COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC HEARING COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE FY '03 OPERATING BUDGET - - - Room 696, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, February 26, 2003 10:00 a.m. - - - BILL 030004 BILL 030008 BILL 030010 - - - PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT ANNA C. VERNA COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE BLACKWELL COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN COUNCILMAN DARRELL L. CLARKE COUNCILMAN FRANK J. DI CICCO COUNCILWOMAN JOAN L. KRAJEWSKI COUNCILMAN RICHARD T. MARIANO COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER COUNCILMAN MICHAEL A. NUTTER COUNCILMAN BRIAN J. O'NEILL COUNCILMAN ANGEL L. ORTIZ COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO COUNCILWOMAN MARIAN B. TASCO - - - V A R A L L O, INCORPORATED Litigation Support Services Eleven Penn Center 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 (215) 561-2220 658 I N D E X WITNESSES PHILIP R. GOLDSMITH, Managing Director ...... 659 ANTHONY TORRE, Managing Director's Office ... 682 FRANK HUGHES, Managing Director's Office .... 691 THOMAS CONWAY, Managing Director's Office ... 694 LEON KING, Commissioner of Prisons .......... 701 MIKE NUCCI, Director of Emergency Management..702 TIM ALEXANDER, Managing Director's Office ... 712 RALPH BLAKNEY, MOCS ......................... 717 ANTHONY MURPHY, Operation Town Watch ........ 718 JAMES COLEMAN, Managing Director's Office ... 724 KENT MILLER, Municipal Energy Office ........ 736 MARK BENCIVENGO, CODAAP ..................... 769 ALBA MARTINEZ, Commissioner of DHS .......... 799 GLORIA JACKSON, Managing Director's Office .. 811 SYLVESTER JOHNSON, Police Commissioner ...... 821 HAROLD HAIRSTON, Fire Commissioner .......... 918 659 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET
Good morning, everyone. This is the continued hearing of the Committee of the Whole regarding Bill Nos. 030004, 030008 and 030010. The first department to testify is the Managing Director's Office. Good morning. Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.
I am Phillip R. Goldsmith, Managing Director of City of Philadelphia. To my left is Anthony Torre, the Administrative Service Director for the Managing Director's Office. And to my right is Lori Jones, the Chief of Staff. Good morning, President Verna and Members of City Council. I am Philip R. Goldsmith, Managing Director of the City of Philadelphia. I'm here to present testimony on the proposed Fiscal Year 2004 Operating Budget for the Office of the Managing Director. The total proposed budget is approximately $24 million, of which $16 million is in the General Fund and about $8 million is in the Grants Fund. This represents a decrease of $732,000 660 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET from Fiscal Year 2003 General Fund estimated obligations, with $553,000 of those dollars coming from Class 100. 25 million for Philadelphia Prison Inmate Services, including job training, as part of the Jackson V. Hendricks settlement. Appendix A is a list of major operations costs budgeted in this office. The Managing Director provides oversight, support and direction to the 13 operating departments under his or her authority. This office assumes responsibility for organizing, coordinating and supervising major inter-departmental initiatives. These efforts range from snow removal to support of special events, from streamlining the permitting and licensing processes, to managing the Emergency Operations Center from Operation Safe Streets, to ensuring the well-being of children and youth. Appendix B will describe several of these initiatives. If our efforts are to be successful, 661 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET coordination and cooperation among many City agencies is essential. I'd like to digress for a moment and thank the men and women of the City of Philadelphia, many of them sitting behind me, for the enormous coordination and initiatives that we recently undertook in the most recent snowstorm. This was a cooperative effort of the Water Department, Recreation, Public Property, Police, Managing Director's Office, Emergency Management, OESS, Fire, Fairmount Park, L&I, Streets and Fleet Management, included not only the snow removal portions, but also the cleaning of the inlets so that we could prevent any negative consequences as a result of the snow. I think it's the responsibility of the Managing Director to ensure that redundancy and duplication of effort are eliminated and that resources are allocated and used in the most strategic, efficient and effective way possible. The complex issues facing the City require no less. The operating departments and associated commissions and offices that have responsibility for the City's Health and Human Services have for the 662 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET past three years worked together under the division of Social Services. The operating budgets for these agencies total over $2 billion. The objectives of this confederation of agencies are improved efficiency and service delivery through greater collaboration and program integration, increased accountability for performance, greater financial investments in the well-being and development of children and the creative use of technology to target the allocation of resources to facilitate case management across agencies. An example of this later use of technologies is the first phase of the new Integrated Data Information System, which was implemented last month. This allows selected agencies to consolidate client records into a single database and share that information with the consent of the client. Once in full operation, this system is expected to expedite requests for services from clients, facilitate the assessment of client needs, improve the quality of case planning, goal setting, and expedite the achievements of goals by clients. Appendix C describes some additional strategies that are being implemented.
663 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET As you know, I'm in the first month as Managing Director, and I am cognizant that I have a steep learning curve. I am acutely aware of the enormous responsibility entrusted to me by Mayor Street and of my duty to the people of Philadelphia. So I would like to use this opportunity to describe for you my approach as I assume this important role for this great city. First, I am mindful that I have very big shoes to fill in succeeding my immediate predecessor, now Secretary of Public Welfare, Estelle Richman. She brought an impressive portfolio to Social Services along with a work ethic and a commitment to people that prepared her to be an outstanding Managing Director. I appreciate the advice and support I've received from her and also from other managing directors who have reached out to me during my first weeks in this position. Each Managing Director brings to the job his or her unique skills and background. My background has been a blend of private and public sector experience. In the public sector I've served as Deputy Mayor in the early '80s, Interim Chief Executive Officer of the School District of 664 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET Philadelphia, and most recently, Interim Director of Fairmount Park. For years I worked in the private 5 sector. And it was during that time that I cut my 6 teeth on managing people and organizations 7 undergoing change. My 12 years as an executive at 8 PNC Bank was during a time of transition and change 9 for the banking industry. It was a time when 10 mergers and consolidations were taking place, the 11 rules of the road were changing with the 12 deregulation of the financial services industry, and 13 technology was being introduced at a rapid pace. I 14 was later a managing principal at Right Management 15 Consultants, a global human resources consulting 16 firm with its worldwide headquarters located here in 17 Philadelphia. Among my responsibilities there, I 18 counseled individuals who had lost their jobs. In most cases it was not because they were poor performers. Frankly, it was because their managements had often acted too slowly to changing circumstances and were not able to keep pace in a competitive marketplace. That experience has made an indelible impression on me. Maintaining the status quo often ends up hurting people, not helping 665 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET them. When I began my 14-month stint at the School District of Philadelphia, there was a hefty dose of skepticism toward the notion that anything was going to change. The men and women who had worked there for years and years had heard the small boy cry wolf many times before. But as we know, things did change. It's a good reminder that government, too, is susceptible to the forces that impact the private sector. We live in a competitive world. Municipal governments compete for residents and employees. And if we are to stem the decades old loss of population and jobs, we must, in my judgment, accelerate change and be more responsive to the needs of our residents, employers and those who we would like to make Philadelphia their home. My philosophy is embedded in a very strong belief that change does not occur because one wills it or demands it. It occurs when you involve people, communicate every step of the way and have a thoughtful plan that articulates the benefits of what you hope to accomplish. There are many change initiatives reflected in the Five-Year Financial Plan. There is 666 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET virtually nothing in that Plan, from the consolidation of call centers, to assessing the quality of number of facilities, to reducing the number of vehicles, that has not been accomplished elsewhere. The issue is not whether these changes are feasible, but instead, how we go about accomplishing them and, frankly, whether we have the political will to accomplish them.
I assure you that my approach will be one of fact-based analysis, inclusion, thoughtfulness, and communication. I hope that you will conclude that I was fair, even if we disagree from time to time. The Managing Director's Office is well positioned to see the big picture, the commonality of problems and solutions that cut across departmental lines. My job is to see that our commissioners and other department heads work together to capitalize on their collective resources and talents, that they help and learn from one another. They were appointed for their expertise in a particular field and to do their jobs on behalf of the people of Philadelphia. I am here to support them in their efforts, to add my own expertise when appropriate, and to hold them accountable in 667 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET carrying our accountabilities and responsibilities. While the role of Managing Director includes responding to events and oftentimes crises, as I have learned in my three weeks on the job, one of my objectives is to see that we are also being proactive in addressing the needs of our City. Our customers are the people of Philadelphia. Our customers are those who are here for business or for pleasure. In order to know whether we are satisfying our customers, we must ask them. We must reach out to them, understand their needs and issues. This proactive approach is an expectation you should have of me and those who run the operating agencies of this government. I hope to restructure the office to allow for a more proactive outreach that targets key segments, that transcend geographical boundaries. I believe, as the Mayor does, that a great city must be clean, it must be safe, and it must be compassionate. The Managing Director's Office plays a vital role in helping to achieve these objectives. But given the scarcity of resources compared to the multitude of needs, we can only do that if we are focused, if we are strategic, 668 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET if we dare to be innovative and, perhaps, most cooperative and respectful of one another. The position of Managing Director is an enormous challenge and I look forward to working with each Member of City Council to meet that challenge. At this time I will try to respond to your questions. And, with your indulgence, I will call upon my capable staff to help address issues that I am not yet familiar with. Thank you.
Thank you very much. I certainly want to wish you all the best in your new position. I know we've worked together for quite a while. And may I say that you have always been very, very responsive and I thank you for that.
Mr. Goldsmith, in Appendix A of your testimony you mention the Street Tree Removal Program. Can you supply us with a list as to where these funds have been spent in FY '03 and where you plan to spend them in FY '04?
Yes. I will get back to you with those answers. I am pleased to say that since the Council provided more funding for the Street Tree 669 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET Program, that we have made a significant dent in the backlog, and I think we're well on our way to continuing that progress with the support of Council. I think one of the testaments to the progress that has been made in removing dangerous trees is, during the snow storm, we only had one emergency tree request. And I think, in the past, with a storm of that nature, and with a lot of storms, we would have had 200 to 300 emergency tree requests. But we will get back to you with specific information.
That would be very interesting, because we still have a rather large backlog. And I would like you to explain why we're cutting the tree trimming and stump removal program by $1.3 million.
Thank you. You mentioned the Community Life Improvement Program in your testimony. This program started in the 6th and 10th Council Districts, and a modified program was instituted in the 3rd Council District in December 2002. What are the 670 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET Administration's plans for the continued expansion of this program, and what are the Council Districts that you will been adding in FY '03 and FY '04? And can you tell us how it was decided as to where the expansion would go?
I would like to get back to you on those questions. I would like to say a couple of things. One, I'm pleased that we have a program that every Councilperson would like in their district. I think it shows the success of the problem. I also view the CLIP Program, from what I understand about it, is it's not just only a program. It's about an approach of how we deliver services. And I would like to see a day, frankly, when all services are delivered in a coordinated way and we don't call it a program. It's just the normal way that we do business. We will get back to you on what our plans are and how we would go about prioritizing how we do that.
I know that Councilwoman Krajewski has, from time to time, stated how successful this program has been in this 671 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET district. I would appreciate it if you would get back to us. Thank you.
I'm just very happy that we initiated CLIP. And I applaud all the employees, Mr. Conway, the anti-graffiti, for an excellent, excellent job that everyone is doing. Thank you.
Madam President, if I may, on the same issue. Certainly, our program we wrote, we created, we didn't take any City funds. I've said this to my colleagues before. I have people who work in my neighborhoods, in conjunction with the City, a volunteer effort. So we created -- I know you can't comment on it -- and you're happy too, but we created that in my office as our way to responding to neighborhoods. And then we asked the City to approve it. We don't have any new monies -- I was telling my colleagues, and certainly as always, as with anything we try to do, to try to be creative and service oriented. We're always happy to share whatever we do. It was a program we asked 672 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET the Administration to agree to doing, that kind of tweaked services out there in a way that we thought could respond in a timely fashion using volunteers in the neighborhoods with the City. I say that to my colleagues. I'm happy to take everybody's money, but obviously we don't have any extra money to do this. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President.
Councilwoman, I mentioned your district because I believe it was in Mr. Goldsmith's testimony.
Mr. Goldsmith, on of your testimony you have a section 16 dealing with the, "Streamline and create efficiencies in the permitting and licensing process," I believe it's on -- it's on of the new testimony. You further state that the anticipated tasks for FY '03 are, "Redesign of permit documents and application forms and analysis of zoning refusals and variances." What is the status of these tasks? And would you also mention activities to occur in '04? 673 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET Would you tell us your timeline on these projects and who will be doing the work? Will it be done by consultants or in-house personnel?
I just had my first briefing on this project, I think it was earlier this week, and so my understanding of it is more conceptual and general in nature than specific. So I will get back to you on what our dates are and what the deadlines are. As far as I know, this is being done by people in various departments, primarily driven by L&I right now and the Managing Director's Office. As far as I know, there are no consultants currently being used -- if I'm wrong, I'd ask someone to correct me -- nor intended to be used at this point in time.
Thank you. On -16 of your budget detail, you are requesting $100,000 for telecommunications policy initiative, $36,000 for a technical advisor, and $55,000 for Livable Neighborhoods Program. Please explain what these various requests are for.
I will need to get back to you on that and I will do so. 674 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET
I have a number of other questions, but I see that many of my colleagues also would like to have an opportunity to ask some questions. I am going to suggest that each Councilperson be given three minutes for the first go around. The Chair at this time recognizes Councilman Clarke.
Mr. Goldsmith, how many positions will be eliminated from the Managing Director's Office, or will there been any positions eliminated as a result of our budget concerns?
There will be. I think the budget detail, I think, shows 14 positions, but I'm going to get back to you on more details on that. But there will be positions eliminated for a variety of different reasons, but I think our budget is reflecting 14 positions.
Do you know the details with respect to positions being eliminated 675 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET that are already filled, or are these positions that have gone unfilled?
These are filled positions. These are existing people. I want to be fair and say that we'll have to get back to you exactly, but there's a number --
Trust me, I will not give names. I feel very strongly that these are personal issues. But I think some of these issues, some people revert to Civil Service. What I've done and will continue to do is look at the staffing of the Managing Director's Office; who is there, who we need and so forth, given the financial circumstances and given what I would like to do in the office. In some cases, people that do not have Civil Service protection will not have jobs, unless we can find them other legitimate jobs in the government. Some people have the right to revert to Civil Service. Whether, in fact, they decide to revert to Civil Service will be their decision and, in fact, there has to be a Civil Service position available. 676 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET
No, they're not all 5 exempt. They are now exempt, yes. They're not 6 Civil Service positions, but people could bump back 7 into Civil Service. 8
I wanted to 9 follow-up on Council President's question with 10 respect to street tree removal. You've indicated 11 you don't have the details. But can you talk to me 12 about the priority as it relates to selecting 13 location? Is it simply first come, first serve? Or 14 is there an analysis done in terms of the most dangerous conditions? Or do you do it in a targeted way to support other initiatives? One issue, as an example, earlier on, Strawberry Mansion Community was designated as one of the early NTI, early action areas, and there was a particular request for a block in that community sometime ago for street tree pruning. It was one of the few blocks that actually had street trees in that community and, to date, we haven't had an opportunity to have those trees pruned. They're essentially growing over individuals' roofs and hanging in the street. 677 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET What's the criteria for selection?
Let me put my Fairmount Park hat on, if I can, for a moment. The priorities are: Is a tree diseased? Is it dangerous? Is it dead? Those are the standards we use in Fairmount Park. And those trees are prioritized with inspectors that go out and determine the severity of each tree. And then it's prioritized according to that. And as a result, over the years, we've had more trees than we can get to at any given time. We try to prioritize them by the dangerous nature of those. And we can get you more details on precisely how that gets done. After our inspectors mark them, we then have contractors that go out and do that. I think each Councilmatic District is taken into consideration and we try to deal with that equitably and within the parameters of the tree being diseased, dangerous or dead. We should not really be going out pruning trees for the aesthetic purposes of pruning trees. We would only be out pruning trees if it fit one of those three Ds, as we call them. In terms of NTI, perhaps someone here can talk about how we go about that; otherwise, we 678 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET can get you the information on that.
I am, but I don't have the facts at hand to know whether it's different or not. I can speak about the Fairmount Park. I was there a little bit longer than I've been in this position. But we'll get you the information.
With respect to lot treatment, seeing your testimony, that you have reduced the cost to some degree. One of the concerns I have, unfortunately, representing a district that has a substantial amount of vacant lots, there's a certain level of redundancy, particularly in those areas where you don't have a strong community organization or an individual adopting a side lot. What is the strategy for some sense of permanency as it relates to lot treatment? Because, frankly speaking, I get tired and I know the individuals -- Mr. Alexander -- gets tired of me calling them and asking them to continue to come out and clean up vacant lots. At some point I think it ultimately should be the responsibility of the individuals in those communities to stop dumping 679 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET debris on those vacant lots. What are we going to do? I think that this is a cost that at some point we should be able to eliminate from our budget. What's our strategy on that?
I'll get back to you with the exact strategy. As I understand it, part of the intermediary strategy is a greening plan so we can hold those lots until they are ready to be developed or for some longer term use. But to at least make sure the blight is removed and eliminated, there is a greening strategy that's being developed.
Is that being developed out of NTI, or is that a part of the normal vacant lot? I know I've gotten a number of vacant lots cleaned and I've yet to see any greenery planted in any of those lots.
I think that's part of the strategy of NTI. We'll get you more on that.
Councilman Clarke, I'm sorry. Your time has been up. If you just want to -- is that the end of your response, Mr. Goldsmith?
We'll have to check with NTI. The next Councilperson to be recognized is Councilman Nutter.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We may need to have a task force on the time on the questions. It takes me about three minutes to frame most of my questions, but I'll try to be cooperative. Mr. Goldsmith, let me stay somewhat in the area where Councilman Clarke was. I didn't understand part of the response to a question regarding street trees and pruning, as well as when the Council President asked you about the budget detail on -86 where we see a decrease in tree trimming and stump removal of $1.3 million. Can you tell me again -- you mentioned something about either the three Ds or the three Ts related to pruning trees and you also said that we don't prune them for aesthetic purposes. One, can you explain the decrease in funding in this particular line item?
I will have to get back to you on that. 681 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET
This is going to be a rather long session. Mr. Goldsmith, with every respect, I know you just arrived in the job. And you and I have worked together in a couple of your previous capacities. I'm going to have to assume that former Managing Director, now Secretary Richman, did not take all the knowledge of the government with her, and that there are about a hundred people here in the room today; and while you may not know all the details which would be impossible given when you came into the job, I have to believe someone here can answer the question with regard to why there's a decrease in that line item. So I would actually like an answer today to most of my questions.
I was actually hoping that I might have it in the course of the session.
I mean, we've got you. We've got Fairmount Park. We've got the Budget 682 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET Director. Someone must be able to tell us why there's a $1.3 million decrease in this item. And that's kind of why we're here. Mr. Torre will try to answer that.
My name is Anthony Torre, Administrative Services Director for the Managing Director's Office. I think the line item as it's shown there is a little misleading. There's some other money that line item besides tree trimming. There's also vacant lot cleaning money that was lumped into that tree trimming. When we originally proposed the vacant lot program --
I understand that, Mr. Torre, but the item says, No. 260, tree trimming and stump removal. Now, that's all I'm left to deal with. It says in Column 7, under increase or decrease, has a parentheses around $1,308,759 dollars. I think that's a decrease. If you want to add some additional information to the answer, I'm 683 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET pleased to hear it. But I'm only left to deal with what's in the book.
Well, I understand that. Let me rephrase my response. This year between tree trimming and stump removal we will probably spend around $3.3 million. We will spend that same amount next year.
Column 5 says, in FY '03, the year we're in, it's $4,628,000.
That's correct. But what I'm saying is that all of that $4.6 million was not for tree trimming.
$4.6 million, correct. That was not all for tree trimming. It was some vacant lot cleaning money which we originally intended to contract out, which we did not do. So the money that was in that line item for cleaning the lots was moved to other classes.
What did you not do? Did you not clean the lots or did you not contract 684 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET it out?
We did not contract out. We cleaned the lots with City employees.
So if you were going to break that item out for FY '03, what would be the amount that went with the lot cleaning and what's the amount that goes with tree trimming and stump removal to make up $4.6 million?
Well, the tree and stump removal was about $3.3 million and the balance would be lot cleaning money.
The lot cleaning money was moved up into Class 100 because we utilized City employees to do the lot cleaning. Because when we looked at the costs to contract it out, it exceeded what we had intended for each lot. So we decided that it would be more effective to clean it with City employees, more effective and cheaper to do it with City employees than do it by contracting.
So if I'm understanding your answer, I think what I'm hearing you say is that the dollar amount being spent for 685 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET tree trimming and stump removing proposed for FY '04 is about the same as it is in FY '03?
And that you had additional funds in there for something else that you didn't list in the line item, which naturally we couldn't know, but basically it's the same amount of money?
That was pretty easy. They'll get harder as the day goes on.
Old friend, how are 686 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET you doing?
We've known each other since the green years. That's a long time. I have one question, because I think this one you're able to answer because you're heavily involved in it. What were the costs of the operations during the last snowstorm?
Do we have the precise cost of that? I think at the time we were estimating between $750,000 to a million dollars a day. I don't know whether we have the most up-to-date cost. $4.5 million.
That's for everything. What does that include? 687 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET
That would be -- I'll ask the Streets Commissioner to help me here. But that would be personnel overtime, the cost of salt, contractors. We had contractors out there. It's all those costs. There may have been some ancillary costs -- not ancillary. Other additional costs in other overtime which is not reflected here. So we will get you the entire cost. It was an expensive snowstorm.
That $4.5 is generally only the cost accruing to the Streets Department?
Were there other costs in terms of other departments that are ancillary to the storms and so on, and do you have that? So we can get a clear picture of what the storm has cost us in terms of the budget.
We will get that to you. We don't have that now. But that would include things such as police overtime, Fleet, Water Department. We had Water out Saturday and Sunday and so forth. So there are other costs, yes.
What has been the 688 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET projected impact in terms of -- because this is not something that was projected in the budget. What is the projected impact on the budget and how do we make up any other shortfalls that will happen? Where is that money coming from?
I'd probably be more comfortable if someone from the Budget Office responded to that. It obviously adds to the financial situation of the City. We will have to continue to find ways to deal with that.
I'd like to begin looking because there is a budget period. This is a time to start thinking about those things.
Rob Dubow, Budget Director. We actually had a transfer ordinance 17 that was already before Council last week. We amended it while we here to increase the amount of the ordinance, I think it was by about $3.5 million, to cover what we knew to be the cost for the Streets Department of the storm at that point. We moved money from a few areas as laid out in the transfer ordinance to cover that.
But obviously it's having an impact on the overall budget. I'd like to 689 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET hear --
I think in the end the Managing Director is exactly right. It just adds to our challenge to try to figure out how to balance our budget and our plan over the long haul and it really is just a hit to the fund balance. I mean, it's $3.5 million or 4.5 million, whatever the number winds up being, that we didn't have budgeted.
We have six more inches coming during the next two days. What will be the cost, if any, projected for that fixer-upper? Because we still have snow on the ground from two weeks ago.
It's probably going to be around a quarter of a million dollars when you add everything in.
I'd like to see a projection to the Chair of what is the impact of this extra spending that we're having in terms of the overall budget and how it's affecting other 690 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET departments and services.
We can show you the numbers and we can tell you what you did in the transfer ordinance and what it does for our fund balance.
Under your Appendix, bottom of , there's discussion given to the anti-crime initiatives and given the Administration's priority around Safe Streets. Please speak to some of these excesses in these particular areas where we are with other level funding for starters, namely the Weed and Seed Program and Operation Town Watch.
Someone want to speak to that? 691 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET
Good morning. Frank Hughes, Managing Director's Office. Specifically in terms of the coordinating efforts that we've done with various City departments, we have further extended our West Philadelphia Weed and Seed area to now cover parts of Wynnefield. We originally started at 44th to 54th Street. We've gone from 44th to 57th Street to include parts of Wynnefield. We have our two North Philadelphia areas of Weed and Seed. In addition to that, we have been working with both the District Attorney's Office, Operation Town Watch to do coordinated law enforcement initiatives to develop a better relationship with community residents and police. And to support the further work of that we're trying to initiate a few projects. This spring we're going to be initiating our Neighborhood Restoration Program.
Neighborhood Restoration Project. We're going to be doing some greening of lots and some improving of about 20 lots in West Philadelphia. We're going to be initiating some baseball leagues, things like that, to engage the 692 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET young people in the Mill Creek areas and other areas in North Philadelphia. We're also going to be looking at acquiring some properties through the asset forfeiture from the District Attorney's Office. We are coming up with a lot of community initiatives to keep the community engaged in working with police so that we do -- we are trying to promote the Safe Streets in various efforts in that way.
Any tie-ins with the Philadelphia School District, namely, the high schools or middle schools in that area and/or the clergy in that area?
