Thank you, Madam President. Three years ago we did two things. We raised the parking tax from 15 percent to 20 percent. We also approved a bill that I introduced to lower business taxes. Because of the economic recession, we had to scale that back, and so what we did was actually raise a parking tax to enable more comprehensive business tax reform and then we stalled more comprehensive 9/15/11 - STATED - 2ND READING business tax reform. I believe because we stalled business tax reform, we did the wrong thing on the parking tax. So I will be voting in favor of this bill. I believe that when we revisit the issue of comprehensive business tax reform, we should also revisit the issue of the parking tax, but we should undo what we did three years ago, because we did it in conjunction with comprehensive business tax reform and then we stalled it. Thank you.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Green.
Thank you, Madam Chair. My recollection of the parking tax was that the lowering of the -- or the increasing of the parking tax was to pay for a 10 million dedicated funds for street repaving, which we did not actually end up putting in the 9/15/11 - STATED - 2ND READING budget, to pay for $4 million increased funding for Fairmount Park, which we ended up taking out of the budget, and other items. I don't remember it being directly tied to business tax relief. In fact, that's not how it was sold to us when it was passed. However -
-- my position remains clear. I think we need to hold this bill or I'll be forced to vote no. Thank you.
The Chair recognizes Councilman Goode for a point of information.
Just a simple point of information. Was that in the parking tax bill three years ago?
I don't intend to engage in a dialogue on this. 9/15/11 - STATED - 2ND READING I'm not under oath.
It was not in the parking tax bill three years ago. Thank you, Madam President.
Tax reform goes down with full valuation and all deliberate speed to integrate schools. It's one of those kind of things that we'll get to it when we get to it or we can begin the process now. So I'm going to be voting for this legislation to try to bring it, right size it now. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you, Madam President. Given the healthy perspective and healthy debate that's happened so far on this bill, it's clear to me that there is still a number of points that need to be ironed out, worked through, talked through for all the 9/15/11 - STATED - 2ND READING reasons given, and my experience here is that when we have had healthy debate on a bill prior to a vote, that most often it's useful. It behooves the sponsor of the bill to consider holding the bill. Given the healthy debate, I will not be supporting this bill because there's still clearly enough more work to be done. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you. Does anyone else want to be recognized? (No response.)
The Chair recognizes Councilman Kenney. I believe a motion is on the floor.
Is it a request or a motion? 9/15/11 - STATED - 2ND READING
I believe it's a request and a motion. We could vote on it. It doesn't matter.
This bill has been debated, has been vetted. We've had numerous hearings. It actually has -- any time you see two A's at the end of the bill, it's been amended twice. You're either for cutting taxes or you're not. I think we should run the bill, get it up or down, and we'll move on. So thank you.
Well, I think we ought to vote on whether we should hold it or let it go forward.
Oh, I'm sorry. I thought that was a motion 9/15/11 - STATED - 2ND READING that you made. Okay. The Chief Clerk will please call the roll.
The Chief Clerk will please read the title of Bill No. 100012 on .
An ordinance amending Title 6 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled "Health Code," by defining "Supermarkets," and excluding Supermarkets from the definition of Chain Restaurants, thereby exempting Supermarkets from menu labeling requirements applicable to Chain Restaurants.
Thank you, Madam President. I move that this bill be placed on the Suspension Calendar. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and seconded that Bill No. 9/15/11 - STATED - 2ND READING 100012 be placed on the Suspension Calendar. All in favor will say aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the motion carries. The Chief Clerk will please read the title of Bill No. 110441.
An ordinance authorizing the Commissioner of Public Property, on behalf of the City of Philadelphia, to convey to the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development, a parcel of land located at 1628 Fitzwater Street, for further conveyance.
This bill having been read on two different days, the question now is shall the bill pass finally. The Chief Clerk will please 9/15/11 - STATED - 2ND READING call the roll.
Aye. The ayes are 17; the nays are zero. A majority of all members having voted in the affirmative, the bill passes. We will now have consideration of resolutions introduced with rules suspension. The Clerk will please read any additional resolutions on today's Calendar.
There are no other resolutions for consideration, Madam President.
Thank you. Council will now reconsider the vote by which Bill No. 110443 was passed. That is the DROP bill, Mr. Kenney. I see you're squinting. The Chief Clerk will please read the title of the bill.
