You're welcome. Your Honor, whatever responses that are forwarded to me, may I have 20 copies, please? Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Clarke.
Thank you, Madam President. 2013 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget Good morning.
I just want to ask you a quick question about the DROP program. You indicated that you would not like to participate in the DROP program at the level that the City is participating and you referenced certain categories of employees that you would like to exclude. What employees will you include?
Anything from clerk/typists all the way through to court administrative officers. Anyone that's involved in the DROP program is included except for the specific classes that we have excluded.
So you have clerks, clerk/typists, court administrators. What else? I'm just not familiar --
Tipstaff, legal clerks, any position that we have within the First Judicial 2014 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget District other than those specific classes that we have identified.
It is approximately how many categories off the top of your head?
There is in excess of a hundred categories. We can supply those to you if you like.
Councilman, I think it was Madam President that asked us previously for some information relevant to DROP rightsizing and we are going to provide the number of employees that are involved. We will also identify the titles of those employees, if that helps.
And then we will be able to identify those who we are attempting to exclude also.
We are all being asked to suffer a little pain. I just wanted to make sure it is being distributed equally. HONORABLE MASSIAH-JACKSON: Oh, it is. 2015 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget (Laughter.)
You also indicated in your testimony there was an increase in collections in the last fiscal year, 2002, by the tune of $7 million. Was that all attributable to what we believe to be the very successful amnesty program or Live Stop?
We are trying to get information from the amnesty program incorporated into our testimony but couldn't get it back in time, so I can't specifically answer whether or not it was the amnesty program or not. I know a lot of our increases have been the result of dispositions by our Traffic Court judges also. The dispositions of our Traffic Court judges are up by 118 percent. But a lot of it also has to do with the Live Stop program and some of the other initiatives.
Because I think we asked that question last year. We had another hearing and we were trying to get some information on the amnesty program and how much money was 2016 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget collected. I believe at one point in time we were upwards of 20,000, between and 30,000 people had 4 participated in the program, and we can't seem to 5 get any figures on what the collections are. 6 HONORABLE MASSIAH-JACKSON: Councilman, 7 it is more than just the amnesty. It is with all 8 collections in Traffic Court. The total collections 9 of Traffic Court, and not just amnesty but every 10 individual that goes in and pays tickets because 11 they acknowledge that the ticket dollars are due, is 12 $21 million and one-half goes to the City and 13 one-half to the state. But we don't have it broken 14 down just with that amnesty and I think that program 15 is over at this point. 16
Yes, it is. I just 17 noticed in your testimony that it is a substantial 18 bump-up, and having seen those long lines on a daily 19 basis, I'm wondering if it can be attributed to that 20 in large part given what most people -- what the Live Stop office indicated was the average amount owed by those individuals. HONORABLE MASSIAH-JACKSON: Yes. Councilman, what we found is when the public realizes that our courts are going to enforce 2017 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget existing statutes and existing rules, we didn't create new rules or statutes, but we are enforcing the existing statutes, and they saw on TV the lines and people camped out all night to pay, people have been coming in voluntarily to clear up their records.
One last question on that: Is there any way of us determining how many individuals actually became legal as a result of the amnesty program? I know there was a followup. You had to pay a certain amount of money and you had to contact PennDOT. And this is all part of some of the information that we are compiling for the insurance commissioner. As you know, we are determined to get some decreases in our insurance rates and the Live Stop and amnesty program was a key component in terms of us making the case that we should be able to get some reductions in our rates. HONORABLE MASSIAH-JACKSON: We will talk to President Judge Kelly and the administrators and deputies in Traffic Court and perhaps during a 2018 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget certain time period we may be able to find out how many people became legal.
We will also contact PennDOT to see if they have any records that indicate an interface between our program and theirs.
Do you have any idea how long that may take? Because we are in the midst of some debate on a couple of rate cases and it will be helpful if we are able to put that on the table in front of the hearing examiner. HONORABLE MASSIAH-JACKSON: We will work with all deliberate speed, Councilman.
