COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, April 2, 2025 10:15 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT KENYATTA JOHNSON COUNCILWOMAN NINA AHMAD COUNCILWOMAN CINDY BASS COUNCILWOMAN KENDRA BROOKS 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 ISAIAH THOMAS COUNCILMAN JEFFREY YOUNG, JR. BILLS: 250195, 250196, 250197, 250198, 250199, 250200, 250201, 250202, 250210, 250211, 250212 RESOLUTION: 250214 - - -
This is the public hearing and public meeting of the Committee of the Whole regarding Bill Nos. 250195, 250196, 250197, 250198, 250199, 250200, 250201, 250202, 250210, 250211, 250212 and Resolution No. 250214. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the roll to take attendance.
Present. Thank you. A quorum of the Committee is present and this hearing is now called to order. Ms. Loughead, will you please read the titles of the resolutions.
Bill No. 16 250195, an ordinance amending Chapter 19-1500 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Wage and Net Profits Tax," by revising certain tax rates, under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250196, an ordinance adopting the Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2026. Bill No. 250197, an ordinance to adopt a Fiscal 2026 Capital Budget. Bill No. 250198, an ordinance to adopt a Capital Program for the six Fiscal Years 2026-2031 inclusive. Bill No. 250199, an ordinance amending Chapter 19-2600 of The Philadelphia Tax Code, entitled "Business Income and Receipts Taxes," to revise certain tax rates and end certain exclusions from the tax on receipts, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250200, an ordinance amending Chapter 12-100 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Traffic Code" to revise the fee for the use of parking meters, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250201, an ordinance amending Chapter 19-1800 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "School Tax Authorization," to provide for an increase in the tax of the Board of Education of the School District of Philadelphia is authorized to impose on real estate; and amending Chapter 8 19-1300, entitled "Real Estate Taxes," to establish an equivalent reduction the tax rate for the City real estate tax, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250202, an ordinance amending Chapter 19-1806 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Authorization of Realty Use and Occupancy Tax," to eliminate certain exemptions, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250210, an ordinance amending Section 10-1001 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Fees of the Commissioner of Records," to increase the portion of fees for the recording of deeds and mortgages in related documents to be used for Housing Trust Fund purposes, under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250211, an ordinance amending Chapter 19-1400 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Realty Transfer Tax" revising the rate of the tax, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 250212, an ordinance to amend Chapter 19-4400 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Development Impact Tax" to end imposition of the tax, under certain terms and conditions. Resolution No. 250214, resolution providing for the approval by the Council of the City of Philadelphia of a Revised Five Year Financial Plan for the City of Philadelphia covering Fiscal Years 2026-2030, and incorporating revisions with respect to Fiscal Year 2025, 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 bills read by the Clerk that constitute proposed operating capital spending measures for Fiscal Year 2026, a Capital Program and a Forward-looking Capital Plan for Fiscal Year 2026 through Fiscal Year 2031. This morning we have scheduled testimony from the Office of Clean and Green, which includes Sanitation and the Philadelphia Energy Authority. This afternoon we have scheduled testimony from the Department of Streets, Water and Aviation. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the first two witnesses to testify from the Administration.
Yes. We have Director of Office of Clean and Green and the Commissioner for Sanitation. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)
Well, before we get started I want to thank Commissioner Crystal Jacobs. I want to thank Director of Clean and Green Mr. Carlton Williams for always picking up my phone call when I call as it relates to cleaning and greening the city of Philadelphia, for being out in the community on the front line every time we need to address the issues of cleaning and greening our neighborhood. So I just want to state for the record we know y'all have a big job ahead of you that y'all have already started, but just thank you for being here today and just want to commend the two of you as well for your work. Also, want to acknowledge your Deputy Keith Warren. I want to thank him because I call him at all hours of the night asking him for support in terms of addressing different issues throughout the District as well as your liaison and counsel also, Mr. Omar Salaam, I see over there as well. Thank him for his hard work, his dedication as well. And so, I just want to start off and say those things first and foremost. And then you can just state your name. And, Crystal, welcome back. It's always good to see staffers go on to do great things and rise from staff to Commissioner. And both of us have little ones that are the same age. And so, we kind of grew up in this process to govern. So with that being said, I'll turn it over to the two of you. The floor is yours.
Thank you, Mr. President. And good morning, President Johnson and the members of City Council. I am Carlton Williams, Director of Office of Clean and Green. Joining me today are our Commissioner Crystal Jacobs Shipman, Sanitation Commissioner; Casey Kuklick, Deputy Director of Clean and Green; Mary Stitt, Deputy Director for Clean and Green and Strategic Initiatives; Keith Warren, Deputy Commissioner for Sanitation; and Chris Newman, Deputy Commissioner for Administration. I am pleased to provide testimony on the Office of Clean and Green and Sanitation's Fiscal Year 2026 operating budget. The Honorable Mayor Cherelle L. Parker's vision is to ensure that Philadelphia is the safest, cleanest, greenest big city in the nation with access to economic opportunity for all. On her first 100 days, Mayor Parker released a 100-day action plan to help implement the vision for the City. And I am pleased to report that the Office of Clean and Green has made outstanding progress towards implementing Mayor Parker's vision and action plan objectives. In May of 2024, Mayor Parker signed an Executive Order establishing the Office of Clean and Green and a Clean and Green cabinet charged with providing recommendations to the Administration to address some of the most challenging quality-of- life issues. A report has already been submitted by the Clean and Green cabinet with recommendations that are currently being reviewed by the Administration that will be published following review. The Office of Clean and Green has also successfully implemented multiple and comprehensive key initiatives approved and funded in the passage of the FY25 budget by City Council to address quality-of-life issues throughout the city using the Mayor's goal of developing a proactive intergovernmental strategy that residents can see, touch and feel. In June 2024, the Office of Clean and Green launched the One Philly, United City Citywide Cleanup. Over a 13-week period, more than a dozen government and quasi government agencies worked together to address multiple quality-of-life issues in every neighborhood block-by-block. These agencies included Sanitation, Streets, CLIP, the Community Life Improvement Program, Commerce, PHL TCB, Parks and Recreation, Licenses and Inspections, the Philadelphia Police Department, the Philadelphia Water Department, the Philadelphia Parking Authority, the School District of Philadelphia, the Mural Arts Program, SEPTA and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. The Cleaning program was a tremendous success and is now standard operating procedure for the city of Philadelphia. The One Philly, United City Citywide Cleanup will now be conducted twice per year in every neighborhood over a 13-week period. The One Philly Cleanup has performed over 110,000 quality- of-life services to date, and we use the work performed during the One Philly Cleanup to establish a new community appearance index that aggregates in ways quality-of-life issues, starting with illegal dumping by zip code. The CAI will ensure that we provide equitable services and know where they are needed the most. The Sanitation Department, under the leadership of Commissioner Shipman, has launched and executed several other initiatives designed to reduce litter and illegal dumping. This includes the establishment and implementation of the City's first ever Council District Residential Cleaning program, which has already cleaned over 35,000 blocks in all 10 Council Districts in the city of Philadelphia to improve the quality of life for all citizens.
The highly successful piloting of the first ever twice- per-week collections operation in South Philadelphia and Center City that provides additional collection day for residents living in densely-populated communities that continue the expansion of mechanical streetsweeping in our most litter-challenged sections of the city, the ongoing installation on the expansion of a 1500 BigBelly solar-powered trash cans that will be placed along commercial corridors to reduce the amount of litter and trash for pedestrians in commercial districts, and the reintroduction of the Citywide Bulk Collections program that's collected over 5000 items since the program launched in October of 2024. All of these new programs have begun to show very promising results. Data from 311 shows the number of illegal dumping complaints have dropped nearly 20% across the city this year compared to last year. Notably, the complaints in South Philadelphia and Center City, where twice-a-week collections was introduced in December, has dropped by close to 30%, outpacing the citywide decrease. Graffiti complaints, abandoned automobile removals, pothole requests have all decreased significantly as well. CLIP and PHS are great partners in our fight against litter and illegal dumping. CLIP and PHS have cleaned over 17,000 lots through just two citywide cleanups. With Mayor Parker's investment, PHS has, for the first time, expanded the LandCare program to clean more than 12,000 lots year-round, creating full-time jobs. The expansion has been extremely successful and helpful in preventing illegal dumping in open spaces. CLIP, under the leadership of Tom Conway, has also been very effective in maintaining vacant lots and removing graffiti. In addition to lot cleaning, CLIP has removed over 185,000 graffiti locations in 2024. 311 complaints for graffiti has decreased dramatically over 35% from the previous year. The TCB, Taking Care of Business, program is a key component of the Administration's clean and green efforts and is certainly a brain child of our mayor, Mayor Cherelle Parker. TCB is managed by the City's Commerce Department and funds community- based nonprofits to sweep sidewalks and remove litter with neighborhood commercial corridors. TCB crews in uniform on a fixed regular schedule and in many cases clean every day of the week. TCB has expanded since January 2024 adding more areas, more hours of coverage and more workers. 39 TCB organizations currently clean 155 commercial corridors in the city and employ more than 324 City cleaning ambassadors. Later this spring the program will expand to serve more than new areas in the city. TCB 5 workers and organizations are 6 making a visible difference in 7 Philadelphia's busiest neighborhood 8 business areas and complement the 9 expanding cleaning work done by 10 City personnel. 11 Enforcement is a 12 critical component to reducing and 13 preventing illegal dumping 14 throughout our city and we are 15 extremely pleased with the 16 partnership we have with our 17 Streets, Law and Police 18 Departments. 19 Our investment in 20 surveillance cameras strategically placed in known illegal dumping hot spots is an effective partnership with the police department using their existing camera, has resulted in increased arrests and decreased dumping across the city. And finally, we're extremely pleased with our Law Department's newly ramped-up efforts to combat illegal dumping. This is the result of the release legislation passed by City Council, which also allows the department to use civil procedures to fine dumpers up to $5,000 per item per incident. This new procedure has been the cornerstone in our efforts to prevent illegal dumping and to hold violators accountable. The combination of these programs launched in our first year of the Parker Administration is making a significant difference and a positive impact on litter, illegal dumping and other quality-of-life issues across the city.
