COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Monday, October 6, 2025 1:00 p.m. PRESENT: COUNCILMAN MICHAEL DRISCOLL, CHAIR COUNCILMAN MARK SQUILLA, VICE-CHAIR COUNCILWOMAN JAMIE GAUTHIER COUNCILMAN NICOLAS O'ROURKE
I now note the hour's come. After a rough sports weekend here in Philadelphia, we're still going to have this hearing. Yes, we are because the Phillies are going to make amends tonight, at least we hope and pray anyway. Ms. McDonald, will you please call the roll to take attendance. And members that are in attendance, please indicate that you are present when your name is called.
Present. Thank you. A quorum of the committee is present and this hearing is now called to order. This is the public hearing of the Committee on Licenses and Inspections regarding Bill No. 22 250774. Ms. McDonald, will you please read the title of the bill.
Bill No. 2 250774, amending Section 9-3903 of The Philadelphia Code ("Certificate of Rental Suitability; Required Tenant Documents") to include provisions of voter registration information to tenants, all under certain terms and conditions.
And I now note the presence of Councilman Vice-Chair Squilla. Before calling our first panel, I'd like to acknowledge the sponsor of the bill, Councilmember Nina Ahmad for some remarks.
Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon, everyone. Chairman Driscoll and the members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak in support of Bill No. 250774 which I introduced. I would like to thank Councilmembers Phillips, Gauthier, Landau, Lozada, Harrity and Bass for co-sponsoring this measure. The goal of this measure is simple and straightforward, to make voter registration information easier for renters to access at the exact moment they sign a lease. The bill simply adds one item to the documents landlords already must provide, a link to the City Commissioners' How to Register page. This is a nonpartisan easy lift, high-impact step. L&I has confirmed it can incorporate this link directly into the Partners in Good Housing handbook that landlords already give tenants. So compliance requires no 20 extra work beyond providing the updated handbook. L&I has agreed to post the revised handbook online in English and several other languages, extending access to more residents across the city. Additionally, the Philadelphia City Commissioners have expressed their support for this bill and they actually helped us craft this bill, so I just may add. And the stewards of our local Election Administration, they recognize that providing accurate registration information at move-in is a simple way to help eligible residents keep their voter records current and participate in our democracy. This is a prudent investment to help close a persistent gap for renters, many of whom don't benefit from the motor voter interactions and may move frequently. The policy is straightforward at the start of each tenancy, along with the Certificate of Rental Suitability, the owners attestation and the Partners in Good Housing handbook, tenants received the link to register, update their registration. Nothing more, nothing less. It's an informational nudge at a key life moment when people most likely need to update their address so they can vote from the block where they live. I'm grateful that L&I supports this bill and has already prepared the path to implementation via the handbook update. I also appreciate the partnership of our City Commissioners, whose office maintains how-to-register resources and advocates and residents here today who share the goal of making civic participation easier for our Philadelphians. I want to give a shout- out to Commissioner Lisa Deeley and Nick Custodio, who we worked with very specifically to get this bill 2 this far. Colleagues, Bill 250774 is targeted, efficient and ready. It leverages an existing landlord requirement, adds virtually no 6 administrative burden and helps ensure eligible voters get timely, accurate information to participate in our democracy. I respectfully ask for your favorable recommendation so we can enact this ordinance effective 30 days after passage and have it working for renters citywide. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak.
Thank you, Councilmember Ahmad. It's a major bill and I think this is good legislation. Anything we can do to make it easier for people to understand our voting process and get to that. No 24 matter what political party they want to register, they need to register and we need people to vote. So thank you for your efforts today. And with that, I'd like Ms. McDonald to please call the first panel we have to testify this morning on Bill No. 250774.
