COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON LAW AND GOVERNMENT - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, December 16, 2009 10:25 a.m. - - - PRESENT: COUNCILMAN WILLIAM GREENLEE, CHAIR COUNCILMAN FRANK DiCICCO COUNCILMAN JACK KELLY COUNCILMAN JAMES F. KENNEY COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN BILL 090467 - An ordinance amending Title of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Finance, 15 Taxes and Collections," by adding a new Chapter providing for the recovery of enhanced 16 monetary damages from persons who file false or fraudulent claims with the City... 17 RESOLUTION 090759 - Resolution authorizing the 18 Committee on Law and Government to hold hearings on citizen outreach regarding the 19 United States Census 2010... - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services Eleven Penn Center 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 2
Good morning, everybody. Sorry for the delay. This is the Committee on Law and Government. For the record, we have a quorum, with Councilman Kenney, who is the Vice-Chairman, Councilman DiCicco and Councilman Kelly. Mr. Boyle, will you please read the title of Bill No. 090467.
Ordinance 090467, an ordinance amending Title of The 13 Philadelphia Code, entitled "Finance, 14 Taxes and Collections," by adding a new 15 Chapter providing for the recovery of 16 enhanced monetary damages from persons 17 who file false or fraudulent claims with 18 the City, providing a procedure for 19 persons with knowledge of such claims to inform the City and authorizing the City, in certain circumstances, to allow such persons to commence civil actions on behalf of the City and to share in the proceeds awarded, and providing for civil penalties, attorneys' fees and costs, all 3 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. under certain terms and conditions.
Thank you. Just for the record, this is basically a bill that I introduced. It's a whistleblower protection bill. It's based pretty much on the federal regulations, and we think not only will it fight fraud, it will also hopefully maybe raise some money for the City, which last I checked we could use now and then. We have one witness scheduled, Amy Kurland, Inspector General. Would you like to take the witness stand. (Witness approached witness table.)
Could morning. If you could just identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony. We have copies of it, too.
Okay. Thank you. Good morning, Councilman 4 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. Greenlee and members of the Law and Government Committee. My name is Amy Kurland and I am the City's Inspector General. It is certainly a privilege to appear before you today to testify in support of this bill, which you, Councilman Greenlee, introduced back in June. The bill, if enacted, will amend Title of The Philadelphia Code 12 by adding a new Chapter providing for the 13 recovery of enhanced monetary damages 14 from persons who file false or fraudulent 15 claims with the City. But equally 16 important, the bill provides 17 whistleblower protection for anyone who 18 is discharged or otherwise discriminated 19 against in his or her employment for coming forward to report the false claim. I am very excited that Council is taking an aggressive stance against fraud, a stance and a position that dovetails completely with the mission of the Inspector General's Office, to 5 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. uncover fraud and misconduct in the City and by those doing business with the City. Specifically, the bill provides for a cause of action against persons who, in their contractual interactions with the City, knowingly cheat the City out of funds that are due, such as by presenting false or inflated claims for payment or by delivering less than was called for under a contract. The bill 13 provides that any person who is found to have committed any of the seven enumerated prohibited acts in the bill 16 will be liable to the City for triple the amount defrauded, plus attorneys' fees and costs and be subject to fines up to $2,000 per offense. As you know, the Inspector General is responsible for rooting out fraud and misconduct not only among City employees but by anyone or any company that does business with the City. We work very hard to uncover and investigate 6 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. any situations where individuals or companies have submitted false or inflated bills to the City, have charged for ghost employees and many other ways that contractors may defraud the City. Many of these cases are prosecuted criminally in federal and state court. This bill will complement our work in that the City will not only receive what it is due, but will be able to seek treble damages, costs and attorneys' fees. And, most importantly, the bill 14 encourages those with knowledge of fraud to come forward by protecting them from discrimination and by providing financial incentives. We must all work together to protect the City. The Inspector General's Office will work together with the Law Department and will support both the implementation and the enforcement of this bill with our team of highly trained and experienced investigators. We have unique expertise in uncovering fraud that 7 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. we will lend to the Law Department in pursuing funds due to the City as a result of false claims. We are offering proposed amendments to this bill with some minor suggestions and some recommendations from the Law Department. Most significantly, although the bill contains a remedy for those retaliated against for blowing the whistle on fraud, it does not contain an affirmative prohibition against such retaliation. We, therefore, suggest adding a paragraph containing an affirmative prohibition on taking an adverse employment action against someone because he or she blew the whistle on fraud. The Inspector General's Office takes nothing more seriously than pursuing those who attempt to retaliate against individuals who are courageous enough to turn in the wrongdoers. We also ask that the bill take effect in 60 days after enactment to allow us to develop procedures to support the bill. 8 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. Thank you, Councilman Greenlee, for the opportunity to provide testimony on this bill. I'll be happy to answer any questions.
