COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - BUDGET - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, March 11, 2008 10:20 a.m. - - - PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT ANNA C. VERNA COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE BLACKWELL COUNCILMAN DARRELL L. CLARKE COUNCILMAN W. WILSON GOODE, JR. COUNCILMAN BILL GREEN COUNCILMAN WILLIAM GREENLEE COUNCILMAN CURTIS JONES, JR. COUNCILMAN BRIAN J. O'NEILL COUNCILWOMAN MARIA QUINONES-SANCHEZ COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO COUNCILWOMAN MARIAN B. TASCO BILL 080156 - An ordinance adopting the Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2009 - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services Eleven Penn Center 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 2
Good morning, everyone. This is the continued public hearing of the Committee of the Whole regarding Bill No. 080156. I believe the first department will be the Mayor's Office. (Witness approached witness table.)
Good morning. Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Good morning, Council President Verna and members of City Council. I am Clarence Armbrister, Chief of Staff in the Office of the Mayor. On behalf of Mayor Michael A. Nutter, I am pleased to provide testimony on the proposed Fiscal Year 2009 Operating Budget. In the Five-Year Financial and Strategic Plan, Mayor Nutter indicated that his Administration would focus efforts on achieving results in six key 3 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 areas. Those areas are public safety, education, jobs and economic development, healthy and sustainable communities, ethics, and customer service. As part of their budget presentations to City Council during this FY2009 hearing process, individual departments will be discussing their plans to achieve results in these six areas. The role of the Mayor's Office is to provide the necessary leadership, direction and support to departments so that they may achieve success in each of these key areas. The FY2009 budget as proposed provides the necessary funding for the Mayor's Office to accomplish these objectives. 5 million over the Fiscal Year 2008 estimated obligation level. These additional 4 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 dollars will fund critical positions in the Mayor's Office such as the Director of Arts and Culture, the Director of the Office of Sustainability, Chief Integrity Officer, staff in the Office of Correspondence and Constituent Services, the staff in the Office of Legislative and Government Affairs. These positions are necessary to achieve success in the six key objective areas and will allow us to improve communications and enhance our relationships with the City Council as well as improve services to the general public. Other proposed General Fund appropriation levels remain unchanged from FY2008 and include $828,546 in Class 200 funds for the purchase of services; $76,695 in Class 300/400 for materials, supplies and equipment; and $204,221 in Class 500 funds for contributions. This includes $200,000 in the scholarship fund to continue the Mayor's Office scholarship program for Philadelphia 5 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 students who attend classes at area colleges and universities. 06 million in Grants Revenue funds to support the activities of the Mayor's Commission on Aging. This grant funding represents an increase of $76,441 over FY2008 levels and comes principally from the federal government to enable the Mayor's Commission on Aging to assist older adults with job counseling, training and placement, and health insurance counseling. 4 million for the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative. The Administration is undertaking a review of this program to determine how we want to move forward with this initiative. We hope to complete this review and be in a position to provide further details on the direction of this program in the near future. 6 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 I am pleased to report that the Mayor's Office has achieved a 30 percent participation rate in contracting opportunities for minority and female-owned businesses in Fiscal Year 2008. At this time, I would like to recommend amendments to the language in the General Provisions, Section 15 of the bill that is before Council for consideration. Subsections and of the bill provide the Finance Director with certain discretionary authority to transfer budgetary expenditures between departments when functions are transferred from one department to another or when employees of any one office are used by another office. " In addition, Subsections 6, 11 and 13 allow the Finance Director certain 7 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 discretionary authorities. " These changes to the General Provisions will make them consistent with the General Provisions included in the Fiscal Year 2008 Operating Budget ordinance 14 adopted by City Council.
You will be hearing testimony from the Mayor's Office of Community Services, the Office of Housing and Community Development, the Office of Labor Relations and the Mayor's Office of Information Services on their Fiscal Year 2009 Operating Budget requests later in today's hearings. I want to thank you for your support, and I appreciate this opportunity to provide testimony 8 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 regarding the Mayor's proposed Fiscal Year 2009 Operating Budget. I will be happy to answer any questions that Council may have regarding my testimony.
Thank you very much. I believe your office is asking for an increase of positions from your 10 2008 General Fund budgeted position 11 level. Can you explain for the record 12 what are these new positions and why are 13 they needed? 14
Yes, I can. 15 The principal positions that are being 16 increased that weren't in existence prior 17 to the prior year revolve around three 18 new positions that include the Office of 19 Sustainability, the Office of Arts and 20 Culture that is being reopened, as well 21 as a private sector initiative. In 22 addition to which we're also trying to increase the support we have in the office, particularly in the area of constituent services, so that we can be 9 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 more responsive to inquiries that are made of the office, as well as increasing our numbers in the Office of Legislative Affairs so that we can make sure that we have more cooperation and communication with not only Council but other government-related agencies, including the federal and the state level.
Also on -27 you are requesting $400,000 for lobbying services. How will you be selecting the lobbyists and what issues will they be working with?
