Thank you. It's been moved and properly seconded that the amendment to Bill No. 130701-A be adopted. All in favor say aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it, and Bill No. 130701-A has been amended. This bill is amended and will be placed on the Final Passage Calendar for our next Council session. The Chair again recognizes Councilman Oh.
Thank you, way of brief explanation to the public, I'd simply like to say that I feel that it is important that we include the Office of the Mayor. Apparently when the "resign to run" section was placed in the Charter, which I am attempting to amend and which we had passed, I did not realize until notified by our technical staff that in the section pertaining to the Mayor's Office, it has its own limitation upon the Mayor, that if we did not address that if the referendum passed by the citizens, all City elected officials, except the Mayor, could announce and run for another office without first resigning. And so in order to allow our Mayor to run for another office without first resigning, this amendment has to be placed, because Section 3-400, which limits the Mayor to two terms, also states that the Mayor cannot run for another position without first resigning. That is the purpose of and, therefore, I move that Council reconsider the vote by which Resolution No. 130715 was adopted. (Duly seconded.)
Mr. Decker will read the title of Resolution No. 130715, which was adopted by the Council on December 12th, 2013.
Resolution No. 130715, entitled "A resolution proposing an amendment to the 'resign to run' provision of the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter so that City elected officials may become candidates for nomination or election to public office without first resigning from their City office."
Thank you. It has been moved and seconded that the vote by which Resolution 130715 was adopted be reconsidered. All those in favor say aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it. A majority of all members having voted in the affirmative, the motion carries and the vote by which Resolution No. 130715 was adopted has been reconsidered. The Chair again recognizes Councilman Oh.
Thank you, Mr. President. I offer an amendment to Resolution No. 130715. A copy of the amendment has been circulated to all members of Council. I move for the adoption of the amendment. (Duly seconded.)
Thank you. It has been moved and properly seconded that the amendment to Resolution 130715 be adopted. All those in favor? (Aye.)
Let the record reflect that there was one member opposing, but the ayes have it and it has been amended. This resolution is amended and will be placed on the Final Passage Calendar for our next session of Council. That concludes our special business for today. At this time, are there any speeches on the part of the minority? The Chair recognizes Councilman O'Brien.
I'm pleased that Mayor Nutter has enacted Bill 130723, which amends Title 6, Title 17, and Title 20 of The Philadelphia Code by replacing references to "mental retardation" with references to "intellectual disability," all under certain terms and conditions. To my Council colleagues, I say thank you. Thank you for your unanimous, enthusiastic support of this measure. Advocates and individuals with intellectual disabilities have rightfully asserted that the term "mental retardation" is both disparaging and hurtful. It is language that does not recognize the ability of those individuals that make us better by who they are and what they do every day. This change will be a celebration of those abilities. The City now falls in line with our federal and state governments, as both use the more appropriate term of "intellectual disability." The City now demonstrates that we do not accept language that is exclusionary. It challenges our citizens to think differently about those with intellectual disabilities, and it honors the valuable contributions they've made to our society. I would now like to speak about the indigent conflict counsel contract. Last week at the 11th hour, the Mayor wisely backed out of making a huge mistake with deep constitutional implications for the most vulnerable. I am glad I didn't have to go through with my plan to file a lawsuit with well-respected attorney Sam Stratton to stop the flawed plan. I am glad the Administration will start anew in an effort to provide legal representation to indigent clients when a conflict of interest exists that prohibits the Defenders Association from providing representation. But rebooting does not mean that the Mayor's vision is properly focused. Therefore, the process should move forward with more inclusive Council input. On December 4th, 2013, the U.S. Western District of Washington ruled that cities of Mount Vernon and Burlington in Washington state were responsible for the systemic deficiencies that deprive the accused indigent of their constitutional right to meaningful representation. In Joseph Wilbur versus City of Mount Vernon, the court granted injunctive relief and identified the foreseeable problems of a defective indigent defense system. The court found deprivations of constitutional rights, flaws with a flat contract fee method, and an absence of supervision and adherence to performance standards. Nine out of ten expert witnesses at our October Law and Government Committee hearing into the Administration's plan highlighted systemic deficiencies and constitutional shortcomings. Additionally, the for-profit model the City seeks to implement does not seem to reconcile with Ten Principles of a Public Defense Delivery System. I believe Philadelphia will be on the Wilbur versus City of Mount Vernon litigation path if we institute a model compromising constitutionally protected representation. Therefore, I am pushing forward on the two measures I introduced related to this issue and look forward to the early February hearing dates. One measure will establish reporting and auditing requirements for certain contracts for conflict counsel for indigent individuals. The second measure proposes to amend the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter which will require Council approval for City contracts of one year or less for the purpose of providing legal representation and related services for indigent persons. I am very comfortable staying on this course of action, because we need to preserve the constitutional rights of among us. Finally, I hope the Mayor will give Council and myself a seat at the table as this moves forward. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Councilman, and good job. The Chair recognizes Councilman Jones.
