Past history means that you don't expect history to change.
Well, I guess at the time the goal was set, yes, but I think as we advance in this current year, that we've taken a look at our contracting.
So let's jump past goals and let's deal with what's real. There are about $2 million in contract dollars. The same $2 million last year, the same $2 million the year before, the same $2 million the year before that. It's roughly the same. What you're suggesting is that $1.9 million of it has to go to businesses owned by white men. Explain that.
That's absolutely what you're suggesting. What you're saying is -- the numbers don't 206 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. lie. It's about $2 million. You're saying that only $50,000 to $100,000 can be given to businesses that are not owned by white men. That's what you're saying.
Explain it. You know what the contracts are. It's the same $2 million in contracts. Just explain it.
And you said you set the goal. You said that OEO didn't do it.
We set the goal because we have a consistent level of number of contracts that --
Very quickly. The same two million in Fiscal Year '08, OEO set a goal of 15 percent, 207 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. but that goal was not reached. That goal was not reached not because the capacity was not there necessarily, but because someone chose not to try to reach the goal. And so because you only achieved 4.1 percent, you set a goal at five percent, knowing that that's not a real goal. You just don't intend on doing any more than that. You might not do any more than 4.1 percent. So, in other words, what you're really saying in reality is that $1.95 million out of $2 million in contracts must go to businesses owned by white men. COMMISSIONER DiBERARDINIS: If I could, again, to echo sort of my earlier testimony, again, I think we -- that's the Administration, the Library, staff and the trustees -- need to look at what we can do, what we have to do in order to improve these numbers in the intermediate and certainly in the short term and intermediate and then have a long-term plan. 208 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc.
I'm going to ask a more fun question. What's the $50,000 for? It's the same $50,000 you want to give to some business this year. What's it for?
Fifty thousand dollars can't be for any number of things. It could be small order purchases, but what's the $50,000 for?
All we have our contracts for is maintenance, so it's some sort of maintenance contract. But what's not in here -- I just want to jump in. What you don't see in our numbers is the fact that we pay over $400,000 a year for a minority contractor on security guards. That's not reflected.
I know that. 209 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. Top of the Clock.
Let's start with maintenance. How is that contracting done?
We submit each year to the City's procurement officer the fact that we have a cleaning contract or a security guard contract, and the City's Procurement Office bids the project for us.
So, in other words, if you do not see the participation in those maintenance 210 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. contracts, you don't go back to Procurement and say, We need more diversity?
We have not in the past. That's not to say that we are not going to be more proactive about it in the future, which we are absolutely going to commit to.
Mr. DiBerardinis, does that make sense? COMMISSIONER DiBERARDINIS: Well, look, clearly, these numbers aren't good. They're not good enough. And, again, look, I've been around, so we have to -- been around a year, so I have to take some responsibility for this. And, again, I think if we don't pay attention to this as a government, we're not going to move it. So I'm again -- I hate to sound like a broken record, but the leadership, including myself, Bob and the trustees and the executive staff of the Library, we have to pay attention to this day to day, so -- 211 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc.
See, what we've learned in your budget process is that women and people of color can't provide daycare services, they can't mow the lawn, they can't do maintenance, and we'll find out within the next couple of days with L&I that we can't even demolish buildings. Thank you, Madam President.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman Greenlee.
Thank you, Madam President. Good afternoon, everyone. Ms. Reardon, I guess this question is really for you. On the issue of hours of the branches, I know personally I probably hear less complaints than I do, but you still hear them, that sometimes the branches are closed in an erratic kind of way. I know you say in your testimony you're 212 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. optimistic that the hiring of the guards will help ease the number of unexpected closings. Could you get into that just a little bit more as far as what you mean?
Sure. I'm going to remind you that the Free Library of Philadelphia has lost over 150 positions since 2009. So keeping our library operations operating effectively, we have -- we require four people are there to operate the library, which is open an average of seven to eight hours a day. And one of the staff is a municipal guard because of the fact that that position both cleans and secures the building. When we don't have a four-person minimum, one of them being a security guard, we will not open the library, because we are concerned about the safety and security of the facility. So what has happened is that when we don't meet that four-person minimum, we're going to -- we do close the library. But we've had an issue 213 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. where we were prepared to higher the guards. We had an issue working with a Civil Service list that wasn't particularly correct. So we're hoping at the end of the month we will have everybody back in place. The municipal guards will help ease the number of hours that we're closed, but because we're down so many positions, it's not going to be the overall elixir to end the issue, but it will go a long way to keeping our libraries on a more consistent basis.
So most of the time when these branches close, it was because of the lack of a guard? Would you say that's most of the time?
We will open with three people if one of them is a guard, knowing that the fourth person is on the way. So oftentimes you will go in the 214 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. library at o'clock in the morning, there'll be three people there, knowing that fourth the person, but one of them is always a guard that is there.
