The Philadelphia Urban League has -- since 1907, we've been in the business of moving people to self-sufficiency, towards self-reliance; that means helping people to find jobs, helping them take advantage of training opportunities, helping to deal with their housing needs. This issue becomes real, real important to us as an organization and the constituents that we represent because it represents economic opportunity: hopefully, opportunities to work, opportunities to do business. When this issue first arose, we supported it conditionally at the State level for those same reasons, and our conditions were simply that this was going to be something so big and so significant, it held potential for opportunities, and there had to be built-in inclusion. Whether you call that you affirmative action or whether you call that making sure that there's a diversity in the participation and that diversity shares in the benefits, that those were the conditions that had to be a part of this. And I think that's been 141 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS a part of the some of the testimony that you've heard today that this is large, and what we're really talking about is how to do this and how to do it well so that it involves inclusion and we create a win-win situation. We have gone through this before in the early '80s when the Convention Center was the issue. At that time, it was probably Philadelphia's largest public-private venture. And the same debate took place. Opposition was pretty much the same, that we had to come up with a way to, one, make sure there was inclusion, make sure that people had access to the jobs, to the business opportunities, and also had a chance to participate in the policy-making end of this. We did it right, I think. If you look at the record of the Convention Center Authority, if you take a look at the participation and the jobs, if you take a look at the record of the participation in the minority participation in the contracts, you'll find that the Convention Center is an example that everybody points to with some pride. That's an example of where we did it right. 142 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS There are also some enlightened companies in this city who have made significant commitments to diversity. You might want to take a look at those companies to see how they have gone about structuring their commitments to diversity and making sure that we create a win-win situation and an opportunity for everyone to participate. And so we simply want to say that, again, that what you hear is that we support it conditional on working out the details, on how to guarantee participation, how to guarantee diversity in the participation. I might -- I might refer you to at least one company, Independence Blue Cross, one that I've work we had over a long period of time, who I believe has an excellent diversity program, and one of the key ingredients is the commitment at the top and the ability to monitor what goes on. It's not good enough just to have a commitment of a certain percent; you have to be able to monitor what happens, and are those numbers being hit. So there's a company that makes a commitment. It monitors, it sets targets, 143 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS it monitors its progress, and it has a very successful program. So we're giving those two examples to you to take a look at as you wrestle with not only where the money comes from, but how do we make sure that this is a win-win situation for diverse communities throughout the City. I thank you.
Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilman Goode.
Thank you, Madam President. Mr. Sorel, you reference in this testimony (unintelligible) power of leveling the playing field, which I was one of 15 authors.
I'm sorry. Mr. Sorel, you reference in your testimony "The State of Black Philadelphia Report of Economic Power: Leveling the Playing Field," of which I was one of 15 authors, which really talked about affirmative action and minority 144 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS set-aside. And my piece specifically talked about that, but I'm curious as to why in your written testimony you only cite fiscal year (inaudible).
I'm curious as to why in your testimony, you only cite fiscal 1985 numbers.
The -- the -- our focus was not so much on the numbers in this and I have the report, which I -- first let me say thank you for it, for your participation in the report and in making sure that we had the numbers. I didn't want to focus so much on the numbers 'cause I don't really think this is a debate about the numbers so much; it's a commitment to how we do this, a commitment to diversity, a commitment to inclusion. Yes, we need to have some numbers. We have some examples of where the numbers are good. In the Convention Center, there's some private-sector numbers that are good. It's a commitment that you really need in --
But you do 145 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS acknowledge that.
In the Goode Administration, there was over a half a billion dollars of contracts in minority and women-owned business.
And it is not told in your testimony, and I just wanted to complete it .
But, you know, I'm always willing to bring -- to supply numbers if you so desire.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Sorel, in the area of open union membership to all groups, would you tell us what 146 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS your conclusions are as to what's happened, say, since the beginning of the Philadelphia Plan that was tried back in 1971 that Councilman Longstreth testified against and I testified in support of at that time. We're both still here.
