COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC HEARING AND PUBLIC MEETING BEFORE THE COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, Oct. 27, 1999 4:05 p.m. - - - Bill 990563 - Amending Title of The 10 Philadelphia Code, entitled " Contracts and Procurement" by adding a new Chapter 17-900, 11 entitled "Neighborhood Benefit Strategy," which provides for the applicability, implementation, 12 and administration of a Neighborhood Benefit Strategy for housing, commercial development, 13 community revitalization, and public development projects sponsored or supported by the City of 14 Philadelphia. 15 16 PRESENT: COUNCILMAN MICHAEL A. NUTTER, Chairman 17 COUNCIL PRESIDENT ANNA C. VERNA COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER COUNCILMAN FRANK DICICCO COUNCILMAN BRIAN O'NEILL - - - VINCENT VARALLO ASSOCIATES, INC. Registered Professional Reporters Eleven Penn Center, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 561-2220 2 COMMERCE & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT - BILL NO. 2 I N D E X Judith Robinson, Private Citizen . . . . . . . 4 John Kromer, Director. . . . . . . . . . . . . Office of Housing and Community Development 7 Richie Feder, Deputy City Solicitor. . . . . . 10 8 Law Department Kevin Brooks, Assistant Director . . . . . . . 14 Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action, OHCD Robert Fina, Senior Vice President, PIDC . . . 14 Violet Marrero, CDC Coordinator. . . . . . . . 15 People's Emergency Center Assistant 3 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 P R O C E E D I N G S
This is the Committee on Commerce and Economic Development. There is a quorum in the room -- Councilman Nutter, Chair of the committee, Councilman O'Neill, Councilwoman Verna, Councilwoman Miller, and Councilman DiCicco. This is a hearing on Bill No. 990563, which is an ordinance amending Title of The 11 Philadelphia Code, entitled " Contracts and 12 Procurement" by adding a new Chapter 17-900, 13 entitled "Neighborhood Benefit Strategy," which 14 provides for the applicability, implementation, 15 and administration of a Neighborhood Benefit 16 Strategy for housing, commercial development, 17 community revitalization, and public development projects sponsored or supported by the City of Philadelphia. It's my understanding there are some Administration witnesses here to testify in favor of the bill as it is proposed to be amended. Duane Bumb, do you. . . wonderful. Are there any members of the general public who are here and would like to testify with 4 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 regard to Bill No. 990563? Ma'am, then why don't you come up to the witness table and we can take your testimony. (Judith Robinson comes forward.)
Okay. Good afternoon to everyone. I am concerned about this bill because, back in 1995, I have a copy of Executive Order 295, which is Neighborhood Benefit Strategy. It was an executive order that came from the Mayor's Office at that time, to be put into effect immediately, and it was dated January 31, 1995. I would like to know since that time till now. . .
Okay. I am concerned that since that bill -- that executive order, I should say, was put into effect, that it has not 5 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 necessarily benefited my community, and I am from North Philadelphia. I understand that OHCD did the monitoring since then to see if developers were in compliance with the executive order, and that's what I'm really interested in seeing, because I contend that there may not be many low-income-owned businesses that have the capacity to take advantage of this. And I would be very much interested in seeing whether there has been a substantial number of low-income owners of businesses that have been able to take advantage of this Neighborhood Benefit Strategy. I would suggest that they take -- create a higher-income guideline to take advantage so that people that have already been in the neighborhood for a substantial period of time running their business without any benefit, just struggling along out in the open market, but have stayed in the neighborhoods, can take advantage of the Neighborhood Benefit Strategy. For instance, a person that owns a roofing company or a construction management committee company is not going to necessarily be low-income, or else they 6 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 wouldn't have the capacity to take advantage of a construction project in the neighborhood. Also, I would like to know, what determines a project area? What are the outlines for that area? How many blocks or whether it's in the census code, zip code, or whatever to determine what the project area is. I also am concerned that residents in the area are not in training for the jobs that will be coming into the community, or they're not trained far enough in advance to take advantage of projects. I would like to also know, what criterion is OHCD using to monitor the compliance process? And I understand on a yearly basis, OHCD will report as to what is taking place. I would like to know, are there any interim reports? So I guess I have more questions than I do answers as it relates to this. I think it's a great bill that should be law; however, I want to make sure that the people in the neighborhoods that have businesses especially and are residents can definitely take advantage of it. And I don't know if we're here just to 7 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 testify and not ask questions such as, do you all, or Council, have information from OHCD telling you how this executive order of 1995 has been working so far?
