Committee on Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs, September 30, 2024

COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON PARKS, RECREATION AND CULTURAL AFFAIRS Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Monday, September 30, 2024 10:30 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCILMAN ANTHONY PHILLIPS, CHAIR COUNCILWOMAN CINDY BASS, VICE-CHAIR COUNCILMAN CURTIS JONES, JR. COUNCILWOMAN RUE LANDAU COUNCILMAN ISAIAH THOMAS COUNCILMAN JEFFREY YOUNG, JR. RESOLUTIONS: 240422, 240392 - - -

Good morning. I now note that the hour has come. Ms. Walton, will you please call the roll to take attendance. Members that are in attendance will please indicate that you are present when your name is called.

Chair Phillips.

Present.

Vice-Chair Bass. (No response.)

Councilmember Landau.

Present.

Councilmember Jones.

Present.

Councilmember Young.

Present.

And, Councilmember Thomas.

He was present. Thank you. A quorum of the Committee is present and the hearing is now called to order. Before we go into a public hearing, we will go into a public meeting on Bill No. 240422 to consider the action to be taken. Please note Bill No. 240422 had its public hearing on May 28, 2024 and will be reported out of a public meeting today. No further testimony will be taken on this bill. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Young for a motion on Bill No. 240422.

Thank you, Chair. I move that Bill No. 240422 be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. (Duly seconded.)

It has been moved and properly seconded that Bill No. 240422 be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. All those in favor of the motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)

Those opposed? (No response.)

The ayes have it and the motion carries. Bill No. 240422 will be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation with a request that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading at the next session of Council. We will now begin the public hearing. This is the public hearing of the Committee on Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs regarding Bill No. 240392. Ms. Walton, will you please read the title of the bill.

Bill No. 12 240392, resolution authorizing the Committee on Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs to hold hearings on ensuring recreation centers have the full complement of staff needed to respond to the diverse challenges of Philadelphia neighborhoods.

Before I call on the Clerk to call the first panel, would any of my colleagues like to make any opening comments? (No response.)

I just want to note for the record that Councilman Thomas was here earlier today. He had to leave before the hearing began, but he did make comments about how important this was to him and that we listen to members and staff members of Parks & Rec on this particular concern and issue, so we're really excited that he was able to introduce that. Also, the Chair recognizes Councilman Curtis Thomas -- Curtis Jones.

Curtis Thomas. I've been called worse.

Curtis Jones.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think that it is important that as we embark upon fixing physical recreation centers, improving recreation centers, and I want to for the record thank you for coming out to Tustin in West Philly to do a tour to look at our infrastructure. We are blessed in that rec center to have a strong program of services to young people that includes boxing, basketball arts and craft, afterschool programs. It is robust there, but I don't know if we have that same capacity throughout the system. One of the things, like in other departments, it is difficult to find employees these days and we have a lot of competition among departments in the private sector so we have to work on that. But one of the things I hope to hear is a plan today on how we engage some of the volunteers that are out there doing track and field, doing basketball, doing baseball and football for free and try to integrate that into a physical plan. I know that in one of our rec centers, Shepard, we've had a renowned boxing program where champions have come out of that program and none of the people, none of the coaches, none of the trainers are on payroll but they are as committed to the furtherance of the boxing program. We have to replicate that throughout the system and hopefully we'll come up with a plan for that today. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Councilman Jones. Actually that's very thoughtful and really important. And so, I want to make sure that that is really heard on record today. Clerk, so we're going to now -- also, I want to recognize that Councilwoman Bass is present for the Committee hearing, our Vice-Chair. So before I call on the Clerk to call on the first panel, are there any other members of Council on this Committee that have any comments? Councilman Young. The Chair recognizes Councilman Jeffrey Young.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to commend you for having this particular hearing. This is an issue that is of the utmost importance to me. As some folks know, parks and recreation in my District is the number one priority for me. As I've done tours throughout rec centers in my District with the members of the Administration, just by myself just going into places, folks don't even know that I'm the Councilman, just really getting information on what's going on. We really have an outdated system. And I think that it is up to us as Councilmembers who are stewards of the budget to really make investments into our children, right, and make investments into positive outlets where children can remain to be children and continue to grow in a space as they age out, right. Rec centers shouldn't just be for toddlers. They should be for teenagers. They should be for seniors. And so, we want to make sure that our centers are fully equipped, are fully staffed with the right people in programming to grow with our city. So I look forward to having this conversation today to see what we can do as a body to make our city number one when it comes to Parks & Rec.

Thank you, Councilmember Jeffrey Young. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Rue Landau.

Thank you so much. I just wanted to add to what my colleagues are saying, that this is also utmost importance to me of expanding our rec centers to the best of our 2024-2025 and beyond ability but also supporting the staff as it happens and making sure you're fully staffed and fully trained for what we want to come. As the Chair of the Technology Committee, I've really been looking at ways in which we can inform the public more about what's available, when it's available and taking some of this administrative burden off of the staff for the phone calls and just the day-to-day interactions. Let's put it all online in a really easy way that people can see what's happening, at what time and when that basketball court is available, how great would that be. But we fully support everything that's happening. Just want to help you guys as much as we possibly can, so look forward to this hearing. Thanks.

Thank you, Councilmember Rue Landau. Would any other members of the Committee like to speak? (No response.)

Okay. Thank you. So seeing that there's no 14 other Committee members for comments, Clerk, will you please call the first panel we have to testify on Bill No. 240392.

Panel No. 1, Susan Slawson, Commissioner for Department of Parks & Recreation; Marissa Washington, PPR First Deputy Commissioner of Administration; and AnnMarie Dunn, PPR Deputy Commissioner for Programs.

Thank you. Please approach the witness table. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

All right. Well, good morning, good morning. If you can just again please state your name for the record and then proceed with your testimony. Again, it's great to see you all here today. Thank you. COMMISSIONER SLAWSON: Good morning. Susan Slawson, Commissioner of Parks & Recreation; Marissa Washington, First Deputy Commissioner of Parks & Recreation; and AnneMarie Dunn, Deputy Commissioner of Programs.

Okay. Thank you. Please proceed. COMMISSIONER SLAWSON: Good morning, Committee Chair Phillips, Vice-Chair Bass and Committee members. Again, my name is Susan Slawson and I serve as the Commissioner for the Department of Parks & Recreation. I'm joined today by PPR's First Deputy Commissioner of Administration Marissa Washington and PPR's Deputy Commissioner of Programs AnnMarie Dunn. I'm here today to testify on Resolution No. 240392, a resolution authorizing a hearing on staffing levels, including the inclusion of new job classifications at the Department of Parks and Recreation. Throughout my testimony I will do my best to address the several issues raised in the text of Resolution No. 240392. The mission of Parks & Recreation is to provide the City's residents with recreation programs for their leisure time and provide communities with a multi-faceted park system that enhances quality of life while promoting well-being for visitors. In order to improve public health, reduce stress and promote a more active lifestyle, we offer many opportunities for sports and leisure for children and adults of all ages. Our goal is to provide spaces that are clean and safe allowing residents to enjoy themselves while engaging in wellness and enriching opportunities. The safety of our visitors and staff in our recreation centers and parks is a key priority. In order for a recreation center to open, we require that two staff members be onsite. While we aggressively work to fill our staffing vacancies, we manage to adhere to this requirement by ensuring equitable staffing coverage by strategically using permanent and seasonal staff. At the same time in partnership with the office of Human Resources, we have changed the specs for the recreation leader trainee and other entry-level positions to create additional pathways to full-time employment and to decrease some of the obstacles that existed previously. In addition to ensuring adequate staffing at our facilities, we work to ensure safe facilities through our deep partnership with Philadelphia Police Department. Along with the Philadelphia Police Department, we have developed several strategies for police and community to engage in an effort to address safety concerns. As an example, a leadership meeting was held prior to our summer season with the Police command staff and PPR leaders. The purpose of this meeting was to collaborate on providing organized programming at recreation centers. Captains assigned Community relations and District officers to specific recreation centers to participate in our teen nights, play basketball with youth, operate movie nights and give out water ice and pretzels. We absolutely agree with the intent of this resolution, specifically that there is more work to do to make our recreation centers safer for everyone, including staff and the people who use our facilities. We must explore a wide array of safety-enhancing measures and execute them in a way that fits both our operational needs as well as the needs of the community, and we look forward to listening to other individuals' testimonies today. Also, while we wholeheartedly support ensuring more children and families have access to therapy and social workers, it must be noted that our sister departments in the Office of Children and Families and the Health and Human Services cluster of the Managing Director's Office already provide therapy and social services in community locations that are best-suited with the onsite experts to provide much- needed and often requested services, like behavioral health treatment and rehabilitation. In addition to concerns around privacy and liability, turning recreation centers into social service hubs could result in mission creep, diverting PPR's limited resources from recreation and leisure. Like the members of this Committee and other members of Council, we are very concerned about the violence and safety issues in and around rec centers.

We also understand that while our work with the PPD is the primary part to address safety issues, in particular gun violence, we are committed to exploring various other solutions that may provide additional security measures while at the same time still allowing us to stay true to the mission of Parks & Recreation. We appreciate the opportunity to testify and we welcome any questions and suggestions from the Committee today.

Thank you, Commissioner Slawson. The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Curtis Jones.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you, Commissioner. And welcome back to city government. You left us for a while and we missed you and you somehow voluntarily came back so we thank you for that. I want to go on the record, Mr. Chairman, and say that if we go back to the pandemic there was no 8 other department that was tasked to fill in the void, talk about mission creep. They were the only safe outdoor spaces that often people could safely gather. You volunteered, your department did, to distribute food, to do all those other ancillary things that really doesn't come under your bailiwick. During the civil unrest, that was also something that your department took on and filled in where you could and provided resources, personnel to kind of keep the ship stable. So on the record, I want to thank you. What I'm also pleased about is your leadership, the Mayor's vision, your leadership, as to where we go going forward. We spent a lot of time dealing with soda tax issues and the fixing of rec centers or the lack thereof in some cases, but I'm confident today that we are on the right path with the brick and mortar. Where I want us to be innovative is, you're very aware of this, that you have all of these volunteer recreation organizations that we need to fully incorporate and utilize. I know about track and field. The United Age Group Track Club Association has maybe youth 17 track teams. And during the 18 summer, we work with the School 19 District and we're up there and 20 you'll see 1,000 kids with 1,000 parents and not a fight, and they do this for free. They work them out for free. Up in your District there are plenty of teams and mine.

Icons.

And Icons in lacrosse, they do this for free. And I think there is an opportunity for your staff to work with them to figure out, where appropriate, how do we incorporate that into the Rec Department's kind of lexicon of opportunities. I can do that for boxing. We have a number of really successful renowned amateur boxing programs that are in our rec centers now that if we kind of work with the leadership, trained up some of the coaches, certified some of the coaches in a way so that we can ensure them and ensure our young people are in healthy environments, that we could get a lot of mileage out of what already exists. Icons, which Member Bass talks about, is at 33rd and Berks --

Diamond.

Diamond, and they go out there and they're one of the few female innercity lacrosse teams. Full disclosure, my granddaughter plays for them. And it has opened up opportunities, non-traditional opportunities, that she would have never thought about. The river, we do rowing. The City does a yearly training during the summer. I think if we just kind of knit some of these in with a little bit -- I understand the limit of money. We need to probably find private sector dollars to assist you and us to mesh that together, but I think all of the ingredients are actually out there if we can kind of weave them in with your staff, with your competent staff. And I don't say that -- work on your poker face, but I don't say that lightly. I really hold them in high regard. A lot of times they're understaffed in challenging neighborhoods where they have to hold it down in neighborhoods that probably could use a little more attention by way of security. What you do with the PAL should not go unnoticed. That is an excellent opportunity, and thank you for being a part of -- we had up at the Sixth Man Center teams of 12 at-risk youth that came and played 13 basketball for little pieces of 14 medal, but what they got from the 15 coaches was priceless. 16 So I'm encouraged about the 17 possibilities of what can be if we 18 kind of put a little more coordination effort into it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Councilmember Jones. Any other questions of the Committee? Yes, we do. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Rue Landau.