Bill No. 110443, entitled "An ordinance amending Title 22 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled 'Public Employees Retirement Code,' by amending the options for retirement benefits; in particular, amending Section 22-310, entitled 'Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP),' by making various changes to DROP to reduce its cost, including, but not limited to, changing eligibility requirements and the interest credited to DROP accounts; adding a new option for retirees to take a lump sum benefit at retirement, in exchange for an actuarial reduction of their regular monthly pension; and making conforming amendments to other provisions."
This bill having been read on two different days -
Thank you. Just a question on the outcome of this vote. The original bill passed 14 to three; is that true?
And I know I was one of the three votes against it. If we vote to sustain the Mayor's veto, then that bill is defeated, correct? That bill that passed by the Council is defeated and we would still have in place the original DROP legislation; is that true?
So voting to sustain the Mayor's veto puts us in a worse situation financially than voting it?
This bill having been read on two different days was duly approved by City Council on June the 16th, 2011 and returned to Council by the Mayor as disapproved at the session on September 8th, 2011. The question is shall Bill No. 110443 pass notwithstanding the Mayor's disapproval. Please note that a vote of aye is a vote to override the Mayor's veto and a vote of no is to sustain the Mayor's veto. At this time, I would ask the Chief Clerk to please call the roll.
Councilman DiCicco. COUNCILMAN DiCICCO: No. That's to sustain the Mayor's veto, right?
Just a moment. Just a moment, please. The Chair recognizes Councilman Clarke.
Madam President, can you repeat what you said, what the aye vote and the nay vote was for?
I will repeat it. An aye vote will be to override the Mayor's veto. A no vote is to sustain the Mayor's veto. So are we to start again? Okay, Councilwoman Blackwell, I voted aye.
Councilman Clarke, I believe you also voted aye.
Aye. The ayes are 17; the nays are zero. A two-thirds majority of all members having voted in the affirmative, the Mayor's veto is overridden. Council will now consider the vote by which Bill No. 080474-AA was passed. The Chief Clerk will read the title of the bill.
Bill No. 080474-AA, entitled "An ordinance enacting a new Chapter 9-3300, entitled 'Promoting Healthy Families and Workplaces,' to provide that certain employees are entitled to paid sick leave."
I thought we were moving to the Consent Agenda. Disregard, Madam President.
Thank you, Madam President. Obviously there's been a lot of discussion, a lot of information. I would add, in my opinion, a lot of misinformation given out on this bill, and I know we got a long day ahead of us still, but I want to make a couple quick points. We've heard all along about the worst-case scenarios of what will happen. This anti-business, all these bad things will happen. As been said before, there is one city where there is some kind of evidence of this, where we're not guessing, where we're not trying to look for the worst case. San Francisco passed this in 2006 as a ballot measure. In 2011, five years later -- and I know we're talking about lefty San Francisco here, but PricewaterhouseCoopers, a clear socialist organization, by the way, as everybody knows, named San Francisco the third best city for business and innovation in the world, not the State of California, not the United States of America, the whole globe. So if sick leave -- paid sick leave is so bad, how is San Francisco doing so well? Either they got magic fairy dust over there or something. (Applause.)
And just a couple other quick things. Other cities have passed this bill, two by city council legislation. Seattle just recently passed it, District of Columbia passed it. Milwaukee and San Francisco, as I mentioned earlier, by ballot measure. This issue is coming. Denver has a question on the ballot in November, which all polls show it should pass overwhelmingly. As far as passing overwhelmingly, every poll that's been taken, citizens of Philadelphia said this is a good bill, this is sound legislation. The majority of Councilmembers passed this bill. Now, again, I know there's been a lot of lobbying on both sides of this. One thing I have to point out that I'm disappointed in. This Administration and Mayor Nutter talks a lot about health issues, a whole lot about it. We hear about it all the time, just turned down money from the soda industry. He did not unfortunately, with all due respect to him, see fit to talk to Councilman Clarke or I after this bill was passed. In fact, he called us almost as he was at the press conference at the Chamber of Commerce vetoing the bill. I don't think that's communication. I don't think that's the way we're supposed to be doing things here, and I just think that that is the wrong way to approach legislation here. This is a sound piece of legislation. I think it should become the law of the City of Philadelphia. Now, I'll have a motion to make, but I think Councilman Clarke say something. Before I make that motion, I'd like to hold off.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Clarke.