We could have not have made this progress without the support of the honorable members of City Council who passed the budget and legislation to help improve the quality of life for all residents who live, work and visit our city. Together we are making Philadelphia safer, cleaner and greener. Thank you for the opportunity to testify and we will be happy to answer any questions for this testimony hearing. Now, I'd like to ask Sanitation Commissioner Crystal Jacobs Shipman for introductory testimony on behalf of the Sanitation Department. COMMISSIONER JACOBS SHIPMAN: Good morning, President Johnson and members of City Council. I am Crystal Jacobs Shipman, Commissioner for the Department of Sanitation. Joining me today are Keith Warren, Deputy Commissioner for Sanitation; Christopher Newman, Deputy Commissioner for Administration; Omar Salaam, Director for Strategic Initiatives; Scott McGrath, Environmental Planning Director; Kyle Lewis, Recycling Director; and Maria Vamvakidou, Sanitation Program Administrator. C. 33 Vice-president Antoine Little. I'm here today to provide testimony on the Sanitation Department's Fiscal Year 2026 operating budget. The FY26 total General Fund budget request establishes 180 million in funding for the recently-created Sanitation Department. This proposed budget reflects Mayor Cherelle Parker's deep commitment towards making Philadelphia the safest, cleanest and greenest big city in America with economic opportunity for all, and further augments the expansive clean and green investments made by the Mayor and this Council last fiscal year. This budget proposal includes over 8 million in new FY26 funding, much of which is dedicated towards continuing to build on the successes of our new and highly ambitious Clean and Green initiatives. I cannot overstate my pride in the success and accomplishments of the men and women of this Sanitation Department during the past year and their clear and highly visible dedication towards keeping Philadelphia clean and green. Our litter management reduction and enforcement efforts have been unprecedented and demonstrate what is possible when a highly-resourced, comprehensive and strategic vision is established and executed. In less than one fiscal year, the Sanitation Department has effectively launched multiple highly, ambitious and consequential new initiatives and significantly expanded several other major programs. While Director Williams referenced these in his opening remarks, I want to take this opportunity to further expound on these accomplishments. Our Council District Residential Cleaning program represents the very first time an assigned sanitation crew presence exclusively dedicated and responsive to the residents and businesses of their assigned District communities. This has not only borne tremendous early results, but ensures each District will have appropriately-resourced sanitation operations, meeting the unique needs in each area of our city at all times. Over 35,000 blocks in all Council Districts have 10 already been cleaned since September. The twice-weekly trash collections pilot initiative in South Philadelphia has been equally impressive. So much so that we are already laying the groundwork for expanding this to North Philadelphia. We have greatly expanded our neighborhood mechanical street cleaning operation, covering the gaps between areas of the city and ensuring continuous coverage where it is needed most. In addition, we now have a comprehensive four-crew bulk collections operation, expanding our illegal dumping crew operations from four to six, significantly increased our sanitation enforcement staffing and have greatly expanded our solar-powered BigBelly trash compactor units to its greatest extent in the history of the department. Simply put, the Sanitation Department has delivered spectacularly on the investments Mayor Parker and this Council provided us this fiscal year.
We are very proud of the remarkable strides we've made thus far and are poised and excited to embark on plans moving forward into FY26. This proposed budget allows us to build and continue the Mayor's new and visionary Clean and Green strategy that will institutionalize comprehensive and long-term solutions to remove litter and blight across the city and drastically improve overall quality of life for our residents and communities. We, therefore, are requesting your favorable consideration of the budget request and we thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. The deputy staff and I are happy to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you very much. Just a couple brief questions and I'm going to turn it over to my colleagues. So over the Five Year Plan, this is probably our largest investment more than any other area here in the city of Philadelphia, other than us working on potentially an $800 million borrowing for housing. But other than that, this is our largest investment making sure we improve the quality of our neighborhoods, quality of life in our neighborhoods by cleaning and greening our neighborhoods. So I have a couple just brief questions. Give me an overview of how many participants have participated in the Same Day Work program. Give me an idea what the waiting list looks like in the future of the program.
Thank you, Council President. I'm going to ask Commerce Director Dennis Murphy to come up to speak about Same Day program, as part of the program is administered through our Commerce Department. And my understanding also is the other part is through MDO, which I may have to follow up with some of those numbers. But Mr. Murphy can address how many members have participated in TCB's program for same day pay.
And a brief also follow- up, Mr. Dennis, also from my understanding there's going to be reorganizing on the LandCare program, right. What does that look like in terms of the future as well?
Good morning, Council President. My name is Dennis Murphy. I'm Deputy Commerce Director and I lead the team that administers the Taking Care of Business program within the Commerce Department. Over the past year, we through Commerce and the Taking Care of Business program have entered into a partnership with PHS, and the biggest part of that is the LandCare component. So what we heard last year from TCB groups, neighborhood groups cleaning commercial corridors, many of them on corridors with a lot of vacant lots talked about how difficult it was to maintain cleanliness on the commercial corridor when they're dealing with the issue of lots. So to support the commercial corridor cleaning, we allocated funding to PHS and that's enabled them to add new lots into the program and also facilitated the year-round cleaning that Director Williams mentioned.
So the PHS LandCare program -- and I have a couple in the 2nd Councilmanic District where they're cleaning the lots -- so now they will have additional funding to go on a corridor and work in partnership with TCB. So TCB just does the streets. Now, PHS LandCare program will actually be hitting the abandoned lots on the corridors; is that correct?
Exactly, yeah. And this year they've done -- they're going to do about 385 lots on commercial corridors that's going to support the TCB work. So that's part of our PHS partnership. And then some of the funding that we've provided to PHS also supports Same Day Work and Pay. So they have nine partner community organizations that lead Same Day Work and Pay projects in neighborhoods. Three of those organizations are TCB groups. So those are the groups that I'm most familiar with, Nicetown CDC, Achievability in West Philadelphia and One Day At A Time. So we were pleased to support Same Day Work and Pay because many times it has a tie-in with the TCB work where you have a group cleaning on a commercial corridor and a community group that's doing that, and they're also organizing community projects with the help of PHS. So we support a portion of the Same Day Work and Pay work that PHS does in the city.
Okay. Thank you. And the new structure, will the groups that already have currently contracts with the City to do LandCare, do they have to reapply through a new process because it's my understanding everything is being consolidated, so to speak? I just want to get this on the record and some clarity.
Yes. So for the PHS LandCare program, they administer an annual or they administer an RFP process. And what I'm most familiar with is what they did in the fall. So when we enhanced their funding, they led an RFP process where they actually they pick Philadelphia-based contractors, so some landscaping companies are involved in the work. And then we were excited that some of the TCB groups that hadn't done LandCare before we're adding that to their work. So that's what I'm familiar with in terms of the LandCare.
What's our strategy to make sure that the organizations, companies that we're contracting with are equitable? Do we have any participation goals just to make sure? Because we get called all the time from companies saying we want to participate in cleaning and greening the city of Philadelphia. How are we making sure that those opportunities are for everyone or reflects what the city of Philadelphia looks like?
I can speak to the TCB side of it, Taking Care of Business. So as we plan for the expansion of corridor cleaning this year, one thing that we planned and executed in the fall is we had an expo event. So we invited neighborhood-based organizations and Philadelphia-based minority- owned cleaning companies to come to the event to learn about expansion of the Taking Care of Business program. We had about 300 participants there. It was held at Temple University. And as part of that event, the Horticultural Society was there. So we were talking both about Taking Care of Business corridor cleaning and the LandCare, kind of the expansion work that PHS mentioned -- you know, that I was describing earlier.
Okay. Thank you. I'm about to wrap it up. As we prepare for 2026, we know that there's a proposal of roughly $800,000 to go under the Mural Arts program to help beautify I-95, right. But if that's the Clean and Green initiative and it is not murals, why would it be under the Mural Arts program as a part of their budget when it could be a part of Clean and Green, as opposed to -- because that's going to take away from her budget to actually do murals and graffiti removal when it could be an additional 800,000 or million under your budget?
Yeah. When we made the request, Council President, we earmarked that funding to go to Mural Arts because there were one of our intergovernmental partners. We also added more funding for CLIP to do removal and remediation and we're working with PennDOT as well. So I think this was an addition, and it doesn't take away from their existing funding for the murals that they're going to be doing --
Because when they come, they'll say we need additional funding. But we'll say, you're already getting an additional million. And that additional million they're getting is kind of earmarked for something else other than what they need an additional million to do the things that they would be normally doing, which is technically not this part of Clean and Green and part of their agenda. That's why I wanted to ask that question as it leads to I-95.
