Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER BARROSO: Thank you.
The Chair recognizes Councilmember Isaiah Thomas.
Good morning, Council President. Good morning, colleagues.
I'm going to try to get all my questions in in the first round, so if you guys can give me quicker responses, I could try to get everything in right now. Some of my questions were already asked by a lot of my colleagues, so I'm going to try not to be repetitive. 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Specifically looking at some of the HR issues, I'm glad to hear the advertisement and things of that capacity, but I'm wondering, and my numbers might be wrong, but you guys yourself have a percent -- 16 percent 8 of your positions are not filled as well 9 too, right? Is that correct? 10
Actually we're 14 up to now, I think it's, 91 out of the 97 15 that we're budgeted now. 16
So we made a jump there. So what we're seeing as it relates to staffing in HR is not having a negative impact on staffing across the rest of the City, correct?
We continue to push out the projects that we need to do, but...
So it is having a little effect? 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.
Okay. Got you. But when you weren't staffed up, it was having an impact on other departments across the City of Philadelphia. So can we anticipate because you're staffed up, to see some expedited processes as it relates to people being hired?
Yes. I think that, like I said earlier, I really do think we're turning a corner. I'm excited about that.
In your testimony you talked about your goal eventually being 90 days to hire civil service employees. How could we get that number down to more like 30?
We would have to completely rethink what civil service looks like within the City of Philadelphia.
Can you 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. give us something in writing that talks about what that process would consist of to be able to get City employees hired within 30 days? I'm just thinking about myself or my wife. If one of us were unemployed and it took 90 days for me to essentially be hired, the average Black and brown household can't go that long without an income unless they're on unemployment or something like that. So if you can just get us something in writing to tell us what that will look like. And even if something in writing says, Councilman, this is impossible, but if it were possible, this is what it would be, that will put us in a great position. On the procurement side, a few years ago I was able to pass legislation entitled "Keep It Local" that really talked about local spending. Coming out of the pandemic, one of the things that we wanted people to do is invest in Philadelphia. How can we ask other 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. people to invest in Philadelphia if we're not investing in Philadelphia. The previous Administration has been great partners as it relates to staying in compliance with the legislation, and we've done so well to the point whereas though we've had over 50 percent of City contracts go to Philadelphia-based businesses. Prior to the legislation, we had never seen more than 30 percent of Philly contracts go to Philly-based businesses. So clearly the legislation has worked well and clearly the previous Administration is excited about what we're doing. Your numbers talk about moving in Fiscal Year 2024-2025 to percent of 19 contracts going to M/W/DSBE businesses 20 compared to 58.9 percent from the 21 previous Administration. Why are we 22 expecting such a reduction? 23 COMMISSIONER TOMPKINS: 24 LaShawnda Tompkins, Acting Procurement 25 Commissioner. 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Can you rephrase your question again? Can you ask your question?
So our procurement numbers, in the previous Administration, the Keep It Local legislation requires the Administration to give a certain percentage of City contracts to Philadelphia-based businesses. In your testimony you looked at reducing these numbers to about percent for M/W/DSBE type businesses 13 when the last Administration was able to 14 get as high as 58.9 percent. I'm 15 wondering what's the hurdle to put us in 16 a position to maintain the numbers that 17 we had in previous Administrations? 18 COMMISSIONER TOMPKINS: So the 19 M/W/DSBE number is separate from the 20 Keeping It Local number. So the Keeping 21 It Local goal that we set for Calendar 22 Year '23 was 46 percent, and we actually 23 achieved 62 percent. So that's the 24 Keeping It Local goal. So the M/W/DSBE 25 goal is something that's set by the 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Office of Economic Opportunity, and that's at like 35 percent, but the procurement goal is overall for the City of Philadelphia, so our services, supply, and equipment, includes all the services, supply, and equipment for the City of Philadelphia.
So based on your testimony, where will our numbers be as it relates to Procurement-based initiatives for Philadelphia-based businesses as well as supporting M/W/DSBE businesses? COMMISSIONER TOMPKINS: So for the Keeping It Local goal that we're setting right now for '24 will be 47 percent, which is a trend of the previous three years. You just take the average of that. So for the M/W/DSB information, I would have to defer that question to the Office of Economic Opportunity.
