COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, December 4, 2024 10:25 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCILMAN MARK SQUILLA, CHAIR COUNCILWOMAN KATHERINE GILMORE RICHARDSON, VICE-CHAIR COUNCILWOMAN CINDY BASS COUNCILWOMAN JAMIE GAUTHIER COUNCILWOMAN QUETCY M. LOZADA COUNCILMAN BRIAN J. O'NEILL COUNCILMAN ISAIAH THOMAS COUNCILMAN JEFFREY YOUNG, JR. BILL: 241084 - - -
We have a quorum for Appropriations and we are recessing it until 11:00 a.m. Thank you. (Recess.)
Good morning. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for your patience. Welcome to the hearing for the Committee on Appropriations. I know the hour has come and a quorum of the Committee is present. To my left, Councilmember Lozada, Councilmember Gauthier, Councilmember Gilmore Richardson. To my right, Councilmember O'Neill, Councilmember Thomas and Councilmember Bass. A quorum of the Committee is present. The hearing is now call to order. This is the public hearing of the Committee on Appropriations regarding Bill No. 241084. Mr. McMonagle, please read the title of the bill.
Bill No. 6 241084, authorizing transfers and appropriations for Fiscal Year 2024 from the General Fund, from certain or all City offices, departments, boards and commissions, the Water Fund from certain or all City offices, departments, boards and commissions, the Grants Revenue Fund from certain or all City offices departments, boards and commissions and the Transportation Fund from certain or all City offices, departments, boards and commissions, to the General Fund to certain or all City offices departments boards and commissions, to the Water Fund to certain or all City offices, departments, boards and commissions, and to the Transportation Fund for certain or all City offices, departments, boards and commissions.
Thank you, Mr. McMonagle. Can you please call the first panel that we have to testify for Bill No. 241084.
Yes. Can we please have Sabrina Maynard. (Witness approached Witness table.)
Good morning, Sabrina. State your name for the record and then you can proceed.
Yes. Good morning, everyone. I'm Sabrina Maynard, the City's Budget Director. Good morning, Chair Squilla and members of the Appropriations Committee. I'm here to testify in support of the Fiscal Year 2024 Year-end Transfer ordinance. You've also received written testimony from each department with a request in the Transfer ordinance and representatives of those offices are also in attendance today. The annual Year-end ordinance is a routine ordinance we transmit each year during the fall. It is necessary for our financial statements and is intended to make sure that our final appropriations for last fiscal year align with last year's obligations. Most of the items in the ordinance are for departments that went slightly over their FY24 personnel budgets. The FY24 Year-End Transfer Ordinance bill proposes transferring appropriations within and between the General Fund, Water Fund and Transportation Fund. You have my written testimony outlining each department's request. I thank you for the opportunity to testify and we would be happy to take any questions the Committee may have.
Thank you, Sabrina. Could you just explain real quick the process in which the cleanup is happening for money that was spent in the previous budget?
Yep. So typically these are departments that have gone over their personnel budgets. Some examples are some higher overtime, folks that transfer kind of on-and-off grants or between funds, so there were some small adjustments, higher costs for temps, to process appeals. So these are sort of routine Class 100 adjustments across the board for a couple of departments in FY24 for a net impact of about $10 million.
Good morning. Question: So looking at what the Admin is requesting today and thinking about some of the fiscal commitments that have been made in the past, what puts us in a position where we should consider approving yet another request from the Admin when we've had fiscal commitments that still haven't been met yet as it relates to previous budgets, previous Appropriation Committee hearings and other agreements that we've had?
So this is something that -- so these are all things that have happened in FY24. They've been completed. I'm not sure which items you're referring to, but we're happy to work with your office if there are items that are unaddressed.
So if you knew that you had to come before us to make sure that this cleanup happened in order to put us in a position to keep the City fiscally stable and keep our finances and our bond rating in good status, why would you wait until this late in the process to come to us to ask us to approve this request while simultaneously not meeting other commitments that you've discussed with this Committee and other members of this body?
So I'm not sure what commitments you're referring to. Happy to -- if you have a list, happy to work through them. This is a routine ordinance. We do this every fall. This is the same timeline we typically have where we come back in the fall for the things as we close our prior yearbook items that have overdrafts.