Additionally, Law Department representatives are here to respond to any questions.
Thank you, Ms. Kurland. And those amendments that you alluded to will be offered. We have copies of them.
They will be offered at the appropriate time. Councilman Kenney.
Thank you very much. General, I understand the concept of citizens turning in fraudulent actions on the part of City employees, other City employees reporting fraudulent action on the part of other City employees. My concern is relative to the sometimes vindictiveness of folks. For example, I'd imagine in a local business 9 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. strip where businesspeople maybe don't get along -- I mean, I'm talking South Philly here, so you can have lots of grudges that have gone on for a long time. Having this plethora of complaints, one business -- I assume that they're anonymous complaints, because that would be one of the tools in making sure that people have the comfort of coming forward. If we're barraged with a number of anonymous complaints about businessperson versus businessperson or resident versus resident, I assume you'll have to make a judgment on which ones are worth pursuing and which ones aren't. I'm just concerned about people's spitefulness in attempting to "gotcha" on someone who is either a competitor or a person that they've been mad at for 23 years. 24
Right. That's an 25 excellent question, Councilman Kenney, 10 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. and we deal with those complaints every day. We get many, many anonymous complaints, and the anonymous complaints are always taken with a little extra look. We don't usually pursue anonymous complaints unless there's some corroboration. Most often the cases that are the most significant cases are people who come forward, and while they may request confidentially, they're not anonymous, and we do tend to weed out the ones that are simply people having a grudge against other people or contractors who are unhappy about not getting certain jobs.
Okay. Fine. All right. Thank you. I just wanted to make sure the record was clear.
The only thing, Councilman, I always thought in South Philly everybody sat around singing Kumbaya. I was shocked to hear that.
Pat's and Geno's, I'm sure the two complaints would 11 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. come right across the street. But thank you for your information.
Thank you, Councilman. Any other questions from members of the Committee? (No response.)
Just for the record, note that Councilwoman Reynolds Brown is also present in the room. Thank you, Ms. Kurland.
Anyone else here to testify on this bill? (No response.)
Seeing none, what I'd like to do is just temporarily recess the hearing and go into the public meeting, then we'll go back to the hearing on the census issue. We have a number of amendments 12 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. here, which I think each -- the Chair recognizes Councilman Kenney regarding amendments to Bill No. 090467.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that Bill No. 7 090467 be amended accordingly concurrent with the testimony that was given and the circulation of the amendments. (Duly seconded.)
It's been moved and seconded that the amendments be approved. All in favor please say aye. (Aye.)
The motion carries. Again, the Chair recognizes Councilman Kenney.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that Bill No. 24 090467, as amended, be reported out of this committee favorably and a request 13 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. made for rules suspension to allow for first reading at our next Council session. (Duly seconded.)
It's been moved and seconded. All in favor please say aye. (Aye.)
Hearing none, Bill No. 090467, as amended, is reported out of this committee with a favorable recommendation and the rules of Council have been suspended to allow for first reading at our next session of Council. Thank you very much. We will again recess now the meeting, go back into the public hearing, and this will be on Resolution 090759. I would ask Mr. Boyle to please read the title of that resolution.
Resolution 090759, 14 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. resolution authorizing the Committee on Law and Government to hold hearings on citizen outreach regarding the United States Census 2010 in Philadelphia and investigate options of outreach to avoid an undercount of Philadelphia citizens in the upcoming United States Census 2010 Count results.
Thank you. This resolution, which was introduced by Councilwoman Reynolds Brown, will have other hearings besides today, but we just wanted to get started in taking some testimony particularly from people from the Census Bureau. Councilwoman, did you want to say something?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the Law and Government Committee. 15 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. Today, we actually view the testimony we are going to hear as a starting point. I'm anxious to hear where the Administration is and what their plans are, with every expectation that we would do a follow-up with a more formal briefing in the new year. But given the notion that there are a number of benchmark dates that need to happen starting January 1, we wanted to get on the record early where we are now as we prepare for the 2010 census. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Councilwoman. Any questions or comments from members of the Committee? (No response.)
Seeing none, the Chair recognizes Mr. Theodore Roman from the Census Bureau. (Witness approached witness table.)
Good 16 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. morning, Mr. Roman. Just for the record, we have your testimony and it will be fully incorporated in the record. If you would like to sort of paraphrase, because we are on a little bit of a time issue -- there's a hearing coming up -- that's fine, but your whole testimony will be made part of the record.
So if you just state your name for the record and proceed. Thank you.
