Vacant? I guess you mean like parks and those kind of properties?
-- and took out 143 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) all of the properties that had an active water (indiscernible).
'Cause I do know there was some discussion in last year's --
Okay. COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: Yea. We're slowly working on the connection between utilities and -- not slowly. We're working on it. It's a challenge, but we are working on it.
What's the challenge? Are all of those properties metered or not?
Well, that was a challenge too because some of the meters have addresses that are not the address of the building. So it was a challenge to look at the bill and see what actually that meter was for. 144 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET)
Mm-hmm. COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: Because a meter often is the point of entry. So if they put it in the back of the house, they put the address at the backside as opposed to the front.
Mm-hmm. COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: It happens all the time, even in the City buildings.
Okay. We'll be interested in looking at that. I wanted to finish off. You talked about staffing both in the Construction Trades Unit and staffing up or restoring staffing levels at the Capital Projects Division. Can you give us a list of those vacancies and what the job requirements are going to be? And then my question is: How are we going to ensure that -- what are we going to do different to help us diversify in our recruits for that 145 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) staffing? COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: Okay. We'll get you the list.
Are those all civil service positions? COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: I would say 90 percent of them. There may be one exempt.
Are there active lists for all of those positions? COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: Not all. And that's why we're working real close right now with Budget and HR to get it done and get it done as quickly as possible.
Okay. COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: I think it's only one exempt.
One exempt position? COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: Yes.
I'm 146 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) going encourage you, as I did yesterday to Mike D. We're going to keep getting the same thing if we don't look at our job applications and update that. And Civil Service comes in here, and they say, Well, this is what the departments ask us. I'm almost scared to ask you what your numbers are in your division in terms of diversity. Do you have those? COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: No, but I can get them. You mean my whole department?
Mm-hmm. COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: Yes, I can get those.
What do they look like? COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: I don't know. I would think we're pretty diverse, considering what we -- I mean, we when go from the trades to the professional, I would think we're pretty diverse, but I don't know. 147 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET)
Okay. Well, I -- COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: I can get that for you.
I would appreciate that 'cause I think it's a hard time for us to be justifying adding staff and then adding staff and it not meeting a bigger goal about trying to hire Philadelphians in some of the diverse communities that have been underrepresented in the City. I think we're at 2 percent in terms of Latino representation in the City. And so, I think we need to work at it. And unless you guys work at it -- and I understand the contracting end. And, quite frankly, sometimes I am dismayed at how razor-focused Wilson Goode has been and how little response he's gotten. And I hate to think that I'm going to sit here for twelve years and in every budget ask the same questions. 148 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) So since I know we're not going to be looking to increase government in those departments where, you know, I agree, I think we can have some long-term savings if we brought in some folks to do some of this work, but they then not meet another goal of diversifying the work force and are so underrepresented in the City. So I would appreciate it if you would look at those job classifications and the opportunity to diversify. You know, we have some job descriptions that have not been rewritten in 30 years. And I think government has changed, technology has changed. And so, I think it's important wherever we have an opportunity to do that. COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: Okay.
Now, 149 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) Councilman Green, right now, there's no 3 one after you, and you have eight minutes. (Laughter.)
Thank you, Madam Chair. I might take slightly more than eight minutes since I've had no 9 previous rounds of questioning.
The Capital Projects Office was dissolved by executive order in 2008, almost two years ago. According to the order, the purpose of disbanding the office was to more effectively achieve the goals of completing capital budget projects on time and on budget, managing more effectively the continuing maintenance needs of City facilities to prevent new capital needs from arising. How effectively is the City meeting these goals today? 150 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: We are doing the very best to improve the condition every day, but I can't say that we're stellar, but we're working very hard towards making things better.
Are you meeting the goals more effectively than before CPO was dismantled? COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: Yes.
