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.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Emily, I just want to compliment you. It's not every agency we give money to that brings more return for our dollars. And I know how hard you work. And I'm nervous like you are about the federal cuts. Hopefully they won't be. So I just wanted to publicly acknowledge you. And, Commissioner, I want to thank you for introducing me to the team, the 6th Councilmanic team. It was important for me to get to know them. I'll tell my colleagues I asked, maybe inappropriately in front of the Commissioner, for her employees to tell me as if the Commissioner wasn't there what's really on your mind. And they did without hesitation. And we won't get into those issues. But I will tell you, Mr. Chairman, the Commissioner solved the problems within days. So I just want to acknowledge you on that. Director Williams, you know I'm a big fan. You know what you did at that public golf course in our neighborhood is a gamechanger. And for those of you who don't know, the Community Life Improvement Program was originated in the 6th Councilmanic District under former Councilwoman the late Joan Krajewski. So it's near and dear to my heart, and Tommy Conway does a good job. Last year in this very Committee in anticipation of 2026 while I love everything that we're doing in the neighborhoods cleaning up, the first impression a lot of our visitors and our party planners and our convention planners see is our highways, our major arteries, and I was complaining about the uptick in the graffiti. So under your leadership, I now am noticing on I-95 that we are tackling that. And I guess my ask today is that we continue that because I agree with your analysis, Director. The quicker we respond, the less frequent it's going to happen or the expansion of that. So my plea today is along with CLIP or under your jurisdiction, I'm not quite sure who, I do know that Tommy Conway's sensitive to it, can we please do that in anticipation of our big celebration next year?
Yes. Thank you, Councilmember. Absolutely. That was one of the Mayor's biggest priorities because she noticed the amount of graffiti along our corridors, especially on the Amtrak bridges, South Street Bridge along 76, it was just out of control. And Tom and them did a great job starting that. It really exasperated after the pandemic and CLIP did a great job. Him and his team came out and made sure that they established this new graffiti zero tolerance zone, which has them proactively doing inspections. So they have technology and cameras on vehicles which they go out and actually look for it. And if they find it, they remove it immediately. And that's done proactively and that will continue on.
Thank you, Councilman. And in that same energy as we close out the first round and before we go to the second round, I did just want to take a moment of personal privilege -- well, not really because I was in the queue next -- to say thank you in the same energy, Commissioner Williams, very much appreciate all of the work that you do, late texts and calls early morning. And similar to what Councilmember Driscoll said, you and your team at least with our office, you're batting 100%. So every time we send a request, even if it can't be met, you get back to us. So I just want to say thank you to Keith Warren and Mary Stitt as well, to both people who my office reach out to on a consistent basis and always deliver quality services. So thank you and always on behalf of the constituents of the city of Philadelphia.
With that being said, we are due to start this second round. I have a couple questions, but I want to wait until the Council President comes back before I ask my questions. So I'll start the second round by passing it to Councilmember Gauthier.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Director Williams, I think the Clean and Green initiatives that we've seen come out of the Administration are probably some of my favorite initiatives of the new Administration. And as we've heard this morning, I think there's a lot of agreement among Council around that. However, as the Chair of Council's Environment Committee, I also strongly believe that every other community deserves to be clean and green, particularly communities that have experienced past environmental injustices like Chester. And so, I wanted to ask -- (Applause.)
Given that, I wanted to ask some questions about our contract with Reworld/Covanta. I noted on the vendor chart on of the Sanitation Department's budget testimony that it lists Reworld as merely a recycling service provider. So first, can you help us to understand what recycling services Reworld provides for our city? And also, can you talk about the services that Reworld provides for us through its incinerator in Chester? And then additionally, our environmental partners report higher instances of health issues like asthma and other health concerns in Chester in contrast with other communities that do not have incinerators in their backyard. And I know, because I've talked to you, that incineration is considered generally to be more of an environmentally sound practice over sending trash to a landfill. But I also wanted to know whether the Administration considers cumulative impacts of a place like Chester that not only has an incentive and incinerator on its waterfront, but a refinery, a rail yard and many other dirty uses? So I want to hear you speak to those questions and also what we intend to do about that as a city that believes in clean and green and equity.
Thank you, Councilmember. I certainly can appreciate your comments in reference to that. And we're looking forward to working with your office as you're hosting several internal meetings regarding this issue. We are looking at different ways to reduce the amount of waste that goes to waste streams, not only to Chester but to all of our facilities through our Zero Waste Plan, as you indicated earlier. Regarding the contract, it is up for renewal in 2026. This is currently a four-year plus three one-year renewal contract, just to answer your question on that. And Reworld provides basically our waste disposal services mainly in areas of the city like Southwest, West and Northwest Philadelphia where we do a direct haul. They're located in that part of the city and that is the service that they currently provide in terms of waste disposal. As it comes to recycling, I'm going to ask the Commissioner or Scott McGrath, our Environmental Services Director, to come forward to talk about other services. I do not believe they're handling our current recycling commodities. That is going currently to waste management under that contract, and that is fully at a processing facility they just invested in up in the Northeast.
And then before -- I know you're bringing someone else up. But before my time ends, I also would love to hear you speak about what proactively will we be doing between now and our next scheduled or expected contract renewal in 2026 to create a different dynamic that helps us with our waste, but also helps a struggling community like Chester deal with some of the environmental injustices that have been heaped upon them?
So one of the things that came out of our conversation and that productive meeting that we had was to look at the environmental impacts of these waste companies that have on the region and the entire area. So I think when we are doing our evaluation and award, that that is going to be a mitigating factor as to who gets our tonnage when it comes down to our contracting. We also want to invite others to the table. Competition definitely is something that is good for the City. So we're looking to attract other haulers that offer different technologies. I know the Office of Sustainability is going to do an RFI to look at what the potentials are. And we need to continue talking about organics on the long haul. If we really want to get to zero waste, we have to start including organics as that represents about 30% of our entire waste stream in addition to the 30% of recycling materials that is out there. So if we can start to focus and get companies to invest there, I think we can honestly say that we want to move away from places like Chester for wasted energy. So we need to make those type of investments here in the city of Philadelphia. (Applause.) MR. McGRATH: Scott McGrath, Environmental Planning Director for Sanitation. As far as the recycling component of their contract, that's actually for e-waste and it's actually a completely separate operation within the company. They have built out a -- they're actually one of the largest e-waste contractors in the state. And they take all the e-waste we accept at the drop- off centers and the events that we service, many that we do often with Council Districts as well as some with some of our State Representatives. As the Director said, We are also developing a more robust analysis or process of analyzing environmental impacts, looking at admissions and other types of impacts that both landfills and resource recovery facilities have on the communities where they live in. We also have a contractor that works with us that has access to the EPA WARM model, which can also take this data and translate it into greenhouse gas impact assessments. So we're going to work a lot more on this kind of aspect during the evaluation process going forward.
And we look forward to working with your office as we continue that process, yes.
Thank you. I appreciate you talking about this with me on record. I think we have a good amount of time between 2026 to figure out something that works for our city and the cities on our border. So thank you so much.
Thank you, colleague. Chair recognizes Councilmember Phillips.
Thank you, Chair. Couple questions. I'm looking at the line items. There is a proposed budget for D.C. 47, one time $1400 member bonus. And there's also D.C. 33 salary increase. I wanted to know in the D.C. 33 bonus, what is that increase average for I guess our sanitation workers in terms of what is their minimal salary now?
I apologize, Councilmember. I will have to refer to our Budget Office so I can find that out for you.
Okay. All right. Cool. Next question I just want to ask in terms of community gardens. How are community gardens decided upon? And in particular, in terms of what Districts how do we make that possible for Districts across the city?
Yeah, thank you. Community gardens are extremely important as they become active locations for residents and businesses to actually enjoy some kind of activity and also to beautify our communities and neighborhoods. It is a tool that we use against illegal dumping and we think it's going to be effective because the landscape, beautified location is less likely for someone to come in and dump trash. It's usually well-manicured, well- maintained and in some cases well- lit. So our lighting is definitely a big help. Because that's what dumpers actually look for, dark, desolate locations where they can get away with dropping off material and then leaving very quickly without being spotted. So I think community gardens is going to be an effective tool for us to be able to continue the work that we're doing and making sure it's cleaner and greener.
The question was how do you make a decision on who gets a -- what communities get a community garden? Is it discussed through the Councilmembers or community, like how do you all make those decisions?
So we will certainly work with the Councilmember's office and also the community. We also look for those residential communities where people are going to take ownership. That's a big role because the City alone can't maintain these. As much as CLIP does a tremendous job in PHS, we certainly need the community to take ownership. So that's where we make the determination of which neighborhoods and which community gets community gardens.
And I'll follow up with you with that. Just a quick question for PEA. If the Build to Last program is supplementing PHDC's work, I'm just trying to figure out why can't it all be together, right, in more ways than one. And so, it's not -- because when I think of what you're doing, I immediately think about calling PHDC as opposed to calling you. And I think that this just creates a friction of resources.
Yeah. Thank you so much for this question. Perfect question to explain this. So we're part of the city's One Front Door program, which is going to be launched soon, where it's a single portal that folks can go in to get all sorts of resources. So when someone submits a request and they just need one thing, like they've got a hole in their roof or they've got sparking electrical or specific plumbing issue, that goes straight to Basic Systems Repair. That's something they can tackle. They have constraints based on the type of funding they receive. So CDBG funding from the federal government restricts their contribution to folks to $25,000 per home. And so, that sort of limits their ability to do additional types of work. Also, Basic Systems Repair is designed to be sort of a homelessness prevention program almost where they're addressing an emergency need specifically. So they're not going in and doing those health measures or those efficiency measures or anything like that. That said, we work really closely with PHDC on purpose. We hope that someday there's further integration. But at the moment the way everything is set up and designed, there's sort of a mission outside of the Basic Systems Repair Program that is sort of needed to be addressed that PHDC isn't able to address at the moment. But we work really collaboratively for that reason.
Yeah. Thank you, Chair. I just think the goal is for us to get as many people off the waitlist as possible. And I would love for that to be outlined of what it's going to take for us -- I mean I see it mentioned, but it's not really specific to how to get people off the waitlist for to Build the Last program. Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Councilman. I'm going to take a step back because a couple folks didn't get to go in the first round, so I take a step back and recognize Councilmember Mark Squilla.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, I want to thank you for all the work and efforts that you do coordinating and communicating with our offices. We can be a pain. Sometimes we email all hours of the night and morning, and it's great to always have the responses that we get. And then it's really not the challenges that come to us but how we handle the challenges that is key for the City to be successful. Things are always going to happen. And to me, that's the most important part, to be able to get a response. And we always have that from Clean and Green, from Sanitation and Revenue and everybody who's involved in this. Two quick things: One is we're moving forward with the Clean and Green Initiative of the Mayor's office. One of the things -- and we work with CLIP who does it. I didn't mention them but they do tremendous job. And I think they're under Clean and Green now too, right?
But the budget I think is under Managing Director's Office; is that correct?
Okay. It's a little confusing, but we will figure that out during this process. But you mentioned graffiti and we were talking about graffiti has really -- an uptick in graffiti and CLIP has been on it, but on the highways and PennDOT there was a coordination with PennDOT. And I think was mentioned during the Mayor's announcement that through MAP they were going to work with so many young people and the graffiti writers in a program to come in and start cleaning up some of that areas. How is that going to work and is that going to be a new program?
Yeah, it's actually already started. CLIP jumped on it early last year because of the amount of graffiti that we were witnessing along I-95 and 676 and I-76. And so, we have some very challenging locations, the Amtrak or CSX Rail Bridge across from Boathouse Row, South Street Bridge. I don't know how they got under South Street Bridge to tag it, but we have to come up with ways that we can start to address that. But we are working, as you stated, with a three-phased approach. Graffiti Zero Tolerance Zone through CLIP, they've invested in cameras to be on vehicles to spot graffiti the moment it occurs. So they're out there almost weekly to go up and down and do an estimate and investigation on where it was. Not only are they doing that, they're turning those photos and information over to the police department, so they're involved to get those who are constant graffiti vandals and those who are not willing to work with Mural Arts to be productive, we have to start enforcement. And finally, as you mentioned the Mural Arts Program, we do want to set up a program where we bring in those graffiti artists to put them into productive use for the talents that they have and not have a derogatory use that they're currently doing by defacing public property and along our interstates and highways. So that is our approach and that's what this investment this budget's handling.
That's perfect because I think it's really important to work with those writers too to see other opportunities instead of tagging things that can be part of beautifying things, right. And --
-- instead of part of the problem, they become part of the solution. So thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for that. And appreciate all the hard work that's going into this.
Thank you, Member Squilla. Chair recognizes Councilmember Thomas.
Thank you, Council President. Real quick, prior to the seat that I have I was the Chair of the Streets Committee. And during my time as the Chair of the Streets Committee, one of the biggest things we used to always discuss was that 80% of the car accidents was produced on 10% of the roads. We talked significantly about capital investment in these intersections to be able to address this issue. Where are we with that? Do 80% of the car accidentS still happen on 10% of the roads or have we seen some type of significant improvement to a lot of our major intersections that were significantly unsafe for drivers, pedestrians as well as cyclists?