Thank you. My first question is what are the biggest struggles or roadblocks in attracting and retaining staff for the rec centers?

Good morning again. First Deputy Commissioner Washington. I think our biggest challenge, and Councilman Jones mentioned this earlier, there's competition across the board for all of our positions, whether it's our program positions, our skills trades positions. Over the last few years our vacancy rate has been very high. Our previous Commissioner has always testified about this so we are competing with other places. The other thing that the Councilman just said was that some of our more challenging neighborhoods it's just hard to staff. We actually are going through promotions right now for our Rec Leader 3s and we've had some people who have declined the position because of where they have to go. And in my years, that is 6 something that I have experienced 7 the entire time, that folks will 8 decline a promotion based on where 9 they are going to go. So I think 10 there's competition. 11 I will say that over the 12 last few years one of the things 13 that we have done is we have 14 changed our rec leader trainee spec 15 to loosen up the requirements to 16 accept more degrees, to include experience as a recreation -- or a seasonal or temporary person within Parks & Recreation. That's helped us to improve on diversity. In 2018 we changed the job spec and did some robust recruiting so that we could have more diverse program staff. That was one of the things that was lacking. Over the last couple of years we've changed those specs again. And I want to say this current list probably is about 60 percent people of color and hopefully they will take those positions. So I think it's a combination of things that prevent us from being able to have our full complement of staff. But I think we're changing -- one of the things that we're doing we have an assistant recreation leader position which is a permanent part-time position. It's been announced for the first time in five years, and that is a way for us to create pathways to employment for folks and that was one of our key positions to really help. So hopefully we will have 22 people come in for that. Hopefully 23 we'll get 60 people to accept our 24 positions for recreation trainee, 25 but people have other opportunities and the competition for working in the suburbs, less work, smaller facilities or not as many people. I mean, I think it is a real issue that we're trying to become creative and strategic to improve on our vacancies and get people to want to come to Parks & Recreation whether it's programs or in our skills trades.

Thank you so much for that. As somebody who's hired through the City system I know that it's complicated and it's a little more bureaucratic than we want it to be. So I appreciate your focusing on it and looking for solutions and different ways that we can do things differently than we've done before. Do you have any flexibility in hiring people to work at their local rec center? Is it just that when they apply for a job title and they pass the test and they're on the list for that job title, they can be placed anywhere in the city? Is there a flexibility to make them local to their local rec center where they know the neighborhood?

So we place people where the vacancies are and that's the fairest process, because if somebody has been working in a facility and a vacancy isn't there in that position, then we would have to move someone out to accommodate the local folks. So it's really based on where the vacancies are, but we do issue out transfers a lot before we bring new people in to give people an opportunity to move around. At times we'll include longevity and those sorts of things. I mean, AnnMarie could probably talk a little bit better about that process and how we select people to go to particular centers. COMMISSIONER SLAWSON: If I could comment on that, I will say for seasonal positions a lot of our seasonal positions we place people in their communities that they live in. But for full-time staff, we're usually putting them where the vacancies are, but we do have those opportunities.

Do you ever recruit in the neighborhood of that rec center where there are vacancies in order to get people in line or when you know vacancies will happen, the planning along the way?

So I will say with our rec leader trainee, recreation outreach worker and ARL positions most of those folks come from our seasonal pool from the local community. A lot of the folks -- even some of our program folks that are here now, they were once seasonals in their local recreation facility and moved up through the system. So we do have that opportunity. Unfortunately, when it comes to a civil service list those lists are good for two years. So depending on, say, if we have 8 vacancies now and we fill those 10 9 vacancies, a few folks retire, so 10 wherever that person retires from, that's where that vacancy now is and then we'll go back to the list. So sometimes it's going to be difficult to place people directly in their neighborhood, but where we can we will. We will do that with our ARLS. I know with our recreation outreach worker position, we added 60 new positions over the last year-and-a-half. Most of those people came from seasonal jobs to go into a full-time permanent position and they were placed in their local rec center or at least the local community. COMMISSIONER SLAWSON: I think also our staff, the men and women that work in our rec facilities, they are the biggest recruiters for us because if we're getting seasonal staff members, it's usually because recreation leaders are sharing with community members that positions are open. So we do have that support from the staff members that are saying, okay, come on, let's put in for this position. So it's coming from within.

Yeah. I will say that for this last recreation list we had about 80 people that were approved, well, a little bit more, about 100. 55 of them were either seasonal or outreach workers in our department, so they were already our members that applied for the rec leader training.

Good --

I have another one.

No, keep going. You're fine. You're fine. Keep going.

So the next question is do you have a large kind of three- to five-year master plan? Do you look at all the rec centers collectively, kind of look at the facilities' needs, the staffing needs? And is there a master plan that you can share with us and what is the three- to five- year plan?

So we do not have a master plan. We do have our five-year plan. But as Councilman Jones just said, Commissioner Slawson has been here for, I don't know, if it's six months yet, so we're working on updating our strategic plan across the board to figure out what's the best way to staff our facilities, where are pain points across our system and really creating some programs and policies and procedures that can help us move forward. So we're in the beginning stages of looking at our strategic plan that is probably about two, three years old. COMMISSIONER SLAWSON: And I would like to just comment on thinking about Councilmember Jones, some of his statements about community and volunteers and how important that is for our system to work not only for recreation facilities but for our park land as well. We don't function without the support of volunteers. Our system would not look the way it looks, it would not be as well-kept as it is currently if we did not have the support of community. It is community that allows us to thrive. And one of the things that I've been looking at is for us to come up with -- we have community engagement within Parks & Recreation, but it is not centralized. So we have something on over here and over there, but there's not that one person that's responsible to make sure the volunteers are being supported or we're recruiting volunteers. So I'm actually working on identifying someone that can be that engagement person where we are funneling everything and we know where we need support. We know where the boxing rings are. We have a young lady that's working with us who is responsible for analyzing our programs, so there are some things that we are currently doing because we recognize that we need to bring things under one umbrella and come up with a plan as opposed to just react. So we are working on that.

Thank you.

And I will also add -- I just got this from Deputy Commissioner AnneMarie. So we are about 2700 volunteers that run through our system that have gone through the clearance process. We also know that we're going to have -- that there are probably additional volunteers that are working in a local recreation facility but haven't necessarily gone through the kind of centralized background process. But we have about 2700, and this is going across the system.

The Chair recognizes Councilmember Young. Councilmember Landau will come right back.

Thank you.

Thank you. Good morning. Who determines who gets space in rec centers? COMMISSIONER SLAWSON: It's based on of course the size of the rec center, the need and the number of people we have staffed at the rec center. That would be me, Councilmember.

Okay. I asked that question because I know we had this conversation in the rec center. In my District there's what I like to call non-recreational activities occurring in spaces there that can be utilized for recreational activities where folks are using it as office space of the like. And for me, I just don't think that is the highest and best use for recreation center space here in our city. During the summer, I was trying to visit a few rec centers and I noticed that a lot of them during the summer they aren't open until 1 o'clock. So can you tell us what the thinking is behind that? Some of the centers are not -- and again, they don't know I'm a Councilman, right. So I go, knock on the door, I try to get in and they're like, oh, we're not open yet -- COMMISSIONER SLAWSON: During the summer?

During the summer, yeah. I went to a few rec centers and they do not open the doors, unlock the doors until 1:00 p.m. COMMISSIONER SLAWSON: Well, those are our hours during September through May, June. We could have a -- AnnMarie's coming up, but the facilities during the summer where we run our summer programs are usually open before 1:00. But go ahead, AnneMarie.

In the instances where you possibly came across rec centers, it could be that the camp was on a trip or they've went to another rec center that has a pool for swimming. But all the rec centers during the summer are operating anywhere from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

I'm going to be specific. I was at MLK Rec Center that has a pool, that has camps, that have all these other things in place. And when I go there, they allowed some folks to be practicing in the gym, a few basketball players were in the gym doing workouts. But the facility itself was not open until o'clock. And I literally had to wait because I didn't tell the guy I'm a Councilman. I literally had to wait until o'clock until he came back and unlocked the door to let me in. So these are things that I've experienced at other rec centers too during the summertime. So I think that needs to probably be a little bit more better communicated to some of the folks that are there, that the summer hours are a little different. Is it possible to have hours of operation posted at every rec center so the public can know when the rec center is available to them?

Absolutely.

Point of information. To my colleague, in 20, I want to say, 2018 we actually passed a bill, this body, that required that hours be posted. And so, most of them are posted because we went around and checked. So most of them have been posted since then. But if there are ones in your District that haven't been posted we want to know. That's a bill that our office passed in response to folks not having an idea as to what the actual operating hours were. COMMISSIONER SLAWSON: Thank you, Councilmember. And if you could later after this identify those facilities that you're talking about, I would appreciate it. And we can ensure that if the signs aren't posted, we'll make sure that they're posted.

Thank you. And one more question regarding safety at rec centers. Are there police officers who are assigned regularly to patrol rec centers? Is there a log-in at some of the rec centers in our communities where police will come in, sign a log, let them know they were there as a part of their normal patrol? COMMISSIONER SLAWSON: There are supposed to be logs and police do come. I will say I spoke with Deputy Commissioner Cram and they're coming up with a new technological piece that they can come by and actually as opposed to -- and it also helps them make sure that the officers are stopping at the centers where they can actually scan, and they'll have that piece of equipment, as a police officer, you know that they've been by. You know that they're coming by. The logs, sometimes they're there. Sometimes they're signing, they're missing. It depends on what's going on and the activity that's happening in the city that frees them up to come by and sign a log. But the answer to your question is yes. Do I know how often they're coming, no. But I do know that they're coming to our facilities.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Rue Landau. However, before Councilmember Landau speaks I just want to say thank you so much for your work around this issue, Commissioner Slawson, your energy. If you wanted to further comment on anything around public safety when it comes to our rec leaders that could be helpful because those questions are going to come up probably in the next coming panels. So I just want to see if you want to comment on that. Any additional thoughts on that before the panelists are able to come up, because there's been notes that rec leaders have had to fight battles, per se, with youth and adults. And there's been crime that's coming in so is there a plan that you have in place that you all can potentially share at this moment? COMMISSIONER SLAWSON: I don't have anything I can share, but what I can say to you is that I've been meeting with the Philadelphia police leadership to come up with -- and that's how I know about this particular opportunity that the police will have to scan to make sure that they're coming by our facilities, that I've been meeting with the leadership of the Philadelphia Police Department so we can work together to ensure to provide as much safety as possible. One of the things that happened this summer, and I will say even prior to me being here, Parks & Recreation had a really good relationship with the police department. But I've been pushing a little harder, and this summer we had a full blown-out meeting where every captain of every police district, every inspector and my rec leaders we met at the Horticulture Center to sit down and to plan out what can we do to work during the summer because usually that's where we get a lot of our challenges with crime. And they came up with making sure of course you had that personal phone number of the captain. So if you need something and it's an emergency, you're not just dialing 911, you're reaching out to the captain. We had the inspectors there as well, but they broke up into groups. The captain sat with the leader of that particular district and they came up with plans. And this summer we had a number of police out at our rec facilities really running movie nights, playing basketball with our kids. We didn't make a big deal about this, but we knew that we needed to make sure we had -- and it's also about building relationship. We're trying to build relationship in our communities because community policing is what's going to make the difference in our facilities. And so, we are developing a plan with the police department on how we can continue to build on what's already happening and identify other safety measures because we recognize that there are safety challenges. We're not trying to run from that because it is about not just keeping the young people and the adults in our facilities safe. We have to think about our staff. It is critical that they are protected as well. So I'm excited that we're here today to talk about the safety issue. We're really pushing -- I'll say that Marissa works extremely hard with her HR team to try to get these positions filled. It is challenging, but it doesn't stop us from working hard to fill these numbers.

Thank you, Commissioner Slawson. Now, I'm going to recognize Councilmember Landau and then Councilmember Bass right after that.

