I'll wait for the rest of my questions for the next round.
Yes, sir, my friend. Now we're in our second round. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. And also just in addition to this round, if members have questions regarding the other two items for the afternoon, which is the office of the Mayor's Office as well as the Department of Labor, you can intertwine and ask those questions during this round as we finish up this half of our session. I just had a couple brief questions before I turn it over back to the members. In terms of housing production, I know I'm excited about the goal of focusing on 30,000 units here in the City of Philadelphia. So, one, I want to start off by saying good job with creating the Philadelphia Home Appraisal Bias Task Force, right? I held a hearing regarding redlining here in the City of Philadelphia, and we know that redlining played a major role in why some of our neighborhoods are in the conditions that they're in today, right? So we're talking about 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. addressing historical and institutional structural racism. So I do thank the Administration for coming up with this task force. And also soon we will have an appraisal that's going to be -- assessments, I'm sorry, of properties for 2025 as well. So can you give me an idea of the timeline of operations for when the task force will start their work? Two, we talked about housing preservation in Tiffany's testimony, and I want to know the level of investment for FY25 for Basic Systems Repair, the Restore Repair Renew, and Built to Last. Built to Last is under the Philadelphia Energy Authority. So for FY25 our level of investment and making sure we're repairing individuals' homes so they don't become homeless in the first place, seniors don't have to make a decision do they get their prescription drug or keep a roof over top of their head. And so that's my question 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. regarding housing production as well. And also does PHA play a role in the strategy toward accomplishing the 30,000 units? DEPUTY
Council President, thank you for that question. I'm going to ask Rob Dubow to come up and to answer the specific funding questions. I'm going to kind of try to separate these. First, PHA is absolutely involved. We have a planning and development advisory board that includes Kelvin Jeremiah. We also talked to --
Excuse me. What kind of board? Say again. DEPUTY
A planning and development advisory -- not board. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have used the word "board," but a planning and advisory group that includes Kelvin Jeremiah. And we've also talked with him to some of the -- I'm blanking on the name for it, 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. but the resident advocates from some of the different areas. And I want to be clear that the Home Appraisal Task Force -- and I just want to make sure that I'm understanding your question correctly -- is to look at independent home appraisal when people are selling their homes. That's not OPA. So I just want to make sure that I'm understanding the question correctly. So that right now is coming together. It will be part of the major announcement that the Mayor makes at the end of her hundred days on April 11th. So that's coming together. We have a whole lot of recommendations. There is staffing positions within this budget to help ensure that that goes well, and this is, as you may know, a process that was started back when Mayor Parker was Councilmember Parker, including the Reinvestment Fund, TRF. The work has included -- has kept on going, and a lot of the other folks in the advocacy space 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. there, including CLS, have been involved with that. If I've answered that question, I'll turn it over to Rob Dubow on the other question.
And we will get back to you in writing with the funding levels for those programs.
That's Built to Last, Basic Systems Repair, and Repair Restore Renew.
Okay. All right. I want to talk about the investment in workforce development. One, what is the FY25 investment for summer jobs for our young people? I'm just a firm advocate that as many young people as possible as a strategy to address gun violence is a way to get 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. young people involved in something positive by every young person in the City of Philadelphia is to have a summer job if they're seeking one.
I'm a living witness and a testament to your work, and I commend you on everything that you've done thus far with that. As our Chief Managing Director comes back up, Vanessa Garrett-Harley, to talk about the details of our summer work program, I want to say that we recently made an announcement about Career Connected Learning. And so with regards to summer employment, changes and enhancements that we're making to that program, and so our Chief Deputy Mayor -- Chief Deputy Managing Director to provide more information on that. DEPUTY
Hello, Council President. Our summer employment, previously known as WorkReady, we have now changed that model. I believe 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. enhanced it so that it will be much better. We're calling it Career Connected Learning, or C2L. You will see C2L-PHL for Philadelphia is what we are calling it. This summer the investment from the City is a little over $12 million, but we are working very collaboratively with Philadelphia Works, and they have invested a pretty significant number of millions into the program as well. We are also partnering with the School District to make sure that it works well. What we're looking at is 8,000 jobs over the course of the summer. We have 8,000 slots that we will do everything we can robustly to make sure that young people are able to fill those slots. And I'm happy to say for the first time we have 2,000 slots that will go year round into the school year, so that young people who are getting internships or anything else can get paid. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. We're doing the payment thing a little bit different this year. Typically last year I think we did hourly wages. Some were around $11 an hour. This year we're doing a stipend, although the young people will get that stipend every two weeks so that it looks like a paycheck to them. The reason that it's different, it allows us to streamline some of the administrative and paperwork processes that we would have to do. It also allows us to employ some young people where it was more difficult to get the documentation that they needed. You don't need the same level of documentation if it's not done as a regular employment status under the IRS. So we're doing it as stipends in that way, and they actually walk away with a little bit more money in their pocket at the end of the six-week period because the taxes that you pay on it are different. Now, while you will get issued 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. a 1099, most of them will not meet requirements to even have to file on it after the fact. So we're excited about this year's opportunities. We continue to have a robust number of providers. We have a new intermediary. The intermediary this year after a competitive posting process was selected, and that's JEVS, who will be working with the young people, but particularly the three partners I named for you - School District, Philadelphia Works, and the City - are working very, very closely around this to make sure that we fill it, and we'll be asking for your help. I'll be contacting your office. April 27th, I'll just say, we have a resource fair at the Convention Center. Any and everybody can come out. We'll be asking you to send your networks, send your young people. We'll have all kinds of vendors there to talk about all the summer opportunities in the 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. City, but in particular we will have municipal ID there. For young people that have no form of ID, they can get the City ID there. And also we'll have the summer employment. They can actually sign up for jobs just in case anyone is having a problem navigating the computer or database system to apply.
What was the FY24 commitment under the last Administration for youth summer jobs? Do we have that number? Just want to see, an increase or a -- DEPUTY
It did increase a little bit. It was a little less than the 12 million. Off the top of my head, I'm going to say it was around 10. I could be wrong. I'll get you the exact numbers.
Is Rob still around just for the actual number for the record?
