COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA STATED MEETING Thursday, December 20, 2000 10:25 a.m. Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT ANNA C. VERNA COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE L. BLACKWELL COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN COUNCILMAN DARRELL L. CLARKE COUNCILMAN DAVID COHEN COUNCILMAN FRANK J. DICICCO COUNCILMAN W. WILSON GOODE, JR. COUNCILMAN JAMES F. KENNEY COUNCILWOMAN JOAN L. KRAJEWSKI COUNCILMAN W. THACHER LONGSTRETH COUNCILMAN RICHARD T. MARIANO COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER COUNCILMAN MICHAEL A. NUTTER COUNCILMAN BRIAN J. O'NEILL COUNCILMAN ANGEL L. ORTIZ COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO COUNCILWOMAN MARIAN B. TASCO PATRICIA RAFFERTY, Chief Clerk VINCENT VARALLO ASSOCIATES, INC. Registered Professional Reporters Eleven Penn Center, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 GREETING/INVOCATION P R O C E E D I N G S
Good morning, everyone. I note that the hour has come and that a quorum of this City Council present. The Council will come to order, members will take their seats, and visitors will retire to the seats outside the rails. To give our invocation this morning, the Chair welcomes Imam Miller of Baja Fellowship Mosque, who will deliver the prayer. He is here today as the guest of Councilman Mariano. Guests and members will please rise. (All rise.)
It's an honor to be welcomed here today, President of the Council and all the honored members and beloved citizens of Philadelphia. Even though, I'm a native of Pittsburgh, I'm allowed to address this crowd. I'd like to begin by making a little comment, that all of us are members of this good city, citizens of America, citizens of Pennsylvania, and we're coming together to try to come to a decision that will benefit everyone this city in the best way. GREETING/INVOCATION It's only God that possesses an endless supply of grace and bounty for mankind and an infinite reservoir of love. He is the only one who has no limitations. We, however, have limitations, and we must fit our expectations within those. And we have elected people that we have given the responsibility to try to do this. So we have to ask God's blessing on the members of Council and all of their officers and ask God's assistance in helping them come to a decision that will benefit all of us. We live in a great melting pot. In America at this time, the major religions are all having great celebrations -- Hannukah, (unintelligible) and Christmas; all of these things are happening at the same time this year. So there's great unity within our religious community, and we're all thinking of God at this time. Those who remember God remember that he can help us all and give us all what we need, so we should start by asking that one that has an infinite supply to help us and give us what we need in our city -- that our families can have an GREETING/INVOCATION income, that we can learn manly virtues and good conduct, and do away with things that are prejudicial, differences of race and creed and religion, and all of the things that the envy and jealousy and anger and rancor. All of these things, we should ask God to take away from our hearts, that we can come together as Philadelphians, as Pennsylvanians, and as human beings to reach a good decision that will be beneficial to all of us, and may God help us in this. I would like to recite the last part of the second chapter of the Koran, which is a little explanation and a supplication to God that contains something that I think will touch the hearts of all of us and also will provide a great blessing to those who have the burden of coming to the decisions within our community. This will be in Arabic, but I will translate it afterwards, and so bear with me a little bit, for those who aren't used to the Arabic. (Reverend Miller chants prayer in Arabic.) GREETING/INVOCATION
The translation means: Everything in the heavens in the girth is God's property. And whether you hide what your intentions are, what is within your heart, or whether you reveal it, God will bring you to account for this on the day of judgment. And God has power over everything. The messenger of God believes in God, and what was sent down to Him from God and what was sent down before Him, and so do all of those who have true belief in God. They believe in God, they believe in the angel of God, they believe in all of the prophets and messengers of God, and they believe in all of the Books of Revelation that have been sent down by God. They say, we don't create differences between any of the prophets and messengers of God; we accept all of them. And whatever God has revealed in his commandments, we say we have heard them and we have obeyed them. Please, God, forgive us. To You is our final destination. God does not burden us all with more than it can bear. What you have gathered as good qualities and honorable deeds in this life will be GREETING/INVOCATION your benefit on the day of judgment. What you have gathered out of rancor and hatred and evil qualities will be the burden of sin that you will have on the day of judgment. Hearing this, then we pray, O, our Lord, do not seize with us death at a moment that we have forgotten you and made a mistake. O, our Lord, do not give us a burden to carry a burden, a burden of sin like -- which the people that came before us had to bear. O, our Lord, do not give us a burden that is more than we can carry, that is more than we are able to take care of. So wipe away our record of sin and forgive us, and give us your grace and mercy. You indeed are our loving friend and helper, so help us against those who try to cover up and deny the truth. Grant this prayer for all of us, may we come together with great unity, may we honor and respect each other as people who are striving to help our community and to help our state and our nation, and may we have the love of God within our hearts. This is the melting pot; it isn't just that we live together, but we have to melt our hearts and feel the needs, the anxieties, the APPROVAL OF 12/14/00 JOURNAL hurts of other people as our own. May God give us this great boon in our community. Amen.
Amen. The Chair thanks Emam Miller for his inspiring invocation. Council will be at ease. (Council stands as ease, then resumes business.)
May we continue with our business, please. The next order of business is the approval of the Journal of the meeting of Thursday, December 14, 2000, and the Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell.
Thank you, Madam President. I move that the Journal of Thursday, September 14, 2000, stand approved. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that the Journal of the meeting of Thursday September 14, 2000 stand approved. LEAVES OF ABSENCE All those in favor will signify by saying aye. Those opposed? The ayes have it and the motion carries. The Journal of Thursday, December 14, 2000 stands approved.
The next order of business is requests for leave of absence, and the Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell.
Madam President, on behalf of the Majority, there are no requests for leaves of absence.
The Chair thanks the Councilwoman. The Chair recognizes Councilman O'Neill.
Madam President, on behalf of the Republicans, there are no requests for leaves of absence.
