15-1. Thank you, Councilman. The ayes are 15; the nays are one. A majority of members present voting in the affirmative, the bill passes. Mr. Decker, please call up Bill No. 130765.
An ordinance authorizing Chestlen Development, owner and developer of 1441 Chestnut Street, to construct, own and maintain various encroachments to be installed in conjunction with a mixed-use development.
Thank you. 12/12/13 - STATED - 2ND READING This bill has been read on two separate occasions. The question is shall the bill pass finally. Mr. Decker, please call the roll.
Aye. The ayes are 16; the nays are members present voting in the affirmative, the bill passes. This concludes our Calendar for today, and at this time, are there any speeches on the part of the minority? (No response.)
There being none, any speeches on behalf of the majority? The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell.
Thank you, Mr. President. I have several issues I'd like to mention before we leave, and the first and most important is certainly we want to acknowledge that the Mayor's Commission on African and Caribbean Immigrant Affairs acknowledge the passing of Nelson Mandela, and we certainly ask that our Commission join the world community on acknowledging the passing of His Excellency, the Honorable Nelson Mandela, and I ask first that him that respect and recognition.
Thank you, Councilwoman. I ask the guests and visitors to please rise too for a moment of silence. Thank you. (Moment of silence.)
Thank you. We do also acknowledge that there will be the Philadelphia area A and C unit on Saturday at Tindley Temple United Methodist Church will be having an affair to honor him, 762 South Broad Street. And many of you know Godfrey Sithole, who is leading that effort. For those who don't, Godfrey Sithole is a gentleman who -- he's part of our Commission, the Mayor's Commission on African and Caribbean Immigrant Affairs, who was here last night at our monthly meeting, and he's a gentleman who fought for his of David P. Richardson and many others. I met him through the late and great Lucien Blackwell. He fought for his freedom. He's always brought us reports. He is South African, and he's leading this ceremony on Saturday from 2:00 to 4:00. So we certainly hope that those of you who can will be present to acknowledge him. And we're grateful that this Council has joined the world community and the Commission in recognizing and celebrating his life. The second thing I'd like to mention is for Odunde, those folks, Bumi and Lois Fernandez, they will be having a Kwanzaabration on Saturday, December 28th at Audenried High School, and we put those advertisements on your desk. We wanted to make sure you were aware of that. And we also wanted to announce that one of my staff members, who has been here eight and a half years -- I -- she will be leaving us before we resume in January. She's been there eight and a half years, and after we tried to treat her well and encourage her to go to school, now it's time for her to write her dissertation at the University of the Sciences, also in my district. She's ready to go. But we certainly acknowledge all the work, the efforts, the attitude, and the talent, overall talent, that she brings, and that's Anjali Chainani. Anjali, stand. (Applause.)
Thank you very much. We'd also like to mention, all of you know about our yearly party for the homeless. When we honored Saint John's Hospice this morning, I talked with a few of the men after, who said, We'll see you on Wednesday. On Wednesday at the Convention Center, we will celebrate -- I don't know is, around 18 or 19 and -- 14 or 15, she tells me, years honoring or celebrating homeless people, and we invite everybody who live on the streets, folks in all the shelters, anybody who wants to come. Last year we certainly were blessed enough to host 4,000 people. So we're grateful to have the Convention Center, because there are very few places large enough to accommodate us. We have Ms. Tootsie's Soul Food Cafe, which is that which we will have tomorrow with Kevin Parker Companies, and all those who help us. You can't feed 4,000 people without everybody helping out and contributing, from labor to unions, who are also helping us with coats, to 33. We talked about, of course, Kevin Parker, Aramark, Temple, Drexel, Penn, the Temple Group, Penn Mutual, so many people that I won't mention and who contribute, who give, and who volunteer. We're grateful. We even comes out to help us organize our lines and keep lines in order, and just so many people. We always have at least about 3,000 toys. It is like the North Pole. And we certainly auction off bikes we have that we have collected, and it's just a wonderful time. It's a party for all. We invite you to come eat. We don't have long speeches. It's for fun. It's a Christmas party, because everybody deserves to have one if we can and to at least have a holiday celebration, no matter what one's religion is. But we really want those in need to know that we care about them, we love them, and we are just so grateful for all those who contribute in the law offices and the utility companies and certainly those who give our food, companies like Shop Rite and Fresh Grocer. All of you know all of the places that we have to ask for food and toys. And certainly just yesterday we picked up toys from the PFT, Teachers, and I'm always moved that teachers who teach children do their part to collect toys for children they have never met. So it just always inspires me and renews my commitment to help people in need when we come to these times. So anyone who would like to come, you're welcome to eat. You're welcome to volunteer. You're welcome to just come and look around and see what 4,000 people in one place looks like when you're trying to keep it organized and feed them and get ready to give out toys for children and let them speak to Santa and get their face painted or moon bounce, all of that. But we are grateful. And we also thank all the shelters who work with us to make sure that their people can get there with tokens if they're further away and all that it requires. So I want to say thank you for that as well. And I want to say one more thing, and, that is, this is the cutest hat and the cutest card that Jim Kenney gave us, this RV hat, and certainly we want to thank him. Mr. President, we want to thank you for the wonderful meal and party. We just overdid it. Three pieces of cake is more than I should have enjoyed, but we did. And certainly wish everyone a blessed holiday season. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilwoman. Thank you so much. The Chair recognizes Councilman Jones.