Okay. That's fine, if we can get that answer, 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. right, and that will help, but I do think the 47 percent number is too low. I think that we can do a little bit better than that. I know you're giving me basically the average of the last three years, but if we are trending in the right direction, it shows that each year we've gone up higher. So if you do the average of the last three years, it would suggest that we're going to be taking steps backwards, and that's not necessarily a good thing when you look at some of the economic plights that we have. So if I'm understanding you correctly, your goal is 47 percent, but if we can reach a higher number, of course we're going to try to attain the higher number? COMMISSIONER TOMPKINS: Exactly.
Makes sense. Council President, I'm going to 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. give you some time back and I'm going to stop right there. Thank you for your support.
I want to be clear for the record. Thank you, Councilmember Jones. I'm not asking for these numbers today, because I know some of the things that we're asking for is a little complicated that's going to require some type of research. What I am asking for, just for clarity, Council President, if we can get the information before we finish our budget negotiations, so when we consider voting on the legislation, we understand exactly what the Admin wants to do with local procurement, that will be very much appreciated. I'm going to forfeit the rest of my time and I'm going to submit the rest of my questions in writing and hope that we get an answer for the rest of the 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. questions before we finish budget negotiations. Thank you for your support, Councilman, and of course thank you, Council President.
And Councilmember Thomas, I do think we are aligned in that we want to strive for robust goals to increase our local business participation, absolutely.
I mean, I want to be clear. I agree with you 100 percent, and if I didn't, I probably would have another five or ten questions to be able to push the needle, but I really want to commend the Admin for not just keeping into compliance with the legislation but recognizing that when we invest in local businesses, it puts us in a position to allow our businesses to grow, mature, and do the best that they can. 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Philadelphia-based businesses are more likely to hire Philadelphians as well too, so when we look at over percent of the City living in poverty, 6 this is our way to kind of indirectly put 7 a dent in that. 8 So thank you, Council 9 President. 10
12 Anti-poverty plan, jobs. 13 The Chair recognizes 14 Councilwoman Jamie Gauthier. 15
Thank 16 you, Council President. 17 I wanted to ask about overtime. 18 I know that one of the results of having 19 23 percent of our positions open is 20 increased overtime, and the City saw its overtime pay cost increase by 25 percent over three years to 258 million in FY23. In particular, police officers and firefighters have logged high overtime hours, which carries not only a high 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. monetary cost but a high risk of burnout and potentially dangerous scenarios where emergency services are not delivered at their highest level. So I wanted to ask, what are the anticipated FY24 overtime levels and is there an overarching strategy to combat burnout among overworked employees?
I'm going to address the latter. An overarching strategy, yes. We are committed to improving the delta, right? As Mike spoke to earlier, we are now realizing pre-COVID numbers -- I think that's fair to say -- in terms of the ratio of new hires to separations. And so we are trending in a much better direction in that space, making sure that our departments are staffed, particularly our departments that are trauma informed. But beyond that, our overarching objective here is to create a culture that is attendant to not only do 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. you have the equipment that you need to do your job, but are we creating a space, whether it's mental health support or it's physical support or it is training and development, that we're creating culture of equity, EEO compliance that will address some of the concerns. So when we put the two together, when we put together this is a culture of an expectation that the workforce is of value, right, that we're going to invest in our workforce, which I think that is very clear in at least the EO that has been published at the very beginning of the Parker Administration and very clear in the strategies and the work that is being done out of CAO, that our overarching responsibility here is to create a culture where our employees can thrive.
How are individual departments supported in creating that environment that you described? 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.
So one of the first things that I think is important is policy, making sure that we are standing up policies citywide that are clear on the expectation of how we treat our employees, a citywide EEO policy that's going to be launched very shortly here, a citywide ADA policy that is going to be launched very soon. We are looking at different things citywide, such as the way we administer our sick leave. We are in continuous negotiations with our municipal unions about the benefits that we provide. And so there are a lot of things that go into this that are citywide and will also impact, of course, the individual departments. That is to me step one, and that support that an individual department or an individual appointing authority has to point to citywide policies and practices is significant. 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.
