6 The Chair recognizes Councilmember 7 Rue Landau. 8
Just 9 quickly, could you tell us the 10 parameters of your district 11 geographically? 12
Sure. We 13 get this question all the time 14 because the Old City Commercial 15 District is not the same size as 16 Old City. So the district's 17 boundaries are Front Street to the 18 east, 6th Street to the west, 19 Florist Street to the north. 20 Florist Street is the street that 21 runs right at the foot of the south 22 side of Ben Franklin Bridge. 23 The south side is Walnut 24 Street, both sides, so Penn Mutual 25 Towers and the building that's along there. And Dock Street to 1 Dock Street and the Marriott Old City.
Thank you very much. Any other questions or comments from members of the Committee? (No response.)
Hearing none, thank you very much, Job, for your testimony.
Mr. Christmas, will you please call the first witness to testify on Resolution No. 240029.
Sorry. It's Adam Geer first. I'm sorry. (Witness approached Witness table.)
Can you approach with coffee? If you want to. If Members think that's appropriate, it's up to you, sir. How are you doing today, Adam?
Good afternoon. Just state your name for the record and please begin your testimony.
Adam Geer, Acting Chief Public Safety Director. Good afternoon, Council President, members of the Committee of the Whole. I am Adam Geer, the Acting Chief Public Safety Director. I'm absolutely honored and humble to sit before each of you today and testify in the people's house in Philadelphia, the greatest city in the world. I'd like to start by thanking Mayor Cherelle Parker for this nomination. Words cannot express how grateful I am to the Mayor for this tremendous opportunity to lend myself and my life's work to her vision and this mission. I'd also like to thank this legislative body for creating the Chief Public Safety Director position. It is my firm belief the City will greatly benefit from an office whose sole mission is to coordinate resources which are often siloed. This includes bringing together departments ranging from Police, L&I, Streets, Clean and Green to Parks & Rec, Free Library and even Procurement. Breaking down silos also means bringing in community partners and state and federal agencies. Under my leadership, we will do anything and everything to align all of these things and more in the name of public safety. Now, if I may indulge you, I'd like to tell you a little bit about myself and how I ended up in this seat. My mother was born in Kingston, Jamaica and moved to Baltimore when she was 16. Like many Jamaican mothers, my only acceptable career options were med school and law school. I had momma's extra special study hall at home. And I remember her telling me that I would thank her one day as I sat under that table lamp doing her extra homework. Thank you, Mom. It was my mother's example as a nonprofit leader and her tireless and selfless dedication to individuals and families with developmental disabilities that has had its greatest influence on my character. My father was the first person in his family to go to school, attending Duke University. My grandfather was a janitor at Duke, and he would walk the halls of the school and tell people that his son would one day go to the institution. Our last name Geer derived from Geer slave owners. It's memorialized today by a street name in the only cemetery in the area where slaves and my ancestors had bestowed to them to bury their dead with dignity, all existing near my father's campus. After graduating from college myself at New York University and taking my mother up on Career Option No. 2, I left the Big Apple for the City of Brotherly Love to attend Temple Law School in 2004. My girlfriend at the time who is now my wife and a lawyer in the City's prestigious Law Department joined me shortly after to attend Penn Law. And I want to be very clear here. I went to the better law school. (Applause.)
TU. To make a long story short, we fell head over heels for Philadelphia, the diversity, the people, the realness, the food, the sports. supports. We and now our two daughters are proud Philadelphians. I started my legal career as an Assistant District Attorney for this City in 2007 and served with distinction under four different District Attorneys. I held various leadership positions during my tenure and ended my career there as a Homicide Prosecutor as well as the Office's Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. I believe that my reputation as a prosecutor amongst my peers, the Defense bar, the courts, the police, victims, witnesses and defendants is one of fairness, toughness and skill and always in the search for truth and justice. Perhaps though, my proudest achievement at the DAO came outside of trial work. For years and years, victims of intimate partner violence who were subpoenaed to court had to sit in the same seating area within arm's reach of their alleged beaters, abusers waiting for their cases to be heard. It was often intimidation or worse, and many victims would leave court before their cases were called. There was talk for years and years about dealing with this untenable situation. I convened the Courts, the Defender's Association and Domestic Violence Prevention organizations to create a separate and secure waiting area for victims of these crimes, filled with outreach resources and personnel. I left the DA's Office in April of 2021 to accept the position of Deputy Inspector for Public Safety for this City. In that role, I began my work of engaging and coordinating public safety stakeholders to accomplish tangible results. One of my accomplishments was working with the state officials. Shout-out to Majority Leader McClinton and her team, local officials, community leaders, the PPD, the Police Foundation, academics, the State police, the Municipality Police Education Training Commission and the FOP to successfully change a state law that required our Philadelphia police recruits to take a reading comprehensive test that had a disparate impact and failure rates for candidates of color. I was told that it would be impossible to get the law changed at the state level in the partisan House and Senate, but we got it done. I'm now finishing this work in my new role, leading a team of academic leaders and experts from the Community College of Philadelphia, Philadelphia School District, UPenn and Temple along with the PPD to create a fair reading test for our police recruits that will result in a more diverse police force that mirrors the communities they will serve. And that is an example of how I will lead in this office. Working with whoever it takes and not accepting that this can't be done, to get results and fight for the public safety of all Philadelphians. I know everyone is waiting for our 100-day Public Safety Plan that Commissioner Bethel and his team are drafting along with Managing Director Thiel and you will have to wait for the Mayor's Budget Address and the 100-day Report for the full details, but let me assure you that it will be a holistic, smart, targeted and comprehensive plan emphasizing prevention, intervention and enforcement. We will focus on gun violence interruption, community violence interruption, increase in co-responder units and quality-of- life crimes like retail theft, illegal dumping and illegal ATVs. We can and we will do all of these things. We can deal with our children's trauma and give them meaningful things to do after school and real economic opportunities and career paths. We can keep them safe physically, mentally and emotionally. This is the work that we must do and I'm excited to work with each and every one of you. I can feel this energy and the tides are turning.
Indeed I'm looking forward to working with all of Philadelphia in our various institutions, industries and communities from North to South, East to West, Northwest to Northeast, Center City to Southwest, so that we may move as one city with a purpose and make this the safest, cleanest, greenest city in the nation with economic opportunity for all. The weight of this position and its responsibilities are not lost on me, especially in the wake of these recent senseless and tragic shootings. I will tell you what I told the Mayor the first time she interviewed me. I believe that my experience in my life both personally and professionally has prepared me for this moment to be sitting in front of you offering my service. Thank you. I welcome any questions you may have.
Thank you very much for your testimony. The Chair recognizes Councilman Curtis Jones.
I was inspired by your comments and your testimony, and I share your optimism that we, even though it does not seem like it, are on the precipice of turning the corner on some of this. And here's why: Because I remember when people like Katherine Gilmore Richardson, Jamie Gauthier, you, Mr. President, felt in the last Administration gun violence and public safety had not risen to a priority level. I truly believe that it really has today, unfortunate because of what we're going through. But the good news is that we recognize it's a problem. So when we created your position, what we had realized when we went to other cities was that there was no you, which was the straw that stirred the drink to make the silos blend so that people work together. I think it might have been West Chester -- no, it was Chester, was it? (Yes.)
And other municipalities where everybody got along. They didn't agree on every little thing, but they had a commitment from the Rec Department to every -- to work together. And they said, we're going to not point at each other but point at the problem. So when we were crafting that legislation, we had you in mind. So welcome to the party.
My questions are we are working as we speak to take our Blueprint for a Better Philadelphia, Safer Philadelphia and break it down by department and give that to the departments to say when they step before us for their budget, where are you at this level, where at you at that level. One of the things that we charge you, and there was a section 13 and we pointed to you and you'll get the letter, even when the mishap happened at Macy's where the young man was shoplifting and wind up killing the guard, there was something that came out of that, that through the cameras, through SEPTA, through the Philadelphia PPD, they worked together. They actually worked together to apprehend that individual. We need to do more of that. And so, give us a sense of how CJAB or other places your stirring of the drink will occur.
