I believe that's 00127 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole Phoenix.
Okay. All right. I'd like to see how Philadelphia actually ranks against those other cities on a dollar for dollar basis; and then secondly, for the moment with regard to whatever the request is -- and I know that in your testimony you talk about $250,000, and there have been, I think, important and serious statements with regard to additional amounts. What I'd like to know from you is, could you provide to the Council, say, a bit of a five-year funding plan, where you would like to be five years from now? I mean, we know we're at the one seven five. You're asking for another two fifty. I mean, let's assume for the moment at a minimum you get the two fifty. So now we're at two. I'd like to see where you want to be five years from now, see how that ranks against 00128 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole the other seven cities, and see if we can reach some level of, at a minimum informal, if not preferably a formal agreement, that over the next five years there will be... you can anticipate "X" amount of dollar increase based on your five-year plan. And then -- I mean, we're going to love having you back every year. But I think you need to know with some amount of certainty under the circumstances what the future is going to bring. Obviously, if we're able to do more in any of those years, I'm sure you'll be appreciative. But at a minimum you'd know from year to year what your founding was going to be, and you could do your fund raising based on that, and you can go out and promote the fund and the activities and the like, knowing that there was a bit of a guarantee of a source of funding from the City that had increases built in.
That is exactly what our goal is. I stated earlier that the Board voted as its goal to be at $5 million in five years. That is our goal that's based upon 00129 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole research we've done, and it's based upon the Transition Team's report from 2000. We are currently in the process, through our long-range planning committee, of developing the road map exactly what you are suggesting we do, because we do like to come back every year, and we intend to, we hope to be able to come back knowing what expectations are, both from this Body and you should know what our expectations are as well. So that's --
And on that kind of schedule you're looking at about a $600,000 a year increase?
Again, I mean, we take the two fifty. You're at two. You want to get to five. You got three. Five years.
Okay. All right. Well, I mean we should certainly try to, I 00130 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole think, push you along that path. And as I said, it appears that the two fifty is not much of a question. And based on some of the comments made, if there is an opportunity to have a higher number in the context of everything else we're looking at, but given the importance of the work, the seriousness with which I believe this City takes art and culture, and certainly the hard work that you're putting out, I think we should be able to do something in a rather positive fashion. I appreciate the testimony.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm proud to say that I serve as Vice President of the Cultural Fund. And it's been one of the, I think, the highlights of my time in Council, to see so many good things done and so many people truly appreciate the work. 00131 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole And I would hope that we're not going to be shortsighted, and continue to increase this Budget so we can do many more good things. It amazes me when I became a Board Member, and then the Vice President, to see all the good work that is accomplished with such limited funds. Can you imagine what we could do with more? I think what I see here today is, you're on your way to nine votes. I've been counting, and it looks like that we can obviously do something here to be helpful. But again, just personally, my involvement with the Cultural Fund has been a very, very rewarding experience for me. And thank you, all of you, that make this work. Thank you. ACTING
thank you very much. Are there any other questions from any other Members of the Council? (No response.) ACTING
There being none, we thank you for your presence today. We will alert the other individuals here 00132 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole to testify. We will limit the testimony to five minutes. We have numerous groups to testify, and so we're going to limit it to five minutes. Thank you. ACTING
Good afternoon. Would you please identify for the record your names, identify yourself for the record.
Good afternoon. My name is Lauren Bornfriend, and I'm the Executive Director of Friends of Philadelphia Parks. And I'm joined here today by Doris Waltney, who is the President of Carol Park Neighbors, as well as a Board Member of Friends of Philadelphia Parks and a Member of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Council, and by James L. Brown, IV, who is a Board Member of Friends of Philadelphia Parks, as well as Executive Director of the Parkside Historic Preservation Corporation.
All right. 00133 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole
We are here to testify on behalf of the Fairmount Park Commission and the Philadelphia Department of Recreation. As you know, these agencies are responsible for more than 9,000 extraordinary acres of parkland in the City of Philadelphia. Friends of Philadelphia Parks is a non-profit organization that advocates, builds coalitions and educates the public, in order to achieve superior systems of parks and open space for Philadelphia. Our mission grew out of the principle that healthy, vibrant parks engender economic vitality, tourism, community development and reinvestment, education and well-being in an often challenging urban environment. We thank Members of City Council and Mayor Street for supporting the initiative to undergo a strategic planning process for Philadelphia's parks and for your understanding of the importance of stakeholder, expert, and citizen participation in this process. Friends of Philadelphia Parks and park constituents are eager and ready to take part 00134 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole and hope to be utilized as the planning process moves forward. At this time of increasing budget constraints in the City, it is more important than ever for the City to invest in the ability of our park agencies to operate effectively. For that reason, Friends of Philadelphia Parks and citizens from communities across the City are asking City Council to support three low-cost, affordable, and effective priorities that will provide big returns by strengthening and building the potential of our park systems, our neighborhoods, and our City. These priorities are funding of seasonal maintenance attendants or SMAs in Department of Recreation parks, increases in their hourly wages, hours worked per week, and numbers of positions funded, for a cost increase of $230,000. Number two is the guaranteed funding for Phase II of the strategic plan for Fairmount Park, for a cost of $340,000. And the third is the hiring of a grant researcher and writer for Fairmount Park, 00135 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole for a cost of $75,000. Philadelphia cannot afford to decrease the budget for our parks. Our City will not be served by decreasing funding for one essential park service or program in order to increase the funding of another. We must together address the issues of leadership, capacity building, accountability, performance standards, organizational structure, governance, and sustainable revenue sources for our parks. Fairmount Park has gone from a staff of 637 people in 1970 to 217 employees in the year 2002. According to the Trust for Public Land, the City of Minneapolis spends $164 per resident for its parks. Chicago spends $131. And Philadelphia spends $50. Fairmount Park spends only $13 of that $50. Designed acres are those park lands that are intensively managed, in contrast to natural lands that are minimally maintained. 6 acres in Los Angeles, and acres in New York City. 4 These comparisons do not reflect 5 well on Philadelphia's commitment to invest in 6 park maintenance. 7 Citizens and non-profits have 8 stepped up to do our part in support of 9 Philadelphia's parks. They are more than 125 park friends groups in the neighborhoods of Philadelphia. Philadelphia Greens Park Revitalization Project is in the tenth year of its partnership with the Department of Recreation and the 50 park friends groups that have participated in this program. Friends of the Wissahickon has just hired a full-time Director. The Fairmount Park Conservancy is raising capital funds and has begun projects such as the restoration of the boxer's trail. In 2002, citizen volunteers worked $185,000 in Philadelphia's parks. And that is a conservative estimate. 54 per hour, established by the non-profit organization 00137 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole independent sector, that is $3,059,000 worth of sweat equity contributed by park constituents to recreation in Fairmount Parks.
This profound contribution made by citizens cannot by itself turn things around, nor should it. That will require the support and collaboration of City Government. We ask City Council to embrace the priorities and investments made by your constituents in their parks and communities. We ask you to step up and partner with us to build and protect our future, and to establish Philadelphia as a First Class City. The preservation of open space is not a non-essential cost or burden. Rather, it is a privilege, and an investment in economic vitality, safety, health, quality of life, and so much more. Thank you. ACTING
Thank you very much. Are there any questions from Members of Council? We had Fairmount Park in here for their testimony. There was extensive discussion 00138 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole about the issues that you have raised, so I think your testimony is supportive of what we already heard. Thank you.