Sure. I've been on the Appropriations Committee for a couple years now so I'm aware of the process and what we do as it relates to systemically assuring that the economics of the City stay in a stable and responsible way. But I think what we're seeing right now is a situation where again if I heard you correctly, you said that you would be willing to work with us based on other fiscal commitments that have happened in the past. Is that you, yourself, or are you speaking on behalf of the Admin? Because if that's the position that you have, we have all of that information actually readily prepared right now and we can get this addressed in the next hours, if that's the position of the Admin.
So if 5 there are commitments we've made 6 that we haven't fulfilled, we are 7 happy to look at what they are and 8 work with you. 9
Thank you. Thank you 15 very much, Mr. Chair. 16 And thank you, Sabrina, 17 not only for the presentation but 18 for the information that's been 19 shared today. My one question is 20 relative to any of the Class 100 21 funds that are now going from 22 Grants Revenue to the General Fund. 23 Could you speak to how 24 much overall in Grants Revenue is going to the General Fund for Class 100 and what the specific trends are in that regard over the last several years?
Yes. So pulling up the total, it's mostly -- sorry. Let me get the exact numbers. So most of the transfer sort of driven by a couple of departments, and we pull from the Grants Fund because that's where there's more appropriations, so we can only move appropriations that already exist. I am not good at doing math while I am talking. One second. So we are transferring 10 million from the Grants Revenue Fund to other funds. And so, that's split across a couple of different areas.
And I think I'm specifically referring to anything that's Class 100 being transferred to the General Fund.
Yes. One second. Okay. So that's largely about $7 million to Fire; $700,000 to Public Health; $1.4 million to the Law Department; $61,000 to Sustainability; $5800 to the Board of Revision of Taxes. I think those are -- and so, in terms of how that compares to previous years, this is actually a smaller ordinance than we typically have. So in FY23 it was a net impact of about $20 million. It was larger in FY22. It was smaller in FY21, so it has varied from year-to-year. But this is the smallest in the last six years.
Sure. So I think my overarching question that you may not be able to answer fully today is relative to any positions that were originally grant-funded based on additional outside grants revenue that we have received as a City. Once those grants end, how many of those positions and how much does that impact the General Fund for the positions that are not ended but are moved into the General Fund?
And I'm not talking about just for this. I'm going back to the previous Administration because that's during the COVID period, and that was the time we received a number of outside grant opportunities to help the City stay afloat and provide needed and necessary service during the pandemic. My overarching concern is that that practice is continuing as a matter of practice at this point because of what happened during COVID and figuring out how many positions that were grant- funded that should end at the end of the grant but is then transferred into the General Fund. I need to understand and know the impact that is continuing to have on our General Fund. And so, you'll probably have to go back a couple of years under the previous Administration and then let us know how that is sort of happening moving forward. That's the overarch -- it's an overarching question that impacts our General Fund, and how much we have to spend in Class 100 knowing that we still have the vacancy rate where it is and because of that we have to continue to address overtime in a different way. Okay. I need to understand those trends for our budget process.
Thank you. Are there any other questions? (No response.)
Seeing none, thank you for your testimony. Mr. McMonagle, can you please read the next person to testify.
Can we please have Larry Krasner. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)
Good morning, Larry. Thank you for participating. Just state your name for the record and you could proceed. DISTRICT ATTORNEY KRASNER: Good morning. My name is Larry Krasner. I'm the elected District Attorney for the City and County of Philadelphia. Good morning, everyone. It is a pleasure as always to be here and have the opportunity to speak with you. I do want to make sure even though I don't see him here at the moment that I say good morning as well to Council President Kenyatta Johnson. Obviously, I'm here to answer questions and provide information to all of you, Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson, Appropriations Chair Mark Squilla and the Council as a whole, including of course Councilmembers O'Neill, Bass, Thomas, Gauthier and Lozada. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak here. I understand there may be a limited purpose to my testimony. I'm going to try to confine my testimony to about 8 minutes. And then to the extent 9 that there are questions, I am more 10 than happy to address any topic that is of concern to all of you. The entire executive team and DAO staff are committed to a balanced comprehensive approach to prioritizing public safety through modern enforcement, violence prevention, intervention, interruption and prevention more generally. While we also understand that while the professional staff and leaders working within government, our law enforcement, our Philadelphia City Council, the DAO and grassroots organizations have worked incredibly hard since the pandemic to reduce gun violence and violent crime statistics. That is no answer to people who have suffered the loss of a family member. There is no amount of data that is going to address that harm and that pain and that of course is why we have to double- down on our efforts at public safety, at prevention and at the