You both embody much of the history -- not all of the history, but much of the history of the City of Philadelphia. We made some -- it's a good news/bad news story. We've made some progress in those areas, just as we've had made progress with diversity in the City. We made some progress, but we need to make more progress. At a time when we're pushing people to be more self-reliant, it's work, welfare, or crime, and there's going to be little welfare, and we've got to have these options available to move people into so that they can become more self-reliant. Therefore, while we we've made some progress, there's a whole lot of progress we need to make in order to be able to offer to everyone an opportunity to fulfill the American dream. So progress, yes, we need a whole lot more. 147 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS
Is Terry Simon here from the Americans for Democratic Action? (No response.) 148 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS
Do we have anyone else in the audience that would like to testify? Please approach the witness table, sir. (Witness comes forward.)
I was on the list for today. My name is Chris Randolph, and I am a member of the Philadelphia Greens; that is to say the Green Party, although I'm not speaking in the capacity today as an official spokesman for the group. As I said I am a lifelong Philadelphian and I actually grew up two blocks from Councilman Krajewski on Shellmire Avenue. Yes, you may be interested to know. I'd originally written about -- I'd like to thank City Council for allowing this additional comment period, but seeing as many of the Councilmembers are not here and many of the ones who are here have not been paying very full attention and --
Excuse me, 149 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS sir.
All Councilmembers are present. And if they're not in the room, they can certainly hear what you're saying because they may be in their offices.
Okay, all right. Well, that's comforting. In short, I urge Councilmembers to vote against this proposal for funding the construction of professional stadiums in the City with public funds. My position is based upon the anti-democratic nature of the decision-making process, the misappropriation of public funds for private profit, the questionable constitutionality of any Commonwealth of Pennsylvania funding for the project, the need of the City to spend its limited resources for the public's best interests, the poor economic returns the area could expect to receive from stadiums in general, and the ridiculous contention that Veterans Stadium indeed needs to be demolished. Let me quickly address that last point first. Just a few months ago, I was in at the 150 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS Roman Coliseum in Tunesia, in North Africa, and that facility is roughly 1800 years old. It is constructed of unreinforced, untreated (unintelligible) stone and at one time seated 30,000 spectators. It is still in use today as a venue for outdoor orchestral and traditional concerts. Veterans Stadium was completed in 1970. It was designed by modern architects and built using steel-reinforced concrete and chemical weatherizing treatments. I assume that because over 60,000 people will be packing into it tomorrow for an Eagles home game, we can assume the stadium to be structurally sound, and that the Eagles organization, nor the City does not expect any immediate collapse. It's my understanding that in the referendum question we had just this past November, that the -- that we were in fact approving funds for millions of dollars worth of improvement in part to be made to Veterans Stadium before the next football season, including an admittedly needed replacement to the turf. It is nothing less than insane to make such improvements 151 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS to a facility you plan to demolish quickly thereafter. I believe the Vet could easily continue to operate for many decades to come as a fine municipal venue if proper maintenance funds were appropriated from time to time. Team owners are squeezing municipalities across the country for new stadiums to obtain high-cost sky boxes, club seating, and other fancy stadium appendages the Vet cannot be reconstructed to accommodate any more than it has been. This seating yields absurdly high profit for the teams, but local taxpayers foot the bill for building and maintaining it. These same taxpayers can ill afford to attend games in these seats, a classic case of taxation without access to a public venue, which, if on racial instead of purely economic grounds, would be clearly unconstitutional. It's no secret that Philadelphia's wealthier citizens who can best afford seats at sporting events have fled to the suburbs over the past 50 years. These stadium attendees will pay none of the Philadelphia share of stadium 152 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS construction costs; and in the case of South Jersey residents, won't even pay the Commonwealth's share. I'm angered that as a Philadelphian, I may have to pay to construct stadium seating for people who fled this city and helped destroy our tax base, seating which I can't afford to occupy. The citizens of Philadelphia and of the Commonwealth have had no direct input in the stadium funding issue. Businessmen from the teams have been negotiating with government officials on the issue for years and have concocted a plan presented to those of us who will be paying for it is a done deal. We have had not had the opportunity and we cannot have the opportunity for a referendum on that issue. In 1997, 530,000 citizens of 11 western Pennsylvania counties soundly rejected a measure to fund Pittsburgh's stadiums through local taxation and money through the Commonwealth, although subsequent Machiavellian tactics by Pittsburgh team owners have managed to get them sweet deals at taxpayer expense regardless.