So we'll certainly clarify that with Budget to make sure that they be able to explain, you know, where the funding is. But specifically, the Mayor wanted to earmark funding to address the eyesore --
-- that exists between I-76, 676 with the amount of graffiti that people get when they get their first impression of our city.
There's a new technology. As opposed to doing murals, the Administration wants to do something else that's different. Explain that, something that's like anti-graffiti.
Yeah. Well, CLIP uses an anti-graffiti skid on some of the work that we do around the city of Philadelphia so it doesn't leave stains when they remove it, and it makes it easier for us to when the CLIP is actually doing the work. It looks new and it looks like it's the new surface and not something that has been ran over with leftover remnants from the graffiti spray paint, which can look equally as bad once you clean it. So we're investing in making sure that when we repaint those areas around 676, I-76, all along those corridors, that once we do it if graffiti is then found again, it can be easily removed. CLIP established a graffiti zero- tolerance zone, which means that any time that you cite graffiti -- they're doing proactive inspections. Any time graffiti is spotted through these inspections, it's removed within 72 hours. And so again, the premise is that the faster you remove it, the less likely people will be encouraged to continue. That is a known fact about graffiti. You don't want to leave it there to invite others to do it. So that's what that investment will pay for.
Good. And hopefully, working with Mural Arts recruit some of these graffiti writers -- we've done that early on. Recruit these graffiti writers to be a part of Mural Arts and hopefully they'll start beautifying the city as opposed to helping the city become an eyesore based upon their graffiti. The other question I had -- we talked about cleaning. So let's go into greening real brief. How many trees have we planted to date? What does that process look like in terms of addressing our tree canopy here in the city of Philadelphia, and particularly areas based upon them being overheated during the summer time?
Yeah. I'm going to ask Casey Kuklick to come up, our Deputy Director right behind me, who works very closely with Parks and Recreation who administers the TreePhilly program and to establish what we've done so far and what our goals are for the immediate future.
Thanks, Councilman. So as you know, the City released the Philly Tree Plan a couple years ago which we continue to make great progress on with Parks & Rec. Our goal through Parks & Rec is to plant approximately 3200 trees per year. That's on streets and --
Per year. And I'm proud to say last year we surpassed that goal and planted 3700 trees. So we exceeded the goal by about 500. The Mayor's got a goal to plant 15,000 trees in her first term. I think we're going to be able to make that goal because we also need to think about the partners that are included in all this work. PHS plants an additional 1000 trees per year in Philadelphia. The Fairmount Park Conservancy plants thousands of trees in natural areas as well. So when we take into account the various partners, both governmental and nongovernmental, I think we're well on our way to meeting the Mayor's goal. And the Philly Tree Plan, the funding that we've received from the federal government will support that in addition to the funding that the City --
Is that the money that they held up or additional?
Oh, okay. Now, I was in contact with D.C. as of yesterday and I was told the funding wasn't released.
They had paused it, and some of the grant disbursements have resumed at this point.
Okay. I'm glad to hear. I was on the phone with them as recently as yesterday and I was told, here's the reason why it's being held up. But I will follow up so we're all on the same page.
My understanding is that some of the disbursements have been started.
Okay. That will be good. So I'll do a follow-up with you. So hopefully, if that funding is being released, I think that's great. That's first and foremost. I have different information, but hopefully your facts are correct. And so, the target is 3200 -- point of information. Majority Leader Richardson.
Thank you, Council President. Just a point of information and clarification. Are you referring to the federal dollars for the tree plan? Is this a drawdown issue, right? Were you able to then draw down and previously you weren't?
I'm referring to the USDA federal grant and the various partners that have received funding through that grant. They have begun to receive payments and disbursements from the primary applicant.
Okay. So the drawdown was available probably as of yesterday, but was not available last week which is possible. I mean, that's been happening.
My understanding was even as of last week they had started payments, but we should double check.
Yeah. We'll follow up, Councilmember, and double check to make sure.
And just give me a real brief update on we did a heat map of the city, but particularly in my District where we want to plant trees. And I'll follow up with you, because we put a proposal together and they said these trees are going to be planted, but I haven't gotten an update on actual trees being planted in Point Breeze and Grays Ferry. So that's a follow-up conversation that I would like to have that I advocated for during the last mid-year transfer process. It hasn't happened yet, but I'll follow up. But the point is give us an update on how we're targeting the hottest areas in the city of Philadelphia and what is their progress?
So basically the Philly Tree Plan has seven priority neighborhoods that it outlined and it looked at multiple factors in terms of what constitutes a priority neighborhood, high heat, lower socioeconomic class, different health outcomes, economic outcomes and all of that factored into where those priority neighborhoods are. And so, all of the funding that's received in the City applies toward the tree plan should be flowing to those priority neighborhoods in particular.
Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Last question is for Ms. Jacobs, Crystal. Commissioner, in your testimony you mentioned that sanitation employee attendance outages have decreased from 30% in FY21 to 19% in FY24. Just want to get an idea of what are we doing, the steps we're taking to maintain and improve the attendance rates and ensure consistent trash collection. COMMISSIONER JACOBS SHIPMAN: Some of -- we do have committees that we -- we do have committees that we've established internally that allow us to better track attendance, where over the years we saw we had folks that were out at higher rates. And so, we're noticing that by us being able to better track and closer to realtime, we're able to address some of those attendance challenges. I do also think that when you're staffing up, you have higher numbers of staff coming in fresh, you're not seeing as many of the attendance challenges early on. And so, that's been also helpful towards getting us down to a 19% rate.
And I would think the work that we're doing around programs like Future Track, which is a pipeline into Sanitation, helps toward addressing the attendance rate with new hirees? COMMISSIONER JACOBS SHIPMAN: 100%. So they're coming in, they're more work-ready by the time that we bring them in as a civil servant. And so, they understand better the importance of having that attendance because that's one of the things that we're a stickler on through that program, and then making sure that if they are eligible for a civil service job, presented with the civil service job, they're already coming in with that mindset.
Okay. Awesome. All right. Thank you very much. Going into the first round, the Chair recognizes -- and I'm going off the screen -- Councilman Curtis Jones.
Thank you so much, Mr. President. So how do I thank the -let me count the ways. I think the first time I truly appreciated the work you guys do was during the pandemic. When I thought the City was shut down and I watched that sanitation truck come up my block and let me know that the men and women of the City of Philadelphia were still on the job and that we were open. That's number one. I want to thank you, Carlton. I had a shortdumping problem on Marion Avenue, which is notorious for shortdumping. There were over 500 tires dumped right there. And the next day after you cleaned it up, the next day they dumped 500 more tires. So Carlton personally -- Commissioner personally went out there and did his detective work, found out who it was. And the guy was like fine me, I don't care, it's not worth it for me to -- I don't know how he did it but he fined him $50 per tire. That's the last time he dumped on that avenue, so I appreciate that. Most recently I don't know what Mayor Parker is doing to you guys with this clean, green, you know. Do y'all have to say it 100 times every day before you go to work because it's starting to kick in and people are saying it without prompting so it's pretty cool. And a person visiting this city, we were taking them through Center City. And they were looking at the skyline, they said, yeah, that's changed, but that's not it. They said, Philadelphia is cleaner. And I was amazed as to the impact that you guys are having. So thank you, thank you, thank you and thank the workforce for what they do every day. My question is shortdumping, similar to what you helped me with on Marion Avenue. How are we dealing with these construction companies that are coming into Philly and dumping? How are we dealing with that as an approach to all of the good work you're doing, it does not matter if people are the fees too low, fines not high enough? What can we do to help shortdumping and stopping it?
Thank you, Councilmember, and certainly appreciate your compliments early on. It's awesome that people are recognizing that the city is getting cleaner. So I want to thank you for that before I go into it. And then I'll let Commissioner Shipman also follow up for what I'm going to tell you in reference to the new process that's been put in place. And thanks to this Council and then Councilmember Parker for years ago for passing legislation to increase the fines up to $5,000 per item per incident. It's a big enforcement tool to allow us to actively and aggressively go after illegal dumpers. The Law Department's new process to hold them civilly responsible is making impacts that we've never seen before, and that's why we're seeing decreases in illegal dumping complaints. Last year they've prosecuted or processed over 50 cases netting in judgments over $3.5 million. That is historic and has never been done before. And ultimately, those tools are making it very difficult for people to come in and want to just dump because they think they can get away with it. And if they do get caught, it's no longer a slap on the wrist. They can say, oh, well, I'm only going to pay the $300 or $500 fine and don't have to worry about anymore. When you start talking about thousands of dollars and holding them accountable in that aspect, you're starting to make a difference. We're going to continue to invest in that, and a lot of it has to do with surveillance cameras. And Commissioner will talk about the number and how many and how effective the strategy that we utilize, but we're monitoring those sites. We're making sure that we follow up. Just like graffiti, with the graffiti zero tolerance zone when we see a dumping site, an investigation is immediately launched. And ultimately, the debris is removed quickly so it doesn't accumulate. I think those are some of the strategies that we're doing differently. We're pleased also that we just received a $1.7 million grant from the William Penn Foundation to continue to educate and invest in illegal dumping strategies, and their partnership programs. And I'm happy to say that with members in your District, Jerome Shabazz, Overbrook Environmental Council is one of the recipients along with SEAMAAC in South Philadelphia to actually do some of these initiatives to green those spaces and vacant lots together so that we can prevent these things from happening. I'm sorry. Commissioner. COMMISSIONER JACOBS SHIPMAN: No, you summed it up very well. And we do have about 400 cameras that we utilize specifically for shortdumping of the 2600 or 2700 cameras that are on the police network. So we still have access to those cameras as well, but we put in 400 at specific locations where we knew are hot dumping spots, and we're expanding that as well. We do have lists that we generated from requests from you and other Councilmembers for where we should be looking next to install those cameras. In addition to that, I think what's going to be key in terms of going after people who are dumping is just the partnerships that we've established with police and even our Law Department, and hopefully getting some additional teeth behind the types of tickets that we can write. Right now we write CVNs. And I know we're looking at other ways to be able to additionally strengthen our enforcement side.
