited some of the numbers that we've talked about that are at risk and we have done things to prepare. But I will -I'll turn it to -- over to the city solicitor. Talk me through it again.
Thank you. Renee Garcia, City Solicitor. So far one grant has been --
-- officially terminated. I will say that grant is the subject of national litigation and like most of the lawsuits that we have seen nationally and has resulted pretty quickly in an injunction.
It's a government-to-government grant through the EPA. There have been many other grants that are off and on. Sometimes at 8:00 a.m., we can't draw down funds, but at 8:00 p.m. we can. So it is something that we are working on every single day. And it -- this job -- this administration is teaching me patience, because truly it is a cycle of they do something, there's a lawsuit, there's an injunction, the money starts flowing. So it is something that we are monitoring truly by the hour.
Okay. Council President, I did hear the bail and I want to be mindful. We do get a round two perhaps? Thank you very much, sir.
Thank you. Thank you for understanding as well. Dr. Nina Ahmad, and then we're going to break at 1:00 -- at 12:30 and we'll be back after break.
All right. Thank you, Council President. I just want to commend the Mayor and her team for being so bold in their vision. I know times are tough, but we have to be growth oriented and we have to look to the future. So I'm really happy to see many of these initiatives that have been rolled out in this budget. I -- of course, the devil is in the details and I have a question about the home initiative that is going to be issuing the $800 million bond. The question was: Is this -- are these going to be general obligation bonds or revenue bonds? Because that will determine also, you know, the interest rates associated in our debt. So I just wanted to get clarification on that.
They will be revenue bonds, but they're supported by all of the city's revenues. So, they generally carry the same rating and trade the same as our GO bonds.
The second question is: Based on that, from what I can tell that $33 million of the $400 million approximately for the debt service is about 8.25 percent. I don't know if that's correct, if you can tell me what that debt service rate is and then also is it prudent to -- because rates are going to fluctuate and hopefully come down, is it prudent to do a too large bunches like this instead of doing maybe different if we can -- I don't know the issues around floating these bounds, but can we do it in smaller trenches so we can appreciate -- get the benefit of lower rates?
Yeah. So two things: we are assuming for the first borrowing the rate is about 5.75 percent, slightly higher for the second borrowing. The reason that we're showing two borrowings of that size so quickly is that we anticipate to be spending this money really quickly and to get it out the door. So we'd agree with you, if the spending was going in such a pattern that we should spread out the borrowings that would make sense, but we anticipate for this program spending will be fast.
And I'm switching to, I know I don't have much time switching to the 2026 preparations, and I see that the city has committed $60 million and off that $28 million to public safety. I have a particular interest in understanding if we are paying attention to human trafficking, particularly sex trafficking that goes up during times when we have a lot of sporting events. And I am looking to see if we can carve out some resources to do prevention awareness and potential training. We are putting together a sort of consortium to talk about that and we are going to be coming to you and I just wanted to see if there was -- if we could be carving out some of that for prevention of sex trafficking.
Absolutely, Councilmember Ahmad. And we're going to have Police Commissioner Bethel talk about in detail, but you saw that a lot of the budget increase, as I mentioned earlier, went to ensure our safety and security. So that's PPD and OEM and other city departments that are on the front lines. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah. So I think that's an excellent thought process. I don't think it requires additional money, just additional focus. We have a great partnership for our federal partners around human trafficking. So that awareness now, I'll be very honest with you, I was not aware doing these types of event, we see that increase, so you just raised an awareness that we did not have. And so we can -- I'll get back to you as I talk to my colleagues, as we can focus and make that an awareness that we all need to be aware of as we move forward.
Well, thank you. I've already spoken to the district attorney general, district attorney, the airport, we're going to talk to the Hotel and Motel Association because they just got hit with $17 million settlement around this issues. And this is the third one in the last few years. So this is a problem in our city. And so I look to work with you to bring this plan together so we can have a safe -- fun but safe time for all our visitors and Philadelphians during this time. And I really want to make sure that we have a focus on that and we'll talk further about that. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Thank you.
Thank you, Council President. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Look forward to working with you.
Thank you very much. We will be in recess until 1:30,`and then we will finish starting with Councilman Quetcy Lozada, Rue Landau, and then we'll finish -- start our second round. Thank you very much. (Recess.)
The Chair recognizes Member Jones to finish his questioning from the first round.
Okay. Well, thank you. I appreciate that prompt nature, Mr. President. So what I want to talk about briefly is as we start to move aggressively into the space of housing, affordable luxury is the quote. What I want to know is how do we assure luxury? How do we assure affordability? And what I really want to know is, are the building standards up to par? That -- I live in a house that is 100 years old. Is it built out of things that possibly will be there another 100 years. I am not convinced that based on the finances and the mortgage that we have taken out, that the actual properties have the lifespan that will not require major repairs in less than 50 years, more like 25. Can somebody assure me that we are building not just for today but for the future. And as climate change happens, that we are taking that into account so that poor people don't wind up not losing houses because of mortgages but you losing houses because of lost utilities. Thank you.
I want to officially ask for Ms. Tiffany Thurman, representing the Administration, to please come on back up officially as we convene and follow-up regarding questions as it pertains to the five-year plan Capital Budget Program, the Mayor's office and the Labor Department. Just officially for the record, the floor back is yours Member Jones. And then the next person who will follow-up and ask questions as it pertains to technically the first round, but we've moved on to Member Jones because members weren't here at the moment. I'm going to next call on Councilwoman Rue Landau. Member Jones?
So thank you Councilmember Jones for that question around affordable luxury, and then weatherization, building standards, and ensuring that the investments that we're making will have long-term impact. So I have here with me now our Director of Planning and Development, Jessie Lawrence, to talk about affordable luxury. And then after Jessie, I would like to call up our Chief Housing and Urban Development Officer Angela Brooks to talk about standards that she's seen in other cities and how we're going to employ that here.
Before you start to answer that question, let me thank you. Because there's a place called Grid Shalom that 300 people are not homeless. That PHA invested 6 million in. The city is investing 7 another 8 million in. So if you 8 don't do nothing else for me, you're 9 good. Now you can answer. 10
13 I did see a flyer with some 14 activists talking about the work of 15 addressing rental housing and 16 affordability. And -- but I wanted 17 to take a nod to Councilmember 18 Curtis Jones, who really did the 19 call for all members of City Council 20 to step up to the plate and play a 21 major role in addressing issue of 22 that Shalom, so just thank you for 23 your hard work and dedication --
-- for addressing housing for our seniors. The floor is yours.
So affordable housing is essentially the ability to not distinguish low income housing or moderately income housing from market rate and upper class or upper -- upscale housing. Excuse me. It's a matter of making sure that we are utilizing finishes that are durable, sustainable, things that will last, things that will not deteriorate over time, things that might cost a little more than usual to install on the front end, but will help you minimize the cost and maintaining on the back end. So it's not just the materials, it's the appliances, things that might be, you know, more than energy -- lead energy star, that type of thing. But the key here is to be very prescriptive about those design standards however we can. We've already started to enter those into things like affordable housing RFPs that have come out of DHCD being very prescriptive about those standards where we have not been before. Again, not just materials, not just appliances, just making sure that we're doing things and, you know, along the lines of just upper floor is for laundry services, not having that type of thing in your basement. Access to outdoor space as a requirement in development. The key here is to make sure that you can -- I think the Mayor has always looked at models. The one that she used to really kind of reference a lot was the East Falls development, where it once was public housing. And one thing the Mayor will always say and I certainly think about my grandmother's public housing. My grandmother's public housing is not your new public housing, right? I think PHA has set a standard themselves in repurposing, you know, towers that have historically been where poverty has been centralized, but it's also added some sort of aesthetic that is not just pleasing to, you know, what meets the eye on the outside, but what residents would consider comfortable living. So we are making sure that we insert these standards into anything that we put out competitively RFP wise. We're setting up our planning and development -- excuse me, our planning commission to be able to speak to those much more explicitly in our urban design unit who do a lot of work right now with being very prescriptive about what gets developed where. So, you know, urban design doesn't just stop on the outside, it does insert itself on the inside too. So we're making sure that we hold these standards up and looking at, you know, when these budgets come in for affordable housing, if they're making sure -- making sure that they incorporate that type of item -- line item and cost as well.
So back 10 years ago, all -- every time we talk about development, we talk about lead certifications and lead platinum. I don't hear that as much because, you know, that has subsided. But I want to make sure that that's built into the expectation because people will become homeless more akin to utility bills than they will to mortgage, that's number one. Number two, how are we looking at in efforts to keep labor peace and average -- because this is a union town. I'm going to say it again, this is a union town, but new ways of development that have a different fabrication process that I hear can cut expenses down by a third. Are we looking into those possibilities?
So I think that we want to be clear about the fact that we don't want to minimize those opportunities on the union side, but, you know, we still want to encourage the ability to think about how we develop more -- much more creatively. I think we are forced to do that at this point with, you know, increasing construction costs, knowing that things -- I mean, it just costs way more to build than it used to. So we don't want to lose that, but we also want to make sure that we are walking that fine line between the compromise of that. The plan itself is looking at ways to be able to provide some sort of pre-development indoor gap financing as well, because we, you know, we have to think about ways to be able to help the developer as well meet their goals. So I think that we are looking at that, we are making sure that that is part of the conversation, we're being creative about new construction and how we can be something that's allowing us to meet our goals as well, but that is something that we are diving into as we speak, making sure when we talk about affordable luxury processes for development as well.
So as the final point on this question is that two things can be true at once. We can have quality, affordable, luxury, but also have black and brown and female inclusion. I know DEI is a bad word at the federal level, but it's -- you're speaking my language here in Philadelphia. How do we navigate that?
So I think for the Black and Brown and folks that look like you and me, when they want to develop, it's about being able to access those opportunities, right? You think about the ones who might not look like us and they have those -- they have, you know, the ability for -- to access capital in ways that those historically disadvantaged people have not been able to. So, you know, we're thinking about things in collaboration with the accelerator fund, which has done well to provide opportunities to minority developer programmers -- program graduates, and folks that develop along those lines. We want to make sure that we're bridging the gap specifically, not just for -- not just for development, but folks that look like ourselves as well.
We will be waiting with bated breath to see the details of that. Thank you, Mr. President.
So and Councilmember as Angela Brooks is coming up, I also just want to pull it in very plain speak. Affordable doesn't mean cheap. Period. Full stop. Affordable does not mean cheap. So we are looking at things like fixtures and finishes with the build. We also want to have it such that -- and Mayor, you know, rolled out this vision that we have, you know, through an "imagine if" scenario that she delivered in her budget speech yesterday, where if you are driving down your -- the street, your street, my street, you know, all across the city, you should not be able to tell the house -- the house that was -- that is -- that is considered affordable luxury to the market rate house. So that's important to us. Now we -- and so we want to make sure though that this vision, right, is implementable. And so that's where Angela and her expertise is really important coming, you know, being the president of the American Planning Association, helping to deliver author, in fact, a national housing -- national housing initiatives and recommendations to other large cities are really important. And so her work, working with labor unions in the city of Chicago, her background with supportive housing is really important as well. And that's why it was critical that we recruit and retain her to join our team. I'd like to call on Angela now to answer the second half of your questions around that union engagement, the building standards to ensure that we're thinking not just about building fast and quick now, but that it -- that we have a sustainability component to it as well.
Awesome. No, thank you for the question. And I think one of the things that's really exciting and what attracted me to this job is the intentional partnership with the building trades and, kind of, thinking about that. And so Jessie kind of outlined some of the priorities and around design review and site design standards that already exist, which is really showing, based off the last four years of my life, kind of, working on the housing supply accelerator playbook, that Philadelphia is already implementing the things we're seeing around the country around ensuring that you can't tell the difference between an affordable unit and a market rate unit. You know, nobody wants a poor door as the -- I'm a recovering affordable housing developer, so I spend a significant amount of time at the Chicago Housing Authority after that article in New York about the Poor Door. So making sure we don't have that, because -- just because you're poor doesn't mean you have to live in a different type of capacity. So what some of the things we're implementing are things we're seeing around the country, but we're also looking at being innovative. So a lot of the things that we're able to bring to the table are things we're going to be piloting, and we're going to be really highlighting and showcasing the great skills of some of the great contractors that we have already here in Philadelphia. And having labor at the table with us means we're really going to get this right and we're going to be implementing their thoughts. We have a working group as a part of the housing -- of the home plan, so the advisory group is made of builders, developers, we have contractors, small and large in the room. We've got non-profit and market rate developers in that room. There's 50 people in the room, so I can assure you we're going to get a wide variety of perspectives as we're looking at implementing the plan. So we're just getting started. Certainly, really excited to hear a lot of your ideas as well, but I can assure you, sustainability -- as a recovering developer, sustainability makes units cheaper on the long run. So when we're looking at our long-term performance, I can assure you there's not any developer who's not looking at incorporating some of these structures because it's going to help them from a property management side long-term down the road. So it's going to be top of the mind for a developer, not just because it's the right thing to do, but the bottom line is a lot easier and it makes it more operational and more efficient affordable down the line, so.