Thank you, Mr. President. Public safety means different things to different people, and we've discovered that over the last couple of years. But a disturbing new type of wave of crime is spreading throughout the City of Philadelphia, and this particular type of methodology is using utility workers' uniforms to gain access to houses. In particular vulnerable to this type of deception are our seniors. On January 10th, an elderly couple in South Philadelphia, they were robbed in their home by two men posing as it was in Councilman Squilla's district. A 79-year-old Korean War veteran was sitting in his home with his 77-year-old wife and their special needs son. Authorities say they ransacked every room and took about $2,500 in cash and jewelry that meant a lot to that couple. Just last week, a 54-year-old woman was able to fight back two impersonators who tried to rob them by using a bat. This was in the Northeast, I believe in Councilwoman Sanchez's district. They were dressed in white jumpsuits, and the couple thought that they were Water Department workers. We held a summit in 2011 called Aging in the New Age and we discussed a great many things, and one of them was how the trend of picking on our most vulnerable in the fourth quarter of life was becoming more of the trend of some of these desperate criminals. Many of our senior citizens are to that. So tomorrow, January 24th at 11 o'clock, we are bringing a committee together, Public Safety, to discuss this, and we want to do three basic things. We want to bring awareness to this new trend, how they're posing as utility workers. We want to learn how law enforcement is dealing with this disturbing trend, and then, finally, we want to find out from the PECO's and the PGW's of the world how they are providing proof of identification for their workforce, whether it is electronic, whether it is an app, whether it is an old-fashioned rotary dial-up phone. We want to know how seniors can be comfortable with that, and then provide, at the end of the day, tips to seniors on how to prevent these heinous acts from occurring throughout our city. So I hope my colleagues will join me 11 o'clock tomorrow with the utility companies to discuss this and put keep our seniors safe. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Councilman. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell.
Thank you, Mr. President. I would like to thank all of those who helped us with our yearly party for the homeless and other members in our city that we had on December 18th. This year or in December we were blessed to feed -- and Kevin Parker confirmed the numbers from Ms. Tootsie's Soul Food Cafe -- 7,500 people. We gave out nearly 4,000 toys and 50 bikes that were donated, and we took more than a thousand pictures with Santa and so many other activities. This year was the first year we even had a barber shop at 43rd and Chestnut, Philly Cuts, close their businesses and we had seven barbers who needed it, as well as the yearly face painting and moon bounce and many other activities. So we're grateful to some 30 people or more who contribute. Not only labor, but certainly people from food to dessert, where Tastykake helps us, so many private institutions, so many colleges and universities. We thank the Convention Center and how much they gave. Certainly the FOP always helps us keep our lines in order. We thank Shop Rite and certainly Fresh Grocer, and that's just to name a few, Mural Arts and many, many others. We are grateful for the opportunity to try to serve so many people in these hard times. And God always blesses us. It's like the story with the fishes and the loaves of bread. We never run out. People always have the opportunity to eat all they want, and we always have toys then and beyond so that children have an opportunity to have a decent holiday. We are grateful for So, again, we want to thank all of those who were involved in that, and we want to announce that right now in -I should have made copies for everybody -- 476, my other office, we have under Echoes of Africa, we're having a program. Many of you have met my best friend who has been in Nigeria 44 years. She is hosting a forum with students from Friends Select, and we're trying to organize an exchange program between her school in Nigeria, where she has some 3,000 students, and certainly students from Friends Select. We invite you to come by in between before we start our next public hearing. We invite you to come by to introduce yourself. There should be some 24 students from Friends Select down the street who were there, and we'd love to have you come just to greet them and let them know that you were here and so that they may be encouraged. We're even having a fashion Ba, who is head of the Fulani Association of North America and certainly owner of Kilimanjaro Restaurant at 43rd and Chestnut. So that's another exciting thing. We hope those of you who have time can stop by just to greet the kids. And, finally, we would like to say that we've been very busy. I thank Ben on my staff for working on these hearings. Jerry Jordan, who is President, as we know, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, will have a briefing -- and we'll send you a list of these, so it's okay if you don't write them down now -- on the 29th at noon. We'll have a briefing in the Caucus Room on the status of affairs per the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. And let me say that the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, they give us maybe a couple thousand toys for our people. And it's so encouraging when we have our affair, because teachers who time trying to take care of children in their classrooms and principals also give to our event so that other children who have nothing have something. So I'm very, very honored that the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers helps us and does such a wonderful job going around the City collecting toys for children in need. So that's on January 29th at noon. And on February 7th, Vincent Hughes will brief us on the state education affairs that he sees there with regard to Harrisburg and the state Senate.