Well, why don't we try to get some answers to the questions. The representatives from the City Administration who are responsible for monitoring and compliance issues, they are now in the room, so I can are have them come up. If they didn't hear all of your questions, we'll get some of those answers and you can hear what the response is.
Ms. Robinson, let me also just mention to you with regard to the bill that's in front of us, there are detailed and strict reporting requirements for City Council. There was mention in the executive order of reporting requirements, and we do get information from time to time. With this particular bill, those requirements are somewhat more stringent, and there are timetables that must be adhered to get certain documents, certain information, but we'll 8 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 have that discussion when the individuals come up to the table. So thank you for your testimony, and we'll try the get you some answers, okay? I see Mr. Kromer, Mr. Fina, Mr. Brooks, and Mr. Feder. If we can have those individuals come up to the table. (Above-named individuals come forward.)
Good afternoon. My name's John Kromer. I'm the Director of the Office of Housing and Community Development, and I wanted to offer a few comments on Bill No. 990563 and then discuss any questions or comments that you may have. The Rendell Administration is very pleased to have drafted and issued in 1995 the executive order creating the requirement for the Neighborhood Benefit Strategy, and it's very good news to hear that Council is taking up this issue and is proposing to enact this legislatively as well. I believe the only concern that the Office of Housing and Community Development had is already being addressed, and that was a concern 9 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 that the executive order and the bill be in conformity with one another and that the intent of both be to address the HUD Section 3 regulations. And rather than going into the detail, which I believe has already been covered, I would say that that is a goal that we support. And the additional reporting requirements, I feel, are appropriate, they are doable, and are very relevant to the issue, and we know of no reason why the Administration could not comply with those requirements.
Good, thank you. Mr. Fina, before I go to you, let me try to get -- because I think Mr. Feder may not have been in the room when Miss Robinson asked a series of questions. The questions, Mr. Feder, revolved around the meaning or the definition of "low-income business" that could take advantage of provisions in the Neighborhood Benefit Strategy and what does that mean for a person who's in business. I think the crux of her question was, you might not be low-income but can you in fact 10 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 take advantage of this opportunity? What's the project area, how large is it in comparison to where the actual project is taking place? Are -- this may not be your area, but are residents in the area getting in training programs? That may be one more for you, Mr. Kromer, or Mr. Brooks. What are the reporting requirements, at least presently? And how has this executive order been functioning or working so far?
I thank you, Councilman. My name is Richie Feder and I'm the Deputy City Solicitor with the Law Department. I'll try to answer some of those questions, and the ones I can't, I'm sure you'll help me with. In terms of what is a low-income business, the owner of the business does not have to be low-income herself. I believe the ordinance, as you have drafted it and as the executive order currently reads, makes it clear that there are two or three ways that one can qualify as a low-income business. In the ordinance, as introduced, in Section 17-902, Subsection 1, on of the pink bill, it says 11 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 that a low-income business either is one which is owned by 51 percent or more of the owners are low-income project-area residents; or roughly, it says, 30 percent of its employees must be low-income. And so the owner herself does not have to be low-income. It is certainly measured -- or the business intends to subcontract with other businesses which themselves are low-income. In terms of what is the project area, the executive order and the ordinance allow OHCD to make the ultimate determination within the confines of Section 3, and Section 3 makes clear that the project area can be no larger than the City of Philadelphia itself. In individual instances, it's up to OHCD to make the actual determination. I'm not sure I feel comfortable speaking to how they make that determination. And in terms of the reporting requirements, essentially, the ordinance and the executive ordinance both require contractors to provide the City with enough information to determine whether or not they are complying with Section 3 -- how many low-income they are hiring and what their goals are for the coming period. 12 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563
Okay. Mr. Kromer, can you talk to us -- or Mr. Brooks -- about residents getting training? Who again is able to benefit from the Neighborhood Benefit Strategy as well as what your office's role is in adhering to the present executive order which talks about reporting requirements. And can you give us a sense on the record, at least on the record, as to what that has been over the past few years.
