COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC HEARING AND PUBLIC MEETING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, February 9, 2000 10:05 a.m. - - - BILL 000012 - Authorizing transfers in appropriations for FY 2000 within the Grants Revenue Fund from the Director of Finance- Provision for Other Grants to the Police Department, the Department of Human Services, the Office of Emergency Shelter and Services, and the Board of Trustees of the Free Library of Philadelphia. BILL 000013 - Authorizing transfers in appropriations for FY 2000 within the General Fund from certain or all City offices, departments, boards, and commissions to certain or all City offices, departments, boards, and commissions. PRESENT: COUNCILWOMAN JOAN L. KRAJEWSKI, Chair COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE L. BLACKWELL COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN COUNCILMAN DARRELL L. CLARKE COUNCILMAN W. THACHER LONGSTRETH COUNCILMAN RICHARD T. MARIANO COUNCILMAN MICHAEL A. NUTTER COUNCILMAN BRIAN J. O'NEILL COUNCILMAN ANGEL L. ORTIZ - - - VINCENT VARALLO ASSOCIATES, INC. Registered Professional Reporters Eleven Penn Center, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 561-2220 2 APPROPRIATIONS - BILL NO.'s 000012, 13 I N D E X Robert Dubow, Budget Director. . . . . . . . . 3 Christopher Lane, Esquire. . . . . . . . . . . 11 Director of Administration of Management Law Department William Carapucci. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Acting Recreation Commissioner Thomas Nestel, Deputy Police Commissioner. . . 24 10 Jackie Henry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Administrative Services Director, MOIS 3 APPROPRIATIONS - BILL NO.'s 000012, 13 P R O C E E D I N G S
Good morning. The Committee on Appropriations is now in session. Will the clerk please read the title of the bills.
Bill No. 000012, an ordinance authorizing transfers in appropriations for Fiscal Year 2000 within the Grants Revenue Fund from the Director of Finance-Provision for Other Grants to the Police Department, the Department of Human Services, the Office of Emergency Shelter and Services, and the Board of Trustees of the Free Library of Philadelphia. Bill No. 000013, an ordinance 16 authorizing transfers in appropriations for Fiscal Year 2000 within the General Fund from certain or all City offices, departments, boards, and commissions to certain or all City offices, departments, boards, and commissions.
Will the Administration please come forward. (Rob Dubow comes forward.)
Good morning. Good 4 APPROPRIATIONS - BILL NO.'s 000012, 13 morning, Councilwoman Krajewski and members of the Appropriations Committee. My name is Rob Dubow, and I serve as the Budget Director of the City. I appear before you today to offer testimony on Bill 6 000012 and 000013, which make FY 2000 budget appropriation transfers between and among classes and departments in the City's General Fund and the Grants Revenue Fund. I'm going to start with Bill 000013, which is the Fiscal 2000 General Fund Midyear Transfer Ordinance. As shown in Exhibit A, there are 13 transfers requested in the bill, including 8 transfers involving a net change in departmental appropriations and 5 between classes within departmental budgets that do not result in any net change in appropriations. The largest requested increase is a million dollars for the Law Department to fully fund expected contractual obligations for outside legal counsel. Additionally, the Administration requests an increase of $755,023 in the Legal Services appropriation. This increase would fully fund the City's contract with the Defender Association for court-appointed counsel for 5 APPROPRIATIONS - BILL NO.'s 000012, 13 indigent and unrepresented persons charged with violating the Criminal Code. And the cost for the Defender Association contract increase this year primarily is a result of three factors: increased funding to begin to bring salary levels for the Association's attorneys into parity with pay for the attorneys in the District Attorney's Office; increased lending to cover an increase in health benefits costs; and salary increases for non-attorney staff. The Administration also requests an increase of $253,000 in the Class 200 appropriations for the Personnel Department, with 73,000 transferred internally from the --
Yes. Is my mike on? The appropriations for outside legal counsel, could you explain to me --
Well, excuse 6 APPROPRIATIONS - BILL NO.'s 000012, 13 me, Councilman. Let's let him finish his testimony, then you're next.
