Committee Hearing, December 5, 2005

COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON LICENSES & INSPECTIONS - - - Monday, December 5, 2005 10:20 a.m. - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - - - BILL NO. 040604 - Ordinance amending Section 19-2602 of The Philadelphia Code refraining L&I from issuing Business Privilege licence of anyone who operates any business without the requisite license. 050749 - Ordinance amending Title 10 of the Philadelphia Code entitled "Regulation of Individual Conduct and Activity." 050955 - Ordinance amending Section 9-616 of the Philadelphia Code, entitled "Retail Sale of Motor Fuels." 051025 - Ordinance Amending Section 2 of Bill No. 050204. 051027 - Ordinance amending Section 2 of Bill No. 050203. - - - PRESENT: RICHARD T. MARIANO, Chair JOAN KRAJEWSKI, Vide-Chair FRANK RIZZO FRANK DiCICCO MARIAN TASCO JAMES KENNEY V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 561-2220 2 I N D E X BILL NO. 050749 Morris Fine, Director, Air Management Services, Philadelphia Department of Public Health-------------------------- 6 Steve Schatz, Board member, Queen Village Neighbors Association---------- 14 Lieutenant Francis T. Healy, Special Advisor to the Police Commissioner----- 18 Otis Haigler, Jr., Director, Legislative Affairs, Department of Licenses & Inspections----------------- 34 040604 Edgar Howard, City Commissioner---------- 60 Tracey L. Gordon, Director, African-American Heritage Coalition---- 63 Bonita Cummings, Director, Strawberry Mansion Community Concern-------------- 74 Vivian Crawford, Esq., African-American Heritage Coalition--------------------- 79 Cynthia M. Philo, Executive Director, Oldcity District----------------------- 95 Farah Jimenez, Executive Director, Mt. Airy USA--------------------------- 98 Laura Sienna, Executive Director, West Mt. Airy Neighbors--------------------- 110 Sherang Ball, Community Organizer, East and West Mt. Airy Neighbors------------ 113 051025 and 051027 Otis Haigler, Jr., Director, Legislative Affairs, Department of Licenses & Inspections----------------- 123 Darryl Zaslow---------------------------- 124 - - - PUBLIC MEETING--------------------------- 143 - - - 3

Committee on Licenses & Inspections will now come to order. Will the clerk please read the bills.

Yes, sir. Bill No. 6 040604, an Ordinance amending Section 19-2602 of the Philadelphia Code, relating to licenses, to provide that the Department of Licenses & Inspections shall refrain from issuing or shall revoke the business privilege license of any person who operates any business without the requisite license, all under certain terms and conditions. And Bill No. 050749, an Ordinance 15 amending Title 10 of the Philadelphia Code, entitled, "Regulation of Individual Conduct And Activity," including by amending Chapter 18 10-400 of the Philadelphia Code, entitled "Noise and Excessive Vibration," by amending definitions, establishing new rules regarding prohibited conduct, providing enforcement authority to the city departments, making technical changes and changes to related provisions, and superseding certain Health Department regulations, all under certain 4 terms and conditions. And Bill No. 050955, an Ordinance 4 amending Section 19-616 of the Philadelphia Code, entitled, "Retail Sale of Motor Fuels," by prohibiting persons from soliciting money or food at service stations, requiring service station owners or operators to prevent such solicitation or to contact the police, and requiring the police to take action, all under certain terms and conditions. And Bill No. 051025, an Ordinance 13 amending Section 2 of an Ordinance, Bill No. 14 050204, approved June 2, 2005, entitled, "An Ordinance amending Title 4 of the Philadelphia Code," entitled "The Philadelphia Building Construction and Occupancy Code," by amending subcode A, Section A-202, entitled, "Duties and Powers of the Code Official," by providing that no license or permit required by Title 4 shall be issued or renewed if the applicant is delinquent in payment of any city or school district taxes, charges, fees, rents, or claims, or is delinquent in the payment of certain penalties or fines, all under certain 5 terms and conditions, by providing a different effective date than stated therein. And Bill No. 051027, an Ordinance 5 amending Section 2 of an Ordinance, Bill No. 6 050203, approved June 2, 2005, entitled, "An Ordinance Amending Title of the Philadelphia 8 Code," entitled, "Regulation of Businesses, 9 Trades, and Professions," by amending Section 10 9-102, entitled "Licenses and Permits," by providing that no license or permit shall be issued or renewed if the applicant is delinquent in the payment of any city or school district taxes, charges, fees, rents, or claims, or is delinquent in the payment of certain penalties or fines, and by increasing the fee for dishonored checks, by providing a different effective date than stated therein.

Thank you. And I want to note for the record we have a quorum. Councilwoman Krajewski, myself, Councilman Mariano, Councilman Rizzo, and Councilman DiCicco has been added on for today. And Councilwoman Tasco is in the audience, actually at her desk, looking very 6 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 nice. I understand by the sponsor we are going to hold 050955. That's Councilman Clarke and Councilwoman Miller. You can read the first one that you want to do. I know we have a lineup here.

Bill No. 050749, Councilman, will be the first one.

Bill No. 11 050749. Who is here for this bill? Anybody? Come on up. State your name, for the record.

Good morning. My name is Morris fine.

And Roger Fay.

You guys are from where?

I am the Director for Air Management Services, Department of Public Health.

I read about you, but I never met you in person. How are you doing?

Good to see you. 7 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05

And engineering supervisor.

Thank you. All right. If you have anything for the record. Do you have a statement you want to hand in, or do you want to talk, do you want to read in your statement? Whatever you want to do.

I will just read my statement.

All right, Mr. Fine. Thank you.

Good morning, Chairman Mariano and members of the Committee on Licenses & Inspections. I am Morris Fine, Director of Air Management Services of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. Thank you for the opportunity to present testimony on a proposed Ordinance 21 amending Title 10 of the Philadelphia Code, Chapter 10-400, entitled "Noise and Excessive Vibration." Under this title, the Department of Public Health, the Department of Licenses & 8 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 Inspections, and the police department share responsibility for effecting compliance with this Chapter. The Department of Public Health especially wishes to acknowledge Councilman DiCicco for affording the air management services and the law department the opportunity to work together to provide technical and analytical assistance on this proposed amendment. The result of this collaboration is the formulation of legislation that achieves the desired outcomes originally proposed last year in Council Bill 040432, without placing an unnecessary regulatory burden on local businesses. The Department of Public Health is pleased to support this legislation and the goals it aims to achieve. Our support is centered on several specific legislative provisions that together would enable the city to more effectively and efficiently control prohibited levels of sound and vibration. 9 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 These include the following: The new Section 10-404, entitled "Enforcement," would expand the ability of the city departments to participate collectively in effecting compliance with this chapter. Inspectors from the Department of Licenses & Inspections and Philadelphia police officers would join Department of Public Health inspectors in responding to complaints of excessive noise and vibration and issuing code violation notices, where applicable. The new Section 10-403, entitled "Prohibited Conduct," would achieve an appropriate sound limit above the background sound level for most residential nuisance sources, while making reasonable allowances for other more conventional sources, like air conditioning and refrigeration units. Under the existing provisions, these sources are governed by the 3 decibel above background limit, a level that would be difficult, if not impossible, to meet. And in addition to establishing a new sound limit for threshold of 5 decibels 10 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 above background from a residential property measured at the property boundaries of the nearest occupied residence, the new Chapter 5 10-403 would also include an independent restriction of noise from special assembly occupancies, such as, bars and places of entertainment, by stating that noise from such facilities may not be audible at a distance greater than 100 feet from the property boundary. Authorized representatives of the Department of Public Health, Police Department, and the Department of Licenses & Inspections will have the ability to issue code violation notices, where warranted, without the use of sound level equipment, simplifying enforcement of this important provision. Also, the new Section 10-406, entitled "Penalties," provide for more appropriate penalties to be levied against repeat offenders of this ordinance. In total, the revisions proposed for Chapter 10-400 will allow the city to reduce 11 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 noise and vibration nuisances through more efficient use of resources and streamline regulation and enforcement, which, in turn, will offer improvements in the quality of life for the citizens of Philadelphia. Thank you for this opportunity. And I will answer your questions at this time.

Thank you, Mr. Fine. Do you have to say something? Are we going to ask you together? Do you want to read a statement, or are you just here to back up --

Roger spent time in preparing the legislation with Councilman DiCicco's office, so he will probably be more knowledgeable on some of the more technical questions.

I was going to leave a lot of that up to Councilman DiCicco and Councilwoman Krajewski. And Councilman Kenney is probably listening to this. I'm not quite sure what you are doing, but I think -- I think I know what you 12 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 are doing. And it sounds, you know, really good. The enforcement part for me -- and maybe someone else can explain it -- this will make it simpler to enforce, is basically what you are saying after what you just told us? Right now, in a situation where someone is called out -- and correct me when I start going wrong -- someone from Air Management goes out with some kind of machine that looks like -- it sits on legs and it goes up and it measures; right?

Right.

There is no 16 handheld measuring machine yet, is there one, that we have heard about?

No, there are handheld measuring devices. And they are expensive and they require training. Many of the noise complaints that we get occur at all hours of the day and night. And in order for Air Management to respond, since we don't have people ready to go out at all times -- 13 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05

24 hours a day.

-- that, you know, having a handheld measuring device limits other units of the City of Philadelphia from enforcing this regulation.

Mr. Fine, let me stop you right there. You are just giving us too much information now. I appreciate that. When there is a problem 2 o'clock in the morning, and Councilman DiCicco calls, now I guess a police officer will come out. And how will he or someone from Licenses & Inspections, since someone from Air Management is coming out, how will that person read the decibel levels on whatever, you know, decibel-reading machine that is available or you will be using at that time? I'm not a lawyer. So explain it to me like a sixth grader.

Well, the provisions have changed somewhat, that there is a limitation now at 100 feet from the property boundaries. So there is no need for there to be a meter. 14 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 The police officer can pace off 100 feet and write the violation.

It is his call. And it is obvious, if it is an air-conditioning unit going, that's acceptable. But if someone has a book box out on the front lawn, and it is 2 o'clock in the morning, it is common sense. That's what I am getting to. Am I right in assuming all that?

That's correct.

Any other questions from anyone on the panel? Seeing none. That was pretty good. Anyone else want to testify for or against this? Thank you. Come up. State your name and your occupation, or whatever you want to tell us for the record, first.

I am Steve Schatz. I am Chair of the Nuisance Noise Committee of the Queen Village Neighbor's Association. 15 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 And I have come here to testify in support of this new ordinance that, hopefully, will further limit nuisance noise in our neighborhood.

Mr. Schatz, can I make it simple? My questions to Mr. Fine, is that what we're trying to do here? Just make it easier to enforce the people that you have to complain about to Councilman DiCicco?

I have a statement here, but just to answer your question --

That was just my question. You can read that.

Right now, the South Street detail, which enforces the noise ordinances as they exist now along the South Street corridor, they are very responsive. But, I mean, there are only so many of them that are trained in using the noise meters. And, as the previous gentleman testified, they are expensive and the training takes time and the setup is all very time and labor intensive. 16 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 So the enforcement provisions of Councilman DiCicco's bill here are going to make enforcement of the code much easier and, hopefully, will reduce the many sources of nuisance noise that we particularly have to deal with along the South Street corridor.

And you can just read your thing, or you can give it to us and we can put it in the record, whatever is better for you.

I think I pretty much said it.

So, basically, Councilman DiCicco and the other sponsors are doing a good job, and they understand what you need.

We wholeheartedly support this bill. And we discussed this bill 20 at our last Board meeting of the Queen's Village Neighborhood Association and are enthusiastic supporters.

Thank you. Most of the questions I have are going to be for -- Councilman Rizzo has one, but it is 17 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 going to be for Mr. Haigler or Mr. Healy. You hang on, Councilman Rizzo has one for you.

I have one, I guess, to the Chair. Could you explain how the loud vehicles, the terrible bases that are in cars, how that's going to be enforced?

I think that will be pretty much to -- I was going to ask Mr. Haigler and Sergeant Healy the same question. They look like they are on the next panel, Councilman. So maybe they can tell us exactly. Sergeant and Mr. Haigler, why don't you two guys come up. You hang around, if you want. Haigler doesn't support the bill. Okay. Well, then, this is interesting. See what happens, you go away for a week and things change. So since Haigler doesn't support the bill, let Officer Healy go first. And it is correct, do I call you Officer, Sergeant? 18 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 LIEUTENANT FRANCIS T. HEALY: I am a Lieutenant now.

