COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA BUDGET HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, March 3, 1999 3:20 p.m. - - - BILLS 990026, 990027, 990028 - - - PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT ANNA C. VERNA COUNCILMAN JAMES F. KENNEY COUNCILWOMAN AUGUSTA A. CLARK COUNCILMAN DAVID COHEN COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO COUNCILMAN ANGEL L. ORTIZ COUNCILMAN FRANK DiCICCO COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE L. BLACKWELL COUNCILMAN MICHAEL A. NUTTER COUNCILMAN RICHARD T. MARIANO COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER COUNCILWOMAN MARIAN B. TASCO - - - VINCENT VARALLO ASSOCIATES, INC. Registered Professional Reporters Eleven Penn Center Plaza, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 561-2220 I N D E X BILLS 990026, 990027, 990028 PAGE Paul Levy, Representative, Center City District------------------------------------- William Babcock, Community Court Coordinator, Center City District------------------------- 22 Ted Kirsch, President, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers---------------------------------- 44 Jerry Jordan, General Vice-President, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers---------- 69 Patricia Brennan, Parent------------------------ 137 Reverend Robert Shine Pastor, Berachah Baptist Church-------------------------------- 140 Michelle Caserta, Teacher, Penrose-------------- 149 Jessica Smith, Student Union Member------------- 156 Dayle Augustine, Student Union Member----------- 158 Mark Lewis, Student Union Member---------------- 165 Amanda Kaplan, Student Union Member------------- 166 Germaine Ingram Chief of Staff, School District- 169 Shelly Yanoff, Executive Director, PCCY--------- 191 George Logan, Citizen--------------------------- 197 Bob Sorell, Pres., ULYP------------------------- 199 Ms. Medley, Member, ULYP------------------------ 202 Jennifer Braxton, Member, ULYP------------------ 205 Marcus Mitchell, Member, ULYP------------------- 206 Natalie Ewing, Member, ULYP--------------------- 207 Cloe Magot, Member, ULYP------------------------ 208 William Mackey, Executive Director, City Wide Improvement & Planning Agency----------- 209 Amitrudo---------------------------------------- 214 Waymond Web, Student---------------------------- 219 Taja Glassco, Student--------------------------- 220 Lois Yampolski---------------------------------- 221 Zev Kramer, Student----------------------------- 224 Arnold Hall, Jr., President, Phila. Home & School Council------------------------------- 231 Sheldon Lark, Citizen -------------------------- 236 James Imperato Former President, Parkway Center City Home & School Assoc.-------------------- 241 Joseph Boyle, Citizen--------------------------- 243 Bruce Brooks, Parent Volunteer------------------ 245 Gail Tomlinson, Representative, Citizen's Committee on Public Education---------------- 249 Cassandra Morris, Citizen----------------------- 251 3 I N D E X (Continued.) BILLS 990026, 990027, 990028 PAGE Linda Norris, President, Home & School Assoc., Mifflin School------------------------------- 256 Dr. Helen Dutcher, School District Retiree Volunteer------------------------------------ 259 Clarice Williams, Citizen----------------------- 261 Dan Carr, Ex-Teacher---------------------------- 265 Jackie Sparkman--------------------------------- 274 - - - 4 BILLS 990026, 990027, 990028
Good afternoon. This is the continued Public Hearing of the Committee of the Whole. We will be hearing public testimony mainly on Bill Nos. 990026, 990027 and 990028. Our first witness today is Paul Levy from the Center City Special District. I know you are not testifying on the school district. There was a problem last week with your testifying, so we're happy to see you here today.
