My name is Manuel Portillo. We have changed our name to the Eastern Pennsylvania Organizing Project. We have a statement in writing here that we will make copies of. I want to point out a few things that are contained in the statement, a way of recommendations for the city. By the way, our organization is made up of institutions, mostly 20 faith-based institutions but also parents and 21 public schools and community organizations, and we 22 represent more than 35,000 families in the city. Our experience has been such that we believe that the City will definitely benefit from a number of immigrants increasing not only from 176 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 the ones already here but those we might attract to come in and make it their (unintelligible). However, in order to be able to attract people, we believe four things are critical to happen. The first one is that there's got to be public commitment to attracting immigrants. By that, I mean that our leaders have to speak very firmly and strongly in favor of everybody who lives in the City, not just some, but in the same way, and service everybody equally. And from our mayor to our Council leaders, we expect them to speak strongly in support of new residents of the City. So that is as a primary thing. Secondly, we believe that the City needs to make an effort to create changes in the way that it delivers services to residents. There is a need in City services that when one department is doing something, it may not necessarily feed or combine with what other departments are doing. There's a lot of times and situations in which you could save resources by being more effective. But in the end, each department keeps its separate maps and systems for labor and services and should be looking at 177 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 cooperation between departments. So services is critical and services have to be offered in the language of the people whatever that is -- Chinese, Spanish, Creole, you name it. The City also needs to pay more attention to the small businesses, particularly those located in neighborhoods. We have been working very closely with the Dominican Grocers Association, which is made up of 142 Dominican grocery stores located throughout the City. There are an estimated 600 of these stores, and we work with 142 of them, and every single one of them is going through a lot of trouble to try to get L&I and the Health Department and other departments to support them and to service them in a fair way. I hate to say it, but with the Health Department, we had an experience where they keep changing the ways they go about offering health services to the community, mainly through adapting their materials into Spanish and being cooperative and attentive to the needs of people in the neighborhoods. But small businesses really need a lot more support. We learned recently that the program 178 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 for the entire City only has $200,000, and this is a city with thousands and thousands of small businesses, many of which are located in neighborhoods with high crime, drugs, and all of the problems. So it's very, very little money. So we have to put the money where our mouth is, so to say. Another thing I noticed that's very important to change in this city is the way the City works with people. We need to create partnerships so that community organizations and residents can work with City officials to develop new strategies and do research together as to what are the best practices that we can find and develop new systems in the City based on experiences already proven. We've learned, for instance, that in Boston, the office for New Bostonians has changed the way the city goes about the community. This office serves as a welcome center for many arriving in Boston for many years now. In New York City, the Mayor's Office for Immigrants offers language services, which also coordinates all of the city efforts towards servicing immigrants better.
179 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 And so we believe that the City, before trying to bring people to Philadelphia, needs to really consider changing its structure and investing a little more in preparing the foundation so that those immigrants that arrive in Philadelphia will get an equal chance as everybody else to contribute and to be integrated into a productive life in the City. So thank you for your efforts in bringing these issues to the public eye. We hope this is not the only time that I and many others who have been testifying will have an opportunity to work with you toward not only engaging in the dialogue but also taking specific actions to changes that are required for making the City a better place.
Thank you very much for your testimony. Sir, could you please identify yourself for the record.
My name my name is David Liu and I am a representative of the Chinese community and Chinese Development Association of Chinatown. Members of the City Council, thank you 180 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 for holding this hearing and giving us the opportunity to express our views to you. We are very happy to help you search for ways and means to attract immigrants to the attractive and wonderful life of this city and its educational and cultural advantages and to improve the quality of life for residents already living here. However, it's a terrible and grievous mistake to destroy a community of citizens of this country while welcoming newcomers, but if you locate the proposed stadium in Chinatown, that is exactly what you will be doing. You would destroy a vibrant law-abiding hard-working family-oriented community of Asian people who have been in Chinatown for -- it goes back to at least 150 years. The Chinatown community is a unique cultural enclave which helps tourism and gives an international flavor to our city. And Chinatown has a vibrant economic which has produced for the City, as cited, jobs and industries and homes for many new Asian immigrants to our city. If you locate a stadium in Chinatown, you will destroy businesses in Chinatown and cause the depopulation of the area. Center City will be a traffic 181 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 nightmare on the days and nights of the ball games, and everyone in our city will be the losers. I strongly urge you to oppose the proposed location of the stadium into Chinatown and give Chinatown an opportunity to grow and prosper for the benefit of all citizens of Philadelphia.
