COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC HEARING COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, February 14, 2001 9:45 a.m. - - - BILL NO. 010005 - Adopting the Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2002. - - - PRESENT: COUNCILWOMAN ANNA C. VERNA COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE BLACKWELL COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN COUNCILMAN W. WILSON GOODE, JR. COUNCILMAN JAMES F. KENNEY COUNCILMAN ANGEL L. ORTIZ COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO COUNCILMAN DAVID COHEN COUNCILMAN MICHAEL A. NUTTER COUNCILMAN DARRELL L. CLARKE COUNCILWOMAN JOAN L. KRAJEWSKI COUNCILWOMAN MARIAN B. TASCO COUNCILMAN BRIAN J. O'NEILL - - - VINCENT VARALLO ASSOCIATES, INC. Registered Professional Reporters Eleven Penn Center Plaza, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 561-2220 359 I N D E X WITNESS Joseph Martz, Managing Director. . . . . . . . 360 Estelle Richman, Sec'y of Social Services. . . 373 D. Wolf, Refugee Targeted Assistance Program 398 Robert Solvibile, L&I. . . . . . . . . . . . . 425 Michael Nardone, OHCD. . . . . . . . . . . . . 444 Richard Roy, Acting Water Dept. Commissioner 464 William Mifflin, Fairmount Park Commissioner 489 Philadelphia Police Department John Timoney, Commissioner . . . . . . . . . . 505 Thomas Nestel, Deputy Commissioner . . . . . . 528 Sylvester Johnson, Deputy Commissioner . . . . 575 A. D'Harnoncourt, Exec. Director, Art Museum 612 Philadelphia Priston System Thomas Costello, Commissioner. . . . . . . . . 617 Ed Szymanski, Fiscal Officer . . . . . . . . . 620 Barry Savitz, Assist. Health Commissioner. . . 625 Alan Appel, Director of Inmate Services. . . . 631 Pres Grooms (Liaison for Meriam White) . . . . 652 Philadelphia Fire Dept. Harold Hairston, Commissioner. . . . . . . . . 658 Bill McNulty, Deputy Commissioner. . . . . . . 659 MOIS Dr. Karl Bortnick, Acting CIO. . . . . . . . . 672 Edgar Barrios, CIO, Technology . . . . . . . . 685 Joan Decker, Commissioner, Records Department 703 360 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET P R O C E E D I N G S
Good morning. I would ask all Council Members in their offices to please come down to the chamber. We are about ready to start with our hearings. Good morning, everyone. This is a continued Public Hearing of the Committee of the Whole regarding Bill No. 010005. The Chair recognizes the Managing Director. JOSEPH S. MARTZ: Good morning, Madam President. Madam President, members of Council,I am Joe Martz, the Managing Director of the City of Philadelphia. And with me today is Estelle Richman, Director of Social Services. Today I am here to present testimony on the proposed Managing Director's Office Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2002, and to answer any questions that you may have. The total proposed Operating Budget for the Managing Director's Office for Fiscal Year 2002 is $21,503,858, which includes $17,652,706 in the General Fund and $3,850,652 in Grants Funds. 361 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET The Fiscal Year 2002 General Fund BUDGET request represents an increase of $10,016,523 from Fiscal Year 2001 estimated obligations. The overwhelming majority of this increase, $10 million, will support the Mayor's Neighborhood Transformation Initiative through the launch of a lot cleaning program and a street tree removal program. The budget in the Grants Fund contains an increase of $297,534 from Fiscal Year 2001 estimated obligations. 2 million to fund the Administration division to perform both administrative and management functions, as well as neighborhood-based functions; such as, management of municipal services centers in North and Northeast Philadelphia. Funding for programs in the Neighborhood transformation Initiative are also included in this division. 421,000 for the Office of Emergency Management and the Emergency operations Center, which is responsible for coordinating the city's response to crisis situations; such as, 362 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET environmental incidents, natural and man-made disasters, and weather emergencies. $699,000 to the Targeted Assistance Program to provide employment-related social services, primarily to refugee and entrants recently arrived from Eastern Europe, Africa, South East Asia, and translation services for members of the refugee community. 2 million for the Criminal Justice Coordinating Office, to ensure that the prison population is managed and to continue to seek appropriate alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent criminals. 3 million for the Municipal Energy Office, which is responsible for optimizing energy use in city facilities, reducing city government energy-related expenditures, fostering the development and implementation of energy-efficient technologies, and protecting the environment. $389,000 for the Police Advisory Commission, which advises the managing Director and the Police Commissioner on policies and actions of the police department in order to improve the ability of police personnel to carry out their 363 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET duties and improve the relationship between the police department and the community. 3 in the Anti-Graffiti Network, which coordinates graffiti-fighting measures across a number of departments, city-related agencies, and volunteer organizations in an effort to promote the beautification of the city. Some of the philosophy and recent history of our office. Complex urban problems, including blight, graffiti, crime, homelessness, and the loss of both jobs and residents to the suburbs, have demanded that comprehensive, coordinated initiatives be developed to target a variety of special needs. In the last few years, the Managing Director's Office has broadened its mission in order to assume responsibilities for organizing, coordinating. And supervising major inner-departmental programs. Recently, this approach helped implement the city's successful abandoned vehicle program.
At the direction of the Mayor, the MBO began working with the Police Department, Streets Department, Department of Licenses and Inspections, Procurement 364 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Department, and the law Department in early January 2000 to develop a program that would successfully remove the backlog of abandoned vehicles that had accumulated on city streets. The result was an unprecedented 40-working-day program that towed 33,318 abandoned vehicles, and essentially eliminated the abandoned vehicle backlog. The success of this initiative, the extensive effort toward improving the quality of life for Philadelphians, is clearly reflected in the 83 percent of respondents who reported being satisfied with the program in the most recent citizen satisfaction survey. Following this success, the city established an aggressive maintenance program to ensure the backlog of abandoned vehicles does not accumulate again. Through the Police Department, the city has towed between 800 and 1,000 vehicles per week since May, with 48,000 vehicles towed projected for FY 2001 and 2002. The MDO will continue to coordinate services for Operation Sunrise as it moves through 365 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Phase 4. Phase 4's boundaries include the area from 4th Street and Germantown Avenue, and Tioga Street and York Road. The MDO will also coordinate support services for Operation Take Back in the Fairhill section of the city, and will continue to coordinate successful programs such as Operation Sunrise, Weed and Seed, and the Anti-Graffiti Campaign that complements the Sunrise approach. The MDO will also play a role in the Mayor's Neighborhood Transformation Initiative to eradicate blight. The city completed an aggressive neighborhood reinspection program in January of this year, identifying all vacant and dangerous buildings throughout the city, using inspectors from the Department of Licenses & Inspections and the Philadelphia Housing Authority, and, for the first time in the city's history, the Police Aviation Unit. As a result of this survey, which is the most accurate in the city's history, we have identified 30,729 vacant lots, 26,115 vacant 366 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET buildings, and 2,950 vacant commercial properties. Although not specifically funded in this budget, the MDO will be instrumental in coordinating the expanded demolition and encapsulation portion of the NTI. One of our primary goals is to eliminate the city's inventory of dangerous buildings over the course of approximately four years and to preserve appropriate property through encapsulation. Through the encapsulation program, properties are thoroughly cleaned and roofs and drainage systems are repaired and properties are sealed to prevent further deterioration before redevelopment. The encapsulation program offers a less expensive alternative to demolition for vacant, nondangerous buildings that enables the city to preserve the integrity of an otherwise viable city block. The Managing Director's Office is developing a program that will lead to the cleaning of the city's 30,729 vacant lots of accumulated trash and debris in approximately one year. 5 367 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET million in FY 2002 for the initial extensive lot cleaning. 5 million to begin the process of eliminating the city's current backlog of 8500 dead and imminently dangerous street trees through the implementation of the Street Tree Management Program. Beginning in FY 2002, the city will remove 4300 trees annually until the backlog is eliminated. Once the backlog is eliminated, funds will be shifted into an ongoing tree management program that will increase the level of planting and pruning activity. The Managing Director's Office, the Streets Department, and the Office of Fleet Management completely revised the city's snow-fighting plan to plow tertiary for the first time in the city's history.
