Thank you, Councilman. Councilwoman Brown, are you okay?
Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. And I thank the sponsor of the bill for the clarity, as I felt just in doing some homework this morning that we needed that. Thank you, Mr. President.
10/24/13 - STATED - 2ND READING Thank you, Councilwoman. The Chair recognizes -- are you okay, Councilman? You're good? Okay. The bill has been read and -this particular Bill 130531-A has been read on two separate occasions. The question is shall the bill pass finally. Mr. Decker, please call the roll.
Aye. The ayes are 15; the nays are two. A majority of members present voting in the affirmative, the bill passes. Mr. Decker, would you please read the title of 130635-A.
An ordinance mending Chapter 10-700 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Refuse and Littering," by further providing with respect to the annual fee for neighborhood sanitation and cleaning services provided to owner-occupied duplexes.
This bill has been read on two separate days. The question is shall the bill pass 10/24/13 - STATED - 2ND READING finally. Mr. Decker, please call the roll.
Aye. The ayes are 17; the nays are zero. A majority of members present voting in the affirmative, the bill passes. Mr. Decker, do you have any additional resolutions.
A resolution authorizing the Committee on Labor and Civil Service to hold public hearings to examine the mistreatment of workers by LP Group 2 under contracts awarded through the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative after the workers in question have been now subject to 18 hours of hearings before the Board of Labor Standards while the City of Philadelphia has stated that they have the money available to pay the workers, introduced by Councilman Kenney.
Thank you, Mr. Chair -- thank you, Mr. President. 10/24/13 - STATED - 2ND READING I'd like to move the adoption of the resolution and speak briefly on its subject. (Duly seconded.)
It's been moved and properly seconded. All those in favor? (Aye.)
The ayes have it, and that resolution is adopted.
No. I appreciate the members' support of the 10/24/13 - STATED - 2ND READING resolution, but I have to say these are 50 men, all minority citizens, many of them, in deference to Councilman Goode, many of them are returning citizens, are trying to right their lives, have gone through eight years of intentional delay on the part of Mr. Littlepage, who is the contractor. The money is available. It's about $200,000. The City has it. They're not trying to get it from Littlepage. The City has it. Eight years and 18 hours of administrative hearings on their own time, where they have to leave their jobs to sit in an administrative hearing. I would ask the Mayor, or whoever the Mayor could direct, to write the check and pay these people what they are deserved and what they're owed. There's no reason in the world they should be held off. The money is in hand. They did the work. The contractor tried to beat the system by not paying prevailing wage. Everyone agrees that 10/24/13 - STATED - 2ND READING they're owed the money. They deserve the money. I think it's incumbent upon this Administration that talks about dealing with people who are coming out of incarceration in a fair and just way to write the check and show that they really act the way they talk. Thank you, Mr. President.
Let the record reflect that that resolution did pass.
And a resolution honoring and recognizing the 30th anniversary of Glenwood Green Acres at 1801 West Glenwood Avenue, introduced by Councilman Greenlee for Council President Clarke.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Greenlee. 10/24/13 - STATED - 2ND READING
Thank you, Mr. President. I move the adoption of the resolution. (Duly seconded.)
It's been moved and properly seconded. All those in favor? (Aye.)
The ayes have it, and that resolution is adopted.
And a resolution honoring Carol Goertzel for her achievements in service to the citizens of Philadelphia as President and CEO of Pathways PA, introduced by Councilwoman Tasco.
I move for the adoption of the resolution. 10/24/13 - STATED - 2ND READING (Duly seconded.)
It's been moved and properly seconded. All those in favor? (Aye.)
The ayes have it, and that resolution is adopted.
And a resolution authorizing City Council's Committee on Education to hold hearings to investigate the benefits of integrating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics into early childhood education in Philadelphia schools, introduced by Councilman Johnson.
That bill is also sponsored by Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell. I move for the adoption of 10/24/13 - STATED - 2ND READING the resolution. (Duly seconded.)
It's been moved and properly seconded. All those in favor? (Aye.)
The ayes have it, and that resolution is adopted.
And a resolution calling on the Committee on Labor and Civil Service of the Council of the City of Philadelphia to hold hearings on increasing access to City services to immigrant and language-minority populations, including the development of hiring guidelines and goals, and to determine progress made toward that end, introduced by Councilwoman Quinones-Sanchez.
The 10/24/13 - STATED - 2ND READING Chair recognizes Councilwoman Quinones-Sanchez.
Thank you, Council President. I also, for the record, want to thank Councilman Goode, who has helped us with some legal opinion regarding the City and its ability to provide more language access, and to the other co-sponsors, Councilman Oh, Squilla, and Jim Kenney. So with that, I move for the motion. (Duly seconded.)
It's been moved and properly seconded. All those in favor? (Aye.)
And a resolution proclaiming the weeks of October 25, 2013 10/24/13 - STATED - 2ND READING through November 2, 2013 as "State of Young Philly Week," and honoring Young Involved Philadelphia, introduced by Councilman Green.
I move for the adoption of the resolution. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded. All those in favor? (Aye.)
