COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, March 26, 2024 9:58 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT KENYATTA JOHNSON COUNCILMEMBER NINA AHMAD COUNCILMEMBER CINDY BASS COUNCILMEMBER KENDRA BROOKS COUNCILMEMBER MICHAEL DRISCOLL COUNCILMEMBER JAMIE GAUTHIER COUNCILMEMBER KATHERINE GILMORE RICHARDSON COUNCILMEMBER JIM HARRITY COUNCILMEMBER CURTIS JONES, JR. COUNCILMEMBER RUE LANDAU COUNCILMEMBER QUETCY LOZADA COUNCILMEMBER BRIAN J. O'NEILL COUNCILMEMBER NICOLAS O'ROURKE COUNCILMEMBER ANTHONY PHILLIPS COUNCILMEMBER MARK SQUILLA COUNCILMEMBER ISAIAH THOMAS COUNCILMEMBER JEFFERY YOUNG, JR. BILLS 240179 240180, 240181, and 240182 RESOLUTION 240193 - - 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.
This is the public hearing and public meeting of the Committee of the Whole regarding Bills Nos. 240179, 240180, 240181, 240182, and Resolution No. 10 240193. Ms. Loughead, will you please take the roll for all members who are in attendance.
Councilmember Young. (No response.) 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.
Councilmember Ahmad. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. (No response.)
Present. Thank you. A quorum of the Committee is present and this hearing is now called to order. Ms. Loughead, will you please read the title of the resolutions.
Bill No. 240179, an ordinance to adopt the Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2025. Bill No. 240180, an ordinance 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. amending Chapter 19-1800 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "School Tax Authorization," to provide for an increase in the tax that the Board of Education of the School District of Philadelphia is authorized to impose on real estate; and amending Chapter 9 19-1300, entitled "Real Estate Taxes," to establish an equivalent reduction in the tax rate for the City real estate tax; and making technical changes; all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 240181, an ordinance 15 to adopt a Fiscal Year 2025 Capital Budget. Bill No. 240182, an ordinance 18 to adopt a Capital Program for the six Years 2025-2030 inclusive. Resolution No. 240193, providing for the approval by the Council of the City of Philadelphia of a Revised Five Year Financial Plan for the City of Philadelphia covering Fiscal Years 2025 through 2029, and incorporating revisions 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. with respect to Fiscal Year 2024, which is to be submitted by the Mayor to the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority pursuant to an Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement by and between the City and the Authority.
Also present is Councilwoman Jamie Gauthier, Councilmember Brian O'Neill, and Councilmember Nina Ahmad, also Councilmember Cindy Bass.
Today we begin the public hearing of the Committee of the Whole to consider the bills read by the Clerk that constitute proposed operating and capital spending measures for Fiscal Year 2025, a Capital Program, and a forward-looking Capital Plan for Fiscal Year 2025 through Fiscal Year 2030. Today we will hear testimony 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. from the Administration on the Five Year Plan. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the first witness to testify from the Administration.
The first person to testify from the Administration is Tiffany Thurman, Chief of Staff to Mayor Parker. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Good morning. Could you just please state your name and title for the record and then you can proceed with your testimony. Good morning.
Good morning, Council President Johnson. My name is Tiffany Thurman and I am the Chief of Staff to Mayor Parker. I'm joined by my colleagues, Chief Deputy Mayors Sincere Harris and Aren Platt. With us today are Finance Director Rob Dubow, cabinet members and department heads from across 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. the Administration. We are grateful for the opportunity to testify on Resolution 4 240193 in support of the City's Five Year Plan for Fiscal Years 2025 to 2029. The Mayor has a bold vision for the City's future - to make Philadelphia the safest, cleanest, and greenest big city in America, with economic opportunity for all, and her One Philly Budget features significant investments and new ways of doing business to achieve it. The Mayor's Proposed Five Year Plan includes $850 million in new operating investments and nearly $1.2 billion in new capital investments, for a total of $2 billion in new targeted investments. As the Mayor puts it, the budget comes from the ground up and reflects the voices of Philadelphians, the countless community members, small business owners, and faith leaders she's talked with over the campaign trail, the 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. hundreds of volunteers who advised her transition and the front-line City employees she has seen up close in action since taking office. The budget also responds to the City's fiscal conditions, including a shifting revenue picture and legacy challenges. It maintains positive fund balances and sets aside funds in the Budget Stabilization Reserve Fund, while navigating through the end of the American Rescue Plan Act funding and a legacy pension obligation bond balloon payment due in the final year of the Plan. We're going to speak to a few of the key investments and new approaches through which Mayor Parker's first budget advances her bold vision for the City and makes good on her call for One Philly, A United City. Public safety: Public safety is the Mayor's top priority. The FY25 budget includes over $33 million in new 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. operating investments, with over $150 million over the Five Year Plan for public safety. This is on top of significant baseline funding along with major capital investments. Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, Managing Director Adam Thiel, and Chief Public Safety Director Adam Geer are developing a comprehensive strategy with new ways of approaching longstanding challenges. Key levers of the strategies supported by the budget include increasing the number and frequency of new Police Department recruiting classes; assigning new recruits to foot beats in neighborhoods and commercial corridors across the City and investing in community policing; further reducing violent crime by deploying personnel more strategically with more officers in the field; addressing 9-1-1 staffing issues and making technology upgrades for more effective investigations; new resources and attention to persistent 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. quality-of-life issues, including illegal use of all-terrain vehicles, car meetups, retail theft, and nuisance businesses; addressing open-air drug markets, starting in Kensington, through a multi-phase initiative, including resident engagement, enforcement, and restoration, with the overarching goal of increasing public safety and community health for people who live and work in Kensington; creating new triage and wellness facilities as part of the Administration's effort to provide quality treatment, care, and housing for the City's most vulnerable, including those suffering with addiction, homelessness, and mental health challenges. I'll turn it over now to my colleague, Chief Deputy Mayor Sincere Harris, to discuss the budget's investments in clean and green and education. DEPUTY
Thank 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. you, Tiffany. Good morning, Council President Johnson, members of City Council. My name is Sincere Harris and I serve as the Chief Deputy Mayor for Sustainability, Intergovernmental Affairs, and Engagement. Let's talk clean and green. In keeping with the Mayor's pledge to make Philadelphia the cleanest and greenest big city in America, this represents the single largest area of new investments, with more than 36 million in new operating investments for FY25 and over 246 million over the course of the Five Year Plan. The Mayor is prioritizing how City government addresses persistent quality-of-life issues, from litter and blight to illegal dumping and abandoned cars, not to mention tackling the historic disparity in how those issues are addressed through a new approach that responds first to hardest hit 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. neighborhoods. Those investments and new approaches include appointing Carlton Williams to a new cabinet-level position, the Director of Clean and Green Initiatives, and charging him with leading an all-hands effort to clean and green the City; a new citywide residential cleaning program with dedicated cleaning crews for every single councilmanic district and one point of contact for members to call for a response to quality-of-life concerns; expanding PHL TCB, PHL Taking Care of Business program, to additional commercial corridors and into residential areas next to those targeted corridors, while pairing this with expanded cleaning support from Sanitation. We're piloting twice-weekly trash collection by Sanitation in areas facing the most challenging trash and litter conditions. We're increasing the number of 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. illegal dumping crews in order to shorten response time, adding a special collection crew for bulk pickup and expanding the City's network of surveillance cameras in illegal dumping hotspots, and using data to provide where to deliver services and to improve how those services are delivered. Now, turning from cleaning to greening, a topic near and dear to my heart, this One Philly Budget includes a focus on environmental justice for underserved and underresourced communities, backed up by cleaner neighborhoods, more green spaces, planting over 15,000 trees, and meeting the City's carbon neutrality goal, all of which will result in fewer urban heat islands and healthier, more resilient communities; continued investment in restoring and improving our community parks, libraries, and rec centers through Rebuild, which is now under Capital Programs Office; and increasing funding 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. to SEPTA by over $117 million, recognizing the essential role that public transit plays in building resilient and sustainable communities. Moving to education, to accelerate progress towards the Mayor's goals of providing all students a world-class education, the FY25 budget includes over million in new operating 11 investments for education, with nearly 12 140 million in new investments over the 13 Five Year Plan. Now, of that, 129 14 million is for the School District, 15 funded through a combination of shifting 16 the District's share of the real estate 17 tax from 55 percent to 56 percent and 18 increasing the City's local contribution 19 directly to the School District. 20 In addition to the new funding, 21 the budget introduces new approaches to 22 address longstanding challenges. It 23 supports the Mayor's Office of Education 24 to plan and provide oversight for a multi-year rollout of the Mayor's 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. full-day, year-round school initiative. This will enable students to receive the educational enrichment they need throughout the school year, with a schedule that works for working families. Taking on another sizable challenge, the Mayor's Office of Education will convene leaders across sectors to devise an actionable plan for school building modernization.
