Committee of the Whole, March 26, 2024

Would you be able to provide -- we were having a little bit of trouble identifying that detail. Can you provide detail to Council with a breakdown of all of the proposed costs for rental programs, including Diversion, PEPP, and Right to Counsel and anything else that you all are including in the budget?

Will do.

Thank you. I also just wanted to get clarity on whether there's any expansion of the PHLHousing Plus program. This is a guaranteed income pilot that we've been doing to help people on the Section 8 Voucher waiting list. It's been incredibly successful in terms of helping tenants in the City. What are the plans around keeping this program going, especially knowing that we're still in a situation 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. where people are ten years away from getting housing vouchers that they really need to supplement their income and to get affordable housing. DEPUTY

Councilmember, I know that there's a number of programs that are being talked about. I'd have to look into that specifically and get back to you.

Thank you so much. Thank you, Council President.

Thank you. Just provide -- make sure you provide the information regarding rental aversion to all members of Council, including the Chair of Housing. Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilman Curtis Jones.

Thank you, Mr. President. And welcome to some and welcome 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. back to others. Some of you are gluttons for punishment, but we're glad to have you.

I don't know what you're talking about.

Bolder vision. I first want to start with if I understand the numbers correctly, we're at 6.3 billion, with a B?

Correct. Yes.

And if I compare that to the Kenney Administration, they were 6.4, which is -- and I didn't go to Girls' High, but that's a two percent reduction for this bold vision; am I right?

So let me give you some context. I understand the question. So one of the things that we're proposing to do in '24 is move forward some of the investments that are crucial to achieving our goals. So, for example, clean and green, there's a need for materials, supplies, equipment. So we've 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. asked for over 35 million of money that would typically be spent in 35 -- in '25 or later to be moved up to '24 so we can start these programs right away. Same thing with paving. There's about 50 million of paving. Normally we would be waiting. We're trying to move that forward.

And for District Councilpeople, that represents like double the amount of paving we're able to do?

That's the goal, yes. And another example is the Forensic Lab. That was in '25. We're trying to move that forward too. So the reason you're seeing it dip from '24 to '25 is those programs that we're proposing to move forward.

So with an inflationary rate annually of 3.14, I think it is, that ain't bad.

Yeah. Inflation 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. is -- it's not that area.

So I want to shift my questions to cleaner, greener, safer, with economic opportunity for all. I got excited at the budget address on the cleaner side when we start talking about conversion of lots from dangerous places to safe spaces. I'd like to know about that. On the greener -- no, cleaner, let's go with that, two pickups a week of trash and how we're going to roll that out, because I like that. And if I could end up with 400 police officers on the street, that's safer for me. With economic opportunity for all, let's go with your Municipal High School. I need to know about those things. I'm excited about them, and as I look at what you're proposing as a budget, how you're squeezing all of this into that. So feel free to take on cleaner, greener, safer, with economic 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. opportunity for all. (Witness approached witness table.)

Sure. So I'll start with cleaner. I'd like to call up our new cabinet Director of Clean and Green, Carlton Williams, who is no 9 stranger to you all and -- thank you for coming so quickly. I was going to say -- I thought I had a few minutes or a few seconds at least, but I was going to say thank you so much for your remarks, and our new Director is going to talk about how we're going to shift the narrative away from Filthadelphia to a clean and green city.

Good morning. Thank you. And good morning, Councilmembers, Council President, and honorable members of City Council. My name is Carlton Williams and I'm the Director of Clean and Green Initiatives for the City of Philadelphia. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. We are very excited, as you stated, about being bold about addressing the issues of litter and illegal dumping, but we're looking at a holistic strategy, not just -- we talked about silos and working in different parts of the departments. Our plan addresses multiple issues in a community all at one time, because it doesn't make sense for us to clean the streets and leave the lots, as you stated, unaddressed. It doesn't make sense to leave abandoned autos in areas where we've cleaned around with mechanical street sweeping. So we're working across departmental lines. Our new approach is to work holistically and proactively, not waiting for things to happen but going out to find things, and how we're doing this in a number of ways. A, we're establishing a Community Appearance Index. We've used the Litter Index before to measure how effective things are in a community or a neighborhood. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. We're now taking that strategy and applying it across multiple quality-of-life issues. Not only are we looking at litter and illegal dumping, we're looking at abandoned autos, graffiti. We're looking at vacant lots and nuisance businesses, because these are the things that tear away at the fabric of our communities. We're also looking at how we manage our trash collection. You talked about twice a week. Most of the illegal dumping or a good percentage of it is not just C&D materials, which is construction and demolition. It's residential household trash. Many people don't have the capacity, especially in densely populated communities, to store trash. Unfortunately, they take matters into their own hands at times and dumping on lots and dumping next to trash cans and any other place they can find it other than their homes, because they can't find 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. a place to store it. You think about a family of two, three, four or even five that's living in a household and how much trash they can generate in a given week. If they don't have a place to store it, unfortunately some people dump it. So we're trying to address those issues by giving them a direct service right in their communities and neighborhoods to ensure that they have adequate trash collection. Not only will this serve the residents that live in these situations, it will cut down on the amount of litter and illegal dumping that you just explained in our lots and our communities. So we're working with CLIP, we're working with License and Inspections, we're working with the Water Department, and PPR and all of the departments across to address these strategies holistically. Mayor Parker made it very clear 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. in her address that this was a top priority in her administration, and we're already taking action to address those issues with the Community Appearance Index. In our hundred day action plan, we're establishing a Clean and Green Cabinet that will also provide the best recommendations and best practices on how we should clean and green our communities.

Thank you.

And now I'd like to call up our Police Commissioner, Kevin Bethel, to answer your questions around our public safety plan.

I just want to say for the record, Mr. President, Member O'Neill and Member Driscoll are no strangers to the training academy, and one of the issues was how do we ramp up to get to that 400 number based on current configurations of training. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: So thank you for that question, Councilman. So first and foremost, when I came in the door, I couldn't be more proud of the men and women and what they have done working with OHR and working with our internal folks in Human Resources. We're now on a cadence of bringing in anywhere from -- we're pushing for 50 men and women every six weeks. On average, we're talking about 35 to 40 now. We will have roughly 218 officers coming out this year, and that does not include the officers that continue to come in and moving in to next year. And so we're really, really excited about where we're going in that direction. We will get to our numbers. One of the things I can share with you, most of the officers that we are losing are in our special units, not in our front-line patrol. Many of them are younger. And so we believe over the next couple years, we will be able to 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. bolster our districts back up to their staffing numbers and we'll lower -- it will come down in our special units. Those particular units that need much more resources, our Special Victims, Homicide, we will keep them at their higher levels, but we will start to retreat in our support areas as we build out our patrol assets again. But I could not be more proud of how they've been able to do the cadence. We believe -- and that does not even include the work that many folks have done already around our standards. We are seeing some differences now, particularly with the physical fitness. I know Adam is working with Director -- I mean, Chief of Safety, Adam Geer, is working on the tests. Once we get that test in place, we think we'll also get a lot more candidates, but we are definitely in a better position than we probably have ever been as it relates in getting the men and women and getting 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. them processed quickly. We've gone to a paperless system now, so we're able to move very efficiently now, where we didn't have those efficiencies before. And we're in a very good place, and we're definitely going to hit the Mayor's objective of getting to 400 and plus as we go into not this year but going into 2025 as well.

Good stuff. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Thank you, sir.

And as Dr. Carrera comes up, to your question regarding the nation's first Municipal College, we're really excited about the partnership with the School District of Philadelphia, the Community College of Philadelphia, as well as organizations like Philadelphia Works in partnership with our dynamic Office of Human Resources under the leadership of Mike Zaccagni and of course Camille 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Duchaussee, who is our new Chief Administrative Officer. We've had a number of programs, very successful programs, like Future Track and the CAT program in Parks and Recreation. Also Aviation does a lot of work around workforce development as well, but we've seen these programs work in silos with the School District of Philadelphia and with the Community College of Philadelphia. What we want to do is to break down those silos. We have a framework already in place. We've already identified programs of study that we can stand up this fall where we can create a pipeline to employment, guaranteeing employment to the people that successfully -- young men and women that successfully complete this program. Dr. Carrera can provide more information regarding what's happening currently with the City's first Municipal College, and then questions around those areas of study, I'd like to call up 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Camille Duchaussee, our new CAO.

Good morning, Councilman Jones. So as a former high school principal, this is exciting for me, and as a high school principal in North Philadelphia, this is extremely -- I wish I had it back then. So as our Chief just said, the Mayor does see CCP as a critical partner in achieving her vision for economic opportunities. The Five Year Plan does provide a combined $255 million in CCP support for over five years, 51 million per year, which is the total of 255. So roughly $40 million for operating and then the $11 million for the Catto Scholarship. $10 million this year, 7 million of those funds would go to the Municipal College. And so CCP, the City, and the School District are going to partner, as you've heard, the first in the nation college for municipal employment, and the City College will enroll high school 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. students. It's also going to be enrolling people who are looking for a change in career and then also for current municipal workers who would like to advance in their careers. And so anyone that is interested in working in City government. And so the Mayor's Office of Education is going to work directly with the Chief Administrative Officer to stand up this college and ensure that it's aligned with our current projected workforce needs.

