The ayes have it, and Resolution 140456 has been adopted. Mr. Decker, 140457.
A resolution authorizing the Commissioner of Public Property to execute and deliver to the 5/22/14 - STATED - 2ND READING Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, without consideration, deeds conveying conditional fee simple title to certain City-owned lots or pieces of ground with the buildings and improvements thereon, situate in the Seventh, Nineteenth, Thirty-First and Thirty-Third Wards of the City of Philadelphia.
The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Quinones-Sanchez.
Thank you, Mr. President. I move for the adoption. (Duly seconded.)
Thank you. It has been moved and properly seconded. All in favor? (Aye.)
The 5/22/14 - STATED - 2ND READING ayes have it, and Resolution No. 140457 is adopted. Mr. Decker, 140458.
A resolution approving the redevelopment contract of the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority for the redevelopment and urban renewal of a portion of the West Fairhill/East Tioga/Hunting Park Urban Renewal Area, identified by house number and street address as 4052 North Sixth Street.
The Chair again recognizes Councilwoman Quinones-Sanchez.
Thank you, Mr. President. I move for the adoption. (Duly seconded.)
It's been moved and properly seconded. All those in favor? (Aye.)
Those opposed? 5/22/14 - STATED - 2ND READING (No response.)
The ayes have it, and 140458 is adopted. Mr. Decker, 140460.
A resolution authorizing the Commissioner of Public Property to execute and deliver to the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, without consideration, deeds conveying conditional fee simple title to certain City-owned lots or pieces of ground with the buildings and improvements thereon, situate in the Thirty-Eighth Ward of the City of Philadelphia.
Thank you, Mr. President. I move for the adoption. (Duly seconded.)
It's been moved and properly seconded. All those in favor? (Aye.)
5/22/14 - STATED - 2ND READING Those opposed? (No response.)
The ayes have it, and 140460 is adopted. Mr. Decker, 140461.
A resolution approving the redevelopment contract of the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority for the redevelopment and urban renewal of a portion of the New Kensington-Fishtown Urban Renewal Area, identified by house number and street address as 2208 Trenton Avenue.
Thank you, Mr. President. I move for the adoption of the resolution. (Duly seconded.)
It's been moved and properly seconded. All those in favor? (Aye.)
5/22/14 - STATED - 2ND READING Those opposed? (No response.)
The ayes have it, and 140461 is adopted. Mr. Decker, 140462.
A resolution approving the redevelopment contract of the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority for the redevelopment and urban renewal of a portion of the New Kensington-Fishtown Urban Renewal Area, identified by house numbers and street addresses as 2103 East Cumberland, 2107 East Cumberland Street and 2501 Amber Street.
Thank you, Mr. President. I move for the adoption of the resolution. (Duly seconded.)
It's been moved and properly seconded. 5/22/14 - STATED - 2ND READING All those in favor? (Aye.)
The ayes have it. 140462 is adopted. Mr. Decker, 140463.
A resolution approving the redevelopment contract of the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority for the redevelopment and urban renewal of a portion of the New Kensington-Fishtown Urban Renewal Area, identified by house numbers and street addresses as 2423 East Dauphin Street and 2425 through 27 East Dauphin Street.
Thank you, Mr. President. I move for the adoption of the resolution. (Duly seconded.) 5/22/14 - STATED - 2ND READING
It's been moved and properly seconded. All those in favor? (Aye.)
The ayes have it, and 140463 is also adopted. Mr. Decker, 140464.
A resolution approving the redevelopment contract of the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority for the redevelopment and urban renewal of a portion of the New Kensington-Fishtown Urban Renewal Area, identified by house number and street address as 2235 Coral Street.
Thank you, Mr. President. I move for the adoption of the resolution. (Duly seconded.) 5/22/14 - STATED - 2ND READING
It's been moved and properly seconded. All those in favor? (Aye.)
The ayes have it, and 140464 is adopted. That concludes our resolutions, and Mr. Decker, read the title of 140080.
An ordinance amending Title 10 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Regulation of Individual Conduct and Activity," by amending Chapter 10-100, entitled "Animals," by providing further for the proper care and treatment of certain animals and making technical changes.
This bill has been read on two separate days. The question is shall the bill pass finally. Mr. Decker, call the roll. 5/22/14 - STATED - 2ND READING
Aye. The ayes are 15; the nays are zero. A majority of members present voting in the affirmative, the bill passes. 5/22/14 - STATED - 2ND READING Mr. Decker, do you have any additional resolutions.
