You should receive it within the next day or so. But to summarize the content, as I recall, and I believe your question is a follow-up from the Five-Year Plan hearing?
On Monday, February 8th? You asked the Law Department to provide information about the number of properties that have gone to sheriff's sale over the past few years. We have determined that 2,977 properties were listed for sheriff's sale during the period 1995 to 1998. During the same period, 967 were sold to private bidders at sheriff's sale. We also give you a breakdown per year of the number of properties sold and listed by year.
Are you telling us what the status is of the collection effort on the tax lien sale portfolio?
Good morning. I believe 385 2/16/99 WHOLE COMM./Budget Hearings/Bill 990023 at this point in time --
I'm James Zwalick, Deputy City Solicitor. At this point, I believe a total of approximately 1600 either complaints or petitions have been filed with the court seeking either lawsuits against owners or petitions seeking permission to sell the properties free and clear of all encumbrances at sheriff's sale. At this point, we have not actually listed any properties for sheriff's sale, and I believe the servicers are working with the sheriff to set up a mechanism to have the properties sold at sheriff's sale. At this point, there have been no properties listed.
The sheriff will be 386 2/16/99 WHOLE COMM./Budget Hearings/Bill 990023 setting up the third option shortly. I anticipate that that will begin in late spring.
What are the new collection initiatives that you mention in your testimony, and why do you project collections to rebound after FY 2000, not during FY 2000? I've alluded to of your testimony.
Yes, one moment. Our Chief Deputy City Solicitor for the Tax Unit, Cindy White Winters, will give you a general sense of some of the initiatives that we are contemplating right now. We are in the process of doing an internal thorough analysis of the Tax Unit, with an eye towards restructuring, reallocating staff more effectively and efficiently to enhance our overall collections. We have some programs that we are currently considering with an effort to increase tax collection. And she can give you at least a thumbnail sketch of some of the things we're considering.
Good afternoon. 387 2/16/99 WHOLE COMM./Budget Hearings/Bill 990023
Okay, I'm Cindy White-Winters, Chief Deputy City Solicitor. The programs that we're currently looking at have to do with enforcing the executive order requiring that vendors the City does business, that they're actually in tax compliance status. We have initiated a review of all the various contracts that we currently have on our ACIS system, and we are currently going through a process of doing a search to establish whether or not those vendors have any outstanding tax liabilities. In addition to that, we are going to insist that they give us a list of their various subcontractors and do the same kind of review and check with regard to their tax liability status so that both the vendors and the subcontractors are then in compliance with regard to all taxes liabilities owed to the City. Those are two programs that are going to mirror each other and work in tandem. The other project that we're looking at 388 2/16/99 WHOLE COMM./Budget Hearings/Bill 990023 has to do with title companies. There have been over the years our impression -- and I think this is borne out every time we get a call from a title company at closing, that there are any number of municipal claims that are outstanding at various closings that take place on a daily basis. And that title companies, instead of asking for a payoff from the City with regard to specific taxes, will simply escrow certain monies. So we are embarking upon the task of sending out a draft letter to all the title companies in the Delaware Valley and basically indicating that it's our belief that there are certain monies being held for these various municipal claims, and insisting that they give an accounting to us. We're hoping that that will be an amicable kind of arrangement. But if not, then we are also working to come up with a complaint that would insist that they give or account for the balances that have not be remitted over to the City and actually require that they address those outstanding balances. Those are the three that we're really 389 2/16/99 WHOLE COMM./Budget Hearings/Bill 990023 gearing up very much currently. And I think the reason why we're projecting that it will not really have an effect until past the year 2000 is, one, because of the various research we have to do, the implementation of the program. But clearly, once we can get it up and running, we anticipate that these are going to be both programs that are going to net significant funds for the City.
Thank you. On -20, would you explain why the request for the prison litigation is needed?
Good afternoon Christopher Lane, Director of Administration for the Law Department.
This contract with Hangley Aronchick has been a long-standing contract. It goes back to litigation initiated in the 1970s. This firm continues to work with us, 390 2/16/99 WHOLE COMM./Budget Hearings/Bill 990023 Judge Shapiro to make sure we're in compliance with the population cap requirements of the prison and other requirements that have been imposed over the years improving the health services for the prisoners, that kind of thing. And it's a give-and-take that's been going on for a number of years, and this firm has provided continuity of service to us in representing us in those issues.
We also have been taking steps to try and bring more of that work in-house by dedicating one attorney in particular who serves as prison counsel. We are also in the process of dedicating another attorney to work virtually full-time on the prison litigation, with an eye towards trying to decrease the costs of outside counsel.
But you're still appropriating $500,000. If you feel that you can do it in-house, why are we still spending 391 2/16/99 WHOLE COMM./Budget Hearings/Bill 990023 $500,000 a year?
Of my point was simply that we are continue to go take steps to try to at least not increase our use of outside counsel. But the dictates of that representation are driven by the court so that, I guess, from a certain perspective, the costs could be more if we were not doing as much as we could do in-house, and we are trying to do even more with our resources.
Thank you, Madame Chair. Madame Solicitor, do you know by chance if the night court operation is funded? I understand it's supposed to be in the budget.