Lieutenant. I will call you "Lieutenant." That means, any higher than that, you don't get any over time. So keep it with that. LIEUTENANT HEALY: I am aware of that. I don't get enough as it is.

Lieutenant Healy, please. LIEUTENANT HEALY: Good morning Councilman Mariano, other members of the Committee on Licenses & Inspections. My name is Francis Healy. I am special advisor to Police Commissioner Johnson. On behalf of the Commissioner, I thank you for allowing the police department to voice its opinion on this piece of legislation. First let me state that the police department has long identified that chronic and excessive noise depresses the quality of life throughout the city. 19 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 In the past, regrettably, the only agency charged with enforcing the noise enforcement was the Health Department. Due to fiscal and manpower constraints, most of their resources were directed towards commercial violators rather than residential. This left a tremendous void in noise enforcement throughout the city. As everyone knows, the police department regularly receives residential complaints with little, if anything, to do to correct the problem. Stern warnings without threat or with idle threats were real no 15 enforcement at all. The complainants often, and understandably, became frustrated with the police. And the police, in turn, became frustrated because we really had nothing to help. To solve this problem under Police Commissioner Timoney, and also continued under Commissioner Johnson, the police department undertook the task of residential noise enforcement, but it wasn't an easy process. 20 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 As we just heard, the current noise ordinance requires sound meters and specially trained officers for proper enforcement. While we did all this, it is still not perfect. Actually, our enforcement currently is limited, based on the number of sound meters we have and the number of trained officers we have. While the department claimed that we do in fact do noise enforcement, our impact is imperfect, and we know that. The average police officer on the street still cannot, due to the current ordinance, just stop the violator and issue a citation and go on with life. The bill before this committee will dramatically change everything. Specifically, Section 10-403(2) provides that no person shall create, cause or permit the creation of sound originating from a residential property audible at a distance greater than 100 feet from the property boundary. This is a radical change for policing. If passed, any police officer would 21 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 be able to cite a violation based on commonsense. There is no need for special equipment or training. This provision alone is worth the passage of this amendment. But it also clearly addresses barking dogs, boom boxes on corners with the same commonsense simplicity And, finally, the ability to classify a chronic location as a, per se, nuisance allows collaboratively the police, L & I, and the health department to work together. That's a nice change that we would like to see, as well. Like I said, this is a simple, well-drafted piece of legislation that will dramatically alter noise enforcement in the city, we believe. Accordingly, the police department fully supports the passage of the bill.

Lieutenant, you answered one of my questions. But let me ask you, then Councilwoman Krajewski and Rizzo had something to ask. You or any other sworn police 22 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 officer of the City of Philadelphia, it's a judgment call now; right? And then myself as the person that may be getting the complaint gets a chance to go to court? LIEUTENANT HEALY: It is not judgment. If I hear noise coming 100 feet, I mean, that's -- it is not a judgment call; it is just a matter of fact. Which gives me the probable cause to cite.

I am not against this, I am for this. But I am trying to look where there may be some people that will be against it. And when we get to Mr. Haigler, he will probably give an excuse. I don't want to kill this by asking this question but I have to. The call is -- or, what's the word I want to use? As a police officer, and you are within 100 feet, because you are a sworn police officer, you could attest to what's going on. And it is within 100 feet, and it is too noisy, it is 2 o'clock in the morning. It is commonsense to everybody. LIEUTENANT HEALY: That is true. 23 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 But I just want to be clear --

But the first court case, there is going to be a defense attorney. Is the court involved with this? LIEUTENANT HEALY: Councilman, what you need to be clear on, that 100-foot radius happens to be noncommercial property, so that's in a residence. So if I happen upon a business with a noise, my hands are still a little tied under this statute.

Well, for this residential thing here, can you appeal that citation to Municipal Court? LIEUTENANT HEALY: Well, the way it is written, the citation that we have written is a code violation notice, which gets to the Bureau of Administrative Adjudication.

But there is a process? LIEUTENANT HEALY: Absolutely, yes. They have that hearing there. And if they want to appeal that, I believe from there it goes to Municipal Court. 24 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05

There are people that believe in conspiracies. I am not one of them, But I am just trying to think of what questions they would ask. LIEUTENANT HEALY: They have their due process right.

Due process. See, that's what you learned in law school that I didn't learn not going to law school, due process. Thank you. Any questions? Councilwoman Krajewski.

I would like to ask, how many tickets have been written out on noise control by the police department? LIEUTENANT HEALY: That's a hard thing. I tried to track that down Friday. The problem is, we don't code them noise violations; they would be classified as Miscellaneous in our computer system. So for me to pick off them, I really can't do it with a computer run. I need to actually go to each captain and get an 25 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 anecdotal number.

Will that be changed? LIEUTENANT HEALY: I will try to change it, yes. I mean, what we need to do is, we just need to get a specific code for noise violations. Since in the past we didn't routinely issue them, we don't have a code for them, that's the reason why. We only started doing the meter noise enforcement a year and a half, two years ago, I believe it was. So we have been doing those, actually. But there is also motor code. A lot of the South Street violations are Motor Vehicle Code violations. If you can hear the noise outside the vehicle, I believe it is 20 feet or 50 feet, the officers are giving 21 those. They are actually like parking tickets 22 they are giving those people. 23

I thought they 24 only gave them out in Wildwood, New Jersey. 25 LIEUTENANT HEALY: South Street BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 gives out a lot of them, I believe. But they are classified as tickets. I don't have a capacity to tick off my tickets, per se, if they are parking tickets.

Can we do them citywide? LIEUTENANT HEALY: I would like to find out, because I would like to know the exact numbers.

South Street is great. And Councilwoman Krajewski and I, this is all good stuff, but she needs this done in Mayfair, and I need this done in Frankford and Juniata. And I know that you are busy and the police are busy. LIEUTENANT HEALY: It is important for me to track what we do. So I would like to know what we do. Because this is going to impact the Bureau of Administrative Adjudication if we flood them with a number of noise complaints overnight. So I need to be able to figure out a rough estimate of how this is going to impact that agency, as well. 27 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05

Well, I feel that the problem is with the enforcement, it is with the police department making it a low priority. Is that true? LIEUTENANT HEALY: Loud music does probably come out lower on the radio call, especially on the weekend. It is one of the lower priority calls, versus a domestic or an assault in progress.

Is there going to be a policy change within the police department? LIEUTENANT HEALY: To upgrade it?

If not, I don't even understand why we are even introducing these bills, if it is not. LIEUTENANT HEALY: I don't think we need to upgrade. There is enough times the police officers, from my own experience, go out there, that they would love to have something to do. They would love to be able to help the neighbor, say, listen, here is the problem, I gave them a ticket. 28 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 Right now we give them a tongue lashing and we tell them to turn it down; but, when we turn around, they are back.

If it comes between -- I think this is where she is going -- writing a ticket for this and someone getting shot or raped, that will be more important. But this goes under that somewhere. LIEUTENANT HEALY: Yes. I mean, yes, loud music, quite frankly, is lower on the scale.

Will everyone be trained to understand that? Will there be a roll call and the captain will say, starting here -- LIEUTENANT HEALY: The tickets that need to be issued on these are, basically, very similar in shape, size as what looks like a parking ticket. They are code violation notices. What I need to do is, to make sure that all the officers on the street have access to these notices, that they issue these 29 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 notices. But as it stands right now, not every police officer on the street carries code violation notices.

The frustrating part for all of us up here, Council people, and the ones that aren't here, are, we live in the communities, And we get it. And we know which communities have more calls for whatever. But if you are sitting there, and you hear this noise, and you are 80 years old, and you see a police car drive down the street, you know how it is. LIEUTENANT HEALY: I understand the frustration. This will help a lot. Because I think a lot of times in the past the officers, they get to the point there is nothing they really can do. I mean, so this will give them some type of resource so they can go up to the door. Because what happens, ultimately, you go up to the door two and three times, nothing to do, things get out of control. 30 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 Officers are frustrated, the neighbors are frustrated, they are yelling at the police officers to do something. The people in the house are yelling, "Don't bother me no more." Doors get slammed and things escalate out of control. So from a back-end point of view, this ordinance will help the police because we have a resource now to help address this problem. So we don't have to go back and forth.

As a person that owns a motorcycle, let me ask you this question -- LIEUTENANT HEALY: I have been looking for the guy that goes down Frankford Avenue.

You know, I reported this how long ago? LIEUTENANT HEALY: And, again, I reported it to Captain Everett at the time.

And it still continues. The neighbors are still complaining. 31 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 We have a few motorcycle that go up exactly where I live, and you can't even speak. And if you are in the house, it's absolutely awful. LIEUTENANT HEALY: Again, what I will do --

Are you trying to tell me, with the manpower, that you will be able to do something about it? LIEUTENANT HEALY: Well, that's a different noise violation. That's not a noise violation under this; that's a noise violation under the vehicle code. That has an illegal muffler, I would be happy to have -- I will have people there. You give me the main time and location.

Are you giving us more police, or what? LIEUTENANT HEALY: Not to enforce that. But if you have a specific problem with an individual who has an illegal muffler on his motorcycle, that is a motor code violation and can be addressed in that manner. 32 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 And that's fine, we will cite him. You give me the time, location, I will have a police officer there to cite him. That's not a problem.

I don't now, since the winter is here. But in the summer, when you are sitting out, you can't even speak. LIEUTENANT HEALY: I understand the problem. I have several that go through my neighborhood in the morning, as well, that causes much problems. They are vehicle code violations, per se, when they alter the mufflers to make them louder. Highway patrol is more trained to handle this.

Not to interrupt you, these are all good answers, but Councilman DiCicco, one of the sponsors of the bill, is saying, this isn't under that thing, so we don't need to go down there. But to make her feel better, Councilwoman Krajewski, who is certainly entitled, we don't need anything for that. 33 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 LIEUTENANT HEALY: No; we need to catch them doing.

But her frustration is getting the response. Not to pick on you or someone from the 15th or the 25th or the 18th or whatever. You see them out there. I mean, I see them. And you just look the other way because -- not you or a policeman -- because if they are riding doing 120 miles an hour going up her street without a helmet, there's no sense anyhow. But the noise bothers her and many and everyone else. LIEUTENANT HEALY: I will make a specific point of meeting with the captain to discuss that specific incident. I had addressed that with the previous captain, as well.

Councilman Rizzo.

Thank you.

Councilman DiCicco. 34 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05

I am fine.

I think we answered all the questions. Anyone else for Lieutenant Healy? Mr. Haigler, tell us why you are against this, now.

Well, it is not like I am really against it, per se. My name is Otis Haigler, Jr. I am the Director of Legislative Affairs for the Department of Licenses & Inspections.

You know that I love you; right? And I know you are the guy that comes over here. A week ago I had a different word for this, but I will just say, you are the poor unfortunate soul that comes over here and to brunt the ire and anger of us 17 -- 16, right now. But it is probably going to come down to enforcement; right? You are not going to have enough people on the street to do that?

That's part of it, 35 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 Councilman. Part of it is, again, we are not a 24-hour-a-day operation in L & I. Excuse my raspy voice; I will starting to lose it. But we are not a 24-hour-a-day operation at L & I. We respond to, primarily, property maintenance, building code issues, issues related to business regulatory enforcement. Some of the concerns we may with this bill is, it somewhat enforces against people's conduct, and that's not something that L & I generally is involved in. We have concerns for the safety of our inspectors to confront folks who primarily may not be so agreeable as if the police officer were to walk up with the uniform and the badge and the gun. They could probably get more respect and somebody to listen to them, as opposed to somebody walking up to them with a clipboard in their hand, telling them, "You have noise, and we are going to give you a ticket for that."

Not to say that 36 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 there is not some very frightening looking L & I inspectors, too. Don't think that it is all police personnel. Just kidding.