My time is up. You mentioned bulk pickups. Is that -- so I remember when we stopped picking up mattresses and things like that. Tell me what has changed now.
Commissioner, she can go into the details logistically. We're happy to say that we instituted a program that allows us to expand the amount of materials that we normally collect from those illegal dumping locations that you cited. A lot of the residential dumping that takes place has to do with furniture, those white metals and those old TVs. And Commissioner has the details as to how many we've collected. It's been very successful so far. COMMISSIONER JACOBS SHIPMAN: So we suspended bulk collection at curbside in 2009 and we're slowly relying on our sanitation convenience centers to accept materials. As the Director mentioned, so your refrigerators, your stoves, your hot water heaters. And now, we're able to pick those up curbside through a scheduled arrangement. You can either book online, and it's a very simple form, or you can call 311 and they'll put the schedule in for you. You tell us what you have. You tell us what day you want to put it out. You can put it out on any day other than your trash day. And you can put out up to four passenger vehicle tires. Mattresses we never really stopped collecting them. We just put in a provision where you had to cover them because we want to protect our workers from bed bugs. And, you know, not to say everybody has bed bugs, but we want to prevent an epidemic. And so, we still collect that as a part of the normal trash. Larger furniture that would have, say, metal, maybe if you had like a sofa sleeper, that's something you would want to schedule through the bulk collection. But a regular couch, you can put that out on your normal collection day.
Thank you. Chair recognizes Councilmember Jamie Gauthier.
I wanted to start by commending you, the whole team really. You, Director Williams, but also you, Commissioner Jacobs, CLIP, our office really enjoys working with you. You are always responsive and you've done a tremendous job on the new initiatives that you've launched over the past year. But I know that we are seeking excellence and always trying to get better as a city. So I do have some questions.
I wanted to ask about recycling. Philadelphia's recycling rate remains low and much of our waste still goes to landfills or incinerators, both of which have environmental consequences. In FY24, the City collected over 609,000 tons of trash but only 80,756 tons of recycling, roughly a 13% recycling rate. The FY26 budget sets a modest goal to increase the recycling rate to 15%. Can you talk about the concrete steps that the Sanitation Department is -- wait, is that -- do I have you all?
Okay. Can you talk about the concrete steps that the Sanitation Department is taking to boost recycling and waste reduction, especially in neighborhoods like the ones in my District? So, for example, are there new education campaigns, additional recycling drop-off centers and services? What are we doing to be a little more ambitious about this goal?
So thank you, Councilmember, really appreciate it. Yes, our department is very committed and the City is still committed to recycling. We are in the process of building a new transfer station out in Northwest that would bring in additional materials. We have an ambitious campaign, educational campaign, right now to encourage people and remind people how important recycling is. And the Commissioner's going to talk about that in a moment. I think that if you look at just in general the waste stream over time and since the pandemic and what has changed globally, recycling markets have changed. And so, it makes it very difficult for us to try to continue to achieve what we used to achieve at 20%. It fell during the pandemic and also when the China Sword and decided not to take plastics and a lot of material which is a high contamination. But we are now refocusing and trying to address issues and create opportunities and avenues to take even more material and not just look at recycling, but we're also looking at things like organics which also affects the diversion rate. I think through our Zero Waste plan that we are establishing or re-establishing is going to point out step-by-step some of the things we're going to do to help us get to that goal. I'll turn it over Commissioner Shipman to talk about some of the direct initiatives within Sanitation that she's addressing for increased recycling. COMMISSIONER JACOBS SHIPMAN: Director Williams did touch on a campaign that we launched November 15th of last year, which was America Recycles Day. It's the Yes Philadelphia Recycles campaign. What we found was that nationally people are skeptical about whether or not their cities and municipalities are recycling. And so, we thought that the first step is, one, reassuring Philadelphians that, yes, we do actually recycle your material. The time that people take out to set things apart from their trash and keep as much of the good material going into the recycling bins as possible will actually get recycled. So that was the first key. Second thing is just making sure that we're doing audits, because it's helpful for us to know what parts of the city are struggling more with getting the right stuff into the right bins. And so, we do conduct audits by neighborhood to see where we have the most compliance and where other areas may need some additional education. So those are the two key items that we're working on. And as the Director said, what's big for us is making sure that we get as much out of the landfill that can be recycled out. So we're looking at organic materials, your yard waste, your foods that are good to be reutilized or repurposed. Also, looking at textiles, like how do we keep clothing out of the (inaudible), things that can actually be recycled and repurposed are the different ways that different things we're looking at.
Thank you. Council President, is there time to get two more questions on the record?
When now? Not at the moment. But we will get a second. That's the reason why we're going to keep moving. Dr. Phillips.
I'm going to get right into it. The creation of a fully operational illegal dumping surveillance task force is a significant step forward and we're appreciative to that. Just yesterday I had residents ask me about the cameras and the usage of AI license-plate recognition, remote monitoring. How will this technology be integrated with existing enforcement mechanisms to ensure swift action against repeat violations? For example, is AI doing a great job with the cameras picking up the dumping? Because I know AI picks up motion, but is it picking up the actual dumping so someone can get there as soon as possible?
Yeah. Thank you, Councilmember. We have not implemented AI within our current camera system yet. We have met with several vendors who state that this technology is available, and we're very interested in doing exactly what you just insinuated with your comments, that it does pick up motion detection, does identify certain actions or movements that a person does that identifies them as a dumper. We want that technology because it allows us to address those issues in realtime. Right now our current system allows you to visually monitor and go back from a recording to determine if a dumping occurred and who did it. But unfortunately, time has elapsed and sometimes it may be too late and not enough evidence or information. So AI allows us in realtime to be able to capture and send the police or a sweep officer or someone of enforcement authority to be able to address people while they're in the act, and that goes much further than having to go back and try to retrace and do an investigation that way.
Got it. And just real quickly, is there access to those -- is it as costly to get something like that done? Are there other municipalities doing it? So just to follow up on that. And also, other municipalities have adopted stricter penalties in terms of publicizing enforcement actions as deterrents against illegal dumping. Is Philadelphia considering the idea of launching a public awareness with photos and so forth, people to discourage illegal dumping?
Yeah, absolutely. We are working with our Law Department. We think that it will be an effective tool to try to deter people to let them know that the City of Philadelphia is very serious about people who come in and dump in our city. Being able to publicize that information is extremely important as it builds confidence and trust amongst our citizens and residents who think that this thing is just commonplace in the city. Well, it's not. And I think we do have the laws and the books, as earlier stated in my testimony thankfully from City Council, but I think now is the time to show the actions and to be able to do this through a public campaign.
Thank you. And also, is there something that we can do with our schools, young people, to help them understand better more things around recycling and sanitation and dumping, so we can prevent the next generation from doing this? And also lastly, just how are we ensuring that these challenges that we're facing in Sanitation -- by the way, you're doing a great job, all of you. But I just want to say how are we ensuring that these challenges that we're facing are not having an adverse impact on our workers? Because they're doing such a phenomenal job, I just want to continue to find a way to celebrate them in a way that you all, you know, just so forth. That's it.
Thank you, Councilmember. Really quickly, the Commissioner we're launching a program actually this month, and we do it every year, called Green Schools. And she certainly can talk about the details of that, but engaging schools is definitely a priority because we want to teach our young people the importance of environmental sustainability. COMMISSIONER JACOBS SHIPMAN: Thank you, Director. So we do have 30 schools that will be receiving grants specifically for green-related initiatives. A number of them are around recycling specifically. Some are around other green type of initiatives, gardening and composting, utilizing plastics, repurposing plastics and things of that nature, but it allows us an opportunity through those grants to let the students with the help of their teachers to determine a program that they think will resonate with the other students and then implement that into those schools. So it's a really decent program that'll take place April 22nd. They've already received their money. They'll be able to tell us what they've done thus far, tell us what they've learned from the experience and then hopefully just really get them engaged and thinking about ways to recycle, reduce, reuse and repurpose.
Thank you so much. Keep the sanitation workers more up. They're doing a great job.
Thank you. Chair recognizes Councilmember O'Rourke.
Thank you, Mr. President. It is great to see you all. I want to thank you all for the work that you do for the city of Philadelphia making us more beautiful. It really is helpful. Really I don't have questions for you. I wanted to make sure from Mr. President that PEA was going to be -- are they in this round or we are doing a different round for the Philadelphia Energy Authority?
Separately, understood. That haven't been said, I'll pass on my time. Thank you for your work.
