COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, April 17, 2024 10:00 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT KENYATTA JOHNSON COUNCILWOMAN NINA AHMAD COUNCILWOMAN CINDY BASS COUNCILMAN MICHAEL DRISCOLL COUNCILWOMAN KATHERINE GILMORE RICHARDSON COUNCILMAN JIM HARRITY COUNCILMAN CURTIS J. JONES, JR. COUNCILWOMAN RUE LANDAU COUNCILWOMAN QUETCY M. LOZADA COUNCILMAN BRIAN J. O'NEILL COUNCILMAN NICOLAS O'ROURKE COUNCILMAN ANTHONY PHILLIPS COUNCILMAN MARK F. SQUILLA COUNCILMAN ISAIAH THOMAS COUNCILMAN JEFFREY YOUNG, JR. BILLS: 240179, 240180, 240181, 240182 RESOLUTION: 240193
This is the public hearing and public meeting of the Committee of the Whole regarding Bill Nos. 240179, 240180, 240181, 240182 and Resolution No. 240193. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the roll to take attendance.
Here. Thank you. A quorum of the Committee is present and this hearing is now called to order. Ms. Loughead, will you please read the titles of the resolutions.
Bill No. 25 240179, an ordinance to adopt the Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2025. Bill No. 240180, an ordinance amending Chapter 19-1800 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "School Tax Authorization," to provide for an increase in the tax that the Board of Education of the School District of Philadelphia is authorized to impose on real estate, and amending Chapter 12 19-1300, entitled "Real Estate Taxes," to establish an equivalent reduction in the tax rate for the City real estate tax, and making technical changes, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 240181, an ordinance to adopt a Fiscal Year 2025 Capital Budget. Bill No. 240182, an ordinance to adopt a Capital Program for the six Fiscal Years 2025-2030 inclusive. Resolution No. 240193, providing for the approval by the Council of the City of Philadelphia of a revised Five Year Financial Plan for the City of Philadelphia covering Fiscal Years 2025 through 2029, and incorporating revisions with respect to Fiscal Year 2024, which is to be submitted by the Mayor to the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority pursuant to an Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement by and between the City and the Authority.
Today we will continue the public hearing of the Committee of the Whole to consider the bills read by the Clerk that constitute proposed operating and capital spending measures for Fiscal Year 2025, a Capital Program and a Forward- looking Capital Plan for Fiscal Year 2025 through Fiscal Year 2030. This morning we will hear testimony from the City Controller and the First Judicial District. This afternoon we will continue with testimony from the Sheriff's Office and the Citizens Police Oversight Committee -- Commission. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the first witness to testify from the Administration.
Christy Brady, City Controller. (Witnesses approached Witness table.) CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Good morning.
Good morning. Just state your name and title for the record and please begin your testimony. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Good morning. I am Christy Brady, City Controller. Good morning, Council President Johnson, Majority Leader Gilmore Richardson, Majority Whip Thomas, Majority Deputy Whip Bass, Minority Leader Brooks, Minority Whip O'Rourke and other esteemed Councilmembers. I am City Controller Christy Brady, and we want to thank you for the opportunity to present the Fiscal Year '25 budget of the Office of the City Controller. Joining me today are my First Deputy Bill Rubin, Audit Deputy Charles Edacheril and Administrative Services Director Andrea Rose. First, I would like to extend my gratitude to the staff of the Controller's Office who work diligently each and every day. Thank you for all that you do. Since taking office on November 30th, I have focused on restructuring the City Controller's Office and its divisions. One of my first actions was reviving our Community Affairs Division. Since I ran for office during a special election, I had the privilege of campaigning alongside the Mayor and all of you. The experience allowed me to form many positive relationships over the months we spent together. And as we traveled across the City attending various events, the critical role of the Community Affairs Division in my administration became abundantly clear. Through this Division, I can connect with citizens, understand their priorities and work to improve their lives. An example of the impact of this work occurred when a member of our Community Affairs Team delivered an elder fraud presentation at a community event. During the presentation, one attendee shared that she was a victim of check-washing, resulting in a loss of almost $10,000. Through our team's persistent outreach efforts, we were able to assist this woman in getting her money back. I have attended community meetings across the City, including a town hall at New Beginnings Church with Police Commissioner Bethel, a meeting at the Boys and Girls Club with you, Council President, in South Philadelphia. I've also spent time at the Boys and Girls Club in North Philadelphia with Councilmembers Young and O'Rourke. And through these and many other community engagements, we are currently working to establish financial literacy programs in each of the Boys and Girls Club sites as well as a financial literacy program for returning citizens. We are also actively engaged with Chairman Sabir, Commissioner Deeley and Commissioner Bluestein to streamline and expedite the payment process for our hardworking poll workers and other essential personnel who are vital to providing a fair and transparent electoral process. Contrary to what some might say, good things happen in Philadelphia. My team and I have worked on distributing food in Councilmember Gauthier and Councilmember Bass's Districts, and I am working with Councilmember Jones on the costs associated with crime and incarceration. I am collaborating on matters such as the Kensington Initiative with Councilmembers Lozada and Harrity, addressing PGW issues with Councilmember Driscoll, L&I demolition issues with Councilmember Phillips, youth and education issues with Councilmember Thomas and considering strategies to support the City's underserved and most vulnerable citizens with Councilmember O'Rourke. These issues are separate from the annual audits and examinations conducted by my Auditing Division. This Division is responsible for conducting comprehensive audits of City departments, financial statements of the City and School District, the single audits of the City and School District and the City's Five Year Plan. The Audit Division has also initiated a performance audit on the Department of Licenses & Inspections to assess the effectiveness of L&I's enforcement of building codes and safety standards as well as to ascertain whether contractors and subcontractors are utilizing a properly documented workforce.
Our Pre-Audit Division continues to process vouchers and payments from various City departments. Meanwhile our Investigative Division is addressing concerns related to other quality-of-life issues, such as sidewalk cafés alongside Councilwoman Landau. With the World Cup and many other exciting events being planned in the upcoming years, a vibrant outdoor dining experience will bring positive energy and give visitors a fun experience here in Philadelphia. We will review the rules and look for ways to streamline the process without sacrificing the necessary accessibility and safety for each site. We are also reviewing the policies and procedures regarding imminently dangerous properties that put our citizens at risk from falling debris and damage to adjoining properties. We will identify paths for making our city safer. And we are reviewing the recently-passed Skills Gaming legislation for compliance. In collaboration with the City Treasurer's Office, our Financial Policy Division was able to help distribute unclaimed monies to our retirees, one of whom was owed more than $20,000. The Financial Policy Division also recently introduced a new monthly report titled, Municipal Money Matters, focusing on specific topics related to City finances. I am proud of the progress we have made in revitalizing the Office of the City Controller and its vital functions. Through proactive community engagement, strategic partnerships and diligent oversight, we are committed to serving the residents of our city with transparency, accountability and efficiency. As we move forward, I look forward to continued collaboration with all Councilmembers and stakeholders to ensure the responsible fiscal management of our city's resources and the well- being of its citizens. Thank you once again for the opportunity to present our Fiscal Year '25 budget.
Thank you very much. Good to see you as well, First Deputy Bill 11 Rubin. And just want to say thus far, Controller Brady, just thank you for your hard work and dedication in terms of being out and about in the community. You talked about being with me at the Boys and Girls Club but also at our Budget town halls, you have been there as well. So we just want to thank you for your love of outreach. I just have a couple questions before I relax my time to the Members. Your office is responsible for reviewing the budget and Five Year Plan. And so, as you review and prepare to issue an opinion on the City's Five Year Plan, what are the key areas that you will be focusing on? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Thank you for the question, Council President. Some of the key areas that we look for is the fund balance, making sure that it's well-funded. Obviously, we have the ARPA funds that will be ending this year, and those are the two areas that I mostly focus on. But we are in the middle of -- well, we're just beginning to review that Five Year Plan, so more to come.
Thank you very much. Your department is responsible for examining the financial affairs of Philadelphia City departments focusing on internal controls to ensure accurate financial information in compliance with any laws and regulations related to revenue and expenditure activities in each department. And so, one of the hot topics that we're working on in City Council led by our Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson is the current investigation of the Office of Homeless. Can you give us an idea on what controls or recommended systematic changes, at least from your perspective thus far, that you would recommend that we address and we can actually partner on from a City Council standpoint as it relates to making sure such instances doesn't take place in the future? And when I say instances, meaning overall mismanagement of taxpayer dollars in terms of the operation of that particular department. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Thank you for the question, Council President. I have been discussing this issue with the Majority Leader and it is very concerning. As this took place prior to me coming into office and since the IG had already begun an investigation, we have allowed them to move forward at the present time with this investigation. And since it is ongoing, I'm not really able to get into detail until the report's released, but I am looking forward to having an extensive conversation with you, Councilmember Gilmore Richardson and the Mayor on how we can work together to rectify any issues that are outlined in that report.
Okay. Thank you very much. You're our new fiscal watchdog. And so, we will be looking for your guidance and your leadership regarding all of our City departments and how they're managing our City's tax dollars. Could you take in consideration also in terms of different initiatives there's a recent report that talks about how our court-appointed lawyers as well as our court-appointed investigators do not receive their payments in a timely fashion, and obviously we know everyone deserves a strong legal defense. And so, you have a court-appointed attorney or a court-appointed investigator and you may not have the means to have private counsel, this will be obviously a very, very important and critical role for individuals to have legal representation. And so, are you aware of the issue? And if you're not, could you take in consideration something to look at in terms of supporting those in the legal community that are using their time freely, pro bono-wise, to help indigent individuals who are in need of legal counsel? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Thank you, Council President. Yes, I am aware of the issue. It came to me just recently. And if it is Council's desire, it is something that we can do an audit on.
It's my desire. I have some colleagues who are -- we have two lawyers that are members of City Council as well who I know for a fact has an interest, but also I think the body as a whole has an interest in making sure that when you're talking about pro bono legal services for those who are poor, the people who are actually providing those services are supported and that we're on a level playing field competing with individuals who have private attorneys and so forth. My last question is we experienced a significant amount of development throughout the City of Philadelphia, some areas more than others. Currently, you are reviewing the policies and procedures regarding imminently dangerous properties that put our citizens at risk from falling debris and damage to adjoining properties. What have you identified as recommendations for improving safety and are there barriers in City operations that prevent us from improving safety? And I was just leaving an event where I was talking to some members of the Building Trades and we talked about the party walls, right, and how when you're building these new structures, the long-term residents' homes are pretty much -- normally when there's a demo, their party wall is damaged, houses are shifting, but it's left on the homeowner to pay to even get the wall stuccoed or any type of remedial work that needs to be done. Give me an idea of what your recommendations are or what you have thus far seen as barriers or things that we need to do to improve fighting and supporting individual homeowners whose homes have been impacted by developers, and I call it unscrupulous contractors? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Thank you for the question. You know, just last week we had a building collapse. And when you read the articles in the paper about how helpless people are living next door to construction or how thankful they are that they're moving into something that there is no chance of having construction happening next door to them, the helpless feeling I can't even fathom because it's your home. We are in the process of identifying each and every imminently dangerous property and are working with L&I to give them a report that can be the basis for increased funding and staffing, because we need to put a stop to this from happening. It's my understanding that building codes you can only go so far up, so they're going down and it's affecting the underpinning, and it might be an area to look into in the building code to not dig down and get into that underpinning. I can only go that far because I'm not a building expert.
