Yes, Councilwoman. We met with OEO two weeks ago, and there was even some discussion about more of a delineation on the national suppliers that we use and whether or not they are a minority and that we could start including them, so --
And I encourage you to use Mayor Nutter's 5 percent local preference as a way of getting there also 'cause that would help you with that number. 197 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET)
As it relates to your staffing diversity, do you happen to have those numbers?
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Krajewski.
Thank you, Madam Chair. My question is: Could you walk me through when you trade in the old automobiles, what you do?
Yes. What we do, 198 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) Councilwoman, is, the vehicles are deemed condemned. What happens is, once we decide there's 80 percent of the life cycle of that vehicle determined, you know, its useful life cycle, then we will take the vehicle, take it to our auction yard at 3900 Richmond. And from there, we take pictures of the vehicle and give it to the Procurement Department. They write it up, and then it goes to what they call a public auction -- govdeals.com. The pictures are all sent by the Procurement Department to an Internet service. And we have people coming up, bidding on these vehicles, various types of vehicles from all over. It's amazing. Since we started this thing, we have a lot of people from down South -- Florida, North Carolina -- coming up and winning the bids on these vehicles.
Well, does it have to go through that? Like suppose a Councilperson wanted to buy the 199 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) car; is there a possibility of that?
Not that I'm aware of, because it has to go to the Internet auction and it's fair for everybody.
They would actually probably make out better if they sold it privately.
Not just the councilmembers; it could be anyone that has a car.
Yes, yes. See, the problem we had with that, Councilwoman, was that when we were selling vehicles to people, they were -- we found them -- the people leaving them abandoned on the streets. They'd pull the engine or the transmission and leave the vehicle abandoned. And then the Police Department would have to go with abandoned autos and tow 'em. So what we did was --
Only 200 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) because the City sold them the car?
Well, we found that to happen a lot. So with this Internet auction, you have to be a certified auctioneer to actually buy the City vehicles. Not a single person can buy it; you have to be an auctioneer person so that we can control our titles and that kind of stuff. So we know if we give you the title, it's not going to show up somewhere and somebody's using it that shouldn't be using it, so to speak. So it's all on the Internet auction and --
Is it just one auctioneer or what? 201 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET)
No. Whoever bids, whoever gets the bids. There's various bids.
Councilwoman, by the time our vehicles are put up for auction, they're very tired.
They're very tired, and they're pretty much not worth very much at all. So what people do is, they're buying the vehicle for parts. The reason why Jim was saying that you find them on the street is that an individual would buy the vehicle and then just strip it and leave it.
I 202 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) mean, wouldn't that be better to sell it to someone like myself or others like that?
But usually with Council vehicles, when they get tired, we usually send them to the Police Department to get them killed, then they kill it the rest of the way.
Thank you. Any other questions? The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Sanchez.
One more question. We passed a cell phone ban here in Council, and there's adjoining state 203 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (FY '11 BUDGET) legislation. How are we preparing these new cars and purchasing them so that our folks are in compliance? Are they getting Blue Tooths in them? I wanted to ask this when Greenlee was here since it was his bill, Bill Greenlee. Have we considered that at all?
You're welcome. Okay. I think this concludes your testimony. Thank you very much. PANEL MEMBERS: Thank you.
This committee will stand in recess until 2 o'clock. Thank you. (Committee stands in recess.) (Proceedings resume at 2:15 p.m.) 204 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET
The Committee of the Whole is now back in session. The first department we'll hear from this afternoon... MR. McPHERSON: ... is the Water Department. (Witnesses come forward.)
Good afternoon. Kindly identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Good afternoon, President Verna and members of City Council. I am Bernard Brunwasser, Water Commissioner. I'd like to introduce some of my staff. On my right is Debra McCarty, Deputy Mayor for Operations. And on my left is Joseph Clare, Deputy Mayor for Finance and Administration. We also have some of the other department experts here in case the questions get too difficult for me. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET Anyway, the Philadelphia Water Department's 2011 Operating Budget request is why we're here. 7 million for other Water Fund activities, including the Water Revenue Bureau, debt service, employee fringe benefits, the central agency support, for a total Water Fund budget of $628 million. 8 million under the FY '10 appropriation levels due primarily to the net reduction of 54 full-time positions, 51 of which were transferred to the Department of Technology. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET electric costs resulting from the removal of the current electricity rate caps. The department is working closely with the Mayor's Office of Transportation and Utilities on electricity-purchasing strategies to mitigate the impact of the rate cap removal. 1 million below FY '10 appropriation levels due primarily to a reduction in FY '10 chemical costs associated with the department's water treatment and water pollution control plants. 7 million lower than our FY '10 appropriation. This decrease is primarily the result of reduced chemical costs and continued scrutiny of all purchase orders and contracts to minimize costs wherever possible. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET Water Department is a municipal utility serving the citizens of the Philadelphia region by providing integrated water, waste water, and storm water services. Our primary mission is to operate and maintain the infrastructure necessary to provide high-quality, affordable drinking water to protect the public health; to provide an adequate and reliable water supply for all residential business and public needs; and to sustain and enhance the region's watersheds and quality of life by managing waste water and storm water effectively. All of our citizens should take great comfort in the fact that Philadelphia's drinking water meets or surpasses the requirements of state and federal standards one hundred percent of the time. S. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET reduce turbidity, an industry standard measure of water purity. In Fiscal Year '09 and Fiscal Year '10, the turbidity of Philadelphia's water was 80 percent lower than the amount required by state and federal regulations, and 50 percent lower than the Partnership's turbidity goal. Nationally, the Philadelphia Water Department's three water-treatment plants are among an elite group of 31 facilities that have received the Director's Award from the Partnership for safe water for meeting the Partnership goals for ten consecutive years. To put this in perspective, there are over 400 water-treatment plants enrolled in the Partnership, and there are over 4700 water utilities nationwide. The Water Department is also treating waste water to award-winning levels in more than 150 years and making progress in protecting our watersheds to keep our streams and rivers clean. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET In Fiscal Year 2009, the Philadelphia Water Department's three water pollution control plants were selected to receive two platinum and one gold Peak Performance Award from the National Association of Clean Water Agencies. The Southwest Plant received a Platinum Peak Award for six years of perfect compliance. Southeast received a Platinum Award for nine consecutive years of perfect compliance, and the Northeast Plant received a Gold Peak Award for four consecutive years of perfect compliance.
