COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, March 31, 2026 10:19 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT KENYATTA JOHNSON COUNCILWOMAN NINA AHMAD COUNCILWOMAN CINDY BASS COUNCILWOMAN KENDRA BROOKS COUNCILMAN MICHAEL DRISCOLL COUNCILWOMAN JAMIE GAUTHIER COUNCILWOMAN KATHERINE GILMORE RICHARDSON COUNCILMAN JIM HARRITY COUNCILMAN CURTIS JONES, JR. COUNCILWOMAN RUE LANDAU COUNCILWOMAN QUETCY M. LOZADA COUNCILMAN ANTHONY PHILLIPS COUNCILMAN MARK SQUILLA COUNCILMAN ISAIAH THOMAS COUNCILMAN JEFFREY YOUNG, JR. BILLS: 260199, 260200, 260201, 260202, 260203, 260204, 260205, 260206, 260208, 260209 RESOLUTION: 260227 - - -
This is the public hearing, a public meeting of the Committee of the Whole regarding Bill Nos. 260199, 260200, 260201, 260202, 260203, 260204, 260205, 260206, 260208, 260209 and Resolution No. 260227. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the roll and take attendance.
Present. Thank you very much, members, for the quorum. I really appreciate it. This committee is now called to order. Ms. Loughead, will you please read the titles of the resolutions.
Bill No. 16 260199, an Ordinance adopting the Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2027. Bill No. 260200, an Ordinance to adopt a Fiscal Year 2027 Capital Budget. Bill No. 260201, an Ordinance to adopt a Capital Program for the six Fiscal Years, 2027-2032 inclusive. Bill No. 260202, an Ordinance amending Chapter 19-2400 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Hotel Room Rental Tax," by providing for an additional excise tax on hotel room rentals, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260203, an Ordinance amending Subcode "A" (The Philadelphia Administrative Code) of Title 4 of The Philadelphia Code (The Building, Construction and Occupancy Code), by adding and revising Zoning Board of Adjustment fees and provisions regarding hearing scheduling, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260204, an Ordinance amending Title 3 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Air Management Code" to modify the amounts of license and permit fees, under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 2602055, an Ordinance amending Section 19-1806 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Authorization of Realty Use and Occupancy Tax," to clarify the imposition of the tax on the use or occupancy of real estate with respect to cell towers, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260206, an Ordinance amending Chapter 6-600 of The Philadelphia Code ("Asbestos"), by adding and providing provisions related to various fees, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260208, an Ordinance amending Chapter 19-1800 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "School Tax Authorization," to a add a new Section 19-1808, entitled "Authorization of Rideshare Use Tax," to authorize the Board of the School District of Philadelphia to levy a tax upon the use by a passenger of a transportation network company for a prearranged ride that originates in Philadelphia; all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260209, an Ordinance amending Title of The 8 Philadelphia Code, entitled 9 "Finances, Taxes and Collections," 10 to add a new Chapter 19-4800, 11 entitled "Retail Delivery Tax," to 12 establish a tax on orders for the 13 delivery in Philadelphia of retail 14 consumer and other tangible goods, 15 all under certain terms and 16 conditions. 17 Resolution No. 260227, 18 Providing for the approval by the 19 Council of the City of Philadelphia a Revised Five Year Financial Plan for the City of Philadelphia, covering Fiscal Years 2027 through 2031, and incorporating revisions with respect to Fiscal Year 2026, which is to be submitted by the Mayor to the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority pursuant to an Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement by and between the City and the Authority.
Today we will hold the public hearing of the Committee of the Whole to consider the bills read by the Clerk that constitute proposed operating capital spending measures for Fiscal Year 2027, a Capital Program and a Forward- looking Capital Plan for Fiscal Year 2027 through Fiscal Year 2032. This morning we have scheduled testimony from the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer, Office of Human Resources and the Office of Innovation and Technology. Given the overlap of these departments' responsibilities, all departments will be available for questioning following the testimony from the City's Chief Administrative Officer, Camille Duchese. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the first witness to testify from the Administration.
Camille Duchaussee, make sure I get that right. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Good morning, Councilman -- Council President Johnson, members of City Council and colleagues. I am Camille Duchaussee, the Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Philadelphia. I appear before you today to present budget priorities and strategic direction of the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer and departments within the CEO cluster for the upcoming fiscal year. The Fiscal Year '27 budget for the Office of the CAO is critical to fulfill the mission of the office, to create and support conditions for city departments and workforce to deliver efficient, effective and equitable city services while enhancing the quality of life for all residents and providing a government that residents can see, touch and feel. Joining me today at the table are Candi Jones, our Chief Human Resource Officer, and Melissa Scott Walker, our Chief Information Officer, along with Ronald Hovey, our Procurement Commissioner, Jim Leonard, our Records Commissioner, as well as Melissa Andre, our OAR Director, Executive Director Carol DeFries, our CCME Executive Director Adrienne Moore, our Executive Director for the Office for People with Disabilities. In the past year, we have realized service delivery and improvement by deploying digital workflow transformation solutions for several departments. We've streamlined the professional services contract and conformance process so vendors navigate fewer hurdles with clearer timelines, templates and touchpoints, expanded upskilling and professional development through CCME and the Office of Talent and Employee Success, worked across departments to center accessibility, ensuring our digital services, facilities and public communication are inclusive for people with disabilities. Additionally, our departmental partners have helmed significant and impactful initiatives and business process improvements, including OIT's launch of citywide AI policy and strategy, digital equity and literacy programs, OHR's time to hire and vacancy reduction and creation of HR University, the Records Department's payment process modernization and establishment of a national first of its kind, deed fraud protection, and procurement responsiveness and partnership during several significant citywide events. I am proud of the work of the CAO and its partner departments and ask that City Council support the proposed budget. Written testimony has been submitted for your review. We welcome any questions. And before we get started, I would also like to ask my colleague Melissa Scott to present testimony today. Thank you.
Good morning, Council President Johnson, members of City Council. I'm Melissa Scott, the Chief Information Officer. Joining me today is Nadine Dodge, Chief Enterprise Officer; Steve Robinson, Chief of Staff; Chris Donato, Chief Financial Officer; Dan Rothman, Chief Technology Officer; Damian Oravez, our Chief Security Officer; Tim Haynes, our Chief Data Officer; Kelly Thornton, Chief Project Management Officer; Idris Abdul Zahir, our Chief Support Services Officer. I'm pleased to provide testimony on the Office of Innovation and Technology's Fiscal Year 2027 operating budget. The Office of Innovation and Technology functions as city central technology agency responsible for establishing and executing the city's IT strategy in direct alignment with the Mayor's vision and departmental goals. OIT provides the digital infrastructure systems and services that enable secure, efficient and effective government operations. For some of our plans for Fiscal Year 2027, 311 new mobile app, a new interface enhancement. The 311 mobile app introduces several new features designed to significantly improve the residents' experience and modernize service delivery. Residents will be able to submit service requests more intuitively through a mobile-first interface, including the ability to upload photos, use location services for precise issue reporting and select clearly- defined service categories. Scheduled to launch August 2026, it marks the city's first inhouse mobile app application. Also, we are expanding PHLgovTV live streaming. This initiative establishes a reliable citywide live remote broadcast capabilities that extend our existing TV station beyond the studio, directly into neighborhoods, events and community spaces. It provides residents with more timely, accessible and transparent information, strengthening engagement and trust with built-in staffing redundancy. The model ensures consistent daily broadcast and creates capacity to expand in additional programming, such as community spotlights, emergency updates and special event coverages. E. E. E. resources on a mobile device instead of navigating multiple offices or paper-based processes. This reduces confusion, saves time, makes it easier for working families to access critical housing support. In addition, we have our AI tools and governance. AI governance strategy of OIT establishes a framework that enhances its control accountability. Each AI tool is required to undergo a comprehensive review process, which includes security evaluations, approval from the Governance Committee, risk assessments, final operational clearance prior to deployment. The utilization of AI is subject to ongoing monitoring, auditing, reporting, guaranteeing complete transparency and comprehensive oversight throughout OIT. IT Security, the Law Department, the AI policy have all participated in publishing the AI policy, which published March 24th of this year, following a comprehensive review by OIT security, legal ethics, integrity and law stakeholders. This strategy is anchored in three core principles: ethical utilization, robust governance frameworks, a data security, emphasizing bias reductions, human oversight and stringent data protection measures. To facilitate this initiative, OIT is rolling out employee training on April 1st, establishing clear AI guidelines to ensure that staff comprehend how to use AI responsibly as a tool to augment, not substitute their work. As far as our achievements, we have achieved the Power Up Tour. It's a citywide initiative that helps bridge the digital divide by distributing 500 free laptops and a host of 50 laptops to preregister residents in all 10 Council Districts. Since we launched the program, we have distributed 367 laptops. Power Up Philly Community Tech Expo, which occurred last Saturday, is a day dedicated to digital empowerment, featuring key speakers, computer training.
Laptop distributions of 1600 Philadelphians received laptops in partnership with Temple and 70-plus community organizations. OIT's digital equity team applied and received over million in funding 2 from PA Broadband Authority to increase capacity at 22 Philadelphia park and recreation centers. The digital equity team project manages those grants in coordination with PPR and the Capital Program Office. OIT has also launched an OIT upskilling training program, a five-layer workforce strategic plan. In 2025, OIT initiated a strategic workforce transformation focused on building consistency, resilience, intercapabilities. Key efforts include launching IT-based training to standardize skills, beginning upskilling programs aligned to modern IT demands and implementing cross-training mentorship to reduce knowledge silos and operational risks. In addition, we also launched a citywide technical training. OIT enhanced the proficiency of all employees and utilizing a critical workplace tools by providing structured-led training on a suite workplace productivity tool. The program improved day-to-day productivity collaborations across departments by establishing a consistent baseline of digital skills through a phase implementation that began in March 2025. From March 2025 to 2026, we held 116 sessions that were conducted in training over 1000 employees. The results indicated a significant impact with a net provider score of 83% positive teaching rating and 95% satisfaction, which surpasses industry standards and confirms that employees are acquiring the necessary skills to execute their jobs efficiently. And lastly, the 2026 mobile app, which has launched this month OIT facilitated the development of 2026 Access Philly mobile app, a centralized platform created to facilitate Philadelphia's 2026 events, enabling residents, visitors and attendees to explore, schedule and participate in activities throughout the city. The application consolidates event listings, schedules, locations and essential facts into a cohesive, friendly interface. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Before I turn it over to my members, just a couple questions: First, I'm going to start off with a statement. The IT department, Melissa, the work you have been doing in terms of the Administration giving out the laptops I think is great when it comes to bridging the digital divide. I know we've all -- let's clap for that, y'all. (Applause.)
And the reason why, I was having a conversation with someone the other day, and I've been an elected official since 2008, right, and we've never had a real strong push from my perspective to bridge the digital divide here in the City of Philadelphia. You have some programs, a little bit here, a little bit there. But in terms of me being inside this body, and even when I was a State Rep, like a concerted effort to put free laptops in the hands of our youth, so I thought that was great. Because y'all not only partnered with Councilmembers, but then y'all popped up at Temple and said, not separate from just Councilmembers, anybody can come, no matter where you're at, you can come and participate. And so, very, very impressed with that this past weekend. And also, obviously, you know I'm a supporter of the H.O.M.E. Plan, and I think the H.O.M.E. app is great as a one-stop shop for individuals to take advantage of all the things that the H.O.M.E. Plan has to offer. So I think that's awesome as well. I want to go into Human Services. I want to first and foremost commend the HR team for reducing the vacancies, right. And so, how do we continue on that path of reducing the vacancies? What was the strategies that was used to actually go after and get more people hired? And then also, with the One Philly initiative that you're going to create a position for a management tool to improve the process in which the city tracks vacancies, tell us more about that as well. And what's our current process of tracking vacancies as well?
Understood. So I'll start with the last question first. Good morning, everyone. Candi Jones, Chief Human Resources Officer. So I would say our recruitment strategy is multi- pronged. To be quite honest, I think I mentioned a few strategies at the Five Year Plan. And so, one of our strongest, strongest tools that we leverage is our community partnerships and its partnerships with Council. And so, we have increased significantly the number of community events that we are attending. So in 2024, we attended 154 events. In 2005, we attended 326 events. 100 of those events had the Mobile Hiring Unit, the bus. We continue to partner with our city departments. We continue to partner with the school district, CCP. Recently we hosted job fairs specific the federal workforce that were being offboarded. We partnered recently with PHA in order to figure out if we could transition some of their layoffs, some of their staff into some of our skilled trades roles. So we continue to leverage all of our community partnerships. We have significant partnerships in the Hispanic community. We have partnerships specific to Re-Entry, Muslim Engagement. And so, we're really leveraging the full totality of all of our partnerships in order to attract future workforce. I think the second question -- I'm sorry, Council President. Can you repeat it?
The One Philly management tool to improve the process by which you're going to track city vacancies? And also, how are we tracking vacancies now?
So right now we're leaning on our relationships with our sister departments to track vacancies manually. We update our critical vacancy list with the Department of HR about every 30 days. And so, we continue to maintain those numbers. One Philly does sit in the Finance Department so they are managing the transition to our position management tool. But the OHR team, my deputy Ardena Starks sits on that team. And so, we are working collaboratively with the One Philly group to ensure that the position management tool kind of meets everyone's expectations, it has an ease of use and that we can sort of abandon what we're doing right now with the manual tracking of vacancies.
In terms of civil service hiring, on average how long is that process in terms of getting people hired through the civil service process, because we do get a lot of calls regarding individuals who are anxious about getting hired by the City of Philadelphia? And also, what's the current percentage of civil service eligible lists that are produced on or by the target date of when you want to get people hired?
Understood. So we're really excited about our time to hire numbers this go-around. So as you remember, City Council generously funded our transition to a new applicant tracking system in last year's budget. That tracking system is called Neogov. So it allows us to track our time to hire processes that we were tracking manually. It allows us to track our time to hire into the entire employee lifecycle. So right now, we're tracking about 100 days. Our goal is to be under 90 days. But what the system allows is we can compare ourselves to our peer jurisdictions that are also using the Neogov system, and our peer jurisdictions are about 180 days. And so, we're looking great. We're not happy with 100 days, but we're certainly on our way, well underway, to make under 90 days in the future.
And what's part of your strategy to kind of --
It's multi- pronged for that, Council President. So if everyone recalls the time to hire process, there's ownership at different parts in the process. So the beginning is the announcement period that OHR fully owns, which is where we announce the examinations. We pull it down, review the applications and establish the eligible list. Then there's a portion that is on the department side, where they're requesting the names off of the eligible list and doing their candidate interview process. And so, on the OHR side we are looking at ways that we can shorten our time to hire. And so, can we post jobs for a shorter period of time, can we decrease the time to establish the eligible list, right, leveraging more training and experience evaluations as opposed to written examinations. On the department side, we are working very, very closely with HR managers across the city. We've established a (inaudible) circles where we're meeting with HR managers one-on-one in groups to talk to them about how they can improve their processes, how they can speed up their time to hire on their end. There is also some really great system gains for reducing time to hire on the departmental side. The new system does allow candidate text messaging, self-scheduling of interviews. And so, we're really both streamlining our human processes, but also leveraging technologies in order to comprehensively reduce time to hire --
Yeah. Oh, sorry, that's good. Thank you, Camille. So we're also looking at the employee -- we're also looking at HR comprehensively, right. So when we're looking at HR Centers of Excellence, COEs, we're trying to identify what components right now that we have decentralized across the city that we are able to centralize and bring in under the Office of Human Resources in order to improve our processes, whether that be training, whether that is the separations process, how can the Office of Human Resources have additional oversight and bring those processes into the office in order to streamline our processes. And so, we're doing kind of a comprehensive look right now of all of the HR Centers of Excellence to then make recommendations both in the short- term and the strategic long-term in order to improve the HR processes across the city.
All right. Thank you. And a question regarding -- there's a million dollars requested for the CCME program that's at Community College. Just give us an idea regarding to date how many graduates from the program. Give me an overview as you move forward in terms of what makes an individual qualified to participate and to be a fellow in the program as well.
So the fellow program specifically is what you're asking?
Okay. Thank you for the question, Council President. So during the course of the first year and a half of our CCME program, we realized that the alignment that we intended for the program completers to move fairly seamlessly into municipal employment, particularly entry- level civil service positions, wasn't working as we wanted it to. There were some aspects of -- there was more support needed. There were some aspects of the announcements weren't lining up exactly timing-wise with the completion of the program. And so, we went kind of back to the lab and thought about how do we better support this transition. And we created the CCME fellow. I'm very, very excited about the CCME fellow because it does a couple of things: Number one, it allows us to create a transitional process, so for our completers, our participants who need a little bit more support. Just because you finish a program doesn't necessarily mean that you are ready to slide right into a full-time position and be successful. We want to make sure that when you finish a program, a CCME program, and you head off into your full-time employment with the city, that you're successful, that you're a coveted human resource asset. So we created the fellow which allows us to pull our completers, our participants, when they complete the program into a transitional pre-entry level position, full-time, permanent with benefits. We can provide on practical experience. We're supporting different departments while also creating a very robust continuation of the professional development work that is needed in some cases. We have a person who is very specifically assigned to track our fellows, to work with them, a navigator who will identify not only positions for which they are qualified and to help them navigate the application process, but to understand where there might be some continued gaps in terms of competency, proficiency and make the adjustments in terms of sliding that person into additional training that's necessary to build their skill. So we're very happy with the program. I believe the budget ask right now is about a million and a half. We have already hired three CCME fellows. We are looking back at the first cohort of CCME completers to pull additional completers into the fellow program. As the program gets up and running, that first cohort is supporting our Philadelphia vendor cooperative or our vendor support unit, and it addresses two issues at this point --
How many graduates have you had thus far through the program and cohorts as well?
So we're still in a process of not every -- the cohorts and the programs don't all end at the same time. So we are still in the process of the first cohort making its way through all the different programs. There's different phases of the program that include some of our, if you call them, power skills or soft skills. Then we go into kind of the technical programs, specific aspects of it. Some of our cohorts stay at CCME at CCP and continue their education, which we consider a win. And some of our participants do absolutely move on from the program and either we're slotting them into our CCME fellow or they're being hired. And in some cases, they're going on to -- they decide not to accept or pursue municipal employment or they pursue external employment opportunities.
So what's the current number of graduates thus far?
Thank you very much. Chair recognizes Councilmember Curtis Jones, Jr.
Thank you, Mr. President. Couple of questions. I'm going to shoot them out because there is a clock. Number one, for OIT what is the impact of artificial intelligence on the future of our workforce? I guess that should also be with the personnel department, to determine what impact is that going to have on jobs and the workforce and to a degree of efficiency. That's question number one. Second question is for Public Property. I need to know what our current complement of publicly-owned buildings is compared to the amount of repair. There's a term you guys used the other day to talk about the needed repairs versus what we have. And Part 2 of that question is, out of all of the departments we have, how many of them are housed in private buildings that we pay rent to? Those are my questions first round.
So I'll start off with the question relative to public property. Public Property does not rest within our purview, so we're happy to either obtain that information for you, but I do believe that Public Property also has an opportunity, a hearing date that might be better-suited for that question. But happy to get that information and provide it to you.
So in regards to AI, our framework is built on a three-pillar framework, so it's ethical, human-centered process and control data and security. So your first question is based -- it comes out of our first pillar, which is to ensure that we protect any biases and equity. So that's the first thing. And the way we do that is we test and we monitor for biases and never assume to be neutral. The other part is a human in the loop. So this goes into where you talk about efficiency. We have to make sure that we augment -- AI is there to augment our workforce, not to replace. So humans have to stay in the loop and stay accountable at all times. Yes, they can become more efficient at their work, but humans need to overlook anything that AI produces, ensure that they're the final ones that has the accountability over what's produced.
So we say that, but there are things -- what are they, chat bots?