I was encouraged when I talked to you about the Cleveland model of lease to own that you were well aware of it from a Chicago point of view that might be -- might be brought here to Philadelphia taking PHA properties and working it out so that the tenant can own eventually. Because if you look at some of the market rate rents in Philadelphia, those are mortgages.
They're mortgages, absolutely. So Chicago Housing Authority has the Choose to Own program, which they implemented about 10 years ago. So they've helped 10,000 public housing residents -- or not 10,000, 1,000 public housing residents purchase their homes using their vouchers. So it's a really great program that we're starting to see housing authorities implement. And I'm pretty sure the Philadelphia Housing Authority is a model for many. So I'm pretty sure it's something they might already be doing in Week 2 here. I don't know that, but I would imagine it's something -- I mean, housing authorities across the country are following the work of PHA, so I can't imagine it's not something that wouldn't be done if it isn't already.
Thank you. Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, then Councilmember Rue Landau, Councilman Member Phillips, and then Councilmember J. Young, and then we'll officially go into our second round. Councilmember Quetcy Lozada.
Thank you, Council President. First, thank you all for being with us today. You know, as we've done the work to restore and reimagine the Kensington community, some folks have said that the unsheltered or the homeless problem that we have in the city of Philadelphia is a citywide problem and not just a Kensington problem. And sometimes when you're under pressure, you tend to agree with that. I say that we are not the same, right, there is a unsheltered or a homeless problem in the city, but the crisis is in the Kensington Harrowgate community. So we are not the same, and I say that because I want to publicly acknowledge the work that you all have been doing in the Kensington community in response to the crisis that that community has experienced for a really long time. I've had the opportunity to attend Wellness Court multiple times over the course of the last few weeks. And I'm committed to its advancement and am looking forward to the opportunity to expand it. And so my question is that given the nature of -- the pilot nature of the Wellness Court program, is there a specific budget allocation for the program's evaluation to assess its impact on public safety and the recidivism rates?
So, good afternoon, Councilmember Lozada. Wellness Court, as you know, the initial pilot is its one day a week. On Wednesdays however, there is a budget allocation in this budget to bring it to five days a week to actually scale the program up. With regards to the evaluation piece in your specific question, now call up our Public Safety Director, Adam Geer, who can probably give you exact detail around that.
Thank you for the question, Councilmember. We -- we're still about, well, six weeks into our pilot program. So we're not at a point where we have enough information to evaluate it. What I can say is though, we're very encouraged. We're very encouraged by the approach by who we're seeing come in, by some of the outcomes. Again, we will have more to say on that, and by the time we testify on April the 8th, we'll have two more weeks. But the $2.6 million that is in the Mayor's budget, I think will go a long way. We're going to expand to five days a week under that model. And that's in combination with our PAD expansion, which is also in the Mayor's proposal, which will bring PAD -- actually, at the end of this month, we'll be operating seven days a week, hours a day at our PAD 10 facility. So I think the 11 combination of that and the efforts 12 of the police department and 13 everything else will continue to see 14 impact and change. 15
I just want to 16 add one thing though, Councilwoman. 17 While the evaluation will take a 18 minute, the official evaluation, 19 because we haven't had sufficient 20 time to bring data, there is a 21 collaborative effort that went into 22 putting the whole Wellness Court 23 together, and there has been a 24 meeting or so, and I'm sure there will continue to be meetings between the Public Safety Office, the Police Department, the First Judicial District, the Defender Association, the DAs, all the partners that are part of Wellness Court, where that way we can address any issues that have come up, and, you know, everybody's a little bit nimble and willing to be flexible and tweak so that we can make it the best model possible. So that intergovernmental collaboration is still taking place.
Thank you. And then as I was listening earlier, I appreciate that in preparation for the upcoming special events in 2026, there's a priority in making sure that communities get -- feel some of that impact that we're hopeful that the city will have. What are we doing to proactively prepare some of our commercial corridor businesses to be ready to receive the influx of people or visitors that will be coming into our city, and are we depending solely on our commercial quarter managers to be able to prepare individuals? Are they getting paid to add that additional level of work that will be necessary to ensure that the experience is a positive one?
That's a great question, Councilwoman. Thank you for that question. As you see in the FY '26 budget, we are proud to actually be launching a commercial corridor. Specifically, to bring that experience to the neighborhoods and communities. And at this moment, I'm going to call up 2026 Director Michael Newman. But that is in partnership. We have two different programs, one through with -- through MDO and PHS, and the other with the Commerce Department. And we'll talk a little bit more in detail about how we're going to pick those commercial quarters and partnership with you all. And the lasting impact we -- it's our goal to lead those communities through these programs.
Thank you, Councilmember, for that question. You know, at the core of our thesis for 2026 is really, as you point out, driving the celebrations of the neighborhoods and learning from past experiences. You know, one of the greatest learnings from the people's experience was that folks didn't even know really how to journey out appropriately to spread that economic impact. So as we were talking with folks in the neighborhoods, the key thing that we kept hearing over and over when we asked, what do you want to see? We kept being told, we want to earn money. So the commercial corridors are central to that plan. Obviously through the commercial corridor program, we're going to be making some physical enhancements working with each Council district office in partnership with each Council district office to select corridors where we can really drive targeted enhancements. But it's not just about making physical enhancements to the space, right? There's so much more that goes into making sure business is ready. Think about if you have a restaurant, you need at least 40 solid images on Google just to be able to rank. So we're partnering with groups like Visit Philadelphia to provide that digital assets, the photography, the auditing of your Google space, because the first thing you do when you go off a plane, or train, or automobile is say, Google, where am I going to have dinner? So we're working with our commercial quarters to make sure that the education is there, that the physical enhancements are there. And we're not just working with commercial corridor managers, but we're also working with CDCs and other groups in each district that has capacity. We're also going to be creating some grant programs through commerce to make sure that even if you might not be an official CDC or business operator, that you can co-create the experience of 2026 for your community by offering those opportunities as well.
Thank you for that. I think, you know, we need to do that now, right? We -- I walk the corridors, I walk the community, and, you know, you hear the buzz, 2026 is coming, it's like right around the corner, and I haven't heard anything, how do I get involved? You know, how does my business become a part of that economic opportunity that you all in government are talking so much about? And so how do we -- how do we -- how do we, kind of, speed up the process as it relates to that direct community engagement need that we are seeing and hearing from community businesses and residents.
So now with the FY '25 transfer and hopeful eventual passage of the Fiscal Year '26 budget, we're ready to kick off those events in a big way. So stay tuned for some of that news that we'll be announcing soon. But we can start some of those initial conversations and identification with you all. So we're happy to meet with your offices directly on a one-on-one basis.
Thank you. And then just two more. As we prepare for 2026, and we know the large amount of people that are going to come here, community residents are concerned about public safety, right? Will the officers that are now in neighborhoods, will they be pulled to the downtown neighborhoods to be able to cover these spaces? Are we prepared with, you know -- are we prepared to ensure that folks are safe when they're coming into neighborhoods? Are we going to respond less to the public safety need because we have a lack of officers in the district because they've been moved to the priority areas like downtown?
I'll let Commissioner Bethel talk to the specifics about deployment of officers, but the short answer is we will always meet our -- meet our obligations and duties to the residents of Philadelphia when it comes to public safety. And that's why the budget is so heavily focused on, yes, making sure the events are great, but also almost 50/50 in terms of our investment in public safety. And again, police, fire, OEM, making sure they have what they need. And Commissioner Bethel, if you want to go into any more detail there. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yeah, I won't get into all of the specific councilwoman, but I mean, we were working in partnership. I know my partners from OEM are here who've been leading that effort along with a multitude of folks in preparation for next year. It's going to be probably one of the most significant challenges we've ever had in our department to be able to deploy. And so we are going to be looking for other assets to support us. I won't get into the specifics of those, but obviously, we leaning on our collar counties and others to support us as similar as we did for the, you know, the Super Bowl and the parade. I mean, we had to bring in a number of officers, state police and provide us with a significant allocation. So we're confident that we'll be able to maintain the deployment in our communities, at the same time deal with the events that we're going to be dealing with both Downtown and throughout the -- throughout the city. So we're confident that we're doing that. We're doing a lot of planning. We'll be planning -- we've been planning for quite some time, we'll continue through that process, but I would make sure the community is aware. Our duty is to serve the city and then to serve, you know, the other events that we have. We've been able to do this before, and we'll accomplish that again in 2026, and at the end of this year as well.
Thank you. And then my last -- my last question, Tiffany mentioned that affordable doesn't mean cheap, but affordable also doesn't respond to low, low income. And so how do some of our low, low income families take advantage of the opportunity from the Home program?
Absolutely. So I'd like to call up our Chief of Staff for Planning and Development, John Mondlak, to talk about that. Chief of Staff for Planning and Development.
Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. John Mondlak from the Department of Planning and Development. I think a -- couple of things. I think that it can relate to that income bracket and does relate to that income bracket. So right now, PHA is a leader in this space. They're doing quality projects, they're doing projects that I have visited that I would happily live in, that are of great quality and there are also non-profit developers out there that are also doing the same quality work in their developments. And as part of what we do when we fund these projects, we fund projects that serve that community. A lot of that space is PHA, but not all of it. And the programs that we fund, we also put in these requirements that they also need to include affordable luxury as well. So I do think that that is happening at all levels of income, not just above 30 percent, not just above 125 -- 120 percent, I think it's happening everywhere. And I think we have to be diligent to make sure and keep an eye on it and make sure that we're diligent in our contracting process because it really is important that we put all of our effort into making sure that that continues.
I appreciate that. I think that, you know, when I came in 2022, I was very clear and honest about not understanding the entire everything that went into development, right? But what I do know for sure is what my community needs are as it relates to housing. My priority is to make sure that we protect the identity, the culture, and the history of neighborhoods. And that if we're talking about economic opportunities, that all of us are able to take advantage of that. And so I'm looking forward to making sure that these 30,000 units, that are going to be created across the city of Philadelphia, that some of our residents who are on fixed incomes who choose to take advantage of these programs, that they have the opportunity to do that. And I recognize that not all poor people have to live in the same neighborhood, I recognize that not all neighborhoods have to be a specific race, but if I choose to live in the neighborhood that I've generationally been in for a long time, I want to be able to do that. I want to be able to afford it, right? And I don't want -- I don't want my residents to feel like some of them do now on the southern end of the district, that as a result of development, they are the ones that don't belong. And so I'm looking forward to ensuring that all of us across the city of Philadelphia can participate in these program. Thank you.
And, Councilwoman, you make a wonderful point about the rich cultural identity of all the neighborhoods across Philadelphia, and that's exactly what we want to highlight and showcase with 2026. And to speak about some of the work that is already going on to your earlier question, I just want to call up Carlton Williams, our Director of Clean and Green, to talk about some of that beautification and greening that is already happening.
Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Councilmembers. Carlton Williams, director of Clean and Green Initiatives for Mayor Cherelle Parker. Thank you, Chief Deputy Mayor Sincere and team. Yes, we are already working with commerce and our partners across the government in reference to identifying corridors, where we will be actually clean cleaning and greening our neighborhood corridors to make them more attractive for people to come in and do business visit. And ultimately, improve the environment. So far, we did an example on Lancaster Avenue, and I invite you all to look at 40th and 41st in Lancaster, which we install planters along the walkways. This, again, makes it more attractive for people to come in and do business here in the city of Philadelphia. It also makes sure that the businesses understand the importance of a clean environment, and so it makes them feel comfortable in actually doing business there. So we're working with commerce to identify locations 7 around the city of Philadelphia that 8 will actually benefit this 9 throughout the entire areas, mainly 10 in neighborhoods outside of Center 11 City. I want to emphasize that 12 because also we want residents, as 13 stated earlier, with Philly 250, we 14 want people to come into the 15 neighborhoods to benefit from this 16 as well. So this is how we're 17 working together over the next year 18 to get prepared in reference to 2026 19 and beyond. These are legacy 20 leaving projects that ultimately when the crowds go away, the business is still thriving and can be successful and benefit from it.
Thank you. And then also, I just want to state for the record, also following up on the line of questioning from Councilwoman Quetcy Lozada. Just also, when we talk about housing below, typically we talk about affordable housing and workforce housing, but also there's a low income community besides PHA that still need assistance, such as The Women Revitalization --
WCRP. It's run by Nora Lichtash, we just have a new project in South Philadelphia that provides housing, particularly for women with children, right? And that's at an income level, right? That is not -- that is below, particularly, those who go for like our "Turn the Key" programs, right? But still helping people go from being running to actually being homeowner. And also CATCH -- work with CATCH in my district, particularly on veterans housing, right? And that's another area that doesn't really qualify in the affordable workforce, but at the same time, high quality housing, particularly for veterans at a whole different price point. So I think we're all rolling in the same direction. One thing I do take pride in is that PHA houses today, like they are super high quality houses, right? I've been at plenty of their ribbon cuttings since I've been a Council President that's not inside my district, that shows the quality of the houses being offered. We're talking about three stories with a roof deck, right? With all the finishes. So I have witnessed that. And obviously, if you -- if anybody in here participating in "Turning the Key" ribbon cutting, you see that we're going in the right direction in terms of providing high quality housing for individuals that we service. But with that being said, I'm going to go back to Councilwoman Quetcy Lozada real brief.
