1405 COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA CAPITAL PROGRAM & BUDGET HEARINGS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, February 23, 1999 9:45 a.m. - - - Bill No. 990023 - An ordinance adopting the Operating Budget for the Fiscal Year 2000. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT ANNA C. VERNA, Chair COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE BLACKWELL COUNCILMAN DAVID COHEN COUNCILMAN JAMES F. KENNEY COUNCILMAN MICHAEL A. NUTTER COUNCILWOMAN MARIAN B. TASCO COUNCILMAN ANGEL L. ORTIZ COUNCILMAN FRANK DICICCO COUNCILMAN BRIAN J. O'NEILL COUNCILMAN W. THACHER LONGSTRETH COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO CHARLES MCPHERSON, Chief Financial Officer - - - VINCENT VARALLO ASSOCIATES, INC. Registered Professional Reporters Eleven Penn Center, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 561-2220 1406 PUBLIC HEARING - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE I N D E X Nicholas DiPiero, Chairman. . . . . . . . . . 1407 Civil Service Commission Linda Seyda, Director of Personnel. . . . . . 1411 City of Philadelphia Stephen Mullin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1476 Director of Commerce and City Representative. Charlie Isdell, Acting Director of Aviation 1482 Bill Hankowsky, President, PIDC . . . . . . . 1490 Brian Anderson, Chief Information Officer . . 1527 City of Philadelphia Michael Athay, Divisional Deputy Solicitor. . 1537 Gail Greene, Executive Director . . . . . . . 1540 Mayor's Office of Community Services Emma Freeman, MOCS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1551 Thomas Conway, Director . . . . . . . . . . . 1555 Anti-Graffiti Abatement Jane Golden, Artistic Director. . . . . . . . 1559 Mural Arts Program. Kevin Vaughan, Executive Director . . . . . . 1565 Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations 1407 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 P R O C E E D I N G S
Good morning, everyone. Sorry we're late getting started this morning. I just wanted to make announcement that the Law and Government Committee, which had a public hearing scheduled for o'clock today, is 9 being cancelled until April the 15th, at 2 p.m. 10 Thank you. This is the continued public hearing of the Committee of the Whole regarding Bill No. 13 990023. The first group to testify today will be the Civil Service Commission. (Nicholas DiPiero comes forward.)
Good morning. Nice seeing you. Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Nicholas DiPiero, Chairman of the Civil Service Commission. Good morning, President Verna and Members of City Council. I'm Nicholas DiPiero, Chairman of the Civil Service Commission, and I am pleased to testify on behalf for Civil Service 1408 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 Commissioners Joseph Fisher and Marwan Dreidie and myself in support of the Commission's budget request for the Fiscal Year 2000. And I also would like to take a minute of a personal notation of myself on your appointment as President of City Council.
I knew I was coming here, and I wanted to make it a little public -- congratulations.
And on behalf -- as I look at us face to face, I remember when you first ran for office the first time, and in Philadelphia, you came in front of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, which was a politically active union, and we supported you ever since.
And I remember how helpful you were then, and I appreciate it.
It shows that we pick 1409 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 winners.
And the fact is, I tell people, I don't remember the years too good, but I think it was about five years ago when we were both kids.
Our total budget request of $154,957 represents a 2.5 percent increase over Fiscal Year 1999, an appropriation of 158,193. This increase is reflected in the Class 100 and provided for the negotiated salaries increase for civil employees. The remainder of our request is unchanged from the Fiscal Year '99 level and will provide funds for training necessary, materials and supplies in the purchase of minor equipment. Under the Home Rule Charter, the Commissioners are charged with approving or disapproving a large variety of actions affecting 1410 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 Civil Service employees, and these include the establishment of job classes, position and pay classifications, residency waivers, personnel service contracts, Civil Service regulations and exemptions from the Civil Service. And to date, in Fiscal Year '99, the Commission has approved 47 classification and pay actions, changes to 9 regulations, 5 residence waivers, 15 personnel 10 services contracts, and 531 exemptions from the 11 Civil Service. 12 A major role of the Civil Service 13 Commission is to function as an appellate body to 14 hear and decide on Civil Service employees' 15 appeals or personal decisions. Most appeals are regarding dismissals, suspensions of more than 10 days, demotions, oral examinations, denials for requests of leaves of absence, and denials for injury time and appeals for back-to-work orders. With this budget, Madam President and members of Council, the Commission its important work of assuring the preservation of the Philadelphia merit system, as mandated by the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter. Thank you. 1411 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023
Thank you. Can you elaborate on the five residency waivers? What classifications were they?
Let me get some help. The Personnel Director usually makes the recommendations.
And I want to make sure my answers are accurate. (Linda Seyda comes forward.)
Excuse me, Miss Seyda, just identify yourself for the record please.
I am Linda Seyda. I am the Personnel for the City. As Commissioner DiPiero indicated, this fiscal year to date, the Commission has approved five residence waivers. One waiver is one that I know that Council is familiar with: that is a waiver to enable the Police Department to recruit police officers from the military. The other four were also for 1412 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 recruitment purposes. One was in the Department of Public Property for a building services administrator. Two were for Geographic Information Systems specialists. I believe those positions were in the City Planning Commission. And the last waiver was in the Prisons, and that was for a specific individual, and that concerned a hardship case concerning this individual, who needed to be close to family members.
The employee in the Prison, was that a new employee that we're giving a residency waiver to?
No, that was not for recruitment purposes. This was a long-term employee who is recovering from a cancer operation and needs to be with family members who are out of the city -- those family members being her primary caregivers.
One waiver for the Police Department, and that's a waiver that will permit the Police Department to recruit new police officers from the military. 1413 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023
The waiver is to permit the Police Department to recruit, but new hires will be required to establish --
No, I'm talking about the five residency waivers that were granted. Is the waiver for a year?
The class waivers are for -- the recruitment waivers are for the recruitment period and one year after appointment. The new hires are required to establish residency within the city within one year after appointment, that's correct.
Thank you, Madam President. And good morning Miss Seyda. I'd just like to go back to the employee of the prison, who has obviously some serious health concerns. The waiver is granted to this employee. Where is this employee? I believe you said it's a female. Where is she living now? The one that needs to be close to her family? 1414 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023
I don't need an address, just a county would be helpful.
New Jersey. She works full-time, she's not incapacitated to the point where she can't work?
She is working full-time, but she needs to be close to family members who could tend to her needs.
Yeah, after working hours. The waiver was granted for a six-month period, and it will be reviewed this coming July to determine if it's still appropriate.
Do you know the marital status of this person? Is she a married person or single?
I believe that she's widowed. I know that she was living alone prior to this waiver being granted.
And when was this 1415 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 waiver granted?
The waiver was granted January 6th of this year, and it is effective through July the 5th.
Public Property. Thank you, Madam Chair. What was the purpose for granting a waiver to that individual?
There was -- a waiver was granted by the Commission in February of this year for the class of Building Services Administrator, and that waiver was granted to enable the Department of Public Property to recruit for this position. I believe that the position is still vacant; it has not yet been filled.
You mean it's someone some from out of the city to --
Come in as 1416 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 temporary employee?
The Department of Public Property is recruiting a building services administrator. And when that person is appointed, if that person is not a City resident, he or she will be required to establish residency within the City within one year of appointment.
I'm still a little confused here. Maybe it's too early in the morning for me.
It's too early for you, it's too early for me too because I -- that just goes over my head.
I apologize. Could you just walk me through it one more time?
One more time. The 1417 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 Department of Public Property has a vacancy for a building services administrator. They have been recruiting, they have placed ads in the local newspaper. My recollection is that they received something like that 40-some responses to their ad, and almost all of the individuals who meet the qualifications for this position reside outside the City.
"Almost all," meaning that there's some that do reside in the City.
I believe that there -- can provide you with the specifics. I believe that there are maybe two or three people who meet the minimum requirements for the position, who have City addresses. Whether or not they will actually compete and take the test for the position, we don't know yet. I do not believe that they've administered that test yet.
So -- again, I'm still trying to understand that. The person that is in that position now, the building services administrator, is a non-Philadelphian resident.
No. Actually, no one's in 1418 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 the position now; the position is vacant. And the Department of Public Property is recruiting to fill the position.
Thank you, Councilman. Miss, Seyda on that point, what are the qualifications that seemingly make it so difficult to get someone in this particular position who may be in Philadelphia? Who was in the position.
I'm not certain what the circumstances were. I mean, we will be, you know, pleased to provide you with that information. I just don't know off the top of my head.
I understand, I understand. Do you recall what the specifications 1419 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 were for that particular job?
It is a senior-level position in the department, and as I recall, there are certification requirement, the specifics of which I don't recall at this point, but I will provide the information to you.
Maybe you have to have a background managing a certain number of buildings or a certain amount of infrastructure or a certain number of years at a senior level for a company or a municipality or anything like that?
There are experience requirements for the position at, I believe, the management level.
Councilman, 1420 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 excuse me a minute, please. Does anyone have any other questions of Mr. DiPiero? Because I am told he has a 5 o'clock meeting. I'm sure that Miss Seyda would 6 be able to answer any and all questions we may 7 have. 8 Thank you. 9
Good morning. When we had the hearings of the Personnel Department before City Council in the fall, we took testimony from various employees who felt that they had been passed over promotion at the same time that they were working out of class, and I would like to know what audits, assessments, and evaluations revealed of their particular cases and how the difference of opinions were resolved. It was Marian Cooper, Allison Richardson, and Marry Miller Turner.
I do recall those names. I don't have that information with me this morning. 1421 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 We do have it, though, and I will be pleased to provide it to you later today. We have looked into this, and we do have the information. I just don't have it with me this morning.
Okay. Last month, we also received copy of a letter that members of the Personnel Department signed protesting --
Excuse me Councilwoman. I was asking if anyone had any questions of Mr. DiPiero.
Because he has a 10 o'clock hearing. So if no one has any questions of Mr. DiPiero, we can excuse him.
No, I don't think so. (No questions for Mr. DiPiero.)
Thank you very much, Mr. DiPiero. I believe Councilman DiCicco was still being recognized.
Oh, I'm sorry. I'll stop talking. 1422 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023
That's okay. The other position was -- I think you mentioned was a position in the Planning Commission. Did you say that, Miss Seyda?