Can you for the record announce what they are, and we're using them more and more throughout government. And a lot of the feedback I get from my constituents is that we are moving to an automated, non-human response in a lot of our inquiries. And so, it increases the efficiency. But if my question doesn't fit neatly within that box, sometimes there's a problem.
So you're speaking of the large language models known as LLMs. And we currently have training for the employees that will roll out April 1st. This is introducing them to how to utilize these tools, how to use them correctly, ensuring --
What the bot is, okay. So the large language models takes information and it -- say, for instance, you want to type a paper or something along those lines or you're drafting a memo or something along those lines. It can take the information you type in, what it is that you would like it to do, it's called a prompt. And then it will produce back to you information that would help you with your original prompt that you provided it. What's important to understand is how to use the prompts. And from the perspective -- so there's two sides to it, right. There's the IT side and then there's the operational side. So we have an AI governance team, Camille and I are the co-chairs. I handle the IT side, and then there's the operational side. So from an IT perspective, where my jurisdiction lies is ensuring that our data does not go out to any of these tools that basically bad actors would be able to get a hold of them and use them against us. So the training that we're launching teaches them how to use the prompts, what is the official City of Philadelphia tool, which is Copilot Chat, also explaining all the other different chat bots, ChatGPT and so forth. We should not be uploading city data into those tools. This is what the training explains and ensures that everyone knows how to use it safely and securely. A lot of what you're asking now is what will the departments allow to be used. So the process for that is they would submit what tools they want to use and whatever software or applications. It would go through questionnaire, security clearances. We will look at how it fits in with our infrastructure. So that's the third pillar, our data and security, making sure things are encrypted. That is part of the city-approved tools. We're also monitoring for transparency. So that's my area. But do you want an AI tool now to interact with the public, do you want someone in a particular department to use maybe a chat bot tool to answer questions such as customer service, that's an operational question.
So Member Landau and I, Mr. President, are going to introduce a resolution 10 to look at a longer-term explanation of your vision for the use of artificial intelligence and its impact on our workforce. So please be prepared for that, because I can't -- I know my clerk typist is scared to death when I start doing emails, letters and drafting them out. No, Councilman, I can do this, don't you do it. And so, I want to see long term what that means to the Clerk Typist I, Clerk Typist II and people that are at the counters, that if I can ask a bot or to interface with the public, what does that mean for the workforce?
So it's important that we have an AI governance team, which includes Camille and, as I mentioned, as the co-chairs, but it also includes legal ethics, a labor representative, and we are building out a framework for action plan. So the two things that we accomplished thus far is the AI policy, which is available for viewing internally, and then we also created the training. We are still working through an action plan to get more specifics through our different committees. We have a procurement committee, a legal committee, external advisors committee that would include all of our external community individuals that would like to express their feelings and concerns as well as our technical infrastructure committee. So between those committees and that governance structure, we'll create an action plan that we'll work through the summertime in order to release some additional information as well as building a platform for transparency so we can upload these documents so the public could view them as well, which is not a traditional way that we communicate information, but we are going to have that --
Can you give a copy once the plan is completed to the President so he can distribute it to Innovation and the Majority Leader, who has been on personnel for a while?
Thank you very much. Chair recognizes Councilmember Dr. Anthony Phillips.
Thank you, Council President. I want to frame my questions today around one central theme and, that is, responsive government. Because at the end of the day, neighbors should experience government through departments that have outcomes. And we continue to see in our district, whether it's operations, hiring, we are seeing delays in service delivery and lack of clear communication. So I want to begin also by stating that I'm very thrilled that our Chief Information Technology Officer Melissa Scott has done an incredible job with giving laptops out to our communities. I think it was really innovative what was done at Temple recently. And I love the outwardness of the technology department. It is incredible. And then also, I want to thank Candi Jones, our Director of Human Resources, for doing an incredible job with working with some ideas that I shared around getting flyers out, right, images out on social media that we can share across our Council District. My first question is for Camille. If you can just briefly describe to me what specific systems or protocols has CAO implemented to ensure cross- department coordination happens within defined timelines?
Yeah. So often times, many issues in our district require coordination across multiple departments, such as Streets, Water Department, L&I, Revenue and others. When that coordination breaks down, residents experience delays, conflicting information or no resolution. So your department is supposed to ensure efficiency among staffing. How are you ensuring that every department is supposed to communicate with each other, such as maybe sometimes Streets has to coordinate better with Water Department to have efficiency? How are you making sure that those timelines are being worked on by these departments?
Sure. Thank you, Councilmember Phillips, for the question. So we, as a result of Mayor Parker's Executive Order, created a system called Better Services PHL. It is a cross-departmental effort to improve service delivery to our residents. It allows us to create an interdisciplinary team to look at the various services that are delivered across all departments, be able to, where possible, coordinate the improvement of those services. So as an example, when we worked with our Revenue partners and they had multiple application processes that they were using for revenue support, tax support, we were able to work with that department to create a single application process that allows for any resident who might qualify across multiple support systems and support opportunities to apply one time and be considered for all of the different programs for which they would be eligible. This approach to improving services is not exclusive to a department. Because we are looking across all departments, we're able to see the different services that are delivered, the functions of each department and apply the efficiencies gained in one project across all departments.
Would it be possible to get a commitment from you just to follow up on that from every single department to provide a one-pager where there is a clear understanding of service-level agreements between the city and the service that they're providing for a neighbor that we can distribute across our districts to say if there's a pothole, the service- level agreement is a three-day response, if it's a cave-in, it may take up to 40 days? That way we could be very clear with residents how long it's going to take for something to be done, so every Councilmember, every State Rep, every State Senator do not have to call and say, I need to jump the line because the process is confusing for people and they've been waiting for so long?
So, Councilmember Phillips, I think I'm going to do you one better. We are creating and we are at the end of Phase of citywide service standards. And every department is going to commit to those service standards, which to your point would include, what does timely remediation of an issue mean, so that there is one definition of that and where every department is acquiescing to that service standard and going to be held accountable to that service standard.
Thank you. I know I'm out of time. I just want to also briefly say if that could be also published on the city's website as well --
-- I'd still like the one-pager. And then I would also just greatly encourage you all, if you can maybe send some of the people from your team to come by our City Council offices and just sit for a week or a few days just to really observe the type of calls that come in, and we can kind of share out the type of issues that we have trouble with, and maybe that can help with you thinking about how to improve these departments, because the departments are not always sharing the totality of their issues in the way that we experience them.
So I appreciate that and we're happy to do that. Just based on the conversation that we've had with you a few weeks ago, we were able to attend your town hall and we began a project with the Water Department on communication.
Thank you. Chair recognizes Councilmember Jim Harrity.
Thank you, Council President. Good morning, everyone. Just a couple of questions. I'm going to, for the sake of time, ask them and then you can go at it. How can we make sure we are being proactive in informing seniors and longtime homeowners that they can sign up for Fraud Guard to protect from deed fraud? And is there a specific enrollment target or outreach strategy in 2027's plan? The program has been free since '22 but enrollment remains low.
So I can also ask my colleague Jim Leonard to speak to that. But one of the projects that we've taken on under better services is working with our Records Department. And the goal is automatic enrollment in deed fraud protection. So we are working on a system, we are working with the vendor to ensure that our residents are automatically being enrolled and they have to opt out of the deed fraud protection. And so, the goal really is 100%, unless a resident very specifically wants to opt out of the deed fraud protection. And I think that very much plays into some of the challenges our seniors may have with navigating the digital systems. So they don't have to do that. They're protected automatically.
Yeah. That is really, really good to hear. Anything that we can automatically enroll our people in to give them a little bit of a savings, especially with some of the things we have planned in the budget, you know, we got to start looking at trying to cut our citizens' cost and protect them, and this is a way we can also do both. So I'm happy with that. Would you like him to elaborate or -- I'm pretty good at the auto. That was what I was looking for. So this is for Human Resources. You provided information about the hiring process from start to finish. Why is it so long? And what parts of the process are causing such a lengthy process? I understand that you are trying to shorten this. What parts of the process are you targeting to make it shorter?
So I'm going to -- thank you for the question. I will go through the full process first and then talk about the parts that we're looking at. So the beginning of the process for civil service positions at the job posting process, Civil Service regulations require us to post those jobs for at least calendar days. And so, it's posted online for 15, sometimes more days. Sometimes we open jobs longer so that we can align with recruitment efforts and things like that. So there's a portion of time there. When that announcement closes, we pull it down and then it is assigned to an analyst who goes through each application by hand to determine if folks are eligible for the role. We have not -- to the AI question, we have not leveraged AI for that because it would be a detriment to our candidates, right. Some folks don't fill out their applications thoroughly. We have a digital divide. And so, we make sure that we go through those applications by hand. That adds time to the process. If we are administering examination, it can add more time. But most of our, I think, about 75% of our announcements are training and experience evaluations right now. And so, candidates are not coming in for a test. We establish that eligible list. Once the eligible list is established, departments are notified that it's established and they have to request the names from that eligible list to fill their vacancies. Once the names go to the departments, then they're responsible for engaging with those candidates in the interview process. So reaching out to see if they're interested, scheduling interviews, you know, making sure whoever the supervisors or managers that are engaging in those processes are interviewing with candidates and then making a selection, and then going through kind of establishing the hire date. So that's the entire timeline of the process where we're looking at about 100 days. What we're doing --
100 days, mm-hmm. But compared to our peer jurisdictions, they around 180 days. So we're proud of 100, but not satisfied though. So what we're doing right now is looking at both the OHR-owned part of the process and the departmental-owned parts of the process to identify where we can close the gap. So can we work in partnership with the Civil Service Commission to change the required posting date to maybe seven, eight, whatever the days look like, are there parts of our process on the front end that we can minimize and then working with our departments, right, to figure out if there are parts of their processes that can be streamlined. The new applicant tracking system has a lot of technology that we're going to be leveraging, right, so candidate text messaging, self-scheduling for interviews, things that will speed up the process and getting that individual in front of a manager, interviewed and selected. And so, we're looking at the entire life cycle to just figure out where there are places that we can narrow that window and still being aligned with Civil Service regulations and our processes. We still want to present a very fair and equitable process for everyone, but we are looking at our process to identify those opportunities.
Okay. I'll come back in the next round. Thank you, Council President. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. President. Good morning, everyone. How's everybody doing? I just had a couple of questions and I really wanted to focus on the use of technology. So when you were speaking earlier about Human Resources and the way we do things manually, and I get it, you know, we need to protect the data, we need to make sure everything is safe and secure. But I have a lot of concern. Because in all of my time here in City Council, we have always been sort of lagging behind when it comes to technology and efficiencies, and we're still not there and it doesn't feel like we're close to being there. And I know that there are efficiencies, for example, like the city of Baltimore did --
Point of information. I'm sorry. Since I've been Council President, you all have charges underneath your desk. I just want to say that for the record.
So what I would say, the city of Baltimore has done some extraordinary work using AI and using technology around a really big problem that we have in the City of Philadelphia, which is illegal dumping. I know that the city of Miami has been using AI to address low-income housing. And these are serious, significant issues that we face and challenges we deal with every single day and it feels like we're not working to make ourselves -- we're not working smarter. We're working hard, but we're not working really smart. So can we get a response on that?
I'm going to start, but I will pass it to Melissa. So this is a rapidly changing environment, right.
And we understand here you have exactly the issue that we face with this kind of dichotomy of approach, hey, we really need to take full advantage of artificial intelligence, generative AI, but we need to do so in consideration of what is it going to do to the workforce, are we replacing people with AI, right. And so, the first thing that we need to do, and I was doing a little research on this, there was a lot of fear when computers came to the workplace, right. I'm a fairly older person and I used to do things in triplicate, and we used to type on a typewriter. And when the internet came about, we were very slow to allow folks to access the internet. We were fearful.
Right. This is another iteration of that, right. And Melissa and I had an opportunity to spend some time in San Jose, California who really is doing a lot of progressive work, and to some degree, has created the foundation of how do you implement AI, particularly in government. And one of the things that's very important is that we first have to make sure that we're building a foundation that we're not making people fearful of AI, that they are using it responsibly, that we are using it as the tool that is intended to be. To the point that Councilmember Jones made earlier, there's the idea that we can achieve efficiency, right. And there's a lot of good work that's being done, a lot of good research that's being done out of the Federal Reserve on how do you identify those roles that are going to be most impacted by AI, right. And we're following along with that research and we want to make sure that we are identifying spaces where you have roles that are going to have significant impact by AI, what does that efficiency allow that role to do, right? Not how do we replace the role, but how do we take advantage of that role. So our very first -- and I'll end with this. The very first thing that we needed to do was we really did need to stop, create a policy, at least an initial policy, to allow folks to use, to become familiar with it so that it's not a scary proposition as we move forward.
Right. So my concern -- and I know, Melissa, you're next -- but I just want to address your comments. My concern is that while we're working at the pace that Philadelphia often works at, which is snail pace, you know, the world is moving on. Things are happening. And so, it feels like we're just really behind, and this technology is moving so fast --
-- that if we're not on the cutting edge just in terms of our competitiveness as a city we are likely to be just run over, you know, in my opinion. And more than that, these efficiencies that we're sort of delaying, getting to the point where we're able to take advantage of these efficiencies, they equal out to the savings we talk about. There's a proposal to raise this Uber and Lyft tax, and we did the soda tax and there's this and that, you know, all these things that we don't have to do if we go to finding the efficiencies, and I believe that they're there. And I think even with people, making sure that we don't lose people, because we want to maintain -- you know, we don't want to put people out of work, but at the same time we can still help use those same people to go to the next level is what I'm trying to say.
And I will turn it over to Melissa, but I do want to make sure that I'm being clear. This was the first step and we are very quickly -- it may not feel like it to you, but we are very quickly establishing this first step so that we can move on to taking advantage of those efficiencies and using AI in a different way. So I'll turn it over to Melissa.
But as you say we're moving quickly, what does quickly look like? Quickly to me might not be quickly to you.
So with all due respect, I'm not sure what Baltimore is doing, but I would beg to differ if they're more advanced than us. We have 250 illegal dumping cameras that uses a form of an AI feature. And I can share with you some departments are more advanced than others. Our department that is the most advanced in AI tools is our police department. So we have the body-worn cameras that does translation, AI audio. We have also a speech-to- text translation. We also have a drone detection classification AI tool. So we have a lot of our tools in policing that are more advanced and they're using AI. I don't know if Baltimore has that --
We also have additional tools that we're using in regular-day services. So we have the Copilot Chat. There's some AI features in salesforce. There's the Adobe Creative Cloud. We have Articulate 360, Synthesia, so we have some tools. What we're trying to do and what Camille is talking about is we're trying to get the rest of the departments caught up with maybe some of the departments that are more advanced. But on the record, I do not want us to leave here with the assumption that the City of Philadelphia doesn't have any AI tools and we're starting from ground zero because that is just not true.
Yeah, that's not what I said. But what I'm saying here is that when it comes to efficiencies, other people are using tools that I've researched -- and listen, as somebody who as a District Councilmember who is constantly calling about the same spots over and over again, if I call you one more time about the 5500 block of Sprague Street, you know, that it needs to be cleaned up because there's constant dumping, like it's ongoing. And for someone like myself, if we're using AI, it doesn't feel like we're making the progress that we should be making. That's my point. And it's not to blame anybody. But just to say that there are other ways of doing things and I don't know how far along we are in them, but let's take a look. Let's keep our minds open because, you know, there was -- I don't know if anybody saw the piece on 60 Minutes this Sunday about the Philadelphia Navy Yard. It was shocking, it was horrifying, it was frightening, the report that they did on what's happening in terms of shipbuilding. And it wasn't really as much about Philadelphia. It was really about sort of a national situation, but it's based here in Philadelphia. And it just talked about efficiencies. And again, we just need to figure out how do we get from where we are right now to really being where I believe we can be on a global stage, not just on a national stage, on a global stage. There's only two manufacturing shipbuilding locations in the entire country. We're one of them. So there's a lot of potential there. But there's no potential if we don't see it, if we don't think about it, if we don't use the technology that's out there. So I know the bell has rung, Mr. President. I'll come back around.
I just want to say as far as the example you gave was illegal dumping, we have 1683 cameras in the city. I have a list here of how many cameras are in each Councilmember's District. In your district, there's 183 and illegal dumping cameras are there. So if you're asking for more cameras to be established, we can definitely have a meeting about that. But the idea that Baltimore has some technology for illegal dumping --
That's not the point that I'm trying to make here. We are stuck on Baltimore. That is not what I'm trying to say here. I'm saying that I have 100-and-something cameras in my district, but I'm still calling about the exact same spots over and over and over again. So whatever technology we have it's not enough, because whoever's dumping is coming back, is coming back, you know. And I don't think it's one person. It's become a dumpsite. And so, there's got to be a way to fix the problem. Not just keep coming out, using city resources and picking up the trash. But how do we think beyond that so that at some point we're not just using the same resources to come out, pick up trash. Next week I'm going to come out and pick up the trash. We have to think beyond where we are right now to try to fix this situation overall. And it's not about Baltimore's better. That's not what I'm saying. I'm born and raised here. I love my city. That's not what I'm saying at all. But I'm saying, let's look at what other people have done in other cities and let's try to see if there's something there that we can use.
Absolutely. We agree that we want to take advantage of technology. And while we are taking advantage in some cases -- again, this is an exploding tool, right, and solution to a lot of problems that we can look forward to. We do need to make sure that we are establishing a framework. And while it may not feel like it just yet, the fact that we've established that framework will allow us to now move forward with more kind of rapidity and intentionality and input to leverage AI in ways similar to what you're suggesting, how can we -- we're doing great work. How can we take advantage of AI to do better work.
Exactly, yes. Thank you. Thank you, Council President.
So in the UK, it says UK-based Council deploying an AI CCTV tower within ANPR to spot fly-tipping, aiming to deter illegal dumping and to support prosecutions. So I think we're all saying the same thing. And I think that's just a classic example of a case study of how we could possibly look at another country and/or a city to kind of model how AI is being used to tackle something that we're all very passionate about, which is illegal dumping, so we can have a safer, cleaner, greener Philadelphia. And so, I think we're all on the same page. All right. Thank you very much.
We could take that trip together. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad. Then Councilmember Rue Landau.
Thank you, Council President. Good morning, everyone. Good to see you all. Thank you for all the work you've been doing to improve our city. I want to speak about contracting and the recent report that Pew put out which shows that you guys are working on this. However, I wanted to get some clarity on what's happening, and just to state the case that more than 12,000 outside service contracts that the city signed between Fiscal 2020 and January 2025, 90% were conformed, meaning approved, signed and executed after their start date. When adding up the cost of the agreements during the period examined, the value of those late contracts total $3.4 billion. Think about that money circulating in our economy and what revenues we could have collected from that. So I'm very concerned, but we've been concerned for many years about this. And I know you're working with an outside consultant to see how we're addressing this, because the challenges, particularly our nonprofit providers, face can put them out of business, right. So if you would address that and tell us and give us an update on where we are and what is the timeline for the reform that's needed?
Sure. So first of all I thank you, Councilmember Ahmad, for the question and the opportunity to speak to it, because again it's work that I think has been going on for the two years that Mayor Parker has been in the administration, has led the Administration, and we are grateful for our partners at Pew and Bennett Midland who were able to put the resources to quantify the work that's being done. So I do want to clarify one thing, right. And so, the Pew study does speak to -- the Pew/Bennett Midland study does speak to the fact that from 2020 to January of '25, 90% of our contracts were conformed after the effective date. There does seem to be a leap that is made within that report that suggests that those billions of dollars were therefore paid late, and that is just simply not true. That is not an area of research in which they were able to quantify, what impact did that conformance, that late conformance or conformance after the effective date had on payments and quantify that, right. And so, I don't want to leave the impression that over $3 billion in contract dollars were paid late to our vendor partners, right --
We know that -- what we do know is that late conformance -- we cannot pay an invoice until a contract is conformed. So we know that if a contract is conformed months after the work has already started, at least the initial invoices for those months that the contract was not conformed after the effective date, those invoices were not paid. We know that. We are not able to quantify that at this point.
