COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, May 5, 2026 10:23 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT KENYATTA JOHNSON COUNCILWOMAN NINA AHMAD COUNCILWOMAN CINDY BASS COUNCILMAN MICHAEL DRISCOLL COUNCILWOMAN JAMIE GAUTHIER COUNCILWOMAN KATHERINE GILMORE RICHARDSON COUNCILMAN JIM HARRITY COUNCILMAN CURTIS JONES, JR. COUNCILWOMAN RUE LANDAU COUNCILWOMAN QUETCY M. LOZADA COUNCILMAN NICOLAS O'ROURKE COUNCILMAN ANTHONY PHILLIPS COUNCILMAN MARK SQUILLA COUNCILMAN ISAIAH THOMAS COUNCILMAN JEFFREY YOUNG, JR. BILLS: 260199, 260200, 260201, 260202, 260203, 260204, 260205, 260206, 260208, 260209 RESOLUTION: 260227 - - -
This is the public hearing and public meeting of the Committee of the Whole regarding Bill Nos. 260199, 260200, 260201, 260202, 260203, 260204, 260205, 260206, 260208, 260209, Resolution 15 No. 260227. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the roll.
Present. A quorum is present and this City Council meeting is officially called to order. Ms. Loughead, will you please read the titles of the bills and resolution.
Bill No. 16 260199, an Ordinance adopting the Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2027. Bill No. 260200, an Ordinance to adopt a Fiscal Year 2027 Capital Budget. Bill No. 260201, an Ordinance to adopt a Capital Program for the six Fiscal Years, 2027-2032 inclusive. Bill No. 260202, an Ordinance amending Chapter 19-2400 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Hotel Room Rental Tax," by providing for an additional excise tax on hotel room rentals, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260203, an Ordinance amending Subcode "A" (The Philadelphia Administrative Code) of Title 4 of The Philadelphia Code (The Building, Construction and Occupancy Code), by adding and revising Zoning Board of Adjustment fees and provisions regarding hearing scheduling, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260204, an Ordinance amending Title 3 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Air Management Code" to modify the amounts of license and permit fees, under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260205, an Ordinance amending Section 19-1806 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Authorization of Realty Use and Occupancy Tax," to clarify the imposition of the tax on the use or occupancy of real estate with respect to cell towers, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260206, an Ordinance amending Chapter 6-600 of The Philadelphia Code ("Asbestos"), by adding and providing provisions related to various fees, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260208, an Ordinance amending Chapter 19-1800 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "School Tax Authorization," to a add a new Section 19-1808, entitled "Authorization of Rideshare Use Tax," to authorize the Board of the School District of Philadelphia to levy a tax upon the use by a passenger of a transportation network company for a prearranged ride that originates in Philadelphia; all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 260209, an Ordinance amending Title of The 8 Philadelphia Code, entitled 9 "Finances, Taxes and Collections," 10 to add a new Chapter 19-4800, 11 entitled "Retail Delivery Tax," to 12 establish a tax on orders for the 13 delivery in Philadelphia of retail 14 consumer and other tangible goods, 15 all under certain terms and 16 conditions. 17 Resolution No. 260227, 18 Providing for the approval by the 19 Council of the City of Philadelphia a Revised Five Year Financial Plan for the City of Philadelphia, covering Fiscal Years 2027 through 2031, and incorporating revisions with respect to Fiscal Year 2026, which is to be submitted by the Mayor to the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority pursuant to an Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement by and between the City and the Authority.
Thank you very much. Today we will hold the public hearing of the Committee of the Whole to consider the bills read by the Clerk that constitute proposed operating and capital spending measures for Fiscal Year 2027, a Capital Program, and a Forward- looking Capital Plan for Fiscal Year 2027 through Fiscal Year 2032. This morning we have scheduled testimony from the Philadelphia Fire Department. We also have several departments here for callback and available for questions, including the following departments: Licenses and Inspections, Department of Human Services, the Managing Director's Office and the Procurement Department. Additionally, Administration officials are present to address questions related to the proposed tax bills. This afternoon we have scheduled testimony from Community College of Philadelphia. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the first panel to testify.
We have Jeffrey Thompson, Fire Commissioner. Also present, Carl Randolph, First Deputy Commissioner; Gustav Baumann, Deputy Commissioner; Joshua McGuoirk, Deputy Commissioner; and Martin McCall, Deputy Commissioner. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
For this round, members, so we want to engage lines of questioning to the Fire Department. And then when the round is over, then you can engage members of city departments for callbacks. With that being said, I want to start off by thanking you for being here. I want to thank Commissioner Jeffrey Thompson and your team for all your hard work in keeping our city safe. I want to also thank you and your team for being very helpful to me and my staff during the collapse of the Grays Ferry CHOP garage in South Philadelphia within the 2nd Councilmanic District. So thank you for your leadership and working hours a day throughout that 22 period to address the issue as well 23 as being supportive of the 24 community and the families. I also want to acknowledge your Executive Chief Daniel McCarthy as well. He's also done several different community initiatives with us as well. And so, with that being said, just please state your name for the record and begin your testimony. COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Thank you very much. Good morning, Council President Johnson and members of Council. My name is Jeffrey Thompson and I have the honor and privilege of serving as the Fire Commissioner for the City of Philadelphia. With me today are several members of my team. To my right is First Deputy Carl Randolph and Deputy Commissioner Martin McCall. Philadelphia Fire Department continues to respond daily to approximately 1000 calls for service per day, responding in an all-hazards capacity, while also providing emergency medical services to the entire City of Philadelphia. We have had some pretty good accomplishments in the past fiscal year. And some of those things are that we continue to work collaboratively with other city agencies to support operations such as Operation Code Blue, the Kensington Task Force, among just a few other things. In addition to that, we are currently in the process of installing lactation pods strategically throughout the Fire Department to ensure that our young mothers can express, can manage themselves in a safe and dignified manner. We are also continuing to work feverishly to reduce the incidents of fire within the city of Philadelphia through our robust fire prevention efforts. We are in schools, we are participating in camps everywhere we can. We are trying to propagate our fire prevention message. In addition to that, we are installing smoke alarms throughout the entire city. And I want to thank City Council for continuing to support those efforts. We are also leveraging technology. We are in the process of purchasing drones, which will help us strategically and will make our firefighting operations safer. We are also looking towards the future and ensuring that we have a sustainable workforce. We are working on finalizing a paramedic apprenticeship program, which will allow us to take citizens and train them as paramedics, which is a position that throughout the country is in high demand. And so, we're trying to build a sustainable pipeline. Internally we are also working on an upskilling program where we can take our employees who are currently EMT status and elevate them to higher levels of EMTAs and paramedics. So we are extremely busy in the Fire Department. And with that, we will take any questions that you may have.
Thank you very much for your testimony. I just want to ask a couple questions. Your M/W/DSBE, which is minority participation contracts, FY25 dropped from 15% to in FY26 down to 11%. And then from FY26, the first quarter of the fiscal year, dropped down to 5%. So just give us an idea regarding those numbers regarding participation. COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Well, thank you for that question. I'm going to ask my Fiscal Officer Marguerite Morgan to please come up and respond to that question.
And the key reason also I want to also address is because I know for FY27 we're looking at $5 million in professional services contracts. And so, if we see this trend going down, we want to make sure that if we're about to spend $5 million in professional services contracts, that they're diverse and inclusive.
Marguerite Morgan, Fiscal Officer for the Fire Department. The Fire Department, the nature of our business, we only have a small niche of people to supply services. There's not a lot of vendors who could supply services that we need for EMS and firefighters. Our major contract do have -- Digitech, that helped us build the services for ambulance. And a lot of the minority portion went to that contract. For some reason, that minority partnership decreased for a while, right. So, again it's very hard for the Philadelphia Fire Department to get an increase, a minority business due to the nature of our business.