The association's Peak Performance Awards Program recognizes member-agency facilities for excellence in waste-water treatment, as measured by their compliance with their national pollution discharge elimination permits. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET Platinum Peak Performance Awards. The department has initiated numerous measures to improve service, reduce costs, and enhance revenues over the past decade. The cost of operating the waste-water facilities has been reduced. The refinancing of more than $2 billion in revenue bonds has resulted in a cumulative net present-value savings in excess of $78 million in debt-service expense. A revenue protection unit, created in Fiscal Year 2000, has recovered -- and I'm making an update here -- more than $23 million to date. The department has steadily improved the credit rating of the revenue bonds so that all three of the major rating agencies -- Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch -- currently rate the department's debt in the A range. All six of the major plant facilities have been winning national performance awards on an annual basis. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET In Fiscal Year 2010, the department intends to continue its successful energy-management program. The department will implement electric energy curtailment programs in cooperation with PECO at its three waste-water plants and the Schuylkill River raw-water pumping facilities. This is expected to save $350,000 per year. Also, the department will switch to lower gas transportation rates at the Baxter and Belmont water-treatment plants, with an expected savings of $50,000. In cooperation with the City's Office of Sustainability and Philadelphia's Solar American Cities Program, the department is preparing for the construction of a 250-kilowatt solar electric demonstration project at its Southeast -- now this may be wrong in your copy. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET installation at its Baxter water- treatment facility. The latter project is intended to be implemented through a solar energy agreement in which a private firm asphalts solar capacity at the facility and sells power back to the Water Department over an economical long-term agreement. Other projects, including a biogas cogeneration project, are in the planning and design phases. 6-megawatt Northeast water pollution control facility biogas cogeneration project design has been completed, and the Water Department is exploring funding options such as a Pennvest loan to finance the construction. In terms of rates, the Philadelphia Water Department continues to have some of the lowest rates in the region for water, waste-water, and storm-water services. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET In April of 2008, the Water Department announced the revision of rates for the period covering Fiscal 2009 through Fiscal Year 2012. The new rates will enable the Philadelphia Water Department to meet its obligations under the City Charter of having a balanced budget through June 2012 and to meet its bond covenants. The new rates will allow the Water Department to meet rapidly- escalating costs of fuel, chemicals, employee benefits, regulatory demands, and debt service, and to continue a variety of initiatives that are critical to protecting Philadelphia's drinking-water quality, preserving its waterways, and improving its storm-water management programs. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET be spread over fewer and fewer customers. 44. This change is for the period July 1, 2010, through June 30, 2011. 91. For those seniors who qualify for the department's percent senior citizen 14 discount, the income test to qualify for 15 this discount is currently at $28,900. 16 In addition, the department has 17 adopted rate changes for Fiscal Year 18 2012. 49 19 increase in the typical monthly bill from 20 July 1, 2011, through June 30, 2012. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET waste-water, and storm-water charges.
Unfortunately, this combined billing sometimes leads to the impression that our water rates are high. In fact, even with the most recent revisions to rates, Philadelphia's water and sewer charges continue to be among the lowest in the region. As shown on the table in my written testimony, the Water Department's water rates are less than half of those charged by many neighboring investor- owned utilities. The Water Department has not been immune to the national economic turmoil. Problems in the credit and debt markets, difficulty with collections, and cost increases in energy and chemicals have conspired to created extremely tight financial conditions for the Water Department. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET delay some large capital expenditures in order to keep the budget in line with its rate plan and required bond covenants. The Water Department's Fiscal 2011 budget has been scrutinized to reduce costs wherever possible, without increasing any risk to public health. While focusing on cost savings has helped maintain affordable rates, the department has also taken a leading role in helping to achieve the City's goal of becoming greener and more environmentally sustainable. Many of you may be aware that the department has been working to finalize its combined sewer overflow long-term control plan. The final component of this plan embraces the development of regional watershed partnerships committed to the development of integrated watershed management plans. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET rivers and streams that are life-sustaining and are an amenity to our communities. In September 2009, the Philadelphia Water Department released its Green City Clean Waters Plan for meeting its regulatory obligations while also looking to ensure that investments in the storm-water system also help revitalize Philadelphia environmentally. The department determined that a green storm-water management infrastructure approach would provide maximum return in environmental, economic, and social benefits within the most efficient timeframe. Green storm water infrastructure includes planters, rain barrels, green roofs, permeable pavements, and enhanced networks of street trees and restored creek corridors. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET Green City Clean Waters vision over the full 20-year implementation period of this plan and beyond. In a related program, the department's initiated new storm water regulations in 2006. The new regulations are an important tool in the City's efforts to reduce flooding and to protect our rivers and streams. Accordingly, all development projects that disturb more than 15,000 square feet of earth must comply with water quality and non-structural site design requirements that are consistent with state and federal storm-water best-management practices. The results of this program, since inception, have been significant. The program has approved 1,275 acres of the proposed development. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET infrastructure and its treatment plants. The department is also taking full advantage of available economic stimulus funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and has received approval for low0interest funding of numerous projects through the existing state revolving-loan fund program. In Pennsylvania, these programs are managed by the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority, all known as Pennvest. In April of 2009, the Water Department received funding approval for four of its five submitted applications to Pennvest, totalling $184,890,000 for traditional water and sewer infrastructure repair, replacement, and upgrades, and an additional $30 million for green infrastructure projects primarily related to flood control and combined sewer overflow mitigation. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET acknowledges the stimulus funding from ARRA for making the funding possible and available for these important projects.
The Water Department remains committed to providing utility services consistent with the highest level of customer services, as set forth in the City's strategic plan. This would not be possible without the Water Department's dedicated and professional staff, many of whom hold leadership positions in the American Water Works Association, the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, the Delaware River Basin Commission, the Eastern Meter Management Association, the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, the Coastal Zone Management Steering Committee for Pennsylvania, the Water Environment Federation, the Pennsylvania DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) Water Advisory Council, and the Pennsylvania Section of the American Water Works Association. 10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET We look forward to continued partnership with City Council toward further improvement in Fiscal Year 2010 and and the years ahead. 6 At this time, I would be happy 7 to answer any questions that you may 8 have. 9
Thank 10 you very much, Commissioner. 11 When the Fire Department was testifying, they were asked how the costs associated with the fire hydrant system were determined, and they did not know. Can you tell us how the $6.5 million that was requested was determined? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Well, we set all of our rates on the cost of service, on the cost of service basis. And the fire hydrant rates, or the charges to the Fire Department, are really systems cost for the hydrants themselves, which number over 25,000 that we maintain. And, also, the system fire 222 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET protection extra-capacity costs. In other words, the pipes in the street that need to be sized for firefighting is also a part of the capital and -- that we have to service the debt on. So we have 25,000 hydrants and capacity costs also allocated to the Fire Department. I should tell you -- and I know you remember this -- several years ago, we decommissioned the old high- pressure fire system, which had become obsolete; that system was about a hundred years old and was built when we had a lot of garment factories in Center City and some of the early skyscrapers. And with upgrades to our regular firefighting system and the new firefighting equipment that the Fire Department has, we were able to divest ourselves of that system and thereby save the Fire Department several million dollars in payments to us every year for keeping that system going. 223 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET
Thank you, Commissioner. Can you update us on the Biosolids Initiative? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Yes. Everything is moving ahead, on schedule, as far as the Philadelphia biosolids program. As you probably remember, they took over the operation of our current facilities back in October of 2008, I believe. They have really removed a tremendous amount of material while treating -- while also getting rid of and treating the material that comes in on a daily basis. So -- and this is all before they've even begun construction of the new facility, which is a heat-drying palletization plant. They have all of their funding in line now. They've gotten approval for their loans. And they are moving ahead 224 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET probably with the construction beginning very shortly. They have their building permit, I understand, and they've done demolition of those parts of the plant that are no longer necessary. And everything has been moving ahead very well. Financially, we've actually been saving a little more money than we had anticipated.
