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-á-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.