Yes, I do understand those concerns. I'm a parent myself. Thank you. Sorry I couldn't be 129 11/20/00 PUB. HEALTH AND SAFETY, RES. 000635 helpful.
Good evening. My name is Falaka Wright, and I'm with the Concern Parents of Philadelphia, a committee that I formed on my own, because I couldn't get any help from the District, nor the EPA, as far as the problems with the lead is concerned. I would first like to thank my committeeman, Councilmember Ortiz, because I've been dealing with this since last year, and you have been the first elected official who actually stood up and said, Hey, we're getting to have some immediate hearings on this issue because children's lives are at risk, and that's what we need to stay focused on. I would secondly like to thank Tom Ferrick of the Philadelphia Inquirer because he was my only means, number one, as being a human being; two, as a parent; and third, as a citizen, of even knowing that there was a problem in the Philadelphia School District.
We seem to -- a lot 130 11/20/00 PUB. HEALTH AND SAFETY, RES. 000635 of times, we seem to find out things from the Inquirer or from the Daily News that we should -- government should let us know about.
And the rape cases and so on in terms of the Police Department, we didn't know anything about that until the Inquirer said it, because every time they come here, everything is fine.
Yes. And Tom Ferrick has been very helpful to me throughout this process. I've been in touch with Bonnie Smith of the EPA. At that time, I was with the State legislature's Office. She called me back, she was very hostile with me and told me there wasn't a problem. I then contacted Jackie Sparkman of the superintendent's office, same thing. The only reason why people become aware of this problem now is because Mr. Ferrick's article finally hit the front page. These are articles that he just started publishing; these are articles was in the Inquirer since last year. The EPA, along with the School District, along with the Health Department, as far 131 11/20/00 PUB. HEALTH AND SAFETY, RES. 000635 as I'm concerned, are negligent, contributory negligence, because I have the right to know. The Congress felt I had a right to know when they passed legislation years ago that gave the EPA 6 the authority to monitor and enforce that these 7 tests were being done. I have the bill right 8 here, Councilman Ortiz. To enforce that this 9 procedure would be done and it would be done 10 expeditiously, not still in the year 2000, and 11 we're still talking money. That's number one. 12 Number two, the outside contractors that the District hired, which is the Keating Corporation, I have a report here from the Keating Corporation where they admitted to a lot of the samples were mislabeled or lost. They had to take their personnel and retrain them and in doing so. So how do you have a corporation that's supposed to be, you know, held to a standard, who's losing in this labeling test samples? So, therefore, we're not even sure really about the samples, the test. They openly admitted it, I have the report right here.
Can you give a copy of that? 132 11/20/00 PUB. HEALTH AND SAFETY, RES. 000635
You know, I understand what you're saying. Liability is something that we don't talk about, but it is something that if a parent can -- if a parent can say that a kid has been harmed through a problem that they have encountered in school and the school system knew about that and did not fix it, it's scary what the liability that can be ensued from there. Yes, ma'am, finish your statement.
I'm going to wrap it up. As I said, I think it's horrendous that I had to rely on the media to inform me as to my children's well-being. That's an insult. And as we all know, whenever the media is involved in any other situation, they've always been considered to speculate; so, therefore, they want facts. Well, how can you get facts when the EPA doesn't want to hand you over a test result, the School District is saying there's not a problem, the principals and staff -- the staff, teachers never even knew that they were in grave danger. That's negligence, okay? 133 11/20/00 PUB. HEALTH AND SAFETY, RES. 000635 And because of their negligence and their lack of even wanting to tell the truth about these things, I had to go out and consult with the environmental group, one being Clean Water Action, another being High Tech Waste Recycling, to help me to understand because, no, my degree is not in biomedical, scientific, or environmental issues, okay? But you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out. The facts are in, lead is bad, get rid of it, okay? So because of me consulting with these groups, they submitted a proposal to the School District in which there is a bill that State legislators passed, Act 29, which is considered the Guaranteed Energy Savings Act that will help the District in remedying this problem. There's monies available underneath this act. It's almost like a weatherization program, if you would, where people with their houses, when they get certain things, because done when Congress passed this bill, they knew that these things would -- this process would be very expensive and that's why there's monies available on the federal level and the State level. So when they are talking about 134 11/20/00 PUB. HEALTH AND SAFETY, RES. 000635 money, I have so many documents, I mean, that strictly says that this money will be appropriated as needed under the review of the EPA. So, again, I would like to thank you, Councilman Ortiz, because --
Okay, I want to thank you for sticking with it and making us aware. Thank you very much, all of you, for coming and having the patience. This committee and this resolution stands in recess until January 17, 2001, at 10 a.m. (Adjourned at 5:45 p.m.) - - - 135 C E R T I F I C A T E I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of Monday, November 20, 2000, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of same. RE: JOINT COUNCIL COMMITTEES ON PUBLIC HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES AND PUBLIC SAFETY RESOLUTION NO. 000635 __________________________________, JOSEPHINE CARDILLO, Registered Professional Reporter