Do you have any sort of statistics that can demonstrate that other than subjective belief? COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: I don't know that I have statistics, but I'm not quite -- what is it, August of '08, when they transferred the division back into the department, and we've been working together with maintenance and the capital for a vision as opposed to just a single-minded approach. And so, I don't know that I can statistically tell you; I just know from 151 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) being in the job now for 28 years that there is marked improvements in communications. And I anticipate that we'll continue to improve.
The FY '10 Budget includes $100,000 Class 200 professional services appropriation to Derousseau Management Services for MP2 Work Order System Administrator. I didn't see a line item in the FY '11 Budget for this. To what extent is DPP's work-order process automated? COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: It's pretty much almost dead at this point. We are working with the Division of Technology to roll out an implementation of a new work-order system hopefully before -- you know, hopefully before the end of this fiscal year but certainly in Fiscal '11. And the Derousseau contract has been gone for a long time.
Okay. So 152 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) for several years, we've been asking the Administration to sort of go through the PICA report and the properties that it identified to create a work-order entry system that applied to each property to connect that work-order entry system also to the Capital Budget. COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: Right. And asset management and maintenance system, yes.
Right. And there's been a lot of money spent over the years and a lot of effort put into attempting to do this. Are we starting from scratch again? COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: No. We're going to do a data migration. No, it's not from scratch. There's going to be data migration from existing preventive maintenance. And we have a lot of information already in our MP2; we're going to migrate that over. So it's not like starting over.
Our people 153 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) still putting data into MP2? COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: No, not really, 'cause it's now --
So how long have they not been doing that? DEPT. COMM. MURRAY: Bob Murray, Deputy Mayor of Facilities. Roughly about a year. We have a rudimentary database that were using now just to get us day-to-day in terms of getting work orders complete and assigned, but it really hasn't been populated because of the problems that we've had with it and the lack of maintenance on that system. So probably about a year, I would say.
So we're working off of handwritten notes and spreadsheets at this point? COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: No, it's not quite that bad, but yes. But we have -- I mean, there's like six or seven years' worth of information that 154 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) didn't exist. So I mean, it's not -- I realize that it's not an ideal situation, but we have a lot of information that will be migrated over so --
Next year, by budget time, do you think we'll have a work-order system that will identify the needs of every single property under your control? COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: I don't know if I'll have every single property under my control, but we will be -- we have a work-order system. Here's Allan Frank. (Witness comes forward.)
I'm Allan Frank, the Chief Technology Officer for the City. Councilman Green, we actually expect, in current progress, by the time we get into the second quarter of the 2011 fiscal year, so the fall. The system should be fully operational. And as the Commissioner 155 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) indicated, there will be a conversation of data associated with that effort, and there's two elements to it: One, as you mentioned, was work-order management; and the second was actually asset inventory, which relates to the property and equipment. So to answer to the question, I personally at this point feel, with a high degree of confidence, that we won't be sitting here, you know, a year from now.
Are we purchasing am off-the-shelf property- management system that's, say, used by public company rates or something else, or are we building it ourselves?
Okay, thank you. So for each department with respect to newly created or newly filled positions, I've been asking how jobs have 156 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) gotten done, who's doing the job today, why we need to make this expenditure. And so, with respect to the Department of Public Property's real estate operations, there's a $46,000-per- year Architectural Projects Coordinator 3 position that's open. What are the job duties of that position? COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: Primarily, space planning, but I'll let John answer that for you.
We currently only have one employee assigned to space planning, and we need a second employee to help us with that.
How are the job duties getting performed today? COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: They're not.
We're doing it on a priority basis; we're not getting everything done that we need to get done. We have made improvements. This fiscal year to date, we've had 62 space-planning 157 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) projects; those are projects as requested. We also are going through the MSB Building at One Parkway slower than we'd like to, but we have made a start on one floor, doing what we call a reorg, using space (indiscernible) and purging excess equipment and files, so --
We're doing all of that in-house, without contractors? I thought we had contractors looking at MSB.
