2118 COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA BEFORE THE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE OPERATING BUDGET HEARINGS - CONTINUED - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Monday, February 28, 2000 9:30 a.m. - - - BILL 05 - An ordinance adopting the Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2001. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT ANNA C. VERNA, Chair COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE L. BLACKWELL COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN COUNCILMAN DARRELL L. CLARKE COUNCILMAN DAVID COHEN COUNCILMAN FRANK J. DICICCO COUNCILMAN W. WILSON GOODE, JR. COUNCILMAN JAMES F. KENNEY COUNCILWOMAN JOAN L. KRAJEWSKI COUNCILMAN W. THACHER LONGSTRETH COUNCILMAN RICHARD T. MARIANO COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER COUNCILMAN MICHAEL A. NUTTER COUNCILMAN ANGEL L. ORTIZ COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO - - - VINCENT VARALLO ASSOCIATES, INC. Registered Professional Reporters Eleven Penn Center, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 561-2220 2119 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 I N D E X First Judicial District Kevin Cross, Deputy Court Administrator . . . 2120 The Honorable Robert S. Blasi . . . . . . . . 2126 Joseph A. Cairone, Dept. Court Administrator 2133 Sheriff's Office Sheriff John Green. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2149 Register of Deeds Ronald R. Donatucci . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2150 Law Department Kenneth Trujillo, City Solicitor. . . . . . . 2155 William Martin, Corporate Chair . . . . . . . 2167 Donna Mouzayck, First Deputy City Solicitor 2181 Office of Labor Relations Delia Gorman, Deputy Director . . . . . . . . 2191 Joseph Tolan, Deputy Director . . . . . . . . 2203 District Attorney's Office Lynne Abraham, D.A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2210 Defender Association Ellen Greenlee, Chief Defender. . . . . . . . 2233 City Commissioners Margaret Tartaglione, Chairwoman. . . . . . . 2245 Robert Lee, Voter Registration Administrator 2248 City Controller's Office David Volpe, First Deputy City Controller . . 2260 SEPTA Jack Leary, General Manager . . . . . . . . . 2275 Jettie Newkirk, Board Member, City Rep. . . . 2295 Bernard Cohen, Assistant General Manager. . . 2320 Frances Jones, Assistant General Manager. . . 2309 Frances Egan, Assistant General Manager . . . 2313 2120 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 P R O C E E D I N G S
Good morning. This is the continued public hearing of the Committee of the Whole regarding our Operating Budget, Bill No. 005. The first department to be called this morning is the First Judicial District. (First Judicial District witnesses come forward.)
Good morning, Council President and members of City Council. I am Kevin Cross, Deputy Court Administrator for Financial Services of First Judicial District. With me today is the Honorable Robert Blasi, Administrative Judge. Also with me is Joseph A. Cairone, Deputy Court Administrator for the Court of Common Pleas Criminal Trial Division. Absent from today's hearing is the Honorable Alex Bonavitacola, President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas and Chair of the Administrative Governing Board, and Joseph DiPrimio, First Judicial District Court Administrator. Both had unexpected personal commitments that precluded them from being here, 2121 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 and they express their sincere apologies for their absence today. We are here to summarize our written testimony and answer any questions you may have. If I may begin?
The Fiscal Year 2000 marks the tenth year that the FJD and the City have entered into a no-growth budget, and the FY '01 appropriation is consistent with that agreement, while seeking $1.2 million in additional funds. The amount of the overall increase is $1 million less than the funding needed to annualize the 4 percent wage increase effective in March of 2000. The reductions in FY '01 include $526,000 for the transfer of 14 FJD court administrative positions from City funding to State funding under the unified judicial systems.
Thank you. 2122 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
Okay. These positions were transferred to State funding on January 1, 2000 as part of Phase I of the shift in funding from court operations to the State. The savings to the City for these positions is $1 million annually. The other major reduction is $574,000 for juvenile grant officers, whose funding is structured under the Grants Revenue Fund. This reduction properly aligns the funding and the current staffing level. The final Class 100 reduction is the elimination of $169,000 for one-time funding for the processing of municipal tax liens. The increases for FY '01 are $393,000 to annualize the funding for pretrial service positions to enhance active electronic monitoring efforts that were requested by the City to reduce prison crowding. There is also an increase of $230,000 for pretrial services in the Municipal Court for the Community Court Initiative from the Center City District that was approved and funded by City Council in FY 2000. The adjustments in Classes 200, 300, and 400 are two reductions. One is the 2123 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 elimination of $150,000 from lease funding for the relocation from leased-based to City-owned space in City Hall, and the elimination of $218,000 for the one-time purchase of active electronic monitoring equipment requested by the City also to ease prison crowding. Also included in our written testimony is a summary of case statistics and achievements that have occurred over the last four years. I won't address those, but they are in our testimony for your review. Therefore, I conclude my summary of our written testimony and welcome any questions that you may have.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Cohen.
I don't know whether anybody present at the witness table will be in a position to deal with this question, but there is this lingering problem about fees for defense attorneys in criminal cases and I believe also in 2124 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 children's cases, and I'm wondering if that's going to be resolved in any reasonable manner. I'm just stunned by the fact that this is a year ago that I raised this issue at the budget hearing. I was told that it was on its road to being resolved. I understand that, if anything, the situation has worsened. From what I understand, the court system seems to be denying the most basic due-process rights to attorneys who represent indigent defendants, that there are arbitrary awards of fees and fees are sharply reduced. There is no process open to anybody to find out why they're reduced. Checks are just sent out, and in some cases, it's just a portion of the fee, and they're just told that's what the payment is. It reminds me of what we face in other fields where prime contractors on huge commercial projects just summarily reduce the amounts of money they pay to subcontractors. But I just don't understand why that exists, and I'll tell you why it's so important. We're very concerned about the level of attorney services that are rendered to indigent 2125 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 defendants. It's a national problem and everybody's worried about it, because if you just have inexperienced and young attorneys who take cases, defendants' rights are very severely impeded. And the one thing we want to make sure of is that, you know, there is due process according to the criminal defendants. Yet, I understand the very experienced attorneys in Philadelphia are now refusing to take cases because of the arbitrary way in which the fee situation is handled. I also understand that there may be a threat of court action by the attorneys, and I think all of it makes Philadelphia look bad and denies basic rights to defendants. Now, if none of you are in a position to deal with that, I can understand that, 'cause I understand it's a matter of the top-level courts, but I think the situation's developing to the point where individual judges are not going to be able to merely say that it's up to the president judge or the administrative judge, whatever the titles are. I think the board of judges is going to have to act because there are many people who 2126 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 feel that all of the judges are involved. So my question is, what is the status and what does it appear to be for the future? JUDGE BLASI: Councilman, let me try to touch on some of those problems. Before I became the administrative judge, I know that there was a realignment of the fees, and I think that was due to the fact that it seems like every defendant that goes through the system is now represented as an indigent, believe it or not. Everybody has either court-appointed counsel or the Public Defender. And I believe that they suffered an increase of fees, a dramatic increase of fees and that they had to realign the fees, and that was done. Maybe in certain areas, maybe they were drastically cut back too much. But I know that we have a difficult time of -- how do we say -- assessing people as to whether they work or whether they can afford an attorney. They come in and they say, We can't afford an attorney, and they don't have a bank account and they don't have a car and they don't own a house, so we have to give them a court-appointed attorney. It seems like that's 2127 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 95 percent of everybody going through the system today. Am I correct, Mr. Cairone? And that's what happened. JUDGE BLASI: I think the board -- as the administrative governing board, I'm on that. We did discuss the possibility of revisiting that, Councilman, to re-look at the fees to see if they're fair. I mean, that's the only thing I could promise you.
I will bring it up before the board and hope that that matter would be revisited to see if an alignment has to be made one way or the other or in one area or the other. We'll attempt to do that.
Councilman, excuse me. Your Honor, the stenographer did not get your name. JUDGE BLASI: I'm sorry.
And anybody else answering questions, kindly identify yourself for the record. 2128 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 JUDGE BLASI: I apologize. I'm Robert S. Blasi, B-L-A-S-I. And I'm the Administrative Judge of Municipal Court of Philadelphia. I apologize for that.
Judge Blasi, yesterday's Inquirer carried a long story. In the last ten years, the prison population has escalated from one million to more than two million, doubling it. JUDGE BLASI: Yes.
Obviously, if -- and there's no indication that that escalation is going to be slowing down at all. Obviously, if there are twice as many cases roughly, there are going to be more fees. There's a big private defense bar. It is not starving to death the experienced attorneys. They seem to be doing quite well, so there is a lot of private defense work. But the truth is that if you're going to have a large increase, most defendants tend to be indigent and cannot afford legal fees so that you can't expect the private bar to cut their rates in half to represent indigent defendants. 2129 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 Many attorneys do it at a cost, you know, financially, at the present rates. But it certainly seems the most basic thing that if an attorney following the procedures of the court files a fee petition, or whatever the form may be called, it seems to me clearly wrong to merely cut that fee, refuse to give any answers as to why, and then to have no procedure open so that the attorney can contest it and show why he or she is entitled to that fee. JUDGE BLASI: I was of the understanding, Councilman Cohen, that there's always an appeal to the administrative judge, that when that judge cuts the fee, they can then appeal to the administrative judge, the president judge, and they will then review that and see if more should be given. The judge is limited in his discretion, and that's why we keep it simply as an appeal to the administrative judge, but there is an appeal process, and I approved some petitions for more money because I felt it was justly deserved. But I'd like to just touch on a point that you said. The cases we've -- our numbers 2130 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 have dramatically increased. Yes, there are more incarcerations. I guess as you put more people through the system, you could expect it, and the more you process, the more fees there are. But yet, Municipal Court has been operating at a zero growth, and we have not asked for more money. We've been working within our budget, we want to cooperate with the City. I know other agencies have obtained increases, but we haven't. And, again, I promise you we will check over that fee structure.
One last question on that. When you consider, Judge, the present judge of the Common Pleas Court testified last year that $10 million in the budget was set aside for attorneys' fees. I am told that that kind of money has never been spent, that the figure of actual expenditure for fees has been closer to 6, maybe $7 million a year. The attorneys have proposed some form of segregating the money for attorneys' fees so that at least that which has been budgeted for attorneys' fees is used. And that's one half of their question. The other half is, if there's a greater 2131 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 need for appropriations, I think you have to ask for it because you can't -- you just can't put the burden on the private bar, because the ones that suffer are the defendants. If we lose all of the experienced members of the bar, the ones that are suffering are going to be defendants, who don't get the benefit of experienced lawyers. JUDGE BLASI: Right.
So I'm urging that the board consider this because I understand that when individual judges have been asked about it, their response generally is that they can do nothing. JUDGE BLASI: Exactly, exactly. But that attorney can then petition the administrative judge of that division, and generally, an administrative judge will take a review. Now, I'm not saying that I --
Well, you're speaking for the Municipal Court. JUDGE BLASI: I'm talking for the Municipal Court only.
The questions that I know -- I don't know what the situation is in 2132 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 Municipal Court 'cause all the complaints seem to come from the trial -- from the Common Pleas level. JUDGE BLASI: I will say that you talk about the quality, that the courts are committed, in cooperation with the bar association, to train these attorneys. These attorneys go through a training program, and they sit as second chair in many cases. Before they're qualified, they review tapes, they have to go to seminars and get a certain amount of credits before they're qualified to represent people, and I hope that they are delivering a high level of services. They may not be able to get the most experienced attorney in town, you know. But, again, I wish you would just look at it in the fact that everybody has either has a court-appointed attorney or a public defender. And I think, in many cases, they don't really deserve it, but it's hard to ascertain, because we're trying to move the cases through the system.
Is there anyone among the four men at the table who could speak for the Common Pleas Court? 2133 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
Good morning, Councilman. My name is Joseph Cairone. It's C-A-I-R-O-N-E. I'm the Deputy Court Administrator for the Criminal Trial Division. I know that Administrative Judge Herron reviews appeal petitions from counsel involving trial division matters, so that what Judge Blasi has explained for the Municipal Court holds true for the Common Pleas Court. Judge Bonavitacola is the reviewing party for homicide matters, and he conducts those reviews when necessary.
Well, I'm just told that there's absolutely no way of any attorney getting a reason for a reduction, that arbitrarily, a check is sent out for whatever amount is finally determined by the administrative judge or the president judge.
Although I haven't participated personally in meetings with the Criminal Justice Section and Judge Bonavitacola, I know that there have been numerous meetings between the two parties to discuss counsel fees. The appeals -- and I'm not sure, because I do not review the petitions, but there 2134 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 is a modified fixed fee that's associated with cases. And we do have a tracking mechanism of identifying how many days are spent in court on a specific case, and there are set fees for those matters. I would assume that many of the appeals involve cases where counsel opt for the hourly fee as opposed to the modified fixed fee.
I don't understand that to be the case. But, Madam Chair, I would like to ask that Judges Bonavitacola and Herron be asked to appear here 'cause I don't think it's fair to ask the four gentlemen here to be responsible for the action, but --
I think it's very important that we get answers, because the rights of criminal defendants are being very seriously interfered with. It's one thing to have convictions when, you know, all the parties have a fair opportunity to present their cases, but it's not fair to punish defendants by denying them the services of able lawyers, who have to get paid, 2135 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 because they too have economic problems like anybody else in the private sector. So may I make that request and ask that the --
That's H-E-R-R-O-N. He's the administrative judge for -- they're both -- Bonavitacola is the President Judge of the Common Pleas Court, and Judge Herron is the Administrative Judge for the Trial Division. I think they're the two people most directly involved at the Common Pleas level. And we'd like to get a date certain for it.
And ask that you take that back, and then we'll set it up.
Thank you very 2136 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 much. Councilwoman Miller?
Good morning. I have just a couple questions. Can you hear me? Good morning again. I have just a couple questions. What qualifies a defendant for electronic monitoring?
We use electronic monitoring, Councilwoman, in two different situations, pre- and post-trial. When a defendant is adjudicated guilty in a matter, it is the determination of the sentencing judge to impose electronic monitoring. On the front end, or the pretrial stage, we conduct conditional release hearings of defendants who are currently incarcerated. Pretrial presents a list to the conditional release hearing judge, and there's a determination made at that point that the defendant can be released to electronic monitoring in lieu of 2137 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 incarceration. Now, it's not used at the front end during preliminary arraignment but used, rather, as the matter progresses through the trial process.
What is the cost per person versus the cost for incarceration?
It's drastically less than it is for incarceration. It runs approximately to $15 a person. 12
There are times that we do have a waiting list. Currently, we have 700 people on electronic monitoring, which maxes out the capacity that we have, but there are constantly people coming off and going on. We also utilize what we refer to as "a passive monitoring system," which is a voice monitoring system that enables us to take a voice template of the defendant with 22 specific words, and then we are able to monitor his presence in the home by using and verifying it with this voice template. 2138 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 Now, obviously, that's a less restrictive method than the constant electronic monitoring device placed on the ankle, but what we can do in certain circumstances is step a defendant down from the active system to the passive system if they've cooperated and have met all of the conditions of their release. We currently have 135 defendants on passive electronic monitoring. Now, starting April 1st of this year, and as part of this adjustment to the budget that Mr. Cross identified, we will be adding an additional 100 defendants to electronic monitoring. Our total capacity will be 800 defendants on that system.
So that we are committed, with the executive branch, to addressing the crowding situation, but doing it in an environment that provides the best protection to the citizens of Philadelphia.
Okay, that's what I -- that's where I wanted to go because I know that people have waited a while to get on it, and 2139 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 most of them were already incarcerated and they couldn't be released until they were able to, you know, access the electronic monitoring system.
Some of the delays that we face are, once a defendant is assigned to electronic monitoring in court, we must then do an investigation. We must make sure that the address is a good address that they give us, we must make sure that the family is willing to have the defendant back in the home, and that they are willing to limit their phone to a straight phone set without call-waiting and any other amenities that can be purchased. Once we can verify all of those items, then the defendant is picked up at the county institution and delivered to the home and hooked up.
Okay. I have another question that deals with troubled properties out in neighborhoods -- apartment buildings, houses, whatever. We know that L&I will come out and cite a property -- and cite a property, and then it ends up at 34 South 11th for code enforcement and 2140 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 then goes through MC court and probably has a lien attached to it. Now, I know for most of the properties, I believe -- and you can correct me if I'm wrong -- that's where it ends, that there's a lien if the property's ever sold. But then there are some properties that go on to Equity Court. Can you explain what Equity Court is? Because what happens is, these properties have liens on them, they've been cited. What is it that we need to do? What department? There needs to be a process in place to deal with these. Maybe it's not your department, but it does. . . JUDGE BLASI: I can try to address that. 34 South 11th Street on the Municipal Court side comes within my jurisdiction. What happens when L&I files a compliant against the owners of these properties is, there's someone to come into court, Courtroom 4-G, on 34 South 11th Street. If they fail to appear, the City usually takes a default judgment because of the failure to respond, and that's in an effort to jog them to make 'em become responsive, to make 'em come to court, and enter into an agreement either to fix their property or demolish their property 2141 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 or correct the repairs, whatever they're cited for. If they fail to do that, if it's usually, Councilwoman, like a fire system which affects life and limb, an imminent danger, they will go on to Equity Court. Municipal Court has just the three judges, I have three judges. I sit in Equity Court, now in Room 275, City Hall, as a CP judge, even though I am a Municipal Court judge. I have made an arrangement with Judge Herron that we would take over those services so we could let him have the use of another judge or two that he needs for his Commerce Court, but we assume those responsibilities. And, yes, when we sit there, we have different power. We have a different power as a CP judge than we do, which is limited as an MC judge. As the other day I told the fellow that I was going to close down his buildings, I have equity power. I can't do that when I sit as an MC judge. It's a difference in power structure, limited power. But if you have a situation that's imminently dangerous, I think you should call the 2142 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 City Solicitor. They should work with you and it's their responsibility to put it on a list for the Equity Court, so to speak.
Thank you. To follow up on an issue that Councilwoman Miller raised about the electronic monitoring or home monitoring, is it -- is there a maximum of time? I've heard some people say it's six months on the end of the time, I've heard other people say it's a year on the end of the time. How is that determined? Is it determined by the judge who assigns, or is it determined by behavior while incarcerated, or what's the time and how is that determined?
We currently do not have a time limit placed on the sentencing for electronic monitoring, although we believe there should be one. We do monitor closely the number of defendants with extended sentences that are placed on electronic monitoring because, obviously, they're using equipment that could be 2143 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 used for other individuals. We try to keep to a minimum six-month to year type sentence if we can.
