Aye. The ayes are 16, the nays are 0. A majority of all Members of Council having voted in the affirmative, this bill passes. The next bill to be called for consideration is bill 000713.
An ordinance amending Sub-Code PM of Title 4 of the Philadelphia Code entitled, "The Philadelphia Property Maintenance Code," by requiring owners of vacant lots and vacant SECOND READING AND FINAL PASSAGE CALENDAR buildings to post a bond or other security for the City's potential cost of correcting code violations or abating unsafe and imminently dangerous conditions when authorized by law, all under certain terms and conditions.
This bill having been read on two different days, question now is shall the bill pass finally? The Clerk will please call the roll.
Councilman Longstreth. SECOND READING AND FINAL PASSAGE CALENDAR
Aye. The ayes are 16, the nays are 0. A majority of all Members of Council having voted in the affirmative, this bill passes. The Clerk will please read the title Resolution No. 000664.
A resolution authorizing the City Council Committee on Public Safety to hold SPEECHES AND ADJOURNMENT hearings on enforcement relating to Section 12-1130 of the Philadelphia Code and the possibility of a City-wide livestock program.
Madam President, I move for the adoption of the resolution. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that Resolution No. 000664 be adopted. All of those in favor will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it, and Resolution 000664 has been adopted. This concludes our calendar for today. Are there any speeches on of the part of the minority? The Chair recognizes Councilman Longstreth.
Madam President, SPEECHES AND ADJOURNMENT I'd like to be registered AS voting against 000715, the amendments that were offered today.
The record will so indicate. Thank you. Are there any further speeches on part of the minority? Are there speeches on the part of the majority? The Chair recognizes Councilman Cohen.
Thank you, Madam President. Everyone is concerned about the gas situation in Philadelphia. For the last few days, the radio has been blaring forth with threats by the Gas Works of large numbers of indiscriminate cutoffs of gas service beginning with April the 1st, which happens to be Sunday. It seems to me it's very important and the City Council has a very real interest in this matter because we made a very heavy loan to the Gas Works, we're all interested in having gas bills paid. But to suggest indiscriminate shutoffs means to suggest all kinds of damage to the City of Philadelphia. I've been getting many calls from residents of the City who say they've not been able SPEECHES AND ADJOURNMENT to get through the telephone lines. Some of them have said that when they did reach somebody, if they persisted long enough, in some cases, many hours spread over many days, that the response was not a friendly or cooperative response. To get complaints like that is extremely troubling. It does not help in getting bills paid. What it does help is increasing the number of houses that will be abandoned, the number of senior citizens and other low-income people who will be severely hurt. We have to remember that the bills that customers have received are bills that boggle the mind. There must be developed I hope at the Gas Commission participation and the Gas Works and the Council are programs that will make it possible for people to meet the obligation posed by their bills. There's no indication, for example, that all of the customers who may be eligible for the LIHEAP Program, the energy assistance program for low income people, there's no indication whatever that there's been large-scale information made available to the people. Nor is there any indication that the Gas Works own customer responsibility program has been made known to the SPEECHES AND ADJOURNMENT people, how they apply in an orderly, friendly, cooperative way. Everybody will be helped if a sensible approach is followed which does two basic things: Ensures both continuity of service and payment of the gas bills. Because we have to get bills paid, but we also have to understand the enormous burden that's been placed upon everybody who have received the kind of bills that have come in the mail, where bills have been tripled so that some people have just given up the hope of being able to deal with the situation. So I'm just suggesting today that I think before there are any cutoffs that there must be developed plans. The plans ought to be made available to us in Council so we can help inform all of our constituents and that there's got to be available a method by which customers can reach the Gas Works, get this information and make arrangements for the payments, get whatever assistance is available to them. In many cases, it may be fairly extensive assistance, and make arrangements for an orderly way of dealing with these huge gas energy bills that almost nobody can meet immediately because of the enormous burden that SPEECHES AND ADJOURNMENT is placed on everybody's budget. So I hope, to our colleague Councilwoman Tasco, Chair of the Gas Commission, to any of the folks Gas Works that are here, and to members of City Council, I'm hoping that there will be developed a three-method approach to how we deal with this emerging crisis. It really is crisis because I can tell you that if there is indiscriminate cut-off, children are going to be hurt, senior citizens are going to be hurt, poor citizens are going to be hurt, and the City's whole financial structure is going to be hurt because what happens when there are gas shutoffs is there is an enormous increase in the number of abandoned houses. People tend to leave houses because they can't live in them if there is neither heat nor hot water. And that's particularly true with respect to single parents with small children, and they will be the worst sufferers.
So I'm urging all the parties involved, act sensibly, reasonably, get information out, make available all kinds of services to the people. Thank you, Madam President.
The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Tasco. (Applause.)
Councilwoman, I'm sorry. I believe Councilman Cohen wants to be recognized again.
I understand today that the Action Alliance for Senior Citizens, together with the Consumer Education and Protective Association, with a tenants action group, and ACORN have joined in a letter to Mayor Street calling attention, his attention, to the urgency of the situation and asking the Mayor to take immediate action along the lines that I suggested in the speech to make it possible to get bills paid and to provide against indiscriminate cutoffs, turning people out on their homes. We hope the Mayor acts, but I recommend that the three agencies I discussed, the Gas Works, the Gas Commission, and the Council be ready to step into the picture immediately to demand fair treatment for everyone in Philadelphia. Thank you. (Applause.) SPEECHES AND ADJOURNMENT
Thank you, Councilman. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Tasco.
Thank you, Madam President. I agree with Councilman Cohen about the crisis nature of this gas environment at this time. While the Commission no longer has tariff jurisdiction over the gas cost or the gas cost rate or the rates, we will meet today at 2 o'clock. I will ask the Commission to schedule a special meeting to bring PGW forth to talk about the areas that he has mentioned just so that we will have a handle on how they plan to deal with any possible cutoffs, about the LIHEAP and about the CPR. We do hear about those things during t course of the budget, but I think an update will be fine. And we will do that in the interest of the ratepayers of the City of Philadelphia. (Applause.)
Thank you. Are there any other speeches on the part of the majority? Seeing none, the Chair recognizes Councilwoman Tasco for a motion. SPEECHES AND ADJOURNMENT
Thank you, Madam President. I move that Council stands adjourned until Thursday, April 5th at 10:00 a.m. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, April 5, 2001 at 10:00 a.m. All in favor will say aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it, and Council will stand adjourned until Thursday April 5, 2001. Thank you. (Council adjourned at 11:45 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of March 29, 2001, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. RE: STATED MEETING ___________________________ Lisa C. Bradley, RPR and Notary Public