Aye. The ayes are 17, the nays are zero. A majority of all Council having voted in the affirmative, the bill passes. The next bill for consideration will be Bill No. 970545. The clerk will please read the title of the bill.
An Ordinance authorizing the Commissioner of Public Property, on CONSIDERATION SECOND AND FINAL PASSAGE CALENDAR behalf the City of Philadelphia, to enter into a sublease between the City of Philadelphia as sublessee, and the Philadelphia Parking Authority as sublessor, for a portion of the building located at 3001 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, under certain terms and conditions.
This bill having been read on two different dates, the question now is shall the bill pass finally. The clerk will call a roll.
Aye. CONSIDERATION SECOND AND FINAL PASSAGE CALENDAR
Aye. The ayes are 17, the nays are zero. A majority of all members of Council having voted in the affirmative, the bill passes. CONSIDERATION OF RESOLUTION 970657 This concludes our consideration of the calendar. Are there any speeches on the part of members of the minority? Are there any speeches on the part of members of the majority? At this time Council will consider Resolution No. 970657, previously introduced by Councilwoman Verna on my behalf. This is a resolution that we discussed that relates to the Franklin Plaza Tax Increment Financing District. The clerk will please read the title of the resolution.
A Resolution agreeing to participate in the Franklin Plaza Tax Increment Financing District, if it should be created by the Council of the City of Philadelphia, in accordance with the Tax Increment Financing Act of July 11, 1990, PL 465, No. 113, as amended, in the Center City Redevelopment area, in an area generally bounded by Vine Street on the north, 16th Street on the east, a recorded driveway easement extending westwardly from a point of the west side of North CONSIDERATION OF RESOLUTION 970657 16th Street, 119 feet, 11 inches, south of Vine Street, to a point on the east side of North 17th Street, 132 feet, 8 inches, south of Vine Street on the south, and 17th Street on the west; and designating the Mayor, or his designee, as the City's representative for purposes of meeting with the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development pursuant to Section 5(a)(2) of the Tax Increment Financing Act.
Thank you, Mr. President. I will be brief. Mr. President, I have shared with the Mayor and with Mr. Bill Hankowsky of PIDC an expression of concern about this particular transaction. In no way, shape, or form do I have any particular problem with the SmithKlein Company. And, to the best of my knowledge, they have been a good corporate citizen, and certainly an international entity. But I have raised a number of questions prior to the introduction of this CONSIDERATION OF RESOLUTION 970657 resolution, and sent those concerns to Mr. Hankowsky at PIDC on October 2 of 1997. Since that time, I have had one conversation with him where some information was shared. But none of the requests for information have been put into writing and those questions, for my purposes, at least, appropriately addressed. We have now had two Council briefings on this matter. And we are still -- or I am still, at least -- left with a lack of information. There is a public hearing coming up on this matter. And I understand that this resolution is more of a procedural resolution than anything else. I will reluctantly vote for the resolution because I understand that without the resolution, we cannot, in the proper order, have a public hearing. And I will raise the issues that I have raised before. But I would ask, Mr. President, that you also ensure that the responses are forthcoming and that they come at a decent time prior to the public hearing next week. There are a lot of questions, they CONSIDERATION OF RESOLUTION 970657 have not been answered. It is unacceptable, under the circumstances, that I, and others, will be asked to vote on this without the appropriate level of information. Thank you, Mr. President.
The Chair thanks the Councilman. The Chair recognizes Councilman Cohen.
Mr. President, I would voice additional concerns about passage of the resolution. And as I read the Whereas in the resolution, it appears to me that the resolution merely needs to be adopted prior to the ordinance, and the ordinance has to go through a certain procedure. And I think it is quite clear that there will be ample time for the passage of the resolution before the ordinance. But I am concerned. The main issue I am concerned with, is, where is tax increment financing leading to? I am concerned about indicating that CONSIDERATION OF RESOLUTION 970657 we have so much revenue coming in, that we can easily dispense with additional revenue that would come from improvements. I recognize the positive features that may make it possible for companies to engage in expansion or even to come into the city. But I think each proposal has to be examined very carefully to make sure that we're just not being used by companies to make it just cheaper for them to come in. SmithKline has an excellent reputation as a company. But I think that this is one in a series that we are being presented with. And I would like to understand from the Administration what their perspective is. How often are we going to be faced with this proposal? To what extent does this become an automatic part of economic development, so that every company coming in, whether it needs this assistance or not, will ask for it? So for those reasons, I would be prepared to go along with Councilman Nutter, even vote for this today. I would prefer if we did not vote for CONSIDERATION OF RESOLUTION 970657 this until we heard more from the Administration as to how it intends to use the TIF in its future economic development plans.
