Aye. The ayes are 16. The nays are zero. A majority of all members having voted in the affirmative, the bill passes. The Chief Clerk will please read the title of Resolution Number 050120.
A resolution proposing an amendment to the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter, creating a new Chapter 5 entitled referenda approved by the voters in Article 8, provisions of general application and creating a new Section 8-500 entitled, Home Rule Power to Prevent and Reduce Gun Violence, calling on the Pennsylvania General Assembly and the Governor to pass legislation that will permit Philadelphia to enact Constitutionally lawful legislation to prevent and reduce gun violence.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Stated - 3/17/05 Clarke.
Thank you, Madam President. Madam President, I think we're quite clear what the intent of both the resolution and subsequently the bill is, but I just want to for the record explain what it is we are doing, as it relates to this legislation. State Representative John Myers has introduced a bill in Harrisburg that will authorize the City of Philadelphia to enact local gun legislation. It cannot be done solely by the City Council of the City of Philadelphia. It must be a referendum. Therefore, the voters of the City of Philadelphia would have to vote either for or in opposition to that particular referendum. This particular resolution and bill both authorizes a placement and frames the question, as it relates to amending the Charter to allow regulatory process, as it relates to gun violence. We hope that by May 17th, at the Stated - 3/17/05 time that this will, in fact, be on the ballot in the primary, that Representative Myers' legislation in Harrisburg is enacted, and that particular vote at that time will actually be the vote to authorize the City Council to enact this legislation. So, I ask today for your support. I purposely stayed out of earlier debates because I didn't want to run afoul of any of my friends and colleagues who were debating other bills. So I ask for your support for this particular bill. Thank you.
Councilman, may I suggest... I'm sorry. Can't do that either. Councilman Mariano.
Madam President, real quickly, I just want to commend my colleague, Councilman Clarke. With all the things that have been going on around here, he's been a champion of this Stated - 3/17/05 cause. And in the light of recent developments, with the horrendous homicide rate in the last couple weeks and this year, at least, he's right on target with this. And from myself, that might sound strange, but he is... Definitely this has to be done, and it has to be now. So I commend him and State Representative Myers for bringing this up and holding his cool till all the other stuff passed. But this is the kind of stuff we should be doing and right now. So, good job, Councilman.
Thank you. The Chair agrees, and it recognizes Councilman Clarke for a motion, please.
Madam President, I make a motion on the resolution. I lost my place as I spoke.
Move for the adoption of the resolution. Stated - 3/17/05 UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Second.
It has been moved and properly seconded that Resolution Number 050120 be adopted. Again, I will reiterate. Since Resolution Number 050120 proposes an amendment to the Home Rule Charter, it requires the approval of two-thirds of the votes of the members of Council. I would ask the Chief Clerk to please call the roll. The Chief Clerk will please call the roll.
If I could vote twice, I would. It's aye. Stated - 3/17/05 The ayes are 16. The nays are zero. The resolution passes. (Applause.)
And we will now consider a vote on Bill Number 050107.
An ordinance providing for the submission to the qualified electors of the City of Philadelphia of an amendment to the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter creating a new Chapter 5 entitled, Referenda Approved by the Voters in Article 8, provisions of general application, and creating a new Section 8-500 entitled, Home Rule Power to Prevent and Reduce Gun Violence, prescribing the form of ballot question to be voted on, and authorizing the appropriate officers to publish notice, and to make arrangements for the special election.
This bill having been read on two different days, the question now is, shall the bill pass finally. The Chief Clerk will please call the Stated - 3/17/05 roll. The Chief Clerk will please call the roll.
Aye. The ayes are 16. The nays are zero. A majority of members having voted in the affirmative, the bill passes. (Applause.)
Before I recognize Council members, I would just like to remind everyone that we are going to be having public hearings for the Committee of the Whole regarding the libraries. I believe that is scheduled at 2 o'clock. So, again, I would urge all of the Council members to Stated - 3/17/05 please be present. That concludes our calendar for today. Are there speeches on the part of the minority? The Chair recognizes Councilman Kelly.