Mr. President, I just want to point out that that's how we fill those vacancies. When we start to show, I think it was -- I forget which one behind me said the way you fill it is show them how much they can make and what the opportunities are. I don't recall us ever laying anybody off. And so these pipelines from school to paycheck as opposed to school to prison are what we want to do. And then, finally, 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Mr. President, I want to give you your kudos, because not once has anybody said point of personal information under your watch. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you, Mr. Jones. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Cindy Bass.

Thank you, Mr. President. Point of personal -- no. 13 I'm just kidding. Just a couple of questions. Good morning. (Good morning.)

It's still morning? Good morning. A couple of things I just really wanted to say, and the first is, I wanted to thank the Philadelphia Police Department. I heard Ms. Thurman, as she said, that public safety is the Mayor's number one priority, and it's important. It's very important. It's important not 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. just in my district, it's important across the entire City of Philadelphia. And as we work to attract business, to attract residents, to keep people here in the City, it's very, very important that they have a feeling of safety and security. And so I want to start by thanking our Police Commissioner, but also I want to thank locally on the local level our Northwest Inspector Nick Smith and our 39th Captain, District Captain Busa, 35th Captain Burks, who is new and we welcome him, as well as the 14th Captain McCoullum, who is also new, and we welcome him as well. We just lost, as I call her mighty, Mighty Shar Massey (ph) from the Philadelphia Police Department, who was promoted. So kudos to her as well. Did an excellent, excellent job and will be missed, but we look forward to seeing her on the citywide level doing significant work. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. I wanted to ask a little bit about this priority, because I know that we just had the loss of a young man, Dayemen Taylor, who was years old at 6 Imhotep leaving school. That was this 7 year, 2024. In 2023, it was Devin Weedon 8 who was on his way to school at Gratz, 9 who was gunned down going to school, who 10 was 15 years old. And the year before 11 that it was Jeremiah Wilcox, who was 12 playing with friends on a day off from 13 school, who was 13 years old. And like 14 these aren't just cases that happened. 15 Families are attached, whole 16 neighborhoods are attached. 17 And so I wanted to see how the Mayor's number one priority, which also connected to the neighborhood and community engagement budget, which I think really should go hand in hand, and when I saw the funding request for that particular office, I have to say I was a little bit surprised. I thought it was under-budgeted based on the amount of 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. need in the neighborhoods and working directly with the Police Department. So I was wondering if you could speak to that, if anyone could speak to that. DEPUTY

So all of the engagement activity, whether it's the community engagement, the constituency engagement, we plan to work across City government. So that we'll lean on our Police Commissioner and the Police Department, but also working with Public Safety Director Adam Geer so that we have a holistic, comprehensive approach. And with that, I'm going to call up Adam Geer to the table. (Witness approached witness table.) DEPUTY

Who can talk a little bit more about his front office and some of the engagement roles and how they'll be engaging the community around public safety issues.

Good morning, Council President. Good morning, 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Councilmembers. Good to see you all. Thank you for that question, Councilmember. We in my Office of Public Safety really are going to be committed to bringing the community in in a very meaningful way. One of the positions that we will be creating internally is a new Director of Community Violence Interruption. That position, which is a directorship position, will be dedicated to bring in these organizations, to bring in the community to be a part of the solution. They're doing excellent, excellent, excellent work. One of the things that Philadelphia has is a robust group of criminal violence interruption community groups and organizations. So we absolutely mean to bring them in. We will also have a Director of Community Partnerships who will be coming in. That role, again, will be working with Mr. Hassan Freeman, who is under the Mayor's Office in the same role. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.

When do you think that will fully be online? Because, you know, the weather is getting warmer. Summer is coming. We're all getting very nervous. So when do you think that will be online that we'll actually be able to see some fruits from this tree?

So we absolutely understand that, and we have the same sense of urgency, Councilmember. We frankly just found that we would be able to internally fund these positions, so that's no longer, by the way, a part of our budget request, but once we went through this process, discovered that we could internally fund that. We have the job postings being written and they're going to go out the door. We also have some leads on some of those positions, so we are going to be filling them and moving forward quickly.

What's your target date? 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.

To fill those positions?

Yes, and to be up and running.

As soon as possible. As soon as possible.

So what day is that?

Once I can get a few more interviews -- and I really mean that. I'm here with my First Deputy, Evangelia Manos, and these are the conversations we're having in terms of filling these positions immediately so that we can get -- because there's some wonderful candidates out there and we want to get them working. DEPUTY

And I would just add that the engagement team in the meantime is already making sure that they work hand in hand with Adam. When we went to Imhotep, you saw Black Male Engagement, you saw our Director of Engagement, our Deputy Director, Will 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Mega, all there supporting the public safety spectrum across government, and they will continue to do that. And once Adam's full staff is on board, they will work hand in glove in partnership.

And I just want to be clear that we want to support you. We want to support the work that you're doing. I think that we all -- like I said, we're very concerned about the upcoming summer months, what we've seen thus far, and we want to make sure that we can get in front of this. A couple of years ago a group of us went to Trenton, New Jersey and we did a public safety tour, and they had an entire summer without one homicide. And Philadelphia, although much larger, does have a lot of similarities to Trenton, and if they could do it there, then I think that it's something that we can work towards here in a significant way. So we want to be supportive. I want to say that. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.

Thank you, Councilwoman.

Absolutely. So I'm looking forward to hearing more information about that, like next week. Just kidding. Another question for you. I wanted to go to talk about the triage and wellness facilities, because that's another area that -- I think when I took a look at the budget, one of the things I was looking at is making sure everything was right-sized, at least in my mind. So I had some questions on things that I thought didn't seem like enough funding. And as I listened to the earlier questioning -- in the beginning, I thought $100 million does not seem like an adequate amount of funding for this initiative, but then as I heard more questions and sort of rethought it, I thought, well, maybe it actually is. And so one of the first 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. questions I have is, as I was thinking through some of the questioning, is there a contact with the counties, the surrounding counties? Because one of the things that in the previous Administration, you know, it was always kind of, oh, these are all Philadelphians. And we know that there's a large number of folks who are drawn to Philadelphia because the quality of the drug is -- of the drugs are pure, better, more desirable than in other places. So people come from all other places to Philadelphia and particularly to Kensington to be able to get high. And so knowing that, what kind of outreach have we done? I know that in the Nutter Administration, there used to be sort of like a collective roundtable of the counties and the City working together on various issues. Are we doing that? Is that something that's on the table? Can you talk about that a little bit? 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.

Councilmember, again, Adam Thiel, the Managing Director. I think the short answer to your question about the amount of money and the proposed amount of funding is, it is a great start and we are absolutely looking to partner with all of our intergovernmental partners, county, state, and federal level, and I'll turn it over to our Chief Deputy Mayor for more on that. DEPUTY

Thank you. And with regards to that communication, as you know, Mayor Parker believes strongly in intergovernmental approach. That's not just local, state, and federal. That's regional. So we've already been in contact with all of our collar county partners. You might have seen that they signed on to a recent letter supporting our push for the increase in minimum wage. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. So we are going to every last collar county to have a myriad of discussions around all of the issues that we share, whether that be the borders of Bucks County and Philadelphia, Upper Darby when you're talking about Delaware County, and Montgomery County. We know that some of the public safety issues spill out from the City to the suburbs, but also we see those issues come from the suburbs and into the City. So those are discussions, ongoing discussions, that we are having at the executive level and meeting with all of our partners in the surrounding four collar counties in Southeast Pennsylvania and actually across the Commonwealth, to be honest.

Thank you. I thought Councilman O'Neill was saying that he was signing up for a wellness site in the Tenth District bordering Bucks County, but he was mentioning New Jersey also as a draw when 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. we think about regional. So I'm looking forward to getting more information on that. But I did want to go back to the question that Council President had. I think everybody sort of like came to life when it was said that we would be able to open up a wellness center within two weeks or so. And so, you know, you just can't drop that and leave us there. So we really do need as much information that you have. If you think you can open something in two weeks, then you're further along than we might have thought otherwise.

Councilmember, I think I said weeks. So not two weeks.

Three weeks?

Weeks. And obviously something at the scale -- and we are looking to build a system, and something at that scale is going to take much longer than weeks. We know that we 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. need to get started, so we're looking at phasing. So I think what we're talking about is, our first triage facility we are aiming to open -- maybe I should have said as soon as possible like my colleague -- certainly weeks. And please rest assured, though, if we -- as we get close to a location, we're not going to say, you know, hi, we're doing a ribbon-cutting on Monday, and it's Friday. So I think we can commit to you that. We will make sure that we talk with the District Councilmembers and talk with Council and make sure that you all know where that's going to happen. And as we explore opportunities further, again, we're still in due diligence looking at a lot of different possibilities, and of course we are open. We would love if you all have potential ideas or locations that we could activate and support of this shared mission, we'd love to hear about those too. But we won't do this at the last 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. minute and let you know about it.

I can tell you as a district member I really do appreciate that, because the word was on the street that there was a particular location in my district that was coming, and I can't tell you the number of phone calls that I got, what's going on, what's happening, is this real, you know, is this going to be, you know, like coming to a neighborhood near us sometime soon. And so I did speak with -- I know, Aren, we met the other day and talked about it, and Aren assured me that like there would be weigh-in from the District Councilmember basically following the lead of their constituents and making sure that any changes to the plan that would affect those community residents was thoroughly discussed and approved really by the community and by the District Councilperson.

I don't know if you noticed, but all three of us just 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. like grabbed the mic in the last few seconds, and I know that we're all about to say the same thing. Mayor Parker was a District Councilmember long before she became Mayor.

Yes.