Just real quick to follow up. I appreciate so much the thought of having the rec leaders, having the police captains' direct cell phone number. But I just want to emphasize how much, and I know you know this, that the relationships are not just one-offs. They have to continue and be built. So whether or not that is monthly meetings with the captain and the staff to figure out how's it going, what do you need or something like that, it just has to be ongoing relationships, not a one-off phone call when there's a crisis. And then the second thing, I just wanted to go back to this concept of a strategic plan to just ask what are your top three priorities or obstacles, but priorities for the rec centers and how do we think we can go about achieving them and also does your current budget facilitate that, does it support the changes that you want to make? And if not, how much do you think would be an additional cost? COMMISSIONER SLAWSON: And I'm not being cheeky, but my three main goals line up with the Mayor's. Our facilities need to be clean. Our facilities need to be safe. And we're responsible for 10,000 acres, so we have to be mindful of the green that's happening here in this city. And so, I've charged our Deputy Commissioner of Operations to come up with a plan because I mentioned we react a lot to phone calls, to emails. We need a plan where we're looking 3, 6, 9, months out. So 11 we're working on a plan on how do 12 we manage to ensure that with the support of the Councilmembers that we are cleaning our facilities and we're making the necessary upgrades. I have to commend Councilmember Phillips because he's been charging me to ensure that I'm out on tours with him, and not just his District but in every District. Let's figure out how we, Parks & Recreation, works with City Council whether it's lighting, whether they're, you know. Councilmember Bass, how do we make sure we get our best courts up to par. This is done in tandem with City Council. None of this can be done by just Parks & Recreation. We have a great team of people that are working, operations in our facilities. But the work is done collab -- when you say community, this is community right here for me. In order for me to get the work done to make sure they're clean, to make sure they're safe, to make sure that facilities that are 100 years old, there's funding available to make those necessary upgrades, because what we tell the community based on what they see is how much we value them. So we're working with Councilmembers, and I appreciate this opportunity because everyone sitting here has been working with me since I've been back. I've been asking for different funds. And every time I ask I get it because I'm asking to make sure that our community members walk into facilities that are clean, green, that we're beautifying them. So I'm going to continue to ask. We're going to stay in tandem with what the Mayor has on her charge for us, clean, green and safe.

Thank you, Councilmember Landau. And I just want to add before we go to Vice-Chair Bass that it is true that we've been going on these tours together. And we found many different things that would help us bring all of our rec centers up to the 21st century. Great things happen in our rec centers, things that have improved. And by I think the third tour, second tour, I said it was first for me to work with that District Councilmember to really understand the needs of the area and try to come together with the rest of the members of Council to figure things out for it. And by the third one I said, you know what, we're going to open up these tours because it's an educational experience for me as the Chair, but I said we want to now begin to have all of City Council come out and visit some of these centers too, especially our Committee members, so that by budget season we can have a real collective agenda on what we need for our centers. So just be on the lookout, Committee and the rest of the Councilmembers, that we should be doing these tours in conjunction together to see what -- because some of these questions actually I've gotten firsthand understanding them by doing the tours. So we got at least eight more to go. All right. So thank you. The Chair now recognizes Vice-Chair Bass.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning. (Good morning.)

So a couple things I just want to follow up on Councilman Phillips mention of tours. A few years ago there was an article in one of the local papers that listed the best public pools in the city of Philadelphia. And so, as then Chair of Parks & Recreation I said, well, what makes them the best pools in the city of Philadelphia, so we did a tour and we learned a lot from just going and visiting and touring. And some pools had, you know, I wouldn't say more amenities than others -- well, actually maybe a little bit more. But the simple things like pool furniture, and I know you and I talked about this and we have started putting pool furniture in more of our neighborhood pools because the concrete is so hot and it's really not enjoyable if you have to either be in the water or out and leave. It's not really the same kind of enjoyable experience. So I just want to applaud my colleague on doing those tours because I know he'll learn a lot as I did and very, very informative. But I just wanted to say a couple of things. I wanted to, number one, thank you all for your service, for what you do for our city and for parks and recreation in general, because I think that there's a lot of frustration that the community imparts upon you. The frustration I think comes from neglect that's not new, not under your tenure, not under the last three, four, five, six commissioners' tenure. But this has been decades long that the investment has not been made, the basic maintenance has not been made and really our centers deserve better. Our communities deserve better. Our workers deserve better when they go in. And like you said, you can't even get some people to go. They're like unh-unh, no, I'll keep a lower pay because I don't want to go to that neighborhood. That says a lot right there. And I think that when we did that soda tax there was the expectation that things were going to change immediately overnight, and there has been some change and there has been, you know, we are moving to make some changes that wouldn't have been made otherwise. But I think the expectation was that it was going to be a much larger scale level of investment that the Administration was making. So we're still working through all of that. I wanted to just also mention, Commissioner, if you could talk a little bit just going back to safety. So as a former Philadelphia Police Department official and also formerly with PAL and the work that our office did to weave in cameras, which Councilman Jones had to remind me that I pushed to make sure that every rec center in the city of Philadelphia now had cameras. This was in -- I see somebody shaking their head saying no, but this was some time ago. And I'm wondering if you can give us an update on exactly where that is? COMMISSIONER SLAWSON: I don't have those numbers, Councilmember Bass, but I can get you those numbers. I'm not sure -- yeah, Frank's not here. If Frank was here, I'd be able to give you the exact numbers. I do know that you started this when I was here the first time --

Okay. COMMISSIONER SLAWSON: -- to ensure that we had cameras. And I will say that the cameras make a huge difference when people recognize that there are cameras. And even if an incident happens, we're able to go back and the police are able to go back if there's a crime committed, if you don't catch that person right then and there but because we have the cameras, we have the opportunity to go back and investigate and identify whoever that perpetrator may be. But I will get you the numbers of how many facilities have cameras.

Thank you. That would be great. I know that when we first started out before we got our camera program on board, I think there was something like cameras in the entire Parks & Recreation network and now there's well over 1,000. So I know that we've made significant progress but we want to make sure everybody's done. So we're looking forward to getting that information. COMMISSIONER SLAWSON: Okay. Thank you.

Thank 13 you, Mr. Chair. 14

Real 15 quick, Mr. Chair. 16

The Chair recognizes Councilmember Curtis Jones.

Thank you. This is totally off topic and I don't want an answer right away. But in light of global warming, you mentioned -- how many acres are you responsible for? COMMISSIONER SLAWSON: Over 10,000.

So do not answer it now. Has there ever been a fire in our park system? And is there a plan that if it was -- in light of all that's going on, on the West Coast, I just don't know if it ever was. And then in light of global warming and some of the other brush being drier, what will we do in that case? So do not answer. But when you come back for budget, I'm going to raise -- COMMISSIONER SLAWSON: Be prepared?

Yes, please. COMMISSIONER SLAWSON: Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Chair recognizes Councilmember Jeffrey Young, Jr.

Thank you. Just one more question: It's 2700 volunteers throughout the entire system. Is there an effort to recruit those volunteers to become actual employees of Parks & Rec to fill some of these gaps that are there?

Yes. People that are in our centers are the first people that we look to become employees. So we're always constantly asking for anyone that is coaching a team or volunteering with the youth that, hey, there's employment, would you be interested. So they're our first go-to people.

Are there any barriers for those volunteers to actually become employees of the Department of Parks & Rec? COMMISSIONER SLAWSON: When you say barriers what do you mean, sir?

For example, I know some positions require degrees. Is that a barrier or what -- COMMISSIONER SLAWSON: Marissa's going to come back because we've made some changes in our specs intentionally so we could remove some of those barriers.

Thank you. So one of the things I did want to mention with our 2700 volunteers, we hire close to 2,000 seasonals throughout the year from our aquatic staff to afterschool to summer camp and then helping out with other programs. So we have decreased some of the qualifications for our full-time positions. But one of the things, since our department works directly with youth, folks have to pass background clearances. So sometimes we have folks that may be qualified but if they can't pass the clearance, they can't be hired with Parks & Recreation. And that's part of the child protective service laws aka the Sandusky ruling. That was a few years ago, so that is an obstacle that some of our community members may face. We do work with the Law Department to try to get some exceptions within reason. Over the years they have adjusted some of the child protective service laws where if it's kind of like a five- year threshold for some things but certain things like whether it's a drug offense or an assault can prevent you from working in our department. And when that ruling came down I don't know how many years ago, we knew that it would impact a lot of good quality candidates. But at the end of the day, we have to follow the law and the law says that folks have to pass these clearances. So it's a child abuse clearance, criminal record check and then an FBI clearance. So we require all three of those for any of our seasonals and our permanent staff. And I will say in some regards that is an obstacle. But when you think about educational, qualifications or experience we are reducing those and trying to open up the pathway for folks within the community to get full-time employment.

So I want to say thank you -- are any other further questions? (No response.)

I just want to say thank you for your testimony. Before we move to our next panel, I also want to add that we're doing these conversations now so that we can be able to have a better budget experience in the future, right. So we can be able to have not most of our questions but all of our questions answered and also all be on the same page, so I think this is going to be really helpful. One of the things that -- and this is why the radar kicked in about us bringing all the Council together for these tours because they are enlightening, as Vice-Chair Bass has also cited, that I noticed at every rec center that the lights are lower than expected. I just thought it was like some rec centers in my area, but literally for every rec center we don't have the bright LED lighting, and that helps not only I think with how we visualize when kids and families come in but also for our staff who have to be there all the time when it's these dark spaces. So that is something that I'm hoping our Committee as well as the rest of the Council can now work on with you to make a better experience for our Parks & Rec staff as well as those who visit the rec center. In addition to that, I just want to say thank you. There's other things that are going to come up today around -- people are going to probably cite resources that they need and they're going to cite of course the public safety issues. I think they're going to cite a couple other concerns around seasonal workers and so forth. And so, I just wanted to see if you had anything to say before we move on to our next panel on any of those topics. If not, we will proceed.

I will say with regard to our seasonal workers one of the things that we have done over the last couple of years is increase or extend the time that our seasonal workers would work. So usually say if we had 400 camp counselors, we would extend some of those to help support with making sure we have two folks at a facility, understanding that our vacancy rate is high especially on the program side. So one of the things if you look at some of our budgets or you'll probably see in this next budget hearing that we tend to go over our seasonal budget, but it's offset by the underspending and our full-time positions. So one of the things that we have done recognizing that we need to keep our facilities open, we want to keep staff safe, so we extend our seasonals and we've done it every year for the last two or three years. We do an assessment as we get to September to make sure that the folks that are requesting the seasonals to be extended, that it is a reasonable request and we make every accommodation to do that making sure that Finance and Budget know that that particular line item we're going to go over budget, and we've gone over budget for our seasonals the last couple of years. But again, it doesn't take us over our overall budget. One of the things that we will do by the time we get to December is do an assessment of the seasonal workers that we have kept on because we do anticipate filling rec leader training positions and assistant recreation leader positions that we've not filled those positions in five years. So hopefully, if everything works and if we can get another 50 to 60 permanent folks on, then we'll kind of do another assessment at the beginning of the year. But this is a routine that we do every year with our seasonal staff to help support us with our programs and even in our operations.

Thank you. All right. Thank you for your testimony. We will now proceed to our next panel. Clerk, will you please call the second panel we have to testify on Bill No. 240392.

Panel No. 2, Local 2187 members Jesse Jordan, Local 2187 Union Agent; Gregory Hartling, Youth Engagement and Equitable Distribution, Local 2187 Executive Board member; John Gaynor, Security and Equity and Funding, Local 2187 Steward and Recreation Leader 1; and Kelly Fassano, Mental Health and Well- being, Local 2187 Steward and Recreation Leader 1.

Thank you. Please approach the witness table. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Good morning.

Good morning.

Can you please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

Thank you. My name is Jesse Jordan, Union Agent for Local 2187.

My name is Brett Bessler. I'm the Vice- president and Business Agent for AFSCME District Council 47 Local 2186.

We just had a question of time. Are we still ending at 12 o'clock or will this be extended?

We're going to be extended.

Okay. Perfect. Thank you.

We'll stay close to it though. Thank you.