Wonderful. On of your testimony, you mention difficulties with collections. Can you tell us what your collection rate is and how it compares to other utilities? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Well, I believe that collections, for some reason -- and I'm not exactly sure why -- have actually picked up more recently. We had a very weak July and August of last year, 2009, which kind of surprised us and led us to really begin 225 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET to cut back on our spending, or delay spending. And ever since, I guess it's September, revenues have picked up and have not -- and have gotten us pretty much on target with projections that the Water Revenue Bureau has made for us. What typically happens in collections for the Water Department is that in a given year, they will -- the Water Revenue Bureau will typically collect somewhere around 94 or 95 percent of what they bill. Eighty-five percent or so -- maybe a little higher now -- will come in from that year's billings. In other words, the last complete year is Fiscal '09, so on July 1, 2008, they sent out their first bills for Fiscal '09, and those billings continued through June 30th. Now, the billings that went out in late June, mid-June, were not due yet. But of the billings that were sent out in 226 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET Fiscal Year '09, 85 percent of the dollars were paid by June 30th of '09, so that's the current collection factor. Now, typically, the Water Revenue Bureau will collect about or 7 percent of the immediate prior year, 8 which would bump that up to 93, 94 9 percent, and then collect to percent of all years prior to that. And, as you know, we keep the counting conventions of the City; it forces up to keep receivables on the books for up to years, which I think 15 is being addressed now because it tends to pull people's attention off what is truly collectible, you know, in the more recent times.
That's incredible. Fifteen years is a long time. Commissioner, how many suburban water suppliers buy water from the City, and who are they? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: We 227 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET have two wholesale customers for the water side of our utility. One is Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority, which provides water to Lower -- within Lower Bucks County. And the other is Aqua, Pennsylvania, which purchases water and uses it in, I believe, both Montgomery and Delaware County, to augment its supplies in those areas.
How are the rates we charge them determined? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: They are also done on the basis of cost of service rates. And the way -- interestingly enough, Bucks County Water and Sewer, their 45-year contract is up next year.
Really? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: That was signed in 1966. There are some provisions in that contract that are being changed 228 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET because they were signed way back when, before we had full cost-of-service determination on those rates. But the way -- the way we charge from now on -- and, in fact, we signed a contract with Aqua, I believe, at the end of 2000 or 2001. Yeah, so we've had Aqua on bored for about nine years now. They pay their full cost of service and then depreciation and return on investment and a service and a management fee on top of that, of 10 percent. We're going to have something similar with Bucks County, which will yield a lot more revenue than we've been getting under the old 1966-vintage contract.
How much revenue do we actually collect from them? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: From all of the townships? 229 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET
Well, from Bucks County and Aqua. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: I think we have it. Go ahead, Joe.
In Fiscal '09, we got $5,620,000 from Bucks County and 3,064,000 from Aqua, Pennsylvania. The total wholesale water sales were $8,685,000.
Thank you. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: We do a bit better on the waste-water side because we have ten customers, and all Pennsylvania communities that touch our border are our customers on waste-water service. So combined, we pick up roughly $40 million annually from the suburbs.
Great. Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Goode. 230 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET
Thank you, Madam President. Good afternoon, Commissioner. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Good afternoon.
Commissioner, you have one of the largest budgets in City government. How much do you anticipate doing in business contracting in Fiscal '11? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: I think on -- as far as the -- well, our entire budget is very large. I guess a combination of Classes 200 for purchase of services and Classes 300 and 400 for materials supplies and equipment. I have to take a quick look at the budget. It looks like about $156 million between Classes 200, 300, and 400.
In the testimony that was circulated, I noticed there were no goals for contracting with 231 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET disadvantaged businesses. Why was that? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: I think there was a misunderstanding as to whether it was supposed to be a part of the written testimony or an addendum or an addition, attachment to that.
In your testimony today, did you state a goal? I know I stepped out for a minute. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Yeah. Our goal for 2011 is percent. 13
Okay. And 14 what was your goal for Fiscal Year '10? 15 COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: I 16 believe it was probably 20 percent. 17
And what are 18 you achieving so far? 19 COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: I 20 know that we had about 17-and-a-half, I 21 think, so far. I got my papers out of 22 order, I believe. 23 Right now, we're only running 24 about 14 percent. 25
Okay. 232 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET You're about 14 percent for Fiscal Year '10. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Yes.
For Fiscal '09, what was your goal? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: I believe that was percent. 9
Okay. And 10 what did you achieve in Fiscal Year '09? 11 COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: About 12 12.55 percent. 13
Okay. And 14 what was your goal in Fiscal Year '08. 15 COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: I 16 believe that may have also been 20 17 percent. 18
I believe 19 your goal was 32 percent. 20 COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: In Fiscal '08?
Yes. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Oh. That particular year, we achieved 17.23 percent. 233 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET
First question is: Why has your participation dropped since Fiscal Year '08? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: We had some periods of time where we could not let our public works contracts. We had some kind of fiscal disconnect. In order for us to spend capital, we have to have the appropriation authority that comes from City Council. We also have to have the Capital Budget appropriation, and we also have to have the cash in hand. And when those things get screwed up --
You've spent money in the years since Fiscal Year '08. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Pardon?
You've spent money in the years since Fiscal Year '08. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Oh, absolutely, absolutely.
The question 234 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET was: Why did participation drop? The question was not: What money was available? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Right. We do best on our public works contracts; that's what I was kind of getting to.
Okay. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: When these contracts go through, you know, the normal procurement process in Classes 300 and 400, we tend not to fare as well.
Okay. So how was the goal set for Fiscal '11? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: This was set in cooperation with the Office of Economic Opportunity, and we've sat down and taken a good look at what vendors we know of that can do the kinds of contracts that we seem to have lined up for Fiscal '11. It's never -- we're never a hundred percent sure which contracts are going to go out in '11 this early. But 235 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET from what we've seen, we are going to make a very strong effort to meet the percent goal. 5 We think we have hit 18-and-a- 6 half percent on the ARRA funds, which 7 are, for our purposes, Pennvest loans; we 8 were able to achieve 18-and-a-half 9 percent on those. And we think we can 10 push even harder. 11 One of the things that we do 12 is, we really talk to the vendors who 13 have now had more and more experience 14 with minority participation and female 15 participation as far as their contracts 16 are concerned. And the added push of the 17 state and federal government looking at 18 this, I think, has helped us to convince 19 them to add -- 20 (Timer bell rings.) 21
What do you 25 anticipate in terms of public-works 236 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET spending, and do you have a separate goal for that? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Well, Councilman, we have a budget in Fiscal '11 of $171 million; part of that is for our own capital staff. But it's a significant amount of work, which would be probably in the order of 140 to 145 million for projects.
