COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC HEARING COMMITTEE ON LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Thursday, May 20, 2004 1:20 p.m. - - - - BILL 040091 - An Ordinance amending Section 1-112 of The Philadelphia Code... BILL 040094 - An Ordinance amending the Philadelphia Code relating to students living in Educational Housing Districts... BILL 040398 - An Ordinance amending Section 12 PM-311.0 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Graffiti"... BILL 040465 - An Ordinance electing to adopt, enforce and administer the Pennsylvania Uniform Construction Code in Philadelphia PRESENT: COUNCILMAN RICHARD MARIANO, Chair COUNCILWOMAN JOAN KRAJEWSKI COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO COUNCILMAN JACK KELLY - - - - 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 I N D E X BILL 040091 PAGE OTIS HAIGLER, L&I.................... BILL 040389 THOMAS CONWAY, Deputy Managing Director BILL 040465 OTIS HAIGLER, L&I.................... 3 05/20/04 - L&I - BILL 040091
This is the public hearing of the Committee on Licenses and Inspections. We're here to consider Bills 040091, 040398, 040465. And Bill 040094 is being withdrawn by the sponsor, Councilman Clarke. Introduction to Committee Members, I have Councilwoman Rizzo to my immediate left, Councilwoman Krajewski and Councilman Jack Kelly. Welcome back to City Council, Councilman, it's a pleasure having you back here. The Clerk will read the title of Bill 040091.
An ordinance amending Section 1-112 of The Philadelphia Code by revising the amount generally required to be remitted in response to a notice of violation in order to waive appearance before a Municipal Court judge.
Mr. Haigler from the Department of L&I is here to testify on this bill. 4 05/20/04 - L&I - BILL 040091 Mr. Haigler.
Good day, Councilman Mariano and Members of the Committee. I am Otis Haigler, Jr., Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Manager for the Department of Licenses and Inspections. Today, I'm here to provide testimony on Bill 040091 which, if enacted, will amend Section 1-112 of the Philadelphia Code to raise proscribed fine amount to $75 for code violation notices that are issued pursuant to this section. Section 1-112 related to code violation notices or CVNs was even enacted to law on June 25, 1999, pursuant to passage by Council as a way to address code enforcement issues immediately without the need for court action. This section of the code allows the violators to admit guilt, pay the proscribed fine amount, and waive his or her right to appear before a municipal court judge to dispute the violation. The payment of the fine does not relieve the person from compliance of the violation and additional CVNs or tickets can be issued for each day a 5 05/20/04 - L&I - BILL 040091 violation remains in effect. Since the enactment of Bill 980711 in 1999, L&I has made use of CVNs as a way to gain compliance for a variety of quality of life violations. An increase in the CVN fines may have a positive effect on the rate of compliance of violations issued by the Department which impacts on the quality of life throughout the City of Philadelphia. The Department of Licenses and Inspections supports passage of Bill 040091 as a part of its mission to address public safety and health concerns. Thank you for the opportunity to provide the Department's testimony on Bill 17 040091. I'll be happy to answer questions at this time.
Any questions from the Committee for Mr. Haigler? Councilman Kelly.
Mr. Haigler, could you give us a few examples of violations that you're speaking about here in this bill?
Sure. B violations 6 05/20/04 - L&I - BILL 040091 are primarily property maintenance-type violations, high weeds, high grass, issues related to business regulatory under Title 9, failure to submit certain documents to the Department in a timely manner, failure to notify the Department of when a permitted activity commences.
And you'll be working very closely CLIP programs, I presume?
The CLIP contractor would be able to use this mechanism to cite certain violations of the Code that are property maintenance in nature.
Any other questions for the witness from the Committee? (No response.)
Seeing none, do you we have any other witnesses to testify on this bill? (No response.)
All right, Mr. Haigler, that was an easy one. 7 05/20/04 - L&I - BILL 040398 The Clerk will read the title of Bill 040398.