With respect to our lobbying efforts, the current Administration, what we've done is, we have sat down and interviewed each one of the lobbyists that are under contract. This is a process that has started with the Mayor's involvement within the last several weeks. And we are now making determinations as to the extent to which we will retain lobbyists for both our state and federal activities. We haven't 10 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 made any final determinations as yet, but we recognize that the resources that we have may be somewhat limited in that, what we have, the $400,000, but we are going to make sure that we can utilize those resources to the fullest effect to make sure that we get the best out of both of our federal lobbyists and our state lobbying efforts. One of the things that the Mayor had indicated during the course of the campaign is that, for example, in one of the positions that we've increased in terms of the Legislative Affairs Office is to have a Philadelphia employee in Harrisburg, and as a consequence, if we're able to do that, we might be able to cut back slightly on some of our contracted services. So we are currently in the process of trying to determine if we can identify someone who can fill that role, who will be principally in Harrisburg as an employee working on behalf of the City 11 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 and the citizens of Philadelphia.
So at this point, how many lobbyists do you anticipate hiring?
Well, that's a hard question. I will tell you at this point, based on the prior Administration, I think we have counted there were eight outside lobbying firms. It's probably fair to say that that number will probably be less than eight when we are complete with our process.
Thank you. On the same page, you are requesting $100,000 for consultant services. How will these funds be used and how will the consultants be selected?
The hundred thousand dollars in consultant services is for -- they're not identified. They're to be determined, but whatever consultants that we select in the Office of the Mayor and others, we will use the 12 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 appropriate transparent contracting process. It will be subject to bid. It will be subject to a very open process.
Within the Mayor's Office is the NTI Empowerment Zone. Can you explain what the major objectives are for this unit?
Well, there were several in the prior Administration. What we are doing, Council President, is that we are evaluating -- reevaluating, I should say, the work of that unit. To date, we have not found any reason certainly to change significantly the focus of that unit, but they have been tasked with doing grant reviews, grant proposals and evaluation of the work. It is fair to say that the NTI office as it's currently constructed and the resources that are allocated to that may be in the future reallocated. We tend to believe, at least our preliminary review of that work suggests, that some of that work might be better situated in 13 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 the Commerce Department, but we haven't made any final determinations of that. So we're still undergoing a review of that.
Can you tell us what the balance of the NTI bond funds is at present?
I can't tell you right now, but I can get that information for you, Council President.
I'd appreciate that. And I would also like to know how these funds will be distributed.
Thank you. The Chair at this time recognizes Councilman Jones.
Two quick 14 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 questions. By utilization of whatever lobbyists you select, may I make a suggestion that you also incorporate the interests of this Council? You have people who are on various committees that could serve as an auxiliary force to go to Harrisburg or to Washington. Councilwoman Blackwell on housing and homelessness has had a long track record on such issues and probably has relationships at the Harrisburg and federal level that might be useful to lobbyists, whether we talk about paperless society, whether we talk about Councilman Clarke's efforts and Miller's efforts in gun lobbying. Working as a unit together with the region as well on certain issues such as parks, recreation and transportation, we share boundaries with the county officials. If we go in a unified fashion, I think we have a greater opportunity to bring some resources from Washington and Harrisburg.
I would 15 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 certainly agree with you, Councilman. We view lobbyists' efforts not on behalf of the Administration, but on behalf of the City as a whole. So we will take a very broad view regarding our lobbying efforts and we'll take your suggestion certainly under consideration and try to utilize the efforts of all of the talent in the City government.
The only other question I have is in reference to the scholarships that are produced by the Administration and the Mayor's Office, and in light of the cutbacks of THIA and the problems based on some of the subprime lending and some of the investors pulling back, is there any way that the Administration might consider increasing that scholarship portion for young people who might have been hit, devastated by the cutbacks of THIA?
I mean, Councilman, we can certainly look at that. In terms of kind of a holistic 16 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 approach, we're certainly looking at all of our efforts in terms of trying to support college-bound students, not only with this scholarship, there are other scholarship programs around the City that we are looking to support. So we can certainly look at this in the context of our entire scholarship program.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Greenlee.
Thank you, Madam President. Good morning, Mr. Armbrister.
Actually, I was going to ask about the scholarship program, too, but just to piggyback on what Councilman Jones said, that $200,000, is that the same as last year? Is it an increase or decrease? 17 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156
Okay. I see Mr. Dubow shaking his head, so thank you.
The other question I had, on the Office of Correspondence and Constituent Services, is that basically what the Mayor's Action Center is or is that different?
No. It's a little different. The Office of Correspondence and Constituent Services, in a kind of holistic approach, they should feed into one another and there should be somewhat of a symbiotic relationship between the two. But the Office of Constituent Service is really the first point at which correspondence comes in -- the voluminous amount of 18 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 correspondence comes into the Mayor's Office, and, frankly, we have a hard time keeping up with the correspondence that we get.
And it's a matter of trying to get appropriate systems and appropriate routing. So one of the things that we're trying to do, particularly when you think more broadly about the application of 3-1-1 and PhillyStat, that all contacts that are made with respect to the Administration should be noted. We should be able to say, for example, how many contacts a particular constituent has made. And we are hoping to get to that point with the help of some technology. But this is really the kind of front line of where correspondence comes into the office.