Thank you. Last question. Office space. Here we go again. We had the commissioner of public property in last week and we were trying to get some sense of the distribution of office space in City Hall and at the end of the day it came down to the courts in terms of who determined how the space that had, by gentle person's agreement, been agreed upon sometime in the past, and although there is no 2019 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget official designation of space, it was my understanding from the commissioner that the court system had the ability to deny or approve any distribution of space outside the court system; i.e., Council members or any other elected officials that find themselves in City Hall and I would like to get your version of what the office space distribution is. (Laughter.)
To my knowledge we do not control space outside of the courts area and, in fact, over the past year or two we have surrendered approximately 30,000 square feet of former court space to the City for other uses. HONORABLE MASSIAH-JACKSON: And City Council.
The courtrooms, chambers. 2020 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget HONORABLE MASSIAH-JACKSON: It could be a storage area. It could be a closet or it could be a room as large as this, any --
Is there any defined space? If you were to reference a document somewhere, when you dissect City Hall, would it say this belongs to the courts, this belongs to City Council? Because we can't seem to find who is responsible for -- who owns -- who is responsible for what.
I'm not sure if the City engineers have a blueprint or master plan. We can certainly identify by room number our occupancy here in City Hall if that would help by courtroom number, by offices. We'd certainly be willing to do that if that is what you are requesting.
Do you know how those particular spaces were defined as court space? I know this may predate you.
I can tell you I started in 1972 and there was space already assigned to the court. Now, how that occurred, I'm not sure, but it has evolved over the years. HONORABLE MASSIAH-JACKSON: And 2021 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget certainly City Hall was originally a courthouse and City Council staff, as Council President Verna and I know, were smaller in years past, so with all the courtrooms that exist in City Hall and those you can see just by looking in a room, there were also judicial chambers scattered throughout City Hall as well as storage space and whatnot, and as the needs of both sides changed, including the Mayor's office changed, we were able to finally just a few years ago build a Criminal Justice Center, which is today filled to capacity. 1801 Vine Street is filled to capacity. 34 South 11th Street I believe has just one chambers vacant, and City Hall, every single chambers is full. When Councilwoman Brown mentioned earlier about the eleven vacancies, I can tell you today if -- we have five judges who are confirmed. If the other six started today, I do not have a place to put them. So we are all in a very tight situation. We do not have six chambers available as we speak right now.
Who in the agency is responsible for determining the space needs of judges? 2022 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget HONORABLE MASSIAH-JACKSON: Councilman, judiciary is a third branch of government and our branch of government works with the president judge and with our court administrator and with the Public Property trying to work this out.
If there is specific information that you are requesting, call me. I'm happy to take your phone calls. HONORABLE MASSIAH-JACKSON: And we will see what we can do, but we don't have a space as we speak and I have had visits as well as calls from various City Council individuals, men and women, who have said "What about this spot? What about that spot," and I'm not able to do anything because they are inhabited, if you will. I don't even have room 18 to move someone from one place to another to say we will try and accommodate you and we can move someone out of this area to somewhere else. We don't have that luxury. There were times in years past that perhaps that existed, but not today.
And, Your 2023 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget Honor, I assume that the judges that had been housed at the Wanamaker Building are coming back to City Hall? HONORABLE MASSIAH-JACKSON: They have already come back. The Wanamaker lease expired 2001, in January of 2001. Those judges are already back here in City Hall and that was to save money, save funds.
What are you going to do when the new judges come on board? HONORABLE MASSIAH-JACKSON: That's a topic -- I think Mr. Cairone is tired of hearing me talk about it, but that's a topic that comes up on a regular basis. We really don't know where we are going to put the new judges.
Thank you. Any other questions or comments from members of the committee? Thank you very much. You have been wonderful and thank you for the use of this courtroom. I don't know what we would have done without it. The Sheriff'S Office is next. Good morning. 2024 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget
Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.
I'm John Green, sheriff of the City and County of Philadelphia. Madam President and Members of City Council, good morning. The Sheriff's Office requests an allocation of $13,475,759 for fiscal year 2004. Thank you.
Whoa. Based on your written testimony, I assume you are satisfied with your FY '04 budget and that it will not be necessary for you to come in at a later date with a transfer ordinance? Am I correct in assuming that?
Well, Madam President, you can never say never. As you know, in law enforcement in general and in the sheriff's office specifically there are variables that we don't control; for example, incidents may occur in the courthouse. We may have an increase in the number of prisoners we transport for one reason or another, so we can't say what will happen in the future, but what I can say is that this is the budget that was 2025 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget submitted and this is the budget that we agreed to.
