What would be the consequences of not hiring that person?
Well, that would be less administrative support for the Commissioner. 60 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc.
Okay. It appears there were four 3-1-1 Contact Center agent positions in January. Have those been filled?
Good morning again. Those positions have just recently been filled.
I would say as we compare this year, January and February of this year to last year, we've had a 50 percent increase in call volume. Without those additional positions, we will have customers remaining in queue or on hold for longer periods of time and we would 61 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. be unable to perform the basic service of the Contact Center.
I have additional questions, Madam President, but I'll come back.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Clarke.
Tom, the issue with respect to vacant lots -- and I want to thank you for your quick response when we call and ask for some assistance on various issues. 62 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. Vacant lots and graffiti removal, ideally if you were in a position to get a significant number of employees traditionally during the season, which is the summer months, how many could you use, if someone said right now you can have a whole bunch of --
Sky's the limit? When we first initiated the program back in, I think, 2001, 2002, we had roughly a hundred employees just solely for the vacant lot program, and that year we did clean roughly 31,000 vacant lots.
Were you able to get to all of the lots during the course of the year?
But unfortunately given -- if you can get 63 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. 200, 300 employees this summer, would you be able to accommodate the supervision?
No? What would it take for you to accommodate the supervision?
We would need to create more supervisor positions. We actually need more equipment and vehicles to transport them.
All right. The reason I ask this, because the potential availability of the stimulus workers as a result of the Philadelphia Workforce Development Corporation, I believe they're going to be asking for 5,000 slots to provide opportunities to for-profit, non-profit, CDCs and I understand the City. What's the maximum we can get? Because our concern is that -- and I know Councilman Jones has been working on this as a team member of the City stimulus 64 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. program -- that it could conceivably, assuming that every organization took four employees, that we'd be looking for 1,200 employers. So we really need to be in the position to get a few employers that will take a lot of people, and I just thought about the ability of the City to have these people going to work, cleaning graffiti, which, as you know, is closely approaching out-of-control proportions, and vacant lots. What's your interaction with, I guess, Jenny -- what's her name?
Yes, we did meet with Jenny, and at this time, with the current funding level that I do have, we were able to come up with a number of about 25.
But also keep in mind we are going to be working with the Prison System.
The Prison System with regards to non-violent offenders. Three days a week we're going to have prison folks coming out to assist with cleaning the vacant lots, and that's at two separate locations. So that will be six additional teams this year.
Okay. I guess my point is is that I want to -- my preference, if we can get people jobs -- and I forget how much they pay, up to $13 an hour?
I really would like to maximize that opportunity, 66 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. because the worst thing we can do is not take advantage of stimulus dollars. And I think apparently the match, the City's match, is percent, but the 20 percent 6 can be supervisory. 7
Right. The 8 in-kind contribution of the supervisor 9 counts as the in-kind match. 10
So I guess 11 I'm saying, is there a way that we can go 12 way beyond the 25? 13
I mean, at this 14 time, we would need to hire additional 15 supervisors for sure. With regards to 16 equipment, we don't have that on hand 17 right now. We actually have to get 18 vehicles to transport the individuals, 19 which is a large portion of the 20 operation. Logistically --
-- it would be very hard to set up in a short period of time, because I do believe the funding is 67 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. set to expire at the end of September unless it was approved for additional funding.
The Chair recognizes Councilman Green for a point of information.
No, I don't mean it that way. Couldn't current employees serve as supervisors even though we're not making them supervisors, and instead of having half your crews or send out three of your regular people or two of your regular people or one of your regular people and ten other kids, as one example? And another -- there are school buses that are empty during the summer. I mean, we have to get creative in order to make sure we are able to take 68 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. advantage of the stimulus dollars, and I keep hearing the same bureaucratic response, which is, Here is the problem, and what I'd like to hear you say is --
No. I was actually in the process of getting to that point before the Councilman assisted me, to ask about some creative ideas. I just wanted to make sure that I knew what the problem was before we talked about potential solutions, although I concur with the Councilman, but I was going to 69 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. get there eventually. If we're talking about a short term, because I understand right now it conceivably will expire in September, but there is likelihood that they may continue, because Congresswoman Schwartz is apparently a key member of that committee that funds that particular program. There's a likelihood that it will be extended. As Councilman Green said in my stead, could we come up with a significant strategy, a creative strategy, on expanding those opportunities? Because I would hate to think that we lose opportunities to put a lot of people to work and do good things and getting the City clean and sending the message to these knucklehead graffiti artists, is what they call themselves, that we're not going to allow them to continue to deface our city. And as long as we continue not to respond, they're going to basically take the position that 70 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. they run this city, they own this city and continue to aggressively mar the looks of our city. So can we kind of sit down and talk about that? Because I just hate to have to send the money back.
