First, I want to a thank you for allowing me to speak. And I 189 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 feel like David against Goliath right here. I have been in the bar business for 39 year --
My name is Alan Barag. I have been in the bar and restaurant business for 39 years. I have owned restaurants in Center City. I now own a neighborhood bar, which we are using in these meetings constantly over and over again, but there is no such thing as a neighborhood bar. I have the same liquor license as Le Bec-Fin and some of the other steakhouses and the Prime Rib who spoke, but I do under $300,000 a year business. Some years under 200,000, in the neighborhood that I am located. I don't sell steaks for $39 and drinks for 12 bucks. My customers are poor people, neighborhood people. They come in to enjoy themself, to watch sports game, to shoot a game of pool, to smoke a cigarette if they smoke, and to -- the small amount of food that 190 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 we offer is there for them. They don't bring their families and kids in for dinner. Okay? And I am speaking for that majority of bar owners right now, which make up more than 30 percent in the City of Philadelphia. We are the most taxed business in the Commonwealth, between the city, the state, the percent tax, your $300 takeout tax the 10 city just imposed on us, and then the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania imposed a takeout tax on us. Now, there are already two things on the City Charter that gives seating places of under 50 a break. One of them is that, we do not need an Occupancy side. The second is that we only need one entrance or exit to our location, even though most bars have two. Okay. My personal opinion of this ban is that, it may not affect where I was lucky enough -- it was my 38th Anniversary last week, and my children gave us a gracious gift to go to Lequa, and it was $210 for dinner. There are shifts where I don't do $210 total 191 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 business. If you take away my smoking customers, and if you pass the law and allow them to go feet out away from my 6 property -- the neighborhood is up in a roar 7 now about the neighborhood bars throughout the 8 city -- I could imagine how happy they are 9 going to be that my customers are going to 10 walk 20 feet down the street and smoke a 11 cigarette in front of their house and then 12 come back into my bar. 13 So that if there is no exceptions or 14 some exclusions in this bill, it will 15 definitely hurt the neighborhood bar. 16 Now, as far as the airport, why the 17 revenue is up there. I did a little research, 18 even though I don't have the money or the 19 means of other people. 20 The reason the revenue is up in the bars in the airport is because Southwestern Airline has now made Philadelphia its hub, and there is a thousand flights a week more coming into the City of Philadelphia. Now, to compare Philadelphia to New 192 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 York City or to Florida or to any other city or state, we are a monopoly state right here. We have to buy our liquor from the state store, and we cannot sell bottles of liquor. You go into New York State and you go into a neighborhood bar, all he has to do is fill out a form and a $200 license, and he can sell you a bottle of Vodka. So he may lose his smoking customer who would drink a Vodka, but he still could sell them a bottle. Not in this state. We have to buy from the state. Now, the state has did us a favor, too. They opened up two wholesale stores, one in the Franklin Mills and one in Delaware Avenue, where anybody could walk in and -- they push large quantities, you have to buy a liter. 95 cheaper at this state store, only if you go there. So the state itself is pushing alcohol down their customers and the patrons and the inhabitants of this state. 193 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 And cigarette smoking is horrible, and secondhand smoke is horrible, but I'm sure alcohol is -- kills more people than secondary smoke. Okay? So, basically, that's all I have. And if there was -- if other members were here, I would be able to answer any questions when you compare one state to another.
Good morning, Chairwoman, Councilman Ramos, and any other Councilmen that are here that I can't see. Thanks for letting me speak.
