COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON FISCAL STABILITY AND INTERGOVERNMENTAL COOPERATION - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, October 28, 2009 10:35 a.m. - - - PRESENT: COUNCILMAN DARRELL L. CLARKE, CHAIR COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE BLACKWELL COUNCILMAN FRANK DiCICCO COUNCILMAN BILL GREEN COUNCILMAN CURTIS JONES, JR. COUNCILMAN JAMES F. KENNEY COUNCILMAN BRIAN J. O'NEILL COUNCILWOMAN MARIA QUINONES-SANCHEZ COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO COUNCILWOMAN MARIAN B. TASCO RESOLUTION 090540 - Resolution authorizing Council's Committee on Fiscal Stability and Intergovernmental Cooperation to hold hearings regarding the City of Philadelphia's receipt, allocation and utilization of Federal stimulus funds... - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services Eleven Penn Center 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 2
Good morning. This is the Committee on Fiscal Stability and Intergovernmental Cooperation. Mr. Carter, would you please read the title of the resolution.
Resolution 090540, a resolution authorizing Council's Committee on Fiscal Stability and Intergovernmental Cooperation to hold hearings regarding the City of Philadelphia's receipt, allocation and utilization of Federal stimulus funds pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Thank you. We have established a quorum. Committee members here are Councilman Kenney, Councilman DiCicco, Councilman Jones, Councilman O'Neill and Councilwoman Tasco. Also in attendance are Councilman Green, Councilwoman Sanchez and that is it for -- I'm sorry, and Councilman Rizzo. 3 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 Before we start with our first witness, before we start, I just wanted to say first thanks to everyone for coming. It's good to see the Administration brought its full team. We will hopefully get you back to work as soon as possible, because we know you got a lot of things to take care of for the City of Philadelphia. One of the things that we wanted to establish, so we're clear today, is, this is not a "got you" moment. We essentially would like to know where we are as it relates to our ability to maximize the opportunities that present themselves. As you know, the American Recovery Act is -- I'm now told we should call it not the stimulus bill -- probably has been the largest infusion of cash that's made available to municipalities across the country in history, and there is no guarantee that there will be a stimulus II. So what we want to make sure is that we're doing 4 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 everything necessary. We as a Council want to make sure that we're here to provide assistance to the Administration and any other departments or quasi-government departments that have opportunities to implement programs and ultimately create much-needed jobs in the City of Philadelphia. So with that, I'd like to say that I would like to call the first witness. Mr. Joseph Casey from SEPTA. (Witness approached witness table.)
Good morning, Councilman Clarke and members of the Philadelphia City Council. My name is Joe Casey, General Manager for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, otherwise known as SEPTA. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before the Committee on Fiscal Stability and Intergovernmental Cooperation to speak about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, ARRA, and SEPTA's 5 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 stimulus work in Philadelphia. Our capital program focuses on improving service and customer amenities by modernizing our stations and infrastructure, some of which date back to the 1800s. Each year the number of projects SEPTA would like to complete exceeds available resources, so the federal funds were very much welcomed. In Philadelphia, SEPTA has nine stimulus construction projects, and we are purchasing additional hybrid buses that will operate on City routes. Our largest stimulus-funded project is the rehabilitation of the Girard and Spring Garden stations on the Broad Street Line. Originally constructed between 1924 and 1928, these stations will undergo complete modernization, including new wall, floor, ceiling finishes, energy-efficient lighting, improved safety and communication systems and elevators for ADA accessibility. Among the contracts awarded for these stations 6 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 are six Philadelphia firms, including prime contractors for general, mechanical and the electrical work. The other Philadelphia projects include improvement to the nine Chestnut Hill East stations, improvements to seven Chestnut Hill West stations, improvement to the Fox Chase Regional Rail Station, a LEED-certified project, and track work at the end of the Broad Street Line in the Fern Rock Yard. Also, we are including upgrades to the trolley control systems on the subway surface cars. Each project is creating much-needed jobs in construction and manufacturing sectors. SEPTA stimulus work has created a range of contracts providing opportunities for large and small contractors with a multitude of construction skills and trades. To ensure participation of disadvantaged, minority and female contractors, in February SEPTA hosted a successful seminar and networking 7 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 session, and bids to date have resulted in the DBE participation rate exceeding percent. 5 SEPTA is proud of its stimulus 6 program and our achievements to date. We 7 received a total of $191 million in 8 stimulus funds. In less than four 9 months, more than 75 percent of the 10 contracts were awarded, and currently 91 11 percent of those dollars have been 12 awarded, and by December, a hundred percent of the SEPTA stimulus projects will be let. SEPTA has demonstrated a longstanding commitment to build and strengthen Philadelphia and our region through delivery of transit services, investing in our infrastructure. I look forward to continue working with members of City Council to enhance the vitality of the City of Philadelphia. And I'll entertain any questions.
Thank you, Mr. Casey. Thank you for being 8 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 available. Briefly, I just want to ask a question centering around the participation. I know during the course of the debate as it related to the availability of these dollars, there's been some question as to whether or not the federal regulations surrounding participation goals superseded local goals. SEPTA is a regional authority, we understand, state created. In terms of your goals, was it your understanding that the federal regulations traditionally guiding the GAO contracts superseded SEPTA's local or were you able to -- or did that --
Yes. These were federal dollars, so all the federal regulations applied, including purchasing regulations and the DBE percentages.
Yes. Yeah. We 9 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 tried to -- again, we try to encourage DBE participation. That's why we had the outreach program. The program basically tried to partner the DBE community with the prime contractors, and we had well over 150 companies attend, and we plan on doing that semi-annually now. We had our second one last month. Basically not on stimulus projects, but on upcoming capital projects that will be starting in the next six months.
Okay. Great. Councilman DiCicco. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, Mr. Casey.
Good morning. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Several months ago I believe you were here and we had a discussion at that time as it relates to either purchasing the hybrid buses or going with light rail trolleys. I think you may recall that conversation? 10 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540
Yes. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: At the time, I had asked that you look into or have some conversations with people, maybe even in Washington, as a result of the new Obama Administration and its efforts to go green and create more sustainable means of transportation. We're still purchasing hybrid buses, buses run on fuels, different types of fuels. Where are we? Are we really looking seriously? I've been wasting my breath for the last ten years around here about getting more trolleys and replacing buses. Could you give me a sense of where we are with this stuff?
Yeah. One of the reasons why we purchased additional hybrid buses, because it was stimulus project -- it was stimulus money and we had an option on the current order. So it was easy for us to expand the fleet. As you're aware, last week we extended services throughout the region, 11 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 including more frequent buses, so we were holding onto the older buses to expand the fleet, but this allowed us to infuse those buses. But in answer to your question, we are looking down that road. There was just a meeting Monday with Senator Specter and DVRPC talking about a trolley route down Market Street, and that seems to have some support. But we are continuing to look into that, and Rina Cutler is here from the Mayor's Office and I'm sure she can -- I don't want to put words in her mouth, but her intention is to put more trolleys out there. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: And I just repeat from memory I think what I talked about is, when you do, using a trolley as an example, a lot of those substations that are throughout the neighborhoods have been shut down.
Yes. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Where those substations were supporting power 12 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 to particular -- I use the 23 as the example.
Yes. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Those are opportunities where not only would we create immediate jobs to get those places back up to operations, but to become sustainable, because there are people going to be needed to be employed to maintain those, and I think that's what the stimulus was about, not just the infusion of money now and it goes away. In addition to the environment, environmental issues, do trolleys and the electric that is needed to generate the power for trolleys, does that environmentally impact this more negatively than buses? I don't think so, but...
I do not think so, no. 23 COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: So I just kind of want to reemphasize the importance of the trolley systems. And 13 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 from my experience talking to people, ridership seems, from other municipalities who have purchased some of our trolleys over the years, ridership has gone up, because people --
Yes. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: -- feel more comfortable on a trolley than they do on a bus.
That's correct. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: But you are looking into that, aside from the market --
Yes, we are, and if you want, I can have a separate meeting with you as we progress. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: If you think I could be helpful. And trust me, I know several of my colleagues represent the neighborhoods where the line goes 22 through, because, as you know, it goes 23 from one end of the City to the other, and if there's any community support that you need, I'm sure we'll be able to get 14 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 that.
Thank you. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Thank you. No further questions.
Thank you, Councilman. Let the record reflect that Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown has joined the Committee meeting. Councilman Jones and then Councilman Kenney.
Several months ago we had an opportunity to invite you and other utilities to a Caucus Room briefing. Deputy Mayor Cutler was kind enough to convene that group to give us a heads-up on the stimulus program and what was coming down the pike, and I want to thank you for staying vigilant in that regard, segregating a lot of the stimulus 15 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 information impact and providing that kind of information to us, and I want to make that as a part of the record. The Chairman, who was kind enough to convene these hearings, stated early that this is not a "got you" moment, but what we are trying to do today is to see if we "got it" moment and to see if we can use best practices, similar to what you're doing to spread throughout government. And one of the questions I heard in your testimony and wanted to just reiterate it, as a result of the stimulus dollars, you've done regionally about 40 projects, is it safe to say?
It's a total of 32 projects. We started with 26. Because we were early with the contracts being on the street, we received very favorable prices, we were able to add additional projects. So it's a total of 32 projects.
How many of them are actually in Philadelphia? 16 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540
Nine of those projects. And out of the 32 projects, how many jobs were actually created?
We know how many construction jobs were out there. There's in excess of 300 jobs, construction, but that doesn't include the manufacturing jobs. One of the major benefitters of our stimulus program was track and steel manufacturing. A lot of that steel comes from Steelton, PA just south of Harrisburg. We purchased track work for the Media-Sharon Hill, the Fern Rock Yard and other projects. So a lot of that beneficiary, the manufacturing jobs, were not in that number. (Witness approached witness table.)
And also in conjunction with that, a lot of the construction projects are really starting this fall. So they are not in our 17 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 number. So we expect to easily double that within the next month or so as far as construction jobs on the property.
Good morning. I'm Lillie Claitt. I'm the Director of the DBE program at SEPTA. SEPTA is working with the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition to collect data from the contractors on their jobs. And of the 12 active projects that we have, we 13 currently have a total of 331 people 14 working on the project. For the State of 15 Pennsylvania, we have a total of 215, and 16 in the City of Philadelphia there's 61 17 people working on these projects. 18
So are these 19 retained jobs, new jobs based on 20 construction? These are 21 construction-related jobs? 22
All right. How much participation by way of minority 18 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 and female companies is associated with the stimulus money and these projects?
In terms of the companies or are we looking at the jobs; for example, minorities and female? I'm sorry.
The subcontracting/prime contracting opportunities created by the stimulus projects.
Yes. For minorities we have a total of 71 subcontracts that have been awarded so far, and of those 71, we have 48 DBE contractors that are participating. We have several that are working on multiple projects.
And what is the total dollar volume of those subcontracts?
A little over 14 19 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 million.
Quick summary. How much stimulus money came in through the various sources to SEPTA?
Based on these awarded projects that I'm looking at for the construction contracts only, we're looking at $114 million, a little over $114 million, and of that, 12.42 percent of that, or the 14,193,000, for example, is for DBE, the DBE participation.
So that's 20 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 the purpose of the stimulus money?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First let me say for the record that I think you guys have been really doing an excellent job in running the system. As a regular user of the system, mostly in South Philadelphia, it is on time, it is clean as possible, considering the negligence of some of our riders and their habits, but anyone who goes to the sports complex and doesn't take the subway is crazy. It runs every eight minutes or less, and it's really been just a pleasure dealing with it. I want to go back to Councilman DiCicco's comment relative to -- I like trolleys. He loves trolleys. And I live on the 23 route. 21 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 What is the situation relative to your inspections of your emission systems? Because one of the biggest complaints I will get, even in my own household, is that it's difficult to keep the windows open, because I'm at the end -- I'm three-quarters of the way down 11th Street at Tasker. So when the bus is idling and starts back up again, sometimes you get this big puff of black emission that is really -- is what the problem is, from my perspective, because it does create a real breathing issue and a dirt issue, and I'm wondering how often you guys inspect and repair or replace those emission systems. Some buses do it and some don't.
We do it all the time, and obviously as we get the new hybrids, you'll see less and less of that. But I will tell you, since buying cleaner fuel and changing the filtering system on the vehicles, that black smoke has really dissipated, almost 90 percent 22 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 reduction in particulate matters since the late '90s.
And, again, if you're driving behind a bus or you're outside and a bus goes by, it's not every bus. It just seems on an occasion you get that, and I usually call it in to Frances to see if they can get something done with it, because I just -- so you think at some point in time with the replacements and with some of these improvements that that's going to go away?
It has to be a carryover, some of the old buses that are still on the route.
The other issue that's been raised over the years, and it's something that you see when you live along a route, obviously in the morning or rush hour, the is jammed 23 with people sitting and standing. In the evening when it's coming back down south, it's jammed on 12th Street with people 23 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 sitting and standing, but a lot of the day, midday, early or late evening, that bus will go by with one or two people on it. Has there been any look-see at buying smaller buses that work on the off-peak hours, both for maneuverability and fuel efficiency and all the other factors?
Yeah, we have, and as a matter of fact, we're actually -- we did that in the mid '90s, purchased some smaller buses. What we found is, they were not as reliable.
Yes. And we just didn't get the benefit of it that we thought we would. And especially with the price of gases going up in the last couple of years with the increased 24 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 ridership, we found that we really didn't have the need for those buses on most of the routes.
Have you seen a drop in ridership relative to the gas price fluctuation? I'm talking about the regional rails, too.
Not necessarily the gas prices, but we're seeing with the economy. And we were strong, very strong, through March, and since March, April, it's been down. We're currently about five percent less than --
Mr. Casey, briefly, if you can, can you talk to me 25 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 about the process? Like you heard about the stimulus program, as it was called at that time.
Can you kind of walk us briefly through the process? What was SEPTA's response? Did you put together a team or did you direct certain --
A lot of the credit for our program really should be extended to our engineering group and to our purchasing group. We knew the federal regulations still apply. We still had to solicit bids and proposals. But when there was talk about a stimulus program in October and November, we started. We started the engineering. We cleaned up some of the projects that had to be completed at the engineering before the ARRA funds --
Well, we already 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 had subcontractors. We have some open contracts that we allowed the contractors. And we took a risk. We took a risk that perhaps there wasn't money, but we thought it was worth the risk, so we got those projects ready to go. So as soon as the bill was passed, we more or less hit the street running.
So let me understand. The engineering firm put together the process for responding to the NOFAs?
Getting the projects ready on the street. We got the purchasing department ready to hit the street running.
As soon as we got the bids, we had the DBE and getting the partners together, and we put the bids on the street, and, as I said, within four months, 75 percent of the contracts were awarded. 27 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540
Did that firm -- it may be a little -- let me ask this question: In terms of the grants that were made available to SEPTA, were they competitive or were they grants that came to the --
It was a fixed amount. We actually had projects, and we were preparing for a program that was really double that, 400 to 450 million.
So it was essentially you figuring out how to get that 191 --
Well, they always said, use it or lose it, and one of the things that -- my goal, we're certainly not going to lose any money, and if someone did lose money, we were going to be first in line to grab it up for the region. 28 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540
In terms of the money flow, are you involved in a reimbursement program or invoice program? This is a question about the money flow, because I've heard on CNN sometimes some municipalities and other entities saying that we're ready -- actually, even in the junker, the car junker deal, that people say they haven't gotten their stimulus money. How is that working with you guys?