And on the topic of L&I, your testimony cites that your Audit Division has initiated a performance audit on the Department of Licenses and Inspections to assess the effectiveness of L&I's enforcement of building codes and safety standards as well as to ascertain whether contractors and subcontractors are utilizing a properly-documented workforce, which really also leads into when you're addressing the issue of wage theft and wage fraud. And obviously, when we talk about the revenue that's needed in this City, that's a particular area. And so, what has your audit shown us thus far regarding those two practices? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Thank you for the question, Council President. We need to make sure that we're all playing on a level playing field and we need to ensure the safety of the workers. This is just the beginning of our audit so I can't really comment, but these are the issues that I felt was most important. Public safety is something that I've always felt strongly about as well as government accountability, so this is one of the reasons why I wanted to look into these issues and it needs to improve.
When you talk about public safety, you recently did a report on an initiative that's significant to members of Council when it comes to supporting the boots-on-the-ground organizations, credible messengers, the mom-and-pop which we call grassroots organizations around the issue of violence prevention. Give us just a little synopsis of the outcome of that report, improvements and recommendations on how we can still continue to support these organizations, which I believe played a major role in a 35 percent reduction of gun violence that we see in the City of Philadelphia, particularly shootings as well as homicides, but obviously we want organizations that we provide funding to are fiscally responsible but separate from the organizations, right. I'm not even putting all the onus on the organizations. I'm going to put the onus on the Administration that provided the funding to the organizations. And so, give us your synopsis on that, because most of the members of this body kind of worked very, very hard to get that. I think we started with $100-plus million for just violence prevention and then carved out a key component just for the boots- on-the-ground organizations. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Right. Thank you for the question, Council President. The goal of this report was to answer questions that I raised on the campaign trail about how the process was supposed to work. When I found that the funding was in one department but the contract was in another, in my almost 30 years of experience in the Controller's Office, I found that when the City contracts out the oversight for a program, usually they wipe their hands and say, well, we contracted that oversight out so you have to go to that organization, and it just creates a level of bureaucracy and layers for me to get to the answers that I need to get to. We went out and reached out to many of the community groups to hear their stories because I wanted to make sure that I understood how they were getting the money from the City and how they thought the process worked. And when I went into looking into this further and found that the contract wasn't even conformed and they were asking the oversight agency to start giving out the money, and they did so in good faith, I mean because there was a crisis going on, but you can't start asking for an organization to perform services when the details of how you're supposed to give the money out and what they're required to state back to the City in terms of how they spend the money, it just caused confusion and it caused delays in payments. So going forward, the City did make some corrections. They properly RFP'd the contract in the department that it's funded in, and the contract specified exactly how that money should be spent and how these organizations would be reimbursed for their money. And so, I did see an improvement which I was very happy to see.
Okay. Well, thank you very much. I relax my time. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Jones.
Member Jones, just for one second. I just want to acknowledge the presence of Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, Councilmember Jay Young, Councilmember O'Rourke and Councilmember Lozada. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. President. There is an African proverb about the king, the reluctant king where they chase him around with the throne because they really don't want the responsibility to some degree, that was you early on, and you decided for the benefit of the City of Philadelphia to take on this responsibility. And I want to let you know we're glad you did. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Thank you.
That's number one. And the two things that I am very interested in, I read your reports, it's interesting reading what your team put together, some insightful stuff. And I'm thankful that it's more about get it moments than gotcha moments. That doesn't do other than get a headline in the paper really serve the City of Philadelphia, the Council of the City of Philadelphia, when we just try to expose our weaknesses as opposed to correcting the process, so I'm thankful for that. What I'm interested in and what I've shared with you during the campaign, and you have not let me down in forgetting it, is we don't know what the cost of crime is in the City of Philadelphia. From the time that young person carjacks a car, to the police that pick them up, to the car that they drive in, to the cell that they're in, to the cheese sandwich that they get at night, to the counselor that they get when they're in lock- up, the assessment that happens from the social worker, to the DA, to the defender, to the judge, to the jury, to the stenographer, how much that cost. And it's not a rhetorical kind of math problem, but it allows us to know that when we put a dollar in prevention and can avoid all of that, we actually save dollars. I tell people that there are two types of elected officials, those who want to save souls and those who want to save tax dollars, and neither one of them is wrong, but we have to figure out and, not or. And so, what we asked you and your team to do is give us an assessment of how much -- you're not the only one. The First Judicial District is coming up. I've asked them to kind of chronicle that. And the reason, what I'd like to show you is when I first was appointed to the Special Committee on Criminal Justice Reform, we literally got a chart -- can you help me out, Member Thomas?
Can you help me out? Thank you. This is -- CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: A flowchart.
-- a process from the time somebody gets arrested to when dispositions can happen. One thing can lead to another. You get ARD, you get bail. There are so many different things. Thank you so much, and you can come this way so that the President can see it as well. But these are all the different functions that can happen. Each one of them cost. Each one of them has a taxpayer's exposure, but nobody has taken the time to figure out how much that is. The average homicide trial is somewhere around six months. How much does that cost. And if we then do this right for those who are more a little left than me, right, they can justify an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And so, thank you for taking that on. You cannot have that, but we will figure out how to get you a copy. But that's what I was given as to the possible outcomes of every time a young person, older person commits that crime, these are the possible outcomes. So with that? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Well, thank you, Councilmember Jones. First, I just want to say something about the first part. I love my job. It's what I've done my whole career and I am not looking for headlines. I'm not preparing to run for another office. I don't do my work with preconceived ideas. I just want to give you, the Councilmembers here, Council President, the Mayor, a body of work with recommendations that you can implement. It's my hope that my recommendations will make our city a better place. That's why I want to have these partnerships with all of you because I want you to implement my recommendations. That's success to me, not being in the newspaper, not announcing some sensationalized -- it's getting you to implement my recommendations. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, I'll wait for the second round to talk about those gambling machines so I'm going to yield the mic.
Thank you, Member Jones. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Cindy Bass.
Thank you, Mr. President. Good morning. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Good morning.
Good, good. So I just wanted to say a couple of things. I had a couple of questions. And the first thing I wanted to say is it's been a pleasure and really a breath of fresh air to work with you and your office, and I've known Bill for a very long time and always had a great working relationship. But it's really important that political offices, government offices are not weaponized against people. And I've seen that in the past in the Controller's Office. I hate to say it, but I have seen that in the past where if folks are connected or if folks know someone and they can sort of weaponize an office that's really as important as the Controller's Office against someone else. And so, I just really wanted to say keep up the good work. As I mentioned, it's been really a breath of fresh air to work with you and I'm looking forward to seeing what your office is going to be doing going forward because I think you're really off to a good start. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Thank you.
You're welcome, you're welcome. That being said, I do have a couple of questions. And the first is I noticed in the budget that there was a request for an increase of $30,000 in seminars and trainings. Can you talk about that a little bit? What is that? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Thank you for the question.
Sure. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: For our office we offer CPE credits to all of our staff. In order to perform a governmental audit, we need 80 hours of CPE every two years and also to be -- which is also consistent with your CPA license.
So why is that increasing then, because I'm assuming that's something that's been ongoing that you've been providing those trainings for a long time now? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: We used to have that in our budget prior to COVID. And when COVID happened, the PA State Accountancy Board allowed us to have virtual training and not in person and not even in webinars, so we were able to do what's called On-Demand courses, which are somewhat more boring. And now, we're bringing that live training back in and having that interaction with an instructor where people can actually ask questions and get answers live.
Okay. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: So it typically was always in the budget prior.
So during COVID it turned into sort of like a self-study kind of thing? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Yes.
And now that you -CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: And you need to get a 70 percent or have to take it again until you get that 70 percent, yes.
Okay. Very good. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: It's what makes us better at what we do.
Excellent, excellent. The other question I had for you was around assessments. And I know that you look at the different departments and assess who's doing what and how it could be improved and you make those recommendations. I know the Council President had asked about that. But I wanted to drill down on something that's been a pet peeve of mine for a very long time which is nuisance businesses and specifically around the Department of Licenses & Inspections, which I think really has tried and put forth effort in this matter, but we're never able to really push the needle as far as I think that we really need to. And so, I guess my question to you is what kind of assessments have you all done around L&I's enforcement on nuisance businesses? Have you made any recommendations to them, anything that you can think of off the top of your head or if you want to get it to us later, if you need to compile some of the recommendations that you've made around this specific issue? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Thank you for that question. I would absolutely love to get into that issue and talk about exactly what we can do. It's not something that we have specifically audited in the past, but it is something that we can absolutely look into, and it's one of the reasons why I wanted to look at the gaming. But not just that, I think that this is the opportunity having a new department head, having L&I split. I could definitely have that conversation with Bridget, so I think we can get things done.
Thank you. Because as you can see from the lengthy flowchart that Councilman Jones just pulled out, a lot of these things are all interconnected. Having the ability of the Controller's Office to make recommendations to departments so that they're better able to handle some of the things that are happening out in the neighborhoods, it just makes such a huge difference. So I think that your expertise and recommendations would really go a long way to solving what's been a problem for a very long time in the City. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Thank you. I 100 percent agree. Thank you.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Rue Landau.
Thank you. Good morning. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Good morning.
So I'm a big fan, a big fan of the Controller's Office. And as I am learning more about what you can do, it's exciting to know that it's not just audits. It can be more recommendations that help us with equity and justice in the City, and that to me is exciting. You are a person who -- I don't remember exactly how Councilmember Jones described it, but City Controllers are either about audits and money or they're saving -- you're saving money or you're saving souls, but I know that you want to do both. So I appreciate that. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Absolutely.
I also think this is a very interesting time, because as I've seen the transition from Administrations in the past, we have a Mayor Administration who's just come in and said, whatever happened in the past, please look at it, help us fix our practices. I wasn't the leader then. I am the leader now, and I would like to implement the good things. So I think this is a very good time to have both of you guys starting. Do you have in your office an attorney who looks at contracts? Do you have any attorneys in your office? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: No. 2
There is a -- CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: But we do review contracts.
Council President was talking about, you know, I've been asking many City departments as they've come through about conforming contracts, conforming contracts. It's not just for court-appointed attorneys that we're having a problem. There's a problem with our process. It's too cumbersome. It's too paper-based and we are not getting the money in the hands of the larger nonprofits that help fund the smaller nonprofits and just to the smaller nonprofits fast enough. It's causing significant harm. It's causing us court- appointed attorneys, for example, to say I'm not doing this anymore, and we don't want any of that to happen. This should be a simple solution. I believe that the Administration wants to fix this. They also have a whole lot of other things they're trying to fix now. But whatever you can do to help look into the process to help simplify the system, I think this will go a very long way. There's a process -- two problems: One, conforming contracts, that takes too long. And then, two, paying the providers. Both things seem to be slightly broken. Can't wait for them to be fixed. But those weren't my questions. I want to first ask about the sidewalk -- the outdoor dining, I'm super excited about this. And as we're exploring what we can do with outdoor dining by streamlining the application process and re-exploring legislation, how can your investigation assist? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Thank you for the question, Councilmember Landau. We go into what you're talking about, how the permitting obviously -- was it 7 permits in the City for the 8 sidewalk cafés? 9
Yes. 10 CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: I 11 was floored when I heard it was 13. 12
13 There's fewer that will happen now. There were 13 this year. And when I had my hearing, only two had reapplied for a street permit. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: And that's one of the reasons why I want to go in to see what is it. Is it all the paperwork, is it the contracting process, the permit process. What is it that is preventing people from wanting to have that great outdoor dining experience which I love. So it's something that we need to look into. And it's in the beginning stages. And we can also have any conversations going forward with keeping you up-to-date on where we're at. I want to hear the problems that everyone is having getting a permit and that's a start.
