COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - - - Tuesday, March 21, 2006 10:40 a.m. - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - - - FY 2007 OPERATING BUDGET HEARINGS - - - PRESENT: ANNA C. VERNA, President BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN W. WILSON GOODE, JR. JACK KELLY JUAN F. RAMOS FRANK RIZZO JANNIE L. BLACKWELL MICHAEL A. NUTTER DARRELL L. CLARKE DONNA REED MILLER - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 561-2220 2 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06
Good morning, everyone. I am sorry for the delay. I don't think that we ought to keep our witnesses waiting. So, therefore, I am going to start our hearing This is a continued Public Hearing of the Committee of the Whole. And I would ask Mr. McPherson to please call our first witness. MR. McPHERSON: First Judicial District.
Your Honor, nice seeing you again, and I want to publicly congratulate you. And we do have a copy of your testimony. It will be given to the stenographer. It will be transcribed in full. So, if you will, sir, if you will merely abbreviate your testimony, we would appreciate it. HONORABLE C. DARNELL JONES, II: Surely. Thank you very much, Madam President. Good morning. I would like to initially allow our 3 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 Deputy Court Administrator, Mr. Kevin Cross, to address you, Madam President and members of Council, please.
Thank you. Madam President, members of City Council, for the record, my name is Kevin Cross, Deputy Court Administrator for the First Judicial District. With me today is the Honorable C. Darnell Jones, President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas and Chair of the First Judicial District's Administrative Governing Board. Joseph A. Cairone, Court Administrator for the First Judicial District, is unable to attend today's hearing, he is attending to a family medical emergency. Mr. Cairone expresses his apologies for not being here and appreciates the courtesies extended to us today. At this time, I respectfully ask that if there are any questions from the members of City Council, the judiciary seeks 4 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 another opportunity to appear before the Council to give the court administrator an opportunity to respond to the questions.
All right. I just have one question, and perhaps you will be able to respond to the question. If not, we will certainly call Mr. Cairone. On of the testimony, it is indicated that you expect to be cut $4.5 million in federal funds for child support in FY '08. Have you notified the Administration of this? Because it appears they have not included it in the Five-Year Plan?
That's a good question, Madam President, and it is in our testimony. And I was going to briefly allude to that in my oral summary this morning. There was legislation from the federal government, the Federal Budget Reduction Act of February 8, 2006, when it was enacted, that reduced the child support funding that we anticipate to cost approximately $4.5 million. 5 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 Therefore, it was not -- we could not give that information to the budget bureau in time for them to do their Five-Year Plan for the courts. We don't know the full impact of that reduction; hopefully, there is going to be some bills or laws that may repeal or change that. We don't know how the state is going to respond to that and we don't know how it is going to affect us locally. But we do want to make Council and the city Administration aware of this shortfall, in the hope that we can all plan for it in the next fiscal year.
Wonderful. Thank you. Are there any questions from members? We have no other questions. And, as I said, your testimony will be transcribed in full by the stenographer. And we thank you for coming in, Your Honor. We wish you luck.
Thank you so much. 6 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06
I must apologize you had to wait as long as you did. Thank you.
Madam President, may I just ask you for about two minutes?
These remarks were not included in the package that was forwarded to the Council because we had the unexpected occurrence to Court Administrator Cairone. So I just wanted to take a moment or two just to impart some things from my perspective as Chair of the Administrative Governing Board, as well as the President of the Board of Judges of the Court of Common Pleas.
