Do you do that level of due diligence when you sell land?
I would say that that is a level of due diligence that we do spend a lot of time on, but it's at the sale point. It's less in the analysis of that piece of it and more just in the quality of the buyer, the purpose of the development and justifying it on a whole -- the usual sort of range of issues that we get into that really focuses on a full utilization of a limited resource in the creation of jobs and in the obviously creation of the tax ratables that come with it.
Okay. So in your document response, you stated that, PIDC/PAID do not grant funds unless directed to do so by the City of Philadelphia. And if you go back to my opening statement, I talked about 104 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. oversight really involves accountability, transparency, et cetera. So please explain this statement: You don't grant funds unless directed to do so by the City of Philadelphia, is what you said.
Basically, the grant programs that we administer -- and we've described the two principal ones -- well, really three different ones, being Redevelopment Assistance, the RACP; Economic Stimulus, which is the City program, and then more recently commercial -- cultural and commercial corridors. In all of those cases, we receive very specific direction from, in one case, the State; in the other case, the City, and we follow those directions, and without them we would not be making any grants. We do not make any grants on our own without specific direction from 105 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. the City and the State.
Once again, we discuss those with the City. We take them to our Board. So the City participates at that level. And then virtually all of our loan programs require City signoff after the approval by the Board. So it's maybe a little bit of a subtle distinction, but I would have said we're receiving similarly specific direction in the case of loans as well.
Loans and grants, okay. So when you say the City has to approve it, who?
So do you ever hear from people, elected officials 106 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. outside of the Commerce Department about particular loans or grants or other programs that you're doing?
At some level. When it reaches a level of specificity and credibility, we do, and it really takes the form of a meeting that we have every Monday morning among our client people and our product people in which each of the client people has a slide and they have 15 or 20 names on the slide, and we as a group kind of go through and coordinate where we are in each of those prospects. That's a process that I think is very well run, since I run the meeting, but it's very professional. It's something I would welcome anybody from Council to attend just to get a sense of the flavor of that. And so at that point, transactions enter our pipeline and we have a lot of data on 107 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. everybody from that point forward.
And so do people contact you to try to help constituents get through your processes or recommend people to you outside of the Commerce Department?
And you do keep track of that, so you'd have a record of if an elected official asked you to help with this project or asked you to get that project done?
Probably more in the context of our relationship with the elected official than in the context of our process, because if the project isn't credible enough and doesn't get into the pipeline so we're talking about it on Monday morning, we probably do not keep a record of it.
But there are limited resources even for the 108 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. projects that get into the pipeline that seem credible. To what extent is a decision made based on recommendations from powerful constituencies, elected officials, et cetera, other than the Commerce Department?
Is part of the decision-making process related to who is talking to you about a particular project in terms of choosing the priorities?
I guess inevitably the credibility of our referral is a factor in our consideration. We get business from repeat clients, as we've mentioned, from our referral network, brokers and bankers and lawyers and accountants, from elected officials, from the Commerce Department and from our own staff and our website. So basically I would say the credibility of the referral in all those cases is 109 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. taken into account inevitably.
Mr. Longstreth, quick question. In terms of both land deals and your loan portfolio, do you know off the top of your head whether more deals originate at PIDC and are then shopped to financial institutions or whether more deals originate at financial institutions that are then shopped at PIDC?
I don't know. I just don't know. It's an interesting question. I'd like to think it's more us, because we're doing our job, but I don't know.
Is there a way we can determine that and have that information forwarded to the Committee?
I'm not sure, but we will try. I mean, I appreciate the question, but it's not something we would regularly keep track of, but I'm happy to give it a try. 110 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC.
I think if I could, Councilman, just add to that. I think the economic times in part determine whether that's true. Right now maybe not because of the current situation, but when banks had a lot of capital, they'd look at us as a competitor in some regards, and so they don't necessarily bring us opportunities. When interest rates are higher, because most of our programs are subordinated but they're below market rate interest on them, the banks bring them to us, because, again, the blended rate is to the benefit of the borrower.