Thank you very much for your testimony and patience. We have a few witnesses left, Cindy Suy, Rorng Sorn, Dr. Vuong Thuy and Lequyen Vu, and Narasimha Shenoy. If you'll come up together. Thank you for your patience. (Witnesses come forward.)
My name is Cindy Suy, S-U-Y. I am Director of the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia. First I would like to begin by thanking members of the Philadelphia City Council for giving me the opportunity to speak before you. I would most especially like to thank Councilman-At-Large Jim Kenney for inviting the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia to 182 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 participate in this public hearing. Secondly, I would like to take this opportunity to share with you briefly about our agency. The Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia is a nonprofit agency and founded in 1979. Our mission and goal is to improve the quality of life of Cambodian refugees by addressing issues in areas such as education, health care, social, economic and culture. Over the course of years, our organization has 12 become well known and well respected for a wide 13 variety of services we offer. This program 14 addresses those specific issues facing the growing 15 Cambodian community. A few of our programs 16 include Cambodian culture, classes in English as 17 second language, citizenship classes, translation 18 and interpretation services, emergency food bank, 19 and a basic and social awareness initiative. 20 We have had a positive impact of the 21 city government on Cambodian community for the past nine years that I have been with been with the Cambodian Association. A way in which our organization has been able to work with the City government, for example, is by working with the 183 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 Philadelphia Office of Human Relations to organize special events such as the Cambodian Celebration, which brings about 1,000 people together at one time. We have citywide, in terms of permits, to use public facilities as well as obtaining the support of City departments for security and construction needs. The police community relations department has been generous in their support of our various community and workshops. They have sent representatives to our meetings to speak on topics as widely deserve as drug and alcohol awareness, crime prevention, and gang violence issues. Additionally, the City of Philadelphia operation of Town Watch has been invaluable in supporting our organizations efforts. The director of the City Target Assistance Program has been especially helpful and accommodating to our organization. Over the past four years, we have been privileged in working with her and consider ourselves fortunate to have someone of her caliber organization within the City government. And the City government could be more responsive to the needs of people of the Cambodian 184 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 community especially in requests for funding submitted to both City and various agencies. The Cambodian community has serious needs in terms of children, our families, and our elderly. Because we're such a small organization serving the unique segment of Philadelphia population, we are often left out of the City outreach effort and various opportunities for organization. Our community is in need of service because we're only agency in a position of addressing the needs and long-standing assistance within the community. And the fact that our board members and our staffs are also a member of the community and our staff is both bilingual and bicultural and thus able to bridge the community gap that many constituents struggle with our organization, our full-time staff of only four struggles with meeting the needs of the Cambodian community. Unfortunately, we cannot (unintelligible) to comparable programs offered by other organizations simply because none of those programs can begin to meet the specialized needs of our community. As for our staff and program funding, we are finding ours unable to meet the 185 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 dire needs of a community of over 14,000.