Because at the rate we're going, we're not going to get the 5,000 slots.
No, and I think, again, the logistics of it, it's not as simple as just putting the individuals in the bus. There's safety issues, liability issues and, of course, supervision issues. Roughly, you need about six employees to one supervisor with regards to doing vacant lots in the City of Philadelphia.
So you're talking about a substantial number of folks that we need to hire to supervise them in a 71 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. very short period of time. I mean, it's not saying it cannot happen, but --
Well, my understanding that there are a number of other organizations that do that work, like Self, Incorporated --
-- beyond the City workforce -- Ready, Willing and Able -- that we can count on them, that we can funnel that workforce through us and have them subcontract, not for money purposes but subcontract that activity in terms of supervisory, in terms -- I mean, Ready, Willing and Able, they have buses. Self has buses, transportation. I mean, we got to get creative. I mean, there are ways of doing this, and I hate to think that just because we can't transport people to the vacant lots or the graffiti removal site that we lose this opportunity.
Well, I'd definitely love to sit down and explore 72 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. it with you.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman Kelly.
I just want to go over a few things that you mentioned in your testimony. I was surprised that -- you may have to have a 7.5 reduction in your budget, but I was surprised that you're going to pick on one of the programs that I think has been doing a tremendous job in the City of Philadelphia. And at this time, I'd like to commend your Deputy, 73 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. Mr. Conway, for doing an excellent job running it. It's a good department. We always -- any time we call there, we had I think an immediate and timely response to our service needs. I would like to know -- you mention that the reduction would cause you to reduce the Graffiti Paint and Supply Voucher Program. Would this reduce any personnel? Would there be a reduction in personnel?
It would be 150,348 for the reduction in the purchase of equipment and supplies and a reduction of an additional 290,681 for the free bags and the gloves for community 74 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. clean-up.
So it's around 450,000, somewhere around there, the savings. Could you specify the list of contracts that would be eliminated?
No. I'm talking about the roughly, you say, 250,000 would be eliminated.
Yes. That reduction is in the professional services that support the implementation of reform team implementation, probably in the time and attendance system, but there are several other reform initiatives that need to be implemented and would require an investment.
Okay. I would just like to get on to your 3-1-1 75 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. system. You mention here you're investing approximately 500,000 in capital dollars. Are you spending that now? Is that budgeted?
It is more than a study. It is an implementation plan. We have to do an assessment of what we need, and we need to look at both our telephone technology as well as our information systems technology. We'll do that, and the 500,000 ought to also enable us to begin the implementation based on that analysis.
How are your personnel trained for 3-1-1? We have some problems. For instance, I want to 76 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. give you one. One of my staff members called the information -- one of our constituents called, for instance, and it was about a stray animal. Your operator searches the knowledge center, I believe?
And they in turn, the operator would notify the person to call PACA. Now, PACA hasn't been around for at least over a year, a year and a half. So I'm thinking about updating. How is your system updated as to getting the updated information to give a constituent?
That's a good question. Our staff works with the various departments and agencies within the City and outside of the City to ensure our knowledge base is updated with accurate and correct information. Whenever it is found that the information in our system is incorrect, we have a knowledge base liaison that actually contacts the agency to ensure that we get 77 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. the correct information in our system. So that's how that process works.
The knowledge base is updated by contacting either the department or the agency who first provided --
We do it every day, on a regular basis. We'll contact agencies if we find out -- right now we have over 4,000 articles in our knowledge base systems, and sometimes the information that we have, the departmental information may have changed, and what we do is, we contact the department or the department may contact us to provide us updated information within our systems.
If you do that every day, why wouldn't your operator know that PACA has been out of 78 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. business and the current information would be to contact the SPCA? And I'm sure that there have been probably, oh, I don't know, in a month's time, there probably could be 100, 150 calls made to your operator.
I will go back and research and find out what exactly is in our knowledge base and bring that answer back.
