Aye. The ayes are 16; the nays are zero. A majority of all members having voted in the affirmative, the bill passes. The Chief Clerk will please read the title of Bill No. 100100.
An ordinance amending Section 9-213 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Farmers' Markets," by adding as a permissible location the sidewalk of the east side of Broad Street between Porter and Ritner Streets.
This bill having been read on two different days, the question now is shall the bill pass finally. The Chief Clerk will please call the roll. 4/29/10 - STATED - 2ND READING
Aye. The ayes are 16; the nays are zero. A majority of all members having voted in the affirmative, this bill passes. We will now consider Bill No. 4/29/10 - STATED - 2ND READING 100157.
An ordinance authorizing the revision of lines and grades on a portion of City Plan Nos. 11-S, 42, 269 and 308 by relocating the houselines and curblines of South Street from a point approximately one-hundred seventy feet northwest of Convention Avenue to the northwesterly Pierhead and Bulkhead Line of the Schuylkill River.
This bill having been read on two different days, the question now is shall the bill pass finally. The Chief Clerk will please call the roll.
Councilman DiCicco. 4/29/10 - STATED - 2ND READING COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Aye.
Aye. The ayes are 16; the nays are zero. A majority of all members having voted in the affirmative, this bill passes. The Chief Clerk will please read the title of Bill No. 100220.
An ordinance amending Section 2 of an ordinance (Bill No. 080279), entitled "An ordinance authorizing and directing the revision of lines and grades on a portion of City Plan Nos. 52-S and 53-S by placing on the City Plan Twenty-Sixth Street from 4/29/10 - STATED - 2ND READING Penrose Avenue southwardly approximately one-thousand eight-hundred thirty-two feet to a dead-end."
This bill having been read on two different days, the question now is shall the bill pass finally. The Chief Clerk will please call the roll.
Aye. The ayes are 16; the nays are zero. A majority of all members having voted in the affirmative, the bill passes. The last bill to be considered is Bill No. 100185.
An ordinance amending Section 10-602 of The Philadelphia Code, known as the "Clean Indoor Air Worker Protection Law," by providing a limited period of time, expiring June 30, 2010, during which a Private Club, as defined, may apply for and obtain a waiver of the provisions of the Section prohibiting smoking in certain places.
This bill having been read on two different days, the question now is shall the bill pass finally. 4/29/10 - STATED - 2ND READING The Chief Clerk will please call the roll.
Aye. The ayes are 16; the nays are zero. A majority of all members having voted in the affirmative, the bill 4/29/10 - STATED - 2ND READING passes. The Chief Clerk will please read the title of Resolution No. 100235.
A resolution approving the annual Program Statement and Budget for the expenditure of the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative Bond Proceeds for Fiscal Year 2010.
The Chair recognizes Councilman Clarke for a motion on the resolution.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that Council stand adjourned until Thursday -
I'm sorry, Madam President. I digress. Madam President, I'd like to make a motion on the NTI resolution. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that the resolution be adopted. All in favor will indicate by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the resolution has been adopted. Are there speeches on the part of the minority? The Chair recognizes Councilman Kelly.
Thank you, Madam President. Madam President, I was very breakfast meeting this morning which was held to promote a great program available to the citizens of our city, and this is Project Lifesaver. This provides a safety net for any of the families who have an autistic child or perhaps anyone who suffers from Alzheimer's. This provides a great safety feature in it, and I would urge anyone that's interested in this program to contact the LoJack Safety Network Organization, and I have distributed brochures with that information and their phone numbers on it. And also at this time I would like to thank Mayor Nutter, Commissioner Ramsey and Michael Tuckerman of the Project Lifesaver and all the great people from LoJack to provide this program. I think it's a great, great, excellent program, and I'm hoping that this eventually will save lives. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Green.
Thank you, Madam President. As City Council continues the serious work of crafting a fiscally responsible budget, we should bear in mind the comments of two people this Tuesday. The first is Ms. Rhonda Moore of Olney, a working mother who testified at Council's public budget hearing that evening, which was hosted by Councilmembers Tasco and Miller. Ms. Moore said loud and clear, If you don't have the money, neither do I. The second is Mayor Nutter, who was in Chicago for the Richard J. Daley Global Cities Forum on a panel with Rahm Emanuel, the Chief of Staff. During the panel discussion, Mayor Nutter proclaimed, We will continue to shrink the size of our city government, because full appreciation of Ms. Moore's sentiment and taking Mayor Nutter at his word, our path forward becomes clearer. We must tighten our belt. We must reduce the size and cost of government. We must demonstrate to citizens that government knows how to stick to a budget, just as citizens like Ms. Moore do, and grow more efficient over time. Some additional data points can guide us during our process. Last year the City reduced the number of filled full-time positions through attrition and simultaneously cut overtime costs. The result: 62 percent of citizens polled in February reported they had seen no change in services. Fifteen more percent said services had improved. Prior to introducing the proposed FY11 budget, the Administration hired a consultant to run several focus groups about the budget. When the the City should increase taxes or reduce services to solve the budget crisis, two times as many people in the Administration's own focus groups voted for reducing services rather than raising taxes. We can provide the same level of service, though not ideal, without increasing taxes. But we also know, because we work to achieve this goal day in and day out, that government can work better and at lower cost, just as it did last year. In the teeth of this feedback from citizens and not inconsistent with the Mayor's comments in Chicago this week, the proposed budget adds -- I'm sorry; the proposed budget adds 200 full-time positions to the City workforce in 2011 and another 174 positions in 2012. That is hardly lowering the cost and size of government because we need to, as the Mayor told everybody in Chicago was his plan. This expansion in is supported by 143 million in new taxes and fees in 2011, rising to 184 million in 2012. At a time when households continue to feel the aftershocks of the economic downturn, it is incumbent on us to pass a budget that reduces spending as much as possible. Now is not the time for us to look to taxpayers to fund new programs, new hires, new initiatives. We are the only major city in the country not asking for shared citizen sacrifice. Philadelphians would step up, as evidenced by the Administration's own focus groups. In informal surveys that I've done, people would rather have twice-a-month trash pickup than have their real estate taxes increased. It is my firm belief that unless we budget for efficiency savings, we will never achieve them. If we appropriate the full amount requested, there will be no incentive for departments to strive for efficiencies. and our charge from Ms. Moore to drive down any additional revenue needed by as much as possible. The hole we need to close for Fiscal Year 2011 is 79 million. If we leave a modest 20 million cushion and force the Administration to live within its means, live within what is appropriated, we can have about 50 million in spending reductions. We've also found over 13 million in additional revenue, some of it one time, not included in the proposed budget. That leaves a hole of $43 million.
