That's the beauty of being a legislative body. The Chair recognizes Councilman Cohen.
Mr. President, without dealing with the other questions, the answers to which, from my point of view, would be different than the answers you gave, but without dealing with that, I would like to move that this Council recess until noon tomorrow, Friday, March SPEECHES 13. At that time we will know whether this letter was satisfactory, whether negotiations have resumed to a serious degree, we can have an update and we can be ready for action. (Duly seconded.)
Can we recess to the call of the Chair? Can we do that?
No, we may not do that. We may not do that without readvertising a session. If we wanted to keep this session alive, we have to recess to a date and a time certain. And if we pass this motion, then we should come back here tomorrow at 12 o'clock in order to be able to get information. We shouldn't pass this motion, and the only people who are here tomorrow at 12 o'clock are Councilman Cohen and myself and maybe one or two other people. Now, just so you will know, if we pass this motion, I will expect all of us to convene in a very, very brief caucus, in the Caucus Room, to SPEECHES get a status report. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell.
Thank you, Mr. President. I would like to offer another suggestion that may be a way in between. And that is that if the Councilmembers are willing to have you request either in writing, or since we are here at this time and we have SEPTA representatives here, to request -- and I agree that this letter fulfills our request this morning in caucus. But I make a suggestion that we make the request that the two individuals in question, David Cohen and John Leary, be at the negotiations. If we are willing to make that request, maybe that takes us where we need to go, and we won't need to come back tomorrow, if SEPTA will make that agreement.
Mr. President, I fully appreciate and respect my colleagues to the SPEECHES left. But I do not think it is within our right to structure the negotiating team for either side. I this we overstep our authority.
Councilwoman Clark, respectfully, we don't have any authority in any of this. And I don't mean that disrespectfully. What we have is influence. We don't have authority; we have influence.
All right. Then let me accept your correction of what gets us here, and say I think it unwise of us to structure who can exercise the authority of the parties in a collective bargaining agreement. I think that that would be a mistake. I think that the labor union has the right to decide who speaks for it, and I think that management has the right to decide who speaks for it. And that beyond that, all of us make ineffectual suggestions that border dangerously on officious intermentment.
Thank you, Mr. President. I think the most dangerous intervention that we can be involved in is that we do nothing to try to resolve the matter, so that our citizens are out on strike this weekend. Now, we don't want a strike. I am willing to do whatever we can to try to bring the sides together to make sure that doesn't happen. We know we have no role formally. Technically, we have no role to begin with. So in our desire to prevent a strike, because our greatest responsibility is to the people we represent, then we would be involved. And I believe that once involved, then we have the right to request that these individuals be involved in trying to resolve the matter so that individuals can come back to the table.
There is a motion on the floor, and I will ask all further comments from this moment on to be directed to that motion. And the motion is that the Council stand at recell until 12 o'clock tomorrow. SPEECHES Has there been a second to that motion?
The motion is that Council stand in recess until tomorrow at 12 o'clock. Is there anyone who wishes to comment on that motion?
All right. I think we can accommodate that. The clerk will call the roll.
The motion is that the City Council of Philadelphia stand in recess until tomorrow at 12 o'clock noon.
The ayes are 12, the nays are zero. The ayes have it. This Council stands in recess until SPEECHES tomorrow, at 12 o'clock. We will have a brief caucus tomorrow at 12 o'clock. Thank you very much. (Stated Meeting adjourned at 1:30 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of Thursday, March 12, 1998, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of same. RE: STATED MEETING _____________________________________ DEBRA A. WHITEHEAD, RPR