Have you worked with our Office of Equal Opportunity and Employment to look at different strategies to help you address those issues?
It's the same issue, since it's like a small niche of vendors that deal with, you know, firefighting equipment and services is really hard to do that. But we will continue to reach out to people and try to increase those numbers, sir.
All right. Thank you very much. I want to get an idea, Commissioner, regarding the 6% increase of incidents that you have to address regarding fires. You responded to 350,000 incidents last year, which is a 6% increase. And so, I just want to get an idea, what do you think is driving that growth? Give us an idea about the level of staffing and equipment that you need to address the increase, and then also give me an idea regarding our strategies in combating this 6% increase in incidents that we have to respond to. COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Yeah, thank you for that question. Fire, as you know, is a very unpredictable science. And so, while we continue to see more structure fires than we would like, we are seeing an increase in our EMS response. So the need for -- we find that people are engaging in medical services through our systems, through the 911 system versus going through traditional health care. So a lot of the increases that we are seeing are EMS-related so we do have strategies to deal with that. One of the things that we want to make sure is that we make sure that we have our ambulances available for those who need them the most for the high acuity calls. So we've done some things such as call stacking, for instance, which will prioritize calls, so we make sure that we have our ambulances available for the most serious of cases. We've added some resources, a Basic Response Unit, which responds solely to extremely low acuity calls, all with the goal of maintaining operational capability to deal with the most serious of issues, so we continue to look at the issues. And most of them, again as I stated, are EMS-related. That's where the biggest increases are. Fires, they continue to plague the City of Philadelphia. It continues to be a problem, and we are trying to really address that with a robust fire prevention program, trying different strategies that we haven't used in the past. We are really using social media quite frequently. I myself recorded a fire prevention piece just the other day. We are engaging with some of our food delivery partners to put fire prevention literature in some of the food delivery so that we can just really spread our message. And the message quite simply is that fire can happen to anyone and we want you to know that, we want you to be prepared.
All right. Do we have a breakdown of neighborhoods or Council Districts where you can show -- I know we have 37 civilian deaths in FY25. Are we able to break down what neighborhoods or Councilmanic Districts where we're seeing the highest level of fire incidents? COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Yeah, absolutely. We have a very good records management system. I do not have that before you today, but I most certainly can provide you with that.
Absolutely. All right. Thank you. At this time, the Chair recognizes Councilmember Jim Harrity.
Thank you, Council President. Good morning, everyone. Good morning, Chief. Just want to say thank you for all you guys do. It takes a very special person to run into a burning building when everybody else is running out, so we thank you for your service as always. I asked these questions last year for the record so I just want to ask them again. So I'm just going to rattle them off for the sake of time because we're on a timeline and there's a lot to do today. I asked the questions for the record last year, but I wanted to draw attention to it again this year. How many paramedics do you have right now? How many paramedics are you budgeted for? How many paramedics is the department short? And then what are the city's current -- what areas of the city currently have no 8 ALS or Advanced Life Support Medic Units? And why? How many days have you run out of available ALS Medic Units in the past year? And how many units were downgraded from ALS to BLS in the past year? COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Thank you, Councilmember Harrity, for that question. I'm going to defer to Deputy Commissioner McCall for those answers. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER McCALL: Deputy Commissioner Martin McCall. The number of paramedics that we have?
Yeah. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER McCALL: Okay. The number of paramedics that we currently have is 200.
How many are you budgeted for? And how many are you short? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER McCALL: The amount, the total EMS, paramedic EMT, EMT Advanced, the number of total positions is 624.
624. But that's all of them, that's not just paramedics? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER McCALL: Correct.
What's the number of paramedics is what I'm getting at? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER McCALL: The number of paramedics should be 260 plus 56. I didn't put that together so that's 36 -- 360.
And how many are you budgeted for? And how many then are you short? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER McCALL: So the total number that we're budgeted of all persons is 624.
That's for all, though. You don't have -- DEPUTY COMMISSIONER McCALL: The number of paramedics that we're budgeted for is about that 360 number.
Okay. So you're short 200 and something, about; is that correct? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER McCALL: Well, the total number of positions we are short is 176. I didn't extrapolate the paramedics versus EMTs, EMT Advanced.
But it's a big difference between the EMTs and the paramedics. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER McCALL: Correct.
Especially for somebody in my condition with a heart condition, as it was broken down to me before. EMTs can perform certain numbers of duties, you know, Narcan, stuff like that. But when it comes to other things, they're not allowed to do it. Where somebody like me who has a heart condition or a stroke, you know what I'm saying, it's minutes and we need that shot to get us to the hospital. That's why I'm trying -- and there should be definitely a difference between the two, you know what I'm saying. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER McCALL: Yeah. According to my notes here, of that 176, the number of need for paramedics is 60.
Yeah, yeah. That's a lot better. I appreciate -- that's why I was asking to discriminate at this against each of them, you know what I'm saying. EMTs, paramedics, I just want to get that number because the paramedics, that's an important one for me. I've been asking for it for a couple years, but you're making progress which is great. So when's the next class? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER McCALL: May 11th.
May 11th, beautiful. And please, if you can get us some flyers and stuff like that, that we can post also to try to help get the word out there. And if you can just answer the questions about the ALS medical questions, which was how many days have you run out of available ALS Medic Units in the past year? And how many units were downgraded from ALS to BLS in the past year? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER McCALL: The number of units downgraded from ALS to BLS, I'd have to get for you. I don't know that we have -- I know we've had a significant decrease in the number of zero medic units in the city, and we had a 70% decrease in that number in first quarter of this year versus the first quarter of last year, that I do know. I do have a list of the number of times in which we -- a number of days that we went zero occurrences and a number of occurrences within those days that we've had -- I don't have that list readily available to me. But as soon as I find it, I'll give you that number.
That's fantastic. And just in your opinion, what's stopping us from getting more of these paramedics? Is it the pay scale? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER McCALL: What's stopping us from getting --
Yeah. I mean, we're losing paramedics. Is it because that -- you know, listen, it takes a special person to be a firefighter or a paramedic. We discussed that, right. Is it a matter of pay could just be solved with a raise, is what I'm saying?
We're ready to move on. Go ahead. Could you answer, sir? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER McCALL: Yeah. In my opinion, I think that it is a combination of things. One, it is salaries. And Philadelphia has -- we're competitive with salaries, but other jurisdictions are becoming just as competitive as us, right. It is the number of available paramedics out there. Institutions aren't graduating as many paramedics as we were in the past. It's roughly a 40% pass rate for the paramedic program. So the number of paramedics graduating has decreased, just like the number of doctors graduating has decreased as well. And I think that it's also a function of the work in which we do. It is challenging. And it takes, like you said, a special person to do that. And even though someone comes on with a particular mindset to want to do this work, when it gets down to doing it, it sometimes creates a change of mind. So we are trying to work on that part of it by improving the environment, reducing the utilization of our medic units and allowing our medics to have training opportunities, to have rest and moments between completing paperwork and do things just without being on a constant go. That's been a serious issue for us and it deters people from wanting to do the work.
Thank you very much. Dr. Anthony Phillips. Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson next.