Thank you, Council President. Hello, everybody. Thank you for being here today. Again, also a big fan. Love it when people come through the ranks as you two did. Followed you guys through because we were around the same era so glad to see that. Just have to -- and also, want to give a shout-out to my Councilwoman Quetcy Lozada. I call her all the time about dumping, especially in our neighborhood. And you guys -- I sent a picture through text on a Sunday and next thing I knew, an hour later this big truck was pulling up down the street to load these mattresses. Somebody had moved out and left all their old furniture sitting out there. So I thank you for that. Just a couple quick questions. When can we expect twice-a-week trash collection to expand areas besides South Philly and Center City, especially since some of the areas in the city that need it are not included yet? And do you currently have the staffing levels required to meet your target block cleaning goals for 2026?
Sure. Yes, we are pleased to say that twice-a-week collections is going to expand to North Philadelphia coming this fall, winter area. We are waiting for the trucks, which is the biggest delay, and rolling out the program each year, you know, takes two years for us to order in advance to get those sanitation compactors. So that kind of puts us on a schedule that has us delayed to roll out in other sections of the city. But we do --
Well, I'm hoping that North Philly includes Kensington. Sometimes you lump us in with North Philly.
Yeah, it does include all of our area, 3C and 3F, which includes parts of that location. And we're looking to -- even after that we'll continue to do evaluations to go to other sections of the city that desperately need this service because we do believe it's making a huge difference in those areas.
It definitely is. It's definitely cleaner in my neighborhood for sure. There's a lot of big differences that if you live there you can see. It's kind of funny because you get rid of one problem and another problem starts. We used to have drug dealers on my corner so we finally got rid of them, they got evicted. But now somebody's illegally dumping at the corner of my block. Yeah, I've called you on numerous occasions, but we got to live with what we got to live with. But I appreciate everything you guys are doing and thank you for your time.
Thank you. I'm going to take a personal privilege. Emily, come on up, Schapira. (Witness approached Witness table.)
Great. Good morning, everybody, council President, members of City Council. My name is Emily Schapira, President and CEO of the Philadelphia Energy Authority. I'm really pleased to be back here in Council chambers to provide testimony on PEA's Fiscal Year 2026 budget request. As you all know, PEA is a nimble team now of people 9 building a robust and equitable 10 clean energy economy in 11 Philadelphia. As you've no doubt 12 heard me say before, energy is not 13 the goal, it's the tool. And we 14 found it to be an incredibly 15 effective one in tackling some of 16 Philadelphia's biggest challenges, 17 spurring equitable economic 18 development, creating jobs, 19 alleviating poverty and improving 20 public health. 21 I say incredibly 22 effective because for every city dollar we have received since 2017, we've created $75 of economic investment. I'll say that again. Each city dollar invested in PEA since 2017 has had a 75x return on investment. I'm so proud to share that as of the end of 2024, the City's nine-year $13.4 million investment in PEA has resulted in $1 billion in clean energy projects, creating nearly 8300 jobs. (Applause.)
PEA's work has ranged from capital improvements and air-conditioning at schools to the citywide 16 overhaul of so far over 100,000 17 streetlights in every community. 18 From installing rooftop solar on 19 4000 homes through Solarize Philly 20 and restoring hundreds of 21 low-income homes through Built to 22 Last. 23 We've saved Water and Sewer Service Line Protection Program customers over $75 million in repairs and provided last-resort emergency repairs to 150 homes, many of whom were living without water service. We're in the procurement process for three large city energy-efficiency renewable and bio gas projects concurrently and in various stages of development for six more totaling over $800 million in potential investment over the next few years. The uncertainty and change at the federal level has resulted in elimination of over $16 million in anticipated funding for Built to Last and puts roughly $4 million of our existing funding at risk. We've been able to stabilize our revenue by having diverse funding streams, including federal, state, local philanthropy and our own program fees. We are frugal with spending and careful not to commit without budget certainty, but as the federal picture grows ever more challenging, we're asking for some certainty from City funding to be able to continue this work. PEA's work supports the priorities of the Parker Administration to make Philadelphia the safest, cleanest, greenest city with access to economic opportunity for all and also meets the priorities of City Council to use the tax dollars of hardworking Philadelphians in the most thoughtful, impactful ways to the benefit of all. We don't need energy to be at the top of the priority list. We fit easily into the day-to-day and strategic priorities of both branches of government. For FY26, PEA is requesting a total budget allocation of $10 million. 05 million. Funding PEA more appropriately at $10 million will support our core operating budget, city projects, 8 workforce development connected to 9 all of our initiatives, more than 10 200 additional Built to Last homes and provide the financial support needed to bridge state and federal rebates and tax incentives via our green bank affiliate, the Philadelphia Green Capital Corp. Your support now is more important than it has ever been. Our submitted testimony and supplements will walk through the details of our FY26 work plan and provide staffing demographics and contracting details. I'll reiterate our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion across all of our team, board projects and programming. We serve the residents of Philadelphia and for any of us to thrive, we must ensure that we all have the opportunity to thrive. That is core to PEA's ethos. Rather than go through all of our accomplishments and successes to date, I'd like to just share a story from our Built to Last program that for me really demonstrates the importance of not only the work we do, but the way we do it. Most of you know Built to Last. Your constituents have asked about it. The state Whole Home Repair program is modeled after it. It's become a national model for ways to leverage multiple different kinds of funding to address home repair holistically and to restore generational wealth. When we talk about it in its wonkiest terms, Built to Last is an administrative backbone to link and collaborate across nearly a dozen different home repair programs in Philadelphia, including Basic Systems Repair, Adaptive Modification, weatherization, utility programs and much more. We started out wanting to address energy efficiency for these homes since Philadelphia is one of the most energy-burdened cities in America, particularly amongst low-income households who pay as much as 18% of their income to utilities.
But we quickly realized that even though there were many programs that could address a component of needs in a home, too many people did not receive these services because of denials, budgets, order of operations or lack of ability to collaborate across programs. We could not deliver on reducing energy burden in low-income households without also solving these barriers. So we figured out how to coordinate things like data- sharing, construction management, scope planning and funding stacking, and it works. We've completed 220 homes to date, with an additional 430 homes in various stages of construction. And feedback has been excellent. Our goal is to grow to 1000 homes a year over the next few years and to attract major national funders to Philadelphia. I recently heard a story of one of our homeowners and I couldn't imagine a better illustration of the importance of this program. Mr. Williams and his partner have lived in West Oak Lane on North Smedley Street for 36 years in a 1920's row home his grandfather owned. Mr. Williams worked his whole life and planned to make some home improvements when he retired, but just after he got sick and became homebound. The house began to have major issues. A roof leak compounded creating damage to walls, siding and interior ceilings. His heating system broke 10 years ago and he purchased space heaters for the upstairs but wasn't able to afford heating both floors of the house. They just avoided using the first floor in the wintertime. His kitchen barely functioned with just one working burner left on the stove. He and his partner considered leaving the house. Mr. Williams applied to Basic Systems Repair two years ago. BSRP is of course designed to address a housing emergency and keep people from abandoning their homes. The roof damage had gotten so bad that PHDC was preparing to deny Mr. Williams' application due to a cost overrun when they reached out to Built to Last. We were able to separate out a scope of work that BSRP could fund and then enrolled Mr. Williams into our program. He's now receiving services from five additional programs. The roof has been replaced and all the water damage over the years has been repaired and the mold remediated. He has a new functioning kitchen, a new high efficiency gas furnace that serves the entire house and drafty parts of the home have been insulated. Lead paint and other hazards have been removed and drywall has been replaced. Mr. Williams is even getting solar on his new roof to ensure he and his family will be able to afford the electric bill 5 for decades to come. He's lived in West Oak Lane his whole life and now plans to stay. This is what we mean when we talk about Built to Last as preserving existing affordable housing, helping to keep people in their homes, restoring generational wealth, taking homes from a liability to an asset. You can see in my written testimony the breakdown of the six programs utilized to restore Mr. Williams' family home totaling over $70,000 in assistance. I can't leave this hearing without spending just a minute on our ongoing Streetlight Improvement Program. This project was more than a decade in the making in close collaboration with the Office of Sustainability, the Streets Department and many, many others. I think this project demonstrates in the clearest possible terms how PEA helps the city get projects done. In August of '23 along with the Streets Department, the Office of Sustainability and many others, we kicked off the overhaul of 130,000 streetlights citywide with high-efficient long-lasting LEDs connected to a remote management system. The Philly Streetlight Improvement Project or PSIP uses energy and operations savings to pay for the $91 million project, transforming inefficient and expensive to operate municipal assets into cost-efficient, innovative infrastructure. Prior to this project, Streets replaced 22,000 fixtures over a 10-year period using their own capital dollars.