things that are in some ways going well. , 12 years old, murdered while riding his bike near his grandmother's house last year and there are so many others. I understand that's a big concept and we are here on nuts and bolts, but it is the nuts and bolts that ultimately make a tremendous difference and hopefully can prevent the loss of another Laron Williams as we move forward together. In order to achieve the aforementioned, our office continues to seek appropriate consequences and accountability for offenders, for bullies, for criminals while simultaneously exonerating innocent people who are sitting in jail in the seat of someone who is guilty. Our efforts to achieve high quality and fair prosecution are supported daily by the Assistant DAs, the Victim Services team, support staff as well as the professional men and women of our law enforcement community assigned to the DA's Office as Philadelphia County detectives and detailed Philadelphia Police Department personnel, these are people who work in our office, they are funded directly and indirectly through our office and they play a very crucial role in all of our efforts at modern enforcement and prevention as well. Our law enforcement staff lead investigations. They provide support to witnesses and survivors in our Relocations program. And I will speak to you in a moment about the cliff that we are facing in terms of funding for relocation of vulnerable victims and witnesses who could be intimidated, could be killed, could be harmed in the course of prosecuting a case or afterwards. These law enforcement personnel provide transportation support to Commonwealth witnesses who are testifying in very complex and sometimes very frightening cases. They provide subpoena services ahead of preliminary hearings, trials and other court proceedings so that we are able to put forward the evidence to meet our burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. I do want to thank Philadelphia Police Department and our other law enforcement partners for being true partners, for really doing some pretty wonderful things in terms of collaboration.
I would be remiss if I did not personally thank Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel and his executive team for their close collaboration, Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal and her team, other local state law enforcement as well as FOP Lodge 5 President Roosevelt Poplar and his executive team who have been wonderful partners in many ways in terms of furthering the interest of their members while simultaneously furthering the interest of all Philadelphians in a city that is safer and freer as we move forward. So I want to thank them again. Needless to say, we have close partnerships in the FBI and the ATF, the DEA and work very effectively with them at times. The little picture is that I'm testifying here today in support of the DAO's request of $31,200 in Class 300. That is in the General Fund to fully fund uniform clothing allowance costs in the DAO for our men and women who serve with dedication, professionalism and honor. These are personnel who require uniforms at times who are members of the FOP and who, like any other members of the FOP, are in our view very much entitled and deserving of that clothing allowance. That funding is already there as I understand it. It is already in a different class that we are not talking about additional expenditures. We are talking about making sure that it is listed where it should properly be. Additionally as the DA's Office continues to strengthen its partnerships with law enforcement, community and faith-based partners, we stand in solidarity with Council and with this Administration in working to make Philadelphia safer, cleaner, greener with economic opportunity for all. And I do want to sincerely thank members of Council who have heard us and have heard us time and again when we were in severe need. There have been times in the past when the relocation money ran out in the middle of a gun violence crisis and when we came to Council, including Councilmember Curtis Jones who's not here today, when we came and we said we're at a cliff, the money has run out, we have to pay for people to be housed in a place where they can't be found and they can't be harmed, Council has answered time and again, and we are very grateful for the support and partnership we have had from Council going back now a number of years. There are several initiatives that we think can continue to make Philadelphia head in the right direction. As many of you know, while data is not the answer it is a factor and the data, as it exists right now, indicates that Philadelphia may have the lowest number of homicides -- well, let me state it differently. Out of the last 56 years, this may be the third lowest number of homicides in 56 years. I'd like to see it be the first and I really do believe that a city that has at times suffered from chronic violence for a lot of reasons that we all understand could become a city that enjoys continuing ongoing safety at levels with which we are unfamiliar. Obviously, that requires some level of investment, but I want to thank Council again for being willing to see that, being willing to invest in that and being willing to understand that that kind of an investment has consequences for the safety of the public and the freedom of people who should not be in a jail cell. In a spirit of unity, there's a lot of talk about unity. I'm a big believer in unity. I'm trying to get better with unity, but in a spirit of unity I do want to just briefly mention some of the initiatives for which we sought funding earlier and highlight a couple that are really crucial and essential at this time. I will just touch on them. We put in for funding -- and if you want the amounts, I'm happy to provide them, for cleaner and greener enforcement to deal with short-dumping. We put in for a Dangerous Drug Offender Division, which would be going after high- level drug dealers who've been owning corners for generations.