So that's not like the first floor there where people can walk in? This is something a 19 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 little different?
Right. Right. It happens to be on the first floor, but it's not the Mayor's Action Center.
Okay. And on that same note, is that a totally new office or is that --
No, no, no. 10 It's not a totally new -- I'm sure that in prior Administrations they had a correspondence office. It's probably maybe one or two more people than they've had before.
Okay. Got you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman Green.
Thank you, Madam President. Good morning, Mr. Armbrister.
Good morning, 20 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 Councilman Green.
I noticed, I guess, the total increase over FY08 for the Mayor's Office is 35 percent, and I'm just wondering the effectiveness of this increased staff should be measured next year when you're back before us.
Well, I would hope and based on the approach that we've taken to try to measure outcomes and things like that, one of the things that we tried to task the staff to think about is how do we measure our success, and one of the things that I've often thought about regarding the measurement of success is our responsiveness to inquiries. As you can imagine, the Mayor's Office is a focal point of a lot of inquiries, and our ability or, quite frankly, our inability to be responsive to inquiries from the Council, inquiries from outside of the government reflects poorly on the operations of government. So one of the things that I 21 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 would like to task the Mayor's Office is a standard against which we can be judged, that we're responsive, we're accurate in our responses and we get back to people when we say we're going to get back to them.
I guess you've added a new Office of Correspondence and Constituent Services?
Well, as I just explained to Councilman Greenlee, it's not a new office in the sense that the function is new. What we've probably done is we've enhanced that office with a couple more people. It may be a different name than it might have been described before.
The Office of Legislative and Government Affairs has gone from one person to five or six people, and so in the total sort of money available for lobbying activities, it's almost doubled from the previous year, private sector, private lobbyists and 22 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 then on the public side, and I was just wondering what our plans are for Washington, DC and other places more specifically.
Yeah. Our plans, as I noted a little earlier, is that we've recently taken it under review and met with each of the lobbyists under contract for the City -- there were a total of eight of them -- and looking at what they did under the previous Administration and where we would like to go. It is very likely that going forward it will be less than eight. Some of the savings -- and, quite frankly, there aren't much savings, quite frankly, because one of the things we noticed when we got in was that the stated contracts for those in total were more than the budgeted amount. So to the extent that we cut back, we're basically cutting back to get within the budget. We had hoped that we would be saving some money and will be able to apply some of 23 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 that money to the increased personnel that we're hiring. That being said, the Mayor strongly believes that having someone certainly in Harrisburg who is an employee of the City is something that we would like to do. So we are pursuing that as we speak, that we would try to identify someone who is an employee of the City of Philadelphia who might work and get supplemented by contracted lobbyists to represent our interest in Harrisburg. We had a similar thought with respect to the federal government as well, and in talking to the lobbyists and among ourselves, we're not sure that that model is -- the same model will work in the federal government, that actually we need to have someone in Washington. I think our approach at least right now would probably be not to have someone permanently in Washington, but to have a couple of contract lobbyists supervised 24 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 by this enhanced office that we have here in Philadelphia. So that's essentially our strategy that we're trying to employ as we speak.
In terms of applying for grants or getting resources for Philadelphia in Washington, will the local office take responsibility for tracking legislation, getting the software necessary to do that? Because lobbyists charge a lot more money for that than can be done in-house, and I'm just wondering --
One of the things that came out in the course of our discussions is that you can pay lobbyists for that and you're right, you'll probably pay them a lot of money. There are also services that are a lot less than lobbyists that can also provide that service that we've been -- that have come to our attention. So between either a service and/or contract lobbyists or the enhanced personnel that we have, we will 25 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 be able to continue to track the legislation in Harrisburg and also be able to work -- in working with our contract lobbyists, be able to secure what we hope are increased resources for the City of Philadelphia through grants and other appropriation requests.
You mentioned that with respect to NTI you're undertaking a review of this program to determine how we want to move forward with this initiative, and you've added two staff people, though, at a cost of 99,000 and I was wondering if you could discuss that. Section 2, .
Yeah. I'm not familiar with the two new positions that are reflected here, Councilman. I have to get back to you on that, but with respect to the overall program, NTI, what we have done -- (Bell rung.)
What we are doing is undertaking this review to make 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 sure that the allocation of and responsibility for the supervision of the work that needs to be done is in the appropriate place. NTI under this rubric is in the Mayor's Office. We think that going forward it may work better if some of those folks were placed in the Commerce Department and some were retained under the supervision of the Mayor's Office. Some of the work that's being done by the units that are reflected in our budget are some of the kind of supportive work. They're doing grant reviews, follow-up and things like that, and we think that in the longer term, some of that work might be better done in the Commerce Department. I will get back to you to find out what these two new positions are that are reflected here in the NTI.
You're welcome. 27 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 The Chair recognizes Councilman Rizzo.
