Let me ask you a little bit, because this is the story that I hear quite often. Do we look at payrolls around participation when folks are supposed to have minority participation?
We look at payrolls. And do we have a mechanism of flagging the minority name versus 74 9/24/09 - COMMERCE - BILL 090520 their participation?
So for workforce inclusion, yes. So we look at certified payrolls and all of that process to determine whether or not an individual who is being listed as minority inclusion on a report from a workforce perspective is indeed a minority. There's a process for that.
And working. Do we look at are they actually participating?
Yeah, absolutely. There's a -- so we do it a number of different ways. We will hire some -- so like the cultural and commercial corridor bond program that you all previously put EOP requirements on there both for contracting and workforce. So we have a relationship with a third-party vendor that will go out on site and review all 75 9/24/09 - COMMERCE - BILL 090520 of the payroll, all of the people on there. They count one, two, three, four who is on there versus --
We subbed that out, quote/unquote. We believe that there are third-party providers that do it better than what we do. It is a tedious process. It's a human resource focus. And so one way in which we believe we can create efficiencies for the City of Philadelphia is to farm that out to folks who have the ability to do that. So as an example, that is the biggest example that I can provide, is the bond program.
So out of the commercial corridor bond money that we've put out there, what percentage of the money are we targeted towards ensuring participation?
Well, you guys put -- Council. Excuse me. You guys. Council put in some very, very aggressive goals 76 9/24/09 - COMMERCE - BILL 090520 there, with the intent that in order to drive participation, we put some extremely aggressive, like 60 percent aggressive. That's really aggressive and I would say today not going to be able to be achieved. However, what that does is forced us to make sure that we are paying attention to this. So we're about --
-- percent 18, 19 14 percent in regards to participation on 15 the cultural and commercial corridor 16 bond. 17
But what 18 are we investing? So, for instance, what 19 I want to know is, going back to 20 Councilman Green's point around your ability to do this, if we have 100 contracts out in the street, what percentage of that are we investing to ensure the enforcement aspect of this?
So it depends on what 77 9/24/09 - COMMERCE - BILL 090520 type of contracts there are. What would be on monitoring contracts from workforce inclusion, my thought is that we go out and we hire a third party to do that, because that's where we don't have the resources, we don't have the expertise. We're doing that on the Youth Study Center project. We've done it on --
So how much money are we investing in enforcement for the --
It depends on the project. So that's a project-by-project basis.
Two-hundred-odd thousand dollars on the bond program. There's another 200-odd thousand on the Youth Study Center program. Again, it depends on the scale of the project, the scope of what we are looking to do, is it a scope that includes contracting and workforce monitoring or is it just 78 9/24/09 - COMMERCE - BILL 090520 workforce. The big deal with us is workforce. That's the huge thing. So if you look at the reports from the MACCID report, the Mayor's Advisory Commission on Construction Industry Diversity, that is one of the biggest areas of recommendations for us, is to continue that monitoring process such that we get the information. It's the information gathering. Then we can hold accountable the firms that are participating. When we have ownership of projects, it's doable. When we don't have ownership of projects, then it's a negotiation.
So if you could submit to the Chair what you believe to be a comprehensive report that shows us the process of monitoring and enforcement.
Can you submit something to the Chair? I'd like to see that. 79 9/24/09 - COMMERCE - BILL 090520 Thank you very much.
Currently, how many -- thank you, Mr. Chairman. Currently, how many staff people are dedicated to this process of inclusion?
That's the Office of Economic Opportunity. That's the staff that are directly responsible for it. Everybody in the Commerce Department are accountable, including myself, all the way up to Alan Greenberger.
In the history of that department and its many name changes, that's down from, I believe, twenty --
I got that part, but with 36 people it was a difficult task. How are they doing it with 18? I mean, are there field audits?
Field audits? Again, are we talking about -- because we got two processes. We got contracting and monitoring of contracts. So it's spending of the City's money. That's where we're focused at. Then we have the workforce monitoring, which we are now beginning to get into, which is a new direction for the Office of Economic Opportunity. Field audits are conducted by third parties. That's what we're looking to do in terms of -- if we have Youth Study Center, we hired a third party to do those field audits to look at that. If we have the cultural and commercial corridor bond projects, there's over 100 projects there. We have somebody doing that for us. That's not what we want the Office of Economic Opportunity -- 81 9/24/09 - COMMERCE - BILL 090520
GPUAC does it for the commercial and cultural bond and the Temple Group does it for the Youth Study Center.
