It's been moved and properly seconded. All in favor indicate by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it, and that resolution is adopted.
And a resolution honoring Wallo267 and Gillie Da King for their community-oriented activism and philanthropy, including four million dollars in grants for minority led businesses and social service organizations, introduced today by Councilman Johnson. STATED MEETING 142 12/1/2022 12/1/22 - STATED - 2ND READING
Thank you, Council President. I move for the adoption of the resolution. (Duly seconded.)
It's been moved and properly seconded. All in favor indicate by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it, and that resolution is adopted.
And a resolution declaring December as World AIDS Day in Philadelphia, introduced today by Councilwoman Bass.
Thank you, STATED MEETING 143 12/1/2022 12/1/22 - STATED - 2ND READING Mr. President. Before we call for the adoption of the resolution, I wanted to thank the folks who came down today during public comment from ODAAT, One Day At A Time, also Mr. Troy Thomas who told his personal story, as well as Ms. Sabrina Tate who was here from Bebashi. I wanted to thank all of them for coming down today, and just as a reminder, that we need to do this because people still die from AIDS. Thirteen thousand people die in the United States annually still from HIV and AIDS. So this is a day to remember those that we have lost over the many, many years that AIDS has been around and also to do the preventive work so that we can stop the numbers from increasing, particularly here in the City of Philadelphia, to do what we can around AIDS prevention. And with all that being said, Mr. President, I move for the adoption of STATED MEETING 144 12/1/2022 (Duly seconded.)
It's been moved and properly seconded. All in favor indicate by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it, and that resolution is adopted.
There are no other resolutions on the Final Passage Calendar, Mr. President.
Thank you very much, Mr. Decker. We will now move to our speeches. Any speeches on behalf of the minority? The Chair recognizes Councilman Oh. STATED MEETING 145 12/1/2022
Thank you very much, Council President. I wanted to just give my condolences to the City workers and municipal-related workers who have lost their lives. Recently I saw, and perhaps many people saw, the shocking video of a Parking Authority worker simply doing his job and without provocation was walked up from behind and shot in the back of the head. The only identifying thing that I can see is he was wearing a uniform. Prior to that, we had a sanitation worker who was in the midst of doing his job, working, picking up the trash, and he was shot and killed. And unfortunately over the summer, people firing multiple, multiple bullets into a recreation center with children and people, hit one of our workers. These are critical functions for our city. It is very problematic and STATED MEETING 146 12/1/2022 troubling, but it's also very sad. We are, despite whatever differences we have in our opinions, a family of people who serve the public interest, and we must do something about that. No one should fear that they will be harmed because of the uniform or enitia or logo they wear representing the City of Philadelphia and its functions. Beyond that, my condolences to all family, friends, and loved ones, and it certainly is additional reason that we have to step up. Thank you, Council President.
Thank you, Councilman. Speeches on behalf of the majority? The Chair recognizes Councilman Jones.
Thank you, Mr. President. Last night I had the honor and privilege of representing this body on STATED MEETING 147 12/1/2022 House of Umoja. Sister Falaka Fattah, a 90-year-old young activist, still packs a punch when it comes to the issue of our babies, gun violence prevention and what to do about it. I was in the African American Museum with a crowd of individuals who were both 70's related and millennial and Gen Z recognizing her contribution to this effort. Some of them encouraged her to teach. Some of them encouraged her to come out of retirement to get back involved, but all of them supported her. But the star of the panel of which I was on was a young man, teenager, somewhat shy and reserved, but his words were piercing. So when he was asked the direct question about how to end gun violence, he looked back and said, it's not going to end. And everybody gasped and said, well, tell us what to do. And so he mentioned a couple of things, but STATED MEETING 148 12/1/2022 the answer was that we have to not be afraid of the things we say we love. We have to talk to these young people. Coach, I look at you, because you do it every day. And we talk at them, but sometimes we don't listen to them. We have to do more listening to them to get the answers from them, not what we think they should do and what we want them to do. We have to really pay attention. The second thing that I took from that celebration and recognition was that more and more people were saying what Member Oh was talking about. Like we appropriated -- and I talked to my colleague -- over $300 million over the last two years. We have done our part, but we have to get more accountability about those dollars, because if it ain't working, we need to rethink what we are doing. Finally, one of the things that STATED MEETING 149 12/1/2022 