Thank you. I'm very interested in the revival of your Community Affairs Division. And how will this unit work to help protect Philadelphia's senior citizens who are some of our most vulnerable residents? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: We've been going around to community events and giving elder fraud presentations, and it has been extremely helpful. I mentioned earlier that a woman's check was washed. It was written out for $30 and someone took it and put 9,000 in front of it. And so, through our persistent team's effort, we ended up getting that woman's money back and it was because she came up to us after the presentation and said this is what happened, can you help me.
We want to as the head of the Information and Technology Committee go further and deeper into some of these issues too, so invite you to join us on this, including the effect of AI on fraudulent scams in Philadelphia. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: It's pretty scary.
I have one more question. He's not paying attention. The last question I have is about the BIRT and wage tax. As the City and country continue to adjust to new societal norms after the COVID pandemic, work patterns and the ability to attract businesses will heavily impact the BIRT and wage taxes and therefore the General Fund. Will you commit to continually evaluating these trends both in Philadelphia nationwide and issue more reports with recommendations? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: I was very excited that Council President reconvened the Tax Reform Commission, and I'm looking forward to their recommendations to see where they go with the tax reforms to bring businesses in and bring good-paying jobs into the City to help with poverty and homelessness. I think that's a key.
Thank you. Chair recognizes Councilmember Nina Ahmad.
Thank you, Council President. Good morning. Good to see you -- CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Good morning.
-- in your professional official capacity. We saw each other on the campaign trail for a long time, so glad we both made it. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Yes, me too.
Your department, your office is an extremely important office for keeping an eye on, as my colleague said, both on the empathetic space as well as the accountability space of our use of tax dollars. I had a question around audits on the sweet and beverage tax. As we heard -- I can't remember yesterday, it's all mashed up in my head, that they didn't seem to give us an idea of where all that money is going to go. Is it going to continue work in the PreK space, is it going to continue work on rec centers and Community Schools. I didn't get a sense of that. I don't know if you've done an audit on that. Where are we on keeping an eye on where the money from the beverage tax is going? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Thank you for the question. We audit all the revenues that come into the City, sweet and beverage tax is one of them. And because that money goes into the General Fund which it is allowed -- I did look into it because I would have liked it in a special revenue fund, but the way it was legally set up, it's allowed to go into the General Fund -- that's why it's not as specific. You can obviously when money goes into the General Fund, you can use it however you like. But it is accounted for in their general ledger separately so --
So you can track it. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Yes, so you can track it. And my first Municipal Money Matters newsletter did note what was brought in and what the City is saying that they're spending the money on, and there is a lot left over. So hopefully, it will go and improve the Parks & Rec and PreK.
And you'll sort of keep track of that? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Yes.
Okay. The second question is on what is your role in the opioid settlement money? We have not got a lot of clarity on that either. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: The opioid -- when the City receives the money and they start to spend the money, that's when we look into it. We look into what the City spends the money on. So if it's supposed to be spent in a certain way, we would look at are you spending it the way you were intending to spend it, is it proper.
So the settlement came with some directions as to -- CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Yes.
-- how this money was going to be spent. So you will be checking against those requirements? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Yes.
So you don't really have any information on that as of yet? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: No. 24
-- because the money has been disbursed and the City's used some of it so I don't know where it went. It seems the answer we get is it's with community groups. And I know Scattergood got some money, but we don't know how much. If there's new settlements coming, is this a source of dollars that we can put to use in addressing this crisis particularly in Kensington? I would love to know more about it and maybe get a report from your office on what is happening with the opioid settlement funds. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Yes. Well, we can look and give the Chair a report for you.
That would be wonderful. And then another area is you've been doing some work on the Pension Fund and I would love to know if you're exploring the possibility of the City investing in more local resources like -- I don't know. I know the portfolio is a mix of things, and the alternative asset space could be where we could do some investment in Philadelphia, particularly in the affordable housing and workforce housing area, so I don't know what your purview has been in that space. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Thank you for that question. I've been to all of the meetings. My staff has been to all of the meetings that they've been having on how to spend our pension funds and we are looking at what they've been presenting.
So I'm really interested in where they're investing, where are they investing the dollars. I would love -- because they invest in here, the money circulates much faster for us. We have direct and indirect benefits from investing locally. So I would love to know if your office is able to see where all the resources are going. I'll hold my questions for the next round, Council President. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Mr. President. I agree with Councilmember Bass that you're off to a great start and we're excited for your administration here. And I also look forward to our work with the Gas Commission, protecting the ratepayers and kind of diving into those issues, so I look forward to that. Just wanted to know if you could talk about the financial literacy in the schools. I introduced a bill when I was in the House of Representatives back in 2015 to require it, and then I'm happy that it passed in December of 2023. Governor Shapiro signed it in the law. But if you could speak to that? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Thank you for the question, Councilman. Yeah, he beat me to it. No, it's actually -- when I was an audit deputy, there was a program where staff members, auditors went into the grade schools and taught financial literacy. It was a I think 12-week program, I'm not positive. And we can teach young people how to be financially literate, and that will -- to me it's such an advantage. I mean, knowing how to have a savings account. I guess back in the day when I was in public school I learned how to write a check, but who writes checks anymore. Now, I guess you have to learn to Venmo. But it's about saving, it's about the value of a dollar. If I could talk about compounding interest, it's exciting. Watching out for -- well, yeah, especially in years, 6 30 years when you see that bank 7 account and not having credit card 8 debt, all of that together. The 9 value of a dollar, I just really 10 believe that teaching that to our 11 youth gives them a good foundation 12 for later on, you know, just like 13 our pension. 14
Yeah. 15 No, I agree 100 percent with 16 everything you said. I just want 17 to make sure it gets done. 18 CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Oh, 19 yes. 20
So we're looking forward to your oversight. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Yes.
And then just lastly, can you talk about the expedited process for the election payroll? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Thank you for that question. I am very excited to tell you that I have convened with Finance, Treasurer and City Commissioners. We have outlined a process to streamline the process of getting those paychecks out to the individuals that are performing this vital service. I mean, the days of months before you get paid are over.
Good. Thank you for that. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Yes.
Thank you, Council President. And hello and welcome. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Good morning.
And congratulations. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: And congratulations to you too.
Thank you very kindly. Maybe not much like me. I'm still figuring out this job and getting settled in. So I don't want to belabor you with things that preceded you, but I did want to bring up something that I thought was pretty interesting that your predecessor discovered. Philadelphians were spending a lot of unchecked tax money on police who were too injured to work. The Inky wrote about it in October of '22. We've heard about officers with second jobs while they collected the disability benefit and then others have filed multiple claims for questionable injuries in general. So we know there's no limit for how long officers can remain on Heart & Lung or on the number of claims that they can submit during their careers, which was what a lot of this detailed. Inky said that the Philly absences were "vastly higher than other major cities." What is the Controller's Office doing or what will you plan on doing as you're getting settled in to make sure that employees, specifically police officers in this instance, are not taking advantage of taxpayer dollars in this manner? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Thank you for that question, Councilman O'Rourke. That review was performed by an outside agency so it's hard for me to address that. But from what I've seen and reported afterwards that the number of Heart & Lung you're talking about, cases did go down as a result of that review and it is something that our office does do is look to make sure that -- we have an Investigative Unit that people can report to, and that number is on our website. If they see someone, any City worker doing any wrongdoing, you can call that number and we have our investigators go out and look to see if that sort of thing is happening. So it is something that is ongoing.
Thank you. That is encouraging to hear. I should probably state for the record that this was not only previous to your administration, but it was a previous police administration and a previous police union administration as well, so I know all of this is kind of maybe in the rear-view a bit, but I do think it's important at least to mention it even now as you're coming in, and to make sure that it is ongoing because this is part of -- especially as we have a new Mayor Administration, there's a new approach in how we deal with these sorts of things. Breeding more trust between community and the department, these are the sorts of fibers I think that make up that tapestry so it's really important. Would you have any thoughts or know-how on whether this is happening in other departments at all, anything that has come up for you in the few months that you've been here? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Nothing right now that I'm aware of. I mean, we do have some investigations going on, but nothing that I could report on. But it is something that we would always keep an eye out for, and we do have that hotline number to call if you do see wrongdoing. We will look into it.
Madam Controller, appreciate you. Excited about your role and your leadership in this particular department. Thank you very much. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: I appreciate your question. Thank you.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilmember O'Neill.
Thank you, Mr. President. Good morning. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Good morning.
I don't know if I've ever had three people live in my District so I have to be really careful now. I believe that's the same gentleman that I knocked on his door this summer. So I just have a couple of things. One is observations. One is a suggestion and one is if you could walk me through it. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Okay.
So the first is both the Council President, Councilman Jones, others have said what a breath of fresh air. You're out in the community, you're around, you're not sending press releases out every time you go and bringing a photographer with you and all that kind of thing. The reason I believe, and you've explained it yourself, is that I don't know certainly since I've been in office which has been a while, there's ever been a Controller who actually worked in the Controller's Office, didn't just work there but worked their way up all the way to right under the top. It's amazing what that can do. Immediately I think of how few Councilmembers had the background not just of early in their career working a little while for some Councilmember at a low level but working their way up from the beginning all the way up to the top, Chief of Staff or something of the equivalent. I think of Bill Greenlee, I think of Darrell Clarke, I think of Katherine Gilmore Richardson and while she wasn't here long, Sharon Vaughn who just walked in here and they hit the ground running. It's a real advantage, but also there's a different perspective. There's time they've spent thinking what would I do if I were here and how impactful do I want to be and in what area. So it's really evident that you have an advantage and we're the beneficiaries, not just Council but the City, of actually having somebody who knows the Controller's Office inside out and isn't running for another office or trying to figure out if they even want to know what goes on in the office itself. But I appreciate the fact that you're actually taking advantage of that getting out doing things that are outside the box, but there's not even a box to be outside of in terms of your predecessors. The second thing is, and this is just a recommendation or an observation. You are out there in a way that is unprecedented. We've covered that, whether it's community affairs, whether it's your own presence, whether it's sending staff. But I would suggest to you that as you're doing the outreach, that you focus on the Weeklys. Our constituents for the most part can't afford the Inquirer, they can't afford the Daily News. They never read it. We have to read it. We have to be on top of it. If you walk around Center City, everybody knows who you are and what you do because they read it in the Inquirer. The Inquirer covers it well. Getting -- and when you go to a senior meeting, it's important that the people there in person get to see you or your representative, but somebody covering that in a weekly, for me the Inquirer in my District and all three of you live there, is in the Northeast Times. It used to be about four or five of those papers, but for a long time it's been the Northeast Times. Particularly seniors, longtime homeowners, longtime residents, that's how they get their news. They don't get it from the Inquirer. They read it cover to cover. They read the little events that are there. Everything that's in there they're looking at. I want you to get full advantage of what you're doing and hit the average person that is in that group, the weekly readers. So if you can make sure that you focus on that, I think it'll be by leaps and bounds how you're reaching out, how that community effort is there. The last thing is just the paragraph where you talk about the Skills Gaming legislation and collaborating with the Treasurer's Office, getting unclaimed monies to our retirees, the $20,000 one of them got. Could you walk me and us through that because I know the legislation? I don't know about the process and the unclaimed monies and that kind of thing. Usually when I hear of unclaimed monies, it's the state sending out something from the sheet or whatever it is, division.