The Personnel Department includes $73,000 internally transferred internally from the department's Class 100 appropriation, for a net increase of $180,000 to cover expenses related to the development and implementation of the new police officer recruit examination. An increase of $100,000 in the appropriation for the Mayor's Office of Community Services transferred from DHS's Children and Families Cabinet is requested to cover the cost of MOCS' ongoing support for the Cabinet's Family Center Program and to expand MOCS' role with the family centers to include a new after-school latchkey program. Finally, an increase of $20,000 is requested for the Atwater Kent Museum to cover unanticipated costs for designer fees, curator fuse, and fine arts insurance related to the Museum's renovation program. These increases in appropriations are made possible through savings of $1.5 million in 7 APPROPRIATIONS - BILL NO.'s 000012, 13 appropriations for the Department of Revenue- Sinking Fund resulting from a lower than projected interest rate on short-term borrowings. Additionally, the Streets Department has identified savings of $1,455,023 in its Class 200 appropriation related to a reduction in electric power costs for street lights, alley lights, and traffic signals. The energy savings are largely the result of a combination of lower-than-budgeted rates for electricity in the Department's Light-Emitting Diode Program, which involves the replacement of 26,000 red traffic signals with long-life, energy-efficient LED signals. Of this amount, one million would be transferred internally to the Streets Department's Class 100 appropriation to fully fund the Department's personnel obligations during FY 2000. Other internal requested today include: 300,000 from Class 100 to Class 200 in the Mayor's Office of Information Services to cover the cost of contractual services needed to provide expertise not currently available on staff -- particularly related to Y2K remediation 8 APPROPRIATIONS - BILL NO.'s 000012, 13 efforts in the first half of FY 2000; A transfer of $219,689 from Class 200 to Class 3/400 in the Department of Public Health for the purchase of lab supplies; And a transfer of $87,850 from Class 100 to Class 200 in the Recreation Department to cover increased costs for the rental of scaffolding for the Mural Arts Program and increased prize money for the Mummers Parade. Should I move on to Bill No. 000012 now or do you want me to --
Let him finish and then we'll get to the questions.
This bill requests increases in the Grants Revenue Fund appropriations for three agencies: the Police Department, the Office of Emergency Shelter Services, and the Free Library. The Administration requests an increase of $1 million for the Police Department as a result of increases in several grant programs this 9 APPROPRIATIONS - BILL NO.'s 000012, 13 year, the two largest being an increase of $498,000 in the federal grant the Department receives for its Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program (also known as "DARE") and additional federal grant funding totaling $200,000 for the Department's Weed and Seed Program. As you know, Weed and Seed is a federal initiative that funds innovative and comprehensive multi-agency approaches to law enforcement, crime prevention, and community revitalization. Additionally, the Administration requests an increase of $500,000 for OESS to provide appropriation authority for a new grant program that, if OESS's application is approved by the State, will partially reimburse OESS for the cost of providing meals to the approximately 700 eligible children currently residing in the City's shelter. OESS has applied to the State Department of Education for funding under the Children and Adult Family Care Program, which was recently expanded to fund reimbursement for meals provided to children ages 12 and under, who reside in emergency shelter. The program provides up to $5 per day per child, which is to be used to augment 10 APPROPRIATIONS - BILL NO.'s 000012, 13 the meals that are currently provided. Finally, the Administration requests an increase $1,900,000 for the Free Library primarily as a result of an increase in state funding for the Library in FY 2000 as well as the rollover of unused funds from FY '99. I hope these comments have been helpful in describing the content of the ordinances before you and the reasons for their introduction. On behalf of the Administration, I respectfully request your favorable consideration of these bills, and I'll be happy to answer any questions. Thank you.
Yes. I'd like to, one, the request in terms of the Law Department increase for outside legal counsel --
I'd like you to detail that for me -- what legal counsel, what were the cases, what were the occasions that we need this money for.