So we understand the importance of coordinating and collaborating with the District Councilmember. So there will be no 12 surprises.

Excellent. That's exactly what I wanted to hear, no 15 surprises. Thank you very much. The other question that I had was just around Rebuild and if you could talk about the new configuration of Rebuild in your Administration and the investment.

Councilmember, appreciate that. I'm going to ask our new Director of our Capital Programs Office, Aparna Palantino, to approach the mic. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. And let me just say as she's approaching, I didn't know Aparna before she was appointed to this position, and CPO is in the Managing Director's Office, and she is an absolute rock star. We're so happy to have her, not just to continually work on Rebuild but to do all these other things that we're talking about. (Witness approached witness table.) - - - (Applause.) - - -

We know this, Adam.

Good afternoon, Council President, members of City Council, and thank you for that. Very appreciative of your faith in me. And thank you for the question. Aparna Palantino, currently Deputy Commissioner of Parks and Recreation, soon to be head of the newly 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. formed Capital Projects Office, which will incorporate capital divisions and capital staff from a variety of different departments, Rebuild being one of those. So as you know, in the last few years, we've both at DPP and PPR, we've come up with new and innovative ways to accelerate projects, not only for efficiency and time but also to improve our efficiency in cost. And one of the challenges we found in Rebuild over the last eight years roughly is that they are taking a lot longer than expected. I know the goal of Rebuild was to accelerate projects compared to the standard capital process, but after eight years of sort of observing that, we found that that to not be the case. So the goal is to bring Rebuild under the fold of this Capital Projects Office and continue to implement projects in the way that we have been doing capital projects citywide. One of the other aspects is, 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. many Councilmembers know we've worked closely with each of your offices to prioritize investments in your districts. The goal is Rebuild will come into the same conversations. They will -- side by side with other priorities in your district, we will make sure that those get implemented in the same fashion and be able to keep you more aware of those investments in your districts as well.

Does Rebuild still have the same financial commitment from the funders? When it started out, it was a $500 million program. It was 300 million in City funds through bonds. It was 100 million through William Penn Foundation, I think, and another hundred, I think, in miscellaneous state and federal and outside grants. Is it still that? Because I know that the numbers -- like the goalpost kept moving under the previous Administration. First it was 500, then it was 400, then it was 300, 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. then it was 450. You know, like it was all over the place.

Right. So what we have found over the last few years is the project costs have continued to increase for a variety of reasons. After COVID, materials escalation went up, with some materials up to 50 percent. So the initial estimates for projects of course have increased drastically. So that is a moving target. To speak to your question about the commitments of funding, those were what that program was anticipated to begin with, but we have since been seeking additional federal and state opportunities for adding funds to that. And, again, some of those conversations with your office is to prioritize where those investments should happen in what order are key to doing that, because we'll also need your support to solicit those other sources of funding, along with the Administration. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.

So did we receive those funds in? Did we ever receive those funds in from the William Penn Foundation?

We have been continuing to receive funding from William Penn.

Okay. And from the other entities that were originally listed as being funders, they have made those contributions?

Yes.

So do we know what the size of the budget is now for Rebuild?

As it stands at this minute?

Yes.

And it can, of course, change and it is very dependent on what we get in private and federal and state sources. It is somewhere between 400 and 550 million.

And the 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. reason I'm asking is because it's my opinion as the former Chair of Parks and Recreation that we needed every cent of that $500 million and we need more. And so that didn't even do the job. And as we know, after COVID and supply chain shortages and everything else that was happening, we just didn't have enough, that we had whole projects -- I had a project in my district and they were like, all right, well, when it comes to the indoor basketball gym, we're just going to build it, but we're not going to put in a floor or walls. And it's like, that's not building it, you know. Like that's not really doing what the community needs and what their expectations were from the very beginning. So I just wanted to make sure that we're able to come through with these projects and also meet the funding needs and challenges based on the inflation and the cost of materials that 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. have gone up significantly.

Absolutely. And every site is critical. In my former role as Parks and Recreation, I know the condition of these facilities, and when they were evaluated, they have only degraded since that point. So those investments -- those original estimates were certainly low, and as a result of deferred maintenance, they continue to increase. So I think there are Rebuild sites, but ultimately they are Parks and Recreation sites that have to be improved for our communities and our constituents. So we will continue to advocate for funding, whether it's under the umbrella of Rebuild or just City facilities for our communities.

Okay. And my last question was the Office of Minority Business Success. That's another office that when I looked at the budget, the office budget looked very 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. small compared to the work that I think it is required to undertake. Can that be something that you all are -- is this just initial funding? Do you plan on coming back later and asking for more or is this what it is? Is this what you think it should be? Because I don't have the number right in front of me, but I remember it was, I think, a million or a million and a half dollars.

Yeah.

Compared to some other offices which were funded at a much higher rate.

Yes. Yes, ma'am. So we are focusing both on capital and equity investments with the Office of Minority Business Success. So under Director Rachel Branson, she'll be working in close coordination across our departments, including our Commerce Department. So while the funding is not in her direct budget, there is funding to 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. support the work that Rachel and her team will be doing over the next fiscal year.

Okay. All right. So more to come. We'll stay tuned.

That's correct.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And congratulations, Aparna, on your promotion.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you. Councilwoman Nina Ahmad.

Thank you, Council President. And thank you, everyone, for this amazing testimony. This is my maiden voyage, and I'm really excited to see how much promise we have in this budget. I do have a couple of 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. questions. One is concerned about the projected fund balance. I think we all are. I wondered if we are optimizing our revenue stream. That's one. And, two, are we anticipating growth and is that reflected in this projections that you have? And, finally, to that point, are we looking at public-private partnerships, including payment in lieu of taxes? Have we visited those options in terms of improving the scenario?

And I will talk about the assumptions, the growth assumptions in the Plan, and then turn it over to other people to talk about public-private partnership, because we do have an office that is dedicated to that. So we work with an outside econometric firm to come up with our projections. They give us draft projections. We take those down to a meeting at the Fed that's hosted by our oversight authority, PICA. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. When our outside firm came to us this year, they were projecting much lower growth in revenues than we had seen last year, for a couple reasons. One, they are seeing inflation come down. So with inflation coming down, then wages come down. Two, sales tax numbers will come down. Also growth in sales tax will be slower. So because of that and then their view that job growth will also slow, we were looking at $300 million less in revenue over the Plan. So there is some growth assumed, but much lower than we had anticipated last year. So that was something that we had to build into this Five Year Plan, and that's why part of the reason you're seeing the low fund balances at the back end. DEPUTY

So, Councilmember, one of the other big new programs that we're really excited about is the Office of Strategic Partnerships. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.

Use the microphone, please. DEPUTY

One of the offices that we're really excited about is the Office of Strategic Partnerships. Through that office and the leadership of Kafi Lindsay and Darnell Thomas, who is her Deputy, they're going to be exploring partnerships with the philanthropic community, with the business community, with community groups to figure out ways to both maximize opportunities for capital investment in the City as well as direct partnership to expand the bandwidth of what we are able to do as a city by including all of our civic partners who have skin in the game, who want to have skin in the game. This is actually born from the Mayor's experience as she was going around and talking to people in every pocket of every community, whether it's philanthropies with hundreds of millions of dollars to spend to small neighborhood 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. groups who were saying, we just want to be more involved. And we developed this under the leadership of Mayor Parker as a way for all of them to have a conduit into City government, to be able to give whatever they have to be involved, and for us to help them realize how they can be strategically aligned with each other and with the goals of the City. So was that all of your question? I'm sorry.

Yeah. So that's prospective, correct? So you don't have a sense of what that could look like in terms of how we can anticipate building out programs and delivering services with this added public-private partnership or do you have a number in mind? Is there somewhere you're going with this that you can say we are anticipating X, Y or Z? DEPUTY

Yeah. So we're right now in the process of figuring that out, of developing those 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. relationships, of seeing where there's alignment between the strategic goals of a lot of these partners and the goals of the City government to start to put some of this on. In some ways, there will be a dollar return on investment. In some ways there will be a human resource return on investment. In some ways there will just be a collaborative expansion of the ability to do things return on that investment. We're not quite ready to put the numbers to it yet, but we're getting there. We're having all of the pieces in place.

So we expect to see a matrix of who, what, where, when? DEPUTY

And how much.

Yes. Thank you. I want to switch quickly to 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. another topic which we have heard a lot about, is the triage centers. The hundred million is a capital budget category, if I understand it correctly. What is the operating budget for these triage centers and which departments will be tasked to connect to those operational issues around triage centers?

Councilmember, Adam Thiel again, Managing Director. That's correct. The hundred million dollars is the proposed initial capital investment, and the operating investment right now or the operating fund wraparounds we expect to come from existing City agencies and their budgets and their staffing, and we -- as we start to align with potential partners to operate this, we'll get a better sense. Obviously the short answer to that is, it depends. How much operating we need depends on how many facilities of what type, what type of care are we going to be operating. So that is all still 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. very much under development too. We worked very closely with our partners from the Budget Office to make sure as we start to understand what that is where funding that's not currently in the City's budget is needed for operations, that we're able to find that, tap into that. And I think to your earlier point, we are definitely looking at partners who can bring that through some of these partnerships and strategic partnerships. So I can assure you we're having meetings with folks. It's not just about the services. It's about looking for folks who are willing to partner with us and bring their own resources to this shared mission.

Where does the opioid settlement money feature in this and where is it and what is the amount and what is going to change when there's more settlements? We have no 25 sense of where does it reside. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.