On -15 of your detail you are requesting $35,000 for general consulting services. How were these funds used?
These are for personal service contracts and the personal service contracts cover a variety of areas. Specifically for fiscal year 2004 that money will be used to satisfy requirements that resulted from a mandamus agreement that the sheriff's office and the City of Philadelphia and various attorneys agreed to. We are going to have people come in and, along with monitoring what we do, we have people who are also going to actually carry out some of the accounting work.
Very well. Do you have many of your employees scheduled to go out on the DROP program in FY '04?
Thank you. 2026 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown.
Thank you, Madam President. I'm going to lean on you to help me with this question. We actually also posed the question to our president judge and it is around the inordinate amount of dollars, millions of dollars, spent in police overtime and Commissioner Johnson shared with us how that is in many ways related to the way police officers are scheduled to come to the courtrooms and he also shared that conversations are underway with -- the district attorney's office, Madam President?
Yes, the courts, the district attorney's office and the police department.
-- to figure out a way on how we can operate smarter with regards to how police officers are deployed. Are you familiar with that issue? Have there been any approaches to you by the commissioner or the district attorney to collectively think through how we can spend fewer dollars in police overtime as it relates to them coming to the courtrooms? 2027 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget
No. That wouldn't be an issue that we would be directly involved with.
Because we do security in and around the courthouse, so regardless as to when police officers would come to court, we would still be required to be there. Unless they are going to have court during the hours of, say, 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m., we will not be affected at all by whatever changes are made by the district attorney's office and the police department.
That's helpful for me in terms of the process. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam President.
You're welcome. Are there any other questions or comments from members of the committee? Thank you very much, sir.
Clerk of 2028 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget Quarter Sessions is next. Good morning.
Good morning, Council President Verna and Members of City Council. My name is Vivian T. Miller and I'm the present Clerk of Quarter Sessions. I have with me this morning Charles Williams, my first deputy --
-- Tom Christian, my budget director, Lopez Jones, my second deputy. I'm here today to request from this distinguished body approval of my fiscal 2004 budget in the amount of $4,947,696. You have the full text of my message, so I will summarize the most relevant factors or points, with your permission. This budget allocation from the administration for personnel, purchase of service, materials, supplies, equipment does not meet the requested funding needed by the Clerk of Quarter Sessions to adequately perform our legislative mandated duties. Once again I must report that the Clerk of Quarter Sessions continues to lag behind most City agencies to upgrade our functionality by a too slowly developing available automatic technology, 2029 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget which is essential if we are to be a more productive and efficient agency. However, even with more technology enhancement, inadequate staffing levels remain a constant problem for us. The Clerk of Quarter Sessions hopes to work with the administration in acquiring additional funding in fiscal 2004 to enhance our ability to be more productive and to give quality services in the most efficient manner possible. The administration is aware of our plight and I seriously believe that despite the omission of our request for increased funding in fiscal 2004 they will somehow find a way to help us in our dilemma. We have requested an additional 343,054 in Class 100 to fund eleven much needed additional positions which I discuss in full detail in the message in your possession. We also requested an additional 150,000 in Class 100 to cover the shortfall of full funding of our present position and 10,000 in Class 400 to purchase a new improved microfilm reader/printer to replace our existing one, which is more than 15 years old. The reader/printer is essential in 2030 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget expediting copies of court documents for use by the public and various state and federal agencies. We also requested a nonrecurring sum of $88,531 in our Class 100 to address the impact of a DROP program on our ability to staff courtrooms. With a dozen employees intending to leave early in fiscal 2004, eleven are court clerk positions. We must have the ability to hire and train replacements at least three months prior to separation of our employees. Our total request was for additional appropriation of $591,585. I recognize that we must continue to be resourceful as a City and be conservative in our spending. On the other hand, the Clerk of Quarter Sessions is enduring a tremendous hardship in processing revenue and criminal cases as a result of the City's crackdown on crime. I do want this Council to know that I am committed to working with this body and the administration as we move through the 21st Century. I seek your full support of my budget and goals with my commitment to you that nothing short of my best efforts will always be given to achieving the goals of our City. Your approval of this budget will keep 2031 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget the Clerk of Quarter Sessions a viable and useful department. Respectfully yours, Vivian T. Miller.