But our main problem is, we are not a 24-hour-a-day operation, and we generally don't regulate individual conduct. Individual conduct could be somebody beyond just a business relationship, where we have something to hold over that person's head; like a license, we could take their license away from them. Under the provisions of this ordinance, there is one specific provision that relates to something that we could possibly do, and that's in the area of the special assembly occupancy. That is specifically called out in the ordinance. We do issue a special license just for that. And if we find that somebody has violated the provisions of the code to cause a public or private nuisance, we can violate and we can issue that ticket on that perspective. The business privilege license, 37 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 there are provisions under Title 19, 19-2602 related to the business privilege license, that says that persons shall refrain from a conducting a private or public nuisance. Generally how that works is, we rely on the police department, other agencies, to help us build a case against that business so that, once we shut them down, we want to make sure that they stay shut down. If we go before a judge, we want to make sure that we present the case in front of the judge, that we have enough documentation already available to try to keep that business shut down based on that provision of the business privilege license section of the code. So it is not like we're against any issue related to quality of life or quality of life issues. The Department of Licenses & Inspections is a public service, public safety agency, and we respect that. But we do have certain limitations as to how far we can enforce particular bills, especially bills that may not be totally under 38 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 our purview. This came up back in 2003, I recall it was Councilwoman Krajewski's bill at that time. And we pretty much gave similar testimony at that time that this would be a difficult bill for us to enforce. The Health Department has traditionally enforced the bill. And the police department has more resources than the Department of Licenses & Inspections out there on a 24-hour-a-day basis to determine when certain things would happen. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Madam Chair. Thank you.

Councilman DiCicco. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: I wasn't going to ask questions, but I can't help myself sometimes. The latter part of your statement or comments about the enforcement, wouldn't it help on the enforcement on closure and/or suspension of businesses that, if the police were also part of the issuing authority now, 39 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 as opposed to just the Health Department? Example, a complaint comes in about a bar, loud noise emanating from the bar, from a jukebox. L & I inspector is not available. It is 2 o'clock, 1 o'clock in the morning on a Saturday. Police are out there. The police officer goes, writes the violation, citation, and L & I inspector for whatever reason was not able to be there. Doesn't that help in that process to build a case about closing down that establishment because of what is in the statute that exists today that says, when you take a business privilege license or you get a business license, you swear and attest, whatever, to conduct your business in a proper manner, not to have any negative implications on the surrounding community? Isn't that somewhat helpful? LIEUTENANT HEALY: Councilman, if I could answer that quickly. When I first responded to this bill, I actually had one caveat to my support. And that was the fact that there are a lot of 40 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 neighborhood bars that create a lot of noise. Now, there's a state -- I am sorry, a Pennsylvania regulation, liquor code regulation, that prohibits a liquor license establishment from having amplified noise. Now, we can't enforce that because that's an administrative reg. But, nonetheless, my first complaint on this bill was that, I wish we could enforce against the local bars the same we have with the residents, 100 feet. If I could hear something 100 feet out from the bar, I can cite it. I was told by the law department that the provision is included in the special occupancy that was drafted. So if the bar can hold 50 or more people, and it is a special assembly occupancy, that the police department will be able to use this statute to cite, the same as we would for a residential. So that was my only caveat. And Louis Rossman, who actually helped draft this bill, assured me that the police department will be able to enforce it. 41 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 So I think, with that collaborative effort, so at 2 o'clock in the morning now, the sergeant, police officer, whoever responds to the bar, can issue a citation to the bar owner, manager, or whoever is running the bar at the time, which basically gets L & I involved. So now L & I has a good solid record to go after it as a, per se, nuisance or whatever the case may be. We can join our efforts, both the police department and L & I, and I think it would help a lot.

And, if I might add, we have a nuance task force that works closely with the police department, they work with the Liquor Control Board on occasion to go out to nuisance establishments, the D.A.'s Office. They are all part of this Nuisance Task Force. The provisions, as Lieutenant Healy mentioned, about special assembly occupancies -- as I stated before, provisions of Title 19 related to public and private nuisances -- that entire section was transferred over to the section of the code 42 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 that deals with special -- it is already there. There is a section already there that says that persons who operate this type of business, they have to refrain from having a public or private nuisance or conducting a public or private nuisance And we can build our case based on joint efforts of the police, L & I, liquor control, State Police, other agencies, to make whatever we do stick. LIEUTENANT HEALY: I am on a committee. I work with Dominic Verde. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: I am familiar with the committee, and it does some really great work. And in my district, we have been the beneficiaries of many successes that came out of that task force. For me, this whole issue is just one of many issues that in an urban environment we are confronted with. It is a quality of life issue. And that word gets used a lot. But 43 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 it does have significant meaning to all of us, especially in City Council. When you allow people just to be able to do things without any regard for the folks who live and work and have businesses in the community, I think the whole civil -- the structure of civility begins to break down. And noise, to someone causing the noise, may not seem that significant. But, it is just one of many other things that go on and occur in a community that drive people out. SERGEANT HEALY: What you are speaking of is called the broken window theory. We subscribe to that theory; that the minor things, if they are not addressed, grow into bigger and uglier things. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Because, generally, where there is that kind of noise, that is, early morning hours, without any regard for the community and the nearby neighbors, I would think that, generally, other problems evolve from that. 44 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 Because it means that -- and bars as an example, and I hung in bars most of my life. I am from that era when bars were the social gathering places in my neighborhood. But when you are standing outside and creating problems for the neighborhood, for the neighbors, other things seem to kind of spin off from that. Arguments ensue. It is just part of getting some control and having some, as Jim Kenney would say, civility in the neighborhood. It is not Mayberry. We live in the city. There is a certain amount of noise that goes with living here, but there are noises that we should not have to tolerate. And the motorcycle is a whole different issue, which I tried to do a few years ago. LIEUTENANT HEALY: Like I said, this bill has a commonsense simplicity to it for the police officer. It has a 100-foot radius, and that helps us tremendously. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: That's what it is intended to do. 45 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 Thank you.

Councilman Rizzo.

Yes. Mr. Haigler, could you, for the record, explain to me what the constraints, what contractors rules are? You have a residential construction. What time can a contractor start? I received a call recently where a contractor was starting at sunrise, I mean, heavy construction, hammering, in a residential community. What's the rules?

I believe that's really under the Health Department regulations. And I believe it is 8:00 to 8:00, as I recall. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: 7:00.

7:00?

7:00 to 8:00.

So even if it is a residential or if it is downtown, if it is 102 degrees in the summer, and the job is no air-condition, and they want to start at 6 46 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 o'clock in the morning because everybody on the job doesn't have a problem with it, they legally can't start until 7:00? Is that a good assumption, Mr. Fine? Mr. Fine is sitting behind the lieutenant shaking his head.

I though it was 7:00.

I thought it was 7:00.

7:00 to 8:00. LIEUTENANT HEALY: Regular construction.

So if someone starts a project on a Sunday morning at 7:00 a.m., they call the police, you are telling me that the police can't enforce that? LIEUTENANT HEALY: Whether or not they can do the construction and whether or not the noise emanating it from are two different issues. If they are exceeding the noise levels under the new statute for allowable construction noise, I think you need certain measuring devices to figure that out. The 47 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 police department wouldn't be able to do that.

That's different than what we are talking about in this bill, Mr. Haigler; right? It is the same? I mean, noise is noise. But the noise from a construction site at 7 o'clock in the morning --

It is 7:00 to 8:00 Monday through Friday. But on weekends, it is 8 o'clock to 8 o'clock.

So my question to the police department. Someone wants to put a new deck on the back of their house. So the guys come over on Saturday morning at sunrise, the neighbors call the police, there is hammering, there is all kinds of noise, there is people talking, speaking loudly, the police get the job, they come. Do they have any authority other than to say, knock it off? LIEUTENANT HEALY: To be honest with you, it would be a little vague. But I would argue that, under the residential provision, 48 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 if they could hear noise more than 100 feet, then they would be able to cite the homeowner or the owner or the occupant of the residence, not necessarily the construction crew. I think the noise statute delineates construction noise, emergency construction noise, like what's allowable. And they have decibel readings to -- you know, with background noise. The police officer coming up on the scene is not going to be able to measure that. But I believe under the residential statute, if you have somebody working on a residential home, and the noise exceeds the permissible levels, the officer would be allowed to give a citation.

And, also, I believe if the police were to refer the -- if they have information on the contractor that's doing the work at the time, they would make that referral to L & I, that we could possibly deal with the contractor under the contractor's licenses.

A lot of this 49 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 stuff is -- correct me if I am wrong -- commonsense calls. I mean, Councilman Rizzo has got a great scenario. Shouldn't be working on Sunday, anyhow, I suppose. But if they start before o'clock, 7 they start at 7:00 or 6:00, it might take that 8 long to get the coffee order straight and to get the breakfasts before they start working. So really, Councilman -- Lieutenant Healy says, what he said -- and that makes sense -- there is a commonsense thing here. Now, Mr. Haigler is not going to be there on Sunday. No one from L & I is going to be here on Sunday. So Officer Healy comes out and says, "Look, guys, you know, you can't start before 8:00 because it is Sunday." "We didn't know that. Okay. Cool. We will stand here, we will wait." And the homeowner might get mad. But he realizes he is going to get the citation, guess what, it is probably better to have the guys standing out there than starting. 50 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 But that's going to be a rare exception. LIEUTENANT HEALY: The only problem would come after o'clock, when they start 6 doing the noise, and they are making a lot of 7 noise -- 8

Over the level decibel because it is a construction site.

I think most people can tolerate construction noise after a certain hour. I think Councilman Mariano made a good point. I have had an issue in the past where I approached a contractor and said, you know sunrise is just too early to start this heavy construction. He altered the job. He had his people laying out the job, bringing the material, in other words, doing quiet work until the appropriate hour, and then started to do the noise. Rarely do you hear anybody complain about actual construction noise. LIEUTENANT HEALY: It is the time 51 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 they start.

If I can -- this is not a shot at you or anyone else -- I live in a row home, always have, always probably will, unless I get something smaller. But we are in row home. Your neighbors decide at o'clock 9 at night, 1 o'clock in the morning to start 10 fixing things. 11 Now, you know them for a long time. Councilwoman Krajewski is my neighbor. I know she is not hammering nothing over there, something is wrong. I mean, that's not like Councilwoman Krajewski to be hammering 1 o'clock in the morning. But there is another somebody that may not be as, you know, set in their life as she is, that might not think 1 o'clock in the morning -- believe me I have been through it. And you don't want to start anything with your neighbors, especially when you are an elected official. But when you are a regular citizen, you say, commonsense. A lot of this 52 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 commonsense stuff is not just commonsense on the city part. There is a sort of a responsibility of commonsense on not us as elected officials -- that definitely goes -- but there is a commonsense approach to the people that live in the city. Everybody's angry. Everybody is mad. I mean, people are mad. I road down today, five people were mad because somebody stopped in front of the school to let a little kid out in the schoolyard. If you are going to let all that stuff make you mad and bitter, life is going to be very bitter, which is commonsense. And we can come up with different scenarios between all of us, and they are legitimate scenarios. Commonsense; right? LIEUTENANT HEALY: That is our biggest problem. We go to different scenes. And the argument for the person who is doing the work would be, "I work 9:00 to 5:00. I get done work, I get home at 6:00, I start doing a 53 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 little work." But, nonetheless, we try to inform them that, what you are doing is creating havoc for your neighbors.

I wish Councilman Kenney was here. Because he has a scenario where he talks about someone that he personally knew that worried about this stuff and actually worried themselves to death. And it was very important to that person. And it was so important that that individual thought about it a lot and probably deteriorated their mental health and then their physical health, may have caused them to die a little faster than they actually should have. So it is commonsense approach. It is going to kill you eventually, if you worry about it. So, I mean, I learned. Let the police deal with it. And that doesn't always work, and especially to the people that we represent, because they don't see it work, what happens on Monday morning and what happens three weeks later in 54 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 court. LIEUTENANT HEALY: I think it is important for the police, when they respond, to be able to do something. I think for the people that call, and they see the police powerless to do anything, it makes them feel powerless. So when they call the police, they want action taken. So when we go up there and we can issued them a code violation notice, they may turn the music right back up when they leave; but, nonetheless, they know they have done something. This guy has to address that. We come back again, we will give them another ticket. The tickets go up in value each time. Eventually either the person who owns the property, somebody is going to get wind, this is not worth it. And, so, at least now we can make an impact. And those neighbors, I have dealt with those neighbors, they are shaking when you get there because they are just so frustrated and miserable and they just can't 55 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 deal with it anymore. This is something you can say, "Listen, thanks to you, I am giving them a citation. Call me back, I will give him them another one. Call me back again, I will give them another one. I don't care if he gets thousands of dollars worth of citations, I will be here, if you call." I would have loved to have been able to say that to some people on the street.