So if you or someone could just walk us through that because that to me is -- you talked about the little person getting a break here, that's a prime example and I just want to know more how it -- CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Thank you for the question. First, I want to say that I love being a part of the community. I mean, I've coached. I've participated myself in the local sports and women's over 30 soccer league in Parkwood. It's fun and I enjoy giving back. I mean, I played softball and soccer in college. I want to give back what I know in my head to people to teach what's going on in that world as well as financial literacy.
Yeah. You got a good taste in high schools for your kids too, boys. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Yeah.
You can't do better than that. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: No, thank you. In terms of the unclaimed monies, there's so much time that it's in with the City and we have unclaimed monies for employees and we have unclaimed monies for non-employees and businesses. And we had initially worked with the Finance Department and the Treasurer on our employees, and they go above and beyond, the Treasurer, more than what is even in the standard accounting procedures that they're supposed to follow, which I was very happy to see. We had a list of -- and I can share that with you of who didn't receive checks. If we can't find those people, it goes then to the state and then you have to go through that state exchanging process. So in the beginning we have it, and I was very happy to have been a part of the process with the Treasurer to help find those City employees to get them their money. It's their hard- earned money back.
Okay. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: And sometimes it's just because of a change of address. Time goes by after COVID, you know. But the backlog is --
Okay. If we can be of any help, our offices, whether it's District or At-large, we might have a source somewhere that can maybe benefit the process. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Absolutely.
Thank you. Appreciate it. Good (inaudible) would start too. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilman, and thank you for the kind remarks. Chair recognizes Councilmember Lozada.
Hi. Thank you, Council President. I have more of a I guess comment, question, right. First, I want to say thank you for all of the work that you've done with my office and responding to all of our questions and all of your recommendations as well as your presence in the community and informing community residents about what it is your department does and what's your purpose and what's your role. Thank you so much for that because that's not something that they were accustomed to. And people have noticed and have mentioned how grateful they are for that. My question was the same as my colleague about the opioid settlement money. We know that money was disbursed. Round was already done. Round is in the process. I know Councilmember Squilla has asked multiple times about who's receiving this money, how is the money being spent and how does the process that we have at the municipal level compare to the process that the state level has. We've been informed by Senator Tina Tartaglione multiple times that this money is being disbursed and that the process, the requirements, in order to qualify for this funding is not the same. And so, my concern is that there are smaller groups on the ground that while they're doing great work, are receiving money but don't meet the criteria, and we've been informed that those groups will be asked to repay that money. And we know, right, we know on the ground that while their work is important, they are not capable, they don't have the capacity to be able to pay the funds back. And so, to me it's important to figure out sooner rather than later, right, how does the two processes compare and how do we set processes in place not just for opioid settlement money but across the board, how do we proactively work to ensure that when contracts and funding is being allocated to departments or groups outside that are doing the necessary work, that they are delivering on the work that they commit to, right, and that they are following the requirements necessary? I have found since I arrived 17 months ago that we don't do a good job at oversight. And then when we come to ask questions, it's too late. So how do we become a government that is proactive and that is ensuring that the correct folks are receiving the money that the work is actually being done and that we're fiscally responsible? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Thank you for that question. I thought we made a great team at Take Back Your Neighborhood and what you've done in your community with the food trucks, you came through for them, and I thought that was well received when that was announced. With the money that's coming in, it's something that we can look at. I mean, this is what we do with the single audit of the City and the school districts, all the federal money that comes in. There are rules that are associated with this money. And we go in, we look at eligibility, period of availability. There's rules that come with that. And when the City receives this money, the Administration is supposed to follow those guidelines and when they don't is when the process breaks down. Similar to what happened with the CEG grants. They did not follow the way a contract should work. You don't fund it in one department and have a contract in another, how are the funds supposed to get to those organizations quickly. And the oversight, they were supposed to give some of these groups that didn't have that capacity the ability to do that paperwork with taxpayer money to keep supporting the programs that they're doing. So it is something that we can look at and I do want to look at. So I'm glad that the Councilmembers are bringing this up with me and we can get together and talk and see where we can go with it.
Thank you. Thank you, Council President. That was my only question.
Chair recognizes Councilmember Young. And after Councilmember Young, I'll give a few remarks before we go into the second round. Councilmember Young.
Thank you so much, Councilmember Thomas. Controller Brady, I just want to echo the sentiments of my colleagues in saying that you are probably the most front-facing Controller that I have ever seen. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: I really appreciate that.
In looking here at your budget details, you are asking for almost a little bit more than double the amount in prior years for communication support. Can you tell us some of the things that you'll be doing with this communication support and how it helps your office achieve its front-facing goals? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: We got rid of -- okay. Thank you for the question, Councilman Young. We got rid of a position and we are now contracting out that work. That's where it came from.
Thank you. And also, it looks like there are some monies allocated for some audit reviews in some organizations in the past who were funded, but it says it's to be determined. If you can, when those entities are determined if you can just supply those to the Chair, that would be helpful so we can see which organizations, which entities are being funded by the Controller's Office for auditing services. I would appreciate that. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Sure. Yeah, I mean there's certain functions that we have that are part of the financial statement audit, like we have to do quality control reviews and things like that. And we RFP it and go through the process. So we follow the contracting rules, but we can give you a list when we do that.
Good morning, Council President. Good morning, colleagues. A couple things. So first, I want to start by echoing the sentiments of my colleagues Councilmember Young, O'Neill, Bass and Driscoll and others who talked about the great job you've done. A lot of folks probably don't know that we used to be colleagues so I remember when you became the first woman to ever become the Deputy Controller in the City of Philadelphia. I know firsthand that the seat that you have was never your desire based on the meetings that we were in and the work that we've done together, and of course working for Bill, the entire team at the Controller's Office. Thank you all for being here today and thank you for the great work that you do. Before I get into questions, I didn't get the opportunity to do some of the things that other Councilmembers got a chance to do when some of their staff left them, so I'm going to take a moment to let you know, Controller Brady, that I am upset that you poked one of my staff members, right. I want to put that on the record. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: I asked for permission.
But I do want to formally say congratulations to Jackie Golden who not only worked for me but ran my campaign, started with me as an intern, the only job she ever had before Controller Brady decided to take her from us. But I do want to say congratulations to Jackie. We definitely miss you. (Applause.)
We definitely miss you. And, Controller Brady, the entire team, you're lucky to have her.
Member Thomas, I was confused. I'm like, wait, well, ain't that Isaiah's staff member over there. I was trying to figure it out though. Congratulations.
Yep, but thank you. So to the people's business, Controller Brady, I'm concerned about our schools. Now, one of the issues that we have is that because the schools get funding from so many different places, it makes it very difficult to audit the schools. You have that situation there and you also have the situation with the Parking Authority. Now, a lot of Councilmembers talked about the fact that previous controllers might have had a different agenda as it relates to certain things. And I think that the public has the perception that we can audit these institutions in ways that we don't necessarily have the ability to do. So based on what I know about working in the Controller's Office, it's difficult for us to audit entities who get funding for multiple areas, right, PPA funding from City and state, the School District funding from City and state. So what is the plan for your administration to be able to audit some of these institutions to put us in a position to be able to recognize how effective or not they are in their spending as well as looking at any possible mismanagement or any inefficiencies in government? How do you plan to address those dilemmas? Because right now the public is under the perception that you could audit the PPA. They're under the perception that you could audit the School District of Philadelphia. And we both know how difficult that is for bureaucracies like that. So what is the vision of your administration to address those issues and how do we put ourselves in a position to ensure that not only is there no 3 mismanagement of taxpayer dollars but to assure that these sectors of government are working as efficient as they can? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Thank you for the question. First, I want to say that the Controller's Office produces some good employees. You're one of them. And obviously, so does yours because I got one too. So thank you so much.
Thank you. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Thank you for that question. That is about partnerships with the Auditor General and the state. Whether or not with the PPA, we have the ability to audit the onstreet parking and that's where it ends. But the other areas of PPA would then be under the state. And so, that's where that partnership comes in as well as with the School District. We do look at the federal funds that come in, but that's about are they following the grant regulations, are they being effective with that money. Then that's a different story. And that's where some of the roadblocks have come in, in the past, especially when the state took over and it was the SRC. Now, that it is the School Board, I believe that we'll have the opportunity to do more in the School District. I had when I first started with the School District, almost 30 years ago, the opportunity while we were doing the audit of the financial statements, we would look at the student activity funds, we would look at -- if something came across that I was reviewing, expenditures, there was an area where I saw something that I thought was unusual, it was like a travel reimbursement for some maintenance workers and it was exactly miles, miles, 30 even 6 amount of miles, and I thought 7 that's strange because it's exactly 8 10 miles between this school and 9 this school and this school and 10 this school. 11 So I took an intern and 12 said Map Quest the distance between 13 these schools and add 10 percent 14 just to see if you took a wrong 15 turn. And as it turned out, these 16 people were almost doubling their 17 salary in mileage reimbursement, so 18 things can happen from our 19 financial statement audits but also 20 having a partnership with Malcolm Kenyatta who's running for Auditor General, this is where we can open doors and really get in and look at some of that state money that's coming in and being spent that I wouldn't really be able to look at.
Let me just close out with this. And if you could just answer this, I'll be done for the day. Number one, give us an example of an audit that's been done where you worked with the Auditor General's Office to produce an audit of one of these departments that we're talking about. Number two, your Money Matters piece that you produced talked about the steady reduction of the wage and the BIRT tax, talk to us a little bit about why you recommend that we continue that steady reduction and the impact that you'll have on the economy. If you could just answer those two questions for me, I am done for the day. Thank you, Council President. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Okay. So our office, we did do an audit of the PPA's onstreet parking, but it wasn't as much in partnership. It was following up on some of the findings with the onstreet parking part that the previous Auditor General Eugene DePasquale issued. But that's what I want to do, is have those partnerships. But that's what I am about, is having those relationships and partnering with the state agencies that might have more of an authority of oversight because I understand the City's accounting system. I understand the School District's accounting system. Our auditors are in -- we have an office at the School District that we have staffed right now. So I believe that we can do more in terms of making sure that those dollars spent are effective.
And your report of wage and BIRT? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Oh, thank you. What was your question about that? I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, Council President. I just wanted you to talk a little bit about your report, the Money Matters piece that talked about steady reduction in wage and BIRT tax. What made you do the report, how did you come up with those findings and why do you think that's what's best for the City? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Thank you for that question. I believe it's very important to see a reduction in the BIRT and wage taxes. I think it brings businesses in and it shows that as we are reducing those taxes, the revenues are still increasing. So there is still money coming into the City as these percentages are going down. And I am really looking forward to the Tax Reform Commission's findings to see where they go and to see how you can bring businesses and good-paying jobs into the City. I think it's very important.
Thank you, Member Thomas. Chair also recognizes the presence of Councilmember Mark Squilla. We are in our second round. The Chair recognize Councilmember Curtis Jones.
Thank you, Mr. President. Very quickly I mentioned in the first round the gambling machines and wanted to know if at some point you would know how many machines are there? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Okay.
What are their estimated revenues? I get conflicting numbers. Yours I trust, but I get conflicting numbers as some people estimate there might be 50,000 bandit machines in the City of Philadelphia. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Wow.