And do you have a separate goal for that since you say the public-works contracting will help you get to percent -- 15 COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: I 16 think we're going to attempt to exceed 17 25 percent on our public-works contracts 18 in Fiscal '11 so that they make up for 19 any shortcomings in some of the other 20 ways that we purchase, as in through the 21 Procurement Department and low bid, et 22 cetera. 23
Thank you, 24 Commissioner. 25 Thank you, Madam President. 237 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown.
Thank you, Madam President. Councilman Goode, I'm willing to yield. Are you finished your line of questioning? Okay. Good afternoon. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Good afternoon.
Diversity with disadvantaged businesses is important on the outside; internally, it matters as well. And factoring in what I've learned from other departments with regards to hiring, just give me a makeup of the composition of your department of those in position of leadership and responsibility. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Well -- 238 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET
Women and people of color. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Right. Well, let me see. We have just appointed a new budget director for the Water Department, Miss Arwilla Jones, who has been with us for quite a while and has succeeded her boss, who has retired. And she is our new budget director. We also just hired our new accounting director, who is also a minority female. And both of these appointments have come within the past two months.
So that's two people of color in -- let's approach it this way: Give me the total number of persons in a position of leadership and responsibility first. Just a number. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: I 239 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET guess it depends on how far down in the government we go. We have obviously a female who is head of our operations.
Okay. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: And also a female who is head of our public affairs.
Okay. Isolated numbers don't help me have a picture. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Right.
I need the total number and then I need the breakdown -- women and people of color. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Can we get back to you on that?
How soon? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: That shouldn't take us very long, a day or two.
Okay. You mentioned -- provide detail, if you will, to the extent that the clock will allow, on the solar -- solar... Your testimony 240 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET spoke briefly to a solar contract, if you will -- COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Yes.
-- that is going to be let? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Yes.
Speak in greater detail on that. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: I think I'm going to get a little assistance on that one.
Okay. (Witness comes forward.) COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: This is Dr. Christopher Crockett, who's head of our Planning and Research Unit.
There are actually two solar opportunities. One is the construction of the 250-kilowatt solar panels at the Southeast waste-water plant through the ECBG plants through the Mayor's Office.
Mm-hmm. 241 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET
The other is, we're in the process of developing requests for proposals for a power purchase agreement to use the area at our Baxter water-treatment facility, where we have underground water storage. On top of that water storage, we would look at putting in upwards of five megawatts of solar panels and buying the energy from the company that builds it and operates that because they can take advantage of the solar tax, the private tax credits, for building solar.
Well, thank you for your testimony. And the process for the awareness of those RFPs is what?
The RFPs have to be advertised like normally for every RFP, but there actually was a recording that's through the Mayor's Office of Sustainability. I was aware that they've reached out to City Council to have educational sessions about this RFP and 242 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET about this project.
And I think they're continuing to move forward with -- to set up those educational sessions with City Council. And I'll make sure that they forward that information to you, and we'll move forward from that point. But that RFP, because it's going to be a multiple-year contract, will have to come back to City Council for their approval. So you will get a chance to see this in multiple places along the way. And I believe we reached out to City Council staff to invite City Council staff to be a part of the RFP process.
Okay. We thank you for that. For my own understanding, Commissioner, who is your direct report? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Who I report to? That's Deputy Mayor Rina 243 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET Cutler.
Okay. All right, then. Thank you very, very much. Thank you, Madam President.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman Jones.
Thank you, Madam President. Commissioners, Deputy Commissioners, how are you this afternoon? Good. My first question is about the Green City Water Plan, and I was wondering if the EPA had gotten back with an approval for your plan and the submission of it. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Unfortunately, not yet, Councilman. We are waiting. And we -- it's not unusual for the regulatory agencies to take their time, particularly when the stakes are so high. 244 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET
Do you anticipate it being much longer? Can you estimate, guesstimate when that will be? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: We're not -- I honestly don't know but --
I guess let me rephrase. When you get to a federal regulatory agency, is there a average time, mean time, mode, any of those? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: I would hope that they would try to avoid coming around to the one-year mark, which would be September 1st.
Okay. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: So hopefully, we would hear something by late spring, early summer.
And if that -- and we are hopeful that you are successful in getting it approved. That would trigger your plan or the department's plan for the bio retention basins and rain gardens? 245 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Yes, yes.
And are we still on track to do how many of them? What was the number? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: I don't recall a specific number, but I think that some of this would happen regardless of how the EPA reacts to our plan. Clearly, if they like what we are proposing and accept it, that would really move this forward quickly.
So when should we see some of those bio retention basins, rain gardens being installed? Do we have a estimate. The ones independent of the EPA? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: I would -- there certainly is a lot of push to begin work on that because of the way we are beginning to charge for storm water based on a parcel basis. And so, some of the larger parcels within the City, the owners of those parcels would 246 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET certainly find it to their advantage to adopt some of these measures on their own property. And so that business -- and I know you're very interested in the business model that this would bring about in green-collar jobs and so forth. That should be something that will be starting up relatively soon. And as the demand gets greater for this type of work, then I think the demand will start to invigorate the need for people who actually can do this for the various consultants and contractors in the City.
Well, one of things -- and I really do applaud you for being one of the departments that is interested in creating these type of job opportunities particularly that may have the potential for hiring regular folk from regular neighborhoods that can be trained to build, install, maintain beautiful gardens that are also 247 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET environmentally-friendly. I will ask you what I ask each of the departments that do this kind of procurement work: Have we done a study -- and I want the Administration always to know that I will be consistent about this -- as to how much of the work could actually be done in-house and where there is a break-even point or some type of model that says, This is better to farm out, this is the kind of thing that we should contract out for, these are the things that we could maintains and/or install, create on our own. And so, I think it's -- when we are starting to talk about budget deficits and trying to sharpen our pencils, it's time to look at -- all things should be on the table in that process. So, again, I'm not -- I'm directing this at you so it's on the record, but I'm directing it at big departments that have large procurement 248 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET budgets, that probably have similar skill sets that are required by Public Property by Recreation, by Fairmount Park, that we could probably synergistically work to create a team that could do those minor things. And then at that equilibrium point, we'll contract the rest out. But by doing it in-house or serving as our own GC that we could possibly get it done more effectively and create jobs in Philly and not the Commonwealth or the State of New Jersey, which we tend to do when we procure outside services a lot. Having said that, it brings up one of my favorite topics, which are the laterals we had talked about and discussed because of the aging infrastructure of water in particular, the dual systems that we have creating a fund that, in cases of emergency, we could utilize to get that which on average is about how much, about $4500 worth of dollars worth of repair that the 249 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET average person has to pay for. And I'm wondering if we could find a fund in cooperation with some dollars that might be at the federal government level to create that fund and our progress in that regard. (Timer bell rings.) COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Yes. I know -- I know of your interest in this. As you know, at this point in time, the department has a help loan program, which is a zero-interest loan program for those people who have -- who have those types of problems; either their water line or their sewer lateral is damaged or broken, and clearly, it's not easy for everybody to find 3, 4, $5,000 unexpectedly and deal with this problem. And so, we did develop the help loan program, which is zero interest for 60 months, or five years, to pay back the loan to the Water Department. 250 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET The problem -- you know, one of the issues that we have -- and I'm not saying there's no way to get around it, and we have to continue to explore this perhaps with the Law Department and perhaps with others -- is the fact that ownership of those lines still remain with the homeowner. And it's difficult for us to use public money for private purpose.