Just want to have that just for the record. And I do want to give credit where credit is due. Obviously this is an issue that Councilmember Thomas I know was going to host a hearing regarding young people getting paid, right? So I'm glad y'all changed providers, and hopefully young people -- well, with the new provider, they aren't facing the same obstacles around -- I mean, they wanted to riot. I was going to call Commissioner Bethel, because I come outside, they were like, y'all going to give these kids their money, but -- we're looking for security, sir, some police support. But in all seriousness, I'm glad that we right-sized a new organization. Young people work hard during the summertime, and then when it's 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. time to get paid, it's like there was a reason why they wasn't getting paid. So I do thank you for going back to the mat, kind of restructuring and changing things under the leadership of Councilmember Thomas staying on top of that issue. So just want to thank you for your hard work and your dedication. My last one before I turn it over to the members. There's a $10 million investment to support workforce development apprenticeship programs led by our partners, building trades, other unions. I've been here before, since Paul Levy was around, the building trades and the School District, then recently former Council President Darrell Clarke. The unions made an announcement that they're partnering with the School District. Has that partnership been evaluated to kind of see where we're at in terms of making sure that we're getting young people into the pipeline 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. into the trades? And then also in terms of the $10 million investment, like what does that look like? We currently have schools such as YouthBuild and Orleans Technical Institute in the City of Philadelphia right now, and I'm inspired that our Mayor is saying, okay, I'm going to make this investment, but also pay attention to -- we already have two schools right now that don't even have a pipeline into the trades. So I know under this Mayor and using the bully pulpit and the relationships to get everybody around the table that even schools such as YouthBuild and Orleans Institute -- we're not even talking about the School District. We're just talking about the two very premier trade schools in the City of Philadelphia having an opportunity to participate in high-quality job opportunities that the trades have to offer. But with this 10 million 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. investment, what does that look like? I know about the Sam Staten Sr. Apprenticeship Program. Is that getting the whole million? What does this 6 look like overall in terms of making sure 7 our young people really have a real 8 opportunity to participate in this 9 process? 10 And then I also want to add the caveat, with the project labor agreements that we do as a city to make sure that we're doing union jobs, prevailing wage, right, how does that play a role as well in the pipeline to make sure young people and people in general have an opportunity to participate through this $10 million investment in apprenticeship programs? DEPUTY
Yeah. Council President, thank you for that. The short answer is, this is very much a work in progress. I also want to call out the Carpenters CARP program as well as others. One of the things that you've 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. heard Mayor Parker talk about, though, and we haven't really had a chance to talk about this, although it touches on what Councilmember Thomas was saying earlier, is that one of the things that we're going to start talking about doing as we start talking about in partnership with the School District building new buildings, repairing and remediating buildings that are there is, there's going to be in capital projects, in PLAs an awful lot of expansion and need for apprentices as well as other skilled trades. So when you're talking specifically about the building trades, working to find the need that's specific and factoring that in there. What Mayor Parker says, especially around the School District, is that we are having one generation build the institutions for the next, and that is something that's incredibly important. The specifics we don't have together yet, but we will get 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. that to you as it comes a little bit closer into focus. But that's how we're thinking about that.
I just want to ask the question, timeline for like flushing it out, the million 8 up front before the plan is actually 9 flushed out. So that will be helpful. 10 And we're supportive of the concept and the spirit of it, but that's just something we would like to see as we go through this process so we can answer the questions even when our constituents call us and say, hey, we heard about this great announcement, you're going to get the young people involved in the trades. And then so -- you know, we get the phone calls saying, hey, I want to be involved, how can I participate. And we want to be able to say, hey, here's what it looks like and here's how we're going to be able to be supportive of your efforts. But I also want to echo the sentiments of my colleague Councilmember 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Jeffery J. Young, and from doing this work for a while, to take into consideration on the preparation a pre-apprenticeship program, not the apprenticeship program, but investing in a program that makes sure our young people have -- are up to par when it comes to the reading and the math, so then when they get to the apprenticeship program, there's no excuses why they can't actually participate. I know State Representative Jake Wheatley from Allegheny County, he has a program that kind of models how we can shut down that whole conversation that either they can't pass the urine or they can't pass the test, right, as a way why we can't have a seat at the table. Been doing this for a little bit, and so it's a new day. We want to do some things differently, even with our friends, right? At the end of the day, it's about making sure that if we want to address poverty here in this city, 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. everybody has to have an opportunity to have a seat at the table irregardless of their race and/or background. And so that's the position that I'm taking, and want to be supportive of these efforts. Devil is always in the detail, but if you can take that in consideration in terms of some ways on how we can support our young people to be highly prepared when it's time to get that opportunity to get into the trades.
Absolutely. And you actually took the words right out of my mouth, Council President. It's a -- we hear Councilmember Young loud and clear. For us, it's not an either/or. It's a both "and" simultaneously, because of course we absolutely have to address the mathematics and the reading comprehension issue. We are not ignoring that. We're certainly also not asking for a blank check. What we're saying is we have a framework in place. We've worked internally, right, with OHR, with 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. CAO to identify existing programs, existing pipelines, but the challenge is, as you explained, as you were explaining the different programs, right, one of the things that I saw and that we see is it's siloed. So what we're looking to do is to break down the silos and bring them all together so that, again, as -- and Mayor Parker always says this -- so that we're ensuring that our babies, they don't just have a piece of the pie but they have access to the full loaf, whether they want to go into trades, aviation, community engagement, that we're giving them an array of opportunities. I didn't learn about programs like human resources or AI until I got to college. I was already behind. And so what we want to do is we want to start in the high schools. That's why we want to bring the School District in, so that when the students come into the program, they already understand what the options 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. are and we're giving them -- while we are addressing mathematics and reading comprehension, we're also accountable to students as well and ensuring that they have -- they're fully read into what the other opportunities that exist.
Absolutely. And just one last part. Just in terms of the approach, just making sure that we're supporting our public charter schools as well --
-- as a part of the conversation to make sure that those young people have a seat at the table, because they're all our children. And so the 10 million is just not the building trades. It's the 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. building trades plus?
Other industries that will be a part of recruiting young people separate from the building trades; is that correct?
Could I just add one other thing, Council President. It's not just children out of high school. It's adults who are looking to upskill.
Okay. So like reentry, people coming home from prison who want to get their lives together?
Maybe somebody who has been working a close to minimum wage job who doesn't have a career, who doesn't have a pension, who doesn't have healthcare, who wants an opportunity to have more of a career-minded focus and the revenue and 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. all the other ancillary benefits that come with it.
So 3 million of that will go to ensure that we're not increasing the tuition cost for students. The 7 million will be to stand up the framework that we are -- we have in place and that we're growing as the days go.
That's what's up. Thank you. Great response too. That's what's up. I like that. I like that. At this time, the Chair recognizes Councilmember Isaiah Thomas.
I like it too, Council President. Good afternoon, everybody. I want to take a moment first to -- and I didn't plan this, but brainstorming during lunch and listening to some of the comments and questions. I'm only in my second term on City Council, and I 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. remember my first budget, and I just want to take a moment to commend the new Councilmembers, Council President - Councilmember Young, Councilmember Nina Ahmad, Councilmember Rue Landau behind me, Council Pastor Nick. You guys asked phenomenal questions that really -- and I'm looking at Councilmember Jones, who was like actively listening with me. You guys have asked some amazing questions, and it's an honor and a pleasure to work with you. Back to business. Number one, I listened to Councilmember Young specifically talk a little bit about numbers. He talked about the national average being around 17 percent of what's recommended in your fund balance. Ours currently is around eight. And your Five Year Plan has it at one. I sat in a different seat on a Zoom call when we did this before, and you all told us that in order to put us in a position to see some type of 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. economic growth, that it was ideal for us to cut taxes so we can see and so businesses could plan what it would look like over five years. If my memory serves me correctly, we just had somebody in these very same seats a couple weeks ago, a gentleman by the name of Paul Levy, who came and testified to us earlier this month about concerns -- asking us for our vote, first and foremost, and then communicated specific concerns based on questions that we had around revenue projections in the City of Philadelphia. Now, as I'm sitting and listening to the responses to the question, while simultaneously reading your budget proposal, I think I'm getting a conflicting message. So on the one hand, last year you told us that in order for revenue growth to continue and for businesses to be able to plan what their bottom dollar would look like over the next five years, it was important that we 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. cut taxes. You also put somebody in front of us last week that told us that the revenue projections for Center City buildings will be dropping so significantly that we could see a huge loss in real estate taxes if we do not do something to bring businesses back to the City of Philadelphia, specifically to fill our Center City businesses. With all due respect, without talking about anything clean, green or public safety, how are we bringing businesses back to the City of Philadelphia over the next couple years if we do not plan to cut any taxes?