We had a pro bono firm helping us develop the space standards and made some recommendations, but the actual work is all done in-house.
That's great. So you'll be able to be proactive as opposed to just being reactive -- (Indiscernible; parties talking over each other.)
And we also want to do space planning in the leased spaces. 158 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET)
So in theory, we could consolidate lease spaces and save money as leases come up. COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: Right.
Is that the purpose of that position? COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: Yes.
Okay. So next year's budget hearings, I'll ask you what we've identified in terms of lease savings as a result of -- COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: And we'll be able to.
In the trades section, there's an unfilled building maintenance mechanic position. How long has this position been vacant? COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: 159 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) Building trades are some of my bigger challenges, not -- it's difficult to recruit, it's difficult to maintain people. I mean, that's a great deal of turnover in those areas. So we tend to request probably every variety of trade to have an existing list. And I'm not -- I'm not sure I know what kept us specifically from the maintenance mechanic. It could have been that the list didn't exist. It's always difficult. It's timing.
How long has that position been vacant and the Carpenter One position been vacant? DEPT. COMM. MURRAY: I believe -- this is Bob Murray again, Deputy for Facilities. The carpenter's been vacant roughly four to five months. And the building maintenance mechanic, I'm saying, roughly two months.
Okay. These 160 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) were both unfilled in November, I think. COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: Um --
Maybe one was filled and a new one opened up. COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: We actually have a -- like I said, recently, we had three people leave. It's a pretty dynamic --
Sure. How about the administrative officer position in Capital Projects, 44,000 per year? It's a new position? COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: Right. What we've done is, we had -- the division, when they transferred over, they had a larger group that ran the administrative support part of it; not the budget, but the administrative part. And a couple of people went for greener pastures, and they left abruptly. So we were left with really one person doing very a limited amount of paperwork. So I took one of my senior people in 161 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) another division in Public Property, and I moved him over there. So I'm trying to flip-flop positions to keep a higher-level person and bring in a lower level to support.
Okay. COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: There's a lot of paperwork that's not getting done.
Well, let's just eliminate the paper and do that electronically. COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: Well, I didn't mean to take you down that path. (Laughter.) COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: What I mean is, there's a lot of reporting and a lot of analysis that's not getting done.
Okay. COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: Be it paper or on computer.
And same 162 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) question for the architectural projects trainee 35,000 a year, Capital Projects Office. COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: Yeah, that's probably the one that's on our assessment team.
That's a new position in the Capital Program Operations section. COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: Yes.
It's not the assessment team? DEPT COMM. KNAPPIC: There were three positions maybe. I'm getting confused; I have to apologize. COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: They are five.
It's section 21 22, , in Capital Program Operations, line 5. COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: Are you on the Capital Budget or the Operating Budget? 163 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET)
Operating. COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: Where is it? I'm sorry.
, line 5. COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: It's a part of the assessment, I believe, isn't it? DEPT COMM. KNAPPIC: I believe, yes.
It's not on the assessment team. DEPT COMM. KNAPPIC: No, it's not. Okay, that position is one of, I believe, two vacancies currently that reside in our --
It's a newly-created position; it was not in the '09 or '10 budgets. COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: Right. It's filling in an existing vacancy.
There's no 25 vacancy; it's a newly-created position 164 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) for FY '11. DEPT COMM. KNAPPIC: I can't respond to that; I'd have to get back to you. But I do know where it's going; it's going to reside in the recreation team staff, which is currently down from, I believe, positions. I can give you 10 the exact number. 11
If you could 12 get back to us about it. 13 DEPT COMM. KNAPPIC: Sure.