The goal of this plan is to allow all Philadelphians to return to their normal daily activities as quickly as possible, and reduce the occasions when city government would have to be 368 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET closed due to winter weather emergencies. Under the plan, the city using resources from several operating departments has created a reserve snow-fighting fleet of 123 mostly smaller and more maneuverable vehicles to plow tertiary streets, expanding the total number of vehicles available to fight snow to 428. The city now will plow a total of 2350 miles of street during significant snow storms. The snow-fighting plan has enabled the city to plow an additional 900 miles of roads, which represents a 40 percent increase in plowed roads. The Mayor created the position of Director of Social Services to ensure his goal of improving the quality of social services provided to residents of Philadelphia. The purpose of this new structure is to more effectively anticipate, plan, and respond to the health and social service needs of Philadelphia's children, adults, and families through a more integrated and coordinated system of services. Estelle Richman will provide more detail regarding the division's activities at the 369 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET conclusion of my testimony. In addition, the MDO will also coordinate -- continue to play a key role in the following areas: accessibility compliance, criminal justice population management, municipal energy office, emergency management, special events, and the targeted systems program. The Deputy Managing Director for Accessibility Compliance is charged with coordinating the ADA compliance activities of every city department and agency as effectively and efficiently as possible, while providing citizens with disabilities access to all public services, programs, and activities. The city has instituted several alternative procedures to manage population levels, including implementing pretrial release services, monitoring the city's prison population, and encouraging the appropriate use of alternatives to incarceration through the Criminal Justice Population Management Program. These programs are for nonviolent offenders, such as house arrest and rehabilitation clients. 370 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET The Municipal Energy Office. 8 million in energy-related expenditures annually. 5 million. In the area of emergency management, the Office of Emergency Management coordinates all contingency planning for the city and interdepartmental activities during emergency situations. With regard to special events, in FY 2001, the city was host to several high-profile events, most notably the 2000 Republican National Convention. Other high-profile events included the annual Greek Picnic, OpSail 2000. The city's success in attracting large-scale events continued most recently when the city was awarded the 2001 and 2002 Summer X-Games in this past November. The X-Games will bring approximately 371 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET 260,000 people to Philadelphia and generate approximately $40 million in additional revenues. The Targeted Assistance Program. As I noted previously, TAP provides employee-based social services to refugee communities, primarily to persons from Eastern Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia. In addition to these activities, the Mayor has encouraged us to explore new and innovative ways to make the government work faster, better, and smarter. Our challenge is not only to look at the way we do business internally, but also at the way that the outside world views us and how we interact with both the private sector and the community. We are currently working on several projects at this time that I look forward to discussing with City Council in the months ahead and the years to come. For example, the MDO is currently working with the Commerce Department to review the city's business regulatory processes to make the city more business friendly.
As part of this project, we are 372 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET examining ways that we can automate permit and licenses applications, encourage the use of the Internet to conduct on-line bidding, perform our inventory management and purchasing processes, and to streamline the services provided by all agencies involved in the economic development throughout the city. Exploring avenues to consolidate the services provided by both the city and the school district, including fleet and property management services and maintenance support services. Combining these services could help realize savings and help improve service delivery in the city and the schools. Developing a new right-of-way policy to help oversee the infrastructure build-out of the technology that fuels the new economy. Working with the Streets Department, the Department of Public Property, and the Law Department, the policy will help coordinate street work and minimize the number of times that streets are opened. Chairing the City Hall task force that is charged with looking at ways to revitalize and 373 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET increase the use of one of our architectural and cultural treasures. And assessing ways in which the city can reduce the cost of doing business and improve service delivery, including same-day co-collection of recyclables and refuse, reducing the size of the city's vehicle fleet, and linking mapping and other technology across city departments. This concludes my testimony. Estelle Richman will now tell you about her mission as the director of social services. At the conclusion of Estelle's testimony, both of us will be available to answer questions.
Thank you very much. Good morning. ESTELLE B. RICHMAN: Good morning, Madam President and members of City Council. I am Estelle Richman, Director of Social Services within the Managing Director's Office. The Mayor named a Director of Social Services to further his goal of improving the quality of social services provided to residents of Philadelphia. 374 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET The purpose of this new structure is to more effectively anticipate, plan for, and respond to the health and social services needs of Philadelphia's children, adults, and families through a more integrated and coordinated system of services. The areas of responsibility within this new division are the Department of Public Health, the Behavioral Health System, Mental Retardation Services, the Department of Human Services, the Philadelphia Prison System, the Department of Recreation, the Office of Emergency Shelter and Services, the Mayor's Office of Community Services, the Mayor's Commission on Aging, the Mayor's Commission on People With Disabilities, and Philadelphia Safe and Sound. Individuals and families often require the services of many city agencies. For example, an alarming percentage of those in the Philadelphia prison system have a history of substance abuse. They eventually return to their communities, often without the tools or resources to lead productive lives, and end up back in prison. Many of the families whose children are 375 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET under the supervision of the Department of Human Services also are served by the behavioral health system. Many of those who live in city shelters have physical health, substance abuse, and mental health treatment needs. Many youth who participate in programs provided by the recreation department come from homes where poverty and its effect result in multiple health and social service needs. Many low-income elders who require help from a number of city agencies have difficulty navigating the various social service systems. These are only some examples of how the city's social service agencies are inter-related in carrying out their respective missions and contributing to the overall health and well-being of our residents. The charge is to bring these departments together, to determine the ways in which their programs affect the same families and individuals, to redirect their efforts towards better integrated and more coordinated services, resulting in more effective outcomes for those they serve, and examine financial and staff resources and allegations to 376 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET ensure that the considerable amount of public funds directed to social services are directed in the most efficient and effective way and avoid duplication of effort and focus collectively on how best to assess the quality and effectiveness of services and prevent the conditions which result in the need for these services. Achieving this ambitious agenda will require a number of strategies over the next several years. In Fiscal Year '01, initiatives in three areas were identified: Assessment of quality and effectiveness, health and wellness, and services to children. The essential question for the Division of social Services is whether its services are making a difference in the lives of consumers. The departments within social services will adapt a performance measurement system in order to focus efforts on achieving the outcomes that achieve the positive changes in the lives of the people they serve. The quality management unit was created in Fiscal Year '01 to support and direct departments 377 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET in this effort. There are three standards that we are proceeding with right now. First, to ensure the existence of standards in all social service programs, compliance with standards as a measurement of the quality of service delivery processes, and also is a primary focus for all divisional social service programs.