Do you know what that position was? Or is? (Other personnel members join Miss Seyda at the witness table.)
Information systems specialist. And there were two classes, a lower-level class and a higher-level class. Those were class waivers. They were both granted in -- waivers were approved September 2nd of '98. They're for recruitment purposes and will require the appointees to establish residency within the City within one year of appointment.
Do you happen to know how many people applied for that position? Do you have a breakout of the a number of people who may have been Philadelphians?
No, I do not, but we will be pleased to provide that information to you after the hearing. 1423 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023
If you would supply it to the Chair, please, and then --
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman O'Neill.
Miss Seyda, I have two questions. One, I thought when the Council President asking you about the five waivers, you responded and talked about the police, but were all the waivers of a temporary nature?
Yes, all of the waivers are of a temporary nature in that they all require the appointees to move into the City.
The other question I have is, you mentioned the military on the 1424 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 police. There was not a request by the Administration to go into the outlying areas around Philadelphia and recruit not just military but other qualified candidates who might be willing to move into the City if they get the job but may not be willing to move in just with the possibility of getting a job? You know, I am told there are many situations where we could be recruiting, particularly in the Police Department. There are strong African-American college graduates who are outside the City and living in various suburbs who would love to come in if they knew they had a guaranteed position. And it may help us a lot with our goals in terms of hiring and diversifying the Police Department. I just wondered 'cause you only mentioned the military, and I know that's one area that's obvious and has been discussed, but there's also the general area of qualified candidates which I know the current administration is really trying to focus on as much as possible. Could you explain that.
The waiver that the 1425 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 Commission approved recently is one that focuses on military recruitment. We have been having some discussions, and there are ongoing discussions currently with the Police Department about residency waivers in a more general sense. But at this point in time, the only waiver that we have for the Police Department is to recruit in the military.
So there hasn't been an official request by the Police Department to go beyond that waiver?
Thank you. Miss Seyda, I'm just gathering from your testimony -- and maybe I'm misunderstanding you -- that four of the five waivers are for people who are supposed to be recruiting?
The waivers are for recruitment purposes to enable the City to recruit candidates for these positions from outside the City.
Repeat that 1426 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 again, please. It's to recruit people from outside the City? Is that what you're saying?
That is correct. Because we've had difficulty recruiting individuals from within the City, so for recruitment purposes only, the Commission has approved four class waivers, which are temporary waivers in that if an individual is appointed to one of these classes, they must move into the City if they are not currently a City resident.
Madam President, I think what we're speaking to is the issue that came up some time ago when Councilman Kenney when he was proposing a bill that would basically change the structure which would allow us to hire people before they've establish residency as opposed to having -- a police officer, as an example, would have to be a resident of the City of Philadelphia for either six months to a year before they could be hired.
Ut I thought referring only to the police because they were saying they were having a hard time recruiting police officers. 1427 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023
I think he was, but I think that the Charter provides for other departments, I think. What happened was, they tabled this bill because they said they could do it within the Charter because the language in the Charter would permit us to do hiring prior to residency was established. I mean, personally I don't have a problem bringing somebody on payroll who will move into the City. My problem is generally when we allow City employees who are currently employees to move out of the City while maintaining employment here' that's the big problem I have with this. But we can get our population up by brining people in, we have no residents, I don't have any problems with that. All right. Thank you.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Rizzo.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Miss Seyda, I had a conversation with you on the phone for about a half hour. You were making calls, getting some information about this 1428 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 residency requirement about recruiting police officers. And I was surprised to hear today that we're limiting our search for police officers to the military facilities when I indicated to you that I get numerous letters from part-thyme police officers all around the suburban communities that would love full-time positions in Philadelphia. I have a stack of letters that want that particular job. They've already been through the Police Academy, many of them through the Philadelphia Police Academy, working part time. So I cannot believe if we need police officers that we haven't taken advantage of those men and women that want to join the Philadelphia Police Department and move into the City of Philadelphia.
As I indicated a few minutes ago, we are currently having some discussions with the Police Department on this issue of residency, and I know that in at least one -- one or two meetings that I've personally attended that the issue that you are talking about has come up, and as I indicated, we are having 1429 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 those discussions with the Police Department currently.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Ortiz.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Miss Seyda, we've been going through this, and I guess you know what I'm going to be asking just for the record. In terms of the Latino hiring and employment and within the City departments, can you specify for the record, was there any improvement from your testimony at the last budget last year and this budget session this year, if any?
The City Personnel Department and the operating departments recruit in a number of different ways, and I know that your interest is in the recruiting within the Latino population. We do recruit and advertise in the Latino publications. We do encourage the departments to use selective-factor certification and bilingual eligibility, you know, where that is 1430 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 appropriate and where they have a need for bilingual candidate. Also, I might add that the Personnel Department is reorganizing and reemphasizing our recruitment activities, and we have established a recruitment advisory group within the City. We are looking at ways that we can do more outreach in terms of getting information out to all segments of the community, including the Latino population about opportunities in city government.
It's made up of representatives from a number of the operating departments. It includes the Police Department, the Health Department --
I don't have them -- I don't have them with me this morning, but I will provide them to you.
Okay. Are there any Latinos in that recruitment advisory group?
I don't recall, but I will 1431 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 share the names with you.
Well, wouldn't it make some sense that if we want to recruit some Latinos that in an advisory group that we would have some individual that would have some knowledge of those communities? If they're going to advise, I would imagine that that would be sort of a common-sense situation.
And I asked before and you gave me a rough draft, but I -- I want to see what progress, if any, we're making from year to year, and that was my main question. I didn't ask you about the process. I asked you, what progress did we make in this year? Because I know that, obviously, we have to make some room for people who retire and so on. But I was asking, what progress -- because I asked this question last year and I asked it the year before. And what I would like to see is, are we making any progress? Are we 1432 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 showing any increment in employment areas in different -- not just the bottom-line curve situation but in the different departments in the policy-making positions? And that's what I'm interested in. I'm interested in the progress. And I will ask you this question next year when we're here to talk about the budget.
Okay. The information that I have here with me today is for the entire City workforce, so I know it's not exactly what you're asking about. But the numbers have been increasing over the years. In going back to 1990, for example, the Latino representation in the City workforce was percent, just a little over 2 percent. Now it's a little over 3 percent. Understandably, that is not a dramatic increase, but we have been showing, I think, a steady increase in the number of Latinos.
A percent jump in a 10-year period, that is not -- when the population in the City of the Latino community within that same 10-year community grew by 50 1433 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 percent.
All I'm trying to do is make a point that whatever it is that we're doing, we're not doing it right. We're not reaching a community that is here, and we're not making the City work for its representatives. And I keep asking this question year after year to see if we can begin setting up procedures and process. Obviously, we cannot do that from the City Council. We have to depend on the Department of Personnel and on the different departments in the City. I'd just like to see that if we have a deficiency in one area, that some priority be given to that situation.
Well, I think that we have seen some real progress in several of the City departments where they've made, you know, a real effort to ensure that there are --
We have seen some 1434 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 progress in the Police Department.
And a smaller advancement in the Fire Department. But we're a huge workforce. And so that DHS, Department of Services, Streets Department, all the way down the line, L&I, all these areas, okay, you know, not special -- And I'd like to see something along those lines. I'd like to see a plan develop to really begin. And I keep asking this question and I don't know if I'm ever going to get it but I will keep on asking it, to see how we can dramatically improve the recruitment process and the hiring process in terms of the Latino community. And I'd like to see the Department work on something along those lines.
Well, as I indicated, we have within the Personnel Department reestablished a recruitment unit within the Department. And let me take this opportunity to offer to have some ongoing dialogue with your office in terms of how we can incorporate input into that process.
Thank you, Madam 1435 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 Chair.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter.
Thank you, Madam Chair, sorry. Miss Seyda, I noticed in one portion of your testimony, you made reference to the often-discussed and long-awaited police officer recruit examination. You say that we're in the final stages of the validation process. Is there an end in sight to this?
We are optimistic that we will have a new entrance-level police exam ready before the end of this fiscal year. Hopefully, we will be able to administer a new test the next time the police officer recruiting exam is given. We're quite optimistic that we will have a final product within the next couple months.
And by way of process and given some of the discussion that took 1436 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 place when the Police Commissioner was here, do you anticipate sharing this test with the court in light of the consent decree in trying to, I guess, almost kind of kill two birds with one stone?
And it is our plan at this point in time to go back into federal court when we have a new test finished.
Okay. And this new test, is this a test that's being used in any other city across the country?
No. It's being developed specifically for the City of Philadelphia.
Okay. And in its development, the test developers understand obviously the circumstance under which we're operating, which is a consent decree trying to deal with past discrimination and other test deficiency issues?
Okay. And is it your belief as a personnel expert that this test 1437 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 has some bearing on whether a person would make a good police officer?
What we're working on now -- what the consultants are working on now is the validity data which we will use to go into the federal court in order to release the City from its obligations under the consent decree. But clearly, that is -- the objective is to have a test which correlates performance on the test with performance on the job.
And how long have we been working on getting a new police officer recruit test?
It's been -- it's been a very long process. We had contracted with another consultant several years ago. That consultant did a job analysis, an in-depth job analysis of the Philadelphia jobs and has done and tested portions of the exam. What we're doing currently is refining that product to enhance the validity.
Okay. Suppose the federal court says the test is insufficient or deficient in remedying this particular problem; 1438 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 will you still give the test and utilize this particular product that you've been working on?
That decision has not been finally made. However, we -- I would anticipate that we would be using a different selection instrument.
If the federal court does not release the City from the consent decree, the City will then continue to operate under that consent decree until it expires, which I believe is about a year from now. But that consent decree does not preclude the City from using a different test.
All right. And lastly, regardless of what happens with the test, do you know whether either the Personnel Department or the Law Department, or more specifically I guess, it's the Civil Rights Unit of the Law Department, do you anticipate trying to 1439 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 do anything differently with regard to the provision that requires the Police Department to have the same percentage in the class of African-Americans as compared to the number of people who are African-American who actually took the test? Do you anticipate that there will be any attempt to change that particular provision or get a different interpretation by the court as to what the percentage should be?