If you're having that much trouble figuring it out, maybe -- COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: I think the important thing you have to remember is, the operating part of the divisions have been emerged. So the Capital Division Operating vacancies have been merged with Public Property. So a vacancy that -- maybe I had a plumber and I decided to take the position -- I don't know. 165 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET)
Okay. If you could just get back to me rather than take everybody's time with that. The detail shows a five-person section being created in FY '11 entitled, Maintenance Assessment Team," with a Class 100 salary allocation of $300,000. The positions are: 42K a year, architectural projects trainee. 83,000, design and construction project manager. 50,000, facilities maintenance engineer. And two 62000-per-year staff engineers. We all agree with the goal of the team to identify, coordinate, and prioritize all infrastructure, capital, and maintenance issues. I guess, what are the projected savings from coordinating and prioritizing this work, including by preventing preferred maintenance from slipping over to the 166 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) Capital side? DEPT COMM. KNAPPIC: I think one of the purposes of creating that team was to more closely work with our own facilities maintenance department to be able to establish those priorities so that we don't take capital money and expend it in any way other than a very highly prioritized element of a building. I think right now, considering the age of the buildings and the obsolescence of the buildings -- I mean, we're up at the effective life almost of all of the police and fire, for example -- that we start extending -- we obviously won't have the money to replace those facilities. So we have to look at ways of extending the life cycle in those facilities and to be able to expend those dollars appropriately is really one of the major focuses of that.
Well, I mean I understand that, you know, especially 167 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) once we get our new property management system, work-order entry system, et cetera, we'll need people to go around and, you know, do the assessments in the buildings and be able to populate so we know what the delta is, in terms of deferred maintenance, what is in the capital side that we have to accomplish, et cetera, in one place, in one data system. And are you saying that you're going to use these people for that task or a different task? DEPT COMM. KNAPPIC: It would be more of an integral function. These people would be evaluating these facilities from the life cycle side of the assessment.
So they won't be entering work -- I -- they won't be doing work-order entries or figuring out what deferred maintenance exists in these facilities? DEPT COMM. KNAPPIC: No, they'd 168 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) be doing that as well.
Okay. DEPT COMM. KNAPPIC: Rather than just -- whereas the PICA report really just established a correction, it was a visual type of thing. This staff will be looking at it from a systems standpoint. That would mean where it looks at delivery, generation, transport of a HVAC system, where each element of that particular system has a different life cycle. And as they're looking at that system, they're going to establish the components of that system, the amount of life cycle left on that component. And then that would be entered into the system so that we could plan the maintenance of that particular element at some point in time and also anything that would need it --
Well, how are we doing that today with respect to an HVAC system that requires annual 169 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) maintenance of oiling this or whatever that or... COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: That was what I was talking about earlier, where we aren't starting from scratch. There is -- I guess we started about five or six years ago, where we started to identify the type of systems in the buildings, what is the appropriate amount of maintenance. We have some contracted HVAC people, and we have some in-house; and we know the difference between the two and what the schedules are. I mean we have that kind of -- that's how we're broken out.
Okay. So if we have that and we're performing that function now, why do we need to spend $300,000 next year additionally on it? COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: No, that's -- what I'm talking about is basic, bare minimum. Like you know you 170 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) have a fan in the window, you know the filter has to be changed or it breaks down, and you know you have to call out the contractor. What we're talking about is establishing details about the systems in the buildings, how they integrate with each other, what condition they're in, what is the investment we should put in in the future. It's much, much more detailed.
And is this team going to be capable of actually making those assessments without bringing in a private contractor to evaluate the -- COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: The answer is yes.
So -- okay. COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: 171 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) That's why we're hiring. DEPT COMM. KNAPPIC: Councilman, that would be the intent, yes. They would be engineers, architects capable of evaluating a system, experienced in that regard.
And are the civil service job descriptions written for these people yet? DEPT COMM. KNAPPIC: Yes. We're using existing civil service titles to do it. Actually, depending on the nature of the experience, we have people on staff right now that are handling projects that have sufficient experience to do that type of work.