Today, we honor Bill Hankowsky. Over the years, we have come to rely on his knowledgeable, poised presence in these chambers. Bill's leaving his post at PIDC to work in the private sector, and we will miss his unique style and gentlemanly demeanor. Therefore, it is with conflicting emotions that I recognize Councilman DiCicco, Goode, and Mariano for a presentation. Will Bill Hankowsky and those accompanying him please join the Councilmembers at the podium. (Councilmembers and Mr. Hankowsky come forward.)
You know, Bill, we were supposed to do this in November, but we just got to it. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
Appropriate day, right? Thank you, Madam President. This is a resolution honoring William Hankowsky. Whereas, Philadelphia's top development PRESENTATION official and longtime key deal-maker is resigning his post as the President of the Philadelphia Industrial Development at the end of this year to join developer William Rouse's Liberty Property Trust; and Whereas, Mr. Hankowsky is a graduate of Brown University and also studied public administration at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. During the early 1980s, he was head of Camden's Department of Community Development. By the mid-'80s, Bill served as an executive at the old Reading Railroad Company, and in 1985, he became vice president at Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, and then Commerce Director under Mayor W. Wilson Goode in 1988; and
Whereas, Bill Hankowsky was appointed President to PIDC in March 1989 and since, has been the City's key development official for high-profile deals. (Unintelligible), he also established companies to expand or relocate the new companies to get off the ground; and Whereas, President of PIDC for eleven PRESENTATION years, Hankowsky has crafted deals for the Marriott, First Union Center, PNC Operations Centers, Crown Cork & Seal Headquarters, and many other hotel projects. As well, PIDC has been highly instrumental in the development of the American Street Corridor in North Philadelphia, West Parkside Business Park in West Philadelphia, and the Freedom Square Shopping Center in Germantown Avenue; and
Whereas, under his expert leadership and his commitment to professional excellence, PIDC has made good use of federal loans and the lure of tax breaks to make the City of Philadelphia a frugal investment for smart development, a tremendous boost to the economic well-being of the City; and Whereas, Bill Hankowsky serves on the Board of the Avenue of the Arts, the Convention and Visitors Bureau, Penn's Landing Corporation, North Philadelphia Health Systems, and University City Science Center, now, therefore
Resolved by the Council of the City of Philadelphia that we hereby honor, commends, and express sincere appreciation PRESENTATION on behalf of citizenry to William ("Bill") Hankowsky, who helped put Philadelphia back on the map as a vital attraction to economic development for corporations, big and small businesses, conventioneers, tourism and entertainment, and the arts. Further resolved that an engrossed copy of this resolution be presented to William ("Bill") Hankowsky, further evidencing the grateful appreciation and high commendation of this legislative body. We wish him tremendous success in all future endeavors and extend to him our thanks for many jobs well done. This is a certification that this is a true and correct copy of the original resolution adopted by the Council of the City of Philadelphia on the 2nd day of November, the year 2000, signed by Council President Anna C. Verna, introduced by myself, Councilman W. Wilson Goode, Jr., and Councilman Richard Mariano, and cosponsored by all members of City Council. Thank you, Bill. (Applause.)
The Chair PRESENTATION recognizes Mr. Hankowsky, who, I'm sure will agree, never got an ovation like this testifying before Council before.
Thank you very much, Council President Verna and members of Council, and thank you very much for the resolution and the kind words. This is kind of strange. Usually I'm over there, behind the table; I've rarely had the opportunity to ever be up here. I said it during one of the last hearings I testified at, and I want to repeat it, that I absolutely want to thank City Council, all of the members, the staffs, the technical staff, the Council President. I've always been treated fairly as a professional. We have sometimes disagreed, but I actually remember Councilman Cohen's comments, I think we've always disagreed with the same purpose in mind, which was to try to do what was right for the City of Philadelphia. And so I greatly appreciate the time that I've spent in this chamber, working with each of you in your districts, and I will remember it always. PRESENTATION I also simply want to say that I'm deeply grateful for having had the opportunity to serve. I think people often don't understand the public sector that well, discount it, but we all have a great opportunity to try to do something a little better for the citizens, make some kind of a difference, and I've been privileged to have had a small opportunity to participate in that over the last 15 years. I'll be forever grateful, I'll treasure all of the friendships I have in this chamber. And, again, I think you and wish everyone a happy holiday and a happy New Year, and I'll leave you to your important business of the day. Thank you. (Applause.)
Council will be at ease. Council stands at ease, then resumes business.)
The next order of business is communications. The chair requests that the Sergeant-at-Arms deliver SECOND READING - BILL 000721A messages to the clerk.
This special Council session of City Council was called for the purpose of considering stadium-related matters only. Therefore, hearing no objection, the Chair will dispense with the usual order of business and we will move directly to the consideration of the bills on second-reading and final-passage calendar. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell for the purpose of calling up bills on the second-reading and final-passage calendar.
Thank you, Madam President. Today, Bills No. 000705, 000706, 000723, 000724, 000725, 000728, 000729, 000730, 000731, 000732, and 000733 are being called up for second reading and final passage.
And there are two other bills on the final passage on the first page. SECOND READING - BILL 000721A
Yes, Madam President. Bill No. 000721-A and 000722-A.
Thank you. The clerk will please read the title of Bill No. 000721A.