Thank you. I'm glad that last year was the first year that we hired more people than we lost, but I was also wondering as we go about the important job of continuing to fill these vacancies, what kind of assessment do we do by job type to make sure that the job is as competitive and attractive as possible? And the reason why I ask that is because in my work as a Councilmember, I've had the opportunity to like zone in on certain jobs. So, for instance, when we were doing JustServicesPHL and trying to improve quality of life services, we focused on L&I inspectors, and we learned that there were a number of things that made that job less attractive, from having to use your personal car to pay in the City versus pay in the counties. As we worked to advocate for more resources for 9-1-1 dispatchers, we learned that not only was pay an issue 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. but the ability to move up in the pipeline as well as the amount of stress that those jobs carry. And I think you can go job by job, whether we're talking about a correction officer, for instance, or other jobs within the City, and there may be very specific reasons why people are not finding those jobs attractive. So how are we going about looking at each job and making sure that we're understanding our troubles with hiring and that we're making changes to those positions so that we don't find ourself in the same place?
Thank you for that question. I love that question. At the end of the day, I think we probably can all agree that compensation by itself does not -- is not a determinant as to whether a job is considered to be the job, right? And employee satisfaction is not exclusively driven by compensation. Our FY25 budget includes a program called Qualtrics. That program 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. to me has a very robust -- it's an assessment tool. It's a survey pool, an employee engagement survey tool. Our intention is to launch that citywide in May of 2024. We've already done an exempt employee run of that in September of 2023, and the output from that is very refined. It allows us to aggregate by position title. It allows us to aggregate across the demography of our City workforce. It allows us to aggregate by departments, by age. And so there's a lot of information that we can extrapolate from that survey and those results, and it also produces a guide of sorts that appointing authorities will be able to use to hone in on where operational decisions or environmental or culture adjustments can be made.
Are we allowed to see any of that? I just want to understand --
So I will be able to share with you some of the results from the exempt workforce pilot that we ran in September of '23.
Thank you so much. Could I get one more or no? It's super quick. I just wanted to go back with my colleague to this issue of the Operations Transformation Fund. I understand that you're saying that great projects came out of that fund that have been embedded in the City, but are we suggesting that we're like done innovating now, like that's enough, or is there another place where folks can go, our City workers can go and agencies can go to support innovation, right, and the development of new services and new processes?
So that is the work of CAO. We have the City of 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Philadelphia's Service Design Studio embedded in CAO. We also have the Strategic Design Group that works within CAO, right? So by no stretch am I suggesting that innovation stops. What I'm suggesting and what I know to be the case is that the work of the CAO includes constant reinvention, constant looking forward of our processes, our enterprise resource planning to ensure that we are looking at innovative, transformative approaches to doing the work that we've been doing.
But I guess I don't understand where -- that was a fund that people could go to to resource these projects.
They're coming to CAO, because we are service oriented, and departments can come to us and -- for 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. example, I think it's the work -- the Digital Workforce Transformation team. If a department wants to digitize a manual process that exists within its processes and operations now, they come to us and we walk them through that, right? So not only are we doing the day-to-day work of managing services, but we're also providing service to our departmental partners.
So you think you have just as much capacity as you had with the fund to do that work now?
Well, we don't have the exact same capacity, but the work of the departmental -- the CAO departmental staff that was supporting the Operational Transformation Fund group or cohorts, those individuals are still within CAO. That talent is still within the CAO.
Thank you. 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Thank you, Council President.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Anthony Phillips.
Good morning. Thank you, Council President Johnson. The first question I have goes towards the Chief Administrative Office. I wanted to -- just a quick question. Do you have community ambassadors within your department?
And one of the things that your office is charged with is to make sure that services are high quality and streamlined for residents in the City of Philadelphia, correct?
So one of the things that all of us as City Councilmembers get hit on the head with 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. all the time is about the importance of us being inside the community and listening to the community before we make decisions. You're ultimately -- I want to learn, how do you make the decisions for the community around what should be streamlined, what should be efficient when it comes to City services without inputting yourself into the community or having a budget line item in the budget that will reflect your community process?
Sure. I'm also going to ask DeWayne Gordon, my First Deputy CAO, to join us, but what I will say is that the work that we're doing particularly around the service delivery executive order includes partnering with our community groups, soliciting input and feedback from the community. You know, one of the wonderful things about the way the Administration's organization is transforming is the 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. creation of the different offices that are the touchstone to different communities within the City and partnering with those offices as we develop the delivery EO. The delivering improvement process is an essential part of how we're going to build out and improve those services.