Thank you, Madam President. Chief of Staff Armbrister, I'm pleased to hear today about the beefing up, staffing up of some of the areas of the Mayor's Office, because the Mayor is the chief executive of the City and you don't know on how many occasions people contacted me and said, You know, we got a letter back, a response from a Councilmember, but we didn't hear from the Mayor's Office, and I always took it as very embarrassing to our city, that people would write to a Mayor and not get any communication back. So it's good to hear that you're going to enhance that Correspondence Unit and Constituent Services, because in the past, it's not been the best situation when someone writes to a Mayor and doesn't get a response. 28 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156
Yes. Thank you, Councilman. As I said, our standard in terms of effectiveness will be the extent to which we get back to people. And we're not where we need to be yet. We've run into some bottlenecks and things like that, but hopefully -- and we have a lot of people working very, very hard to try to make sure that we're responsive to requests both from Council and outside of the government.
Thank you, Madam President. Good morning. 29 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156
Real quick, one, with respect to measuring the standards of effectiveness, you said that we'll measure it to some degree as it relates to your ability to get back to people and respond to Councilmembers, and I'm assuming that it also means resolving the issue.
Certainly. That goes unstated, but it should be stated. Yes, we want to resolve --
It's one thing to give me a response, "I got your letter, it's okay." At the end of the day, we really want you to resolve the problem.
I can't promise that every resolution will be to everyone's satisfaction, but they will be resolved.
Does this enhanced staffing put you in a better 30 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 position to resolve the issue or, at best case, all you can do as it relates to resolving the issue?
All right. With respect to lobbying, during the last -- or the time I've been a Councilmember, there's been occasion that Councilmembers have a particular interest about legislation or NOFAs, funding opportunities, both in the federal and the state level, and we were basically limited to our ability as Councilmembers to kind of hear about and find out about it. As you enhance or change the nature of your lobbying efforts and grant-seeking efforts both in Harrisburg and in the federal level, is there a way -- and I know Councilman Jones referenced the fact that Councilmembers want to be in that loop in some degree, but is there a way other than adding a 31 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 lobbyist to our staff that we can be a part of a process that allows us to solicit funding from other governments, agencies? As an example, I was recently talking to individuals from the Police Department and MOIS about the funding issues relating to the camera program and some other shot spotters and some other types of activities related to anti-crime initiatives, and I was prepared to -- because I know that Councilwoman Miller and I and a number of other Councilmembers have had discussions with people at the state level. They indicated to us that they were prepared to bring some revenue to the table to support our efforts, and then I was told that someone from the Mayor's Office was also working with the state and possibly the federal government as it related to some Justice Department resources. Is there a way or can you make sure that there's a way that we are part 32 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 of that process, not in just giving us a heads-up, but actually in terms of soliciting funding? Because we have a number of Councilmembers who are veterans not only of government, but are veterans of advocacy groups and working in the communities and we bring a lot of knowledge as it relates to things that are needed in the neighborhood.
Councilman, I think that's a great idea, and I think the Administration will make sure that we reach out to Councilpeople and try to set up a regular means of communication about our lobbying efforts in terms of what the Administration is looking for to do. And as I said earlier in response to Councilman Jones' point earlier, we are working for the benefit of the entire City, as are you, and --
We may disagree, but we're all working for the 33 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 benefit of the City. We may have differences of opinion, but to the extent that there are opportunities to enhance the resource level of the City in a way that benefits our citizens, I can't imagine a situation where the Administration would not want the support of Councilpeople, and I will assure you that we will try to set up a mechanism where that can routinely happen so it's not episodic, but it's a matter of structure. So let us give some thought to how we might do that and make sure that we understand the interests of the various Councilpeople and make sure that you're included when there are opportunities to make those requests.
Let me ask you a question relating to that. Do you think it could potentially be problematic if, say, for instance -- and I'm clearly not speaking for the Council President or anybody else in Council, so I don't want 34 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 people to get concerned -- that if somehow Council had a lobbyist that dealt with the interests of Council and they may actually be comparable to some degree with the Administration or to all degrees, could that be problematic for what the Administration would be attempting to do?
Well, I can certainly imagine a situation, Councilman, where you don't want a city to be at cross purposes with itself before another entity, and I think that that would be the one concern about the various branches of government having their own lobbyists. I mean, I think at some point we have to go in when we're making requests, particularly of other governments, as somewhat of a united front. There may be differences of opinion about how we do things, but I think once the "ask" is being made, I think it's really incumbent upon us to go in with a very clear, precise and united 35 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 front about what it is we want for the citizens in the City. So I think it might be somewhat problematic in that sense. (Bell rung.)
Thank you. Mr. Armbrister, can you explain to us what the Stability Office is?
Sustainability. I'm sorry. Can you tell us what that is, how many employees will they have, what will their responsibilities be?
Yeah. It's probably somewhat of a misnomer to call it an office in a grand sense. What 36 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 we've identified is a position for an individual which will be reporting into the Mayor's Office, but probably have as much contact with the Commerce Department as possible. And the mission is, quite frankly, to coordinate and monitor the efforts in the various agencies and departments to improve the environmental quality. This is about environmental quality, making sure we lower energy consumption, costs, promote long-term sustainability and foster economic development. Now, currently, there are several initiatives underway in the City government. What this office does would bring focus, we think, focus to and coordination citywide to these efforts.
