Right. And we're also using this year $49 million in past PICA dollars that were, I assume, for emergency projects at the time, and we're now using them for other things; is that correct?
Yes. Although they still must meet general PICA criteria. 78 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings
I understand that. And are there any PICA dollars still outstanding from previous borrowings that have been not been directly programmed for projects?
Those are the dollars that are at issue this year. There's a combination of funds which were for projects which were completed under budget or, for various reasons, not completed and interest earnings on the current PICA balances.
All right. Madame Chair, I know that the timer went off a while ago. I'd like to be able to come back and talk about two other things. Thank you.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Tasco.
I thought I was finished, but I have a couple questions. Miss Kaplan, can you tell me, were you involved in the plans for the bicycle lanes?
That was very quick. 79 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings
No, our only role in this is to allocate the capital funds that have been necessary for the bicycle network.
Okay. Well, I guess I have to ask Mr. Moy this question then. Mr. Moy, is there any rhyme or reason to how the lanes were -- were -- to which streets were identified for these bike lanes? And was there any pattern to them? COMMISSIONER MOY: Yes, Councilwoman. We have a group of folks that had been planning a bicycle network plan there. Now, what you may see, however, is, in the execution of the plan, they have not have had a lot of funding there to do the plan all at once. And what you've seen is pieces of the plan started to be put in place. Some of this has taken place when there's been resurfacing of the streets. They have tried to put the lines in when they resurfaced. 80 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings It will take a while for that plan to take hold, but there is an overall plan.
Will there be bike lanes on most streets in Philadelphia? How did they determine where the bike lanes should be placed? COMMISSIONER MOY: Well, they had a series of neighborhood meetings to try to get input from communities to develop bike lanes and biking lanes for certain areas. So they would not get every street, but you would have concentrations of where there would be corridors where you could permit bicycles. We could share that with you if you'd like.
Well, were there meetings held throughout the City? COMMISSIONER MOY: Throughout the City, yes.
I don't know if they were held up in my area 'cause I have one block of one street with bike lanes, and I don't even know why the lanes are there. They're terrible. 81 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings COMMISSIONER MOY: We'll be glad to look at that. If you want to give me that location, we'll take a look at that situation.
Well, I'd just like to know that there's a plan, and I'd like to know what the plan is for my district. COMMISSIONER MOY: Okay. We'll set up a meeting.
Because I'd like to have some input into whether or not we need bike lanes on certain streets or not, 'cause it doesn't make sense to me right now, how a lane on Williams Avenue -- I have one block where probably there are no children, and it's hardly likely for anybody to ride a bike. And I have one block of a street that goes from Ivy Hill Road to Upsal. COMMISSIONER MOY: Okay.
And I have one block with a bike lane. COMMISSIONER MOY: We'll be glad to meet with you.
Well, people are afraid to park their cars, and one person in the district right directly across the street from 82 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings where I live parked there and got a ticket. I think they're horrible.
And I would like to add to that. A businessman on Washington Avenue absolutely refused to have Washington Avenue reconstructed, if, in fact, bicycle lanes had to be included, and they were told they definitely had to be included. So that presents a very dangerous, dangerous problem, when you have large trucks that would be going in and out of the buildings. I think it's something we really have to look at. COMMISSIONER MOY: We'll look at that, Councilwoman.
I have one other question of Miss Bittenbender. Are there any regulations that would require the City to hold up payment from a contractor if he or she does not pay the subcontractor?
Uh. . . you ask excellent questions, Councilwoman two days in a row. Not to my knowledge. It is very difficult for us to have regulations regarding 83 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings payments, due to the fact that we do not directly contract with the subcontractor. I will tell you that we spend much of our time interfacing on behalf of those subconsultants both on professional services as well as construction. But unless. . . The Deputy Commissioner from the Procurement Department has some of these regulations. Hold on one second. It appears as though I'm incorrect. (Joe Resta comes forward.)
Good morning. I'm Joe Resta, the First Deputy Director of the Capital Program Office. There actually is a mechanism in place for nonpayment of subcontractors on construction contracts on public works only. It is a labor and material bond. It basically goes hand in hand with the performance bond. Should a subcontractor not be paid by the prime contractor, they can execute against that bond with the bonding company. But because the City does not directly contract with the subcontractors, we are basically -- we are an 84 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings observer to that process.
Well, you know the nature of contracting. A lot of contractors are not going to do that 'cause they want to continue to work. And if they can create that -- initiate that action against a major contractor, they may not get work in the future. I'm thinking about introducing an ordinance that will require us to have the major contractors submit -- when they put their request in for payment, that they certify that their subcontractors have been paid. Is that something you could deal with?
It would probably help that situation, but I currently know of no ordinance in draft.
No, I'm telling you that I'm going to introduce that ordinance. That would give you some assistance.
I agree that it would help. 85 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Rizzo.
Thank you, Madame President. I'm disappointed to hear that we don't have a plan that includes adding additional street lights, that we basically have to use our offices to appeal to the Streets Department to survey and to consider an additional street light. What I would like to recommend to the Planning Commission is that we do a citywide survey to look -- or to the Streets Department. I don't know that --
I think that's something -- I mean, not something that the Planning Commission has the expertise or the training to do.