Yes. Thank you, Madam President. First of all, of course, I want to wish everyone a very happy St. Patrick's Day.
Especially, of course, a special greeting to my good friend, my very good friend Jerry Adams, who come into town the other day. Madam President, we have from time to time in this chamber... We've always been very diligent and very... I guess we try to act very professional when we debate certain bills. We may disagree from time to time. And sometimes the rhetoric gets very, very Stated - 3/17/05 heavy. Sometimes it gets a little on the nasty side. But in in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day today, we, the minority party, the Republicans would like to give a little gift to our esteemed colleague, Councilman David Cohen. And what it is, it's a little Shillelagh. And I would just like to ask the Councilman, if he would... The only thing I'm asking him is, don't bash us measly Republicans on the head. (Laughter.) (Applause.) All right. (Shillelagh presented by Councilmen Rizzo, O'Neill and Kelly.
Councilman Cohen, would you like to say a word of thank you?
Yes. I'm trying to see what is forbidden if I accept it. (Laughter.)
Thank you, Madam President. Just two things, Madam President. This past weekend, the National League of Cities met in Washington. It was our congressional weekend, where we talked about issues that are very important to the cities across the the country. And as you know, the National League of Cities represents about 18,000 cities and towns across the country and 225 million people. There were 2400 representatives that attended the conference. And on Tuesday they went to Capitol Hill. The major focus of our weekend was saving the Community Development Block Grant Program. Stated - 3/17/05 There is a proposal in Congress to take the $4.7 billion Community Development Block Grant Program and fold it, take it out of H.U.D., put it in the Commerce Department and E.D.A., and fold it in with 17 other programs and cut it. All 18 programs would be funded with $3.7 billion which decimates -- And the ultimate objective would be to do away with the Community Development Block Grant Program. I am happy to say that our Senator Santorum and Specter are both on board in saving the program and have signed your colleague letter, but we need support from our members across the state and the Congress and the House. And I will be asking my colleagues to sign a letter that we will send to all of the Congressional representatives from Pennsylvania, asking them to... No cuts, no move. Right, Brian? No cuts no move. That is the theme of the National League of City's cry about this program. The other issue I want to raise -Stated - 3/17/05 and this is a precautionary note that I'd like to send to the citizens in Philadelphia who are listening. Again, there are -- In the mail you will receive these solicitation letters saying that you can get $60,000, $48,000 to consolidate your bills. I ask them to please be careful not to be fooled by these solicitations. If anyone is so inclined to take them up on the offer, I suggest that they go to one of 28 of the City's housing counseling agencies and get housing counseling or get some financial counseling before they sign onto this predatory -- I call predatory solicitation. The other day there was a full-page story in the Business Journal about the wholesale laws and foreclosures in this area behind predatory lending. And while the Business Journal was certainly supportive when we did our predatory lending bill, I'm glad to see them take this issue on and make a front-page story because predatory lending is still Stated - 3/17/05 alive and well in America. Thank you very much, Madam President.
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman Ramos.