My name is Dan Cordero. I managed the Last Shot Bar at Richmond and Allegheny. I go down this morning, handing out these letters that are on your desk. I hope 194 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 you take time to read them. I sent letters two years ago to every member of Council, to Mayor John Street all about this smoking ban. I received two responses; one from Councilman Rizzo, one from Councilman Clarke. No one else deemed it necessary to respond because they don't care. Just a little bar up in Port Richmond. So this morning I was appalled by quite a few things while I was up there, and I am very upset about them. One was how we are trying to make this smoking ban racial. Not supposed to be a divided city, but we are making this thing racial. The blacks in the industry, the Hispanics in the industry, no one mentioned me standing at the bar. No one mentioned the white people in this thing. But I don't want to continue that on a racial basis. But that was brought up in here, and it shouldn't be. That shouldn't be allowed. Number two, not defending anyone, I was hoping Councilman Nutter would walk back in the room, because I don't want to talk 195 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 behind his back. But he has been here approximately 30 minutes; and the only time he was listening, when he was talking. Other than that he has been talking to different Councilpeople over here, he has left the room, he is not here. He only listens when is talking, and that is not right, either. If we are going to have a meeting, we shouldn't be here now sitting here at the end of the day with just a couple of us still here. If we are going to have a meeting with Council over something this important, they should all be here. There was reasons this morning, a funeral, this here, a meeting, whatever. They should be here now. When they are here, they shouldn't get up and walk out of the room unless they are talking. That's number two. I get upset I start to lose my train of thought. Oh, I wrote letters to the Police Commissioner regarding what this gentleman here just said, 20 feet from my door. I also 196 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 wrote the same letter to every district commander in the city, without response. If you pass this bill, not only can they not smoke in my bar, they can't smoke within feet of either of my doors. All 7 right? 8 There is a pizza store on the 9 corner, a Chinese restaurant, they are under 10 the smoking ban. They can't go down there and 11 smoke. There is a empty building across the 12 street that possibly they can, but it is 13 within 20 feet, that steps within 20 feet of 14 my door. 15 This puts these people at up to and 16 including 2 o'clock in the morning on my 17 neighbor's step smoking. Now, it is not 18 marijuana, so it is not illegal. So they are 19 not going to sit there quietly and smoke, they 20 are going to sit there and smoke, maybe five ten of them at a time, as they walk out of the bar. When they get done, they are throwing cigarette butts on the pavement. These people being on the phone call 911, get down here and disperse these people 197 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 off the pavement. Where is the money and resources coming from to get the policemen out there at 2 o'clock in the morning, when they should be fighting other things in the city that are wrong? We can't stop marijuana. We can't stop the guns. Can't stop any of the drugs. But we can stop these damn cigarettes, because the fine will go to the tavern owner. If you want me to police my street, you want me to police my pavement, you want me to enforce this law in my bar, then I think I should be put on the payroll of the city. I should receive a check every month, just as you do, to enforce these laws, because you aren't coming out there enforcing them. I asked you before when I wrote you before, please stop in the neighborhood bar and see what a neighborhood bar is. 95 percent of my people smoke. And the 5 percent that complain, I invite them to leave. 198 BILL NO.
060050 - 3/27/06 And as I told one gentleman, if you will come in here and spend $2,000 a week in this bar, you and I will sit here alone so you don't have to bother with the smoke. So either come in because you enjoy the people here, because they smoke, or stay out of the bar. That's your choice. And as I said in this letter, we have been fighting wars all these years over the right to have the freedoms that we have. Don't start taking our freedoms off of us. All these other states and all these other cities that are doing this are in violation of our Constitution, of the freedoms that we have. Let's petition Congress. Let's make them outlaw tobacco, make it illegal. Right? We will all make money running tobacco from Florida and Canada to subsidize the losses that we are going to take. So I am asking you now to -- I oppose this bill. I ask you not to vote on it. You had opportunities over the last 199 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 few years to vote this bill in. When you seen that you didn't have enough members to pass it, you tabled it. To my knowledge, if you take a vote on this bill, and it loses, you can't bring this bill up again for another five years. So if you are going to bring this up to the table, bring it up, vote on it when you have your members. If you win, you win. 11 All right? 12 Then I want to be reimbursed for 13 enforcing your law in my neighborhood. But 14 other than that, do away with it, do away with 15 the bill. 16 And before I get even more upset, 17 thank you very much for your time.
I would like to respond to you, sir. I would like to respond to you. I think the issues raised this morning around race in the Power Point was to 200 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 show that the high rate of disease caused by smoking and secondhand smoke on those communities, and it didn't mean that we cared any less about any other group. They were trying to demonstrate that these groups have a high incident of disease, heart disease, and cancer, and that the numbers of people in these races work in the public-service industry. So that was what the analysis was, as I saw it.
