COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - BUDGET - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, April 9, 2008 10:30 a.m. - - - PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT ANNA C. VERNA COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE BLACKWELL COUNCILMAN DARRELL L. CLARKE COUNCILMAN W. WILSON GOODE, JR. COUNCILMAN WILLIAM GREENLEE COUNCILMAN CURTIS JONES, JR. COUNCILMAN JAMES F. KENNEY COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO COUNCILWOMAN MARIAN B. TASCO BILLS 080022, 080154, 080155, 080156, 080157, 080160, 080161 and 080168 RESOLUTION 080173 - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services Eleven Penn Center 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 2
Good morning, everyone. This is a continued public hearing of the Committee of the Whole regarding Bill Nos. 080022, 080154, 080155, 080156, 080157, 080160, 080161, 080168 and 080173. The first department to testify? MR. McPHERSON: Is the Free Library of Philadelphia. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Mr. McPeak, we do have copies of your testimony, so if in fact you would like to abbreviate them, we will give the stenographer a copy of the testimony, which will be transcribed in full. Oh, I'm sorry. Mayor Goode, I understand you would like to speak.
Good morning, Council President Verna and members of City Council. I am W. Wilson Goode, Sr., Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Free Library of Philadelphia. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you this morning before Dr. McPeak discusses the proposed 2009 budget and to thank you for City Council's support to the Free Library. With your backing, the Free Library of Philadelphia is in very, very good shape at this time. We serve pre-schoolers, job hunters, teenagers, literary enthusiasts and many, many more who take advantage of the wide range of materials, programs, services that we offer. Last year, nearly six and a half million people walked into one of our 54 branches to check out a book, log onto a computer, attend a program or hear an author speak. The Central Library itself hosted over one million visitors, a level not reached since the Depression. 4 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. Many visitors come to the Library for our collections, which include nearly eight million items. Books and magazines still represent the majority of materials, but new formats are also moving fast as well. The Free Library now offers 150 electronic databases, downloadable books and video DVDs and more, all to respond to the changing interests and needs of our borrowers, who number just under a half million. Also in demand are for computers. Last year, there were over one million uses of the Library's 750 public PCs. The Library is the largest provider of free Internet access in the region and is wireless in every single branch. Programming is also a critical part of the Library's service. Every day hundreds of children flock to their local branch to participate in LEAP, the largest drop-out after-school -- drop-in, the largest drop-in after-school program 5 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. in the City. The largest drop-in after-school program in the City. Attendance reached 285,000 last year, an increase of nearly 60,000 from the previous year. Both children and adults enjoyed the Philadelphia Book Festival in 2007, which drew 25,000 people to the area in and around the Central Library. This year festivals scheduled for May 17-18 promises an equally impressive turnout. The Library's lecture series is renowned for the caliber of authors it attracts and has become a required stop for top authors. One Book, One Philadelphia's selection drew 850 enthusiasts. Over 25,000 people attended 125 lectures last year. The Free Library also extends beyond the walls of the 54 branches. The award-winning Book Aloud, which last year reached 20,500 parents and caregivers, is now offered at four public housing sites 6 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. so that more children have the benefit of this school readiness program. One Book, One Philadelphia, the annual collaboration with the Mayor, had 550 community partners this year and held 180 programs, the majority of which were held outside of a library. Seventy-five hundred copies of this year's book were distributed, including to every high school in the City. The Free Library impact is widespread and it has real meaning. It touches lives from the very young to the citizens. I wanted to come by, Madam President, just to thank you and City Council for your support of the Library over the past years, and I hope that it will continue. I wanted to share those statistics with all of you, because it is important, I think, that you know how impactful the Library is in the lives of so many people in this City and what 7 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. difference it makes from students to adults to senior citizens, that those who are struggling to make it, those who don't have access to computers. All of those are very, very important. So I wanted to just come by in my last year as Chair of the Board of Trustees just to thank you and all of Council for your enthusiastic support for the Free Library. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and we thank you for all of your interest and dedication to the Free Library. Dr. McPeak. DR. McPEAK: Good morning, Council President Verna and members of Council. I am Joseph McPeak, Interim President and Director of the Free Library of Philadelphia, and I am pleased to be here today to discuss the Free Library's proposed Fiscal Year 2009 Operating Budget. And I will abbreviate, 8 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. as requested. I'll read the first paragraph, our mission, and then abbreviate succeeding paragraphs. The mission of the Free Library of Philadelphia is to provide all segments of Philadelphia's diverse population a comprehensive collection of recorded knowledge, ideas, artistic expression and information in a variety of media, including current technology; to assure ease of access to these materials; and to provide programs to stimulate the awareness and use of these resources. In this expansive role and with its wealth of resources, the Free Library is well positioned to play a meaningful role in the achievement of the six goals in the Five-Year Plan. In particular, we have a strong track record in the areas of education, jobs and economic development, and look forward to enhancing these efforts in the coming year. Education and literacy are core 9 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. functions of the Free Library. You will note in a number of programs that we provide to children and teens which have been very successful and have an impact throughout the City, but may I also add that we also are the home for the Mayor's Commission on Literacy, which provides technical assistance to literacy providers, who themselves provide classes throughout the City of Philadelphia in literacy and job preparedness and GED, and those classes are provided, again, throughout the City, including in of 15 our branches. 16 Job training and preparation 17 and economic development are also important to the Free Library of Philadelphia. And I may say along with the career programs that are provided at the workplace and at our branches, we also, as I am speaking now, are providing our Annual Job Entry Fair at the Central Library on the Parkway where we'll have 21 employers and expect an attendance of 10 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. 1,000 job-seekers. And that's happening right now as I speak. The Free Library also provides assistance to a number of electronic databases, which are mentioned in my testimony. These databases help start-up businesses and also folks that are trying to prepare for tests, anything from a GED to civil service exams up to the LSAT. Of course, the Free Library is a key player in the revitalization of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Renovations to the existing 1927 Beaux Arts Central Library are underway and will include serving as a visitor's center for all institutions in the Parkway. The construction of the New Parkway Central will bring renewed attention and visitors this spectacular place, and we're hopeful that groundbreaking will take place in December 2008. Now I'll turn to the budget. The proposed budget for the Free Library for FY09 is $40 million. 11 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. While this represents a one percent decrease, it can be achieved through the implementation of various efficiencies that we believe sincerely will not affect service. And, actually, these efficiencies have been achieved during FY08. So what we have reported to you are things that were already underway this fiscal year. They include an audit that occurred on our General Information Department, which moved work from the librarian class to the library assistant class. And I may say, this request came from the bottom up, not from the top down. It came from the librarians.
