COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC HEARING AND PUBLIC MEETING BEFORE THE COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON FINANCE - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, October 5, 1999 2:17 p.m. - - - BILL NO. 990361 - Held to the call of the Chair. BILL NO. 990463 - An ordinance amending Section 19-2034 of The Philadelphia Code entitled "Payroll Deductions" by permitting City employees to authorize payroll deductions for the German-American Police Association PRESENT: COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE BLACKWELL, Chair COUNCILWOMAN MARIAN B. TASCO COUNCILMAN BRIAN J. O'NEILL COUNCILMAN W. THACHER LONGSTRETH COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO - - - VINCENT VARALLO ASSOCIATES, INC. Registered Professional Reporters Eleven Penn Center, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 561-2220 2 /99 FINANCE COMM. I N D E X Bill No. 990463 Linda Orfanelli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Deputy Director of Finance Officer Rudolph Muller. . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Philadelphia Police Department (Bill No. 990361 being held till the call of the Chair.) 3 /99 FINANCE COMM. P R O C E E D I N G S
Good afternoon. Sorry for the delay. The City Council Committee on Finance is being called to order. We'll have the clerk read the title of the bill as soon as I introduce those present. We have a quorum. To my left is Councilwoman Tasco, who's Vice President of the Committee. To her left is Thacher Longstreth. To my right, Councilman O'Neill. And to his right is Councilman Rizzo, who, for the purposes of this committee hearing, will be made a member of the committee. Thank you very much. Clerk, would you read the -- you can read both and --
Bill No. 990361, an ordinance amending Title of The Philadelphia 19 Code entitled "Public Employees Retirement Code" 20 by amending Section 22-1303 entitled "Exemption 21 From Attachment" to add public employees' benefits 22 services to the list of designated payees to whom a member may direct deductions from benefits payments.
All right, 4 10/5/99 FINANCE - BILL 990463 this bill is being held subject to the call of the chair. All parties involved were not ready to proceed. Next bill?
Bill No. 990463, an ordinance amending Section 19-2034 of The Philadelphia Code entitled "Payroll Deductions" by permitting City employees to authorize payroll deductions for the German-American Police Association.
All right. Are there any comments by members of the committee? (No response.)
All right, thank you. Then we will ask those prepared to testify to identify yourself for the record and to proceed with your testimony.
Thank you, Councilwoman. My name is Linda Orfanelli. I'm Deputy Director of Finance. I'm here to testify in support of Bill No. 990463. This bill would amend The Philadelphia 5 10/5/99 FINANCE - BILL 990463 Code pertaining to payroll deductions and it would permit City employees to authorize payroll deductions to be paid to the German-American Police Association as an annual dues deduction. As you're aware, we've done this similar type of deduction for other organizations, most recently SALA, which is the Spanish-American Legal Association. The way it works is, an employee signs a card that authorizes the Director of Finance to retain money from their paycheck for the purpose of paying the dues for this organization. If at any time they change their mind and they wish to revoke that, they notify us and we stop taking the dues out. This is normal procedure for us, we're very happy to do this. And I'll be glad to answer any questions about this if you ever any.
Sir, would you like to testify? OFFICER MULLER: Surely. Good afternoon, members of Council and Chairwoman Blackwell.
Thank you. 6 10/5/99 FINANCE - BILL 990463 OFFICER MULLER: My name is Rudolph Muller, Jr., I'm a police officer here with the City of Philadelphia and am the current first vice president for the German-American Police Association. Briefly, our association was formed in 1976 to help cultivate a spirit of fraternalism, not only in our profession, but our heritage and background for police officers and law enforcement officials in the City that have some German decent. At one time, our organization was the largest ethnic police organization in the City, with over 1200 members. Through the years, our membership has dwindled to about 500. Myself personally have met with various other ethnic police organizations here in Philadelphia, and they have found that the payroll deductions help not only with the membership quality with the organization, but also it adds -- providing a better service to its members. We -- I am here to ask for your support with this bill. If you have any questions, I'd be glad to answer them.
Thank you. 7 10/5/99 FINANCE - BILL 990463 Are there any questions from members of the committee?
Just one question. Do we deduct -- is this a process where we deduct for other membership groups?
Yes. OFFICER MULLER: If I may add real fast. With closing, I would like to thank an honorary member, Councilman Frank Rizzo, for his support with this and the support of his office staff, and that is on behalf of our executive board directors and general membership, and it's also extended to the committee as well.
All right. If there are no questions, then this will end our committee hearing. - - -
We'll now enter our stated meeting, and I will entertain a motion, Councilman Rizzo, that this be reported out with a favorable recommendation.
With a favorable 8 10/5/99 FINANCE - BILL 990463 recommendation, yes, Madam Chair. I'd like to report out of committee Bill No. 990463 with a favorable recommendation. (Duly seconded.)
Thank you. It's been moved and properly seconded. All in favor, aye? Opposed? All right. The ayes have it, it is passed. And we certainly thank you for coming. And I want to thank the committee members, and this committee hearing is adjourned. (Adjourned at 2:22 p.m.) - - - 9 C E R T I F I C A T E I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of Tuesday, October 5, 1999, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of same. RE: COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON FINANCE BILL NO. 990463 __________________________________, JOSEPHINE CARDILLO, Registered Professional Reporter