Councilmember, that's a really complicated question. We probably want to walk you through that during a future -- one of the agency-level briefings on that or the MDO briefing. We can tell you what the settlement fund was before and then as we're working on the future plan. I think it is important to mention, that is done in concert with the community. So going forward, that's part of it. So I think that will take a lot of time to walk through that, and we'd like to come back to you with discussion about that.

And the final question I have on this is location of these triage centers. I heard something, and maybe I could be wrong, that the Hahnemann space was considered for something. Is that a fact and is there a possibility of having that as our rehab efficient center so it doesn't impact any residential neighborhoods in 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. any way?

Councilmember, again, to reiterate the prior commitment, if we are getting close to operating triage or wellness facilities in any of your Council districts, we will be sure to let you know well in advance of that. There is a little bit of confusion, I think, about Hahnemann, and I'll put that in quotes. There are a lot of properties that folks typically think of as being part of the Hahnemann complex. There is a property that folks think of as part of that complex that we recently were able to do a deal -- this is a longstanding negotiation -- for some Office of Emergency Management space as well as some space to relocate an existing family shelter operation. It is not -- that is an arrangement that we've been working on for a long time. That is not one of the triage or wellness sites. So I think there's been some confusion about that. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. We are looking at a lot of different possibilities and locations, and, again, I think we've heard from a lot of you the need for this, and we have to put these facilities in our city to take care of folks who are in our city. So we do hope that if you have locations that you think might be suitable, you'll let us know. We will let you know as we get through this due diligence where we're thinking to start achieving this bold vision.

Thank you, and I look forward to a more detailed explanation on the issues that were just mentioned. Thank you.

Thank you. At this time, we're going to take a brief recess and then come back. Members have to finish up their first round and then we'll go into our second round and then also questions for the Mayor's Office of Budget as well as the 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Department of Labor. We will be coming back at 1:15. Meet us back here promptly and we'll get started and finish out the rest of our day. - - - (Recess from 12:35 p.m. to 1:15 p.m.) - - -

At this moment, the Chair recognizes -- can we quiet it down, please. At this moment, the Chair recognizes Councilman Nicholas "Nick" O'Rourke.

Thank you, Council President.

Nick, can you speak into your microphone, please.

Thank you, Council President. Thank you to Mayor Parker's team and members of the Administration 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. for joining us today as we do the second half of the first round. Thank you for sharing your vision for Philadelphia. I'm hopeful there is a lot for us to do together to make this city better for working people, but this morning I want to talk about Mayor Parker's public safety approach, which makes significant shifts to expand police presence in communities with more officers, increased foot patrols, and mobile surge unit deployments, particularly in Kensington. As someone who cut my teeth in organizing against mass incarceration specifically, I want to remind us of where we've heard the tough on crime rhetoric before. It's the same kind of language and approach deployed during President Johnson's war on crime and President Reagan's and Nixon's war on drugs, and that is something that is always at the top of mind as we begin to shift the conversation around public 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. safety. In Pennsylvania, this rhetoric brought us punitive laws in the '70s and '80s around mandatory minimum sentences and new mechanisms allowing prosecutors to try juveniles as adults. Under this law and order mantra, PA's prison population grew from 7,000 in 1970 to more than 50,000 at our 2012 peak. We're evoking an era where kids were sentenced to life in prison, robbing them of their childhood, until the Supreme Court overturned that practice. Instead of being at home, nurtured by their mothers and kin, kids were removed from their community and isolated behind bars, their lives forever disrupted and their futures fractured as a result of that. To be clear, this has always disproportionately impacted Black folk. In Philadelphia jails, Black people are detained at a rate nine times higher than white residents. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. So with this historical context in mind, can members of the Administration explain what investments, if any, are being made to maintain that larger mission to decarcerate Philadelphia?

So I'd like to call up Adam Geer, our Public Safety Officer, to talk about that. As he's coming up, you mentioned the war on crime, the war on drugs. As we face persistent issues here in our city, we've been looking at this as also a war on chaos. And so through the organizational realignment that we have across our departments, we're looking to really kind of address that, both under the leadership of Commissioner Kevin Bethel and also our new Chief Public Safety Officer, Adam Geer. It looks like we have both coming up, so I will get up. (Witnesses approached witness table.) 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: So, Councilman, I appreciate your question.

Good morning, Commissioner. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: And as I tell people, though, I've been in the Police Department but in public safety and in my 38th year now. So I've seen the ebbs and flows of all of that, tough on crime, soft on crime, hug, don't hug, super predator, lock up every child out there because they're coming to get you. And so -- but we have evolved now from the person who came in 38 years ago into policing. I think we're much more better prepared and understand the consequences and the collateral consequences of many of the arrests we work. Is there a place for arrests? Absolutely. Are there folks out here who do things in our community that should be arrested? Absolutely. But I'll give you an example. In 2014, we started the School Diversion 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Program, where we will lock up 1,600 kids in a school year, and most of those kids were kids of color. Today, last year was 145 kids arrested in the School District of Philadelphia, and there's been almost a 90-plus percent reduction in that. Today, we're more inclined to, with our Police Aided Diversion, to divert folks for low-level offenses. And so we have much more of a balanced approach. We have greater relationships than we ever had before. My relationship with the Department of Human Services -- I was just talking to Commissioner Ali around the work we're getting ready to do with our juvenile committee that we're creating to start to figure out how we can do front-line diversions for our men and women in the field for our juveniles. And so I think the system is different than where it was before. It's not perfect, but I don't think in the Department today we're going back to zero 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. tolerance, wherever that was or is today. I think we're having a much more balanced approach around what our deployments are, really focusing on those folks who really need to be arrested, but also understanding that there's individuals who do need a second chance. And you will find that many of my men and women will embrace that. I'll take you back to my diversion work. I remember bringing men and women into the room and asking them why they're locking up kids and I never gave them another tool to do anything different. When I gave them a tool to be able to do a diversion, working with the Department of Human Services, they ate it up all day long and they divert all day long, and to this day, they do that. And so I think we're looking at a myriad of ways, but I will say in a balanced approach, I do not have time, nor should we have, for those who do harm in our communities to the level that they 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. need to be removed to bring safety to the community that we serve. But I think we now look at it, I look at it from a balanced lens in that approach, and I think if we continue down that, it's an effective strategy for us. It's never going to be perfect, but I think we're better than we were before.

It's encouraging to hear that, because like I said, as folks begin to shift their attention towards addressing public safety, addressing some of the specific issues that folks have grieved about, it seems as if oftentimes we get amnesia about the wider project over the last decade and even more where folks became aware of the systems and how it disproportionately impacted Black folks going into jail and the work that many have done, books that have been written. I've heard a million sermons preached about making sure that when we talk about justice, we're talking about liberty and 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. freedom for folks and not just constantly focusing on that arrest. So I appreciate to hear that balance. Further, we know that when we implement more law and order tactics, and I appreciate the change in term, the war on chaos as well, but when we implement more law and order tactics, more people are arrested in jail. Can you speak to the City's jails and their capacity to receive an influx of incarcerated folks at this time and going forward? DEPUTY

I'm actually going to call up Managing Director Thiel.

Thank you, Commissioner. DEPUTY

I think we had all seen our Prison Commissioner yesterday submitted her resignation. There are challenges in our prison system. Sorry. Our Prison Commissioner had announced her resignation yesterday. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. There are challenges within our prison system. Managing Director Thiel has been working on that, because right now the status quo is untenable.

Encouraging to hear. Thank you.

Councilmember, Council President, Adam Thiel, Managing Director again, and I do want to acknowledge we have soon-to-be-retired Commissioner Carney with us and appreciate her service and her staff. Councilmember, there is no 15 question that the Philadelphia Department of Prisons is going to require some work, and that's to basically ensure that we are taking care of properly the current population as well as any changes in that population that might occur in the future. A lot of this -- the need for this is well documented, and I think I want to certainly say that the dedicated women and men who are working in the 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Philadelphia Department of Prisons as correctional officers, as healthcare providers, all of the other jobs that those folks are doing, it is incredibly difficult work, as you can imagine, and I think those folks -- I'm sure that those folks, and of course we recently lost a member of our -- one of our professional officers last week. They're doing their best with the resources that have been applied. So you'll see in Mayor Parker's proposed budget there are additional resources, capital investment for the prisons complex, because the challenges are capital related as well as operating related. We are currently doing, with Commissioner Carney moving on, we are doing a national search for a new prisons commissioner. We hope to have news about that soon. We are continuing to work with some outside consulting firms that are very skilled in this area to make 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. sure that we are addressing all aspects of the work that needs to be done. We are looking at providing additional telecommunication services, addressing some of the quality of life factors that have been noted in multiple reports and other documents that need to be addressed to ensure that we are taking care of, as best we can, that population. And we also, as you heard colleagues talking about, we need to address the entire continuum, not just on the front end. We know that there's more work to do. A continued theme of Mayor Parker's Administration, the intergovernmental work. So we know that part of the aspect of this, the Department of Prisons is really kind of in the middle of this, and we need to be talking with a lot of different partners, as we are, about reentry, partners here and also with our state partners about length of stay in the Philadelphia Department of Prisons and our 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. institutions versus other institutions. So rest assured, we are looking at all of this. Certainly there's a court's piece to it, and we're looking at all facets of this. It is going to take some time to get this entire system where it needs to be. We acknowledge it is not there now, and there's investment in this budget to start to address a lot of those factors.