I'll ask Kevin Brooks to provide some more detail on the training, but we've directly supported some training and job-readiness programs, such as Youth Build, and have tried to help those programs make the connection with employment in construction that is funded with the HUD funding available to Philadelphia. Another program that's been a big priority for us has been the Congreso program, and recently particularly, we've been able to make connections between graduates of that program and the building trades. Clearly, there is more to be done. The Section 3 mandate from HUD is a 13 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 very general one. And although some progress has been made during the years since the Neighborhood Benefit Strategy has been adopted, and although the City is, strictly speaking, in compliance with Section 3, I think there is room for a lot more improvement. The monthly reporting that Council required on the Community Development Block Grant funded activities will begin next month, and I expect that there will be a variety of opinions about how satisfactory the level of neighborhood employment was. There's clearly a lot of room for improvement, but I feel that we're doing as well as other cities, and probably better than most cities, in making the connection between the Section 3 mandate and the availability of training for neighborhood residents. I want to ask Kevin Brooks to add a little detail on the training issue.
Mr. Brooks, before you start, then go right into it. Mr. Fina, I'd like you to add your testimony to the record after Mr. Brooks. And then, Mr. Feder, I would like for 14 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 you to go through -- you have a copy of some proposed amendments that there has been agreement between the Administration and myself as sponsor of the bill that will make the bill constitutional as well, as there's an agreement between the City Administration and the Council on the executive order being amended so as to comport with what the bill is proposed to be after amendments, okay? And I'd like you to walk through those amendments and what they mean and what the reason is for them. Mr. Brooks, please.
Thank you, Councilman. My name is Kevin Brooks, and I'm Assistant Director for Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action in the Office of Housing and Community Development. Just to echo what John Kromer said, we have partnered with Congreso de Latinos as a primary training resource for our projects. Graduates from Congreso have been referred to building trade unions on City projects, and we establish a number of individuals to be hired on any specific project, and then they go through apprenticeship training programs and are hired on 15 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 projects around the City, downtown, as well as neighborhood projects. We do reports on all projects that we have Neighbor Benefit Strategies on all of the project. They are administered by the Redevelopment Authority and PHDC. So we have reports that summarize the employment and contracting for all of our project activities.
Good afternoon. In the absence of the Chairman, Mr. DiCicco, I will present myself to you. My name is Robert Fina, and I am a Senior Vice President with PIDC. I would like to withhold comment of PIDC's position on the bill, which are generally supportive, until the amendments are proposed, because our support would be with those amendments. So once the amendments are presented and discussed, I would like then to have the opportunity to offer PIDC's support for the legislation. And also I'd like to offer that support when the Chairman returns.
Thank you. I think we'll just take like a three-minute recess. The Councilman should be back momentarily. 16 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 (Short break taken.) - - - (Proceedings resume.)
It's my understanding that we have a representative from the People's Emergency Center here, so could one of you wonderful gentleman. . . (Violet Marrero comes forward.)
Could you please identify yourself for the record, and I understand you want to read some testimony into the record?
My name is Violet Marrero, and I'm the CDC Coordinator for People's Emergency Center.
People Emergency Center is a nonprofit organization that provides a continuum of care for homeless women and their children, which includes housing development. Gloria Garber was unable to be here, so I'm here to read her prepared statement into testimony. Thank you, Chairman Nutter, for giving me the opportunity to come before the Commerce and 17 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 Economic Development Committee to express our interest in Bill No. 990563, the Neighborhood Benefit Strategy bill. The Neighborhood Benefit Strategy is a great opportunity for Philadelphia, its contractors, local area and community-based businesses, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, economically disadvantaged individuals, and neighborhoods. Simply put, it's Philadelphia assisting Philadelphians. This concept is an excellent starting point for developing a program that takes into account the requirements for projects utilizing federal funds. However, we need to ensure that all projects utilizing public funds are required to participate in this program. This bill should be applicable to PHA, its subsidiaries, and related organizations because several of PHA's projects utilize federal and local public monies. Every entity that receives public funds for community revitalization or economic and community development should adhere to the same standards for educating, training, and employing local-area residents and 18 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 businesses. The Neighborhood Benefit Strategy initiative will strengthen our commitment to HUD Section 3 program requirements. The Neighborhood Benefit Strategy initiative will coordinate resources to provide a qualified labor pool. Training is necessary before low-income individuals will be ready to meet qualifications for skilled labor. Certainly, we should mandate that businesses interested in acquiring public contracts share in the responsibility of employing local-area residents. Some will consider this requirement a burden; others will suggest that it is too cumbersome to enforce. But I am confident that this legislation will create an equitable balance between the private and public sectors, nonprofit organizations and corporations, educational institutions, and religious communities. Since we sponsor our welfare-to-work program for half of the homeless mothers in the City, we are very interested in any way that the City can use the leverage of its funds to pressure 19 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 the private sector into employing neighborhood people because, ultimately, this means employment for our residents and clients. Everyone must be willing to share their knowledge, insight, and resources as we create communities of opportunity. Section 3 is a flexible program that will allow the interested parties to achieve their goals while increasing local-area resident employment, developing a larger skilled workforce, and nurturing community-based businesses. The Neighborhood Benefit Strategy bill 14 will go a long way towards eradication of poverty, underemployment, and homelessness. It is essential that the public and private sector come together to move Philadelphia's poorest residents forward into the new millennium. Residents working on Section 3 projects are more than employees; they are parents, mothers, children, and neighbors. Residents are the life lines of Philadelphia's neighborhoods. It is an opportunity for both the public and the private sector to embrace the bold and innovative strategy that will forge a dynamic 20 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 partnership in education, housing, and community and economic development that will concentrate on the revitalization of Philadelphia's low-income residents and communities.
