Aye. The ayes are 17; the nays are zero. A majority of all members having voted in the affirmative, the bill passes. The last bill to be considered is Bill No. 100127. 6/3/10 - STATED - 2ND READING
An ordinance amending Title 20 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Officers and Employees," by adding a new Chapter requiring the registration of lobbyists and their principals.
This bill having been read on two different days, the question now is shall the bill pass finally. The Chief Clerk will please call the roll.
Aye. The ayes are 17; the nays are zero. A majority of all members having voted in the affirmative, the bill passes. That concludes our Calendar for today. Are there speeches on the part of the minority? The Chair recognizes Councilman Kelly.
Thank you, Madam President. I would just like to take this opportunity to wish our colleague Councilwoman Krajewski a very 39th birthday.
You have more courage than I. I was going to do that, but you did before me.
Oh, you will get him. That's what I thought. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Tasco.
Thank you, Madam President. Madam President, last spring after the release of the preliminary recommendations of the Mayor's Task Force on Ethics and Campaign Finance Reform, Council formed a legislative drafting committee that met throughout the summer, fall and winter to write this package of ethics reform bills that were introduced on March 4th. weeks, Council and staff -- and I must say all members of Council's staff pretty much participated -- had numerous meetings with the Ethics Board, the Mayor's Office, the City Law Department, Common Cause and the Committee of Seventy to develop agreed-upon amendments to these bills that were voted out of committee. And there were many, many meetings, just about every day of the week, to work on this, and I thank all of those groups for participating. What will these bills do? They outlaw excessive contributions and creates limits for contributions for inauguration and transition committees in retiring campaign debt, as recommended by the Mayor's Task Force. They adopt the Task Force's recommendation to adopt a litigation fund for candidates. The bills adopt the Task Force's recommendation to create a sliding scale, which includes aggravating and mitigating ethics violations. The bills adopt the Ethics Board's proposal to regulate the printing and distribution of sample political ballots. And we also adopted the Task Force's recommendation to require lobbyists to register with the Ethics Board. With regard to the First Amendment issue and the City's Home Rule Charter concerning restrictions on the political expression and activities of City employees, we will continue to work with the Ethics Board and its staff to develop reforms for Philadelphia which, compared to the top 40 cities, has by far the most restrictive laws in this area. So we do not want to move forward and, as I always say, act in haste and repent in leisure. We want to make sure that there are no unintended consequences. And since this Charter provision has been in since 1950, we want to be deliberative about looking at any changes we make and groups that we work with on board. So I want to thank the staff who worked on this, particularly Sophie Bryan of Councilman Green's office, Joe Fernandez of Councilwoman Sanchez's office and, of course, Derek Green of my staff and all members of City Council. I thank you for your cooperation, your staff's cooperation as we move forward to deal with the whole issue of ethics in the City of Philadelphia and do it in a way that people feel that they can abide by the rules and that they are not criminalized for any mistake they may make. So, again, I want to thank all the organizations that we worked with, and we formed a very cooperative relationship. It doesn't mean that we won't fight, but we've done pretty good. So thank you very much, Madam President. Thank you all, Councilmembers.
Thank you for your concern and hard work in this matter. The Chair recognizes Councilman Jones.
Thank you, Madam President. I rise today for a very important salutation. If my colleague is 30 today -
29? Councilwoman Krajewski, I want to recognize Thera Martin-Connelly on her 21st birthday today. So can we give her a round of applause. (Applause.)
Thank you, Madam President. We want to Prescription Assistance table that is outside to help constituents who need prescription assistance. Thank you.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Tasco.
Madam President, I didn't forget. I just in my haste to thank everybody, I certainly want to recognize the involvement of Councilman Green, who was with us -- it was a team, a whole team -- and Councilwoman Sanchez and the staff. But they were quite instrumental in trying to help the whole process through and making it through. So they worked on behalf of Council.
Thank you, Madam President. Just a reminder, there's a Commerce and Economic Development hearing at 1:00 p.m. sharp. There's six bills being considered. So we need a quorum. Thank you.
Thank you. Are there any other speeches on the part of the majority? (No response.)
Seeing none, the Chair recognizes Councilman Clarke for a motion to adjourn.
Thank you, Madam President. I move that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, June 10th, 2010, 10:00 a.m. (Duly seconded.)
It seconded that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, June the 10th at 10:00 a.m. All in favor will say aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the motion carries. Thank you all very much. (Stated Meeting adjourned at 11:40 a.m.) CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on June 3, 2010, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)