And their average revenue is a guess. But judging on the amount of money being spent at the state level to squash this, to intervene in this, we have to be talking about a sizable amount of revenue that we're not getting as a City. Governor Shapiro and a couple of the Senators are looking at a 42 percent rate of taxation and would love to figure out what would that mean to the citizens of Philadelphia, government of Philadelphia, programs of Philadelphia. You don't have to answer now, but it is something that we would be keenly interested in knowing so that we know what ballpark we're in. Early on these gambling entities offered trinkets, hey, don't tax us, don't bother us, here, we'll give you X, Y and Z. And in my intuition, I said if you're willing to offer this, it must be worth that. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: I like your intuition.
And so, we need to figure that out so that we as a government can anticipate what those revenues will be and what they can be used for. So thank you. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Exactly. That's exactly why I want to look into it. It's untapped money and I believe that it's money that the City should be receiving.
And also beyond it being untapped money, it's also unfair that the surrounding gaming industries rather it's Parx, Live, the other one, Fox, that's down in Squilla's District, they all pay 54 percent on their slots which are skilled games, basically the same thing, but yet you have an industry that's pretty much extracting revenues out of our City without taxation. And so, I do thank the Member for his leadership around this particular issue, but this is a source that pretty much should be tapped into based upon what the requirement is for other surrounding gaming industries in the City of Philadelphia. And so, we look forward to seeing that report.
You're welcome. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Nina Ahmad.
Thank you, Council President. Controller, I commend you on your outreach to the community. You are in all these spaces. And so, I just wanted to follow up on Councilmember Young's question around the communications outsourcing. I just wondered what that RFP process was. I'm really interested in sort of minority companies that were considered in that process, that's one. And two, I was looking at the information we were provided on staff demographics per department. I don't see yours. I don't know if I'm not being able to find it. I'd love to know that demographic breakdown in your office. And lastly, I would love to see if you have any pipeline for bringing up people who could then look for jobs in this space. And since you do a lot of community outreach, I wondered if there's a pipeline that you're maybe talking to people who are considering accounting or going for their CPA, if you have such effort in your office? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Thank you for the question. For our communications contract, that contract was conformed prior to me coming into office. We just continued it. But I'm sure the proper RFP process was followed. You do have to get a certain amount of bids, and I think there's a quick sheet on the contracting process that Procurement puts out that might be helpful. For our demographics, I can provide that to the Chair.
That would be great. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: And our outreach, was that specifically for our department?
Yeah. I was just thinking -- CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: We do a great job, or at least prior to COVID because I was one of the people in our office when I was an auditor that went out to colleges to recruit, and we partnered with OHR at the time. OHR was pretty much representing the rest of the City and then it was us looking for most of the time accounting majors because most of the office are auditors, and we're required to have an accounting degree. So obviously we want to look at local schools because we want the people to live in the City, but we also went out to HBCUs. The further out we went, the less people were interested, but I do want to say that Temple University does a great job preparing their business students. We probably get the majority of our auditors, when we go out to recruit, from Temple. So I do have a special place for -- the Fox School of Business is outstanding in the City. So --
Great. Thank you. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: And I did not go there. I went to Textile.
Okay. Last question was about I see you have an additional 200,000 in Class 100. Can you just speak to this for new hires? I know you're short-staffed. Yeah, I see that you are 20 percent short. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: We are short-staffed. We are looking for more auditors. So when I say that our office is short-staffed, it's because we're looking for auditors. We did ask for an increase because we did bring back the Community Affairs Division. We revitalized that so that's where that came from.
Thank you. Chair recognizes Councilman Mark Squilla.
Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Controller Brady and Bill, for being here. I think it was under when you were there or maybe it was before you were there, it was one of the written reports about the Sheriff's Office that had fees for sheriff sales and charges that go through that end up coming back to the City, usually the general operating fund. But I think it was something that said that they were retaining those costs during COVID and all when there was no sheriff sales. Do we still know if they corrected that operation when they were putting it into a separate account and not returning that money back to the City? CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Thank you for that question. It is my understanding that they still hold on to their fees.
So they still hold on to the fees and they don't return them to the City for the -- CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Correct.
But isn't it for the Charter to be able to re-appropriate the money for the Sheriff's Office to -- CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: That is my understanding.
Okay. All right. I know that was brought to the attention and then at some point I had thought they had complied. So I was misunderstood. All right. So they haven't complied to date. All right. Thank you. That was my only question. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: You're welcome.
Thank you. Next, we have Councilmember Rue Landau.
Excellent. Thank you for that question, Councilmember Squilla. Appreciate that one. One comment, one question. As we will work together to make the contract conforming and payment process even more efficient, I wanted to let you know that the City is obligated to pay the court- appointed attorneys within 60 days of receiving the voucher from the court. And I know the First Judicial District is next and I wanted to ask them a little bit about this. But just wanted you to know that there's a mandate there that the City often does not comply with. And the second thing, just a question, what is public knowledge and what is confidential in your office? Do we know every investigation you're doing? Can we know the details of the investigation? Can we just have a list of the audits that you're doing? I don't know the answer to this. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: While it's ongoing, we don't release the information but we do issue the report when we're complete. I have no problem telling you what we're looking at. I mean, I'm pretty transparent with that. L&I, I mean we do the financial statement audits, we do the single audits with all the grant money that comes in. We review the Five Year Plan, imminently dangerous properties, gaming. I mean, I pretty much laid it out what we're looking at. But until the investigation's complete, I mean if I started to say, well, I think this is happening and it turns out it's not, it wouldn't be the right thing to do.
I'm just curious if there's an issue that comes to us and we start to get information about it, it would be very helpful that we can collaborate on these issues. But if we don't know you're working on it or thinking about it, it would be really helpful to, I don't know, get a quarterly list or something. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Well, I mean we can meet and we'll discuss like what we're working on. And if there's something that you want me to look at, I'm more than happy to meet and discuss what we can do.
As we wrap up this round, I see Councilmember Jones.
Okay. Thank you. So for all the rookies, you see he's already queued up for the next round. Y'all start hollering at me. No, it's tricks to the trade here. I just want to firstly thank you for your presentation. We look forward to continuously working with you, and keep up the good work in the meanwhile. Thank you very much. CITY CONTROLLER BRADY: Thank you. Would the Clerk please call the next person for testimony.
Judge Nina Wright Padilla, President Judge, Court of Common Pleas and Chair of the Administrative Governing Board. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)
I'm doing fantastic, peachy. MR. McSORLEY: Good morning, Council President.
Good morning. How are you today? MR. McSORLEY: I'm fine, sir. How are you?
That's good. I'm doing pretty good. Can't complain. Beautiful day outside. Just state your name and title for the record, Your Honor, and please begin your testimony.
Very good. My name is Judge Nina Wright Padilla, Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. I am the President Judge of the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania. And I want to thank you for having me here today and allowing me to speak on behalf of the First Judicial District. I want to also -- I have a statement that I'm going to read, but I want to just take a minute and thank you for all the work that you do in the City of Philadelphia. In preparation for this proceeding, I did watch some of the old videos of the Council hearings, and there's something different about watching the video versus being here in person and seeing you and hearing you, and it's impressive. I'm impressed by your poignant questioning. You obviously care very much about your constituency and the people that you represent in particular and you care about the City. That comes through loud and clear. I've been sitting here watching you and I'm very impressed with that. Also, the specific questions you ask are probing and important. And I really mean that. I'm not just saying it. So I'm happy that I got to hear that. I was recently elected President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and I'm very, very proud of that. My colleagues, they're 93 of them, and my colleagues elected me President Judge. There's no prouder moment for me than to represent my colleagues and the First Judicial District. I have a couple other points I wanted to make. The team here that I'll introduce has helped me in my preparations, and I'll introduce each of them. But this team of professionals and administrators in the court are essential to the functioning of the Court of Common Pleas. And I'm so happy to have their advice and counsel. I don't think the court could function properly without these administrators. I've been on the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas for years now, believe it or not. I can't even believe it, to be honest. And I understand the court from a different facet. The administrators have different information that I just didn't really work with over the past 8 years. So that's why they're so 9 important. 10 I've met with some members 11 of Council but not all of you. I 12 think it's important that different 13 branches of government work 14 together, especially the court, and 15 I'm hoping that you'll take my 16 meeting when I call you and meet 17 with me so that we can at least be 18 familiar with one another and work 19 together. 20 Over the years there have been disasters and different things that have happened, and I think it's helpful if we could have a working relationship. So I hope to do that on an ongoing basis. And I also want to mention my election for President Judge was October 31st. I took office November 12th and there's just been a lot of shuffling around. So I've done the best I could in preparation for this very important occasion, but I know already I won't be able to respond to all of your questions. So I will be referring some of you to my team here. All right. So my statement: Good morning, Council President Johnson and members of the Philadelphia City Council. As I stated, I'm President Judge Nina Wright Padilla representing the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania for the Fiscal Year of 2025, which includes the Family Division, which is composed of both domestic relations and juvenile court, the Trial Division which is composed of civil and criminal courts, the Orphans' Division and the Municipal Court composed of criminal, civil and traffic division. I'm here today with District Court Administrator Richard McSorley, Esquire; Deputy Court Administrator of Financial Services Chris Waters right back here as well as Michael Bouchard. Michael Bouchard is the Chief Deputy District Court Administrator; and Creadell Webb on my left. Creadell Webb is the Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer. And Curtis Jones, III is in the back. He's the Public Relations Specialist for the FJD.
And I see Eric Assini, who's the legal counsel for the court; and my new law clerk Pearl Ruschak, who's been incredibly helpful. I expect big things from her.
Yeah. Curtis Jones, III has a special place in my heart. His wife is Puerto Rican and my mother was Puerto Rican so -- and I know him from Family Court from back in the day. To preserve time, I would like to waive my full statement that I submitted to Philadelphia City Council. And this year just to summarize, our ask was for both the General Fund and grants revenue as well, and we also ask for money for information, technology and structural enhancements. And that funding would be used to ensure that the FJD is protected from future cyber threats. It is crucial for justice that the FJD stays ahead of security and technological advancements, especially considering prior threats to our cyber security. And our second ask was for finances for our court interpreters so that they stay compliant with our Pennsylvania Supreme Court and that we stay compliant as well. Philadelphia is diverse as you all know, and interpreters are essential to preserving justice. Thank you so much for your time and attention. And I look forward to working with City Council as the need arises. Thank you, Council President.
Thank you very much, and great having the opportunity to talk to you about your tenure as well as the work that Richard McSorley was doing. You became Deputy Court Administrator around the time we had the pandemic, correct? You kind of led us through that period? MR. McSORLEY: I came in right near the end of it, so I'm on my third year now.