So this will definitely help. Because what happens -- my phone number is in the phone book -- people will call us 1 o'clock in the morning. And anybody with commonsense can get you through City Hall switchboard. And who do you call? I don't want to call Lieutenant Healy 1 o'clock in the morning. I will call you the next work day and tell you the address. I think it is all commonsense. And if we all just -- maybe if the papers write something nice to think about what the Council people here are trying to do, Krajewski, 56 BILL NO. 050749 - 12/5/05 Kenney, and DiCicco, trying to make this a commonsense thing, instead of maybe writing about other things that is just speculation. Okay? LIEUTENANT HEALY: This should have an impact, the positive impact that we are all looking for.

It is not going to be the answer to everything. But if you believe in the broken window theory -- and I do, and obviously other Council people do -- this is one of those broken windows that we don't necessarily have to cut our wrist on the glass. And I understand L & I's frustration, I understand your frustration, and I think you understand all of that. Any other west for this witness or any other ones? Seeing none. We will go to the next one.

Bill No. 040604. Witnesses here to testify on Bill No. 040604. City Commissioner Edgar Howard. 57 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05

Councilwoman Tasco wants to make a statement. Please do.

Thank you. I kind of want to set the record, in terms of why we introduced this legislation. Thank you. Good morning, Chairman Mariano and other Council Members, members of the L & I committee. Payday lenders and stop-and-go's, what do these two types of businesses have in common? They are both nuisance industries that tear down the fabric of our communities. Payday lenders take advantage, through excessive fees, of those who are the most vulnerable and stop-and-go's attract crime and violence to our neighborhoods. The goal of this legislation is to address both of these issues. Payday lenders, as well as tax refund lenders, partner with out-of-state banks to charge annual interest rates of approximately 400 percent. In this regard, payday lenders are 58 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 not considered banks because the loans they provide come from another financial institution. However, they are loan brokers because they bring customers and in and out-of-state banks together, yet many of these institutions are not registered as loan brokers with the state department of banking. Through this legislation, the city can take the business privilege license of payday lenders and tax refund lenders because they are loan brokers that are not registered with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I would like to thank ACORN and Community Legal Services for their support of this legislation. Unfortunately, they are not able to testify today because many of their members are in Harrisburg lobbying for Senator Fumo's Senate Bill 101, which would outlaw payday lending in Pennsylvania. And we are very happy that he introduced that legislation and hope it is successful. 59 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 Like payday lenders, stop-and-go's are also a negative influence in our communities. To address this problem, the general assembly passed Act 39, which granted City Council the power to approve or disapprove bars, stop-and-go's, or restaurants from selling take-out beer. Even with this new enforcement tool, various disapproved stop-and-go's are still selling take out beer. Considering Pennsylvania law and the small number of state liquor control enforcement officers in Philadelphia, additional enforcement tools are needed to regulate disapproved stop-and-go's from selling take-out beer. Accordingly, if a community organization reports that a disapproved stop-and-go is selling take-out beer, and this report results in a violation from the state bureau of liquor control enforcement, this legislation today gives the city to take the power to take the stop-and-go's business 60 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 privilege license. Through this hearing, we will have an opportunity to hear from a city official and constituents from across the city regarding the need for this legislation. They have worked hard to prohibit stop-and-go's from selling take-out beers in their communities. Although disapproved, various stop-and-go's are still selling take-out beer. Through the passage of this legislation, we will provide our constituents with an additional enforcement tool to stop these detrimental and negative businesses that are disturbing our communities and our city. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Councilwoman. Mr. Howard.

Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Chairman, and to the distinguished members of Council. I am here today in support of Bill 040604. This legislation is designed to suspend the license of an establishment that 61 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 violates either city or state laws. We must find an effective way to deal with establishments that create quality of life concerns. Council is correct in this approach by conducting these proceedings. To be effective, there must be steps that we can take at the license-renewal process. To be effective, we can install steps to this process. Number one, I recommend everyone who is opposed to a renewal license should receive a copy of all police reports and all LCB reports; all information from L & I, especially those where an establishment has open violations, must be a part of the record; contacting community and political organizations, which are aware of the problems or the concerns in such community; and ensuring that there are no paper transfers of licenses, which are deemed to be a very, very serious problem; and the collection of petitions from neighbors who live within the prescribed radius of a nuisance establishment. 62 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 If we can accomplish just some of these proposals, our city would be far better off. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Commissioner. Any questions for Commissioner Howard? Anyone? Okay. You might want to stay around, but it is up to you.

I will watch you on television downstairs.

Anybody else? There is another part of this panel. We can do this all pretty much together. Ms. Philo is an attorney. I know she is waiting until the end, so we will remember what she says. Nothing against attorneys. Very lovely attorney, I must say. Ma'am, all you state your names one at a time, what you do, and why you are here, for the record.

Thank you, 63 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 Councilman Mariano. My name is Tracey Gordon I am from the Concerned Citizens for the Preservation of Southwest Philly, and I am here with other colleagues. We are also hear representing the African-American Heritage Coalition. And they will introduce themselves, and I have a statement to read.

Go ahead.

I am Bonita Cummings, Director of Strawberry Mansion Community Concern, and elected committeewoman.

I do love that hat. Really timely for today, isn't it?

My name is Vivian Crawford. I am an attorney in the City of Philadelphia, and I am also a member and counsel for the African-American Heritage Coalition. And some of you might know I am also a member of Neighborhood Networks. But I am here on behalf of the African-American Heritage Coalition today.

Any statements 64 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 you want to read? You are all for this; right?

I gave you all copies of my statement. And I guess I started off with a definition.

Do you want us to put it into the record, and you can summarize it? It is easier.

Yes. It is just entitled what I consider the social responsibility of the City of Philadelphia to ensure our quality of life is preserved and by monitoring the business community activities in our communities, and the role of Licenses & Inspections' enforcement, which you can just see it is kind of a mess in our city. I looked for the definition, I thought it was important because it helped me to be able to define some things and, hopefully, for you all to encourage you all to bring bills like this as such. And, so, I also wanted to acknowledge Councilwoman Tasco. I appreciate the work you have done. I appreciate you 65 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 bringing this, you and the committee bringing this, to give us extra, I guess you would call, something extra, because they are not respecting Act 39 at all.

Tools to help us.

I have had licenses that have got revoked, and I sit there and they still selling beer.

It gets a little disheartening after a while.

Yes. There is no 14 respect for the City of Philadelphia. So I want to say quickly, I got these definitions: Awareness, knowledge, and based on commitment to equity, access, and justice; a dedication to civic involvement and environmental sustainability; and respect for diversity, pluralism, and freedom especially. We the citizens of Philadelphia support Councilwoman Tasco and her colleagues in this bill that would attempt to protect our local community from businesses that engage and continue to engage in a manner that 66 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 degrades and acts as nuisances directly or indirectly in our communities. We also challenge you all in the City of Philadelphia to utilize and monitor the departments responsible for enforcing the rules that already exist to ensure that we are protected. This I ask for all of the citizens of Philadelphia. My testimony today will focus primarily, but not without exception, on the African-American communities and neighborhoods that I feel are exploited by our overabundance of nuisance establishments. These businesses, typically the stop-and-go's, Chinese and food take-out establishments, and corner deli, beer and take-out stores. We have testified before you all earlier this year, and for the past three years have protested the conditions that the City of Philadelphia, most importantly L & I, allows them to continue to operate in a manner that we have reported, testified, witnessed, and are subjected to. 67 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 Some of the blatant violations are continuing to sell loose cigarettes. And you know who that goes to is our youth. Continuing to sell take-out beer, even though we suspended their licenses. Continuing -- they have cut down on the straight-shooters. L & I and enforcement are allowing.

I know what a straight-shooter is, but explain that.

Straight-shooter, what they were selling were, in these little tubes with roses. And they were glass tubes. And they were used for crack, people to smoke crack out of it. Then they got the straws. And then they have -- now they got ink pens, you know, looks like an ink pen. They take it out and they use that. Any of the stop-and-go's you go to, 99 percent are filthy dirty. You can -- basically, it is filthy dirty on the outside. They have the plexiglas with all the degrading, advertisements. It is just a mess. 68 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 They allow -- they still don't have bathrooms, still are not looking like a deli that we know a deli of. They have fold-up chairs that are stacked, with no intention of it being a deli. You know what a deli is. Latimers is a deli, you go sit down.

I actually saw one when we went on that tour -- and I don't know if anyone else went -- and I never saw anything like this in my life. They had a plexiglas window, which you couldn't shoot a bazooka through. But they opened the hinge, Councilwoman, and you could get a shot of Vodka or whiskey. You know, the human imagination doesn't go as far as what goes on when you don't pay attention. And you are absolutely right.

With the Neighborhood Transformation and the new phases going into commercial corridors, it is not fair for us as African-Americans to have to be subjected to businesses that come in our communities, rake 69 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 up the money, don't live, leave, and continue. I mean, at o'clock you all had a 4 big hearing on it. Where, if these businesses 5 are on the corner of a residential block of 80 6 percent or more, they are supposed to close at 7 11. Still they do not close. 8 And, also, it is just the lack of 9 communication in between departments here. In 10 other words, you could see the mix-up with -- 11 you had somebody just from L & I. He was, like, 7:00, 8:00, I don't know. And then the police department don't know. Now, police patrol cars out in my area in Southwest Philly, on the corner of 60th and Upland, where there is a stop-and-go, a Chinese store, they have to sit out there 18 hours because of all the violence that happens 19 there. Why? Because that store stays open 20 past 11:00. 21 With taxpayer's dollars, this cop 22 could probably be used to patrol the other 23 dangers that is going to go on, but they have 24 to sit 24/7. This is a waste of money. There is 70 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 a lack of communication in the departments. And I also want to say we are thankful that the city has provide yet another tool we can use to protect our families. But I still see a problem, a big problem. The City of Philadelphia, on the first constructed cities of modern days, have laws, rules, and ordinances that are already on the books that are supposed to protect us. The problem is, these laws only apply to communities other than African-American community. Or that it seems. Yes, I will admit that other communities are much more involved and they make sure that nuisances are not operating in their communities. But this still should not be a reason why these nuisances, such as stop-and-go's, are allowed to exist. We can continue to come up with ordinance after ordinance, and law after law, and demonstration after demonstration. But if the city does not enforce these laws to protect us, this means Licenses & Inspections 71 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 should be reorganized, and all of this is a waste of time and a shame on our city. What I hope this committee will establish are real goals for our communities, and hope you all will come up with a system that will micromanage these city departments, L & I, enforcement, police, and other department heads that are paid to perform, and either set goals for them or replace the leadership. Stop allowing this to be an activist problem and task, and place the responsibility back on the people our taxes are paying. Stop allowing these department heads to prosper and remain in positions without performance appraisals. It is quite obvious to us that the departments that involve the enforcement and monitoring of these nuisance establishments are not either able or willing to effectively enforce the laws that are already protected -- that already protect us as a community. And this is where are our city is not behaving socially responsible. 72 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 Government is always telling us to become responsible for our children, families, and community. Now we are asking you, the leaders or heads of our districts, or the parents of our local government, to act socially responsible and go a step further to review, evaluate, and make sure your children, the citizens of this great city, are protected from these business nuisances. I believe this hearing is a first step in this direction. And I am telling you all, you all are going to keep coming back here unless we make it a priority to deal with the enforcement here, the people that are paying, the enforcement. You all are going to continue to look at me. Because I am learning, now that I am visiting City Hall, that you all are coming up with things, you are trying to, but it is not twinkling down to us.

And, just like Councilwoman Krajewski just said, why should an 80-year-old woman have to listen to roaring music --

Not that she is 73 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 an old woman, mind you.

Have to live in a neighborhood where she is scared to walk by a stop-and-go because they allow drug deals. And I will close with this. I had heard -- of course I am in the community all the time. And I had heard some resistance from some of our activists and businesspeople in our community, that they was really against Councilwoman Tasco's prohibition of vendors on the major corridors. I know my Councilwoman, Anna Verna, I know she had posed it, and I know -- thank you. Because if you go up 52nd Street and see how horrible them vendors and that business community is, like garbage everywhere. And I know this is off the topic. But I am trying to say is, where is the enforcement, sanitation, to demand that them people that come into our neighborhoods and anger our communities, that are allowed to vend or operate, and then it is a filthy mess, it is like the worst thing you have ever seen, in this great -- we have a good city, we have 74 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 a beautiful city. With the transformation going on, my property value goes up. But if I walk around the corner, you would think I was in a third-world country. Enforcement is what's lacking in this city. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Anyone else?