Yeah, that's more of a question for OTIS and I'm sure that they're going to address it. But I can speak to part of it. That's the High Injury Network in which 80% of the accidents and the most deadly crashes -- they don't use the word accidents, they say crashes because they're preventable -- but they happen on just 13% of the roadways in the city of Philadelphia. And they are making huge investments in the city of Philadelphia from additional speed cushions to speed cameras which --
And speed cushions, you have data that say that the speed cushions and speed cameras work?
Yes. 40% -- in fact, on Roosevelt Boulevard they've seen a 40% decrease in the amount of crashes on The Boulevard since they put those cameras in play. And I'm happy to hear that they're expanding to other locations around the city, especially along the High Injury Network to prevent those tragedies from happening.
Last question: You testified that 90% of potholes get refilled in three days. I drive around Philadelphia. I don't know if as a resident I necessarily believe that. Help us understand as Philadelphians who drive around the city -- I live in Councilman Phillips' District. I'll go ahead and throw Chelten Avenue, right, that's my least favorite street to drive on in the 9th District. Help us understand why it doesn't feel that way.
So on average they complete it in three days, but there may be underlining circumstances that a pothole or a ditch or a cave-in occurs. So potholes are small, less than 12-inch diameter, less than an inch deep. But when you start to get into things that you see that have wider spaces, it could be an underlining issue. Like it could be a water main that's starting to default --
So those things don't come under the three-day category?
Yes, exactly what you're saying. I always preach I was a highway worker. The definition of a pothole -- there is an actual definition. That's why my bill 24 that just passed is important, that now we are able to go after these bad actors because what's getting labeled potholes are actually construction holes that most of the time are laterals to somebody's house that were done illegally. We know it was done illegally without a permit because if they got a permit, the Streets Department comes out and fills the hole in because they want it done right.
That's just a point of information. We do now have an avenue where we are able to fine them and they are not allowed to bid or anything like that with their license until they rectify the situation once they're caught.
Thank you. It's actually Councilmember Young, then Rue Landau, then Driscoll.
Thank you, Mr. President. I just have one question about the budget. Last year's budget is about $3.4 million for some front-end loaders and tri-axial dump. I'm just trying to figure out where we are with that. Can you talk to us about how long it takes the department to get the equipment that's necessary?
Yeah, I think those were used for our illegal dumping crew; is that correct, Commissioner? Can the Commissioner speak -- yeah, I'll have the Commissioner come up -- and Deputy Commissioner Warren. Deputy Commissioner Warren, I'm going to ask him to come up and talk about the use of that equipment and how long it usually takes. We have to -- just like compactors, as specialized equipment that does take time to order in advance. And I believe our illegal dumping crew, the one that we're adding which will have that type of equipment will be actually in place this spring. So some time later this spring we'll have another dumping crew that comes up. But I'll let Deputy Commissioner Warren kind of explain the equipment as he works with it every day.
Good afternoon. Keith Warren. I'm Deputy Commissioner of Sanitation. I'm sorry. But I'm going to ask you to repeat the question.
The question was about there's a line item in last year's budget for 3.4 for front-end loaders and dumps. I just wanted you to talk to us about has that equipment been ordered and what's the timeline it takes to get that equipment?
Yes, the equipment has been ordered. It's about a 24-month turnaround in perfect condition from order to arrival, receiving. There have been several challenges affecting the supply chain. As you know, weird things, ship hitting the bridge and now of course some things with tariffs -- not tariffs, but we have received 75% of the equipment and it is used mostly for large construction-type dumps that occur on underused land or land where it's not residential areas. There's some big places in Southwest. Councilman Jones talked about Marion Avenue earlier. I'm sure you all have seen that story about the tires in the park. Jobs like that require equipment, so that's what we use the dump trucks and the front-end loaders for.
Thank you. And I just want to say thank you. We had a town hall meeting in Fairmount last night. You represented very well, you and Mike as well. So thank you for coming to that meeting. Those residents were very pleased with the answers that you provided to the community. They even mentioned a facility in that neighborhood that needed cleaning. And Mr. Warren called and had someone even just survey the area to see exactly what they were talking about. It was already cleaned. But I just want to let you know you guys are on top of your job in that particular community and others in the city, so thank you.
Thank you, Councilman. And it had nothing to do with that I live in your District.
You're welcome. Next person is Councilmember Rue Landau. Good to see you too, Keith. Councilmember Rue Landau.
Thank you for your hard work. Did you hear me earlier?
We passed bills and the bills are acute, right. But people also really want us fighting the bread-and-butter issues, Basic Systems Repair, Built to Last, getting trees out the alleyways, making sure that the potholes are filled. Those are the things that are near and dear to individuals and constituent services that will keep you coming back to this illustrious hall in terms of the work that we're doing. And so, we thank you because you're on the front line. And so, Commissioner, your leadership, thank you very much for stepping up and making sure that the Mayor's vision of a clean and green, safer city is on the forefront of what we're doing and the members of Council, for always been supportive. Councilmember Rue Landau, Esquire.
Thank you very much. First of all, personal aside, not taking off any time on my the clock here. I know you're looking for all the graffiti taggers out there. There's one called Rew, R-e-w, and I would love to meet that person. So as soon as you figure out who it is, make it connect. I hope it's a good one and not a bad one, one that you're going to bring into Mural Arts, but I love Rew. Thank you. Second one, just one more follow-up for you and I can't wait to get to PEA. But last May, Mayor Parker signed an Executive Order establishing the Clean and Green cabinet, and the cabinet was tasked with providing recommendations to Mayor Parker that will help make Philadelphia a cleaner and greener city. Have those recommendations been made? Will they be made available to City Council and the public? And how are those recommendations reflected in Mayor Parker's budget proposal for FY26?
Yes. Thank you, Councilmember. So the definitely, the Clean and Green cabinet did a great job. The report was submitted in December of 2024. The report is currently under review by the Administration and our cabinet to look at the recommendations. Many of them or some of them are already highlighted in the budget and referenced to the enforcement strategies, the greening strategies that you heard here today. So while they're still reviewing the total report, a lot of the work is still being done and implemented in the budget. And we'll be happy to share that with you once the full review is complete. And we'll also make that public.
Wonderful. Thank you. Can I ask questions to PEA now? Is Emily still -- yes. Thank you, Emily, PEA. If we could clone you guys, we would. We just need to get to some more budget money. I know you touched on solar already a little bit, but I want to follow up with the support from PEA, the City's Adams Solar Power Purchase Agreement came online in early 2024 providing municipal buildings with renewable electricity. What is the projected impact of the Adams Solar Power Purchase Agreement on municipal energy costs and carbon emissions? How many buildings have been set up with this and how many are still to go?
Thank you so much for that question. So Adams Solar provides about 25% of the City's electricity. It's not on a sort of building-by-building basis. It's a aggregate number, and that's delivered directly to us through PECO. We are in the midst of another procurement for the next chunk. The City's goal is to be at 100% renewable electricity by 2030.
We are close. We've seen a significant reduction in energy usage. So we sort of say though, our old adage is use less energy wherever you can. And when you have to use it, make it as clean and healthy as possible. And so, that's kind of the model. We're excited that the carbon reduction numbers are coming out soon for I think it's the 2022 report that the Office of Sustainability is putting out now, and that will show some further reduction. So, yeah, there's a little bit of a lag on the data for them, but they'll release that shortly. And then we're working with them now to procure additional renewable purchases writ large. We're also collaborating now between the City and the School District. Hopefully soon we will see the City taking on some of the procurement for the School District's energy usage, because the City procures in a more sophisticated and more affordable manner. And so, as that is working its way through the contracting process, we expect to be able to support the School District's purchase of renewable electricity as well.
That is very exciting. Thank you -- yay. Clapping doesn't take off the time. (Applause.)
President Biden's 2022 Climate law expanded the tax credits which cover the costs of heat pumps, air-conditioners, home insulation and solar panels. What is the possible fallout for PEA or Philadelphia if these tax credits are cut?
Sure, they're certainly under fire. We are expecting that the rebates that go through the state are likely to move forward. So there's almost $300 million in funds that were allocated to Pennsylvania for home energy rebates, both for multi- family and for single family. The state is moving forward with those. We will be able to leverage those with Built to Last through our green bank not to connect too many dots there, but we're expecting those to go through. The investment tax credit for renewable energy is certainly under fire and I don't have any predictions on what Congress or this President will do for any of that. It's a 30% tax credit. So 30% of the total value of the project is returned in your taxes. So it would have a huge impact on the market.
We have a hard stop at 1:00 so I have to get to the rest of the members who are here. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Katherine Gilmore Richardson.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. I was actually reviewing my emails sitting here, and I just wanted to put on the record for one project that we've been working on with Councilmember Jones' office for the speed cushions at Overbrook High School for spring of 2025 so we're getting there now. The weather's starting to turn. So I just wanted to put that on the record. And then really quickly for PEA I wanted to talk about the commitments that you all have secured from your vendor on the Quadplex and the Guaranteed Energy Savings Project to meet all of the minority business participation goals. I know my team went to the briefing that was held. I know we've spoken ad nauseam about this issue, seeking to ensure that there is real actual, not a passthrough or any other thing going on, minority participation on this project. So could you speak to just for the record and for the public what a real overview of what the project is, and then the actual minority participation in any changes that you have made to address the concerns that we have brought to your attention over the last couple of months? And I know this is important to Council President as well.
Absolutely. Thank you so much for that question, Councilmember.
And also the Black Women's Leadership Council. I think that's who you met with on my behalf, Joann Bell and her team, and thank you for making that time.
Of course. And I think we're getting ready to meet with our Black Business Group as well and any other organization that has any interest in talking about these issues more. This is absolutely core to the work that PEA does. We take this incredibly seriously. I think you'll see on all of our projects that our participation numbers far exceed our EOP commitment. I'll give just streetlighting as the example of that. We're at 81% participation at the moment. The commitment on that project was 54%. So we take it incredibly seriously both with the sort of large supplier diversity percentages and contractor diversity percentages but also in creating workforce opportunities, whether those are big or small, to make sure that people have a chance to get into this industry. Specific to the Quadplex, this is a project that is going to come before Council very soon for your approval --
I apologize for the interruption because I heard the bell. Could you just break down the participation numbers?
African American, Hispanic, Asian, female, if you could just provide an actual breakdown. And then I apologize. I wanted to get that in.
Not at all. So on this project, it's a 60.38% commitment. And I will get you the more specific breakdown on this of the percentage of MBEs versus WBEs in that 60%. At the moment I know that it's skewing more towards WBEs, but there is some significant MBE percentages as well. I'll follow up with everyone and share the details on that as well as the contractors that are planned. One thing I'll just note on energy projects is there's a period different from our normal procurement of construction. There's a period of investment grade audit where we're actually refining the scope. So this will be subject to change above the 60%, not below it. But just to note, these are the contractors at the moment with the proposed scope.
Yes, I'll wait for the additional information. I know we're slated to have additional conversation. I think we're meeting tomorrow as an example, but I just wanted to get that on the record because, yes, I did hear from Black Women's Leadership Council but I also heard from other individuals regarding this specific project. It wasn't just one person. And so, that was sort of an alarm bell for me to really look into this more deeply ensuring that we have minority participation and real minority participation on this project, particularly based on what we're dealing with in D.C. at this point. We have to be the stopgap in the City of Philadelphia to ensure that the dollars we are expending really go to the communities that reflect the demographics of the city of Philadelphia. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President,
Thank you. Councilmember Brooks, O'Rourke, Lozada. We are wrapping up at 1:00 p.m. for our break.
All right. Thank you so much, Council President. So my question is for PEA, and I have other questions I'll just submit for the record. I mean, I'll just submit and I can get the answers in writing. So in the past, PEA has been excellent at leveraging additional private and federal funding to supplement City funds. In the face of federal rollbacks, what are your current plans or approach and expectations? My second question is we've heard that PEA hasn't yet spent all of its Built to Last funding from last year and also that the ability to do long-term planning is especially important for Built to Last given the amount of coordination and braiding of different programs that it all includes. Can you speak to the importance of stable City funding in your long-term planning and what would happen to the program if you didn't receive City funding this year? And can you also speak to any specific success stories or neighborhood impacts regarding Built to Last? And my last question is, what role do you see for community-based organizations and how they can advance or help with the outreach to ensure residents can take advantage of Built to Last? Did you get all of that?