So let me just interject here because you're refuting the 3.4 billion that Pew is saying was out there unpaid basically, but you don't even have a way to quantify it. So how are you refuting their number?
No. As you read the report, they are equating the amount of the contracts, the total value of the contracts that were conformed late, they are --
Not the actual amount of the five months or whatever?
And that's not an intentional mislead. I think it's just a misread.
But I think the point is still, even if it's a little less than 3.4 billion, it's a lot of money --
-- of this money. Please go ahead. Tell us what you're doing.
I just want to reset some ground rules if it's okay.
No. When you're providing your testimony and y'all doing the Q and A, could you allow the member to please finish what she has to say first and then respond?
I feel very strongly about this one, so my apologies, Councilmember.
Yes. So what we're doing, right, there was a lot of work that was being done realtime, right. We recognize that we have to start the contract conformance process earlier. So we very intentionally in FY26 made an all-out effort using our work group that we put together with all of our contract conformance partners to include Law, Procurement, Finance, the CAO's Office and OEO to ensure that we all had an established expectation of a timeline of how long it's going to take us to do that work. We made outreach. One of the things that I learned during my time auditing is generally if you want someone to pay attention to something or think that it's important, you have to pay attention to it. And so, we paid attention to it. We assigned a specific individual to track when contract conformance routing began and we were finding very similar to what the report suggests, is that 90% were beginning the contract conformance process or were conformed after the effective date because they were beginning the process too late. So we made sure that we were making outreach to our partners, our departmental partners, and we created kind of individualized contact with them to begin FY26. And what we realized this year in FY26 was that 76% of our professional services contracts began the contract conformance process earlier than they did in FY25, which was part of the research, right. Not only that, we realized that there is an expedited process because a lot of our contracts are amendments with very little substantive change being made from amendment-to-amendment. So rather than having every contract in its amendment process go through the same rigors as an initial contract, we recognized that many of our departmental partners were not utilizing the expedited contracting process that's available to them. So we made an effort and we removed that option from our departmental procurement teams, right. They no longer have the option to take the longer road, the fuller contract conformance process. They must use the expedited process. Beyond that, again I don't mean to keep saying this, but it is something that I think has had meaningful impact. We created this collective with our nonprofit partners, so we were talking to them regularly. Something that many of them shared with us was not happening. We had no idea some of the impact and some of the direct service impact that it was having. So our compliance manager has created, Ms. Longcrier has created an advisory council that meets monthly with our nonprofit partners to have conversations about what is working, what's not working, get their feedback to help and use that feedback to inform the improvements that we're making. And then really most importantly, around our vendor contact, we stood up as we kind of mentioned during the CCME fellow conversation, we stood up what we're calling the Philadelphia Vendor Cooperative -- I'm still getting used to that name -- so that there is a one-stop shop. Much like Candi talked about the federated model, where different departments are doing different things relative to contracting and conformance doesn't work if I'm trying to get an answer to the question or if I'm a vendor partner who is working with multiple departments. So I think this is the way I do it. And then I go to my partnership, my contract with another department and they're doing it a different way, so our vendor unit is going to make sure that, number one, we're using standard templates, number two, that there is a single point of entry for them to have a conversation about whatever contract they have, and it is our responsibility as the city to mitigate the variation in response, and that's what the Vendor --
-- Cooperator will do. So those are just a couple of the things that we're doing.
I have one last thing to add. Are you going to do a dashboard because we don't need so much conversation? We could just see I put it in here, this is where it is, this is how much time is evolving and I get my first payment?
We are standing up a dashboard. And the third phase of our partnership with Pew and Bennett Midland is the implementation phase. And so, in their report they recognized accountability and being able to create some transparency around contract and contract conformance work, so they are partnering with us to stand up that dashboard.
Thank you, Council President. I'll use my next question for the next round.
I have a question. And I remember when you came during the first day of hearings, I talked about raising the threshold I guess from 10% to 15%. And at that time, you said yes. So are we going to go on the record and actually move toward the 15%?
Council President, we are having that conversation. We can't commit to it right here and right now, but it has been something that our vendor partners have been very loudly and vocal about, and we are contemplating how we might be able to do to work toward giving more grace to the administrative costs.
And then also in terms of administrative costs, right -- point of information, Mr. Jones.
For clarity, can you explain that process just for the record please?
Sure. Currently, we are capped at around 10% of the contract value that we can be charged by our vendor partners for professional services, for administrative fees as opposed to the actual administration of the service, right. And so, I believe the federal government has upped their standard to 15%. Our vendor partners are asking that we do the same.
And I think because the services they are providing, right, and the services they are providing are really about helping people, right. These aren't major corporations or individuals who are flooding City Council with lobbyists -- well, some -- but overall, they're helping people. And so, that burden shouldn't really be on them because of our administrative execution of getting them their money. And when you have a nonprofit coming to you and says, well, we took out a loan, right. And so, by time we get the money from the city, well, that money is going to pay off the interest to the loans so we're back at square one, pretty much, not -- they may make a profit but, you know, overall in terms of operating the nonprofit. And so, I think that's something -- and I know Majority Leader Gilmore Richardson was working on this aggressively around OHS, right. We need to find a solution for that because it's a burden for helping people. And I do have to ask this question, are we using AI to help out with that process?
So along with this ask, there are other avenues by which we can mitigate the administrative burden, right, the vendor -- I'm not going to get that right, the Vendor Cooperative is one of them. The more that I can use that team to maybe reach out to a vendor or an organization to assist them in the administrative functioning or standardized administrative functioning so you're not spending that much time doing that work. The use of better technology, more modernized technology --
Yes, absolutely. We are working toward -- I know we've all heard the term Opal. We are working toward implementing a solution that is going to be more vendor- friendly, more user-friendly for not only the vendors, but our staff and our --
But on the record, we haven't adopted as yet any AI solutions for this, because Opal does not have AI solutions embedded in it so I wanted --
I'm not specifically speaking to AI, but just in terms of --
-- modernizing our technology, right, and again in modernizing our technology being able to limit the administrative burden.
I have one more suggestion. Is there an incentive where we're penalized, right, on our end? For instance, I know on the state level the Governor has a process where if you apply for certain types of business permits, right, if it's not done in that 90-day time period, it's free, right. And so, that pushes -- something along those lines, right. So it pushes the responsibility on us to administer and get something done in an expedient and efficient manner. And if it's not, then we forego some level of additional revenue or the vendors should get some level of an extra benefit. Because it's not on them, it's on us and they're kind of incurring costs because of us not executing and administering what we need to do in a more efficient manner. Just thinking outside the box. Chair recognizes Councilmember Jones.
So when we used to do factoring at PCDC, we used the strength of the city contract as collateral to finance the in-between and we used to do that. The reason that plan that I asked be submitted to you is important because this is moving so fast, they don't know -- it's like tentacles out there. We need to put our arms around it so we can get a sense of where things begin and end with AI. And I think you said this summer, right, that the plan would be done?
You said this summer your strategic plan would be completed, I believe.
In your testimony, that by I think it was June that you would have a strategic plan to give to the President.
No. So we're working through the summer to complete -- we don't have a firm deadline date as of yet. So we're working on the strategic plan, our action plan through the summer and we hope to get it to you by somewhere late in the year or somewhere within the summer. I don't want to give you an actual date just yet and I don't have a firm date as far as when we -- but we're working through it through the summer. So you can expect to hear from us, hear something back from us by end of summer as far as where we are with it, that we do owe you.
The plan is very important and it is important to us. So we'll be working diligently to make sure and we'll inform you by end of summer where we are in that regard.
Thank you very much. Chair recognizes Councilmember Rue Landau. Then Councilman Brooks -- I'm sorry, Councilmember Driscoll, then Councilmember Brooks, then Young.
Thank you so much, Council President. Most of my questions are for OIT and HR, but I did want to follow up on this contracting question by first giving many props to our Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson for doing all of this work of uncovering this issue of contracting and the fact that our amazing nonprofits are doing so much work for the City of Philadelphia and were not getting paid. While we're talking about solutions, what is the possibility that the city could pay a significant portion of the contract upfront so our nonprofits would not face the harm of not being paid? COMMISSIONER HOVEY: So front-loaded payments are restricted under the rules. And we've brought that idea with several workarounds to the Controller's Office, but the concept is still not allowable.
Which rules? COMMISSIONER HOVEY: I believe it's -- I'm not certain if it's under the Code or the charter, but they've told us it is restricted under the current setting. Also, I did want to point out that we have made some significant and really notable progress on driving down the time going without a contract. So it's gone from 151 days to 51 days on average. So there are peaks and valleys and there are still pain and suffering there, but it's significantly less. The all-hands- on-deck has made some significant inroads, but that's due in large part to some very heavy manual lifting. And so, to really get out of the due loop of that heavy lifting, we're looking at a deep dive into procurement reforms, which are really across-the-board reforms that cover both the architecture of the organization, so how we're structured in a very federated model which really diffuses the control and the insight into procurement. And we're looking to pull that in more centrally, right. And we're executing both a pilot and the creation of the Vendor Cooperative are two of the very first aspects of that organizational shift. And we're already seeing -- with the vendor unit in place now we're starting to offload a lot of work that gets spread around. And one of the things for all of you is to know that this organization exists, because I get calls from many of you, from your constituents, who are vendors looking for all sorts of questions. And it's all over the map, the type of answers they could get. And so, now we have a concerted way to answer those. The next thing is business process redesign, which on your way to that --
(Inaudible). COMMISSIONER HOVEY: -- place of updating. I'm sorry, I'm using your time. My apologies. I'll be very quick.
Okay. COMMISSIONER HOVEY: Is tied to some changes in rules and systems. And the changes in rules we're looking at to really get at the root cause of a lot of these problems so that vendors are not ever working again, except in very narrow circumstances and limited emergency circumstances without a contract. We've just launched an RFP to redraft all of our standard templates to make them easier to use and easier to review, which shortens our time of business. And we're teaming with Opal to not only maximize what's there, but look at future improvements too. So all of these changes are fundamental, but we're moving very quickly. And as you can see, in less than a year we've looked at the organization and started to reorganize the organization, looked at our systems, our ground rules. Everything is changing, everything across the board. So it's an urgent effort to not just fix things with a band-aid and a team, but to fix the root causes across the board.
Thank you. Appreciate you. CP -- Council President, that was only a follow-up. I have some OIT and HR questions to ask as well. So let's start with OIT. Thank you very much for our conversation yesterday. As you know, I held a hearing in October of 2025 on the city's use of AI, where we were, what systems needed to be in place. And many of us felt that our hearing left us with more questions than answers and certainly some concerns. Yesterday you had a meeting with me where you showed us your OIT governance policy that you said would be available to city employees with training. It's available now, but that training would start happening on April 1st of this policy. But I felt that there's still many questions that need to be answered. It's a general framework and I've been concerned about a timeline and when we're going to have real answers to questions. So I wanted to know more, just so my colleagues are on the committee can hear too, of what industry experts were consulted and community members consulted when you created the policy, and what other cities were consulted or were studied as well to pull the policy together? And then while we're talking about this summer, what are real deliverables on this? And so, I can frontload a couple of questions here too. I just want to make sure that we're careful that when we're talking about AI and jobs, I wanted to know whether the city is using AI in hiring, knowing that so many consequences of using AI in hiring results in bias and discrimination, making sure that we have significant guardrails on that? What I see overall from these questions that are coming up now is that there are very positive ways we could use AI to help us get our city services done quicker. This isn't about just having an employee using Chat GPT at their desk with guidelines. This is about how to make sure that our backlogs of the potholes, of the dumping, of making sure people can apply for the services they need happen smarter and faster. And I don't think that takes jobs away. I actually think that just makes our policies more efficient. So I'll continue with some more questions which is really to talk about Opal too. That seemed to have fallen off the highlights of your budget this year. My understanding is that you used to have 66 people working on Opal. It's now down to about 23. I wanted to know what your staffing efforts are in order to try to increase that? And how much money has already been spent on this project that is supposed to modernize our procurement processes? I will be fully honest with you. I've already heard it's $150 million. And if you look back, even for some job descriptions, looking for a project manager, they said it would be $100-plus million project. We've already spent $150 million. We don't have enough people working on it. And what are our securities now before we're fully rolled out in AI to make sure that the folks we're contracting with through this procurement process are keeping our data absolutely safe and secure under any future guidelines and future protections we want, including not making sure that none of our data gets to ICE?
So let's first talk about the AI policy. So as you can see, the AR policy is very data-driven, right. It's written from how OIT -- normally we write our policies. And as I was mentioning earlier, our position is always about security, right. It's about how it integrates with our systems, protecting our systems so bad actors don't get in, so data also doesn't go out where it's not supposed to go. But what you're looking for is in the action plan, which Councilman Jones is, you know, when is this going to be available. We're working on it through the summer and we'll get back to you as far as where you are, because this is where the meat and potatoes of how city employees will utilize AI. So what is built in that framework for Phase is the foundation of governance and testing. We're looking at the establishment of cross-functional oversight, right, how we stand up AI working groups, our data security in our legal sense. Then we're looking at the identity case uses in data readiness. We're looking at how departments approve, how we approve the specificness of it, the AI needs and assessments, data quality before implementation, and then the launch of pilots defining the guardrails and so forth. But the Phase 2 portion is where the workforce establishes their standard tools, delivering role-based training, issuing clear guidelines on approval AI usage as well as how we track the impact via performance dashboards, monitoring KPIs and so forth, and how the city determines which department should be using what, especially when it interfaces a resident. Do we want the tool to actually speak directly to the resident. Do we want the tool to speak to the customer service rep, then the customer service rep analyzes that as our human-in-the-loop process and then they regurgitate what it says and then decipher, do they want to say this or do they not want to say that. So that's all going to work out in our action plan, which is going to be more robust in how the city is going to use the AI tools. So next would be Opal. So Opal, currently we noticed that there were some deficiencies within the project so we had to restructure it. And this is called responsibility when you are building technology tools. Everyone has been here for a while and you know that there has been systems that have gone live that were not ready to go live. And that cost us -- if you think that's a lot of money, it costs you double the amount if you allow a tool to go live when you know it's not ready. We noticed that it wasn't ready. We are restructuring to ensure that we put those things in place. Because the adoption of the training specifically was an area that we needed to evaluate as well as ensuring that all the specificness for each department was where it needed to be. I obviously cannot -- well, not obviously, but I cannot speak as far as the numbers currently where we are. I would need to either get back to you or refer that back to Rob Dubow, as far as where we are with the numbers of Opal because it's being reconstructed. But I can speak to the efficiency of the project, and it was not ready to go live. You also mentioned about hiring. So as far as the technology individuals, and then Candi can talk about AI solutions in regards to hiring and so forth to your question. So we made a lot of progress with hiring in OIT. And part of that is we hired a recruiter. So 662 interviews were conducted. And 500 of them were between June and February. And then we did another 162 between February and March. We hired 38 individuals, 27 between June and February, and an additional 11 between January and February. And so, we have been making a huge -- that additional resource alone has been helping us get ahead, because the deputies have to interview, we needed someone to go through the resumes, so we filled that gap. So what you'll start to see is us getting back and refilling those roles, and we've made a lot of progress from the last time that we were here. Candi.
Thank you for the question. I just want to speak globally to just the hiring process and the user-based AI. At this time, OHR is not using AI technology in our hiring process to your point exactly about implicit bias being introduced. I consider our candidate process to be very high touch. And so, we are going through resumes by hand. We know some of our candidates need a little bit more assistance, right. So we are calling folks when their applications are incomplete. We are following up with them on the phone and via text message and via email to get their documentation so that we are able to review their eligibility in a holistic way. And so, right now we are currently still assigning those announcements to individual analysts so that we can continue to provide that high-touch service. We are happy to have that conversation about how to leverage AI technology as we move forward. We are though leveraging a lot of technology. So while it's not AI, we're moving towards text messaging, automated notices in the system, candidates -- sorry, candidates self-scheduling, online testing, right. So we are leveraging kind of what the full complement of technological resources. We have not introduced AI though specifically to the hiring process.
Well, online testing has -- sorry, yeah. So we're doing a lot of testing online, right. So the days of bringing in kind of hundreds of candidates into the MSB on the 16th floor and testing, we're not doing that anymore. Because again, time to hire is impacted by doing that. So we are able to leverage the online testing tool in order so folks can take the test on their mobile devices, at home, things like that. And so, we're leaning into the technological space. We're happy to have the AI conversations as we move forward. But again, we want to make sure implicit bias, candidates don't fall out of the process using the technology.
Then you also asked how we came about to the policy, which I didn't answer. I think that was your very first question. So Camille and I did go to San Jose. And the consultants leading their initiative is Harvard, Bloomberg, John Hopkins, they consulted 40 of the cities. And we also went to a Google and US conference as well. So those are some of the individuals we looked at, other municipalities, in addition to San Jose who's actually leading in this particular area, especially because they actually put together a team of individuals, as I mentioned, through Bloomberg, Harvard and the other four cities that they consulted. So we're using a lot of their templates actually to build out what we're doing here within the City of Philadelphia.
-- that City Council gets a seat on the Government Committee -- the Governance Committee. We have to have a seat on that committee.
Thank you. That's your question, will City Council get a seat on the Governance Committee?
Okay. Do you want to answer that for the record please?
So we'll have to take that into consideration and we'll get back to you. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Chair recognizes Councilmember Mike Driscoll, then Councilmember Kendra Brooks and then Councilmember Young. Then we'll be officially in our second round.
Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you, Panel. I just want to state for the record I double-down on Councilmember Bass with regard to the cameras, dumping cameras. I think each of our districts are experiencing the same problems. In last week's budget hearing with the Revenue Department, I asked the following question that I've asked in previous budget cycles as well. The Revenue Commissioner deferred to the Chief Administrative Office and Procurement. So I will ask the same question: What is the status of the refunding of the state sales tax to the city as to the enduser of material purchases, that is, the ones that the city and/or contractors can apply to the state on construction projects for eligible reimbursements?
Thank you, Councilmember Driscoll, for the question. So in response to the ask, last year we conducted a sample, a review of a sample of our invoices to determine if we were inappropriately paying sales tax. And what we were able to glean from that sample is that in zero instances were we paying that sales tax. So we also put -- the Finance Department has a very robust process of reviewing in submitted invoices to ensure that that is not the case. So in response to the concern, we're not seeing it in the invoicing within the City of Philadelphia.
I think what I might be referring to, and I know this is a little complex, so if a contractor, let's say they're doing a school project or capital project for the city and they buy purchases for the project, but are eligible for reimbursement, are they potentially applying for that reimbursement when the reimbursement is really our money?
So my understanding is when they charge us for those taxes and if they're applying for the reimbursement and that line item tax charge is what they're applying for, the reimbursement through the state, that is not happening for us.
I made a mistake, but I'm going to keep this thing moving. Just be patient with me. Yeah, she was already sitting there. It's Member Richardson, then Brooks, then Young and then we're officially in the second round. Apologize, Member Brooks. I was moving fast.
The Chair recognizes Katherine Gilmore Richardson.