Sometimes 7 that can happen like the same day, you 8 don't know? 9
Yeah. We will 10 open late. A lot of the number -- a lot of the hours that were cut were just due to a delayed opening versus closing a library for a day.
But just an example of a good program you have or that is operated at one of the libraries, there's a group that does ESL training and they use the Wyoming branch, and there's been occasions where people stand outside and they can't get in. And I know sometimes you can't foresee everything, but some of these people now are reluctant to whether they want to keep doing it or not, because they don't know. 215 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc.
No. I understand. We've become much more acutely aware of the programming effort that's going on, and where we know that there is a program that needs to take place, we're going to start moving around people so that they'll be open.
I have a point of information too, if you don't mind. How many vacancies did you have with the guards? I know you said that you're going to hire eight full time and six seasonal.
Now, does that fill the complement for the guards?
It does. We have 14 vacancies and this now brings us to right where we need to be.
Well, 216 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. why was there a delay? You said it was Civil Service. What is the problem?
Well, we were working with a Civil Service list that was out of date -- that was an expired Civil Service list or the wrong list for our position, and so when we made the appointments, we had to let the folks go and start all over again with the right list and go back through the interview process.
I'm sorry. The Chair recognizes Councilman Green for a point of information.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Can you tell me when the policy requiring a guard to be present and the policy requiring four people to be in a branch to have it open were put in place?
In September of 2008 those policies were put in place? 217 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc.
And what was policy of the Free Library prior to -- first of all, I don't believe that's correct, but I think it was after December of 2008. When the lawsuit was lost, it was early 2009. But what was the policy of the Library, according to notes of Board minutes of the Library and labor management discussions of the Library, with respect to having guards and staff there prior to 2009?
The written policy or the policy shared in writing with the labor unions was that three people were required to open a branch. Can you explain why the Administration changed policies in early 2009 to make it four people and a required guard?
Including the guard, right. Four people including a 218 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. guard.
Right. Because from my perspective, the minimum number of people -- you needed the guard in order to clean and secure the library. You needed at least a librarian, because as the professional -- we want a professional organization, and that you minimally need two library assistants to help reshelve, restock, check people out, check people in of the material that they have. In my professional opinion, that's the right way to run a library.
And if I could add to that, Councilman Green, the requirement of having a security guard present was something that the trustees looked at as we toured around and talked to security guards on our visits, because we were interested in what the experience of security guards were with children and with adults in the library, and what I learned as I toured and talked to 219 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. security guards at different libraries in all different parts of the City was that most of the security guards would say, We can deal with the kids pretty well. The children, they can be unruly at times, but they're pretty good and we know how to handle the children. But as the recession got more pronounced and more and more people were out of work, adults coming into the library for a lot of reasons, including trying to get help with job applications online and other library services, tended to -- some of them tend to be angry and frustrated and upset with their lives and they presented more of a security problem than the children, and we thought that it was really important to make sure that the patrons of the library were safe. The security guards do a great job. The women and men security guards do a terrific job. And in some of the libraries, as you know because you've been good enough to go around and look at 220 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. them, some of them the spaces are such that we have spaces downstairs or upstairs where you can't see easily what's going on in those spaces unless somebody is walking around and looking. And we are determined to do everything we possibly can to make sure that there is never, or to the extent we possibly can, that there's not an incident in some space where the librarian who's at the desk or the librarian who's shelving books can't see what's going on in that area and some child or some adult runs some security issue, some risk. So the security guards are absolutely critical to what we do in these libraries, and I think that's part of why security guards are so important.
Well, okay. It didn't seem to be a problem before 2007. But at any rate, the Holmesburg Library for most of 2007 was one of the busiest branches in our system. It also had for most of 2007 only three people 221 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. staffing it, just as an example. In other words, we're creating blanket rules that reduce our flexibility, which doesn't seem to -- a rule for, say, the Chestnut Hill branch or this branch or that branch that doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to be stringent with respect to it, black and white versus being able to make some sort of judgment call that if three people are there, that perhaps that library can stay open that day.
Right. I don't disagree with that at all. I don't disagree with that, and as I think Siobhan said, as long as one of those three is a security guard now, if we have a fourth person on the way, we are tending to open that library. We're tending to make individual judgments, and especially if there is a program that is about to take place at that library, we're tending to make individual on-the-spot judgments. I mean, being 140 or 150 222 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. positions down is a challenge, but I think we're getting there. I think we're actually -- I think the level of satisfaction is pretty high with the libraries. We're not perfect. We're not even close to perfect, but we're getting better and better, and we're trying to make those judgments on the fly so that if there's three people there, we don't have the fourth, we're going to get them later, we'll open the library.
I think I've pushed my point of information to the limit.
I would like you to respond to Councilman Greenlee's 223 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. question.