I think I did. Thank you so much for these questions. I know we're short on time so I'll like give you some broad answers, and then I will follow up with very specific details. So I'll talk to the CBO question first. We actually have a pilot running right now that is going fantastically. It's funded by Fannie Mae in Kensington in partnership with New Kensington CDC, and we adjusted the model a little bit. So right now we sort of serve the entire city no matter where you live. Doesn't have to be a certain census tract or a certain neighborhood. But we decided, let's see what it looks like if we had a CBO really leading that outreach and that relationship with the community and it's been wonderful. We have 60 homes that will get full Built to Last treatment with all of the other programs involved. NKCDC does the intake and does the communication with the homeowners to make sure it's really a trusted partnership. So that's going really well. We'll continue to fundraise around that model with other CBOs as well and NKCDC. And we'll have a full report from that Fannie Mae pilot hopefully in the next few months. The second thing I just want to address is sort of that stable City funding and what happens if all of the things that the Trump administration is kind of promising come true. So I'll just say we had raised what we expected to be about $20 million in funding for Built to Last from federal grants for next year. Those are terminated. So there were $4 million as part of that Habitat and Philly Thrive collaboration in Southwest and then another project that might still have a very slim chance of getting approved later if things at the EPA calm down, but we're not expecting it anymore. And that was about $12 to $16 million for Built to Last. And so, we had really put a lot of resources over the last few years into applying for federal grants through the Inflation Reduction Act and BIL. And so, a lot of that is not available anymore. We are not slowing down though at all. We're approaching Medicare and Medicaid to find ways for them to supplement the cost of interventions for home repairs because of the health impacts. We are working with a variety of philanthropic organizations. Typically, that's not going to replace big federal funding, but we'll do as much as we can there. We've made asks of the state. We are making an ask here. And I'll just say too that all of the funding that was allocated to Built to Last from last year's budget and from Whole Home Repair is encumbered, so it's committed to specific homes. So that 650-ish home number, that includes all of that funding. So we know each individual home that that's going to go to as of right now. It just takes a few months for that construction to get done because you're coordinating across multiple programs. So while it's not actually physically spent, it's accounted for. And then we're asking for additional funding in this budget this year to be able to take more homes off the waitlist. We don't take them off the waitlist until we know we can fund their repairs, because we don't want to make expectations of folks that we can't fulfill. And then that $5 million incredibly important, but remember this is a billion dollar problem that we have here in Philadelphia. E. Initiative, we hope that we will and we could easily utilize million a year 8 for the next four years additional 9 to this program. So it's really 10 just a question of funding for us. If there's enough money out there, we can take more people off the waitlist. This isn't an easy program. It takes time. It takes coordination to do it with dignity and respect for the folks in Philly. It takes effort. And so, we're okay with the fact that it takes six or seven months to complete a project at a home because then people have a stable home to live in.
So that's really our goal, and we hope that this is sort of demonstrating to the Administration and to everybody that this is really what neighborhood stabilization looks like, and it's the number one thing we hear from communities is home repair, home repair, home repair. And while Basic Systems Repair is wonderful and we are thrilled to have their collaboration and partnership. It sort of takes one slice of the pie and doesn't sort of get to that full stabilization of the home. )
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilmember -- okay. All right. Councilmember Dr. Phillips. And then we're wrapping up with Councilmember Landau. It's a wrap.
Just really quickly, I just noticed the PHDC program Basic Systems Home Repair and Built to Last, my only concern is that I can see that if you all are not strongly in unison, there being programs falling under the -- housing repairs, excuse me, housing repairs falling under the cracks, and I really think that needs to be fixed now. I know you're doing this one system, but it still involves intense communication. And that actually might be one of the reasons why we're not getting repairs done efficiently and effectively. And to me, that has to be solved first before we continue to solve or fund a program that's not working as strongly as it should.
We totally agree. And we'll follow up with you on what that collaboration looks like. We've grown a lot with PHDC over the last two years with Whole Home Repair. So I'm excited to share more detail on that.
You're welcome. Thank you. And wrapping us up will be Councilmember Rue Landau.
Thank you. I didn't know I was getting a third one. I appreciate this. Two quick questions for PEA. One is that --
Chair recognizes -- excuse me. Chair recognizes Councilmember Rue Landau.
We know that State Rep Fiedler has done this great project with Solar for Schools. And you know that I'm very interested in expanding solar to municipal buildings. We've already seen great results from Solar for Schools. Is there an opportunity to identify more municipally-controlled assets to replicate and expand this program so we can have more important renewable energy sources and decrease our carbon footprint? And also has the City explored including renewable energy in its plans for lease properties as well? And I want to add my last one so I don't have to ask again. I just want you to concisely as possible outline the things PEA won't be able to do if you do not receive your full funding? Thank you very much.
I'll be quick on this. So rooftop solar for city buildings is on the agenda. It's one of 10 city projects that we're working on procurement for. We know that there are roof quality issues with certain city buildings as well as electrical system upgrades that will need to happen. So it's got to happen really in collaboration with the Department of Public Property and each different department. As part of the Quadplex project, we've got the four main city office buildings in Center City but also eight health centers and three homeless services buildings. And this was really an attempt to work across departments to do exactly these type of things. So for each health center, we'll be evaluating solar and storage for resilience so that if there is a power outage or some sort of other emergency, that those health centers are still able to remain active. (Applause.)
So I'll stop there on rooftop solar and happy to follow up there. We only have one lease that involves solar, which is 5th and Spring Garden where the city's archives is. We have solar on the roof there. And that's something we can definitely continue to look at. It's not currently in the leasing plan. I really do want to address what PEA won't be able to do if we don't have this budget. We've been able to weather some budget cuts over the years without doing any layoffs and still continue to grow programs where there is funding to grow them, and that's gone well and we've been pretty conservative. And because we have this sort of broad, diverse mix of funding streams, that's let us cover things that we haven't been expecting. Now, with some of these federal cuts it puts about $1 million of personnel costs at risk and an additional $3 million of program funding at risk. That's just existing funding. So far they're reimbursing us still and the system's still open and we're allegedly hearing that it's okay, but of course that put some strain on the system. So all of that just to say we would have to stop or slow down programming and that's really how we've designed the organization, is to not get out ahead of our (inaudible) and make sure that we are funded to do the things that we're doing. So Built to Last if it has its own designated funding, we will have to use more of that funding to cover soft costs, to cover staff costs. We are currently in a holding pattern with Solar for All which is $150 million of federal funding that has been allocated to Pennsylvania. 70 million of it would come to Southeastern Pennsylvania through our green bank. The state legislature has been holding up our ability to spend that money even though the Trump administration has authorized it. And that's all for low-income rooftop solar of all the things. So there are things like that where we've just continued to kind of fight for every possible opportunity out there. We've been in Harrisburg an awful lot this year trying to get that moving. It's not looking particularly promising right now, but we'll see what happens in the budget process. So we're turning over every rock and shaking out the couch cushions to try to find any funding we can for this. Operational funding is the hardest part. We added a compliance team this year and a full finance team, so that has really been necessary to be able to hold this kind of large federal funding. But there are really not grants for those sorts of things. So these are the types of things that become at risk.
Thank you very much. And last but not least, Mr. Harrity.
Thank you, Council President. I'm sorry it was a confusion. My button keeps blinking on and off over here. Just real quick because you just hit on it with the funding gaps, the 5 million request for the Built to Last home improvement program proposed to take 200 homes off the two-year waitlist, with the additional funding how soon can these homeowners expect to be moved off the waitlist? And will this reduce the current overall two-year time frame?
Absolutely. So we are finishing intake now for a few of the homes that are already funded, but if we had certainty of funding, we would work immediately to start intake on those additional 200 homes. It would also allow us to do a little bit of triage to the waitlist. So folks who are already getting a BSRP service, we can tie that more closely to Councilman Phillips' point and sort of do the work as close together as humanly possible. But, yeah, it would start as soon as the budget is done and we would get those people through the intake process. We would share that data across all of the programs and then begin the process to scope the sort of Whole Home set of repairs.
Thank you very much. We want to thank all of you for your testimony and continue to keep up the good work. At this time, we will stand in recess until 2:00 p.m.
Good afternoon, everyone. This is the continuance of our budget hearing. Ms. Loughead, will you please call the next individuals to testify.
We have Kristin Del Rossi, Streets Commissioner; Randy Hayman, Water Commissioner. And finally we have Atif Saeed, Chief Executive Officer of Philadelphia International and Philadelphia Northeast Airports.
We're going to ask for all three of you to come on up and give your testimony. And then we will open up for members of City Council to ask questions of all three of you for Round 1 and Round 2. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)
Commissioner Del Rossi, if it's all right, could you please state your name for the record and begin your testimony. And next we will have testimony from Philadelphia International Airport and the Water Department, in that order. COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: Good afternoon, Council President and members of City Council. I am Kristin Del Rossi, Streets Commissioner. Joining me today are Richard Montanez, First Deputy Commissioner for Transportation; Christopher Newman, Deputy Commissioner for Administration; Michelle Brisbon, Chief of Staff. I am pleased to provide testimony on the Department of Streets Fiscal Year 2026, operating budget. I'd like to start by recognizing our staff. It has been a busy year full of triumphs and incredibly hard work. I am so proud of the work the employees of the department have performed and their accomplishments and would like to use this opportunity to expand on their work and achievements as part of this testimony. My department's vision is to make roadways across Philadelphia safe for everyone no 8 matter how they choose to travel. Traffic safety is at the core of every service and project we deliver. To achieve this, we plan, design, build, maintain, repair and manage the operation of our City's transportation network. 6 million as reflected in the budget ordinance for my department. This budget focuses on the internal resources used to make our transportation network safe, equitable and provide economic opportunity for all. Our request includes the addition of a second line striping crew to be incorporated as part of our overall staffing, including 832 full-time and 846 part-time budgeted positions. Roadway repair and maintenance plays a pivotal role in our transportation network, providing safe and efficient egress for all modes of travel. The new line striping crew creates additional capacity to address these maintenance and safety needs across the city. Our part-time employees consist of our incredible school crossing guards, each of which we strive to recruit from within one mile of their assigned intersections. Ensuring the safety of our children walking to and from school is an essential function and our guards have performed this work with dedication and commitment. Thanks to this commitment and my staff's hard work and dedication, we have assigned over 800 guards this year, by far the largest number since Streets assumed responsibility for this program. Our full-time positions cover a wide range of titles and functions. The volume, scope and variety of work performed by our staff is too expansive to share during this brief testimony, but the work speaks for itself. We repair potholes, over 50,000 just this past year alone. Every pothole reported to 311 gets addressed in an average of three days. We clear snow, treat icy roadways. This past year we coordinated with our partners to mobilize hundreds of staff and vehicles for five winter weather events, each a monumental undertaking, working around the clock and driving thousands of miles. I am also proud to report Streets has resurfaced more than 50 miles to date this fiscal year and we expect to reach over 100 miles by the end of June. If accomplished, this will represent the first time the City has resurfaced 100 miles since 2004, a more than 20-year timespan. This expected achievement is the result of critical program investment made by the Parker Administration, this City Council and the incredible work of our roadway resurfacing crews. Our traffic calming program is another great example. Streets staff from across the department have worked together to address speeding on 738 blocks, 100 miles of roadway around schools and in communities across Philadelphia. These requests are reviewed and designed by city engineers, managed or installed by city paving crews, with pavement markings by city line striping crews and signs fabricated and installed by our traffic sign shop.
Another team with an essential role in improving the quality of life for all neighborhoods throughout the city is our streetlighting division. Over the past year and a half, they have been diligently working along with the Philadelphia Energy Authority on the Philly Streetlight Improvement Project. This is a transformational upgrade to 130,000 streetlight fixtures. The new network LED lights use 50% less electricity and cut the City's emissions by 10%, all while illuminating roadways and improving safety whether you walk, bike, drive or take transit. Behind all of this and every freshly-paved street, newly- rehabbed bridge, trail extension, bike lane, every transportation capital project are teams of Streets employees making them happen. We all care deeply for this city, and our role in providing access to safe roadway infrastructure leads to endless opportunities for all Philadelphians. We therefore request your favorable consideration of this 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.
Thank you very much. Mr. Atif Saeed. MR. SAEED:, Good afternoon, Council President and members of City Council. I am Atif Saeed, Chief Executive Officer of Philadelphia International and Northeast Philadelphia Airports. It's an honor to be here today to present testimony on the Department of Aviation's Fiscal Year 2026 operating budget. Joining me today are Tracy Borda, Chief Financial Officer and Delicsha Wilds, Chief Administrative Officer, as well as many other members of the Department of Aviation team. The City of Philadelphia's Department of Aviation, which owns and operates Philadelphia International Airport and Northeast Philadelphia Airport, is an enterprise fund operating efficiently with no local tax dollars independent of the City's General Fund. Both airports are self-sustaining, earning revenues through operations on site. As many of you were in attendance to witness at our first State of the Airport event last fall, this past year we released an updated combined economic impact of our airport system. Our airports are incredible economic drivers to the regional economy. The new study from 2023 estimated that our airports generated approximately 18.7 billion annually for the economy, support more than 102,000 regional jobs and contribute 119 million annually in tax revenues to the City's General Fund. This past year we saw service commence to three new European destinations, courtesy of American Airlines, to Nice, Naples and Copenhagen. This upcoming year we anticipate additional European service to Milan and Edinburgh. While PHL remains a TransAtlantic gateway, we also saw new growth in Caribbean and Central American markets with new service this year to Costa Rica, Barbados and Mexico City while continuing to work to connect Philadelphia to key markets in South America, Africa and Asia. Looking ahead, our team is busy preparing for 2026. Our capital development team is in the middle of completing 500 million in physical infrastructure investment spread over 50 different projects to enhance the overall customer experience at our airports. One of those key investments is the restroom renovation program. We opened three new restroom sets last month and we'll open five more through July. We're also focused on creating vibrant local experiences within our airport. We continue to emphasize local participation in PHL food and shops program and bring the best of Philadelphia food, culture and retail experience to travelers. We now have local 7 favorites and two more are opening 8 this year, Federal Donuts and 9 Oyster House. In addition to 10 physical infrastructure 11 investments, PHL is investing in 12 our people. Last year we launched 13 PHL Works, which is an airport-wide 14 initiative designed to elevate 15 customer service and improve guest 16 experience through employee 17 training and other tools. 18 The goal of this program 19 is to establish an airport-wide universal customer service culture that provides our guests an exceptional experience at every touchpoint from curb to cloud. We are also working hard to attract new employees and upskill our talent within the department through PHL Bridge Program. This workforce development program has initiatives aimed at increasing talent and retention. To support this important work, our Fiscal Year '26 budget requests $564,062,025, an increase of approximately $1,879,000 or point .03% over Fiscal Year '25 estimated obligation levels. The budget reflects our commitment as we focus on the celebrations planned for 2026 with an emphasis on beautifying terminals, updating our facilities and enhancing our guest experience along with furthering our air service development efforts, sustainability initiatives and continued effort to develop a premier workforce that reflects the unique nature of our city. Thank you for the opportunity to give our testimony here today. We are happy to take any questions that you may have at this time. Thank you.