Thank you, Mr. President. I needed that acknowledgement from you. And thank you all so much for all of your work. I have to start with my thank-yous. So please don't count the thank-yous against my time. So for this morning for CAO, Camille, you know we've worked together very, very closely over the last to 16 months. But I appreciate your 17 thoughtful collaboration. 18 And Jahira Longcrier, 19 you brought her up earlier, your 20 Procurement and Compliance Manager, 21 she has done yeoman's work on the 22 contracts and the contract process. 23 I really wanted you to say the 24 words Tiger Team earlier when you were responding to Councilmember Ahmad. Also to OHR, Candi Jones, thank you so much for your commitment and ongoing work, even in the midst of the joy of motherhood. Janine LaBletta for her work with the CTE preference and helping young people access city employment. Lisa Pace and Ajee Young, we look forward to collaborating with them on our events, on our community side. And then for OIT, they're rarely recognized, but they are always behind the scenes working with us. First, to Melissa Scott and your team, we are excited about the Power Up Tour, this will be my first, to provide access to technology to vulnerable communities. And then Channel 64, they do so much more than just broadcast our hearings and our Stated meetings, but Ed Harris, Mark McLaughlin, Mike Vivas, Cody Saia and Tim Toohey, they are the secret sauce behind what folks see on Channel 64 but also what they hear. So I wanted to start with those thank-yous and appreciate the folks that we've been working with. I wanted to quickly go back to contracting and just get these questions on the record so that they're on the record and I'll get in as much as I can. But you talked about previously in responding to Councilmembers both Ahmad and Landau regarding the Pew and Bennett Midland study. And we recently shared the results of the study and the recommendations with all members of Council as a result of the continued work that we've done in this area, in addition to resharing the report that we authored from my office as a result of the hearings and the ongoing work that we've done so that you see how closely the recommendations are aligned based on the Pew and Bennett Midland recommendations. But in the report it states, Per the interviews with City staff, some departments are not aware that they could go to City Council for approval of contracts while others made a decision at some point to avoid the additional scrutiny. So I'll go through all the questions so I can get them on. Have you worked with departments to educate them on the process to bring a multi-year contract before City Council? Additionally, the report has five primary recommendations and four of them are strictly under the purview of Procurement and CAO and the functions of your office. And those recommendations are redefined and resource procurement to make it responsible for professional services contracting, develop a comprehensive citywide training program for staff, provide a standardized approach and coordinate approvals, maintain and expand the efforts to conform backlog contracts, as we heard earlier. Can you provide updates on how CAO and Procurement are implementing those specific recommendations? No detail has been provided yet for Procurement, but funding looks relatively stable across this Five Year Plan. What additional resources do you all believe are necessary to fully implement the recommendations relative to refining and redefining Procurement's role in this process? COMMISSIONER HOVEY: Thank you, Councilmember. So with regard to those comments, they dovetail nicely with a number of the general reforms that we're trying to implement. So initially, as part of the interim work, we've asked each department to bring forward some multi-year contracts, as was specifically suggested.
We are looking more broadly at making multi-year contracts more feasible and more easily implemented over the long term, and that will lend itself well to something else that's very important to me. And one of the things that's driving a lot of the reforms for me is the ability to put in place strategic sourcing as an approach to procurement, which is a very specific thing, a program of steps and tools to get contracts in place ahead of time for a number of years. And the advantage to that is it gets procurement out of the critical path of the business of paying, out the critical path of I have this need and now I have to go source it as opposed to I have this need, we already have a contract, go get it. It also solves for a lot of the emergency procurement problems. So we're looking at tackling that both through processes and some longer-term rule changes. You spoke specifically about professional services. We're looking to in the redesign of the organization, again as part of this pilot, to consolidate professional services with all other procurements. So right now in the in the Charter, it breaks out professional services as sort of officially under the Finance Department and all other things procurement under Procurement, and that's sort of an artificial construct that just exists here. We're looking to merge that on a pilot basis, pending some further rule changes that we would take more broadly across the city once we get those set. And along with moving that process in, we're developing a unified process. And having the new system through -- you can see how this is all sort of a spider web, right, it's all intertwined. Having the new Oracle system is what allows us to have a unified system. Right now we have multiple systems which kind of embed multiple processes, and we don't want to take the time to fix those systems and divert from the bigger fixes. With --
I'm sorry. That's why I asked regarding sort of the funding and the details staying relatively stable. Because with all of the additional work that we know, right, that needs to occur in order to address the number of recommendations, not only in the report, but everything that we've been talking about in, in the meetings that we've had even with the nonprofit providers and the new commission that's been established, how do you get here, how do you get there with the same staffing? Because that has been the complaint, is that we don't have enough Procurement folks to sort of work very closely with and collaborate with the department heads who are responsible for procurement in their various units. I mean, we know DHS does a really, really good job with this. They are the gold standard in city government for this work. But overall, how are we going to address this and ensure that we have adequate staffing to do so? COMMISSIONER HOVEY: So the problem is that we have a lot of redundancy in terms of number of people, which when consolidated I think will go a long way, with unified systems will go a long way towards resolving a lot of our problems. And having led organizations that do similar work at a similar volume, I know that if I -- so I look at our organization, which when I came here was about 39 people. We had 51 slots with the vendor management unit. We're upward of 58 now. I held in reserve for the first couple of months several of those slots as I was deciding what to do with the position and the structure. But in the first year because we'll be moving some of those tasks inside, but not just the tasks, but possibly the folks doing those tasks and consolidating that and rearranging the work, the first effort was to move the structure, the functions, the work, together. I envision that there might be the need for some marginal increase in funding. I don't know exactly what that will be, but it won't come into play for another 12 months because we have other things to do first to get that organization in place. And I do have a margin of about nine positions with which to change the leadership structure.
And is that just under Procurement? Is that under Procurement and CAO? Is it just under Procurement because I have a question? That's why I'm trying to understand this. COMMISSIONER HOVEY: So those are Procurement positions. Some of them are technically CAO positions in terms of how they are created, but they're all Procurement operating functions.
Madam Chair, may I ask just one additional question to that point?
Okay. Thank you very much for the leeway. So to that point, if you all could give us a breakdown so that I'm reading the detail correctly. And then obviously when your detail is available, I will review, but if we could get a breakdown. And I' say that because in FY25, the CAO vacancy rate was 23%. FY26 was 23.6%. And so, you all are trying to do an increase for FY27, so I'm wondering if that increase is for what you are describing, because you all are requesting an additional 28 positions, which would then increase your Class 100 by another $2.1 million, but the department is only 76.4% staff. So I'm trying to make sense of the numbers. You understand what I'm trying to do?
Okay. And that's why I'm trying to see whether it's technically Procurement or CAO.
So the additional positions that we ask for are very specifically to support the CCME fellow, right. And those fellows, at least five of them, at this point are designated specifically to the Vendor Cooperative, right. And so, while they are CAO positions, they are going to feed the vendor cooperative unit, and the work of that unit will allow those folks who are coming through the CCME fellow to qualify for Procurement positions, entry-level Procurement positions. And we can continuously feed almost seamlessly from our program completion through the unit into the Procurement. So we believe we're going to be able to attend to two things at the same time.
Okay. So I'll end here then because you're going right to my next question, and I'll submit these for the record. But it's the same thing with Workforce Development and CCME. FY26, 10 budgeted positions. But from what I can see, and maybe you all can help me with this, I only see three that are currently filled. And so, if you could just break down the workforce development, the $10 million in Workforce Development money, the CCME positions, the CAO positions versus the Procurement and who's going to sit where and give us a breakdown. And I'll submit the additional questions for the record. But I do have questions even going back to the 10 million for the CCME, and how that falls into the budgeted positions versus the ones that are currently filled, the ones that are not, and then budgeting an additional million dollars for the positions outside of the CCME fellow positions. So if you could just give us a description and update and then a breakdown for CAO, Procurement, Workforce Development CCME so that I can understand the flow. Because it could be a thing where I'm just not seeing it fully because we don't have the Procurement detail yet, but based on reading the budget books and if you go line-by-line, it doesn't come together for me.
Understood. So currently there are, I think, approximately seven vacancies in CAO that are specific to CCME.
And I can also have Carol De Fries come up and speak to that. But of those positions, at this point four of them are slotted to be filled within the next month and they are specific to CCME support. They are built into the model of managing and administering CCME.
That's what you talked about and referred to at Council President Johnson's hearing, correct?
In part, yes. So then there was an additional ask of approximately 10 positions for the CCME fellow. And 11 while those positions are going to 12 be -- they need to be managed 13 within CAO because they are going 14 to support varying units, but the 15 one-on-one kind of navigation 16 support is going to come from our 17 CCME staff, right. 18 So we want the fellows 19 in proximity to CAO so we can 20 continue to do the professional development work that's going to be needed for them to be successful as they move out into the different departments.
Okay. I will submit the balance of the questions for the record, but they all flow one to another. And it's just hard to make sense of what you all are describing in the detail. And I ask those questions because of the changes that need to be made based on the recommendations from the Pew and Bennett Midland report, but also the work that you all are seeking to do in CAO and with the CCME program. And the numbers, they're spread so apart that you can't make sense of what each position is for. So even a position description for each one would be helpful as well. But I'll submit these questions for the record to be respectful of Madam Chair and all of my colleagues. Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you so much. I have a series of questions so I'm going to just ask the questions, and then you guys can answer it when I'm done. The first questions are for CAO. As the Chair of People with Disabilities and Special Needs, I hear all the time from advocates and people from the disabled community about steps that need to be taken to make sure that our city is truly accessible for all. I want to start today's questions by asking a little bit about the goals for the office. In the budget documents, the Office of People with Disabilities said that they will create a Disability Community Survey for residents. Can you talk more about the purpose of this survey and what stakeholders you will engage when you create it? What are other ways that the Office of People with Disabilities gets feedback from residents, and how best should my office plug residents into this process? And one of the areas that I've heard a lot of feedback around from the disability advocates is Christmas Village here at Dilsworth Park. What outreach has been done ahead of this year's event? If outreach was done, can you name which organizations you consulted with and what changes were made to make Christmas Village more accessible? And what is the purpose of the Digital Equity Manager in the Office of People with Disabilities?
Okay. So in terms of the conversations that we've had with other stakeholders relative to Christmas Village and how to make that more accessible, I believe Adrienne had to step out of the room. And so, if she doesn't return before the Council hearing is done, we certainly can provide that to you in writing. In terms of the survey, the survey is intended to be launched within -- one of the issue activities of the Office for People with Disabilities is they meet on a monthly basis with their commission to hear the concerns and the challenges of our community of people with disabilities. And so, the intention there is to leverage those council meetings, those commission meetings and their partner organizations to better gather information relative to how city services are impacting our communities with disabilities. One of the places where we saw this kind of show itself prevalently was during the snowstorm, right. And so, we had our constituents calling the office to make sure that we were aware that it really wasn't as simple as clearing snow, but that we were clearing snow on the corners and the cutouts in a manner that a person with an assistive device can traverse that and not only that, but we had folks who had other challenges, not just in traversing the snow, but where supportive services were coming to their homes did they have access to the homes of our residents with disabilities. And so, partnering with our other departments, I know Adrienne has partnered now with Carlton Williams to ensure that there is a weight that is put on the scheduling of how we're clearing snow relative to the activity and data that we have around where our folks with disabilities are most frequently traversing, right, and what those needs are. I'm sorry. The other question was around?
Thank you. The Digital Equity Manager, I think, as most of you may know, there is a responsibility due to a change in ADA that as of 2026 any digital communication, that it meets a certain standard for accessibility. And so, that's a pretty hefty lift, right. Our OIT partners have been doing a lot of work. Our Office for People with Disabilities along with our Law Department have been doing a lot of work to make sure that we are training our staff, number one, but number two, making the changes to existing communications, digital communication, so that they are accessible and meet the ADA requirement, compliance requirement. And while a lot of work has been done, there's a lot of work still to do. And the Digital Equity Manager is going to be responsible for coordinating that ongoing work, making sure that the training stays an ongoing presence in the workspace, so that we're not creating more digital communication that is inconsistent with the standard.
Is that information being then funneled through the Office of People with Disabilities through those convenings that you host?
Okay. And the methodology for improvement comes out of that committee?
And the other question was about which organizations are connected directly through the membership of that commission?
Again, when Adrienne is able to return to the hearing room, I would be able to provide that or we can provide that to you in writing after Council.
Okay. This is for the Office of Information and Technology. The Premier 1 or P1 database that the city uses holds a lot of sensitive data about our city's interactions with Philadelphia, information that ICE could use to abduct or detain people. Does any data from this system get sent to ICE or other federal agencies on a regular or automatic basis or must the federal government make specific requests for this information? For example, if ICE or other parts of the federal government make requests for this information, what is the process for determining the responses to those requests? And how do we ensure that we are only responding when legally required? If I have a question about the AI policy for the city, in your budget detail you say that the policy was released on March 24th. But after looking through the city's website, it seems that the data was not met or is not there. Can you confirm that you do have a new data set or if you don't, when do you plan to roll that out? And my other question is, what are the systems that you have in place for comprehensive review process for all AI tools, who was involved in this Governance Committee, and what is tasked with that approval? And my last question is, are there currently departments that are using AI that you can describe what it's used for? And I think Councilmember Landau Kind of got to that a little bit.
Yes. So in regards to your first question about Premier 1, there are strict rules that the city has as far as sharing data. We have to defer to Law with any processes or anything. In regards to that, we take our orders from Law and that's how it's disseminated. So we would defer our questions to Law. The AI policy has been up March 24th on the Intranet. So I was mentioning earlier that our policies are internal because they're for city employees and so forth, but this will be the first time where we would need to make an external tool so now the public could have access to it. So that will be part of our conversation this summer as we work through our action plan. So you'll look forward to hearing more about that and how we're going to get now the information out to the public. The Governance Committee, as I mentioned, includes Law, Integrity, Ethics, OIT and a Labor representative, but we also have areas for committees, which is the Procurement committee, Legal and then external advisors as well as far as a committee and then Technical Infrastructure committee as well. So that's the actual foundation. There was one more question.
So we have 36 AI tools. And when we release the -- we're working on how to release this to the public of course. So during the summer when we're working on our action plan, we'll work on getting the inventory together to be released. But we do take -- you also mentioned how do we go through the process of vetting. So OIT has already had a vetting process for all technology tools, where it goes through something called Project Health Check. It goes through a security analysis, but there's several questionnaires that have to be filled out. So we review the questionnaires with the -- if it's a vendor or however the tools are being administered to come into the city, and we look at from a security process data how it matches with our infrastructure. So that process has already been in place prior to AI. But we have added in features to ensure that we're laser-focused on AI tools coming into the city, so that that process is already there. Now, as far as the Governance Committee, as I was mentioning, now the other overlaying conversation is how will the city departments utilize these tools. Once OIT says, hey, it's safe to use it, the data is secure, it's efficient for what we deem as proper for the city, how the Governance Committee will then want to work through from a legal standpoint, can the department use it, and we're working with Procurement, working with Ethics, all those different things now have to go into play before we allow a particular department to utilize the AI tools for city services.
Thank you. One quick one, one last one is for HR. The Return-to-Work policy was discussed as a way to improve profits for Center City businesses. Do you have the information about any increase in business in Center City with the Return-to-Work policy?
So just in correction, I don't believe that was one of the bases for the Return-to-Work policy. The Return- to-Work policy was very much a management position that we work better together in person and that we realize more collaboration, more equity in terms of opportunity. The purpose of it was not to improve profits for our Center City businesses. I think we were all hopeful that the return to office would have the benefit of patronizing some of our community vendors in the Center City area and in outlying areas that may have been suffering from kind of the post-COVID positioning of remote work, right, and prevalence of remote work. We certainly can get any information to you about what we have seen relative to the economic health of our area businesses in Center City. But I did want to clarify that that was not the basis for the Return-to- Office policy?
I'm sorry, but we're running over time, way over time. Do you mind putting it in writing so that we can get a written response?
I already asked so if they want to respond in writing, that's fine.
All right. Thank you. Chair recognizes Councilman Young.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have first a request to be given to the Chair. I don't know if Finance can answer this question or HR. But can you provide to the Chair information on the actual dollar amount of all unfilled budgeted positions for FY25 and FY26? I think that gives us a sense of how much money I guess is out there, we're leaving on the table or what money can be allocated to other resources that we need to have in the city. So if you could provide us with that number, I think that would be helpful. And a question I have, CAO says the small and local business enterprise metrics are not yet available because the registry and goals are still being built. Can you tell us what is the implementation of this timeline? Which office owns this and will CAO be able to report department-level small/local business dollar participation and the goals? Because if we're looking here through this and we're trying to be stewards of our public funds, we want to make sure that we're actually contracting and procuring services from people who are small and local businesses. So can you tell us how and when will we be able to understand this particular metric?
Hi. On the first question, we can ask Finance to provide the Class 100 information for the unfilled positions. OHR doesn't have it. It's difficult for us to determine because there is some flexibility within what's budgeted and then what level they can fill the position. So for example, if a department is budgeted for a certain level position, they may choose to fill that at the entry- level. And so, there may be some discrepancy in salary there. But we can provide the response in writing, but Finance will have that information.
Thank you. And even if it is some leveling with the salary, just the unfilled positions essentially?
And in regard to the small and local business program, our Office of Business Impact and Economic Advancement is responsible for kind of implementing that program and metrics to track the participation across our communities. And so, we're happy to partner with them, Procurement partners, very closely with that office helmed by Nadir Jones, and we can provide the information in terms of the timeline and when metrics would be available to you after this hearing.
Thank you. That's helpful. Because we're trying to figure out and trying to verify if this reporting is not available, then how offices, departments are currently verifying whether local and small businesses are meaningfully benefiting from contracting opportunities and professional service opportunities, procurement opportunities, because based on your testimony, we don't have that information to make a determination on. So I think that would be helpful to provide us with that information. And I do have one more question, Mr. President, if you don't mind --
-- for OIT. OIT, going back to the AI policy, again your policy was published recently, requires security evaluation. This Governance Committee again, there's risk assessment, operational clearance and ongoing monitoring. So which AI tools are already approved for use which are under review, which departments are using them today? Can you describe that again for us?
So I have a complete list that I can get to you. I did read off some of them --
Thank you. So we're going to break for lunch from 12:30 to 1:30. But, members, do you have additional questions for a second round? You want the two panelists to come -- the three panelists to come back in the next round?
Could you speak into the microphone? I can't hear you.
You have a couple questions. Could you please come back after lunch briefly? And then we also have in the afternoon session, the Office of Public Property and Fleet Services. And so, we'll see everybody back here at 1:30. Thank you very much. We are in recess. (Lunch recess.)
Good afternoon, everyone. We will resume the Council session. Ms. Loughead, could you ask our testifiers to please come back to the podium.
Camille Duchaussee, Chief Administrative Officer; Candi Jones, Chief Human Resources Officer; and Melissa Scott, Chief Information Officer. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
To kick off this round, the Chair recognizes Councilmember Phillips -- I'm sorry, Councilmember Jones, then Councilman Phillips, Harrity and Rue Landau.
So we may actually get you out of here relatively quickly. But how many attempts have there been -- you read about people hacking into systems all over the country, all over the world. How has Philadelphia fared in that regard?
Melissa Scott, Chief Information Officer. So repeat the question to make sure that I understand it clearly.
So municipalities around the world have been hacked into by actors that want to spread a virus, want to tamper with utilities such as water, everything from bank accounts to confidential information on criminal activity. How have we fared in fending off those types of attacks?
So we made a huge investment from the dollars from the last Fiscal and there was a 90% decrease in malicious phishing emails that have been reported. Our investment is proactive in email blocking and successful in keeping malicious lures from out of city inboxes. There's also a 69% drop in high-risk suspicious sign-in attempts as well recorded through Microsoft 365 logins, fewer phishing emails as well, directly correlated to fewer utilization intrusion attempts. Our perimeter defense is working.
Thank you, sir. Chair recognizes Councilman Dr. Anthony Phillips.
Thank you so much, Council President. I had a question for Director Jones. Earlier you said that you are working with department HR representatives around improving their ability to strengthen their processes, right. You're just going over -- are you mandating this, is this something you can mandate or is this something that is suggestive that you can work on?
So thank you for the question. So as part of the launch of CHRO Circles, we broke the HR managers up into three groups. And the leadership team at OHR and myself are meeting directly with the departments. In order to standardize, to your point we want to be able to deliver the HR service delivery in a consistent and uniform way across the city. Separately though, as part of the centralization efforts that we're looking at right now, we're looking at each HR's center of excellence. We are looking at what the relationship to the HR director looks like for HR managers, right, to your point, having accountability, reporting back, making sure there's adequate oversight from the Office of Human Resources into the decentralized HR managers. That is an ongoing conversation, but also includes reporting relationship, yes.