And just one quick follow-up, because I thought about this question before. To what extent did the prime interest rate jump that just occurred affect your programs directly? I mean, are most of your programs flexible or are they tied to whatever the prime rate is?
They're basically 111 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. tied to the prime rate, but adjusted as appropriate depending -- as you mentioned a number of times, our resources are limited. We have to sort of get a sense of the environment and make sure that we're always competitive. But we don't automatically adjust, if that's what you're asking.
I'm asking whether you have the ability to adjust, how many of your programs are flexible enough that they don't have to be totally driven by prime interest rate, particularly in the situation we're in now.
They don't. I mean, we adjust them as appropriate depending on demand, that sort of thing. We don't automatically adjust them when prime changes in any way.
What is PIDC Portfolsys? 112 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC.
Portfol is -- it's the software that we use to track our loan portfolio, but also jobs. Obviously most of the programs that we have or many of the programs that we have require that we create jobs as part of the follow-up. In the case of CDBG and HUD 108, the job creation has to be low/moderate income, and we track all of that, and that's a software system that we developed to do that. We have now, again, sort of looking for ways to help our revenue stream, we have begun to license that product, and that is now used by over 150 economic development agencies throughout the country, including several states.
Okay. In the loan policy guide -- so if we wanted to, we could go back using Portfolsys and ask for documents related to any particular -- ask for the job creation, et cetera, related to any particular project or particular loan that you've 113 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. given that required you to keep track of that?
No, we would not delete it, but we wouldn't update it once the jobs have been created and the loans met its requirements, that's all.
Since 1978 when we first did -- that's our first loan, was in 1978.
And that's a system that the Commerce Department uses as well. So you can access it there.
Thank you. In the loan policy guide, PIDC states, Waivers: Many of the policies described will need to be waived at one point or another when the unique attributes of a project merit such action. Each time a policy waiver is warned, a memo explanation should be placed in the correspondence file 14 explaining the waiver. How frequently are waivers done?
I would say infrequently, maybe half a dozen times a year. And, once again, the time that I've become aware of it is where we have established certain percentages of a loan transaction or certain sizes of a loan transaction, and the Loan Committee will recommend a waiver, and then when we go to our Board, we recommend the waiver. 115 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. But it's maybe half a dozen times a year. It's interesting because some of the guidelines that were established a while ago were starting to regularly push up against them, suggesting maybe they're too low. But it's very infrequent.
While we are thoroughly enjoying ourselves, there is a major economic development press conference that will happen in about five minutes. So this Committee will stand in recess until 12:45. At that time, Councilman Green, who would you like to be here?
I'd like to ask the Chairman to allow PHDC to go build some houses, particularly in my district.
This 116 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. Committee will stand in recess until 12:45. Thank you. (Short recess.)
Good afternoon. The Commerce and Economic Development hearing on Resolution No. 9 080262 is now resumed. Councilman Green, will you please call your next witness.
I'd like to call the representatives of the Reading Terminal Market Corporation. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Good afternoon. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.
My name is Paul Steinke, General Manager, Reading Terminal Market Corporation.
And I'm Tony Forte with the law firm of Saul Ewing. I'm 117 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. counsel to the Reading Terminal Market Corporation.
Thank you. What is the mission of the Reading Terminal Market Corporation?
The mission of the Reading Terminal Market Corporation is to preserve the architectural and historical character of the Reading Terminal Market as an urban farmers' market; to provide a wide variety of produce, meat, dairy, poultry, baked goods and other raw and prepared food brought to the City by farmers, producers and chefs; also to maintain an environment that expresses the diversity of our city; to strengthen the historic link and mutual dependency between our 118 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. urban and rural communities; and, finally, to achieve all of this while preserving the financial viability and the self-sufficiency of the Market financially.
I will defer to counsel on that issue. It's a bit complicated.
I'm asking for the simple answer to the question without describing the leases in between, and then if you'd like to describe the leases in between, that's fine.
