COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON PARKS, RECREATION AND CULTURAL AFFAIRS Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Thursday, May 29, 2025 2:32 p.m. PRESENT: COUNCILMAN ANTHONY PHILLIPS, CHAIR COUNCILMAN CURTIS JONES, JR. COUNCILWOMAN RUE LANDAU COUNCILMAN ISAIAH THOMAS COUNCILMAN JEFFREY YOUNG, JR. BILLS: 240671, 241082, 250379 - - -
Good morning. I now note that the hour has come. Ms. Walton, will you please call the roll to take attendance. Members that are attendance, will you please indicate that you are present when your name is called.
Thank you. A quorum of the committee is present and this hearing is now called to order. This is the public hearing of the Committee on Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs regarding Bill 16 Nos. 240671, 241082, 250379. Ms. Walton, will you please read the titles of the resolutions.
Bill No. 21 240671, amending Title 15 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Parks and Recreation," to add new Chapter 24 15-800, entitled "Events Permits," to encourage applicants for event planning permits to establish contingency measures, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 241082, Amending Title of The 7 Philadelphia Code, entitled "Parks 8 and Recreation," by adding a new 9 Section 15-606 and new Section 10 15-706 to establish animal-free 11 areas and provide for the 12 management of animals in parks, 13 playgrounds, and recreation centers 14 and to provide for penalties and 15 enforcement, all under certain terms and conditions; and Bill No. 250379, amending an Ordinance (Bill No. 19 877), approved September 16, 1994, by amending an exhibit thereto, in order to increase the limit of the amount of funding any entity may receive in any fiscal year from the Philadelphia Activities Fund.
Thank you, Ms. Walton. Will you please call the first panel we have to testify this afternoon on Bill 5 No. 240671.
Yes. We have Susan Buck, Deputy Commissioner of Operations. (Witness approached witness table.)
Good afternoon. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Good afternoon. My name is Susan Buck, Deputy Commissioner of Operations.
My name is Susan Buck and my title is Deputy Commissioner of Operations, and I'll be reading Commissioner Slawson's testimony into the record and answering questions on behalf of Philadelphia Parks and Recreation today. Good afternoon, Chairman Phillips and members of the committee. My name is Susan Slawson and I am the Commissioner of Department of Parks and Recreation. I am here today to testify on Bill No. 240671, introduced by Vice-Chair Cindy Bass. This bill is intended to encourage applicants for event planning permits to establish contingency measures. The administration under Mayor Parker is fully committed to ensuring that Philadelphia is the safest, cleanest and greenest city, big city in the nation. Part of this commitment is making sure public events are safe and we are grateful for Council's continued interest in providing for the safety, accessibility and pleasureness of public events as evidenced by this bill. Thank you and I am happy to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you for your testimony. Are there any questions or comments from members of the committee?
Yeah. I'd like to recognize Councilman Curtis Jones.
All right. So what does pleasureness mean and what are we trying to obtain in this bill in your interpretation?
Oh, I'm sorry. I'm not clear about what we are attempting to alter, change or strengthen. And in your interpretation what is that?
I believe the ask is how Parks and Recreation could work with permit applicants to ensure that there is a safety plan in place --
So I think it's truly appropriate after Lemon Hill. It was truly appropriate before Lemon Hill. But one of the things that I am -- I literally left a meeting, Mr. Chairman, with a group of people, a group of applicants that are applying for different things within the district, some as small as a little street festival, some as large as fraternity, Greek fraternity kind of approaches. Now, before Lemon Hill I was more inclined to give the benefit of the doubt of the organizers to say, well, these are reputable people and they mean well. And so, therefore let's support it. After Lemon Hill what I need to see in my district, and thank you for the clarification, is that what happens -- on Lemon Hill there were a mixture of ages, and some of the younger element integrated in when their music stopped with the older or more mature members of that picnic, and they were some of those people hunting for other people within their demographic and found them. For me and I ask how do you work with law enforcement, private security, you know, fraternity security to make sure that that perimeter, that space is safe? And I don't mean for you to have fences and military-style trenches, but tell me, damn it, something, that you hired a security guard or you have an access, an egress plan or wristbands to know who is within your group and who is not? And so, I think that's the intent and it's truly timely. That's all I got.