So there are multiple ways to invest in bringing businesses back. One of the things that the Mayor heard when she was on the campaign trail is people aren't coming back because they don't feel safe. So if we don't invest in public safety, it doesn't really matter what else we do if 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. people don't feel safe coming into the City. That's why that's priority one in this budget. They also are more likely to come back if they look around and the City is clean. That's something that can take -- yeah, people complain when they walk around and the City looks like trash, right?
I'm an at-large Councilmember. I think a lot of people in the City of Philadelphia voted for me. I'm 100 percent sure that keeping the City clean and safe will play a role in bringing businesses back to the City. So what I'm specifically asking for -- because I think everybody in here agrees Philadelphia is dirty and needs to be cleaner. I think everybody in here agrees that we need to do something about public safety. So that's where we all agree. Where we don't agree is around taxes. So I'm asking, what is the plan 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. to bring businesses back to the City of Philadelphia without anything about cleaner, greener, and public safety?
So if it is a key element, then why are your projections in a way whereas though you're telling me that growth is going to be slow? You can't tell me on the one hand that public safety and cleaner and greener is going to bring people back to the City, but then you have projections that are so conservative that we can't move the needle on a lot of the things that we want to do. So you kind of got to pick which road you want.
So our projections are based both on what will happen here but what happens nationally. So, for example, if inflation comes down, that means that people's wage increases are slower and that means that wage tax revenue is slower. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.
And I definitely understand that, but I still don't think you really answered my questions like on the projection of the City and the direction that we're going in.
One of the big basis of the projection is what -- there are two parts to a projection of the wage tax - how many jobs and what people get paid. So if inflation is going down, that portion, what people get paid, that growth is going to be slower. So inflation projections are slower than they were a year ago. So that means that our wage tax projections are going to be slower than they were a year ago.
So I don't 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. understand what you don't agree with.
What I don't agree with is the fact that you told us last year that cutting taxes over a five-year period will put businesses in a position where they can project what their bottom line would be, and now you're coming to us today saying we shouldn't cut taxes and that's not going to impact our projections over the next five years, and I'm saying you can't have both bites at the apple. You can't have it both ways.
So the proposal -- the Administration proposal last year just had one year of tax reductions. There weren't five year reductions last year.
And what I'm saying is is when you came to us last year, you told us that that was the way to produce growth. You also had somebody come before us a couple weeks ago testify about the importance of businesses being 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. able to plan over the next five years. What I'm saying is this: The message that you gave us a couple weeks ago was different than the message that you're giving us right now. So what we're trying to figure out, if we're looking at the growth of the City, we know for a fact that as we reappraise buildings, we're going to lose a lot of money in real estate taxes because these buildings are not filled. This is what your people told us. We're going to lose hundreds of millions of dollars over the next couple years if we do not bring businesses back to the City of Philadelphia. So I'm trying to figure out on the one hand, how are you encouraging us to bring businesses back to the Center City, into the City of Philadelphia, but on the other hand, in the midst of your budget proposal, the bottom dollar, the bottom dollar for the businesses suggest that they will generate much more revenue 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. if their business is outside of the City compared to the -- DEPUTY
If you don't mind, and with all due respect. The priorities of this Administration are different from the priorities of the last Administration. Paul Levy, while I have a great deal of respect for him, does not work for us. I don't know who brought him here, but it was not on behalf of our Administration. But we talk with an awful lot of people in the business community, and maybe some of the same people that you do, and there is an incongruent ask. And I understand that you're trying to divorce these two issues, but what they're asking for time and time again is more services, more policing, cleaner 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. streets, more pothole repair, all of these things. They want more, but to pay less for it. And there's a very basic economic principle here that if we're here to deliver more, to get the City up to the standard that we all want to see it so it can achieve its highest potential, that's going to take a little bit of revenue. And if we can get there, if we can have the ability to get there with the revenue that we have right now without raising taxes, then we can do an awful lot of good and we can deliver more services and keep the revenue at the level that it is so that we're not asking anybody to pay more, but we're not quite at the period of paying less. And Mayor Parker and on City Council and as a candidate has voted for tax reduction, the BIRT and income. She has said as a candidate that she would like to see it reduced. Because it's not FY25 doesn't mean it's not never. But we do have an awful lot that we need to do 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. this year.
I was just in a meeting last week with who we call Maverick, Commissioner Bethel, and business owners -- that's the Maverick. Business owners, top business owners from around the City were in that room, and one business owner in particular -- and this is anecdotally shared -- I had the opportunity to move my business outside of the City and, Mayor Parker, I didn't because you're cleaning stuff up. Now, he didn't say "stuff," but I respect this house.
I think my time is up, Council President. I heard the horn. I'm going to submit my questions in writing. I don't think it got answered. I don't think that we're all on the same page as it relates to past projections compared to what's being proposed right now. I'm not quite sure what we're going to do in the next two years when we run out of American Cares 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. dollars and other national funds if our buildings aren't filled. Mr. Levy was definitely sent as a confirmation vote. So I'm not saying he was here on behalf of the Administration, right, or behalf of Mayor Parker, but I'm saying that there was something that City Council was asked to approve based on his expertise. Council President, I do have a lot more questions and I got stuck on just this one question this round because I think that we have a difference in opinion on how we see this particular issue. So if it's okay -- thank you. I would like to just do one more question. So before I close out and prepare for the next round, one of the things that you're talking significantly about as it relates to what you want money for is hiring, hiring of staff, City services, things like that. Myself and Councilmember Gilmore Richardson, one of the things we 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. asked the last Administration for was a better job of marketing. And this was something that our former Council President was adamant about, especially when it came to jobs within the Police Department, being police officers and trying to get Philly residents to take City jobs. I understand that you have the Municipal University, and I think that's a phenomenal idea for City jobs, but listening to some of what other Councilmembers are talking about, especially Councilmember Gauthier, who talks a lot about the goal of biotech field, we know that CHOP Hospital recently adopted Mastery Charter School to be able to create a pipeline so when young people graduate from a Mastery school, they can go directly to CHOP into the workforce. So I want us to look at the issues that we have around hiring and hiring staff. What are we doing 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. specifically in the HR department to market the jobs to Black and brown Philadelphians, these City jobs? How do we see the Municipal University being a part of Black and brown young people getting those jobs? And what is the future, similar to what Councilmember Ahmad asked earlier, around public-private partnerships specifically looking at the growing biotech industry and their appetite to adopt more high schools? We see it with one model with the charter school, but is there appetite to see a similar public-private partnership with our comprehensive neighborhood schools, specifically looking at the Office of Strategic Partnerships?
Would you mind repeating your question? Respectfully. Respectfully. Now, you know -- respectfully. I will call up our CAO. You just dropped bars, as they say. So, respectfully, would you mind -3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.
It's all good. So my staff have a rule. They say if you can't repeat your question, you shouldn't ask your question. So I'm looking at issues that we've had in the past around HR.
