COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Thursday, February 7, 2008 9:20 a.m. - - - PRESENT: COUNCILWOMAN JOAN L. KRAJEWSKI, CHAIR COUNCILMAN DARRELL L. CLARKE COUNCILMAN FRANK DiCICCO COUNCILMAN W. WILSON GOODE, JR. COUNCILMAN CURTIS JONES, JR. COUNCILMAN JACK KELLY COUNCILWOMAN MARIA QUINONES-SANCHEZ COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO BILL 080009 - An ordinance authorizing transfers in appropriations for Fiscal Year 2008 within the Grants Revenue Fund... BILL 080010 - An ordinance authorizing transfers in appropriations for Fiscal Year 2008 from the General Fund... - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services Eleven Penn Center 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 2
Good morning. The Committee on Appropriations is now in session. Will the Clerk please read the title of the bill.
Bill No. 080009, an ordinance authorizing transfers in appropriations for Fiscal Year 2008 within the Grants Revenue Fund from the Director of Finance - Provision for other grants to the Police Department, the Law Department and the City Commissioners; and Bill No. 080010, an ordinance 16 authorizing transfers in appropriations for Fiscal Year 2008 from the General Fund, certain or all City offices, departments, boards and commissions and from the Grants Revenue Fund, the Director of Finance - Provision for other grants to the General Fund, certain or all City offices, departments, boards and commissions.
Thank 3 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. you. Is there anyone from the Administration here to testify?
Good morning. My name is Stephen Agostini. I am the Budget Director for the City of Philadelphia, here to offer testimony on the bills before you, 080009 and 080010. They are transfer ordinances, submitting them for your consideration. Ordinance No. 080009 transfers 9.475 million within the Grants Revenue Fund from the Director of Finance's - Provision for other grants to the Police Department, the Law Department and the City Commissioners. There are four transfers under that, and if you would bear with me, I will go through them very quickly. The largest transfer is to the 4 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. City Commissioners, Classes 100, 200 and 300 for $5.32 million. The Grants Revenue Fund request is for the Help America Vote Act of 2002, which would provide financial assistance to the City county from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. The second transfer is for the Police Department, a Grants Revenue appropriation of 3.6 million from the City's Productivity Bank loan funds, which would be applied to the Department's Information Technology Systems Review and Consolidation project. The Law Department is also requesting 560,000 in its Class 200. These funds originated from the approved Productivity Bank loan, will enable the Law Department to acquire, configure and deploy a department-wide case and document management system. Also for your consideration, Bill No. 080010 requests transfers for the following items: Records Department 5 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. Class 200 to 300/400 for $336,494. This is to maintain the same level of service that it has provided in the past, particularly in the Central Duplicating Unit. There are also included in this larger transfers. The largest is the Department of Human Services Class 200 funds, totalling $8 million and represents the Administration's commitment to supporting education through the expansion of school-based services. And then $3.65 million transferred to the Office of Supportive Housing's Class 200 funds for service provider cost of living adjustments and service expansion. And then, finally, the Office of Fleet Management requests a Class 400 transfer of 1.1 million to restore the previously reduced vehicle purchase appropriation to purchase Police and Fire vehicles. We would kindly ask for a 6 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. suspension of the rules so that the bills can be considered.
Thank you. Are there any questions from members of the Committee? Councilwoman Miller.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to ask a question regarding the City Commissioners and the bill that refers to the polling place. Good morning.
Good. I should tell you, you should state your name for the record.
My name is Bob Lee. I'm the Voter Registration Administrator for the City Commissioners' Office.
Mr. Lee, I just want to know, here it says that some of this funding will be used at 7 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. polling places to make them accessible, handicapped accessible.
