COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Monday, May 4, 2026 10:25 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT KENYATTA JOHNSON COUNCILWOMAN NINA AHMAD COUNCILWOMAN CINDY BASS COUNCILWOMAN KENDRA BROOKS COUNCILMAN MICHAEL DRISCOLL COUNCILWOMAN JAMIE GAUTHIER COUNCILWOMAN KATHERINE GILMORE RICHARDSON COUNCILMAN JIM HARRITY COUNCILMAN CURTIS JONES, JR. COUNCILWOMAN RUE LANDAU COUNCILWOMAN QUETCY M. LOZADA COUNCILMAN NICOLAS O'ROURKE COUNCILMAN ANTHONY PHILLIPS COUNCILMAN MARK SQUILLA COUNCILMAN ISAIAH THOMAS COUNCILMAN JEFFREY YOUNG, JR. BILLS: 260199, 260200, 260201, 260202, 260203, 260204, 260205, 260206, 260208, 260209 RESOLUTION: 260227 - - -
Members, please take your seats. Good morning, everyone. (Good morning.)
This is the public hearing and public meeting of the Committee of the Whole regarding Bill Nos. 260199, 260200, 260201, 260202, 260203, 260204, 260205, 260206, 260208, 260209 and Resolution No. 260227. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the roll.
Present. Thank you, Ms. Loughead. A quorum of the committee is present and this hearing is now called to order. Ms. Loughead, could you please read the titles of the bills and resolution.
Bill No. 16 260199, an Ordinance adopting the Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2027. Bill No. 260200, an Ordinance to adopt a Fiscal Year 2027 Capital Budget. Bill No. 260201, an Ordinance to adopt a Capital Program for the six Fiscal Years, 2027-2032 inclusive. Bill No. 260202, an Ordinance amending Chapter 19-2400 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Hotel Room Rental Tax," by providing for an additional excise tax on hotel room rentals, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260203, an Ordinance amending Subcode "A" (The Philadelphia Administrative Code) of Title 4 of The Philadelphia Code (The Building, Construction and Occupancy Code), by adding and revising Zoning Board of Adjustment fees and provisions regarding hearing scheduling, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260204, an Ordinance amending Title 3 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Air Management Code" to modify the amounts of license and permit fees, under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 2602055, an Ordinance amending Section 19-1806 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Authorization of Realty Use and Occupancy Tax," to clarify the imposition of the tax on the use or occupancy of real estate with respect to cell towers, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260206, an Ordinance amending Chapter 6-600 of The Philadelphia Code ("Asbestos"), by adding and providing provisions related to various fees, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260208, an Ordinance amending Chapter 19-1800 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "School Tax Authorization," to a add a new Section 19-1808, entitled "Authorization of Rideshare Use Tax," to authorize the Board of the School District of Philadelphia to levy a tax upon the use by a passenger of a transportation network company for a prearranged ride that originates in Philadelphia; all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260209, an Ordinance amending Title of The 8 Philadelphia Code, entitled 9 "Finances, Taxes and Collections," 10 to add a new Chapter 19-4800, 11 entitled "Retail Delivery Tax," to 12 establish a tax on orders for the 13 delivery in Philadelphia of retail 14 consumer and other tangible goods, 15 all under certain terms and 16 conditions. 17 Resolution No. 260227, 18 Providing for the approval by the 19 Council of the City of Philadelphia a Revised Five Year Financial Plan for the City of Philadelphia, covering Fiscal Years 2027 through 2031, and incorporating revisions with respect to Fiscal Year 2026, which is to be submitted by the Mayor to the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority pursuant to an Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement by and between the City and the Authority.
Thank you very much, Ms. Loughead. Today we will hold the public hearing of the Committee of the Whole to consider the bills read by the Clerk that constitute proposed operating and capital spending measures for Fiscal Year 2027, a Capital Program and a Forward-looking Capital Plan for Fiscal Year 2027 through Fiscal Year 2032. This morning we have scheduled testimony from the City's Department of Public Health and the Department of Behavioral Health Intellectual Disability Services. This afternoon we have testimony from the District Attorney's Office. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the first panel to testify from the Administration.
The first panel to testify from the Administration is Dr. Palak Raval- Nelson, Health Commissioner. Also present Ashley Clark-Jackson, Chief Financial Officer; Sara Enes Thorpe, Chief of Staff; James Garrow, Deputy Commissioner; and Dawn Kiesewetter, Deputy Commissioner. We'll also ask that Kenny Solanke, Commissioner for DBHIDS come to the podium. And also present with her is Amanda David, Deputy Commissioner of Behavioral Health Division.
Good morning. COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: Good morning.
I just want to start off by thanking Dr. Palak Raval-Nelson for your work around the air-monitoring initiative that we kicked off in Grays Ferry, South Philadelphia and also just your work just in general as it relates to moving the City of Philadelphia forward and making sure we have a more healthier city, as well as Commissioner Kenny Solanke. Thank you as well for most importantly the passion that you have brought to this position as we address the issues around behavioral health here in the city of Philadelphia as well. And so with that being said, please state your name for the record and please begin your testimony.
Good morning. My name is Dr. Palak Raval-Nelson and I'm the Health Commissioner. Good morning, President Johnson and members of City Council. Joining me today are Deputy Health Commissioner Sara Enes Thorpe; Deputy Commissioner Ashley Clark-Jackson; Deputy Commissioner James Garrow, Deputy Commissioner Dawn Kiesewetter and all of our division directors. I'm pleased to join you today to provide testimony on the Philadelphia Department of Public Health's Fiscal Year 2027 operational budget. The proposed FY27 budget was developed with the goal of supporting our ongoing mission. You have my full written testimony so I will summarize. The proposed Fiscal Year 2027 General Fund budget totals, $158,498,176, which is a decrease of $6,816,066 over Fiscal Year 2026, estimated obligation levels. This decrease is due primarily to $9,981,127 in Class 800 funding to pay for capital to support our two new health centers. The Health Department is requesting 1084 budgeted positions across all funds for FY27, which is a decrease in eight positions from FY26 due to grant funds ending. Those are grants that are sunsetting, and that was planned. As a reminder, the mission of the Health Department is to protect and promote the health of all Philadelphians and to provide a safety net for our most vulnerable. We want Philadelphians to thrive, not just survive. Since I've started in this position, the values we strive to achieve are simple, integrity, commitment and accountability. I often say that public health touches everyone's life every day. The work of the Health Department demonstrates that our staff provide primary care services to Philadelphians, promote vaccination for children and adults, help prevent the spread of HIV, investigate outbreaks and disease, inspect restaurants, inspect and treat for and teach residents how to prevent rats and other vectors, work to prevent lead poisoning in our children, combat air pollution and create better air quality, reduce infant and maternal mortality, promote the health of young children and prevent heart disease and cancer by promoting healthy eating, physical activity and smoking cessation, among the many, many other things that we do. I'd like to take just a couple of minutes to talk about some of the department's key highlights from last year. Looking ahead, many of our divisions, including Disease Control, Air Management Services and Environmental Health Services as well as our Public Health Lab, have been preparing for the many special events that are going to be ongoing as we celebrate America's 250th birthday. These divisions ensure protective and preventive disease conditions so that everyone that comes here and all of us can join the festivities and be safe. As a part of this planning, our Division of Disease Control has also led public health planning for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup and now 2026 FIFA World Cup, developing response plans for both events and conducting a series of planning workshops and exercises with partners that focus on responding to health emergencies during the events, should they happen. Earlier this year, Air Management Services Division installed 76 Breathe Philly sensors in every neighborhood of the city. 5 and nitrogen oxide in realtime. There is an example of the monitors in action here -- the map is over there at the front there -- showing a picture of the monitor as well as where all of the 76 monitors are located. Please note, we are the first big city in America to create a network like this, one that empowers residents to know exactly what is in their air and what they're breathing right now. We are already working to expand this network, both in terms of number of sensors and pollutants measured. So stay tuned for that. I'm proud to acknowledge that last May, all eight of our health centers operated by our Ambulatory Health Services Division were recertified as patient- centered medical homes with the distinction of behavioral integration.