You are asking for a lot of money to be able to hire more staff, and in the past -- and I haven't been here that long -- what we tend to see is we give money to departments and departments give us money back because they can't hire the personnel that they ask for money to be allocated for. I respect what you're looking to do around the Municipal University, and I think that's a phenomenal idea, but I'm wondering how much money will go to HR specifically to encourage Black and brown people to take the City jobs that's needed? I'm wondering what focus will the Municipal University have compared to 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. public-private partnerships? I used the example that we've seen when we seen CHOP adopt Mastery Charter, and I also wanted to know would there be an appetite for public-private partnerships for our traditional neighborhood schools with the growing biotech industry that we have here in the City of Philadelphia, specifically looking at what's going on in the Third District and I named CHOP and Mastery, that collaboration as an example. So I know it was a loaded question, but unfortunately that's how it goes when you only have about seven minutes.
I respect that. I respect that, Councilmember, and we'll start with Mike Zaccagni, who leads our Office of Human Resources, and then I believe we'll kick it over regarding marketing to our Chief Administrative Officer, Camille Duchaussee.
Good afternoon. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Mike Zaccagni, HR Director for the City of Philadelphia. Councilman, thank you. I remember our discussions last year. So one of the things that we did -- I don't want to steal Camille's thunder here, but we have about three-quarters of a million dollars to a million dollars that we're investing this year in doing a broad marketing campaign. We just brought a vendor on to help us with that, because we understood that we really don't have sort of the capacity and sometimes don't have the expertise in the area that we need. So we started doing a teaser campaign over the last couple weeks. Probably be able to share some feedback with you at our meeting next week as to how that's working, leveraging social media, getting on -- what it looks like right now is our engagement and our engagement sessions seem to be doing very well, and as I understand the engagement 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. sessions, any time someone looks at one of our -- as for more than ten seconds. So we're getting a lot of play there. We've done something specifically for Prisons and we've done something for various job families that are difficult to recruit for, healthcare, trades, a number of them. We're currently building out a broader promotional campaign with the vendor so that we can really hit the ground running. So this was something as soon as they came on board, we said we wanted to do something. We wanted to get stuff out there. We won't see the results of that for a little while, but we're out there finally. The other thing that we've been doing is pounding the pavements. This doesn't have a huge ROI, but we want to make sure that we're visible in the neighborhoods. So for the last year and a half, Janine LaBletta and her Hiring 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Services team have been partnering with community organizations, with local libraries, going out, pounding the pavement, being there, being very visible. Something that I said quite some time ago, and it's finally coming to fruition -- I guess we got tied up with a lot of the supply chain problems -- was we're bringing on -- it's not a huge thing, but a mobile lab that right now is waiting to be wrapped. Mural Arts is going to wrap for us. That's also going to be part of our, no pun intended, boots on the street so that we're out in the community, so that we're being seen in the community. This year it looks like -- this past calendar year, Fiscal '23, looks like it's the first year in the last three that we've actually hired more people than we lost. So I'm hoping -- it's not a ton more, but I'm hoping we've turned the corner a little bit on that. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. You heard Commissioner Bethel. We've been working with POR for the Police Department on their POR hiring. They really take the lead with that. We try to support them. Hearing great numbers out of that piece of it. Well, at least greater numbers that we've had over the last several years. So we're trying to do as much there. For example, one thing that we've been doing is on a weekly basis when we have a job opening, we're pushing candidates to them as opposed to waiting for the eligible list to be established, which technically we're supposed to do, but we worked with Law to be able to generate correspondence to the candidates so they don't think this is a job offer. So there's a lot of different moving pieces that we're doing. We have a small recruitment unit within OHR for the first time. We staffed that up pretty much last year. So that's giving us some capacity to be able to do some 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. things that we just haven't been able to do. I agree with you, we need to have a brand. We need to be out in the community. We need to be out in the public eye so that people think of the City as an employer that I want to work with, and that's part of what we're trying to really push.
Some of the things that you said last year, took to heart about from the standpoint of where are we as opposed to where we need to be. So we're hoping that a lot of this bears fruit. We have some money for next fiscal year to be able to continue that promotional activity that we're working on, so we're excited about that.
Mr. President, I'll just come back for a third round, and if we don't have time for a third round, I'll put it in writing.
3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Sure. Sincere. DEPUTY
Councilman, we just want to say we agree with you that the City Municipal College is a phenomenal idea, to quote you, which is why we want to get up and running so we can help fill these critical vacancies. We can't emphasize that enough.
Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Kendra Brooks.
Thank you, Council President. I have some follow-up questions from my earlier round of questions. And one thing I want to add to Councilmember Harrity, I was the one who said that overdose -- let me get my quote correct. I said people forced into treatment have 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. higher rates of relapse and overdose. It wasn't a Kendra Brooks thing. It's a public health science thing, and I'll --
And I said, let me finish, I will have my staff send you over that data, because I did not make it up. And to that point, you know, we also know that a majority of the overdoses here in Philadelphia are occurring inside residences, and oftentimes people are dying alone, and it seems like much of this discussion about overdose crisis does not reflect that reality. So what does the Administration see as a role of the mobile crisis units and its approach to the triage centers? Mobile crisis units is something I've been working on since I've been in office, and I just want to know how does that play into the situation? 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.
Absolutely. So we have our Deputy Managing Director Crystal Yates-Gale that will answer that question.
Good afternoon. I'm sorry. I'm a little short. The Department of Behavioral Health has mobile crisis units. The Opioid Response Unit has mobile crisis units. The Department of Public Health also has mobile crisis units, and some of our external partners have them, and we will engage with all of them to do canvassing, knocking on doors, which they currently do, to make sure that people are aware of the dangers of using drugs alone and also distributing fentanyl test strips so they can test their supply.
Are you talking about the program through Philly Counts?
I'm talking about a multitude of programs. Philly 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Counts is one of them.
My next group of questions is around a historic correlation that came together in 2020 to advocating for the formation of the Department of Labor and our City government. Our City has been leading efforts to ensure labor rights are human rights through laws like paid sick leave, fair workweek, and our wage theft laws. I've been proud to be a part of these efforts, including fighting for increased funding in last year's budget. That's why it was encouraging to see the success of the department touted in the Administration's Five Year Plan, including an increase in labor law complaints of nearly 200 percent, more outreach to workers, small businesses to help with compliance and education and recovering nearly one million in wages 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. for working families here in Philadelphia. That is an impressive record, and I want to acknowledge the department for their efforts. And that's all the more reason why I was surprised to see substantial cuts in that department. So my question is why was the Department of Labor proposed budget cut by $400,000? With the success of that department, wouldn't we want to continue funding at a higher level? DEPUTY
So I'm going to bring up Rob, but Perry just stepped out, the Director of Labor. He will be back in a minute. Rob, if you can speak to how -- we did not cut any full-time employees. That was sort of a payment issue. If you could speak to that. But to your point, Councilwoman, yes, the Department of Labor does critical work in making sure that both on the private and the public 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. work side that we are meeting our responsibilities with prevailing wage and all of the labor standards, and Rob has a breakdown of how that looks like a cut, but in actuality it has to do with benefits payout.
Yeah. So that's correct. In FY24, there was a -- there were large terminal leave payouts. So they had employees who had been with the department a long time and were retiring. So they got separation payments. So that was a one-time payment that was not repeated. That was the single biggest thing. And then there were some one-time things around labor arbitrations that also went away. So it was a couple of one-time things that make it look like there was a cut but there really wasn't.