We worked it out with the affected unions, both Local 2187 of AFSCME, Local 2186 of AFSCME and Local 696 of AFSCME, worked it out, finally have come to the point where the work has been allocated properly, but the result of that allocation is a $189,000 savings in salary. There is also -- we also during this year underwent an assessment of our 12 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. collection. There's been a transfer from periodicals, magazines, journal articles, from the print format to the electronic format. In subscribing to those electronic formats, we had a duplication in services. We reduced our periodical subscriptions. That will result in $114,000 in savings. We've also found another $100,000 savings as a result of an efficiency in our contract for leased computers. Those prices have gone down, and as a result of that contract and maintenance contracts accompanying those computers will result in $100,000 savings. The Free Library currently has four professional service contracts valued at $279,000. Software services are provided by an Asian-American MBE-certified vendor. The contract is valued at $32,000. , a local non-profit organization, of $40,000, and two other 13 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. contracts are with for-profit agencies awarded according to the City's contracting procedures. Looking forward, the Free Library will effectively manage its personnel budget to ensure that all 54 branches remain open and staffed. And I want to reassert that again. With the personnel budget that we have now and which we worked with last year, we can keep all the branches open six days during the school year. And I can report further on that if you wish, Council President, but we believe that we are committed to providing that service and with the personnel budget, we will be able to do that. We're also looking to expand our service to the non-English-speaking populations in the City, and this we'll be doing by adding foreign language collections in the branches, which have effected changes in their ethnicity, and we'll also be looking at different kinds 14 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. of programming as well. The Free Library is proud of the high marks it receives from its users and, in keeping with the Mayor's commitment to customer service, has identified three standards and means of redress. One, if a branch is temporarily closed due to renovations or building problems, returns will be accepted at any location and fines will be waived. Two, electronic information requests -- we get a lot of e-mail requests -- will receive an immediate acknowledgment and full response within two business days. Three, all pre-school groups that request a library visit and literacy orientation will be scheduled within two weeks. If this is not possible, Library staff will visit the pre-school center. So the Free Library looks forward to continuing to employ its many resources for the benefit of the 15 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. residents of the City, and as an institution, we offer a wealth of information, programs and highly skilled staff that are available every day at the branches, over the phone and increasingly electronically. We strive to maintain our consistently high remarks on customer service while identifying new strategies to promote education, learning, jobs and economic development. And I thank you.
Thank you very much, Doctor. As you know, this City Council has been restoring funding reductions to the Library for many years. I see that the Administration is reducing your funding in Fiscal 2009 by $403,000; is that correct? DR. McPEAK: That is correct.
Your testimony implies that this reduction will not have any operational impact on your department. Can you let us understand how that is possible? 16 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. DR. McPEAK: Yes, I can. And, actually, these were, as I noted in my testimony, these were actually efficiencies that were occurring during FY08. When we were asked -- as you all recall, there was a three percent and five percent request that all departments were made. We identified efficiencies that we were already undertaking. We put them on the table to move the City forward. I mean, I believe as a manager that you always look for efficiencies, but you try to do them without impacting on service, obviously. So that as I mentioned in my testimony, the first -- and these are real dollar numbers. One hundred eighty-nine thousand dollars is the difference between salaries for librarian II's, ten librarian II's in General Information, a library supervisor II, which is an EP-22. I can give you -- I mean, I can work this out for you, if you wish. And what we did was, we took a 17 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. library supervisor II, replaced it with a library supervisor I. Slight salary savings there. And then the remaining positions moved from a librarian II to a library assistant II. The Department itself has moved. And, again, as I said, this was a bottom-up request. As a matter of fact, one of the persons that was writing the annual report was a shop steward for one of the affected locals. So they were saying their professional skills were not being used in this department anymore. The reason was twofold. One, the first desk as you walk in is basically a greet and directional desk, but they used to rotate what used to be our card catalogue and provide readers advisory assistance. We've changed that hallway into a large computer sign-up center. So what people do there is, they're now signing up for computers in that hallway and throughout the library and also cuing up. Our 18 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. library assistants assist them with that and also with the simple function like downloading discs. So librarians, truthfully, didn't like doing that, so they came to us, brought it up in labor-management. We started moving library assistants in. Local 696 said, Hey, you're moving library assistants in to positions where librarians are working. So then we had to do an audit, because both locals were affected, and the result of the audit was library assistant II worked with one library supervisor I. Result of savings, $189,000. On the $114,000, we had a -- we reviewed our serial -- I'll try not to use this technical language. It's periodicals, magazine subscriptions, mostly academic journal subscriptions in our Central Library. We subscribe to a service called JSTOR, which provides the electronic format. We had a duplication in services. As a result, we actually 19 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. cut back 165,000. The request was three percent. We got the three percent. That's 114. The balance of that goes into our collections. So actually we have more than -- we actually cut more than 114. A hundred thousand dollars is the lease of computers throughout our library. That contract has been reduced. The cost has gotten cheaper, computer costs have gotten cheaper.
Doctor, can you tell us how many vacancies you currently have? DR. McPEAK: We have 16 vacancies. We are funded -- our total 17 funding is 821. It's 730 on the General 18 Fund and the balance is in Grants, and we're right now at 18 vacancies total in our system, and ten are in the pipeline. So I guess eight would be the real answer. That represents, I guess, about two percent or something like that of our workforce.
Is it 20 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. your intent to hire the 18? DR. McPEAK: Oh, yes. Yes. It's just that is the process --
Are they included in your budget? DR. McPEAK: Yes. Yes. We have 730. Are we okay? I'm sorry. Yes, we have 730 on the General Fund, 101 on the Grants Revenue. Last payroll we were funded at -- and I have that here -- 722, I believe, on the General or somewhere around there and the balance in the Grants. So we have -- we are budgeted for --
So you are actually losing nine positions, which seems to be satisfactory with you? DR. McPEAK: No. No. 21
Can you check? Do you have the detail budget, a copy of the detail budget, 7? (Witness approached witness 21 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. table.)
So you're actually losing, as I see, the nine positions. Section 24, . DR. McPEAK: I apologize.
That's okay. DR. McPEAK: We are reducing the allocation in the Grants Fund, not in the General Fund, and we're okay with that, because right now we're funding at 40 positions in General Library instead of 50. Yes, we're okay with that.
Are you looking at ? You were budgeted 739 in '08, and for '09 it's 730. DR. McPEAK: Our target budget was at 730. That's what I've been working with. So we lost the nine actually last year, yes.