discussion was that some of the activists there want to hold parents more accountable for what happens in their home. Member Bass always talks about what do you do when the shooter lives with you. And I was talking to a young person and an old head, which I hate to be called, but they said that there is a game being played now with Pooh Shiesties. And what a Pooh Shiesty is is a mask that covers most of your identifying features. It is a mask that came from a rapper who did videos who stuck people up with this mask. Now, they told me you should introduce a law banning this. I will not. I have my share of hoodies at home. I respect our ability to choose what we wear, to not limit our children. But if they think this is dressing for success, they are wrong. They played a game where they jump out on an old head at a convenience store and run up on him to scare him. STATED MEETING 150 12/1/2022 guns, so, you know, they weren't a threat. And it was funny until the old head pulled out his gun. Ain't no fun hunting when the rabbit get the gun. So we have to teach our kids better. We have to show them how to dress for success. We have to give them a reason to want to grow older, to be a part of society. But I say to them, no, we won't introduce the law, but I remember coming up if you had a crowbar in your car or on your person, that was a tool to do burglaries. This is not a tool to get a job, to go to school, and particularly when it's 80 degrees out. We have to -parents, you got to look into your rooms. If you see these kind of gloves and this kind of hat, you need to raise that question with your children as to why they need that. Thank you, Mr. President. STATED MEETING 151 12/1/2022 (Applause.)
Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. The Chair recognizes Councilman Thomas.
Thank you, Council President, and thank you, Majority Leader Jones. That was a phenomenal speech, and I think he made a great point. I just want to take a moment to, first and foremost, welcome our new colleagues into Council. Council President, I know you did that earlier, but I wanted to welcome you here. The other day was a great ceremony, but it's nothing like being on the actual Council floor. So welcome to the team. I also wanted to offer my condolences to Mr. Milton Street and the entire Street family. I agree with you, Council President, when you talk about advocacy and his history in the City. He STATED MEETING 152 12/1/2022 known and made advocacy a part of his DNA. Thank our colleague Councilmember Bass for her leadership around today being World AIDS Day and recognizing the important work that must continue to happen. Earlier in Council I had the privilege of welcoming and introducing Asil Greer, who again we recognized in June as one of our Champions of the Week, and the reason why I bring him up is similar to what Councilmember Jones talked about. When we do this work on a consistent basis, we're thinking about the youth and the young people in the City of Philadelphia. One of the things they often challenge us to is how do we treat our children here in the City, what are we doing to inspire them and to make them feel like there is hope. It's imperative that we give young people a platform to be able to show off their skills and to be able to STATED MEETING 153 12/1/2022 the City know what it is they're doing. But it's also important that we follow that up with action. And I think today, not just with the introduction of the NPI bill, thinking about what Councilmember Oh talked about around City employees. NPI is going to be something that's going to benefit City employees in a great way. We know we have to step up and do more to protect them and citizens across the City of Philadelphia. One of the things that I did a little while back was I had a press conference that Councilmember Clarke and Squilla, Driscoll, Johnson, Gilmore Richardson, and you, Council President, all supported, and in that press conference, we talked about things that we need to do to be able to address the crime and the gun violence in the City of Philadelphia, and today I'm very proud of what we were able to accomplish as it relates to this transfer ordinance. STATED MEETING 154 12/1/2022 in a position as a city to have the surplus that we have. We may never see this surplus again. So to be able to sit here today and to know that we put money into things that we advocated for earlier this year around cleaning up the City, Councilmember Oh is exactly right, around witness and victim protection, one of the things that we know, 42 percent of the time a case is dismissed or thrown out in the City of Philadelphia that's related to guns and crimes is because a witness or police officer didn't show up. So what are we doing as a legislative body to do our part to allocate funds and resources to address that number, because that percentage is extremely alarming. So while we do have a number of concerns and the work will continue, I am here today to what I would like to call a victory lap as it relates to the spending and the dollars that are being allocated STATED MEETING 155 12/1/2022 for prevention-based initiatives. A lot of times young men that Councilmember Jones talked about who are wearing those masks, who are involved in negative activities, the narrative is very similar. It starts because they're bored. It starts because they don't have anything to do.