Okay, but everyone here in charge is listening. To hear that we 86 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings don't have a plan to add additional street lights, that it's just something there's no money budgeted, there's nothing, no operation that could make that happen other than a letter from a Councilperson to get that consideration, that I would like to recommend that we conduct a citywide survey of the entire city to see if our city is lit properly. Right now, we rely on the contractor that has the street light maintenance contract to tell us whether we have street lights on, off. Because we pay for them. Whatever the number of street lights that we have, we pay every day to operate them. So if there's 500 off, we have to depend on that contractor to back-bill us or do whatever the process is to give us credit for that number of lights that aren't operational on any given day. So I would like to see the entire city surveyed to see if we have adequate street lighting or maybe too much in a certain area, and have some of them removed if necessary -- in front of an abandoned house or where they're not needed. But, obviously, where they're needed, they should 87 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings be. Something that I'm interested in, and I can't find it. I just saw all the additional lighting added along Kelly Drive on the jogging path and foot path. I can't see -- I can't find in the budget where that money came from.
I'm talking about the lights that are already installed along the Art Museum, all the way up to the reviewing stands, the decorative ornamental lights that have been installed to light a footway. Could somebody show me, please?
We did do that with the funding from a previous capital program.
'Cause I never heard that discussed, mentioned. And then, all of a sudden, we see all of these lights pop up on Kelly Drive, along the footway. But I'm going somewhere with this. Right now --
It was in last year's -- actually, it was originally proposed in 1998 and 88 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings it was carried over into the 1999 budget, and there's a project called "Kelly Drive Street Light Modernization." It's on of the last year's capital budget.
Okay. We presently have a dangerous situation on Kelly Drive. It's unsafe. It also is unsightly. The underground network of street lights on Kelly Drive has failed. To make those lights work, temporarily function, wire that is not meant for the application -- the fixtures aren't designed to support the cables that have been tied off to those. I don't see anything in this budget to rewire the underground network on Kelly Drive to get rid of these overhead wires that aren't supposed to be there. Are they in the budget? Is that a capital program for the Kelly Drive rewiring? Again, I repeat, those wires are supposed to be underground. The very beautiful Kelly Drive has wires strung from one street light post to the other, and those structures are not designed to accommodate those wires hanging on 89 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings there. We've already had situations where vehicles have hit a pole and it's taken down two or three as a result of the incident. So I'd like to see where the money is for that project. If you need to get back to me on that, that's fine if it's readily available. But I'm concerned because I've looked through this and I don't see, other than some monies on where it says "Citywide Fairmount Park Curbing Footways Installation of Concrete Curbing." COMMISSIONER MOY: Councilman, we will get back to you. We agree with you about the concerns on Kelly. And as you know, that responsibility is PECO Energy's in terms of that underground system right now. The Streets Department was preparing plans with federal aid there to replace that system. I believe it's in our federal aid line item. We're going to double-check on that.
Commissioner, you know we've had this conversation frequently. It's a bad situation, it's unsafe, it's unsightly. And I don't see it here, and I was told by representatives of the Streets Department and 90 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings Fairmount Park that this condition -- and I'm sure Fairmount Park isn't thrilled about having these wires running all over the aluminum light standards. They weren't meant for that. That is dangerous. If someone gets hurt, we have a big problem with this. COMMISSIONER MOY: We'll double-check and make sure it's in -- if it's in that federal aid line item, and we'll get back to you.
But it should be in this Capital Budget? COMMISSIONER MOY: I think there's a line item with federal aid, and I think it's lumped in there, I believe.
Well, I'd like to see it lumped out. COMMISSIONER MOY: Okay.
Thank you. I have just have a question if I may. 91 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings The FY '2000 Capital Budget proposes to use $48.9 million in PICA pre-financed loans. What is the total amount of Pike-available funds, and can you tell us what are the restrictions, if any, on the use of these funds?
I believe that this is the total amount of unused PICA loans that is available now. I would let -- I will defer to Dean Kaplan to give you more specific information about that.
Yes. As I mentioned in a response to a question from Councilman Nutter earlier, the approximately $49 million is a combination of approximately $30 million in interest on some of the PICA bonds which had not been spent, which was over and above their original projections. And about 18 million in a variety of projects which either were not completed or were -- more likely, were completed under budget, or funded from a different source. Those are the currently available PICA funds that we've identified. It is possible that in the future, depending on how projects -- the 92 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings timing of when projects are completed and the amount of time PICA funds are held, that there may be future funds as well. This is the sum total of funds that are available now. Projects which are completed with this money have to meet the normal PICA criteria, which is fundamentally an emergency kind of --
I'm sorry. The noise level in here is much too high, and we can't hear the witness. Please proceed.
You're finished? Thank you. The Capital Program Office is requesting $5.8 million in funding for FY 2000. What is the breakdown of how these funds will be used? Can you tell us the number and salaries of the positions that you're requesting in FY 2000? And can you compare that to FY '99?
Absolutely. I'll have to send that list over to you. But it's 79 positions -- 74 of them are in our department and I think 5 are in the Department of Public 93 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings Property's Communication Division. And I can give you a listing of all the employees and their salaries both from this year and from last year.
And could you tell us what the project management services will be providing, and to whom?
I said, could you tell us what the project management services will be providing, and to whom?
Sure, yeah, I'll give you a breakdown of everything that we have put together for the budget for the year of what our anticipation is.