So you don't intend to -- DR. McPEAK: And we've been able to maintain our branches at six-day 22 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. service at the 730.
Doctor, can you tell us how many emergency closings has the Library experienced this fiscal year? DR. McPEAK: Yes. I have that information, Councilwoman. We've had through -- this is through March. We've had a total of 926 hours of closing. Eight hundred and seventy-eight of those were due to buildings, unforeseen buildings problems, power outages, utility problems, breakdowns of HVAC that were not anticipated. And the balance of that -- for staff shortages, the balance is 47 hours. That's people not showing -- it's usually like a morning coverage where someone -- there's not enough people in the morning to open, so we open it an hour later or so.
So it's 47 hours? DR. McPEAK: Forty-seven hours for staff from September -- from July, I 23 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. mean, until March.
And, again, you're saying that the reduction of nine full-time employees, in all probability, will not be for emergency closings in the upcoming budget? DR. McPEAK: No. I do not see that as reducing that significantly, Councilwoman, to be honest with you, because it's a systemwide thing and it pops up. You have six people in a branch, two people are sick, somebody else is on vacation. Now you can't open until you move somebody to another branch, or somebody is late. So that's basically how that happens.
Doctor, can you tell us if you're currently experiencing any water issues at the various Library branches, and, if so, what are the problems? DR. McPEAK: Yes. There's one branch in particular in South Philadelphia, our Donatucci branch, which 24 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. has had a serious roof problem, and it really -- the way rain works, as I understand it, is that some rains it happens and some rains it doesn't. But we know there's a problem with the roof. That being said, we know there's a problem.
And I do understand that that library because of the roof problem, many of the books are being destroyed? DR. McPEAK: That happened on one occasion. The children's books were destroyed and replaced. We have -- should I proceed? Capital Programs Office is in touch with us and they're putting it out for emergency bid.
When do you think they're going to do that; do you know?
My name is Bill 23 Fleming. I'm the Administrative Services Director for the Library. I'm in touch with Capital 25 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. Program over an emergency letter bid. That's happening as we speak. I expect to have a contractor and a scope of work within 90 days.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Greenlee.
Thank you, Madam President. Good morning, everyone. DR. McPEAK: Good morning.
Thank you for all you do for the libraries and, under the circumstances, I know not exactly unlimited funding. Just a couple questions, Dr. McPeak, if I could. I was glad to hear about the branches staying open the six days during school years. And what is considered a school year? When do you start that? DR. McPEAK: We start October through June. 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc.
But I know I got a question one time, a little concern. Is there a reason why you start October and not September? I mean, I know it's only a few weeks. DR. McPEAK: It's usually the schools. We start our school visits in October as well. The schools usually aren't ready for us in September. They want us to come in then. So that's basically -- it also bridges us after the Labor Day holiday as well.
Got you. The hours, are they basically the same in all branches or do you fluctuate considering the area? DR. McPEAK: The hours in most of our branches are Monday to Wednesday 12:00 to 8:00, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 10:00 to 5:00 or 10:00 to 6:00, around that area. There are nine branches in our system that have 10:00 to 6:00 hours.
Because I 27 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. had heard about a couple of them. Some people are concerned because they don't have night hours. But I guess is there some safety issues? DR. McPEAK: Safety is one of the issues, but one of the things, if I can also mention too, is also usage. Some of those branches were cut back because we found nighttime usage was low, whereas we could have the daytime hours to reach out to the schools, so the more daytime hours. That being said, there are branches that we're looking at in terms of activity. As activity grows in an area, we're looking to see if we can extend hours in the evening. One area I'm thinking of is Kensington there where we have some stores --
That's one where it was raised. DR. McPEAK: They have some stores down the area there, but right now they're still closed at 5 o'clock. 28 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc.
I see. Because I'm wondering that's how those things -- you wonder what comes first. If nothing is open, is that why nobody is out? I know it's a tough call. I know maybe do you work with like community groups and things like that in the area? DR. McPEAK: Yes, we do. And that's one particular branch where we are working with them.
Great. One other question. You mention about your job training, preparation, economic development. That's all great. I just was wondering about one group. And I know it's a group that Mayor Goode has worked with over the years, and you may be working with them, but I just was wondering. The whole ex-offender/reentry programs, do you have any direct connections with them? DR. McPEAK: Yes. We are about to make a connection with the new head of the Mayor's Reentry Program. 29 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc.
Mr. Cuie? DR. McPEAK: Mr. Cuie. Haven't done it yet.
He's a little aggressive. You'll -- DR. McPEAK: I have reached out, but I'll tell you, I have -- this is really a secondary thing. We are reaching out to Big Brothers and Big Sisters as well to try to get them involved in -- what we want to do -- I'll talk about our whole initiative. Basically, we think everybody in Philadelphia should have a library card, and we're starting with the schools. We're working with the School District. We're working with the Archdiocese and the charter schools, but I also met with a gentleman from the Youth Study Center right across the street, and we're also reaching out to Big Brothers and Big Sisters, and next is the Mayor's Reentry Program. We think this is -- we don't 30 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. want to leave behind the population that may not be thought of.
Because I think that's a key group, because a lot of them may not have access to computers, for example. DR. McPEAK: Absolutely.
And that whole job training thing obviously is important to that group. By the way, last question on library cards. Roughly, what percentage -- do you have any estimate on what percentage of the population has a library card? DR. McPEAK: Yeah. We got to do a better job. I've just done an analysis of that. We're about 30 percent market penetration. To my mind, we need to do a better job and that's why we've started this initiative.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. 31 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell.
Thank you very much. Good morning. All of us received this report from Friends of the Free Library. In it it referenced a one percent cut, which you've just mentioned staffing, and it talks about materials. Let me ask you what efficiencies are. There's a projected cut on efficiencies. What are efficiencies? DR. McPEAK: The efficiencies were -- I can address materials specifically or all three of them, if you wish.
Thank you. Please. DR. McPEAK: I'll do all three.