We're working fine. The FTA, the regional FTA, was very cooperative with us. That's the other partner in here where they really got the grants approved very timely for us.
I'm sorry. 29 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 I forgot before I ended my conversation with you prior, I wanted to congratulate you also. Yesterday you guys, I think you're aware, that you won a General Building Contractor Association Award for design. I think it's 63rd and Market Street Station.
I was a judge for the award ceremony. But it's a beautiful station and it's all environmentally sustainable and it really is attractive, and it's a nice piece for the community out there. So I just wanted to congratulate you on that.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to follow up on questions you were asking about the 30 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 process within SEPTA. Mr. Casey, you have done quite well compared to other transportation authorities around the country, and I think you have even won some kind of award for or a lot of national recognition for the fact that you were ready and prepared and got a lot of money up front before anybody else knew what was happening. You talked about hiring an engineering firm and getting them to identify shovel-ready projects, put them on the list, have the grants -- but can you describe the other internal processes? Did you have a team within SEPTA that you put in charge of it? How many staff people did you assign to this?
You know, if I can, I'd like to introduce Bob Lund. He's the Chief Engineer. He was the man behind the program, if you will, for these construction projects. And, Bob, can you address that, please. 31 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540
So you appointed from your process, you appointed Bob to be in charge of this and --
He was the stimulus master. (Witness approached witness table.)
Good morning, Council. Our Chief Engineer and Assistant General Manager Jeff Knueppel had -- he knows the system very well. He knows the needs of SEPTA. He's long-range planning. When this first was identified as a possibility, he set up what are the key areas that SEPTA needs to address that we didn't have funding for, and then he came up with the list. And as Mr. Casey said, it was about a $400 million list. We were trying to think positive. 32 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 Of that, I was assigned to get all the engineering done. And it was a combination of doing engineering with both our in-house forces as well as our general engineering contracts with various tasks. And it was a push where everybody, through the Christmas holidays and into January, worked around the clock to get the projects ready to hit the street for bidding.
Bob, that's my question. Who is "everybody"? How many SEPTA staff people were involved in this project? How many external consultants were involved in this project? How much time, resources, money did you devote to making sure you were ready?
We had four engineering firms that did various tasks depending on -- probably a dozen people for each engineering firm. In-house we had three or four engineers and architects, as well as our contract 33 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 procurement officers and our project controls, and that would be another dozen.
-- devoted to this? Does that include grant writers or other people?
Well, we had the purchasing and probably about four or five purchasing people.
And two grant writers. But these are all people, staff, that did this up and above their 34 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 normal --
I understand, but within SEPTA, you had, it sounds like, internally at least 6 people working on this, between grant 7 writers, internal engineers, purchasing 8 people -- 9
-- people 11 supervising the external engineers. And 12 you had upwards of 45 external engineers 13 getting you ready? 14
Thank you, 23 Councilman. 24 Any other questions for these 25 witnesses? 35 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 Councilwoman Brown.
During budget hearings, SEPTA showed, in a very serious way, how serious you are with regards to MBE/WBE participation, and as I look at new information that I have and what you have done in a very strategic and thoughtful way around the stimulus dollars, it's my estimation that you have set a gold standard. So our hope and expectation would be other entities, both governmental and non-governmental that will have access to these dollars, will listen carefully to how SEPTA has skillfully figured out how those dollars are spread across the board for women and people of color. So we need to acknowledge that and wave the banner that we have a major enterprise organization in Philadelphia 36 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 like SEPTA who figured it out. And as we listen to forthcoming testimony, many of us here will be looking to see how close they have come in making sure that women and people of color have access and opportunity to those stimulus dollars.
Thank you. I will say, Lillie Claitt was largely responsible for that, but I think it's important -- I mentioned earlier when we had this bringing the contractors and the DBE community together and the prime contractors together, it was very successful. And it's not only for the DBE for the opportunities, but also for the primes to develop relationships for bidding on future projects. And that's been very successful, and I do plan on doing that twice a year as we go forward.
And please continue to keep members of Council informed of those opportunities for those dots to connect, because we have individuals and organizations and 37 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 businesses that come to us often looking to see how they can penetrate and access large organizations like SEPTA.
Thank you, Mr. Casey. Thank your team. Thank you very much for your good work and continue.
Our next panel will be from Philadelphia Housing Authority, Mr. Clarence Mosely and Monique Delapenna. (No response.)
Okay. I think we waited long enough and we are here able to determine that the Philadelphia Housing Authority is not here at this moment. They've indicated that they will be here, so we'll wait. Mr. Michael Masch from the School District had a pressing matter. He has actually forwarded his testimony. 38 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 We will not read it here today, but it will be entered into the record. Right now we will have Panel II, Mr. Tommy Massarro and Ms. Barkha Patel. Did I screw that up? Barkha. I'm sorry. These are individuals that City Council had gotten to do some research on some of the programs for us. There is a book, a work product, from that that can be made available. Right now we don't have enough copies to make them available to everyone. We wanted to make sure the Committee members had them. So if you can briefly just give us information on some of the findings. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
My name is Barkha 39 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 Patel.
Please pull the mikes a little closer to you guys. Thank you. Please proceed.
In order to review and assess the efficacy of the City's efforts to solicit, secure, execute and accurately report federal state Recovery dollars and projects, I interviewed and conferred with the following sources: 14 members of the Council, senior members of the City Administration and their Recovery team, federal executive and legislative officials, state officials, executive and legislative, actual or prospective private or non-profit applicants or prospective partners for the stimulus, and a variety of individuals in the public and private sector who were involved in economic development or the 40 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 Recovery. The status of Recovery funds in the City is in the report, Mr. Agostini's report and also a report that I prepared for the Council that's in your package. You asked me, Mr. Chairman, to focus on a summary of the key findings, the challenges and problems that face us and some of the strengths that are in front of us. I'll start with the challenges. There are several serious impediments to a more effective solicitation, formulation, evaluation, submission, lobbying, receipt, execution and reporting of federal Recovery dollars. More importantly, there are significant inauspicious indicia that the City's Office of Economic Opportunity efforts substantially lack significant strategic insight and administrative potency. The most serious challenge that I encountered in interviewing an array of people is that there has been a lack of a 41 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 consistent, clearly identified Chief Recovery Officer. There are several serious impediments to a more efficient and bountiful solicitation of federal Recovery dollars, but all of them germinate in the fact that the Administration admits its eight months of appointments, resignations, vacancies, acting appointments, interim officials and/or unannounced appointments to this critical post. It was troubling to conduct over 50 interviews, members of Council, civic and corporate leaders, members of the Mayor's Administration, senior staff to our Senators and Congressmen, City Hall reporters, leaders in the construction and capital finance industries, state Recovery officials and current or prospective Recovery grant applicants and find that not one person knew who was or who has been the City's Chief Recovery Officer. There's been a series of 42 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 people. I identify them in my report. And this lack of consistent leadership, the lack of a clearly identified point person has been the largest impairment to the City's effort. The best analogy I could offer is, the City gets some money by formula, but the bulk of it is competitive. Other cities have had one person on the track, eyes fixed in front of them, sprinting ahead. We've been keeping our eyes down, passing batons four or five times. That slows you down. So if we could get one person, continuous focus, build up a snowball of knowledge, snowball of relationships in Washington, we think that's the critical element to improve the City's effort. Second major finding is, there's a lack of a transparent interdepartmental central Recovery team under the direction of the Chief Recovery Officer, and their entire job is to oversee and manage, to solicit 43 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 prospective applicants, to help formulate prospective applications, to analyze them, to submit them, to advocate and lobby in Washington, to execute them, to maximize the retention of Philadelphia residents and Philadelphia firms, and to adequately report to the federal government. We are eight months of the City's Recovery efforts, and various City officials have been or still are unilaterally formulating, submitting, expending and reporting on our projects without the prior review, knowledge or consent of top City officials and the Chief Recovery Officer.
This chaotic diffusion of responsibility increases the prospect of administrative conflict, erroneous fiscal accounting, duplicative managerial effort or the debilitating impression of chaos to critically important federal and state officials from both branches. The ongoing failure to compose such a central group, 44 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 centrally led, has meant the lack of a uniform, consistent and experienced enriched application review. The third principal finding -- and this is really job day one. The reason there is a stimulus from the local point of view -- from the federal point of view, it has two objectives - to restimulate the federal economy and to strengthen this country environmentally and economically. Locally, there's only two objectives for the federal stimulus money. The objective is not to help even the recipients. There's two objectives. The first objective is to hire local residents and to retain local companies. That's the whole reason for the program. That's the only way this city will grow out of its decline. We've spent the last year balancing, rebalancing diminished resources. The stimulus is the opportunity to expand your resources to 45 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 grow. So job one, day one, the first time someone mentions, I'm interested in talking to the City about a project, the first thing is, we're very interested to see how your project will retain Philadelphia residents and how your project will engage Philadelphia companies, and the extent to which you do that well means you will be very high on our priority list. The extent to which you are indifferent to that or don't address it, you will be lower on our priority list. So the third -- and this is -- again, it's the heart and the soul of the stimulus, the retention of local residents and the retention of local companies, particularly women and minorities and people who are disadvantaged in the economy. I could not find one project where the City's OEO Office took a prospective application, prepared or reviewed a takeoff of labor, material or 46 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 contractual needs and then matched it with the City's database. Okay, you need concrete, you need excavation equipment. Here's a list of Philadelphia companies that do concrete. Here's a list of ten jobs they did, this site, that site, the amount of the contract, this site, that site, the amount of the contract. To give that information, day one to start giving that, to put that in the mind of the sponsor. Achieve and focus the objective of your institution, your museum, your school, whatever it is, but keep in mind the purpose is to retain Philadelphia residents as employees and as companies. That has to be day one when an applicant comes in. First stop has to be the central team in the OEO Office. What kind of things are you going to need in your project, and we'll start to identify Philadelphia firms, particularly ones owned by women and minorities that have been left out. 47 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 Of the major building trades unions, I could not find one where the City has started negotiations, submitted a proposal to these unions to maximize the assignment of unemployed Philadelphia residents from the membership base of these unions. It's a regional membership base. They have between and 40 10 percent of their men and women out of 11 work. So what we have to do is say, 12 Okay, you have 100 of your union members 13 out of work. Forty of them may be 14 Philadelphia residents. Fifteen of them 15 may be female or minority. If we are to 16 submit a proposal with you, we want you 17 to give us preference that you will send to this site in Philadelphia Philadelphia workers. That's what we're asking you to do.
And if the City can collaborate constructively with the building trades, we will get more of these grants, which will help the building trades, and we will have more of our people back to work. 48 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 It doesn't require getting into the longstanding debate in this town about the membership components of the building trades. We will accept the membership as is, but of the members of the union that are sitting home unemployed that live in Philadelphia, I believe this city should only submit applications where there's an agreement that those people will be given priority for assignment to these jobs. If we do not work to focus on the engagement and the retention of Philadelphians and Philadelphia companies, there is no reason for this money to come to the City. It will not benefit. It will not replenish our tax coffers. It will not lower our unemployment rate. I take exception to the belief or the assertion of some prominent Recovery officials that it's too early to get into that. It's a lot closer to being too late. I'll give you an 49 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 example. The Art Museum, they've applied for a very important project. I believe it's 35 million of stimulus money. They have about 58 people apply for money. A lot of it is transit improvements between the new Pearlman Annex and the Museum. That's a great potential project - excavation, concrete, curbs and sidewalk, landscaping. We have Philadelphia companies. We have Philadelphia minority companies. We have Philadelphia women-owned companies who have done that work and have a great track record. They need to be alerted first. They're going to plant a lot of trees and shrubs. We have a beautiful program with Philadelphia Green in the prison to train men and women to do landscaping. Let's engage them there at the Art Museum. And we have young people in the City, Youth Build. It's a great program. I hope the general contractor there will reach out to Youth Build and 50 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 see how we can engage some of our young people. I hope the landscape architects will reach out to CHAD, the Charter High School for Architecture and Design, and engage some of the students there. So there's a whole range, there's a myriad ways to engage Philadelphians. We have to stretch our minds. We have to find ways to do it. So once we get this money, I feel the most compelling challenge we have is to maximize the engagement, the employment of Philadelphia residents and Philadelphia companies. In reviewing the Administration's efforts, there are also many positive and substantial elements which can enhance the City's capacity to solicit and secure this money. There is a lot of good thinking going on, as well as some deficiencies. The most salient observation I might make is that there's a lot of thoughtful inclusion in designing these 51 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 project components to enhance environmental quality and sustainability. If I talked to eight people in the Administration, seven of them, that's one of the first things that they mention. They're focused on that, sustainability, environmental enhancement. That's a good thing, and that's the kind of consciousness we really need in terms of employment the same way. There's a very high consciousness of the imperative of timely, accurate and transparent reporting to the federal government. The Mayor's appointment of Steve Agostini reflects a recognition of the absolute imperative of compiling and submitting accurate, timely and transparent reporting to the federal government. When I speak to the staff, not the Deputy Mayors, their own staff people, they're very, very conscious of that, and that's a very important thing. If we don't have good reports, the spigot 52 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 can be closed. Three, one can observe increasing horizontal collaboration among City departments and agencies.
While I feel there's a problem vertically in terms of bringing this from the disparate elements to a central place, there's very good working relationships horizontally in the government. With the passage of time, some effective mechanisms are evolving or are already in place to thoughtfully collaborate across City departments. In the last month in particular, there's been a discernible increase in the level of collegial interdepartmental collaboration, especially in regards to Rina Cutler of Transportation, Parks, Health and Human Services, Don Schwarz. They're really coming up with a lot of good projects. While I feel there's a significant deficiency so far in the outreach from the OEO Office, there's also some very hopeful signs. Some 53 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 public agencies, particularly SEPTA and PHA and the Enterprise Center, are working effectively -- and I'll say that again, they're working effectively -- to identify economic opportunity for Philadelphia residents, Philadelphia companies and Philadelphia entrepreneurs. Joe Casey, General Manager of SEPTA, and Carl Greene, Executive Director of PHA, have been working proactively. They're not waiting until the end. They say it from day one, that's job one, engage Philadelphians. They've really been beacons, not only here but around the country, and I really want to commend them. We took a real vigorous look. We didn't look at the press releases. We looked a lot deeper than that. They've been working proactively in multiple venues to identify employment, corporate and entrepreneurial opportunities for Philadelphia-based residents and corporations, especially minority, female 54 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 and disabled owned. While contracts have largely yet to materialize, there are credible incipient signs that this professional proactive outreach can successfully match Recovery opportunities with those persons and companies in need of those opportunities. The Enterprise Center, led by Ms. Della Clark, recently sponsored a Connect to Federal Recovery Opportunities Conference. It was very thoughtfully planned. It was clearly presented, with an abundance of technical information on these contractual opportunities. I was impressed. There's a widespread belief, though, amongst those companies and residents in search of these opportunities that the City's OEO Office has not yet provided productive leadership or energetic involvement for a clear path to results.
Thank you, sir. 55 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 We're going to get to you. Do you want to talk about the charts briefly?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Barkha Patel and I'm a Drexel co-op student working at Councilman Bill Green's office. Over the past month I've been working in conjunction with the staff from Councilman Bill Green's office and other Council offices and Mr. Massarro, and I've been researching Philadelphia's stimulus funding, including the efforts of other cities. I've prepared three charts for the Committee. One is formula grants, one is competitive grants, and one is showing specific competitive grants that I was able to find more data of comparable cities and their numbers. I compiled this information by 56 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 talking to different budget and finance offices in other cities, reviewing materials on those city websites and federal websites, and through other research on the Internet. For the Philadelphia information, I reviewed the information on our phila.gov website and consulted staff at the Recovery Office. I just want to make clear that any blank spaces that you see in the charts, it shouldn't be assumed that we haven't applied or that Philadelphia hasn't sought into that competitive or formula grant. It's just that there's been some miscommunication or I wasn't able to find that data on the Internet. So if there are any incorrect numbers or any blank spaces where there shouldn't be, my apologies. And if you do have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them now. Thank you.