I asked that because I just think that if there's almost like a McDonaldization of the HR departments, every department does the same thing and that standard is being reviewed, we will have a lot more closure potentially with some of our vacancies.
I agree. I will say we have gotten a really excellent response from the HR community with the additional oversight and the support and the relationship building that we've done in the past year with each department. And so, we are hopeful that that effort will be ongoing. But again, we are having conversations about reporting structure and what that looks like for HR across the city.
Thank you. I want to commend you on the HR bus. I also want to continue to commend you on the work that you're doing with the social media publishing. But I also want to talk about something, to follow up with you about -- because we worked on the things we talked about which is great, thank you for that -- but will you implement the suggestion that I made around publishing the timeline for hiring going forward with all hiring in the City of Philadelphia?
So we have actually. We implemented since we last spoke, we didn't get a chance to follow up with you on what we implemented. But yeah, so in two ways: One, we have the timeline being communicated to candidates after they apply for jobs. We also published it on the website, as per your request. And so, there's a -- I can share the graphic after this conversation. But we created a graphic that is very transparent with candidates, showing them each part of the process with an associated timeline, right. So the two weeks of posting, the four weeks of review, the six-to-eight weeks of testing and being called by departments, we publish that on our public-facing website. So it's not just applicants that can see that information, it is citywide. So I will share that with you as a follow-up.
Okay. And then also, can you just go over to what is causing the biggest delays when it comes to the civil service exam or just hiring delays in general? Is it the exam development, the eligible list or department hiring decisions? And how much is the salary for the CCME fellows? And I just want to -- yeah, because I'm curious about that. That's 28 positions.
So for the timeline, I'll answer that part first. So on the OHR side, our process takes about 30 to 45 days roughly, depending on the type of exam. Where we're seeing the majority of the delays are on the departmental side after we established the eligible list, but that's that work with the departments, right. Like that consultative work with them in order to streamline their process, it's also leveraging our technologies, right. How are we scheduling interviews, how are we kind of speeding up once a list is established and available, we need the timeline to where we're contacting candidates and then getting actual butts in seats is what we're working on shortening.
And Chief Administrator Officer Camille, would you just tell me when should we see -- thank you again, Candi. When should we see those SLA timelines delivered that we discussed earlier in the last round?
The end of the next quarter. Okay. All right. Thank you. And I just want to also commend -- go ahead.
I'm sorry. I wanted to answer the question about CCME fellows, the salaries.
Okay. So I do want to commend Chief Information Officer -- Innovation Officer Melissa Scott for some work that she's doing around the 311 mobile (Applause.) As you all know, 311 has a significant problem in the city. And I'm hoping that the 311 people will be working closely with OIT on that issue going forward so --
May I have a point of information please, Dr. Young(sic).
On the 311 app, could you just clarify how we will address if the issue has been completed in realtime? Because often times we do get calls and something will say it's completed and then it wouldn't be completed, and then the constituents will give us an earful saying, why is this the case, so how does the app address that part?
-- the Customer Relation Management system. The issue is that -- so first, if you don't mind, I just want to explain what 311 does.
So 311 takes in the service request across different channels, they log these requests and categorize them. Then they route them to the specific departments and then they track the statuses and provide the updates to the residents and they do reporting. That's what their system does. But what they really are, they're a call center. But everyone treats them as if they're the department that does the work. They're really a centralized unit that everything comes in, it's like a bus station almost, right. But the issue is that the systems do not integrate with that 311 system. So what you're seeing is the data not being presented to the resident correctly. So, for instance, an abandoned car, the constituent calls in and they say, you know, I'm reporting this abandoned car. Then the system tells them that it was completed. And then the resident looks out their window and says, but it's still there. Because when the Department of Police picks up that particular case, they're saying in the system we have it and the system is interpreting it as it's complete, so they send it over to the resident as complete. No, it completely transferred to the department. So what we're going to do is we're going to work with -- we need all the departments to come together and to work on proper SLAs. We need to know how long does it normally take in order to remove an abandoned car so we can clearly communicate that. Then we want the system to show where they can -- the resident can go in and see I submitted it, someone is now working on it and then it's being completed. But in order for that to happen, you need integration between all the systems of the other departments.
And when is that going to happen? Is there a 311 integration task force?
Yeah. So the timeline we have is from May to September we're going to gather the requirements. What that means is we need all the departments to have a representative to participate in this conversation. You know, the Mayor talks about intergovernmental, interdepartmental cooperation. This is not an easy feat. This is difficult because we need everyone to be engaged long enough to get the information. Once we get that, we're going to go out to RFI, a request for information, to see what applications fit. But what's really important in what I'm saying here is each department has to be engaged so they can tell us what specifically do they need so we know how we need to integrate with their system. Every system is different. So we can have one central source of truth now, which will be 311 after we finish that. So we go out to RFI, we see whatever what systems work best. And what you'll see in FY28, then we'll put the request in for the funds for the solution. And if the money is available, then we'll be able to procure the proper solution and start to integrate it so now we can finally fix the problem. The reason why it hasn't been tackled is because it's interdepartmental cooperation that needs to happen. 311 themselves cannot solve this. They're just a call center.
Yes. However, I still believe it's 311's responsibility because it is the platform that our constituents call, right. And when they do call, they're expecting a complaint or service request to be completed in realtime, right. Because again, when I get that note saying it's saying it's completed and it's not completed --
-- rather it's departmental cooperation, sharing of information, I'm just looking at the end goal on our end is when that person sees that it's completed, we officially know it's completed. But I understand it's a work in progress is what you're saying to integrate this system and bring all the department heads to the table to talk about what this system needs, correct?
Yes. And what you've been seeing prior to this time is OIT putting a blind eye to 311. Now, here me as the leader of OIT, I'm saying, hey, no, we're responsible for solutions, we're going to help you build this solution, we're not going to leave 311 out on the island thinking that they can solve the solution. As the leader of OIT, we're going to get in the middle of it and we're going to help solve this problem.
Before you leave off that, it didn't used to be. Under Sandra Mills -- that's a name many people won't remember -- she ran 311 and what she employed was a dozen and a half to two dozen actual caseworkers. And so, they might have had a book that thick and remembered when you called, got back to you personally to say it is done-done, not half done, but done- done. And I don't know when we evolved away from that.
Yeah. There's definitely a disconnect between the communication through the system and the department. The department actually does the work, but when they're communicating back to the 311 system, what they're communicating is incorrect and that's why it's going to the resident incorrect.
I got you. I'm clear with you on that. I got confidence that you're going to get it done --
-- but it's an extreme priority for us in terms of doing constituent services. And then one last part and I'll give it back to Dr. Phillips. You also talked about I guess under the new system, in my mind I'm thinking it's like the DoorDash (Applause.) When you apply for DoorDash, it says you place your order, preparing your order, order about to be picked up, then you know it's about to get to your house. Is that how the model would be in terms of -- and I think this is along the lines of Dr. Phillips was saying. If we could let people know you applied for this pothole to get addressed, we're reviewing the pothole, next we're inspecting it, completed. I think that's dope.
Yes. As far as the mobile app is concerned, that integration --
Excuse me. For the record, not dope -- awesome.
Yes. That feature is part of the new interface that we're building now inhouse for the first time, our first mobile inhouse built, that feature is being built in. The issue is that we still have to solve the miscommunication and misinformation of the data. So once we get that tightened up, it will work exactly as you mentioned.
Shout-out to the 311 team. We saw them at the Block Captains Rally, and they were down there doing a good job and engaging the people, all the teams was. But I did have a good time talking -- I don't know the young man's name, but he was down there excited about this app that was coming. He actually showed me. He's like, let's go on the phone and showed me.
Chair recognizes Councilmember Phillips. Back to your time.
Thank you, Council President. Yeah, that DoorDash -- that Amazon dashboard is what I've been getting at with 311 and looking forward to you continuing that effort to fix all that. And just my final question was for Chief Human Resources Director -- oh God, I've just butchered your title, Candi Jones. What accountability mechanisms exist when hiring delays occur after OHR completes this portion of the process? Does the data show the time it takes from the date the job announcement has been made to the actual hiring, to the interview to then also the offer?
Great question. Yeah, so the data shows all parts of the process in a high level of detail. We have it globally for the entire city and then we also break it down by department, so we report out that information. So we know exactly which departments are taking which length of time, to your point, from the eligible list to the actual hire. So that part of it we can share with Council as well.
So we do -- sorry, sir. We do follow up with the departments about their time to hire. My leadership team works very comprehensively, very closely with HR managers about what their bottlenecks are, what we can do to improve their service delivery on that end. And so, that is ongoing work.
I just want to make a 10-second comment that one of the things that I'm hoping that Chief Administrative Officer can review with you is the idea of having a separate unit focused with arborists that will just be for neighborhoods. Right now our tree arborists are doing the pruning and the cutting. They're spread throughout the entire city, from our parks, other related issues. But they're not dedicated just to residential tree-pruning and cutting, which is why we see delays. We do not have just so you know, Chief Administrator Du -- Camille, we do not have any service level agreements that are strong when it comes to arborists in the City of Philadelphia. So I'm just hoping that we can have that change going forward. If you want to speak on that.
We do partner with Parks and Recreation. Our understanding right now, they've had a lot of retirements within like that tree maintenance worker job classification that we discussed. So I think they have about eight vacancies right now. There are some ongoing conversations and partnerships that we have with Saul to be able to do some upskilling, to be able to get more employees into that job classification. But we continue that work and we do work very closely with Parks and Recreation. We're happy to do so with the Chief Administrative Office as well.
Thank you. Councilmember Rue Landau, Councilmember Jim Harrity, and then Councilmember Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson.
Thank you, Council President. Thank you, Member Harrity. I need to jump ahead for a second. Sorry. I have a few more questions and I'm going to rattle them off first. But the first is around tech procurement. The second is around digital navigators and the Verizon franchise agreement. The third is more about OIT and data security. So going to tech procurement, you know, tech vendors say it takes too long to secure or extend a contract with the city beyond pilot status. What is the normal process for a tech vendor to be selected to receive a city contract? Do these vendors traditionally have a similar timeline to other vendors and is there a way in which we can fast- track tech vendors who show promise via pilot programs with the city to a long-term agreement? There are good examples nationally in California, locally in Montgomery County, where they recognize the purchase of technology is unique and therefore offer more fragile -- flexibility, sorry. With the Verizon franchise agreement, I know that we got, what was it, $2 million to add more computer systems into our rec centers. And so, I wanted to know how that's going, how we're doing there? And then with the connection to OIT we keep talking about, I know there's vacancies at OIT that we're trying to fill. There's vacancies in other city departments as well. Are we in any way focused on changing job descriptions to add tech qualifications to them, for example, at the libraries and the rec centers where we have computers and we know so much of the public comes in, in order to utilize our computers to apply for jobs and otherwise? I would love a detail also of the vacancies at OIT, kind of the top-level vacancies, so we can see if there's any way we can tweak them to help fill them and to tweak that list, if needed. That can come after today. And the last one, I just wanted to go back to -- we've asked a couple of times about OIT and data security. And I asked and I didn't feel like I got a straight answer. And then when Councilmember Brooks asked, she was told that would be with Law to answer that question. And I really want to be assured that everywhere we are collecting data, regardless of when we are fully implementing our AI policies and whatnot, that we know that these are secure, and also double-down that I think this is extremely important. And the reason why, Council must have a seat on the AI Governance Committee.
Okay. So you want to go in order, tech procurement? COMMISSIONER HOVEY: Sure. I'll start with tech procurement, and then a little bit of that is yours and it can segue into yours. So with respect to tech procurement, timelines can be a little bit longer than other types of procurement, particularly because of the cyber security requirements, which can lengthen the negotiation phase and it's less frequent that firms will just sign onto our terms and conditions also. So in terms of average lengths of time and procurement, those things get dragged out. Additionally, with respect to your comment about piloting, that's an area of concern to me in that when you go down a pilot if the strategy is well- defined up front, then you get into difficulties with fair and open competition, where you've preselected a pilot and now it becomes the foregone conclusion and solution if it succeeds. You really haven't gone through any sort of competitive sourcing. And so, unless you affirmatively go into that as some sort of exception where you're going to sole-source and pilot it, then that becomes problematic. It is possible to pilot more than one provider or technology or solution, and I've seen that done very successfully. But right now, the city's process does not necessarily automatically build that in. It is something that I intend to build in into our business processes here to leverage more frequently the proper use of piloting. Because as I said, we often get ourselves jammed into a corner where we either break the rules and continue on down a sole source and it's not fair and open or we do something outside of a pilot and then it's not properly tested. Does that answer your question?
It's good enough. I also want to know do we have enough tech professionals in the procurement process so they're doing a full assessment of the products that we're using? COMMISSIONER HOVEY: We have some -- I would say we don't in Procurement necessarily have enough. But Melissa has professionals on her side of the team that do, do that sort of thing. And as we look to centralized procurement, we'll look for the right location for those people to reside.
Okay. Thank you. COMMISSIONER HOVEY: You're welcome. Thank you.
Okay. I want to jump to the data security because that's the easiest answer. So having the data secured versus sharing the data that is being requested is two totally different things. Securing data has to do with someone accessing data unwanted, right. And so, the question is, is our data secured and are we defending our data from bad actors? The answer is, yes. Through our particular tools and the vendors that we allow in, we have a standard 65-question data security questionnaire, so we are managing and securing our infrastructure here within the City of Philadelphia. But the question that was asked was --
-- sharing the data. And I don't have any authority as the CIO to just go share the data with anyone. That is a legal process, so I defer it and I defer it again to Legal. The second question is whether or not -- let me see what I have here -- oh, you mentioned a franchise agreement, but I believe that the question goes in line with it's a grant that we wrote.
It came out of my head. It was basically my understanding was that the city was going to be hiring digital navigators, that we did get this franchise agreement that we were going to get computers in rec centers. So two things, how is that going? And the second thing is, have we considered changing some job descriptions for library or rec center personnel to include some sort of tech basis so that we can have people help people even more with the computers in our libraries and our rec centers?
Okay. So the 200 laptops was a grant. It wasn't part of the franchise agreement. The franchise agreement added 180 -- it added broadband service to 183 recreation centers, which is not, you know, the laptops, right. Okay. So we have completed -- there's 183 and we completed 160, so it's going well.
So you're saying we're going to have broadband access in rec centers, but no computers?
-- apples with oranges. So you said the Verizon franchise agreement, which is a document that was signed, right, which allows for -- and part of that agreement is for high speed broadband services. Prior to me assuming the position as CIO, there were no laptops given out anywhere, right. So that's something, right, that I put in the budget for last year. We hired the digital navigators, but the navigators are there to provide the digital skills training classes, which we are actually executing now, so that's going well. So I just want to make sure we don't confuse the franchise agreement with the digital navigators because that's an initiative that I established within OIT, which is separate from the franchise.
I am very proud of your initiative that you started with OIT. This is not about handing laptops to people. This is about if we're going to have high speed internet in a rec center, that we actually have some computers in the rec center so people can be able to use them and then digital navigators there on the spot to help people use the computers.
Okay. So I'm not sure if you're aware that we're in a federated structure here at the City. Central OIT is not over Parks & Rec's IT department. I'm not sure if you're aware. So if you have a question in regards to what IT is doing in the recreation centers, I don't have any authority over that. However, we still try to work together. So in our department we wrote a grant and we gave out 200 laptops that are being deployed to the recreation center. And we also logged 479 adults and youth since that time, so we went out and we trained and we gave digital skills classes to those individuals. There's another grant that we wrote, the 2 million that you mentioned. And million goes to Happy Hollow Recreation Center. It contributed to the HVAC, the computer lab, e-sports. And that's going to be completed December, the end of December of this year. Then the other million went for --
Excuse me. Point of information. How much is going to Happy Hollow?
1 million that we wrote a grant for and we worked with Parks & Rec for that, Happy Hollow.
Okay. I know about Finnegan. Okay. Please proceed. I don't want no smoke. Vice-Chair of Parks and Recreation from the 8th (inaudible), it's okay. I was just trying to get clarity of information. Please resume.
So that million stands for their electric, the computer lab, it's helping e-sports, and that will be done April 2026. Now, let's go back to these laptops. So we just gave out 2000 laptops. So I'm kind of confused about the questioning whether we're going to give laptops or not. Are you specifically saying recreation centers? Because then my previous answer would answer that, the IT the way we're structured, they don't roll up to me in order for me to do that. But what we have done is wrote the grant for the 200 laptops, which have been distributed to Parks and 8 Recreation centers. And we also 9 gave out 2000. I -- 10
I 11 will say again I am very proud of 12 you handing out 2000 laptops. I am 13 not in any way talking about that. 14
16 I've had a lot of people ask me -- 17 I won't. I think I got enough of 18 my question answered. Thank you. 19 Okay. I think that Director -- 20
And then Candi wanted to answer the job description changing piece.
So globally -- and thank you for the question. So globally, OHR is responsible for maintenance of the classification plan. So through our process, we do review all 1000 civil service job descriptions on a pretty regular basis and presents changes through the Civil Service Commission. So last year we did about 71 changes. Part of that though, to answer your question, we have established new pathways into IT-related roles, from library assistant, right, so they go to -- let me go to my notes real quickly -- so they can go to digital resource specialists and then promote to computer user support specialist. A lot of the IT-related roles, the non-IT engineering don't require a four- year degree, which is also a part of our goals, so they require certifications and things like that. So we're continuing to look at job titles where we can provide these additional pathways to IT and also other areas. We have not explored that on the Parks and Recreation side, but I have taken a note so we will work collaboratively with Parks and Recreation to identify if there is a potential pathway from Assistant Rec Leader into some of these IT titles. And so, we're happy to report back on that information once any progress is made.
Thank you so much. Just want to add one last thing. If there's any other departments that are not centrally overseen by OIT, that could be a risk. And I think that IT should oversee all of IT in the City of Philadelphia. It's really important that we have one point of contact for that. Thank you.
Thank you. I do want to add just one additional point. That is new information for me. I did think you were over everybody, because even -- where's the gentleman. Lonnie, the work that does, you're over top of Lonnie as well?
Yes, he's a contract provider so you have nothing to do with that at all?
So we have a federated structure, so Airport runs their own IT. Library runs their own IT. Parks & Rec runs their own. So I would have to give a complete list.
No, I understand now. So if Wi-Fi system goes down at the airport, Wi-Fi --
Let me finish please. Wi-Fi system goes down at Parks & Rec, Wi-Fi system goes down at Department of Human Services, right, let's say our system crashes. Let's say when we got hacked last time, I remember that happened, and they shut down our payroll system. Who's the person in the war room to make sure that never happens again?
So that question is multifaceted, but I'm going to answer the first part which is the networking. We own the network for the city. So if the networking goes down, that is Central OIT's responsibility. But when we talk about the operational standpoint, as the Councilwoman was mentioning as far as who's going to get laptops, who's going to do some different operational --
I'm not even on the laptop conversation. I'm on the operations side.
But it's federated, which means that we own part of the responsibility, not the entire responsibility of it. And so, the network we do manage that.
So if the Department of Human Services, right, they have a data breach and there's an issue, who do they come to and say, hey -- Kim Ali, who's the DHS Commissioner, who does she go to and say, we had a data breach, our system is down, our Wi-Fi doesn't work anymore or we've been hacked? Who would they talk to, to make sure everything gets back on track?
So they normally call us. They reach out to us for additional assistance, but the true differentiation is who tells them what they should or shouldn't do prior to an incident, and we don't have any authority over that. So they do come to us for help because we're the larger group and we're the subject matter experts. However, when we could establish some operational structures in place prior to an incident, we're not included in those conversations. And so, this is how it was already structured prior to the Parker Administration coming in.