Because, if based on established best practice, they help ensure that services are delivered in the manner most likely to bring about successful client outcomes. To develop database accountability systems. A data of performance-based contracting will be implemented over the next five years. Departments will involve their contractor providers in Fiscal Year '02 in the design of a performance-based system that reflects program standards and emphasizes consumer satisfaction and success. A partnership between the city and its many service providers is critical in order to achieve success for those who receive services. Enhancement of information systems, 378 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET support performance measurement will be another significant area of focus. To improve the health of Philadelphians, we will design and implement Philadelphia-specific health and fitness programs. The Office of Health and Fitness will continue to identify the most significant behaviors that undermine the health of Philadelphia's residents, and to develop, implement, and manage innovative ways for individuals to change these behaviors and the attitudes that support them. The office plans to generate increased participation in its programs through educational techniques that will present simple health principles in interesting and informative ways. All programs initiated under Fun, Fit and Free will be evaluated in Fiscal Year '02 to ensure that they are effective in making a difference in the health of participants and the overall health of Philadelphians. Those activities that meet this criteria will then be replicated and expanded. To improve services for children, we will enhance the effectiveness of services through 379 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET cross-departmental coordination. Initial joint efforts, centrally directed by Division of Social Services, are focused on policies and operating practices affecting children and youth. These policies and practices have in the past been developed and carried out by individual departments without meaningful involvement of and coordination with other departments that have services that could help the same children. million in school-based behavioral health and parent education programs and to direct an additional million to improve or to develop promising service models. You will hear more about these programs in the testimonies of the operating departments. To improve and to expand children and youth development services, social services is using a number of strategies to leverage available funds to improve and increase the availability of youth development programs, including the development of quality standards, increasing available funding, providing technical assistance, training providers, reducing regulatory barriers to child care capacity 380 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET and sustainability, and fostering community partnerships to better meet the school-readiness needs of Philadelphia's children. 2 million included in the Fiscal Year '01 budget. This funding would be made available for additional capacity and improvements in quality, safety, accessibility, and training. We will also promote systemic reform through developing a framework to apply and assess models of change that would lead to systemic reform. This worm work is spear-headed by the Philadelphia Safe and Sound. Working with the city and foundations, uses research and studies that have examined similar efforts at integrated services to children and families around the country. In addition, Philadelphia Safe and Sound works within local neighborhoods to elicit community involvement in identifying and assessing local needs, and uses that information to help develop the division's initiatives.
The Social Service Division has collaborated with Philadelphia Safe and Sound on two 381 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET initiatives: The report Card 2000, The Well Being of Children and Youth in Philadelphia; and The Children's Budget. The children's Commission has also been developed which is comprised of leaders within the private, advocacy, and faith-based communities which serves as a steering committee to social services and provides guidance on all major initiatives and assessments involving children's policy and services. This concludes my testimony. Joe and I will be happy to answer any questions that you may have at this time. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Mr. Martz, you indicate in your testimony that your budget includes an additional $10 million for the NTI. Please give us a breakdown both programmatically and geographically as to how this money will be spent.
Programmatically, Madam President, we will begin with the lot cleaning program, which we estimate will be about 6 and a half million of the full $10 million. 382 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET The other three and a half will be earmarked for a street tree removal program, matching those resources with what's already existing in the Fairmount Park Commission, to expand both tree removal and a pruning program. So we are pruning approximately 6800 trees right now in Fairmount Park, and we are going to increase that to about 8,000 until we reduce this backlog of imminently dangerous street trees.
We are referring to street trees. And, yet, in many of the older sections of the city, these massive trees grow in the alleyways. And I truly believe that if in the event of a fire, I think the fire department would have an awful, awful time trying to get down the alley. Are we considering removing the alley trees, also?
The answer to that is yes, we are considering. However, that --
But that would not be included in the three and a half million dollars that's being appropriated for the removal of 383 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET street trees?
That might end up forcing us to extend the program a little bit, in the event that we -- the backlog right now is estimated to be about 8500, with about 2500 trees a year that gets added to that. And we want to make sure that as we move through the backlog, it is possible that some of those are duplicates that come in a second time. So there might be some opportunities within that 2500 to do some of the alleyways. But, in addition to that, for the first time we have been trying some things in our demolition of vacant buildings. And that is that we have included in the bid specs the removal of some of these trees that are actually on the lots of vacant houses. We did that just most recently in our latest bids. We also did that in some money that had been set aside that Representative Keller gave us for a section of his legislative district in South Philadelphia. So we are looking at it. We need to find out, because some of these things are very hard 384 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET to get to, as you know, Madam President. These things often don't just grow in alleys. They are week trees, essentially. They kind of start from nothing.
And they grow 30 feet high. And they are often very, very difficult to get to. So although they are not included necessarily in the immediate street tree program, we are looking at that and trying to figure out a way of getting to them in as safe a manner as possible. We will get back to you as we talk to you in greater detail about NTI. We are out there looking at these very same trees right now.
I assume when we talk about removal of street trees, we are not just talking about removing the tree to a stump?
That's my understanding. We are talking about a full removal of the street tree. And I will look very quickly to Director Mifflin, if he is here, just to verify that. But it is but my understanding that we are talking about removing all of the tree, 385 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET including the stump.
As a followup, Madam President. Because now when the contractors go out and demolish a building and clear a lot, they don't remove the tree; they cut it down.
They just did one in my area, they finished about a month ago, and they didn't remove it. Because I asked the contractor.
Councilwoman, we are looking at that. In the spec that we have out right now, I will tell you that the removal of the tree is part of the new spec that we have put together. And we are testing that out in Representative Keller's district.
Mr. Martz, you state in your administrative -- Councilman Clarke, do you have a followup on trees?
Just a question. 386 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Good morning, Mr. Martz. I introduced an ordinance I think the last of last year that would extend L & I's jurisdiction to allow them to abate a nuisance, meaning a tree, that's on an adjoining property, be it vacant. And in that particular bill, it would essentially lien that propertyholder. But under this new program, could it be that that funding could be a resource for that particular legislation, if in fact we get it passed and it is supported by the legislation ?
Generally, if we have speced demolition, if we have added that into the spec for demolition, the cost of that tree removal -- the demolition of that house includes the tree removal.
We have these trees, as Council President said, in the adjacent property owner's yard. Sometimes these properties are vacant. That tree is leaning over on the person's property, on the wires. And, you know, we send these letters out to the property owner, the person is never going to respond to it. So the tree just stays there. 387 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET And this particular bill will authorize Licenses and Inspections to go in and abate that nuisance the same way they abate the nuisance of a vacant property in sealing it up. This would then allow L & I to abate that nuisance, which is the tree. My question is, would this particular funding possibly be a resource for that?
Okay. So you would be in support of the bill when we have the hearing?
Councilman, we are going to do our best with the resources we have. We are going to do a lot better than we have done before, and we are going to try like heck to address that issue, yes. The bottom line is, as you know, one of the bad things about these weed trees, or trees in general that grow in alleyways, is they seek out the water sources of people's houses. They wrap themselves around water pipes and sanitary pipes, and they cause a lot of damage. And we understand that. 388 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET And we are actually helping ourselves in many ways by dealing with this issue.
