Right. Right. I would say she would be most knowledgeable to answer your questions at this point.
It would be helpful if we can have this kind of... Thank you. 123 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04
Mr. Goldsmith, just a moment. As long as you're here, does anybody else have any questions of Mr. Goldsmith? Councilwoman Tasco.
The Managing Director has been trying to meet with me. And I'm sorry we have not been able to connect. But I'm sure we will before this budget process is over.
Councilwoman, for some reason we can't hear you.
I'm sorry. I can't talk for some reason. I have a question to ask about projects that have been in the hopper while 124 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 we are consolidating and maybe closing some facilities. I'm very concerned about my facility that's been on the drawing board for many years and the community is waiting for. Since the money has been appropriated and the dollars are there, are we still going forward with my project?
I don't know if we have scheduled a meeting with you yet. We will talk about that. And those are things that, you know, obviously we want to have a discussion with you. There's been no decisions made one way or the other on that. And obviously, we want to meet with you before we would even, you know, come up with any decisions what we would do.
Are there 125 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 any other Council members who have questions of Mr. Goldsmith?
On and 50 in your department, there are appropriations for expenditures for City-wide facilities. That's on page item 51. City funds will be used for critical renovations or improvements to City-wide sites on an as-needed basis. And on there is integrated case management system. Could you explain those two items for me, please?
Okay. Thank you very much. My staff explained it to 126 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 me. That's okay.
Thank you, Madam President. I'm going to refer to Rich Tustin's testimony, the last paragraph. I want to get some information around the minority participation in capital project. And I guess I just want to start with in the last paragraph it states that 40 design contracts and 140 public work contracts, and that you anticipate another 127 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 design and 80 more public works, which means there's going to be 65 design or maybe there has been 65 design; I don't know. Is this future? Are these numbers future or are we talking about what's happening now?
Councilwoman, what that 9 refers to is to date, as of today... 10
...we have initiated 40 12 design contracts and 140 public works. 13 That's for this fiscal year. And we 14 anticipate it is what we expect to complete 15 by the end of the fiscal year. 16
Okay. All 17 right. 18 Can you tell me of the 40 design, 19 how many of those contracts went to 20 minorities? And of the 140, can you give 21 me a percentage level of participation by 22 minority firms? 23 On the back of your testimony you 24 state that there were 33 percent of 25 professional service contracts that were 128 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 awarded to minority firms. But we're not... I just need to know the breakdown here.
Most of the information I provided on my testimony refers to professional service contracts, as far as minority participation. When it gets into a public works bid or public works contract, that's running through the Procurement Department. So when you see my numbers here of 33 percent, that's the total percentage of dollar values that we spend in designing contracts, professional service contracts. I'd like to say that we also try to, whenever possible, when we put out a design contract, we like to do a hundred percent of that contract either minority, women or a non-minority firm, as opposed to splitting up and making it small percentages of individual contracts. We feel it's a better way of getting a full participation from those type of firms. We do the percentages on the much 129 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 larger projects because it's easier. There's more opportunity to subcontract out portions of the work.
Right. I understand that. And that's why I asked you how many of the 40 design contracts were issued to minorities.
I don't have that exact number, but I can get back to you. Roughly it's 33 percent. So, what we did was, we came up with a percentage based on dollar value. But it may not be exactly what you're looking for. You're looking for a number of contracts.
Okay. And I have another question, too. 130 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 I'd actually like to get more information on minority participation. We're spending a lot of money in this City, just like other cities, on capital improvements. And I don't have a sense that -- I don't have a good sense yet of how we are complying with the executive order that was issued by the Mayor and how we're actually dividing some of this work up. I'm a strong believer that public means public. Public money means public, and everybody is entitled to participate and get these contracts. What disturbs me every day when I come in and I see people working on City Hall, and I never see any minorities working on City Hall. So I'd just like to get more information about what's going on. Are we practicing what we're preaching? Are we putting things in writing that we're not complying with? And does the Capital Office or who has the authority to issue a 131 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 waiver to a contractor when they don't have minority subs on the job?
The authority to issue a waiver like that would -- on a construction contract would come through the Procurement Department, not through our department. The Procurement Department oversees minority participation on public works contracts. When we develop our list of design contracts, professional service contracts for the year, one of the first things we do is we sit down with the Minority Business Enterprise Council. We review with them all the design contracts we anticipate doing that year. And with them together, we try to come up with which firms we should solicit, purely minority; which firms we should solicit as just women or other firms. So it's done jointly with the Minority Business Enterprise Council to develop our list of projects and who we want to solicit to do the work. 132 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 We've done that in that same fashion for the last four or five years. And it works very well.
