COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC HEARING AND PUBLIC MEETING BEFORE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC PROPERTY AND PUBLIC WORKS - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, 12/15/1999 12:00 p.m. - - - RESOLUTION NO. 990890 - Approving the City of Philadelphia's Amended 9-1-1 Plan, and authorizing the Commissioner of Public Property, on behalf of the City of Philadelphia, to submit the Amended 9-1-1 Plan to the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency for review and approval, as required by the Pennsylvania Public Safety Emergency Telephone Act. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT ANNA C. VERNA COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE BLACKWELL COUNCILWOMAN JOAN KRAJEWSKI COUNCILMAN JAMES F. KENNEY COUNCILMAN RICHARD MARIANO - - - VINCENT VARALLO ASSOCIATES, INC. Registered Professional Reporters Eleven Penn Center, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 561-2220 I N D E X Joseph James, Deputy Commissioner. . . . . . . Department of Public Property 3 12/15/99 PUBLIC PROPERTY - RES. 990890 P R O C E E D I N G S
Good morning, everyone. I do apologize for the delay. This is a public hearing of the Committee on Public Property and Public Works regarding Resolution No. 990890. Good morning. Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Good morning. My name is Joseph James. Last name is J-A-M-E-S. I'm the Deputy Commissioner for the Department of Public Property. I'm here on behalf of Commissioner Andres Perez. Jr., and I have testimony in support of the resolution. I'm appearing before the committee today to recommend the adoption of Resolution 18 990890, which amends the City's current 9-1-1 Plan, as required by the Pennsylvania Public Safety Emergency Telephone Act, known as Act 78. Act 78 requires the filing of a 9-1-1 Plan every three years with the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, commonly referred to as "PEMA." The amended plan is the first plan 4 12/15/99 PUBLIC PROPERTY - RES. 990890 filed by the City since the original 9-1-1 Plan was filed in 1992. The purpose of the amended plan is to document the costs associated with running the City's 9-1-1 system, the technical capabilities of the existing system, and the future plans for improving the system. Once the City provides this information to PEMA in the form of the amended plan, a copy of the amended plan is forwarded by PEMA to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, which reviews the costs associated with the 9-1-1 system and determines if continued collection of the 9-1-1 surcharge is permissible. The amended 9-1-1 Plan is different from the 1992 original 9-1-1 Plan filed by the City in several respects. 1. The present plan provides more information regarding technical aspects of the City's 9-1-1 system and provides descriptive information regarding the technical upgrades made to the system since 1992. The present plan provides more complete information regarding the role of the Fire Department in the City's 9-1-1 system. 5 12/15/99 PUBLIC PROPERTY - RES. 990890 2. The Fire Department is responsible for the running of the City's secondary public safety answering point, from where the fire and paramedic services are dispatched. 3. The amended plan provides more current information for review by the State agency, such as updated telephony costs, radio system costs, labor costs, operational costs, and capital costs. 4. The current plan includes information related to the City's management of competitive local exchange carriers. Since the deregulation of the telecommunications industry in 1996, competitive local exchange carriers did not exist at the time the original plan was filed with the State. The amended 9-1-1 Plan contains monetary figures for justification of the continued collection of the City's $1 per month per line surcharge rate. Act 78 placed a cap on the recovery cost to $1 for cities of the first class, despite the fact that the City expends at least $3.05 per access line per month to provide 9-1-1 access to residents, business organizations, 6 12/15/99 PUBLIC PROPERTY - RES. 990890 and visitors seeking emergency services. The funds collected are used to pay the salary and operation costs of the City's 9-1-1 Center, and the capital costs are to build the previously-approved 800-megahertz radio system. In conclusion, the amended 9-1-1 Plan, as submitted, is reflective of changes and modifications from the original plan and is in a form acceptable to the Department. I'm available to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you. Any questions from members of the committee? (No questions.)
There being none, is there anyone else here who would like to testify? (No response.)
All righty. That then will end our public hearing on Resolution 990890. - - -
We will now 7 12/15/99 PUBLIC PROPERTY - PUB. MEETING enter into our stated meeting. I want to entertain a motion.
Madam Chair, I move that Resolution No. 990890 be approved by this committee and forwarded to the full Council for approval. (Duly seconded.)
Thank you. All in favor, aye? Opposed? There are none. Seeing that, this ends our hearing, and we thank all who have come and all who were prompt. (Adjourned at 12:03 p.m.) - - - 8 C E R T I F I C A T E I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of Wednesday, December 1999, were 8 reported fully and accurately by me, and that this 9 is a correct transcript of same. 10 11 12 13 RE: COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC PROPERTY AND PUBLIC WORKS 14 RESOLUTION NO. 990890 15 __________________________________, JOSEPHINE CARDILLO, Registered Professional Reporter