Welcome, Commissioner. COMMISSIONER DEELEY: Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, fellow Councilpeople. Lisa Deeley, Vice-Chair, Philadelphia City Commissioner's Office. I'd like to thank Councilmember Ahmad for this significant legislation, which although may seem insignificant in as much as it just adds a QR code to a piece of information that we're already giving landlords at the time that they go for their license at L&I, it really has a significant impact, especially when we look at the landscape of Philadelphia as it relates to apartment buildings and apartment housing. So, you know, back in the -- when I started this journey at this office, I started at like a rudimentary level as a committee person and I used to go door to door, like at my neighbor's houses. And when somebody would move in, you know, I would go and introduce myself to them and try to give them voter registration information. And we know now that these large apartment complexes, for example, we're not able to get in. It's not a matter of Democrat, Republican, Working Families, Independents, League of Women Voters. Nobody can get in. They're like fortresses. You can't penetrate. So this really helps get through that barrier and it gives people the information they need just to find out how to register to vote. And one of the other advantages to this link and providing it for people is that when you use that link, it will take you to the Commissioner's voter registration page, it says how to register to vote. But another thing it does is it gives you all the language options. So that is also a barrier that we are helping to overcome. Because if they use that QR code to get voter information, they'll see that they can get that information in various languages, that our voter registration application is made available and where they can get it. Whether they come to the office, they go online, they go to one of our satellite election offices, it's just providing pertinent information to do everything we can do as a city to make voting part of the conversation. So I appreciate very much this opportunity to be here. Thank you for this well-thought-out legislation, and I look forward to other opportunities such as this to continue adding voting to the conversation. Thank you very much.
Well, thank you, Commissioner. And I'd like to commend you on all your efforts with the many languages that you're now putting on the website. As we saw yesterday at the Harvest Moon Festival up there in Northeast Philadelphia, the growing Asian population and you have the Chinese on there. So we thank you for that. Any other members? I do want to recognize Member Gauthier.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to first commend you, Commissioner, and commend you, Councilmember Ahmad. I think this bill is really good, and I'm hopeful that it will help us get a lot more people registered or updated. I did have a question just out of curiosity. Do we know the breakdown of the percentage of renters who consistently vote versus homeowners? Is that a stat that you all collect?
That is not a stat that we track. We can look to see if we can do some kind of search by addresses. That's something we'll look into and we'll certainly get you that information.
I mean, it'd be just an interesting data point to have. But certainly, I think this bill is wonderful.
Yeah. And as we know and as Councilmember Ahmad also noted, another big advantage of this is sometimes people that are in that rental population, they have a tendency to move a lot so we miss them even when they move. So this just keeps them active. Thank you.
Thank you, Commissioner Deeley. Hearing no further questions -- I'm sorry. Councilmember Phillips.
Thank you so much, Commissioner, for your testimony. I just had a quick question about the implemented execution strategy. And I'm not sure. Hopefully, I think you're going to be tag-teaming with Councilwoman Ahmad on this. What communication strategy is going to be used to announce this change to landlords and the public, and both for the landlords and tenants who may wish to verify this information to make sure that you're in compliance with it?
Well, I believe that any announcement would come from the Licenses and Inspections Department in conjunction with the Councilwoman, but this QR code is just going to be added to the landlord handbook that we already distribute as a city to landlords.
Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to also respond to what Commissioner Deeley just said. Yes, once we get this bill done, we will be messaging it out and just reminding, one more reminder for people to make sure they're registered and -- so we'll be doing some messaging around this as soon as we get this out of committee. Thank you.
Thank you, Commissioner. Hearing no further questions from members of this panel, Ms. McDonald, will you please call the second panel we have to testify this morning on Bill No. 250774.
Good afternoon. And please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Good afternoon, Chairperson Driscoll, members of the Licenses & Inspections Committee. My name is Sarah Adamo and I'm the Director of Zoning and Legislation for the Department of Licenses and Inspections Quality of Life. Today I'm here to provide testimony on Bill No. 17 250774, introduced by Councilmember Ahmad, which if enacted, will amend Section 9-3903 of The Philadelphia Code, ("Certificate of Rental Suitability; Required Tenant Documents"), to include the provisions for voter registration information to tenants, all under certain terms and conditions. This bill will require that all owners and landlords provide their tenants with a link to the How to Register page on the City Commissioner's website. In an effort to support this legislation, L&I has already made the change to the Partners in Good Housing handbook to include this new required link. This change will not only make this information available to the public, but will also allow landlords to comply with this new requirement with no 17 additional effort, as they are already required to provide this handbook to their tenants. L&I is supportive of this legislation and is prepared to make the revised Partners in Good Housing handbook available on our website in English and in several other languages. Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony for the Department of Licenses and Inspections and I'm happy to answer any questions at this time.