A lot of members, when we scheduled these hearings, have other things. It is very difficult to get everybody on the same page on the same day, because they keep their own schedules. But that's why we appreciate those Council members who were here. And they do have other commitments during the day, but they come in. And a lot of them listen on their -- we have a box in our office, we hear. We have it on television. So it doesn't mean that they are not interested. And, so, don't think 201 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 that. They are interested.
Because you called me back, I did have one more point. We sat here for two hours and listened to all these experts testify. They almost read the same letter. Understood whether it is fact or fix, but we sat here for two hours and listened to them. I stopped a couple of them going out the door and asked them, as we sat here and listened to every word they said, when they are done talking, they leave. Why not sit here and listen and see what other people have to say? They don't care. I don't know if they were paid by Council to show up. I only found out Saturday about this meeting. But I do know that they are paid by their people who sent them here. Now, most of us sitting here -- my bar is closed now, waiting for me to get up opening it up. I am losing revenue that I could be generating up there right now. Most of the people behind me are in the same situation. 202 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 But the people, the experts who were here testifying, they are all getting paid by somebody, they are on the clock. That's not right, either.
Well, we took the participants in order of their calling into the office. So -- and they, too, are on a clock. So they can't -- they are paid by the agency they work for, but they are not paid to stay here all day, either. So we appreciate -- and certainly they have copies of the testimony. There is a public record that they have exposure to and can read, so everything is of a public nature. And we have your testimony. You will have theirs. And sometimes we would hope that they would stay, but people are bound by their own schedules. And we can't make them stay, and we do not pay them to come and testify. This is a public testimony.
I will take it to a court hearing. But a court hearing, you have an expert witness and an expert rebuttal. We 203 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 have none of that. We had two hours of just people talking their causes, and then they left.
We got the opponents at the last minute, too. They did not call. Thank you for your testimony, and your comments are well taken. Thank you very much. We would now like to call on the students, Kids Around Town, and the Wilson Middle School students. Ms. Ann Rappoport, and Ms. Marilyn Krutnick, she the teacher. They are coming to testify. Would you all like to come to the table. We have a nice group here.
Thank you City Council for allowing me to speak. I do not want to die from secondhand smoke.
Wilson Middle School. 204 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 I do not want to die from secondhand smoke. I do not want to die because I eat in Philadelphia restaurants. Secondhand smoke releases toxic chemicals into the environment and the air that I breath. Here is some of them. STUDENT: Benzene. STUDENT: Ammonia.
We can't hear you. STUDENT: Arsenic. STUDENT: Butane.
I don't want to inhale these chemicals. Do you? If you ban smoking in all public places in Philadelphia, that will help protect me and others. Pass the Indoor Clean Air Ordinance today.
Would you like to sit down, or are you going to stand? Speak up. 205 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06
Emily Bok. One out of every six deaths in the United States is a result of cigarette smoke. The nicotine in cigarettes is a powerful drug that raises your blood pressure, dulls your senses of smell and taste, reduces your stamina, wrinkles your skin, causes deadly heart attacks, fatal strokes, emphysema, and cancer. I will not allow my health to be further affected by cigarette smoke. Pass the Indoor Clean Air Ordinance now. You have the power to keep us safe. Thank you. (Applause.)
Thank you City Council for allowing me to speak. My name is Margaret Barskoviak from Woodrow Wilson Middle School. 206 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 Smoking in public places should be made illegal. Smoking is affecting everyone. I refuse to inhale smoke because I choose to eat at a public restaurant. With every pack of signatures in someone's hand, another life is shortened. We need to make public environments safe for everyone. And with the heart and the fight, you can make Philly's public places smoke free. Thank you.
Thank you, City Council, for allowing me to speak. My name is AnnaMaria Levich. How would you like it done, fresh or smoked? Please pass the Indoor Clean Air Ordinance today for us. Thank you. (Applause.)