I was just asking Mr. McPherson, to my recollection, I think we did have an energy czar who used to come in and testify every year, and he'd tell us to turn the lights out as we were leaving 37 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 the office, and that was supposedly saving us energy. Do we still have that employee on our --
Apparently we do have -- the energy czar is still around, apparently. I'm not sure -- they're saying I'm not sure if "czar" is the right word. But this is --
Yes. But this goes beyond just energy, I think. I mean, it really is a comprehensive approach to kind of bring into the very fabric of the government the idea of bringing sustainable efforts in everything that we do, be it recycling efforts, be it with respect to how we construct our buildings, capital projects and things like that. So we thought it was a very important initiative, one that would warrant a position. And what we are going to do is to go back and bring 38 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 within the rubric and under the umbrella of this office a person, if you will, all of those efforts in a much more coordinated fashion.
And I believe earlier in your testimony you mentioned about private sector initiatives. Can you elaborate on that, please?
Yes. This is again an initiative that the Mayor talked about during his campaign where we would like to establish a better relationship with the business community to make sure that we can utilize the resources and services of our strong business leadership here in the City of Philadelphia and to create initiatives, private sector initiatives, where we might have executives on loan, for example, from the business community and this person would run that program on our behalf, where we would get a senior executive officer of a large corporation 39 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 to come in and assist us with some specific task in the government pursuant to which they would have some particular knowledge, and we're very hopeful to secure the services of someone who can help us coordinate those efforts.
Thank you. At this time, the Chair recognizes Councilman Green.
Thank you, Madam President. Just with respect to the lobbying comments both made by Councilman Jones and Councilman Clarke, to the extent the City has some sustained effort, many of us do have friends who are in the Legislature or in Congress, et cetera. We'd be happy to make phone calls. A coordinated effort like that might be useful so you're not there out on your own if you're trying to do something for the City of Philadelphia. The other thing is Deputy 40 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 Mayors. I read in the paper -- I don't know if this is true -- that a lot of people were given Deputy Mayor titles in order to have -- because the salary available to them, say, for the Managing Director or for the Commerce Director weren't enough to attract the talent that you did attract, which I'm glad is here, but I don't see any line item for Deputy Mayors in the Mayor's budget and I'm just wondering where that money is coming from.
The Deputy Mayor under our structure from the budget standpoint are all in the Managing Director's Office. So they have both the title of Deputy Mayor and Deputy Managing Director. So they show up in the budget document in the Managing Director's Office.
But Andrew Altman is reporting to the Mayor, not to Camille Barnett.
Right. 41 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 There's a dual -- well, Andy Altman is a different example, because technically he's a Commerce Director as well as a Cabinet officer, but the organizational chart should reflect the fact that there is a kind of dual reporting relationship for coordination and policy development that goes with the Deputy Mayors/Deputy Managing Directors up to the Managing Director and also a direct line for him into the Mayor's Office.
So it's a dual reporting relationship. But those positions are reflected, the Deputy Mayor and Managing Director for Public Safety, the Deputy Mayor for Health and Opportunities, those are reflected in the Managing Director's budget.
The Chair recognizes Councilman Jones. 42 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156
Just to follow up on a lot of the conversation about the lobbyists and the relationship with Council, one suggestion that -- I had a one-on-one with Mayor Nutter and talked about an office where RFP opportunities, budget opportunities, both at the federal, state and private level could be reviewed by staff of the Administration, and I was told that that office actually exists somewhere within government. And if it does, good. If it does not, let's create it. But if we have representation from Council, it might be helpful as a liaison to -- it might satisfy a lot of the Council's interests by incorporating that office and with members or their staff to look at opportunities both at the federal and state level that we could bring home. We did a tour yesterday of the Philadelphia Gas Works. One of the issues there is that there's infrastructure that is over a hundred 43 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 years old, many of it in Councilman Clarke's district. There might be funding available from various departments ranging from Homeland Security to -- that this city, this municipality, is eligible for, but if we kind of all take a look at it together, we can be helpful in making those phone calls and kind of carrying the City's water, if you would, to try to bring home resources.
So if there is an office, we should plug into it. If there is not an office, we should create it.
Thank you, 44 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 Madam President. Mr. Armbrister, I actually want to change my line of questioning. Why are the Deputy Mayors in the Managing Director's Office? Let me understand that again. If they're Deputy Mayors, why wouldn't they be in the Mayor's Office?
Well, the titles are both Deputy Mayors/Deputy Managing Directors. When the organization --
Oh, is that the title? I didn't know there was a slash.
Yeah. We kind of refer to them shorthand as Deputy Mayors, but they have kind of both dual titles to reflect the dual reporting relationship. And most -- I think the most appropriate reason for that is that as the heads of those operating departments which report to them -- and under the whole structure, of course, you 45 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 know the Managing Director was the head of the ten operating departments -- we thought from a budgetary standpoint it was more appropriate to reflect them as heads of those organizations in the Managing Director's Office from a budgetary standpoint. So from a policy budgetary direction, we view them as kind of a dual reporting to both the Mayor and the Managing Director.