An ordinance authorizing the Commissioner of Public Property and the Director of Commerce, on behalf of the City of Philadelphia (the "City"), to enter into a Ground Lease Agreement (the "Eagles Ground Lease") with the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development ("PAID") providing for the leasing by the City to PAID of certain parcels of land owned or to be acquired by the City, and further authorizing said officers to enter into a Prime Lease Agreement (the "Eagles Prime Lease") between PAID and the City, providing for the subleasing by PAID to the City of all or a portion of such land and certain improvements to be constructed thereon, including a football stadium and accessories and related amenities, improvements in infrastructure, and the payment of certain costs for such stadium complex, and further authorizing said officers to enter into a Leaseback-Lease SECOND READING - BILL 000721A Agreement (the "Eagles Leaseback") between PAID and the City providing for the sub-subleasing of said land as improved back from the City to PAID; covenanting to be bound by the terms of the aforementioned Eagles Ground Lease, Eagles Prime Lease, and Eagles Leaseback; and obligating PAID to finance a portion of the costs of the acquisition of such land and any additional land in connection with the sports stadia or sports complex, demolition, site preparation, improvements, and infrastructure in connection therewith and a portion of any and all other costs incurred in connection with the sports stadia; imposing a limitation on the aggregate amount of bonds which are to be issued by PAID to finance or refinance the project; covenanting to make appropriations in each of the City's fiscal years to provide for all payments due under the Eagles Prime Lease; dedicating the vehicle rental tax authorized by Act 25 of 1999 to the new sports stadia projects; authorizing the Director of Finance and other officials of the City to take all actions necessary to accomplish the intent and purpose of this ordinance and the Eagles Ground SECOND READING - BILL 000721A Lease, Eagles Prime Lease, Eagles Leaseback, and an Eagles Lease and Development Agreement between the Philadelphia Eagles Limited Partnership, or its successor, as holder of the National Football League franchise for the City or a controlled affiliate and PAID containing the terms and conditions substantially as approved herein; and authorizing approval of all of the terms of the aforementioned leases and other documents and amendments thereto by the Director of Finance and/or the City Solicitor.
Thank you, Madam President. I'd like the to take an opportunity to say a few words about this bill and all of the other bills that are going to appear on this calendar today. Obviously, this has been an extremely long road for all of us in Council, including the Council President, and I admire your stamina and your ability and desire to protect your community, and I think you've done a very good job at that, considering the circumstances. SECOND READING - BILL 000721A But every major city in this country that has gone through this process started this process at least two years in advance, whether it was Baltimore or Cleveland or Denver or Houston, or any other city that's built a football facility or a baseball facility, began this process with attempting to create a groundswell of support within the community from labor and from business, from people in the neighborhoods, to try to explain to them and evangelize to them why this kind of project is important -- the kind of construction jobs and other jobs it brings, the tax ratables, the panache, the psychic invigoration that it is to have major sports franchises in our city. This city, however, did not proceed in that way. And it goes back to the last administration. When Mayor Rendell chose Broad and Spring Garden, he did so with very little consultation with the community, with basically any consultation with the community. Councilmember Clarke attempted the best way he could to bring his community and Spring Garden into the process. However, they were skeptical, SECOND READING - BILL 000721A and they should have been skeptical 'cause they weren't a part of making this major public development project happen. It was kind of dropped in their laps, and they decided that they weren't going to accept having it dropped in their laps and they began to hunker down and at attempt to defend themselves from what they thought was an intrusion. Instead of having the opportunity to convince them, to talk to them, to explain to them, to do the traffic studies, to do the environmental impact studies, to do the things that were necessary to convince people who live in this city, who are paying for these facilities, that this is in fact a good thing to do, never happened. I remember during the course of that controversy, I called a unnamed member of the Phillies executive office and said to him, Why aren't you out there in the neighborhood? Why don't you have Harry Callas and Gary Maddox and all of your staff people in people's kitchens and having coffee klatches and bringing out the pictures and showing the things that were going to happen, how good it would be for their SECOND READING - BILL 000721A neighborhood. And he said, We wanted to do that, we tried to do that, but Mayor Rendell told us not to do it because he would handle. Well, he handled it and, to his credit, he admitted he had handled it badly. So then he drops the stadium in South Philadelphia, and the people in South Philadelphia, they're no dummies; they're as smart as the people in Spring Garden. They say, Well, if they don't want it, why should we want it? And now time's ticking, and the end of the Rendell Administration's coming. And the people in South Philadelphia hunkered down and attempted to defend themselves for what they believe is an intrusion. They shouldn't have viewed this project as an intrusion, we should been able to convince them, through a open governmental process, that this was in fact a good thing, not only for them, but for the City; we didn't do that, Mayor Rendell pulled the plug and left office. One would hope that the next administration, who was intimately involved with this project, would have learned from past mistakes, but that didn't happen. The Mayor, SECOND READING - BILL 000721A Mayor Street, chose Chinatown -- not on anyone's list of possible sites, not a possible site that was ever analyzed by any commission or group of people or PIDC: Here, Chinatown, here's your stadium.
