Committee Hearing, February 16, 2001

Thank you. Thank you very much.

As you know, Safe and 931 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Sound has one of its initiatives to look at drug and alcohol prevention among children in Philadelphia I'm not sure Mark said it, but I know he knows it very well. Substance abuse for our kids is a very, very difficulty area. And one of the reasons we made an initiative of Safe and Sound is to try to determine what's the best way to effect that change rather than just putting money in it and not getting a return on it, what is the way to approach it. Safe and Sound is about to come out with a concept paper. They have spent the last year and a half, I believe, or year beginning to work with the professionals in the field who work with adolescence who have a that training for children who know prevention to try to figure out what is our best approach to do this. And at the point that we can begin to sort that out, we will then be prepared to begin to look for the significant dollars I think it's going to effect a prevention program. But I want to be very caution that we no longer just put money out there and hope we get better results and don't have a way of, one, measuring it and making sure we're going to bring down the probability that youngsters actually get engaged in the substance 932 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET abuse lifestyle.

I thank you for that. Again, as you move down the road of exploration and gathering data, I think it's imperative that the School District be involved at every -- and that is not to say that the School District is already at the table, but I do believe they have a responsibility in the prevention education of this not at grade 9, but at grade 1. And so as you gather the data, if they are not already, please encourage them, and I will certainly make it clear during budget hearings when they come before this body, that they be at the table.

Let me just have Dr. Dogan come up who's the medical director of the behavorial system. She's been involved in this past year and can tell you whose been involved.

Please. Good morning. Before you start, please let me put on the record that I would forwarded to the Chair the information on the programs that are currently in the school and which schools are participating so we see where we are and where we need to go to make it a system-wide initiative. 933 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET

Hello. I'm Judith Dogan. I'm both a general psychiatrist --

Excuse me. Can you pull the mike closer. We absolutely can't hear you. It's not a great system.

I'm Judith Dogan. I'm a general psychiatrist and child and adolescence psychiatrist functioning within the behavioral healthy system. I want to look at you and still use the mike. I had the privilege of being part of an adolescent work group on substance abuse which was actually charged as a work group that is part of the Safe and Sound initiative at the Mayor's request. When convened last January. There were about 50 individuals who are connected with all aspects of the school system, juvenile justice, behavorial health providers both on the mental health and the substance abuse side. There were community representatives and a large group of individuals who are involved in both preventative research as well as substance abuse research. We are in the final stages of crafting a report that will provide recommendations around prevention services, early 934 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET intervention services, and treatment services that we feel will best meet the needs of this community.

Thank you very much. We'll look forward to that information as we go down the road. I thank you for that. I have two more questions, Madam Chair. Please tell us, elaborate on your testimony, the asthma bus. We know that in our community asthma among little people is on the rise, and just enlighten us a little on what that is a what it's doing. COMMISSIONER TSOU: The Thomas Jefferson University has in cooperation with various other groups, including a special grant, a two-decker bus, sort of the British style bus, which is an education bus that is available elementary school kids to teach them about a variety respiratory illness, asthma being the most prominent one. And there are panels in the bus which sort tell a cartoon story about how asthma comes about and what you can do about preventing or controlling asthma. The panels are themselves switchable so that you could actually do a discussion about tobacco use, for example, also in that bus. We have the only bus of its kind in 935 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Philadelphia in the nation, and we hope to use this as an educational tool.

It's a novel approach and hopefully it will get the attention of parents who have children with asthma. My final question is around what the Health Department is doing in the area of sudden infant death syndrome. I know at one time the Health Department provided counseling services to those families. You may still be doing that. I'm just interested in an update. And what services are being rendered to families who lose children due to death other than sudden infant death syndrome, homicide and those kinds of things. COMMISSIONER TSOU: We are very concerned about sudden infant death syndrome, SIDS, and in particular your concern, I'm sure, is related to the of the grief counseling that goes with that. I wonder, actually if Sue Lieberman would like to speak with you about this issue.

Hi. I'm he Susan Lieberman, director of the Division of Early Childhood, Youth, and Women's Health. The SIDS program provides culturally 936 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET competent bereavement counseling, group sessions, education programs around unexpected or death for children up to age two. And they serve about 250 families a year. There is also a program out of medical examiners office called the grief assistance program --

It's called what?

The grief assistance program, which provides counseling to families who have lost relatives to homicide and other kinds of deaths that are unexpected.

So for parents who lose their little people after the age of two, the City has a service in place where that counseling service can be continued in spite of the Health Department not providing that, correct?

Yes. Yes, ma'am.

I should wait until the next round for additional questions.

Thank you. Councilman Clarke. While he's coming, let me ask you, PHMC collects data for the Health Department. What kind 937 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET of data do they collect for you? COMMISSIONER TSOU: Philadelphia Health and Management Corporation has probably the nation's most extensive longitudinal study on behavioral risk factor surveys, things like smoking prevalence, overweight, access to health care. It's called the community health data base, and their most recent statistics were recently made available for the Year 2000. It's something that's actually is mostly used as a research tool, but it's also of some use to policymakers on what's going on in Philadelphia.

Could you send us a list of data you might have and then we can request any specific information that we might want. COMMISSIONER TSOU: Certainly.

Thank you Councilman Clarke.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon, gentlemen. There was a story two or three years ago that talked about what they quoted as hot zones on former industrial sites up along in the northern part of the City along the northeast rail corridor and it talked about the 938 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET direct relationship of those sites, most have been abandoned and related to health problems such as asthma, cancer. You recall that series? COMMISSIONER TSOU: I recall a series. I remember a series where there was a hazardous -- there was fire hazardous site and there were several individuals who ecologically linked respiratory cancer cases that was associated with that dump site.

There were numerous locations. Most of them were basically some form of industrial sites. The majority of them happen to be East and North Philadelphia, the lower part of Kensington. Apparently, an analysis was done with direct relationship to the type of activities in those facility and certain illnesses associated with people in those areas starting with children, people in their 30s and 40s leading up to a greater incidence of cancer, asthma, all this other type of health problems. COMMISSIONER TSOU: I don't remember the series.

My understanding is as a part of the Administration initiative, part of 939 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET that quality of life resolution talks about environmental issues. My understanding is we have to a great extent reached out over state and federal agencies to get resources associated with environment clean-up because we recognize to some degree the problem with the environment and individual's health. Is there anybody in your department directly working with the Administration, or is that Department of Human Services. This is very important. Actually, my state senator is working on this in the City. COMMISSIONER TSOU: It's fair to say that Director Richman knows much more about this issue than I do. She's directly involved.

You have been involved in this whole issue with respect to quality of life. One of the larger aspects of health in individuals in those neighborhoods, I asked about a series paper that talked about these industrial sites causing various illness among the people who live in around those sites. My question is, as we move ahead with the initiative, who from the Health Department is working on that aspect of the NCI program that will prioritize certain locations as it 940 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET relates to the environmental remediation and directly related to what we have identified as those hot zones.

I am one of the people now involved in the information and work with various people from social services including the Health Department. Part of what we are looking for is a list of the properties, and upon receiving those, we will send out a team of people to make sure that we know before they do have demolition of the property if there are any inherent dangers in that. One, if there's any asbestos, if any other material in the building to be demolished that would put the health of the people in and around that area of the City at risk and any other issues that go along with that community that we need to know in advance.

I don't think we're talking about the same thing. There is actually a list documented by -- I can't remember what newspaper it was that did the story. It was an extensive story maybe two or three days. They talked about these sites. Some of them had been abandoned. What was made or associated with those facilities caused illnesses, cancer, going on down 941 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET the line. What I'm trying to determine is, first of all, do you have that list? It was documented two or three years ago. I would hope you would have a sense of what that is. And if we do have that list, are we providing those areas that we know are problem areas as it relates to our environment with remediation?

John Domzalski, Health Department. I think that list in part have to do EPA list of issues on what they call the national priorities list. These are sites that either are or candidates for identification of superfund sites and clean-ups because of the hazardous chemicals or materials on or transported to those sites. So I believe you are correct on that. Those are national priority list sites which I think we could pull out some of our files and share with you.

I don't want you to share them with me. I'm trying to find if out you guys, L & I, or whoever is going to come in there and remediate these various sites.

One of the things that we will do and I will make sure that we're involved in is that the folks are putting together the plan and 942 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET has this information have our opinion on this information and that we are fully included in anything that's going to go on either these hot spots an area of the City that are going to be affected by it. So yes, if it's not involved in the planning now, we will make sure that it will be and that will continue.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman. We consistently -- and this is for Mr. Covone, mental health. We consistently hear from parents about their inability to access acute and long-term mental health services for children, particularly, when the kids are teenagers or 10 to 14 years old and they refuse treatment. What can you do? What usually happens? And what can parents do?

