I'm here to say why I believe that the Office of Ombudsman needs to be a permanent fixture for the city of Philadelphia --
The reason why I'm here is to testify because I'm a parent of a youth that was placed in residential care. She was placed in over 20 placements as far as Philadelphia County and as far as Texas. Because she has been placed in so many different residential treatments, I learned the language, I learned the behaviors of going to the JJC. I went there so many times I could get call ahead and get her a bed for where her placement was going to be, so she could be closer to me and I could visit and take part in her care. On one occasion while she was in residential care, I got a call from her saying that a staff member called her out for a fight and said, it's on right now. This staff member attacked my child, had a fight. I found out about it three days later because they revoked her phone privileges so she could not contact me or anyone else. At that time I asked her when she did call and tell me about the fight, I said, well, did you receive medical care? She said, no. So I said, was it a report? She said, no. So I further contacted CBH and asked for her medical records. And after a long period of time, I received them to find out that they redacted over 100 or more pages that was just black lines, so it was no record of the assault with anyone. So that is the reason why it's so important for this office to exist, for the parents, for the children and for it to become permanent. Unfortunately, my daughter went into the residential care with attention deficit high hyperactive disorder. But when she was released, she had another diagnosis, PTSD, and other things that went on for the time that she was in residential care. She was in residential care throughout the counties of Philadelphia and as far away as Texas. In being referred to services, you never find out always what the provider does for their specialty. When she got to Texas, she found out that she was in a facility for children who were sexual predators. That was not her diagnosis. So not only did she go to placements that didn't cover her diagnosis and didn't do her correct care, I was always promised that my daughter would be protected and she would get the services that she badly needed and that was a failure. Thank you so much for listening to my testimony today.
Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms. Geneva. We were locating the written version of your testimony so that we can continue to review that as a part of this process. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Yes. Good afternoon, City Council. Well, my name is Jasmine Banks. Good afternoon, City Councilmembers, fellow parents, youth and family advocates. Thank you for this opportunity to testify today and special thanks to you, Councilmember Gauthier, for convening this hearing and to your amazing staff and the staff of Children's First for extending their support behind the scenes. Again, my name is Jasmine Banks and I am a resident of Philadelphia, 7th Council District and the constituent of Councilmember Quetcy Lozada. I'm here to speak on the importance of the Office of the Youth Ombudsperson becoming permanent in the Philadelphia City Charter. I am a person who has raised children, yes, 1-5, and I have adopted five older sons, four the first time and one the second time. I have raised children who live with many diagnoses, including autism, intellectual disability, bipolar, schizophrenia, substance use disorder, conduct disorder, pyromania or as they say, fire-setting disorder, seizure disorder, cerebral palsy, end stage COPD and more. Although I am not a birth parent and have never given birth to a child, I have been in nearly every youth-serving institution, from child welfare, juvenile detention centers, crisis hospitals, group homes, psychiatric residential treatment facilities, youth shelters and even family court. My five adopted children, not including the 2 other children I helped co-raise, 3 have lived in over 50, that's 5-0, 4 of birth family placements, placed 5 in facilities in Utah, Tennessee, 6 Virginia, the Carolinas, Upstate 7 Pennsylvania and in several nearby 8 counties and a few facilities that 9 have since closed down due to the 10 many atrocities that were going on inside those facilities. So I know all too well about the phenomenon school to foster care, to prison, to psychiatric hospitalization, to youth shelters and even to premature death, as two of my adopted sons died prematurely and unnecessarily to me. Marginalized, stigmatized and isolated families like mine live in the shadows. We are invisible to the masses. However, we are in the multi- thousands in Philadelphia County alone. We are hiding in plain sight and desperately need oversight of the organizations we are forced to endure. During our limited time here today, I'd like to share a brief horror story, if I may. It is in the record. It is about just receiving an abrupt SOS-demanding call that I pick my son up from his behavior RTF, residential treatment facility, as soon as possible because the CBH, which is Community Behavior Health insurance, was ending. There was no mention whether his symptoms had improved, and certainly there was no 18 transition plan. But since the insurance ran out, he had to go somewhere. So poor, naive mom jumped up and ran to the front line without any knowledge of what I was doing, without any outside support other than from loving, also clueless, family. The encounter was short like the ending of a financial transaction. I was given a few papers with no clear instructions about next steps, kissed and picked up my son, retrieved his clothes, most of which were missing, given a few prescriptions, one of which was for a psychotropic medication. I never had any medication dispensing training, but at least I knew that this medication was very important. It had to be filled right away. However, I soon learned in horror that my son's insurance was cut off since he had left the out-of-county RTF. And thus, the 30-day prescription could not be filled nor could he receive his much needed wraparound services that he was receiving before going to the RTF. That included therapeutic staff support, mobile therapy and behavior specialist, although he was easily reinstated back into his neighborhood school but unfortunately without services. So the long length of time it took to get the insurance reinstated simply would have been just to call the Department of Welfare and put it back on.