So you anticipate being able to spend the entire $300,000 by having the positions fully staffed by July 1st? DEPT COMM. KNAPPIC: That -- I don't know. COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: Yeah. And I don't think so. I mean, 172 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) that's a great ambition, but I don't see it happening by July 1. I mean, we're going to do our very --
When do you think you'd fill 'em by, September 1? COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: Yeah, hopefully by the first quarter.
By...? COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: By September, by the first quarter, yea.
By September 1. COMMISSIONER SCHLOTTERBECK: Well, hopefully.
Thank you again very much. MR. McPHERSON: The next department is the Office of Fleet Management. 173 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) (Witnesses come forward.)
Good afternoon, welcome. Kindly identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.
The noise level is much too high. Please proceed.
Good afternoon, President Verna and distinguished members of City Council. I am James Muller, Fleet Manager. Thank you for the opportunity to present testimony in support of our FY '11 Operating Budget request. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) health and safety vehicles, at a cost of $28 million. 8 million higher than FY '10 estimated obligations. Budgetary variances from 2010 to 2011 are the result of a variety of factors: Class 100 decreased by $182,810. Class 200 increased by $5,011,000. 7. And Class 400 increased by $249,074. This year's Class 100 had a series of elements leading to a decrease of $182,810. They include the reduction of technology and human resource employees. However, those decreases are substantially offset by increases that are the result of a campaign to retain our most valuable asset -- our technicians. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) technicians to quasi-agencies because our salaries are not competitive. Over the two last years, Fleet Management has taken the necessary steps to strengthen our competitive position by upgrading our technicians' salaries. In FY 2011, OFM continues transforming its facility store profession by restructuring the jobs of storeroom employees. 12 OFM has invested thousands of 13 dollars in employee training and it is 14 imperative that these employees be 15 retained. 5 million for the finance payments that will go towards paying a loan for the purchase of $28 million worth of equipment. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) that had exceeded its useful life cycle. The Office of Fleet Management is introducing an initiative to purchase the City's most expensive vehicles, with vehicle financing equipment with a per-cost of $150,000 and as high as $750,000 per unit. Today, the purchase of large equipment in excess of $150,000 impacts OFM's ability to purchase other vehicles. Negative effects are compounded on heavy-duty vehicles such as compactors, fire equipment, street sweepers, dump trucks, equipment costing the City an average of $9,000 in maintenance costs. Financing these vehicles will offset the expenses because the vehicles will be covered by a full warranty. It should be noted that the vehicles purchased with these funds take almost one year to build and delivery. Consequently, the City will be able to acquire over a hundred new vehicles sometime in the calendar year 2012. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) Under normal conditions, we would not have been able to receive all of these pieces of equipment until 2015 at its earliest. Class 300 increases are due to fuel cost and repair -- vehicle repair costs. 45 today. This has increased the total amount of our fuel by almost $95,000 a month. Consequently, the fuel budget has been increased by over a million dollars. OFM will continue to monitor fuel prices in the months ahead and make informed decisions regarding future fuel purchases. And even though there will be a sizeable increase in new vehicles, these vehicles will not arrive until the fourth quarter of 2011. So Fleet will continue to budget for rising costs. Environmental program. The introductions of the compressed natural gas compactors. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) major contributor to air pollution, and at least 60 percent of our fleet is fueled by diesel engines. As an alternative, OFM is now very interested in compressed natural-gas vehicles because they have cleaner- burning engines. In the past ten years, technology has improved greatly. (Indiscernible) reputable manufacturers have entered the market and are producing dedicated compressed natural-gas engines. The use of biodiesel. OFM now operates five active biodiesel sites. Since FY 2008, the City's biodiesel fuel program increments cost is funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. The City now has 676 vehicles, or nearly 14 percent of our fleet, using biodiesel fuel Hybrid vehicles.