I'm going to touch on this briefly. I'm going to ask Dr. Dogan to provide some comments around this as well. The issue of long-term treatment, we're currently working since many of those children are in -- I guess, the question is long-term community 943 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET treatment or out-of-home treatment?

Why don't you tell me a little bit about both?

In this area, we are working closely with the Department of Human Services at this point in time to assure that a coordination not only for the plan and what's necessary for the child and the placement activities, but also the long-term plans, bringing the child back to the community. That's one important aspect and a major change that we've made over the course of the last couple of months where community behavioral health has assumed the responsibility for securing those long-term placement and non-DHS. Actually, we've streamlined it. Dr. Dogan spoke about the variety of programs available and some of the issues with both access and confidentiality and what involvement.

I do want to clarify that one of your concerns was how to provide assistance to parents when their children refuse treatment.

Yes.

I think one of the things that is very key here, and I'll speak more to the 944 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET treatment programs that we have available in general, is that we're certainly working very closely with our providers to understand that if in fact parents identify behavioral health care needs for an adolescent and that adolescent is not ready for services, we really do expect that our providers will work with parents so that we're hoping that any intervention that relates to children or adolescents is viewed as a family intervention. So that the first step is meeting with the parents to be able to assist the adolescent in getting services of some sort, which may be somewhat different than the parent first had anticipated. In terms of community-based services, we really do have a large group of providers who are available to evaluate and treatment of counseling services. We are working with our providers very aggressively for our member services unit to make sure that we are on top of the availability of treatment in each of our different provider organizations. I think we've identified that it's hard for families to connect with the speed with which they would hope. So we're trying to understand what providers we do have responsibility 945 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET to connect with them.

What do you about kids on ritalin and behavior-altering drugs? I've been dealing with these issues since the early '80s. It's one of my key issues. Personally, I think too many kids are over-diagnosed, but this is a big issue. I don't think the statistics have caught up with the real problem as all of you know, I'm sure. People who are diagnosed with this are refused to join the armed services. So there are serious issues that involve behavior-altering drugs. Teens experiencing -- the drug causing the opposite effect if you're not monitored closely, etcetera. I'm really concerned about how the department fits in with the treatment of attention deficit.

I want to begin by saying I share your concern and I'm glad that you're rating it as a key issue. I think one of things that we have made a major initiative over the last year and a half is looking at providing children and adolescence with very comprehensive evaluation services. We are firmly convinced that medications have been used and used quickly is that if behavioral health providers or, for that matter, 946 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET primary care providers are not taking enough time to understand psychological and social contributors to a child's strengths as well as difficulties, then they might be very quick to treat them with the use of medication. We have several pilot projects with a number of our outpatient providers asking them to extend the evaluation process so that before any recommendation for treatment is made, both a child and family or adolescent and family are seen several times face-to-face to be able to talk about concerns. Primary care physicians are contacted. School and educators are contacted with family's permission, other individuals who touched a child's life, so there's been some opportunity of really thinking fully about what supports difficulties as well as strengths. And part of that clearly is driven by let's appropriately assess the problem and then develop a treatment plan that follows from that.

I'm assuming that you have records similar to the School District for those kids who meet that income criteria are who not seen by private doctors who are patients receiving behavior-altering drugs. I assume that. 947 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET

We are able to track through our list of prescribing providers who are providing medications what medications are being prescribed to individuals of any age, in children in particular.

It's a serious issue. We've had -- worst case scenario, a welfare mother who thought her children didn't need to be using altering drugs and she was threatened her children would be removed if she didn't give them, so we fought with her. Of course, the kids are fine. They were not removed, but there are a lot of nightmares. We had a lot of complaints from grandparents and others because if they refuse to give their children, grandchildren, these altering drugs, so far they're told there's nothing we can do for you. I haven't talked with the new school board about it. But they are told there's nothing we can for you. You have to figure out yourself how to get your child educated.

Well, if I might take another moment speak to that. Certainly, we are willing to speak with every individual who wants to voice a concern in that area about medications being pushed or concerns about medications. But in a 948 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET practical level, as you know, we spent the last year working very closely with the Department of Human Services collaborative efforts. We are now looking very closely with the School District. We're trying to collaborate being able to, frankly, not only identify behavioral health needs, but help educate school staff so that they are more about when to raise a question rather than simply say that this is what we think needs to be done. We want to partner with them.

Does the City monitor mental health services with regard to racial disparities? For example, national-wide African-American men are overdiagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. That's an example. I'm certain that African-American children are diagnosed with ADD as well. But do we have those kinds of statistics?

We actually do in a variety of the data we collect, and we can provide you with a summary report on that information.

And I would add that in addition to the data that allows us to know the different categories diagnosis and origins, we're also very careful in looking at individual records 949 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET of individual's particular diagnosis. We're looking to make sure the diagnosis is appropriate and that treatment in place is proper.

Thank you. Mr. Covone, have you seen such a report including responses to mentally disabled persons in crisis. We sent it to the Health Commissioner.

I did see that last. We can we have a response directed to it and comments on that report. That should be coming to you within the next week.

Thank you very much. I will forego my question. Councilwoman Brown, you want to ask questions before we move on?

Thank you very much. The rapid assessment project, I want to draw our attention to that. Earlier in my career as a practitioner, we practiced we're not talk to each other. Now, DHS, family court, probation, and defender come together around this project is helpful and there's been some success. My question is, I know that you started November 2000, first of 950 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET all, do you anticipate it becoming a permanent fixture with regards to juveniles, young people under the age of 17.

We do.

You do see it becoming permanent fixture.

Yes.

Unfortunately, we know a lot of young people, juveniles, are ending up in the adult system. Would the intent or the mission of this project also be used for juveniles who are bing funneled to the adult system?

At this point in time, we've focussed that effort at the Youth Study Center. I think we'll see this as a critical support providing with the Youth Study Center. That's not in the current plan.

Based on dollars, based on the way the program is written?

The way this particular one is written.

Specifically for young people in the juvenile 951 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET justice system. The Health Department -- let me just put this in context. I know that always our needs are going to be greater than resources. The child care and facilities in our City. What role does the Health Department currently play with regards to the safeness of child care facilities in our facility? COMMISSIONER TSOU: I can certainly say that we do, in fact, inspect child care facilities, both the health and safety in two areas. One, we do educate individuals about infection control. Precautions in the way of appropriate handling of children who have diarrhea, other conditions like that. We also do safety inspections, and helping with that, let me ask for Randy Hirschhorn. Good afternoon. My name is Randall Hirschhorn. I'm Director of Environmental Health Services. Not only do we inspect each of the facilities, we also have a six-hour educational program for the providers which has proven very popular. In fact, so popular that the State Department of Welfare which requires six hours of training per year for each provider, providers use our training to fill their requirements because they 952 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET have found it so beneficial. The State has authorized to give those credits for the training. We cover all aspects of child care at home, injury, accidents, food retention, infection control, anything that might impact the health, safety, or welfare of a child we include in that training.

How old is your division or your department.

It was part of the Home Rule Charter.

Let me close with one final question and then a comment. Currently, in relationship with the medical community in Philadelphia, we know Philadelphia is a rich hub of medical institutions, and when we look at the overwhelming needs and admissions of the Philadelphia Health Department, I'm curious to know what are we doing with regards to reaching out into that world which is in the business of health. COMMISSIONER TSOU: There are linkages we have. We have a working relationship with the Philadelphia County Medical Society, the Delaware Valley Health Care Association. We work with projects that have common basis in terms of public 953 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET health. We also have been working with hospice, working with the flu program to try to get flu shots out there. There are, of course, relationship where we meet regularly, children special needs and with HIV.

Thank you very much. That's encouraging. I'll close. I don't want to beat a dead drum or beat a drum with regards to lead poising piece. Work with us. That is an enormous problem. Next year I want to see a graph that speaks in more detail about prevention and percentage of dollars both from the State and from the City. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Councilwoman. The Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Dr. Tsou, there was an issue that was a little out of the radar screen. I want to raise it with you and try to get a little higher on the radar screen of the Administration. And the issue is medical malpractice liability. And it's my 954 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET understanding that the City is in a position to, one, because of extremely high physician malpractice insurance costs, the State is having a problem, but the City would potentially suffer a greater extent because of the higher costs in Philadelphia. It is not clear to me what the City can do. I know there's a capital fund and primarily a state issue. As the state tries to work on this issue, I'd like to encourage you as a health professional for the City to try to get into this issue, educate a little more about it, talk to our counterparts in Harrisburg to see how we can get this situation under control. There are physicians leaving Philadelphia or leaving the area because of excessive costs. People will not come here, even though we are an incredible health care magna. I think statistic is that 10 percent are educated in the Philadelphia area, but because of these excessive costs, some physicians paying over a hundred thousand dollars in liability insurance, it kind of affects the decisions that people make and we will suffer as a result of lack of physicians in this area. So if I could make that request, I would certainly appreciate it. 955 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET COMMISSIONER TSOU: I'll be happy to assist in that area. Absolutely major issue for us in the future.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you very much. Are there any other questions of these witnesses? Thank you gentlemen. COMMISSIONER TSOU: Thank you.

