This bill having been read on two different days was duly approved by City Council on June 21st, 2012. It was returned by the Mayor as disapproved at today's session 9/13/12 - STATED - 2ND READING of Council. The question is shall Bill No. 120396 pass notwithstanding the Mayor's disapproval. Please note that a vote of aye is a vote to override the Mayor's veto and a vote of nay is a vote to sustain the Mayor's veto. Mr. Decker, please call the roll.
Aye. The ayes are 17; the nays are zero. Two-thirds majority of all members of Council having voted in the affirmative, the Mayor's veto is overridden. This completes our Calendar for today. Are there any speeches on the part of the minority? (No response.)
Any speeches on the part of the majority? The Chair recognizes Councilman Jones.
Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like my colleagues to join me in a moment of silence for his fellow citizens attacked and killed recently in Libya on the anniversary of 9/11.
Thank you. Can we have a moment of silence, please. (Moment of silence.)
Mr. President, I'd further like to note that we had several veterans celebrations over the last couple of days, and it underscores the need for patriotism, and again in my comments I mentioned that these are liberties that often we take for granted. One of those liberties is the right to vote. This morning as we conducted our legislative affair, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is holding hearings examining the newly minted voter ID law by Governor Corbett, an act that many of us feel isn't very patriotic. Voter suppression is not a new tactic in America. Voter ID is just a repackaging of that suppression of voices that deserve to be represented by their vote. It's an old or new version of "if you can't beat them, let's cheat them." Following the 2008 election, 30 states have established voter ID laws, 30 states, and it's not by coincidence or by chance that many of them come from urban areas that were very supportive in the last democratic victory. Voter ID is opposed by the ACLU, the AARP and the Voter ID Coalition, which is a coalition of activists that protest this identification law. It's been crumbling down around them in states like Michigan, Texas, Ohio, and South Carolina, and we urge and hope that the Supreme Court will have the wisdom to do it here in the Commonwealth Pennsylvania, because by doing that, it upholds the principles by which our patriots fought and died for: One person, one vote. Thank you, Mr. President. (Applause.)
Thank you so much, Councilman. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Tasco.
Thank you. Let me just add to those comments given by my colleague, Mr. Jones. Certainly we hope that the court will rule to find that the legislation to prevent people from voting will be overturned. I just want to point out another factor in this as we move forward. This whole process shows the need for the state to get its act together. PennDOT needs to be able to provide accurate information. You've seen stories on television. Constituents of mine have talked about the difficulty information, or when they go there, they're told they're not registered. I appeared, as well as Councilwoman Quinones, Councilman Wilson Goode and his father and Councilman, I think, O'Brien and O'Neill were on the list that we do not have valid voter ID, driver's license. They need to overhaul PennDOT to make sure whatever information is required from that department not only for voting, for anything else, should be accurate. The other departments, the state department, people have checked the state department and have been told that they are not registered to vote, only to come back to the City Commissioners and find that they are able to vote and that they are registered. So the state needs to get its act together before they begin to challenge us as citizens on where we are in terms of our needs. just like to do is welcome Jim Hilgen back, who was with us for a long time. He is a reporter from WRTI, and he left us for a moment, and we're glad to see you back. Thank you for coming back. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Councilwoman. The Chair now recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell.
Thank you, Mr. President. I agree with all the comments made by my colleagues. We recently sent out information about this blueprint for public schools where we indicated that we might have hearings on the 16th of October, but, unfortunately, that date has to be changed, as the School District is going to the bond market. So we will if you're doing your calendars, that date will not need to be reserved for our hearing. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilwoman, for that information. The Chair recognizes Councilman Henon.
Thank you, Council President. I want to thank all my colleagues for all their help and partnership on the property maintenance code legislation that I introduced today, that we introduced today. There's still a lot of outstanding work and issues and a lot of things that we need to work out, but I think it is so important at the end of the day as a working-class man, as a union person who believes in a lot of bread and butter issues and the quality of life that may not be sexy, they may not be fancy, but it affects our lives on a daily basis and where we live and who our neighbors and being a part of the community. So it is so crucial, so crucial to many Philadelphians and so crucial to me that I want to thank especially Councilwoman Sanchez, Tasco, Councilman Bill Green, Councilman Bill Greenlee, and Councilman Jones, and I look forward to having a property maintenance code that reflects our reality, our resources, and all our values of Philadelphia. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilman. The Chair recognizes Councilman Johnson.