Thank you. Commerce Economic Development, line 41, deals with the Naval Business Center. Was a portion of the Naval Business Center included in the City's Keystone application? And if so, will the Administration have to revise the TIF plan that Council has approved for the Navy Yard? And if so, will the sources of financing be changed?
I think I would defer to 94 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings Bill Hankowsky to answer that question. Is he here? (Bill Hankowsky comes forward.)
Bill Hankowsky, President of the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation. And the short answers are: yes, yes, and yes. A portion was included in the Keystone Opportunity Zone. We included approximately 40 acres at the very entrance, where you come in from Broad Street to your left, where the dorms were and the officers' housing.
And we included a portion of what we call Girard Point, where the -- excuse me, I take that back. We included that portion of the shipyard where there are vacant industrial buildings where we don't have tenants yet. So we did not include, for example, Kvaerner or Metro or the Marine Associates. Any existing tenants were not included, so they will continue to pay whatever taxes they're paying or will pay. 95 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings It is also correct that we will have to amend the Tax Increment Financing District to reflect this, and we will be submitting an ordinance shortly to Council to do that. And that will slightly modify the source and uses of that. As you recall, that TIF district was the only one we've done where it was prospective -- in other words, where we didn't bring a project in hand, and it was meant to induce firms to come. And so we did an analysis, which I'm happy to share with Council and Council's technical staff. We actually had the accounting firm of Deloitte Haskins do a tax analysis of the comparative benefit of the KOZ versus TIF, and then made decisions based on that.
Do we have many businesses that are locating now at the Navy Yard?
I think it's fair to say that we have a good stream of interest. And we are intensely at the moment working with the Navy to attempt to finalize an agreement such that we can acquire the property. One of threshold problems we have is 96 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings being able to either sell in fee to a company or to enter into a long-term lease on the base side. We have the capacity to do long-term leases on the shipyard side.
Thank you. On Line 103, One Parkway Building, the elevator is to be upgraded by over $100 million. What was the total cost to renovate One Parkway? And when did the City take possession of the building? And during the building renovations, what was the extent of the work done on the elevators and at what cost? Why is it needed at this time?
Council President Verna, I'll accept that question and answer. Let me just start at the beginning. The City did an evaluation of seven candidate buildings for purchase. That evaluation began in, I believe, 1993. By the time the building was actually selected and the bond was floated, the original engineering assessments of all the base building systems had been evaluated. And the response back from our consultants were that those 97 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings elevators would be able to last another six-plus years. It was the City's intention at that time, when doing the bond deal, that we were not going to put in for the full replacement of those elevators in hopes that we would be able to get an additional years of life out of them. The City did actually occupy that facility starting in May of '98 and completed the move-in in November. Since then, those elevators have deteriorated beyond what we had expected of them, and we are requesting additional dollars in the Capital Program to actually replace them.
Thank you. I think I have used my time. The Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter.
Thank you, Madame Chair. Mr. Kaplan, I'd like to go back to our discussion about a couple projects and also get some clarification on the total dollars that are available for the FY 2000 Capital Budget. In reading Miss Kaplan's testimony, it says $125 million of new tax-supported loan 98 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings funding and $49 million in reallocated funds previously borrowed through PICA. So now, is that total of 174? Or is the 49 a part of the 125?
Okay. Now, you indicated that, in our previous discussion, the PICA dollars are being reallocated to certain projects having been appropriated for certain other projects at some other point in time, maybe deemed an emergency -- now, five, six years later, the emergency has either resolved itself or is not as much of an emergency as we thought it was. What are the qualifications for a project to get reallocated PICA dollars?
There are usually two criteria. One is that, in fact, that there is some sort of emergency condition. And usually, under most -- there's some disagreement as to exact definition, but there has to be a relatively long-standing condition that we can normally establish was either existing or in some way close to existing at the time of the PICA bond, the PICA Act's passage in 1991. 99 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings So, as you can imagine, that makes almost anything you might want to reprogram funding for very difficult. There's a fair amount of creativity in those definitions. The other area of --
The alternative, I believe, would be to not have access to any of the PICA dollars. So we have in general tried to choose projects which may or may not -- which are related to a problem, a significant problem which has existed for some time. In some cases, we have specific evaluations dating back to that time; in other cases, we can draw some fairly direct 100 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings connection to the time when the Act was passed. The other alternative is, in the case of certain projects where we can show that the City might have certain negative financial consequences, there are projects which are in a category called "deficit reduction" or "deficit avoidance." Those projects have to be approved by -- once agreed to by us and approved by Council and approved by PICA, they need to have approval from the governor's office and either the State treasurer or the State auditor general. So the bar on those projects is quite high. And in general, we --
Well what's the emergency for Line Item No. 46, the Independence Mall site improvement? They have $5 million worth of emergency down there. Why don't you tell me about that.
I think that's -- that is the one case where we are approaching the State to seek a deficit criteria. As you know, the Independence Mall project is fundamental to the City's ability to successfully host the Republican National Convention in the year 2000. And in 101 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings order to --
You know, with all due respect to the Republicans, I wish that they'd have come here a couple years ago 'cause we're getting so much stuff done as a result of the Republicans coming to Philadelphia. Councilman O'Neill, I really wish you had worked on this project about ten years ago.
All right, go ahead, Mr. Kaplan, if you want to go down there, to "the Republican emergency."
"The Republican emergency," yes. I think I'm done. (Laughter.)