But, again, it is the sentencing judge's decision that is controlling. Or on the front end, it's a matter of when the case is adjudicated and/or disposed, when it's in pretrial status. So we do try to expedite those matters when they're placed on pretrial electronic monitoring.
Good morning, gentlemen. I have a question with respect to space. I notice here in your testimony, you talk about expansion of the courts, and this kind of goes back actually to the building of the Criminal Justice Center at the time it is essentially 2144 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 vacated and deserted. Can you hear me? Is that better?
You kind of deserted us over here in City Hall and actually left all of the corridors empty and took all the police with you and everything, you know. I felt a little unsafe there for a while. And I notice in the recent year or so that a lot of the judges have been moving back to City Hall and there's been movement throughout the municipally-owned facilities. Can you give me a sense of what's going on with that?
Yes. All of our civil have chambers and courtrooms in City Hall, and we have moved out of other leased space and into City Hall. We've moved our human resources, our fiscal operations, our procurement into City Hall. And so we are filling space in City Hall that we had as leased space before, so we're reducing our lease costs and increasing our presence in City Hall.
Also, in other words, some of the criminal judges moved out of 2145 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 City Hall and you're now bringing back the civil judges to replace those --
All right. I was just wondering. All right, thank you.
Thank you. The President had a question, which is, what is the status of the State takeover of the courts?
As I mentioned in my testimony -- I'm Kevin Cross again -- thirteen deputy court administrators and the FJD court administrator did transition over into State funding. We have separated from City service and are State employees. I wish I could say more as to what's going to happen with the next phase. We really don't know at this point, we're just going through all of our paperwork and our transition into State funding. We have no further information as to 2146 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 when the next phase is, and Phase II would be for the majority of administrative staff and judicial staff going over into State funding. We're bound by what the Governor and the State legislature present and we really have no influence in that area.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a point of information, back to 34 South 11th Street. Is there any major repairs going on in the courts in the facility now, any construction work or anything? JUDGE BLASI: You mean at 34 South 11th?
34 South 11th. JUDGE BLASI: On the municipal court side, we just signed a lease with the Girard Estates for the fourth and fifth floor again. And on the fifth floor, there will be some renovations.
At their expense or the court's expense or the -- 2147 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 JUDGE BLASI: No, no, Girard Estates. There will be no expense at all to the City or to the First Judicial District.
Okay. The reason I raise this is that there is a strong possibility that a major retail department store may be built on that site, and I've already talked to the developer, the proposed developer, and they would take everything from Market, all the way back, maybe up to close to Chestnut Street. So just in the interest of being cost-effective or efficient, I'd say be careful what you spend because we may be out of there before you know it. JUDGE BLASI: I think that's a good point, and I was wondering 'cause I heard the same rumors, and I thought they were pretty firm, and yet, they were anxious to sign a lease with us and conduct -- go ahead with the renovations. They're starting on the --
I had spoken with the developer about a month ago. He was under the impression that he may have had a decision probably about a week ago, but I haven't heard 2148 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 from him since, but I'll reach out to talk to him and see where they are with that, because before you start doing all that work -- JUDGE BLASI: Well, they're doing the work at their expense. And, of course, the City needs a lot of lead time in order to move our operation, and that's all covered in the lease.
I just was wondering. So we're not spending the money. JUDGE BLASI: We're not spending City money, not a dollar of City money.
Thank you very much. Are there any other questions from members of the committee? (No further questions.)
Certainly. 2149 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 The Sheriff is next, Mr. John Green. (Sheriff's Office witnesses come forward.)
Good morning, welcome. SHERIFF GREEN: Good morning, Madam Chair.
Please identify yourself for the record. SHERIFF GREEN: John Green, Sheriff for the City. And with me today is Paris Frazier, the Sheriff's Office Budget Officer and Finance Director, and Yama Waritary. The Sheriff's Office agrees with the Administration's suggested budget appropriation for the Sheriff's Office for the Fiscal Year 2001, which is $11,222,658. That concludes our testimony we're ready for questions.
Thank you very much. Are there any questions from members of the committee? (No questions.) 2150 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
Thank you. That makes it short and sweet. We're glad to have you. SHERIFF GREEN: Thank you very much.
Certainly. Register of Wills is next. (Register of Wills witnesses come forward.)
Good morning and welcome. Would you identify yourself for the record and begin.
Ronald R. Donatucci, the Register of Wills and Clerk of the Orphan's Court. To my left is Anthony DeRose, our Financial Officer. To my right is my First Deputy, Ralph Wiener and Jim Taggart, Chief Administrative Officer.
As required, we submitted a two-page letter with the analysis. I don't know if you want me to really read it. I'll just go over some of the highlights. 2151 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 Once again, if our numbers hold up, we'll be operating in the surplus for a number of years. We're always getting creative, and due to the kindness of the Administration and City Council, you've given us money in the past to help computerize our operation to different degrees. In the past seven months, at the beginning of our new fiscal year, our revenues have been increased by over $204,000 and at the end of the fiscal year, we'll probably show $18,000 in surplus over what our operating budget is. With all of this, we are still providing additional services. We still have our offices in the Northeast with Councilman Krajewski, who was very instrumental, and Councilman O'Brian (sic), in opening the office up there. She came to me a number of years ago to see if we could have this facility to help service the citizens up in the Northeast. Also we still have an office up in North Philly, and we are the only Register of Wills which is still open one night a week to provide marriage licenses, a service that we provide for the working families or future working families so that they don't have 2152 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 the take off any time from work. We still have our traveling probate clerks where we go out to homes to provide a service, for which we charge a minimal fee, which brings additional revenue into the City, but it also provides a service for people that cannot come into the City. I believe the record speaks for itself. And, again, I'd like to thank City Council for all its kindness in the past. And we're not looking for any additional funding for new positions, we'll just keep our same level and continue to provide the service to the citizens.
Thank you very much. I will say you have continued to do an excellent job. All of us have experiences where we send our constituents there. And as always, they're treated in a very courteous manner. You do the City proud.
Thank you, Madam Chair. 2153 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 Madam Chair, I can only echo your comments to Mr. Donatucci. It's also good to see your first deputy next to you, Mr. Wiener here this morning. My office has received excellent service from the Register of Wills. Your office on the forth floor is perfectly situated, right around the corner from mine, and that may also account for an even special level of service right here on the fourth floor. But my constituents have benefitted tremendously from the service, and I just want to publicly thank you and all of the staff, your senior people, for the service we've received. Thank you.
Thank you. My mother thanks you, my father thanks you, and I thank you.
I want to also go on the record, Madam Chairwoman, because the 2154 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 service that the Register of Wills has given me and my constituents is always excellent so I would just like to go on the record as well to express my appreciation.
Thank you again publicly, and I'd like to thank Councilman Ortiz and Councilman Cohen for the help last year on the pay raise for my employees.
Great. Are there any other questions from members of the committee? (No further questions.)
All righty, the Law Department and the Office of Labor Relations are on their way. Is the D.A.'s Office here? See folks, you never know when we're ready for you, you never know. So we've got the Law Department, the Public 2155 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 Defender's Office, the City Commissioner, the City Controller and SEPTA. Members of the committee, we might as well take a break until someone before us. What we will do is try to call the others and try to let them know that we're ahead of schedule. So we'll take a break for a few minutes until another department shows. (Break taken.) - - - (Proceedings resume.)
The Law Department and the Office of Labor Relations.
Okay. We will hear from the Law Department. (Law Department witnesses come forward.)
Thank you very much. Would you identify yourself for the record and then begin your testimony.
Good morning. My name is Kenneth Trujillo. Seated next to me is Mr. William Martin. Next to Bill is Donna 2156 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 Mouzayck, and on my right side is Chris Lane.
Councilman, as I mentioned, my name is Kenneth Trujillo, and seated with me are several members of the Law Department I've had the pleasure in the past of working with several members of this Council and, as you know, Mayor Street has asked me to serve the City as the City Solicitor in the very near future. I hope to meet with each of you and am hopeful that you will have the confidence in me to serve you, the Mayor, and the City as City Solicitor. We have prepared our testimony and I know it has been distributed to you, but with your indulgence, I would like to take a couple of minutes to tell you a little bit about myself since this is the first time that I've appeared before you. I am a 1986 graduate of the Pennsylvania Law School. I'm not a Philadelphian by birth, but I am an adopted Philadelphian -- after becoming addicted to cheese steaks and 2157 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 occasionally a losing team, but I'm a hopeless optimist so I decided to stay in Philadelphia and make it my home after graduating from law school. I went to work for the law firm Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis. During my experience at the Schnader firm, they and a number of the large law firms were asked to loan lawyers to the City's Law Department. Happily, I was the lawyer that the Schnader firm loaned to the Law Department back in 1988. During that time, I spent six months at the Law Department. And, in fact, Donna Mouzayck, seated right next to me, was my boss and taught me. And in fact, I tried my very first jury trials under Donna's supervision. S. Attorney's Office here in Philadelphia where I prosecuted a number of complex criminal cases. Since 1993, I've been back in the private practice of law, and over the last three years, I have been running my own firm, Trujillo, Rodriguez & Richards. My practice has consisted largely of complex civil litigation. I have represented the handgun litigation against handgun 2158 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 manufacturers, I have represented American Indian tribes for years, and I have also represented the Mexican national railway system on the community side, and have been involved with Congreso Latinos Unidos where I had the privilege of working with Alba Martinez, who is now the Commissioner of the Department of Human Service. I've also served as past president of the Hispanic Bar Association of Pennsylvania. In fact, I spent much of the last few months working on bringing the National Bar Convention into Philadelphia and am happy to report that in 2001, Philadelphia will serve as the site of the National Convention for the Hispanic Bar Association. I will ask your indulgence because I must confess that this is my first day on the job. When Bill Martin told me that the testimony was scheduled for today, I was originally scheduled to start work next week, but given that the testimony was scheduled for today, I made a special effort to be here today. And rather than reiterate my written testimony -- I'm certain you don't want me to go through each of the pages of 2159 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 the prepared testimony, so rather than reiterate that which is in front of you, I thought it would be helpful if I just mentioned to you a few of the high points, as I see them, and a number of the issues that we would like to concentrate on going into the future in this new administration. The Law Department over the past years has had a number of success stories, and those success stories include a continuation of some of the efforts of the prior City Solicitors. As has been reported both in the Five-Year Plan and as mentioned in our testimony to you, the prepared testimony, since 1992, the Law Department has continued to establish case analyses and procedures which have allowed the Law Department to, on an annual basis, continue to decrease the number of open cases in the Claims and Civil Rights Unit against the City of Philadelphia.
The reduction of the backlog has resulted in a decrease in the number of open cases from 1992 up until Fiscal Year 1999 to the point that at the end of 1999, there were 1,284 open cases against the City of Philadelphia in the Civil Rights Unit and Claims Division. This is a 2160 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 dramatic decrease from the inventory of Fiscal Year 1992, when we had 4,384 cases. In addition, there's been a substantial reduction since 1992 in the amount that it costs to close any particular case. The cost of closing a file has been reduced, since Fiscal Year 1992, from approximately $34,000 per case and is now down to ranging between to $19,000 per case. 10 While we're very happy with that reduction, both 11 in the caseload and also in the cost of closing 12 the cases, we must also tell you that this 13 continuing decrease cannot continue forever, and 14 we indeed expect that to go back up over the next 15 couple of years. One of the challenges for the Law Department and one of the success stories is also the Law Department's use of telecommunications in the last several years, but over the next few years, the growth in technology is going to be both an opportunity for the Law Department and it's also going to be a challenge. In response to Congress's passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, a team of lawyers in the corporate group of the Law Department was formed in 1996 and has 2161 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 worked with the Department of Public Property and the Managing District Attorney's Office to address communications technology issues that are resulting from the changes in the 1996 Act. During Fiscal Year 1999 and 2000, these lawyers worked in order to develop ordinances to manage the entry and use of rights of way by telecommunications providers and others. Also in Fiscal Year 1999 and Fiscal Year 2000, the City successfully concluded negotiations for renewals of cable television franchises. This team also concluded an agreement with Comcast Cablevision, which takes effect in September of this year, under which Comcast has agreed to build a low-cost data and video network that will connect Police, Fire, and Prison facilities in Comcast's service area. During Fiscal Year 1999, the Health and Human Services Unit developed a plan for complying with the requirement of the Adoptions and Safe Families Act. That Act required that by two points in time in 1999, termination of parental-rights petitions were be filed for two-thirds of all children committed to the 2162 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 Department of Human Services. I'm pleased to report that the Law Department filed 2,466 petitions between May 1 of 1999 and December 31 of 1999. The unit further expects to file 6 approximately 2500 more petitions during the calendar year 2000. It will perhaps come as no surprise to you that Alba Martinez and I are working already very closely together. We hope to continue the success certainly of this unit, but we understand there's significant challenges in that area, and she and I are deeply committed -- and I repeat, very deeply committed -- to ensuring that that department and that unit is active, responsive and is a leader in meeting the needs of the City. In this next fiscal year, we will have some additional, again, challenges and opportunities. The Environmental Unit, in the last fiscal year, settled several environmental matters against the City on a number of favorable terms. In this next fiscal year, the Environmental Law Unit plans to implement an initiative to seek insurance proceeds for the City to help fund the Brownfields redevelopment and 2163 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 other blight removal and other redevelopment efforts. Private industry has recovered billions of dollars in environmental liability from general liability carriers, and the City would like to do the same.
Again, in my background, I have done a considerable amount of complex contingent litigation and it's quite likely that that's the form that this would take, and it's likely that we would need to seek outside counsel on a contingent basis to do some of this litigation. The City has also continued to benefit from some of the tax enforcement initiatives. The Law Department, together with the Revenue Department and private co-counsel, has moved aggressively to step up and improve the effectiveness in its efforts to collect delinquent taxes,, and as a result, in-house collections have increased since Fiscal Year 1991 from $44 million to a projection of $75 million for Fiscal Year 2001. Outside counsel also collected an additional $14 million, and similar amounts are expected for Fiscal Year 2001. Despite what I've just described as some of our successes, there are also some 2164 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 significant challenges in the future. Anyone who has read -- any lawyers, in particular, who have read the newspapers over the last few years are aware -- over the last few months especially, are aware that the ability of a law department like ours to continue to attract and retain good lawyers, to continue to recruit and retain some of the best lawyers in the city is becoming increasingly challenging. As mentioned in our prepared testimony, our attrition level has been relatively stable. However, in the last year, it grew to percent. 14 One of things that has happened over January and 15 February of this year -- if we don't do something 16 relatively soon, our attrition level for the first 17 two months of this year is not 19 percent but it's 18 on a level to be 30 and 40 percent. This law 19 department obviously cannot lose qualified and excellent lawyers and experienced lawyers. And so we need to do something in the future. One of the things that has certainly happened is that private law firms are paying astronomically higher salaries over the last two months, so we need to address over this next year 2165 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 the compensation system, which has not been fully addressed since the first year of the Rendell Administration. We will in the next few months. I would like to tell you that some of my priorities include one of, obviously, Mayor Street's priorities. For the last few years, I've been investigating the handgun liability lawsuits against handgun manufacturers. I intend to present to the Mayor our findings on that very shortly, and we expect to have some report to Council on that issue as well very promptly. Obviously, the issue of the abandoned cars and blight are something that also are starting to take considerable time on behalf of the Law Department. It is something that I know is of importance to this Council and to this mayor, and we intend to do everything we can to be responsive and proactive on that front. So with that, I will be happy to -- frankly, I'll probably be hiding behind my colleagues here -- take any questions from you.
Thank you very much. 2166 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to take my first shot at this publicly, Mr. Trujillo?
I know that you'll be back to us at some point in time probably after budget hearings, but I wanted to get a sense from you with regard to Law Department opinions. No 15 matter what they happen to be and whether I like the opinion that I may get or not on some particular issue, what will be the policy and procedure of the Law Department as it relates to requests for opinions, their subsequent drafting and sharing with the particular Councilmembers, or anyone for that matter, who has made the request? And when is that opinion public or when is it kept confidential?
Councilman, I'm going to respond to this in two ways. I guess the first 2167 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 way will be, I'm going to ask Bill Martin, who's been acting City Solicitor, in terms what the practice has been. And I will confess to you again that right now, I can only give you general responses as to what I believe we should be doing and tend to do. But in terms of our current policy and procedure, I'm going to ask Bill Martin to respond to that first and then I will follow up on that.
My name is William Martin. I am currently the Corporate Chair of the Law Department and have served as acting City Solicitor since January 3, up until Ken's arrival this morning. Councilman, I think that your question is probably in terms of what your experience may have been or what other Councilmembers' experience may have been. During the two months that I served as acting solicitor, I'm not aware of any requests having been submitted by Members of Council for opinions. In terms of prior procedure in terms of timeliness, obviously it would be our objective, 2168 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 in most instances, to answer requests one to two weeks to try to be as timely as possible. In terms of the issue of confidentiality and when opinions might be made available to Members of Council, I would like to allow the new solicitor to review the circumstance and to reach his own conclusion regarding what the law requires, what issues of confidentiality require in terms of opinions as affect individuals. The prior solicitor had an approach which she followed during her tenure, and I think whether the Department will continue to follow that approach or take a slightly different approach, I think it would be inappropriate for me to foreshadow that until Mr. Trujillo has had a chance to review things.
I understand. And as you can, I think, well understand from my side, I understand that we have a new solicitor and that solicitors have a right to generally run their shop the way they want. On the other hand, when a member of Council asks for legal advice, for a legal opinion, as required by the City Charter, it requires both City Council and executive branch of 2169 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 the government. If I make a request, one, I certainly expect that the topic or the subject matter and everything related to it is privileged information and is between the client -- myself -- and the lawyer. Second, whenever that opinion is done, I would continue to expect that that's a communication between myself and whoever is working on that, and that at that moment, it's not being shared with the universe. Is that extreme or outside the bounds of normal lawyer-client relationship?
No, I don't believe it's extreme. I believe an appropriate request -- in fact, the members of the Department are sensitive and speak to one another regularly about their concerns of maintaining the confidentiality from Councilmembers. I know recently, I think about two weeks ago, there was some legislation introduced by Members of Council on an issue of interest, and I think that some assistance was received from a member of the Department, and the member of the Department came in, I think, to advise me of it, 2170 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 in essence, five minutes after the ordinance had been introduced into Council, so this is now public record. We have an independent obligation under the Charter to provide Councilmembers with legal advice, and that the requirements of the profession regarding confidentiality and privilege certainly apply to that representation.
Councilman, if I might follow up on that. First of all, the rules of professional conduct regarding my conduct and those of the Law Department, all lawyers in Pennsylvania require that the confidence of a client be maintained scrupulously. And, obviously, there are some circumstances where we have communications which are not necessarily confidential, but I think that a clear communication about something being a confidential of a client, if it is clear to us and clear that this is a confidential communication, we absolutely intend to maintain confidential communications with our client.