A resolution daring Jon Stewart, host of "The Daily Show," to come to Philadelphia and film a week of shows to prove how wrong he was in his May 20th tirade against Philadelphia, our people, our prized Philadelphia Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg, our affinity for running up museum stairs and calling it exercise and our world class cuisine; his multiple rants against our City have finally gone too far, introduced by Councilman Kenney.
I move the adoption of the resolution, Mr. President. (Duly seconded.)
Councilman O'Neill suggested we approve it by laughter, but I don't know how we can do that. 5/22/14 - STATED - 2ND READING
We have laughingly approved and adopted that resolution. Thank you, sir.
Hold it. Let's make sure we do it official, though. All those in favor? (Aye.)
The ayes have it, and that resolution is also adopted.
And a resolution declaring June 2014 as "AIDS Education Month in Philadelphia," introduced by Councilman Greenlee.
Thank 5/22/14 - STATED - 2ND READING 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. The Chair recognizes Councilman Henon.
Thank you, Council President. I want to go on the record as recording as aye on Bill No. 140080.
Thank you, Councilman. The vote on that bill shall be reflected as being 16-0. Thank you.
And a resolution 5/22/14 - STATED - 2ND READING congratulating the Little Flower Catholic High School for Girls Swim Team on winning the District 12 Championship and Catholic League Title, introduced by Councilman Squilla.
Thank you, 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 the Committee on Finance to conduct hearings concerning the 5/22/14 - STATED - 2ND READING collection of delinquent taxes owed to the City of Philadelphia and the use of third-party collection agencies, introduced by Councilman Squilla.
Thank you, 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 honoring Stephen J. Harmelin, Esquire as the inaugural recipient of the Green Tree 5/22/14 - STATED - 2ND READING School and Services Lasting Legacy Award, introduced by Councilwoman Bass.
Thank you, 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 also adopted.
There are no other resolutions on the Final Passage Calendar, Mr. President.
Thank you very much. We will now move to our veto now reconsider the vote by which Bill No. 140094 was passed. Mr. Decker, please read the title of the bill.
Bill No. 140094, entitled "An ordinance amending Title 4 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled 'The Philadelphia Building Construction and Occupancy Code,' by amending Subcode F (The Philadelphia Fire Code), by delineating the process to be utilized by the Philadelphia Fire Department in its consideration of temporary or permanent reductions or eliminations of fire companies that provide life safety and property protection from the hazards of fire, explosion or dangerous conditions in new and existing buildings, structures and premises, and by requiring input by firefighters and emergency responders in that process."
Thank you. been read on two different days was duly approved by City Council on May 8, 2014 and was returned to Council by the Mayor disapproved at today's session of Council. The question is shall the Bill No. 140094 pass notwithstanding the Mayor's disapproval. Please note that a vote of aye is a vote to override the Mayor's veto and a vote of nay is a vote to sustain the Mayor's veto. Mr. Decker, call the roll, please.
Aye. The ayes are 16; the nays are zero. Two-thirds majority of all members of Council having voted in the affirmative, the Mayor's veto is overridden. That completes our Calendar for today. Are there any speeches on the part of the minority? The Chair recognizes Councilman O'Brien.