So you can be creative and you can figure out ways to get PICA dollars to get reallocated to various projects. Can you tell me what happened to the 21st Ward Ice Rink project and the Wynnefield Recreation Center project in the Capital Budget go-round? 102 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings
Yeah, I think I can. The normal procedure we follow with new projects -- which, incidently, normally are not eligible for PICA funding -- is, and this is one we followed in a number of cases over the last several years -- is to consult with the departments and then put together a funding package, assuming that there's some agreement on the Administration side that the project is desirable. Although I know that you're recall of prior Council meetings is encyclopedic, I'd have to respectfully say that I do not recall the discussion this -- of either of these projects before we discussed them this fall.
But assuming that that's 103 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings the case --
-- when we learned about the projects at the budget level in the fall, we were clearly not as far along when we discussed them with Recreation as we normally would be on these. Let me give you a couple of cases of what we've done in the last several years. In the 8th District, the Lonnie Young Rec Center; and bordering in the 2nd District, the Ritner Library; and in the 9th, the Dorothy Emanuel project. We have, in all of those cases, spent somewhere between a year and two years reviewing the project, determining whether -- what the operating costs were to the relevant department seeking funding from sources other than the City's portion of General Fund dollars and putting together a package usually -- no, in fact, in all of those cases, with State dollars to do the project.
Mr. Kaplan, if I can mention to you, and you know I never mean to be rude, but I'm now operating on borrowed time. 104 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings
And I'd really like to talk about the two projects that I'm interested in.
Which are the 21st Ward Ice Rink and the Wynnefield Recreation Center. Now, I'm trying to figure how to get them in the budget because we are trying to seek some additional dollars. They are new project they are new projects, but they're greatly needed projects. For instance, the Recreation Commissioner knows that by way of a map produced by the Planning Commission, if you look at the five centers that exist in the city now and take a two-mile radius around them, every part of the city is covered except the northwest. And in the Wynnefield situation, there is no major recreation center in the Wynnefield community. So I just want to really talk about those two projects and figure out how we can creatively get them in the budget, where they below. I made the request a year ago; a year later, I have nothing. That's what I want to talk 105 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings about.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Well, I think, taking them separately, in both cases, I'm telling you, I was not aware of them before this fall. And in most cases, we do not fund large new projects -- in this case, a $2 million or so rec center or a $4 million or so skating rink -- directly out of GO funding from the City's portion of funding. We normally try to leverage State recreation grants and other funding, which is not an overnight process.
Well, Mr. Kaplan, I didn't ask for all the money all at one time. Now, you may or may not be aware of that. I can be difficult, but I'm not completely unreasonable. I think what I'd like to see is some best effort by the City to start, and we can certainly work on it over time. For the moment, it is zero. Now, you can't sit at the table and say that it has never occurred in the past that the City put some dollars in the Capital Budget and in the rest of the Capital Program to demonstrate support for projects. I would not want to take you through the history of that. 106 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings
Well, I think in the case of the rec center there, is a clearly documented need, and my understanding is that the Recreation Department has begun looking for specific sites for that project. And I think that in that case, I would agree with your point. In the case of the skating rink, I think that although we have had a general discussion with Recreation, and I realize that from what I have learned since then that there is some community demand for that site, there also is a non-city rink that covers that area that is relatively close to that site. And when we look at limited resources in the budget, to spend $4 million for an indoor ice rink --
Which isn't to say that we shouldn't necessarily construct a new indoor facility in Roxborough. But I think that when we look at the overall needs in the Budget, we need to think about, A, what are the places we should build new facilities; and second of all, whether we may be able to leverage other resources as well.
By way of the geographic dispersement of the rec centers that we have, that is the most likely location to put a new one. It's the only unserved area by a city facility. I can't account for what private facilities do or don't do. This is a discussion about public facilities. If you look at the map, which I'll be glad to run down to the office and get, you'll see a big hole on that side of the city. That's the issue.
Well, I'm not sure the City's in the financial position where we can necessarily ignore other available facilities. I'm not saying that we should or shouldn't; I'm just saying that since I learned about this in October or November, now I don't think we're in a 108 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings position to say that in a budget which is the Capital Budget, which is relatively constrained, where we normally have twice the amount of requests that we can fund, that a $4 million new facility relatively close to a private facility which is open to the public and of a quality that's hosted national skating events is necessarily something that we should decide on immediately, and that perhaps some more careful investigation is warranted on the part of Administration.
Well, I don't think there's any doubt that there's more careful insight that needs to be made on behalf of the Administration. I think what I'm trying to get to is some level of accommodation that at least starts the project. We don't have to make this decision today, but I think my decision on this is very clear. This is the recommended budget, there are other things that are going to come through this particular budget. And for the moment, we could leave it at that, but I think you're pretty clear on where 109 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings I stand on this particular issue? Right?
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Mariano.
Thank you, Madame President. Mr. Kaplan, you may be able to help me with this. Abandoned cars. I'm like really going nuts with abandoned cars, and I'm sure it's under the Police Department's germane (sic). Inspector? I mean, Commissioner, I'm sorry. Could we get the Commissioner.
The removal of abandoned cars would be in the Operating Budget rather than in the Capital Budget.
Okay, but I still want to talk about it 'cause I have you all here and I don't get this chance.