This is a big one, and this complex undertaking will require close coordination across all levels of government. Now, with that, I turn to my colleague, Aren Platt, to discuss economic opportunities and housing. DEPUTY
Thank you, Sincere. Good morning, Council President Johnson and Councilmembers. My name is Aren Platt, Chief Deputy Mayor of Planning and Strategic Initiatives. The promise the Mayor made to the City of Philadelphia is that our city 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. will be one that delivers economic opportunity for all. Practically speaking, that means that government should be a booster, not a barrier, to economic growth and job creation across every demographic and socioeconomic group. Her budget includes nearly $20 million in new operating investments for economic opportunity in FY25 and over $130 million during the Five Year Plan. I'm going to share some examples of how the budget helps expand access to economic opportunity through workforce development, cross-sector collaboration, and capital investments. The budget includes $10 million for workforce development and apprenticeship programs. We'll train working-class Philadelphians for careers in industries that are thriving today and those that are projected to grow, like the building trades, logistics, life sciences and biotech. The funding will be available 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. only for programs that offer guaranteed employment to graduates. The Mayor wants to make sure that Philadelphia leads the nation in life sciences and biotech, and this funding will help get us there. The budget supports new models of cross-sector collaboration, business, faith-based, and intergovernmental mayoral roundtables. The Business Roundtable, for example, will include working groups focused on areas with high potential for aligning strategy, expanding equitable access to opportunity, and attracting additional public, private, and philanthropic investments. We have launched the new Office of Minority Business Success, whose Director is in the Mayor's cabinet. She reports directly to the Mayor. The Office's mission is to bolster minority business enterprises, MBEs, and others in Philadelphia by creating a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem, aligning 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. businesses with available opportunities and identifying sources of patient capital. But Mayor Parker knows that we can't have a thriving city unless we address the City's critical housing needs. That's why the Mayor has set a goal of producing 30,000 more homes for households that need them, new homes for homeowners, rehabbing and building buildings for renters, and revitalizing and repairing homes to enable long-time occupants to stay where they are living. The FY25-'29 plan makes a series of strategic investments and changes how we work to move toward this goal. The budget supports continuation of successful housing production programs such as Turn the Key. It also provides needed staffing capacity to ensure that all City-supported new housing is affordable luxury, with the kind of high-quality fixtures and finishes everyone wants for their homes 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. in affordable housing. The Administration is committed to tackling barriers and cost delays to housing development, including at the Land Bank. And the budget supports continuing investment in City-funded home repair programs and will make it much easier to access these programs through a single home improvement application to let folks apply for multiple programs at a single time. But to accomplish the Mayor's ambitious goals requires a shared commitment to delivering visible results for residents, a willingness to build on what is working and change what does not, and a dedicated, talented City workforce equipped with the training, resources, and back-office support to do their best work. Accordingly, the Mayor's proposed FY25 budget includes $14 million in new operating investments for needed core support, with close to $131 million -- $151 million during the Five Year Plan. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. And now I'd like to turn it back to Tiffany Thurman.
Thank you, Aren. We look forward to partnering with City Council in finalizing a Fiscal Year 2025 budget that helps to ensure Philadelphia's best days are ahead of it. Thank you for the opportunity to present our testimony. We have also submitted testimony for the Mayor's Office and for the Department of Labor. Mr. President, I'd like to ask Martine Decamp to present testimony on the Fiscal Year 2025 Capital Budget and Fiscal Year 2025 to Fiscal Year 2030 Capital Program, after which we and our colleagues here today are available to answer any questions that you may have.
Thank you. (Witness approached witness table.)
3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Good morning.
Good morning, Council President Johnson and members of the City Council. I'm Martine Decamp, Acting Executive Director of the City Planning Commission. Along with my City colleagues, we are here to present for your review and consideration the Recommended FY2025 to 2030 Capital Program and FY2025 Capital Budget. These were approved by the City Planning Commission on March 12th, 2024. The Parker Administration's inaugural Recommended Capital Program and Budget strive to make Philadelphia the safest, cleanest, and greenest big city in America, with economic opportunity for all. The Recommended Program is a six-year plan for investing in the City's physical and technology infrastructure, neighborhood and community facilities, City-owned buildings, and specialized vehicles. The Recommended Budget reflects the spending appropriations for 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. the first year of the six-year program. As both the Program and Budget are key instruments of planned physical development, the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter directs that their initial preparation and submission to the Mayor be a function of the City Planning Commission. Beginning in early fall of last year, the staff of the City Planning Commission and the Budget Office received and evaluated requests from 14 departments. We then worked with 15 department heads and managers to produce 16 a Capital Program and Budget that 17 addresses our capital needs, aligns with 18 administrative priorities, and reflects 19 our financial resources and spending 20 capacity. 4 billion of new City, tax-supported general obligation bond funding to support public improvements throughout 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Philadelphia. When possible, City funds are used to leverage additional resources provided by our greatly appreciated regional, state, federal, and private partners. We are also taking steps to strategically leverage our limited City appropriations to capital with federal and state grants, such as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation. 2 billion of additional improvements. 7 million of new general obligation bond funding, which is slightly higher than recent budget years. The Recommended Budget makes critical infrastructure investments while reflecting the City's financial constraints and ability to support new debt service. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. 1 million in FY25 and $471 million over the full program for public safety. 9 million over the full program for clean and green. 7 million over the full program for 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. economic opportunity. 3 million over the full program for education. 3 million over the full program for core support. Support for IT infrastructure, street repaving, ADA ramp reconstruction, and improvements to municipal buildings are recommended to invest in more efficient and effective municipal services. We're pleased to propose these investments, but we know they do not 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. include all the projects the departments requested. And while the amount of recommended new general obligation bond funded spending in this year's Capital Program and Budget exceeds previous years, there remains a lot of documented need. New general obligation bond funding spending in future years remains limited. Increasing City borrowing will mean increasing debt service and fixed costs, reducing the City's budgetary flexibility. Overall, given our financial constraints, the Administration feels the Recommended Capital Program and Budget invests in the City's infrastructure to the greatest extent possible. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. We'd be happy to address any questions you may have. Please note that the leaders of the City departments are present to assist in answering questions. Thank you. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.
Thank you very much, and thank all of you for your testimony. For the record, I want to acknowledge Councilman Mark Squilla who is present as well as Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson. Before we start our round of questioning for this particular process, I have a couple questions, starting with the Five Year Plan and its fiscal health. Just for the record, the Five Year Plan cites that the budget proposal is in response to the City's fiscal conditions, which include the following challenges: A 300 million reduction in wage and real estate transfer tax compared to the prior Five Year Plan, the end of the American Rescue Plan funding in FY25, and a legacy pension obligation bond in the following year of the Plan. While this Plan does continue payments to the Budget Stabilization Reserve, they are 20 million lower than 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. the prior Plan, and the fund balance of million in FY29 is less than one 4 percent of revenues. 5 With these challenges to our 6 city's fiscal health, the FY25 through 7 '29 Five Year Plan shows spending 8 outpacing revenues in every year of the 9 Plan. What is the Administration's plan 10 to become structurally balanced during 11 the course of this Plan? 12
Good morning. Rob 13 Dubow, Finance Director. 14 Any plan is a trade-off between a whole bunch of things that you're trying to balance, fiscal stability versus essential investments, and we really thought that the investments laid out in this Plan are crucial for the future of the City. It will put us on a track where it will help stimulate our economy and people want to come here, so that in the long run, we would see healthier balances than what this Plan shows and we would see structural balance 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. going forward. I think that's probably particularly true as we head past FY29 and we see things like our debt service fall precipitously in FY30.
What's our overall plan to drive economic growth as well during the Five Year Plan as well?
So our plan is -- a big part of our plan is to make Philadelphia a more attractive place, and that is laid out with a lot of the investments that we show; for example, investments in public safety, investments in clean and green. We also have substantial investments in workforce development to prepare people for working in the City. We have investments in education, which helps the long-term economic development of the City. So really a whole number of things kind of put together to help make the City grow.
In 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. terms of the development of this process regarding the Five Year Plan, what strategy was used to make sure that this process is equitable from a budgetary standpoint to make sure that all Philadelphians have an opportunity to participate but, most importantly, feel the investments in this particular Five Year Plan as relates to the budget? DEPUTY
When the Mayor spoke about economic opportunity for all, she knew what she was talking about. She sat in this Chamber. She's worked on legislation, whether we're talking about housing equity, whether we're talking about business equity, whether we're talking about programs that she supported as a member of Council, like the Walter P. Lomax Transparency in Business bill. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. We are following at the lead of our Mayor, who truly, truly believes in this, and baked into every aspect that we are presenting here today is economic opportunity, so that we're not creating an environment that allows only a few to bear in the good fortunes of our city's next step, but one that truly lifts everybody, that has an eye toward the fact that this city is one of the poorest, if not the poorest big city in the nation, and ways to truly reverse this, whether it's the Office of Minority Business Success, the work that's being done in Commerce, the work that's being done around housing, the work that's being done around workforce development, education. I could go on. But I can assure you, Council President, baked into everything is economic.
Absolutely. In terms of actual budget process, were departments engaged in 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. coming up with an equitable rubric per each department to show that we're addressing issues of economic disparity based upon each individual department?
Yes. I'll start and then, Rob, you can jump in. So, yes, every department was engaged. They submitted first their initial request, and then our Finance Department with our budget team and of course our team here sat down to ensure that there was alignment around our economic opportunity goals and also goals around racial equity and inclusion, ensuring that -- one of the things that we say is that we're not looking at a half a loaf, but that we extend the whole pie, right, so that we are looking at -- we're taking a comprehensive approach across all departments and ensuring that we are serving people that have traditionally not been served and not been taken into consideration during the budget process. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.