Thank you. DR. McPEAK: The first one involved an audit of the work performed 32 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. at our General Information Department at our Central Library where the work was reallocated from librarians to library assistants. That occurred in conjunction with work with the unions. What happened was, it was a bottom-up request. Librarians found that their work was no 9 longer -- their skills were no longer being used in that unit, and the reason was, we had transferred a lot of that work to the computer sign-up function. If you're in our Central Library on our second floor, that whole hallway is now computers. It used to be the card catalogue where people provide readers advisory. They don't do that anymore. Now they're helping people sign up for computers and get their computers. Library assistants do that. What we did was, the librarians complained about it, to be quite frank with you, both in labor-management venues and in venues with me when I used to be the head of the Central Library. We 33 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. started moving library assistants in to do the work and actually Local 696 complained, because they said, Hey, librarians are doing this work and you're putting us in here. So what we did was, got an audit done as a result, and the audit came out as a library assistant II function, with librarians moving to branches in other departments. Now, we've just gotten that audit completed beginning of this past year. We just have a library assistant II list now. So we're about to fill those positions. When we fill those positions, it will result in the salary savings of $189,000. There were between ten librarians and ten library assistant II's essentially, is what that is. In the materials, what we've done -- what we were doing this fiscal year was, we were evaluating our periodical subscriptions, academic journals, which can be expensive. What we've also done is subscribe to something 34 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. called JSTOR, which is a service that puts all those journals in an electronic format. We had a duplication of services. We had them electronically, which is what all the students prefer. We also had them in paper. So when the Mayor had requested this three to five percent, we were already doing that. It actually yielded us saving $165,000. One hundred fourteen was put on the table. That was three percent. The final one was our computer leases, which computer costs have gone down. We know that the cost of the upcoming contract is going to be actually a little less, $85,000 less, but our maintenance contracts are going to be less as well. So that gave us the hundred thousand dollars. So these were all things we were already doing. We didn't do anything more than what we were already doing. 35 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc.
I heard you just say to the President that you were dealing with those libraries that need repair in terms of roofs and other kinds of issues. DR. McPEAK: Yes.
In keeping with that, I acquired through reapportionment St. Georges Library. I know it's kind of been on hold. It was on the -- first Public Property had it, we thought, to be sold and then it was back to the Library, and when the Mayor was Councilman, he had appropriated $80,000, I understand, to do something there. Would you check on that and let me know what the status is? DR. McPEAK: Yes.
And another issue that I wanted to ask you about is library hours in the evening, in terms of the libraries really need to be open in the evening, and I think that most of us would support it. We don't 36 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. know what it would cost, but it's very difficult for -- I mean, libraries need to be open in the evening for students to be able and seniors in the community to be able to access them. But we need them open until 7:00 or 8:00 or so. We know that there's an issue out there, but we believe that in terms of crime, we, as a Council -- I'm sure I can speak for everyone in this regard -- are willing to work in terms of safe corridors or Town Watch groups or whomever we have to, our Police Department, in order to make sure that we get the kind of protection we need. But within communities, we really need our branches open as well, and we would ask that you consider that and likewise get back to us. DR. McPEAK: Yes, Councilwoman, I will.
I think you talked about materials. You talked about vacancies. I talked about 37 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. library hours, efficiencies. So I guess you've gone through my list. DR. McPEAK: Thank you, Councilwoman.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning, Dr. McPeak. DR. McPEAK: Good morning.
You referenced in your testimony four professional service contracts and some other contracts, and as part of this budget process, we have been reviewing formally with each department their level of minority participation. Can you tell me why your participation is only at 11.5 percent? DR. McPEAK: I can give the dollar numbers and then I can move the 38 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. question over to my Administrative Services Director, if you don't mind. As I said in my testimony, the total of the four professional services contracts were valued at $279,000. The one MBEC is $32,000 for software. So that $32,000 -- we're doing it by money amount. So that gives you the 11.5. It's not by participants. It's by money. And the other contract is with Project H.O.M.E., a local non-profit, which is not an MBEC. The other two contracts, one of which I know is an agency that works with dunning and notifying people for their overdues and collecting fines. That agency has to -- what they need to do is get into our data in our integrated library system and pull it out. They have to be what's called Sirsi certified. Sirsi is our integrated library services. So my hunch is they're the only show in town, but that's my belief. They're the only ones that do that, but I think that's why we have that 39 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. one.
Why is that your belief? DR. McPEAK: Because the Sirsi certification, they're a library industry kind of thing and I think they're the only ones that work with our integrated library system. I can verify that for you, sir. I don't want to say that without verifying it, but that, just to be honest in trying to reveal to you what I believe, I believe that's that case. But I would certainly verify that for you. The rest I'm not aware of, so I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Fleming.
Councilman, Bill 19 Fleming, Administrative Services Director. We don't have a lot of contracts in this area from year to year, but one contract that has started to be recurring is the Unique Management contract. It's about $175,000. It makes 40 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. up the lion's share of the $279,000 that we have in this category. As I understand -- well, our library catalogue software, so to speak, is Sirsi. It's proprietary and is the industry standard for libraries. It's all over the country and I don't know how much further, but they're one of the only games in town. In order to follow up on some of our fine issues for patrons who have materials outstanding beyond the allotted period, in the past we had generated our own notices to patrons and weren't very successful. It would cost us a lot of money to do this internally, a lot of postage and a lot of staff time. We went outside to the industry and found a vendor who could work with the City with the Sirsi system. Now, under the new -- and that turned out to be Unique Management. And how we were able to contract with them was, we worked with the City's 41 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. procurement process and posted it on the City website, and they were the only firm that bid and the only firm that actually met the requirements to be able to work with the Sirsi system. Other than that one contract --
We have three others. I think Dr. McPeak referred to Empower. That's an Asian-American firm. That's $32,000. Another contract for network support, I believe that's an individual, PJ Dever. We contracted with him. That's not much more, around 32,000. And we have another --
My question is, why is the level of participation for disadvantaged businesses what it is, not what your contracting process is. 42 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. Can you tell me what amount of contract dollars were spent in Fiscal Year '07?
Well, we do have contracts for maintenance. If you want those included, they're the ones that the City bids out for all City agencies.
My question was, can you tell me what amount of contract dollars were spent in Fiscal Year '07?
It's over $500,000. I think $551,000 were spent last year. And do you know what level of disadvantaged participation it was last year?
It was probably similar to what it is this year. I don't have the exact number. 43 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc.
Again, we abide by the City's rules on how we get our contracts. We post it to the City's website and ask that they bid.
Each department that comes before us tries the same thing, says basically they take the lowest responsible bidder. What I've asked each department to do, since you identify what services you want to be bid, since you're involved in the bid process, to whatever extent possible, to identify qualified disadvantaged firms for utilization. And basically the point I've made with each department is, essentially, we can't reach a goal of 37 percent participation for disadvantaged businesses when you have departments with participation levels of 11.5 percent or even worse the year before, 3.32 percent. If it is not possible in the case of there only being one bidder, I 44 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. can understand that, but there are other contracts, and we will never reach the citywide goal that we're trying to reach unless we hold each department accountable. And I have had this conversation with the Chair of your Board and encouraged him to pay more attention to it, but I wanted for the record also, as a matter of being fair, to raise it with you as well. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good. I'm interested in your online services to citizens, but particularly to school-age youth. Could you kind of describe how that works and what is 45 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. available online? DR. McPEAK: School-age, did you say, Councilman?
