COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - BUDGET - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Monday, April 23, 2007 10:15 a.m. - - - PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT ANNA C. VERNA COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE BLACKWELL COUNCILMAN DARRELL L. CLARKE COUNCILMAN W. WILSON GOODE, JR. COUNCILMAN WILLIAM GREENLEE COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO BILLS 070114, 070115 and 070116 RESOLUTION 070128 - - - 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. This is the continued public hearing of the Committee of the Whole, and the first to be heard will be the City Commissioners. Good morning. Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony. I know these are hectic days for your department.
Yes. Good morning, Madam President. My name is Bob Lee. I'm the Voter Registration Administrator for the City Commissioners Office. I'm here to present testimony on our FY08 budget. The City Commissioners proposed General Fund spending level of $8,995,597 for FY08 is allocated as followed: Personnel services, $5,345,789; purchase of services, $3,048,011; materials and supplies, $551,652; and equipment, $50,145. Also within our budget are payment to other funds, and these are generally Help America Vote Act grant 3 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. funds. Although the level is listed there as $18,007,956, not all of those funds will be expended during this fiscal year. There are some funds that may carry over into the following fiscal year, and some of that money has already been spent for voter education programs in FY07.
So you feel as though the City Commissioners Office can live with the budget that's before them?
There are a number of concerns that we have and one is personnel levels. We feel since '95 with the addition of the National Voter Registration Act and all the mandates under that law and especially since January of '04 with the Help America Vote Act and January of '06 with implementation of a new statewide voter registration system and new requirements in processing registrations, that the staffing levels are barely minimal to 4 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. suffice right now. We are lucky this primary. The last day we only got about 2,800 paper applications. That's an abnormally low --
Paper voter registration applications. There have been mayoral primaries in the past or presidential generals where we've gotten as many as 30,000 to 40,000 on the last day. With our old county system, we were able to get 40,000, 35,000 in there in about six or seven days, get them in the system, get them processed so they would appear in the poll books. In the '06 general when we processed the work for the gubernatorial general, I believe we got about 13,000 the last day and we barely got them done 5 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. in six days, and that's because there are extra steps that we're required to take in processing an application before we can approve it and put on the rolls of Philadelphia. We have to check to make sure they're not registered anywhere in the Commonwealth before they can be approved here. And a lot of the processes in the statewide system require operator intervention. They require an operator to do it on screen, whereas some of the processes with our old county system and our old city system, it would be doing those tasks at night when we're all home in bed. They would be run by computer jobs and computer applications. The Commonwealth has finally realized that the system is not adequate for a jurisdiction our size. They know they have to go elsewhere. The contract is up in July of '07. So they've taken the option that they're going to use the current system and then try to improve it on their own. They're going to end the 6 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. contract with the vendor and improve it on their own. But there can be some pretty trying days, especially when we get around to the '08 presidential general. We may have some serious problems getting people on the rolls. It requires more people, more work stations. And the work stations naturally come from Harrisburg now, not from the City. There are some other issues. I mean, we're always getting sued. We don't conduct elections here; we litigate them. But we have a new lawsuit that was just filed regarding polling place accessibility, even though we just finished one. The U.S. Justice Department is here and we're working on a settlement agreement regarding bilingual assistance and assistance for disabled. So all of these things are requiring that we implement new programs that are going to cost us more money. For instance, this year, this November, we're going to be providing a cell phone 7 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. to every polling place. That cell phone is to be used to contact our office but, more importantly, to comply with the agreement. If someone comes at a polling place and they do not speak English, we are using a contract interpretation service where the judge can contact that service over the phone and they'll interpret any one of 173 languages so that the voter is able to get information in their native language and then go ahead and vote without trouble. We have to put many more bilingual English-Spanish translators on the street. We're estimating we're going to have to cover about 300 divisions. We have to put some Asian interpreters out as well. So all these things are increased costs and increased work. Just the time to get the cell phones prepared to distribute and get them back and make sure you get them back is a job in itself. 8 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC.
Mr. Lee, with all of that being said, I will ask you, can you live with the budget that's before you at the present time?
I wasn't involved in preparing the total numbers on this, so I'll have to say yes, but I would like to see our employees up at 190.
Can you tell us what the $18 million in the Grants Revenue Fund payment to other funds is for?
They're Help America Vote Act grant funds. At one point, nine million was to be used for what they call Title III requirements, and that was used -- we used approximately $693,000 of that on a continuing basis. We're still using that money to bring in additional employees and fund those employees with these federal grant funds, provided those employees are solely working on new tasks that are required by the Help America 9 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. Vote Act. We hired five full-time employees on that. Right now we also have five temporary employees that are being paid out of that fund. That money was also used to conduct approximately a half a million dollar voter education program before the '04 general election, where we mailed a voter ed card to every voter before the election telling them where to go vote, whether they needed to bring ID, about their right to vote by provisional ballot. That program again was repeated before the '06 federal general. Much of the 1.9 is pretty much spent, except for the money we have in reserve to pay for these HAVA employees going out another year probably. There are some funds there -- there was 5.3 million that was set aside by Congress as a direct reimbursement to the county for replacing its lever machines. Ninety percent of that money is here in Philadelphia, it's in our bank 10 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. account in the Election Fund account and is probably ready to be transferred over to the City. The state withholds ten percent until the entire program is done, which could be as late as June of '09. But 90 percent of that 5.3 million grant is in the account right now. There will be additional funds that will be used to reimburse the City for procurement of the electronic machines and get rid of the lever machines, and that's approximately 6.8 million. Those funds are not here yet, although we've requested they be distributed to Philadelphia. That request went in in September. They're still reviewing the request, because there's a lot of different facets and a lot of other expenditures on that list and an extraordinary amount of documentation that has to go along with it to get the money out. I would hope that that 6.8 million probably should arrive in Philadelphia the end of April, 11 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. mid May, and my hope is because in that request there's also money -- (Council President Verna speaking without microphone.)
I haven't been told anything. All I know is, I have the 4.8 million in the bank and it's there now. The 6.8 should be down here in about a month. When we're told where that money goes, then I'll write a distribution approval form for the three Commissioners assigned to give to our Budget Officer and she would go through and work with Finance on transferring the money.
Is Ms. Reed in the audience? Ms. Reed, good morning. I'm sure you heard all of the testimony. Can you tell us where the $6.8 million once 12 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. received will go? Will that go into the General Fund or where will that be used?
Dianne Reed, Budget Director. When the funds are received, the loan item in the capital budget for the voting machines will be credited. This is not a General Fund expenditure. And the appropriation level of 11 million, there could be a little 12 over-appropriation in there. That was in 13 anticipation of how much money we would 14 be receiving. 15 And we still need to decide 16 what to do if there is any margin left 17 over, whether we're going to defease the 18 bonds or spend that capital money some way. If we decide to spend it, we will be coming back to City Council for approval. We will be coming back to City Council for approval for a spending decision in capital if that's what is decided.
I'm 13 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. sorry. You said that would go into the credit accounts?
It would credit the loan item in the capital budget for the voting machines. So that money has already been spent. That has to be credited, and then the decision has to be made whether to use the remaining, whatever may be remaining, to defease or to bring back to Council for a decision on the capital spending option, whatever that might be at the time.
I still have a lot of questions on this. I will not pursue it because I understand the Library is next to testify. Mayor Goode is here to also testify and he has a commitment at 11 o'clock. But we will have to talk about this further.
The Chair recognizes Councilman Rizzo. Well, since he's on the phone, Councilman Greenlee. 14 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC.
Thank you, Madam President. Very briefly. The provisional ballot, how would you characterize -- have they been working the way they were designed? Are most people once they're turned in, are those votes counted or are a lot of them not filed correctly?
It's a two-edged sword. Under the whole process here, if you went to your polling place and you were not in the book and you went to a court and got a court order, you went back to the polling place and voted on the machine, your vote was counted.
It was there. This process now is, you don't have to go to court. You have the convenience of voting on the provisional ballot at the polling place. When those ballots come back, we check to make sure, number one, you're registered and, number two, we compare your -- if you are 15 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. registered, we compare the districts you're qualified to vote in in your home precinct with the ones in the district where you actually cast a ballot. And under the law, we count the ones that you're qualified to vote on had you voted in your home precinct. The concern with provisional ballots is that they are subject to challenge. So, I mean, any time after the election, if it's a close election, every one of those ballots is something to challenge and may not be counted, depending on the type of challenge. There's a lot more steps involved in casting the ballot. They have to fill out an affidavit, sign an affidavit. And there's possibilities of challenging because of their incompleteness on the affidavit, whereas before they would vote on the machine. So I have mixed feelings about whether it's better for the voter or not. It does work. It costs us a lot of money 16 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. and a lot of time. We take and put 20 people on that job. We get ten days to unpack 70,000 provisional ballots, sort them and account for all the ballots, whether they're blank, spoiled or voted, see if they're registered, what districts they live in, determine what we're going to count, mark the secrecy envelope so we know what to count, separate the secrecy envelope from the name so we don't know how somebody voted, then take the ballot out and if they're not qualified for anything, you got to over-vote them by running a marker through them for what they're not qualified for. Then you have to scan them and resolve under-votes and over-votes on the screen. It's a lot more work than it was had somebody gotten a court order, vote and the vote was in the machine.