Okay. I would like to give an introduction to our panel, to the Committee. Good morning, Councilmembers. My name is Jesse Jordan representing Local 2187 and we are joined by Local 2186 of District Council 47. I want to express our deepest appreciation for your continued commitment of working with us whether through budget hearings, committee engagements and one-on-one discussion. Today we are gathered to address the critical need of the Parks & Recreation Department needs, that if met, we will significantly enhance the quality of life in our communities. In our rapidly-evolving society, the urgency of now cannot be overstated. Community well- being and safety must be prioritized which is why we are here advocating for the expansion of staff. Composition to include social workers, recreational therapists, municipal guards/maintenance workers. This expansion addresses more than just safety. It touches on onboarding new staff, mental and physical health and the equity distribution of resources, all of which are vital to a thriving community. Today you will hear testimony from our members concerning the challenges they face daily ranging from delays in hiring and onboarding of new staff and critical needs for mental health, physical health support. Their firsthand experiences will illustrate the real impact of these issues on our communities and highlight the urgent need for change. A streamlined and effective onboarding process is essential for us to build a department we envision. Unfortunately, delays in interviewing and hiring have been a present issue preventing us from fulfilling positions that are already funded out and approved. By expediting these processes, we can ensure that we quickly bring new qualified staff on board who are ready to work in the communities. They will not only bolster the workforce but also provide opportunities for residents to contribute directly in their neighborhoods they live.

I'm going to go last so I'm going to ask Jamille Mitchell to go next.

Thank you so much for coming to the witness table. Can you please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.

Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Jamille Mitchell. I'm a former Recreation Leader 3 with Philadelphia Parks & Rec. I'm currently the Workplace Violence Prevention Coordinator for D.C. 47. I'm also a 2186 staff rep. Sorry, you got to say it if even you're nervous, right.

Don't be.

So little do most people know I actually started off as an RSI, partially a caretaker at a recreation center around 2011 so I kind of helped out with maintenance, end up doing programming, helped with summer camp, found out about the Leader training position, took the test and just kept moving up in Philadelphia Parks & Recreation. And anyone knows that I love my job. I loved working with the community, stakeholders, different partnerships and I loved running programs. Anyone who knows me knows I've been a troop leader since my time at Martin Luther King Rec Center. But it is my passion that even got me to come and work for the Union because I did notice that there are some issues within our recreation centers and I wanted to kind of assist in bringing light through my work with the Union. Always thought of one of the greatest ways our city can show its love for its citizens is in the way it cares for its employees and its public spaces. When the public enters recreation centers and parks, they should see a reflection of that, right. And many of us try as caretakers, as rec leaders, we try very hard to make it that space, but often times we lack what we need to do so. And like I said, I started off almost as a caretaker so I understand. And when I started at my first rec center, there was always funding. I was even able to be hired on to work outside of my RSI time. When I started as a trainee, it was quite the transition at my rec center in Germantown. They had very limited resources and staffing. Often times I was the only staff person in the building. And I thank God for the community because they do assist sometimes with snacks and water, often times sitting with me until closing to make sure I got to my car safe and was able to drive off. So there is a lot of community engagement and relationships. I've also had different relationships when it comes to the Philadelphia Police Department. I've had some rec centers where they came often, they engaged with the community and the children. Some I end up going to the police station numerous times to try to get my log signed. I've even walked up to police cars and said, can you guys just like come in, sign the log book. So there's a lot of work that we do as rec leaders. But it becomes a point where we almost burn out because we're trying to take so many extra steps to bring those things into our centers. Sorry. I try not to get emotional, but today in the testimony you will hear from many of my beloved colleagues who are boots on the ground, who do the work every day full heartily and I commend them. You will hear the different things that we go through in the day-to-day with less but still with passion and compassion. I will give this other little secret that I've done. Whenever I have gone to a rec center, if I've been transferred or hired at a new spot, I go at night just to see what I'm going to in the morning. And as it was already stated, the lighting sometimes is very poor, it's scary and it makes you wonder about how the kids feel coming in and out of these centers, how the parents feel coming in and out of these centers. Some have cameras. Some don't. I have been in predicaments where I make sure I'm within the camera so if anything goes awry there's a recording of whatever is going on. These are the things that rec leaders think about in their day-to-day which is scary. No one should ever come into a building fearful or walk away fearful for themselves or for their children. One more thing about staffing. When I was at one of my rec centers, I had a Girl Scout program. Outside a young man was getting jumped. He banged on the door, he came in, he was bloody. When my parents saw that young man, I lost my troop that day.

So it just speaks volumes of we love the work, we're trying to get the supports but we need so much support and having bodies on the ground, people there engaged and helping it makes a great difference, but also we need lighting, we need cameras and we need to be educated more and engaged more with workplace violence. So I will hand it over to my esteemed colleague, Mr. Greg Hartling.

Good morning. My name is Greg Hartling. I'm the current facility supervisor at Sturgis Playground and I am also on the Executive Board with the Union. My testimony today would be involvement, the success, the recruitment and the equity, what we need in Parks & Rec. The follow-up Councilman Jones was talking about, I was one of those youth coaches. I started out at Olney Recreation Center as a football coach, basketball, baseball and track. I did that for years before I even came into 13 Parks & Rec. 14 I'm a rec kid. I grew up 15 Belfield Recreation and Wister 16 Playground. And when I became a 17 responsible adult, I wanted to show 18 the kids, love the sport, but then 19 it turned into more of a mentorship 20 and working with kids and 21 encouraging them because you don't 22 know what type of homes that they 23 come from. So I had two-and-a-half 24 hours every day to kind of 25 encourage them. And I firsthand saw the success of the young people that didn't go on to play sports but they went to college and they carried a 3.9 grade point average. They were proud when we asked to see their report cards, and this is what the community did as coaches, let me see your -- they couldn't wait. And on that, I was recruited into Parks & Rec by a former rec leader at Olney. He knew I retired from the Post Office. I was bored, and I was up there every day. And I became an ARL, which is a system recreation leader and I was part-time. I worked 18 hours my first week. That was perfect. The next thing I knew I'm working full-time. I'm working 35 hours a week and I loved it. And I happened to come in full-time now because my wife had wanted to retire and I said, hold on, let me go in full-time and things like that. So then former administration, I guess they seen my talents and recruited me to take more of a leadership, so my first recreation center or playground that I got to run as a facility supervisor, I followed this lady, was Wister Playground so I had big shoes to fill, and I enjoyed it. So now with that I started to recruit the young people that I knew that was going off to school and things like that. There was one young man that I knew since he was 4. When he graduated from Lincoln University of Pennsylvania, I personally recruited him to come and work in Parks & Rec. The problem, OHR was a little bit slow and the School District snatched him up --

I don't want to cut you off, but we wanted to learn more about the concerns of the rec centers and so forth that you want to test -- like, she was giving some notes on the topic.

Yeah.

I was getting your biography. That's all.

Well, okay.

All right. Proceed.

That was one of the staffing issues. We go out and we recruit and sometimes we lose the person, but he is seasonal because he comes in and runs our reading enhancement program. And the whole situation with the staffing, it's kind of hard for us to keep people in pool because they go on to find permanent jobs and things like that. There's another young man that I had to just let go. He started in our summer camp. He became a summer worker and I got to hire him as an RSI for the summer, and I was trying to get him extended but we had to cut, so I had to let him go. And he's currently a student at Temple. I try to recruit the younger folks because I'm a little bit long in the tooth now and there's more of a relationship with the younger workers that we try to recruit. So if we can fix this, we can help fix some of the problems that we deal with. Thank you.

Thank you so much for your testimony. And then there's two -- is there anyone else? Clerk, is there any others on this panel?

Yes, those are the other members.

Thank you. Good morning, Councilmembers. I appreciate you having this here. Clearly you are the people that generally care about Parks & Rec, and I know as a group that you by and large do. My name is John P. Gaynor. I'm a Recreation Leader 1 stationed at James J. Ramp Playground in the Northeast section of Philadelphia. Like almost all my coworkers you're going to hear from today, I'm a lifelong multi-generational Philadelphia resident who grew up in our recreation centers and I'm proud and humbled to speak on their behalf as well as my fellow citizens who currently staff our sites every day. You will hear about many topics from my colleagues today. I'm tasked with touching on two that are at the forefront not only of my department but of all City departments, staffing and safety. I am proud to say that City Council has by and large always been a fervent supporter of Parks & Recreation. This fact is evident by the money you, yourselves, have appropriated to our department over the years. In fact, right now we have large sums of money that is going largely unused by this body allocated for Parks & Rec for hiring. Included in the information you'll receive today is a chart that shows the amount of money that Council's appropriated for Parks & Rec contrasted with the amount of vacancies we currently have in our staffing. Simply to put our minds is unacceptable. Running a good rec center starts with being available. If rec centers are not open, not offering programs, we cannot blame the children of our city for going elsewhere. Adequate staffing is of the utmost importance for ensuring that our rec centers remain a consistent, available and safe resource for all of our citizens. Time and time again our supervisors and managers are left trying to piece together a staff with the limited number of employees they have at their disposal. For a City department of our size it just needs to be better. Our current hiring process has not just become inefficient. It has become a detriment to our city in general. We are not only understaffed, but we are losing many viable, enthusiastic and young candidates year after year because of the major flaws in our hiring process, which is what Greg just discussed. A lot of our kids get into the program and then while they're in the program, the process getting hired they get scooped up by somebody else, they get hired fast and then they're gone. Again, the money is there currently for hiring that you approved. We can always use more money, because as our Deputy Commissioners said, a lot of times we go over in the summer and then we try to scale back in the winter time, and that could be certain issues as Councilmember Young said before when you show up at a site, usually it's not just because people aren't around, it's because their shift starts later and there's no one there to stay earlier in the day. The second issue I wanted to touch on is safety. It is an issue that also goes hand-in-hand with staffing. Our rec workers are under no illusion that the job they do is without risk in the city. That being said, we work at playgrounds and gyms and dance halls and performing arts centers. These are places that should be some of the safest in the city and take priority. Instead sadly, rec centers can be some of the most unsafe for our City young people. I work at a rec center that still does not have cameras. I was told this was a priority for years. It gets mentioned at every district meeting, please let us know of any camera problems, not having them is a big one. Then we were told that they can only be installed during a total rebuild, which again is great. We want our site to be rebuilt too, but we feel that there's little things that can be done to edge. If you just need cameras, just put in the cameras. And I'm told time and time again I can't get cameras, you're on the Rebuild list. It has to be a total rebuild.

Then we were told -- every time a police officer stops by, which is as frequent as they can, I am told that there's been rumblings in the police department that maybe we can have a camera system that is set up specifically for Parks & Rec that is oversaw by the entire camera system that we have already, just the regular system that oversees everything. Why isn't there a direct line for just Parks & Rec that you could access so when you do call the captain, he can say what's going on right now, he can see it immediately opposed to -- that they can tap into. Last year at my center I had the misfortune of becoming another rec leader who experienced children being shot at our site. I remind you I work in Northeast Philadelphia across from a private high school surrounded by a lot of wooded area. There are no open air drug markets and no gang activity. Yet there I was facing the same fate of so many of my colleagues, children at my rec center shooting each other. If this is happening to me in the Far Northeast, imagine what goes on elsewhere. I feel for my colleagues and coworkers in different environments and you'll hear from them today about the discrepancies in different neighborhoods that are facing recreation centers. It's very important. I will say I had supervisors, one of whom is here, who showed up quickly that night or and others that made a call to check on us and it was greatly appreciated. A generic department- wide email was sent offering assistance if we reached out or needed someone to talk to the next day, as it was dozens of times that year. To reach out to someone we don't know who we've never heard of is very tough. We feel at the very least there should be mental health professionals and social workers who can assist and visit sites after warranted events. My colleagues will touch on that also briefly after me. And after all this, I said to myself this has to be it. We will surely receive the cameras we've been asking for and promised at our department now. We didn't. We still haven't. And to be clear, cameras are not the only answer. There isn't a cure for all of our problems that we have in our city today. None of our people are claiming there is or claiming that they know what the answer is. We're just asking for some commonsense assistance and accountability from within our department and from each other and we feel that it is long overdue for many years. I'd like to finish by saying my colleagues and I love Philadelphia. We love living here, we love working here, we love raising our children here, we love this department. This city has become a place that is more likely to be demonized by those who have fled the city and many who have never lived here at all. We know better. We know that our city is not somewhere that only bad things happen. We know that our city and our city rec centers are overwhelmingly great places that create lifelong memories and bonds for all of our citizens and especially our young people. It is why we as representatives of those who staff our City centers demand the opportunity to give us the best chance to serve our fellow Philadelphians. We will not settle for less. We also feel that many of you sitting here today agree and we are asking for your assistance in that endeavor. Thank you all again and thank you in advance for your continued support of Parks & Recreation.