Well, you remember real estate being the bundle of sticks? This is one of those situations. Where the actual Market and the Market basement is owned by the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority. It is then leased to the Reading Terminal Market Corporation. 119 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. I know, Councilman, in your letter you suggested that it was on City property, which I do not believe is the case.
There was a 1989 lease between the City and the PCCA --
-- for that land. The PCCA then has provided a lease to the Reading Terminal Market Corporation for the operation of that facility.
And if you look at the legal services in that Lease and Service Agreement from 1989, it specifically carves out the Reading Terminal Market and the Market basement from that legal description.
And so what is it that the Reading Terminal Market Corporation is leasing pursuant to that master lease?
It leases the 120 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. space, the interior space of the Market and the basement, which was purchased by the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority directly from the Reading Corporation and the RDA for, I believe, about seven and a half million dollars. I have the deeds, if you'd like to see it.
No. At any rate, who owns -- so your answer is the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority owns the land that the Reading Terminal Market sits on?
That's true. And so it, therefore, is not technically a part of the Lease and Service Agreement.
I understand. Does the City of Philadelphia provide money to the PCCA? Yes, they do, $15 million a year required to do -- please describe how the Reading Terminal Market Corporation was created. 121 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC.
I can tell you that it was created, as I understand it looking back through the documents, when there was the Lease and Service Agreement back in 1989, which was between the City of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority, at that point there was a desire to see that the Market continue in some fashion and that it not be interrupted in any substantial way. There wasn't yet a plan as to how to do that, and so the Lease and Service Agreement sort of anticipates that something will happen with the Market, that it should be set up in some type of way and that Council wanted the Convention Center Authority to come up with a plan for that and then the plan would be approved by Council. As I understand it then, PCCA determined that it did not want to directly run the Market itself. The City had no interest in running the Market. What they determined was, it would be 122 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. best if they set up an independent 501(c)(3) corporation. They wanted at the same time to maintain that there would be involvement of various stakeholders, and so the bylaws provided that Council and the Mayor's Office and the PCCA and the Preservation Alliance, the merchants, that various different groups would receive a seat on the Board of the organization. It was actually incorporated by -- the incorporator was the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority. And then those articles and the bylaws and the mission and the operating guidelines were all approved by Council and blessed by Council, and as a result, Council signed off on creating an independent corporation to run the Market.
Right. So City Council approved the operating guidelines. The City was the impetus for preserving the Market, transferring the land from the RDA, which is a City 123 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. authority, to the PCCA.
And the City Council has an appointee on the Board, as does the Mayor of Philadelphia?
Yes. From the inception of the organization, Council has appointed a member of the Board of Directors.
Do the organizing documents of the RTMC provide for Board votes to take place by phone?
Mr. Forte, under Pennsylvania law, for a valid Board vote to be taken by phone, could you describe the process?
Councilman, we didn't come prepared today to discuss issues of phone voting on the Board level.
But you know generally what the law is, don't you, 124 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. Mr. Forte?
I'll answer the question for you. Everybody has to be able to hear each other on a conference call. Have you ever conducted votes by phone?
By that question do you mean have Board members ever cast votes by phone?
There have been -- I'm not sure I fully understand the question. There have been instances where Board members have dialed in by phone who are not actually present in the room.
Have there been instances where votes were taken by poll where the Market then took action?
That is not by 125 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. any means the usual practice of the Corporation.
Has the RTMC conducted Board votes in which delegates rather than Board members voted?
Has the RTMC conducted Board votes in which delegates or representatives of the Board member rather than the members of the Board themselves have voted?
Since I have been General Manager and I believe since the inception of the Corporation, there have been instances where Board members were represented by designees of themselves to sit in a Board meeting.
Have they voted? 126 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC.
Do the bylaws or the articles permit voting by designees?
The answer to that question is no. 10 Did the Market receive my initial document request letter dated August 21, 2008?
Did the Market receive via its attorney, Mr. Forte, my follow-up letters of September 17th and 29th, 2008?