It's the structure. Okay. I just was under the impression that one person was over all things IT for the City of Philadelphia. And if it's the weak signal I get in my office sometimes when I'm on Teams and it freezes --
Networking is us. But the example you just gave, now you're talking about security, right. And so, yes, they come to us for assistance in managing an issue, but not necessarily for assistance in implementing the defenses before an issue.
Gotcha. Okay. Point of information. Member Gilmore Richardson.
I'm not sure if they still do this or if we still do this, and this is just a question because I remember we did this previously. Is Council technically on a different server? Are we technically on a different server still? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Inaudible).
Okay. Meaning, even though we're on a separate server, does that still run up and through OIT, Central OIT? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Inaudible).
Received. Okay. Because I remember at one point -- I don't remember how long ago this was now, this is 2026, maybe it was years ago, I don't remember, 13 maybe it was 18 years ago now -- 14 that we transferred to a different 15 server. But I thought we were 16 still under Central OIT but they put us on a separate server. I don't remember how many years ago, if someone has historical context. I was just asking if that's still the case.
So you're on a different server. And so, you all are on the same networking and you're on a different email server. You're referring to your email?
So I need to get back to you as far as who's managing your server, if that's what you're asking.
Okay. I remember that. I don't know if anybody has historical context.
Cool. I just wanted to get an idea who was running it all, but we're good. We're good. Okay.
Then Nina Ahmad, Young, Bass, Richardson. Then we're done because they've been here for a while.
For Beautiful. I'll be quick then. I know you answered some questions about the employment access, but just a little more nuanced. How many senior-level positions are currently vacant? For example, the Labor Director has been vacant for quite some while. I'm the Labor Chair. Yeah. So if you can do that, I'll be good.
Of course. So great question. So currently, as far as -- I'm going to take senior, you mean high level, like exempt vacancies. And so, Labor Director position continues to be vacant. We are working with a firm. We did briefly fill that position last year. That individual unfortunately was with us for a very short period of time and then resigned due to some other kind of family circumstances. So we are ongoing with that search. Currently, we have Acting director Carla Leheny who I'm sure you're familiar with, so she's serving in that capacity. We also recently had a departure of our Airport CEO Atif Saeed, so we are currently also working with the firm to fill that position. I'm sorry, wait. I had one more on my list -- oh, sorry. The Commerce Director position, so Karen Fegely is continuing to serve as the interim, but the process for filling that position permanently is ongoing and I believe it is in the interview stage. So those are the three high-level vacant positions right now.
Thank you, Council President. I just want to go back, and correct me if I'm wrong, digital navigators are OIT's purview?
And you have four centers where they're from what my note says, SEAMAAC, Beyond Literacy, Drexel Excite Center and Esperanza. Do you have plans to invest in expanding digital navigator network beyond these four sites? And very importantly, I want to understand the cultural competency of the digital navigators as they go into spaces that have different languages, different cultures being served. So I wanted to know how well your digital navigators are up to speed on that?
Yes, our digital navigators are up to speed. We hire individuals that speak different languages, specifically Spanish. We have someone speaking Spanish and I'm not sure what other languages so I can get that back to you, but we have four digital navigators, three vistas. And since we've hired them, we've been able to manage 461 tickets that came through 311. The previous model had the city funds going out to the organizations that you mentioned, Esperanza, Drexel, and they were doing all the management. Due to the climate and things happening, I wanted to prepare for in case if we lost funding, we could still be able to provide services to our residents. So we brought that staff inhouse. And what we noticed is that by bringing the staff inhouse, we were able to actually service more residents. We were able to actually still provide funding to those partners, but now having those resources internally we have expanded our reach. That's how we were able to get funding to give out laptops now to do more digital skills training. And also, what I talked to my team about is having an ongoing relationship with the residents that we are now servicing. It's one thing to just hand out a laptop, to just do digital skills training. It's another thing to build a relationship with them and build on top of that. Because the idea that you could just take one digital skill class and become proficient in technology, that's not actually -- it's very rare or unlikely that that would happen. So we want to build a relationship with the constituent. Then we want to continue to build on their digital skills training, not just give them broadband service. It's the three pillar ecosystem, which is access to the internet, in addition to access to the devices, the laptops, now the digital skills training, but following them along the line and then getting the testimonies from them as how it has impacted them, and that takes time to do that. So we have these digital navigators inhouse where then to be able to cultivate these relationships and ensure that we're making true impact and measure our impact.
Yeah. I'm really looking for this to go further, meaning for seniors, for the disability community. I'm just looking to see how we connect not just geographically, but sort of population-wise, and what that plan might look like. But I think I understand that you're working on amplifying this. And the reason I ask is, do you need more money for that. So that's why I was asking.
Thank you very much. I only want to add, I like how you talked about after you give them the laptops, the digital education. Because I'm a dad of two boys, I'm real big on education around how our young people engage, watch the video games and talking to people online and trafficking, and even how you use AI, right, in ways how they shouldn't be using AI, but particularly the video games and talking to people on the other side. And so, I think that would be a great part of your outreach with all these children having these laptops, like what's appropriate when you're using the laptop and not when people -- I think it's called phishing or something like that, phishtail --
Catfishing, basically creeps online trying to lure kids, you know, to do human trafficking and so forth. And so, somehow that could be -- I know Councilwoman Dr. Nina Ahmad is having a hearing on this as well. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Ahmad.
Thank you. April 24th, we would love for you guys to come and testify. We'll be sending out information. But to his point, that is exactly part of the digital navigator information that would be really relevant.
And, Melissa, I would even go even further to ask you to think about how you partner with the District, right. Obviously, the District should have this mission on their own, right, but I think it go hand-in-hand and maybe we take the lead and say, hey, this should be part of the education process. Not so much inside the schools in terms of the curriculum, but the actual education of the students around it, like they should -- I don't know if public schools have forums where people come in and do presentations around human trafficking vis-รก-vis social media, right. But that type of education I think would be great. So I think you talked about something that's great beyond the fact of giving somebody a computer. So Councilmember Bass, Young. And then we're going to wrap up with Majority Leader Richardson and go into the next presentation.
Thank you, Mr. President. And I just wanted to say for the record, since we were talking about Happy Hollow earlier, that we have 8.6 million going into the first phase for anybody who's listening from Germantown. Also Phase 2 is -- well, actually Phase 1 will be completed this year, the 8.6 million. And then we'll move onto Phase 2, which is another $5 million project. So I know that everybody was interested.
Oh, all right now. Say no more. We'll talk after. Thank you.
I thought I saw an objection from somebody who just got an additional 10 million for state-of-the-art, you know, golf -I guess what do you call it when you go golfing?
He got a simulator. He got a new golf field, virtual. I think it's called the Tiger Woods Golf course.
So I did want to ask this a little bit more. Can you give us a little bit more detail about the laptop giveaway on Saturday. I heard it was phenomenal. I heard the lines were wrapped around the block and we gave out 2000 laptops.
Oh, 1600. Okay. And can you talk about -- because obviously everybody who was there didn't get a laptop, right. So can you talk a little bit about how do we work as a body, as a city, to close the digital divide? We've been talking about it forever. Is there a plan? Is there a vision for it and what does that look like? If you could just throw something out around those.
Sure. So as I mentioned before, first, we had the three pillars. We were so fortunate to have the Verizon franchise agreement because it really provides the broadband service that we need, high-speed broadband service throughout the entire city. But through that, just the service, being able to access broadband is not enough, right. So we had the laptop giveaway. And the first part of the laptop giveaway started with each Councilmember where we reached out to them to distribute 50 laptops to each one of their -- for their constituents. And what we asked was for them to partner with a local community organization that they knew would be able to find the residents and we distributed that way. Within that portion also, as I mentioned, is the digital skills training is also important as well. So when they receive their laptops, we provide them with everything they need on how to set up their laptop, like a Geek Squad, and taking them through the entire process and then setting them up with classes to follow. So Saturday's event consisted of the same formula where we had 1100 individuals preregistered through community organizations for 1100 laptops. We noticed that there was a need, a stronger need, so we added an additional 500 for other residents who were interested. And it was a very wonderful event. But what it showed you is that there is a dying need for individuals to receive laptops. We had a veteran that was there who mentioned that this was his first laptop that he received in his entire life and other individuals who cannot do city business, cannot navigate through things like telehealth, job employment. So we are making, as you can see, a stronger effort to try to close the digital divide, partnering with not only the community organizations, but also with Councilmembers to reach as many residents as we possibly can. And we'll continue to expand. We'll continue to partner with you. We're always open to more ideas. And so, when we reach out to you for your particular Power Up Tour, it's always the opportunity then to tell us some ideas on what you want to do, if you want to expand your personal Power Up Tour, because the Power Up Tour is specifically for the Councilmember and for your residents.
Thank you. And thank you for the information on that. And I think I want to go back to my earlier point, which was just in terms of efficiencies because the need is enormous. And it feels like we really haven't moved the needle, not anybody's fault, certainly not on this panel. But for a long time, we've been talking about closing the digital divide. I mean, you know, listen, we got Comcast, like the headquarters is here in the City of Philadelphia. And the amount of need that was out on display is a bit shocking that we are still here. And when I talked earlier about efficiencies and trash and whatnot, the idea is to save money so that we can invest it back into people who really need laptops, access to internet, the digital literacy training, as you talked about. We need all of that just on an exponential level because we're just not getting there. And I would hope that there could be some thought like the same as we were talking about building and rehabbing 30,000 homes, that we would make a statement, make it a statement that we are going to make sure that half of Philadelphia, all of Philadelphia, in the next three, five years, whatever has access in their homes, not just in a library or whatever, but they have the digital tools that they need to really be able to compete in today's world and economy and just be able to be there. So I think we can do that. I think that's something that's definitely doable. Especially if we are able to save money in other areas, we can invest in our people. So just a thought.
Yes. And I really hope that we continue. So again, to remind us of how far we've come, we went from 0 to 2000 so that shows that the effort is there. Our partnership with Councilmembers are there. The Mayor is fully supported in closing the digital divide. So the only way from here is to continue to go up.
Can you just give us an idea of -- I'm sorry, Mr. President, real quick -- what is the universe of people that you would estimate that need these devices or access to devices? Do you have an idea of what that number is?
I don't have the numbers on hand in front of me, but I can get that back to you.
That would be great so we could just have an idea what the universe looks like. Is it 5000 people? Is it 500,000 people? Is it somewhere in between, just to give us an idea of what we're working with?
You're welcome. Councilmember Jeffrey Jay Young.
Thank you, Mr. President. This first question I have is for HR. Are there executive branch employees that receive COLAs every year, or not every year but as the cost increases?
No. So the exempt -- so similar to civil service, the exempt increase process, OHR works very closely with the Administration, with the Finance Department in determining what that increase looks like based on a variety of factors. So it's not the same COLA that's applied to the elected offices. The process is different.
Correct, at all levels, both executive level and, you know, your --
So represented employees do not receive this same type of I guess increase, this living increase?
So represented employees get their contract increase that is bargained for. And so, they do receive annual increases.
It's a comparable percentage. So we also take that into consideration when we're discussing what the exempt increase process looks like as well. So each union negotiates a different percentage. Sometimes it is the same, but the exempt increase is similar, very comparable to that percentage typically.
Thank you. Next question, similar questions for CAO and CIO. The Chief Administrative Office is adding 28 positions, while 81 of 106 positions in FY26 were filled. And now, you're asking for us to approve 134 positions. Can you tell us what is your month-by-month hiring plan that makes the FY27 6.7% vacancy allowance credible?
Sure. So the 28 positions that we've asked to be -- there are positions that we've asked to be added to the CAO complement. Those are specifically for the CCME fellow. As I stated earlier, we've graduated 47. We have additional completers and participants in the pipeline. And so, we want to make sure that there's space available for those folks who do not transition directly into civil service positions. And so, we do not believe that there will be any challenge really with us being able to fill the CCME fellow positions. We very quickly were able to stand up the first five that are supporting the Vendor Cooperative. We faced a few challenges relative to some of the vacancies that have remained open. As you know, CCME is an all-encompassing strategy that we're trying to employ. And we struggled because we lost our Human Resource Manager earlier in Calendar Year '25. And so, that posed a little bit of a challenge for us in terms of filling those positions. And so, while we lost that support, we were working diligently to continue to do the work of CCME while trying to fill those positions. So that accounted for some of the gap between the positions being available and not being filled. We are very close to filling those positions by the end of this quarter. We believe all of our CCME positions will be filled. We had a bit of turnover within our Office of Administrative Review. We turned over -- some of it was voluntary, some of it not voluntary. And so, we're working through that. We do have HR support right now and we're working through filling those positions within the Office of Administrative Review.
Thank you. Mr. President, just one more question along the same lines for OIT. In your budget, you're requesting 639 positions, up from 35 from FY26, while only 500 were filled as of November. So why should Council approve these additional positions when you're already more than 100 positions below the budgeting strength? And can you tell us what your hiring plan is?
Sure. So our vacancies actually represent unmet capacity, not unused capacity. What that means is the work is currently being executed by fewer people than required. So the teams are operating at a degraded, stretched state and it causes critical function issues and faces delay. So the backfills, what that helps is it maintains operations, restores previous capacity. But the new positions are for acceleration and demand. When you think about AI, security mandates, our infrastructure, digital service expansion and 2026 FIFA World Cup, we can't do that with just the backfills. So I do realize that the vacancies are an issue, so we've been working very diligently. Last year through the budget we said that we were going to hire a recruiter. We did and she's phenomenal. But we have a five- layer workforce system approach. First is that we started baseline training for all of our employees to create a common operating system to reduce the ramp-up time when they're coming in and to ensure that the employees know and understand what it is that they should be doing. Then we added an upskilling program to cultivate internal capabilities for the monitoring needs, so that's expanding their knowledge beyond what they know now --
I get that. That's all internal. But I'm saying for the hires, like the folks that we need to hire, I understand that their current employees are doing more than they should. I get that. But what confidence do we have to say that you're going to be able to fill those positions when you haven't done so, when you know your employees are already doing more work than they should?
We're tracking on that. So we had 662 interviews conducted between June and February, June of last year to February of this year. We had 500 between February and March alone. We had 162 interviews. Then we hired total hires of 38, so we have increased our productivity and just getting through the hiring, getting through the interviews, which was most of the challenge, going through the resumes, identifying the qualified candidates, so our recruiter is helping us with that and we're tracking up now and we've shown improvement.
-- 600 interviews, only 38 people were hired from that number?
Okay. So then for me, if you're only hiring 38 people in a year, then you're asking us to do an additional increase of 100, to me that says that you're not going to be able to meet that number when you're only hiring 38 people in a year.
Well, we're getting better, right. So imagine the individual that just came into the city, learning how it is, our process, she's been tracking up. So that's why you see a huge turn in February. Between February and March, we were able to do 162 of those interviews, and 11 hires have been made between January and February. So she has now gotten the swing of things, so we're tracking up in a more -- going upward than where we were before. So we do see that we will be able to complete that task at hand.
Thank you. That's all we have for today. We thank you for your presentation. Thank you for providing us information regarding your department. Thank you, everyone. Have a good day. Appreciate it.
Next we have up is -- let me do it the right way. Ms. Loughead, could you please call the next panel please.
We have Joe Brasky, Commissioner of Public Property; and Joseph Rosati, Commissioner for Fleet Services. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Good afternoon. Hello. How are you doing? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Good afternoon, Council President.
Good afternoon. State your name for the record and please begin your testimony. COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Joseph Brasky, Department of Public Property, Commissioner. Good afternoon, Council President --
Joe, can I get your South Philly voice. Pull the microphone over there. COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Is this better?
Yes, sir. COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Thank you. Good afternoon, Council President Johnson and members of City Council. I'm Joe Brasky, Commissioner of Public Property. It is a pleasure to appear before City Council today in support of Public Property's FY27 budget request. I would like to thank President Johnson and members of Council for their support that you provide throughout the year, being that voice for the communities that we provide services for. So I thank you. As you have our written testimony, which highlights the many accomplishments and plans of the department, I would only like to add one thing and, that is, the written testimony and it is about my team. The Department of Public Property has many outstanding employees that tend to fly under the radar and I would like to acknowledge them publicly for their commitment to public service. I am very proud to be a part of the team that shows so much care and commitment to their professions while continuing to support our mission of responsibly serving our city's workforce and community by providing quality facilities and workspaces, of which we are proud of. In closing, I would like to acknowledge Kitty Lo. She's our Budget Officer that passed away a couple weeks ago. And this was pretty much her time of year and she's sorely missed. I just wanted to -- she was a long-serving member of our department for years, so 17 I just wanted to acknowledge her in 18 my testimony. Thank you for having 19 me today. I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you very much. Mr. Rosati, please state your name for the record and please begin your testimony. COMMISSIONER ROSATI: Joseph Rosati, Commissioner for the Department of Fleet Services. Good afternoon, Council President Johnson and distinguished members of City Council. I am Joseph Rosati, Commissioner for the Department of Fleet Services. Joining me today are Dr. K. Wilson, Deputy Commissioner for the Administration and John DeLeo, Deputy Commissioner for Operations. Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony on the Department of Fleet Services Fiscal Year 2027 operating budget. The Department of Fleet Services FY27 General Fund budget request is $76.16 million. The Department of Fleet Services has 355 dedicated employees who work diligently to provide safe and reliable vehicles and equipment to the operating departments to work toward the Mayor's goal of making Philadelphia the safest, cleanest, greenest big city in the nation with access to economic opportunity for all. You have my detailed written testimony and I would be happy to answer any questions. Thank you.
Thank you. Just a brief question. Well, one, thank you, Joe Brasky, and thank you, Commissioner Rosati, for just always being responsive to my calls. I just want to put that on the record. Any time I call to address a variety of different issues, on the weekend, in the evening, you respond. So I want to personally just say thank you. And thank you, Mr. Rosati, for being accommodating to addressing the variety of different issues that I called you about. So I just wanted to state that for the record. My question is not even really that high level. I want to get an idea of in this budget are we investing for more Showmobiles? Can we upgrade our stages? In an event the other day, we still got to piece stuff together type of, you know. So could we as part of this budget, members of Council, especially the District members, would like to support so we're not competing for the same Showmobile? It's up in the 4th one day. It's up in the 5th. We're both trying to get it at the same time. And then can we take our stages to the next level so when we have the Ogontz Jazz Festival or Strawberry -- well, North Philly Day. It's is no more Strawberry Mansion Day. Well, if y'all listening, it is what it is. I'm rocking out with Team Young. It's North Philly Day, right. And I just want to get an idea, it's like a small ask that'll make our lives a little easier. And I'll say this, it may seem minute, right, but we're celebrating the 250th anniversary of our country, right. And, yes, people are going to go down the Parkway and have a good time. They're going to go down Old City. But also, I know the agenda is to go through our neighborhoods. And if we want our neighborhoods to have all these events and we ask people to put on events and to also support our constituents, we would like to have a high-quality event with the best type of infrastructure that folks can enjoy. So I just wanted to put that out there. COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Totally understand and thank you for bringing that up. We did order Showmobiles last year, so they are being delivered soon. We're looking for training and how to operate them. So we will hopefully have them for the 2026 events. We've added stages to our special events crew. We also added more barriers and barricades for our special events coming up, so we're kind of ahead of it. And we're also kind of showing off our vehicle barriers that we bought and purchased. That's going to be helpful during the block parties and how either OEM or the Police want to manage them. I think it's going to help kind of -- I think Center City District kind of have some for their blocking events that they do their open streets, I think it is. So we had used them for our marathons just to try to get a test fit of them. So we've been preparing for 2026 events.
How many Showmobiles are we going to buy for the record? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: I think -- COMMISSIONER ROSATI: There's two. There's --
There's two more? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Yeah, we have two coming.