Thank you. How are you doing today? COMMISSIONER HAYMAN: Doing well. Thank you.
Just state your name for the record and please begin your testimony, sir.
Randy Hayman, Water Commissioner. Good afternoon, President Johnson and members of the City Council. Again, I'm Randy Hayman, Water Commissioner. Joining me today are Lawrence Yangalay, Deputy Water Commissioner of Finance; and Benjamin Jewell, First Deputy Water Commissioner as well as other members of PWD leadership team. I am pleased to provide testimony on Philadelphia Water's Fiscal Year 2026 operating budget. As the Commissioner, I have the honor of working beside 2000 of the best water professionals in the nation who protect the health and safety of our community. They do this by ensuring that they deliver safe and high quality and reliable drinking water and the treatment of wastewater and stormwater to protect our rivers and streams. As you are aware, the Water Fund is an enterprise fund of the city. It is comprised of revenues generated through charges to our customers. The Water Department's operating budget is a component of the Water Fund, and it's this operating budget for which this testimony is being provided. 5 million, an increase of $71 million or 13% over Fiscal Year 2025 estimated obligation levels. This increase is primarily due to a class 100 increase personnel to provide for, among others, labor rate increase, movement of staff from capital to operating and hiring critical positions for regulatory compliance. Class 200, purchase of services, for permit compliance efforts to meet new federal-led employment requirements and critical maintenance. Class 400, to replace out-of-date vehicles flagged for removal from service. The Water Department's operating budget supports our three core services: Treatment and delivery of top-quality drinking water, collection and treatment of wastewater for the health and safety of our population and the environment, and management of stormwater to reduce pollution. Proper maintenance of our massive system of infrastructure is critical. Our system includes three drinking water treatment plants, three water pollution control plants, dozens of pumping stations, over 3200 miles of water mains, about 3700 miles of sewers and over 25,000 fire hydrants. The Water Department must comply with existing laws and regulations set by state and federal government, and we anticipate additional regulations. Furthermore, future challenges such as climate change and sea level rise complicate our planning. The department embraces integrated planning as a means of prioritizing limited funds for the most beneficial and cost-effective projects. This allows reasonable and affordable schedules for making progress towards long-term goals consistent with the department's mission and vision. To help keep debt service manageable, the department has been actively pursuing available state and federal infrastructure, low interest loan funding. 8 million in forgivable loans. The department has also applied for $223 million in grant applications and has been awarded $107 million thus far. Furthermore, the department is preparing to submit additional applications for state and federal funding in the next few months. The department remains firmly committed to water affordability and access. The City has been successful in increasing enrollment in the Tiered Assistance Program, TAP, with roughly 64,000 customers now enrolled in TAP. In addition, more than 16,000 customers are enrolled in the Senior Citizen Discount. In 2022, new policies were introduced that greatly reduce the number of customers eligible for payment-related water shut- offs. And we are continuing to work collaboratively with the Revenue Department and the Managing Director's Office to fine-tune those policies and increase outreach to customers facing shut- off or who have growing debt. In closing, I'd like to thank Philadelphia Water's workforce whose efforts hours a 4 day seven days a week keep the 5 water running, the sewers clear and 6 our wastewater clean.
Our 7 workforce is dedicated to improving 8 quality of life for everyone in 9 Philadelphia region. PWD is 10 consistently working hard to 11 operate in a manner that is cost- 12 efficient, operationally effective 13 and thoughtful environmental and 14 economic impacts in the present and 15 future. 16 This budget will allow 17 us to continue to meet our 18 essential charge of providing the 19 water, wastewater and stormwater 20 services that are the cornerstone 21 of public health in Philadelphia. 22 This concludes my testimony. Thank 23 you again for your time today. I'm 24 happy to answer any questions.
Thank you very much. Just a couple brief questions before I turn it over to my colleagues. So, Mr. Atif, just in regards to our preparation for 2026 I want to start off by just thanking you and your team and give a shout-out to Shane. I saw Shane over there, just always being responsive any time that we reach out to your office. Any time I'm a civilian going through the airport, because I travel on a regular basis, so my experience has always been great. And I'll pick up the phone and call y'all and talk about my great experience. And thank you for having vegan options in the Philadelphia International Airport. It means a lot. As we prepare for the events of 2026, the Administration has noted a $500 million investment. Could you break down what those investments are?
Yeah, absolutely. I'll start and I'm actually going to request that Api Apullingam, our Chief Development Officer, comes for a little bit more detail to this. So as you know, Council President, we have an Enterprise Fund, and our funding primarily comes from the airlines in terms of rates and charges. So we entered into an agreement with the airlines a couple of years ago. And part of that agreement expanded their capital commitment to the airport with a collective amount of $1.8 billion. When I came into the office two and a half years ago, our team looked through the projects that we had and focused certain amount of effort into projects that were going to be customer-facing as part of that investment portfolio and prioritize them to ensure that 2026 is going to be a good year as people come and travel through the airport. These are inclusive of airfield, terminal and land site projects, from landscaping and signage to in-terminal enhancements of digital displays and other facility improvements, including gate-hold areas as well as taxiways leading up to the airport gates that airlines use. So it's a subset of the overall capital program with a clear focus on delivering these projects by the end of this year. Some of them might trickle into early part of next year, but we are certainly aiming to have them all concluded before we see the traffic coming through. With that, I'll ask Api to kind of provide a little bit more detail into these projects and where they're at. (Witness approached Witness table.)
Good afternoon. My name is Api Appulingam. I'm the Chief Development Officer for the Department of Aviation. And as Atif said, we're excited to have embarked on this $500 million capital program to prepare us for 2026 and we have projects focused on land-side terminals and airfields. On the terminal side, something we talk about and Atif mentioned in his opening remarks, we have our restroom renovation program. We have about $20 million dedicated to renovating about eight restrooms. That also includes a custodial operation center that we opened last fall to make sure that the staff that is cleaning and maintaining our restrooms have a facility as well. We modernized the platforms for SEPTA, the airport line, last fall. We completed that project. That was about a $15 million investment. So we completed that. Right now we are doing something called a terminal refresh where we're going through our seven terminals and making sure the painting, the lighting, the seating, the carpeting, the floors, walls, anything and everything a passenger sees and touches has been upgraded or modernized. So right now there's a lot of construction activity happening in the terminals. You'll see a lot of construction barricades and also a lot of work happening overnight hours when there's less flights and less people in our terminals. On the airfield, we're rehabbing our main runway, Runway 5 Right to 7 Left. So that's also a 6 nighttime construction that should 7 be completed this summer. And 8 there's about 50 projects as Atif 9 mentioned. I'm happy to get into the details. But just generally, we're addressing as much as possible for 2026. And one other thing I will mention as well with the restrooms that we are not reconstructing prior to 2026, we are refreshing those restrooms. So that means going in there replacing broken fixtures, painting, creating lighting. So those will be all done by this fall as well.
And, Mr. President, I'm sorry. If I may, just want to -- you might already be aware that on the 14th there is actually a hearing specifically on 2026 preparation I have been asked to participate in and we will have an extensive conversation and briefing on all aspects, including capital program for 2026.
Good. So I'll save my questions for that hearing. Just part of it, we'd like to get an update on how we're making sure that the 500 million is also equity invested for businesses, small businesses, to participate and the projects are taking place as we prepare for 2026? So you don't have to answer that now. But at that hearing, we'll have an opportunity to do a deeper dive.
Okay. I want to wrap up for my members. But also, I see Michael Carroll over there. I know you work very closely with the Streets Department as well. Just want to thank you and your team for responding to Council's advocacy around the restoration of the $5 million for Vision Zero. Also, that goes toward -- we see the funding and then the new staff that's requested will go toward making sure we're more pedestrian- and bicycle- friendly city. So I just want to acknowledge that. I want to also follow up on Councilmember Dr. Anthony Phillips, he introduced legislation to have speed cushions around schools in the city of Philadelphia. Can we get an update on how much progress have been made since he introduced that piece of legislation? COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: We have approximately 108 installed around schools and we have 185 that are in the queue right now for design of the speed cushions around those schools.
Okay. All right. Thank you very much. And then just last, Mr. Randy Hayman, Commissioner, just give us a brief idea. We know that every winter when it gets cold there's always a water main break somewhere in some Councilmanic District that we have to address. Once we had a water main break, it has significant impact on the residents that live in that area as well as the businesses that live in that area. Just give us a real brief overview of what your team is doing to be on the front end of replacing the pipes so we don't have water main breaks during the winter months. COMMISSIONER HAYMAN: I appreciate the question. To combat the consequences of an aging system, and it must be understood we have a very old system here, the average pipe is probably about 75 close to 80 years old. But we have a plan and we're proactive. And to combat the consequence of aging buried infrastructure, we substantially increased the number of water mains and sewers targeted for replacement or renewal each year. Water main replacement over the last 29 years has averaged 19 miles per year. We are ramping that number up with the goal of replacing 32 miles per year, 1.5% of the distribution system per year in Fiscal Year 2025 and beyond at a cost of $5.25 million per mile. On the sewer side, we're having sewer replacement over the nine years has averaged 7.8 miles per year. PWG is ramping it up in sewer replacement rate to miles 10 of sewer reconstruction in Fiscal 11 Year 2025 and increasing that 12 number by 1 mile per year until it 13 reaches 20 miles per year at a cost 14 of $9 million per mile. And so, we're doing the best we can to, one, analyze where the problems may exist. Then number two, to be proactive in having a set gate at which we're doing repairs and replacement. It's an ongoing process and is one that is very costly, as I mentioned, per dollars per mile.
All right. I also want to acknowledge Steven Lorenz for his work and the things that he's doing in terms of the Streets Department as well. (Applause.)
And I got one more. I want to give y'all, y'all props while you're here. At this time, I am going to take a moment and acknowledge Councilmember -- oh, and this is right on time too. Jim Harrity, who's the Chair of Labor, who's also a member Local 57 says there's a definition as to what is a pothole. And so, I'm going to let him lead off this round because there's a question regarding is the Water Department talking to the Streets Department when developers are digging up our streets and leaving these official potholes. And I'm going to let Member Harrity lead this discussion. And then next we will have Dr. Phillips, Jamie Gauthier and Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson.
So I thank you, Council President. Thank you all for being here today. I know your jobs are not easy. It takes a lot of effort and a lot of work and a lot of different people to make things with these numbers come to fruition. So with that, I'm going to ask some questions and I'm going to ask them all. That way you guys can give them to me just for a sake of time. So for Water, some of the contractors have complained that their work has been delayed because of backlogs in water sampling testing that is required to complete projects. Are there any plans to streamline this process? And is there a staffing issue or a procedural issue? And then for Aviation, you referred in your testimony to the economic impact study which stated PHL and PNE combined to generate 18.7 billion in regional economic impact. Are you able to provide a little more context on those numbers and can you share the amount of tax revenue the City receives as a result of the operations? COMMISSIONER HAYMAN: I appreciate the question. Thank you. As far as delays, we have many different parts of the puzzle that have to come together. One, there is the testing. Number two, there is the actual review of what's happening at the site that has to take place. And then number three, there is the procedures that are properly followed. And so, we are working with the contractors to evaluate how we can improve and we're looking at what improvements that we can do in the testing protocol. And we've announced that to them, some things we can do to streamline it and we're more than happy to do that. We're also looking at the possibility of going out to the field and doing a field test to see what are some of the problems that that may exist. And we're also working with them to develop not only new protocols possibly for us within the organization, but to work with them as far as making sure following proper protocols at the site as far as testing protocols are going. And so, we're making progress I believe, but it is a three-piece puzzle that is going to take time for us to bring it all together.
Councilmember, thank you for that question. It frequently is asked at the airport as to how it contributes to the local economy. And the reality of the matter is that we facilitate commerce within our four walls that makes businesses successful, then contribute to local economies. So we don't as an enterprise fund have a direct contribution financial to the city, but through the activities that we perform we do have businesses that the City collects --
That's what I'm getting at. Do you have a number of how much those businesses inside the airport generate in tax dollars? I know you guys are --
I'm going to ask Tracy Borda to come up here. This work gets done under our shop. But to start with, there's about $400 million of economic impact overall to the region. Very specifically with Philadelphia, it is about $119 million. And I'm going to ask Tracy to come and speak to you, the breakdown. And she'll also talk to you about a little bit about how the impact study is done with different parts of the study covering different aspects of the impact.