No one was able to do that. Unfortunately, my son had returned to an RTF, to another RTF. At that time, at that RTF there was some bullying that went unaddressed at the facility and my son ended up defending himself, but was referred to the police, while nothing was done to the person who continued to harass and bully him. He was subsequently charged with assault and sent to juvenile detention facility in a nearby county. So therefore he went from a psychiatric facility into juvenile detention. He has never recuperated or recovered from that last RTF placement. He was severely traumatized by many foster care placements before meeting me and then multiple mental health placements after meeting me. Unfortunately, the services were never sufficient or on time to meet his needs. When my teenage son endured this terrifying experience in placement, there was no Office of the Youth Ombudsman person for me to turn to for support, oversight or investigation into the residential treatment facilities he was supposed to be receiving support from. My son needed someone to ensure his treatment goals were being followed. His transition plan was followed. When he was told he could no longer stay there, he needed a safe environment for rehabilitation, free of bullying, intimidation and harassment, to avoid retaliation and potential arrest. We needed someone who strive to prevent youth recidivism and unnecessary family grief and trauma. We needed someone who saw my son's time in RTF as meaningful and him and his family as valued members of the City of Philadelphia who needed the best care and compassion of services available. I have hundreds of horror stories about failed interventions, poor services, treatment and outcomes. But of course, this is not the time to share all of those. But as a front line boots-on-the-ground and self- proclaimed parent survivor, I have gained extensive firsthand knowledge and developed subject matter expertise, although by trauma, grief and fire. I am one of the very lucky, resilient parent survivors of multi-system failures, whose living proof of Nietzsche's famous quote, What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. However, no family should have to endure what I have. That's why I'm here today to speak on behalf of OYO, to ask that you make the OYO office permanent through a Charter change by supporting Bills 215098 and 2151108. Marginalized, stigmatized and invisible families like mine need a consistent organization we can trust and turn to hopefully before a crisis, that will listen to us, work with us and help us to save our children and families, especially when they are in these peculiar institutions, where oversight and accountability are desperately needed, when our youth are young and more likely to have success and positive outcomes. I plan to work with OYO in the future and continue my work with Children's First to ensure birth families and foster and adoptive families don't have to endure the needless suffering, trauma and grief that families like mine have endured. I want us to work together to prevent recidivism and negative statistics of our most vulnerable youth. An OYO combined with Children's First and families may be able to make that meaningful difference. I urge this City Council to move this legislation forward and establish a permanent Office of Youth Ombudsperson in the City of Philadelphia. All children deserve a chance to thrive, not just those who are privileged and healthy. I'd like to end by sharing a quote by the great philosopher who was forced into American slavery, Frederick Douglass, who said, It is easier to build strong children than to prepare broken men. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Thank you. Thank you very much for your testimony and for your commitment, dedicated commitment to your children and to all the adoptees that you've cared for. We appreciate your testimony. Please state your name for the record. Proceed with an abbreviated version of your testimony. We have your testimony here in writing. Thank you very much.
Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Bree Hood. I'm a youth advocate alumni with Juvenile Law Center. I am here because I've done a lot of work around the Office of the Youth Ombudsperson, and I believe that the office should stay in Philadelphia and that I support in making this office permanent. The Office of Youth Ombudsperson is useful in Philadelphia because it is a way for kids that are in the system to have somebody outside of DHS and the facility staff that kids can trust and talk to about ongoing issues they are having with being in the system. Looking back at my experience in the system and experience and all the trauma I faced, I wish I had this office sooner. From being abused, bullied by both staff and other youth, separated from my family, not receiving good education and going through many different mental health problems, this office could have helped me. I couldn't talk to or trust facility staff and management. Maybe if I had this office when I was in care, this office could have solved a lot of problems and maybe I would have less trauma and PTSD. This is why this office is important. Many kids experience mental health problems and don't have nobody to talk to or listen to and this is why they don't speak up. Back in 2018, I worked with other youth advocates at Juvenile Law Center to develop a publication called Broken Bridges, which told the stories of me and peers and our experiences within the juvenile justice system. This publication included topics we experienced such as physical abuse, physical restraint, strip searches, solitary confinement and much more. Philadelphia established a citywide task force to investigate these issues. Me and my colleagues then worked on advocacy to introduce money into the city budget for a local Office of the Youth Ombudsperson. This is an independent office not funded by DHS or any government-related agency to ensure the well-being of the children within the system. I think it is important because we need somebody who looks out for the well-being of the youth within the system. Youth experience all sorts of things such as abuse, racism, discrimination, being bullied, mental health issues and many more issues. Sometimes the facility staff do not care what is happening to these young people, and that's why they feel alone and have nobody to talk to. It is important to have this office because children can report anything that is being done to them, an office can properly investigate without the children's information being disclosed to the facility and staff. The office has done all sorts of things, like visiting these facilities, meeting and talking with youth one-on-one, given surveys to make sure their needs are properly met, giving them basic Know Your Rights training and much more. The OYO has been very helpful in keeping youth partners in the loop of what's been happening and hopefully more positive outcomes will happen in the future. We have continued working with them by giving them feedback on their surveys and presentation. Also, last year our office created a video with information on why the OYO office is important, which they use during their presentations to youth. I believe that this office needs to be permanent because without this office, who is really going to care and look out for our youth. Somebody has to make sure they are safe if our own system isn't doing the job. The office is independent, which makes it easier for the youth to be candid and talk to the OYO staff. These facilities continue to do more harm than good, but this office can talk to the youth, investigate and make sure these youth are having their needs met, that they are not being harmed and are getting proper education. I hope you all can support in making this office permanent to help support our youth within these systems.
And I also just want to shout out Tracy and the office for all the hard work they've done, because obviously our own system is failing the youth, but they're not. Thank you. )
Thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your work with Juvenile Law Center. Thank you for sharing your story. We wish you certainly very well in your career where we know you'll continue to advocate on behalf of other youth who are in similar circumstances. So kudos to you for turning your pain and your lived experience into your life's work. We appreciate you. Any questions for these witnesses? Chair now -- no 3 questions from the committee? (No response.)
Okay. Chair now recognizes Councilmember Gauthier.
I don't have a question. I just wanted to thank all of you for being here and sharing pretty heavy, tough experiences that are very personal, but sharing it will help other people. So thank you for your passion and your commitment. Also, I wanted to give a thank you to Bree for joining us in Harrisburg in the spring to advocate for more diversion programs in our state and to advocate for Representative Krajewski's bill around diversion, which actually passed the State House the other day. And so, it's just proof -- (Applause.)
It's just proof that your advocacy and sharing your stories really, really work and is making a difference. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Thank you very much for your testimony and thank you for being here. Will the Clerk please call the final panel that we will hear from today.
Will Kimberly Ali and Tracy Johnson please approach. Written testimony was also submitted by the Community Behavioral Health.