Thank you, Council President. I want to start by saying thank you to Commissioner Thompson for being responsive to neighbors in our district and our concerns. Fire services are one of the most visible examples of government responsiveness. Residents can expect consistent response times or reliable service. And I want to tell you are really reliable when it comes to your service. I just want to hear more about the following: Our office heard from a Philadelphia resident who scored 90 out of 100 on the firefighter exam, was told hiring (inaudible) and the score order is off a merit, less as vacancies arise. However, they waited roughly six months without a clear timeline or update before ultimately being hired by a surrounding county. That's a serious concern that we may be losing people to what Councilman Harrity was talking about. Can you clearly explain how the firefighter and EMT hiring pipeline works, from an exam score to final hire, including how candidates are ranked, how vacancies trigger movement through the list and what determines when you know when someone actually gets called? COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Thank you for that question. Fortunately, here in Philadelphia we have an abundance of people who are interested in doing this work. So every time we offer an exam, which is every two years, we get thousands of candidates that apply. And in addition to being ranked on the test that is given, there are different points that are given for different things. You get points for being a veteran, for example. There are points that are given for being part of our Fire Explorers program. So there are different ways that you can get additional points outside of a perfect score on the test. The training to become a firefighter is nine months. So typically when we hire off of a list, we may get two classes off that list just because the training is so long. Now, we are going forward because we are trying to increase the number of budgeted positions -- or let me correct that. We're trying to fill the budgeted positions that we have. Beginning in September, we are going to be putting in two classes at a time, which is going to double the amount of candidates that we can get off of each list. So it's extremely competitive and just the multiple ways that you can receive additional points, what may seem like a perfect score may not be.
So I would just want to talk more about the process, if you can talk about that. It says that candidates take a civil service exam and they may be placed on the eligible list, but it's not clear which parts of the testing and certification process are handled internally versus outside entities. So if you can, for the record, just kind of explain why a candidate may not get information or an update with -- I mean, they waited roughly six months for an answer. Is that typical? Do you tell them the hiring timeline from the beginning? COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: So we work very closely with OHR through the entire process. Some of the processes are outside of the control of the Philadelphia Fire Department and sometimes they are constrained by the amount of people that are available to do that work. But we work diligently as best we can within the Fire Department to go through those lists, to establish those lists, which the list is established by OHR and then we internally hire off of that list. I'm not sure if that answers your question.
Not necessarily, but hopefully we can get more information from you. I heard the buzzer, but just that I needed more information about the steps, right. When someone applies, there should be a sense from HR like, hey, this is how long it's going to take when you get the response, month one, month two, month three. And right now it's deflating for someone to be waiting and not knowing their dream job is going to come to a reality. COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Understood. And I will make certain that you get that information.
Thank you. Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson.
Thank you. Thank you very much, Council President. Thank you all so much for being here today. Thank you to Commissioner Thompson and to First Deputy Commissioner Randolph, also Deputy Commissioners Baumann, McGuoirk and McCall, I hope I got that right. And to the entire team, we were very happy to join you, Councilmember Harrity and I, for the promotion ceremony at the American Red Cross. It was a wonderful day to be there in celebration and support of so many leaders in the Philadelphia Fire Department. And I was especially excited about a young woman who was in the class. There was one young woman. And so, we're really excited about her future in the Fire Department. And Bowmer and so many others, we're just so thankful for the work you all do. I really wanted to just say thank you for the work that you all did in Councilmember Jones' district around the fire on Hazelhurst Street. And just send a special thanks to Engine 54 for all the work that they do and all the engines that responded to the fire on Hazelhurst Street. So I'm just here to say thank you, appreciate the work. I know we work together throughout the year and I usually ask you all questions throughout the year. So I don't have anything today, but just wanted to express our deepest thanks and gratitude. Thank you. COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Thank you.
That's a first. Member Bass. Then Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad.
Thank you, Mr. President. Good morning. How's everybody doing. Good to see you all. I just had a really quick question. First, I wanted to give a shout-out to my two neighbors who are part of the Philadelphia Fire Department, Larry Carroll and Bruce Canada. So I just wanted to give them a shout-out for the excellent work they do on behalf of the City of Philadelphia and I want to thank really your entire team, because heaven forbid any of us ever need the Philadelphia Fire Department to rush to our homes, to our businesses, wherever, to put out a fire but really save lives, you know, the work that you do is so very important and I really just don't want it to be missed that we really can't function as a city without each and every one of you and the work and dedication that you do. So, thank you, thank you, thank you. I just had a really quick question about CPR and training. Does the Philadelphia Fire Department -- are you the entity that does CPR trainings for the City of Philadelphia? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER McCALL: I'm going to let Deputy Commissioner for EMS, Martin McCall answer that question. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER McCALL: In the city of Philadelphia, there are both private entities that offer CPR programs -- we do offer CPR programs as part of our other programs such as our Explorers program and our Randolph School program. We also train to keep our members certified for our CPR.
For the general public though, it's not really the Philadelphia Fire Department? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER McCALL: No, we do not really have anything posted for the general public for CPR.
Okay. I'd like to follow up and circle back and have a different conversation offline, if we could, about CPR trainings, just I think to increase the number of trainings that are happening here in the city. So if we could, we'll convene at a later date. Thank you very much, Mr. President. That's all.
Okay. Chair recognizes Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad.
Thank you, Council President. Good morning. Good to see you all. And I echo my colleagues in our gratitude to you for the work you do. As Councilmember Harrity said, you rush in where we rush out, right, and we're very grateful for that. I also wanted to commend you on all the innovation you're doing in the Fire Department. And I wanted to -- particularly, this was maybe a couple of years ago. You did the preferred vendor, you chose 3AM Innovations to do the personal accountability system. That makes you one of the first major cities in the country to use smartphone technology alongside portable radios, so I want our public to know these things that you guys are doing. This sometimes get drowned out by all the negative stuff and I really want our public to see what our tax dollars are doing. This is what you're doing. You talked about the GIS -- I don't know if you spoke about it, but I've been following that. The GIS capability you're trying to do so you can preempt and understand where fire hazards are in what neighborhoods, so that's excellent. One of your employees, one of your members, Kamilah Bayate, she's all over. She's someone I've known since she was 5 years old. So I'm so proud to see her doing this education in schools and really connecting to the public. We want to do more of that and support you. My question is, I see from your budget the planning, research and risk reduction is about 12 million. And I just wondered when you compare it to the budget for logistics 52 and for operations 380, is 12 million enough to be as innovative as you are being or would like to be? COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Thank you for that question. And we most certainly continue to innovate as best we can. This Fire Department I will tell you looks a lot different today than it did when I started many years ago. So working with the budgets that we have, we have to be as efficient as possible. And sometimes as we are exploring new technologies, we don't know exactly what is out there. You mentioned 3AM, for instance, and that's our personal accountability system. And all you have to do is think about the Meridian fire where we lost three firefighters. If we had a system like that in place at the time, we probably could have saved those firefighters. So we continue to leverage technology, and our Planning and Risk Reduction Division is very innovative. I'm very proud of those folks who work there. And to answer your question succinctly, sometimes we don't know what it is that we need, so to actually budget for it can be a challenge.
Okay. I was just doing a layup for you. One final question unrelated is I wanted to see if your department receives any training around identifying and intervening in suspected human trafficking issues. That's an issue I've been very engaged with. The city has a big campaign underway just now for this year. I wanted to see what role the Fire Department could have, does have in that space and how because we're doing training -- a part of the money that was allocated is to do training of all types of personnel, particularly frontline personnel. So I just wanted to know where you guys are on that? COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: So one of the things that we try to do is collaborate with all city agencies. We just had a presentation by the Office of Immigrant Affairs recently, talking about language access and other things. So what we do is when we identify issues and problems, we try to proactively reach out to the appropriate agency and train as best we can. That most certainly is something that we should be a part of. We should have awareness and we should most certainly have some training in that. So I think there's more work for us to do in that space.
Definitely, we'll make sure you're looped in. Thank you, Council President. And thank you all.
Thank you. Councilmember Jamie Gauthier isn't here, so I'm going to skip her in the queue and go to Councilmember Jeffrey Jay Young, then Councilmember Quetcy Lozada.
Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank the Fire Department for always being there for our communities. Your work kind of encouraged me to create this fire safety guide that we have for our district. We give them out everywhere. It has pages from your website that links us to the National Fire Protection Association. So we have information in here that we pass out to our constituents because we know in North Philadelphia there's a high rate of fires, particularly from a lot of our vacant properties that we have in the district. And so, my question is regarding those vacant properties that are in our district, how proactive is the Fire Department with L&I in identifying certain properties that could be of risk of fire? COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Thank you for that question. We have a robust inspection program, so we are out on the streets and we work collaboratively with L&I. In addition to that, we have our own Fire Code Unit. So when we identify any structure that can be a hazard to the community, we communicate that with L&I so that we can hopefully seal that property so it doesn't become a danger to the property. We have a very good collaborative working relationship with L&I to really address those issues.
Thank you. Our next question is, so the average total EMS run time in FY25 was 74 minutes and the target for FY27 just says a decrease from FY26. What's driving the long run time, like hospital turnaround, scene time, dispatch practices, staffing, transport delays? Can you tell us what's driving that and what specific reduction does the department think is realistic? COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Thank you for that. I'm going to have Deputy Commissioner Martin McCall answer that question. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER McCALL: So currently, our total run time for all calls is about 72 minutes. Our total run time for calls that we transport patients for is about 66 minutes. Those particular calls, where we actually have patient contact and we are getting folks to the hospital, we want to look at to get below that 60-minute mark. And what the target area for that is hospital wall times at hospital time, in which we have our medic units at the hospital with less than 30 minutes. Often times because of the busyness of the particular hospital, that can exceed an hour on those wall times that we have medical units waiting to transfer patients to an available bed at that ED. So we're really focusing in on that space by reaching out to the hospitals. We have set up a hospital liaison program where we have a fire department member actually be the face in connection with them. Our medical directors are actually engaging in that space so there's a doctor talking with a doctor and having that same language and figuring out how we can reduce those wall times. And we have also put some policy in place, such as redirection policy and medic unit availability policy that has helped us reduce that zero medics that the Councilmember was talking about from 736 occurrences to 230-some-odd occurrences. So we see some improvement there, but our goal is to get to less than 60 minutes.
Thank you. Mr. President, I have one more question, if you don't mind.
Thank you. I want to go back to the ALS and BLS conversation. I know when there's a BLS run, there aren't monitors on those vehicles and it seems that, you know, we're asking the medics to do things manually. Do we think that if we have monitors on those vehicles that it could save lives if those medics are able to have those types of monitors to accurately record some of the stuff? Because I'm being realistic, I know people, right. And so, what's being told to me is that sometimes on the BLS runs they're not really checking all the vitals and things like that, right. But if they had the monitors there, it'd be easy for them to do it. So what's the policy behind that? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER McCALL: So our BLS responders are per protocol to have a set of vital signs taken within a certain period of time in which they contact a patient. We look for that to be about five minutes. So we look for blood pressure, pulse rate, respiratory --
I know what you look for. But the question is, would the monitors help save lives on those BLS runs? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER McCALL: So all BLS runs have an AED on it. And if that person goes into a dysrhythmia, that AED can determine what dysrhythmia that is, and correct that if the person goes into cardiac arrest. We have cardiac monitoring capability on our ALS units, and all ALS units have that monitoring capability to look at a heart rhythm and be proactive about that. So for that to happen, all of our units would have to be ALS all the time and our staffing often times don't allow that. So when we do have that ALS, that capability is available.
Is it just a matter of training to use the monitors? I'm just curious, because I think some of the folks who are EMTs may have the capability and capacity to learn that if this is a matter of training. You don't think so? I'm just curious, because sometimes we're running ALS calls for someone who vomited, but then it's a BLS call for an old lady who fell down, they get their shoes stuck on the ground. So what's the differences in those calls and those policies that we have? COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: So, Councilmember Jones(sic), if I may, I want to make sure we're clear on the vernacular, so when you say monitor, we think about a cardiac monitor, right. And I think you may be speaking about other instruments that can take vital signs, just to be clear.
Yes. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER McCALL: So other instruments that can take vital signs, our equipment we do the best we can to get the modern most equipment out there, from pulse oximetry to cardiac monitoring. What prevents the certain equipment from being used, such as a monitor versus an AED, is the level of training the person has. We have, like the Commissioner mentioned in his opening remarks, implemented programs to upscale people so they can get to that higher level, so they can utilize that equipment. So when we're on that particular call, that equipment's available. So often times when we are responding, the call determinant is based on what the person who made the call says on that call will determine what level of care you often times get, and then we make an assessment upon our arrival.
Thank you. Could we take a moment to acknowledge the children from Sankofa Freedom Academy. What's up, Sankofa. (Applause.)
Contrary to popular belief, City Council is for the kids. Chair recognizes Councilmember Quetcy Lozada.
Thank you, Council President. Good morning and thank you for being with us today. First, I want to say thank you for the work that you all do in the 7th and across the city of Philadelphia for your response in ensuring the safety of all of those who live in my community. Speaking of my community very specifically, can you speak to how you all monitor what neighborhoods have seen an increase or decrease in fire? To me, paying very close attention or closer attention this year than I have in the past as a result of my work with some of your members, I feel like I'm hearing about a fire in the neighborhood consistently. And so, I'm trying to figure out if you all monitor where specific fires are happening? What are the results of that? And how do we work together to be able to change that so that residents know that there's access to resources to prevent fires? And if there is a challenge, how do we work together to address it? COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Thank you very much for that question. And so, we are fortunate that we have a pretty good records management system. We use a system called ImageTrend, and we track every single run that we make. We have some very talented folks in our GIS Analytics Unit that look at that data. In fact, we have moved to a space where we are trying to use that data to predict where fires may be, so we are responsive to the 311 requests for smoke alarms. But in addition to that, we are trying to predict where fires may be and move in those spaces. In addition to that, we are really trying to focus our fire prevention efforts in places where we see an increase in fire, in places where our GIS information is possibly predicting where there may be fires. So we are using all those tools to try to really address the problem of fire. In addition to that, we are in every Councilmanic District. We are hosting open houses, because we want to engage the community. We want people to know that the fire station is part of the community. We want them to come there and ask questions and get information. So one of the messages that I've been putting out recently is I feel as though people think that fire will not happen to them and I try to let people know, it can happen to anyone at any time so we have to be prepared. So we are just really trying to diversify and increase our messaging --
Excuse me, Commissioner. Point of information by Councilmember Dr. Anthony Phillips.
Thank you, Council President. On the lines of Councilmember Lozada's question, I just wanted a point of information. Do you have a strategic plan and proactive steps that you're taking to provide reduced fire risk education in neighborhoods? Basically, I know that we did a press conference recently with the smoke alarms and detection which has been really great, but do you have a strategy to get to every single neighborhood in the city of Philadelphia? If so, can that strategy and timeline be shared? That's the point of information I have.
Commissioner Thompson. COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Yes, sir. So absolutely. Our strategy is we use a lot of methods to communicate our fire prevention methods, right. So we're out on social media. We are at schools engaging the young folks. We partner with Parks & Rec to do a summer camp every year, so we are looking at different ways to expand our reach so that we can get our message out. We are talking internally about do we do radio spots, can we get on TV, can we do billboards. All of those things cost money. So most certainly, the strategy is to increase our messaging as best we can.
I want to give a point of information too, if that's okay, Dr. Phillips.
Can I just get 10 seconds. I want to say what I'm really trying to get from you is -- that's great, but I want it to be a little bit more on a weekly, monthly basis what neighborhoods you're going to be at, what blocks you're going to be at, how are you going to get to the goal of getting to all those high-risk -- if we can get a copy of what that looks like as opposed to just being sporadic, you know, we're going to do those type of things. Thanks, CP.