Philadelphia has come a long way in providing opportunities for its low-income residents and community-based businesses, but there is still work to be done before the barriers to employment are removed, and distressed neighborhoods are memories past. Together, Philadelphians can make a difference for everyone and for every neighborhood. Let's work together to make the American dream a reality for everyone. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Thank you for coming down. (Applause.)
Mr. Feder, why don't you go through the proposed -- the bill and the proposed amendments, as drafted with the gray- shaded areas and any other areas that have been fully stricken or reworded, and walk us briefly through the highlights of the document. Then 21 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 we'll have Mr. Fina testify. We'll put forward the amendments in the public meeting, but I'd like to get the discussion on the record during the public hearing.
Okay, Councilman. Do you prefer that I work off the document that was prepared by your office, which is, I believe, identical to the one that I've prepared?
Okay. First, just an overview. The purpose of these amendments, as I understand them, is to conform the bill to Section 14 3, to make clear that the bill essentially requires the City to comply with Section 3, but not go any further than Section 3. It's also to conform the bill to what has been the intent of the executive order. There may have been some ambiguities in the executive order, there may have been some ambiguities in the bill, but I'm confident that after these amendments are enacted, it will be clear that the bill is designed to cover what Section 3 covers, no more and no less. And I believe that is the intent of the executive order, which also will be 22 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 conformed as well. The first page is mostly a series of simply draft changes to the legislative findings, solely for clarity purposes. Throughout the ordinance and the executive order, there were some, what I thought were, ambiguities as to whether the preferences are for simply area residents or simply low-income residents, or residents of the project area, and I just simply tried to make clear that the preferences are for low-income project-area residents, and so we just tightened that up. And I believe that it's really just a drafting issue, not a substantive change. The second page, on Section 17-02, we added a new Subsection 1, which also is consistent with what has always been the intent of the executive order, but this is just to clarify that the substantive requirements of this bill only apply to covered projects which we define as a housing or community development construction or a construction-related project funded by OHCD or DOC or their agents or designees if such project was financed in any part by HUD funds. And that's designed to make clear that it is only projects 23 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 which are covered by Section 3 that are covered by this ordinance. The changes to the definition of low-income project area business are soley for clarification; they don't make any changes. And the same thing with low-income person: just to be very clear, we simply said we're incorporating the HUD definition of low-income person, rather than trying to replicate it. Again, no change intended other than drafting. The same thing with project area, subsection 5. Again, it's as I described before; it's determined by OHCD and it's never any larger than the City itself. Section 17-1903 are the reporting requirements. The changes that are included in these amendments are soley for drafting, solely to clarify again that what we're interested in the reports are the percentages of low-income project-area residents -- not simply area residents but always low-income project-area residents. And I believe that has always been the intent. 24 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 Section 17-1904, which is the substantive part of the ordinance, the changes here are --
Mr. Feder, is that to distinguish it from the non-substantive portions of the bill?
