COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, October 18, 2023 10:20 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT DARRELL L. CLARKE COUNCILWOMAN KENDRA BROOKS COUNCILMAN MICHAEL DRISCOLL COUNCILWOMAN JAMIE GAUTHIER COUNCILWOMAN KATHERINE GILMORE RICHARDSON COUNCILMAN JIM HARRITY COUNCILMAN CURTIS JONES, JR. COUNCILWOMAN QUETCY LOZADA COUNCILMAN BRIAN J. O'NEILL COUNCILMAN ANTHONY PHILLIPS COUNCILMAN MARK SQUILLA COUNCILWOMAN SHARON VAUGHN BILL 200253 - An ordinance amending Section 20-303 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Salaries of Specified Officers," to establish salaries based on an Annual Compensation Plan, under certain terms and conditions. - - - 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253
Thank you very much, and good morning. Before we begin the public hearing, I want to make the following announcement: Due to the continuing threat to public health from COVID-19 and its variants, City Council committees are currently meeting remotely. We are using Microsoft Teams to make these remote hearings possible. Instructions for how the public may view and offer public testimony at public hearings of Council committees are included in the public hearing notices that are published in the Daily News, Inquirer, and Legal Intelligencer prior to the hearing, and can also be found on PHLCouncil.com. I now note that the hour has come. Mr. Christmas, will you please call the roll to take attendance, and members that are in attendance, please indicate that you are present when your name is called. 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 Mr. Christmas.
Good morning, Council President. Good morning, colleagues. I am present.
Good morning, Council President and colleagues. Present.
And good morning to all. Thank you. We've established a quorum of the Committee. The hearing is now called to order. This is the public hearing of the Committee of the Whole regarding Bill No. 200253. Mr. Christmas, will you please read the title of the bill. (No response.)
Bill No. 200253, amending Section 20-303 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Salaries of Specified Officers," to establish salaries based on an Annual Compensation Plan, under certain terms and conditions.
Thank you very much. Before we begin to hear testimony from the witnesses we have today, everyone who has been invited to the meeting to testify should be aware that this public hearing is being recorded. Because the hearing is public, participants and viewers have no 22 reasonable expectation of privacy, so by continuing to be in the meeting, you are consenting to being recorded. Additionally, prior to 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 recognizing members for questions or comments they may have, I'll note for the record at this time we will be using the Chat feature available in Microsoft Teams to allow members to signify that they wish to be recognized. In order to comply with the Sunshine Act, the Chat feature must only be used for that particular purpose. Mr. Christmas, will you please call the first witness to testify today. Excuse me. Before you do that, somebody needs to mute themself. We're hearing some background discussions. Thank you.
Council President, I just wanted to note for the record I'm present. I had a technical difficulty.
Our first witness is Ms. Stephanie Tipton, Chief Administrative Officer.
Good morning. Good morning, Council President Clarke, Chair of the Committee of the Whole, Committee Vice Chair Councilmember Jones, and the other members of the Committee of the Whole. My name is Stephanie Tipton. I am the Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Philadelphia. I'm here to testify in support of Bill No. 200253. This bill proposes amending Section 20-303 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Salaries of Specified Officers," to establish salaries based on an Annual Compensation Plan, under certain terms and conditions. I'll now summarize the key provisions of the bill. Bill No. 200253 seeks to 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 utilize an annual specified officer's compensation plan to establish equitable, competitive salaries for City officers. The bill proposes a data-driven approach to create transparent salary ceilings for these positions. The current ordinance only allows for cost of living adjustments to salaries of the positions identified in the ordinance and sets caps on those salaries. This method fails to take into account any emergent changes in the labor market and, in turn, can limit the City's ability to compete effectively in the marketplace since these adjustments can be out of alignment with industry standards for these critical positions. Conversely, the Annual Compensation Plan proposed by the bill 21 specifically outlines the reasons for the salary change, considers various market variables, and creates transparency around what our City leaders are being paid and why. 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 The Annual Compensation Plan's data-driven approach also aims to ensure that City leaders, in particular women and people of color, are compensated equitably and competitively compared with other peer cities across the country. Establishing these benchmarks can help the City retain top talent in its leadership positions. Bill No. 200253 also seeks to correct a technical issue found in The Philadelphia Code. Currently, to increase an officer's salary above the cap, departments must also change an officer's title. This causes confusion and logistical challenges when trying to record on officer salaries accurately and responsibly. Finally, the changes outlined in the bill will work in concert with the comprehensive compensation review currently underway by the Administration of our benchmark positions across City government. Together with the changes 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 proposed by the bill, the City will be taking a holistic review of salaries in all levels of the organization. We have also offered two amendments to the original bill. The first adds newly created positions to the list of officers, and the second is a technical change that addresses how the cost of living language in the current ordinance would work under the newly proposed framework. I believe this bill will improve the City's ability to attract and retain top talent, and I respectfully request that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. This concludes my testimony. I'm happy to answer any questions from the Committee.