We put in for a Cold Case Investigation Unit because there are a lot of cases that are still out there where parents need to know who took the life of their loved one and they're not solved and they can be. There are the means there, but there has to be a willingness to put some people on it to do it full-time in collaboration with law enforcement. Data Gov lab, I won't get into the details, but this is the use of data and criminological expertise with community for the purpose of allowing them to have input on solving the problems that plague their particular neighborhood, strengthening the operations of the Gun Violence Task Force. I don't know that there's anything the DA's Office should be more proud of than the reality that we have been able to point to the elimination of various shooter groups, some of which have been around for a long time. All of the major members taken down. The name itself disappearing. Well, that has been the deep-dive investigative work of the Gun Violence Task Force, which we would love to continue. We put in for a repeat Domestic Violence Offenders Unit. I think that speaks for itself. We put in for a Public Integrity Unit, something at a time when the rich are only getting richer and the poor getting poorer could be very, very important to make sure that our governmental institutions are not pushed in a funny direction. And now, if I may highlight the cliff. We also put in for additional funding for the DAO's Relocation Unit. The reason for this is very simple. When you have terrible levels of gun violence as we had a few years ago, those cases don't get tried 10 minutes later. They often get tried two and three years later. And the people who are willing to come forward as victims or as witnesses have to be protected and they have to be protected moving forward. At this point, what we need is $740,000 in additional funding. If we do not get it, we will not -- and understand we don't get that money. Okay. This is a passthrough. The money comes to us and it goes out the door. It goes to pay for hotels. It goes to pay for relocation. It goes to pay all the expenses to keep people safe so they're not killed, so they're not harmed before they can come to court. That is a cliff that needs to be addressed. And as I said, I have every confidence that this Administration at all levels deeply cares about that. But I would be remiss if I did not bring that to your attention. We have more specifics on that should you want it. Just a couple more quick references. There's no doubt in my mind we have assembled the finest bunch of attorneys that I have ever seen in the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office and I've been at this 37 years. There are some remarkable people here, people who are making a huge sacrifice and have other opportunities all day every day. We put in for equitable increases for them because it is devastating to a family when they have lost a loved one and they start out with a very capable attentive prosecutor who leaves for lack of proper funding. And then that one is replaced by another attentive and capable prosecutor, someone we've invested in for years to train them up and they leave. And now, you have a family that two or three years in is on their third capable, attentive prosecutor. We need that support because it makes all the difference in the world, as I'm sure you know, to have staff that is top shelf, that is super capable, that is trained up, that has fire in the belly, that is there to do the right thing. And finally, I do want to let you know that there is necessary funding to support technology. This is because we are moving into the future. We are at the point where a lot -- we are no 19 longer dealing with typewriters and pieces of paper when it comes to discovery from the police department. We have body-worn cameras which provide a wealth, but a very time-consuming wealth, of information and evidence.
We have everything passing electronically, basically everything from the police to us, and soon enough it may even be passing to the courts. Other cities have done this. It saves a tremendous amount of money in the long run. It makes these cases much easier to get to the finish line, but we have actually been defunded for some of our technology at a time when we cannot afford that refunding. And so, we have put in for those requests. I thank you kindly for listening to me. I almost kept within 10 minutes. And if there are any questions, I'm happy to address them along with my team, which includes Bob Listenbee, First Assistant, Jen Lin, Chief of Staff and we have a whole football team of heavy players over here. Yes, sir.
Thank you. Thank you, Larry, for your testimony. I see the request for relocation would be around $740,000? DISTRICT ATTORNEY KRASNER: Yes.
And then what was the technology request? DISTRICT ATTORNEY KRASNER: The technology request that we put in was for $550,000. This is recurring with annual increases. I can get into the details if you are interested.
And that would be for next year's budget? DISTRICT ATTORNEY KRASNER: This is money we put in for this year. And we were -- okay. The FY25 request is 655. The request that we made earlier I understand to be 555 -- oh, I'm sorry. There's another $100,000 request for equipment, so it's a total of 650.
Okay. So that would be for like the mid-year? DISTRICT ATTORNEY KRASNER: Yes.
