Aye. The ayes are 17; the nays are zero. A majority of all members having voted in the affirmative, the bill passes. This concludes our Calendar for today. Are there speeches on the part of the minority? The Chair recognizes Councilman Kelly.
Thank you, Madam President. Madam President, I wanted to condense this speech which I'm about to make, but --
I was going to condense this speech which I am about to make, but I had second thoughts, because I think you and my colleagues have to know the full story about animal control and care in Philadelphia. The City's animal control operation is in crisis, and thousands of adoptable animals are being killed, largely due to incompetence by an agency that is overwhelmed with the responsibility, who was wrongfully awarded last December. In 2002, the Pennsylvania SPCA abruptly walked away from the City's animal control contract, leaving the City little time to construct a shelter and an organization responsible for the care and handling of 31,000 homeless companion animals in Philadelphia, one of the in the nation. The Health Department hastily organized what came to be known as PACCA in a warehouse on Hunting Park Avenue with a Board of Directors comprised mostly of Health Department employees. By 2004, conditions of PACCA were abysmal. Daily News columnist Stu Bykofsky wrote a series of articles depicting the deplorable, inhumane conditions of the City's shelter where 90 percent of all animals who entered never left alive. The Daily News stories about the operations of PACCA were the first that City Council and the public knew about how our homeless animal population was being mistreated. Public outrage led to Council hearings, which in turn resulted in a complete overhaul of the organization, including new Board leadership and composition. Despite being grossly underfunded, PACCA made significant progress, built coalitions of rescue organizations and volunteers, who were all dedicated toward bringing Philadelphia closer to becoming a "no kill" operation, meaning no animals would be euthanized unless medically necessary, not killed just to save kennel space and not killed just because they weren't cute and fluffy. In December of 2008, just weeks after signing a year-long contract renewal with PACCA, the Health Department chose to cancel its contract under the guise of the opinion of three nationally known experts in animal welfare, two of whom remain nameless as of today. They awarded the contract to PSPCA. Realizing he was in over his head and unable to fulfill the inflated and unrealistic promises he made to the City, CEO Howard Nelson abruptly quit his job by e-mail just six weeks after assuming the contract. It was Nelson who in demanding the City award the PSPCA contract. Since he deserted his post and abandoned his responsibility obligation to the City and its homeless animals, SPCA still has not found a replacement and is currently being run on a part-time volunteer basis by a Board member with no background in animal control. Another severe loss that animal control sustained just weeks after the PSPCA took over was a breakdown in a working relationship with the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, with whom PACCA had established a world-class animal shelter medicine program, where students and faculty performed spray and neuter surgeries at no cost to the public. Penn now offers this free service to a shelter in Montgomery County, another glaring example of Philadelphia losing valuable resources to our suburban counterparts due to inefficiency. the Administration about the problems facing the animal control system that have fallen on deaf ears. But, once again, it is a newspaper that has reinvigorated the public's attention to inhumane conditions at our City-run animal shelter.
The cover story of the current Philadelphia Weekly written by Tara Murtha exposes in great detail the rapid breakdown of standard protocol and humane treatment in the City's animal shelter, long delays in vaccinations leading to mass outbreaks of illness, misleading and inflated reporting on numbers of animals adopted, falsified reports, hiding the amount of animals who are killed and an overall lack of transparency from the PSPCA. The Weekly story also reveals that the agency has disenfranchised rescue workers and volunteers. This is shameful, as those volunteers are absolutely critical to the successful operation of a city animal control system, as it is their time and efforts to foster and adopt out homeless animals that under PACCA had helped lead to annual increases in a save rate and remarkable progress. The PSPCA's contract is set to expire on June 30th. It's unclear whether the group even wants to continue, and, once again, we are on the verge of potential disaster, as we have no Plan B. The Health Department's actions have created a monopoly in animal control. There is no other provider available to perform these services. So I ask you, what if the PSPCA decides to walk away again as they did just a few years ago? The Health Department is proposing a hundred thousand dollar decrease in the animal control contract for Year '10. Remember, they parted ways with the City just a few short years ago in large part due to lack of funding. If the PSPCA does decide to continue, we need more oversight in their operations. The Health Department remains resistant to any criticism of the PSPCA, even yesterday telling one of my staff members that things in animal control are better than ever. That sounds like a lot how the Health Department reacted to criticism in 2004 in the aftermath of the Daily News "House of Horrors" expose. I do not intend to watch history repeat itself. The Health Department just wants this issue to go away, but I will not stop talking about it, not until they give it the proper attention it deserves and work to fix the problem they created. Councilman Greenlee and I requested a meeting with Commissioner Donald Schwarz, and I was told that he will try to find time in his schedule to attend. The time is now. This is an issue that people care about. At a time on the rise, more animals than ever are being turned in to shelters nationwide, because people can't afford to keep them or can't keep them after being forced out of their homes. We must reexamine and reassess the City's animal control efforts, and that is why I will be introducing a resolution calling for Council hearings to investigate this dire situation. Philadelphia has been on the road to becoming a "no kill" city and we can head in that direction again. That is why I'm asking for the support, input and ideas of my colleagues. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Green.