Thank you so much, Chairman Driscoll. I just have a quick question for you. From an enforcement perspective, how will it be verified that landlords have included the voter registration link and materials they provide to tenants?
So currently, landlords are already required to give this handbook. If they are complying with that by providing the updated handbook that we have online, they'll automatically be complying with no additional effort. 2
Gotcha. And is there a way that you all are going to get together and discuss -- by the way, I think this is great. By the way, I just want to put that out there. But I want to know if you all are going to discuss, like, how this requirement is going to be reviewed for effectiveness, for example, seeing that people have updated their voter registration as a result of this, as in how can we measure the effectiveness?
We would 17 have to work together with the City 18 Commissioner to look into that. I 19 mean, we at L&I, we wouldn't be 20 able to track voter registration 21 but we can certainly work with them 22 to see if we can make any 23 additional efforts to help with 24 that.
Yes. Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to also add if a landlord wants to proceed with any eviction process, they have to show proof that they actually gave that handout to the renter. I mean, it's a bit after the fact and hopefully not anybody having to do that, but that's one measure of knowing that -- if it comes to that, that that handbook is being -- the landlord is actually giving that to the renter. But we don't have any punitive measure in place to do that.
And I just want to say thank you to Dr. Ahmad for trying to increase voter participation in the city of Philadelphia.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Member Ahmad, to make sure I'm clear on what you just said, so in order for landlords to proceed with evictions, they have to have to have made sure that this handbook has been given to them and this handbook will automatically include now voter registration as well?
Correct. That is wonderful news. And I want to just commend you for the work that you've done to make it much more automatic and kind of a given that those who are often half the city by the way, renters, have an easy access to voter registration and we can make sure that if you were trying to put somebody out of their shelter, that you have done your due diligence to make sure they are registered voters. This is another way that we move forward to more direct democracy. Thank you so much for your work. Thank you so much.
Hearing no further questions from members of this panel and there being no other panels to testify on the bill before us today, we will now transition to our public comment section. Ms. McDonald, will you please call the first person making public comment we have to testify this morning on the bill before this committee?
Okay. We would like to thank all of our witnesses for joining us today. There being no further questions or members of the committee and no other witnesses to testify on Bill No. 250774, I will ask if there's anyone else present in this hearing whose name we have failed to call and that wishes to offer testimony on the bills being considered today? (No response.)
Hearing none, I want to thank the panels and witnesses for their participation. We certainly value your opinions. This concludes the public hearing of the committee. We will now go into the public meeting to consider the action to be taken on the bill before this committee today. Ms. McDonald, will you please call the roll to take attendance. Members that are in attendance, please indicate that you're present when your name is called.
Present. The Chair recognizes Councilmember O'Rourke for a motion on the amendment to Bill No. 15 250774.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I offer an amendment to Bill No. 250774. A copy of the amendment has been circulated to all members of the committee. I move that the amendment to Bill No. 23 250774 be approved. (Duly seconded.)
The Chair notes for the record that Councilwoman Gauthier seconds the motion. It has been moved and properly seconded that the amendment to Bill No. 250774 be approved. All those in favor of the motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it. The motion carries and the amendment to Bill 18 No. 250774 has been approved. The Chair recognizes Councilmember O'Rourke for a motion on Bill No. 250774 as amended.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that Bill No. 250774 as amended be reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading of this bill at our next session of Council. (Duly seconded.)
10 The Chair notes for the record that 11 Councilmember Gauthier seconds the 12 motion. It has been moved and 13 properly seconded that Bill No. 14 250774 as amended be reported from 15 this committee with a favorable 16 recommendation and further move 17 that the rules of Council be 18 suspended to permit first reading 19 of this bill at the next session of 20 Council. 21 All those in favor of 22 the motion will signify by saying 23 aye. 24 (Aye.)
The ayes carry it. And that concludes the business before this Committee today on Licenses and Inspections. Thank you all very much for your attendance. Congratulations, Member Ahmad.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. (Committee on Licenses and Inspections concluded at 1:22 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. __________________________________ TANEHA CARROLL