And how many do we have already in stock? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: I don't have none in my portfolio, but --
That would be under Parks & Rec -- COMMISSIONER BRASKY: -I believe Parks & Rec has certain Showmobiles too, so we're trying to help them, trying to work together, put it that.
No, that's good. And then also tell me about the stages, right. What does that look like in terms of upgrading the quality of the stages that we actually have as a city for not only 2026 but beyond? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: No, and that's what we've been looking to do. I mean, I'm going back years ago and I saw how the 17 shape of our stages were in plywood 18 but now -- also for our labor 19 workforce, we're trying to make it easier with smart stages. So it's a little bit easier to put together, maneuver, a little bit light. I'm not going to say it's light, but a little bit lighter. But we have purchased newer staging, so we are moving along to try to get --
How many new stages are we going to have? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: I would have to check that number. I know we've been ordering pieces and --
Can you please get back to the Chairman with the type of stages, how many stages that we're going to purchase? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Sure.
It may seem small, but for us that do the work in the neighborhoods, very, very critical part of what we do. COMMISSIONER BRASKY: No, I understand we're going to be up against it, you know, 2026 we're putting stages out all over. And then we always have the opportunity to rent some stages to fill in for our demand. It'll be a newer stage also. So we're moving in the right direction.
Thank you. Commissioner Rosati, you're requesting 32 million in new borrowing this year for the capital budget, specifically for the purchase of fire and streets vehicles. This amount is approximately double the FY21 to FY26 average annual issuance of tax-supported general obligation bonds. Can you give me an idea of why we're increasing that particular amount for the purchase of those vehicles? COMMISSIONER ROSATI: There hasn't been an actual increase. It's just that the funding with this -- Sanitation was helping me fund the replacement of their vehicles. And I had to add that to my budget this year.
Okay. And give me an idea regarding the planned vehicle purchases that we're going to buy for this year. What does that fleet look like? COMMISSIONER ROSATI: So for the capital funding that you're speaking of, there's medics for 15 four pumpers, two ladders and 30 trash compactors.
And then where are we in terms of -- and I know Dr. Ahmad is going to talk about this as well because it's something we both have an interest in. But talk about EV in terms of our fleet, right, and I guess having more cars that's focused on electric vehicles as well as our EV stations across the city of Philadelphia as well. COMMISSIONER ROSATI: So we're doing pretty good with that. Currently, I believe that we have -- let's see here. Our alternative fuel vehicles, our total as of today is 1695 vehicles. So we have hybrid electric vehicles, most of which are police cars. There's 1084 of those. You got your compressed natural gas trash compactors. There's 42. And battery electric vehicles, that's fully electric vehicles, that's 569. Now, our goal is to get to 1000 by 2032 and to build out our infrastructure. Currently, we have two municipal fast-charging stations that are exclusively used by fueling for city vehicles. And we have a vendor that's on contract called Evigo that helps with the fast charging. And we have about 126 Level 2 slow chargers within the city's environment as well.
Thank you very much. Chair recognizes Councilmember Jones, then Councilmember Dr. Anthony Phillips and Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad.
Thank you, Mr. President. I asked this question earlier so I'll repeat it now. There is a description, a term, that is used that when the building that is owned by the City of Philadelphia has a maintenance that exceeds our ability to fix. What was that term called? You weren't there. COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Where we contract out services?
No. So if we own fire stations, police stations, libraries, there is a maintenance that is assessed to what is needed for that building. And according to previous testimony, there is a gap between what we own and what we need to fix. Are you familiar with that? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: No, I'm not too much, Councilmember. But I know what we have as far as the maintenance that we perform throughout the fire stations and police stations.
So 16 let me ask the question then, if we 17 own all of these properties, do you 18 have an aggregate maintenance fee 19 or price in mind? 20 COMMISSIONER BRASKY: 21 Yeah. I'd have to look into that 22 number that we have for maintenance 23 because there's certain facilities 24 and properties that are maintained differently.
Yeah. Do you know if we own a library and it needs an HVAC system and the police need new pumps, how much is that number currently? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Well, as far as libraries -- we're just police stations and fire stations. City-owned buildings would be -- libraries and all, their maintenance is performed by the library so they have their own budget number. And also, the same as Parks & Rec.
So it's not all -- COMMISSIONER BRASKY: It's not all one number. It's different departments that have different maintenance projections and what they have to maintain as far as the city buildings.
I guess what I'm getting to and the second part of the question is, we have a 10-year backlog in capital projects, right? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: I'm not aware of that, but okay.
Somebody better know something. I mean, we have a 10-year backlog in capital projects. COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Okay.
And I'm hoping that somehow that gets fixed. And instead of the 200 steps it takes to get something built or renovated, that we shrink that down and expeditiously do that. Because by the time we fix something, it's antiquated and broke again. So we need to work on that and get a handle on what that is. If we're borrowing for things, shouldn't we be borrowing for -- we do borrow for the capital projects. How come we can't implement quicker? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Councilmember, I think as far as capital goes, it's no longer part of Department of Public Property. They have since separated so they have their own budget and their own timelines on projects. We became a client of CPO, so we go to CPO and they run their own timelines and project timelines.
All right. I'll take that. I'll swing back when they come up. My next question to you then is, what percentage of city departments are not in city-owned buildings and actually lease out or rent space from private building owners? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: There's numerous departments that are in leased spaces. I would have to get that number for you.
Oh, come on. You got to have some questions answered. Help me. So you don't know right now -- COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Off the top of my head, no. 13
Then find somebody that knows, because it does not make sense that you don't know right now how much we're paying in rent. Because if we're talking about efficiencies, I remember -- and the reason I'm adamant about this is I remember when I was a quasi-governmental head of PCDC. They told me I had to rent from a person, that you got to go over here. You can't -
So, Member Jones, I have a question. So when you're asking -- are you asking specifically what the executive branch is renting? Because when I think about row --
Offices and things like that, so are you asking for everybody or just the executive branch?
So all departments. You are either in a city-owned facility or you're renting from somebody. So I need to know what that amount is and whether or not we have taken a deeper dive to cross-compare. COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Sure.
With the glut of vacant properties out now, it's a buyer's market, right. So we should be putting them against each other competing. He told me for $100 a square foot, I can get this. You said 75, I'm going with you. COMMISSIONER BRASKY: I got you.
So we should be able to have savings over time with those kinds of negotiations. So I'm going to need you -- I don't want to call people back, Mr. Chair, but I'm going to need those numbers to be provided to the Chair so that I have a degree of comfort as to in today's real estate market, particularly downtown, who we're renting from and whether that's the best value for the lease. COMMISSIONER BRASKY: I will get you that information and I'll get a breakdown of what departments are in which building and in what area of the city, a total breakdown, and we'll send it over to the Chair.
Thank you, Councilmember Jones. That's a great line of questioning. Do you know the executive branch's numbers? So do we know specifically with the Admin, like your departments that you all are responsible for where you rent space and how much you pay? Because I know it's hard to keep up with like the Sheriff, the Controller, right. But what about just the Admin, do you know that? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: It's various buildings. It varies from --
Various like four, two dozen? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: There's probably three or four departments from the Administration.
So are we looking at a couple dozen buildings or a handful.
More than that. COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Oh, no. There's more than that as far as leased buildings, not just for the Administration but --
You piqued my interest, Councilmember Jones. Thank you, sir. Chair recognizes Councilmember Dr. Phillips.
Thank you, Councilman Thomas. Thank you, Chair. I do want to thank you, Commissioner, for your work with our district in organizing events and programs. I do want to say that my question is along the lines of Councilmember Jones. So ironically, we were on the same page around a couple of things. I do think it's very important -- I will suggest on the record that I do think it's very important for you to know the numbers of leases and so forth that the city has. I think that even one of your team members should be helping you in that capacity. But I think that's really important. Here's why: Has the Department of Public Property completed any level of a strategic plan around the following: How do we improve facilities that we have, including this building, right, City Hall, right, what it would cost? Is there a strategy on doing a total revamp of this building and how can we get there? Because this is a people-centered building and at some point we do need to modernize it. The second thing is we have a lot of city departments that are in other buildings that are being leased. Are we ever going to be at a point where we just think strategically and say, what is the cost analysis of buying an entire building to house all these city departments so we can just stop spending money on leases all the time? I think that strategy should be discussed often during these budget hearings and we're just not hearing that. So I just wanted to kind of get a sense of -- COMMISSIONER BRASKY: No, I appreciate the comment. When I took over the department, we didn't have no Deputy of Real Estate. So we've been -- there was an influx and we kind of leased some buildings, but now I did onboard a Deputy of Real Estate just recently to get that program going to build out all that strategic planning of buildings, what do we have, what can we cut back on? So that's all in our plan moving forward. I mean, just from the two years I've been here I know we leased some different properties not only just for swing space, but for when we're doing construction, to move different people out. But that's part of our plan moving forward now that we have a deputy in place to organize and do that planning for the buildings, of space planning and to make us move forward and have a good idea of what we have and then where we could save.
Councilmember Dr. Phillips, I apologize. We're going to pause your time. Councilmember Young, point of information.
Thank you. It's along the same lines as Dr. Phillips' questioning regarding purchasing of buildings. I mean, when you think about the real estate market down here in Center City, we got a building across the street that sold for like $90 million, right. And I think that if we were making that investment as a city to try to get a return in our investment, that's a perfect location to house other city departments and agencies that's literally right across the street within a block radius of the rest of the municipal services. So I just think that's something that we should take into consideration as we look at how the market is in Center City right now. COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Totally agree. And that's what we're going to move forward, we're going to work on and we're going to evaluate that and see how we can -- I needed to onboard a person to help us get to that point. And we just lost another real estate person, but no excuses, but that's our plan moving forward. Gaining our assets, making sure where we can save and, you know, if we can talk about looking at buildings, sure, 100%. I totally get that savings. That's a total savings that we can have, so we have to revisit that.
Well, we don't have to revisit it. I'll pass it back to Dr. Phillips. But the Council President's tech staff in the midst of answering other questions said that we spend about $40 million a year on rental space. And it looks to be up to $63 million a year over the next five years. So that was to answer Councilman Jones' question. And maybe you can get somebody on your team to confirm or deny whether or not that's true, because that was the information that we collected here. Dr. Phillips, I just want to return you to your time. Sorry, sir.
No, thank you. I think this Council is getting really, really -- this is my third year. In my first year, I was sitting here trying to figure everything out. Second year I got a little hang of it. I understand how this works better now. So I'm actually now at a point where I can ask these questions and be like this doesn't make sense, right. That's why I feel like that everyone in this department, I think you all do a great job. The only thing that I think that my question is raising is you all are great at being reactive to what's needed to get done, right. I think the proactive part needs to be done better with this department where thinking strategically about how do we save money in the City of Philadelphia and also be more strategic. So even with some of these vacancies that I noticed, which was one of my next questions, what are we doing to -- these vacancies, we have 140 budgeted positions, 116 of those positions have been filled, meaning that -- and then also the vacancy rates have been as high as 35% in previous years. How are these vacancies currently impacting response times for maintenance issues that affect public access to city services? And also, what are we doing to address the vacancies? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Sure. Mostly our vacancies are in trades, plumbers, electricians, industrial electricians or our trades people. So we've been recruiting. We've been working with the school district to hire on and bring them in as apprentices, and we work with them to bring them along to bring them into the trades. We've been doing better lately as far as hiring plumbers and electricians. So I think we are making progress on bringing in trades, skilled trades that is, and it's been tough to onboard them. We've been trying for years to bring in skilled trades. If construction is good on the outside, those jobs they're going to take them. So we've been working with the young kids, trying to groom them in, to bring them along and we had success. So we're doing good in that part of bringing people in. And so, we're trying to recruit and get the word out, and we're working with OHR also.
And just my final comment and question. I just want to continue to challenge you, Commissioner, who I think you're respected, you do a great job. But I want to continue the challenge, maybe you can get people around you in real estate to really think about that question that I brought up along with Councilmember Young and was discussed by our tech team with Councilmember Thomas, is just the idea of we can save a lot of funds in the City of Philadelphia if we have a strategy to actually buy one of these buildings. I feel like we're not being smart with our taxpayer dollars in that regard. So I'm looking forward to hearing a timeline from you or when can you have a strategic plan to address that. And I believe that your upper heads should work with you to kind of do that. I think that's really, really, incredibly important. And then for the Commissioner of Fleet Services, I just had one question. The department continues to span its electric vehicle fleet and charging infrastructure as part of the Clean Fleet plan. How is the transition to electrical vehicles impacting day-to-day fleet operations? Are we going to be working on increasing the number of electric vehicles in fleet? And then also, I see that you have a workforce development program that you've been -- you have one? Can you just give me a review on how well that's coming along. COMMISSIONER ROSATI: The electric vehicle implementation, we're trying to -- UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Inaudible). COMMISSIONER ROSATI: So the electric vehicle implementation, we're trying to systematically replace ice vehicles, non-emergency vehicles with fully electric vehicles. It's too early to tell. You know, the maintenance, there's always been this thing about maintenance, you know, will the electric vehicle be cheaper to maintain. You still need to be state inspected. You still have to replace a broken windshield, a flat tire, brakes, the whole bit. So there's still maintenance to be done to these vehicles. You're saving on an oil change. We're saving a lot of money in fuel. We've decreased the amount of fuel gallons pumped since I checked since 2004 until 2025. We decreased the amount 2 million gallons less. We were pumping like 7.5 million gallons in 2004. We're pumping 5.5 million gallons now. So we've really decreased the amount of fuel we're using. We're really proud of that part.
By what year will we be fully electric? COMMISSIONER ROSATI: Right now we have a goal of doing 1000 vehicles. When we reach that goal, we're going to pause. We're going to look at everything and try and move forward. Emergency vehicles and heavy equipment are a challenge. I'm not ready to fully go all out and replace emergency vehicles, like police vehicles with fully electric vehicles just yet. So right now we're doing non-emergency vehicles and I have plenty of those to replace out to the goal of 1000. Once we get there, we'll reassess and set a new goal.
Okay. And the Workforce Development program? COMMISSIONER ROSATI: So we have a high school intern program and we're partnered with the CCME. The high school intern program is --
I'm sorry, sir. You're partnered with who for the record. COMMISSIONER ROSATI: The CCME, Community College.
Thank you, sir. COMMISSIONER ROSATI: So the high school intern program, currently we have 61 interns working for us. It's a two-year program. Each student I believe has to do 390 hours of on-the-job training with us in the repair facilities. Once they graduate, they're guaranteed an automotive apprentice position and that's a civil service job. We've had a lot of success with that program. We started in 1993. We've had 237 graduates. There's about I'd say 50 full-time employees from that program. A lot of them are managers. I think we have seven team leaders, two shop supervisors and one fleet maintenance manager. One of the managers is here today. You know, his journey was amazing. He's been here for 30 years, Rasheed Kirkland. Hey, Rasheed, can you stand up? He's been here for 30 years. He came to work for me back in 1996 when he was years old. 10 He's been here 30 years and he's in 11 charge of a third of my fleet. So 12 he's managing over 2500 vehicles. 13
14 That's excellent. 15 COMMISSIONER ROSATI: 16 And he's a mentor to the high school interns that are working for us right now. He looks out for them. He mentors them, and obviously he's a good example.
I only asked that question because I recognized that there was -- congrats, Rasheed. That's awesome. I recognize there's 403 budgeted positions and there's 50 vacancies, right. I'm at a point now where I believe that we should be really pretty much 90% with all these vacancies. So what's causing that as well? COMMISSIONER ROSATI: So trades jobs, just like Joe -- Commissioner Brasky mentioned, full service technicians, they're hard to come by, so we're trying to recruit them as well as grow our full service technicians through the high school intern program. The trades, it's difficult to get tradesmen to come work for the municipal environment.
Yeah, I just feel like -- well, we'll talk with labor. But I definitely think we just all need to work together. I agree, I know it's difficult. I can tell from the qualifications, but I just wish -- I almost want to have a dedicated person on our staff here in Council just to help with vacancies to see if we can help out too. All right. Thank you so much, Chair.
Thank you, Chair. Question for Fleet. First of all, great to hear --
I'm sorry, Doc. I apologize so much. Councilman Harrity had a point of information around Dr. Phillips. And then after that, I will come to you, Dr. Ahmad. I apologize. Councilmember Harrity.
Just like -- because I get it, the trades thing. So for both of you, what is the salary of a full mechanic or whatever the grade is, whatever? And also the plumber and electrician, what's the salary here? So what would a mechanic make outside working for the city? A lot of them they're up, right? COMMISSIONER ROSATI: It fluctuates. Because if you're working at a dealership, you work a thing called flat rate, right. So if you're a hustler, you could actually control your own destiny and make six figures. If you're just going to put in your eight hours, then you might make 50,000 or 60,000 a year. I believe that we're at 45,000 a year to start for a technician.
Right. Okay. Councilman Phillips, that's what I was getting at. The salaries we need to raise and then maybe we could fill some of these trades positions because they're not close to what they're making out on the street, you know what I'm saying. An electrician, my son's a union electrician. He makes about $120,000 a year, you know what I mean, 40 hours a week. They make good money. And I know some of these mechanics with the certifications they make some big -- especially the big engine CAD, you know, diesel and all that. And also, you know I'm saying.
Thank you, Member Harrity. I understand what you're saying. Yeah, we want to put that on the record. Dr. Ahmad, we'll let you start your time over. Chair recognizes Dr. Ahmad. Sorry about that, Doc.
Thank you. No problem. It's good to hear this and good to see so much progress. I had a question, two-part question. One was actually about the interns. I saw that you had from -- I have a different number. 34 high school interns in FY25 but you're down to asking for in FY27. I don't 15 know if that's correct. I think it's on budget detail, . And the reason cited for going down in the number was for hiring more experienced technicians. So where are you finding these experienced technicians? And how will that impact the pipeline of the program for this workforce development? COMMISSIONER ROSATI: So normally, prior to taking over Fleet we would bring in about to 10 kids per year. I bumped it up to 36 and then another 34. So now, we have to have a balance. Right now I have 61 kids in my shops, and we want to have a balance of experienced technicians to help train them. So we have to have that. We can't be overrun with them.
So I wanted to ask where are you finding your experienced technicians because I think that's one of our issues that we're having? We don't have enough of them. So where are you getting them and how are you keeping them? COMMISSIONER ROSATI: We go to job fairs and HR helps us with that as well. We normally have a running list that we do interviews and hire people and onboard them. But we're also losing experienced full service technicians to retirement and some of them even leave to get signing bonuses other places.
Yeah, thank you. So I understand you're saying the capacity to manage your high school interns is what you're addressing by increasing that. I understand. It would be good, you know, that is one of our anti-violence programs, having our high school students getting apprenticeships. And if we could up the number of sort of journeyman kind of people in this space, we would do better. So I would highly recommend we continue that. Just segueing into the electric vehicles, I'm so glad to hear how much you've invested in that. However, I know most of your chargers are Level 2. They take forever. And I heard that you had two fast chargers located, new installation, maybe they're two or one new fast-charging station for EVs. Where are they located? And how are the locations selected? COMMISSIONER ROSATI: We're strategically going to have fast-charging stations throughout all four corners of the city, so wherever you are in the city you'll be able to get a charge.
And those are just for the city cars? COMMISSIONER ROSATI: They're strictly for municipal vehicle purposes. So we have one at 26th and Master that has four plugs and that can charge a vehicle within 20 to 30 minutes. And then we have another one at 6930 Norwitch Drive in Southwest Philly. And then we're in the process of installing one at 11th and Reed. That's going to be a four plug. And then at Front and Hunting Park, that's going to be an eight plug.
So eight plug, so we'll have additional four new chargers. So you're replacing all of the Level 2s hopefully soon? COMMISSIONER ROSATI: Yeah. So State and Ashburner will get one. Domino and Umbria will get one. So we're trying to build out the infrastructure so that wherever you are in the city you'll be able to get a charge.