I just want to -- it is -- you're forecasting, right, in terms of what the future looks like, but your budget doesn't reflect that forecast, right? Who is going to be doing that particular work? Because it appears that we have an ivory tower approach to this work as opposed to what you think the residents want as opposed to getting it from the ground up. And what I know about Cherelle Parker is that she always makes decisions from the ground up. So I think that this is going to be really important that we have a decision -- we have a process in this 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. budget -- have numbers in this budget from your office that reflects ground up decisions when it comes to the residents part.
So DeWayne Gordon, First Deputy CAO. So one of the things that we've done over the past six and a half years since I've been here is that we work hand in hand with a lot of departments. And so with that, some of these projects that we've taken on has been around how do we improve services that impact the community. And so even though we don't have the resources to be in the community as it stands right now, we work hand in hand with a lot of departments in that regard.
I just want to suggest maybe part of your budget amendment is to make those resources so you can be a part of the community. Because if you're not at the community meetings and hearing what I'm hearing 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. about transparency when it comes to speed cushions, how are you going to evaluate the Streets Department when you're not in the community? And you're hearing about L&I and their response time. How are you going to evaluate the License and Inspections Department? This is -- you can't -- we're feeling the heat. I need y'all to feel the heat too.
Yes. We do right now. I will say to you that all of the work that we're doing to improve our services must include a component of outreach to the community, right? Some of the work that I've done in the past includes a delivery -- a deliberative democracy model whereas you not just survey, right, you're not just sending a survey out to residents or you're not just paying them to complete a survey, but what you're doing is you're pulling them into cohorts, you're pulling them into spaces and having facilitated 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. conversations around whatever the subject matter might be. All of those options are part of the work that we're doing to improve service.
Absolutely. And I just want to ask this because -- and I'll go one at a time. For our Human Resources Department is also connected to community -- my question is also connected to community engagement, because the reality is that there are 6,200 or so jobs that are available in civil services and so forth, but have we thought about innovatively how we can begin to take high school seniors who are now not -- a lot of them are not going to college and potentially have a training center within our rec centers? I know we're doing Municipal College that's coming up, but there's other ways in which we can work to get these jobs filled that I'm not sure if we're taking a large level of community 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. approach to ensuring that people are prepared for that exam. Like how are we preparing folks for that examination and do people know that these trainings exist?
Thank you, Councilperson. We are trying to get out in the community more. We do actually hold events at times. We have to improve and increase on trying to help people process through our application process, and love to partner with your office to get some additional feedback from your office, as with other Councilpeople, on how we can do a better job with that. One of the things Camille mentioned is our mobile lab that we're going to want to go out into the community that will actually be a small piece of being able to help people actually sit down and apply for jobs as opposed to just throwing them into a website. We also partner with the School 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. District and try to hold events with the School District, CCP on how to sort of navigate our application process. It's still more that we have to do, so I'm not going to say we're doing everything that needs to be done. It's just a lot of work, and I think that we're going to see more of that as we move into the communities and have an even more presence within the communities and as we bring this body into what we're doing in the communities so that you can also assist, make sure people are getting to our events even more than they have.
I very much appreciate the comment, and I think much to your point, there is -- I don't think that any endeavor to improve service to our community can be successful if we are not leveraging the information from our community members who are experiencing it, right? There is room to, of course, have conversation about whether a 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. specific individual or individuals who are embedded might be able to provide -- might be a consideration down the road, but we have built in programs and processes through the Service Design Studio, who created the Equitable Engagement Toolkit, and that toolkit was specifically meant to address things just like this, how are we as employees of the City of Philadelphia, how are we reaching out, what are the best practices on how we reach out, how we make sure that that outreach, that contact is equitable, that it's inclusive. And so we have built and we continue to build processes and protocols in our service delivery that address some of the concerns that I think you have.
I have just one last question, Council President. For the Office of Information Technology, we have a brand new chief I'm excited for. Just wanted to ask how can 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. City Council better interface with the Office of Information Technology? What are ways that we can better support you in your new endeavor as to the new chief? (Witness approached witness table.)
Melissa Scott, Chief Information Officer for the City of Philadelphia. Thank you, Councilman Phillips. That's a really good question. We have a lot of new initiatives that we're bringing forth in the department. One of them would be recruiting. So I know that's a hot topic today, and maybe -- I think the suggestion of our CAO was great where working with the different Councilmembers to identify areas where we could attend career fairs, job fairs. We are in the process of hiring a new recruiter in our department to address our deficiency in our DEIs. So I think that would be a great opportunity to partner with the Councilmembers to 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. identify constituents that qualify for different positions in our department.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Kendra Brooks.