Thank you, Mr. President. First I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Philadelphia voters for their resounding legal representation ballot question on Tuesday. But Tuesday's results are just another mile marker on the road to doing the right thing. The next marker should be an independent study of our system and our indigent counsel representation model, and I am now asking for the Mayor's full support of an independent study of our system and our indigent counsel representation model. The fear of government unduly taking a person's liberty led to the United States Supreme Court in 1963 to unanimously declare it to be an obvious truth that the indigent accused cannot receive a fair trial unless a lawyer is provided to him at no cost. The right of one charged with crime to counsel may not be deemed fundamental and essential to fair trials in some countries, but it is in ours. The court announced in Gideon versus Wainwright, accordingly, Gideon made it states, not counties or local governments, to the 14th Amendment to provide 6th Amendment right-to-counsel services to any person of limited means facing a possible loss of liberty at the hands of the criminal justice system. Today, 28 states provide all or the vast majority of funding for indigent defense. Pennsylvania is one of only two states, Utah being the other, that requires local governments to shoulder the entire burden of providing public attorneys to the accused. Though it is not believed to be unconstitutional for a state to delegate such responsibilities to local government, in doing so a state must guarantee that local governments are not only able to provide such services, but they are in fact doing so. Pennsylvania has no such agency authorized to ensure that each and every defendant receives constitutionally adequate representation in all of the counties in Pennsylvania. be the only jurisdiction in Pennsylvania that might come close to meeting the dictates of Gideon. We have a long-established, independent, not profit public defense organization, the Philadelphia Defenders Association, that contracts with the City to provide representation. However, if you happen to be the co-defendant number two or three, you will be appointed a judicially interfered with, non-qualified lawyer, who is paid poorly and that does not have access to investigators or experts. In short, you are no better off than any other defendant in any other part of Pennsylvania. Much of these problems were highlighted in the RAND report, The Effect of Defense Counsel on Murder Case Outcomes. In December of 2012, the City of Philadelphia sought to address these deficiencies through the release of an RFP seeking an entity to handle all City. This is a significant number of cases. In 2013, there were a total of 22,443 court appointments in criminal court and juvenile court, including dependency cases. Unfortunately, the RFP was flawed because it did not outline a model that structurally meets nationally recognized standards of justice, such as the American Bar Association's Ten Principles of a Public Defense Delivery System. The use of standards in criminal justice is not an entirely new concept for government officials. After all, for many decades policymakers have ordered minimum safety standards in all proposals to build a brand new courthouse, a new roadway or even to redo the electrical wiring in one's home. Right, Bobby? Our Constitution demands that the taking of an individual's liberty or life is given the same level of concern and care. enforcement officer, Attorney General Eric Holder, called the ABA Ten Principles the basic building blocks of a well-functioning public defense system.
More importantly, the United States Department of Justice has begun to enforce the right to counsel by investigating claims of systemic deficiencies like those highlighted in the ABA Principles. For example, the DOJ has reached an agreement with Shelby County, Tennessee that will usher in comprehensive changes to meet national standards. Similar investigations are underway in Meridian, Mississippi and St. Louis, Missouri. If the findings of the RAND study are true, then Philadelphia's conflict system could become the next target of the DOJ action. To date, Philadelphia has never conducted a comprehensive professional type of conflict counsel indigent defense delivery system best meets the needs of the City's criminal, delinquency, and dependency court systems. It is prudent for the policymakers of Philadelphia to decide for themselves the appropriate model for delivering conflict counsel services rather than having something imposed on it through costly litigation. Most importantly, having Philadelphia take the lead on overcoming indigent defense deficiencies may offer a way forward for the rest of the state as well. The truth is, you can't fix something if you don't know where it is broken. This is the time to conduct a thorough systemic study by a nationally recognized consultant group that specializes in looking at indigent defense delivery systems and that has the experience to access and evaluate the current and future needs of Philadelphia's court system. collaborating with the Administration in an energized way to protect the constitutional rights of the most vulnerable indigent population. Again, I am now asking for the Mayor to support an independent study for our system and our indigent counsel representation model. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you for those inspiring words about the Charter change. Thank you for your work. The Chair recognizes Councilman Henon.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, Majority Leader. A couple housecleaning items that I'd like to get out of the way first and I'm proud of. First I'd like to recognize a few special guests that are joining us here from the District. I'd like to recognize Ms. Weiss and the students from the Maritime Charter. They stopped by to morning to see Council in action. So they are to your left, our right. I would like to ask them to stand up so they could be recognized. Thank you. (Applause. )
Also I'd like to take a moment to recognize somebody who has been a true asset in my office over the last few months. Like many of my colleagues, we have interns who take students in from the surrounding schools in the district and some that we have affiliations with. I'd like to recognize Sam Hayes, who is a student from Philadelphia Electrical Technology, which I have some affiliation with. And he has hit the ground running. As soon as he came on board, he started answering phones, handling some constituent issues, and research. Sam absolutely personifies my motto, which is a tag line in every e-mail that I have that goes out, which is "We don't wait for things to happen, happen." So I'd ask Sam to please stand up. He also is to my right and to your left. Sam, thank you very much. (Applause.)