I just want to say just thank you also, Council President. And I also as the daughter of a military veteran, I appreciate also the shout out to veterans because --
-- whether it's that constituency, or that group, or that the single mothers, or single fathers, or guardians, we want to make sure that there is something in this substantive mind you, in our housing plan for everyone, so absolutely.
Yeah. To me, it's important that we are able to respond to that to 60 percent 6 MAI, right, because those are the 7 folks that oftentimes don't have the 8 opportunities that we talk about in 9 some of the programs, right? Those 10 are the folks that we don't 11 prioritize. 12 And so for me, it's 13 important that as we're creating 14 this new stack of housing, that that 15 community is also remembered -- you 16 know, you're remembering them in the 17 process. And understanding that not 18 all residents want to be homeowners, 19 some of them want to be renters, 20 right? They don't want the responsibility of the overhead of maintaining a home.
Absolutely. Absolutely. One of the things, and so we -- one of the things that Mayor Parker always says that has resonated throughout this process, and one that I also stand by, is that in this process, whether it's the One Philly Mortgage, or the litany of other programs that we either discussed yesterday, or are part of this program that we will roll out more comprehensively over the coming weeks, ahead of our April 21st hearing, we are not going to put the haves against the have-nots, or the haves against the have just a little bit. We're thinking about all of it. So absolutely, we concur.
Okay. Thank you very much. It is Rue Landau, Thomas, Jay, and then we'll be officially in our second round. Rue.
Thank you so much, Council President. I promise to be brief -- as brief as possible. And thank you all so much for being here. I want to -- I'll start with housing too. As somebody who used to sue PHA a long time ago, long before this executive director, I could not be happier with the quality and the style and the way in which Kelvin Jeremiah is doing business here in Philadelphia. It's just a complete change from what it was back then. So that is very exciting to me. I wanted to also -- I might just follow-up a little bit on -- I -- I guess I also want to underscore what my colleague, Quetcy Lozada, just said about making sure we don't leave behind people in deep poverty while we are going through this home process. I am excited for digging in deeper to what all of you are laying out here through this, to have the city investing its resources to transform the way we are dealing with housing, providing housing, and the city of Philadelphia. It's so exciting for me, but we need to make sure that we're not leaving behind folks in deep poverty.
And Councilmember Landau, let me just be very clear, that's not lost on us. None of us up here at this table and those who are in leadership, many of us, we are first generation, first to graduate college, first to be in leadership roles, first to sit at this table, right? And so in that, to leave behind people in deep poverty would be leaving behind my grandmother, my uncles, my cousins, right? And so, no, that will not happen. That will not happen. This is not a tone-deaf plan, and this is also not a plan that's just going to sit on the shelf. So absolutely, we concur, we're with you. But to leave behind people that have just a little bit, will be leaving behind the people in our families, and we're not going to do that.
That's wonderful to hear. Thank you so much. And I've appreciated talking to Directors Brooks and Hill recently getting to know them and thank them so much for their initial meetings with me. It's clear that we need to focus on homelessness -- the holistic approach of homelessness to home ownership. And that we're, again, excited to partner with you on that. But I remember, I believe that we've already heard the stat that two thirds of people in who are coming into our shelters are coming in for the first time.
That struck me as something that's really significant and that we could -- it's an opportunity to triage and to problem solve immediately while they're coming in the shelters, and certainly, a place where we can use an extra $5 million to come up with a program to make sure that we are figuring out exactly what the needs are and hopefully keeping them out of the shelters. You were -- we discussed -- I think it was Director Hill who talked about that stat. I think it predated her, but also the fact that they've been doing a deep dive into what all the touch points are in the homelessness system that we have. What happens when you come to a shelter? What happens next? And I'm curious if you've talked to the people in need of shelter housing, whether or not they have -there's been any kind of, you know, discussions with them to make sure, why were you coming here? What do you need? What can we do next? What can we do better so that we can have, you know, as we all discussed, the shelter units that feel more like a real first step, where we can put in a lot of supportive structures and then get them moved into housing.
Yes. And it is through that engagement where we discovered that that's where that 66 percent figure came from. But I will call up now, Cheryl Hill, the Director of the Office of Homeless Services, to talk more about that in greater detail.
Thank you for the question. So to answer your question, one, we try to engage individuals with lived experience. And as we're going through this process over the next few months to a year, that's exactly what we intend to continue to do. But also what we're doing is we're engaging the service providers. We are also looking at our monitoring a lot better, and just addressing something Council President said earlier, that is what we want to make sure that whatever our shelters look like is something that any of our family members can go to, and we are accepting of our family members going to that. Because similarly, I have family members who have actually used the shelters here in Philadelphia, and I recognize that I do not want them to have to do that again. So with that, we are evaluating our shelters, we are talking to the service providers to make sure that we're getting their information, but also we plan to bring in individuals with more live experience to talk about what are the barriers. We have a survey that we use now in some of the shelters or in our shelter system to get some of that information, but we do want to do a deeper dive because we want to make sure that the path that you take to get out of homelessness is one that can keep you out of homelessness.
That's wonderful. Thank you. Welcome to Philly, we need you. Welcome here into this role, is what I meant. And then the next questions I had, I wanted to -- I'm going to save most of my tax questions for later. But I wanted to talk a little bit more about federal -- potential federal funding cuts, which I'm also concerned with. We talked about there's a, you know, we get $2.8 billion in federal contracts. My first question is: When you calculated that number of 2.8 billion, did -- what does that number entail? Does it also include contracts that come to the city of Philadelphia through -- as pass-throughs to nonprofits?
Yep. So when we talk about the city, the funds directly to the city, that's what we're talking about that will not include partner entities who are not the city, like the district, or PHA, or other entities.
Do you have that number as well? So that's more than 2.8 billion.
Do you have that million? Not million, I'm sorry, it's been a long day already.
I do not, we'd have to collect that information from some other agencies.
And also, just while we were -- I was following up, I believe on Councilmember O'Rourke's questions about federal workforce as well. It's my understanding that 80 percent of federal workers live outside of Washington, D.C. including as many as 137,000 that live in Pennsylvania, somewhere between 20 to 30 -- to 35,000 that are -- live in Philadelphia. And that doesn't even include the -- our counties where they come to work in Philadelphia. What is -- have you done calculations on what happens with the loss of these -- potential loss of these federal jobs?
So we work with our outside economists to understand, sort of, what the -- what we expect in the job market. And so our job projections reflect some of what we anticipate, understand that it is a fluid situation and we'll continue to work with them if things -- if things evolve.
Okay. Knowing that these rise, it'll be increased unemployment rates, increased vacancies in buildings, and a lot of stress on families, which will disproportionately affect black and brown families as we know, especially black families here in Philadelphia, which, you know, have a larger number of jobs and we have a significant number of veterans here in Philadelphia who will also be affected as well. I guess, I had one last question for now that I'll just put on the table for the future for trying to get down into the -- into the -- into the departments. But I wanted to dig down deeper in staffing to talk about which departments those 5,700 vacancies are. And are we looking at each avenue to aid in the hiring process in different ways. I'm so excited for you, Director Jones, to be here, and would definitely want to drill down, dig deeper into that. I don't know that we need to talk about it today, but I would love to get a breakdown of those 5,700, where they are, where we can help, and what are there different barriers for different jobs.
We definitely have that breakdown and we will make sure that we submit that to the Council president's -- Council President's Office for your review.
Thank you. Oh, CP, can I ask one last question? When it comes to -- I'm all, I really want to focus also on our business growth here in Philadelphia and wanted to know if you could touch more on the plan for Market East. Very invested in making sure that our east market is thriving as soon as possible.
Absolutely. And I shared that along with you. Earlier in the year under the leadership of Donovan West, who heads our Mayor's office of Business Roundtables, we convened at the Sears Center and with all of our business roundtable leaders and talked about all of the recommendations that have come forth by way of that office. As part of that, the Mayor shared then, and also in her budget address earlier this month her commitment to Market East from City Hall to the river. And in that she announced that Jerry Sweeney, a local business owner, would be heading an advisory group. Also, part of that advisory group will be all sorts of stakeholders, including business owners that in Chinatown, residents of Chinatown, and Wash West. We are working, of course, in close coordination with Councilmember Squilla to ensure that through our Office of Planning and Development, we do a robust, you know, master planning process. But in that process, we'll be doing ongoing engagement around that. Also, of course, working in coordination with larger organizations like Jefferson, who is really important to this administration, Mesa Ridge, and on and on and on, so.
Sorry, we have also -- just in our transfer ordinance, we have 250,000 to start the marketing study. And then in 2026 -- FY '26, we're proposing the remaining 500,000, so 750 total to get the ball rolling this year so we can get that started.
And I'm sure this will be in partnership with Neil form 76ers/Comcast on partnership and commitment to revitalize East Market Street, correct?
Absolutely, for the record. That is absolutely correct. We will do that in partnership with Comcast and the 6ers.
Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes my majority with Councilmember Isaiah Thomas.
Good afternoon, Council President. And it's been great dialogue so far. I appreciate my colleagues asking such informed questions. I want to first start by thanking the admin for your partnership around issues related to education as well as 2026. And I also want to commend the admin for what you've done around public safety. Clearly, it's not just the Mayor and the administration alone, but when you look at where we were when we all sat together this time compared to where we are right now, its a victory lap that you all deserve. So I just wanted to commend you on that. A couple things. And I'll go, you know, straight down the list and whatever you can answer now, great, and whatever you can't we can save for a later time. But where we are right now, looking at new spending this year, we're looking to spend a lot of money, a lot of spending this year. I'm wondering, looking at the amount of spending that's been proposed by the admin compared to where we are, not just locally, not just on the state level, but also federally. I want to -- I want to -- I want to understand, are we meeting the moment looking at tariffs, looking at the cost of goods, thinking about what you want to do around housing, are we -- does it fit the moment that we're in? That's the first thing. Second question is around 2026, while we've made significant progress as it relates to what we've spent, we still have a lot more work to do, so at some point we would like to discuss what we're missing, what we still need to do, and if that conversation happens at a later time, I know we're going to do a 2026 hearing, we're a 100 percent fine with that. Third area of focus, you propose 800 million in housing, which will be paid for beyond the five-year plan, as well as tax cuts that will be paid for beyond the five-year plan. Despite anyone's opinion on both initiatives, when you think about the idea of us spending money now to pay for it later, when we're currently not in a fiscal crisis help us understand your thought process behind that. And then last but not least, taxes. We were able to lower taxes by 40 points over two years from 6.2 on birds, specifically, down to 5.8. Based on your proposal right now, the admin would only be lowering taxes 30 points over five years, which is less than what we were able to do over a two-year time period. So I'm wondering, what message do you think that sends to the business community when the majority of the tax cuts over 70 percent of the tax cuts that's being proposed by this Mayor would not be implemented until after this Mayor, and a lot of us on City Council will no longer be here. I'm specifically thinking about jobs that pay between 90 and $200,000 a year. We do a phenomenal job of a job of growing jobs that keep people poor. What are we doing to grow the job market that helps move people into the middle class? Because it's phenomenal to build all of the housing that is being proposed by the admin, but who's going to buy these houses? Who's going to live in these houses when the majority of people who make between 90 and $250,000 a year are choosing to leave Philly because we don't have those type of opportunities. So I know that was a lot of different items, but I just wanted to see if I can get as much on the record as possible in my first round of questions.
Okay. Let me start and see what I can handle. So the first question was, are we meeting the moment of uncertainty? And, you know, we've all talked about how much uncertainty there is. We tried to position ourselves to be ready for that uncertainty. I don't think you could be ready for all that could happen with the federal government, but we are coming into FY '26 with -- for us, a very high fund balance. We are making contributions to a rainy day fund. The budget stabilization reserve fund, and we are putting money into the Federal Reserve. So we're trying to do those things to kind of steal ourselves against what may come while also not abandoning needed investments. And we want to, at the same time, make crucial investments in the course of this five-year plan to keep the moving -- the city moving forward.
So I just -- we just going to continue to, we have this conversation tomorrow, because tomorrow we're going to do a deep and dive. But when we're talking about investing in the ideas of economic growth in the city of Philadelphia, we are hearing everything that the admin is saying, and we know that former, the Mayor, former councilwoman had that priority. So we know that the track record is there and the appetite is there, we're just not sure if the numbers meet the appetite. And so in tomorrow's dialogue, we're really going to push around this economic side and around the fiscal side, because I'm concerned with issues related to reverse commuting, I'm concerned with issues related to center city buildings. And looking at the dynamics that we're dealing with here, listening to dialogue around East Market Street, I just don't know if the numbers match the passion, if that makes sense. So I'm looking forward to doing a deeper dive into that dialogue, because again, when we look at where we are fiscally, and I think we all agree with our intentionality around pension payments and the pension fund, we all want to make sure that that stays intact. I don't know if we all agree with what we do once those payments begin to change. And I don't know if we all agree that this legislative body in collaboration with this Mayor should be spending or earmarking dollars for the future. From my opinion, when I think about earmarking dollars for the future, those are decisions that we make when we're dealing with some type of fiscal crisis. And according to you all, the fiscal health of the city is pretty good. So I just think that it could become a little risky to Aramark future spending with the climate of what we're dealing with right now. And as a person who's extremely supportive of investing in growth in the city of Philadelphia, even the recommendations that will promote that type of growth, I would be hesitant to support for those dollars to be already earmarked. So I hope that made sense and I'm looking forward to the continued dialogue tomorrow.