It starts because in the City of Philadelphia right now, we don't have very many options as it relates to free programming for our teenagers if you're not involved in extracurricular activity within your school. So it's our responsibility to step up and come up with innovative ideas and resources for those young people. And at the end of the day, today was a step in the right direction as it relates to filling that gap. Thank you, Council President, and thank you, colleagues, for the work that was done, and I agree with Councilmember O'Neill, we appreciate the STATED MEETING 156 12/1/2022 Leader and our Appropriations Chair. Thank you, colleagues.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Gauthier.
Thank you, Council President. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues for voting yes on $3 million that will be allocated to fix the Sayre pool in Cobbs Creek. I want to especially thank our Majority Leader Jones, who is now chairing the Appropriations Committee, all my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee, and I also want to thank the Mayor and his Administration for STATED MEETING 157 12/1/2022 I don't know that I can express how meaningful this is to me and to my community. The Sayre pool issue was something that was brought to me pretty early on after I started in 2020. Community members came to me and they were telling me about this pool that had been shut down for a few years and how they needed it to be opened back up for the community. And, you know, hearing this issue, I don't think I had an adequate picture of what it was that they were talking about and the asset that the community was losing out on, and it wasn't until I visited the pool that I really got it. And, you know, I learned that this was a huge Olympic-sized pool that was just sitting there unused, not able to be accessed by our community, and it seemed to me like such a waste. Why would we let an asset like that just be STATED MEETING 158 12/1/2022 community members? And so together with the community, we started advocating, right? I mean, we were advocating at that time to the School District, who owns the pool. And I should also say that the Sayre pool prior to its closure had been open for over 50 years servicing the community, and scores and scores of Black children in particular learned to swim at that pool. It's even the focus of a movie called Pride based on how important it was to the City of Philadelphia and to Black children learning how to swim there. And so the loss of the pool was huge. It also took away a place where Parks and Recreation would train our lifeguards in West Philadelphia, and it left us with virtually no space to adequately train lifeguards in our section, in the West section of the City, and it contributed to us not being able STATED MEETING 159 12/1/2022 every single summer, because we don't have adequate places to train lifeguards. And so it was a huge loss, not only to the Cobbs Creek community but to the City at large. And so we began advocating to the School District of Philadelphia and, you know, maybe after several months, the board voted down a recommendation to make a $10 million investment in the restoration of the pool. And so that was, you know, really disappointing for the community, for me. And I think the District at that time or the School Board at that time voted down the motion because they saw that $10 million as a huge amount, as a huge price tag, especially given all their other responsibilities throughout the School District. But to the community, this asset was priceless. I remember going to a rally shortly after that vote where the STATED MEETING 160 12/1/2022 center and they're advocating for the pool's reopening, and when I got to the rally, in the middle of the street there's a casket, and the casket was a symbol of what we were losing by not opening that pool, because the community gets that if we don't have safe outlets for our young people, that that contributes to violence in our city, right? And so this is not just a pool. This is a way that we can keep young people productive, having fun and on the right path. And so at that point, you know, I began advocating to my colleagues, right, about the importance of investing in this pool, which resulted in this appropriation in the transfer ordinance. And so I'm hopeful that now that we collectively have virtually cut the price tag in half for the School District.
With the $3 million we voted on today and with another million from my STATED MEETING 161 12/1/2022 from Rep McClinton's capital budget, I hope to work in partnership with the School District to find another 4 million ASAP to get this asset open for the Cobbs Creek community and the City at large. And we've talked a lot today about the things that we don't want young people to do, and I'm a participant in that, a full participant in that conversation, right? We don't want them to engage in certain activities. We just voted on a curfew bill. But what are we willing to invest in young people, right? Alongside all of the things that we are telling them we don't want them to do, what are we willing to invest? And I think this is a good example of how we should also be willing to invest and not skimp on things that will allow our young people to have a healthy and productive future. And so thank you so much. And I also just want to say, you know, I've STATED MEETING 162 12/1/2022 these past three years being in Council, but one thing that makes me so proud about this particular issue is that it's an example of even with all of the things that are going on in my district and across the City, from our positions on Council, if we focus and if we are determined, we can make really big and cool things happen for our communities, and that's really powerful. So thanks again to all of you.
Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. (Applause.)
The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Vaughn. You like the way that sounds, huh?