Thank you, Mr. President. Over the last couple days I have been out and about in my district working with community organizations and consoling parents who have lost their loved ones to gun violence. And so I thank Councilwoman Tasco, who chairs the Health and Human Services Committee, and Jones, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, in joining me and giving me the opportunity to host hearings on the issue of gun violence, what is our comprehensive plan as a city and also the impact, the health impact, of gun violence on our young people and families. We have a probation system which creates an environment which we see a revolving door of felons who commit crimes and for some reason or another they slip through the system and roam the streets, creating havoc and violence. We have a system where judges are put in the position based upon community involvement to resentence individuals who come up in their courtroom who commit acts of crime, and they are giving out lenient sentences, but only for the community involvement showing up in these court hearings and putting pressure on some of these judges to resentence those who are raising havoc and madness in our want to make sure, as we address all of these issues that are impacting our city, we always make sure we pay attention to the countless lives that are being lost. We're about to hit 250, close to 250 murders. We didn't hit the 250 mark yet, but we're on the verge. And since 2001, we have had more than 18,000-plus shootings. And so this is an issue that has always been dear to me, rather be elected or not, but I will always make sure that I keep this issue on the forefront as we look out for those who are impacted by these senseless acts of gun violence that's taking place in our city. And for me, it's beyond just simple gun control, but let's look and make sure that we are doing everything possible, rather be social service, rather it be public policy on the City level to get a handle on this gun violence that's taking over this city. much, Mr. President. (Applause.)
Thank you, Councilman, for your continued good work. The Chair recognizes Councilman Kenney.
Thank you, Mr. President. On Sunday this past week, I attended a ceremony -- Councilman Squilla was also there -- at the Firefighters Union to honor our firefighters who have exceeded the normal bounds of their duties during the course of the last year, and made a call for the extension of that honoring day to Firefighter Appreciation Week, and I'm happy to report that in fire stations all throughout the City, citizen groups, senior citizens, classrooms, grade school kids, charter school kids, regular people just driving by were parking their cars and walking into our firehouses and firefighters for what they do for us on a daily basis. I know that the union is in a dispute, as we all know, with the Administration. I think the morale in the Fire Department is probably as low as it's ever been, but I do know that, for example, when Councilman Squilla and I stopped at a station house at 12th and Reed with a large group of school children, the firefighters themselves had a ball dealing with the kids, dressing them in their bunker gear, and letting them sit in the fire truck, squirt a hose, and just talk to them one on one, and I could see that it was making a difference. So we have today and tomorrow left of this week and any other day going forward where you see those guys, men and women, driving by, give them a wave on the apparatus. Stop in the station house and thank them. They were telling me stories about little old ladies coming in and just really thanking them for their willingness to lay down their lives for us when the time comes, if the time comes. So I want to thank everybody who participated and urge people to keep them in your prayers and in your thoughts and in your daily life if you can. So thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Councilman. The Chair recognizes Councilman Green.
Thank you, Mr. President. It's great to be back. I look forward to another productive session of City Council. It looks like we'll be grappling with some very important and significant tax issues this fall, and I encourage everyone to put their particular ideas on the table and we can have a full and complete debate. At this time in the City's economy as we struggle to come out of recession and create jobs and grow the economy faster than it's been growing, we have lots of levers we can pull in this city. We know a free, quality public education is important to job growth and creation. We know that dealing with our spiraling pension crisis is something that we also need to deal with, providing quality City services at a reasonable cost and improving quality of life in the City. These are things that in the medium and long term are going to make a significant difference, and the Administration and we are working hard on all these issues. In the short term, there are very few levers that we can pull as a city to increase our population, to increase job growth, and most of them have to do with taxes, and I look forward to the discussion and productive debates and issues that we're going to deal with this fall as we look at these important you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Councilman. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Bass.
Thank you, Mr. President. I just wanted to piggyback on the comments from Councilman Johnson regarding public safety and crime, particularly where gun violence is responsible for the loss of life here in the City of Philadelphia. Over the summer, we had a number of violent crimes, including homicides as well as other disturbing behaviors, at our recreation centers, and on August 16th, we held a rare hearing here in City Council Chambers to discuss what particularly could we do. We talked with our police officials and we talked to our recreation commissioners to open the conversation and discuss what is it that we can do to prevent this violence. have our young people in particular safe in our school zones and if they can't be safe in our recreation centers, where can they be safe in the City of Philadelphia? And so it's something that's really pressing and urgent, and I know that everyone -- I've spoken to all of my colleagues, and they've all -- whether they were able to attend the hearing, I heard from everyone that they were very much interested in working on this issue, because it's just so pressing. And I just wanted to report that this is going to be an ongoing discussion and we will continue. We just had two homicides, unfortunately, recently within the last week at recreation centers, and so obviously there is quite a need for us to continue this discussion, unfortunately, but to see what we can do and what we need to do to address this issue. So thank you.
Thank you, Councilwoman, for your continued good work. There are no other speeches. At this time, I'd like to recognize Councilwoman Reynolds Brown for a motion to adjourn.
Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, September 20th, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. (Duly seconded.)
Moved and properly seconded that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, September 20, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. All those in favor say aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it. m. ) CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on September 13, 2012, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. MICHELE L. ) A address 40:4 affirmative 98:12 annual 60:2,6 aspire 5:2 AARP 100:17 107:4 113:24 Afghanistan 18:7 annually 44:15 Assaulting 13:18 abatement 44:9 adjourn 114:8 age 30:4 48:20 anyway 45:11 assign 82:5 44:10,12,13,14 adjourned 114:11 81:22 apparatus 109:23 assigned 47:15 44:20,24 45:13 114:16,24 115:3 Agency 53:25 appeared 102:5 assist 5:10 45:25 46:3,4,5 ADJOURNME...