Last year the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office also interred all of the human remains of the victims from the 1985 MOVE bombing. Finally, we put them to rest with dignity in Laurel Hill Cemetery. )
And they are identified as such. So should the families ever want to come and claim any of the remains, they will be able to do so. Last winter our Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention helped lead the efforts by Mayor Parker's Administration to deal with the SNAP funding crisis. You'll remember that the city stood up an entire grant program in one week in order to distribute $2 million to 135 organizations to distribute healthy, high-quality, culturally appropriate and appealing free food to all Philadelphians that were experiencing food insecurity. Our Division of HIV Health provided in-kind Point-of-care rapid HIV testing to the Philadelphia Department of Prisons, enabling the facility to finally qualify in FY26 for 340B drug pricing, which is a federal program that allows for eligible providers to purchase medications at a significantly reduced rate. HIV Health also stood up five public health vending machines which provide free access to HIV self-kits, condoms, COVID-19 self- test kits, fentanyl and xylazine test strips, Naloxone, nicotine replacement therapy and wound care kits. There's a picture of what that vending machine looks like over there next to the Kensington Matter sign. You can see an example of those machines. They are located -- in 2025 our Environmental Health Services once again met our interval to achieve a 12.5-month inspection interval. We know that when we get to every food establishment, that the food in our city is safer. Additionally, our Lead and Healthy Homes program increased the number of lead certifications and we received two additional HUD grants to fund lead hazard remediation in our city. Our Division of Reproductive and Adolescent Health launched Philly Flow, which is an initiative to distribute free, high-quality period products across rec centers and free library branches, expanding citywide access and reducing barriers to menstrual equity for communities with the greatest need. (Applause.)
Our Public Health Lab established two five-year contracts to ensure that we have what we need to perform gonorrhea, chlamydia, HIV and hepatitis testing with the School District of Philadelphia, and we are eagerly awaiting our brand new lab trailer that will be capable of testing dangerous pathogens as we approach the 2026 event season. The Division of Substance Use and Prevention and Harm Reduction or SUPHR responded to the introduction of metatomidine into Philadelphia's drug supply, by helping to develop and disseminate best practices for treating metatomidine withdrawal, distributing metatomidine test strips, providing updated overdose reversal training and conducted syndromic surveillance. SUPHR also supported the launch of Philly Phlush public restrooms that was installed in Clark Park in October of 2025. There's a picture of the actual flush contraption at the front of Council. If you haven't seen one, you can look at that picture. And there's also going to be a grand opening across the street. There are so many things that the Health Department staff have accomplished and I could go on forever, but I want to be cognizant of your time and allow for questions. So to close, thank you, Council President and esteemed members of Council, for your continued support of the Public Health Department and public health in the City of Philadelphia. And at this time, I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you very much. COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: Good morning, President Johnson and members of City Council. I'm Kenny Solanke, and I have the privilege of serving as Commissioner for the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability Services, DBHIDS. Joining me today is Amanda David, Deputy Commissioner overseeing the Behavioral Health Division. I'm pleased to provide testimony on the DBHIDS Fiscal Year 2027 operating budget. You have my full testimony. I will summarize today. DBHIDS' envisions of Philadelphia: Where every individual can achieve health, well-being and self- determination. The mission of DBHIDS is to educate, strengthen and serve individuals and communities so that all Philadelphians can thrive, enjoy an improved quality of life and benefit from city services that residents can see, touch and feel. Thank you for the opportunity to present our FY27 priorities. Today's testimony will focus on three key areas: First, the continued transformation and performance of our crisis response system; second, the progress we've made around substance use treatment access and ongoing outreach in Kensington; and third, how we are strengthening system awareness, accountability and preparing for upcoming Medicaid changes. I will also outline the risks we're actively managing to ensure continued access to care for Philadelphia residents. Our crisis system: With Council support, DBHIDS has built a comprehensive crisis continuum that is producing measurable results. In 2025, calls to the Philadelphia Crisis Line increased 10% to over 79,000. And 90-day call volume increased 24% to 31,692 calls. 83% of our 90-day calls were resolved on the phone. 15% resulted in a mobile crisis dispatch, while 2% agreed to go for further evaluation at the Crisis Response Center, and 1% required emergency service dispatch. Our mobile crisis median dispatch to arrival time improved by 17%, from 46% in 2024 to 38% -- 46 minutes in 2024 to 38 minutes in 2025. A comprehensive quality evaluation completed in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania found that mobile crisis services avoided over $4 million in acute inpatient psychiatric spend between 2022 and 2024. Additionally, Philadelphia's first adult behavioral health urgent care center, which opened months ago, 18 has completed over 5000 same-day 19 encounters to date, with no 20 appointments required. Substance use treatment and Kensington outreach: We added more than 400 treatment beds across 12 new sites through a competitive procurement in 2025, and we currently have access to over 2400 licensed substance use disorder beds across the full continuum of American Society of Addiction Medicine, ASAM, levels of care. We are not aware of any systemic barriers to accessing these beds. We launched Philadelphia's first mobile methadone van, bringing medication- assisted treatment directly into Kensington and soon to other parts of the city. Our centralized bed registry is under contract and on track for initial implementation in December 2026, replacing the manual phone-based referrals with streamlined referral processing and realtime bed visibility. Kensington remains a top priority for the city and for us. The Mayor's wellness ecosystem offers a coordinated citywide strategy to address homelessness, substance use and social determinants of health through integrated low-barrier services. DBHIDS funds behavioral health, wraparound services across every wellness ecosystem location, including Philly Home at Girard, Riverview Wellness Village, the Neighborhood Wellness Court and the 1000 shelter-bed expansion sites. In partnership with the Office of Homeless Services, DBHIDS administers the One Philly Wellness vouchers, supporting individuals in recovery from opiate use disorder in securing independent housing. In 2025, our homeless outreach teams assisted with a placement of 323 individuals at Philly Home at Girard, and we facilitated 474 admissions into Riverview Wellness Village.