I'll point out that in those 11 counties, not a single 153 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS county of those 11 voted in favor of funding Pittsburgh's stadiums; in addition to a majority in all 11 taken as a whole voting the measure down. That includes Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh itself is located. I have every confidence that if we had the opportunity to vote on the referendum soley to appropriate funds for stadiums in Philadelphia, we would also defeat the measure here. Philadelphians love our sports, but we don't like being mugged by the rich. I would like to see the City of Philadelphia and Philadelphia County, where Pennsylvania was founded and its first capital, do what Harrisburg refuses to do and honor the constitution of the Commonwealth. If I may quote from Article 8, Section 7 and 8 of that document, Commonwealth Credit Not to Be Pledged. " As the Philadelphia Eagles and 154 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS Philadelphia Phillies are both private corporations, this deal is clearly in violation of the spirit, if not somehow technically the letter of the law. This plan finances a private venture with public risk, a much different arrangement than the tenant-landlord sort of arrangement we have with the Vet. It is the height of obscenity to me that we would seriously consider giving a few hundred million dollars in economic assistance to professional sports teams rolling money, when just over a month ago, Mayor John Street told the Philadelphia public teachers union that there was simply no more money available from the City. This same mayor now not only has nearly $400 million to spend to tear down a municipal facility and build two privately-held ones, but we also have the issue of a shady mystery of 53 or $54 million for which no one else seems to be able to account. It is the height of stupidity that the City would even consider trading an $11 million annual income from stadium concessions and $300,000 in annual property taxes from the 155 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS proposed sites for $2 million per year from the teams for recreational facilities (unintelligible) for children. Any first-year economics student can explain why this is an even worse deal than it appears on the surface. That $2 million will be worth less through time as inflation rises, while the property tax assessment and concessions revenue could be assumed to rise along with inflation. I find it highly insulting that the teams would, not doubt, be credited in the local press each time recreational facilities are improved over the next 30 years as if somehow, we're all being done a favor. That's even assuming the teams decide to stick to the plan for the next three decades, which I rather doubt, as the City is doing nothing to make the team honor its current lease at the Vet, which runs through 2011. We need to recognize that cities such as Philadelphia don't reap much in the way of economic benefits from stadium financing. The executives, players, and staff, who are paid absurd salaries do not choose to live within the 156 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS City and, therefore, fail to strengthen our tax bases investment and other areas might. The building trades could find much more work for many more years building up just about any of the other parts of Philadelphia which are crumbling for that total of 3 or $400 million. And those of us who live here might fully reap the benefits of a supported infrastructure much more than we could from a football-only stadium which would get used by professional teams an absurd eight guaranteed days per year. I'll also point out that the Commonwealth Foundation, which is a nonprofit research foundation, published a study which states that Maryland taxpayers financed the creation of jobs to the tune of over $363,000 each, in paying for the baseball-only Camden Yards facility. 9 million annual rate and they make over $23 million in profit from that operation.
Philadelphia is the fourth largest TV market in the nation in both the NFL and major 157 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS league baseball and would continue not having a team here. We should be in the driver's seat on this one. If the City is still intent on wasting millions of dollars, I might suggest a better method of doing so would be to hand out $300 million in cash to incoming tourists at the airport over the next few decades. This would likely have a better impact on the local economy than the stadium proposal and is no less insane. Thank you for your time. I urge you to vote against this plan, and I do have copies of my testimony if anyone would like it.
Thank you very much, sir. Councilman Longstreth, your light is on. Do you want to be recognized?
Thank you. If you leave copies of your testimony on the table, I am certain that we will have them distributed to members of Council.