Funding for a variety of our long-standing programs, such as those that benefit our youth, our elderly, and our struggling communities, are being sharply reduced or cut. Additionally, we are in need of place where we can serve, a multipurpose community culture center for our community. It would be a place where our youth could meet and could be a safe haven where children could come in after school and engage in a variety of healthy activities designed to promote positive youth growth and development. Our children need a place where they can turn for help as they struggle academically as well as socially. Our elderly need a place where they can come and meet others of similar Asian backgrounds as well as engage in a variety of recreational, cultural, and community service activities. For future actions, we would like to recommend that the City make an effort to develop a special outreach service for organizations such as ours. The service would include ensuring that the smaller segments of Philadelphia under- 186 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 privileged community such as the ones served by our organization receive their share of City funding and City resources. Some additional areas, such as organization and city support and (unintelligible) resources would include equal access to health care, ensuring that funded is provided to provide appropriate health care service to all residents of our city. No one should hesitate to avail themselves of needed health care simply because of the lack of service interpretation that is necessary to facilitate communication with the health care professional. Equal access to government housing. There are very few Cambodian-Americans taking advantage of housing in our city. The reason is that there is little or no outreach service taking place within the Cambodian-American community. Currently there is no alternative for Cambodian- Americans and those few who have taken advantage of public housing in Philadelphia are forced to relocate to neighborhoods far removed from the Cambodian community. This increases their sense of isolation. 187 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 Access to government employment. There are few Cambodian-Americans employed in the local city government. Again, an effective outreach approach is needed. As a result of our small population, we have little representation in the public sector and in the employment opportunities whereby small nonprofit service organizations such as ours could partner with the City in serving the diverse needs of the immigrant population. With the City as a substantial resource to improve the quality of life, we can encourage immigrant population to be made in Philadelphia as well as encourage others to settle here. By working together, we can ensure that immigrants' needs are met, from job training to referral services, to and educational workshops. We can become known as an immigrant-friendly city, a place where disadvantaged will know they can receive the necessary resources to become a viable contributor to their community. And in conclusion, Philadelphia will be served by attracting more immigrant populations and ensuring the diversity of our people only by cultural diversity and the sharing of the unique 188 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 traditions of each with the community at large, that Philadelphia will continue to live up to its reputation as the City of Brotherly Love, a place where immigrants are welcome. Our agency, the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia, looks forward to working with the City of Philadelphia to achieve this goal. I thank you for the opportunity again to share this information.
Thank you for your testimony. Do you have something to add relative to that? I would just ask -- one, I know it's been a long day, but if you have written testimony, please submit it and try to synopsize or highlight the testimony that you're providing as opposed to reading the testimony into the record. Identify yourself for the record, please.
My name is Rorng Sorn. (Unintelligible.) I have been in Philadelphia since I arrived 13 years ago and I enjoy many things that the City has to offer. People have worked very 189 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 hard and built a strong family. We have people who work in different fields -- police officers, people in medical field, a lot of different areas besides that. For people who have limited education and English skills, we also (unintelligible) different manufacturer, such as employer who hire more be responsible. So instead of negative activity that may be outside to lock out our community, we happen to be a very big effort very big dollars to the city also. All of the problems that Miss Soy just mentioned is true, and from the research I've done, and, of course, with the poverty according to the 1990 census, we found that 47 percent of Cambodian living in poverty. And we believe that these problems is among Cambodians especially in Philadelphia. So we would like to work with the City Council and with the City officials to address any issues that we can work together on. And as a whole, it might be a small community but, again, it's a small problem but can become a big problem and affect the whole society that we live in. So thank you very much for your time 190 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 and for having us today.
Thank you for coming. Please identify yourself for the record.
My name is Marasimaj, M-A-R-A-S-I-M-A-J, also known as (unintelligible). Councilman James Kenney, thank you, sir. I appreciate it. I know it's been a long day. I'll be brief. I represent the Association of (unintelligible) of Philadelphia, which is an organization for all Asian communities. We have already heard from members of our organizations, the Cambodians, so you probably have heard of the problems we have and the opportunities we seek. Let me give you briefly a perspective of the community. You know, we are a small community of the United States, yet we live in a city that's a very diversified community. To let you get the grasp of in the community, for example, there are 17 major languages and 48 dialects in one community alone. You put together the Koreans, the Chinese, the Vietnamese, and it becomes a major diversified community and a 191 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 cultural (unintelligible). The two aspects of immigration is (unintelligible) issues. One came through to make the dream of America. The other immigrants came through the refugee system. So we have to look into both of them. And today I've heard that the City is doing their best to take care of the refugees and the need, but I have yet to hear what it is doing to attract the businesses of the Asian community and the professionals. Also, the businesses are high-tech businesses doing work outside the city. As I look into the city system, I do not see variations in the system, although especially if you look at the managerial system in the City, I do not see many managers in the level, so these are what attracts the professionals to the community. And I think we need to work in those areas. And the second, the other area is, basically in order to attract the professionals and the businesses to the City, we need to have neighborhoods where they can live comfortably, and that has been a key issue. Education is why 192 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 people are living in the suburbs. I love the City. I work here in the City for 15 years, but the general electorate -- and I started my own business in the City of Philadelphia. So the immigrants if given an opportunity can be productive and can be useful. And I appreciate the opportunity to express that point of view. Thank you, sir.