Joan Krajewski lives in an area which would not be considered a blighted area. She has several of her constituents who have diseased trees in her area. Will they be able to remove the trees in that district, since it is not part of the blight program?
So this is going to be a citywide program. And it doesn't matter whether you are in a blighted area or not; is that my understanding?
That's exactly what this is. This program is a citywide program. And we are going to begin with the oldest trees in the system. And some of them are in the Far Northeast and some of them are in South Philadelphia, some are in North Philadelphia, and work our way, from that backlog, with the oldest trees forward. 389 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET
Thank you. Mr. Martz, you state that in your administrative division funds for the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative, have been included. What role does your office perform in the NTI program? And what areas of the NTI program come under the jurisdiction of your office?
That's pretty extensive, Madam President. I would say that, at a minimum, we are involved -- I am involved in a lot of the discussions at the senior government officials are having with regard to NTI in general. So there is a greater discussion taking place among the Mayor's Office and the Redevelopment Authority and the Housing Authority. But, very specifically, we are working closely will Bob Sibibly and his team to develop a good demolition program. We are also deeply involved in the lot cleaning component of the program. Most of the operational things that you will see take place, when we actually get together with you and discuss how we want to run the program, 390 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET and agree to that, operationally I would imagine that the bulk of it will ultimately come back to the Managing Director's Office, and we will be responsible for the execution of whatever our joint policy is with regard to the NTI.
Thank you. You also state under your Vacant Property Remediation section of your testimony that, although not specifically funded in this budget, the MDO will be instrumental in coordinating the expanded demolition and encapsulation portion of the NTI. Why isn't this funded in FY '02? And has it been included in the five-year plan ?
I believe it is actually included in the area of the new bond issue. So it would be included in the FY '02 debt service line item. And I think Rob could speak specifically to that. But this would be the area that we would actually be borrowing money to demolish homes with, or to encapsulate homes with, which could be part of the overall bond program.
For the 391 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET record, can you expand on what the encapsulation program will be?
Heretofore, if I ever called about a house in my district that had to be cleaned and sealed, more often than not all they would do would be to board the first-floor windows; not the second floor, but simply the first floor. How is this encapsulation program going to be working?
Well, it is a little different. And we have been trying it out for the last year in a variety of places. And it started specifically when I was with the Mayor at a Lawncrest town meeting up in the Lower Northeast section. I think it would be Councilman Mariano's district, actually. And we were up there, and we saw the neighbors were complaining about a particular home on one street that was an otherwise very viable street. This one house had been abandoned for a period of time. I believe that the homeowners had 392 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET passed away. And, as a result -- it was a corner property, a very viable block -- the roof had started to leak and the interior of the building started to fail. The encapsulation program actually would -- we joined forces through L & I and the PHA to come in and actually put a new roof on the building, to put some new windows in place, and to basically make the building water tight. And as a result of that, we are now moving that building through the process to see if we can't get it into a new homeowner's hands. Because it just hadn't made its way through the sheriff's sale process. We ended up in the end saving an otherwise viable street by not just boarding a house up, but by actually replacing the windows and by making it water tight and structurally sound again.
It sounds good. You state on of your testimony that to combat the prison population increase, the city has initiated construction of two new 393 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET facilities to house female offenders, and will make renovations to the House of Corrections and to the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility. These initiatives will add about a thousand new beds to the prison system's capacity. In what Capital Budget are these funds provided, and when do you expect these additional beds to come on line?
That's a great. The one would be the women's detention facility.
I don't know why I am having difficulty hearing. Maybe if you just pushed it a little further away.
The first would be the women's detention facility, which we actually broke ground on this past year, in the Year 2001. That money had been in the Capital Budget for several years. That is a 750-bed female facility.
That is in the prison complex in Northeast Philadelphia. The second a is a smaller facility -- and I will let Estelle speak to that, which is 394 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET actually on 17th Street. It is actually not a construction project for us; it would be funded out of operating dollars.
The second one is a smaller facility of 235 beds, at 17th and Cambria. It should open in April. And it is a leased facility, so we did not do the renovations or the building of the facility. So the cost of that is coming out of our Operating Budget.
What we're going to do today, we are going to have a first go-around of each Council member who has questions will be afforded ten minutes. And if they are not completed within the ten minutes, we will have a second go-around. So everyone will be timed. Because yesterday our hearings were just much, much too lengthy. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell.
Thank you, Madam President. As a followup, our understanding is that 395 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET the design of these new facilities incorporate the needs of special moms and special rooms for visits, for mothers to visit with children, and separate holding cells for children charged as adults?
The Women's Detention Center that is being developed on the property of the prison now, yes, will have those facilities that have been designed within those facilities. That is correct.
Thank you very much. On -4 of the Operating Budget. It is only a small amount, about almost 33,000, is allocated to Women's Death Review Team. What is this program?
The Death Review Team is modeled after our Youth Fatality review Team. It is looking at the deaths of all women that happen in the City of Philadelphia to see if we can put their lives back together and determine what some of the causes of death were, and where it could be preventable. It is a retrospective look. One of the things that we have determined that probably is not a huge surprise is 396 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET that women who work as prostitutes have a higher probability of death. And because of that, we have begun to look specifically at prostitution, how we can begin to work with these women and how we can be more effective, one, in preventing their death, but, two, helping them protect themselves better to have more health precautions, and hopefully help them to choose another line of work.
We hope in that regard that you would look back. We held hearings on the death of women in Mantua. And certainly in many, many cases, most cases, the women had bags over their heads, they had been raped. And, of course, some mothers say their daughters weren't on drugs, and some admit they were. But, at any rate, there are extensive hearing that we held when Commissioner Neal was here. So we hope you would look back to that. They still have yearly affairs to deal with the death of these women, and there is a lot of testimony about it. And we have a lot of testimony 397 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET in the office about it. So we hope you would include them in that study.
We certainly will. This is an ongoing event. This is the second year, so we are just beginning to pick up the trends. But certainly any woman who dies within the City of Philadelphia, we begin to look at those deaths, both natural causes, accidents, and deaths that could be prevented.
That's great. Who are some of the providers of employment counseling and job-related skills services provided by the Refugee Targeted Assistance Program? That's on -30 of the Operating Budget. What programs are available for West African immigrants from Frankafone, Africa? That is, in my district we have several people who live, who are from the Ivory Coast, Senegal, Benin, and Gabon?
I am going to let Donna Wolf, our director of the program, answer that for you. 398 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET DONNA WOLF: My name is Donna Wolf, and I have been the Director of the Refugee Targeted Assistance Program. The primary African population we see now are folks from Liberia. And the program is specifically limited, by its definitions, to those who arrive as refugees. And the Liberian church we have been dealing with is actually out in Montgomery County. So the Liberian population comes with excellent English and the regular targeted assistance they have been supporting that. And there are some folks coming in from Sierra Leone, particularly the kids, the lost boys. But we haven't seen them yet.
We deal with some members from that community, from Liberia, in my area, who they have a church near 60th and Market, in that general area. So certainly if you give me your number, if you have a card, we will try to put them in touch with you.