Please, yeah. I would love to hear your opinion, especially on the payments that would be made based on the recommendations in the Mayor's budget proposal.
Yeah, and I -- first of all, on the economic growth, the tax investments are part of that, and there's, you know, a lot more that the commerce director spoke to some of that. We've been talking about, I mean, everything we've been talking about today has been related to that. And I understand everything we do is a trade off, right? So what we're trying to do with the tax investments by having legislation that goes through, you know, to when the gross receipts portion goes away is to make -- to show the business community that there's a commitment -- there's predictability, that they know what's coming so that they can make their investment choices based on that, based on the sign that we're giving with that legislation.
And I think that intentionality is really important, and so I do appreciate the admin looking to give Philadelphia's, right, not just the business community, but Philadelphia is in general a vision as to where we're going with the future of the economics of the city. I think that the concern that we have is will we make it that far? The pandemic showed us that people can work from anywhere, and what we're seeing is we're seeing people to choose to locate their business outside of Philadelphia and in their surrounding areas so that they can elude a lot of our taxes, but simultaneously are able to take advantage of our phenomenal culture, because people love Philadelphia, whether they live in the city or around the city, they still love our area, they still love what it is that we do. So we can't just ignore the fact that these businesses are choosing to locate themselves outside of the city of Philadelphia, and we can't ignore the fact that we have one of the highest reverse commuter ratings with over 50 percent of Philadelphians leave our city to go to work to come back to the city. So that tells us right there that we have issues with our tax structure, not even considering the fact that we lost more revenue during the pandemic than any other major city in the country besides Detroit. I think my time is up Council President, so I'll save my questions for the second round. What I do want say, before we close out this first -- before I close out right now, I'm looking forward to the conversation around 2026. We're going to have plenty of dialogue around there. I want to continue to advocate for Councilmember Quetcy Lozada's specific ask around a plan specifically around Kensington. I think that that's extremely important. She asked for that months ago. I want to continue to advocate for that. And I also want to say that in the midst of you reading your statement this morning, you did not talk much about public education, but I know that public education was mentioned in your statement because I read it. So I just want to make sure that the general public understands that public education is a huge priority both to the admin as well as to City Council, and I look forward to specifically our conversation, not just around our traditional academic settings, our facilities, getting an update on where we are with our facilities plans, but also around our universities. We've had significant issues as it relates to our universities for a number of different reasons, not just thinking about institutions that close, but also our own institution and the community College of Philadelphia, and I'm hoping that we can all work together with the labor issues that we're facing right now at CCP to assure that we can put ourself in a position where those young people's academic journey is not disturbed. I know for us this is March and we have a long way to go before our "Season is over", but for young people who are in college, a lot of them are looking to graduate pretty soon. And I would hate for the mess that we have it as adults to put those young people in a position where they're at the ending of their academic journey is messed up because we can't get some fiscal problems situated. So I just wanted to put that on the record, both for you and for us so that everybody in the public knows that education is a top priority for the city of Philadelphia, and we'll all work locked in step to be able to address the education crisis that we're dealing with here in Philadelphia. Thank you, Council President. And I'll cue myself up for the second round. Thank you, sir.
Council President, we do have six -- we have six items that we will follow-up with you on the record through the Council President's Office that we were tracking. I did want to just reflect for the record that the Kensington plan, we did deliver that in a -- both a press conference, but also ahead of the hearing that we had a few weeks ago. So I know that through the Office of Public Safety that was provided and --
Yes. And we can -- we can follow-up on that. And then -- but then regarding education, sir, if we may respond to that. I know that with our -- with Chief Deputy Mayor, Vanessa Garrett Harley up here, I can -- I can feel her. I know that she's going to want to respond to that, if that's okay. Okay.
Yes. Thank you, Tiffany. I just want to put on the record, councilman and thank you for calling out education. It is a primary concern and primary importance to both Mayor Parker, as well as myself and to our Chief Education Officer, Debora Carrera, and all of the others of us who have young people in this city, whether it be our children or other children. It is a top priority, though, for the marriage. You know, she was a teacher, this means an awful lot to her. The extended year program is one of her primary and will be a legacy program, which we have devoted a lot of time, money, and attention to, and is going well. That is currently school district 12 schools, five charter schools, and 13 we have asked for budget allocations 14 to expand that program to 10 more 15 school district schools and five 16 more charter schools so that it will 17 be a total of 40 schools altogether, 18 30 school district, and 10 charter. 19 And it is enhancing the 20 academic environment, it's enhancing learning social emotional intelligence, and many other things for our young people who are part of those schools that that program is available and the parents who wish to take advantage of it. We are working very closely with our school district and our school board, but we believe in the educational importance for all kids across the board in this city, because we care about all children and all children's education, and not just those in the public-school district, so we also continue to foster additional partnerships, even in the charter school realm. So we are very, very focused on education, but thank you for calling that out.
Well, since you said that, let me just add another shameless plug. You know, I'm never going to throw away a moment to be able to do that. The admin proposed to increase the real estate tax from 56 percent to 56.5 percent, specifically for schools, which I support. But I believe in your proposal, that wouldn't go into effect until 2030. I'm going to fight for us to do that now. Looking at the fiscal issues that our schools could possibly face in collaboration with your vision around extended day, I think that year should be moved up. So I want to go ahead and put that on the record to you, Council President, as well as to my colleagues, we need to look at that 56.5 percent now. We did a phenomenal job going from 55 percent to 56 percent last year, and last year's budget. And I think we need to move on that. And I'll close out by also saying thank you to the admin for putting money back on the table for Vision Zero. That's something that's been a huge priority to my office, my team, and the work that we're doing. And I want to give a shout out to my guy, Mike Carroll, for the great work that he does as it relates to Vision Zero based initiatives, and continuing to do that work. Thank you.
I want to second that. I had that down there. I just want to give Mike a good shout out for his hard work and his dedication, but most important administration for stepping up and being supportive for Vision Zero. The gentleman I want to acknowledge before we go into our next round is Councilmember Jeffrey J. Young.
Thank you, Mr. President. Good afternoon. I'm sorry for my tardiness. I was at a Janazah of a 15-year-old, who was shot on a SEPTA bus and unfortunately passed away. You know, Barry, at the same cemetery that my nephew shot, killed by gun violence is buried. So seeing a 15-year-old get buried next to my nephew who died from the same thing, this epidemic that we face in our city called gun violence. Gun violence. The Mayor acknowledged in her speech that public safety is number one. What are we doing about that in the city? And when you look at these documents, you go through it, you see that there are so many priorities, so many priorities that are put in front of things that affect a community that goes through death and violence on a very regular basis. I've been going to funerals from people killed since I was 14 years old. 14. That is traumatizing to a community. Traumatizing. There were 13-yearolds there burying a 15-year-old. He was Muslim, so they would help him put the dirt on his body. 4 years old. That's what communities 5 have to face in this city. What are 6 we doing about that? That's the 7 number one priority in this city. 8 Look to these documents and 9 listen, everything is great. We are 10 a city, so we have to provide 11 different levels of services, and 12 that is all understood. But we have 13 to prioritize what really -- what the number one issue is. We have to prioritize that. We have to. Because people are literally dying. Babies are killing babies. We are the only community in the world that goes through this type of trauma.
We're not a sleeping administration. Every shooting we're there.
One moment. May I -- may I please respond, sir. Because I feel your passion and I'm there with you. Just last year, less than a year ago, my best friend's brother was murdered. And so I'm right there with you. This is not lost on me.
And Tiffany, please, let finish all due respect. I was -- let me finish, please. And I -- and I --
And I empathize -- and we empathize, right? Because we are -- we have a shared experience. A lot of us in the city have that shared experience. So let's prioritize that shared experience. Housing is number one, which is very important. Taking care of our municipal workers is very important. Tax reform is very important. We have to grow jobs in the city. Very important. Our wellness ecosystem, a $100 million that we invested last year as seed money. 216 million operating funds, right, proposed over five years. 2026, very important to the city. We get to all of that, then we get to public safety. And you look through the public safety, the what -- what's in this document regarding public safety, talks about the forensic center, which is important. Body cameras keeps us safe. But you look at the -- what really -- the crux of it, what can help these communities is $25 million grant in anti- violence grants. From this document, that's all we see, right? That's all we see, is a $25 million grant for the number one issue that is facing this city. Then we get the Clean and Green, which is something very, very important to our city to keep our city clean and green. Economic opportunities, great education, core support. There is nothing in this document that talks about our opportunities in our parks, our libraries, our rec centers, nothing in this document. Those are the things that are important to this city. Everyone acknowledges that public safety, that gun violence is the number one issue in this city. Let's do something about it. That's why we're here. Let's do something about that. I'm tired of going to Janazah's of 14 or 15-year-olds, and I'm saying like, it's not -- like, where's that normal at? Why is that normal? That should not be normal. It's not normal for folks on the mainline, but it's normal for us. And it's been normalized. That's a tragedy. That should not be normalized. A teen -- it should not be normalized to want to get a gun to take somebody's life. As a teenager, what opportunities are we providing for those kids to not want to do -- because I never wanted to do that. I had the world given to me by a great educational system, and my environment was so different. And I know that if we change these environments, every kid can have these same outcomes. But we're not investing in changing these environments. Like, we're not $25 million, but the eco, the wellness center, you know, you do five, you know, add demand for five years, 20 million, 125 million, they still 21 getting 216 million. 22 I mean, you know, it's 23 really nothing in here for our 24 youth. You know, it's similar to a line of questions that, you know, Councilman Phillips had. Right, with the engagement. Where's that at? So, and I understand, you know, that our passion, like you said, our passion. But Councilman Thomas just said, the numbers don't match the passion. They don't. So I look forward to continuing the conversation throughout this budget cycle that addresses that number one issue, right? And so I've talked to, like, I talked to these folks that we emphasize with them, we live their life. So if folks want to keep talking about these unnamed constituents, like these are the people I'm talking to at these places, places you're not there, right? And we have to be that voice, that voice to their government because they deserve services too.
Now, I agree with you, but to suggest we're not there, that's where we can agree to disagree, because we are there. We really are. And not just when a shooting happens, we're there long before the shooting happens. But when the shooting happens, we're there as well. And I echo your passion. I feel that as well.
And that's great to be there when the shooting has happened.
And I feel that as well. Now, if there's an opportunity to respond to you, I will, but I will not out of respect for you, go back and forth.
If there's an opportunity to respond, I will do that. But if you don't want me to respond, I'm also very happy to listen. And I mean that. I mean that.
Tiffany, and I'm not -- and I'm not saying you cannot respond. I just -- I want the record to just be clear that I'm not saying that you aren't doing these things. You are. The Mayor has been there, the Mayor's office has been there, the administration has been there. I'm not saying that the numbers don't lie, things are coming down, right, the numbers don't lie for themselves, but when you look at the budgetary priorities, right, that's the thing. That's what I'm talking about, that's it.
And that's where I would like the opportunity to respond. I'm going to first kick it over to Chief Deputy Mayor Vanessa Garrett Harley, then Commissioner Bethel, followed by Adam Geer to talk about that million. But I want you to know before I kick it over to my colleague, I hear you. I hear you. I'm right there with you. I'm not in a Ivy Tower. I'm not just in City Hall. I'm in those same neighborhoods that you're talking about. I got -- I got friends that live there. I got people who are now family to me that live there. That's where I dine. That's where I spend my time when I'm not working here. I'm in the neighborhoods. So, but I hear you. I want you to know that. It's not lost on me, and it absolutely is not fallen on deaf ears. I hear you. And it impacted me. It impacted my best friend and her brother, who is no longer here. So I want you to know, I hear you.