All right, I appreciate it. I'm sure we'll have further discussion about this particular issue. 2171 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 I welcome you on your first day. And generally, for the solicitors, the first day is the best day. (Laughter.)
I look forward to continued discussions with you. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Ortiz, are you ready? Are you ready?
I imagine that we will have other Latino names being hired and put into the offices, 'cause I always ask this question and I haven't had a lot of successes in increasing the number of Latino lawyers, but I would hope that this means that we're going to see an increase in the numbers.
We will obviously have an increase, with my starting today, of the number 2172 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 of lawyers.
Well, I don't think we had any before, so it's more than double.
Obviously, as you know, the hiring and retention of qualified Latino African-Americans, or any other minorities, is a goal that I have worked on in the past, and I intend for that to be one of our goals that we will meet.
I would hope that if you go back on the record and see the questions that we've asked over the years, that has probably been the first question I always ask the City Solicitor. How many attorneys are there currently in the Solicitor's Office?
I absolutely do, sir. 2173 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
That you work for two bosses. It's supposedly -- and we really fool ourselves here -- that the City Solicitor usually responds entirely to City Council's wishes more so than the Mayor's, but there is always that tension there of to whom do you respond to, the Mayor or the Council? When Councilman Cohen comes in, he's going to ask you even further about this, so I'd like you to begin used to answering along lines.
A clearing of my throat on that issue. First, the Charter, in my view and as I read it as I was considering this opportunity, I think it is very clear in creating not a legal conflict, but as you described it correctly, it's more of a tension. I think that that tension is incidental. But I think that as early as the 100-and-so pages of the blue book of the Charter, which is now bound for public distribution, as early as , the Charter makes provisions for this Council to seek its own counsel in the event that the City Solicitor feels it's not able to provide proper counsel to the 2174 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 City Council. My view of it, obviously, is consistent with the Charter. I view my job as counsel for the City Council, counsel for the Mayor, and counsel for all the departments and agencies and commissions of this City. I view my ultimate client as being the City of Philadelphia and the citizens of Philadelphia. There will be times -- there will times where there will be conflicts which maybe are not legal conflicts in nature but in which there will be either policy conflicts between the Mayor's Office and this Council. And what I can tell you from the outset is that I intend to keep -- I think you know me well enough to know this, that I will have not only an open mind, but I will try to seek whatever creative solutions I can for my client, be they Council or be they the Mayor. If Council sees fit ultimately to approve my nomination, I intend to be very creative in finding ways so ensure that you have the representation that not only is adequate but that you are extremely comfortable with and that you will be very pleased with. 2175 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
It is personally my pleasure having him as City Solicitor. I think we are going to enjoy the tenure that we have, and since this is his first day, I think that's the only question I will ask of my friend.
Taking into consideration the fact that we all recognize that in urban areas in this country today, gun violence and the result of gun violence have been a traumatic problem and an obstacle for cities to remain stable and viable and also to progress and. The cost associated with all of the violence -- medical needs, prisons, drug problems, all of that stuff -- is all intertwined and related. Taking that as a given, something that we all agree upon, what effect do you think that 2176 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 the State legislature recently prohibiting of -- in their minds, prohibiting Philadelphia or any other city in the Commonwealth from making an attempt to recoup the cost of their product? What effect do you think that that has on your ability to successfully proceed in suing gun manufactures on behalf of the City?
Thank you, sir. The legislation passed by the Pennsylvania legislature, which was signed by Governor Ridge last year, is not in my view a broad attack against litigation against handgun manufacturers by cities and municipalities. In fact, it is, in many respects, a relatively narrow piece of legislation focussing on the illegal marketing of guns, and I put those two words in quotes. So it is my view that the City of Philadelphia, like any other city in this Commonwealth, can pursue appropriate cases against handgun manufacturers. I do not view the legislation passed in December as a bar. And in fact, it is something that we've already been researching since the time that it was introduced 2177 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 in December of last year.
Could you expound a little bit on your view of the action taken by the legislature and what, in fact, you believe the legislation does.
Again, my preference, Councilman, at this stage would be not to simply -- because we're in the midst of doing that right now, I'd be happy to talk to you immediately after this, but my preference right now would be to not talk about it at this stage until we've prepared the complaint.
Fine. On another matter, I've had this discussion with a couple of other departments that have come before us, primarily the Police Department. And one of the frustrations that I know I have and I think the average citizen has is our settling of cases that people bring for various reasons where there's alleged police abuse, whether the issue is relative to high-speed car chases where someone kill themselves and the people in the car, but where we wind up in some way paying for those misdeeds. Or something as 2178 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 simple as fraudulent slip-and-falls and other types of what I believe to be sometimes frivolous lawsuits. I understand sometimes it's more prudent to pay to settle those cases than to litigate them, but what's the standards? How do you determine whether or not it makes sense to just set a tone that we're simply not going to send you a check just because you've found a lawyer that's going to sue the City. How do you determine which ones to make a case about and move forward with?
Obviously, in my view, there's not a hard and fast rule. If there was, somebody would have implemented it a long time ago. I think it's a very difficult question because you don't want to create a situation where -- I'll give you an example. Some of the practices of insurance companies is that they will absolutely not pay a penny for even a very small case. But it ends up costing them, in some instances, taking that hard a line. Sometimes it costs you more money in terms of a bad-faith claim than in terms of the 2179 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 litigation costs of a case that maybe you could have settled for $5,000 or $10,000. I'll go back to a little bit of my experience. Back in 1988, when we had a lot of cases against the City, if you take the amount of money that's being paid out, I think I mentioned the statistic earlier going down from 34,000 down to $19,000 per open claim. First I don't think we're paying an extraordinary amount of money out. In fact, I think what the Law Department has done has in fact been very successful in reducing the amount of money going out. First you look at the merits of a case. If somebody is legitimately injured and the City is responsible for that injury, we're responsible. And so first you look at the merits of the case. If the case has merit and the City has liability, my view of it is that we should look at settling it early. And that's consistent with what most large companies' internal law departments are doing these days, which is an aggressive early review of the liability and potential damages in any particular case. So in many instances, you're able to, 2180 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 because a lawyer's handling it on a contingency basis, if they can get the case resolved early, then there is -- there's not an incentive to continue litigation for a long protracted period of time. So the view is that if there's liability damages, that you get it settled early at a modest amount. I believe that's what you want to do I believe. What you're talking about is, in many instances, there are the frivolous cases. In my view, we should not be in the business of no 13 liability or zero liability perhaps and we are not in the business of settling cases just because they happen to be there. So those are the kinds of cases where you do need to take a fairly hard stand. Now, sometimes you might have a case that's very thin on liability but the potential damages may be such that, you know, for instance, if somebody's got a percent chance of winning it, you might take a $30 million hit. You've got to be careful with that kind of a case. Even though the liability is potentially very --
Do you think that because of the size of our law department, the 2181 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 view among the populace and some lawyers is that, in fact, the City is an easy hit?
I have an additional question. Has an analysis been done as to what particular lawyers bring more cases than others against the City? Do we have plaintiffs that bring more cases? Do we do kind of an analysis of names that keep popping up in an attempt to make an example of one of those attorneys, law firms, and/or plaintiffs?
Excuse me. I'm Donna Mouzayck, and I've had the pleasure of supervising the Claims Division for quite a number of years. I think that the attorney handling a particular case is really only one factor in determining, you know, what the quality of that case is. Certainly people in the business know those people who will push for higher demands and ask for more money. But regardless of what reputation an attorney might have, we're still going to need to look to the actual evidence in the case to determine whether or not it will be a 2182 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 successful case or whether we can formulate and successfully develop a response to that. I would say that always, it's the facts of the case that have to control, no matter who the plaintiff's attorney may be. Second, I guess it was about five years ago when we had tried to put together an informal sort of suspects unit. I think to call many of the cases fraudulent would be going too far. You don't have that kind of proof. Certainly there are scenarios where people ask for a large amount of money that we feel is inflated, and there are things that you can do in the defense of a claim to prove that that sum is inaccurate. For example, you want to go ahead and hire your own experts -- we do that routinely. You might want to include some sort of an engineer to comment on the quality of the accident -- like was this low-speed accident really one that would cause such a significant jolt to the person inside the car? Again, that goes after the facts of the case, and I think we've been doing that certainly the last five or six years. I think that we have we have a tracking system in place which 2183 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 specifically focuses on those kinds of cases that you are talking about, but now we have the resources -- doctors, engineers, and so forth -- to help flesh them out. And I'm confident that this is happening, and the average cost of settlements bears that out. The final comment I might make is that we went through an audit where the Law Department Claims Division was compared with the handling of claims at other law firms, and I don't know if you can remember that study, but basically we received very, very high remarks and were commended for the fact that we began to focus on investigating the exact claims that you just mentioned. So I feel pretty confident that those kind of frivolous claims are being handled properly.
Thank you, Madam Chair. 2184 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 Again, welcome to City government.
Coming from your own business and working for law firms for many years, you mentioned that the salary structure hasn't been addressed from back in the early '90s for the attorneys. We read in the media how New York is making so many opportunities available to attorneys today. With that in mind, looking into the office that you now run with some other fine people, do you see -- in your mind, do you have any ideas about restructuring and doing business more like a major law firm would conduct business? Or is the City Solicitor's Office a different animal altogether? And can you use some of the techniques with maybe not everyone needing to be a lawyer or a paralegal or other positions? I assume we have already some things and that you coming into this job are willing to take on some of these challenges. Do you see any major changes other than just reevaluating the need for higher lawyers' salaries, etc.? 2185 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
Thank you, Councilman. Good to see you. First, my view of how the Law Department should operate is probably a little different than a private law firm. Our law department is not comparable to me to a private law firm but is more like an in-house law department of a major corporation. Going back to Councilman Kenney's question, part of the reason, for instance, that we're targeted for so many lawsuits is that, frankly, the City of Philadelphia is involved in and has a lot of real estate -- you know, Police, Fire Department, everybody whom we defend. But at its core, the Law Department is more like, in my view, more like an in-house law department. One of the things that I've discussed already with our executive committee is doing a review for our benefit -- not only for our benefit but for Council's benefit, doing a review of how we operate as we go forward. For example, you mention the issue of paralegals preparing for testimony. One of the things we've done is relatively held the line on 2186 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 the number of lawyers. Since 1992 the increase in the number of lawyers in the Law Department is really only about seven or eight, since 1992. The use of paralegals has virtually gone from approximately 30 to, I believe, 68. So many of the functions of the Law Department -- for instance, in tax collection efforts -- can be done by paraprofessionals. The Law Department, I believe, is doing that, and that is an issue that we will continue to look at, having paraprofessionals take on certain duties so that we don't have to pay the higher salaries. The salary issue that you mention is particularly important in my view and one -- and I'm not here to say that the only thing that I want to do is recognize lawyers' salaries and that's the extent of what I want to do with the Law Department. To the contrary. What I want to do is make sure we're running the Law Department like duPont or like a Campbell's. I want to make the Law Department, the U.S. Attorney's Office to provide full clerkships as one of the first options for law students graduating from law school. I want them to realize what I realized 2187 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 when I went there two years after graduating from law school, that they can come here and try cases early in their career and can impact important policy decisions of the City. And so what I want to do is attract great lawyers, and I think we're doing a fairly good job of it already, but we want to do a better job. Now, the fact of the matter is that our salary structure has remained almost completely stable for eight years. The percentage increase if you read last Friday's Legal News, you know there's a law firm in Philadelphia that is starting to pay first-year associates $115,000 a year. So we're never going to be able to -- the City is obviously never going to be able to compete on a dollar-for-dollar basis, nor can I suggest that that's ever going to happen. But the bigger the spread, the bigger the differential, the harder it's going to be to recruit new lawyers out of law school who will be willing to work representing your interests, the City's interests. It's becoming increasingly more attractive to go straight into private practice. So that's a long-winded way of saying 2188 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 to you that my intention in the first three months, and I don't have a set-out 100-day plan, but I do have a number of goals and objectives. But one of the top priorities for me is first, to review our effectiveness for our clients; two, review the internal organization and whether all of that makes sense; and three, whether there is anything that we can do, with the help of Council, in order to provide you with the best legal representation that you deserve.
Could you -- just briefly, could you describe your philosophy? How do you plan to use outside law firms? What will your decision be on using outside counsel rather than your in-house attorneys? How do you decide that?
First, there are some things that the Law Department does much better than anybody else. So to the extent that we have the expertise in the Law Department to take on a particular project, I would rather keep it in-house. I have day-to-day supervision and review of the Department, so it's easier for me to keep it in-house. If a particular expertise is 2189 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 needed that we don't have in-house and it's not going to be a recurring kind of an issue, then very often, it makes sense to go to outside counsel, because to get somebody up to speed to an experienced level that we need would be difficult to do internally. Secondly, some of the things that I think I'm going to be fairly aggressive about is, I'm going to try to be using creative means. For instance, I mentioned earlier, on the environmental side, we will be utilizing some sort of a contingent mechanism to use outside counsel, much like was done in the tax issues. Sometimes you can get outside counsel to take a risk because they may get a reasonable reward at the end of the table, and at the same time, you can bring in revenues to the City that we otherwise wouldn't see. But in short, to the extent that we have in-house expertise, I intend to utilize that to the extent there's going to be expertise needed. Let me give you an example -- intellectual property. Ten years ago, there was no such thing as intellectual property lawyers in Law Department. We now have five of them and we 2190 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 are going to increase them. Because of the use of technology, we expect that's going to increase in the next few years, so there's an area where it makes sense for us to grow that area because that's going to be a recurring long-term need, and we want to have a first-rate intellectual property section of our Law Department. But if you were to bring in, for instance, handgun litigation, as close as that is to my heart, I don't imagine a lawsuit that we're going to do every year for the next five or ten years on that, so in my view, that's the kind of a lawsuit where it makes eminently more sense, on a contingency basis, to take that to outside counsel.
Thank you very much. Any questions from members of the committee? (No further questions.)
Thank you 2191 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 again welcome.
Next is the Office of Labor Relations. (Office of Labor Relations witnesses come forward.)
Good afternoon. Will you identify yourselves for the record and begin your testimony.
My name is Delia Gorman, and I'm Deputy Director of the Mayor's Office of Labor Relations. With me is Joe Tolan, Deputy Director of the Office of Labor Relations.
Good morning. I know that you have copies of our written testimony that were submitted. I'd only like to briefly summarize. First of all I wanted to mention that we're here on behalf of Bill Grab, who's the Director of Labor Relations, who was unable to be here today. And this is, I believe, our first time in testifying as a separate office before Council, and I appreciate the opportunity. 2192 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 Our Fiscal 2000 budget request represents an increase of $121,989 over Fiscal 2000's estimated obligations. Most of this increase is to fund two RGI staff positions, which is Redesigning Government Initiative staff, which were previously funded by a nonrenewable federal grant during fiscal 2000. Our office is responsible for, among other things, coordinating the Redesigning Government Initiative and also for supporting Labor Relations in activities such as collective bargaining, contract administration, and dispute resolution. Right now, given the timetable we're facing in the collective bargaining part of our process, we're involved fairly intensely in collective bargaining agreements for all four of the major bargaining units, whose agreements expire at the end of this fiscal year, June 30th. We are in compliance with Act 111 and Act 195 in our processes with the Fraternal Order of Police, the International Association of Firefighters, and with District Councils 43 and 47. In terms of our service-level measures, we are responsible for handling AFSCME grievances 2193 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 as the last step prior to arbitration. From 1997 through 1999, AFSCME filed an average of 235 grievances each year. In terms of resolving them, in Fiscal 1999, 337 grievances were resolved. In addition, the grievance backlog that had been as high as 454 in 1996 is now down to 223 as of the close of calendar 1999. We also conduct training throughout the City for supervisors, managers, and in conjunction with the RGI, for some union representatives. During fiscal 1999, we trained 277 such employees. We have so far as of the end of January trained another 181 and we're on track to train 260 people this year. We have a established a goal of 280 for Fiscal 2001. Redesigning Government Initiative was begun in 1996, and we have made strides towards increasing the involvement of various departments in this labor management cooperation effort. The Redesigning Government Initiative was designed to improve services to the citizens, cut costs of providing those services, and basically improve government through labor management cooperation. It was originally conceived as a 2194 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 two-year pilot program between the City and AFSCME, and it has extended through the end of this collective bargaining agreement. The Recreation Department was chosen as the first site for a pilot RGI effort, and since last year, when we received a federal grant conciliation service of $100,000, we've been able to hire two staff and to expand the program to five other departments. In addition to the Recreation Department, we have an RGI program for the Revenue Department, Licenses and Inspections, the Health Department, the Police Evidence Laboratory, and the Philadelphia International Airport. Some of the accomplishments that RGI is accredited with are: The Recreation Department's expansion of its Summer Food Program, from under 200,000 meals served in 1996 to over 500,000 in 1999; The Revenue Department's reengineering of its audit process for businesses located outside of the City resulting in audits identifying over $1 million in additional assessments in business privilege taxes due from those companies; and with Licenses and Inspections, their license issuance 2195 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 process is looking to increase departmental RGI committees to in fiscal 2001 additional 4 appropriations request.
5 Thank you very much for this 6 opportunity to present our testimony, and we'd be 7 happy to answer any questions that you may have. 8
In terms of the Redesigning Government Initiative, would you consider it a success?
In terms of money spent and money saved and money earned, do we have figures in terms of that? Your testimony mentions something in terms of the Recreation Department going from 200,000 kids to 500,000 kids.
Meals served? 2196 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
But what about in terms of the monies that we've spent in order to be able to achieve that increase in service?
The Summer Food Program in the recreation centers is a part of a much larger program that is citywide. I believe it's fully funded through the State and that the Recreation Department is able to apply for reimbursement for not only the cost of the food but also for some administrative costs and the cost of implementing the program. I don't know that it recovers all of the costs, but what allows that expansion to happen is that by serving more kids more meals, we can also cover the cost of some of the salaries of the Recreation Department.
So what I'm interested in is, how did you accomplish that increase with the same amount and without any other monies coming in from the City budget? 2197 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
Well, my understanding of how the Recreation Department and RGI has worked is that there were -- we increased the number of centers that were participating. There were some operational problems in some of those centers that had to be resolved jointly that had to do with things like trash collection and food delivery and that sort of thing. So we expanded the number of centers that were participating. The staffing levels for permanent employees was the same but there was some addition of some helper staff that the program funds. But I don't have the all the details, I apologize.