Well, we're in discussions with the Law Department currently in terms of a number of issues related to this. And at this point in time, I think that it's appropriate that the discussions be within the Law Department.
I understand. Your answer is, you'd rather not discuss that in public because you're having private discussions with them right now.
Yes. They are active 1440 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 discussions.
Okay. That's a good answer. Okay, thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you, Madame Chair.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Tasco.
Thank you. Returning to the question that was raised by Councilman Ortiz, could you indicate what is your recruitment process, what colleges do you recruit, how do you advertise, and does the Department participate in job fairs?
Yes, that's a part of our focus. In terms of our recruiting, we are actively working with the local colleges in this area to reinstitute a formal recruitment program for employees for the City. And we have at this point approximately 13 colleges scheduled for recruitment programs -- to participate in the recruitment programs this spring. Those schools include: Temple, Drexel, Lincoln, LaSalle, University of Delaware, and a 1441 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 number of other ones. I'd be happy to share the complete list with you. It is an incomplete list at this point in time. But what we want to do is to establish relationships with the local colleges so that they are aware on an ongoing basis of the types of opportunities that are available with the City of Philadelphia.
Do you have a limited geographical area where you recruit? Do you go to other states, do you go beyond the Delaware Valley area? And how do you determine where you go? And what determines how you base your decision on where you go?
Well, there are a number of factors. I mean, obviously, we want to focus on colleges and universities in this area where residents of Philadelphia and residents of this area go to school. We also want to focus on those schools that have specific programs that are appropriate for our needs. For example, the Water Department and the Streets Department recruit a large number of engineers, and their recruitment is targeted at 1442 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 those universities that have engineering programs. The Free Library, for example, which recruits graduates from accredited library schools target their recruitment at those colleges and universities that have a library science program.
Well, if you are recruiting with an eye towards creating a diverse workforce, do you look at those colleges and those universities that are historically African- American colleges universities to recruit African-American employees, future employees? For instance, if you were recruiting engineers and you know that you may go to MIT, of course you go to Drexel and other places, but do you know what African-American historically-black colleges may have produced a large number of African-American engineers, such as A&T State University in Greensboro, North Carolina?
For example, you know, Lincoln University is one of the schools where we recruit in the spring. And one of the reasons that we've targeted Lincoln University is that it's a university that serves African-American students. 1443 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023
But does Lincoln University train and graduate engineers?
My question is, if you look at what your needs are and you have someone on your staff who understands what diversity means and what that outreach program should look like, then they would have some sense of schools -- be they schools that are targeted to Latinos or Asians or African-Americans. While a number of those students will go to the majority of universities and that's true and I'm not saying don't recruit there, there are colleges and universities where they tend to gravitate to, and are we looking at those predominantly historically-black colleges that may not be in the Delaware Valley and are beyond Lincoln and Cheyney. And I don't say don't go to Lincoln and Cheyney if you want to recruit, but there are a lot of young people from Philadelphia who go to the historically-black colleges, and if you want those kids to come back to Philadelphia and work and live in this area, then you have to go recruit 1444 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 where they are unless you have some program here in Philadelphia where you capture them when they're here on spring break or something, but if you don't reach out to them where they are, you're not going to recruit a diverse workforce.
You know, I might add that one of the things that we do do is to recruit through Operation Native Talent, which if you're familiar with that program, that's a program that's set up, you know, over the holidays to attract just the kind of students that you're talking about.
Do you have a limitation on where your staff can go to recruit employees?
Only to the -- only to the extent that we have the resources to fund it.
Okay. Most of the historically-black colleges are on the east coast between here and North Carolina and South Carolina and Atlanta, so they're not very far. And I would like to see recruitment take place because you will reach the students who are from the Philadelphia-Delaware Valley area who are 1445 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 attending these schools who have no contact with the City of Philadelphia in terms of what we have to offer if we want to bring them back to live in the City and create a strong tax base. They stay in Atlanta or they stay in North Carolina. I know a number of them who do it; I'm very active in this whole education piece, so I know what they're doing. And they're -- we are not attracting them back to Philadelphia, and they're not all going to Lincoln, they're not all going to Cheyney, they're not all going to Penn or Temple. And I don't want to say don't start recruiting there, but you're going to have to recognize where our population is, and the Department has to recognize that in terms of trying to recruit people that will give us a diverse workforce here in the City of Philadelphia -- of top management, not just the clerical, not just the labor-intensive positions, but people who we can place. When we look at all the staff that come in here, we don't see the employees of the City that reflect the City and what the City should look like. So I'd like to see recruitment in historically-black colleges. 1446 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 And I have a question. Here in your budget, you have some money here for -- to the United States Department of Personnel regarding job classifications. What is that?
That is work that we're doing with the Office of Personnel Management. That is the federal -- the central personnel human resource agency for the federal government, and we are working with them to do some significant work in terms of our classification of our jobs. They are assisting us in terms of helping identifying the competencies and tasks that will help us to improve the way that we do our job descriptions, develop our selection plans, our training programs, and our performance standards. This is a nationwide initiative that the federal government has undertaken. It has grown basically out of Washington, but we are working with the Philadelphia office.
In your citywide training, have you allotted anything for diversity training as related to working with minorities, women, persons of different sexual orientation, as well as disabled and senior staff? 1447 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023
Actually, we have specifically allocated some money in next year's budget to do just that, to do a focus on diversity training.
Will you contract it out or is it done in-house? Are you going to hire someone to do the training?
Well, the money that we have in the budget would be for consultant services to contract it out, although I would add that we do a good bit of training within the City government with our own staff.
Do you presently have as consultants any training consultants presently hired by the Department?
The Office of Personnel Management, as part of the work that they're doing with us, that includes a training component, but it's training in terms of using --
How diverse is 1448 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 their staff?
But still, in whatever you do there, it has to be people who are sensitive to the entire cross-section of the population, so how diverse is their staff? No 12 matter what they're doing.
What consultants are working now with the Department of Personnel, and what does their staff look like?
Currently, the consultants that we have on board at the present time include a number of psychologists. They -- and the psychologists are responsible for the pre-employment psychological evaluations for police officers and correctional officers. They represent a diverse group of individuals. We -- in addition to the OPM 1449 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 consultants, who are women, the principals we're working with our women, I think we also have one other fairly sizeable contract, and that's a test development contract for one of our uniform tests.
No, the last group you just mentioned. The last group you just mentioned.
Oh. The consultant who's doing the work on one of our uniform tests is a -- is a white male. However, he's a white male who has a demonstrated record of addressing diversity issues.
What are career advancement promotions and who do they affect?
Career advancement promotions are for individuals who come into the City government at the entrance level and promote 1450 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 up through -- up to a journeyman level or full-performance level based upon satisfactory completion of their training and experience. For example, someone who comes into the City as an entrance-level clerical person is automatically eligible for a promotion to the next level upon completion of a certain amount of experience and satisfactory job performance. And there are -- there are a fairly sizeable number of classes within the City government that work the same way. I can provide you with a complete list if you'd like to see it.
So every promotion now is not specifically based on an examination?
No. A career advancement promotion is an automatic promotion, assuming that the individual, you know, meets the requirements and has, you know, performed satisfactorily.
Thank you. Miss Seyda, I realize that since we went out of order, you never made your oral presentation, but we do have copies of your 1451 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 testimony. And I will give a copy of your written testimony to the stenographer so that it will be made a part of the record. I don't know if there's something that you would like to add to what has already been asked of you.
Thank you. At this time, the Chair recognizes Councilman Kenney.
Thank you, Madam Chair, and I apologize for being late. I heard a portion of Councilmember DiCicco's questions relative to the legislation that was introduced by myself relative to the waiver of the pre-residency requirement for application. Just for the record is clear, there were two pieces of legislation introduced. One dealt specifically with the Police Department because at the time, the assessment was that that was the easiest to get passed or at least to have considered. And it was confined to the military 1452 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 bases because of the discussion I had with both the Department and with the union as it related to waiving this pre-residency requirement. The second piece of legislation is a request to waive the residency requirement for all City employment because in the end, it's my belief that because of the City's situation competitively now, it is inappropriate to have this one-year pre-application requirement, although I am in favor of requiring employees that are offered jobs to move within the City within six months. I think, and it's my personal belief that we should extend that pre-residency waiver to any person from anywhere in this country that would like to apply for any job, whether it's the Police Department, Fire Department, clerical, or any position in the City. I think that what we can do, hopefully, is use our employment opportunities as a resource to bring new families and new people into the City of Philadelphia to live. That's something that the Civil Service Commission's dealing with the Police Department end of it. Whether or not this Council this term 1453 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 will deal with the overall residency issue or whether it's something that has to be in arrearages next term, but that's the clarification that I'd like to add to the record as a result of Councilmember DiCicco's question. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Rizzo.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to follow up on the question when I asked about the Police Department not reaching out to part-time police officers in the suburban communities, and you responded that they hadn't asked. Could you tell me the services that the Personnel Department provides the operating departments? If they're not doing something that's obviously something they should be doing, does the Personnel Department ever proactively write or send a letter to a commissioner saying, Here are some things that the rest of the world does, maybe you would want to consider doing them? If they haven't asked, did the Personnel 1454 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 Department ever suggest they should?
Well, in answer to the first part of your question, we work cooperatively with the departments. And I think that when I talked about recruiting and setting up a recruitment advisory committee, I think that's a good example of where the Personnel Department is working cooperatively with the departments to improve on an overall citywide basis how we recruit people for employment in the City. We also, on an ongoing basis, work with the departments in terms of looking at their affirmative action activities, and each of the departments reports to us on a biannual basis in terms of what their activities are in terms of meeting their affirmative action goals. We work with the departments in terms of, you know, monitoring different types of employment transactions. So I think we'd like it to be a cooperative kind of give-and-take kind of situation. But, yes, we very much so, on an ongoing basis, work with the departments to ensure that the employment practices throughout the City 1455 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 are fair, that they're equitable, and that we are hiring the best qualified -- that we are hiring and promoting the best qualified employees for the City government. Your more specific question, I believe goes to recruiting police officers. I think, as I indicated earlier, we are having some ongoing discussions with the Police Department concerning police recruiting, and I think it's, you know, premature to say that they haven't asked, but we are talking with them.