So, Councilmember, first and foremost, sorry for your loss. Please accept my condolences and that of the administration. I more than understand your frustration. I think my career work for the last about 22, years since I've been 5 at the city has been very focused on 6 children and youth issues, and not 7 the least of which is violence 8 prevention around that work. I 9 formally had the role of doing the 10 -- what is now under our Office of 11 Public Safety, but have been in all 12 of these communities where there 13 have been shootings. I have talked 14 to many of these folks, still talk 15 to many of the mothers who have lost 16 their children to gun violence, 17 unfortunately, have worked with many 18 organizations, including those of 19 Council president's and many of our 20 boots on the ground folks who are 21 actually doing that work. That will 22 never be a non-priority. It is 23 definitely the primary priority for 24 the merits, a primary priority for me, even though technically, that is not my portfolio anymore, I continue to do that work because it means that much, right, to me. There's a significant amount of money that you may not see reflected in a line item that you can just point to, though, in this budget. In the juvenile justice arena that we have under our Department of Human Services. So we not only run the PJJSC, and obviously we want to catch these young people before they ever come there and change the trajectory of their life before they get there. But certainly, there is a significant number of prevention programs that we have, programs that catch kids that are on the cusp of delinquency, or some that have already been in the system that we are trying to change what they do. We do a lot of work directly with community organizers. And even for our young people that are in the PJJSC, we have programs that we bring inside. We have even credible messenger programs, because while they may not listen to me or to you, they may listen to somebody who has that level of credibility and influence out of the streets. And we have a significant number of people with lived experience who come in and work with our young people on a very regular basis. I know that commissioner Bethel is very committed to young people, he can speak for himself in a minute, but there's my radar programs that we're doing with them as well around diversion and other diversion efforts, and there's money that is being poured toward that. We certainly continue to work very significantly with our school district and with all of the partnerships where you would see young people, our Parks & Rec, there are numbers that would be embedded within their budgets, even the programs embedded within the Free library's budget, which is to try to offer those safe places and spaces for young people to go. You will soon hear us in about another week or two, do a presser about summer activities, summer job activities, because we all know that if we can keep young people busy and we want to keep them safe in every way we can. I'm working with Councilwoman Gilmore- Gilmore-Richardson, the CERC, as we call them, or the Community Evening Resource Centers, is another place where we've opened these young people are going. We have almost 1,400 visits already this year. There are places and spaces, but it is foremost in our minds as to how we do everything we can to try to keep these young people safe, even trying to build into conflict resolution, into curriculums, and everything else to try to show them a different way. But I will turn it over to our Commissioner Bethel. But I want to assure you, it is first and foremost in the minds of many of us, and I'm born and bred in this city.
I come out of North Philly, and I have probably been to as many funerals as you have, unfortunately.
And I agree with all of that, and I know that these programs exist. I'm not saying that the work is not being done, but what I'm saying is in this document, right, where's that's a priority. When we're talking to the residents of the city of Philadelphia, the constituents of the city of Philadelphia, for the first time, they're represented with this. There's nothing in here that talks about that. That's, you know, I'm not saying the work isn't being done. I see it. With my office works with Blue's Office, the Office of Victim Advocate.
You know, we do. We know it exists, but I want the communities to know that they exist too.
And that's the reason why we do the Budget Town halls. We're go -- we don't expect the community to tune in and watch this hours and hours and long hearing, we're going to the community, both through the neighborhood action centers ongoing, but in our budget town halls.
This don't -- this won't take hours. This don't take hours.
So what I'm -- what I'm saying is that whether it's in that document or not, this is a government that you can see, touch, and feel. That's our administration. We're coming to your neighborhood. We've been there before, we're there now, and we'll be there in a couple of weeks again, talking about this budget. We've taken a three-pronged approach: Prevention, intervention, and enforcement. That's the holistic approach. So I hear what you're saying, and I agree with you. I absolutely agree with you. No 6 doubt, no doubt. No defense at all here. I agree with you. Commissioner Bethel is going to talk about the work that we're doing around intervention and enforcement, and then we'll also talk about prevention with the time allowed through Director Geer.
Thank you. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Ready to say something?
Please proceed. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Okay. Yeah. So I -- I listen, then I hear you. I think all of us understand that, I've been at it almost 40 years. The amount of death I've seen as a child growing up in West Philadelphia and coming in this department, and the reason I came back to the department for that same purpose of whether we can -- how we can change, and how we work to make sure we reduce the level of violence in the city. The Mayor said her from the time I walked in the door, from the time I met her before I took this job, Kev, we have to get this violence under control. And for the first time, we are heading in that direction. I know you're frustrated, but in that era of juveniles, we're down significantly in a number of young people who've gotten killed under the age of 18. And we're down significantly in the kids from 18 to 34. And that's not because Kevin Bethel's sitting here, it's because of all the people -- some people in this room, a lot of people in this room, the work that you are doing, Councilman is doing, and the folks out there in the field who are touching these young people each and every day. And so, as we weave our work, I think it was said appropriately, a lot of this stuff you don't see councilman because it's already woven into a lot of the work that we're already doing. For example, you know, we work around our prevention work. I have the Powell Centers, I have 15 Powell Centers, those are publicly funded, millions of dollars that pour into our communities, but not sewn on the sheet because it's outside of the work that we do. When I talk about our diversion program, where we're working upfront, our school diversion started almost 10 years ago. Commissioner Ali is in here, and I think others where we have all of the COAs have been supporting us since day one. And we've diverted almost 3,500 young people into programming to be able to turn them in a different direction, and it's going phenomenally well. The recidivate rate for those young people are so down. And now we've expanded that citywide to work -- now we're doing diversion in the community. A young person that we engaged for the first time was done a low level offense, and we're now looking to use CERC, but we're using the COAs and we're using the Juvenile Assessment Center. All that stuff it's cost. I have 11 men and women dedicated to the Juvenile Assessment Center. I just trained them into be youth specialists to go out in the community and work with young people. And so, as we do all of this layer of perk, I worked with the, you know, public safety, Adam Geer, we are locked in step, but that was a new position that was created. And Brilly is bringing in. So their GVI program is really working with us. Now they're doing GVI group violence initiative with teenagers. We're also launching a program -- a group -- a gang youth reduction program in your zip code 19121, where we're -- but guess what? That's coming from other dollars, and we have a grant that we got from the state. It's almost a 800, $900,000 of money that you won't see on the books, but that we're using. So we're also using other dollars. And so I know you hear it, but I can tell you for the first time, and I've been at a long time, that for the first time we're seeing a lot of synergy around our young people, our work with my school district, you know, with the corridor program that I started before I left the school district, and we continue to this day. I'm working on a program -- a project with a doctor from -- a doctor from Stoneleigh Foundation. She's actually looking at data before I left the school safety. So going back in time to see where could we intersect young people and see where we can touch them earlier in the process, and she does that well. For the first time, we'll have some variables. Council, we have -- I have 1,600 people that have been shot more than twice. I've got almost 300 -- almost 300 people have been shot three times.
I have a guy been shot six times, right? I mean, and so, yeah. It's something that's been entrenched for a long time. But I can tell you, we've been fully supported. Everything that you, the Council, has given me, even when we talk about our victim advocates, the money that came from this Council. I have now victim advocates working with homicide to work with families to support them when they have a death, a tragic loss. And because all of that untangling of the conflict, all of that stuff that GVI is doing, going to the homes, and I know I'm -- I'm still talking about Adam's stuff. I hear your frustration, but I've been at it a long time. It's different now. I feel a difference, I feel a level of collaboration I have not seen in a long time. I think we're headed in the right direction. It's not about the money. See, I could put money down here all day. I seen money get spent. I seen millions and millions and we ain't getting nothing done. And really, it's not about the money, it's about the work. And I think if everybody focus on the work, we can get these things that you want get done and do it effectively. But about the dollars, I've seen a lot of money get wasted. I'm looking at Sue Slawson across of me running the recs. Man, we're -- we're lockstep. What she needs, I got for her, protect her rec centers, get around their pools, make sure that's a safe place for us. And so just, I would just -- I hear you, but I would just tell you, in my experience, things are different now. And it's not about the money, it's people care about our kids. They want the what you want and we want it in a different way, and that's got to cost money. It's going cost money because we can't get it done ourselves. And so I just -- I'll just stay there. Oh, you can pull up. No, okay.
Okay. Thank you very much, colleague. And I just, I want to say this for the record, if it's okay, colleague. We're all very sorry for your loss collectively as a Council body and as colleagues. And we feel your pain, we want you to know that we are with you and we're supporting you, your family and community during this time. And I'll just ask that if we could follow-up -- we're not going to do any more on that particular question for this round. And I ask that if the administration would follow-up with Councilmember Young. Okay. Thank you very much.
Okay. Thank you. We're going to move on to Round 2. Okay. For round 2, we'll have two minutes for this round. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Gauthier.
Thank you. Although Philadelphia's Parks & Recreation system offers great access across the system to people from neighborhoods all over the city, it is well documented that as a city, we spend less on Parks & Recreation per person and per capita than many other big cities. It is also well documented that the quality of Parks & Recreation space varies greatly depending on your race and your income. And so in whiter, wealthier areas, there tend to be more high quality public spaces than in neighborhoods that are black and brown and poorer. Given that context, I noticed that parks and recreations budget seems to have decreased by 8 percent or about 7.3 million due to cuts in class 200, in classes 300, and 400. Can you explain those reductions? And then also, I see that Parks & Recs staffing budget has remained flat. As Commissioner Slawson knows because I've bugged her about it a lot. I've been trying to get PPR staff person to help manage two very vibrant parks and parks with a lot of needs in my district, Malcolm X Park and Clark Park. We've been working on this for two years now, spanning two mayoral administrations. And, you know, these are well used parks, these are parks, you know, that people love to frequent, but it's -- they are also parks where we have issues with dumping, where we're trying to form some order among vendors, where we have issues helping unhoused people and people with drug use disorders. So can you first speak to the proposed budget cuts of 7.3 million, and then can you next speak to why we're keeping the staffing budget for Parks & Recreation flat when we have a lot of needs for staffing and programming across our Parks & Recreation system.
Thank you. So there were some one-time things in FY '25 that we added in the transfer ordinance. And so that includes Lemon Hill Prep, that was several million dollars. And then there's also -- there was funding for the Youth Sports Initiative. I think they're still spending a lot of that down, so we had set that up as one time, but there's some more money in '26, so we're kind of working through that. We didn't want to add money until that was spent. And then there were a couple of other kind of supply related items that were one-time in the proposed transfer ordinance. In terms of these staffing, I think perhaps Parks & Rec can talk about some of what they're doing to filler vacancies.
Break down the 7.3 million and what that cut entails with a little more detail.
Sure. So the FY '25 number, the current estimate includes some things that are non-recurring. And so in our first transfer ordinance, we included about 5 million for Lemon Hill Related Prep for 2026, so that's a piece of it. There was also some one-time sports fund funding in FY '25 that doesn't recur because Parks & Rec is still spending it down. And then there were a couple of supply related items, and then some tree pruning funding that was -- or sorry, some -- a couple things that were one-time. We can get you a list of what the items were. But the big one is the Lemon Hill site prep in FY '25.
Can you -- do you know, if you take out these one-time items, do you know how sort of the normal Parks & Rec budget compares to this year?
I'd like to call up a Commissioner Sue Slawson to talk about the quality of our -- of our programs, of our system, and to also to speak to some of the points that you made about the budget for Parks & Recreation in comparison to other cities. We know that the amenities, the infrastructure is much bigger than even larger cities like the City of New York, so I'll kick it over now to Commissioner Slawson.
Good afternoon, Sue Slawson, Commissioner for Parks & Recreation. Thank you, Councilmember for bringing up those questions. One of the things that when you look at the differences Philadelphia Parks & Recreation in other cities, some, there's really no comparison. There's no other city that has 70 pools. We have more pools per capita than any city in the country. When you look at facilities, most facilities, most cities don't have 159 rec facilities, they don't have 10,000 plus acres. And so there are a number of things that just don't balance out when we are compared against other parks and recreations.
And I do acknowledge that we have a massive system. It provides good geographic access to people all over the city. I think I'm talking more about spending that would get us to where we need to be with respect to equitable quality and staffing and programming.
I think that Sabrina addressed the budget and the fact that we really aren't cut. There were some one-time opportunities that we're trying to prepare for 2026. And that's really all it is. Our budget is -- hasn't been cut.
And are you all going to speak to the staffing piece or?
How are we thinking about increased staffing, giving the needs of some of our parks? I talked about two parks in my district specifically that are highly used and highly trafficked that we really do need more of a staff presence. I imagine that other council districts experience this as well. How do we meet those needs with a flat staffing budget?
So it's not that the budget's flat, it's the opportunity for us to actually get the staff in. So we are working with HR, we are constantly doing -- going out, even next month, we're having a opportunity for hiring at the Dell Music Center. It is not funding, it is getting people in to actually take the jobs. So I think a lot of people are struggling with identifying people that want to come in and work for different positions. So we're advertising, we are on the radio, we have, even in our facilities, we're letting people know, we're trying to get people in to get jobs. It's not that we don't have the funding, we're looking for staff. And so we actually would be happy to give you information to assist us. Because you and I have talked about this, so we are working very hard to bring people into our system. The funding's there, we need the people.
Thank you. Councilmember Gauthier, The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Brooks.
Thank you so much. So HIPAA permits general analysis of population. So I want to ask some broad questions about the Wellness Court system. There has not been much public discussion about how effective these plans are. I would like to get some specific numbers on participation. So I have like five questions. The first is: What is the percentage of people who have accepted the offer of Wellness Court in lieu of jail? The second question is: What percentage of people who agree to attend rehab in Wellness Court are actually showing up for court? And how many people have received services pursuant to the Wellness Court outcome? How many people ended up in supportive housing? And how much has the Wellness Court costs since January?
So we can tell you approximately 35 people, right, and this is operating once a week have entered into the Wellness Court system. Beyond that, we will get you more answers in terms of numbers that we can share. Keep in mind though that this is operating at one day a week, and we're not going to put a strain on any of our systems. The idea is, right, it's a pilot, is to move slowly. And now with the Mayor's proposal, where we're able to increase five days a week, we will plan for that and make sure that is in an intentional and well thought out scaling up because we're dealing with people's lives. And to the extent that we can share information across the board, we will continue to share that information.