Thank you again, Madam President. What I want to know is with the deregulation of electric coming in '11, we pay for a lot of street lights, and Councilman Clarke and I, at his leadership, have begun to look at the process of an authority that would put the City of Philadelphia in a better 79 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. position to negotiate energy rates, but is there a plan out of your office to deal with this impending budgetary impact?
Yes, and Deputy Mayor Rina Cutler will describe our preparation. (Witness approached witness table.) DEPUTY
Good morning. For the record, Rina Cutler, Deputy Mayor, Transportation and Utilities. Councilman, we are in the process of trying to complete a business plan in anticipation of electric rates, caps, coming off at the end of the year. We have recently hired, through a grant, a new energy manager. The gentleman we hired is paid for out of our funds. His previous employment was procuring energy for Amtrak as well as several school systems in New Jersey. So we are completing a plan in 80 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. order to go on the street and do the purchasing of energy for the City sometime before the end of the year.
And have you put together some scenarios? If left unchecked -- we don't have a real big discount with PECO at this point, do we? DEPUTY
I think we're paying -- currently, it's a 15 percent discount that will obviously go away at the end of the year.
What is our energy consumption by way of electric annually now? DEPUTY
I do not have that number, Councilman. It is 81 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. actually handled out of -- it will be handled out of individual departments going forward as of, I believe, July. It is currently all within Public Property, I believe.
But not just that, we also pay for street lighting, correct? DEPUTY
We do, but it is part of the overall City -- the bill for street lighting, I believe, is just in excess of about $3 million a year, and I believe there's another -- don't hold me to it, but around a million for traffic signals as well.
So we're talking about, minimum, round-about figures, five million. I won't hold you to that, but if we're talking about $5 million and a 15 percent increase, that's 82 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. substantial. And as Councilman Clarke's visionary plan to look at these options, we're talking about the triangle complex as an example of how we can reduce our energy consumption, and it may have ramifications if we start talking about police stations, fire stations, rec centers, and I know we did the Novesco -- is that Invesco? DEPUTY
ESCO. And they are looking and auditing or looking at how we audit those buildings. I think all of that information, as we start planning our Five Year Plan, is probably equal in importance if we start accompanying gas prices and consumption of heating bills, as important second only to our staffing costs. DEPUTY
Well, I think that's correct. We are -- in fact, 83 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. the numbers you just talked about for street lights and the number I talked about for street lights and traffic signals is actually a very small part of the City's overall energy consumption in all of its buildings. There are 12,000 individually metered City-owned buildings.
Can you give us a rough estimate of what that is? I would hope you would provide that figure to the President, but can you give us a rough estimate of what we're talking about? DEPUTY
I think it's around $37 million for the current fiscal year. So that is before the caps come off.
So with a 15 percent possible increase there and possibly other utility companies to follow, our planning going forward is as important as our labor negotiations, to say the least. We have the ability, if 84 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. we do this right -- and I've had some preliminary conversations with Councilman Clarke, and, again, I give him kudos for his forward thinking -- to eventually reverse that and even sell energy back to the grid. DEPUTY
Well, I mean, I think there are a number of different issues here. In order to sell energy back to the grid, we need to be producing it, and I think there are a variety of ways that we are currently looking at in terms of putting a business plan together as to whether we go out into the wholesale part of the business or whether we purchase it on the retail part of the business, how we manage both the conservation side, which is through the Office of Sustainability, or the procurement side, which will run through my office. So I think there are a lot of moving parts to it, but certainly with 12,000 individual meters and rate caps 85 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. coming off, I would agree with you that the future procurement of power is going to need to be managed very tightly in order not to become another budget buster for us.
Just as a closing comment, as Transportation Chair and Public Utilities, we need to look at that holistically to see whether or not some of these utilities can work out in the reverse of us being purveyors, sellers of energy to smaller municipalities. DEPUTY
I'm happy to have a conversation about it. I think the City needs to be somewhat cautious about becoming a utility, because I think there are some severe risks financially to becoming a utility and having to manage our own version of non-payment. And so I do think there are -- there is one version which really has us become a provider of energy ourselves. There's another version that has us be able to 86 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. produce some of our own power and sell the excess back to the grid after we've used our own. There's another version where we will need to figure out what alternative energy sources are that we want to pick up and try to wean ourselves a little more off electricity. So I think there are a variety of pieces to it. It is my office's hope that within the next two months, we will have a business plan drafted, and at that point, we are planning on holding a briefing for Council before anything else.
