The Stated Meeting 78 9/29/2022 9/29/22 - STATED - 2ND READING ayes have it, and that resolution is adopted.
And a resolution authorizing the joint City Council Committees on Public Safety and Public Health and Human Services to hold a public hearing investigating the mapping out of trauma centers across the city and how they are selected when transporting shooting victims; and inviting the House Democratic Policy Committee and Senate Democratic Policy Committee to participate in these hearings, introduced today by Councilman Jones.
Mr. President, may I take a minute to speak as to the origin and importance of this resolution?
It's been a bad week in the Fourth District. We lost Stated Meeting 79 9/29/2022 9/29/22 - STATED - 2ND READING a young man's life. Five people shot, but one fatally in a part of my district that is not used to, nor should any part of my district be used to, gun violence. I want to thank the members of Council that reached out, called and came out to support it, the Chair of Education, Member Thomas, to Kathy Gilmore Richardson, to Helen Gym, to all of the members that showed up and stepped up to the plate about this incident as if it were their individual districts. Didn't matter where it was. But one of the things that in those discussions with the principals, the teachers, and some of the students was the fact -- and Member Thomas brought it to all of our collective attention -that the young man, Nicholas, was shot in Roxborough, he was transported all the way to Einstein, where he perished, passing hospitals along the way that did not have trauma units. This would not be as prevalent Stated Meeting 80 9/29/2022 9/29/22 - STATED - 2ND READING if we did not have the high murder rate, the high shooter rate that we have in the City of Philadelphia. So when Member Thomas brought that question up, it just hit us over the top of the head, like why don't we know what hospitals have trauma units and how long does it take to get from this Point A to get to Point B when you're suffering from a gunshot wound. So what we want to do, and we want to do this in conjunction with our partners at the state and federal government, is take a look at the state and condition our hospitals are in and whether or not there is a funding gap that doesn't allow for trauma units to be available to Philadelphians. So we're going to take a look at it and see what it takes, not to point a finger but to point to solutions to this problem, so that we never have to second-guess whether or not that ride was too long and could have saved more lives. Stated Meeting 81 9/29/2022 9/29/22 - STATED - 2ND READING So out of every bad thing should come something that points to solutions so that it never ever happens again. Thank you, colleagues. Thank you, Mr. President. I move for the adoption. (Duly seconded.)
It's been moved and properly seconded. All in favor? (Aye.)
The ayes have it, and it's approved. I hear you, Councilman. Really sad, sad, challenging environment we're living in right now. Okay. Mr. Decker?
And a resolution recognizing the 30th Anniversary of the FunTimes Magazine, a community-driven Stated Meeting 82 9/29/2022 9/29/22 - STATED - 2ND READING magazine focused on the African Diaspora, introduced today by Councilman Oh.
The Chair recognizes -- Councilwoman, go ahead.
Mr. President, on Councilmember Oh's behalf, I move for the adoption of the resolution. (Duly seconded.)
Thank you. Thank you for taking Councilwoman Parker's place. We appreciate that. Not only her seat, but -- thank you. It's been moved and properly seconded. All in favor indicate by saying aye. (Aye.) Stated Meeting 83 9/29/2022 9/29/22 - STATED - 2ND READING
The ayes have it, and that resolution is adopted.
And a resolution recognizing and honoring the life and legacy of Jesse Bermudez who is remembered as a "local patriarch of Latin music" for his humility and commitment to uplifting marginalized, multicultural communities through the power of music, introduced today by Councilman Oh.
The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Gilmore Richardson.
Thank you, Mr. President. On Councilmember Oh's behalf, I move the adoption of the resolution. (Duly seconded.)
It's been moved and properly seconded. Stated Meeting 84 9/29/2022 9/29/22 - STATED - 2ND READING All in favor indicate by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it, and that resolution is adopted.
And a resolution recognizing and honoring the 250th Anniversary of the Society of the Sons of St. George for its longstanding contributions to the English American community in Philadelphia, introduced today by Councilman Oh.
The Chair again recognizes Councilwoman Gilmore Richardson.
Thank you, Mr. President. On Councilmember Oh's behalf, I move the adoption of the resolution. (Duly seconded.) Stated Meeting 85 9/29/2022
It's been moved and properly seconded. All in favor indicate by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it, and the resolution is adopted.
Councilwoman Gym, I see that you're still -- was that from before?
There are no other resolutions on the Final Passage Calendar, Mr. President.
Thank you very much, Mr. Decker. We will now move to our speeches. Stated Meeting 86 9/29/2022 of the minority? (No response.)