Good morning. Good morning, members of the Committee for Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs. My name is Kelly Fassano and I am Recreation Leader 1 for Philadelphia Parks & Recreation at Jardel Recreation Center. I was an ARL for nine years. I became a recreation leader trainee in June of 2023, so a little over a year. Thank you for allowing me to speak today. I'm here as a representative for the dedicated staff of Philadelphia Parks & Recreation. Individuals who are committed to ensuring our parks and facilities provide safe, positive spaces for the community. But today I want to talk about something that deeply affects us all, the mental health and well- being of both our staff and the community. Working in Parks & Recreation isn't just about organizing programs and maintaining facilities. It's about being on the front lines of public service often encountering traumatic and high stress situations. My colleagues and I have faced moments no one could have anticipated, moments that leave lasting emotional scars. For example, one day this summer at our pool we had a young girl nearly drown. The incident left our staff shaken, but the trauma support we needed didn't arrive until weeks later long after the moment had passed. While we appreciate the leadership that did check on us that night and in days that followed, the next day we were back on duty without any real opportunity to process what we had experienced. This incident is far from isolated. My colleagues have faced incidents of shootings, suicides, fights, threats and drownings at their centers. And while some of the leadership has shown up in these moments offering their support and concern, it often feels like what we truly need, the right kind of professional support, is missing. We don't just need check- ins after the fact. We need consistent access to mental health professionals like social workers and recreation therapists who can be there when the trauma occurs. Social workers could provide immediate emotional support to both staff and patrons helping us navigate these difficult moments as they happen. Recreation therapists too can help us foster an environment where mental and emotional health are a priority, not just in the aftermath of a crisis, but integrated into the programs we offer every day. We are asking for more than just another program. We are asking for the support we need to continue serving our community with compassion and resilience. These professionals would help create a healthier, safer and more supportive environment for everyone. Fully staffing our facilities with trained mental health professionals is not just a benefit. It's a necessity for those of us who face these challenges daily. This would allow us to continue doing the work we love while also taking care of ourselves and the community we serve. By fully staffing our facilities with social workers and recreation therapists, we can create a more resilient, supportive environment for everyone. I urge you to consider the impact this support could have, not only in preventing burnout and emotional distress among staff but also in fostering a stronger, more resilient Philadelphia Parks & Recreation. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you for your testimony. Go ahead. There's other testimony? (Yes.)

Hello, everyone. My name is Eric Kurtz and I'm a Recreation Leader 3 at Mayfair Recreation Center. I am also an Executive Board member of District Council 47 and Local 2186. I have been with PPR going on 16 years as a full-time permanent employee, but I've been in the system since I was a senior at Father Judge High School. I'm here today, like many of my colleagues, to discuss inadequate staffing and safety within our department. We are operating at high percentage deficits at all of our staffing and all of our division programming, operations and skilled trades. In programming we are operating with some positions with vacancy rates pushing 60 percent in entry level positions. Not long ago we would have eligibility lists for these positions with close to 150 people on them. Now, we're lucky to get a third of that. We're also routinely asked to work extended hours on weekend, but without proper staffing we're incapable of doing that. With more staff we could easily be open seven days a week, but now many facilities can't be open past 6:00 p.m. due to inadequate staffing. When facilities aren't properly staffed with the fullest, it creates a dangerous environment. With a full complement of programming, it brings the people into the center and helps keep dangerous elements out. Regarding safety in our playgrounds, we are routinely the subject of gun violence unfortunately. We recently had a shooting at Gambrel Playground becoming far too normal in our system. In many of our playgrounds we are cleaning up after the unhoused. I was assigned to Scanlon Recreation Center for two years and had to pick up needles daily and many times discard of human waste. One time we found somebody who had unfortunately passed due to an overdose. Children walking to our centers do not need to see these things. Rec centers should be places of happiness and exciting places for children to go. If a site is properly activated with robust staffing, these facilities can thrive and become safe spaces we all want them to be. With more recreation leader trainees and leader 1s, more ARLs, we could be expected to put out more programming and make facilities safer. With your help we can make this happen and make PPR run at its highest capacity. Thank you for your time today and I look forward to working with you guys. Also, go Phils.

Thank you so much.

Oh, yes. Thank you. I just have a few comments and then Brett Bessler will close out the panel, Panel 2. All right. My name again is Jesse Jordan. I'm from Local 2187. I just wanted to touch base on how we see the rec centers moving forward. Philadelphia definitely has changed. As we all know, Philadelphia is in the top big 9 cities of poverty and deep poverty 10 rate. So we look at these rec centers now going forward and the challenges the city face. As a beacon of hope, and that's why really push for the social workers and recreational therapists as being part of this plan. The social workers could be in place and every rec center doesn't need to have one. We could have them float throughout the district or we could do a pilot program in a specific district of need. But the social workers will be on ground, part of the community and they connect people with services within the community to prevent them from having -- just to get a referral and it's no follow- through or see who they connect with. It's a point to lower barriers for the people of our communities our families, to lower their barriers and just send them our way with a token or a pass and hopefully they show up. Also, they could bring programming into the different rec centers as the community needs it. I think that network and lowering the threshold would be great. I think that the other systems like the Department of Human Services, the juvenile justice system, the police, they could be better utilized in other areas. And as we all know, when you get connected with a system, it's easy to get in and it's hard to get out at times. And a lot of these communities are people of color and a lot of people of color systems just don't seem to treat them equally, so we would prefer this as a less intrusive way of getting people to the services they need within their own community. Recreational therapists, we do advocate for those too. And I will say that both of these positions we're looking for civil service jobs. We're not looking for contractors because civil service, as we know, you got to do 10 years of service to be vested, so these people are looking for a career. Contractors as we all know if someone's paying $5 or $10 more, you're going to leave. And most contractors aren't invested into the agency because they're at will. So the therapists can also touch on that community, the people, our families within the community that kind of go unseen and not advocated for. A lot of our special needs individuals can definitely take advantage of recreational therapists to come up with a plan for them, utilization, outings. I think that will be a big part because a lot of those members suffer, a lot of those family members, our family because all the citizens of Philadelphia is our family, they suffer in silence. There's a lot of mental health that goes along with that also. So we believe that of course the increase of security, onboarding more efficiently. We would like if some community members would have the opportunity if the vacancy is there to work within the community that they live. I believe that could provide another resource, especially if they have other connections that may reduce the acts of violence or misbehaving within the rec center itself. So I just wanted to make those brief comments because I know we're running out of time, but just let you know that we're definitely looking at this as a beacon of hope now because Philadelphia has a lot of challenges with violence and crime, and we're looking to service the entire family, the youth, teenagers, young parents, parents, adults, seniors, everyone. And thank you.

All right. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Brett Bessler. I'm the Vice-president, Business Agent for AFSCME District Council 47 as I said earlier. I would be a little remiss if I wasn't completely myself. I am going to be a little brutally honest about this department. I became a Recreation Leader Trainee in 2015, so I think like many of my other coworkers I really saw the decline. I saw the decline start to begin. So I was looking at the hearing notice as we began today. And the question that we're faced with is does Philadelphia Parks & Recreation have the full complement of staff needed to respond to the diverse challenges of Philadelphia's neighborhoods. I'm going to give you some data. Overall Philadelphia Parks & Recreation has a 28 percent vacancy rate. In our programming districts, which is all of our recreation leaders and the staff that run our recreation centers, the vacancy rate is 32 percent. Our custodial vacancy rate going into FY25, 57 percent. How are we going to have clean facilities when 57 percent of our custodial positions are vacant. Our park rangers, our park rangers are often forgot about in this system. Currently going into FY25 at a 35 percent vacancy rate for park rangers, but I do also want to make a note that Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, as my dad who is here today, 39 years civil servant for the department, always reminded me from -- I mean honestly, it's one of the earliest memories I have -- my dad telling me how vast this system really is. We have park rangers budgeted to 15 protect over 10,000 acres. 16 Yes, exactly. I want to 17 see that kind of reaction. Let's 18 do something about it, Councilman 19 Young. Just also want to answer 20 some questions real quick that I 21 heard the Committee talking about. 22 I actually have some firm answers 23 on. 24 So adequate lighting. We 25 recently surveyed our members. 50 percent of our members say their centers do not have adequate lighting. Councilmember Landau, you asked about training. When we surveyed our members, we asked if our members had adequate training to fit the needs of the diverse challenges of Philadelphia's youth. 100 percent said no. 10 We asked our members about PPD response time. 8 percent said it's not adequate. 57 percent said sometimes it's adequate. We asked our members if they feel safe at work. 3 percent said no. 9 percent said sometimes or day-to-day. We asked our members have you ever expressed to a loved one you wonder if you'll make it home safe from work. 5 percent said they keep it to themselves. And then even more interestingly we asked, has your spouse or loved one ever expressed that they worry that you'll make it home safe. 5 percent of our members said that a loved one has had that conversation with them. When you look at our job specs on paper, this is not that kind of job. This is not that kind of job where you should be having those kinds of conversations with your loved ones where your loved one should wonder. We're supposed to go and do programming with kids and youth and seniors and make our communities better, but our own wives, our husbands, our children don't even know if we're going to make it home safe at night. There was some talk about loosening the job specs over the past couple years. That position where the job specs have been relaxed, we have more vacancies in that position than when those job specs were relaxed. It's not an answer. We have to do more. You asked about a plan. Union Locals 2187 and 2186 drafted up an emergency action plan, this is how to respond to shootings, drug overdose, bomb threats, whatever you could think of. We just wanted to have a manual that we could show our seasonal employees or our new employees how do we respond to these things. We submitted that draft months ago 13 and it still has not been finalized 14 by the department. They haven't 15 even gotten a draft back with some 16 proposed changes. It's ridiculous.

17 Councilman Curtis Jones, I 18 do want to go on record and talk about this. Councilman Curtis Jones said how much our department went above and beyond during the pandemic. It is true, Philadelphia Parks & Recreation had its highest usership during the pandemic. But I want to talk about what our recreation leaders were doing during that time. They were working in food packing warehouses, packing food. Some of us got COVID. This was two weeks into the pandemic. Three months, three months into the pandemic think about where we were in June 2020. We were running summer camps. We were one of the only departments in the country that was running a summer camp three months into a pandemic. And then when the school year started, we were working at what we called access centers. And what an access center basically was, was when a student had virtual learning and their parents couldn't work from home, they could send them to the rec center. We essentially were running classrooms while teachers were at home because it was too unsafe to be in a classroom and we were running that. And I do just briefly want to touch on Councilman Young asking about operation hours and possibly expanding them and things like that. We don't have the staff to do that. And I think that one pivotal point for our department in the last few years was when we lost one of our own. Tiffany Fletcher was murdered just doing her job at the rec center. The only reason that Tiffany Fletcher was working that day was because she was an extended seasonal employee extended because we didn't have the staff. That traumatic event happens. We always asked ourselves before Tiffany was murdered who's going to be the first one that's shot. Now Tiffany gets shot, she's murdered. Now we're asking who's going to be next. And what does, I'm sorry, City Council and the department do two weeks after, they expand our operational hours where we had to be open Saturdays and Sundays with even less staff. It makes no 4 sense. How are we going to do better? The answer, I think we have a lot of ideas but we have to have these conversations. We have to acknowledge what our staff members are going through, because what they're going through our communities are also going through. This department unlike any other department in the city of Philadelphia impacts every single neighborhood in the city of Philadelphia, every zip code, every neighborhood. What is it, like a rec center within like a mile and a half at most of every Philadelphian. So like I said, we have a lot of ideas. But what we have to do is we have to take a comprehensive and in-depth look at this department. And what we would like to propose to you today, to the Chair of this Committee, Councilman Phillips, is we're proposing that we institute a task force similar to what Councilman Driscoll did for Licenses & Inspections. If we did a task force, we could bring the City, the Administration, the unions, the community members, all these stakeholders together to take an in-depth look at this department and see what we can do to adequately meet the needs of our youth, our seniors and the communities and our staff and our members. And just real quick, Councilman Young, you said that it's not just for youth. Our older adult centers are operating also at a 41 percent vacancy rate. We have to do better for this department. If we do better for this department, we're doing better for every single Philadelphian. Thank you. )

Thank you, Brett and everyone, for their testimonies today. I'm going to now go to our members of the Committee for questions. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Jeffrey Young.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a couple questions. I know just being in my District and looking at other Districts, college campuses they have like emergency call boxes all around for their students to call to have direct access to that public safety institution for that area. Are there any similar call boxes at our rec centers to allow you to have someone, resident, a staff member to press a button to call an emergency situation directly to the police or anything like that?