Thank you. You stated in your testimony that you requested an additional $591,585 from the administration. Did they give you an explanation as to why they denied your request?
Also, you indicate in your testimony, and I will quote, there will be an impact of the DROP program in your ability to staff the courtrooms. With about a dozen employees intending to leave early in FY '04, eleven are court clerk positions. Are the court clerk positions Civil Service?
The list is handled through central personnel and we get that -- we get names off of a Clerk 3 list that they submit to us whenever we have vacancies approved.
Do we know if 2032 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget there is an existing list for Clerk 3?
So a Clerk 3 can apply for a court clerk position?
They start out as court clerk trainee with the eventual promotion to court clerk, yes.
And I assume most of these employees going out on the DROP program will go out in October?
And whoever is replacing them is going to have to be trained, as you said, and you are indicating it would take approximately three months for training?
Not every courtroom; just some courtrooms. It is according to the courtroom.
Why in some and not in others? 2033 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget
Because there's more work. The courtrooms like -- Charles will explain.
Council President, some of the courtrooms, particularly Municipal courtrooms, are high-volume rooms. In other words, they have anywhere from 35 to 60 cases per day listed in those rooms. In some of those rooms -- I think there are actually two or three rooms that actually exceed a hundred cases, and the court clerk must record some action on every one of those cases.
A hundred cases are scheduled in a courtroom a day?
Many of those cases are in there for scheduling. HONORABLE MASSIAH-JACKSON: Madam President, I didn't hear everything that preceded this, but I do want you to know that our Court of Common Pleas has courtrooms where we need two Clerks of Quarter Sessions in the courtroom. We know the municipal courts have certain lists where they need two. And I can speak to the Common Pleas cases. 2034 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget These are lists -- we have a track program, for example, high-volume pleas, dispositions by both parties, the D.A. and the defense Council agree in advance. We do hundreds of cases a day and per week just getting cases, and the clerks have to fill out their paperwork. If the paperwork is delayed, an individual may remain in jail after he or she was supposed to have been discharged and then they file 10 lawsuits. We are under a federal consent decree to keep people from being in jail longer.
I know the Clerk of Quarter Sessions has been saying for some time that she has been very, very shorthanded. HONORABLE MASSIAH-JACKSON: Yes.
You did not get the amount that you were asking for last year, did you?
And with the new judges coming on, I'm sure that's going to really cause you a great deal of grief if you don't have people to send into a courtroom.
That's correct. What is happening now is we are taking and -- maybe one 2035 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget clerk will have to man two to three courtrooms -- COUNCIL PRESIDENT VERNA? How is that possible?
What is your overtime? How much is your overtime?
Our overtime runs about 115 to $120,000 a year in terms of actual costs.
For overtime, yes. To date this year it is about $97,000 so far so we are actually exceeding what we had estimated it to be to this point in time.
In rough terms it is about 36 and a half thousand dollars.
What was the cause of the delay in your office for automation? You indicated it is now on the fast track. When will your system be up and running?
I will attempt to address 2036 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget that, Council President.
That has been an ongoing headache and I think we are on the fast track now. Rob Dubow has been in touch with us recently on numerous occasions. He has granted full funding of the hardware and the software that we need. There was a great deal of confusion over at MOIS. They have changed people in leadership roles and it has fallen to other people who had no idea what we needed or what we wanted, so there is a gentleman there named Howard Baker. He's the chief deputy CIO. He has assigned it to programmers to actually -- we will start to meet now. In other words, it has really just been hanging out there and nothing has been done concretely until recently, but I have to say that the money that has been given to us by the City now and MOIS is in the process of purchasing the hardware and the software and they tell us over the next two or three months that the fines and costs aspects of it should be up and running.
That's good. 2037 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget You were budgeted for 126 positions in FY '04 based upon your testimony. I take it you believe you need 137 in order to fulfill your mandates; is that correct?