During the discussion about the ability to add Deputy Commissioners to various departments and enhance, I thought a part of the process was to eliminate all of these Assistant Managing Directors so we can have more accountability. That seems to be inconsistent with what you're telling me now.
I don't think it's inconsistent, because one of the things that the Managing Director did when she came in -- and you can talk to her during her testimony -- is, she went 46 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 and did an evaluation of the over a hundred Deputy Managing Directors/Assistant Managing Directors and literally pushed -- she did an evaluation of each one of those and literally pushed those people to the appropriate and respective operating departments, some of whom are working for the Deputy Mayor/Deputy Managing Director, some who are working directly in departments. So when you look at the kind of organizational chart where all those people fit in, they're not kind of just hanging out there in Managing Director Land. They've literally been assigned either to their respective Deputy Mayor/Managing Director -- because I guess they used to call them liaisons before. So you had somebody who was a liaison to this person. Well, what she did, she came in and said, Well, if you're a liaison, you might as well be working for that particular Deputy 47 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 Managing Director/Deputy Mayor, because they have oversight and responsibility for that particular operating unit. So the creation of these additional exempt employees allows the Commissioners an opportunity to enhance their resources without having to go to resort to these Deputy Mayors -- I mean, Deputy Managing Directors/Assistant Managing Directors.
Yeah, exactly. So I think it's much more streamlined and much more accountable. Quite frankly, you can really see more of the lines of accountability for individuals who were before kind of floating in the kind of Deputy Managing Director world.
You don't think by having this dual responsibility or dual accounting --
Because that dual responsibility is really only at the 48 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 top. It's really the Deputy Mayor --
It's just at that level. So if you look at an organizational chart, it has the Mayor and it has the Managing Director and then you have what we call the kind of cabinet level, which is the Finance Director, Solicitor, the Deputy Mayor for Public Health, the Deputy Mayor for Transportation, the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Planning, and that level is where the Deputy Mayor/Deputy Managing Director and then you have the operating departments reporting under them.
The Commissioners, right, exactly, could have up to -- Deputy Commissioners.
I hear what you're saying, but I just see that 49 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 there's a possibility that you will have an equal amount of these Deputies or Assistant Deputies, whatever you want to characterize them, but in just different names. I mean, if now you're enhancing the Commissioners so they can have up to ten Deputies and you're adding the Deputy Mayors, who have dual responsibilities, you already have the Managing Director, I don't really see how you're streamlining. It seems like you're just changing the names, but you still have the ability to have as many people in some level of supervisory capacity.
Well, under the previous situation under the Deputy Mayor form -- I think the Councilman is showing you the organizational chart there.
Under the previous rubric under the Deputy Managing Director, you could have as many as you 50 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 wanted. You could. There was no limit, without much of accountability, because you didn't really know where those people were reporting. Under the current structure --
Now they're reporting to somebody who has operational budgetary responsibility. So you have somebody to whom they're accountable other than kind of floating around. I think that's the major difference, and we think it's a much more -- it's a better system to have accountability. It's better to be able to hold people accountable for what they're responsible for. (Bell rung.)
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes 51 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 Councilwoman Sanchez.
Good morning. Thank you, Madam President. As it relates to NTI, I know that you're currently conducting a review. In the interim, what is the structure of NTI? Who is responsible for gathering the data about what money is left and who should we be working with? Who can make decisions? Because there's a window of certain projects that are online, in my case just catching up to what was done and not done. So ultimately where is that going to fall?
A large part of the NTI structure currently as it stands, there's a significant portion in terms of the work that's being done in Commerce. A lot of the money from -- the question was asked about where the bond proceeds are. Those are being administered primarily through the Commerce Department. So if you have questions about the cultural bond 52 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 issues --
Where do you think ultimately that's going to end up at?
Well, if I hazard a guess, I mean, I think a lot of that will probably end up in the Commerce Department, is probably a fair statement to say. A lot of it relates to business activity, bringing those businesses back and things like that. What we are trying to figure out is a lot of the operational work, the vacant lot cleaning, things like that, trying to get a handle on where that should end up.
How is that going to be coordinated with the Office of Housing since ultimately --
Well, therein lies the question. That's what we're working on as we speak.
Okay. Where is Lance Haver, the Consumer Advocate? I don't see him in this chart. 53 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156
He is in the Mayor's -- I think he's in the Mayor's Office. I'm not sure budgetarily if he's independent or not.
He's in the advocate -- he should be here in the Mayor's Office.
I know he's a great one-man show, but I don't want to miss him in this.
He is. We'll identify where he is and tell you, Councilwoman.
And I want to know, moving forward, is his role going to continue? Is he going to get some additional support? He has been a great one-man show. I mean, what's the --
Yes. We have no plans to change the role that he's been serving so far, Councilwoman. 54 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156
As it relates to the Office of Arts and Culture, the Mayor and I engaged in some discussions during the campaign about the Office of Arts and Culture, and I notice that it's a stand-alone position. Given the high priority that we gave it during the campaign, how is that going to be feasible?
