COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON PARKS, RECREATION AND CULTURAL AFFAIRS Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, May 28, 2024 2:20 p.m. PRESENT: COUNCILMAN ANTHONY PHILLIPS, CHAIR
Good afternoon. I now note that the hour has come. Clerk, will you please call the roll to take attendance. Members that are in attendance, will you please indicate that you are present when your name is called.
Thank you. A quorum of the Committee is present and this hearing is now called to order. This is the public hearing of the Committee on Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs regarding Bill No. 240422 and Resolution No. 240392. Clerk, will you please read the title of the bills.
Bill No. 21 240422, an ordinance authorizing the Commissioner of Parks and Recreation, on behalf of the City of Philadelphia, to enter into a multi-year agreement with Cosmic Catering LLC, for the management and operation of the Lloyd Hall Recreation Center Café, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 240392, resolution 6 authorizing the Committee on Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Committee to hold hearings on ensuring Recreation Centers have the full complement of staff needed to represent to respond to the diverse challenges of Philadelphia neighborhoods.
Before I call on the Clerk to call the first panel, please note that Resolution No. 240392 will be held today. Will any of my colleagues like to make any opening comments? (No response.)
Seeing none, Clerk, will you please call the first panel we have to testify on Bill No. 240422.
Panel 1, Susan Slawson, the Commissioner of the Department of Parks & Recreation. (Witness approached the Witness table.)
Thank you, Commissioner Slawson. Just for the record, can you state your name and your title. COMMISSIONER SLAWSON: Good afternoon. Susan Slawson, Commissioner of Parks & Recreation.
Thank you. Proceed with your testimony. COMMISSIONER SLAWSON: Good afternoon, Council President Johnson, Committee Chair Phillips and in her absence Vice-Chair Bass and Councilmember Rue Landau. My name is Susan Slawson and I serve as Commissioner for the Department of Parks & Recreation, PPR, and I'm joined today by Bob Allen, Director of Property and Concessions Management for Parks & Recreation. I'm pleased to appear before you today on behalf of Mayor Parker's Administration and the department in support of City Council Bill No. 240422 introduced by Councilmember Jones. The bill 7 would allow PPR to enter into a multi-year agreement with Cosmic Catering LLC, for the management and operation of Lloyd Hall Recreation Center called Cosmic Café. Cosmic Café is presently operating under a November 2022 concession agreement with an initial term of one year with three annual renewal terms. The initial term of the concession agreement will convert to five years if this ordinance is approved and becomes law with the City having an option for a second five-year renewal term. Cosmic Café has responsibility for all utilities, maintenance and repair costs for the café space and provides a guaranteed annual concession fee of $18,000 plus a percentage of gross revenue ranging from 1.25 percent to 5 percent depending on the source of the revenue. Cosmic Café has been operating at Lloyd Hall since April 16, 2011, having won two separate RFP processes and has been a welcomed amenity on the Lloyd Hall Campus. Park users, including the rowing community, the Free Sports League at Lloyd Hall and the hundreds of thousands of recreationalists on Kelly Drive recreation path have had the opportunity to rest and refresh at Cosmic Café. In 2021, Cosmic Café opened the CiderHouse on the terrace at Lloyd Hall. The CiderHouse serves wine, beer and hard cider produced in Pennsylvania. In 2023, Cosmic also introduced a successful seasonal food and beverage garden on the lawn near the Waterworks complex. In terms of community programming Peg Botto founded Cosmic Foundation, which trains people with developmental disabilities in maintenance and food and beverage service positions. Cosmic Café employs several individuals with developmental disabilities. Cosmic Café has been a great partner with Parks & Recreation. It assists with grounds maintenance and public restroom cleaning at Lloyd Hall and has supported Parks & Recreation and other departments with catered meetings and events. Lastly, I would like to mention that Cosmic Catering LLC is a certified 100 percent woman-owned business. Cosmic Catering participation percentage exceeds the participation requirements set forth in the RFP for the concession. For these reasons, we ask that you provide a favorable recommendation of Bill No. 240422 and that the rules of Council be suspended to allow first reading at the next session of the City Council. Thank you and we're happy to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you, Commissioner, for your testimony. Are there any questions or comments from members of the Committee for this panel?