That's correct. We have a number of programs that we're running with these federal funds. One of those was to survey all of the polling places and determine which ones only had one step at the entrance, had a 36-inch width door. We purchased about 80 ADA-compliant curb ramps, three- to six-foot curb ramps, that we're using at those locations. The ADA requires that you have a one-inch-per-foot slope on any ramp, so anything larger -- any entrance with more than one step of seven inches, we really can't put temporary ramps there. And the problem is, you need such a length of a ramp that basically most of the sidewalks or properties in the City do not have the space to put those kind of ramps up. What we also did was -- and this was prior to the November '06 election -- we got a hold of the School 8 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. District, and they were very cooperative, and they went out and built permanent ramps at 40 school facilities that made 80 additional polling places accessible. So through the use of the permanent ramps at the schools and the 80 temporary ramps, we probably have increased the access at more than, say, 130 polling places. Our problem is, naturally, this is an old city. The ADA requirement is very strict. They not only require designated parking, they require designated van parking, which means you have to have a wide designated berth space in between. So we're having a very difficult time locating and securing accessible polling places. However, the plans -- we have a couple lawsuits going on, naturally. Justice Department, there's a private plaintiff. The private plaintiff has allowed us to designate our polling places in varying degrees. They have kind of laid off the parking and they're 9 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. more concerned with accessibility of the building, and that's what we've been concentrating on. However, there is also the Justice Department that has much more stringent requirements, some of which are almost impossible to find in some areas of the City unless you have new construction. We also currently are working with the Capital Programs Office. Our employees and architects and designers from Capital Programs went out and visited, I would guess, about 30 City facilities to see what kind of permanent modifications, constructing of ramps that are ADA compliant, and we'll be reimbursing those departments for the cost of installing those ramps. Finally, we've asked the Law Department to come up with some kind of legal agreement that we can use to make permanent modifications at private facilities. The Department of State, which administers these grants, has said 10 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. that we can use the funds to make permanent modifications to private facilities, provided the owner of the private facility signed a contract and agreement that would commit that we could use that as a polling place until the cost of those modifications had depreciated down to zero. That's something that's probably about five or six months away yet. We don't have any kind of contract drafted. We also have to do a lot more surveys of these locations that are more than one step. We did go out and resurvey everything that was between two steps and four steps, and we probably only found that about half of them might feasibly be modified. So we're having a very difficult time, but where we can, we're modifying buildings rather than moving them. We understand fully the importance of keeping the polling place in the 11 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. election district, because we know that most of our voters walk, a good percentage of them walk, especially the elderly, and we don't want to move anything out of the division where we don't have to. The law says we either have to have it in the division or the adjacent division.
There's been pressure through both the courts and other areas for us to move polling places, some at great distances, which is a contention of the litigation right now. There may be some more relocation of polling places that come down as a result of the court litigation. We held over 150 hearings where the staff reviewed filings by the plaintiffs for proposed movements. One of the moves was to move a polling place from the 38th Ward to the 52nd Ward, which meant you would have had to walk through Fairmount Park, go down across Kelly Drive, swim the Schuylkill, cross 12 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. the Schuylkill Expressway, climb back up the other side. The plaintiffs brought in interns from Harvard or somewhere and they looked at a map and they seen the line between the two and they thought that you could easily use that because it was adjacent. So that's the difficulty we've been having. But we probably will have more hearings on polling place locations, but it's the Commissioner's position that we not move any polling place that we don't have to move, if we can either modify it or find an additional accessible polling place in the division. The ward leaders have been very helpful and through their committeemen. Where the plaintiffs have asked us to move places, they've been able to help us find something that is more accessible. We'll try to take any location that increases accessibility even if we can't meet the strict ADA standards, so that at least we get substantial 13 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. compliance.
When you say private places, are you helping churches?
We can do it through churches, but like I said, it's about six months away. The funding for that program has to be spent no later than June 30th of '09. So we have to get the Law Department to move on the contract drafting, at which time we'll be going out and surveying, and we would also take recommendations, naturally, from the ward leaders and elected officials as possible locations that could be modified. But you have to keep in mind that the number of steps is a key element, because if you have to put a ramp, a foot for every inch in rise, you need to make sure that there's enough space on the sidewalk or on the property in order to construct the ramp. And once you go so far in length, you have to have a level landing, you have the handrails. The requirements are 14 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. pretty strict.