Understood. Here's the thing. Whether it's you, whether it's L&I, whether it's whoever, these are the kinds of conditions that can make a renter wind up in a shelter. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Right.
It's the kind of thing that if L&I goes out and sees -- we had, I swear to you, a lady, a constituent called up and said, "Councilman, my landlord is irresponsible. We have a problem with our drainage, sewage thing going on underground. And the smell you can smell 251 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET in the basement." We sent L&I out there to help them, an act of kindness. And they said, "Yeah, you're absolutely right. This is filthy, it should not be loud, and you can't live here anymore. You have to go. Vacate now." And the unintended consequence was that we made another person homeless. So as a municipality and as responsible stewards of the public trust, it seems like we shouldn't penalize the victim; we should hold the people that are responsible. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Yes.
If we could come up with a creative way to do this, we wind up saving money in a different pocket. It may not be in yours, it may not be in L&I's, but for sure, in homelessness -- and this was one of those cases -- it cost us several hundred dollars a day to house this, when we could have spent $4500 to permanently 252 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET take care of that and put a lien on the property and -- COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: I understand. And we would be fine with administering the program. It's the funding aspect of it that can be difficult for at least the Water Department, based on all of our bonds covenants and so forth.
The good thing about these hearings -- and I'll pass the mic here -- is that as we see issues that turn out to be patterns, they will turn out to be public-policy changes we make. And so, I thank you for your candor. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you very much. Last Monday, I had the opportunity to visit the Wissahickon 253 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET Creek watershed up in Ambler, with the Montgomery County Controller Diane Morgan. And the purpose of the visit was to see the 38-acre (indiscernible) asbestos superfund site. And it comes up from along the banks of the Wissahickon Creek, and it's just massive. We saw asbestos waste in the Wissahickon Creek. We walked down into the creek. Has the Water Department ever screened the water intake at Henry Avenue, which is 12 miles from the superfund site, for asbestos contamination? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: I don't know -- yeah, we have filtered it out in our Queen Lane plant. The Wissahickon would theoretically affect the Queen Lane plant. Whether the asbestos has made it down that far, we have not seen any of that, I don't think, in our intakes or certainly not in our finished water. 254 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET Yeah the water-treatment process that we have is a very sophisticated, very intense filtration, which should take care of any of that in our system. That's why our turbidity levels are as low as they are.
Okay. The question raised by the advocate for the cleanup of this site was that the water from the Wissahickon Creek and so much of that asbestos is in that creek, and the mounds of dirt, or you think is dirt, it's not; dirt it's asbestos. Asbestosis was made there. And so, they just used the large dumping site that's there, and the asbestos is in the creek. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: We're certainly going to keep our eye on that 'cause we were alerted to this also a few months back. And obviously, this goes back a long time. And it has not been proven to be a problem for Philadelphia drinking water, but we will -- we will continue to 255 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET keep our eyes on it. And we want anything above us, north of us, to be treated properly. And that site -- we'll make our opinions known to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and so forth.
One of the young ladies stated that the creek -- I think there's a lock-off or a drop-off or some intake into Philadelphia in Roxborough? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: I don't think we have intakes there.
There's no 17 collection of the creek into the Roxborough site? Do you have a water site there that you can collect water or there's a... MS. McCARTY: The site in Roxborough, the Queen Lane water- treatment plant that's right at Henry and Fox and Queen Lane, right by Route 1, that does withdraw water from the 256 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET Schuylkill, but it's pumped down right where the Wissahickon comes into the Schuylkill River. Our intake or the pumping station is right below the Wissahickon Creek, where it comes into the Schuylkill River, but it pumps up the hill, up to that treatment plant at --
Okay. MS. McCARTY: And the water basin is right there on the -- on Route 1, excuse me. So if you looked up -- when you're a passenger, not driving -- you would see, you know, the banks of the raw-water basin.
You would see the banks of the what? MS. McCARTY: Of the raw-water basin, the basin where we pump the water from the Schuylkill River, and then it gets treated. So it's raw water before we treat it.
Do you ever test the water at that site? 257 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET MS. McCARTY: Oh, yes. We constantly test the water as we go through all the processes.
You haven't seen any high levels of asbestos in the water at that site? MS. McCARTY: I can tell you that we test for particles and the particles which would be asbestos. You know, because of the turbidity, as the Commissioner mentioned, our turbidities are very low, so we -- and we test for turbidity, which is an indication of anything, in addition to asbestos. So we're not seeing any issues in the (indiscernible) of our drinking- water plants at this time.
Okay. Thank you. That's certainly why my interest was raised because of the large amount of asbestos that's on that Wissahickon Creek. MS. McCARTY: Right. It's definitely a concern, and we're paying 258 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET attention to it. You know, I do know that asbestos forms naturally -- is naturally occurring in soil. You know, so asbestos is still in our break, on our breaks. And it's all over the place, really, unfortunately.
Okay. MS. McCARTY: But, yes, we do pay attention to that.
My office has receive various calls from small-business owners with concerns about the implementation of the storm-water management fee. Can you describe the implementation process of this fee? (Timer bell rings.)
And the other point I want to make is, there are some churches in my district that have large land masses. And when they bought the land to build their church, we did not have this fee, so their financial situation was based on the cost and 259 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET construction at that time. So now you're going to add another cost. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Yeah, I certainly understand that question. And you know that up until this period of time, we have used the size of a property's meter as a surrogate for the property's parcel size or contribution to the storm-water system. So a number of churches in the about seven, eight years ago actually contacted us to check their property and downsize their meters so their service charge would go down, because some of the churches, obviously, are filled pretty much on Sunday and don't use very much water but were paying a large service fee because of the large size of their meter. So we did downsize a lot of churches, hundreds probably, back in the early part of the decade. Now, of course, we're getting away from meter size as a surrogate for 260 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET storm-water contribution to our system. And that is due to begin on July 1st, beginning of Fiscal '11, where we now have, after 20, years of 6 exploring this and trying to get to a 7 point where we actually can charge 8 appropriately for the size of property 9 and the quality of the property. You 10 know, whether they're impervious or not, 11 we are going to begin charging in stages 12 for storm water based on parcel size and 13 characteristics. 14 We were kind of drawn into this 15 over the years through rate cases where 16 we were challenged on using the system 17 that we use today, which is the meter 18 size. 19 Meter size is an accepted 20 surrogate by the American Water Works 21 Association. But in the '80s, when this 22 first became an issue through the rate 23 cases, we couldn't do it because we 24 didn't have the technology to do it. 25 But now, since we have GIS and 261 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET we have computerization of records and digitization of maps, we are now, for the first time, able to actually charge parcels on the basis of their size and characteristics. And so, we had to go down this road because we were compelled in the rate cases to do that by interveners in the rate cases, including large -- interveners representing large customers who said, What's fair is fair; we want you to do this appropriately, on the basis of lot size, parcel size, and characteristics. And we've gone through this for many years. We had a Storm Water Citizens Advisory Committee back in the mid-1990s that actually came up with our approach, and it was very rational, very logical. And customers representing every stripe that we have in the City were on this committee. And they came up with the way that storm water should be charged. 262 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET And it's basically scientifically based on what your parcel's contribution would be during a storm to our system. And we now can -- we weren't able to implement this in the '90s; we're now able to implement this beginning in Fiscal 2011.