Good morning, Chairman Greenlee and members of the Committee on Law and Government. My name is Theodore J. Roman and I serve as the Deputy Regional Director of the United States Census Bureau in the Philadelphia region. The region comprises the states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, 11 southern counties of New Jersey and Washington, DC. The Census every ten years is 17 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. mandated by constitution beginning in 1790, and it's the largest peacetime effort that the federal government undertakes. The mission overall is mandated, as I said, to count every person living in the United States, to count them once and to count them in the right place. This Census 2010 is easy, safe and important. There are only ten questions, none of which ask for citizenship status, Social Security numbers or income. It will take approximately ten minutes to complete, but will impact the resources made available to local communities for the next ten years. By law, individual responses are kept strictly confidential for 72 years, after which they are delivered to the national archives and used primarily for genealogical research. Every Census employee takes a lifetime oath to keep all information confidential, less they be subject to a 18 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. $250,000 fine and/or five years imprisonment. The data collected by the Census helps to determine the distribution of more than $400 billion in federal funding to local communities for schools, hospitals, roads, public transportation and other social services. Furthermore, the Census data helps determine reapportionment in the United States House of Representatives and is used for redistricting across state and local governments. The Census Bureau conducts its community outreach through its Partnership Department. This department is charged with identifying trusted community voices that can help us reach our hard-to-count population. This group includes African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, low income, the disabled and those living in gated communities and college students, amongst others. We are now actively seeking partners that serve these communities in 19 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. an effort to ensure that we do reach and count every person. Partners may conduct a number of Census outreach initiatives, including forming Complete Count Committees, hosting Census events, distributing Census materials and information through their offices, websites and newsletters, or donating space to be used for training or Be Counted sites or Questionnaire Assistance Centers. These sites are locations where we can either leave a box of the questionnaires for those who believe that they may not have been counted or did not receive a questionnaire. The Questionnaire Assistance Centers are locations where our partners have allocated space for a Census Bureau employee to answer questions from the community about completing the questionnaire. From March 8th to the 10th of 2010, the United States Census Bureau will send households an advance letter, 20 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. informing them that they will soon be receiving a 2010 Census questionnaire. From March 15th to the 17th, we will be mailing a questionnaire to more than 120 million households throughout the nation. Areas with undeliverable addresses; for example, rural routes, will receive the questionnaire in person from a Census representative. 5 million households that will receive their questionnaires in that manner. Areas identified by the Bureau as having a large concentration of Latino households will receive a bilingual questionnaire. The questionnaire will be available in six languages - English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Russian and Vietnamese. Language guides are also available in 59 languages and will be distributed to partners and local communities in advance of the questionnaire mailing.
From March 22nd to the 24th, postcards will be sent to households reminding them to return their 21 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. questionnaires by Census Day. April 1st, 2010 is Census Day. From April 6th to the 15th, we will be sending replacement questionnaires to households that have not returned their forms. Towards the end of April, those households that have not returned their questionnaires will begin to receive visits from our Census enumerators, whose aim is to count every household that did not return a questionnaire. We anticipate that this operation will be completed by the end of June 2010. By December 31st, we are charged with delivering apportionment counts to the President of the United States. By March of 2011, we are required to complete delivery of redistricting to the states. The City of Philadelphia will manage its Census field operations through three local census offices - our Philadelphia Central Office at 701 Market Street, our Philadelphia Frankford Office at 6581 Roosevelt Boulevard and our 22 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. Philadelphia West location at 5070 Parkside Avenue, which is on the 4th floor. We have already begun our recruitment processes for our field operation positions and are expecting to hire approximately 1,000 individuals per office depending on the number of people that return their questionnaires. The salaries for these positions will be from $12 to $18 per hour depending on the position. A brief basic skills test is administered to all interested candidates, as well as a complete background check and fingerprinting. We have established a toll-free hotline for interested candidates to call and learn more about the positions, testing dates and qualifications. The number is 866-861-2010. And beginning this January, mid January, the Census Bureau is launching its 2010 Communication Campaign nationally. It will feature local as well as national advertisements in the 23 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. radio, television, print and non-traditional media. The campaign will be conveyed in 28 languages, again, making every effort to reach our hard-to-count and linguistically isolated communities. We've already made some significant national partners, including Best Buy, Target, MTV, BET and others, who have committed to helping us deliver the 2010 Census message to their audiences. Between mid March and Census Day of April 1st, 2010, for example, every Best Buy will feature Census commercials and PSAs on their television screens. On January 4th, 2010, the Philadelphia region will launch its 2010 Road Tour here on Independence Mall, and the event will kick off a road tour that will take an interactive Census experience into neighborhoods, festivals, large events and churches throughout the region. The itinerary for this tour as well as the local Questionnaire 24 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. Assistance Centers will be mapped online and thanks to a national partnership that we have with Google. In order to succeed in counting every person once and in the right place, we are also counting on partnering with our elected officials through the Philly Counts Program, and that's our Complete Count Campaign and your individual initiatives. We can ensure that we reach your constituents with clear messages that resonate with those issues that are most important to them. I look forward to your questions, and I thank you for your time.