No, that's something that the union has brought to previous Parks & Rec administration as an idea. I can tell you I've been through more shootings than I can count on both hands and I was only out in the field for seven years. And every time that you call the police, everybody knows that Mr. Brett was the one that called the police. I would love for our rec centers if we had a panic button. I do think that some libraries have panic buttons as well. But I also want to point out that's why we're talking about security guards. You know, this isn't some crazy idea to have security guards in recreation centers. The Free Library of Philadelphia has had municipal guards for years and this department doesn't. When I was at Smith Playground in South Philadelphia right across the street from Wilson Park, I had the captain's cell phone number. It didn't make a difference. I mean, you know. So, yes, we would love to have -- no, we don't have them and, yes, we would love to have them.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I just wanted to add on to that. Is there a reason why -- when you asked for security guards, I'm sure you asked this in the past, what was the response of why there are no security guards at the rec centers?

We'll look into it. That's the response we -

Pardon --

We'll look into it.

We'll look into it. Okay. All right. Thank you. Did you -- Councilmember Young, did you have any more questions?

I have a couple.

All right. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Rue Landau.

Thank you so much for all of your testimony for everybody who just came up here. I'm curious what you think from workers and a union perspective what the barriers are to hiring other than safety. Are there administrative barriers? Is there something else? We want to know your perspective on this.

Well, I know some of the barriers when it comes to hiring the rec leader trainees have been the department's philosophy of filling the top positions first. So then you come in a situation where you have citizens that will apply, but the actual interview may take months. And by that time they have either found employment elsewhere -- because when you look for a job, you don't just apply one place. And we have had some people that tried to work two jobs but because the conflict of interest, they had to let the Parks & Rec go because the salary was lower than the other employment.

And just touching again on salary, our recreation leader trainees they start out just over $40,000. I was lucky enough to have my dad when I started with the department. I couldn't afford to live on my own. I was bringing home $800 every two weeks. It's just not a sustainable wage for somebody to get into. And then just as another aside, we're going through the pay appeal process to get a pay raise for our Recreation Leader 2s and 3s. We submitted the form that you have to submit to OHR over a year ago. And for OHR to do whatever they need to do and all that kind of stuff. We're hoping it comes up this month in civil service for the raise. But we're making every effort that we can on our end to improve this department and help with hiring and retention, but the City has to do something too.

Thank you.

I just want to say also with the vacancies since they have the opportunity to move to Rec Leader 2, it creates the void there for the Rec Leader 1s and 2s because they all move up and then it's hard to backfill. So I think if we had a little bit more priority of filling the rec leader trainees first, at least get up to 80 percent, I think that would help.

Do you have on your level, and maybe this might be a question for the department heads, a list of all of the vacancies and where they are? It was an interesting point that if everybody can move up to rec leader 2, we want them to, but are most of the vacancies at rec leader 1, where are they and where are they geographically around the city?

Yeah, that information we'll have to get from the department because they control operations and staffing moves from within the different locations.

Okay. And what training is provided to staff when it comes to things like conflict resolution, anything beyond the basic training for your job?

None. We get an active shooter training like maybe once a year, but even that active shooter training is designed for office buildings and things like that. But as far as de-escalation and stuff -- I mean, anybody since I left get a de-escalation training? (No.)

Not even our park rangers get de-escalation training.

Okay.

It's wild.

That seems to be pretty essential for all of the staff to have the basic skills of de-escalation, conflict resolution, active listening, a whole bunch of things that are super helpful to just get the pot to stop boiling over and to bring it down to a level where we can actually, hopefully have a conversation giving you guys as many tools as you can get would be super helpful as we're still trying to get you the support that's needed. And the last thing I want to say is I think it's so interesting, we just negotiated -- again, I'm the Chair of the Tech Committee so we just negotiated the Verizon broadband agreement, right, and there's going to be 183 rec centers that are going to have high-speed Internet access for the community. We're going to need folks at the rec centers because people are going to come there. That's great news, right. We want more people utilizing our rec centers in different ways. This was part of the Verizon franchise agreement to get this to happen. We'll definitely need staff trained in the rec centers to help folks, to help them figure out all of the ways they can utilize this, but I don't want us jumping on that when we haven't even supported you in the other ways in what you need. So we're really going to look at this holistically to make sure you get staff to highest capacity possible. Love to see you getting at one or both of these new positions you're looking for, but also we have to think about the fact that the broadband's coming -- the high-speed Internet's coming to 183 rec centers and we want to make sure that your staff make sure people can utilize that as well.

Yes, thank you. And I just want to also add I've been here and also from one of the testimonies from one of the rec leaders over at Jardel that there is a need for recreational therapists integrated into the rec centers. Now, I do know that Parks & Rec offers therapists, health services when tragedies happen. However, you're saying that they need to be interwoven into the day-to-day. What does that look like so that our Administration who's here today and us who are here with them we can understand what that looks like? What does an interwoven therapist and mental health services look like?

So social workers could offer trauma response and things like that. Recreational therapist is a position that Parks & Rec used to have, and it was in our Carousel House at the time. If you're not familiar with Carousel House, it's where individuals with physical disability can go. We do amazing wheelchair basketball tournaments, things like that out of Carousel House. That's where recreational therapists are. Recreational therapists, our idea behind them really is because we as a department, if we're setting up summer camp, right, we're taking in registration, okay. We may have a family that comes to us and their child is suffering from behavioral health issues, okay, and they have very, very specific needs. That's what a recreational therapist is for. I can tell you just from my end when I was a recreation leader if a family member, if they shared that their child has behavioral health issues or things like that, my resource was when they left my office I was Googling what is that and how do I help them. Recreational therapists go to school to do that. And so, they can meet the needs of those specific populations.

This is my last question and we'll move on to our next panel. I just really wanted to know -- that was helpful. You said there's 57 percent of custodial vacancy amongst some other vacancies. What is it that we have to get rid of in the application process to expedite, you know, as one of the individuals mentioned we don't want to lose people, right. We don't want to lose people. What needs to be removed, what barriers need to be removed so we can quickly review, interview and process folks and make a decision so we don't lose people, because you said it takes months, Jesse? I think you said it takes months for a decision to be made. But what needs to be removed?

As far as -- I think Brett -- the position that you identified, Brett might be better to give the answer. But as far as the employment process, it's just the philosophy of the department to go top-down first. So the positions, even though you applied, taken the test and passed, you're going to be the last one called on through the interview process so that's a series of months before you're called.

Why is it a series of months before you have to be interviewed after you pass the test?

Because the philosophy of the department has been with the prior commissioners to fill the top first. So they'll start at if they got rec leader 3s, 2s or if they needed a manager, they'll start at the top and work their way down. So by the time they get to the trainees or 1s, all those other positions have to be filled which creates a delay in your employment.

Well, if that's the case, all of that needs to be really looked at and fixed because even in this day and age with us, we know that if we don't hurry up and make a decision on people they're going to make a decision to go somewhere else. And then generally concerned about rec leaders having to be people for all seasons where they have to clean, administration, they're doing everything. So the custodial vacancies make me wonder if there's a reason for the custodial -- the reason for the custodial vacancies I wonder if it's because of this process too. So this is new to me. This is new news to me about that process. So I just want to say thank you for sharing that and we'll huddle up and see what we could, you know, together fix on that as well as thanks for the recommendation of the task force. Overall I just want to say thank you for all who testified. We were very attentive here and heard every single word. I just want to say that this is actually going to be part of our agenda and conversations going forward and looking forward to having a follow- up. So this is actually very fruitful. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other further questions or comments from the Committee before we move forward? (No response.)

All right. Thank you so much. Clerk, seeing that there's no further questions, can we please call the next panel to testify, the final panel for Bill No. 240422.

Panel No. 3, Marlena Smith, Mental and Physical Health, Local 2187 Executive Board member and Public Health Program Analyst; Eric Brown, Funding Sun Rise Movement Philly; Lurline J. Jones, Recreation Programing and Community Impact, Retired Teacher/AD/Coach Philadelphia School District/Camp Director, Department of Recreation; and Christine Rad, Local 2187 Delegate and Recreation Program Coordinator. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Oh, that's great. Let's have the children go first. All right. Are the students testifying as well? MS. DiDONATA: Yes.

They are? You wanted to go before them? MS. DiDONATA: Yes, I'll introduce them.

All right. That's fair. MS. DiDONATA: How are you doing, Councilmember Anthony Phillips, Councilmember Jeffrey Young and Councilmember Rue Ladau(sic).

Landau. Thank you. MS. DiDONATA: I'll go first. C. 47. My name is Natalie Felix DiDonato, and I am a Recreation Leader 2 for Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, a former Executive Board member for Local 2187 and a current Shop Steward for Local 2186, District 10. I want to begin by thanking you for your service. I know from experience as a civil servant feeling more like the complaint department instead of a problem-solver or an actionist so I'm very grateful for your time and for you hearing from us today. I've been with Philadelphia Parks & Recreation since March 9, 2015. I've been deployed to five centers and have worked shifts at three others. Over the years I've worked the Broad Street Run, the Philly Marathon, Unity Cup, Maple Sugaring Festivals and the Mummer's Parade. I've served on our Communications Visual Arts Outdoor Experiences, Literacy and Esports Committees, all while administering and facilitating programs and events at the centers where I serve. 5 years I've participated fully in my department's initiatives wherever I've been called. I have worked in facilities with scant resources and facilities with an abundance of resources. I currently work in the most beautiful rec situation I've been in and I feel beyond grateful and blessed to be serving the people of this community. However, in the past on a typical day I have been disparaged, harassed and threatened by both youth and adults. I have found lost children, witness drug deals and watch neighborhood youth, our youth, fall to the perils of poverty, lack of supervision and the lure and pressure of the streets. I have seen a 7-year-old throw chairs around a room, a 12-year-old runaway kick, scream and beg not to be returned home, seen the picture on Instagram of a lost 13-year-old park-user drug across town, managed pickup from the afterschool program while a male drug addict had an episode in the women's bathroom while we waited for PPD to arrive, broke up a fight between a grown woman and a 7th grader, returned 4- and 6-year- old runaways to their father and stopped a fight inside a gym where a weapon was about to be drawn on a shift by myself. To say that this job comes with stress is an understatement and I pray for my coworkers every day who are subjected to this daily trauma. , and I couldn't help but think of all the ways that situation could have gone wrong. We often joke about how we have our heads on a swivel constantly assessing danger and threat to the joy we are trying to provide. We laugh but only to mass the stress we feel. Thankfully, we have learned how to survive and how to navigate these explosive situations with a little bit of training, mostly our guts and primarily by the grace of God. 3 acre site that I manage. This will require significant time and energy and will most definitely take away from time creating, registering and running programs. Over the years I have met fabulous coworkers beyond creative and beyond passionate about the work we do in Parks & Recreation, but we have lost them. They've gone elsewhere and taken their talents and vibrancy with them. Many in our department are burnt out. I know I am teetering on the edge. And when I go back to daily operations work, my energy levels will be depleted, affecting my ability to do my programming job, but I can't let the people walk into a rank building, correct. Who wants to participate in a program in a building that reeks of urine. We are grossly understaffed, underresourced and expected to make lemonade out of rocks. Yet somehow we do it. But the time spent searching for partners, for grants, for anything to help us make our community's programmatic dream come true is exhausting, time-consuming and often met at dead-ends. The job of recreational leader shouldn't be a game of survival of the fittest or the toughest or the best at navigating the system. It should be fun.

