Aye. The ayes are 16, the nays are 0. A majority of all members having voted in the affirmative, the bill passes. The next bill to be called up is Bill No. 020202.
An ordinance authorizing the Commissioner of Public Property, on behalf of the City of Philadelphia, to acquire an easement to 311 West Allegheny Avenue, under certain terms and 5/30/02 - BILLS ON FIRST-READING CALENDAR conditions.
This bill having been read on two different days, the question now is, shall the bill pass finally? The clerk will please call the roll.
Aye. The ayes are 16, the nays are 0. A majority of all members having voted in the affirmative, the bill passes. The clerk will please read the title of the final bill for today Bill No. 020203.
An ordinance authorizing the Commissioner of Public Property, on behalf of the City of Philadelphia, to acquire by 5/30/02 - BILLS ON FIRST-READING CALENDAR condemnation an easement through 3500 Scotts Lane for sewer and drainage purposes, under certain terms and conditions.
This bill having been read on two different days, the question now is, shall the bill pass finally? The clerk will please call the roll.
Councilwoman Miller? 5/30/02 - BILLS ON FIRST-READING CALENDAR
Aye. The ayes are 16, the nays are 0. A majority of all members of City Council having voted in the affirmative, this bill passes. 5/30/02 STATED - INTRO. OF MORE BILLS, RESOLUTIONS
The clerk will read the title of Resolution 020205.
A resolution appointing Robert Zuritsky to the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Municipal Authority.
The Chair recognizes Councilman Kenney for a motion on the resolution.
Move for the adoption of the resolution. (Duly seconded.)
Thank you. It has been moved and seconded that the resolution be adopted. All in favor will indicate by saying aye. Are there any nays? The ayes have it, and Resolution No. 020205 has been adopted. The clerk will read the title of Resolution No. 020206.
A resolution appointing James P. Baker to the Board of Directors of the Hospitals and Higher Educations Facility Authority 5/30/02 STATED - INTRO. OF MORE BILLS, RESOLUTIONS of Philadelphia.
The Chair recognizes Councilman Kenney for a motion on the resolution.
It has been moved and properly seconded that Resolution No. 020206 be adopted. All in favor will indicate by saying aye. Those opposed? The ayes have it, and Resolution No. 020206 has been adopted. The Chair understands that Councilwoman Tasco would like to be recognized to introduce further bills or resolutions.
The clerk will please read title of the two bills.
An ordinance authorizing the Commissioner of Public Property, on behalf of 5/30/02 STATED - INTRO. OF MORE BILLS, RESOLUTIONS the City of Philadelphia, to acquire by condemnation, or by purchase in lieu of condemnation, fee simple title to any parcel of real estate with any improvements situate thereon located at 8400 Executive Avenue. And an ordinance authorizing the Commissioner of Public Property, on behalf of the City of Philadelphia, to acquire some or all of certain real estate parcels in the Eastwick section of the City of Philadelphia, all under certain terms and conditions.
Thank you. These bills will be referred to the appropriate committee. That concludes our calendar for today. 5/30/02 STATED - INTRO. OF MORE BILLS, RESOLUTIONS
Are there any speeches on the part of Minority? (No speeches on the part of the minority.)
Are there any speeches on the part of the Majority? Councilman DiCicco.
I'd like to remind the members of the Streets and Services Committee that there is a public meeting today at 2 o'clock. We have 22 bills, but they should be quick bills and I'd like to get them over. Thank you.
Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilman Ortiz.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Every week, I seem to have something to say about the School Reform Commission, and I believe that during the last week, it was shown how totally separate and oblivious and unaccountable the SRC is to the citizens of Philadelphia. They have gone to almost every neighborhood of the City 5/30/02 STATED - INTRO. OF MORE BILLS, RESOLUTIONS during the last week, very much like during the pro counsels during the Roman days who were coming to impose their will and their system, telling the populace how it is that it's going to be, and how they're going to have to adapt themselves to that. And if they don't like it, well, tough, because they have the authority. And be what it may, it doesn't matter that editorial boards and columnists and educators and other experts are telling the School Reform Board that the smorgasbord that they have, the stew that they're cooking is really not functionable. They come forward with a budget and they say they're cutting 325 positions, but that's not really the truth. The truth is that they're cutting many more positions. They're cutting librarians across the City, as if librarians are not needed in the public school systems of Philadelphia. Go to Radnor, go to Montgomery County and tell 'em that you're cutting their librarians out of their budget. They're cutting and they're saying to the principals, You have a choice to make: You have to cut your staff. 5/30/02 STATED - INTRO. OF MORE BILLS, RESOLUTIONS So beyond the 325 that they're cutting, principals are cutting art teachers, music teachers, computer administrators, and instructors. They're cutting programs at the local level at every school. Reminds me very much -- if this is what they call reform, it's no-frills education. You get reading and math and be satisfied with that. Art, history, music, all of the other elements that go into making a well-rounded educated individual will be totally missing. Latin? Forget it. After all, who speaks Latin; not even the Catholic church gives you mass now in Latin. But it is a foundation of education a founding block of a well-rounded educated mind. And everywhere they have gone, the parents and students have rejected them and they're trying to impose one company more than any other one, Edison, that their stock is now, I think, at $1.06, which is a total failure on Wall Street. And it seems like they look at Edison as the Holy Grail, the solution to every problem that there is, but they themselves say they don't have any money because, obviously, they face the 5/30/02 STATED - INTRO. OF MORE BILLS, RESOLUTIONS same problem that we did as a city. The State refuses to increase the amount of money that we get for public education. Education is not really that complex. It works. Public education works when you have the tools, when teachers are trained and you have small classes, when principals do the job that they're supposed to do, and the unions work together with the parents and the students and the administration. What we have a reform commission that is accountable to no one. They will impose their will, and I think our kids will continue to suffer because they're doomed to fail, and once they have torn up the public education system, it's going to be very hard to put it back together again. Thank you, Madam Chair.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman Cohen.