All right. These are the requirements that actually impose -- these are the portion of the bill which actually impose requirements on contractors. What we've done here is, we've explicitly said the requirement is that every contract on a covered project must certify that he or she is in compliance with Section 3. Again, no more, no less. It then goes on to describe, including but not limited to, it describes roughly what those Section 3 requirements are, but it makes clear that the requirements are what Section 3 imposes. And those requirements are to provide opportunities for training and employment for low-income residents of the metropolitan area, and 25 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 to give priority for low-income project-area residents, all to the greatest extent feasible; and similar requirements with respect to low-income project-area businesses. Subsection 2 are what we call "safe harbor goals." These are the numerical goals, which are not meant to be substantive requirements. There is no requirement that any employer must contract 50 percent of his or her employees to be project-area residents. What this is, in any case where a contractor does actually meet these goals, such as 50 percent of their hires are project-area residents, they will be presumed to be in compliance with Section 3, absent any evidence to the contrary. However, the ordinance makes very clear that a contractor who does not meet these goals still can show compliance with Section 3 in other ways -- for instance, by showing that they've made good-faith efforts to hire as many local low-income residents as possible. But if it was not possible to meet those goals, there's no 24 requirement to meet those goals. And Subsection 3 makes clear that 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 failure to comply with Section 3 of the HUD Act shall be grounds for declaring -- may be grounds for declaring a contractor not responsible under the Home Rule Charter. But, again, the requirement isn't to meet the numerical goals; the requirement is to meet Subsection 3 of the HUD Act.
Mr. Chairman and Councilman DiCicco, I previously identified myself as Robert Fina, a representative of PIDC. I am pleased to state, Mr. Chairman, that PIDC fully supports this legislation with the amendments that have just been proposed by Mr. Feder of the City Solicitor's Office -- both the substantive and non-substantive matters, in fact. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Kromer and Mr. Brooks, a couple other questions. How has Executive Order 2-95 been applied to or benefited PHA or PHA residents? Do you have any information about 27 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 that? I'm assuming -- are PHA activities covered by Section 3?
My understanding is that they are, and we recently, in particular, PHA has worked with the building trades on a training approach that would train public housing residents for jobs on HUD-funded PHA maintenance and construction activities. Kevin Brooks and myself and others went to visit the training site at Tasker Homes several months ago, and I believe the conclusion that we all had was that it was a very effective approach for addressing this issue as it relates to PHA. So my understanding is that PHA is bound by Section 3, and although -- and I believe that the board members of PHA as well as Carl Green, the Executive Director, would be supportive of this legislation as well.
And just for the record, when the bill and the executive order talk about projects financed in any part by HUD funds, the terminology "HUD funds" is not exclusive to -- is not soley talking about CDBG dollars; is that correct? 28 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563
Okay. And how does OHCD define the project area? What methodology do you use? Is it zip code, census tracts, City Planning Commission area planning?
Chairman, what we do is, we take wherever the project is located -- for example, 19107 -- what we would do is we would say that the immediate area or the zip codes surrounding 19107. And so that would be the primary area of emphasis for outreach for employment and contracts. Who are the businesses located in these zip codes surrounding the project, the immediate project, adjacent to the project. Who are the people living in the zip code sounding the project area. And then we sort of ripple out to the surrounding zip codes of the city. And then if you've exhausted the immediate areas, the adjacent areas, and in the city, then contractors could 29 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 look outside of the city. But it's local, immediate, and then expanding outward. So that's -- really, we just have a list of all the zip codes surrounding the area.
And are the developers, I guess, given any kind of a handbook or a directive on how to come into compliance? I mean, how do they find the people that they would be looking for in order to come into compliance? How does that happen?
There would be one or two pre-construction meetings that are convened where all the requirements that exist on a project are reviewed. And part of the requirements would be developing a plan for identifying people for hire and contracting with businesses. The general contractor would often convene a meeting where there would be a job fair, where individuals would be asked to apply for employment on a construction project. At the job fair, the contractors will take the names, addresses, and zip codes of the people who are interested in employment. And then we would screen the contractor, along with the 30 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 oversight agency, would screen those applicants for employment and refer qualified applicants to the contractors, the subcontractors, electrical plumbing, HVAC for the employment opportunities. So there would be a meeting to go over the requirement, there would be job fairs for outreach, and then there would be screening by the contractors and the oversight agency to refer qualified people to the jobs.
And you monitor those various activities, you know when those job fairs are taking place and all the other things that the developer is supposed to do?
The housing agencies are -- it's one of our requirements to manage and monitor that activity.
All right. My last question is, in the original executive order -- and it's carried over into the proposed amendments to the bill -- can you just tell me what the genesis was of the provision that talks about 50 percent or more of the aggregate number of new hires associated with the project or 50 percent or more of the aggregate value of all construction 31 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 contracts and service contracts associated with these projects. Where did that number come from?