Necessity is the mother of invention, and with deregulation, it's going to become a necessity, but I also think it is the birth place of opportunity, and if we look at this correctly, some of the low-income people in the City of Philadelphia may be the unintended or intended beneficiary of your work. So I'm going to be looking at what you do 87 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. with an eye towards it's deregulation on us, but it's also deregulation on the rest of the citizens in the City of Philadelphia. Thank you, Madam President.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown.
Thank you, Madam President. Is there anything else either one of you might want to say on Councilman Jones' question or concern regarding -- DEPUTY
Well, I do think it's going to become a fairly big focal point for the Administration and the City, not only because we're likely to have to pay more in terms of procurement, but the how we procure it, the who we procure it from, and all of 88 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. which utilities are regulated by the PUC. And so I think there are a lot of pieces to it. I would agree I think there also needs to be a fairly major public information program. I think it's pretty clear to me at this point that the public is not -- they may be aware that electric caps come off, but they're not necessarily aware that they can go out into the market and procure energy, or should. PECO will have a rate, as they are required to do under the PUC legislation, but it will be a rate of last resort. We do not expect that that is the best rate anybody can get. And so I think part of what needs to happen going forward is, there really also needs to be a public information campaign that starts to prepare the citizens for that pretty dramatic way of doing business is really going to change for them.
Who do you think might be best suited to undertake 89 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. the massive -- that would be a massive deep reach to help citizens get ready for this? Should it be the City? Should it be the Office of Consumer Affairs? Should it be PECO? Because then you have to look at who is going to foot the bill 8 for that. So who do you think is best suited? DEPUTY
Well, I think the message is the simpler one. Obviously the cost of that public information campaign, I am hoping, is not in fact borne by the City. So I think there are a number of mechanisms by which citizens can and should be informed and whether they are the utility company itself. Much of the advertisement you're seeing now is from additional energy providers, not PECO, who want to come into the market. And so you're just starting to see advertisements going to citizens in order to get them to change their provider from PECO. So I think 90 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. there is a way to corral all of the folks who wish to provide energy to residents and businesses in Philadelphia, and that hopefully will be part of the business plan as well.
When do you anticipate completion of the plan? DEPUTY
And is there any model of some other municipality that is doing this right already? DEPUTY
There are several. We are the last, I think, of the big cities who have a rate cap still in place.
We've been meeting with folks in Boston and Baltimore and at least in the northeast corridor, Washington, DC, because their energy rate caps came off some months 91 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. ago, some years ago. So we are trying to follow their models as well.
Okay, then. Three hundred eighty-seven thousand nine hundred fifty dollars was in overtime by the Transportation and Utilities, holiday overtime. What might that have been attributed to?
There's overtime for Police in the Youth Violence Reduction Partnership, and there is additional overtime in CLIP.
Okay. Speaking of Police, with the recent -- and I know that discussions are preliminary under the leadership of Councilman Frank DiCicco, but with this new dilemma the City is facing, flash mobs and young people communicating via the social network, and there's a 92 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. decrease in the budget -- let me get this right. I believe I saw a decrease in the budget for the supervision of supportive high-risk youth. Now, that decision, I'm sure, was made prior to this new dilemma that the City is facing with young people. So has there been any discussion internally to reconcile that, that budget decrease with this new dilemma with young people?
I think the budget decrease that you're referring to is what we would have to do if we took the seven and a half percent cuts. Our proposal doesn't include those cuts. So our proposal to you is that the funding remain there. And Deputy Mayor Gillison can talk about some of our recent efforts with the Police in terms of dealing with flash mobs.
Okay. Please. (Witness approached witness table.) 93 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. DEPUTY
Yes. As you know -- again, Everett Gillison, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety. Yes. We have been meeting not only with various merchants, as Councilman DiCicco knows, have been both e-mailing and doing our own sense of social networking in order to make sure that we keep ahead of this as much as we can. But, yes, the Police Commissioner, myself, the Mayor, we've been discussing different ways of increasing the flexibility of the force that is down in that area. We want to make sure that we keep a citywide presence, because we have to be able to move and move quickly once we get the intel. What we really need to do is have parents do what they did just this other day, they told us about what was going on, because they were monitoring their children, and we had an additional way of finding out and we were able to move quickly to move the resources to 94 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. where we anticipated the problem would be. If we did not have that, it takes time to actually bring that on. I know that we have been able to bring additional undercover units into the Center City area, along the South Street area and even in Manayunk in anticipation of things that may have happened or that we were tipped off about. But we are trying to be as vigilant and as quickly to respond to these things that is brought to our attention.
