COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC HEARING AND PUBLIC MEETING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Thursday, April 30, 1998 - - - BILL NO. 970403 - Amending Section 9-601 of The Philadelphia Code entitled "Garages, Parking Lots, Sales Lots, and Sales Show Rooms" by delineating existing provisions and enacting new provisions regulating valet parking; in particular, acquiring a valet parking operator's license for persons who provide valet parking service requiring a valet parking permit for the provision of valet parking services through a business at a particular location, and regulating conduct in connection with the provision of valet parking services; and amending Title of The Philadelphia Code 12 entitled "Traffic Code" by providing for the designation of valet parking zones, and prohibiting certain conduct related to valet parking zones; all under certain terms and conditions. RESOLUTION NO. 970843, which requests the City Commissioners, in their capacity as the Philadelphia County Board of Elections, to submit to qualified registered voters, electors of Philadelphia, the question of whether an electronic voting system shall be used at polling places in Philadelphia. PRESENT: PRESIDENT JOHN F. STREET, Chairman COUNCILWOMAN ANNA C. VERNA COUNCILMAN JAMES KENNEY COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER COUNCILMAN MICHAEL A. NUTTER COUNCILMAN FRANK DICICCO COUNCILMAN W. THACHER LONGSTRETH COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO - - - VINCENT VARALLO ASSOCIATES, INC. Registered Professional Reporters Eleven Penn Center, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 561-2220 2 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - BILL 970403, RESOLUTION 970843 P R O C E E D I N G S
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. This is a recessed hearing of Council's Committee of the Whole. This morning, we will have continued public hearings on Bill No. 7 970403 and Resolution No. 970843. Bill No. 970403 is an ordinance 9 amending Section 9-601 of The Philadelphia Code entitled "Garages, Parking Lots, Sales Lots, and Sales Show Rooms" by delineating the existing provisions and enacting new provisions regulating valet parking; in particular, acquiring a valet parking operator's license for persons who provide valet parking service requiring a valet parking permit for the provision of valet parking services through a business at a particular location, and regulating conduct in connection with provision of valet parking service and amending Title 12 of The Philadelphia Code entitled "Traffic Code" by providing for the designation of valet parking zones, and prohibiting certain conduct related to valet parking zones; all under certain terms and conditions. We will also take testimony and, 3 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - BILL 970403, RESOLUTION 970843 hopefully, consider at a public meeting Resolution 3 No. 970843, which requests the City Commissioners, in their capacity as the Philadelphia County Board of Elections, to submit to qualified registered voters, electors of Philadelphia, the question of whether an electronic voting system shall be used at polling places in Philadelphia. At this time, the Chair wishes to ask as many members of the City Council as possible to come to the chambers. We cannot conduct a public meeting without having additional Councilmembers. As most of you know, we have a continuing quorum provision in our rules which allows us to proceed with the public hearing because we had a quorum at our last meeting. At this time, the Chair requests Councilmembers Nutter and DiCicco to approach the Chair. (Councilmembers Nutter and DiCicco approach the Chair and confer with President Street off the record. )
We would appreciate it very much if all Councilmembers would come to the chamber. We need Councilmembers to please 4 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - BILL 970403, RESOLUTION 970843 come to the chamber. We'd appreciate it very much if Councilmembers would come to the chamber. We would appreciate it if we could get all Councilmembers to come to the chamber. We need Councilmembers in the chamber. (Rina Cutler, of the Parking Authority, comes forward.)
Good morning, President Street, Members of Council. My name is Rina Cutler, the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Parking Authority.
Thank you very much. It's my understanding that you and members of your staff met with representatives of the City Council of Philadelphia, including Councilman Nutter, Councilman DiCicco, and other members of the Council technical staff, for several hours yesterday, working on a set of amendments to these bills.
And am I correct that the amendments -- the proposed amendments to 5 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - BILL 970403, RESOLUTION 970843 the bill are marked on photographic copies of the pinks of the bill that have been distributed to the Members of Council?
And is it further correct that these amendments are -- or these proposed amendments are agreed to by the Administration on behalf of the Mayor, and that these amendments constitute improvements to the bill?
That's correct, President Street. There are one or two technical changes, a word change, that Councilman Nutter has requested in this. But yes, on behalf of the Administration, this is a fine bill.
Thank you, Mr. President. I'd seek the President's suggestion. We have the copy with the Law Department's method of the amendments. Do we want to try to move the 6 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - BILL 970403, RESOLUTION 970843 entire document? There are only a couple of additional words that need to be added, which, even with the new copies, most Members won't have.
What I would like to do is have the -- have the amendments -- does every Member of Council have a copy of the amendments? The amendments should be on every Member's desk.
What I would like to do is -- are there any additional amendments to those that are on the copies of the pink as marked up?
All right. Maybe what you could do is give us those by page.