And I would advise any voter, if you're at the wrong polling 17 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. place, don't vote the provisional ballot. Find out where you belong. Find out where your name is in the book and put your vote on the machine.
I wonder if that was the bigger problem. Sometimes they're using it as almost convenience rather than going to where they're supposed to be voting.
I haven't seen evidence of that. One thing I fear when they started this, that everybody who worked in Philadelphia and lived in the surrounding counties would pop into a Philadelphia polling place at quarter to 8:00 and vote for Governor. But fortunately, when they passed the Pennsylvania version, if you vote in a county in which you do not reside, that provisional ballot is not counted. And it also would prevent any case of double voting. But in the November 2004 general for President, we had 12,002 18 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. provisional ballots. We counted approximately 6,300 of those. The remaining were either registered out of the county or they were not registered anywhere at all. And we do an extensive check. We have one crew check them first, and anybody we're getting ready to reject and not count, we have supervisors go through and review them a second time just to make sure that we're not disenfranchising anybody. But it's best to make sure that they find out where to vote and vote on the machine.
Right. Got you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman Rizzo.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning. And, again, your 19 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. organization does great work and I know it is a hectic job. I have a question. I got an e-mail from a constituent. Was there ever a time, Mr. Lee, where the voter registration forms, the postage was paid for those?
Yeah, there was, and that's been quite a while ago. What happened was the state prints and provides the voter registration mail application, and at one time, they were printing and providing a separate form for each of the 67 counties with a postage paid on the envelope so that the voter or the applicant wouldn't have to pay postage. When the NVRA, or the National Voter Registration Act, came in in 1995, they changed the law and they changed their process so that they now provide one uniform form or application form throughout the Commonwealth, and because it's uniform across the Commonwealth, 20 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. they eliminated the prepaid postage and the process of maintaining 67 different postage accounts in each of the counties. So that was a decision that was made by the Commonwealth.
If someone would drop one -- and I'm not suggesting people listening or watching. If someone would accidentally assume that it's postage paid, do you accept them?
We accept anything anybody delivers to us. The question is will the mailman deliver it. Sometimes I've seen some come in without postage on it from the mail. Other times I've gotten complaints from voters that they were returned to them.
You would think, though, if an error -- most people, businesses at least, if something is mailed to them, they at least have the option to accept the pay to postage. It will say postage due. And the reason I'm asking that question is, that's exactly 21 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. what happened. A person mailed their voter registration card a few days before the due date and they wound up getting it back and now they're not registered to vote.
If it's post marked, then you can show me the post mark and I'll take it.
My question, is it fair to say that that document can be mailed with one first class stamp on it?
And it is throughout the Commonwealth all voter registration, all the counties have the 22 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. same deal, there's nobody that has prepaid?
No. It's the same throughout the state. The state changed that back in 1996.
Could you possibly check to see? And I'm not suggesting everybody just dump them in the mailbox without postage, but if one would come rather than the post office returning it, that they give the option, especially when we're getting close to the deadline, that we assume the -- I don't know how big a financial burden that would be, but rather than return it, accept it and if there was postage due, to pay the postage.
We have a business reply account that we use for mandated voter removal programs. We're required to send them a postage envelope. If they were to present me with an application, I would just advise them to charge it against that account. 23 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC.
I can contact the post office that handles our work and ask them what they're doing. I do know when they first changed it, unfortunately there were still a lot -- you know, these forms sit around for ages. There are still prepaid forms from '94 laying around in committeemen's homes or something. The first couple months we had a big problem, because when the post office got that and the state had closed the account, they were boxing all them applications up and shipping them down to Atlanta. And when we finally found out what was going on, we called their office in Atlanta and had them ship everything up, and we got two full boxes of applications from them.
It's a shame to see a new resident of the City, assuming they should have paid attention, 24 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. but they didn't, they put it in the mail thinking it was -- because I think a committeeman told him that it was postage paid, and they got it back --
I'm sure you're going to have a few busy days ahead of you. And, again, thanks.
Are there any other questions of this witness? (No response.)
Thank you. MR. McPHERSON: The next department is the Free Library.
President, as always, good to see you. 25 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC.
Thank you. I understand that you have a commitment, so I'm sure that if you have testimony, Mr. Shelkrot would not object to your going first.
I want you to keep your o'clock 10 appointment. 11
Thank you so much. Good morning, Council President Verna and members of City Council. I'm W. Wilson Goode, Sr., Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Free Library of Philadelphia. It is a pleasure to appear before you this morning and to report on the state of the Library. In a word, it is outstanding. There are many things that make up the fabric of a vibrant city, and I can think of few more important than the thriving Library system. And the Free Library of Philadelphia system is thriving and an 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. institution that we can all be proud of. The Free Library provides our citizens with a wide range of materials, programs for young people and adults, access to the Internet and so much more. In just the past year, we have hosted John Hope Franklin, Barack Obama and Norman Mailer at the lecture series. We've won awards for our children program from the Pennsylvania Library Association and from the Library of Congress and for the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. We've developed cutting-edge programs to address the national shortage of librarians, particularly minority librarians, and to equip our young people with the knowledge and skills to deal with conflict in a non-violent manner. This past weekend we hosted the first ever Philadelphia Book Festival. More than 25,000 people were in and around the Central Library. And I know Elliot will share more about this 27 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. successful event when he talks with you. These and many more achievements are laying the groundwork for the construction of a spectacular addition to the Central Library, which will enhance the services we provide to all of our citizens. The new library will increase access to the Library collections. It will include a new teen center and a new children's department. It will be a new public meeting space, and the number of PCs, personal computers, available to the public will increase. My thanks to Mayor John Street and City Council for their early commitment to this project and your belief that Philadelphia deserves a world-class Central Library. In closing, I want to acknowledge some news that you already know. After 20 years of dedicated service to the Free Library, the City of Philadelphia and, most importantly, to 28 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. its citizens, Elliot Shelkrot has advised me that he will be retiring at the end of 2007. During his tenure, the Free Library has taken on new roles, expanded its vision and programming, and met the challenge of meeting the needs of citizens of this citizens change in population. Elliot has poised the Free Library to build an addition to the Central Library. It is a record of achievement. And I want to publicly thank Elliot for all he has contributed over the past two decades and for leaving us, though not for some months now, in a position to move the library forward and becoming the library of the future. Thank you, Madam President, for your courtesy, and I'll be glad to answer any questions at this time.
Well, I am sure that if there are any questions to be had, Mr. Shelkrot can answer them, unless you want to just wait and hear 29 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. what some of the questions are.
Thank you, Madam President. I will wait for a few more minutes.
Very good. Mr. Shelkrot, we do have copies of your testimony, so if you would like to abbreviate them, we will make certain that the stenographer transcribes them in full. And I'm so sorry to hear that you will be leaving. You've done a fantastic job and I want to publicly thank you.
Thank you very much, Council President. As you know, I'm Elliot Shelkrot. I am President of the Free Library of Philadelphia and I'm here to testify on the 2008 Operating Budget. And I will not go through all of the details. I will just hit some of the high points. But first let me thank Dr. Goode for his kind remarks and you, 30 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. Council President Verna, for your remarks. It's been a -- well, to use a very trite phrase, a labor of love. I believe that libraries can do so much for people to give them the kind of information, ideas and inspiration that people need. And we've accomplished a great deal because of the support from Council and because of the support of a wonderful and creative staff and our Board of Directors and Board of Trustees. When I came here years ago, 15 there was no Ogontz Library, there was no 16 Independence Branch, that Changing Lives 17 campaign that redid all of the branches 18 and put technology into them wasn't even 19 a gleam in anybody's eye. And now, as 20 many of you know, there are more than seven million items borrowed from our libraries, including CDs, DVDs, and all of our libraries are open on Saturday. And this is due to the support of City Council and the Mayor and, as I said 31 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. earlier, a wonderful staff and a Board -- both the staff and the Board coming up with ideas of how we can do better. In Fiscal '08 we're requesting a $40.6 million General Fund budget to provide the highest level of service possible for Philadelphia. In the Mayor's report on City services, 87 percent of the respondents said that they were very satisfied with the Library's services and the website. Ninety-two percent said they appreciated the help from personnel. I might also add that the City now has -- the libraries now have some 851 PCs and enable the Library to be the largest provider of free Internet access in the City. Our after-school program continues to be successful with 85,000 young people, with homework help, as well as with other educational activities. And a recent program, the Philadelphia Partnership for Peace, a federally funded 32 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. program, collaborates with the House of Umoja, Atwater Kent Museum and WXPN working to help young people learn the skills of resolving conflicts. We're also pushing to have a greater variety of non-English materials, in Spanish, Chinese, Polish, Arabic and others, to respond to the changing needs of the people in our neighborhoods. I might also add that we now have downloadable audio books, music and soon have downloadable videos. I might mention -- well, I thought maybe Councilman Rizzo was here. I was going to assure him that we would have no 17 downloadable X-rated videos. And the most recent proof of the value of the website, last month in March we had over ten million hits to that website. And the Book Festival that was held this last weekend was just an amazing success, over 25,000 people, as I understand it from the estimators, and one of the neatest things was hearing 33 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. people say to me as one woman did, I've been meaning to go to the New York Book Festival for the last several years. Now I don't have to go there. We have our own Philadelphia Book Festival. The children in the children's department and out at the stage, everybody was -- it was just a -- the Library was bubbling over into the streets and all around the Library. So it was very exciting. And in terms of any details in the budget, I'd be happy to answer any of the questions that you or other members of Council may have.