Third year now, awesome. Well, I know the work that you have done over there as well. Just a couple questions. I'm going to start off with just give me an update -- I know, Richard, you and I discussed this before in the past regarding the Center for Urban and Racial Equity Report, which was the CURE Report. Just give us a progress update. I see you also have the Diversity Equity Inclusion Officer, which was one of the things that was the outcome of that particular report. Just give us an update on where we're at in terms of the progress that has been made from that report around diversity, equity and inclusion and making sure that the First Judicial District's environment is one that's conducive for all individuals working there. MR. McSORLEY: Thank you for the question, Council President. The CURE report was the catalyst for a lot of the changes we made, but the CURE report is now over 10 years old. So it's not a viable plan for us to use anymore. But we did take that and did move forward. And as you pointed out, one of the first things we did was to learn about DEI, and that led us to appointing a DEI Chief. As far as I know, we're the only court in the county in the Commonwealth that has a DEI office and DEI mission. That said, the DEI Chief has made great strides in what we have done in the FJD in that area. As we mentioned last year, we were beginning to make changes, things like removing tests, creating hiring panels that were more neutral, making sure that our questions were vetted by HR and the DEI Chief, before we had those kind of interviews with people coming through, doing more to look at what the makeup is at the FJD, having creation of things like the Suggestion Ox, which was an anonymous web-based program we had for the FJD so that members of the FJD could anonymously voice their opinions. At the same time, Chief Webb has worked with the City of Philadelphia's DEI office, the National Association of Courts and the Mid-Atlantic courts, the Pennsylvania courts, he's on several panels now and to my delight is now being recognized as one of the leaders in court for his DEI work and is actually going to be sitting on I think a national panel coming up soon. If you would like more detail about the programs we have done, if you don't mind I'll have Chief Webb --
I was just getting ready to ask could he come actually and give us an update. And, Richard McSorley, just for the record the report I have is from 2019. I know you said the CURE report is 10 years old. The official report was 2019. MR. McSORLEY: 2019?
Yes. Mr. Webb, go ahead, sir, and begin your testimony. State your name and title for the record.
Thank you, Council President. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Creadell Webb. I'm the Chief Diversity Equity and Inclusion Officer for the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania, otherwise known as the Philadelphia Courts. Your question was since the CURE report what strides have been made. I think one of the insights that came from that report was a number of the culture and our hiring practices. So one of the first things that I did was decided to focus on the hiring. I've done presentations on inclusive hiring, and we've also changed the hiring policies. Not only did we change the hiring policy, but I sat on a number of hiring panels to ensure that people were following the best practices. So in addition to my job title, by profession I'm also an attorney. I'm a certified Human Resources professional and I also have diversity, equity and inclusion certifications. So I am setting the stage from a national standpoint and the stage from a local standpoint on diversity, equity and inclusion. I'd like to train our leaders first, because one of the things that happens when you train frontline staff on a variety of diversity, equity and inclusion issues is they're going to ask you have the leaders received this training. And so, my goal is always to train the leaders and then have sort of a topdown approach. And we have a variety of trainings that happen all year. When you start with the FJD, we have an orientation training where we talk about bias, unconscious bias, conscious bias, micro-aggressions. We talk about inclusive language. I've also worked a variety of jobs here at the court, so I've been a law clerk for a judge. I've managed a civil filing center in 2006 so I know what it's like to work with the public self-represented litigants as well as attorneys. And now, in this role I'm working with court administration. I also realize you have to couple DEI best practices with court behavior and organizational behavior. So one of the things that the court administrator mentioned, my involvement with the state and with the national associations is because I realize you have to have influence on those groups as well. So when you have courts above this court, you have to also make sure that you're showing up at those places and training those leaders. So not only do you receive training from me at the local court, but when you have leaders going out to these conferences, I'm one of the headliners at the conference doing the training. And so, that also stretches my level of influence. Thank you.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes the presence of Councilwoman Kathy Gilmore Richardson. Another question: In the past I've had an opportunity to work to reduce and eliminate the criminal justice fees associated with the placement of juveniles. They go away and they're placed and then the parents receive the bill. So I worked with my former colleague Councilwoman Helen Gym to eliminate those fees being charged. Have y'all ever done an overview of just the various fees that significantly impact Black and Brown families that are associated with individuals going through our criminal justice system, particularly those coming through the First Judicial District?
You mean like -- excuse me. Thank you for the question, Council President Johnson. I think you mean probation fees. Is that what you're referring to?
Any fees associated with family members that are actually going through the actual criminal justice system.
Yeah, I agree. It can be hard for a family who's already suffering to pay those probation fees, especially for an extended period of time. I think that there could be some discretion involved on some of those fees. So I think it would be possibly up to the trial judge for that.
Okay. Then last but not least, and I'm sure you'll probably hear this as we talk about as we address gun violence here in the City of Philadelphia, a lot of times we're looking to not working in silos, right. We do work with probation. We do work with parole, my guy Benny Price over there as well with the juvenile enforcement team. But how do you ensure that we are working collaboratively together? I know Councilman Jones leads the Criminal Justice Advisory Board, just making sure we're all working in synergy. Because I know FJD, y'all mandated -- your jurisdiction is state, and I don't think most people know, right, although you're under the City as well, right. But obviously, when we talk about a safer city, we all need to be working in coordination together and talking to one another. And a lot of times a young person may -- not a young person, a person may get arrested and then they're back out on the streets, and then we'll call the DA's Office, he'll say, well, it's the judges, right, and just making sure that we're all talking to one another and there's synergy so we can all be on the same page and make sure we have a safer city. Any initiatives, any thought processes to make sure that we're all working together?
There's one thing I'd like to say about that. And our court administrator will probably have something else to say. But I had the pleasure of sitting on the Criminal Justice Advisory Board as President Judge, which is new for me. I just wasn't familiar with it. And I did learn about some initiatives that they are taking which is awesome. One of them I learned about at the last meeting, which is about three weeks ago, had to do with the local police who are engaging in a diversionary program, which is really awesome. And what it does is when someone is under suspicion for being arrested while they're waiting for the arresting officer to arrive, police on the scene will divert them into another possible program so they don't end up with a record. I think something like that is a wonderful thing. And they go through this diversionary program and if they complete it successfully, they don't have a record. Programs like that I think could be helpful. I don't know if Mr. McSorley has other ideas about that. MR. McSORLEY: Council President, I totally agree that the communication has to be constant and it has to be fluid. And as the President Judge mentioned, we have CJAB where all the members of the justice community and outside the community come together. I, myself, was on the Safety Committee of Councilman Jones' some years ago. We do have the various initiatives and MacArthur initiatives. We keep the conversations going with all of our justice partners. I met with the new Public Safety Director Adam Geer just last week, and we had this exact same conversation, that I frankly said in the past I thought there was more open communication between all of us and maybe not so much now. And I told him point blank that the courts are prepared to be involved in any conversation. That said, as I always have to point out to my President Judge, my job here as court administrator is to be in between the judicial leaders of the court and the rest of the world, because unfortunately judges can't really get involved in opinions and advocacy and tainting their neutrality basically, and that's what the court administration is for and that's what my team is for. So there is no table that we'll be asked to come to that we would say, no, I'm sorry, we're not going to be there.
Well, thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilman Jones.
Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for your steadfast commitment to the judicial process over time. I've known you to be a great, insightful advocate for the process being fair. Let me thank you guys for that wonderful seven-page chart that I displayed with the Controller's Office I actually got from you guys when we first started on the Criminal Justice Reform Committee, and I had no idea how elaborate it could be and intricate it could be. So thank you for that. My question, as I was listening yesterday about the Kensington Initiative, I happen to know that FJD was one of the forerunners for community courts here in Center City, which was alternative sentencing. I also know that each one is different. They have to be designed almost from the ground up in order to be effective. I'd like to hear your insights as to if we do something like that in Kensington, how would you kind of model it? MR. McSORLEY: I have been involved in the community court as you know. We modeled that over the Red Hook model from New York. We all went up there and took a look at it. The community court concept is not new to the FJD. We used to have a lot of our police districts, we had courtrooms out there that we had the municipal court hearings at, so having a courtroom out in the community is something we've done before and we would be willing to do again. As I mentioned, talking to the Public Safety Director and the discussions around Kensington, the court hasn't been at that table a lot. But if that was a discussion that the City wanted to broker, if there's an advantage to it, we would have no objection to having a court out in a local area or involved in the Kensington situation right now. The only thing I do have to point out is that a lot of people feel that, well, to have the court, we just have the judge come sit down behind a table and there you go, and it's just not that easy. All the partners have to be available. All the partners have to be willing, they have to be in the courtroom. We have to have the backing of the City. We have to have the infrastructure. So we have created courtrooms almost overnight. We did so up at the prison during the pandemic, went up there and found a space. So if we have the proper space and the conversations are had, the court is more than willing to step up and take a role.
One of the things that I noticed in community courts, it wasn't just court administration. It's all of the ancillary services, that if you're going to a rehab, if you're long-term housing, if you're dealing with other things that might seem minor, I don't have my driver's license so therefore I can't work, how do I restore that, stay in PHA, there's a lot of moving parts that are consolidated under that court. And what we found was that it cost. It cost a great deal. So I would hope that you guys would be at the table as we start to design that plan for Kensington to kind of say you might want to avoid this because it costs this much, you might want to go with the Ford model that cost less. So we would love that partnership with you to design it. MR. McSORLEY: With that in mind, Councilman, we do have at the Stout Center, that kind of program right now, the Hub program where anybody who is in the Stout Center can walk in, we have mental health services, we have liaisons with the different services in the City. It's run under the direction of Municipal Court. If you need a driver's license, if you need referrals, we have that. In addition while all this is being talked about, I'll just put a plug in for the Kensington Initiative. Justice Dougherty has started an initiative with mental health and looked at the Miami model. And the Miami model is exactly what you're talking about. It's one location, one-stop shop, all the resources, it's not just about court. It's about all the different resources that can be had right there in one location like a Hahnemann Hospital or something like that. So that is a conversation that the Justice I know started with the Mayor. We've had a couple of conversations going forward, but it's one that we hope we can keep going forward with, because I think that the two join together very nicely.
Mr. President, I encourage you to take a trip up to Red Hook, New York where their model exists and you can go in one door, get your agreement for your child support, your driver's license, your housing voucher, you got kicked out of this, all of it is codified in one room. So you walk in one door and walk out with your life right, and it saves time for a defendant to have to come back times one 10 time. And I just thought that it's a great model. And I will close with thanking you, President Judge. Several years ago when the pandemic hit I remember being in this chamber and we were shutting down and all of that good stuff. The most vulnerable population were some of those men and women up on State Road. You guys hunkered down, worked with the prisons, worked with the DA, worked with the Defenders to come up with a list of those individuals that could be allowed out of the facility. Now, keep in mind we were living in a state of fear. We didn't know how it was transmitted. We didn't know -- we were washing our mail, washing our vegetables. I mean, it was a scary point in time. And what I will say is the First Judicial District stepped up to the plate, an independent branch of government but a part of the whole picture, and I'm forever grateful for that. Thank you, Mr. President.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Rue Landau.
Thank you, Council President. President Judge, thank you for being here.
I want to start with IT and then probably on the second round come back for some other questions. But my first thing is you've already heard from the previous panel. I've been very focused on conforming contracts and making payments in Philadelphia, and that includes the court-appointed attorneys. So my understanding is how the system works is that court- appointed attorneys do their work, the judge signs off on it, the court administration signs off on it, comes over to the City of Philadelphia. I believe there might be too much paperwork involved at that point. But I know that the court-appointed attorneys are supposed to be paid within 60 days. So is there any way on your end that we can make this process happen faster? And I promise we're looking at both areas and I have a few other IT questions.