Thank you, Councilmember Jones. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Jeffrey Young.
Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Just a quick question. And I know the bill says it's voluntary compliance with this. But when there are events in our park system, is there a size threshold that would require the permit applicant to get insurance or something like that to have their event in our park system?
For events where people note that it would be 2000 or more, you would be required to have a safety plan and proper insurance.
Thank you. Are there any other questions from members of the committee? (No response.)
Thank you. Thank you so much. Ms. Walton, will you please call the next panel to testify on Bill No. 241082.
Oh, yes. That was all the panels. I do, apologize. No, no. You're fine, Leigh Ann. Leigh Ann Campbell. No, you're fine.
Oh, Leigh Ann Campbell. Okay. Thank you so much for joining us today. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.
My name is Leigh Ann Campbell and I am Parks & Rec Deputy Commissioner of Planning, Property and strategic Engagement. Good afternoon. My name is Leigh Ann Campbell and my title is Deputy Commissioner of Planning, Property and Strategic Engagement. Today I'll be reading Commissioner Slawson's testimony into the record and answering questions on behalf of Parks and Recreation. Good afternoon, Chairman and Dr. Phillips -- congratulations by the way -- and members of the committee. My name is Susan Slawson and I am the Commissioner of the Department of Parks and Recreation. I'm here today to testify in support of Bill No. 24 241082, introduced by Councilmember Jeffrey Young, Jr. This bill would authorize the department to designate certain parks and recreation centers as animal-free areas and provide for the management of animals in these areas, including penalties under the certain conditions of up to $2,000. Under this bill, areas designated by the department as dog parks, dog runs or similar designations may have specific rules and regulations regarding using that site. The full implementation of this ordinance 18 would require hiring more staff and posting appropriate signage, which would necessitate additional appropriations, as described in the fiscal note attached to my testimony. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today and I am happy to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you so much for your testimony. I just want to open up with a quick question. So how will you work with recreation leaders to enforce these regulations?
So right now recreation leaders are observant of them. They don't have the authority to write tickets, so they can help regulate but they can't enforce. And so, it is -- and also, I think one of the other challenges is that it can also become a conflict and rising tensions. And so, understanding de-escalation techniques and things like that that are boots on the ground. Visual person is the rec leaders. But for the enforcement, we would rely on rangers and police for the ticketing aspects.
I want to recognize the author of the bill first actually. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Jeffrey Jay Young.
Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. I just want to give a quick comment on I guess the premise of the legislation. As I've been going through the district going to different parks and recreation centers, we've been getting complaints from certain advisory councils that residents have been walking their animals, specifically dogs on playing fields and honestly not cleaning up after it. And so, a member of my own staff told me that as a child, she got MRSA sliding and playing softball because of the feces on the field. And so, we want to try to make sure that our children have a safe place to play. And we are more than willing to work with animal owners to figure out spaces for them. However, we have to put an emphasis that our recreation facilities are for people, are for kids, and we want to make sure that they are as safe as possible for kids to play. Because again, we have football teams playing in parks and they got to scoop up dog feces. That's not their job, right. Their job is to go out, be kids and to play. And so, we want to again create that safe environment for our children. And so, I'm glad to hear that the administration supports this legislation. Because what we all we did was really take a regulation and codified it. So these regulations were already in place. I mean, this bill does increase the fines, but I think it's necessary to get to the outcome that we're trying to get here. So thank you for your testimony.
Yeah. And I would just clarify that our playgrounds and fields are currently dog-free zones, but the enforcement is the challenge. So we fully agree and that it is a thing that we're challenged by around the city and looking for ways to improve. And we think that a higher fine would help someone think twice about it and make it more of a detriment to do.
Thank you. I just have two quick questions about how we're going to implement this and so forth. Are you going to put together maybe a training documentation for handling unleashed animals at the rec centers?