Thank you 57 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 so much. Very good report. Councilman Jones and then Councilman Kenney.
Thank you again, Mr. Chairman, for pulling this together in this hearing. It's very worthwhile. Specifically, I took a ride on my way to work. I stopped at 54th and Berks Street in my district, I stopped at 57th and Lansdowne in my district, and I stopped at 60th and Market in my district, just to remind myself why we're having this hearing today. For my colleagues on this committee and people that are listening, there wasn't one lunch pail, hard hat, construction, blue-collar kind of job guy going, or woman, Blondell, going to work early in the morning to a job that I could visibly see. I could see some of the same remnants of some of the problems that when I ran for office why I came here. And the whole idea of a stimulus package 58 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 for them is the hope that some of that trickled down after the bailout of the auto industry, Wall Street, banking, would eventually get to them. So my question and the line of my question is in context to that truth. How do we rank, simply put, compared to other cities? And compare apples to apples, if we can.
We took a look at two things in terms of looking at other cities. We took a look at what their structure was, how they made a point person, what kind of committee or organizational structure they set up, and we reviewed that. That's one of your handouts, this chart. I don't know what number it is in your binder.
Give us a number. As good as we are, there's no 22 way we can see that from here. Just give us -- you don't have to come up.
If I can just jump in to answer Councilman Jones' question. 59 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540
If I can just jump in and answer the question to the best of my ability. If you go to New York City's website on their stimulus track or their tab, they have specifically listed the amount of jobs that they've created due to the economic Recovery funds, and I think it's around 3,700, if I'm not mistaken. Of course, New York City is a lot bigger city than we are and, of course, they've received a lot more funding than we have, but their website specifically discloses how many jobs they've created and in which fields. And if you've seen our website and read some of the -- especially the Daily News article today that was published, we've created about 52, I think it says. So I guess we are not up to date according to other cities.
Okay. I just want to say that I want to 60 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 acknowledge that I had a conversation with Mr. Agostini yesterday about some of the website issues and some of the other issues, and he will be testifying that there will be some changes. The Administration has acknowledged that there are some issues related --
Yeah. I mean, so that's a part of my not wanting to be a "got you" moment, but I think the most important thing is that all of us, we recognize where there may be shortcomings and we're taking corrective action. So I think that's the most important as we move ahead. But it's good to point out those issues, and what I would like to see, as I'm sure all my colleagues, to make sure that we work in a cooperative spirit. We have some talent among Councilmembers and their staff. We look to be as helpful as possible as we work through all of this. 61 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 And so I think that's important, if we continue in the spirit of working together, making sure that we maximize our opportunities, because at the end of the day, we all represent the same citizens of the City of Philadelphia.
In that spirit, I was trying to figure out by way of -- and we had a spirited debate outside of these Chambers by way of our competitiveness by way of formula grants versus competitive grants. You remember the spirit of that debate late into the evening. But how do we stack up by way of formula and by way of competitive grants? Specifically, formula and then competitive.
We've identified some of the deficiencies, but it is also clear that there's been a steady increase in some of the momentum in the program. They've been more effective at identifying opportunity, more effective at applying for opportunity in a more 62 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 efficient way. There's been particular progress in the last month. That's readily discernible. It's palpable. So I think the other cities -- at some point we stopped trying to quantify it because we were really focused on what Councilman Clarke says, identifying constructive elements to try to move it ahead. So we were clearly behind. We surveyed or cities. We were 13 significantly behind most of them for the 14 reason we gave, is that while these other 15 people were running a sprint, we passed 16 the baton four, five or six times. 17
Then very 18 briefly I'll segue and say, in those 19 researches, did you identify best 20 practices that we might be able to -- 21
I think if you look 63 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 at the green tab again.
My green is different than his green. It's different than his.
There's a specific, I guess, divider in the binder that has the best practices that a staff member has researched of different cities, and it says the Chief Officer, their team members and who they've been consulting and their meetings and things like that.
There's two principal factors here that are really salient. The first is, we surveyed -- of the cities, 23 of the 25 had one 17 person in charge. That's a tremendous 18 advantage to us. 19 The second salient feature is, 20 all of the cities have had this central 21 working group where you snowball your 22 capacity, your experience and your 23 knowledge. Philadelphia has gotten good 24 ideas horizontally from housing, 25 transportation, energy, but has not done 64 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 as well putting it back into central form for a central evaluation and disbursement back. So the other cities I think have had the advantage of being a repository over time for knowledge and experience. We put together this application and that application. You learn. There's things you could use to be more efficient. There's problems you could solve. And then one of the things we've missed by not having the same person is, even in my own conversations with members of Senator Casey's staff, Senator Specter's staff, Congressman Brady's staff, Congressman Fattah's staff, you can build up a relationship and they can point you, because they're dealing with a multiplicity of applications from other jurisdictions and they'll tell you, if you have the relationship, this is what's working, this is not working, this was received well at HUD, this wasn't received well at 65 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 HUD, here's a good idea that someone else had that was funded, they told us they didn't fund you now, but maybe you could modify the application in another category later. So I think that if Philadelphia can have continuity of leadership, if they can assemble a central team that will be in charge of this to vet them, even if they then delegate it out to one particular department, I think we'll build up the momentum. And then if we can take some of the exemplary agencies, like PHA and SEPTA, and have them work constructively with OEO -- I know the OEO people want to get this right. I think it's a matter of a learning curve and building some relationships. I think we can start -- if we identify our goal, our principal goal, as the retention of Philadelphia companies and the employment of Philadelphia residents, if we make that the salient feature, I think it will be in the consciousness of people and 66 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 there's mechanisms to work it out. And I think Penn has done some good work. In some instances they worked with Councilwoman Blackwell's office, and I think we can take some of these singular models around the City and come together and have a template for how to do this.
My final point is -- and thank you for this information. As municipalities make decisions, this program versus this program or this application or category, I'd be curious to know how they kind of came up with that maximizing benefit ratio. And I guess I'll say that for Mr. Agostini as to in the future -- and this is, as the Chairman said, creating and getting it right going forward -- how we make that determination. Curious to me is if -- I have 160 vacant properties owned by PHA in my district. To me, shovel ready means I'm ready, we can start shoveling. And so I don't understand how we decide which has 67 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 maximum benefit versus others and what that formula kind of will be, and I guess that's a question that I'll put a pin in and look to an answer from the Administration.
But it still gets back to, I think, day one, the first day. Whether it was SEPTA, whether it's the University of Pennsylvania, whether it's a non-profit, when they contact the City that they have an idea for a prospective stimulus project, whether they're the sponsor or partner, we have to start to get them on the track to deal with Philadelphia companies. I mean, Councilman Kenney could tell you that most of the time an architectural firm is retained a year, two, three years before they break ground, and that's what's going on now. So we can't say, Well, when these firms might get an award, we'll start to work to engage them with Philadelphia companies. It's got to start as soon as possible. 68 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know it's been said twice before in this hearing that this is not a "got you" hearing, but the testimony of the witness is pretty much "got you." And I don't know what the process is relative to the next witness, but I would make a request that Mr. Agostini be the next witness so he can refute or explain or elaborate on some of the charges, I guess, that have been made of their inability to do anything in the last eight months, which it seems -- I mean, other than a short section of the testimony about a couple good things they did, pretty much all of it was non-productive. So I would really like to hear from a records point of view, keeping the 69 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 record intact, this testimony and then after that, what they had to say in response to that. So I don't know what you had in mind in the way of witnesses, but I don't want to see two or three witnesses after this talking about other things and then we lose track of it. The other thing is, you had mentioned -- we had extensive hearings that Councilman DiCicco sponsored a resolution a couple years ago, I guess, relative to employment practices and employment numbers and demographics of the construction trades. It was not a very productive hearing, if I remember correctly. They were not willing or able to give us numbers relative to where their members lived and what the demographics, race, gender. Your testimony indicated that you had some idea as to how many of these folks lived in Philadelphia, because this is all about creating Philadelphia jobs or 70 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 retaining Philadelphia companies. Were you able in your discussions with them to figure out of their employment complement how many live in the City, what their race and gender is and why doing projects particular with an individual union would create jobs for Philadelphians if we don't know how many members live in Philadelphia?
Well, I took actually some of the testimony from those hearings. There were some records given to Council, some estimations of the percent of their members that lived in Philadelphia, but I don't believe we really need to know that exactly. We do know that they have, depending on the trade, they're reporting between 15 and 40 percent unemployment.
What I am saying is, of the people who are unemployed, a percentage of them are Philadelphia 71 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 residents and we would ask that they be assigned.
This goes back to Councilman Jones' point, that if we were to engage in that process -- and I don't want anybody to be unemployed, but if some guy in New Jersey is unemployed, I care a little less about that than Councilman Jones' constituents. I mean, unless -- did you interview them? Did you find out from them what their numbers are?
Just in terms of what was submitted on the Convention Center discussion two years ago.
I don't know, Councilwoman Brown, if you would agree that that hearing was less than fruitful.
It was that, and because it was that, I should mention that I am now in the process of drafting a resolution to invite those parties to report back to us what their 72 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 progress has been since that hearing. And so you raise it. The end of the sentence hasn't been completed, and it's my expectation that during those hearings, we will get an update on what our requests were and what they've done to meet that request and what their numbers are now.
Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I just reiterate my request that -- I don't want to have you do something different than you want to do, but I really want to hear after these witnesses what the Administration's responses to those allegations are. Thank you.
Thank you. I just want to note for the record that I think the report that was put together by my intern, Barkha Patel, and others with respect to the competitive grants and others, actually if you look at it in 73 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 terms of pure quantity, we're behind, but we're not that far behind, and I don't think that we were suggesting that in terms of the quality of dollar of grants applied for that that's the case. So I didn't want it -- I mean, you characterized the report. It certainly isn't our view, having participated in it, that we were, from a quantity perspective, necessarily behind or anything else. I do think that the report identified some best practices which, while they seem obvious, we weren't in fact doing them.
No. I haven't read the report. I'm basing my comments based on the testimony.
I would say probably 75 percent of the testimony was that they weren't doing things right and maybe percent were doing right. So 25 I'd like some illumination as to what 74 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 they think they're doing right.
Councilman, I agree with you. I look forward to hearing from Steve.
Thank you, Councilman. Any other questions of these witnesses by members of the Committee or members present? (No response.)
There being none, thank you very much for your testimony. I understand that the Philadelphia Housing Authority had some misinformation about the time, so they will be available, but what I'd like to do now is to bring, I guess, 75 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 Mr. Agostini, who will be testifying on behalf of the Administration, and anyone else that he so chooses. (Witness approached witness table.)
First, I'd like to say that -- and I want to say this in a way that I am not critical of anyone who had any role or responsibility of the Recovery dollars prior to now, but I do want to say that I'm happy that you are now in charge. I feel a little more comfortable, given your budget background, because at the end of the day, this is about the money. I know that you have divided interests, because you still have to be the Budget Director, but I think that that perspective that you bring to the table actually will be 76 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 helpful in ensuring that in the instance where I know that we're not supposed to supplant certain dollars, that is the case, but at the end of the day, I think that your ability to understand revenue streams and understand the budget from the perspective on the local level -- and actually you worked other places, I'm sure you have somewhat of a national perspective on other things -- that we will be much better served by having you in charge at this time. So, again, we in Council look forward to working with you. At the end of the day, I'd really like to see this be a cooperative effort with consistent conversations on an ongoing basis, not the Committee on Fiscal Stability having to have a hearing to have this type of dialogue. This should be happening every week or in a consistent basis that allows us an opportunity to have a free-flowing level of conversation and input and solicitation. 77 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 So with that, I say good morning.
Good morning. Steve Agostini, Budget Director for the City of Philadelphia and Recovery Officer. Councilmember, thank you very much. Those are very generous remarks. I appreciate that.
And I appreciate that, and I hope to live up to your expectations on this. What I'd like to do, if it's okay with the Committee, is to go over what I had planned, and then if you would like, I'm happy to respond to some of the comments that were made. I'll leave that up to the Committee if that's the Committee's pleasure to hear that, but if I could, I'll do a brief overview of where we are.
I'd like to start by saying that we probably could have done a few things a little differently at the inception with respect to Recovery. It has been a learning process for us as an administration. I think that we are quickly learning what needs to be done and what needs to be done well in order to be effective at not only applying for grants, but receiving them, as well as being sure that the dollars begin to hit the street as quickly as possible. Having said that, one of the major challenges that we have is that the federal government itself is still trying to put in place the set of rules that are consistent, that are clear for us to use. And I'll get to that in a moment, but there is still the fact of the matter that there is a great deal of inconsistency at the federal level with respect to how we are supposed to report, what the expectations are in terms of 79 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 those reports and how we proceed. With respect to the job count issues, that is one of the areas where there is some inconsistency at the federal level. You should know, you may know already, that each of the departments has, in essence -- cabinet-level departments at the federal level -- has in place its own methodology for job counting. It is not consistent. It is something that I have actually talked to Ed DeSeve himself about, the White House Recovery point person, as well as to Danny Werfel, who is the Controller for the United States and is in OMB. We have the benefit of direct relationships with those individuals. They are relationships that I maintain and will continue to cultivate in an effort to be sure that we have up-to-date regulatory information, and if we hit a snag, we can get that resolved quickly, as was the case when we were doing some 80 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 of our reporting, and I can talk more about that later. We also have the benefit of a federal liaison who was appointed to us the first week of October right before our reporting. That individual is the Acting Regional Administrator for GSA. The federal government has designated a number of liaisons for cities around the country. This individual has responsibility for being liaison not only to us but also for the City of Baltimore, which allows us to get answers quickly to a number of issues, as well as to compare notes, and because of that, we're going to start comparing ourselves with Baltimore a little more carefully and try to share information with them directly regarding where we are. Having said that, it is clear that we're not the only city that is running into the following impediment, which is while we may have applied for funds, we may have been awarded funds, 81 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 the actual receipt of dollars into the City coffers has not happened quickly. We have a sort of running average right now that is approximately two months between when we have received an award letter and when dollars have actually shown up in our treasury. We are still waiting for dollars. In some cases, the delay is almost four months between the actual award letter having been received by a City official and the dollars manifesting themselves in our treasury. That's an issue, and it became a particularly acute issue over the summer where we were faced with the prospect of do we spend dollars as a city that we anticipate receiving even if we have an award letter while we are in the midst of a fairly significant cash conservation issue, so that we did not run out of funds over the course of the summer, as you all know very well, as we waited for the state to take its action with respect to issues that affected our 82 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 budget. We do have a new structure in place with respect to Recovery, however, because there were some things that needed to be addressed. I am the Recovery Officer.
