COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Monday, April 20, 2026 10:22 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT KENYATTA JOHNSON COUNCILWOMAN NINA AHMAD COUNCILWOMAN CINDY BASS COUNCILWOMAN KENDRA BROOKS COUNCILMAN MICHAEL DRISCOLL COUNCILWOMAN JAMIE GAUTHIER COUNCILWOMAN KATHERINE GILMORE RICHARDSON COUNCILMAN JIM HARRITY COUNCILMAN CURTIS JONES, JR. COUNCILWOMAN RUE LANDAU COUNCILWOMAN QUETCY M. LOZADA COUNCILMAN NICOLAS O'ROURKE COUNCILMAN ANTHONY PHILLIPS COUNCILMAN MARK SQUILLA COUNCILMAN ISAIAH THOMAS COUNCILMAN JEFFREY YOUNG, JR. BILLS: 260199, 260200, 260201, 260202, 260203, 260204, 260205, 260206, 260208, 260209 RESOLUTION: 260227 - - -
I'm Baptist. I'm good with call and response. And so, today is a beautiful day. This is the public hearing and public meeting of the Committee of the Whole regarding Bill Nos. 260199, 260200, 260201, 260202, 260203, 260204, 260205, 260206, 260208, 260209, Resolution No. 260227. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the roll and take attendance please.
Present. Thank you, Ms. Loughead. A quorum of the committee is present and this hearing is now called to order. Ms. Loughead, will you please read the titles of the bills and resolution.
Bill No. 24 260199, an Ordinance adopting the Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2027. Bill No. 260200, an Ordinance to adopt a Fiscal Year 2027 Capital Budget. Bill No. 260201, an Ordinance to adopt a Capital Program for the six Fiscal Years, 2027-2032 inclusive. Bill No. 260202, an Ordinance amending Chapter 19-2400 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Hotel Room Rental Tax," by providing for an additional excise tax on hotel room rentals, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260203, an Ordinance amending Subcode "A" (The Philadelphia Administrative Code) of Title 4 of The Philadelphia Code (The Building, Construction and Occupancy Code), by adding and revising Zoning Board of Adjustment fees and provisions regarding hearing scheduling, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260204, an Ordinance amending Title 3 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Air Management Code" to modify the amounts of license and permit fees, under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 2602055, an Ordinance amending Section 19-1806 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Authorization of Realty Use and Occupancy Tax," to clarify the imposition of the tax on the use or occupancy of real estate with respect to cell towers, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260206, an Ordinance amending Chapter 6-600 of The Philadelphia Code ("Asbestos"), by adding and providing provisions related to various fees, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260208, an Ordinance amending Chapter 19-1800 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "School Tax Authorization," to a add a new Section 19-1808, entitled "Authorization of Rideshare Use Tax," to authorize the Board of the School District of Philadelphia to levy a tax upon the use by a passenger of a transportation network company for a prearranged ride that originates in Philadelphia; all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260209, an Ordinance amending Title of The 16 Philadelphia Code, entitled 17 "Finances, Taxes and Collections," 18 to add a new Chapter 19-4800, 19 entitled "Retail Delivery Tax," to establish a tax on orders for the delivery in Philadelphia of retail consumer and other tangible goods, all under certain terms and conditions. Resolution No. 260227, Providing for the approval by the Council of the City of Philadelphia a Revised Five Year Financial Plan for the City of Philadelphia, covering Fiscal Years 2027 through 2031, and incorporating revisions with respect to Fiscal Year 2026, which is to be submitted by the Mayor to the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority pursuant to an Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement by and between the City and the Authority.
Today we hold the public hearing of the Committee of the Whole to consider the bills read by the Clerk that constitute proposed operating capital spending measures for Fiscal Year 2027, a Capital Program and a Forward-looking Capital Plan for Fiscal Year 2027 through Fiscal Year 2032. This morning we have scheduled testimony from the Managing Director's Office. And this afternoon, we will be hearing from the Office of Homeless Services. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the first panel to testify from the Administration.
The first panel to testify from the Administration is Adam Thiel, Managing Director, who is also joined by Tara Mohr, First Deputy Managing Director; Aparna Palantino, Deputy Managing Director for Capital Projects; Dominic Morales, Deputy Managing Director for Community Safety; Aubrey Powers, Deputy Managing Director for Community Services; Dave Wilson, Deputy Managing Director for General Services; Crystal Yates-Gale, Deputy Managing Director for Health and Human Services; Steven St. Vincent, Deputy Managing Director for Strategic Initiatives; and Mike Carroll, Deputy Managing Director for Transportation and Infrastructure. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Thank you very much. Before we get started, I just want to take a moment to acknowledge Managing Director Adam Thiel and Fire Commissioner Jeffrey Thompson. I want to personally just thank the two of you for your leadership as it relates to the Grays Ferry garage tragedy that took place within the 2nd Councilmanic District. I want to thank all of you, for the two of you specifically for just being so attentive, making sure that myself and my team were informed thoroughly, and most important in comfort in your leadership that you brought to the South Philadelphia community of Grays Ferry. I just want to personally just thank the two of you for being there during such a tragic time. I also want to take a moment to acknowledge Basil Merenda, Commissioner of L&I, thank him for his leadership, as well as Aparna Palantino as well, thank her for her leadership around capital projects, specifically as it relates to Rebuild. I also want to thank Michael Carroll and OTIS as we continue to make sure Vision Zero becomes a reality in addressing all things regarding pedestrian safety, so just thank you for just being responsive to that process as well. And to the Administration team that's here that will be providing testimony, thank all of you for your hard work as it relates to moving the City of Philadelphia forward. And so with that being said, I'm going to ask for Adam Thiel, just please state your name for the record and begin your testimony.
Good morning, Council President Johnson and members of City Council. I am Adam Thiel, Managing Director for the City of Philadelphia. Joining me today are members of the MDO executive team, Tara Mohr, our First Deputy Managing Director, Aparna Palantino, Deputy Managing Director for Capital Projects; Aubrey Powers, Deputy Managing Director for Community Services; Dave Wilson, Deputy Managing Director for General Services; Crystal Yates-Gale, Deputy Managing Director for Health and Human Services; Steven St. Vincent, Deputy Managing Director for Strategic Initiatives; and Mike Carroll, Deputy Managing Director for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems, also joined by our MDO Senior Director for Communications, Sharon Gallagher; and our MDO Chief of Staff, Ryan Clinton, plus many other department and program leaders from across the Managing Director's Office. And with that, Council President, we're happy to take questions from you and City Council.
Thank you very much. I just wanted to start off by, one, can your Office of Domestic Violence Strategies give us an idea regarding where we're at in terms of tracking data, our strategy to address domestic violence here in the city of Philadelphia. I don't know if most people may or may not know but there's a new terminology called femicide, where we've seen, particularly across our nation right now, a significant amount of women being murdered, mostly by their husbands or some level of domestic disputes, boyfriends. We just saw a tragedy in Shreveport, Louisiana where eight children were murdered and then also attempted murder of the mother as well. And so, we've had hearings on this topic, we have recommendations on this topic and we want to continue to make sure we make this a priority here in the City of Philadelphia. So could the Director of the Office of Domestic Violence just give us an update on what our strategies are and how we are working towards on combating this issue?
