Thank you, Council Lady. Our prayers go out. The Chair recognizes Councilman Jones.
Thank you, Mr. President. It is budget season. This is when we -- it's our Olympics. It's our Stated Meeting 57 4/7/2022 down on departments, agencies, programs to try to lift them up or guide them correctly and support them financially. I want to -- and I was proud of my colleagues yesterday going in on every department, asking the question what are you doing to help the current crisis of reducing gun violence in the City of Philadelphia, what are you participating, what program and what are the results, and I was proud to listen to that whole budget process. But what I want to rise today about is, sometimes departments can be penny wise and pound foolish. I talk about the School District of the City of Philadelphia. I love when my colleague Member Thomas fights for, represents some of the positive accomplishments of sports teams that our youth are a part of, but it's like going in one pocket, taking it out of another pocket, putting it in, when we charge non-profits for these Stated Meeting 58 4/7/2022 track coach, retired and in recovery. I love track and field. I coached my daughter's team. I coached Representative Cephas, who ran her way to UVA, you know, and I witnessed what Member Thomas continues to witness is the joy and redirection of energy of young people when they're put in situations firmly. But when you charge a track team $5,000 to use the track out in back of King High School, a dirt track, unimproved but essential to teach track and field, $5,000, it is unacceptable. When you deal with teams from every one of our districts that have to face that, not only during outdoor but during indoor, a lot of our young people during COVID could not participate. So where we had a dozen teams, we may have maybe eight teams citywide. Every year I look forward to going to the 21st Ward where they have Stated Meeting 59 4/7/2022 couple of dozen teams, all pristine, stand out there. We cannot continue to charge teams that are in fact participating in anti-violence measures, taking young people, putting them in a positive direction, and strangling them to death with these fees. Mr. President, colleagues, until we address this, I refuse to vote for another budget for the School District until they address this travesty to non-profits, small teams, and our children who benefit from these facilities. Their parents pay the freight through the real estate taxes and then we charge them again. That's double dipping in the worst way to the most vulnerable and most important investment we have. I said yesterday at the budget hearing that a city benefits when old men and women plant trees they will never experience the shade of. When you coach Stated Meeting 60 4/7/2022 kid, you may never see them become the men and women that they are going to be, but know that you have participated in raising strong youth as opposed to fixing broken men and women. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Councilman. Councilman, you need to put together a book, because you come up with some really, really -
I got to credit other people with some of the well-placed quotes.
It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. You can make it a footnote, Councilman. The fact of the matter is, you bring it to the public, public's view. Thank you so much, Councilman. You are so right. The Chair recognizes Councilman Thomas.
Good morning, everybody. Stated Meeting 61 4/7/2022 you, Council President. I'm going to be very, very brief. I just wanted to announce that tomorrow we're doing a food giveaway in partnership with Councilmember Bass from 10:00 to 12:00 at Triumph Baptist Church. We did it last year. We understand this is one of the biggest issues that we face in the City of Philadelphia, and we have a lot of food to give away. So please spread the word, make sure folks that are in need come out, as we want to give the food away. What I will say real quick, Councilmember Jones, it is a much diverse problem than what you realize. It's not just the issue of the organizations getting access to the spaces. It's also the issue of being able to provide free programming in general across the City of Philadelphia. When I was growing up, you know, you could participate in a basketball league or be a part of a Stated Meeting 62 4/7/2022 would be free. We just don't have the amount of free programs that we once had in the past, and so that was one of the things that I challenged the Administration on when we were looking at the budget conversation that you were talking about yesterday and just the amount of free programs and initiatives that we have in the City of Philadelphia. I'll stop right there. Someone is telling me my time is up. Thank you, Council President.
Thank you, Councilman. Thank you so much for bringing that to our attention. Councilman, where is that location again, the food?
I'm sorry. The location is Triumph Baptist Church, which is Germantown and Hunting Park, and we'll be there at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning until all the food is gone. So we're looking forward to that, and Stated Meeting 63 4/7/2022 a lot of people in need.
Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. That concludes our speeches for the minority and the majority today, and the Chair recognizes Councilman Jones for a motion to adjourn.
Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, April 21st, 2022 at 10:00 a.m. (Duly seconded.)
Thank you. It has been moved and properly seconded that the Council stand adjourned until Thursday, April 21st, 2022, 10:00 a.m. All those in favor indicate by saying aye. (Aye.)
Those opposed? (No response.) Stated Meeting 64 4/7/2022
The ayes have it. The motion carries. I want to thank you all very much and, again, please be safe. Thank you all. Love you guys. ) Stated Meeting 65 4/7/2022 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.