And, again, they hunkered down and attempted to defend themselves from a perceived intrusion, because they weren't a part of the process. And the next thing that happened was perhaps the dumbest vote I've ever made in this Council, and I hope to avoid it in the future. I believed the Mayor when he said to me, Do me a favor, let's set this November 30th deadline on ourselves because this will move the process forward. Well, ladies and gentlemen, what we did was, we took a gun, we filled every chamber with a bullet, we put it to our head, and we started playing Russian roulette. And nothing happened. There was a commission established by the Mayor to do the Chinatown due diligence. And early on, that Commission clearly realized, 'cause they weren't stupid people either, that this project was going to take longer than November 30, 2000, and the Mayor knew that, and he never told SECOND READING - BILL 000721A us, and he never pulled the plug on Chinatown. And we went through the summer and the fall with no consultations with the teams, no negotiations with anyone, no consultations with the community, and four -- three or four weeks out of our last ability -- our last day in Council here, we get dropped on our laps and in South Philadelphia's laps a project that's three inches thick in documents, and around asked to approve this project, which we are going to do today. And I'm going to vote for it 'cause I believe that doing the opposite, fixing up the Vet and buying a practice facility, with that stupid vote I made on the November 30th deadline, is worse in the taxpayers' interest than voting on this stadium today. So it's a choice between a relatively bad and a worse deal, and I'm willing to go with the bad deal to get thing moving and on its way. The Mayor today in the paper has talked about the $53 million hole in this project. And the one thing that I'm happy for and the one thing I also give Council President Verna credit for is the City will not be required to pay that SECOND READING - BILL 000721A $53 million -- that's in the bill, and we will not be asked to provide any additional money. But the Mayor says that he has a plan for this $53 million hole but he is not at liberty to talk about it. It's a $1 billion public works project, and this is like acted as if it's the CIA. We are not at liberty to talk about it. Well, if you can't talk to us, who are elected by people in this city and you can't talk to people in the City who elected us, who are certainly going to pay this bill, why are you not at liberty to say? Just give us this information. This entire process has been earmarked by lack of information, by clandestine negotiations, and the inopportunity for us, as elected officials in this city, to really understand and then convince our own constituents why this is a good thing. So this gets passed today, not with hugs and handshakes and high fives, but with an air of suspicion and a belief that the public wasn't part of the process because, guess what, they weren't a part of the process. Recently, an editorial cartoon was in SECOND READING - BILL 000721A the paper and some people in the second floor were upset about it and some people in Council may have been upset about it. I, frankly, got a chuckle out of it, I thought it was well-done. And it's a picture of Mayor Street walking his pets, and a number of us who are pictured in there -- my kids have cut it out and put it on the refrigerator 'cause they got a laugh out of what Dad looks like in a cartoon. But also, I kept it there because I want to remember that cartoon. That cartoon is missing one thing: We put those leashes on our own necks, we put 'em around our own necks and allowed the Mayor to walk us. And I think that I want to bring to you a statement or a saying that I've heard many times in my life: Abuse me once, shame on me; abuse me twice, shame on me.
There are things coming before this body in the next months and years, like blight initiatives, PGW, the schools, and many other things that are going to cost the City a lot of money. If we allow this to happen to ourselves again, shame on us, because we are the ones who have put ourselves in this position. SECOND READING - BILL 000721A Thank you.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Ortiz. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Vince Fumo has spoken. (Laughter.)
Gentlemen, please, we're not going to tolerate that.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilman Kenney just convinced me to vote no on this bill. But I think Christmas has come early for some people, mainly the Phillies and the Eagles. I think Jim has described the process we have gone through very well. It has been shameful, we've been treated badly. We have not been given information, we have been expected to act on probably the biggest public project in the history of Philadelphia, and we acted blindly. Documents that we got the other day at 12 o'clock, 1 o'clock in the morning were not complete, there were blank spaces on the leases. And if you're for this or you're SECOND READING - BILL 000721A against it, I think you have to be in agreement with Jim in terms that the process stinks, that this body was not given the respect that it deserved or that it asked for throughout the year, because we kept asking that these documents be given in a timely fashion. So we didn't have the time to really delve into the economics of this project. We do know that the public subsidy -and just because the money may come from Harrisburg, it does not mean that that is not a public subsidy. Those are taxpayers' money, those are people from Philadelphia money coming back through the State legislature or the government. We didn't have the time to really test out all of the economic theories that were put before us. We didn't have the time to really test what Jimmy said today in the paper, that if we didn't build this, the teams would go because we don't have a sense of what the market is out there. We didn't take the time to listen to the experience of other cities. It is as if Philadelphia lived in a vacuum and everything that happens outside of the boarders, past Cheltenham SECOND READING - BILL 000721A Avenue and across the bridge and across the country, really does not concern us, affect us, or impact on us, and that we have nothing to learn from the experience of other cities. We refuse to learn and refuse to read what the experts on this field tell us about public subsidies and stadiums, what the experts tell us about the benefit to the cities and the taxpayers of where these stadiums are built with public money and what is the return on investment that the citizens got for this. I am a baseball fan, I love baseball, I love to go to the stadium. Wrigley Field is like a gem. They might tear it down one day, and that would be a sin. Fenway Park, the same way. But the benefits that are going to accrue to this are benefits for the owners and the Eagles. We will have a few construction jobs for a couple of months, and then we will have people that work in these cathedrals of sports earning wages that start at the minimum wage with no benefits. And we said we have no room for that. 50 an hour. We keep saying that this is where our future lies and Ed Rendell and then John Street made the argument that these were going to be engines of economic development. But history doesn't say that, the studies that have been done doesn't say that. And it was going to be an engine of economic development when it was going to be placed in Center City. But neighborhoods rebelled and said, for instance, Spring Garden, no, and then in Chinatown, no. And in South Philadelphia, the neighbors also began asking for their just due, as they should have been. But we missed the point. The stadiums don't belong to any one neighborhood. This is a City project, with impact on every person across the City of Philadelphia, whether you live in the far Northeast, in Port Richmond, Central Philadelphia, West Philly, or Roxborough. It isn't a concern just to the individuals and neighbors who are going to have the stadium within a couple of blocks from them. It is a concern of every citizen that they have to SECOND READING - BILL 000721A understand how public monies are going to be spent and whether they're going to be spent for a public purpose.