Yes. I am Bonita Cummings, and I am just going to read my testimony for today. I have been diligently working surrounding the issue of nuisance business establishments in the City of Philadelphia. My research has led me to the conclusion that, connected to the business privilege license, is a predatory process. The intent for the license was for the privilege of owning or having a business establishment. You pay taxes, provide a quality and use for service to a community, taking into account and consideration the health, welfare, and safety of the city, its 75 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 neighborhoods and its residents. I am also a senior tax advisor; and, therefore, I am very familiar with the business privilege license and its purpose. In Philadelphia, business establishments use the business privilege license as a predatory mechanism. And since there is no annual compliance component to the license, nuisance businesses continue to operate year after year. Why do I use the term "predatory"? Because the proliferation and oversaturation of same-type businesses in community, especially corner store, retail variety, hot/cold food, and stop-and-go's, in community neighborhoods, with the business privilege license in hand, are established, showing a disposition to injure or exploit others for one's own gain. The injury to neighborhoods is so great that these same-type businesses all over the city, with permission from the business privilege license process, has and is creating a permanent underclass. 76 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 Residents of the City of Philadelphia are being trained to eat slop, accept trash dumpsters and trash in front of business establishments, accept dirty vermin-infested food establishments, illicit alcohol advertisements, illegal business activity, alcohol sold to and in front of our young children; children eating rancid cooking oil at midnight and later which causes juvenile diabetes, asthma, fatigue, violent tendencies, et cetera. Further, these businesses offer no employment. Neighborhood businesses of today are not businesses of yesteryear. And unless Bill 16 No. 040604 is meant to put a compliance component to businesses that are nuisances, we are spinning our wheels, and tomorrow's businesses will be worst than today, and we will go for 20 more years asking and begging for relief from predatory businesses in community neighborhoods. I have learned that the Department of Licenses & Inspections uses a verification of compliance of existing laws form for 77 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 boarding homes, old-age homes, and residential custodial-care facilities. If we are to make a correction and right a wrong, we must add business establishments on this form. Presently they are inspected just for the fire alarm, particularly the stop-and-go establishments. Licenses & Inspections already inspects these establishments, so no additional employees would be required. While they are already in the business establishment, instead of just fire alarm, they would inspect for food preparation and serving; zoning, is the facility properly zoned; illegal phone booths; illegal billboards and other illegal advertising; health certification, does business have a health certification; managers, are they licensed; private trash collection contract; grease removal contract, as well as other quality of life issues. This way compliance will have to be met annually, before the businesses were 78 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 granted a renewal for city and before they could even send their renewal to the state. The compliance form will have to come directly from the city to the state, which is how the city presently does daycare facilities. That's how daycare facilities' licenses are renewed. We have spoken with the Administration regarding this compliance process and form, and we are waiting for a return call from Connie Little regarding setting up a meeting with L & I.

And maybe someone from this committee directly -- someone from this committee can further follow up. And, for your review, the forms were placed in my packet, and we can take a look at those forms. And I believe if we put that in place, even before licenses are renewed, we have thoroughly inspected those businesses, which presently is not a part of the process. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. 79 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 Cummings, Anthony over here, this handsome man, speak with him after this, and we will see about parlaying a meeting with the L & I Commissioner, whoever you want. Because we certainly are concerned. Because, let me tell you, on Allegheny Avenue -- and I can't tell you the racial makeup of the area, it is probably everything -- there is one of those restaurants on every corner for ten corners straight. And they are take-outs, they are not restaurants. Now, I don't know how good the food is. It might be good, one might be better than the other; one might be a different style. But ten on ten corners, if I didn't see it with my own eyes... I understand it. And I understand why they are there and what's going on. So, we appreciate it. Let us know, and we will see what we can do.

My name is Vivian Crawford, as I told you before. I thank you so much, Councilwoman 80 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 Tasco. And it is a pleasure to see you, as always. You always get to the real task. I think you have an appropriate name. What I want to say to this committee today is, when we start talking about stop-and-go's, I have been involved in the hearings for stop-and-go's with my colleagues, and I would just show up just for purposes of making certain that the community was heard and that the community presented its issues before the committee, before the hearing officer in a cogent manner. Now, Councilman DiCicco mentioned something earlier when he talked about bars. And for those of us -- and I can look around and see a few people that I would say we are probably from the same era -- we remember that taprooms, bars -- first of all, they used to have a separate entrance for ladies, which really dates me. But the other thing that used to happen is, when you went into a bar, the bartender pretty much knew everybody that came into that place. He was from the community, 81 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 and he knew the community people that came in to solicit there. What we have going on in these stop-and-go's is something entirely different. When you talk about the plexiglas structure and the little window where you put your money in, and they give you your food or they give you your beer, that takes away the human contact that used to happen in taprooms. Now, how many of us remember corner taprooms, where we -- and I should also confess to you, when I was in law school, I tended bar. So I knew my customers, they knew me. And there was a different sort of communal atmosphere. This is not what happens in stop-and-go's. In stop-and-go's, people come in, they make their purchases, and they go outside and loiter on the outside to drink the beer. Now, I don't have to tell you what happens when you drink a lot of beer. And these places do not have rest-rooms. So what you have is that the area around the stop-and-go's becomes a public 82 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 toilet. I mean, there is no other way to say that. It is a public toilet. And then people are standing around, they are eating their foods. And often a lot of these stop-and-go's are near schools. So you have got school children that have to pass this stop-and-go in the afternoon, where people have been sitting out there drinking. We presented pictures for the hearings of stop-and-go's with signs all over the place. The owners of the stop-and-go's don't even see what goes on in their facilities. We had pictures of stop-and-go's with -- they are supposed to have 30 chairs, seating for 30 people; they have 30 chairs chained together against the wall so that if -- in case somebody comes, then they can see they have seating for 30 people. Now, when you look at this, and you look at the quality of life and what that does, these people are using liquor licenses. They have to -- and I have another 83 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 point altogether. Because I don't understand why, if these people are not in conformance with city laws, that people are not going after those liquor licenses. I -- having been doing what I do for a number of years, a liquor license is an expensive item. And anybody that had a liquor license could pretty much go into the marketplace and sell it. These places have taken liquor licenses from former taprooms and set up these stop-and-go's, selling rancid food, selling loosies. I didn't even know what a loosie was. I mean, I am from the era where, when you say, "loosie," to me, I thought Dezi Arnez. Seriously. And these kids come in and they buy loosies. They buy these loose cigarettes because they can't afford to buy a pack of cigarettes. Now, we have got problems with our system and our health system being torn down for people smoking and the effects of drinking 84 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 and eating this kind of food.

We are, the taxpayers are, actually ultimately paying for that. So that if you look at it from a long-range perspective, you see that any business that sells loosies should be put out of business. And I think that we need to have the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board in here and ask them some tough and hard questions about why are these places allowed to stay in business. Now, all of you in here that know me know that I speak my mind. And I am saying to you right now that your hands are going to be tied until Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is brought in here and made to answer these tough questions. Thank you very much.

And I would like to also add how we bring the Pennsylvania --

Hold on a minute. Councilman Kenney has something. But I have one statement. 85 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 I am Ricky, so I get the "loosie" thing. But, you are absolutely right. They have been in here. And I remember, maybe Councilman Kenney and other people were here, we had them here for the stop-and-go. And when them gentlemen came and sat right where you were, I made a statement to them that everybody thought was different. But if you look in the archives of what happened in Council, I said, "Where are you goes from?" I mean, "You look like Opie and you look like you should be" -- I think you get it. They had no idea. And they meant well. They do mean well. But they are undermanned. And that's something we need to discuss here, but at the state level and whatever level it is right. Because everything she talked about is true, and the same thing with you. Councilman Kenney.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to alert the panel -- 86 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 and I think that they do know -- that Council recently passed a resolution to ask the liquor control board and also the Philadelphia police and state police to come in. And we are going to have a hearing after the first of the year. We don't have a date yet, but we are making arrangements now to bring those parties in. One of the things that's interesting about the testimony relative to this bill is, in order to get a liquor license renewed, you need to get a clearance certificate from the state revenue department and also, I think, from the city revenue department now. If we could get a state House person, Senator, to introduce a bill to review an L & I clearance certificate for cities of the first-class, Philadelphia only, or they won't renew the liquor license, if they don't get a clean bill of health from the Departments of Licenses & Inspections, this may go along way in giving the liquor board another tool not to renew a license. Because it is just as important that 87 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 the building is in compliance with L & I, as it is with their taxes. Just because a business pays taxes doesn't mean that they are a good business. And if we can add to the list of the liquor code requirements that an L & I clearance certificate for cities of the first-class are required, that may go a way in slowing down the renewals, which is the biggest problem. I mean, as we talked about earlier on this Act 39, it is important that we try to limit the take-out beer for establishments that aren't complying with the law. But that doesn't take their liquor license away; it just stops from taking the beer out. They can still sell alcohol. And I think the way to really nip this problem in the bud is to get the liquor license not renewed. And if we could put another hurdle or obstacle in their way with an L & I clearance certificate, I suggest maybe Councilwoman Tasco could talk to 88 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 Representative Parker or someone there who could maybe make an effort to get that included in the code, it will give us another tool.

Councilman, and the liquor license is the proverbial carrot that's worth money. That's the only way we can hold people accountable.

So we will have a date, and we will inform you of the date right after the first of the year. But thank you for all your hard work.

I wanted to add one last thing. Maybe a moratorium process. The Zoning Board of Adjustment every week is continuing to approve retail variety hot/cold food establishment that bring absolutely totally nothing to communities. In Strawberry Mansion, we have one on every corner. I am fighting now to keep one from going on another corner. And we seem to be having a losing battle in zoning where, every week -- how much food do we need to eat, and of the same type, with no grease removal, 89 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 rancid grease. Our children are eating grease that causes them to be ill. So we just need some help. Maybe that's a way to look at slowing down some of the approvals.

We hear you. I mean, it is something we talked about. Councilwoman Tasco.

Thank you, ladies, for coming in. I appreciate it.

I have one other comment. And we had spoke with Councilman Kenney. I see how some of these hearings are conducted. And this particular hearing, we do not want them to waltz in, read their reports, and then they waltz out before we -- we want to sit in a circle, look them in the eye and say, "Why is this? Why is this? Why is this?" And you answer. You don't waltz in. And, also, I think that the City of Philadelphia -- and you know they are saying we are the next suburbs of New York, with everything coming and booming and property 90 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 value -- that there should be a model, that they -- because they always pretend they don't understand English when it comes down to these sorts of things. If you don't understand English, you can see -- and there should be models that say -- this is how we want our stores and our communities constructed, minus the bulletproof glass. Because I contend that the reason why you have to have the bulletproof plexiglas is because, one, you are staying open past 11 o'clock; two, you are selling all kinds of things that are attracting the nuisances. So why, if you can go on one corner and there is no bulletproof glass, or you can go to a bank and there is no bulletproof glass; but, yet, the stop-and-go's are the only ones that seem to have this bulletproof glass. Now, why -- and we should review and decide whether or not we want stores that operate as beer and deli to have bulletproof glass, when you go into other stores and they 91 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 don't have bulletproof glass. So I know a lot of people say, well, you need bulletproof glass. But I guess if you are selling crack pipes, you do need bulletproof glass. I guess if you are staying open to 3 o'clock in the morning -- who is up to 3 o'clock in the morning looking for chicken wings -- you do need bulletproof glass. I am saying that enough is enough. We need to bring them in here, and we need to look them eye to eye. We need to know who are the head of these departments. These stores need to be able to put placards in their windows where you can walk by and say, "Who do we call? In L & I -- I want to get this guy's business card. Who in L & I is in charge of this? Who do you call?

He is sitting behind you. Mr. Haigler stand up so everybody can see you.

Is he in charge?

He is in charge here today. He is the guy they sent over. 92 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 He is not in charge of everything, but he is the guy they sent over.

No. I am talking about 1-800 nuisance bar hotline.

I hear you. We could go on all day, because I agree with you. But I think time limits here constrain us. Listen, we hear you. And he has boss, and his boss has a boss, and there is someone downstairs that's their boss. Councilwoman Tasco.