Thank you, Councilmember. Absolutely, and I believe in the strength of this position. I believe in its mandate. I believe that it will have a very real effect on public safety and improve public safety. We are already seeing results of that. Aside from the work that I've been doing, we've been working outside of the convening that we've been doing, and we've been convening. Just the position itself, someone reached out to me from a law enforcement partner that was not necessarily fully in the mix, we brought them into the mix. And as a result of that, there's technology sharing. There's been regular meetings that have occurred, and these are meaningful technologies by the way that have and will have a direct impact, I think, on the safety of some of our communities, right. So not only is it just the fact that there is a focal point and for people to say, hey, if I have to bring up this issue or if I've got this idea or there are these people convening, it's here, it's this very visible office. It's also that we have the Mayor's mandate, the direct Mayor's backing, right, that power that she brings which flows from her directly to me and outward. So I'm incredibly thrilled about the opportunities to bring people in and to organize and to coordinate so that we can get ourselves out of our silos and understand. And, you know, I am a believer now. The Mayor keeps saying this One Philly. We are One Philly. We have to bring everyone in. That's what I feel right now genuinely about the City and where we're at, is that we can all pitch in on this mission. So I look forward to that. And joining CJAB, I think we have a meeting later.
We in this body sometimes plant seeds and it takes so long for the trees to grow and get the fruit from, but we show our patience session after session. One of those things is the crime lab that we worked with the state, put up some City dollars and we want to see that -- we know justice will not occur unless you can process ballistics, unless you can determine if this gun is the same gun that was used in several crimes. So working with our state partners, do you have a strategy for that to make sure that they bring home the bacon that meets with us and works together with us? So it's not just the departments in the City but at the federal and state level, do you have a strategy for that as well?
Absolutely. I think organizations like CJAB that you point out are great. Fortunately because of my career here in Philadelphia and the fact that we have some amazing leaders who come from Philadelphia who go to state office, we have some amazing state relationships. The Senate Majority Leader, again I'll mention that and so many others. So we will be intentional about that. We'll also be intentional by the way about reaching out to our federal partners. In just the two months that I've been here, we have formed a pretty good relationship with the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. I think that that's going to lead to some support, and I'll leave it at that. But I think that's going to lead to some support. So we're going to be intentional about reaching out to all of our partners to assist us in how we need them to be present for us.
Finally, Mr. President, if we could recommend to our state partners that he be placed on the Pennsylvania Crime and Delinquency Board. That's about $83 million annually that comes from the feds to the state that could be useful with his insight as to what departments might be able to utilize those dollars. Thank you, Mr. President.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson.
Thank you so much, Council President. And thank you, Mr. Geer, for the opportunity to have a meeting with you and get to know more about your background and your experience. And I just wanted to get a few questions on the record so that we have this information on the record because this is the very first time Council is being charged with approving this position as the Chief Public Safety Director. And so, you talked about in your testimony as you served as an ADA in the District Attorney's Office and how you became a Deputy Inspector General, I think, for Criminal Justice. If you could just -- or for Public Safety. My apologies. If you could just speak to us about the qualifications of the position, which states that the Chief Public Safety Director must have five years of senior leadership experience in a law enforcement agency, legal entity or other public safety position. Please explain your work experience and how your background meets these qualifications.
Thank you, Councilmember. And I appreciated the opportunity to meet with you as well and talk about many of these important issues that we're facing. I believe that the Charter was changed to three years. I just want to make sure we're on the same page there. But three years of relevant law enforcement -- I'm sorry, leadership experience within a law enforcement agency. Clearly in the DA's Office I held several leadership positions, including Assistant Chief of Municipal Court. I was Assistant of South Division when they were broken into divisions. And I was also a senior prosecutor in homicide and then the Officers' Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. I'm not sure if we sent around my resumé, but that would I think alone add up to over three years if we're doing the math. And then I would consider absolutely my tenure as a Deputy Inspector General to be a senior law enforcement official or an official in a law enforcement agency. That was work that I did for over two years. So that I think speaking directly to the Charter and requirements would account for that time period.
Okay. That would be great. Thank you. Also, you talked about sort of the coordinating resources in City government. And Councilmember Jones spoke to this very well about the silos and stirring that pot to ensure that everyone is working together. As part of this position, you will be tasked with the following functions: Coordinating the deployment of resources within the Department of Police, Fire, Prisons, Parks & Rec, Emergency Management and other relevant agencies, providing operational guidance in consultation on the budgets of the safety-related departments and agencies, preparing reports regarding public safety measures, planning an implementation of security for City facilities and all security services contracts and establishing and maintaining cooperative relationships with civic and business organizations, violence prevention agencies, schools, courts and others. And so, if you could just talk about your background and your experience as it relates to the real work that you would have to do around coordinating the public safety resources, providing that operational guidance but also the budgeting guidance you just spoke to relative to the Mayor's upcoming and forthcoming budget address, research and reporting, managing contracts and facilities and establishing and maintaining partnerships?
So we'll be coordinating with each of those agencies, just like by the way we will be coordinating with some of the ones that aren't stated there. Procurement, I would use again as an example, Parks & Rec, right. The true power of this position comes in its ability and its reach really to coordinate with these City agencies and then beyond, coordinating with the community, stakeholders and beyond. So I think my reputation on delivering on difficult items that require interagency and intercommunity cooperation is there. That's -- for whatever reason I believe that I have a talent, a skill for bringing people together and having them work together to get stuff done, to really get stuff done, right, and not just talk about it. So I think my coordinating function by the force of me and my office, we're going to be on point. We're going to be doing what we have to do. Now, with respect to the specifics of let's say contracts, security contracts, that and the -- we'll continue to coordinate with the Department of Public Property. They currently are charged with that mission. We will be coordinating with them and understanding if they have any challenges. Whether there's budgetary issues, again the good news is that we have some really great budget people in the Mayor's Office. Rob and Bob is what we call them. And I personally will have an employee who will be dedicated specifically to the Office of Public Safety and their budget who I can tell you from working with her is also extremely talented. So we will put --
Pardon me and to your point, I apologize for the interruption, are you speaking about a budget analyst type position that would be under your purview or within your department?
So I believe we're going to put together a team that people are going to be very -- I've got some of my team members here today, they're going to be in awe in the work that we're going to do. I'm excited.
Okay. That'll be great. Also, if you can just explain which of the five areas will be your priority in your new role?
Which of the five areas that we talked about will be more so your priority in your role?
Meaning coordinating public safety resources, providing operational guidance and budgeting, research and reporting, managing contracts, establishing and maintaining partnerships.
We're going do look at all those things. Clearly I think my coordinating function is going to be key here, helping identify for the City agencies what their public safety mission is and tease that out and get people moving in the right direction. That clearly is the majority, the spirit I believe, of the Charter.
Okay. Great. And then you talked about this already relative to your work. Specifically you talked about working with Commissioner Bethel and you talked about Managing Director Thiel as well. If you can just explain how you intend to work with the Managing Director, our Police Chief, our Fire Chief, Emergency Management Director, all of our sort of public safety leads to create a city-wide-all-of- government approach to public safety?
Under the Mayor's leadership, we've been meeting regularly, those partners that you just stated. We fortunately have an extremely good working relationship, particularly with the Commissioner. The Commissioner and I work very closely. Our communication is open and frequent. We understand what's at stake here. We are aligned in the Mayor's vision and we are on the same page, so we will continue to move as one and work together in the interest of the people of Philadelphia.
Okay. Great. And I apologize for the delay with my phone. I was trying to pull up here the Resolution No. 230115-A, wherein it states in Article 3, Chapter 3 under Qualifications. This is 3-307, that the Chief Public Safety Director shall have five years of senior leadership experience in a law enforcement agency, legal entity or other public safety position. That is from the amended bill. I just wanted to say that for the record.
Thank you. Furthermore, if you could just talk about how you intend to engage with City Councilmembers directly, the community and also youth.
Great question. For City Council, and I think in each of our meetings I've expressed this, I'd love to have a direct relationship. If you do not have my cell phone, please ask me after this hearing. I will give you my cell phone. I intend to be completely plugged into City Council and completely available to City Council. And you can hold me to account for that if you find that not to be the case. You are incredible partners. We cannot do the work that we're going to do in the Mayor's Office without your work. And frankly in my tour of meeting with many of you, we learned some things and we got some good ideas to take back. So that is the relationship that I intend to foster with each and every one of you.