Good afternoon, Council President. Thank you very much for giving us this opportunity to testify. We will be very brief. We are here to seek City Council's support for a demonstration or a model program to create a community court that can help respond to quality-of-life crimes, such as -- Again, my name is Paul Levy from the Center City District. I am joined by William Babcock, who is our community court coordinator. We are here seeking City Council's support for a demonstration or pilot program to create a community court. 5 BILLS 990026, 990027, 990028 The aim of this court would be to focus on quality-of-life crimes; such as, theft from auto, retail theft, disorderly conduct, prostitution. These are crimes that are plaguing all of our neighborhoods and business districts. Clearly, due to the overcrowding in Philadelphia's prisons and the lack of sufficient sentencing alternative options, these minor offenses tend to be treated as lower priorities by both the police and the courts, as the police and the courts very appropriately focus on more serious crime. But the problem then becomes, those who are arrested for these lower-priority crimes are routinely released on non-cash bail and often are never addressed and often are back out committing additional crimes. As many of you know now, there are night courts that have begun to operate in many of Philadelphia's neighborhoods that are very effectively responding to some of these problems, but on a very limited basis, usually once per month in an area. A community court of the type we are talking about can be a five-day-a-week operation 6 BILLS 990026, 990027, 990028 that not only addresses criminal justice problems, but provides additional social services, something not available on a systematic basis in the night courts. Our effort is modeled on a very, very successful program called the Mid Town Community Court, that was created in Manhattan in 1994. We took a number of people from both the Public Defender, the Defender Association, the District Attorney, the Police, and Municipal Court up to see that court. And I think everyone was very, very enthusiastic about what was being achieved in New York. We then assembled a steering committee that's listed on of the handout we have provided. And you can see we have got a steering committee that represents all aspects of the criminal justice and social service issues as they relate to these crimes; people from the social service world, the police world, the Defender Association, the business community, residential, as well as the prosecution side. We have been very fortunate to have 7 BILLS 990026, 990027, 990028 funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts, the McMann Foundation, Thomas Gelton Harrison, local business association, and, with Mayor Rendell's support, we have gotten funding from the local Law Enforcement Block Grant Program to work out all of the issues that would be necessary to implement a court like this in Philadelphia. We are really ready to go, and we are seeking City Council's support for this. The court will address quality-of-life crimes in three ways: One, it will speed the time between arrests and preliminary arraignment; two, it will impose immediate sanctions, which are very frequently not jail; and, three, it will provide social services to address the needs of offenders. The court will have an environment in which people will receive a social service assessment at the same time as they receive a recommended sentence. The court then is designed to deal with both the consequences of crime and the personal problems that drive many people to commit crime.
So the court will place an emphasis 8 BILLS 990026, 990027, 990028 on alternatives to incarceration and restorative justice, restorative justice that repays the communities in which the crimes were committed through a community sentence program that the CCD will be glad to help supervise, and in partnership with the University City District in West Philadelphia. I refer to this as a pilot or demonstration program for a very good reason. In 1990, this City Council helped approve, and with Councilman David Cohen's leadership at the time, the Center City District. And at that time we promised that the CCD would not only be a Center City initiative, but that we would reach out to neighborhoods across the city. We have met in the last nine years with more than 40 different neighborhood associations. And I am very pleased to say that, as you well know, that we have seven other special districts now in the city: In Frankford, in Germantown, in Manayunk, Old City, South Street. And if you give the support to this community court, our commitment is to share the 9 BILLS 990026, 990027, 990028 experience of this community court so that we can extend the benefits of a program like this in future years throughout the rest of the city. The attachments I provided list a one-page description of what the court's objectives are. The second page is the steering committee. The third page is a map that shows the preliminary boundaries of the proposed demonstration court, largely aligned with police districts. The small area you see in the center of this map is the CCD. But we are proposing the entire 6th, 9th, 13th, and 17th, so that we are covering -- 3rd and 17th, excuse me. So we are covering Center City, Lower North Philadelphia, Upper South Philadelphia, and the inner portions of West Philadelphia, working in partnership with the University City District. The last page is the preliminary budget. 5 million annual Operating Budget. We are seeking the social service and administrative support from other sources, other than the city; the foundations, the private sector. 1 million, which can support both the facility itself and, as you see, the law enforcement expenses of additional police, pretrial services, Municipal Court, District Attorney, and Defender Association staff. This would be in addition to what any of those departments or agencies may be requesting to meet their existing needs. Again, all new services we would propose to fund privately, and not in the city's budget, so that we could have this very unique and blended approach which combines both a criminal justice and social service approach, providing community sentencing and social services to assist people to address the problems that may lead them to create crime. I am prepared to answer any questions. And Bill Babcock, who is our Community Court Coordinator, who has done virtually all of the detail work with all the various agencies, can answer any technical questions you have.
Thank you. Have 11 BILLS 990026, 990027, 990028 you spoken to the Administration regarding the $1 million?