Yes. I just want to again thank the ladies for coming in, for their testimony. And their testimony goes to the heart of what we have to deal with in all of our areas, is the quality of life issues that basically center around L & I and the code enforcement. And I appreciate Councilman Kenney's charge to my State Rep. And I will let her know that she is charged with the whole issue of dealing with this. Because we have had -- we have 93 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 stopped liquor licenses up in the Mt. Airy area from coming in. But it took a lot of work; took us fighting to testify, because the liquor control board did not want me, as a Council person, because I didn't live within 500 feet of the establishment, to testify. But we forced ourselves and said we were elected to represent the people in the district, and we're allowed to testify. I must say, the liquor control board's attitude is changing somewhat, and we might have a better window in Harrisburg. I think because of the leadership of the Governor and the appointments to the liquor control board -- because in some other parts of the state, they don't have the same problems that we have in Philadelphia. They don't come down here. They don't understand the difficulty we have with some of the decisions they make and the impact those decisions have on our community. To the ladies what I would like to say -- and I know it is very difficult -- when they wouldn't let Rosa Parks sit in the front 94 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 of the bus, they stopped the bus company. So one of the things you can always do is try and stop your neighbors from buying from these establishments. I mean, that is a form of control. I don't know if I am supposed to say that or not. But I think that, in the effort in West Philadelphia, where Councilwoman Blackwell had the stop-and-go that wanted to open, I think the people in the neighborhood kept it down. So it is going to take not only action of government, but it will take a collective action from the people who live in the neighborhood. And if the stores are so filthy, like you said -- if they are selling decent food, maybe you could see people going there. But the food is crappy, maybe they are going there for something else. So that requires some maybe undercover work by the police department, find out what they are really selling, that they are not selling food. Because I can't imagine 95 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 anybody going in there and buying food. But, again, that takes some effort on your part with your neighbors and your people in Southwest Philly, wherever, to organize selective purchasing.

Thank you, Councilwoman. Cynthia. Thank you ladies. Very good.

State your name.

Good morning. I am Cynthia Philo. I am the Executive Director of the Oldcity District, but I am also an Act 39 hearing examiner. And I am here to testify on behalf of Councilwoman Tasco's bill. And I am pleased to see that there are a large number of other Council people that are in support of this bill. And I am coming at it from a different angle. I didn't prepare any testimony, so I will keep it short and sweet, so you don't have to remember all of it.

That's how we 96 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 like it.

Good. I just think that this is important because, if you have someone who has violated a rule that has been put on them, such as a rule by a hearing examiner which has been recommended to the City Council and City Council has basically said, no, you will not have a particular license, and they continue to violate that, this is really the only way that we as a city are able to go after them for violating something. Now, it doesn't just have to be a stop-and-go situation. As Councilwoman Tasco indicated, it is also predatory lending. But, it is also other businesses. In Oldcity, there are a lot of people sometimes that like to come in and they open up a shop. Maybe it happens to be a taro card reader, who might not have a business privilege license, and/or they are violating something. They have their business privilege license, but they are not supposed to be doing X, and they continue to do so. This is a way 97 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 that we can really hit them where it hurts. They can't do business because they are not following the rules. The people that are following the rules, they need to know that Council is out there, making sure that the businesses that aren't following the rules are not going to be in business anymore. It's something I think that can help us as a community as a whole. And I would like to say that the Oldcity District would be in support of this particular bill. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Any other witnesses to this? Any questions for this witness? Welcome ladies. Start over here, state your name and your organization.

I am Farah Jimenez, and I am the Executive Director of Mt. Airy USA.

I am Laura Sienna, I am the Executive Director of West Mt. Airy Neighbors. 98 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05

I am Sherang Ball, Community Organizer with East Mt. Airy Neighbors and West Mt. Airy Neighbors.

Again, my name is Farah Jimenez. I am the Executive Director of Mt. Airy USA. And Mt. Airy USA is a local nonprofit community development corporation that is focused on revitalizing Germantown Avenue. I would say that, as a main street developer, our organization is staunchly pro business. We have recruited an average of one new business to Germantown Avenue each month for the last three years. We have partnered with the business association. We actually serve on its Board. We partnered for the last five years with the business center, which is an incubator program that launches a business plan competition. And we certainly want our business community to grow. But even though we are staunchly pro business, the reason that we're here is that we feel it is very important to 99 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 come and support this particular bill. We're a community development corporation. So while we support our business community, our neighborhood and our residents and their concerns trump those of the businesses. And we have witnessed firsthand over the last several years where businesses seemingly created to serve our community have worked quite magnificently at destroying it, at worst, or undermining its potential for revitalization, at best. And, in addition, we have witnessed how existing enforcement tools have fallen far short of controlling these that are posing as tax contributors. Some examples include, along the avenue we have dozens of illegal billboards that are thumbing their noses at our city's ordinances; that, while these ordinances simultaneously preclude the erection of these billboards and require their removal, it has been to no avail because the ordinance, while strong, is weak in enforcement. 100 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 And as we sit here right now, SEPTA is paving our historic Belgium block and trolley tracks along Germantown Avenue. And this is despite a city ordinance that protects our city's historic street-paving materials, particularly along a nationally registered historic district, which Germantown Avenue is. Again, a strong, clear ordinance, but weak enforcement. And after nearly yeas of blight, 12 generated by one solitary business on the 6600 13 block of Germantown Avenue, The Corner Deli, 14 our neighbors have used every tool within 15 their limited arsenal to get this business to 16 adopt our community standards, some simple 17 community standards which include not 18 loitering on the corners and adhering to 19 liquor control board's regulations and to 20 zoning ordinances. But it has been to no avail. And thank God for Act 39. And thank God for us that Cynthia Philo was our hearing examiner. And she allowed us to spend six hours of testifying in front of her. 101 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 We had compelling testimony from our residents. We have had statistics and logs maintained by the local Town Watch. We had eyewitness testimony. We had petitions from dozens of neighbors and businesses, and we had the police also there documenting their number of calls they have had to the area and to the business in particular. And you should know that this six hours of testimony followed several years of our attempts to reach the business owners, which have flipped. And the current business owner, we spent nearly a year trying to contact. Because we attended the liquor control board hearing, where the liquor license was transferred to him, and he made all kinds of gestures about wanting to work with us.

Can I ask you a question? Not to interrupt while you are going. 6600 Germantown Avenue, what's the cross street there? That's behind Temple Hospital? 102 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05

No; it is Germantown and Philomena.

There is one near there, too. I thought you were talking about that. Same scenario. I am sorry. Continue.

So we also, as a community development corporation, have a series of tools in our arsenal to help businesses get into compliance and improve. So we had offered to this particular owner facade grant assistance, free design assistance, matching grants, willing to facilitate meetings with him and neighbors. And never as much, despite his overtures of wanting to work with us, got so much as a return phone call. So we were delighted when Act 39 happened. Now we finally had a new tool in our arsenal. And we are delighted, of course, and we won and the owner was denied their stop and go permit. So, in the interim, what's happened? The business owner, through their attorney, 103 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 has attempted to contact us a number of times. You should know, because it is important to address what Councilman Kenney was talking about in terms of looking at the liquor control board or licensing system as a way of kind of controlling these businesses, that, while we were sitting there in front of the hearing -- in the hearing, the person who came to testify was Adam Chu, who was the man who had said that he would be owning the business. The building itself never actually transferred to him. It transferred to two members with the last name Lim, who currently own the building. They were also the applicants for the stop-and-go -- the take-out permit, I should say.

Was this gentleman like a straw buyer?

We believed him to be a straw buyer, for the following reasons: One, he showed up, but he was not the applicant for the take-out permit; he doesn't own the actual real estate, even though he 104 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 made overtures or representations that he was going to buy the building itself at the liquor hearing. And while he and his wife are president and treasurer of the company that owns the liquor license, they actually were in the process at that very moment of transferring that liquor license to the new owners, the Lims. And when we tried to use the liquor control licensing process as a way of stopping the transfer of the license, of course what ends up always happening is, you can only transfer -- you can only argue against a transfer of a license based on the reputation of the new owner; that is, under the presumption by the liquor control board that the new owner may be an improvement over the prior owner. So without having any, as was true when Adam Chu represented that he was going to take over the license, we don't have any information on a new owner, so we can only really react to what has happened in the past. 105 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 And, so, the challenge with working through the liquor control board is that, they have got a system in place where they can just continue being straw buyers and transferring licenses. So what is happening now, after we have succeeded, is that the business is continuing to sell malt liquor. We understand that they are doing so by advising their clients and customers to remove the -- to open the actual liquor so, in effect, they have bought it and are consuming it on the premises, but they actually are taking it out of the premises. So we have --

Only in America.

So we have been calling the liquor control board. The neighbors have a newsletter that they have put together, where they are alerting the police. And they are doing everything within their arsenal again, but that's clearly just not enough. 106 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 So we would love this to be approved, this particular bill. Because beyond being an enforcement tool, we believe it would also be a deterrence. And that gives it more weight than what we currently have. Until Act 39, we couldn't get this stop-and-go owner to listen to us and to consider our efforts. And now that he has lost his take-out permit, we are beginning to see some level of cooperation, but still only a hairline of compliance. And, so, they are thumbing their nose at us, and we need to be more active. By removing a business privilege license, I really believe it is the only way that we can finally see full compliance.

Excellent. And Councilman Rizzo, Councilman Kenney. But I just want to say to Councilwoman Tasco, these three ladies and these four, and Ms. Philo, I don't know if you were responsible for getting all this group, them all here, this is a learning experience. I am really impressed. 107 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 And I haven't even heard you two speak. Maybe we can all get together and figure something out before it gets bureaucratically destroyed. And I think you have some smart Council people here, and there was mention of a smart State representative who we know. And Councilman Rizzo, also. I think this is a job for a Councilman at-large. Not Councilman Kenney, because he already does this. But I think you are going to be in charge of the Belgium block and the SEPTA removal. Is that what you are going to ask? Go ahead, you can ask. He wants to ask you a question.

Let me just say, I have a great staff.

As a matter of fact, I appreciate all of your good work. And I am glad that you noticed what I noticed about Germantown Avenue. And the Councilman talked about a row house. I was born and raised 6200 block 108 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 of Wharton, so I know that area well. Walked up and down there. But, as you know, there was a major effort to reconstruct and put the Belgium blocks back on Germantown Avenue many years ago. And as SEPTA and various utilities, plumbers, came in, unfortunately they took the shortcut, threw the Belgium blocks in the back of the dump truck, and somebody got a patio.

I think somebody was stealing it a couple of years ago, actually reselling it somewhere?

And, as you know, the trolley tracks are still there, and it 17 is just a very dangerous situation. 18 So many years ago, when I started to 19 notice the Belgium blocks missing and being 20 replaced with blacktop, I went to at the time 21 the managing director Estelle Richman, who 22 hired a consultant to go and evaluate the 23 situation. And I understand next year at this time there should be a major effort to replace 109 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 all of the areas that have been black-topped and the Belgium blocks replaced. And I don't know if you remember the terrible storm we had, at, actually, Cresham Drive at Germantown Avenue. The blocks, the small little square smaller ones, they actually got washed away, thousands of them. And they were piled up. And somebody was about to take those, and I made sure that they were recovered and put back in storage until the project. But the good thing is that, what you see, the temporary repairs, are, I think, just to keep it safe so people aren't injured or vehicles damaged. And then when the project commences to start the actual reconstruction -- which we have to thank the Managing Director's Office for kind of shepherding that project -- that it will look good, hopefully, again, like it should.

Thank you, Councilman. See what happens, this will go on all day, because we are all learning this 110 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 stuff. But we have to cut this short because a lot of us are older and need to use the bathroom every minutes. I speak for 5 myself. 6 So while I go do that, you can go 7 and Councilwoman Krajewski will take over. 8

If I could, at the 9 conclusion, have a sidebar with Councilman 10 Rizzo, because there is some additional 11 information that I think would be important 12 for you to hear. 13

I am Laura 14 Sienna. I am the Executive Director of West 15 Mt. Airy Neighbors. And Farah has pretty much filled you in on what for us was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity through Act 39 to try to get a handle on the really bad nuisance take-out. And one of the things I wanted to mention is that, there were allegations made subsequent to our winning this appeal that there was a race component, because the owner, or Mr. Chu, is Asian. And that was, you know, thrown out. But I just wanted to mention that 111 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 that really wasn't true at all. In fact -- and there were several businesses in Mt. Airy that applied under Act 39, and this was the only one we protested. So there are many businesses that have take-out licenses that act responsibly and are not a problem to the neighborhood. And I like to, once in a while, get a six-pack myself, so I am not against take-out businesses. Right after we won, there was a temporary restraining order put in. And then that was lifted because that appeal was denied. Throughout that time, the loitering and public drinking continued. But, you know, the very next day, after that was lifted, behavior as usual. And, as Farah mentioned, customers were told this kind of very unique thing; which is, if they pop the top before they left, it was perfectly fine. So now you can still drive down Germantown Avenue at 8 o'clock in the morning 112 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 or at 8 o'clock at night, and there are several gentlemen sitting out. A couple of days ago I drove down, and they didn't even have a paper bag over their beer. It was just the beer in hand siting out front. There has been a lot of drug dealing and all kinds of -- obviously, public urination, all kinds of nuisances. When the restraining order was lifted, and I noticed the continued behavior, I called both -- well, I called three people. I called the liquor control board in Harrisburg and the LCB enforcement here, both of whom were very ready and happy to talk to me. I also called L & I. And L & I said that, "We have no jurisdiction over this matter." And that's why we're excited to be here today, because it would give L & I a way to enforce the kinds of things that we need enforced in order to get corner deli and all its like to change their behavior. So we really appreciate Councilwoman 113 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 Tasco's bringing this bill. We also appreciate the support that we have had from Councilwoman Miller, she was one of the original protestants. And we look forward to have this passed. Thank you very much.