So for the record Councilmember, it's been six weeks and we -- but values based, data driven, it's something that we preach ongoing about all of our programs. So those are metrics that we can provide in the future. We don't have it now, not because we're not prepared, it's only been six weeks.
Okay. So we could just wait on some more data maybe.
By the end of the summer or mid-summer, will we have more data on? I mean, because part of it is the increased expense of this whole system that we created, and if we don't have numbers, how do we know that it's worth us spending, I don't remember what the --
-- hundreds of millions of dollars that was asked for?
That's fair. And I think six months is a really good interval, so absolutely.
Okay. I think that was that. I have a few more. Should I wait to the next round?
Okay. Thank you, Councilmember Brooks. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember O'Rourke.
Thank you, Madam Leader. I have raised concerns all of us have about federal uncertainty and the risks to small businesses. All while large corporations stand to benefit from the Mayor's tax plan. Meanwhile, this budget proposes significant service cuts for Philadelphia's working families. I'd like to clarify these cuts for the record explicitly not to obscure them in record. So if the answer is yes, say yes. If the answer is no, say no. Again, just trying to get it clearly on the record. Is it true that the Mayor's proposed budget cuts million from 7 the fire department? 8
Does this budget cut nearly 5.6 million from the Office of Homeless Services?
Is it true that the Mayor's proposed budget cuts 1.1 million from the Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity, an agency that also heavily relies on federal grants?
Does this budget eliminate the city's Zero Fare Transit program, which provides free transit to 35,000 of our poorest residents by zeroing out its funding?
Thank you for those answers. I do appreciate that, particularly around the Zero Fare, and we talked about this in our meeting. The cuts are alarming for me. While large corporations get tax breaks, Philadelphia's workings families are seeing some of their essential services, I believe, slashed. These proposed cuts are not just numbers, they represent real harm to the people who need our support the most. And eliminating the Zero Fare Transit Program in particular betrays a serious anti-poverty strategy that actually helps boost our struggling septic system in a time where they keep talking about a death spiral. I wanted to shift a bit. I've seen some very concerning reporting about the use of our opioid settlement grants. From my understanding, the city has previously contributed opioid settlement dollars towards two grant programs: The Overdose Prevention and Community Healing Fund, and the Kensington Community Resilience Fund. These funds have used participatory decision making to allow the most impact to community members to make decisions about the types of programs and services that they need to address the opioid crisis and its impacts. In 2024 alone, the Prevention Fund distributed 3.1 million, I'm going to wrap up Madam Leader, 3.1 million to 43 organizations. I'm concerned about changes that the Parker Administration has made to these programs. Could you confirm, has the Parker administration officially ended these two grant programs, which we have -- which have been managed by the Scattergood Foundation?
We have not ended it, but we're not working with the Scattergood Foundation for that fund -- for those funds. So we are -- we are still doing that grant program, we're working with another entity to ensure that more dollars are going directly to the community. We're also working in close coordination with Councilmember Lozada and the Kensington Caucus around that decision making. So that's really important to me. You know, you talk about participatory decision making, but not everyone was involved in that participatory decision making. With this new process, we're going to ensure that all community members as well as working with Councilmember Lozada's office are involved in that process. Going back to SEPTA just for, because that yes or no 6 question, I actually like the round of yes or no questions, but I do want to say that you mentioned the death spiral with SEPTA. We've worked very closely with SEPTA, with the current GM, the Scott Sauer and his team. And even before then when Leslie Richards was there and their chief of Staff, Elizabeth Smith, who's both have gone on to other roles now, we will continue to work with them. We will continue to support them through our budget, and along with Y'all, advocate for, you know, the Commonwealth to adopt the governor's proposed budget. That has not changed. As with regards to the program that you mentioned, that program was a two-year pilot funded by ARPA Funds. Those funds have dried out, and we have chosen not to continue that pilot, but that is not to suggest in any way that we do not support SEPTA and that we're not concerned about their fiscal health. So I just want to note that for the record.
Thank you, Chief. Madam Leader, can I squeeze my other questions in real quick and get off your mic? Yes. On that point heard and also recognizing the programs that actually directly attack poverty in the city, I believe this is one of those things, and that's, I think more the point I wanted to make as it relates to those in terms of how much of a -- how much bang you get for your buck. I know it was ARPA funded, but 35,000 people in the city being able to have that sort of transit is something that I think would be essential in a city like ours if we're actively trying to move against that. But let me get these other questions around the wellness village. What percentage of the city's opioid settlement funds are currently going towards, or plans to go towards the Wellness Village ecosystem? And I've also been concerned about more sustainable funding sources for the wellness ecosystem. Are the providers who are offering services at the Wellness Village being reimbursed by Medicaid? Like what's the long-term revenue plan for the project on that point? And if you could get answer those questions, that'd be great. Thank you, Madam Leader for your Grace.
Thank you so much. So to answer the question, first, I, of course, our budget director is coming up, but I -- Sabrina Maynard, but I would also like to call up Managing Director Teal to talk more holistically about the wellness Philly ecosystem and provider our long-term funding as well.
Thank you. So for the opioid settlement funds, roughly a quarter is going to non-wellness items. So that includes programming at the prisons for MAT Behind the Walls, 175 Housing Continuum, OHS Beds, CEO Outreach, the Wound Care van, and so that's about $50 million over the proposed plan. And so the remainder would be for wellness. I'll turn it over to --
Madam Leader, Councilmember Adam Teal, the managing director. Councilmember, the providers that we are partnering with across our ecosystem, most of them are when they're able to seeking Medicaid reimbursement. And we are also working with the Commonwealth and a number of others to help change the way that system works so we can have more opportunities to recover those dollars. And we are also working with, as you've heard Mayor Parker say anybody who has a nickel- and-a-quarter to contribute to this core public safety function to find other ways to provide the ongoing funding, both operating and capital that is going to be required to operate this system. Still with the idea, we hope, and we said this last year still, this is the -- this is the hope. And again, with, I think now we are showing we are able to do this, we are showing the concept works while still early. We are hoping that eventually there will be a market, we're hoping to catalyze a market for providing these services where there is currently the gap, which is in recovery. We have also shown over the past year, there is some elasticity in the market for the front-end services, for the treatment services. We've seen an expansion in treatment beds, about 600 treatment beds across the ecosystem. Those are not city supplied, those are our partners who are expanding that front end. We still have that gap in recovery. We are hoping that eventually there will be other mechanisms to address that gap besides the city doing it still right now. There is nobody else to do that but us.
And so in my conclusion, I'll just say that the raise -- I raised this question around sustainability for the long-term. There needs to be a sustainable funding plan. Like what is the backup plan if Medicaid actually gets wiped at the federal level part, like if, if that's gone, that's a big deal. And so I just want to make sure that we raise that and at least that we're focusing on it. Thank Y'all for your time and answering the questions. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. President.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Member Phillips.
Thank you, Council President. I too just want to echo that I really felt the --
Member Phillips, just for one second. I just want to clarify, there won't be a third round. We are at 4:00 o'clock, we will be wrapping up. And so I just want members to be direct, and straight to the point with your questioning, and likewise, in terms of response, let's just get right to, you know, the actual response because I know a couple times, which I think is great, three, four people responding, which is great because that shows Y'all engaged. But likewise, the whole commentary before we ask the question, if you want to get it in this realm before we leave, just want to state for the record, this needs to be real direct. Councilman Phillips.
Thank you. I'll just give right to the questions. For the Department of Labor, I just wanted to raise a couple questions. Last year, FY '25 budget cut $400,000 from the Department of Labor. What were the impacts that cut had in terms of the difference in worker violations, cases investigated, and the comparative wait time for each reported violation? What is the current number of back law cases and the time each has been waiting?
So in terms of comparing the budget from year- to-year, so in FY '25 and the transfer ordinance, we're proposing adding a million dollars for their arbitration costs. That's one-time money, so that won't recur in '26, so that'll look like a reduction. I can call up the folks from labor to talk more about the other questions you raised.
Thank you, Councilmember Phillips. And I'm going to call up Deputy Director of Labor, Cara Leheny, to get into more detail, but in terms of your question about last year, and I know Sabrina addressed the difference between FY '25 and '26, but last year's difference was solely about one-time payouts and potential bonuses that just didn't carry over as well.
Good afternoon, Councilmember. My name is Cara Leheny. I'm the first Deputy Director of the Labor Department. I apologize, because I am going ask you to repeat sort of your --
You asked about the 400,000 I think since I already answered that.
Yeah. What were the -- what were the impact of that change? That there was a, you know, what are the current number of back law cases in the time it has been taken to investigate them?
And I'm sorry, Councilmember, which backlog and -- and we have four units, three of which do investigations, which unit are you specifically referring to?
This is the -- hold on, this is the department of -- I'm not exactly sure. I didn't know that you had different those. Let me come back to that question so I get more specific to that.
Okay. Got you. I didn't know it was debt and nuance.
What I can say Councilmember immediately is that the difference between FY '24 and FY '25 of that $400,000 didn't impact our investigative capacity at all. As was stated, those were -- those funds were associated with terminal leave payouts for some longstanding employees who were dropping and things like that. So that didn't -- that didn't impact our capacity to investigate. I'm going to have to get you data on our -- on backlogs in any particular area. So I could either try to gather that information and for everything added to you later, if you want to tell us if there's one particular office or unit in mind that you have, whichever you prefer, we'll get that information for you.
Okay. And then also, just for the sake of thought, many workers have spoken to our offices about fair retaliation in the form of lost hours being fired -- being fired, and other threats. With an increased budget, how will the Department of Labor take action to mitigate retaliation and widespread fear of retaliation among low wage workers?
Well, I'm going to speak directly about our Office of Worker Protection and our Office of Labor Standards. Those are our external facing offices.
And both of them do excellent work in this area. I'll start with the Office of Worker Protection. First of all, they have an out -- they have a community outreach program and they go out and they -- and they educate the work -the Philadelphia workforce and employers as to the worker protection laws that this Council has passed. So that's the first step that we take: trying to get people to understand what their rights are. The second step is that OWP will investigate complaints anonymously. They will do what's called a wall-to-wall investigation, they won't focus on a particular person. They'll look at the entire workforce of that site or wherever the complaint comes from. So they have ways of protecting complainants. Finally, they also -- there are also anti-retaliation provisions built into those ordinances that Council has passed, and OWP investigates and enforces those. The Office of Labor Standards, that office is charged with monitoring the projects where the city is contracted for $100,000 or more, that's something like 470 to 500 projects right now. They actively go out, they're proactive, they interview people on site, they start finding out if, you know, are people getting paid properly according to prevailing wage and the fringe benefits that are associated with that? What about the diversity requirements that are required by our code? Things like that. The apprentice ratio, they're asking all of those questions. Again, they are doing comprehensive project wide investigations. They don't reveal that someone may have picked up the phone and said, I don't think I'm being paid properly. They go out and they look at the entire project.
Thank you. Before I got it right -- before I call on the next member, we have members from the -- we have the Mayor, vice president, and their Council from Frankfurt, Germany, which is our sister of city, just celebrating years partnering with 9 the City of Philadelphia to say 10 hello. They're here watching government in action. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad, and then next I have Councilmember Majority Gilmore- Gilmore-Richardson, then I have after that Councilmember Jim Harrity, then we're going to circle back to Councilmember Jeffrey J. Young, and then if we could squeeze in, if it's before 4:00 o'clock, we'll have Jamie Gauthier, Brooks, and Lozada just give their last brief statement before we wrap up. And just for the record, this is the five-year plan, but also individual departments will be coming back, and so we'll do a double follow-up regarding the issues and concerns that we want to address. This is just the beginning of the process today, so we've got a very long way to go.
Yeah, thank you, Council President. I wanted to just go back about the proposal to eliminate the 1 percent Development Impact fund. I wanted to know what impact on the NPI bond issue of the 127 million that happened in 2024 as the development impact fee was part of the bundle of revenues to back that bond issue. I remember Rob telling us -- Mr. Dubow telling us it was not a huge amount, it was million. I just wanted to know what the impact was on that revenue bond.
Right. And like the bonds we're considering. Now, those bonds were covered by all of the revenues of the general fund, but development impact tax was introduced to try to help pay for those bonds. It never generated what we thought it was go1ing to, it generates about three and a half million dollars a year. So the bonds have really been paying off, been paid off with -- are being paid off with other revenues, so that tax going away has no impact on our ability to repay the bonds.
Okay. Thank you for the clarification. My next question is about the impressive and ambitious housing plan. I just wanted to know what percentage of that plan had mixed use, mixed income, and for the mixed income space, where I think that actually addresses the issue of quality as well, I've seen this work in New York, I've seen it in different parts of New York, I've seen the first person in Brooklyn works really well, and so I wanted to know what we were going to do in our plan here. And the second part of the question is: Once we have, you know, these new developments coming up, the impact of that on the property values and thereby property taxes of longtime residents who may not be able to afford this upswing in their taxes, are we going to have a plan to mitigate that in a way that they're counseled and offered resources such as LOOP and other, you know, tax freezes and such in a very comprehensive way?