How is the office going to be feasible? Well, we need to find someone to fill that role. We have been working extremely hard trying to identify someone to fill that role, and we haven't been successful as of yet, but we haven't been undeterred in our efforts. We are working very, very hard. We recognize that results matter, and this is still open. So we don't take any accolades for trying hard, but we are working very hard to fill that position as we speak.
What's going to be the relationship with our 55 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 Cultural Fund and that entity?
Well, this office will coordinate a lot of our efforts. I'm not exactly sure how this office will relate in terms of who has final authority over the fund, but they will certainly coordinate on behalf of the City all of our efforts in terms of the cultural area. I want to get back to your question. We just got a response. The reason we couldn't find Mr. Haver in the Mayor's Office is because he's assigned to the Law Department's budget.
Okay. Well, again, I'm concerned about just that one position --
-- with the Office of Arts and Culture, with no 22 additional resources. And then that leads me to the Office of the Education Advocate also, because I didn't hear you mention that again this was a high 56 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 priority area as part of the Mayor's platform. What's the interaction?
It is a very, very high platform, so much so when the Council President asked about the additional positions, I neglected to add that we find it such a high priority we made it an office of three. We have Lori Shorr, who is here, and Sharon Tucker and an administrative person there, and as you know, the Mayor made education and cutting down the dropout rate very high priority. So we view that as a very, very high priority and we put resources in to address that. (Bell rung.)
Thank you, Madam President. Just one more quick question, Mr. Armbrister. Can you explain the 57 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 responsibility of the Senior Advisor to the Mayor for Economic Development and how that works with the organizational chart with a Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development and Commerce Director?
Yes. The Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development and the, slash, Commerce Director is responsible for the day-to-day management of our economic development activities in that area. That's Andy Altman, of course. He's responsible for coordinating all of the activities there. From time to time, an executive branch will have people who can provide solid advice who may not have a particular portfolio, and in this instance, the Mayor indicated that he wanted to utilize the talents of Terry Gillen, who is in that position, the Senior Advisor to Economic Development, to supplement the advice that he gets 58 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 from his Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Planning. So the day-to-day responsibility, budgetary control, operational directive is set by the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Planning and Commerce Director, Andy Altman, which advice is supplemented by the Senior Advisor.
Are there any other questions from members of the Committee? (No response.)
Thank you, Council President. MR. McPHERSON: Mayor's Office of Labor Relations. (Witnesses approached witness table.) 59 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156
Good morning. Please identify yourself for the record.
Good morning, President Verna and members of City Council. My name is Joseph Tolan. I'm the Director of the Mayor's Office of Labor Relations. I'm here this morning with Renee Vargas, my Deputy Director, to present the Fiscal Year 2009 Operating Budget request for the Office of Labor Relations. We are trying to get up the PowerPoint that we've been asked to present as we go through testimony.
The mission of the Office of Labor Relations is to coordinate relations citywide between management and the labor organizations 60 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 that represent City employees to create an effective partnership to better serve the public. We carry out the mission through five key functions: Collective bargaining, contract administration, dispute resolution, training, and labor-management cooperation. As I'm sure you're aware, in terms of collective bargaining, the contracts with all four major City unions expire on June 30th of 2008. We have begun the bargaining process with the Police and Fire unions. We've exchanged contract proposals and are in the process to select an arbitration panel to ultimately set their contracts. We anticipate sitting down formally with District Council 33 and District Council 47 later this month to commence formal negotiations. In regards to training, we conduct training each month for newly appointed supervisors across the government. We train approximately 180 61 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 supervisors each year to help them understand how to function in a unionized environment. We anticipate improvements in this area by reaching out to all of the newly appointed City supervisors within six months of their promotions, and we are also developing additional training material to present across the government. As part of our responsibility for contract administration, we provide advice and support to the departments on an ongoing basis. In the coming fiscal year, we plan on reinstituting a structure that was previously in place during the Rendell Administration called the Labor Relations Council where we meet on a monthly basis with the HR managers and administrators from different departments to jointly and collaboratively work on labor relations issues. In regard to dispute resolution, we serve as the final 62 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 in-house step for grievances with the two civilian units. We receive in the neighborhood of 120 grievances each year. We handle or resolve between 90 and that 120 each year. In regard to labor-management cooperation, we routinely facilitate labor-management meetings across the government. We have a staff member who is assigned to the DHS Steering Committee as they work through their redesign of their processes in accordance with the study that was done of their operations. We attend labor-management meetings in a number of departments to help facilitate things before they actually become dispute. We also work on more formal labor-management cooperations, such as a recent project that we've been working on for a pilot schedule in the Fire Communication Center, which has helped to reduce absenteeism and improve employee satisfaction. The Office of Labor Relations 63 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 is requesting $549,350 in the FY09 General Fund budget. This is no 4 different from our FY08 estimated obligations. Our request consists of $511,436 in Class 100 to support seven filled positions; $21,414 in Class 200 for the purchase of services; and $16,500 in Classes 300 and 400 for materials, supplies and equipment. We have not contracted in the last year with any non-governmental entities. We would like to thank the Council for this opportunity to present our budget and are available to answer questions.
Thank you very much. The City's existing union contracts will expire the end of June. Can you tell us what expenses does your agency incur as a result of labor negotiations?