But, excuse me, 110 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings Madame President, but yesterday I was up in the 42nd Ward at Castor -- I mean, at Rising Sun and Front Street. I mean, I can't wait for them to come back; it's that bad. All of a sudden -- and I'm sure that some other Council districts are the same way, but I can speak for mine. We need to do something about abandoned cars. I was up there with Inspector Sadler yesterday -- great guy, but I don't know if he has the wherewithal to remove all these abandoned cars. I never seen anything like it. I mean, there's hulks everywhere. There's cars that if you watch 'em over two, three weeks, I guess they're stolen. I mean, you know, who abandons a 1996 car unless it's stolen. But in a matter of days, it's stripped and it's in the middle of Rising Sun Avenue, in the middle of Rising Sun and Front Street. It just becomes a quality-of-life issue. And we're doing good things here, and I realize this is the Operating Budget, but is there any plans or anything we can do to do something? Do we need to bring the National Guard in to do this, or do we have the facilities? Should we 111 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings transfer it out of the Police Department's hands, into maybe the Streets Department's hands like they do in New York City? (Deputy Police Commissioner Thomas Nestel comes forward.)
Tom Nestel Deputy, Police Commissioner. Councilman, we can handle that problem. What we do with the abandoned vehicles, they are contracted out to salvers to remove. We have abandoned-vehicle officers in each direct. I will personally go back and speak to Inspector Sadler, and I guarantee you, there will be some improvement.
I appreciate that, Commissioner, but you got to understand my frustration. As I ride down Rising Sun Avenue, I could be three hours late getting here for this hearing; there's that many cars. I don't think we could do it. We'd have to have 20 tow trucks -- it's beyond tow trucks now, they're flat beds. And we'd have to do it seven days a week, probably three months to get rid of some of these cars. And that's just in the 42nd Ward. We 112 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings get down into the 19th and the 17th -- and Operation Sunrise has been helping on that, but it seems like they know where to stay out of Operation Sunrise and now it's on the perimeter areas where they're abandoning these cars. There must be some people making millions and millions of dollars stealing cars here. COMMISSIONER NESTEL: We have several salvers involved in this program, and I will ensure that they get each one of those salvers involved in removing those vehicles.
Commissioner, if someone reports an abandoned car, the police simply cannot go out and tow it. I think what you have to do is explain what the process is. COMMISSIONER NESTEL: Yes. But I believe that the majority of the situations that Councilman Mariano was talking about are vehicles that are actually hulks. And in those cases, we can remove those cars that are a danger to the community; we can have those remove rather quickly. Other vehicles that are abandoned 113 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings because they don't have the proper registration or because they've been -- there is something wrong with the car but not to the point where it is dangerous, that there is a process where we have to identify the owner, we have to send out certified letters to the owner, we have to give that individual a minimum of ten days to remove it before we can then write a summons for the abandoned vehicle. We then notify the salver, who removes the vehicle. So it does take time to get that process done. But if it is a situation where there is broken glass, there is something dangerous about the vehicle, we can expedite the removal of those vehicles.
Commissioner and Madame President, that's my frustration. The whole system is antiquated. If there's a car in front of someone's house and it's blocking a driveway, certainly we can get it moved; and if it's a hulk, there's a lot of hulks now happening there because of the beginning of this process. But there's something going on in this city. All of a sudden, over the last five, six, 114 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings maybe ten years, and it's really picked up over last two years where everybody's in the car business all of a sudden. Everybody has cars backed up against each other -- right, Councilwoman? -- so we can't see that there's no 7 tag or there's a T tag. The whole system is antiquated. If I have to have a police officer from the 25th District to go up there, he's a police officer; he's not a salver. He could be out on the street being a police officer. This whole system needs to be changed. And I would appreciate it -- I know what goes on. What happens is, they go up there and they say, Well, the gas tank's not leaking, somebody bends over and takes a ice pick and bangs the gas tank. Sure, if I was a copy, I would do it. That gets that out of there, then it becomes a hazard for the community. Or they break a piece of glass. But we need to be back at the beginning of this process and create something where actually it's out of the Police Department's hands 'cause I think, you know, the way it's always 115 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings been here, and the new commissioner who's come -- I hear New York has a great system, and he's coming from there so he's obviously known, and I've talked to him in private. It's something we need to do. But today I'm just saying that's something we got to get into here because the quality of life for the people up in the 42nd Ward -- we talk about "quality of life" as the great buzz word, it's terrible when you walk down your street and there's hulks, plus there's cars 13 that are going to be hulks in a matter of a month. COMMISSIONER NESTEL: Councilman, we will look at the whole process, but I can tell you, believe the number of abandoned vehicles that have been removed from the past year was about 22,000. I mean, we do a lot of removal of those vehicles.
Commissioner, I don't doubt that, but I think if we remove 22,000, we're going to remove 25,000 next year, and then 30,000. Somewhere along the line, the people that create the Avenue of the Arts and create all the good things that we've been seeing here -- at 116 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings least as long as I've been Councilman, and it has something to do with it, I guess. But we got to be able to figure out how to help the people at Rising Sun and Front with just abandoned cars. And there's other issues we're going to work on, but that is something that's really amazing. I mean, it just chases people out of the city in droves. Thank you.
I think, Councilman, you've hit a nerve. I see other that Councilpeople that want to be recognized on that. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Miller.