Well, what I would like to get from you are those details in terms of delivery to the Chair and to us is because we're constantly asking, and labor unions in this city have come under heavy attacks over the years for the lack of activity, and it seems that here we have a program that works together with employees and management to create a system that not only brings in savings but is also more efficient.
So I'd like to see how that happens. And if it is successful, why are we not doing it across the whole City government because. For example, if you walk into municipal service building and you go through there and so on, you find that there's a need there for improvement.
Well, if I could, I'd like to give you an example of the Licenses and Inspections Department Committee.
Before you begin, how many people right now are working in the Redesigning Government Initiative to implement it and push it forward?
What we did in 1997 was started with a department where we felt the leadership of both the union and the department were supportive of this concept and worked with them to make it a success. That's what happened with the Recreation Department, and we broadened 2199 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 it out into a number of other committees in that department. Based on that, we were able to spread it to other departments -- as I said before, five other departments. It is a somewhat -- it requires a lot of perseverance to do this. There's a cultural change when you're talking about sitting down and jointly solving problems with labor and management both at the table. So it's not something that we were very familiar with how to do when we first started doing it. And that has been a learning process for us. The other thing it is, is learning how to take a look at the processes that we follow on a daily basis as part of City government and look at how we can do things better, and that has also been a learning process for the people involved. Our office is a coordinating function, a facilitating function, and we have two people who are full-time RGI, and I spend about half of my time on that. If you were to count all of the people from the departments involved, it could reach 80 to 100 as of right now of people on committees and working on solving problems. 2200 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 So. . .
In the five departments that we have functioning right now that we have programs already started, do we have a figure in terms of services improved and monies saved?
I don't have a total figure. We have individual figures associated with specific departmental project committees. For the Revenue Department one, it was a $1 million assessment in additional business privilege taxes.
That's money that was assessed. We have to follow up to see if all of that was collected, but the Revenue examiners can collect the funds; we're not the ones responsible for actually collecting the money.
So the basis in terms of the Revenue Department is an improved assessment and maybe a collection by over an additional $1 million?
That's correct. That's 2201 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 with one project. Now, depending on the nature of the project, the dollar amounts are going to be different. An example is Licenses and Inspections, where we embarked on designing the top twenty licenses, the ones that bring in the most revenue. One of the first ones they did was they determined that they would save $11,000 for that one particular type of license per license issuance cycle. So what they're doing is as they do this process is redesign and calculate the cost. This is also by way of speeding up the process by months and saving $11,000 per license, so we're keeping track of these. I don't have an up-to-date figure as to what the total amount was that was saved but it has been an ongoing process.
Would you see if you can get that to us, because as we get into the budget process, I'd like to get a clear picture of what is working and how much money is being saved and what services are being improved.
I would really 2202 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 appreciate that, by departments. In terms of your budget request, are you at least planning on extending and implementing the program throughout the administration of different agencies?
What is the timetable and timeline to be able to do that, and what are your projections over the next fiscal year?
We're projecting to have departmental project committees in at least ten City departments in Fiscal 2001. We're currently in six departments. We had a target of eight by the end of this fiscal year and we're hopeful to reach that at the end of the fiscal year and spread it to ten in the next fiscal year. I say ten departments, but with the Recreation Department, we had one departmental committee that has four subcommittees working on 2203 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 different projects, so it's not just one project per department.
Could you show us that plan? Could you show us so we can see it?
Yes, a timetable and your projected savings over the fiscal year that we're approaching.
In terms of health care, what does it cost to the City?
My name is Joseph Tolan, the Deputy Director of the Office of Labor Relations. The City provides a contribution to each of the four major bargaining units per member per month. It varies from, I believe, 428 to 2204 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 about 458. I could get you the exact numbers. I believe they're also reported in the current Five-Year Financial Plan of the City in the City Workforce Chapter.
Does the City administer a health care program for the non-unionized employees?
There's a City-administered plan for people who are in categories that are not represented by the unions or are not members, for example, of District Council 43. They have an opportunity to join the City-administered plan. I don't have an exact cost for that. That is administered, though, by the Personnel Department. It's a little bit different from the way in which we deal with the labor unions.
Mr. Tolan, we're having a hard time hearing you. Please pull mike closer.
We don't have an exact cost for the City-administered plan although it's probably shown under "Benefits" in the Personnel 2205 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 Department, under one of the headings for its Benefits Unit.
You don't have an exact cost because you don't have it in front of you or because you don't know it?
Thank you very much. Before we go to the next person, we wanted to introduce the City Council Student President for today. Her name is Erica Robinson, and she's a junior at Central and has been in PAL for five years and is very, very active in her community and in her church. Let's give her a hand. (Applause.)
Thank you. 2206 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 Councilwoman Brown?
During budget hearings, we learned that both the Water Department and Fleet Management have an initiative that involves their departments providing internships for young people. Have you all are you currently a part of any kind of such an initiative currently? And if you are, speak to it in some detail.
You're referring to the Fleet Management Apprenticeship Program? And the Water Department, I believe, also has one. Actually, those programs predate Redesigning Government Initiative in the contract, and I certainly would not want to claim that the Redesigning Government Initiative is the only labor management cooperation going on in the City. A number of City departments have long-standing labor management programs that address things like difficulty in recruiting and retaining automotive mechanics, but we're not directly involved with their efforts. I mean, what we have been focussing on is trying to start 2207 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 new projects in departments. I figure with the Water Department and Fleet Management, they've been so successful with their cooperative efforts that I didn't want to meddle with that. But if they want help from us, we'd be happy to support them in any way that we can.
Are you suggesting then that there may not be a need or that it may not be appropriate for your office to have young people from high schools come through and learn the type of work you do in terms of a career path?
Certainly we've had internships in our department but it's a kind of small department. I thought you meant supporting in terms of --
So your department does have ongoing relationship with the Philadelphia school system to involve young people in internship opportunities?
We've had -- I don't know about Philadelphia high school students. I think it's more along the lines of college students.
College students? 2208 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
And the colleges that have participated include some such as. . .?
I'll have to get back to you on that. I don't know where the students have come from, but I can get that you information.
We're just interested, my office, in seeing and hearing about those City departments that have created or cultivated a relationship with the School District so that we can do a better job at helping young people understand the various options available to them.
Thank you very much. Are there any other questions from members of the committee? (No further questions.)
Thank you. 2209 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 The District Attorney is next. (District Attorney's Office witnesses come forward.)
Good morning, good morning Madam Chair. I thank the Chair and Members of Council for inviting us to appear here this morning in support of or budget statement. I have provided to Council President Verna copies of my presentation, which I'm sure she has distributed to you. First, my thanks to the Chair and to City Council for its assistance, along with then-President of City Council Street, now Mayor Street, and City Council President Verna in the productivity loan of last year. It has been extraordinarily well-received and we are very grateful for that assistance. Today, we are happy to appear before Council in support of the Mayor's proposal in which he has already put in his budget message for which he --
Excuse me, would you please identify yourself for the record. 2210 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
Sure. Lynne Abraham, A-B-R-A-H-A-M. Joining me is are Deputy District Attorneys George Mosee, M-O-S-E-E, and Albert Toczydlowski, T-O-C-Z-Y-D-L-O-W-S-K-I. I beg Council's pardon. The Mayor has already spoken to Council in his budget message, where he offered his partnership, and to me, which I have accepted most graciously and willingly, and provided in his budget message monies for the District Attorney's Office over and above the COLA, which we are speaking in support of. I believe that there are a couple of things that need to be mentioned in passing. As members of the Council well know, crime and safety on the streets and violence and drugs are the number-one issue in the minds of Philadelphians. Every policy and every newspaper report, including most recently the PICA Report and headlines in the Philadelphia Daily News of Friday, February 11, 2000, point to the fact that crime still remains the undisputed undefeated king of issues amongst our citizens and our visitors to the city, and we are trying very mightily to address all of the 2211 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 issues of crime with regard to the needs of our citizens, our youth, our visitors, and everyone else. First, with regard to our probation and parole initiative, there are roughly 800 probation matters listed every month, which is approximately 220, or roughly percent of everyone who is 9 arrested in the City of Philadelphia, assuming an 10 average of 1200 adult arrests, which is the only 11 thing we're considering right now. There are 12 juvenile offenders as well who are on probation, 13 but just taking the adult offenders arrested each 14 week, 20 percent of those people are already on 15 probation and parole for at least one or more 16 offenses. There are at least on an average month 17 800 probation and parole matters listed in Common 18 Pleas Courts. That is on top of an already heavy 19 caseload due to arrests and prosecution matters 20 involving those and other offenders because those matters are listed by the judge whose probation it is that the person is serving. Our DAs and other counsel of course have to address sometimes 20, 30, 40 or even 50 cases of violations for probation at the end of a 2212 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 very long list. There may be 30 or 40 trial cases listed in a court, and at the end of that day, what is handled or deferred or adjudicated or dismissed then on to have of that very extensive list because they are listed in such a way that the assistant assigned to the room has no time whatever to review the file. There isn't a whole lot that we can do except, for want of a better term, stand the case up and review the file as quickly as possible. But it isn't really prepared properly so that we can prepare for the report relevant information community probation departments, service providers, mental health, drug treatment and so forth and parole agents to present to the court as cogent reasons why the person restrictions or additional oversight have his probation or parole revoked sent to jail or prison or to do something else so that this new money will in part help us to begin to attack that problem. In addition to that, as you may well know, because of the extraordinary increase in cases and the inordinate number of appeals, I think well over thousands of appeals are presently 2213 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 pending in all manners of cases. Our Appellate Litigation Unit is just swamped. Just a few months ago, the Superior Court ordered us to hand up 1500 briefs, and they wanted to do it in 60 days. I called the president judge and told him that it would be impossible and the number of new cases that the Superior Court wanted handled truly needed a finite amount of money. One can ask for a few attorneys more in the unit and try to begin to address some of the issues raised by the courts at our appellate level.
The appellate-level cases are extremely complex, very difficult, and take a tremendous amount of intellectual energy, arguments, plus tremendous amounts of research. So our Appellate Unit can get a little bit of help with the money that we have allocated for that. We are very concerned, as I'm sure Council and the Mayor are, about escalating crime and violence in our schools. Last Saturday, I attended the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers luncheon. Councilmembers, including yourself, Councilwoman Blackwell, also attended. When our mayor spoke about, you know, violence in the school, every teacher, every teacher in that 2214 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 audience of probably 1100 to 1500 -- it's hard for me to guess, but it was unanimous that they are feeling the tremendous weight of violence and threats taken out against them, threatened or taken out against students by other students, against students and teachers by outsiders. And the situation is really fraught with difficulty. Again, while we can't ask for everything that we'd like to have, we thought that we would want to add at least a few more prosecutors in the Juvenile Unit to be involved in the issue of school violence. I would like to say there's more input from the School Board, but I think it's sadly lacking on these issues. And I have offered to meet with the School Board on crime issues as it relates to crime in the schools, violence in the schools, truancy, and so forth, but that has not yet been forthcoming, but we're hoping that that will occur. As you may or may not know, we were unsuccessful in getting a truancy grant from City Council in prior years, but we have obtained a small truancy grant which only lasts for one year and is only good for one school cluster, and we 2215 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 have chosen the William Penn cluster and assigned Lynn Nichols, N-I-C-H-O-L-S, a phenomenal District Attorney in the office. I think she's in her ninth year, and her sole job is to work within the William Penn Cluster with parents and students and caregivers, foster parents, aunts to make sure that children know that it's important that they go to school. And we made a big contest in my office and had the "It's Cool To Go To School" contest, with schools participating from throughout Philadelphia. Winners will be awarded a clothing certificate and tickets to the 76ers. Pat Croce will come down to the schools and we are presently working on a poster that will be distributed throughout the schools. So we believe that these two assistant DAs that we are seeking funds for will assist in what is a very vexing problem for our teachers and our pupils and their parents and the community. " We have been 2216 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 fairly inundated with requests by citizens regarding things such as identity theft. An example to the Council is where a patient checks into a hospital, and before he or she is admitted, they have to give all of their identification, their Social Security number, their name, their phone number, their address, and all vital information -- which I believe they have every reason to believe will be kept confidential. However, there and in other places, there are people working on the inside who cull that information and sell it or give it to someone else who creates a bogus identity, using all of your personal information. Since I'm looking at you Councilwoman Blackwell, let's say you had to check into a hospital. I'm the clerk, I take all of your information, give or sell it to someone and create photographic identification, which is bogus. They'll then get a new Social Security card and they'll get all kinds of identification and they will get credit cards and checks, and they will buy things on your credit and they will run the credit cards up to the max. They will do all 2217 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 kinds of things, like raid your bank account.
And then what will happen is, in the month or two, when you start to get letters and requests for payment, you'll look at these extraordinary figures and tell the credit card company that this is not your purchases. In the meantime, while you're trying to fight with the credit card companies, people have filed papers with credit card companies that will damage your credit rating. People have spent literally years trying to clear up their good credit reputation because someone has stolen their identity. S. Attorney's Office recently broke up a gang of about 40 or 50 people who were cloning the identities of people working for real companies with bogus identities and ripping off companies like Children's Hospital, WPVI-Channel 6, and other business and commercial agencies of millions of dollars using a LaserJet printer and creating checks that they had ordered through apparently legitimate check-writing people to create false identities. Losses were enormous, and the banks bore that loss, but it made a tremendous, tremendous impact. 2218 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 On top of the two things I've mentioned, I wanted to mention briefly other things. Cyber crime has impacted hate over the Internet, stalking over the Internet, downloading porn, kiddy porn, turning a legitimate account into an illegitimate account, phone cloning, extortion and the like. The amount of money that we have asked for in our budget will begin the process of starting a Cyber Crime Unit. It will by no means address it in full, but it's a start. In addition to that, just in passing, the other monies that we have sought are office infrastructure. Our phone system, for instance, is in a near state of collapse. But we have been using the same amount of money for our office supplies that we have for the past ten years despite cover anything postage has gone up, paper's gone up, supplies have gone up, everything has gone up. And that is a summary of our presentation. I also want to say that we remain committed to working with every citizen's group and this Council to address the issues and faces that crime takes in Philadelphia, and I have 2219 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 redoubled my effort and personal effort to try to address the many problems that face Philadelphia in all of its complexity. I've lived all my life in Philadelphia and I have my life's blood in service to this community and will continue to do so. I'm happy to answer any questions that the Chair or anyone has.
Thank you, Madam D.A. Any questions? That was short and sweet. Councilwoman Brown?
On of your testimony, you made the statement, "At a small cost, this initiative will go a long way in creating safer schools," and you said you chose the William Penn Cluster for that initiative. Speak briefly, if you could, as to why that cluster versus the other 21. What standards or 2220 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 criteria had you considered that moved you towards this goal of creating a safer school?
Councilwoman, we had the opportunity to ask for a small amount from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, and they would not fund -- or "could not fund" is probably more accurate -- a citywide truancy intervention program, but they did give us a one-year grant. Then we were left with which cluster to select.
So we tried to select the cluster which has the typical problems of truancy, and we chose one that had kids not showing up as early as the first grade. We had our announcement at the Clymer School in East Philadelphia, where I have been many times to read to children. And Mrs. Book, the principal there, is a terrific terrific lady. And we made our announcement with the School Board there, and we began there and in that cluster. We believe that in order for children to avoid violence, to become well-educated, achieve the maximum they can achieve, our first 2221 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 goal has to be crime prevention, and truancy intervention has to start at a very early age. We want to turn children away from truancy and hanging on the corner and coming into town to do bad things. So getting involved with the children at a very young age and getting caregivers, mothers, fathers, and other family members in on the school truancy intervention prevents the next generation of children from perhaps engaging in criminal conduct, and it opens up a whole new horizon of opportunity for children by knowing that it's cool to go to school.
Absolutely. So the goal is to work with elementary and middle school students in the William Penn Cluster?
Well, personally, we are working with kids all over. I go to many, many, many schools to do interventions, and I buy library books -- we've been buying library books for the Clymer School -- not the Clymer School, the Pierce School in North Philadelphia. And an initiative of mine is to have D.A.'s out in the schools to conduct peer mediation insofar as violation of school rules are concerned, and to 2222 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 make sure that the teachers, students, administrators, families, and community members know that our interest is not only in addressing the issue after somebody has committed a crime, but more importantly, preventing the crime from ever occurring in the first place. This is just the beginning of the initiative but is, by no means, the only thing that we can or should ask for. It's just a beginning step that we think we want to take.
And coordination is so important, especially given the limited resources. It's a fact that the School District does not have in place a K-through-12 curriculum that deals with conflict resolution of any kind. So I will be curious to know at a later hour if the William Penn Cluster, or one of those clusters that has the conflict resolution project initiatives going on, to see how that cluster could benefit from coordination. For those that have the truancy pilot program, is it still too new to make an assessment on its success?
Since our last meeting, Councilwoman Brown, I have asked Lynn Nichols to 2223 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 come visit with me. She will be happy to either come to Council and speak to Council as a whole or to a committee or to individual Councilmembers. She believes that she is making the most progress in the initial stages with the youngest children so that parents and caregivers know that it's not all right for a mother to go someplace and leave children in charge of other children and that she must take affirmative responsibility in getting her children to school on time and every day. Lynn is having less success with the high-schoolers because by the time they're and 14 16, she has not been able to make the kind of 15 impact that she would like. But she is, she believes, making some initial progress with the 1st through 7th-graders but not a whole lot beyond that, although she has certainly not seen the result of all of her efforts.
State for the record role of the School District in the truancy prevention initiative.
When we announced our plan to attempt to receive monies for this initiative, we had some discussions with the 2224 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 School Board and, indeed, I think two or three of the School Board members appeared at the Clymer School to announce this initiative, plus we spoke to the administrators of the cluster that we had selected plus the principals of the school. So we were in full communication and cooperation with the Board, the administrators, the principals and the teachers, and they all got on board rather quickly.
So the role of the School District is to alert your office of when a child has reached some stage where truancy is a problem? What is that stage?
What we do, Councilwoman, is, we don't wait for them to tell us because it creates a problem. What Miss Nichols does is, she goes into the school's computer.
And sees who's there and who's not there, that way we get the real deal, so to speak.
And then from her list of 2225 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 children who have a certain number of unexcused absences -- and the emphasis is on unexcused absences, meaning no doctor's note, no note by the school that says it's all right for this child to have missed a class. And we look for the children that have five, six, seven unexcused absences.
I'll be looking forward to and I would venture to say that several of my colleagues will also look forward to seeing some hard data as it relates to attendance of a particular school and where it will be a year from now as a result of the intervention of this program.
If you would like to get the interested Councilpeople together and let me know a convenient time for you, Miss Nichols could come to any hearing or meeting to speak to you, if would will care to set one up.