There is an Executive Committee that I report to that consists of the Managing Director, the Finance Director, the Planning Director, our Chief Integrity Officer, our Director of -- our Chief Technology Officer, the City Solicitor, a member of the Deputy Mayor for Transportation staff and the Mayor of -- the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services staff. I report to that Steering Committee. I will be reporting to them on a biweekly basis in order to keep them apprised of what we are doing. I also then have a group of approximately project managers who I 23 am also meeting with on a regular basis 24 at biweekly to be apprised of what's 25 happening with Recovery issues. I have 83 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 also implemented a requirement that before any grants move forward that are Recovery related, they have to be reviewed by the Recovery Office and approved by the Executive Committee so that we can address some of the coordinating issues that indeed were apparent as we were looking through this. We've also taken a step that is in addition to what is required by the federal government. As we move forward and as we completed our reporting for the October 10th deadline to the federal government, I asked -- actually, required that anyone who was reporting on a grant and was reporting either directly to their cabinet agency or their granting agency, whether that was state or federal, that I was requiring a certification by the program or project manager responsible for that particular grant, that the information that they were filing or the information they were providing to me was correct to the best 84 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 of their knowledge, so that that certification now exists in a file for each and every one of the grants that we have reported on, and I anticipate that as we move forward for our quarterly reporting requirements, that we will indeed maintain that certification process. While it is not required of me, I am also then providing a certification letter to the Mayor -- and am happy to provide that to you as well -- regarding the report to the federal government and what was included in that report. We are also, as I mentioned, reporting as well as talking to counterparts, particularly at the state level. We've been in communication and we've had a couple of meetings with the state's Recovery Office led by Ron Naples. We in some instances are learning about requirements that they have that are slightly different than ours, and in some cases, after talking to them, we've implemented some of the 85 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 reporting or information flow procedures that they've adopted, because we think that they represent best practices. Within two or three weeks, we will be implementing a new software package from Microsoft called Microsoft Stimulus 360. To date, we've been doing all the reporting basically through spreadsheets and templates that we've created ourselves. Microsoft Stimulus 360 is, in essence, the state of the art. It's being used by a number of offices, Recovery offices, throughout the United States both at the state and the local level. We've had a number of training and sort of introductions to this. We feel that it will not only allow us to capture information more comprehensively, but also more accurately, and we intend to implement that in the next two or three weeks. We did indeed report on October 9th for the October 10th reporting period. We were one of many who reported 86 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 on time. There are a handful of reporting entities, both cities and I think other jurisdictions, that did not meet that reporting deadline requirement, and for that reason, the federal government provided an extension for them to provide their reports on stimulus. Thankfully, we did not have to do that, because we had all of our information in and, to our knowledge, pretty much all of it was correct.
We are planning -- we've been discussing a briefing with our federal delegation in order to let them know what was going on and keep them apprised, as well as conversations with this body, to be sure on a going-forward basis that you are aware of what we are doing. And depending on how frequently you'd like to see me and others, we can do that in order to accommodate your interest and curiosity and desire to hear about this. With respect to the dollars -- and I don't know if you have this in 87 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 front of you, but I did send a letter to the Councilmember to provide you with an overview. 8 million in Recovery-related funds. 6 million to date. We have spent approximately $776,000 to date, and we believe that we have retained approximately 52 jobs. Let me go through the breakdown of this a little more, and I'm sure you're going to want to know why we have spent what we have spent as opposed to a larger number. I think that's a very fair question. 8 million in Recovery funds that have been allocated based on formula. And I can go through that very quickly. 9 million in employment and 88 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 3 million in Community Service Block Grants that were awarded at the end of July. 7 million, another Airport project for one runway and taxiway rehab that was awarded in August; 434,000 in 89 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 8 million for weatherization that was awarded in September. Of the funds we have spent, 714,000 was against the Byrne grant in the First Judicial District for the replacement of activities that were part of the budget that was adopted by the 90 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 Council, approximately 12,000 Healthy Homes Daycare and 49,000 in Senior Community Service Employment. What we actually have in hand in awards, unfortunately, does not mirror what we actually have in hand in terms of dollars. What we have in hand in terms of dollars is approximately $14 million. 6 million, and the bulk of that is actually in the Byrne area. The number that you read in the newspaper was incorrect. That is not Miss Lucy's fault. That is my fault. I gave her the incorrect number. I apologize for that. But the actual number that we have is $13 million in hand. Why there has been such a delay in the dollars actually arriving at our doorstep, we are not sure. There is a very extensive process. There are numerous hiccups. I can tell you one that comes to mind -- and I'm sure Deputy Mayor Cutler and representatives at the Airport can tell you more about this, but 91 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 we have $33 million awarded with respect to Airport projects. We are currently in the process of getting those out to bid, if not bids already being completed, but we are waiting for Federal Aviation Administration approval before we can actually spend those dollars. There are numerous instances where not only have we been awarded and not received dollars, but we then have an additional administrative hurdle that we have to have in place. We are clearly very interested in who gets jobs. We're clearly very interested in where the jobs are being created, but because we have spent so little at the moment, it's hard to capture that. We are also, because these are all federal dollars, cognizant of the rules that the federal regs impose with respect to bids and how you distribute dollars, and we're trying to be cognizant and knowledgeable about that as we move forward to be sure that we're not 92 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 catching ourselves afoul of any federal requirements. I can go into greater detail. I'm sure you have lots of questions, and perhaps it would be better if I just stopped and let you ask the questions and get to the information you'd like to hear about.
Sure. I have a couple of quick questions, and I know there are a number of questions from members of the Committee and members that are present. You kind of touched on this first one. When SEPTA was testifying, Mr. Casey indicated that the money was flowing. Is there a difference between Recovery Act dollars going to an agency versus the City in terms of the timeliness of it or the access?
Councilmember, I'm not sure about the SEPTA grants. Ms. Cutler can probably speak a little better. I do know that there were a 93 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 number of grants that were already in place, or granting vehicles; most notably, Community Development Block Grant funds. What was done by the federal government was to expand that particular program, add additional dollars, label it as Recovery dollars, but because there was a process in place already, they could get that money out the door quickly. That may be the case with the SEPTA funds. I don't know that for a fact. With many of the other grants that we are receiving now, they don't fall necessarily into that category. Those that have come a little -- or where the awards have come a little faster are clearly the formula driven, where there's an allocation based on population or other criteria, like the COPS grant. Those awards are flowing faster, but the dollars are still in delay, and we don't have -- I don't have an answer for you for that. I'm not sure that I can 94 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 explain why that is the case. There is also then the competitive grant process --
I'm not sure what's happening on the federal level that's slowing those dollars coming down.
My expectation, if we have an award letter that is dated July 30th, as is the case in the Community Service Block Grants, that the dollars associated with those would flow no later than 30 to 45 days after that. Well, it's now October, almost November and we still don't have those dollars in hand.
Are we having conversations with our federal delegation?
I am not having 95 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 those conversations. I think right now we've been in a process of gathering the information and trying to understand. I think that on a going-forward basis, that's got to be one of the things that we talk about with our federal delegation, with representatives in the White House and, if necessary, representatives at the actual cabinet agencies.
Okay. Because I really -- it would be very helpful, because I understand that the Housing Authority has actually been able to access dollars now. They're actually out cleaning out homes in preparation for renovation.
And I just don't understand why they would make that money available in a timely way to those agencies and not the City of Philadelphia. So if you could figure 96 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 that out.
I will ask. Again, my guess at the moment is that they're funding vehicles that were already in place and so it was easy --
I'd rather you not guess. If we could just find out exactly what the problem is.
What the difference is in terms of those Recovery dollars, if at all possible.
Earlier you mentioned the team, the Recovery team, that's in place, and throughout this conversation, we've talked about working in the spirit of cooperation. This subject matter actually came up at a hearing last week about this initiative to determine vacant property usage, disposition policies and things of that, and it was suggested in that hearing that Council be given some role, particularly 97 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 given the fact that at the end of the day disposition/acquisition must go through Council. And my next question will be about Council's role as it relates to Recovery dollars actually being spent. What do you suggest -- and if you can't answer right now, I understand -- Council's role should be in this team approach that's currently in place on a more consistent basis as opposed to us having to have a hearing -- this is, I think, our second one -- to be in a position to have just what I call productive interaction?
Councilmember, members, I would suggest that as we go forward, I think there is room for regular briefings, whether it's in a smaller group or here, whether that's every other week or monthly or quarterly as to what the activities are. I would suggest that because the Recovery reporting requirements are quarterly, that, at a minimum, as we make our 98 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 reports to the federal government, I think you would want to see those reports as well, and I think we should come back and plan to be back here at least on a quarterly basis. With respect to what we apply for and how we apply for that, I would suggest that we -- the Administration is trying to coordinate what we're doing carefully so that we can maximize the dollars that we're receiving and use them to leverage some other things. With respect to the strategy, I'm probably the wrong person to talk to in terms of how Council should be involved in terms of the strategic moving forward. I think that needs to be a conversation, as we used to say in the federal government, at a higher pay grade than mine.
I understand. I have one of those, too. Last question that I have before I come back. During the course of 99 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 the discussions on the Recovery dollars informally and actually formally in an earlier hearing, it was always believed that Council in its appropriations role would either have an appropriations bill/resolution, some mechanism to authorize the expenditure or the appropriations to departments. What is your understanding on that issue?
That's my understanding as well, and it's for that reason that we have introduced a transfer ordinance to ensure that we have the appropriate appropriations authority in departments. One of the things that I have been concerned about as the Budget Director is that departments do not move forward in spending dollars where Council has not taken a dispositive action to say, yes, we've appropriate that, yes, we should spend money on, and that is the reason we've introduced an ordinance that would appropriate about $52.3 million for 100 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 purposes of stimulus. I think that over the summer, given what was going on with the budget and given our own cash conservation and the slow flow of dollars, there really wasn't the imperative to do that right away. We didn't really need to do that. But I think moving forward, it may be the case that we may want to come to you on a regular basis, perhaps even monthly, to say, We just want to have a scheduled item on the docket so that we can move the appropriations quickly so that dollars get out into contracts, into people's hands as quickly as possible.
Is there an instance where there has been an appropriations of dollars that should have gone through Council approval process or Council review process?
There is one instance of that, and I've talked at length to the First Judicial District about this. It was my understanding 101 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 during our Council hearings on the budget that there was an expectation Council would receive from the Administration what those Byrne dollars were going to be spent against. An appropriation would then be adopted by Council, if they saw fit, that would then allow those dollars to be spent from the Byrne grants. In the case of the First Judicial District, they received a Byrne grant. They started spending dollars in order to preserve 52 positions at the courts. The expenditures there are approximately 700,000. And that's the one instance where we needed to have -- we should have had an appropriation ordinance before you before that happened. That is in the appropriation ordinance for you now in order to clean that up, if you will.
I do not believe so. That was the intention. The intention was do you not spend and wait 102 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 for the appropriation ordinance to move forward and do you put yourself in peril with the feds for not doing that. So we were trying to walk a fine line. But, yes, that was something that probably should have come to you in advance.
Right. I'm going to come back on that. Councilman Jones and then Councilman Kenney.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I really learned a lot from your testimony as to how we can start to move in the right direction, and I appreciate you crystallizing that for us. I want to go to the team again, and I would be interested in understanding how that team will put together a formula as to prioritize what competitive grants we go after and why. My question becomes an example of -- we're spending -- we went after $7 million for anti-poverty-related money 103 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 versus what we might have been able to go after for renovation of housing at PHDC or something like that, and what was our thinking -- or not so much retrospectively. What will be our thinking going forward as to what is worth us going after in light of what you said about it costing us money to gear up on some things versus just expending dollars and letting the paper trail catch up to us?
I see the Chief Integrity Officer and others leaving. I have a question related to them, so they might not want to go just yet.
And what I want to know -- if you would come up, both folks. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
There is a great deal of emphasis by the federal government -- and I have knowledge of that based on my relationship with the Philadelphia delegation -- that they're paying a lot of attention to how we spend money.
And I was pleased to know that you're a part of this team that we're developing, and I wanted to get a sense of how you're going to vet and review some of these projects and how we're spending money to make sure we don't wind up in more trouble than it's worth.
Actually, why don't we each introduce ourselves -- COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Excuse me. 105 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 Would you each identify yourself.
Yes. I'm Amy Kurland. I am the Inspector General. I am actually not on the team. My role is to come in later if problems are discovered in how the money is spent. Joan Markman is on the team with Mr. Agostini, as he described, and I'll let Joan speak for what her role is.
Yes. Good morning. Thanks for asking. Joan Markman, Chief Integrity Officer. What my concern is is that the federal authorities have appropriated some $80-some million for inspectors general to come in and investigate after the fact how the money is being spent. I also understand that the public wants to know that the money is being spent in particular ways, not just monies being spent for this category or that category, but you want to see if, for example, there is money being spent for housing projects or for particular streets. You 106 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 want to see where the money is going, addresses. You want to see your money being spent and accounted for. And where I am coming in is working with the project managers on the various grants to say, Okay, if you're awarding money to contractors, how are you ensuring that the money is being spent, where is it going, do you see invoices, these are the kinds of records you should be looking for, these are the kind of controls you should be putting in place to make sure that when we say money is going to a particular project, it really is going to that particular project. Amy and I have invited several months ago someone from the Inspector General at the Department of Justice to conduct training for project managers about what to look for in grant fraud so that we can avoid that going forward.
I have been in touch with various inspectors general on the federal level. They have a huge 107 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 influx of money being awarded to them to come in and review different projects that have been started as a result of the stimulus money. My role is to make sure that Philadelphia polices itself and that we make sure that our money is being spent appropriately so we don't have the federal inspectors general coming in and criticizing the City for how the money has been spent. As Joan said, one of those individuals from the Department of Justice Inspector General has been here to speak to project managers. My investigators in the Inspector General's Office are also being trained on how to recognize stimulus money fraud, grant fraud and loan fraud.
And I appreciate that and I wanted to get a clear understanding, because I know there is an emphasis on making sure that I's are dotted and the T's are crossed, and I know in our haste to try to create jobs, 108 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 I don't want us to create a bigger problem than we should. In light of that team also -- and I appreciate your testimony -- I wanted to get a sense of if we're including -- one of the goals was to include as many minorities, females early on, and if that is indeed the case, are the chambers of commerce, minority, African American, Latino, women chambers of commerce, being afforded an opportunity to get this information, not the day the contracts are let, but early on in the design phase so that they can participate fully as a part of the team?
Councilmember, I'll answer that question, then go back to the other questions that you asked. I believe in May, I think the date was May 11th, the Commerce Department actually held what they called a Recovery 101 sort of symposium and outreach to the community, and I believe they had a couple of hundred participants 109 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 there. That was one of our first efforts. I know that we are continuing to do that on a moving-forward basis. I know that Kevin Dow over in Commerce has been prepared to speak to some of those efforts and what we're planning to do going forward. I think some of that is, yes, we're trying to reach out. We're kind of juggling a couple of balls at the same time, and I hope -- I think you can appreciate. One is to be sure we can maximize the applications that we're going after, and I think that was the gist of the efforts by the staff, if you will, before we started to coordinate. Let's get as much money as we can. So that's one ball. The other is, let's be sure we're reporting, because as Ms. Kurland and Ms. Markman said, we do not want to run afoul of any of the federal reporting requirements, because it's a very bad place to be when you got a federal IG 110 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 breathing down your neck. That's not where you want to be. A third is to be sure that we are actually doing what we're supposed to be doing, which is creating jobs, that we're identifying those jobs and that the dollars are doing what they can do to generate the economic activity in the community. That is the purpose of the stimulus, as Mr. Massarro had said earlier. So we're trying to juggle all those. We're learning the process. We're learning the regs. The regs have been changing. They're very dynamic. I've gone through them myself a number of times. If I miss a week having gone through the regs, I've missed something substantial, and so I've got someone, thankfully, who is doing that almost exclusively to be sure that we're on top of that. It's not -- I'm not trying to give you that as an excuse. It's just 111 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 that we're trying to juggle lots of balls at the same time. We're getting better and we're getting better faster at it and we'll be able to address a lot of the issues in terms of outreach, in terms of getting information to people, in terms of the efforts of OEO. We have to do that, and we will.