Good morning. I'm Azucena Ugarte. I am the Director of the Office of Domestic Violence Strategies. The question is, where are we with the strategies?
Thank you. So we are part of the Health and Human Services agencies. What we provide is what we call technical assistance to the different agencies that provide services. Specifically we work -- let me just backtrack a little bit. You mentioned homicides and femicides. What we know about domestic violence also is that one-third to two-thirds of child welfare cases, caseloads include domestic violence. We know from work with the Health Department that 21% of our not pregnancy-associated deaths include intimate partner violence. We also know that domestic violence is the number one cause for homelessness among women and children. We know this. So besides the homicide, which is the horrible, the most extreme impact of domestic violence, we know it affects the health care and the behavioral health care of our children and individuals and families. So the work that we do is what we call secondary prevention. So we're trying to intervene with those agencies that provide those services to try to identify and respond to domestic violence as early as possible. Because if we can identify it early as possible, then we can prevent the horrible homicides that we have seen in the last several months. Some of the work that we've done, professional development trainings for child welfare, for the Office of Homeless Services, for the Department of Behavioral Health. A lot of people don't know this, but in the last eight years, nine years actually, we in collaboration with the Department of Human Services, our child welfare system is the only one in Pennsylvania that has a domestic violence unit. They have domestic violence specialists that support the DHS investigators and the CUA case managers to identify and respond to intimate partner violence. So we try to do that type of intervention. We have worked with the Health Department during the last five years to work with our delivery hospitals in Philadelphia to improve the way they screen for intimate partner violence and respond to that and how they connect the people, the patient survivors with supports, and we work really closely with the domestic violence organizations. In the last three years, we changed the way we pay for the domestic violence hotline. We increased the funding for the domestic violence hotline. And actually in the last year, we went through a whole process in which for the first time the domestic violence hotline upgraded the technologies, the first time since 2005. So those are some of the things that we've been doing.
Give me an idea how are you going about collecting data? And whom will you share that data with?
Some of the data that we use is the one that the city already collects. So we know how many calls we get to the domestic violence hotline, because that's something that the domestic violence agency reports to us, so we get that information. We know how many of the new cases in child welfare -- how many of those cases we explore for intimate partner violence and when intimate partner violence was disclosed. We have the same type of data for the health centers. We get some data also from the police department, mostly about the domestic homicides. So there are different points of data that we get. We collect that data and we started doing fact sheet with all that data is summarized and also has national data and some state data so we can see the comparison of the national, state and the city data. The data fact sheet is in our website, on our web page so you can see it. We shared it with the public --
It's hard to compare because the population varies from city to city. I would say in our conversations in conference and with other state organizations, counties, the last time I checked we are the only city that works around domestic violence with the Health and Human Services. A lot of cities have interventions with the police and about criminal justice system. In the Health and Human Services, we are one of the few that actually have that focus. So I think we're ahead of that. When we're looking at the national level, we actually have been trying to figure out -- there has been a decrease in homicides, but an increase in domestic homicides. That's a national trend. We're still not sure what is happening. We're trying to understand what is happening. We do know we are doing good work and that we could do more work.
I have another question and then I'll wrap up. In terms of your partnerships with other city agencies, because I know you were here during the hearing that I hosted and you came up and spoke, do you meet with the police department, District Attorney's Office in a working group fashion, either once a week, every other week so everyone's talking to one another regarding our strategies and our partnerships to move forward and stay laser-like focused on this issue?
We meet for different reasons, for different purposes. So my office is part of the Domestic Violence Law Enforcement Committee. District Attorney's Office is there. The community-based organizations are there. Representatives from the Sheriff's Office are there. That's every month.
Okay. That's all I wanted to hear. Perfect. Okay. Thank you very much for your leadership on this matter. Can we have Dominic Morales from the Office of Emergency Management? Is he here today?
Council President, Deputy Managing Director Morales, who you know is also our Emergency Management Coordinator, has been working very hard around the clock, also on the collapse. He had a family wedding this weekend and is on his way back. We have other folks who can certainly answer any questions.
I just wanted to give him his flowers. That's all.
Yeah, he definitely was on the case. I have a question around, we're celebrating 2026. We have events taking place all throughout the city. We have a war going on globally where comments were made specifically that they will be targeting certain high- profile events as well as iconic places. And obviously, we're the birthplace of America. We have Independence Mall, Art Museum, a lot of key institutions that could be prime spots for targets as well as high-profile events, which I think is going to be pretty different than the other cities across our country. What are we doing to be proactive to keep our residents safe and comfortable when we decide to go out and participate in the Fourth of July event or to the FIFA World Cup? That's the first part. And then also, how are we making sure that when these events do take place, particularly around FIFA World Cup, a lot of immigrants are going to be coming to our city to even watch these soccer matches. Some are already living here, going to come and watch these soccer matches as well as go to our Fan Fest out of Lemon Hill. How are we just being prepared? Because there were statements made out of Washington, D.C., that these particular type soccer matches will be opportunities for ICE agents to come out and to intimidate and harass individuals. So how are we planning for both public safety and also ICE, if they decide to come to our city, particularly around the FIFA World Cup?
Council President, appreciate the questions. I'll start in the order that you provided with, safety and security. We have been working with obviously our partners in the Office of Special Events, our City Representative Jazelle Jones; Chief Deputy Mayor Vanessa Garrett Harley literally on this for years now, constantly in the same One Philly team fashion that we do everything else, and also working with state and federal partners continually to understand the nature of the threat. And you're right, this was going to be a safety and security challenge. Under the best of circumstances, and right now we're probably not in the best of circumstances, that said, with all of the planning and coordination, and Deputy Managing Director Morales has really been emergency management's role and that is that coordination in making sure those partnerships and we have the battle rhythm to keep doing that continually, I feel like we are well-prepared for whatever comes. I can honestly say and truly would probably say this anyways, but I can say truly with the many things that I've done around the country and being here now for almost 10 years, there is nobody in the country, and I'll knock wood as I say this, there's nobody in the country who does special events as well as the City of Philadelphia. It is just true. We have a lot of practice, as that famous Philadelphian said, it's about practice. We have the relationships, the durable and sustainable relationships. And that really, when you're dealing with crises, preparing for crises, that's what it's all about. Regardless of any political rhetoric, we have those working relationships at the working-partner level with all of the federal and state entities that we need to with our not-for-profit partners, contractors, vendors, all of the folks who are going to come together to ensure that our city is safe and secure for everything that is going to happen during America 250, including the FIFA 2026 matches. Now, these are challenging times, as you said at the outset. Really confident, another thing I would probably say anyways, but it's absolutely true in my experience, our police department is the best in the business with Mayor Parker's leadership and the investment in the police department over the past couple years and City Council support. We really have the best police department in the nation, and they have those working partnerships as well. The work that they're doing in our communities, that's another set of relationships that are so vital for dealing with these events where we may or may not get noticed. These sort of people call them lone wolf events or whatever. So I really feel like we're well- prepared. And that said, we are going to be on a 24/7, 365 footing for the core period of time that we expect all these events to happen. We'll have our emergency operations center staffed around the clock. We'll be working with PPD and they'll be working with all the law enforcement partners to make sure that we're on top of it. And that said, we really do want to encourage folks now because 2026 is now. There are events happening now.