And in about months, 4 we've completed over 100,000 5 fixtures demonstrating the speed 6 and scale that PEA-led guaranteed 7 energy savings projects can enable. 8 The immediate impacts of 9 PCIP span well beyond just the 10 energy and cost savings. In a 11 study published by the University 12 of Pennsylvania's Crime and Justice 13 Policy Lab earlier this year, the 14 authors found a 21% reduction in 15 gun crimes above and beyond the 16 City's already declining crime rate 17 in locations where lighting has 18 been upgraded to clearer, crisper, brighter lighting. Resident surveys conducted under the same study showed improved perceptions of safety and neighborhood vitality thanks to the installation of new streetlights. This project drives investment in local residents and businesses. For example, American Power Electrical Supply Company, a minority business enterprise in West Philadelphia, hired a local team of six people to assemble 40,000 fixtures for use on the project right here in Philadelphia in partnership with YEAHPhilly. The six young people who themselves have been impacted by gun violence are actively contributing to gun violence solutions by making the fixtures that light up the city, developing the skills and experience to kickstart their own careers. Over 200 Future Track employees were hired by the Streets Department to clear debris from alleyways associated with this project. PEA's core project model creates a pipeline to bridge the gap between what the industry often describes as a labor shortage and the high unemployment rate among marginalized populations in Philadelphia. This project also has a very high rate of participation from diverse businesses, including 54% minority-owned businesses, 27% women-owned businesses to date, 80% of whom are local area businesses. We are grateful beyond measure for the trust and faith City Council has put in us over the last decade, and we're excited to continue to show results for all Philadelphians. We will need your help again now more than ever. We've been able to weather major budget cuts before, in FY21 during COVID, in FY25 when our operating budget was cut by 50%. The real additional funding was provided for Built to Last from the City for the very first time that year as well through the leadership of City Council. With the loss of federal opportunities and uncertainty of existing federal funding, we ask for Council's help to keep this work going. We've come way too far to turn back now. We're requesting a total of $10 million in funding for FY26 and this ask supports really four things: $3 million for PEA's operations which are critical to programs like Built to Last, which requires the coordination of program partners to the smooth execution of 10 citywide energy efficiency projects. It includes secondly $5 million for Built to Last, which will allow PEA to take on an additional 200 homes from off of our waitlist, which is currently over 2600 homes. It funds $500,000 for operating funds to create Bridge Loans for low-income energy rebates and tax credits through the Philadelphia Green Capital Corp. And I'll just note we formed Philly's green bank a few years ago. We are the only part of the state that has a green bank. The state's been trying to put that together and it hasn't taken yet. And so, that's a real asset that we have here in Philadelphia and something we've not ever funded with public dollars before. 5 million in workforce development support to train and connect Philadelphians historically left out of these industries to clean energy careers. And I'll just mention the federal funding for the Good Jobs Challenge is active. We have not had an issue drawing that down. That runs through the Economic Development Administration in partnership with Philadelphia works. One thing it doesn't fund is stipends to participants.
And often for folks who have been unemployed or are currently unemployed, you have to provide a stipend in order to get them into training programs. And so, it leaves a pretty broad gap in funding that's available for workforce. We've worked hard over the last nine years since I joined PEA staff to build a reputation of being an effective, strategic organization that does what we say we're going to do. I hope that strong track record of success and the overwhelming support of partners, stakeholders and community members lends credibility to our request. And I hope we can count on your support this year. Thanks. )
Thank you. So you will be included in Round 1. Councilmember Jeffrey Jay Young.
Thank you, Mr. President. So my questions are for the Office of Clean and Green. First, I just want to say thank you for the work that you're doing. We had a cleanup on the Cecil B. Corridor a couple days ago, and people in that neighborhood said they've never ever seen those types of trucks before. So thank you for the work that you're doing. But I have a question regarding our recycling program. I remember some years ago back when I was a staffer recycling actually made the City money, but now it's costing the City money. So can you just talk to us about what that program looks like and why was there a shift in that?
Sure. Thank you, Councilmember. First, thank you for the compliment. Really appreciate your support and all the Councilmembers here in our effort to continue to address our neighborhood issues. Our recycling rate actually when we were making funding, recycling rates were favorable. We had overseas markets that was accepting material and paying a premium for material that we would ship overseas. Unfortunately, about 2017 '18, there was a thing called the China Sword that came out where they raised the contamination rates for the material so high that we could not meet those standards. So those things that were actually making us money, now it's costing us money to now store. We were making upwards somewhere around $20 a ton and we pulled in like $6 million each year. Now, unfortunately we're paying somewhere around $80 to $90 a ton, and that's due to the lack of markets that are here domestically to actually utilize the material. The value for things like aluminum and cardboard is still very high. However, things like mixed paper, single-use plastics and all of those other items are no longer accepted. We have to discard or process them and that cost us a fee now to store. So that's where you see the shift and change. We're hoping to invest in more markets here. We're hoping the economy would invest in more markets to accept material that we generate right here in our country so that we can now see favorable wage. It is starting to improve, but it's not going back to the days where we were actually making money off of it. So we still have a long ways to go until we get to that point.
Thank you. My second question is regarding the enforcement of the sanitation laws. My office gets calls pretty often about having just folks come out to just give out the civil violations, give out the tickets for folks who are storing their trash either too early or improperly. So can you talk to us about I guess the investments that you've made in the enforcement for those sanitation enforcement officers and talk about what's their routes in the community? Because our community members said, oh, we called them, they came out one time. And then basically the guy told him, yeah, I'm not coming back out there for a few months, right. So can you talk to us about what that looks like and how they're out in the communities?
Sure. I'm going to ask Commissioner Shipman to join me back at the mic so that she can talk about the logistics and how sweep offices are deployed. We have them designated by Districts in each part of the city of Philadelphia. Each year they write thousands of CVNs for multiple quality-of-life issues and they're on usually a schedule in different locations in which they service. I'm going to ask Commissioner to give you kind of the logistical details on how they were deployed and what they've done now so far in 2024. COMMISSIONER JACOBS SHIPMAN: As Director Williams explained, they are assigned to each of our areas. We base them out of six areas across the city. And now that we've actually staffed that unit up, we are about 60 strong at this point. They do have an ability to be back on a more consistent basis in the neighborhoods. And so, the first thing that we did was go through and do a full round of education in every area of the city and they were out in full force together walking each street to identify and address different challenges that those blocks were having. They are assigned to address the business corridors on a more frequent basis but then also are able to go back into the neighborhoods to address more routine trash complaints. A lot of what we do is still based on those calls that we get that come in through 311 regarding early set-outs, excessive material at a location, those types of things. But again, having the additional staff we can actually go back to following those routes that we once established. And those are also synced up with the trash route. So if it's a Monday trash route, two or three of those officers should be assigned to walk that beat along with that trash route.
Some of the tickets that we issued last year, they issued over 66,000, close to 67,000 tickets. And the majority of those tickets were written for sidewalk, not litter- free 18,000; premises not litter- free 12,000; high weeds and bushes 4000; unauthorized collection fee 3900. Dumpster violations is a big one for us as well. We always get those complaints at 3300, and dumpster areas not cleaned at 2800. So those are the top complaints that we issued through our Sweep Division.
All right. Thank you. Councilmember Rue Landau. Then Councilmember O'Rourke. Then Councilmember Nina Ahmad. Then Quetcy Lozada.
Thank you so much. Appreciate you. I'm going to start with this team up here. Appreciate all of your work. Then get PEA next. So the first question I had was the community appearance index. Sanitation uses the community appearance index and the litter index to guide their work, but there seems to be no public- facing way to look at the data, at least it's not easy to find. So I commend you for using this and for using data-driven approach to equity and litter reduction. What data points is the department using to ensure equity in its litter reduction strategies? And can that data in a litter index and CAI be made publicly available in a dashboard?
Absolutely. Thank you, Councilmember. The community appearance index is a modified, enhanced version of the litter index that takes in consideration multiple quality-of-life issues in a given area. So not only are we looking at litter or illegal dumping, but we're looking at abandoned autos, we're looking at graffiti. We're looking at the conditions of nuisance properties and nuisance businesses that's managed currently by CLIP, because we believe that all of these kind of make up what people are concerned about and making sure that the quality of life and the standards are high in their community. So we do have that data and information, and our plans is to make the community appearance index public. The litter index was made public for a number of years until we made this conversion. Mike Mattel, who oversees our data and information systems is here, does an excellent job making these available. I think they're available in StreetSmartPHL, is that correct, right. So StreetSmartPHL is one location in which you can look at the latest version of the litter index, but that will be upgraded to a community appearance index when we're ready to release it some time shortly this year.
Excellent. Thank you. And I appreciate very much the time that you've spent with my office talking about BigBellies. It's definitely a focus of ours. So I wanted to move over to BigBellies. Some recent social media reports and articles on Fox 29 have still cited overflowing cans, a lack of return on investment of our program. I wanted to ask a few follow-up questions from our meeting we actually had. The initial cost of the bins are around $6,000 with a lifespan of about years, including staffing and maintenance. Can you provide an estimated cost per year per bin? And would you be able to provide a comparative estimate of cost for a wire bin? And finally, would you commit to working with my office and Council on doing a more thorough cost-benefit analysis and working with us to see if there are any tweaks that could increase value and also user experience?
Absolutely. We can get you that information. We haven't done an evaluation or analysis on the cost per year. We do have the overall cost, but we can get that information so that we can break down and your office can do a comparative analysis between what it takes for us to maintain a BigBelly versus the investment of a litter basket.
Great. Thank you and thank you for all of the work that you guys are doing here. You've taken a heavy lift of transforming your department, so I appreciate it.
Thank you. Councilmember O'Rourke, Dr. Nina Ahmad, Quetcy Lozada. Then Majority Leader Richardson. Then we go into our second round. We have plenty of time.
Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you very, very kindly. I want to thank you, President Schapira for -- or I should say, Commissioner, please forgive me, for taking the time to be here today providing your testimony and answering our questions. In your testimony, the streetlighting actually stood out to me, came out of the mouths of a number of the residents of Southwest Philadelphia last night on Council President and Councilwoman Gauthier's our City Budget Town Hall. A number of residents mentioned the importance of that and the desire to see more of it in their corridors, specifically for the safety that you mentioned. But I want to start with an issue that's been heavy on my mind recently. The role of repairs in our city's fight for more affordable housing. There's this theory going around that we can simply build our way out of the affordable housing crisis. I get it. I thought that once myself, but it doesn't actually make sense to me anymore. Thank God for growth. Because we've all seen the news showing how there's a glut of luxury housing right now and ain't nobody renting it. If we're meant to simply build our way out, evidently it's not working. Here's what I do know: Philadelphia had a population of 1.9 million people in 1970 and today it has less than 1.6 million people. 92% of our housing stock was built before 1978. Let me repeat that. 92% of our housing stock currently standing was built pre 1978. What this tells me is that although building housing is important, our primary concern should be repairing and rehabbing the plentiful housing stock that currently already exists in the city of Philadelphia. Repair is both cheaper and less likely to displace long- term residents who have consistently told us that they are concerned about being displaced. This is why I'm so excited about the Council -- (Applause.)
This is particularly why I'm excited about the Council and the Mayor's focus on home repair for homeowners and for renters. But based on the Mayor's budget proposal, as you have lifted up, PEA's Built to Last program, the Philadelphia Energy Authority's Built to Last program that focuses on repairs is seemingly left out of that vision with a funding cut this year of 6.5 million down to 1.3. The Mayor's team sets their funding back to the measure baseline I think about 1.5 million every year, I believe is the case. Can you explain to us how the Built to Last program if funded with the $10 million that your team has requested advances our collective goal of preserving tens of thousands of affordable homes, especially in light of potential federal funding cuts?
Yes. Thank you so much, Councilman. I'll start with the federal funding cuts. Last year the City contributed $5 million to Build to Last which helped us get about 400 additional homes into the program, just under 400. Part of the reason for that was because there were all sorts of other funding streams that we could leverage to help get those homes done, so things like LIHEAP which is currently under fire in the federal government, things like weatherization, a lot of the utility programs that are available. This year that same $5 million will only get us something like 200 homes. We have yet to see what the Trump administration will do with some of these funding streams, but it goes less far now than it did before. That said, each one of those homes you don't have to come back to. So we see a lot of other programs that get sort of repeat customers because they're just solving sort of one facet of an issue in a home. Often they don't address the health issues that have resulted from major home repair issues and Built to Last can come in on the back-end and coordinate all the other programs to do that. So I appreciate all of your support and enthusiasm for this program. We found across communities that this is a program that people told us they wanted. And so, that's why we've developed it. You can't do energy efficiency in any of these homes if you don't address the home holistically. And so, that's really where we came out of it. I think Mr. Williams' home is a great example. Basic Systems Repair was able to put in about $20,000 to that program. We want Basic Systems Repair to get as much funding as they possibly can. It's deeply needed across the city. And then we were able to come in and put in an additional about $25,000 into that and leverage another $20,000-plus, almost $30,000 from other programs. So that's really the goal, is to make government work.
I know I heard the bell so I'm going to say this and get off his mic. I want to pivot to your workforce development programs. We're familiar with how important workforce development opportunities are for working-class careers as well as long-term wealth building in Philadelphia, something that we desperately need. Two things: Can you speak more about how public investments in PEA create opportunities for Philadelphians to build skills that will take them into well-paying careers. And do you have any data that you can share on how PEA has prepared Philadelphians for family sustaining careers?
Sure, and I'll be happy to follow up with a full workforce report. We've trained about 150 people over the last few years in our own programs and we paired those with our existing home repair programs, with Solarized Philly. We saw a real shift in Philadelphia in the solar market when people started seeing their own members of their own communities doing solar installations. It really changed how individual families think about putting solar on their own homes in all sorts of neighborhoods that we would have thought would not have been popular neighborhoods for solar. So it's really shifted from this notion of like a nice to have to important tool for long- term affordability installed by your family, installed by your neighbors and folks that you know. So we've really seen a big shift here, but I'll send you a full workforce report so you can see the details of the programs we've run over the last eight years.
I have a question just for a point of information and just for some clarity too. So we championed your program last year, that I do remember. But I want to follow up. Now, I know in my neighborhood -- and I see you got Philly Thrive here, which do great work around this particular issue. How is your request and the work that you're doing different from what Habitat Humanity is doing in Grays Ferry? Are y'all partners? Are there two separate initiatives? And then also, I guess based upon what we see in the budget, you aren't a part of any working group regarding the preservation of 30,000 or -- either the preservation or building of 30,000 units in the city of Philadelphia? Just want to get clarity on that.
Yeah, we are part of the Mayor's Home Advisory Group. That hasn't released any indication of what will be funded from that $800 million set of bonds. And so, that's why we've really come here for more budget certainty around this program. But to answer your first question, we are partnered with Habitat across the board. Part of the reason we created this wonky administrative platform is to help organizations like Habitat, like ECA, sort of take away some of that administrative burden to do that work. So the federal grant that ECA -- I'm sorry, that ECA Philly Thrive and Habitat collaborated on for Grays Ferry unfortunately has been paused or terminated, unclear how they're going to do that. That was I think a $20 million federal grant --
Yes. And that had $4 million of funding in it for Built to Last, specifically with Habitat doing the actual construction work.
All right. I just wanted to see. And obviously on our end, most members of Council we're just ecstatic also regarding Basic Systems Repair. And so, I know y'all two work together, correct?
So you do the weatherization part and BSR do the traditional things that needs to be done?
Yeah. And sometimes we even see that BSR can't support a client because it's over budget. And so, they'll come in and do sort of the basic roof repair. We'll come in and do either additional repairs, we'll do the mold remediation. We'll repair interior ceilings. So not everything that we do ends up being an actual energy measure, but it's something that you can't do energy without doing.
Okay. All right. We'll follow up because we just think this synergy is already there. So while we're going to focus on the 30,000 units, and all the 30,000 years aren't based on building new units, it's the preservation of a significant amount of units that will be a part of that equation. It seems like it makes sense, common sense. Dr. Nina Ahmad, Councilwoman Quetcy Lozada. Then Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson.
Thank you, Council President. First, I want to echo all the accolades my colleagues have been giving to you, Carlton, Director Williams, and your department and the work you've been doing. As I told you a little bit earlier, I have had constituents come up and tell me they see a visible difference in how they -and the narrative change that's happening, feeling proud about your city. That goes a long way in terms of hopefully getting more investments in our city and getting people to move here. So yesterday we were at a community meeting that Council President and Councilmember Gauthier had in her District, and a question came up from a constituent about management of trees, right. So they were asking -- this person was asking about trees being upkept, falling down, occluding their vision of their camera. And so, while we are, you know, we understand the need for greening and the impact it has on our heat index and all of that, she was like, I need to be able to function when you're having all this. So I just wondered if in your program you have a piece that is dedicated about not just planting but upkeep and informing and educating our communities about the fact that many of these new trees are going to have shallow root systems, won't interfere with their plumbing or the foundation of their home. They're not aware of these things, so they're a little bit loathe to think, oh my god, I have to do so much more about it, even though they understand the heat index impact and the health impacts?
And a point of information also just to follow up and support my colleague's line of questioning, it was also more directly said that the foliage, right, in the neighborhood, particularly in that part of West Philadelphia we were at, creates issues of public safety, right, it's dark coming down the street. So what is our maintenance plan to also address those trees? And what I brought up is I know for a fact in the Girard Estate area of my District we've seen it done, and the young lady yesterday was saying she had a hard time getting it done in that part of West Philadelphia. So what is the process where we're addressing the foliage, the maintenance of the trees? And then also, some people don't want the trees because depending on how the trees grow will break up their foundation as time goes along. And so, those are two things. Is that correct, Dr. Ahmad?
Well, thank you Councilmember. Thank you, Council President. Yes, so those are some very real issues that we have to -- some of them are myths that we have to dispel with residents with their concerns, because a lot of the people don't want trees on their block for those very reasons that you talked about. And I think we have to do a better job of educating people about the importance of it. But the maintenance usually is under the jurisdiction of our Parks and Recreation Department. They do a great job to ensure that any trees that are in disrepair or are dead or are in danger of falling, they get out and they manage the tree contractor to be able to address. And so, we'll work with our partners in Parks and Recreation to make sure that the maintenance issues come up. They also work closely with our own Sanitation Division through leaf collection. So when the foliage does fall, our Leaf Collection program has expanded tremendously throughout the city in which we're doing more blocks this year under the programs. So we'll work between Parks and Recreation. PECO also does some tree maintenance as well, especially with power lines and the foliage actually blocking those areas. Between those three agencies, we will work to try to address those issues from the public.
Well, thank you for that because that'll just enhance everything you're doing. And I wanted to now pivot to PEA to talk about the streetlighting. This is all connected, right. So to Council President's point about you being a part of the ambitious plan for the 30,000 homes, and particularly about the preservation piece, as you said, you haven't seen yourself in that budget yet. Could this mean that the reduction in what you have asked is going to be covered in some sort of a partnership? And if you could explain your quasi government status and how that actually works in terms of being a part of a City budget?