The ayes have it, and that resolution is also adopted.
And a resolution recognizing October 2013 as Dyslexia Awareness Month in honor of the individuals living with Dyslexia, introduced by Councilman O'Brien. 10/24/13 - STATED - 2ND READING
Thank you, Mr. President. I move for the adoption of the resolution. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded. All those in favor? (Aye.)
The ayes have it, and that resolution is adopted.
And a resolution recognizing October 21 through 25, 2013 as Juvenile Detention Centers Week in Pennsylvania, introduced by Councilwoman Reynolds Brown.
The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Reynolds Brown. 10/24/13 - STATED - 2ND READING
Thank you, Mr. President. I move for the adoption. (Duly seconded.)
It's been moved and properly seconded. All those in favor? (Aye.)
The ayes have it, and that resolution is adopted.
And a resolution honoring Dominique "Dom" Streater for her extraordinary achievements in fashion design and her victory as the 2013 winner of Lifetime Television's Project Runway for Season 12, introduced by Councilman Jones.
Thank you, Mr. President. I move for its adoption. 10/24/13 - STATED - 2ND READING (Duly seconded.)
It's been moved and properly seconded. All those in favor? (Aye.)
The ayes have it, and that resolution is adopted.
And a resolution authorizing City Council's Committee on Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Affairs to hold public hearings regarding the relationship between the Department of Parks and Recreation and the various organizations and individuals that support and use facilities operated by the Department, introduced by Councilwoman Bass.
Thank you, 10/24/13 - STATED - 2ND READING Mr. President. I move for the adoption of the resolution. (Duly seconded.)
It's been moved and properly seconded. All those in favor? (Aye.)
The ayes have it, and that resolution is adopted.
And a resolution authorizing Council's Committee on Global Opportunities and the Creative/Innovative Economy to hold hearings on the state of affairs of veterans in the City of Philadelphia, introduced by Councilman Oh.
Thank you, Mr. President. I move for the adoption 10/24/13 - STATED - 2ND READING of the resolution. (Duly seconded.)
It's been moved and properly seconded. All those in favor? (Aye.)
The ayes have it, and that resolution is adopted.
There are no other resolutions on the Final Passage Calendar, Mr. President.
Thank you very much. At this time, are there any speeches on the part of the minority?
Sorry. The Chair recognizes Councilman Green. 10/24/13 - STATED - 2ND READING
I just raise a quick point of order. The resolution that we did not move on for TIFs, I just would like to make sure that that does not have to be passed prior to the ordinance being heard in committee. I thought under TIF rules that we may have to pass that resolution first, so that we would not want to wait until after the bill is heard in committee. I just want to make sure -- we could always do that next Thursday, but we would maybe have to hear that resolution prior to the committee hearing.
Thank you, Councilman. I'm trying to find out. Hold on one second, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. That is correct. It can be done next week prior to the hearing. So we'll make sure.
Thank you for that notation. Councilman Jones, did you wish to be recognized?
You got a head start. I understand. Going back to speeches on the minority? (No response.)
There being none, are there any speeches on the part of the majority? Councilman Jones.
I'm going to say a name in this Chamber that probably 99 percent of the people won't even is Lannert Roberts. He was the first African American real estate broker in the City of Philadelphia. I bring his name up because he was named by JET Magazine as "The Blockbuster," and what he would do is take couples, sometimes minorities, sometimes Caucasian couples, and show where racial discrimination played a part in housing. He also took me under his wing and talked about real estate in a historic perspective and talked about the fact that early on, the concept of redlining came from a standard where the federal government surveyed 239 cities to create a code by which realtors, participants, insurance brokers could understand what type of neighborhood it was. So they went from a scale of one to five and then put colors on them. The most dangerous ones, the most undesirable ones were called redlined neighborhoods. that, most of them on many occasions happen to be African American. The federal government followed with FHA in 1934 and they created companion insurance to go with these respective neighborhoods, and what happened was in redlined neighborhoods, insurance was always higher, cost of housing always higher, and this was a part of -- unfortunate part of our history as a nation but our history in the City of Philadelphia. Fast forward to current date, you would think that all of these things were something to be Googled as a part of our past, but recently a study was released by the Department of Housing and Urban Development dealing with 2012 citing discrimination in the City of Philadelphia higher than the national average. Now, name calling and N words are no longer used, but subtle codes, subtle descriptions are even used to this study showed, some of the highlights, were that African Americans were 17.7 percent higher to be shown fewer options of housing in particular neighborhoods. This was true for Asians as well, that they were shown 18.8 percent times higher to be shown various housing in different neighborhoods fewer times than their counterparts, whether it was rental or for ownership. These limited options cost us. They're not just keeping the neighborhood, you know, ethnic, but it cost the individuals who are not shown those options. The study goes on to show that in those redlined neighborhoods, insurance is higher, education options are more limited, access to transportation limited, access to job opportunities limited. So a single decision of where you live impacts us in so many different ways, so many different times. Someone once said the most expensive thing in America is being poor, because you will pay far more for where you live than you would if you lived in a zip code that was favored. So the Committee on Public Safety, along with the Committee on Housing and Neighborhood Development and the Homelessness chaired by my colleague Jannie Blackwell, will hold a hearing to review these findings to see where we really are. And, sadly, the fight is not over. And a great man once said that those who cannot remember the past will be condemned to repeat it. And we intend to take a hard look at what's going on and make hard decisions as a result. AVI makes a decision. We pass bills that affect housing today, but we must keep our eye on the prize to make sure we are not taking giant steps forward and taking cultural steps backward. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Councilman. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Quinones-Sanchez.