If we close this hole with tax increases, they should be short-lived and not regressive, unlike the proposed trash fee or legally questionable sugary-sweetened beverage tax. As Councilmembers have pointed out, a modest real estate tax increase that sunsets in one year would be far less regressive than the proposed trash fee. If Council determines that the real way to go, I will be proposing that we close it through a modest five percent property tax increase for 2011 that will be reduced by the amount revenues exceed projections for the upcoming tax amnesty program or if local tax revenues exceed projections for the first quarter of FY11 on an annualized dollar-for-dollar basis. This would eliminate almost 100 million of the 143 million in new taxes and fees proposed by the Administration, and it would more than double the level of spending reductions proposed by the Administration. We have choices to make. We can continue to kick the can down the road by increasing the size and cost of government, as the Administration has proposed, and stick taxpayers with the bill or we can do the heavy lifting that citizens like Ms. Moore have called upon us to pursue. The choice is clear. Thank you, Madam President.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell.
Thank you, Madam President. I rise for two issues. Once again, our Partnership for Prescription Assistance table is in the hallway, number one. Number two, tomorrow in Conversation Hall at 8:30 for a few hours, we will be celebrating again the Lucien E. Blackwell Guiding Light Awards. This is a program that Malik Aziz -- many of you know him. He's a community activist. He works with everything from reentry to helping communities who have lost people to doing what he can in this Administration and the last Administration to improve the quality of life. This was his brainchild. He started it when Lucien Blackwell passed. Tomorrow we will have it again in the Conversation Hall. We will have 8:30 and give out awards, Malik will, for those who have served our City well. So we invite you, and we say thank you to Malik and thank you all.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Jones.
Thank you, Madam President. As a -- first let me first say that I want to compliment my colleague Councilman Green on his diligence and attention to detail in each department of the budget, recognizing efficiencies, vacancies and better ways to identify cost savings. And I have joined him on a number of occasions, including the Freshmen 15. So I want to publicly say that his work is appreciated by myself and the citizens of Philadelphia. But I rise to speak as a District Councilperson and a democratic an area that I represent that relies heavily on City services. So a trash pickup every two weeks, bimonthly is unacceptable and a false choice. We do not have at times in parts of my district the luxury of choosing between a suburban vacation and pool, Disney World and other choices. It is the recreation center that provides what I like to call a staycation in the district. So as I look at the difficult choices we must make, I take that into consideration, that my alleys, my driveways -- because the young lady that raised the point about not being able to afford taxes, I was there that night and I also heard the young lady that says that obesity and food deserts in our communities are every bit a part of the problem as these other choices will be. We have a difficult job ahead, and I am confident by this kind of competition for good ideas that we will come up with the right decision. But we won't do it in haste. We won't do it knee jerk, and we will do it for the benefit of all citizens of Philadelphia. And that's what our job is, and I hope that we will do our job. And I thank all my colleagues and their input, because without that, we would be a monolithic group that just voted for whatever came down the pike. This is a part of the process. It should be expected, and at the end of the day, I'm confident we're going to do the right thing. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to thank my colleague regarding the budget and would just like to point out that what we have discussed in private increases recreation staff by at least 26 people, it fills all vacant positions in that category, and want to be clear that I am not proposing cuts but increases to your rec centers and pools. However, even with that, we can limit the cost and burden to taxpayers, and that is my goal. We cannot continue to kick the can down the road. We must lower the cost and size of government while increasing services, and I know you and I both believe that that is possible over time. Thank you, Councilman.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Sanchez.
I have to join my freshmen colleagues here in the discussion. Again, as I said earlier when we were talking about this budget deliberation, I think, as Councilman Green has noted, we will get to both. I think there is a scenario in which we cut our budget and lessen the burden on taxpayers but, at the same time, provide, given the economic downturns, the safety nets that these communities, people like Ms. Moore in Olney, need to ensure that their quality of life is protected as it relates to public safety, as it relates to recreation and the vital services the City needs. So my colleagues are not in conflict. In fact, I believe and I have the confidence and the faith in this City Council and in this institution that we will come to a resolution that accomplishes both those things. And I enjoy the spirited debate. I think that this particular budget season has been one where all of us, I have watched all my colleagues roll up their sleeves and with a consensus, and I am confident that we got elected to provide that leadership and that we will and we will have a budget on June 30th. Thank you.
Thank you. Are there any other speeches? (No response.)
Seeing none, the Chair recognizes Councilman Clarke for a motion to adjourn.
Thank you, Madam President. I move that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, May 6th, 2010, 10:00 a.m. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, May the 6th at 10:00 a.m. All in favor will say aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the motion carries. Thank you. (Stated Meeting adjourned at 11:30 a.m.) CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on April 29, 2010, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)