Committee of the Whole, April 2, 2025

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.

You're welcome.

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.

Thank you.

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.

You're welcome. Thank you.

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?

Yes.

But the budget I think is under Managing Director's Office; is that correct?

I believe so, yes.

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 --

That is the goal, yep.

-- 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, Councilmember.

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?

No, they don't come under the three-day category.

Thank you, Council President.

You're welcome.

Member Harrity.

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 correct.

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, Councilmember. Appreciate it.

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. Thank you, Council President --

Thank you for your hard work. Did you hear me earlier?

I did. Thank you. I was in the corner the whole time.

Sorry, Rue.

There's a lot of love and thanks going on today.

No, because listen, we passed these --

I like this.

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.

Nice.

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.

One last one.

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?

Oh, sure.

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.

Majority Leader?

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.

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.

Thank you.

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 --

Council will be at ease. Excuse me?

(Inaudible).

His button isn't pushed, Harrity.

(Inaudible).

It's on now, sir. We'll make sure you get --

I can wait. I'm just --

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.

You're welcome.

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 so much.

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.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Council President.

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.

Thank you, Council President.

You're welcome. (Lunch recess.)

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.

Okay. And --

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.

We will get you that detail.

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.

Okay. Thank you.

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.

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.

(Inaudible).

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.

Thank you so much.

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.

I --

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.

Tiny follow-up. It's so small.

(Gestured affirmatively).

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, Madam Chair.

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.

Excellent.

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.

Is this for the bond deals?

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.

How much is it?

$17.89 an hour.

Okay. Are you good?

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.