When we talk about education and the investment of the million and 100-plus 5 million over five years, could you talk 6 about the support for pre-K, making sure 7 that every young person in the City of 8 Philadelphia receives a high-quality 9 early childhood education and talk about 10 the investment in this budget in terms of 11 dollars and cents. 12
Yes. I'd like to 13 actually call up our Chief Deputy 14 Managing Director, Vanessa 15 Garrett-Harley, to take that question. 16 (Witness approached witness 17 table.) 18 DEPUTY
21 Good morning, Vanessa. How are you? 22 DEPUTY
23 I'm great. This is Vanessa 24 Garrett-Harley, Chief Deputy Mayor for the Office of Children and Families. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. And I'm sorry, Council President, could you repeat that question?
So when you talk about the support for public education, I noticed that there wasn't a significant investment for FY25 for pre-K, right? That's an initiative that a lot of members inside this body supported in the last Administration based upon the importance of all young people getting a quality pre-K education, and just wanted to get an idea of the investment wasn't listed as an increase for FY25. I just want to kind of get an idea where we're at on that particular issue. DEPUTY
Understood. So the investment in pre-K is basically remaining stable for FY25. We currently have 5,250 pre-K seats, and we're happy that we have a fill rate of over 93 percent. At this point, we have about 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. 223 locations that are over the 43 zip codes. We are very intentional about making sure that we are putting them in priority neighborhoods, as we call it. There's a whole formula that we utilize that considers my rate of factors, including everything from teen mothers to low maternal education, insufficient prenatal care, even the gun violence in the community, in order to determine where the need is greater and we try to prioritize those areas. The decision around holding where we are is because we are doing so well with pre-K where we are and filling our pre-K seats, we're moving forward now with trying to enhance the universal early childhood education system for the City, and that universal system means that we are also working with the School District as well as the state and the fed. You know, there is Pre-K Counts and then there's also Head Start seats in the City. We're trying to maximize those 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. seats all across the board, and we're actually coming up with one universal application to make things easier for families as they are trying to apply. Right now if you apply for pre-K, you do one application for us, you got to do something different for Head Start, something different for Pre-K Counts, and a family shouldn't have to go through those kind of changes. We are excited that this will launch early spring. So really hopefully by the end of April, beginning of May we will actually be launched at one universal application, and then we can put them wherever they are. It will also allow our partners to help maximize seats that they have not filled. Our fill rate is higher than most of our other partners. So that's where we are, and that's why we're holding, because we're building that whole universal system so that across the ecosystem for pre-K for 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. the City, we'll be prepared to move forward.
I think that's awesome, definitely streamlining the process. Just elaborate on how we're differentiating between the high-quality seats versus those seats aren't high quality. Because I remember when we started the pre-K initiative, one of the key issues was making sure that young people and families had an opportunity to go to the highest quality early childhood learning centers in the City of Philadelphia. That's what made the program special and a little bit different than what the District offers as well as the Pre-K Counts initiative offered on the state level. So could you just elaborate on that part just to make sure as we go down that path, individual families still know that even though it's streamlined, they still have an opportunity to still go to 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. a high-quality pre-K program. DEPUTY
Absolutely. So proud to say that now about 96 percent of our pre-K seats are what is called high quality using the state Keystone STARS system. And when -- so we now have even been exploring bringing in providers who may not be high quality, but we provide technical assistance to help them raise to the high quality level. So this means that across the system, the lion's share of the seats are high quality. And even where we have pre-K seats, many of them are in facilities that also have the Head Start and the Pre-K Counts seats anyway, so you're getting that same level of quality in the seats, but the quality assurance measures that we have in place will definitely be there. In fact, they'll become more robust as we're building technical assistance and we help those providers if they need help to build to a higher level. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.
Okay. Thank you. I have to open this up to my members, and I'll have an opportunity to address a lot of other questions I may have as relates to the different departments. But I did have one question regarding the triage centers. Just give us an idea -- I know the Kensington Caucus is very, very aggressive and compassionate and supportive of making sure we improve the quality of life in the Kensington community, and I think they're having some great headway in terms of addressing the issue. So can you just give an idea of what triage centers will look like, the amount of investment that's going into triage centers, and give us an overview of what that looks like in terms of how we move forward in terms of addressing the opioid crisis and addiction crisis here in the City of Philadelphia.
Absolutely, 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Council President. I'd like to call up our Managing Director, Adam Thiel, who can answer that question for you.
Thank you. (Witness approached witness table.)
Good morning, Council President, Councilmembers. I'm Adam Thiel, the Managing Director now for the City of Philadelphia. Council President, the vision for these triage and wellness centers is really bold and obviously backed by an unprecedented proposed investment. So we are looking at ensuring that we have facilities where we can triage folks who need City services who are currently experiencing a lot of different types of ills, whether that's temporarily experiencing homelessness, whether it's substance use disorder, and ensuring that we are able to wrap around those folks and get them the help they 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. need, not just in the short term. We know that City workers and our partners are out there 24/7/365 saving lives, and we are absolutely going to continue that work. At the same time, we know, and I know from experience wearing my former hat here in the City of Philadelphia, that we need to build out the rest of that system to ensure that folks once we save their lives and once we have them stable, that we can continue that through short, medium, and ultimately in the long term, so making sure that folks get the long-term care, treatment, and housing they need. The specifics of this very bold plan are still under development. We are doing due diligence in a number of different possibilities and also talking with a number of different providers about how we're going to partner to staff these facilities and of course ensure that all of this is done in full 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. synchronization with our law enforcement, health and mental health providers, that entire ecosystem. The last thing I'll say, Council President, is Mayor Parker during her first hundred days, just to show her commitment to this, convened apparently for the first time all of our health systems, payers, providers in the same room right here in the Conversation Hall. We had healthcare system CEOs, we had providers from all types of organizations sitting together to talk about, start this dialogue about how we can collectively build out this entire system to take care of folks. A very positive meeting. We are continuing that. We're having additional convenings with payers, additional convenings with health systems, providers, so we make sure that we can get these additional capabilities, these triage and wellness centers set up as quickly as possible, again subject to 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. your support, so we can take care of folks, again, 24/7/365 for as long as they need, get them jobs, make sure they have that economic opportunity, and help them move forward.
That comprehensive approach, I think that's awesome. How many triage centers will be proposed?
Well, Council President, some of that depends on the level of funding that's provided by City Council. The Mayor has really proposed -- I mean, this is a bold investment. We still see this as seed money. We think that this is going to be a very attractive opportunity as folks see the success for our philanthropic partners, potentially other levels of government. You've heard the Mayor talking about intergovernmental cooperation and collaboration. So we certainly want to talk with our state and 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. federal colleagues about helping us with this successful program. So we think ultimately the answer to that question is going to depend on the level of investment. We want to get started. We have the resources in this proposal to get started. So we hope that you will help support this.
When you say "seed money," what's the proposed level of investment for the triage centers as it stands right now?
Well, the proposed capital investment is on the order of $100 million. And, again, we think this is going to be -- this is really a bold plan. We think this is what is needed. There are a lot of other cities that are sort of, I think, as we look at this, doing a lot of things around the margins and kind of taking an incremental approach. We're not sure that's going to work at this point. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. So this is a very aggressive strategy, and we're hoping to grow that hundred million dollar initial investment into something greater, as well as of course there's an operating investment that goes along with that to provide all the types of supports that we need to operate these facilities, to work with our providers, to staff those facilities and give folks high-quality care, treatment, and housing with dignity for as long as they need it to get on their feet, get jobs and move forward.
Thank you very much. At this time, I'm going to allow members to begin speaking. Councilmember Isaiah Thomas.
Good morning, Council President. I'm going to say from the beginning that this is just going to be my first round. I'll come back for a second round, because I don't think I'm going to get it all in. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. I want to start by acknowledging all of the young people who are here today. If you don't know, a lot of our schools are on spring break. There's a lot of high school students who came down today to listen to their government in action. They're all over the room. So I want to start by acknowledging them, and thank all the Councilmembers who allowed young people to intern with them throughout the course of this week so that they can complete their requirements to be able to graduate from high school. Young people, welcome to your government in action. I started with young people because that is really my passion. And I understand that this Administration is really focused on public safety, and when you think about the crime in the City of Philadelphia, a large amount of the crime is being committed by young people between the ages of 14 and 24. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. I do think that the admin has made some excellent pledges as it relates to things that the admin wants to commit to to provide young people with quality opportunities, but I do have some concerns. In your budget testimony today, the first thing that jumped off the paper to me was this idea of capital investment in schools. Last year my team, as the Chair of the Education Committee, put out a proposal where we recommended that a third authority be responsible for building new buildings. We know that the School District don't have the capacity. Josh Shapiro tweeted, I believe, last week that Harrisburg has an $11 billion surplus right now if they fund every proposal that was submitted to the Governor. If we do not act right now as it relates to addressing the crisis dealing with our schools, how can we assure that there will be money there in 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. the future? Let me give you some things that's going on in the schools that you might not know. Several times a month young people are asked to leave their building because of the issue with their school. Some of the things that have been communicated to us, power outages, issues related to heat and air, and of course what we all know about, asbestos. The Governor proposed about between 100 and 200 million in new capital dollars for the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and when you break those numbers down, that's not even enough to address the issues at Frankford High School for the City of Philadelphia. Frankford alone has about a $40 million bill as it relates to capital needs to address that specific school. So I'm wondering what is the plan to be able to put us in a position 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. to receive capital dollars to really put a dent in the facilities crisis here in the City of Philadelphia?