On February 19th, charter school operators -- these are at 10:00, both those meetings -- will contact us and will be in the Caucus Room to voice their concerns, and we need to have a discussion about how they see this budget. I always talk about how the state created this funding mechanism from the same pot instead of separate pots to keep people fighting. And on February 26th, we will hold hearings where we will examine the current state of early childhood education in the City. Also let me mention to you, all of you received an invitation about a grand opening for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services for Philadelphia and beyond. Their field offices will open at 30 North 41st Street. It's 41st and Market in our district. So this will be for this whole city and region, immigration services will be there, which is really, really great for us since we work so much with the African and Caribbean immigrant community. And that is on the 28th at 11 o'clock. All of you have received an invitation, and this is in one of our brand new -- the only platinum building that was just opened in Philadelphia. So we will have new immigrant offices there for all of your people to enjoy, and we hope that you will come. That's February 28th at 11:00. And we will call your offices today to confirm whether or not you're able to come, as they are confirming with the feds as to who will be among us and who will be able to come. So I know there's a lot, but I'll still send you a note. And we say thank you, everyone, and we look forward to your participation. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Councilwoman, and thank you for your continued service to those most in need. We really appreciate what you do.
Thank you, com, and it is basically a negative story about our millennials that we should be very proud of. We've gotten over a hundred thousand of them in six years move into the City, 20 to 34-year-old people, mostly college graduates. And we weren't even on the map for this group prior to that for years, no matter what we did, for doing a whole lot of things right and we're not that far behind Washington and Boston, which are big cities, successful cities for attracting this population. And I think the City Administration and anybody involved in the process of getting more restaurants, better apartments, better zoning, whatever it would be, should be very proud of themselves and be congratulated. The article focuses on the ones that will leave when they have children looking for jobs. Well, first of all, it's one of those half empty/half full when we've never had the half full story. There's never been a story about all these millennials that was a positive, brag-about-it Philadelphia story, and why, whether it's the Pew study or major newspaper, they would lead with the half empty story is -- it's sad, because it didn't have to be. It could be the Chapter 2, we got to watch out, we still have to improve our schools, we still have to provide for jobs, maybe improve our business climate. This all happened during a jobless recession, first of all, that is historic in scope and a jobless recovery that we're still in. It's pretty amazing that it's very hard to get an apartment in the City in the areas that are described where the millennials want to live. It also is why we did a lot of things in our Zoning Code that are there we made, considered making sure that we keep this going. But talking about the schools in the District of Columbia and in Boston, just as in Philadelphia, people that are mobile, tend to be higher educated, have a lot of mobility, if they don't like the public schools -- this isn't something the millennials just thought up -- they move. If they can't find a good school in the City, a public school if that's what they're looking for, on the alternative one where they have to pay tuition or now charter school sometimes, it's happening in the other places as well, and it didn't just happen because of the current financial crisis. It happened when we had governors and flush economies in the City very recently, and we were still losing the same number of people because there weren't enough seats in our public schools that were attractive to people who had mobility. And you talk to people in Washington, DC. your kids hit school age, either move into the one side of Rock Creek Park where all the good schools are or you leave town or find a private school or a charter. This is not a Philadelphia story. Same problems. DC is on fire, but every city is having job issues right now. This should be a very positive story. Philadelphia has been trying to keep college graduates, attract college graduates for years and years and years and have been unsuccessful. And in six very difficult years, we succeed beyond anybody's imagination to be able to predict it, and it doesn't come across as positive first. That's all. I just think we kind of shoot ourselves in the foot a lot and kind of smack ourselves when we've actually done something good, because we're just looking for the negative part. And I hope somebody writes a positive story about this, because it's rather to people from other cities, they can't believe that Philadelphia went from zero to a hundred in this race to get this population, which is very good for any city's economy, low service requirements, no children, one or two incomes depending on how many people are in the housing unit.
And you can see what it does. Try to get a restaurant reservation in or around Center City on just about any night at a decent time. And that wasn't the case. And we just have more and more restaurants, hotels. We just did a couple of big hotels last week. The City has gotten the buzz and it apparently started in the latter part of the second Street Administration. So let's be more positive. That's all. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilman. The Chair recognizes Councilman Johnson.
Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President and colleagues, over the last week, I have been aggressively working throughout my councilmanic district on the issue of youth gun violence. Today in the City of Philadelphia we have more murders than we have days. And as a result of me working with some community organizations, at their request I created the Neighborhood Task Force on Youth Gun Violence in which we will be working in partnership with community organizations throughout the 2nd Councilmanic District as well as in partnership with the Philadelphia Police Department and the District Attorney's Office to look at a comprehensive overall action plan as we move forward and, more importantly, from the community aspect, supporting one another and challenging us to think outside the box on how we address this very, very complex issue. But I never get tired in addressing this issue, because at the end of the day when home and I turn on the news and I hear about the loss of life, either through someone being robbed or someone being murdered over something as simple as, quote/unquote, "disrespect" on Instagram and/or Facebook, it always resonates as to why I do the work that I do. And so I will continue to remain diligent and as an advocate in addressing this issue. But I also want to bring another issue that we will be working on is continuing to make sure the constituents in my district are aware of the Longtime Owner Occupant Program, the program we passed known as LOOP. In February we will be rolling out two outreach initiatives specifically to make sure that everyone who is available -everyone who is eligible to participate in the LOOP program takes advantage of it. We know in late February, individuals will be receiving their tax bills, and we want to make sure that as a result of AVI, individuals do not lose their home. We want to make sure as a result of AVI, individuals who want to stay in their home have the tools necessary, specifically long-term residents, and also take advantage of the tax payment plan that we passed through City Council as well. And so I just wanted to highlight those two initiatives. Again, early February we'll be having outreach initiatives around the LOOP program. We will continue hosting the community collaborative meetings regarding our Neighborhood Task Force on Youth Gun Violence. Thank you, Mr. President, and welcome back, everyone.
Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Keep up the hard work.
Thank you, Mr. President. I want to underscore the remarks and observations shared by Councilman Brian O'Neill. I could not agree 2,000 percent. The upside or the seeing that glass is half full, by way of point of information, the Paul Levy in the most current issue of the Center City District publication does a stark contrast on the pluses of this demographic and does it in great detail and pointing to the positive value that they bring to this city along a number of different -- or discussing a number of different factors. So struck by that article, my office has begun to take a look at this demographic, largely because I have a few of those in my office, so it would behoove me to. But to Councilman Brian O'Neill's observation, when you read Paul Levy's report, we should be encouraged in what they bring and look to see how we holding them here once they choose -- and I do mean the word "choose" -- to stay here. So kudos to Brian O'Neill's, Councilman Brian O'Neill's observations. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilwoman. The Chair recognizes Councilman Squilla.
Thank you, Mr. President. I just want to add one other thing to -- the Administration has agreed to send out new bills for the tax people who have appealed to the BRT. They had originally sent out the bills due for 2014 when the legislation that we passed here in Council said they would have to pay the previous bill amount as long as they appeal to the BRT, and the Administration has agreed to send out the new bills. Hopefully they will be receiving them if not the end of this week, next week, so to make that note. I Thank you.
Thank you, Councilman. And with that, I'd like to call on Councilwoman Reynolds Brown for a motion to adjourn.
Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, January 30th, 2014 at 10:00 a.m. (Duly seconded.)
Thank you. It has been moved and properly seconded that we stand adjourned until Thursday, January 30th, 2014 at 10:00 a.m. All those in favor? (Aye.)
The ayes have it, and Council shall stand 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 101:17 99:22 100:20 64:10 100:13 AAAA 11:11,12 activists 54:6 101:24 103:7 alternative anomaly 52:18 87:22 activities 121:21 104:3 105:9 130:14 anonymously Abandoned 18:21 122:4 109:7 112:17 amazing 129:20 12:9 91:13 acts 120:21 advantage 134:22 ambiguous 46:25 answer 50:8,9,13 abatement 55:15 add 69:3 137:13 135:8 Amen 3:19,20 anybody 69:19 abatements 67:13 additional 48:10 adverse 48:19 amend 14:13,15 128:19 abilities 114:17 49:2 87:11 advise 7:7 14:17,20 15:21 anybody's 131:16 ability 41:16 Additionally advocate 39:22 81:15,19 110:8 anymore 56:10 114:13 116:23 134:11 117:17 apartment 69:10 able 119:11 127:8 address 39:8 advocates 39:19 amended 41:14 129:21 127:10 131:16 40:15 97:3,23 114:8 46:19 47:8 apartments absence 5:5,9,19 110:14 133:23 affair 124:25 109:20,20 113:7 128:21 116:15 addressing affairs 124:19 113:8 app 120:16 academic 20:18 133:24 134:12 125:15 amending 8:15,20 apparently 110:6 20:19,24 adhere 36:11 affirmative 77:11 8:23 10:19 132:18 accept 79:25 adherence 116:16 87:9 108:20 13:16,17 17:25 appeal 41:23 114:22 adjourn 138:8 112:6 21:23 22:9 24:7 62:23 64:15 acceptance 67:3 adjourned 138:11 afford 43:20 25:18 29:10 82:4 137:21 67:10 75:3 138:16 139:2,4 affront 51:8 34:11,17 77:16 appealed 137:16 accepted 97:6 ADJOURNME...