Do the various departments that you hire for look at you as a consultant person that can be a problem-solver in the event that they have an issue that they're dealing with, a dilemma, that you have staff that can analyze a particular problem that they're experiencing with and say, Here's how you solve it in a cooperative manner? I've asked various departments the role that the Personnel Department has, and I haven't hoard anyone that I've talked to anyway express that that service is something that you provide.
Well, we certainly -- it's 1456 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 certainly a service that we would like to encourage.
What does that mean? That they're not asking, and you're not --
I mean philosophically, the Personnel Department plays two roles. And one of our roles -- and it's a primary role -- is to serve and support the needs of the operating departments. We also, on the other hand, wear sort of an enforcement hat, and we also have responsibilities under the Charter to ensure that the City's employment practices are fair and are merit-based. And in that role, we play -- we have more of a control role. So we have a dual role. Sometimes it's a conflicting role, but we have both a service role and a control role. We try very hard to encourage and support our departments and to do it in a way that that's cooperative and helps them meet their objectives.
The only reason I ask this question is that you were very quick to point out that they hadn't asked. Now, if you 1457 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 were doing what I described, they might not have had to ask; they might have had a few solutions to the dilemma, the problem that they're dealing with. My point is that possibly your organization has the expertise to deal with some of these hiring issues, and I think they'd be more than happy to hear from you.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Miss Seyda, could we go to your statement, your written testimony. Under "Diversity of the Workforce," your second paragraph, the City has been making steady progress in this area. Since 1987, minority representation the City workforce has grown 12 percent. Could you tell me what the percentage 1458 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 was back in 1987 and what the percentage is mow? I'm not sure how to interpret percent. It may 4 be a meaningless, insignificant figure 'cause if 5 it's 12 percent, say, of 12 percent, it's hardly 6 anything, but I just can't interpret that 7 sentence, I'm not sure what it says. 8 It looks good but I'm just not sure 9 that it means anything. 10
What was the 12 percentage of minority representation in the City workforce in 1987? And then what is it today?
In 1987, the African- American representation in the workforce was 42.8 percent.
Yes. And the Hispanic representation in the workforce in 1987 was 1459 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 1.68 percent; it's now 3.02 percent.
Could you give me the 1987 again? I couldn't quite get it. It was 1. what?
Latino representation in the workforce in 1987 was 1.68 percent.
How does that Latino representation compare with Latino representation or portion of the population? My impression is that the Latino percentage of population is much larger than 3.2 percent in the City today, but I'm not certain of what the percentage is.
Well, the comparative employment market for African-Americans at the end of 1998, was 38.1 percent; and for Hispanics, 3.8 percent.
That's the comparative employment market. 1460 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023
What does that mean, "the comparative employment market"?
That's not what Miss Seyda is saying; she saying 3.8 percent.
Yeah. That's looking at the employment market as opposed to the population of the City. If you --
The employment market, that's those individuals who are in the workforce, are eligible to be in the workforce. It's not necessarily your total population because, obviously, it doesn't include --
So that would indicate -- so you're saying, for example, in the Latino population, it may be that there are more children and, therefore, the employment market is much below the actual percentage of Latino 1461 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 population in the City? I'm just trying to get an understanding of what it means.
Right. The percentage of Latinos in the total population is higher than the percentage of Latinos in the employment market.
Well, let me raise -- go back to the African-American population and employment.
From just visual observation, I think that the Sanitation Department, the people who pick up, collect the trash, seems to be very heavily African-American. Do you have any percentage on that?
I'm saying that if we remove the Sanitation Division from the rest of the City departments, what would be the percentage of City employees who are African-American? Because in the Sanitation Department, I assume, it may we well be 90 percent of the blue-collar workforce; it may be higher.
That's probably true. 1462 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023
Can you get that information? You may not have it available now.
I do not have it, you know, readily available right in front of me, but it's very easy to obtain. We have the data and we can give you those numbers.
All right. If you would furnish it to the President, we can't have it circulated.
Then if further down on the same page, the Customer Service Center, where is that located?
The Customer Service Center is located in space on the 16th floor of the Municipal Services Building.
And is that where people can actually go? 'Cause I notice you have a lot of phone call, but I think there's much of the population that likes to come down and visit. 'Cause with all of the phone -- choosing, you know, listen carefully and choose which one, I think people are getting turned off a bit by the use of the telephone. 1463 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023
Well, for those who would like to talk to a real person, yes, our staff is available to any member of the public who walks in, who has questions about City employment, how one applies for City jobs, how the City's employment program works.
Are they available to people who come visit? Is what you're saying?
All right. Now, with respect to the health benefits, does it -- say, the District Attorney or the Register of Wills or the City Council, one of the independent departments, would they have the right to negotiate their own health contracts, for example? Is there anything that compels the 1464 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 independent departments to participate with the departments under the jurisdiction of the Mayor?
All of these -- all of the health and welfare benefits for non-represented City employees are all negotiated centrally by the City.
Well, that's the fact now. Do you know whether or not that has to be the fact by law?
So the City Solicitor would probably be the proper person to determine that.
Now, how does the City Council, for example, participate? There was very much unhappiness in the City Council about the enormous increase in costs of prescription drugs, of visits to doctors. There was a great deal of concern that, in many cases HMOs, which were supposed to offer less benefits, in fact, apparently offer -- at least in some cases -- more 1465 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 benefits than Personal Choice, which costs more. So employees didn't know about it, nobody participated, nobody knew anything about the changes until the information was given, with a very short time to sign up. How does City Council as a body get to participate in the negotiations? Is that possible?
We would certainly be willing to have some discussion with you and with other interested members of Council.
All right, 'cause I think that that's a serious concern. Some individuals have reported that -- who are in Personal Choice have learned that people in certain HMOs have better prescription, eyeglasses benefits, maybe other benefits. And they're strung by it 'cause the cost to HMO is much less. They don't know whether, you know, it's balanced out. They don't know why Rite Aid, for example, on the prescription plan has increased its costs 500 percent since its inception was the inception dollar for prescription drug, was that just like a come-on, like some of the sale signs are, you 1466 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 know, we'll bring you in, and then, boy, we'll sock it to you good once, you know, once become our customers. 'Cause it has all the earmarks of that. And I just think something has to be done to permit a broader participating by groups in the bidding process. Is it that the Mayor decides? And I don't mean this criticizing 'cause I know the Mayor and the people that act for him have a tough problem on the budget.
But is it that they're the ones that make the decision as to how much employees shall pay so that, in effect, a pay increase can be negated by increasing the costs of prescriptions and keeping the City's share of the costs lower? I mean, there are all sorts of questions like that. And I just think there's got to be some way of discussing it and some way of making the employees, particularly the non- represented employees, the exempt and the non-represented, there's got to be some way to make them feel that they're not just sitting ducks 1467 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 when it comes to insurance and that they're going to find their costs constantly rising by enormous figure figures. There was a 100 percent increase in what you pay to doctors just this one year. I think it went from 5 to 10 either this year or the year before.
If I could just make a comment on just the prescription drug question generally. And I'm sure that you've seen some of the same information that we have in terms of the increases in prescription drug costs. Generally, this is not something that affects just the City of Philadelphia or just the employees, the non-represented City employees. I know all of the employee organizations are struggling with the same issue and all employers are struggling with the same issues. I mean, we're seeing faster and higher increases in prescription drug costs than in probably any other segment of the health-care industry. And it's certainly, you know, an issue that is of concern to us, just like it's a concern to every other employer.
Except that in this 1468 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 relationship, I understand that whenever the employees pay more, it saves the City money. The City pays a monthly fee, and it appears to me -- I may be wrong -- but it appears to me that what happens is that the City, without consultation anyway with anybody else, the City decides whether the increase should be borne totally by the employees or by the City or whatever percentage it should be, the cost should be divided between them. It seems to me the employees are paying a disproportionate share. With respect to prescription drugs, I do not believe that there's been a 500 increase in the period of the Rite Aid contract. And that's the reason I'm concerned that the dollar prescription figure originally given was just a come-on to make the Rite Aid program very attractive to the City.
Well, on that, if I could just add that the City did absorb a 10 percent increase in the cost of prescription drugs this past year, in 1999. And I would also add that --
Ten percent, did you say? 1469 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023
But the employees had a 100 percent increase, from $2.50 to $5. And that's the kind of problem that --
In 1998, the City did increase the employee co-pay from $2.50 to $5. That is certainly consistent with the co-pay of all other represented City employees. And I would add that in this day and age, a $5 co-pay for prescription drugs is very low, and you're seeing many employers putting in co-pays that are higher than $5.
Wasn't the $1 much lower than all other plans at the time the City first hired Rite Aid? And the same argument could have been used for a $5 co-pay then. It would have been in line 'cause I think the State was at least $5 at the time we got the $1. I mean, it just seems we were offered a great bargain to entice the City; and since then, the whole arrangement seems to have changed. Therefore, I'm urging, Madam President, I hope we can pursue this in City Council. I think Councilman Nutter and I have resolutions in 1470 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 City Council calling for a full hearing and investigation. I think that we ought to be asking the City Solicitor for an opinion as to whether City Council has the power to negotiate its own health services contract. We may decide to do it or not do it, but we can at least get into the ball field and see how we will do. Because as far as -- did anybody participate in City Council, as far as you know, in --
In the plan? It was my understanding we couldn't find a word out in advance. All right, thank you very much. Thank you, Madam President.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman Rizzo.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Miss Seyda, could you explain to me the role of the Personnel Department as it pertains to Employee Assistance Programs, how the vendors are 1471 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 hired that service employees with drug, alcohol, or other problems that they need assistance with?
Within the Personnel Department, we administer an Employee Assistance Program for non-represented and represented employees in the executive branch of government. We have had that program in place for a number of years. Represented employees have basically run their own employees assistance programs and have funded those out of either dues, money, or other funding that they have. And so those programs have been pretty much under their purview. The program that we have been responsible for has been just the small piece of the program that Family Services of Philadelphia runs for us.
A City employee that's not represented that has an alcohol, tobacco -- or an alcohol or a drug problem that is referred to an outside agency, non-represented.