Speeches on behalf of the majority? The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Gym.
Thank you very much, Council President. A great art institution relies not just on the grandeur of its building or the rarity of its collections but actually on the value and the greatness of its staff. I want to recognize and thank all the members of DC47 who are here today as they work on an extended contract with the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I think all of us in this room feel very strongly about our pride in our art institutions, but we also feel very strongly that when they are City institutions, that they exhibit truly a commitment to lifting up the quality of Stated Meeting 87 9/29/2022 have, ensuring good wages and responsible benefits. It's unfortunate that the dispute has gotten protracted, and we continue to urge the Philadelphia Museum of Art to negotiate and to continue to meet with members of DC47 and to meet the needs of its staff, and we will be with them to support them all the way. And then the second thing I wanted to raise was -- I think my colleague Councilmember or Majority Leader Jones expresses the grief of our entire Council body on behalf of the family of Nicholas Elizalde, his parents, the multiple school communities that were impacted by the shooting. There was -- we have had 178 children shot this year, and Nicholas was a little more than the two dozenth young person to be killed by gun violence. You know, we had a chance to talk to a number of teachers and staff, and we will continue to do so. We talked Stated Meeting 88 9/29/2022 themselves, and I think we will continue to do so. But we also need to come to a recognition. I think this body definitely has acknowledged that we are not doing enough, that this body has funded programs that are still in their pilot phases or have not yet gotten off the ground. That includes the Key employment program for individuals who are most impacted by gun violence that this body funded in June of 2021 and is going to be starting apparently this fall. The amount of urgency that's needed around this is undeniable. And I particularly want to make a statement about young people. You know, what is happening amongst a number of young people, whether we saw it at Mill Creek, whether we saw it outside of Roxborough, whether we've seen it outside of Bartram High School and in other places, is -- we need a clear and deliberate plan to address these street Stated Meeting 89 9/29/2022 so many young people. We need conflict mediation on the ground. We've said that we need violence interrupters on the ground. When 80 percent of our police shootings are going without an arrest, much less a conviction being made, we need a city-community partnership around de-escalation and professional mediation interventions. We've seen programs like this work in other cities, but we need a targeted program for young people. And in particular, I want our Council body to focus on the Juvenile Justice Services Center. These are young people who are at most risk. Many of them are already involved either through DHS or through the justice system already, but we have almost 4,000 young people go through a year, and we do not have a strategic program to work with those who are most at risk, even within that group of young people. You know, we should be talking Stated Meeting 90 9/29/2022 We need to be discussing this with DHS. But it's clear that one of the reasons why many of us supported Councilmember Gauthier's declaration of gun violence as a public health emergency is because it does actually need multiple entities at the table. No one entity can handle this. The School District does not have enough information. Probation does not have enough information. DHS does not have enough information. The Police Department does not have enough information.
And this urgent need to gather all these entities together to do something fundamentally different from what we have been doing before, because whatever it is is not working, is one of most glaring holes I think in our anti-violence strategy. So this is not to disparage any work that people are working on or things that are underway, but we have got to get Stated Meeting 91 9/29/2022 way or another, and we've got a whole cohort of young people who are crying out for help who are in our justice system because they are definitely identified as needing help. We need to deliver that for them, and I'm looking forward to working with my colleagues on some serious programming, hopefully in part with some of our courts, to figure out what that may look like. So thank you very much, Council President.
Thank you, Councilwoman. The Chair recognizes Councilman Thomas.