I really would like to respond for just one second, because one of the critical pieces of work when there's only three people in the library is that we're not getting out into the community, which is a major piece of our work. So when you only have three people there, you're tied to the building, and libraries are more than just buildings or books. It's about a relationship with the community. You know that as well as anybody. And if we're not going out to the schools, if we're not going out to the daycare centers, that's a major piece of work that's not occurring.
Unfortunately, you're not in the community at all if the library is not open.
That's certainly true. 224 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. (Applause.)
Thank you, Madam President. I will second Councilman Green's point, that he pushed that point of information. And I was going to ask a similar question, but that's okay. The Central Library expansion, I know in the end you say you hope they raise the additional funds to get groundbreaking, and then I think you added verbally this year that is the goal?
How much approximately do you need when you're talking about remaining funds?
Seventy million. 225 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. And with this expansion, I know you say some of the things are going to be added. Just in the pure number of books, will there be more or are you going in a different direction with the expansion?
Well, there's going to be far more technology in the building. What we're going to do, which is the benefit of the expanded campus, is that we're actually going to bring books that are hidden in the stacks and hidden in the attics and hidden in the basement out for the public to have better access. So, for instance, we have a fabulous theatre collection, which is hidden away behind our Rare Book Collection, and so now when we create a visual and performing arts library, we will be able to now have for public access to these kinds of materials.
Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President. 226 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc.
You're welcome. I'll take a portion of your time.
Point of information. Ms. Reardon, how many emergency closings have you had year to date?
I can tell you year to date we've lost about 5,000 hours overall. We have about -- annually we open over 103,000 hours a year, public libraries are open to the public, and to date, we've lost about 5,000 hours.
Please tell us what is the process that you have to go through to hire an employee and how long does that take?
Well, I'm going to have -- right. When we have a list -- and this has been critical for us this year because we've had extended vacancies. When we have a list for each 227 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. of the titles, it takes about two months from the moment we submit the paperwork to the moment the person is actually brought on board.
What is the time lapse between the time somebody takes the test and you're able to hire?
Two months. Well, they take the test and then they're rated and, of course --
Thirty-five full-time City-funded employees. He said eight are about to be hired, and those are the municipal guards.
Okay. Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown. 228 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc.
Thank you, Madam President. Good afternoon. Last year I and others raised questions about the diversity of the Board and the diversity of staff.
Give us an update on what has happened in the last months on those two issues. 12
Well, I'm thrilled to talk about the diversity of the Board in particular. We're approaching -- with the next governance committee meeting, 41 percent of the Board are people of color, up from less than 30 percent last year. And on staff we've not -- because we've not hired, we've only had one promotion this year, and that is to the regional librarian and that was to a person of color. So our management rank still looks exactly the same as it did last year, with the exception of one additional person and 229 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. that's a person of color.
The Board is split 50/50 men/women. I actually have that somewhere. It's 50/50 men/women, and then we're 41 -- in June we will be at 41 percent with the filling of the vacancy that we have now. And then, of course, from a professional standpoint, we're across the board between non-profit, legal, corporate and other. So we have a pretty diverse mix from a professional standpoint as well.
Thank you for that update. Let me just commend you on the new services under the strategic plan, particularly the services you're providing for jobseekers and the small business community, which I believe is vital given where we are with our economy. And, lastly, let me underscore 230 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. Councilman Goode's observations. Know that every single department gets those questions every single year, and that's going to continue. Then, lastly, I'll point out that in your appendix for the Philadelphia Free Library, it mentions that -- you state that the bulk of the money we spend is on maintenance contracts, which are bid out on a citywide basis, and computer leasing, which is a multi-year sole source agreement. Who or what process made the decision for it to be multi-year and then, secondly, sole source?
Well, because -- we lease the computers. So this is all 900 public access computers that we have in the neighborhood libraries. We ask for it to be a multi-year contract just because we're on a three-year replacement cycle with all of our public computers, so this past summer every single public 231 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. access PC was replaced. So that was our request, to have it a multi-year contract just because of the replacement cycle. So we fill out the requirements as to the type of contract we would like, and then we work with the Procurement -- the City's Procurement Office in the bidding process.
With the sole source, does the paperwork or the -- does the form stipulate that there should be some OEO goals when it is a sole source agreement?
And make sure that the Chair gets that. And that information, we would want every single year the details about -- you know what, the details about all the contracts, 232 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. submit that information to President Verna, if you would.
Will do. Councilwoman Brown, what I was just told was that this was not a sole source contract. It was a bidded contract.
I believe Mayor Nutter when he was a Councilman basically outlawed sole source contracts, which is why I found it strange.
Well, can 233 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. you explain why it said sole source?
I have no idea. Why don't I find out for you. Really, I have no idea. It shouldn't say that, because I remember the process.