Yes, we have raised this question with them. And, again, we got their initial support in the Block Grant for the planning phase. And they asked us to consider how this could be raised from other parts of the city's Operating Budget, which is why we felt it was appropriate to talk to all the affected Councilpeople first.
And if you were to receive the funding, when would you start on this project?
Our goal would be to have this court operational within this calendar year. We would be looking to have this money in the city's Operating Budget, which would then give us the ability to go to the foundations who have already supported the preliminary phase of this. We would be seeking money from the state for the capital side of this. And our goal is to try to be up and running by November, December. And that's largely driven only by the 12 BILLS 990026, 990027, 990028 physical effects of trying to put together a court building and outfit it. The operational plan is 98 percent done at this moment.
I didn't have my button pushed, Madam President. I threw my book on it.
Okay. The Chair recognizes Councilman DiCicco. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Thank you, Madam President. Good afternoon, Mr. Levy. Could you just speak to -- because I am a little bit more familiar with this than my colleagues -- could you just speak to the issue of raising some money from the state for capital expenses and what that may amount to.
Yes. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Although we have gotten some preliminary feedback, positive feedback, from Senator Fumo's office, I think it is important for them, for my colleagues, to understand what that amount of money is that's going to be required.
Great. Again, the need 13 BILLS 990026, 990027, 990028 here is, in working with Municipal Court, it is very clear when we're talking about a demonstration program like this, with extensive social services, that it cannot be accommodated within the existing Municipal Court, Criminal Justice Center. So we need a new site. We need a site of about 15,000 square feet to house these activities. One of our steering committee members, John Binswanger, has been helping us locate four or five properties that would be very, very available and could be suitable. And we have estimated that we would need probably around $700,000 to totally renovate and outfit a facility. So the capital need, which we are not seeking from the city, but, as you suggest, from the state, would be about $700,000. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Okay. And I think the other thing that might be important, if you could make available to the other members of Council a copy of that videotape that you made available to me several months ago. I think it would be helpful to give 14 BILLS 990026, 990027, 990028 you an overview of what the Manhattan court is all about. And you can actually physically see some of the day-to-day operations that go on there.
Yes, we would be glad to do that. We have brought one copy. We can either have a lending copy or we can quickly produce more and give one to each Councilperson. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: I think it would be better if you would reproduce it.
We would be glad to do that. We have one copy now, which we have given one to several people, and we would be glad to do that. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Are you going to do a demo today?
We hadn't planned to. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: I saw the screen coming out. They are on the ball, my friend. They are on the ball. I have no further questions at this time, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam President. 15 BILLS 990026, 990027, 990028 Have you talked to the specific departments, the Police Department, the District Attorney's Office?
Yes, Councilman. These numbers have been derived by having each of those departments who have participated in the planning process directly tell us what their needs would be. The staffing needs come from them. We hired a space planner, who worked with each of these departments. So we have gone very far in actually physically planning the court. Each of these numbers and staff needs come from the departments who we list here.
So that, I'm thinking the mechanical task, it wouldn't be an appropriation to the Center City District?
You're asking for specific increases to the various departments that would furnish the personnel. So the Assistant D.A.'s would still be Assistant D.A.'s?
That's exactly correct. 16 BILLS 990026, 990027, 990028 What we did not want to do is, ask for anything that competed with their specific requests. So we are describing this as a supplemental request. Whatever you decide for each of those departments, we would like this to be considered over and above that.
Was there any discussion about whether they could absorb this kind of expense?
Yes. The Police, the Defender Association, and the District Attorney all said to us, "We are on overload at this moment. We are very supportive of this, but we would need additional staff to do this." We did not think it appropriate to ask the city for social service money because of the tightness of that money, and are expecting to go to foundations and private sources for that. I should also say, we have had conversations with the University of Pennsylvania, who would be our partner in this, and could tap into many of the services that they have available, as well. 17 BILLS 990026, 990027, 990028 So we are talking about cash and in-kind contributions of services.
The reason I raise these questions is, the way the budget is set up, the General Fund budget of the city, is, the Mayor is the only official who has the power to determine the estimates of revenue. We can't change that in City Council. If we change anything else in the Mayor's budget, we have to take the money from somewhere else. And that's the reason the Mayor's approval for an additional amount of money is so important. Because he can achieve it easily by changing his estimate of revenue, be it a very slight change, slightly over a million dollars in a budget of 2 and a half billion dollars. So that I just urge that you keep working with the Mayor's Office on the mechanics of how it is to be done, so that we are not in the middle of having to take money from somewhere else in the Mayor's budget in order to provide this money.
