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