Thank you, Madame Chair. I was going to ask this during the Operating Budget; however, I have the same issue. I just want to follow up on some of the items that Councilman Mariano spoke of. And one of the things I found out lately is that the City contracts with 16 salvagers to remove cars, and their yards are full. So one of problems is that there's no space 117 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings and nowhere for them to take these cars. And we've done tours constantly. In fact, we have a nice little pilot project we're going to try in the 14th District, adding instead of one abandoned-car officer, but four more to do that to help in the effort, using injured officers that can help at least tag those cars. So my question, though, would be: Do you think you need to consider contracting with more salvagers or finding someplace else where these cars can go? Because they're all over the streets, everywhere. COMMISSIONER NESTEL: Councilwoman, in the past several years, we have increased that program from 6 or 7 salvers to salvers. We 17 accept every salary salver who fits in the criteria and meets all of the qualifications; we don't turn anyone down, as long as they meet the qualifications. So if there are other salvers who are interested in that program, we certainly will accept their application and look into getting them into part of the program. And I'll also discuss that problem with the captain of the 14th. 118 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Rizzo.
Yes. I'd like to district my comment to the Police Department. Commissioner, I think again we have a process problem here. I have identified a vehicle that I have started to report as an abandoned vehicle approximately three to four weeks ago. The first day that that vehicle was left, it had the license plate on it. The second day, it didn't have the license plate. The third day, it had the wheel covers missing. I personally -- and I documented my calls to 911. 911 wasn't very interested in even discussing a report of an abandoned vehicle. And I'm not convinced that the police ever even got dispatched because the neighbors at this particular location -- and I'd like to not burden you with it, but I'd appreciate you having someone 119 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings follow up with me. I think the process stinks. I think that the way we deal with it -- my three calls to 911, I was kind of like bothering the dispatchers or the call-takers even calling 911 to tell 'em about this. I said, Here's a brand-new vehicle left at an intersection. Monday, it's nice and clean. Tuesday, there's no license plate. Wednesday, there's no wheel covers. Well, I was questioned, like why am I calling because how do you know it's stolen? I said I don't know it's stolen; that's why I called the police. It's a brand-new vehicle, it's been left in the middle of the intersection. And every day, it's deteriorating more and more. Again, I think this whole process, if you need it fixed. Then you should recommend to this Council to do a new ordinance to make it easier for the Police Department to deal with this problem. Because it's a shame to have a person's car stolen, left on a city street. A citizen goes to the trouble to report it, and there's no 24 response from the Police Department. I was told by the one dispatcher that 120 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings this probably won't get dispatched till o'clock 3 in the morning when we're slow.
Commissioner, I think you fully understand the concerns that many of the Councilmembers have regarding this issue. It is an operating budget issue. When you come in to testify -- I believe it's next week -- I would suggest that you be fully prepared to address this. COMMISSIONER NESTEL: Okay, Council President, I will.
Thank you, thank you very much. COMMISSIONER NESTEL: Councilman Rizzo, could you give me the information on that vehicle?
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Ortiz.
This is about the budget. The Mayor gave a speech the other day at the Chamber of Commerce. And one of the things he mentioned was that the Association of Latin-American Musicians had gotten a grant from 121 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings Governor Ridge for $2.5 million. And Congreso had gotten a grant for capital building. And for the last years, we've been trying to build a 5 cultural and art center within the barrio with an 6 anchor of the Association and the Puerto Rican 7 workshop. 8 And I've asked Greg Rost and yourself 9 about including that within the Capital Budget. 10 If the Governor is willing to put in some capital 11 funding and the mayor mentioned it as an extension 12 really of our cultural expansion and expanding our 13 art attractions and cultural attractions into the 14 neighborhood. 15 I haven't found it within the Capital 16 Budget. And I was wondering what we have to do in 17 order to begin getting the City to put as many 18 capital monies into art institutions in the barrio 19 as the Governor is -- a Republican governor is 20 doing. 21
I think -- I believe that 22 our understanding was that the State Capital 23 Redevelopment Assistance Grants in certain cases 24 were sufficient to complete projects, and others 25 weren't. In the cases where there were additional 122 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings City funds required, our understanding was that between FY '99 and FY 2000 funds, that they were in the commerce lines. But I don't think that either of the projects you mentioned were among those, so I'll have to look into that and get back to you.
Well. It is not sufficient to complete, and I would appreciate it if we could begin being as responsive, I would imagine, as a State government. I don't expect that our contribution would be as large as the Governor's, but I think that if we're going to have an Avenue of the Arts and Center City and we're trying to create our art institutions within the neighborhoods, I think this is the best project we can have. And I'd like to begin discussions as to when we begin to include that within the budget.
Right. My understanding was that in certain cases -- the one that comes to mind immediately is Point Breeze, where the State made a significant commitment and we committed some money around that project to finish the details, that we had get covered most of those. 123 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings But I may be mistaken. So I'll look into it and get back to you.
I understand Point Breeze, but I'm talking about extending the same aspects of Point Breeze to North Philadelphia. Thank you, Madame Chair.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman O'Neill.
Thank you, Madame Chair. Mr. or Ms. Kaplan, I guess, to start out with, on the Vet Stadium line --
Gee, Brian, I looked at that, and I was afraid to ask a question on that. (Laughter.)