No one here needs to be reminded that these are difficult days for America and the world. Still, we all have a duty to ourselves and one another to hold fast to those things that make us human and offer a modicum of civility to our daily lives, as we struggle to survive in an atmosphere of uncertainty and doubt. To many of us, the neighborhood park provides a clean and peaceful oasis in which to 00139 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole gather our thoughts or read the newspaper or enjoy lunch alone, with companions, or the laughter of children who bear their own unique burdens, fill the air. Philadelphia is blessed with an abundance of parks and open space. Phase I of the Strategic Plan for Philadelphia Parks has begun. With Philadelphia Green working with the Fairmount Park Commission parks, as well as the Department of Recreation parks, and the Friends of Philadelphia Parks organizing and educating the public to advocate on behalf of our parks, the blueprint for the success of all of our parks is being written. Phase II of the Strategic Plan is yet to be funded. A grant research writer for the Fairmount Park Commission is a necessary component of this year's budget, as is the request for increased wages for the Department of Recreation seasonal maintenance attendants. Carrol Park is a Department of Recreation park. And we are heavily dependent, like other Recreation Department parks, on the SMAs. 00140 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole When you walk into City Hall, you walk down immaculate corridors. Somebody is cleaning these corridors. You would not shop at a supermarket where you walked over decaying produce and with the smell of soul milk assaulting your nostrils, pick up a loaf of broad from a shelf where you could write your name in the dust. Somebody cleans the supermarket. You would not sit in your doctor's waiting room and tolerate overflowing trash cans, newspapers and magazines strewn over the chairs, with cigarette butts ground into the carpet. Somebody cleans your doctor's waiting room. In the neighborhood park, that somebody is the seasonal maintenance attendant, the SMA. We are asking that the SMA hourly rage be raised from $6 an hour to $8, that the hours worked each week be increased from to 35, that 20 the number of SMA positions be increased from 34 21 to 50. 22 These requests will cost, as Lauren 23 said, $230,000, which to us is not an unreasonable 24 sum. It is not as though we were asking funds for 25 custom made park benches, with individualized cup 00141 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole holders and down filled back pillows. Somehow doesn't it seem that the City can always find the funding for the creature comforts built into other high profile public projects? Keeping the park clean is dirty, hard work. The park volunteers and the SMAs work together to keep our parks clean. A clean park is perceived to be a safe park. And it is not a thankless task that we perform. The people who visit our parks are grateful for the clean environment in which to recreate. They appreciate the children's playground equipment. And in Carrol Park, they appreciate the exercise track and the exercise equipment. And they shake their heads as they reminisce about the bad old days when the park was the scourge of the neighborhood. It is impossible for senior citizens and working people with family obligations to keep these parks clean without an assigned SMA. In Carrol Park, over $300,000 in public and private funding has been spent on 00142 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole capital improvements. The story is the same in the other reclaimed parks around the City. Is it not reasonable to expect that park maintenance should be the number one priority now? Without the park volunteers, and the SMAs, these parks would be a burden to their former jungle status in six months' time. Doesn't it make sense to assure now that these parks will be cared for and attended to well into the future?
Not too long ago a park volunteer's entreaty to a very clever City Councilman was answered with this retort: Trees don't vote. No, very clever City Councilman, trees don't vote. The people who plant and water the trees, who pick up the trash, who mentor the troubled ten-year-olds, who book the musicians, who guide a handicapped person to a bench in the shade of a tree do vote. Thank you. ACTING
Thank you very much for your testimony. (Applause.) ACTING
Do you have something to say Mr. Broman? Could you 00143 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole summarize it, if the points are pretty much the same?
Yes, I can do that. Both of my colleagues have pretty much said all that need to be said. The only thing I would ask the City to do is to be very considerate of making investments in Fairmount Park. It's a huge asset that we are not taking advantage of in the way that we could. It also would be very advantageous to the neighborhoods that border the park because that's where some of your greatest attitudes and greatest investments will take place. Thank you. ACTING
Thank you very much. We appreciate your testimony. (Applause.) ACTING
Okay. Thank you. Next we have Michelle Yanoff, Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth. Good afternoon. You've seen the list, and you see the room.
We're going to be 00144 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole quick. ACTING
I hope so. I want to hear a good song. I'm Michelle Yanoff. I'm Executive Director of PCCY, the regions outside of government child advocacy organization. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. Before getting into our request for change, we do want to express support for the continuing investment in public schools in this budget, the expansion of youth development opportunities, the expansion of child welfare prevention, family support programs, and to a degree library programs. These investments will help children and families as the City grows and the City grows stronger. They are moving us away from crisis and really toward improving the daily lives of residents. I'm here to speak about several other issues, however. My colleagues will speak about the 00145 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole importance of the health and safety fund, and I will leave that to them, following your lead, Madam Chair. But I do want to turn to health issues. We want to express commendations here and concerns. The City made major strides last year because of your insistence, City Council, that we really begin to attack and decrease the problem of lead and lead poisoning in children's lives. That investment saved the lives of current and future children. Instead of causing 40 homes to be cleaned last year, because of the City's commitment, more than 400 homes were cleaned last year. The City's reinvigorated commitment to reduce the danger of lead also resulted in a very successful lead core program, where compliance is occurring at record rates. We are taking giant strides. But there is nothing -- Repeat. There is nothing in this budget that makes real what the pledge was last year, that the level of support would be sustained. We believe that the Health 00146 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole Commissioner is committed to finding the money, and with luck he will. But we don't believe that we should depend on luck to save the lives and minds of our kids to protect our children and to prepare our future work force. The budget should show the community, as well as potential funders, that the City's commitment is real and serious, and will not be achieved by being taken from other critical health needs. As the Health Commissioner testified last year, there are three facets to deal with an actual intervention to clean up the lead in our homes and in our children's lives. The first is the backlog, which while smaller, still has more than 900 homes in it. The second is keeping current, which requires the City to at least be able to continue the work it has been doing and to clean up the four to five hundred homes of children who are found each year to having just been poisoned. And the last is prevention from ever being harmed in the first place. 00147 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole Since we're an old City, there's a lot of work to be done. In the last year, the Health Department made significant strides in each of those areas. Nurses were sent into the homes of families whose houses were on the backlog. Families were taught how to minimize the lead exposure. And the department undertook cleaning and dehazarding of hundreds of homes. Additionally, the City was successful in achieving compliance, as we said, through the lead core process. Finally, the City undertook a prevention effort in which the homes of pregnant women who were part of a home visiting program, were tested for the presence of lead. The idea here was to determine whether some of these homes could be made safer by a superclean or other -- or something else, before the babies were harmed. Of the 127 homes that the nurses visited, almost 60 percent had high lead levels, and the City was able to treat, to make it safer for more than half of those already. 00148 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole Think of it. This City was able to protect babies from ever getting lead poisoned. And they would have been exposed to it. We have that proof. That was a major achievement. It should be copied.
It should be replicated today. There are about 10,000 babies born every year in the high lead areas in Philadelphia. This prevention program offers the hope of protecting thousands of them from permanent injury. We urge the City to find the money in its budget this year to continue the commitment to clean up the 500 homes to keep current, and to use grant monies to sustain and expand a broad effort to stop the damage before it starts. This City can and must continue the impact of its work on saving families from the devastating effects of lead poisoning. The budget should reflect the commitment. As we said in earlier reports, the savings in economic, as well as human terms, will be enormous. 5 million to this year's budget to continue the excellent work that has been begun. And we 00149 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole urge that the funding not come from other critical sources. As you know, with the State Budget looking the way it does, the health clinics, for example, are even more critical for many in our community than ever before. We also want to urge the City to increase its support of drug and alcohol treatment programs for teens. There are too few programs that are available for them in this City. We want to express our appreciation to this Council for its support thus far in causing to be opening a new program in West Philadelphia and South Philadelphia. Earlier this year Councilwoman Tasco held hearings on infant mortality. The hearings brought out the poor access to health care in many parts of our community. We urge Council not to increase -- We urge the Council to increase health outreach and access for women in sections of Philadelphia that are not currently served. As the Country, State and City struggle with many uncertainties caused by the 00150 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole downturn of the economy and threats of war, we can and must do what we can to protect the children and families in the community. We urge you to invest in them, in their health, their child care, their education, their families, and their community. It's the most certain and right thing you can do. My colleagues will now talk about the health and safety fund. Sharon.
