COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND CIVIL SERVICE - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Thursday, March 27, 2008 2:25 p.m. - - - PRESENT: COUNCILMAN BILL GREEN, CHAIR COUNCILMAN FRANK DiCICCO COUNCILMAN W. WILSON GOODE, JR. COUNCILMAN WILLIAM GREENLEE COUNCILMAN CURTIS JONES, JR. COUNCILMAN JAMES F. KENNEY COUNCILWOMAN MARIA QUINONES-SANCHEZ BILL 080003 - An ordinance amending Section 15 20-101 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Residence Requirements," by providing that certain employees in the civil service... BILL 080148 - An ordinance amending Section 17-107 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Contractors: Labor-Management Relationships," to change the method by which the prevailing wage and prevailing working conditions are calculated... - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services Eleven Penn Center 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 2
A quorum is present for the Committee on Labor and Civil Service. Committee members DiCicco, Greenlee, Quinones-Sanchez, Vice-Chairman Goode and Kenney are all present. Ms. Vidas will please read the bills and resolutions into the record.
Bill No. 080003, an ordinance amending Section 20-101 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Residence Requirements," by providing that certain employees in the civil service need not be a bona fide resident of the City when appointed, but must establish and maintain bona fide residence in the City within six months after appointment. Bill No. 080148, an ordinance 20 amending Section 17-107 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Contractors: Labor-Management Relationships," to change the method by which the prevailing wage and prevailing working conditions are calculated for certain occupational 3 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003 classifications, all under certain terms and conditions.
Good morning. Thank you for joining us -- or good afternoon. Thank you for joining us. My name is Bill Green, Chair of the Committee on Labor and Civil Service. We will now begin to accept testimony on Bill 080003. Is anyone here to testify on Bill 080003? (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Good afternoon. Sherman Harris, assistant to the President, Pete Matthews, District Council 33.
Good afternoon. My name is Bobby Davis. I'm Vice-President of District Council 33.
Thank you. Proceed. 4 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003
Before we proceed, there was a question, I guess, for Councilman Goode. There was an amendment supplied today or introduced today that we didn't...
Actually, it was separate legislation introduced today that we think resolves some of the concerns that members of the Committee and others had. Two things we believe can be accomplished through the two separate pieces of legislation. One, there is a need to broaden the pool of applicants to the City, but we believe that we can do that while also providing a preference in the form of a tie-breaker for residents over non-residents. But that has to be done through a separate Charter change, and so that will occur through separate legislation that was introduced today and supported by all members of Council.
So we'll just meet with you and talk about it after this? 5 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003
Mr. Matthews couldn't be with us this evening due to some medical issues, so I will be reading his statement for him. Chairman Green, members of the Committee on Labor and Civil Service, thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of Bill No. 080003, which would amend the residency requirements for new hires of municipal employees. My name is Bobby Davis. I'm Vice-President of District Council 33, for which we represent over 13,000 City employees, all of whom reside in Philadelphia. I am here today because I have concerns about the effects that this bill 22 would have on our union and its members. Although our union understands that there are challenges that the City may face in recruiting certain positions within City 6 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003 government, we believe that this bill 3 will be more detrimental than helpful if expanded to cover positions within our bargaining unit. We believe this bill in its present form is offensive to all the loyal and dedicated employees and tax-paying residents who have resided and worked for this great City, some for all of their employment careers. Every day we encounter members of our union who want the opportunity to promote into some of the job positions that will become unfairly competitive if this bill gets passed. Many of our members take promotional tests year after year, only to be denied promotions due to job freezes and budget deficits or lack of training. Our members want fair opportunities. I can't tell you how many times a day I meet residents of this City who ask me how they become employees of the 7 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003 City. This is why we find it hard to believe that there aren't enough qualified people that can work or live in this City to help fill the vacancies the City says can't be filled. We understand that there may be some positions where the City may have recruitment hardships, but we believe that the answer lies within the City of Philadelphia's existing workforce and current resident pool. At District Council 33, we believe that instead of going outside of the current workforce, the City needs to invest in workforce development, reconsider departmental restrictions and certain pay scales. We believe that through joint partnerships we can find solutions to the staffing needs of the City. We have always been concerned about the understaffing within the City workforce. District Council 33 has worked with various departments such as the 8 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003 Water Department, Fleet Maintenance, our Police and Fire Departments to develop training programs that would allow our members to qualify for positions that the City has problems recruiting. We have helped to create apprentice programs that allow high school students to learn various trades and become productive City employees who have a vested interest in this City. We offer computer training to our members through our Comparable Worth Program to help our members with upward mobility. We have offered free Basic Computer Classes to our members who have never had the opportunity to learn on their own. We offer training classes to some of our members in various trades to help with promotional opportunities. We have partnered with the City in offering Construction Trades college courses to our members. We have offered math and reading classes. 9 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003 Just this month we partnered with Graduate Philadelphia and at least colleges and universities to offer our 5 members a Returning to Learning Adult 6 College Fair. The fair received such an 7 overwhelming response that we had to turn 8 people away. We are in the process of 9 planning another college fair. 10 These are just a few of the 11 things that will help the City in 12 recruiting a qualified, proud, invested 13 workforce. 14 Unfortunately, this bill 15 circumvents these kinds of programs and 16 opportunities.