So it's more like a flat funding and no 24 increases? DEPUTY
The 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. funding is like standing -- it's held harmless. But, again, to the point, Perry DiVirgilio can speak to this a little better, because he comes from that side of the house, but that's why we promoted someone who comes from the Labor Standards side, because they understand how critical it is to make sure that our employees are not being paid under the table, that they are meeting the prevailing wage standards. But the Labor Department was not actually cut, but we held that funding to the same levels. And they are currently -- we've had some vacancies since last fall, but you'll notice that most of those core positions have been filled in the Department of Labor. So there are probably only a handful of vacancies that still remain that we are working to fill diligently, but we have our leadership in place and we're making improved strides, and that also did contribute to some of the casework being -- sorry. It looks like 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Perry is back.
While we wait, can I just add a caveat onto the question. So last year's coalition of union and non-union workers came together to demand 1.2 million in increases in the funding of Office of Worker Protections to better enforce the City's labor laws, including seven additional staff and $200,000 for the Community Outreach and Education Fund, and we won 800,000, and of that, in the last year's budget, where was that money spent and how much went into the Office of Labor Protections? That was Part 2. MR. DiVIRGILIO: Good afternoon, Council President, members of City Council. I would say -- and I don't have the exact numbers, but I can get them for you. I would say at least 600,000 of them. DEPUTY
So, 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Councilmember, we'll get that information for you.
So do you want me to follow up with the question in writing -- MR. DiVIRGILIO: Follow up.
-- and then you'll be able to send it back over? Okay. Thank you so much. MR. DiVIRGILIO: Okay.
Can I just ask this on record and I'll still follow up in writing?
Thank you. And in Fiscal Year 2024, more than half of all complaints took more than three months to address despite the best efforts of the department, and we know low-income workers are forced to 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. wait many months to have their complaints of wage theft, fair workweek or paid sick leave addressed. With these proposed budget cuts, will workers have to wait even longer, and what services will your department stop providing to these Philadelphia workers? And I think I can wrap that up as my final question. DEPUTY
So, again, we are not making any cuts. We are making sure that all of the Department of Labor still has the same number of FTEs, full-time employees, so that they can do that critical work in protecting against wage theft. And so we did have vacancies, like I said. We had a handful of vacancies in each side of the house for the Department of Labor, both Labor Standards and Worker Protection. Most of them have been filled, and we're working to fill the remaining so that we can make sure we're protecting the City workers and employees 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. across Philadelphia.
Thank you. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Jamie Gauthier.
Thank you, Council President. I wanted to start by appreciating Councilmember Young's line of questioning is always very astute, and I support fully funding housing in the City, but I also want to just show some love to the Zoo. We love the Zoo. They are a gem of the Third District, and we will need the Zoo to be in tip-top shape as we're on the international stage in 2026. But we can do both. I wanted to go back to Councilmember Lozada and the Council President's question around the 30,000 housing units that the Mayor would like to develop. As we continue to weather 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. the housing crisis as a city, one of the tasks before us will be making sure that families have access to homes that they can actually afford. However, our city's reliance on area median income as a barometer of affordability leaves many low-income families out in the cold. The region's AMI does not represent Philadelphia. It is over $114,000 annually, but the average Philadelphia household earns about half of that. Forty percent of the households that I represent in the Third District earn less than $30,000 annually, including many seniors and people with disabilities. And so when we are building housing for residents at 80 percent or 100 percent or even 120 percent of AMI, we are leaving behind hundreds of thousands of families, because a family would need to earn more than double the average income in the area that I represent and in many other areas to move into an affordable, quote, 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. "affordable" home at this level of AMI. To make matters worse, over the past two decades we have lost thousands of low cost rental units that were renting for $800 a month or less, and that would be affordable to this significant population in our city. So can you talk more about the 30,000 units that are the Administration's goal? Is there a breakdown of AMI that is corresponding to those units, and how does that correspond to the need within our neighborhoods? DEPUTY
Yeah. Councilmember, thank you for that question. When I sat down with you, and I think I had mentioned this when Councilmember Lozada had raised a similar issue, one of the things that I always emphasize is that our Mayor is a District Councilperson and she understands the prerogative of District Councilmembers, especially if we're using City dollars or 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. things of value, like land in the Land Bank. You and I had a discussion about the AMI, and the AMI is -- it's a barometer, right? So if we're talking about 100 percent AMI for the entire area, we know that's not right for Philadelphia, but we can adjust percentages based on that. We have fulfilled the whole plan, but we will be looking at it banded and paying close attention to what District Councilmembers are saying and thinking for their district. And also I will be remiss if I didn't say this as well: Anything that we're going to be building will be affordable luxury, high end fixtures, high end hardware, but still affordable, because as the Mayor said, just because you don't have the same level of resources doesn't mean that you should have to deal with less. So it's very much a work in 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. progress, but taking very close account into District Members' knowledge and understanding of their own districts.
I appreciate that. We all employ a prerogative, but I think I'm asking more about data and data on the City's housing needs. How are you incorporating that data on need into the City's strategy to deliver 30,000 units and how are you apportioning subsidy and resources from the City according to that need? DEPUTY
Those decisions have not been made yet and that's continuing to be a work in progress, and it's -- my colleague had said it before. It's not an either/or. It's we can do a lot of it at the same time, including mixed-income development. So it is a continuing developing policy. It's not done yet, and it's going to be regionalized as well.
Okay. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. My next question is about our support to community development corporations. As we know, CDCs do the hard work of facilitating eviction diversion and housing counseling and getting residents connected to all kinds of critical programs as well as the development of affordable housing. They are trusted, incredible resources in our neighborhoods, and we rely on CDCs as a city to serve as first responders to address a range of needs at the neighborhood level. And so with that in mind, I wanted to hear you talk about our support for the critical work of community development corporations in this budget, and in particular, can you talk about our support for housing counseling and are we -- is that remaining flat? Are we increasing it? How are we thinking about that investment? DEPUTY
I don't have the housing counseling numbers in 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. front of me, but I can get those to you. One of the things that PHDC is developing currently, and we're hoping to unveil this rather soon, is the way that we do minority developer support is to also do CDC developer support, so that we can provide that type of support infrastructure, connections to capital if appropriate, and a variety of other things, understanding the critical role that they play. We sat down with PACDC last week and really truly heard from them as they were saying that, especially when you're talking about gentrifying communities, and I know you know a lot about this from your district, that the communities that are there are stable because of the CDCs. And we hear that and we understand that, and we're looking to find ways to continue to support them and give them the resources that we can.
Thank you. I appreciate -- and this is my last 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. statement, not a question. I appreciate the support for development for CDCs, especially in gentrifying communities, because they need that in order to continue to develop affordable housing in those communities. I would push us to also prioritize operating support. We have steadily and admirably grown the level of housing assistance, rental assistance, eviction protection. CDCs are often connecting people to those programs on our behalf, and they need adequate support to do that, particularly housing counseling funds. Thank you. DEPUTY
Thank you. Mr. Platt, when you also say mixed income, that means the 30,000 isn't just focused on affordable, correct? That would be a combination of a variety 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. of different things? DEPUTY
That's absolutely correct. It's mixed income focusing on affordable without City subsidy but not standing as obstacle to market-rate housing in established neighborhoods to increase inventory to help curb the flow of gentrification, something I know that you also know a lot about in your district, but mixed income in the same areas. Mayor Parker always or frequently talks about the Westrum Development in East Falls where one block is PHA housing, the next block is what you would call workforce housing, and all the way up until you have million dollar-plus homes with elevators. But it's all a community. It's all built with the same building materials, and if you were driving through, you wouldn't really notice any difference between the income bands. And in those communities, you have people of all socioeconomic 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. stripes who have pride in their community and they're living and working together. And as a city -- you mentioned redlining earlier. This is something that we have done incredibly poorly, is bringing people who are different together, but through some more modern housing ideas, I think that we will be able to do that.
