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.