Commissioner, I just wanted to say if part of the goal is to take to the next level of campaign around fire safety, then our body would be supportive of your ask and I would think the Administration would be as well. We have a $7 billion budget. So when we talk about public safety, we can't put a dollar amount on trying to keep people safe. And so, if your overall strategy is to say, hey, listen, we're going to do a campaign around public safety, fire safety updates to public safety and this is the type of support that we need, then we will sit down with Rob Dubow over there in the Administration as we go through this process to see how we could be supportive. Because surely, I don't think the Administration would say they would not support you having the opportunity to have significant additional resources to keep the residents here in the city of Philadelphia safe when it comes to fire safety. So if that's a need and that's an ask, then please bring them forward so we can have a conversation as we go through this process. The Chair relinquishes his time back to Member Lozada who has the floor.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. All of what they said was part of what I want to talk about, right. We need to make sure that residents understand the resources that are available to them in a language that they understand. I can't tell you the number of times that I've been in some of our schools, in some of our student town halls and they speak to the fact that there's a disconnect between the Fire Department when they compare it to the police department, right. They feel like they're more approachable and they see firefighters when there's an emergency. And so, I think part of what we are looking to do and what we've been working really hard on with some members of your leadership is to connect folks in those times when there is not an emergency, right, so more presence and more partnerships with our Fire Department so that we establish the relationship that I think needs to be seen in communities like mine where sometimes there's not that level of trust that there needs to be. And then language access, right. We know that the standard language access that we have available in the city doesn't always work. And I know the Fire Department or the Police Department has moved to some type of a translation format with their radios or with their cameras. What are you all doing to ensure that your resources, your communication in the event of a fire, the folks that are present are actually able to communicate with those who are experiencing an emergency? COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Thank you for those questions. And we most certainly really appreciate what our colleagues in PPD do in terms of regularly-occurring town halls, and that's something that we most certainly are planning to emulate. We want to be in communities on a regular basis and forge those relationships. We also want to be in the neighborhood action centers. We want to be very visible and make those connections. We had a meeting with the Office of Immigrant Affairs just last week, where we were able to really make a connection with them, and we talked about ensuring the fact that we can communicate in the different methods that are available. So that was a great meeting where we really got to understand the capabilities of that office and how we can leverage that to ensure that we are communicating with every citizen in Philadelphia.
Okay. We will have a brief separate second round and then go into callbacks. Councilmember Cindy Bass and Councilmember Dr. Anthony Phillips -- y'all want to go straight into callbacks?
Okay. Listen, thank you very much for being here today. Thank you for your testimony and thank you for your hard work and your public service to the City of Philadelphia. Thank you. COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Thank you.
At this time, we will go into callbacks for the departments of the Administration. The following departments are now available for questioning and you can approach the table: Managing Director's Office, Procurement, Licenses and Inspections, Department of Human Services. Rob Dubow is on standby for any questions regarding the proposed tax bills as well. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
How's everyone doing today? COMMISSIONER ALI: Pretty good.
Welcome back. Chair recognizes Councilmember Cindy Bass.
Chair recognizes Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad.
Thank you, Council President. Good morning, everyone. Good to see you all here. Because of time, I will just jump right into my question. We were recently made aware of a case where there was a DHS worker's mistake that resulted in a child being placed with the unrelated family, rather than the cousin who was already the adoptive parent of three of the children's half siblings, that child's half siblings. And there's been court proceedings and everything and you admitted that this was a misstep. I wanted to understand what things have been put in place for something like this never to happen? From what I read, it seems the DHS worker called the hospital against department policy to redirect who was going to get that child. And so, this is when I am faced with constituents who say, what is going on here. Legal kidnapping is what they're calling this. So I just want to understand what -- I know you have said that this was a misstep, so I appreciate that you made that acknowledgement. But I would like to know very specifically was this an investigative space where you had a DHS worker, what also happens in the cause in terms of how, if there's placement issues, how did that work? So if you would please address that. COMMISSIONER ALI: Yes. So good morning. I'm Kimberly Ali. I'm Commissioner for the Philadelphia Department of Human Services. And thank you for that question. Although I am bound by confidentiality, I'm unable to talk about the specifics of any case. However, I can talk to you generally about if, in fact, the department had a misstep, what does it look like in terms of engaging families in order for them to determine who's the best placement resource for that young person, and then also the adoption process. And so, let me start by first saying DHS social workers and not Community Umbrella Agency social workers make the decision around the removal of children from his or her home, so that is done by a DHS social worker in concert with their supervisor, but also with the Law Department and the courts in terms of removal. So that's the first step. The family then goes to court within 72 hours for a detention hearing. The parents are given an attorney. The child is also given an attorney called a child advocate, and then the judge listens to testimony in order to make a decision about what's best and the best placement for that young person. It then goes back to court in 10 days and there's an adjudicatory hearing at that particular time. Additional evidence is presented in terms of why that child needs to remain in care. During that process from day 1, in terms of the department asking the court for removal, so for order protective custody, we engage the family, the parents, so both mother and father, who identifies the best place for their young person. Where there is some discretion is at times we should look to, if possible, keeping siblings together. However, when we place in kinship care situations, we do ask the parents, we ask other family members. And if the young person is old enough, we also ask the young person, who do you want to live with, who is in your circle of affection. That is part of our engagement process. Cases go to court every three months. And so, I talked about the 72 hours. Then I talked about the 10 days. And then they go to court every three months thereafter. The parents come to court, their informal supports come to court. Of course, their attorneys, the child, if the child is of age, as well as the child advocate attorney, DHS or the CUA case manager and our city solicitor. And every three months the judge will hear testimony around the best placement for that young person.
Thank you for clarifying the process. But I'm more interested in what measures did you put in place for such missteps not to happen? Because you acknowledged there was a misstep. That was publicly acknowledged by your department there was a misstep, and we identified it was one particular worker who, against your rules, called the hospital, right. So I want to know very specifically, drill down how do you stop that kind of process from happening, and what -- and this was a baby who couldn't speak for themselves, so that's a whole other issue. The person, the mother who was engaged in this, was addicted to drugs and already had three other children in her own kinship -- put in kinship care and that's who was asking for this child. So I want to know exactly what did you change for this to never happen again in terms of how process happened and what was the policy change that you made? COMMISSIONER ALI: And so again, I'll reiterate that I won't talk specifically about this case. But I will certainly say that any time there is an error, if you will, or mistake, if you will, we do look at that case individually. And so, it's not -- we have teamings. Those teamings will happen by way of our Operations Director as well as our Deputy Commissioner to determine whether or not there are individual practice issues or systemic practice issues. And as a result of those, we make determinations around do you need additional training, do you need additional transfer of (inaudible) or does a policy need to come out in reference to that. In specific cases in which there is a parent who's making a recommendation in terms of wanting their child to be placed with someone else but the family wants something different, there is attention there because we want to recognize the voice of parents. Although maybe possibly addicted to substances or not or untreated mental health, they still have a voice in the process because they still have parental rights so we still engage them because we have to work with the parent along the way throughout the life of the case. However, in situations in which we say, oh, the best thing is for a child to be with a sibling, I send my Operations Director to court to testify in that regard to let the judge know that we want to change course. And then the judge makes a decision, the child advocate has an opportunity to speak as well as the parent's attorney. And so, we do a higher level of review and also a higher level of court testimony in those situations.
So I hear you, I hear all of this. But I still don't have an answer to when somebody violated your own practice of not calling the hospital directly and giving another family for where the child should be adopted. What did you do in the process of the social worker making that call? Streamline that for me. Tell me how that process occurs where they were able to violate that principle that you have in your office. And what did we do to say, did you tell your social workers you are not allowed to do that or before you make any call, this is who you need to check with? I just want to know very simply the specifics of the process that allowed this mistake to happen and how did we correct for that? COMMISSIONER ALI: Yeah. So I can't -- I don't know how something like that could happen other than the fact that I indicated that we also listen to the voices of parents and parents have a right to identify who they want their child to be placed with. Where I would have wanted to happen in situations where there are siblings, that we also prioritize placing young people with their siblings. So I can't tell you in terms of the misstep. What I can tell you is that when it came to the attention of leadership, that we responded accordingly and we attended every single court hearing in order to rectify the situation.