We do want folks to make sure that they are signed up for Ready Philadelphia. You can go to phila.gov and navigate to that, because that is a key way that we're going to transmit information to folks beyond the normal channels and social media. So we really want folks to sign up for Ready Philadelphia, so our residents, businesses and visitors are part of that equation, a key part of that equation for keeping the city safe and secure. Now, talking about visitors and immigrant populations, look, we are and remain a welcoming city so we know and we want folks to feel comfortable from around the country, from around the world, to come to Philadelphia, see the matches, see other events, enjoy their time here, enjoy Fan Fest on Lemon Hill, all the things that are on (inaudible), all the America 250 events, the 250-plus America 250 events, our office of Immigrant Affairs, with our leadership by Charlie Ellison and his team. They've been integrated in the planning for all the 2026 events to make sure that we have welcoming services available, translation services available and if anything should happen, to make sure that we have the supports there that are available to wrap around those visitors. As far as relationships with particular federal agencies, that's something I would have to defer to PPD. I would say they have excellent working relationships with federal and state partners, and our Office of Immigrant Affairs is not just ready, but excited, as we are all excited, about welcoming visitors from everywhere and anywhere to Philadelphia for this incredible year.
So last question. Mr. Mike Carroll, join the podium. State your name for the record.
Mike Carroll, Deputy Managing Director for the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems.
Thank you, Mike. One, I just want to get an idea on your strategies to make sure we continue moving forward with Vision Zero. I just want to get an update briefly. In terms of protective bike lanes, right, and bike lanes just in general, what percentage of our target goal have we completed thus far to date? Two, I mentioned this before, but I'll go on the record officially requesting it, strategy around daylighting, right, and what it takes for us to implement daylighting across the City of Philadelphia? And if there's a budget requirement to make us help us accomplish that and everything that we can do on our end to use daylighting as a mechanism to prevent pedestrian tragedies?
Thank you, Council President, for those questions. I'll have to get back to you with some specifics in terms of what percentage of the network is being looked at for protected bike infrastructure. I'll just take a minute and talk through in general, we're always trying to upgrade things, as we have an opportunity. The type of protection we look at varies from simply just putting in a painted buffer, which is the minimal but it's easy to get out there, to putting in some vertical elements or some potentially hardened elements that separate the bike lane in some places where we use the parking space itself to separate the bike lane from vehicular traffic. In general, our goal is to achieve the maximum protection over time that we think fits with the conditions on the street. But we sometimes see that when we've done something, which is a little bit more of what we'll call tactical, maybe it's paint, maybe it's some flex posts, but we're not getting the result that we want. We'll go back and we'll change our target. We'll try and identify more robust measures in order to get a little bit further, a little bit higher level of safety and protection for people, so I could come back and we could say, well, we're about 70% where we want to be, just for the sake of argument. And then just based on the data we get in a given year, we may move that target because we understand we need to do more because of what we're seeing on the ground. The measures which involve different assets, like the flex posts, like some form of curbing, we have to maintain those things. And so, it's not just a question of getting that one project out at that one point in time. We need to kind of stand up a maintenance operation to go with that. There's certainly a dialogue we need to have with neighbors. This is something that's evolving over time, but I can't say in our time working on this stuff, working with you, we've made a lot of progress. I'm proud of the progress we've made, but we do know we have a lot more to do, but we will come back with some more specific information that answers your question directly. On the question of daylighting, yeah, this is a strategy we're looking at a lot more. We're trying to focus it around sensitive areas to get started with. So we've done this Neighborhood Safe Zone project in a couple places. That's a great opportunity for us to look around things like schools, rec centers, community centers to identify specific points, working with communities where the daylighting will make a difference. Working with Streets Department, we've expanded that to locations, corridors where we're doing other forms of safety projects. I think we have right now, as you know, in the budget about $5 million to Vision Zero projects. From what I understand, for something around $10,000 we can usually do most intersections, implementing some form of daylighting. We like to consider opportunities. As you know, the Mayor is very much about not just safe but clean and green, and we want to look for a chance to put in something nice that makes the intersection look nice. It could be a planter, it could be some painting on the street. It could be some things that really spruce up the streetscape. So that's something we want to incorporate into the projects. It's not just about safety, but giving folks a sense of community that actually adds a lot to the appeal and makes these conversations with neighborhoods a lot easier.
Has there been any conversation with private institutions or public-private partnerships to help write off the (inaudible) since it's a part of beautifying the city?
That's a huge win for us. When there's a neighborhood association or friends-of type groups that step forward, there's a few challenges that need to be solved for that. We want to make sure that if this is something that's being promoted by that friends group or they're sort of asking us to put it in there, again that there's a way to make sure this stuff stays in nice condition, especially these elements that add an aesthetic appeal. We want to make sure, for example, planters don't turn into trash bins. We want to make sure that the plants are cared for. So recent agreements sometimes is a case-by-case conversation with these entities and figuring out what their capacity is, helping to build that capacity.
When can I expect this overall comprehensive strategy for the city, at least to get started? Not seeing you have to do every intersection across the city of Philadelphia at one time, but you might have your high priority areas where we see tragic deaths, where it needs to be slow-calming measures?
The Mayor asked us in this past year to identify a number of corridors. I think it was like corridors that 6 we're going to look at. The 7 strategy is coming together on 8 that. So there's already some 9 documentation we might be able to 10 provide -- 11
At the earliest 16 convenience. And then last but not 17 least, I know expanding Indigo 18 Bikes is part of your strategy as 19 well. I talked to you briefly 20 about this, but I want to follow up to stay on top of it. Can we engage in some type of rebate program like they have in London, where individuals who do engage in borrowing -- their bike system isn't called Indigo, but they have a bikeshare program where you can get a rebate based upon your usage of the bike. How can we implement something like that here in the City of Philadelphia that will encourage more individuals who want to go biking?
Yeah, very interesting idea. We started doing some business planning around those types of ideas. We're not quite done with that yet, but we'll get back to you with the update on those conversations.
That's all I have. And I want to thank also joining us is the Commissioner of Parks and Recreation, Ms. Sue Slawson. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for your hard work and for being here today. With that being said, the Chair recognizes Councilmember Majority Whip Isaiah Thomas.
Sorry, Council President. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. Thank you for allowing me to be here. I want to start with Mike Carroll. You probably knew that already, but I want to start with something Council President started talking about as it relates to Vision Zero. Last year we did see some revenue go to Vision Zero, probably not as much as I know folks wanted. Can you talk 30 seconds about this year's budget Vision Zero? What does it mean for the High Injury Network and also how the speed cameras is impacting some of the things that we're seeing as it relates to fatalities? We had the Police Commissioner here the other day, and the Police Commissioner said that there's still a lot of complaints around hazardous driving despite the cameras. So if you could just give us an update on that, that'd be appreciated.