We are quite literally the fun people of the city who are tasked with building community through health and wellness via its myriad forms, from gardening to workshops on chronic disease, arts and culture, from crafts to African dance, athletics from football to canoeing and to be on the cutting edge of how fun is defined by our community, whether it's eSports or birding. I cannot emphasize enough how creative, passionate and dedicated my coworkers are. But when I imagine what they could do if they could focus solely on their job specs and have the staffing and resources to implement their best, this city could be a happier, healthier and safer space. Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Can the next proceed?

I can't hear you.

Can you proceed with your testimony as well?

Okay. Hi. My name is Marlena Smith. I'm on the Executive Board for Local 2187. I'm a steward. I'm a Public Health Program Analyst for Department of Behavioral Health Intellectual Disability Services. First and foremost, I'm a citizen of Philadelphia, a taxpayer and I'm also a mother and an employee of the City of Philadelphia. Basically my testimony is on the need for social workers and recreational therapists inside of the facility. We went inside certain facilities in the city of Philadelphia. We went through a pandemic as you are aware. Our children were rushed back into school, rushed back into the environment after being alone within three years. During that time, there has been gun shootings, deaths across the city of Philadelphia. For instance, Christy Recreation Center had a young man who got shot on the court where my niece and daughter had witnessed that. There were no 14 social workers inside of the rec centers or counselors at the time where they needed them. We're short-staffed in certain departments and the need for social workers is must and mental health workers. DBHIDS is great as far as with their networks for training. However, the time frame of getting out there and getting those services in place for the families is extended. It's not within a 24- to 48-hour time frame for the children and families. Also, I grew up in Philly. I'm a product of this environment I. Worked at Baker Recreation Center as a -- I don't even know the acronym for the jawn but I worked there. During that time communities poured into the workers and communities poured into the children. They're trying to pour into these children. However, there is a lot of behavioral needs and trauma that has caused these children to act out the way they are. Generation Z is the future and we need to exhaust all resources and needs financially, fiduciary into our children. And in order to do that, I'm suggesting that 24-hour rec centers be open around more crime, poverty environments around the city, be put into place so our children and families have safe havens when the families have to work or when there's an emergency. 8-something million. I don't know what the rec got or whatever, but we have it somewhere in play. So if we can just pour into our children and our families who are suffering from trauma, from the deaths that went on through the pandemic, that they're trying to get counseling for their daughters. I mean, it was kind of hard for me to get counseling for my daughter when she witnessed two shootings, not one, two. And then when there was an accident on transportation going to school, thank God for the Chief of Police and the people who was involved at the rec center. They were very good, but it was hard for me to get her counseling because it was a waitlist. So we have the staff already in place at Department of Behavior Health, at the health centers to at least put the social workers -- and we have a list, we have a list of social workers. We have a list of social workers 1, 2 and health service social workers 2. So if we get them into these rec centers under the de -- I'm sorry, my words get tripped up, but you understand what I'm saying. If we get them into these rec centers, I think it will benefit us as a city to decrease crime and to actually build up the poverty level as far as bringing these people into employment who volunteer. Like for instance, I don't think -- one man mentioned or one of y'all, I think it was Councilmember Jeffrey, you was mentioning I think about how the volunteers, how they are able to implement how they become civil servants. It's easy. They already got the credentials. They got the criminal FBI clearance because you have to have that. You have to have the clearances to work inside these facilities. So do they have the time. Bring them in there, tell them, look, we're putting the list up, civil service is putting the list up, have them take the test. Now, we have the two rule.

It's not difficult to hire, not that difficult to hire. Let's bring them in. Let's get the job done and basically that's all I got to say.

Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

And I want to thank the rec leaders who came --

I'm sorry, Councilmember. I appreciate y'all for having us and I'm grateful to be able to come up here and testify.

And I want to thank the rec leaders who came here today who actually had to leave to get to work today so we appreciate them as well. So we're calling on our next individuals to testify.

Councilmember, I do have a question.

Councilmember Young has a quick comment or question.

Just one question on that same note for the volunteers that are in these facilities. Does the department or the unions or anyone provide study guides or training to take the civil service test so those folks that are already in these places have the ability, so we know they can actually pass the test to become civil service employees?

Study -- are there study guides?

Are study guides or trainings or classes that can help these volunteers take the test?

That would be cheating and unfair to anyone that doesn't have that resource. We have to protect the civil service. So we can't give out study guides or anything like that to particular individuals.

So there's no prep -- you can't do a prep class at least?

No, that's a great idea.

That's what I'm saying, a prep class. Okay. All right. So I guess not. That's a no. Thank you so much. MS. DiDONATO: I'm going to bring my youth up if that's okay.

That would be nice. Thank you. MS. DiDONATO: So first, I'm going to call up Leilani Adams Brawley. She is a career- connected learning or C2L intern and a lifelong rec user. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Hello. Please state your name for the record as well as where you go to school and what grade you're in.

Okay. Good afternoon. I'm Leilani Adams Brawley. I am 15 years old and I go to school at KIPP DuBois Collegiate Academy. I'm in 10th grade and thank you for letting me speak today.

I used to do -- I'm very familiar. Please proceed with your testimony.

Last summer while I was working at Eastwick, a Parks & Rec location, I realized there were many kids who have mental, emotional and behavioral issues that were not able to get the assistance or attention they needed, specifically because there wasn't anyone in that field to support them. My job only allows me to assist the children during activities and I do not have the necessary training nor education needed to be a mental health professional. I believe that an onsite social worker, a recreational therapist would help, especially since the children are used to having people like that at school and in general need the extra support. (Applause.)

Thank you. All right. Thank you so much. MS. DiDONATO: Thank you, Leilani. Next I have the great honor to introduce Shiloh Winfield Pearson, also a lifetime rec user.

Good afternoon, esteemed Council Leaders. My name is Shiloh Winfield Pearson and I'm here to talk about my experience at Disilvestro. During my time with Mr. Brett I had a lot of fun and experienced help with my studies. One thing I liked about him was that Mr. Brett would always give the extra food from the aftercare students to those who are in need from the community. The activities he exposed us to helped us in both our studies and in life. Some of my favorite activities were the musical arts program, painting classes, sports and math programs. After Mr. Brett left, I was introduced to Ms. Natalie. When meeting her, I was very shy and nervous. I was comfortable with Mr. Brett so I was very confused and upset about why he had to leave Disilvestro. After a while I began to get used to Ms. Natalie. Once I got to know her I realized she was a fun and nice person. One of the best lessons that I learned from her was how to step out of my comfort zone. She and I both have a love for nature and would talk about it often. It was great having another person around who loves nature as much as me. I was very sad when Ms. Natalie had to go. Ms. Sharon took over for a little while and we were still able to engage in a lot of fun activities as before. Then out of nowhere she had to transfer. Now that meant I had to get used to know another person. That would be four new people and I had no idea why they were leaving because no 4 one told us anything. When another shift happened, a lot of programs, trips and activities we liked stopped. The teenagers who were never allowed in the center before were smoking, cursing and bullying children on the playground and in summer camp. Going to Disilvestro was not fun when we had so much change so often. I'm a kid and want to feel safe where I play. I ask today that you do whatever you can to make sure that other kids don't have the people and make sure they had their fun taken away. I also hope that you tell kids why people have to go away and make sure that they still get to go on trips and have activities they love. Thank you for listening to me and have a good day. (Applause.)

Thank you. Thank you so much. We'll do our best to keep your favorite folks there. All right. MS. DiDONATO: Thank you, Shiloh. Now, I'm honored to introduce Jonas Winfield Pearson, also a lifelong recreation user.

Thank you. Good afternoon, esteemed members of the Council. Hello. My name is Jonas Winfield Pearson and I'm going to speak with you about my experience in Disilvestro Playground. Mr. Brett was very thoughtful and caring towards me, myself and the other children at the playground. He did simple things like helped me when I was struggling with homework and always checked on me to make sure that I was doing all right. Ms. Natalie, another rec leader, was also very kind to me. One of my favorite programs that they brought to the center was the Beyond the Bar's Musical Arts Program. They also worked with Pastor Dave who runs a tattoo program. In that program I learned a lot of skills that made me a better member of the community. I enjoyed my time with Disilvestro up until Ms. Natalie left. The times that the new staff had to come in was troubling to me. When that happened, the center did not offer us the same type of fun programs as before. We also did not get to experience as many trips as we did in the past. I also didn't have the same connection with them like with Mr. Brett or Ms. Natalie. I complained and told my mother all summer about the way that these teenagers behaved and how we didn't like to go outside and play as much. It was very difficult at the center. I hope that you can do something as leaders to make sure that I and other children never have to have a summer where we don't feel safe to play or staff changes that stop fun and exciting programs. We as kids should be able to have fun in summer camp and aftercare. Thank you for listening and helping kids be kids. (Applause.)

Thank you. MS. DiDONATO: Thank you.

And thank you to all the students for exercising their civic duty and we really appreciate and we'll definitely take in what you said into consideration. Thank you. Our members of the Committee have a quick comment before the students go off. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Jeffrey Young.

Thank you. So just a quick follow-up to that. I mean, are the children's I guess perspectives taken into account or what happens to these leaders, right, as they're shuffled around from center to center? How is I guess the mental toll that it takes on the students taken into consideration by the department when things are moved, people are moved around from place to place and how do we maintain that consistency in some of these rec centers because for a child that may be the only thing that is consistent in their life, so how can we as a city do better with maintaining some consistency in who the leaders are in these rec centers? We know everyone wants to move up, right. We get that. Everyone wants to move up and do better. But how can we provide those opportunities I guess to move up, to grow in place essentially? MS. DiDONATO: Yes. I mean, I personally think that's a great question, something that we need to talk about.

Something that we will talk about, so thank you. MS. DiDONATO: Thank you.

The Chair recognizes Councilmember Rue Landau.

I'll just ask the specific question. What happened to Mr. Brett and Ms. Natalie? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Mr. Brett's right here.

And Ms. Natalie's right here. So what happened to us was we get promoted and we actually, Natalie, myself and other rec leaders we actually for years and years and years we actually were facility supervisors, but we were working out of class. So we did a grievance, we won the grievance, all that kind of stuff, we got a bunch of back pay. It was awesome. But the main goal of that was to stop the practice of having rec leader 1s be facility supervisors. So I absolutely hear what you're saying and hopefully through changing that, leaders will be able to kind of stay where they are. But unfortunately, it is the nature of the beast if you want to get promoted, you got to go to where the vacancy exists.

Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, I think one of the things even with police captains we talk about they leave within a year after they just got to the community. I always say can we just at least have you become a rec leader, you stay for at least three years before you get pro -- or two years, something, some sort of level of consistency before you get promoted. That'll also help us with some level of sustainability.

Absolutely. And Natalie and I were talking about it the other day. Natalie put it great, we need on average -- when we come into a new center, we need at least a year and a half, two years to get into a groove. We need to learn what works, what doesn't work, learn our community, what they need. We need to make that connection with them. And we really don't get moving like a well-oiled machine until about 18 months to two years.

All right. Thank you. We're going to move forward with the next panelists, the next two.

Awesome. It's lovely to be here again. My name is Erica Brown. I, she pronouns. Have you all ever played the human knot game where you're in a circle and you got to grab the hand from some other side and you got to unfold yourself? That's the situation we're in right now with hiring and staffing in Parks & Rec. And now is the time not to blame. Now is just --

For the record, can you please state your name and your position?

Yeah. Erica Brown, Executive Director of Sunrise Movement Philadelphia.

Thank you.