The Chair recognizes Councilmember Bass for a point of information.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Commissioner, I have a lot of respect for you and the department and the work you do and I know it's not easy, so I hope you'll accept my comments in that sentiment. But I've had so many experiences, and we've talked about them, that are similar to Councilmember Ahmad's questions and concerns where children have been displaced, it doesn't make sense. As we had talked about before, we had a family whose children were taken from school. It really should have been kidnapping. They were taken from school with the DHS social worker's note saying that it was okay when it wasn't okay. The court had ordered them to be here. They're now living in another state and they won't be returning because they've been there for a couple of years. The family, the original related family, legal family could not get these kids back. And so, I hear what you're saying, but I don't see the evidence of any changes to the daily practices that would make sure that these kinds of things don't happen, because they're really just devastating to families. So I just really wanted to say that on the record. I'm not familiar with the case that Councilmember Ahmad is referring to, but I just think we just have to do better in DHS. COMMISSIONER ALI: Yeah. So let me say this, the decisions of social workers, particularly when you're talking about working with families, are extremely complicated.
Yes. Yes, they are. COMMISSIONER ALI: I'm the first person to acknowledge that. I also acknowledge not only all of the growth and the progress that we have, but I don't shy away from when we need to make changes. And so, I will tell you in terms of when I rolled out my goals for 2026, it is around mastering, not perfecting, but mastering the basics, making sure when there is tension, if you will, when you have competing requests, if you will, in terms of parents, what the parent wants to do and what the family wants to do that, that you seek a higher level leader to have that conversation with, also that you bring them to the table in terms of our family team conferencing process. And so, I do understand. And when we step in, in terms of executive leadership, if we don't like the direction of a case, but I do hear you.
And I appreciate that, but I also would say to me it's a little late. Because that's something that should have been just really instilled just, you know, a part of the day-to-day workings of a department that's as important as DHS for a long time. This shouldn't be something we're working on now. This should be something that, you know, some of these things never should have happened, I guess, is my point. And I understand what you're saying that maybe not perfecting, but I would say actually because we're dealing with children, maybe we should be trying to perfect it. This is something that there can't be any errors when we're dealing with children, because we're dealing with a young person that once they're broken, we can't fix them back. COMMISSIONER ALI: I agree. And what I will say, our family team conferencing model has been in place since 2015, so that's been in place since then. And then the reason why I used the word mastering instead of perfection is because we know that there is going to be a continuous process in which we have to change and we have to pivot. And so, we will continue to evaluate and assess our practices accordingly.
That's what I was going to do. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Bass. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Ahmad for one additional minute.
Yes, thank you. Thank you very much. I really appreciate Councilmember Bass for bringing her years of expertise into this space. And I still want to say I heard you say there's a -- so there was an issue between a family member who already had three of that person's children, half siblings of this child in question, versus a completely unknown family that your social worker was saying should go to and got the mother to agree. So the process I heard was there is a conference when some -- when there's a discrepancy between going to kinship care versus going to a stranger, that was the point. There should have been a conference and should have been a conversation about why are we making this decision, how did this happen. And I want to know that if that is happening routinely for every decision, clearly it didn't happen in this one. It did not happen in this case, which is why it proceeded the way it did. And then the court system took so long you could not rectify it. So I just want to be on the record to say, are you having those conferences when the social worker has made a recommendation as opposed to when there's already kinship care available, what happens then? I want to be clear on the record that that didn't happen in that case clearly. And how do we make sure it happens in every case, every child placement case? Thank you, Madam Chair. COMMISSIONER ALI: Thank you for that question. And so, part of DHS's practice, and this practice actually started in 2020, we have what is called the Family Engagement Initiative. That is a partnership with our courts as well as the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts. And what that involves is what we call crisis and rapid response teamings. Those teamings happen within hours or 11 72 hours of a crisis. And so, yes, 12 we have been doing that 13 consistently since 2020 in terms of 14 a crisis rapid response teaming. 15 In addition, we have 16 family team conferencing in which 17 we have family team conferencing 18 meetings every three months. This 19 actually is tracked by our 20 Performance Management Technology 21 Division that tells us if, in fact, 22 the conference occurred, did it 23 occur at one time and if it was 24 missed. If it's a missed conference, then the team will assemble the family as well as their support systems as well as everyone else who touched the case in order to have a family team conference. And so, yes, we continue to do that practice.
Thank you. Thank you so much, Dr. Ahmad. The Chair now recognizes Dr. Phillips.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to get right to it because I have several questions around the tax bills, Licenses & Inspections and the Water Department. So just around the tax bills, I want to talk more about the existing tax impact. Currently can we provide an understanding of revenue that has been generated from the liquor tax, liquor-by-the-drink tax and also the cigarette tax? Where do those taxes go currently in terms of revenue, through what department? And then for the beverage tax, we understand what -- I have the numbers of what revenue has been generated from the beverage tax. But I want to know what is the forecasted revenue that's going to be generated from the beverage tax. I just want to get a better understanding and also to what department is that going to go to?
Thanks. Rob Dubow, Finance Director. So the liquor tax and the cigarette tax both go to the school district.
Okay. That's good. Is it permanent that that's going to -is it a staple, it can never change? It always has to go to the school district?
Okay. It always go to school district. Awesome. With the beverage tax, currently there's no 11 Rebuild no longer in place. So currently with the beverage tax, what can residents begin to see out of that when it comes to capital projects and where's that money going to?
So the Rebuild funding pays the debt service on the borrowing for those projects, so that debt service will continue while the debt's outstanding. So all the improvements you see to those rec centers are possible because we were able to issue bonds that the debt service paid for. In addition, the funding from the beverage tax goes to PreK and to Community Schools.
Okay. So PreK and Community Schools. So no longer towards our rec centers?
Yes. Part of it goes to debt service or rec centers, part of it goes to PreK and part of it goes to Community Schools.
When will communities begin to see new projects come out of that debt service to go towards rec centers?
We haven't seen any drafted proposals and conversations around that, so that's why I'm asking.
Good morning. Aparna Palantino, Deputy Managing Director, Capital Program Office. Dr. Phillips, thank you for your question. So we continue to implement projects at parks, rec centers and libraries that are funded through the Rebuild initiative. That's still ongoing. We're not complete with the program of the 72 sites that was originally included in the Rebuild ordinance. And I'll let Finance Director Rob Dubow speak to that.
Yeah. I just want to know when is it going to be a new request for proposals, because right now we should be pretty much done the 72 sites?
Or near done. So it should be a new batch or revenue coming, because that revenue was already there. It was already in existence. It's already forecast to be used. New revenue coming in for FY26 and '27 should be utilized for new projects, correct?
Yeah. So the capital program itself has new projects. The 72 projects of Rebuild are paid out of the debt service, and we did the most recent borrowing within the last year. But going forward, the projects that we're seeing funded in the capital program are funded out of other General Fund sources.
Okay. I only asked that question -- and I heard the bell. I'll come for the second round. But I just want to say I asked that question because residents are curious consistently about where is the revenue going for the beverage tax. Yes, we're seeing new projects happening, but they're also seeing a lot of other libraries and rec centers not benefiting from the beverage tax. And so, to them it's like, okay, that money should have already been utilized for prior projects, now what is the new money going to. And to me, that's not clear, because Councilmembers have not been engaged with how we can begin to use the beverage tax now for new capital projects. And so, that's concerning for me. And that's why I want to also be sure that the new proposed tax for rideshare, is it permanent, it's always going to be used for the School District of Philadelphia as well, if passed?
Yes, those funds go to the school district, so they would always go to the district.
Okay. So what I would recommend is that we begin to engage on new projects because the revenue that is currently allocated is for future projects for the beverage tax, not for the 72 projects; am I correct? Are you still trying to capture --
The beverage tax is for the existing 72 projects. It's for the debt service on those --
The debt service for them. Okay. I'm very clear now. So we still haven't paid them off basically?