Okay. On , Mr. President, under 9.2, where it now reads the name and address of the business --
-- or businesses, or entity. And then on -- 7 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - BILL 970403, RESOLUTION 970843
Well, wait a minute, Councilman, I didn't follow that. The name and address of the business, do you want to insert after the word "business" --
There is already an amendment that goes to the staggered line that says --
On , first where it says "Insert A, see next page," on the Insert A, the first line reads, "In deciding whether to approve a plan, the Authority shall consider. . ." should be added the words "including but not limited to the following criteria," and then the colon.
And then in Roman numeral iv -- 8 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - BILL 970403, RESOLUTION 970843
In deciding whether to approve the plan, the Authority shall consider, including, but not limited to. . . "
"Shall consider, including, but not limited to, the following criteria:"
And just further down in Roman numeral iv, in that same section, is just a space error. That should read, "the number of parking spaces in the. . . "
The number of parking spaces "in the," is that where you want to 9 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - BILL 970403, RESOLUTION 970843 separate the T from the --
Upon approval of the plan by the Authority, the Department shall issue a valet parking permit. The amendment reads, "If the application is denied, the Authority shall state the reasons for denial the added languages in writing, comma. . . " In new letter D, first sentence: "If a valet fails to provide with any provision of this chapter or regulations pursuant thereto, the Authority shall send a written warning to the valet parking operator and add a written notice."
And those are the -- that's the end of the additional --
-- amendment. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - BILL 970403, RESOLUTION 970843
We still -- the Chair recognizes Councilman DiCicco. We still need another member in order to have a quorum to go into a public meeting. We need -- if there are Members of City Council in your offices, we need another Member of City Council. Is there any question on these -- on the proposed amendments? The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Fernandez.
I can't tell whether it's a new or an old amendment, but on --
On , it appears as if the Manyunk Business District is deleted from the specific areas listed for permit fees or renewal fees. Was there a reason for that?
The Chair recognizes Miss Cutler. 11 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - BILL 970403, RESOLUTION 970843
Yes, thank you, President Street. Currently, Councilwoman, there are two different fee structures in place. Center City and University City have one fee structure; everyone else has a different fee structure. Councilman Nutter requested that the Manyunk District stay where it currently is in the everywhere-else fee structure, and that was acceptable to us.
Could I ask the Councilman the reason? I mean, I think Manyunk sort of is congested -- or more congested than the others. I just wondered what the rationale was.
I wasn't even there, and I can tell you the rationale. The rationale is that in certain areas of the City, given the amount of traffic involved and the complexity of enforcing regulations in those areas, it will cost the City of 12 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - BILL 970403, RESOLUTION 970843 Philadelphia, the Streets Department, the Parking Authority, the Police Department, it will cost us more money to administer the program in those areas than it will cost us to administer it in other areas. And the only basis upon which we can impose a fee is on the projected cost of providing the supervision of a service in a particular area. And, Councilman Nutter would argue, if we wanted to burden this record with it, that it is -- that the -- that it is unfair to compare what is a thriving, but still a neighborhood, business area that will have Center City parking -- I mean valet parking in costs to the costs of supervising valet parking in Center City and in the other areas. It all relates to the costs of administering the program in a particular area. And if the Parking Authority and the Administration say to us that it believes that it can administer that program at no additional costs to the taxpayers with these fees, in some respects, we typically honor that judgment. We can always come back if we find that that's not 13 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - BILL 970403, RESOLUTION 970843 the case, and change the fee structure. But we are not authorized to impose any fees that are greater than the amount of costs that we estimate we will incur in administering any program of the City, or else it's not a fee; it becomes a tax.
But part of this relates to the removal of meters, and I would think that's connected to the income that you've been receiving. Isn't it 250 for the more congested areas, and it was -- was it 100 or 150 for the others?
The issue is not actually the most congestion. And, in fact, it is anticipated to remove no meters in Manyunk because there will be no full-time valet parking zones. All of those zones will remain dual regulations: regular parking meters during the daytime and valet operations in the evening. So, actually, we anticipate removing no 23 meters from the Manyunk corridor.
And we now know that it's really not the cost of the meters because 14 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - BILL 970403, RESOLUTION 970843 less than two weeks ago, when we were here with the Penn vending bill, we found out that they're being charged $750 a year, roughly, which constituted, according to the testimony, the costs of lost revenue in removing the meter. I mean, it is my understanding that all of this has to relate to the cost of administering the program in a particular area. For example, if there were valet parking in and about, hypothetically, the Apollo, it would be a lot less costly and less administratively cumbersome in order to administer small valet parking there, and we would probably make an adjustment in the fee.
Are meters being removed in these other three districts?
It will be individually -- the only place I expect that that may happen would be in the valet zones for hotels, which generally need them full-time; versus other types of businesses, which generally only need them for specific hours a day.