Thank you, City Council, for allowing me to speak. My name is Debra Shamalese from Woodrow Wilson 207 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 Middle School. Do you care about me? Do you care about us? Do you care about your family? Do you care about your grandchildren? Look at all the diseases secondhand smoke causes. STUDENT: Asthma. STUDENT: Depression. STUDENT: Cancer. STUDENT: Heart disease. STUDENT: Nicotine addiction.
And gingivitis. Please let Philly have clean air by passing the Indoor Air Ordinance. We don't want a Filth-adelphia, we want a clean air Philadelphia. Thank you.
My name is Altana Mirtage. 208 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06
We are from the National Academic League from Wilson Middle School. Thank you for allowing us to speak At our young age, we have been exposed to toxic waste. Smoking does not just affect you, but the people around you In our brief presentation, we will show you the effects of secondhand smoke.
Secondhand smoke can make asthma worse, causing more frequent and more severe attacks. Adults who are exposed to secondhand smoke as children are twice as likely to develop asthma in the future. Secondhand smoke may cause asthma in children. Secondhand smoke can make allergy symptoms worse.
Children and adults who live with smokers have more respiratory infections, including colds, bronchitis, and pnemonia, than those that don't life with smokers. 209 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 In the United States, secondhand smoke causes 150,000 to 300,000 cases of bronchitis and pneumonia in infants and young children each year.
Secondhand smoke makes the heart beat faster and work harder. Secondhand smoke -- if you are exposed to secondhand smoke on a daily basis at work or at home, it doubles the risk of having a heart attack. Each year 37,000 people die from heart disease caused by secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke contains over 40 cancer-causing chemicals. It also causes approximately 3,000 cases of lung cancer each year in nonsmokers. Recent studies have shown that secondhand smoke is linked to the cancer of the pancreas, kidney, bladder, cervix, breast, and bladder.
Smoking is especially dangerous for children. More children die from parents smoking than die from any other unintentional injuries combined. 210 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 A baby has twice the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, SIDS, when the mother, father, or any other caregiver smokes. Exposure to secondhand smoke and smoking while pregnant are both linked to miscarriage, low birth weight and stillbirth. Thank you.
You have the power to keep our city air clean. Support the Indoor Air Ordinance law today for a clean air tomorrow.
The chemicals we expose our children to -- and they do become adults in working Philadelphia. STUDENT: Benzene is a chemical.
My name is Judy 211 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 Sang, and I am formaldehyde. MS. LAUREN McMENAMIN: My name is Lauren McMenamin, and I am propylene glycol.
Again, some of the diseases that we expose our children to when they work or eat in Philadelphia restaurants.
My name is Nancy Lee, and I am bronchitis. MS. ALEX McMENAMIN: My name is Alex McMenamin, and I have arthritis.
My name is Feba Geragese, and I am heart disease. 212 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06
My name is Dianna Consalve, and I am nicotine depression.
My name is AnnaMarie Livich, and I am pancreas cancer.
My name is Margaret Barskoviak, and I am mental illness.
We want to thank you so much to Dr. Ann Rappoport, who is the Director for Kids Around Town. These students are from the Woodrow Wilson Middle School, who came today to testify on our bill. They are from six classes and have been studying the issue of smoking this year under a Charter Education Service Learning Grant, awarded through the Philadelphia School District. They are partners in this study with Kids Around Town, a national award-winning 213 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 nonpartisan civic education program sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania's Citizen Education Fund. This is a diverse group of young people, as you can see. And we appreciate them taking part in the research and all the efforts in dealing with the issue of smoking. We also want to thank Ms. Rachel Millenbach, who is the Director of the Tobacco Control and Prevention Program, Health Promotion Council, and Councilman Michael Nutter. We thank you students for coming. We appreciate your testimony. And we are glad you are engaged in the whole issue of anti-smoking, but also engaged in civic government, and to understand the importance of government in your lives. And we welcome you here today and hope it has been beneficial. Thank you all very much. Is there anyone else here to testify on this bill? Yes.