And good luck to you. As you notice, segues into some of the things that we've been talking about, especially yourself recently in this Chamber. Our colleagues and you, Majority Leader, has made an impassionate plea for all of us to reach out to our networks to pitch companies and individuals to hire Philadelphia's youth and make it a priority, and it has been and it will continue to be, and we want -- I want to thank you and thank all those who hire interns in the City. Earlier this week I participated in the phone bank, the phone bank that supported a program called Work Ready Philadelphia, which is produced by Network, as we are familiar with. And calls went out to some of our networks, and in an hour's time, we were able to put 100 kids and our youth to work in internships to provide them with opportunities of real work experience. I followed up with some of the manufacturing, the work and the outreach that we did in the manufacturing companies over the last year through the Manufacturing Task Force and the new Office of Manufacturing and Industry. So it was well received, a great response from Work Ready, and it's been phenomenal with the calls, and the outreach on social media has produced a lot of attraction and attention to putting our youth in internships, and for those -I'll talk about the ask in a minute, but providing real opportunities. We have had tremendous response from the Philadelphia AFL-CIO and the Philadelphia building trades in taking some of the immediate response and success with the program here. So as you know, the success and statistics when young people receive summer jobs, that person becomes a productive member of society, and it's critical to their social skills and job experience. I also remember my first job really led me to -with responsibility, who has led me to an apprenticeship program, and here we are today. So you never know who you're helping. You may just help out that one person who helps out a thousand people down the line. So that is what we are investing in. So my request and my ask of all of you today, and not just my colleagues but everybody in this room who is watching, is to hire a young person. Hire a young person today. Hire a young person through Work Ready Philadelphia that could provide these opportunities. And if you don't have the opportunity to person, you can contribute to somebody that will put an intern to work, and that resource will help give the experience that our youth deserve. So I thank you all for the opportunity.
Thank you so much, Councilman. The Chair recognizes Councilman Oh.
Thank you very much, Council President. First let me just congratulate you again for an excellent program yesterday, the Annual Veterans Fair, bigger and better than ever, and I think so many people really appreciate that, and I want to recognize you in front of everybody for the level of commitment you've made from this Council body. So thank you for that.
The second thing that I do want to do is to just I have prepared a proposed amendment to the Operating Budget for everyone's consideration. I know that we are going to need to put some things on deck, and so certainly for everyone's input, of course, mostly Council President. We need a lot of tools. This budget, as everybody knows, has no hard dollars for the schools. It is depending on the possible passage of $70 million from a cigarette tax by the state and a 1 percent sales tax, which is on deck, but that is a separate matter, but even if it moves forward, there's still the issue of the $75 million. What my office has done is to analyze the budget and look at appropriations that are in excess of need. I'm not saying they're not necessary. I'm not saying that they don't have a good purpose. I'm just saying that they appear to be appropriations that are more than what that total comes to $74,160,000. And so this amendment would free up that money for an option for this Council body. What my main concern is that should things not be on deck and we come to a last-minute crunch, then we are possibly going to look at new taxes as a way of supplementing the need of the school, and I think that all of us here are certainly very concerned about adding any more tax burdens unnecessarily to the taxpayers. This is the Mayor's budget, and these reductions will be an option for us and for the Mayor to consider rather than a tax increase. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Councilman. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Tasco.
Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, after taking more than four years to arrive at PGW, the Administration is now pushing for a rush to judgment by City Council regarding one of the most significant decisions this city will ever make. People are coming out of the woodwork to support the Mayor's position, but how many of them have read the 85-page assessed purchase agreement between the City and the UIL Holdings? How many actually understand its complex details? Anyone who reads this agreement will quickly learn that it does not reveal all of the specifics of the deal. Some of the fine print is buried in other documents such as the seller disclosure letter, which has not been made public. I have publicly stated I do not support the proposed sale, in part that is because the Administration never seriously considered or evaluated other alternatives to permit the City to capture the upside benefits of owning true, we are the largest major city that still owns a gas utility, but we are also the only major city that owns a gas utility with strategically desirable facilities to liquefy and store natural gas. Therefore, we need to fully analyze and understand both the short-term and the long-term implications of divesting ourselves permanently of such a valuable asset. Given the complexity and importance of the proposed transaction, City Council would be irresponsible if we did not do our own due diligence. Appropriately, Council has retained a respected independent consultant, Concentric Energy Advisors, to assist in the analysis. Concentric began its work just over one, one, one month ago. It includes digging into the myriad details of the thousands of pages of documents that were used in the sale process. In contrast, PICA decided to approve the seven-page presentation from the Administration. Seven pages. Council is proceeding toward an informed decision with all deliberate speed, but we should not cut corners in the process to satisfy a deadline which was unilaterally set by the Administration. When the Administration tried to do the same thing with property taxes and the Actual Value Initiative, Council took the time to do it correctly with better results. As Chicago's experiment with privatization of its parking meters showed, if the responsible elected officials don't carefully examine all of the details of a transaction, the citizens will get burned. Let's not act in haste only to repent at leisure. Thank you very much. (Applause.)