Thanks. We'll be very brief. Thank you. My name is Sharon Ward. I'm the Director of Child Care Policy for Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth. We are the advocacy partner for the Child Care Matters Quality Initiative. With me today are Gail Washington, who is the Director of the Eastwick Helping Hands Learning Centers, and Paula Jackson who is a certified pediatric nurse practitioner and a child care health consultant. We're here today, actually, to say thank you to Council for all of your great advocacy on behalf of children and child care in the City. 00151 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole And we're here to ask you to support Mayor Street's proposed $5 million expansion of the Health and Safety Fund for children. In Philadelphia 60 percent of children under the age of six have a single parent or both parents in the work force. About 48,000 children will spend the majority of their time in one of the City's 550 child care centers or 830 family day care homes. Parents depend on safe, high quality child care in order to work. The time that children spend in child care can be enriching and educational, supporting and nurturing the learning that goes on at home. The first obligation of child care programs, though, is to keep children safe. The City of Philadelphia and the State inspect child care programs to ensure that standards are met and that minimal levels of safety are achieved. However, many child care programs really are unable to meet basic licensing standards and operating facilities that put young children at risk. Young children are prone to injury 00152 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole and often fall victim to communicable disease, and which you all know. Both of these are preventable. In 1999, the City of Philadelphia established the Child Care Health and Safety Fund. A little over three years it served about 335 families in center-based programs and close to 9,000 children; made them safer in their facilities. The demand is much greater than the need. This year we had $300,000 allocated for the find, which was a doubling of the fund last year. And we greatly improved it. Still, it's about a third of the requests were able to be funded this past year. There are three things that are happening that are going to increase demand on child care programs. One of them is new, uniform construction code regulations that are coming down from the state, that Philadelphia will have to adopt by the end of the year. They put very strict new standards on programs that serve infants and toddlers. And the costs are absolutely astronomical for child 00153 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole care programs. We did a study of child care sites two years ago. And about a third of them were not in compliance with fire safety regulations for infants and toddlers. What this means is that if there's a fire, even if you have a rolling crib for the babies, which is what most child care programs have, you can't get them either through the doors, you can't get them down the stairs, you get can't them out the door with the crib. So we really have to do something about that. The Mayor announced an expansion of the fund. And this will provide an ongoing support for child care health and safety and help us to meet some of these new demands. PCCY supports this needed capital expansion fund, but we'd like to ask Council to work with the Mayor on two very important issues in order to meet the needs of young children. The first is, we'd like to see the bulk of the funds used for grants rather than loans. As you'll hear from Gail, child care programs basically operate still on bake sales in order to raise money to improve their facilities. 00154 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole They don't have the money to pay back loans. The average size of a child care program is about 46 children. And they just don't have enough money to do that. They're not good loan credits and... or not good loan risks, and they operate on a shoe string.
Secondly, we would like to see at least 50 percent of the fund going to young children. I think wisely, this new health and safety fund is going to be invested in part in youth development facilities, to help them meet state licensing requirements so that those facilities can draw down subsidy dollars, and parents can send their children to high-quality, school-age programs and get subsidy to do so. But we'd like to see 50 percent of the funding go to the young children because these are the kids that can't get out of the burning buildings. When they are in unsafe facilities, they trip, they fall, they fall off playground equipment, they run out in front of cars. We really need to -- The best prevention for that is 00155 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole a safe facility. So let me turn it over to Gail Washington, who can talk a little bit -- was a recipient of a health and safety fund award last year, can talk a little bit about what it's like. ACTING
Miss Washington, we have a room full of people to testify. Would you please be brief?
And people are in the hall waiting to come in also.
And we hear you and we sympathize with you, and we want you to testify. But we have a room full of people awaiting also. Thank you.
I thank you for the opportunity to share just some thoughts, but I come to you on behalf of children and thousands of 00156 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole children and their parents who leave them in facilities that they would like or believe that are healthy and safe for their children. Health and safety issues are synonymous with love. When one thinks of a child receiving love, we clarify it with feeling safe and having good health. Well, centers and child care homes also love these children. And we would like for them to be safe and healthy. I ask that you do the right thing, and I already know you will, and support funding for health and safety grants for child care centers. It is because of your support our center has a playground with protective surfacing, and a fenced-in area. Thank you. We have proper storage that keeps our equipment and our children safe. We have floor mats, new furniture so we can stop taping up the old, just to name a few. We could have risked the lives of children while selling enough cookies at a bake sale to accomplish this, but you made it possible. Lip service is good but action is better. And I 00157 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole thank you and God bless. ACTING
Thank you very much. Would you put the mike close to your mouth, please, so that we can hear you.
Hello. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you this afternoon. My name is Paula Jackson. I'm a pediatric nurse practitioner and a child care health and safety consultant for Philadelphia Child Care Resources and the Pennsylvania Academy -- American Academy of Pediatrics. What I do is go out to child care centers throughout the City and make health and safety assessments. I provide technical assistance and training to child care providers, and try to link them with the appropriate resources. Some of the things that I see when I go out to child care centers or some of the observable hazards are equipment that is inappropriate for the children that are there, inappropriate and unsafe equipment. I see leaking ceilings, flaking 00158 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole paint, lack of appropriate fire and safety systems, inadequate heating systems. I still see space heaters in some child care centers. I see unsafe outdoor play equipment. And in some areas... they're not -- they do not have the funding to adjust their outdoor play area so that it can accommodate children. In some child care centers there is -- additionally, there is no security plan, no 11 special care plan for children who have special needs, such as asthmatic children, or children who have food allergies and other disabilities. These hazards are so severe and make these child care homes and centers so substandard that I would challenge -- it would be a challenge for you or anyone in this room to feel comfortable and safe leaving our child at these sites. I ask for your continued support and ask your support to increase the health and safety funding. As my colleague said earlier, the $300,000, we thank you for it. But it's only about a third of what we really need to make our child care centers safe and healthy. ACTING
00159 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole Thank you very much for your testimony.
Thank you. We're going to now call on the Honorable Pam Demby, Friends of the Free Library. Judge Demby. JUDGE DEMBY: Good afternoon. ACTING
Good afternoon, Your honor. JUDGE DEMBY: Thank you for the opportunity to be here. It's nice to see old friends. I am not going to read my testimony because I know that all of you know how to do that very well. What I am going to do, since you're all old friends who were raised in the same day I was, I'm going to say something that your mother said. Do you know how lucky you are? Remember when she said that, you were either expected to eat something really nasty or wear a piece of clothing that you would rather die than put on your body. 00160 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole I'm changing that. Do you know how lucky you are? What you have in every single neighborhood of this City is a branch of the Free Library that's identified as your institution. It's not a Federal thing. It's not a State institution. It's seen as a City institution. And those branches, thanks to the terrific support you've given, have been renovated, they are safe, they have computers, they have books in them. And that's where your voters, your constituents, our citizens, go, child and adult, toss learn to read, to learn how to find a job, to research anything in this wide world that they want to, to learn how to use computers and then to have access to those computers. Keep in mind that the Free Library is the largest provider of public access computers in the City. They have access to the fabulous collections that you know all about, everything from the automobile library, to the arts collection and the music collection. They have the opportunity that is 00161 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole very scare in urban living, to have a quiet peaceful place to read or to think. And finally, they have a place to send their children, to be safe, and to learn, and to have fun. Keep in mind again that the Free Library provides the largest single source of after-care for our after-school care for the children in this City. And that's seen as your doing, your project, your funding. You have done a terrific job, and I'm here to thank you for what you have done, and just to point out to you that right now at the Free Library they are living in absolute terror. The proposed State Budget cuts of $4.7 million are going to mean the following things: They're going to mean the equivalent of closing 7 branches. And we'll get that spread out somehow. But that's the equivalent of closing 7 of those 55 branches that are seen as your contribution to the community. It's going to mean $1.4 million lost in the budget for buying books. That's 77,000 books. And 15,000 of those are children's books. 00162 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole And it's going to mean a $1.35 million cut in services and contracts. And that's going to mean shutting down half of those public access computers. Again, this is your institution. It's so closely identified by your constituents with you. We know that you will do the right thing. I won't take up any more of your time because I know you have a long, long list of folks to hear from. But terrific to see you all. And thank you. ACTING
Thank you. Does the young lady next to you have any testimony? No? JUDGE DEMBY: No. Our testimony is written, and you have it in front of you, but thank you. ACTING
Okay. Thank you. Testimony is presented to the Council Members, and they do read it. And it is made a part of the record. So, it's on record. 00163 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole Thank you so much for taking time to come to testify. Thank you for your support of the Free Library. And we certainly are concerned about the Governor's Budget, and the impact it will have not only on the Free Library but every service that we receive from the State. And certainly, if it pursues, we'll have to be a how we meet the short gap. Thank you. JUDGE DEMBY: Thank you again. ACTING
Thank you very much. We have Miss Jane Borgerhoff, Center City Crime Victim Services and other Class 250 Victim Services agencies.
Good afternoon, Madam President. I'm Frank Servone, Director of the Support Center for Child Advocates in Philadelphia. With me is Miss Jennie Borgerhoff of Center City Crime Victim Services and Miss Phyllis Gibson, from West Southwest Victim Services. I will be testifying very briefly, 00164 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole if I can possibly get comfortable in this chair. And my colleagues will be available for your questions. And we will be brief. We're good. The City needs us. Don't touch our money. (Laughter.)
