And I guess the 51 4/23/02 - WHOLE - 020001, 020028, 020029 purpose of it is to some extent set a goal for the government to try and figure out how to meet that figure and, in your words, always seeking to do more with less but trying to maintain a certain base level of service.
And what would we have, if anything, anticipated seeing different by way of service delivery when this plan was introduced in Fiscal Years '04, '05, '06, '07? Would we have noticed a decrease in government service?
And the efficiencies or the reductions had not been identified?
Now, in earlier questioning I thought I took down a statement by you that in the $60 million, again in your words, did you say that some of those reductions would definitely include personnel?
That means that one of the 52 4/23/02 - WHOLE - 020001, 020028, 020029 ways that we'll reduce the cost of government is finding out how to do things with fewer employees.
No. But -- I mean, we don't anticipate having less service. There comes a point where if you reduce your spending by a certain amount then there could be reductions in service. Our goal is to figure out how to make reductions without having an impact on service.
Well, in the plan that was introduced on January 25, 2000, on that same line in FY '92 you anticipated that the future target reductions would be $12 million; do you recall that?
Our budget situation has changed completely since '00, so expenditures are different, revenues are different. But the bottom line is that, yes, we're able to have a positive fund balance at the end of this year.
Have we reduced 53 4/23/02 - WHOLE - 020001, 020028, 020029 services since that plan was introduced back in 2000?
We've reduced personnel during the course of this year, yes, we have.
We imposed a hiring freeze in November. And since the hiring freeze was imposed -- I don't have the exact number now. I think we have about 200 fewer employees than we did before the hiring freeze began.
Has there been a noticeable decrease in service as a result of the hiring freeze?
Just to use this as an example, the Managing Director's Office, we have not 54 4/23/02 - WHOLE - 020001, 020028, 020029 replaced some of staff that have left which means some things take a little bit longer. If you have fewer people doing the same amount of work, the amount of time that work takes is a little bit longer. I'm not sure that is a reduction in service, per se, but on something that you would want to see done, you have fewer people, it takes more time. And I think that as we begin to look at more cuts there will be more of those kinds of activities, I think, that take place which we will try to absorb as administratively as we can so there isn't a cut in service. But there has to be some ability to do those kinds of cuts.
I understand. Now, Mr. Dubow, are you anticipating any service reductions in FY '03 as a result of the budget or the five-year plan in front of us or as the five-year plan is proposed to be amended today?
We don't project any decrease in service in FY '03. The challenge over the long term is to continue shrinking the size of the government without affecting service. And it's one of the things we're pledging to try to do that, we're not guaranteeing it. 55 4/23/02 - WHOLE - 020001, 020028, 020029
Are you anticipating any service reductions in FY '04?
Again, our goal is not to have any service reduction in any year of the plan, but as we go out that gets harder and harder.
In previous five-year plans, what has been the general size of Line 20.
Formerly future 16 target reductions, now future government 17 efficiencies. 18
Councilman Nutter, excuse me, please. I believe Councilman Goode had a point of order. 56 4/23/02 - WHOLE - 020001, 020028, 020029
Thank you, Madam President. Madam President, I need to leave the chambers. I'd like to be voted in favor of the Administration's to 020028 to 020029. I'd also like to be recorded as voting in favor of all three bills, 020001, 020128 and 020129.
Thank you. I would also remind my colleagues that we have a bill 10 signing ceremony at 12:00 noon and I see there are a number of Councilmembers that still want to be recognized. If you're not going to be concise with your questioning, I would suggest then that we recess this hearing until Thursday morning. Councilman Nutter, would you proceed with your questioning?
Madam President, if you don't recess I have to leave, so I would like record my vote as voting yes on all bills and amendments in the event that you don't recess it. 57 4/23/02 - WHOLE - 020001, 020028, 020029 So I'm leaving now.
Well, it would appear that just maybe three or four of us are going to be here because everybody is asking to be excused. Councilman Rizzo, you can be excused.