Yes. So just to start with the budget, I mentioned that the Mayor's budget includes $5 million. I want to be clear, there's additional work that will be done as part of the Streets Department's budget, including the paving budget, that gives us an opportunity to implement many corridors, other traffic-calming measures. We always look for opportunities to leverage federal and state funds. So these funds that go to the Streets Department, the funds that are going to the Office of Transportation are often matched, you know, 80% federal for every 20% of city funds that go in. So there's a lot of work we can do, even with smaller amounts of funding that's directed to us and that's always our approach. To speak to the speed cameras, we're certainly very hopeful that by expanding the number of corridors that we have speed cameras installed on, we will see similar results to what we saw on Roosevelt Boulevard, where in the first year we saw over a 90% reduction in the amount of speed violations on that corridor that translated directly into improvements compared to the rest of the city for traffic deaths and serious injuries. We know that once we took Roosevelt Boulevard off the top of the list, the next that was at the top of the list was Broad Street, especially North Broad Street, where a number of tragedies continue to take place. So we're hopeful, as people get used to kind of moderating their speed, we're going to have a similar improvement in terms of people not getting killed and not getting injured. Eliminating these tragedies, as the Council President spoke to, you know, people have had a lot of reactions to what's going on. We've always tried to make sure that there's an adequate warning period for people so that they can adjust their behavior. The way that the cameras work, if we're setting a 25-mile per hour speed limit, people don't get a ticket until they're driving 36 miles per hour. And it's important to keep these numbers in mind because it's when you get above 36, you get to 40 miles per hour, that's when people end up getting killed.
And that's important, right, because the data says that once a car accident occurs over miles an 7 hour, the likelihood of a fatality 8 increases significantly. 9
And 12 I'm putting this information on the 13 record because we understand it's 14 very unpopular, but these are the 15 type of cultural changes that we 16 need that will essentially save 17 lives. This week starts the school 18 speed cameras, correct? 19
So 21 talk to us 30 seconds, because I'm 22 running out of time, where do we 23 see the school speed cameras going 24 and what type of impact do we anticipate that having? And I think it's also important to note for the record that the cameras are only active when school is actually taking place. You can't get that ticket at 6:00 p.m. on a Friday night, for example. So can you give us 30 seconds on that?
Yeah. I don't think anyone can argue with the idea that the most sensitive populations, these are our kids out there, should not be given the maximum protection, and that includes the speed camera program being active, like you said, during school hours when people are coming and going from school. And our hope is the same, that when we have that protection in place that people behave themselves when they're behind a wheel and they moderate their speed and they control their driving, they're more thoughtful about what they're doing, because again, the whole goal of this is to reduce the tragedies and keep our kids safe. We'll get you a list of the schools that we're looking at, but that's gone active. And so, we're just hoping that as we close out this school year and start the next year, we have fewer stories in the paper.
Yeah. Those stories are always sad. They're always unfortunate, often random, often impact Black and Brown neighborhoods. And so, please once you determine what those schools are, please let us know. We want to make sure that we're advocating, so thank you for your work. As it relates to the Managing Director's Office, we passed legislation coming out of the pandemic called Keep It Local. Keep It Local basically required that a certain percentage of all city contracts go to Philadelphia- based businesses. The data suggests that those numbers are down, not just with Philadelphia- based businesses, but with Black and Brown-based businesses. Can you tell me where we are as it relates to procurement through this department, specifically looking at what percentages of contracts go to Philadelphia businesses and what percentage of city contracts go to Black businesses as well as women- based businesses?
Councilmember, appreciate the question. With the transition now, with our reporting to small and local businesses, we have to get back to you with those specific numbers.
So, Council President, I'll move on and tee up for the second round. But I do want to be clear, if those numbers don't come back, the Managing Director's Office needs to be called back. This is important. We're not just talking about contracts for Philadelphia-based businesses. We're talking about contracts for Black and Brown-based businesses. And we passed the legislation coming out of the pandemic because we told people if we're going to ask folks to invest in Philadelphia, it starts with Philadelphia, investing in Philadelphia. And we've been able to maintain a number where we've seen that number grow every year since Keep It Local has been in existence. This year is the first year that we're seeing those numbers come back. So we really want to see the data as it relates to local contracts, why are the numbers being reduced for Philadelphia- based businesses, Black-based businesses and women-owned-based businesses? What impacted that and what do we need to do to get us back on track to where we need to be? So, Council President, I'm told that this information isn't available today. I don't know why the office would come before us without this information available. I literally ask about this every year. I actually thought it was a softball question. I asked about it every year. And so, I thought it was going to be an explanation as to why the numbers were different. Clearly, it's not. I think the Managing Director's Office should be called back if we can't get an answer today. Thank you, Council President.
Thank you very well. Thank you very much, Member Thiel -- Member Thiel. Would you be able to provide that information in a timeliest fashion? And if not, then we'll be calling you for a second comeback round. Okay?
Council President, we'll do our best for the data we have as soon as possible.
Actually for the record, Member Thomas, would you just like them to come back for a second round period?
We have the afternoon as well too, so I don't want to just jump to that scenario. But again, this is one of the most important issues that we have as it relates to our local economy, right. We're exploring every option that we can to generate revenue for the City of Philadelphia and this is a way that we've been successful generating revenue for the city. So if the information isn't available in the afternoon, absolutely, I think the office should be called back and be able to produce these numbers and allow members to be able to ask questions about why the numbers have been different than the consistency we've seen in the past.
Thank you very much. That's an official request. Thank you very much, sir.
Chair recognizes Gilmore Richardson, then Cindy Bass.
Thank you. Thank you very much, Council President. And thank you so much to the Managing Director's Office and the entire team for the work that you all do. I wanted to start with the thank-yous for the Managing Director's Office. Crystal Yates- Gale, thank you for your work. Thank you for your hard work. To Stephanie Marsh, thank you so much for all the hard work and coordination. Sarah Barnett, who is from ACCT, she's always a phone call away. And Tara Schernecke, also ACCT Senior Director of Operations, we appreciate all the help that you all assist us with for our constituents. And Mike Carroll, thank you so much, Mike. You know I got to put on the record, we need you all to address that parking situation. It has become untenable out there, the parking situation. Whatever we need to do to fix it, we need to fix it because it's untenable at this point. So at any rate, I wanted to start with the Managing Director's Office. I only have a couple questions that I want to put on the record, one that I've asked every department and I'll start with that. But I want to get all of my questions on the record and then wait for a response. Okay. Thank you. So in FY25, how much underspend did MDO have and in which classes? In FY26, what is your anticipated underspend and in which classes? For emergency shelter, there was roughly $4.1 million allocated in MDO's budget toward the shelter bed expansion. For FY26, the total cost of the shelter bed expansion FY26 is $10 million. So please explain why the cost is doubling for FY27. In FY26, MDO carried an additional $3.4 million in emergency housing costs for the Office of Homeless Services. Please explain. And finally, the Wellness Center has $6.7 million budgeted for maintenance costs with Elliot-Lewis, all of the OHS emergency housing maintenance funding with U.S. Facilities is $2.8 million. Please explain why there are additional dollars allocated towards maintenance at one facility when there are dozens of OHS emergency shelters. Thank you.
Councilmember, appreciate the questions. Do you want answers to those now? Do you want to see it back --
Yes, now. I wanted to get them all on the record while I had time. Thank you.