Mr. Agostini, saving us from financial collapse is not a juggling. It's a major undertaking. So we get that part. Going forward is where we're going, and I asked -- the original question was about the formula for priorities in one application over the other, and what pops out at me is $7 million to MOCS and what is that specifically going to go for versus what could be money for -- and I'm for anti-poverty programs, believe me. My heart is there. My district is at least percent under the -- and 24 probably you'll tell me more, but I would like specifically to know how they ranked 112 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 over the stimulus formula versus PHDC, which also creates those blue-collar lunch pail jobs that we so desperately are going after.
Two things, and the first is that you should have received in your packet a summary, a one-page summary, of each and every grant that we have moved forward with. I will let the individual responsible for the MOCS-related grant come up and speak to that for you. On a going-forward basis, what we are trying to do and what we've implemented is, there needs to be the coordination to be sure that we are leveraging the dollars, that we are coordinating, being sure that they are hitting the priorities that we as a city have. We were not doing that prior to implementing this new policy where everything that is applied for has to come to the Recovery Office before the application goes out. And that is what 113 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 we're now focused on, how do we coordinate, how do we be sure we're maximizing and leveraging and that it hits the policy priorities that this city has. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: We have a point of information. Councilman Rizzo.
Thank you, Mr. DiCicco. Mr. Agostini, we use the term regularly around here "shovel ready." Maybe you or one of your colleagues can tell me whether projects that are heading towards greening, like some of the debris and dirt that we have unfortunately in our city, could qualify for some of this fund, lot cleaning, et cetera, and I know there's a criteria that it has to be something --
I'll let someone else answer that. Basically in the shovel ready, we have tried to meet the definition set by the feds. Arguably, the Airport projects were shovel ready. 114 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 They've been in our capital plan for at least a year, but for the reasons I hinted at earlier, we're not getting the dollars to get that done.
The reason I brought up shovel ready, there's nothing more shovel ready than dirt and trash. (Witnesses approached witness table.) COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Thank you. Are you ladies --
I'm sorry. We were going to answer a question about MOCS and stimulus dollars. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Hold on one second. Mr. Agostini, do you mind staying at the table? Just pull up another chair.
What I wanted to get was, I understand that this is a formula -- COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Excuse me for interrupting. I think -- were you 115 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 here to answer Councilman Rizzo's question?
Good morning. My name is Mary Mariner. I'm the Acting Executive Director of the Mayor's Office of Community Services.
I'm Jennie Sparandara and I'm the Mayor's Senior Policy Aide.
And your question was where the money was going, the $8.3 million for CSBG? Primarily it's going into job development. We're going to be working with PHA to place 160 City residents into construction trades. We're doing -- we're working with 116 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 Community Legal Services to give legal services to 2,000 individuals -- and these were all citywide services -- individuals who were having problems, either they were laid off from their job for the wrong reason or they're having problems in their job where they need other legal services. We're providing employment services to 300 homeless people to get them connected to employment, both in training and placement and support services. And all of the services that we're providing through the Community Service Block Grant are citywide services. We're working with the Contextual Literacy Program so that we are -- people who work in the Clean Corridors have the opportunity to improve their academic skills and get work through the Career Links to get better jobs. Some of the things --
Councilman, if part of your question is why are these 117 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 funds flowing through MOCS as opposed to a different agency, they have to flow through MOCS. So MOCS is the designated community action agency, and that means for all Community Services Block Grant dollars, they have to flow there. What we've decided to do, kind of acknowledging the broader anti-poverty question that I think you're referencing, is get those dollars out the door straight away and get them into workforce development programs, literacy programs and then programs that we know will help connect people to services that they may need particularly at this time, such as unemployment insurance, public benefits, that sort of thing, and that's the Community Legal Services piece. But we were always intending that these dollars be used as part of an anti-poverty strategy instead of direct services coming out of one agency over another, and we've worked with Deputy Mayors of Public Safety, Health and Opportunity and 118 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 at Economic Development in part to make sure that we're all referencing each other's programming.
What would be helpful to me as a part of this committee is to get where the connectivity happens between you. Are you at the table to -- the question becomes, the SEPTA opportunity -- we did this in the beginning. The stimulus money, the Recovery money that came to SEPTA that now creates a project, which will create a job opportunity, how do you plug in? And that is what the matrix of how this gets to 60th and Market in my district.
So that's why I'm concerned. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Point of information. Councilwoman Sanchez.
Thank you. As a member of the Board of MOCS, 119 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 I'm a little concerned about your focusing the anti-poverty money for job development in light of the fact that both WIB and the Workforce Development Corporation are getting millions of dollars for job development. So I'd like to know how that's connected to what they're doing as it relates to the work on workforce development, because it would just appear to me that MOCS may not be the best entity unless it is absolutely coordinated through those.
So let me describe a little bit of the structure, because those are very legitimate questions and concerns, and I think that Councilmembers -- I hope that this addresses it. So we have a group of policy 21 deputies and project managers that, for a 22 period, met every week and now is meeting 23 every two weeks. Each of those meetings 24 has an individual who represents a deputy 25 mayor for the City, and each one of those 120 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 deputy designees, if you will, does indeed know what is going on with the activities in these related, affiliated entities. So, for example, with respect to the Workforce Investment Board, Andy Rachlin, who sits on the committee as a representative of Commerce, and Alan Greenberger, the Acting Deputy Mayor, is aware and has been following, and for a period we actually had debate internally as to whether we should report on the WIB's dollars or not. But we are indeed trying to coordinate and stay abreast of what's happening there. Similarly with Ms. Cutler, her Policy Deputy, Andrew Stober, is also in attendance at all those meetings. He stays on top of what's happening not only with SEPTA but with the Airport and others. So we try to stay abreast. We're trying to coordinate. Again, it's been a fairly significant effort to be 121 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 sure we're all getting into the same direction, but we are communicating, we are aware of what's going on. This is the case with PHA and the School District as well, although because they are separate political jurisdictions, our ability to manage, control -- our desire to manage, control is sort of in question and a gray area, and so given everything else we had on our plate, we decided we wouldn't try and take that on.
I'm going to yield, because my colleagues have been real patient with me as a freshman, and I'm going to do that, but please have a heads-up that I'm going to pay particular attention to that aspect of it. I love the bridges and the stuff that's going to get built, but where the jobs are created and moving people from poverty to self-sufficiency with stimulus dollars is going to be my focus. I sent you a letter to that end October 15th and I'm awaiting a response on it. I'm going to 122 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 pay laser beam attention to job creation. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
May I answer Councilwoman Sanchez's question just real quickly. We've been working specifically with the Workforce Investment Board and PWDC on these programs to make sure that these funds, which may have some more flexibility in terms of providing for literacy or case management, are augmenting the efforts that are going on over there. So I think it's really important that we're all kind of in lockstep, and they've been really great partners with these dollars.
Just because we're still dealing on the organizational chart, it would be helpful for us if you could submit to the Chair that work group organizational chart and 123 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 the workflow processes and the communication piece for it so that we can visualize what are the interactions.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Agostini, somewhere during the course of this hearing we were handed what seems to be about 100 pages or so of work product that contains a heading for each page relative to the Recovery Act and the department that's applying for or is proposing to be funded. It includes a program description, a rationale for program description, projects' objectives and the job creation numbers for every one of them, and some of them are Mayor's Commission on Aging, Mayor's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, Office of 124 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 Housing and Community Development, Philadelphia Department of Public Health Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program summary. Is this work product -- did you provide Council with this work product?
There is a work product I did provide to Council that has -- I can't -- my eyesight is failing. But there is a document that we provided that was a one-page summary that I think looks like what you're showing me there.
But they're one-page summaries, but it's for all the programs.
That represents, I believe, through the reporting period, but let me -- through the reporting period of October 10th.
But the 125 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 work product -- this is the report that's through October 10th. This represents applications or ideas or discussion how far back?
So over the eight-month period this is the work product?
It was. In fact, I put that together in anticipation that we were going to have an appropriations hearing in the coming weeks and I felt it was incumbent upon me to get as much information in a summary for you to see so that you understood and had an ability to ask questions about 126 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 each of the --
And when you did provide it to Council, where did it go?
I provided that to Ms. Chapman, who I believe provided that to staff to Council.
I believe we did that early in the week. I believe Monday or so or Tuesday morning.
I mean, I've had my ups and downs from time to time with the Administration relative to certain issues, and we discuss them. Sometimes it works out; sometimes it doesn't. But I think that it's important for two reasons. Number one, for fairness, that this work product existed and that work was going on despite what past testimony would indicate. And, secondly, I don't want to get a reputation that the City can't do 127 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 anything relative to the stimulus dollars to put in people's minds in Washington that we're not able to use the money effectively. And I want to make sure that we come out of this hearing with a new-found sense of cooperation with Council, and part of the problem goes back to the issue of communication, which I've had discussions with just about everybody in this room from the Administration on that, but I don't want to come out of this hearing with newspaper stories that basically say we've been tripping down the road the whole eight months. This would indicate to me, if it's accurate -- and I have no 18 reason to believe it's not -- is a work product that has been an ongoing work product for eight months.
Well, it has been an ongoing work product and it is important to me that it is accurate to you, because it is the basis by which I make the reports to the federal 128 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 government. And I'm very conscious, having been in the federal system as a CFO, that that is not something to dally with, that it is really not a place to be to have a federal agency's IG unhappy. So I'm trying to be sure that that's --
I'm not even at that level. I'm not even at the malfeasance level. I'm at the -- or the non-reporting. I'm at the level of cooperation between Council and the Administration is an issue and it will be an ongoing issue, but somehow the promulgation of the testimony that was given earlier that you guys have no focus and haven't been doing anything for eight months I think is unfair, and I don't want it to be understood in the media that somehow someone in Washington gets a copy of a story that says these people can't run a one-car parade, which I don't think is accurate.
I don't think it's accurate. I think it would be 129 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 unfortunate if that was the case. Councilmember and members, there are some things we could have done better. I'm not going to dispute that with you, some of the coordination and communications things that we could have done a little more crisply, in a little more organized fashion, but I will tell you that a lot of the issues that I have raised in my letter to the Mayor, I think we're addressing, if not have put in place a structure to address, and I believe on a going-forward basis, we will be a lot better, a lot more effective for many of the reasons that I've laid out here.
And earlier you indicated that we have applied so far for how much?
In fact, that is 130 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 a question that I have asked the staff to put together for me, because I want to get the universe, if you will, what's available. I do not have that right now.
It will be very different in the case of New York City because they're getting direct funding from the feds for things like Medicaid, for unemployment insurance. We don't get that.
So a New York-Philadelphia comparison is not apples and apples?
No, I don't think so. But I'm calling my counterparts in all of these other cities 131 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 to get a grasp of what they're doing to find out are there things that we are not doing well and should do better. So I'm trying to do that.
And one of the reasons why the dollars have not been here yet is because it's out of our control?
In some instances, FAA approval, other issues and things like that?
Before that, Mr. Agostini, with respect -- and I concur with Councilman Kenney's assessment that it's about getting things done and not about placing blame or whatever or sending a signal that we 132 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 don't -- when exactly did we receive anything on the stimulus?
No. I'm sorry. Documents relating to stimulus, because I've been -- the reason I ask this question, because I have been raising this issue about what's going on personally with the stimulus program for a while, and up until the notification of the hearing, I haven't really gotten anything. So, I mean, unless something was forwarded to us over a period of the summer and leading up to this that I didn't know about.
-- in the Recovery Office, I believe the documents you received this week in anticipation of this hearing -- 133 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540
You just received that. I was under the impression you were receiving weekly minutes from the meetings we were having as a committee, but it appears that that may not have been the case. And, again, if that isn't, that is something I'm more than happy to provide to you on a weekly basis, every other week that we meet so that you can see the work product of that work group, because it's --
I just want to make sure that I wasn't missing something, because I had been asking because I'm concerned, and we want to be in a position to help wherever possible. So that's --
Mr. Chairman, if I may add -- and I agree with you, and it goes back to -- we could avoid -- I don't think this is a bad process here, because everybody is 134 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 learning, but you can avoid some of the contention by communication, because what happens -- and it's been happening a lot -- is that without information, it's rumor and exaggeration, and we wind up in a forum like this where we discover that, God, you have been working, look, you've been doing something with this hundred pages. And why the reasons why things are slowed down, delayed, whatever, if that's communicated to us or communicated to the Chairman or any other Councilmember that asks the question early, we avoid all this. So I hope you take that back and understand that we want to be partners.
I understand, Councilmember. And, again, I offer that if it is meeting with you regularly, whatever your desire is to do that, I'm more than happy to do that.
Thank you, 135 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 Councilman.
Councilmember, if I might, I'm not sure we responded to Councilmember Rizzo's question on the shovel ready.
That's what happens when I leave the room. I'm sorry. I won't do that again. (Witness approached witness table.) DEPUTY
Good morning. Rina Cutler, Deputy Mayor for Transportation and Utilities. I am happy to respond within my own area, which is the transportation and infrastructure side, what the definition is of shovel ready for stimulus dollars, and I think it's really different in a lot of the categories. I think shovel ready is really a term that is specific to infrastructure. I am not sure that 136 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 other types of stimulus dollars have the same specificity for shovel ready. In the transportation and infrastructure side, shovel ready, for example, for road and bridge projects is, you must have a contract in place within a year. So that would be February of '10 is a year. And you must have all of the dollars expended within a three-year period. So for Transportation, those are the criteria that came. And so if a project can be put out to bid and awarded within that first one-year piece for Transportation and all of your funds can be expended within three years on eligible pieces, then that project is deemed shovel ready for Transportation. For Water, for example, and for the Airport, both of those have the same front-end criteria, that the money must be obligated within a year, but I don't believe Water must be spent by -- I don't believe that's part of that criteria. Airport does not have the back-end 137 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 requirement either. So I can only tell you the definition, Councilman, for ours.
I got that part, but the other part I guess the Streets Department would probably have to answer. All right. Let's use -- DEPUTY
That is Streets. What I just described is the Streets Department.
Doesn't the Streets Department do some cleaning of areas that are trash strewn? DEPUTY
Primarily within a subscribed area. There may be some sanitation piece. You may be correct that there may be a sanitation piece that picks it up. I think they work jointly with CLIP now, and we're expanding it as best we can citywide with the resources we have. But none of those 138 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 dollars -- the Transportation dollars could not be used to clean vacant lots.
I understand that. All right. Let's just go back, and this is just a quick question, and I want to thank you for working out the cell phone lot at the Airport. Would that be eligible, the money we're going to spend there? DEPUTY
It's an interesting question. It does not fall within the Airport criteria for projects. I would have to check to see if it would qualify under the general infrastructure category.
Yes. I think, though, the problem is, if I had to wager an intelligent guess, is that we 139 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 are doing the cell phone lot with our internal resources, and so I don't believe there's a contract to let.
And, again, I'm still not clear on using stimulus money for the project that I described whether or not -- DEPUTY
Well, no. 18 Could CLIP recover some stimulus money for their work? DEPUTY
I have not yet seen a category in the competitive group of stimulus dollars that would qualify that.
But it would be interesting -- you indicate your 140 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 workload -- that maybe with this money, additional money, that possibly you could figure out a way to get some. You could escalate the work because you have more money to work with. DEPUTY
Right, but I would need a category of stimulus dollars for it to fit into.