Thank you, Madam President. I wanted to follow up on the School Reform Commission. You know, a lot of people are concerned 5/30/02 STATED - INTRO. OF MORE BILLS, RESOLUTIONS about Wall Street, what's happening to the value of stocks, what's happening to the business climate. They point to a corporation like Enron, which apparently operated one of the biggest scams in the history of the United States, cheating hundreds of millions of dollars from people all through the country. They point to the Anderson accounting firm, how it issued reports they hid rather than disclose the true facts of companies they were supposed to be auditing. Well, I think in Pennsylvania, we're getting very close to our own little scandal. 24 this morning or at the end of business yesterday. The high of the Edison stock -- when Chris Whittle of Edison sold the stock and made approximately $100 million, the high was in January of 2001, when the stock had a value of $35. It has lost more than 97 percent of its value. Yet, there are a couple of hucksters out there still forgetting all about Enron, forgetting about the Anderson scandal, a couple of hucksters out there 5/30/02 STATED - INTRO. OF MORE BILLS, RESOLUTIONS selling the value of Edison. Those hucksters happen to include the Governor of the State, Governor Schweiker, who, despite the fact that everybody else has lost confidence in Edison because of things like what was reported in Chester Upland, where Edison's operating, they're going to close the school, they're going to fire a couple of hundred teachers in that small community, which has suffered so much. So their record is miserable. They've been fired by a number of communities that have hired them. Despite all of that, Governor Schweiker and the members of the School Reform Commission say that Edison's the best thing ever existed, it's wonderful, and we're sticking by them. I think that is going to lead to a local corruption business scandal. Tell me, what is Governor Schweiker, what is the School Reform Commission getting out of the huckstering in which they're trying to convince everybody that Edison's stock is worthwhile, because all of the activities of the School Reform Commission seem aimed at trying to help Edison, because the only positive statements about Edison 5/30/02 STATED - INTRO. OF MORE BILLS, RESOLUTIONS are coming either from the Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania or from some members of the School Reform Commission. I think this is a scandal about to erupt. I think it may take one of several forms. I'd like it to know why is it so urgent that Edison, with its records of failures both in the business world and to the students and to the educational system, why is it continually necessary for the governor of this Commonwealth to say Edison is good, I have full confidence in it? Why are they talking about giving a few more schools to Edison? Is it for the purpose of boosting the stock? Why is it that Govern Ridge, before he became chief of the homeland security organization, why did he make the commitment to Edison? Were there any stock transfers? Was anybody in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania given stock at a low price, which they were able to sell, like Chris Whittle, the head of Edison, who made a hundred million dollars? Edison as a company never made anything; they've had loss after loss. But Chris Whittle, when he met with 5/30/02 STATED - INTRO. OF MORE BILLS, RESOLUTIONS Council many months ago in the private caucus room, when I asked him, Is it true that you sold stock and earned a hundred million? he said, Well, your figures are a little bit off, but I won't deny them. Now, I think people have got to begin asking questions because, as Councilman Ortiz said, it's our kids' lives that are being played with. It is our kids' lives that are being jeopardized by the huckstering of the worst kind going on by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the School Reform Commission.
I think they're talking about giving more schools to Edison, hoping against hope that somehow, this will reverse the downfall of the stock value. They're trying to sell the world that this Edison stock is going to be worth something, and I think they're going to prove wrong, 'cause I think before long, the stock is going to be taken off the exchange, because once it drops below $1, it gets served notice that unless there's vast improvement, the stock is going to be what they call B-listed, taken off the Stock Exchange, and will have to be sold just like jug stock is sold, 5/30/02 STATED - INTRO. OF MORE BILLS, RESOLUTIONS maybe for pennies a share. I think it's urgent that the people of Philadelphia get involved very deeply, and one of the problems, like all other matters, is that the worst sufferers are not the middle class, not the affluent -- they seem quiet, they seem satisfied that one way or the other, the schools like Central High School, like Girls High School, like Masterman, like maybe Greenfield -- I could mention maybe a dozen or 20 schools with outstanding reputations, maybe they're going to be able to turn back the School Reform Commission. But the ones who are suffering most are the kids who need the help of real school reform more than anybody else, and that's the children of working people, the children of the poor who look to the school system for a ladder to equal opportunity. And I think it's time that we get very fully, as parents and as citizens of Philadelphia, into the fight to take back the ownership and control of the school system. When the State manages it the way it is now, it's just going from very bad to really much worse than very bad, and 5/30/02 STATED - INTRO. OF MORE BILLS, RESOLUTIONS that's pretty bad indeed. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you very much. Are there any other speeches? (No further speeches.) 5/30/02 STATED - ADJOURNMENT
The chair now recognizes Councilwoman Tasco for a motion to adjourn.
Madam President, I move that we stand adjourned until Thursday, June 6th, until 10 a.m. (Duly seconded.)
All in favor? Opposed? Council stands adjourned until Thursday, June 6th, at 10 a.m. Thank you. (Proceeding end at 11:52 a.m.) CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of Thursday, May 30, 2002, are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. RE: STATED MEETING _______________________________, Josephine Cardillo Registered Professional Reporter and 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.)