Right. So you didn't spend it yet for that? DISTRICT ATTORNEY KRASNER: Correct.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, District Attorney Krasner, Bob and the whole team. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your good work, especially with the Gun Violence Task Force. When I think about everything that we've gone through as a city over the past few years and the record amounts of gun violence that we experience, it's hard to believe sometimes, but I think the Gun Violence Task Force's work is something that we should lift up and be very proud of as a city. I started in Council in 2020 and it coincided with this dramatic increase in gun violence and we were just seeing street group violence all across West and Southwest Philadelphia, but you all have systematically destabilized these groups or ended these street groups. And it's just a very efficient use of our City's resources in terms of focusing on the most dangerous, the small handful of very dangerous people that have been causing and wreaking havoc in West and Southwest Philadelphia and across the city, so I just wanted to commend you for that. I also wanted to focus a little bit on relocation. I know my office has received calls, especially during the pandemic, of people who were just terrified, right, terrified because they've witnessed something and they want to get to safety. And I can't imagine being in that situation myself and we've also experienced in my office when relocations couldn't happen for various reasons to disastrous consequences. So I wanted you to talk a little bit, especially about the City money and the difference between the City relocation money that you get and the other more restrictive funding just to put more of a point on why this is so critical. DISTRICT ATTORNEY KRASNER: Thank you, Councilmember Gauthier. Let me just say two sentences and then First Assistant Listenbee is going to get into a little bit of the specifics on this. So please understand that Council did a remarkable thing a few years ago when they said we have to do more than simply deal with the flow-through funding, the state funding. The issue with a lot of state funding is it has a whole bunch of criteria that have to be met. They're not always met. They're hard to meet in a time- sensitive manner and when lives are on the line, you got to move. So Council recognized that a few years ago to their credit. And there are times as much as possible we're going to use that other funding, but there are times when we got to move now, and we got to do something right now because public safety requires it, the integrity of our court process requires it. And that is why the City money is so crucial because it comes without the handcuffs. It comes with a more general ability to use it. I will now defer to First Assistant Listenbee.
Councilmember Gauthier, it's a pleasure to be here and I'm going to try and address your questions. But if you have other questions, please feel free to ask them. Each year we receive funds from the Attorney General's Office. Those funds have certain parameters. The basic parameters are a participant must testify or agree to testify in a specific prosecution within Commonwealth courts; there must be an affirmative referral from a law enforcement agency or from one of our staff people; the participant must be a victim of a real or potential intimidation harassment or harm because of their witness status; and finally, the criminal status background of a witness or household member may negate their eligibility, which is often a problem or issue that we come up with. For Fiscal Year 2023 we received approximately $612,000 from the state that we expended for those purposes within that narrow criteria. For City funds we have a little more flexibility. We still require that the participant must be a victim or co-victim or witness of a violent crime, participant must meet the criteria of the PA State Attorney General. And if they don't and there's some specific reason they don't, we still embrace them with an effort to try and help them. The challenges that we faced have been numerous. We've often found that there's not only the victim but also the co-survivor in the family. Sometimes a parent, sometimes a child, and we've been involved in relocating them on a short-term basis, and that typically lasts two to three months. And then for a longer term basis, completely to a different location in the city or outside the city, sometimes within the three- state area, and we've done that as critically and vigilantly as we could. We found that we needed to have our executive team work very closely with our relocation team. So for the last six months on a weekly basis we've met with our Relocation team to examine all the critical cases and try and address each one of the problems that's come up and they have been numerous. And sometimes we find that we may have solved a problem temporarily and we thought it was over and then a person comes back to us and we have to work with them quickly to get them relocated to a new location. Sometimes the witnesses agree to testify, we relocate them and they're not able to testify for one reason or another. Sometimes the defendants get out and we're back where we started all over again. So we try and react very quickly. We try and address these problems with a great deal of compassion and empathy. We've in addition recently added a DA's detective to the team that goes out to where our participants are located to make sure that they're doing well on a regular basis. Sometimes there are problems with the hotels. There's problems with the locations where we send people, and we now have that DA detective that goes out and tries to help out. Even with all those measures, even with a lot of attention, even with a lot of phone calls, even with tremendous effort both from our part of the effort within the DA's Office and from City agencies that assist us, we still find that there are problems with the issues. We come back and we still work on them as best we can.