I'm sorry. Are we planning to put together maybe a training documentation to handle unleashed animals at recreation centers or basically how we plan to --
If I may I just wanted to, because I do work in the Program division --
Sue Buck, Deputy Commissioner of Operations, but I putting on my program hat because I've worked in the Program division for 20 years. We do have a dog guide. It's a pamphlet that we have given out to people that shows where our existing dog parks are and our rules and regulations. It is a dog guide. We can share that information with Council Chairman, if you'd like.
No, that would be really helpful. And then who is responsible for enforcing the compliance of animal- free playgrounds?
As Leigh Ann mentioned, the dog guide is really just a guide to educate people on where you can go within our system to walk your dogs at dog parks and what our rules are. It's an education. It's not an enforcement. And as Leigh Ann mentioned, the challenges has been for us for enforcement. The recreation leaders can be the eyes and ears, but they would not be the ones that would enforce the --
So it's not necessarily our park rangers or anything like that?
Park rangers, yes. So the recreation leader could notify a park ranger and/or PPD to actually do the enforcement.
Okay. So if that's the case, then we probably need a lot more park rangers to help out with that, right.
One more, Mr. Chairman, if you don't mind. Is it possible that if signs are put up, that the signs could mention the amount of the fine on those signs? Because again, if we want to get people to think twice, I think if someone will see what gives the fine of $2,000, I mean that will make me think twice about having an unleashed animal or something like that.
Yes. And so, the fine is intended to go on the signage. And as part of that financial statement that the Commissioner included, it does talk about the need for signage updates and things like that.
And also, I just want to note that on your website the exact number of facilities that are designated as animal-free are not specified as available so we will probably need to update that as well, so that would be important. All right. Are there any other questions from members of the committee or comments? (No response.)
Seeing none, thank you so much for your testimony. Ms. Walton, can you please -- is that it for the panel? Is there another panel?
So that concludes the panel testimony for this bill. We will now begin the hearing from individuals who registered for public comment.
Yes. So for Bill No. 241082, we have Brett Bessler Local 2186. (Witness approached witness table.)
Thank you. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Good afternoon. My name is Brett Bessler. I'm the Vice-president Business Agent for AFSCME District, Council 47, Local 2186. I represent Recreation Leader 2s, 3s, the supervisors of recreation centers and also park ranger supervisors --
Brett, my apologies. There is one more panel. I want to fix that right now.
Thank you. Ms. Walton, can you please call the last and final panel we have to testify this afternoon on Bill No. 250379.
Yes. Marissa Washington, First Deputy Commissioner. (Witness approached witness table.)
Good afternoon. My name is Marissa Washington, First Deputy Commissioner, and I'm reading for Commissioner Susan Slawson and her testimony into the record and will be available to answer questions on behalf of Parks and Recreation. Good afternoon, Chairman Phillips and members of the committee. My name is Susan Slawson and I'm the Commissioner of the Department of Parks and Recreation. I'm here today to testify in support of Bill No. 16 250379. Bill No. 250379, introduced by Councilman Brian O'Neill, would amend Bill No. 877 to increase the grant amount any entity may receive in any given fiscal year from the Philadelphia Activities Fund. Currently, the maximum Activities Fund grant is $9,000. This bill would raise it to $9,500. The Department of Parks and Recreation supports this measure. I thank you for the opportunity to testify today. If you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them.
Thank you. Are there any questions from members of the committee? (No response.)
Seeing none, there being no further questions, Ms. Walton, are there any other panels to testify for today?
Okay. That concludes panel testimony for these bills. We will now begin hearing from individuals who registered to provide public comment. We ask that you keep your comments to no longer than three minutes as well. Will you please read the names of the first individuals registered for public comment.
Yes. We have Brett Bessler from Local 2186, D.C. 47 on Bill No. 241082.