I don't think the citizens of this city understand why we're making this investment because the reason and the process was hurried to prevent that debate from taking place. It was not encouraged, it was not looked for. We were not functioning on the timetable of the citizens of Philadelphia; we were functioning on the timetable of the Eagles and the Phillies. And that's fine, if you work for the Eagles and the Phillies. But we don't work for the Eagles and the Phillies; we work for the citizens of Philadelphia. We should have been operating on their timetable, we should have been listening to what they want to do. And it's strange and in a very prophetic and almost mystical manner. Now, the day we voted, and we may have problems with the persons, but on the day we voted, this Council chambers was filled with homeless kids and homeless families, and on the second floor, a very courageous woman -- in fact, an incredible woman, a woman that has demonstrated SECOND READING - BILL 000721A a courage seldom seen. And she was risking her life, risking her life. And not only that, the disease she got was because she was risking her life, trying to save some of our citizens. Mary. I like to call her "Mary," it's a great name for the season. There was a Mary that was traveling during this period of time with her husband, Joseph -- with her husband, Joseph. And it's a Mary that reminds us of where our priorities are wrong, because while the Administration was arguing that if we spent a few million dollars trying to live up to the contract that the firefighters have won fairly, squarely by following the rules, through binding arbitration because they cannot go on strike, they argued that if they spent a few million dollars, the City would face financial calamity. Here, we're putting forward for the next 30 years over 1 percent of our operational budget, without having a thorough analysis of the market, the business, the ability to pay of those individuals that are going to benefit, but we know that they will benefit and we don't know whether we will. 'Cause that question remains very SECOND READING - BILL 000721A unanswered, and we don't have the answers to it because we didn't get to go through the process. And we might be satisfied, we may feel inroads. We got a children's fund with no COLA, no inflation aspect to it. And that's good, that's a benefit. We have some wording in the legislature and the lease that calls for minority contracting and minority employment in the construction, percentages that go up to 49 percent. I support that, I would look forward to that happening. But the language in there says "good-faith efforts," and it's going to take huge, huge monitoring process to assure that those things happen, and this Council better make sure that those things happen. It is not a good deal, even those who are voting for it admit that it's not. If it is not a good deal, it means that it's not a good deal for the people, not for the teams. Jim says that fool me once, it's your fault; fool me twice, it's mine. Let us hope that this shameful process that we went through does not repeat itself, that when the economics of situations come about, that we stand up for the citizens. SECOND READING - BILL 000721A We have a bill in committee that's about a children's fund, something that we should ask developers, people who continuously come before this body and get rich and ask for tax breaks and corporate welfare. And when we ask for some of that, because they're not going to be paying taxes, when we ask for some of that to be diverted and put towards children, towards the school system, we say that that cannot happen, we say that that could cause problems, and we say that that will prevent development. It prevents development if we don't insist on it. They have already -- and people, developers think that they can come before this body and just ask for it, even when they don't need and it, and they usually get it. And I've been at fault.
And let us take this as a lesson. Let us do the right thing. I'll be voting no on 721 and 722 because it is the wrong way to use public funds and specifically the wrong way to use public funds when you have not gotten all of the answers, when you don't know what the market really is. They just paid a ballplayer $252 million, SECOND READING - BILL 000721A $252 million. They are not going broke, they can afford it. The question is, can the people of Philadelphia afford it? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Cohen.
Councilman, I think you deserve a little more respect than that. Can we have silence, please. Councilman Cohen.
Thank you. This could be really a tremendous day for Philadelphians. This could be a day in which the Council has before it in our chambers packed with members of the building trades union, a great day for everybody to rejoice because this could be a day in which the Mayor and the City Council together could be announcing a billion dollars to be spent over the next 30 years, a billion dollars of City of Philadelphia tax funds, in addition to some State funding, to go to build 50 new schools to replace the old derelict schools, maybe 10 new SECOND READING - BILL 000721A fire stations, maybe 10 new police stations, maybe 15 or 20 new recreation centers, maybe we could participate in the dreams of the library. It would be such a wonderful day because it would be a day in which the people of Philadelphia could see that the City was being renewed. But that's not the bills before us today. Today, it's to take more than a billion dollars of City of Philadelphia tax money to be spent over the next 30 years in order to support teams that make huge prophets, that pay huge salaries, that pay huge other salaries not only to players but to the various team officials that make enormous profits. This is a day in which Philadelphia tax funds are being used not for Philadelphians but for private interests. And I think that's a shame because it could provide all of the work that construction workers could dream of and they could go home at night, understanding that what they've built was the real strength for Philadelphia -- educated kids, kids trained in sports at the high school levels, at the grade school levels, kids with libraries open to them to enlarge their minds. SECOND READING - BILL 000721A But that's not for today. I agree substantially with all of the comments made by Councilman Kenney and Councilman Ortiz, except I don't agree with Councilman Kenney's conclusion and, therefore, Madam President, I will be voting against all of the stadium bills except the two that give protection to the people in South Philadelphia. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilman O'Neill.
Thank you, Madam President. Let me just try to squeeze a few positive thoughts into this discussion. One thing that comes to mind is that when Mayor Street took office, he had a very difficult situation. The ideal site for economic development purposes, for attendance potential was already off the table -- the Broad and Spring Garden site. At the very end of his transition team's work -- and I believe it was sometime in late January or February -- they were ready to SECOND READING - BILL 000721A make their report, and that day, the 12th and Vine site was presented. The Mayor could have just tossed that away and said, Too late, sorry transition team's finished. Instead, he took on the challenge and it turned out to be more than anybody could mount to make that site happen. And that was the only site that had any potential to have the Center City ring get the kind of development potential that a stadium would bring to it and has brought to several other cities. So I just don't want to see that lost in the discussion. Then the Mayor and Council agreed on dates that we would get this done, knowing the teams had a gun to our head, that we had placed there, and if we hadn't placed it there, we probably would still be talking about this ten years from now. But the Mayor then said he was not going to entertain stadium discussions while he had teachers ready to go out on strike. And it wasn't just the typical how much do the teachers get; this was setting forth a whole new area of reform -- era of reform in the School District. SECOND READING - BILL 000721A A whole lot of things the Mayor has done -- and I've mentioned it to him and I've talked to other people around the country, asking how he's doing, and I say, Well, the Mayor has a way of hitting a home run and the newspapers report it as he's tried to stretch a single into a double and it was thrown out. His PR is not the best, but I believe that he's honest, he's smart. I think he got everything he thought he could get out of these teams in the negotiations. And the way our government is set up, that's his role, and it's our role today to review it. We may not have enough time -- and this isn't the first time I've sat in this chamber and we thought, Wouldn't it be nice to have more time on this? But let's not forget that the 53 or $54 million hole in this deal from our purposes isn't really a hole at all, because it was the Mayor's suggestion, when he testified on these bills, that he would accept an amendment that no City dollars would be used to cover that hole. Then you look at the risk-taking here. And clearly, much more so than in any other deal SECOND READING - BILL 000721A I'm aware of, with the exception possibly of the San Francisco baseball team, the teams are sharing in the same risk as the taxpayers; that's not always the case. In the Vets Stadium case, it was all taxpayers. Many of the stadium deals around I the country that have been very heavily subsidized have been taxpayer risk deals. And when you hear the explanation of all of the things that are taxed at the Vet -- I think everything except going to the bathroom is taxed, and maybe they'll find a way to tax that in the future, but the taxes from the time you buy your ticket, the ticket tax, the amusement tax to almost everything that happens down there is taxed, and those monies are factored into this deal. We all know that it's somewhere between 85 and 90 percent of fans come from outside the City. We know that the rental cars that are going to help pay for this stadium construction are primarily nonresidents. So what we wind up with is a deal where somewhere in or around 90 percent of whatever dollars somebody puts on this from the City's share is being paid by nonresidents, and SECOND READING - BILL 000721A the share that might be paid by residents, we pay by fans going to the games and having so many of their activities taxed.