And I just want to also add to take into consideration in terms of the strategy, we have a senior population out there where we can convert some of the -- I have like several schools that will be great for low-income housing for seniors, because we meet a lot of seniors who want to, when they go into a living facility, stay inside their neighborhood, not go across the City to another neighborhood, because they want to be closer to their family. So something to maybe take in consideration. I know we have an 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. intergovernmental approach where we can leverage our federal funding and our state funding to produce more senior housing as a part of that 30,000 strategy as well. And also I don't want to be remiss about saying individuals who are disabled. That's a population that have a different level of advocacy. That's not always as robust as other developers or interest groups that come before us, and so they're all looking for additional advocacy. And so -- and I have personal family members with me being an elected official kind of had to go jump through hoops just for support to get a house that's equipped to handle the individual who was actually disabled, but even navigating that process and discuss the lack of housing for individuals who are disabled, if y'all can take into consideration as you strategize overall for the 30,000 units. With that being said, I want to 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. say Councilmember Anthony Phillips is next.
Thank you, Council President Johnson. Just some quick, rapid-fire observations. Number one, quality of life officers are incredibly important, and so being able to recruit that in addition to the neighborhood cleanup team is going to be really different, because the reason why we have so many speed cushion requests around the City of Philadelphia is because speeding as at an all-time high. These public safety officers can support the Police Department with check-in on things like that as well as other traffic issues that a lot of residents have complained about and other quality-of-life issues as well. Number two, just a quick observation, the Department of Streets -- I said it. I want to be on record. We get a lot of speed cushion requests throughout the City of Philadelphia. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. There needs to be a level of transparency that will go to residents in the City of Philadelphia that would ultimately be able to tell people when their study request came in, when their request is going to -- when they're going to receive their study, when they're going to probably receive the speed cushions. It needs to be online somewhere so our office numbers are not constantly getting called as District Councilmembers. And then also just wanted to note from the communication standpoint, and I'm going to have two rapid-fire questions after that, communication standpoint. Listening to the testimony of the communications director or marketing, HR, I'm not thrilled. I feel like it's a level of excuses that we've heard from last year, now we're hearing again. No action plan for this year that's really rigorous and exciting, and I wanted y'all to figure out how we could hold that department more accountable, 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. because we get it all the time where we're not marketing things to our neighbors about programs and events. This department needs to be held more accountable for doing a terrible job with being in neighborhoods. We have community events they can be hosting, they can be part of, about all the jobs and opportunities that are here in the City of Philadelphia. In addition to that, there should be maybe a central place online where jobs are posted on social media that people can go to. So the marketing needs to be more streets oriented and also maybe increase your mailers to go out about City jobs. The libraries need to become -- Kelly Richards is a fantastic director. He needs more autonomy to provide innovative space, provide thoughts on how we can make the libraries more innovate, where it can be more learning opportunities, extracurricular 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. opportunities, as well as just not just about books and studying. It can be a space for growth, fun, and meetups for our city. So I just want to be on record on that. Quick question I want to ask. When you put the locations for the neighborhood -- the Mayor's Neighborhood Service Centers with the Mayor liaisons, will those locations be thought of in conjunction with the City Council District Councilmember? DEPUTY
Absolutely. And to your point about libraries, to reserve City resources, the primary locations we'll be looking at are libraries and rec centers. So we look forward to partnering with Council on our neighborhood action centers and those engagement teams and the work that will be done out of them.
Okay. Thank you. Next question, in the City of 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Philadelphia, we have a large number of violence prevention organizations that are continually funded. We do need to have violence prevention organizations to support our young people. This upcoming year we have a $5 billion grant from the Department of Justice focused on addressing violence. How are we going to do it? How are we planning to do a better job with delivering an evaluation to make sure that these violence prevention organizations are working with the young people who are one or two steps away from the incarceration system? How are we going to do a better job with making sure that we can show our neighbors and our residents that the violence prevention programs that we are funding are actually working and they're targeting the groups that we have? Now, listen, there's some kids that need to be in youth programs. All kids need to be in youth programs, but 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. this specific funding needs to be for certain students that are going to be in a certain trouble potentially if we won't get them in there.
Good afternoon. Thank you for that question, Councilmember. Couldn't agree with you more. Some of that work is already being done. We have brought on some grants teams people who are looking at the performance of some of these groups that, again, I want to say are doing incredible work here in the City of Philadelphia and we're going to continue to reach out and partner with them in very meaningful and, again, intentional way. We also are creating one of the positions that I said we're going to be funding internally, so it's not part of the budget request, is a Director of Performance Management whose sole job in the directorship position will be, again, to basically track, monitor, help, assist but, most importantly, get the 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. information as to what is working, right, what programs are, what aren't, which organizations are, what's not. Support them, right, and pivot when we need to. So we're also creating a specific directorship position to address that very concern.
Just one last thing, Council President. If we could just get on record for us requesting a detailed list -- thank you for that response -- a list of all the internal/external recipients of grant money that received money from the City this year and how they've been evaluated, that will be helpful for understanding just how to qualify the funding. And then the last thing, and it's a quick one, for Parks and Rec we've seen there's a transition from Rebuild, which is fine, right? I have no problem. Capital is capital. $152 million is going to the parks and rec centers. Can 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. we get a better understanding of where the Mayor's Office is thinking about where those $152 million worth of capital will be going to across the City so that we can have a sense or is there going to be more say around City Councilmembers around how that's funded?
So I'd like to call up Aparna Palantino, who leads CPO, but of course everything is like driven with equity, right? So we want to make sure that our investments go to where the need is the greatest, and you'll see that in the realignment that's happening with the CPO Office, Capital Programs, which includes the Rebuild program. And so Aparna can provide specifics around that.
Good afternoon. Aparna Palantino, Director of Capital Projects. Councilmember Phillips, thank you for your question. With regards to 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. the capital funding for Parks and Recreation, there's two components. There's the capital funding that's used for infrastructure improvements throughout the system, but there's also a significant portion of that which is City Council ITEF funding that's already buried in that number, which we work closely with your offices, the ten District Councilmembers, to allocate to different projects. So we're happy to share planned projects for both types of funding with your office as they go, but the ITEF, as you know, is very closely regulated by Councilmembers.
Yeah. I mean, yes. Thank you. And I still would like to get a stronger list, because I got a sense that you already have where you want to go, and I just want to -- with those capital funds. I want to make sure we're able to --
Thank 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. you. Appreciate you. Thank you, Council President.