Good afternoon again. My name is Brett Bessler, Vice-President, Business Agent for AFSCME District Council 47, Local 2186. My Local represents Recreation Leader 2s and 3s. They're the facility supervisors for our city's recreation centers and we also represent park ranger supervisors throughout the city. Just want to make a pun. Pun absolutely intended. These signs are all bark and no bite. You could put a million dollars on that sign, that doesn't mean that people are going to leash their dog. That doesn't mean they're going to pick up after their dog or anything like that. As a recreation leader myself in the field, and I can speak on behalf of our members, when these bills get passed, it feels a little bit like a slap in the face to us because there is no 12 plan for enforcement and it feels like it kind of just gets left on our backs to enforce it. Because if you have all these signs all over the park and there's an off-leash dog, someone's going to come into the facility supervisor's office and say, hey, there's an off-leash dog out there, and we're not -- even though our members could, but they're not going to because they love the communities that they serve, they could throw their hands up in the air and say, that's not my job, but they're not going to do that. So myself, as a recreation leader when I was in the field, I was stationed at DiSilvestro Playground right at 15th and Morris, which was not animal-free. Then it was rebuilt and then it was animal-free. We had signs all over the place. It was a nightmare. I mean it took three, four years of a lot of community meetings, having discussions with people that would come in with off-leash dogs and all that kind of stuff. Eventually we got there to where it significantly decreased. But it was a nightmare and it would have been a lot easier if there was a support system there for enforcement. Another example is I was at Smith Playground, stationed at Smith Playground at 24th and Jackson. One day we had two off-leash pit bulls just running through the park. And eventually, one of the pit bulls got a hold of an 8-year-old girl and started to maul her face. There was tons of people in the park. Nobody wanted to do anything except for me and this 17-year-old kid. Looked at this kid and then we decided, all right, it's our job to save this little girl. So we ran over. The teenager, unfortunately, I mean he had to do what he had to do, kicked the dog. The dog got off the little girl and I pulled her by the feet, put her over my shoulder while she's gushing blood all over the place and ran into the rec center. It would be great to have staff that is dedicated to enforcement and helping rec leaders in those situations, because like I said, it's not our job to enforce it. When we do have civil service positions, park rangers that do have the authority in their job specs to issue code violations and things like that, they can do it. But for one of the largest urban park systems in the world, for the FY26 budget we only have rangers budgeted. I agree 12 with you, Councilmember, we really, 13 really need to kick that number up. 14 And I've been thinking about it a 15 lot because we're very much looking 16 forward to the working group that 17 we're about to start about Parks & 18 Rec. 19 And I think one of the 20 things that really was lacking is 21 when the department merged, when 22 Recreation and Fairmount Park 23 merged in 2010, was the fact that 24 rangers didn't fully integrate into the recreation side of it.
I'm sorry. You -- yeah. So the safety aspect never really fully transitioned over to Rec. And I think that's a conversation that we really should have and we should explore. Because when you look at the park ranger job specs, not only do they do enforcement but their job is to educate prior to enforcement, so they can do that education. They can come out with the pamphlets and tell people, hey, you gotta leash your dog, six-foot leash, all that kind of stuff. They can do that. I remember when I was little, park rangers used to come to my Cub Scout Troop and they used to show us fox skins or skulls of a possum or something like that. It was really cool. They did environmental education. There's a lot of things that park rangers can do. And I think it would really, really benefit our rec centers, not only from an enforcement side of things but also an education side of things to have them embedded in our recreation centers.
Thank you. Thank you so much for your testimony. The Chair recognizes -- I'm going to go with Councilman Jeffrey Young and then Councilman Curtis Jones.
Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. And thank you for your testimony. So I just want to say I do not intend this legislation to be a slap in the face of the workers there. But the intent is to provide the residents with the knowledge of what the law is. And so, whatever support the workers need to do their jobs I can tell you that members of this body, right, particularly members of this committee, is willing to help come up with I guess the implementation plan, the enforcement plan because we don't enforce, right. Our job is to legislate, but we're more than willing to work with the administration on how we can enforce the provisions of this particular legislation. One question I do have is, does the staff at our rec centers have access to maybe call a ranger if they see certain types of violations happening and the rangers could come to the facilities if they see this type of prolonged activity occurring?