Do you have any estimate of what the difference in costs will be for, say, a large church that would be charged more? I mean, would it be significantly more? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: It's difficult to say, because storm water's only a piece of the whole water bill, as you know. There's -- the service charge -- if they have a large meter, if they have a large meter today, if it's a three-inch meter, which is considered a large meter, they're paying a considerable amount for storm water already. Some of these churches will go down in cost. Some will go in cost. It 263 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET really depends on the specifics of their parcel. One of the other things -- now, we're phasing this charge in over the next three years. Actually, it's one quarter at a time. Beginning July 1, 2010, the large-meter customers will now get a bill 10 that is one-quarter based on parcel size and characteristics and three-quarters based on their meter size, the old system. Then the year after, July 1 of 2011, it will be 50 percent new charge, 50 percent old charge. Again, 50 percent parcel-based, 50 percent meter-based. And then, the following year, it will be three-quarters based on parcel size, and only one quarter based on meter size. And finally, that fourth year, it will be one hundred percent based on their parcel size. So we're giving people an 264 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET opportunity to plan for the future. This whole reallocation of storm water is revenue-neutral to the Water Department. We are not -- our intent is not to make a nickel more on storm-water costs from our customer base; it's just that we are reallocating it more equitably because we now have the ability to do it, where no one had the ability to do it in the past. And once been you've along this long road decades, which has been this meter-size surrogate, to change it to a more accurate method -- parcel size and characteristics -- there's hell to pay in some respects because it's a difficult road to change. I should tell you that most of the large customers, most of the large-meter customers, will actually see a decrease or very little change, about two-thirds. It's that one third that is going to see some large upticks in storm water. They're the ones that are going 265 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET to have some difficulty. And what we're doing with them in order to help them cope with this difficulty is, we've hired an expert firm to help them come up with a way to handle their storm water onside to the degree that they can reduce their future storm- water bill, by not releasing as much storm water to us, in the street. So we're working with them to get them storm0water credits so they can reduce their storm-water bill. And we're giving them four years, a phase-in period of time, to plan ahead. And that's how we're dealing with it. But some of these businesses, their storm-water fee is going down; and other businesses, their fees are going up. If you have a small meter and a large lot, or no meter at all and a large lot, you're going to see some major, major increases. If, however, you have a large 266 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET meter and a relatively small lot, you're going to get credits -- I mean, your fee is going to go down significantly. And that's the way it operates.
So how are you going to educate the businesses, one-by-one? Are you going to have a collective education process about this issue? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: We have been reaching out to all of the customers who -- all of the major customers who are getting large increases. Through our public affairs group, Ms. Joanne Dahme, who's head of our public affairs group, has launched a very aggressive program of bringing these folks in and explaining what we're doing. All of these folks got letters, beginning in February, telling them of what we're going to be doing and also giving them a map of their parcel and telling them to take a look at the map; 267 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET does this look accurate. If not, let us know. There are opportunities for credits against this charge. If you do something about storm water onsite -- this is part of what Councilman Jones was talking about, this business of green-collar-type jobs being developed from just this type of change in approach to how we charge for storm water. The way we're doing it is probably the way it's going to be done in the future most places in the country. We're a little ahead of the curve because we were addressing storm water as an equity problem, not as a green Philadelphia goal, back in the '80s and '90s. We've had over seven workshops with over 700 people attending so far. And there are certain churches -- we happen to know of, for instance, a Mt. Zion that may be in your district church. 268 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET
There are about a hundred Mt. Zions; there is not just one Mt. Zion. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: One of them is going down.
Either come to the mic or... (Witness comes forward.
Hi. I'm Joanne Dahme, Public Affairs. Councilwoman, we did meet with Chief of Staff, Derek Greene, and he did mention that one of his major concerns is a lot of the congregations in your district. I think Mt. Zion was one of the new ones on Cheltenham Avenue. It's a very large congregation.
Yes, that's correct. And they had seen their rates 269 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET go down just because, as Bernie had mentioned, depending on the size of their meter. But we have had -- as Bernie was mentioning, we've been doing a very targeted campaign. I'm ideally trying to get this information out to everybody. So when sent the February notifications out to over 90,000 customers, we had set up a number of workshops. We had three in February, four in March, and we'll have some more scheduled if needed. Essentially, we had over a hundred people coming out to these workshops. Most of the people coming out were people who either didn't understand what it was all about or impacted in a bad way. You know, they saw their rates going up significantly. So during these workshops, we provide information about, you know, appeals, you know, letting us know if the information we have is correct. But more importantly, looking 270 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET for information regarding, are there any managing storm water onsite? And if there are not, we provide information about how they can do these retrofits so they can see their bills go down somewhat. Moving over the next few months, we're meeting with a number of faith-based organizations. We have a meeting with the Archdiocese on Thursday. I think they have over 200 parish representatives coming -- probably not all happy parish representatives. We're meeting with the Episcopalian congregation, Presbyterian. So, you know, any suggestions you have -- and Derek sort of set us on that path. Any suggestions you have as to how we can better get the word out, 'cause we are continually doing advertisements about these workshops and, you know, as Bernie mentioned, offering some conceptual services. So that's been a challenge for 271 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET us. If people don't read the letters they received, you know, our concern is they're going to get this bill on July 1 and be pretty shocked, so we're hoping people are paying attention.
So what would -- what would the size be? Do you have a set size, or it's just different sizes and different characteristics?