I described it earlier, clean a lot and it's then eligible for greening. I believe that's a category that works. DEPUTY
Well, they still didn't answer that question, so we'll come back at it.
We'll come back. All right. Thank you, Councilman. Councilwoman Brown. 141 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540
You'll be back. We were just on a point of information. It's a procedural issue. So the Councilman will have your full attention in a very short matter.
For legitimate reasons, we've been all over the map in terms of this hearing. I want to get back to two principal criteria or priorities or goals to make sure we're at the same place with regards to why we're even here. Do you agree with the premise that the primary purpose for these dollars were two things as I've heard, hire local residents, retain local companies?
I don't agree with that. I believe that the dollars 142 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 that were provided by the federal government in the Recovery were set aside or appropriated for the purposes of jump-starting the economy, and to jump-start the economy, the expectation was that jobs would be created throughout the country, including those places that got the dollars, as well as providing lifts to companies so that the economy would get restarted. But I think first and foremost, it was an attempt to jump-start the economy.
So if we narrow that vision specifically for Philadelphia, would the definitions you just presented still apply?
I think it does, but then I think then my definition and your definition merge, because to jump-start the economy, we have got to put people to work, we have got to get companies in a situation where demand for whatever they do is increased because we're spending more of the federal 143 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 dollars. So, yes, I would say then the measure of success, the proof in the pudding, if you will, would be jobs created, which is why that's one of the requirements to report, as well as the number of dollars that are being provided to local companies and companies in the region.
Okay. In the document Councilman Jim Kenney presented, is this a federal application or one that was created by the City of Philadelphia?
We created that document, Councilmember, in order to have a handy summary of everything that we were doing. I have a file here on each one of these that runs many pages and I thought that was not going to be helpful to people who needed to get a quick understanding of what the grants were.
That's correct. 144 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540
-- of each applicant? Where my concern rises is a disconnect between what we just viewed the primary purposes to be for these dollars and that being reflected on this document, unless I'm not seeing it. Maybe it's in the subsequent back-up documentation you have, but a continuation of that purpose I believe is essential if we're going to honor the initial goals and objectives for these dollars. So I need to know or would like to know in your biweekly meetings now, is that viewed as a criteria or a priority for those who ultimately --
Absolutely. The job creation numbers are critical. They are one of the things we have to report to the federal government, and so I am very cognizant in trying to be very careful about how we capture and to be sure that we're accurate and comprehensive. 145 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 And the other issue that we are required to report to the federal government -- and I think speaks to your concern -- is that we also need to report contracts, the value of the contracts, in some cases the sort of makeup of those particular entities that are receiving contracts from us. So there is a whole reporting requirement that you haven't seen, but you will see as we start to spend more dollars.
That's what I haven't heard, and what that composition looks like, local companies, companies owned by women, companies owned by people of color. You're telling me that that kind of information is forthcoming?
We are not required to report that to the federal 146 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 government, but we have had a number of discussions internally about how we capture that kind of information to provide that to you, because, one, I think it's important. I think citizens will want to know what that is, and it's something that should be part of the reporting. We just haven't hit on exactly how to do that right now, and we're still having conversations internally. And if for anyone who is listening to this, if there are suggestions on how we can do that, I would like to hear them, because it would be helpful.
Thank you. There are many, many members of this body that deeply care about that and we want to see it in the future reports. Lastly, what types of actions have you taken to tighten what you view to be and what you stated to be in a piece of correspondence a centralized approach for this competitive grant 147 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 application? What one, two or three steps are you now doing to improve where you are going forward?
The most significant step is that we have sent out instructions to all departments, all City departments, that they are not to apply for grants unless they have been approved beforehand by the Steering Committee for the Recovery Office.
And so those that did make application prior to the structure of this committee did that, I guess, in absence of the committee?
Well, to answer that, they did it before the committee was in place. We've asked everyone to give us everything that they have applied for, and we think we have the full universe of that now. But then on a going-forward basis, we have, in essence, said we have to have sign-off authority in the Recovery Office before an application can be submitted to the 148 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 federal government.
Thank you. I think it's important for the record that you give us an indication of when this committee was structured and -- so since when have you been meeting and the project managers have been in place? I think it's important, because I think it goes back to Councilman Kenney's point of there was work being done, but I think you've acknowledged that it came together partly as a result of us having these hearings. So when did this committee formulate itself? And then when I finally get my round, I'd like to ask some questions around decision-making.
My last question, therefore: Communicating 149 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 internally is vital. I also believe we have responsibility to communicate to those who never see City Hall, but read about it in the news, hear it on CNN about what is my city doing to make a difference with these dollars. And so what strategies do you have in place or what timeline do you have in place to -- I don't know the status of the website, but when I look at what other cities are doing, that's a vital opportunity to tell citizens, Here are the dollars, these are where the dollars are going, this is what's happening in the 1 through 10 councilmanic districts so that we can connect with the average citizens that our city is doing the right thing for these dollars.
Councilmember, you're about to see probably within the next ten days a total revamp of the website. The website will have sort of drill-down information where you will be able to call up a one-page summary like 150 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 the one you have in front of you on the program, the actual report that we submitted to the federal government, probably the application itself and other information that we think would be useful to people so that they can see it. Right now I'm trying to reconcile what was on the website. We had some incorrect numbers, and we're going to fix that. I spent last night for a little bit of time looking at the New York City Recovery Office and their website. We're trying to take examples of best practices from other places, so that we use the website to drive information to people, to use it as a way for citizens to get some access to information, and then if they want more information, a contact person they could talk to.
Yes, yes, yes. So making it user-friendly is different from making -- for the professional that's going to read that and want to know the intimate details. 151 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 Thank you. Thank you for your testimony.
Thank you. Councilman DiCicco. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: I just have a public service announcement, if you will, on a much lighter note. For those of you who may not remember receiving a little insert in your paycheck over the last two weeks, we're talking about spending money locally. Macy's tomorrow is offering all City employees an additional discount to their regular discount beginning at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning. It's an opportunity to spend money locally. We'll see some benefits as a result of that, and you will also get a much deeper discount on any products you might like to buy between now and the holiday season. So it's really a great thing. All you need to do is show your City ID tomorrow and you will get an additional 152 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 percent off. Thank you.
Councilman 5 DiCicco -- 6 COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Spend it 7 locally. 8
This 9 message was approved by Councilman 10 DiCicco. 11 COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: It's been 12 approved by the ethics. I already went 13 through this whole thing. 14 Right, Ms. Markman? 15
Thank you. 16 Councilwoman, one quick 17 question, real quick. 18
That's 19 how they treat the freshmen around here. 20
I'm sorry. Mr. Agostini, you had asked in response to your earlier questions about ways of getting involvement of the local citizens and DBEs, MBEs and WBEs. I'm not going to ask for an opinion today 153 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 unless the City Solicitor is prepared to say that these bills are illegal, but next week we're having a hearing. We introduced Council -- we introduced two bills, one on a local preference for stimulus spending and a bill that requires an attachment of an Equal Opportunity Plan. So next week when we have the hearing, we're going to obviously ask, and it would be helpful if the Solicitor could say we're within our rights to implement such a program.
I don't want to hear today unless she's prepared to say yes. We'll wait until next week, after we need a little time to try to soften you up over the weekend. But we just think it's important, and there's a way -- we actually apparently I think have some information on a couple of other municipalities that have introduced some 154 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 sort of equal opportunity plan mechanism in their local stimulus, and we'll have that at the hearing.
Thank you, Steve. So my question for the record is, when did this committee come to bear? And you didn't quite answer Councilman Clarke earlier, and I'd like to get this, if not now, later submitted to the Chair. How is Council going to weigh in on the selection of what folks consider shovel-ready projects?
I'm going to take that one last. To the questions you had asked regarding structure and the 155 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 work that we were doing, the team had been meeting weekly, I'm going to say, since sometime in March or April. There was a group. They were meeting regularly. I actually participated in a few of those early meetings trying to get our hands around what was expected of us. That continued over the summer months as we were getting applications in, as we were getting information about applications. With respect to the Executive Committee, when I discussed taking on this role, I made it clear, along with those people on the committee, like Joan Markman and the Managing Director, Ms. Barnett, we all made it clear that it was important that I have a group that I reported to, that the expectation of having to go back to the Mayor on a regular basis wasn't a realistic one. So I needed to have a group that I had to go back to so that they were informed and there was an oversight capacity 156 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 internally for what I was doing. And so about the same time that I adopted this role, we also put in place that committee. We've met two or three times since. We've scaled back to a biweekly meeting on the teams for the time being, but that may ramp up to a weekly meeting. I'm now chairing those meetings. I understood that the minutes from those meetings were being delivered via e-mail to Councilmembers over the summer. If that is not something that works, I'm happy to do something else.
That has not been happening, for the record, and I think it's important that we make note of that.
So just for the record, for the perspective of the record, that has not been happening. And we don't want the process of 157 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 communication to become cumbersome. It should be as seamless as the dialogue that happens interdepartmentally. But we now, because of this process in preparation for this hearing and in preparation for the report, I think it is important that we begin to receive a delineation of how these large goals get implemented through parts of the City. And that doesn't need to be complicated either, but I have a concern that, as I stipulated earlier, as it relates to MOCS, who is our anti-poverty agency, how do I connect that to the offices of special needs, housing? How does all those things connect? Because although this is useful in terms of the fact sheets, you can't see the connections, the connectivity that Councilman Jones talked about, and I think we may want to have a department-by-department kind of review and a briefing format where we get an opportunity to kind of engage in that. So we need to create that sooner, because 158 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 now we have this report and we kind of know what is going on rather than later, but how we're going to impact that decision-making is a question that we can't leave here today without kind of understanding that.
Councilmember, again, not to -- I'm not trying to avoid it, but I think that that's a question that needs to be answered by someone at a higher pay grade in order. I can appreciate your concern and your desire, the Council's desire to be involved, and to the extent that I can accommodate that, I will, but with respect to the strategic thrust -- and I don't know that there's a disagreement necessarily between the Administration and Council about this. I don't believe that to be the case, but I think there needs to be a discussion about what roles the bodies play and I'm not the right person to answer that question. I'm sorry.
But I 159 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 will -- I would hope that because of your leadership as this officer, that you understand the importance of that and we figure out how we integrate that in the communication process.
Councilmember, I do. I appreciate that, and as I've said before, I think there's some things we probably could have done a little better in terms of information. So I'll take that to heart and do better.
I have one more question. The project managers that are selected on the departmental level, were they policy people, administrative people? Again, my concern becomes in the selection of projects and the establishment of priorities, are these folks who know what's going on on the ground and can make the connectivity between the top policy and what happens on my 3rd and Indiana?
Councilmember, 160 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 having spoken to pretty much every one of them, I believe that they are indeed people who know intimately what's going on in the departments and on the ground. For example, there's someone in Don Schwarz's office, James Moore, who has this tremendous command of what's going on across the breadth of Dr. Schwarz's portfolio, and those people have been the go-to people for me to sort of say, what's going on. So I believe they have that. They also then have a tier of individuals underneath them who are actually running those programs on the ground. So I think that we are lucky in that respect that we have very good policy people. And it's James, it's Andrew Stober, it's Andy Rachlin, it's a range of people who really have command of that stuff and know who to go to and understand how that fits within the organization, not just the departmental organization but the larger organization. I think we're lucky 161 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 in that respect.
And I will end with this. In light of the fact that we've all acknowledged today that we've missed some opportunities on communication, my concern becomes how are we, therefore, communicating with our stakeholders, who ultimately help us deliver some of these services, and how do we make sure that they're not in the same boat that we were yesterday?
Councilmember, I think that's very fair. I think we need -- the website has to be sort of an entry point, if you will, for people. I think that we need to be doing some outreach. I know that there has been some of that with respect to Commerce Department and some of the grants that they've received, but we probably need to do that in a broader fashion where we're actually out in the community and talking to people. We haven't really talked about that as sort of an overall 162 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 strategy, and we should, and I will take that back.
And that goes to my earlier statement around making sure that these project managers are the folks that interact with these folks regularly so that the information is flowing from -- because there might be opportunities on the ground that we might be missing if we're not communicating with those strategic stakeholders.
Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman Rizzo, I know you wanted to follow up on your question. What I would like to do after that is use the privilege of the Chair to ask the Administration to suspend your testimony for a moment. Ms. Clark from the -- 163 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 well, we got one more question from Councilman Rizzo, and then Ms. Clark from the Enterprise wants to come. I want her to come and testify. She's been waiting since o'clock, maybe even 9:30. And 7 then I have some follow-up questions on 8 some housing-related issues. There may 9 be a couple of other questions. I 10 promise I will get you all out of here as soon as possible.
With respect to Councilman Rizzo's, I think Deputy Mayor Gillison has, I think, a program that we're doing as part of a sort of Clean and Seal in L&I, and I would ask him to come up and respond to your question.
Because I want to make sure that we are interpreting where and where we cannot use stimulus money. An example, it was great and the cell phone lot was a long time. We used Aviation Fund money to build it, but it possibly was -- and, again, I appreciate this project getting 164 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 done and I don't want to slow it down, but there probably are other projects or other areas of constituent service that we do in this city that maybe could be put under -- possibly Deputy Mayor Gillison will say that maybe the Clean and Seal at L&I is eligible for some of that money. But I just don't want to stop there. I want to look under every rock to make sure that there is no 12 confusion on what we can do and what we can't do. Cleaning up vacant lots, cleaning up areas that eventually will be greened might be an opportunity to spend stimulus money. You got a lot of money to spend between now and February. I mean, it's our money. I don't care if it's federal money or state money. We all kicked in for that, but I would hate to not take advantage of whatever the amount is. Eventually some day we'll know what that amount of money is, but I have a feeling we're not going to spend 165 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 it all, and I would like to make sure that some of the real obvious things that people see get taken care of.
That's a very good point, and we will do that. (Witness approached witness table.) DEPUTY
Good morning, Councilman Rizzo. Everett Gillison, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety. In direct answer to your question, I would suggest that we use part of the Byrne money, which was our allocation dollars, in order to try to see how we could integrate the use of those dollars in a way that would best deal with the public safety needs of the City. We decided that we would use L&I and Clean and Seal in order to do that, and I know that we put forward, I believe it was, just over $420,000, I believe, for what I believe was three Clean and Seal teams for a year that would be able to do that. 166 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 And I know that you can provide additional information. (Witness approached witness table.)
Yes. My name is Otis Haigler. I'm Director of Legislative Affairs for the Department of Licenses and Inspections. The Department of Licenses and Inspections has put in an appropriation allocation for $348,600 to hire 12 temporary Clean and Seal workers to actually go about cleaning and sealing vacant buildings throughout the City.
I hear you talking about hiring people, but what about material, the shovels and all that that goes with it?
It's broken down as far as the Class 100, Class 200 for personal services, Class 300 for supplies and Class 400 for other office-related materials.
And you said 167 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 it's $400,000? No disrespect to that number, but in the realm of things, 300,000, 400,000 is not a lot of money. So I don't know how much cleaning and sealing we're going to do with that little bit of money.
Well, the 300,000 is only for the Class 100, which deals with the salaries and benefits. I have a total breakdown that I could share with the Chair.
I think the total amount that we're looking at is $420,000 in Class 100, and in the other classes, it appears to be over 300,000.
Well, we're looking at a total allocation that we're asking for of $573,600.