Our the next group is the Office of Emergency Shelter and Services. Good afternoon. We have a copy of your testimony. If you simply would abbreviate it, we appreciate it. We will give a copy of your testimony to the stenographer. Mr. Nardone, kindly identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.

My name is Michael Nardone, and I'm the Deputy Managing Director for Special Needs Housing. And I think Sally Fisher is making her way to take off. As you said, I will just summarize briefly. As presented to Council, the proposed FY 956 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET 2002 budget for the Office of Emergency Shelter and Services is $32,899,376, of which $15,101,033 represents City General Fund dollars. The OES budget will support 138 positions in FY 2002.

Excuse me. I think you deserve a little more respect than you're getting. Anybody having personal conversations, please do so in the corridor. We are trying to conduct business. Thank you. Please proceed.

Over the course of the past year I think we've made some significant progress in a number of areas. I'll just briefly state them. One is in the area of permanent housing. We recently received some very good news from HUD which will allow us to support 180 existing units of housing as well as support 126 new housing units. Second, Sidewalk Behavior Ordinance, you heard earlier about some of the progress we've made there. Third, in the area of children services, I believe this office has greatly increased collaboration with City departments and there are a 957 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET number of accomplishments in the testimony. And finally, on the area of employment and training, we continue to make progress with the help of HUD funding as well as PWDC funding and City General Fund dollars. In order to build on this progress, we are planning over the next several months to initiate the development of a strategic plan as well as establish new Office of Adult Services within the Managing Director's Office. The budget before you will continue to support for core services at the heart of the OESS mission and provide for continued implementation of the important priority initiatives. It assumes funding for 2,000 emergency shelter beds next year. Over the last several years, we have witnessed a substantial decline and demand for and reliance on emergency shelter. Continuing on this path is consistent with this Administration's goal of moving the homeless services system away from emergency shelter toward more permanent housing opportunities for homeless individuals. In addition to emergency shelter, the FY 958 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET 2002 budget includes funding for case management as well as funding for employment and training homeless prevention. As demonstrated by the Mayor's leadership in the sidewalk ordinance implementation plan, the Administration is deeply committed to providing a continuum of services for homeless individuals and families to move to self-sufficiency. The FY 2002 budget before you continues to move the homeless system in the direction away from emergency shelter to more permanent housing. With that, I'll close my testimony and answer questions. I hope I was brief enough.

Yes, thank you so much. The Chair recognize Councilwoman Blackwell.

Thank you, Madam President. I did have a few questions, but the President made me promise. Now, how am I going refuse the President. Let me thank you for all of your service. Thank you, Sally, for the job that you continue to do, so we can honor you and thank you.

I echo those 959 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET same comments.

Would you tell me a little about the Office of the Adult Services? Where does that fit in?

Basically it's going to be an extension of my current duties. Basically what it allow us to do is consolidate homeless prevention programs under the responsibility of one individual. Right now, the homeless prevention efforts are housed both at the Office of Emergency Shelter and Services as well as the Office of Housing and Community Development. And this will allow for consolidation of responsibilities under one person. I think it's basically an extension of the present role of Deputy Managing Director.

In other words, since you are leaving there will be two jobs instead of one. That's what you're saying in other words.

One person will take over all responsibilities.

I'll mention one more issue if that's okay, Madam President. I had a few, but I'll only mention one more. In terms of neighborhoods, I know we 960 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET were doing a lot of focus on Center City. You commented that of the 70 people who were still on the streets, there are people who are hard to remove, but technically we ended our problem. What's the focus on neighborhoods? Is there any special focus on neighborhoods? Or in my area it's just University City since that's around the corner. It's kind of like they're trying to make it Center City West. But will there be any special focus there or just that we refer back to the same programs? What's the statistics on homelessness in neighborhoods? Is there any special plan or any special program?

Well, with respect to development of outreach services, the services that I talked about earlier in the week did not really focus on Center City exclusively. We, in fact, many of the phone calls that the Outreach Coordination Center gets come from outside the Center City area and outreach responds to those requests. And I think that as this develops and as we learn more, I would think it would, of course, successful in eliminating or continuing this reduction in Center City population we'll be able to -- I mean, we're 961 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET basically tracking the results to make sure that the outreach goes to where people are.

I will end my questions. Thank you for all that you do. You have my commitment always, life-long commitment, and I'm just proud that we've come such a long way in our City. Thank you. Thank you, Sally.

Thank you.

The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown.

Thank you, Madam President. You mentioned on a number of initiatives that your office is undertaking and you mentioned partnerships, which is an operative word. Is there partnership with Philadelphia Free Library or with the Book Bank with regards to providing children in shelters with books? Have you entertained that? Does one exist?

I know there have been some discussions with the Free Library. I want to turn to Sally who is most directly involved in that.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Good 962 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET afternoon.

I'm Sally Fisher, director of OESS. And, yes, we do have a children services coordinator on staff with OESS working with closely with the library and has identified to the library the family shelter sites and program sites where children are served. And there is a commitment from the library to provide books and we are in the process of getting those books and distributing them and setting up a library within our family shelter sites to make reading material available and also to do some workshops with parents on reading to children in the shelters.

Is that a new initiative?

It is A new initiative currently underway. There are ongoing meetings. Over the past two months we've identified the sites and the libraries. We're putting the books together and we've identified a place where we can put the inventory of books and distribute them to all the family shelter sites as they make space available for them. I think two things, we want to make resources available on site, but we also want to be 963 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET able to distribute the resources for the families to take the books with them.

Thank you. I look forward to hearing more about that next year when it's at least one year old. Thank you.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Clarke.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon. 1360 Ridge Avenue, what's going on there? What are we doing there at that facility?

That is a shelter facility that serves 200 to 300 men on any given evening. It's operated by Resources for Human Development under contract with the City.

How long have they had a that contract?

I believe it's been about five years.

What happens in that facility other than just housing?

It's serves as the City's primary intake center for single men. It also is an 964 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET entry level facility for people coming off the street and there also is a clean and sober floor for people who are more long-term placement facility. It's an entry point as well as moving people onto longer term placements.

Are you familiar with Ready, Willing and Able?

Yes.

Have you seen the facilities?

Yes, I have.

What do you think about that?

I've been up to the program. I think it's a good program. As outlined in testimony, we have number of employment and training programs that are targeted at single men. The difference in that program is that it's kind of a work-based shelter program. It's where everyone in the facility participates in a work program. I think it's very interesting.

In the last Administration, we actually had an opportunity to travel to New York with former Philadelphia baseball 965 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET player Darren Dalton to look at a Ready, Willing and Able model. We were very excited about the possibility of bringing such a program here to the City of Philadelphia. It was told to us that our United States Senator from Pennsylvania secured funding from the federal government to do a program up in New York which was Ready, Willing and Able. So we assumed that we were able to get something like that going down here, at a minimum get our United States Senator from Pennsylvania to get some funding for a facility in Philadelphia. For reasons that are somewhat unknown to me, we were met with resistance in looking at the possibility of locating that facility in 1360 Ridge Avenue. Have you been approached with a possible of locating a similar type of operation for that type of operation at 1360 Ridge?

I don't know about that particular location. I know there have been discussions about the Ready, Willing and Able program and what might -- what would a proposal look like to do a similar program like that here. I don't know that we specifically looked at any site. The difficulty or the issue that would 966 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET have to be addressed if you were choosing that particular site would have to do with because it is a primary intake site for men as well as it serves a significant role as inter capacity during the winter months. That's program that we would have replicate elsewhere if we were to implement the program there, and that would come up with challenges. But having said that, I think the model is definitely one that worth moving ahead with.

Would you be able to entertain that site seriously?

I mean, I think Estelle has been involved in some discussion, so I'd like to turn it over to her.

Councilman, I have met with the Ready, Willing and Able people. I requested a proposal of cost. I received that probably within the last week. I'm analyzing it and looking for money to do that program. My expectation is by the time we get together next year this time, the program will be operating.

At what location?

At what location? One of the things I asked to be included in the program was 967 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET the specifications of the building they needed. We're looking for a building that can hold approximately 70 people. I have a couple of sites in mind, and we're proceeding from that point.

Would your preference be not to speak about those potential sites publicly?

Right. Mainly because I haven't told the providers I'm considering their site.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Are there any questions of this witness? Thank you both very much. Thanks for your patience.