Our homeless outreach teams made over 44,000 unique engagements citywide in 2025. And of those engagements, 64% took place in Districts 1, and 7. 5 Notably however, District 7, where we see the most outreach activities in Kensington, there was a 19% reduction in contact, yet a 24% increase in contacts that resulted in placement. Additionally, to increase awareness of behavioral health services in Kensington, DBHIDS has developed a targeted behavioral health resources mailer in English and Spanish delivered to 1843 businesses and 22,579 residential addresses in the 19134 zip code. We also launched the Kensington Children's Task Force across-agency-across-systems effort aimed at developing actionable plans to support children's well- being in the community. And you can see, all of the system partners that are involved in the Children's Task Force, so over 100 individuals, so we're incredibly excited about what's possible. Medicaid risk and preparing for 2027: The federal Medicaid changes taking effect in January 2027 pose a serious and immediate threat to Philadelphians' access to behavioral health care. The new work requirements and the more frequent recertification mandates could result in approximately 73,248 Philadelphians losing Medicaid, disproportionately impacting those with the fewest alternatives, and we have those numbers out there. You have the Pennsylvania impact as well as our local Philadelphia impact, and we'll talk more about that. In anticipation of these changes, the Managing Director's Office of Health and Human Services has engaged a consultant with deep Medicaid experience to work across city departments and external partners on four areas, enrollment and re-enrollment, community engagement, financial assessment and technology solutions. While DBHIDS is an active partner in that effort, we are also working in parallel to prepare provider network and the community for potential impact. Our behavioral health system is also operating under workforce strain that predates these federal changes. A stable behavioral health system is part of the infrastructure that makes economic opportunity real for all Philadelphians. Philadelphia provider organizations and DBH have raised with Pennsylvania Department of Human Services the need for a statewide investment in competitive wages and provider infrastructure, a statewide behavioral health career recruitment campaign and the long-term workforce commission with county-specific planning. And so, in closing I want to say and I'm proud to say that our collective investments are working. We have expanded crisis respond, we have improved access and we are strengthening outreach. Behavioral health is foundational to the Mayor's vision of a safer, cleaner, greener Philadelphia with economic opportunity for all. Residents who are connected to care are better able to participate in their communities, sustain employment and contribute to the city's economic life. But our system is under pressure from workforce training and federal changes to Medicaid represent the most significant risk ahead. With tens of thousands of Philadelphians at risk of losing coverage, our FY strategy is focused on three things: mitigation, continuity of care, and equity. Protecting that access is inseparable from the Mayor's commitment to a safer, more equitable Philadelphia, because residents who lose behavioral health coverage, they do not disappear from the challenges that we're all working to address together. DBHIDS remains committed to building a system that is responsive, coordinated, accessible, ensuring that every Philadelphian can connect to care when and where they need it. My colleagues and I are ready to answer questions you may have. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Just a couple questions. I just want to ask you, the two of you, I want to start off by acknowledging -- excuse me one second. Member Jones.
I want to start off by acknowledging part of the leadership team, LeVan White and Dr. Marquita Williams for their hard work and their dedication in terms of making sure the lines of communication are open with members of City Council regarding DBHIDS and just overall the good work that they do. So I just want to acknowledge that publicly that you have a good, strong leadership team working to make sure you continue to move the City of Philadelphia forward. COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: Thank you.
And you're welcome. And Dr. Palak, I'm thinking about -- I'm sure a couple members are going to talk to you about our health centers that are coming online, particularly up in the Northeast, which is something that Councilmember Chair of Health Dr. Nina Ahmad will surely have questions about. I'm thinking about the role that you play in terms of providing high-quality health care for those most in need. And so, I can't speak for everybody else. But I come from humble beginnings, right. So before University of Pennsylvania, Penn Medicine became my doctor, I attended the Health Center at Broad and Morris in South Philly as a kid growing up. My Nana would take me there to get my shots and I would go there to get my yearly checkups, me and my sister and all the rest of the family. And so, it really just crystallizes on the importance of your work. Because I remember as a kid, we would be in the waiting room and the room would be full, right. But that's also some of the best experiences that helped me become a healthy young man growing up. So thank you for your work. I want to start off by talking about an issue that's very near and dear, which is gun violence. I want to talk about how the Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention Coalition, I remember it started around when Dr. Abaya was around, myself and Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, we advocated for funding to support a dashboard, where all the hospitals working together could have support as they address the issue of gun violence as a public health epidemic. Now, at that time, maybe two, three years ago, Member Jones could remember as Chair of Public Health, it was like the buzzword, we had to address gun violence as a public health epidemic. And now, we're on to the next thing which is affordability, but I'm still focused on that key issue around gun violence as a public health epidemic. And so, can you give me an idea on what are we doing to make sure we continue to push forward the Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention Network? And what's the status of that coalition as well as the dashboard as we address gun violence from a public health standpoint?
Sure. Thank you for that question, Councilmember. So gun violence is a public health issue, right. Public health touches everyone's life every day. We have worked through the leadership of Dr. Kinnari Chandriani and Pilar Ocampo. We have worked to create a Violence Reduction Council. We have initiated -- so we are working with the Police Department, with the Office of Public Safety as well as a host of partners to look at reducing gun violence as a holistic approach, hospital-based interventions. We've gotten the group together. We've had about two meetings. So part of that offset is the dashboard. We started this work mid-last year, sir. And since then, we've brought the coalition together twice and we're looking at how the violence occurred and then tracing it back and really getting focused. And the dashboards are an ongoing project. The hope is that they will hopefully be ready by the end of this year.
Could you provide to myself and members of Council, the members of the Violence Reduction Council and then also ways that the Special Committee on Gun Violence could be supportive and involved in the process.
Absolutely. Would that be okay if we provide that after budget?
We'll get you a full summary, sir, along with all the members of the actual working group, the training we've provided so that folks know how to look at gun violence appropriately. And we'll also go ahead and get you the members of the executive committee as well as an update on the dashboard.
And I would assume that the Mayor's Office of Violence Prevention Public Safety is a part of this overall strategy as well?
Yes. The Chief of Staff -- so Director Geer as well as we have our Deputy Managing Director Crystal Yates- Gale leads with the Managing Director's Office. And then we have Commissioner Bethel and/or his appointee that joined the group. Yes, sir, we're all working seamlessly. The Mayor talks quite often about breaking down silos, and not being in ivory towers. We're all working together.
We want to continue being partnerships. And when I say we, meaning not just myself, but members of Council and these efforts. So please keep us updated. Although we're at a 60-year historical low when it comes to gun violence and homicides, our overall goal is to eliminate gun violence in the City of Philadelphia. So now, we should be doubling-down our efforts, now more than ever, when it comes to looking at the root causes of gun violence and addressing it from, as you would say, an epidemic standpoint. And so, thank you. On that area, I established the Food and Nutrition Security Task Force. As a matter of fact, my team just had the opportunity to go to Washington, D.C., on my behalf of City Council, to talk about the work that we're doing to address food insecurity here in the City of Philadelphia. And one of the key things that has come out of the recommendations is how do we focus on or do a better job regarding collaboration across all city agencies to address food security. And so, can you give us an idea? I know we did the one-time investment as it relates to the cuts around the SNAP benefits, right. But to be more direct, what are we doing to better collaborate with other city agencies around food insecurity and your strategies from a Health Department standpoint. Two, we know from Washington, D.C., the new policies require individuals to reapply and meet a certain type of criteria to be eligible for SNAP benefits. Now, I'll say publicly we could probably be supportive of addressing the food security standpoint, but we don't have a budget to really do a super, deeper dive when it comes to filling that overall gap, which is billions of dollars of individuals who receive SNAP benefits. But one of the key ways to address is making sure we're supporting individuals to reapply and just meet their proper criteria. And so, what is your strategy to meet the moment in that area?
Sure. So once again, our Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention has a whole subset of folks, a manager that works specifically with food insecurity as well as water safety and water security. And so, we are working together with partners. So there are folks -- as we know, with the summer months coming, kids who normally receive benefits through the school system will be at Playstreets and other things. So we're working holistically across the board to make sure that there is adequate, safe and healthy food available, but we're also doing the work in the background, having the appropriate meetings with the various partners and departments as well as our DMD for Health and Human Services has been convening groups. Within our health centers, we have counselors to help folks with both the Medicaid requirements and recertifications as well as helping them with the SNAP applications and recertifications. We can get you full details on all of our work.
In terms of your team, who is I guess I would say the food security czar to walk us through this moment in time? Because most of us in here are -- I guess some people call us professional and pretty much everybody in the crowd, right, but there's a population in Philadelphia that really need us to fight for them now, more than ever, and part of that is making sure the qualification process so people can reapply and they don't lose their -- well, so they won't lose their benefits, right. So who would be that point person?