Thank you. I'm just realizing this will be the last budget hearing that you will be attending, and I'm sure you're probably saying, Am I ever grateful for that. Mr. Shelkrot, you mention in your testimony that you are being reduced by ten full-time positions in FY08. You 34 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. don't have to do this now if you don't have the information at hand, but can you tell us the titles of these positions?
Oh, well, as a matter of fact, I don't have the specific titles. I know that we believe that with some tightening up of processes and a variety of other things, that we will be able to continue the excellent service that we've been providing. But I will look -- I can get information on those titles for you another time.
Would you please mail that information to me? Thank you. You indicate that you will absorb this decrease through attrition and new efficiencies. I would like to know -- and I think I want it to be made very clear -- that you're saying that this reduction will have no operational impact on the Free Library.
This reduction will have no impact on the services that 35 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. the people of Philadelphia receive from the Library, and that is what we intend and we believe that is accomplishable.
Can you tell the members of Council how many emergency branch closings have occurred so far this year and what were the reasons for the closures?
I can tell you -- I will turn to staff to see if they can give us the exact number of emergency closings, but I can tell you that they are, of course, as a result of building emergencies and in some cases because we don't have -- we can't get staff there quick enough to get the library opened.
Mr. McPeak will respond. MR. McPEAK: Good morning, Council President.
Good 36 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. morning. MR. McPEAK: My name is Joe McPeak. I'm the Operations Director for the Free Library of Philadelphia.
Welcome. MR. McPEAK: And I can affirm along with Mr. Shelkrot that our emergency closings have been due almost entirely to building emergencies. We've had a number of floods in the Independence Branch. We've had closures due to HVAC problems. These were unanticipated closures that occurred which resulted in branches closing for anywhere for two, three weeks, one branch closing for a month. So the closings have been due almost entirely to building emergency situations.
They have nothing to do with the shortage of personnel? MR. McPEAK: No. Very few. And when we have shortages of personnel, 37 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. by and large, although not in all instances, we redeploy people from our regional libraries to our branches to cover. Sometimes there's an hour or two gap when that happens in the morning, but most of our emergency closings have been due to buildings emergencies this fiscal year.
Mr. Shelkrot, you mention on your testimony that you hope to break ground on the expansion of the Central Library in 2008. Has the parking issue been resolved, and, if so, how?
Council President, I'd like to ask Linda Johnson, the CEO of our Foundation, who is managing the Central Library project and all of its components, fundraising and all. 38 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. So, Linda.
My name is Linda Johnson. I'm the CEO of the Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation, and in that capacity, I'm responsible for the design and construction of the new addition, as well as the fundraising, both annual and capital campaign. With respect to the parking issue, it's clearly at the top of our priority list, and since taking on this responsibility, I have had several meetings on this issue with neighboring property owners, in particular those who are interested in working with us to resolve the issue. There are several developers who own property to the north of Callowhill Street that might be interested in such a project. They are currently in the stage of their planning 39 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. where they have flexibility to incorporate parking into the plans that they have to develop their sites. At this point, we do not have any concrete plans, but I will tell you that as recently as two weeks ago we've been meeting on this issue, as we do consider it to be one of our top priorities.
I'll proceed because other members may have -- excuse me. Just remain, please. Councilman Clarke.
Thank you. I just wanted to, while Ms. Johnson is up, I wanted to follow up on the parking issue, if I may. There was a forum recently at the Library on parking, and at that time, was there any discussion, any level of specificity about the proposed parking 40 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. opportunities, or did we just kind of just give a general --
-- was not involved in the forum. It may have been before my tenure began.
This is Elliot Shelkrot. There was a forum at one of the other Parkway institutions. It wasn't at the Library, but it had to do with the report that was done by the Planning Commission and the Department of Commerce.
And at that time, there have been -- that report does indicate a specific number of spots that 41 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. is believed to be necessary for the neighborhood as a whole, and at this point, it's not just the Library's need, it's other neighboring institutions as well, and so I have, in addition to talking to developers, been working with our neighbors to see if we can't work together to meet the total demand.
All right. Well, let me understand this, because I know early on when the discussion about the expansion came to me and then subsequently to Barnes, discussion came to me and it was clearly a parking issue. And I said at the time that I wasn't comfortable with proceeding on either one of those projects until we had a reasonable parking strategy. It was my understanding that we were going to adopt an approach that would look at parking for all of the institutions to accommodate the existing need, because we already have a parking problem currently, and then the subsequent needs once these 42 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. things get developed. So are you saying that the Library is working on parking solutions separate and aside from that broader plan or are you going to be a part of that plan?
We're looking at both. We hope to be able to work in conjunction with our neighbors. That would be the ideal situation. We're a little bit further out than the other institutions in terms of our planning, but as I've told them, I have the fortitude to wait if need be, because I think it's important that we do work together. We'll obviously come up with a better solution that way.
Okay. The only reason I ask that question, because the assumption is that at some point it's going to cost the government in terms of subsidizing the parking, and I would really like to see some sort of consolidated effort, because I know -- 43 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC.
We are aware, Councilman, of your very strong and specific direction to us that prior to proceeding with this project, that you wanted a plan for parking, and you may recall that we also met with the Mayor in a meeting on this.
And so we are very, very clear of your strong desire to have a comprehensive plan on parking prior to proceeding with the construction.
All right. I guess what I'm just trying to get a -- thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to get a sense that we're coordinating these efforts together so we can kind of feed off each other.
Because I've seen some of the report and I know the hope is with the advent of the Art Museum parking, that that will alleviate 44 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. some of the parking needs. And then there's going to be this issue with respect to changing dollars on a number of the on-street parking to accommodate some needs.
I think the City owns maybe two or three parcels just north where there's some potential for some parking.
Thank you. It is said that the ground-breaking will take place in 2008. When do you expect the project to be completed? 45 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC.
Schedule -- (continued) is planned for a 27-month period, and that's if all goes exactly as planned.
Can you tell us what the projected budgetary impact to the Central Library will be when this project is completed?
We believe that the impact will be a five to eight percent increase over the current budget.
Have additional funds been added to the out years of the Five-Year Plan for the expanded facility?
I believe that's 46 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. a question we'd have to ask the City Budget Office. I don't know if the Budget Director is here still.
Yes. Ms. Reed, front and center, please. Did you hear the question?
Dianne Reed, Budget Director. Yes, thanks, I did. The Five-Year Plan is flat in the out years. I think that future Councils will need to decide what is going to be done at the point that the expansion is completed and it's time to add staff.
If you put the expansion, how do you not put the people? It certainly should appear in the Five-Year Plan.
We're not exactly sure what the timing will be for the completion, and given the constraints of the budget, there is no opportunity to do that. 47 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC.
Ms. Reed, do you think it's going to take more than five years before this project is completed?
I really don't know, but I think the fundraising is not completed and so to me it's unclear exactly what the timing will be.
I think it was mentioned when the anticipated completion date will be. Would you mind repeating that, please.
Twenty-seven months from the breaking of ground, which is expected to be at the end of 2008.
-- Fiscal '12 budget. I don't think we want to put five percent in the budget now for something that's that speculative. We also cannot do that because we have very 48 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. huge tax cuts in those years, $50 million of wage tax cuts in both years, for a total of 150 million out of the budget.
Well, the question becomes why are you doing the expansion?
No, no, no. I don't think you're the Finance Director.
The expansion is an initiative of the Library, and the City is making a contribution to that both directly from debt and also, I think, possibly through the $150 million borrowing. There's also been a proposal to PICA. The City is trying to get funding in place to do this. We don't know what the prospects are.
I just don't understand the logic here again. Don't we own the Library?
Ms. Reed, I don't want to keep everybody waiting. This is another issue that we're going to have to discuss. So I am sure that before this budget is passed, we're going to have to sit down and see just where we're going. Any questions of Mr. Shelkrot?
A quick comment, kind of backing up what you said earlier. I just wanted to say to Mr. Shelkrot congratulations on the great job you've done for these years. As 19 the Inquirer said, the libraries around 20 the City look much different when you first took over, and all those changes have been overwhelmingly positive. And if we're going to tackle some of the problems in the City with crime and whatever, some of those programs that you 50 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. have put in place in libraries over the years will hopefully be a big step towards that. So on behalf of everybody, thank you.