Thank you, Council President. I want to take a moment to thank my colleagues who stood with me the other day at a press conference as I released my gun report as it relates to recommendations around things we could do Stated Meeting 92 9/29/2022 talk about the issue of crime in the City of Philadelphia, similar to what my colleagues already have done, we know we can't fix crime without addressing the issues of poverty, schools, and things like that. We'll put housing on that list. But at the end of the day, there are some things that we feel like we can do right now, and that was the focus of the report. So I want to thank Councilmembers Bass, Squilla, Driscoll, Clarke, Councilmember Johnson for sending a proxy, Councilmember Gilmore Richardson for her support as well too. At the end of the day, we listened to Councilmember Jones talk about the catastrophe that happened in his district. Councilmember Gym talked about other issues that have plagued the City of Philadelphia. Before Council started, I was talking to Councilmember Driscoll about the incident that happened Stated Meeting 93 9/29/2022 of the things that he's doing as it relates to his leadership to try to address that crisis as well too. And when we look at these things, we recognize that our city is facing issues that we've never seen before. I say it all the time, the victims as well as the culprits are getting younger and younger, and we have to be innovative as it relates to how we approach these solutions. So this past summer I spent a lot of time, like I said before, at my camp working with children and young people across the City of Philadelphia, talking to victims, listening to briefings from different criminal justice partners, and I spent a lot of time in Gun Court watching the actual trials or the preliminary hearings as well as talking to judges and other law enforcement folks, and at the end of the day, we came up with a list of things that we feel like we can do right now. Stated Meeting 94 9/29/2022 go through the entire list, but there are some things that I want to highlight. We are seeing issues around witnesses showing up, around police officers showing up to court, and those are clerical problems as it relates to communicating things to people as well as issues around trust with government. So one of our recommendations is that we spend $3 million right now to protect witnesses and victims and to put us in a position where we can restore trust between government and constituents across the City of Philadelphia. We know we have a huge issue as it relates to cleanliness and blight. We're recommending about $4 million be spent right now on cleaning the City of Philadelphia. We talked about looking at issues as it relates to some of the dollars that we already have spent around gun violence and examining our Stated Meeting 95 9/29/2022 it relates to how those dollars have been spent. Councilmember Gym, who just spoke right before me, talked about the urgency around spending money now. This Council body has already passed legislation to allocate money to put more cameras in rec centers and places where we know our children are, and those things don't exist yet. So at the end of the day, we do want to see more cameras. We do want to see significant investment. We know we had conservative projections coming out of the budget and we have money that we can spend and will spend right now. The question is is what will we spend that money on, and I'm recommending at least 15 million of that surplus that we know we have right now be spent to address gun violence and address gun violence right now. We're urging the Administration Stated Meeting 96 9/29/2022 100-day plan.
I know we're past the 100-day mark as it relates to the end of the calendar year, but this was put on the Administration's desk before that mark. We want the Administration to look at where we are, and we want to see a full blitz as it relates to resources and we want to see it targeted to areas where we see the most crime at in the City of Philadelphia. We know that 12 percent of our roads produce over 80 percent of our car accidents, but if you look at a map that overlaps those same areas, we'll see a lot of those same areas are also plagued with other criminal behavior, other criminal activity. We passed a body -- we passed a resolution out of this body led by Councilmember Gauthier that spoke to us needing to declare a state of emergency around gun violence, and it's tough for us not just as Councilmembers but as Stated Meeting 97 9/29/2022 of Philadelphia to feel that sense of urgency when we as legislators cannot get basic answers to questions, cannot see money spent on things we know that need to be spent, and we can't see a collaboration with the party that we know we need to see a collaboration with in order to address this issue. So I'm concerned like the rest of my colleagues, but at the same time, I'm not defeated. I'm going to continue to fight this fight, and I know my colleagues in Council will continue to fight this fight and do everything that we can to address the crime in the City of Philadelphia. Before I close out, I just want to echo the sentiments of my colleague and stand in solidarity with the workers who were here today and echo your sentiments, Council President. We'll do everything in our power to make sure that they get a contract. Stated Meeting 98 9/29/2022 you, colleagues, and thank you, Council President.
Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. We will do what we have to do. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Bass.
Thank you, Mr. President. I just want to just say a couple of things. The first is that as the mother of a 13-year-old, the death of a 14-year-old being where they were supposed to be, doing what they were supposed to be doing is just, you know -it's unbelievable. It should not be happening. We have somehow normalized what's happening in a lot of our communities. There is nothing normal about the death of a 14-year-old on the football field or the other 22, 23 children, children who have been murdered in the City of Philadelphia through gun Stated Meeting 99 9/29/2022 I know that it's highly likely that there were -- well, it was stated that there were five shooters at Roxborough. There are likely five households where these firearms are today, Councilman Jones. And when we talk about, you know, what do you do when a shooter lives with you, you know, it may sound like a catchy little phrase, but that's real, because it's likely that those shooters are living with mom, dad, grand-mom, grand-dad. They're living with someone. And so if you even suspect that a young person in your household was involved, you need to flip that mattress up, go under the bed, go in the closet. You need to run through that room and turn them in. Back in the day when I was coming up, if you had a situation with a young person in your household, you might go to like a Chuck Stone, remember back in the day, or you might go to, you know, Stated Meeting 100 9/29/2022 young person in. Whoever you feel like you need to walk them in, they need to come in. Okay? And so this is something that we need to do, our community needs to do. And so I just really want to put the word out, and I want to thank my colleagues for all of their work on gun violence. I thank you, Councilman, for your steadfastness in bringing this resolution forward regarding the number of trauma centers in the City of Philadelphia. We call ourself a city of eds and meds, and if you have to pass that many hospitals to get to a trauma center, then that statement is questionable. It's highly questionable. And so all of the things that we do really need to be reexamined when it comes to saving the lives of our young people and keeping them out of harm's way. And I also wanted to thank Councilmember Thomas for his very Stated Meeting 101 9/29/2022 outstanding. I want to encourage the viewing public to get a copy of the report, read it, digest it, and demand it. I think looking for a 100-day plan, now maybe a 90-day plan from this Administration is an easy thing to do. Asking them to do it should be easy. We know we have the funds. We know we have a budget surplus. We should just do it. The City of Philadelphia should just do it. So I just wanted to say that, Mr. President. Thank you for indulging me on that. On a completely different note, I wanted to make sure that folks know that we were still doing our property tax assessment appeals. It's kind of hard to pivot on something like this, but I just wanted to make sure that people knew that we were still doing property tax assessment appeals and that they could call our Stated Meeting 102 9/29/2022 at 215-686-3424. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Councilwoman. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Gilmore Richardson.