Thank you. And I appreciate the fact that you guys have so many small businesses in there operating, mom-and-pop shops, that make up our Philadelphia, what it is, something special because of these hard-working people. So thank you. (Witness approached Witness table.)
Good afternoon. Tracy Borda. I'm the Airport's Chief Financial Officer for the Department of Aviation. Thank you for -- I'll bring this a little closer. Thank you for your question. Yes, we had just conducted -- we waited until kind of the harder times have passed and did an update to our economic impact last year. And it's great. I mean, when you have an international airport in your city there's just tremendous amount of impacts and those impacts have tiers. So as Atif explained, the total result was $18.7 billion economic impact. The tiers of impacts that happen, and I'll specifically end up answering your question. But you first look and we worked with the Econsult who conducted the study. First, you have the impact that takes place right on airport, right. You have the airport itself, all the hiring that we do, the money we spend on protective services, material, supplies, equipment. You have all the airlines, all the other businesses, all of the concessions, all of those right there on our campus and the impact that that makes. And then from there once you have an international airport, you end up having -- your spur businesses develop around you right, everybody who's there to support us, whether it's maintenance facilities, suppliers for airlines, parking facilities, all those things that end up popping up around an airport. So if you look at us on a map, you see all those businesses that have come to be and then further out you start to look at the regional impact and that deals with things like tourism, right, and all the folks that come here to visit us and see our beautiful city. So with that said, we absolutely have a direct impact on the city. And so, ultimately the airport it's about $120 million impact in taxes that are paid to the City through the wage tax, the sales and use tax and business tax. And we have a breakdown of those if. You need them, we're happy to supply your office with that.
That's great. I thank you and always a pleasure dealing and talking with you at the airport. You guys are very accommodating. And we're working on some stuff together right now and get some more employees. Somebody who grew up in Southwest Philly, that was like a lifeblood to our neighborhood between the airport and when UPS came in and made their hub up there. I mean, you know how it is when you live in a neighborhood. One person gets a job and the next thing you know, the whole neighborhood's working over there. So I'd like to see some more of that, some more outreach that we're working on now in the neighborhoods to try to get some of the people in the airport. So thank you.
Thank you, Member Harrity, for your expertise. Dr. Phillips.
Thank you, Council President. I just want to thank the Streets Department for all the work that they do in our city, but we still have a lot of work to do of course. There is a backlog of speed cushion requests that remain a concern of many neighborhoods throughout the city. What level of investment is going to be needed to reduce wait times and address community safety concerns more promptly? Financial investment will be needed for us to reduce the wait times and address the community concerns about safety and putting speed calming measures down. COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: Thank you, Councilmember, for your question. And we can get back with the actual figure of what it's going to cost to definitely eliminate the backlog.
Gotcha. In addition to that, have you considered -- is there someone in your department that's solely responsible for working on speed calming measures only? Is there anyone in the department? COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: We have a traffic engineering unit that works alongside with the Office of Multimodal Planning and we have the Vision Zero Task Force. So there's a combination of things that are working alongside each other.
I ask that question because I think that there's such a significant amount of community input and value around us. Maybe it'd be really beneficial to have a person who's responsible for community relations around speed calming measures, people that will help. And I see the job as not only talking to the public about the process but, two, tracking a system of helping people understand where they fall in line in the pipeline for getting the speed cushion. And if they're not eligible for speed calming measures such as a speed cushion, what else can they be eligible for and helping the public understand that that can be beneficial because the traffic engineers, you're focused more so on the implementation? We need someone that's going to help with the innovation as much as possible. And then lastly, I just want to mention that we have in the city of Philadelphia -- are we experiencing with our speed calming measures, are there any other innovative ideas that the department is exploring because we're not going to be able to get to every block with speed cushions at this point? So what are some other innovative ideas that are coming up and discussions about how can we slow down traffic that's happening in our city? COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: They posted a Vision Zero annual report. And in the report there are different types of measures in which they will be implemented looking at the High Injury Network. Every project that we -- capital project in the city that we do we look at traffic calming measures. Our signal projects, our paving projects, we add in the speed cushions. We look at it in every project that we have that comes into the city of Philadelphia. We don't necessarily have a unit that just specifically does that type of work, but each unit collaboratively comes together with ideas and suggestions around that.
Just real quick, Council President. Commissioner, I do appreciate your background and your work that you do, but to me the mere fact that you couldn't provide a clear-cut summary on this tells me that this is not a focus of your energy and expertise, and that bothers me and a lot of neighbors in the city of Philadelphia. So I just want to talk about why people are not getting what they need when it comes to speed conditions. All right. Mike's going to take the answer. Well, Mike's been around for a little while.
I'll try to just add a little context. So Mike Carroll, Deputy Director for the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems. So I just want to maybe follow up on what the Commissioner was saying to your question about having someone designated. And you did elaborate that what you're thinking about is the engagement with the community. So we can certainly consider that between OTIS and Streets. The key though I think that the Commissioner was getting at was that there's a few disciplines that are involved. So generally speaking, the traffic engineers are going to be the point of contact for the neighborhood. They do also have the expertise to evaluate whether or not a speed cushion should be implemented based on the criteria that they have and what they see when they do their studies. And then we're going to bring in the highways division in order to implement the speed cushion. And then there's some decision-making about whether we put in multiple sets or whether they're asphalt or whether they're rubber that are kind of in the weeds, and that's generally going to be a dialogue between the traffic engineering group and the highways division. So the traffic engineers I think are the closest to that role that you're talking about. They have control over the whole suite of options, whether we're looking at stop signs or kind of limiting the space for cars to speed or putting speed cushions in or looking at piloting one-way direction or something like that. They have that expertise to make those decisions. But what I'm hearing from you today, and I think you've been real clear about in our conversations before, is that you'd like to see more transparency from the residents' standpoint, so that if the traffic engineers are speaking in a technical way that maybe is going over residents' heads, somebody can translate that. As a result of our conversations, I think we're putting online the mapping tool that we had discussed so that'll be available for people to check on their own to see what the status of traffic calming is in their neighborhood throughout the city. So we appreciate that conversation we've had with you. And OTIS has some infrastructure in place to support community engagement in general, so we can take that idea back and think whether we've got a solution. It gets a little bit closer to what I think you're saying, you know, translating for neighbors in a layperson's terms what's going on. I think there's some tools in place. I think we're making some progress.
Thank you so much. I guess I'll reserve my other follow-up questions for the next round. Thank you so much. Appreciate you, Michael.
Thank you very much. Members, I need to make one small adjustment. Member Thomas.
Thank you, Council President. Appreciate the grace. I'm going to be very quick. I'm not even going to take my whole time. I just specifically want to talk about aviation. The rest of my questions I'll submit in writing. But we've had some recent incidents, not just in Philadelphia but across the country looking at issues surrounded by aviation. And we know technology is taking place in the very near future, some places even right now that a lot of us are not necessarily ready for. So when I'm looking at this global issue of emerging technology in new markets, right, right now in Philadelphia there's no place where we have a hub outside of the Northeast Airport, and of course our bigger airport for some of the other innovative things as far as carrying cargo, carrying people, and other places are preparing for those things. So what are we specifically doing as it relates to aviation and commerce to attract these new segments of traveling both for people and for goods that's coming down the horizon so Philadelphia is prepared to stay competitive with other large cities?
Thank you for that question, Councilmember. It is an emerging technology and there are definitely certain parts of the country that seem to be getting a little bit more traction than others. For example, Orlando and Florida in general because of the weather conditions and the population density. There are other airports that are also starting a little bit more research trying to understand how the economy around these new technologies would work. We certainly are keeping it front and center as part of our long-term planning. I'm going to ask Api Appulingam to come up, if you don't mind, because her team oversees some of this planning work. I would tell you that we talk about these emerging technologies frequently in the industry conferences. And the momentum is not quite at a place where large-scale implementation seems realistic. It is in part based upon limitations a lot around electrical infrastructure but also regulations. We certainly are not sitting idly. We are watching what is going on in the community and we're making sure that as those opportunities emerge we have a plan of action. I'll let Api speak to long-term planning and how we're viewing that, also talk a little bit about electric infrastructure.
Yeah, specifically talk about the electric vertical takeoff and landing craft initiative. And, Council President, that's literally my only question. The rest I'll submit in writing for Water as well as for Mr. Carroll for Vision Zero stuff. Thank you, Council President.
Good afternoon again. Api Appulingam, Chief Development Officer. Great question. This was something that we have been looking at for a while from a long-term planning perspective and where we could locate something like an eVTOL at PHL. And we have recognized that roofs of large facilities are what we could locate it on. So in future planning efforts, we have identified large square footages on roofs to possibly locate something like an eVTOL structure.
When it comes to PHL, we are confined in terms of where we could build on the ground and giving priority to infrastructure like taxiways and runways at this time. And for eVTOL and with the standards that exist today, we know that it can't interrupt aircraft operations, that it has to operate independently from aircraft. So that's why we recognize that roofs of our buildings, our future buildings, could be potential locations.
Thank you. We'll follow up with more questions. I'm sure Dr. Ahmad will also have similar advocacy this year. She's been leading the charge around these type of vehicles on the ground and I'm sure she'll have an interest in the air. And as I close out, the one thing I'll ask and please don't do it right now, but in the course of answering other members' questions throughout our time this afternoon, because you and I have already spoke about this, I'm not asking them right now, but please make sure that you're taking the time to talk to members as well as the general public about what the airport has done to prepare for 2026 with all of the guests that's coming and how we expect the airport to look very different than what it does right now. And how you all are prepared, because that's what you said, for the thousands of tourists that's going to be coming next year? So I ask you not to answer that now so the Council President can move on. But in the midst of answering other questions this afternoon, please include some of that in your responses. Thank you, Council President.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Jamie Gauthier. The next, Majority Leader Gilmore Richardson. The next, Councilmember Nicolas O'Rourke.
Thank you, Council President. My questions are for Commissioner Del Rossi. Good afternoon. First, I've appreciated working with you over this past year and I congratulate you on the accomplishments that you listed in your testimony. My questions are around street repaving. I want you to explain how the department is prioritizing which street repaving projects happen first. Have there been any adjustments to those criteria compared to previous years? And I'm asking this because we have streets in my District that very much need repaving and some of this predates you, but we've been waiting for these street repavings for four years now with no action. I have a few other questions I want to get on record before you answer. By our calculations, the Paving and Roadway Maintenance Programs budget is decreasing by about $9.4 million in FY26, from $61.9 million in FY25 to $52.5 million in the proposed FY26 budget. My questions are why is such a reduction being proposed despite the backlog of street maintenance requests and needs? How will this cut affect the department's ability to pave roads, fix potholes and install safety improvements? And please explain what efficiencies or alternative funding sources will ensure that service levels in our neighborhoods are not compromised and how the department will be held accountable for delivering results with a smaller budget. COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: Thank you, Councilmember, for your questions and thank you for the kudos for our department. Our paving list will be coming out right after these budget hearings. We are continuing paving from last year. We do have a list of streets that needed to be paved in the previous fiscal year, so they are starting that this week. They will be paving those streets. We do currently have a list that will be put out today. But as far as the efficiencies, I'm going to ask Deputy Managing Director Carroll to come up to talk about our budget and how we're going to approach the paving with that scenario.
Sure. And also -- I don't know if Mike can speak to this, what criteria do you use to determine where you're going to go first and where you're going to go next as it relates to which streets get paved in which order? COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: We have a list of the last time streets were paved, so we do do different type of inspections. We have our highway yards go out and look at the conditions of the streets and we have lists of when the street was paved in the past, and we try to get it into a cycle because you have a life expectancy of a street, so then we pave based on the life expectancy. But I will turn the rest of your question over to Deputy Managing Director Carroll.
Just to pick up on the point the Commissioner was making, there's a few different ways to prioritizing conventionally what we would start with. Most jurisdictions would start with was something like a condition index, which factors in what we see in terms of the condition of the street, the age of the street, how much traffic is on the street, how much it's been subjected to utility work, that kind of thing. But in the past, I think for the Philadelphia Streets Department we found that there's not been a good substitute for inspection, like eyes on the street to really get a better feel for what's going on that particular block on that particular street. So we've relied pretty heavily on the inspection to kind of figure out how we would reprioritize somewhat away from what the computer puts out, for lack of a better way of putting it, in terms of payment condition index.
There are new tools that we're trying to explore. So we did a pilot a couple years back where we worked with a startup company which attached some video equipment to a vehicle, did kind of a drive around parts of the city and then fed that into a computer which has kind of a machine-learning computer vision algorithm which can pinpoint defects in the street. And really interesting, promise or had the potential to pinpoint defects before they even happen just based on what it's seeing on the street. We're not quite ready for prime time with that. I think we're interested in exploring developing that kind of tool a little bit further, but that generally would be something that would provide a way to scale up that eyes-on-the-street benefit we get from having inspectors who have experience maintaining streets to substitute. Generally speaking, this city has a lot of aging infrastructure. It doesn't surprise me that you're finding there's neighborhoods that have been seeking service for an extended period of time in the queue. We were very grateful in FY25 that we were able to dramatically scale up the amount of paving. There is carryover from that year's budget into this year's budget so we're not paying interest on debt and not being productive. We want to spend that carry-forward down before we're taking on more debt. So if you look at the carry- forward and the budget that we've gotten the FY26 proposal, we're sustaining the dollar value of investment that we're looking at. The question in terms of efficiency, I think one of the key things we have to understand is that there's a certain amount of capacity for us to deliver on a paving project and we're pretty close to the max there. And it's not just what happens on the city side. It's the whole community of contractors, of folks who are involved in paving, who pay for us but also pay for all the surrounding communities who pay for PennDOT. And when we, collective with all of our partners in the region, push beyond that, what happens is you're inflating all the prices. And so, you don't necessarily get the bang for your buck once you absorb that capacity.