The next department is the Department of Recreation. Commissioner, thank you for your patience. We have a copy of your testimony which we will give the stenographer. If you can merely abbreviate your testimony, it would certainly be appreciated. Kindly identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony, please. 968 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET COMMISSIONER RICHARD: My name is Vic Richard, I'm the Recreation Commissioner. Thank you for having us. At the table present with me I'd like to introduce Deputy Commissioner Carapucci, Josephine Mangano. Deputy Commissioner Williams will be here any minute. 9 in the Grants Fund. Our request includes $85,000 for three additional positions to help staff and maintain the newly renovated and expanded site of the Simons Rec Center and the newly constructed Holmesburg Rec Center and $124,00 for a pilot program at four Recreation's after-school site that will enhance programming with an eye toward generating State reimbursements for child care. The budget supports 620 full-time positions; 592 in General Fund, 28 in Grants Funding, 158 part-time, and 1,969 temporary General Fund positions. The FY '02 budget request will allow the department to maintain its current level of service. In creating consistency throughout the entire department, the standardization and 969 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET availability of training all 160 after-school staff has been a priority this year. Newly hired after-school staff must possess a CPR training certificate good for the school year and obtain and present the results of criminal record checks and Pennsylvania Child Abuse History Clearance. Before starting work, after-school staff must complete basic mandatory training in fire safety, first aid, ad after-school procedures. In addition, after-school staff must complete hour credits in 12 their area of early childhood development for a total of 24 mandated hours of training. The Rec Department's after-school program offers and tracks completion of all required courses, which include safety, after-school standards, violence reduction, computer, sexual harassment, and arts and crafts training. We also realize that we have a role in addressing the educational needs of our City's young people. To that end, we are bringing technology into our rec centers and after-school program in an effort to bridge the digital divide. On Monday, February 5th of this year, the Mayor dedicated newly installed, state of the 970 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET art, 10-station network computer lab at the Kingsessing Rec Center. In reference to the Children's Report Card 2000, the role of the Rec Department has drastically changed. It's not just baseball, football, and basketball anymore. Across the United States, recreation plays a vital role in a crime deterrent. Recreation programs can help stem the tide of youth violence, sexually transmitted disease, drug and alcohol use, and help children and families improve access to health care serves. These are priorities for helping Philadelphia's children that were identified in the Children's Report Card and Recreation is pleased to be collaborating with the commissioners and staff in the other departments to fully integrate the Rec Department in meeting these challenges. Government is beginning to work as one. Maintenance. We're committed to making sure that Recreation Department facilities are safe clean and in good repair. To help achieve this goal, we have initiated a new approach to maintenance, the MS 2000 System. Designed to improve performance, safety and efficiency through a 971 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET computerized work order system. MS 2000 will be fully implemented in mid-FY 2002. Our plan for the coming year is to focus on safety, service, performance and cost containment.

I am committed to continuing to use my business experience to focus on an efficient operation that will assure Philadelphians access to safe, well-maintained facilities and a range of excellent programming. The summer of 2002 proved to be best ever for the pools. We have successfully recruited 370 lifeguards, up over the previous summer. Our 14 goal this year is to have 407 lifeguards as in 15 previous years and a nine-week pool schedule with an 16 opening date of June 18th. 17 Quality control at our facilities. We 18 are building on implementation of the maintenance 19 system and developing new housekeeping standards 20 that will apply to all levels of rec facilities by 21 January 2002. Inspection reports and follow-up 22 procedures are being planned to assure complete 23 implementation. 24 We are in the development stages of 25 automating the department's warehousing procedures 972 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET in order to account for the receipt and issuance of maintenance and recreational supplies. We are also developing a standardized, annual procurement schedule for the department. Together these two initiatives, which we plan to implement fully by the end of FY 2002 will ensure timely deliver and disbursements of vital equipment, tools and supplies needed for our recreation programs. Excellence in our programs. Continuity of services and programs is critical to serving Philadelphia well. Our commitment is evidenced in creation of the Programs and Facilities Operation Manual, which is being developed by a group of experienced managers and supervisors within the department. This manual will provide standards to specify minimum number of types of programs for each class of rec facility, resulting in introduction of new programs at facilities that are not currently complying with the standards. The Department of Recreation's contribution helps to realize the Mayor's vision for increased coordination and performance in the social services delivery and improvements in the quality of life for Philadelphia's children and families. With 973 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET government working as one unit, a planned, organized approach to business, and a focus to create intentional results, the Recreation Department will continue to be a crucial part of our great City's personality. I'd like to thank you, Madam President. At this time I'd like to bring up Jane Golden for to present the Mural Arts section, and we'll be receptive to any questions.

Thank you.

City Council President Verna and Members of City Council, I am Jane Golden, director of the Philadelphia Department of Recreation Mural Arts Program. I am pleased to present to you the program's Fiscal Year 2002 budget request of $754,234 from the General Fund. 25 million. The Mural Arts Program is a City-supported art program that works in partnership with neighborhood residents, young people, artists and institutions to create murals of enduring value and reflecting the City's diverse communities. 974 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Murals positively transform communities by working as agents of blight removal and grand development and organization. Mural art also offers innovative art education programs that use murals as a means to help you develop core academic, social and emotional, speak job skills and leadership abilities while teaching them about the importance of community involvement. The requested General Fund appropriation will allow us to fulfill our mission supporting poor administrative operations, a staff of full-time 13 positions, a series of large community murals, a 14 number of recreation center and playground murals, mural restoration and art. Partnershipped with corporations and other non-profit government organization will allow MAP to leverage City funds to expand our operation. By matching private dollars with public one, Mural Arts is able to paint well over a hundred murals each year. In Fiscal 2001, MAP plans to have completed 123 murals, 87 of which are large in dimension and impact. Ten will be mural restorations. In addition, we will have provide 753 children with high quality art education workshops. 975 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET We'll also include programs at seven recreation centers, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Fleisher Art Memorial, the New Study Center and a number of other locations. Fiscal Year 2001 has demonstrated particular expansion in our art education programming. By the end of the fiscal year, we expect to have impacted over 500 more children than we did the last fiscal year. We plan to continue our internship program, a project that gets a normal college students in order to introduce them to mural making. In fiscal 2002, MAP plans to paint 125 murals and do full restorations. The murals will 16 be larger in size and scope and will incorporate 17 daily life. It will include multimedia art, tiles, culture, poetry and music. Our after-school Art Education Workshops look to continue to develop an impact for children. Five additional full-year educational workshop sites are planned for Fiscal 2002, along with 15 youth-related mural projects as well as expansions in current workshops. Our Art Education Division plans to increase its administrative support in 976 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET order to partner with more organizations. Due to the efforts of the Mural Arts Program, Philadelphia now has more murals than any City any the country and including an open air gallery. Since its inception in 1984, under the Philadelphia Anti Graffiti Network, the Mural Arts Program have painted 2,019 murals in the City of Philadelphia. With such a large body of work, we have also developed a tour program which has grown to become a popular resource. The tours gives us an opportunity to showcase our completed work as well as to introduce visitors and native Philadelphians to the many wonderful neighborhoods throughout the City. In fact, our tours are not only drawn regional and national interest, but we are also attracting visitors from around the world. Currently, we have 30 murals scheduled from now until June 1st. For Philadelphia, murals have become more than full pretty pictures, they are symbols of hope, the possibility of transformation civic pride. This concludes my testimony, Madam President and Members of City Council.

I will be glad to answer any questions you may have about this 977 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET testimony and the operation of the Mural Arts Program. Thank you very much. )

We're absolute overjoyed, 2,019; we love it, it's just wonderful and does send so many messages. I'm sure he is looking happily at what we've done in our the anti-graffiti program. Thank you. You've done a good job.

Thank you very much.

Let me say, Rich, thank you for all you're doing. We have programs going across the City in your rec centers and we've been meeting with community leaders across the City. This is a hands-on commissioner. Thank you for all you're doing. Mr. Carapucci, thank you for giving me that tour. Thank you especially Commissioner, Jane Golden. Councilman Kenney.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Commissioner, I'd like to also commend you on your work. This department has always done a good job since I've been in Council. You really 978 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET never lost a step. The morale amongst the leadership in Rec Department and amongst people working in centers is still tremendous high and you've really done a good job in filling that spot left by Mike DiBerardinis and allowing some of your top people to really blossom and do a good job. So I want to thank you. I have a question about hours. Some of the concerns have been expressed by parents and some rec leaders in predominately rec centers is that on holidays when, obviously, most children out of school and available, it seems there's no place for them to go because the centers are closed or the hours are scaled back. Additionally, the evening hours also have become a problem in A centers because a lot of the leagues run up until maybe 10 or 11 o'clock at night because of the large number of slots that need to be filled in various age levels in the league. Is there any way within the bounds of our current contract with our workers that we could rework or talk about a program in A Centers to start with, probably most importantly in A centers, figure out on holidays when the kids are out of school and 979 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET doors are open a place for them to go. I know recently on Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday, certainly we would like to have all the kids out doing community projects as is the mission of that particular holiday, but a large number of children do not participate in that kind of activity and have really not many places to go. Is there any way we can work on maybe giving some incentive for our A Center leaders to work on holidays for additional time off so that it doesn't cost the City vast amounts of overtime but keeps the centers open when they're most needed? COMMISSIONER RICHARD: I'd love to look at that. Not only that, I'd like to know the specific areas. I'm not willing to waist money. So if it's something that we need to address City-wide or if it's particular pockets of the City, I'd like to know that and, quite naturally, work through the union.