Okay. There have been a 11 APPROPRIATIONS - BILL NO.'s 000012, 13 number of cases that have come up during the year that weren't originally anticipated. It might make sense for me to call up someone from the Law Department just to give you some examples.
I mean, how many lawyers do we have in the department right now? (Christopher Lane, Law Department, comes forward.)
Good morning. My name is Christopher Lane. I'm Director of Administration of Management for the City's Law Department. To answer Councilman Ortiz's question, there are 138 attorneys in the Law Department at the present time. To further answer your questions about the outside legal counsel, you have to understand our budget was planned about this time last year.
I'm sorry. We planned our budget approximately this time last year and, at that time, could not anticipate all the actions that would come up during Fiscal Year 2000, and they fall into a few categories I want to outline 12 APPROPRIATIONS - BILL NO.'s 000012, 13 for you. One is initiatives of the Administration, the prime example being the auto insurance initiative to try to bring auto insurance rates down for Philadelphia citizens. There's an attorney and an outside expert that worked with the city of New York that's working on that activity. There's the --
Yes, sir. The attorney is Susan Schulman (ph.), and the expert is Bernie Birnbaum, B-I-R-N-B-A-U-M, who did an excellent job for the city of New York in assessing their insurance rates and trying to help with that area. You're familiar with the Welker vs. Clark litigation. We have the firm of Hangley Aronchick working on that litigation for the City. We also have some additional activity in the area of labor grievances that tends to happen just prior to new contracts, which are due this year.
But what I would 13 APPROPRIATIONS - BILL NO.'s 000012, 13 like to know is, one, why don't we have the capacity and the expertise in-house to be able to do this? Do we have it or not? Are they so complicated cases that we have to go outside and request $1 million to pay these individuals?
In a number of cases, it's where the City has a conflict of interest because the Law Department's already representing some other area of interest that the City has. An example would be where we have police cases, civil rights cases, where we're sued for the actions of police officers. And the City is representing the Police Department in their position relative to those officers' actions, yet we're obligated to provide a defense for the officers at the same time. In those situations, we hire outside counsel, and that accounts for approximately 400,000 of the million dollars we're talking about.
Could you detail the outside counsel and consultants that were hired and those cases that necessitated outside counsel because of conflict of interest and what conflict of interest those were. 14 APPROPRIATIONS - BILL NO.'s 000012, 13
Detailing which we contracted with and so on down the line.
And I would like to find out if you have a detail of the last four years -- because I know that this is going to continue coming up -- of outside counsel that were hired and the cases that they were hired for.
And the expertise that they provided that were not provided in-house.
We do have that information and we'd be happy to put that together for you, Councilman.
Are there any other unforeseen shortfalls expected to continue on the annual basis?
If this additional $1 million is approved, we should be able to get by with that. It is a little bit tight. We're actually projecting we may need a little bit more but there are some expenses we can defer if need be. We prefer to keep it tight 'cause this is a cost area we like to keep controlled.
And we've included that additional funding in 2001 and then in each succeeding year in the Plan.
Thank you. Are there any other questions? Councilman Nutter?.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a quick question. Mr. Lane, in response to Councilman Ortiz question, you talked about this insurance review program. I didn't get all the details and I don't want you to explain it again. If you could get a document detailing the aspects of this 16 APPROPRIATIONS - BILL NO.'s 000012, 13 particular program to the Chair, I'd greatly appreciate it.
One more question -- not for you, Bob. The 87,000 from Class 100 to Class 200 in the Recreation Department, the second page, does that -- that looks like -- how many positions are you -- that looks like you're either not hiring for the Recreation Department some positions that were budgeted for and you're transferring over to the scaffolding program, and I'd like to find out what positions were open or why do you have available money in Class 100 that you feel you're transferring over to 200 and if positions are going to be eliminated in the Recreation Department.
No, it's not the elimination of positions; it's really some delay in filling positions. But the Recreation Department is not reducing positions. 17 APPROPRIATIONS - BILL NO.'s 000012, 13
Well, this is 100 money being transferred out, and I would imagine 87,000 is like at least or positions.