So I think your first question was what the percentages amongst everything was? Just to be clear about what I can provide as far as the unit breakdown, 30,000 units obviously are of the total. Of those 30,000 units, we are earmarking for production 44,850 for ownership opportunities, and the rest of that 8,850 for rental opportunities. Now, it doesn't necessarily break down as far as unit types and building types, but to break it further down on the affordable -- affordability levels that we're estimating at the moment, of that 4,850 for ownership and production, approximately 1,400 of those will be for the affordable band, which is 30 to 50 percent in our plan. For workforce housing, 2,100. And that band is from 50 to 80 percent, and that's for ownership, I'm still talking about. For Workforce plus, which is 80 percent to 120 percent, we are estimating at 1,100, and for market rate within that same ownership structure is for 150 units. Also in production for a rental, we are looking to have 1,800 for the deeply affordable bands, so that's everything below 30 percent of AMI.
And only that one kind of housing in that kind of -- in that 1,800?
So again, these don't specialties don't -- there are no subcategories for what types of housing yet. Right now we're just at a level of focusing on how many units we're looking to yield and to what extent we are trying to target certain affordability bands. So again, with rental, 2,500 for affordable opportunities, on production, again, 30 percent to percent, for workforce housing, 50 percent to 80 percent, we're looking at 2,900 units, and for workforce plus, it's 1,400 units in the rental side. And for market rate, which is above 120 percent of AMI, that's 150 units as well. So on the flip side for preservation opportunities, those numbers start to jump a lower AMIs because we're uphold -- we're standing up investing in expanding a lot of the preservation opportunities as they exist now, and then also investing in some new opportunities as well. As it stands right now, DHCD's funding most of it, at least 50 percent of it does target those lower incomes right now. So we're keeping that same pace, keeping that same approach, 5,600 units for preservation, 9,400 units for preservation -- I'm sorry, not -- 5,600 units for preservation at deeply affordable opportunities. For affordable opportunities, 9,400 units and preservation. For workforce housing, 1,200 units for preservation, and for workforce plus, at least 100 units to be affected.
So we didn't talk about, these are just the actual units. Are they going to be mixed in terms of mixed income in the same building for affordable -- different levels of affordability?
It's a highly likely. So, you know, we are looking at -- we don't specify what unit types, but what I can share is that it'll be a diverse approach in our -- in our building. So it will be some single families, there'll be some duplexes, triplexes, quads as well, but then we are also looking to incentivize multifamily development as well. And if we're keeping on pace with what we do now as far as those opportunities, where there's a disposition policy that does require some mixed income opportunities on the publicly owned land, we would anticipate that mix being a model here.
So highly recommend to have some of these mixed income units for density purposes as well, if we are going to try to grow our population?
Yeah, thank you. And my very last question is for the police commissioner, very short question. Last time we had heard about your cadets being poached once they were trained in -- by you, and then they were poached by other counties and other states, has that gone down or are we still -- are we still facing that problem, and should we have some way to not allow people who've been trained by us to be poached within a certain timeframe?
Councilmember Ahmad, you also asked a question around the impact on property value?
So I want to make sure I'm in keeping with the guidance from the Council President. That would mean calling up Greg Heller, our consultant.
Question. And I even want to push a little further as it relates to Greg can answer this question. So, for instance, construction costs are higher now, right? And so, even though we Turn The Key, normally we sell a house for 265,000, right? And then you get the subsidy from the city, and that'll get it down to about 180 for a brand new house, right, which is actually a pretty good deal. However, costs are up, and so you'll have developers who are participating in Turn The Key program will say, well, at 280, right, 280,000, right, you can pull out the largest subsidy from the city, which is $70,000, right. That will bring it down from 280 to 210, right, and then you'll get another 10, 15,000 from the bank. So they'll bring the house again down to the same amount, roughly 190, 195, which is a deal, right, for a brand new house. But that 265 to 285, right, increases the value of the house next door to you, that may be, let's say on the high end, 200,000, was 150,000, right? So now that next door neighbor that increase in value is going to go up in their home, which is a good thing, but as a result, their taxes are going to go up and so it's a legitimate question in terms of how we make sure we're staying in front of it and also aren't perpetuating gentrification in the process. So we're thinking about it on the front end.
Good afternoon. Greg Heller. I'm a partner at Guidehouse Consultant with the city. Yeah, Council President, it's a great question. There are several factors that are connected to it. So Turn The Key program is based on trying to analyze what people within the target income bans can afford, what developers are building at, able to build at based on current construction prices, and making sure that those home sales reflect market values so that they don't unduly shift market dynamics. So there are several things that the Turn The Key program elegantly does address and has successfully. On the flip side, you're absolutely right that whether it's Turn The Key or not, when real estate prices start going up in a neighborhood that affects other properties. And so the city has a number of programs like Homestead, like Loop, and all the other programs that we know about that are intended to address those. But all of those things are interconnected, as you said, and so it's really important that as the city continue to shape these programs, that they change with changing market dynamics, that they reflect changes in income, in home sale values at the sub-market level, construction costs, and I feel confident that the city staff are incorporating all of these variables, so that the program can continue to be priced correctly, can do what it's supposed to do, assisting first-time home buyers, providing the right level of support for the contractors and developers in the program, and providing the tax support on the back end so that people can afford their property taxes. But you're absolutely right. These are all interconnected factors that these programs need to make sure they're sized and shaped correctly to be able to address.
And, Greg, we'll work with you on this two possible proposals: One, from an intergovernmental relations standpoint that we should be lobbying and advocating and maybe find someone to sponsor a bill, and I have a person that probably would carry the bill. We were talking to Representative Regina Young regarding carrying a bill to expand the criteria for senior citizens tax freeze, right? That's a state- related policy that has to change, right? To freeze the taxes of our seniors, and so we have to increase that criteria, right? So that's something I would like to figure out how we work in partnership with the state level. And then also, obviously, I'm a main proponent and chairman of Loop, long-term owner occupants program, which at one time it was only for years for long-term residents, but now, it's for the lifetime of you living inside your home based upon your income criteria. However, what happens when, and I know this happens a lot in South Philadelphia, when mommy or daddy pass away, and then the children inherit the home, and they may not even be -- have that opportunity to incur and pay those taxes, right? Because that just might be what they're dealing with in terms of some of our neighborhoods. So maybe looking at expanding LOOP, right, to also cover that next generation who inherit the actual property. So that's something we're going to explore as well, just to make sure we are -- we're being preventative and we all want, and I know about equity. So yes, I want equity in all the homes, definitely in my home, I would like to have it, but at the same time we want development without displacement, right? And so the more we think about it on the front end, we can be able to mitigate some of the issues that could possibly have unintended consequences down the line. And so --
And Council President, a decade ago when I worked for the Mayor as her executive director of the Philadelphia delegation with the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, when she was delegation chair, we were huge supporters of LOOP then, senior tax frees then, and even more now. So absolutely, yes, we are -- we are absolutely a part of -- in support of that, but also seeing the development happen without the displacement. We know that there's case studies around the country, including the Dudley Street Project, which is something that I love to, you know, read about and study about and we're going to see that here in Philadelphia as well.
Absolutely. Dr. Ahmad, any other questions before?
No, thank you. It was just my last question to the commissioner. Thank you.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes the Majority of the Gilmore-Gilmore-Richardson.
Do you need me to say it again? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: No, I think I got it, Commissioner Bethel.
Yeah. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: So the -- so one of the things you -- I share my frustration around cadets leaving and they have that continue, but this past year, you know, well this, in latter part of last year, Commissioner Healy on my team got good -- good counsel from the law department. We, for the first time introduce a MOU with the individual signed. So every recruit starting in December were required to sign a document that if they leave within the first year, they would owe us $58,000. That gets prorated over three years. So if they stay beyond within the three-year period -- if they leave policing, we do not go to recoup that funds, but if they stay in policing and opt to as one individual left the next day, and just to congratulate. We're hopeful, we're early in the process, we've had two classes now signing that memorandum. We don't -- can't go back in time for those who are in the academy already. We'll be able to see if that's at least holding them longer than the period of time that we're seeing. So we're hopeful that model will work and we'll be able to report out to you probably in this next budget cycle next year to see, yes, in fact, it's having an impact.
Well, thank you. That was a smart move, and I'm glad to see, you know, you worked on that in this budget cycle, so I appreciate that. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Yes, ma'am.
You're welcome. Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Majority Leader Gilmore-Gilmore- Richardson, then Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, then Councilmember Jeffrey J. Young.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. I wanted to try to get this question on the record and this is for our finance and budget team. So you all recognize from following the markets that the U.S. Treasury yield curve which has been one of our most reliable signals of a recession is flashing red again. And you know that as of March of this year the spread between the 5 year and the two-year treasury 6 yields as well as the three-month 7 notes remains inverted. And so we 8 know what that indicates relative to 9 a market perspective. 10 And so I wanted to sort of talk about our overall financial picture around any concerns that you all may have with the bond market and any other indicators around our financial future in the short term because I heard you all talk about earlier that the borrowing you wanted that to happen very quickly. And so based on what's happening in the market I wanted to put that on the record. In addition to -- on of the testimony, you talked about having consideration for a number of those challenges and other potential risks as a part of the Mayor's proposed five-year plan, but that we are maintaining positive fund balances, and you notated that the BSR and the Federal Funding Reserve, you know, keeps us that we continue to make contributions to those reserves and that it'll be up to 280 million by the end of the planning. You know, we worked on that with my BSR legislation. But some of the takeaways that have been notated regarding the information that's being presented is that the general fund balance is projected to fall from 514 million in FY '26 to 41 million in FY '29. In addition to that, you know, that the city is anticipating operating in a deficit for FY '26 to 29 with an additional operating surplus projected in FY '30. And so as you take all of that into account, looking at the markets, thinking about the borrowing, and then you notated here that the debt service would add 33 million in FY '26 and then 263 million over the life of the proposed plan. As you all are taking all of that into consideration in addition to recognizing where the school district will be, in addition to recognizing where SEPTA will be, in addition to the continued federal uncertainty, as you know, we still do rely on federal for, you know, a good portion of our own city budget. Can you talk about this overall financial picture for this proposed plan?
There is -- and we've talked about this repeatedly there is a great deal of uncertainty and as you talked about, you can see that in the markets where there's a lot of volatility where markets are looking for signs of, you know, what federal policy is going to be, what tariffs are going to be, and, you know, move really quickly on kind of the smallest indication there used to be markets would move based on financial information.
And now they're moving on financial information and kind of the latest proclamation. So that definitely adds some uncertainty. We have tried, you know, working with our outside consultants and build that into their projections for what we see is happening with our tax revenues and with employment. And like I said, employment we're really keeping flat because we don't expect big expansion in the economy nationwide and worldwide. So we've tried to capture that in our projections while at the same time not losing sight of the fact that we're a city of great needs and we have to keep making investments. We can't be kind of paralyzed by the uncertainty.
And we tried to make sure in this plan that we weren't and we made crucial investments while including things like the budget, legislation, reserve fund, thank you. Putting reserve funds in, maintaining a fund balance. So it's all, you know, it's all part of trying to deal with the uncertainty while still moving ahead.
Right. And I wanted to mention that because even with the updated BSR legislation that we all worked on together, my bill. We know because of the anticipated low general fund balance that there won't be an additional contribution in the out years of the five-year plan, which is why I think it was important for us to do what we did in the last midyear, relative to the one-time Federal Reserve investment. But I bring that up because I want to go back to my other question around the vacancies, right? Because, you know, I'm reading all these reports and I did read the report from the PICA board, and they were stating that in FY '24 the city spent 130 million less on salaries for city employees than we had originally budgeted, and in FY23 $81 million less. And that our recent payroll actuals have been about five percent lower than budgeted. And so given the overall size and share of the spending on our employee wages, the variance of the five percent represents a significant fund that we could have used to redirect within the fiscal year. And so I wanted to blend all of that in together as it relates to our overall financial outlook, our picture and our fund balance, to ensure that we are appropriately looking at the vacancy rates and allowances as it relates to what we know will be true in the out years of the five year planning. And that we're really serious about that this year because it'll be more important than ever because of the volatility in DC.
And I mean, a couple of things there. You will see and that Candi talked about this, that we have been filling more positions. So we're hoping that those vacancy rates actually come down as we fill positions to provide the services that we have in our budget. You'll also see that vacancy rates are higher in this year's budget in divisions. We're trying to make them track more of the reality of what's happening. But the other thing is that, you know, those variances from budget were like in the three to five percent range.
So to the extent that we really do start hiring up, they could go away pretty quickly.
Okay. And that's -and I just want to reiterate this -- and I heard the bell but I think it's really important too for us to understand from a class 100 perspective, of the positions that are being proposed in the five-year plan, which ones address vacancies versus which ones are brand new positions to city government because that also has an overall impact on our pension obligation as well, you know, for further down the line.
Yep. That makes sense. And we can -- obviously as we go department by department we can -- we can go through that.
Thank you very much, and I just wanted to put this on the record for the Department of Labor. I know Cara Leheny was up earlier we had spoken about this and we continue to meet with law, with labor and have been very appreciative of the work that you all have done. But I wanted to go back to some of the work that happened under the tenure of Richard Lazer. And I thought he did an excellent job working with us around ensuring that there was public participation as a part of the FOP contract negotiations. And I just wanted to ask for the record, if there will be a continued commitment from the city to ensure that we have a community member on the panel before the arbitration board, which is what we did last negotiation cycle prior to the one year. So it was -- this is for the last longer term contract under the previous administration after we did the public comment legislation. We had worked with the Department of Labor and specifically with Richie and with law to ensure that there was a community person that could be on the panel that went before the arbitrator.