The Personnel 1472 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 Department administers that?
What audits are done to assure that we're getting our money's worth, that, in fact, they're not padding the books, saying services were provided that weren't? What oversight do you have? I appreciate you providing information to the Chair on the number of organizations companies, whatever you'd like to call them, that provide services to City employees and get paid -- I understand there's a co-pay where the employee has to pay $5, $10 each visit, and then the rest is picked up by either the City or medical coverage. How do these companies that provide these services get compensated?
Well, for non-represented and exempt employees in the executive branch of government -- 1473 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023
-- we have a program that is provided by Family Services of Philadelphia. We do review, you know, their activities to, you know, ensure that they're appropriate. We do so -- because there's a high level of confidentiality in the service that are oftentimes provided by these organizations, we do need to protect that information. But we do, on a regular basis, review the activities of the provider. That would be for the City-administered programs. The unions are responsible for any programs that they sponsor. And we don't have a formal role in that process.
Well, the executive and the legislative branches of government, the non-represented folks.
At this point in time, I do not believe that City Council participates in the program that -- 1474 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023
But if a City Council employee needed that service, how would they get it? I believe it's part of that executive -- it's grouped in there, at least I believe it is.
Actually, I do not believe that City Council is included in the EAP program that we administer.
Well, we would be happy to have discussions with Council if that's deemed appropriate.
You're saying today that the only department that the non-represented people are the executive level of government that would be eligible if the need arose to participate 1475 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 in an employees assistance program?
When we set our program up, City Council was not included. I'm not quite sure how or why that happened. All I can basically say is that -- I mean, I know that the program that we administer does not extend to Council and it does not extend to the courts.
Would the employes's insurance cover it and not need to be covered by your administered program?
Oh, absolutely. I mean, there are substance-abuse benefits that are provided through all the health-care programs. And, in fact, the Employee Assistance Program that we have is structured in such a way that it's a counseling program that directs people and assists them in accessing other services in the community, and that generally is the employee's health-care provider.
I'd be interested in that information. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Are there any other questions or 1476 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 comments from any members of Council for Miss Seyda? (No further questions.)
Thank you. The next department to testify is the City Representative and Director of Commerce. (Stephen Mullin and Charlie Isdell come forward.)
Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Good morning. My name is Stephen Mullin, I'm the Director of Commerce and City Representative. And with me here today is Mr. Charlie Isdell, Acting Director of Aviation. We're here to present testimony for our FY 2000 budget. And if I may, I'll give a brief summary 1477 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 of that and then open it up for questions.
Thank you. The City Representative and Department of Commerce is presenting a $210 million , roughly 750-employee budget today for FY 2000 operations. And it is broken up in several categories that I would like to briefly give an overview. The Office of City Representative provides support to, first, special events. The special events functions, there are approximately 40 or so events during the course of the year, including the Easter Promenade, Israeli Day Parade, (it used to be) CoreStates Pro Cycling Championship, the Greek Picnic, Liberty Medal Presentation, and the Philadelphia Marathon. In addition, the Office of City Representative, in the person of the Deputy City Representative Bonnie Grant is working with Carol DeFries of my staff to join me in cochairing the College Retention Committee, which was established last year. The Office of City Representative also provides support to arts and cultural activities 1478 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 and technical assistance to local, cultural, and arts organizations, and staffs and supports the activities of the Art Commission. Those are two of the primary functions of the City Representative side of our office. The Commerce side of the office and the Aviation side of the office are two other main portions. The Division of Aviation -- and I've asked Mr. Isdell to make a very brief presentation -- oversees the various planning, operational, and development activities associated with the both the International Airport and the Northeast Philadelphia Airport. 5 million of that is a General Fund request. Our Grants Fund request is $10 million. The Hotel Tax Fund -- which, as you know, is the depository and the fund out of which we pay the hotel tax payments to the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority and to the Convention and Visitors Bureau -- is $25 million this year. And the Aviation Fund is approximately $75 million. 8 million Community Development Block Grant Budget Fund for the 1479 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 Department of Commerce. 5 million of court saving if the State should meet its legal obligation to fund the courts. 2 million of that, or 30 percent, represents our Convention Center lease service fee. It's the payment we make at the beginning of the year, and it gets offset at the end of the year by the hotel taxes collected and passed through the Hotel Tax Fund. 8 million, or 5 percent, will be utilized for basic departmental operations. , which is supported with a 1480 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 $500,000 annual grant. 5 million that Council provided during the current fiscal year to the Philadelphia Cultural Fund. So a combination of two major subsidies for outside funding are Historic Philadelphia Inc. and the Philadelphia Cultural Fund. The Cultural Fund, as some of you might know, during FY '99, made grants to 182 local arts and cultural institutions, including the Asian Arts Initiative, the Minority Arts Resource Council, the Philadelphia Dance Company, Painted Bride Arts Center, the library Company of Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Art Alliance, and probably about 175 more entities. The Commerce Department also functions as a coordinating entity for the City's economic development programs and initiatives. Commerce directly managers the State Enterprise Zone Program, the Neighborhood Economic Development programs for the City, both the Community Development Block Grant and works with the 1481 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 economic development-related Capital Improvement International Business Development. The Sister Cities Program is run out of our office through a contract with the International Visitors Center, which is co-located with us at 1515 Arch, and the business services function of the City, through the Mayor's Business Action Team, which is a division of the Commerce Department.
We also contract with and work closely with both the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation and the Philadelphia Commercial Development Corporation to deliver loan and financing programs and other business services on behalf of the City, including contracts with PIDC for the Economic Stimulus Funding and administering that funding program. For FY 2000, we plan to submit a request and will be reviewed with the regular Block Grant Budget after the Operating Budgets here at Council. 8 million. 2 goes to the Commercial Development Corporation (PCDC) for both operations and for their loan and financing programs. And 1482 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 $290,000 goes to the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation for the administration and implementation of our various loan programs. 3 million, or roughly 40 percent of that, for our staffing for both administration and for our Neighborhood Economic Development programs, including our activities with the Empowerment Zone and Enterprise Zone programs. Now, if I may, if I could turn the mike over to Charlie Isdell and ask him if he could give a brief overview of the Aviation Fund.
Good morning. Thank you, Steve. The Philadelphia National Airport, as you know, was the fastest growing airport in the United States during calendar year 1997. 5 million passengers. It's anticipated, when the rankings are 1483 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 released of the top airports in the United States this spring, that Philadelphia International will be among the top airports for the first time 5 since the early 1980s. 6 Specifically, our international traffic 7 increased to 2,450,000 passengers in calendar year 8 1998. 9 million international passengers who used our 10 parent in 1997. Over the past two years, 11 international traffic has increased at our airport 12 at a rate of 58 percent. We now have daily 13 nonstop service to Rome, Paris, London, Madrid, 14 Frankford, Munich, and Amsterdam. 15 Recent developments include this past 16 year's new service by US Airways from Philadelphia 17 to London's Gatwick Airport, which started last 18 April 1st, and to Amsterdam last April 29th. 19 Northwest Airlines followed shortly thereafter 20 with its own nonstop to Amsterdam on May the 1s. More recently, Air Aruba commenced nonstop to Aruba four times a week on December 11th. In the coming months, before the end of this fiscal year, Lufthansa Airlines will be re-initiating daily nonstop service to Frankford 1484 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 effective March 29th. And US Airways will add a second flight to Paris effective March 1st. US Airways has also applied to the US Department of Transportation for the authority to initiate nonstop service from Philadelphia to Milan, Italy. We expect a response on that application by the end of this month. Some of the accomplishments we achieved with budget appropriations approved by this Council in the past year have included a first-class food, beverage, and retail concession program. By the end of this fiscal year, 131 locations will be open to provide both national brand and local products to the traveling public at competitive street pricing. We completed negotiations in December 1998 with Atlantic Aviation as our new fixed-base operator at both PHL and Philadelphia Northeast airports. We initiated a new Visual Arts Program in July of this past year, which presents rotating exhibits throughout the airport complex in a variety of media, including fine arts, ceramics, sculpture, and photography. And in that program to date, we've emphasized artists from the 1485 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 Philadelphia region. We also provided during calendar 1998 a number of new amenities for the huge increase in international arriving passengers that we've experienced in our Terminal A. That program included a video wall prior to the escalator leading to the immigration hall. Also, a series of video monitors with multilingual directions for arriving passengers. Those languages are English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German. And we have set up a workforce of uniformed personnel to try to greet and expedite international passengers. And that workforce breaks out food and beverages whenever there's a delay of more than 30 minutes in the international arrivals area. The Airport is also proud of the fact that it's kept its costs competitive and actually reduced costs to the airlines. 6 million in Fiscal 1999. 1486 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. 36 per passenger in Fiscal 1999. We're also very proud of the fact that the bond rating agencies have improved our bond ratings within the past months. Moody's moved 8 its rating to an A for the first time in 14 9 years. Standard & Poor's upgraded the Airport's 10 bond rating from A- to A, and Fitch IBCA affirmed 11 the current rating of A, which was already in 12 place.
Some of the things that we're doing large projects to accommodate the incredible growth that we have experienced in the past few years include the completion by the end of this year of a $221 million 5,000-foot commuter runway, the construction of a $295 million 12-gate international terminal (dubbed "Terminal One"), which is scheduled for completion in May of 2001, and the construction of a $57 million 38-gate commuter and jet terminal (Terminal F) scheduled for completion in late 2000. 8 million. That's an 1487 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. 4 million. 9 million. This includes appropriations in the Police, Fire, Fleet Management, Public Property, Law, and Finance departments, as well as the Sinking Fund Commission, which will be fully funded by revenues from the operation of the City's two airports -- Philadelphia International and Northeast Philadelphia Airport. These non-tax revenue sources include terminal building space rentals, landing fees, net parking revenue, concession fees, and other revenue sources. As in previous years, no General Fund resources will be used to support operations at either Division of Aviation facility. And I want to thank Madam President and Councilmembers for your support in the past. And we're available for questions.
We thank you for doing such a wonderful job, Charlie.
Mr. Mullin, 1488 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 what is the requested funding level of the Economic Stimulus Program in FY 2000? Can you tell us, have any of these funds been committed at this time?