Well, I know one thing, you know. I had a playground renovated in my District. And you know, the good faith effort did not produce enough minority contractors. So, I don't know that there is... I don't know what effort goes into good faith. I guess... I don't know what effort really goes into a good faith effort because I don't see people getting contracts. And you know, I'm personally kind of tired of dealing with this because I think we should be doing what we need to do to help promote small businesses here in the City. So, I just need more information. And whatever information that you can forward, I would absolutely appreciate it. And forward it to the Chair, which is standard procedure. 133 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 But I'm particularly interested in what's going on in my District, in addition to the process for getting more minority some of the City work.
I will -- I will talk to the Procurement Commissioner and try to get from him the response to your questions, and I will forward them over.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown.
Thank you, Madam President. Before I get to my question, though, Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller's follow up. The Procurement Commissioner is not here to address those issues?
No; I'm sorry. I don't believe I see anybody here from Procurement.
And I would say 134 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 to say that it is working okay is relative. It ultimately really does depend on who's speaking, because in the eyes of a lot of individuals in this town, it's not working. And I say that because of the past year, I've received letters where the Art Museum and the Zoo -- and I'm curious to know -- the Free Library as well are thinking about expansions. And the question always I raise is, what process is in place to ensure that people of color and women are getting a fair break at these multi-million dollar contracts. So I need to know procedurally what happens when one of our major City buildings, City facilities are thinking about expansion. Procedurally what happens with regards to the Procurement Department and the head of that entity being made keenly aware that this is not optional; it's an expectation. I need to know what happens.
Well, we're going to 135 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 try to get the Procurement Commissioner or somebody -- and/or somebody from MBEC to come here.
So is that to say that the ball does not kick start with you; it kick starts with the Procurement Commissioner?
We take the project through the design. We try to incorporate and to try to get as much MBEC participation as possible during the design process. When the project goes from design to construction during the bid initiation process, we also then send the information to minority -- to MBEC, who then basically defines what percentages should be included in the construction contract. And so that -- And then, when it goes into construction, those percentages are listed in there for the contractors to 136 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 follow. And then it takes -- From that point it takes off with Procurement.
We have asked the Procurement Commissioner to come to answer your questions.
I would appreciate it. For the leaders that head up those major institutions, what role or responsibility do they have in offering up? Because for sure they identify majority contractors, GMs who don't look like me to see that they're at least considered. What responsibility and obligation do they have, with regards to recommending small business, minority- and women-owned businesses, to see that they are at least considered, not by the Procurement Department, but by the leader of that institution?
I think that's another question that the Procurement Commissioner would best be able to answer
All right. Moving on to the final question I had for the City -- our City's Planner and as a follow-up to councilman Frank DiCicco's question regarding the riverfront development -- And I'm really leaning on my experience from the strategic plan that happened around the parks and how instructive that has been for us. Is she not here?
Councilwoman, I believe Councilwoman Tasco has a point of information.
The Capital Project Office. In terms of minority participation and the design, what is the -- what is your plan? And do you have goals for minority partition in the planning and design of 138 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 facilities?
Yes, Councilman, we do. As I said at the beginning, actually before the fiscal year starts, before FY '05 will start after approval of the budget, we usually then try to put together a list of what design contracts we're going to do that fiscal year, that upcoming fiscal year. It's that stage early on before July that we usually get together with the Minority Business Enterprise Council to review all those design contracts, and we work together with them to identify which projects, what firms we should solicit to get minority participation as high a level as we can. We've been trying to, you know, do better each year on our level of participation. And it's working together with MBEC that we can do that, and we can identify which projects we can solicit only minority firms or -- You know. There are many projects we put out, 139 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 and we don't even ask for proposals from majority -- from majority firms. It's only minority firms or women-owned firms. They're the only ones we focus for those projects.
But if you have a majority firm, do you ask the majority firm, if there is no minority firm to do -- to serve as the majority, do you ask the majority to --
We do that as well. In fact, usually when we meet with the firms, we have a representative of MBEC there at the meeting with us. And they also, you know, give instructions as to how we should -- they should try to incorporate minority participation into their subcontracting in the work that they do as well. And so... And on some of the larger projects, we actually require them to have 140 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 certain levels of minority participation and women participation in their subcontracting of design services. So it's done on a regular basis and in unison with MBEC.