Yes, sir. DR. McPEAK: Yes. We have a number of databases. I'm going to call on staff in a minute on this that will flesh it out for you more, but I'll give a general idea. We have databases available not just simply in the library, but at home as well with your library card. These are databases you'd have to pay a significant amount of money for otherwise if you didn't have that library card. And what they are is, they are anything from homework help where you have online tutors, you have tutors that could be anywhere around the country that help you out between 2:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. in the afternoon to help you with your homework. It's interactive. It's like a chat box. We have that -- and, actually, I've seen them. They'll send you graphs. 46 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. They'll send you everything over the computer and they'll walk you through your assignment. We have anything from that to like the scholarly databases and history and research databases that you can get into where you can get not only articles, but you get full text. You can download and print a text of an article for yourself. So we run the whole range for students from interactive homework help to all the way to research databases and everything in between.
Are all or some portion of your physical library books online? DR. McPEAK: Yes. We also have something called eBooks, and many of those -- that's a separate service, but, yes, and somebody -- Anyone know the number on that? Anybody know the number of eBooks? I may have that for you, but 47 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. it's thousands, sir.
So there are thousands of books online? DR. McPEAK: Yes, online. It's eBooks. And I may have that with -- 14,425.
I'd like, Madam Chair, a list of those to be distributed to Council. Are there plans to -- how many physical books are within the Library system? DR. McPEAK: Books, I know in the -- I'd have to get back to you the firm figure, but I'll give you a rough idea.
Round up. DR. McPEAK: Books would be somewhere around four to five million, and that's systemwide. The Central Library has maybe about two million of those.
Has the Library a plan for downloading, scanning 48 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. those books to make them available online as well? DR. McPEAK: And actually right now there are services that are doing that for us and we're subscribing to. That's probably the most cost efficient way to do it, and that's how we're proceeding. But we are looking to partner with Consortia. They're academic libraries. And there's a buzz right now from an agency called PALnet, which is the agency that oversees a lot of the academic and public libraries in the Pennsylvania area, and they're looking to partner -- to get collections to partner to participate in an electronic download. But right now until that happens, our most efficient way is subscribing to other services that are already doing that.
How many schools -- better yet, is there a way to track how many young people and from where actually use this service, school 49 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. age? DR. McPEAK: I believe so. I know that we break library cards down by age, so I'm just going to -- I would have to get back to you with our IT people, but I would think you could do that, but I'm not absolutely certain. Well, then I'm being told no. 10 I guess it's because of whatever the -- in terms of us, we can track our borrowers that way, but I'm assuming it's because of whatever service we're linking into, they may not be able to track.
Well, just as a thought -- and this is a gentle nudge, compliment, pat on the back, if there is such a thing, that I think this is exciting. I had an opportunity to travel to Jordan and their online learning process would make us look like we were backwards. Because of distance, because of other issues by way of safety, they committed a lot of their public resources to online learning. To the 50 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. degree that Philadelphia and other municipalities can start to move in this direction in a major way, I think we keep pace with other entities around the world, global competition, particularly for our public school and private school students to be competitive in a global economy, number one. So as a goal, I'd like to encourage you to have a marketing campaign for getting a library card -- DR. McPEAK: Yes.
-- within our schools. It's a useful piece of identification. It's a useful piece of an empowerment tool through education. That's number one. Number two, we need to market a little bit to those parents through the Home and School Associations, through the principals, and the way that you do that is to find out who is using them and who is underutilizing this valuable resource, and in so doing, kind of encourage them to do so. 51 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. I know you and online libraries are replacing the physical job responsibility for the Encyclopedia man, who used to come around to households to sell us antiquated books, even though the books are important, but online is the way that people are receiving their information. So for us to have a strategic plan that moves library cards into the hands of young people, I think it's in concert with this Administration's effort to stop the dropout rate, to increase the number of citizens that have post high school diplomas and degrees, that you are integral in that process. So if it isn't measured, it isn't managed. I'd like you to measure who is using it, how many people are using it, and then create a marketing effort to get more people to utilize this valuable resource. DR. McPEAK: Absolutely. If I could add to that comment, I will say that we are already engaged with the 52 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. School District of Philadelphia with the goal of every student has a library card. We're also engaged with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, charter schools and private schools. With the School District, what we're trying to get done right now to make this efficient is, we're trying to merge the databases. There are privacy issues that we have that we think we can overcome, but we have a commitment from both the Free Library and the School District to make that work. So you will be hearing about that shortly, we're hoping very soon. So that I'm in full agreement of what you're saying. It's wonderful. And I appreciate your enthusiasm on this, because this is really great stuff. The one problem that we're hearing, the measuring. You see this is -- and I hear what you're saying. If we can measure our users through the library card, through the borrowing, but we've got to 53 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. find a way to get the people who provide the databases to us -- and, again, I don't know the technical stuff well -- to pick up that data as well for us by age, and then that will get that -- we'll conquer that final number.
My only comment is the marketing part through the Home and School Associations. It is critical to engage the parents of the students to be as involved, as motivated to use this learning tool as the students are. Through that, it gives positive reinforcement to the classroom experience and to the educational opportunity that teachers and schools provide. So marketing to the parent is as important as marketing to the student. So that one of the biggest challenges I hear at Home and School Associations is that, I can't help my child with the homework, and, therefore, they aren't empowered enough to be the parents they could be. So I think this is their help. 54 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. Homework Hotline can give parents a helping hand with that. So I would encourage the marketing of that. DR. McPEAK: Thank you very much.
Good morning. Thank you for being here today. DR. McPEAK: Good morning.
Can you give us an update? You know there are in the past lots of controversy, investigative reports on R-rated videos, computer access. Could you just give us an update on your efforts to make sure that videos on DVD or whatever that aren't getting into the Library? I hope there's some scrutiny. I know that there's a lot of conversation about oversight or -- I forget the organization that's involved, but what are you doing to make sure that 55 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. DVDs and other access to pornography on the computers is not happening in our system? DR. McPEAK: I'll try to address these in a number of ways, step by step for you. In terms of library card registration, we'll start with that. As you know, Councilman Rizzo -- and you were very instrumental in this. And I'm going to try to get this correct -- that parents have to sign to agree to allow children to have an open-access card. In other words, parents have to agree -- this was, I believe, part of the agreement with City Council. So that is a first step. In terms of the purchase of our materials in general, we have no 20 pornography. There's no pornography in the Library. There are R-rated videos. There probably are books that some people might find parts of it offensive, but we select everything according to reviews. We do not select things willy-nilly. So 56 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. everything is part of a professional review, with the idea that there are some positive value in this material. Not that there's just some negative element there that might bother somebody, but there's some overriding positive value. That is the guidance through which we select. In terms of computers, all our computers are filtered as part of the SEPA Act, so that you can't access to things that, I guess -- whatever the industry determines is pornographic, you can't get to. And that has changed our environment dramatically.