Thank you, thank you for your patience. ASIAN AFFAIRS CHAIR: My name is Skip (inaudible), chairman of the Mayor's Commission for Asian Affairs. I want to say first of all that I heard about this hearing early this morning, which shows a little bit about how the communication goes, but I could not for any reason miss it so I changed my schedule.
Thank you. ASIAN AFFAIRS CHAIR: I want you to know that in the refugee community, this has gained a lot of respect for you, Councilman Kenney.
Thank you. ASIAN AFFAIRS CHAIR: One of the things 193 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 is -- and I'm bypassing a lot for the sake of time -- the commission has done is -- there are a lot of things, but we'll get to that some other time. You know, I was involved with the census in 1990, and the census showed that the Asian-Pacific community is growing at a 145 percent growth rate. I was involved with the 2000 census and even the census didn't provide enough people. There was one full-time and one part-time Asian working on the census, which means -- that's for five states. So even though the census did better this time, your census figures are not going to show how much of a population you have in the Asian community and also in the other refugee community because of translations and because of fear of government. One of the things that I do want to point out is the issue of migration of people from the City of Philadelphia, both white and black. The one population that is growing in the inner-city is the immigrant refugee population. I do want to caution you too because I work in the areas of Upper Darby and I see how fast they're growing, where the immigrant populations are going 194 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 directly to the suburbs because of lack of inner-city amenities. An issue I want to cover is, I'm on the Mayor's Scholarship Committee, and I see all of these lists of people getting scholarships. I see a lot of Asian names and a lot of immigrant names getting scholarships. It's great that we have a great number of minority applicants and how much they've achieved. The one issue that was not brought up is, I visited the Youth Study Center, I visited the prisons, visited the state prisons and have seen an increase of Asian names in prisons too, mostly stemming from substance abuse and behavioral health issues. So that too must be addressed in the total immigrant community. There is some kind of a grant going around within the City which hasn't even been announced. It was supposed to have been announced in September. The other thing is, I think that there should be a connection for entry-level jobs where corporations can work to attract entry-level jobs in the immigrant community, because I did something with the Ritz Carlton Hotel, the only 195 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 ones out of the whole hospitality industry that approached us aggressively to try to recruit in the Asian community. So I think that that's another issue that should be done. For the sake of time, I've submitted everything, but I want to mention the Small Business Task Force, which Mayor Street and I serve on. One of it's recommendations is to coordinate service delivery to immigrant neighborhoods and non-English speakers and to market Philadelphia to potential immigrants. Now, who else could market Philadelphia to potential immigrants than satisfied immigrants and refugees and affiliates? That would strengthen the ability of people from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds to play an active part in the economic, social, civic, and culture life of the City. We can do this by conducting a public education program to inform immigrants about City services. We have all of these problems with L&I and the Health Department. We have to do something within the City agencies to make them more user-friendly for new Philadelphians to 196 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 report demographics and to create positive effects in order to increase the City's population of new immigrants. I just want to talk about some of the duties for this agency, if it's created. Translations. You know, everybody's talking about translations and interpretations, but there has to be guidelines, you can't have a teenage son at a health center doing the medical history for intimate details of a mother's medical history.