This is simply a follow-up to Councilman Frank DiCicco's question regarding the riverfront development. We're hearing about NTI. We hear about the planning that's happening down at the riverfront, the closing of rec centers. And I'm leaning on my experience from what the strategic plan around the parks has taught us. It's been very instructive. Knowing also that the parks haven't had a strategic plan for over 20 years. Does the City have a City-wide plan 141 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 that we're actually executing from years ago or has there been any discussion of the City-wide plan? Where are we and where might we be in that process?
I'm going to start. And Rich Lombardo might want to pipe in. This is not a master plan city. In some cities, especially cities, for instance in California, there is a state constitutionally mandated master plan with elements, that have to be updated every so often. I went to graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley. And I worked my way through graduate school working in Oakland, California, in the update of their master plan elements: Landscaping, housing, et cetera. This is not a city like that. In this City, our zoning text is the primary framework for planning. In other words, that's where we say where we want housing, where we want commercial development, where mixed use development is allowed -- 142 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04
-- where industrial development is allowed, et cetera. Overlaid on that, we also do targeted strategic plans, especially for areas of the City where land use and activities are changing radically, such as the North Delaware, such as the Navy Yard, and frankly such as the NTI plans where we're trying to revitalize inner city communities. But each one of those areas are so different, that doing a City-wide master plan that tried to develop the same criteria across the board, in my view, as a professional planner, would not work. However, you do have to have something that tells the development community what they can do where and what you're going to encourage where.
And that is the zoning text. And I should point out that we have 143 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 just finished revamping and clarifying the residential component of that text. And we're very appreciative to Council for adopting that. And we are now entering into Phase II, taking a look at commercial zoning, et cetera. And I don't know whether, Rich, you want to add anything to that. He's been around longer than I have.
That's very helpful. I thank you for that explanation.
Yeah. Just to add that, you know, planning is a continuing process. I mean, the stuff that Councilman DiCicco talked about, a plan for the central riverfront, what you see out there today -- and there's a lot of stuff out there today as a result of planning that was done about 30 years ago --
The Dave and Buster's, the Piers 3 and 5, the current proposals for Piers 9 and 11, the Chart 144 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 House, Port Side, they're all the result of planning that took place 30 years ago or so. Center City, a lot of the office buildings that were built in the late '80s were educated by the planning process, new Center City plan. We're looking at that again because it's now getting to be 20, 30 years ago that planning was done. So it's a continuing process. We do the same thing in the neighborhoods, where on an ongoing basis we are doing a number of community plans, either community re-mappings through our zoning and remapping program or community plans through our community planning division. Even in some instances the plan may only be for a block or two of a commercial strip or it may be for the entire neighborhood. And the communities vary in size. You know, there's over -- As you know, there's over a hundred communities in the City. 145 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04
But we're -- You know, it's always an ongoing process. It doesn't have a beginning date and end date, but it's always ongoing.
And since you live and breathe this, do you believe in your own professional opinion that that methodology works, that the fluidity of it works?
Well, I can add from -- You know, I worked -- spent eight years as a private consultant and worked in about cities. And I can say that the -- 16 for cities over 700,000 the master plan does not work.
The master idea does not work, because there's so many moving parts and each one affect the other. Who would have suspected, for instance, that Center City residential housing market would be so hot? But we're now taking advantage of that and moving 146 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 development outward. We could not have foreseen that or years ago. 4
Now we're able to 6 take advantage of it and update the plan, 7 as we are doing, based on conditions today, 8 looking 20 years or so out. 9 I also believe, since you asked for 10 our professional opinion, that one of the 11 reasons Philadelphia as a northeast city 12 has remained so vibrant and actually has 13 remained vibrant if you look at other 14 cities in the same class, is because the 15 diversity of neighborhood types, and that 16 there's something for everyone here. 17 And we want to continue to nurture 18 that diversity. We don't want to flatten 19 it out so that every neighborhood is a 20 rowhouse neighborhood or every neighborhood is some other kind of neighborhood. We do want to encourage, however, market rate development, where that's appropriate, and try to revitalize communities who have hung on and stayed 147 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 with us.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman O'Neill.
Thank you, Madam President. I think I probably need the Budget Director, Mr. Dubow. Good afternoon.
Let me just start out asking you to compare the total of the Capital Budget for '05 compared with '04. Just give me a feel for the different total amounts.