Thank you very much, Ms. Tipton. I had a couple of questions in 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 referencing your testimony. You talked about a data-driven process in particular when you reference women and people of color. Explain that to me, the correlation between those two statements and --
And I guess because we've had conversations over the years about actual implementation of this.
Sure. So currently under the ordinance and as I mentioned in my testimony, when we want to or -- and the market necessitates us to increase a particular officer's salary above what the cap allows for the current ordinance, we do have to -- we have to appoint them into a different title and then we also go about setting the salary. The salaries themselves are not always aligned across the board for like positions. Sometimes there is variance between, you know, certain commissioners 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 and certain levels of officers across City government, and that can sometimes inhibit our ability to transparently say this is what we are offering and make sure that there's equity and parity across all of the commissioner roles. What this plan would do is establish a very transparent way in which the salaries are set and also makes those salaries public so people would know ahead of time and know what those salaries are. And obviously we do that when we're doing the recruitment, but this would just allow us to do this on a regular basis to ensure there's equity and parity across the commissioner positions and the different officers here. So I think there's plenty of research that shows that oftentimes women, people of color tend to, because there is lack of transparency, sometimes their own salaries tend to sometimes get paid less, and so we want to make sure 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 that that doesn't happen, and that's really why we're doing this in this fashion.
Okay. So under this process and when there is a disagreement or basically a concern that what's suggested in the bill 9 and the attempt to have an equitable approach across the board, particularly as it relates to women and people of color, that we don't see, "we" the general public or the Council, don't see the implementation of that in actuality, how does that get addressed since this now gives the authority to the Administration without Council's authorization to increase caps on salaries?
Sure. So what this would do is, if there is -- let's just say the Personnel Director does the compensation plan on an annual basis. The Mayor says, you know, I think this person should be paid differently than 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 what's here. That change would actually have to go to Council, and Council would have to be made aware of that. And so there is a mechanism in the bill to allow Council to have some insight if there's something that's going to be outside of the plan itself.
Let me interrupt you one second. When you say the change has to go to Council, what does that mean? You guys e-mail us, there's legislation?
Yes. Sorry. I'm just pulling up the -- we have to provide notice to Council that we're doing that.
I'm sure there would be some kind of conversation around that, but we do have to provide notice to you that that's happening if something is outside of what the compensation plan has been set.