When you look at the deal that at the end of the Rendell Administration we were looking at, although it never really came to us, it had the North Lot involved, and I don't think anybody should underestimate the cost involved with your strong advocacy for your district of moving the stadium off the North Lot, where Mayor Street found it in the plans, and adding thousands and thousands of parking spaces that were not in the previous plan that will also help relieve the neighbors' problems with parking because there will be enough spots and easier to direct them and easier to cite people who park in the residential areas. That's not insignificant. The risk for the teams and the City are clear, 'cause they're all putting up sizeable amounts of money. And there's a lot of numbers that have to occur for the teams to be able to do it, for the City to be comfortable in the long run. So, yes, we're always taking a risk when we do a deal. How many deals did we do in the SECOND READING - BILL 000721A Rendell Administration? And we took a risk in every one of them. If we took the doomsday projections, we would never do any of them. And I sit as Councilman -- I run for office as an optimist, as somebody who's positive, that thinks we can make a difference. If we come here with a half-empty mentality, I don't think we'd get anywhere, we wouldn't do anything, because there's always a risk, there's always a reason to hesitate. But the one area of the deal that I find a little lacking is in the naming rights, 'cause I think the upside potential for the teams above and beyond their pro formas is really potentially large because of what's been happening with naming rights around the country lately. On the upside for the City, it's development that may happen because of the concentration of facilities in one area -particularly, if there's commercial or office development down there. So there is -- there is potential payoffs on both sides that maybe go beyond the parameters of the deal itself. But the Children's Fund is where the SECOND READING - BILL 000721A Mayor negotiated a way any participation in naming rights, even beyond the -- the proforma numbers of the team. And while I may not agree with it, it's a part of larger negotiation where there was give-and-take on all sides. So I'm looking at a deal that, yeah, it's not perfect. I think we'd be doing it even if we weren't looking at the potential nightmare of Veterans Stadium. One risk we're not taking, while we're talking about Vets Stadium and all of the millions and millions of dollars we'd have to put in there, with no guarantee of teams playing there for very long, is that when the Vet was constructed, there was a whole lot of risk. It was an experiment; only three cities in the country were building these multi-use stadiums, and they all failed. It took 30 years for the failure to be finalized, but they all failed. No one builds that kind of stadium anymore and nobody has built it since. These stadiums, from their structural standpoint and their use standpoint, are not a risk, we don't have to worry. Someone said to me this morning, Well, how long are the teams bound? SECOND READING - BILL 000721A In the Vet, you had to worry about how long they were bound. These teams are invested in these stadiums and they have state-of-the-art facilities, that we don't have to worry them leaving. We don't even have to worry about them fixing them up; they'll fix them up for own self-interest. That's a major departure from what we were doing here 30-some years ago, when the Veterans Stadium was approved after about 10 years of wrangling. I think there was discussion started in the early '60s and finished in the late '60s, and the cost doubled during that time. And as expensive as these stadiums are, if we had done this three or four years ago, it probably would have been about half the expense.
The City of Detroit's a good example, having built two of these stadiums for about half of what we are paying. So there's plenty of reasons not to do it, but I think the Mayor should be given some credit sometime for doing a very difficult deal and maximizing the teams' contribution, minimizing the City's risk, and even agreeing to the empty SECOND READING - BILL 000721A spot of $54 million that the deal would fall completely and come apart if the City taxpayer had to be exposed. So I will be voting for this. I don't think it's perfect, but I don't think we have to apologize for it either. Thank you. )
Bill 000721A, having been read on two different days, the question now is, shall the bill pass finally? The clerk will please call the roll.
Aye. SECOND READING - BILL 000721A The nays are 2, the ayes are 15. A majority of all members of Council having voted in the affirmative, the bill passes. (Applause.)
The clerk will please read the title of Bill No. 000722A.
An ordinance authorizing the Commissioner of Public Property -
Pat, hold on a minute, please. Can we please proceed in silence so we could hear each other. Thank you. The clerk will please read the title of Bill No. 000722A.