Thank you 158 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS very much for your patience.
And thank you so much for coming in to testify. Do we have anyone else to testify on the bills before us? Please approach the witness table and identify yourself for the record. (Witness comes forward.)
Council President and members of Council, friends of labor, and representatives of the Mayor, my name is David Gleason. I live in Northern Liberties, and I am a member of our local community development corporation. I just wanted to take a brief moment to just say a couple of words. I was -- I'm not naturally a sports fan myself and I was naturally skeptical of the stadium concept at first. I now recognize it as a very powerful tool for achieving some of the development goals that I think the City clearly has and clearly needs. I'm concerned that the plan before Council represents a bit of a triumph of suburban 159 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS interests over urban interests, and I have been -- become aware of an interesting plan that I think, much like the Mayor's original intent for the 12th and Vine site, I think there was definitely a genuine desire there to try to achieve something that was very much in keeping with or perhaps giving birth to a new urban vision for the City. We know that pressure from suburb development over the last 40 years has not necessarily been friendly to the City's goals, and we're still just recovering from them ourselves someone. I would have to describe myself as someone who's interested in good economic development. I think that some of the goals, generally speaking, of urban development could be achieved if, in fact, another site were considered for the baseball stadium. I am interestingly aware of a situation in my neighborhood, where there's a large vacant site that is almost completely demolished and ready for construction. Its referred to as the old Schmidts Brewery site. It's at 2nd and Girard. It's about three times closer to Center City than the current proposed site in South Philadelphia. It has the ability to 160 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS gain financing support from a more diverse group of participants than the South Philadelphia proposal. It would bring in players like the DRPA. I know Congressman Borsky is very supportive of it and has pledged that he would do everything he could do at the federal level to help finance that site. I'm confident that this body is industrious and will probably be able to close the gap that exists in the current plan for South Philadelphia, so that may not be the utmost concern in the larger context of such a large public works project. I think a great deal of industriousness will probably be brought to the table here in the closing hours. What I might like to do, though, is encourage City Council to perhaps strengthen its hands a bit and consider proposing an amendment that would make it possible to consider the site in our neighborhood, which has recently actually been willing to consider the possibility of putting a stadium there. We face a kind of an interesting flipside of urban challenge. Right now, we have a large developer who is planning a 161 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS large suburban-style shopping center, which really won't do too much for our urban fabric. Many people in the neighborhood have concluded that a good neighborhood ballpark-style development would help us much, much more. In any event, I know we're in the closing hours of this whole debate and it's been a bit of gritty process. It's tough bringing together so many different constituencies, I know, but I'd certainly like to encourage City Council to perhaps strengthen its hand with respect to some of the price negotiations for land acquisition in South Philadelphia, to consider proposing an amendment that would propose the Schmidts site as an alternative for the baseball stadium. I think it would be a good strategic move. I think it would be much more in the long-term interests of the City to have it a little bit closer to the center of town, have a deal that's a bit less beholden to the suburban fan base of the Phillies in particular. And I think the financing could be rather achievable as well. I know that I had a very pleasant meeting with Jonathon Saidel.
He 162 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS shared the general intent of what I'm saying. Councilman Kenney was very receptive and open to discussing this as well, and I want to thank everyone for considering it. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Gleason. We appreciate your waiting and testifying and expressing your views. Do we have anyone else to testify? (Witnesses come forward.)
Good afternoon. Please identify yourself for the record.