We come to you frugal and responsible. We spend the City's money and our donors money well. We are the neighborhood and 12 City-wide victim services agencies. We serve your constituents. We serve the people of Philadelphia. They come to us because they've been victimized, they need accompaniment, they need advocacy, they need lawyers for children, they need friends for the elderly, they've been shot, they've been robbed, they've been left alone. They come to us in droves. They come to us in record numbers. All of our case loads are either stable or higher than they were last year. All of our costs are up because everybody's costs are up. We ask you this year 00165 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole simply to maintain last year's level of funding, $640,600. We understand the pressures the City and State are under. Like we said, we share those concerns. We share those pressures. We thank you for your participation. Many of you work with our organizations as Board Members, as supporters, as friends of our legislation, as co-advocates in the Legislature in Harrisburg. We know that you are friends of victims. We know you are friends of our wonderful organizations. Our volunteers come forward with a similar diligence and commitment to the work. Each of us works with volunteers. In that way, we're a product of the City and its goodness. We're here today hat in hand, like all the rest today, like we always are. We ask you only to restore the funding that we've had in the past year. We will continue to work with the Department of Human Services, the Department of Health, the District Attorney's Office, and the Police Department, and each of your constituent services, to respond to the needs of this 00166 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole community. We are your victim service program. We are your program. We aim to do your good work. Thank you. ACTING
Maintain. Keep it there. Same number. Equanimity. You got it. ACTING
Okay. Any other comments? Thank you. Some of us have been your clients also, having been victims. Thank you.
We are well aware. You could be assured victimization touches... 00167 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole ACTING
Every class of people. Every neighborhood of this community, they all come to us. Child abuse is everywhere, elder abuse is everywhere. And we see it. We take your calls. We take the calls of this community. We want to continue to be able to do so. ACTING
And if I may, I'll hand in our full statement to the Sergeant of Arms and enter it in the record.
Yes. Would you give it to the gentleman right here. He'll give it to us.
Thank you for allowing me a chance to speak. My name is Jimmy Shrode, 00168 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole and I'm the President of Disabled in Action. And we represent people with disabilities in the Philadelphia area. The reason I'm here today is to talk about the Mayor's Budget, and how it addresses housing for people with disabilities. We're in a huge housing crisis right now. According to statistics that came out from the Census for 2000, the City of Philadelphia is the disabled capital of the United States. percent of the population of the 13 City of Philadelphia has people with disabilities 14 living in it. There are over 375,000 people with 15 disabilities in the Philadelphia area and 154,000 16 though of them have mobility impairments. 17 The problem is that we do not have 18 enough housing for people with physical 19 disabilities, who need accessible, integrated and 20 affordable housing. 21 Our people make less than $6,000 a 22 year and they often cannot afford the rents of 23 most fair market value properties that are out 24 there. 25 There's a long waiting list for 00169 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole P.H.A. housing. And P.H.A. housing has been facing a lot of budget cuts. Our population is also very concerned with the fact that there is a proposed seven-year cap on Section 8, which would destabilize people with disabilities and leave them utterly homeless, with nowhere to go except a nursing home or other such institution. We need to address the housing problem that people with disabilities have now. A lot of times we get lumped into the special needs category under OHCD's consolidated plan process. Forced to fight with and alongside senior citizens, people with A.I.D.S., homeless people, drug and alcohol, and other special needs populations. And while we're fighting for what little crumbs they are, people with disabilities have nowhere to live in the City of Philadelphia. So, we need to address this problem now, instead of wait until it grows worse. The biggest problem that we're really facing is the fact that a lot of the housing that's proposed under the NTI Budget is 00170 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole not going to be affordable for people with disabilities, and they will not be able to access this housing at all. So we're asking that the City please look realistically at this problem and please build accessible places for people with disabilities to live so that they can afford to live there as well. Thank you very much. ACTING
I suggest that you come back and present testimony. And we'd appreciate it very much if you would provide written testimony. And you should come back when we discuss NTI and certainly the Community Development Block Grant Budget, because that's where your issues would fall. And then we need to hear your comments again about the competition for funds.
Thank you. Chair recognizes Councilman Cohen. I'm sorry, Councilman Cohen. 00171 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole
Thank you, Madam Chair. If you wait for the City to find a solution, you're going to wait forever and apparently never find one. What we need is help from you. There are people in City Council, and I believe them to be a majority of the City Council, that would be prepared to do something if we knew what to do. If you and the attorneys that have represented you, and people in the community could work together and present, in accordance with the Chair's recommendation at the next hearing, present a specific plan. It doesn't have to be perfect. No plan is ever perfect. If it's perfect, it will only cause a lot of suspicion. So you don't worry about making it perfect. But give us a plan, a road map as to what the City can do within the City's powers. And then we'll be prepared to fight for a specific program. You're absolutely right, because the powers that be, which mean most of the people who got the tax cuts that Bush has ordained from 00172 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole Washington don't care at all about people with disabilities or the other poor folks that you're in competition with for the crumbs you talk about. You're absolutely right on every part of that story. Get us a program that's meaningful that doesn't put you in competition with everybody else or tell us how we can avoid that competitive thing, because the other people also need help. And we're going to fight for you. But help us find the answer. We don't know what the answer is. Most of the money for disabilities seems to come from the Federal Government. But I don't think it has to. I think we in the City have our own obligation to do that. And we ought to be providing some more money. I think it's an absolute disgrace that people with disabilities with the low income you talk about have to worry about where they're going to be sleeping and worry about the facilities they have. So we, Council, are ready if only 00173 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole you can help us find a specific program that works somewhere in some part of the country. You know, your people who are working in the field day-to-day I'm sure have some very specific ideas. We will be prepared to support them. You've put forth a great case. Thank you for coming here today.
Thank you very much, Councilman Cohen. I just wanted to say that we've been working with the Philadelphia Affordable Housing Coalition, of which Disabled in Action is a member of. And we have been talking with Councilman Mariano, and did meet with Blackwell today, to talk about what we can do in their Districts. And we're also suggesting that we also go looking to PHFA, which is the Pennsylvania Housing Financing Association, and to find out what money that they can give us, too.
Well, get together a program. But don't depend on any one or two Council Members. Come to the whole body. 00174 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole
Remember, Council is itself is kind of split. The Republicans in effect control City Council because the Democrats seem to be split seven to seven. So the three Republicans are important. You want to lobby everybody. You have Members, unless you want to go down to Naples, 11 Florida and lobby Councilman Longstreth. 12 But other than that, you have 16 13 people who are attending hearings. Lobby them 14 all. You've got a wonderful cause. Fight for it. 15 And don't worry about being polite in the way in 16 which you approach the issue. If I were you, I'd be awful mad at the way government has treated me. And you ought to let Council Members know you're awfully mad. And don't worry about being courteous or not courteous. You've got a story to tell. Tell it. Government has a responsibility to meet. Make Government meet that responsibility. And you folks can do it. 00175 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole If only you really participate, participate in the election. Vote. Register to vote. Have community meetings. Have meetings of the disabled. Come to campaign meetings. And if a candidate doesn't say what you think he ought to say, boo him. And if he or she says the right thing, applaud him. But make yourself felt. This Government belongs to you. The way this City operates, if you let the elected politicians run the City and the rich people run the City, they're going to think only about themselves. You've got to make all of us who are elected to office feel our responsibility and make us respond to that responsibility. (Applause.)
You have good advice from Councilman Cohen. And I support him in his comments. And I do think having a written plan for us is much better than... The advocacy is 00176 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole good, but having a plan that you can promote is even better. It's what you need.
Thank you. Next we have Eric Von Schmidterling, library resources. Not here. Leslie Benoliel, Philadelphia Development Partnership.
Good afternoon, Madam Chair and Honorable City Council Members. My name is Leslie Benoliel, and I'm the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Development Partnership. PDP. With me here today is Patricia Gippel, owner of Patty & Safula's African Cuisine. She's one of our clients. PDP's a non-profit organization that provides training, business counseling, technical assistance, peer support, and networking opportunities to small and micro businesses, and the self-employed in the Philadelphia region. I am pleased to be here once again. ACTING
Would you pull the mike up to your mouth? You 00177 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole speak softly and we have old ears.