An ordinance authorizing the Commissioner of Public Property and the Director of Commerce, on behalf of the City of Philadelphia (the "City"), to enter into a Ground Lease Agreement (the "Phillies Ground Lease") with the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development ("PAID") providing for the leasing by the City to PAID of certain parcels of the land owned or to be acquired by the City, and further SECOND READING - BILL 000722A authorizing said officers to enter into a Prime Lease Agreement (the "Phillies Prime Lease") between PAID and the City providing for the subleasing by PAID to the City of all or a portion of such land and certain improvements to be constructed thereon, including a baseball ballpark and accessory and related amenities, improvements and infrastructure, and the payment of certain costs for such stadium complex, and further authorizing said officers to enter into a Leaseback-Lease Agreement (the "Phillies Leaseback") between PAID and the City providing for the sub-subleasing of said land as improved back from the City to PAID; covenanting to be bound by the terms of the aforementioned Phillies Ground Lease, Phillies Prime Lease, and Phillies Leaseback; and obligating PAID to finance a portion of the cost of the acquisition of such land and any additional land in connection with the sports stadia or sports complex, demolition, site preparation, improvements and infrastructure in connection therewith, and a portion of any and all other costs incurred in connection with the sports stadia; imposing a limitation on the SECOND READING - BILL 000722A aggregate amount of Bonds which are to be issued by PAID to finance or refinance the project; covenanting to make appropriations in each of the City's fiscal years to provide for all payments due under the Phillies Prime Lease; dedicating the vehicle rental tax authorized by Act 25 of 1999 to the new sports stadia projects; authorizing the Director of Finance and other officials of the City to take all actions necessary to accomplish the intent and purpose of this ordinance and the Phillies Ground Lease, Phillies Prime Lease, Phillies Leaseback, and a Phillies Lease and Development Agreement between the Phillies, a Pennsylvania Limited Partnership, or its successor, as holder of the Major League Baseball franchise for the City or a controlled affiliate and PAID containing the terms and conditions substantially as approved herein; and authorizing approval of all of the terms of the aforementioned leases and other documents and amendments thereto by the Director of Finance and/or the City Solicitor.
We will pause to give our visitors who are leaving to do so in a SECOND READING - BILL 000722A very quiet manner, please. This bill having been read on two different days, the question now is, shall the bill pass finally? The clerk will please call the roll.
Aye. The ayes are 15, the nays are 2. A majority of all members of Council having voted in the affirmative, this bill passes. (Applause.)
The clerk will please read the title of Bill No. 000705.
An ordinance authorizing SECOND READING - BILL 000722A the Commissioner of Public Property, on behalf of the City, to enter into a lease agreement with the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development providing for the leasing by the City to the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development of Veterans Memorial Stadium, including a Ground Lease of land underneath Veterans Memorial Stadium, and obligating the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development to finance certain repairs to Veterans Memorial Stadium to be made by the City, all subject to the rights of the Phillies and the Eagles under their existing team leases, and authorizing a Sublease Agreement between the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development and the City providing for the subleasing of Veterans Memorial Stadium and the land back from the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development to the City; covenanting to be bound by the terms of the lease and sublease; imposing a limit on the aggregate amount of Bonds which are to be issued by the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development to finance or refinance the costs of the Rehabilitation; covenanting to make appropriations in each of the SECOND READING - BILL 000705 City's fiscal years to provide for rental payments due under the Sublease; authorizing the Director of Finance and all other officials of the City to take all action necessary to accomplish the intent and purpose of this ordinance or the Lease and Sublease; and authorizing approval of all of the terms of certain documents by the Director of Finance.
This bill having been read on two different days, the question now is, shall this bill pass finally? The clerk will please call the roll.
Aye. SECOND READING - BILL 000705 The ayes are 15, the nays are 2. A majority of all members of Council having voted in the affirmative, this bill also passes. (Applause.)
The clerk will please read the title of Bill No. 000706.
An ordinance amending Bill 000003, adopting a Capital Program for the six Fiscal Year 2001-2006 inclusive, and amending Bill 000004, adopting a Fiscal 2001 Capital Budget, each to provide authorization of certain capital repairs, renovations, and replacements to Veterans Stadium as part of said Capital Program and Fiscal 2001 Capital Budget.
This bill having been read on two different days, the question now is, shall the bill pass finally? The clerk will please call the roll.
Aye. The ayes are 15, the nays are 2. A majority of all members having voted in the affirmative, the bill passes. (Applause.)
The clerk will please read the title of Bill No. 000723.
An ordinance amending an ordinance approved April 11, 2000 (Bill 000003) relating to the Capital Program for the Fiscal Years 2001-2006 by adding a project and an amount in the Department of Public Property.
This bill having been read two different days, the question now is, shall the bill pass finally? The clerk will please call the roll.
Aye. The ayes are 15, the nays are 2. A majority of all members of Council having voted in the affirmative, this bill passes. (Applause.)
The clerk will please read the title of Bill No. 000724.
An ordinance amending an ordinance approved April 11, 2000 (Bill 000004), relating to the Fiscal 2001 Capital Budget by adding a project and an amount in the Department of Public Property.
This bill having been read on two different days, the question now is, shall the bill pass finally? The clerk will please call the roll. SECOND READING - BILL 000724
Aye. The ayes are 15, the nays are 2. A majority of all members of Council having voted in the affirmative, the bill passes. (Applause.) The clerk will please read the title of Bill No. 000725.
An ordinance authorizing Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development to file an application and enter into a grant agreement with the Office of the Budget, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, under the Capital Redevelopment Assistance Program to provide SECOND READING - BILL 000725 partial funding to assist in the development of a professional baseball stadium and a professional football stadium and training facility in the City of Philadelphia ("City"); and making certain related assurances.
This bill having been read on two different days, the question now is, shall the bill pass finally? The clerk will call the roll.
Aye. The ayes are 15, the nays are 2. A majority of all members of Council having voted in the affirmative, this bill passes. SECOND READING - BILL 000725 (Applause.)
The clerk will please read the title of Bill No. 000728.
An ordinance to amend the Philadelphia Zoning Maps, by changing the zoning designations of certain areas of land located within an area bounded by Packer Avenue, Tenth Street, Pattison Avenue, 11th Street, the Delaware (I-95) Expressway, and Lawrence Street.