All 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 right. I'm not sure I understand what that means, but I'm sure my colleagues will -- actually I don't want to dominate the questions, but I'm sure that there will be follow-ups on that. We are looking to do an amendment of the sunset provision, because at the end of the day -- and first I want to thank you for working with Council on providing opportunities and incentives and benefits to the general workforce, and I know you all, the Administration, the next Administration, will be addressing that very shortly when municipal contracts come up. I want to thank you for your work on putting together the document. In understanding that one of the, I believe -- at least I can speak for myself, the reason to support this is the challenges we realize as a result of trying to be competitive with the external workforce. We're just getting our butts kicked. I was talking with 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 some folks in Harrisburg the other day and they were just telling me how they're having challenges with the private sector in particular. So the conversation that this should probably be a sunset on this particular provision to see how it's going over the next couple of years, and assuming that things are okay, we can continue -- well, they can. I won't be here, but the Council and the new Administration can continue along that path. So I just want to give you a heads up on that, that there will probably be an interest in doing a sunset provision to kind of look and see, because we're actually changing the nature of how this whole compensation strategy is done for high-ranking employees by removing Council out of some aspects of that process. So I just want to give you the FYI on that. 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253
All right? Okay. I'll probably come back. Are there any questions of this witness by members of the Committee? I think I saw a hand raised. The Chair recognizes Councilman Jones.
Thank you, Mr. President. In another life, I was one of those administrators that probably could have qualified to be under this relaxed rules, but my ears perked up when you said give notice and maybe there will be a conversation. Can we take a deeper dive into what is notice, and when you say a conversation, in cases where we might disagree, what are the remedies for that disagreement?
Sorry. I'm just pulling up the language of the actual ordinance here just to make sure I'm 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 clear. So what the ordinance would allow for now is that if the Mayor believes that the compensation plan does not provide for a competitive salary, they can revise the salary maximum, but they must provide written notification and justification to Council. I don't want to speak on behalf of future administrations, but I suspect that we would, you know, work with Council if there is a disagreement, as we have in the past. And I think in terms of setting salaries for positions, we have tried, especially over this Administration, to do that in a way that is done fairly and regularly where we're looking at the salaries, and certainly if there's input that can be provided from other parties, we would be open to that and we would have that discussion, but certainly we have to provide justification to Council as to why we may be going in a different 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 direction for a particular salary, especially if it's going over the maximum. I think what this does is, it's not necessarily relaxing the rules. I think it just allows us to be a bit more responsive to changes in the marketplace, and it allows us to have a more formalized process than what is currently in place now.
So, again, I understand the rationale. I understand what the City is up against. President Clarke and Katherine Gilmore Richardson have been forward-thinking in how we recruit and retain personnel, but going forward, the question still begs itself what happens if we disagree. And, you know, my kids back in the day would say to me, and justified, you know, that it's time for their allowance to increase, but at least I had some input to say yes or no. And in this legislation will we have the ability to disagree, and if we 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 disagree, who is the final arbiter of that decision?
I think, you know, up until this point, the Mayor has retained the ability to recruit their team and also pay them the salaries that are competitive for that position. I don't necessarily see a reason to move in a different direction than what is established here to allow the Mayor the ability to recruit the team that they need around them to do the work that they have to do, but certainly there is at least a provision here that would allow us to have that notification go to Council so you are aware of it and we can have the discussion, if necessary. But ultimately it is the Mayor that, you know, recruits and builds their team. I wouldn't want to necessarily take that ability away from future administrations necessarily.
So this is for all non-civil service at-will 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 employees?
No. This is only for specified officers. So there's certain officers that are specified currently in the Code and Charter. And so presently those officer salaries, the way it was established, is established where there is a minimum and there is a maximum that cannot be -- you know, you can't go over that maximum for a particular position, even with the cost of living increases. And so as you might imagine, those salaries are quite low. I mean, for some commissioners the maximum salary is $100,000. And so, you know, administrations, past and present, have had to, in order to ensure that they're recruiting the best folks possible, in some cases we have to pay them more than what that cap allows, and so they have to be appointed into different positions so we can pay them competitively and get the team that we need, you know, to do the work. 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 So that's currently how it's set out, but what we are doing now is, we are also, as I mentioned in my testimony, doing a compensation review for all sort of benchmark positions, and we consider benchmarks like the positions that sort of set the salary scales for all other positions in City government. We're going to be concluding that compensation review soon. And so it is our intent that moving forward, we do those types of compensation reviews on a more regular basis to ensure that we're not only looking at the highest levels of government but we're looking across the organization and making sure that we're paying people competitively and fairly for the work that they're doing.