Thank you. Specifically on that, the well-documented capacity issues at the Juvenile Justice Services Center specifically, what is the Administration's plans for handling higher numbers of detained young people if it comes to that?

Well, that's another area where there certainly is a lot of intergovernmental discussion with the Commonwealth about how that system works. And so we certainly -- there's a 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. lot of -- we acknowledge there's work to be done there too. So we're looking at all of this, not just the Philadelphia Department of Prisons, to your point, but also the entire juvenile justice system.

Okay. Thank you. Several of the PPD strategic priorities for FY25 are focused on staff, increasing staff levels, increasing diversity in sworn and unsworn positions, ensuring safety and wellness of officers. My understanding was that the first DEI officer for PPD was integral for those strategies. Can you speak on how PPD is shaping up its DEI strategy after the removal of Leslie Marant? COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I will speak to the personnel moving in this setting and appreciate the question, but we still have now an Acting DEI, someone in that role, continue the efforts that were put forth before I arrived. I do have a different vision 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. around the work. It's around creating a culture of DEI within the department. So we're leading in some different directions as we build out our strategy around that work. We are actually doing -- we will also be doing a search very shortly to have that position replaced, and once we have that position in place, we'll start to move forward in the work that that person will be doing in the Department. Right now I have -- we have our non-sworn professional staff who also are struggling in that work. And so we're starting to lean in completely across the entire Department, but that is very much a prominent part of the work that we'll be doing and looking at diversity and inclusion and equity across the entire Philadelphia Police Department.

How is DEI being integrated into recruitment, retention and staff well-being, if you can give more like specifics about it. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: So part of that process before I arrived was a review of individuals coming in, the recruitment staff, to make sure that we are hitting our marks as it relates to diversity. If you saw the last class that came in, probably was one of the most diverse classes we've seen across the spectrum coming into the class of the 48 recruits we just received and just put into the field. We're very much seeped into making sure that we have diversity in our recruitment. Some of it we don't control, because where the person places on the test, as you already know, but we are very conscious of where diversity plays out in the Police Department with the DEI. But one person doesn't create diversity. It's a team, right? It's got to be all of us doing diversity and equity and inclusion across the entire Department. And so part of my work is to 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. how do we infuse that into who we are as an entity, which means we have to do a lot of training and education of the executive leadership and across -- as to understanding what your role and responsibility when you're bringing people into the field. So I'm looking for it to be a much more broader approach and a more inclusive approach around what DEI means to us as an organization. I mean, we've been at it for a long time, and so we definitely have to be very patient and also manage expectations of what that role does and can do in our organization.

Thank you.

It's time.

That's time?

Yes. Commissioner Bethel, and just a 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. small follow-up with Member O'Rourke's line of questioning regarding a comprehensive approach. You just received 100 million -- I'll focus on the issue of trauma -- which your officers will teach and support young people who you encounter who are impacted by trauma. We know when it comes to gun violence, right, hurt people hurt people, right? And so just elaborate on what that grant and how the grant is going to be utilized and so forth. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: Thank you for the question, Council President. So $1 million DOJ grant, I was -- going back in 2017, became very much interested in a program called Handle with Care. It was started in West Virginia 2013 in which the Police Department came up with a concept of when they went into and encountered a child or a young person who has been exposed to some type of trauma, that they would then alert the school district to allow them to know what's 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. going on with that child. They won't give them the particulars. They're not able to share that, but they will say, Kevin Bethel may have been involved in a significant domestic incident at their home, that something happened at the house, that when your child walks into school, that teacher, the counselor, the school will be able to receive that child and they do a check-in with him or her to see if they have any needs. As a result of -- fast forward to eight years later, we are doing -- my time as Chief of School Safety, an opportunity came forward to be able to apply for the grant, and we won that grant. As a result, we said where will we most focus our efforts? We looked at 22nd District because of not just its high level of violence, as I shared back 2021, we had 70 homicides and almost 300 shootings in a 4.3 square mile area. So we already knew we had children being exposed to high levels of violence, and 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. then you add on the other layers of violence, whether it be domestic, all of that, and we had schools that we 5 thought we could have a very directed 6 approach. So as a result, we were able 7 to work with the School District, the 8 22nd District Captain, and the 9 Philadelphia Police Department, and what 10 that will do is provide help and 11 assistance to those young people. 12 We're really, really excited 13 about the program. It's something I 14 always had a passion to be able to do in 15 my work with young people. To your point, we talked about that in 2008 and '09 when I was a captain in a district and you were working in Peace, Not Guns around the trauma in the community and what we can do with it. And we're going to pilot that, with the hope that we can take it citywide shortly thereafter.

Thank you for that feedback. I think the trauma component is a very, very 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. significant component at getting to the root causes of how young people respond when they're seeing their friends and family members being murdered in the streets of Philadelphia. So when I saw that grant, I said, okay, this is obviously taking a different approach when it comes to getting to the root causes of the retaliations that we're seeing. COMMISSIONER BETHEL: I think it goes back to what our conversations a decade ago, right? We know that a child -- I shared this story yesterday. Somebody very close to me was in a domestic and their mother was being brutally beaten and have to go to school and sit in a classroom, worried whether your mom is going to be harmed or not and what that does to that person trying to be educated in that moment. But our young children are exposed to a lot and if we don't get upstream and start to deal with it, then 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. we wonder why we're in some of these situations.

Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Quetcy Lozada.

Thank you, Council President. First, let me say thank you to the Administration for being here this morning or now this afternoon. And I want to just put on the record my appreciation for your willingness to do something different, right? Triage centers, wellness centers are not something that folks do, and I know that there's a lot of questions about it, but I appreciate your willingness to do something, something different than what has been done in the past. I also have questions about how it will be operationalized, who is going to manage it. And I know that there's limited information, but if you could 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. share with us just some parts of it, right, and how does the opioid settlement money that we have, how do we use that to support that type of work?

So our Managing Director is coming up, and thank you very much, Councilmember Lozada, for that. To your point, it's something new, it's something different, it's something necessary. We understand and feel and sense the urgency of it. We see the urgency of it every day. We live in those same neighborhoods. Our families are impacted by what's happening. And so that's what's really informing our approach. So in terms of the meat and more details, I'll turn it over now to our Managing Director Thiel.

Councilmember, Council President, Adam Thiel again, the Managing Director. Councilmember, I appreciate that. We really -- we simply don't have 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. that level of detail right now because we are getting started on the planning for this even as we try to, as soon as possible, have a first triage facility that offers some of those kinds of services available. So we just don't have that kind of detail. As far as the funding, we want to make sure that this system that we're talking about building is not dependent on any one particular funding stream. So that's why you see the first part of what we hope will be a capital stack from multiple sources is this hundred million dollar investment. The operating piece of that, the wraparound is, we're continuing to talk with potential providers, because again we want the experts, the healthcare experts, to be involved with this. That is still somewhat flexible. And to the extent that those, I'll say, community-guided discussions about the settlement dollars -- there are rules 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. around those -- that that plugs in when and where it can and, again, as part of that conversation with multiple groups that are involved in guiding where those monies go. So we really want to make sure that this doesn't become -- this needs to be -- we think to build out this type of comprehensive system that we've been talking about, we can't be reliant on grant funding or one-time funding or funding that runs out at any particular point, right? We've all kind of been there, been there, done that, which is why you see Mayor Parker investing City dollars, City capital dollars, City General Fund dollars in building this out, because she believes, and we of course emphatically agree, that is what's needed to do something different and truly address this crisis in a long-term, sustainable way.

I appreciate that, and I don't believe that 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. 100 million is enough, right, which is why I'm saying have we considered using that opioid settlement money the best way possible, right? It was identified for us to address the crisis that we have on the ground. Let us take advantage of that funding and add it to whatever it is the Administration believes it needs in order to make sure that we are truly having an impact in the way we address the situation on the ground. And then I also wanted to ask, do you believe that you will have one wellness center, five wellness centers, ten wellness centers? And if you're considering more than one, how long do you think it will take you before you get to your goal?

Councilmember, we want to be able to build this system, which is not just about physical facilities for triage or wellness or anything else. We want to make sure that we build this system so it can scale and 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. so it can scale to meet the demand. We know that right now this system we're talking about doesn't even exist in the form that we're talking about. Pieces of it do. So job number one is connecting the pieces that do exist, prioritizing among them, and starting to build out the parts that don't and build out this additional capacity. Look, I think we all hope that we will build this, people will come, it will grow to the point that it works and it works for as long as it needs to work, and then I think we all hope that it can start to scale back down as folks are taking advantage of this opportunity for long-term care, treatment, housing, and economic opportunity and then we don't need to be involved in the same way. DEPUTY

And, Councilwoman Lozada, I just want to add that in the effort to get these up and running, we are leaving no stone unturned 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. in terms of resources. We're talking to our state and federal partners, whether it be involving Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security insurance. So we're looking at every avenue for resources to bring these to bear.

I mean, I agree that we're going to need everybody, right, in order to address what is happening there. I just was curious about if we're having one or more than one, right? Because we talk a lot about this being a citywide issue. Yes, the epicenter is in the Kensington community and I appreciate the Administration's willingness to prioritize the Kensington community, but as you've heard from my colleagues, that they're experiencing this in their neighborhoods too. And so as we're talking about it, I was just interested to know if you all were considering doing this in more than just one neighborhood.

Councilmember, I 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. want to make sure we absolutely answer your question. We are considering this in more than one location because we think that is the need right now. It is too early to say exactly where because we are still doing due diligence. You heard we're looking for resources everywhere. We're looking for possibilities everywhere.