Yeah. So now's not the time to become attached to our egos or shame. Now is the time for coordination so that we can figure this out. And you all are City Councilors. Thank you so much for being here and listening to our testimony. And we got to keep our eye on the prize as well, which is that rec center leaders keep our community safe, right. You heard from so many of them taking on every job. And I want to highlight one particular person, Demetrius Richardson, who for years worked 14 at Wharton Square Playground. And 15 he would out of his own pocket 16 create extravagant Easter egg hunts 17 and he'd call in the ice cream 18 truck and the entire community 19 would get involved. And the kids 20 who loved motor bikes down there, 21 he would turn that skill into 22 engineering. In this past year he's been removed and you've seen kids get on bikes and start riding all around the park and everyone feels unsafe. People are calling the cops on these kids, right. So he needs to be reinstated. Everyone in that community wants him reinstated. But that's the story of every rec leader across the city and that's how we keep our community safe. And one Rec Leader Ms. Deborah Irons from the Parkside Rec Center in Curtis Jones' District, Councilmember Jones, came here earlier this year and she asked for more funding because that's the bottom line, that we need to have staff with good salaries. And thank you so much for in this past budget increasing the Parks & Rec budget by $2.5 million. We're going to need for all rec centers to be fully staffed a total budget of $300 million for rec centers and for libraries. So I'm going to be following up with you about that. But I just want to let you know about some of the meetings I've had over the past year. So I met with Department of Parks & Rec, Department of Libraries HR, the OHR, AFSCME D.C. 47, Friends of the Free Library, Chief of Public Safety Director Adam Geer and the majority of you, City Councilors, and everyone is clear that they want to fix this problem on staffing. And here's some of the list of challenges that I've heard: Wait times for applicants are up to 100 days, people who need a job have to move on. There's around 1,000 City vacancies and only 30 staffers at OHR to create the job postings, review applications, call references, score the tests and pass applicants onto the department. Specifically OHR needs help with mobile community recruitment and additional comp staff. Councilmember Landau, they want help with technology and new computers to keep all this on track. Pay in salaries don't meet the cost of living to support a family for people who want these jobs. There's miscommunications between OHR and the department HR. The department HR sometimes aren't satisfied or aren't prepared to interview people that come in so they just stay at the top of the list. There's amazing candidates that someone who was on this panel already mentioned. Just waiting too long for parks and libraries they got snatched up by a different department, and we're backed up with 200-plus applications. And that's the knot we're in, but we can untangle it. And I was recently made aware that this has happened before with Licenses and Inspections and SEPTA where they were able to restructure themselves and restructure their staffing to meet the needs of the community and we got to assume everyone here has good faith. Everyone wants to solve the problem and everyone I listed wants to solve the problem. And what we need are coordinators, one or two of you to say this is my task. I'm going to make sure -- I'm going to talk to all the parties. I'm going to figure out all the messiness so that way we can have a streamlined process. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much, Erica.

Hi. My name is Christine Rad and I'm Program Coordinator with Philadelphia Parks & Recreation. I want to thank you for having us this afternoon. I'm a program coordinator for Parks & Recreation. I started my career in Parks & Recreation in 2006 as I served as a recreation leader for over nine years and worked at six facilities throughout the great city. I chose a career in public service because I felt a need to give back to the community and make a difference, like so many other of my rec leaders and colleagues. We believe that this is a great city and want to serve the citizens across the city. Since 2015 I have served as a programming coordinator managing citywide programs throughout the city in visual arts, aquatics and currently workforce development. In my many years as a rec leader, I can say I never could have imagined some of the situations I faced every day. Not only are you a rec leader in your title, but you have many other titles such as babysitter, part- time parent, counselor, custodian, recruiter, mentor and the list could go on. We as rec leaders and recreation leaders, those that work directly with the City of Philadelphia citizens providing vital City services. We step into any role needed to work with the communities that we work in and we consider ourselves part of those communities. Providing quality programming requires adequate staff to administer those programs and also administer partnerships in our sites. Staff with unique talents and specialties can offer those unique programmings when they are not taking care of other responsibilities. My current role in workforce development is managing a program for 14- to 18-year-olds to provide work-based learning programs. I'm excited to be a part of this new program as we try to develop a youth workforce program that can mentor youth in our city and ultimately give them a career pathway into Parks & Recreation or other careers involving children. While I'm excited to be part of this program, I also want those youth to have a quality experience and safety plays a part in that. We want to be able to provide those youth with a safe space and also provide them with positive experiences at our facilities so that they want to become future rec leaders. Also, I don't want to put more responsibility on the rec leaders currently working so we really need to look at our staffing levels to make sure we have proper staffing to be able to administer the new programs that we bring in. I thank you all for your time today.

Thank you so much for your testimony. Very valuable. Thank you. Is there anyone else from this panel?

We have two more. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Okay. Thank you. Please proceed with your testimony.

Good afternoon members of City Council and my fellow Union siblings. My name is Esther Jones. I am the proud daughter of Michael McCrae who was a very staunch advocate for proper funding for parks and rec and libraries. I am a Recreation Leader 2 currently stationed at Ferko Playground in the Juniata section of North Philadelphia. I've been with the City full-time for years as of tomorrow October 1st. But I have been a seasonal employee of the City of Philadelphia since September of 2004 where I worked as a teen library assistant with the Free Library at the Wyoming Branch. Before that, I frequented my local recreation center Feltonville and participated in the swim team, the afterschool program as well as a few of the one-off programs. As you can see, I pretty much grew up in my local recreation center and library. So to come to you today to appeal for more money for staffing and safety measures is as much about my current position as it is about my childhood and making sure that these rec centers are given the tools to hold up for the next years. In my full-time position in PPR, I have been in five recreation centers. My current position I am back to for a second time, which I don't believe happens often. When I started at Ferko in March of 2016 I was nervous. This was my first facility that I would be supervising and that felt daunting. And then come to find out there's no usable windows in that facility made me a tad more anxious because Ferko Is on the edge of Tacony Creek Park and the back of my facility butts up basically to a bunch of trees. And it can get pretty dark back there at night even with adequate lighting. Coupled with the fact that we have no cameras to see what's going on behind the building, it became a source of anxiety and it still is. I have been advocating for Ferko to get cameras since I got there in March of 2016 and it is now October of 2024 and we still do not have cameras. My facility is very small. It is one room and my office. Four, five cameras maybe. Adequate staffing or not I should not have to physically walk around the building and potentially put myself or my staff in danger to figure out what's going on behind the building. I believe that it is important to adequately staff PPR because staffing helps to build up children like myself to become the lifeguards, the RSIs, the recreation Leaders of tomorrow. If we don't have adequate staff, we can't provide the programming that will foster these children into these roles. We must provide robust and diverse programming to bring in kids and teenagers that will come to our programs -- excuse me, that will come up in the system and want to work for the department in some capacity. These are the kids that come to our programs every school year or every summer because we've made an impact. They then want to give back to their community in the same way. It is difficult to provide all the programming we want for the community when we don't have adequate permanent staff and our seasonal staff can be taking from us seemingly at any point as we have witnessed in the past few weeks where we were told we have to cut some seasonal employees that were extended because of budgetary reasons. I don't know any other departments that rely as heavily on seasonals as PPR. I have been without another full-time person at my facility since September of last year when my recreation outreach worker was deployed to another facility because that rec leader did not even have seasonal workers to be there with him. Ferko relies heavily on seasonal workers because that's all that's given to us at the time. I should have an assistant recreation leader with me at my facility but I have to make do with a seasonal worker. I should not have to make do with a seasonal worker. I should have a full-time person with me to fill in on days that I need off, so I don't have to pull from other facilities to fill in the spot.

I should have a full-time person with me so I can go to my bi-weekly district meetings, turn in paperwork to the district office, anything that comes with being a supervisor and not have to worry about who's watching my facility. In closing, investing in adequate staffing and safety measures will not only help the current staff but also future programming because the more staffing we have and the safer that staff feels, the better quality programming we can provide for all the city of Philadelphia. Thank you.

Thank you so much. We will continue to look into security measures. Yes, we're going to do that. Thank you.

Good afternoon, City Council. I want to thank you for allowing us the opportunity to listen to our testimony today. I want to say good afternoon to my colleagues with Parks & Recreation and administrative staff. Thank you so much. My name is Renee Adderly. I am a Park Ranger. I've been a Park Ranger with Philadelphia for 29 years. It's been at least three administrations that I have been working under. And while I'm here, I want you to know I wanted to inform you that there are two sides to this coin. There's parks and there's recreation and both need the same things. As far as safety's concerned, since my 29 years of working as a park ranger I have witnessed three of my staff members violently attacked while on duty. The most recent one is this summer. A young man was stabbed in eye in Rittenhouse Square. So, yes, my staff is terrified coming to work but they come and do their job every day. We work seven days a week, nights, weekends and holidays. We are considered essential employees. All we ask is for support when we come to work. As far as cameras are concerned, yes, they are needed, they're needed all over the city, I get it, but especially in our facilities when we have 9200 acres to cover. There are only three park ranger districts to cover that land. There's of us together, 5 including supervisors and our 6 chief. So on any given night you 7 will have one person working in 8 each district. That's a lot of 9 ground to cover and then you're 10 coming back in the middle of the 11 night by yourself. We do need a 12 camera in our facilities. I mean, 13 it's not going to protect us from 14 whatever's going to happen, but at 15 least you'll have some kind of 16 eyewitness available. 17 Yes, we are looking to 18 double our staff because right now 19 like I said most of our staff is 20 working solo patrol when we do 21 cover the different areas of 22 Philadelphia. 23 Another thing, our 24 equipment. Basically I'm borrowing 25 a lot of equipment from other departments to be able to complete my duties as a park ranger. For example, we may need barricades, we may need cones, things like that. I'm going to have to borrow a truck in order to transport those type of things to where I need to utilize them. What else am I looking at -- a lot of times we rely on other agencies to assist us at various locations that we're working. Like example, Clark Park we may need to get in contact with the Parking Authority. We may need to get in contact with the police to back us up for different events that are happening. Now, we have people with the booming systems and amplified noise. We need better communication with the police. So, yes, I agree with the monthly meetings with the police department and the rangers need to be invited to those meetings as well so that we can go back and forth on what is needed out in the park system, because a lot of times the way most of the city is set up, in order to get peace on the street we like to funnel a lot of people into the park system to keep everybody occupied. And trust me, I'm quite sure more than half of our constituents are utilizing the park system every day, so we need to have that balance between the Police Department, Parking Authority, Licenses & Inspections. We all need to come collectively together to provide this service for our constituents here in Philadelphia.

Thank you. Thank you so much for your testimony. I'm going to ask our Committee members if there's any questions or comments they can give like a 30-second question, a minute.

Yes.

The Chair recognizes Jeffrey Young, and we'll follow up with other questions. There's another Committee about to happen right now.

Just one quick question for you, Ms. Renee. Is there a streamlined communication method between the park rangers and the police? Are there two-way radios or a certain line that you have, that your rangers have when out in the field if something happens or they have to pick up their cell phone to call 911 to --

Right now we're using our cell phones. And, no, there's no direct line with the police besides calling 911.

Thank you. We'll follow up with any other questions or comments that we have. But I want to say thank you all today to the entire union. This is fascinating and interesting. I'm glad we have these conversations and we'll work together as a Committee and as a Council to really address some of these concerns before our new upcoming year. And I know our Commissioner is committed to helping and working with you all as well. So with that being said, this concludes the public hearing on Bill No. 240392. There being no 20 other business before this Committee today, no further questions from members of the Committee and no other witnesses to testify, this concludes the business for the Committee on Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs today. Vice-Chair Bass just wants to make a quick suggestion. We can come back to follow up on these issues. Did you want to mention that, that'd be great.

I was telling you, you know.

Yeah, you were telling me that.

I was just going to say that we'll work with the Administration to follow up on these matters so that it's not just a hearing and that's the end of it, but we can figure out how can we make some progress in this matter. So we look forward to working with everybody. Thank you.

And I must admit this is a very attentive group of folks. We listened to every word today, so it didn't go out our ears today. So this concludes the business before the Committee on Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs today. We want to thank you very much for your attendance. Thank you. (Committee on Parks, Recreation & Cultural Affairs concluded at 1:05 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. __________________________________ TANEHA CARROLL