Sure, absolutely. And I just want to say, before I give you the name, sir, as someone who had a child in their 20s and was on Medicaid and benefits, I can relate to how complicated the application process is. I've been a fairly perfect A student, but I failed that application multiple times and it was very scary. So our main person that focuses on that, her name is Mica Root. I'm sure folks probably saw her on the YouTube videos when we were rolling out the SNAP grants, and then Dr. Chandriani. So we will get you full details and the full plan that we're working on.
Are we partnering with any workforce agencies to make sure individuals, unless they have to volunteer, they have to work a certain amount of hours to qualify, what agencies and what's our strategy to meet the moment from that aspect?
Sure. And that is one of the reasons why, as my colleague mentioned, Dr. Solanke mentioned, our HHS Deputy Managing Director, we've hired a consultant specifically with the Medicaid benefits and the benefits --
Good. That's that interagency working together.
Exactly. COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: Do you mind if I just say a little bit about what we're doing related to that?
Sure. COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: We do have a Social Determinants of Health and Equity Unit within DBHIDS that is partnered with the Food Engagement through Efficient Delivery Services called FEEDS and Philabundance. And so, we're able to deliver one year of free food to up to 50 families. And so, they get this biweekly. It's boxed food as well as prepared meals. And we also are able to provide technology, which is -- we did a survey that identified five main areas that people indicated that they needed support with technology, transportation, food and workforce. So the RSDOH team that's headed by Laura Jordan, that's our point person for our food initiative, is actually responsible for providing all of those supports to the individuals that apply.
Along with Cheryl Hill. That's our third -- COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: That's our third stool.
That's what's up. The Good Food Procurement Coordinator, that position has been budgeted for $76,000 and still remains unfulfilled for a particular period of time. What can we do to fill that position when it comes to making sure that we're advocating we have an individual who's focusing on procurement from a food justice standpoint?
So I believe that position recently became vacant, sir. We had an individual who was with us for a long time. People have kids, priorities change, so we are in the process of actively recruiting to fill that position. But in the meantime, we are working collaboratively to ensure that the work is getting done.
Good to hear that. I saw a report that talked about our air-quality, right. Philadelphia received an F, right. And I remember we kicked off the air-monitoring initiatives. I thought that was great. Then I see this report, as recently as last week, that talked about our air quality. What are our strategies to make sure --
So I'm a little surprised. I didn't see that report. We monitor, besides --
Do you know -- well, I can get details from your office, sir.
Yeah, I'll get it too. And I'm not trying to gotcha you either --
No, no, no. Absolutely not. I'm just curious, right, because we --
We always have folks, as they should, they should be watching. They should be keeping tabs on us. But just for clarity, before I answer regarding what was discussed in that report --
Just for the record, this is by the American Lung Association.
-- and they were alluding to the higher benzene associated with recent wildfires. But I want to clarify and mention we have 11 hard-wired monitors throughout the City of Philadelphia. That data goes directly to the EPA and that captures all of the details. Those were the monitors that we used during the Canadian wildfires. If folks recall, we had put out an alert that said please stay indoors, wear masks and everything else because the level of the air quality was, I never thought I would see purple, but it goes green, it's color-coded, so we're fairly high and we were able to toggle to that. Now, the story that you're referring to is talking about higher benzene levels and that's due to wildfires. However, if there was an imminent threat -- so besides having the 76 monitors that folks can go ahead and get details directly on their phone, we would have put out an alert. I believe the report analyzed items from the past. But again, we'll look at the article and get you a full update.
Do we have a -- because some of the things you talked about is more responsive. Do we have a strategy that looks at a variety of different categories to have an impact on the quality of our air and begin looking at policies to implement or to propose to address those various types of initiatives or developments that will have an impact on our environment?
Sure. So we absolutely do, sir. And we have -- the Health Department is responsible for the air pollution control board as well as who sets -- it's similar to our Board of Health. We go ahead and we draft regulations and go through the public comment period for the regulation process. Our Air Pollution Control Board two years ago or three years ago passed AMR VI, which is the regulation that restricts Title V emitters, which are the large industries from polluting into our air. It increased the number of toxicants, so to ensure that folks were not spewing things into the air. We also, a couple years ago, began down the path of making sure we have a process in place when we have our junkyard fires that occur in our city. We went ahead -- we have an environmental justice manager who works with our Air Management Services Director, and they went to every single junkyard that would have them. We worked with L&I because L&I is the one that licenses them. We trained them to make sure that they knew what and how to store things that were appropriate so things did not combust during heat waves and heat-related incidences. And along those lines, we have our entire emergency messaging system that goes into effect when there is an issue, whether it's a fire or something, so that we can alert residents immediately about what to do regarding their air quality and whether it's to shelter in place or to ventilate or to wear a mask. So we are also working -- we recently passed a regulation on crematories and what they were allowed to put into the air compared to what they were allowed to put into the air before. And we are also looking at mobile sources of air pollution. We're working with the Mayor's initiative and our Fleet Commissioner to roll out our vehicles and change the amount for electric vehicles.
All right. Thank you very much. And, Dr. Solanke, just have a quick question. I wanted to ask you around the issue of trauma- informed support for our young people. I know the School District of Philadelphia has an initiative called Hazel Health that provides free therapy for young people. One, are you aware of the initiative? Two, how impactful is it? I think when you talk about the issue of nonviolence, again we have a lot of our young people walking around dealing with, I call it, post-traumatic stress disorder because they're living in an environment where they're seeing their friends being shot, where they're seeing their friends being murdered and they have to return back to school day in-and day-out, right. And so, the question is always how are our children doing, and who's checking on our children? And I think about how are they processing the level of violence that they're seeing in our neighborhoods day-in and day-out. I just want to get an idea on what your office has been doing around this particular issue as well as the Hazel Health initiative as well? COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: So we're aware of the Hazel Health initiative. We actually help to promote that. We don't pay for it, but we do make sure that whenever we are messaging around school- based services, that that's an option that's readily available to schools and to students. But with regards to trauma, all of our programs, all the programs and the providers that we contract with are required to provide trauma and responsive care. That is an expectation across the board, but we also have specific trauma programs, especially for Black and Brown youth that have been exposed to gun violence. And it's called Trauma to Triumph. It was launched in 2024. It's a 12-week model that happens five days a week after school. And it's a space where youth can -- it's a safe space for them to kind of express themselves, to feel joy and to talk and connect about what it's like to live in an environment and to have to endure so much trauma and to really think through how trauma shows up in their personal lives and in their communities and they get some coping skills around that.
Do we have any initiatives we partner with the Philadelphia Police Department to work with officers as they deal with the issue of trauma, as they see it, doing their day-in and day-out duties? COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: You mean specifically working with the Police Department, we have a Network of Neighbors team that can provide support to not just city agencies, but also to communities if they have been exposed to trauma or stress or any kind of violence. And I know we have actually activated Network of Neighbors for the Fire Department, for the Police Department, more recently, the Sanitation Department, Streets Department. They're a go-to for a lot of our city agencies when we go through, especially with the garage street -- the tragic, tragic accident. So we have the different entities that were involved that have been supported by our Network of Neighbors.
Have we increased the number of staff in Network of Neighbors? This is prior to you coming. And this is when gun violence was at an all-time high, and it was like two people for the whole City of Philadelphia. And we're on the ground day-in and day-out addressing this issue and Network of Neighbors would come out -- COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: Yeah.
But they can't be in South Philly and Mt. Airy at the same time. COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: Yes.
And we were advocating at that time to see if they can be at a level of expansion because it was such a dire need for it. COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: Yes, sir. We have a dire need for it. We have increased the staffing and it actually allows them, to your point, branch out to respond to other trauma incidents across the city.