We will start with the questions about the maintenance costs. I think we have our DPP Commissioner here.
And to repeat as they're approaching the witness table, the Wellness Center has $6.7 million budgeted for maintenance costs with Elliot Lewis. All of the OHS emergency housing maintenance funding with U.S. Facilities is $2.8 million. We're trying to figure out why there's so much maintenance costs allocated to one facility versus all of the OHS emergency shelter facilities. COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Council President, Joe Brasky, Department of Public Property Commissioner. Thank you, Councilmember --
Thank you, Joe. Thank you to you and your team. COMMISSIONER BRASKY: No 9 problem. Thank you. I can answer the maintenance costs for the wellness as we maintain Philly Home at Girard and Riverview Wellness. I cannot explain the OHS maintenance costs as we do not provide maintenance here at DPP for OHS. Cheryl from OHS can answer that question for you.
Thank you. So for DPP, you all oversee Wellness and? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Philly Home at Girard.
Okay. DPP is Wellness and Philly Home at Girard. And I think the question is really the maintenance cost with Elliot Lewis for the Wellness Center is $6.7 million as budgeted. But for all of the OHS emergency housing maintenance funding with the other contract with U.S. Facilities is only $2.8 million, so the difference? COMMISSIONER BRASKY: Okay. I will let OHS -- I don't know as far as what they include in their maintenance cost so I'm not going to answer for them. Thank you.
Cheryl Hill, Executive Director of the Office of Homeless Services. Some of our maintenance is actually supplemented by city employees so that could attribute to the difference. But without knowing the DPP budget, I wouldn't be able to explain all of the differences.
So what you're stating is -- and I hear the bell and I want to honor the clock. But what you're stating is that some of our OHS emergency housing maintenance happens via city employees?
Okay. And so, does that happen at the Wellness Center? I'm just confused because the Wellness Center, and I guess this will be Wellness and Philly Home at Girard has 6.7 million budgeted for maintenance costs. That's under a separate contract. But all of the additional OHS emergency housing maintenance funding is only 2.8 million. That's for everybody. But two facilities has $6.7 million.
Correct. And just to clarify, Philly Home at Girard and Riverview Wellness aren't under OHS, so I wouldn't be able to explain those budgets.
No, I understand that. I hear what y'all -- you know what, all right. I'm not going to do this today. I feel like you all are taking me in a circle. I receive what you're saying and I understand what you're saying. You know I understand what you're saying, but I'm trying to ask for clarification in the contracts. I understand that you can't answer. Maybe everybody can answer it together, which is why I ask because it's under MDO. It's not technically under your budget. I hear what you're saying. I don't want you to think that this is adversarial at all. It's not. It's simply a question. It's under MDO. The Wellness Center has 6.7 million budgeted for maintenance. You all are now saying that that's technically DPP, and it's Wellness and Philly Home at Girard. The OHS has I guess the rest of the contracts. I'm just asking for clarification. That's all.
Councilmember, we really do appreciate your detailed questions and we will come back with a detailed breakout. Part of this is because the security guards are in -- we have security in one contract and not another. Another difference is between the square footage of the buildings, so we can get back with a detailed answer to you across different agencies. Obviously, we are doing all these things in partnership. We have multiple teams, cross-functional teams that are doing this. So that really is a lot of these costs, and a lot of the work is done across the entire team. So we can break those costs out the way you're asking and get them to you timely.
Okay. And if you could, just break them down by facility then. Because the 2.8 million covers a plethora of facilities versus I guess what you're stating, the 6.7 million covers two facilities, correct? And then if you could add in the Class 100 allocation for the individuals who are providing the maintenance? That's just for Question 5. Okay.
I heard the bell and I want to honor the clock, but I'll respectfully request to come back to address the four other questions that I did ask.
Absolutely. Madam Leader, do you have another question you would like to ask?
Thank you, Council President. For MDO, in FY26 you carried an additional 3.4 million in emergency housing costs for OHS, if you could just explain? And then there's roughly 4.1 million allocated in MDO's budget toward the shelter bed expansion FY26. The total cost of the expansion in FY26 is $10 million. Please explain why the cost is doubling for FY27. And then if you could speak to your underspend in FY25 and in which classes? And in FY26, what is your anticipated underspend and in which classes?
Councilmember, we're going to have to get back to you on the FY25 underspend breakout. We need to get back with Finance and break that out for you the way you've requested. FY26, we're still mid-year so we don't know --
I'm not sure we -- I guess I would say if you're asking -- you are asking me right now. I don't know that we'll have any anticipated underspend. We are working across all of these teams to get all of those beds delivered. And you know, because -
This is in general. This is not just about --
These are works in progress. We are working very hard across multiple agencies to deliver and it would be really premature speculation for me to guess what our underspend would be.
Yeah. But we typically would know, because you would know what you've done in your first couple quarters so you would know. And that's why the difference is how much is the underspend in FY25 and what is the anticipated underspend in '26, because we have quarterly data, we have the Quarterly City Manager's Report that we can look to give us the number. So I'm just asking the question on the record so that we have the information. So I'll respectfully request to honor the clock and my colleagues' time, that we have a callback for the Managing Director's Office so that they're able to respond to the questions that I've notated for the record. Thank you, Council President.
Thank you very much. Chair recognizes Councilmember Cindy Bass and Councilmember Harrity.
How's everybody doing? Listen, we recognize the importance of the Managing Director's Office and all of the agencies and departments under it. And I want to say, number one, a big thank you for all of your hard work. I had really two things I wanted to just touch on this morning. One is the coordination of city services, and I think I talked about this earlier in the budget season with the Streets Department around the roles or the role that the Managing Director's Office or different departments, whether it's Streets or whoever, OTIS, around coordinating services that are happening, particularly for, let's say, paving, coordinating paving services. And the example I used is how in my neighborhood, they tore up all the streets, replaced them, look great. That was about two years ago. And then they came back through and ripped everything up this year and put in new piping, which feels like -- well, not just feels like. It is an incredible waste of money. So I just want to make sure that this was a one-off, that this is not something that's happening. But I hear about it more often than I would like. So what role does the MDO's office play in making sure that these kinds of things don't happen?
This is Mike Carroll, Deputy Manager for the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure. So broadly, that is part of my portfolio within the Managing Director's Office. The coordination is run through the Streets Department. So the Streets Department is basically the -- I don't want to mix metaphors, the air traffic controller for the right-of-way. So what's going on when in the right-of-way is managed through a couple different platforms. And one of them we call the Guaranteed Pavement Information System. So anybody who has planned work in the right-of-way needs to register that work in this system we call GPIS. We try and go as far out as we can. And then when we see conflicts between different jobs, the Streets Department directs those entities to work their conflicts out and get in the sequence. A while back we put together what we call pavement moratorium, and it was modeled on what PennDOT does, where we would impose a cost on a utility to come back and dig up a street within a period of time that was too close to the pavement of that street or the restoration of that street by another entity. And the purpose of that was to disincentivize what you're talking about, where one contractor would come in right after another. A lot of the streets where we saw this happen, which were more egregious, were actually PennDOT streets. So a lot of arterial streets are PennDOT streets. We've got some lessons learned, I think. We're about three or four years into this process. There are some parameters, thresholds that need to be had before that kicks in. For certain kinds of work, and in particular for a lot of the work that the Water Department does or PECO is engaged in, their plans change over time. And because there's a sequence that you're trying to hit or there might be some emergencies that took place, which changes their capital program, it just can't be helped that they're going to come in sooner than expected --
Yeah, I get it when it can't be helped. But in this case, I know that it could have been helped. But just making sure that you all are mindful, and I'm sure that you are, of the expenses. That's really my point. I want to move on because I know the bell has rung. I just want to ask one quick question, if I have a quick second, around ACCT. We did our backyard breeding moratorium earlier this year which is great, but we know that ACCT still is quite overrun with intake, with dogs and cats. And I was hoping that we could, you know, tell us where we are. Tell us where we are as a city in terms of providing the care and shelter. We have served about 20,000 pets in the last year. And so, can you help us get an understanding of where ACCT is right now?