Thank you, Mr. President. I wanted to publicly thank Pedro Ramos who this week resigned from the SRC, and I want to thank him because many times we've seen him in this Chamber and in the various meetings in our district, and he served as a volunteer during a very turbulent time at the School District. He is my personal friend. His children and mine went to school together, and he has been a public education parent and advocate, and I want to thank him for his service. And then remind us that not only is his seat vacant, but Commissioner Dworetzky's seat ends at the end of the year, which allows us an opportunity to put two new people on the SRC. And we need to be vigilant about what Governor Corbett does with these positions and the people that he SRC given our challenges. Councilwoman Blackwell today passed a resolution on the nursing situation at the District. I want to remind folks, I put on folks' desks today the Public Interest Law Center filed an official complaint at the state level Board of Education this week on Tuesday, and I want my colleagues to read this and remind them of the dire situation that exists in our schools every single day. In a public letter to Dr. Hite, Parents United put forward some points about the $45 million that recently was released by Corbett for reasons unknown, although we hope that some of the public advocacy that's going on with Phil Cobb, Councilman Green and I have joined the parents in asking for official complaints to be filed at the state, which by law must be investigated. But Parents United put forth a request about what happens to this 45 million, and I share some of their priorities, and as we last week passed our 50 million, I think it's important that the priorities by which this newly allocated money gets applied to the District is important to all of us. And I want to share in what they've called on, which is the restoration of guidance counselors to last year's level. All of us have heard the stories. It is unacceptable to have 16 roving counselors. Those of you who went to our briefing recently heard firsthand from the frustration of counselors and their numbers, which in some cases one to every 1,500 schools, with less than 600 students not having a counselor, and that is unacceptable. As the School District levels -- Councilwoman Blackwell also mentioned this last week -- there's a concern that staffing is going to be moved around the City. We want to make sure that some of this 45 million and the 50 that we hope to get to them real soon, that if we all publicly agree that the staffing levels are unacceptable, that we not just do a traditional leveling, but that we try to keep those staffing positions particularly around public safety in the schools. The no splitting of grades, this just goes against every good best practice in education, and one of the goals should be to have no split grades. As someone who attended a school where this happened years ago, I can tell you my 7th and 8th grade years were very similar because we had split grades. And that is unacceptable and should be a priority that we work towards. Obviously hiring more teachers, and while there's some legal issues around class size, we have all agreed that class size is a major issue in effective education, and so that should be also a priority. And obviously this nursing situation and medical safety of non-negotiable. So I want to remind our folks that there's still a lot of work to be done and we still have a responsibility to help shape the -- work with the District in shaping how this money gets allocated and prioritized in the District. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Councilwoman. There being no other speeches on behalf of the minority or the majority, the Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown for a motion to adjourn.
Thank you, Mr. President. I would like to offer two announcements and then move to adjournment. One, as a friendly reminder in response to Councilwoman Quinones-Sanchez's concerns about counselors, now going through the enormity of the college admissions often the anguish that parents are enduring to get it right, you should know that Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell is actually hosting an essay workshop, because that now is the new reality for young people wanting to go to college. And there are a number of pre-college form activities happening around the City, including one being offered by the Mayor's Office. Two weeks ago, I introduced a resolution for us to sit down and look at the scarcity of counselors and how the lack of them is going to contribute to the diminished number of young people who end up not applying for college for September '14. So I would ask members of the Education Committee to look forward to that hearing, because we do need to look at that in a more definitive way. Secondly, the National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day is this Saturday. It's called the National Day, and I mention that because a young man dear to a number of us in here overdosed on prescription drugs that were not his and he didn't know that they were even prescription drugs, and it just heightened our awareness of that. So if you know of young people in particular, they're encouraged to turn in unused or expired medication for safe disposal and welcomed to call a number on the website, on the Drug Enforcement Agency website. So, again, the reminder is that this Saturday is National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day. Lastly, I invite my colleagues to join us for one hour as the Chair of the Transportation Committee, Councilman Kenyatta Johnson, and Majority Leader Jones and I are hosting an hour session for the Philadelphia OIC to look at the celebration of the upcoming 50th Anniversary of the founding of OIC by Philadelphia's dearly beloved Leon H. ask my colleagues to please step in for that one hour, because that session is going to inform us on how we go forward with regards to a major initiative. With that said, Mr. President, I move that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, October 31st, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. (Duly seconded.)
Thank you. It has been moved and properly seconded that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, October 31st, 2013, 10:00 a.m. All those in favor? (Aye.)
The ayes have it. Council shall stand adjourned. Thank you all very much. ) CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. MICHELE L.