Yes. May I interject one quick note, Madam President and Madam Chair? Downstairs, you might know that -- people might know that this is PAL Day in the City.
And I've been joined by today, and I'd love to introduce, Katie Gross from Nazareth Academy, who is helping me out today as the PAL City Representative and Director of Commerce. As you can imagine, she has come at a perfect time to help me and Charlie and the rest of our staff here. So I do want to introduce Katie Gross.
Katie, we welcome you. Hope you enjoy your day. MISS GROSS: Thanks.
And I'll be conferring with her during the answering of some of my questions. Thank you. This year we are looking at a budget 1489 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 amount of $21 million for FY 2000 for the Stimulus Program. And in terms of commitments, we have identified not so much specific commitments, but the rough categories, as we have in the past, our belief is that this million, in addition to the 7 39.5 million from the current fiscal year, will 8 allow us to complete all of the current projects 9 that are either underway or proposed or have had 10 commitments. And we're looking at approximately 11 out of that $21 million, approximately a 50/50 12 breakout for neighborhood economic development and 13 business retention. 14
Mr. Mullin, 15 would you provide us with a detailed breakdown as 16 to how these funds have been committed and the 17 economic benefit that the City derives from these 18 expenditures for the FY '99 funds? 19
Thank you. 21 Mr. Mullin, you indicate in your testimony that you anticipate that the City will apply for additional Section 108 funds in FY 2000. What is the total of Section 108 loans that you have received to date? 1490 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023
I'll have to get that information for you. The total -- and to make sure I'm understanding this, the total amount that we have applied for and/or committed --
What is the total amount of the 108 loans that you have committed to the various projects?
And what is the amount of the Section 108 loans that you will be applying for in FY 2000?
Okay. We do have a summary here that I can provide. I will ask, if I may, to introduce Bill Hankowsky.
Bill Hankowsky, President, Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation. 1491 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 Council President, as you know, we have a maximum amount that we're allowed to borrow from the federal government under this program, which is five times our annual block grant allocation. So the maximum amount we're allowed to borrow is $343,565,000. As of February 1st, HUD had approved applications of $214,940,000. I should note that that doesn't necessarily mean we've spent it, but they've approved the application and projects may be underway. There currently is pending in Washington $85 million of applications. That leaves approximately $43.5 million, which, between the Office of Housing and Community Development in projects that in the current fiscal -- current Community Development Block Grant year and year 19 25, they expect to use about 23 million of that. 20 And there's one other project we're looking at 21 submitting an application for the remaining 20. 22
I'm sorry. And there's one other project that we would look to submit an 1492 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 application for this year for million. The result would be, by the and of this calendar year, we would have submitted applications for all of the funding.
Is the 7 $20 million application a secret? Or can you 8 share that with us? 9
Oh, no, it's been 10 here. We think it's for the Jump Street USA 11 project on North Broad. There was a Tax Increment 12 Financing District proposal that Council approved 13 for that project. We are in negotiations with the 14 developer. It's a tentative number. We're not 15 sure whether we need all of it, any of it, or, you 16 know, to make the math work, and that's why we 17 haven't submitted it, but we know which project it 18 is. 19
Thank you. 20 Fine. The Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm sorry, Mr. Hankowsky? I apologize. I missed your earlier response, but did I 1493 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 understand somewhere in the back and forth either from yourself or Mr. Mullin that we would get a list of all the HUD 108 loans? Did you say that?
I had mentioned -- the Council President had asked for stimulus loans and stimulus projects commitments, but we can definitely get the HUD 108s too.
What's the current outstanding number? How many HUD 108 loans have we made?
I honestly can't tell you quickly off the top of my head just because, as you -- part of the program is the loan pool, so we've done small loans out of the pool to various companies and transactions. I just -- I don't know, we probably have done -- and then the Office of Housing and Community Development uses it for housing projects, so you have to add both together.
Right. But then you guys will also use them for the TIFs.
I mean, there must be a sheet somewhere or something. I assume 1494 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 somebody's keeping track of how many HUD 108 loans we've made.
We have them. I could add them up if you want to wait a second.
I have one of those PECO calculators they gave us. Energy-efficient.
We've settled loans 9 that were approved and have settled and have drawn 10 the money. Two more have been approved. 11
Are you talking 12 total or in the past year? I mean, I have no 13 context for --
Well, ever's a -- there was a HUD 108 program in the '70s or early '80s.
Well, I'd like to talk about programs that have been happening since I've turned 30, okay?
Since it's been used by the current administration. 1495 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023
Right. That's -- right, we're in the '90s now, let's talk about that.
37 million. I think that's right -- no, wait a minute, no. 13
Yeah. I have all the data here but it's not assembled the way you're asking the question.
I apologize for that. But this is out of the loan pool -- what I just gave you is out of the loan pool.
So it's out of the loan pool, 37 million. There's also -- we've settled the Hawthorne Suites in the Loews Hotel. That's roughly another million. 7 We're working to settle four others 8 there and then six more are on the pipeline that 9 have been approved and haven't settled. 10
If you gave me a day, I 12 could assemble it the way you're asking the question.
Through the Chair every HUD 108 loan that is -- you're terminology is "settled." I'd like to know about them. They may not be settled, but they've been designated, right?
So the general assumption is that most of these, if they've been designated, they're going to settle.
That's right. 1497 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023
So from the start of the administration and the HUD 108 Loan Program, I'd like to know every loan that's been made, who it's been made to, what the project is, jobs, all the other information that goes with that. Now, is there a cap on the total dollar amount of 108 loans you can grant?
343. And what would you say off the top of your head -- how close are we to the 343 million cap?
In response to the Council President's question, I walked through what's approved, what's submitted, and what we think is going to happen in the upcoming Community Development Block Grant project, which I don't think you have yet. But in talking with OHCD, what they're thinking they're doing with housing, if all that happens, as laid out, by the end of year 25 of the 1498 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 CDBG program, which would be, I guess, July 2000, all their capacity would be used.
Your testimony is that by July of next year, we will have no HUD 108 loan capacity.
We will have -- I want to be very precise. We will have borrowed from the federal government or that total number. There will still be money in the loan pools to loan out for transactions; all that won't have been committed.
Well, you're making a distinction, I guess, here today with which I AM apparently somewhat unfamiliar. What is the difference between the loan pool that you continue to talk about, which sounds like individual businesses getting loans, and how is that different from Hawthorne Suites, any one of the TIFs that we've done? I mean, don't we have a HUD 108 loan in the Kvaerner project?
I'll try to do it 1499 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 briefly, but I may not be able to do it completely briefly. The HUD 108 Program has been used in one of three ways in Philadelphia, three generic ways. One is for housing projects. I mean I think 70 -- almost 79 million to date in housing projects, and there's about million in the 9 pipeline that OHCD has worked on. So housing is 10 one generic category. 11 A second is -- Hawthorne Suites is 12 probably a very typical example -- a single 13 transaction where we apply to the federal 14 government, get an approval, take the money, loan 15 it to the project. So it's approved by project by 16 the federal government. We, in our jargon, call 17 those "stand-alones." In other words, they stand 18 individually transactionally. 19 The third generic category is -- and I 20 believe this remains the case -- we're the only 21 city in the country that they had to approve a 22 program where we could actually draw the money 23 down from HUD, have it in Philadelphia, have negotiated lending criteria with HUD, and be able to loan it as a company comes in. Asia Food is an 1500 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 example up on American Street. So there's a transaction, we can look at it and say it meets the lending criteria that we -- the underwriting criteria that we have with HUD, and we can loan it into the transaction. We do not go back to HUD for approval.
To date, we have borrowed 50 million from HUD for the loan pool.
And that first number I gave you when you began questioning was the 12, have come out of the pool.
-- of the 50 1501 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 million.
Right. There's a 7 pipeline, which I'm happy to share, and the report 8 will provide you of what's in the pipeline. And 9 you have -- 10
-- just for accuracy? And we also have an application at HUD for another, quote/unquote, round of money to go into the loan pool. And I'll show that in a report, too.
All right. Let's go back to -- the cap is $343 million.
It is a statutory 1502 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 provision that you take five times a community's annual Community Development Block Grant allocation. And whatever that math is -- in Philadelphia's case, it's this number -- is your cap of how much you can have outstanding in HUD 108 borrowing at any one point in time.
Of which you've set aside $50 million as a loan pool amount.
To go to different businesses. And the remaining $293 million just goes into projects?
Well, 79 million is 1503 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 going into housing projects. Another 82 million has gone into projects. And then -- and that's in terms of projects that HUD has approved. Again, in a report, we'd be happy to provide you. We can show you applications submitted and applications being worked on.
Again, I walked through these and I'd be happy to do it again. HUD has approved 214 million in applications we've submitted from Philadelphia, 214 million. Now, 82 million are these individual transactions, 50 million's the pool, 79 million is housing, and there's a small 3.9 million that goes to that first round of 108s that was done in the early '80s. So they stay on the books until they're paid off. There's $85 million in applications currently pending at HUD that have been submitted but have not been approved. 1504 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023
Well. . . I mean, this is not too high a math here. But there's $214 million in applications -- you said submitted or approved?
All right. Now, you've not a statutory limit of times what your 4 CDBG allocation is. 5
-- you anticipate in hand and allocated and in the pipeline intended to be allocated, we will be at the statutory cap. Is that your testimony?
That's right. And I want to be -- 'cause I'm -- I don't -- that's also based on information I've received from the Office of Housing and Community Development.
Let's say you're very close. 1506 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023
So in the past 4 years, you have run potentially right up -- it 5 will be 7.58, you will have run right up to the 6 line of the cap. What do we do after that? 7
As I said, there will still be funding in the pool. Again, I hope I'm not making a mistake. I'm not trying to be bureaucratic, but there'll be money in the pool for individual transactions that come along.
And there will be -- in effect, as loans are paid off or projects are paid off, you'll recreate capacity, if you think of it as a borrowing limit or, you know, like a debt ceiling for bonds.
As it gets paid down, we could go back and put something back under it. In fact, loans are being paid off now. So, again, when Madam Chair asked, I took a snapshot on February 1st.
To pick any date, it 1507 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 will be slightly different as we retire some loans.