No, we did not, because it was -- the only criteria we have is that you're able to -- you have the funding so that we can lease the computers, and it would be a multi-contract because it would go through -- because that's the end of our replacement cycle.
What's the contract term? 234 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc.
So it's actually a one-year contract. Thank you, Madam President.
Commissioner -- Deputy Mayor. Forgive me. COMMISSIONER DiBERARDINIS: I'm both. I go by both.
We will look to your leadership on this important issue, and trust that -- we won't beat a dead horse today on the issue. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam President. 235 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman Green.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I think, Mr. DiBerardinis, we probably should consolidate all of your titles into Grand Puba or something like that, Deputy Mayor, Special Advisor and Commissioner. So at any rate, I want to say I know it's been extremely difficult to manage with the resources you've had, and I know that you, Siobhan and the Board and your team are doing the best you can, and I recognize that it's been difficult. So the 35 unfilled positions, how many of those are in the branch system?
Most of them, okay. So these are positions that 236 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. are in the FY10 budget that are unfilled and are in the FY11 budget?
And Class 100 was zero-funded year to year, but actually with the same budget, you're going to have 35 more positions if you actually hire people?
If we're given the approval to hire the positions, we will hire immediately, yes.
So do you not have the approval to hire these people even if we appropriate the money?
Are there current lists that you can pull from if we authorize?
That's the problem. The lists are dated. We would 237 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. have to actually -- the tests need to be offered and the lists need to be developed for a number of positions.
So why don't we have the test now so that we have current lists on July 1st?
Well, that's whomever -- I guess it's a -- (Witness speaking without microphone.)
So that's Joe McPeak, who is the Associate Director of the Free Library, saying the exams have been announced for the remainder of our titles that need to be hired.
Great. So if we authorize this funding, you can hire 35 people on July 1st?
Okay. Now, what will that do to the closures of the branch system to have -- what's the total number of employees in the branch system 238 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. budgeted? (Witness speaking without microphone.)
I'm sorry. You're going to have to identify yourself for -- (Witness approached witness table.) MR. McPEAK: I'm sorry. My name is Joseph McPeak. I'm the Associate Director of the Free Library of Philadelphia. Councilman, on top of my head, I don't have it broken out by General Fund, State grants, part time, full time. I know that the FTE authorized for the branches approximately 385 employees. Give me a few minutes, I can actually figure out what the vacancy is.
So basically we're giving you a ten percent increase in your resources. MR. McPEAK: Not all 35 are there. 239 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc.
Right. All 35 goes across -- it's staff in the neighborhood libraries, staff in the Central Library. MR. McPEAK: I'd say about ten of them are in the Central Library and about three or four more in maintenance areas.
So we're giving you a six percent increase in resources for the branch systems in terms of personnel. With that increase, can you commit -- can you provide this Council with a service-level agreement essentially, just your word, as to what you're going to be able to do with respect to keeping libraries open?
Well, if we are able to hire the remaining people, we will get -- the libraries will stabilize at five days. Absolutely.
And they'll be 240 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. open.
With respect to -- you have a new division, Book Mobile Division, $380,000. Have book mobiles been purchased?
No. We have written the specifications for the book mobile and we're designing the program right now.
Are you aware that the book mobiles, at least as far as we can find, are no longer in the Department of Public Property's budget or Fleet's budget for FY11?
So that is 241 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. 380,000 additional or a total of nine positions that you could add to the branch system.
Actually, those nine positions have been in the schedule and we've been using them to support the neighborhood operations.
I'm sorry. It didn't look like any of them were filled in the detail we got.
We have always used them to balance out the schedule. We've had the nine positions for a year now.
So these nine positions are in the branch number of positions you described?
Steve Agostini, 242 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. Budget Director. Sorry, Madam President. I'm a little confused. I'm trying to understand what you're talking about in terms of an increase to the resources of the Library.
They will actually spend all the money that we appropriate, so essentially --
It's increased resources as a management tool for Ms. Reardon and her team, because they will now be spending everything that we appropriate.
Okay. But not an increase. I just want to be sure on the record.
There was a zero increase in Class 100, as I said, before I asked my question.
I just wanted to 243 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc. get that sorted out.
But filling the position will increase the resources available to the management team to keep libraries open.
Okay. Great. Can you explain what impact it's going to have on the Library's book purchases, the extra $2 million in State money you got for that?
Yeah. We had a percent drop in our State funding this 23 year. So we've had a 40 percent loss in 24 our book budget year over year from 2009 to 2010. 244 4/12/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100115, etc.
I'm almost confident the budget detail indicates a $2 million increase that we were delivered.
Well, according to the budget detail I'm holding in my hand, which is Section 31, .
I'll take a look at it. I know it's not an increase, because we're scheduled for another two percent reduction at the State level as well for Fiscal Year '11.
Well, if you could please provide the Chair with that information.