So there is a connect with the School District, I know. DEPUTY
Yes. Yes. Obviously we are connected with the School District. We have a connection with the various associations around the City and we use Town Watch to be able to get some additional information. We are trying to be as flexible as possible without trying to be overly 95 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. dramatic in our response as we go forward.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Miller.
Thank you. Thank you, Madam President. I have a couple questions for Tom Conway and the CLIP program. (Witness approached witness table.)
But, Tom, remember you and I had a discussion when -- you know that my staff does a lot of vacant lot clean-ups with the 96 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. community groups, et cetera, and many times they have a problem with not having the proper equipment or enough of that. Remember we had a conversation and you talked about liability, and I'm saying, Well, they're City workers also. So have you figured out what to do when we need to borrow equipment from you so we can maybe do the job in half the time?
We're talking about creating a partnership with the prison participants and community organizations and your office. This actually came out of what you were stating and also Councilman Clarke with regards to how do we work together, because you understand there is just 40,000 vacant lots in the City of Philadelphia. There's no way that the City is going to be able to clean and maintain them by ourselves. So with your suggestion of getting equipment and having your office, our office work 97 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. together and also bring in the prison participants into it, I mean, our goal is to go out on weekends and just have massive clean-ups in Council districts and neighborhoods throughout the City of Philadelphia.
So then there has been a system set up where we can borrow needed equipment?
Well, we're going to go out there with you. We'll have somebody from our staff be out there with you during the clean-up. So you will be able to get equipment out there.
Okay. Well, I guess that works. How many people are you bringing in from the prison to help on -- you said three times a week?
We have three times a week at two separate locations. I don't have an exact number. About 20 each day. So that's 60 workers per week, additional workers. 98 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc.
Well, this week on Friday we're doing a clean-up at a playground, and so if in fact we needed help, which I don't know that we do, we're trying to get other resources, but if we do, who do we call? Just you?
Okay. I have some other questions regarding 3-1-1. Thank you, Tom.
Rosetta, 99 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. was there anything you learned or thought you might change based on the Call Center's response in handling of the numerous calls during this largest snowstorm of our lifetime?
Yes. I mean, we've had three opportunities to get better at it. So one of the things that we learned as part of this is the critical need for us as a department and as a city to work together so we can have information for the customers when they call us up front. That has helped so much in being proactive and letting the citizens know what's going on and what the City is doing about it. Because we will get the same questions over and over again, and working with the Streets Department, the agents were more prepared to answer those questions for those constituents.
Because I got good information. I got good feedback, particularly one -- actually, I was just at a community meeting last week 100 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. and someone said that she used the e-mail system and got a very quick response to the issue of cleaning and shoveling her street. And then I've also -- and we receive all kinds of calls. I mean, I had one call where a person called my home and asked me to give her the Mayor's personal phone number because she was so outraged over her street not being cleaned and her attempts to communicate that with 3-1-1 and she couldn't get a live person on the phone. And most of the time when people call me, I will call just to see for myself. On that particular day, I never got a live person on the phone after making two calls and being on hold for quite some time, and I knew you were overwhelmed. I didn't know whether you had enough staff. I just didn't know what, but I know that that was surely a challenge and an opportunity to learn and do something different.
Correct. Correct. And you're correct in your assessment. 101 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. For example, we would normally get maybe 2,500, 3,000 calls a day. On some days we were hitting 18,000 calls coming through the Contact Center. So the agents -- and we were all hands on deck. We were in the Walk-in Center, doing e-mails, web self-service, people were calling. There was just a lot of customers calling in on particular days that we were not able to handle them within an adequate time period.
In a catastrophic situation like this, I think there is not a lot you can do very differently except communicate to the customers externally via radio, public service announcements, the web, again, the Contact Center, because they're calling us. But I think that whole communication plan really needs to be developed and looked at, even with the employees, making sure the employees understand what's going on. 102 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. Those are the things that we need to concentrate on when we're dealing with catastrophic situations like those.
All right. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President. That bell sure goes off really quick.