Well, as you give information back to the Chair, then why don't -- I think then what I would like to see is a schedule that lays out in a post-June 30, 2000 environment, say, for the next years, what the yearly 9 repayments are from the previously issued loans 10 and how much will then be in the pool and available to be re-lent.
Okay. We can do that. But, you know, it will be somewhat projecting.
Right, I understand. I mean, I'd just like to have a sense of -- I mean, you know, in its hey day, maybe, you know, two or three years ago, while there are always more projects than there is money available, it's nice to know that you have a large chunk of cash that you can put into projects. And your testimony here today is essentially those days are over.
And they will be 1508 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 much smaller in comparison --
-- to dollars available for these kinds of projects going forward because there's been tremendous activity over the past three, four years.
That's right, you're exactly right. Doing another $20 million loan would be extremely difficult; doing another or may not be on an order of magnitude. That's right.
You might be able to do a 20, but that's the only one you're going to do.
All right, okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. I do have another question but I do know that my time expired about five minutes ago.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Ortiz.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Director, in terms of the Empowerment 1509 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 Zone, the stories that in terms of investment and buying up properties that have come out of the Daily News, what are the systems in place to be able to check whether the taxpayers' money is being invested wisely in terms of monies being spent?
Basic systems that we have in place, there are normal procedures, you know, for acquiring property -- more often than not to go through either the Redevelopment Authority or PIDC or sometimes PCDC, just --
Why was there not appraisals and the usual things that take place when you're buying real estate in this case?
Right. I don't know. We are looking to find out exactly what happened with those transactions.
Shouldn't that be a matter of concern that we're spending taxpayers' money, and the process that a run-of-the-mill real 1510 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 estate person takes to check market value or appraise the properties and so on before they enter into negotiations and business, we're not taking.
I think you're question was, Shouldn't that be? and my answer is yes. And that is, we're looking into --
That leads to, what are we doing with the other investments in terms of the Empowerment Zone? And I'd like to begin looking further into that, and I would like to see how much money has been sent, the process of expenditures, how many jobs have been created. Because this is -- obviously, the Empowerment Zone is about creation of jobs and the loans that have been given, the grants that have been given through the Empowerment Zone. And get that to the President.
Yes. And I'll note that's both on specific projects as well as the loan programs from the financial institutions that were set up.
And they are all three now 1511 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 in the three subzones, they are all three now actively engaged. Just one year ago, we still weren't -- at least one of the three zones still did not have its financial institution -- Community Bank, essentially -- up and lending, but now we do, and we can provide that information for both direct out of the Zone as well as through the financial partnership.
Yeah, the contracts that have been given from the Zone and so on. Before the budget process is over, I really would you like to have a full discussion and -- because -- and if you can get those materials so that when we have the discussion, the Council people here can have a sense of what we're talking about. Because right now, we get more information from the newspaper than we get from the Administration in terms of the Empowerment Zone. I don't know about you, Madam Chair, but I get absolutely nothing in terms of how this money is being spent and whether it's being used properly. All right?
Yes, we will provide that 1512 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 information.
As we all know, today is PAL Day, and Martina Nash, who is 17, is the President of City Council today. She is a five-year member of the Ford PAL Center at Seventh and Snyder Avenue and also attends -- she is a senior at Bok Vocational. We certainly welcome you here today. And at this point, I will recognize Councilman Rizzo. And I will relinquish my chair to Ms. Nash for just a few minutes.
Madam President could I have an extra minute? (Laughter.)
Thank you. Welcome. My question to Mr. Mullin is the entertainment center that currently is having some problems on the 1500 block of Cecil B. Moore. Last fall, an oversight committee was made up of Administration officials and was formed in an 1513 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 effort to get the project back on track. Could you bring us up to speed on what went wrong and what we're doing to hopefully restart such a very important project that apparently got off to a very bad start?
Perhaps I could -- if I may summarize where -- I think where we found that it went off on the wrong -- sort of in the wrong direction. And where we think it went off in the wrong direction were basically costs associated with some change orders in the project as they were developing and changing the project during the course of its initial construction; the most significant of those being a desire to add a basement to the facility that would allow space for day care and connect with the rest of the facility. The conditions and -- it flooded, and it basically ended up where there were significant cost overruns. At that point -- at that point, that's when we got together and called all the parties together said, Okay, what's going on here, let's take a look at what options do we have for the future given what we've already put in, what our 1514 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 potential tenants are going to be. About that same time, we found out that we couldn't use the word Billy -- and I'm using royal "we" here, but we couldn't use the name "Billie Holiday." And then that original idea of the center changed into now a restaurant-nightclub with offices above. We looked at a variety of possible alternatives there, including a one-story building, a slab-on-grade continuing. And we decided that the best possible direction would be to continue -- to scale the building down slightly but keep it a multistory building. And we are working out now with the construction company and construction management -- new construction management exactly what are the costs and the timetable for that.
Did you or the developer hire the construction manager from Baltimore?
I think the developer and the Empowerment Zone actually hired, but it was through the oversight group that was set up to identify them, I believe.
We made an effort to 1515 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 try to find someone local?
I don't know -- I don't know all of the details on that. My strong guess is that yes, we did take a look locally. I'll have to find out. There were some specific -- the Baltimore construction management company had some specific workings in this type of building and in this type of project.
Has the committee concluded its internal audit of the expenditures at this point?
I think they have. There's not been a final audit, but they're wrapping things up, yes.
Okay. And according to a media report, it indicates that the project should soon restart?
We're hoping that it will restart very soon. I can't say whether that's in the next month or so, but I hope it will begin this spring, or restart this spring.
My final question is in reference to the Airport, Mr. Isdell. Could 1516 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 you explain briefly to me the police that are assigned to the Philadelphia International Airport, the police officers. Are they completely funded by the Aviation Fund? Do the airlines pay the entire tab for the Philadelphia police that are assigned to the Philadelphia International Airport?
Yes. I believe that that includes personnel cost, employee benefits, vehicles. I would assume that they get some support from the Central Police Headquarters downtown. But for the most part, our entire police contingent is budgeted through the Aviation Fund. Let me just double-check. (Mr. Isdell confers with someone off mike.)
So I was actually wrong. We actually reimburse Police Headquarters for central service costs in addition to the on-site staff.
Do you know how many 1517 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 police officers are assigned to the Philadelphia International Airport total? Because that's a number that we need to subtract pretty much out when we talk about how many police officers that we have in the City. How many police officers, without revealing -- I'm not talking about undercover -- approximately how many officers?
We have 116 budgeted positions, and they are kept filled almost 100 percent of the year, we try to keep them filled.
So when we talk about 6800 police officers, we should factor out that number of police officers that are committed to the Airport, they stay at the Airport. If there's a parade, the airlines don't want their officers that they're paying for to go to the St. Patrick's Day parade. So I would assume that those -- you say 168 officers.
That those 116 officers are assigned to the Airport and aren't pulled away. 1518 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023
Yes. I'm sorry, the very last thing you said, Councilman? I thought --
Those officers are not reassigned. If there's a parade,, they don't pull officers from the Airport to cover a 7 parade. My point is, if the airlines are paying 8 for them, they expect them to be there. 9
That's correct. And if 10 there were a rare occasion where an Airport police officer were pulled to do duty in a different part of the City, that would not paid for by the Aviation Fund; that would have to be paid for by the General Fund. I'm not aware of any situation where that's happened in the last five years or so.
When a police officer has to work overtime, is summoned to court, does the airlines also pay for that?
So there's no 22 expense for the police officers, 116, from the taxpayers; it's all funded through the Airport.
Right. There's no expense to the General Fund whatsoever. 1519 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023
With the expansion at the Airport and the terminals and all the facilities, have we added any police, have any police been taken? Has that number increased in the last year or two?
It's really held pretty steady, and I would say that's a credit to our captain, Captain John MacArthur and the management of the available resources. We have done some creative things such as, you know, acquisition of carts and vehicles that enable them to be more mobile. But we have not done any increased staffing over the past four or five years.
May I take this opportunity to introduce the new Acting Director a of Aviation, Lorenzo Jackson, who's to my right, and he's a student at Central High School, 15 years old, a junior-varsity basketball player, and I believe he's participated in AIDS walks and other events at Central High School. And welcome.
Nice to see you. (Lorenzo Jackson stands for 1520 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 recognition.) (Applause.)
Thank you, Madam Chair. MISS NASH: You're welcome. The Councilman recognizes -- oh, the Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter.
She's a very quick study, Madam President, yes. She'll probably cut me off when the buzzer goes off, too. Mr. Mullin, I'd like to talk about. . . some time ago, there was a meeting with the Roxborough Business Association to talk about a business marketing study for Ridge Avenue. Is it my understanding that there's funding available for these types of studies from time to time that have been performed in other neighborhoods across the City?
Yes, under our -- what 1521 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 I've been referring to as our "Expanded Commercial Corridor Program."
Okay. And is it a particularly exhaustive process to go through to get funding for one of these market studies?
There shouldn't be. There was an exhaustive process that preceded our actually setting up the program itself, but there shouldn't be an exhaustive process in identifying -- in proposing projects like that and getting our funding or requests that the proposing entity go back and find some matching funds or restructure things.
Well, could you put some time and attention toward figuring out how I could get grant funding for a market study for the Roxborough Business Association and the Ridge Avenue corridor? It is a corridor that is stable but needs some support. And given the host of other things that we are able to find funding for, there's no reason why we should not be able to support this particular effort. Ridge Avenue is a commercial corridor surrounded by a whole lot of residential and 1522 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 potential customers. We're trying to upgrade the area, but having a business marketing study would be very helpful. I'd like to try to get that done as soon as possible and no later than the spring.
I'd be happy to do that. In fact, I'm a bit surprised. If you had asked me that in the hallway or here officially, my first response would have been, "I thought we had already processed and approved that," so I will double-check.
Well, I appreciate the quick approval. If you could share that with the folks that need to get the money to them, I'd appreciate that as well.
All right, thank you. Madam Chair, I return my time. I don't know who you'd like to allocate it to.
Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I understand, Mr. Mullin and Mr. 1523 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 Isdell, you mentioned the Economic Stimulus Fund in the Section 108 and that you'll get us a listing. I am also interested in the detail about the Commercial Revitalization Program and Facade Improvement in the Small Business Revolving Loan as it affects my district. If I could have that.