The bill puts our 17 members, your employees, and the City of 18 Philadelphia residents at an unfair disadvantage. Passage of this bill sends the wrong message to those who have been loyal and dedicated to this great City. This bill says that you have no 24 confidence in your employees and residents of this City. 10 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003 This bill takes away a great opportunity for this new Administration to bring forth part of the change that the people of this City overwhelmingly mandated last November. I urge you not to pass Bill No. 8 080003. Instead, let's partner in developing real solutions. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on this bill.
Thank you for your testimony. Any questions for this witness? Councilman Greenlee.
I appreciate your testimony. I guess I just had a question when you talk about that it will hurt -- I think part of this you say it will hurt promotion. It will hurt promotion of your members. I guess 11 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003 I don't see how that factors in here.
We have employees who have been working for the City of Philadelphia for 20, maybe 25, in some cases 30 or more years. What you're saying is that you have forced us to live in this City for 20, 30, however many years that our career have allowed us to work for the City, and now you're saying that someone can come in that qualifies from outside the City of Philadelphia and perhaps even score higher on that test, and we'll watch a whole flow of people come in from outside the City who have not put in the kind of taxes and the kind of responsibilities of keeping this City running and may take that position away from that individual.
Oh, yes, it can be. It can be for that particular employee. Even though in some cases the City says, Okay, these are open, competitive tests, 12 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003 but in some cases, some of these members are clerk I's, clerk II's who now qualify for these positions. So for them, it's a promotion. For an individual coming out to the City for the first time, it could be an open and competitive test, but for a lot of our members, they're promotions.
Sherman Harris, District Council 33. Concerning promotions, what happens, just to take a particular position in the Water Department, we have problems hiring industrial electricians. We had problems. So what we did, we worked with the Water Department and developed an apprentice program to allow regular electricians to bridge that gap, which becomes a promotion for them. So that's why we say promotional opportunities. You have the same thing a lot in the trades units. You have 13 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003 mechanics at the Water Department, they have industrial process mechanics. At one time there was no way to bridge from that position to the new positions that were created that the City needed. So that's what we talk about when we need to have opportunities for promotional opportunities through workforce development, and these are the things that I think the testimony is referring to.
You still have some of those opportunities. If you bring outsiders in that have an opportunity to come right to that position -- say the industrial electrician was created particularly for the Sludge Processing Plant. If you were to bring outsiders in who were already qualified, the people who are electricians have had no opportunity to bridge that gap and to take that job. So 14 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003 you eliminate some of them. You still want to have promotion opportunities, but you still eliminate some by bringing outsiders in.
I guess I'm still not totally following that, but I understand.
Without talking specifically about the legislation, while at the same time I will be talking about the legislation in terms of how we propose it to work, the only way to examine this issue is to look at past data, and we actually have some data so far in terms of specifically a water tech assistant position. In 2006, there was no resident waiver. In 2008, there was a resident 15 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003 waiver. And let's say, for instance, for that position we want to hire someone that scored a 91. When there was no 5 waiver, 30.43 percent of the people would have scored 91. When there was a waiver, interesting enough, 30 percent of the people scored a 91. Now, all the numbers are not that comparable, but what we found from the data so far is that it's not so much that non-residents are scoring better than residents, but then by simply opening the pool, you have more people. So, in other words, if you have 100 applicants, then you may have 80 percent of the people that score where you want them to score. If you have 200 applicants, you may still have only 80 percent of the people scoring where you want them to score. And so what we're trying to do through the new proposal is simply say that if you are a resident a year before you take the test and you score the same, 16 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003 then you get placed higher on the list. So that is the proposal in terms of how we're trying to address both the broader pool of applicants, but also making sure that we have a Philadelphia first civil service regulation.