Thank you very much. Aparna, just while you're there, I just saw a Parks and Recreation decrease by 1.7 million, right, 1.658. And so I'm just trying to get an understanding. We're talking about keeping young people safe, right, as a way to -- want to keep the City safe as a way to attract businesses here to the City of Philadelphia, right, make it a vibrant place. And my Nana taught me as a kid an idle mind is the devil's workshop, meaning there's nothing else to do, you're going to get involved in something that's negative. So why are we going -- why are we decreasing support for our playground and our recreation facilities as opposed to growing it? Because I know this body did a robust job during the pandemic to make sure recreation centers was open 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. over the weekend hours a day. So maybe I might have missed something, but give me clarity based upon the numbers that I'm looking at in terms of the funding for Parks and Rec.
Council 8 President, is that in the operating 9 budget or the capital side? 10
So I'll call back 13 up our Chief Deputy Managing Director, 14 Vanessa Garrett-Harley, to answer that 15 question in Commissioner Slawson's 16 absence, but certainly we stand with you 17 and we agree. Parks and Recreation is 18 vitally important. It plays an important 19 role in every neighborhood of our city. 20 And so to that end... 21 MS. GARRETT-HARLEY Council 22 President, I'm not exactly sure. I'm 23 going to get you an answer back. Now, it 24 could have been some one-time funding that we had before that's not reflected 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. this year, because as far as I can remember, our budget is flat, pretty stable across the board when you're talking about the operating budget. A large share of the operating budget is salaries. The largest share is salaries. We do have some vacancies that we have to fill, but we primarily are keeping those numbers on the books. Now, the only other thing could be, there was some additional funding given to Parks and Rec, if I remember correctly, in FY24 to increase staffing in certain areas. Despite their best efforts, we did increase some staffing, but was not able to increase it to the fullest extent, and that may be where the difference is being reflected at in the funding that you're talking. But in terms of like Class 200 contracts and all that should be flat funding, the same as it was last year.
Okay. I have 83 million down to 77 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. million for FY25. DEPUTY
I'll definitely get you the breakout and see whether it's what I'm talking about, some of it being in staffing but shouldn't. It might be one-time funding that I'm thinking.
Okay. Just wanted to get clarity on that. At this time, the Chair recognizes Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson.
Thank you, Council President. I wanted to again thank everybody for your testimony, and I was here diligently taking notes. Councilmember Jones, I did not do a point of clarification, so I was trying to take notes on all the things that I had questions about. But quickly just to the Council President's point regarding keeping young 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. people safe, I want to put this on the record on behalf of my District Councilmember, Councilmember Jones, and I, on behalf of Wynnefield regarding John C. Anderson Culture Center currently closed indefinitely, and you know that we do not have a recreation center at all in Wynnefield. And so we don't have the Cultural Center and of course there's no 11 rec center, and so we'll certainly need additional help and support from Parks and Rec regarding that area, particularly for the young people, but also the Culture Center is also a voting location in that community as well. So I just wanted to put that on the record. Really quickly, I had a question regarding the rate of growth, sort of the assumptions around the residential real estate tax rates for the Five Year Plan. Thanks, Rob. And so I think that we're anticipating eight percent rate of growth for residential real 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. estate over the life of this proposed Five Year Plan; is that correct?
In FY25 it's eight percent. And then could you just review for each of the years in the Plan the anticipated rate of growth by percentage, and if you could let us know what the -- if you don't have it year over year, the overall assumption for the real estate tax collection amount, recognizing that we're going to go through a reassessment rather soon.
Yeah. I can give you that. So for the real estate tax, we are assuming in '25 $876 million, in '26 907 --
I'm sorry, Rob. May you repeat those numbers again? I can't hear you very well.
Yes. In FY25 -- is 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. that better? I wasn't talking into the mic.
In FY26, 908 million. In FY27, 944 million. In FY28, 982 million. And in FY29, a billion 21. And those growth rates after the first year are between three and a half and four percent.
So three and a half to four percent growth rate each year in the life of this proposed --
The first year, FY25, it's actually about four and a half percent, because there's no assumed growth on the commercial side.
Right. Right. And so I was going to ask the same thing relative to commercial. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.
Okay. And then so if I could just ask for a breakdown for just the residential side. I really just want to understand the numbers as it relates to sort of what you all are projecting relative to the work that we know OPA has to undertake over the next couple years. And what I'm seeking to understand is are we putting certain growth assumptions in the FY25 revenue projections based off of leaving the numbers flat and/or recognizing that once the reassessment is done, we anticipate that it will go to this amount.
Yeah. So we're assuming in '25 some growth on the residential side, none on the commercial, and then after that, just kind of 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. inflationary growth going forward on both sides.
And then for the record then, which years in this Five Year Plan are you planning -- I would say is OPA planning to do a reassessment?
So what we hope is that we get to the point where we're doing them every year. So that's the underlying assumption. There was a lot of factors that go into that, like the level of --
Okay. So if you could just get back to us and just break it down so we can see the residential numbers specifically and then the assumptions around the rate of growth by percentage per year and also amounts so that we understand what we're 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. looking at.
And then also I wanted to go back to two quick things that I had questions on that my colleagues mentioned. One was relative to Councilmember Young's questioning regarding the triage centers. For the record, from a dollar amount, can you talk about where the $100 million will be coming from? Is that coming from operating and then you all would -- if so, if you could just break it down by class. And is it that you are, I guess, RFPing out for space, right, so that even though it's space, even though it's like a capital need, it's really on the operating because you're RFPing it out?
The hundred million 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. is showing on the capital side.
And as the Managing Director said, some of those costs on the operating side will be from the existing budget, so it's not like there are no 15 resources on the operating side.
Got it. And so would it be -- on the operating side, it would be underspend; is that correct? DEPUTY
Councilmember, if you don't mind, one of the big pieces to this, and this is why the Managing Director convened all of the healthcare industry people, including the insurance companies, was to have the 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. insurance companies at the table, especially when we're talking about Medicaid, especially when we're talking about private health insurance that may be insuring somebody up to age who is 7 looking for treatment in a potential 8 future facility. So we're going to have 9 the insurance companies at the table to 10 help devise the ways to do this so that 11 we are looking to pay for this long-term 12 treatment. 13
14 Okay. And I'm literally just seeking 15 clarity to see which side it's coming 16 from and sort of how we're looking at the 17 spend on that, because I was kind of 18 confused and I'm just looking for 19 clarity. 20 I heard the bell and I will 21 respect the clock, but very quickly, I 22 wanted to mention what Council President 23 talked about regarding the $10 million 24 workforce investment. If you could just 25 for clarify for me, because last year I 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. carried the request regarding the Samuel Staten Jr. Pre-apprenticeship program, YO-ACAP, and also the Carpenters Apprenticeship Ready program. And you all know that I deeply care about that work. I created the first apprenticeship guidebook that we've ever had in this city. We do the Labor Friday programs. We partner with the labor unions. We hear the concerns that they have relative to ensuring that young people are ready and prepared to go into the trades. So my direct question is, what type of ongoing support will be a part of this proposed budget specifically for those three programs, YO-ACAP, Samuel Staten Pre-apprenticeship program, and CARP, the Carpenters Apprenticeship Ready program? And I'll come back on the third round regarding my question around PhillyStat 360 and the Nuisance Business Task Force. Thank you, Council President. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.
Councilmember, if I could just respond very quickly, the continued support for those programs would be part of this $10 million allocation as defined.
The Chair recognizes Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson.
