Aye. The ayes are 16, the nays are 0. A majority of all members of City Council having voted in the affirmative, the bill passes. The next bill to be called for consideration is Bill No. 990178.
An ordinance authorizing the Director of Commerce and the Commissioner of Public Property to purchase for use by the Philadelphia International Airport a certain parcel of property owned by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania through its Department of General Services, located at 8350 Enterprise Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, under certain terms and conditions.
This bill having been read on two different days, the question now is, shall the bill pass finally? The SECOND READING - BILL 990178 clerk will call the roll.
Aye. The ayes are 16, the nays are 0. A majority of all members of Council having voted in the affirmative, the bill passes. SPEECHES This concludes the consideration of our calendar.
Are there any speeches on the part of minority? (No speeches on the part of the Minority.)
Are there any speeches on the part of Majority? The Chair recognizes Councilman Kenney.
Thank you, Madam President. On the heels of the School District hearings that we had a number of weeks ago and of all the discussions that centered around the issue of bus attendants, yesterday, there was a very frightening situation that occurred on the streets of our city on a school bus. The police department is investigating and sorting out the details as to whether or not the driver allegedly grabbed the young man by his collar or slapped him, and that will be determined by the interviews of the students and the interviews of the people involved. SPEECHES But the one thing that was reported -a couple things that were reported today give me some great areas of concern. First of all, the police have said that the student, who are pupils of Greenfield and Bache-Martin School had thrown snappers, which are things that pop on contact, a squeegee bottle, fruit, and other objects of the driver of this moving bus. The student young, the man himself who was involved in this altercation, admitted to throwing things on a moving bus. The drivers union contends that the District cannot keep drivers on this route because of the unruliness of the students. And several drivers interviewed said that they are often targets of this kind of abuse by having bottles thrown at them, sandwiches, cookies, and even acorns as they are trying to maneuver through traffic. Two Greenfield students interviewed for the article confirmed that the unruliness is the norm on this route. I don't know whether or not we need bus attendants on every route in the city, but certainly, on this particular route, it would seem that a bus attendant may have stopped this SPEECHES situation from happening, and also the safety concerns that result as a result of this activity. The other issue that for me just raises, I guess, my hackles a little bit as it relates to the way that we deal with our students and families and just our society is the response of the mother, who immediately is going to sue the driver and sue probably the District and the City. For me, it's, I guess, really the reason why we have these kinds of problems is that when I was a youngster, that kind of activity on my part would have caused perhaps my father's shoe being lost somewhere on my body. The response by parents now to these kinds of incidents is, first of all, "Not my child," and secondly, "How can we make money out of what happened?" The mother said that she was very happy that her son wasn't hurt because the driver could have knocked him out or he could have hit his head, but she seemed to have very little concern as to whether or not that bus, because of what her son and other students were doing, may have crashed, killing or injuring all of those aboard. I think the School District has to SPEECHES seriously look at providing bus attendants on certain routes where there are ongoing problems and a history of problems, and I think parents ought to look in the mirror a little bit as to what it is their kids are doing. This is a 10-year-old young man with 10-year-old children on the bus abusing and physically throwing things at drivers on a moving bus. And the other problem would be and the other shame would be if this bus driver were arrested as a result of trying to take action to subdue this child from causing a dangerous situation. And the other shame would be if the parents of this child gain monetary benefit from the activities of their child. So I think the School District needs to look at this seriously, and I think parents need to look seriously as how their children are behaving in a school environment on the bus. Thank you very much. Madam President.
Thank you, Councilman. And my memory is that not too long ago, we had very lengthy hearings on the question of SPEECHES the need of bus aides, and we were assured that there was no need in those cases for bus aides and that the children riding buses without the aides were much safer. Wasn't that my understanding? Well, this certainly doesn't reflect that story. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Tasco.
Thank you, Madam President. Just a brief comment. In today's paper Daily News, and there has been a series for the past week about the situation with the taxicabs in Philadelphia. And we note that the PUC regulates the cab stands in Philadelphia, the usage of cabs in the City of Philadelphia. This paper, as well as the columnist who wrote this article about the conditions of the cabs, have also called on the State legislators to pass the pending legislation in Harrisburg that would give the control of the Philadelphia Gas Works to the State PUC. And I wonder if they have looked at the oversight of the taxi stands and taxicabs in relationship to their call for the oversight of the Gas Works. I wonder what the SPEECHES oversight would be. Thank you very much.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Clark.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I rise to support comments made by my friend Jim Kenny. I agree with him that we need to have a policy that's not cast in concrete but is on a case-by-case basis. If you can make a case for bus matrons, I think the youngsters who ride that Greenfield and Bache-Martin School bus made the case. And suing is one thing and collecting on a lawsuit is another. I think that this comes as close to a frivolous lawsuit as you could get in the face of the mother's admission that her son was totally out of control and throwing food. If on the one hand you admit that your child is wrong, what then would you have a court tell you? Surely, you would not expect to collect monetary damages. This is an abuse of the process. I don't yearn for the parents when lose SPEECHES their feet in parts of their children's anatomy, but I think that we do need to establish the authority of parenthood. And one of the reasons we have so much trouble is parents work so hard at being their children's pals that they're unwilling to be their parents. You can get a pal on any playground, but if parent refuses his or her responsibility, then there's likely nobody else in that child's life who will assume the responsibility from telling them right from wrong and reminding them that all conduct has consequences. And when you throw food at the driver, you're very lucky if you can even feel your face. I don't think that the driver should abuse children but I don't think that he should risk the lives of other children while he's ducking flying missiles on his bus. I would hope that the union would recognize that this is the kind of environment that we don't want to foster for drivers, and that the PGA and any other parent organization needs to talk -- needs to issue a white paper on what is a parent's responsibility when this kind of activity is exposed. SPEECHES I thank you.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell.
Thank you, Madam President. Certainly I agree with the comments made with regard to bus attendants. We had hearings here and certainly we've done some research on the subject. And in spite of the fact that the Board reports that there are only ten schools where they have any reported incidents, they blame the bus driver, I believe that it is obvious in society today that we're having more problems with regard to young people, not less, and that to remove them at this time was absolutely a bad move, although they claim it's better budget-wise. Certainly we have talked with bus drivers and their union reps many, many times, and have heard the stories that they tell complaining about the problems that they have when there's nobody on the bus. A bus driver cannot deal with discipline and drive a bus as well. Regretfully, SPEECHES this could be only one report of many we might hear if the Board does not reconsider the whole issue of bus attendants. So I'm glad that we as a Council will be having hearings or discussions, a task force review of the issue, and certainly feel that the Board of Education is behind the ball on this one because we certainly need bus attendants in Philadelphia. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you, Councilwoman. And I would agree that we all expressed our deep concerns on this issue. And I think that maybe our plea was not heard. But in view of this case, maybe the School Board will have second thoughts. Are there any other statement by members of the majority? (No response.)
Seeing none, the Chair recognizes Councilwoman Clark.
Madam President, I've been coached to say that this Council is ADJOURNMENT adjourned to Thursday, June 17, 1999.
It has been moved and properly seconded that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, June 17, 1999. All in favor? Those opposed? The ayes have it, the motion is carried. Thank you. (Adjourned at 12:10 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T E I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of Thursday, June 10, 1999, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of same. RE: STATED MEETING __________________________________, JOSEPHINE CARDILLO, Registered Professional Reporter