So I'll start and then I'd like to call up Dr. Deb Carrera, our new Chief Education Officer, who can add additional information. So we are definitely supporting a school building modernization plan that we do in coordination with the School District and other parties. And so we're working with Dr. Watlington and Oz Hill and other leaders at the School District to ensure that we take into consideration previous recommendations that have been put forth around schools and the disinvestment that's happened with school buildings. And so in addition to that, Dr. Carrera can talk about the additional work and steps that will be taking place over the weeks to come.
And while doctor is coming up, I want to be 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. clear. I've spoke with Dr. Watlington, Board President Streater, and a lot of different parties about this, and we've been talking about this for months. And we understand that the District is focused right now on academic achievement, but we have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. We're very concerned that the District doesn't have the capacity to build new school buildings, and we understand that this bill right now is well over $6 billion. So I think that it's going to require -- and I know that Dr. Watlington and the School Board and their team will be coming before us at some point, but I won't be asking them these questions because this is above their pay grade, right? Like they don't have the ability to decide what the process will consist of to build new schools. All they can do is let us know that they don't have the capacity to do it themselves. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. (Witness approached witness table.)
Yes. Sorry. Good morning, Council President, and thank you, Council Thomas. I think to address your last piece, in complete agreement with you. So I think that that's really important for us to say. And there is a lot of interest about this issue on behalf of the Mayor. We want to make sure that there is a strong presence of Council, the business community, and other stakeholders in developing and supporting this sustainable modernization process. The Mayor would like to take a "fund it first" approach where we're focusing on securing necessary funds and a long-term investment in reimagining and renovating our schools. We know the Governor has proposed a $1.5 billion initiative over five years to support construction. We 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. know that's not enough, but it's a start. So while our needs are much greater than what we want to work -- we want to work to find every funding source possible to support the District's facilities and modernization plan. Additionally, in the Governor's budget, there was a $100 million grant opportunity for schools as well. And, you know, I started March 1st, but I definitely want to be able to -- I look forward to talking to you more and to Council more and your staff and learn more about your question about the school construction authority.
I think the concern that we have is that no one is going to give us money until we give them a plan, and the District doesn't have a facilities plan. I meet with them once a month. We've been pushing this. When Dr. Watlington first got in, the first thing I told him was that we need to focus on facilities. He said 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. his focus was going to be on academic achievement, and I respect that, because based on his experiences, that's what he knew he could move the needle on, and if you want to look at the numbers, you have to commend Dr. Watlington and his team for the work that's been done post-pandemic as it relates to academic achievement. But with that being said, while we have seen some traction as it relates to academic achievement, we have been taking steps backwards as it relates to facilities. My concern is that the "fund it first" model will not work, because no 17 one is going to give us a blank check. The Governor has made it clear we're not going to get money for new facilities until we tell them what the plan is to build the new facilities. So that part really concerns me, first and foremost. And, again, the School District themselves don't have a facility plan, right? And I'm not 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. knocking them for that, but they were in limbo themselves because they're waiting for a new administration to transition, they're waiting for a new School Board to transition. So any plan they might have created could have easily been ripped up to shreds if the administration didn't agree with the direction that they wanted to go in. So I want to be clear, Council President and those listening, I'm not knocking the School District of Philadelphia for not having a plan. What I'm doing right now is I'm sounding the alarm. I believe if we do not have a plan for school buildings in this year's budget right now, we will lose an opportunity to be able to gather hundreds of millions of dollars from Harrisburg that could put us in a position to change the school crisis forever. I think if we wait and we address this next year in next year's budget, Harrisburg won't have an 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. $11 billion surplus. All right? So I have to transition, because I hear something that's telling me that my time is running low. Last thing I want to say about schools and then I'll move on to economic growth when I come back for my second round, the School District of Philadelphia cannot do anything about the safety issues that exist when young people are traveling to and from school. That's not their responsibility. We have some things in place that we've done around safe corridors and things of that capacity, but we cannot say that that's all on them. I'm wondering what is the vision and what specifically is a part of the plan to make sure that young people are safe when they travel to and from schools? One of the things that we talked about was the charter buses for schools, and the School District said 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. that they don't have the authority nor the capacity to assure specifically with high schools there's a charter bus outside that school that takes those young people to the nearest major bus transportation center. So I think about Councilmember Bass's district and what happened at Imhotep. Had there been a charter bus at that school to take all of those young people to Broad and Olney after school every day, only the creator knows what might have or have not happened to students. So as I close out my first round of questioning, I'm wondering out of all the things that I read, I don't see anything that specifically talks about the safety of children traveling to and from school. What's the plan?
So thank you. I actually -- Councilmember Thomas, thank you. I'm heartened by your passion, by your call to action. I would like to 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. call up our Police Commissioner, Kevin Bethel, to answer that question. As he's coming up, I do want to note that we had an opportunity, our Administration, to go to Imhotep to sit and speak with the students to hear their hearts, to hear their cries. We agree with you wholeheartedly. We agree with you wholeheartedly. Commissioner Bethel, myself, of course Dr. Carrera, our Mayor, Cherelle Parker, as well as our new Chief Public Safety Officer, Adam Geer, we sat, we heard the cries of the students, we heard the cries of the family of the young man whose life was senselessly lost. We know that there is -- we're beyond crisis level. We're beyond a place where there's a sense of urgency. We do know that we must act now. That's why we're really fortunate to have a leader in Kevin Bethel, our Commissioner, who has both served in the police force for many years but also with the School 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. District. So I'll turn it over to him now. (Witness approached witness table.) COMMISSIONER BETHEL: So thank you for that, and thank you for your question. I mean, I think, Councilman, you know the challenges we're facing even starting in 2019 when I was a Chief of School Safety and never thought that I would be dealing with young people being shot in or around a school or let alone being killed in front of a school. Through that process, during my time as Chief of School Safety, you know we started to really work hard to build out these safe paths around schools. I believe there's about schools now that 21 have safe paths that through the data we 22 identified may have the greatest level of 23 challenges, Wagner and other schools around the City to do that. Working with the Police 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Department, we started to build these safety zones around key schools based on the data that told us this would be occurring. Never did we imagine now that we were dealing with the bus corridors. I mean, Rising Sun and Cottman would have never been a location we would have ever thought that eight children would be shot in the manner that they were, let alone Ogontz Avenue. As a result, you'll see as part of our hundred day plan, and we'll be executing even before that plan, is now we're trying now to see how we could put more men and women in those corridors where our kids are moving through. Now, I know we talk about and I know you raise issue about the charter buses. A lot of our kids don't want to get on the charter bus for school, whatever reason it is. They walk right past the charter bus, because they like moving through the neighborhood. That's just the cadence of who they are. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. So we are working on a strategy now to try to see where we could flood some of the core corridors that we see a lot of our kids are forming to be able to have an additional presence. But as you know, this is 194 square miles, I believe, the City. It's a lot of area to cover, working with our SEPTA partners, focusing on our hubs as part of this strategy, but it is going to take an all-hands-on-deck approach now for us until we can get it settled down with this kind of let-out or these activities that the kids are engaged in. They do not have any boundaries anymore, which now creates a significant challenge as we try to deploy effectively to make sure we don't have what happened -- the week of March 4th should be something that we all should be looking at and saying, how do we ever get to this place where we would have 11 children shot, one killed, within three days of each other in or around the bus 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. stops. But we are putting forth an effort to work in that direction.
Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you, Council President. I do want to just say, Commissioner, you have been an excellent choice, and I know I've said this in other spaces, but you are doing an amazing job. Thank you for your response to that answer, and I look forward to working with you to be able to address that issue. And as I close out, I just really want to put an exclamation point on the facilities crisis. I believe in my heart that if we do not address this in this year's budget, it will put us in a position where as though we will have nowhere near the capital that we have right now to be able to fix this problem in the near future. So that's my exclamation point, and I'm looking forward to working 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. together to address this crisis. Thank you, Council President.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes also present Councilmember Jeffery J. Young. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Anthony Phillips.
Thank you, Council President Johnson. Before I begin with questioning, I just want to say that the Mayor's budget represents the purest expression of our city's aspirations, of our city's goals and things that our neighbors have been asking for a long time. So I want to start by thanking Mayor Parker for rendering on her promises that she made when she made the decision to run for Mayor. Yet there are questions that I have that will hopefully help this budget process become a lot more stronger, this budget proposal a lot more stronger but, 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. most importantly, help the City of Philadelphia understand that we mean business when it comes to the quality of life that they all too desire. So the first question is, former Council President Darrell Clarke, my man, implemented legislation supporting community policing through the introduction of public safety enforcement officers. These officers would have been tasked with addressing quality-of-life issues, thereby allowing the Police Department to focus on other priorities. What is the Administration's strategy for recruiting public safety enforcement officers to tackle additional quality-of-life concerns? Because currently they've only been rolled out in Center City. Are they going to be rolled out in the district? Is there a plan for the public safety officers?