I think it's predominately A Centers because they have facilities that are large enough to accommodate basketball leagues and indoor activities especially during holiday times when the weather is cold. I recognize 980 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET the problem we face summer-wide because the kids are out of school so long. Hopefully, we may revamp our school year so that kids are in school longer year, but before that's done, I would be happy to forward to you some locations that I'm concerned about it and people in the neighborhoods are especially concerned about kids being having access to rec center facilities. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Nutter.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon, Commissioner. Let me start by talking about the maintenance area and that is 2,000 system on . I'm sure that some of the folks that who are with you have talked you about the age-old discussions about not only capital needs at our facilities -- and we went through a very dry time in terms of City financial crisis and we were not putting money into our centers in late '80s early '90s. We started getting over that now. I don't know if we're in front of it or not, but we caught up with some tremendous repair maintenance 981 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET problems and we're potentially getting ready to go through some dry times again. A tremendous amount of work has been done in this area. One of our great concerns has always been after we have jobs, will we be able to maintain them. So, one, I'm very pleased to hear about this MS 2000 system. I don't know whether this is a carry-forward of some of the work that was started in the last administration and under former Recreation Commissioner DiBerardinis, but we have a lot discussion back at the time when we also were looking at the new maintenance workers, I believe, in our B Centers and there was discussion at that time about certain standards being developed. This is maybe two or three years ago. And I will continue to emphasize the maintenance of our facilities, the presentation that they make for the general public as well as a work environment for our employees. I think it's critical in terms of service delivery. So any support I can lend to the MS2000 system implementation, I want to express that support today. The second is with regard to the excellence in our programs. We have talked in the past about the possibility -- and I understand when 982 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET you put something in a book or put something in writing it often can become old very shortly. But there are new and exciting technologies that allow to you change things on an instantaneous basis, and in an effort to encourage people to come and use our hopefully clean, bright and well-maintained facilities, I'm talking about the development of programs guides or, you know, taking care of recreation centers. These are the programs and activities that you can find at the center. Again, the moment you put it in writing, you might have a change in director, you might have a change in direction, some of the those things may become out of date. But people are also accessing th City's web site. You can put things on the cable access channel, a variety of other electronic communication methods to keep the program material up to date and at a minimum even if we don't have the program that you're looking for, at least you can contact the center and get an array of programs that are available. Can you tell me what, if anything, we're doing in that area to better communicate to the public just what we have out there? I wonder at 983 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET times if some people, whether the adults who are trying to point the kids in the right direction or kids themselves, I wonder at times do they not use our facilities because they don't know what's available to them. COMMISSIONER RICHARD: Thank you for your comment, Councilman Nutter. The MS 2000 system is one-third implemented. Being a businessman, I know you have an economics background, in order to run a proficient business, you have to, first of all, create and draw what's called a true picture and develop true cost of goods. The MS 2000 system will tell us exactly what it costs in bodies, man hours, which is equivalent to dollars, and also raw material, the things that are needed, and then we can continue to grow on that. It also let's us control our time and also evaluate the time it will actually take to achieve and complete a job from beginning to end. So that's working well. From the operations programs and facility operation, you're exactly right.

One of the key words in our testimony I use is continuity. To be able to go from every A Center whether it's in the Northeast to the Southwest you would be able to 984 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET find the similarity of the program in every A facility. Continuity in the B and C as well. There's no other way to run a business. Our mission also is to customize the program to fit the particular needs of that neighborhood. So we encourage the people in that particular community to let us know whether the services that we're providing are making an impact, and if not, we need to stop those, reevaluate them, and come back with something. If we're in an area that's not interested inn ,let's just use teaching violin, we shouldn't teach violin there. If they want to learn piano or tap, let's take the violin out and move the piano or tap in. That's just an example. That's the mission of the department.

I've been thinking about tap.

You're in the right business. (Laughter.)

Commissioner, with regard to what goes on at the centers, not only by way of programing, but also issues how often the centers are checked for safety issues. You know, 985 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET you can walk into a place and the pole there was for something at some point in time back in the Stone Age, no one know why it's there, no one knows what it will ever be used for but no one thinks that it should be removed because they don't know anything about it. A broken bench, a rim on a basketball court, you know, supplies to arts and crafts, a wide variety of things, who checks to make sure on a regular basis that the place looks decent not only at 9 o'clock in the morning on Saturday during the school year when kids may come, but also 6, 6:30 in the evening on Tuesday and that the place is decent enough any of us would feel comfortable in coming to the facility ourselves as well as bringing our children or encouraging people to bring thier children. Whose responsibility is that? And how can we ensure that those standards are being adhered to from the largest of the A's and the smallest of the B's? COMMISSIONER RICHARD: Those responsibilities used to be separated, which I'm not running a separate department. I'm running one government entity. So it's now the responsibility of the program division along with the maintenance 986 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET division. Part of this operation of following procedures are, quite naturally, management tools that we're putting in place to raise the level of acceptance to create a higher level accountability to meet the standards that are much higher. We do a decent job at times; sometimes we do a great job. I'm looking to produce a quality product on a more consistent basis at the high level. That is why these management tools are being developed and implemented.

As the Administration seeks to continue, for which they're to be commended, additional after-school programs and other activities at our facilities, and we want people to use our facilities, again, how do we ensure that they will be in good shape for literally having more traffic running through these facilities? One of the questions arises is literally do you have enough bodies to make this work and for extended hour activities? You know. I assume most of the places -- maybe this is an incorrect assumption. I make no assumptions. How can we run these facilities, in some 987 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET instances it looks like we're going to run them morning, noon, and night. How are we going to run them with the current compliment? At some point, as much as we like the folks who are as enthusiastic as they are, people can only do so much work. And in your effort to provide as much programming as possible, again, my concern is how does that impact on our ability to maintain standards in the business aspect of these facilities? COMMISSIONER RICHARD: From the programmatic side the facilities open at 8 a.m. and close 10 p.m. at night. During the school year, the facilities open at 2:00 p.m. and close 10 p.m. at night. Hours will change based on the staffing and availability and once the demands of that particular community on that Saturday and weekend. With the present funding level that we have and the staffing that we have, we'll be able to maintain exactly the same level of service staff that we have, but we should be able to increase the quality. We're not looking to expand the program. I believe you used that word, expand a program. We are an enhance the program and to enhance the quality of the preexisting program. We're not 988 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET looking to permeate quantity; we're looking to develop more quality. And from that standpoint, one of the initiatives from the addition in our budget with the program that we're going to use to take a look at state funding to offset is also the possibility of a revenue source to also compliment the staff that's already and also to help us to a chief the initiative of enhancing the quality.

Two last questions. One, what's your current budget regarding supplies and equipment? COMMISSIONER RICHARD: 2001, we're looking at 1.6, 1.5 and 171,000 approximately for equipment Class 1. I might be off a penny or two.

It seems to me that, again, I may call it expansion; you may call it enhancement. It seems to me, though, at some level what you will be doing as well as the Mural Arts Program will doing and potentially others, that there will be some -- there's at least a potential for a need in the supplies and equipment area for increases. And in that regard, in anticipating that we are going to have expanded or enhanced programming in the upcoming fiscal year, not a part 989 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET of this current fiscal year, I would ask if you could forward to the Chair some information that will layout in general terms a variety of budget scenarios based on anticipated increases or enhanced utilization of these programs in around increments of, say, $500,000. Tell me what $500,000 does in terms of enhanced programs. Tell me what a million dollars does in terms enhanced programs or even a million and a half. And through the Chair, give us an opportunity to take a look at that so we may assure as we move forward in these process, we want to encourage people as much as possible, use our rec centers. Young people using our rec centers is not only great for Recreation Department, it's good for the rest of -- in terms of the juvenile justice system DHS and a whole host of entities. There are savings to be had. Young people are accessing our recreational facilities to a greater extent, and I believe ultimately we end up saving money by making sure we're spending those kinds of dollars in the right place. If you would forward it to the Chair, I would appreciate that information. Lastly, at a meeting last year, there is a -- there is no athletics facility of any 990 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET particular size in the Winfield community. There is a D size facility, essentially meeting rooms and spaces, they have great pottery operation and a number of other classes and activities take place in that building, but you cannot play, quite honestly, in that facility. There's been a building identified, and I had some discussion with the Department in the past and mentioned this to Mayor and the Mayor is interested in this, of the prospect of having a small athletic facility in the Winfield community. I'd like to have some further discussion with you about it and look at least some design criteria. COMMISSIONER RICHARD: Thank you for support.