We'll ask Sarah Barnett from ACCT to come answer those questions and specifics.
And also my other question is, is the budgetary request matching the need to address this issue?
Hi. My name is Sarah Barnett. I'm the Executive Director of ACCT Philly. And to answer the first question with where we are numbers-wise, I would love to say we're in a great spot, but we're not. We've seen a 17% increase in the animals coming in, in the first quarter, so about 4400 dogs and cats. For some context, since we've been open since 10:00 a.m. this morning, we took in 8 animals, dogs, cats and a 6 foot 9 boa constrictor. And last calendar 10 year, we had an 8% increase in dog 11 intake and that's really huge for 12 us because of both the space needed 13 but also the resources needed to 14 care for those dogs. So our intake 15 last year was about 7430 dogs. And 16 this year, we do expect to surpass 8000 and definitely, definitely go beyond that 20,000 animals that we helped last year.
For the 4400 animals that were taken in this year so far, were they dogs or cats or a mix, primarily, overall?
And I should specify. That's January, February, March to the first quarter. And I would say it's two-thirds cats, one-third dogs with a very small, about 200 or so non-dog and cat animals.
Okay. All right. And is your budgetary request reflective of the financial need that's required to address this issue? Because this is an issue that we can fix. This is not something -- we have some departments that the need is large. The problem is ginormous and fixing it is much longer and much more complicated. I feel like this is something that's really fixable, because it wasn't that long ago that it was fixed. Right before the pandemic, we didn't have this sort of intake, this sort of budgetary requirement. So is this something that we're putting in the budget, a number that's going to fix this?
Councilmember, we've continued to invest in ACCT over the past 311 Philly budget.
129,000, and that's for labor contract cost increases. From a macro perspective, we are definitely continuing to monitor the intake and monitor those numbers and look to the future, whether or not this is something that is going to change or if this is going to remain the new normal.
I don't think we really need to really look into the future because we have the present and we have the past. And when we look at where we are from 2020 or actually, say, 2020 to 2025, we see what the trend is. We see what the numbers are, so we should have a pretty good idea by now of what it takes to fix this problem and get us back to where we were. And I don't think $129,000 increase is going to fix this. I don't think that it's going to come nearly close enough. So I'd really like to see a much more concerted effort and financial planning to fix this matter.
Thank you, Councilmember. And Sarah is better to do this than I, but I will repeat that this is another area where we certainly can use help from our residents and adoption and being part of this and then not, you know, if you're going to think about all the options and to be cognizant of this. But we will continue to work with ACCT through the budget process every year and I would expect to continue to invest as we have.
Okay. It doesn't feel like the need is being heard. But I would appreciate, as we continue these conversations, maybe a possible review by the Managing Director's Office and looking back at how can we fix this issue or even come close to it because 129,000 is just not going to get it. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you very much. Councilmember Jim Harrity, then Councilmembers Brooks, Landau, Ahmad, O'Rourke.
Thank you, Council President. Good morning, everyone. For the sake of time, I'm going to ask my questions I got. I'm only going to do a few of the ones I have for now and see if we get back in the second round or whatever we decide to do. First off, your testimony states that the Chinatown Stitch Project is on track to move forward with private funding. Under this arrangement, who oversees the project and the use of the funds and the selection of contractors and consultants? That's one group of questions. And then the FY27 testimony shows Riverview's FY25 occupancy rate is only 58% with the goal of 75%, but the FY27 target jumps to -- I'm sorry. It was FY26. The FY27 target jumps to 80%. As of mid-September 2025, Riverview had 186 residents, a bit more than half of the 336 beds maximum. What are you doing differently to reach this goal of 80% occupancy? How many have successfully completed the yearlong program without leaving early? How long has the average stay been? Can you tell me about how last year's budget allocation to combat the opioid epidemic was utilized? Do you have data to show the reduction of opioid overdoses and improved community health? How is the city collaborating with local health and community organizations to help support networks for individuals needing help?
Councilmember, we can definitely answer right now about the Stitch.
Okay. So I'll try to be real quick. We do not have construction funding for the Chinatown Stitch. There are ideas about how to raise private funds and there's also some similar ideas about leveraging what we'll call value capture --
Can I get a point of information, if you don't mind. Are we working with our federal partners to --
-- still see if we can get the money back? Maybe having conversations with Senator McCormick, the Brendan Boyles of the world, to see if we can bring that funding back to the table?
That's the top priority. And Representative Boyle in particular, he's on this case. So we look forward to continue to work with him and our Senators to get that money brought back to Philadelphia.
Okay. So we don't have the funding. We're looking for other options?
We have design funding. But to answer your question, when the design is done, and probably in a few years we do start the construction, this is almost certainly going to be procured through a public entity, likely PennDOT, so they'll go through the same process they do -- they tend to bring in contractors through a low bid process, and we've got a lot of contractors you're familiar with who will probably be competing for that work.
Councilmember, we appreciate the list of very detailed questions. We're going to ask Isabel McDevitt to come up and give just a short overview, and then we can get all of those kind of in one place back to you. MS. McDEVITT: Good morning. Isabel McDevitt, Executive Director of Community Wellness and Recovery. Thank you so much for all of those questions. I'm not going to get every single one, but we can follow up as needed. We are currently at 95% capacity at Riverview Wellness Village. We have 234 beds licensed as recovery house level of care and have been at the 95% occupancy since January of 2026. We entered our first resident into Riverview on January 27, 2025, so we now have a small cohort that have reached that year. It took us until July 1 to get to 100 residents. So we've been ramping up. I'm really proud to say that as of now we have about 70% of folks have been with us for 90 days, which is great. (Applause.)
Just a point of information. And some people might be not as informative, but to really get people to stay in the program, right, particularly this population of individuals for 90 days is an extremely challenging feat, so it's an accomplishment. But to accomplish that is something worthy of acknowledging because you're dealing with a population that's dealing with life on life terms, right. And sometimes it could be a revolving door, people relapse, people find ways to go back out. And so, we know you have a job to do in terms of the Administration and we have a job to do, but I do want to get credit where credit is due, particularly in this particular area because it is not an easy area for having a person that wants to stick and stay when it comes to doing this type of work. And it's easy to go back out into the streets if you don't have the proper wraparound support services. This is after you're off the drug. Now, we're just dealing with life on life terms. And life do not stop lifing because you're dealing with substance abuse issues. And so, I just want to acknowledge that. Member Harrity, the floor is yours, sir.