And then if you could speak to the community and youth --
Community's going to be huge. I would say if we looked up my calendar right now, probably 75 percent of my meetings are with community groups. And I'm just throwing that out there, but I'm meeting with community groups, anyone and everyone will have a meeting with me. I'm trying -- sometimes we might disagree with some of these -- their positions, but we're having these conversations in the same way that I've illustrated in my prior career with certain organizations that we've met. I'll take a meeting with anyone. I'll meet with them, and we'll see if we can work together. At least we're now communicating, right. And I know you and you know me. I also think we have to be -- and it also by the way will be an important piece of our public safety plan largely, is bringing community groups and you will be hearing more about that. And I'm quite excited for that opportunity. But that will be an important part of our strategy. With respect to the youth, we have to engage them or thinking about ways to engage them in a very meaningful way. And I'm not just talking about like -- I'm talking about what are the youth saying, what are their needs, really hearing from them. Whether that's like regular meetings, whether that's a committee, we haven't gotten there yet. But in order to understand our challenges, and I was just speaking to a community leader this morning about the disconnect between the youth and what's sort of going on in their mind and why they're doing some of the things they're doing. There is very clearly a disconnect and we need to somehow tap into that and understand it if we're going to be serious about our work.
And in particular too, I think it's sort of the youth who -- and I'll give you an example. We have the summer jobs program, right, and we advertise to a ton of young people. We want everyone to have a summer work experience. Now, it's not typically the young people who are signing up to be a part of this experience that we're trying to get to. It's those who do not sign up, those who are living and operating in the shadows. That's the youth we need to get to and that's the group that I'm talking about in particular. Okay. And I just wanted to put that on the record. You talked about having a budget analyst. But what other resources do you anticipate you will need to effectively carry out your responsibilities in your role, and what will the staffing look like in particular just for your role? And I'm asking this in advance of budget so I better understand what we can anticipate relative to your needs.
Thank you, Councilmember. We have recently added a First Deputy Evangelia Manos who's in this room who --
A First Deputy. Her name is Evangelia Manos. She's back there, and I couldn't be prouder to have her on my team. I think her reputation is one of absolute excellence. Her addition has been very meaningful to me quite frankly. We will be adding other pieces. Some of our strategic plan -- and I don't want to get ahead of the Mayor's Budget Address, but some of the pieces that I want to put together to put our stamp, however you want to call it, what I think is really going to pitch in our battles here in terms of public safety, they are in mine. They do -- I'm just going to let the cat out of the bag. They're community-oriented, right. We have our community violence interruption model. I think we really need to lean into that. I think we need to be intentional. I think that deserves its own position, someone who would be tasked frankly with bringing together a community violence intervention organizations and having them in an intentional way go out and helping the public safety mission, right. So I don't want to get ahead of myself, but we will have an office -- by the way, the current criminal justice public safety cluster portfolio, that is going to become the Office of Public Safety and all those resources are -- we avail ourselves to those resources, which are plenty.
Sure. And I guess that's what I'm seeking to understand. And I'm certainly not trying to get ahead of the Mayor's process relative to the budget address that is forthcoming. But I'm just seeking to understand in our ask to approve this position what are we to expect and anticipate since we know that this position is what's been added to the Charter, but what more should we anticipate relative to your specific needs outside of what will be happening sort of around you in the organizational structure? That is my question because that becomes important to the work that we have to undertake in this body as a part of our budget process. And so, what I will ask is if you could submit to Council President for dissemination to all Members your organizational chart and/or structure when it's available and the positions that will report directly to you and some of the positions that may have dotted line reporting to you and how much all of that will be.
Thank you very much. Can we have that information prior to the official budget presentation, which I think we're starting next week, which is Monday. So that will be helpful for members as we evaluate the budget process. I just had a quick question. Part of your testimony you talked about coordinating resources in the City departments, including the Police but also the Procurement Department. So can you elaborate on how you plan to use the Procurement Department to achieve public safety goals?
Thank you, Council President. I believe firmly that every agency, City government can at its core somewhere, right, have public safety. I really, really, really, honestly believe that. And in doing my work, I can give a quick example if I can. We had to align Procurement to get a contract done for our prime time clean up pilot program that's going to be rolling out in the next month or two where we will be the first nation to publicly fund crime scene cleanup. Well, we need to get a contract for a private vendor to accomplish that. Eventually it's going to turn by the way into a workforce development, which we're really excited about. But Procurement has a lot of contracts that they have to get through. I want to be at a place where Procurement will just take instead of me calling them up and saying we need this contract and having the Mayor have that work, that is already common practice for them if it's a public safety-related contract, that it is just the normal course of business that those kinds of contracts are prioritized. So when I bring up Procurement, I love using that example. It's just an example of how we can tease out the public safety goals in each of our agencies and have a more efficient process.
And then also, in regards to the reading exam for the police cadets that you also referenced in your testimony, what's the status?
-- that you worked on regarding those individuals who will be becoming police cadets, what's the status of that policy?
Thank you, Council President. I had to miss the meeting today, but Dr. Guy from CCP I put him in charge of today's meeting and he's just absolutely 100 percent fantastic. So we're having meetings, regular meetings and we're trying to get to a point where we will have a recommendation to the police department as to what that test will be. It is in motion and our partners there, I'm not sure if I mentioned it, Temple, Penn, CCP and the Police Department. So we're actively working to get that test out as quickly as possible so that we can continue to improve our recruitment at the police department.
And my last brief question before I turn it over to my members. I know when this position was created I kind of envisioned a scenario where every Monday the District Attorney, the Police Commissioner, folks from Dr. Watlington's team, someone from Behavioral Health, someone from Parks & Rec and other key various agencies, right, would be meeting in a room and have a dashboard on how they're going about achieving here in the City of Philadelphia with some measurable goals, but most importantly the coordination including DHS, other City agencies all in one room every single week and just evaluating how we move the needle, right, to address public safety, and we also know that poverty is the underlying factor of why we see Black and Brown neighbors suffering from crime and violence. Give me your perspective of how you envision leading in this particular position of public safety as we move the City of Philadelphia forward.
I think that that's spot-on. There are built-in organizations like the CJAB that attempt to do this and they bring in broader stakeholders. But as it relates to City government and those agencies that you just named off, that sounds about right to me. We will get to a place where we're being very intentional about our meetings with stakeholders and City agencies because that is, as you say, what this position is really all about. We have been doing that based upon issues. So there are certain -- for example, Kensington Initiative, we are meeting with organizations -- I'm sorry, with City agency leaders and implementers currently in that model. So we're doing it around issues now, and I think it would make a lot of sense to at some point stand up as you say a regular meeting where we're just touching base on a whole host of issues and not just issue-based. So I take that. I think that's a great point.
Is your team a part of the strategy with the Kensington Caucus when they meet with the District Attorney? I guess it's weekly or biweekly.
I've been invited to those meetings. Unfortunately I could not make the last one because that horrific shooting was last Friday. And so, I have been invited and I intend to go.
Okay. Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Anthony Phillips.
Thank you, Council President. So, Adam, as you know the City of Philadelphia has experienced this surge of violence and it's impacting where our children work, play and also where we work and play and our children live and play, excuse me. One of the things that we're really concerned about with the Public Safety Director is that we understand what the role is supposed to be in terms of employing resources, making sure every department has a resource for public safety. But the question that I had in particular was what particular resources, can you give more examples of how your plan or vision around the library and being a public safety space and the rec centers and just other avenues for every department in the City of Philadelphia focus on public safety, how are you going to bring that out to be able to coordinate the efforts for safety-oriented, you know, for City agencies to be more safety-oriented? Excuse me. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilmember. I have not gotten approval to do this yet from the Mayor. But my plan is to ask her to ask all the agencies to identify their public safety mission. I will help them do that, but I would like each agency to on paper identify their public safety mission and that would go to Procurement and they would have to think about what their safety mission is. And again, I will help them do that. So to answer your question in terms of just trying to pull out the public safety -- and by the way, another point here I would make is it was just this terrible shooting that occurred, right, these pair of shootings. I haven't, you know, I've only been in here for two -- I'm working towards this, right, working to get this up. But there might be that Parks & Rec, that libraries have to pivot their programming, have to have some plan in place to saturate an area with resources or to have programming after an incident like this. These are things that I'm thinking about. So maybe they need to stand something up where it's getting kids off the street into meaningful activities right after an event, what does that protocol look like. So we are thinking about all of those things and how to be intentional there.