We have a faith-based initiative that we've been working on for a few years. We have a faith-based breakfast when we celebrate the work of the clergy people. We are working actively with police clergy of both the 16th and the 19th Districts. We are also in Sulzberger and some of our other schools in the West Philadelphia Weed and Seed area we have a truancy initiative that we started a couple of years ago. We did a program in Sulzberger which was picked up by the City so that now we're looking to go into 693 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET West Philadelphia High School. So we are expanding the network. We currently support things at Sulzberger, Shoemaker and University City High School.
Now, we heard a lot about the truancy programs when the Mayor's Office of Community Services was before us. The truancy program your speaking of is funded specifically by Weed and Seed or through DHS?
The pilot program was initially funded from Weed and Seed. Since then it was picked up as part of the truancy initiative from DHS.
And the programs you've mentioned today stand to run through to and including next year, this entire Fiscal Year?
Very well. Thank you very much. Now to the Anti-Graffiti Network.
Councilwoman Brown, this will be your last question on the first go around.
Thank you, Madam 694 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET Chair. I, too, like Councilman Clarke would like to ultimately see some of these line items eliminated from the budget. When I think about how long Anti-Graffiti has been around and the dollars we're spending I'm curious to know, do we still have a tie in with Municipal Court? Because I know in the early days of Anti-Graffiti, there was a link with Municipal Court to work with young offenders, item number one. And what are we doing in schools to sort of spread the message that this is unacceptable conduct, period. I'm struck by still the tremendous amount of dollars we're putting in anti-graffiti initiatives, which are necessary, but what are we doing on the prevention side of the equation?
My name is Thomas Conway, Deputy Managing Director for the City of Philadelphia.
Good morning. With regards to the Anti-Graffiti Network, we used to have what was called Urban Artscape Program which would use preventive measures 695 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET to deal with youth and fighting graffiti and vandalism. That program merged with the Mural Arts Program. So Jane Golden now oversees that, working with the youth. We also have an Adult Community Service Program that deals with nonviolent community service offenders. Actually since July to January over 2,000 individuals were in the Community Service Program.
There's a part B, Madam President, real quick. Part B, Mural Arts.
It says here, Mural Arts engages world-renown artists. That's a good thing. There's a number of us on this City Council who philosophically believe that Philadelphia 696 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET residents should get first crack, first opportunity, first consideration. How many artists have you dealt with in the past year, and of that, how many are Philadelphia artists that were given -- those who pay taxes here -- first opportunity. I need to know that.
We'll save that. Is she due to come before us as well at some juncture?
You're welcome. Councilman Clarke, listen to me carefully. We are now starting our second go-around. So we now have Councilwoman Miller under the first go-around.
Thank you, Madam President. 697 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET Good morning, Managing Director.
I'd like to first thank you for the help that -- I'm just going to say your department -- of your help and efforts with the Streets Department, et cetera, around snow removal. But my question is, what is the coordination between the City, the School District? I know Recreation Center -- I mean, you're talking about large places in the district and SEPTA with the bridge overpasses and some of those sidewalks, bridges, et cetera, created problems for children when they returned to school on Thursday. So in the future I think that there needs to be something in the Plan coordinates those agencies.
I think that's a good point. Down at the Emergency Command Center we do have representatives of many of those agencies. And we did work with the School District. We called them up and asked them how we could help. We asked them to prioritize schools. I think they gave us 50-some schools. We try to work on those and try to do our best. I think your point is well taken. We have a Snow Committee, in fact, we're meeting today 698 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET at 12:30 because of the impending snow and we're trying to expand that group to make sure we got all the agencies involved. But I think your point is well taken.
Quite frankly, I think we kind of forgot -- I know I did -- until we started getting calls about children walking in streets and all kinds of things.
One of the things we also did, we started to within the three block radius of each started to put out warning tickets to people to shovel their walks. Perhaps we should have been a little bit more aggressive on that than we were. That was my responsibility.
Well, a lot of the schools waited until the last minute. I know that the ones that are near me and other places, they just didn't really deal with it until Wednesday, Wednesday night. Also, we did talk about the ability of the snow plows to move away from the parked cars if it's a one-way, one-sided street. And maybe that's something that could be worked on too because it's difficult when people are out shoveling all day 699 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET and then the plow comes right back and shovels -- I know on some streets it can't be avoided. But on one-way, one-side parking streets I would think it could.
Councilwoman Miller, based on your suggestion, we actually looked into that and learned we can, in fact, on many of the plows change directions of the plows. So that is something we started to do after your suggestion.
I was in a meeting last night and people were still talking that particular issue.
Councilwoman Miller, I'm sorry. Your time is also up.
Good morning. I have a question. On -9, on the Administration. There's a large increase of purchase of services, on -9. Tell me what that's for? What is the cause for the increase?
Councilwoman, that increase occurs in the Grants Fund and it's mainly for two 700 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET items. The Jackson versus Hendricks settlement of $2.5 million and some other money we're anticipating from the federal government for anti-terrorism planning, equipment, activities. That's a Grants Fund item.
You're anticipating some money from the federal government for terrorism?
Mike Nucci, our Director of Emergency Management will address the source of the funding.
On this page, on 34-9 it doesn't say grants. It just says Administration. Usually it denotes that there would be a Grant Fund if you look at the top of the sheet. It's basic purchase of services.
That's correct. It's purchase of services, but in the Grants Fund. That is an all encompassing page that includes the Grants Fund and the General Fund.
Councilwoman, 701 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET can I piggyback on that, if I may?
Thank you. With the Grants Revenue Fund for $2,250,000 for the Jackson versus Hendricks settlement. Please explain who is the grant or agency.
Good morning. I'm Leon King, Acting Commissioner of Prisons, and prior to my appointment as Acting Commissioner, I was General Council for the prisons and Deputy City Solicitor of the Law Department and I was involved in settling the Jackson case. As I understand the way the money is set up there, that money came from the City General Fund and was placed in the fund that we have set up to distribute connected to the settlement so that's the way that works, as I understand it.
Well, it's used according to the settlement. We have an Oversight Committee that's made up of people from different City departments and plaintiff's counsel in the case. 702 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET And they meet on a monthly basis and it's to be used for, first of all, doing a comprehensive study of vocational and job training programs at the prison for people who are there and people who are going to be released. Second of all, once they study those programs and understand where we can make improvements, the rest of the money is supposed to go to help improve the services that we provide to the inmates.
Thank you. Councilwoman, thank you. I didn't take any part of your three minutes.
Okay. Thank you. Are we going back to the security terrorism issue?
Mike Nucci, Director of Emergency Management, which is under the Managing Director's Office.
I was asking, the gentleman said he thought that the increase in the line item on -9 was partly for the settlement of the Jackson case and was some federal money for terrorism.
We anticipate I believe it's 703 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET $1.15 million in the next Fiscal Year. Both from what we already know we're going to receive from the Office of Justice Programs which is the Federal Justice Department. It comes through the state and then to the cities and counties. So that's included in there plus what we anticipate is going to be available under the new Home Land Security Act.
How are you anticipating that? How are you calculating the money from the Home Land Security?
All the monies are going to be coming through the states. That's how they do it now rather than directly to the cities. For the next few months we are getting $500,000 from the Office of Justice Programs. They said there would be at least a similar amount in the next six months and that doesn't even include what we anticipate under the Home Land Security Act. But it all comes through the state.
Well, as I understand it, from my involvement with the National League of Cities, the cities are having a very hard time with the Office of Home Land Security in trying to even understand whether there will be any 704 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET appropriations for the local government.
One of the problems we're running into, in the past years the Defense Department, Justice Department dealt directly with the largest cities, which we are naturally 7 included in. Now the funds are going all to the 8 states and then they're dividing it up. They're 9 doing it by population. But that doesn't 10 necessarily define the amount of threat -- certainly 11 Forrest County in Pennsylvania if al-Qaeda showed up 12 there I'm pretty sure they would be lost. So we 13 have a bigger threat that really isn't taken into 14 consideration just by population. Yeah, I 15 understand the league of Cities is fighting for the 16 funding to be done through a different way. That 17 will be a good thing. That will be a good thing. 18
Thank you very 19 much. 20 One other question. The other day we 21 had the Office of Labor Relations in here and I 22 notice you have on -12 there is a Director of 23 Labor Standards and a Labor Standards Examiner. 24 Could you explain to me who they are, what they do 25 and what relationship do they have with the other 705 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET Labor Relations Department?
Yes, councilwoman. The director of that office was Juan Ramos who recently resigned as of the end of last week. The purpose of that organization is to monitor Davis Bacon (ph) wage compliance on all federally funded contracts within the City of Philadelphia. So one was the director of that and the other employee listed there is one of the Labor Standards Examiners.
Was that a new position? Have we always had that position in the City?
Yes, both of those positions have been there for quite a while.
Councilwoman, 20 your time is up. Sorry. That completes our first go around. Our second go around will be five minutes. Mr. Goldsmith, -59 of the detail, you're requesting $28,000 for a WDF commissioning. What is a WDF commissioning? 706 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET
I don't know, but I'm going to have someone come up here that does know.
Good morning. My name is Kent Miller. I'm Executive Director of the Municipal Energy Office. The WDF refers to the Women's Detention Center. As you know, that facility will open in the spring or early summer and the commissioning is seeing that all the mechanical and electrical systems are operating at their maximum efficiency.
Thank you. Mr. Goldsmith, on the same page you're requesting $10,000 for a Sustainable Life Styles Project and $25,000 to develop NTI Wall Insulation Strategy. Would you please explain these two?
I'll start with the Wall Insulation Strategy. One of the potential issues that arises when a building is removed in mid block is that it exposes a party wall which had not previously been exposed to the elements. And this often has an impact on the heating and cooling of the remaining building because you now don't have that insulation your neighbor's wall. We identified this as an issue and have discussed it with the 707 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET folks at NTI. It's pretty expensive to build a new exterior wall from scratch and our notion was that perhaps we could have some spray-on insulation that was covered with a material that made it durable. So we approached the Philadelphia University and they thought they could come up with something that might serve this purpose. So we're working with them to see if we can develop this approach to insulation.
I'd like to just go back to this WDF money, $28,000. What responsibility does new construction -- isn't there some contractual certification required that the vendor that's installing the HVC and all the other systems, don't they have to provide some documentation that everything is working? Why do we have to go and double-check the system and spend as much money if there should be some certification, initial certification, required?
There is initial certification. In this case I think it's Keating. We're concerned about keeping the mechanical systems 708 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET tuned once the building is in operation. Keating leaves after he's verified that the systems are operating as designed. But it takes a while for the building systems to be adjusted to the actual use of the facility. We believe that we can fine tune the building operations and save money.
You're requesting $75,000 for PIDC for the Anti Graffiti Voucher Program. Would you please explain this program and why are you contracting with PIDC?
Councilwoman, the $75,000 we contract with PIDC to operate our voucher program where we give paint and paint-related supplies to community groups to eradicate graffiti in their neighborhoods. The reason why we have it with PIDC is, as you know, the City every year, every several years, renegotiates its paint contracts, puts it out for bid. What we found was that every year, every two years we're getting a different vendor. When you get a different vendor you get a different paint. You get a different paint color. You get 709 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET different covering abilities. So what we decided on doing was we contracted with PIDC to pay the paint vouchers for us.
Is there any administrative cost attached to that?
What's that have to do with the color of the paint? What does that have to do with PIDC? They're an industrial economic development business.
But the first part of your answer was, different vendors, different, paint different cover ability, different tints, different hues, mixability. What does that have to do with having a contract with PIDC. How do you ensure that you don't have all those problems just by having a contract with PIDC?
We use the same paint every year. We use Duron paint. We use Duron paint.
This is not a commercial for Duron. What does that have to do 710 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET with having a contract with PIDC? That's the part I'm not understanding.
Because we need a mechanism to pay them. PIDC pays our bills for us.
Mr. Torre, we pay bills every day. We contract with people on a regular basis.
It allows us to use the same vendor each year so we get the same paint and the same consistency each year.
So you like to you circumvent the procurement process, is what you really want to do? Just call it what it is.
A round of applause for an honest man at a budget hearing. You may not have a job by the end of day, but I appreciate the honesty. Wonderful.
And Councilwoman, since my answers take so much of Councilman Nutter's time, could you give him a couple more minutes, please? 711 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET
Your friends behind you will not appreciate that, let me assure you.
I would like to say we're expediting the procurement process, not circumventing it. But I'm not as honest.
We can go into that further. I take that as opposed to color of paint and who mixes it better and how it covers and all that. Guys, it doesn't make any sense, so just cut to the chase.
Actually, it's both. We're circumventing the system, but also maintaining the quality and consistency of the product.
I wouldn't keep bragging about that. You said it once. I heard it. It's fine. You want to go back and see Rob Dubow right about now. And the lady from the Board of Pensions was here yesterday and you might to be talking to her. I yield back, Madam President.
At this time the Chair recognizes Councilman Clarke.
Thank you, Madam President. I'll cut to the chase. Vacant lots, 712 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET I've got to get back on that. I really didn't understand the answer. I want to walk through the process. I make a phone call. I need a vacant lot cleaned. What happens?
My name is Tim Alexander from the Managing Director's Office.
Vacant lot. I make a phone call. Somebody responds. My concern is that I probably make the same phone call four or five times a year. At what point do we get some sense of permanency to that issue in terms of a solution and what is our strategy because frankly speaking I think at some point in time the government should not have to be responsible for continuing to clean up the same vacant lot at a cost -- I don't know what our men out there are making -- but I'm assuming it's cost that we probably shouldn't have to incur on an ongoing basis. Can you talk to me about what it is we're going to do?
Usually the process is and to really start at the beginning the process isn't really a phone call. The process is that we, in the beginning of the Vacant Lot Program set aside a schedule for each Council district. We met with 713 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET you guys. We kind of fine-tuned it to some of your needs and what areas you would like us to hit first. We do that. Licenses and Inspections assigns an inspector to go out, inspect the lot, write a violation on the lot. The violation gets sent to the owner. We then come back in five days and have a crew clean the lot. Your question about the going back is a valid question. We do get a lot of requests for the same lot going back. And we just seen in year two of our maintenance program we're cleaning around -- well, the number of lots are down in terms of the lots we're cleaning and some of that is because a lot of owners have been complying to our standards of cleaning. We still have a good number of lots that we do kind of have to hit constantly. Part of the strategy encompasses the whole NTI greening strategy, which I'm not as comfortable talking as maybe someone from NTI, along with us, to talk about that. But some of the creative things we've done in just the Managing Director's Office is we kind of cross trained our guys to where they're not only cleaning the lots, we did partnerships in West Philadelphia and parts of your district and other areas where we kind of -- 714 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET the guys take on a horticultural sense of, they work with neighborhoods groups such as "Weed and Seed", such as a community group on 29th Street and they kind of sit down, the community group talks about a design for a lot. What would they like to see as a short-term use of that lot. And we've done projects like neighborhood walkways where we've created walkways and we erected little, tiny wooden fences. We do all of that kind of using our existing guys. The same guys that clean the lot do that, so we're not spending an enormous amount of money or contracting out with folks to do that.
Are these individuals trained in that type of work? Do they have the particular skills to do designs, permanent treatment, or is that something that we can do to enhance their ability? Because I've seen in some instances where they've done the wood chips and the railroad ties. When we're talking about going to the next level, is there a way that these individuals can be trained or work with some entity, Philadelphia Green, to get the necessary skills?
I don't see why not, Councilman. We have the resources of the Fairmount 715 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET Park Commission and also Philadelphia Horticultural Association, so I don't see why we can't cross-train them to serve that need.
The particular work force that you have now, what is their status?
For vacant lots, we use exempt employees that comes out of the Mayor's Office of Community Service. They're temporarily year appointments. We have kept some on over the course of longer than a year. They receive no 12 benefits. I'm not sure of the exact salary. We also have people assigned to us from Licenses and Inspections and from the Streets Department. They're mostly equipment operators.
Those long-term temporary employees, is there a strategy to ultimately phase them or blend them into the real municipal work force? Because I know some of the guys out there work real hard on a consistent basis in all kinds of weather and as you indicated earlier there's no benefits associated with that work force.
I think that's something we're looking at now along with the new Managing Director. And one of the suggestions, like you 716 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET said, we can phase them into kind of maintenance of lots and create a more of a permanent treatment for the lots, rather than just clean it. So, yes.
Yeah. I mean, if we're going to invest in these individuals in terms of their skill enhancement I think we should invest in them in every sense of the way with some level of permanency. Since we're talking about permanent solutions of lots I'd like to -- could the Managing Director respond to that, please.
Well, first of all, I think we do have resources that can help train them in whether it be Fairmount Park or the Natural Lands Program there and so forth. I guess to be honest with you, we're going through a budget crunch. And one of the things you don't want to do is add permanent employees which are more difficult to reduce the size of when you get into that budget crunch. So my bias is always to more of a variable-type work force. But if we could have these people not only do that but also know that they're doing other things that are meeting the needs of the City, I think then that's something we should be looking at. Maybe today it's snow and 717 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET tomorrow it's vacant lots and the next day it's something else. But similar-type work where we can have them being flexible in where we use them depending on what the circumstances are.
Let me ask you this. My time is getting ready to end. In the MOCS it's my understanding that there are employees that work for the MOCS who, while they provide a service to the City and actually work for the Mayor's Office of Community Services, they are actually paid out of Grant Funds and those individuals do have benefits?
Good afternoon. Ralph Blakney, Mayor's Office of Community Services. All of the employees of the Mayor's Office of Community Services who are paid out of Grant Funds are full time.
So they're not coming out of the General Funds budget, their payment and the benefits associated with that?
So I guess the 718 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET question I'm asking if there's a crew of individuals that we use for lots couldn't it be a similar situation where they're paid out of a Grant Fund whereas they would be able to get benefits as full-time employees similar to what the MOCS currently have? I'm not asking you, Ralph. I'm actually asking the Managing Director.
Thank you. Thank you, Madam President. I know my time is up.
Thank you, Madam President. The Operation Town Watch Program, please talk to me about the Junior Town Watch Program and the Safe Corridors Program. Good morning.
Good morning. Anthony 719 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET Murphy, Operation Town Watch. Safe Corridors is an initiative that we established around three years ago to address children's safety going to and from school. Recently in the working with the Police Department as well as the School District Police we've targeted eight schools, both middle and high schools, for the first time to try to develop a safe corridor which will provide adults at dismissal as well as at arrival times in the morning to give the children a sense of involvement and also to try to give them someone they can turn to, if and when there's problem, as they're moving to and from school.
How did you end up with the lucky eight? Was it based on crime statistics? Because they really end up being lucky when you look at the need across the City.
Well, yes, ma'am. It was actually based on school incidents that had been reported to their office. And the schools that were most active were schools that were chosen, along with some other community organizations that attempted to adopt those schools and try to work with them as well. 720 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET
I'm pleased to here that the tie-in is in place with Dexter Green.
Yes. Junior Town Watch is an initiative through the Operation Town Watch to identify young people who are willing to work with adults in order to provide them, not just with role models and mentors, but to get them involved in the actual practice of life and being responsible for things. So we have Junior Town Watch groups connected to our town watch groups in many parts of the City in order that they're working with adults who are both comfortable and willing to work with them and support them.
The eight schools that you mentioned, you've been dealing with those schools over the past three years, or is that in the past year?
That's this year. Generally Safe Corridors is identified with elementary schools, because generally you have more parents and they're more willing to spend time. When you get to middle school and high school, our young people are different as it relates to taking 721 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET directions from people they don't know. So these eight schools were this year targeted because of the incidents that happened in and around those schools that were reported to those schools.
No. There are four middle and four high schools. It's Overbrook --
Fels, yes, ma'am. Lincoln. And there's Fitz-Simons, Gillespie, Shaw Middle School -- and there's probably a school or two that I'm missing.
So are you at capacity or is there an opportunity for other schools to become involved over this next Fiscal Year?
We are more than open for other schools. What we did was, in targeting those eight schools initially, working with Dexter, what they wanted to do was to see how successful we could be at getting the adult participation. There have been other schools that have been referred to us and we are consistently going out to meet with those 722 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET parents and try to develop a community-based interaction with those schools in order to address that. So we're not at capacity in the sense because any school that needs it -- our children have to have an atmosphere of safety to go to school in order to be productive there.
Barry Elementary School they had a need for Safe Corridors at least three years ago. Are they on the docket of prospective schools?
Yes, ma'am, they are. What it is, is, again, just trying to get a target to do a project with a specific school, but we had met with Barry twice to try to develop it. And what we also try to do is treat the Safe Corridor Program to fit particular situations. Whereas we always like to have adults outside so that they're very visible. There are times when that is not as possible and if they are active Town Watch groups in and around those particular areas we involve them in addressing the situation. And, of course, working with police as well as the crossing guards to try to get everyone involved in making sure that information goes out. We also make contact with neighbors who 723 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET are on the block that we find who listen out and make observations and at least get them to make a phone call. Because a lot of times, neighbors wouldn't make a phone call when they saw a problem or a fight.
That's a lot of trench work. And because experimentals are probably too premature to hear what the outcomes are. So this time next year I'll be curious to know what has been the yield of the effort. Do you still have those same eight schools or have you moved on to other schools who had that need.
Thank you, Madam President. I just want to go back to yesterday's testimony from the Managing Director. I 724 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET know you changed testimony. Well, anyway, on of your testimony you talk about a new initiative 4 called Scrap Yard Compliance, and I'd like to know a 5 little bit more about this. Because we have about 6 six or more awful, awful, awful scrap yards in our 7 district that actually needs to be cleaned. Who 8 would be the contact person, et cetera, the 9 criteria. 10
Actually, it's under Environmental Issues on of yesterday's testimony, the testimony you circulated yesterday. It's not in today's.
And while we're waiting, I just want to say one thing real quick. I support Councilman Clarke's request to get benefits for the lot cleaners.
Good morning, Councilwoman. James Coleman, Deputy Managing Director. There have been recently a number of changes in scrap yard regulations, both at the state 725 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET and the federal level. We have in place a task force to review these regulations. And with the operating departments involved, primarily the Department of Licenses and Inspections we will be visiting all the scrap yards and citing them where that is necessary. We will also be telling them ahead of time what the new regulations are. We will be publishing them and sending them out to them.
How forceful will enforcement be? Are you just going to cite them and then -- because you know better than I that these places have just existed for years and years.
Yes, they have. I believe that's the reason behind the new regulations. And there will be enforcement.
Well, who would be the contact person in M.D.'s office for this particular project?
The contact in our office will be John Hadalski, who is our point person --
Can you spell 726 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET that, please?
H-A-D-A-L-S-K-I. He's our Manager of Environmental Activities.
Your voice kind of dies down at the end and I can't hear you.
When your team members come up knowing that they're are a lot of functions of your office, help us know for what division you're responsible for.
A number of activities including Labor Relations and Pension Board and representation on a number of boards and commissions.
I also have questions around emergency management and the threat 727 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET of terrorism. Can you tell us what is Philadelphia's plan? When they're on the radio and they talk about it's heightened and all this other stuff, what should we been doing?
Again, Mike Nucci, Director of Emergency Management. The question was, the City or individuals citizens?
The City. What does the City have? What is the plan? And then, what do you need citizens to do?
Okay. Two questions. The City -- we have a working group that consists of Police, fire and Health Department that's been dealing mainly with the terrorist stress that we have had, the anthrax, et cetera. There are various plans either already developed or being developed. One is, I guess, the much touted evacuation plans that the press keeps talking about which the police are working on. When we go to -- in a Code Orange, which is where we are now, if we got a specific threat to the City of Philadelphia we would do certain things like activate the Emergency Operations Center and basically respond to other information that we would be getting from the 728 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET federal authorities at time.
Getting into the individual citizens thing, we've been doing a number of things for several years related to this. One is the Shelter in Place Program. Your duct tape question, I guess. That's something that's been on ground for about five years based on tests that were conducted by the EPA that said that in an instantaneous release of a hazardous chemical your best bet would be to shelter in place in your house and prevent the really the flow of air between inside and outside is what you're doing. And they suggested duct tape. Now, everybody laughs at duct tape but duct tape is in fact what the Hazardous Materials Unit uses to close the openings between their gloves and their 729 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET and suit, and their boots and their suit. It's not an attempt to raise stock in duct tape.
Have we been on a heightened Orange Alert since 9/11 or did it ever go down?
No. It came up to Orange when we had the anthrax scare. It went back down to yellow and then in the past three weeks they raised it back to Orange.
Could I elaborate a little bit? Because I think your questions are very important questions and I think the answer is somewhat multilayered. One, we do have an emergency plan for the City, to document of some length. When the most recent Orange Alert came out, each Commissioner and Director, department head, was asked by me to make sure that they review that plan, they know what's in that plan, et cetera. The Police Department has an anti-terrorism unit that is in constant communications with the FBI. We as a 730 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET City really take our lead off the information we get from the FBI through the Police Department. So the Police Department had its plan when the Orange Alert came out in stepping up various enforcements at certain places which I really don't want to go into. But there is a plan and that plan is continually being worked on. The Health Department is also hard at work in terms of the issues of small pox and those types of issues. And then as a region, we're working as a region because this is something that's going to impact -- God forbid something happens -- just not the City of Philadelphia, but the region. And there have been meetings and those meetings are going to continue. So it's a multilayered approach. President Verna, I'd be glad to, at some point come and brief Council on what the City's plans are.