Good afternoon 214 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 my name is Brian Lawrence. I am a citizen and taxpayer of the City of Philadelphia, not to mention the father of four children who have gone through or are still going through the Philadelphia school system. There is an awful lot to address. I will keep it as concise as possible, because it has been a long day and I know you are all very tired. There is an awful lot of things about today that I find rather disturbing. First of all, the preponderance of hired guns that were brought in here to present points of views from organizations that time and time spewed out the same facts and figures that were limited and distorting. Let's go straight to the issue, the money issue. Okay? Let's go straight to that issue. The simple fact is, that study about the City of New York and the revenues impacted are misleading. Not study, but the facts and figures that are presented. Because it measured it from the time the ban was enacted. Which was after 9/11. 215 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 Which, in case somebody missed it here, was the worst economic time in the history of the City of New York for some half a century. So the fact that the food and beverage business rebounded percent by the 7 next year was significantly less than all 8 other businesses in New York rebounded. So in fact, the business level for bar and restaurants was down. Stop trying to mislead us. If you want to say that the health issue is more important than the financial issue, then that's a case you can make. That's a case we can discuss, when we talk priorities. But it is simply patently untrue that New York did not suffer as a result of that. Now, is New York Philadelphia? Is our financial situation the same? No, it is not. I could be mistaken, but having followed Council meetings previously, for instance, concerning the budget that Mayor 216 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 Street talked about, we couldn't find the money for additional policemen. Instead, we will have to rely upon overtime to make up the staffing problem we have. Why? Because we don't have enough money in the city. Our school system, how can I say this in the most delicate manner I can? It is not functioning, it is not good, it is not safe. The children are not educated properly, they are not safe. The streets they walk down going to school and coming from school are not safe. Now, I haven't seen any of you come up with answer as to how you are going to solve these problems. You have not made the streets safe, even though all of you have now been on the Council for some time. The streets are not safe and the schools are not good And the only excuse you have to any of these is the fact that you don't have the financial resources to solve them. But, yet, 217 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 you can spend an inordinate amount of time on this particular issue, an inordinate amount of resources on this issue, and you are still selling us a good of goods that no one believes. No one believes this is not going to impact us adversely financially. No one believes that And the only thing working in the city right now, the only thing that is bringing us revenue, is the fact that we have resurgence of the bar and restaurant business, which is making it a more interesting city, a more livable city, and people are moving in here and buying places and we are getting money from that. That's all we have. It is very simple. Until you find other sources of revenue to pay for those things, that are more important -- yes, policing is more important, our schools are more important -- until you can find a way to pay for them, you have no right to do what you are doing, no right. It is irresponsible and it is immoral. And I just love all these little 218 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 hired guns who come in, Philadelphia has now been added to her area. She is the new representative for Philadelphia.
She is going to come in and tell us what's better for our city, because we will be much better off with this ban. Well, excuse me but it sounds like Marie Antoinette telling the people to eat cake instead of bread. She is not the one whose children are going to have to suffer when the school system is resulted, is she. She is not the one who has to walk through the streets of North Philadelphia and be afraid to go to school. You need to address this issue and tell the truth. If you think it is worth us suffering and having less money because it is more important, then say so. Then say, yes, we know it is going to impact us adversely financially, but we think more lives will be saved through the smoking ban than through allowing the streets not to be policed properly. Say it, but tell the truth. 219 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 What you have done is dishonest and immoral. Tell the truth. And do you know what, why not be really responsible and have a vote on it? Take it to the City of Philadelphia. Let the citizens decide what they are willing to put up with or not put up with. Or, excuse me, or do you simply know much better than the average adult in Philadelphia what's good and not good? Are the great unwashed masses not able to decide for themselves? I think you need to stop and you need to think and you need to be fair. You need to table this, put this away, and you need to take it to the city and make your case. Make your case and say that we believe this is more important. We know it is going to be tough, but we believe it is better for you, and we want you to vote for this. Have a referendum about it.
Thank you very much. 220 BILL NO. 060050 - 3/27/06 (Applause.)
Is there anyone else here to testify on this bill? There being no further testimony, this committee is recessed until the call of the Chair. (Public Hearing adjourned at 2:00 p.m.) - - - 221 C E R T I F I C A T I O N I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of Monday, March 27, 2006, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of same. RE: COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES ___________________________ DEBRA A. WHITEHEAD