Good. Because we do like to deal with community groups through their own 399 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET organizations primarily. We subcontract wherever possible. And haven't had much luck with the Liberian population inside Philadelphia.
Great. So this is specifically for this Liberian population.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Rizzo.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Managing Director Martz, I just wanted to talk a little bit about the recent effort in snow plowing. But before I get there, I just want you, I know that Fleet Management is going to be here later. But I wanted you to know I had a few visitors in town. And both are involved in the management of significant fleets in another state. And very, very complimentary on the appearance and also the mechanical specifications. I can't imagine visitors to Philadelphia stopping on Chestnut Street to inspect the trash 400 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET compactor, but they did, and were very, very impressed with the equipment that we purchased. And they just couldn't believe, in a big city, that the equipment was maintained and had the appearance that it had. And I just wanted you to know, since you are the top guy --
-- that people notice. And sometimes we take it for granted. But our fleet, I think, is impeccable.
Councilman, you and I have talked about this on a couple of occasions. You know how I feel about the senior team over in the office of Fleet Management. They are the best, and they are recognized that way. And they deserve every bit of that recognition. Thank you.
You are quite welcome. I just wanted to, again, comment, this is probably -- and you know, if I don't call you -- this is probably one of the first times that there hadn't been a lot of phone calls. 401 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Obviously we didn't have a significant amount of snow, but we had enough to test the system. And I know that one way was very complicated, where it caught up on us when we had normal trash pickup on that particular day. You indicate that you are plowing 2350 miles of city streets. How many miles do we have? And the ones that aren't plowed, are they streets that are significant? If you live on one of those streets, how do you deal with that? Can you explain why some day our goal isn't to get to everything?
At this point we are structured to do all but miles of the smallest, 16 the narrows streets, which are essentially 9 feet 17 wide. 18
I was afraid of that. And you know a street, a block, is about a tenth of a mile long. So we are talking about 200 streets that we simply can't get to at this point. But we have been looking at the plan and trying to alter the plan in such a way that we can 402 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET get some smaller equipment in to deal with that. And we are going to try some different things out in this current summer. So we will make the plan a little different for next year. But our goal is to get to every single street. We got a lot further than we did a year ago. And we have some work to do ahead of us. But I believe by the time we sit down and talk about this next year, we will have a plan for all of them.
Is it because we just ran out of resources, or are there mechanical reasons, size, configuration, parking? Is it just because we decided not to do these miles? 15 If someone called me from one of those 16 streets, what would I call them? Call Joe Martz. 17
No. And I appreciate that. Those streets are really remarkable. And the Council President has a number of them in her district, actually. They have parking on one side. And they are really enormously narrow. 403 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET So we are looking at Bob Cat type equipment to get down there. We don't have that stuff right now. And what we were able to do, interestingly enough, with the plan that we have right now, we were able to do it with virtually no 8 new equipment. We retrofitted some of the new stuff that we brought in. But we are actually doing most of it with older equipment that we would have normally sold off at the end of its useful life. We have reprogrammed some of that stuff, about $400,000 worth of it, to get it into the mix so we can use it for snow plowing. And that's good for all but those miles. 17 We are looking at the smaller Bob Cats. 18 And we have a few of them, but we don't have a lot 19 of them. And we need to increase them. Because 20 they are about the only thing small enough to actually get down those blocks. And it is very tough. Because, as I said, when you get down them, you find out that no 24 matter where you invert the plow, you end up pushing the snow either back onto somebody's pavement or 404 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET blocking in the cars. And you and I have been through that a few times in discussions before, as well. It is a very, very difficult problem for us, but we are working on it.
That complaint seemed to be dealt with, where people complained that when the plow would come through the street, that they would push the snow where the cars were parked, blocking their vehicles in. You simply said to the folks, turn the plow the other way, so they don't have to dig out in the morning.
You are welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman Goode.
Thank you, Madam 405 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET President. Good morning, Mr. Martz. I was interested in your testimony on the streamlining of business regulations. I was glad to hear last week when the Mayor talked about it at the chamber luncheon, you mentioned your testimony about automating permits and licenses, and on-line bidding and streamlining the services. But there is any intention to actually streamline regulations in terms of actually taking regulations off of the books?
That's what we are actually going to take a very close look at, the Commerce Director and myself. And obviously that's not something we can do without coming back and having that discussion with City Council. But we want to take a look at all our business practices. And if it makes some sense to recommend some changes out of our office, we would hope that you would entertain those.
Is that a process that Council would be involved in before the report 406 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET is made to the Mayor? Because, actually, we were planning on doing a study out of my office on stream-lining business regulations, and offering legislation beginning to take some of the regulations off the books. I am wondering what the process is going to be, and how we might get involved before the fall legislative agenda comes up.
Well, just so you know, typically our practice in our office is that if there are folks from Council that are interested, the Council President's office makes that call over to us, and we try to be as inclusive as possible. So if you would like to send somebody over, I am sure you could work that through the Council President. We would be very happy to have somebody involved.
Thank you. My second question is actually for Ms. Richman. Good morning.
I had some involvement this past summer with the Freedom School 407 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Program up in Frankford. And it is my understanding that that program is being eliminated at the Frankford Family Development Center, although the program in general is being expanded. But I had a great experience this summer. There were 112 young people there. It was a free program. Children of all ages. And was actually, while I was there to read to them, it was a very high-intensity level, and I think they were being actively engaged. I was just wondering why the program was being discontinued in that particular location.
I am not sure I know exactly why it is being discontinued, Councilman. But I am willing to look at the program and to go out and visit.
It is funded under MOCS. And my understanding is that the Freedom School Program in general is being expanded, but is being discontinued at that particular location. Can we just get an answer to that, and could you forward that to the Chair?
I certainly will. And we 408 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET will have and answer for you before the MOX testimony.
I am sorry. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown.
My first question is not completely tied to the testimony. It speaks from my experience at the Tax Review Board prior to coming to City Council. But having been here, my office has received some calls around this notion of what's called customer service. Please speak to, if you will, what kind of -- what the Managing Director's Office has done in that area prior to you assuming leadership and what's on line to better serve taxpayers in the city.
I believe the whole review of business regulatory processes is key to anything that we do in the field of customer service. But 409 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET from a technology perspective, we just, the city has just, purchased a new radio system, as you know. And if you walk up on the 7th floor of this building right now, we are actually outfitting a whole new communications center. And we are going to try to do things a little bit differently. We actually have the Department of Public Property working with the Streets Department, and L & I and the Water Department, to see if there is a better entry point for gathering information. So when people call in, they don't necessarily just get sent to a department. Because we essentially operate our communications center the same way we did 30 years ago. It directs phone calls. It is a switchboard. We want to get past that. And we are actually looking at technologies that are out there so that people can bring up multiple screens from different departments and enter information as people call in, and start the process. Start the process of saying, "I have a water main break," it can begin at that point of entry. 410 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Give people a tracking -- give people tracking information, let them be able to call back at later points and find out where they are in the process, how our service is being delivered.
And, therefore, take that initial contact out of the department and put it at the starting point, if you will.