I do. I chuckle every time I hear it. I want to thank this body for making me feel welcome, and I too want to STATED MEETING 163 12/1/2022 the Street family on the loss of Milton. When I was a little younger here, Milton made politics exciting to me. He was here on the floor fighting for the rights of the people, and I used to look forward to just catching him down here, along with his brother, John Street, and, you know, you just never knew what to expect from him, and to me that made Council exciting, jumping over the rails, fighting, rumbling in the floor, cussing folks out. I fell in love with it after that. I guess I like drama. The other thing is, a long-term person, Marion Johnson, who worked for decades for Councilwoman Marian Tasco, left us this week, and I wanted to just have her name mentioned on the floor here today and possibly just ask you all to keep her family in prayer. Ms. Johnson was the zoning specialist of Philadelphia. If you ever STATED MEETING 164 12/1/2022 done or passed in zoning, you went to her. And she didn't have a hard time telling you to keep quiet and let her explain to you how it was done, and that I admire her. I want to thank her family for sharing her with us for all those decades. I want to let everyone know that I'm sure the Logan family is -- the Logan part of the City is mourning her loss, because we just named a street after her not too long ago, and just remember that her tenacious and contagious personality, it will be something that we'll always remember. Marion Johnson is a force that we will never forget. Thank you. (Applause.)
Thank you, Councilwoman. Yes, she was. An awesome lady. Thank you. Absolutely. STATED MEETING 165 12/1/2022 Bass.
Thank you, Mr. President. She was an awesome lady. She was very special. I also wanted to offer condolences as well to the family of T. Milton Street. You know, as a young person growing up in North Philadelphia in the '70s and '80s, you know, ear hustling to grown folks' conversation, you would hear the conversation about the Streets and what they were doing and the impact that it was having on the lives of African Americans. And I think that it was so different, because many of the elected officials who had -- many of the African American elected officials who held seats at that time were sort of hand-picked, and they weren't hand-picked by other African Americans. They were holding seats, but they weren't really the designee necessarily, I would say, of STATED MEETING 166 12/1/2022 were representing. And so Milton Street and his brother, John Street, really brought something different in terms of representation to the table. And so his voice will be missed, and he was just such a spitfire. He will really be missed in all aspects of government. I also wanted to just mention really quickly around the support for City workers, as was mentioned earlier, and the losses that we've had. It's a segue into a hearing that we're going to be having this afternoon. I want to remind the members of a hearing that we're having for Parks and Recreation in which time we're going to be renaming the Mill Creek Playground, I believe it is, into the Tiffany Fletcher Playground, which was done by Councilwoman Gauthier. That's Bill No. 220907. We'll be hearing that today, and so we ask folks to be on at 1:30 for the mic check, for a 2 o'clock start for that hearing. STATED MEETING 167 12/1/2022 on Rebuild. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Councilwoman. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Kathy Gilmore Richardson.
Thank you, Council President. I too just wanted to welcome our new colleagues to Philadelphia City Council on the occasion of your very first Council session. I offer my condolences to the families of T. Milton Street and Ms. Marion Johnson, who taught us all so much here in the halls of City Hall, and remind our colleagues to please come by and say hello to the girls from Girls' High, who will be in the Caucus Room learning more about how our government functions. So please come by and say hello to the girls. Thank you.
STATED MEETING 168 12/1/2022 you, Councilwoman. (Applause.)
Thank you, Council President. I do want to also welcome my new colleagues to your first day of Council, and look forward to continuously moving the City of Philadelphia forward with all of you. I wanted to take a moment also to acknowledge the family of Mr. Milton T. Street. You know, as a young man growing up in South Philadelphia, my immediate family wasn't actively involved in politics, but I had an aunt who was very, very Afro centric. And so I remember talking to her about wanting to get involved in politics, and at the time, I thought John Street was like the man, right? And my aunt was like, well, STATED MEETING 169 12/1/2022 the history, right? And she talked about Milton Street and she talked about how when you see homelessness in the streets of Philadelphia, they were taking the boards off of these homes in the City and placing the homeless people inside these homes, right, to make sure that they had a safe place to stay, as well as providing them food to take care of themselves. I remember as I got older and got involved in politics, I always watched how he always challenged the status quo and pushed the envelope for elected officials to do things differently. I remember he had a bill, a casino gaming bill concept, right, where the proceeds from that bill in the Senate will go towards job training and development, helping our young people, right? And a lot of folks probably didn't take the concept seriously, but I STATED MEETING 170 12/1/2022 policy aspect of it, because the reality is if we're passing bills for big business, why aren't we taking the same approach to take care of those who are the least of us and making sure we're carving out and supporting those who need to be supported. And so to the family of Mr. Milton Street and to the Street family, I just want to personally send my condolences, because at the end of the day, he did a lot of good work here in the City of Philadelphia advocating. You know, when you advocate for those who are most in need, that's not the sexy issue. A lot of times people like to shine light on the things that don't take a lot of fight and advocacy around, but not really look at when you're really rolling up your sleeves and speaking truth to power, and that comes with a price when you're fighting the good fight. STATED MEETING 171 12/1/2022 the Street family, but particularly the life and legacy of Mr. Milton Street. Thank you, Council President.
Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Lozada.
Thank you, Council President. First, I'd like to say thank you to all of my colleagues for all of the support and the -- offering their support and direction as I learn to navigate in this capacity. I'm grateful for that. But I'd also like to say that I am happy to hear all of the concerns expressed here around including young people in different conversations. I come from Esperanza, where I had the privilege of working with young people, and often times they always felt excluded from conversations. STATED MEETING 172 12/1/2022 called Power Talks on a monthly basis where we brought community leaders and put them in what we called the hot seat to talk to them about what their profession was and how young people could make their jobs better. Young folks don't get that opportunity often. And so I encourage all of you to have a power talk or have some type of youth talk in your communities. And as we think about strategies, as we think about how to change gun violence, as we think about how to make quality of life in different neighborhoods better, let's think about making sure that young people's voices are at the table and that they are the priority, because they are tomorrow's leaders. So, again, thank you so much for all of your well-wishes and all of the support and understanding how important a role young people play in our city. STATED MEETING 173 12/1/2022 (Applause.)
Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. The Chair recognizes Councilman Harrity.
Yes. I'd like to also thank my colleagues for welcoming me here to the Chamber, and I'd also like to rise to recognize T. Milton Street. It's no secret that me and Senator Street have been friends for a mighty long time, going back to high school track days, and, you know, we're very upset that Milton has passed, but I wanted to just share a little thing that Milton told to me and Street. He said, you know, when I die, people are going to say that cancer got me, but I want you to know that five years ago, they gave him five months to live, and he lasted five years. The STATED MEETING 174 12/1/2022 him five hours to live and he lasted five days. T. Milton Street was a tough man. What he told us is that he wanted people to know that T. Milton Street kicked cancer's butt for five years. (Applause.)
Thank you. Thank you so much, Councilman. He was a guy. Real quick, I'm listening to this. I just remember briefly -- I had a little kind of relationship with the Street family. T. Milton Street was like a person that was like kind of before his time. You know, you think about -- I heard you reference, Councilman Johnson, about the abandoned buildings, and people said, what is he doing, and it morphed into the Gift Property Program. So the STATED MEETING 175 12/1/2022 was doing and formalized it and took credit for it. You know what I'm talking about? He talked about how we got to come up with this bipartisanship, you know, because to get things done, you know. Getting Councilman Oh and Councilman O'Neill, we do that all the time here, but back when Milton Street did it to get stuff for his district up in the Capitol, they raked him over the coals, because he said, well, look, the republicans were in charge, I had a needy district. Guess what? I got to go over there and get money for my district. And he pulled that off, right? And they were like lambasting him. He talked about legalizing weed, and at that time, it was called marijuana, right, you know. And that's actually what got him kicked out of office. They went out and got Roxanne Jones. And people were, oh, my God, legalizing marijuana. Right? And now STATED MEETING 176 12/1/2022 it, like 30, 40 states, right, that have like legalized marijuana, right, what they called at the time. So he was clearly a person that was way before his time, and he set the template, as I said earlier, not only for activism, but he set the template for policy. And he will be missed, but, you know, there are so many of us, particularly his family members -- again, I had a little relationship with them guys -- they will continue that work, and it's our responsibility to continue that level of activism and that level of work to speak for those people that don't have the voice and the platform to speak for themselves. So, guys, with that, thank you. He will be missed. And I would like to recognize Councilman Squilla for a motion to adjourn.
Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Council stand STATED MEETING 177 12/1/2022 Thursday, December 8th, 2022 at 10:00 a.m. (Duly seconded.)
Thank you. It has been moved and seconded that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, December 8, 2022, 10:00 a.m. All in favor indicate by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it. Thank you all very much. ) STATED MEETING 178 12/1/2022 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, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. MICHELE L.