I'm pleased to be here once again before City Council to advance a cause that has received increasing support from City Council as an important community economic development strategy, micro enterprise development. The hearings sponsored by Councilman Goode and the Economic Development Committee, City Council, last November shed light on the plight of small neighborhood businesses and their challenges in accessing capital from banks. We hope that as Council obtains more information on the specifics of small business lending from banks, that this information will provide more of a factual basis for policy and funding allocations by government. I am also here today to encourage your approval for the economic development strategy detailed in the City of Philadelphia's 00178 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole five-year plan. One of the five priorities outlined in this plan, under the direction of the Commerce Department, is to stimulate neighborhood economic activity, through the support of initiatives that attract and maintain small businesses and encourage entrepreneurship. This includes micro enterprises that are the focus of PDP's loans and services. Support for small businesses and entrepreneurs is especially critical at this time because of the pressures that can continue to besiege low income and other disenfranchised residents in our communities, especially during this prolonged uncertain economy. Unemployment and underemployment continue to plague many people. Generating income through self employment or running one's own business has not only become a desirable option for people, it is become a financial imperative, especially for folks that are the most vulnerable, such as folks laid off from their jobs, others having recently immigrated to this country, others suffering from long-term illnesses and 00179 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole disabilities, and others coming out of prisons. PDP's programs are designed specifically for micro enterprises and self-employed individuals. Our clients are very small businesses that are shunned by formal banking industry and are too small and inexperienced to qualify for loans and services offered by other City supported small business support programs. These low income entrepreneurs are either by choice or by necessity pursuing self generated income producing activities to sustain themselves and their families, often in addition to holding down a job and sometimes two. Generally these business owners cannot access mainstream financial services, due to poor credit histories, limited business experience, and lack of collateral. Aside from PDP, they have very few other options to access credit and support. And often they resort to the subprime lenders, or what we call the predatory lenders. Most of these folks work in isolation without the benefit of professional 00180 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole technical assistance and the business to business networks, struggling to make ends meet for their families. And for many, self-employment is their only and often best means to use their skills and enhance their family's quality of life, enabling them to supplement their household income in times of need or to generate a livelihood that is consistent with their faith, family lifestyle, and other personal constraints. All right. As I alluded to earlier, joining me today is Patricia Giple. Miss Giple in many ways is very typical of the type of entrepreneur with whom PDP works. Miss Giple an immigrant from Africa. She's a single parent of two children. And she's currently unemployed. She came to PDP two years ago for help to start up a catering business. At the time she was working full-time at a major hotel chain and was devoting at least 30 hours per week in her new business. Now unemployed, she relies heavily on her business to support herself and her family.
Miss Giple currently participates in PDP's pure lending program through which she received two 00181 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole small seed grants of $500 and $200, and she used those monies to purchase some cooking equipment and supplies. She's also received some marketing assistance from one of our business specialists who helped her develop a marketing brochure, which I bring to you today, to help her attract new customers. It hasn't been easy for Miss Giple. She continues to struggle. But without her business, her situation would have been much worse. The Commerce Department has been extremely supportive of our programs, and for that we are very appreciative. With support from Commerce, PDP's capital fund and operations, hundreds of entrepreneurs, many who have similar situations to Miss Giple's here, have benefited from the loans and business services provided by PDP. The Commerce Department also realizes that PDP's loans and services are an addition and complimentary to those of the Philadelphia Commercial Development Corporation, 00182 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole the Women's Business Development Center, and the other neighborhood small business development organizations. By supporting PDP, the Commerce Department offers services to a full range of business in the City, from the startup, low income home-based entrepreneur, to the neighborhood grocer, to the multinational corporation. Bar none, PDP operates the largest, most comprehensive business development program serving micro enterprises in the region. We've disbursed over 90 loans, provided training and business services to more than 500 Philadelphia based entrepreneurs in the past four years. We serve businesses at the earliest, most critical stages of their development, and nurture them with our hands-on intensive support, to the point where they then can access other financing and business support programs. Our integrated array of services wraps around the needs of our clients to take them from idea to start-up, from start-up to growth. Studies have shown, and our own experience has validated, that entrepreneurs that 00183 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole receive business assistance enjoy higher rates of business survival. In short, micro enterprise development works. Now, there are thousands of self-employed people in micro enterprises operating in the City today, and this number continues to grow. Micro enterprises exist in all of your Council Districts, providing much needed goods and services to your neighborhoods. We see them every day. They take care of our children. They clean our homes. They cater our special events, paint our houses, repair our cars. They are the life blood of our neighborhood economies and especially in our low income communities. They provide needed goods and services. They circulate dollars in the community. They employ local residents and family members, and many are actively involved in their communities. They have the drive and determination to make their businesses successful, and in doing so, they increase household income, build assets, and improve the quality of life for 00184 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole themselves, their families, and their communities. The City must continue to support them. PDP applauds this Administration for recognizing in its plan that small neighborhood businesses play an equally important role in our City's economy. It is a well-known fact that small businesses generate more jobs than large corporations. Furthermore, they provide economic opportunities for our most vulnerable and hard to employ citizens, those with language barriers, disabilities, lack of skills, poor education, and prison records. The plan rightfully points out that attracting and maintaining small businesses requires investment from both the private and public sectors.
It requires investment in the physical infrastructure, as well as investment in the businesses and the business owners themselves, in the form of business education, technical assistance and loans. And that's where PDP fits in. I urge you, Honorable Council Members, to approve 00185 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole this plan, a plan that recognizes and provides critical support to this increasingly vital segment of our City's economy, our neighborhood entrepreneurs. Thank you very much for your time, your attention, and your support.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Goode.
Thank you, Madam President. Good afternoon, Miss Benoliel.
Thank you for your testimony and for the great work that your organization is doing, in terms of micro enterprise development. You should know the Commerce Department did testify last week, and I asked Mr. Carato about his commitment to micro enterprise development, specifically to your organization. He absolutely reaffirmed that commitment, the current funding level. I asked him if he was aware of any additional requests, 00186 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole which he said he was not. So I would ask that you forward any additional funding requests to him and copy City Council on that. I also raised with him the issue that particularly within a sluggish economy he should view micro enterprise development and self-employment and possibly consider the use of Work Force Development Funds. And I further iterated to him that because of the Mayor's commitment recently to economic development for ex-offenders and his proposed use of Work Force Development Funds for economic development for ex-offenders, that he absolutely consider PDP as a prime recipient of those funds to help toward eliminating prison recidivism. So, I thank you for your testimony.
The commitment has been reaffirmed. If there's additional funds necessary, please detail those funding needs and please consider working on Work Force Development Funds as an alternative as well.
I will indeed. Thank 00187 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole you very much, Councilman.
Thank you. Any other questions or comments from Members of the Committee? Thank you all very much. Thank you. I believe we have someone here to testify on the Mental Health Aging Advocacy and also Haddington Multi Services for Older Adults. (Applause.)
My name is Geneva Arlene Black. I am the Executive Director of Haddington Multi Services for Older Adults, Incorporated. I would like to take this opportunity to thank those few of you City Council people who are here to hear our testimony.
Many of the Council Members are in their office, and they could hear the testimony. Thank you. 00188 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole
Okay. Thank you. My quest here today is to appeal to you to please include funds in the City Budget for the mental health and aging, especially in the West Philadelphia area. For the last few years we have been collaborating with several agencies who provide service to the elderly, inclusive of Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania, in an effort to resolve the funding situation in the City, to no avail. The target population are those who are 60 years and older, those who are at risk of mental health or have existing mental health problems. With services that are presently being provided to address physical health, such as senior services, congregate meals, et cetera. There is a clear picture that the percentage of senior citizens are living longer. There is an urgent need to access service for mental illness, and I repeat in the West Philadelphia area. This is a case scenario: Mr. D. was a 69-year-old man, West Philadelphia home-bound senior, a veteran of foreign wars, who 00189 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole lived alone and had no family. Mr. D. was a dual diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, delusional, and addicted to alcohol. Mr. D. hallucinated and believed the social worker was an F.B.I. agent. He put cigarettes out on his wooden table and floors, also kept piles of dead roaches in the refrigerator, surviving in an extremely filthy environment. Before cuts in service to West Philadelphia, Mr. D. was treated by Intercommunity Action, Incorporated. Improvement was noted with counseling and medication. When funding for mental health service for home-bound seniors were redistributed to improve service delivery in other areas of the City, the decline was devastating. Mr. D. was found deceased in his home, again, a statistic. But who cares? He had no family, no friends, no medication, and no 22 counseling. But we cared. This is only one death that I have alluded to today. But there are other such cases that have occurred since cuts in service. 00190 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole I would hate to think that because there is not enough funds in the City Budget to address the need of mental health and aging in West Philadelphia, that such incidents can reoccur over and over again. Please in your decision let your conscience be your guide. Thank you. (Applause.)