So is that true on Walnut Street? 15 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - BILL 970403, RESOLUTION 970843
Walnut Street already has dual regulations because it is both a rush-hour zone and loading zones. So, no, it is not my sense that the meters will be taken out of Walnut Street, no. 7
Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilman Rizzo.
Thank you, Mr. President. Two questions. In reference to the physical size -- it may be here and I just missed it. It says each -- there's feet. Is there in 16 the legislation a maximum? In other words, if a 17 person wants to take up a whole block, they can't 18 say, I'll take 20 feet, 20 feet, 20 feet? 19 Do we have a maximum amount of space 20 that can be utilized for a valet parking area? We should 'cause I don't want to see the whole block gobbled up by valet parking.
Councilman Rizzo, we actually don't have a maximum. It's certainly been the policy that -- and one of the reasons we 16 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - BILL 970403, RESOLUTION 970843 believe the bill is so crucial is that we do not, in fact, wish to eliminate our public parking in those areas. But the number of feet and the number of spaces will be determined by the Authority, not by the business requesting the spaces. I mean, they could request what they want, but once we do the analysis of the block and the adjoining blocks in the engineering study, we will then determine which portion of that roadway should be used specifically for this use.
If a large restaurant wanted, say, 40 feet, would that be a request that would be considered two zones at one location, or just basically taking up a considerable amount of on-street parking?
We would consider that, Councilman, as actually, in fact, only two parking spaces, 40 feet.
Okay, 40 feet. My next question is: Last week, we discussed -- or earlier this week, we discussed the towing part of -- and I suggested to you that possibly making these tow zones. 17 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - BILL 970403, RESOLUTION 970843 And I see something, so could you please explain to me what you've added so that I understand what you've added in reference to towing from these zones?
Yes, Councilman. We took your suggestion, and this bill will allow us to post and tow from any valet parking zone in the City.
And after? If the valet operation would start at 5 p.m. And there would be a car left -- inadvertently left in that spot, it would be towed?
After the valet parking regulation time kicks in, that's correct.
Thank you very much, Councilman. The Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter.
(No verbal response.) 18 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - BILL 970403, RESOLUTION 970843
No, it was from the earlier discussion, Mr. President.
The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Miller, whose light is not on.
Councilman Rizzo asked some of the same questions I had. But I was just wondering, if a block has on-street parking, what percentage of that would be used or be reserved for valet parking?
It varies, Councilwoman Miller, in every situation. There is no set rule. Part of it is determined by whether or not it's a strictly commercial area versus residential. Part of it depends on what the dual regulations are. Part of it depends on how much public parking is available, x-number of blocks in either direction. And so there is no set percentage. We analyze each of the zone requests individually.
Okay. 'Cause I was concerned about the everyday parker, the non-valet parker. And they're not being -- spaces are unavailable to them. 19 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - BILL 970403, RESOLUTION 970843
Thank you, Mr. President. At this time, if there are no other questions, I would move for the adoption of the amendments. (Duly seconded.)
Gentlemen, we're not quite ready for that. Respectfully, we are still in a public hearing.
It is the responsibility of the Chair to make sure that no 22 other Councilmember has any other questions about the bill or any of the proposed amendments. Seeing none, we now must determine whether or not there are any members of the 20 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - BILL 970403, RESOLUTION 970843 general public or anyone else in the chamber who wishes to testify on this bill. We could have all these wonderful people here who are all interested in valet parking, which might be the reason they're here. Everybody interested in valet parking, let it be known raising your hand. (Laughter.)
The record shall reflect that only the consultants have their hands up, right? (Laughter.)
If there's no other testimony on these bills, we will now go into our public meeting. - - -
The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Verna for a motion that there be amendments that have been circulated to Bill No. 21 --
Thank you, Mr. President. I move that the amendments circulated on Bill 970403 be adopted. 21 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - BILL 970403, RESOLUTION 970843
And that includes the amendments that were placed into the record by Councilman Nutter?
All those in favor, let it be known by saying aye. Those opposed, say nay. The ayes have it. The amendments are adopted. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Verna for a motion on Bill No. 970403, as amended.
I move that Bill 16 No. 970403 be reported out of committee, with a favorable recommendation, as amended.
And I also request that the rules of Council be suspended so as to permit first reading at our next session of Council?
All those in favor, 22 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - BILL 970403, RESOLUTION 970843 let it be known by saying aye. Those opposed, say nay. The ayes have it. Bill No. 970403 will be reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Verna for a motion on Resolution No. 970843.
Mr. President, I move Resolution No. That 970843 be reported out of committee, with a favorable recommendation.
All those in favor, let it be known by saying aye. Those opposed, say nay. The ayes have it. Resolution No. 970843 will be reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation. Thank you very much. (Adjourned at 10:10 a.m.) - - - 23 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 Thursday, April 30, 1998 were reported and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of same. RE: COUNCIL COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE BILL NO. 970403 and RESOLUTION NO. 970843 __________________________________, JOSEPHINE CARDILLO, RPR.