We are listening. We are trying to figure out -- this is running over what we want to do, and the Councilman has a great idea. Go ahead. And we might have to go into the public meeting, vote this stuff, and then come back to the hearing. If we could do that, if everybody is all right. But, please go.

I am just going to read a brief statement. Good morning distinguished members of Council and the committee. I thank you for the opportunity to voice the perspectives of the community. My name is Sherang Ball, and I am the Community Organizer with both East Mt. Airy Neighbors and West Mt. Airy Neighbors. My position entails acting as a liaison between city government, both 114 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 neighborhood organizations as well as the community. Through my role, I am in constant contact with members of the community for which I am also a member of, and have been made privy to issues impacting the quality of life of many of our residents. As to be expected drugs, youth violence, vandalism, and other crimes are at the top of the agenda. Over the years we have seen a considerable increase in these activities and find ourselves becoming increasingly frustrated with what to do and how to handle them. Because of it, a number of residents have united to form Town Watches and other organizations in the hopes of deterring these negative influences. But while these efforts have been somewhat successful and should be applauded, many of these committed residents are becoming disillusioned by the number of business establishments who conduct business in the 115 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 community, make a profit off the people, but negate to establish themselves as a viable partner within the community. Some of these establishments are, at the very least, attractive nuisances, providing safe havens for loitering by wayward youths, public intoxication, and other negative behavior not desired in a developing community, while other much more sinister establishments are more direct, as they serve as willing partners in crime by allowing drug dealing and other criminal activity to go undisturbed both inside in front of its doors. On Germantown Avenue we have identified several of these nuisance establishments. One of these establishments, The Corner Deli, located at Germantown and Horter Street, should be duly noted. Last month a collaborative effort, with a number of community stakeholders, including EMAN, WMAN, Mt. Airy USA, St. Michael's Lutheran Church, Project Learn School, and the town watch group resulted in a successful pulling of its take-out beer 116 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 license, as directed under Act 39. Neighbors to this establishment have long complained about unruly patrons who openly smoke marijuana, harass passerbys, consume alcohol outside of its premises. In preparation of the hearing, we had collected nearly 200 signatures in support of the opposition. And many of those who opposed the license made themselves available to testify during the hearing. Many of them testified about the current store owner's ineffectiveness at either addressing the longstanding problems nor willingness to work with the community for such a solution. However, since the pulling of the license, neighbors still report that this particular establishment has not fully cleaned up its act. We urge Council to pass this bill, as it will greatly increase the capacity the community has in permanently addressing nuisance establishments. In addition, it should be noted that 117 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 this bill could serve as a catalyst, perhaps even encourage those business owners to come from behind the counters and bulletproof glass and begin open dialogue with the community. Or maybe, perhaps, we can convince more of these establishments to become invested in a community from which they profit. Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you. Now, how are we going to do this? That will be it. Nobody else to testify. Do you want to go right into the public meeting or do these other two bills? Are there anymore witnesses for this?

Yes. We want to let him testify. You testify, and then we are going to have to get out of here and go back in and come back in.

I don't mean to hold you up, and I apologize if I do. I am a member, as most of you know, of the boycott on 118 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 55 and Larchwood that's been out there over three years.

You have to identify yourself.

Greg Spearman. I just want to re-emphasize at least the part about the young lady said that this is definitely not an attack on the Asian community at all. 9 percent of these here stop-and-go's that causes problems inside of our community. We took, under the leadership of Councilman Mariano, last time we had hearings out to the corner. I am definitely against anymore hearings, personally. I think what we need to do is take these here state officials or state representatives, take them out to the street so that they can see what's going on. On that tour that we went on with Councilman Mariano, I think we went to about five stop-and-go's. And then none of the -- 119 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 and four of the stop-and-go's, they had no 3 seating, none, zero. One of the stop-and-go's, they had about eight seats, which is illegal under the LCB rules. LCB says that you are supposed to have seating for 30 people. Under the city ordinances, any establishment that has an occupancy over 10 people, you are supposed to have two 11 rest-rooms. None of the establishments had 12 any rest-rooms. 13 Not only that, there were obvious 14 infractions to the city ordinances in 15 consideration to health and safety as far as 16 cleanliness, the seating, as I said, and fire 17 hazards. 18 Most of them were not handicapped 19 accessible. In fact, all of them were not 20 handicapped accessible, except for two, two 21 out of the five. 22 I think there is enough for us, if 23 we so have the will. Because the state LCB, 24 which has a department that they call 25 enforcement, LCB enforcement, if we have the 120 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 will, they have the tools. But if we have the will, we can enforce the laws that we already have on books. Go after them. And I am talking about these establishments that defy our community concerns. They just outright defy. This here business at 55th and Larchwood, they haven't had over three customers inside of that store in a single month in over two years. And that's just pure, blatant disrespect not only to use, I think to the city in whole. So I think if we at least pull together this here next hearing or next interaction with the state to at least get them out. Because when we ask for them at that hearing to come out on the tour with us, not one state official came out on this tour. And I hope everybody recognize, and all that was here, I hope everybody recognized, when the Asian business owners left -- they were sitting over here to my left, your right -- when they left this here chambers, Council chambers, all of them went 121 BILL NO. 040604 - 12/5/05 over to the state officials, who were sitting over here, and shook hands. I want to repeat that again. The Asian business owners, if you remember Councilman, were sitting over here. And when they -- before they left, they left before the hearings, state officials were sitting over here. They walked over here and shook their hands. So that tells me that they have a relationship with them. And I am asking you -- because it is obvious to me that state enforcement do not have the will. I am asking you, enforce laws that we can. Identify one, at least one. As you seen, Councilman Mariano, when you went, you seen where there was obvious dirty stores. You see no seatings in none of them except for that one where they reconfigured a bar. They reconfigured the bar. They put the deli on the front, and they got seats in the back. And in the back they only had about eight seats with plexiglas up to the bar, where they served the drinks through the 122 BILLS NO. 051025 and 051027 - 12/5/05 plexiglas. So I am asking you to look within yourselves so that we can get some relief in our communities. And no other community should have to go through what my community went through. What my community went through was a very trying time. And I am going to talk about me personally.

Because it cost me a significant amount of dollars, it cost me relationships, it cost me things that was truly dear to my heart. And I will do it again in a heartbeat. Because this is something that has to be done. And you are the last front that we have -- and I am talking about Council -- to bring us some relief. And I thank you for your time.

Thank you very much. And we hear you. That would be it for this bill. Mr. Haigler, do you want to come up here and do those two technical bills. 123 BILLS NO. 051025 and 051027 - 12/5/05

051025 and 051027.

Good day, Councilman Mariano, members of the committee. I am Otis Haigler, Junior, Director of Legislative Affairs for the Department of Licenses & Inspections. Today I am here to provide testimony on Bill No. 051025, which, if enacted, will extend the effective date as mentioned in bill 11 050204 to June 30, 2006. Bill 050204 was enacted into law on June 15, 2005. This bill will prohibit the issuance of licenses and permits pursuant to Title 4 of the Philadelphia Code to persons who are delinquent in fees and/or taxes owed to the city. At the time Bill 050204 was under consideration by Council, the department offered no objection to the enactment of the bill as a matter of public policy. There is still no objection to the enactment of Bill No. 050204; however, in order to effectuate enforcement of the bill, more time had been requested to allow for the 124 BILLS NO. 051025 and 051027 - 12/5/05 integration of computer and intradepartmental operations of the Revenue Department and Licenses & Inspections. Bill 051025 under consideration today is a technical amendment to Bill 050204 to change the effective date of the enacted bill from December 31 of this year, to June 30, 2006. We believe this additional time will allow for a smoother transition to enforce the provisions of Bill 050204. The department thanks Councilman DiCicco for his consideration of our request and sponsorship of Bill 051025. Thank you. I will be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. Do you want to testify on this one? Stay up there. I am sorry, sir.

Councilman and members of the Committee, my name is Darryl Zaslow. I am legal counsel to HAPCO, the Homeowners Association of Philadelphia. When this bill was first proposed, 125 BILLS NO. 051025 and 051027 - 12/5/05 we also didn't object. We understand the public policy; you don't pay the taxes, why should the city give you anything. Now the bill is back before you again, and we have a concern. Our concern is that, the way the bill now reads, if someone is one day delinquent in a tax bill, and they come into the city for some important license or permit, they are not going to be able to issue those permits. This identical law has been considered in Harrisburg every year for the past four years. And every year out in Harrisburg, the law has not passed. And it hasn't passed because the enforcement of it is going to be punitive, and not necessarily just to my client. My client, we are landlords. We are the ones who own real estate, over 100,000 units in the City of Philadelphia. Our people are concerned, you have a judgment against you from ten years ago, it is now going to show up on some docket somewhere, and you can't get a permit. 126 BILLS NO. 051025 and 051027 - 12/5/05 At the state level we had proposed that a delinquency have to be in excess of a year; that you can't have a delinquency of one day, and you are going to be denied some kind of a permit. We also feel that the enforcement is going to be a bureaucratic nightmare. It is going to -- the reason that you need the extension today is our objection to the bill. There is no way that L & I is going to be in a position to really make this a properly working, smooth-functioning procedure. When someone comes in and says, "I made an agreement to pay my taxes," but the city says, "Well, you didn't keep your agreement," but the person says, "Well, I did keep my agreement," it is going to hang up the process of Inspections, it is going to hang up the process of receiving licenses. And we are very concerned about the procedure of it. So I am here today to support the bill which is before you today, obviously -- because we feel there should be a delay -- but 127 BILLS NO. 051025 and 051027 - 12/5/05 to plant a seed in your mind and to request that you reconsider functioning of the bill 4 and that it be rewritten to provide for a more constitutionally based appeal right; to provide that there is going to be a faster procedure for the city to be required to respond to a citizen who says, "I paid the fine," "I paid the bill." I heard this morning driving into the Council chamber that you are considering a bill regarding parking tickets. And KYW said, if you have a lot of parking tickets, you are going to consider suspending a license.

Don't believe what you hear on the radio or read in the paper. Just take it at half.

But the point is, I didn't hear them say, if you didn't have one parking ticket that you didn't pay, and you are one hour or one day late in paying it, that you are going to be suspended in some fashion. And this bill should be amended to, likewise, provide a longer period than one 128 BILLS NO. 051025 and 051027 - 12/5/05 day's delinquency.

Stay there. Otis, you can go to the next one. Would you have the same -- is the next one a technical bill, too?

The next one, another concern is, the way the bill is written -- and I think it can be corrected -- bit it says that the code official may, with a written determination, issue a license, if the code official feels that there is a serious violation. Well, "may" is not a good word. Code official doesn't like you or doesn't like your property, or whatever it may be, that needs to be a "shall." That if there is a code violation that needs to be repaired, the code official shall issue the license. The second bill is even more onerous. You are talking about licenses for people --

The second bill 25 is 27; right? 129 BILLS NO. 051025 and 051027 - 12/5/05

Yes. You are talking about a license for people to perform their livelihood. And if they didn't pay some tax, that they are not going to be able to practice their profession or their livelihood, we feel that is really too much. And, again, I want to stress from my client, the landlord, the property owner's, perspective, it is not that much of a detriment to us because we want to pay our bills in a timely fashion. But you have some poorer older person, who inherits some house, can't pay --

Mr. Zaslow, I think we get that part. Not to cut you short, but people have to get out of there because they have other commitments. But, stay here. Mr. Haigler, on 27, what's the L & I on that? What's your feel?