Thank you, Mr. President. Today I was going to do my rendition of the 12 days of Christmas and talk about the different aspects of legislation and public policy that this body put forth, but it has been trumped by another duty that I have today. It is with mixed emotion truly last day of one of my staffers since my Deputy Chief of Staff, Ms. Morgan Cephas here. You hear the sigh? Listen.
She's smiling, though, Councilman. I think she's ready to go.
So if you hear that sigh and echo in the Chambers, then you know it's twice as loud in my heart, because I coached her from 8 and under track and field to a national championship, but I also watched her coach in the political public policy world, where she volunteered for my campaign, working at Rite Aid doing my scheduling and you could hear over her phone talk about spill in aisle 6, but we'll schedule that for tomorrow, or watching her grow to work on legislation here, the intern tax credit, working every budget to have me prepared to ask those questions that I took too long to answer. It's her fault. From every capital improvements in my district, Ms. Cephas has been a part of, so... (Applause.)
Thank you, Councilman. We will all miss her, but she's going on to do great things, and we look forward to seeing you in the future. The Chair at this point recognizes Councilwoman Quinones-Sanchez.
Thank you, Mr. President. I want to recognize both Councilwoman Blackwell and Jones for their mentorship of those young women, who are going to be dynamos for the City of Philadelphia, both of you. So I look forward to some day maybe calling you a colleague, if not a boss. So I want to congratulate you. And, Council President, I want to thank you on your leadership and your expertise in what we did today in terms of making history with this land bank, financially and in the decision-making power, the land bank is pivotal if we are to fulfill the potential of the land bank. Whether it's the strategic plan or the policies that we have to put together, all which have to be approved by Council, I am committed to working with you and my Council colleagues and listening. We still need to put the resources at the table to make sure that we protect staff, as Councilwoman Blackwell so duly notes, and that we provide the resources to ensure equitable development throughout the City. I continue to be committed to broaden the conversations. I think that every community, block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood, needs to be informed and educated about this new tool. I would be remiss not to thank Councilman Henon for his stewardship and me go past the goal line and again you, Council President, for your expertise. The stakeholders have been phenomenal, but we have a responsibility, and some would say an obligation, to provide more information to ensure that our design and our development and our implementation is very, very deliberate if we are committed to addressing what today the Inquirer duly notes is one of the largest poverty rates in any major city, and it is because of that that victories like today for Unite become vitally important. We can be deliberate and we can do a win-win for not only the people that live in the City of Philadelphia, but those that we want to draw to it. So thank you very much.
Thank you so much, Councilwoman. And I want to thank you for your -(Applause.)
I for your great work and for the level of commitment that you have to this very important issue. A lot of people don't know, this is not new to you. You've been doing this even before you got here out there in the fields working on behalf of the people. So I want to commend you for your great work, not only in this legislative body on this issue but actually in Harrisburg, ensuring that the General Assembly gave us the authorization. And you obviously have all of our commitments to continue to work with you to make sure that we get implemented, because at the end of the day, without the necessary resources, we're not going to be able to achieve our goal. And I want to thank the advocates for their continued support. Right now before I call for an adjournment, I'd just like to say I want to thank you guys for another successful season. As colleagues, we've all been great. I mean, now that Councilman -- is he still here? Councilman, don't take this personal, but this is the greatest Council group I've ever worked with. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: That's why I left.
We had to make room for Councilman Squilla. It's been great. We continue to do great things, policy driven, and it's all focused on the people, the citizens of the City of Philadelphia. And, more importantly, I want to thank you all for the friendship that we continue to have over the years. We're a really civil group, and there's some good things. And I just want to say to some of the folks to watch out, there's more to come, because we are poised to do some great things in this city. So, guys, thank you all so much. Enjoy your holiday, whatever that may be, and look forward to seeing you real soon, probably next week in the office. So with that, Councilwoman Brown, I'd like to ask you for a motion to adjourn.
Certainly, Mr. President. I move that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, January 23rd, 2014 at 10:00 a.m. Happy holidays. (Duly seconded.)
It's been moved and properly seconded that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, January 23rd, 10:00 a.m. All those in favor? (Aye.)
The ayes have it. Council is adjourned. Thank you all very much. ) 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.