Can you send out a new list of polling places that are not accessible because you've added a ramp or -- I have a school with one step, and I didn't know that a ramp was -- I had no idea that there was --
I'll find out if 17 we're already sending a ramp. 18 What we do is, when they deliver the machines, they're delivering a ramp with it, and then we notify the ward leaders through a blanket letter saying that some of your polling places may have a ramp delivered. That's another contention. We've instructed the poll officials -- and hopefully with the 15 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. assistance of the committeemen out there -- that we're going to send a ramp and don't put it down unless you need it. We've gotten complaints from seniors that they have difficulty traversing the slope, six-foot ramp. Some of them lose their balance, as opposed to climbing one step. So what we'd rather have happen is that the poll workers and the committeemen, upon a wheelchair user appearing to vote, that they place the ramp there for them, and when they're done voting and they leave, then they can pick the ramp up, but keep it near the entrance. The litigants and the plaintiffs don't like that idea. They want the ramp down permanent, so does Justice, but we've told them we've had complaints from seniors about traversing them ramps when we only have a single one-step entrance. But I will check on 5918.
Yes. I 16 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. think we need an update, though. I don't remember getting a recent update. I remember getting a list that said --
If we're sending a ramp there, your polling place -- you know, there's two letters on the end of the list. If we're sending a ramp, the first letter will be an R for ramp and the second letter represents the parking circumstances at the polling place.
Okay. I don't know whether other people have gotten an update on the assessment --
The list that we have right now is the one from the last November election, because we just now sent out the acceptance cards to all the owners asking if they're going to let us have it, and they will be coming back over the next month. And then we probably won't have an updated list for this election, a final list, until about 20 days before the election, because, naturally, changes are allowed to be made 17 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. up to 20 days before the election. But the bulk of them should be done probably in about a month.
But I will check and see if we sent a ramp here and give your office a call.
What of this money is being used for us to comply with our recent Department of Justice settlement and how much of it as it relates directly to the language access issue? 18 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC.
Probably not much at all, and there's a reason for that. Because the federal mandate is that the funds not be used to settle a lawsuit.
But the federal requirements around language access, how are --
Those are being ate up by our operating budget. Basically we used HAVA money to design and print a new language interpretation services poster that was placed at every polling place in the City explaining the City's new telephonic interpretation service. The contract for training and certifying bilingual interpreters, we are piggy-backing off of a contract by the Managing Director's Office through Global. There's no cost to that. The Managing Director's Office or the Law Department, somebody else is bearing the cost in that.
How are we going to ensure that we're 19 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. institutionalizing some of these federal requirements? Because right now you're saying the Law Department is taking care of it because we were under litigation. When does this all fold into the Commissioner's Office?
As long as the Law Department has a contract with Global and they're willing to give us these services free, we're going to accept them. There's no sense us entering a separate contract with Global and paying for them, too.
I'm not suggesting that we contract an outside service. I'm suggesting how are we looking to institutionalize our federal requirements?
I've been here 24 years, and every one of them years and 20 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. every day of one of them years I've made sure that everything I do complies with all laws, both federal, state and local. So we have programs in place to make sure we comply with all the federal laws, all the state laws. Sometimes them efforts may fall short. They fall short because interpreters may not show up when they commit to show up. They may fall short where poll workers are not hanging posters when they need to be hanging posters. But this office does, through due diligence, everything it can possibly do to make sure that they have the proper materials, to make sure that we solicit interpreters and to make sure that those services that are needed are out there. Naturally, on Election Day, you have 1,681 divisions. Seven o'clock in the morning it's like shooting off 1,681 shuttles. You don't know what's going to happen at any one of them and how long it's going to be until things settle 21 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. down. But as far as institutionalize, compliance with law is already part of our institution. That's why we're there. We make sure that all the laws are complied with as much as possible. And even though some may have some allegations, including the Justice Department, that doesn't necessarily mean what they're saying, everything is true or everything is right, as we can see by the departure of two of their people.