Yeah. So that actually leads me into another question that I want to pose. You're right, right, these are moments where we can be thinking about how our rec centers can be plugged into public safety. The question I have is do you see yourself based off what you said there are levels of you have to work with all of these departments in the City and sometimes they take time, extraordinary amount of time to get themselves together to do what they need to do. How do you plan to increase efficiency and effectiveness, meaning that they're utilizing their time wisely and being transformative with the work so that we can cut through red tape and bureaucracy that often hold us back from doing public safety work, like the work you're going to be doing for public safety?
So in my last role as Deputy Inspector General, I tried to do a lot of the work that I'm doing now. But no offense to the Inspector General, but I didn't have the authority of the Mayor telling these agencies to do X, Y and Z, right, with the specific mandate of the Mayor. The difference is that I think we've all seen the Mayor is absolutely, truly committed to a vision of public safety. She has given her cabinet, by knowing certain terms, specific mandates to accomplish her goals and her vision and her mission. So the difference is when I'm calling up Parks & Rec, Library asking for meetings and stuff, again it's coming straight down from the Mayor to them, and I'm getting these meetings by the way. We're having these meetings. They're listening to what we have to say and doing what we're asking them to do. So it's going to take time, right. Allow me some time to really dig into how this is going to look from a systemic operational thing. We're getting there, but that is what this is all about. And frankly, I think I'm the person who's going to execute on it.
Thanks. That's a good question -- I mean, one of the things that I think is just as important is just finding ways to -- you have a vision, it's aligned with the Mayor's vision, but then to be able to quickly put your vision -- make sure it's effective and efficient for the City, get the approval necessary that you needed to do it, all of that is going to be really important for us to quickly move things along, because otherwise we're going to be more stagnant if there is a whole process that's actually more bureaucratic than anything, that doesn't allow us to get things done quickly and efficiently for the City of Philadelphia. So I want to encourage you to think more, if you can, reflect on it when you get back to us when you get more time to think more about how you're going to increase that efficiency. But I do want to ask this question, which I think is really important, you did -- I loved that Councilmember Gilmore Richardson mentioned this. Our City Councilmembers as you said are willing to work with you. We want to bring you into the neighborhoods, into the communities. That's really important. But I also want to see if -- we're going to have events. We're going to have tons of events. We're going to want you to be there as District Councilmembers. But I wanted to also ask you, if you so happen to put together events and programs in neighborhoods, right, which I would love for you to actually work with your (inaudible), how do you plan to make sure that our offices are really connected and coordinated with you in those efforts?
We have been I think very intentional, Councilmember, about our contact with the Councilmembers if we're going to be going out to those events. I agree with you very much that we want to have -- one of those things on the org chart you'll see is a Director of Community Engagement Partnerships, so that person -- and that's outside of the Mayor's Community Engagement Team. We're going to be very, very, very intentional about that work. That person clearly will be tasked city-wide and their team with making sure that these connections are there and meaningful and that there's a flow back and forth, right, and that they truly are plugged into those things. That's going to be that person's job, and then it'll filter up to me and my leadership. So I hope that answers your question, but we're going to be intentional about that.
It does. And my last question focuses on one of the biggest obstacles that we face in providing more community policing is the lack of human power. And so, the entire recruitment of onboarding process of police recruitment entails at least 10 steps, right. And it takes about three to four months to complete before the appointment letter to the police academy. Only about 10 percent of those who start the onboarding process become police officers. So how do you plan on assisting the police department with streamlining this entire process so we can get people into work in the police department?
Thank you for that question. The police department is really dedicating a lot of resources to this very issue. It is something that I looked at starting as a Deputy Inspector General. It is something that since becoming Acting Chief Public Safety Director I've had meetings with the Police Department on this, how are we capturing our applicants. Because you're right, there was a period of time where someone would apply, like go into the web portal, apply. It would be something like six months, they would get an email saying show up this weekend for your training and we were losing a lot of people who clearly needed employment, like accepting jobs for them. They've moved on with their careers, whatever the case is. They've gotten that down to about 30 days under the good work of the police department. I've been in those meetings where I'm understanding how they're doing that. And they're going to continue to make improvements I believe thereby implementing technologies that will assist them basically in capturing those applicants who do sign up. That will look like by the way a text message system, for example, where if you do put it in the application portal, you're getting regular texts and regular communication as to the process so that you're not falling out of the process. So I'll continue to have those meetings as I'm doing. I will continue to support them in any way possible, including standing up this police reading test, which we think will increase the number of applicants, and importantly Black and Brown applicants in the City of Philadelphia.
Thank you. And just one more thing. I misspoke earlier when I said it was my final question. Can we count on your office and you to be transparent with providing a report maybe 6 months in, 12 months in that we can provide to our neighbors in our Districts about how this role is working, what's happening, what's changing? What I also hope from the report, it's not just how many community events that you've attended. That doesn't change lives. It's just you're part of a space. Hopefully, you can report more about what the departments are doing to change. If you can do that transparency, that would help us tell other neighbors that this position is working that City Council helped put together, and we would like to show that this is efficient and effective as possible.
Thank you. We certainly want to report on our successes. And things that we can do better, absolutely, we will have transparency there.
Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Jamie Gauthier.
Thank you, Council President. Good afternoon, Director Geer.
I appreciated your testimony. Thank you so much. I have a Caribbean momma too so I definitely could relate to you, and I agree the path is like you're going to be a doctor or a lawyer. So when I became an urban planner, there was much confusion. Like I still think people don't even understand what that means. I was very excited when our former Council President came up with this position and when we voted on this last session. And I think it's the correct approach to public safety in the City. In 2020, I put forward and got unanimous support from my Council colleagues around the Mayor declaring a city-wide emergency on the issue of gun violence. And the reason why I put that forward in the first place is because very early on in 2020 it didn't take me long to recognize that not only were the communities that I represent in West and Southwest Philadelphia really struggling with COVID, but we were seeing levels of gun violence, the likes of which we haven't seen in decades. And I would go to these scenes and I would talk to people. And I never saw anything beyond the police response. And it was also apparent to me that residents had no idea of what the City was doing to help them, right. We had this Roadmap. Nobody knew what that was. Nobody knew how that was supposed to work in concert with policing to make us safer. But at the same time, I saw how we were responding to COVID, right. We were bringing all City agencies together, we were mobilizing, right. When the schools shut down, we had Parks & Recreation switch to delivering food to people who needed it every single day. We set up stations at the rec centers where students could do their work. The Mayor used sort of his platform to fundraise, right. The Roberts family gave us millions of dollars so that every student could have a laptop, and you also saw the Mayor on the T.V. every day or Dr. Farley or the Managing Director talking about the stats and the cases and what we were doing to bring them down. That's how you respond to an emergency. And it was very confusing to me why we weren't doing the same thing as it related to gun violence because I saw what we had the capacity to do when we prioritize something. And so, I was very much in support of this position moving forward, and I appreciated a lot of your answers around how you would get agencies to see their role differently, right, and as change agents as it relates to public safety, because there's no way we should be in the midst of a gun violence crisis that involves teens but I have rec centers closed or I'm fighting for pools to get open or I'm fighting to get L&I to shut down properties that have turned into a hub for gun violence. When every agency realizes that, you don't have those types of problems, so I appreciate this role. But what I wanted to ask you was about accountability, to talk more about accountability. You're going to be charged in your position with bringing together people who have differing levels experience than you, differing levels of seniority than you. People who have the very important job of being in law enforcement and may see themselves as the experts on public safety, how would you go about accountability and how would you go about keeping all of these important people focused on this sort of unified goal, particularly if people don't see themselves necessarily as being answerable to you? I would love to hear more about that.
Absolutely. Thank you, Councilmember, for that. So because of my prior career as an Assistant District Attorney and frankly the work that I was doing in the Inspector General's Office, I was able to forge meaningful relationships, if we're talking about the police department, with many of the police leadership, if not all, so Deputy Commissioner level. And also by the way, because of the trial work I've done, sort of my context from rank-and-file police officers on up through the system were many and meaningful. Also, because of my work, the courts. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the courts and the leadership. We all know each other and I think they know what my reputation is. And I'm hoping that there are some people who would ask questions of the courts, from the police department, from rank- and-file on up from these public safety partner agencies about Adam Geer and my reputation in the courtroom and how I operate and what I do and what I mean and who I am and my character. Because I think it's that which allows me to in those rooms move seamlessly and have the respect of my peers. And I think most people who encounter me for any bit of time understand that I'm serious business, right. I am who I am. And so, I don't imagine that will be a problem at all. In fact, I'm not sure that we'll get there because I do think of myself as a leader. And often in these spaces, that is what happens. I become the leader that I am. So if there needs to be any kind of accountability check, I'm here for it. But leaders tend to only have to reserve that in instances where it's really needed, and I think we're going to have a good-working relationship with those partners and we'll be leading together to accomplish the Mayor's vision.