OFM continues to research avenues for the use of hybrid vehicles. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) in the total fleet of hybrids to 104. The purchase of hybrids initially is $4,000 higher than our standard vehicle. Fleet Management will be entering FY '11 with the understanding that we have an even older fleet, but we have some of the finest City employees, folks that work hard every day to maintain a safe and reliable vehicle. This is my -- this concludes my testimony, and I'd be happy to answer any questions at this time
Thank you. Thank you. From the onset, I would like to say I think your department does a fabulous job.
Thank you so much. I just have a few questions. You mention on of your testimony that you want to lease 130 vehicles worth 180 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) $28 million. Can you detail these vehicles by type and department?
Yes, yes. We're talking like 35 pieces for the Fire Department. As you know, a pumper costs $450,000. A ladder truck is $750,000. So when you go and buy them every year, we can't afford to -- the smaller departments to get their vehicles. So this is a one-shot deal. Every major city in the United States do it. They finance-purchase vehicles, the same we do with houses, our personal vehicles; we do the same thing. And it's $4.5 million a year for the next five years but we'll have $28 million in less than a year that will be delivered.
Will the leasing program be with a third party, or will bonds be issued? And what is the assumed interest rate if we are leasing?
Can I get Steve to, uh... 181 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET)
Good afternoon. Steve Agostini, Budget Director. I think for planning purposes, we've assumed four-and-a-quarter as the interest rate. We have not decided on exactly the financing vehicle. We've talked about doing an operating lease. We've talked about doing a lease that would resemble what we did with Motorola for replacement of the 800 megahertz. We'd like to see sort of what the advantages between those before we make a decision. Obviously, we would come before Council and give you all of the details of that before we would proceed.
Thank you, Steve. What amounts have been budgeted 182 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) in the out-years for the Five-Year Plan for this program? Steve? (Witness comes forward.)
Robert Fox, Fleet Management. The money for the payback of this financing will be parked in Fleet Management's budget in 2011, '12, '13, '14, and '15, and $4.5 million have been allotted for the payback.
Thank you. How many sedans and SUVs does the City have in its fleet?
Not counting radio patrol cars, there's 346 sedans and 925 SUVs.
Will you be kind enough to supply us with a detailed listing by department, by fund 183 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) and vehicle, of the 5,811 vehicles and/or equipment that you maintain?
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Greenlee.
Thank you, Madam President. Good afternoon. I just first want to second the Council President's comments on the great job you do. Thank you. PANEL MEMBERS: Thank you.
Mr. Muller, I don't think this is actually in your testimony. Do you have a figure on how much the City spends annually for the maintenance of vehicles? Is there a figure, or could you get us a figure?
Okay. I 184 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) appreciate that. And along those same lines, with these new vehicles that you're talking about, the cost savings, has that been estimated yet, by having new vehicles, how much you'll save in maintenance costs? And can you get us that if we don't have it?
The vehicles that we're going to be replacing are our most expensive vehicles to maintain. On average, it's costing us about $9,000 a year in parts and labor. And once we receive the new vehicles, they will be under full warranty. So except for very minor repairs, we'll save that money.
We hope as many as 135. 185 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET)
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Green.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I've been asking each department about unfilled or newly- created positions, and you have several of them, two of them in your department. District Maintenance Centers Division, section 23, , there's an additional fleet maintenance supervisor position being added to the 8601 Ashburner site. Has that position been filled?
I believe that position is still vacant because the 186 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) person who is in that position is still there. He's in the DROP and he didn't leave yet.
So this is not a new -- well, that doesn't make -- increment run to increment, it looks like you're filling a vacant position or you're creating a new position.
See what happened is, we put in because the person's going to leave. He's in the DROP now. Four years and he has to go, so he'll be leaving, and we need that spot to --
Okay. So you only need one of those positions. 187 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET)
At Delaware and Wheatsheaf, there's an unfilled heavy-duty vehicle maintenance technician position. How long has that been vacant?
I'd have to check. There's probably somebody left in the DROP. We're going to fill positions and we're looking to hire people right now.