I'm glad you said that, and I'm going to let it go, because I know in our trades within the City of Philadelphia, we're having a hard time recruiting and retaining those kinds of electricians, plumbers, carpenters, 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 because the private sector pays so much better. So I'm glad we're looking up and down the food chain to see where we can assist in retention and recruitment. Member Harrity talks about all the time the billboard on I-95 that says come down, be a police officer in Miami and live on the beach. So we are up against it. So thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Gilmore Richardson.
Thank you. Thank you so much, Council President, and thank you and Councilmember Jones for your questions, and thank you, Ms. Tipton, for all of your work on the Special Committee for Municipal Retention and Hiring. We appreciate the work that we've been able to do in that committee, and look forward to the implementation of some of the 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 recommendations in the next year. I wanted to circle back specifically to the point that you talked about, because that's actually what I had a question regarding, around how now in order for the Administration to have the ability to allow for higher compensation for some of the salaries of the specified officers, they have to place those positions technically in the system under a different position title. For the record for this hearing, if you would be able to specify from all the positions that are listed under Section 20-303 and the ones that you all want to include, including the four that came to us yesterday in the form of the amendment, can you specify now which of all of those positions, and I think it's total, currently have to 22 go under a different or additional title 23 in order to be paid, I guess, the salary 24 that the Administration would like to pay 25 for that position? 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 And in addition to that, you had talked about the comprehensive review of compensations across all these specified officers and how you are also doing this across government, but I wanted to know if this review will be as comprehensive as the one that happened when the Home Rule Charter was initially instituted to ensure that all City positions were on par with the private sector so that the City had the ability to attract, retain, and maintain the very best of talent across government.
I can't speak to what was done originally with the Home Rule Charter, but we have retained a third party that is sort of skilled and has expertise in doing these types of compensation reviews. We have a few members of our staff internally who also support the work that this third party is doing. And so they are going through a very rigorous process to look at the 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 salaries, compare them against other benchmarks, also speaking internally with various stakeholders to understand the current challenges with our salaries or pay to come to the final review. We have not done this in many years, and my hope is between this bill 9 and also us completing this process, that this will be something in the future that we are doing more regularly. We certainly would like to build up our capacity inhouse to do this type of compensation review. I mean, it's sort of best practice and a lot of large organizations have folks that do this kind of work regularly, and so that is what we're hoping to do. On your first question, Councilwoman, I can get that information to you if that -- I can make that available to the Chair.
Okay. That would be great. If you could send us that information as soon as possible, 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 by the end of the week, if possible, because that allows us to further understand also where there could potentially be any revenue gaps or additional dollars possibly available based on what the salaries may be established for these specified officers. I just need to understand based on when we look at the budget and we're reviewing the budget line by line and all these positions are notated inside of the Administration and/or each said department, we need to understand where there will potentially be gaps after potentially this legislation would pass. You understand what the question is?
Because some of them may have two titles or three, and so we just need to know where the other changes will be reflected line by line in the budget.
Okay. And I just, lastly, just wanted to underscore the question that was presented by Council President Clarke and Councilmember Jones relative to understanding how Council will have a role in this process, knowing that it is our responsibility to set forth a balanced budget on behalf of the City each year. Okay? Thank you very much. Thank you, Council President.
Thank you, Councilwoman. Any additional questions by our members for this witness?
Oh, CP, I apologize. I have one additional question. Thank you, Council President. In the amendment that was circulated yesterday regarding the Public Safety Director position, the salary was 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 already established for that position in the legislation. Can you speak to the inclusion of that specific position?
So including that position would allow us to also -- so, yes, there is a salary that's set in the ordinance that created the position. This would allow us, again, like with the other positions, to look and make sure that that salary is still competitive moving forward. So I'd like to think that the salary is very competitive when we set it out, but the market is changing quickly, so we still want to make sure that we're also looking at that salary too as part of this.
Council Lady, actually the ordinance 21 mentions a minimum salary.