Well, maybe I should be too, but I just have a question. We were told and we've read in the newspaper as well that one of the anticipated methods of paying part of the stadium costs will 124 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings be to bond $5 million a year because that's what it costs us t maintain the Vet. It sounds perfectly valid, if that's what it costs us to maintain the Vet and we're not going to have the maintenance cost of a new facility. But I'm just trying to see. I haven't gone back over the last ten years. But looking at these, it seems like it's a little bit less than that -- half a million, a million, three million. And could you explain that? 'Cause this anticipates us still having the Vet, I assume.
Yes. The Capital Budget, as it's presented, takes into account the fairly significant capital funding -- approximately $40 million spent this decade on the Vet.
Sure. The Capital Budget, as presented, takes into account the significant capital funding expended on the Vet over the last decade or so, about $40 million. And much of that work was completed in response to a study about in the late '80s which 125 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings identified specific projects which needed to be completed in the then-20-year-old building to keep it operating. What we have presumed in the Capital Budget going forward was that this year, we would conduct a similar study and identify projects that are needed to take the building in and through the next decade. And that over the next several years, as we design and start building those projects, you'll see that the Capital Budget starts at $500,000 this year and runs up to $5 million by the last year of the program.
It's our belief, based on the discussions we've had with people who are managing similar-aged stadiums around the country and also our experience the last several years, that we would probably need to continue that level of $5 million a year throughout the life of the Vet, where we'd maintain that as our primary sports venue in the city. Although I have not seen the most recent proposal or a detailed proposal, but the estimates that would be spending $5 million year 126 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings in capital are based on that assumption in our baseline budget. In addition, if we are spending $5 million in capital a year, you'll quite quickly end up spending $5 million a year in debt service. So that's -- I believe that's where the assumptions about the potential funding source for a new stadium come from.
It seems a little high to a layperson in terms of engineering and all that, because I know one of the problems with the Vet, before that ten-year period you mentioned where it was $40 million, was that there had been a whole lot of neglect to the point where there was some safety issues and things, and the Phillies started making repairs under their lease and things.
We thought that as well, actually, when we first started looking at it. And the more time we spent with this number, actually, the more comfortable we've been in the fact that this is probably in the correct range.
Especially since, by the time we're at the end of this program, the 127 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings building will be well over 30 years old. And you're talking about -- when you're comparing it on a stadium financing basis, you're talking about a building that will eventually be over 50 years old before the comparison term is up.
The original debt from the original construction of the Vet, I believe when we looked at it last in the fall, it will be paid off in 2001, I think. There's a fairly steep decline in the last couple years, but there are several million dollars still outstanding on that debt -- mostly principal. But that debt would be paid off before any new stadium could be constructed and opened.
Excuse me, don't we have PICA debt outstanding on that, too?
There is additional debt for the work which has been conducted since the facility was opened. I was referring to the debt that was used originally to construct the facility.
Madame Chair, I 128 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings have a question on the same subject just to keep the continuity going.
I'm kind of interested in why we're talking of additional capital expenditures for the Vet Stadium. It's been my understanding that the capital funding is the long-range planning different from maintenance. It seems to me, in view of the action taken on the stadiums, that all we ought to be doing at this stage, no matter how I may happen to vote on the matter later on, it seems to me that there's a real possibility that the Veteran Stadium (unintelligible) is very rare and that we ought not to be spending on capital expenditures but on maintenance. Is there something wrong with that understanding?
Well, at the time this budget was prepared, we had no knowledge that there was going to be a bill in Harrisburg or that the possibility of a new stadium was that imminent. And even now, even though there's money coming from Harrisburg, there still is not a done deal, there's not a total financing package put 129 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings together. There's still not a site selected. And I was think we felt it was the right thing to do to put a certain amount of money in this program to prepare for the continued existence of Vet Stadium, you know, if it's going to be here for, you know, a few years. I mean, that -- the amount of money that is budgeted can, of course, be not spent, or the future year appropriations not made if, in the next few months, you know, the course of events changes. But at the time we prepared this budget, we felt that it was the right thing to do, to maintain our assets, to put in a certain amount of money. And, as Dean Kaplan just indicated, this is a -- in the early years of this program, it's a relatively small amount of money compared to the average annual expenditure we have made over the past decade to keep the Vet in good condition.
May I suggest that there be further consideration by those who prepare the Capital Budget? There are still many, many unmet needs, and I believe that there ought to be a counter series of proposals to meet other 130 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings needs to replace the figure of $5 million --
It's only thing $500,000, which is a very small amount of money to kind of keep pace with, you know, current capital reinvestment. And some of that money was intended to go toward a survey -- a condition or an engineering survey to determine what expenditures this facility might need over the next six to ten years, just the way a study had been done about eleven -- I guess it was ten or eleven years ago, to project what we would need for the past decade. So this is a relatively minimal amount of money. And if -- as I said, if the decision-making process should be accelerated and we really knew very quickly that we're not going to be needing this facility, we would, of course, not spend this money at all.
Well, I just thought that the Capital Budget information that you furnished us with ought to include what items have been added to the Capital Budget as a result of the availability of funding that used to go for capital funds for the Vet Stadium and which are not now needed. 131 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings Tell us, what have you added, say, in the form of neighborhood services, that kind of thing that has been made available since you only have a half a million instead of the average of 5 million.