Is "R" right now the highest rating that we have in the system? We have no X-rated, do we? DR. McPEAK: No, no, there are no X-rated.
So "R" would be the -- DR. McPEAK: Am I correct on that? 57 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. Yes. Thank you. I want to talk to my staff to make sure that, yes.
One of the comments -- I've gotten some -- not complaints, but just people talking. When a person takes a DVD from our library, when they return it, if it's damaged or they had trouble reviewing it, it skips, it locks up or whatever the terms are, is there a little feedback card? It's a shame to receive it and it's defective and then give it again to someone. DR. McPEAK: We should be able to -- I'll get -- we should be able to do that, sir, so I have to --
But do we -- DR. McPEAK: We usually take it off the shelf if the person reports it.
But how would you know? DR. McPEAK: Well, yeah. They would have to report it, otherwise we'd 58 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. have to screen them.
It might be nice to have a way of marking it when it's returned that it's defective. Because there's nothing worse than getting a DVD that right at the best part it becomes defective. Even Blockbusters or the other places you have that trouble, but I heard from some people -- one person told me that it's rare that they don't get one that somewhere during the experience of watching the video that there isn't an issue. Do we ever occasionally -- is there a device that they can be put in to check for their quality before we reissue them? Again, I'm just trying to make the experience a good experience, and I don't know how many complaints you get. You can't beat the price, so not many people are going to jump up and down and want their money back because they had a problem. But I think it would be nice to know that a person that's taking a video 59 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. out -- I try my best, even though I don't use a lot of libraries, if I run into a problem, I'll put a yellow sticky on it and say "defective" so when they get it back, they see it. DR. McPEAK: If it's reported defective, we take it off the shelf. But our problem is, we are reactive. Someone has to tell us, This DVD skips in this place. Then we don't put it out again. But if we're not told, then it's back on the shelf and then somebody has that bad experience again.
Maybe a card inside the box that if there is any issues with it, that they could check. And I assume the intake process is to open it and -- DR. McPEAK: Yeah. The only thing we do on intake is, we open it to see that it's there. We don't view it. Again, if we're told, someone says, Oh, I watched this, it was a lousy experience, it skipped, we don't put it back on the 60 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. shelf again.
Right. But it might be nice to have a comment card inside the video, the DVD, that when it's open to see if it's there, an employee would spot the card with a comment on it and that would tell them that this one either -- I don't think we should just take them off the shelf based on a comment, because it could have been their technology, but we ought to have something in our organization to plug it into to say it's good or it's bad. And I think the commercial stores have the ability to do that. We should, too, because it would be a shame to throw one away if it's not a problem with the disc. DR. McPEAK: Very good point. Good point. We'll follow up.
So we should be considering that. DR. McPEAK: Very good.
Thanks. Thank you, Madam Chair. 61 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc.
You have to also calculate how much that's going to cost, Councilman Rizzo.
I don't know if we do that when you take your video back to Blockbuster, you know. They don't have a comment card. Thank you. Any other questions from members of Council? (No response.)
Thank you so much for your testimony. DR. McPEAK: Thank you. My pleasure. MR. McPHERSON: The next department is the Civil Service Commission, then the Personnel Department. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Good 62 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. morning and welcome, my dear friend, Reverend Warren. How are you today?
Fine. Good morning, Madam Chair, in the absence of President Verna, and City Council. I am Repsie Warren. I'm Chair of the Civil Service Commission, and I have with me today Celia O'Leary, who is Deputy Personnel Director, and Deborah Beatrice representing our administrative service cluster, and I'm here to present testimony in support of the Department's 169,209 Fiscal Year 2009 Operating Budget request. Our Fiscal '09 proposed budget contains 142,647 in Class 100; 24,500 in Class 200; and 2,062 in Classes 300 and 400. Our Fiscal '09 budget is unchanged from our Fiscal '08 estimated obligations. Now, in accordance with the Home Rule Charter, the commissioners ensure the application of merit principles to public employment. We 63 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. approve or disapprove a large variety of actions affecting Civil Service employees. These include the establishment and updating of job classes and pay rates, residency waivers, personal services contracts, Civil Service regulations and exemptions from the Civil Service. A great deal of our time is also spent performing another major role of the Civil Service Commission; that is, hearing and deciding on Civil Service employees' appeals of personnel decisions. Most appeals are regarding dismissals, suspensions of more than ten days, demotions, oral examinations, denials of requests for leaves of absence and claims regarding injuries-on-duty time. We provide an unbiased review of such actions and support the Mayor's goal of achieving ethics in government. In the first eight months of Fiscal Year 2008, the commissioners received 100 appeals and issued 83 opinions and orders 64 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. resolving appeals. With this budget, Chairman and members of Council, the Commission can continue its important work of assuring the preservation of the Philadelphia merit system as mandated by the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter. At this time, I will be happy to answer any questions that you may have regarding the very important function of the Philadelphia Civil Service Commission.
Thank you so much, Reverend Warren. How many staff members staff the Commission?
Commissioners? We are one short. There's supposed to be three. I'm glad you asked that question. We have been short of a commissioner for one and a half years. There are only two of us.
And there should be three? 65 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc.
It's a split decision, you know, but usually we try to come to some consensus. Yes, we try. Even if we have to leave it for a day and revisit it at another time, we do try.
There are two. We have an administrative assistant and a secretary, and, of course, an administrative counselor, who aids us in helping to go over -- just be there, you know, to help us to review the cases.
So most of the cases that you review in your duties here under your mission, the work is 66 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. pretty much done by the Civil Service Department?
And then they refer -- you have to approve the upgrading of job classes, but the work is done by the Civil Service Commission?
No. Let me inject here. Deputy Commissioner for Personnel is here, and, of course, Department of Personnel is responsible for overlooking the pay rates and the changes that should be made, and then they bring them to us for our approval or for our input.
Yes, but that is their job. That is the function of the Personnel Department.