You're welcome. Thank you.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown.

Thank you. Good afternoon. Let me first start off by giving accolades and I'm just joining Councilman Kenney's remarks with regard to the tremendous leadership over the past 12 months. And let me ask, 991 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET first of all, about the Swim for Life Camps. Is that a new initiative and tell us a little more about it.

It's not a new initiative. I'll let Deputy Commissioner Carapucci tell you about.

It's been exist for a few years. We have of our approval sites. What 10 it is, is we bring the kids in earlier. The pools open up 11 o'clock every day, but at the 10 swim camp sites, they open up at 9 a.m. and we operate until one for the swim camp and we provide the kids with lunch. We've been doing this about four years now. Last year we had largest participation we've ever had in the program. We've had approximately 350 children around the City. It's a swim camp. It basically helps us in the future with the recruitment of lifeguards. The kids are in the program. They become good swimmers and they hooked into the pool. It's a tool not only for the community, but also helps us in our recruitment efforts.

You actually pointed to my follow-up question, which was 992 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET I know major efforts are undertaken to recruit lifeguards. So the suggestion would be that we, again, look to our high schools for young people looking for work who want to work legitimately. And if there's a need on one side, there's an opportunity on the other side. And I encourage you to develop some kind of linkage there. You mentioned and you talked about and you're doing good things in terms of bridging the digital divide by bringing computers into our rec centers. How are you handling it? What is your strategy for security as well as having persons trained in computer technology teaching computer technology? COMMISSIONER RICHARD: That's a great question. We're looking at two and a half million right now. There's 10 sites that are fully identified. Our mission is not to burden the City's present operation budget. The first site implemented is done totally with maybe one percent of money in-house through Verizon, Dell, Comcast. The other part which is a children's software company will be leading up the training for the instructors at the site. And then we also have an 993 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET in-house -- I want to say it's a curriculum, and I'll be more than glad provide you entire package. An active aggressive fund-raising effort within a cooperate, federal, and state funding resources.

I would welcome the opportunity to actually visit a couple of those sites when you have an activity going on. What we saw here were a number of schools that were represented and that is evidence that there's a relationship and partnership between area schools and Philadelphia parks. Is that left to the discretion of the recreation leader whereby they can connect with an area school? Is that a system-wide policy where you require the recreation leader to hook up with any of schools after the care and maintenance of our parks? COMMISSIONER RICHARD: It's system-wide. And I'm sorry, I can't tell you the total number of facilities that we have that's owned by the School Board. But there's a long marriage that has been in place between the school system and the City of Philadelphia Rec Department. I know our indoor pools are constructed within the school board property, but we staff the pools. So the same 994 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET thing; we encourage the marriage and it's City-wide, yes. If there's any assistance needed by anyone, it needs to come straight up to the office.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Kenney.

Commissioner, I don't know if you were here the other day when I had my conversation with the Procurement Commissioner about vending services within the park. And one of the things that Commissioner Applebaum defended about the current contractual arrangement with an overall vender coordinator and then individual venders that have soda machines, fast food candy machines in recreation centers, police stations, fire houses, health centers and other places where people com and congregate and use those machines. One of our centers that I'm involved with as a coach for ice hockey reported the month of December that they received a $60 check from the existence of two machines in that center. In the month of December in the ice-skating center those machines earned, according to the vender who stocks it and takes the 995 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET money out and accounts for it, earned a whole $2 a day. Previous to this contract which came way before you were here, we probably had a little input from the department when it was established. Prior to that, the centers themselves would deal with the vending machines and use the dollars going back into the program to extend the season on the ice rinks, buy equipment, or various things that are good for the community center. Commissioner Applebaum indicated some of the rationale for doing this is that people obviously was dealing with cash and coins and can't be trusted, pilferage and theft. The question I have for you is if we were to explore ways to get more of that money back into the hands department. Do you feel your staff and leadership could ensure that things were ordered properly and the staff could deal with this? Or do you feel there's a problem in that regard? What's your opinion on that? COMMISSIONER RICHARD: First of all, my opinion is the money by right need to go to that particular rec center. I think they shouldn't be selfish and ought to be able to share some of those revenues. 996 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET

Stay within the department? COMMISSIONER RICHARD: Correct. I have total confidence that our accounting division in-house. And if there's a conflict of interest with laws, moving staff, dealing with outside money, I do have resources on the outside of an independent person. I wasn't here, but I'd like to find out about that. That is one area I haven't probed in. I'd like to that with you.

From a philosophical point of view, you believe if it was generate by the Rec Department, it should be maintained and expand Rec Department programs? COMMISSIONER RICHARD: Yes, it should augment services.

Thank you.

Point of information, Madam President.

Yes, the Chair recognizes Councilman DiCicco.

The portion of the revenue that is generated, doesn't that General Fund, or is that specific to the Department of 997 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Recreation?

I'm not really sure. We've asked for the contract. There is an overall vender that has jurisdiction over four, five, six other venders who actually stocks machine. They send a check to the advisory council of that particular facility. Now, whether or not an additional portion goes to the City's General Fund, I don't know yet.

That's my concern. Even the best case scenario, you're getting a fair share of whatever revenue is generated.

The problem that was raised during my conversation with the Procurement Commissioner is that the person, the entity that audits the contract is the overall vender. I've asked letter to our Controller Saidel to look into potentially auditing these contractors to try to account for what's being raised and what's being split. If you have a licensee that's auditing themselves, that should also raise some concern. I'm not making any accusation. I just would like to have someone of some independence, I think the controller is that person, audit these contractors 998 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET and see whether or not we're getting our fair share. And I guess the question is, why do we need a middle person anyway? Even if the money all went into the General Fund, why would I need a middle man to be taking profits out that could go the City or to an individual department?

In that case, each rec center -- best case scenario would be buy your own machine.

Commissioner Applebaum indicated there was some concern that all the money wasn't been sent back.

So now the vender gets it.

The vender gets what was stolen or more. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilman Nutter.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to ask you a question about the Mural Arts Program in the last round. Your testimony seems to indicate that in the upcoming fiscal year -- is it the current fiscal year you expect to provide services to 753 children? 999 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET

That's correct, current fiscal year. That includes programs that are a year in duration programs. We have programs that are shorter. We run programs that six weeks, eight weeks, twelve weeks.

What's your take on the current fiscal year in terms of number of children served; and secondly, are you also expecting an increase in level of activity by MAPS related to enhanced after-school programming?

Well, our goal in Fiscal 2002 is to try to reach 925 children. What we'd like to do is reach a thousand children to make sure that young people all over the City are being exposed to a vigorous substantive art education program that ties in with their academics and teaches them job skills. I am anticipating an increase in our private donations from both cooperations, foundation, and individuals. And as far as City funding goes, I'm not sure. So I'm not sure right now. I am almost positive that we'll be able to raise private funds to ensure that we'll be able to impact more kids.

Technically, this is 1000 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET all under the general responsibility -- COMMISSIONER RICHARD: Councilman, if I may address the General Fund funding toward the program. In year 2000, FY 2000, the total budget was 431. But presently the budget has increased by $390,000. The present '01 is 734,000 and proposed budget for '02 is another addition of 20,000. So it was 431, 734 and in '01, 754.

I don't think there's any question that the City has been increasing its support. I think I will take the personal moment and say these are probably some of the best dollars we can spend. This small division of the government I think has also earned the opportunity to have additional funds as well as raises a fair amount of money in the private sector because of great programming and also good leadership. I am in no way, shape, or form criticizing the department or the director with regard to what the funding level is. Again, any of my comments have more to do with what are the opportunities to do a little more in a few more areas and what is the expense. We obviously don't have an unlimited source of funding any of our 1001 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET departments no matter how great a job they do. On the other hand, there are often opportunities we can demonstrate to the community that the City not only continue to support certain organizations, but it's also putting a few additional dollars on the table. Often they reflect more services to people that we're trying to provide -- we're all on the same seem here. You seem like you want to jump in and say something.

This is Ellen Spector. I'm the Director of Financial Policy Social Service Department in the Managing Director's Office. What we have been doing is looking around various department budgets, various funding sources to try to fund programs that are most important to us; Mural Arts is, obviously, one of those programs. And one of the things that we're looking at if we increased tax dollars that we discussed in the earlier departmental testimony, that we would be looking very favorably at increasing the budget for Mural Arts.

I appreciate that. Lastly, my two primary concerns with this program is that I know it's kind of personnel intensive and 1002 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET need equipment and supplies to be able to do the job. You've increase the number of people even slightly to provide more services and need the equipment to be able to work with the young people. I'm obviously a big supporter of your program. I'll try to get as much as I can get. Thank you very much.