You're welcome. Madam D.A., with regard to the School 2226 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 District, and have they not responded to you about the issue of school truancy, is it an ongoing long-standing issue?
I really want to meet with members of my office who have a lot of issues that we would like to handle with the School Board members, and there may be an appropriate opportunity coming up in light of the fact that the Mayor is about to appoint a whole new or almost a whole new board. So I will be most anxious and willing to meet personally with several of my deputies and other assistants with the School Board so that we can all begin to address those issues which most impact on our youth.
From time to time, I've asked a similar question of the Police Department and the Courts, and I may have even asked you the same question about repeat offenders. This year, the Police, when I asked the question about the number of people that are arrested who have had priors and have been arrested from time to time, they indicated that the number could be as low as 60 percent and sometimes as high as 90 percent of the people who are arrested had been arrested in prior cases. I didn't ask the Courts that this morning. The President and the Administrative Judge of Common Pleas court were not here, so I didn't bother to ask that question. Do you have statistics about the number of recidivism cases?
We don't have that capacity in our office, Councilman. We rely on the Courts to try to do that. We're not sure -- I don't know how accurate or how carefully anybody keeps those statistics. We find, however, that many of our cases are recidivist and that issue problematic. You can go anyplace in the City and 2228 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 ask yourself, How come we keep seeing the same person doing a crime over and over again? Can't you -- we, the system -- do something about it?
And I know that you've also been criticized for criticizing judges who, in your opinion, are not putting in the full day of time that they're required at the court. In the years I was in the court system, although it was traffic court, I did have action with the other court as court administrator. Oftentimes a lot of judges, if the D.A.'s representative wasn't in court or the Public Defender wasn't there or the police personnel were not in court, they may be in another court in the same building and not able to get to the next courtroom, and I found that in most cases, the judges would simply dismiss the case for lack of prosecution. And most of the time -- I know there are not written statistics, but I think the people who work for you and who work for the Police know they're seeing the same faces basically being let go 2229 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 because the judge doesn't want to take the time or give the hour or two to see if the police personnel show up or the D.A. I guess I'm kind of just venting right now. As someone who's been part of the political process in this city about 33 years now and having supported a number of judges from time to time, to find out that these are the people who we rely on to dispense justice -- and I'm not prejudging anyone who may be rearrested, but when you see the same person come in and out of your courtroom five, six, seven, twenty times and being released, it seems for the most part -- correct me if I'm wrong -- that it is because of one of the technicalities and using as a ruling the fact that someone is missing from the courtroom setting and that doesn't make it a complete package, so therefore, the person basically walks.
First of all, I have to agree with what you're saying. Let me try to respond in this way. It's not a judge's requirement to be in court, but it's really an obligation that they owe to the citizens whom they are elected to serve. I 2230 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 can't imagine a judge who couldn't sit a full day, five days a week. As a matter of fact, there's no 4 reason why every judge shouldn't be sitting every day of the week from 9:30 until at least 4 or 4:30. Some judges are very hard-working and I would have no complaint against them, but there are a number of others who come in late, then leave early, and you'd be hard pressed to find an excuse for that. Second of all, I think the judges need to stop overloading the county facilities with the sentences of 11-1/2 to months. They ought to 14 be sending those offenders -- not everybody 15 certainly -- to the State prison. 16 In addition to that, I had a big 17 meeting with Judge Presenza about this movement, 18 and we want to do everything we can to make sure 19 it does not continue to be a revolving door, but 20 obviously without a new prison that we are bound 21 to build up on State Road, or wherever, and 22 without judges doing what they're supposed to do 23 -- being fair and honest and sentencing the way they should sentence and being resolute about sentencing -- we're not going get very far. 2231 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
I agree. For the record, I just also want to state that I know it's not all of the judges. There are some very hard-working judges, just as there are hard-working people in any business or industry. But I wonder where there head is sometimes when they use the excuse that the police person has not arrived in court yet because they may be in another courtroom. And it's just street people, constantly the same people that you see in and out of the system, which is why the taxpayers complain that the streets aren't safe. Commissioner Timoney's doing a great job in arresting a lot of people, but I heard one judge at a meeting not too long ago complain about having such a big caseload because this guy Timoney keeps locking people up. Well, I think that's the job of a police officer, to lock up someone doing something allegedly wrong. I guess I'm just venting more than anything else today. I know you've been vocal and I really do appreciate the fact that you from time to time bring that to the public's attention about what is really wrong in the system today. And I 2232 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 think it has to start at the top with the judge, and he or she has to be a little bit more patient with what is being presented before them and give us a full day's work for a full day's salary. That's what they're elected to do. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Madam D.A., we note that the PAL representative is here, and we do welcome him and ask him to stand. Thank you. If you give us your name, we're glad to introduce you. (Student PAL representative comes forward.) STUDENT REP.: I'm Dennis Louis.
Are there any other questions for the D.A.? (No further questions.)
Thank you, Madam D.A. 2233 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
Next is the Public Defender's Office. (Public Defender's Office witnesses come forward.)
Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.
My name is Ellen Greenlee, G-R-E-E-N-L-E-E, and I'm the Chief Defender of the Public Defender Association of Philadelphia. On my left is First Assistant Charles Cunningham, C-U-N-N-I-N-G-H-A-M. To my right is our Controller, Selim Pawadros, S-E-L-I-M, P-A-W-A-D-R-O-S.
Thank you Madam Chair and members of City Council. And a special welcome to 2234 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 the newest members of City Council, Councilman Goode and Councilwoman Reynolds-Brown. It's nice to be here on behalf of the approximately 460 employees of the Defender Association to present testimony in support of the budget request. At about this time last year, one of the subjects of discussion we had with Council was our attempt to obtain parity with the District Attorney's Office, which was generally supported by Council, as it was supported by the Rendell Administration. We finally worked out that plan, and our parity plan went into effect on July 1st. This is, Madam Chair, a four-year plan, and we're in the second year of that plan to take us to the point where our attorney staff is being paid at the same level as the District Attorney is being paid. So we're very grateful for the support of Council and the support of the Rendell Administration and the continuing support of the Street Administration for our parity request. As you are very well aware, the Defender Association serves primarily indigent citizens in three areas: adults or juveniles 2235 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 charged with crimes; dependent children in the foster care system, of whom we represent about 7700 right now; and also respondents in mental health hearings. Approximately hearings a year from the police an from the District Attorney. 1999 was a year in which our caseload reached an all-time high. In 1999, our new case appointments reached 65,500, up from 48,000, representing a 37 percent increase in our cases. In terms of our workload -- which, as you know, our workload figures are those actions that we take on behalf of a client, which would include court appearances, interviews, investigations, social service actions -- it reached the level of over 400,000, 413,000 to be exact in 1999. And in that same three-year period, from 1996 to 1999, that represents a 27 percent increase in the amount of work. We have seen in the last year, and actually over the -- going on three years now, an explosion of cases in the Municipal Court in terms of the thousands and thousands of misdemeanor charges being lodged every month against defendants in Philadelphia. In the last year, in 2236 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 Misdemeanor Court, Municipal Court, we've had a percent increase in our court appearances over the last two years and we've had a 62 percent increase in municipal in our case listings. This is part of the reason why we have pending in terms of our negotiations with the Budget Office for what I consider to be a modest increase in staff to meet these burgeoning caseloads that our attorneys are handling. What we are asking for in Municipal Court is to add five attorneys to our Trial Unit so that we have can trial rooms where the case lists have grown to -- it's not unusual to have 50 to 60 cases a day, and you have to add to that what the District Attorney alluded to the number of violations of probation hearings at the end of a long list, although it's a number unlike what the District Attorney says. It's not 800 a month but 800 a week, which is substantially larger. That's what we are representing, that we have about 800 violation of probation and parole hearings a week. In addition to that explosion in Municipal Court cases, the same is true in terms 2237 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 of preliminary hearings. In the period since 1996, we have had a 58 percent increase in preliminary hearings. To help us staff the overload there on the case lists that show up every day, we are also asking for one attorney to add to the two who serve as splitters, who help out those attorneys whose lists are very high.
They have at least more than 30 cases a day, and what we're asking our young people to do is really kind of incredible, with the number of cases we're asking them to handle. I've also included in the testimony some indication of some of the areas in which we worked. We have more than a dozen different units who work at representing poor people in Philadelphia and who are providing what we hope and expect is the most effective representation that they could get, even were they not poor and in need of our services. Some of the highlights, some of the new initiatives in which we're involved are related to area of dependency with the initiation of what is called "Model Court," by Family Court Administrative Judge Panepinto. Model Court 2238 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 started in the fall of 1998, and we are staffing Model Court with two attorneys and two social workers. Funding will evaporate at the end of this fiscal year, which is the money that was provided by administration of Family Court, so that we will be looking in terms of that request for additional staff. So we will need to staff not only Model Court I, but also, Judge Panepinto's planning to open Model Court II in a matter of a couple weeks. We will be looking for financing to staff four attorneys and four social workers to work in these two model courtrooms. I should comment on the Model Court. Model Court is an attempt to front load services to children and families and really to move them more quickly to permanency with their birth family or through adoption. Model Court is also working on accelerated adoption proceedings. What this means is, there is more and quicker and more effective contact with the court surrounding dependent children so that instead of their languishing in foster care, which is sometimes years, sometimes within six months, they can be moved to permanency. 2239 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 I must comment on the role of Judge Lillian Ransom, who has been really shepherding this project and has been sitting as the judge in Model Court. Judge Ransom has done an incredible job of setting up court standards for Model Court, which is a hard-to-equal part of our budget request. In addition to the attorneys that we need for the many more cases that we're handling of misdemeanors and preliminary hearings, our Delinquency Unit is handling those cases where children are charged with delinquent acts, and it has been involved in several grants this year, including a grant that would provide better representation in a court and get our cases better prepared to be handled more quickly. We are also working on a grant having to do with children with special-education needs in the delinquency system. We have one attorney assigned to handle those cases and we are involved in a two-year project called "Multi-Systemic Therapy," which is a pilot project. Philadelphia is the first large area to participate in this, and there will be 200 youngsters who would otherwise be in custody in 2240 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 protective surroundings because of violent behavior, who will receive services in their home in lieu of being in institutions. The other aspect of representation of our youngsters has to do with our Juvenile Special Defense Unit, which has for the last four years been representing on a one-on-one basis. They have had a marvelous record in the last four years of being able, through hearings and/or negotiations with District Attorney, to have 46 percent of the youngsters, whom we're representing as adults charged as adults, returned to Juvenile Court, where there is a substantially better chance that they will receive rehabilitation as opposed to simply being warehoused in state prisons. Another area of enormous growth has been our Probation, Parole and Alternative Sentencing Unit, directed by Byron Cotter. I think he is still here.
This has been a program where it is really the intention to get people out of custody and into treatment. During 1999, the unit represented clients at 32,000 hearings and reconsiderations of sentence and early parole on 2241 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 the early parole petition. That is, we file the petitions and had a 82 percent success rate. In addition to hearings the unit received 12,000 phone calls and letters. With a small staff of probably fewer than a dozen people, it's an incredible amount of work that they do. They have also been involved through this unit in intermediate punishment review to see whether they might participate in the intermediate punishment program. At the present time, in 1999, 492 were accepted into the intermediate punishment program. In all, over the last several years, there has been a huge growth in the number of cases Mr. Cotter has worked on with the other stakeholders in the system, especially with the Health Department, the District Attorney, the Probation Department in helping to create inpatient and outpatient programs where clients can receive treatment with the most common presenting problem of substance abuse, as opposed to simply being warehoused in a prison. In a study that was done in 1998, there was an 80 percent-plus reduction in recidivism for those 2242 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 who completed six months of treatment. That is, they were not convicted months following their 4 parole, which is a very significant success rate, 5 showing, at least for our purposes, that in most 6 cases, the possibility of alternative sentencing 7 and the possibility of inpatient or outpatient 8 treatment pays great dividends. It also saves the 9 City millions of dollars in terms of what would be 10 spent for people in custody. 11 The last unit I will mention is the 12 Homicide Unit, which began work in April 1993. In 13 that almost seven-year period that we have been 14 representing homicide cases, we do it as team 15 representation and represent the client in the 16 preliminary hearing, through motions, through 17 trial post run motions, through appeal. And 18 during that period we have received 628 appointments. We have closed out 544 cases in the last year, and we received 72 appointments in the Homicide Program. At present, we have 84 cases that are presently open. We do our representation in the Homicide Unit with a team of two attorneys assigned to each case and an investigator and a 2243 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 mitigation specialist. And, as I'm sure you're aware, virtually every homicide that is tried in Philadelphia is a capital case because of the District Attorney's choice that it be denoted as a capital case. And we must in each case prepare it as though the client will face the death penalty. Each team -- and we have four teams and ten attorneys. Our attorneys each have to open 10 cases, and the America Bar Association, as well as 11 the National Aid Defendant Association, say that 12 if you are representing a client charged with 13 capital murder, you should be representing two or 14 three persons only per year. 15 This Homicide Unit has done an 16 extraordinary job in that seven-year period. There has been no client in the Defender Association who has received a death penalty, while during that same period of time, thank God, that that is the case, during that same period of time, there were 60 other Philadelphia defendants who joined the almost 200 or so on death row. I think it is a credit to the work that we do and the investment that the City makes in the work of the Defender Association that this record stands 2244 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 intact, all thanks to God and the hard work of the unit and to the good work of the Administration and City Council. These are just a few examples of the work that is outlined in our testimony.
I certainly am happy to answer any questions and to invite Council to call on me anytime there are constituents who have problems. Or if you have any questions about any criminal matter, we certainly stand ready to serve and invite you to come over and to be briefed in any way that we can provide information. We'll be happy to do so. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Are there any questions from members of the Committee? (No questions.)
Good afternoon and welcome. 2245 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
Absolutely. We don't know what we'd do without you.
Madam President and Members, good afternoon. I am Margaret Tartaglione, chairwoman of the City Commissioners Office. I would like to thank you for the opportunity to present our Fiscal Year 2001 Operating Budget. The City Commissioners' proposed spending level of $8,093,046 for FY 2001 is allocated as follows: Class 100, Personnel Services, $4,223,017; Class 200, Purchase of Services, $2,936,035; Class 300, Supplies and Materials, $640,657; Class 400, Equipment, $12,255; Class 800, Payments to Productivity Bank, $281,082. This represents an additional $116,222 in Class 100 over FY 2000's estimated obligations 2246 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 to provide funds for wage increases. We are requesting an additional $701,821 for Class 100. We have provided you with copies of justification with our FY 2001 Operating details, which were not adopted. Approval of our requests for additional funding will bring our overall spending to $8,794,867. The amount applied to Class 100 funds will bring that expenditure, wherever possible, to continue to carry out cost-savings. We respectfully ask that the Council consider approval of our request for funding 29 positions. This department is instituting sweeping changes to the new millennium by which the citizens of Philadelphia cast votes. We have a severely depleted workforce due to attrition. As we make the enormous technology advances in order to provide the optimal level of service to the citizens of Philadelphia, we must have an adequate number of employees. The new electronic voting machine, which is scheduled to be in place for the 2001 primary, cannot be operated without these position positions. The priority of this department is to ensure the citizens of the Philadelphia their constitutional right to vote. 2247 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 Once again, we thank you for the opportunity to present our Fiscal 2001 Operating Budget.
Let me thank you, Commissioner Tartaglione and Bobby Lee and all who are here for the excellent jobs that all of you do for elected officials and for the City. Councilman Clarke, do you have a question?
Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon, Commissioner.
I have one quick question. You may not be able to answer it right now, but if you could get some information for me. Can you provide me, through the Chair, with information relating to the costs associated with outside legal assistance for last year's' municipal primary?
Yes. I understand that at some point, the commissioner's office had 2248 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 to seek outside counsel.
Councilman, there were other costs involved within our department of securing documents and producing documents for that same case.
But they may have coordinated something with the Law Department. Howard Lebowski (ph.) of the Law Department, I guess, would be know pretty much the details, but we worked very closely with the private attorneys. However, we were not involved in contracting with them or obtaining their services. It was the Department -- the Law Department that did that.
I'll get a hold of Howard today and get the cost figures on that.
And if you could get the numbers on any overtime with your staff associated with machines and --
We someone guarding those from that primary from the day of the primary on 2249 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 through. I guess maybe two weeks ago, the case was finally dismissed for lack of evidence.
Yeah, I'll ask the question Councilman Nutter and myself were just discussion with respect to voting machines. We had some concerns about the training aspect and the people who would be responsible on Election Day to oversee the operation of those machines, and there was a question about hiring students both from high school and college to provide onsite training. A number of members had some concern, particularly the ward leaders among us. Could you tell me about that.
That's in the specs. There are 1,861 divisions, and in the specs, it was that whomever gets the bid should be in each polling place. It's the judge of the election and the board and the committee people that run the 2250 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 election place. These 1,861 people that will be at the polling place will be place if they have any problems with these new machines that are new to the voters.
Okay. Under the proposal that was -- I guess it was the Procurement Department at the time that was giving the testimony. They basically talked about those individuals who would be there onsite providing assistance or direction as to how the process should take place that day. Can you tell us a little bit about that.
The original purpose that we had requested that that be put into the bid specs is because there is training for the vendor who, in coordination with our staff, will train all of the polling place officials, as we do now in each election. But in addition to that, because of the newness of the machines and implementing them citywide, our concern was that if on Election Day there were problems with either opening or operating or closing down the votes at the polling place, that we would not be able to respond in a quick enough fashion in order to keep the election 2251 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 process going without any problems. So we asked that included in the bid specs be the provision that the vendor provide one individual for each polling place who is fully trained in the opening, operating, closing and accounting of the machines. The individual basically is there to provide some kind of comfort level to our existing polling place officials and their structure. If the board needs no help and no 11 assistance, then fine. But the judge of elections will run that polling place, as they always did. This is insurance to make sure that we can respond to problems that may occur on the first day of the citywide usage of the new technology. As far as who those individuals would be, at the moment, it's only specified that they be residents of Philadelphia. We haven't finalized as to whether they were definitely going to be college students or high-school students or what. That's something that's still in the works. Basically what we just wanted to do was make sure that we provide a polling level of comfort and that someone immediately within minutes can assist them in case they have a 2252 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 problem.
As you know, on Election Day, our biggest problems are from 5 o'clock till 8 o'clock in the morning, when people 6 have trouble opening the machines and getting them 7 ready. So as we were preparing the specs and what we needed, we tried to cover that. The biggest problem in the morning is people don't know how to open the machines. So by us putting this in the specs, we figured it would save us problems especially a new machine.