Appreciate that. Thank you. As we work towards restoring the quality of life in Kensington, Councilmember O'Rourke mentioned that there are people who will be caught up in the system as part of us restoring quality of life. Are we working with our prison systems? Are we talking to those who are currently involved in the underground economy on our streets right now and engaging them in, hey, this is coming, right? This is no longer going to be tolerated. Here are workforce options. Here is another alternative to 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. this lifestyle. Are we looking to engage them prior to anything happening on the ground?

Councilmember, we are certainly always doing that work within the Philadelphia Department of Prisons, and the outreach -- the other outreach, I want to ask Adam Geer to...

Good afternoon again, Councilmember. Yes is the short answer, Councilmember. We have been convening many meetings amongst the City agency leaders and also amongst some of the, frankly, boots on the ground within their agencies who are going to be conducting this work. We are having open dialogues about what the expectation will be, and we are -- and that includes Prisons, that includes DBHIDS, that includes Office of Homeless Services. So we have been preparing for this. We are going to, in a very compassionate and thoughtful and 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. intentional way, proceed. As you say, we are going to do something. I think the Mayor has laid out this vision, that we're just not going to allow people to die slowly in front of us in the streets. So we are going to do something, and we are organizing to do that. We have been for, you know, many weeks going to the past. We will continue to ramp that up as we move towards that.

Again, I want to make sure that as we do something, that just like we're giving those who are suffering from addiction an option and an opportunity, just like we're restoring the quality of life for the residents and the children of Kensington, that we also recognize that there is an entire economy that is happening in that community, and those men and women have to put food on their table too, right? And while I don't know -- I don't support how they are conducting business or how they're 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. putting food on the table, I also want to make sure that we are responding to what some of their needs are as well, whether it be work, whether it be education, whether it be housing, whether it be mental health support. All of those things I'd like to make sure that we're considering, and if you are doing that, then I'd like to know how and I'd also like to know how we can support you from an office standpoint to engage them as well. Whatever we can do, I want to make sure we're a part of that so that folks don't say, we didn't know that something was happening or that it was coming.

Councilmember, I think that's a great point. We will look to coordinate with you on that further. I'll say that in that first meeting we had where we brought together City agency leaders, Commerce was there, I shouted that out in particular because of the great work that Alb Martinez is doing. And I've had several conversations with 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. her about how important it is for her to make a connection to my office, right, the Office of Public Safety, and to understand the synergy there and meaningful opportunities for our people. And I get what you're saying, and I want to raise that up, and we will be having those conversations, but we have been as well.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Rue Landau.

Councilmember, I wasn't finished.

I'm sorry. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Quetcy Lozada again.

I just want to ask a question about Rebuild. I know that we've partnered with some of 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. our CDCs, our smaller CDCs. Many of them have expressed concern about how some of the policies or the practices of Rebuild have caused them to lose funding. As we look to reform or restructure Rebuild, have we considered working with some of these project users to make them whole? What are some of the changes that are going to be made to ensure that they can continue to be partners on the ground with us without compromising their financial stability?

So I'd like to call Aparna Palantino up, our new Director for CPO. As she's coming up, I do want to say that we recognize what the gaps are, the constraints, the challenges with Rebuild, especially around the project user model. That's one of the reasons why we saw that and we knew that there was a need to create a different structure so that there were no further delays in the process but also so that we could answer and address issues around 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. project users and ensure that they have the necessary supports to be successful. But Aparna will provide more detail there.

Good afternoon. Aparna Palantino, Capital Projects Director. Could you please repeat the question? Sorry.

Sure. We've partnered with CDCs, small CDCs in the community around Rebuild projects. Many of them have expressed concerns as it relates to policies or practices within the Rebuild process and it has caused them to lose money. What are we doing to make them whole as we move forward and as you guys consider reforming or restructuring the Rebuild process in order to keep them being or wanting to be a part of the process?

Thank you for your question, and I have spoken with some of those project users very recently 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. and understand the challenges that they're facing as a result of the structure. So we are working with them to see how better to support them in typical construction practices that are required for municipal projects. A lot of them come from very different backgrounds, affordable housing, et cetera. So there are a lot of additional challenges when it comes to a project that has to be done in this structure. Where we can, we are actually assisting them, giving them opportunities. Under the new office, we'll have more staff that's familiar with all different types of facilities so we can offer those supports in how better to manage their consultants, their contractors, where we see pitfalls that they may encounter based on our experience on projects. So as it stands now, it's really to offer some additional support in the process to be able to bring the 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. projects to fruition.

But some of the money that they lost was as a result of our current policies and processes, right? So how do we make them whole before we reform and move forward? Because we are going to depend on them in the future, right? There's not a whole lot of them. We're going to depend on them in the future. So how do we make them whole and keep them wanting to be our partners?

We are in conversations with a couple of them to determine how best to be able to relieve their burden with this, whether it's the City takes on some of that responsibility to prevent them from losing additional funding. So we haven't quite come to a resolution. We're still in negotiations with them, but we have begun those conversations.

Thank you. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. I have one more question. The Mayor has mentioned wanting to or having the goal of building 300 new housing opportunities. How do you ensure in districts like mine as you try to meet or work to meet that goal, how do you work towards ensuring that gentrification and displacement doesn't happen? DEPUTY

Councilmember, thank you for that, and when you and I sat down, one of the things that you had said that was really important for Land Bank dispensation was ensuring that we have -- that we maintain the Councilmembers', the District Councilmembers', ability to have some say there, to be involved there. My colleague had said earlier that our Mayor was a District Councilmember, still very much carries with her the mindset of a District Councilmember. So because of that, when you and I had sat down, you had set an AMI that you wanted to hit for homes that 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. include City subsidy, and that factors into it, and it's going to be different in different Council districts. It's finding ways to work with the CDCs, and you have an awful lot in your district that we've been talking to and we're continuing to talk to, to figure out ways to keep not just affordable homes that are built that then may be sold at a higher price, but ones that will be rentals that are ensured to be income restricted so that we can create places that are not as easily subjected to gentrification. And then, most importantly, and this is what Mayor Parker has been pushing since she was in City Council, is the ability to repair, to restore, renew, things like Basic System Home Repair, so that homes that already exist can be rehabbed and continue to be livable, because the most affordable home is one that already exists, and if a home is livable for somebody in a community, then 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. they have no reason to move, and that texture of the community, the people who live there are able to stay and you don't have inlets for things like gentrification.

One more. You all mentioned --

Member, we're like way, way, way past that time.

I can wait until the next round.

All right. I got you. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Rue Landau.

Thank you, Council President. I'll stay in three subject areas for the moment. The first is the budget, the second is triage centers, and the third is housing. So the first question is, we're about to see the end of our ARPA money, 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. our American Rescue Plan money. We purportedly have $419 million still. Where are we spending that money? And my understanding is we have to spend it by the end of this year.

We have to spend it by the end of this calendar year, that's correct. So we received a total of $1.4 billion in ARPA money, but when we looked at the impact on our revenue of the pandemic, we lost 1.5 billion. So we used the category called revenue replacement, which basically means you use it to make sure that your budget stays balanced. So it was used for a variety of things within our budget to keep us in balance. And it was to kind of bridge that gap until our revenues could get back to where they had been, which is kind of where they are now.

And so are you saying that we're going to spend -- how are we spending the 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. remaining 419 million?

So it is kind of -- it's throughout our budget. It's basically just another revenue source for us since we used it as revenue replacement, and it will all be spent by the end of December.

Okay. Thanks. I'll go housing first to be efficient. So I am concerned, like Councilmember Gauthier, who is the Chair of the Housing Committee, I'm the Vice Chair, about the fact that we won't be funding rental assistance within two years. I also see this as a high priority for the City of Philadelphia. It's a program that's been working hand in hand with Eviction Diversion, and it doesn't go without cost, right? We, back in 2019, had 24,000 evictions in Municipal Court, which we've reduced significantly, and these programs, including rental assistance, 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. have been highly successful. What is the plan for offsetting the effects of not having rental assistance? I saw that you're keeping homelessness, shelter services, it seems like you're keeping that just stable funding, and we all know that if we had a magic wand, we would have all waved it by now to make sure that there is great, safe, decent, affordable housing for everybody in the City of Philadelphia, but there's not. If people don't stay in their current rental homes, many of them will be homeless and there will be a higher demand on our shelter system. So what's the plan in there if rental assistance is not funded? DEPUTY

Councilmember, thank you for that, and you and I have talked about this and similar things a lot, and I recognize your leadership going back to your time before being on City Council about this. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. You know, while one program is going to be sunsetting, it was a two-year program, it does not mean that there won't be any rental assistance. And in my exchange with Councilmember Gauthier, I pointed out PEPP, Right to Counsel, and we're continuing to fund opportunities for low-income apartment rentals, and that's part of the 30,000 units of housing program. So it is not something that we're ignoring. We're shifting resources a little bit, and as I had said earlier, we're going to continue to analyze and see and make sure that things are working as they should.

I love PEPP, I love Right to Counsel, but as somebody who did this work for years, it means you have a lawyer in your eviction case that is filed against you. It does not mean that if you went through a hardship or something tragic happened in your life, that you're suddenly going to 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. have the money that you need to stay in your housing. So I would strongly recommend -- I would love to keep up this conversation so we can make sure that this extremely important emergency fund receives some funding. DEPUTY

Thank you, Councilmember. I look forward to keeping it in the conversation.