Just so you know, it is not something that's new. It is something that a number of other cities have already done. Los Angeles is doing it quite well and a couple of other cities. And we are looking at that model. Because it just makes more sense to be able to call one number, be it 686-1776 or 311, or whatever that number is, and start the process and being able to reach a person. Because we operate that switchboard 20 hours a day, 365 days a year. And it is just the 21 logical place to start the process, and have people 22 be able to go back into it and find out what's 23 happening with their situation at any point. 24 Look, it is a fairly complicated process. Because you have so many different systems 411 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET that don't necessarily speak to each other right now. But the key to that is to have at least an interactive call answering point that can begin it, and then we will see what we can do. And part of this whole review of our technology is to see how we can get our systems to speak to each other so that a single point person can kind of handle all of those calls.
So a plan and a strategy is in place now; it is a matter of implementation, if you will?
That's encouraging. Let's move to the vacant lot cleaning program that you discussed. Did I hear you correctly, six and a half million is being slotted for that effort?
And it could be wording, but help me understand. You say that first there will be an initial cleaning -- and this is the second paragraph 412 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET on . After this initial cleaning, a maintenance plan will be developed that includes periodic followup cleanings. It could be the wording. But could that be backwards? It is important to have the strategic plan ready that you will use for the sustaining of the effort, once the cleaning is done.
Maybe it is the wording. And I shouldn't have the word "maintenance" in there, because I don't like the word "maintenance." It is the wrong word, and I apologize for that. We are hoping to establish a baseline. See, and keep in mind we are talking about removing debris from lots here. So what we are trying to do is get to a baseline, get in there and clean them up, and try to maintain them at some reasonable level, as the Mayor said in his initial address. I mean, I don't think I can get back 413 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET there every day like we do for graffiti and say this is a zero tolerance lot, for that many lots. It is just not going to be possible. What we want to do is to get back periodically and remove the debris that's there.
As part of this strategic plan around the major neighborhood revitalization piece, is there consideration for community participation? I mean, linkages with community groups and churches, so that they have some responsibility in the world immediately around them?
You hit it right on the head. I mean, it cannot be our long-term goal to be maintaining our lots. It is our long-term goal to gets those lots into people's hands. It is part of our short- and long-term goal to get the communities active in taking care of these lots. And there are programs that are going on around this city right now that work well, and they 414 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET are the models that we are looking at. There is one up on the American Street corridor right now, with PHS and the Empowerment Zone, that seems to be working quite well. So they are the models we are looking at. Look, we don't want to be in the individual lot maintenance business forever. It is just not a good, long-term policy.
You discussed a number of initiatives that your department is undertaking, new initiatives. I am excited about that which will look at -- it is important to work smarter. But this speaks to spending money smarter, and that is the consolidation of services between the city and the School District. What's the analysis of that project at this hour? The plan is in place, and the strategies are in place?
For individual operations. We have taken a look at those things -- the last thing I want to do, and I won't do, is to 415 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET go to the School District and say, "We can do all these things better than you." It is just not factually correct, and I wouldn't do that to my counterpart in the School District. It isn't fair to them. But there are certain things that I think the City of Philadelphia does quite well. And Councilman Rizzo points out that the Office of Fleet Management might be the best of any big city. And if that's something that we can do -- and we have started those discussions with the School District -- we want to see if there are opportunities for consolidation over there that make some sense. And it might lead to some savings, and at a minimum it just leads to better service delivery. And those are the kinds of areas that we are looking at right now. If it doesn't make sense, I don't want to do it. But if it does, and we can help them out, that's where we want to go.
So in terms of where you are, currently you are at discussions, exploring where the opportunities might lie. 416 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET
Yes, we are. Myself, Phil Goldsmith, and Tom McClinch, who is, essentially, my counterpart in the School District, have begun those conversations, yes.
One more, and then I would like to hear from Ms. Estelle Richman. The status and future of Town Watch, where is that on the radar screen with regards to the efforts in your office?
Continuing commitment to it. As you know, Anthony Murphy does a great down of Town Watch here in the city. And we continued our financial commitment to it. It is a cornerstone of the work that we do in the Managing Director's Office.
And let me just underscore the conference that your office pulls off every year, to continuously train those of us that care about our immediate world, I think, is important and should continue. I know there is a cost attached to it, but it is worthy.
It is. And it is a worthy mission, and it is one that we are committed to. 417 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET
Thank you very much, Mr. Martz. Ms. Richman, you mentioned that 1.2 million has been now slotted for school-based behavior health and parent education programs. Is that new? Is that on top of current efforts? Where?
That is actually a continuation of funding that we have had in the past that was funded through the behavioral health system as a pilot. It was successful. Many of the schools that had been involved in it have written many letters saying that it has really made a difference, and getting control of those youngsters in their schools that have had behavioral problems. We would now like to continue it and do some expansion. And we are using some dollars within DHS, which have come from the state, to be able to expand this project.
That was one of my questions, too. Are these new dollars?
These at this point, yes, are new dollars from the state. 418 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET
The Office of Child Care. What are some of the plans for moving the office forward? And I ask that for very selfish reasons, because I have some interest in some legislative matters around that.
As you know, this has been the first year to have an Office of Child Care in Philadelphia. We have two full-time people working in that office now to begin to develop, work with regulatory, work with the state. We have also determined that one of the things, one of the issues here in Philadelphia are how to get the child care providers that are underground above ground, to be able to get them more federal dollars and to get them licensed. And some of the barriers in keeping them there range from fees, to structural improvements that need to happen either in homes or in the centers. We are working with them individually. This year we have put about $300,000 out in an RFP to have the small child care providers apply for 419 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET that money so they can begin to do some of the improvements that will get them closer to regulation and licensing. It is still a slow process, but I think we are making progress in it. Our goal for Fiscal Year '02 is to continue, at least keep our funding level, keep it level that we have now from the state, and to look for opportunities within the state to increase it. We are still in the process of analyzing the Governor's budget. But we think that the new Governor's budget has a variety of different kinds of opportunities to expand child care opportunities here in the city.
Councilwoman, I am sorry. Your time is up. You will have to wait for the second go-around-
Thank you. 420 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Mr. Martz, we have heard a lot this week about funding for various projects included in the Mayor's Neighborhood Transformation Initiative. I think you can understand the growing frustration among Council Members, in that we are asked to approve funding for certain projects, but we still have nothing before us. I don't know what we will be funding. We have no plans. We haven't received anything. And what input are Council Members going to have?
I can speak for the Administration in so much as I think that the Chief of Staff said that we will be back to you with a briefing, and we will obviously have a very public discussion about the process of neighborhood transformation. And I will tell you, I mean, I have done this now for eight years. This is the most complicated initiative I have ever been involved in myself. When I think about last year, as we sat here and we were talking about some different things, and one of them was how we are going to remove abandoned cars, I tell you at that time it 421 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET was probably the most overwhelming thing I thought to be involved in. And at some point we actually had the opportunity to sit down with you guys and talk about what we wanted to do. And you certainly told us what things we needed to modify in the plan to make that program work. And then we went forward with a plan, and it seems to have been very successful. And, again, I am here talking about, within my budget, at least, the few things that I have a little bit of information on that I am actually asking in the FY '02 Operating Budget. But we are going to be back before you -- and again I am just speaking, you know, from what I have heard from the Mayor's Office -- within the next month to talk about this in a much grander way.