Again, that's great, but in the realm of things, 168 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 I'm not sure what the impact with $500,000 when we're talking $50 million, 50 million plus I think the number is, of eligible money. DEPUTY
Well, if I may, Councilman, the eligible money is really not that much money, because it's not eligible. This particular program, because it was public safety, I keep looking at different buckets of stimulus money. This was our money that was allocated, and so we only had a certain sliver of those dollars in order to allocate here, and we took this information to our various teams, and this is the amount of money we were able to push over.
But my point is, are we looking at the whole big stimulus pot to make sure that we aren't 169 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 overlooking some very basic things -- DEPUTY
-- that we can do? Some days when I go into some of the neighborhoods, it's not a pleasant situation. If we could spend stimulus money and plan to go green, I think that it would be hard to lose that one, asking for the money and the resources to start cleaning beyond Clean and Seal, beyond Byrne money, but the rest of those pots. DEPUTY
And I can tell you that there has been part of the team, the Recovery team that is headed up by Mr. Agostini, not only are they looking at all of the grants that are available, but where they even believe we might be able to access some of those dollars to do some of these things that's part and parcel of it. So, yes, we are looking, and, yes, we're trying to make sure that 170 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 they're available.
And, again, great that you're going to do that, but, again, I think one of my colleagues said it's communications. We don't know that you're doing these things, and once we learn exactly where you're making applications or where you have a focus, then we'll feel more comfortable that we're in the loop. DEPUTY
Thank you, Councilman. Can we just suspend the Administration testimony just for a minute and we'll be right back and have Ms. Clark come up. (Witness approached witness table.) 171 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540
Good afternoon. My name is Della Clark, and thank you for allowing me to provide testimony. I submitted a written testimony, but in spite of what I've heard today from Steve Agostini, I'd like to respond to some of those observations and just leave my written testimony for the record. So with your permission, I'd like to deviate.
The first thing, I'd like to bring the spotlight on his remarks that I heard around small businesses. When I heard him pill away the amount of money that the City of Philadelphia was receiving, I heard money being allocated for job training, I heard money being allocated for public property, but I didn't hear any money being allocated for small businesses, for capacity, capital, bonding, helping them 172 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 to grow, because the Enterprise Center, which I have been employed there for 4 years, is focused on helping minorities 5 accelerate and grow. And when I hear the 6 word "job training" and when I hear "job 7 creation," I don't know whether this 8 committee recognizes that the jobs are 9 going to come from these small 10 businesses, and if we don't invest in 11 these small businesses, then I wonder who 12 is going to hire these people that we're 13 training, because I don't see these big 14 businesses hiring a lot of these people. 15 And so I think that our dollars should be 16 used to help stimulate the growth and 17 development of small businesses as well. A couple other observations I heard from his remarks. As he talked about the oversight committee, I did not hear any representative from OEO serving on that stimulus oversight committee, and maybe I didn't hear it, but I didn't hear anyone representing small businesses on that oversight committee. 173 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 Second observation is that, Councilwoman Blondell, when you asked him about was there money to be used for local economy, he said it was to be used to jump-start the economy. And we'd like to see small businesses and particularly minority business enterprises be included in the whole coordination of jump-starting the economy. Just to give you an example, on Friday of last week, October the 23rd, we had a business-to-business forum at the Enterprise Center for our stimulus projects, and the reason we had that B-to-B is to make you aware that the Enterprise Center has been awarded a contract by the federal government on behalf of the Obama Administration to monitor and advocate for stimulus dollars to be spent with MBEs. We've been assigned a four-month contract, and we have to report back to the Obama Administration what the City of Philadelphia and what the Commonwealth of 174 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 Pennsylvania has done around minority participation. We have to provide a monthly report, as well as an end-of-the-year report, because he has to report -- the Obama Administration has to report to Congress in February how these dollars have been spent, and we're charged with that on a local level. There were seven sites picked in the United States to participate in this endeavor. And so this work is very, very important to us. And so we had a B-to-B forum on October the 23rd and we had about 100 minority enterprises there, and only one, when we asked the question, had received a stimulus contract, and it was through SEPTA. We also reached out to Steve Agostini, as well as most of the City's Administration, and we did not have one City agency, except the School District, PHA, Airport represented. In terms of Streets, in terms of any agency in the City, no one participated in our B-to-B 175 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 forum to show small businesses that we were open to do business, that there was a sense of collaboration in terms of the City wanting to reach out to MBEs so they would know what the process is. We did not get a good response at all. The second area that I want to bring out is that when I heard his remarks, I didn't hear anything about metrics, how are we going to measure the success of the City and as it relates particularly to minority business enterprise. We need that data.
We need that information to report back to the federal government how the City performed in that area with minority business, because I hope you will agree as we agree at the Enterprise Center, that small businesses is going to be the lifeline and the life blood of our economy, and if we don't invest in small businesses and use our stimulus-funded projects as a way to jump-start small enterprises, I think the City of Philadelphia is going to 176 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 continuously be ranked at the bottom as an entrepreneur city. And that ends my testimony.
Thank you. Maybe I should have had you on a little earlier so we could have responded to some of those questions, which I'm sure we will after your testimony. Let me understand. You have a contract with the federal government to essentially play a monitoring role as it relates to all stimulus dollars being spent in the City of Philadelphia?
Correct. So the federal government wants to know out of all the money that comes to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania -- so we have to look at Commonwealth first, and then they want us to look at it by city, by counties and report back in the 177 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which includes Philadelphia, how much of the projects was spent and included minority participation.
In terms of accessing your information, because that can be challenging even when you're an elected official, what authority do they give you or what ability do they give you to access that information from agencies or municipalities or townships across the state? How exactly do you do that?
Well, we started with, as an example, we started with the Chief Implementation Officer at the federal government, which I heard Steve mention his name, Ed DeSeve. We've met with him. Then we met with Secretary Creedon, who is the Chief Implementation Officer for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He actually attended the forum on Friday and he brought the Chair of the Pennsylvania Stimulus Oversight Commission, which is Ron Naples. 178 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 So we've already started the work at the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania statewide effort to try to get access to this information. And we have begun to have some cooperation with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. That also was a very difficult undertaking in the beginning, but we're starting to make some headway. And we started the same process with the City of Philadelphia, as well as with Harrisburg, as well as with Pittsburgh, because we picked those particular cities because that's where the majority of the minorities live in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. And since we are located here in Philadelphia, we want to do a much better job here in Philadelphia in this effort.
What I'm trying to get at, because you're not a government entity or private organization -- non-profit, right? 179 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540
And if you're trying to seek information -- I mean, we in Council, we have subpoena powers, so if we get frustrated, we say we need information from anybody, we can ultimately issue a subpoena. Somebody can choose to ignore it or adhere to it. I guess I'm trying to get a sense of in the event that you run against a roadblock for any agency or township in getting that information on the participation numbers, what do you do? I mean, do you contact the federal government and say that, I've been unable to have a response from these particular townships or cities? How does that work?
If we have to, we will. If we continuously get roadblocks, not get access to the information -- 180 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 because we're accountable, we have some metrics, we have some numbers. We've been told how much money is going to come in. We've been told to advocate, provide outreach, connect minority businesses to these stimulus and match them up for actual opportunities, not just talk about it, but actually make sure they get matched up and that minorities get a percentage of this. And it wasn't a goal set. It was more of an aspiration goal in terms of minority participation. So we don't want to go back to the Obama Administration and say, you know, We're working in the City of Philadelphia and they're not cooperating. That is not our intent. Our intent is to work with the City to make sure we can provide a good report.
Thank you very much. 181 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540
Thank you. We want to thank Della Clark and the Enterprise Center. As you know, they have incubated programs, many programs, that deal with small businesses and that have made a difference in our city, and we certainly say we are interested in working closely with her. Here in the City we haven't resolved the issues yet with regard to the zip codes being included on contract-getting, especially minorities, nor have we resolved the issue that even if we deal with minorities, African Americans aren't getting much more than they did in many areas, when Lucien Blackwell and John Macklin over there introduced the set-aside bill, where minorities were getting less than one-tenth of one percent. We're still down at the bottom. So even contracts let don't include 182 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 African Americans as they should. So we want to work closely with you, and even if we can't resolve that during your reporting period, we've got to do something to let it be known so that we can begin to straighten out so many of the disparities that exist in our city and certainly everywhere today. Thank you, Della. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I just have one comment. If the Committee here doesn't know what's going on, you can imagine the small businesses don't know what's going on. It's a maze to them. They don't know who to call, who to go to to find out about these contracts, and that's one of our role, is to be that bridge and that connector and that intermediary to these opportunities. So we need to work with the City to accomplish these goals.
Yes. We 183 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 have to do a better job. Councilwoman.
Thank you very much. I'll underscore the important work you've been doing there for decades and for start-up and emerging and now established businesses there in West Philadelphia. I took notes and I thought I did list that OEO is included at the table, at the door with the Recovery Task Force. So we need to ask our City official to please step back to the witness table so that we can get some clarity on that. And am I to understand you to say that you sent a formal request to the Administration and/or the Administration officials, A, letting them know what you're doing; B, why it's important for them to be at the table?
If you 184 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 could please respond.
Sure. I'd be happy to. I think this goes under the category of the lack of coordination information from the federal government creating a situation where unfortunately we are at odds. I received an e-mail. I don't recall a formal letter, but I did receive an e-mail from Michael Bell. The background for this, I have been receiving phone calls, e-mails from numerous --
-- individuals with respect to Recovery. I've also been alerted by numerous individuals, both at the federal government and among colleagues, to be mindful of who has a formal role to play. I don't doubt that the Enterprise Center has that role. I'm not quibbling with that, but it would have been nice for either the federal government or the state government, who 185 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 we do stay in contact with, to, as a courtesy, simply say, We have engaged the Enterprise Center to do this. I have not received any communication to that effect from any federal or state official. I apologize for not, but I have been very careful about who I'm providing information to since I am not really clear what their roles are.
So recognizing that this is another example of what Councilman Jim Kenney and Councilman Clarke have spoken to, which is really what precipitated these meetings, not adequate communication, going forward -- let me not editorialize. Do you think it appropriate for OEO to be at the table? And I actually assumed that they were, if we are serious about making sure that when -- we had this conversation again yesterday in another hearing -- that women, people of color, A, hear about the opportunity, but more 186 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 difficult the experience they have is access, penetrating the brick walls that they still encounter, and the Recovery dollars are a unique opportunity to break the mold.
I agree with you. On a moving-forward basis, there's no reason why we can't address some of these issues. There is a Policy Deputy that follows this on behalf of OEO. Mr. Dow, I think, is aware of this, as well as a representative from Commerce. So to the extent that we have not done this crisply, we will improve on a going-forward basis. But they are at the able. They have been at the table. We just need to be sure the communication, as you've just described it, needs to happen more effectively.
So OEO is at the table? I did hear that in earlier testimony.
Yes. That's correct. 187 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540
I'm sorry. At least the Policy Deputy that reports back to Commerce and to the Deputy Mayor in that area is involved, and perhaps it's more appropriate for Mr. Greenberger to come up and Mr. Dow to come up to respond to those issues.
Okay. Let me make sure I'm understanding what I'm hearing. Earlier in your testimony you provided a list of professionals that are sitting with you on a biweekly basis. Is OEO leadership at the table?
The direct leadership, no, but someone who represents the Policy Deputy Mayor in that area is. And to your point, after we leave here, we will be sure that someone from OEO leadership is at the table.
Thank you very much. 188 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 So we can expect that the two of you will have a sidebar and do what's required to strengthen the communication for the expectation you have to meet with the feds, Ms. Della Clark?
Thank you so much for your testimony. I've just been informed that we have a 1 o'clock hearing. Mr. Greenberger, did you have something you wanted to say?
No. If you wanted to pursue this question, but if not --
I actually had something else to say, but I was going to let it go for now. 189 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540
This issue is of such importance, enormous importance, to so many businesspeople here, let's not let it go.
This should stack as high as every other aspect of the Recovery discussion. (Witness approached witness table.)
My name is Kevin Dow, for the record. I am the Acting Chief Operating Officer for the Commerce Department and have responsibility for the Office of Economic Opportunity. In regards to that committee that Steve Agostini referred to, we do have representation from -- he's on that committee. Andrew Rachlin is on that committee. So these individuals both serve as representatives of the Office of Economic Opportunity in those initiatives. We report back. We have 190 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 conversations about what's going on. If you're looking for actual direct leadership there, we could certainly address that and have some there, but we're very confident that we are involved in the process of identifying opportunities for minorities, women and disabled.
Here's my experience in the eight years I've been here: If you don't have leadership at the table on an issue where you want the needle moved, it doesn't happen. The person who is ultimately responsible for the movement of that needle -- Mr. Greenberger has several different roles, some of which have been added because of legitimate reasons in the management in which government goes. But if the person principally responsible for moving the needle on that issue is not at the table, little happens, and at the end of the day, we can look at the numbers, which Councilman Goode is vigilant about. 191 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 That's where we're ultimately measured. And we have a window here with the Recovery dollars. So if our track record has not been favorable in the past and we are serious about making a dent of a difference going forward in this ripe opportunity of Recovery dollars, then it's my personal opinion that leadership should be at the table on that issue, the one who lives and breathes it, knows the dynamics and the issues and the hurdles every single day. (Applause.)
Alan Greenberger, Acting Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development. If I could, one, reenforce -- I think it's a fair point, and Mr. Agostini made that commitment, which we'll keep. If I could offer an example, if the Chair would indulge me a few minutes on this, an example through the weatherization program of how well that particular situation has worked, it might be helpful 192 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 to hear an example. Would that be all right?
Okay. But I do have some questions for you, gentlemen, and probably Mr. Agostini with respect to the outreach, because Mr. Agostini said that he had not been notified by the state and the federal government that entities had contracts to provide a service that in the earlier testimony we were seeking -- Mr. Agostini said that if anyone knows of a way where we can enhance our inclusion process and what's caused me to talk about the two bills that we had a hearing on yesterday, I take the position that it shouldn't be the sole responsibility of the federal and the state government to reach out to us and tell them that they have somebody under contract. If we, the City of Philadelphia, that the demographics reflect that we need to take this 193 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 serious, we should be the aggressor as it relates to this issue and we should have asked the federal or the state government if there were any contracts or anyone who was providing the service that can enhance our ability to get where we need to get. So I don't think -- I don't take this whole approach that because nobody told us that there was such an entity like the Enterprise Foundation to provide a service, that we somehow are absolved of any fault. I mean, this is our city. We are elected by the people of this city. So at the end of the day, that should be number one on the list. Sitting in this seat over there too many hearings, it is always an afterthought as it relates to somebody seeking a contract with the City of Philadelphia, and we have to wrestle with, at the end of the day prior to the vote of a bill, making them come up with an inclusion process, which causes us to 194 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 do the Equal Opportunity Plan attachment to all bills. So if we're going to take this approach -- and I'm assuming since the follow-up is now going to be aggressive on reaching the goals, we're going to take the approach if somebody tells us where to get that help, then we'll never get there. And I should be addressing this to Mr. Agostini, because he's the one --
Thank you. What I'd like to do is have Anthony McIntosh, the Executive Vice-President to the Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation, just talk briefly about the weatherization program, less so about the weatherization program itself and more about the process that he has led taking us through, in particular reference, 195 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 Councilwoman, to your questions. (Witness approached witness table.) MR. McINTOSH: My name is Anthony McIntosh. I'm the Executive Vice-President of Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation. There were comments made earlier with respect to what has been happening over the past eight months, and one of the things that we've done at PHDC in anticipation of stimulus dollars becoming available was, we started about 11, 12 months ago in an effort to try and ramp up and gear up to put ourselves in a position to achieve our production goals in addressing the weatherization needs throughout the City of Philadelphia. As a part of that initiative, we attended a series of community briefings, neighborhood forums in an effort to jump-start the solicitation process to engage contractors and vendors as it relates to bringing them aboard to 196 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 put themselves in a position to take advantage of the funding opportunities when they became available. In April of this year, we began to draft an RFP to solicit contractors to participate in the program, and as some of you may be aware, at PHDC we've been quite successful as it relates to minority participation and all of our home improvement programs, and with respect to the weatherization program, this program is no different. We have made a concerted effort through neighborhood organizations in trying to encourage contractors, minority as well as women, to come on board. One of the things that we're looking at at this point -- because, again, in spite of the success that we've been able to achieve, we still feel as though we need to make a more concerted effort, especially as it relates to women participation, and as a result of those initiatives and those efforts, PHDC will be receiving $15.9 197 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 million over the next three years. Fifty percent of those funds are available in the first year. That's the year that began October 1st and it will go through September 30th of 2010. With respect to the proposed allocations at this point, we're in the neighborhood of about 37 percent as it relates to MBE/WBE participation percentages. Personally, I think we can do better. Personally, I'm committed to trying to do better, and realistically, I think when the final numbers are computed, we will be well over 40-plus percent as it relates to participation.