Also, I'm interested in the Mortgage Loan Neighborhood Development Fund. So those are my areas of interest.
Such as they affect my area. As you know, we've started a West Philadelphia on the Move initiative. We've established a corporation, and we need all the information that we can because 52nd Street and 60th Street are our anchors.
And this third issue that I would like to mention, we mentioned the other day that we were concerned about the Paul Robeson House being mainstreamed for the City. They are one of the newest agencies. They 1524 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 have their marker outside. They're still fighting for funding, and they need to be put on the register as one of the sites for our city, the main sites. Also, I met with Belmont Mansion and Audrey Johnson-Thornton. And she is concerned about the yearly threat that they may have to move. And, you know, Belmont Mansion's done a lot in recent years, but they're still always threatened every year that they may have to move, and other related issues, which relate to the parks in our city, and we want to get past that. And, finally, the Freedom Theater. I don't know whether there's some funding issues involved that we hope are resolved, and we would appreciate it if you would check into those cultural institutions for us.
The Chair recognizes Councilman Rizzo. 1525 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023
Mr. Mullin, I'd like to go back to the Entertainment Center. I neglected to ask a question, that I need to help compose a response to a letter that I received. The nightclub. There supposedly was going to be a nightclub in the basement. I heard you mention a day care center. I understood that the basement was going to accommodate nightclub. This is a nonprofit. Could you explain to me how a nightclub fits into the mix of things as it pertains to that facility? Who is going to operate it? Is the nonprofit going to operate a nightclub?
I think the original idea was to have that as a Billie Holiday Center, which would include a nightclub and be part of development on both sides of the street there, that it would sort of resurrect a jazz and music theme and a potential for a radio station in the building, so I think it was a part of the overall theme. I can certainly find out and I will find out who was envisioned to be the management, but I don't believe that it was supposed to be 1526 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 managed by the City agencies or the Empowerment Zone. I don't believe that. But I'm not exactly sure.
We expect to spend $3.4 million, maybe close to $4 million to build this facility? Thirty jobs, is that kind of a little out of kilter?
It's a little -- well, it depends on which kilter, and I think those numbers -- we don't know what the final numbers are but I think those are definitely in the order of magnitude that it will be. It is a particular type of development that really is -- we're hoping, that this will spur development along the rest of the lock and continue the development, both in the beach interplex and the Jump Street further to the east. So we're hoping that this is not just a stand-alone 30 jobs but instead, a part of the redevelopment of the entire avenue for several blocks there.
So is it safe for me to understand that normally, you would hope to 1527 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 employ more than 30 people for an investment of $3.5 million?
For our loan programs, for example, we usually have a number of how much will we lend during our grant programs per job, and they can be -- for various programs, they can be $25,000 per job, $50,000 per job, on that order of magnitude -- and in some special cases, a little bit more. This one, partly because of the cost overruns, when you divide the total project cost by the number of jobs, it will be higher definitely than our average. But we're hoping again that part of the benefits will not be just at that particular site but for helping spurring redevelopment on all sides of the site.
I assume we've learned something from this. I assume that a plan is needed before a project begins because, apparently, the people that have called me, talked, are very disappointed and troubled by the fact that this very important project was handled badly and probably could be almost finished today if the monies, the Empowerment Zone Fund were 1528 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 being managed better. Would you agree?
I'm not so sure about that it could be done today, but it could be much further along, and there's no question that I think we have learned both about the process and the coordination of projects like this. Yes.
It amazes me that anyone would add on a basement without checking to see what the conditions are prior to making that decision, to set a shovel in to start digging a hole, knowing what you're dealing with. And I was led to believe that that was never done.
I'm not exactly sure of the specific finding, but I think that that was a part of the findings, yes.
Does anyone have any more questions? (No further questions at this time.)
Thank you, Madam Chair. 1529 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 Thank you, Councilmembers.
Next is the Mayor's Office of Information Services. (Brian Anderson et al come forward.)
Good morning, Council President and members of City Council.
I am Brian Anderson, Chief Information Officer for the City of Philadelphia. Here with me today is Dr. Karl Bortnick, Chief Program Officer for our agency; Mr. Richard Congo, who's the Enterprise Manager; and Norm Reilly who's our Budget Officer. On behalf of the entire staff of the Mayor's Office of Information Services, I am pleased to provide this testimony on our proposed Fiscal 2000 Operating Budget. The Mayor's Office of Information Services is requesting a total of $13 238,000 from the General Fund for Fiscal Year 2000. 5 million for Class 100, 54 million for Class 200, and $252,000 for Classes 300 and 400. With the Fiscal Year 2000 Budget, we 1530 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 will provide continued and enhanced service to support the City's central and departmental computer systems. More specifically, in Fiscal Year 2000, MOIS's priority is ensuring that the City will be able to meet the challenge of the Y2K problem. Madam President, because of the complexities related to the disclosure of our efforts and progress in the Year 2000 effort, I am requesting that this written disclaimer be included with our written testimony. I have several copies that I can provide to you. As you know, on January 1, 2000, the date logic that operate many computer systems and equipment with embedded technology may not function properly because they may not be able to distinguish the Year 2000 from the Year 1900. Any computer systems or software program that does not incorporate a four-digit in its date logic will potentially fail or be disrupted by this problem. Last March, the City implemented a plan to minimize the risk of disruption of City services or operations caused by the Y2K problem. We established a Year 2000 Steering Committee 1531 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 under the direction of the Managing Director and myself. This committee is in place to oversee citywide activities to remediate any problems and to minimize our risk. To date, we have identified over 700 critical governmental processes that are dependent on hundreds of computer systems, electronic equipment, and external contracted vendors. For each of these, the City identified the probability of failure, the impact associated with the potential failure, the remediation requirements, and the contingency planning necessary. To minimize any potential disruptions, the City has undergone a thorough risk assessment of four major areas of information technology. They include: the City's financial and administrative systems; the City's information technology, which includes all of the City's personal computers, its network infrastructure and its related software; the City's facilities in embedded technology; the utilities and other critical vendors that the City depends on to operate properly. In addition to all of our activities 1532 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. , Baltimore, Chicago, and Detroit. This form provided benchmark and best-practice information and collaboration opportunities that are valuable in our ongoing efforts for the year 2000. Another key initiative for our agencies for FY 2000 is our Electronic Government Initiative. The growth of Internet access and services is well documented. Nearly every day, there are news stories on how the Internet has revolutionized our lives. The City is committed to this electronic revolution by providing City information and services to the public electronically. Another key initiative is the Geographic Information Systems. The use of Geographic Information Systems technology within City departments is growing rapidly. GIS technology links information to digital map images, which is an important tool for many City departments. For example, it provides the Health 1533 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 Department and the Planning Commission, the housing agencies, and other departments an extensive capability for mapping and analysis. The Data Warehousing Initiative.
Data warehousing will provide the City with opportunities to improve its management processes by using historical trends and measures as a basis for making strategic and operational decisions. Data warehousing is technology that allows users to easily report trends and performance from detailed transactional data. Our initiatives to increase the value of information technology. MOIS will continue to increase the value of information technology for the City by developing new programs that maximize the efficiency and minimize the cost of technology needed to support the City's businesses and operational needs. These initiatives include upgrading the City's central data center and mainframe computer systems by August of 1999. The central mainframe system will be upgraded, enabling MOIS to provide and improve service and lower citywide computer hardware costs. The Desktop Support Services Contract. 1534 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 The new citywide contract for the Desktop Support Program improves the quality of service and significantly reduces the costs related to the desktop maintenance contract. The Consolidated Purchasing Program for Personal Computers. The new Consolidated Purchasing Program implemented by MOIS and the Procurement Department significantly improved the process of purchasing a computer. The time from order to delivery was reduced from 90 days to 12 days. The average cost of a PC has dropped from 13 approximately $2200 per unit to $1,100 per unit. 14 The initiative to upgrade our "Citynet" 15 network infrastructure. The City's enterprise 16 network system is one of the largest local 17 government systems in the country, allowing City 18 employees to access citywide e-mail and various 19 other software applications. As a result of the 20 upgrade plan, Citynet will grow from approximately 21 15,000 users to 30,000 users to incorporate the 22 addition of the School District. 23 In conclusion, we can all be proud as a government for the advances in technology made to date. This progress could not have been 1535 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 accomplished without the collaborative effort of countless technology staff and managers from the Mayor's Office of Information Services and other City departments as well as the support of City Council itself. New technologies like the Internet provide opportunities for us to grow significantly and to improve services in the image of City government. This new technology also presents new challenges and complexities that must be carefully managed to ensure the successful transition of the City of Philadelphia government into the 21st century. Madam President, this concludes my testimony. I want to thank City Councilmembers for their ongoing support, and I will be glad to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you. Could you tell us what the City's strategic plan for becoming Y2K-compliant is? What do you estimate this will cost? And does the City's budget include this funding?
The City's strategy is to approach the Y2K problem as a risk-management 1536 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 problem. We have focused on identifying all of our critical services and all of the critical functions that are required to support those services. So we have identified, as I stated in my testimony, over 700 business processes that are critical by the nature of my definition. Our approach is to investigate every computer system and every technology, every equipment with embedded technology and every supplier, contractor or supplier, to ensure that no problems will occur. To date, most of the costs related to the Year 2000, our Year 2000 efforts, have been included within our General Budget. And I do not have an exact cost for you at this time, but I could put together something for you if you need it.
I appreciate it. You indicate in your testimony that the Year 2000 Steering Committee will be guiding all of the City's agencies in evaluating the Year 2000 problem. When will you be in a position to brief City Council on the status of the Steering 1537 2/23/99 - WHOLE COMM. - Budget - 990023 Committee's findings on the various contingency plans?
We are currently -- as far as our contingency plans are concerned, we are currently scheduled to have most of the plans completed by April. We're in the process of developing the plans. So I would guess that sometime around May, we would be in a position to give you a status on those plans.
It's my understanding that we have somebody here from the Law Department. I would like to have whoever's here from the Law Department read into the record the disclaimer that was circulated to us.
So that the record is very, very clear. (Michael Athay of the Law Department comes forward.)