What's the total number today, staff, staff? 6 COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: I 7 don't want to guess. I know it's 8 in this folder somewhere so I can 9 get that to you at the end of this 10 hearing. 11
All right. 13 COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: I 14 think we're almost there. I think 15 it's more than 10.
Okay. COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: Definitely more than 10.
Good to hear that. All right. Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes -- COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: It's 12.
See, a couple of years ago it was like two. Good job. COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: I think we also have them train the trainer. So it really doesn't have to live with the 12. They train the communities to be able to --
Yes, they do. COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: -- provide ongoing support so that they move on to other areas of the city.
I agree. I think 20 is a good number to train the community -- COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: We'll be happy to have 20.
Because we want to make sure, right, on this gun violence issue, we want to eliminate gun violence. We don't want to rest on our laurels that we had a 60-year low and it's a historical low, then we start pulling back on resources and start focusing on other areas, where again, I'm a firm believer, okay, we're at 12, let's shoot between now and a particular period of time to get because again, 15 the ultimate goal is to live in a 16 city where there is no gun violence 17 and we can go a summer without 18 violence. 19 And so, that behavioral 20 health component plays a major role in terms of how we process trauma, because hurt people hurt people. We know that, rather it's children, rather it's adults. And so, I commend the two of you for the work that you are doing and actually working together on this issue. Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson.
Thank you. Thank you so much, Council President. And thank you all so much for being here. I wanted to start with our thank-yous for our Health Commissioner, Dr. Palak Raval-Nelson, to Dawn -- I'm going to always mess up Dawn's last name, Dawn K. Thank you, Dawn. You were out with us years ago during the pandemic when we were going store- to-store during those inspections with my District colleagues, so thank you. Thank you very much for your great work. James Garrow, Sara Enes, Dr. Mehta, thank you for your work on the maternal health work. Karla Eyre, Benjamin Hartung. And then for DBHIDS -- thank you, Council President, for recognizing Dr. Marquita Williams, who served with excellence. Of course, LaVan White, thank you even for your help on Friday afternoon. We received a case, and it was the middle of the May Day activities downtown, so thank you for helping us get assistance for the 81-year- old constituent. And Malik Gray, thank you so much, Malik. Malik joins us every single year for our Grief and Loss Workshop around the holidays, and we've been doing that every year since the pandemic virtually, and it's always very well-attended. So thank you very, very much also to Malik Gray. I wanted to start with health, relative to again saying thanks for your work around maternal health. And I see some of our organizations are represented here, including Oshun. But wanted to on the record just get an update on all of our maternal health funding for the entire FY26 and then going into FY27. And then also, if you could talk about -- I noticed in your budget detail that there is funding for teen contraception, the doula program staffing, homevisiting for young mothers, family support services, the Maternal Mortality Action Team and the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Program. Will there be an increase of funding for that work or will there be a decrease? And if so, how much and what do we need to do to ensure that work is adequately staffed and funded?
Level funding, okay. Great. Okay. Excellent. And then could you just provide additional detail for the new Severe Maternal Morbidity Review Committee?
Absolutely. If it is okay with the Councilmember, we will get that to you after.
Okay. That'll be great. And then my last question goes to the legislation that I recently introduced, which would allow the city to hold commercial landlords accountable when they knowingly allow their tenants to sell tobacco without the proper permits from the city. And so, if you could just talk about how many citations have been issued for unlicensed tobacco retailing this year? And how do you work with L&I and other departments to ensure coordination of inspection and also enforcement? We get a lot of complaints around these unlicensed tobacco dealers across the city. You know, they typically have medallions from other states. They're buying cigarettes from other areas and then selling them here. And we've gotten a lot of complaints. I know we met with a group in Councilmember Lozada's District even, about a year ago, where they expressed their consternation relative to these stores and vendors who are selling cigarettes and tobacco unlawfully. And so, I just wanted to get an update on tobacco enforcement.
Sure, absolutely. So when it comes to tobacco enforcement, the Health Department issues a tobacco permit for folks. We are capped in most of the districts, so the number of permits that are available in those districts don't go above a particular cap. However, people can get a state license to sell tobacco and often people try to use that license to sell tobacco. In order to sell tobacco legally in the City of Philadelphia, you must have a state license and you must have a city tobacco permit. In terms of enforcement, we have about 2500 legal licensed establishments and we will go ahead and get the exact number for you. Our food protection staff, the ones that conduct inspections throughout the restaurants, because these stores have a food component during the end of COVID, and Councilmember knows this, we integrated in a cost-efficiency manner, so now everybody does inspections and looks for tobacco products. So these are the places that are permanent. For --
Excuse me, Commissioner. One second. Point of information. Member Young.
Thank you, Mr. President. Along the same lines, when the state provides a business with their tobacco license, is there any kind of -- do they talk to us and say, hey, can this person legally operate where it's like -- what's the process in that?
Sure. So they don't necessarily talk to us always. The folks that we work with are actually the state revenue folks that do the enforcement for the illegal cigarettes and everything. But we are working on that relationship to improve that and better that. So similar to what the Liquor Control Board does and we check in with them about license establishments, we are working on that aspect with the state, but most of the time they just issue the tobacco licenses.
Is it possible that we have to issue ours first before the state can give theirs in the City of Philadelphia?
So tobacco laws, we are preempted from a lot of the tobacco work. But we can absolutely explore that from a collaborative approach, sir, to figure out how we can encourage them to do that.
Thank you, Councilmember Young, because I think that's an important question. And I think we should explore that with our state colleagues. And part of the reason why I did bring this question up is because I had a conversation with one of our state representatives from the delegation who talked about the continued challenges because of the state preemption on tobacco and the challenges that we have because we are capped at the number of permits that can be issued per district. So I think that's an important follow-up that we can work together on to ensure that we work with our state partners to figure out how we could possibly put the city process in front of the state process or at least make it a requirement or a part of the process.
We can absolutely partner to work on that. And then, just to finish the answer to your question about enforcement, if establishments are selling tobacco products and they just pop up, so that is based on a complaint basis, not on the ones that are permitted, we go out and conduct an inspection and then we work directly with Licenses and Inspections. But we have the authority to cease-operate, folks. And you, yourself, have put a sticker up on a door. So, smiley candy. And then we follow up. We will also do a 14-day cease now. We have that authority. And we are working with L&I. We're also working with our Law Department to determine the next steps for how do we suspend or revoke a license.
Okay. That'll be great. Because I think most of what we heard from some of the retailers that are legally allowed to sell tobacco is that they felt as though they were being targeted versus the locations that are the illegal pop-ups that really don't have any permits or licensing to sell tobacco products at all. And so, I think that's the challenge that we have at this point. But I heard the bell and I want to honor the clock. And so, we will certainly follow up on this. We plan on having hearings on this legislation, hopefully very soon. And we'll do the additional follow- up at that time and also follow up with my colleague Councilmember Young to coordinate with our state as well. Okay. All right. Thank you.
Thank you, Council President. Good morning, everyone. Thank you as always. You guys do very hard work, and we asked a lot of hard questions. But I want to make sure we thank you also for everything you do. I'll start with Public Health. I'm going to ask my questions for Public Health and DBHIDS, and then you can answer just for time. There's been a rise in kratom addiction in Philadelphia with powerful extract sold as seven 7-OH in smoke shops, increasing stimulating opioid effects. Is the DPH tracking kratom and 7-OH- related harms, hospitalizations, overdose calls, treatment, emissions? Is there any FY27 funding to monitor or respond to it? That's for Public Health. And then DBHIDS, the inquiry reported last week Judge Simmons was ready to shut down the Wellness Court over frustrations with the lack of coordination and communication from the Administration. The Administration says the changes and delays were due to administrative protocols that need to be resolved. In your opinion, what is the biggest obstacle in streamlining the process to get people into the Wellness Center program? We all want to work and are committed to doing so, but we must be able to identify any issues we are facing and correct them as soon as possible. COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: I'll have Dr. Palak speak first.