Okay. I think I'm not so much asking you how you determine whether a road needs fixing. I'm asking you how you determine what you fix first, in what order you go in. If you could address that. And also, is that something you would ever make public? I know the Administration has taken to sharing a lot of data about how we offer our services.
Yeah. So we follow up with more information. Generally speaking, it's I would call a risk management approach. And we're also looking for opportunities to get efficiencies. So if we know the Water Department is going to be doing work or one of the utilities is going to be doing work, we may resequence a street so that we don't pave it. And then as we've had problems in the past, it gets dug up by somebody else for a separate reason. So a street that could really need paving really bad might get delayed, reprioritized so it's no longer first if we know there's another project coming that would impact that street. So we can provide a little bit more information.
Thank you. Thank you so much, Councilmember Gauthier. I also wanted to state for the record Councilmember Gauthier stated at the beginning of her questioning that there was one street in her District where they were waiting for four years. If you all could just follow up with Councilmember Gauthier on that, that would be most appreciated. Thank you very much. Colleagues, as an FYI we have nine of us in the queue so I'll ask that you keep your questioning to three minutes. Okay. I'm going to be very strict about that three minutes. When the bell rings, we are going to move on to the next colleague. And now, it's my turn which is great. So I wanted to start with a list of thank yous and I'll start with Aviation and the Airport. Of course, Atif and the entire team, Shane, you know we love Shane, everybody in Council loves Shane, Tracy -- I don't want to start naming names and getting myself in trouble. But we appreciate the entire team at the Philadelphia International Airport and PNE of course. And have to give a shout-out to Lakshman at American Airlines. Also for our Water Department, Commissioner Hayman, Sandra Scott for Intergovernmental Affairs, she's always very knowledgeable and helpful with all of our constituent cases, Laura Copeland and Benjamin Jewell. And then finally for Streets Department, Amber Porter, who's the administrative assistant, Patrice Nouvel with streetlighting assistance, Kasim Ali, a chief traffic engineer who assists us with speed studies and traffic signs and lights. And last, but certainly not least, and I'm doing him last on purpose because he has gone above and beyond the call of duty, true meaning of a public servant, and I am going to take a personal privilege to ask him to stand Steven Lorenz, chief engineer. (Applause.)
We know that it's been a difficult year for you and your family and you still rise to the occasion and always, always go out of your way to inspect locations himself after work and meet with our constituents and have assisted with so many cases and one case in particular. So we just want to say thank you. Beth on my team thanks you. I thank you and we appreciate you so much. So I just wanted to put a couple questions on the record. I want to put on my Finance Committee hat for the Airport and also for the Water Department. If you all could just detail the minority participation numbers for your last five bond deals. And once you do that, if you could say if there are any unspent proceeds from any of the prior bond deals? And if so, how much? COMMISSIONER HAYMAN: I will have Lawrence Yangalay, Deputy Commissioner of Finance, join me. But I do want to make it clear that when it comes to minority participation, our goal is 33%. This year we have reached 36%. And so, we've been able to do a very, very good and consistent job. And we take it very, very personally to make sure that we make ourselves available. We have a program where the minority contractors come and we speak with them, and I make the time to make sure I'm there to encourage them to participate. It's personal to me. My godfather was the first Black pharmacist in St. Louis, and I worked from the ages of 10 to 18 so I know the importance of that dollar going to a minority, a woman or disadvantaged business for that family and for that community. I will -- give me just one second please.
Sure. And I want to say thank you for the programs that you all have in bringing in small business owners to help them learn about the opportunities. We attended a fantastic forum down in South Philly with the airport and I thought it was wonderful. Before this line of questioning, I'm particularly focusing on the bond deals. COMMISSIONER HAYMAN: Okay. I will hand it over to Lawrence Yangalay to take it from there.
Thank You. Lawrence Yangalay, Deputy Commissioner of Finance, Water Department. As of the background, if you can just please repeat your question, I will appreciate it.
Absolutely and good to see you. If you could just detail the minority participation numbers for the last five bond deals.
The only detail set if we can provide you with those details, the only detail we have is what our target participation was and how much we achieve. Most of this minority participation is within the capital budget and some of them are subcontractors. We gave the contractor, main contractor and we insist that certain percentage of majority participation is achieved.
The bond is what funds our capital project. So most of our capital project up to this point are funded by Bondi(ph). Very, very small percentage at this point is funded by any other grant, probably less than 1%. So all of our capital projects are funded by Bondi, and most of them are for capital program.
I knew the bell was coming, so I'm going to put this question on the record. You may not be able to respond today. I would ask for Water and for Airport, if you could just respond in writing to the Council President for dissemination to the members, if you could just again detail the minority participation numbers for the last five bond deals, and not specifically for the contractors after the deal is approved and then you select the contractors for the various projects. I mean for the actual financing of the deal. I'm putting on my Finance Committee Chair hat right now. Okay. And if there are any unspent proceeds from any of those prior bond deals. And if so, how much? Have you encumbered them? And when is your next time coming to the market? Okay. Thank you very much. And that's for Airport and for Water. And if you could just submit it in writing within days, if that's possible, 7 that would be helpful. Okay. 8 Thank you very, very much. 9 The Chair now recognizes 10 Councilmember O'Rourke.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon to Commissioners Del Rossi, Hayman and Saeed. Thank you for being with us today and entertaining our litany of questions. I want to focus my questions on an issue that's sweeping across the entire Commonwealth, the privatization of municipal water systems. So, Commissioner Hayman, I want to chat with you for just a second. In 2016 the Pennsylvania legislature passed Act 12, which made it easier and more financially attractive for private companies to acquire public water systems. Since then nearly two dozen water and sewer systems in Pennsylvania have been privatized. These are corporate takeovers of the people's services. These corporate takeovers have led to staggering rate inevitably of rate increases, some as high as 167%. For example, in Exeter Township average monthly water bills jumped from $43 to $114. The Pennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate estimates that because of Act 12, Pennsylvanians are now paying an additional $85 million annually for water and waste services. At a time when Trump is openly signaling his intent to privatize public goods like UPS, like Amtrak, I'm deeply concerned about protecting Philadelphia's municipal services. Specifically for Philadelphia, the Law Department has advised my team that the City's Charter explicitly allows for the privatization of the Water Department. So I have three questions for the Water Department. Just to confirm, do you share that particular interpretation of the Charter? Does the City, in fact, have the authority to sell off or contract our water and sewer services? The second question is what legal or procedural protections exist to prevent private companies from acquiring Philadelphia's water system and driving up rates for residents? And thirdly, have there been any discussions, internally, externally or otherwise, about privatizing any part of Philadelphia's water services? COMMISSIONER HAYMAN: Okay. Out of respect to the legal department, I will leave Question and to be addressed by the legal department. The third question though that you asked as far as have been in any discussions, I have not been involved in any discussions on privatizing Philadelphia water. I will say this, I do come to the table having worked at two other utilities, St. Louis and D.C. Water and now here my third, privatization is something that has been going on probably since 1995 as far as being an issue growing different momentum at different times in different cities. The bottom line is that in Philadelphia the 2000 employees that work on water live here. So that brings a sense of ownership and what the problem is and addressing the problem. Number two, we are not a for-profit service so even though we have at different times rate increases and other actions, we are a cost-of- service utility. So we price out and determine what the cost is going to entail to build the new plant. We don't put in a buffer for how much our profit will be from it and we're not driven by profits. So there's a feeling across the country amongst municipal utilities that we do a better job because we're homegrown and we are concerned and live with the answers that we present to the problems that are placed on our table.
I appreciate that. I heard the bell. And I'll honor Madam Chair's request. It is a concern for me to see the movement. I hear you saying since '95. I didn't even realize it was that long, but to see that movement in light of the current context, making sure that we shore up anything that could possibly remove from the people's hands their services they need I think is of a concern. That's why I raised the question. I hear you saying that I should perhaps, we should perhaps ask the legal department, Law Department about that. But thank you for your responses. Madam Chair.
Thank you. Thank you very much, Councilmember O'Rourke. And just for clarification, would you like Councilmember O'Rourke to make that request of the Law Department or is that something that you all will provide during your follow-up on the hearing? COMMISSIONER HAYMAN: I would ask the Councilmember to make the request.
Okay. All right. Thank you very much, Commissioner. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Lozada.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for being with us today. In November of 2023, I passed legislation to prioritize traffic calming measures for schools, recreation centers and senior centers. And so, I'd like to know where we are. How many schools, recreation centers and senior centers have received those calming measures? Are we backlogged? How far back are we? And is it possible to get a report by District of the results of that? COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: Thank you, Councilmember, for your question. We can definitely get you a report. We have a breakdown of the traffic calming measures citywide. We have 108 schools completed. The rec centers and the senior centers, I can get those numbers for you. And we also -- I can get you the breakdown of the numbers per District as well. I have them here, but I can get them to you.
Okay. And is there a backlog of -- COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: There is a backlog. And based on Councilman Phillips' request last year when we were sitting here and then throughout the year we've been having conversations, there's actually a traffic calming map. It's on phila.gov/traffic-calming, and there's a map and you can see exactly where the treatments are currently, who is approved. Just put in addresses. If you have a specific location, you can share this map out and they can see where they are in the process.
Thank you. Families are always talking to us about safety and making sure that their kids and that seniors and that folk can cross streets safely. In addition to calming measures, I'm always asked about crossing guards. Can you tell me how many crossing guards you currently employ? How much do crossing guards get paid? What is the retention strategy for crossing guards? And I'd also like a list of crossing guards. At least for my District, I'd like to know where they are and where are the requests. How many requests have we've gotten that we've not been able to fill and the why? COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: Thank you for your question. By June, the end of June we will have over 800 school crossing guards. We currently have Future Track which comes in, and we essentially use the Future Track to fill some of our other positions. But for school crossing guards, we particularly try to flyer in neighborhoods because you have to be within a mile of your location because we don't want to have someone determine -- depend on vehicle or transit to get to their location. So we try to recruit within one mile of the location. At the town halls, we'll have a table trying to recruit school crossing guards. We post on our social media trying to gain people to want to apply for our crossing guards. It's a lot of word of mouth in that capacity. So we try to take every angle we have to bring on school crossing guards.
What have been the challenges that you all are experiencing in order to recruit crossing guards? Because I travel through different neighborhoods and on some corners, there's one crossing guard on each corner. And in others, there's absolutely none. And there are neighborhoods like mine, right, who folks are saying I've applied and I've not heard or I applied, I got a first callback and then I never heard again. What are the challenges that you all are experiencing and why is this position so difficult to fill? COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: I'm going to turn that question over to Deputy Commissioner Newman. (Witness approached Witness table.)
Good afternoon, Councilmember. My name is Chris Newman. I'm the Deputy Commissioner for Administration for Streets. We actually have a lot of good news with school crossing guards this year. We've hired about 241 of them so far this year. And just as a comparison, last year around this time it was about 148. We're doing a lot of different things in terms of recruitment. One of the things that we implemented last year that we had a lot of success with is we have preorientation before they're hired. So as candidates get on the list for school crossing guard from the OHR Department, we get that list and we bring people in and we give them a preview of the job. We tell them exactly what they're getting involved in, how much they're going to make, how we assign people different crossing guard places and we actually have them go through the clearance background process at that point in time. Our retention rate has gone from 15% turnover to 9% turnover in that time. So from last year to this year we went from 15% turnover to 9% turnover. We think in large part because of that process, the salary for them is about $17.89 an hour.
One more question really quickly. I have several bridges in my District that are closed at the same time causing major backups, causing a lot of frustration and stress. Can you all tell me what is the plan to improve the City's aging infrastructure, specifically in Districts like mine where the bridges have to be closed emergency, right, last minute without notification to communities causing everybody to kind of -- it throws everybody's day off. I need to know when is the Wyoming Bridge going to open? What is the plan for Hunting Park Bridge to open? They are in a very close distance from each other. And basically what we're creating there during morning and afternoon rush hour, we're creating a gridlock.
And I'll ask that you keep the response brief. Okay. Thank you. COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: I can get back to you with that information.
Do you have anything that you'd like to place on the record though? COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: We're working on the Wyoming Bridge internally and --
What does that mean? COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: -- we can get back to you with the opening dates.
What does that mean we're working on it? I know we're working on it because I know we see people over there. But I need to know what is the plan? We closed it without notice, right, without community notice. I need to know what to say to residents. What's the plan? How long are both of these bridges going to be closed? And how do we prevent this from occurring in the future? I mean, I'm sure that we're doing inspections often so we should know. We're leading up to a point where we can no longer hold this work off. How do we prevent that from happening in the future?