Well, do you think that these lots will be broken down by Council districts.
Will we get a list of all of the citywide -- 422 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET
Sure. Let me just say that last week I had provided the first of the information to the Council President's office. And I hope that she was able to disseminate that and get it out to all the members.
But one of the things the president had asked us, Councilwoman Krajewski, is to be able to give that information back in more detail by street address, by ward. And we needed to go book and start matching it up. And we have actually had meetings with the Revenue, and BRT, to start trying to get that information to you so it would be more manageable for you. Because I know you have a lot of interest in folks in your own community that want to know about that. And that's what we are working on right now. I mean, we just literally got our hands around this information three weeks ago. And I gave you what we had at this moment, and I will continue to give you it as we refine it.
Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilman Clarke.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Martz, with respect to some of the testimony on the demolition issue, I recall maybe two or three months ago there was some discussion about this stuccoing issue, and the concerns about property owners when you demolish a property, most properties are built to be in row homes, and it somehow causes concerns about the structure of the building and the instability of that particular building once you do the demo. Then there was actually some reference to a new type of method that the stucco had beams or something in it, possibly. Can you tell me where we are with that?
I will tell you where we have kind of come, and it is interesting. We were actually now looking at bringing in somebody to help us out with this. The program is so large, it is incredible. It is as big as any major project that 424 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET the city has ever been involved in. And when we do those kinds of things, if we are building the Women's Detention Center up in Councilwoman Krajewski's neighborhood, we bring help in. We bring project management teams in to help us with that. What we decided to do, because we think we need some additional engineering services, so when we are out there in the field doing this kind of stuff, we need help in managing that process. So what we are going to do is offer an RFP, I believe, for a project manager, owners' representative type model -- and we have used that on several large construction projects here in the city -- to kind of help us work those issues through. So that's the direction we are going.
There was a particular reference to -- and I don't recall where it was. I think Bobby was talking about it. And it was somewhere where somebody actually used a -- you guys said you were investigating the possibility of using --
Councilman, 425 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET I'm sorry, we can't hear you. I think when you turn your head, and you are not talking into the mike, it is very difficult to hear you.
Thank you. BOB SOLVIBILE: Bob Solvibile, Deputy Commissioner, Licensing and Inspections. Councilman, to answer your question, we had people go to a training, where in the training they discovered these steel, I will call them, beams, for lack of a better word, that you can apply to a wall that stops the bulge outward. And we are looking at people. Our people at L & I are now researching that for us to see how effective it would be to reinforce walls that we stucco, if it would be a proper application.
And do you have a sense of when we might get a definitive answer on it?
Within about three weeks I should have an answer back from the people that are looking into it and the staff.
At the present time who does the stuccoing? Do we have a contractor? Because I remember a couple of years ago during the budget hearings we were told that we had only one contractor doing the stucco work for demolitions. Who is doing that now?
At the present time there are two contractors, one east of Broad, one west of Broad, that have a performance contract to stucco the walls citywide. And it is divided by east and west of Broad. Do you want the names, Councilwoman?
There are two contractors that have the contract for the city. And they are obligated to do X amount of square feet a week. I think it is something like 20,000 square foot a week need to be completed by the 427 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET contractor, weather permitting.
And how long does it take before they are able to stucco the wall once the adjacent property has been demolished?
At the present time, too long. Probably within three to four weeks, everything being perfect, the weather and everything. Our goal, with the Neighborhood Transition Initiative, is to have it done immediately after the demolition.
Well, who is going to do it immediately, or are we going to get several more contractors on board or --
We are going to look into -- we are looking into having the demolition contractor become responsible for the wall being stuccoed. So as soon as the contract is completed for demolition, that same contractor will be responsible for stuccoing a party wall, which would give us that immediate access to having the wall stuccoed, which will solve 50 to 60 percent of the 428 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET complaints I think we receive from demolition, post-demolition activity.
Councilwoman Clark, I am sorry. I just wanted to ask that question. And I did stop the clock, so you still have some time.
Thank you. The encapsulation program. And I want to thank you because you have actually done a couple of them in my district, and people were extremely happy with that. As we move ahead, knowing the limited resources that we will have, because we are not going to be able to encapsulate every property, obviously, will the priorities associated with that program coincide with the short-term development strategy or reuse strategy of that particular property? Meaning that, if there is a block that had one property that needed to be encapsulated, we encapsulate it, would you then talk to OHCD, or prior to encapsulating talk to OHCD, about possibly rehabing that house and selling it to someone or 429 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET talk to someone in the neighborhood who would be interested in purchasing that home?
That's precisely what we have been doing. That's exactly the path we have been taking on all this stuff. We have to take control of the title to that property. There are some situations where they haven't even gone through sheriff's sale yet. It creates a bit of a problem for us to do that. I mean, the one that I used in the Northeast as an example, it hadn't even gone through the sheriff's sale process. We still thought it was important to stabilize that particular house, knowing that it was going to come into our ownership at some point. So we put the lien on the property for the amount of money that we actually invested in that property.
Does that trigger the Revenue Department to move ahead with sheriff's sale, or does it trigger the Redevelopment Authority to start the condemnation process?
Councilman, the Office of Housing and Community Development, before we even 430 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET encapsulate the property, we tell them, this 1234 Anywhere street, we intend to encapsulate it. They say, okay. And then we let them know when it is completed. This way their system can start the process of getting that and finding a community group to take it over. The whole idea behind encapsulation is that the complaints that we would get when a community group and a CDC was ready to rehab a building, the building was so far deteriorated that we had to come, L & I, and tear it down. And that was creating problems and rift in the community. So Ed McLaughlin and our staff at L & I came up with encapsulation to preserve a property for several years, so the Office of Housing and Community Development could put it through this process of acquiring it, and it wouldn't deteriorate to the point where it would need to be demolished. The whole thing is to weather-tight the property.
I am on a time base. Actually, I understand I am on the timer. Ms. Richman, you were familiar, having worked in the field that you have, with this 431 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET escalating phenomenon about grandparents having to take responsibility of grandchildren. And over the years in our work here you know we have had to deal with the very social ills associated with that. And one of the problems that we have had is this whole housing issue. A lot of times our seasoned citizens want to give up that home or they want to go into a senior citizens facility or some other type of housing initiative, and they are always told that you can't bring that grandchild with you. And I actually had the pleasure of meeting with a group called GAPS. Are you familiar with them, grandparents group?
And we have actually worked on an initiative that would build a senior citizens' facility. I think they are looking at a location in West Philly right now that would provide housing for both that grandparent and that child in the same facility. It would also provide social services 432 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET for both that grandparent and that child. Can you tell me what your office is going to do to support it? Because at some point we are going to go begging for funding for that particular facility. Could you lend us any support on that, and tell us what we need to do.
I would be very glad to sit in and talk and work with the group. We are actually working with a couple of groups of where grandparents have taken either custody or primary support of their grandchildren. And, you are right, there are a myriad of problems that are presented in those kinds of situations; from legal, to financial, to just sometimes having some respite. Because while they can take care of it, they are into maybe sometimes being the primary and only provider. So I would be very willing to talk to the group or to work with them around where there may be some resources or supports within social services. Because the reality is, if they aren't 433 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET taking care of those children, they fall in the custody of DHS sometimes, and then cost us more dollars in different ways. So being able to work with them in a way where they can provide that support is beneficial to all of us.