I mean, there's a general rule of thumb. So we say if a property is fairly large and impervious, lots of hard surfaces and has small meters at the property, they're properties that are going to see an impact. They may see their rates -- you know, as Bernie said, it can vary a few hundred dollars per month and some of them up to a few thousand per month, depending on how big that is. I mean, you look at someone like the large auto dealers, whom we met with yesterday, are seeing a thousand, 272 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET two thousand dollars a month. Some of the churches we've worked with, some of the large churches, not quite so big, so they are seeing a few hundred dollars sometimes. But that's what we're saying is an unassessed parcel. You know, when we send this information to the customer, we don't know whether or not they're doing any kind of management, and some of that management can be done on landscape. It could be that they have some green areas or their downspouts are disconnected and going into these, sort of what Councilwoman was talking about, rain gardens and that sort of thing. So one of the initial steps is to sit down with them and find out, What are you already doing so you can get a credit? because we can't charge them if they are managing their own storm water. And, really, that's good for us; you know, less of a burden onto our system.
What 273 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET impact does it have on the school system?
Overall, the School District is -- it almost breaks even. Some of the schools are seeing increases, and some of them are seeing decreases. But, again, many of those that are seeing a reduction in their storm-water fees have large meters on school properties, so they're already paying -- they're one of the properties, parcels that are sort of subsidizing those customers who haven't been paying quite as much because their meters are so large. So overall, the School District is not impacted in a bad way. I think -- I'm trying to think of what that number was; I think it was about a $100,000 a year for all of the school districts. But, again, we were saying that's not knowing what they're already doing on their property, and many of those school properties have done renovations, so they have triggered our storm-water regulations, where they're 274 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET managing that first one inch of storm water. So we are meeting with the School District to sort of go down parcel by parcel what each property is doing.
When the stadiums were constructed, was there any discussion about storm-water management with them? Did they consider storm-water management in their plans for construction? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: I don't know that much in the way of details, but they have some specific issues down there simply because they're -- the water table is very high, they're right at sea level, and those fields are low, you know, relatively speaking. Someone else could speak probably much better to that specific question.
I was just going to mention, partly if the stadiums or their 275 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET districts were developed before 2006, they didn't have to adhere to our new storm-water regulations. So anything developed after 2006 was required to capture that first one inch, you know, to manage that rain water. I mean, we are having some discussions with some of the large-parcel owners in that area about things they can do when they're retrofitting now, but many of them are not capturing that first inch because they already had their zoning permits in place. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Right. January 1, 2006 is when the storm-water regulations were changed and made more difficult to comply with. In other words, all parcels that disturb more than 15,000 square feet of ground, you have to meet certain storm-water requirements, including capturing the first inch of a rain event onsite, either infiltrating it into your soil or retaining it in a basin or a detention 276 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET pond. And so, the stadiums -- both stadiums were built prior -- or they received -- they were built, I guess, prior to 2006, and they certainly got their permits and whatnot prior to that time. But, you know, that's a -- they are parcels -- you know, their parcels are subject to the same kinds of fees that everybody else is.
Well, I don't know too much about storm water, so you could tell me anything. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you. I gave you a lot of latitude because I think that many of us are very concerned about this one issue, about the storm-water issue, and I know that I too have been receiving numerous calls regarding that. Commissioner, are the surrounding counties going to be facing 277 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET the same issue about storm water? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Well, they face the same issue. In fact, some of the surrounding counties have stricter storm-water regulations than we have, actually. But as far as how they charge for storm water, they -- most of them probably are just charging it through their real-estate tax. That's my guess. Those who are doing what we are doing here on the parcel-base system include Wilmington, Delaware, and, I think, St. Louis and Washington, D.C. And this is -- what we're doing here today, or beginning July 1st, is something that is going to be happening throughout the country. As I know -- I know we've spoken on this. We may be a bit ahead of the curve simply because we've been dealing with this issue for a longer time, again, as matter of equity and not as a matter of green infrastructure. 278 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET
Commissioner, I think I heard you testify that we receive sewage from the suburbs? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Yes.
How does their flow impact our system during heavy rains? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: We certainly get more flow from them, but I have to tell you that our three waste-water treatment plants, the ones that are winning the platinum awards, are designed to handle their flow. They were built with 75 percent federal dollars back in the beginning of the late '70s through the early '90s. And those plants, those three plants, cost us about $850 million; again, the majority of the money coming from the feds. And those plants were sized appropriately to handle the flow from those townships and counties and municipalities that we handled today. So we handle -- we can handle a 279 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET very great deal of flow, more than double, let's say, our average. Maybe quadruple our average flow, really.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Sanchez.
Thank you, Madam President. I'll continue on the line of storm-water management, and then I'll save my other questions for the next round. Clearly, we all appreciate the fact that we want to move and definitely want to be ahead of the curve as it relates to storm-water management, but I think there are some unintended consequences here that now we got to kind of manage. And since our discussions, one of the things that has come to my attention in particular, in addition to churches, is the impact that this has on 280 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET our affordable housing, on the construction side and the management in our affordable rentals, where we are, as a government, are subsidizing this housing. So have we given any thought about what we're going to do in those cases? because all they're going to do is pass the bill pack to us somehow, so... COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: You know, the change that we are doing today -- I mean that we're doing beginning July 1st, we did some storm- water reallocation back in Fiscal Years 2002, 3, and 4, when we shifted, appropriately shifted the burden of storm water from residential customers, the 5/8ths-inch meter customers, to the large-meter customers because we didn't need a very sophisticated system to enable us to know that we were charging the residentials too much at that time.
Mm-hmm. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: So we 281 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET shifted that burden. And the service charge, the storm-water charge, specifically went down to residentials between the years fiscal '02 and '04.
Mm-hmm. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: In '04, the residentials were now properly allocated for storm water. Any housing that is, you know, on a residential-size lot or as a 5/8ths-inch -- well, no, a residential-size lot, if it's considered residential, it should not be affected.
But in cases where we have nonprofits that manage these affordable rentals, they're seeing an increase in their parcel. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Because they are handled as a commercial customer?
That's an issue we have to address. 282 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Okay. Now, again, all of this depends on the size of the parcel and the meter size that they're paying now, or the service charge that they're paying today based on meter size.
Mm-hmm. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: So, in some cases, they may be go up; in some cases, they may go down. The -- what else is there to say about that.
Well, I guess the concern is, we're going to have to think about those a little bit differently only because, since we're subsidizing them, it creates a problem. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Right.
'Cause all you're doing is, you know, you're shifting your costs to another unit that then we got to fund and we got to figure out if there's -- again, in our review, what we can do about that. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Yes. 283 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET
'Cause that may mean we want to graduate them differently because, again, now the burden's going to be on another department. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Now, any of these developments that have put in for permits after January of 2006 has presumably done the storm-water work upfront.
Yeah, they have done the work. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: So they're in good shape.