I'm going to let the court administrator answer that, but I do want to say one thing about that. Before I was a judge, I was a lawyer and I did a lot of court-appointed cases. And for a lawyer to wait to get paid for months is not sustainable. You can't live that way. So I certainly understand the need for the court-appointed lawyers to be paid -- really 60 days is a little long. I mean, really 30 days I think is more appropriate. And I do remember going by the court's fiscal office on a regular basis to find out about my check. And I know that's been an ongoing issue with the court and I've just begun to understand -- I didn't know that was an issue. I've just begun to understand it. And I know our court administration has been working on it, but --
Judge, we're losing good investigators and good attorneys and we need them to do this work so that's why I'm concerned. MR. McSORLEY: Councilmember, you're absolutely right. And that's one of the big fears of Family Court, especially the Criminal Division, is that we are going to lose those investigators and we are going to lose those court-appointed attorneys. I just ran into a friend of mine yesterday who announced that his partner who does a lot of our PCRAs and is court-appointed is going to leave because he just doesn't want to have to deal with it anymore. As the President Judge said, this has been an ongoing problem that the FJD has been trying to attack from quite some time. When I was the Criminal Deputy Court Administrator, it started to come to a head then and Family Court had already instituted a Quality Control Unit. So basically the attorneys are doing their work, they're dropping in the vouchers and it used to be way back in the day, the attorneys would just get the judge to sign it and they would send them off to the City and there was all kinds of problems, and T's weren't crossed and I's weren't dotted. So the Family Court instituted a Quality Control Unit funded by the FJD to help make sure that these vouchers when they went forward were clean and they were ready to go. I did the same thing under the Criminal Division. We created a Quality Control Unit. We have that unit now that's been operating for several years doing the exact same thing, and the goal here was so the City would know once you got this voucher, it's signed by a judge, it is a court order, it's ready to go, it's been checked and rechecked, pay the bill. And that's the conversation that we're having with the City now. Administrative Judge Murphy has been spearheading this along with Supervising Judge DeFino- Nastasi and Administrative Judge Anders and we have been at the table with the City and those conversations are ongoing, but our goal is, and selfishly it's a big goal for the FJD for just what you said, we need to get this corrected. One, it's not fair. The 60-day notice that you mentioned, the AGB, the Administrative Governing Board, at the FJD created that statute that there was a penalty after that time for the attorneys. And the reason they did that many, many years ago was to try to give the City more influence or more of a prod to say don't let this be late, and that doesn't seem to have worked. So what we're doing now is just sitting down with the City and trying to figure out the best way to make this happen and to streamline the process once it leaves the FJD as much as possible. To just mention one more thing, when we did sit down with the City some months ago, Administrative Judge Murphy offered the City the Quality Unit that they have. She said, if you need help, we'll help. She donated two of her personnel to that unit, and the City sent us some of their backlog paperwork, and this was mostly just the beginning of data entry. And the vouchers went back to September, and I believe there were anywhere from 700 to 1500 that they sent over that hadn't processed yet. So the FJD is at the table and we're trying to do what we can do.
One quick follow-up to this: If the City sent the money to the court, could the court pay the vouchers? MR. McSORLEY: We're not in that business of paying the attorneys. Then we become the attorney's employer and then there's a conflict. And this is exactly why we had it removed outside of the FJD into the City.
Thank you, Mr. President. And good morning. First, just a brief comment and statement. I'm just trying to review your budget analysis. I would appreciate if we could get a full budget detail because then it helps me really realize and understand what it is that you're doing with the City dollars. And I do note that there is a decrease in funding in this projected budget. But again, I would like to see where that decrease actually is. So again, we can figure out if it's the best use for City money. The first question I have is regarding landlord-tenant officers. And just as a statement in general or question in general, why are we the only county in the Commonwealth to employ landlord- tenant officers? MR. McSORLEY: That's a good question, Councilmember, and thank you for asking it. And I do not know. That was created 30-plus years ago, I believe. And the stories that I've been told or have been passed down to me have been that we had a constable system like the other counties did way back in the day and that didn't seem to work out. There were stories of corruption. There were stories of constables running rampant in Philadelphia and just basically doing things that shouldn't have been done. Whether they're true or not, I don't know. These are the conversations I've had since I've been talking about the LTO. And back then, it was decided that the best thing to do was not use the constable system and create this LTO system. The statute was created for the Municipal Court President Judge to appoint an LTO. That's all the statute said so that it was a completely independent organization, so the court wasn't in the job of enforcing court orders nor should we be. And then it went off from there for the past 30 years. As we know now, there's been issues. But why we are the only county and whether -- I guess my answer is back then it was probably a good idea.
Thank you. And on the same line of questioning regarding evictions, are there any social service components when there are evictions? And if not, how difficult would that be to implement in our system here?
I -- MR. McSORLEY: The -- I'm sorry, Judge.
I don't know the answer to that question, whether there are any social services programs. I think there should be. I know when I sat in L&I court, for example, there are issues with hoarders. So they get evicted for hoarding, and they really need social services and I don't have anyone in the court or I didn't have anyone in the courtroom other than a City solicitor to help with that. So services are very, very important. That's just one example of something that I remember being an issue. Then there's the issue of just tenants getting evicted. Maybe they have mental health issues. And if they don't have insurance or if their insurance doesn't address mental health, they're just out there on the street. So there are a myriad of problems with evictions that end up without social services for the people. And I think it should be addressed. I tried to do what I could. But as the judge presiding over the case, the biggest thing for the judge is to be fair, impartial, unbiased. And the follow-up services are nonexistent sometimes. MR. McSORLEY: And to echo all that, Councilmember, the Judge is exactly right. The court can get involved when the case is in our system. We do have many programs in the Landlord-Tenant Court of Municipal Court. We have the Lawyer of the Day program, Landlord Tenant Help Center, court liaisons, courtroom navigators. The City Eviction Diversion program assisted over 21,000 people in 2023. So while the case is in court, we're trying to do everything we can to not let it go to eviction and to help those litigants that are mostly pro se as much as we can. The problem is again that when the court case is done when it's disposed, the court's jurisdiction ends.
Well, I do know that there are some judges that are trying to implement what they're calling resource-based sentencing, right. And so, is that something that we could implement in our landlord-tenant process? Is that as a part of the court order, right, those that are getting evicted are ordered to, you know, these type of resources that are available to them? MR. McSORLEY: That is definitely a conversation that I'm sure the court would want to have. I know the Supervising Judge of Municipal Court Yorgey-Girdy and the Administrative Judge, Judge Pittman, would be more than willing to sit down and have that conversation. And any assistance we could lend, we would be happy to do.
Thank you, Mr. President. I'll wait for my second round. Thank you.
Thank you, Council President. Good afternoon. Following up on my colleague's questioning around a resource-based court system, I had a personal experience sitting in Family Court, actually waiting outside to be called as a witness. And I saw that's a very fraught area. Somebody is losing custody -- this was a custody case. Somebody's losing custody, somebody's gaining custody. And I watched unfold in front of me somebody commit a felony against a lawyer because they didn't like what had transpired, and this escalated into something that could have been potentially resolved if there was a space for people coming out of a custody hearing to go and get support and get debriefed around that space. And I wondered if the Department of Behavioral Health can be engaged with the court system to have, as you were saying, social services but mental health services, social services, at that time of great trauma for some family. I mean, everybody's traumatized in that space. So I just wondered if you've thought of having services that would have helped that man not have to now come and again get in front of court and face those charges? So I'm really interested in that.
Thank you for that question. I spent nine years in Family Court, domestic relations, divorce, support, custody, domestic violence, criminal abuse, so I'm very, very familiar with that emotion that's evoked at the end of a custody trial, especially when one gets custody and the other is denied custody. And you're right, emotions take over and you can have a scene right there in the waiting area and it can involve other people. I think it's a terrific idea. I actually never thought of that. I think it's a terrific idea to offer resources right then and there. I know in Family Court right now there are two days a week I believe, I don't remember the two days right now, but there are two days a week where there's help offered to pro se litigants, which it's really important, that's one of my things, you know, pro se litigants need help. But people need some type of counseling or advice given or resources at the end of a custody hearing. I think that's something I would like to follow up on and get back to you. I think that's a great idea. Thank you for the suggestion.
Thank you. I have another question around the CURE report that was referenced. I was not in Council then and I actually testified when Council had a hearing around this. And my question was that report had been initiated, a whole survey and a study had been initiated at the request of the court. And that generated that report, which there were problems in having it shared and whatnot, so that was what the Council hearing was about. I just wondered that some time has elapsed since then. Is it useful to have another assessment now that you have a DEI officer and some changes have been made to actually measure what the changes have been since that report to now, and if you would consider to have some sort of expansive survey? And they also did focus groups I believe in that report to really see where the court is.
Thank you for that question. That might depend on the budget that you give us today. I've often thought about the CURE report in terms of having a follow- up. I would like our Chief Diversity and Equity Officer to address that issue, if you don't mind. I'm sorry to put you on the spot.
Absolutely. Thank you, Councilmember. I think that is something that I will take to the leadership to see if they want to do a follow-up survey. I know one of the things that we do now with the anonymous suggestion box, you can submit anything directly to the court administrator. So whether that's a diversity issue, discrimination or it could just be how you're feeling at your job, it's the court administrator's way of keeping the pulse on things. And if he needs my advice, he will send those over to me. But I do appreciate your suggestion about coming up with the new survey. And I think it's something that I will talk to our Administrative Governing Board in leadership about.
It just gives us a level of transparency that our public and our constituents really look for having heard what happened which was in that report. I'll hold my questions for the next round. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes the Councilmember Mark Squilla.
Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you, President Judge. Great answer there on the last response. But this answer may be -- I'll just follow up with what Councilmember Landau was saying. Isn't the Council Fee Unit under the Managing Director's Office that services those payments in the City of Philadelphia? MR. McSORLEY: Currently it's part of the MDO's Office. That's who we send our payments --
Right, the MDO, Managing Director's Office. So is it possible -- I guess we don't know why it takes them months to go through and do them, right, and that's not your job to figure that out but maybe ours. But is it possible for the courts to process them and if you're doing them or you're sending help already over there to try to do that, can we process them and then get them to do the payments? MR. McSORLEY: We are processing to the best of our ability. The person who writes the check is the City. So as far as I'm concerned, here's everything you need, write the check and --
Okay. MR. McSORLEY: -- for some reason between here's everything you need and write the check, there's a slowdown.
Right. All right. That's something that we need to discuss with the Managing Director's Office. But also I want to thank -- because as we heard, the Defender's Association was here earlier and with the Kensington group meeting with the DA's Office and the Defender's Association but also Judge Pittman is part of AMP Court. It's really important, you know, the resources right now is up for two days a week, but hoping to get the five days a week for AMP Court. And when you talk about the social services, it's really important to have all those services funded with the courts in order to make sure that everything is available at that time. And the best part about it is if we could get folks to that court in a short period of time, right. So we're not, first of all, clogging up all our other courts but to be able to get them assistance as soon as they need it is the key. And when Councilmember Jones was speaking about Community Court, we had Community Court at one point here in the City of Philadelphia and it was very, very effective. And it was able to even take the backlog from Municipal Court down, right, because you were able to serve hundreds of cases a day and people not receiving records by getting community service or some other programs, which also ends up helping our communities because a lot of communities worked with the people who were doing community service time to clean up or be a part of community events and things like that. So it became a win-win. So I think we need to look at all these other opportunities now, including AMP which we have up and running and hopefully expanding, and Community Court. And even if we still continue to use the PAD, Police- Assisted Diversion Program, we could use these courts to help folks who are committing minor offenses and don't need to be recorded as having a record but then knowing there is a consequence for that, I think becomes very useful but also providing those services to them and with other opportunities that they have for them so they don't come back into the system. But that is not something that we have in the budget here, right, at this point for a Community Court type operation? MR. McSORLEY: No, we don't have a Community Court budget. We can fund AMP Court and we are willing to expand AMP Court. Right after that testimony I happened to be with Judge Pittman and we discussed your suggestion. It would be nice if we could go to five days. The reality is that the numbers just aren't there for the cases. I looked at some back in some of the previous years prepandemic. The AMP Court handled over in one year, and I think it was 2018 or 2019, over 4,000 cases. This year 290-something cases were diverted to AMP Court, so there's a big drop-off. And it's like a lot of our diversion programs, I think that they are terrific. I think that they do a good job. I think they do the intervention. But if the cases don't come to our court, to our program, there's not a lot we can do. So AMP Court could be expanded. I would like to see more cases go to AMP Court. Why we're not getting more cases, that's a bigger conversation.