We need representation at City agencies for new immigrants and economics, like somebody talking about human services, health services, police, licensing, and legislative matters. This department would have to testify in legislative matters, whether it's City Council, whether it's with the State. It would also have to track demographics in ethnic leadership. And you have to attract ethnic leadership, you have to know who the leaders are and protocols you have to go through when addressing certain ethnic groups, and you have to go through the proper protocol outreach for City agencies and distribute information for minority bids, streets, licensing, 197 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 and health information, and you need a direct communicator and a sounding board for the Mayor's Office with an immigrant association and neighborhoods to represent the Mayor or even City Council where necessary. Okay. Maintain -- this is important -- connections with ethnic media outlets for the delivery of City information. You don't have to get a lot of this stuff translated; you can go right to the ethnic meeting and survey immigrant services and facility recreation of non-English efforts. I just want to say that I appreciate the opportunity for being here and for this long day. Just a little story. You know, a lot of politicians come into our community and we're glad to have them and they give pats on the back, but we need services. We have so many people and the commission and everybody else who have volunteered for years, since the new administration came in. People have translated for free, attended meetings for free, done everything for free. We need to get City services now and through this agency, it would be great. 198 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 One quick thing. When Mayor Street came to Chinatown, I remember he did a forum one, and of the things we requested was a recreation center for Chinatown, but we didn't expect such a large one. Thank you. )
Thank you very much. Thank you for your testimony. (Applause.)
Mr. Liu Wen Cheng and whoever is accompanying Mr. Cheng. (Witnesses come forward.)
First of all, you have to identify yourself for the record.
My name is Kirk Wiedemer. I represent Mr. Liu Wen Cheng. With him is KiKi Wong, who will be the interpreter, and who is also vice president of the Chamber of Commerce in Chinatown. I know time is of the essence. Mr. Liu Wen Cheng was arrested and charged with robbery when making a takeout delivery at a restaurant by the owner. He really 199 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 was the victim. I think he has been invited here to tell you and this committee what a nightmare it was for him that night.
Before you start keep the microphone close. INTERPRETER: Discrimination. I believe the Police Department didn't follow standard procedure and created this dilemma to me and created great damage to me and to my family. When I called 911 for rescue after I was robbed, the police came to the scene, and at that point, everything looks normal. My son was on the scene because he was the only one speak English and the police knocked the doors with the guns in their hands as a gesture to arrest the robbers. I don't know for what reason, after one of the policemen came scene, the whole thing turned around. They arrested me, they handcuffed me, and just looked at me as the robber. I don't understand, without any communication with me, the policeman arrested me and handcuffed me. One of the reasons I was arrested, I believe, it's because I couldn't communicate with the 200 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 policeman. But on the other hand, it's so clear to me that they just ignore me, didn't pay attention to our version of the situation, didn't pay attention to the facts and they just arrest me in this case. I am very grateful, after we went through the legal procedure and I got my justice back, so I was undifferent from before. I was suspicious about the outcome but I'm very happy with the outcome that all charges were dropped, and I'm innocent. So for the last two or three months, me and my family have suffered greatly emotionally and, you know, financially. We feel that it is a great damage to us. Because of this incident, my restaurant business cannot continue regularly, my son has to drop -- he cannot go to school because he's busy in helping me to straighten out all of the facts. And we can now -- it's onerous to us that we cannot take the facts, we cannot bear this whole incident, it's a nightmare to us. So we didn't have the peaceful life as we had before. So after this incident, I just -- the whole family, you know, couldn't describe the 201 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 suffering we have been -- went -- you know, we have gone through.
Thank you. Is there anything else you would like to add Mr. Wiedemer?
Only, Councilman, that we're going to be presenting some recommendations to Commissioner Timoney about this incident and hopefully, he'll follow up on it.
I appreciate that, and I'd just like to it say, if I may, as a member of City Council and as a lifelong citizen of this city, I would like to offer my apologies to you and to your family personally and on behalf of this government for the wrong that was done to you. It was a terrible situation, a terrible experience, and we do humbly apologize. INTERPRETER: Thank you for the remarks you made.
Thank you. Thank you very much. I believe there's one more witness left. (Witness comes forward.) 202 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2
It's Mr. Neary? Please identify yourself for the record and proceed.