Well, it's not that their number of positions have been reduced; it's the time it took to fill them.
Yeah. And when you do -- when you get the positions filled, where is the money going to be at?
I mean, in Recreation, I know in Recreation, we always need people.
One of the problems in the Recreation Department is not the lack of, you know, the lack of need; it is that we don't hire quick enough to fill the positions that we have. I could name you recreation centers across 18 APPROPRIATIONS - BILL NO.'s 000012, 13 the city that need people. And when I see monies going from 100 to 200, I question why that is, because the Recreation Department constantly needs individuals for their programs.
That's true, and we've actually added staffing so that, for instance, in FY 2000, the Recreation Department has more positions than it had in '90. I think they just didn't fill the additional positions as quickly as they anticipated.
But, for instance, in 2001, I mean, this isn't a permanent reduction in their 100. You know, 2001, their funding for 100 is not touched.
Do we have the Recreation Commissioner here? (William Carapucci comes forward.)
I realized that you're scheduled with testimony, but. . .
Good morning. I'm Bill 23 Carapucci, the Acting Recreation Commissioner.
I would like to find 19 APPROPRIATIONS - BILL NO.'s 000012, 13 out what positions you were not able to hire that you have $87,000, close to $88,000, to be transferred out of that classification.
Well, we hired our positions. There's some positions that we didn't hire exactly July 1st. For instance, in the maintenance positions, since we changed the spec of the job, instead of hiring them July 1st of '99, a lot of them didn't come on board till around October. So we were able to save money from July 1st until October, and then we supplemented that with seasonal help -- the maintenance aides, kept some of the playgrounds clean, and they were working for a lot cheaper than a full-time maintenance man, so we were able to save some money that way.
Well, it's Class 100, the custodians. We had a whole new -- you gave us a whole group of maintenance custodian people to put on in this year. Well, we had to change the title to fit into the specs of the jobs for some of the fellows. So instead of those guys starting 20 APPROPRIATIONS - BILL NO.'s 000012, 13 July 1st, most of them didn't come on board until around October. So that was a substantial savings there.
Thank you, Councilman. Are there any other questions? Councilman Nutter.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Carapucci, in the same area, are we talking about the 46 people --
-- that the Council, about a budget or two ago, we had hearings and then we subsequently approved about $2 million to hire additional people?
Of the 46, how many did not start in July of that year? 21 APPROPRIATIONS - BILL NO.'s 000012, 13
I would say around 35 or so, but they're all on now, they're on.
Well, that's good for you. So we'll have the pleasure of their company for the upcoming summer.
Okay. I'll get into further detail in this when the department is here in the Operating Budget, but I'd like to at least kind of put you on notice that your comment about people being there to keep the playgrounds clean, as a part of the hearing around the 46 people and the $2 million, at the time, Recreation Commissioner DiBerardinis had shared with us, and we had asked him, and he indicated that he was going to put together an accountability program to deal with cleanliness and maintenance at all of our recreation facilities. I have not seen any document related to that particular program. I understand the request was just, you know, 22 APPROPRIATIONS - BILL NO.'s 000012, 13 technically last year.
But I would like to see what the program is and who checks and what their regularity of checking is and what happens when a rec center is not clean and how does the public make whatever complaint they want to make. If we are going to seriously expand and, as the Mayor has proposed, tripling the budget for after-school programs, we have to seriously ensure that our rec centers are in a condition that any one of us would want our own children to go to those particular facilities. And if they are dirty, if they are nasty, if they are not clean, this is not going to work, nor is it acceptable. So I want to know what the accountability plan is for maintenance and cleanliness, making sure the facility is up to snuff and up to code and safety factors as well. Thank you. Mr. Dubow, I guess the simple math on this is, if you're transferring 87,850, 60,000 appears to be going to increase the prize money 23 APPROPRIATIONS - BILL NO.'s 000012, 13 for the Mummers Parade, and am I then left to assume that the $27,850 is the money that's going to the Mural Arts Program?