I just put my light on because I think that as elected officials we should certainly be given the courtesy of some briefing. And I saw on television I guess about a week ago that -- I guess it was the hotel managers who were being briefed. Well, we've never been 731 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET briefed in this hotel. I think that we deserve the courtesy of being told what we should be doing in that event.
I would like to be able to arrange that with you and some of it is confidential, not to say that Council shouldn't know about it, but we will do that at your invitation.
No. When you're ready, you will call us. We'll be more than happy to meet with you.
Councilwoman Blackwell, did you want to add to that?
Just a follow-up. I will say as I said the other day in this regard. Please keep in mind that some of us see clients who need ID who may not be clear where they are, but they know they need help. So we would hope that as we deal with the issue of security, please keep in mind we have some people who are burned out, who are lost, who need all kinds of help and we consider it our moral responsibility to help these people. We do need to consider a way that will allow them access into this public building. 732 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET
And I think it's important that we educate our citizens. One good way is to put some type of message or information on the cable channel.
Actually, we did that. The Shelter in Place tape that was made, we increased the frequency of that and put out a press release about it. But I think that's a point well taken. One of the problems we have, we all have it, is that these alerts are coming out of the federal government and when I speak to the Police Department about it, and I say, what's going on, what's going on. They're not localized. They're not localized. They're very generalized. It's difficult for local governments and state governments and everyone else on how to respond. On one hand, you don't want to overly alert people. On the other hand, you can't be dismissive of it. It's a real challenge. But we did use cable TV and increased the frequency of that tape when that alert occurred. 733 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET
Even if you put on there the different colors of the alerts. I had no 4 idea we were in Orange Alert. And if I did, I had no idea what Orange Alert meant anyway. When you hear information on the news about people just rushing to Home Depot and Kmart and other places buying plastic and duct tape, I kept saying, well, what for? So I was in there one day so I just bought two roles just in case.
You're also supposed to buy three day's worth of the food, which made me happy.
Right. So I think the more we can put information out -- not to scare people -- but just to have them make educated, informed decisions.
We've also distributed that particular film that's on Channel 64 to all of the Town Watch groups. That was done a year and a half ago. It's all very good information. It's available in the libraries. Red Cross has it.
You're 734 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman Ortiz.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Going on that line, I believe that we have Commissioner Hairston and Johnson and I'd rather put my faith in the two of them rather than Tom Ridge and George Bush. We are creating a real hysteria in this nation. Not to minimize the threat, but I believe that every time they go up into Orange and whatever it is, the next day you read in the paper they say, oops, sorry. It was all based on a lie, this, that. Meanwhile, people get hysterical scared. They invade Home Depot. They buy duct tape. They run it out. You know, it's like the '50s. We're going to be creating a generation of scared individuals, neurotic. And the only professionals who are going to benefit is the psychiatrists. Right now we have Chestnut Street which I believe is the most inane type of situation for safety of Independence Hall. Frank DiCicco has been trying to open it up now for months. The business people, the citizens. I'd rather not fall into the hysteria of the Bush Administration. I 735 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET think it's fulfilling more political agenda than anything else. I do believe that these individuals are using the terrorist threat and Osama bin Laden to pursue an agenda internally within the United States, the Patriot act and other acts that are really trying to scare people into giving up their rights because they believe they're going to be safe. If you're going to be attacked hiding under a desk like they taught me or going against a wall and putting your head down on the nuclear threat, it is not going to save you. What is going to save you is to have an open society that is able to take care of these problems. We can't give up our freedoms because we're scared. But we're at budget hearings here. On -59, Mr. Goldsmith, we have a contract with a group named Burns Group and we have a contract with another group named Falvi (ph) Energy. It says, general energy saving feasibility studies, and general energy saving feasibility studies for both of them. Why do we need two companies? And why do we need them at all, first of all? Give me what they do. Why do we need them? And why, if they both do the same things, we have 736 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET two companies doing the same things? Isn't that sort of redundant?
Good morning. My name is Kent Miller. I'm Executive Director of the Municipal Energy Office. The Burns Group contract is for a very specific project, and that is examining the potential for removing and reusing two boilers at Vet Stadium.
Two boilers. Two large gas-fired boilers at Vet Stadium. I believe it's the Phillies -- it's one of the two teams -- has the salvage rights for the stadium.
We believe that they may willing to let us reuse these boilers. There are two new ones. One of them is what we call an off-peak boiler, which is three or four years old.
Now, let me get this straight. We own Vet Stadium, right? The City of Philadelphia owns Vet Stadium?
We're building a new 737 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET stadium for the Phillies. I mean, the taxpayers are putting a huge amount of money in building a new stadium. And they're doing us a favor because we're taking -- I thought we owned it. They're doing us a favor because we're taking it to use it; is that it? Is that what you're saying?
That's the problem we have with that. A different of philosophical opinion.
We would like to reuse some of the equipment that's in the stadium which is new and good shape.
Why should that be a question for the Phillies to decide and not us?
Well, my understanding is that at some point in time, they obtained the salvage right to certain equipment in the stadium before the Vet Stadium is torn down.
So besides getting the taxpayers' subsidy, they also get to use whatever salvage it is for their own benefit; is that what you're saying? 738 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET
I think there's two issues here. I think one issue is, legally, what are we allowed to have and what, under the terms of the agreements on the stadiums, is the Phillies allowed to have. As I understand the second issue is, are these boilers something we could use if we were, in fact legally, allowed to have them.
Well, we are going to ask them if they will allow us to have these boilers rather than presumably being sold by the Phillies for salvage.
They're going to advise us on what a removal plan would be, where we could possibly use them and when we could use them.
Because we don't have anyone in-house that can tell us and develop a removal plan for it?
Well, this is the kind of work which the Capital Program Office hires engineers to do. 739 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET
I didn't say that. I asked, because we have no one in-house that can develop a plan for us and tell us what it is? Did we try?
So the other, Falvi Energy, which has the same contractual description, what do they do for their money?
Well, there are a number of things that they do. One is that they help my office review capital programs being developed by the Capital Program Office to see if we can squeeze more energy efficiency out of the capital investments for those facilities.
How do they do this? Do they give you a plan in writing?
Well, it happens in several ways. One is, if it's a large project, they form a team. The Capital Program Office forms a team of people who are involved in that particular renovation project. And we are often asked to sit on that team. And we have this engineering firm helps us recommend energy saving strategies. 740 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET
Councilman Ortiz, this will be your last question. Your time has been up. I was preoccupied.
What they have recommended? I want to see what the difference is because the general description here is the same. I want to see what it is that Burns and Falvi differ what they have done for us in terms of giving to us in writing and why one of them cannot do both things.
I'd like to see that energy saving feasibility study that Falvi gave you.
We will get you the 741 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET terms of the contract, what the deliverables are and why we decided to use this firm and why we thought it was necessary to have a consultant do this work.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Goldsmith I have two questions that I'd like to work through during this round. First, I want to go back to the tree discussion. I'd like to better understand the philosophy around street tree trimming. You made a comment -- I could not get all of it down -- talking about pruning. And you made reference to aesthetics versus the three Ds or three Ts. I could not hear which it was. So can you explain what that is.
My understanding is that the pruning of trees and the removal of trees is done when a tree is dangerous, when a tree is diseased and when a tree is dead, the three Ds. That's how I learned how to remember it. If someone had a tree, a street tree, and it was not diseased, dangerous or dead, but they didn't like the way it 742 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET looked, that would not be the responsibility of City government. That's my understanding of it.
Well, let me be the first to inform you differently. This City Council passed an Ordinance requiring the Fairmount Park Commission to be responsible for trees, as had been their responsibility until at some point in time the Commission passed a regulation putting that responsibility, or off-loading that responsibility, back on to the homeowners. It is the responsibility of the Fairmount Park Commission to take care of all street trees. That's an Ordinance in the Philadelphia Code and that's why there was an additional $1 million appropriation made under Mayor Rendell and it's been continued under Mayor Street. And Mayor Street has actually increased the appropriation for street trees. So there is certainly some validity with regard to the three Ds, but all of the street trees in the City are the responsibility of the Fairmount Park Commission. Secondly, we trim street trees not just 743 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET because of the three Ds, but also because it helps the health of the tree. Street trees should generally be trimmed, according to arborers, somewhere in a six to eight-year cycle for the benefit of the tree. It also generally helps to keep the trees away from dangerous electrical wires at least on one side of the street as well as away from homeowners' homes where it creates danger to generally their roof line as well as clogged drains and the like. So the reason that constituents want the trees trimmed is not just for aesthetics, but in most instances, it's either because they're dangerous to the wires on the street, or the trees have grown so large that they block light from our street lights and create a more dangerous situation. But, again, lastly, the other purpose is, if you talk to the arborers they will tell you a good pruning cycle for trees, just for the health of the tree and the crown of the tree and its normal growth and care is about a six to eight year. That's what Fairmount Park testified to at that time. That's why we put the money in and we're seeking to have a full-blown legitimate street tree care program, like most other cities in the United 744 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET States. Philadelphia, as you all know, has an enormous number of street trees in the City. So you can keep the three Ds. I'd just like to add on, that was purpose. That's why we did the Bill and that's why the Council got involved in this matter.
That's a good argument for not having term limits. At least elected officials remember why the law was passed.
Remember what we do. Let's talk about in your testimony and there was some discussion earlier, as Councilwoman Miller indicated, I'm still with yesterday's testimony. That's what I marked up. Page six of yesterday's testimony, targeted quality of life improvement efforts. I'd like to better understand there's been some discussion during the course of the past year and I'm very pleased and we're certainly proud of two our colleagues both Councilwoman Krajewski, who I think is generally appropriately credited with coming up with the 745 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET Community Life Improvement Program idea that was put in place last year, and then Councilwoman Blackwell explained on the record earlier about the West Philadelphia program. What I did not -- what I've not been clear on -- and I understand the Councilwoman talking about some of the volunteer activity -- but in your testimony, it's mentioned on page seven that you've actively secured City services by informing a special unit of the Managing Director's Office of situations that adversely effect quality of life. What I'd like to better understand is, when is the entire program going to become operational Citywide? We have a situation now where certain parts of the City are apparently getting enhanced enforcement and, quote, unquote, extra attention, and, you know, I think that certainly the people who live in either the Northeast or certain parts of the West Philadelphia are very special and deserving of services. On the other hand, I think that other people in West Philadelphia, Wynnefield, Overbrook, Roxborough, Manayunk, East Falls, North Philadelphia and West Mount Airy are also very special people and they deserve the same amount of service. And so I'm now 746 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET at a level of disagreement about what appears to be a certain level of discrimination toward other parts of the City and a lack of this kind of Citywide response to a problem. I don't necessarily know that we need a special program to enforce the law. What we need is better enforcement and better coordination and not having special programs in special areas. It's creating an environment where people are starting to resent the fact that they're not getting the same level of service as other parts of the City. So what I want to know is, when is the program going fully operational Citywide, and that it's not a program, but it is now the function and focus of the entire government to enforce the law, heightened enforcement, full coordination to make sure that everyone is getting the same level of service?
Madam President, I too would like to let the Administration know that I care about the same issue because it's created a problem for me in my district because there are areas of my district where people want to know when 747 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET the CLIP Program is coming in. And then in these areas we're having problems with enforcement. I do believe that we ought to look at how we could coordinate services Citywide. One community can't be singled out to get a program and other communities are calling us every day because they can't get enforcement. They can't get the services. And then we get, well, why don't we have it. We have it in other neighborhoods. And it's creating a real serious problem in the community.
I understand your point, and I understand Councilman Nutter's point. I'll be brutally honest. I can't give you an answer when that will be rolled out. I can tell you that Mr. Conway and I have already talked about what CLIP is doing is something that should be done throughout the City and it should be a program where you've got various City services that are moving from neighborhood to neighborhood.
Well, why don't we get a full explanation of what they actually do. I'd actually be pleased to hear that.
My name is Thomas Conway, Deputy Managing Director for the City of 748 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET Philadelphia. With the CLIP Program we brought together enforcement agencies such as the Streets Department Sweeps Officers, the Department of Licenses and Inspections inspectors as well as the Police Neighborhood Services Unit. We brought them together. They all don't work out of a trailer, but basically the Sweeps Officers and L&I inspectors coordinate their efforts daily. There only, I think, two Sweeps Officers and three L&I inspectors assigned to the 6th and 10th Councilmatic districts. Usually it goes by a complaint initially, but while they're on that block if they see another violation they are to write the other violation up. We give the property owners, depending on -- if it's a ticket, they get a ticket right then and there. If it's a property neglect such as high weeds, such as dirty back yards we give them 10 days to rectify the situation. On the 11th, an inspector will go back out, see if they complied. If they complied we close the case. If not send, we will send City crews out to clean up the property, bill the property owner and then if they don't pay the bill 24 we will place a lien on their property. The reason I think that the CLIP is so successful is basically 749 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET because of the coordination efforts. I don't think we need to create CLIP programs throughout the whole entire City. I do agree with Council that we just need to coordinate efforts closer by area.
Basically, we're using the CLIP model. We are going to be doing it. That's what I'm looking to do with the new Managing Director. But basically we did have to start somewhere.
I understand that. I'm not going to debate that particular issue. I mean, a good idea is a good idea. It was a good idea when you started. It just makes sense. But I mean, all we've heard is, one day we're going to do it. Well, I mean, one day Christmas is coming. The issue is when? And based on what you just described it doesn't sound like -- the brilliance of the idea in simplicity. So I don't understand what the problem is.
The problem is coordination among the different agencies. We have coordinated our efforts -- 750 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET
Councilman, I think that there is no problem. What we have to do is we have to do it. I think it's something that be done. I alluded into my own testimony about restructuring the Office of Managing Director. I also look at it a little bit differently that there's certain segments, that in every Councilmatic district -- I'll use the example, hospitals. Each Councilmatic district has at least one hospitals. I think hospitals are important to this City because they have to deal with the health and well-being and safety. One of the things I want to look at is how we take a proactive approach going out to -- nd I'll use hospitals as an example -- to see, are they getting the types of City service that they need so 751 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET when our folks are going there for emergencies, they're going there for treatment that they're not running into problems because we as a City government haven't done our jobs. That's a different way of looking at City services. That's something I want to explore. It's sort of a proactive client relationship approach. So we're out there and I'll someone from my staff going out to each hospital on a regular basis, asking, how are we doing for you? Are there common problems from hospital to hospital that, you know, are common and doesn't have to do with where they are. It just happens to be, we haven't thought about it that way. And there's other types of segments that I want to explore taking that approach. Now, that doesn't answer your question as to CLIP, but it gets to, how do we coordinate services throughout the City that everyone that we're doing on a priority basis -- and we can't do everything everywhere. We have to priorities. But it shouldn't be in one Councilmatic district and not in another Councilmatic district. I agree with that.
I mean, I'm not going to try to make this too simplistic. But I 752 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET think based on the response I get back from our constituents, they love having their trash picked once a week when there's no snow, or the recycling. Or when they call 911 a police officer or fire fighter shows up. I mean, they're fine with all that. Where the bulk of the problems are, is generally with either property maintenance issues, trash on the street, parties, illegal occupancy of housing, either from illegal occupants or zoning code violations, more than three unrelateds, some party houses and all those kinds of issues. What people want is enforcement and follow-up. They want to know that their complaint actually went somewhere and someone did something about it. And we have this ongoing big philosophical debate about do we want compliance or do we want to just fine people. Do we want to notify them and baby-sit them and hold their hand and work with them or is somebody going to have the guts to say, we're ending this. You're not going to be able to do this. We're going to haul your little behinds into court and get a direct action immediately. And not have cases drag on and on and on. They don't have time for it. I don't have time for it. We baby-sit people so long that 753 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET they think it's all a big joke. It's not a joke. So you want to talk about quality of life and all these enormous issues out here? What really happens is, the person next door has a neighbor who is crazy and they're driving them out of their minds and we won't do anything about it. Now, I don't know whether that's the CLIP, the HIP, the BIP, you can call it whatever you want to call. What it is, is it's probably a violation of the Philadelphia Code and it sits in the system or sits in the computer or sits on somebody's desk forever. And then we sound like complete jerks because we can't give them a legitimate answer to what their real problem is, other than either I'll get back to you, it's in the system or somebody ate the paperwork and we need to start all over again. That's what drives a lot of people in neighborhoods crazy. They're issues aren't that big in the whole scheme of things. But if we have a system that says, you broke the law. We're on your case and we're going to get a resolution to this particular problem, you can call it a program. You can call it stepped-up enforcement. You can call it whatever you want to call it. I don't really care. I'll be cooperative. 754 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET But I want somebody to coordinate these issues and give people a final answer to what their problem is, which is generally enforcement. It's not just compliance. Because some people don't learn their lessons well enough from getting the 10-day violation. Then we give them another 30 days to be in compliance. And then they happen to comply or look like they're complying on the day that the inspector came by and then go right back to doing whatever it is that they want to do. So that's the real issue. So the question again is, when is it going to happen? When is the coordination going to start? And when should I expect to see it all over the City, including in the 4th District?
I won't give you the time. I'll tell you the coordination is starting now.
Well, I can't give you a time when it's going to be in the 4th District or the 5th District or whatever. I will try to get you a time. I can't give you a time right now because -- 755 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET
You will have where we are on a plan in taking these coordinated activities and being able to do them on a Citywide basis and increase enforcement the way we're doing now in certain areas.
Mr. Conway, were you involved in this program from the start?
We worked with the Councilwoman's office for several months. They basically reviewed 5000 cases through their files to find out what was the major problems in the district. Then we coordinated efforts with the Managing Director's Office. We're talking about we want to do the coordination effort throughout the City. It is very difficult. We have, as you all well know, a mindset with some operating departments 756 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET that they are separate entities. But I believe in the last two years --
Well basically, with coordinating efforts. To be realistic, there's a lot of departments that don't like to cooperate with each other. We're basically changing that attitude. And I think we've changed dramatically in the last two years.
What's the problem? We all work for the same people, right?
If people want to, like, create independent subsidiary quasi-governmental units they can go on and do it, but as long as they're working for the City of Philadelphia I think there's a requirement and a mandate that they cooperate, either directly from the Mayor or from the Managing Director. It's beyond me to understand that. 757 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET
Well, I think we all agree with that. But you're talking about top level management down to the guy on the street. And basically what the CLIP Program is designed for, the people on the street are coordinating their efforts more closely than ever before. We can coordinate commissioners sitting in a room, or deputies, which is fine, but the people on the street are the real ones who make the difference, the supervisors and the guys cleaning the lots, the guys removing the graffiti to coordinate their efforts --
But you've been able to figure out a way to get people to cooperate?
Well, basically, yes and now we have to do it Citywide which is a bigger feat than it is just for one district. I mean, we are heading in that direction. I agree with you that we should do it Citywide and we are going to head that way. It just takes time. It took us close to nine months to complete Councilwoman Krajewski's district by sweeping the entire area.
I don't think anybody's prepared to wait that long. And while we're sitting around, having our little coordinating 758 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET conversations, our constituents are thinking other things.
I think if we do a complaint driven basis, we can do a lot sooner. We're not going to sweep the whole entire district. If the complaints come into your office or the Managing Director's Office we can get a better response. It also comes down to resources. When we're sending crews out to abate properties it costs money to do that. The Department of Licenses and Inspections -- I'm not positive -- but they only have several clean and seal crews. We would need more of them.
Well, is this going to be part of your planning effort to lay out?
We can't know of this issues or possibly even propose to give additional resources if we don't have the information or don't understand your constraints.
So in 30 days we're going to know what your role out plan is for the rest of the City? 759 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET
In 30 days we're going to give you a plan as to where we are in trying to approach this on a Citywide basis. If I might say to you, this is what it's going to take to get there and this is what we have. We're not going to get there because we don't have enough resources. I'm going to give you the truth. I'm not going to give you something that says -- it's going to be wave a magic wand and it's going to be rolled out at any given time. It takes resources to do that.
That's the way I operate, Councilman. I'm not going to tell you something that I can't deliver.
Telling me anything else is not going to be helpful because we're just going to be having another long hearing.
But I will tell you in 30 days what the objectives are, what it will take to do that, what some of the impediments are. Some of the organizations we have in City government I will tell you they've been in every organization I've ever been in. Part of leadership is to get people to know -- as you know, we're all working for 760 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET the same folk. And that's part of my responsibility. But we will get you something in 30 days and tell you what we think the challenges are and what the opportunities are and when we think we can get from point A to point B.
Well, as you have these conversations with folks, why don't we just understand this: We are going to have it for everybody or we're not going to have it. I'm not going through another year of this kind of nonsense. Because it is nonsense. Now, we're either doing public policy or we're doing politics. Everybody should be getting the same level of service throughout the City. They're all taxpayers. They're paying big numbers. They deserve a certain level of service. It is now unacceptable. A program has been designed. It is clearly working. You know what to do. It is unacceptable that almost three-quarters of the City is not seeing the same level of service on these kind of issues. These are basic, fundamental violations of the Philadelphia Code and it should not be a function of where you live or who you are represented by as to what level of service you did. It is just inappropriate. It's 761 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET bad public policy and it will not been tolerated. I cannot be more clear. I cannot be more serious. I will not be any more vigilant on any issue we're working on other than this particular issue because constituents deserve it. I want to make sure everybody understands that. Im sure my time is up. I'll be back.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Clarke.
Thank you, Madam President. I wanted to ask about the Adult Community Service Program. Just walk me down the process of the implementation, the original request from the community group or the little old lady on the block who has an alleyway that's blocked and there are no people in the community who are willing to help her. What happens? Talk to me.
With the Adult Community Service Program, which is a part of the NTI initiative, several years ago we had the Urban art Artscape Program, which dealt with youth, adjudicated youth. That was merged with the Mural Arts Program so that they had a more rounded 762 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET program. But a spin off of that was adults, nonviolent adults, needed somewhere to go to do their adjudicated hours. So the former Managing Director, Estelle Richman, and I came up with a plan for the Adult Community Service Program. It's been in existence I think since last June or July whereas they get assigned to the Managing Director's Office. We will sit in a Nuisance Night Court with Municipal Court, get them assigned to us. We will then go out with complaints from Councilmembers or through the Managing Director's Office or even with the other City entities that go out cleaning lots. They're responsible for cleaning lots, removing graffiti, sweeping streets. They're building flower boxes, doing some types of beautification. They work along with the Vacant Lot Program, with the Graffiti Program. They drive in the trucks with them, when they can, to help beautify the City. We don't have a huge backlog with requests. We do have a lot of requests from Council --
Hold it right there. When you talk about a huge backlog -- because I have a huge backlog and I need to figure out a way to get it to you. What's the phone number every citizen 763 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET calls? Who do they call?
That's the Adult Community Services phone number. Cathy Harris or Joann Killebrew.
The problem with -- if I can speak about the alleyways. A lot of times it's definitely a safety and a health issue with sending even community service offenders in to clean these alleyways. A lot of times the trash is so piled up, it's about four or five feet high. I don't think it's right that community service offenders would have to clean that out, especially when the homeowners aren't assisting them. So we make it a precedent that they must have at least 10 homeowners working with us. We will provide the trash bags. We will provide the equipment. We will provide the trash hauling.
At least 10 on the block to work with us. It's got to be a community effort. Because if they don't partake in the process, 764 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET they're not going to want to keep it clean.
In what capacity are they required to participate, the community residents?
Well, I would like to at least have percent of the people on the block be 8 involved. 9
In many blocks we have blocks where there are predominately senior citizens, people who traditionally wouldn't be able to do this type of work. Are we going to say, if 10 percent of you people on the block don't come out, we're not going help.
You'd be surprised, because they're probably the 10 percent that do want to help us out. They provide lemon aide.
I'm sorry to say that I would be surprised in some cases if 10 percent do come out.
No. I'm saying that senior citizens are the ones that are more prone to help us out than the younger folks. 765 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET
What are they required to do? You're not asking a senior citizen to go in the alley and lift a refrigerator? You said, you give me this percent requirement. 6 What else is associated with the 10 percent? 7
We ask for 10 percent. We 8 just like it to be community effort. We don't want 9 to send City crews in there or actually community 10 service offenders in there to clean alleyways and not have the support of the community because it won't work. A lot of times there are dogs in the back yards. People get scared. Trash is piled so high we have to go through their houses to get to the backyard. We're talking about these small alleyways that are roughly three feet wide. It has to be a community effort. I don't like sending community service offenders out there no matter what they did to clean someone's alley out if they're not going to support it.
I don't understand that. These people are mandated by the court to provide community service?
And you're telling 766 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET me that if we can't get a certain percentage of the residents on the block that they're not required to do that work on that particular block?
Well, I'm talking about alleyways. If it's cleaning a vacant lot --
We've identified a particular category of need. I'm assuming that we've chosen alleyways because municipal workers no 10 longer do that type of activities.
So why are we requiring that the residents participate at a certain level, certain threshold, in order to allow individuals that are mandated by the courts based on some violation of some law somewhere do that work?