Thank you. And of course, you're absolutely right, because the 90 days, that's -- after they've already completed their program, which could have been another 90 days. So it's actually a big accomplishment, especially for this drug. Thank God I never had the fatal chance. But can you also explain to me, I think we're at 95% already -- MS. McDEVITT: Yes.
Beautiful. Now, what's the expansion look like? MS. McDEVITT: Yeah, great question. So as you know, we sort of phased in with the phases of our renovation. We are going to be opening another 51 beds later this spring and we are in plans for the future expansion of the new building. That is something that my colleague Aparna Palantino can speak more about, if necessary. But that will bring another 300 residential capacity to the campus. And I think it's really important to note that we're working with our partners at OHS, DBHIDS and others to really look at what type of beds we need, but we know we can have that 300 beds as soon as that project is complete.
Thank you. And can you just say the ratio of women to men, are we about even now? Because I know we started out with the men, I believe, and then we phased in the women. MS. McDEVITT: Yeah. So right now we are about 75% men, 25% women. This is all unaccompanied adults, and that really mirrors the population that we see of unaccompanied adults, meaning no 4 children in the street homeless population as well as utilizing treatment services.
Thank you. And for the sake of time, you can get back to me with the rest -- MS. McDEVITT: Absolutely.
Thank you very much, sir. Chair recognizes Councilmember Kendra Brooks, then Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad and Rue Landau.
Thank you, Council President. My questions are for the Managing Director's Office and you could just answer at the end. As folks have heard and celebrated the PA Supreme Court in a case litigated by the ALC held on March 26, 2026, that mandatory life without parole sentencing is cruel and therefore an unconstitutional sentence under the PA constitution. The court, in its opinion, gave the legislator 120 days to act to remedy this. If the legislator fails to act, the most likely course of action is for an estimated 1100 people serving that sentence can receive individualized resentencing. This includes around 500 people from Philadelphia. The MDO serves as the passthrough for the Defenders Association of Philadelphia's funding and also oversees the financial components of the Conflict Council program. So my questions are, can you estimate how much a program of this magnitude will cost? What funds have you set aside and from where to cover these costs? What proportion will go to the Defender and what portion would go to the court-appointed? Do you foresee training funds set aside? And do the attorneys that are currently serving as court-appointed have the necessary training and experience to handle homicide resentencing well?
Councilmember, appreciate those questions. We'll have to circle back to the Defenders Association and other partners in the judicial branch and law enforcement to get you fulsome answers to all of those.
So you haven't started the conversation yet? You just need to -
We are in ongoing conversations. There are other partners who are involved in that and those work streams who are the real subject matter experts. So to answer that entire list, we'll need to get back with them and then get you answers.
All right. Thank you so much. That's it. I'm going to just leave it there. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Minority Leader. Chair recognizes Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad, then Councilmember Rue Landau, then Councilmember O'Rourke. Member Jones, if you hear me, you will have an opportunity to wrap up this first round.
Thank you, Council President. Good morning and thank you for being here and for your testimony. I really have a question about the status of Philadelphia Sexual Assault Resource Center. As you know, this is an essential program with a critical role in our public safety ecosystem. I thank the Council President for starting this hearing talking about domestic violence, talking about -- mostly, this is violence against women. And so, it is very important for me to understand. This essential program plays a critical role in a public safety ecosystem. And I saw from your budget detail on that last year's appropriation was 167,334 and there was no additional appropriation, at least listed. There's a completely empty blank line going down. And I recall the Mayor saying she was going to do $300,000. So I wondered where that's going, how we're looking at this, and most importantly how are we going to handle this PSARC because Drexel University is saying they won't be able to do this anymore as of July so we don't have a lot of time? And this is an essential public safety issue, a public health issue and we really need to pay a lot of attention. So I want to hear from you where that 300,000 that the Mayor said is going, why your entire budget page on has 18 no detail on the proposed 2027 budget. It's all blank. So I don't quite understand where to look for this.
Good morning. My name is Crystal Yates- Gale, Deputy Managing Director of Health and Human Services. Good morning, Councilmember Ahmad. We know, as you know, how important the Philadelphia Sexual Assault Response Center is, and there is a transition from Drexel to TBD, meaning we have an RFP that we're planning to put out to do those services, but those services will be included in the Department of Public Health's budget for Fiscal Year '27 because we do see it as a public health issue. For Fiscal '26, Managing Director's Office covered it, but that full amount of money will be in the Health Department's budget.
I will get back to you with the number. I don't want to quote a number that I'm not positive of. But I'm pretty certain it is the 300,000, but I'll definitely get back to you.
Yes, the RFP is for that. As you are also aware, some of the money that will take care of PSARC comes from the Victims Fund, so some of that money is reimbursable. We don't know what that dollar figure is today, but some of it is reimbursable.
I also want to alert you about the need for SANE nurses. They're specially-trained nurses. So whatever -- I don't know what the RFP is going to look like, but we need to have a dedicated space, we need to have dedicated people, we need to make sure the reimbursement -- that PCCD does not cover all the activities that are needed to serve our clients. So I want you to be very detailed in how that money is coming down. And the fact that we haven't paid attention to it is a travesty, in my opinion, that the City of Philadelphia really has not been engaged in this space and we left it up to a hospital. And we need our hospitals to pay into this as well, because they are required by law to give these services and they have nicely just said, oh, the SANE nurses from Drexel will do it. So I want to know how we are holding them accountable, what they are putting into this pot. We need attention to this matter is really what I'm getting at. So I look forward to getting more details from you as to what this is. Council President, I'll hold my questions for the -- you're going to have a second round, right?
I'll just hold my questions. Thank you so much. Thank you all.
You're welcome. Chair recognizes Councilmember Rue Landau, Nicolas O'Rourke, then Councilmembers Lozada and Phillips.
Great. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks for being here. I'm going to try to get some questions out pretty quickly. The first is about PAIFUP funding. The budget for the PAIFUP program, which is the Pennsylvania Immigrant fund, which is a Class 200-contracted third-party provider of legal immigrant defense services, including Nationality Services Center, subcontracting with the Defenders Association, the budget's $950,000 which is the same amount that was allocated last year. Looking at the past year of expenditures, particularly considering the expected increase in need for legal defense and deportation proceedings given the Trump Administration's commitment to ICE raids, deportations and illegal detainers, was the $950,000 sufficient last year? And what analysis was done to protect the expenditures this year to know whether or not 950,000 is sufficient this year?
Councilmember, appreciate the question. The 900,000 was sufficient. And then going forward, that's something that we are trying to track, along with many other people on a daily basis. So we are constantly watching that. And if it's not sufficient, then we would be back to City Council at some point.
Thank you for that. I also want to ask some questions about language access. Can you speak to the status of each agency's language access plans, which we know are required under the code. Do you know when they were last updated? I'm going to start there and move on. I have more.