Sure. Thank you so much, Councilmember, for that question. So I'll do the second part first. We are an independent municipal authority. We are established in 2010 by City Council and the Mayor. And so, there are a couple of other entities that are like us in the City budget. Philadelphia Municipal Authority is the other authority that is just like us. And we were created for a very specific purpose focused on energy and market development. So that is sort of how it's set up. I think over the prior sort of Council, we had a lot of support from Council President Clarke. And so, that really led the Mayor's team to sort of leave us out of the Administration's budget and sort of seek for Council to make the allocation rather than the Mayor. So that had been the previous setup for around eight years. And so, we're sort of still I think growing into the new Council and into the new Mayor, even though it's not so new anymore. So we're not in the Mayor's Five Year Plan. We fall under the Managing Director's Office as far as where our budget goes. And I think, you know, we submit with the Mayor's information.
It would be probably very useful to quantitate the impact you're having, the job creation, the impact on our public health because of the remedial work that you're doing. That could go a long way. And I would be deeply supportive of putting that out there. I wanted to quickly pivot to electric vehicles. You know that's my jam. So I know there's a lot of change in the federal government. And I just wanted to know how we can locally strengthen our efforts to continue in that and bring in partners, our private and philanthropic partners, to fill gaps that we might see what the infrastructure deal was doing for us and how we can continue to democratize EVs? That's the real goal that I'm after.
Great question. We typically don't engage in the city's EV planning because they don't need us to. So we typically engage on City projects when the contract requirement is more than four years. Typically for leasing EV chargers, it's a shorter term contract so they don't need an authority to help them execute it. So I'll refer that question to the Office of Sustainability and the Fleet Department, both of which are working on the City's EV strategy. I will say we've supported the School District as they've tried to figure out how to convert their bus fleet from diesel, which causes all sorts of health problems for children that ride that bus, to electric buses, and they have a few and they're building that infrastructure out. But that's something we seek to help them with as well.
Thank you. Councilwoman Quetcy Lozada. Then Majority Leader Gilmore Richardson. Then we have the (inaudible) of Councilmember Driscoll before we go to the second round.
Most of my questions were asked by most of my colleagues because I was left for last but -- I'm kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just messing with you. I'm messing. I'm messing with Council President because we were complaining about queues yesterday. But want to take the opportunity to just say thank you on the record for all of the help that I get in the 7th Council District from the Streets and Sanitation Department. Grateful for your partnership and for your quick response, right. Councilmember Harrity mentioned that it doesn't matter when we send photos, it could be late in the evening, it could be a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and your department is extremely responsive. And so, I want to just say thank you very specifically to Keith Warren because he never says no, responds at any time of the day. So I just want to make sure that we shout him out and publicly thank him. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the work that you do in the District. (Applause.)
My one question is how are we working -- how is the department working in collaboration with our corridor managers? Our corridor managers work really hard to make sure that those corridors are kept clean. But often times there are BigBellies on different corners and that trash overflows. And I remember when I was a corridor manager for Esperanza, the guys would often -- although I would make them clean up whatever it was on the exterior of that BigBelly, the guys would often complain that, hey, that's Streets and Sanitation's responsibility, that's not ours. But how do you better work with those teams to ensure that that corridor looks clean and that it continues to be welcoming? What can we do to better partner with those folks?
So I am pleased to announce the Mayor's Community Action Centers or Mayor's Town Halls, as she calls them, that we're now collaborating with those agencies to be able to address those issues directly in the community and neighborhood. So when the corridor managers attend those council hearings or council meetings, town meetings directly in the neighborhood, we're connecting them with different agencies. So just like when you call us directly to address those issues, they will know who the manager is from any department that's having an issue right within that community who is there daily doing the work. We believe that this proactive strategy is a way to build stronger relationships and to proactively address those issues before our residents have to complain about them. So then instead of having to call your office all the time, and I'm not trying to put our Councilmembers out of business, but what we want to do is they'll be able to establish relationships with people in the community where they know who's getting the work done each day. So someone from TCB, the corridor manager from TCB will be there. The District Manager for Sanitation will also be a part of that. The District Manager for CLIP will be available as well. Knowing and getting to know who those people are through the Mayor's town halls is important because they're able to address those issues head-on and then come up with preventative solutions to stop them from happening, not just cleaning them up, but we may be able to identify the source, we may be able to figure out where the location is and then to come up with a strategy to prevent it from happening in the first place. So that is the purpose for us wanting to do those type of things.
I appreciate that. And we know, right, we know who the commercial corridor cleaners are. We know who the managers are. So if we could proactively work with them before the community complains about them, I think it would be best for all of us.
And then we know that Hunting Park has the highest heat index. And while I'm grateful that there are 3200 trees planted every year, I also hear from residents, like our Councilmembers have mentioned, who are cutting down trees because they just can't take the maintenance and how much it costs. And so, what are we doing to continue to work with residents like in the Hunting Park community to continue to educate them around mitigating heat and why it is so important? And are we partnering with the Office of Sustainability and places like Drexel University who focus a lot on heat mitigation?
Yes, we are definitely focusing on working with our Parks and Recreation Department for maintenance and increased education so that we can give people assurances that maintenance is a big part of the investment of planting trees in the neighborhoods. So our Parks and Recreation Department through the TreePhilly program is working to educate residents on how to make sure that those issues are maintained. But if there are other issues, we're also investing in Parks and Recreation to be able to address those issues if they're causing those type of problems. If we prevent those things from happening in the first place, where we plant them, how we plant them and locations, I think we can mitigate a lot of the issues that happen 5 to 10 years down the line when those trees become full grown.
Okay. Just on the mini halls, the town halls with the collaboration with the groups, I always just say it's always great to work in partnership with the District Council Office, District Councilmembers, so as y'all alleviate some of that pressure off of us, but so the residents know that we are working together.
One Philly, a United City. Absolutely, Councilmember -- Council President. I hear you loud and clear.
I don't want my sister calling me like, what you mean, Yaht. Majority Leader Gilmore Richardson, Councilwoman Jamie Gauthier, Councilmember Thomas -- oh no, Driscoll, then Thomas. And then we'll officially be in the second round.
Thank you. Thank you, Council President. And thank you so much to Director Williams and Commissioner Jacobs. I wanted to quickly go through the list of thank yous that I had my team put together for your department because we work really, really closely with you all. And then I'll quickly get into just a couple questions that I have. So again, Director Williams, Commissioner Jacobs, Deputy Commissioner Keith Warren, our CLIP Director, forever CLIP Director Tom Conway. I just went past a vacant lot that we had a fence put up 15 years ago and it still looks good, and now the tree is growing and it looks wonderful. I saw Omar Salaam, Noelle Marconi, our former Council colleague, I saw Mr. Carrington from Local 427 and Mr. Little. Also wanted to shout out Emily from PEA, Katie Bartolotta, who helps us on all of our legislative matters. Alon, who's been extremely helpful with the Water Line Protection program, AWR. And I'll do Streets this afternoon. And if I forgot anyone, charge it to our heads and not our hearts. But thank you very, very much for the work that you all do to help our office and help us help constituents each and every day. I know we have received one question regarding the cleaning program. And I will tell you I was so impressed when I came home one day the workers were actually on my block cleaning as I was pulling up to my house. But one question we had was can we sort of coincide this with trash day? So as an example if trash day is on Monday, can the cleaning day be Tuesday and not the other way around? And so, as an example if the cleaning happens on Monday and then trash day is Tuesday, you know what happens. The trash is all over the place. So is there any way to sort of coincide those activities so that when a block receives cleaning, that it happens after their trash day?
Councilmember, thank you first of all, appreciate the compliments and acknowledgements. And I will say, just wanted to say really quickly that Tom Conway could not be here today. He was out ill, but his team is here, John Tucci and Michelle Hander's here representing CLIP. So I just wanted to make sure that they get acknowledged for the great work that they do as well. We did look at the cleaning schedule to correlate with going behind trash collection day and we are trying to mirror that. It's more challenging than we can because of the speed and the amount of trucks that we have out on an area on any given time. So it's very difficult for our cleaning crews to try to stay behind all 12 trucks that's deployed in one specific area at a time. But we do try to coordinate so that it doesn't happen the day before trash day and that we can do it as close to or behind trash day as possible because we know that that's when common litter areas persist. We'll continue fine- tuning that. They do work on a schedule basis, so we're trying to correlate that schedule with trash collection to ensure the efficiency of the program.
Okay. That'll be great because we thought that would be helpful, particularly for the complaints that we receive around the community saying, after trash day, things look a mess. So I just wanted to mention that. And I heard you mention zero waste. I think in Delaware County they had put out an RFP a couple years ago to hire a zero waste consultant. So are we planning to do that in Philadelphia? How is that work going? And I'll come back on the second round for PEA.
Yes, we do have MSW consultants that we work with to help us. I think Commissioner talked about earlier as doing waste audits to determine the -- Councilmember Gauthier talked about recycling and how can we increase those rates to see what's actually in the stream. That's the data that we get from those consultant firms and tell us if those initiatives are possible and what strategies that we should employ to be able to maximize the diversion area. So we'll continue to work with those type of consultant firms to advise us in those areas. And we'll provide that data to help us make those concentrated decisions, calculated decisions.
That'll be great. I'll come back on the second round, Mr. Chair, to ask my questions for PEA. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Leader. Chair recognizes Councilmember Driscoll.