Again, I go back to the original example that I gave you when we look at promotional opportunities. And I do hear what you're saying in terms of --
This is for hires and promotions. When the list is created for hires or promotions, it's based upon the test score. And their resident test scores will be separated from non-resident test scores, and if a resident scores the same, that resident will be placed higher on the list for hire and promotion.
Reading the proposal and hearing what you're saying, of course, that evens the playing field some, which is fine. This is different 17 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003 than what we saw last, like I said, when I came in.
It's two separate pieces of legislation. So what we've done is try to address the concerns through a Charter change, and they have to be addressed through a Charter change one way or the other. And so I think we've addressed some of the concerns from the last hearing.
Any other questions for these witnesses? (No response.)
Is there anyone else here to testify? I believe Joe McCool. 18 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003 (Witness approached witness table.)
Mr. McCool, please state your name for the record and go ahead. MR. McCOOL: Thanks, Chairman Green and other members of Council and the Committee for allowing me to speak here today. By background, I for 50 years was a proud resident of the City of Philadelphia. Five years ago I made a decision to move into a neighborhood. Unfortunately, that neighborhood straddles the City line. I now live in Feasterville. My rear property line is the county line. Everyone that lives behind me lives inside the City. Majority, four out of five, are firefighters or paramedics. So I haven't moved far from the City, but unfortunately, I've moved out of the City. I was a 25-year member of the 19 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003 Philadelphia Fire Department. I retired nine years ago as a Captain. The residency bill for the City of Philadelphia addresses everyone from my brothers in District Council 33, my brother union members in the Firefighters Union, which I'm a proud member for 34 years of and still am, was a former Board member of. It applies to police officers, clerical workers, obviously City Council, but that's an exception, but the high-ranking official within the City. So it applies across the board. It's not addressed, geared towards any particular segment of the employment population. This bill has had a long history in City Council. I know Councilman Kenney has brought it up repeatedly through the years. I have in my bag some clippings and things like that. So this has been a controversial issue, but the bottom line is, it's against the law. 20 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003 I've passed out a publication, a copy of an article that appeared in a publication, a fire service publication, some years ago. This has been repeatedly declared unconstitutional. The case here involved Detroit, but it also applied in Chicago, New York and other cities. Employee residency once you're hired is indisputable. The McCarthy case in 1976, a Philadelphia Fire Lieutenant, took it to the U.S. Supreme Court and lost. So that forms the legal basis, if you would, for residency for employees. Durational residency; that is, residency before you're hired, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly rejected as restrictions on the right to travel. That's a fundamental constitutional right that can't be conditioned. Under -- I'm sorry. There's no 23 compelling state interest. In the Detroit case, they cited three reasons why having durational residency. Ease of 21 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003 recruitment. Can you imagine that today with the Internet? Look at the Inquirer. The Help Wanted section keeps shrinking each week. A workforce representative of the racial and gender composition of the city. We probably have a million and a half residents. I don't know what the current residency rate is. Approximately 50 percent minority. So you have 750,000 minority residents. If you open it up, you open it up to, I don't know, seven million applicants. So that argument doesn't hold water. And to address our employment and underemployment in the City. Well, there's a simple solution to that, and Councilman -- I'm sorry. I don't know his name, but Jones, I believe it is -- referred to that earlier, and it's basically what New Jersey does.