Thank you. First of all, on behalf of the First Judicial District, I thank you for the 7 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 opportunity to come before you. Those of us within the First Judicial District look upon our obligation to the citizens to perform in a highly competent, efficient and progressive and trustworthy manner, and that is paramount to us for the future success of Philadelphia. There are just three things that I wanted to highlight as focus of my attention as President Judge and as Chair of the Administrative Governing Board. First of all, I want to commend you, Madam President, and City Council for the ongoing efforts that you make to make the citizenry aware of what it is that all of us do collectively to improve the citizens' welfare in the City of Philadelphia. As you know personally, we were out just a few nights ago in the public forum to impart that message to the community. And I want you to know that, as President Judge of the court, I plan to be out there all the time promoting that message; to let people know that we are here, that we have a vested 8 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 interest in this community, as well as they do; and that we are responsive to the needs of the community. I also wanted to pay acknowledgment to you, again, as Council President and to the Council and Administration. Because this past weekend, I had an opportunity to visit a couple of recreation centers with the Recreation Commissioner, Victor Richard. And my comment to him, in looking at the Simon Recreation Center and the Dorothy Emanuel Recreation Center, was that the message really needs to get out to the public that this is what the Council, the government, is doing. And it is a good story. A story that needs to be told. And if we can do more of that in terms of prevention, I think that we can address the staggering crime problem that we have, particularly with juveniles. Lastly, I want to come to you to say that part of my vision as the President Judge, unlike in the past, I suppose, where we constantly come and ask you for allocation of 9 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 funds, I come with a greater vision, to the extent that I am in the process and have gotten a commitment from the National Judicial College, where I am a faculty member, to bring a course to Philadelphia. And in addition to bringing the course to Philadelphia, we are bringing judges from across the country and their families and their per diems to Philadelphia. And I hope to have venues such as the Constitution Center, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as well as the hotels, to share in the bounty that will hopefully bring Philadelphia to the forefront in that regard. And, lastly, I want to highlight one other thing, and that is the Family Court and my desire to make a full commitment to the Family Court system. As you may know, I was in my former life chief of the Defender Association's Family Court Division. And having been the on the bench now for the past 18 to 19 years, I am acutely aware of the needs of the Family Court system. 10 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 And I really want to let this body know that I am determined to do all that I can do as President Judge and as Chair of the Administrative Governing Board to do all that we can do to improve the services rendered; to, frankly, address the overcrowded conditions, and the myriad of problems that confront our community in that regard. And I am here to work with this Council in every way possible. And I thank you, therefore, for your time.
Thank you, Your Honor. I will tell you that I think you are going to do an outstanding job. And as I said, I want to again congratulate you. I know we attended a community meeting, and I know that the residents in that particular area were very, very impressed with you. So I think you are going to be great. Councilman Ramos.
Thank you, Madam President. I also want to take this opportunity 11 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 to congratulate the President of our court system, and also to say that he has gotten off to a very impressive start. He seems to know what are the issues in the system, because he served as a good jurist for a lot of years now, very much in tune with the public. I knew of his name, but I had never gotten to know him. And one day I am loading a truck with water, and there is this guy with his hat tucked down, and he is loading the truck with me, and him and some of his friends were heading towards Louisiana to a town outside of New Orleans that got hit very hard and devastated, as well. And then a few days later I saw his picture in the newspaper. I said, that looked like the guy with the hat tucked down and loading the truck with water. So I think it says a lot about the President of our courts. And welcome, and I know you will do a fantastic job for this city.
Thank you very, very much, Councilman. 12 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06
Thank you, Madam President. I won't match the eloquence or recital of the history of my colleague, Councilman Ramos. He did a very fine job. But I just wanted to acknowledge the President Judge and thank him for his continued service. I remember your election. And it is a pleasure to be here in this body with you at that table as the President Judge. And I just wanted to say congratulations and welcome.
You are welcome. Any other questions or comments by members of the committee? Seeing none. Again, Your Honor, I thank you and good luck.
Thank you. 13 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 MR. McPHERSON: The next department is the Clerk of Quarter Sessions.
It is my understanding that the witness, the Honorable Vivian T. Miller, is on her way here. She should be here momentarily. Ms. Reed, do you mind approaching the witness table, Councilman Nutter would like to, I guess, ask you a question or two or three.
Good morning, Ms. Reed. I know you wouldn't want to miss an opportunity to be at the table, so I figured I would be the person to give you that opportunity. Good morning.
I'm sure. Ms. Reed, I think it was either last week or the week before, there was discussion about the response to the Five-Year Plan by 14 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 PICA. And I believe I had asked if you might forward to the Chair a response to the five items that PICA has outlined as areas of concern. Have you had an opportunity to do that?
No. We are still talking with PICA about that. So, various people are working on it; it is not completed.
Okay. The second is, I think, prior to that I may have asked you for a list of city employees who live outside the city. Do you know if that's been put together?
No. I haven't seen the final letter, so maybe it has not been. But we certainly should be getting that over, because we do have that list.
Okay. You will 15 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 forward that to the President?
Thank you. That's all I have for the moment. So when do you think there will be an actual response to the five items as outlined in the PICA report?