I'm Bernard Neary, N-E-A-R-Y. I'm an attorney in private practice. I promise to limit my testimony to one minute and thirty seconds. Councilman Kenney, thank you for the opportunity to appear today before the Legislative Oversight Committee and to testify on the matter of how we might make Philadelphia more friendly and open to new immigrants. I share your concern that Philadelphia may be falling behind other cities in attracting new arrivals, who bring with them the tremendous, drive, energy, and will to succeed that is the hallmark of every immigrant group that has come to our shores. My particular concern and the concern of my clients are the recent steps taken by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation that limits the access of new arrivals, particularly Chinese- and Russian-speaking immigrants, to a Pennsylvania driver's license. As you know, a driver's license is a privilege conferred upon 203 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 individuals who can show proficiency in both an actual driving test and in a written test. This written test measures the applicant's understanding of the rules of the road, traffic, and safety driver courtesy. The road test measures the applicant's ability to properly handle and control a motor vehicle within the rules of the road and also to prove their physical ability to control a motor vehicle. As you may or may not be aware of, the written portion of the test has been offered in a number of languages other than English. They include Chinese, Russian, Vietnamese, Armenian, an Spanish. Within the last 60 days, the Department of Transportation, without notice or explanation, stopped offering the written portion of the test in Chinese and Russian. This is a serious blow to two of the largest immigrant groups in the City of Philadelphia. While the department -- while the Pennsylvania driver's license is indeed a privilege, a license to operate a motor vehicle is a necessity, especially for the new arrival who may find himself traveling great distances to and 204 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 from his job or find himself working in a job or profession that requires the use of a motor vehicle. As a result of terminating the driver's test in Russian and Chinese, non-English-speaking immigrants will be precluded from receiving a driver's license, thereby impairing their ability to work. It will also have a negative effect of further exacerbating the problem of unlicensed and uninsured drivers in Philadelphia. When faced with an inability to pass the driver's licensure examination, many new immigrants may simply decide to drive without a license and, thereby, without motor vehicle insurance. I respectfully that City Council contact Bradley Mallory, Secretary of the Department of Transportation, and Joy Gross, Manager of the Department of Transportation Driver Licensing Division, and prevail upon them to have the written portion of the driver's licensure test reinstated in the Chinese and Russian languages. In addition, City Council should take steps to determine what other immigrant groups would be aided by offering the written portion of 205 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 the driver licensure examination in their native languages. Council should make every effort to convince the Department of Transportation to expand, not contract, the number of languages in which the written test is offered. In a perfect world, it would be desirable if everyone could sit for the driver's license issue examination in the English language. In a less than perfect world, we must recognize that a driver's license is becoming as much a necessity of life as food, shelter, and employment. In Philadelphia, a driver's license needs to be made available to all who can show proficiency in driving skills and pass the written test, even if the written test is offered in their native language. To do otherwise will turn Philadelphia into an economic backwater, where unlicensed and uninsured drivers rule the road.
Thank you. I did write to Secretary Mallory. Have you seen his response?
I believe Secretary Mallory 206 /00 FISCAL STABILITY - BILL 2 has communicated to some individuals in the driver training business, or the driving school business, that he believes that there was massive cheating in the Russian language test and in the Chinese language test. I don't suspect he only means that Russian people cheat and that Chinese people cheat.
I remember older guys telling us what the answers were too when we were --
Right. I suggest the way to deal with that problem would be to have multiple copies and multiple questions of both the test in Russian and Chinese. It seems that if there is a problem with cheating, the simple answer is to create more tests defeat the cheaters, not -- I repeat not -- to preclude honest individuals who can't read and write English from driving a car.
Thank you for your testimony. And thank you all for being here today. I appreciate your time and patience. Thank you. (Adjourned at 2:57 p.m.) - - - 208 C E R T I F I C A T E I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of Tuesday, October 17, 2000, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of same. RE: COUNCIL COMMITTEE LEGISLATIVE OVERSIGHT RESOLUTION NO. 000551 __________________________________, JOSEPHINE CARDILLO, Registered Professional Reporter