Well, basically, Councilman, because if they don't get involved in the process and if they don't want to work with us to clean up the alleyways, we're going to clean it up once; they're going to throw the trash right back out there again and we're not going to solve the problem.
So it's the aftermath. 767 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET
So it has nothing to do with asking those guys to do this difficult work?
It's more about in order to maintain it. We clean it up. If they're not involved in the process in helping us clean up the alleyway, then they're not going to really want to maintain it. They'll throw their trash right back out there because they figure we're going to come back out again and do it again, clean it up for them. They've got to be involved in it.
They remove graffiti. They clean vacant lots. They beautify vacant lots. Sweep underpasses. Things a lot of times that have slipped through the cracks of other agencies. A lot of times we do put them out, if they got caught doing graffiti vandalism, we'll put them in a truck and have them remove graffiti. Short dumping. Of course, we'll have them clean up vacant lots, so on and so forth.
So is the alleyway cleaning the only activity that there's a 768 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET requirement to have neighborhood participation?
With respect to individuals who are in this program, are there also included in a program individuals who are released into or living in a pre-release facility? I know at some point an individual comes to the end of their sentence. They're then transitioned into the community by going into a pre-release center. Are they also a part of this program?
Yes. Diversified Health Systems, I believe is one them that comes to mind. Anybody that actually has community service hours assigned to them can do their hours through the Managing Director's Office.
Okay. So that's all tied in automatically to this particular phone number, this particular department.
We monitor their hours and report back to whatever agency assigned them to us, whether it be the courts or health systems.
It's my understanding in a number of the drug treatment facilities that there are also programs that either 769 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET require or request individuals that are in drug treatment programs, particularly the ones living in these type of housing units do some community service as a part of their recovery; is that program tied into --
My name is Mark Bencivengo. I'm the Director of CODAAP. There are a number of facilities in Philadelphia known as recovery houses. They're not licensed to drug treatment programs. There are no licensed drug treatment programs that are part of the project that was just being discussed. A number of the recovery programs, however, many of which are independent programs, One Day at a Time, Recovery King, and so forth, their folks do community service as part of 770 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET their living in the houses. It's more of a I would put it a voluntary activity on the part of the people living in the houses with the strong encouragement of the individuals who run those houses. We know most of those recovery houses, although the majority of them are not part of the drug treatment network. And we encourage them to be good neighbors within their communities and do that kind of work. In fact, a number of them that initially faced some community opposition within neighborhoods are now embraced by those neighborhoods because of the kind of work they do on behalf of beautifying and sustaining those neighborhoods.
Are we, government, tied in any, way, shape or form into that program? Do we assist them with equipment or are we just happy that they're doing, but we don't get actively involved?
We don't get involved with those. We have a number of recovery houses that are known as our Housing Initiative. I believe there are about 343 slots within recovery houses that are supported by the county office. But there 771 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET are many, many other recovery houses in Philadelphia that are not supported by the county office. For the ones that are supported we supply them with a per diem amount of money for the individuals there and then they will use that money to buy supplies. But it's not a line item in the budget because all of these programs are fee-for-service programs, not program-funded programs.
Councilwoman Tasco, could I request a five-minute break, please?
The Committee is now back in Session. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown.
Thank you, Madam President. I still had one, I guess, outstanding question around the Anti-Graffiti Network. I did hear a complete answer with regard to the continued 772 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET involvement with Municipal Court, but I don't believe I heard an answer to the question on the prevention side of this. We are now entering our third decade, Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti being created in 1983 by the former Mayor, W. Wilson Goode. And again looking at the budget, any thinking or strategies given to the prevention side of the equation for young people who engage in this behavior?
Thomas Conway, Deputy Managing Director. With the prevention side of it, Jane Golden with the Mural Arts Program, she's the one who works with the different schools on the curriculum, working with them. We also have the Police Neighborhood Services Unit that go out once in a while and talk to schools. But usually that would be better answered by Jane Golden.
Okay. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. I clearly did not hear that in your last answer. Earlier this week, we heard both interesting and informative testimony from the Office of Productivity. They shared with us at that time that there are a number of agencies on-line or 773 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET have just started involvement with the Office of Productivity, namely DHS and OESS, so you should know at the end of that process I'm interested in a report that comes as a result of that involvement. But I'm curious to know, given depleting budgets and where we have to work leaner, we also have to work smarter. Who makes the decision that it's time for a particular department or unit to sit down with the Office of Productivity?
I think that's basically the Managing Director's job is to really be working with the commissioners and working with the departments on how they can be working more effectively and efficiency. Part of that's looking at our work processes. Some of it's looking at how do we better use technology. I happen to believe a lot of it's about how do we work better with each other. And I have a background in management, so I think I can bring something to the table on those issues. That's basically where I would like to use my time. How do we get to work smarter and more targeted and focused because we don't have the money to take care of all the City needs. I think that's clear. And so we've got to start prioritize how we 774 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET go about doing that.
So is it a red flag in the operations of the department that says, this agency would benefit from that kind of interface face, or what?
I think it's a continual thing. I think that there's certain issues -- I mean, if you talk about fire, for example, we have a great Fire Department. They're going to deal with how you put out fires how you prevent fires. If we're looking at some common problems that cut across departments, and we're already working on one, that's where I want to get the commissioners together working as a team because that's a problem that's going to cut through all of those issues. A lot of those are red flags that come because we're looking at where we're spending money. That comes up in the quarterly budget reviews and so forth. But that's where I see the commissioners working and really learning from each other. And one department may be doing something great, but unless they're sharing it with another department, we're not getting as much mileage. I think that's part of my job to spot those things. 775 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET
My only biased comment to that is, we know for sure that's working when it comes to children and youth because we know for the past months a team of folk have been 6 sitting around the table and exploring how we 7 maximize dollars across agencies, across City 8 departments who are providing services to kids. 9 With the GO mapping, is that universal 10 now across the departments, or not? And why not, if 11 that's not the case? When we know the value of what 12 that means and how we spend our dollars. 13
I believe that each 14 department -- if not each department, most 15 departments has someone that's knowledgeable about 16 that issue. It's really managed out of the database 17 and so forth is managed out of the Mayor's Office of 18 Information Services. But I think that's a great 19 tool for us as a City to really highlight where we 20 should be targeting our resources and so forth. And 21 I think most departments have a knowledge base of 22 how to use that. How we use it smartly and make 23 sure we're getting the most of out it, that's 24 another issue and something we've got to work together on. 776 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET
So is that to suggest it's optional for department heads, or required?
Well, I think it's -- I'm going to be asking, why are we going there. I think that the mapping system helps us -- is one information tool that we should be using. I would hope that everyone is using that when it comes to where we're putting our people or where we're putting our resources or how do we work together in certain issues, in certain areas. So I would hope that everyone is using it. Now, whether everyone's trained at it, that's something I will find out. If they're not, then we will do some training on that. I think it is important that the commissioners and department heads, as well myself, understand the full power of what that brings because it's really a very powerful tool.
It ties in very neatly with Safe Streets and what that means for the Administration and really the outcomes we're looking for. So given the Safe Streets initiatives and the GO mapping tool and the agencies that are really in the trenches of dealing with Safe Streets, namely 777 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET Philadelphia Action Anti-Violent, Town Watch and what that means. The budget levels for those departments is sustained or decreased or what from last year's Fiscal Year budget allocation? Can someone speak to that, please?
Are you talking about GIS or just in general on those initiatives?
Namely, the Operation Town Watch initiatives and the Anti-Graffiti Network piece because they are such important vehicles of the Safe Streets Citywide initiative. Where are we with regard to the funding in those areas?
The Town Watch initiative has been funded constantly at the same level out of the General Fund for the past several years and has also been augmented by some "Weed and Seed" money and some Empowerment Zone money. So actually Town Watch overall has increased over the last several years.
So is Town Watch and "Weed and Seed" synonymous of they're two different programs and, therefore, two different budgets? 778 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET
Both out of the General Fund, or are either one of those funded through the Feds or the state?
Town Watch is basically funded out of the General Fund and "Weed and Seed" is a grant fund initiative from the Office of Justice programs.
Increased, okay. Anti-Graffiti Network, the status of that funding?
Anti-Graffiti Network, their money has been pretty constant over the past several years.
Okay, then. Finally, the Anti-Graffiti Voucher Program, I need to make sure I'm clear on what I thought heard. 779 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET You've contracted with PIDC for $75,000 because it's your view that that's a smarter way of, besides the obvious that my Councilman raised, it's a smarter way of serving communities that are dealing with graffiti?
Yes. What it basically does is lets us use the same vendor and the people go to the same location each year to get their products and services, so it's basically a smarter way to do it.
One impediment in going through the former process was because you got different vendors which suggested they were one-year contracts.
Well, I can't speak to the fact that they might have been only one-year contracts, but they changed and I'm not sure what the cycle was on when the vendor changed. It might have been a one or two-year contract.
And so what are the clear differences between the former procedure and now doing business with PIDC under this $75,000 contract? I mean, what are the benefits besides the one you cited? Are there additional benefits 780 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET besides the one you cited?
Like I said, we get to use the same vendor. We have a consistency of product and also the community groups are familiar with the vendor and the vendor is also familiar with the administrative processes that we have to go through to get the program to its fruition. So given those benefits, it makes a lot of sense just to stay with one vendor.
The last page of you testimony, , Appendix C, from what I gather, these are in the process of. None of these are items where you can now tell us what the outcome of these initiatives of the coordinated efforts among the Social Services Departments?
Okay. Then we'll wait until next year. Thank you very much for your testimony. Thank you, Madam President.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman Rizzo.
Thank you, Madam 781 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET Chair. Mr. Goldsmith, I want to go back to an issue that I was personally involved with. You might have been at the park when this issue first arose. It has to do with the tree pruning. Utility companies in the past had a vegetation management program that really included -- really they had a lot of concern about the finished product, how a tree looked after it was trimmed. And for budget purposes, they got away from that. And I brought to the attention I think it was Mr. Donaghy that a particular community in South Philadelphia where the utility's contractor went in there and just destroyed blocks and blocks of trees because they just chopped the centers out. And that wasn't the way it was done at one time. After a professional arborer got done with a tree you could hardly tell it was pruned because they just rounded it off below the conductors and it went on and I would hope that that process, after hearing the conversation here, that we're demanding via the Fairmount Park Commission that any utility that touches a tree can't do what they did because that damage that occurred there is irreversible. Many of those trees 782 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET are starting to die because of that.
I'm aware of that. I've seen that and I know of the issue. There issue is taking care the line and not the tree.
Well, I would hope that there's a standard that they must conduct business by and I would appreciate you communicating that to the Fairmount Park Commission to prevent that from occurring in the future.
The other issue that I'd like to discuss with you -- and Madam President, any time that I don't use, can I give it to Councilman Nutter?
Is now that we're in the business of animal management where we actually pick up stray dogs and we have people -- you might not be aware of this and I can understand if you're not, but this is the deal, the way I understand it. The SPCA stopped accepting or stopped picking up stray dogs and also the adoption program I'm, not sure exactly where it stands between the SPCA and the City's department that now handles that. But I 783 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET understand that we're starting to destroy a lot of animals unnecessarily because they're not able to be adopted and maybe we don't have the mechanism. And I talked to some folks in the Health Department. Hopefully we can come up with an adoption program that works where we can use the City TV channel to show some of these animals. Because it's a shame to destroy these animals. I would appreciate you giving some support budgetarily, whatever we need to do, because I think the SPCA got out of this business because they didn't like the fact that they had to destroy so many animals. And it's not the animals that are just strays. Someone gives us a dog that they can't manage any longer and if we can't get that dog adopted within a very short period of time -- again, I don't know the specifics -- but that animal is destroyed. I would appreciate you giving that a priority to review what we do and what we can do to get the word out. I've already talked to Public Property who manages the in-house cable television channel or maybe we can do a little -- no pun intended -- dog and pony show to get the word out about this program.
You need special 784 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET zoning for ponies.
I didn't know that, Councilman. You're just so full of information. So I'd like to work on that to try to lessen -- I know we'll never get to where I'd like but I'd like to see if we could lessen the amount of those animals that are being destroyed. I hear of some very beautiful animals that would make good pets and I don't think too many citizens know that we are now in that business.
I certainly didn't know it until I was briefed on it. That's when I realized how big this job is. There's a lot of different components. But actually I'm aware of it and someone just sent me a picture a dog that was adopted just the other day. I think using the cable TV is a great idea.
And again, I understand that there's going to be some funding needed and I would work with you to do whatever it takes to give you the funding that's required to make that. I have a feeling that this could work out if additional funding is necessary. Thank you.
Thank you. At this time the Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter.
Mr. Goldsmith, on page seven of yesterday's testimony, the vacant lot clean-up program. References is made to 17,000 lots that were done in the last Fiscal Year and from July to November City crews cleaned 5,120, I guess, of those same lots. Your testimony again mentions in FY '04 the City will spend about $2 million to continue partnering with community groups to maintain lots and support community service by lending equipment. What groups are we partnering with and what is the $2 million actually spent for?
My name is Thomas Conway, Deputy Managing Director. With regards to the Community Partnership Program, that basically loans out rakes, brooms, bags, trash removal for community organizations throughout the entire City of Philadelphia.
It's a Citywide program, 786 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET yes. We roughly estimate to loan out to over 750 groups this year. It's a wide range of organizations from Boy Scouts, church groups, neighborhood groups, Town Watch groups.
Could you give us a listing of those groups through the Chair by area?
I'll take that. You might want to talk to the Procurement Commissioner about that. Your computer system can break down things by Zip code?
Okay. Good. The Procurement Commissioner could have used your services yesterday. Let me ask about -- this is on seven going into eight, in the testimony, the Adult Community Service Program. Tell us about that.
The Adult Community Service Program, they're nonviolent offenders assigned by mostly Municipal Court, Nuisance Night Court. We work with Judge Mann, Judge McCaffery, several others judges. They get assigned to the Managing 787 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET Director's Office. They're responsible for cleaning up vacant lots, for removing graffiti, sweeping streets, cleaning underpasses, things of that nature.
How do we access those services or who decides where they work?
This is basically a new program over the last couple months to assist with cleaning of the vacant lots throughout the City. The phone number is 685-3071.
685-3071. If I called there, would I be asking for a crew to do something in particular, or how does it work?
Well, basically we'd rather have it requested in writing and you could put it to my attention. A lot of times we might provide a variety of resources, some City, some community service.
Some City and some community service. For instance, we wouldn't need trash picked up after community service offenders do their work on the streets.
As you indicated you 788 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET started this up just a couple months ago and it's fully operational?
Had you sent us some information about this previously?
How has it been functioning if no information has gone around? I mean, I kind of read the Five-Year Plan on a fairly regular basis. It's a fascinating document. But I think most of the community groups don't have copies yet. So how would people know that this was available?
The former Urban Artscape Program was combined with the Mural Arts Program. The adult offenders that used to work out of that Urban Artscape area now work for the Managing Director's Office, Adult Community Service Program. So it's not so much a new program. It was just split in two to have the youth go to the Mural Arts and adults out of the Managing Director's Office to divide it.
Mr. Goldsmith, on 789 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET -51 of the big book, there's a grant here out of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Office and in the detail it says, the funding will be used to provide police protection for municipal employees combating quality of life issues. A large portion of the funding will be used for overtime costs for police officers providing surveillance to apprehend graffiti and short dump offenders. Could you tell me where these activities take place and what lots are we either trying to protect from short dumping or what employees we're trying to protect while all this activity is going on?
Basically, that is with the Police Department's Neighborhood Services Unit that supports the operating departments. If there's a short dump location that constantly is getting re-hit we would put out surveillance teams in that location. Due to the nature of it, we don't really want to give out the list of locations that we're doing surveillance on.
I can understand that. But you can share that with us later privately?
Yes. Correct. Especially 790 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET if you have a specific location that constantly gets short dumped, let us know about that. We can clean it up and do surveillance at that location.
That would be great. Thank you. -16 -- and if you went over this earlier, if I missed it, you'll just tell me that. The third line item, the Livable Neighborhoods Program. Can you refresh my recollection on that? Was that discussed earlier? Did I miss it?
James Coleman, Deputy Managing Director. Councilman, what specifically was your question?
Livable Neighborhoods Program is a jointly funded program by EPA and the state to create primarily a training program for people and neighborhoods to assess City services and how to maintain their own properties and how to maintain their own blocks, keeping things clean, who do they call. And there's a training program that's just started for them. Primarily it was just a few people working with people, block captains and the like. That's primarily funded through the EPA. 791 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET
How many people are involved? Who is receiving this training?
Various blocks throughout the City. I don't have the list with me.
Can you get us some additional detail on it, where it's functioning, who's involved, how many people?
Thank you. On -85, Mr. Managing Director, this line item for public relations for the NTI Program, what are these folks doing? And I thought we had a fairly extensive press operation in the government.
This is for brochures, public relations, mostly for the CLIP Program.
I'm assuming you're not carrying them around with you, but if you could send some over to us. You're going to get back to me on that for the Committee? 792 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET
Okay. Thanks. Mr. Goldsmith, this is a policy issue. There's presently an effort being conducted primarily by the Streets Department utilizing some NTI funds dealing with the issue of retaining walls throughout the City. The Streets Department has conducted a study to assess these and there's a pilot program going on in a couple locations to test some new materials and also cost efficiency. And then I believe the plan is to take that program throughout the City. One of the issues, though, that a couple of my constituents find themselves in a situation where the retaining wall, once it fails, or once there is a violation notice, the notice is against the entire wall regardless of whether an individual homeowner is at the point of the distress or failure of the wall. So you can pick a location, maybe the problem is at the end of the row or maybe it's dead center. All of the homeowners whose properties abut that wall all get a violation notice. And where that becomes an issue is if a person then decides to try to sell their house. When the check is made, 793 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET against City records it shows that the person has a violation notice. For a problem that they cannot solve themselves, because, again, the violation may actually be five doors down the street on another homeowner's property. I mean, we have a live case going on right now where this had happened and the person is in the process of trying to sell their house. Because they're required to make full disclosure and, again, when the check is made against City records, they're showing a violation notice. We need to figure out a way to put -- I've been working with L&I and then they got kind of, their hand slapped by the Law Department telling them that the notice is what the notice is. There's a violation notice. It's against the entire row and basically there's nothing you can do about it. I think we need to figure out a way for homeowners who are in that situation -- they've been charged with a violation that they can't correct, basically.
You cannot individually go and fix somebody else's wall in order to relieve the violation against your property just because you happen to abut the entire wall. 794 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET Now, if the wall falls down, everybody is affected. So there is obviously some notice that has to be provided. But I think in these special situations, the homeowner is in a worse than catch-22 position. They're totally jammed because they have a violation they cannot correct on their own. There's nothing that they can do. And until the entire wall is fixed, the violation won't be removed. We're not in a position to help those homeowners for a long period of time because of the number of walls, there's at least 90 of them, that have been deemed dangerous by the Streets Department, and the prospect of fixing them is somewhere between now and infinity. I think we owe these citizens some kind of additional designation or notice that doesn't put them in a situation where they might virtually not be able to sell their house because of a violation they can't correct.
I hear you. I will look into it. I want to see what the status is and is there a way to do that. I understand the issue.
Councilman, we have a number of other Councilmembers that would like to be recognized. 795 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET
Madam President, I had asked for an 8-part question and I only got to the first part. It's not fair.
We will certainly come back to you. Councilman Ortiz.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I saw Mark testifying a little while ago. Is he still around? Please identify yourself for the record.
Mark Bencivengo, Director of the Coordinating Office for Drug and Alcohol Abuse Programs.
What's the census today in terms of the drug programs that we have.
Probably upwards of 12,500 people currently active in licensed drug treatment programs.
Oh, yes. There are a number of residential drug treatment programs that are set up for single adult men and women and also 796 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET eight residential drug treatment programs in Philadelphia that are for pregnant or parenting substance abusers where the women can live with their children. In addition to that, there are, as I said before, approximately 343 recovery house slots for individuals to live in while they are active in outpatient programs. And these programs are for individuals who have no safe, secure place to live and we feel that they would be better off and could benefit from the outpatient programs, if we put them into a recovery house.
Do we have any programs in terms of bilingual residential programs?
Yes. There are two bilingual residential programs located within the campus of North Philadelphia Health Systems. Torre Delarosa (ph) and Torre Delarosa Harvest (ph). It's in North Philadelphia Health Systems -- on that compass.
I would have to get back to you on the actual capacity. Generally our 797 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET residential programs run in the neighborhood of to 25 individuals and I would assume these two programs run that way.
What is the length of 9 the program, the residential stay, the average 10 residential stay? 11
There are two ways that 12 programs are licensed in Philadelphia and the State 13 Department of Health does the licensing. They look 14 at long-term residential programs, which are in the 15 neighborhood of three months or more and short-term 16 residential programs that are less than months. I 17 would say, however that, the average length of stay 18 in a residential treatment program in Philadelphia 19 is somewhere in the neighborhood of about 20 three-and-a-half to four months. But then what we do is, we work with the individual to do what we call, step that individual down to an outpatient or intensive outpatient program. And that point we might also put the individual into a recovery house.
Are you reaching out 798 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET to any social service agency within the Latino community in terms of perhaps establishing a residential program around their area of concerns?
Congreso is under contract to my office and Congreso also a program that's part of the Community Behavioral Health Provider Network. Congreso, however, does not operate a residential drug treatment program. We are not reaching out at this point to any organizations to open up new residential capacity.
I had hearings not too long ago and I don't think you -- maybe Alba may know -- on the abused women problem in the City of Philadelphia. And the fact came out that we really don't have safe houses in the City of Philadelphia. Actually, I think we have one, if I remember correctly, to which women can recur with these problems. I asked the Administration at those hearings to, at least for the budget report, to give me some study as to how far along we have come to 799 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET resolving that problem. And also that we don't have a bilingual hotline in terms of abused women and that the cost of establishing a hotline is not that really costly. And I'd like to know where we're at on two issues along those lines.
Is there anyone to answer that? Councilman, let us get back to you on both those issues.
See if you can, because there's more issues resolving about that. It has to do with the treatment that we've got to resolve with the DA and the court system. But I think there's something that we can do in terms of the residential aspect and perhaps looking into how we're going to be able to provide for abused women in this City in a different manner and with a greater degree of sensitivity and spanning our services to that community, which is quite large. To me, it's astounding the numbers of people that go through the system.
Good afternoon. My name is Alba Martinez and I'm Commissioner of DHS. Councilman, I will assist the Managing 800 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET Director in getting the information you're requesting. But I do want to say that I was surprised also to hear about the bilingual line because prior to leaving Congreso we had entered into an arrangement with Women Against Abuse to have that line also provide bilingual coverage. But in addition, I want to say that we are at a point in time in this City where it is likelier than ever that we will have quality bilingual, bicultural services because the new executive director of Women Against abuse is the former director of Congreso. So I appreciate your interest and concern because this issue is long overdue. And, again, I believe that the City needs to work strategically with the State, and I will work with you on that.
I think the amount of money for the hotline $900,000, right? That's the number that was given to us. So it's really not that costly a situation. So if you can get me that information and then I could work with Mark on the other drug aspects that we're dealing with. Thank you, Madam Chair.
You're welcome. 801 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET Councilwoman Krajewski, your light is on. Do you want to be recognized?
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to state I'm very, very excited that everyone knows about CLIP and how it started. Actually, I believe it came under the NTI program and I just would like to bring the attention to Councilman Nutter I believe in the 6th District, out of -- what is it, $295 million in NTI? 10 demolitions, 25 encaps. That's it. That's what I got. So I worked, I believe, like a year and two months coming with this idea of CLIP, which is Community Life Improvement. It's a great program. And I would just like to put it on the record to Councilman Nutter, did you get your questions answered today regarding CLIP.
Councilwoman, I think that one, again, let me commend you for having the idea, spending the time to put it together and organize it and get a level of coordination that actually makes some sense. I can only give you the highest praise and thanks. And I think what's happened here is, it's kind of the power of a good 802 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET idea that gives people an opportunity to see how things could be. And I think it's to your credit that so many of us would like to see this kind of activity. To be honest with you, I express great regret that I wasn't smart enough to come up with it myself.
Well, you've had more than a few. And so I think that now that people understand that there's a fair amount of success -- and Mr. Conway was very good in answering questions about the program -- I think that many of us would just like to see the pilot become the policy.
Well, that's exactly what it is. It's a pilot program that happened to start in the 6th District. And I'm sure in time --
Councilwoman, I would expect it to start in the 6th because it was your idea. There's no where else for it to start.
I'd like to ask Mr. Conway a couple of questions. 803 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET Can you give me a brief breakdown on what other districts are getting through the NTI?
Thomas Conway, Deputy Managing Director. A lot of the other areas are getting demolitions, encapsulations, vacant lot clean ups. With regard one to, of the reasons that the Councilwoman did the CLIP dollars basically initially, she has very vacant lots in her area, very few demolitions, very few stabilizations, as well as with Councilman O'Neill. This is why the program was designed for that area. We worked closely with her office on that. Other areas are getting an enormous amount of funding for demolitions, which is a large piece of the pie. But when Mayor Street was committed to transforming neighborhoods he wanted to make sure that every neighborhood was touched by the transformation initiative. And this was part of the Councilwoman's idea and for her area.