I know you mentioned heavy equipment is hard to do. Are we still looking working -- because the NEVI funds were restored by the federal government, which previously they had cut. Are we looking into how we do our flat charging for larger vehicles? Are we investing in that at all from your perspective in the city because that would help a lot in terms of how we do the charging? COMMISSIONER ROSATI: We don't have any heavy equipment that is fully electric. I haven't gone there yet. I'm waiting for the technology to get better. You're saying that the battery technology could get better and they could do it with smaller batteries and longer range. So when that comes to fruition, we can look at the heavy equipment. But right now I have plenty of ice vehicles to replace that are passenger and light truck.
Well, listen, thank you so much. If we can assist you in making sure we are a fully electrified city in terms of at least our fleet, happy to help you get there. So thank you for the good work. Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Doc. I just want to put on the record because I misspoke earlier when Councilmember Jones and other members asked about the amount of revenue that we anticipate spending on leases. I said that the number was 40 million in this year's proposed budget and then 63 million in five years. That's not correct. It's 40 million in this year's budget and 63 million in two years. So before this panel is done you can confirm that, we'll definitely appreciate it. Chair recognizes Councilmember Gauthier.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon to both of you. Thank you so much to you and your teams for the work that you do on behalf of the city every day. My questions are for Commissioner Brasky. Commissioner, I see that you hope to grow the real estate and planning division of Public Property in FY27 from 7 staff to staff. And my first 10 question is, how many of those 11 staff will be dedicated to managing 12 the disposition of city vacant land? And I'm asking this question because even though we greatly appreciate working with you, we do find that pretty much all requests regarding vacant land reuse takes longer if that land is owned by Public Property. And it doesn't seem to matter whether it's a community group trying to get a lease agreement to garden on a property or a developer trying to build affordable homeownership, requests to get help with paperwork, work on leases, to find out if there are any active use agreements on a property or even getting deeds transferred after Council has approved a disposition. If Public Property is involved, it takes a lot longer to get answers and to move things forward. And this is even more important to consider at this moment because all of these scenarios are going to come up if we are trying to get more vacant land out of the door every year to meet the goals of the H.O.M.E. Plan. Though the Land Bank gets much of the attention when it comes to getting public vacant land out of the door, most of the land that's publicly controlled by the city is still in the hands of Public Property. But we find that the levels of staffing do not match that level of responsibility. And so, are any of those proposed staffing increases geared towards speeding up response and processing time for land that's in Public Property's inventory? And if not, how is your department doing its part to meet the Mayor's goal of 30,000 new housing units? And I think at the crux of my questioning is just wanting to see a higher level of priority given to the vacant land in your inventory. I know that there's a lot of work that takes place with buildings, but vacant land is our key to creating more affordable housing. And so, can you please talk about the request for staffing level increases? And just talk overall about how you're going to build your capacity to manage vacant land and to truly participate in the H.O.M.E. initiative. COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Thank you, Councilmember. 100% agree with you. And that's part of onboarding my deputy and we also are onboarding GIS people to navigate all -- it was a slow process in the first two years. And that's where we knew we needed to bolster our staff. And I think the first step was hiring a deputy and then talking with them to see what they need, and that is our full plan, to onboard real estate managers, people to help get them responses quickly and move quickly. But also, what we're trying to do is as far as the GIS, I would love to figure out all the vacant properties. We have ideas. We get reports from different Council Districts of vacant properties and we've been doing a great job of fencing off certain properties for the past years. So with the GIS team, I want to do an interactive map of when I click on your district, I want to see it pop up vacant lands, vacant lots, what's worked on and more of a detailed approach. So I'm trying to ask you just to bear with me a little bit while we build this end of our team up. I built the beginning, you know, just facilities-wise HR department. Now, I'm moving on to the real estate department. So we're doing our best and we are in the process where I want to start hiring, but I want that deputy to pick their people to be hired.
Okay. When is the deputy supposed to be onboarded? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Yeah, the deputy just got onboarded last week.
Oh, okay. That person's on board? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Yeah, freshly new. That's why I'm trying to get a grasp. And then as far as the questions of portfolios and things that we could do, strategic planning, this is all part of the plan of building out the real estate division.
Wonderful. I would love to follow up on this. I think you almost need sort of a workflow to think about the different sort of tasks that you're going to have to carry out, as it relates to moving vacant land out of your department and just making sure that capacity is up to that workflow or that list of tasks. I was actually pretty happy during this budget process. Councilmember Lozada had a lot of questions for Angel Rodriguez about the Land Bank's operations and how they're staffing up, and I was really pleased with his answers. And a lot of that came out of a hearing that we did last year where we really pressed the Land Bank on these issues and us working together over time. But since the bulk of the city's vacant properties are actually in Public Property, I think you need a similar kind of very thoughtful, laid-out process, particularly if we're going to meet the Mayor's goals connected to the H.O.M.E. initiative. So this is something that I would love to follow up with you on. COMMISSIONER BRASKY: I would totally agree. I would love to work -- and that's my goal. Let me build a team, and then we'll, you know. I mean, I know we still have to move swiftly to do things, but just we're going to build that team up and build it out and you'll see the difference next year.
Great. And just to close, we want to be your partners in that. I have a lot of vacant land in my district. I could probably give you every single scenario that could come up with and talk about what went right and what didn't. We want to be your partner in making this process faster and smoother. COMMISSIONER BRASKY: I totally agree. I would love for that to happen, love for that to happen.
Thank you so much. COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Thank you.
Thank you, Councilwoman. Chair recognizes Councilmember Squilla.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you, Joe and Joe. Appreciate all your help and service and dealing with our inquiries. Mr. Brasky, I want to thank you also for the work we've done with some of our PATCO station stairs and replacement of the steps. Is that work now complete? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: We're getting there. We're doing little by little as far as making sure we have enough treads and finding times they're convenient to do it. But we're hoping to spruce it up. We did the painting. We added the gates with your help, which is much appreciated, thank you. The neighbors are a lot better. We're getting compliments. They're seeing the differences. So, yes, we do a flight -- they just did a flight, a couple of the treads. So it's constantly ongoing, sprucing up, graffiti removal. We're just continually improving cleaning.
What I also appreciate is the collaboration. It seems like the coordination with PATCO now at the RPA, is that something now that you feel you have a good relationship where you could work together on these things? Because it was always in the past it was passing the buck. It's not us, it's them, it's not Public Property, it's them so we could never figure it out. But it seems like recently there's been some work where if it's not you guys, you work with the RPA. And if it's not them, PATCO, they work with you. Is that something that will continue? Do you have a good relationship with them now? And can we share resources when we do have those challenges? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Yes, we 100% have a better relationship now, more communication with our partner Frank Kelly since he joined. We've been partnering together, helping each other out, making sure -- just communicating and working on the same page and not saying this is your problem. So we do have a great partnership and I feel we can continue that moving forward.
All right. And then last thing, there was I guess a fleet building down in South Philadelphia, they were going to install I think new gas pumps from the fire station. Is that something that's moving forward? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Yes, that is moving forward. We just had a meeting with Fleet onsite. That's one of the spots that we're talking about putting the fast chargers and the Level 2 chargers. Joe could speak more on the project, but it is moving forward with our diagrams and our concepts.
Is there a timeline? Is that going to be the end of the year, next year or do we have any idea? COMMISSIONER ROSATI: The fast chargers should be up and running hopefully within six months. And the fuel site we're doing an aboveground tank there. It should be hopefully eight months if everything goes well, because we have to remove the tank from the police district.
All right. Thank you so much. Really appreciate that. Thanks for your help.
Thank you, Councilman Squilla. Chair recognizes Councilman Harrity.
Thank you, Councilmember. Joe and Joe, how you guys doing today? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: What's up, Councilmember. How are you doing?
I really actually don't have many questions, but just want to start, you guys are in two departments that are not let's say very glorious, you know what I mean. But when it's not done well, we can see it. Want to commend Public Property first on the way that they've been keeping City Hall, the people's building. I don't have many dealings with you outside of polite conversation. And that's because when I call your people, they're on it. I don't have to call you. And, Commissioner Rosati, you know I remember the '90s coming to see you on Richmond Street in '93 I think when I worked for the Controller's Office, when I had to get Saidel's car. I was his driver so I had to get his car serviced. So I know that you've worked your way up and been through every department. And like I said, leaders lead and you could see it in just the dealings. I'm not easy. My scheduler will tell you I'm always flipping my schedule around because I'm citywide. And Master Street, when I tell you, they're always accommodating. They make sure they take care of my car on Thursdays when I'm in Council because they know I'm stuck and I'm not going to try to run out anywhere, but they always make sure that I'm able to get around whenever we get a call. And when I first got started, we had a couple of mishaps where we locked the keys in the car, and we still had one of the cars that you couldn't get in, you know, most of them with the key fobs and all, it's easy, but my car is still a little bit older, and a plug for new vehicles too. But just want to thank you guys because I know you guys take heat a lot of times for when people's cars aren't ready and they got to go and when City Hall is not looking proper. But I just got to say you guys have been doing a great job and the new lighting is fantastic out there in the hallways. You can actually see yourself now out there. It was very depressing before that. So great job and that's all I have. Thank you.
Well, in the spirit of Councilmember Harrity, thank you. I just want to echo and say thank you to you both for the work that you do. Earlier you highlighted somebody. You said he's been working with you since he was a teenager. I believe you said his name is Rasheed. COMMISSIONER ROSATI: Rasheed Kirkland.
Can you stand up again, sir? I just want to say thank you for the work that you do as well as all of the people that you supervise. You said a third of your department works under him? COMMISSIONER ROSATI: Yes.
And I think that's a great story. And I think the more stories we can highlight like Rasheed who's been with the city, been dedicated to the city and service the city, I think it's a great narrative and I think that's the way that we get more people involved in city jobs and city programs. So, Rasheed, thank you. Thank you to all of the workers that work in both of your departments and all of the people who move our city forward. Thank you so much.
If you look on his lapel over there, I peeped it. I didn't say nothing yet, but he's got a lot of light over there. Okay, my brother, you know what I mean.
I can't talk about that too much. But I will say thank you for your service, sir, and the people who work underneath you. Dr. Phillips briefly. And then we got to go to Councilmember Young because it's his turn.
I thought we were wrapping up. But I just want to say thank you also, Commissioner, for your work helping us get our Fifth Street office and our Wadsworth office location, Pat Livingston, and then everyone else who's been a part of that process. So you guys have been really good. Thank you so much.
No, thank you, Doc. And it's just important that you guys -- and I know sometimes it could become redundant, but I think it's important that folks who work for the city hear this from the people who call them all the time and ask them to do stuff all the time on behalf of the constituents that we represent. So Councilmember Harrity, Doc and all the other members who thanked you all for the great work you do, I just want to put a point of emphasis on that. Chair recognizes Councilmember Young and then I see Councilmember Landau and Councilmember Bass.
No, I just wanted to jump on the thank- you bandwagon. Thank you, you know, just in pulling together our district offices. It's challenging and I just really wanted to say your office and staff, just really professional and helpful in every way possible, so thank you. COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Thank you. Appreciate it.
You can see you have two of the more difficult departments in the City of Philadelphia as it relates to the work that you do, so we all appreciate not just you but the people who work for you. COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Appreciate it.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I'm going to go to the same bandwagon. I mean, your departments touch every single department that the city has, both of yours. So I really do want to thank you for the work you do because you have to deal with not only our craziness on Council, but the other stuff from other service departments. I can't even imagine what you got to deal with from Police, right. So again, thank you. Thank you for the work that you do. But one thing I do want to note, as I have been highlighting in the budget for the Department of Public Property is that there seems to be a decrease in the minority, women and disadvantaged participation in professional services. For FY24, it was a 64% goal. For FY25, it was 37%. For FY26, it was 40%. But for Q1 and Q2 of FY26, it's only been at 14%. So even if we were to double that, it would say it's 28%, which is lower than that 40% goal, lower than the FY25. So I just wanted to make a note of that for the record, Mr. Chair. And just seeing that these trends seem to happen more than in one office. But my questions for Fleet: It's been noted that you guys have a robust internship program, but it seems like the workers are overwhelmed by just the amount of work they have, particularly with the interns and there needs to be I guess more qualified technicians that are able to actually train and mentor these interns that are there. I know Parking Authority folks probably make grand more 7 than what the City of Philadelphia 8 Fleet management workers make. And 9 so, how can we get your department 10 to be on parity with other 11 municipal departments or other 12 municipal agencies that have 13 similar functions? 14 COMMISSIONER ROSATI: 15 We've been working on that to try 16 and increase our technical staff 17 salaries with HR, and we'll 18 continue to do that because it is 19 important. We want our people to 20 be paid.
Yeah. I think we can clearly see it's literally apples to apples when it comes to some of the things that your folks are doing and some of the things that the Parking Authority folks are doing. And so, I really think of you as someone who appreciates what your office does. If there is an ask for that increase, I assure CCP and all of us thank you, right. So we would be pushing for you to be on parity with a comparable municipal authority to ensure that those city workers are able to make a living right here in the City of Philadelphia and want to stay working for the City of Philadelphia. We commend that gentleman working for 30 years, but there are others who don't stay for a variety of reasons and pay should not be that reason, I think. I think we should be able to pay our workers what their worth is because we need them. Like I said, your department touches every single department in the city so you are highly valued. And I think that we should pay our workers in that vein. But my final question is, we know that tools are expensive for our auto mechanics. And so, what are we doing to help technicians bear the burden to purchase tools? COMMISSIONER ROSATI: We get a yearly tool allowance. I think it's about $500 a year. A technician's tools could be up to $20,000. Some of these tool sets are pretty expensive.
Yeah. I mean, $500 really is only a couple of pieces, right. So that's not really going to provide them with the full set that they need to do their job to their best capacity. And I think that's one of the things that could help with retaining some of our employees, making sure that they are fully equipped to do the job that we're asking them to do. So again, my ask is that if there's anything that you all can ask of us to help be your advocates to ensure that those men and women who are working for you have the adequate tools they need to do their job or adequately paid, that's something that we would be more than willing to work with you on to increase. And just for the record, I know the Council President mentioned something earlier today about Strawberry Mansion Day. For my information, Strawberry Mansion Day is still happening. It's ran by a local community group. So I just want to put that out there for the record, Mr. Chair. So thank you, Mr. Chair. That's all the questions I have.
Thank you, Member Young. And we will close out with Councilmember Landau.
Thank you so much. I just have a couple of Public Property questions. Thank you for being here. Sorry I came in midway, but I wanted to get an idea of what you were talking about with GIS mapping of public spaces. Are you saying that we're still working on mapping all city-owned properties? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: That's correct. It was never mapped out so I'm building it out. We go off different data sheets of what we have in our inventory, also with the Land Bank. But that's one of the things that I felt that we had to build out to really take over our assets and know what's what in each district for when Councilmembers come to ask questions and we have that information readily available. So number one, that make the easiest, most efficient way to track. Even on our interior spaces of MSB, OPB, stacking plans, vacancies, it's all interactive that we want to build out. And that's why we're trying to build that up.
I got to tell you I'm just amazed that it's 2026 and we're still talking about this. Thank you for doing it. But I can't imagine how you move your work forward if we don't know this. So I appreciate so much that you're doing it. COMMISSIONER BRASKY: It's going to make everything so much easier. No, I totally agree. And that's part of the vision that I see and what I feel we're lacking in.
So sometimes I've noticed in the city if we take long enough to get something done, technology is so far ahead of us, that it makes it easier. And I think there are very simple ways to get this done, much easier ways than it would have been had it been done 10, years ago. 13 COMMISSIONER BRASKY: 14 100%. And that's why we're 15 navigating software programs to help us with that, bringing on our new Deputy Commissioner for Real Estate who've worked with Public Property years ago and also worked on the federal level. They had privilege to the system. So we're trying to incorporate that and we're building out a great GIS team to help us do that.
Are your IT people overseen by the Office of OIT? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Yes, we have one IT person that works with us, but OIT is our main technological so we work in parallel with them.
Thank you. So I had two other questions. The first is State Representative Elizabeth Fiedler, in collaboration with the Sunrise Movement, champions solar for schools which utilizes municipally- controlled assets to implement solar infrastructure. Is there a plan to install energy-efficient material? You said you had a plan to install energy efficient materials in FY27 and also an increase in Class 200 budget because of utility consumption. Is this an opportunity to install solar panels in our more modern and structurally-sound buildings? And what energy- efficient materials are planned to be installed? And is there an estimate of how much increase in spending we would have to invest in these solar panels? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: For the solar panel standpoint, we'd work with the Office of Sustainability and Energy Office to help us incorporate that and we'd be open to any option we have to save on our utilities 100%. Using our energy efficient, we speak of that as when we're doing an office fit-out, dimmable LED lights, occupancy sensors. We also incorporate our BAS system for our HVAC equipment to go down, you know, shut off overnight to save energy that way. So we're looking for different possibilities. Mainly our LED lighting projects is our energy savings, but you can only get so much out of that. So I do work closely with the Office of Sustainability and Don McGraw and his crew to any ideas they may have. And we always push back and forth and we talk it out. We can always talk about the possibilities.
One final question. Thank you for that. What process do you go through with decision-making to lease out public spaces, including parking lots? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: For parking lots, that would be in coordination with PPA, with Philadelphia Parking Authority.
What if it was a vacant city space and another entity just wanted to park their vehicles there? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: We do have a couple of the lots that the neighborhoods do use. We maintain clean, you know, trash removal, sidewalk snow removal. So the spaces that we do own, we just give that to the neighbors for neighborhood use.
Do you make those decisions internally yourself or do you do that with other city departments and agencies? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Mostly interdepartmental stuff.
So, for example, the former Roundhouse, which is vacant and has a parking lot, if one of our federal partners like ICE wanted to park their vehicles there, how much permission would they need in order to execute a contract to park there? Could it be just you with Fleet or would it have to go through multiple levels? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: I think it would have to go through multiple levels. And that's a private parking lot just for our facilities people. It's really a staging area for our barricades and trailers. PPD internally uses it along with our event staff, but it's not a lot that we use.
If there were schools -- well, not schools. If there was a rec center with a parking lot on the weekend and an entity like the federal ICE wanted to park there, would that be a decision that you could make internally or what decision-making process would that be? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: No, that would be up to Parks & Rec. They maintain their facilities and their operations. So I really wouldn't have much --
So you're saying that each city entity makes its own decisions as to what to do with its public spaces? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: As far as you're just talking about parking lots?
Yes. COMMISSIONER BRASKY: For the most part, they should be secured parking lots. As far as Streets Department, if they have equipment, fleet, also they should be secure parking lots. So it would stand out if anybody was using it. They're not supposed to be using it. We have never gave permission to use any of our lots. So for the most part, it's just mostly any of our bigger departments, they're going to have secured lots for their equipment and their personnel.
Last one is, if you had a library that wasn't normally open on a Sunday and want to agree to allow ICE officials to be in there during a very hot day, are they allowed to make that decision themselves? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: No. I feel that would be a bigger ask and it's pretty much our property, so we would have the say over what goes on there. And I don't feel -- I'm not sure what the libraries' hours are for Saturdays and Sundays. Hopefully, they're locked down during the weekends.
Thank you, Councilmember Landau. There being no other questions, the Chair recognizes Councilmember Dr. Anthony Phillips for a motion that the public hearing of the meeting on the bills and the resolution before the committee today stands in recess until Wednesday, April 1, 2026 at 10:00 a.m.
It's been moved and properly seconded that the public hearing and meeting on the bills and resolutions before the committee today stand in recess on Wednesday, April 1st at 10:00 a.m. We will stand in recess until that time and we will reconvene in Room 400 of City Hall. All those in favor of the motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the motion carries. The committee will stand in recess until Wednesday, April 1st at 10:00 a.m. at which time we will reconvene in Room 400 at City Hall. Thank you, everybody. (Committee of the Whole concluded at 3:58 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. ________________________________ TANEHA CARROLL