My recollection is that we wanted to be proactive. There was the federal requirement of percent new hires and -- I'm 7 sorry, 10 percent business contracting, and 30 8 percent new hires. 9 We wanted to be more proactive than the 10 federal standards and we said, If we had half of the value, half of the value in terms of employment contracting and supply purchase, we'll return to the community, then that's a good standard. So half of the value through employment contracting supply purchases. That's -- we used the benchmark of the federal standard and just tried to boost it up.
Okay. And is it your recollection -- not that you necessarily have all your records handy -- that you've been able to meet that standard on both of those areas for most of the projects over the past couple of years?
I would say that we have not been able to achieve 50 percent or more return of value on 75 percent. Maybe half of the 32 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 projects were able to achieve about 50 percent return. On the larger -- some of the larger-scale development commercial projects, it's been difficult for us to achieve that.
Right now, the availability, the learning curve for applicants for the building and trades. The availability is a major problem right now, the availability of skilled people for commercial project is a major problem right now.
Which indicates -- I mean, on the other hand, we have people who are unemployed but they may not be presently trained, and so do we need to upgrade on the training side to get people ready for all of this work?
You're absolutely right. And I think some previous testimony made reference to the cooperation that we're receiving from some of the building trade unions. The carpenters and electricians have been really, really good about expanding training opportunities and sponsoring applicants into the union for membership into 33 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 those unions.
Hold on for a second. (Ms. Robinson addresses Chairman Nutter off mike.)
Well, you can't ask them a question. If you want to provide additional testimony, you can come up to the table and we can take your testimony. Or if you want to ask me a question, you can put it on the record. Come on up. (Ms. Robinson returns to the witness table).
Are there any other members of the general public who wish to be heard on this bill? (No response.)
Miss Robinson, please identify yourself again for the record.
Judith Robinson. 34 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563
Yeah. I guess I do want to ask these gentlemen questions. You said you have problems trying to match people or residents. You're only using one training program; am I correct?
What did you hear? Did you hear that there was only one training program being used?
Okay, I understand. Mr. Brooks, you can come up, please. (Mr. Brooks returns to witness table.)
Congreso de Latinos, Top Win, Youth Build. There are three programs that we've been using on this initiative.
The emphasis on Neighborhood Business Strategy is employment primarily, not businesses. It is -- it's a 35 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - BILL 990563 training program primarily, not a business expansion program.
I understand that, but this is to also include businesses, area businesses, so are you having trouble finding 'em?
We emphasize employment, so we haven't focused on businesses. And a low-income business could be a business that's not low-income but that employs low-income people. So it is designed to be a training program for employment. It's a training program for employment.
Miss Robinson, why don't we do this 'cause I think I pretty much understand your concern, both by your testimony and -- what I would ask you to do, as we move forward with this particular bill, if you would like to communicate all of the issues and questions and concerns that you have, if you could get those to me as quickly as possible, I will contact the various people who have responsibility for all of this and get you detailed answers to those questions. 36 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - PUB. MEETING
Okay. Thank you very much. Are there any other questions? (No further questions.)
There doesn't appear to be any additional testimony. - - -
We will now move from our public hearing into the public meeting. What I would like to do first is move the amendments that were discussed on the record by Mr. Feder and move the amendments as they are listed on the sheet entitled "Amendments to Bill 17 No. 990563," and I'd like to entertain a motion moving the adoption of those amendments. (Duly seconded.)
It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor will signify by saying aye. All opposed say nay. The ayes have it and the amendments are 37 10/28/99 COMMERCE & EC. DEV. - PUB. MEETING adopted. The Chair recognizes Councilman DiCicco for a motion on Bill 990563, as amended.
Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that Bill No. 990563, as amended, be voted out of this committee with a favorable recommendation and that the rules of Council be suspended so as to permit first reading at our next session of City Council. (Duly seconded.)
All in favor, signify by saying aye? All opposed say nay? The ayes have it, and Bill No. 990563, as amended, is adopted with a rules suspension to be heard at our next session of City Council. That concludes the business of the Committee on Commerce and Economic Development. Thank you very much. (Adjourned at 4:45 p.m.) - - - 38 C E R T I F I C A T E I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of Wednesday, October 27, 1999, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of same. RE: COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BILL NO. 990563 __________________________________, JOSEPHINE CARDILLO, Registered Professional Reporter