I want to 804 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET congratulate you for doing a great job.
I apologize for coming in late. I was over at the Board of Revision of Taxes having some fun. Tom, I would just echo what Joan said. I refer to the CLIP Program more in my district as CLIP like. But it's really similar to how it operates in the upper end of Joan's district. When we talked about it initially -- I'm even get used to the name even though I can't believe Councilwoman Krajewski came up with such an acronym.
I've been here since 9:00. He walks in about 4 o'clock.
I won't dispute either of those times because they're both very accurate, I'm sure. There was obviously not going to be much, if any, NTI money of this almost $300 million come into the Northeast. And this was a way of getting some of it and also trying something out 805 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET that people had devised, a team approach and quick action, not doing what we usually did or have done in the past, which was wait for court for years 5 until the block is ruined or try to intercept it 6 early and put that good old lien on the property and 7 fix it up. Because I can tell you, at least in my 8 district, the word has spread. I mean, there's some 9 stuff we're giving you that's done before you get 10 there because people find out that when we hire a contractor, it's four times what it will cost them. They get to pay ot out of their pocket and not with a lien on their property. It's been a very, very effective program, the concept of it. I still think it's a work in process, I mean, the pilot. It isn't like this is, we figured it all out and it can take off. But I think in the very initial stages it's worked very well and you're to be given a line share of credit, not just yourself, but how you coordinated with the other departments and your relationships that you've been able to gain with the police and L&I, Fairmount Park and people that haven't, for any reason, had to work real closely before now are just working as a team. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll pass that 806 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET along to the other commissioners and deputies that are here, especially L&I and Streets and Police.
We met with different departments. We met with the District Attorney. We met with L&I. We met with every department in this City to coordinate it. And for Councilman O'Neill, I think we should call it the JK program.
Thank you. At in this time the Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter.
Thank you, Madam President. Mr. Goldsmith, the other big public policy issue -- and again unfortunately I have one of these and this is a big Citywide issue and a problem. It has to do with our policy regarding sinking homes, which I believe, there's been a fairly extensive amount of work done on this, some GIS mapping, some Army Corp of Engineer work and I have at least one significant unfinished -- some 807 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET unfinished business over on a street called Daggett Street, D-A-G-G-E-T-T, in the Overbrook Section. We had a number of homes that were affected by a situation out there. Those homes are now vacant because the homeowners were initially relocated by the City for an extended period of time and subsequently they were told that they could not return. On the one hand, those homeowners now are naturally in a safer place, but that is not the end of the story. One, you have the unoccupied houses that are there and you have the rest of the block. About percent of the block was actually 15 vacated as a result of the situation over there. We 16 have some very difficult decisions to make with 17 regard to what to do with the remaining homes, how 18 that effects the rest of the block and ensuring that 19 the other 75 percent of the people who remain live 20 in a place that they would still consider to be a 21 neighborhood. Again, this is not an isolated issue. 22 I'm quite aware that in some other parts of the City 23 there is an even more extensive, larger problem that 24 would make this particular one pale in comparison. 25 And I'm certainly sensitive to that. But I've not 808 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET heard anything in recent times as to what we're doing from a public policy standpoint on these sinking home strategies as well as in the micro-level what's going to happen with my constituents over at this particular location. It has gone on for an extended period of time and the government has to kind of roll with the punches as we say when different things happen and our attention gets diverted to the other or the next emergency situation that comes along, as we know. But the citizens, their lives are more focused on what's going on in their street and what's happening in their neighborhoods. So the only big thing that's really happened to them, other than the last inches of snow, is that the situation still 17 exists and it is unresolved at this time. So I'd 18 like to have an opportunity to talk with you about that. I have two last things. One is overall event coordination. And I know I saw in the back Ms. Gloria Jackson is with us and I'd like to have some opportunity -- obviously a significant number of events that take place in the City are primarily either Center City based or Old City or along the 809 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET river and the drives and the like. But I get a couple that are pretty significant. Naturally we've coordinated well over the years. For instance, the Greek Picnic which has dramatically improved even over the past few years significant coordination between the police, Managing Director's Office and a number of other entities. But we also have the nationally, if not internationally recognized bike race and a host of other activities that primarily take place in the Manayunk/Roxborough section of my district and naturally the Greek Picnic is more of a West Philadelphia event. I'd like to see, I guess, a higher level of coordination on these kinds of events. They're not necessarily Citywide kinds of events, but they can be tremendously disruptive in some of these communities. So if I could know a little bit more about our coordination efforts and what we're going to do to ensure that the events can take place, but also people's lives are not completely disrupted, either as pedestrian, motorists, public transportation access to either commercial shopping or religious services for those events that spill over into either Saturday night or Sunday.
I think we do the big events well. There's 810 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET no question about that. But I think if we took some of that strategy and time and effort for the smaller ones that would be very helpful. Can we hear from Ms. Jackson on that?
Sure. Let me say before she comes -- Councilman DiCicco is not here. But we've had a number of meetings on the non-event Mardi Gras that brought together the South Street Alliance and that's really been a great example of the business community and residents coming together with support of the City. So you know, hopefully, this year it really is a non-event. That's the type of thing some of these events you're talking about.
The other issue gets raised as I mentioned big events, some of small events. We do a tremendously good job in the coordination leading up to the event and during the event. What we're now experiencing, for instance, with the bike race, the bike race is wonderful. It's the unscheduled post-event, post-bike-race events and activities take place either of a commercial nature or the general spontaneity of what happens when people are out all day into the early 811 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET evening drinking things above the level of water or Gatorade and that often leads to some post-event activity maybe we did not anticipate.
Gloria Jackson Senior Assistant Managing Director. Councilman, what exactly is your question?
I don't know how we categorize our events, but obviously we have the big event that takes place on the Parkway, Center City Parade and Penns Landing. What I'd like to know is how we approach the smaller, technically smaller neighborhood-based events that can have significant effect on access, congestion, transportation issues and kind of general quality of life issues. Whether it's the Greek Picnic or the bike race where you may have street closures that we may get in some parts of the district in a one or two-day time frame, how we coordinate with neighborhood groups or individuals, institutions churches hospitals and the like to make sure these events go off well and people's lives are not totally disrupted?
One of things we do is we meet with the community, the major community groups 812 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET and assess what their needs are in terms of the neighborhoods in terms of transportation and the safety of the people in that particular area. For example, Adunde is a festival that's held on South Street. One of the things I work very closely with the organizers of that event is we have in place for all the departments for trash removal, for clean up, for EMS coverage and we also try to make it safe for the neighborhoods in terms of whether or not we can get access if there's an emergency down that particular street. As you know, South Street is very small. So what we try to do for the vendors who are there, we have put in place that we leave a corridor we can get a vehicle from one end of the City to the other in that particular area.
We create lead time to coordinate all of these arrangements and logistics of whose doing what and when are they doing activities with both the elected officials, community groups, and other people in the area?
That is correct. I had a task force which is the special events task force which includes all the operating departments that would be involved in any kind of event. And we 813 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET coordinate accordingly.
There's no reason for not sharing that with Councilmembers so you know what's coming to your area.
Many of these events are somewhat regular. We know every year in July there's Greek picnic. We know every year, what is it, August, there's bike race.
As we do become better successful they become more institutionalized.
There's also sort of a codification going around right now of our processes.
One of the new events you may want to put on your calendar, Councilman Rizzo, is JK Day. I think that may be a citywide event celebrating the new ideas and 814 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET initiatives from -- (Laughter.)
So you're all over that and you were working with us and the different groups to make sure we're coordinating on the smaller events.
I think that sharing information back and forth is most helpful for all of us and we can watch each other's back.
I think it won't be your last. Very good. Very good testimony. Thank you. Two last things Managing Director. With Commissioner Johnson Police Commissioner Johnson we attempted to establish a zero tolerance program in one of our what we think is a continuing thriving and growing commercial corridor on Main Street. Because of a proliferation of restaurants and some liquor license establishments, most of whom are very good business enterprises. Some of them have a little bit of problem maintaining semblance of order 815 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET and control over their customers. Some of the other issues in a couple other commercial corridors, Lansdowne Avenue in West Philadelphia for one, and we've had some additional issues Haverford Avenue in the Overbrook Section, these kinds of efforts do require a significant amount of coordination between and among a variety of agencies. And not to go back to the earlier discussion, but again, whether we call them a particular thing or not or whether it's just how we work between and among the departments, that kind of coordination is important and quite necessary. Let me at least, again, put on the record that our earlier comments with regard to programs, coordination of services, regardless of where they may function in the different Councilmatic districts, in no way, shape, and form imply those activities are not going on. It's the success of what has happened that now drives -- information is available to everyone. Many of us get calls and expresses of concern about -- it's not people don't want someone to have something. I'm very happy that these pilot kinds of program start up. What they're really crying out for is "What about us?" And so I'm pleased that this activity is 816 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET taking place. It did have to start somewhere. Every good idea starts somewhere. Now we've almost become I think it's working and we'd like to see it. Lastly, could you comment on, beyond your comments in the newspaper today, the story with regard to the general size of our vehicular fleet and more specifically the sports utility vehicle story today, with regard to our interest or propensity toward those particular vehicles and all that goes with those vehicles and various other types of vehicles, what's the story here?
Let me be brutally honest with you. I think we have too many cars. I think Fleet Management zero base review of my department. Frankly, coming from the private sector, this is a practice that disappeared a long time ago. I don't think we can afford it. And I think we have to rationalize who has vehicles and who doesn't have vehicles and who gets parking and who doesn't get parking. I'm sure a lot of people aren't going to like me saying that. That's frankly what I believe. I want to go about it in the right manner. The SUVs, I'm not familiar with all the details. I know we have a lot of SUVs out there. I 817 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET think some of them perfectly legitimate and some of them sure are not. We're going to take a review. We will start in my office and start with that. But I just think that we got complete management. And I don't think we have that luxury anymore. I plan to take a look at it. That look has already started.
It might be helpful -- I don't spend much time over Fleet Management, given both the general issue and a bit of the profile of it and some of the, I guess, facts and figures or at least at times what may qualify as facts and figures in a news account, it might be helpful if you could help us better understand the issue and kind of go through this particular piece. If they are faxing things that are either wrong or inflated or just don't make any sense within the particular story, it probably would be helpful for us to understand that. I was -- the one thing that kind of jump out of me is the shear number of SUVs that we have. And I think one of the paragraphs indicated that we had more than 5 times other cities involved including, Chicago, which seems like fair amount of snow in Chicago. I know we've had our fair share this year. In previous years we haven't 818 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET had that much. It's one of situation if you're in situation where you need it, it's nice to have it. But, I mean for about the other 350 days of the year, the rain around here or the occasional pothole generally is not that bad. If you want to look at that, I'd appreciate it.
I think it's an issue look it. I don't want to get into debating the newspaper. We will review our policies.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to go back to my colleagues question about Daggett Street. I want to point something out you might want to address. And I think it may already have been addressed. I want to take advantage of point this out. Some of the residents contacted Councilman Nutter and my office about the properties they moved out, and one particular resident got a violation that the grass wasn't cut. Now, I would hope that the properties could somehow been tagged that are the Daggett Street homes which 819 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET the folks had to leave for various reasons. It's a very distressing situation to put a violation notice on that they didn't cut the grass. That it's equally distressing -- I don't know what the responsibility -- I assume it's a fact those property owners are still responsible for their properties, but at this point could Risk Management and everyone else involved in this, somehow that process could stop. And going forward into the spring if this condition is still existing and the grass grows, who's responsible to cut it? Because I think the other neighbors on the block don't want to see that blight on their block. If we have to go out and cut the grass or whatever; whose responsibility, I don't know at this point. I don't know in this process. I think you understand where I'm going here.
Thanks, Madam Chair. By the way, since I have the microphone -- I'll talk to you off the record on this. Thanks.
Any other questions from Members of the Committee? 820 2/26/03 - FY '04 OPERATING BUDGET (No response.)
Thank you very much. We appreciate your presence. - - - 00821 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget
The Police Department is next to testify. Is the Police Commissioner here? Good afternoon, Commissioner. Thank you for your patience. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Yes, ma'am.
Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: All right. Good morning, Council President Verna and Members of City Council. I am Sylvester Johnson, Police Commissioner. With me are the Police Department's Deputy Commissioner and Finance Officer. We are ready to answer any question that you have on the Police Department's budget request. Our General Fund budget request for Fiscal Year 2004 is $485,195,245. Most of this money will be used to employ 6,910 sworn personnel. In addition, we plan to employ 930 civilians, 1,037 School Crossing Guards, including 159 sworn officers assigned to the airport and 00822 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget funded through the Aviation Department. Our total sworn strength for Fiscal Year 2004 will be 7,069. This is the highest number sworn officers in the Department in over 6 years. 7 As you know, in October the 8 Department started to lose those who signed up for 9 DROP four years ago. Altogether, 409 sworn 10 officers and 39 civilian employees will be leaving 11 the Department in Fiscal Year '04 because of the 12 DROP. 13 This includes some of our best 14 commanders. This poses a big challenge for us, 15 but I'm sure that we have the talent to fill those vacancies, without reducing the level of service that we provide. To fill the gaps caused by those who are leaving, we will be hiring 555 recruits in Fiscal Year 2003, 486 more in Fiscal Year 2004. Operation Safe Streets. Since I was here last year, the quality of life in our neighborhood has greatly improved. This is largely due to Operation Safe Streets. As everyone knows, Safe Streets stems from the 00823 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget Mayor's commitment to improve the quality of life in Philadelphia, has been the force behind the operation, has been a strong supporter of the members of the Police Department, who have to do the work. Council has also been very supportive, and I'm very grateful both to you and to the Mayor for this. Also want to thank the officers whose efforts have made Operation Safe Streets so successful, that people have come from all across the world to study it. We began Safe Streets by looking at maps of the City that show where most drug dealings, shootings, and other violence happen. Not surprisingly, the same corner stood out on each map. We made a list of about 300 of those worst corners and assigned teams of police officers to patrol them. Operation Safe Streets has now moved into a new phase. Instead of covering all our target corners with officers on foot, we have begun to put officers on bicycles. This is making us more flexible. They can respond more quickly to changes in the drug corners, diverting the 00824 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget violence. Using officers on bicycles has also helped us to cut overtime. Safety Streets Citizen Bike Patrol. The new Citizen Bike Patrol Mayor Street announced in September of 2002 also helps the Safe Street Program. Based on a generous donation of 100 bikes from Citizens Bank, the Safety Citizen Bike Patrol is being organized as part of the City's Town Watch Program. It will put about 340 citizens on bikes on the streets each day. Although Safe Streets has made a big difference to the amount of open air drug dealings in our City, we know that some drug dealers have taken their business indoors or operating from vehicles. We will deal with them. Our Narcotics Field Unit and our Strike Force are continuing to break up established drug organizations. Every time one of these organizations is taken out, a large number of street-level dealers are put out of business. Question: Has Operation Safe Streets been successful? Has Operation Safe Streets been a success? Ask those who live in the 00825 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget neighborhoods that have been free from the drug dealers and the violence that goes with them. They have no doubts about it. Safe Streets has changed their lives.
The crime statistics tell the same story. There's been fewer murders, fewer other major crimes, fewer crimes generally in the period since May 1, 2002, when Safe Streets began, than in the same period last year. As of February 2, 2003, murders are down over ten percent. Part 1 offenses are down by 13 percent. And overall crime has decreased by 9 percent. Every year since 1997, the City has organized an independent survey to find out what citizens feel about City services. I'm very proud that in the latest survey, that for 2002, almost 65 percent of those who answered the survey said that they were satisfied with police protection. This is the highest satisfaction rate the Department has ever had. That does not mean that I think we have done enough. In my testimony last year I said 00826 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget that while the Department was proud of the fact that the numbers of murders in Philadelphia has fallen over the past four years, these numbers were still too high. I am very pleased to tell you that the numbers of murders in 2002 was down by 7 percent from 2001, from 309 to 288. But I still think these numbers are too high. I want to get them down further. The Heads-Up Program. Despite the success of Safe Streets, experience has shown that we can not rid our society of illegal drugs by traditional policing methods. That is why I believe The Heads-Up program is so important, and why I want to continue to develop it and present it whenever and wherever there is a genuine interest. During 2002 program was presented to some 61,000 people in 350 performances in schools, churches, and other venues. We expect these numbers to be higher this year. And I would just like to read one of the letters of numerous amount of letters that I receive and The Heads-Up Program. This is from The Charles Carroll High School. 00827 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget Dear Commissioner Johnson, very rarely does one experience a program that so impacts an entire audience. Your presentation did just that. It was extremely informative, enlightening, and profoundly powerful. You need to understand, through those who have experienced the horror of drugs, it shatters dreams, destroys and devastates lives. As evidenced by the reaction I saw in the faces of my students, your labor of love, exposed the downhill courses that drug addiction can take you. If only two lives out of 200 were spared from the tragedy that drugs brings them, that means an entire family, perhaps, in the community perhaps been spared. My grateful generosity I give to you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That was the Principal, Doris Williams. Fighting Terrorism. As I said last year, the events of September 11th gave the Police Department a new mission. We're now responsible for fighting terrorism and responding to terrorism not only in the City, but also the whole of the 00828 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget Philadelphia region. We therefore set up a new Counter Terrorism Bureau, headed by a Chief Inspector, including 76 members, all of them transferred from other units. The sorts of things that the Bureau has been doing includes: Development training for police officers and other first responders in how to deal with infectious disease, such as smallpox. Meeting with business and civilian communities to teach them about security precautions, evacuations, and overall strategy for dealing with terrorists. Meeting with the leadership of the counties around Philadelphia to prepare a regional mobilization plan for use in the event of a terrorist attack. The Bureau also investigates any incidents that appears to have a terrorist connection. The total cost of the Counter-Terrorism Bureau, including training, investigation, equipment and personnel expenditures, is estimated to exceed $10 million a year. 00829 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget Live Stop. Terrorism has attracted a lot of media attention since September the 11th.
But in my view not enough attention has been paid to those who died or are seriously injured in vehicle accidents each year. The large number of these deaths or injuries are caused by individuals driving vehicles that are unregistered or uninsured. To reduce the numbers, the City introduced a Live Stop Program July 1, 2002. It takes off the road any vehicle driven by someone without proper operation privilege or registration. Live Stop is making our streets safer. It is reducing the number of abandoned vehicles on our streets. This is because many of the vehicles impounded fit the criteria set for declaring a vehicle abandoned and are treated as such. School Safety. I want to say a few words about school safety. From the beginning of this school year we have made a number of changes to the way the Police Department handles school safety. 00830 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget These changes have been agreed with Mr. Paul Vallas, Chief Executive of the School District, who improve the safety of those who attend our schools, as well as those who work in them. We now have an Inspector in the Police Department whose full-time job is to be School Liaison Officer, who reports to the Chief of the Patrol Bureau, so that he can assure that safety of our schools is closely linked to the safety of our streets. We have also made our District 14 Captains Commanders, directly responsible for the 15 safety of the schools in their Districts. 16 This replaced the arrangement that I 17 declared last year, where six captains based in 18 the six patrol divisions, are responsible for 19 school safety in their division. 20 Under the new arrangement, the 21 District Captains are accountable for every aspect 22 of the policing of their community, including the 23 schools. They will be expected to develop close working relationships with the heads of all schools in their Districts. This is a much better 00831 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget way of assuring the safety of our young people. Maximize the Effectiveness of Officers on the Street. Both fighting drugs and fighting terrorism involve using scarce manpower. Given the limits of the numbers of officers the Department can recruit, train and pay, we need to make the best use of those we have. The Department, therefore, is developing a transfer policy that will enable us to use our manpower more effectively, particularly in emergencies. In addition, we would like to introduce transfers based on performance. P. shares the goal of providing the citizens of Philadelphia with the best law enforcement service possible. We have been working well together, and I look forward to continuing this positive relationship. Managing the Police Overtime. The Police Department is budgeting to spend $77 million on overtime in Fiscal Year '03, and $56 million Fiscal Year '04. We are continuing to reduce the costs of overtime. We have already cut our 00832 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget administrative overtime. We have also stopped assigning an entire squad from the Narcotics Bureau, the Safe Streets Program, on an overtime basis. Court overtime accounts for over 45 percent of our total sworn overtime bill. We're always looking for new ways to reduce it. One of the best ways is by cutting down the numbers of officers required to testify in court in any particular case. The Department now provides only one police officer and occasionally two for each preliminary hearing. It used to be common for four officer to appear in each case. This practice has already saved a large amount of overtime. We are also working with the District Attorney's Office on the arrangement to give police officers at least 48 hours' notice for court appearances. Our size and technology is now an important part of policing. Our Department has a good record for applying new technology, and I'm very hopeful that we can continue it.
00833 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget I won't spend so much time this morning telling you about all the latest developments in this area. They are described in the written version of my testimony that you have. But I do want to mention our new state-of-the-art Forensic Science Center, built at 8th and Poplar Street in the Worcester School. It should be ready in the fall, and I look forward to welcoming Members of Council to the formal opening ceremony at that time. In conclusion, as the Mayor said in his Budget Address on January 28th, world class citizens must be safe. For this reason, his commitment to the success of Operation Safe Streets and to crime reduction is unequivocal. The goal of his Administration is to make Philadelphia the safest big city in America, and to that end, has proposed to make the largest investment of public safety in the history of this City. I am confident that the proposals that I have outlined will enable the Mayor to achieve these objectives. The men and women of the Philadelphia Police Department includes some of 00834 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget the finest police officers, commanders and civilian support staff in the country. If we give them the tools required in this Budget, they will do the job. Thank you very much, Council President.
Thank you. Commissioner, of the 409 sworn officers that will be going out on DROP, how many of them are high-ranking officers? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, there's quite a few. I don't know the exact numbers, but what we did, though -- And the Mayor let us do last year -- March of last year I over promoted. Say, for example, as chief inspectors leave and inspectors leave, I made numerous amounts of promotions then. And what I basically did, say, for example in the Detective Bureau, I have a Senior Chief Inspector and a Junior Chief Inspector, both working together. But the facts are that the Senior Chief Inspector has 44 years and the Junior Chief Inspector has 35 years. So even though he's junior in rank, he still has enough time and 00835 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget experience to run those departments. I say thanks to the Mayor and the Administration. Last year we knew the DROP Program was coming, and we've been preparing for it. Sometime in the near future, I'm going to request from the Mayor and the Managing Director to make additional promotions, after talking to my Executive Staff. Again, we knew it was coming. We've been preparing for it, and I think that once it does take place, the citizens of Philadelphia will not see any difference.
That's wonderful. I'm glad to hear that. Commissioner, do we have our full complement of school crossing guards? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER NESTEL: Tom Nestel, Deputy Police Commissioner. We're authorized to have 1,037. As of this morning, we had 1,007. And we are in the process of filling those 30 vacancies.
And when will they be filled? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER NESTEL: They 00836 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget will be filled as quickly as possible. Our School Crossing Guard Unit works on that very diligently. We tried to do at least five a week when we have vacancies.
Why do we always have so many vacancies with School Crossing Guards? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER NESTEL: There is a large turnover in the School Crossing Guard Unit. We've also had several recent retirements.
Commissioner, if that in fact is the case, that we have these large numbers of vacancies, why don't we have a pool, a list, standing by to hire them? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER NESTEL: We do have a list standing by to hire.
So then why do we have 30 vacancies? The minute we have two, why don't we fill it? The minute we have one more --
Councilman, are you referring to, like, a roving type? Someone with a crossing guard, and on any 00837 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget given day a particular corner is vacant, that guard would be sent to that corner?
No, that's not -- That might be a good idea, but that's not my question. You presently have 30 vacancies. Someone leaves. You should have a list in a week to have that person replaced. I don't understand why we have to have a list of vacancies that grows to 30 before we start replacing these people. Don't we replace people every day so this list is quickly -- that mandate that you have is maintained constantly? My point being, I can't understand why we have 30 vacancies. If you have a list of people, hire them and fill the list, fill the vacancies. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER NESTEL: I wish it were that simple. It isn't. There are existing lists. We have to survey the people on those lists to see if they're still interested. We have to talk to the guards in other locations who have expressed the desire to be transferred. There is a lot involved. We are 00838 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget doing our best to fill every one of those slots.
Well, you know, I appreciate our best. But when it comes to kids, we have to do more than our best. So if you have a system that obviously is cumbersome, maybe you need to work on refining that process, because I can't understand if you have a list of a hundred people, that you can't go to the other guards and see if they want to upgrade to another corner, and then hire someone. If you have a hundred people on the list, it doesn't sound like to me it should take a long time to fill the position. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: But if I can say something, I think what happens, too, is that once there is a list, we do a background investigation of who's on that list. But as far as the children are concerned, those corners who are not being supplied with the 30 school crossing guards are covered by police officers. So the safety of the children is not in peril at that point. I understand very much 00839 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget what you're saying, Council Person. But I think our Administration is doing everything to make sure that the -- We become short on police officers. I would like to hire police officers every time there's one leaves, but sometimes that's just not possible to do. But I'm saying that as far as the Department's concerned, we will fill those vacancies as fast as possible.