End of the week. Okay. And then you will forward that to the Chair, as well?
Thank you. We will now hear from the Clerk of Quarter Sessions.
Good morning. I would ask you to identify yourself. We do 16 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 have copies of your testimony. A copy of it will be given to the stenographer. It will be transcribed in full, so I would ask you to please abbreviate your remarks.
I would ask you to abbreviate your remarks, but your testimony will be transcribed in full.
Good morning, President Verna and other distinguished Council Members. My name is Vivian Miller, I am the current elected Clerk of Quarter Sessions. I have with me my First Deputy, Lopez Jones; and my Second Deputy, Marc Gaillard. I am here for Fiscal 2006 budget. And what I am asking --
-- is that we be allowed to have 118 employees, as which was required of us -- given to us last fiscal. We have a level of one hundred and maybe ten, twelve employees. We are down some employees. We were given monies to hire six new employees. We have not -- we have not 17 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 received the money as of yet. And I am asking this Council to please help us to get these monies so that we can come to our current level of staffing.
Ms. Miller, while you are on the -- I would like to interrupt you for just a minute. As we read the budget as presented to us, it would appear that you are running on an average of 11 vacancies.
Now, I don't know whether that is a list problem, that there is not an existing list, or a finance problem that would not allow you to hire. Which problem is it?
It is both. What happens is, delayed hiring. We submit -- I believe I have some examples here. We have someone who has been out, retired in 2004, June of 2004. They have not been approved as of yet. The monies is not there. 18 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 So, therefore, it is what you called delayed hiring. We cannot hire anyone, if we do not have the monies. We were told that we would be given $174,000, that was last fiscal. We have not received that money. So, therefore, if the money is not there, we cannot hire the necessary --
The 174,000 that you are referring to, would that have allowed you to hire the 11 vacancy positions?
We are trying to go to the number of 118. We are 11 short. Those 19 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 vacancies I believe we can hire, but we needed more to make 118. 4 We are down, I guess our numbers was 5 down, like, 112, 112 employees. So we needed 6 6 more, would be 118. And that's what the $174,000 was for, was to cover those extra employees.
Madam President, my name is Lopez Jones, First Deputy. We have approximately 110 positions filled as we speak. What the clerk is trying to explain to you, when we got our fiscal budget, they appropriated approximately $4.3 million to hire employees for the Clerk of Quarter Sessions, but at that point the clerk wanted monies for 118 employees. So then she had meetings to try to get the money to take our staffing level up to 118 employees, and that's where the $174,000 figure came from.
I find this very confusing. I don't know if anybody has been 20 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 able to follow this through. Presently you have 110 employees. In your testimony you say you are running an average of approximately vacancies 6
And yet you said 8 earlier that you need 117 employees. 9
No, we were not. We were not. We were given money. And what happened was, it was for 107, I believe, employees. And we went and we had meetings, and we were appropriated more monies to accommodate the 118 employees. But, we never received the monies. So, therefore, we could not hire the other employees.
You know, I think we have been going through this just about every year. 21 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06
And I think it's just so outrageous that you have projected revenues generated by your office for '07 in the amount of $8,425,000. What is the Administration's recommended budget for your office in 2007? I have the answer, if you want me to give it to you. Do you want to give it to me, or --
If I am not mistaken, Madam President, I believe it is approximately $4.5 million.
So this office produces almost $3.8 million more than they spend.
So I would like Ms. Reed to please come up to the witness table. And can you tell us the rationale for holding up the filling of the positions that 22 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 Ms. Miller has referred to? I think it is absolutely absurd that we in fact could even be collecting more revenue, if we had the personnel to do it.
Dianne Reed, Budget Director. We agreed to fund the 118 positions in the '06 budget. These were awarded at the time of the target budget. And the additional funds were provided in the mid-year transfer ordinance.
I am sorry. You are going to have to repeat that. I was distracted.
I said, the 118 positions were agreed to at the time of the target budget last summer, and the additional funds were provided in the mid-year transfer ordinance.
That was true for everyone else. Everyone got their money in 23 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 the mid-year transfer ordinance, because we don't have another vehicle to do that.
Well, I wasn't aware that there was an issue, so this is the first that we are hearing about this issue.