Thank you. And love to talk about triage centers too. I, along with my colleagues, look forward to getting some more information about both the triage centers and the opioid settlement money and how this can all go hand in hand. Commissioner Bethel -- I forgot to start by thanking all of you. I am excited for the new day. I know we're running late on time, which is why I was being efficient, but thank you all so much. I do love this new day that we 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. have, everybody looking towards making Philadelphia better for all of us. Commissioner Bethel said in a news article that there would be the beginning of communication and enforcement in Kensington starting not long after the Mayor's hundredth day, which is April 10th, and I'm curious if any bit of a triage center would be up and running by that time.

Councilmember, Adam Thiel again, Managing Director. When you've heard me talking about the short term trying to phase in and make sure that we have something available I guess that we're all sort of calling a triage center right now as soon as possible, we know that that is linked to the broader strategies, because we're talking all the time with Commissioner Bethel and our Chief Public Safety Director, Adam Geer, about that. And I think the fact that those are linked is an absolute testament to Mayor Parker's 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. vision and our clear direction that what we are doing in the future continues to be compassionate, dignified, and safe for the folks who are involved as well as the communities around them. So those are definitely linked in our broader strategy, and that's why we're -- on the one hand, we're moving fast to kind of get the first piece in place, while we talk with all these different groups that we've been mentioning about how to build out a broader system for the medium and long term.

We look forward to working with you on this. Last thing, just a comment, because I've talked to people in the Administration about it, is there are groups of people who are working to get Hahnemann Hospital to be not only housing but also a treatment facility so that you can keep graduating up to other floors after you got your medical treatment, go 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. through withdrawal and get towards transitional housing. So love to put everything on the table as we all work to make Philadelphia the best place we can be.

Thank you.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Jeffery J. Young.

Thank you, Mr. President. I have a few questions on a variety of topics. First, it's noted that we have a lower than expected growth in the City. So I noticed over the Five Year Plan there is a reduction of $300 million from Fiscal Year '25 through '29 Five Year Plan versus Fiscal Year '24 to '28 Five Year Plan, right? And given that reduction, we are slated to have essentially a one percent fund balance at the end of Fiscal Year '29. And I know our city continually has a goal of having 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. a six to eight percent fund balance. However, the national standard is percent. 5 So with the national standard 6 being 17 percent, our goal is typically 7 six to eight, but in reality based on 8 these numbers, in Fiscal Year '29 it will 9 only be one percent. Could you explain 10 to us why is this good fiscal prudence? 11

Yeah. And as I 12 said earlier, part of this is really -- 13 there's a trade-off here, and this goes 14 to part of why we use six to eight 15 percent instead of 17 percent, because we 16 are a city with a relatively weak tax 17 base and needs beyond those of most of our peers. So for us, our fund balance is going to probably be lower than our peers. We're facing a particularly challenging time over this Five Year Plan in that, as you said, we have $300 million less in revenues than we expected in last year's Plan. We have 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. our ARP money going away and we have a balloon pension payment in the last year of our Plan. We also know that there are really essential investments that we have to make and that those investments are key to having the City thrive in the long run. So we're making those investments with the anticipation that we will see growth in the future, that that fund balance we're seeing late in this Plan will start to grow. We know, for example, that our debt service goes down by over $200 million in FY30. We also know that we build up our Rainy Day Fund through the course of this Plan, that it will be -- we're showing that at $265 million, so that the combination of that Rainy Day Fund and our fund balance is more like 280, still lower than we want to be, but not as low as the 14 million. So there are kind of a number of factors that go into why we think that 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. what we're proposing makes sense.

Thank you. And how does this deviation from the standard and this projected lower fund balance affect our bond rating and future borrowing abilities?

So we've had conversations with the rating agencies. We already kind of walked them through what we're doing, explaining why we think it's prudent, explaining why we think this will help us grow in the future and why we think it means that in the long run our fund balances will look healthier than they look like in this Plan.

So you've explained it to them, but what was their answer, right? What did they say?

They listened. They think that over time we have built up credibility, because we've done what we said we're going to do. So they listened to it and thought that kind of 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. what we were proposing made sense.

And I ask those line of questioning because the Administration is asking us essentially right now to write them a hundred million dollar blank check regarding the triage centers, right? Because there are no 9 details essentially associated with this particular program. And along those same lines with this hundred million dollars, you know, as Councilwoman Rue Landau pointed out, this Five Year Capital Budget allocates more money to the Zoo and to the Art Museum than it does to homeless services as far as capital dollars, right? And so how many more beds would this hundred million dollars create if granted?

Our investment in the Office of Homeless Services is really on the operating side, so all those facilities that we don't own. So you'll see that in FY25 we're asking for 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. $16 million in additional funding in OHS, which is more than what's in capital funding over our whole Five Year Plan.

But that's for operating dollars, correct?

That's correct.

Not capital. So, again, I'm talking about capital dollars where we're actually having facilities to place people in.

Right.

Not just creating jobs for people to have to implement programs, but we need actual beds, actual facilities so folks can lay their head at night.

Most of our beds are actually not in facilities we own. That's why you see the investment on the operating side rather than the capital side. We can't make capital investments in the facilities we don't own.

But, again, we can purchase facilities. We 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. can purchase buildings. We can do these things to acquire more real estate for those types of programs. And so, again, for me, if we are allotting $14 and a half million over the next five years to the Zoo and the Art Museum, respectively, right, then I believe that we should be at least allocating that same amount to the Office of Homeless Services to purchase real estate in the City.

I'm going to hand it over to Managing Director, but I just want to make the point again we're investing much, much more in the Office of Homeless Services in this Plan that we are in either the Zoo or the Art Museum.

And I understand the investment, but I'm talking about actual facilities that folks can go into and have a place to stay.

Councilmember, Adam Thiel, Managing Director again. And amen. That is exactly the goal of that 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. hundred million dollar initial investment in long-term care, treatment, and housing through triage, wellness, short, medium, and long term. So we expect -- I mean, again, I don't know how many more ways to agree. Absolutely we know that we need additional capacity. The question about how much that hundred million dollars buys, how many beds, that is an open question, because, again, as we see that hundred million dollars, as bold as it is, as big as it is for the City of Philadelphia, we know that we're going to need more, and you've heard all the efforts here that colleagues as we look intergovernmentally, we look at the philanthropic communities, we certainly look to Council to help us with that initial investment, we emphatically agree that we need more.

So just -- I mean, just from your own budget briefing, over 80 percent of the people 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. served by the Office of Homeless Services were people of color, right? And it says here the causes of homelessness are diverse and related to systemic and structural racism, right? So I'm trying to figure out if this is a priority of the Administration, again, why is it -- and understanding that what Councilmember Rue Landau said when it comes to evictions and things like that, we note that the overall -- the majority, overwhelming majority of the demographic that's affected by evictions are Black women, right? So we know that. We know these things, but it doesn't seem like we are putting our dollars to the areas that would affect the systemic and structural racism that's in the housing. And, again, I'm just trying to get a little bit more detail before I can agree to sign off on a hundred million dollar blank check for triage and wellness where we have no idea at the 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. moment what that looks like, where it goes to, what it gets us. And so I'm just a little hesitant on that number, on that figure at the moment. So do you plan on or does the Administration plan on having the details worked out before the conclusion of this budget process?

Councilmember, the short answer to what that hundred million dollars buys is beds. So that is how we're going to get more capacity into this entire system for triage, wellness, long-term care, housing, and treatment, not just for folks who are experiencing substance use disorder but for all the folks who need those supports who are in the City of Philadelphia. So how many beds again depends on the amount of funding, and the timeline for these obviously, as you understand and everybody here has talked about, these can be extremely complicated projects and programs. We have a lot of people, as 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. you've heard, who are working on it. So how much detail we have available depends on kind of the trajectory of all these different possibilities and ultimately, ultimately depends on the amount of funding that we can count on in terms of initial seed funding, which is what this hundred million dollars is proposed to do, plus what we're able to assemble from other sources.

Thank you. And one more question, Mr. President. This is along the lines of the $10 million for new investment in workforce development. Councilwoman Gauthier had a hearing yesterday with the life sciences, and they essentially told us that our schools aren't producing enough candidates to fill those jobs, right? Basically they said our kids don't know math, our kids can't read and communicate essentially. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. So in this proposal, Ms. Harris mentioned that some of the jobs -- this money will only go to organizations that are or companies that are committed to hiring folks, right? And so knowing that our schools aren't producing the quality of candidates that some of these companies are looking for and then how do we plan to implement this $10 million if those companies don't even want to hire our residents and our students in the first place? Is there other ways of looking to make that same $10 million investment, maybe providing grants to organizations to hire the folks, to train the folks, something, right? Because if we're only giving it to organizations that can guarantee a job at the end but ultimately if you go through this training program and you still might not have the skills and abilities to get that job, then I think that's just throwing bad money after bad money. DEPUTY

3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Councilmember, thank you for that, and forgive me, I did not see the hearing yesterday, so I can't speak to the specifics there. But this in no way is giving or throwing away money. What we're talking about doing is working with already existing programs that have partnerships, whether it's an organization like Wistar or maybe something directly from an existing life sciences company, where they come in and they do the training to get people up to the point where if they need a certification, they're able to get that certification and they are able to walk into that job. So I'm going to ask Dr. Carrera to come up and speak a little bit about some of the job skill training that we're going to be doing in the School District, but I want to be very clear that this is not -- we're not asking companies to come here and just say choose from the talent pool that exists, but instead we're 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. saying, we're going to work together to grow and train that talent pool so that they're ready not for ambiguous jobs, they are ready to slot into an existing job that already exists that needs somebody. Oftentimes when we're talking about biotech and life sciences, a job that's a union job, with a pension and healthcare and many times equity in the company that they're working for for people who are cleaning the clean rooms and doing low-to-moderate skill jobs that can be trained in a number of months, as well as people who are earning while they learn while they're there. So this will be funding an entire pipeline, but there's another part to your question and, that is, how do our schools prepare our students to be able to enter this workforce, to be able to enter the job training programs, and that's why I asked Dr. Carrera to come up and answer that piece.