Okay. Thank you to Community Behavioral Health for submitting written testimony, which we will include as an addendum to this hearing transcript. Thank you, Commissioner Kimberly Ali. Thank you, Tracy Johnson, our Youth Ombudsperson for the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability Services. I'm old school in council, so typically I always do the administrative panels first. I have to say this for the record. But we had to accommodate the other witnesses that were joining us from Los Angeles and from other places. And so, I apologize because I know your time is very valuable. I don't take that for granted. I respect the work that you all do each and every day. It is very hard work. It's not easy. I know stepping away for all of these hours is very difficult. So I want to say thank you personally to you for your willingness to allow us to accommodate those other witnesses first. So thank you, thank you, thank you. So state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony. COMMISSIONER ALI: So good afternoon. My name is Kimberly Ali. Good afternoon, Chairperson Katherine Gilmore, Richardson, Vice-Chairperson Kendra Brooks, Councilmember Jamie Gauthier and members of the Committee on Law and Government. My name is Kimberly Ali and I have the honor of serving as Commissioner for the Phillips Department of Human Services, DHS. Joining me today is Brittan Hallar, Chief of Performance Management and Technology, PMT, and Dr. Gary D. Williams, Deputy Commissioner for Juvenile Justice Services as well as other members of my team. Today we are here to provide testimony on Bill No. 4 251098 and Resolution No. 251108, a measure that proposes an amendment to the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter making the Office of the Youth Ombudsperson a permanent office. The Philadelphia Department of Human Services is the county's child welfare and juvenile justice agency. Our mission is to serve Philadelphia's children, youth and families and communities by building on their strengths and advancing safe and supportive environments. DHS's four main goals are to have more children and youth remain safely in their own homes and communities, more children and youth reunified timely or achieve other permanency, a decrease in the number of youth in residential care and improve children youth and family well-being. Since 2017, DHS has worked has worked diligently to improve the outcomes for children, youth and families, which is evidenced by the 5651 families that were referred to diversionary services in FY25, which provided the families with supportive services to prevent their involvement with child welfare and juvenile justice services, the 1569 children who are currently receiving inhome services in their own communities to prevent them from being separated from their parents. A 63% reduction in the number of children and youth in child welfare placement, from 6194 children in 2017 to 2298 children in child welfare placement today. A 77% reduction in youth placed in child welfare residential placement from 752 youth in 2017 to 168 youth today. And a Philadelphia Juvenile Justice Services Center that has been at or below our licensed capacity of 184 youth since June of 2024. I am happy to report that the PJJSC has 103 young people held there today. DHS has a robust monitoring infrastructure for all providers that is managed by a performance management and technology division. Our service concern unit conducts assessments that address contract, program and/or service delivery quality issues. Assessments require analysts to interview youth and staff, gather data, visit facilities and review files. Depending on the findings of an assessment, providers are required to implement a corrective action plan. We recognize that it is essential that youth and their families have a clear path to express their concerns and for their voices to be heard.
Given this, DHS Commissioner's Action Response Office, or CARO, plays a critical role in assisting youth families and the community with questions, concerns or complaints about services provided by DHS and its contractor providers. The work that DHS does to elevate the voices of children, youth and families is aligned with the purpose of the Office of Youth Ombudsperson. The OYO was established by Executive Order 522 under former Mayor James Kenney on November 30, 2022. For the past three years, DHS has worked in partnership with the OYO to develop a memorandum of understanding that allows for the sharing of data and the development of a protocol with clearly-defined roles and responsibilities between DHS and the OYO. The protocol established new processes, such as building a secure internal SharePoint site to streamline collaboration, upload investigation materials, schedule visits to residential providers and to review active inquiry reports and debrief cases. Since January of 2024, PMT has investigated and reviewed a total of OYO 15 inquiries. 16 In closing, DHS will 17 continue to work collaboratively 18 with the Office of Youth 19 Ombudsperson to ensure the safety 20 and well-being of all youth and 21 residential placement. I want to 22 thank you for allowing me to 23 testify. My team and I are here 24 and available to answer any questions. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you very much, Commissioner Ali. We will now take your testimony and then we'll have questions from the panel.
Good afternoon, Chairperson Gilmore Richardson and Vice-Chairperson Kendra Brooks as well as Councilmember Landau, Councilmember Phillips and Councilmember Gauthier and members of the Committee on Law and Government. My name is Tracy Johnson, and I am the Youth Ombudsperson for the Office of the Youth Ombudsperson or OYO for short. We are here today to discuss the importance of making the OYO permanent because Philadelphia has learned rather painfully what happens when youth residential placement facilities go unchecked, and we only need to look to Glen Mills, Devereaux and Wordsworth to understand the devastating impact of inadequate oversight. In each case, there was sexual abuse, emotional abuse and physical abuse that ensued for years before finally leading to facility closures, investigative reporting, lawsuits, arrests and ultimately, the creation of the Office of the Youth Ombudsperson via an Executive Order on November 30, 2022. As background, in April 2021 youth with lived experience and placement testified before this very