Great. Thank you. Do I have anymore time? One more question.
One more question. Let's jump back to Mr. Martz. On the NTI program, we are talking about I hoping upwards of $700 billion. There will obviously be a lot of business opportunities. Who is working on that? Who will ensure that neighborhood organizations or small businesses in neighborhoods have an opportunity to participate, which is going to be an economic development ?
Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition, we have actually asked them to help us put together a program.
So that will be rolled out when the NTI program is rolled out. 434 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Cohen. Oh, I'm sorry. Councilman Cohen, you are not next. Councilman Kenney.
Thank you, Madam President. Mr. Martz, the city did a tremendous job in the initial year of removing abandoned cars from the city streets. Do you have yet the ability to tell us what the overall cost of that program was in its initial large stage, the 40,000 number ?
Okay. Is there a plan going forward? Maybe you could explain how the plan works. The initial scoop was a major movement. What the process is now, and what the ongoing expected costs are. And I am sure you have looked at other cities and how they do it. And it has been touted much about 435 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Chicago and their ability to actually make a few dollars on this process. I don't know how they do it, but maybe you do from your research.
We actually have looked at how those cities do it. And Chicago basically takes all of its towing under one program. So they roll it altogether. And in some ways that complicates some things because the way we do business currently in the city. Because there are so many agencies that are involved in towing. I mean, the police department does some towing, the Parking Authority does some towing. But out in the city of Chicago they have rolled it under one vendor, and as a result of doing that have lost a little bit of control. So we are actually looking at trying to put together some type of master towing kind of program, Councilman.
Is that the ugly P word, that privatization word? Obviously Chicago has probably privatized that process. 436 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET
And, I mean, look, you know, when I looked at the original program for abandoned vehicles, the program was initially going to be run by the Parking Authority. The cost of $12 million was the estimated cost of removing those cars in the last Administration.
And not to take anything away from the Parking Authority. That was just a program they came up. But we are actually looking at the program in great detail to find out if there are opportunities for us to make some money. And we are using some of those models that are out there. But we want to refine them. Because they neat to fit Philadelphia.
Does it make general sense that we have Parking Authority towing, Police Department towing, that we really kind of should be looking -- and I know you are looking at the whole process -- but that's really what costs us, all the overlap. 437 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET
It is not a bad process as long as the roles are real well defined. Some of the problems that we are having are actually out there when people are having accidents on the street, and some tow truck goes rolling up, and you have absolutely no idea how much it costs to get your car towed or where it is towed to. So those are the kinds of things that we are concerned about as part of this program, is to try to get some control, and for people to feel that they are not being abused in that process at a time when, you know, they just had a horrible accident.
We have an existing tow truck ordinance that we passed a number of years ago. And with the exception of the actual sticker that we put on the trucks, a lot of those provisions of the bill are really not enforced. People call continuously about having their car towed, having it held hostage by the body shop. It really is difficult to -- I guess with L & I's responsibilities and enforcement in so 438 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET many different areas. I was the Chairman of the L & I committee. It was kind of like, well, if no one else will do it, L & I will do it. And it a shame, because they get blamed for not doing it right, but there is just not enough people there to do it.
But one of the things, if you look at the Chicago model, that worked out very well is, they actually found a master vendor to oversee all of that. So it took all of those issues away from another things that L & I has to enforce. We actually had a contractual relationship that said, this is how we are going to go about getting those cars when there is an accident. This is the vendor that you would contact, and this is the way to do it.
Let me shift gears to another car issue. And that is the issue of live stop and confiscation of automobiles driven by unlicensed drivers with cars that are unregistered. 439 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET
The police I have talked to, anecdotally, have told me that they are very happy with the ability in the 3rd, 6th and 4th police districts to actually stop somebody who is driving with 30 suspensions, and take their car and have it impounded. And probably they won't be able to get the car back. And I am wondering what the plans are to kind of have that as a rule of thumb in every neighborhood in the city.
There is some work underway right now to try to take a look at the whole issue of insurance in Philadelphia, and affordable insurance in Philadelphia. I think the Mayor feels very strongly about the need to have affordable insurance in the City of Philadelphia. And, as a result of that, and whatever that committee work will be done will probably give us the guidelines we need to either expand or not expand the live stop program, Councilman. I think we are in this chicken or egg. 440 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Is it the live stop program that leads to higher insurance? So I think until that works gets done in the committee, I am not sure the Administration wants to go much further than where we are right now with the program.
My only concern in that regard is that I don't think we will ever get insurance rates that are affordable as long as we have 50,000 estimated drivers on the streets of the city driving around at any given time without auto insurance. And the live stop program that was given authority from Harrisburg for us to do has nothing to with auto insurance. What it has to do with is that the guy is not licensed, then he shouldn't be driving the car. And if the car is not registered, the car shouldn't be on the street. As a matter of fact, I believe the insurance provision was taken out of the state bill 23 because of the concern that people would either not have their insurance forms processed in time and would come up on the computer that they were 441 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET uninsured. But there is no doubt when your license is suspended. And there is no doubt when your car is not registered. And I think part of the concern is that there seems to be some belief that there is an inherent constitutional right to drive an automobile in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on the streets of Philadelphia that really not only cause higher insurance rates for all of us, but frustrate the law-abiding citizen who says, "I must be a dope. I pay my gas bill, I pay my taxes, and I pay my auto insurance." In Philadelphia, you really don't have to do those things and can live day-to-day. So I guess the message I would like to send back to the Administration is that, while I recognize the need to kind of review and look at the insurance rate issue, which is a broader macro issue statewide, we should be taking the bull by the horns here and get those cars off the street. Because a lot of those people are the ones that are blowing stop signs, riding up on the pavement, causing trouble in the neighborhoods. And 442 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET we need to get the cars from those people.
I may go for a minute to Commissioner Richman, or Secretary Richman. The issue of homelessness. The city, through its sidewalk behavior ordinance and cooperation with Sister Scullion and some of the outreach agencies, have done a very good job in getting almost all of the homeless women off the streets of the City of Philadelphia. And it is a tremendous effort. It is a good thing for us to do, because these people were in desperate physical and danger out there on the streets. The homeless male population has dropped significantly, too. However, there seems to be times when the homeless male population on the sidewalk is a tougher group to deal with. And I am concerned about the process. My understanding -- and it may be incorrect, and you can inform me -- is that when the police are called to a location where an individual 443 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET may be lying across the sidewalk or blocking the public thoroughfare, that the police come, they view the situation, and then they make a call to an outreach worker, who then comes out and has interface, engages the individual, asks them whether or not -- what their problems are, can they be of any help, and can we get to you a shelter. If the individual refuses, it is my understanding that there is very little we can do after that. Or if the individual moves 10 feet, 20 feet to the next corner, the process must start all over again. Where, hypothetically if an individual is encouraged to move, moves down to the next block, the outreach worker leaves, the police officer is called again by a citizen or shop owner, then he must, he or she must, come back, go through the telephone call, wait for the outreach worker, come back out, and engage in the process again. Could you give me an idea what the process is and what we are doing about trying to get these people into shelter and off the streets in these cold winter days and nights.