Thank you. During the budget hearings for Fleet Management, we were told that Personnel reviewed and updated the auto mechanic classification and that they are still having extreme difficulty in hiring 67 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. auto mechanics, that the School District and SEPTA have a higher salary than the City. Can someone explain how you review for classification and pay be done?
Yes. We have someone on staff that can address that for you. MR. McANALLY: Good morning. Michael McAnally for the Personnel Department. Councilwoman, the Personnel Department will conduct audits. We will interview the employees, document all their job duties, revise the job classification. We then conduct an internal pay evaluation where we compare the pay rate for automotive mechanic with our other civil service classes in order to ensure that we have an internally fair rate of pay, and then we will also conduct a market survey to determine if we have -- if we're offering a competitive rate of pay. For automotive mechanic, we 68 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. compete against employers other than the School District, and the School District's -- their workforce for auto mechanics is very small in comparison to ours, so they're not our main competitor. Our main competitor will be other local private automotive companies, car dealers and car repair companies.
So if you have difficulty hiring an auto mechanic for the Fleet Management, which oversees the City vehicles, and you're finding difficulty doing that basically because of the salary, what would be your next action? Would you appeal to the Civil Service Commission to upgrade the salaries so you can get someone? MR. McANALLY: Yes. If our determination was that our pay rate was too low, we would appeal to the Civil Service Commission and ask for a pay increase. We have increased the pay for those classes recently and we've also instituted two bonus programs for 69 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. automotive mechanics. We pay an annual bonus for automotive mechanics who have professional certifications and we recently instituted a referral bonus program for mechanics in Fleet Management, where if they refer other mechanics who are hired and who pass the probationary period, they're eligible for a cash referral bonus.
Well, I understand that even with all of this, they're having a problem recruiting a mechanic. Do you have any idea what the problem might be? MR. McANALLY: No, I don't.
Would you confer -- I'm sure you will confer -- with Fleet Management to kind of figure out what might be done to address this issue? MR. McANALLY: Yes. Absolutely.
Thank you. Thank you. 70 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. Any questions? (No response.)
Thank you all for your testimony, and we appreciate and hope you get a commissioner soon. We'll ask for the Personnel Department now.
Good morning. I'm Celia O'Leary. I'm the Deputy Personnel Director. We had hoped that the Personnel Director would be back from medical leave, but, unfortunately, she won't be back for another couple of weeks, so I will give the testimony for our department.
This testimony is 71 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. in support of our annual budget request of $4,732,808 for Fiscal Year 2009. We use these funds to support our mission, which is to support all the City agencies in recruiting, selecting, developing and retaining a qualified and effective workforce through which the six core goals of the City can be achieved. As you know, most of what our work does is providing candidates for employment through the Civil Service process by which we create eligible lists. This year we're supporting this goal through two major initiatives, one of which is establishment of a web-based job application system. This will be installed on April 28th. We're very excited about it. It will allow us to compete with major job search engines such as Monster.com, HotJobs and CareerBuilder, and it will allow our applicants to log in online and apply through that vehicle, in addition to the normal paper process, because we're very 72 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. conscious of the digital divide and we don't want to disenfranchise anyone, but we think this will aid a certain segment of our applicants in applying quickly. We also are interested in using e-mail notification to kind of speed up the hiring process, and this is the first vehicle that we've been able to install to support that goal. We are also in the middle -- well, not in the middle. We're actually in the home stretch of installing our new Human Resource Information System, which Council approved funding for in the fall of 2006. We've been working on it ever since, and it will come up this Memorial Day. And it should help us greatly reduce the resources consumed without processing paper-based at the moment employment transactions across the government, but it will also help us by immediately identifying job vacancies the minute they occur. That's been a problem in the past and this will be a great leap 73 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. forward for us with the installation of that software. You have their written testimony. The other major goal of our department is also to control the increasing costs of health benefits. You have some information there about what we've done last year. We're going to continue to work with the Finance Department to control costs where we can. This coming year we're looking into enhanced employee health management as a way to perhaps reduce the increased costs by reducing utilization through promoting employee wellness. That's pretty much our summary. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer it.
Sure. We have some questions because during the course of our budget hearings, there's been a continuing discussion about the number of vacancies in the various departments. Can you explain why these 74 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. departments are having problems filling vacancies? We heard, Well, it takes a long time, and we ask, Well, what can we do to streamline the process. So could you help us out? (Witness approached witness table.)
Good. Mr. Agostini is here, because we actually just kind of discovered a reason for the problem yesterday.
A problem for the difficulty in filling -- the time it takes to fill a vacancy?
I'm going to try to give you one. Steve Agostini, Budget Director. As I'm learning the process here, what Celia mentioned and what we 75 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. were talking about in response to the original question regarding Recreation positions and how those were being funded, there seems to be a mismatch, and let me see if I can explain this clearly. When we put together our plan for the budget, we have an estimate of the number of positions that can be funded with the dollar levels that are available to the department. The department or the departments have another list that doesn't necessarily conform to that one, and it is a list of all of their authorized positions. There are many instances when the departments will send a list to Personnel that request the filling of positions even though they do not have budgetary authority to fill those positions. And what's happening currently is that Personnel has been caught in between the two where they are attempting to be responsive to departments, departments have not 76 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. necessarily checked off with us on which positions need to be filled, and so there is an expectation that positions, for which there are no dollars, will get filled. We then in the Budget Office have to go back and say to departments, Hang on a second, we need to be sure that you're funded. You will be getting a response back from us -- we're still drafting this -- the Council will be, on the Recreation situation where they mentioned they had approximately 57 vacancies, I believe, and what they actually have funding for is approximately of those 17 57 vacancies. There is a long list that 18 they have asked Personnel to work on in 19 the past for which they do not have 20 funding. In those areas where you have 21 been asking, I think, I believe Streets, 22 perhaps Fleet -- 23
-- L&I and 25 Recreation -- 77 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc.
Yes. We have been looking at those, and we are committed to meeting on a regular basis to be sure that we're working from the same list. I'll let Celia comment on her end and then as you have questions, we're here to answer that for you.
We actually have eligible lists in existence for 575 classes, and there are 1,100 job titles in the whole government. So we have active lists for half of the jobs. As Steve mentioned, though, we had communication disconnects between what a department actually needs and will act on and what they're asking us to produce an eligible list for. 78 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. So I think there's been a certain amount of misallocated resources in my department because of lack of adequate information about what was actually needed. Thankfully, with Recreation, the two job titles that Commissioner Carapucci identified as critical, we have large eligible lists for. So they can hire tomorrow.