Council asking for our office to be created so that current youth in placement would be protected before harm escalates into tragedy. Bree is one of the young people who are a part of that group of young people who testified back then. And since then, the Youth Residential Placement Task Force has disbanded and the momentum around oversight has waned. So today, Bree has come back before you all to ask that you make our office permanent so that our work endures in perpetuity. They are asking -- Bree and also the parents are asking for you to make this office permanent, to ensure that oversight is not reactive, temporary or crisis- driven, but rather visible, preventive and consistent. Since April 2023, I have led this critical agency and our small and mighty team, right here in the front row, to ensure and promote the safety and well-being of young people in placement. I'm honored to testify before you today on the importance of our office and why you should vote in favor of Bill No. 251098 and Resolution No. 4 251108. First, permanence for OYO means stronger oversight, stronger protection of youth rights, earlier identification of youth safety and well-being concerns and an enhanced oversight of how city agencies assess complaints and hold contracted providers accountable. Second, permanence means protecting the city's investment by preventing facility failures, litigation and emergency interventions that cost far more than the proactive oversight that we are offering. Third, permanence means preserving the city's institutional knowledge of oversight by capturing patterns of harm, recurring rights violations and youth-reported experiences across providers as youth exit placement and staff change and facility change. That's a lot of what Donna talked about, right. Facilities will go away and come back by a different name, and someone needs to track this history. In just under three years, the OYO team has proven our value. With only a team of five, we have educated over 200 young people in placement on their rights, we have surveyed over 150 young people on their experiences, and we have educated over 200 parents, including the parents who testified today. We've put on two stakeholder presentations for parents working with Child First as well as direct service professionals. So there's juvenile probation officers, CUA workers and children's lawyers all talking about youth rights and how the trusted adults can file complaints on young people's behalf with our office. And by centering youth voice and applying relevant laws such as the 3800 regulations that govern the care and treatment of youth in placement, we have identified systemic issues that directly impact the quality of youth care.
As many of you know, and as Donna mentioned earlier, we discovered that the Philadelphia Juvenile Justice Services Center wasn't properly and overly employing the use of seclusion, which is the practice of holding youth in a locker room by themselves often for hours, right. This is a restrictive procedure. This practice was in direct violation of the 3000 regulations, and our team worked closely with PJJSC leadership, who we recognize who are here today, as well as Philadelphia DHS and their PMT team to bring the facility into compliance. And I just want to note that I've met with young people who were formerly at the JJSC and are currently in other placements, and they've talked about the times when seclusion was rampant, and then one day the policies change and it stopped happening as often. And so, it was really helpful to hear in realtime from young people that they benefited from this policy change. We are currently working to address inadequate language access for non-English speaking youth across providers and we are awaiting to see what corrective action will come against the providers who are failing to provide that support. We're also working on ongoing barriers to educational stability and group homes and the improper use of restraints as a restrictive procedure in a certain juvenile facility. The OYO has introduced richer, more in-depth standards for how the city addresses youth rights, ensuring youth voice and experiences are considered, that provider policies are reviewed and site visits occur in every case regardless of distance. Youth deserve more than quality assurance checklists and compliance guidelines. They deserve investigative oversight that shows up, digs in, holds the line and asks the tough questions. That is the unique and essential difference that OYO brings to the oversight space. Unfortunately, under the executive order OYO lacks independent investigative authority. That means we must rely on city agencies to provide access to information needed to carry out our oversight role. This limits access, challenges authorities and causes confusion around roles. Permanence, through the Home Rule Charter, would clarify authority, formalize access and ensure that oversight responsibilities are clearly defined and consistently applied. I hope that this legislation will affirm Philadelphia's commitment to protecting youth in care, not only in response to past tragedies, but as a lasting safeguard to prevent future harm. Thank you, Councilmember Gauthier, for introducing this legislation and Councilmembers Phillips, Thomas, Landau, Lozada, Brooks, O'Rourke and Ahmad for co-sponsoring this important legislation. Thank you, City Council, for inviting me to speak before you today. And lastly, I urge City Council to vote in favor of Bill 8 No. 251098 and Resolution 251108 to ensure that the protection this office provides cannot and will not be undone. Thank you again for your time.
Thank you. Thank you very much for your testimony and the work of your office since 2023. I apologize for having to take the call, trying to do school pickup and my daughter didn't get to Reading camp yet. So thank you very, very much for your testimony and for your work. And to Commissioner Ali, to you and to your wonderful team and the department and your office that sort of works to ensure that any complaints that are coming in that you all are facilitating those complaints throughout your office and working in collaboration with our Youth Ombudsperson but also our youth-facing organizations in the city. We certainly appreciate your work. Are there any questions for this panel from members of the committee? Chair -- you have a question too? Okay. Chair recognizes Councilmember Landau and then Councilmember Phillips.