Having heard Mr. Rosman's testimony, is the Market willing to provide the documents we have requested?
Councilman, maybe I can best answer that. When we received the request, 127 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. the Corporation and the Board I think were somewhat confused as to, as I said in my letter to you, as to why Reading Terminal Market Corporation, which is not an economic development agency, was being included in this. We didn't really see the relevance of that resolution or this hearing to the Reading Terminal Market Corporation. Nevertheless, the Board instructed Paul to provide whatever he felt he could provide without unduly burdening the staff. Paul had determined that to comply with everything that was being requested, it was thousands and thousands of pages of documents that were being asked for. There was no limitation of scope in most of those requests. And so we've tried to cooperate to our best ability, with very little guidance as to where this was going or the relevancy of any of it, and so we've provided initial documents. In further conversations with 128 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. the Law Department, we again offered that we would sit down, we would be happy to continue to try to work through that list. If we could be given further guidance, more specific requests, narrower requests, we'd be happy to consider them and contemplate them. But if the question is on that very large list of undefined requests, no, we did not bring additional documents to this meeting.
Well, which gets me to my next question. You did not bring the documents that were requested in my most recent letter to this meeting?
Do you follow your operating guidelines that were approved by City Council?
How are we to determine whether or not you follow your operating guidelines unless you provide us minutes, unless you provide us requests for proposals and requests for qualifications for merchants? How are we to determine whether or not you're following the policies this body has laid out for you unless you provide us with the requested documents? That is what oversight is.
But, Councilman, again, I think we get to the basic issue here that I think we have a disagreement in terms of the Reading Terminal Market Corporation, in our view, is clearly not an economic development agency. So --
It's an economic development engine of the City of Philadelphia and it was listed on the back of the -- my lawyers have informed me and this Committee that we have a valid resolution authorized by Council and we have the authority to look into 130 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. the operations of the Reading Terminal Market Corporation. I don't want to debate the legal point with you. I rely on what the Law Department tells me.
Again, we're not here to give legal arguments on that issue. We don't anticipate that. And we're here to cooperate.
So my question is general. How would we determine whether or not the Market operates within the guidelines set by this body unless we can review the minutes and the budgets and the requests for proposals and requests for qualifications that have come through the Reading Terminal Market Corporation?
I believe we did give you the budget and last three years of audited financial statements for the Market.
I'm sorry. 131 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. You're not answering my question. How are we supposed to determine whether or not you're complying with the guidelines that this body set forward unless you provide us with the documents that we have requested?
It is our intention, Councilman, to cooperate with this Committee and with City Council, and we have offered and continue to offer to sit down with you or --
I spoke with the Law Department, who contacted us regarding this. Christina Hughes in the Law Department called to see whether our position was that we provided all we were going to provide and wouldn't consider anything else, and I said absolutely not. I said we provided what we thought we could reasonably provide given the 132 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. broadness of the requests. We didn't feel that we could provide more without further guidance, but we would be happy to sit down to listen to further guidance as to a more discrete list, a narrower list, with some specific scope or time limits to it that we thought we could comply with. She said, that's great, let me check. And then she told me that she had checked with Council and was told that there could be no narrowing of the list. So at that point, we remained willing to work with Council and to try to cooperate, but with such a broad request, it was just impossible.
How difficult is it for you to copy the minutes of the Board and the Leasing Committee minutes for the period requested?
Well, there we're starting to get into the specifics of what you're looking for, and if we can 133 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. have the opportunity to put that list together with your assistance, we could then --
You have a list from us. I don't want to waste a lot of time here. I want to know very clearly and simply if you're willing to provide me Board minutes and Leasing Committee minutes for the last five years.
Well, let me, in answering that, let me just state for the record that I am an employee of the Board of Directors of the Reading Terminal Market Corporation, and any such specific request that you have, I would be happy to take back to them --
So you came here with no authorization to provide us additional documentation; is that correct?