The '04 amount of the Capital Budget for GO supported debt was 80.9 million. This year's is 67.6. 148 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 '04 all sources of funding was 618 million, and this year's is 790 million.
So we are considerably lower on the GO supported, considerably higher on the...
Could you explain that, just in general terms, without getting too specific?
The lower is as our debt incurring capacity shrinks, then the size of our Capital Budget also shrinks.
Okay. Can you explain why our debt-incurring capacity shrinks? 149 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04
Our debt-incurring capacity is based on the value of our assessments. It's the average of the last years. It's and a half percent of 6 the average of the last 10 years. 7 So debt capacity goes up when 8 assessed values go up or when we retire 9 debt. It goes down if assessed values go 10 down or if we issue more debt. 11
Wouldn't the 12 reverse be true? Shouldn't we be having a 13 higher amount, then, because our assessed values are going on?
No. When the assessed values go up, there's an increase which is included in here. I mean --
So a one-year increase won't have as big an impact. If you have that sustained over a number of years, it 150 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 will have a larger --
What had such a big impact on the plus percent -- 7 somewhere between 10 and 15 percent 8 reduction this year? 9
When we did last year's program and we scheduled our funding out over a number of years, we scheduled this decrease. So --
Okay. Having run for election last year, I'm glad that you had the wisdom to unbalance your planning, but this year we have to pay for it.
Okay. Now, that's, you know, 10, 11, percent 4 decrease on City GO funds supported. 5 Recreation capital. The last 6 several years it's been pretty steady at 12 7 million, at least the particular part that 8 Council gets per district. 1.2 million, I 9 believe it's been, at least for a couple of 10 years. 11
So almost all the reduction or one half the reduction is in that area.
Can you explain that for me? I know we have to vote for this. It's not exactly a... honey you're 152 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 putting on the stick here. It's kind of a devastating number. So, I would just ask you if you could go into some detail on it, especially since you have such a great increase in the total funds.
Yeah. There's funding that comes out of the Managing Director's Office line.
There's funding that each Council member gets that comes out of the Managing Director's line. That's the extra... That's what --
We're talking about 500,000 per District Council member. That's 5 million total.
Which probably 153 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 is... I think we were getting more than that per District when Mayor Goode was Mayor. I'm not sure of the exact time, but... I can't remember it, so I figure it probably is at least before Mayor Rendell. Could you give us some more detail on that? I mean, just -- I think all of us have a difficult time stretching a million two each year. And I'm trying to see what the thought is about having us now go down to -- from a million two to five hundred per District. You can't get a whole lot with $500,000, particularly if you have, you know, 15 to 20 centers. Anything you could share on that, I'd appreciate it.
Well, let me try to shed some light on it. So... This decision came out of a lot of discussion. Part of it, I think, was derived from the fact that we are revamping the recreation picture across the board this year. 154 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 And the expectation was that because this was going to be a collaborative effort in some degree with Council, that Council would not have to bear all the burden of upgrades and revitalization of facilities, et cetera, that that was going to some extent be folded into an overall plan, because we are talking about enhancing facilities, some facilities as we consolidate operations, working with the School District, as Councilman Clarke said, et cetera. So I think the driver came simply from the need to have a very frugal budget. But once that was determined, some of the thinking was that instead of Council folks sort of being left out there to make upgrades out of their funds, that there would be a collaborative effort, in that we would try to right size the recreation infrastructure together.
Were any Council members, particularly District members, consulted as to whether they 155 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 thought it was a better idea because they weren't able to keep up with their infrastructure problems so they would like less money in their discretion, more money in some City-wide discretion, that would help their District? That seems to be what you're saying. I know I hadn't been consulted. It doesn't work in my District. So, for -- If it's a plan, I'm not sure who in Council is going to help. And again, we have to vote for this and defend it when we're in our Districts and around the City. And it's a pretty devastating number. If somebody sat down with a District Council member and the at-large members that have to support it and are interested in different projects, and said, well, it's only 500,000 this year, but we have this other money. And this is what we're going to fix up in this area that you're interested in or this area. I think we're going to need some specifics on that. 156 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04
And we're also going to need to analyze the specifics, to see if it isn't just engineering money out of certain Districts. I honestly, at least from the Tenth District, see it as something that's worked real fine up to now, and under the old system. And now the new system just basically takes 60 or 70 percent of the money off the table. Because that strategy of, well, we'll centralize it and take care of needs in a different way, I don't get a dime out of that. I mean, I can tell you that we can have all the meetings that we could have. There's no -- There's no way that kind of money goes into my District. And -- And it's $700,000 short, just one year item. I don't want to talk about the plan further out. Just one year... It's a devastating number. 157 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 So, I would recommend that somebody start sitting down with Council members, and I don't just mean District Council members. But that's where that particular item has worked. And I have one question, though, Mr. Dubow. The 67.6 is the amount of money we're planning to borrow. Is that the maximum amount that the City could borrow under our Constitutional obligations?