As you move closer to specifying the details, can you kind of keep us abreast of that?
Sure. What we are doing is, next Monday, we are flying out to Ohio and then over to Denver to be there early when their polls are open to when their polls are close, and it's two different machines, so that we how the tallies are taken and how the procedure is operated. 2253 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
I believe April 24th, we're going up to New York -- or New Jersey, I'm sorry -- for the third vendor.
Thank you very much. Are there any further questions? (No further questions.)
I understand that the Public Defender is still here. We had a further question from Councilman Nutter.
After this, we 2254 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 will be calling on our Controller if he's around. And then, of course, SEPTA. And that will be our day.
Madam Chair, can I first -- I know you asked the Defender to come up at my request but I need to ask one other question, which I'd like to ask of the Budget Director. Is that possible, please?
Mr. Dubow, you are potentially the first Budget Director who I think in the past eight years who's had the opportunity to sit in the audience when the District Attorney was here and not have to come up to the table and say why the City is not providing additional resources to the District Attorney. I know that that testimony happened and the D.A. went through the process and I think there was some agreement with the administration to provide some additional resources of somewhere in the neighborhood of 2255 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 maybe to million.
2.5, and I know that was by agreement, and that's fine. The general theory in this, though, is to the extent that there is additional prosecution, and probably beyond theory and into reality, the more prosecutions there are, then the more attorneys there are, and there's somewhat of a ripple effect in the judicial system. The other side of that is that there's more people to potentially defend, and I'm again certainly pleased to support the additional requests, it's already in the budget for the D.A., and that's not the subject of dispute. What I am trying to understand is, do you recall for that $2.5 million what the increase in personnel is? Do you have a general number off the top of your head?
It could be but I'd like to 2256 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 get back to you on that.
Okay. With that in mind, what I'd like to explore with you and with the Public Defender is some level of increase to deal with -- I mean, the D.A. is planning to prosecute more people. How do we make sure that we have adequate defense and adequate resources to provide for the additional cases that will come in?
We got a letter from the Defender, I guess, on February 16th. We had a brief meeting with them in which we agreed that we would examine their requests with them. So we just started that process but we've already agreed with them that we'll look through their request.
Okay. I would certainly like to support a reasonable increase in their budget and am certainly again trying to deal on a somewhat commensurate basis. I understand the Defender's Office doesn't get all the cases but are you somewhere in the 60, 70 percent?
Do you have a sense of what might be some of the answers to these 2257 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 questions, Mr. Dubow, and whether there's any action that the Council may need to take during the course of the present budget process left that we have to deal with --
I don't think there's any action you have to take to increase to fund Class 200. There was a similar process last year with the parity study and I don't think we resolved that until maybe even the beginning of the fiscal year, but we were able to find resources to accommodate the increase.
I guess, lastly, what level of potential increase are we talking about, how many people? And how does that compare with the other side of law enforcement?
It's a total of 20 people. Ten attorneys, four social workers, and 21 eight administrative staff. Six of the attorneys 22 would be for the Municipal Court for the preliminary hearings, where the numbers have soared. The other four are for Model Court and dependency, assuming that we can get that 2258 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 financed.
The four social workers for the Model Court and the eight administrative staff are file clerks, and there's four secretaries.
Okay. What's the total cost of the potential increase?
Mr. Dubow, the nature of the discussion around the $700,000-plus figure, could you keep the Council informed on that through the Chair?
I am finished on that. Mr. Dubow, could you come back for one quick second? It is my understanding that within 2259 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 the District Attorney's Office, there's allocations for the various victim service.
Like the Northwest Organization? Are their funding levels being increased at all in the current budget? Again, notwithstanding additional prosecutions, the more defendants you have, the more victims who would potentially be affected by the increased prosecution. I mean, when you catch more people, you know about more victims.
There have been no requests for additional funding from the D.A., and we didn't provide any.
If a request would have been made, would you have considered it?
Could you be a little briefer in your answers, Mr. Dubow?
Thank you very 2260 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 much.
Next is the City Controller. (City Controller witnesses come forward.)
Thank you very much. Would you identify yourself for the record, please.
David Volpe, and I'm the First Deputy City Controller. First off, I'd like to apologize for the City Controller. The Controller was unable to attend today because he's at the Navy Yard with Congressman Brady and Shipyard officials about economic development issues and sends his apologies. I'm here today to present testimony of the Auditing Department on our Fiscal Year 2001 Operating Budget. The Mayor's proposed FY 2001 Operating Budget includes a proposed General Fund appropriation for the Controller's Office of 2261 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 $7,092,993. This appropriation level represents 2.6 increase from our FY 2000 appropriation. The entire amount of this small increase is related to negotiated salary increases. The staffing level for the Office is expected to remain constant, at 136 budgeted positions. After a thorough review, the Controller's conclusion is that he will have difficulty operating the Controller's Office based on the budget proposed by the Mayor based on the following: This year, we must fund a mandatory peer review over audit operations at a cost of approximately $65,000; Secondly, we must fund a contract with a firm to manage information technology needs due to the continued inability to find qualified staff at the City's pay levels for this vital pay function; Thirdly, there's a continuing need for additional audit staff to fund new and existing mandated audit requirements. New City programs continually sprout up that must be audited under federal and State guidelines. For example, the 2262 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 Controller's Office has been required to spend thousands of hours auditing new programs such as the Empowerment Zone Program, the Passenger Facility Charge, Emergency Medical Services 911 funds, the Drug Forfeiture Program, probation and AIDS grants, and the new School District Education and Human Resources Grant. All of these programs must be audited, resulting in the expenditure of thousands of additional audit hours under the Single Audit Act. The Controller's Office has been able to complete these audits without additional staff only by increasing productivity and by sacrificing areas. This can't continue. We asked the Street Administration for increase of $100,000 for Class 200 monies to pay for the required peer review and information technology services. Unfortunately, that request was denied. I make note that in conversations with representatives of the Street Administration, at least as it relates to Class 200, they say they would try and work with us, so I will say that right up front. On the Class 100 level, we're also 2263 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 asking for additional funds to fund these aforementioned new mandated audit requirements. We did not have conversations with the Administration in terms of them agreeing to fund that overall cost. We are extremely proud of recent accomplishments, which include a highly touted report on the City's Regulatory System and its impact on new and exists small businesses, ongoing reports providing information on the benefits and costs of propose new stadia, and an audit that questioned wasteful police overtime practices. To follow up on the Controller's report from last year, I'm also proud to announce that the Office's citywide Employee Suggestion Program has resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in new revenues and savings. I thank you for allowing me to present this testimony, and we are looking forward to working with City Council in making the City a better place to live. I will be pleased to answer any questions anyone would have. Thank you.
Thank you. 2264 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 So your total increase you're asking for in two classes is 100,000 each?
That's what see ourselves needing. That was not included in the budget.
I have a question with respect to the Empowerment Zone audit. The money that comes to fund the Empowerment Zone activities, is that all federal dollars?
There's state money that goes to enterprise zones which I think may be 2265 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 separate, but I'm going to say it's all federal.
And is the entity that oversees that the MOCS, the Mayor's Office of Community Services?
The entities that they contract with do hire outside auditors. But in terms of auditing MOCS dollars that go into MOCS, our responsibility under the Single Audit Act is to audit them.
Okay. I just wanted to get a sense of if there were duplicate services within MOCS.
We're required to audit different programs. The Empowerment Zone Program is a program based on certain criteria and, therefore, we audit it, so we are auditing that.
Okay thank you. Thank you Madam Chair. 2266 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
Thank you. As far as the audit reports, there's one specific one that I had an interest in, and it was the Department of Licenses and Inspections. I was told that L&I did an assessment of their operation and forwarded that to the Controller, and basically that report seemed to come back there, that audit report. The one area that I would appreciate you commenting on, if you can, is your assessment of the length of time for the process involved around the permit process that L&I manages. Do you have any comment or any thought on your report?
Sure. The Controller said -- Jonathon said we've got to improve this in terms of utilizing e-commerce, number one. And we'd like to see them be able to make an application for every single thing on the Internet, which is faster, easier, and would obviously save us money and transport vis-a-vis 2267 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 permit transaction. That's one component.
I don't know if it's in your report, I'm trying to recollect, but the permit process here in Philadelphia versus the permit process in other cities. In places like Chicago, New York, it takes within days, and here it can take weeks to get a permit. It's a very cumbersome process. Did you do any research and look at other municipalities and compare it with Philadelphia and suggest improvements other than e-commerce?
Yes. To some extent, there was a limited performance audit area that we did. We did look at New York, and New York uses an e-commerce vehicle. We also looked at different jurisdictions in terms of all the different permits and the duplication, for lack of a better term, the onerous nature of certain permits in terms of having to have -- you know, if you want to change a street sign, an awning, you've got to go to one department, then L&I, then you've got to go to the Planning Commission -- not the Planning Commission, the Historical Commission. There's a lot of duplication. 2268 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 A study of Indianapolis showed that they have something like a caseworker, and you come in, you get a caseworker, and that person carries you through each step of the process so that you don't have to go to each separate entity. It's one-stop shopping, and that's what's needed here.
I agree with you. It's like customer relations or customer service in the Streets Department where you have people 12 that take care of what they do, then you go to the 13 Water Department. I would hope that some day, 14 based on labor contracts, that we could have an 15 organization within the government that could be that customer service or representative that would handle the water, the tax, the problems there and, you know, we do duplicate efforts too often, but I understand that that's been in place a long time and that it's going to take a long time probably to change that. But I agree with you. I think the folks over at L&I and I don't think there's it's rare that everybody agrees with your work with your audit report, but the one in reference to the 2269 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 length of time that it takes to get a permit here in the City of Philadelphia, I was told on average, even on the long side in many cases, it takes three days. If it gets complicated, obviously it could take much longer. For one, I enjoy reading those reports, the executive summary very much.
Thank you. Commissioner MacLaughlin Controller, we talk to him often, and I think he's in agreement with a lot of these things. I think he's trying to do many of these things.
Thank you, Madam Chair. First let me express my regrets as a Councilmember about your leaving the City's employ. Let me wish you the very best, but I think you've done a really outstanding job during the period that you've been in the Controller's Office, which is many, many years, and I wanted to thank you for that. 2270 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
But before we lose your body of experience, I want to ask you some questions. Before the City expends any money, at some point in time, when people do work for the City -- and I'm not talking about employees -- payment are made by the City. Does the City Controller have the power to stop payments? And what is the limitation, if that power exists?
Yes, the Controller does have that power. It's in the Charter that the Controller is responsible for looking to each payment appropriation for the City. And we can take it even further than that. And if we find that a contractor has not performed a service or that there's a problem with the contract, that it was calculated wrong by the department, whatever, we will hold up that payment and find out more information and take action where necessary.
Well, let me ask you, upon what basis can you stop a payment? For example, let me give you the experience that appeared very recently in the newspapers. There 2271 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 was family named hotel, I think, that's been very active in court activity, which made a campaign contribution of $75,000 to the former mayor at some point. And sometime around then before or after, there was what appears in many people's minds to be an overpayment for the sale of property or the purchase, whatever it was. Would that be a basis on which the Controller would have a right to stop payment?
Well, I would assume that that's money that went to PIDC in making payment. I don't think that's a direct City payment. I could be wrong. But we could hold that up and grill them and do what we can try to do. Obviously, one of our biggest complaints is that they're continually using PIDC to go around us and go around the system, but when that happens, we are much more limited in terms of what we can do. It's not like the City making payments to vendor services. When it goes to PIDC, we're limited, but we do have some concessions from PIDC in some cases related to the airport and libraries and the RDA, where we have a little time to go around and 2272 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 make sure that the service is rendered.
Well, what determines our authority over our power? I don't want to use the word "authority" because that's part of their name. What rights does the official City of Philadelphia have to monitor, to check the expenditures and to treat the authorities that are organized under State law but do soley City of Philadelphia work where all other officers are appointed? What (small letter A) authority do we have to check their finances?
I'm going to say it's generally by contract, a contract with PIDC to do certain things, RDA to do certain thing like fixing sidewalks and working on certain homes out there. When they did the airport construction on the new terminal A and discussed a new bond issue, thank God Council listened to us when we made a big stink about it and put in some language that would give us at least some authority there, but we're limited in what we normally do.
If they use any City funds, would it not be legal for to us attach a provision to the use of any City funds, that they 2273 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 consent to an auditing operation of all of their activity?
It depends. There have been cases where we do have audit rights. For example, the RDA expenditure, application of those funds does not change from capital, for example, that go out for sidewalks or whatever we've taken, so that we do audit them. This Controller really feels it's important that we, the City, maintain a presence and maintain oversight over City funds so whether or not he's going a little far, sometimes he does, but that's what we feel is necessary and we hope you'll support that.
Well, would it be possible for your office to prepare legislation that would give you legal authority over the auditing functions of these Authorities (capital A) organized under State law but which do soley City work and which are often used, as you indicated before, to get around other limitations. Sometimes getting around those 2274 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 limitations is maybe laudable but sometimes there's State law, like on the limitation of debt for capital purchases. These authorities were created to enable us to function more effectively, but I think very often, in fact, they are used to get around ethical requirements to get around normal supervisory requirements that Council has and the Mayor has over official City bodies which, the Authorities claim, do not exist with respect to them.
Could you before you leave the City's employ? That's what I was leading up to all the time. As your last act maybe officially, if you could present us with a piece of legislation that from the Controller's Office gives you authority you think, from your experience, you ought to have with respect to these other groups that often push you away, you know, or fight you with 'cause I think when a body exists soley for the purpose of doing City work, it ought not to be able to, you know, exempt itself from the normal accounting and audit 2275 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 requirements that are applicable to all other City agencies.
Thank you very much. Certainly, we wish you well and are very sorry to see you go and we thank you for your years of service.
Are there any other questions? (No further questions.)
Thank you very much. SEPTA, you're up. (SEPTA witnesses come forward.)
Good afternoon. Thank you for your patience. 2276 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
Would you identify yourself for the record and begin your testimony.
Yes. I'm Jack Leary, General Manager of SEPTA. Joining me today is City Representative on the SEPTA Board Jettie Newkirk; Senior Staff Head Fran Egan; and Frances Jones, Assistant General Manager within the SEPTA organization. 6 million Fiscal Year 2001 Operating Budget request and to describe a few key initiatives an activities we've pursued during the past year. I have submitted to you a very detailed statement, so this afternoon, I'd just like to touch on a few of the highlights. This request before you includes funds to pay for operating subsidy to leverage State operating assistance and Phlash contract services. During Fiscal Year 2000, SEPTA focused much of its efforts on building partnerships and collaborative efforts with government agencies together with economic government interests to 2277 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 enhance the quality of life and well-being for citizens, constituents, and the riding public of Philadelphia. Working cooperatively, SEPTA has been able to maximize the effectiveness of resources and leverage available funding to provide more service -- yes, I'm saying "more service" -- and for the first time in many years, building facilities to meet the needs of customers. The Authority has taken a proactive approach to promoting transit service as a cost-effective, viable option for the citizens of Philadelphia. Ridership is up, and many of these improvements reflect the Authority's effort to help manage the transition of welfare-to-work individuals to go from public assistance to full employment, and to provide access to school, medical services, shopping, leisure activities, and tourism. Making Philadelphia more public transit-friendly supports initiatives to bring jobs and families to the City, and more jobs and families create new opportunities for riders to use the SEPTA system. It's a win-win situation for both the City and if SEPTA. 2278 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 While this year has had many positive notes, SEPTA recently faced a crisis focused on escalator safety in the system. The recent legal proceedings involving young Shareif Hall and his mother and the judgment imposed upon SEPTA in the courts compelled us to take a long, hard look at our management of this vital public safety concern and at ways we can improve the maintenance and replacement of the system. The tragedy experienced by the Hall family cannot be minimized, but we have resolved to learn from the experience by bringing about positive change in the operation and maintenance of the system. As a first step, we have retained the services of an independent escalator consultant to evaluate the conditions of all escalators throughout the system. Based on their findings, a comprehensive plan to address short- and long-term escalator repair, maintenance, and replacement was developed. In addition, we are accelerating allocation of $90 million in capital for four years of total escalator replacement at several key City stations, including: Pattison, Oregon, Snyder, City Hall Spring Garden, North 2279 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 Philadelphia, Erie, Olney, Juniper, Margaret-Orthodox, and Second Street. SEPTA's Board of Directors has engaged the services of a blue-ribbon panel to study and make recommendations to the management of our legal proceedings, and we're working in conjunction with James Jordan, a former counsel to the City for the 39th District Police cases, and who worked recently as its Assistant General Manager of Loss Prevention, Risk, and Claims Management. And we continue to monitor the escalator situation with daily inspections and regular maintenance activities. Our primary concern remains the safety of our customers at all times.
In the past year, we have taken further strides to implement the goals of our Five-Year Plan for Strategic Change, focusing resources on those projects that will make our system more accessible, safe, and comfortable accessible for loyal customers attractive to new riders of public transit. The framework of the business plan continues to support the Authority in its efforts to find non-traditional and creative solutions, 2280 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 while remaining responsible in the allocation of personnel and finance resources. One of the insights gained through the business planning process is that even in a restrained spending climate, resources must be made available to continue to improve service and introduce new service to meet changing customer needs. In the past three years, SEPTA has significantly added to or created new routes, reversing the historical trend towards service cuts in cities to help balance the budget. System-wide, there's been an increase in new routes and an extension of existing routes in and around Philadelphia. Among SEPTA's other partnership highlights are: the introduction of LUCY -- a new small bus circulator route serving University City. This was created with the University City Special Services; working with the District Pennsylvania Convention Center to create "Supertickets" promoting gateshows and SEPTA; a joint venture with the City to build customer amenities at Market East Regional Rail Station; cooperation with Penn's Landing Corporation and 2281 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 Loews Hotels to support key economic development projects; and the Millennium TransPass that offered safe and easy public transit access at a discounted price for thousands of New Year's revelers who came in to Philadelphia to ring in the next century. SEPTA continue to implement a program of improvements to upgrade the system and enhance safety and security by upgrading new stations, complete infrastructure renewal projects, introduce new vehicles into our fleet, and improve route service. The economy of the region is strong and the outlook for the future indicates continued growth and vitality for Philadelphia. The positive energy in the City has inspired SEPTA to continue to be bold in its initiatives to bring a new SEPTA to bus stops, subway stations, trolley loops, and Center City regional rail stations in Philadelphia. Over the past five years, SEPTA has experienced budget growth below the rate of inflation. This is the result of numerous ongoing cost-reduction initiatives, including reduction of SEPTA's administrative staff, prudent management 2282 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 of contractor services, and material purchases and negotiations or our purchasing process and negotiations for better fuel and electricity prices, all while increasing service in the region. In short, we believe we've made use, better use, of our limited resources. 6 million budget for SEPTA and believe that it provides sufficient revenue to leverage the State's proposed operating subsidy. SEPTA has worked diligently to strengthen its commitment to Philadelphia and to be a proactive partner with the communities, and it is our mission to provide quality transportation 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. The following is just a brief summary of recent SEPTA activities that have benefitted Philadelphia transit riders: The creation of a new service to provide public transportation to growing economic centers, benefitting the City residents who are seeking employment opportunities. Phase I of the Airport Area Route Reorganization was completed with the realignment of the Route 68 to better 2283 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 serve employees of the United Parcel Services facility, the PNC Bank Operations Center, and the Island Avenue businesses and hotels. Service was improved on Routes 5, 7, and as part of the 6 Pier 70 Project.