And I'm referring to Mr. Tanner and Mr. Gonzales. But in any event, we will do -- I personally oversee the solicitation and the appointment and the training of our interpreters. I know what's been done there over the last three years. It's substantially improved over the last three years. We have a problem that we solicit people to act as an interpreter 22 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. for ward leaders first, because the committeemen know the people in their neighborhood, they know who is available, they know who is willing to work. And we're only paying them $75 for a day, so it's hard to get people to begin with. Second of all, we also in the last election got some recommendations from members of the community, Concilio. We find that usually the people nominated by ward leaders, you can depend on them showing up more than you can people that either call in in response to an advertisement we ran soliciting interpreters or people recommended by community organizations. Generally, the reliability of those recommended by ward leaders and committeemen far exceeds the reliability of the people. We ran ads in newspapers asking for people to serve as interpreters. We ran them in the five bilingual English-Spanish newspapers. We had radio announcements, the City's in-house -- 23 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. emails to all the City departments. The Law Department tried to get some solicitation. The number of volunteers that came through those efforts was very small. The great majority of the interpreters we get are through the ward leaders, and some of them have been serving for years, some of them 15, 11 years. 12
Are we 13 looking at increasing -- what's the 14 limitation of increasing what we pay 15 folks? It is a 13-hour day. 16
Well, I personally 17 think we ought to be playing all our poll 18 workers more money. Now, five years ago, 19 Senator Tartaglione had legislation that 20 was introduced and passed that would allow us to double the pay of our poll workers. Our poll workers, the Judge of Elections is paid $100, the other four members are paid $95. There are some cities and states that are paying double 24 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. and triple what we're paying. Right now we don't have the funds in our budget to increase poll worker pay, although --
Are we required to go to the state or is that a decision that we make locally?
The state sets the limits on what you can pay them. The local people have to give us the money. If we don't get the money, we can't raise their pay. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Point of order, Madam Chair. What is the state limit?
Two hundred dollars. The judge gets 100 right now. I believe five years ago we requested an increase in funds to pay the poll workers to give them an increase. And believe me, the poll workers ask us every training session, When are we getting our raise? Because they know the state raised the 25 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. limit. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Thank you.
Are you going to incorporate it in this year's budget?
I believe Councilman Jones would like -- COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Excuse me, Madam Chair. I do have a question.
I didn't see your light on. I'm sorry. Councilman DiCicco, then Councilman Jones. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Lee, you mentioned about the agreement with the property owners on the ramps and that it would be amortized, I guess, over a certain amount of time? 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC.
Right. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Is that transferrable, meaning if the property owner were to sell his or her property, would the new owner be bound by that?
That's something the Law Department will have to consider when they're drafting this. That's out of my league. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: I think we might want to look into that. It may not be in the many cases, but we just want to be on the safe side. If we're making that investment, we'd like to at least know that we can carry it out for a certain number of years.
Right. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: So if you can look into that, I'd appreciate it. Thank you. No other questions.
Good morning, Madam Chairman and members of 27 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. the Committee. Thank you for allowing me to participate in this. I am not on Appropriations, but I'm interested nonetheless. My questions are one comment for Commissioner Evans and a series of questions for the Prisons Commissioner, the Acting Prisons Commissioner.
Is there anyone here from the Prisons? Thank you. Please state your name for the record. COMMISSIONER GIORLA: Louis Giorla, Acting Commissioner of Philadelphia Prisons.
Commissioner, welcome. COMMISSIONER GIORLA: Thank you. 28 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC.
A couple of things. One, I'm interested in the training provided to incarcerated persons that are designed to give them a viable way to come back into society and earn a living. My question is, who has the contract to do the evaluation and assessment and then training of those individuals? COMMISSIONER GIORLA: At this time, it's a -- they're a compilation of groups, both in-house, our Inmate Services programs, who do an initial assessment and the classification of inmates' job assignments and referrals to a number of programs. We do make referrals to the Mayor's Office of Reentry for Ex-Offenders. We have three contract agencies -- Impact Services; JEVS, Jewish Employment and Vocational Services; and the GPUAC -- to provide identification upon release, some vocational training, GED training, and there is also -- those trainings are also 29 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. offered in-house. We have a program known as the Jobs Project, which refers sentenced inmates to a period of both a therapeutic living environment and vocational training, and it's conducted by the treatment teams of our social workers and the outside contractors.