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. My, it's been quite some time since I sat here. And I'm happy to see old friends, and I'm pleased to make some new ones. You know what? I heard Councilperson Marian Tasco tell one of the speakers that they were preaching to the converted. I wish I was. I wish I had the ability to raise the passion of City Council as successfully as the old folks did. Seemingly they had you all mesmerized. I wish I had that ability. But I haven't. I only have what I have. I'm an old person. I'm 73. I'm a person who's had a mental 00191 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole illness since she was 10. And I survived. But I'm getting older, and I'm getting tired. And I don't know who here will carry my banner when the good Lord calls me. I don't hear anybody crying out for us. I don't. I don't hear anybody crying out for seniors, whether they are mentally ill or chronically sane. I don't hear it. You all have forgotten us. You have forgotten us. Don't you know you have a day coming? And I wouldn't wish mental illness on anybody. In Philadelphia alone, there are 39,000 people with mental illness, old people; and we're not being treated fairly. As the sister just stated, the troubles that they're having in West Philadelphia, it's really all over the City. West Philadelphia is hit pretty hard. We are not getting our just due. I have worked for about 60 years. I've had babies. I've had divorces. I've worked through mental illness. I've worked through alcoholism, on and on and on, ad pucous. And I'm still here. I'm a survivor. But as I said 00192 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole previously, I'm getting tired. Now, when I grow up, I want to be like Mr. Cohen over there. His steps are not as strong as they were, but his voice is. And he speaks out. And I really appreciate your comments. Even though they weren't for old folk, I appreciate them. You also spoke about -- told a young man from the disability community to have a plan. Well, we have a plan. Oh, by the way my name is Mikmah Gardiner. We have a plan, the Mental Health Association, Southeastern Pennsylvania. We have a plan to help alleviate some of these miseries that old folks are suffering who need mental health care. We have a plan. Tom Volkert will tell you about the plan. For those of you who stayed, I thank you very kindly. I know that other people can hear us, but you need to see us. And I appreciate, once again, those of you who stayed to hear us out. Thank you. (Applause.) 00193 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole
Is the Health Commissioner either in this room or in the anteroom, or do we have someone that can address this issue? I know that reading the newspaper, and it would indicate that there are going to be cuts in the State Budget. But I don't know that City Council, when you said that we don't do anything for the elderly, I don't know that to be 100 percent true. Is the Health Commissioner here? Do we have someone here that would be able to address this issue? Okay. Mr. Dubow.
I can address it. I'm from the Mental Health Association. My name's Tom Volkert. Specifically what we're talking about is mental health services for older adults, particularly for home-bound people. Currently we have a few small 00194 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole programs, but they serve essentially only half the City. If the folks here were home-bound, only half of you would be receiving services because these isolated small programs only reach certain parts. West Philadelphia does not have outreach services to older adults. Southwest Philadelphia, South Philadelphia has some at senior centers, but not in people's homes. So, it's specific programs. We're entering a new age when Philadelphia's again number one. It's number one in terms of the top 40 cities in the country. It has the highest percentage of older adults. One in every six citizens in Philadelphia is an older adult. And yet, these services only serve half of the City. So we have a plan. We actually have worked out a plan that was based on another plan submitted to the Federal Government, asking for $350,000. And what this would do would provide access to services for home-bound older adults with mental health needs. And at the same time it would integrate, which is a really important part, 00195 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole because we have different systems: The aging system, the mental health system, and the health system. And oftentimes these systems don't talk to each other. So, somebody enters the aging system and has a mental health problem, and there is no communication to the mental health system. And what we propose is that an integrated system would only cost $350,000, compared to some of these other programs. I think it's a deal. But it would serve all the people. It would also serve people currently for which there is no mental health services. The Asian community has no older adult services. The Latino community has very few services that serve older adults that speak Spanish. So we're proposing -- Now certainly, the mental health system -- the Philadelphia Corporation on Aging have to improve their cooperation and their funding. But this is our program.
Thank you. Mr. Dubow. Is Mr. Dubow in the room? I would like you to get this gentleman's telephone number, be in touch with him, along with the Health 00196 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole Commissioner, and see how we could be of assistance. And if you have something in writing for a plan, I would like you to share it with Mr. Dubow before you leave. I noticed you had a piece of paper. You said we have a plan, and apparently have it in writing. So if you would share that with Mr. Dubow, I would appreciate it. Thank you.
I would just like to add, ma'am, that Councilwoman Tasco and Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown were bringing up a resolution on Thursday to have a public hearing on the mental health needs of older adults. And we appreciate them taking that initiative and hope to speak further at that time.
Thank you. But do not leave until you see Mr. Dubow. He's right here. Thank you. To your right.
Thank you. 00197 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole
Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Please stay where you are. Councilwoman Brown.
Thank you, Madam President. I would simply echo what you've already stated, that we do want -- We've heard your appeal, through the good work of Corbett Banks and Geneva Black. We do want to do more. And the hearings provide us an opportunity to more broadly discuss the issue so that we can hopefully augment the plan you already have in place. But also, it gives us an opportunity to hear the plan. I mean, you point out the fact that a number of departments are not talking to each other. That in and of itself points to the need to have hearings to talk through how we can fix that particular one problem that you've raised. So we'll look forward to the hearings as an opportunity to raise it on the radar screen, and to your point raise the volume of it on the radar screen so that we can do better as a City with the elderly community. 00198 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole Thank you very much for your testimony. (Applause.)
And I would just like to echo the facts to Councilperson Tasco and Reynolds for supporting us in our efforts. As you know, the reason why I am so really involved in this situation is because we have an inhome service program with Haddington Multiservice, and we service all of the North and West Philadelphia. And our case load is always about 1,000 to 1500. So it's a very important issue to us. Thank you.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Cohen.
I just wanted to assure Geneva Black that she was a young person and not really an older adult. You can't go by chronological number of years. And we applaud you and those at the table for your continued efforts. There was a time when the United States seemed to be getting civilized, but that time ended about 20 or 30 years ago when they developed the idea that each of us must fend for 00199 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole ourselves, and when we stopped giving much care to people who are old or people who had mental health problems. What we need is a real resurgence of activity in the communities. Begin talking about what government's responsibilities are, and we can get back to the time when people had rights. Certainly the way senior citizens and mental health people are treated today, imagine people with all kinds of hallucinations getting no service, no care. It's sinful. Imagine over 40 million Americans without any kind of health care. How do we ever permit that to continue? Why aren't the people up in arms about that? And that's the mood we've got to get into. You have a right. Begin calling for your rights. Don't let anybody in government take away those rights from you. And so, we salute you for your continuing activities. But please expand those activities in the community. Get everybody talking about how government is failing its responsibilities, and ultimately we'll begin getting government to assume those 00200 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole responsibilities and begin representing the people in the community. That's what we need. And we're depending on you to help us achieve that. Thank you very much.
Thank you. The /Chair recognizes Councilwoman Tasco.
Thank you. I'd just like to say to my friend Miss Gardiner, we hear your passion in your voice, and we miss your advocacy here in City Council. And we respond to -- Councilman Cohen said we respond to the people who come forth with their plight and with their issues for us to do something about it. Doesn't mean that we don't care. But you pay attention to the person who's in your face with their issue. So we appreciate your coming back and staying in the venue and promoting and fighting for the rights of senior citizens and people in general with mental health problems. I'd just like to ask the Director, 00201 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole does your funding come through CBH? And we need to -- We may not discuss that here, but that would be the issue we would discuss during the hearings. But we need to know in this Budget what we need to do because the hearings will be after this Budget process, so we need to hear from you, in terms of what you need from us in this Budget.
Sure. CBH does provide funding in the sense of being reimbursing programs that exist. The problem is that there hasn't been a real outreach or aggressive effort to reach... Many of these senior citizens are home-bound and they may not hear about the programs. There needs to be a real plan of education, of efforts to reach out to older adults in their homes. The Office of Mental Health provides funding for these programs. Philadelphia Corporation for Aging provides funding, but it's all very minimal. And there are certain areas that funding needs to be blended and combined, in order to make it more 00202 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole effective and improve the outreach and care management. And those... We really need to elaborate much more. But our plan spells out what that would all look like.
Okay. Thank you very much. We do hope that when you come to us with your plan, that it is City-wide. While I have the greatest respect and utmost for my friend Geneva Black -- we've been around many, many years -- and concern for the people in West Philadelphia, we have people all over the City, including my District, with the same problems. So we have to look at this from a City-wide perspective.
Our concern is that the money would be taken from one area and giving it to West Philadelphia. And that can't happen.
Well, we have to talk about it. As you said, we have to talk about what the problems are, and then what we can do to make it equitable across the board because you don't want to pit one senior citizen group in 00203 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole the City against another.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Ortiz.
Geneva and Hikmah go back a long, long ways. One airplane that George Bush buys would probably take care of a lot of the stuff.
Or one aircraft carrier, or those things. But we have hearings on the 15 percent discount that PGW wants to eliminate, 16 which affects the older adults in this City. 17 And we have hearings on the 20th 18 down in South Philly, and I'd like to let you 19 know, just so that you can participate in that. 20
20th. Thursday. Yeah, Thursday. Okay. So we want you to participate in that.