These routes link Frankford to 7 South Philadelphia, operating the length of 8 Columbus Boulevard between Richmond Street and 9 Oregon Avenue. Service was increased by 25 10 percent on Routes 124 and 125, including express 11 service to accommodate Philadelphia residents 12 working in the King of Prussia area. Service on 13 Route 35 (Manayunk-Roxborough) was extended to the 14 Wissahickon Transfer Center and new express 15 service was implemented on the H and XH between 16 Broad and Erie and Cheltenham and Ogontz. 17 In June, the introduction of the new 18 M-4 cars on the Market-Frankford line was 19 completed, offering customers a route between the 20 69th Street Terminal and the Bridge-Pratt Terminal 21 and providing a climate-controlled, comfortable 22 ride. 23 Delivery has been made on the first of 24 155 new 60-foot articulated buses, offering the 25 same service as two regular 40-foot buses. We are 2284 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 pleased to retire the old buses and deploy the new fleet on heavily used routes, in an effort to help reduce crowding, while being considerate of noise and traffic problems in the neighborhoods that we serve. A program for reservations, scheduling, and dispatching for paratransit service, managed through our Customized Community Transportation operations, was implemented to improve our service quality and contractor compliance. System-wide, SEPTA continued its program of refurbishing stations, with extensive cleaning, painting, lighting improvements, and maintenance repairs. Among the stations completed are the Olney terminal, Second Street, 34th Street, Race-Vine, and Cecil B. Moore. Upgrades at stations are being supported by improved signage, new system maps, and the introduction of a Quality-of-Life Enforcement Program undertaken by the Transit Police. Rehabilitation on the historic Allen Lane Station on the R8 Chestnut Hill West Line was completed, and engineering and design evaluation continues in the redevelopment of the Wissahickon 2285 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 Transportation Center. Work is moving towards completion on construction of new stations at Allegheny and Erie-Torresdale on the Market-Frankford Line, work has been started on a new multi-model complex at the Frankford Transportation Center, and initial project infrastructure work is set to begin on the total reconstruction of the Market Street Elevated in West Philadelphia. Design for the Route 15-Girard Avenue Light Rail Infrastructure project was completed, and bids are out and now due back to SEPTA for the start of a $48 million program to improve the track, trolley wire, substations, feeder system, and the Callowhill Shop and Yard. And SEPTA transit police continue to successfully reduce crime, Part I crimes, defined as "serious crimes against persons or property," by 38 percent. Through enhanced uniform officer presence, aided by the Police Zone Plan that assigns officers to specific stations, bus stops, and regional rail stations within the system, our Transit force has effected an 87 percent decrease in crime over the past 10 years. 2286 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 Madam Chair and Council President Verna, thank you again for the opportunity to provide testimony this afternoon. City Council's generosity and continued support of SEPTA and our commitment to enhance public in City of Philadelphia have made it possible for us to be responsive to the needs of our customers. I look forward to working with Councilman Goode in his new responsibilities as Chair of Council's Transportation Committee, and with new Councilmembers Blondell Reynolds-Brown and Darrell Clarke and other members to address key business initiatives in the coming fiscal year. If there are any questions, I would be happy to provide a response to you. Thank you for your time.
Thank you, Mr. Leary. Before we begin our questioning, I certainly would like to commend you for the people who are around you. Certainly Francis Jones knows everybody in West Philadelphia and she keeps it all moving, and that is why our community groups go well. And Jettie is always there and always 2287 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 comes to the meetings, and I thank her for that. I know that's difficult, being from the community and on the board too. And then you stole our L&I commissioner, Fran Egan. What can we say, Fran. But you do have excellent people there who do an excellent job.
Thank you. Councilman Goode, I believe your light was on first.
I want to first commend you on your economic development focus. I know there are a lot of people with varying opinions of SEPTA and its importance. I can say that it was very clear to us during this last snowstorm how beneficial public transportation was. But in general, people don't see SEPTA or public transportation as being a way to get people to work and to shop. 2288 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 Let me also comment on the job access program in helping people move from welfare to work. Your staff has also been very helpful to me in my first few weeks as Transportation Chair Committee and they actually really have been responsive to every constituent concern raised. But I know that we do have a lot of challenges to face together, and I will tell you that in the future, in the very near future, I will be addressing three issues with your staff: the Liveable Communities Project in North Philadelphia, light rail service in Northwest Philadelphia, and student transportation issues. And from the service I've gotten so far from the staff, I look forward to a partnership between us in working through these challenging times. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you very much. Councilwoman Reynolds-Brown?
You're welcome. 2289 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
As a former teacher, I commend you on the graphics, the visuals in your package. That's always useful. To a novice with limited experience with regards to transportation issues, I would like to speak first to the operating revenue chart. I see that you did break down the senior citizen contribution by way of revenues. Could you please give me some sense of the -- although I have the answer here for that, would you agree that approximately million is contributed by 15 way of the School District and school students to our city?
Of the millions of SEPTA passengers, what portion of them are City taxpayers?
Councilwoman, we can give you the exact number. It's approximately 65 to 70 percent.
You say 65 to 70 2290 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 percent? Okay. And of that 65 percent, we could carefully say that about million comes from 4 young people? 5
Okay. In 7 reviewing last year's testimony, there was 8 discussion around the issue of school tokens. And 9 this being a new year, I am curious to know what 10 was the follow-up with regards to the issue 11 surrounding school tokens. We know that around 12 the country, there are some other cities that have 13 an arrangement whereby the transit system provides 14 a discount. However, the School District pays the 15 full tab to the Transportation Authority; is that accurate?
Yes, that's accurate. And there are different models around the country.
And I know it remains an unresolved matter and we know that SEPTA cannot be the savior around this issue, but consistent with, number one, becoming an essential partner in the community, you can be a partner, you are a stakeholder with regards to the solution. So brief us, if you will, and update us 2291 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 on where you are with that, where we need to go.
Councilwoman, it just continues to escape us. There was a series of meetings, not nearly as intensive as we intended to have, last year to follow up and find a solution to this. The latest discussions center around finding ways to provide the cost of transfers so that perhaps the School Department would be relieved of that.
Would you speak more directly into the mike and repeat your last statement, if you could.
Okay. There have been a number of meetings over the past year -- not nearly at the level of intensity that we thought would take place. The latest discussions center around not a replacement of the total cost but proposals relating to finding an alternate revenue source to cover the $2.3 million that it costs to provide transfers to the students. We could discuss perhaps to cutting service but we're in the mode today of putting more service on the street, not less. So we do not have a solution to that issue yet. 2292 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
Are the stakeholders working through on how to speak tangibly to solving that problem so that we can move forward more aggressively and come up with a remedy?
Well, I think the principal player continues to be the School Department and the State Department of Education, and SEPTA certainly will make itself available to sit at the table. It gets complicated, it's not as simple as it would seem on the surface because there's something called the 400 Series routes that we have in the City and which exist nowhere else. And the 400 Series routes provide is very much focused on the transportation of school youngsters.
It drives the cost for Philadelphia students, the average cost per trip, to $3.06.
We have a chart that we can show you. For example, the SEPTA portion coming 2293 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 out of SEPTA subsidies represents 56 percent, or $1.69. The student portion represents 29 percent, or 90 cents. The Philadelphia School District portion represents 5 percent, or 15 cents. So you can see how the dollar is split up. What we're really talking about here is shifting the cost from one of those organizations.
It's confusing. You do not sell tokens to the school system at a lower rate.
We sell them at the discounted rate -- not at the full price but at a discounted of $1.15.
But you give that discount to for everybody. I myself could buy them $1.15, right?
That's correct, you can buy multiples, that's correct, at $1.15. 2294 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
When you're promoting gateshows and so on, do they get a discounted rate for that?
What that does is, it combines the cost of the transportation and the cost of the ticket.
Typically, we build a daily pass into the cost of the gateshow.
So it works out to a discounted ticket for the people who use it.
If you have -- if you sell it for -- as Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds stated, you have a body of people at an institution that represents a huge chunk of your ridership.
That's correct. There are about 30,000 students a day that ride the system, correct.
And given the situation that in other cities they have discounts to the students, and we have had the problem, as 2295 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 stated in the previous hearings, where we have a lot of students having to drop out of school or not go to school or miss days of school because they cannot afford the subway or the bus fare, don't you believe that it behooves us to -- that in this country, that even if you don't charge the school system for the cost of the fare of the transfer, that would mean that an incredible amount of savings for the parents of those students. It would mean that the school could sell the tokens for, instead of 90 cents, they could probably sell the tokens for 55 cents, and the cost of the transfer was not included in that. So can we begin to take the first steps towards making available to the students of this city public transportation so that they can enter into the school system.
Well, it has to come from the taxpayers one way or the other -- either through increased local subsidies, increased State subsidies, or the fare box.
Well, Councilman, I think 2296 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 over the last five years, we have probably gutted that pot.
Can you detail what the $6 million public relations package is that you just contracted, that just put forward? What is that going to entail?
It's to enable us to market the system so that we can try to bring back the ridership that we've lost over the years, over the past ten years. We have just begun to reverse that trend and bring it back. That is an amount of money that we have put forward as an investment to bring back the ridership revenue that's been lost over the last ten years.
Well, the students, who are going to be the people in the future to be riding our public transportation, don't you think that it would be an even better public relations effort to provide all of them with free transportation?
I'd like to say for every dollar we invest, we get a dollar back in ridership revenue as we advance that public relations campaign. That's how we measure the 2297 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 success of that campaign.
What was the cost of the Shareif Hall litigation and the cost of payments to the family?
The final settlement of that -- and let me tell you, that was an awful tragedy. The final settlement was $7.4 million. And the cost of the litigation, I'm going to say, was in the range of $100,000.
Thank you. Board member Jettie Newkirk's reply is very well taken on where we will get the discount because, ultimately, someone has to pay for it. So that would be our bottom-line challenge, our first task to explore to come up with a remedy so that we can answer that question. 2298 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
Yes, Council-Lady. It seems to me that one of the Councilmembers indicated that they would pull together the task force and ask if SEPTA would participate in these talks. Those talks have not occurred yet. There have been some talks with Shelly Yanoff. And that's just two people talking who can't come up with a solution.
We have to consider some of the stakeholders that actually do have the money -- either the State or the City or SEPTA or someone else. And that's the level of people that should be included in there, that we feel we need to have there, because it comes from the taxpayers one way or the other -- through or taxes or through the fare box.
In the preliminary talk we had with Miss Yanoff, we sent correspondence to the Mayor, understanding that 62 percent of student transportation costs are currently reimbursed, asking that the Mayor's 2299 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 discussion with the Governor on education include asked for a free ride for children to and from school, upping that 62 percent reimbursement in full or in part to 100 percent. It may in fact create truancy issues. But really, as you said, which is very true, someone has to pay for it. We know that the School District is not in a position to pay for it. We also know beyond that, that the $205.7 million should not be tapped for that purpose. Therefore, I have asked the Mayor, and through further efforts, will probably talk to some State legislators, about looking at the State budget to accommodate this. I'm not trying to brush over this issue. This is not an issue that's going to be addressed today. And in my estimation, it's something that the State really is going to have to step up and do.
I have additional questions related to the issue of children's transportation to school. But first, the new brochure that SEPTA has made available, could you provide our office, or provide to the Chair, copies of that brochure 2300 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 so that we can get that out to maybe even the School District, to health-care centers, and to places where parents, particularly single parents, have to get to most often with their children. I think it's an excellent education piece, and we just need to make sure the rest of the world knows about that.
Can you tell us, how does the Penn Pass work? What's the discount rate for SEPTA, and are partnerships currently in place with other universities in the Philadelphia area?
Yes. I talked a little earlier about working outside the box, and we're trying to establish a working relationship with the universities in Philadelphia to engage them in brining the students back on the public transportation system. And this is sort of a Penn Pass demonstration project whereby we sell the tokens to the college students through the university, and I believe there is a discount. It's the Compass Program, and it's -- it entails a 2301 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 percent program. 3
It's called "Compass." 5 It's a program that has been within SEPTA for years whereby a large numbers of passes are sold to a college and the college then handles all the administrative piece of the distribution, resulting in a 5 percent discount of the cost. And then I'm told that the universities discount them even further.
Perhaps we could discuss a facsimile of that for our Philadelphia school children. I would be interested in knowing how that's working, and if that is working, perhaps it can be replicated with Philadelphia school children. The Operation Lifesaver piece, what's the role of the School District with regards to that exciting program?
Operation Lifesaver is an initiative whereby SEPTA staff go into all of the schools, and we have a presentation that we give to the youngsters. The role of the School Department is to facilitate us coming to the local 2302 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 schools and presenting safety initiatives to the youngsters, teaching them that public transportation is a huge benefit to them, but it requires some diligence.
There's been a "yes" from both parties all along. To date, I don't think there's been any resistance.
Being the Chair of the Committee on Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs, I'm very interested in the Art in Transit program. Tell me your thoughts about expanding that program. Of course, when you talk of expansion, you're talking dollars to make it real.
Yes. This is a terrific program that we're very much a part of, and part 2303 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 of the concept is enhancing the quality of transit and making it very user friendly. We have, as you know, in several stations initiated several individual kinds of art programs, and we are trying at this point to institutionalize it, creating an Office of Art within Fran Egan's division to try to make it part of that.
Let me encourage you to do all that you can because it's terrific. Moving now to your mission statement, number 15, effecting, developing, and supporting a diverse qualified workforce. Let me underscore Councilwoman Blackwell's comments to the diversity issue. We know that if you consider a triangle, at the top, you have the ridership, if you will. What percentage of that ridership is Latino and African-American here in the City Philadelphia?
Within the City of Philadelphia, we believe the African-American ridership is about 60 percent of the total ridership. The other ethnic breakdowns, I don't have them with me.
We want to understand who 2304 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 our riders are.
Yes, and that's directly tied to what I don't see up here, a board that speaks to contracts, the total amount of contracts that SEPTA currently has underway, and then the breakdown of the reflection of those contractors from the surrounding counties and the further breakdown of minority and majority.
We have as an organization established a percent goal for ourselves in 12 terms of the disadvantaged business enterprise. I 13 consider in my three years with SEPTA one of the 14 successes having been able to expand from what was 15 just three years ago 6 percent up to over 18 16 percent, with a major portion of that going to the 17 African-American community. We have been working 18 with the African-American Chamber of Commerce and 19 are now working with the Hispanic Chamber of 20 Commerce and, through various outreach, are 21 finding ways to for them to participate in the programs at SEPTA and become a part of the programs at SEPTA. The first bullet that we talked about in the mission statement is essentially being part 2305 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 of the community. And if we are going to achieve that objective, we have to work in the community and make the SEPTA organization resemble the community --
-- in every way and so we're trying to do that, but we consider that a part of the first bullet. In supporting a diverse and qualified workforce, if we're going to be successful in that effort, we've got to do it through our workforce and organization, and that is 70 percent labor, the dollars spent.
Empowering those people to do a good job and to know how to do a good job and that the workforce resembles the total environment is a very important part in the success in this community. We know that.
The only friendly amendment I would add to that is to reflect from the top down in terms of gender and diversity. 2306 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
Yes. And I would just add that board member Jettie Newkirk reminds me of that almost every day, at least every day I see her.
We know that leaders have to lead by example. That's implied it in that. Okay, let me make sure I've covered all of the areas I'm interested in. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Chair.
You're welcome. Thank you very much. On the SEPTA project in West Philly 63rd.
Give me the general timeline of what's supposed to happen when.
Madam Chair, I can provide you with the details fiscally, but generally what's happening now is the engineering and design phase and preparing a construction document for public bidding. Many of the support kind of 2307 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 things have already happened, and the acquisition is proceeding. And a community participation and support network has been put in place as you know --
When do you anticipate digging, after you submit proposals and all that? When do you anticipate getting construction started?
The begin construction, we will start about a year from now. We've already gotten the support buildings and the signal systems, and things like that are already underway. The big construction contracts are about a year away.
What about the issues with the Streets Department and other City departments in terms of landscape and trees and business relocation, etc.?
We're working very closely with the City's Streets Department because when we come along, we are going to substantially alter 2308 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 the landscape of that whole area. The City is going to come behind us and do the streets and the surface level and the sidewalks and all that sort of thing. So we're coordinating very, very closely with each one of these. It gets very complicated, but I would say to you that we've had tremendous support from the City departments and we expect to continue working very closely with them.
If you anticipate construction in about a year from now, when will you deal with the business owners in terms of relocation or any related issues?
The property acquisition is underway now, and the team at SEPTA is working with the businesses that are involved with the relocation and there's very few of them actually moving, given the magnitude of the project. The first stage, I would say to you, has been done without a whole lot of problems.
Are there businesses who would only be relocated during the work but who would be coming back?
I don't believe we're 2309 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 relocating anyone during construction.
For example, the paper supply business, he's one of the main people who complain. So what happens when he says, "My business will be affected and what happens when people can't get to my door? What do I do?" And what are we doing in those kinds of cases.
My name is Frances Jones, Assistant General Manager for Government Affairs. And as you know, we have worked very closely with you and the office representatives from the district in West Philadelphia to have a good relationship, and things are moving along as well as we can say they are. At this point, we have a consulting contract and as a part of that contract, there is a business outreach component. As a part of that, we have ongoing meetings and relationships with business associations on 52nd Street, 60th Street, as well as 63rd Street along the Market Street Corridor that will be directly impacted by whatever goes on by the streetscape project construction. Anything that goes on there that 2310 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 directly impacts those businesses, we are working along with them and have an outreach plan to try to minimize as much as possible the impact of those businesses. We have connected with the Small-Business Technology Center as well as the small-business development centers at both Drexel and Temple to provide technical assistance, be it just technical assistance for small businesses or financial assistance. And we are working very closely with PCDC the Philadelphia Commercial Development Corporation. We are going to do all we can, and hopefully we will enhance the relationship, having partnered with them and strengthening those that were marginal stronger in the community. We understand that there's a close and very tangential relationship between economic development and transportation, and so we are committed to make sure that that occurs in West Philadelphia in this project.