I'd like to call back Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel as well as our Deputy Managing Director, 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Mike Carroll. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Good morning. I'm Mike Carroll. I'm the Deputy Managing Director for the Infrastructure -- Transportation and Infrastructure cluster in the Managing Director's Office. So our approach to public safety enforcement officers is going to rely heavily on our Future Track program, which the Streets Department and now the Sanitation Department are drawing on, in order to help create a pipeline of employees for a variety of roles in the City. That includes folks who are going on professional tracks in Highway Maintenance. You know, electrical technicians, folks who are doing seasonal work feed into that, but we're hopeful that we also get people who are interested in taking on this role of enforcement officers supporting the 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Police Department in the work that they do and being that constant presence that you're speaking of in the communities.
Thank you. Just a -- you don't have to follow up now, but maybe through e-mail, if I can get the line item for this as well as what is the rollout plan to get them across all of the districts, and maybe we can help you with the recruitment process and what that will look like.
Okay. Thank you. We'll follow up. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Councilman Phillips, we were told -- my team just told me -- as I come on board, I'm not really vested in what the work they're doing. I am told that they're working for our abandoned auto, and our Neighborhood Services are supporters in that work. Clearly, there's an opportunity to use them in a much more expanded role. I'll follow up with you to see exactly 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. what the forecast is for them in that space beyond just working with Neighborhood Services. I'll be able to follow up with you with some of the reporting on that.
Thank you. I just have two more questions, Council President. What role -- moving on to another question, we're learning about this Mayor liaison that will serve in every Council district. How are you planning to collaborate with City Council to cultivate a piloted relationship so we can all work together to do the work of the Lord? Because District Councilmembers are charged by neighbors to really push and advocate for needs, and now is there going to be a conflation in terms of relationships with now a liaison? So the idea of there's going to be a level of confusion who to go to. DEPUTY
Thank you 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. for that question, Councilman. So the Parker promise is to deliver on government that Philadelphians can see, touch, and feel. And our Administration is also committed to the ensuring that access to critical City resources is accessible to everyone, regardless of zip code. So with both of those in mind, the neighborhood action centers and the teams that support them just builds upon the critical engagement work that CEO is already doing, so whether it's educating residents on utility resources, addressing food scarcity, providing resources for substance abuse, and rental assistance. However, currently all of that critical work being done by CEO is heavily grant dependent, both in the scope and what they can focus on and the geographic location. So all the neighborhood action centers do is make sure that all of those engagement teams 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. are provided for citizens across Philadelphia in every district. I would like to bring up my colleague, Orlando Rendon, who is the new Director of CEO, to talk further on this effort and address any other questions in detail. (Witness approached witness table.)
So the question, Councilman Phillips, is a good question. It's an expansion in terms of what's already going on with the City. We're trying to bring local government to the people's door, and in doing that, it's not something in a silo. It's working in conjunction with existing programs within CEO. It would be working in collaboration with Council constituent services. It's a one-stop shop where we 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. are tasked to try to coordinate everything within a particular district, within a particular neighborhood to make sure that it functions and works efficient so that everyone gets every resource possible that's available, whether it's city, state or federal.
Yeah. I just want to quickly add that I think it's a noble idea. I also think that there should be a way when the rollout plan comes out in every single district how District Councilmembers can work collaboratively with that particular office to ensure not only the success but to also help people understand that this is a supportive measure that City Council supported with the Mayor to make this happen so that we can have more resources on the streets. So I have some ideas around that, so I would like to set up some time but, most importantly, I just want the District Councilmembers to know that this 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. is -- it's not a conflation of resources. It's going to be us working together with this particular office. I think that's --
Absolutely. And it happens with all engagement, wherever it comes from.
All right. One more question. As the Chair -- and I will save for the second round. As the Chair of Children and Youth, I've been trying to figure out how I want to phrase this question. I've been highly disappointed with the Philadelphia Youth Commission over the years, and I'm thankful that we have a new director. I say that because the Youth Commission was a commission that as 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. a young person, I was part of the steering committee to help start. And what the Youth Commission does and just in terms of this particular question in general, just so everyone knows, by Home Rule Charter, there's supposed to be members between the 9 ages of 12 to 23, consist of individuals 10 who understand the needs of young people 11 in the City. The members should 12 represent racial, gender, ethnic, and 13 cultural diversity in the City, and they 14 should be recommended by City 15 Councilmembers. 16 The structure of the 17 Philadelphia Youth Commission was 18 supposed to have provided recommendations 19 of policies, initiatives that they will 20 send off to the City Councilmembers based 21 off of what they've learned in the streets from youth, from community organizations, schools, rec centers, wherever the young people are. Thus far over the past some odd 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. years, even with the potential things that I've heard -- well, some of the things that I have heard that some of the Youth Commission directors have said, oh, the members haven't sent this person, you know, as a representative. We haven't -- there's a lack of advocacy and push and structure and oversight over this Youth Commission to make sure that they're very, very strong. And so I think it's very important that if we're going to have this commission, what are the strategies that we're going to assure the success of the Commission that we're going to employ and does the Administration have a plan for its new director to hold the new director accountable and assure that there's successful report-outs. DEPUTY
Thank you for that question again. You're preaching to the choir when it comes to engagement, and that's why we tabbed a dynamic young sister named Shania Bennett 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. to lead our youth engagement. I will say that unfortunately previously the Youth Commission hadn't had a full complement of the commissioners, but she has already hit the ground running. We are -- we have 8 out of the 21. We're just waiting for 9 two more recommendations and we will be 10 at the full complement. 11 But to your point about the 12 Youth Commission advising on policy and 13 taking that back to the Administration, 14 that is absolutely the goal and the focus 15 for this Commission, and we will empower 16 and plan to empower Shania to be able to 17 take those Youth Commissioners' 18 recommendations back to the 19 Administration. We plan on having a qualitative and quantitative approach to all of our engagement, whether it's Latino, youth, Black male engagement, so that we are taking government to the people, both in the community engagement and in the 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. constituency engagement, and we absolutely intend to listen to our young people and bring -- have that constant feedback loop so that our policies are informed by what we hear from them. So your comments are taken and 100 percent in agreement.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson. And just for the record, I just want to note, can everyone speak into the microphone, because a lot of individuals who are here can't hear you. So please speak into the microphone. Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson.
Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you all very much for your testimony. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Council President, you already reviewed one of my questions regarding the overall financial outlook for the City, but I wanted to get a few things on the record based on the proposed budget that we have to sort of help us in understanding as we undertake this process, particularly also as a member and Vice Chair of the Appropriations Committee. You talked about in your testimony about the financial challenges that we know the City is facing, including the end of the ARPA funds, also the lower than anticipated revenue for both wage and real estate transfer taxes, sort of the high legacy and fixed costs. You know, that balloon payment is also forthcoming, but also some of the significant service demands that we have relative to the type of population demographics that we have here in the City. And so I wanted to just more 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. fully understand how the Administration is thinking more holistically about the fund balance, about the Budget Stabilization Reserve, about the recession reserve and some of the other savings to ensure that we have the resources necessary in case of an economic downturn. I say that, Rob, and I know we'll have the City Treasurer's Office coming soon, but I think right now we have sort of an inversion of the Treasury yield curve right now relative to short-term savings. But if you could just for me quickly review -- and I did some scratch math, but I just want to confirm -- fund balance for FY25, FY26, FY27, FY28, and then FY29.
I kind of thought this question was coming. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.
So for FY25, we are budgeted at the fund balance of 486 million.
For FY26 -- and FY25 is the last year of the American Rescue Plan money.
So as we always thought, that fund balance will go down after that went away, and it does. In FY26, it goes down to 247 million.
In FY28, it's 24 million. And then in FY29, it's 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. 14.6 million. Do you want me to go through the Budget Stabilization Reserve Fund next?
Excellent. And I think really for the record, if we could just go over what the BSR contributions would have been based on the FY24 budget that we just passed, and then if you could then detail for the record the projections for the BSR contributions for the current proposed FY25, because I'm really just trying to understand the difference.
Yeah. So I don't have the year-by-year in front of me, but I know that over the five years, the amount in the fund is about million 20 lower than the contributions from last 21 year's plan. 22
Okay. And then do you think it's any difference in making a contribution to the inflation reserve versus the BSR? 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Does it matter?
Yes, because the BSRF has a different standard for taking money out.
So that money is set aside more firmly for a rainy day. It's really a rainy day fund.
Right. So IR you would say has more flexibility relative to our ability to draw down from the IR versus the BSR, because it would have to be certain financial outlook in order for us to go into BSR, correct?
Okay. And I also -- just give me one moment. Thank you for that, Rob. I wanted to also talk about diversity in contracting, because I know that's something that Mayor Parker has really 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. put a strong emphasis on around growing MBE, WBE, and DBE businesses. And so I just wanted to understand what the Administration's overall strategy is to sort of increase the amount of contracting dollars we're spending on minority firms. And as an aside, I just wanted to add, I'm holding the balance of my questions relative to additional savings that we could achieve for the Treasurer's Office later on in the week, because I know that we have some refunding and other things that may be on the horizon that could help us achieve additional savings.