I mean, in my experience as a rec leader I remember I started in 2015. When I first started, rangers were doing kind of regular patrols, but that stopped pretty quickly where I wouldn't see them again. I personally never got a phone number for a ranger in my district or anything like that. I think that's a great idea. But again, right now we have rangers budgeted for '25 in the 12 next fiscal year. We have 154 13 sites, and that doesn't even 14 include just the parks, right. So 15 I mean, it's the same kind of thing 16 with the police. What is the 17 priority, what is everybody's 18 capacity. Right now -- I mean, it 19 would be great to have a park 20 ranger's phone number, but I don't 21 know if they would realistically be 22 able to get there in a timely 23 manner. And that's no fault to them. It's just a massive, massive system.
Thank you, Councilmember Young. Chair now recognizes Councilman Curtis Jones.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I remember some administrations ago we had I think it was called the 92nd Division police that were the Park police. They were a combination of pedestrian, vehicle and mounted police that were responsible for the acreage in the park. Due to cutbacks and "new deployment strategies" that merged from parts of the 19th taking that, parts of the 35th, parts of I believe maybe the 22nd. And we kind of touched on that with the increased activity in the Belmont Plateau. There was another attack where some feral dogs actually attacked a man and made him lose his leg. So between that and the Lemon Hill type of activities, it might be a time where I would be willing, Mr. Chairman, to co-introduce something that looks at a resolution that might want to restore the 92nd Fairmount Park guard police stations. It might be time to revisit that. I don't know -- because that's who can enforce. I don't expect you to go running into danger. And I'm thankful that you did for that young kid, but that's not in your job description and I don't know how we would explain that to your family.
I mean, I think that's a great idea. And if Council wanted to explore that, they can. I'm always going to advocate for our members who it is their job. I don't represent urban park ranger 1s or 2s. I represent the supervisors, but I do know that they can do this job. It is in their job specs and they would be dedicated to the actual rec center or to the park. And like I said before, there's more to their job than just enforcement. There's a big education side of being a park ranger and it's also in their job specs where they can do programs. I hear what you're saying, Councilmember. But I would advocate for our membership, our representative titles to do their job. And again, I think they work for the department. They could be embedded in the system. It just needs to be expanded.
All right. Thank you. Are there any other questions from members of the committee? (No response.)
Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much, Brett. That concludes panel testimony -- that concludes the public testimony for this hearing on Bill Nos. 240671, 241082 and 250379. We will now go into a public meeting to consider the action to be taken on these bills. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Young for a motion on Bill No. 240671.
Oh, one second. We are now going into a public meeting. Ms. Walton, can you please call the roll.
Thank you so much. We will now go into the actions to be taken on this bill. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Young for a motion on Bill No. 240671.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that Bill No. 13 240671 be reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that Bill No. 240671 be reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. All those in favor of the motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the motion carries. Bill No. 240671 will be reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation with a request that the rules of Council be suspended to permit the first reading at the next session of Council. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Curtis Jones for a motion on Bill No. 241082.
241082 be moved from this committee. I further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading of this bill 12 at our next session of Council. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that Bill No. 241082 be reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit the first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. All those in favor of the motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the motion carries. Bill No. 241082 will be reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation with a request that the rules of Council be suspended to permit the first reading at the next session of Council. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Young for a motion on Bill No. 250379.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that Bill No. 21 250379 be reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. (Duly seconded.)
Thank you. It has been moved and properly seconded that Bill No. 8 250379 be reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. All those in favor of the motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the motion carries. Bill No. 250379 will be reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation with a request that the rules of Council be suspended to permit the first reading at the next session of Council. There being no further questions from members of the committee -- are there members for questions, questions? (No response.)
There's no questions from the committee and no other witnesses to testify, this concludes the business before the Committee on Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs today. Thank you all so much for your attendance.
Thanks a lot. Appreciate you. (Committee on Parks, Recreation & Cultural Affairs concluded at 3:05 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. __________________________________ TANEHA CARROLL