Thank you, Madam President. Madam President, someone asked me yesterday at a funeral viewing what issue was more important to us, to the members of the City Council, the non-smoking -- the no-smoking ban or the violence in our street, gun violence. I told the person, well, I'm a supporter of the smoking ban. And I think that's a very important public health issue for us to take on and for us to be affirmative in our support of it, at least in my personal position. But I turned around and told the person but probably the gun violence is the most pressing issue confronting us. Stated - 3/17/05 And I was again at another viewing, the viewing of little nine-year-old Wander DeJesus. He was sitting in his van waiting for his uncle to come from locking up his mom and pop store. And he was the victim of a random shooting. It took his life. And there were well over 500 kids alone at this viewing last night. And it was a gut-wrenching experience again. And I am so proud today that we were able to vote unanimously on the resolution presented by Councilman Clarke and the bills related to it, 050120 and 050107. However, it was very disheartening that when I got home last night I heard on the radio that a leader in our state legislative says that, you know, nothing is going to change; you know, that this is Philadelphia... this is just Philadelphia doing its thing, always asking for things. And I took personal offense to the legislator. I want to think of his name, because I don't mind... I believe it was Representative Smith. I think he's majority Stated - 3/17/05 leader up there. And I thought it was very cruel. I thought it was very insensitive. I thought it was the words of a bad, bad politician. We need to do everything we can, as citizens, as elected officials in this City to rid ourselves of this plague. And we need to -- If they're going to supersede -- And he already made mention he knew about Councilman Clarke's pieces of legislation coming up here today. He knew about them. He didn't seem to care about this at all. So, we need to get our allies in the State House in a bipartisan way... I know that our colleagues here on the other side of the aisle agree with this as well because they voted consistently in favor of getting rid of the violence and getting rid of the guns in our streets. But we're going to have to do something here and exercise our influence in the community and the House, to make sure that something is done because this is now getting so much out of hand that our own Stated - 3/17/05 Commissioner says he doesn't know why it's happening. And the community definitely needs to get more involved. I told a lady... She says to me last night, what are you going to do about this, Councilman? I said, we're doing everything we can. We're going to vote on some bills tomorrow, but we need you to be more involved. We need for you to say, I saw someone, whether it's your child or not, your grandchild. You need to tell. You need to tell before we lose and we lose more of our young people in this City. So, I think it's incumbent upon us to send a message to work hard to get some legislation in Harrisburg that will start to reduce the events of crime in our community. Thank you, Madam President, for being so... (Applause.).
You're welcome. The Chair recognizes Councilman Stated - 3/17/05 Clarke.
Thank you, Madam President. Madam President, briefly I'd like to first of all commend Councilman Nutter for all the hard work he did on the contracts bill, sometimes characterized as ethics reform. And although I voted against the particular resolution that would have authorized the placement on the ballot, I do support the issue of us doing something about contracts reform and other ethics-related activity. Because of that... And I'm sure that Councilman Nutter is not going to stop because he didn't get that victory today... I would like to formally request of you, Madam President, that you select a group of Council members, form a committee as quickly as possible, because I do think that this is somewhat of a pressing issue, as quickly as possible, and have those members sit down, review the issue, talk about solutions, bring Stated - 3/17/05 in individuals that it will affect: Providers, non-profits, business people, minority businesses, and talk about the fact of the potential of burdensome regulatory process in government, and have us craft a bill that we can support 17-0 because I hope my good friend will be back, Councilwoman Joan Krajewski, by the time we vote on this. And I would formally like to ask you to put together that committee.
I'd be more than happy to. Thank you. (Applause.)
General the Chair recognizes Councilman Tasco. Did you want to make a statement?
The Chair Stated - 3/17/05 recognizes Councilman O'Neill.
Yes, Madam President. I would suggest that that committee be pretty easy to form. Just get the five people that voted against it, have them sit in a room with Councilman Nutter, and don't let them out until they get it worked out. Thank you. (Laughter.)
Okay. Again, I'd like to remind my colleagues of the public hearing scheduled at 2 o'clock. If there are no other comments to be made, I would recognize Councilwoman Tasco for a motion to adjourn.
Madam President, I move that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, March 31st, at 10 a.m. and we wish everybody a happy Easter.
It has Stated - 3/17/05 been moved and seconded that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, March 31st at 10 o'clock. All in favor will say aye. (Chorus of "ayes.")
The ayes have it. The motion carries. Thank you. (Hearing concluded at 12:25 p.m.) CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings and evidence are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the public hearing of The Philadelphia City Council, taken on March 17, 2005, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. _____________________________ DAVID A. DEIK, RPR and Commissioner of Deeds (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)