Thank you. 00204 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole Any other questions from Members of the Committee? Thank you so very much.
Who are our next witnesses, Mr. McPherson? MR. McPHERSON: They will be Linda Evans, Barry George, John Braxton, and the people with the Faculty Federation of the Community Conference, CCP.
Good afternoon. Thank you for your patience. Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Thank you, Councilwoman. Good afternoon, Philadelphia City Council Members. My name is Linda Evans, and I'm a member of the Faculty Federation at Community College of Philadelphia. To thy own self be true. And I must be true to myself today in my opening remarks in first acknowledging God, who's the source of my inspiration. 00205 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole First I must also rest in his Word in which he says trust in the Lord with all thy heart, all thy mind, all thy soul and lean not unto your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy path. Today I'm asking Him to direct my comments, the selection of words, and the message that I have to bring forth here today. And I also ask Him to soften your hearts, Philadelphia City Council Members, so that you will hear our message here today. More than two weeks ago, I was demonstrating out at University of Penn because the graduate students out there are trying to unionize. I left the University of Penn, and I came down here to Philadelphia City Council, for the express purpose of informing all of you about our issue. And what is our issue? Pro rata pay for part-time faculty at Community College of Philadelphia, also known as equal pay for equal work for part-time faculty at Community College of Philadelphia. And I've also described it as equal compensation for part-time faculty at Community 00206 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole College of Philadelphia. I also want to thank Him. I want that to thank God for what he's already done and for what I know he will do. When I came down here two weeks ago, I visited all of your offices. And I hand-delivered a pack of information regarding our issue of the abuse and the exploitation of part-time faculty at Community College of Philadelphia. Not only did I hand-deliver information, but I also spoke with your legislative staff, and in some cases I spoke with you about our issue. And I want to acknowledge right away the kindness of Councilman Dave Cohen's aide, Tim Kearney, Tim right over there. Right from the very start he has been there guiding and listening every step of the way. Not only did I hand-deliver the information; I also was interviewed by Arlene Edmunds of the Philadelphia New Observer. I also was interviewed by Lynn Washington of the Philadelphia Tribune. I also appeared on Reggie 00207 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole Bryant's In Pursuit of Truth. Following Philadelphia City Council, I also appeared on the Pat Iding and Janet Rider's program Neighbor to Neighbor. I also was demonstrating down at Broad and Patterson. Fair treatment for part-time teachers as well as fair treatment for minority contractors. And as well as today, I'll also be having a small segment on Tam and Henry's program, again, to talk about the exploitation and the abuse of part-time faculty at Community College of Philadelphia. All of these activities were geared for what purpose? , when all of you were here when the administrative staff of Community College of Philadelphia sat before you. And before that date, hours 21 before that day, I also delivered questions, 22 questions to all of you. I provided you with the 23 information. I had the media coverage. I also 24 delivered the questions. And you came prepared last Tuesday. 00208 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole And before I talk about the questions, I want to thank all of you. I want to thank God for making you be here. Council Cohen, I want to salute you for being our champion last Tuesday. Also, you were aided by Councilwoman Tasco. You were also aided by Councilwoman Brown. You were also aided by Councilwoman Blackwell. You were also aided by Councilman Mariano and President Verna. Thank you. And you were aided in the questions. And what were the questions we were asking that you asked? How many part-timers are at Community College of Philadelphia? What's the difference between part-time faculty and full-time faculty at Community College of Philadelphia?
What are the reasons for hiring so many part-time faculty at Community College of Philadelphia? And what is the remedy for correcting this abusive system that has an adverse impact on the faculty and the students? Those are the questions that we were being asked last week. m. And what it is that we heard, we heard that Community College of Philadelphia is not a good example or role model to this City. We heard that the leadership at Community College of Philadelphia does not send the right message to -- the right message to the City. And we also heard that the leadership at Community College of Philadelphia does not expect part-time faculty to fully participate in the teaching experience. And we also were informed about the numbers. We know there are 800 out of 1200 part-timers at Community College of Philadelphia. That's two-thirds. Two out of every three faculty members at Community College of Philadelphia are part-timers. Students are more likely to have a part-time teacher than a full-time teacher at Community College of Philadelphia. Okay. That's what we remember what we heard last Tuesday, March 11, at 2:30. A. hearings were going on. And it didn't seem like Community College would come before you. A. hearings and bring Community College before you. Thank you. Thank you, God, for working through Councilman Cohen. And we left here that Tuesday, March the 11th a little pumped up but not too pumped up because we don't have the money in the bank. So I left here that Tuesday, and then I came back the following week and I started again visiting all of your offices, speaking with your legislative staff, and with some of you. And Councilwoman Blackwell informed me: Oh, Linda, everyone embraces the principle of equal pay for equal work, pro rata salaries for part-time faculty. But as a Councilman's aide advised me, who will support the remedy? The remedy. And what is the remedy? We are here to ask you to amend the Budget specifically earmarked for 00211 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole part-time faculty at Community College of Philadelphia. Yes, as a Councilman's aide said to me, who will support the remedy? And as I was speaking briefly with Councilman Cohen last week and Tim, Councilman Cohen says to me, who will support the amendment? As I visited Councilman Kenney's office his aide says to me, who will support the amendment? Right. And so I say to you, Councilwoman Verna, will you support an amendment?
This is a question and answer part. Just give the testimony, please. The hour is really running late.
And we want to give you the courtesy of listening to you and helping you if we can.
Thank you. I just wanted to pose questions to all of you. Earlier I heard Councilman Kenney 00212 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole say, I need nine votes. And as I've already said to you, Councilman Cohen said to me, who will support it? So that's why I'm going around asking. Who will support our amendment? So, in closing my comments, I want to thank God for what I know he's already done, because in preparing for this, we were talking yesterday about the key word of convincing and persuading you. And when I prayed about it, there are no words that I have that I can convince you of it. I've brought my colleagues here, part-time and full-time faculty, who will offer a personal testimony about what it means to be part-time faculty, about the adverse impact on the faculty, on the students. That's why they're here today. But I'm a woman of faith, if you haven't already gathered that. And I knew when I came here today I would have to acknowledge that. And I'm going to thank Him in advance, because I walk by faith, and I believe we are going to get an amendment. 00213 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole And thank you. Oh, and by the way, John Braxton and I -- John, will you please stand? That's the President of our local. John and I are going to be in Councilman Cohen's office tomorrow. And we're going to be ironing out the nuts and bolts, hopefully with Stan Shapiro, putting together the budget amendment. We have a plan. I'm walking in faith. We are going forward on this. Thank you.
Good afternoon. My name is Professor William Broderick, and I am now an adjunct professor at Community College, with the hopes of eventually becoming full-time. I could not possibly live on the salary that I'm getting at Community College. Last year when I did my income taxes there were seven different jobs. This semester I'm teaching at Horizon House, Philadelphia Community College, was working on the Essay Committee, and also Manor College. So, when I received my second degree, both of which were from the University of 00214 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole Pennsylvania, I would assume that I would have been full-time a lot faster. There doesn't seem to be any set dates. Some people might get full-time tenure track after five years, after eight, or after twenty. So, as long as I know that there is a specific goal, specific time spent in the trenches, then that is what I'm looking for. Will I ever get full-time? Is there any policy for full-time? Or is it more economically beneficial to keep hiring part-timers until they burn out? When my students say that I've inspired them and they want to be a teacher, the first thing I say is, do you have a family? Because if you have a family, you could not possibly be an adjunct professor at Community College of Philadelphia. And I have to leave now because I have another class to teach. Thank you for your time.