Thank you so much, Councilmember. So I'd like to actually call up our new Commerce Director, Alba Martinez, that can answer 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. the questions around our priorities with regards to MBEs. (Witness approached witness table.)
Councilwoman, I believe that we shouldn't be satisfied with where we are. I'll start there. Second of all, when we compare City government contracting diversity to private sector, we're ahead of the game. So there's something to be learned about how we're doing things, and there's more that we need to do. So with that in mind, we have a registry that has over 2,000 diverse companies on it. We need to grow that registry, and we're going to use the power of street outreach, marketing, communication, you know, aim our partnerships and our relationships in 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. this space to truly look for that outcome. And we are set up for success to do that if we all pull the cart in one direction. In addition to that, there is this opportunity that we have working with the Office of Minority Business Success and my colleague, Rachel Branson, I call her cousin Rachel, because the reality is that Commerce and Director Branson are going to work hand in hand to take where we are to the next level, because if we don't do it now, when are we going to do it? So what you have from us is a commitment to use the tools we have and take them to the next level. And I do believe that connecting with people to apply, make it easy for them to apply for this certification and others, right, private sector certification as well, and for us to guide them through the process is essential.
3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Excellent. And so if you could speak specifically to Black-owned businesses here in the City of Philadelphia, because historically that's been one of the lower percentage groups relative to both City contracting and other contract opportunities. If you could talk about how you all plan to expand outreach to particularly Black-owned businesses and also a system with certification and technical assistance, again particularly because we know that there is some anticipated borrowing that will take place relative to some capital needs for projects. I'll give an example, for Water as an example. I think they have anticipated 500 million I was just reading in some of the documents. And so if you could talk about specifically how we're teeing businesses up to be able to compete for those opportunities, because most often we hear that they may not have said requirements or they're missing two or three things to 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. be able to apply for the contract because the work may be so specialized. So how are we working from a technical assistance perspective to help individuals to be ready for those forthcoming opportunities? Because outside of Rebuild, as an example, we have some larger City contracting opportunities that are coming up or quasi City-related agencies.
So I can't go to the detail of talking about numbers, but I can talk about strategy and sort of what I see as the opportunity, and happy to follow up with any further detail. But I will talk about it in terms of tuning and scaling, right? So I have found, and I'm very proud of this, that the Philadelphia Commerce Department has the components in place to achieve success. I really truly believe that. But they're not always at scale where they need to be and they're not always necessarily fine-tuned to get to what we 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. want. So, number one, the Mayor -- and I really should defer to Rachel to speak to this, but the Mayor has a vision, which I share, which is about a minority business accelerator, like to create some sort of concentrated program. I'm not sure that it's an incubator, but that level of intensity. But in addition to that, even without that, we already have a number of pieces in place. We have relationships with tremendous community development organizations in the neighborhoods that where predominantly our Black residents live and, therefore, our Black businesses are, and we need to do more targeted outreach through those organizations and to those communities in a way that tells them we want you to belong to this journey. So that's one piece of it, the outreach. And the other is that we need to tune the technical assistance to where 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. the problems are. For example, a lot of businesses, Black, brown, you know, just minority, economically disadvantaged, struggle with back-end processes. You know, they may fall down on their accounting because they're too busy cleaning the floor. And so we need to think about how we can scale that kind of support for businesses, either do it for them or pay somebody to create a back-end office, a new business like that, or to get them to a level where they are self-sufficient. There are multiple strategies, but more work really needs to be done to be able to scale that in Philadelphia, and that's just the honest truth. But the pieces are there and the intention is there, and that's really important.
Right. And as you were speaking, I was thinking of the program that I know the Mayor supported when she was here in Council, the Goldman Sachs program at 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. CCP. So I was thinking specifically about programs of that nature. Quickly while I still have a little time in this round, I wanted to talk about also workforce development under the Commerce Department. That was an issue that was exceedingly important to me. I don't know that you're aware of relative from an institutional knowledge perspective, because you weren't here, that under the Kenney Administration during COVID, initially that department was slated to be eliminated as a part of government, and we fought through this Council body to have a workforce development unit in Commerce, and then obviously the legislation that former Council President Clarke did around having a workforce development reporting structure with your department. And so I for one appreciate working with the workforce development team -- and I hear the bell -- in the Commerce Department. I do love the work 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. that they do. We work together very closely. I just wanted you all to talk about what you look forward to and think about as far as their role from a workforce development perspective directly in Commerce and while also working with Philadelphia Works. Thank you, Mr. President.
So workforce is the other side of the coin of business success, right? A business is not going to succeed without workforce. So Commerce cannot disconnect itself or not be integrated in the thinking about how do we address our talent pipeline challenges if we want to grow the economy through the growth of businesses of all kinds. So I believe that an important part of what we need to do with our workforce unit is to be strategic about where we create value. Like there's no 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. reason for us to be competing with other programs. So when we're going to invest programs like the Mayor is proposing in her budget, we should be doing innovative things. For example, she talks about job training programs that have guaranteed job outcomes. Not every training program that we're funding is doing that. The other thing is that programs that we fund --
13 Pardon the interruption. I apologize, 14 because I heard the bell, but -- 15
-- 17 are you talking about Class 200 18 investments from your department, meaning 19 you would be funding another program, or 20 would it be coordination from in the 21 department? 22
Okay. To 23 clarify, and I'll be very brief, the team 24 leads the strategy, right? So what I'm 25 really referring to is that our team 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. needs to add value in terms of where we innovate, where we can show more efficient paths to close the talent gaps, and that could include but doesn't always have to include spending money on innovative programs. It could also include coordination. And an initiative we have underway, which I'd love to talk about in the future, is what we call the workforce efficient market strategy, which would allow us to close gaps by understanding supply and demand in a way that we have never understood before. And with that, I'll yield.
Ms. Martinez, and I know there is a significant investment around a variety of different areas in terms of improving services to the City of Philadelphia, rather it's public safety, rather it's clean and green, and there's a request for significant investment, but just 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. following up on what Councilmember Gilmore Richardson has worked on in terms of workforce development, we have a significant amount of vacancies, right? So what is that strategy, right, to hire up? Because this is a significant ask, right, but will we have the manpower to actually accomplish the things that we want to accomplish based upon the level of vacancies that we have right now? So we're going to scale up, but it seems like also we don't have the manpower. And then the last part, you talked about this new office around minority Black businesses, which is great, but also -- working in partnership with the Commerce Department, but you didn't talk about the Office of Equal Opportunity that specifically focuses on making sure we're strategizing to make sure Black and brown and other minority businesses have a seat at the table and we're reaching their goals.
Yeah. And I 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. should have mentioned, the registry and the outreach is right -- is the Office of Economic Opportunity. So I apologize for not mentioning that. That's definitely a department in the City that takes the lead around our registry and our outreach. And when I talk about expanding that registry, that's who I'm talking about, in addition to, you know, doing the contract compliance and monitoring.
But do y'all meet like regularly, like part of your brain trust, because --
Because from DI, like there's really no 19 DI without that particular department.
Yeah, a hundred percent. Yes. It is integrated and it has to be a highly integrated strategy.
And just want to put a pin in one last note. A lot of times we hear the narrative that 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. businesses need their back office support, but I meet a lot of businesses that say we don't need a program, we need an opportunity, right, to go from being subs to primes, right? Because in the City of Philadelphia, the same old businesses day in and day out still get the contract and then they'll come get the minorities to be the people that come meet with us to get the sign-on. And so we're trying to change that narrative to focus more on Black and brown businesses being more prime as opposed to the subs to kind of diversify. And I'm quite sure and I know our Mayor has an agenda of not doing business as usual under this Administration. So this is something to take into consideration in terms of our agenda. Hence, we have the Special Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to examine what we're doing on the City as well as on the private side, because we all know DI is right now being attacked across the country, which is 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. basically an attack on primarily Black and brown folks and women-owned businesses as well.
So the big focus for our Minority Business Success office is to ensure that not only are we focusing on the back end, to your point, Council President, but to ensure that it's a one front door model. To the question around workforce development, we understand and have kind of tracked the Office of Workforce Development over the last few years. Where it sits now of course in the Commerce Department, there is definitely an external focus but also an internal focus. Through our new Chief Administrative Officer, Camille Duchaussee, who is working very closely with Mike Zaccagni in our Office of Human Resources, we're looking at our workforce 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. new skills initiative to ensure that we take a comprehensive approach, not just around decreasing the vacancy rate but to ensuring that the people that we put in those roles, they have a pathway to progression in those roles, not just entry-level but throughout the course of their career.
Good. Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Kendra Brooks.