Any other questions for the Free Library? (No response.)
Seeing no one, thank you very much, Mr. Shelkrot.
Again, thank you and good luck to you. MR. McPHERSON: The next department is the Civil Service Commission.
Good morning. Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Good morning. I'm Tanya Smith, Personnel Director, acting 51 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. for Chair of Civil Service Commission, Repsie Warren.
We do have copies of your testimony. I would ask you to please abbreviate and we'll make absolutely certain that the stenographer transcribes your testimony in full.
Okay. Thank you. The total budget request for the Civil Service Commission is $169,209, which consists of $142,000 in Class 100; $24,500 in Class 200; $2,062 in Classes 300 and 400, and it represents an increase of $5,486 over FY07, which will be used to reflect the negotiated wage increases for Civil Service staff. The Commission in FY07 received 66 appeals and issued 41 opinions and orders resolving appeals, and some of the opinions and orders related to appeals were initiated in FY06. With this budget, the Commission can continue its important 52 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. work of assuring the preservation of the Philadelphia merit system, as mandated by the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter. And that concludes the testimony.
Thank you very much. How many residency waivers have you granted this year and what are the position titles of the waivers granted?
I'll get that for you in one minute. There were seven class waivers granted in 2006 for Electrician I and II, Firearms Examiner, Local Area Network Administrator, Programmer Analyst I, Programmer Analyst Trainee and Water Technology Assistant.
And I'm sorry. I was distracted. Do you mind telling us again what those positions were?
No problem. Electrician I and II, Firearms Examiner, Local Area Network Administrator, Programmer Analyst I, Programmer Analyst Trainee and Water Technology Assistant.
All right. Now, with the seven waivers, do we give those employees a year to move in the City?
Yes. These were all recruitment waivers requiring that each of these employees that receive a waiver move in the City within one year.
We follow up, meaning the Personnel Department. We work with the Commission. When the waivers are expired or going to expire, we send notification to the departments 54 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. where these employees are residing.
Can you explain for the record what personal services contracts the Commission approves?
And can you also tell us how many have been granted this year?
There were ten personal services contracts awarded in this fiscal year.
Can you get us a listing of the contracts and the dollar limit?
Thank you. Are there any questions from members of the Committee? (No response.)
One thing I have to add, Commissioner Warren wanted me to 55 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. point out that there were residency waivers rescinded in 2006 as well.
You're welcome. 14 MR. McPHERSON: The next 15 department is the Department of 16 Personnel. 17
Good morning, President Verna and members of City Council. I am Tanya D. Smith, Director of the Personnel Department. With me today is Deputy Personnel Director Celia O'Leary. I am here to present testimony in support of the Department's Operating 56 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. Budget request for $5,298,426 for Fiscal Year 2008. Our proposed budget contains $4,098,488 in Class 100; $722,530 in Class 200; $55,609 in Classes 300 and 400; and $421,799 in Class 800, which is related to the repayment of the Productivity Bank loan to implement an up-to-date human resources information system. Our total budget reflects an increase of $338,386 over FY2007 and a significant amount of this increase is reflected in our Class 800 expenditure. The mission of the Personnel Department is to attract, select and retain a qualified and diverse and effective workforce to support the goals of the City. This mission is a critical component in any plan to maintain quality services to the citizens of Philadelphia in an environment where we, like many other major cities, often experience a scarcity of resources. I would like to describe for you some highlights of 57 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. programs and initiatives planned or underway to ensure our mission's success. In the area of strategic staffing, in FY2007 testimony, we reported that the Personnel Department was in the process of establishing a Strategic Staffing Unit. This unit is now in place and is a general planning process that results in a workforce with the right mix of people and skills to achieve the goals and objectives of an organization at the right time. This new approach will assist departments facing continuing turnover resulting from the DROP program and other workforce issues through the tracking and analysis of employment data and consideration of internal and external recruitment and employment factors. The unit will work to ensure that qualified and timely replacements are available to fill critical positions; that realistic staffing projections are provided for budget purposes; that 58 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. recruitment resources are effectively used; that more focused investments are made in training, retraining and developing employees; and that the City's diversity profile is appropriately maintained and that our stakeholders and customers are satisfied. Additionally, related to those goals, the Personnel Department recently began to establish a citywide Recruitment Advisory Council composed of staff from City operating departments to address those occupations that continue to present hiring challenges. This Council will be charged with sharing information, knowledge and resources to cooperatively work to attract and retain a diverse and qualified workforce. Initial efforts will be targeted at improving recruitment of candidates for positions in the skilled trades. In the area of ethics training, throughout Fiscal Year 2007, the Personnel Department, in collaboration 59 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. with the Ethics Board, supported the delivery of ethics training to the entire City workforce. To date, 23,421 City of Philadelphia employees have received this training. In regard to health and welfare, the Personnel Department continues to administer a comprehensive benefits program for about 7,000 City employees and a life insurance program for over 39,000 represented employees and retirees. We continue to negotiate aggressively with our medical insurance providers at each annual renewal, and bid out coverage when appropriate. For Calendar Year 2006, the City Administered Plan realized over $4 million in savings by negotiations resulting from a bid process. For the Calendar Year 2007, the City Administered Plan achieved $800,000 in savings through renewal negotiations and the awarded vendor. In 2008, the prescription drug coverage may be put out to bid. Although 60 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC.
this coverage was bid for the 2006 year, the current medical carrier has developed its own prescription drug plan that has potential to achieve CAP savings. Enhanced employee health management strategies will also be investigated for potential future savings. This could entail improved disease management programs for employees with specific health issues and/or employee consumerism education programs. Such programs promote better health management by educating employees regarding questions to ask their doctors, providing information on generic drugs and mail order, pharmacy programs and encouraging completion of health risk assessments to guide positive changes. For example, in an effort to support the Administration's goal of promoting healthy life-style choices, the Personnel Department partnered with the Mayor's Office of Health and Fitness and conducted two health fairs for City 61 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. employees providing healthy diet information, medical screenings and numerous other informational services directed at health maintenance and illness prevention. In the area of the Human Resources Information System, the implementation of a new HRIS system has begun in order to replace the current system, which was installed in 1980. Following approval of this project by City Council in the fall of 2006, the Personnel Department and MOIS have partnered to identify a qualified project team of City and consultant resources to implement the Oracle HRIS. When completed, this system will reduce the number of resources needed for the administrative tasks of Personnel management, such as address changes, pay step increases, benefits selection, beneficiary updates and so on. Current processes will be streamlined and reports will be readily available, reducing and 62 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. eliminating the need for small HR systems many departments have adopted. Reporting and analysis of employee data will also become available and more powerful as a result of the new HRIS capabilities. The Personnel Department staff continues to serve as advisors and consultants to many employees, supervisors, managers, human resource generalists and members of the general public, who frequently turn to us for information and guidance on how best to achieve their goals while maintaining the integrity of the City's merit system. This function pervades every aspect of our business. We value and take pride in our ability to serve in this capacity, and endeavor to continually improve the quality and quantity of information we are asked to provide. This concludes my testimony. Thank you for your attention, and I would be happy to answer any questions that you may have at this time. 63 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC.
Thank you very much. What is the minimum funding for your department as required by the Home Rule Charter?
It's one half of one percent of funds appropriated by City Council for salaries for folks in the Civil Service. I'm sorry. Celia O'Leary, Deputy Personnel Director.
Thank you. Does this budget comply with the Charter?
Traditionally it has not met the one and one half percent allocation.
Well, how can you not? If it is required by the Home Rule Charter, how could you not meet that requirement? 64 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC.
We work with the allocation that we are granted by the Office of Budget.
But aren't you required to give one half of one percent -- or receive?
So are we saying the Home Rule Charter doesn't mean anything?
No, we're not saying that the Home Rule Charter does not mean anything.
Is that your doing or is it the Department of Finance's doing?
I'm not exactly sure where the shortfall or why the allocation is not as per the Home Rule Charter.
Okay. I don't want to put you on the spot. I would ask Ms. Reed to please 65 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. come up front and center, please. Do you have an opinion from the City Solicitor that you could do less than required from the Home Rule Charter?
Dianne Reed, Budget Director. I will have to check on that. I know this subject has come up before. It may just be the result of the budget strictures that we live with, but I will find out and get back to you.
I will have to get back to you on that. I understand the question.
I don't know what budget constraints could allow us not to do the requirement of the Home Rule Charter. I have expressed my concerns over the -- just remain there, Ms. Reed. I have expressed my concerns over the availability of the EMS 66 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. positions with the Fire Department. Will you explain for the record how you recruit these positions and the availability of the lists? Ms. Reed, I think the issue -- while you're looking for an answer, I just want to remind Ms. Reed, I think this is a very serious problem about not meeting the requirements of the City Charter and we would like something in writing from you, because I cannot believe that the City -- unless you have an opinion from the City Solicitor that you want to provide us, that would be fine.