Councilman Goode. MR. McCOOL: I'm sorry. But 22 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003 what New Jersey does. And New Jersey, I believe, has a four-tiered system. If you're a resident of the town or the township, you get first preference. If you're a resident of the county, you get second preference. If you're a resident of the state, you get third preference. And then all others are in the fourth preference. So it's a simple solution, but the law -- and as I'm sure Councilman Green is aware and probably everyone else, I have a case that will be heard in U.S. District Court now in July challenging this, because when I left City employment, I made a decision, and I made a wrong decision. I made a decision to take another position in the hopes of helping me provide for my children's education. I realize that the decision was wrong. As the law reads now -- and I hope the Committee and Council will consider this strongly -- you have one year to come back. It's not a guaranteed 23 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003 right, though. That's the discretion of the appointing authorities. In my case, the Fire Commissioner and the Personnel Director. They choose not to bring me back. They told me, Take the test. I took the test. Unfortunately, I made a decision to move. They reached me on that list. Why, first of all, is a discretionary decision? Second of all, why is it one year? I had years' 13 experience. I have a Bachelor's degree 14 in accounting, I have an Associate's 15 degree in fire science, and I have a 16 Master's degree in public safety and 17 environmental protection and safety. Why 18 wouldn't you want me back? 19 Mayor Nutter is on record that 20 you want the best and the brightest to 21 make it easy to recruit them and retain 22 them. 23
Mr. McCool, 24 just for the record and for your 25 information, at the last hearing, I did 24 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003 specifically mention your case, said that I thought you were probably likely to win, and that by passing this legislation, we could perhaps avoid the whole thing. So just for your information, we are aware of your situation, and I thank you for your years of service in 10 the Philadelphia Fire Department, and if 11 we pass this out of here today, then 12 hopefully -- of course, you would have to 13 move back into the City. 14
You would 17 have to move back into the City, but -- 18 MR. McCOOL: I've never really 19 left. I have to go into the City to buy 20 a newspaper so I can get the Philadelphia 21 edition rather than the suburban edition. 22
Okay. Well, 23 do you have anything you'd like to add or 24 is that your testimony for the day? 25 MR. McCOOL: That's my 25 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003 testimony today. Thank you for your time.
Thank you very much for coming in. Any questions for this witness?
Absolutely. Within your testimony I'm not sure at any point whether you said you were in favor or not in favor of the bill. Are you in favor of the bill or not in favor of the bill? MR. McCOOL: I'm sorry. Can you speak into the microphone, sir?
Are you in favor of the legislation or not in favor of the legislation? MR. McCOOL: I'm still not --
Are you in favor of the legislation or not in favor of the legislation? MR. McCOOL: Oh, I'm in favor of the legislation. I believe that it should be changed to, like I said, a tiered system where preference would be 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003 given to City applicants as a city --
I'm talking about the legislation as it's written right now, are you in favor of it or not in favor of it? MR. McCOOL: I haven't seen the bill, to be honest with you.
Councilman Kenney's legislation. MR. McCOOL: Yes, and I haven't seen the exact wording of the bill.
Okay. It would permit you to take the test when you're not a City resident, and assuming you have the highest score, you would be able to move in after you're hired. MR. McCOOL: Yes. That's what I'm in favor of, but I also would favor a preference system, if you would.
You mean Councilman Goode's bill? Yes. MR. McCOOL: Yes.
Okay. Thank 27 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003 you, Mr. McCool. MR. McCOOL: Thank you.
Seeing no 8 one, we are holding Bill 080148 to the call of the Chair. We will continue for a couple of minutes before we go into our public meeting. (Pause.)
That concludes the hearing on Bills 080003 and 080148. We will now go into our public meeting. This is a public meeting on Bill 080003. Present are Councilman DiCicco, Councilman Greenlee, Councilwoman Quinones-Sanchez, Vice Chairman Goode, Councilman Kenney and Councilman Jones. Do you have a motion, Councilman Kenney? 28 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003
Thank you very much. Before I make the motion, I would like to thank Councilman Goode for his interest and work and idea in his legislation leveling the playing field so that when there is a tie, the tie-breaker falls to the side of the City resident, and I think that his efforts have helped to move this piece of legislation forward, so I thank him for his work. I move that Bill 080003 be reported out of this Committee with a favorable recommendation and a request made for rules suspension to allow first reading at our next Council session. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that Bill No. 20 080003 be reported out of Committee on Labor and Civil Service with a favorable recommendation and with a suspension of the rules to allow first reading at Council at the next session. All in favor? 29 3/27/08 - LABOR & CIVIL SERVICE - BILL 080003 (Aye.)
The ayes have it. The motion is carried. This will conclude the meeting of the Committee on Labor and Civil Service. Thank you to everybody who attended and testified. (Committee on Labor and Civil Service adjourned at 2:55 p.m.) - - - 30 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on March 27, 2008, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)