I didn't mean to be vague before.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman DiCicco.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon, Commissioner. In the area of fund-raising. Given the fact that each department in the best case scenario only have certain amount of funds do programs and they're limited to what those programs can be. Have you entertained any thoughts on reaching out to the corporate community in a different sense than maybe the Mural Arts Program. I understand Mural Arts gets funding from foundations and corporations that sponsor murals. But in relationship to recreation facilities -- and I know in some neighborhoods there's a significant amount of commercial 1003 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET contributions that go into those facilities, little league teams and certain sports activity that may take place at that facility. So where we have a relatively stable pretty decent financially economic income community, there's usually high degree of level of financial support that goes to that facility. There are recreation facilities may not have that benefit and those are the neighborhoods where you might be able to put more money in, but you have to spread the money out throughout the entire City and they really don't get the amount of resources that they need and deserve. Has anyone looked at the possibility of reaching out to corporations to do some sort of adoption program for a rec center? Or in the area of advertising -- I know that gets some people a little bit excited or nervous when we're talking about, but advertising in some instances I think can be a very beneficial tool to raise the kind of revenue we need for lots of things, in particular this case, Department of Recreation. You can drive by and there are probably 20 to 30 of those 4 by 5 plywood signs directly on the chain link fence, Pat's Steaks, Gino's Steaks, Tony's, whatever. I'm not suggestion that we should 1004 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET eliminate that. What I'm looking at is could we look at something on a much more grandiose scale in terms of the corporate people that we could reach out to. You have 60-foot high light fixtures all around the ball field, for example. May be an opportunity to place some sort of an advertising -- when I say billboard, I don't mean the boy 48 9 billboard, but some sort of advertising structure 10 that begin to generate a continual annual revenue 11 stream for that facility. And it could be rather 12 significant because I've been able to work out 13 arrangements with some of the advertising 14 communities which previously were advertising. But we've been able to work out arrangements with the advertisers to put some money back into the community. And it's a significant amount of money; we're not talking a few hundred dollars a year. Councilman Kenney and I came very close to -- and I know Mr. Carapucci knows this. I'm not sure if you know, Commissioner, of having some sort of a program I just described at the Rizzo Rink. We're have about $15,000 a month revenue stream at Rizzo Ice Hockey Rink annually. And all we were going to do was replace an existing sign that advertised Rizzo 1005 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Rink with a commercial sign. It met with a significant amount of community opposition and basically the project died. But $15,000 a month is serious money. And there are, I would imagine, some rec centers that this would not conducive because of the nature of the facility and where it is located within proximity to a residential community. There are rec centers on the fringe of residential communities out there in a place where some sort of advertising may not be as offensive. And I ask you if you engaged in any if those kinds of conversations? If you haven't, is it something you'd like to look at? If you're interesting, give me a call because I'm working advertisers on some legislature that I hope in the next few weeks will be coming out. Councilman Kenney.

Can just give him an example of what we envision? For example, Councilmember Blackwell district, there's a very activity ice rink and hockey program Cobbs Creek ice rink, beautiful facilities just renovated the last few years. It has given the opportunity for young African-American boys and girls to involve themselves in a hockey program where perhaps their 1006 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET families weren't able to afford three sets of goalie equipment. That's probably the most expensive equipment, up to $1,500 for really high quality goalie equipment. For example, in the parking lot at Cobbs Creek Ice Rink which faces Walnut Street and goes to the edge of the City, make the turn out and you go up, I think, Route 3. Well, one of the things we wanted to suggest was a placement of bill 10 board, small reasonably-sized bill board that would be required to only advertise things like University of Pennsylvania, Temple, Drexel. We had discussions preliminarily with some of these educational institutions so that we weren't advertising alcohol or cigarettes or something like that, but some important improvement that we could do there to both generate -- its on the site of the parking lot; it wouldn't be an intrusion to the neighborhood. And what a wonderful site, Walnut and 63, the amount of traffic that goes through there any given rush hour is phenomenal. And we could make sure that we had some restriction on the type of advertising. Like, "Temple University supports education and youth athletics at Cobbs Creek," those kinds of positive messages are terrific. But because of the 1007 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET opposition to billboards in general, we are running into some problems. Councilman DiCicco's right, I think we should be maximizing every opportunity we can to raise money in our public facilities for public programs. COMMISSIONER RICHARD: I compliment both of you. I recently had a meeting about the RGI initiative. If I'm not mistaken, a lot of that came from that. I don't know if it was a year or two or three years ago. Anyway that we can create revenues from a legal aspect to offset City cost, quite naturally I do believe we should always explore different ways of doing business. So quite naturally, City policy, reviewing by the City Solicitor's Office, making sure quite naturally that we won't infringe on the rights of the neighborhood. I think it's something that we should continue and I thank both of you for your leadership.

In closing, I haven't been spending much time here. I've up in office nursing strep throat. I was listening on the television and I wanted to come up and thank you for the fine work you've done. When Mike left, Mr. DiBerandinis, the former Commissioner, we were all 1008 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET concerned who filled his shoes and would they fill them properly and be able to do the job. You've done more than I ever expected in the first year. Again, thank you, Commissioner, for fine work you have done. You've always been very cooperative and I appreciate it. Thank you. (Applause.)

Councilman Clarke.

Thank you. Good evening. Thank you for the great job you've done. With respect over the years there's always been some question about what they actually do as it relates to facilities and there were instances where some council actually ran the center because at some point lack of staffing or sometimes no staffing with respect to playground. I guess my question is, is there going to be some uniform standards so that the advisory council know what they can and cannot do in a facility? COMMISSIONER RICHARD: First of all, I want to say thank you for your help and leadership as well. And I have to tell you advisory councils are not just advisory councils, but volunteers, 1009 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET regular folk in the neighborhood that we embrace. The thing that you have to realize is that the neighborhoods are people who tend to live how they live because they choose to, and advisory council and people within the community are the voice and the ears of wanting to make the change. So we embrace them. Now, from an operation standpoint and a legal standpoint, ultimately the City is responsible for everything. The property is owned by the City. We're liable for everything. So, yes, there are rules and regulations and procedures. We fully embrace the advisory council. Quite frankly, we can't do it all by ourselves.

One of the problems associated with 33 Street was that at that time nobody had the rules associated with the operation of the facility, i.e., the advisory council on the whole issue around elections. Can we make sure every member of the advisory council has the regulations associated with that? It will be helpful also if the Council office had it. Frequently we're called in.

That's an 1010 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET excellent idea.

I was at a loss what the regulations were and I'm sitting at the meeting. I had no clue. I think it would be helpful if Councilmembers what regular. COMMISSI0NER RICHARD: Thank you.

Ms. Golden, you're also doing a good job. There's a building in my district called the Eden House, and I was asked to visit the facility the other day and it's in pretty good shape. And I understood that people had come to you and expressed a program in there. If in fact that building became available to the Mural Arts Program, give me a sense of what you might be able to do with that building in that community.

It would be a miracle. It would be wonderful. We do a lot of work in the recreation centers and community centers and our programs go three days a week. And during the summer we work with kids four or five days a week. It's all the way downtown. Our mission is to have something that's centrally located where young people could come every day seven days a week and experience and learn the arts. And I'm talking 1011 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET about poetry, performance, theater, video making, drawing, painting, ceramics, mosaic, portraiture; I can go on and on. Chicago has a wonderful art educational building called Gallery 37. It's national model. We're not that far from being a national model. I think that if we had a space, we can become a model for art education across this country. So would it be a wonderful thing; yes, it would. It would be a dream come true.

Can you talk to me about the parental involvement in that facility if in fact it became available?

There are parents who come, aunts, uncles, grandparents who come and they say, "What about us? We want to learn, too." What we've done is we have several classes for kids and classes for family members who also want to learn about drawing and painting. And we've also made positions available for people who like art who would like to assist on mural projects. We encourage them to come to our internship program. We've started a mural list, so there's nice link from learning in the classroom to going out in the community and making their mark. So I envision a space for families come 1012 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET as well.

Thank you.

Any other questions of the witnesses? Thank you all so very much. (Applause.)

Camp William Penn. Good afternoon.

Roland Chandler, I'm Director of Camp William Penn. Camp William Penn is requesting a total of $326,000 in General Fund appropriations for FY '02 (that was Mr. Richard. This is a $6,461 reduction from '01 estimated obligations due to the elimination of one-time bonuses. Our budget will support four full-time employees and 59 seasonal employees to staff Camp William Penn during the camp season. In Fiscal Year '01, Camp William Penn continue to provide one five-day and three eight-day encampment for boys and girls ages 8 through 12. 741 children attended camp in Fiscal Year '01. This is an increase of 112 campers over the previous year. In Fiscal '02 we plan to accommodate 960 campers. Camp William Penn plans to sustain its recruitment efforts to attract 1013 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET additional campers and camp staff will continue to send press releases announcing camp opportunities to community, newspaper, social service agencies, and public and parochial and elementary schools. The camp is located in the heart of the Pocono Mountains, a 671 acre site that we're very proud of.