Commissioner, if you could leave me with the assurance that when a police officer covers a school crossing, that that car is out of service, that won't leave for any reason, then, you know, I'll buy into what you say. But I'm going to pursue the process. But if you leave me with the assurance that a police car will be out of service at a school crossing guard and not leave for any reason, I'll say thank you. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I could never assure you of that, because quite naturally if I put police officers out there and there's a 00840 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget shooting and there's an emergency that takes place, then that person has to go.
That's more important than kids crossing the street in the Police Department's eyes, right? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: If there's a person being shot or injured a block away, two blocks away, I think that an emergent situation would be more important at that point.
That system where... You know, maybe I'll buy into that, a block away, two blocks away. But what takes that car away from the school crossing? Could you provide the Chair the information? I'd like to know about the process, about replacing these school crossing guards, and I would appreciate knowing what would take that police car away from that school crossing? What type of a crime in progress would leave that intersection uncovered? Because I know of a situation where there was a child killed, I believe -- correct me if I'm wrong -- where there was no school crossing guard or police car at the school crossing. I 00841 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget think... Was it Hunting Park and Clearfield? I'm not sure, so I don't want to speculate here. But I know of cases where I know of -- I know intersections on my way to work where there's normally a school crossing guard. When the school crossing guard's not there, I don't see a police car. So I don't know if that system works as well as you believe it does. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, I just want the Council to realize that everyone's safety is a concern of ours, especially children. And we have no intention or just purposely leaving any corner or anything vacant, with the idea that a child may be hurt there. I am very concerned, as the entire Department is concerned. So as I say, again, we will hire these school crossing guards as fast as possible. That's the only commitment that I can give you.
But Commissioner, again, I respect that; but if there is some bureaucracy that you're dealing with that this Council can help you cut through... You know, you're the Police Commissioner. We have some 00842 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget abilities maybe here in this 17-group member that you don't have. So if you're running up against a bureaucracy that's not permitting you to move this process forward, I think instead of -- You know, and I'm not suggesting you're being defensive, or Commissioner Nestel, but I think we can help you with this. Because I would like to see the positions filled as quickly as possible. And if you're having a problem getting that done as quickly as possible, I think I personally would like to know about it, because I'll go to the Mayor, if it's necessary, or whoever it takes, to make the process move quicker. Because in Philadelphia shootings, yes, they're important. But those kids crossing the street, especially at a crossing where they're normally being assisted by a school crossing guard, I think you're putting them out. I think we're making them vulnerable. Thank you very much. Thanks, Madam Chair. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: All right. 00843 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget Thank you, sir.
Commissioner, have the 30 vacancies existed since September? How long have we had these vacancies? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER NESTEL: Council President, no, they have not. It fluctuates as people leave and we rehire, but they have not existed since September.
Well, it's probably been several months, since you have 30 vacancies. I don't think that happens overnight. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER NESTEL: I don't know how long it's been, but I will check.
All right. Commissioner, on of your testimony you indicate that there have been regular meetings with members of the business and civilian communities, to instruct them on topics ranging from security precautions, evacuations, and overall strategies for dealing with terrorism. 150 such meetings were held in FY'03 and a similar number is expected in FY'04. Do you think that we, as elected officials, could be included in that number? 00844 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Yes, ma'am.
I would really appreciate it. Also, Commissioner, can you tell us how much you currently are spending on court-related overtime? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER NESTEL: We spend approximately $21 million a year.
It seems that each year it gets higher, and each year we keep talking about how this figure could be cut, for court-related overtime, and how this could possibly be cut. And I know that several years ago there was supposed to be meetings with the District Attorney and the Police Commissioner, and I believe the court system, probably the Administrative Judge. Are we looking at ways to... 's office. I hate to date myself, but we didn't have computers. And manually I would go through the bills of indictments. And you would make certain that two police officers maybe had 00845 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget four or five cases in the one courtroom. Today we have computers. Why couldn't that be done? And I know that that's not your job. But there has to be a way of reducing court-related overtime. As I said, each year it just seems to be escalating. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I think what you'll find next year, that it will be reduced. Maybe about two months ago I met with the administrative people from the Municipal Court, Common Pleas Court, and from the District Attorney's office. And one of the things that they asked me to do is assign more police officers to the Court Liaison Unit, with the idea of looking over investigative reports and eliminating police officers. Within two weeks I assigned an additional 12 people to the courts. In addition to that, one of the things that became a problem is that a lot of times officers were assigned to court and at the same time were assigned to training. So, they continued it. I've eliminated that. When they're assigned to court, the court has the first 00846 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget priority. One of the other things that's one of our biggest problems that the court and the District Attorney is going to have to help us with, is these overnight court notices, where an officer is subpoenaed to court o'clock at night. 8 They appear in court the very next day, which becomes a big problem with us. We're very concerned, because not only do we want our court cases to go on, because what's happening, if you look at the big picture, when the case is continued, that means that the defendant who has not made bail is still in court, which is going to cost the City even more money. So I've made my commitment to the District Attorney's office, to both courts, that the Police Department will do everything we can to eliminate the overtime, to eliminate and work along with them. They, in turn, will have to work along with us. One of the things that was happening a lot of times is that we had a court liaison person in court or read the court case the night before, and eliminated four or five people, and 00847 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget then send this over to the District Attorney's office. And we're starting to eliminate that. And then they disregard what this person says, because a lot of times they need people there. A lot of times, too, especially in the area of narcotics, the officer gets four or five court cases at one time. If he's not physically in position, what I've asked them to do is not to discharge that case, but to hold the case for the entire day. In other words, if they have a court listing and call a case 10 o'clock in the morning, and the officer's not physically there at that point, he may be in another courtroom. By putting the liaison people also inside the courtroom, which I've also made the commitment to do, then we will know exactly where that officer's at and will be able to get ahold of him within 15 minutes after the court case is called. So we've been working on that. And I think in the very near future -- Because the court has also decided that what they're going to try to work on...
And again, especially in the 00848 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget area of narcotics, which is a lot of our court cases, if we can put narcotics court cases all on the same floor, instead of being spread out through the entire building, then it will be easier for the officer to go from one court case to another. And then if he can just be in the hallway and just go to that particular case, the case wouldn't be discharged or just done with that particular day.
Do we have what we call a drug court? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Yes, we do.
And do we have one, two, three? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I believe we have one drug court at this point. And in that particular case, that drug court, what's happening a lot of times what's going on is that instead of having four officers go there, they only have one. They've let the hearsay rule kick in. Where sometimes we would have an officer, again, in narcotics which is our biggest problem, you might have one officer get the narcotics, one officer get the money, one officer get the 00849 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget surveillance. We'll, they're letting this one officer testify to the entire incident, which is a big help to us.
I would think it would be. And do you think that we need more than one drug court? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I think, with the issues that we have going on right now, I think we need more than one court case -- I mean, one court --
Courtroom. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Courtroom. It would help us out, it would help the administrative out. It would help out in a whole lot of different ways.
Thank you. And I just want to publicly applaud you, Commissioner, for the wonderful work that you're doing. I'm certainly glad that you're there. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: All right. Thank you very much.
There are a number of Council Members that want to be 00850 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget recognized. The first is Councilwoman Tasco.
Thank you very much. I, too, would like to thank you for the hard work that you're doing in the Police Department. Appreciate your accessibility to me and my office. I recall with concerns... And not just you but the other, the captains and inspectors that we work with in the District. So, we have a good relationship in that regard. So we want you to know that we appreciate what you do. It's hard work. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: All right. Thank you very much.
I know we have a Bill here in Council that's on the calendar to try and open up the process to recruit officers from outside of Philadelphia, and give them an opportunity to take the test before they move into the City, and that's still on hold. I'd just like to ask you: How are you doing with recruiting new police officers, as the DROP program comes about? And you say you have prepared for the loss of these experienced 00851 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget officers. But how has the process for new recruits worked? And are we moving along, getting new people and good people? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, we have a recruitment unit that goes out on a continuous basis to try to recruit from the colleges, from the different places. In addition to that, I've been meeting with the minority communities, the Asians, the Latinos, the Koreans because we also need them. The fact is that recruitment throughout the entire country for law enforcement has been very difficult. Our last police examination that we gave, 15,000 people applied for the test. 4700 took the test. And I believe 2700 passed the test. And this is less than eight or nine months ago, which means within the next month or two we're going to have to give a new test. In addition to that, the requirements that we have in place eliminate close to 94 and 95 percent of the people who take the test and pass the test, are eliminated for one 00852 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget reason or another. One of the things that I did, and this is my personal view, because I used to be in charge of the Background Unit. We got rid of the Polygraph Unit and the polygraph for new applicants. We were one of the only major cities in the nation with a polygraph. And I felt as though a more excessive background information was more fair. One of the other things that we really have to look into that a lot of people were being rejected for years ago, about their drug use. And to me, if you have a person growing up at 17th and Susquehanna or 8th and Indiana who experimented with drugs one time in 10 or 15 years' experience, I don't think he's really a bad child. Also, as a juvenile, in certain areas, he may come in contact, been arrested as a juvenile 15- or 16-year-old. You're now or 30 24 years old. So I believe it's more important to 25 look at it on a case-to-case basis instead of just 00853 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget looking at it overall. The argument is... Right now what's in place is where you have to live in the City one year prior to taking the test. I think if the rules are changed, that if you have people take the test, pass the test, assigned to the Academy, and they would have one year to move in to the City, which would bring a whole lot more people to come in. One of the concerns is that will that eliminate a lot of the minorities inside the City? I think I'd really have to look into what our rules and regulations are now, because we have a lot of people that were taking the test but they were rejected, for one reason or another. So I'm trying to do both, to make sure. And all I want is our system to be fair and consistent to everybody. And as I said, I don't think it's fair for a kid, if they grow up in a drug affected area, to have maybe used drugs one time, even sold drugs on the corner, that now 14 or 15 years later, that should not prevent him from becoming a Philadelphia Police Officer. 00854 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget
There is a good argument for people to change their lives, if we encourage them, that they can change their lives. And the system has to be receptive to that, and you know, it will certainly cut down on them remaining in that criminal element community forever. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Yes, ma'am.
It gives them an opportunity to move forward. I think that's a very good idea. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Thank you.
One other question. I know that, you know, the Safe Streets Program, you have over 300 corners in the City. And I have a couple. And I've called you, and you've responded. But in terms of trying to address the issue, one corner that has been ongoing with drug activity ever since I was elected in '87, is at 78th and Michener, and Temple Road, 7900 block of Temple Road. And I'd like to know if -- And maybe you don't want to make that public, but it needs to be a part of the Safe Streets Program if 00855 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget it isn't. I mean, those families over there have been held hostage for years. And of course, there are the residents, children who live there, who are part of that problem. But it's ongoing. And it is something people live with every day and call us every day about. And also the 76, 77, the upper half of Ogontz Avenue is a problem, and that has to be addressed. We have the deli at 77th and Ogontz. We have the Whispers Bar. It is terrible. And of course, we have the Jaguar, where we had all that shooting. Now, we can't say it was the Jaguar, but the presence of that bar has been always a thorn in my side. But certainly for me, when the Mayor talks about Safe Streets, and what's happening to people being protected, these neighbors can't relate to that. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Okay. Then what I would do, and I guarantee I will make that a priority... As a matter of fact, we talked 00856 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget about that area because I used to live up in that area not too long ago.
You mean you moved? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Yes, ma'am.
Where did you move to? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I'm in Southwest Philadelphia.
Okay. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: But you know, I will make that a priority. That has been a concern of ours for a long period of time. And when we developed the Safe Street corners, we picked corners where there was actually a shooting or robbery or homicide, something happened on that particular corner. And we have tremendous help up there in the West Oak Lane area, and the Mt. Airy area and we have formed -- And I can call your office later on -- an entire new task force that's going to address that problem up there. And we will eliminate that problem. We have tremendous information up 00857 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget there. We've identified two organizations up there. And I might be talking too much, but I guarantee that that has been a concern of ours, and it will be a priority of mine. And even starting tonight, I will send Narcotics Strike Force up to that area to be up there until we can clean that area up.
Well, and I can't say that you all haven't responded. But just like you have moved drug dealers from corners in other parts of the City, then we've got to find a way to get them out of there. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Yes, ma'am.
Because the Department has responded. You've sent Strike Forces up there before. But they're back. You know, once your folks leave... We had the Bike Patrol for a bit. That's no longer there. We need a bike patrol also. It just gives the people a sense that something's being done in their community also. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, I think the mandate from the Mayor and also from myself is that whenever there's drugs, that no matter what 00858 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget part of the City they are in, we have to attack those problems. Unfortunately, it took us 25, 30 years to get into this condition, and it's hard to get out in one or two years. And traditional policing will never solve it. We will never change the way of life. We need those partnerships between the community. We have it with the politicians and the clergy. And we will never arrest our way out of this problem. But at the same time, we're going to do everything we can to make sure that that way of life people have, and it's important. And I said, starting tonight -- And I know our people are already up there, but I say, we have a lot of good information from up there. We have a whole lot of new people assigned to the Narcotics Field Unit also, identify some organizations. And if we take up those organizations, then we will eliminate a lot of that activity up there. And we're working in conjunction with DEA, FBI, in the Federal sector. 00859 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I know I'm out of position, but I can still ask my question. In the first page of the testimony, Commissioner, you made reference to the DROP program, the 409 sworn and the 39 civilians. And at the last sentence there you say, we'll be hiring and training 555 recruits in FY'03 and an additional 486 in FY'04. What's the average size of a police class? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, for this time, the last class was... I think from my career or from my information, the biggest class we've ever had... Well, let me say this: The class we have right now is 150 officers.
Okay. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: And that's the largest class that I've ever seen now.
And that 150, I'm going to assume, is a part of this larger 555. 00860 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget I mean, we've already -- I'm assuming we've already started -- COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Yes, we have.
-- doing the 555 recruiting, given the fact that we only have four months left in the fiscal year. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Okay. Well, we had a class start, I think it was, in December, I believe, of 150. In April we will have another class of 150. Deputy Commissioner Nestel has a complete record. Okay. April we'll have a class of 105. No; we had a class of 105 start in August of '02.
Okay. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: In December we had a class of 150 start. In April we'll have an additional class of 150. And in June we're going to have an additional class of 150.
Okay. And then you're going to roll -- And then you're going to keep on that same kind of schedule for '04, pretty much? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, in 00861 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget '04 -- In October of this year we'll have another class of 125, in February of '04, a class of 125. Two months later in April we'll have a class of 125. And two months later in June we'll have a class of 111.
Let me ask this question. I mean, putting aside -- I mean, you're basically bringing on an additional thousand, little over -- looks like a little over a thousand officers in the course of a year and a half, close to two years. I mean, what's the normal recruiting cycle or... I mean, in any normal fiscal year, how many classes are you usually running? Two? Three? COMMISSIONER NESTEL: We normally run three classes of 80 per class. We average hiring 240 people per year.
All right. So it sounds like we're almost doubling our efforts here, to make sure that we're basically at the same complement level? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Yes, sir.
Any anticipated 00862 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget impact on the Academy or our training forces, given the fact that we're kind of rapidly doubling our efforts? Any anticipated kind of stress or strain on the facilities up there? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, one of the things that Commissioner Nestel constantly does or did this time also is that you've asked for additional personnel up there also. As a matter of fact, I just transferred two sergeants yesterday. And as the class comes out, we will give additional people. But in a training bureau, normally there you have people who are training recruits, but we have in-service training.
Right. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: That goes on continuously.
The regular complement of officers have to go back to the Academy for their own training, right? COMMISSIONER NUTTER: That's correct, so I try to -- Because training is very important. And when I came in the Academy, it was five weeks. The academy is now ten months. And 00863 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget so that's one of the reasons that we're trying to get these officers in as soon as we possibly can.
You did pretty well with the five weeks. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, okay. Thank you.
But I understand why you've extended it. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Yes, sir.
My last issue is, and this is one that I've had an ongoing discussion with previous commissioners, as well as the Budget Director and some of the other officers in the force. And again, I'm obviously very sensitive to our budgetary concerns. But you know, when you talk about training, some of that training, naturally, does take place at the Academy. But also, and this is not to get into a big police/fire issue but I mean, obviously there are more police officers than fire fighters. The whole issue of, I guess, training and education and professional development for police 00864 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget officers, somewhat similar to what the Fire Department has, in terms of the tuition reimbursement program and the opportunities for officers to, if they desire, upgrade their education and training at one of the fine colleges and universities that we have in Philadelphia or in the Philadelphia region. Do you know if there are any opportunities here to enhance the tuition reimbursement program for police officers who wish to further their education? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, there is. In addition, what we have, to be a little bit specific, we have Mr. Cal Rupin that gave limited scholarships or assistance to approximately 50 officers. But in addition to that, we sent some of our commanders, lieutenants and above, to the FBI National Academy for 14 weeks. We sent them to Harvard University. We sent them to Northwestern University; that is, Northwestern comes here for, like, a 10 or 15-week management course, sergeant and above. In addition to that, we have just 00865 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget made arrangements with University of Pennsylvania, who will be giving classes for some of our managers: Lieutenants, again, and above. And we have a police foundation that helps us out quite a bit. And we have, I think, four people in school right now going for their law degree, that they're paid totally for. And one of the other incentives that we have for officers to go back to school. And our promotional examinations and all our promotions are by Civil Service, and it's by ranking. If you have a bachelors degree, I believe you get a point, which makes a big difference. If you have a master's degree, you get a point and a half, to give the officers the initiative to go back on their own. But we also have things in place that we're looking to right now, of using some money from the police foundation, to make sure that we can supplement or help officers who have the desire to go back to school for law enforcement, to be able to assist them and help them in that area. 00866 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget
Okay. One, I'm glad to hear of those additional efforts. I think anything that we can do for our entire work force, but certainly I know that many of the officers have expressed an interest in possibly, as you indicated, going back to school, getting degrees, whether it's a bachelors, masters, or some other type of education from degree-granting institutions, which certainly is going to, I think, ultimately make them better public servants, better police officers. Naturally, it also enhances their career. I mean, we don't necessarily want them to go to school and then leave us. But whatever we can do to provide those kinds of opportunities and make it easier for the officers. Certainly getting a degree can be very expensive while they're still trying to do their jobs out on the streets for us. But again, I understand that we've, you know, have our various budgetary issues. There are a lot of police officers, again, in comparison to most other parts of the government. But if there are opportunities for us 00867 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget to enhance that kind of tuition reimbursement, I think it's a good investment. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Yes, sir.
Thank you, Commissioner. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Thank you.
Thank you, Madam President. Good morning, Commissioners. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Good morning.
I would like to continue with Councilman Nutter's line of questioning around professional development, and particularly opportunities for women. I'm curious to know what strategies or plan of actions do you have in place that allow for women to at least get on line for promotions through the ranks, up through and including leadership. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I think very 00868 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget honestly, you know, we have more female officers in Philadelphia than anywhere in the entire nation. And sitting with me today, I'm proud to say, is our first female Deputy Commissioner.
Congratulations. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: And when she was appointed, I made the statement that we didn't appoint her based on the fact that she was a woman. We appointed her based on her qualifications, based on the fact that she earned that. I think what you'll find, especially in Philadelphia, because women did have a hard time for 20, years -- 18
And my question 19 goes to the later because I trust that you're 20 going to move people in place based on 21 qualifications and the like. But to the latter, 22 that opportunity has not heretofore, until your 23 arrival, occurred. 24 COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I really 25 think the opportunity happened before me, because 00869 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget all our promotions are by Civil Service. I didn't promote her from police officer to Deputy Commissioner. She was a sergeant. She was a lieutenant. She was a captain. She was an inspector. She's been to the FBI Academy. But at this point we have women in every rank of the Department, I believe, except Chief Inspector. And we also have women in almost every Division, including our SWAT Unit, our Highway Patrol, in the Department. So women have the opportunity, and they have no certain... not so much privilege. But they don't get anything special by taking these tests, but women are advancing at a very fast pace in this Police Department. COMMISSIONER BROWN: Good. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Because they have the desire, they study for the test, they do well on the test. And when they do well on the test and they're ranked to be promoted, I make sure that they are promoted. But as I said, I think their numbers in the last 10 or 15 years have really gone up 00870 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget faster than --
Just in the last 10, years? 5 COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Yes, ma'am. 6 At least, in my -- 7
The numbers of 8 women in the Department, that's separate from 9 those who, like you, have given opportunities for 10 leadership. There's a clear distinction. 11 COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, all the 12 opportunities I had came from Civil Service. I 13 mean, I had to take a test. And we have no 14 appointment ranks in the Department, except for 15 Deputy Commissioner and Commissioner. And the only qualification, really, as the Commissioner is the Mayor liking you, the Mayor appoints you. That could stop at any time. We have a Senior Deputy Commissioner of 17 years next to me who is a Civil Service person. But women can take the same examination as the men.
Okay. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: They're promoted as the men. There's no distinguishment 00871 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget between who passed. As a matter of fact, I think on that last captain's test, really, in the top 4 captains it's, like, five women. 5
Who have come 6 up through the ranks and then had the right stuff 7 to take the test. 8 COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: We will have 9 our first -- 10
And moved to the next level. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: We'll have our first Hispanic female commanding officer.
Very well. Thank you. Back to the concerns raised about the crossing guards, did you not mention in your testimony that you said there's a large turnover? Did I hear that correctly? Of crossing guards? COMMISSIONER NESTEL: Yes.
Then help us understand the nature of training that happens. Have you uncovered why there's a high turnover of crossing guards? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, I think he can give his opinion, and I'll just give you 00872 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget mine.
Okay. COMMISIONER JOHNSON: And then I'll step out. Because everybody can't stand on those corners in cold, freezing whether.
It's hard. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: They go out there, and I think they do an outstanding job. We have some that have been out there... I think one lady just retired with years. You have some 13 that want that job. 14 But when they go out there, and the 15 weather is raining, and it's cold, and there's 16 other things... There's a lot of the school 17 crossing guards also are parents themselves. 18
That's right. 19 COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: We'll have 20 some who will become crossing guards as their 21 children are crossing in their area for an 22 elementary school, but when they leave elementary 23 to go to high school, a lot of times the parents 24 will quit. 25
Yes. 00873 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Or then, again, a lot of school crossing guards have other opportunities to go to other jobs. We have a lot of crossing guards who became police officers and going to other occupations. So I think that's, at least in my opinion, some of the reason. I'm sure Deputy Commissioner Nestel has his own reasons. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER NESTEL: I think the Commissioner covered them pretty well. They're basically the problems that we have. We do replace them as quickly as we can, but there is a turnover. You look at this year. What those women and few men have gone through. I mean, you have to give them a lot of credit. It's very difficult out there.
I don't question at all the process, the SOP, standard operating procedures you have to go through to deal with those who lead the system. I was simply curious about the why of the turnover. Years ago there was an alleged rule -- And I say alleged because I got it from a school officer prior to my arrival here in City 00874 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget Council -- that school crossing guards could not go into the school buildings once their day, once their morning was over and sort of reside until time for their duties to resume at the end of the day. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: That's not -- They can go home. In the mornings there's a certain time they have to be on the corner. If there's a school crossing in the afternoon, they have a certain time that they have to be there. And in the evening there's a certain time they have to be there. In the meantime, if they want to go home and take a nap, they can.
Are they not permitted to go into the schools? I'm curious. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, I don't think -- I mean, I guess it depends on the individual schools. But you have some... I know for a fact to where school crossing guards have been volunteering in the school to go in there to assist some of the kids with reading. So, sure, they're allowed to go into the school, if the school permits them to come in.
Okay, then. 00875 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget Finally, the testimony regarding $21 million a year in court overtime, share with us again how you're dealing with that figure down the line, given President Verna's acknowledgement of the fact that court overtime has increased over the years versus decrease. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Okay. One of the things that we did in the meeting with the Justice Department is, they said -- I listened to all their complaints. One of their biggest complaints is that -- from the District Attorney's office at that point, is that we need more -- or at least from the court administrators, we need more court liaison officers. A court liaison officer is an officer that sits in the courtroom with the judge and with the administrative staff. He will be able to let the judge and the District Attorney and the defense counsel know where that officer's at. I transferred something like ten officers to court liaison. In addition to that, what they did before they even get to court, they 00876 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget actually read the court cases themselves. And they, based on their experience, determine who's needed for court and who's not needed for court. You would have sometime... What you would have is maybe or officers 7 whose name appear on the case but are really not 8 needed for prosecution. So they would eliminate 9 those officers who are not needed for prosecution. 10 What the District Attorney decided 11 to do is because in certain cases sometime they 12 would look at every officer on that case and 13 subpoena him. 14 There were a couple cases where one 15 day we had a hundred officers subpoenaed on one case. The next day the same case, 97 officers. And they made the agreement to the Department that any time they subpoena more than 10 officers in one day, they have to get the approval of their supervisors, which eliminates a lot of officers from going to court. We had a court case where we had 40 officers going to court for a full month. They've agreed not to do that no more. So there's been concessions on both sides. 00877 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget My commitment to them is that anything that I can do to eliminate the officers from going to court. But I want them to go if they're needed for prosecution. I don't want them to go just to be sitting there in the hallways. In addition to that, the overnight court notices are still hurting us, when you have an officer who gets a court notice at 8 o'clock that night to appear in court the very next day, a lot of time on his day off. A lot of time he may have to babysit, a lot of time something else may have to be performed. We would like to be notified within 48 hours of the officer having to appear in court. Now, they're working on that. The other thing is that they know months in advance when this court case is listed. They're willing to work along with us to let us know at least in three or four weeks when this case is listed, and when the officer can come there. And we want them to go while they're working day work. We don't want them to go while they're working on their day off or while they're working 4:00 to 12:00 or they're working last out. 00878 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget So, we're working real hard together, the District Attorney's office, the Police Department, even the Public Defender's office, and the court administrator. Everybody's giving in this time because we're willing to give in, and we gave in. So, at the same time, I just want the system to work fair and consistently. And if we work together, we can eliminate a lot of the court overtime just by planning and having a strategy. And that strategy and plan is in place.