And that's why we're having those meetings with the District Attorney's Office because the District Attorney sends those to AMP Court, but Judge Pittman is part of that conversation, Keisha Hudson is part of that conversation. Having all the folks at the table is so important so that we could understand what cases go there, why some cases aren't going there, but having everybody there could help hopefully drive that so we do have the opportunity to help as many people as we can. So thank you. Thank you for your support.
Thank you, Member Squilla. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Gilmore Richardson.
Thank you. Thank you so much, Council President. And thank you to President Judge Padilla and to the District Court Administrator and Deputy Court Administrator. Thank you all for your work. We recognize that civic participation is key in the work that you all do, particularly with a jury participation. And so, correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember FJD had a study around jury participation in 2018. And one of the recommendations from the study was to create a child care facility or provide a child care discount voucher to jurors. Do you remember that? MR. McSORLEY: Yes, I do.
Could you just talk about that? And then I just have a question. MR. McSORLEY: At the end of that conversation, I was part of that conversation, we did say that we'd be willing to have that discussion with the City. The biggest obstacle we have is the location of any child care facility. There's no space in any of our courthouses. And to be frank, I don't know now that I'm a father of an 8-year-old, I don't know if I would want a Child Care Unit in the Criminal Justice Center, the Stout Center. So we've talked to the City before. It's a huge cost. After that conversation, I went to our largest partner, Allegheny County, and they do have a program but it's all outsourced. So I think that they do something more of what you just mentioned, a voucher kind of program. They have a flat rate from an outsourced daycare center. I believe the way it works is that people can go there. They can show they have jury duty and they pay, if nothing, maybe it's a $15 day fee or something like that. So something like that I believe could work, but again having the space in Center City. And one of the other challenges here is that our courthouses are all over the place. You know, we have Stout, City Hall, Family Court, so having a central location where a parent could be able to get right to that. So it is something the court would have no objection having. It's just how -- the nuts and bolts are still out there in how to be solved.
Sure. And you mentioned Allegheny County, but I also wanted to mention for the record Montgomery County. They have a court child care center that is primarily funded by the County's Domestic Relations Office as well as court fees, and I believe it's Pennsylvania Act 105, if I'm not mistaken, that was passed in the year 2000. Do you all at FJD collect a fee relative to PA Act 105? MR. McSORLEY: I checked on that just because I had a feeling that question would come up. And, no, we do not collect that fee.
Okay. So we do not collect that fee? MR. McSORLEY: That's correct.
And typically how much is it? MR. McSORLEY: Pardon?
Typically how much is it per case? MR. McSORLEY: It's a $5 fee.
$5 fee. And so, in Montgomery County they do collect the fee for PA Act 105, which is how they fund in part the Montgomery County Court child care facility, is that correct? MR. McSORLEY: I believe that is correct. And I am talking to my Finance Director Mr. Wright over here. He informed me that when we had this conversation before, I think we figured that the $5 fee would come close to covering the cost of a FJD or a court-run daycare center.
Sure, that would be wonderful. And so, my only request for follow-up is if we could work on that issue. I know previously when I was a Chief of Staff there was $500,000 allocated to FJD. And I don't know, somewhere in the transition process the money was, say, lost or never allocated or sent to FJD. But if we could work together to work on figuring out how we create a child care facility, an opportunity for those who would like to participate in the jury process, I think that would be most helpful for those who want to participate. MR. McSORLEY: I'll personally reach out to your office, Councilmember.
Please. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. President.
You're welcome. Next round. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Rue Landau.
Thank you. Okay. So I wanted to start by going back to some of my IT questions. One, I'm very glad you're requesting money for cyber security, super important. I'm the Chair of the Information and Technology Committee, so happy about cyber security. Will you be getting electronic filing in all areas of Family Court soon? MR. McSORLEY: The answer is yes. We're doing this internally with our FJD IT Unit. We have been working on, and that my last ask here with City Council, a case management system that we were hoping to have closed that contract and have a vendor in to create a case management system which was going to include many other parts of the FJD besides civil, and that was Family Court e-filing. Unfortunately, as the numbers started to be crunched, it became untenable. We went from hoping to get a $6 million or $7 million system and then found out that the vendor we were going with after five years would have cost us $54 million. So we are restructuring that, rebidding that and relooking at vendors. But at the same time, the FJD IT Department is working with Family Court to start an e-filing system. We just completed a scanning system which was integral for that. And I believe -- is there a start date, do you know? UNIDENTIFED SPEAKER: (Inaudible). MR. McSORLEY: We're in Phase 2. And hopefully within the next 60 days, we're going to start a pilot e-filing system in Family Court.
Thank you -- MR. McSORLEY: Now, I know Administrative Judge Murphy just heard me say that, so I'm going to be in deep trouble if it doesn't happen.
Yay, yay for that. Second question: There was a lot of interest in reducing the harm for tenants who have gone through the landlord- tenant system in Philadelphia. And the question for you is can we seal Municipal Court records after a certain amount of years so that landlords cannot continue to hold an eviction even if it was a default judgment against tenants going forward? MR. McSORLEY: That sounds like a legal question to me, and I know my Chief of Legal Operations is here. Most of the court documents are public documents. So I'll have to get back to you on that, Councilmember, to see. I know that this conversation's been had before. I just don't know what legal hurdles we might incur about sealing or what has to be done.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you for getting back to me on that. Moving into ADI for a minute. Very happy that you are starting a program for Autism Awareness. That is very, very important and I hope that that can expand throughout the City. Director Webb, is there also going to be training, trauma-informed training for all staff in Family Court and judges?
Thank you for the question, Councilmember. And I appreciate what you're saying about the Autism Awareness. So for right now April is Autism Awareness, but next month we're looking at what our programs will be in terms of anything related to mental health and trauma and things like that. So there are some plans in the works, but I can't say definitively right now what those training sessions will be.
Okay. I would love trauma-informed training for all staff in Family Court. MR. McSORLEY: Just to add to that, the AOPC has joined with the FJD for a mental health initiative that I think is beginning in May, and that's going to include trauma training. And that's going to be for the entire FJD.
Can I just say how awesome Chief Creadell Webb is. He's awesome. I just want to say that. And I really mean that. He's awesome.
Awesome, that's what's up. I just got a quick question I want to ask: GPS monitoring for adults, currently that isn't a part of the process. Why isn't that the case as we address the issue of gun violence in the City of Philadelphia's public safety? MR. McSORLEY: You're talking about GPS for people on pre-trial and probation release?
Yes. MR. McSORLEY: We've looked at various vendors for GPS and it just hasn't met our criteria for being effective. Having somebody on house arrest with a bracelet has proven to be more cost-effective. And the technology works in the City of Philadelphia, those that we've tried with, we've run into different problems with the GPS not being accurate. They're in the Stout Center right now, but they look like they're in City Hall. I don't know, Mr. Bouchard, if you have anything you want to add to this.
Yes. Chief Deputy Mike Bouchard with the FJD. The primary problem is the very expensive cost for GPS. So we've piloted them several years ago, five or six years ago while I was the Chief of Pre-trial Services. And our juvenile section does have GPS. The adult section, to Mr. McSorley's point, there are a range of technical issues, but the primary problem is the expense and that goes from not just the equipment, but the 24/7 monitoring, the amount of data that comes in, that whole data center would need to be expanded and also the general supervision, so pre-trial officers and probation officers, to make sure they're as responsive as they need to be to that data.
Is the expense different than the expense with the GPS monitoring with the Juvenile Unit? Is the oversight different for the adults than it would be for the Juvenile Unit?
Yes, sir. So the Juvenile Unit falls under Family Court, and the other side falls under the Trial Division.
Under the Trial Division. Okay. So it sounds like the Juvenile Court has more resources than the adult? That's what it sounds like.
I would venture to say that is true, and I also don't know the number of juveniles that are being actively monitored on GPS, and that might be much smaller than on the adult side as well.
Smaller than the adults. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Jeffrey Jay Young.
Thank you, Mr. President. In the testimony I note that just all other City agencies throughout the City, that there are some issues with staffing. And I do know that and I have friends and colleagues and family members who are your court staff. And so, I do know that sometimes they work past their allotted time they're able to work, and they're not eligible for any overtime or bonuses or things like that. So can you talk to us about how the court can or if the court is willing to adjust some of the HR practices to allow flex time or comp. time to be more competitive to try to increase the amount of or try to attract some employees and retain employees? MR. McSORLEY: Well, the FJD does have comp. time now. We do allow comp. time, and we do have to follow the labor laws so we do have overtime. When a person works a certain amount of hours, they have the option of getting comp. or overtime. And we do pay out overtime. Unfortunately, unlike law enforcement or 24/7 services, we only have a few 24/7 services, so our overtime budget is very, very minimal. HR, we're looking at our practices. Those kind of policies come within the AGB, flex time. But we're also under the rules of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. So, for instance, one of our conversations we had after the pandemic was remote working. We had a lot of conversation about that, and that's something that we are ordered by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court what we can and cannot do. So we don't allow remote working in the FJD. Flex time, that has been discussed. I don't know actually -- you said you've talked to people -- how much of a need or how much of a desire there is for that. But it is a conversation that if any of the employees and, in fact, if anybody's listening, like the Suggestion ox, it is a conversation that we have all the time with the AGB and HR.
Thank you. My next question, as someone who practices are there any upgrades to the system that allow a text notification for upcoming court dates, any changes in court dates, hearing dates, et cetera, to allow that information to get out there a little bit more quickly and efficiently? MR. McSORLEY: You mean texting the litigants?
Texting the litigants, attorneys, particularly if in a criminal matter, a defendant, right. Is that something that is foreseeable from the FJD? MR. McSORLEY: We have already instituted a robocall and a texting system, especially for criminal. That's still ongoing as far as I know. So it's still ongoing so we have that now, and it notifies you of your hearing dates. We have upgraded our Internet so that a lot of our notices can be put out on the Internet. But we are using as much technology as we can and I think we're pretty robust right now. It's not throughout the whole FJD. I know we have it in Criminal Court. I don't think we have it in Civil --
It's not in Civil. MR. McSORLEY: -- Court, right. So that's something I will definitely explore.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Nina Ahmad.
Thank you, Council President. I have a follow-up question on just services, particularly language access services for those Philadelphians who don't have English as their first language. Could you tell me how the court diverts those services to those folks?
Thank you for your question. I just want to make sure I understand. How they should access it, you mean how they can get it?
Yes. So when they're in court and they require language assistance, what is the process for that?
Thank you for that question. It's very important. People don't understand that they really need to request that in advance of their proceeding or trial. So there is an Office of