Thank you. Are there any questions from members of the committee? Thank you very much. Atwater Kent Museum. Because of the time, we do have your testimony in full which we will give to the stenographer. If you could merely abbreviate it, we would really appreciate it. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: In fact, if you have read it and you want to skip to questions --

Oh, that would be wonderful. We have all received copies of the testimony from the Atwater Kent. Do any of the Councilmembers have any questions? Thank you. Thank you so much for your patience.

Last but certainly not least, the Fairmount Park Commission. 1014 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET (Applause.)

I know there had been very early on quite a number of supporters of the park. Because of, I guess, the length of time in your hearings, many of them had to leave, but they were certainly noticed. Mr. Mifflin, if you would identify yourself for the record. We do have a copy of your testimony which will be given to the stenographer, so if you can merely abbreviate your testimony, we would certainly appreciate it.

I'd be delighted to do that. Thank you, Council President. My name is William E. Mifflin, and I am the executive director of the Fairmount Park Commission. Joining me this afternoon is to my immediate right is Deputy Director Dennis Waller to my immediate left is Deputy Director Paul Nice. And to his left is James Donaghy, the director of operations and landscape management. I'm also joined this afternoon by Commissioner Isador Shrager, the vice president of Fairmount Park Commission and Commissioner Erneste Ballard of the Fairmount Park Commission. And I do appreciate, 1015 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Council President, your recognition of friends and supporters of Fairmount Park. 3 million for Fiscal Year 2002. This budget will enable the Fairmount Park Commission to continue to meet our service obligations and to provide a quality park experience for our citizens. The mission of the Fairmount Park Commission is provide for passive and active recreation accessible to all Philadelphia residents and visitors. The FY '02 budget is $758,713 below 2001 estimated obligations due to a number non-reoccurring reductions, including one-time labor bonus, Republican National Convention overtime and Hurricane Floyd restoration costs. Fairmount Park Commission is most pleased, however, to receive additional appropriations of $121,078 in Class 100 and $18,000 in Classes 3 and 4. These funds will be used to address a backlog of preventative maintenance work orders. The maintenance of our buildings and structures are very important and these funds will greatly assist the Park Commission 1016 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET in providing safe and accessible facilities. At this time, on behalf of the Commission, I'm especially please to announce the beginning of two major programs and a completion of a third. First, I am pleased to report with the leadership of the Managing Director's Office under Neighborhood Transformation Initiative, Fairmount Park Commission will be removing 4300 dead and dangerous street trees in Fiscal Year 2002. This is the first of a three- or four-year program designed to eliminate the city's tree removal backlog. Once the backlog is eliminated, the program will focus on tree pruning. This a initiative is a most welcome service to our citizens, and we have not be able to provide this level of street tree work for decades. The work will ensure there are street tree population will continue to contribute to neighborhood pride. Second, I am, pleased to advise that the Fairmount Park Natural Lands Restoration will complete a number of major initiatives that have been in a design and on construction phase over the past several years. Specifically, we'll complete the renovation and expansion of the Pennypack 1017 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Environmental Center. We will complete and open the renovation of the Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Center, a program that has enjoyed the support of the community for many years and the specific financial support of Councilwoman Blackwell. We'll complete high priority restoration projects in Cobbs Creek and Tacony Creek Parks. And we will form 350 Ecosystem Restoration Projects all seven water sheds and estuary parks throughout the City. Third, I am extremely proud to announce that after more than years, the Fairmount Park 14 Commission will reopen the Fairmount Water Works in 15 early fall of this year. Completion of this 16 national engineering and historic landmark would not 17 have been possible without the collaborative efforts 18 of the city of Philadelphia, Commonwealth of 19 Pennsylvania, Pew Charitable Trust, the William Penn 20 Foundation, and numerous private individuals. And Commissioner Ballard who was here today deserves a great deal of recognition for efforts. The final phase of the project is currently underway.

It includes the rehabilitation of the Old and New Mill House decks, restoration of 1018 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET remaining structures. Once the construction is completed, the park's Master Concessionaire will operate the Engine House as a restaurant and utilize the surrounding decks and pavilions as ab open-air market. The Natural Lands Restoration master plans have been completed for all seven water sheds, and we have identified 452 high priority restoration sites. Trail master plans have been completed for Cobbs, Fairmount, Tacony, Pennypack and Poquessing. And over 950,000 in addition grant funds have been obtained from various sources. All of these efforts are a direct result of the Natural Lands Restoration effort. The environment education division, established in 1998, continues to enrich and expand existing programs and develop new initiatives. I'll highlight a few things. Beginning this spinning carrying it throughout FY '02, Fairmount Park will be offering six training programs in environmental education to the Philadelphia Department of Recreation after school staff. The park will also offer training workshops for PDR summer camp staff. We are 1019 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET exploring potential programs of the Philadelphia Water Department, neighborhood watershed tours, week-long watershed camps at both Andora and Cobbs Creek. Private support and services, park stewardship, citizen service and community input and volunteerism are at an all-time high in Fairmount Park. The park has incorporated volunteers into its core mission assigning staff to recruit, train and a work with volunteers at unprecedented levels. Park volunteers provide us with priceless diversity and incredible depth of talent energy enthusiasm and expertise. Today there are 85 park friends groups whose sole mission is to help Fairmount Park restore, maintain, and preserve our City parks. Last year the 85 groups contributed 123,000 hours of service to the parks carrying out improvements and programs throughout the system. In addition, through the natural lands restoration program, we have involved another 15,000 volunteers. We have a preserve your park program that allows individuals and groups to take action towards protecting and restoring the environment by volunteering in Fairmount Park. Our goal over the 1020 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET next two years is to reach 100 percent of our 140 preserve your park locations. The Fairmount Park rangers created in 1997 with a major grant from the William Penn Foundation continues to provide valuable support to the Fairmount Park Commission. With the support of the Administration and City Council, the financial efforts have been supported with a $500,000 Class 500 appropriation for FY 2002. The Fairmount Park Commission with the assistance of staff has pledged to raise matching share for the nearly 1 million annual cost of operating the park ranger program. The actual park Ranger Board has basically exhausted their ability to raise matching money and this will be the responsibility of the Fairmount Park Commission and the Fairmount Park Foundation. Without the additional matching support privately, the program will not be able to continue in 2003. In conclusion, during the 2002 period, the Fairmount Park Commission will continue to work creatively with Friends of the parks, private sponsors, foundation, and park users to ensure that Philadelphians are aware of our park resources and have access to them. We plan to continue our close 1021 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET association with our volunteer groups and funding entities that support them. I've listed a number of service levels for your information of which I will not go into this afternoon.

And as always, I am very pleased for the support that Fairmount Park Commission has received through the Councils of the City of Philadelphia and we look forward to a continuing working relationship and we'll be pleased to answer any questions Members of Council may have today. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much. You indicate in your testimony that in FY 2001 there will be funding to provide, I think, 6800 trees to be pruned. Is that in your budget or is it in the Managing Director's budget?

No, that is in the Fairmount Park Commission operating budget, 6800 trees. Given the Mayor's Neighborhood Transition Initiative, we will in FY '02 ramp that number up to 8,000, so an additional 1200 will be pruned to this effort, street trees.

Now, I recall sitting here many, many years ago and I think during 1022 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET a budget hearing and the director of the Fairmount Park was asked how much of a backlog do we have on the pruning of trees. And the response was 35 years. Would you suggest that we're still 35 years behind time in trimming trees or pruning them?

No, we are not. And the really good news is, Council President, you and I can sit here three years from now and say, we really do not have a backlog of dead and dangerous in the City of Philadelphia. Right now we have about 9,000.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Nutter. And I do want to thank the Friends of the Park for being so patient and staying with us practically the entire die. (Applause.)

Councilman Nutter.

I would agree, Madam Chair, I do appreciate greatly support of the Friends of Philadelphia Parks and all the neighborhood park groups. There are true advocates and care very deeply about the park system. A 1023 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET significant portion, majority of the park system's in the 4th District. I've been a supporter of the park for a long time before even becoming a member of City Council and I've had an opportunity to work with Mr. Mifflin and his team over the past nine years. Mr. Mifflin, I do have a number of questions related both to your testimony and some other items. On , your testimony talks about some of the activities related to the NLREEP Program. Now, just so we go back for a second, this was a $26 million grant from William Penn Foundation; is that correct.

That's correct.

And part of that game plan with that money was the construction and development of environmental education centers, trail maintenance projects, and what were the other components?

Restoration of our woodlands. Some of the other major components are training, training of park staff, stewardship, land acquisition, forest restoration and increase of 1024 2/16/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET volunteer efforts.