So could you also provide -- does that mean 100 percent of the contracts? Does that mean a sampling of the contracts, and, if so, a sampling, what percentage of the total contracts are being monitored with field audits?
It depends on -- because we have to be efficient, but if there is a $50,000 contract versus a $250,000 contract, we make a difference there. So we would be able to show you what the differences are there. So it's not 100 percent.
So what I 82 9/24/09 - COMMERCE - BILL 090520 need provided to the Chairman -- and you don't have to do it now, but I want to know, with those people, if there's a 5 total universe of contracts of 5,000 6 contracts a year that are let by the City 7 of Philadelphia, what percentage of those 8 contracts actually get field tested, 9 meaning did this person hire the group 10 that actually went out there, and, if so, 11 what were their findings out of -- if 12 there were 5,000 total contracts and 13 there were 50 that were sampled, of that 14 50 what were the findings. 15
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to make -- I just want everybody to understand, and I think we all do, but for the record, what the Administration's inability to do this and 83 9/24/09 - COMMERCE - BILL 090520 have processes in place will mean. What it will mean is Council, without -- I don't know how we're going to get the data to make a determination about companies or whoever, people we contract with who have agreed to certain goals, but essentially we're going to have hearings here, and those companies are going to have to come in, and it's going to be embarrassing. Some people we call in probably are doing what they're supposed to do. Some people may not be doing what they're supposed to do, but we're now going to have a very contentious public hearing process for this instead of having this handled administratively by the Administration, and I think it's a shame that this Administration -- and the Administration is saying that they are in favor of that. So go figure. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Councilman. 84 9/24/09 - COMMERCE - BILL 090520 Are there any other questions for this witness? (No response.)
Is there anyone else to testify on this bill? (No response.)
If there's no one else to testify on this bill, first let me state for the record, Mr. Dow, before you submit the debarment procedure through the Chair to the Committee, I'm going to give you a heads-up. I actually did show Councilman Green a copy of the debarment procedure for the City of Los Angeles. It's about 36 pages thick. So there are actually processes and procedures out there for debarment that work. And there's a number of different things that I researched in preparation for the hearing, in preparation for dealing with 85 9/24/09 - COMMERCE - BILL 090520 this legislation that I will submit to the Committee after this hearing, but this is actually just the beginning of a process. We thank you for support of it, but we actually look forward to those hearings. I'm going to actually look forward to them being contentious, and the question of how we will get the information is, I intend to subpoena people. I've done that as Committee Chair before and inspected information. And I think that eventually I think Councilman Green is exactly right, that as we move forward, this should be almost purely an administrative process, but the role that we will have to play in this, I think a number of us welcome, and we thank you for your support and we look forward to working with you on it.
For the record, also I will be offering an amendment or have an amendment offered 86 9/24/09 - COMMERCE - BILL 090520 where we will strike Section 2 of this bill that reads, "This ordinance shall take effect upon approval by the voters of the amendment to the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter proposed in Resolution No. 7 090529." Essentially the purpose of that is because, as you've testified, this does not necessarily require an amendment to the Home Rule Charter, and just to put it on the record, in the context of Councilman Green's questions, part of the reason that the Administration is supportive of this is because they realize that a Charter change is something they could not be supportive of, because a Charter change would actually allow us to take over and a Charter change would allow us to continue to legislate on this issue. This instead allows us to intervene as opposed to take over. And so I'm willing to not go through with the Charter change at this point, but just move forward with the 87 9/24/09 - COMMERCE - BILL 090520 bill. So if there's no one else to testify, we will move from our public hearing into a public meeting to consider Bill No. 090520, and the Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown on the amendment to Bill No. 090520.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that Bill No. 11 090520 be amended. (Duly seconded.)
Bill No. 20 090520 is amended. The Chair now recognizes Councilwoman Brown for a motion on Bill 23 No. 090520, as amended.
I move that Bill No. 090520, as amended, be 88 9/24/09 - COMMERCE - BILL 090520 moved out of Committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended so as to permit first reading at the next scheduled session of City Council. (Duly seconded.)
Bill No. 15 090520, as amended, is reported out of Committee with a favorable recommendation and suspension of rules to allow the first reading at our next Council session. This concludes our public meeting. Thank you very much. (Committee on Commerce and Economic Development concluded at 2:30 p.m.) - - - 89 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 September 24, 2009, 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.)