Yeah. Night court is an activity where the neighborhood police 392 2/16/99 WHOLE COMM./Budget Hearings/Bill 990023 stations, judges, and all the police personnel volunteer to deal with misdemeanor crimes. I think it's the greatest thing for neighborhood crime that I've seen in my lifetime. In our area, we generally have Judge Means (ph.), who comes. He presides, he volunteers. You get kids who won't go to 9 school, you have people drinking on the streets, 10 shooting craps, all of those things. But it's 11 been a volunteer effort to deal with misdemeanor 12 crimes. 13 And all the Town Watch and members of 14 the community come that night, it's usually a 15 Friday night at 7 or 7:30. Sometimes we do it 16 once a month, especially during the summer. But 17 it's been a volunteer effort. 18 And rumor had it that it was going to be written into the budget this year so that it's not a purely voluntary effort. All the police officers come and give of their time, the judges do it. That's the way it works in the 18th. In South Philadelphia, they have it where they deal with the stadiums and public drinking and that sort of thing. So it works 393 2/16/99 WHOLE COMM./Budget Hearings/Bill 990023 differently in different neighborhoods, but it's just a wonderful, wonderful way to deal with neighborhood misdemeanor crimes. And I wondered if it was. Rumor had it that it was going to be funded this year, and I didn't ask the Courts, I didn't check with the judge. I was just curious since you seem to have an overview of the departments, if you heard that this would be a funded activity.
I am generally familiar with the program, but I would assume that it may be funded through Courts or the District Attorney's Budget. The Budget Director might be able to answer that.
I'm Dean Kaplan, the City's Budget Director. Obviously, the different participants in the night court process include any funding that they require in their own budgets, and the predominant amount of that is in the DA's budget and the Courts' budget, with some police -- 394 2/16/99 WHOLE COMM./Budget Hearings/Bill 990023 although most of that is related to police who are already on duty. As you probably know from taking a look at the budget detail, the Courts did not submit budget detail this year -- in part because, obviously, as we discussed at some length last week, we didn't fund the Courts directly for FY 2000. What I can say is that none of the departments that I know of that are involved with night court submitted proposals for additional funding. However, knowing the size of those various departments, you're talking about the Police at about 108 million -- I'm sorry, the Courts' overall funding was about $108 million. The DA was over $20 million, the Police Department, almost $400 million. I have complete confidence that all of those departments can easily absorb the cost of night court within their existing budgets.
So in order to find out specifically, how do I follow up? What do I need to do?
We can pull the various 395 2/16/99 WHOLE COMM./Budget Hearings/Bill 990023 participants in night court and get back to you.
And I agree with the Councilwoman; it's an excellent, excellent program. The Chair recognizes Councilman Ortiz.
Thank you, Madame Chair. City Solicitor, thank you for your opinions, by the way. They've been very helpful.
On , at the bottom, you have the breakdown of the (unintelligible), and you have 328 individuals working. And I was wondering if you could break down the minority aspect for me in terms of how many are Latinos and so on down the line. Of that 36 percent that are minority, of 135 attorneys are Latinos currently?
I would be happy to try to give you that information. 396 2/16/99 WHOLE COMM./Budget Hearings/Bill 990023 We maintain a chart depicting the composition of the Law Department staff, so I'd be happy to provide that as well. It's broken down into the management-level attorneys, the non-management-level attorneys, legal assistants, support staff, and then it gives it overall of the permanent staff.
Mm-hmm. Let's see. . . In terms of the management-level attorneys, we have 4 executives, 9 chief deputies, and 19 divisional deputies. We have -- out of that total, 21 are white attorneys -- management attorneys, 11 African-American. We have no 18 Hispanic, no Asian-American, no disabled. That's a total of 32 managing attorneys. We have 103 non-managing attorneys. That includes senior attorneys, deputies, Assistant City Solicitor. We have 64 white attorneys, 32 African-American attorneys, 3 Hispanic attorneys, 3 Asian-American attorneys, and attorney that we would characterize as 397 1 2/16/99 WHOLE COMM./Budget Hearings/Bill 990023 disabled, for a total of 103. At our legal-assistant level, that includes legal assistants and law clerks, we have a total of 55. We have white legal assistants, 6 27 African-American, 2 Hispanic, Asian-American, 7 and 1 disabled. 8 At our support-staff level -- that's 9 civil service and exempt -- we have a total of 10 138. We have 54 white members of the support 11 staff, 80 African-American, 4 Hispanic, no 12 Asian-Americans, and no support staff 13 characterized as disabled. 14 So our total staff at 328 as of 15 November 30, '98, out of 328 total attorneys, 16 legal assistants, support staff, we have 163 17 white, 150 African-American, 9 Hispanic, 4 18 Asian-American, and 2 disabled. 19
Thank you. 24 Are there any other questions of the 25 Law Department? 398 1 2/16/99 WHOLE COMM./Budget Hearings/Bill 990023 (No further questions.)
-- the committee will stand in recess until tomorrow, Wednesday, February, 17, at 9:00 a.m. Thank you. (Adjourned at 11:51 a.m.) - - - 399 C E R T I F I C A T E I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of Tuesday, February 16, 1999, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of same. RE: COUNCIL COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE BUDGET HEARINGS BILL NO. 990023 __________________________________, JOSEPHINE CARDILLO, Registered Professional Reporter