Okay. I guess I'll end on asking beyond sort of the good relationships that you have created, do you feel that you have the authority necessary to demand accountability at times when people aren't going to like you and that good will might not matter as much?
Absolutely, 100 percent. This is serious business here. Public safety and people's lives are at stake. It demands no less than my full whatever it is that I have to do in order to accomplish these goals for the citizens of Philadelphia. We're going to do what we have to do.
12 Thank you. 13 Chair recognizes 14 Councilmember Nina Ahmad. 15
I have 23 to echo what my colleague just said 24 about the coordination and then the 25 accountability, right. And in spite, you know, it can't be a personality-driven position. It's going to be existing forever. So what are the measures of structuring the office so there's a tracking ability added on like a dashboard or something where the public can see what they voted for? So I wanted to know if you had a thought on that. I have a couple of subquestions, but maybe I'll let you answer that first.
No, not specifically we haven't gotten to the point where we're eliminating a dashboard. We have gotten to the point where the Office of Public Safety -- and again, we're just creating this, right. We're just going to put in these pieces that I think will make a difference. We're still hiring out and building and building this thing out. But absolutely, there has to be some type of metric. By the way, some of these positions which you'll see on the org chart speak directly to this, right. And there is a specific position that you will see when I circulate the org chart dedicated to exactly what you're saying, right. So we want to put that right inhouse so that we are understanding the work that we're doing. It's very important.
Thank you. Then I have a second question: The Delaware Valley Intelligence Center, what is the coordination there and are you going to be able to use hotspot mobilization within the City?
We have a very good relationship. Many senior members of my team also have been working for the DVIC for many years in their leadership. I am currently working with them on a number of brand new initiatives that I think will benefit the City of Philadelphia, in particular a revamping surrounding some tip hotline stuff so that we can really utilize that and update that frankly. So the relationship we have with DVIC in terms of their CCT -- CCTV stuff, all of that, they're a partner and they're an incredibly important partner to our work.
And my last question is about the violence interrupters that you mentioned. Are you going to be using mental health resources to buttress those positions or just on-the-ground resources for engaging with our young people?
That is very important work that needs to be done frankly. We do have our CIRT teams, our Crisis Intervention Response Teams which we spoke about. There are likely certain things that we can think about in terms of those organizations going out and doing work and making sure that they're understanding those challenges and maybe there's some specific training that they would require, but we do understand the need to have that as a part of the model somewhere, right. Yeah, that's important.
And most specifically CBT, cognitive behavioral therapy to be engaged in these spaces is going to be critical for us to really tamp down the cortisol, the violence that erupts as a result of our cortisol. So I'm really looking forward to that piece of your work. So thank you again and very impressive background and I am an immigrant like your parents, and it's so coincidentally I have a daughter in medical school and a daughter in law school, just saying.
Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Rue Landau.
Thank you, Mr. Geer. Thank you so much for being here.
A couple of things. First of all, I just want to recognize my colleague Councilmember Gauthier's comments that she made about gun violence plaguing our city and being an emergency that we've all watched and being shocked at how quickly the City could respond to a COVID crisis and not respond to violence in the same way. So I am so glad that we are in the right direction. I think there's no doubt that we in Council feel the same way, that we're all paddling in the same direction now and I think the City is definitely going to be in a better place. I had a few questions and mine started with exactly what Councilmember Gilmore Richardson was asking about. I'm very curious about the structure of your department and I think we're learning pieces now. It's a little confusing that there's been some hirings and you've talked about a top team, but we really don't understand what it looks like and it's hard to see how you are set up for success unless we fully understand the structure. I appreciate that an org chart is coming, but can you speak a little bit more to even how many reports you think you'll have, how many employees you'll have and we'll start there and then the next one.
Absolutely. So a lot of this is not -- so there's an engine in a vehicle right now. That engine was the criminal justice public safety cluster. So there was a pre-existing number of agencies within the Managing Director's Office tasked with public safety-related things within this cluster, including Office of Violence Prevention, Office of Criminal Justice, Office of Re-entry Partnerships, Town Watch Integrated Services, Office of the Victim Advocate. There was also an executive leadership within that cluster, some of them again who are here today in terms of policy, people, data. All of that is within the Office of Public Safety or will be when you see it on the org chart. So it is somewhat of like a rebranding. We will think about things differently. We will re prioritize in line with the Mayor's vision, but that pre-existing org chart is largely there. What I'm now adding is like a lot of dotted lines to everything, right, because as we've talked about this job is about reaching out to the other agencies and bringing them in and getting them out of -- so there's dotted lines everywhere. You won't see them in the org chart because that's just a given in our minds and in our work. And then we're going to be adding a few of these other central pieces, specifically tasked with some of the things that align with the Mayor's vision and the work that we need to do. For example, when the Councilmember just said how are we understanding the metrics, are things working, all kinds of things. We're going to have a person for that. Our community violence interruption model, which I think is going to be awesome and successful, especially in a city like Philadelphia by the way where our community violence interruption groups are also so amazing, right. A person dedicated -- you're going to see that. That's an addition. So we've taken what's already under the engine of the thing. We're going to tweak that up. We're going to put some new oil in it and all that kind of stuff, and then we're going to add a few other turbo kind of things, and that's what it will look like. I'm not sure if that answers your question.
That's very helpful. The second question, which you've told me part of the answer to now, is how your work aligns with or coordinates with the Managing Director's work at this point who did oversee much of this?
Many of the important parts of the Managing Director's Office like DBHIDS, right, Office of Homeless Services, Office of Domestic Violence, there's incredible crossover with the Office of Public Safety. The way that we've been operating is as one with respect to the work that those agencies are doing and those joint agencies. So many of the meetings we're having, for example, around the Kensington initiative, and I'm saying those leaders are in the room, they're on our team with respect to these issues. So we have a great relationship. We're on the same floor. We kind of are one, me and the Managing Director's Office, but we have these specific carve-outs and things that can go down to policies and certain offices that work together just under what would be my portfolio.
Okay. I know we don't want to see any redundancy in the work, so having a clear line is certainly helpful, especially for us when we want to know --
It is. There is a very clear line, Councilmember. In fact, me and the Managing Director we are very good at offboarding and making sure that he's got what he's got and I've got what I've got and those are our universes.
The second thing is how are -- are we using the experiences of other cities to help inform our work here in Philadelphia?
We are looking at other cities. I'm looking at other cities. We have a policy person, Joshu Harris. He loves looking at other cities and bringing back -- we are always having conversations about what other cities are doing, including as an example most recently Community Court in Manhattan, right. That would be one example. Obviously we're looking at open drug market-related policies in other cities that are doing things, so we clearly want to look for the best example and do that.
Great. And my third thing I think is more of a comment going back to Council President Johnson's comment, at least I recall I think even back in the Street Administration we had these neighborhood more like collective groups, it wasn't a PDAC, but it would have representatives from the police, SEPTA, the schools, some community leaders -- it was not a PDAC so it wasn't organized by the police -- that would meet and actually talk about what's going on, how are we keeping our students safe and whatever. And I think Council President Johnson said we are looking for somebody who can bring together the entities at the top. And I certainly think you have the personality to do that, but we also want to make sure that we're mimicking that top level down in the hardest-hit communities throughout the City and I think it's a great model that could look at community-specific issues.
Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Lozada.