Thank you, Madam President. Your Honor, could you stay there? You may be needed to answer this. I just want to ask a question with reference to just generally I can get a sense of your testimony that there is an increase in volume as a result of the City's crackdown on crime, but could you explain to me in the most recent accounts that the prison population is down? How does that correlate? HONORABLE MASSIAH-JACKSON: Councilman, the issue of the prison population vis-a-vis the number of cases disposed is not necessarily related; that is, the prison population may be down, but that means people have made bail and they are out on the street, so we still have cases that are listed and every case that is listed -- even if a case comes to 2038 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget my courtroom, for example, and it is continued to another date, the Clerks of the Quarter Sessions have to fill out the paperwork to have the case listed at a future date, if the person is in custody, to have the person brought to City Hall or to the CJC. If the person is out on bail, they have to have the subpoenas and the witnesses and whatnot. So whether a case goes forward or does not go forward, the clerks in the courtroom have to handle a lot of paperwork, so we are certainly looking forward to automation also, yes.
Let me make sure I understand your response. You are saying that the ability of individuals to make bail has increased or been enhanced so that's why the population is down? HONORABLE MASSIAH-JACKSON: No, I'm talking about the work in the courtroom is increasing because as judges we are disposing of more cases. We have more judges sitting in more courtrooms and our lists are longer at Municipal and Common Pleas level, and so in year 2002 19,000 cases were disposed of. That means that's the number of cases where there was a plea or a verdict, but there were many more than that where the case was listed 2039 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget but perhaps continued, so those individuals still have to have paperwork.
I understand all that. I'm just trying to get a sense of how the prison population has decreased if the volumes of arrests and prosecution has increased. I'm not understanding that.
Just as simple as that. I mean everyone that might appear in court doesn't go to jail with a lot of pleas and bargains, but the paperwork increases.
So are we offering more pleas? HONORABLE MASSIAH-JACKSON: No. The people in the county, Councilman, many of them are unsentenced defendants. They haven't had their trials yet. The individuals who are sentenced -- and I apologize. I don't know the statistics off the top of my head. Actually, Joe Cairone would have been helpful on that, but there are many people in our county prisons up at State Road who have been arrested, have not made bail and they are sitting in an unsentenced, untried status. When someone is sentenced, if they 2040 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget receive state time, for example, they are not up at the counties. They go to Gratersford or other state custody. So the number of people in our county prison is not necessarily reflective of the number of people who have been sentenced.
One of the things about the population in the county jails --
Charles Williams, first deputy, Clerk of Quarter Sessions. One of the things about the county population that I'm familiar with is that the district attorney's office has -- there has been some legislation passed where they can aggregate sentences. In other words, when you used to do 11-1/2 to months in the county prison and you get 19 a consecutive 11-1/2 to 23 months in the county 20 prison, you would do it in the county prison. Now 21 the law allows that to be aggregated and they are 22 sent off to state institutions. So that has been 23 done on a widespread basis. Many of our judges now because of Rule -- it's a statewide rule, but I don't know the 2041 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget number -- after a certain number of listings, the person is in custody, are required to release them on bond or some other condition. So once a case has been listed two or three times and has not reached disposition, the person is discharged to some type of nominal bail. So the judge might be able to tell you what that rule is, but those are the two factors that I'm familiar with, the fact that cases are being continued and the person is being held and not being tried in a speedy manner and they are being released, and the aggregating of sentences, sending them to state institutions, is another factor in reducing the population.
And another factor I believe, they didn't have that monitor, that home electronic monitor where they have house arrests so therefore that would also increase the population as far as being incarcerated.
What did I say, increase? Decrease. HONORABLE MASSIAH-JACKSON: So there are many, many people being arrested. I think Mr. Cairone said 1200 a week in our testimony 2042 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget earlier. 1200 a week being arrested, but not all of them go right to the county. For a variety of reasons they may not be in custody.
Okay. I see some numbers thrown out and I'm trying to understand them. That's why I'm asking these questions. Okay. Thank you, Madam President.
You're welcome. Are there any other questions from members of the committee? Thank you. Charles, are you under the DROP too?
You've been here a long time. 2043 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget Register of Wills is next.
Good morning, Council President and Members of City Council.
Good morning. Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.
I'm Ronald R. Donatucci and I am the Register of Wills and the clerk of the Orphans Court for the County and City of Philadelphia. To my right is Jim Taggart, my administrative officer; and my first deputy, Ralph Weiner to his right; and to his right is Tony DeRose, who is my finance officer.