Thank you very much, Councilwoman. The Chair recognizes Councilman
Thank you, Mr. President. Very briefly, consistent with the resolution we passed today naming June as AIDS Education Month, right after Council in the Caucus Room, esteemed medical researcher Dr. Luis Montaner will be discussing the strides that have been made in treating HIV/AIDS and also talking about the continuing strides for a cure. So members and staff are invited. Lunch will be served. So we hope some of you -- and I know we have a hearing at 1 o'clock, but if some people could stop over for a while, that would be great. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you so much, Councilman. And the Chair recognizes Quinones-Sanchez.
Thank you, Mr. President. I wanted to respond to today's headline that says that the are apart in school funding. That's not correct. In fact, the introduction of your bill today and the other bills presented in this Council show that we are very much in line with the need for school funding. We agree that $120 million in the school sales tax next year must go to schools. We also agree and will be laser focused as the State Legislature goes back into session June 1st that we need the 70-plus million dollars from cigarettes. We have worked tirelessly on the sale of buildings, and we're committed and continue to be committed to close that gap this year for the funding of the $61 million that we agreed to last year, and we continue to encourage the Administration to be aggressive on their tax collection revenue. We've done everything that we've committed to do. Nevertheless, we don't have the same time clock as the State Legislature, and they will to make certain decisions here in Council. I'm concerned that in this summer, we will have the same debate we had last year. Schools will be in danger of not being able to open in September because of lack of funding. Let us stay laser focused for the next eight weeks and implore the State Legislature to do everything possible to get this additional school funding for us. But also let us be prepared to say we are not opening schools with inadequate funding and a thousand less people. Those schools are unsafe, and the education of our kids is not happening. I congratulate you, Council President, and I thank my Council colleagues for their willingness always for the last four years, willingness to do what we can to do our part for school funding. Let's continue to be laser focused in Harrisburg and continue to that we support the School District of Philadelphia. Thank you.
And with that, I would like to call on Councilwoman Reynolds Brown for a motion to adjourn.
Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, June 5th, 2014 at 10:00 a.m. (Duly seconded.)
Thank you. It has been moved and seconded that Council stand adjourned. All those in favor? (Aye.)
The 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. ) A 54:13 75:24 85:15 82:11 approaches 21:22 AARP 14:7 additional 6:2 AFL-CIO 95:24 amendment appropriate ABA 90:4,12 28:16 40:15 Africa 11:25 17:9 58:21 87:3,4 37:20 91:8 abdicate 19:8 51:21 53:3 76:3 17:17 98:3 99:3 appropriately ability 52:6 105:12 African 11:15 American 17:14 18:18 101:17 able 3:20 5:10 address 22:9,14 17:11,14 23:10,22 89:11 appropriations 26:17 87:20 35:15 67:12 agencies 43:7 Americans 11:16 47:11,14,21,23 95:5 105:6 69:14 72:19 80:4 Amin 59:8,14 98:20,25 absence 7:18,22 88:23 agency 87:22 analysis 101:20 approval 6:1,20 8:7 addresses 34:13 Agenda 53:1,10 analyze 98:19 approve 76:23 absolutely 30:13 70:14 71:17 53:21 54:6,14 101:9 101:25 93:22 adequate 87:24 56:1,9,11,14,17 anchored 6:3 approved 7:2,8 academic 12:15 adhere 55:21 57:1 58:1 59:1 and/or 108:22 7:16 50:21 77:5 12:18 adieu 11:5 60:1 61:1 62:1 angry 14:25 15:5 83:3 Academies 24:4 adjacent 41:24 63:1 64:12 animals 73:17,19 approving 34:7 Academy 12:16 adjourn 106:11 aggregate 12:10 anniversary 35:9 58:21 67:6 accept 36:6 58:7 adjourned 106:14 aggressive 104:20 10:21 11:8 13:2 69:8 70:8 71:11 access 88:15 106:19 107:4 ago 14:4 26:21 13:15 72:13 91:23 ADJOURNME...