Thank you. Thanks so much for being here. First, to Tracy Johnson, my fellow CLS alum, you're doing something right when you're getting accolades across the country. So congratulations and thank you for the great work that you've done. Your commitment is so clear and I really appreciate the working relationship that you have with DHS and that you both have found a way to move this forward. And it's almost a second set of eyes that you have here. So that is fantastic. I wanted to know what will create -- making the office permanent -- what will additional work look like for you if we make it permanent? And also, what kind of resources will you need to make that happen?
Yeah. So making the office permanent, of course it ensures that we cannot be wiped out by any future administrations. And so, I think that the permanence also speaks to what Michelle testified about as she's a Board member of the USOA, so ensuring that there is independence, a credible review process, confidentiality and the impartiality as well. But it's the independence that makes it strong. To ensure that we are able to exist without any undue influence or pressure. As I stated before in the testimony, our executive order does have limits as to our role and our authority. And I know that the Charter -- the ordinance has been -- there's an enabling legislation that will be written that will have more clarity around what our authority and jurisdiction will be, and that will provide greater and stronger support than what's currently written in the executive order. The Commissioner is correct, that we have an existing MOU and an interagency protocol. The interagency protocol we are currently revisiting because we've learned a lot over the past three years about, hey, it didn't necessarily predict this issue or that issue. So we're currently working to return to that. But most importantly, permanence gives us that greater independence to be able to do our work without fear.
Excellent. Thank you, Councilmember Landau. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Phillips and then Councilmember Gauthier.
I'm going to be really quick. In the legislation it mentions that -- thank you so much, Chairwoman. You're supposed to prepare an annual report on your activities, goals and accomplishments. I'm not sure if I missed it, but I haven't received a copy in our office if it has. Is that something you normally do?
Yeah, it's always by the end of April. And so, we have a year review for our first year in 2023. We have an annual report available online from 2024. And then the annual report for 2025 will be available this April.
Is this something that you can publish in print and bring to Council offices at some point?
Oh, yeah. It's published online and I believe that we made it available to you all when we came to testify before City Council a couple of months back.
Okay. Thank you so much. And I'll put on the record I'm very curious to learn more about outreach strategies to make sure this information is there and so forth. And then I also would love to hear more -- I heard testimony of people who could have used the Ombuds Office. But I would love to hear from testimony from people who benefit from your advocacy as well.
Just want to note for the record, a lot of our young people are still actively in care. And so, that is sometimes hard to get young people who are actively still in systems to be able to talk about their experiences. But that is something to note in terms of wanting to work with parent groups and youth advisory groups to think about when will young people be comfortable speaking up about those experiences.
Can you say their names -- like, not their names. So say Person X, Person Z without telling their story? Is that confidentiality or just -- you can't say Person X and Z?
Later on, not right now. But in the future, for confidentiality without saying their names or where they're from, their stories, can you share that with us at all?
It's okay. I'll follow up with you later about it. I just want to see the impact. I do want to know more about that. I know there's impact, but I just want to tell people about it.
Thank you. Thank you so much to our Chair of our Children and Youth Committee, Councilman Phillips. The Chair will recognize Councilmember Gauthier very briefly to get a question on the record because we do have to go into the public meeting now.
Thank you. So first, thanks to both of you. Thank you so much, Commissioner Ali. You have a tough job but an important job. We appreciate you. And you've been an incredible partner and we're lucky to have your partnership on this. (Applause.)
And, Tracy, you're a rock star. I don't know what else to say. Thank you for standing up this office and for all this work, especially around PJJSC, which is in my district, and I feel a level of responsibility for. And thanks to our IG DeSantis as well. Very quickly, I wanted to know if you could quickly, quickly answer the part of Councilmember Landau's question that you missed. What resources do you need? It's very important that we get that on record.
Yeah. I was so happy to hear Michelle testify that they have three staff members and have a budget of $1.3 million to do that work. And a lot of the budget that she testified about is covered by the state. And as far as printing materials, like the materials that we have on that Board, that comes from our budget, right. When we have to travel to facilities, we actually travel with PMT's team to a facility four hours away and we had to stay overnight. So that's hotel cost, that's gas, that's cars. We have over 430 young people in care. We have over 70-plus locations to visit, right. We have visited multiple far-away facilities multiple times. And so, I would love to see the budget allocation that was originally written for $1 million. I think that that would be a healthy starting point for us to do our work. Because also as Michelle said, we have jurisdiction over child welfare group homes, psychiatric residential treatment facilities and juvenile placement, and we're doing that with a team of five.