I believe every Council member has a copy of Mr. Donatucci's testimony. Mr. Donatucci, I take it from your testimony that you are satisfied with the administration's proposed FY '04 budget for your department?
That's a loaded question. Under this proposed budget we are keeping our present staffing levels, but, as you are aware, Council President, from our earlier testimony, almost on a weekly basis we are being mandated more 2044 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget and more by the court system in our Orphans Court Division to provide more and more services. This is coming down from the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania mandating different programs. As an example, last year, in which you were very helpful in helping us secure our additional funding, we went on line -- it is called the banner program where we are titling on line for lawyers and the public to obtain records through our Orphans Court Division. This was mandated by the courts, which we broke down -- at that time there were personnel costs in excess of a hundred thousand dollars. You were very helpful in talking to the administration, who in turn helped us get that additional funding; Rob Dubow, who always has an open mind when we go in front of the finance department.
Mr. Dubow is sitting back there saying "Really?"
I'm sorry. I didn't even know you were here. But let me tell you the rest of it. Part of the deal is I have to raise additional monies. There's no free lunch. But all of these programs are mandated 2045 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget and he was very helpful after you spoke to him, knowing that this is a legitimate need of our office, which was never seen in the beginning of the year, but in our continuing efforts we have been very aggressive to try and raise additional monies for the City. If you look at our present budget, we will raise approximately close to $3 million this year in revenue. We're basically self-sustaining. And there are other things that we would like to do. We are going totally on line in our computerization downstairs. Hopefully in the next two weeks our probate section will be on line.
So we are trying to do our share of what we have to do to help the City. Can I use more employees? No question about it, but we are willing to hold the line and expand our services and our requests are very modest in the sense of we are not asking other than our Class 100, which we have employees which will, I imagine, be receiving raises next year of whatever other City employees --
The 3 percent? 2046 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget
How many employees do you have that will be going out on the DROP program in FY '04?
Seven and, unfortunately, they are seven excellent employees that we have to try and retrain other employees to take their positions.
Thank you, Madam President. I think you asked the same question that I was going to ask. I was a little bit concerned when I see that there are actually two pages of testimony. Usually I'm familiar with the Register of Wills issuing one page, one side, so I got a little bit concerned that there may be a problem this year.
If I may do a commercial 2047 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget for the office, I believe every councilperson, all 17, know the reputation of the office.
Yes, indeed. They do a wonderful job. The Chair recognizes Councilman Ortiz.
Could you expound on the -- because one of the things that we always look towards is our records and your office beginning and entering into the computerizing of all of that work, because I know that a lot of it is very manual at times and now, so can you expound? You said you are going on line?
Let me explain to you. In our probate, when you come in now, there is a form. It is either testamentary for a will or it's letters of administration. Right now that's being done manually. Hopefully -- we would have been totally computerized last week, but because of the weather and a couple of adjustments in the system, but now the probate clerks in our office now will have a screen in front of them and they will do the data entry on the computer. That form will be printed out after and this will be hard disk. It will be -- I'm sorry. It will be on the hard drive. 2048 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget It will be backed up daily and also this will give us access now, which we have been doing temporarily until this program has been installed. We go on line now with the Board of Revision of Taxes to check property values, so we are doing the best possible job under the circumstances.
Will a citizen be able to log into your department and get information?
That is our future goals and within the next month -- we have been doing surveys. We are now going to be accepting credit cards.
You said that seven individuals are going out in the DROP program.
I imagine that is a lot of experience that is leaving and what are the projections of what, if anything, we need to do to make sure that those things are taken care of? Where can we be of help in terms of that?
I don't think we are 2049 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget going to do that here.
I would imagine a majority of these employees will be going out in September and October; am I correct?
I believe one is going out in September. One is my chief deputy and my personnel officer and I'm glad to announce if I'm successful in my reelection bid, that this will be my new chief deputy, Ralph Weiner. He already has training basically, so John Furey is going to be retiring, Council President.
We have to replace the 2050 3/10/03 - Continuing '04 Operating Budget seven.
My personnel officer, my chief deputy. They are all secretaries and administrative positions.
Mr. Dubow, did you hear that? He's going to have to replace the seven employees on the DROP program.
Could I get a copy of this testimony? (Comments by Mr. Dubow were not heard by the