You're going to have to identify yourself for the record. 188 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET)
Marie, you're going to have to come up further for to the microphone, to be heard.
My name is Marie Stone. I'm executive assistant. And for the Delaware and Wheatsheah, there's an automotive maintenance tech we would like to promote to a heavy-duty vehicle maintenance tech. And we're not going to backfill the AMT position, the automotive maintenance tech.
I understand, yes, and your increment run shows you're going from 3 to 2 in that position. The FY '10 Budget detail included $48,000 in Class 200, repair and 189 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) maintenance charges; and 450,000 in Class 400 equipment charges for bookmobiles. I didn't see expenditures related to bookmobiles reflected in Class 200 or 400 for the -- in the FY '11 proposed spend.
Okay. So you have nothing in your budget to purchase bookmobiles.
In your testimony, you highlighted several initiatives that should produce savings for the City. First, you noted that the new vehicle financing program should help -- soon help drive down maintenance costs. What is your projection about how much costs will go down? And I assume that means a reduction in personnel through attrition? Or is it just parts? 190 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET)
Right now, our budgeted -- right now, our vehicle fleet, if we were to replace it at its useful life, we would need some $91 million. Instead, we're going to finance $28 million. So we're really not in a position to decrease the position level. However, there will be significant savings. We spend on an average of 9 to $10,000 on the vehicles that we're going to replace. Once they're replaced, they'll be under full warranty. So there will be a significant amount of time when that entire maintenance cost will be avoided.
Right now, we're reflecting to have in our Class 300 budget to, in fact, still show an increase in spending, because we will not receive those vehicles in FY '11.
Okay. 191 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET)
And because the other $600 million worth of equipment that we can't replace will get older.
Okay. But still, on 28 million of the 90 million, we're going to save $9,000 per vehicle. How many vehicles is that?
So it's 135 times 9,000 we should be able to take out of FY '12 maintenance costs budget.
We would want to be a little more conservative with that, Councilman, because as the vehicles get older --
Well, I understand, but we're making this 192 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) investment, and there should be an amount, and you're saying that there's going to be savings. The savings are not reflected in your budget.
Okay. Next, you testified that OFM has taken over management of the off-street parking program for City cars and plans to bid out the contract for competitive pricing, which will help save substantial amounts in the coming years. When will the contract be bid?
We have to wait and see how they're going to be bid. The City has never bid these contracts before; they've always been done by direct payment. So we don't really have a benchmark.
Well, your 193 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) testimony is that there will be savings. I assume that there's some estimate of those savings or you wouldn't have made that statement.
Well, competitive bidding is the assumption that we're using, that once we pit the companies against one another, the competitive bidding will force the prices down, but I will get you something if you'd like to see some more numbers.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Sanchez.
Thank you. Good afternoon. I just have one issue here for the sake of my colleagues who are not here. As it relates to your OEO 194 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) planning, you say that you are in line to do percent, but you don't state what 4 you did last year. Do you have a number 5 for last year? 6
In Fiscal Year '10, 9 our number was 20 percent. The most 10 significant reason why it increased to 11 21 percent is that we lost a contract. A 12 significant contract went to DOT $140,000 13 worth for -- 14
Okay. 19 So who made the decision just to go up 20 one percentage point? 21
We have very few 195 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) Class 250 contracts at all; we only have five that we do.
Yes, but you have -- it's $38 million worth of materials and purchase of services in Class 200 alone.
So you're saying, of the 38 million, you could only increase 1 percent?
All but very little of that is not bid by Fleet Management; we have no control over who wins those bids; only the professional services contractor. We choose the vendor.
I would encourage you, because if Councilman Goode was here, he would not take that response.
I'm 196 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) going to be much nicer and say to you to really go back to Procurement and look at that number, only because when you look at the items that you purchase, those are items that we would hope we were identifying Philly-based companies and potentially some minority- and women-owned companies. You're one of the few departments that has items that lend themselves to that particular type of purchasing.