Certainly. For some time, I have been expressing my concerns about the 67 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. availability of EMS positions within the Fire Department. Please explain for the record how you recruit for these positions and the availability of a list.
The Fire Department does the actual recruiting for the paramedic positions in government and we assist them by providing or correlating when we announce the exam during the time that they're actually doing their recruitment. We do have a list that was established for fire paramedic. It was established on October 26th and expires on October 25th of '08. There are currently eligibles on that list, and 18 the Fire Department is currently processing that entire list for hire, and we are going to reannounce early this year.
Can you tell us how many vacancies we have in the Fire Department for EMS?
For paramedics, I 68 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. am not sure. I can get that information for you.
I don't know how many vacancies currently exist for the paramedic title. I can get that information for you.
Yes. What they're doing actually, they're processing the entire list for hire, meaning that they're going through the processing phase.
If my memory serves me, I think there were about 30 vacancies, and if you're exhausting a list of 16, that still leaves us with quite a few vacancies.
We have to -- what we do, we look at the number of approved vacancies submitted by the Budget Bureau, and the number of approved I think that we saw -- this was dated -- I didn't look at the numbers recently. There were about approved vacancies and we had a 11 list of 18, which is why we're 12 reannouncing. So we weren't that far 13 off. I don't know what the need has been 14 expressed, but the number of approved 15 vacancies, that's usually our trigger to 16 start doing the hiring process. 17
I have my Uniform 23 Hiring Manager here. I want to call him 24 up so he can answer that question.
Good 70 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. morning.
Good morning. Mark O'Connor, Hiring Services Manager. We're going to be reannouncing fire service paramedic in May for application.
We're going to be reannouncing fire service paramedic for application in May. We're going to be opening it up for application again.
And if you open it up in May, when do you anticipate you would have a new list?
Well, as you mentioned, there has been some difficulty recruiting for this position. So when that is the case, we tend to leave a position open for application somewhat longer than we normally would. So my anticipation is that we would do recruitment during about a six-week open period. So my anticipation is that we 71 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. would have a new list sometime in July.
Well, the issue is recruitment, you're correct. So we do need some time built in after we announce this to do outreach, to do advertising, to make sure that we get into the community, to make sure that we get some qualified individuals to take the test.
Do you wait until your list is exhausted before doing that?
No, we don't. The that the Personnel Director 17 mentioned, those 18 are with the Fire 18 Department at this moment. They haven't hired them yet. They are actually processing them as we speak. So those 18 -- it's going to take a while to do the interviews and the medicals and what-have-you. So until they hire those people, we still do have a list.
Walk 72 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. me through the process, if you will. A test is given.
The applicant passes the test. What happens then?
The applicant must take a medical, a medical evaluation. For fire service paramedic, there is also a background check that must be done. That piece of it is handled by the Fire Department. Okay? Once that happens, there's an interview. Fire personnel interviews the candidate, and then there is the period of time where the person that is hired goes to the Fire Academy for an abbreviated version of the fire training that firefighters would receive, and then they actually --
The actual training period, I am not sure what the 73 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. actual training period is that the Fire Department conducts. I know it is minimally four weeks. It may be longer than that in fact.
So in all likelihood, probably not all will 8 be able to pass all of the process? 9
Well, all 18 10 passed the test and are on the list. You 11 are correct. 12
They 13 passed the test, but they may not pass 14 the back end. They may not pass the 15 physical. 16
My anticipation is that most of those 18 and my experience has been that you'll only lose 74 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. one here, one there, so to speak. So my anticipation is that most of those 4 will get through the process and be 5 hired. At that point, it will be open 6 for application again. We'll be getting 7 new applicants and we will begin 8 processing those. 9
So as 10 I see it, we're just going to have a 11 chronic shortage. 12
In Philadelphia, 13 we require that our paramedics have what 14 is called a paramedic certification, 15 which is a higher level certification 16 than your EMS or emergency medical 17 technician staff. It's an expensive 18 process. The class work is very, very expensive, and I believe it's a full academic year, where something like EMTs go to school for 12 weeks or 16 weeks, something like that. It's tough to find qualified paramedics. And this is not just an issue for Philadelphia. It's an issue for many, many jurisdictions. 75 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC.
Do we go outside the City at all to try to recruit, with the understanding that these individuals would be given a waiver to move into the City within a year?
At one point in time there was a residency waiver that was used for paramedic. This is going back several years. Why it is no longer used, I really don't know all the details, but I know that the Fire Department did have some concerns, some problems with some of the paramedics that they were bringing to the City to hire, issues with them after the one year not having moved into the City, those kinds of problems. So the Fire Department decided not to continue with the residency waiver.
As I said, I just see us having a chronic vacancy list, and I don't know that it should be that way, because we're talking about public safety. 76 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. Councilman Greenlee, do you have anything that you would like to add?
It just doesn't make sense to me. Ms. Reed, do you know why we would not recruit outside the City if it appears that year after year we don't get as many recruitments as we would like?
I think it's probably the requirement that the City look within City limits first for candidates.
Well, apparently we've been doing that and we haven't been too successful.
It does seem that way. So I guess we'd just better get a waiver. That may have to become a standard operating procedure.
On that 77 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. same line, Ms. Reed or whomever, is there any kind of formula like if they're not able to fill positions, not just in this but anywhere, is there kind of a rule of thumb that like a red flag goes up and says, Look, we're not meeting these goals, we need to do the residency waiver or something else to try to fill this? You know what I'm saying?
Yes. We follow the lead of the department. The department approaches us if they feel that there's a difficult-to-fill class and we present that information from the department to the Civil Service Commission. It's usually initiated by the operating department.
So the department makes the recommendation, We need to look outside the City or we need to do better training or recruitment or something like that?
Okay. 78 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you. The next department that we will hear from is? MR. McPHERSON: The Commission on Human Relations. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Nick Taliaferro is not here at the moment. He's been called. I think he's on his way over.
Well, since Community College is here, we will do Community College next. Oh, is that who we're waiting for? MR. McELHATTON: My apologies.
Good seeing you. MR. McELHATTON: Good to see you, Madam President. 79 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC.
Thank you. Whoever is going to testify, I would ask that they identify themselves and proceed with the testimony. MR. McELHATTON: Good morning. Daniel P. McElhatton, Chair of the Board of Trustees of Community College of Philadelphia. Good morning, Madam President and members of Council. I'm joined today by a number of Board members, including George Davis, Sallie Glickman, Johnny Butler, Rhonda Cohen, Stanley Cohen from the Foundation Board. I think I've identified those Board members and the Foundation Board members who are present. And I mention those members because obviously all of the Board members both for the Governing Board and the Foundation Board have commitments outside of the College, but they come today to show the importance of the College in the life of the City. Community College of 80 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. Philadelphia, we are not a college of prestige and power. We are a college of promise and potential. We are not a college with a great endowment. We are a college endowed with great people, staff, administration and students and endless possibilities. We are not a college rich with a history stretching back centuries. We are a college helping to create rich histories for thousands who are the first in their families to attend and graduate any institution of higher learning. We are not a college that can guarantee success. We are a college that has created a pathways to that success. We come today to Council to once again ask for your help with our college. And I say "our college" because CCP belongs to all of us. We as trustees have been asked to help with the care and feeding of our college, and some of us, the trustees, for example, have a more direct responsibility, but that responsibility and the responsibility for 81 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. Community College of Philadelphia is shared with all in this building, the Mayor and the Administration and our elected Council, City Council of Philadelphia. Our funding issues are critical to the service of our mission: to create a learning environment that incorporates our core values, and those core values are important to repeat at times, particularly like this. Integrity, academic excellence, diversity, communication and respect. Please, please help us fulfill the mission of Community College. In doing so, you will be smoothing out that path to possibilities, one that we have created for all of our students and for the City of Philadelphia. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you. Thank 82 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. you, President Verna. My name is Stephen Curtis. I serve as President of Community College of Philadelphia, and I want to add my thanks with those of my Board Chair for the support that this Council has provided, last year being a very good example of that. And we are here asking for your support again today. You are considering the Mayor's proposed City budget for 2007-2008. That proposed budget contains a recommendation to reduce the City's support of Community College of Philadelphia by $1 million. I am here on behalf of the students, faculty, staff, our Board to request two things: One, that you restore that $1 million reduction and, two, that you approve our original request to the City, which was for an additional $2 million for the coming year. And I'd like to -- I'm not going to read the written testimony we provided, but I'd like to make four brief points today. The first, there is a 83 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. consistent challenge in front of all of us who live in Philadelphia, and, that is, the education gap that exists across the population of our City. We've seen that gap highlighted in a number of ways over the last year, since the last time I sat in this same chair. One has been the focus in the past year on the percent 10 of our residents who fall below the 11 poverty line and for whom education and 12 training are absolutely critical if they 13 are going to achieve family sustaining 14 wages. 15 There's been a focus in the 16 past year on high school dropouts, and we 17 know now that almost half of all of the 18 ninth graders or those who enter ninth 19 grade in our public schools do not 20 graduate and they become again part of a 21 larger issue with which all of us must 22 assist. 23 There's been a focus on the 24 education level of the workforce in the 25 last year, and the Greater Philadelphia 84 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. Economy League and others have pointed out that of the hundred largest cities in this country, Philadelphia ranks number 92, 92nd, in the percentage of our workforce that has a college degree. And, most recently, the Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board has published a study entitled "The Tale of Two Cities" in which it identifies the education gap that exists within the whole of Philadelphia as the critical difference in moving both the City and its residents toward prosperity. My second point, Community College of Philadelphia is a critical part of narrowing that education gap, and the investment in our college is an investment in the City's residents. During the course of the year, as I see you individually or as we talk at moments like these, I try to remind you of some of the ways in which the College addresses that larger education gap issue. This year, for example, our 85 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. new Gateway to College program is geared specifically for high school dropouts age to 20. Over the next several years, 5 we'll be bringing in several hundred 6 youth 16 to 20. They're taking a 7 combination of high school courses on our 8 campus, which will eventually lead them 9 to a high school diploma, and college 10 courses, which will give them a leg up on 11 the work that they need for an Associate 12 Degree. 13 Last June we saw the graduation 14 of our initial in-school youth activity 15 with the public schools. We now have a 16 class of high school juniors and seniors permanently on our campus. They rotate through. They are finishing the last two years of high school at our Spring Garden campus, again, taking high school courses taught by public school teachers and college courses taught by our college faculty. Last summer, as our first group graduated, they left with a high school 86 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. diploma from their home high school and more than a year of college already finished for free.