Thank you. In all due respect -- and first I want to say, Mr. McIntosh, you're doing a good job. PHDC under your leadership has always done a good job as it relates to participation. You've done a number of housing developments in my district, provided grants for basic systems, ensuring that there's participation. 198 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 PHDC is not the problem. So to ask Tony McIntosh to come here and talk as if somehow he's representative of what's going on in the City of Philadelphia as it relates to contract, frankly speaking, is bordering on offensive. That's not the problem. The problem is all of these other contracts, including infrastructure, the contracts that primarily include -- (Applause.)
-- primarily include the trades -- let's call it like it is -- that's the problem, and if the City of Philadelphia doesn't take the approach that Mr. McIntosh has taken over the years with his agency, then we're never going to get anywhere. So while I appreciate what he's done as it relates to the stimulus dollars -- not to mention the fact, correct me if I'm wrong, that your stimulus grant was a direct grant; am I correct? 199 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 MR. McINTOSH: That's correct.
So it wasn't as if it came through the City's system. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about the City of Philadelphia, the departments that will be letting contracts or facilitating contracts for stimulus dollars. That's where the problem is and that's where we've traditionally had a problem. So that's where we want you to focus on, not have Mr. McIntosh to come and talk about probably one of the most productive agencies, regardless of the stimulus, that we have in the City of Philadelphia.
Thank you. I didn't mean to bring this up as an example of something that was sort of indicative of everything.
Well, no. I said it's an example, and PHDC is an organization that has been working very 200 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 closely with my staff in developing a program, and I think I look to this, as you said, as a model for how we can imbue this in the entire culture of the City, and that's certainly something that Kevin Dow has been trying to do through OEO. So I think you're right, we can and must do better. He's an example of a program that has worked very well. We look to that for help with best practices. I think that's a fair statement.
For clarity purposes, is this the 15.8 million? MR. McINTOSH: That's correct.
And so to Councilman Clarke's point -- and I will beat a dead horse -- that's one of at least a dozen line items here.
That's right. It happens to be more advanced in the process than most of them, so it was something that we can at least talk about 201 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 specifically. A lot of the other ones that we are doing are in the application phase.
And in the application phase, what is the stipulation, what is the criteria, what is the expectation around the involvement of OEO and the goals, if you will, around participation?
Let me ask Kevin Dow to come back. (Witness approached witness table.)
As we receive these contract award amounts from the Recovery funds, then the departments that will be letting those contracts will be going out and doing their normal operating procedures for contracting. OEO will be involved with all of that process all the way through. We will look to be involved in primarily two areas: One, setting the ranges for minority participation.
Setting 202 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 the?
Ranges. Ranges for each individual contract. So we anticipate to set ranges for every contract, and we are in the process now, weatherization, all of the contracts that are coming through right now. Now, the second part is where we will take an extra step at this point and -- where it does not occur in all of our processes throughout the City, but the extra step to make sure that we confirm before the contract is awarded that the ranges have been met, because they essentially are based on a bidding process in the beginning. You bid on, you make some estimates, and then once the contracts are awarded, we want to make sure that the reality is that there are still -- the ranges that were proposed are being met. So we will have that checkpoint there to say, Okay, you've been selected, ready to make an award, you've selected a contractor, 203 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 we'll verify the participation, we'll verify the contractors that are on the bid that are listed. We'll have the conversations with them to make sure that they are indeed engaged with the primary contractor or the department and then verify that. Then that will allow us to approve the contract moving forward. So that's done in the normal operating procedure. That's how we anticipate making sure that any contracts that are let current through City resources or the Recovery funds are -- have indeed minority, women and disabled participation.
What claw-backs exist and what is the role of the Integrity Officer and the other professional that was at the table, whose name escapes me now?
So there's a combination of things. We're making sure 204 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 that we're transparent. We're doing everything that's above ethical standards, more in that regard. Integrity Officer and Joan Markman, they get involved when there's some egregious situation. So if we find that there is actual fraud within the process and we uncover that through our checks and points process, we will then report that as a fraud through, A, the City Solicitor and, B, the Chief Integrity Officer or Joan Markman and make sure that there is some recourse there, that that happens from that perspective. But they don't get involved in the actual process. They get involved after we identify fraud.
So my last question will connect back to pre this testimony of Ms. Della Clark. Recognizing the role they have for the region and reporting to the feds how Philadelphia is doing with regards to MBE/WBE activity, what do you anticipate your next steps to be with the Enterprise 205 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 Center?
Well, we'll certainly have a conversation with Della Clark. I mean, that's important. The information that we got was out of context. We just got an e-mail that just said, Give us this information. We get that all the time. So we have to be very careful, because this is at times sensitive information that we just can't freely give it out. So to be candid with you, that came out of context. So what we will do is work with Della and work with her team there, whomever she's assigning to that, and make sure that we devise a process by which we will be able to respond to give them the information. The challenges that that information, if it's in the next -- right now we have certain information, but as we go through the spending of the Recovery dollars as we receive it -- as you heard, we have not received a lot of these dollars. 206 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540
Right. That's through earlier testimony. So the contracts have not been let out and so, therefore, we don't have minority participation information. And so we're kind of putting the horse before -- the wagon before the horse. You see what I'm saying in that regard? Or horse before the wagon, and that we just don't have that information. We can talk about how we're doing, how we're engaging, the outreach activity that we're doing, and then the actual results will come as these contracts are then put out and let and confirmed.
So there are ongoing outreach, organizing, information-driven --
-- sessions, forums around the City? 207 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540
Partnering possibly with other organizations that live and breathe that mission every day?
Thank you very much for your testimony. Thank you both.
Steve Agostini mentioned the Recovery 101. That was the first one. We had two of those. We've had outreach sessions where we had our Office of Economic Opportunity participate in the MED Week activities. There's a whole week of activities. So part of that involved procurement, business opportunities that Councilman Curtis Jones held.
Well, I gave you two. 208 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 I can give you a couple more.
Within the gap financing programs, we did specific outreach through the media, through the ethnic media, so we were able to reach out to them. Outreach to Councilmembers as a whole to say, Hey, if you knew any people who would be interested in the gap financing product. We knew that there were some applications that were not as strong as others. We offered that help directly to make sure that we were able to get qualified and credible proposals and that kind of technical assistance to make sure we did that. So that's the gap financing product. Those are two more examples.
Do you have a list of organizations, entities that have contractual responsibility for identifying qualified DBEs in the City of Philadelphia?
That -- I'm not sure 209 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 if I understand the question.
Do you have a list of organizations similar to the Enterprise in the City of Philadelphia?
Right. But what happens -- in the practical nature of things, what happens is that we get an opportunity that's specific to a contract. We will say, Okay, that contract is specific to a certain category of organizations that could do those types of things, and we'll send out information to those particular organizations that are capable. So let's say we have something that's for 210 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 concrete. We're not going to send that to an electrical or --
That's not -- let's talk about reality. On the contracts -- because based on what we received, it seems like you guys have been busy over the last several months. Out of these contracts, how many solicitations for support or for qualified contractors have you done to match them with these contracts?
I can't specifically speak to that right now. If that's information that you need, I'd have to go and get it.
I want to see for every one of these contracts some level of documentation that shows that prior to or during the course of these contracts being let or authorized, that 211 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 there was some outreach to entities that could provide, that could match up the DBEs with these particular contracts.
And that is an example of why it is so helpful with all that you have to do that leadership is at the table so that you know at the door that this is expected. It's certainly not -- it's an expectation of Council, though it's always been. So we'll be looking and paying close attention to see how well we honor the City's commitment to level the playing field.
Thank you, 212 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 Councilman.
Thank you so much. Mr. Agostini, I just needed to ask a question of the public service -- I'm sorry; public safety-related arm of the Recovery and I guess, to some degree, technology, but I understand Mr. Gillison has both hats. Then I would like to ask a couple of questions about housing-related stimulus dollars. (Witness approached witness table.)
Mr. Gillison, I needed to -- and I want to thank you all for purchasing the most recent list, a number of cameras. I understand we might actually have some in the pipeline. Without saying it, we do have some challenges currently as it 213 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 relates to getting them -- DEPUTY
-- where we need to -- I didn't want to say it, but... DEPUTY
I didn't want that out there publicly that some of them aren't actually hooked up. Are we in a position to access some stimulus dollars, both public safety related and technology related, to not only move our current camera surveillance program ahead and possibly enhance it? Because I would think that that's an eligible activity. DEPUTY
There are a number of opportunities that we examined in the earlier applications. We were looking at whether or not Byrne could be used. We found out it could not. We have asked and working with our 214 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 legislator from Congress and I know that we've been in touch with Congressman Fattah, who has been very, very instrumental on getting us dollars, additional dollars, for our project. I know that Allan Frank through our IT has been able to take -- and we've put together a strategy for public safety that will be able to supplement what we've been -- what we're doing in a way that I think will expand our ability to hang cameras in a much quicker way than we've been able to do in the past based only on City dollars. So we're trying to move this forward by putting together a new network, and if we can do that, then I think we'll be able to advance this a lot faster. But some of the dollars that we identified under the previous allocations -- it's not available under the COPS grant. It's not available under those kinds of matters, but Recovery dollars from IT, we did put in a grant 215 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 under -- I think it was let in September -- where Allan Frank applied for grants that we would be able to use and leverage our video surveillance program. So there are dollars available. We applied for them.
I don't know offhand how much the -- I think the initial was somewhere around $21 million. That's coming to mind, but I'll be able to get back to you, Chairman.
Because you know where I am with the camera thing. DEPUTY
Our inability to get those things, as you say, hooked up is very important. DEPUTY
There was $22 million that we applied for in order to help us with this particular matter. 216 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540
Councilmember, it's $22 million for general infrastructure, information technology infrastructure.
For the cameras. Not specifically to the cameras or surveillance.
Can you -- and if you don't have it now, that's fine, but can you tell me how much of that, or would you make that determination after you received the grant, how much of that will go towards the surveillance program? DEPUTY
I have 217 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 to get back to you. But, yes, we have a couple of different strategies that are going on. I'll be glad to -- I know a lot of different deadlines are coming up and we are looking at how to supplement this particular program. You know the challenges that have been out there and you also know the limitations technology that we have, and once we get over those two things, then we'll be able to do this in a faster way.
Just a 30-second comment. We've got a lot of cameras up not operational, correct? DEPUTY
How many? 218 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 DEPUTY
There are -- from what I understand, there are 117 that are up and operational and there are another 40, I believe, that are up and are waiting to be hooked into the network.
Could I please make a recommendation. The cameras that are up and not operational have plastic bags over them. DEPUTY
A deterrent, you got the blue light or whatever the color of the light is, blue, flashing, a plastic bag over the camera. The bad guys don't know they don't work. Take the plastic bags off. DEPUTY
Not a 219 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 problem.
We look forward to -- particularly not just this issue, but as we move towards the budget process, let us know what you need for the cameras, because they really work. DEPUTY
Oh, they do. I know that we have shared with both your office and other Councilpersons that have not only asked and shared with the Public Safety Committee how much our data is showing that they work. The idea, though, is that we have to make sure that we can deal with the integration, and it's a 30-day window that we want to keep for evidentiary purposes, and right now that's what we're going to have to figure out a way of how to put it forward. But, yes, I thank you very much for your support.
Thank you. One last question I have relating to housing, the stimulus dollars. 220 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 (Witness approached witness table.)
Good afternoon, Councilman. I'm Scott Wilds, Deputy Director of Housing. I'd be happy to answer any questions I can.
Good afternoon, Mr. Wilds. You have the right shirt on. Go Phillies.
I seem to be the only one here in spirit today, but I'm happy to --
I'm sorry. Councilwoman, I'm sorry. This is the last question. This is the last question for me. Mr. Wilds, real quick, one of the issues -- and we've had significant hearings on the stimulus-related block grant dollars. There is one issue and it's to some degree NTI related, and you may not actually be able to answer this and I understand why, but I got to put it out there for the record. 221 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 PHFA, Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, I understand got upwards of $90-plus million.
In order to maximize our opportunity to take advantage of that, meaning that we have as many responses to their request for proposals as possible, we have to show site control; am I correct?
That is right. As a rule, they require site control at some level to be able to apply, and the next round we think is February.
For the 222 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 stimulus dollars -- for the stimulus credits, I'm sorry.
So the bottom line is, if we don't have site control, we must move in God speed, so to speak, to --
In general, PHFA has accepted a resolution of Council to take through a condemnation as evidence of site control.
So if we're in a position to have access to, say, NTI dollars and before Council leaves in the December recess, we can pass an ordinance 18 or a resolution that evidences an authorization for the Redevelopment Authority to acquire properties or authorize a condemnation, that traditionally suffices for PHFA as some evidence of ultimate site control?
I believe that would be correct, though they have 223 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 sometimes varied what they will accept as evidence of site control.
Any of those CDBG dollars, Recovery dollars, suitable for capital improvements for arts and cultural institutions in the City?
There is an allocation of funding, as you may recall, back in June, Councilwoman, when we brought a budget for those funds to Council, and of the 14 million, 500,000 was set aside for businesses related to the arts and culture world. Mr. Steuer was here -- is here and could speak to where they are with those funds. They could not be grants to arts groups for operating expenses. They would have to be a business-related job-creating activity. But he's here if you would like to hear from him. 224 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540
Well, I would, but I'm going to have to push the pause button because I need to honor -- Councilwoman Blackwell does have another hearing. That was an opportunity to put it on the record, with the follow-up being that the three of us possibly -- I know Gary and I tried before, but the three of us can sit so that I could have a better handle on how that impacts the arts and culture community favorably.
Thank you, Councilwoman. Any other questions of these witnesses? (No response.)
Anyone else to testify on this resolution? (No response.)
There being 225 10/28/09 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 090540 none, I want to thank you all very much. Mr. Agostini, thank you for your work. We really look forward to having a follow-up, not necessarily in this format, but there are a couple of outstanding issues that we want to address so we can be more productive in our support of your efforts. Thank you. I'm sorry. This committee is recessed until the call of the Chair. (Committee on Fiscal Stability and Intergovernmental Cooperation recessed at 1:55 p.m.) - - - 226 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 on October 28, 2009, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)