Thank you, Council President and colleagues here. Some of my questions were already asked, but I do have a few more. One is about among City workers, men are paid more than women, and white workers make more than members of any other racial or ethnic group. In a 2018 Pew study, Black employees accounted for 81 percent of all service and maintenance workers. The job category is the lowest median salary. On the other hand, Black employees represented only 32 percent of officials and administrators wherein the 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. median salary was the highest. How have these numbers changed since the last compiled data was published and how is the City addressing this issue?
So, Councilmember, thank you for the question. We'd be happy to provide more recent data on our workforce diversity, what it looks like. I will say that the efforts that we are taking to again improve pathways within the City's workforce, and so we've spoken quite a bit about recruitment, but an issue that to me is equally as important is what are we doing for the workforce that we have now, right? How are we empowering them now to make decisions to acquire skills and to move within the City's government. We have one of the most diverse workforces, but to your point, is that diversity being realized across all levels of government? Our intention here is with not only the work that we're 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. doing with the executive order on improving economic opportunity, but the work that we're doing within CAO to focus almost exclusively in some cases on our internal responsibilities and creating more communication around pathways, what positions can lead to positions of higher responsibility, higher authority, what skills do you need to acquire, when should you acquire those skills, how can we support you acquiring those skills. We are doing a lot of work to make sure that we're positioning ourselves in a much more affirmative and proactive position to instill that information and convey that information to our workforce.
And one of the things you talked about was internal processes, and the reason why this question came up, because I have had several occasions with City employees feeling like the bar is moved just when they hit it and primarily as Black women 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. that have been part of City agencies for multiple years, and then when they meet the max of their salary and it's time to move up, now it's a degreed position when before they were there, that wasn't even an option. And I would really love for you guys to look deeply into your internal processes, because these are things that don't go public. These are phone calls that we get from everyday City employees that have been faithful in working for the City. And it reduces the morale when just when you hit the peak, the bar has changed. And we understand that far too well primarily for Black women in the workforce, and the City should not be carrying on these same efforts as well. So as you look in those internal processes, it would be good if it's like documented in a way for people to report such issues rather than calling me or catching me at church.
Absolutely. 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Yes. And we would love to work more closely with your office and share our endeavors in that space.
And my next question is about the work-from-home policy. So I'm concerned about the impact of the Administration's return to office policies and the effect they can have on workers, especially caregivers and mothers. I know many people love the work that they do for the City, but need time saved from commuting and flexibility that occasional work from home provides to care for children and family members, and according to the studies, one-fifth of U.S. workers are family caregivers and nearly a third have to quit a job because of their caregiving responsibilities. With the change in the work-from-home policy, do you expect to have fewer parents and caregivers working for the City, and how will this impact our vacancy rate and perspectives brought 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. around the City's policy? And another part of that, the return-to-work policy has been discussed as a way to provide profits to Center City businesses. Have you also examined the impact of the return-to-work policy on businesses outside of Center City where most of our workers live?
So we're looking at all aspects of return to the office work policy, right? We want to make sure that we are taking a holistic approach to this effort. To that end, there is great responsibility on our part again to create supports to all of our employees, employees who have been working remotely and are returning and employees who have been working without work from home as an option. We are looking at a number of benefits. And, respectfully, I am mindful of my responsibilities under labor law to have some of these 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. conversations with the union, but at the same time, there's nothing that is off the table, right? We want to make sure that we are supporting our employees across the board, whether that includes creating additional benefits such as Just in Time care, things like that. So we are looking broadly at how we can mitigate any concerns, how we can increase value to our employees' compensation, and how we can ensure that as our employees return to the office, we have created a culture that supports them.