After the tragic events of 9/11, we began a program called Opportunity Now, which is still in place. We offer any resident of the City of Philadelphia who is laid off from full-time employment and can document that with a letter from their company, we offer that person a free first semester. We waive the tuition. You still have to buy your books and pay some fees, but there's no tuition charge for that semester. And I could go on. We are preparing students for active careers in nursing, radiography, respiratory technology and other allied health professions, as computer programmers and in a whole range of IT career fields. We're preparing students for the baccalaureate program and they enroll in our dual admissions programs with Temple University, Drexel, LaSalle 87 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. and others, and as they graduate from us, move through the baccalaureate, they become teachers, human services professionals, entrepreneurs, and they have achieved their baccalaureate at half the cost. So it's a reminder that the investment that the City provides supports Philadelphians who stay to live and work in Philadelphia. We are, in that way, a part of the brain gain. We are not part of the brain drain. We are educating Philadelphians. My third point, I want to share with you a picture of the dollar investment the City makes in the operating budget of our college. As recently as years ago, the City 20 provided 32 percent of the operating cost for Community College of Philadelphia. That was approximately the one-third of the original statutory requirement that was in place for all community colleges across the Commonwealth. Ten years ago, 88 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. the City provided percent of the operating cost of Community College of Philadelphia. And as we speak today, the City is providing percent of the 6 operating cost. It is the lowest 7 percentage in the history of the College. 8 If you connect that fact to the 9 costs that our students are bearing, 20 10 years ago when the City was supporting 32 11 percent of our operating budget, students 12 were supporting 30 percent, roughly a 13 third. Ten years ago as the City 14 declined to 25 percent of the operating 15 budget, students moved up to 36 percent 16 in terms of their tuition and fees. And 17 as we speak here today, as the City is 18 supporting 19 percent of our operating 19 budget, students are supporting 49 percent. Almost half of the cost of operating Community College of Philadelphia is now on the backs of those who can afford it the least. We take great pride in so many things about Community College of 89 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. Philadelphia, but we're not proud that we have the highest community college tuition in the state and that we are 50 percent higher than the national average for community college tuition across the 50 states. So my last point, last year at this same hearing I asked for regular, consistent increases in the City support so that we can ease the burden on our students. This Council responded with real action. We were very grateful then and we are equally grateful now. I am asking that you continue to help us build City support by taking action on the City budget again this year. If that one-third mandate that was in place at the founding of our college were being met today, it would require right now at least an additional $16 million from the City in order to fully support that one-third of our operation. Entering this budget cycle, we requested $2 million. We understand 90 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. the realities of building our way toward better City support. But to return where I began, we're asking first that you restore the $1 million that has been proposed to be reduced in next year's budget, and I'll remind you, that just brings us back to the status quo.
If that's all we did, that will mean the City will support us at less than percent next year, 12 because the state has already on the 13 table in front of the Legislature a 14 proposal to increase Community College 15 funding by three percent, and we will be 16 going to our Board of Trustees next month 17 to have the discussion about how much the 18 tuition increase should be. So both of 19 those categories will rise, and if the City's support does not, it will then equal less than 19 percent. And then, secondly, as I said earlier, if you would approve our original $2 million request, we could do at least three things. We could further 91 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. reduce the impact of rising tuition. Our tuition has risen 40 percent in the last three years. We could expand programs and services. We've had to contract some of those programs and services over the past three or four years particularly. And we could address deferred maintenance issues which are just sitting there unaddressed at the current time. So we're asking you today, please make this a second year of movement toward a funding level that our students, who are your constituents, deserve, and it is all in the name of also increasing the prosperity and vitality of the City. Thank you. MR. McELHATTON: Madam President, the President of our Foundation has arrived and he has some brief remarks, if the Chair will permit.
Good morning, President Verna and members of City Council. I am Al Piscopo, President of 92 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. the Community College of Philadelphia Foundation Board. The Foundation's mission is to raise funds from the private sector in support of the students at Community College of Philadelphia through scholarships and grants and other means of support for those who require it. Our second mission is to try and build awareness of the College among business leaders in Philadelphia to elicit large-scale support for projects that we have in mind now and for the future to improve the College curriculum and the facilities. I think that in the work that we do, it's typical for us to be questioned about how leadership responds, the College leadership, the Board leadership, the Foundation Board leadership, in being supportive of the College mission. So it's critical for us to be able to demonstrate that all of those people are contributors to the 93 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. College financially and through their time. I think that the leadership that comes from City Council and from the City of Philadelphia is obviously the most critical element. This is the Community College of Philadelphia. And I hope that you will have listened very carefully to Dr. Curtis' message and Mr. McElhatton's message and will be able to not only restore the budget funds but improve them. We think that that would be extraordinarily helpful, a very strong signal, and will enable us to do a better job of raising funds from the private sector, which will add improvements to the College over the long term. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Is there anyone else to testify? MR. McELHATTON: No, ma'am.
Did 94 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. the Administration explain to you their rationale as to why they cut your budget by a million dollars?
Did you have any conversation at all with the Administration?
You're reaching out now, but was there any conversation with them prior to the preparation of the budget?
We always talk to the Administration beforehand, but I thought your question was, was there a reason given as to why that million was cut beforehand, and I think the answer is no. We have obviously been meeting with them since as well.
And when you met with them originally, did 95 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. you request this additional funding from the Administration, and, if so, what was their response?
Again, I don't think we've had a direct response to that. We absolutely requested the additional funding and I think we copied members of City Council or, if not copied, gave you a copy of the letter so that Council would also understand. We've also engaged in some discussions about long-term capital funding for the College. The City is one of, I think, the few local sponsors that doesn't participate directly in capital funding with specific amounts targeted just for that, and we are hopeful that over time we could have that kind of discussion as well.
Dr. Curtis, in your testimony -- I believe it's the front page -- you indicated that the College was asking for a $2.5 million increase in your operating 96 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. budget, but I don't believe your testimony that you presented to us today indicated that. I believe it's the second paragraph, the last line of that second paragraph. MR. McELHATTON: We'll take whatever the higher amount is.
You know, I don't know the answer to that. It's not 2.5 that we had requested. It was definitely two.
But I don't know -- now I'm a little confused with what was your original request. Was it 2.5 million or was the original 97 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. request 2 million?
The original was definitely two. The question I think is about the twenty-five nine versus the twenty-two two, right? If you can give me one second. Now I understand the answer. Forgive me. In the request that we sent to the Administration, I had mentioned that there were two parts to it. One was a $2 million request. The second was the beginning of a capital request for five years of 500,000. That's what the 500,000 difference is. I think in this paragraph it's been merged into one number. But the operating request was for $2 million more and we had asked that we start a process by which a fairly small amount actually on the capital side, a half a million dollars, could be approved for the coming year, with a commitment to try to do that each year for five years. That's the difference of the 500,000. 98 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC.
Dr. Curtis, if you do not receive any additional funding from the City, what will you do and how will it impact student tuition rates?
Tuition will have to go up higher. I've already indicated that for the last three years it's risen 40 percent. It's the highest rate of increase in the history of the College. We have been committed to bringing those increases down for next year, but without any additional support, if that million dollar reduction were to stay in place, it would not only affect tuition, it would certainly affect our ability to provide the programs and services that we're expecting to do next year right now. We would absolutely have to make some cuts in the budget as well.
Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell. 99 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC.