Specifically for arbitration. When it comes to Act 111, hearings are not open to the public unless the panel votes to do so. We did put in a request before the panel.
Okay. Yeah. No, not the hearing being open to the public. I meant the part where the city prepares the panel of individuals that will speak on behalf of the city during the presentation, it was -- I think it may have been one or two people. It was just someone that participated in the hearing process. I think labor chose the individual based on the, I think it was like 99 witnesses total.
Yes. Hello, Councilmember. Yes, we had two witnesses who presented to the panel who were representative of the communities. I'm remembering Pastor Waller and I am blanking on the name of the other person.
We are -- we are in -- we're discussing -- I know Adam Geer, our Public Safety Director is talking with community organizations. And certainly we can take that request under advisement and talk it through. We're certainly going to be having CPARK presenting to the -- to the panel in support of the proposal that is in our proposals to get them the various investigative and other authority that the ordinance gives them. So, you know, that is a focus of our -- of our case.
Okay. I just wanted to make sure we were going to at least, at the very least, do minimum what we did last time.
Councilmember, we'll get back to on that. And I do just want to note that previously we did not have the Office of Public Safety as a -- as a member of the -- of the administration. And Adam Geer is a part of our negotiations.
Okay. That's good. I just want to make sure from a -- like a community perspective that we do at least the bare minimum of what we did last time. Okay. Thank you very, very much.
Next, the Chair recognizes Council Quetcy Lozada.
Thank you, Council President. And I just have one question. In your testimony, it states that there are significant investments that are going to be made in the next -- in the next cycle. Riverview was mentioned to complete the new tower, a multi-year project to renovate the Fire Academy, critical improvements to the city's prison systems. And that made me think about the prison systems, right? Sometimes we don't -- we don't often hear about the issues around the prison systems until there is some type of crisis. And so my question is that given the ongoing challenges of the prison -- with prison staffing and security, are there plans to enhance staffing levels or security measures in conjunction with the facility renovations?
Thank you, Councilmember. I'll call on a Managing Director Thiel to answer that question.
Thank you, Council President, Councilmember. I think the short answer is yes, absolutely. We've had the best with Commissioner Resnick and his team on board. I mean, it's -- they're an absolute testament to how leadership matters, and with Mayor Parker's fulsome support we've had the best report from our court monitor of, you know, the past many years. And all of the security enhancements are absolutely integrated with the facilities enhancements. I mean, it really is, they're physical security, their staffing is improving greatly and has improved greatly over time at the same time that a lot of the proactive measures they've made to help, you know, keep the population where it should be working with the courts and others. It just -- things are really moving in the right direction and the investments here will help address issues that are specifically mentioned in the Remick settlement, as well as continue to institute best practices from the correctional industry that Commissioner Resnick and his team are bringing to our Philadelphia Department of Prisons along with a really dedicated and committed workforce.
What campaigns have you all done in order to hire more correction officers? And I ask because I've not heard of any, I've not seen any and so I want to -- I want us to figure out how do we keep our prison population safe, as well as those corrections officers that are currently there. I -- we hear from them often, right, that they -- that they need help, right? That they want to maintain safety as a priority in the system but they're -- they just -- they don't have enough bodies. And so what are we doing as it relates to making sure that those who are there have the support that they need in order to efficiently do their jobs? And how are we working towards increasing -- what kind of campaigns are we looking at to increase the actual staff?
Councilmember, I really appreciate the question and the attention. It's a really long list, and we do have -- we will have prisons here for their own session. So I would -- I mean, we have after page after page of enhancements that Commissioner Resnick and team have put in place in full consultation and in conjunction with the Law Department Managing Director's Office. So we could probably spend a lot of time answering those questions in a detailed way. We have a full-time recruitment officer with PDP now, we have a retained advertising firm and they're putting campaigns out there. And the proof is really in the pudding. We have our largest correctional officer classes, and again, in many years, onboarding almost continually just opened a new training and wellness space and on and on and on, Councilmembers. So I guess we certainly could go into great detail, you know, subject to your discretion and Council President or if you want us, we'll -- we could have all of that elaborated during prison's time here with you.
I look forward to hearing about that campaign Council President. Again, we get contacted by some of our officers in the prison systems who stress the importance of needing more support, right? And so I want to make sure that we're doing whatever we can through this budget process to ensure that they are safe as well as our prison population. Thank you.
Thank you. Chair recognizes Councilman Jeffrey J. Young.
Thank you, Mr. President. And I just have a question for Rob Dubow. But I -- before I get there I just want to, you know, set the record straight. I didn't want to make it seem like I'm minimizing anyone's efforts in this. We -- I know everyone's efforts, we're all working on it every single day. And I know you're working continuously to make sure that Philadelphia is the safest city and the city -- in the country, I understand that completely. And, you know, I just wanted to elevate that conversation. I just wanted to put that to the forefront because I know it's at the forefront of a lot of folks' minds. And not to say that, you know, my colleagues, you are not out there in the -- in the community doing the work. I know you are, but I just wanted to elevate that in the -- in the -- in the comments. And some of the answers we received, you know, talking about the programs that exist, that address that issue of public safety and gun violence in our city. There were a lot of different departments that had something to do with that. And that goes to my question that I have for Rob, can you explain to us this -- the type of budgeting method that the city uses?
Yep. We use program based budgeting. So we'll look at each program, what we spend, what outcomes we expect from it. And when you look at our budget detail, and you look at our five- year plan, you'll see that for each department we show what we spend, what we expect for that, if they're going to generate any revenues. So we put that all together so you can see what we're -- what we're getting.
And I guess how often are like programs changed or in the budgeting process, do you -- are you looking to see the effectiveness of each program as you're allocating more or less resources when, you know, we're looking at, I guess, certain particular outcomes that you're looking for?
We are. We are always looking at that. And there was a little discussion about this before with first Deputy Mayor Harris, where if a program is not meeting its goals, it doesn't necessarily mean that you should say we should give them less money, right? It could be that they actually need more resources to do what they're doing. And what your measures do is really raise questions for you and let you ask the right questions to decide, you know, what level of resources make the most sense.
And so when you're doing that and doing that evaluation, and I guess my point is because they're coming from so many different departments, it's not as transparent for the public to see like what's going on. And so -- and it's not as flexible, and so if we -- if we change how we budget, how we allocate resources, I believe to more outcomes based budget and process, where we're starting -- where we're aligning our resources with the actual results, right? Where we're starting from these are our goals and let's figure out how to fund our goals, right? Rather than each year just give and take from a particular program, do we need more money, less money? Like, let's -- what are our goals? And then what are our priorities? And how can we let our constituency know that these are our priorities? And I think if we change our budgeting system so they can clearly see what the outcomes are, what the priorities are based on the dollars that being allocated to that. I think it'll be -- you know, it'll help us in our city be more efficient as we look to, you know, to govern, you know, to improve these particular outcomes that we have for our constituents.
I understood that. And if you look through our five-year plan, you'll see that for each department in each program we start with what the goals are, what their mission is, and then they talk about how they want to meet those goals. So that's what we try to do in our plan, and we actually do it in our budget detail too.
And, Council President, may I just respond to one thing when you --
When you opened, Councilmember Young, thank you for that, but I want to assure you, I want to double down on it. We will never under this administration, under Mayor Parker's leadership, normalize gun violence. It will not happen. It will not happen. We will not normalize it and we hear you.
A very brief lightning question, Gauthier, Brooks and then we are wrapping up.
Thank you, Council President. I wanted to ask about immigration legal defense. For the past five years, Pennsylvania Immigrant Family Unity Project or PAIFUP funding has been indispensable to local immigration legal defense. Given the Trump Administration's ongoing campaign to create fear in and intimidate our immigrant communities including, but not limited to illegal deportations. I think we have a responsibility to expand services and resources for immigrants in our city. Advocates have been asking not only for more funding for PAIFUP, they've asked specifically for an increase the 1.3 million, but also to move PAIFUP to the Defender's Association, which already has skilled immigration lawyers on staff. So briefly -- two brief questions. Is the administration willing to increase funding to PAIFUP and is the administration willing to reallocate the funding to the defender so that they can take on PAIFUP under their umbrella. Why -- will you do it? And if not, why not?
So, to answer that question I have to kind of give a little bit of context first. So the -- and the context is of course Amy Eusebio who was historically the OIA director, you know, was in place when we received PAIFUP funding on the last -- on her last day in the administration. I'm told by our Chief Defender and the Defender's Office that there was discussion around that funding because no one else in the administration was privy to that conversation. What we said was, we're open to it with the caveat that we want to fill the OIA director position first. We've had a record number of people to apply for that role. My office under my leadership, as well as with our city solicitor, we're supporting our Managing Director's office and combing through those -- the record number of very impressive resumes might I add once we name that new OIA director which will not be a long drawn out process, I want to note that for the record. Once we name that director, we will then go back to Keisha Hudson and have that more fulsome conversation around PAIFUP funding and where does it sit, you know, does it stay within OIA or does it go over to -- over to that unit. We're not opposed to it, but we're not going to make a decision until we have the OIA director in place. They understood that when we met, in fact Rob Dubow and our budget director was a part of that conversation.
Do you think it's important that we have those conversations and make that decision within the -- the FY '26 budget process?
Yeah. The intent is to work on parallel tracks, name the -- name the OIA director and have the conversation with our Defender's Office, absolutely. During this -- during this process. So yes, absolutely.
Thank you. I'm probably going to ask more about this in future sessions, but thank you for that answer today.
Thank you. So last year, I was very disappointed to see the administration cut the Department of Labor Budget and for City Council to fail to fully fund the department. I heard this happened because the Finance Department refused to fund open positions. Something there are a lot more of this year. Is this administration prioritizing the Department of Labor the way it should be, particularly in light of what's happening with the Federal Department of Labor?
So I'm going to kick that over to our Chief Deputy Mayor, but I want to say that the Finance Department did not make a decision of void of the Mayor's office around cutting based on the reasons that you shared. But I'll kick that over to Chief Deputy Mayor.
And as I explained before, and there is not, there hasn't been a cut last year, and there was not a cut this year in terms of funding for wages and class 200, class 300. We still have the same compliment and we're still invested in the same services. They were either terminal leave payouts or in the -- for the instance for this year, because we're in the midst of active negotiations with five major unions. We have some funding needs around arbitration, interest arbitration and those negotiations specifically some of the costs. So that's what you see in terms of the difference between FY '25 and FY '26 and that will be in a transfer next Monday. But we are not cutting the Department of Labor, the work that they do between the Office of Worker Protection, the Office of Labor Standards, recovering over $5.1 million on behalf of 2,600 workers. The Office of Labor negotiate -- Labor Relations who is in -- helps us do all the negotiation and the research and making sure that we are responsive to our workforce. And then the Office of Employee Relations where, you know, folks who are city workers and have any issues in terms of potential workforce harassment and any of those complaints, they do all of that investigatory work. It's work we take very seriously and we are not cutting.
So when the strategic goal outlined in the five year plan states is that one of the goal is to better integrate staff into assisting existing city structures, that's not including this department that's other departments.
Well, we always aim to better integrate our workforce into the city structures. That's not any -- that's not indicative of any cuts or any deprioritizing.
Okay. Thank you very much. So to Deputy Chief Mayor, Sincere Harris to Vanessa Garrett Harley, Deputy Mayor, and the Chief of staff, Tiffany Thurman, I thank you for your presentation on the five-year plan. Give them a round of applause, y'all, right? Now I've been around -- I've been around for a little while and oftentimes -- and I've been an elected official in City Council since 2011. I also have been a state representative under Governor Ed Rendell and Tom Corbett. And so during Women's History Month, it's not often that you see three women in leadership, whether we agree or disagree, as we go through this budget process. But three women in leadership like leading the helm in a charge moving forward. So if you can say that we look forward to a robust discussion around the city budget as we move the city of Philadelphia forward. And I thank all my colleagues for sticking in this out today and making sure as we do every day show up. And so the Chair recognizes Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore- Richardson for a motion at the public hearing and meeting on the bills and resolutions before the Committee today stand in recess until Wednesday, March 26th, 2025, at 12:30 p.m. in room 400, City Hall.
Thank you, Mr. President. I move that the public hearing and meeting on the bills and resolutions before the committee today stand in recess until Wednesday, March 26th, 2025, at 12:30 p.m. in room 400, City Hall.
It has been moved and properly seconded that the public hearing and meeting on the bills and resolutions before the committee today stand in recess until Wednesday, March the -- March 26th at 12:30 p.m. in room 400. All those in favor will signify by saying aye. Those opposed? The ayes have it and the motion carries. This committee will stand in recess until Wednesday, March the 26th, 2025 at 12:30 p.m. at which time we will reconvene in this room. (Committee on the Whole concluded at 4:05 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence are contained fully and accurately in the notes taken by me of the above case, and this copy is a correct transcript of the same. _______________ Samanda J. Rios