Thank you, Mr. President. I too just wanted to be recognized today to hold space for the collective grief that I know we all are feeling around the mass shooting that occurred at Roxborough High School this week, and that comes on the heels of just going to the viewing of the Parks and Rec employee, Tiffany Fletcher, this week, also the recent Temple grad, Mr. Beauregard, who was shot and killed in West Philadelphia, and all of the shooting incidents and killings we have seen across the City. As Councilmember Bass stated, we cannot normalize this behavior. It's Stated Meeting 103 9/29/2022 this summer after losing a cousin to gun violence, when we were first inaugurated here in this body, I lost a 16-year-old cousin to gun violence in July, shot 60 times in North Philadelphia with semiautomatic weapons. And so this is an issue that's deeply personal. As a mother of a teenager who is in high school currently in the City of Philadelphia and two little people, it is just deeply disheartening to see what is happening across our community. And I just wanted to rise in support of the initiatives of my colleagues and commending Councilmember Thomas for a very thorough report with recommendations, and I look forward to working with him on several of those recommendations, including how we as members of the Appropriations Committee can work to ensure that we are adequately funding the measures that need funding in the upcoming mid-year transfer Stated Meeting 104 9/29/2022 pushing the Administration on this 90-day plan. We know that in this body we legislate and we appropriate, and it is up to the administrative side of government to spend those dollars in the way that we have intended and to effectuate programming in the way that we have intended. But whatever is happening now, it's not enough. We must continue to do more to address this issue. And so I am also joining my colleagues to call on the Administration to come up with a 90-day plan, not just working with members of Council but all across government with a whole-government approach to this issue. If this was something that was figured out back in 2012 and 2013 under the Nutter Administration when Commissioner Ramsey was our chief and working with the DA's Office, if they could do it then, we can do this now. And so I'm just calling on everyone, you Stated Meeting 105 9/29/2022 know, to put the individual agendas aside, stop working in silos and come together and really be about the work of the people. None of what we do is about us individually. This is not about us. We are simply here as representatives to represent the people of this great city, and we are here to do their work and their business. So I ask everyone put your egos aside, put your personal agendas aside, put your politics aside so we can get the job done for the people we are elected to represent, and I look forward to continuing to do that work in this body. Thank you, Mr. President. And, finally, I wanted to just remind everyone about the Community Evening Resource Centers that are available for young people in the City of Philadelphia. We have a center at Compassion CDC at 62nd and Cedar. The additional center is at Dixon House at Stated Meeting 106 9/29/2022 1920 South 20th Street in South Philadelphia. m. m. They have wonderful activities at each of the centers. They just opened a junior barbering academy at the Community Evening Resource Center in South Philly, and we want young people to utilize them as a resource and as a safe space to go to to receive resources for themselves and their families.
And the City just announced that two additional locations were selected, one in North Philadelphia that will be around the 2200 block of North Broad Street and the second location which will be in the Germantown area in Councilmember Bass's district. And my hope is that we can expand this model and have a center in every division in the City of Philadelphia. Whether the children go there voluntarily or involuntarily, we have a center there available for them to have a safe space. Stated Meeting 107 9/29/2022 this and I'll leave it at that, that I will never apologize, I will never apologize for doing all that I can on behalf of young people in the City of Philadelphia. I will not apologize for working with the Administration to create Community Evening Resource Centers, I will not apologize for the curfew, and I will not apologize for utilizing every tool that we can in our toolbox to make a difference, but we have to use a multi-pronged approach. It will take all of us, including the community and including parents and families, to get a hold of the young people in this city. So I wanted to just remind everyone about the Community Evening Resource Centers and hope that our young people will utilize them. Thank you, Council President.