Our budget right now, it was $500,000 due to your advocacy. It increased to $600,000.
Thank you. Thank you very much, Councilmember Gauthier. Thank you again for sponsoring this legislation. And thank you both for your testimony. We appreciate you being here. So we are now going to conclude the public hearing temporarily so that we can vote on the legislation. I will go back into the public hearing after we go into the public meeting to accommodate our Councilmembers' schedules, as we have been here almost four hours. Okay. So thank you very much for that accommodation. We will now begin the public meeting on the previously mentioned bill and resolution. Clerk, will you please call the roll to take attendance. And members that are in attendance will indicate that they are present when their name is called.
Present. A quorum of the committee is present. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Brooks for a motion on the amendment to Resolution No. 13 251108.
I offer an amendment to Resolution 16 524 -- I'm sorry, 251108. A copy of the amendment has been circulated to all members of the committee. I move that the amendment to Resolution 251108 be approved. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that the amendment to Resolution No. 251108 be approved. All those in favor of this amendment to Resolution No. 6 251108, say aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the motion carries. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Brooks for a motion on Resolution No. 251108 as amended.
Thank you, Chair. I move for Resolution 21 251108 as amended be reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that the amendment to Resolution No. 251108 as amended be approved. All those in favor of the motion will indicate by stating aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the motion to the amendment on Resolution No. 251108 is approved. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Brooks for a motion on Bill No. 251098.
Thank you, Chair. I move that Bill No. 23 251098 be reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that Bill No. 10 251098 be reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended as to permit first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. All those in favor of the motion will indicate by stating aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the motion carries. Bill No. 3 251098 will be reported from this committee with a favorable recommendation. We will now proceed to go back into the public meeting and the public hearing to hear any witnesses to give public comment.
Robert Drowery, please approach. (Witness approached witness table.)
Please approach the witness table. State your name for the record. Proceed with your testimony. Is there anyone else here to testify on Bill No. 251098 or Resolution No. 251108? Any additional witnesses for public comment? (No response.)
Thank you. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Good afternoon, Council. My name is Robert Gray and I'm here to testify just to give a little bit of public testimony in reference to 251098. I think that it is incredibly imperative that we listen to the streets and the streets are talking right now. We see people out there every day struggling. I work at a restaurant downtown. I've seen youth in there and they need support. I think this office can greatly have an impact on our community. Just the other day there was a young woman who was downtown and she seemed to have a mental disability, and her clothes were tattered and she seemed to have really been going through it, is the best way I can put it. I called the Youth Ombuds Office actually to see if there was someone there. But it was a weekend. So that just shows that we have a need that's greater than just Monday through Friday and we need people in place that are going to actually use these resources and actually care for the citizens of Philadelphia. So in reference to 251098, I just wanted to be a voice of the people and say that we are in support of this, and citizens do want to see the quality of life for the youth improve, especially in youth, any public service or DHS or perhaps they just have a rough home life, let's say. We need to work with the schools and the City Council to get this done. Thank you. That's all I have on this bill.
Thank you. Thank you very much for providing your public comment. Thank you for being here and thank you also for your patience. We appreciate you being here. Seeing no further witnesses this afternoon, we appreciate each and every one of you. We will now move to conclude the business of this hearing. As there are no further bills or resolutions on the agenda, we'll conclude the business before the Committee on Law and Government today. We thank you all for your attendance and also for your participation.
One moment before we officially conclude. Sir, if you have a question, you have to come to the table. You have to come to the table, restate your name for the record and then proceed with the comment that you'd like to make.
Pardon me. I'm new to this. So my name is Robert Gray once again and I did have testimony to offer in reference to 260029, the resolution 12 authorizing the Committee on Law and Government to hold the hearing on the process to resolve tangled title in the City of Philadelphia.
Okay. That'll be great. We are not hearing that matter currently. That matter was heard first and not second. I will ask since you have a written copy of the testimony, that you provide that to the Clerk of this committee so that we can include it as an addendum to the transcript of this committee hearing.
I thank you very much for your understanding. Appreciate you being here on both matters. As there are no further witnesses to testify, no further bills or resolutions on the agenda today, this now concludes the business before the Committee on Law and Government. We thank you all for being here. Have a good day. (Committee on Law and Government concluded at 4:50 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. ______________________________ TANEHA CARROLL