Thank you, Mr. Roman. I just have one real basic question. Could you highlight maybe just two, three, whatever, things that were not done last time that you think will be particularly key in improving participation this time.
The most important 25 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. thing would be the ten questions. This is the shortest questionnaire that this Census has in its history. We're no 5 longer taking the long form questionnaire. That's done more regularly with the American Community Survey to give updated data.
The language program and the partnership program, too, are more robust than they've been in the past.
Many more languages. Our staff, too. Currently, nationally the staff that we're using for our partnership programs represent 108 languages spoken.
Thank you, 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Roman, I just want to make sure that you plan on hiring 1,000 individuals per office, meaning that you have three offices that you're going to set up for Philadelphia alone, which would mean 3,000 people?
Approximately 3,000 people. And, again, our campaign is to encourage everyone to return the questionnaire in a timely manner. Those who do not choose to return the questionnaire for whatever reason increases the amount of people that we have to hire.
And after they're interviewed and given the test and whatnot, when would they start?
The training for the enumerators, which would be our largest bulk of hiring, would take place around the end of April 2010, and our operations in the field are expected to be completed by the end of June. 27 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc.
Short term. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you very much. Good morning. Elaborate, if you will, on both the recruitment process and the hiring process and what measures are being taken to reach deep into neighborhoods to provide opportunity for those who are out of work.
Currently, our recruiting department is out working with our partners, working with the communities in the neighborhoods. We've identified what we consider to be the more difficult, hard-to-count locations, and we're focusing our attention on those 28 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. areas so that we can get a sufficient applicant pool of people that live in those communities. And then from there, we're available to come in, talk to groups, civic groups. We have a practice test that people could be -- could be administered to them to make them more comfortable before they actually take the instrument.
Any awareness, activities happening at the school level so that young people can take messages home to their parents about the importance of Census 2010?
And they're one of our strongest partners, the students. We have the Census in the Schools Program, which is online. We're already working with the Complete Count Committee from Philadelphia encouraging all of the schools to participate in that program and take the message home. So we're also working at the parochial school level as well. 29 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc.
So is that optional, meaning principals make that decision, or is that being driven by Dr. Arlene Ackerman, or what?
Dr. Ackerman is involved in the process. I don't have the information as to where the program is at this point, but it is strongly encouraged for the City.
Okay. Well, as we look towards the next briefing, it would be encouraging to know -- leadership can make it plain, but ultimately the action happens on a school-by-school basis. So my question becomes, are principals using an option to drive this Census message or is it being mandated from the top down.
And we'll have more information when we come back to be able to provide to you.
Thank you for your testimony. Now, state once again who you are and where you fall in 30 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. this big picture.
Theodore J. Roman. I'm the Deputy Regional Director for the Philadelphia Regional Census Center. We're located right here on Market Street, and we have regions throughout 8 the nation. So I am the second-level 9 director at this facility. 10
It's the entire State of Pennsylvania, the 11 southern counties of New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia.
Thank you for your testimony. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you. Any other questions, comments? 31 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. (No response.)
Is there anyone else here who would like to provide testimony today? (No response.)
-- as was stated earlier, there will be subsequent hearings and briefings on this matter, very important matter. I'm sorry. Councilman DiCicco. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Thank you. I'm sorry. About an hour ago, maybe less, I had a meeting with some representatives of the Philadelphia Water Department about some programs that they're looking to initiate, and they identify in my district, 1st Councilmanic District, that there are 167,200-and-some population, and they claim that they got that number 32 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. from the 2000 Census. Now, when we did redistricting back in '99 for the year 2000, typically a councilmanic district is supposed to represent about 150,000 people. It's not an exact number. It could be three, four thousand either way. I'm wondering how they come up with that kind of number when in the census that we use, the government census, indicated in my district that we had somewhere about 150,000 population. Would utility companies have different numbers? That seems to be that way. I'm just curious. Is there any matching of what utility companies may have with the census that your folks would be performing?
The Census Bureau collects the information based on its master address file and then we provide the information to the states after it's presented to the President. So I'm not sure what numbers the utilities are using. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Household 33 12/16/09 - LAW & GOV'T - BILL 090467, etc. that has water service based on the number of people in a household. That's a significant difference.
Our numbers are based on actually enumerating or counting every individual. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Seeing none, this hearing on Resolution 090759 will be held to the call of the Chair. (Committee on Law and Government concluded at 10:50 a.m.) - - - 34 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on December 16, 2009, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)