Well, I think there has been an issue with the Clerk of Quarter Sessions office every year in the last several years, to my memory. And I think it is absurd. I mean, remember last year when she came in, she had a box with her. Vivian, do you want to explain what was in that box? It was monies that you could have been collecting, had you had the personnel to do it. And I'm sure it involved several million dollars, did it not?
If I may, Madam President, there were monies that was affiliated with the Clerk of Quarter Sessions that could have went to the City of 24 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 Philadelphia, if we would have had additional employees to do the job that was needed to do, that is correct.
And, as I said earlier, you are making more than $3.8 million in revenue, more than you spend.
If I might add, there has been a vendor that's been brought in to help put the collections, processing of all of this, into an electronic form. And the clerk is part of the case management system gap analysis that's underway for all the justice partners with respect to what the state wants the city to do. In May -- probably the First Judicial District will speak to this, as well -- the city has to comply with the statewide standards for data. And there will be further suggestions for assisting the clerk to streamline processes electronically coming forward in the next month or so through this study, which is being managed out of MOIS.
Ms. Miller, is 25 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 this the first time you are hearing this, or do you have knowledge of what's been going on?
No, we are aware of it. We are aware of it. They are trying to put into a system all this monies where they came in, we showed them, lie them out on the floor in boxes, that money can be put into the system and given to the city. So that's more revenue that we can generate, if it ever comes to pass. I don't know.
You are going to need somebody to enter that into the system, are you not?
And do you have the personnel that would be able to do that?
We do not. We do not have the personnel. That's part of the problem.
She does have the authorization for the personnel and has had since the beginning of the year.
I am sorry, I don't FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 believe that's true. I have here in front of me -- okay, maybe I can pass it up -- showing we had jobs back in June 2004 that has never been approved. November 2004, never approved, a court clerk, a payroll clerk. And October 2005, I believe we just got approved. So...
Jobs that we need to help generate revenue which has not been approved.
Well, the authorizations were there, the funding is there, the budget analyst approved the positions, and I approved the positions. So, I mean, we can sit down and go over these, if you would like to, in a side meeting. I think that might help.
I know. If it 27 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 weren't so sad, it would be... I just don't understand why we would hold up positions with a department, as I said, that produces almost $3.8 million more than they spend. And if, in fact, they had more personnel, they would be able to be generating that much more in revenue.
Council President, I think there is just a simple misunderstanding here. We haven't held up any requests. I'm sure we can show exactly the time line when we received the requests, when the analysis and approval through the staff was completed, and when I approved the positions. So I'm sure, to everyone's satisfaction, that can be determined.
Madam President, no 21 disrespect to Ms. Reed. But, again, the clerk specified, there was an employee that worked for the Clerk of Quarter Sessions that separated June of '04. And that position was just approved approximately three days ago. 28 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 So that speaks for itself.
Yes. The initial request was made, if I am not mistaken my notes state here, June of '04. And the 10 position was just approved approximately three 11 days ago.
Well, that was a prior fiscal year, so that was an entirely different set of approvals. I will have to look and see when the '06 budget request for that position was made, and when we filled it.
I am not going to dominate this for the moment. I will 29 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 recognize Councilman Kelly at this point.
Thank you, Madam President. Ms. Miller, according to your testimony, in 2005 you appropriate monies for the six additional employees. Could you tell me what the employees would be doing; in other words, what their job functions would be and what kind of impact this would have? Evidently it would have a negative impact on the performance of your office.
I believe four would be court clerks and two would be clerks.
Could you give me an estimate on how much additional revenue you would probably be receiving, if you did have the additional personnel that you requested? Just a ballpark figure. I am not holding you to it. In other words, right now you are --
We estimate about 30 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 another couple million dollars.
So it would be a 11 plus for the city, if you had the whole complement of 118 people; is that correct?
I just am bewildered at why we are just going through this. Each and every year we seem to hit this brick wall. Was there a freeze on at the time? Was there a personnel freeze on at the time? I don't know if Ms. Reed would answer that.
Dianne Reed, Budget Director. There has been a freeze in place since approximately Fiscal '01. And positions are only approved unless they are in the 31 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 excepted categories; such as dispatchers, you know, health and safety positions, they are approved by exception. And, so, that we meet with departments, we go over what their requirements are. Last year, in addition to the hiring freeze, we also had the position reduction, which --
Even though these positions can justify by actually increasing the revenue of the city? I mean, do you take that into account?