Thank you, Council President. I'm just responding to the response. If you could just detail the amounts per year. And I'm only seeking clarity because we did -- this was an allocation that was through a different process outside of the proposed process and I just want to know the exact amounts for those three programs, because those are the programs that are pre-apprenticeship programs. They're 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. readiness programs. The other programs you have to be ready when you walk through the door. These programs are readiness programs that we know have a track record of working. Okay? DEPUTY
Thank you. Just want to start a question here for the Mayor's Office. Included in your budget materials is a list of the 14 offices within the Mayor's Office. Some are new and some are renamed offices within this Plan. Can you please detail how it was determined which offices will sit within the Mayor's Office and how the oversight structure works?
So the oversight structure is such that it's actually outlined and illustrated in our organizational chart. So in our proposed 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. budget, we have 113 positions. Under our Chief Deputy Mayor for Intergovernmental Affairs, Legislation and Labor, Sincere Harris, we have the Office of Legislative Affairs, Neighborhood Engagement, and then the Office of City Representative/Office of Special Events, which is a new combined office. Under our Chief Deputy Mayor Aren Platt, we have our Communications and Digital Program, Business Roundtable, Office of Strategic Partnerships. There are also other departments that are under both Chief Deputy Mayors that are not listed in our Five Year Plan -- I'm sorry; in our Mayor 05 budget. We have the Minority Business Success Department that's also within this budget as well as PhillyStat 360, staff within our executive office, our Policy, Planning and Delivery, which is a new policy expanded office, and then of course our DEI Office and then the Integrity Office. 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. So under that structure, we have about 113 positions. We know that that has increased from last year. I think last year FY24 there were 45 budgeted positions for the Mayor's Office.
And I'm going to slide a question here for the Office of Labor. There's over 430 million contributed to labor reserve for FY25 to FY29. Just give me an idea of the status of our labor contract negotiations and does this accommodate for any pay scale changes for non-represented employees. DEPUTY
I'm going to call up our Labor Director, Perry DiVirgilio. But, Council President Johnson, would you mind repeating both parts of that question, please?
Absolutely. So there's a total of $430 million contributed to our labor 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. reserve for FY25 to FY29. So it's $430 million that's already put to the side. So give me the status of our current labor contract negotiations but, most importantly, does this reserve accommodate just the labor contract negotiations or does it also accommodate for pay scale changes for non-represented employees? DEPUTY
So currently with regards at least to Part 2(a) of the question regarding the contract negotiations, we have currently signed a one-year agreement extension with both Police and Fire, and we can get you the details of what that breakdown includes. Typically when you do a one-year extension, it's not the full agreement, as you all know. It's just focused on key salary and in this case sign-on bonuses. And then we also signed a one-year extension with the Sheriff deputies and we -- well, we won't talk 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. about ongoing negotiations. We are very hopeful that we can sign maybe one or two more one-year extensions with our municipal workforce. And then with regard to the first question, Perry, I don't know if we need to get him the breakdown of that answer. MR. DiVIRGILIO: Let me try this again. Good afternoon, Council President Johnson --
Good afternoon. MR. DiVIRGILIO: -- and members of City Council. My name is Perry DiVirgilio, Director of Labor for the City of Philadelphia. Before I answer that question, first of all, I'd like to apologize to Councilwoman Brooks. I kind of walked in halfway when your question was over and I was a little bit unprepared, so I apologize for that. I don't really have the 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. information that you requested, those numbers, but I can definitely put them numbers together and get them to you.
All right. Thank you very much. What's the total other unions that you are in current negotiations with beside DC33? So is that AFSCME which includes -- DEPUTY
33, 47, 159B, which is Prisons, which is part of 33 but typically negotiated separately.
Council President, just for your awareness, we do have the budget numbers, and so if we're permitted, we can go through that.
I think your question was does the labor reserve include funding for non-union --
Pay 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. scale changes --
You can just get them to me. That's all. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Rue Landau.
Thank you. I just wanted to follow up on Councilmember Gauthier's question earlier today about the decrease in the budget for Planning and Development. It looks like it's in Class 200 and Class 500. Can you tell me what those decreases are? DEPUTY
We can get back to you on that. We need to just take a look at it.
Okay. And by looking at the Mayor's Office budget, I see that the Mayor -- the 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Administration is proposing an increase of full-time staff by 74 employees at a price of about $6 million. Can you clarify whether this will be -- these are new roles to the municipality or is it some sort of restructuring and reorganization from other departments?
So it's a combination of both. We are making historic investments in City services, and what we're doing is ensuring that we're also providing new programs anchored in the Mayor's Office that will implement the vision for a safer, cleaner, greener city, with access to economic opportunity for all. And so with that budget, we have the Chief Legal Counsel, Kristin Bray, and under her we have PhillyStat, which is a big undertaking. PhillyStat 360 will create synergies between the Police Department's crime-fighting efforts, community, operating departments, including L&I and clean and green and problem-solving. So 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. we have -- that's $1.84 million, positions for PhillyStat 360. We talked about public-private partnerships and its importance. We have this new Office of Strategic Partnerships led by Kafi Lindsay, who is here today. That office will lead the strategic collaboration and active engagement of corporate, non-profit, and philanthropic sectors to support the Mayor's vision. In that office we have five new positions that did not exist to the tune of about $650,000 in our Class 100. We've also talked extensively today about the new Office of Minority Business Success. We've looked at models like past Mayor Maynard Jackson in Atlanta, and we still see many, many years later the impacts and effects of the work that he's done around minority business success. We want to see that in Philadelphia, but we want the businesses and those business owners to remain in our city. And so under the leadership of 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Rachel Branson, we believe that we'll be very successful in doing that. In that department we have four positions, and that General Fund is about $536,000 in Class 100. And then of course we talked about the Business Roundtables and then the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood and Community Engagement, with a combined new positions. 11
Okay. 12 Just a quick follow-up to that. What's 13 the difference between the Business Roundtables and the Commerce Department? Why is that not under Commerce?
Excellent question, and I'll kick that to my colleague. DEPUTY
So the Business Roundtables are a convening. It's part of three roundtables that we have. Sincere can speak about the Faith-Based as well as Intergovernmental Roundtable. The Business Roundtable is born 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. out of a lot of communication we had with the business community, specifically the Mayor, as she was on City Council and then as a candidate that they -- we wanted to make sure we had a clear line of communication, of collaboration, and the opportunity for the business community to suggest policies and legislative ideas that work for them rather than having government kind of impose on them what government thinks is best for their own growth and their own movement. Commerce Department is truly a City agency that helps them grow, but it's not quite the same seat at the table type of back and forth.
Okay. Thank you. And I noticed that the Chief Public Safety Director's position was not in the Mayor's Office, but I thought it would be listed there.
So they have 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. their own budget code, but our Chief Public Safety Director reports directly to the Mayor. So Adam Geer is a cabinet-level member of the Administration, not within Mayor 05 budget.
Okay. And one last comment. I'm almost done. I love that I saw an increase of $500,000 to the Office of DEI, and I in particular love especially lifting up Black and brown communities and marginalized communities in the City, but saw that you specifically highlighted the Office of LGBT Affairs and Office of Disabilities as doing a project with them throughout the year, and I just wanted to leave with the comment of intersectionality, that there's lots of folks who do fall underneath the umbrella of DEI, and I'm super excited to see those two sub-offices lifted up. Thank you.
Thank you very 3/26/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. much, Councilmember.
Thank you. Quick question, what's the difference between the Office of DEI and Office of OEO?