Councilman Nutter, please proceed with your line of questioning.
Thank you, Madam President. This is my last question. Mr. Dubow, any projected or proposed cuts, do you make those cuts based on what's listed in the five-year plan or from the actual budgets that are produced on a year-to-year basis? As best I can tell, we live in a current budget, not in the future.
Well, we live in both because, for example, there are implications for things we do in a budget year for the out years. So we want to make sure that our budget's balanced and that our plan is balanced.
But notwithstanding what it might be in a five-year plan, the budget is 58 4/23/02 - WHOLE - 020001, 020028, 020029 what governs what actually happens in the government, how much money we have?
So there are projections or schedules of, for instance, proposed tax cuts both with regard to wage taxes and gross receipts tax?
And in the budget we will have a particular rate set for the gross receipts tax. Any future tax reductions are a function of the receipt by this body in a budget year or at a budget message of new tax bills; is that correct.
That's correct. But we're also required to have a balanced five-year plan.
I understand that. And you've maintained a schedule that shows what you anticipate doing on a going-forward basis?
Thank you. 59 4/23/02 - WHOLE - 020001, 020028, 020029 The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown.
Thank you, Madam President. I do have one comment in response to Councilman Cohen's concerns regarding the Health and Safety Fund and I just wanted to state this as matter of record. Given the strong and consensus message with regard to our interest in seeing the Health and Safety Fund do all it can do, Members should be advised that a team of individuals have come together, namely, from the Office of Child Care and my office to talk through and develop a strategy on how we can stabilize the Health and Safety fund for the long-term so that we're not back at this place next year trying to figure out where we can get the necessary dollars to do what's required for the program. So I did want to share that with my colleague so that he's aware that the interest is high and we got to get better at thinking long-term and how we fix this particular problem. Thank you, Madam President.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman Cohen.
Thank you, Madam President. 60 4/23/02 - WHOLE - 020001, 020028, 020029 As we get toward the end of the budget process, it strikes me that we only do half the job. We consider the budget as presented by the Mayor and we take it as if the only of concern are those presented by the Mayor. I would suggest a second procedure that follows the regular analysis of the budget and that is to begin questioning about different problems that exist. They may be small, they may be major. For example, we're told in today's Inquirer in the business section that whatever we did on the wage tax, even if we were to eliminate it entirely, would not be enough to make Philadelphia a growing City, that in order to have Philadelphia prosper as a City that people want to come to live to and businesses want to come and work in, we have to deal with many other problems. So I'd just like to raise one or two of those because I think that maybe we need a second round on budgets dealing with the problems that begin to arise in our mind as to whether they've been dealt with in the budget. For example, I'm very concerned about a number of things. Philadelphia, like the rest of the nation, pretty much operates on the theory, and I believe correctly, that small businesses are where 61 4/23/02 - WHOLE - 020001, 020028, 020029 the jobs grow. If you read the news reports day by day, you understand that big business is where you lose jobs by the thousands all at one time. Lucent which originally was part of AT&T, I think, is announcing for almost a third year in a row that it's going to cut about 6,000 workers. Where these workers come from that they cut, I don't know. But it certainly creates havoc. But the growth occurs in small businesses. One of the problems in Philadelphia is that small businesses feel terribly unwelcome in Philadelphia because of the repetitive paperwork, because of the repetitive and often contradictory regulations that exist. And like lead paint poisoning, it was an issue when I first entered in 1968 and grows increasingly as an issue how we respond to the needs of small businesses. What in this budget is going to make it possible for the City of Philadelphia to grapple with the problems of small business so that they feel welcome so that they have less paperwork to file so they can concentrate on growing rather than trying on trying to figure out how do we avoid spending a day or two across the street waiting to 62 4/23/02 - WHOLE - 020001, 020028, 020029 be served by somebody in L & I or some other department of government? What are we doing to help small business in this budget and how does it compare with what was done last year?