We came hoping to get more specific direction from you, sir, on what you do need to see so that 134 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. we could take it back to the Board. Going back to something Mr. Forte said at the beginning, the letter that you sent on August 21st -- and perhaps you just didn't realize this, but it would require the locating and duplication of literally thousands and thousands of pages of documents. We have an office staff of four people. You're looking at a quarter of the office staff. And so we were reluctant to delve into that and take everyone away from their jobs --
Excuse me for one second. That's an interesting statement you're making right now, but that is not the Market's response to me. The Market's response was that they had no legal obligation to provide those documents to me. 135 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC.
Well, I think there is a question about that. With all due respect, there is a question about why --
In other words, you're standing here today saying you're willing to cooperate, but your letter from your lawyer said you weren't willing to cooperate and you had no legal obligation to do so.
So to characterize this as a burden on the Market I think is an unfair characterization of the communications that have at least taken place between my office and Mr. Forte. I don't know about any communications with the Law Department.
I'm sorry if our assessment of the burdensome nature of the request wasn't clear to you. Perhaps we should have been more clear on that. I think we do have two concerns 136 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. about the message in your letter. One was the legal question, which Mr. Forte has laid out, and the other one is the labor and financial burden involved in complying with all 33 requests in your letter.
So we approved operating guidelines and some general policies -- there were leasing guidelines that were put in place that were meant to comply with those operating guidelines. And it clearly was the interest of this body to keep the Reading Terminal Market going the way it existed, continuing for a long period of time. If you run a loss, what happens to your lease?
Yes. If you have a loss in any year, what happens to 137 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. your lease?
I cannot say one way or the other if the lease addresses that eventuality.
It's my understanding that if you have a loss, you lose your lease, which means that the guidelines set forth by this body for the non-profit corporation that you work for wouldn't exist.
I'm not familiar with the provision that says they would automatically lose their lease.
Okay. I have no more questions for these witnesses at this time. We will contact you for specific documents. We'll start one at a time and we'll try to get to the bottom of this. If we don't, we have been advised we have the authority to subpoena 138 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. you, and it would be unfortunate for the Market to spend money in excess of the $700,000 that you've recently spent on legal fees to prevent the public from seeing what is going on at the Market. My final question for you is, if you have nothing to hide, if nothing is going on there that the public should be concerned about, this Committee should be concerned about, why won't you provide the documents?
I hesitate to repeat myself, but it really is -- it's a matter of both understanding the legal questions involved in this Committee's and that resolution's authority to acquire those documents. That's number one. And number two is the burdensome nature of the request. And, again, our intention is to cooperate. We are a City landmark. We are one of the largest and oldest public markets in the United States. In fact, we are the envy of many cities in that respect. 139 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. It is our belief that we wish to cooperate in every reasonable way possible, as long as we can find out exactly what you're interested in seeing.
I'm glad -- well, I'm interested in seeing the documents on my list. But as long as you mention that, does the City or State or GPTMC spend any dollars promoting the Market in their promotional materials?
We receive no 14 funding from GPTMC, with one exception, and if I -- the one exception is, we have a holiday railroad model train display that is funded by several community stakeholders. GPTMC gives us $3,000.
That's not my question, though. Do City dollars or State dollars get spent marketing Reading Terminal Market, not your efforts but their efforts, on their brochures, on their printed pamphlets, which I can show you, on their websites? 140 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC.
I think the answer is yes and no. Yes, we are mentioned among the many attractions that the Greater Philadelphia region has to offer. We are among multiple privately and publicly owned destinations. My understanding of GPTMC was that it was created by the Commonwealth and by the City to find the best ways to promote our attractions to the national and international tourism audience. We are one of -- clearly, one of those things that they promote.
And, Councilman, after your letter about GPTMC, I looked at their website, and we're mentioned in the same list with Boathouse Row and Alfred Sully and the Rocky statue, but I don't think that makes them economic development entities either.
Well, you're an economic development engine of the City of Philadelphia and you were created under the auspices of this body, and 141 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. hopefully we won't have to litigate that issue. Thank you.