Thank you, Council President. And thank you, Mr. Geer, for your testimony and your willingness to meet with me and at this point with some community residents as well. I think I want to follow up on the question that one of my colleagues asked about. There's not just a gun violence crisis in the City, right, in Districts like mine. There's also a health crisis, and there's been a health crisis in the District for a really long time. There was a point in time in the District when there were many people who felt like we as a city should be doing things a different way, right. In my opinion, right, I'm going to say in my opinion instead of us as a government addressing the situation and responding to the needs of what was happening in the 7th Council District, we chose to bring those people who were making a lot of noise into our workforce. And it created to me a much more difficult situation to be able to respond to because instead of doing what we needed to do, we wanted to kind of shut them out. And so, my question to you is some of them are still here in the system, in our workforce. Some of them are a part of families that are families to people who have been in our workforce for many, many years. How are you going to respond to the individuals who are currently working in the spaces that we will need action in and really difficult action, right? We're going to have to make some really difficult decisions over the course of the next year or so in order to really improve or restore quality of life in the Kensington community. How are you going to navigate those individuals who will push back on some of the things that the Mayor and yourself are describing you will need to do in order to restore quality of life in Districts like mine?
The short answer, and I guess this gets back to the accountability question, we're not going to have time for that kind of obstructionist behavior. Certainly I can tell you this, the Mayor absolutely 100 percent is not going to have any time for that stuff. We have important work that needs to be done. And if it is identified -- without knowing any specifics, Councilmember, if it's identified that there is a situation like this, then we will deal with the situation so that we can get the work done and accomplish the Mayor's vision and mission, period. So without knowing specifics of particular cases and if we can have an offline conversation with anyone or whoever wants to speak to me, we can have that conversation and see if we can resolve those issues.
You participated in one of our community meetings recently and I appreciate that, right. I'm grateful for you being present. I think there's going to be a need for more of that. As I mentioned, there were folks in the Administration that made themselves or sold themselves to community residents as being their connection or them being the connection to City government. That created a huge distrust, rightfully so. And so, in positions like yours it's going to be extremely important for you, the decision-maker, to be at those community meetings. We have a lot of work to do in cleaning up what we have caused in that community, but we also have a lot of work in building up trust before that community buys into anything that we're going to do. I think it's also really important to note that we need to identify who truly lives there when the noise is happening and the pushback is coming, right. The folks who live there, who lay their heads to rest, who have businesses there are the people that we need to be listening to. We've heard all the comments over the course of the last few weeks as it relates to harm conduction and to some of the providers that are there. DBHIDS has $1.7 billion, and a lot of that money go into programs in the 7th Councilmanic District. What is your plan or how are you going to respond to those individuals who fail to understand that we're not getting rid of harm reduction or that we don't support harm reduction, but that it is necessary for us to change how we do the work of harm reduction in the 7th Council District?
I mean, we are going to be changing the work that we do. I think it's our role as City government to deal with problems that are difficult, that affect public health, that affect crime, that effect some of the things we're seeing in your District. That is our job. That's what we're here to do, is solve problems and sometimes make difficult decisions, and sometimes people aren't going to agree with those decisions. What we're not going to do is do nothing. We're going to do something. I will rely on yourself, Councilmember, other people that represent that District, the community groups in that District, the people who live there frankly to have input into what they want to see and how they want to see these policies sort of meted out. We think we have a pretty good idea, right. We want to be compassionate and we want to get people into treatment, we also want to have a Kensington at K&A where children, community, family members can traverse up and down in a vibrant business corridor with vibrant happenings and music and food without being in an open drug air market and experiencing the trauma related to just seeing it, which is what's happening today.
I think what we also need to recognize is a lot of those programs are being funded by us. And so, I'm going to look for the support of the Administration as we go through the budget process for support when we call for the reallocation of funds for different programs that do some of this work, right. We don't do a good job at oversight. And just because we are the ones funding them or they are friends of our friends who are running those programs, we tend to not want to do anything. And so, I think it's important for you as the conductor of the orchestra, which is what we were calling your position during one of our public hearings, to understand that we are going to hold you accountable, right. You're the person we're going to hold accountable for the work that does or doesn't get done in Districts like mine, right, because the folks who call Kensington home deserve that, right. That means that we're going to have to not fund certain programs and/or reallocate dollars to programs that are doing what they are supposed to be doing.
Thank you, Councilmember Lozada. Councilmember Jim Harrity. I just want to double check for the record.
Thank you, Council President. Adam, thank you again. I've been at a few meetings already in the community, me and Quetcy and a couple other people from the Kensington Caucus. It's not like years ago, no. Years ago we didn't have the alternative programs that we have now. People just went to jail. How do you see the courts playing a role with you in the public safety thing and how do you see the DA's Office working with this? Because in reality to do what we are trying to do with getting more people into long-term recovery, that is going to take some of them being charged in order to get them into the alternative programs. How do you plan on navigating between the courts and the District Attorney's Office together, you know, getting them to work together in order to be able to use these programs that we have? I mean, we have the AMP program. We also have the mental health alternative programs, all good tools. But the tool won't work if you don't have the toolbox and the guide with a wrench making the adjustments.
Absolutely. Thank you for your question, Councilmember. You all frankly have been leading. I think the Kensington Caucus was pulled together, that meeting that I'm excited to get to. That's part of this, bringing people around the table together and communicating. So having the DA present, having you all present, having the court present, having us present. We'll be very meaningful for understanding where everyone stands and what people are going to do and what people are not going to do. There is a lot that we will be able to do around trying to get people into treatment and connecting them to services that do not engage the DA's Office. So all of this sort of pretrial stuff that we are going to be implementing and maybe thinking about differently, but certainly that's going to be available to us. I have had communications, regular communications with the DA's Office. I probably at this point almost have regular communications with the courts. I've met with the courts and the court leadership, the administrative judges who are going to be touching some of these issues in a meaningful way. But to answer your question, we need all of them. We need to be communicating. We need to clearly understand as I said what people are going to do and what they can do, right, to support so that we can pivot and fill in any holes that we can fill in to bring real progress and to really make a dent in some of these issues. But we're going to talk to these partners, period. And that includes the DA's Office, we have to. The citizens of Philadelphia deserves City government that communicates, right. They deserve us to be talking. We are all adults. We are not going to agree 100 percent of the time, but it's our responsibility to have those conversations and see where we stand.
Great. All right. One other question: Are you planning -- I know you're going to work with all of the departments within the City, including Parks & Rec because I believe that is a great tool for us to try to reach some of these kids. The problem is programming, lack of and lack of awareness even more importantly, because in Kensington in Councilwoman Lozada's District, we have a lot problems that are being offered that the kids really don't know about. How do we do better with getting it out there that we have these programs and how do you see these programs working as a public safety thing, because bottom line mentorship and having them around people who care about them and don't want to see them do bad things because the problem is their mentors right now are the guys who are doing bad things? And speaking from experiences as a kid growing up in Southwest Philadelphia, we had five Catholic Schools out there with five football teams. Now, we have about two Catholic schools left with one football team. The availability of programs, we complain about the kids running ragged, it's mostly because they don't have anything to do. How do we combat that and how do we make that part of the public safety initiative?
Huge, huge part of it, huge part of it. And we have to really put our money where our mouth is I think there. And maybe I'm going above my pay grade here. But I have a close personal friend who was in Parks & Rec. They've since left the City. And when Commissioner Slawson was appointed, he had very glowing things to say about the Commissioner. The day after her appointment I emailed her and the engagement was more or less paraphrasing, very excited to know you, we're going to be working together closely and it's one of excitement about potential. That is a partner that I'm going to value dearly, right. Procurement is going to be probably lower than Parks & Rec. I'm just being honest. That's going to be really a great stakeholder for us, and I think there's a lot of work and creative things that we can do that.
Yeah. I mean, listen, we've made some strides. I've visited different Councilpeople's Districts and some of their rec centers. And it's amazing how the stuff varies per area. While we need the rec centers for the sports and the activities, part of it, the bottom line is that a lot of kids nowadays aren't into sports. I've got a 300-pound 14-year-old at home that wants nothing to do with sports. But if you give him a computer, he can do whatever you want him to do. How do you see our rec centers being re-envisioned to include more of these kinds of things, maybe computer labs, recording studios, e-games. Kids now can get scholarships to a Division 1 school to play video games, and they can make a lot of money at it. And I think we have to thinking outside the box and trying to figure out what's working in different rec centers that we can mimic in other rec centers?
I think that that's right. And that's where bringing in the youth and being honest, hones about approaching them, and honest about listening to them and honest about what's going to pull them into those rec centers and into those activities, that's where that's really going to matter. And I think we're poised in terms of our leadership to think of ways to get to that so that our programming is successful as it can be in attracting these young people. Because it's critically important, right, like I get it. I've seen some of the programming at my kids' rec center and it's appropriate for them. But I can see some other individuals who we really want to bring in not being at all a dang interested in what's going on at the rec center. So having those moments where we're really trying to figure out things, whether it's music, art, things that are really going to get to them.