This bill having been read two different days, the question now is, shall the bill pass finally? The clerk will please call the roll.
Aye. The ayes are 15, the nays are 2. A majority of all members of Council -- I'm sorry. Oh, you voted -- well, with all the noise in here, it's very difficult to hear. Both you and Councilman Ortiz voted aye?
Yes, please do, because it's very difficult to hear with all of the noise in here. The ayes are 17, the nays are 0. A majority of all members having voted in the affirmative, this bill passes. (Applause.)
The clerk will please read the title of Bill No. 000729.
An ordinance authorizing Commissioner of Public Property, on behalf of the City of Philadelphia, to inquire by amicable negotiations or by condemnation, fee simple title to a certain parcel of real estate with the improvements situated thereon (and any covenance, SECOND READING - BILL 000729 restrictions, easements, and other matters that burden said parcel of real estate and/or the improvements thereon) located on the southerly side of Pattison Avenue between Eleventh Street and Darien Street and extending southwardly to the Delaware (I-95) Expressway of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
This bill having been read on two different days, the question now is, shall the bill pass finally. The clerk will please call the roll.
Aye. The ayes are 15, the nays are 0. A SECOND READING - BILL 000729 majority of all members Council having voted in the affirmative, the bill passes. (Applause.)
The clerk will please read the title of Bill No. 000730.
An ordinance authorizing the Commissioner of Public Property, on behalf of the City of Philadelphia to acquire by amicable negotiations or by condemnation, fee simple title to a certain parcel of real estate with the improvement situated thereon (and any covenance, restrictions, easements, and other matters that burden said parcel of real estate and/or the improvements thereon) located on the easterly side of Darien Street south of Pattison Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and to transfer that parcel to the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development in fee for a nominal consideration.
Madam Chair, thank you. I'm going to be abstaining on this Bill 730. The law firm with which I am associated represents SECOND READING - BILL 000730 the condemnee in this matter, and I am not taking part in any deliberations or discussions of this -- the contents of this bill. Thank you.
Thank you. This bill having been read on two different days, the question now is, shall the bill pass finally? The clerk will please call the roll.
Aye. The ayes are 14, the nays are 2, and Councilman O'Neill has abstained from voting on this bill. The majority of all of Council having voted in the affirmative, this bill also passes. The clerk will please read the title of SECOND READING - BILL 000730 Bill No. 000731.
An ordinance authorizing the Commissioner of Public Property, on behalf of the City of Philadelphia, to acquire by certain amicable negotiations or by condemnation, fee simple title to a certain parcel of real estate with the improvements situated thereon (and any covenance, restrictions, easements, and other matters that burden said parcel of real estate and/or the improvements thereon) located on the northeast corner of Pattison Avenue and Darien Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
This bill having been read on two different days, the question now is, shall the bill pass finally? The clerk will please call the roll.
Aye. The ayes are 15, the nays are 0. A majority of all members of Council having voted in the affirmative, this bill passes. The clerk will please read the title of Bill No. 000732.
An ordinance authorizing the Commissioner of Public Property, on behalf of the City of Philadelphia, to acquire by amicable negotiations or by condemnation, fee simple title to a certain parcel of real estate with the improvements situated thereon (and any covenance, restrictions, easements, and other matters that burden said parcel of real estate and/or the improvements thereon) located on the northeast corner of Pattison Avenue and Tenth Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
This bill having been read on two different days, the question now is, shall the bill pass finally. The clerk will please call the roll. SECOND READING - BILL 000732
Aye. The ayes are 15, the nays are 2. A majority of ail members of Council having voted in the affirmative, the bill passes. The clerk will please read the title of Bill No. 000733.
An ordinance authorizing the Commissioner of Public Property, on behalf of the City of Philadelphia, to acquire by amicable negotiations or by condemnation fee simple title to a certain parcel of real estate with the improvements situated thereon (and any covenance, restrictions, easements, and other matters that SECOND READING - BILL 000733 burden said parcel of real estate and/or the improvements thereon) located on the easterly side the Darien Street, north of Pattison Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
This bill having been read two different days, the question now is, shall the bill pass finally? The clerk will please call the roll.
Aye. The ayes are 15, the nays are 2. A majority of all members of Council having voted in the affirmative, this bill passes. This concludes our calendar SECOND READING - BILL 000733
Are there any speeches on the part of Majority? The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I would be remiss not to acknowledge that this has been an extraordinarily remarkable year for me, from the wonderful ceremony of the inauguration at the Academy of Music to the work that came with an ultimate passing of my first bill on behalf of family day care providers, to the inclusion of the Children's Fund in the historic stadium negotiations. So I have to say thank you to all of those who made it happen. At the holiday season, my thoughts turn gratefully to those who gave me this unique opportunity to serve. For me, there's no better time than now to say thank you. So to the citizens of this city, to labor, to the clergy, to the business community, to the educational community, and the grassroot community I say thank you. SPEECHES And then, finally, in closing, to my colleagues of this body, I want to say thank you to them for the meetings and the phone calls and response to correspondence on issues that matter to me. And to all of you, I say it's a pleasure to serve as a member of this legislative body.
At this time, I would like to wish each and every one of you a very happy holiday season. And I would like to recognize Councilwoman Tasco for a motion to adjourn.
Thank you, Madam President. On behalf of all Councilmembers, we wish you a happy holiday too.
I move that Council stand adjourned until Tuesday, January, 23, 2001, at 10 a.m.
All in favor? Those opposed? Council will stand adjourned until Tuesday, January 23, 2001, at 10 a.m. ADJOURNMENT Thank you all very much. (Applause.) (Adjourned at 11:38 a.m.) C E R T I F I C A T E I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of Wednesday, December 20, 2000, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of same. RE: STATED MEETING __________________________________, JOSEPHINE CARDILLO, Registered Professional Reporter