So Wyoming Bridge was not a planned closure just to be clear. There was element of the bridge which deteriorated beyond repair which led to water getting into the bridge. And so, that was an unforeseen situation which forced our hand in terms of closing the bridge. So we are working on a project to get traffic across the bridge. It won't be a full reopening of the bridge. That project has to go through some design and we're starting from a standing stop. We've got to get that process going. I don't want to give you a time frame because it's pretty likely that any time frame I give you would change once we learn more about the bridge's condition, once we learn about our ability to get contractors on board. In terms of the inspection, this is something we're working on because we don't want that to ever happen again. And what I can tell you is that we're in a conversation with PennDOT so that we can work together, we can partner with PennDOT. We have a lot of bridges for a city. PennDOT has a lot of bridges across the Commonwealth. And so, we're going to share capacity in order to make sure that the inspection is upped a little bit, the frequency is upped a little bit so that we can avoid that situation in the future. But what we will get you a little bit more detail on both Hunting Park and Wyoming so that you have some information that you can share.
I would appreciate that. Madam Chair, I'm going to ask that we work towards a proactive plan. We do have a lot of roads and bridges, right, and these bridges are inspected. I don't know if they're quarterly. I don't know if it's annually. I don't know if it's monthly. But there has to be a better process in place for us to be able to respond to some of this aging infrastructure so that we're working with communities and not creating gridlocks the way that we have in that part of the District. I know it's frustrating to my residents. And I can't imagine having two bridges in such close proximity to each other in other neighborhoods creating the same thing.
Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Lozada. And I know that you all verbally responded to the question. I ask that you also follow up in writing. Thank you very much. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Young.
Thank you, Madam Chair. A couple questions for Streets and Water. First, I just want to point out in the Five Year Plan for the Streets Department, Under Class 500 it looks like for FY25, '26, '27 it's an estimate of $15 million. And then in the operating budget, I don't see it anywhere listed in here. So I don't know if that was a misprint. I do see where there are the FY24 actual obligations in Class 500. This is particularly under transportation. But there is no reference to this $15 million that is mentioned in the Five Year Plan in the actual operating budget. So I just want to see if you guys can take a look at that to see what that is, to see if that is an omission or an error. But $15 million is a lot of money. So just please take a look at that for me. Also, on the same line the questioning of Councilmember Lozada, I have a bridge in my District between Glenwood and Sedgley, the Margie Street Bridge that's been closed for forever. It seems like -- so can we get an update? The community will love an update, folks in the 16th Ward on what is the status of that particular bridge. And I have a question about crosswalks and striping. There seems to be a lot of crosswalks being put in place that are nowhere near I guess the intersections or corners where stop signs are in my District, particularly on 19th Street. So can you all talk to us about the placement of crosswalks and street restriping in the city? Thank you. COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: Thank you for your question. I'm going to turn your FY budget questions over to Deputy Commissioner Newman. And then I'll answer your other questions that follow.
Good afternoon, Councilmember. $15 million does look like a lot. It's actually indemnities which are claims against the City for roadway and traffic work. That will pop up each year as indemnities at the end of the fiscal year. You'll see it blanked out at the beginning of another fiscal year, and it'll come back again at the end of this fiscal year coming up now. So it doesn't show up in our budget initially. It comes in towards the end of the fiscal year once those indemnities are assigned to the department.
Thank you. COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: The bridges in question are PennDOT bridges so we can reach out to PennDOT, get you information on those specific bridges and get back to you with that information. And the crosswalks are placed within the ramp locations. The stop bars depending on volume are set back from the radius of the curb. So depending on the volumes in the areas and the locations for your ADA accessible crossings, that's where your crosswalks are marked.
I heard the bell, so thank you. I'm just -- so when you are locating a crosswalk or even a restriping in general, I have a question about the restriping and repainting. How often do you go out to repaint or restripe the crosswalks in certain intersections? COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: This additional line striping crew that is in this budget will actually help us with that. We mark our streets after we pave and then we usually refresh along -- during the seasons where we're paving, we usually refresh the marking. So we try to get on a regular basis with it. But if there's anything in particular that sticks out, just shoot us an email and we can look into it.
I can send you 50 intersections literally. COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: Okay.
And I'll submit my questions to Water and the rest of my questions for Streets in writing.
And if we have time, we can do a second round but I don't know that we'll be able to achieve that today. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Ahmad.
Madam Chair, I'm going to put all my questions in for all three departments. First, I'll start with Streets. If I could get an update on the Chinatown Stitch project with respect to which merchants are going to be disturbed during this time, when the project will start, and what should we be expecting in terms of length? So that's Streets. And the second part for Streets is -- thank you to my colleague Councilmember Quetcy Lozada for asking so many questions about the crossing guards. That's a special interest to us. I wanted to know in terms of placement of crossing guards. I know you hire them. Are you working with the school and police for actual placement for the safety plan or is it something just you do? That's Streets. For Aviation, a question about carbon footprint. And I believe you're installing some geothermal technology and I would like a little update on that. That's in the Northeast Philadelphia Airport. I'd like to get an update on that. And the second part for you is hosting the World Cup and the 250th anniversary of a country's founding, in addition to many events and festivals are attracting a lot of visitors. One of my priorities in the lead-up to the festivities is to ensure City departments and law enforcement are ready for the influx of travelers. A component of this is ensuring our workforce is prepared for more undesirable aspects of large events like human trafficking. I would like to have you give us an overview of some work that the Airport might be involved in this aspect. And who do I have left, Water. Just one question for Water, about fluoride in drinking water and having a Health Secretary who doesn't believe in it. Is it impacting us locally? And those are all my questions, Madam Chair. And we can start with Streets. I'll remind you if you forgot what they were. Chinatown's Stitch was the first question. COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: I'm going to turn the Chinatown Stitch over to Deputy Managing Director Carroll. I'll correct that. Chris Puchalsky. (Witness approached Witness table.)
Hi. Good afternoon, Councilmember. I think I got the second part of your question about the Stitch, when it is currently scheduled to start. We're in the design process now. The federal funds need to be obligated by September of 2026. We're looking to start construction in early 2027 -- or late 2027. That could slip to 2028. To be clear, this is a joint City, PennDOT project. So although we're leading the current design phase, it will be bid by PennDOT. And I missed the first part of your question about Stitch.
Small businesses and merchants who are going to be disrupted by that. Do we have a plan to make sure they don't suffer economically?
No, but it is on our radar. We're currently working on putting out a contract to maximize participation. But in terms of construction disruption, we will be putting that together as part of our constructability review with PennDOT.
Madam Chair, I would like to make sure there's an actual plan of knowing who are the people who are going to be disrupted and what multi-agencies, perhaps who will make them whole. So while this place is disrupted, their business doesn't -- they don't go out of business because these are small businesses.
Yeah. We are happy to get that to you just to set expectations about the timeline of that. We don't have a construction plan yet so we don't even yet know what are the locations, what streets will we have to shut down. So it will probably be some time later this year, early next calendar year before we can get that to you.
And to Councilmember Ahmad's point, if you could also give her the information regarding the coordination with Commerce regarding the impacted businesses, correct, Councilmember Ahmad?
Yes. Merchants fund would probably be involved in this and maybe other agencies. And maybe this needs to be a multi-agency contribution to something that can be put out to the merchants in the area.
Yeah, we will be happy to when we get to that point in the delivery process. We don't even exactly know what businesses will be there by the time we get into construction, but we will be happy to work on that with Commerce.
Thank you. And my other question was about the street crossing guards. COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: We do work with the schools and the police department, and we do try to go into the communities to get people to sign up to become a school crossing guard.
Yeah, that was a great answer you gave so I got that. And the last one is for -- not last one. The second one is for Water, the fluoride. It should be a short answer. COMMISSIONER HAYMAN: On fluoride we are following the national attention that is there. We're working with the Health Department. We do use fluoride in our system. I attended an award program that was at I believe it was U of Penn and they talked about how the use of fluoride was discovered at U of Penn and the importance of it going back hundreds of years. And so --
So no immediate plans to disrupt that? COMMISSIONER HAYMAN: No, not at this time. But at the same time, we will work hand and glove with the Health Department.
Our Health Department? COMMISSIONER HAYMAN: Our Health Department.
Philadelphia's -- COMMISSIONER HAYMAN: Our Health Department.
I'm just worried about the federal health department that potentially could disrupt this plan. I'm just going on the record that we are still doing what we're supposed to do. So thank you for that. Atif, if you could quickly answer --
Yeah, because we're way over time. Okay. I gave you an extra minute as well.
Well, can he put it in -- give me one second and then put it in writing. I only want to hear about the human trafficking.
We'll give you extensive answers for both of them, but let me touch on the human trafficking. It's really important issue for our enterprise as well. As an airport, we are a gateway and as good things come through, a lot of evil happens through those same paths. We do have a program in place. We brought in Cassie Schmidt as our Chief Strategy Officer, who has experience rolling out similar programs for large scale events, specifically Super Bowl in Minneapolis. She's going to be spearheading that effort with us. She's looking forward to working with you and your office as well, but there's a plan of action that is in place. We'll put that in writing and get you a little bit more detail. And we'll do the same thing for PNE and the sustainability efforts.
All right. Thank you. Thank you so much for allowing me those questions.
Yes. Thank you so much, Councilmember Ahmad, Chair of our Public Health Committee. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Landau.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, thank you, Madam Chair. Two Streets questions and two Water questions. First for the Streets Department. The City of Philadelphia recently settled a lawsuit, as you indicated in your testimony, over curb ramps. And the City under that settlement agreement will have to install or remediate 10,000 of these curb ramps. Is the City itself now doing the work on the curb ramps or is it contracted out? COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: Thank you for your question. I'm going to turn that question over to Deputy Managing Director Michael Carroll.
So we have not stood up the ADA construction crew. We're still working on that process, but that is not going to be a major factor this year in terms of us increasing significantly the number of ramps that we're putting out on the street.
Let me be clear. Are you saying that the City will at some point do these curb ramps, curb cuts themselves but we're not yet doing that? We're still contracting out?
Yeah, and I want to be clear. There's probably no point in time where we're doing all of the curb ramps, but we can take on ramps as part of a package of building the capacity there.
Okay. I want to double down on what I've always said. I think we should be doing these ourselves. I actually think it's a great pilot program, a great program for training and workforce development. The City could do it well and not wrong and take responsibility for that and not have the liability in the future. So anything you need from me I'm all about us getting this off the ground. Let's do it ourselves.
The second question following up on some of my colleague Councilmember O'Rourke's questions was about the Zero Fare pilot program which is being cut and this is the SEPTA Zero Fare pilot program. Why was the funding for this pilot cut from the Mayor's proposed budget?
So as the Mayor set priorities for the budget, the decision was made that that pilot should reach its conclusion. We're very confident that our investment in SEPTA represented in both the operating subsidy and the capital subsidies, is us putting our foot forward and doing more for SEPTA than any other jurisdiction and at this point in time including the state. In terms of what SEPTA does with that funding, I have green light to kind of tell you guys we're going to have a conversation with SEPTA to see if there's ways for us to extend the Zero Fare program. Very early in that conversation, but we're hopeful we can accomplish something with that goal in mind.
Appreciate you. I think it's pretty unanimous here in this body that we all want that program back. Thank you so much. Water Department, two quick ones. The City closed two Pennsylvania infrastructure investment Authority PENNVEST's federally subsidized low-cost loans totaling approximately $109.8 million for water and wastewater system improvements in 2024. The loans will be used to fund water main replacements and sewer replacements throughout the city. How will the almost $110 million in PENNVEST loans for water main and sewer replacements be allocated across the City's infrastructure projects? And are there any specific neighborhoods or districts that will see prioritized improvements? And just one more after that. COMMISSIONER HAYMAN: In prioritizing the projects, we look at an analog of the age of the pipes, when the pipes were last treated and make a decision on that. It's not by a specific neighborhood. It's not by looking at a blank piece of paper and then tallying how often we've been in that neighborhood or touched that neighborhood. It looks at the needs of the infrastructure itself. And so, we will analyze across where we need to do it. Now, there were two projects that dealt with lead replacement with PENNVEST and we did receive $9.9 million there where we will be able to in the pilot program remove -- and this is basically in the Kensington area. We'll be able to remove the lead laterals, that's one issue. Lead laterals under the law regarding lead replacement they have to be removed. The laterals is owned by the homeowner. And so, in this situation in those projects the first one we received 9.9. We will be able to go in and remove the lateral. And then we applied for a second one for 9.9. And so, hopefully we'll receive a second grant and be able to do that. But your question as far as environmental justice and making sure that we're going into every neighborhood, we are focused on that, we care about that. We look at the age of the pipes and then we go in with a certain analog and make a determination of which area we have to address. But we're doing everything we can and we make sure that we don't leave any neighborhood out that requires our assistance at that given time.
Thank you for that. One last question just about -- one last question about the City's OPAL System. So you know that the city -- I'm the head of the Technology Committee. We've got Project OPAL, which is tasked with replacing the City's aging financial contracting and purchasing systems with a modern, integrated system which is going to simplify things and hopefully streamline all of our projects. The proposal mentions modernization efforts like the OPAL Project to replace legacy financial procurement systems. How will these technological upgrades improve operational efficiency and transparency in the long run for the Water Department? COMMISSIONER HAYMAN: Philadelphia isn't different from a lot of other cities that have had possibly an older IT system or has through the years used a patchwork to repair. And the bottom line is -- and now, this is a lawyer speaking and not an IT specialist -- the bottom line is that the system will allow us to be more efficient in getting information and allow us to make I believe reports easier than we have in the past and allow us to communicate easier information to the public in general. So it's a large project. I will allow Lawrence Yangalay, my Deputy Commissioner for Finance, to speak on it just a little bit.