Thank you, Madam President. Madam President, I would like to say that being very candid early on in the process, while I was a prime sponsor of the bill along with Councilman Green and, you know, sometimes -
Greenlee. I'm sorry. That's in anticipation of a long afternoon. With Councilman Greenlee. And I was supportive, but I got to tell you, over the time as we moved through this process, Councilman Greenlee did not only a great job in working with the advocates, but he did a great job in that this was the right thing to do. (Applause.)
And my ability to get a hold on this and to become aggressively supportive, frankly speaking, got stronger as the opponents of this bill continued to lobby against it. And when I realized -- when I looked at the people day after day, Thursday after Thursday, to the point where people said, Darrell, will you please get that bill off the Calendar so we don't have to hear this, and I looked at those individuals and the question was asked of some of them, but I'm willing to bet every last one of those persons had sick day leave, right, in one way, shape or form. Some of them were bosses, so they didn't even have to call in sick. They just not show up. And I just saw the inequities in this whole process, where you have a group of individuals who are on the lower rungs of the pay scale, is primarily a lot of people who don't make a lot of money. A lot of them working in restaurants that if they don't show up, they don't make any money. I just saw the inequities in this whole thing. So I want to commend Councilman Greenlee for the great work he did on pulling this together, pulling together nine votes. I want to thank the nine members who were supportive, and I want to thank the other members, eight members, who considered it, in hopes that they will be supportive of Councilman Goode's bill as it moves through the process to bring the City into compliance with this particular code. And I, like Councilman Greenlee, agree, it's going to happen. It's just a matter of when, and I would hope during the course of the process of making it happen in the City of Philadelphia that people on the other side of the argument will take a proactive approach and try to figure out that this will work as opposed to simply saying it won't work and this is why it won't work. So, Councilman Greenlee, I just want to congratulate you and thank you for working together on this. You did a really good job. And to the advocates, I want to congratulate you all. I was very happy about what you did, with the exception of putting those flyers on my house, but I'm a public official, I understand all of that. AUDIENCE MEMBER: It won't happen again.
It won't happen again? Okay. So I just want to thank you. Thank you, Councilman Greenlee, personally so much for the great work that you did on this.
Very quickly. I certainly agree with Councilman Clarke in his praise of the advocates. They worked very hard. They had the facts behind them. And this is going to happen in the City of Philadelphia. Unfortunately, way back in the 1960's, the good sisters of Holy Child taught me how to count, and I know right now we don't have 12 votes. But, again, I say to the advocates, please hang in there. This is coming back. I promise if I'm reelected, I'm putting this back in. We're going to get this done in the City of Philadelphia. So with that, I reluctantly move that we table this bill. (Duly seconded.)
Thank sorry. There's a motion to table. All in favor will say aye. (Aye.)
Okay. We will now interrupt our Council session and we will be convening a hearing of the Committee of the Whole. I would say -it is now 12:10. Council will stand in recess until 2 o'clock, at which time we will then be having a public hearing of the Committee of the Whole on redistricting. Thank you very much. (Interruption of Stated Meeting for hearing of Committee of the Whole.)
We Stated Meeting. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Tasco.
Madam President, I move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit the report of an additional committee. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that the rules of Council be suspended so as to permit receipt of an additional committee report and the first reading of the bills at this time. All those in favor will please say aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it with one aye. All those in favor will please say aye. (Aye.)
Madam President, some people -- what are we voting for?
On your motion. It's to permit the additional report and ask for a first reading on the bills, two bills.
The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Tasco for a report from the Committee of the Whole.
I move that the rules of Council -- the Committee of the Whole reports two bills with a favorable recommendation.
Thank you. The Chief Clerk will please read the report.
To the President and members of the Council of the City of Philadelphia, the Committee of the Whole, to which was referred Bill No. 110546, entitled "An ordinance amending Chapter 20-500 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled 'Councilmanic Districts,' by revising the boundaries of councilmanic districts, under certain terms and conditions"; and Bill No. 110547, entitled "An ordinance amending Chapter 20-500 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled 'Councilmanic Districts,' by revising the boundaries of councilmanic districts, under certain terms and conditions," respectfully reports it has considered the same and returns the attached bills to Council with a favorable recommendation.