Yeah, exactly. We need to figure out what the kids want. I had visited Memphis Street Academy, which is a charter school in Kensington, the other day and actually sat down with six or eight of the 8th grade students and had a really deep conversation. It was very enlightening. And these kids live in the 7th Councilmanic District for the most part most of them, probably about 90 percent. And what they see and what they're thinking is -- I didn't realize an 8th grade student could be that intelligent about how they're thinking about things. And, you know, they brought up the food insecurities to me, they brought up the violence. They brought up how come we can't get these people into rehab. They see them on a daily basis and they walk by and, you know, we've had the conversation about the trauma that they're facing. So thinking maybe we need to talk to these kids a little more and find out what they think of how we can actually change Philadelphia. I think we would all be surprised at some of the ideas they come up with.
Thank you very much. I see Jeffrey Jay Young. Are you --
Thank you, Council President. Good afternoon, Mr. Geer. How are you doing today?
Just quick questions about your strategies, right. So how do you target those underrepresented groups during the Procurement process when it comes to contracting with your particular office?
Again, we want to be extremely intentional -- I know I keep using this word, but it's the one that makes sense -- about the organizations that are getting City contracts and the work that they're doing and making sure that it's the good work that we need in this time, okay, period. So we are on this org chart going to identify a position where that position will be tasked with this, right, be tasked with understanding the grants that are coming out and having fair measures for these organizations. And also by the way, being fair in terms of the support that we might be able to lend as a City to make sure they will succeed. And again, I had a meeting this morning with a community leader about this, expressing your same sentiments about there's some organizations out there that are doing some great work, how can we make sure that they get on your radar. So it's something that I'm actively thinking about.
And what role will you play in developing the overall public safety policy and strategy implementation? Will you play a big role or any role in deciding what policies that the City's Administration is going to push forward, for example, like GVI or some other types of public safety policies?
Yes. So specifically, GVI falls within our portfolio. We are seeing some really great success with that program that was launched in 2020. We just received some great news, that we received the federal grant, about $615,000. That will allow us to expand GVI to start incorporating juveniles, which in the wake of the last week or two is extremely, extremely good news so those policies, specifically GVI and things that are inhouse directly related to me and my team. As it relates to broader public safety policies, absolutely, I see that as my job to make recommendations to the Mayor to bring to her things that are working in other cities that we can do here and then implement them.
Thank you. You segued into the youth for me. So what role do you see DHS playing in the overall public safety scheme of our city?
Very important. We have just set up our first meeting with DHS and the Commissioner there to coordinate. That is going to be -- that's a meeting that frankly they've been having over the last several years. We're discussing specifically youth as it relates to the approaching summer and warmer months. So we are going to be tied to them in trying to see how we can support the work that they're going to be doing and likewise, but that is an important agency for sure.
Thank you very much. Are there any other questions from members of the Committee? The Chair recognizes Councilman Curtis Jones. For the record, the light was not on. I see it now, sir. Go ahead.
That's all right. One of the things hopefully within your org chart, you will have data crunchers because if it ain't measured, it ain't managed. And one of the things that is illusive to us is to be able to say a pound of prevention equaled a pound of cure. And so, being able to crunch data to see whether it's the 57 Block strategy, whether that investment actually reduces crime in the area, whether it is the use of credible messengers and those types of organizations within a geographic area that we can correlate reduction in shootings, reduction in arrests. Those kinds of things that are very subtle but very important to this body because we have to fund them. I asked the City Controller how much does crime cost, like from the time somebody pulls the trigger to the time they're apprehended, the car that they rode to jail in, the jail that they went in, the food that was fed to them, the evaluations that were given, the DA, the Defender, how much from the point of crime to the disposition of the case does it cost and why is that important when you then say to me or when someone suggests to us, if we invest this amount of money this is how much we can save, then it makes mathematic sense. So measuring what's going on working hopefully with the Controller's office and others to actually measure what we're doing I think is a critical step in managing what's going on. Hopefully, you're included that in your structure.
It is in there. We -- you said everything. You said everything, Councilmember. That's exactly why we think it's that important. Exactly what you just said, we have to have that data or else what are we doing.
And one other thing. When the District Attorney who has a really good data crunching group, the Controller has a really good data crunching group, I think the Defender has a really good data crunching group, the Inquirer and Daily News have a really good data crunching group. They don't always sync. And we need to know whose data we should go by. So that's why it's important as well. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you. I only smiled, Councilmember, because I agree with you completely and we've had conversations about this.
Thank you very much. Any other questions or comments from members of the Committee?
Thank you. Mr. Geer, what role do you see your office playing in scenarios where there are victims or co-victims of crime who do not feel like they received justice, right. There are a lot of people out here that feel that certain crimes are not being punished at a level that they think they should be, and they are continually to be traumatized by being a victim of that crime. So what role do you see your office playing helping to support those victims and co-victims of crime who feel like the system, the justice system, has not been working for them?
Thank you for that. Thank you for that very, very important question. We have in my portfolio the Office of Victim Advocate, which is going to do and does a lot of this work. I think you are absolutely correct, that there needs to be dedication to that. That is part of my plan of really leaning into the community violence interruption programming that we have in the City. Because as you point out, a lot of times those great community groups get in there right before or sometimes unfortunately right after a horrible incident and their work of communicating to the people who are affected steers those people specifically and their communities and their families and a loved one away from the decision of retaliation frankly. That is why it works and it does work. And we're starting to see I think at the national level and certainly we're going to find out here how powerful that is, where when you're dealing with trauma when you are availing or when you have resources for people who are dealing with that and trying to make the decision of do I get justice for myself, am I even going to get justice, I did not get justice. When you're dealing with that in the way that I think you think needs to happen which is the way that I think needs to happen as well, you are allowing those people a chance to make a different decision, which I think will result in lower shootings or homicides, et cetera. I hope that answers your question.
Thank you very much. And just last question, and I think Councilman Curtis Jones played a role in putting this legislation together with former Council President Clarke and I know I'm a co-sponsor on it. But just to refresh my memory, the salary for this position is what? Do you remember off the top of your head?
265. Okay. I just wanted to ask that for the record because when it was a Charter change, the public would come to us and say, how we come up with this number and so forth. But I only say that from the perspective of the reason why we've been in this for an hour and 34 minutes and we actually started on time, it's just to impress upon you how critically important this position is. And I think that's why a lot of Members took time out of their schedule not even just being here from a hearing standpoint, but this is the number one issue that we're addressing here in the City of Philadelphia. But we do want to thank you for stepping up to the plate and stepping in this space to be the number one public safety leader here in the City of Philadelphia. And we know the vision that our Mayor is focusing on and we're going to work collaboratively as you get through this process to make sure we move the City of Philadelphia forward to make sure our young people are safe, to make sure our seniors are safe. Councilmember Jeffrey Jay Young took the words out of my mouth in making sure that we're advocating and fighting for victims and co-victims of gun violence. So we thank you for stepping up the plate when it comes to being a public servant around this particular issue. I know you and I have an event coming up, so you'll be in South Philadelphia with the Young Chances Foundation where we will be addressing the issues regarding public safety and gun violence in my own community. And so, I just want to state that for the record, that you have been on the ground prior to today out and about in the community touching base with people at least listening. And I think that's a testament to your character and how you want to collaborate and bring people to the table. So if there aren't any other questions or comments -- the Chair recognizes Councilmember Quetcy Lozada.
This is the last question. I promise. I didn't hear you mention at all in your testimony how you would or how do you intend to use or work with the Office of Youth Engagement, the Youth Commission. Each one of our Districts has a young person that represents us that lives in our District, right, and can speak to what is happening there. What is the role of the Youth Commission and the Office of Youth Engagement going to play in the work that you all are going to be doing?
I would love to find out more specifically the work that they're doing frankly. Specifically why are they convening, I don't have that information currently. But we do want to access as I've said the youth in a meaningful way. That seems like a built-in way to get out of your Councilmanic Districts what we might need, especially if that's your recommendation. So certainly, we want to look at that.