Thank you, and 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. that's a great question, Councilman. I think you heard me say I was a high school principal in Kensington where two-thirds of my students were reading below grade level. And so this is --

In Strawberry Mansion it's probably about 80 percent, so probably a little bit higher.

But I understand completely what it is when you have a ninth grader that comes in reading at a third grade level and the importance to accelerate that student and get that student to where they need to be so that they can go into the workforce. What this Municipal College is going to do is, we are going to work strategically with the School District to really look at what are the gaps, what are the skills that the students are lacking in that they need, and what can we do to accelerate. So we have to work with the School District. We have to 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. work with the business field. We have to look at our CTE workforce. We're looking at in our office bringing on someone to do the career and technical education to look at that, to look at that landscape, to look at that workforce, because that's a whole other pathway that is very critical, because while these programs, barbering and culinary, are great, we need to have kids exposed to solar energy, green jobs. And if our community doesn't know that these jobs exist, if our students don't know that these jobs exist, then that's not going to work. I cannot speak for the School District, and I know they'll be here, but I was at the state for three years and we know there are some science standards that are coming down, the STEELS Standards, that are very rigorous that districts are going to be expected to implement and support students to ensure that exactly what you're saying, that 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. kids have access, right? When we talk about equity, it's about access. If our kids are not exposed to it, then they're not going to get it. And then important as well is preparing our educators to teach these concepts so that our students can go into these jobs. I agree with you.

Thank you. I think you're preaching to the choir talking about access, things like that. I think that we always talk about strategize and strategic and we use these words, but essentially the employers themselves told us what they need. So they need our students to be better at math and to be better at communicating. So by knowing that, we should place those dollars directly into the place where the employers are telling us we need that investment to be made. I just think that having all these other work skill programs is just another way -- I mean, honestly, I'm just 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. going to say how I feel. I think it's just another white collar patronage positions that's going to fund -- that this money is going to go to, right, and not going to the students that need that money. So I think we have to really, really reevaluate how we direct resources to get the outcome that we're expecting. DEPUTY

Councilmember, if I could just jump in really quickly. I hear you. The Administration hears you, and I think the Mayor really agrees with a lot of the points that you're making in that oftentimes what government does is we jump in and we say to the private sector, to the business community, to workforce development, here is a solution we're going to give you, whether you want it or not. And that's why under Mayor Parker's leadership we will be convening business roundtables, a business roundtable to hear directly from employers and the 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. business community and have them brought into this phase where we're legislating, where we're talking about policy so that they can be part of the process and say and address exactly what you're saying, well, we do all this training, we do all these skills initiatives and at the end of the day, there's no job at the end of it. The kids don't have anything to do, and it's just this hamster wheel of train and train and train, from high school to post-high school into adulthood into parenthood, and we're here to break that cycle, because we're going to have the employers, the employers who are hungry for people to come and work. The life sciences industry, when we talked to them, they say we're growing and the only inhibiting factor is not the Ph.D.s, because the Ph.D.s will come from anywhere in the world if the jobs are here, but it's that low to low-mid level that we really need to fill. So having life sciences and 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. biotech at the table, having industries at the table, having the labor unions at the table who will be representing a lot of these workers, that's the vision of the Mayor's Business Roundtable. That's what we're trying to do to go into these training programs.

I understand that. I've been around for a long time in City government and I've seen so many roundtables, so many policy groups and task force and all that put together. The data is there. I think we're overcomplicating something I think is very simple right? It's literally math and reading comprehension. To get into the unions, the building trades union, you need to know math and reading comprehension, right? So I really think if we focus in on that, then I think everything else will just fall in place and we'll be able to have the workforce that those industries need, that they can then train themselves to be 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. specific for their industry, for their job, but we need to cover the basics of math and reading comprehension and communication skills.

Thank you, Councilman.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you. So now we will officially go into the second round. You got to press your button, sir. It's not up there. Councilman Jim Harrity. It is red?

Yeah.

It's red. It's not on the screen. I defer to the gentleman from Kensington. Go ahead, my brother.

My brother, I'm going to be short anyway. I only really have one question, but I do 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. have a statement first. I heard one of my colleagues earlier speak that forced treatment does not work. I would love to see where those numbers are coming from. Because from my learned lived life experience, most of us in recovery were forced there one way or another, whether it was through our families, through a doctor or through the court system. We have a lot of sayings in recovery, one of which is a power greater than ourselves is what helped us get recovery. Because the first step is admitting that you are powerless over that drug and alcohol. Okay? So sometimes we need somebody to start that process for us, and that higher power, as I said before, can be a judge, and a lot of times is a judge. If you talk to people that got recovery during the crack epidemic, they'll tell you, I don't get sober if the judge doesn't send me to jail. I got 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. sober because of the programs that they had in that facility. And, again, you know, some of us don't know that we are at that final stage. In other words, we don't know that we're ready until we have that moment of clarity, and we will not have that moment of clarity until our head becomes a little clearer, and that takes time. That takes a lot of time for the people that are facing this stuff out there, because the mental capacity that they have is not there. They are, as I've said before, a threat to themselves and to others. So we have a moral responsibility to do whatever we can to try to save those people's lives, and reality is that some of us don't go willingly. And that being said, my question is actually about the Parks and Rec system. Being an at-large Councilperson, we travel around the City 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. fairly regularly and I'm at a lot of the different rec centers in the City, and I know we're in the middle of Rebuild and a lot of these are getting rebuilt, but you can kind of see the disparity of centers, you know, from area to area. I've been to some in some of the lower income areas such as mine that doesn't have half the programming that other areas have. I've been to some beautiful facilities in West Philadelphia and stuff like that where they actually have eGames and computer labs in their facilities. And my question really is because the Mayor's thing of equal opportunities for all, how do we plan on rectifying those services in all areas of the City so that every kid gets the same chances that every kid in every other neighborhood is getting? I mean, it doesn't sound like much, eGames. Oh, they're playing video games, but the fact of the matter is that these kids are now getting Division 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. scholarships for eGames. They can actually make money at this, and I feel -- I always give an example. I got a 300-and-something-pound 14-year-old at home. I would love him to play football, but he wants nothing to do with it. But you give him a computer and he can do whatever the hell you want. We need to start getting to these kids in what they want to be, not what we want to be. And I believe that is through diverse programming, maybe thinking outside the box. Maybe building them two stories where we have a rec center on one floor and a computer lab, recording studios. Let them learn how to get it out in words, and eGames. I mean, this is all stuff that they're into. And the thing is, if you want to get a kid, you got to give them what they're into in order to get them. So I'd be curious to see how you're going to try to rectify some of the disparities in some of these rec 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. centers.

Thank you, Councilmember. As I open, I'd like to call up our Commissioner Susan Slawson to provide more detail. We completely agree with you. I should not be able to go to one zip code and have a certain level of quality of programming that's different or lesser than other areas of the City. And so whether it's eGaming or eSports, we believe that we have a social responsibility to all of the students, to all of the youth that we serve throughout our system. It looks like we have our Chief Managing Director, Vanessa Garrett-Harley, who will take the rest of the answer to that question, and as you are aware, Parks and Recreation sits within her portfolio. DEPUTY

Good afternoon. I'm sorry. Our Commissioner Sue Slawson had an emergency 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. today and is not here. Councilman Harrity, that is an excellent point that you've made. We do need to take to children what they want. That's the challenge that we're facing right now, because we can't continue to do those things the way we used to do them. I say to folks that children are different, having done this work a long time, are different now. What their interests are, how we appeal to them does have to be different, so we're going to be working really hard to figure that out. I can tell you that Commissioner Slawson is very, very focused on the individual neighborhoods. Neighborhoods in Philadelphia we all know are different. What works in one neighborhood doesn't always work in another. Certain rec centers have some programming that others don't have. We'd love to get to the point where we can make sure that all of those programs have 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. that. The eGaming is relatively new, I would say within the last few years. We did it -- I'm looking at my friend, Councilman Thomas, who we have talked a lot about eGaming, and in fact I think we partnered with you a little bit last year. He gave what I call a symposium -- I'm not sure what he called it -- on eGaming where we brought in kids from all over. So that is something that we're very focused on and trying to partner with. We did have some sponsorship for the few places that we have it in the City. We don't have it in many rec centers, but are certainly looking to put it in more rec centers. But as you said, we're trying to get to the point where there are equitable services all over the place. We do recognize, though, that certain neighborhoods -- and if you talk to -- we have community councils at all 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. of the rec centers, and those community councils kind of help guide us with what that community wants. There's some that have ice rinks. There's some that have more basketball courts. It depends on what the community and that council have led us to know what they want, but we will definitely be looking at doing different programming so that we can continue to entice our kids to come into safe spaces.

Anything else, Mr. Harrity? Anything else, sir?

I'm good.