Thank you, Madam President. I certainly wanted to support the Community College, the statements you've made. Obviously they do such a wonderful job for people who have and people who have not. And that's so important during these times, where they're even talking about gas going up to $4 a gallon just this morning. No 11 matter where we go, we find people who really, really -- and we know that the only way out of our problems is through education. That's not new. Our parents told us that. And certainly we want to support Community College. I'm sure I speak for all of us when we say we support you. We don't want the cut. And we appreciate and applaud the job you do to try to help our citizens and also the contacts you have with the universities you mentioned and others, like West Chester and many others, to try to help our young people get educated. Thank you 100 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. very much.
Thank you very much, Councilwoman. MR. McELHATTON: Thank you, Councilwoman.
Thank you, Madam President, and I would certainly agree with Councilwoman Blackwell's statements also. I've said earlier about the libraries. The programs they provide help in the fight we're doing with some of the violence and all in the City, and certainly the education that is provided by Community College I think is also together another tool we can use. So I would certainly agree with that. Dr. Curtis, you talked about the original statutory requirement. That was by whom? The City, state?
No. It was in the original state legislation that created 101 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. community colleges across the Commonwealth. It mandated one-third of the operating would be supported by the local sponsor, which for us is the City. There are different local sponsors across the state. One-third by the state and one-third would be a student responsibility through tuition, tuition and fees.
And I guess -- and I know you weren't here the whole time, but has that started falling back in percentage? I guess basically the answer was, Look, there isn't the money to do it?
I was 102 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. going to ask about that, too.
Because over time the local sponsors -- in general. It's not just a Philadelphia issue -- were not meeting that obligation, the statute was changed. So it's no longer statutory that the state and local sponsor must provide one-third. They left in the statute that we couldn't exceed one-third with the students, and you can see the position that that puts us as colleges in.
Remember what I said, that through tuition and fees -- we use fees as well -- they're providing essentially 50 percent of the support right now.
Much misaligned with the original intent of the founding legislation. 103 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC.
I guess being above that you're, in a sense -- and we're not going to report you here -- violating that agreement, right?
We try to do it by -- it's a technical point. It's the tuition that can't exceed the one-third, which is why more and more we've had to move to fees. It allows you to make that distinction.
And I know I don't always like to compare the counties, the surrounding counties, because obviously they have different issues out there, but percentage-wise, do you have any idea what Montgomery, Delaware --
I don't know all the percentages. I can tell you that there are counties across the Commonwealth that actually provide less 104 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. than percent, but there are some that provide more. Montgomery is one of them. Harrisburg, through its local sponsor mechanism, I believe is another one. And don't hold me to the number. I don't know that they always have a third, but I think it's much closer to the third than we are these days. So Montgomery is one that does, yes.
17 You're welcome. 18 Are there any other questions, 19 comments? (No response.)
Seeing no one, I thank you all very much for testifying.
And we will do the very best that we can. I don't know how much that's going to be, but I assure you we will definitely try. Thank you.
Thank you, President Verna. MR. McELHATTON: Thank you, Madam President. MR. McPHERSON: The next department is the Commission on Human Relations.
Good morning. Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Good morning, Madam President. My name is Nick Taliaferro. I serve as the Executive Director for the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations and, in that capacity, also provide the same services for the Fair Housing Commission. With me seated at the table to my far left is the Deputy 106 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. Director for our Community Outreach or Community Relations Division, Mr. Ernest Greenwood, who is with us today representing that division, and also the immediate past interim Executive Director, who is our Director for Compliance, Ms. Rachel Lawton. It's a pleasure today to come before this assembly to represent this budget request for Fiscal Year '08, and we are glad to be able to do so in the spirit of the services provided by the Commission on Human Relations. I will not presume to read to you what you already have in your hands, but just by way of sharing the mission of this Commission, we are entrusted with the mandate to guard the civil rights of the individual citizens of the City of Philadelphia and also to enforce the codes specified within the ordinance that gives us our strength and our authority. The Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations has kept faith with the 107 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. City of Philadelphia for over the last half century, and the last 15-plus years we have also taken on the task of providing support staff and services for the Fair Housing Commission. In that capacity we also deal with the issues that concern tenant and landlord disputes, disagreements and cases that come before us. For Fiscal Year '08, the Commission is requesting a combined budget of $2,186,091, which is approximately $29,266 over our Fiscal Year '07 complement. It will allow us to maintain a staff of 34 positions, which is one short of our current complement on the Commission. With these funds and with this staffing, it is our intention to continue the fine services that we have provided. And you can see in the budget report all of those things that we do, but just for the sake of the record, I would like to share with you that among the activities 108 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. conducted by the Commission, our Compliance Division will open approximately in Fiscal Year '08 388 new cases, while closing approximately the same number. And those cases, of course, deal with issues of discrimination and disputes that may have been created on the job or in other situations within the City in areas of public commerce or access. Our Community Relations Division will also handle and address intergroup events to the number of approximately 150, and open cases concerning disputes between neighbors and communities of over 500, while also participating in educational activities and prevention activities of over 7,000. It is our intention to be able to maintain the fine services with the budget that we have requested, and we would be glad to take any questions that might be forthcoming from the Council. Thank you very much, Madam 109 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. President.
I believe while I was sitting you were saying that you would be able to live with the budget that the Administration gave you that allows you to meet your mandated responsibilities. Did I understand you to say that?
Madam President, that is a fitting question to ask. We have determined that we will live with whatever constrictions may be placed upon us so that we might provide the services that we are accustomed to providing. We are in dialogue to see if we might be able to garner the necessary funds to provide additional services. After 50 years, an agency can become somewhat high bound. We believe that there are areas -- for example, the burgeoning tide of violence suggests that there are services that our Commission might provide that we cannot provide properly now with our current complement 110 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. of staffing. So we are in the midst of dialogue, hoping that we might be able to push the borders of this budget in any way possible.
Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilman Greenlee.
Thank you, Madam President. Mr. Taliaferro, in conflict resolutions or conflicts that have come to your office to try to find resolutions to, have you seen increases in that? I mean, obviously with the violence out there, I'm wondering if that leads to more problems or people turn to you more. Have you seen any increase in that, I guess?
What I would offer would be somewhat anecdotal. I've been there for just a little over six months. So I will answer it in brief, 111 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. and then I would ask our Deputy Director for our Community Relations Division to perhaps answer it further. I know anecdotally I have received more calls and I've been addressed more to come out to talk to certain groups about creating a higher level of civility within our city for the purpose of dialing down on violence as a first option of negotiation. But Mr. Greenwood might be able to answer more directly your question.
Good morning. My name is Ernie Greenwood. I'm Deputy Director for the Community Services Division. We certainly have received more requests for services, and as a result, we are trying to not only be involved in the cases that present themselves to us but to be also involved on the proactive side in joining with other agencies in 112 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. dealing with conflict resolution and doing training in that area.
Have they been -- this is a real, I guess, kind of opinion kind of question, but have they become more difficult to deal with? In other words, have people been less or more resistant?
I wouldn't say they were more difficult. I just would say that they require a different approach than they may have required ten, years ago. Ten, 20 years ago people 15 were kind of geared differently in terms 16 of how they responded in groups. And 17 today people are just much more 18 individual in how they behave, and it 19 requires us to be able to deal with them 20 in that area.
Do you find more conflicts based on either race or ethnic background or is it more just people not getting along because they can't get along kind of thing? 113 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC.
Well, it seems to increase around holidays, on Sundays and Mondays and Tuesdays.
A little gap between 3 o'clock in the morning now and then? Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you. Are there any other questions? (No response.)
Thank you. MR. McPHERSON: The next agency is SEPTA.
Good morning. Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your 114 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. testimony.
Good afternoon. I'm Faye Moore, General Manager of the Southeastern Transportation Authority, better known as SEPTA. Joining me today is Joe Casey from the Finance Division and Frances Jones from the Government Affairs. I do thank you for the opportunity to present information to you. I'm here to speak about the 61,551,000 allocation for SEPTA included in the City's Fiscal Year 2008 Operating Budget proposal and key authority initiatives and accomplishments from the past year. 2 billion operating budget both come at a very challenging time. Ridership on SEPTA is at an all-time high, yet we struggle to address a crushing operating shortfall and prepare a balanced budget without severely impacting our customers 115 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. and employees. As I've reported previously to Council, at the heart of the issue is the absence of state stable and predictable subsidy. There have been short-term fixes applied in the past years, including most recently the Governor's flex of highway transportation funds for transit, but even that measure only provided SEPTA with funding through December 2006. To help bridge the remaining gap and avoid fare increases or service cuts, the SEPTA Board authorized a transfer of capital funds in the amount of 37 million to balance this year's operating budget. The immediate result of these actions are clear. However, the future impact of deferring capital projects is not known, but those projects include fare collection, rehabilitation of some stations on the Broad Street Line. Recognizing that a long-term solution is the only way to break 116 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. transit's crisis, the Governor created the Pennsylvania Transportation Funding and Reform Commission. Their purpose was to look at performance and funding needs for transit operations across the state, including SEPTA. The findings of this very extensive examination confirmed that SEPTA operates efficiently and has taken the necessary steps to maintain fiscal discipline, but that the government's program and revenue streams for transit funding need to be completely revamped. During his Fiscal Year 2008 budget address, the Governor announced his transit funding proposal, a tax on the gross profits of all companies doing business in Pennsylvania. However, this or any alternative funding solution must be adopted by the state prior to July 1st, 2007 to avoid implementation of SEPTA fare increases and/or service cuts. At our recent operating budget hearings, SEPTA constituents had the opportunity to provide comment about two 117 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. deficit closure proposals. Both options assume a $129 million deficit. Option 1 includes a fare increase of roughly 11 percent, but would require $100 million of new subsidy. Option B assumes no 7 additional state subsidy, but it warrants a 31 percent fare increase, 20 percent service reductions, and that's across all modes, and that impact is about 1,000 SEPTA positions being eliminated. Both options did include a simplification plan, which would eliminate transfers and consolidate some rail zones. 3 percent gain last year. The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission's recent study of the region reported that vehicle traffic in Center City is declining for the first time in 50 years. Our standing-room-only conditions on certain SEPTA routes supports this finding and 118 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. suggests that the trend in favor of public transit is increasing. These ridership gains and congestion mitigation improvements will be negatively impacted if SEPTA is forced to implement the reductions outlined in Option B. This is not the option SEPTA prefers, but we would have no choice without a way to close the remaining $100 million gap by July 1st. Despite our ongoing fiscal concerns, SEPTA did manage to complete some very important system improvements. It includes the rehab of Suburban Station.