Just a couple quick questions. Is it your legal position that this Council committee does not have the authority to subpoena private organizations?
That's not our position. We have never disputed that Council has broad investigatory powers and broad subpoena powers, and we honestly didn't come prepared on that issue because there was no subpoena and we don't anticipate the need for one. We've tried to cooperate.
Well, if you look 142 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. at the other entities that were here today, for instance, they're entities which receive public funding, which are responsible for disbursing and channeling public funding, they're responsible as agents of the City to carry out its economic development policies. That's very different from a farmers' market.
My question was, how do you define economic development agency?
Not whether, in your opinion, Reading Terminal Market Corporation is similar in mission to those people who testified today, but when you review not just the listing of agencies within the resolution and when you review not just those agencies that have testified so far, but in general, what do you define as an economic development agency?
Sure, and I think if you look at the resolution, for 143 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. instance, it refers to departments, agencies and authorities. It states that the reason for looking into them has to do with the stewardship of economic development policy.
Previous to the resolution being developed, did you have any concept of what an economic development agency was or was not?
And I think it would be one that is a quasi public entity that is responsible for carrying out economic development policy through public funding. None of that -- not just an entity that maybe is a tourist attraction.
So your position is that the Council committee does have the authority to subpoena private organizations, but that because your organization was listed along with other economic development agencies and defined that way, you didn't understand why? 144 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC.
I think -- no. I think when it comes to Council's powers, again, I think they're broad, and we don't dispute that in any way. We just think that there's certainly a legitimate purpose in Council looking into oversight of public funding of economic development agencies. We don't see the connection between that and a non-publicly funded farmers' market.
Well, if we lose this non-publicly funded farmers' market, which was, as you said, the RDA was involved in its acquisition for the PCCA, you pay nominal rent to a public agency, you were created by the City, all for reasons having to do with tourism, which is very important to the economic development policy of the City of Philadelphia, were we to lose Reading Terminal Market Corporation as an attraction because of misfeasance, malfeasance, mismanagement, et cetera, then that would be bad for economic 145 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. development in the City of Philadelphia. Further, you are specifically mentioned on the exhibit. So by definition, you're an economic development entity that was authorized to be reviewed by this Council.
And, for instance, had we listed Wachovia Corporation, would you consider Wachovia Corporation to be an economic development agency?
You know, I would need to look at that issue a lot more. I'm sure they do some things that might look a little bit like one, but I'm not sure how I would conclude after looking at all the facts.
I'd want to know a lot more information about exactly what they do and the type of public funding 146 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. they get and how they're involved with public economic development matters.
I think one that is responsible for carrying out a public purpose and that is most of the time receiving public funding to do its operations.
So subsidized lease or nominal lease is not public funding?
I'm not sure how that would work. There are many situations throughout the City where non-economic development and non-quasi public agencies may have a below-market rent.
So do you think that the City of Philadelphia, the PCCA, the RDA and the creation of the Reading Terminal Market Corporation, the nominal rent that you pay and this body's 147 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC. approval of operating guidelines were not intended to promote a public purpose?
Let me just interject, if I could. I have an expression in my job, that we live at the Market in a fish bowl. We are answerable to multiple constituencies: customers in the public, merchants, the historic preservation community in the City, if I may. We are also answerable through our Board to the Mayor and City Council. We seek to cooperate with all of them to understand their interest and concerns and be as responsive as we can, and that is our commitment to you, this Committee and this body today.
Once again, do you think all those things I have outlined demonstrate a public purpose in your existence since you would not exist without public --
I would agree with you, yes, there is a public purpose in the Reading Terminal Market. 148 10/1/08 - COMMERCE - BILL 080573, ETC.
And also by definition, isn't it a quasi public agency if your own articles have appointees from the Mayor and City Council?
I don't think necessarily. There are appointees from the merchants and from the Preservation Alliance and other entities as well.
It's various stakeholders. There was an understanding that the community, various members of the community, have an interest in what happens. That doesn't mean it becomes a quasi public agency.