No. We have been working 18 BILLS 990026, 990027, 990028 closely with Mayor Rendell's staff. We will be meeting with them next week. But, clearly, we felt it was appropriate to talk to each of the affected City Council people, and then to bring it to the entire City Council.
And like the Center City District, if it works, there is going to be demand all throughout the city.
As I said before, as we helped neighborhoods across this city replicate our success, we would be glad to do that, as well, if this were to be a success as well.
You are welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Clark.
I heard you say that you spoke to the Council members who were affected. You didn't speak to me.
Well, I thought that was our purpose in being here today. We first went to the District Councilpeople who would be directly 19 BILLS 990026, 990027, 990028 affected.
Yes; I'm sorry. I misspoke. We spoke first to the District Councilpeople. When we spoke to the Council President, she suggested that we bring this in front of everyone, which is what we wanted to do. Clearly this is your decision, and we feel we want to provide as much information as possible so you could make a decision. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Can I pick up on that statement? When this concept was first being proposed, a little over a year ago, originally the area that would have been affected by the community court was a much smaller area, only restricted to a small portion of the First Councilmanic District. As it evolved, it just kind of grew. And, obviously, I suggested they do speak at least to the District Councilpeople and then make a presentation to the full body.
Well, I 20 BILLS 990026, 990027, 990028 certainly do agree in theory. But I want to quarrel with the lines of the demonstration project. In order to test a concept, you need to test it in a real world and not in an artificial environment. You drew your northernmost boundary just south of police districts where you would have the greatest amount of harm. You left out the 22nd and the 23rd. There are some substantial housing developments in there that you just X'd out, or you drew your line just before you got to them. If you had talked to me, I would have promised you my support conditioned on your including some of these districts that you left out. You left out Richard Allen, you left out Cambridge, Yorktown, the new Nehemiah housing that is being built on North 13th Street. That's the kind of experiment that we want to really test. And I think that if you extrapolate from data that does not include high intensity like this, you will get a pretty picture, but it won't necessarily be a real picture. 21 BILLS 990026, 990027, 990028
I understand your concern. It is always -- when you draw a line on the map, there is always something on one side and something on the other. The elements that drove our decisionmaking was, one, that in order to have a court operate five days a week, there had to be a certain volume of crime, frankly, to support a court. That's an odd way to think about it, but that's one of the calculations. If the boundaries were too broad, we might have more than a court could handle as a demonstration. That was No. 1. No. 2, what we attempted to do is stay exactly coterminus with police districts. Because the issue would be if police officers picked people up for the designated crimes that this court would hear, they would need to know where to bring that individual. And we thought if we split within a police district --
That's why I mentioned the 22nd and the 23rd. And I still think that these 22 BILLS 990026, 990027, 990028 boundaries artifically exclude a population that ought to be in any test of the effectiveness of quality of life. So I am having difficulty with it. I don't want to have to vote on it today, because I want to argue about these boundaries.
No. I think, if it would be helpful, we would be glad to sit down with you and go through. Because there are some --
Well, you are the only one who can determine whether it would be helpful. I have already told you what I want to have done. We can settle it right now and vote.
Thank you, Madam Chair. 23 BILLS 990026, 990027, 990028 Good afternoon Mr. Levy. I apologize for missing the beginning of your testimony, but I have read through it. Your appearance here today, is there something about the community court demonstration project that is tied directly to the school district, or --
No, there is no 10 connection; just the Council President was good enough to allow some time before that started.
Okay. All right. I understand. And have you had discussions with the First Judicial District? I know you are talking about coordinating. Have they placed any money towards this?
I am William Babcock. I am the Community Court Coordinator for the Center City District. The First Judicial District has been on board through the Municipal Court, because this will be an extension of the Municipal Court. We are not creating a brand-new project. And Judge Blasi has placed his 24 BILLS 990026, 990027, 990028 administrative assistant on the steering committee, along with Judge Georganne Daher. And they have participated in the planning process.
Are you aware as to whether or not they made any requests for increased funding for the First Judicial District to help support this particular project?
Yes, Councilman. I think that the last page indicates that they felt that they needed an additional -- one additional court officer, one additional