We continue progress on the elevated structure in West Philadelphia. We're about one-third of the track down. 56th Street was renovated. 60th Street is scheduled to open this summer, and we continue with the rehab of 46th and 52nd Street. I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank someone who has worked really hard with us over the 119 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. last two years especially, and that's Oliver Thornton from the Managing Director's Office. Without his support and assistance, we would not have been able to manage as much as we did on the El project. ADA accessibility is important to us, so as we rehab stations such as Church, Huntington, 8th Street, 13th Street and Juniper Stations, we've also created ADA accessibility. One item that I did want to mention is that after getting several complaints or several hundred complaints, the City and SEPTA are indeed moving towards one unified cleaner for the Concourse. The City has gotten complaints. We've gotten complaints. There's always confusion about who owns what. We are presenting it to the Board for their vote on Thursday, and hopefully we will be able to celebrate something shortly thereafter. Our SEPTA Transit Police 120 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. continue to be vigilant as they patrol our system. There have been some periodic spikes. Overall felonies declined 88 percent between 1989 and 2006. We remain partners with the School District of Philadelphia to address truancy and juvenile violence. We continue our dedication to our workforce, and we now are happy to celebrate the sixth year of the Keystone Transit Career Ladder Partnership. That's with TWU, or Transport Workers Union, our largest union. We also continue to have discounts at area colleges. If you look at our website, we've done a lot of enhancements in technology to get information to our customers, and I encourage you to just visit it, but one thing in particular, Plan My Trip. So you can actually go on the website now and it will map out your destination from Point A to Point B. And the second one is Pass Perks, which will 121 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. actually take your discount -- you get discounts at various establishments if you go in with a SEPTA pass, a weekly or a monthly. With that, I'll conclude my brief comments and answer any questions that you might have.
Thank you. Councilwoman Campbell definitely wanted to be here for your testimony this morning, but an emergency came up and we told her that we would make sure that she would certainly be informed of your testimony.
That's great. On of your testimony, you mention that the SEPTA Board transferred capital funds to the operating budget. I'm rather curious, how can you use capital funds for 122 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. operating purposes?
We have within our capital money the ability to use them for capital or operating, depending on what the nature of it is. In this case, we are using capital money which has been designated for capital, but we can use it for operating. So we are foregoing using it for capital and flexing it over to the operating budget. So we have that flexibility for some of our funds.
For the 37 million, they were federal -- no. They were state. No. These were state funds.
You mention that SEPTA has Option A and Option B for dealing with your budget crisis, and I know you did go through the two scenarios. The state must do what 123 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. when Option A would have to be, I guess, enforced, and if you do not hear from the state, then when do you implement Option B?
The ultimate decision is going to reside with our Board. The way it was rolled out for public comment, we would make the fare increases effective July 1 and probably would have to reduce service sometime during the summer or the fall when we roll out our fall schedules. But it would be immediate. I mean, it's not 15 months from now. It's not six months 16 from now. It's within 60 to 90 days 17 after the start of the budget. 18 We are presenting a budget proposal to the Board of Directors for their consideration at the May Board meeting, where we expect them to vote on some closure plan and implementation July 1st, in some variation but effective July 1st.
Thank 124 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Greenlee.
Thank you, Madam President. First of all, as I see Ms. Jones sitting there, I want to publicly say thank you for all the help you provided over the years when we bug you all the time. Thank you.
Ms. Moore, you talk about, following up with what the Council President said, about Option A and B, and I know it's good to see the ridership increase. Has there been -- and I know you can't do this exactly, but any estimate on if those options are -- if you have to do either of those options, what the ridership decrease would be? Is there any estimate on that?
Plan B is easier, 125 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. because that sort of resides in my brain very heavily, but we expect a percent 4 ridership drop if we have to implement 5 Option B. 6
In terms of people, 12 I guess that's about 100,000 people. 13
Yeah. 14 And the other thing, I know right now the 15 15 is the only trolley presently running; 16 is that right? 17
Is there any -- because I know at one time there was a real big push for the and at 5 least one other. I'm sure the cost 6 factors, that's probably a little bit on 7 the back burner, but has that been talked 8 about at all or is that still somewhere 9 there? 10
Well, I'll tell you 11 the position the SEPTA Board echoed when 12 the Route 15 was approved, and that was, 13 given the cost and some of the 14 operational dilemmas that we're facing, 15 we can't consider rolling out any future 16 trolleys until we address all those 17 issues. Right now we're running buses 18 very often on the Route 15, because we 19 have closures. 20
So we're still 22 struggling with some of those operational 23 issues. If we don't get those in check, I'm not optimistic.
I hear 127 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. you. And I know that was some of the concerns raised at first when the came 4 in. 5
As 7 somebody who used to take it many times 8 and remember getting stuck behind 9 something when I was going to high 10 school, I know what you're saying. But 11 has there been any -- I mean, has 12 ridership increased on the 15, and can 13 that be anywhere put towards the fact 14 that it's a trolley, or is it just 15 something that people thought was a nice idea? I'm going to get myself in trouble with the trolley advocates here. I know I'm going that way.
Well, we can give you some of the specifics. I'll give you more from just an anecdotal item. When it first came about, people are excited about getting it out. It's new. It's different.
But we see it drop every time there is a major obstacle. So the ridership is not stable. It goes up, it goes down based on --
It was a novelty sort of in a way and then now it's just another route.
That stops and delays me getting to work. So we're seeing a lot of that. We're getting a lot of those complaints.
If the wrong people listen to this, I know I'm going to get a call on this one, but I understand what you're saying. Thank you, Madam President.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell.
Thank you, Madam President. Obviously we have real concerns about fare trying to go up. And I guess, 129 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. what, are we highest in the nation? I know we're --
We're not quite. We're up there. And so we have real concerns, because as we continue to say -- which is why we have questions on the ballot about the full tax valuation and PGW with the rate increase -- people can't afford to pay it. And I am afraid that we may have an increase in ridership now, but obviously it won't be sustained if we raise rates. People just can't do it. They said today on the news that they expect gas, as I said earlier, to go up to $4 a gallon. So you can't get the bus and you can't drive your car. I don't know what people do, but I know --
And I 130 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. don't know how to bicycle ride.
Yeah. That's right. Then they got to buy the bike. So that's the issue. And then we have this awful issue with those bike paths. But certainly we feel it is really unfair to expect the riding public to pay fares that they just can't afford. I want to make sure that our Market Street Elevated project is on schedule to finish next year. Are we right?
Substantial completion is still targeted for the end of 2008. We're still very optimistic.
There are many things that we will jointly need to conclude, and we're happy to work with 131 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC. Frances on the lots and the transfer back and a design overall of the streets and the sidewalks, how all of that will be. We want to look forward to jointly working with you on all those plans on our commercial corridors, from the design aspect, how they look, what they become and to the transfer back of those lots. So we're happy to reach out to you. We've been working with City departments. So we're kind of in sync. I want at least the end of this to be a happy, peaceful medium where the final formal design is one that we can all be proud of. Thank you very much. And also I've been getting the flyers finally for the opening and closing. So we still have those issues, but we hope that at the end of this, things will be smooth.
Thank you. 132 4/23/07 - WHOLE - BILL 070114, ETC.
Thank you. Any other questions or comments from members of the Committee? (No response.)
I thank you very much. This Committee will stand in recess until tomorrow, Tuesday, April, 24th at 10:00 a.m., at which time the District Attorney will be coming in. Thank you very much. (Committee of the Whole adjourned at 12:25 p.m.) - - - 133 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 April 23, 2007, 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.)