I am informed that this resolution has to be adopted prior to the time when we have the public hearing on the underlying legislation. All these concerns that you have are concerns that can and will be addressed. Information that has been requested should be delivered to any Council member in a fair and reasonable time frame. If we do not pass this resolution today, and if there is a public hearing scheduled on the underlying bills associated with this development, we would run the risk of having to redo this thing the way it had to be redone in the past. Now, in the past, the City Solicitor failed to properly assess the technicality involved in all of this. The Law Department and our staff now know what we have to do. It has been recommended to us that we pass this resolution today, so that we avoid a potential problem. CONSIDERATION OF RESOLUTION 970657 If we do not pass it today, and if the public hearing is scheduled for the 18th -- am I to understand the 18th? -- there isn't another Council session before the 18th. We could run into a problem. We don't want to have a problem. Anything that you think about any of this, you can say. Because the substance of all of this is listed for a public hearing. What we're trying to do today, at the request of our lawyers and the Law Department and the Administration, is just take an act which is really a procedural thing. It really doesn't have any real impact on the substance of what we are doing. I can appreciate Council member frustration. I experienced a level of frustration myself today on another very important economic development project of this city. I did that not on just my behalf; on your behalf as members of Council. But I really believe that we ought to follow the advice of those people who are watching this process for us procedurally. All they are doing is trying to keep us out of procedural CONSIDERATION OF RESOLUTION 970657 trouble. And I don't really want to get into the substance of all of this, because this really isn't about the substance. This is only about the procedure that we do and what the state law requires if we are going to properly implement a TIF in accordance with state laws. The Chair recognizes Councilman Kenney.
Thank you, Mr. President. This is a question on the process. It is my understanding from your talk today that the hearing scheduled for the ordinance is November 18 at 9 o'clock, Committee of the Whole. Is that true?
I would make a sincere request, due to the fact that we have previously had it scheduled at 10:00 a.m., a joint committee on the Section 8, we have a large number of people coming in, both government officials and community people. CONSIDERATION OF RESOLUTION 970657 And if we could start at 9 o'clock with the Committee on the Whole, it would be very much appreciated.
Councilman, I am sympathetic. You know I am. We will start as soon as we have a quorum.
This is a very reasonable plea for a quorum at 9 o'clock.
If we do not have a quorum at 9 o'clock, and we end up having to run into other scheduled activities, what we will end up doing is recessing it and putting it off. Now, it won't slow it down. We will do it within the time that has been allotted, but we just won't do it on that day. And that could inconvenience some people.
Mr. President, in view of the explanation you have given, and reserving the right to oppose, if necessary, the CONSIDERATION OF RESOLUTION 970657 ordinance at the time it comes up, I will withdraw my request for any delay in action on this resolution.
We certainly appreciate it. But we always know that you are willing to cooperate with us in these procedural matters. And we know you are not giving up anything, no arguments. We thank you. Is there anyone else that has any concern about this resolution and its effect on the proposed tax increment financing district? All in favor let it be known by saying aye. Those opposed say nay. The ayes have it. The resolution is adopted. Are there any speeches on the part of members of the minority? Are there any speeches on the part of members of the majority? The Chair recognizes Councilwoman SPEECHES Fernandez, and then Councilman DiCicco.
Mr. President, sometimes there is good news reported. And I think there was some good news reported about a week ago, where the Health Commissioner and some people from the state and child advocates noted that there will be some additional federal dollars available for health insurance and care for low-income children. And while there have been cuts in Medicaid affecting some adults and families, I think the message is that there will be some additional money available for children who come from low-income families, and they are eligible for Medicaid dollars. And there is also a program called CHIP, Children's Health Insurance Program, which provides health insurance for children in families with slightly higher incomes. I think the ceiling for a family of four would be about $37,000. So they have set up a hotline number to try to really reach out to families all over the city and region who may be eligible to make sure they know about it. SPEECHES And that 800 number is 1-800-986-KIDS. But I think it is important for all of us to do all we can to reach out to families all over the city and make sure our children get this health coverage, if they are eligible. Thank you.
Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilman DiCicco. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Thank you, Mr. President. I want to speak to the resolution that was introduced this morning by my colleague Councilman Rizzo and his concern -
Councilman DiCicco, you are not entitled to speak to a resolution that was introduced. You are not entitled to do anything but give your comments on current events. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: I am a little bit confused, but I will give it another try. And, hopefully, I am not out of order. This past week a concert was held SPEECHES down at the CoreStates -
Good start. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Down at the CoreStates Center. There was a lot of controversy, there were a lot of reports in the news as to how this event was even allowed to take place. At the invitation of my colleague, Councilwoman Verna, last Thursday morning, while we were at the ribbon cutting for the High School of the Creative and Performing Arts, I attended a meeting, along with my colleague Councilman Kenney, the president of Spectacor, and Spectacor's attorney to find out exactly how this event was scheduled, without any communication to the community and/or its elected officials. From that Thursday morning meeting, several hours of ongoing discussions with the attorney for Spectacor, the three Council members, including myself, Senator Fumo, Senator Fumo's attorneys, lasted up until around 10 o'clock Sunday evening. During the time of those discussions, all of the issues relating to, pertaining to, the event, the size of the event, and how Spectacor, in SPEECHES our opinion, violated an earlier agreement with the community and the elected officials, we were able to resolve the issue going forward. Meaning that, in the future, beginning on November 11, this past Tuesday, 1997, Spectacor agreed to amend the original agreement between the community of the City of Philadelphia, the sports teams, and their facilities, never to perform an outdoor concert without first notifying the community and having the community and its elected officials sign off to agree to any outdoor concert or any other activities that would take place in that parking lot. I feel that because of the negotiations that took place because of this untimely and unannounced event, the community going forward will be in a much better position. I think that we have addressed all the needs of the community. And we will continue, as elected officials, to be a part of that process in the future. So I can probably go on for a few hours, but I won't. But I just want to let you know that, under the leadership of Councilwoman Verna, SPEECHES whose district comprises the Spectacor Center, I think that all that needed to be done to protect that community and the integrity of that neighborhood in the future has been addressed and will be continued to be monitored from this day going forward. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you very much. At this time the Chair recognizes Councilwoman Verna.
Thank you, Mr. President. All that was said, I simply want to add a very short comment. I think we did everything humanly possible to help the community in question. And I simply want to publicly thank my two colleagues from South Philadelphia for standing side by side with me to make certain that the community will have the right to know of any activities that will be going on at CoreStates from here on in. And I think that there is already in the contract a written notice that there is to be SPEECHES monthly meetings. However, what we are looking at at this point in time is to give the community just a little more teeth. And hopefully they will be able to vote on many of the events that are being proposed. And, again, I want to thank both my colleagues for all of their help. Thank you.
Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilman Cohen.
Mr. President, I wanted to commend the Council members that were involved, and particularly Councilwoman Verna, and the leadership that she showed in this whole matter. But I also want to comment on my disturbance about the federal court action, the initial action. I think it is outrageous today to have a federal judge make a decision completely ignoring the community, and, apparently, permitting references to be made about involvement by Council SPEECHES members in a very unfavorable light. I think it was not only bad policy, but I think it was bad law. It just cannot be that two parties can contract to the detriment of a community, and shut the community out of being able to participate. (Council sings Happy Birthday.)
This cake is for Councilman Cohen, whose birthday is today, and Councilman Longstreth, whose birthday was just a couple of days ago. (Applause.)
So we would ask these two Council members to come forward. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Verna for a motion.
Mr. President, I move that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, November 20, 1997, at 10 o'clock a.m. (Duly seconded.)
All in favor let it be known by saying aye. Those opposed say nay. This Council stands adjourned until SPEECHES Thursday, November 20, at 10 o'clock a.m. (Meeting adjourned at 12:20 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of Thursday, November 13, 1997, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of same. RE: STATED MEETING _____________________________________ DEBRA A. WHITEHEAD, RPR