My last question is with regard to a project to acquire lots so those who try to get the El at 52nd or 60th Street have a place to park. That's all a 2311 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 part of it. It's one of the issues that you normally see when new projects such as this arise.
Of course, we're in the business of providing transportation and we would love to have the people go directly to the transportation centers along Market Street. But realistically, we know the patterns have been for people to drive to 52nd and 63rd and then benefit from taking public transportation from West Philadelphia into Center City. We've worked along with community organizations about possible ownership of those lots. We are in the process of determining ownership and working with your office to get your assistance in whatever process we need to incorporate that to figure out how to best utilize vacant lots in the area. We do know some of the those lots will be used for staging during construction, but we are very much on board with understanding that there needs to be a solution. We need to try to eliminate the parking situation on the street as much as possible and utilize lots, so we'll be meeting with you to discuss this further.
It's very, 2312 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 very important. Now, one of the main places on 52nd Street has bus stops on the north and south side of the street, and you have a business there where the facade is in terrible condition. Now hopefully, when all of this is done, everything will look good and the street will look good and we'll have trees, if that's the collective choice, and have sidewalks that look nice and businesses that look great. But we've got to consider, for example, a real big store, like the old Woolworth's, or a bargain store and businesses like that that need facade treatment. We have to work that in with the City and yourselves so that on one of main bus stops, we don't end up with a business front that looks like it should be torn down. We'll have to work with that, and I believe we can start now in getting that program organized so that everybody looks good.
It's my understanding that there's a facade treatment program that does exist under PIDC.
Under PIDC? I don't know what they're doing. 2313 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
My name is Frances Egan. We agree with the point that you're making here. While SEPTA cannot address every economic development need as a result of this major project out in West Philadelphia, we can serve as a community leader, a corporate leader and bring together the right entities to make sure that as this project moves forward, issues like that facade treatment and landscape and parking lots are worked out. We need to bring the right people together to address those concerns.
The City and SEPTA, maybe they can be included in the whole business plan so that they get something from SEPTA and can work with the City Commerce Department so that everybody wins.
Exactly. And we're willing to play a leadership role there and make sure that all parties get to the table.
We'll convene meetings maybe before the summer, maybe next month sometime, and we can start getting coordinated because once the summer comes, there goes the year. 2314 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 Okay, thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Leary, how many escalators does SEPTA have throughout the City? And can you tell us how many of them are actually functional?
Yes. We have 44 escalators throughout the entire transit system and they range in age from 4 years to 41 years. The average age is 24 years. I have to tell you, you know, it's a shame that there had to be this awful tragedy to focus attention on them, but we're committed to not let these important passenger and customer amenities ever get to this state again. An escalator is good for ten to twelve years so to have escalators on the system that date back to 1958 just doesn't make any sense, and they're impossible to --
Can I assume that the escalator that leads up to the City Hall 2315 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 courtyard is probably one of those that's about years old?
Yes, I think that's a safe 5 assumption. We have a plan underway. No one's 6 ever wanted to tackle this before, no one knew 7 what to do, but the City Hall station needs to be 8 looked at. We have a contract with a local 9 architecture engineering and are making a firm 10 master plan. 11 City Hall should be a signature station 12 for the transit system in the City of 13 Philadelphia. And as part of that initiative, all 14 of the entrances and access and circulation will 15 all be changed over the next few years. 16 Having said that, there is one on the 17 drawing board for the City Hall Station that will 18 done before then, so there will be one working new 19 escalator in the interim. 20
That will be completed next 23 year. That's in next year's plan. 24
Early next year? 2316 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
It starts in June. In the beginning of June, they will the manufacture, fabricate, and install an escalator. We have 33 escalator replacement programs on the drawing board for the next four years -- actually five years counting this year. Today we are just looking at the ones we have underway. The escalators at Pattison, North Philadelphia, Erie, Juniper, Orthodox, and Second Street are in all some stage of replacement, so when people go out and see them all boarded up or see them not working, much of that is attributable to the investment being made. They've been turned over to contractors.
Thank you. Can you tell us what the process is when a community asks for SEPTA shelters? In the Eastwick area, for instance, you know, it's really wide open, there is no shelter. Can you tell us what the process is for the shelters.
Yes. A request is written to the City Transportation Department. When someone writes to us with a request like that, we forward it over to the City Transportation Office. 2317 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
How successful are we when you send the request over to the Mayor's Transportation Office?
First we need a written signoff. You know, there's some legal process that they go through. They may even come to the Council, perhaps the Chair of the Transportation Committee to get that.
Mr. Leary, the Pennsylvania University of Pennsylvania students, do they get a discount?
The Compass program provides a 5 percent discount. When you someone 2318 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 buys in volume like that, we sell it to them at that price. Let me check with my staff. Then the University of Pennsylvania discounts it at another percent. 6
How come we don't 7 get the same deal for the City school system? I 8 mean, don't those individuals at the University 9 get a better deal? 10
I don't think it's a better 11 deal than the City gets. They get -- 12
We've got poor kids, poor Philadelphia kids and rich middle-class kids getting charged at different levels, and some kids are getting discounts, and others are -- you're telling me that we have all of these different situations. Why can't we give a discount to the poor Philadelphia kids.
If the City provides them at the same rate that we provide to everybody else, then --
If the City wanted to buy the -- 2319 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
I'm talking about the school kids, I'm talking about school kids. How come the University of Pennsylvania students middle-class students, rich students get a discount and our kid who are poor students cannot get a discount? We buy the tokens at the same level that everybody buys tokens. The school system buys the tokens at $1.15. That is not a discount.
If you'll refer to that chart, you'll see the numbers. But the subsidy for providing Philadelphia school students transportation is -- I think it's $1.69, which is a much larger discount than anybody else receives in terms of what the total cost of student transportation is.
The school system buys tokens at $1.15 per package? 2320 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
But that's the same discount that any get that anyone can get. They're not getting a discount as the bulk buyer, as an institution. I get $1.15 token if I go over there and buy a monthly or weekly package. That doesn't do anything for the school system or for the poor kids. Now, the University of Pennsylvania gets a discount and it's totally ridiculous that they can buy tokens at a lower rate than the school system kids.
Mr. Leary, I think the gentleman to your left sitting at the edge of his chair is dying to answer. Kindly identify yourself for the record.
I'm Bernard Cohen, General Assistant Manager for SEPTA. The University buys monthly -- actually they buy semester passes from us. They have to pay for four months' worth of TransPasses, which cost $64 a month. So in return for the large volume of passes that they buy from us, we provide a 5 percent discount, just as we do to any 2321 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 institution that's a purchaser of passes, that buy in bulk. We could do that if the City wanted to purchase hundreds or thousands of passes from us.
The discount for the token program that SEPTA provides the schools is much deeper than the University of Pennsylvania. We pick up over 50 percent of the cost of every single trip that a school child takes.
How do you pick up the cost of 50 percent of the school children if you sell the tokens to the school at the going rate that anyone can buy? Because the actual price of a trip for anybody who rides a bus is $3.06. You're not doing that just for the school system, you are doing that for everybody who boys $1.15 token package.
If you add up the combination of picking up over 50 percent of every school trip route that Mr. Leary mentioned before, the SEPTA contribution for is substantial.
I don't think so. I don't think it's at all substantial. 2322 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 You asked me to yield to you for a second?
This program that you have in place at the University of Pennsylvania is one that we can conceivably look at by the stakeholders we're going to pull to the table to see if there's an opportunity to create a pass system for Philadelphia school students as well.
Yes that is a legitimate thing for us to look at when we get together and try to solve this problem.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Cohen.
Mr. Leary, in your judgment, is there any difference between the transportation system that operates for profit and one that is a government transportation system?
Yes, I guess there is a difference. The one that operates for profit has to return income to stockholders and the owners of 2323 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 the system. Whereas a public organization like SEPTA takes every dollar it gets and puts it back into delivering service to its customers.
Is there any greater responsibility of a public transportation system to provide services that are needed than there is for a private transportation company?
Yes. I'd like to think that public transportation organization has a bigger, more expansive mission than a private, you know, company. I think it's important that a public transportation organization like ours be an essential part of the community and help facilitate other things happening in the community like community economic development and tourism and convention business, things like that that would not necessarily be a part of a private bus company that was making a profit.
You know, Miss Egan, whom we've known to be an outstanding highway commissioner, was very kind. She called several days before the hearing at the end of last week to ask if we had any questions. It was not only a very nice gesture, but every time I begin dialing 2324 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 the number, I couldn't do it because I would have taken off her head and I didn't think that that was appropriate to do, because some Councilmembers who are coming to this question for the first time may be much more patient and relaxed about the question of a responsibility of a public transportation company to a school system. But those of us that have been arguing it for years don't understand why SEPTA does not apply the very simple language that Miss Egan talked about before in the discussion she had with Councilwoman Blackwell about what's needed at 52nd Street. Miss Egan said yes, SEPTA's going to play the role of a corporate community leader. We're going to spearhead the drive, she said. I haven't heard anything like that in all of these years. We've been talking about the cost of children to get to school, which results in so many of them not getting to school. You just seem to dispose of it as not being your problem. Miss Egan also gave a second very good -- no, you're the one who gave the second piece of good advice. I think you're the one who said 2325 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 that the City Hall Station should be a signature for these public transportation services, it should be outstanding. Well, shouldn't Philadelphia be a signal city that provides free information transportation for students to get to school? I'm not satisfied with the talk here today about working out some kind of financial arrangement. I think it's a disgrace that a public transportation system does not find a way to provide free transportation so that kids can go to school and that they not have an excuse not to go and. It's a genuine excuse for a low-income family that has even one kid -- or, God forbid, two or three kids -- that have to use the public transportation to go to school. We're just writing them off. The school system now requests that the main responsibility of SEPTA be to provide transportation for those most in need, and isn't that why we have a public rather than a private transportation system? To provide those services that a private company cannot be expected to provide. You couldn't ask or tell a private 2326 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 company to provide a service like this because they have no responsibility other than to the shareholders, but don't you have a responsibility to the government to all of the people? You talk, Mr. Leary, and I have a lot of respect for your professional expertise, and I think you're trying very hard under difficult circumstances to provide an excellent service. But when I ask you what are the public aspects that you provide, you talk about tourism, you talk about the Convention Center, you talk economic development, but you don't say a word about the people in this city who most need public transportation. And I just think the priorities of SEPTA have to be revised, as I did unsuccessfully at the Riverview apartment house where older folks were stranded with no thought of any responsibility to them. You stranded the older folks in that apartment house at 23rd and Race in Councilwoman Clarke's district. You know what I'm talking about? You were present at one set of meetings.
Now, of our Harrisburg legislators, I know we only have 2 out of 11.
All right, only 4 out of 15 of the legislature who will give pro-Philadelphia votes, but you're in a better position to judge that than I am. But doesn't SEPTA have a role in saying, We're going to make Philadelphia a city where everybody can do what they have to do, and particularly for kids? We're talking about this being the Year of the Children and about how important it is to have an educated workforce in Philadelphia. How do kid get educated if they don't go to school? I urge you, following all of this discussion, to assert yourself and be the leaders in this campaign and say, We're responsible for transportation. Call upon the School District, you know, or --
Councilman, if I may. I could make that presentation as a policy presentation to the board. I am sure that I would get Dick Voigt's support. I might even 2328 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 get two of the State legislators to support me, but that's only votes out of 15. And that would 4 not get us where we want to go because the suburban legislators who say now that they are willing to talk about this will still come back and say, Okay, if we put that in the budget, where are we going to get the money from to replace those other items in the budget? And until that question is answered, Councilman, I don't know that we can just reorder the priorities. I am sure that none of us in this room who are here representing the City or SEPTA want children to not be able to go to school because they can't afford the fare. But the basic question still comes to, who is going to pay for this? And if SEPTA puts it in its budget, it's got to get past the suburban representatives, and there are 11 of them, so we couldn't get a vote passed even if we get all of the State people to side with us. So we're talking about the real practical matter of that. And so if we get everybody to the table, perhaps with all of the heads together and all of the wills together, we 2329 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 can figure out a way to do it so that all of us benefit. Because once we put give the Philadelphia children free rides, what about the children who ride the SEPTA system from the suburbs, are we then going to give them free transportation? So it's not really just a simple issue as you have made to it appear, Councilman Cohen. It is much larger than that. And I say on behalf of the City of Philadelphia whom I represent on this board, we are willing to will work with all of the stakeholders in the City trying to work this out.
Councilman, can I just interject for a minute? Our PAL City Council President just informed me, Miss Robinson, that she went to Conwell Magnet School and she said that she got free tokens for all fours years. So are this some schools that get free tokens and others that do not?
Yes. I think we sell some and provide some free tokens in some situations.
How do we 2330 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 determine who gets the free tokens?
Madam Chair, I've just been informed that 10,000 out of 30,000 kid go free.
In my years 23 almost in the City Council, we do respect -- I 24 don't mean any discourtesy to you at all. It's a 25 terrible thing that exists in Philadelphia that 2331 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 some kids can't get to school 'cause they don't have the money, and we're determined to provide it. But you can begin developing campaigns with private business sources, you can hold all kind of meetings with State legislators to try to win their support and you bring in the other 9 members of the SEPTA Board into the City and 10 create demonstrations and show the kids that they 11 don't all get to school because they don't have funding. You build a campaign when you want to do something. SEPTA as a body has the number-one responsibility for carrying out that campaign, and in that way, you justify the existence of your being a public transportation company. 'Cause to me, the main difference between private and public is that a public body looks to enrich its citizens, it looks to make life better for them, while the private company looks only to enrich its shareholders. And that's proper under business corporation law. But with due respect, I say SEPTA can bring this about if you exert the kind of 2332 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 leadership that Miss Egan talked about doing in the 52nd and Market thing, and they'll all cooperate with you. But I think it's a project for the year 2000. I think it should be a goal before this calendar year end, and Philadelphia will be a real world-class city in that it makes things better not only for businessmen but for its residents and particularly for the kids who live in the City. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Rizzo.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Leary, I had this conversation at this hearing last year, and I was hoping something would occur or develop where -- I'll give you an example. I used the same example a year ago. In the morning at a particular intersection, I see five or six Philadelphia School District buses owned by the School District and also contract services. I would think that there would be some Councilpeople getting together and coming up with a plan to eliminate these 2333 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 dozens if not hundreds maybe thousands of buses that the School District operates. You're in the business of transporting people, and it amazes me that you're not charged with the responsibility of moving -- I know that there are legal situations, but that's what we're here for, to deal with these problems, these obstacles that are in our way. But I would think that this city and the taxpayers and the other Councilmembers that want to see transportation cost reduced, if not eliminated, this would be a step in the right direction. At one intersection, I see sometimes five, six school buses with three kids on one, five on the other. Honestly, it looked like a parking lot. So -- and again, one of the buses must cost $100,000 with driver benefits, and for just two or three children to be on one is an extravagance that has to come to an end. Any thoughts on that? I know --
Councilman, I happen to share your view of that particular issue. We walk a very, very fine line in this industry with respect to providing school transportation, and we 2334 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 talked about this last year. If you recall in my comments I talked about a little about the 400 Series buses. We have to be very careful to provide 400 Series buses, and no one can on object. I would say to you, we are right on the margin in providing this service that is essentially open to the public but begins at the high school. If you drive down the street and you see at 2:30 in the afternoon 8 buses, they are 400 Series and are right on the margin in terms of what legally we can provide. What happens is, because we provide those, the dark blue on the chart represents total SEPTA cost of student transportation. When we engage in these discussions over the next few months, I think maybe we will incorporate more student input on the existing system. The School District now pays about $15 per student in travel. Maybe we can shave cost off of that so that the cost can be redistributed to the cost of transfers and in some way start to move in the direction of making it a little better situation for everybody. 2335 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
I appreciate that. The School District's bus fleet is starting to mirror --
Plus the contract buses that I see all over the place. But, again, the eight kids one bus, it just didn't make sense, it's a waste of money.
I would only add to that that we have to be careful. There's a very, very large private-sector industry of private buss companies and they have to be very careful to enforce the regulations that prevent us from doing school --
I would hope that it would be one of the things that we discuss. And if legislation changes are needed, fine, because I think the well's running dry and people are strapped to the point where they need us to run the government efficiently and in the best way possible. And I think if there's a potential savings there, I think we have the absolute responsibility to take advantage of it. 2336 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 Thank you.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman Ortiz.
Mr. Leary, six years ago, we got around $8 million for the air quality, I don't believe that money has ever been used to do that, to buy new buses.
Every year we get money under that program to invest in the transit system in ways that will help improve the air quality of this region, and there may be $8 million left in that account.
We have the money to replace the diesel buses. We have out on the street a bid right now. 2337 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05
This money I'm talking about, we got it six years ago to replace the diesel buses.
There's a move afoot to replace the diesel buses with compressed natural gas buses. That project has moved forward to the point to be implemented.
Could you give us a report how the funds are being sent spent?
I wrote you a letter in July and still don't have an answer to that one letter that I wrote to you in July. So, hopefully, we can get the response sooner than that.
I'm embarrassed if you wrote me in July and I haven't responded yet, but 2338 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 I'll check on that.
I'll give you a copy of the letter later on so you can see it.
But we are moving forward with that particular project and out on the street today is a bid package for a hybrid bus. It's a very expensive procurement.
One final question on school tokens. Five percent would only be $750,000. Think about it. It's a small step towards the discount that we're asking for. Thank you.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Goode.
Thank you, Madam President. I've been here about two months so far and have seen a lot of ironic things. The most ironic, though, is for the oldest member to say that he's far less patient than the youngest. I think it has nothing to do with a lack of tenure. I think SEPTA is willing to work with me on that and it will take several months to accomplish that. I still probably would not have lost my 2339 2/28/00 - OPERATING BUDGET CONT'D - BILL 05 patience, yet a forthcoming solution probably may require moving from tokens to passes and may require, as I said before, lobbying the State and the State legislators for that purpose and. I think thank the members from SEPTA for their patience today. I hope this is something we can all work on together to resolve.
Thank you. Are there any other questions from members of the committee? (No further questions.)
This committee will stand in recess until Tuesday, February 29, 2000 at 9:00 a.m. Thank you all very much. (Adjourned at 2:43 p.m.) - - - 2340 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 Monday, February 28, 2000, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of same. RE: COUNCIL COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE BILL NO. 05 __________________________________, JOSEPHINE CARDILLO, Registered Professional Reporter