Thank you. Well, let me add my voice to my colleagues in saluting your leadership in the Philadelphia Police Department. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: All right. Thank you very much.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell.
Thank you, Madam President. I only wanted to say thank you, 00879 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget Commissioner, and your entire Department, for the leadership and the partnerships that we enjoy throughout the City, to get so many things done. We couldn't accomplish all that we do for the citizens of our City if you weren't there, and if we didn't enjoy all the programs that we enjoy because of the accessibility, because of the availability and because of your commitment to our citizens. Thank you, and thanks to the department. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. That was a good thing about eliminating the polygraph, I'll tell you; and that when you smoke a joint at 17, not that I ever did, you know, but... And then when you get eliminated, that took out a lot of our people out of the Department very early on. And we talked about eliminating that for years. And you said to me one time a few years ago that if you ever became Commissioner you were going to do it; and you did. Thank you. 00880 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget Commissioner, we worked on the Special Victims Unit and trying to change the culture within that. And we have come a long way from what it was a few years ago. Could you tell me where we're at now and whether they're already co-located at the Episcopal Hospital? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: There's a couple things we did. And I thought you may have been aware of it. That is such an important thing to me, that we just assigned an inspector and a whole unit strictly to victim witnesses. And there's Inspector Dulie. And she has a captain who is an attorney there.
Excuse me. By the way, the inspector does an incredible job; very good. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Now, I just met with Commissioner Martinez. And sometime, I think in the near future, within maybe five or six months, the process is being put in place where we should be moving to Episcopal Hospital, sometime in the very -- well, in the next five or six months. 00881 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget
Oh, the police are not there yet, then. COMMISSIONER ORTIZ: Well, there's no one there at this point, I believe.
Okay. I thought we had leased the property. And I know that the repairs had been done. I thought actually the police had moved into Episcopal. But if we have not, I didn't know that. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: No. The police -- As far as I know, no one has moved in. As a matter of fact, I think we have four floors. And I met with the different departments that's going to be moving in. And we should all be there within the next five or six months.
So is the delay the fact that the other departments are not there yet? Because I know that you guys were ready to move a while back, weren't you? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, we've been ready to move for the last three or four years. But I think what happened, it became a lot of red tape. I think the contract, and then the different rooms, and the floors and who's coming, 00882 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget who's not coming. And I think the hospital had a concern that we would be bringing prisoners into the hospital sometimes. But all those things at this point have been worked out. And right now, from the last meeting that I had, is that they're right now just figuring out who's going where. We're all going into the building. But all the technicalities, the technical work is worked out, and all the litigation has been worked out. And we're just waiting for them to complete everything.
Could we have a date? You know, because we asked for that last budget period. And I thought that by October of this year we would all have been in there. But we haven't. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: My understanding is, it's going to be in July.
July. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: July 1st. From my understanding, construction is going on right now. 00883 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget
Really? I thought -- You know, public property had said to us that they had, one, the issue was the contract at one point. And we resolved the contractual issue. Then I thought the remodeling had been done and taken place. But obviously, you say it hasn't been done yet. It's taking place right now. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: It's taking place right now.
So we're still down at Frankford? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Yes, sir.
Oh. God. Frankford. You know... Commissioner, what is the breakdown by ethnic grouping of the classes that are coming in and that you project coming in over the next year or so? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I know at this point in the entire Police Department, Latinos have approximately 7 percent of the Department.
Excuse me. 17? 00884 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: 7.
7. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: And civilians are percent. And again, these examinations, 6 again, are based on Civil Service. But it appears to be a large number of Latinos and minorities coming into these classes, just by taking the test, just by their own initiative, and just by going out there. But in addition to that, I meet with Silea which is a Latino organization, and they've been recruiting very hard. I've talked to the newspapers, the different Latino newspapers, and they're putting these things in place also. I'm meeting with the Vietnamese community, the gay and lesbian community. They're all going out on their own to recruit; in addition, we have a recruitment unit.
I know that Commissioner Williams... COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Who's that?
Commissioner Williams back, had established a goal for each class, either to exceed it or make it. He had 00885 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget established a goal for each class at that point of percent. 4 I know that Timiney didn't set a 5 goal, but he wanted to exceed the 10 percent. I 6 think he probably did. I don't remember, because 7 we went over this. 8 And I just wanted to know what is 9 the numbers of Latinos in the last class and 10 African Americans, and so on down the line. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I'll tell you. I think -- I was in the background at that time. I think the number was like 6 or 7 percent that Commissioner O'Neill wanted. This last class we had 10 percent in the last class, and we will probably have more than that percentage in the next class. Because a lot of -- They might be in the middle of the list or on the other part of the list. I think one of the things said earlier also is that when we changed some of the rules about the narcotics and the polygraph that we will be getting higher numbers, especially since the word's going around. But Silea is actually recruiting. 00886 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget But not only are they recruiting; they're training and they're teaching. And so the number... And the Guardian Civic League is basically doing the same thing. So the numbers of minorities are going up, based on their own merits, not based on any court decision, not based on any selective harm practice; based on the fact that they're taking these tests, they're passing these tests, and they're being hired.
And Commissioner, we had hearings on the abused women problem, and the problems that they face. And we spoke about that first contact situation. And, you know, I'd like to find out how the process is going, because we had some testimony about that during the hearings. And I'd like to know how the training is going, in terms of the Police Department, along those lines. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, one of the things this new inspector and her division will be doing is handling domestic violence. So we will be working along with other units in the District Attorney's office, other units in the 00887 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget Department, to do extensive training and to assist the victims, and just the sensitivity that it takes to handle these type of crimes. It's very important to me and this Department that these things are done right, they're done consistent, and their done fairly. So, I said that's one of the reasons that we put the inspector there. But in addition to her, which I think is very important, we now have a captain who is an attorney, who's also with her, along with two sergeants, who will be able to coordinate the training. They're already met with the domestic abuse over at the District Attorney, also. We have to work together, formulate these things together, train together, and make sure that people who are victims or abused are treated with respect.
Is a Domestic Violence Unit going to be a part of the Special Victims Unit? Or are they going to be able to coordinate activities? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, I think 00888 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget what happened is domestic violence is in every district and unit in the City, detective bureau. But she will be able to coordinate that, and be able to do the training so they all are doing things consistently and fairly. And in each Detective Division, we have special officers to handle those type of things. And we want people who have the sensitivity to be able to handle those. Now, child abuse is something completely different. We just put an additional... I talked to D.H.S. who have been very, very helpful to us in the area of training and in the area of communications and networking. We just assigned additional 10 -- We had eight officers at one time, and to child abuse we now have 18 officers there. So, all those specialized units that are involved in women and children are being put in place, with the proper training.
During the hearings, one of the problems was that that first contact situation, in which it's 2 o'clock in the morning, husband comes home drunk, violence 00889 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget begins, police are called. And at times the unpreparedness of the police officer to be able to deal with the situation or actually be able to remove the individual from the home. Is there, by District, some training taking place that deals with these problems? Because it seems to be very big in Philadelphia. I mean, 15,000 that just go through the system, the court, the judicial system. 15,000 women go through the judicial system every year. And those are the ones that actually get the courage to actually go to court. So, you know, I think the number is much, much higher, because I think a lot of women really don't get the courage to go down to... I think it's Race, 8th and Race or the judicial system, you know, to be able to file, or Family Court, to be able to file a protection from abuse order.
Councilman Ortiz, there are a number of Council Members that still want to be recognized, so if you don't mind waiting. 00890 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget
He can answer that. But as I said, the next question you'll ask will be in the second round. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: We have training in the Academy, and we have inservice training, again, for the sensitivity, to be able to handle these women from the very beginning, along with the Detective Bureau has specialized people. If it happened at 2 o'clock in the morning -- and I agree that the first responder is very important, that when he goes there he has some sort of sensitivity, bring them into -- either take her to the hospital or take her to the Detective Division. And that's why it's important to do also, to have these victim people assistants to be able to help them also. So, but we will have continuous training. And I know it's a great concern of yours, but it's also a concern of ours. And we will have things in place to make sure that these 00891 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget things are put in place so they never happen.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Tasco.
Thank you. I've just got two brief questions. One, I forgot to ask you about the bike patrols because I know we had bike patrols on Wadsworth Avenue and Verner Road. And I believe they were deployed someplace else. Now, we have problems with Verner Road and Wadsworth, and got rid of the problems with the help of the bike patrols throughout the community. And the summer's coming up, and we want to know if we're going to have our bike patrols bike. My state representative wants to know that, too, Leeann Washington. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: We had a hundred bikes throughout the City. And about five or six months ago we put a request in for anybody that wants to be involved in the bike unit. 00892 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget The Mayor wants to make a new special unit. And he did. We trained 60... Well, we had 60 new officers assigned to the Narcotics Strike Force who are strictly on bikes. In addition to that, we trained 40 officers who are already in the Narcotics Strike Force, so we had a hundred officers that are now in the Strike Force who are bike trained who are actually on bikes, in addition to the other hundred officers that we had in the Division. When we brought them out, we put all of them right now in each Division to learn and to get the experience. And I guarantee this summer you will have bikes up there in your Division. And almost every District in the City will have bike officers throughout the entire City, from the Narcotics Strike Force, because they were trained in bikes, but they were also trained in narcotics. They were also trained in a lot of other things. And I think that you will find them to be a lot more efficient than just a regular bike officer from the districts, although I think the ones from the districts are very efficient. And these will be in addition to the 00893 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget ones you've already have. So you will have the officers from the 14th District who are bike officers. In addition, you have narcotics officers from the Narcotics Strike Force who are bike trained will also be in your area.
Okay. The other day I read in the paper that there had been a discrimination suit filed by some police officers. And I know our office had spoken to you about a case situation that was brought to us. The question I have is: What are you doing internally with staff relations to avoid that kind of, you know, notion that someone feels that they've been discriminated against or that there's unfair treatment within the Department? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, there are two main issues. We had an issue at the Academy at one time because of the hair. They didn't allow them to hear extensions. They were only allowed to wear certain things. But it really affected the Afro American female women. And I talked to Commissioner Timiney at that time. And we had a big meeting, and we changed the whole policy. Any time there's a 00894 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget policy in place that only affects a certain ethnic group or religion, then we have to change that. And we did change it. The problem they had over in Northwest Detectives about the beard became a problem, because at one time you couldn't wear a beard if you were assigned to the Detective Division. That was the policy. I got involved in it. I talked to our medical people. And we changed that policy also. As long as that officer has a medical thing from his doctor indicating that he can not shave, he has the permission to wear that. Now, I was kind of surprised to see the lawsuit. But at the same time, he goes to our medical dispensary, along with his doctor's note. The doctor said that this thing can be resolved. So if every five or six months if he goes there and gets another note, he can wear the beard, as long as he keeps it neat and keeps it clean. We have sensitivity training. We have an EEO office where people can, if they feel as though they're being discriminated against, 00895 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget they can come down and they can file a suit, and there will be an investigation done by our EEO unit. In addition to that, there's a lot of calls I get from either the Guardian Civic League or even the F.O.P. who are concerned about that. I had said a long time ago that we're not going to tolerate sexism or racism in this Department. And you can be as racial as you want to be. But if it affects your job, you don't belong in the Department. So we're not going to tolerate that. There's times that we have these type of things that are really outrageous that we go through our Internal Affairs, and we do a thorough investigation. We don't want these things happening outside the Department or inside the Department. So, again, I try to work along very closely with the different units and the different fraternities, to make sure that these things don't happen. These officers are taught in the Academy about these things. 00896 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget They're reaffirmed in our inservice training. And when they're brought to our attention, then we act on it right away.
So you have ongoing, I guess, diversity, sensitivity training about various ethnic groups. I mean, is there ongoing dialogue between the officers, to help them understand the diversity that exists in the Department, and as well as what happens in a diverse City like this? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, we not bring in the minorities up to the Academy to go through the different talk; we even have the gay and lesbian community come up; the transvestite community come up. Anyone who wants to come up to the Academy or come to our inservice training, they put a request in to Deputy Commissioner Nestel and his people, and they are allowed to come up. But they all, as recruits, get this training. But then we have a lot of inservice training also. We have people that go out to the different roll calls, if this different type of incident happens and talk to them. 00897 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget But that is continuous. That's one of the things that can tear this whole Department apart. And we have no intention of letting that happen.
Thank you. Thank you, Madam President. Commissioner, first of all, an observation. You go above and beyond the call of duty. Community meetings. You're everywhere. And I know you have a long day most days, seven days a week, and your commanders, top commanders... I go to community meetings, the inspectors, the captains... well into the evening. So the commitment from the Police Department, the level is higher than I've ever seen it in my life here in the City of Philadelphia where, from you to the lieutenants, the sergeants, the captains, the inspectors, the chiefs. Very, very involved in just the other part of the Police Department. So, that's my 00898 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget personal observation. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Fine. Thank you very much.
And I want that to go on record. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Thank you.
The other issue that I think that you need to get some mention is the new communications system. And from what I hear, it's really going to enhance police operations and make Philadelphia a safer place. And your technology people should be congratulated for that great effort. From what I understand, talking to some people in the industry, it's going to be the finest -- it is the finest communication system of any City in the United States of America. And the citizens of Philadelphia should know that that's going to contribute to making our City a safer place. So, I hope it's working well. And the Fire Department and all the municipal departments, specifically the Police Department, that it's been money well spent, because it's been very expensive, but from what I 00899 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget understand, it's been handled and managed, the entire process, very well. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Thank you. I think Deputy Commissioner Brennan is... No, not that I think. I know he's the person responsible for that. And during the course of putting a lot of these things in place, I know he had a lot of not so much resentment but a little bit of battle with other people. But I think he kept his course, and I think his whole commitment was to make sure that our unit in the Police Department was getting the very best for the Police Department. Sometimes people didn't really understand what he was seeing and the things that he was doing. But I give all the credit to the Deputy, because as I said, he's very aware of technology. He spends a lot of time and he goes to a lot of different places. And we're glad to have him here as our Deputy Commissioner of Technology.
You're 00900 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman Mariano.
Thank you, Madam President. Commissioner, I have two questions, one for Councilman Clarke and one for me. Councilman Clark's question. In the Fiscal Year 2004 Operating Budget, Gordon Wasserman -- I think I'm saying his name and I'm pretty sure he's the one that came here with Commissioner Timiney. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: That's correct.
He's marked down as a Chief of Staff at $200,000 a year. And I think the Councilman's question is why he has to get a contract, instead of just being in the Police Department. The answer probably is because he wouldn't get $200,000 if he was working directly as a City official. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, it's not just that.
He's a consultant, I believe. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: It's that he 00901 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget can go up to a maximum of $200,000, without benefits. He has no benefits. So, conceivably there could be a year where he only makes $50,000 or $60,000. He's very instrumental in helping us. He's on a lot of the boards down in Washington, D.C. He communicates, I understand, with City Council and other agencies in the Department, as well as the state. So, again, with no benefits. And the maximum, no matter how many hours he works -- and sometimes he has to work a whole lot of hours -- he can never make more than the $200,000. But again, it's with no benefits at all. We give him absolutely no benefits, including travel. He has to do basically all that on his own.
And I don't think Councilman Clarke was really questioning what he does. I think we all know. It's just when it's in the Budget it says $200,000 and it doesn't explain that, so it sends a flag probably to Councilman's people. But I'll take that answer. It's good. He's a good guy. And my question is: It's my 00902 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget understanding that the inspector from the East Division has been called up to do his Air Force Reserve duty. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Yes, sir.
Now, does he get to stay the inspector? Because it's nice that he's there. He seems like a decent guy. He just got there. But he could be away a while. What happens? Well, two questions. Is he the highest ranking police official ever to do service, that you know of? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: As far as I know, he's the highest ranking active police officer ever been called in. But he's being replaced tonight by Inspector Heath, who came from our Command Inspector Bureau, who at one time filled in at different inspector divisions as the inspector who has also had the experience but... You know, he was the captain of the 25th. He's been in the Air Force.
On and off. 00903 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget And I'm not questioning your ability on this. I think this is probably the pinnacle of his career. And the irony of it is, then his other career catches up to him. It's going to keep him from -- He finally got to be an inspector. He's got a Grade A command, and now he has to do his other duties. So hopefully he can come back to that, if he ever comes back. And he doesn't know if he's coming back in two months or a year. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, whenever he comes back. I'm not saying he will come back to the East Division. But he will come back as a full inspector. And we will make sure -- And then we'll thank him to be in that position to go out there to protect not only the citizens of Philadelphia, but to protect our country.
He's a good guy. And Commissioner, on a personal note, I'd like to thank you. Being the Councilman in the East Division, and the 25th, I've been up there on bicycles with you. 00904 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget And I heard you speaking to the other Councilmen. You're doing a great job. And your people are outstanding. And we really appreciate, especially your people that I represent in the 7th Council District. Thank you. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: All right. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam President. Just out of curiosity, Commissioner, how many sworn officers are currently Reserve on active duty? Do you have a number? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER NESTEL: Councilman, I believe... Activated?
Yes. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER NESTEL: I believe activated it's about or 30, but we can 20 get you the exact. 21
I'm just 22 curious. It wasn't for any particular reason. 23 I read with interest the efforts 24 that you're making to cut overtime or to control 25 overtime. And I know a lot of it or most of it is 00905 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget a result of court appearances and court activity. I've had conversations with Judge McCaffrey, who I think has done some good innovative things or attempted to do some innovative things, to try to get the court cost and police overtime under control. One of the things we've been discussing, and maybe we're going to maybe have a look at a little closer in the coming months after the budget is over, is the discussion relative to two shifts of court. As we know with Philadelphia police, we have three shifts, you know, 8:00 to 4:00, 4:00 to 12:00. And I was wondering if there's been any analysis done by your staff if the court system ran from, say, 8:00 to 4:00 and then had a separate shift from 4:00 to, say, 7:00 or 8:00 at night, I think it would accomplish a couple things. Primarily, it would allow a lot of officers who are on straight time to appear in court on straight time; and also gives some opportunities for witnesses to get to court in a more convenient way after work. 00906 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget I know that the resistance will probably come from the judges who don't want to work past 3:00, 4:00, 5:00 whatever. I guess it varies to the amount of commitment. But have your people looked at it at all? And if not, would you, and see what kind of impact you would anticipate having on your overtime budget and on the delivery of justice services in general? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I wouldn't have a problem looking into that. But I really believe some of the problems even that we have on day work is that, say, hypothetically we have all officers on day work going to court, then those officers who should be on the street answering 911 calls would not be available. And if we have officers on 4:00 to 12:00 going to court, and they were tied up in court, it would be the exact same thing, where the officer would be in Court on overtime. But at the same time a lot of the 911 responders in the service to the community would be eliminated quite a bit.
So you think it 00907 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget would have minimal impact on your costs, on your overtime costs? COMMISIONER JOHNSON: I think we're going to pay it from one end, if you don't pay it on the other. But I says because there's sometimes some district, especially in the Detective Division, whose entire unit and squad is in court, that they have nobody there except the supervisors. And what happens, these court cases back up. Say, for example, 4:00 to 12:00 which is one of the busiest times that we have for policing, during those hours, if those officers are in court then they will not be able to answer the 911 response, and they won't be able to go out there and patrol as they normally would do. I think the drug dealers would welcome that.
My question is, then, if an officer is scheduled for court on his or her normal shift, aren't they having the same situation? Aren't they being pulled out of service to testify? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, they are. But what happens a lot of times, too, what 00908 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget we're trying to put in place is that we have on call.
Right. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Which became a little problem to us, that we were really trying to deal with that, where an officer is actually assigned to court, but stays in his division or stays in his district on patrol until he's actually called into court. But what we're experiencing with officers sometimes, especially working 4:00 to 12:00, will put themselves on call. And they would be -- Say the court case was done at 10 o'clock. And they would stay on call until 4 o'clock that afternoon, until they decide to go back to work. So, that's something that --
Well, isn't that a management issue? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: It is. And it's something that we would really have to fine tune.
What I'm having difficulty in understanding in your position response to my question, is that you indicated 00909 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget you'd be concerned about officers being in court when they should be on patrol. And again, the question I asked as a follow up, which I don't understand the answer, is if they're on day work... COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Right.
...and they're scheduled to be in court anyway, they're still on patrol. They're sitting, waiting in the hallway outside a courtroom or they're on beeper patrolling Center City or whatever we did to kind of increase that. Why would there be a difference if there was a second shift? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Well, I'm not saying that it would be. I'm just saying there's that possibility. I'm just looking at everything.
Okay. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: And I'm also with an open mind with the idea that anything that would save the citizens, save the Department money, I'm willing to do.
I think part of the -- I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you. 00910 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: No. 3 And if we put a pilot program out there to evaluate that, I have absolutely no 5 problem with that at all.
Do you think it would have a positive impact, and maybe in the long run have a positive impact on repeat court appearances if witnesses could arrive at court at 6 o'clock at night after work, as opposed to being asked to take a day off and come to court in Center City at 9 o'clock or 10 o'clock in the morning? A lot of times witnesses don't show up and things need to be continued, which requires the officer to come back again. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Sure. I think any time a person has been victimized, I wouldn't want to see them victimized twice by losing the salary by taking a day off and going to court or losing a day in school, so that they're available more so at night, and it would benefit the victims or the witnesses, I'm amenable to that.
Okay. I would 00911 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget appreciate if in the scheme of things you have to do, which I know is numerous, if you could have some people take a look at what impact they may have on finances, because we're intending on having a hearing about it in the Legislative Oversight Committee sometime in the spring. And if you could kind of have your people who think about these things start thinking about it now, it would be helpful when we have the hearing. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I'll do that right away, sir.
Just two quick questions relative to facilities. Police Administration Building, near and dear to everybody's hearts. If, in fact, we were able to replace the Police Administration Building, do you need to be in Center City? Or can you be in another campus-like setting, somewhere else in the City, that would provide parking? Do you think Center City is a requirement or could it be somewhere else within the City limits? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: My personal? 00912 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget
What's your personal opinion? Yes. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I think anywhere they would have a building that is a good building. I mean, as long as it's inside the City of Philadelphia, because as I said, we can go almost anywhere. So I wouldn't have any objection to that.
Okay. So I mean, are there issues that you're concerned about relative to -- I know parking near the Police Administration Building is just atrocious. You know, it's not a state of the art building. There's a lot of issues in there, in addition to the Communications Center, which has been tremendously upgraded. But still, you know, people sitting in the hallway eating and those kinds of things are tough. So I mean, I really do think that something like that could be accomplished in the next maybe five to seven years, and kind of think about what some of those requirements would be for who you would like to see in that building, and maybe we could start moving in the direction. 00913 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget Because I do believe the property there is valuable property where the Police Administration Building sits now, and could be utilized for something else. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I'm sorry to cut you off. But if we came up with a building, no matter where it was in the City, we would move tomorrow.
Okay. There's no emotional attachment to the building. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: No, not at all.
Not at all. And in the same regard, I wanted to talk a little bit about the Police Academy. One of the things that I had thought about in recent years was perhaps the development -- and Commissioner Hairston, perhaps you can listen to this, too, because I would like your people to start thinking about this. We have a Fire Academy, Police Academy pretty much close to each other up on State Road, right? That's right off State Road? Is there some way we could develop a 00914 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget regional training facility for both police and fire, that we would control, we would run and operate, for our own officers, both police and firefighters -- police officers and firefighters, and also to bring in surrounding regional smaller departments for training, and smaller fire companies for training, that they would pay us for the privilege of coming in and being trained by two of the best departments, police and fire, in the country, and creating this regional approach to police training that would allow us not only to have a better facility, a bigger facility, or more state of the art facility for ourselves, but also allow us to really interface with police through maybe the Eastern part of the state. And we do have, you know, the land up there to do that kind of operation. And I was wondering if there's any desire to have a new Police and/or Fire Academy in the near -- in the coming years? COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I'll let Deputy Commissioner Nestel answer that. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER NESTEL: Councilman, as far as doing some regional 00915 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget training, we presently do train a lot of outside police departments.