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is somewhat related, much more unrelated but I wanted to put on the record and ask you, Mr. DA, as we move forward about a few homicides, and we've talked about them before and I'd like to see if there's any updates on these. And they were the homicides of 13-year-old Jeremiah Wilcox in my District in 2022; 15-year-old Devin Weedon in my District in 2023; 17-year-old Dayemen Taylor in 2024; and also 27-year-old Kymere Carlton, which we've talked about extensively who was a City Council employee and a father of three. The three teenagers that we had discussed before, each of them were either on their way from school to school or hanging out with schoolmates. And so, I think it's a wonderful thing, obviously as we all do, that homicides are down. We are all very much grateful for the work that everyone is putting in, including the Philadelphia Police Department, your office and so many others in reducing violent crime in our city. But for those who have lost loved ones, and this is obviously just a very small sampling of unsolved cases, but those who have lost loved ones would really like to hear something about these cases. So we've discussed them before. When I see you in the future, I'm going to discuss them again. And I'm wondering if there's anything at all that you can report to us today. DISTRICT ATTORNEY KRASNER: Well, thank you for your question, Councilmember. And I truly appreciate your diligence on behalf of your constituents who have suffered losses and are looking for some sliver of justice from the criminal justice system. As for the Wilcox, Weedon, Taylor cases, I did not come prepared with a lot of details, but if you allow me just a moment to speak to our Chief of Homicide Non-fatal Shootings. Ordinarily, these are very active investigations where our office is consulted with some frequency by the Philadelphia police, but let me see if I can get you any update there. As for the fourth case, I'm not aware of any new developments in that case. We remain open. If there is any new evidence, we remain open to reconsidering that. As you know, the statute of limitations for homicide is the entire life of the defendant. So I don't want anyone to think that the door is closed with reference to these cases. And if you'll allow me just a moment to check in with my Chief of Homicide Non-fatal Shootings Unit who works closely and regularly with Philadelphia police, perhaps I can give you a little more insight on Wilcox, Weedon and Taylor.
Thank you. DISTRICT ATTORNEY KRASNER: Councilmember, I just had the opportunity to speak to ADA Joanne Pescatore, who is our Homicide Non-fatal Shootings Chief. She says that she doesn't have updates with her at this time. She will check later today and get you information before the end of the day with reference to those three cases. I will say this though. I think you have highlighted a really important issue which is that there is a feeling among many people that cases get cold and then they get closed and I think that's terrible. I think that is terrible. I think it is very, very encouraging to family members who have lost a loved one and who in general, and I don't say this to be critical of this city because it's true all over the country, but in general half or more than half of homicides are never solved. There is never an arrest. And the ability that we have now with phone technology, with DNA, with other techniques to solve cold cases is remarkable. I'll just bring one to your attention. This was someone who got away with this crime for about 30 years and his crime was the strangulation, rape, murder of a 30-year-old medical student. Well, with the help of the FBI that man is now in custody. He's charged with that crime, he's also charged with multiple unsolved attempted rapes and that is the consequence of improvements in DNA and the willingness of the FBI to work with us and work with the Philadelphia police to solve that. We would love to see more than that. I think it's awful, it is awful to have to say that in the United States with all of our collective efforts half or more than half of homicides ordinarily nationally don't get solved. I think that's terrible. So that is part of the reason that we were seeking funding to have a Cold Case Unit that would try to take new technology, new techniques and solve some of these older cases. I truly share that concern with all of you.
Well, thank you, Mr. District Attorney. I do want to just add to that, that cases involving -- you know, it's interesting. I was looking at this morning about a homicide in New York City of an executive and the amount of sort of like national attention that it got. And so, it's real when we say that depending on who you are, the level of urgency changes. It's not equally placed. And so, while I'm grateful that your office, the police department, the FBI were able to solve a 30-yearold cold case and bring justice to the family and for this victim, I also know that when it comes to particularly young African American boys and men, there is not the same level of priority or attention to those cases as there are to others. So I just want to again call their names out, bring up the conversation around them and we'll have this conversation again in the future. And I'm hopeful that at some point we'll be able to stop having this conversation because we'll be able to have apprehended and brought justice to those families as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair. DISTRICT ATTORNEY KRASNER: Thank you so much for your question. I completely share your concern.
Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. Are there any other questions for this witness? (No response.)
Seeing none, thank you so much for your testimony. We heard from all -- is there anybody else here to testify -- oh, also recognizing Councilmember Young is here for the hearing. Is there anyone else here to testify on Bill No. 241084? (No response.)
So right now we will not go into a public committee meeting. We will adjourn the hearing until Wednesday, 12/11/24 at 3:30 p.m. Thank you. Recess the hearing until Wednesday, 12/11/24 at 3:30 p.m. Thank you. (Committee on Appropriations concluded at 11:56 a.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. __________________________________ TANEHA CARROLL