Oh, okay. Thank you. I want to thank the members of the Administration for your overview of the Five Year Plan, and I appreciate the presentation we received, and I'm optimistic to see many shared priorities in this budget. However, I want to focus my questions this morning around one of the biggest proposed new investments and to some of the questions that Council 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. President asked about the wellness and triage centers. There has been a lot of discussion about Philadelphia's addiction crisis, harm reduction, and what the purpose of these proposed centers are over the last few weeks. And I know people throughout my community are concerned about some of the rhetoric surrounding these centers, and I share their concerns. Because of that, I'm hoping to understand the Administration's vision around these centers. Over the last four years, my office had led efforts to make sure that Philadelphia is leading in the response to this public health crisis against addiction, and that's with empathy and the best recommended public health responses in tackling this national problem. This work includes leading the delegation of my colleagues into overdose prevention sites in New York City last 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. year, and what we saw at the overdose prevention site was a wide spectrum of harm reduction tactics, including education efforts, healthcare support, and resources for those struggling with substance use disorders. And we should understand that safe consumption practices are not the only thing that these overdose prevention sites provide to those struggling with addiction. And there has been little discussion about what services will be offered at this wellness and triage centers, and I was just wondering, can you describe a little bit more? I know in Council President's question, he talked about your planning to build out the system, and the triage centers is depending on funding and seed money. And I was very -- I'm just trying to figure out, funding, seed money, where, every Council district, focusing in Kensington. I would like a clearer picture of what that looks like, and it's coming from the 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. point I have nine members in my -- nine senior members in my neighborhood have overdosed in the last month, nine. And even coming in this morning, I'm getting phone calls from neighbors concerned about retaliation in my community over overdose of their loved ones. I just need to know and understand what this wellness and triage looks like in every community in the City, not just where I live but other communities that are not the primary focus of the Kensington Plan.
Councilmember, Adam Thiel again, Managing Director. I really appreciate your question and your comments. Certainly the challenges that we have with addiction and substance use disorder exists not just in Kensington, all around the City. As we see the data, we see that scourge continuing to creep around the City. We know that Kensington has been particularly hard hit, and there's a 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. lot of investment there. There are a lot of folks doing great work there. And we expect everybody who is doing that life-saving work, including multiple City agencies with multiple programs, to continue doing that important work. What we are doing as an Administration with Mayor Parker's really bold vision is prioritizing and reprioritizing our limited dollars to ensure that we are building out the rest of the continuum of care, from a lot of focus on short-term life-saving and harm reduction, both of which are absolutely important and we expect that work to continue. We want to ensure that we are -- because it looks like this is an area where the City really needs to take the lead, and Mayor Parker has stepped up with this bold vision for the City to lead and convene and develop the rest of this continuum of care, which starts with triage and bringing people in, making sure they have the services that they 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. need, and then moving them through to medium-term help, care, treatment and long-term housing and economic opportunity. What exactly does that look like? That is under development. We are looking at where we can do this. We are looking at how we can do this. We actually had a meeting. Our wonderful Deputy Managing Director for Health and Human Services, Crystal Yates-Gale, who absolutely has helped build and operate programs in the City to help address these challenges, we met with a number of the great harm reduction providers that are out there today doing this work and invited them to be part of the process of designing exactly how this is going to work. We want to make sure that we have the perspective and the lens of folks with lived experience for how they're going to move through this system. It won't be effective otherwise. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. So we really want to make sure that we're going to do this right. We met with them. We invited them. We're going to meet with them again. And we also want to make sure that the needs of our communities are centered in this work. So we also want to make sure that we're meeting with the communities and talking with them about how we can ensure that these capabilities, this capacity is built out in a way that is respectful of the community and the people who live in those communities and recognizing that our challenges with this kind of work exists all across the City. We think the solutions probably also are going to need to be distributed. The specifics of that are under development, and certainly the amount of capacity that we have is going to depend on the dollars that we're able to bring to this part of the mission and building this out. So we want to make sure that 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. we're including folks in that work, which is one reason why I don't want to sit here and tell you what I would do, because we want to make sure that the folks are community, folks who live in these communities, live, work, and play in our communities and the folks who are closest to this life-saving work are part of that build-out. COUNCILMEMBERS BROOKS: So I thank you for that, and I just want to kind of emphasize that in my zip code, 19140, has the second largest area of overdoses in the City, and this process is very important in how we're going to find, secure a site for these proposed locations. And to Councilmember Isaiah's plan about education, how can we fund something if there's no plan around it?
I understand it takes time to meet up with the numerous groups around this issue, and I do applaud the work around it, and I also want to applaud the work 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. of the City agencies that were able to step out and do emergency rapid response in my neighborhood around the first seven overdoses that happened in my immediate area. My Part 2 question is about just the reality that the public health science is clear and we realize that forced treatment doesn't work. And I believe that our city's policies should reflect that, and that's why I'm a strong supporter of harm reduction policies. The public health science is clear on this. People forced into treatment have higher rates of relapses and overdose, and I wonder like will these triage centers take into consideration public health science, and what is the plan for those who do not successfully complete treatment in their first attempt. And I want to say like of these nine people that I'm speaking of, these are people that I know firsthand, 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. community members, long-time addiction. I'm not talking about -- like the folks that many of us know that cut your grass, the folks that you can pay to clean up your block, some of the folks that are part of the Same Day Pay program. These are the folks that I'm talking about. We're not just talking about just pure homeless folks. We're talking about community members that just so happened to have addictions. And I just want to make sure that we're very intentional about not singling out or making this crisis compartmentalized and the reality that we all know folks that are struggling with addictions in every neighborhood and every community that are functional members of our community. And I just want to make sure that we're considering the public health science in relation to this as we set up these treatment centers. And some of these folks have been in and out of recovery their entire lives. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. So I just -- I'm just trying to get clarity like what does happen if complete treatment on your first attempt does not work? Are you just passed out of the system forever or are there opportunities for people to engage in different levels?
Councilmember, I think you really exactly articulated the need for this -- for achieving this vision and making sure that folks have access to the types of care that they need that is absolutely informed by the science. So we are meeting at the same time that we are meeting with folks who have lived experience to help them with the design, we are meeting with members of the community, and we'll be doing more of that and outreach to ensure that we are meeting the community's needs. We are also meeting with the folks who are the experts. You heard me talk before about Mayor Parker's convening with 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. providers and healthcare systems and insurers. There are -- as you know, this is a very complicated, I would say even complex -- I'm not even sure I would use the word "system," because we do have too many silos. There are too many folks who as they progress, they can't get their particular needs met. I'm an emergency medical technician, a paramedic by trade and by training. So I know that when in doubt, listen to the patient. And we know that people have -- for all of us who have been patients ever in our lives, we know that people have different needs, they need different types of treatment. And what we think is needed is exactly what you're talking about, is a big vision and a series of investments that are going to allow us to do exactly what you're suggesting, which is to make sure that we are getting the right treatment for the right folks at the right time for the amount of time that they need to be able 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. to move forward, take access -- take advantage of the access to economic opportunity and really have what they need. So we agree that there are a lot of gaps, and that is the point of this very bold vision of Mayor Parker's, is to ensure that we have a way to address everybody and give them what they need for the amount of time that they need it.
And another follow-up. The highest rate of overdose in Philadelphia is Black men aged 45 to 65, the people who are most negatively also impacted by the war on drugs. And we can't afford to return to these failed policies. So I have a question about what role does law enforcement play in these proposed triage centers as we move forward?
Councilmember, I guess I would ask Commissioner Bethel to start with that and maybe my other 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. colleague, our Chief Public Safety Director, Adam Geer, to contribute to that. Rest assured, we are all working in sync. (Witnesses approached witness table.) COMMISSIONER BETHEL: So, Councilwoman, thank you for your -- how are you? We see it as a significant opportunity for us. For far too long -- I mean, we understand the enforcement. We understand where the arrest plays in this process, but also often we've not had a place where we've taken someone, so we oftentimes make an arrest. They go through withdrawals and we take them to the hospital, and that's how it ends, right? And so what the Managing Director describes and what the Mayor has put forth is an opportunity for us now to treat the whole person and be able to -- so our part will be even in that work as 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. we go into Kensington and other areas is always offer treatment as part of that work and giving opportunities for us in our police-aided diversion now. We divert a number of people without taking them into custody. Many of those individuals we will turn over and hope that they go to services but oftentimes not be able to complete that loop. So I think for us as a law enforcement agency, it gives us an opportunity now to really have something to be able to say if I have an individual here today who wants to go to treatment, I don't have to parse around. I can be able to take this person to a place where they can get all the needs to service them. And so we see it as a great addition to our work and really build upon the work that we want to do as an organization.
You know, so I hear that. So we realize also that study after study has shown that 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. stabilizing people in housing is a way, a key way, to decrease drug use. So we know the sweeps have been tried many times in Philadelphia and around the country, and they do not address the root causes of the issue. What is being done in this budget to create stable and accessible housing to all Philadelphians and those who are suffering with addiction? DEPUTY
Councilmember, thank you. Part of the process for the triage centers, and we've heard our Managing Director say this a number of times, includes housing, but we're also focused on creating new housing, stabilizing housing, and that may be apartments, that may be homeownership. When we're talking about low-income people, we are working with PHA. We are working with CDCs. We are working to ensure that they all have the resources that they need so that housing for people who need it is available, and 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. that's across every socioeconomic strata.
I hear you, but I understand the system at the same time, and housing is not readily available. If we pick somebody up right here on Dilworth Plaza, we can't put them in housing right away, depending on your family size and your addictions. So I just have a strong concern. If we cannot stabilize housing while people are going through outpatient treatment or whatever, what system is in place within this budget to secure this? And you're saying new housing. Are we doing rapid rehousing for folks going through addiction? Are we setting up new places to offer two years employment for someone that's going through that with workforce development attached to it? And if that doesn't work, what happens? So I hear, I see the big vision. The devil is in the details, and I just -- you know, I've been studying this since I've been in Council. So I 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. know I'm going down the rabbit hole, but I've been down the rabbit hole, whether it was in an encampment on the Parkway, the one on Ridge Avenue, folks that come to our office every day, and my questions are centered in the real stories that my constituent services staff impact -- I mean, reach every day. So I just -- just help me understand, because part of funding this big vision is understanding the plan. And I'm a visionary. I get it. But before we sign off the dollars, there has to be a plan, and I have to realize that these services that I know that are gaps in, siloed, that you guys said are in place and will work as we move forward.