Okay. And as I also indicated to Mr. Carapucci, we'll have further discussion about the state of the Mural Arts Program, its ability to access some of the after-school money, and I think rectifying some of the issues from the past. When a department has received additional funding, often there has been -- it's my impression at least -- a little bit of an internal battle as things happens -- it's not unique to Recreation -- about who gets what dollars and how they get divvied up and what programs get support. I think many of us will be looking to see additional funding support, and if not personnel to go with it, to expand the Mural Arts Program as we get into this heightened after-school program as detailed by the Mayor. So I just again want to let you know that that's of concern of me. Whenever Recreation comes in, I'm going to ask a lot more detailed 24 APPROPRIATIONS - BILL NO.'s 000012, 13 questions about that. Thank you, Mr. Dubow.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Dubow, I have a question and I may need to Police Department to answer this. This $1 million request.
Just a moment. Mr. Nestel? (Commissioner Thomas Nestel comes forward.) COMMISSIONER NESTEL: Good morning.
Good morning. COMMISSIONER NESTEL: Tom Nestel, Deputy Police Commissioner.
Deputy, this $1 million request for the Police Department, it says that as a result, increases in several grant programs. Does that mean that there's a City match required to obtain the federal grant programs. 25 APPROPRIATIONS - BILL NO.'s 000012, 13 COMMISSIONER NESTEL: On the majority of these grants, there is not a City match required.
That's why I didn't understand the wording here. It says "as a result," so that's just a small portion of that? Is what you're saying? COMMISSIONER NESTEL: That's correct.
All right. On the Weed and Seed Program, I know that this program has been out there for a while and I've never really gotten any information relating to the effectiveness of this program. How would you characterize that? COMMISSIONER NESTEL: We believe it is an effective program. We will be in a much better condition to discuss this in the Operating Budget because the people involved in that end of it will be here to answer questions. I can tell you that Deputy Commissioner Johnson, who is mainly responsible for narcotics enforcement is very confident that this is a successful program.
Okay, I guess I APPROPRIATIONS - BILL NO.'s 000012, want to repeat what Councilman Nutter said, that I would like some very specific information on that at the Operating hearings. COMMISSIONER NESTEL: Yes, sir.
Because I'm very 7 interested in those particular programs. Thank 8 you. 9 Thank you, Madam Chair. 10
Thank you. 11 Are there any other questions? 12 (No response.) 13
Do we have someone here from the MOIS, Office of Information? Brian Anderson? UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Brian's not here.
Okay, I'd like to ask a question. (Witness comes forward.)
Good morning. Please state your name for the record.
I'm Jackie Henry. I'm Administrative Services Director, standing in for Brian Anderson.
Thank you. 27 APPROPRIATIONS - BILL NO.'s 000012, My question is, is there any plans to update the systems now being used by City Council and its staff? 'Cause I understand that we're still working under Windows '95.
Yes, I'm sure. As a matter 7 of fact, we're putting in a new -- we're revising 8 our computer-based training program for technical 9 training, and we will be implementing that very 10 shortly to all of the citywide departments, and 11 we're focussing on enhancing the training in the 12 technical area. 13
Thank you very much. Are there any other questions? Councilman Nutter?
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, at this time, I would like to move that all of the testimony attached to the statements made by Mr. Dubow's testimony on Bill 25 000013 and 000012 by the department heads and 28 APPROPRIATIONS - BILL NO.'s 000012, 13 commissioners be incorporated into the record of this hearing as if it had been read by department heads and commissioners at the witness table.
Thank you. Are you asking for a suspension or just --
No, I don't believe you need it. Are there any other questions? (No further questions.)
Well, that ends our committee on provisions. Now we will go into our public meeting.
That ends our Committee on Appropriations. Now the Chair will go into recess at the call of the Chair. Thank you. (Adjourned at 10:25 a.m.) 29 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, February 9, 2000, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of same. RE: COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS BILL NO.'s 000012, 13 __________________________________, JOSEPHINE CARDILLO, Registered Professional Reporter