How many years is it going to take for us to pay those off?
So the most recent bond issue was within the last year. It's a 20-year bond issue. So we'll be paying it off probably for another years. 10
So 15 the city's never going to see 16 anything new from that tax? 17
No. What we 18 see new projects from is from the 19 capital budget and program. So if you look at the capital budget and program, there is a lot of funding for parks, recs, libraries so that's where that funding will come from.
Okay. I would like to see how that works. Thank you so much. I'll reserve my questions for the Water Department and L&I for the next round.
Thank you, Dr. Phillips. And so, colleagues, I'm level-setting for this hearing. We are breaking at 12:00. There are eight members in the queue. Each colleague will have three minutes to complete your questions. We are going to respectfully request that all of the departments who are here for callbacks return at 1:00 p.m. when we return from lunch, so that we can ask the additional questions that are in the queue. And then we'll go with CCP hopefully by 2:00 or 2:30. Okay. Thank you very much. And so, I'm next in the queue and wanted to get a question on the record for the Managing Director's Office. My office submitted follow-up questions to your department and one of them was relative to a request for $1 million in warehouse space. When asking for additional information, you all responded that it's for additional warehouse space. I already knew that. So I'm requesting if you could provide the detailed information relative to that request, how much warehouse space does your department currently have? What are you all storing? How much does it cost? And what's the need for this additional space? I could see on the budget docs that it's for warehouse space. It says million for warehouse space. I did do the follow-up prior to this hearing. I want to be very clear. And you all responded it's for additional warehouse space. So can just provide additional details?
Madam Chair, we somehow in the process we didn't get that question, so we will come back and give you more detail on that. There's a lot of different spaces --
Rob, are you still available, Rob and Sabrina? Did you all get that question from me or no? Who received the question?
Yes. Good morning. Sabrina Maynard, Budget Director. So this is a line under the Public Property budget. There's some room for potential additional work that could happen. It may be mislabeled, so we'll double-check on the naming. But it's a public property item for potential additional budget.
That was under MDO, but it's for Public Property?
I believe it's in the Public Property budget. Let me double check where the line is.
And I'm only asking because I did -- I want to be very clear. I did follow up with you all --
-- in advance of the hearing or else I wouldn't have asked it today.
Madam Chair, we can also have that be first up at 1:00 p.m. if you want.
That'll be great. I'll move on so that I honor the clock. I'm at 2 minutes and 46 seconds. Thank you very much. You can follow up after the break. Okay. I appreciate it. But I do want to be clear for the record I did ask in advance. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Gauthier.
I have brief questions for Fire Commissioner Thompson and Deputy Managing Director Carroll. Good morning to both of you. For the Fire Commissioner, I heard you talk with the Council President about wanting to prevent fires and the wonderful effort you all have put on in that regard, and I look forward to getting the information about how that breaks down by Council District, but I can probably almost guarantee that West and Southwest is going to be reflected there. I wanted to ask about the program we have where we give out free smoke detectors if people reach out to 311. I think that's a wonderful way to prevent fires, but I also have read in the past that it was pretty backed up. So I wanted to ask, what's the backlog for that program now? If there is a backlog, what are we doing to, to kind of clear it? And would we ever consider going beyond owner- occupied properties, particularly if we're seeing fires in properties that are not owner-occupied? COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Thank you very much for that question. Smoke alarms are very instrumental in saving lives, so we do all that we can to make sure that we get those out as best we can. So we work with 311 to install smoke alarms. Sometimes there is the reckoning period between when we install them and when they can clear it off the books. Sometimes that skews the numbers. And just as a point of note, in addition to installing via 311, we install on our own. So as companies are out in the street, if they run across a person who needs them, they can install them on demand. So some of the things that we are doing to reduce that backlog -- and we do have a backlog currently, I don't have that number in front of me -- but one of the things that we are doing, we are employing technology. We are working with -- again, we have some very talented folks in our GIS Analytics Division. They are currently working on an app that is going to allow us to expedite and reduce the time that it takes for information to travel, so we are using technology to reduce that backlog.
Thank you. If you could get back to us with that information. And also, if you have it, what's the amount of fires that happen in owner-occupied properties versus rentals and should we be considering doing something to get smoke detectors in those as well. And then my next question is about the citywide bus depot. Deputy Managing Director Carroll, can you talk about where we are in the process of building a citywide bus terminal for the City of Philadelphia? Not long ago I know that OTIS sent out a survey to constituents to guage their interest of where they would most like to see a permanent location, including 30th Street Station in my district. And so, can you share the findings and talk about the considerations for final placement of the terminal?
Please, please respond very quickly. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilmember. We're working with Department of Planning on that. The 30th Street Bus Depot did rank the highest in terms of the feedback we got from stakeholders. We've had some conversations with Amtrak about their plans for that area, and we'll continue that work moving forward, maintain the engagement and look for an opportunity to see how we could specifically advance some design concepts, working with all the partners.
Okay. Look forward to continuing to work together. I think you know that I would love to have all the transit in the 3rd District. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you very much, Councilmember Gauthier. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Driscoll. And then Councilmember Lozada will be the last one for this round.
Thank you, Madam Chair. My question is around the cell tower tax. I'll be brief. Will nonprofits who currently don't pay U&O have to pay the cell phone tower tax? That's one. In the legislation, it says that the new tax is based on the bandwidth of a tower. How will the city be able to tell or know what the bandwidth is for each tower? And then lastly, the $2.4 million estimate for the tax, is that under the current assessments or would that be tied to some future assessments? COMMISSIONER McCOLGAN: Good morning. Kathleen McColgan, Revenue Commissioner. Thank you for the question, Councilmember. Nonprofits who are leasing cell towers, they would be responsible for the Use & Occupancy Tax on the cell tower itself. I'm sorry. What was your next question?
The bandwidth. COMMISSIONER McCOLGAN: Yeah. The bandwidth is actually assessed by OPA, and it's included in the data that is sent to us right now. It's already part of the total assessed value of a property going forward. If this passes, then it will be broken out as a separate line item to make sure that we are calculating Use & Occupancy Tax accurately for the school district based on the bandwidth.
Okay. And then a 2.4 million, is that -- COMMISSIONER McCOLGAN: That is for a full fiscal year. So we intend, if passed, to implement this in January of '27, so for Fiscal Year '27 and it will be the 1.2 million. And then each fiscal year thereafter, 2.4.
Thank you. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Lozada.
Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. My question, I believe, is for the Fire Commissioner. I forgot to ask him while he was here. It is related to some of the work that we have been doing in the Kensington community as it relates to AR-2 and where we are when we're talking about overdoses, have they increased the work that they're doing? Have we seen a decrease in the need to have them in the footprint as a result of the work that we are doing together? Just trying to figure out where are we now. COMMISSIONER THOMPSON: Thank you for that question. I'm going to have Deputy Commissioner Martin McCall, who's our Deputy Commissioner of EMS, answer that question.
Thank you. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER McCALL: Martin McCall, Deputy Commissioner of EMS, Philadelphia Fire Department. If I heard your question correctly, it's about around AR-2 and have we seen a decrease or increase in the amount of overdoses in the Kensington area. We have seen an increase in the percent of impact in which AR-2 has had in that area as far as outreach and getting people into assistance and responding to overdoses, but the call volume has pretty much been steady.