Councilmember, I think at that level of detail, it's a lot of agencies. We probably would want to get that back to you. If you want an overall brief, Charlie Ellison from OIA is here. They're the ones who administer the program. He can probably do that. And then we can get you the detailed numbers by agency.
Okay. I should tell you that your OIA website shows that the language access plans were last updated in 2017, so I want to know whether or not what's happened in the past five years have they been updated? Does every agency have a language access coordinator? And do they have the resources they need to implement the agency's language access plan? Also, all of the contracts for the language access providers in total add up to $164,000. Can you speak to the providers like Globo and Language Service Associates, how are they selected and if they provide sufficient services to city departments and the public? And again, this is the same amount that was allocated over the past few years, $164,000. Was there any analysis done to see whether or not this needs to be increased? Is this amount sufficient? I kind of want to go back to what our Majority Leader was asking in the beginning here today. As somebody who oversaw two small city agencies, I actually was shielded to the amount of money that was available and moved along the larger departments. And I am continually surprised in these budget hearings how we fund certain things at the highest possible level we can when we've got emergencies that need to be taken care of now. And curious whether or not the city administration as a whole, the cabinet, the Managing Director's Office, really sit down and say things like, hey, we're having an emergency, as our Majority Leader brought up, we have an emergency in the maintenance of our shelter systems. Let's take some of that money now and fix that problem and then see how we can proceed in the future?
Councilmember, I can assure you that we have those conversations constantly. There are a lot of priorities, a lot of things that need to be done and always seemingly finite and challenge resources, which I think is why you see in this proposed budget, Mayor Parker really putting that on point and tackling some of these major issues and also offering other revenue streams potentially to ensure that we can address more priorities. Because you're right, we hear from everybody about all the things that need to be done. Going back to your questions, relevant to language access, I do have Charlie Ellison here and he can give you a brief overview. You asked a lot of important and detailed questions. And also, the language access program is funded at the department level as well. So that's not just in the MDO roll-up, but I can let Charlie give you -- he's really been, you know, to your point about the website, Charlie is still relatively new to the city, not new to this work, very committed to this work and we have him. One of the reasons we're really happy to have him is he is ensuring that we are getting all of that to the right place with the available resources. And then we'll continue that conversation.
Charlie Ellison. I'm our Executive Director for our Office of Immigrant Affairs. Councilmember, your specific questions about language access plans, we know we have a little bit of work to do there in partnership with every city office and agency across the city. The plans that exist are solid offices, put a lot of time and resources to doing them initially, but we do owe some updates all around. We are looking at -- we have a new staff member come on board at OIA, a language access program manager, who will specifically help our Language Access Director take a look at some of those most outdated plans and the ones most in need of updates. Most of those plans though are not nested within MDO. They're actually other city agencies and departments that we will work in partnership with. With regard to the contracts, we actually have all four of our language access contracts out to bid right now. We're in the final stages of the RFP process so I can't give too many details there, but we did a very thorough evaluation to ensure that Philadelphians are getting the meaningful access to language services that they deserve and that we are by law obligated to provide. And just initially, we had a great application of many different national, international as well as a few local business entity contractors that bid for those contracts. And we did a very thorough and are still ongoing through a very thorough evaluation process to make sure that the final vendors that are selected are the best possible vendors that also provide the highest quality services for the right amount of money.
Excellent. Thank you. Will you provide when you get the vendors a plan for exactly when we're going to update all of this? Will you provide all of that to the Chair?
Thank you very much. Chair recognizes Councilmember Nicolas O'Rourke, Quetcy Lozada, Anthony Phillips.
Thank you, Mr. President. Good morning, Director Thiel and to the entirety of your team and staff and all those who are here to present today. Thank you for being with us for another budget hearing. I was proud to hear of Mayor Parker's commitment to the Zero Fare program and SEPTA Key Advantage as well in this year's budget. Very excited to hear about it. I wanted to take a moment to that end to express my gratitude to this Administration for that. Also, to the incredible team that actually runs what we should be reminded is a nationally- acclaimed free transit program. It's a big deal. To the transit riders, to the advocates, I think there might be a few still here in the building, who have organized to secure this particular commitment, we want to thank you. Without you doing that work, I think we would not be here as well. But also to our labor partners at D.C. 33 as well as to our partners at D.C. 47, who've been fighting for SEPTA benefits for municipal workers for some time now. This is a major win and it is worth celebrating and to be reminded that we can do amazing things. I did have a few questions about Zero Fare lift-up. My understanding is that the program is -- and Director Carroll, my apologies, good morning to you as well. My understanding is that the program is funded in FY27 and that the Managing Director's Office will continue to evaluate to determine future funding to that end. Can you tell me about what types of evaluations are planned or happening and what criteria will the MDO be looking at to determine the future funding?
So folks may be aware that we have good partners in the research community. Both Georgetown University and the Urban League are conducting evaluations, and I'm hopeful in a matter of weeks, maybe months, we'll have all the evaluations back. One set of measures looked at the implementation of the program. The fact that we were able to leverage data that the city already had at hand, significantly streamlined the rollout of Zero Fare compared to other benefit programs. So that kind of model is something that we're interested in, not just for transportation benefit, but maybe it gives us an opportunity to figure out how to more easily and efficiently distribute benefits, all different natures. The other part is to look at the outcomes. And I think that probably is more to your question, is to understand what the benefit in terms of people's lives, their ability to get employment, their ability to manage their health outcomes, if there's, you know, appointments that they need to go through, just family household outcomes in general. I think when we have that data, we'll be prepared to look at the comparisons between those benefits for the public at large and the investment that we're putting into it, the investment in terms of staff time that SEPTA has put into it and other partners. And then we'll be in a position where we can advocate for what the right size of this might be in the upcoming budgets. But that information is going to be very important. One of the things that made it a challenge in the meantime in this year was because we didn't have that data. So having all that information is going to be the strongest base for the Administration to figure out --
Very good. And kind of in that same sense, I wanted to ask how does Zero Fare partner with local nonprofit partners and other city departments to provide wraparound services to enrollees? And also, how has the MDO ensured that community members with disabilities can be served by Zero Fare in particular?
So I'll take your first question on. I might have to get back to you on the second question. Generally speaking, the Zero Fare program itself takes kind of a light touch in terms of working with community partners. We've identified those we think can be the most supportive in terms of distributing the fare media cards, but also have access to populations we're interested in serving. So once we put together our database, we were able to work with folks we know are engaged in those communities. I think that information will be refined as we get the evaluations back. These organizations have missions we feel like are well aligned with the goals of serving these demographics. So certainly that's something we take into consideration, but we'll have more thoughts about that. I think when we see the evaluations in terms of serving the ADA community, I think this is something that we can look at. I think some of the data we work with is mostly focused on income demographics, but that's something that we might be able to consider and then talking through with SEPTA a little bit where there might be gaps in the services that they provide that are targeted to the ADA goals. That's something we could learn from as well.
Thank you, Director Carroll. I have other thoughts regarding that, but I look forward to hearing from you.
Yes, sir. Sure will. Chair recognizes Councilmember Quetcy Lozada and Councilmember Phillips. Then we'll go into our second round.
Thank you, Council President. Thank you for being with us this morning. I'd like --
Could you speak into the microphone, Member Lozada, please?