Thank you. I appreciate that, and one of the things when I think about caregiver, I think about my own situation being the sandwich generation. So you have aging parents that you are still caring for and responsible for their care and needs, but you also have young children and grandchildren that you're helping support as well, and we need to make sure that 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. the City is taking into account that I'm not the only one with that story. I'm certain a good or 30 percent of people 5 in this room are a part of that same 6 generation where we're caring for our 7 parents and for young people in our 8 family, and we need to make sure that we 9 make it easier for folks that just aren't 10 in Administration, high level staff. We 11 need to make sure those same privileges 12 are afforded to the folks that work 13 underneath us as well. 14
And one 17 of my last questions is real quick. I 18 know that David Wilson, President DC47, 19 had recently in an article talked about 20 the removal of the hybrid will diminish 21 the morale of City workers. Do you think 22 that this change in policy would have an 23 impact on morale or retention? 24
I think morale 25 and retention is a multi-faceted 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. proposition, right? There are a lot of things that impact morale. There are many things that impact retention. I will say if you look purely at numbers, during the height of the pandemic when a more significant number of our employees were working from home, we had some of the same concerns with morale. We had some of the same concerns with mental health, over-scheduling, lack of direct contact with the supports that we need. So we're taking, again, a very broad approach, making sure that we are creating a culture that is supportive of all of our employees regardless of where they work, but more so understanding that there are concerns that have been raised relative to our employees returning to the office and that we're being attendant to those.
She said, have a good one. That's what's up. Love the energy. So we are now officially into Round 2. I just had a couple of questions. Part of the Parker Administration's largest single proposed investment in the FY25 to '30 Recommended Capital Program is 280 million of new general obligation funding as part of a 500 million overall commitment for a street repaving and ADA ramp reconstruction, and folks have been calling my office off the hook wanting to be a part of making Philadelphia part of the safest, cleanest, greener city in America, with economic opportunity for everyone, but particularly around cleaner and greener. What are we doing to eliminate 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. barriers and increase opportunities for diverse businesses to have the opportunity to participate? I'm talking about the concrete construction companies, the Black and brown and women-owned companies that go out day in and day out that do this type of work. And we know that typical folks like the Keatings of the world and other companies, they usually get this business consistently. So I know they're kind of licking their chops because it's like business as usual, but we have an emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion. And so what's the Administration's plan to make sure that this 500 million over the next five years is equally distributed across the City of Philadelphia? COMMISSIONER TOMPKINS: Good morning again. LaShawnda Tompkins, Acting Procurement Commissioner. So what the Procurement 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Department is doing is, we're working across departments to understand what their forecasted opportunities are. When we receive that information, we share that out in workshops when we have workshops and events. We're also collaborating with the Office of Economic Opportunity on their monthly Doing Business in the City Workshop. We do understand that some of the barriers are related to the process of completing the application, so we do provide training during that workshop on PHLContracts, which is the City's system for services, supplies, and equipment and public works, and we also offer information in regards to our eContract Philly system with professional services so to aid in that technical assistance piece. We also speak at different engagements that the chambers may have at The Enterprise Center and other events to ensure that we have open communication around any of the opportunities that are 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. coming out.
Okay. Thank you very much. For the Office of Innovation and Technology, Ms. Scott, can you please come back up, please. (Witness approached witness table.)
Just a couple questions regarding OIT. In your testimony, it cites that the increase in positions requested is due to the expansion of the City's video surveillance system and filling positions in public safety, innovation, the IT Support Center, OPAL, and departmental services supporting CAO and Revenue. Can you just give us an update on how many positions that will be requested? And then also I know some time ago we did a hearing regarding surveillance cameras here in the City of Philadelphia as a way to address crime and public safety, and at that time, it 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. was discovered that there was a shortage of individuals actually manning those particular cameras. And so hopefully this will be a part of that strategy, but can you give us an update on the number of positions that will be hired?
Currently we have a vacancy for 75 positions. And as far as the cameras, we do need additional assistance when it comes to installing the cameras. Currently there's 1,458 wired cameras installed. That's 835 for the Police Department, for our safe play zones 283, illegal dumping 247, and traffic 93. We are planning to install an additional 200 cameras, which will bring us to 1,658 by July of 2024. We know that there is an increased -- Councilmembers would like to have more cameras installed, and we know that that requires additional funding, but what we currently have in place for FY25 would allow us to install 200 additional by 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. July of 2024.
And do y'all have a rubric on how these cameras will be distributed per Council district/City of Philadelphia neighborhoods?
So we do have record of where they are in reference to our safe play zones. In the recreation centers there's 137, and then the School District, 146. And it's quite an extensive list, so I can definitely get that information through the Chair, if you would like, or if you have a specific area, I can pull that out.
If you can give us the overall list just broken down per Council district, that would be very helpful.