-- on the schedule. We have about 120 million in capacity. And in that -- You know, over the course of the program, it would go up or down. So we tried to schedule our -- get over the five years so that we didn't just use it all up at once.
Okay. But during that five years, will there be an increase in the 120? In other words, we didn't do anything this year, even though we could have done 120. Will it only be 158 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 120 next year or would it go up?
Oh. It varies by year. Some years it dips a little; some years it goes up, depending on our debt retirement schedule and what happens with the average of assessments, what years are falling in and what years are going off.
Well, it's not -- In the program, it's actually programmed to go down each year. Okay.
The 120 million we have in capacity right now, was it 200 last year? And we used 80.9 of it? Is that a fair number?
No, because there are a variety of things that go into the calculation, and --
Well, what was it last year, so I have some comparison?
So last year we had 80. 142 went down to 120. Okay. That's less. 5
97. Okay. 10 Is there any point where you foresee 11 that number going up in that total 12 capacity? Because it obviously was higher 13 at some point, right? 14
Yeah. In 2008 it goes 18 up. So as of January 1, 2008, that 76 19 becomes 89. And then after we assume that 20 we do 60 million that year, and it drops to 21 29.2 at June 30th. 22
I don't see it in the schedule. I'd have to look back. 160 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04
I shouldn't say ever. We had some really devastating years where we didn't have a Capital Budget back in the late '80s. But I mean, since we got back on our feet.
The schedule I have only goes back to about 2000 and it wasn't -- hasn't been that low since then.
All right. The PICA funds, are there any in the budget right now, Capital Budget?
There's carry forward of existing PICA. There's no new PICA money this year.
Because I got a few questions on that. Thank you. 161 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04
Thank you, Madam President. I'd like to... I'm going to ask this quick question, and then I'd like to go back to the area actually where Councilman O'Neill was. Secretary Griffith... First, can we figure out what the situation is with the sound system? It's got a buzz in it every time any of us speak. SOUND TECHNICIAN: I'm trying to work on it.
It's tremendously annoying. And I think we actually paid... Mr. Tustin, we paid for the system, right? Is it part of the new thing? I mean, with... Secretary, when you talked about the criteria or the analysis that you're going to go through, with regard to the centers and its best practices, some of the data I have indicates, for instance in Allegheny 162 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 West section, they've had a population decrease but the number of children under has gone up by about 40 percent. Does 5 that get factored into this discussion when 6 you start talking about what should stay 7 and what should go? 8
And also, what kind 12 of programming and what kind of facilities 13 might be needed. And we're not only 14 looking at that, but we're looking at 15 projected population 16
All right. And 17 what's the community's role in any of this? 18 When do they get to participate? Or they just get to see the list when it comes out?
Well, I know that the Managing Director's determine that the first step would be consultation with Council members. And I would assume that if Council members at that point feel that there should be community folks in the 163 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 room, that that could also happen. But I would... Again, the Planning Commission is not the driver of this process. So we... What we'll do is get the Managing Director's Office to respond to the Chair.
Okay. Mr. Dubow, let's talk about the $5 million, your response to Councilman O'Neill's questions. The budget book indicates 4 million political on , but you said it was 5. Now, is that additional million coming out of the MDO, , item number 1, 1.
So are you saying now that of the $3 million in that line, Council's getting a million?
Then why don't we just make it... Why don't you just... I think the path that Councilman O'Neill was going down -- not that I agree with the 5, but... I mean, why don't you just put 164 Whole - Bills 040257, 040258 - 4/5/04 in the lines what they're supposed to be for the Council in the first place, as opposed to the more circuitous process of, well, we know we have 4, and then we'll go chase around and try to -- not that he's inaccessible -- but try to convince the Managing Director to give any one of us some X thousands of dollars for a particular project, as opposed to at least knowing... I mean, as, again, the Councilman laid out, when it was a million or 1.2, you knew what you had, you managed your money, and life went on.