The Chair recognizes Councilman DiCicco. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Thank you, Madam President. Good morning. I'd just like to follow up on the flash mobbing issue. (Witness approached witness table.) COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: I happened to be in Center City Saturday. I went to the orchestra and then went for a late dinner at a restaurant at Broad and Locust, and I was literally in the middle of the crowds that were coming north on Broad obviously coming from South Street. I didn't know what it was. Originally I thought it was a bunch of kids that were 103 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. coming from one of the theatres, maybe there was a concert going on. And I will say that the majority, the vast majority, of the kids that I saw were well-behaved and well-mannered. As you know, we always get one or two knuckleheads that begin to start problems, and then the mob mentality takes over. I didn't see any incidents of violence, until somewhere around 11:30 when it looked like about police 13 vehicles were traveling south on Broad 14 Street trying to meander through the 15 traffic, because at that time of night 16 with all the theatres being let out and 17 the restaurants, Center City was packed. 18 And when I first got there, I really felt 19 good. I felt good about being in the 20 City. It was alive. The weather has changed. People were coming out enjoying themselves. And then it just turned into a situation that certainly did not make it very comfortable. I have received dozens and 104 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. dozens of e-mails since that incident, and what concerns me is not only the bad publicity that we receive, but the folks that I'm getting it from primarily are Philadelphians who live in the vicinity of Center City, South Street, who have seen lots of times different problems. We have Mardi Gras and other incidents. But I've never seen or heard the concern of the magnitude that I've seen over this weekend. People are fearful. I mean, really fearful for their livelihoods. Mostly everyone has suggested to me or told me that they are done going into Center City on a weekend and they will never go back to South Street to shop or dine. And these are people who live within a block or two of South Street. So I'm only saying that so that my colleagues understand the seriousness of this situation. A flash tells you it's in, it's gone and it goes away. This is the third, maybe fourth such 105 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. incident that we've had in the last couple of months. DEPUTY
Four months. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: I talked to the Mayor yesterday a couple of times about it, and what I'm asking my colleagues is to think about what I'm about to say. I did talk to a couple of my colleagues earlier this morning. I think what we need to do is to put a human face on this issue, maybe by way of the clergy, maybe by way of going out to the schools -- and not necessarily for people who are in public office like ourselves or the police -- to go out and try to talk to these kids about the negative impact that this is having on our city, which ultimately will cost all of us revenues and possibly loss of jobs. Most of the people who work in the service industry, about 85 percent of the people who work in the service industry in our city, come from our 106 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. neighborhoods. So when an incident happens at Macy's and people decide that I'm no longer going to shop at Macy's, that means that sales are down, which translates into less business, which means that Macy's will then begin to cut staff. That staff are people who are cousins and aunts, uncles, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers who live in these neighborhoods. I had a conversation with the regional manager for Macy's on the East Coast a couple weeks ago, came into a meet-and-greet type thing, and it wasn't specific about the flash mob, but obviously we got into that conversation. I talked to the Mayor about this yesterday, and I'm just offering it, and I'd ask my colleagues to think about this a little bit further. If there is a way in which we can encourage the hotel industry, the entertainment industry and obviously the retail folks to talk to some of their employees and ask if they 107 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. would act as ambassadors, if you will, to go out into the schools and talk to these kids about this fun thing that you think is neat is going to have a devastating effect on the livelihoods of most Philadelphians who -- all Philadelphians, for that matter, but primarily for the Philadelphians who work in our service industry, especially in the core of Center City. I think that's the message that we need to get out. I've gotten calls from reporters from New York and other places. I've refused to discuss the issue with them, because it just makes this situation worse. But I can show you e-mails. A lady who lives on Fitzwater Street, who -- I can't remember the name of her company. She works in Center City. She has a mini convention coming in in June, 800 people. She has already put a blast e-mail out telling all her folks who are coming here not to go to South Street, stay out of Center City, 108 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. find other venues to go and enjoy yourself, because Center City is dangerous. And this is a Philadelphia person, who is that afraid by bringing this convention, that she will be held somewhat responsible for not alerting the folks who are -- the conventioneers who are coming in for this convention. Again, I really didn't want to kind of get into this in a public way, but I think it's the only way really to get this message out. This is a very, in my opinion, a very serious situation, worse than Mardi Gras, because Mardi Gras happens once a year, and we've weaned ourselves away from that. We've gotten past it. But this occurrence could happen literally on a weekly basis, and if we don't do something -- and I'm not suggesting we're not. There's no 22 criticism here -- we're going to lose Center City. I am that concerned. And I really believe that we will lose our Center City. It's that bad. 109 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Kelly.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I couldn't agree with Councilman DiCicco more so. I think he has made some very, very good points, and I think it's something that I think the City and all of us have to look at to see how we can resolve that problem. I really do. Doctor, I know that you'll be leaving us soon and I want to thank you for your last two years of service.