We don't incur any 64 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 additional expenses, except for a limited amount of overtime for some of our support staff. Most of the costs that derive from that are borne either by the Finance Department or the Law Department. The Law Department would be paying for outside counsel to represent us and may pay for things like the arbitrators' fees that are associated with the interest arbitration. Other costs; for example, if we need to rent space to have meetings, if we need to hire experts in order to testify and to advise us, typically those costs come out of the Finance Department's budget.
So any attorneys that are retained are paid by the Law Department?
Lucky you. We have to pay for our own out of our budget. Can you tell us what the selection process is that you intend to 65 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 use as far as the attorneys are concerned?
Well, we have already selected Shannon Farmer from Ballard Spahr to be our lead negotiator during the negotiations. The process that was used was a committee -- there was outreach to several of the major law firms in Philadelphia. A committee was put together, which included the Mayor and the Chief of Staff and the City Solicitor and the Finance Director, and I attended as well. We interviewed the different groups and heard their presentations and what they could do, and a decision was made to select Shannon Farmer.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Tasco.
Thank you very much. When you talk about dispute 66 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 resolution, who are the disputes normally between? The supervisor and an employee, or what are some of the complaints like?
Well, I guess they could range from anything where an individual has received, for example, a written reprimand from their supervisor for insubordination. They could go from that to a level where there could be a more substantive kind of dispute over how overtime is assigned or whether or not out-of-class compensation should be paid. We have a classified civil service. If someone is in a certain job title and feels that they're performing the work of a higher level, if it can't be resolved informally in the department, ultimately it can come to us, because we're the last step before the union, if they decide that they're not satisfied, chooses to take an issue to outside arbitration.
I was thinking about the Civil Service Commission, that they have a different 67 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 role.
They have a different role. There's an overlap. Typically if it's a matter of discipline, employees choose which path they want to follow. They can either come through the grievance procedure if they're represented or they may go before the Civil Service Commission.
Okay. When you did the outreach to the law firms for representation, would that have come under the ethics rule that you were looking for attorneys? Did you have to post it on the Internet?
The actual outreach was conducted by the Law Department. I was just a member of the committee that reviewed the applicants.
At what point do we have to list everything on the Internet that this process is taking place and individuals can apply?
Personally, I don't 68 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 know. I mean, I'm sure that we could find that out through the Administration, but it's not a process that our office has actually been engaged in, because we don't contract with them.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman Green.
Thank you, Madam President. I just wondered if you could describe a little bit to me of how your department is involved in the actual labor negotiations compared to the outside lawyers that we're hiring and the Administration in the labor negotiations. I mean, what role do you play in that? 69 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 It seems to be a big factor in what you're talking about in this budget request.
We operate under two basic laws in terms of our collective bargaining. For the police officers and firefighters, they're organized under Act 111. If we fail to agree to a contract, we end up at impasse and we end up in front of an arbitration panel, and at that point in time, the presentation is something like a court proceeding, but a little bit less formal. The attorneys from outside of the City would work with us and give us advice and guidance on how to put together the materials that we need when we have informal negotiations with the unions. Once we end up at impasse and if we end up presenting to an arbitration panel, the attorney would actually be the presenter. Someone like myself, I might be an expert witness on different areas of the contract, because my familiarity 70 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 is with the contract and with the workforce and with their day-to-day life. The attorney is obviously an expert in the law. When we sit down at contract negotiations with the civilian unions, who operate under Act 195, it's more of a traditional sit-at-the-table kind of negotiations. The lawyers there are part of the team. They participate with us, with the Administration in deciding what we'll be asking for. We may do analysis, for example, of a contract proposal to understand how it really works. We'll lead a lot of the dialogue that's very specific --
Yes. Yes. About, you know, Well, why do you feel that it's important to have this change in the contract or explaining why we feel that it's important to have a change. Our attorneys will be part of that. 71 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 As the process moves on, it gets to a point where you're going to be committing things to writing. You're going to be concerned about the language that's conformed for that, and certainly the lawyers begin to take more of a lead role in that process. So we work as a team. I mean, we work as a team as well with other members of the Administration on the negotiating team.
Can you walk us through a typical negotiating process from beginning to end, hopefully with a happy resolution.
I'm not sure that there's any typical one, but normally we will meet with a large group. We will both have a large number of contract proposals. We will ask questions about those proposals on both sides. We will explain the proposals. We'll argue about the proposals. At some point in time as we go 72 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 forward, some of the proposals will be modified. We may say, Well, we no longer think that we need to have sick leave reduced to ten days. Maybe we can go with or 12. And in that process, you 7 modify demands, and eventually based on 8 the feedback that you get from the union, 9 you'll understand that certain things are 10 more important to them and certain things 11 are more important to us, and you'll gradually reduce the number, reduce the number until you come to some package that everyone feels is acceptable and sellable to everyone.
If you can make a prediction, to what extent do you think wages versus benefits are going to be issues this year?
It is really too soon to tell. I mean, one of the things that we say is, we hold ourselves to a standard of bargaining in good faith, and until you really go through the process, you have to keep an open mind and listen 73 3/11/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080156 to what is important to the union.