He sat with us. We talked for about 45 minutes yesterday to be sure that he understood what the lists were. Celia's office, Personnel, has indeed been putting together the lists, but as she said -- and I can't emphasize this enough -- if departments are asking her to fill positions or go through the process of creating lists for positions for which they have no funding, it misallocates her resources, it 79 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. misallocates the Department's resources and now we're sort of off on a chase to try and fill positions for which you have no funding, and then everybody in that process gets very frustrated, which is not the way we should be doing this.
Could you tell us what job classifications we have difficulty recruiting for?
Recruitment difficulty, Mike. MR. McANALLY: We have recruitment difficulty for --
Thank you, Mr. Budget Director. MR. McANALLY: We have recruitment difficulty for several of the medical classes, nursing classes, pharmacist classes. We regularly test for these jobs, but there is just a shortage of the employees nationally. We have recruiting difficulty for some skilled trades jobs and we have some recruiting difficulty for some 80 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. information technology, engineering and other scientists type jobs. But for the majority of our jobs, we do not have difficulty recruiting. The City offers a very competitive compensation package, very attractive worklife balance opportunities, and the work itself is very attractive. For most of our jobs, we have in excess of candidates and we do not have a serious recruitment problem.
Yes. We do have a web presence, if you go to www.phila.gov/personnel, all our opportunities are listed online. We've tried to make hot links so people can readily determine what's open for application at any one point. Mike's team actually just created career ladders, which we're going to post online, which are -- we have someone with a graphic design background, 81 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. so they're very interesting to look at, and we're going to post them online, and folks who are looking for a job can determine the great career opportunities with the City government. So if you are a college graduate, we have a career ladder out. If you're a graduate with a high school diploma, we have a different career ladder. And we are sharing that with Lori Shorr so she can help us get the word out to Philadelphia high schools and local colleges the attractiveness of opportunities with the government.
If a department sends you a request for a position that they've been approved to fill and if you don't have an existing list for that position, how long would that process take to fill that position from the date that you are notified that you need to recruit?
It varies. We have some requirements for notification of candidates that make it impossible to 82 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. make it an immediate turnaround. For example, we have to give them two weeks notice to report to a test. We have to provide a two-week-ahead-of-time notice for approval or disapproval to allow for appeal processing. Our goal has been to have a turnaround from announcement to list date of 75 days on average, but depending on what kind of assessment a department wants, it may take more time. If you want a two-part test, a written and an oral to assess different skill-sets, it will take longer. So in view of that, what we try to ask the departments to do is tell us in advance. We run two planning sessions with every department, one time in May for the upcoming first and second quarter of the fiscal year and we do it again in November. And I have the manager of this process sitting here. In case you have any specific questions, Delores is here. But the idea there is for them 83 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. to tell us what job classes do they want a list for in the upcoming period so we can start early enough, so that when their vacancy occurs, we have a list and so we can set expectations on the part of the job-seekers when we plan to fill it. So we've been attempting to get around the issue of how long it takes. But if we're surprised and something happens and we have to slide it in when we've already allocated our resources, it can be perceived as taking a long time from the date we're notified that a vacancy happened and we need to generate an eligible list.
How does one access information about employment opportunities with the City if they do not have a computer? Where do they apply? In the old days they could apply down in the office on the courtyard, but where do they go now?
We do have an application center in the Concourse level 84 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. of the MSB. We also send paper copies of our job opportunities announcements to community groups. I believe every Council office gets it, the Library. Every Library branch has a copy of this and they post the paper copy. So if there is a digital divide issue, we're hoping we're getting it out through paper media as well.
Do you get many requests for waivers for some of the positions that we recruit for? MR. McANALLY: For application fee waivers or residence?
I'm sorry. We get requests every now and then from a department who is experiencing recruitment difficulty and they'll request a waiver. There are 104 active waivers right now, which is about five percent of the job titles in use in the government right now, have a waiver. We think that's adequate right now. 85 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. MR. McANALLY: Yes.
I mean, when we get pressure we can't get enough applicants, we open a discussion about a residence waiver.
And the resident waiver requires them to eventually move into the City?
Yes, ma'am. There are four waivers that do not require an eventual move in. Those four are in the Medical Examiners' Office. They're pathologist, deputy medical examiner and so on.
I want to pick up where the Chair left off. Could you provide to the Chair those residency waivers. And would you tell me the 86 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. part-time doctors that work for the Health Department, in many cases they have residency waivers, correct?
We've had some for decades, from what I understand, working for the Health Department. Do they get benefits?
So would you provide to the Chair -- you said there was 105 waivers?
Not people, but job classes that have a waiver associated with it.
I want to go back to could you explain how you plan to implement the legislation of the residency requirement for police officers?
How we planned 88 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. it, sir?
How do you plan to implement that, to start recruiting police officers that don't live in the City?
Well, the Police Department is taking the lead on the recruitment effort. The Personnel Department actually only has 30 percent of the human resources in the government. Two-thirds of the people doing human resources work in the departments. So recruitment efforts are one of the things that's really delegated out to the departments, because they know where the professional associations are and so on. So the Police Department has a very extensive recruitment team working on recruiting. You've probably seen their website.
But don't you interact with -- don't they have to flow through you to be hired?
Yes, sir. They 89 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. send all the applications to us, and we're in the process of putting them in.
So how do you understand the residency waiver, that they can recruit a police officer anywhere in the United States of America, but they must move in after six months?
There's a resistance to do a similar with the paramedic issue. We have 111 vacancies for paramedics. I can't imagine you not bringing that up. If that's not critical, what is? Why are we not -- and could you explain to me if the Fire Department did not want to do a permanent waiver of residency, could you authorize them to do one, two, three and end it?
The Civil Service Commission authorizes it. We would not normally do it over the objection of a hiring authority, though.
Well, 90 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc. Commissioner Lloyd Ayers didn't like when I used the word "resistance," and with 111 vacancies and not to figure out why or fill those positions, there's got to be an answer. And I think we're going to get it.
Councilmember, after the discussion that you initiated on this topic, we are reviewing that internally and we have a response to your question that is attempting to reconsider some of the things that we brought to your attention, that you've brought to our attention. So if you would be patient with us, we have a response that -- I have a draft. I think I've either signed off on it yesterday or the day before that is coming your way that sort of lays out what we would like to do in response to your question. And fundamentally, we understand that it's something -- it's a tool that we should be looking at using in order to fill those very critical vacancies. 91 4/9/08 - WHOLE - BILL 080022, etc.
So the Civil Service Commission is the one that authorizes the -- do we have them coming here today? We already had them. Okay. The Civil Service Commission authorizes the waiver?