Thank you very much. Good afternoon. Please identify yourself for the record. 00215 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole
Good afternoon, Members of Council. My name is Barry George. I teach English part-time at Community College of Philadelphia. What I'd like to talk about for a few minutes is the topic of who it is that are teaching at Community College of Philadelphia part-time? In other words, what courses do these part-time instructors -- do we part-time instructors teach? Because there is a misconception going around that part-time instructors at a college are usually people who have full-time jobs on the outside and they teach a course, perhaps a semester, to bring their outside expertise into the classroom, the lawyer who teaches a course in criminal justice, the C.P.A. who teaches accounting. And perhaps there was a time when this was the -- the prototypical part-time instructor. And perhaps there are a few such part-time instructors at Community College of Philadelphia today. But the vast majority of us teach 00216 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole core curricula. And what I mean by that are the math courses, the English composition courses, the introductory social sciences, the introductory humanities courses. So we are, along with full-time faculty, teaching the core curriculum. And the reason that we are hired to do that is not because of outside expertise but because administrators over the years have found a way to save money, which is to create part-time jobs and pay people only limited benefits and, I would argue, in the aggregate short-change our students and cheat the people who are teaching there. I would like to offer myself and my own experience in the English Department as one example. In the English Department at Community College of Philadelphia, we have 175 part-time instructors, 175. It's a big department. There are also 116 full-timers. But that's a tremendous number of people. And again, they are not people who are bringing extra expertise. They are people who are teaching our students, our 17-year-olds up into our 60-plus, year-olds, our first generation 00217 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole college students, our developmental college students, our ESL college students, who need extra work before they can take the college curriculum, people returning to college. Perhaps they've had families, perhaps they've been working and they want to upgrade their skills. We are usually the first people that -- Our courses are the first contact they have with the system. If they don't have a positive experience with us, many of them do not continue. Many of them do not get off on the right foot. So, my point is simply this: I love teaching at Community College of Philadelphia. I find it very challenging to teach the students that we have, for the reasons that I've given. I think we do an excellent job over there overall. I thank the Council for the generous appropriation it has already made. But the practice of grossly underpaying part-time instructors, undermines that system and increasingly, I believe, creates a system where we're not giving our students, our citizens, our future work force the quality of education that 00218 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole they could receive. And we are also not fairly treating the people that we entrust to teach them. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Sir, would you identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Thank you, Members of Council. My name is Richard Keiser. I am a full-time tenured faculty member at the Community College of Philadelphia. But I am here today because earlier in my life I spent 13 years as a part-time person. After that 13 years I was an academic gypsy, teaching at three different colleges, universities, in order to make a living. I want to make three brief points here today. First of all, it is sometimes said that part-time faculty are not as well qualified as full-time. I've heard this during that 13-year period. My own credentials are that I attended public schools in Philadelphia, going to Central High School; received my bachelors degree from the University of Pennsylvania. 00219 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole I have a masters degree from Arcadia University. And I won a fellowship to study at Oxford, where I received my doctorate. Second point I want to make is that as a part-timer at the Community College of Philadelphia, when I began I was paid less than a third of what full-time faculty were paid per course, even excluding the fringe benefit issue. It was a very exciting place to teach from the very beginning. It was a very rewarding place to teach. But I served on the same committees as full-time faculty members, taught the same courses, developed the same curricula, and yet was paid less than one third with no benefits. And here I want to acknowledge Councilman Cohen, whose wife Florence was teaching part-time there at the very same time in our Behavioral Sciences Department. And so, he knows first-hand what the dimension of part-time/full-time is. A third point I want to make is that during that same 13-year period, I taught part-time at West Chester University, part of our 00220 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole state system of higher education, of course. At West Chester, I received pro rata pay with the full timers. As an assistant professor, I taught two courses a term. The full-time assistant professors taught eight courses a year. For each course I taught, I received one-eighth of what a full-time assistant professor made. And the fringe benefits there were and still are pro rata. The system of pro rata pay and benefits can work. And we look forward to seeing that at the Community College of Philadelphia.
Good afternoon. My name is Mark Kimmelman. I'm a part-time instructor at Community College of Philadelphia. And I wanted to indicate to you ladies and gentlemen I have been at Community College of Philadelphia and other institutions of higher learning for the last 14 years. I myself do not particularly expect to be made full-time. I have tried. But the system is a peculiar one. I don't expect City Council to fully identify or understand what it 00221 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole must be like to teach, although I understand some of you do do this, to teach at Community College of Philadelphia. What I would like to emphasize to you today -- and I do believe you understand this and know this. But I think you need to hear it, perhaps, from some of us who do the work, that Community College of Philadelphia is by far the largest higher education entry point for minority and working class students in Pennsylvania. It is essential to the lifeblood, the economic lifeblood of the City. I don't see it mentioned often enough, as far as I'm concerned, in the newspapers. I don't see the amazing things that we do mentioned often enough. And my perception is that an awful lot of people simply don't know that we're there. The fact is is that, yes, 60 percent, give or take, of the faculty is part-time, and we would very much like to be rewarded accordingly to the work that we do. But it is also important for you to understand and for all of us to understand that 00222 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole the work that we do is very, very important to the City. We teach math. We teach English. If we don't do our jobs well, the students that we teach will not succeed -- because it is their first entry point -- will not succeed in the careers that many of them have staked out for themselves. And I have taught people over the last years who have come directly from prison. 12 I have taught students who are and years 13 old, coming right from Philadelphia public 14 schools, as well as students who are 60 years old 15 and want to do it again and want to find out what 16 it's like. It's wonderful to do that. It's a 17 very rewarding thing to do, and I believe very 18 important for our City. So from my point of view, I would like to ask you to consider, number one, how important CCP is. It's unique. It's huge. It's a major institution of higher learning. And it is a point at which many, many, many of our students from our public schools enter into the field of higher education. 00223 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole Part-time faculty help that happen. They help that happen, in fact, to a great degree, much greater than would be indicated by our salaries. So, very briefly, what could you do for us? You could help us, if you care to, to indicate to the administration of the College and to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that it is important that part-time faculty be rewarded according to the work that they do, which is exactly the same work that full-time faculty do. And if this Council chooses to do that, perhaps the legislature in Harrisburg will listen to us as well. I thank you.
There are approximately -- In any given semester, there are approximately seven to eight hundred part-time faculty and approximately four hundred full-time faculty. So it's about two-thirds part-time. 00224 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole
And when you say "part-time," is that two days a week? Is it three days a week? Can you give us some indication as to what is considered part-time?
Part-time faculty are actually defined by our union as faculty members who teach less than nine credit hours per semester. A typical college course, with a few exceptions in a few departments, is three credits. So, part-time faculty, whether it's four days a week or three days a week or two days a week, depending -- or evening or weekends, can only teach, if you're an English teacher, for example, like myself, two courses because we're limited to less than nine. So you're asking a question that's very difficult to answer simply, because part-time faculty are all over the place. We are numerous. And the College is huge, with all of its regional centers and all of its neighborhood sites. We do the work. And many of use teach in odd hours because we have other things that we must do to 00225 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole make a living. So, we might teach Saturday morning. We might teach Friday evening, when full-time faculty don't have to do that. We are willing to do it. Many of us are happy to do it because we like doing what we do.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Clarke.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon. Actually, the Council President just asked part of my question. The other part, the full-time faculty members, I'm assuming, are represented by a union.
During the collective bargaining agreement discussions with the University, does that come up? Because I know 00226 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole in a lot of unions, the whole issue about the work force to some degree is dealt with in collective bargaining discussions. And I'm wondering, is that part of those discussions?
Perhaps I could respond to that. My name is John Braxton. I'm the Co-President of the Faculty Federation. And what we have there are three separate bargaining units, so there are three separate contracts, all represented by the same union. So we have the full-time faculty, the part-time faculty, and what we call the classified employees, which is essentially everybody else from janitors to computer programmers. And so, there's lots of discussion about, you know, essentially how to divvy up the budget among the employees. And this last round, all three bargaining units were united in trying to move the part-time faculty closer to what we call parity pay or pro rata pay. 00227 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole So we've made some strides in that over the years. But one of the major problems is there simply isn't enough money to be able to really close that gap. One of the things that we did in the current contract when we were negotiating it is we negotiated a clause which says that if there is money that's allocated, for example, by the City or by the State that is specifically earmarked for part-time salary raises, then there's a reopener in the contract, an agreement to reopen the contract, around part-time wages, part-time salaries, so that should Council decide to appropriate more money, then we would be able to go back to the college and say: Okay, let's negotiate about how that's divided among the various part-time faculty.
Well, my understanding is that there's a projected increase in this year's budget for Community College.
Does that then trigger a renegotiation of the existing contract?
No. We appreciate 00228 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole that proposed increase very much, but that money is not earmarked for part-time salaries, and therefore it would not trigger the reopener. It would take a rider.
Who determines where that increase in budget goes, the College or...
I'm assuming we give the money -- I'm assuming we don't line item the expenditures. I mean, I'm assuming --
-- that we just increase the budget. The College then determines how that budget is distributed. Is that...
Yes, I think that's correct. And what I think it would take -- My understanding is limited about Council procedures, but I understand it's possible for Council to pass a rider that would specify that it hopes or -- I'm not sure mandates is maybe too strong a term -- but that it recommends that certain additional monies could be used specifically for in this case part-time salaries. So I think if Council did 00229 03/18/03 - Committee of the Whole that, that in fact would trigger the reopener.
So you're asking us now to designate the increase in funds to a specific category of employee?