Good day, Councilman Mariano, members of the committee. I am Otis Haigler, Junior, Director of Legislative Affairs for the Department of Licenses & 130 BILLS NO. 051025 and 051027 - 12/5/05 Inspections. Today I am here to provide testimony on Bill 051027, which, if enacted, will extend the effective date as mentioned in Bill 050203 to June 30, 2006. Bill 050203 was enacted into law on June 15, 2005. This bill will prohibit the issuance of licenses and permits to -- that are issued pursuant to Title 9 of the Philadelphia Code to persons who are delinquent in fees and taxes owed to the city. At the time Bill 050203 was under consideration by Council, the department offered no objections to the enactment of this bill as a matter of public policy. There is still no objection to the enactment of Bill 050203. However, in order to effectuate enforcement of the bill, more time had been requested to allow for the integration of computer and intradepartmental operations of the Department of Revenue and Licenses & Inspections. Bill 051027 under consideration today is a technical amendment to 050203 to 131 BILLS NO. 051025 and 051027 - 12/5/05 change the effective date of the enacted bill 3 from December 31 of this year, to June 30 of 2006. We believe this additional time will allow for a smoother transition to enforce the provisions of Bill 050203. Thank you for the opportunity to provide this testimony.

Thank you, Mr. Haigler and Mr. Zaslow. Councilman DiCicco is the sponsor of these bills. I think he has some comments for Mr. Zaslow. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Mr. Zaslow, you mentioned in your statement that if a person is one day late, that, obviously, this bill 18 would apply. I mean, people get notices for being tax delinquent, it doesn't happen in a 24-hour period. Generally notices are sent out. The individual or the entity has been made well aware of the fact that a tax, as in one case, a tax is due, you have so many days to pay it. 132 BILLS NO. 051025 and 051027 - 12/5/05 There is a late fee, if you don't pay it on that certain date. So, I mean, people have enough time to either dispute it and/or pay it or make arrangements to pay. Am I missing something here? Because your testimony says something to the effect that, if you are one day late, you will not be issued a permit or a license.

Well, delinquency is not defined in the law. And we are suggesting that people should have a year before you -- on the state level we were looking for two years. And they are considering a two-year period, months, of delinquency before they 18 are going to onerously forbid you from getting 19 a license to fix your overflowing sewage in 20 your house, if that's what you need. 21 We just think that leaving 22 "delinquency" undefined, "delinquent" is an 23 hour. If it is due on that day, and it is not 24 paid -- I don't know how good their systems are -- but certainly their computer may show 133 BILLS NO. 051025 and 051027 - 12/5/05 the very day that it is due. And whatever system they are working out may show the tax wasn't paid. Whether a notice goes out or doesn't, it was unpaid. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: But there was notice prior to that deadline date. There is notice given prior to. I get a bill from PGW. It says your billing date is, the payment must be received by December 15. The late fee is December 25.

So if they don't pay on the 26th, it is delinquent. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: And I get the notice generally two weeks before the money is due. I don't think that's the way it works with business licenses. I think it is even more time, you get more lead time than 10, 15 days. And am I correct in that?

It may be more than a day.

I believe you are correct, Councilman. And I also believe that persons do 134 BILLS NO. 051025 and 051027 - 12/5/05 have the ability to enter into an agreement with the law department to pay whatever taxes they have owed to the city. As far as this bill is concerned, again, the department is in the process of completing its implementation of its computer system. And we have worked with the revenue department, talked this through with them. And we are prepared to integrate our processes with their processes to effectuate the enforcement of this bill.

Maybe I am missing something, because the bill has to do with a lot more than taxes. It is charges, fees, rents, claims, penalties, fines. This can be coming from different 19 sources across the City of Philadelphia. You 20 have some fine in Municipal Court, a housing code violation -- which maybe you know about it, maybe you don't, because that's the way things work over here, that you can have a fine against your house that you were never notified about -- the next day you go in for a 135 BILLS NO. 051025 and 051027 - 12/5/05 permit of some kind and you hear for the first time you are not going to get that permit. And it doesn't seem fair that instantaneously you are tying in denying a license for something which is not license related, per se, without giving an opportunity, which we are suggesting of a year, to correct such a problem. You don't work with the City of Philadelphia in two weeks to get an agreement. It doesn't happen that way. You want to get an agreement to pay your taxes, assuming you have the money. And, again, I am stressing here that there are people who are not owners of lots of real estate, but small people who say, "I can't make an agreement with the city right now. There is nothing I can do. I lost my parents. I inherited this house. I can't pay the tax. I can't pay the fine." Under those circumstances, it just seems overbearing and unfair to deny a license to fix a front walkway or to add a front porch or something else they may be in the process 136 BILLS NO. 051025 and 051027 - 12/5/05 of doing. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: But I think there are mechanisms in place -- and I am not that educated in this field -- but there are mechanisms in place today and going forward that will give that individual or entity an opportunity to make his or her case at the appropriate department, whether it's at the -- in court, because there is an action on a code violation that will then trigger some action on the part of L & I. I mean, if you had pending action that you have not been delinquent on, not just paying the tax, the law provides for relief until such time all arguments have been exhausted.

There is an appeals process for all licenses to the Board of Licenses & Inspections Review. If the person so feel that they are not satisfied at the Board of Licenses & Inspections Review, they can appeal that process to Common Pleas Court. So there is an appeal process of the 137 BILLS NO. 051025 and 051027 - 12/5/05 Common Pleas Court for most administrative action that is taken against an individual.

The law does not provide a supersedeas when you file an appeal. The law doesn't say, if you are delinquent but on appeal, that is going to be stopped, you can get your license issued. The law says, you are delinquent, no license. So, yes, you can file an appeal. Until you resolve the delinquency, you don't get your license. So if the law were to be amended -- that's a good way to solve this problem -- to say that a supersedeas, as we call it in the law, that the law of the ordinance you have enacted is not going to take effect, provided there is an appeal which is ongoing, that would be a solution to some of my concerns.

I am not an attorney, but I do believe that there are general provisions in the administrative code under Title 4 that addresses appeals to the Administrative Board. There is a section under Title 4 for 138 BILLS NO. 051025 and 051027 - 12/5/05 that portion of the licenses that are being suspended under it. And then there is a general provision under Title for business 5 licenses that are being -- I guess, the 6 general provision under Title 1 of the 7 Philadelphia Code that covers everything for 8 the appeals process. 9 COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: I know from personal experience, a number of cases that come through my office, of businesses who have received various notices either of suspension or license renewal. And I know one case, which was a very big case, involving a wage tax dispute, where Revenue believed that the wage tax from the principal owners was X, and the owners said, well, I don't even live in the city anymore, and I should be only paying a certain amount. That debate, that dispute went on for almost two years. The company remained in business. They are still doing business. It was finally resolved to everyone's satisfaction. I mean, what we are talking about 139 BILLS NO. 051025 and 051027 - 12/5/05 here, I think, goes to the heart of this, is people who are in business, who for one reason or another -- and, by the way, I am considered very business friendly. Some people still call me a Republican because of my business positions in this town.

Nothing wrong with that. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: We don't think it is fair to businesspeople who abide by the laws, who do their best effort to pay their taxes and keep their licenses up to date and not become delinquent, to allow folks -- and there are some people in the city who have made it a habit of not paying their taxes, not paying their licensing fees, use the shell game, open up another entity, kind of come in the back door. And they are always in business, but they are not paying their fair share. So I think that that's really what we're looking at. Individual cases could be dealt on, I believe, on an individual basis. Most, all these businesses are in someone's 140 BILLS NO. 051025 and 051027 - 12/5/05 councilmanic district. If they have a problem, they could go to the district Council person and we will step up to the plate. We know those businesses. We know those businesses probably as well as anyone else. And there is always ways in which we can ask for certain consideration, at least during that process of appeal or reconsideration or setting up some sort of a payment plan.

Councilman, my concern is that the very people you are talking about, the savvy ones, who, number one, they don't care about a license to begin with, they want to build or do, they do whatever they please, they are not going to care about this law. If the law-abiding people, who just don't have the money sometimes to pay their bill, or to reach an agreement that the city is satisfied with -- you go to the city, well, we want 15 percent. The person says, "I don't have 2 person," not even 15 percent. So that person will never be able to get a license, 141 BILLS NO. 051025 and 051027 - 12/5/05 and we just think that that is too much. That people who are going to be able to go behind the scenes and form another corporation, they are not going to be concerned about this bill. It is the small people who are going to be injured by this, is our concern. And it can be remedied. The problem, with some language changes, perhaps, Councilman, could be remedied. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Thank you.

Well, that's a good argument either way. Frank is the sponsor, and I think we are going to go on. Anybody else on these two bills? That will take us out of the Public Hearing. (Public Hearing adjourned.) - - - 142 COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC MEETING of the COMMITTEE ON LICENSES & INSPECTION - - - Monday, December 5, 2005 - - - Public Meeting conducted by the Committee on Licenses & Inspections, held in Room 400, City Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the above date, to consider action on the following: BILLS 040604, 050749, 050955, 051025, 051027 - - - PRESENT: RICHARD T. MARIANO, Chair JOAN KRAJEWSKI, Vide-Chair FRANK RIZZO FRANK DiCICCO MARIAN TASCO JAMES KENNEY - - - 143 PUBLIC MEETING

We are going to go into the public meeting. Read me some bills here, the things you want to amend or may not want to amend. Councilwoman Tasco.

I have an amendment.

Councilwoman Tasco, that would be on bill?

This would be on Bill 040604. And the amendment says that, "the Department of Licenses & Inspections is authorized to deny or revoke a business privilege license for failure to comply with the requirements of this subsection. The Department of Licenses & Inspections shall revoke, upon receipt of a complaint, notice, order, or opinion from a federal or state agency or federal or State Court the business privilege license from a person engaging in or continuing to engage in a business without obtaining and maintaining any license required by federal or state law, if such license is 144 PUBLIC MEETING required to engage in such business under the laws of the United States of America, of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania." And that's the amendment, and it goes further.

Thank you, Councilwoman. There has been an amendment. The motion has been made to amend this bill. All those in favor. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: I make a motion to accept the amendment just read into the record. (Duly seconded.)

The motion has been made and seconded. All those in favor of the amendment say, aye. Any opposed? Nobody opposed, so the amendment passes. Let's work on this bill as amended. Bill No. 040604, as amended, be reported out of this committee with a favorable 145 PUBLIC MEETING recommendation. And, Councilwoman, do you want the Rules of Council to be suspended to permit first reading at the next Council session?

Yes. (Duly seconded.)

All those in favor? Opposed? Seeing none, Bill No. 040604 is voted out as amended and the Rules of Council suspended. Thank you, Councilwoman Tasco. The next one. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment to offer Bill No. 050749. All members at this committee have received a copy. And the stenographer will receive a copy, as well. I would ask for approval on this amendment.

We have an amendment on 050749 Councilman DiCicco has given to everyone. Do I hear for a motion for this amendment? 146 PUBLIC MEETING (Duly seconded.)

It has been made and seconded. All those in favor of this motion say, aye. Opposed? None. So the amendment passes. Now we want to do Bill No. 050749 as amended and ask for a suspension of Rules so it can be read at the next Council session. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Mr. Chairman, I move that Bill No. 050749, as amended, be reported out of this committee with a favorable recommendation, and a further recommendation that the Rules of Council be suspended. (Duly seconded.)

Thank you, Councilman. All those in favor of that? Opposed? Nobody is opposed. So that's 050749, as amended, is voted out with a 147 PUBLIC MEETING suspension of Rules. 050955, we are holding that one. 051025, any amendments on that? I make a motion that 051025 be reported out of committee with a favorable recommendation and that the Rules of Council be suspended. (Duly seconded.)

I hear a second from Councilman DiCicco. It has been moved and seconded. All those in favor? All opposed? None. So 051025 is passed out of this committee with a favorable recommendation and the Rules of Council are suspended. 050127.

Mr. Chairman, I move that Bill No. 050127 be reported out of this committee with a favorable recommendation and that the Rules of Council be suspended. (Duly seconded.)

Motion has been 148 PUBLIC MEETING made and seconded. All those in favor say, aye. Opposed? It passes. 051027 is voted out of committee with a favorable recommendation and Rules of Council suspended. Any other business in this public meeting? Seeing none. This public meeting is adjourned. Thank you. 12:35 p.m. (Public Meeting adjourned at 12:35 p.m.) - - - 149 C E R T I F I C A T I O N I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of Monday, December 5, 2005, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of same. RE: COMMITTEE ON LICENSES & INSPECTIONS _________________________ DEBRA A. WHITEHEAD