Okay. So this is what we're going to do. If he can give a 30-second response, that will be great. After this, I'm going to recognize Councilmember Driscoll and then recognize Councilmember Brooks. And for the remainder of the colleagues who are in the queue, I'm going to apologize in advance. We are not having a second round. You can submit the remainder of your questions in writing. Okay. So we'll take the Deputy for 30 seconds. Then Councilmember Driscoll and then Councilmember Brooks. We'll end with Councilmember Brooks. And then everyone else in the queue will submit your answers in writing. Okay. Thank you for understanding.
Lawrence Yangalay, Deputy Commissioner of Finance of Philadelphia Water Department. What OPAL is doing and we are actively involved with Opal, for instance, if we were here today, the question the Councilwoman asked, I will press the button on my laptop, it will give me financial information. When we go to prepare budget, for instance, we have to manually in Excel type historical information. Of course, you know what that means for accuracy. But Opal is going to streamline that kind of process that will be able to utilize the software to be more efficient in our reporting. And of course, the procurement process we have about 17-step procurement process and that brings several delay in our procurement process. We hope that it will be one step advanced to another question. With all the supporting documentation, you will be able to approve it online and vendors can go in the system to monitor the flow of some of this information. So it's a new software. We are very much eager about it and we hope it will perform as we have been promised by the consultants. I think it's a good thing for the city and we are happy to be part of it.
Thank you very much, Councilmember Landau. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Driscoll.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll be quick. So I'll start with Commissioner Hayman. Commissioner, in my role as the Chairman of Public Utilities, you, Glen, Ben, your entire leadership team has been great working with us and I appreciate that. I think when people -- whether it's a pothole or whatever it is in the street, our constituents are either blaming me or it's the Water Department or the Streets Department. And a lot of times it's third-party contractors. So you don't necessarily have to answer this, but it's something that I would like you to look into, and that's the vetting of the third-party contractors. Whether it's a bonding delay sometimes or a work order delay or some shoddy work, I think we're all getting blamed for that. And I think if we can get a little bit better vetting upfront and we get better contractors, that might go a long way to solving the problem. COMMISSIONER HAYMAN: Yes, sir. Thank you for the direction and we will look into that.
Thank you. And, Atif, I wanted to thank you. It was only less than nine weeks ago where a plane came down to my District and your department was there as well as all my colleagues immediately on the phone asking what we needed. And I want to thank you for that. I'm not going to bring up the bathrooms because I think you got to deal with Mayor Parker about the bathrooms down there. I think she's doing a good job on that. But I would like you to comment real briefly about the valet program. I know the valet program. If you can just comment on that real quickly.
Sure, certainly. Thank you. First of all, thank you for your kind words. You know, what we're trying to do at the airport is trying to figure out ways to be able to make it incrementally more comfortable for people to be able to transact at the airport. The Valet Program is a program that deals with clientele that are willing to pay a premium for a certain level of access to the airport that is a little bit more expedited. Integrated with that is an online platform where they actually can do the booking rather than having to come in and transact at the airport. I highly recommend trying out this service. It takes away a lot of friction from travel. And I understand that it's not for everybody, but we want to be able to provide options to everybody and I think it provides a very important premium service for customers, and it's very wellrecognized and appreciated by our customers.
We've been advertising it, yes. And we'll continue to scale that up. And hopefully, people listening to this testimony today will take an opportunity and be out there using the service.
Perfect. Thank you. And lastly, I just want to comment, Streets Commissioner, same thing with the plane crash, your department was great with me Rich Montanez, I had him on speed dial and he's always been there on the big issues with us and I can't thank you enough for that. I do want to double down though on Councilmember Phillips' traffic calming measures and it's really been a big issue. I think post-COVID people drive crazy and we're making changes here in the city. I remember in my old neighborhood, if you went fast or you blew a stop sign, there was always a police officer who was going to pull you over. That doesn't seem to be the way we remedy these things anymore. But if we could somehow in your engineering department, maybe when you have this repaving every four or five years, whatever your schedule is, maybe the immediate ones get done quickly around the schools and the rec centers. But then when you do your regular repaving, maybe you do the repaving and the -- I don't even know if that makes sense. But I'm just trying to put the non-essential ones in the long queue and the real essential ones in a short queue. And that's just a comment. You don't have to respond. Thank you. COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: I just want to thank you for acknowledging the staff. We do have a great crew and they were out there hands-on. So kudos to them and thank you for acknowledging that.
Thank you. Last individual we're calling is Councilmember Kendra Brooks. But I also want to take a moment to also acknowledge Rich Montanez. He gets them late night text messages saying I need help the same way I text Steve Lorenz, like on a Sunday -- it was a Sunday night one time. I was like I know he's going to have some words for me, but we're on the ground, we're on the front line and my members are on the front line trying to help people. So we do appreciate y'all stepping up and being responsive, all of you in this context. Councilmember Brooks.
Thank you, Council President. I want to give my kudos and shout-outs to folks too when I call, rapid response similar to what Council President said. We're boots on the ground so a little thing -- I remember when someone stepped in a pothole or something on my block and I was able to find a number and someone came out right away to assist. So thank you, Streets and Water, because everyone had to be involved because I didn't know who the thing belonged to. I appreciate you guys being servants, community servants, and helping us do our jobs better. I'll just run down everything so I have it on record, and this is all for Water. At the end of 2024, the Water Department began auto-enrolling customers in TAP who were participating in the federal low-income household water assistance program. How is that process going and what steps did the City have to take to automate the enrollment? The Water Department is proposing a rate increase for the fourth consecutive year. The average annual water bill payment is up more than $200 since the first increase. Your testimony says that the rate increase is to replenish critically-low liquidity funds and you have two such funds. At what level would you consider the funds to be stable? My next question: I'm glad that Philadelphia has a moratorium on water shut-offs for nonpayment in the winter. However, water shut-offs in the summer can be extremely challenging and dangerous for families and the elderly, particularly when the temperatures continue to rise, and the violence swells in the warmer months. Many cities, including Chicago, have no water shut-offs for nonpayment. Has Philadelphia considered a moratorium on water shut-offs in the summer? And lastly, participation in the TAP program is roughly 30% of eligible customers or less despite specific investments in trying to reach more people. What will the average monthly bill look like for folks who are enrolled in TAP? COMMISSIONER HAYMAN: I'll address the third question first, if I numbered them correctly where you talked about water shut- off and have we considered a moratorium on shut-off.
Yes. COMMISSIONER HAYMAN: First, I want to say -- and this is known across the country because I'm on different boards with Water, utilities and all. And one thing across the country, they always ask what are they doing in Philadelphia and they always speak with respect for the safety net that we have for those. The problem we have with a year-round water shut-off situation is the need for revenue. Okay. If we don't receive the revenue and we are a cost-for- service utility, then we will not be able to always provide the water services that we need to the public. What I always tell people is that when it comes to water and help protecting the health and safety of the community, we have to do 100%. So we can't get to a point where we don't have the funds. And I can say we only protect health and safety 30%. It's 100%, that's the obligation. And so, it takes a certain amount of funds to keep us operating. And so, I'll allow Susan Crosby from Revenue to talk more about the questions you asked on TAP.
Good afternoon. Susan Crosby, Deputy Revenue Commissioner for Water. Thank you, Councilmember, for your question. First, to follow up on the shut-offs, we do have a robust set of protections for customers who are facing shut-off. First, we use administrative data to automatically protect families with children, families with seniors in the home and our customers who are receiving income-based assistance, those flags protect over 260,000 customers, households last year and are on track to protect those households again this year. We also have -- and those customers will never receive a shut-off notice. So they don't even know that they're receiving the benefit. They're just not going to get that shut-off notice. If they do receive a shut-off notice and they belong into one of those protective groups or they're a tenant whose landlord is responsible for paying the water bill but is not or there's a person living in the household with a disability, those customers can contact us and we call it our Raise Your Hand program, and they can receive protection from shut-off as well. So we understand that shut-offs is a very traumatic process for our customers to go through. And so, we try to do everything possible to prevent using that tool, including adding all of those protections. For your questions about auto-enrollment, we started auto- enrolling customers through a pilot program in late 2023 with the federal LIHWAP recipients. We were able to enroll over 3200 of those recipients into TAP. We then partnered with the Office of Integrated Data for Evidence and Action in the Managing Director's Office to use administrative data to auto-enroll customers who were identified as low-income participating in other means-tested programs. And as a result of that, we have enrolled an additional 37,500. So we've almost tripled the participation in our TAP program over Fiscal '24 and we continue to do auto-enrollment in incremental files each month.
Thank you for that information. COMMISSIONER HAYMAN: And you had a question on rate stabilization. I think you asked how much --
Yes. COMMISSIONER HAYMAN: I'll let you repeat the question. I'll have Lawrence Yangalay come up, Director of Finance.
The question was, at what level would you consider the funds to be stable around the low liquidy funds?
It says the Water Department is proposing the rate increase for the fourth consecutive year. The average annual water bill payment is up more than $200 since the first increase. Your testimony says that the rate increase is to replenish critically low liquidity funds and you have two such funds. And at what level do you consider the funds to be stable?
Lawrence Yangalay, Deputy Commissioner of Finance PWD. The Restabilization Fund was established as (inaudible) where when our revenue was short, we could draw down on the fund. From 2017 when it was above 200 million, we are now at 125 million. We have asked for rate increase. If that rate increase is not granted, that fund will go to near 0. And the very good effort that the City is applying to help customer like the TAP program, which grew from 14,000 to around 60,000-something is costing the Water Department revenue losses, and these losses have to be paid by other customers. So these are some of the reasons that we have to be drawing on the Restabilization Fund and some of the reason why the cost to the customer keeps increasing. Also of course, we have other cost impact, for instance payroll. Salaries have been increasing. Each time you increase pay, that has to be paid by the rates.
So there's typically industry guidance for water utility in terms of what they should have in some form of reserve. And the Water Department uses a firm that's been working with us for a very long time to establish that guidance. And so, perhaps we can focus the response on what that guidance is, what that industry guidance is for a rate stabilization fund or a reserve fund for water utility.
The industry rate guidance that was established by the Rate Stabilization Fund is that PWD should maintain at least 135 million in the Rate Stabilization Fund. So that was the target that was set by the Wastewater and Sewer Rate Board. We have maintained that target for a little while, but we are now below that target. The industry target that is set is set at how much cash you should have in your account. That target is set at one year. The target is about 363 days. PWD maintains 154 days of cash on hand. That means if anything were to go wrong and you don't have any money coming in, how long can you survive. PWD is below that target. And it's not even below the target that was set by the Rate Board for the PWD operations.
Just real quickly I just want to comment that one of the things I was hoping to see in the budget was the following: Funding for things that maybe cost -- it cost a lot of money for speed calming measures such as speed cushions. So I don't see anything here that says anything about funding for giving residents signs that can -- like slow down signs as well as maybe other signs that they can use to help with speed calming measures as well as I will also be interested in you all doing a campaign that's public and social media, also visually on a television or whatever it might be just talking about why it's important to slow down in these streets. So literally not every street is going to get speed calming measures and we need to be honest with the city about that. It's also not the right thing to do. So we need to start giving people other alternatives to show that we're serious about this. So would just like to see that in the budget. I'm not sure if it's there. Thank you.
And so, as we wrap up just one comment. And shout-out to Chris Puchalsky over there too, Director of Strategic and Policy Initiatives around Vision Zero, so thank you, Chris. We see you. What Member Phillips talked about, Dr. Phillips, and it's part of the reason why I did Get Out the Bike Lane legislation, right, but when we talk about pedestrian as Councilwoman Jamie Gauthier told me, is it pedestrian violence?
Traffic violence, right. And our leader in this body, Councilmember Thomas, have been leading this issue to get people to slow down, right, and making sure we're preventing deaths from happening. But I think it also comes down to education. You're on your cell phone while you're driving. You're on your cell phone while you're walking. Got the ear plugs in not paying attention. You walk dead in the middle of traffic, right, on the phone. And so, yeah, some level of education and awareness, right. Remember this is your brain on drugs when we were kids, right. We still remember it now. So maybe some level of elevating the conversation around educating the public around just slowing down and being mindful of your surroundings and so forth, I think that would be helpful. And my last comment before we wrap up, I'll follow up with you all offline. But with that being said, this is our last round. It's o'clock. 4 Thank you for all being here. We appreciate your hard work and your dedication. And with that being said, any other questions from the public, members of the City Council? (No response.)
Thank you very much. Appreciate you. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Gilmore Richardson for a motion that the public hearing and meeting on the bills and resolutions before the Committee today stand in recess until Tuesday, April 8th at 10:00 a.m.
It has been moved and properly seconded that the public hearing and meeting on the bills and resolution before the Committee today stand in recess until April 8, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. All those in favor will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the motion carries. (Committee of the Whole concluded at 4:10 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. __________________________________ TANEHA CARROLL