Council President Johnson is recognized for questions.
Well, first and foremost, Susan, it's good to see you back in the chambers doing the people's business. And so, I just want to thank you for all your hard work and your dedication. Just had a quick question regarding Cosmic Catering. I just want to know do you provide vegan options? COMMISSIONER SLAWSON: Yes, they do provide vegan options, sir.
Okay. That's all I have. Thank you very much. Thank you and keep up the good work.
Thank you for that answer, Commissioner Slawson. I was actually going to thank you for having so many vegan options.
Thank you. All right. Seeing there's no 4 further questions or any other comments from the panelists? (No response.)
Thank you very much. There being no further witnesses listed today, I will ask if there's anyone else here in the chambers to testify on Bill No. 15 240422 whose name has not yet been called? If so, please raise your hand. Clerk, will you call the next witness to testify.
Thank you. Please approach the witness table. (Witnesses approached the Witness table.)
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Peg Botto. I am the owner and President of Cosmic Café and Catering. I've been there since 2011, and I'm just here to see if we can renew to five years. We are a green company. We love being at Lloyd Hall. We take care of Lloyd Hall like it's part of Cosmic Café. Since the pandemic, we are in charge of the bathrooms and everything because there was no 15 workers and now even on the weekends, so I have staff that do everything. We have disability people. We have all kinds of people that work at the café, and I'd appreciate it if you could pass this for us.
All right. Thank you for your testimony. Are there any questions or comments from members of the Committee for this witness?
I just had a question. Well, one, I want to thank you for your business, being a woman-owned business. I just think it's great for you to have this opportunity so I definitely will be supportive. So the million dollar question: What's your best vegan option?
I just made a -- I make my own veggie burgers and every week it's different. Today I made artichoke and chickpea.
There you go. Yeah, we make everything from scratch. I have three other chefs that work with me and we use co-ops, we use a lot of local and fresh, organic foods so we're very sustainable.
Awesome, awesome. I just want to say you're in a very, very prominent location which I think is great. Lloyd Hall is in the backdrop of one of the crown jewels here in the City of Philadelphia, which is the Art Museum. And most importantly, people from all around the country have an opportunity to enjoy themselves on our Schuylkill River Trail. And so, I have half of it as part of the 2nd District Council, so I've been down there on plenty different days. And also even separate as a civilian, I spend time up and down the Schuylkill River Trail with my family. As a matter of fact, I think it's a PHS Pop Up Beer Garden a little bit further down. But now that I know you have vegan options, I'll make sure with the family I'll stop past and say hi to Cosmic Café. So keep up the good work.
Thank you. And just a quick question. How much revenue has been generated from Cosmic Café in concession fees? Is it under the 2022 agreement?
Under the new agreement, we pay annually $15,800 plus 5 percent of revenue from the café sales. And from the CiderHouse sales, we also pay percent catering -- I'm sorry, percent catering inside the café and 2 percent catering outside of the café. And there's also --
Yeah. Commissioner Slawson. COMMISSIONER SLAWSON: So on average for the past couple years there's been about $30,000 that we get and the number is just going up.
Okay. COMMISSIONER SLAWSON: And they're going from -- what we asked, they're going from 15 percent to 18 percent.
Okay. That's good to know. I just want to keep making sure you guys are thriving over there. All right. So no other questions from the Committee, I wanted to say thank you for your testimony for today. I appreciate you guys. Keep up the great work. COMMISSIONER SLAWSON: Thank you.
This concludes the public hearing on Bill No. 240422. We will now go into a public meeting to consider the action to be taken on this bill. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Landau for a motion on Bill No. 240422.
Thank you, Chair. I move that Bill No. 240422 be reported from the 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.)
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 the first reading at the next session of Council. There being no other business before this Committee today, the public hearing on Resolution No. 240422 -- no -- will stand -- will recess until -- no, 240392 will stand in recess until Tuesday, June 11, 2024 at 2:00 p.m. at which time we will reconvene in Room 400, City Hall. There being no further questions from members of this Committee and no other witnesses to testify, this concludes the business before the Committee on Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs today. Thank you all very much for your attendance.
You're welcome. (Committee on Parks, Recreation & Cultural Affairs concluded at 2:35 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