Yes, we did. And as I recall, we held the clerk harmless. She did not receive a cut in her budget, compared -- the 5 percent that everyone else got. But, let me just verify that.
Thank you. Thank you, Madam President. 32 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06
You are welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter.
Thank you, Madam President. Ms. Reed, why don't you stay. Let's just walk through this issue from last fiscal year. You made reference to the budget for the clerk's office being approved for FY '06. When was it approved, how much was it approved for, and what were the positions that you anticipated at that time?
Well, there was the budget approved by Council, as you know, last June. And in July we met with departments regarding a target budget which requested a proposal for how departments would accommodate at least a percent budgetary reduction. Most departments took those requested reductions in spending into account. We do that every year, and have done, you know --
You do the 33 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 target budget after we pass the budget?
Yes, we do. We ask people to come in under that, just to make sure we can get through the year in case our revenues might fall short.
Because we want to ensure that we will not end the year in a deficit, if we possibly can. So this is a budgeting -- a prudent budgeting strategy that the city has been using for several years.
So you went through the target budget process, and the agreement was for --
For 118 positions, funded at the amount that you see shown for '06.
Yes. And then we transferred additional funding in the mid year to make sure that the court could --
Let's stop right there. 34 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06
Fully fund those positions. And I don't have the transfer ordinance with me. I show what's shown in the December run that's here, which could be the same.
Let's back up a little bit. We pass the budget in June, you have a target budget conversation in July, the department agrees to it. The agreement is for 118 positions, you are saying, again at $4,347,650?
I don't have the target budget with me, so I will have to take a look at that.
So, but, in any event, apparently the department needed additional funding to ensure that they would have the personnel level at 118 positions?
So when we 35 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 returned in September, why didn't you send us a transfer ordinance to ensure that they would be able to hire the people earlier in the fiscal year, as opposed to our just passing the mid year in February?
I would imagine the reason is that, at that point in time it may not have been clear that additional funding was needed. I will have to see what the intervening number was. I don't know have it with me.
Wait a minute. You had the target budget meeting; right?
Right. And they were authorized to hire those positions since July 1.
But I thought your testimony was, they didn't have the money? How do you hire people with no money?
We transferred in 36 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 additional money for them in the transfer ordinance. I do not have the target budget or the transfer ordinance with me, so I can't track every number for you.
But we didn't pass the transfer ordinance until February.
This often happens to departments. They have to fund these positions on a temporary basis out of their other internal funding sources, and then we fully fund all of this in the transfer ordinance so that they can get back to a whole position vis-a-vis their internal funds.
Are you saying, without the mid-term transfer, the department could have funded the positions from other dollars?
I will have to look at the record and see what the exact transactions are.
Well, let me ask 37 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 this question: When you had the meeting on the target budget, and you agreed to the 118 positions, what was your recommendation at the time as to how they would go about hiring those individuals, if you also knew they needed additional funds, which you knew you were going to subsequently have to transfer to them?
What we said to the clerk at the time was, "Here is your budget, here is your authorized level. You figure out how to hire these out of your budget authorization, and we will hold you harmless in the mid-year transfer ordinance."
That's right. Because a lot of departments have to figure out how to make adjustments, if there are going to be some changes during the year.
Well, what's the role of the Budget Office in helping the departments to figure that out?
Every department has an 38 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 assigned budget analyst who works with them, you know, on a daily basis as needed.
So they either figure it out or they don't, and we either collect the additional revenues or we don't, and, I mean, life just goes on? I mean, is that the deal?
Did we collect the money? We kind of need money; right?
I think that accommodations were made so that, in fact, the backlog of clerk receipts were dispatched.
Do I understand that was because you hired somebody to do it?
I thought you said someone was hired to assist in that process? 39 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06
I think someone was. I will have to check. I don't remember the details on that.
Ms. Reed, you keep going back to the target budget. Isn't that the estimated obligation for '06?
No. The target budget amounts for some departments might have been lower or higher. And the target budget level is now adjusted to the same thing as the obligation level as of December.
It all plays into what our current estimate of fund balance is, which 40 FY '07 OPERATING BUDGET - 3/21/06 is higher, as you know, than in the original budget. This happens every year. There is nothing unusual in this process.