Yes. My name is Dan McShain and I am also a business owner in Northern Liberties and a member of the Liberty Yards Association. And I promise everyone here that this is the last you'll hear of me on the Schmidts Brewery, I promise. We started out the Liberty Yards Association with a great idea and we spent a hell of a lot of money and a lot of time and a lot of community activism to bring that idea to your attention. We did the best we could. The net 163 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS result of that was one official meeting with one Councilperson. In fact, that Councilperson's name is Jim Kenny. And while we didn't always agree with Jim Kenny on his representations and his concept behind this project, we greatly appreciate Jim Kenney's stepping out into the fray on this issue. I think that it's incumbent upon Council, now that this is sitting in your venue, to step out on this issue. You know, we have a railroad -- a car careening towards a wall here that's been set up by deadlines that are ill-advised with hammer clauses by the Eagles, pressure from the NFL, of which Leonard Tose earlier stated it wasn't as big a pressure as necessarily we all think, and by a parity clause in a lease that allows the Phillies to coattail themselves onto a very fine proposal from the Eagles and sneak their way into a ballpark that is nothing more than a $500 million parking lot ornament designed for suburbanites, because suburbanites are the only fans left willing to go to that place and watch that horrible team. That doesn't have to be the case. 164 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS On the evening that the meeting was made, just two weeks ago, to appease the neighbors of South Philadelphia, on that very evening, a neighborhood poll went around Northern Liberties, and Northern Liberties, that at one point voted to 0 against the stadium, voted better than 2 8 to 1 to please request that the Mayor come to the 9 Schmidts Brewery and to place the stadium there 10 and they join three other communities that already 11 in various ways endorsed concept of a stadium at 12 Schmidts Brewery. 13 I see a lot of union guys here. Now, 14 look I obviously am big-time -- I'm a baseball fan, I still play. I want to see these ballparks built. But I would ask you to ask your leadership which ballpark poses the real tens of millions of dollars in alternative spin-off development? I'm talking about the Delaware waterfront and I'm talking about the City-owned incinerator site. We have an incinerator site that's virtually across the street from our parking facility. If Ron Rubin and Comcast, by the way, who have more money than God, and who the hell cares where they build their corporate center. 165 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS They better build their corporate center, they owe it to us. They should build -- they should propose their corporate center to be on the incinerator site, right across from the new ballpark, which would develop three neighborhoods. Look, we -- And I'll conclude 'cause I don't want to bore everybody with my rhetoric. The Schmidts Brewery site is currently planned and has an $8 million tax incentive financing bill that is going to impose a double-decker K-Mart, a pharmacy, who knows, a Pep Boys, a thousand parking spaces on Second Street, historic Second Street. The first patent in the United States history was made on that site, on Schmidts Brewery, which is our town's beer -- we all know about Schmidts, it's a great beer, it's a historic place. It's -- this is not the type of neighborhood where Paul Levy identifies as the natural extension of growth of Center City. This is not the place to put the double-decker K-Mart, it's not in keeping with general development. We are trying to avoid that case as well. 166 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS Lastly, the amendment -- we have a hundred lawyers on the City's payroll running around here. It would be a very complex amendment.
And Raheem Islam told me the other day that he believes that there's only one person who has the staffing to accomplish such an amendment. We should allow the Phillies to build -- the Eagles to build their ballpark, we should pass this legislation. The Eagles should be allowed to move forward and build a ballpark. Their deal has never been in question -- not the citing, not the zoning, not the concept, not the financing. We should then allow a 90-day oversight period, approving the deal for the Eagles, thereby accomplishing the parity clause and allow Council 90 days of oversight too. At the minimum, examine the financial issues related to building in South Philadelphia. I want to see the Eagles, whose shovels are about to hit the ground, I want to see 'em stick with Phillies on this one, 'cause what we've needed to do all along is separate the Eagles. If you take away naming rights, the Eagles are putting up less than 20 percent of their 167 12/2/2000 WHOLE - STADIUM BILLS ballpark. They don't even put a winner on the field and they don't deserve this much power and this debate, and Council has the power right now. It has to be creative and it has to be forceful and it has to take the lead now. And that's what I came here to say and I appreciate your time.
Do we have anyone else to testify on the bills before us this afternoon? (No response.)
Seeing none, Council will stand in recess until Monday, December, 4th at 6 p.m. on this particular committee. (Applause.) (Adjourned at 1:06 p.m.) - - - 168 C E R T I F I C A T E I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of Saturday, December 2, 2000, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of same. RE: COUNCIL COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE STADIUM BILLS HEARING __________________________________, JOSEPHINE CARDILLO, Registered Professional Reporter