Sure. So we know that it's just like metatomidine, right. The more we get a handle on certain substances, newer substances pop up. As far as kratom is concerned and kava, Dr. Danny, who's our SUPHR Director, has already been ahead of this. We've developed a comprehensive one-pager on what to look for and what to be concerned about with this substance and we are working to not only ensure -- so when we go into a food establishment, sir, so that's usually where they are infusing your beverage with kratom or when we're going into the places where people are selling items, our staff are getting the training so that they can -- right now we go ahead and we would retain those items or have them -- retainment means we have them take them off the shelf and they're not allowed to sell them, mainly infused products. A lot of places advertise on the outside that they're selling kratom and everything. And during the course of the inspection, it's products that say kratom on the front but don't necessarily have a kratom content. So we are doing our darndest to be fully educated. It's another way of making sure that there's no silos within the Health Department. So our SUPHR Division is educating our inspectors and everybody else so we're on the same page. Right now we are retaining those products when we come across those.
Okay. Thank you. COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: And very quickly, when individuals come into the Wellness Court, our teams process the individuals and do the assessment for treatment and follow-up. We've actually increased the number of staff that is able to do that. The process is related to whether they go for a hearing in front of a judge. It's a little outside of our jurisdiction. But for the folks that we assess that we process and refer to treatment, we're not seeing any lapses in care coordination. So if there's a little bit more specifics, what part of that assessment or what part of the referral or what part of engagement that's getting lost, we would like to get more information so we can address it.
They ain't the holy grail. He'll probably ask me later on, but it is what it is. Member Harrity, go ahead, sir. I'm just joking.
No, I also get that. But it's not the first time I've heard about it, so let's put it that way. There have been some challenges that we face. Not trying to point a finger at anyone, just trying to see -- so many times we dig in instead of admitting that something's not working and try to figure out a fix. Just want to make sure that we're looking at everything and looking at the process -- COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: Absolutely.
-- because the process is for us to actually get people into treatment as fast as we can, especially if they're ready. COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: Thank you for raising that. I know that we're still in the first year of operation so there will be bumps along the way, but we are committed to looking into what the concerns are around follow-up and care coordination so we can address them immediately.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Council President. I heard the bell.
Thank you, Member Harrity. Councilmember Cindy Bass.
How are you? How's everybody doing? It's good to see everyone. I just want to start, I think our Majority Leader Kathy Gilmore Richardson thanked everybody already, but I'm going to just echo her sentiments. Thank you so much for all of the hard work that you all do through challenging times, through difficult budgets. We know it's not easy, and then you have to deal with us on the phone on a regular basis too, you know, often upset, complaining, worried, just really having a challenging situation in front of us. So I just really wanted to say that. I also wanted to give a shout-out, I saw in the back there Rhashidah Perry-Jones, who has done some great work over the years. Rhashidah, where -- (Applause.)
I will give Rhashidah a clap. So Rhashidah is someone that I've known and worked with in this space for a very long time and who's really one of the best subject matter experts in my --
Okay. All in favor say aye. But really seriously, thank you all for all the work that you do. I just had a couple of businesses -- I'm really following up on some of my colleagues' questions. I wanted to start with nuisance businesses. As you know, Dr. Nelson, it has been an issue. We've talked about it many, many times. Can you talk a little bit about the regulation of some of these establishments? Because not only are they not really selling food in the spirit of which it's regulated through the City and the Commonwealth, but can you talk a little bit about the cleanliness of food establishments and the Health Department's role? Because one of the things that greatly concerns me is you'll go into these stop-and-gos, they're really not selling food. And in my opinion, there should be a number of reasons that they could be shut down, reorganized, however you want to do it, but the cleanliness is a problem. These places are not clean and they're supposed to be serving food. The floors are dirty. I've seen cobwebs. I've seen all kinds of stuff. I've seen blood on the floor. And so, what is the Health Department's role in determining cleanliness and the past, you know, whether an establishment, a food establishment, passes the muster or not?
Sure. Absolutely, Councilmember. And so, the Health Department, we have a 54-point check inspection system. It's a risk-based inspection system. So we look at the first 27 criteria and categories. They're the risk-based items. So, for instance, improper hand washing, those sorts of things. And then the remaining 50 up to 54 are all about good retail practices, which are cleanliness and other items. Now, the risk-based, higher-level criteria violations are considered more likely to get a closure because it's like lack of hot water and everything. However, the cleanliness-related items, the good retail practices do add up. If an establishment is out of compliance in those areas, we take the appropriate action of doing a re-inspection. And then if they're still not in compliance, we will cease-operate them and they will be closed for 48 hours. I know that when it comes to our stop-and-gos, and this is the thing that I think you and I have been trying to sort out since I was Environmental Health Services Director, right, how do we address those places that have the 30 stools on the side and say, hey, I met my criteria, how do we address the fact that I have 30 oodles of noodles in a microwave, is that deemed food, right. A lot of this is because those requirements are a part of the Liquor Control Code, what we have done is to try and work out -- go ahead.
But the Liquor Control Code regulates the sale of alcohol, not the sale of food. The food portion is the city's responsibility, if I'm correct.
So the code does require that there is adequate food for up to depending on the license, whether it's the large or the small, for enough people. You're absolutely right that the quality and the safety of the food, that is within the purview of the Health Department. But if someone has -- where we face the challenge, ma'am, is that if someone has 30 oodles of noodles, which they can probably outlast nuclear warfare, there's not a whole lot of food safety challenge, you know, there's not a whole lot of food safety issues, right. Like a normal restaurant, we can go in and do an inspection. If the food temperatures are out of temperature, we can go ahead and cite them. We can make them get rid of the food. So what we have been doing, because I was anticipating your question, and you, ma'am --
Same every year. And we're going to figure this out, right. We go and test out places to see if they're selling shots. We do that together jointly. You're not the only one, Councilmember Gilmore Richardson, that we go out in the field with. But what we have started doing is a seating criteria, so essentially capturing, right. Because if you are going to have a license that makes you a restaurant, it's not enough to have just 30 chairs, but space, whether it's 12 inches by 8 feet, so you can't just have that counter, that makeshift counter that they have, where they say, oh, this is the table. So that is what we're working on. We're also working on making sure that they have a valid, legitimate menu and other things. So what I would like to propose is as soon as we're through the 2026 events, if we could have a separate meeting and you can do the assessment and we can share the data.
Well, listen, Dr. Nelson, because we just love you so much I'm inclined to say yes, but I also want to say no, because it's been like nine years since we passed the bill. And like I said, I'm asking these questions every year. When are we going to see the level of change that we need to see, because these establishments are a problem in the neighborhood. These establishments, in my opinion, promote addiction. It's sort of like an easy way to acquire a shot of liquor and they have the medications that you can mix and make a speedball or whatever you want to make. It's all kinds of concoctions that you can make with medicine and then with a shot of alcohol and they sell it all. They have the crack pipes. You know, they got what you need if you're looking to get down. When are we going to see some level of enforcement that's going to change that? Because when we look at homicides and whatnot, a lot of times homicides occur there. Like I said, I've been into these establishments, one fairly recently and there's blood on the floor from a fight that just had occurred. And the fight was over, the people were gone, but the blood was still on the floor. So how and when are we going to finally see some level of improvement on these establishments because we're just not there? We're just not there.