Councilmember, what you're saying, these supports, this system doesn't exist, we agree, which is exactly why we are going to try to address all of the things that you're talking about. And that's the work that's happening now as we're convening 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. and meeting. I would certainly love to meet and talk with you more about it. We agree that -- just in meeting with some of these folks who are out there every day, they're talking about if we can just get folks to a phone, sometimes that might be enough, let them get a call, let them get a shower, let them use a toilet. That's a first step. You know, we hear from our providers who are out there that sometimes -- you know, every day, day in and day out, we have folks who are out there and they're saving lives and they see the same people coming back and coming back and coming back, and then one day, every now and then, someone will come up and knock on a window and say, I'm ready, I'm ready. And we need to make sure that we can get them not just to an initial facility that has the skills to take care of them on that day, but to help them move from that day, that 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. short-term care, into medium and longer term treatment, housing, and economic opportunity. And we agree 100 percent that does not exist right now in a connected and joined up way, which is why we are -- that's what we're building, and we think -- as much as $100 million sounds like it's a lot, and it is, this is a bold investment, it is -- I think you just said -- it's a drop in the bucket for what we need. It's a start. It's a big start. It's letting us have conversations that we could not have had before, and we certainly hope that you will sign onto this vision and help us execute with Mayor Parker's leadership -- I mean, this is not small ball. This is a big deal. Nobody is doing this. We think this is an opportunity for our city, one city, united city, to address this and build out something that nobody has ever seen before, and we look forward to continuing to work with you in that work. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.
All right. I have another round of questioning, but I'll --
All right? We want to make sure we get to all the members so we can get down to the next round. But, Mr. Thiel, just real brief, because the young lady pointed out some key points. What's the timeframe for this plan? Because, I mean, you want money up front. What's the timeframe that we can expect a return on the investment?
Council President, you don't need me to tell you that time is money, time is life. So the more investment that we're able to have and the more we're able to know, the faster this will go. We are looking to be able to 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. have our first triage center available in a matter of weeks. That is an extremely aggressive --
Council President, the honest answer to that question is no, because we are doing due diligence on a number of potential sites, working with a number of different partners we're still talking with, because it is so important to make sure that the clinical part of this is aligned with the science and aligned with the providers. So, I mean, I honestly can't answer that question, because it depends on a variety of factors and it certainly depends on us being able to know -- and we appreciate all the different priorities that Council has -- that 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Council is aligned with our Mayor for this very bold vision that we're looking to execute and implement in a way in partnership that nobody has ever seen.
Okay. I don't think it's that we aren't. I think folks just have questions, and the devil is always in the details and so --
-- I think we're on the same page. Councilwoman Jamie Gauthier.
Thank you, Council President. And good morning, everybody. My questions are about planning and development and housing. So compared to FY24, the proposed FY25 budget cuts 60 percent of the Department of Planning and Development's budget. This is the agency that houses the majority of the City's 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. planning and affordable housing resources. This cut includes a $17 million reduction in services. Can you elaborate on why you're cutting DPD's budget so substantially, and which programs will be impacted by this proposed cut? DEPUTY
Councilmember, first, thank you for your question, and you and I have sat down. I know that you're a true leader on this issue. I'm going to ask Martine to come up and represent the Department of Planning and Development on the answer to this, but know that the Mayor, and we've discussed this, is truly committed to housing. It is one of the key tenets of her plan, 30,000 homes for homeowners in her first term. So know that we're working diligently on that. But the specific budget cuts, I'm going to look to Martine to answer. (Witness approached witness 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. table.)
Hi. So this isn't my full area of expertise, but I'll do my best. We do struggle with reduced funding from the federal government on a regular basis, so we are trying to be as creative as we possibly can, and we have a dedicated staff of housing professionals who look for every single opportunity possible. We try to be as creative as possible through zoning code bonuses for affordable housing. We try to reduce the barriers as much as possible, while finding as many possible venues for funding as we possibly can. So I think we need everyone's support in this, and we will continue to work with City Council offices on figuring out how we can make this happen.
What do the cuts represent and which programs would be impacted?
Oh, I'm sorry. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Okay. So specifically the cut was -- I might need to ask Rob and Tavari for help, but I believe that the cut was in the rental assistance program. So that was a temporary allocation to housing that has run out. Is that correct, Rob? Oh, it is right? Yeah.
Yes. During the tail end of the pandemic, we did a two-year allocation at million a year 13 to rental assistance in the General Fund 14 to supplement the 15 million a year 15 that's in the Housing Trust Fund. So those two years are up, so the 15 million is not in the '25 budget. It was never anticipated to continue. But the 15 million is still in the Housing Trust Fund. So there's still money for rental assistance. It just doesn't show in the General Fund.
Okay. I just want to make sure that I understand. The cut to DPD was for 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. rental assistance?
So there was two years -- we had committed to do two years of rental assistance in the General Fund to supplement what's in the Housing Trust Fund. Those two years were '23 and '24. So we had the money in '23 and '24, and then as had always been planned, it was not continued into '25.
So can you sort of make a comparison as to how much rental assistance we were providing in past years with this budget amount as compared to how much we would be proposing this year?
Yes. It's -- well, it's not really a cut because this is kind of -- it was a two-year program and that two-year program is up. So this is 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. what was always anticipated.
Okay. Were we providing more than million in 5 rental assistance in past years given the 6 DPD budget allocation and the amount in 7 the Housing Trust Fund? 8
Yes. There was the 9 Housing Trust Fund amount and the General 10 Fund amount. 11
About 12 how much were we providing in past years? 13
Okay. By my account, about half of renters in my district, over half, 54 percent, are cost burdened. That translates to a gap of 75 million in terms of the housing costs that people can't afford on a monthly basis citywide. Do we think that there's less of a need for rental 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. assistance now?
So I'll just go back to this was a two-year program and that's what it was funded for.
But, I mean, this is a bold budget. I agree with you, the vision is very bold. So we are taking steps to propose pretty dramatic increases in things that we believe in, that I believe in, like clean and green. Do we also share a bold vision around helping renters to stay in their homes?
Yeah, and there are, as Aren said, there are lots of programs in this budget that help with homeownership and with renters. I don't know whether any of you want to talk through. DEPUTY
Yeah. Councilmember, part of NPI touches on shallow rental assistance. We have -- we're looking at housing subsidies for renters building new -3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. using tools like the Land Bank to help lower the cost for renters. For lower income renters that qualify for vouchers, using federal programs through HUD. So there is a patchwork here to get there, even though there is not going to be the continuation of the direct rental assistance program at the same level.
Okay. Do we know -- are you aware that when we were providing -- when we were kind of plush with rental assistance money, we were able to offset evictions by 90 percent. The Eviction Diversion Program, which has been nationally acclaimed, took Philadelphia from the fourth highest evicting city in the country to being able to offset evictions and keep thousands of people in their homes. That program works best with rental assistance. When we had the rental assistance, we were able to push away 90 percent of those evictions and 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. keep people in their homes. I think that's a worthwhile investment and a great return on investment. What do you think about the success of that program and the critical need for rental assistance? And do you think that this budget meets the need within our neighborhoods? DEPUTY
Thank you, Councilmember. It does it a little differently, that's for sure. We're continuing to look at, we're continuing to analyze one of the things that you've heard both of my colleagues talk about is really truly a data-based approach. We're doing what we can with the finite resources that we have available, and we're going to continue to look at this, see how the programs play out. And if there's need to reassess, we have the analytics in place to take a look at it.
I would encourage that. We are -- some of 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. these programs approach our wildest dreams. A trash crew in each district is like, you know, pretty amazing, right? You're asking for a big number as it relates to the triage center, even though Council is asking for more detail on that. We can think big about successful programs, right? These aren't programs that are unproven. These are programs that we have a lot of data on, and we also have a lot of data on the actual need. So I would strongly push back against cutting down such a critical resource. Even the 30 million doesn't reach the amount of the rental gap that we have in the City in one month, right? I wanted to ask about Eviction Diversion specifically. This has been a wildly successful program. It's protected thousands of tenants and kept them in their homes and helped us a city, because it helps us not to have people on the street and homeless. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Can you talk about the specific amount that this budget includes for Eviction Diversion? DEPUTY
I'll defer to Rob on the specific amount, but there is an increase in the Five Year Plan for each year between '24 and '29 for both scaling and funding -- for both scaling funding and reduction of NPI funding. This is also the -- I'm sorry; the reduction in NPI, so the Eviction Diversion needing to draw down NPI funds to Community Development Block Grant's CV window winds down. So the Philadelphia Eviction Program, the Right to Counsel is going to be increased incrementally over the five years, and I'll look to Rob if you have those available now.
Okay. For Eviction Diversion and Right to Counsel? 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.