If I understood you correctly, you have JEVS? COMMISSIONER GIORLA: Yes, sir.
And what was the other? COMMISSIONER GIORLA: Impact Services.
Impact Services. And what are the skills provided? What are the range of skills that are taught? COMMISSIONER GIORLA: There are 30 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. programs in environmental maintenance, computer use, building maintenance, customer service, and they're combined with life skills training.
And how do you measure success in those training programs? COMMISSIONER GIORLA: At the present time -- well, I think our measure of success would be recidivism. At this time, we're conducting a study to determine what programs are successful and what our recidivism rates are and how they're affected.
So at this point in time, you have no declarative evidence of success ratios? COMMISSIONER GIORLA: No, sir.
How do you work with the private sector to determine what skill sets would be useful in the marketplace? COMMISSIONER GIORLA: The JEVS program also provides a Steps to Success 31 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. and a Workplace Readiness or a Ready for Work evaluation that provides the inmates with resume preparation.
And you have no statistics to say how that's working? COMMISSIONER GIORLA: I have reports available from the JEVS program that I would gladly share with you. I don't have those figures today, sir.
I'm going to stop this at this point and say I'll see you again during budget time, and those are the questions I'm going to ask you. COMMISSIONER GIORLA: Certainly.
Finally, what is the average stay of an inmate in your facility? COMMISSIONER GIORLA: The average length of stay for an inmate is approximately 91 days. Now, that's an average of everyone that's admitted, and we're talking between 35 and 40 thousand admissions per year. There are subsets 32 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. within that category, sentenced inmates, those held on violent felonies, and those numbers can be broken down even further, but the average is 91 days.
So are programs designed for people with that length of stay or longer? COMMISSIONER GIORLA: Most of the vocational programs are geared towards sentenced inmates because we know that they're committed and we have a time frame for their commitment. The vocational cycles, the job cycles, are either three weeks, six weeks or 12 weeks, and that's to accommodate -- that's to see that they, if possible, complete them before they're released.
That concludes my questioning for now. COMMISSIONER GIORLA: Yes, sir.
I just want to make a statement. I understand we're going to go into --
Pull 33 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. your mike up a little.
I understand we're going to go in depth about the after-school programs at another time.
So I will not question it now, but I will only say that out of the 33 schools in my region and my district, I'm concerned that seven of them are being eliminated. I'm receiving a number of calls from parents who --
-- have stated to me that this is not just an educational program but it is an economic development tool that allows single parents to be participants in the workplace. So I'm viewing it both from the educational side but from the economic development side, and I look forward to that information in the 34 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. future.
I understand that the Administration is going to meet with each and every Councilperson in their district.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Commissioner, congratulations on your appointment. COMMISSIONER GIORLA: Thank you.
There's a program that I have an interest in. It's your worker release inmate program, where you have programmed inmates that if they can find an outside opportunity, a job, that they can leave the jail, work, come back at the end of the day. There's a number of inmates up there that have been 35 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. programmed for that opportunity, but no 3 jobs. We were very close to getting Fairmount Park Commission -- matter of fact, the money was in the budget -- to allow some of these inmates that were programmed for work release to go work in the park, learn a skill and have opportunities possibly to work for some of the subcontractors that support the park, some of the vegetation management companies, landscape companies and others. Apparently, at the end of the administration, it got into -- the program got into a little trouble. It never was implemented. So I'd appreciate it if you would revisit that possibly and see if we can get that back on track, because the Park is anxious to hire initially six employees that would work along with the employees at Fairmount Park. And you and your staff have informed me -- and I think it's common sense -- that if those inmates have a little bit of money in 36 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. their pocket when they're released, they may not go back to what got them incarcerated to begin with, especially if there's an opportunity for employment at the point when they're released, a good opportunity. So I'd appreciate it if you would look into that to see if we can get that back on track. COMMISSIONER GIORLA: I can report some progress in that regard. We do have a program under the auspices of the Horticultural Society that raises vegetables for food cupboards in the City. Along with that they teach landscape skills to a number of sentenced inmates, both male and female. In the last couple weeks, we've met with a number of landscape contractors to provide employment opportunities, and I'll certainly look into the Park Commission's participation in that.