Yeah -- no, but I -- COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: They're not --
But I did want to warn us that -- I'm only -- the reason I'm concerned about that is -- and, you know, we went through it, and I appreciate your help on the one Lawrence Court piece. 284 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET But it's sort of like there is an added burden to construction on affordable housing projects. And to the extent -- and in that case, we were able to get to somewhat of a win/win. We need to keep that in mind because it's -- we have less and less money to do affordable housing. So I would think that, as part of your projections moving forward, that we ensure that when we're going to put this mandate on these affordable housing pieces that we continue to work with them to make sure the numbers work. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
'Cause it could throw off our numbers in terms of affordable housing. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: And again --
And again, in that case, we were able to work something out, but I have some other 285 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET pipeline projects. And now everybody is fearing this a little bit because they're concerned about it and not looking at the other issues. (Timer bell rings.) And I'll end with this one, and that leads us to the issue that President Verna brought up earlier. We saw a million-dollar water increase in the Fire Department in particular. And when you were explaining to President Verna, you said you did this based on an assessment of usage and so forth and so on, and I was trying to understand and follow your thought training. Does that mean that the Fire Department is the on one that gets charged for the fire hydrants? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: For the fire hydrant system?
Mm-hmm. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Yes. 286 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET Well, let's put it this way: It's the General Fund officially that really pays this.
Right. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: And this is through interfund payments, I believe, at the end of the fiscal year. And where we pay the General Fund for all of the services that they provide to the Water Department and the General Fund pays the Water Department for all of the water and waste-water services and firefighting services that we provide to the General Fund to the City.
My only concern, if that's the basis of it, you know, how do we allot for, like, play streets and construction sites that use fire hydrants? Are they the only department shouldering the burden of the fire hydrants? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Well, we issue -- there are permits issued for 287 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET legitimate use of fire hydrants.
Mm-hmm. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: And we -- I know Councilman Rizzo pointed out, in the past, that we probably were not charging enough, and he was correct. And we have -- in our rates, we have the fees up where we believe they're fairly accurate to recover the costs associated with the use of that water, because, otherwise, it's non-revenue water for us.
Mm-hmm. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: So that's not on the Fire Department, per se.
There's a percent increase in their -- they 19 went from 5 to 6 million. You know, 20 we're kind of looking -- 'cause, again, you departments shuffle and balance your books; we're looking at one bottom line. And so, the bottom line for me is, that seems severe in one year. And unless you can explain that to me -- 288 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Sure, we'll -- we can explain that. I will, of course, tell you that, you know, our rates did go up, and they went up for the General Fund as well. And --
And that's -- again, I -- and we can talk about the legalities of all things don't have to be equal; we're the government. You can't just take it from one balance sheet to the other. So I really think the Administration, before we finalize the budget, really has to look at all those Water Fund interfacings that happens in departments. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Now --
Because when you see jumps like that, department-by-department, again, we're going to authorize and appropriate by department, but it's all one general fund. 289 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Roughly, I have to tell you that virtually all of the General Fund is metered, and their bill is based on meters.
No, I understand that. But this notion that our rates went up and, therefore, we're going to charge ourselves more money, we're charging ourselves. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: The difficulty is that we do not -- we're a separate enterprise fund, and we are supposed to be made whole no matter who we provide services to; otherwise, our bond ratings would suffer; otherwise, we may not be able to sell bonds to have a capital program because, basically, people would -- potential bond buyers would say, Well, if the General Fund can siphon off money from the Water Department or charge the Water Department for more than they deserve or withhold money from the Water Department, then our 290 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET bonds are not worth what they think they are.
Well, we'll have a financing discussion on my next round. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam President. I did have a couple more questions. Commissioner, on , under "Professional Services," there's a $25,000 increase for the apprenticeship program at CCP. Provide details on that. And in your details, speak to the rates of minority participation in the apprenticeship program. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Councilwoman --
Yes. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: -- one of the folks who is most responsible 291 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET for this program in the department was invited, but I think, unfortunately, was not able to attend today.
Okay. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: And she certainly knows a lot about this program, and I know she works with some of the organizations that -- oh, excuse me. (Witness comes forward.)
Good afternoon. MS. DiGIULIO: Hi. I'm sorry. My name is Nicole DiGiulio, and I'm the training and development manager.
If you could speak to detail that include such things as how old the program is, the types of things you do for recruitment and outreach, the number of enrollees in the program, the length of the program, et cetera. MS. DiGIULIO: Okay. The program started in 2007. We started 292 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET with -- our first class was eleven students that were selected from the Philadelphia Academy, Electrical Academy.
Mm-hmm. MS. DiGIULIO: They came from Swenson High School -- all Philadelphia School District high schools. And also, we used Mercy Vocational Tech.
Sure. MS. DiGIULIO: Okay. And I think -- did I mention there were eleven of those that year. And that year, we sent those students to Orleans Technical School for -- to become electrical trades --
Okay. MS. DiGIULIO: -- workers. That takes about three -- approximately three years, two-and-a-half years of school, and those students are graduating from that program at the end of this month.
Okay. MS. DiGIULIO: In 2008, we 293 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET recruited for science technicians and construction-projects technicians. Those students also came from the Philadelphia School District. They came from the Environmental Academy at Lincoln High School. They also -- we had about six or seven students from West Philadelphia High School.
Mm-hmm. MS. DiGIULIO: We had -- sorry. I'm trying to remember off the top of my head.
That's quite all right. MS. DiGIULIO: We had -- oh, I'm sorry. We also had five students from Bok High School.
Okay. MS. DiGIULIO: So, and they were -- and some of them were in the Construction Academy, and some of them were in the Academy of Process technology.
Okay. 294 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET MS. DiGIULIO: And those students -- that program actually runs at Community College of Philadelphia. The students who are studying to be science technicians are in the chemical technology program at Community College --
Okay. MS. DiGIULIO: And the students who are in the construction projects technician program are in the construction technology program at Community College, and that actually takes several years because they're only taking two classes a semester.
I see. MS. DiGIULIO: So it will take approximately four years for them to go through the program.
Okay. The good news is about that is the positive 295 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET relationship with CCP and to get young people into the pipeline into those non-traditional careers. Who funds that program? MS. DiGIULIO: We fund that program.
The Water Department? MS. DiGIULIO: They're City employees.
Okay. MS. DiGIULIO: Those students do an apprenticeship program with us; it's actually an internship program that starts in April of their senior year. And then, in the summer, they do an internship program with us, a full-time internship. If they're successful in the full-time internship, they're hired into civil service and start school. They're in a class called Engineering and Science Technician Trainee. And the other students in the trades are in a class 296 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET called Utility Maintenance Apprentice.
That's terrific. Any related or similar type of relationships with area colleges who have young people coming out with degrees in the skill set areas that the Water Department looks for, like engineering? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: We've had an ongoing relationship with Drexel University, through their work-study intern program, for probably close to 50 years, which was a program started by the first Water Commissioner, Sam Baxter.
Is that still in place? COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: Yes, yes, it is. And we have, over the years, been able to recruit a number of Drexel students as employees, graduate engineers or chemists, people of that type of skill set.
I see. COMMISSIONER BRUNWASSER: And 297 4.13.10 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - FY '11 BUDGET to tell you about what Nicole has just commented on, it's become apparent to us -- it became apparent to us some years back that we could not seem to attract the highly-skilled labor force that we needed at some of these plants that we have. (Timer bell rings.) And we decided that we have to do something about growing our own.