So it was -- we always had the capability as Council to increase that number under the 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 existing plan, but this now allows, if this particular bill passes, for the Administration -- my understanding, that some people raised some eyebrows when that 265 was referenced in the bill, and I'm understanding that that's likely going to have to go up based on other recruitment for individuals for that particular position. It's a different kind of world out here.
It is, and we also want to make sure that the future administrations have the flexibility to, again, recruit the best people for these roles, and making sure that we can remain competitive with the salaries is a big piece of that.
I'm sure the City Council will be looking to do, in a like-minded way, to be able to 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 recruit individuals to work here in Council, because we have had some challenges over the last couple of years of hiring on our staff levels. We get people -- particularly when we hire younger people, they tend to have a much shorter tenure than those of us old heads that kind of hang around and get pensions and stuff. That seems to be a foreign word in today's world --
-- being able to capture. So there are no other questions. I want to thank you. Thank you very much for your testimony.
Again, there will likely be an additional amendment on the sunset provisions to just kind of get a sense of how this is working under this new strategy, but we'll reach out to you all as we place a potential additional amendment. 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253
You're welcome. Any other witnesses on this particular bill today? (No response.)
No 9 additional questions. With that, thank you very much for your testimony today. We'll be in touch. Thank you. All right. There being no further questions from the members of the Committee and no other witnesses to testify, I will ask is there anyone else present in this hearing whose name we have failed to call and wishes to offer testimony on the bill being considered today? (No response.)
Hearing none, I want to thank all of the witnesses for their participation. We value your opinion. I now invite all 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 witnesses to please disconnect from the hearing before we go into our public meeting. We will now pause the proceeding briefly as multiple participants; i.e., one, leave the hearing. Thank you very much. And at this time, we will now go into our public meeting to consider the action to be taken on the bill before the Committee today. We will now convene the public meeting. Mr. Christmas, will you please call the roll to take attendance, and members that are in attendance, please indicate by simply saying present or aye.
Good morning, Council President. Good morning, colleagues. I am present.
Good morning, colleagues. Good morning, 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 viewing public. Present.
Good morning, colleagues and Council President. Present.
Present. Thank you very much. We will now go into our public meeting. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Jones for a motion on the amendment to Bill No. 200253.
Now, Council President -- pardon me, Councilman Jones. I just wanted to note that we have circulated the new amendment, which adds in a two-year sunset provision. So 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 that's the amendment that has been circulated that you now have and that we are now considering.
Okay. So is that included in the earlier -- it's just one amendment, right?
No. All of the amendments are in one document, the new amendment.
Thank you. Cool. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Christmas. Quick work.
Thank you, Mr. Christmas. Thank you, Mr. President. I offer an amendment to Bill No. 200253. A copy of that amendment has been circulated to all members of the Committee. I move for the adoption of the amendment to Bill No. 200253. 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 (Duly seconded.)
Thank you. The Chair notes that Councilman Squilla seconded the motion. It's been moved and properly seconded that the amendment to Bill No. 8 200253 be approved. All in favor of the motion signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it, the motion carries, and the amendment to Bill No. 200253 has been approved. The Chair again recognizes Councilmember Jones for a motion on Bill 21 No. 200253, as amended.
Thank you, Mr. President. I move for the adoption to Bill No. 200253, as amended, be approved by this Committee and that the 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 rules of Council be suspended to permit next reading of this bill at our next session of Council. (Duly seconded.)
The Chair notes that Councilman Squilla seconded the motion. It's been moved and properly seconded that Bill No. 200253, as amended, be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation at our next session of Council. All those in favor indicate by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it, the motion carries, and Bill No. 200253, as amended, will be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation with a rules suspension at our next session of 10/18/23 - WHOLE - BILL 200253 Council. That concludes the business before the Committee of the Whole today. Thank you all very much for your participation and your attendance. Thank you. - - - (Committee of the Whole concluded at 10:54 a.m.) - - - CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. -------------------- MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)