The Park Commission is very anxious, because, 37 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. again, this isn't just volunteer labor. This is a per hour that would be put in their account, or however you handle that, so when they're released, that they do have some financial ability. COMMISSIONER GIORLA: Yes, sir.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning, Commissioner. One quick question. This request is for $500,000. How much is spent on reentry within the Prisons budget itself? COMMISSIONER GIORLA: This entire request will be for reentry services through three of the contractors that I alluded to earlier, Impact Services --
My question was, this request is for $500,000. 38 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. Annually how much is spent on reentry within the Prisons budget itself? COMMISSIONER GIORLA: The total figure I'm not sure at this time, sir.
Can you give me a guess? COMMISSIONER GIORLA: I would estimate upwards of $3 million.
Thank you. Are there any other questions? Councilman Clarke.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Agostini, real quick question. My understanding is that there was a submission of a transfer ordinance 20 in the last Administration that was not introduced and subsequently did not have a hearing on. Were there any cost savings in any of the departments where the funds were to be transferred from in the last Administration's transfer 39 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. ordinance, and, if so, how much was the -- I hate to use the term "windfall," but how much revenue remained in that particular department as a result of the non-issuance of that transfer?
Madam Chairwoman, Councilmember, we're still reviewing those transfer requests, so it's hard to sort of pin a number on what was saved from that, because we may bring back some of those items for your consideration.
Rob Dubow, Finance Director. What we actually wound up doing was, anything that had been in the budget before was put into the transfer ordinance. The items that were not in the transfer ordinance were not in the budget. So there's no savings from items that we didn't include compared to budget.
Say that again. 40 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC.
Okay. There weren't any items -- I think your question is, were there items that were in the budget but that we didn't put into the transfer ordinance and so did we get savings as a result of that. Is that what you're asking?
That we didn't -- from departments. There were departments that the transfers were going to come from, and the question is, since we did not take revenue out of those departments to accommodate the transfer, are those departments essentially flushed with cash?
As I understand, we were taking it from the Grants Fund from our fund balance, so it wasn't coming from specific departments. So there were none.
So there is more than anticipated in the Grants Revenue Fund, the fund balance?
There was -- yes, 41 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. there was enough in fund balance to help fund these transfers. If we had gone beyond this, we would have started to reduce the fund balance below the levels we had projected and it would have taken our plan out of balance.
So all of the proposed transfers of the fund balance are in these particular transfers?
Correct. All that had been anticipated in the plan are in these transfers.
Okay. You've answered my question. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Are there any other questions from members of the Committee? (No response.)
Thank you very much. Is there anyone else here to testify for or against? 42 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. (No response.)
That ends our public hearing on Appropriations. Now we will go into our public meeting. The Chair recognizes Councilman Clarke on Bill 080010.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I make a motion that Bill No. 080010 be reported out of the Committee with a favorable recommendation and a request for rules suspension as to allow reading at the next session of Council. (Duly seconded.)
Therefore, Bill 080009 will be reported 43 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. out of this Committee with a favorable recommendation, with the rules of Council being suspended as to permit -- 10. I'm sorry. Let me repeat that. 080010 will be reported out of this Committee with a favorable recommendation, with the rules of Council being suspended as to permit first reading at the next session of Council. All those in favor? (Aye.)
The Chair recognizes Councilman Clarke for Bill 080009.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that Bill 22 No. 080009 be reported out of Committee with a favorable recommendation and a request for rules suspension as to allow reading at the next session of Council. 44 2/7/08 - APPROPRIATIONS - BILL 080009, ETC. (Duly seconded.)
Therefore, Bill 080009 will be reported out of this Committee with a favorable recommendation and the rules of Council be suspended so as to permit first reading at the next session of Council. Thank you very much. (Committee on Appropriations adjourned at 10:00 a.m.) - - - 45 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on February 7, 2008, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)