Sure. And so, ma'am, if the blood was on the floor and we showed up to do the inspection, we would have cease-operated them to clean that up, right. We quite often close places down because of their violations. They stay closed for 48 hours and then they're allowed to open back up because they're entitled to a re-inspection and they get everything cleaned up, and then we have to open them back up. So this is why the seating criteria concept is so important because I think it'll make a more pronounced, longer effect, and it will also help us to collect the data so that then we can work with the LCB to impact their liquor license.
Okay. I'll come back around and honor the bell. But I still think that, you know, we've been doing the same day for a long time.
And we closed them down and they correct their violations and we're required to let them open back up and --
It's just not right. It's just not right, but I'll come back.
I think we may have to come up to the Northwest with that bullhorn.
Listen, we got the bullhorns. They don't care. They don't care. They operate any way that they want to, with immunity, like they just don't care. They just aren't concerned about our communities, our neighbors, the products they sell. They sell to people who are already inebriated. Like, we know what it is. We know what it is. Thank you, Mr. President.
They ain't taking that to Chestnut Hill, oh no. And I represent Chestnut Hill. Great neighborhood, but you don't have those kinds of problems there. You have them in Black and Brown parts of the district.
Chair recognizes Councilmember Dr. Anthony Phillips, then Councilmember Rue Landau.
Thank you, Council President. I want to begin by thanking Dr. Palak and her team for working with us to address tobacco sales in the City of Philadelphia. I just want to make sure that the new law that I introduced, that members of City Council supported around ensuring that there is tobacco education, where if an owner in the past, one of their clerks ended up having a tobacco sale to a minor, they would just ultimately not have any real recourse. They may be opened up again within a matter of weeks, but we're hoping that this bill 20 requires them to provide education to their store clerks about the importance of noticing who minors are and checking for that and making sure that that doesn't happen again. Can you talk more about the implementation process --
Sure. Absolutely. And our goal is education and then regulation wherever possible. If we teach people why and how they have to do something, they're likely to do it, sir. I believe we are completed developing the module for education. We want to have it available so that the store owners can have it readily available to them via YouTube or what have you, and we are going to be enforcing the law and making sure that we keep track of who needs to get the education and getting those numbers. I believe we're trying to, after we address the rat-related issues, set up a meeting with your office to do the follow-up. I believe Ben Hartung and Deputy Jim Garrow might have already met with your office. So we're going to go ahead and provide you the data as we collected about the folks that have gone through the training and the education has been provided. And then we really want to look to see, based on those areas, do we have an impact, right. So do those places, you know, they got a ticket, they got whatever, they went through the educational module. When we come back around on the cycle, the annual renewal cycle, did they receive additional tickets. So we're going to also keep track of that data.
Thank you. One of the things that we've been talking about is responsive government, even when it comes to our public health. When it comes to responsive government, it's about the idea of how can the Public Health Department create for all Council offices and to be distributed to neighbors, clearly explain report on all the services that Public Health provides to the City of Philadelphia, also with a service level agreement of if you request this, this is the time frame for execution, especially when it comes to vector control issues?
Absolutely. That is something that we absolutely want to do and put out. So we have many dashboards for other things that we're doing. And so, when it comes to Vector Control Services, we realize that besides having a phone number, right -- it's spring. We've had a bad winter. So the rodents, the rats, have been in the sewers. We've been indoors. Now, all of us are coming out. And lawns are overgrown. So you have harborage, rodent harborage. And then you have the availability of food because people aren't maybe storing their trash the best way. And then we're out and about so we're more likely to see the rats. So besides having the phone number, we also now have a web address set up and email address so that we can also get complaints from there. And we have a database that is almost at completion, so hopefully we'll be able to put it as a dashboard so folks can see the progress.
Can you commit to working on a service level agreement, one-pager?
Thank you so much. And then also for -- I'll come back to you, Dr. Palak. For DBHIDS, I just have a quick question. I heard the bell. How is the -- DBHIDS has emphasized service to residents. In our conversations with DBHIDS, our office is focused on young people and rec centers as trusted spaces where children, parents, guardians and caregivers are already there. Therefore, how is DBHIDS thinking about rec centers as access points for family, behavioral health support, including therapists? Is there a conversation being held about having family counseling, parent engagement and caregiver support at rec centers on an ongoing basis? COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: I think that's a great question. Right now we do have some of our community engagement teams that go to the rec centers, especially the ones that are with the neighborhood community action centers. If they're located in the rec centers, they provide information about the services. We have that available. They also provide information if there's a community meeting. But I think your point about can we provide behavioral health services as a touchpoint, as a way for people to access services, I think there's an opportunity for that. It could look anything like maybe having one of our behavioral health specialists rotate through some of these rec centers on a regular schedule so people know that somebody is going to be there. But we really want to maximize the action centers at each of the districts as a possible place for residents to come to when they have questions about behavioral health services or they have a need. We also have -- fairly it's easily accessible. And I think this is really for the community. And I know it's not for people that live out in the Far Northeast, but we have our behavioral health urgent care center. That's an excellent place. It's not just to get additional information, but it's a place to provide immediate support if people have questions about how they're feeling before it escalates into a crisis. So we're using spaces like faith-based churches and mosques, we're in different spaces providing information. But I think to your point we can be more intentional about not just providing information and resources, is there an opportunity for us to engage differently and get a better sense for what people need so we can make the right connections.
Yes, Commissioner, and that's exactly why I was hoping you too can commit to having a public- facing one-pager or guide on all the services offered by DBHIDS that could be in our schools, rec centers and we can give to our neighbors. Because I don't -- if you're in a church in the 9th District, I don't know. And I wish I can give our neighbors a document to say, if you need mental health, here's what you do, right, and also how to go about requesting those services, because individuals are going to need -- I know you work with a lot of agencies in the city, but individual mental health support is also important beyond -- I know you passed out that 31 -- COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: 988.
988 flyer, but that's just a tip of the iceberg. COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: We also have a QR code actually that has all of that information. So I think we're going to try to place as many of those resources in as many places as possible, and they can just use their phone to scan and you have a list of all of the CBH-contracted providers and some of the county providers. Any service that people are looking for, they can --
Yeah, that's just not as clear as it could be. You can provide that. But I'm just saying, something more accessible, maybe a one-pager that talks through all the steps. That's important. COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: Absolutely.
Well, thanks for committing to that. We'll work on that together. COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: Thank you.
Thank you very much, sir. Just a point of information, Commissioner Patel, I know you said the Good Food Purchasing Coordinator position has been vacant just recently, correct. Just clarify, because my team has since 2022. So either we're getting wrong -- I think we probably don't have the most updated information.
Our records have 2022, so we probably have not the least, the most updated information. Chair recognizes Councilmember Rue Landau and Councilmember Jamie Gauthier.