Thank you, Madam President. I want to talk today about the Bureau of Revision of Taxes, the BRT. We that we would be receiving the data regarding full valuation of properties in the City of Philadelphia April 1st, and I guess that was an April fool's joke. Then we were told we would receive it by April 15th, 14th, somewhere in that period of time. We have not received it to date, that I'm aware. I am now told that we will be receiving it maybe within the next week or shortly thereafter. Madam President, when this data is released, it will show what we all know, and, that is, that Philadelphia's property tax system is broken, is inaccurate, is unfair and, according to state law, is illegal in the way we operate. This data should be in our hands as we deliberate various taxes which we will need to raise in order to provide the City the revenue it needs to operate during our next two-year cash crunch. So I urge the BRT to get this us, because I believe it will demonstrate that we cannot consider significant property tax increases on what will be demonstrated to be a completely broken, illegal and unfair system. Thank you, Madam President.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman Jones.
Thank you, Madam President. I will yield my position to Councilwoman Blackwell, who is a senior member, but I would like to be recognized shortly thereafter.
Thank you, Councilman. I wanted to note that our partnership for prescription assistance again. So for my colleagues and people in your office who need to be able to get prescription assistance, it's out there again. We have the Montel Williams brochures, and we wanted to make sure -- we try to do it every Thursday. So you can tell your constituents that they can come to get information and assistance. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilman Jones.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Jones.
Thank you, Madam President. Yesterday, April 22nd, was Earth Day. Fifteen months ago when we came to these Chambers, the number one agenda item was moving green legislation to save the planet earth. That agenda and usurped by the recession. People's consciousness have shifted to balancing their household budget. We in this body have shifted our priorities to balancing the City budget. The federal and worldwide communities are doing the same. But I would make note today, the day after Earth Day, that we should never make plans just on today nor the emergencies of today, but we must take into account the yesterdays, todays and plan for our tomorrows. The tomorrows that the City wants to be greener, to reduce our carbon footprint, to be a better citizen of the world by way of the consumption of energy, that we must focus on those tomorrows by acting in today, by moving legislation that many of my colleagues have introduced on green agendas and that I have introduced, and we need to do this business of this body by compromising and figuring out what is in the best interest of our city and our not ever plan our city's future out of the fear of what is going on in a temporary recession. And I would hope and urge our colleagues to bring back that green agenda that was prominent 15 months ago. We'll deal with our todays. We will get past this budget crisis, but we should not be so shortsighted as not to see the need for a greener Philadelphia. Thank you, Madam President.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown.
Thank you, Madam President. Two announcements. One, in celebration of Earth Day, yesterday Philadelphia distinguished itself once again. Many of us may know that Philadelphia has more mural arts than any other city in the country. Yesterday the mural arts was taken to a new level in Arts Program has partnered with the Streets Department recycling program, and now we will see all of our recycling trucks traveling around the City on wheels but Mural Arts on wheels, and as a result of this wonderful partnership between Streets and the Mural Arts Program, the hope is that our recycling volume will continue to explode as it already has. So in honor of Earth Day, I wanted to remind us of this wonderful new presence we'll see on our streets around the City. Secondly, a little over a year ago, Madam President, you authorized the creation of the Special Committee on Gender Parity of City Council wherein the focus was to identify problems related to the social, political, educational and economic empowerment of women for us to further explore and develop initiatives to advance women in our city. Today we will be having a brown-bag luncheon with a number of women leaders around our city hall in the Caucus Room, and I wanted to remind but also invite my colleagues to join us and men who have ideas about how we can do better when it comes to, in the words of First Lady Michelle Obama, finding and identifying policies that support families, because they're not just policies that support families, they're not just political issues, they matter every single day. So this is an invitation for all to join us 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. today, special committee, brown-bag luncheon across in the Caucus Room. I thank you, Madam President.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Tasco.
Thank you, Madam President. I'd just like to remind those individuals who are listening and those today that there will be a City Council public meeting this afternoon beginning at 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Mount Airy Church of God in Christ at Stenton Avenue and Ogontz Avenue. The public is welcome. If anyone would like to testify, they should come prepared to testify for three minutes and bring their testimony. Thank you.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Sanchez.
Thank you, Madam President. As we are wrapping up our Council session, I noticed that many constituents and community leaders have entered the Chamber, and I wanted to recognize the Coalition for Essential Services, who will be walking the halls and talking to many of my colleagues this afternoon around the deliberation in the budget, and I wanted to encourage my colleagues to meet with them, because I think that this group of folks, who in many cases represent organizations who provide safety net services for the City, not only recognize the challenge before us in this budget, but are willing to work both with the Administration and this Council to help us make those tough decisions that we would make in the best interest not only in the short term of the City but in the long term. So I just wanted to recognize if any of my colleagues don't have scheduled meetings, please give them 10, 15 minutes. I think they are important stakeholders and critical stakeholders for us in the City. Thank you.
Thank you. Are there any other speeches on the part of the majority? (No response.)
Seeing none, the Chair recognizes Councilman Clarke for a motion to adjourn.
Thank you, Madam President. I move that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, April 30th at 10:00 a.m. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and seconded that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, April 30th at 10:00 a.m. All in favor will say aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it. The motion carries. Thank you. (Stated Meeting adjourned at 11:25 a.m.) CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on April 23, 2009, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)