I really do. I appreciate all the things that you've done for us. This is something that I brought up last year and I just want to 110 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. know if you had any additional thoughts about it. It's about removing the animal care and control out of the Health Department, because my good doctor, frankly, they don't give a damn. Now, I don't say that maliciously. I really don't. I think if Dr. Schwarz were here, he would give me a hundred reasons of higher priorities, and I would agree with him. This shouldn't be a high priority for them. They have the health of this whole city that they have to take care of, and I understand that. But I mentioned this last year, if you had any thoughts about removing it and putting it somewhere else that would make more sense than putting it in the Health Department.
We have Susan Kretsge here from Health and Opportunity, and I'd like to ask her to talk about some of the things that they're doing with animal care and control to improve the situation. I will say that we did look at 111 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. this. It is a fairly typical organizational arrangement in cities to have animal control involved with general public health. So I'm not sure that changing its organizational location would, by any magic way, make a difference in how we're doing it, but I do take your concerns and ideas about how we can better manage it and where it is to heart, and I'd like to ask one of the representatives here to let you know some of those things that we're doing to try to address your concerns. (Witness approached witness table.)
I'm Susan Kretsge. I'm here representing Dr. Schwarz, who had to be in Washington, DC today. The Health Department has spent, over the last year, a lot of time and energy looking at how animal control operations are handled and looking to improve them, and I know, Councilman 112 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. Kelly, you're familiar with much of this. We have a contract in place with the SPCA. We continue efforts to become a no-kill city. There has been an informal group advising the Health Department on ways to better manage animal control, and that is becoming the formal Animal Advisory Committee, and I know that you will be serving on that as appointed by the Council President as an ex-officio member. We have done a lot of work reaching out to animal advocacy groups, people who maybe in the past had a somewhat hostile relationship with the Department. We have reached out to embrace them, because we are very committed to doing the best that we can around animal control activities and around the public safety issues related to that. I would mirror what the Managing Director said about where this 113 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. activity generally is housed within city governments. Often it is in the public health department or in a public safety area. The Department is very committed to working with all those interested to improve our efforts around this area.
Have you contacted any other cities to see how they handle animal control?
I can speak for the Health Department and say that they have spoken to other cities. I'm unable to give you any detail on that. I know when the Health Department is here to give their budget --
That's where most of my questions will be anyway. So I don't want to belabor the --
114 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman Clarke.
Thank you, Madam President. I might need Mr. Frank up here. Real quick question. City Council, a number of members in Council, have been talking about enhancing the technology with Council internally. We've expanded our website, and I know a number of Councilpeople, actually Councilwoman Tasco and Councilwoman Quinones-Sanchez, are looking at some of the models in New York, CouncilStat. And you know, as we said, we are an independent branch of government, so we always look at ways of improving our internal situation. How difficult would it be if Council wanted to set up a system comparable to 3-1-1, but it would be a 4-1-1 number for Council, so you wouldn't have to figure out what Councilperson number to call or the tech staff or 115 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. whatever? You just call a particular number, 4-1-1. I kind of like that 4-1-1, because that's information.
Yeah, information. How difficult would it be? Well, one of the things that we've done, particularly with 3-1-1, is to work with Councilwoman Sanchez to look at CouncilStat in New York, and our Director, Rosetta Lue, has gone with the Council staff on a number of occasions to New York to see what their model is, and I'd like for her to talk a little bit about how CouncilStat works there. My sense is is that the best way to do this is to make sure that any of the information in CouncilStat is also coordinated with 3-1-1 stats and vice versa. As we do now --
Well, right now what we do is, we give each Councilmember regular reports on what kinds of issues 116 3/23/10 - WHOLE - BILL 100117, etc. are in your district or citywide that we're getting through 3-1-1.
Doctor, I only have like five minutes. I don't want to use up my time talking about 3-1-1. Can I get --