Well, we didn't specifically take money that would have gone for this project or any other project that's been completed and dedicate it to another project. Each year, we evaluate all of the project requests that we get to determine what are the most pressing needs, you know. And sometimes, you know, if we have a very large commitment in a year, like we had appropriated a lot of money for the new House of Corrections, for example, that means that everything in the program winds up getting proportionally less to make way for a big project. But we never sort of say, Okay, we're not spending $5 million on the Vet this year so we have $5 million to put on these five other specific projects. We have a total amount of money, as indicated by the Finance Department, and we revaluate all of the projects. 132 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings We also look at, you know, what departments -- you know, what had been programmed previously because departments -- we encourage departments to do their planning in five- or six-year increment so that, you know, we know that if we're going to do Phase I of the Strawberry Mansion Bridge one year, we know we're going to do the second phase of it in the second year, and we better plan to have that money available, you know, while the contractor's still on the case so that there's no gap in the completion of that project.
All right. I thank Councilman O'Neill for yielding, but that's as far as I was going to go on the Vet Stadium, so I yield back to him.
There's two items mentioned. You mentioned GIS, Geographic Information Systems. Could you just tell us generally what that means and what it means to us in terms of what we have in it and what we could have in it if we had the full-blown GIS that many large cities particularly have, and what some of the capabilities are if you have the full-blown. 133 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings I mean, there's cities that have their streets department trucks hooked up with equipment that they just -- they see a pothole and it goes right in while the trash truck, or whatever it is, is out on the street. They're very, very sophisticated. But if you could just explain just sort of some basics of what we have and what is the potential of this system, including PECO and the Gas Works and the, Water Department having everything on a --
Well, I can't tell you everything; I could tell you a certain amount.
Or we could probably arrange for a real presentation to City Council, which might be a good idea at another time -- maybe after this budget process is over. But the Planning Commission developed the initial Geographic Information System, I guess, in the early '90s. And basically, our interest was that we could no longer maintain the City's paper maps and every time a street changed or every time a zoning changed, record that on the 134 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings maps; we just didn't have the staff to be able to do that. We knew that there was this new technology that seemed like the way to go. And we also recognized that once we developed the basic map of the City -- that is, put the map of the City in digital form so that it could be, you know, printed out by computer, that other departments would find this useful. And, in fact, we worked really from the beginning with a task force of departments that would be most likely to be interested in this. It's developed to the point where -- I mean, there's certain information we have. The City zoning map is in the computer, the basic street map is in the computer. We have all of the City's capital facilities in the computer. And I think it was two or three years ago that we provided each District Councilperson with a map in their district of all the capital facilities, which is the first time I think we've ever been able to really do that so that the people could see at a glance the relationships of these facilities. We --
Are all of our 135 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings underground utilities in the system?
No, I don't believe they are now. Probably you could get more technical information from the Water Commissioner and the Streets Commissioner here. The Water Department undertook an aerial photography program to be able to improve the quality of the maps. We put in the computer the maps that we had the Planning Commission -- warts and all. Whatever inaccuracies there were in the paper-copy maps, that's the way they went in the computer because to stop and correct all them, those maps, and make them perfect, we would never be able to develop a system. But now those maps are being perfected as a result of the aerial photography that was undertaken by the Water Department. And perhaps the Water Department is undertaking its own enhancement to the system, as is the Streets Department. They could tell you in 136 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings more in detail exactly what those enhancements are.
Who would coordinate it? I mean, is someone in charge that would say if the Gas Works, you know, all of their systems should be in our GIS, and let's get that done. The Water Department, everything, all the pipes in the city and everything should be in our GIS, let's get that done. Or go over to the electric company and say, We think it would be in your best interest and ours -- 'cause they probably have their own GIS anyway -- and incorporate it into ours. It just makes all kinds of sense to have as much information in there as you can. Is it part of your structure or --
I don't know currently. I know in the early stages of this, the gas company and the electric company were not interested in participating directly in the development of the system. That may have changed because I haven't been at recent meetings to discuss this. The MOIS is kind of -- now that, you know, we kind of got it past the developmental 137 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings stages, is really taking the lead on this.
There is a users group that meets periodically with all of the agencies so that everybody knows what they're doing and there's sort of common protocols for making additions or changes to the file. I mean, there's a lot of activity going on around us. I don't pretend to know everything that is going on; I have a general sense of what is going on. As I said, it might be a good idea for Councilpeople and their staff that are interested in this if we arrange a special session where we can get into more of the technical details, and you can have an opportunity -- maybe have it either over at the Planning Commission or MOIS and see exactly what's involved in the system.
Certainly, I agree with you. WE haven't moved as fast as some other cities in doing this. Largely, that's just a question of how much in the way of financial resources we could devote to this. 138 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings But I think the more the system has become developed, the more departments are finding it useful and starting to understand in what way they could further enhance the system to suit their own particular needs.
Madame Chair, I don't want to be disrespectful, but I would hope we could have either MOIS or someone that is over this just give us a brief -- we don't need the full-blown, you know, techie. We want to understand just what is in it, what could be in it, what do other cities have, what's our long-range goal. 'Cause my understanding is from other cities that have really gotten into this, that it has been nothing short of miraculous, what they've been able to save, what they've been able to stretch their resources to do. And it's a good economic development tool as well, from what I understand. So I would just that hope at some 139 2/9/99 WHOLE COMM. - Budget Hearings point, we could plug it in. I don't mean to disagree. It's just -- I'm thinking of something a little smaller than what would be more of a technical presentation outside the budget process. I'd just rather see -- it's all capital money, I think, that's used for --
-- used because a lot of parts of this are not really capital.