An ordinance amending Section PM-3110 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Graffiti," by changing the required time period for the removal of graffiti from private property, under certain terms and conditions.
Good morning, Councilman Mariano and Members Committee on Licenses and Inspections, I am Thomas Conway, Deputy Managing Director, and I am here to testimony in support of Bill 040398. The Managing Director's Office has taken an active role to address the City-wide problem of graffiti which affects the quality of life for all City residents. It has been our experience in dealing with issue for a better part of nine years that the prompt removal of graffiti serves as the biggest deterrent for future graffiti vandalism. Bill No. 040398 makes some technical 8 05/20/04 - L&I - BILL 040398 adjustments to the graffiti laws already on the books. The original plan back when these laws were passed in 1997 were to put the burden on graffiti removal on a business owner and give them up to days to have them 7 removed. Since the anti-graffiti network will 8 remove graffiti from a business or private 9 residence free of charge, this portion of the 10 ordinance has become obsolete and only hampers 11 our removal efforts. 12 Passage of this bill will only serve 13 to enhance our efforts to quickly eradicate 14 graffiti vandalism as we continue to improve 15 the quality of life for the citizens of 16 Philadelphia. 17 At this time, I'll be happy to 18 answer any questions you may have. 19
Any questions 20 from Members of the Committee for Mr. Conway.
No. I would like to add that Mr. Conway does an excellent job and the constituents throughout the areas that CLIP is involved are very, very happy with him. And, believe me, we're 9 05/20/04 - L&I - BILL 040398 getting good reports. You do a good job.
I'd like to also chime in because be a Member At-large, I'm in all different areas of the City. And it's interesting, I'll call Tom and tell him about some graffiti that might be on Kelly Drive. It's a shame what they just did, a brand-new street light poles, they put these beautiful new street lights and somebody spray painted them. The next day it was cleaned up. So, again, thanks for your quick response. You're like calling 911. Thanks.
I just thought of a quick question. It's really Police Department related, but it's germane to this. Do they take pictures? Do your people take pictures anymore of these taggers and at least hand them over to the Police Department?
Yes, we work closely with the Neighborhood Services Unit. And what 10 05/20/04 - L&I - BILL 040398 we basically would do is go after specific vandals, ones that are constantly tagging the same area. We have a better chance of apprehension going after specific individuals than trying to take pictures of everything and just handing them over, so we target specific taggers.
If we catch any of these tags, I think the penalty would be they should have to work for Councilman Rizzo for a month, then they never do anything wrong again. Thank you. Any other questions for Mr. Conway?
What's the response time now between calling your office and having this graffiti removed?
Basically, we try and get in with about 48 hours, the removal time. So once we get in -- as long as the property owner is willing to work with us. And that's kind of why we want to shorten the time 11 05/20/04 - L&I - BILL 040398 period. In rare instances, someone will not want us to remove it from their property, so now we only give them five days. If not, then we'll remove it and we'll bill the property owner for the cost of clean-up.
I've noticed myself that some of that graffiti is removed within hours, some of it. So I think 10 you're doing an excellent job. I just want to 11 commend you on that. 12
Tom, does that 14 make it easier when you get it before -- does 15 that make it easier when it's a couple days 16 after it's applied. 17
Yes. Actually, the 18 longer it sits on the surface, the longer it 19 permeates the surface of the graffiti, 20 especially like on marble, stuff like that. 21 The quicker the removal, the better it is and 22 easier. 23
Do we consider 24 that window etching graffiti? I know they can't do a lot about that, but do you get 12 05/20/04 - L&I - BILL 040398 calls on that?
Yes, we do. That's acid etching. We're trying to work -- there's a couple of different businesses that actually -- I think there's two in the City right now that remove it -- to work on a program with them to try and help the property owners. It's very expensive. It's 200, $300 a square foot.
It might be worth changing the windows in some cases.
Seeing none, any other witnesses on this bill? (No response.)