Good morning, Commissioners. Thank you for being here. Appreciate you so much. I want to start with two areas: One, having to do with beds, treatment beds, and also then LGBTQ health and HIV health. I'm confused and I would love some clarity. It sounds like from your testimony, DBHIDS, that you're saying overall bed capacity exceeds utilization and that you put out what sounds like RFPs. You got 2024 service providers, opened up beds and they were underutilized. So I wanted you to kind of talk about that a little bit. What are the barriers to that? But then we now have a situation where we're trying to expand 1000 homeless beds and finding that space. What's the intersection here? There's many people who are trying to get a homeless bed who do have substance use disorder. Are you connecting on these two areas? What's the communication like? And what was also -- did the city fund or put any resources into this expansion of the treatment beds where we could actually just use them without additional money for the homeless beds? COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: So the 1000 shelter beds, we do work very closely with Office of Homeless Services, because it's our outreach teams that are engaging at street level with individuals and getting them into shelters. And some of those individuals may decide they want to go into treatment, which is preferred. So we do facilitate admission into treatment as well. So there is coordination. It's actually fairly seamless coordination, whether they're going directly into a low-barrier shelter, like Philly Home at Girard or we're getting them into treatment. So once they get into treatment, there's an opportunity to transition to Riverview. The procurement we did was to address the concerns that we didn't have sufficient substance- use beds, I think in 2024 or the last hearing. And so, the procurement allowed us to add an additional 400 beds at different 7 sites. However, we know we have 8 sufficient bed capacity now, but I 9 think it's possible that due to low 10 referrals or low utilization of 11 financial strains, we have five 12 sites closed. So we did close -- but it doesn't affect the current campus capacity we have. We have sufficient beds to meet the needs of Philadelphians. And so, we're not concerned about that.
Did the city spend money on these other treatment beds that we've now closed that are not being utilized? COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: So the treatment beds are funded through the Medicaid behavioral health managed care organization within DBHIDS, which is CBH. So these are CBH-funded beds. Some of them we will fund if the individual admitted doesn't have health insurance and we use state grants. So there are no General Fund grants technically going into these beds. It's all Medicaid and state-funded grants.
Now that the beds are offline, are we still paying for them? The beds that you said there's treatment beds because of an underutilization that are no longer -- COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: We're not paying. If they're closed, we're not paying now. We only pay for beds if there is a body in there.
I'm excited to hear about the centralized bed registry. Are you going to have a direct connection? Is OHS finally going to have a bed registry as well? When there's a homeless bed available, they'll be able to see where it is and be able to put somebody in realtime. Are your two databases going to be able to speak to each other? COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: That's a really good question. So there are two opportunities that we're exploring with OHS. And just like with PDPH, we're very close to OHS. We're right now looking to an opportunity that allows us to see homeless individuals that our homeless teams are engaging and putting them in a database that is HIPAA compliant, that OHS also has access to so we're not duplicating information. So that's one. The centralized bed registry, we'll want to pilot first. Where there are crisis response centers, we have five of them. So as they're assessing individuals, they're able to put the referrals right into the centralized bed registry, so that the receiving provider that they sent the referral to gets that information very quickly as opposed to a fax or call, and they can review and say, yes, I have a bed for Kenny and she can come at this time. And so, there's more visibility in terms of what beds are available, what types of beds and where these beds are. Again, this is as good as we're able to ensure that we're writing it to provide a contract, the need to make sure that they're updating their bed capacity and make it part of their provider agreement, because we need to ensure that they're compliant.
And I hear you. You're also talking about increasing bed capacity, but we weren't able to fill the other beds. I'm still confused what the barriers were to the original beds, why we weren't able to fill them? COMMISSIONER SOLANKE: I'm going to have Donna Bailey, CBH's CEO speak a little bit more to the details.
Good morning, President Johnson and members of City Council. I'm Donna Bailey. I'm the CEO of Community Behavioral Health. So I just want to explain that we don't own the beds. So when we do procurements, it's really to allow us to be able to access additional bed capacity. And as the Commissioner said, Medicaid only pays if there's a person in the bed. They meet necessity criteria for the service and so on. And so, we did that procurement in response to concerns that there was insufficient capacity. The unintended consequence has been we are now overvetted or we have more capacity than what's currently being utilized. That utilization is really dependent on people being referred to care and inpatient level. So there's no barriers to people getting that service. It really is much like on the physical health and sometimes there are days when beds are not filled.
Okay. Thank you. Can I ask a couple of more questions about --
Wrap it up. Not giving you a hard time either.
It's not about beds anymore. I wanted to move into -- there we go, I got it. Thank you. I wanted to get into a little bit of HIV and health and LGBTQ and health. So the state's Health Department sent a letter to Philadelphia FIGHT in September 2025 saying that disbursements for Ryan White Part B and special pharmaceutical benefit programs are reduced to only 25% and it doesn't have sufficient funds to maintain the level of program activities for FY25 and '26. This significantly impacts Ryan White-eligible folks to get the assistance they need, whether that is emergency funding administered through ACO or the ability to get health care services. How has the reduced funding impacted the administration of services? And how do you anticipate this impacting people are in treatment for HIV and AIDS? And also, what is the capacity of staff that are overseeing HIV health prevention and services? I'll start there.
So as far as where we are with the HIV and HIV funds, as of right now, we are remaining steady. There was information that was received and we ended up having to look and make programmatic cuts. One of the areas that we did originally engage in cutting was the TEACH program. I believe I'm saying that acronym correctly. But since then, we have met with them and we allocated funds within our budget to go ahead and make them as whole as possible. So I believe this was an item that, Councilmember, your office had raised with us and the group had also reached out to us. And Dr. Brady, myself, and DC Garrow met with the group and we've been working with them to figure out how we can assist them.
Great. Thank you. And then what's the capacity of staff that are overseeing HIV health prevention and services?
What's the capacity of staff that are overseeing HIV health prevention and services?
So our capacity is the same as it has been. We're at level.
Thank you, Council president. Good morning, Commissioner Raval-Nelson and Commissioner Solanke. Thank you both and your teams for your partnership with my office and also the work that you do on behalf of our citizens every day. My first questions are for Public Health Commissioner. In response to the Council President's earlier question about our city's recent F on air quality, you mentioned a few air quality measures that the Health Department employs for some sources of air pollution in our city. However, for the past seven years Philadelphia has sent 30% of its trash to be burned at the largest trash incinerator in the country, which is owned by a company called Reworld. The Reworld Incinerator has been repeatedly cited for poor environmental practices. In fact, Reworld was cited again last month for not inspecting radioactive waste before burning it. It is located just down I-95 in the city of Chester. The American Lung Association who authored the recent report on our air quality, endorsed the Stop Trashing Our Air Act because, as stated in its letter of support, municipal waste incineration poses serious and well-documented risk to public health, particularly for those most vulnerable to air pollution, including children, older adults, individuals with pre-existing health conditions and communities of color that already face a disproportionate amount of environmental burdens. In Philadelphia, in our metro area more than 577,000 adults and 137,000 children live with asthma. And earlier we were talking about the Canadian wildfires. We remember that impact all the way here in Philadelphia. So I don't think I have to stress to you the impact that an incinerator in Chester would have on Philadelphia. So I have to ask, what are we doing to address large-scale polluters like the Reworld Incinerator? And how is the Health Department working to ensure that our city is not contracting with industries that contribute to polluting our air and making Philadelphians sick? (Applause.)
And then more specifically, the Parker Administration opposed the Stop Trashing Our Air Act, which would ban our city from contracting with polluting incinerators. Was that opposition informed by a public health perspective? And if so, what was your participation in the Parker Administration's opposition to the bill?
So, Councilmember, I can start by saying -- and I think you and your office are well aware my background is environmental health, and specifically environmental health and policy and environmental justice. With that said, the things that we can do in terms of the incinerator and working, when we were here for the Five Year Plan, I mentioned the city of Chester has recently gotten a new Health Commissioner. I've met with her once. I'm hoping to meet with her again, along with the Director of Health for Delaware County, to figure out the ways that we can partner and work on the items that are within our control in terms of providing them assistance. We are monitoring the air and we can gladly share the data. As far as because the incinerator and also the incinerator sits outside of the city of Philadelphia, all I can say is, wherever possible, we can partner to help. We will and that is --
Is our city's contracting within our control? You said we would do what was within our control to help. Is our city contracting something that's within our city's control?