I'm aware of that, yeah. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER NESTEL: We definitely need to look at a new facility in the near future. It's both tired and it's too small.
Right. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER NESTEL: Whether or not it could be combined with a fire facility, I'm not quite sure. We'd really have to discuss that because the training is so different.
I don't know about a direct combination, but an adjacent combination that would allow for facilities because I know often, you know, fire and police are cooperational together on job sites where, you know, a barricaded person, you know, concern about a fire. And I mean, where the Fire Department's on scene, responding in addition to the police. So, you know, those kinds of setups where you have a street scene, you have a street operation there at the Academy where police and fire respond at the same time. 00916 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget I mean, it's interesting when you kind of sit and think about these possibilities. My view, even though I do know we do training for outside departments, is to have more of a kind of a -- like what an F.B.I. Academy is kind of like, where people come in and there's actually dormitory space, there's classroom space. People spend time there overnight for a period of a week or two. And they pay. Those departments and those municipalities pay us to do that. Because I think if we took a regional approach like that, there may be some opportunities for either federal or state capital dollars to construct something like this. When it comes to federal dollars on terrorism and HAZMAT and bioterrorism and other types of things, it just seems like a wonderful opportunity down the road to put Philadelphia on the map as, you know, one of the centers for police and fire training in the country. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: Okay. Well, one of the things, as I say, Commissioner Hairston and our departments work very, very close together. We do do a lot of things together. 00917 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget There's never been a time that I've called Commissioner Hairston or any other one in the Fire Department that hasn't responded, and we try to do the same thing with them, even no matter what it is, even to our Drum and Bugle Corps. But as I said, the relationship that we have with the Fire Department, I think, is as good as any -- as a matter of fact, better than almost any two departments anywhere in the country, based on the commitment that we both have and our departments have for the citizens of Philadelphia.
Okay. And I just want you kind of put these seeds in your head to kind of think about possibilities. And certainly they're big visions. And, you know, there will be some large dollars attached to it. But I just think it's something we should think about, as we progress forward in improving our both departments, fire and police. COMMISSIONER JOHNSON: I think it's a great idea.
Thank you, Madam President. 00918 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget
You're welcome. Any other questions from Members of the Committee? Thank you very much. Thank you. The Fire Department is next. Commissioner, you're a very, very patient man. It's been a long day. COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: It's been a long day for you, too.
Please identify yourself and proceed with your testimony. COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: Yes. Good afternoon. I'm Fire Commissioner Harold Hairston. With me on my left is Deputy Commissioner Bill 15 McNulty, and to my right is our fiscal officer, Dave Beatrice. The Fire Department's FY'04 Operating Budget proposes $175,233,242 for the General Fund; $5,261,250 for the Aviation Fund; and $831,834 for the Grants Fund. The Operating Budget allocation represents an increase of $14,840,011, covering all funds, over the current estimated FY'03 budget. This increase is mainly due to personnel costs and to initial DROP Program lump sum payments to be made in FY'04. 00919 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget The Fire Department has been very, very fortunate over the last year. Last year less people died in fires than any time since we've been keeping those kind of records. There were 32 people that died in 7 fires, which represent a decrease of 29 percent in 8 2002. A 12 percent reduction in fire deaths was 9 reported in the previous year, from 51 in 2000 to 10 45 in 2001. 11 Altogether in a 24-month period, the 12 overall reduction in fire deaths was a remarkable 13 37 percent. Last year, the firefighters and fire 14 officers assigned to the Fire Prevention Division 15 presented approximately 9200 fire prevention 16 programs. 17 During the same period, 18 approximately 140 families contacted the Fire 19 Prevention Division for assistance with children 20 who caused a fire. 21 We believe these programs, the 22 Juvenile Fire Stoppers Program and our public 23 education programs for adults and children, 24 contributed to this year's decrease in fire 25 deaths. 00920 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget Over 9,000 homes were visited last year during our fall program. People received a packet of information about home escape planning. A total of 9600 smoke alarms were installed by the Fire Department in 2002. The number of structure fires increased slightly from 2510 in FY 2000 to 2526 in FY'02. 2 percent reduction from the 4,025 fires in FY'92. And our projection for FY'03 still tracking at a slight higher level. But I'm still happy to say that our City continues to be more fire safe than at any time since we began to keep comparative data. Fire Marshall's Office has been aggressively investigating automobile fires, involving both stolen and abandoned vehicles, in conjunction with these investigations. The office has updated and placed greater emphasis on the tracking and categorizing of these fires. Areas which indicate an increase in auto fires have been targeted for intensified investigation by the Fire Marshall's Office and the Major Crimes Unit of the Police Department. 3 percent in FY'02. And 2003 is holding at the same level as 2002. In a joint effort with the Department of Licenses and Inspections, the Fire Marshall's Office surveyed Batallions throughout the City and identified areas for the storage of illegal tires. Everybody remembers the I-95 tire fire. Follow-up investigations led to the removal and cleaning of these illegal dump sites. The Fire Marshall's Office, in conjunction with the School District's safety officials, has instituted a daily reporting system to track and record school fires. The Fire Marshall's office, along with the Fire Code Unit, conducted three seminars, training 60 school facility engineers in awareness courses, aimed at reducing the occurrences of school fires. In addition, School District 22 child care facilities were inspected in conjunction with the School District Safety Division. Facilities needing improvement were 00922 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget identified, with interim safety measures enacted to safeguard the children occupying these centers. The Department has recently upgraded and enhanced its website with a kid zone, aimed at teaching children and parents alike about fire safety and education. The website continues to be favorably received by the public.
Based on responses to our requests for comments and recommendations, we've managed to continue this, and it seems to be working out extremely well. We've done extremely well with firefighter injuries also. 8 percent reduction. And through the combined efforts of our Safety Unit and the continuing diligence and tenacity of our field commanders, the first-line supervisors, our safety statistics continue to improve in the Philadelphia Fire Department. Our injuries are down about 31 percent. The paramedic injuries are down significantly as well. 00923 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget And EMS enhancements. 5 percent increase in activity over 2001. Despite the increase in call volume, the average response time has remained the same. Several initiatives were completed during the course of the year, which contributed to the operational readiness of the EMS Division. Fire Service Paramedic Class Number 20, with a total of 35 members, completed an intense seven-week orientation at the Philadelphia Fire Department. These 35 new fire service paramedics are now actively engaged in providing top quality emergency medical care to the citizens of Philadelphia. Significant upgrades have been made to the front-line fleet of medic units. Ten new medic units have been put in service, replacing older, high-mileage vehicles. Also, five medic units have undergone an extensive remounting process, extending their useful life. 00924 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget An innovative training program on advanced airway maintenance was developed by the Medical Director, Dr. C. Crawford Mechem, and successfully trialed during 2002. This program should result in improved outcomes for patients presenting with compromised airways. In 2002 our dispatchers implemented a new software application to enhance Emergency Medical Dispatch. Each dispatcher is certified as an Emergency Medical Dispatcher, EMD, through the Association of Public Safety Officials, APCO, and APCO created a software program that enabled our dispatchers to quickly determine the severity of an EMS emergency, prioritize the call, and give accurate pre-hospital instruction, using our call-taking and dispatch protocols. This EMD software replaces the EMD flip cards that dispatchers previously used on EMS 911 calls. The Emergency Medical Dispatch protocols we use, and the oversight of our EMD program, is provided by Dr. C. Crawford Mechem, Medical Director for the Philadelphia Fire Department. EMS revenue is up. 7 net collections of FY'01. In FY'03 and FY'04 the EMS collections are projected to be million. 6 Technology enhancements. In FY'04 7 the Fire Department will upgrade software for EMS, 8 enabling better medical reporting and greater 9 efficiency in dispatching vehicles. 10 The Department will implement a new 11 Automatic Vehicle Locator, AVL; Geographic 12 Information System, GIS; mapping and Safety Pad 13 software for the EMS units. 14 The AVL and GIS mapping systems will 15 enhance the Department's emergency response time. 16 EMS dispatching currently realized on intensive 17 radio communications that is based on station location mapping which dispatches EMS based on location of the station to the caller and not necessarily location of the actual EMS vehicle to the caller. The AVL system will provide real time electronic mapping through vehicle locators, using a wall-mounted electronic display. GIS mapping will allow dispatchers 00926 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget to view detailed map information containing streets and addresses, locations of hospitals, locations of firehouses, and locations of incidents. The system will enable dispatchers to pinpoint vehicles at any given time, which will give us the opportunity to redirect vehicles to new emergencies, before returning to the station. In FY'04, the Fire Department will also change the process for relaying medical information to hospitals.
New software called Safety Pad, will allow Emergency Medical Technicians to fill out medical forms using a hand held computer. This information would then be relayed directly to the hospitals, better preparing them for the incoming patients and eliminating redundant processing. In conclusion, the amount of funding provided in the proposed budget will enable us to continue to provide the same high level of service the citizens of our City have grown to expect. This completes my testimony. On behalf of the men and women of the Philadelphia 00927 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget Fire Department, I would like to thank Council for your continued support throughout my tenure in this Department.
Thank you, Commissioner. And may I say that we certainly publicly applaud you and your Department for all the wonderful work that you do for the citizens of the City. COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: Thank you.
Commissioner, I don't believe you mentioned anything about the DROP Program. Are there any firefighters or fire officers who are in the DROP Program? And will they be eligible next year and how many of them? COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: Some will. We have about 450 people that are in the DROP. The first wave is probably going to take away 237. Not too many in our very highest rank. In fact, we only had one person that is a Deputy Chief, which is a high Civil Service rank, that's actually in the DROP program. We have 17 that are batallion chiefs. And we just had a test that was 00928 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget given, so we're not worried about being able to replace them or anything. We have 43 captains and 85 lieutenants that will be leaving. And we seem to be well-positioned to be able to have a list that are already in place, or even with the ones that we have in place, we're going to have new ones shortly. So it really should not be a problem. We probably will go through a period where we may have to do a certain amount of kind of redundancy hiring, just to make sure that we are right on target with everything, and we are able to spread those lists out.
Everybody's well trained? COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: Well, we seem to be pretty well poised for it. And we have a lot of experience through the ranks that we don't anticipate that it's going to take a tremendous toll.
All right. Are the 237 firefighters? COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: That's the combination of all of those people that I 00929 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget mentioned off. And the remainder of those numbers, if you counted them up, would be firefighters.
Is there an existing list for the firefighters? COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: Yes. The fact is, we have a class that we just put in that's less than two weeks old, with 73 people in that class. And we plan to continue to hire. As soon as one class is out and we can establish another one, then we will have another one, for a total probably during this calendar year of about three classes, somewhere close to 80. But we ended up with 73 out of this one. The list is current. It's a good list. We're not complaining about it or anything like that. It means just sometimes the hiring process can be difficult, but it works for us.
Fine. Thank you very much. The chair recognizes Councilman Nutter.
Thank you, Madam Chair. 00930 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget Commissioner, I just have two questions, which actually I'm asking on behalf of one of our colleagues, Councilwoman Reynolds-Brown. The first is, this is from the testimony. I don't know what the page number is. But it's the number of fire deaths, 1993 to 2002 page, the bar graphs? COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: Yes.
And the question was, the tangible factors that have led to the last at least two-year decline, and naturally we're hoping a three-year decline. Starting with the year 2000, when we were at 51, '01 at 45, '02 at 32. And so I think that the basic question is, from your perspective, what has led to that particular decline, although I would note for the record that these things seem to happen in cycles. '94, a reduction from '93. Then a little bit of increase in '95. And then back down in '96, and up a little bit in '97, but overall, still going in a downward direction, even in those years where there's been an increase from the year 00931 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget before. If you go to a high in 1995 of 90 and now down to '02 at 32, obviously, almost a two-thirds drop in those years. So, Councilman's question is tangible factors regarding the decline over the past two to three years. COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: Most of it is really due to education, more than anything else.
Education? COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: Education and proliferation of smoke detectors. The Fire Department has worked very, very hard in being as inclusive as we can, in terms of getting everybody in the Fire Department involved in that whole educational process. That's why we have included so many different programs over the years, where we utilize the firehouses to go out and not just make nice in the community, but to actually go out and do some things, in terms of putting out information and making sure people are very, very well aware. 00932 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget And what happens, when we have a tragedy like a fire death, we really examine it as close as we possibly can, to try to figure out what happened, and see whether or not there's a message, at least, that you could get out. And there's some factors over which you can't seem to have a whole lot of control. And whether we like to admit it or not, there are a number of people that are under the influence of either drugs or alcohol when they're involved in a fire tragedy. And in Philadelphia, in most cases, of the ones where we can document, that didn't linger or anything like that. They might have been taken to a hospital but only momentarily. For the most part, taken off the fire ground and dead at that position, where they go and actually have an autopsy done, they may have contributed in some way to the fire itself. What we do know is, that about a third of those, at least, have been under the influence of either drugs or alcohol. And you have a number of other factors, as you might imagine. 00933 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget But what we do is -- and for each one of those, we analyze it and try to figure out, what could have made the difference. And then we make sure that we establish whatever we can, whether or not that's something as simple as doing a press release to put the information out to say what it was. We get as much publicity for it as we possibly can. We go out in the surrounding area, put the information out, so that in that heightened awareness time, that the people who are living in that surrounding area are not only given a smoke detector, but they're given the information regarding the fire death and what cussed it, and so forth. And so, as we analyze these things, what we do is, we create programs, and most often that go City-wide, that are based on the kind of technical information that we're able to uncover.
Right. COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: And once you're able to do that, what we find is, is the repeat, repeat, repeat. You put that information out. And it works. And we've seen that decline. 00934 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget And I think it's really primarily due to the education process that we've established, and the fact that we have so many people that work for us who are as committed as I am to seeing this number go down. I know years ago when I was in the Fire Prevention Division, one of the things that I had looked at was the number of fire deaths that occurred in the state. And roughly it's about 11 per million. And we always had these numbers -- 12
25 per? 13 COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: 25 fire 14 deaths per million residents for the state. 15
Okay. Go ahead. 16 COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: And that's 17 pretty much the way it runs in a lot of different 18 places, not just in Pennsylvania. But you can't 19 take the world, so I took Pennsylvania. 20 And so when we looked at it we said, 21 how do we get there, when in fact what we're 22 realizing, we were having about a hundred extra 23 alarm fires, and we were having about a hundred 24 fire deaths a year. So we continually worked at 25 it to the point where we tried to put as much 00935 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget science in it as we can.
Right. COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: And that's really what's paying off.
Good. Thank you. Thank you. The second question is related to the to 2002 Emergency Medical Incidents. That's bar graphs as well. And the question here is: There's been a steady incremental increase, although a fairly significant one, from '94 to '95. And then the rest are, I think, less than -- mostly a single digit increases, but increases nonetheless. Question is -- And I'm sure you've done the analysis. Where you have these increases in the EMS incidents, what categories are contributing, if there are any categories in particular that jump out? Fires, gunshots, you know, falls. What's driving the EMS run numbers up over the past six, seven, eight years? COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: It really seems to be the health care system itself that 00936 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget seems to drive it, more than anything else. We're the last resort for --
People who need to go to the hospital. COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: People who need to go to the hospital; and they need to go, and it's really created an emergency. And so, as you know, we only do the emergencies. We don't just do people that just want to go to the hospital. We don't take you just because you want to go. We take you because we can document the fact that you are sick and it is in fact an emergency. And it seemed to be that more than it is anything else. Now, what we do is, with our contractor, they can go and use all of the CD-9 Codes, and they can tell you exactly what the chief complaint was. About 20 percent of the chief complaint is just, I'm sick. So, that's the way it goes in. Now, the other ones seem to deal with breathing difficulties is the highest. Gunshot wounds, as an example, is way down, 00937 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget compared to something like breathing difficulties. But it's breathing difficulties and at this time of the year it's slips and falls and those kind of things. But when you spread them out, it ends up being significant when you have a cold winter. And then in the summertime, you end up, of course, with high numbers that are just based on heat-related kind of difficulties.
Right. COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: So if you were to spread those things out, it's topped out by breathing difficulties, you know, only second action.
Why don't I ask on the Councilwoman's behalf. If you could give us a breakout of year 2000, '01, and '02, of the various incidents by category. And then, you know, she can, if she wants to do any further analysis or have contact with you. COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: Let me just give you one caution with that. I have no problem with doing it. It's just calling the contract and say, spit it out. 00938 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget But the way we list this, we go by the chief complaint is.
Right. I understand. COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: And so you need to understand that we have a high number of: I'm just sick.
Right. I understand. COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: Yes. No 12 problem.
There's a legend or a code book that goes with it or a code sheet or something? COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: No. They spit it out in real simple straightforward language, which just tells you what the chief complaint is: It will say breathing difficulty, heart attack. It will say fall, whatever it is.
Commissioner, I assume that with the snowstorm 00939 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget last week, that a lot of people had to have -- were calling our office -- who had to be taken to the hospital for dialysis. Was your Department called? COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: Oh, were we called? We were called a lot.
I never realized how many people are on dialysis until we have a snowstorm. COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: Well, it's a number of people on dialysis is right.
It's amazing. COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: The fortunate part about it is, when they have a snowstorm, they open up the EOC. And they did have a number of people that were willing to serve as volunteers, which really took some of the necessity away from our normal responses. And we actually set a record, in terms of responses, for calls for service for EMS one of those days. It was 774 calls for 40 medic units, that really, if you counted them all as full-time, it would be the same as 35. 00940 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget So the men and women of our Department, particularly those that had to deal with the difficulties of getting around in that snow and servicing people who were suffering from sprains and strains, and all of the other things that come about from trying to go out and shovel snow when you have never done it before, was absolutely remarkable. So I actually think that they deserve great praise for having been able to respond that well.
Certainly. They certainly do. Councilman Rizzo and I were having a discussion earlier about the article that appeared in the newspaper, I believe it was yesterday, about the underground fire near the airport. COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: Yes.
Your Department has been investigating that. Can you share with us the results of that investigation? COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: Well, we keep going out and putting it out or thinking that we're putting it out. 00941 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget
What's causing it? COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: It's actually under ground. And the only way you're really going to change that is to keep people there for days and days and days. And nobody knows how long that would take, in order to flood it to that point, which would make a mess. Or you're going to have to get contractors in there to actually unearth all of that, because it goes down so deep, until it's all deep-seated. So what happens, we respond. We flood it. You don't see any results of it for probably days. And then after a while, after it dries out some, then it starts up again. So it's been one of those things that's been ongoing. And it probably will continue to go that way unless there's a major situation where somebody decides to put that much money forward to have contractors come in and totally pull it apart, which could take a very, very long time, in terms of putting your resources out there. It's a mess. 00942 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget
Is that creating a health hazard; do we know? COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: It probably would be better answered by the Health Department. But I will say this: I've never seen any smoke, unless it was theatrical smoke, that wasn't toxic. So certainly it's toxic. Now, how toxic? It's my understanding that it stinks, but it stinks when you get right up on it. And if you would stay in that position and breathing it, certainly it would be toxic. But because of the air flow and because of the amount, and so forth, it probably is not enough of a health hazard to worry about it. It just is irritating and stinks.
Well, I would appreciate it if you would send a written report so that if need be we can get, perhaps, federal funds to investigate this, because this has been ongoing, and I think the area residents are now really becoming very concerned about it. COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: Yes.
The Chair 00943 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget recognizes Councilman Rizzo.
Madam Chairman, I agree with what you just said. I see the Managing Director's office is here. And I understand that we have an office that ferrets out grants and looks for these kinds of things. I think it's real important that we get out a report which I would hope is already somewhere in a file, from Air Management, to identify what exactly the issue is there. What are we dealing with? Like the Commissioner said, unless it's theatrical smoke, it has a potential of being a health hazard. So, I would hope that Air Management is working or has information about that; B, the Administration has already looked for a way... I think we all remember there was a town in upstate Pennsylvania, Centralia. COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: That's right.
Had the same issue with underground fires from the vacated mines. And the federal government did come in there and provide substantial funding. 00944 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget So I think we need a plan. And I'm speaking to the Managing Director's office right now. We need a plan on exactly how to deal with this issue. If unearthing that area is the answer, we really need to have a plan and a budget on what this would cost. And we need to look at all the resources available, both at the state level and the federal level. So, for the record, I would hope that the Managing Director's office could come back at us with that. And Commissioner, I guess what you're doing is the Band-Aid approach right now, dealing with it. But when I hear from people at the Airport, indicating that there have been complaints from there, some captains flying commercial aircraft, that it's gotten to the point where it has been a visibility issue for them, that concerns me. So maybe even the Federal Aviation Administration might be interested in helping alleviate that problem, if that is a legitimate concern. Commissioner, I just want to back 00945 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget up. Can I take my turn now?
Commissioner, I want to also compliment the Fire Department, especially you. You are so visible in the community. You probably... You know this, and I know it, probably, being an observer... appreciate your extra effort of being every place almost every day, to represent the Fire Department. And even when you're not there at other events, that there's always representation of top-ranking firefighters. And I think the young people, the families, and moms and dads, like to see their Fire Department. And your effort is greatly appreciated. COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: Thank you.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Ortiz.
Commissioner, we spoke about the status of the negotiations. Is 00946 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget the arbitration almost over at this point? COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: I sure hope so. They've had several executive sessions, as I understand it. And I'm led to believe, at least, that some decisions are going to be coming soon, meaning that sometime in March or near the end of March we're likely to see a contract.
How are we doing with firefighters who acquire hepatitis? COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: We have 67 people who have told us that they have Hepatitis C. And as you know, there are a lot of conversations about it, and so forth. But there's only been two cases that have actually been brought forth of those 67. There have been many claims in the paper saying that there were higher numbers, but there's been no evidence to back it up. I did receive 67 letters, though. And if you go back in the history of this, you may remember that, you know, you saw all kind of numbers being thrown around, and so forth. The Mayor took an unprecedented action and made $3 million available to help with 00947 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget this. Initially, I believe it was $150,000 which goes back well over two years ago, that was finally applied for, and it was given, of which $30,000, as I understand it, was advanced, which was a part of that $150,000. Recently, I understand that there was... What was that, about $180,000? Well, it was $92,000 that was paid out, but that's a long time between those two things. $92,000 was paid out recently. And I'm told that there's another bill for a similar amount that has not been paid because it has not been verified. We went through a process by which persons who had sick leave they wanted to give up, could donate their sick leave to a sick leave bank. Some people have taken advantage of that. So nobody's lost any pay or anything like that. We don't have anybody that, other than Mary Kohler, that is in one of those kind of situations which she just can not work. So, it has not shown itself, in terms of the debilitating effects of this, to prevent a person from coming to work.
But our policy. 00948 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget I'm saying, what is the policy that is presently in place, in terms of -- COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: If you get sick, you take off sick. That's the policy.
And you get the benefits? COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: So far there have only been two cases that they brought it forth.
Okay. COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: And that's dealt with through Risk Management.
Are there any other questions from any Members of the Committee? Yes, Councilman Rizzo.
Just, again, I wasn't listening as carefully as I should have. How many members of the Fire Department? COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: 67 that have actually officially notified me. You have a period of time from the time that you become aware that you have whatever the issue is to make your 00949 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget employer aware of it. And so, they have to actually formally notify me. And 67 letters have been received by the Fire Department, saying that they have contracted Hepatitis C.
Commissioner, once they identify, do they have to work differently? I mean, do they have to wear protective gloves if they're in the process of handling other... COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: As long as you don't have intimate contact with somebody, meaning that this pass-through body fluids, then you can continue to work.
My question is, though, if the paramedic is identified as having Hepatitis C, can they continue to go out and give emergency care? COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: Yes.
Well, isn't there a potential of a cut, bodily fluid transfer in that process of an emergency? COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: No more so than it would be for a nurse working in an emergency room, or no more so than it would be for 00950 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget a doctor working under those same kind of conditions.
So in other words, you're telling me that in every other profession, medical profession, that there's no 7 constraints or any additional precautions taken when a person has Hepatitis C? COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: We pretty much have dedicated every resource we possibly could, to make sure we were doing the right thing, including hiring a person that we considered the designated officer who deals with contagious diseases, who keeps all kind of confidential records, which I don't even ask her for, or any of those kind of things. And we have a doctor who oversees the paramedics and makes the decisions as to whether or not you're safe to work or not work. And we don't have anybody that has any of those restrictions.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman 00951 02/26/03 - FY '04 Operating Budget Blackwell.
Thank you, Madam President. I wanted to thank our Fire Commissioner, the Department, for the fine job that we do. I must say I see him all around the City for many affairs, and we do appreciate the job that you do? COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: Thank you. And I see you around, too, so we know you're working hard.
Okay. Any other questions or comments from Members of the Committee? Seeing none, thank you very much. COMMISSIONER HAIRSTON: Thank you.
The Committee of the Whole will stand in recess until Monday, March 3, 2003, at 9:30. Thank you all very much. (Hearing concluded at 4:00 p.m.) 00952 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings and evidence are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the hearing of the Committee of the Whole, taken on February 26, 2003, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. _________________________ Lisa C. Bradley, RPR and Notary Public _________________________ David A. Deik, RPR Commissioner of Deeds (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.)