An ordinance electing to adopt, enforce and administer the Pennsylvania Uniform Construction Code in Philadelphia 13 05/20/04 - L&I - BILL 040465 pursuant to Act 45 of 1999, under certain terms and conditions
This is bill 5 040465, and we have the ever faithful Mr. Haigler still here. Good job, Mr. Haigler.
Good day, Councilman Mariano and Members of the Committee. I am Otis Haigler, Jr., Legislative and Regulatory Affairs for the Department of Licenses and Inspections. Today, I'm here to provide testimony on Bill 040465, which is a technical ordinance in a compliance with the provisions of Act 45 of 1999 to officially adopt, enforce and administer the Pennsylvania Uniform Construction Code in Philadelphia. As required by Act 45, each municipality in the Commonwealth has to within 90 days after enforcement in administrative regulations of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry have been adopted, enact an ordinance which specifically indicates that the municipality adopts the Pennsylvania Uniform Construction Code and companion 14 05/20/04 - L&I - BILL 040465 regulations. The reason for this is that the effective date of the Pennsylvania Uniform Construction Code coincides with the official adoption of Labor and Industry regulations. The regulations of Labor and Industry were officially adopted on April 9, 2004, at which time the Pennsylvania Uniform Construction Code became effective. All municipalities must enact enabling legislation after the effective date of the Pennsylvania Uniform Construction Code and notify Labor and Industry of this enactment in order to maintain a local construction code enforcement program. The time period for enactment of this legislation is between April 9 and July 8, 2004, as required by the Act. It should be noted that the enactment of this legislation fulfills the technical requirements of Act 45 and will have no effect on bills recently passed by Council and enacted on December 31, 2003, which addressed amendments to Title 4 of the Building Construction and Occupancy Code. 15 05/20/04 - L&I - BILL 040465 Thank you for the opportunity to present the Department's testimony. I'll be happy to answer any questions at this time.
Any questions from the Committee for Mr. Haigler? (No response.)
Seeing none, anyone else want to testify on this? (No response.)
Seeing none, that concludes the public hearing of the Committee of Licenses and Inspections. - - - - 16 COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC MEETING COMMITTEE ON LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - - - - Thursday, May 20, 2004 - - - - Public meeting conducted by the Committee on Licenses and Inspections, held in Room 400, City Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the above date, to consider action on the following: BILLS 040091, 040094, 040398, 040465. PRESENT: COUNCILMAN RICHARD MARIANO, Chair COUNCILWOMAN JOAN KRAJEWSKI COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO COUNCILMAN JACK KELLY 17 05/20/04 - L & I - PUBLIC MEETING
We will now enter a public meeting. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Krajewski on bill 040091.
Mr. Chairman, I move that Bill 040091 be reported out of this Committee with a suspension of Rules so as to permit first reading at the next Session of Council. (Duly seconded.)
It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor? (Aye.)
Seeing none, it passes with a suspension of Rules. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Krajewski for a motion on Bill 040398.
Mr. Chairman, I move that Bill 040398 be reported out of this Committee with a favorable recommendation with a suspension of Rules so 18 05/20/04 - L & I - PUBLIC MEETING as to permit first reading at the next Session of Council. (Duly seconded.)
A motion has been made and duly seconded. All those in favor? (Aye.)
The ayes have it. It passes with a suspension of Rules. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Krajewski for a motion on Bill 040465.
Mr. Chairman, I move that Bill 040465 be reported out of this Committee with a favorable recommendation with a suspension of Rules so as to permit first reading at the next Session of Council. (Duly seconded.)
The motion has been made and duly seconded. All those in favor say aye. (Aye.) 19 05/20/04 - L & I - PUBLIC MEETING
Seeing none, it passes with a suspension of Rules. This concludes the public meeting of the Committee on Licenses and Inspections. Thank you very much. (Council adjourned at 1:30 p.m.) - - - - 20 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 Thursday, May 20, 2004, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. RE: COMMITTEE ON LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS _________________________ Lisa C. Bradley, RPR