And then also give us an opportunity to compare. About maybe a year and a half, maybe two years ago members of this body stood outside of John Bartram High School and we also did a significant investment for cameras to be placed around schools here in the City of Philadelphia, probably the schools that are most, quote/unquote, in high crime areas. And so it will be good to kind of compare what's actually been implemented versus what's being proposed as we move forward.
So that would be very, very helpful. Also, in terms of WiFi here in City Hall per Council offices and just overall inside the building, we know that you're working on a proposal to create a Council WiFi for City-owned devices and not personal devices. Can you just elaborate on that particular project? And then also I just want to 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. get an idea of currently, from my understanding, the process to get rid of old computers is that we put it out to bid for a company to purchase them and recycle them, and want to advocate to see if there's a way that we can donate those computers, which I'm pretty sure is in pretty good condition, to those who are most in need to help us bridge the digital divide.
So as far as City Council is concerned, your services for your computers are handled by the Kimball Group. We can work in conjunction with them to see what we can do to make sure that we upgrade your computers, but we do have to work through them in order to complete that task.
Okay. That part I am aware of. Just want to get an idea of what the status was. That's all.
I will definitely have to get back to you and get a 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. response through the Chair.
Okay. And then also in terms of OIT and the Procurement Department in terms of how we put out old computers for bid for recycling versus us having an opportunity to donate them to individuals and organizations most in need as a way to address the digital divide, can someone just give us an idea on how we can go from having them go out for bid for recycling versus actually doing a moral good by donating them to organizations and individuals most in need?
So I'm not sure if this exactly answers your question, but through our PhillyConnectED organization or unit within our department, we have distributed computers to individuals in need, in addition to providing 23,000 households with internet access and some various other opportunities for the 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. community. So I'm not sure that that answers your question exactly. There's a program. It's a recycling and refurbishing program. Within two years of funding through the DLA and OIT, we connected with PCs for People, and we scaled up devices by recycling them, refurbishing, and providing tech support. We distributed a total of 1,254 devices.
So for the record, we are donating computers to organizations that are most in need and individuals, correct?
Okay. In your testimony you also cited that OIT will initiate implementation of a complete software and hardware upgrade of the City's 800 MHz radio system. First I want you to explain to me what is an 800 MHz radio system. Scoping of the effort has begun with procurements to begin in FY25. As 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. noted in the department's budget detail, the FY25 proposal includes million in 4 new Class 300 and 400 funding. 5 Can you please detail when this project will be complete and what is the budget for each year?
Let's start with the radio, though. What's a MHz radio?
So the 800 megahertz radio system is the primary source of communication through the Fire Department, Police, and EMS. So it's managed and supported by OIT Public Safety Unit.
The system supports 68 different agencies, so Fire, Police, Prisons, Amtrak, and SEPTA, and over 17,000 portable radios; includes ten radio sites, two 9-1-1 centers, six remote dispatch sites, and 76 radio 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. consoles. Considered a mission of critical solution with the up time being required of 99.999 percent, meaning less than 28 seconds of downtime in any given month. You asked another question. I do have an answer for you.
-- 300 and 400 funding, and when will the project be complete and the budget for each year.
I would like to bring up Nadine Dodge, who runs -- she's the Deputy CIO for Public Safety to answer that question. (Witness approached witness table.)
Hi. Good morning. Nadine Dodge, Deputy CIO, Public Safety. So we are receiving $5 million a year to refresh the portable radios 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. worn by Fire, Prisons, and Police. That is 35 million total. So divided over those years we'll be refreshing all of the inventory for those radios.
Question, why wouldn't this fall under like the Police Department's budget or Fire Department's budget and it comes under OIT? Just asking. The same when like we fund their body cameras, right, and other equipment that they're requesting, why would this be separate?
Well, so the OIT manages the 800 megahertz system historically. We work very closely with our Police, Fire, and Prisons partners to make sure that we understand the priority for distributing those radios and work with our vendors to get them programmed and distributed. So I couldn't tell you historically why that falls under OIT.
Okay. All right. Just was wondering. That's all I have. 4/2/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. The Chair recognizes Councilman Nicholas O'Rourke.
Thank you, Council President. I actually was, in that same line, curious about for Office of Human Resources Class 200 budget decreased by 5.5 million due to shifts in funding for public safety advertising. Can you describe a little bit more the nature of the shift itself?