Okay. Last budget cycle we had questions and we also held a hearing around reporting on the number of overdoses, the number of individuals that we have to respond to on an emergency basis multiple times a day, what we call the frequent flyers type of an individual. Because as a community we believe that if we have to overturn an overdose on you multiple times, obviously you're in a crisis situation and we have to respond differently. I believe you testified that that was a number that you are collecting and that was an easy number to receive. We haven't received one report. And so, I'm just trying to figure out, number one, where's the report? And number two, my community knows these people very, very well. And so, as the supply changes, they tend to overdose more often. And so, my community is seeing some of these individuals often. So I'm trying to figure out do we not know what that number is? Are we not collecting that frequent flyer? Do we not know if the number actually went up or down? Where are we? And again, I'm not trying to -- this is not an I got you, right. I want us to be transparent and have an honest conversation. If you don't have the number, you got to get it back to me, I'm great with that. I'm okay with that. But I want us to look at the work that we're doing in the Kensington community, because I believe and my community also believes that there has been an impact in a positive way as it relates to the work as a whole, right. So I'm trying to figure out where are we as it relates to the numbers so that we can use data, because some people are data- driven, so we can use data to speak to what is actually happening. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER McCALL: Right. As far as the number, to get the number is very difficult, one, because people we respond to often times we don't get the information, like to get a name and age and data or whatever the information is from the person, often times it's to treat or they get up and they go away before we can get the information from them because the priority is to treat. So we can't grasp the information to say, okay, have we seen this person this time or did we see this person yesterday or did we see this person the day before. That's where the obstacle is, is getting that information and getting it in. What we do have, we should have been producing and providing. It was my understanding that we were doing what we were able to capture. And I will check to find out where that is.
Okay. Please respond with the additional information after the break, if you're able to locate the numbers for Councilmember Lozada.
And then my last question is, I want us to have an off-the-floor conversation about that because I think that there's more to say about that. I'll have a different conversation with you directly. But then I also want to ask about as we approach the summer months and we approach people coming into our city, we know that it gets cold in the city of Philadelphia, we know it gets hot in the city of Philadelphia, are we preparing partners in our city to become cooling centers? Are we ready for that? Do we know where our cooling centers could potentially be? Because every year we struggle with individuals who have, you know, it's hot outside and we need to get them off the street and we need to figure out -- and I know this is not for PFD, it's MDO, but I want us to proactively be prepared for this.
Very quickly. Pardon the interruption. One minute for the response. Thank you.
Managing Director Adam Thiel. The short answer is yes. And as we've done, you've seen and you were part of the way we have been doing heat emergencies very differently with a lot more resources, a lot more people, a lot more access. We intend to do -- well, you know, extreme cold, that's our Cold Blue. We intend to do the same thing with extreme heat, so we are absolutely going to use that same template, and that's OEM, Public Health, DBHIDS, on and on and on, the Fire Department, PPD, everybody all in to provide that same level of access on really hot days as we've done on very cold days.
And I appreciate that. Yes, I have been very much involved in that, which is why I know that it has been challenging, because all of those entities that you just mentioned are not cooling centers that people would typically go to, right. We say, yes, the police department is a cooling center, yes, the fire department, you can go -- but people are not going to go there. We know that on the ground. We know what the realities are. And so, we have worked really hard to try to identify stakeholders in the community to become cooling centers. And one of the responses that I get from them often is, you can't tell me at the last minute that you need me to be a cooling center or that you want me to be a warming center, right. And so, there's a lot going on this year. I want us to make sure that we're responding to the needs of our city before we're responding to all the parties, right. I want us to make sure that we are ready to go on day 1 of that first heat wave and that people have safe places to come into. And so, can we work on making sure that we identify those stakeholders with enough time so that they are ready for us?
Councilmember, it's a really heavy lift. It's always going to be a very heavy lift. It's all in addition to everything else that those agencies do. And if you have a list of willing partners, please send it along and we'll make sure that we get that into the work stream.
Thank you. Thank you very much. This committee will now stand in recess until 1:15. We ask that everyone please return at 1:15. Thank you very much. (Lunch recess.)
All right. Good afternoon. This hearing will now come to order. We will now resume the Committee of the Whole with departmental callbacks. And then once we've concluded with departmental callbacks, we'll go to Community College of Philadelphia. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Thomas.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to start by talking to the Managing Director's Office. Good afternoon. The last time we spoke, I started our conversation by talking about my Keep It Local legislation. Keep It Local was a bill that we passed coming out of COVID. And the purpose of the legislation was to encourage and incentivize people to invest in Philadelphia. Our thought process was it's very difficult to ask others to invest in Philadelphia if Philadelphia isn't invested in Philadelphia. So over the last couple years, we've been able to see a significant increase as it relates to procurement opportunities, specifically for Philadelphia-based businesses. In our previous hearing, we asked MDO to explain why we've seen a significant drop in both contracts for Philadelphia-based businesses as well as Black and Brown-led businesses here in the city and you guys were not able to provide that information. So I'm hoping that we can revisit that conversation today. I would like to see where we are as it relates to the Keep It Local legislation and what is happening as it relates to procurement opportunities for Philadelphia-based businesses?
Councilmember, appreciate that and we did provide responses to those questions from the last hearing. Bottom line upfront, in FY26 so far we're at about 93% of our contract value went to local business enterprises. And in FY24 -- we've actually improved from '25 to '26. In '25 --
93% of total value of contracts in the MDO went to local business enterprises. And then in '25, that number was 88% so we've actually increased. And I will let Ron Hovey, our Procurement Director, talk about some of those things, and then we also have Nadir Jones here to talk about more of what -- to answer the second part of your question of what we're doing.
Yeah. I want to be clear, and I'm curious to hear about that, Managing Director, and I'll bring my documents to compare. But we're not just asking about just your department. We're saying procurement in general across city government. So the Managing Director's Office is part of that conversation and I'm glad to hear that your numbers are as well as they are. But we're really looking at the entire gamut as it relates to procurement opportunities. COMMISSIONER HOVEY: Sure. Ron Hovey, Procurement Commissioner. And thank you for the question. I don't have the 2026 numbers, as we're still processing those. But I do have '22 through '25. Managing Director's numbers were for his department only. Across the city, we have -- our goal was in 2022 46% and then each year was -- this was our target: 46, 46, 47, 56. And our actual awards were 53, 62. Then it went down to 54 in '24 and back up to 64 in '25. And we're on track to exceed the 64 for this year. But I don't have the full number because the year is not in yet. Now, there are two things that drive that. There are two different programs. There is a bid preference, we'll call it a discount, where when you're bidding, you get a credit. So if you're not the lowest, you get a percentage credit knocked off your price, which could move you from a lower ranking to a higher ranking in a bid. The other program is a set-aside program where you bid only to local businesses. And so, through the credit program we've seen that steady uptick. But from the complete set-aside program, we've seen very little usage. We've seen less than just a couple of tens of thousands in total. So we know two things, the credit program, the discount program is working in terms of driving local business usage. But the set-aside program as constructed today is not.
Okay. So I think where we need some clarity, and help me understand, because I know you had a conversation with me about some things as it relates to systems and things of that capacity. Why does it look like through M/W/DSB contracting or why does it appear that there's been significant declines as it relates to local procurement opportunities and local contracts? What is happening with the reporting of information whereas though it looks like there's been about $150 million less spent between the fiscal years as it relates to supporting these types of businesses? COMMISSIONER HOVEY: So you're talking two different things: local business and M/WBE stratification of the numbers. I'm going to let Nadir Jones address that because it's his department that tracks M/WBE and small businesses. But they're two different things. And I would say that the numbers for LBEs don't always capture the full M/WBE number, so in the current state there's probably an underreporting of that. But I'm going to let him finish the answer for me.
Good afternoon. Nadir Jones, Director, the Office of Business Impact and Economic Advancement. How are you doing, Councilmembers. So, yeah, we took a look at the year-over- year trends. What we're going to plan on doing is doing a gap analysis to see what those impediments are, why the M/WBE spend has gone down. It can be an accumulation of several things. It can be the overall city spend has maybe gone down or the lack of M/WBEs in a specific industry where we don't have that availability to lend itself to subcontracting opportunities. So we're going to perform a gap-wide analysis across all city departments to get that information to you asap.