I think it's important because, right, we talk a lot about what we're supposed to be doing and young people or what young people want to see or what young people are involved in, and often times they are the people that are missing from the conversation. And so, instead of talking at them we should be intentionally inviting them to the table to hear from them directly, right. The Mayor just held a meeting on Friday and we heard from young people. And it was amazing to me how they ran off how much they could pay for guns, right, where they could pick up a gun, how quickly -- it was very comfortable for him to say I can walk out this door and order any kind of weapon that I'm interested in, right, for something as cheap as $200. And so, I think that we really need to be more intentional when we're talking about public safety. Be more intentional about including them in the conversation and have them help us really address and make our city a safer place.
Yes, I was in that meeting, Councilmember, and it had the same effect on me. Just absolutely, absolutely eye-opening every time you talk to a young person, especially a young person who is in the midst and in the wake of that kind of trauma. It will make you -- it will increase your resolve. It will really increase your resolve. And almost as importantly, you are understanding what exactly you might have to do that specifically caters to the issues, right, that they're facing. So I think that we are taking that point very, very, very strongly to engage our youth in the process.
I appreciate that. He ran off those prices and the names of those guns like he was ordering from a menu. And so, that was really disturbing to me. It actually made me even more concerned than I already was.
Thank you very much, Councilmember. Are there any other questions or comments from members of the Committee? (No response.)
Hearing none, is there anyone else here to testify on Resolution 21 240029? (No response.)
Hearing none, we want to thank you very much, Adam Geer, for taking time out of schedule today and providing your testimony.
It's my pleasure. Thank you, Councilmembers. Thank you, Council.
You're welcome. We're going to take a 10-minute break to let people go to their bathrooms. Go ahead -- before the Chair recognizes Councilmember Thomas.
Thank you, Council President. I have to tend to other Council business, so I just want to be recorded as voting aye on all bills and resolutions presented before the Committee today. Thank you, Council President.
Leave is granted. 10-minute recess, that is. (Brief recess.)
This hearing we're now calling to order. Members, please take your seats. Mr. Christmas, will you please call the first witness to testify on Resolution No. 240038.
The witness is Renee Garcia, Esquire, Acting City Solicitor. (Witness approached Witness table.)
Absolutely, absolutely. Just state your name for the record and then will you please begin your testimony.
Sure. Renee Garcia, G-a-r-c-i-a. Thank you. Good afternoon, Council President Johnson and esteemed Councilmembers of the Committee of the Whole. I am Renee Garcia. I have served as Acting City Solicitor for the City of Philadelphia since January. Prior to my appointment, I supervised the Law Department's Litigation Group as the Chair. I'm grateful to Mayor Parker for asking me to serve as Solicitor and I appreciate your consideration of my appointment. The mission of the Law Department is to serve the residents of Philadelphia by providing legal counsel of the highest quality to all City officials, employees, departments, agencies, boards and commissions. With the expertise and leadership we have on our team, we are excellently situated to aid Mayor Parker and this legislative body in making Philadelphia safer, cleaner and greener with economic opportunity for all because this vision is already central to what we do. With my time before City Council today, I'm going to tell you a little bit about myself and provide a snapshot of the work that we do at the Law Department. Formerly a resident of Council President's District -- sorry, Council President. I left for Councilmember Bass' District in Mt. Airy, where I live with my two daughters and my husband who practices dermatology in Roxborough. We are an interfaith multi-ethnic family and are members of Germantown Jewish Center. My older daughter who's 9 years old is my sensitive and creative sole, who's currently into designing clothing and generally follows the rules while my younger daughter who's is hyper-competitive, 6 playing soccer with to years 7 old this winter and does not take 8 no for an answer. It's kind of 9 like my personality split in the 10 most exaggerated way. 11 Their parents are split between Kansas City, Florida and Long Island where I grew up in a small hamlet of 4,000 people. Although from different backgrounds, both sides of my family valued hard work and service to others. My relatives are painters, carpenters, cooks, police officers, volunteer EMTs, volunteer firefighters, County clerks, medical works, Sunday School teacher, Scout troop leader and my grandfather was the town building inspector. They include veterans of the Navy, Air Force and Army. My mother's family had a long history in that little hamlet. My dad's family, however, immigrated from Mexico and Catanlonia Spain. They came by boat and airplane in the 1950s. My grandparents came to this country to escape General Franco's brutal dictatorship. He starved the people of Catalonia, dismantled their government institutions, restricted all freedom of the press, imprisoned political opponents and did not allow them to speak their own language. The rule of law met nothing for persecution for the Catalonia people. I pursued a Liberty Arts education at Barnard College and later became the first lawyer on either side of my family after attending Harvard Law School. Nobody was particularly surprised that I went to law school given how worked up I got when I perceived injustice as a child. I knew I could serve with a law degree in this country where the laws are not always fair, but the arc of justice -- the arc bends toward justice. In the last 8 years I've worked at local 9 nonprofits, global nonprofits, law 10 firms and in the corporate sector. 11 Throughout my career I have always 12 carried a pro bono practice, 13 serving as PNC Bank's Pro Bono 14 Chair and participating in DEI 15 efforts, but constantly felt a tug 16 towards full-time service. 17 At a time when I was trying 18 to figure that out, City Solicitor 19 Diana Cortes offered me the Chair 20 of Litigation position and there was no looking back. And now here I am three years later as the proposed Solicitor and I cannot think of more important work. I've been to battle alongside some of you, University City Townhomes, gaming, gun cases, tobacco cases, asbestos in the schools, driving equality and the police transparency bill.
These are tough cases and you've seen how the Law Department is there to fight alongside you for our residents. With over 365 attorneys and professional staff, our department comes to work every day with a true sense of purpose, to collaborate with Council and our City clients to protect the residents and to build a more equitable and prosperous future for the City of Philadelphia. Whether it's removing a child or an adult from a dangerous situation, filing an emergency petition to demolish a hazardous building, defending a City employee who did their job according to law or keeping our residents' personal data protected, the Law Department keeps our city safe. Our corporate team allows the City to contract with essential service providers and shape our built environment through infrastructure programs, real estate leases and grants, and of course we can't do any of this without money. Our Torts team protect our City's coffers while our Property Assessment and Tax Unit ensures that residents and businesses are contributing their fair share. Our Affirmative and Special Litigation Unit sues bad actors that inflict nuisance and danger on our residents. And we've recovered hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to support our community. And finally, the Law Department ensures good governance for our work, providing everyday counsel to client departments and elected officials, ensuring transparency through the Right to Know law, enforcing environmental regulations, drafting and defending legislation, representing our Boards and Commissions and so much more. Our attorneys and staff ensure that the City is operating legally and transparently. In short, we do it all. As I wrap up, I will briefly address my plans for the Law Department as we continue to support this very ambitious Council and Mayor. First and foremost, the Law Department will focus our strategy prioritizing the issues and outcomes that are the most important for our clients, including you. I'm undergoing an assessment of our work with the goal of breaking down silos and creating synergy among, for example, the units working on public safety. The more we know about your goals the better we can realign our work. Second, we will move past the status quo to propose innovation that moves the City forward. The Consumer Protection bill is a recent example of that innovative legal solution that our team can develop in coordination with Council. And lastly, we will continue to do our work through a lens of equity. The rules of professional responsibility for lawyers in rendering advice, a lawyer may refer not only to the law but other considerations such as moral, economic, social and political factors that may be relevant to the client's situation. Although the entire legal industry talks about DEI, in no 24 other position are those principles more important than for the municipal lawyer who helps to write and enforce the law. I have had the privilege of representing both City Council and the Administration in my role as Chair of litigation and now as the prospective City Solicitor. As City Solicitor, I will remain steadfast in my commitment to upholding the attorney-client privilege while providing high quality representation to all of our clients in the interest of the City. Thank you for welcoming me today and I look forward to collaborating with you as we all work to serve the City of Philadelphia. And I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you.
Thank you. First question: Under your leadership, please explain what will be the Law Department's policy for settling or litigating cases against the City. And just for an example, recently Councilmember Isaiah Thomas introduced the Exonerated Justice Legislative package on behalf of Philadelphians who were convicted of crimes and later exonerated. Currently Pennsylvania does not provide compensation for exonerees. And so, does the Law Department have a process for reviewing these cases to make sure individuals are properly compensated? What is the average amount of time between a claim made by an exoneree and the resolution 17 of their claim, and what are the Law Department's internal goals and metrics for the resolution of claims made by the exonerees? And this is all in the context of the Law Department's policy for settling or litigating cases against the City.