There are a few years. One, the Department of Licenses and Inspections is actually in the middle of a review of fees and licenses to see how that process can be simplified so that there would be far fewer licenses for businesses to need. We also did a survey of businesses, large and small, 300 businesses, to reach out to see what it was that they wanted. So the Commerce Department is looking at the results of that study and then we'll look to see how we can implement that. The other thing that we've done in the plan is proposed accelerating the reduction in the gross receipts tax which is particularly harmful for small businesses. So those are some of the things that this budget and plan does for small businesses.
Well, tell us when the Administration would expect to be able to give a 63 4/23/02 - WHOLE - 020001, 020028, 020029 report to the Council and the people of Philadelphia with respect to the improvements that have occurred in the landscape small businesses.
We really need to talk to the Commerce Department about that. But the L & I portion is probably going to be done sometime this summer.
Yes. We'll promise you'll have something by the end of the summer.
Then let's go to other things. In my area where I have a political responsibility other than just being Councilmember-at-Large, there is beautiful block called Kemble Avenue, K-E-M-B-L-E Avenue. Kemble Avenue begins one block north of Olney Avenue and just joins Olney Avenue at Chew -- I'm sorry, it joins Ogontz not Olney Avenue. It's a beautiful block, series of blocks. Because of a number of reasons which I won't enumerate now, the City reached the conclusion that it was necessary to tear 64 4/23/02 - WHOLE - 020001, 020028, 020029 down two houses right in the center of the block. Everybody on that block is concerned by fact that various City engineers at times have reported that by removing those two center houses they're going to weaken the whole block both to the south and to the north. The people in the community have been unable to get any protective action from the City to do anything about supporting the rest of the homes. That's one of the problems of row houses. If you separate something from the center, you may weaken both sides to the north south or east west. Tell me, does the City have any program? Is that going to be included in NTI, how you stabilize already stable blocks which are being threatened, say, by the removal of one or more houses in the block? Is there any special attention being given to that problem? Where so in the budget? Where can we in City Council go to, what agency, to find out what's happening? We can't do everything by calling the Managing Director's Office. She would love that.
Unfortunately, Councilman, that's what you have to do. You call my office and I'll assign someone to look at it and to try to work with L & I to do it. That's what we got right now. 65 4/23/02 - WHOLE - 020001, 020028, 020029
Well, we would like to know, though, isn't there an organized approach, because I assume that Kemble Avenue in the 17th Ward is matched by similar streets and avenues probably in every ward in the City. And I'm using Kemble Avenue not just to fight for the 17th Ward area, but b because it's symbolic of a problem, I think, exists everywhere. Similarly, for example, I have raised for a number of years the practice that the City has had, at least in the past, of permitting steps to exist where homes once existed so that you have a nightmarish feeling sometimes as you drive along you find steps to a house but there is no house. Yet it doesn't seem to be anyway of getting relief, although I've been told that contracts of the City always require the removal of the steps. But apparently there's nobody that's in the City assigned to the job of seeing that contractors really perform their duties and scheduled.
The department that's assigned to do that, Councilman Cohen, is the Managing Director's Office.
Councilman 66 4/23/02 - WHOLE - 020001, 020028, 020029 Cohen, if you have many more questions that you would like to ask, we're going to recess the hearing until Thursday. As I said earlier, many people have committed to the signing of the bill ceremony. So if you're going to be much longer we're going to have to continue this hearing.
I agree with your comments. I agree with the concept of a recess.
I said I agree with what you stated and am agreeable to the idea of a recess to Thursday morning.
The Committee will stand in recess until Thursday morning precisely at 9 o'clock. And the same will hold true for the Committee on Fiscal Stability. Thank you all so very much. (Council adjourned at 12:00 noon.) - - - 67 C E R T I F I C A T I O N I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of April 23, 2002, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. RE: COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE ___________________________ Lisa C. Bradley, RPR and Notary Public