Thank you. Thank you so much, Councilwoman. Stated Meeting 108 9/29/2022 Gauthier.
Thank you, Council President. I wanted to start by thanking the community members who came earlier to speak on the street-naming resolution for Reverend Harry Moore. I think it's apparent by listening to their passion and all of the wonderful words they spoke on behalf of Reverend Moore how special a person he is to the Mantua community and to Philadelphia more broadly. Reverend Moore has served at Mount Olive for almost 30 years, and not only has he stewarded and grown his congregation, he's come outside his church walls to really support in particular the community of Mantua with resources and services. He's also a champion for affordable housing. In the time that I've been in Council, it's been a pleasure to partner with him to bring Stated Meeting 109 9/29/2022 Mantua. So I just wanted to thank the community for speaking up, but also thank this body for your support of the resolution. I also wanted to thank Councilmember Gilmore Richardson for her resolution recognizing Saleem Chapman and his appointment as the new Director of the Office of Sustainability. Saleem is someone I hired back when I used to run the Sustainable Business Network. He was our first policy person. He really helped SBN to build out a policy agenda that we used to impact local policy for the better. And so I like to think I have -- I had a small, a very small, role in his advancement, and I'm really proud of him and I think he's going to do a great job for the City of Philadelphia. And then, finally, I wanted to join everyone in just expressing condolences for what happened in Roxborough the other day. It's truly Stated Meeting 110 9/29/2022 give my deepest condolences to the family of Nicholas, the young man who perished, as well as all of the young people who were injured. And I just think our biggest charge right now as a city if we want to impact this issue of gun violence is figuring out what's going on with our young people, particularly young people that are involved in groups or cliques. It seems that these conflicts between different groups of young people have ratcheted up to a point where young people who have guns are willing to use them at any time of day regardless of who is around, and we just have to delve into that. I do believe that there are people within our communities that are close to young people that know what these conflicts are and that we as a city should be supporting to interrupt these conflicts, interrupt this violence and bring a sense of calm back to our Stated Meeting 111 9/29/2022 all of my colleagues who are doing work in this area, Councilmember Thomas on his report and recommendations that he put out earlier this week, Councilmember Jones on his new resolution in looking at trauma centers but also for his lifelong work in this area, and everyone else in this body that's worked on the issue. I appreciate folks bringing up the emergency declaration resolution that I put forward and we all voted on in 2020. I maintain that we need an emergency response to this issue. If this is not an emergency, I'm not sure what an emergency is. I did -- earlier this week, I showed support for the Mayor's Executive Order to ban guns from recreation spaces. I've had a lot of conflict with the Administration over the time I've been in Council over our approach to gun violence, but every day if they're Stated Meeting 112 9/29/2022 and do something different, I'm willing to show up to support them in doing something different and additional. I just ask that we be willing to do that every day, right? I think the Executive Order came on the heels of the murder of Tiffany Fletcher.
I really do support showing the community that we're willing to do, and showing our workers that we're willing to do, something more to keep recreational spaces safe, but I think we have to be not taking an episodic approach. I think we have to show up every day, every City agency, every, you know, partner that can provide support to people and neighborhoods in crisis right now to be able to do something additional, something different, and something more. And I think it's easy for us to feel a sense of hopelessness with the horrible things that are happening across the City, but I maintain that we don't Stated Meeting 113 9/29/2022 Being hopeless as the City of Philadelphia right now is a choice. We can agree to show up every day and put our heads together as a group of civic leaders to bring different solutions to this problem, and I just want to express my ongoing commitment to that effort and thank all of my colleagues for their commitment and their effort as well.
Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. That concludes our speeches on behalf of the minority and the majority. We have a lot of challenges ahead of us, but as always, I think we're up to the task, and we will do what we need to do to change the direction of this very challenging issue in the City of Philadelphia. The Chair recognizes Councilman Squilla for a motion to adjourn.
Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Council stand Stated Meeting 114 9/29/2022 Thursday, October 6th, 2022 at 10:00 a.m. (Duly seconded.)
Thank you. It's been moved and seconded that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, October 6th, 2022 at 10:00 a.m. All in favor indicate by saying aye. (Aye.)
The motion carries. Thank you all very much. Again, please be safe. Love you guys. ) Stated Meeting 115 9/29/2022 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. MICHELE L.