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1 COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, April 9, 2014 10:30 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT DARRELL L. CLARKE COUNCILWOMAN CINDY BASS COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE BLACKWELL COUNCILMAN W. WILSON GOODE, JR. COUNCILMAN WILLIAM K. GREENLEE COUNCILMAN KENYATTA JOHNSON COUNCILMAN CURTIS JONES, JR. COUNCILMAN JAMES KENNEY COUNCILMAN DENNIS O'BRIEN COUNCILMAN DAVID OH COUNCILMAN BRIAN J. O'NEILL COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN COUNCILMAN MARK SQUILLA BILLS 140144, 140145, and 140146 RESOLUTION 140159 - - - Strehlow & Associates, Inc. (215) 504-4622 2 1 2 COUNCILMAN JONES: Good 3 morning, everyone. This is a public 4 hearing of the Committee of the Whole 5 regarding Bills No. 140144, 140145, 6 140146, and Resolution No. 140159. 7 Ms. Lewis, we'd like you to 8 please read the titles of the bills and 9 resolution. 10 MS. LEWIS: Bill No. 140144, an 11 ordinance to adopt a Capital Program for 12 the six Fiscal Years 2015 through 2020 13 inclusive. 14 Bill No. 140145, an ordinance 15 to adopt a Fiscal 2015 Capital Budget. 16 Bill No. 140146, an ordinance 17 adopting the Operating Budget for Fiscal 18 Year 2015. 19 And Resolution No. 140159, 20 providing for the approval by the Council 21 of the City of Philadelphia of a Revised 22 Five Year Financial Plan for the City of 23 Philadelphia covering Fiscal Years 2015 24 through 2019, and incorporating proposed 25 changes with respect to Fiscal Year 2014, Strehlow & Associates, Inc. (215) 504-4622 3 1 4/9/14 - WHOLE - BILL 140144, etc. 2 which is to be submitted by the Mayor to 3 the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental 4 Cooperation Authority (the "Authority") 5 pursuant to the Intergovernmental 6 Cooperation Agreement, authorized by an 7 Ordinance of this Council approved by the 8 Mayor on January 3rd, 1992 (Bill No. 9 1563-A) by and between the City and the 10 Authority. 11 COUNCILMAN JONES: Thank you 12 very much. 13 Good morning, everyone. 14 COMMISSIONER RAMSEY: Good 15 morning, sir. 16 COUNCILMAN JONES: You can 17 state your name for the record -- I'm 18 sorry. Councilman O'Neill. 19 (Microphone not on.) 20 COUNCILMAN O'NEILL: First, I 21 wanted to make that clear. I don't want 22 you getting nervous in your position 23 there replacing the President. 24 I have a firefighter plaque 25 dedication of two firefighters in my Strehlow & Associates, Inc. (215) 504-4622 4 1 4/9/14 - WHOLE - BILL 140144, etc. 2 district, Firefighter Daniel Sweeney and 3 Lieutenant Robert Neary. The dedication 4 is at their firehouse at Castor and 5 Kensington. I'll be going there. 6 Fortunately, the Commissioner and I had a 7 chance to talk today about some of the 8 questions I would have been discussing 9 and he answered them fully as well as 10 possible, and so I don't even have to 11 leave any questions with you to ask. 12 Okay? 13 COUNCILMAN JONES: 14 Councilman -- 15 COUNCILMAN O'NEILL: Thank you. 16 COUNCILMAN JONES: -- you can 17 reach me by text if you need to. 18 COUNCILMAN O'NEILL: Thank you. 19 Thank you, Commissioner. 20 COUNCILMAN JONES: Thank you. 21 Commissioner, please state your 22 name for the record and begin your 23 testimony. 24 COMMISSIONER RAMSEY: 25 Mr. Chairman, good morning to you. Strehlow & Associates, Inc. (215) 504-4622 5 1 4/9/14 - WHOLE - BILL 140144, etc. 2 Charles H. Ramsey, Police Commissioner, 3 Philadelphia Police Department. With me 4 to my right is First Deputy Commissioner 5 Richard J. Ross, Jr. and to my left is 6 Deputy Commissioner William Blackburn, 7 who heads our Support Services section. 8 Sir, we have submitted our 9 testimony for the record, and with your 10 permission, I will not read the 11 testimony. I want to save as much time 12 for questions as possible, but I would 13 like to make a brief statement, and that 14 is to thank the men and women of the 15 Philadelphia Police Department at all 16 levels for the outstanding job they did 17 last year and into this year so far in 18 terms of crime fighting. I also want to 19 thank members of the community and clergy 20 and others that have helped and members 21 of the Council, in particular those that 22 have councilmanic districts. I know 23 about the close relationships that you 24 have working with your district captains. 25 I get a lot of feedback on that, and I Strehlow & Associates, Inc. (215) 504-4622 6 1 4/9/14 - WHOLE - BILL 140144, etc. 2 know that you've been very supportive and 3 helpful in our efforts to make the 4 streets of our city as safe as we 5 possibly can. 6 So I just wanted to say that 7 and to thank everyone, because without 8 that support, without that assistance, we 9 would not see the kinds of improvements 10 that we have been able to see here in 11 Philadelphia. 12 COUNCILMAN JONES: Thank you 13 for your comments, Commissioner. Please 14 proceed. 15 COMMISSIONER RAMSEY: With 16 that, I'm willing to take any questions 17 you may have. We're happy with our 18 budget, so we don't have any issues 19 there, so... 20 COUNCILMAN JONES: I think that 21 might be a first in these Chambers 22 where -- 23 COMMISSIONER RAMSEY: We'll 24 make it happen, sir. 25 COUNCILMAN JONES: Well, a Strehlow & Associates, Inc. (215) 504-4622 7 1 4/9/14 - WHOLE - BILL 140144, etc. 2 couple of things. And I guess we are 3 honored by the fact that we do have a 4 good working relationship. I talked to 5 other members in this body, and they 6 know, many of them, know their police 7 captains by their first name and 8 definitely know their cell phone numbers 9 and aren't afraid to use it. Me in 10 particular, I have two -- actually, three 11 great captains in the 39th, the 5th, and 12 the 19th. I work most closely with 13 Captain Bologna of the 19th, who has 14 never not returned a call and never -- 15 you know, he does say no, but his no's 16 come quicker than even his yes's, and 17 that is comforting in my ability to deal 18 with the many issues that we have. 19 So we appreciate the 20 cooperative relationship, and together, I 21 think we can make a difference. 22 A couple of quick questions. 23 So how are we doing by way of crime 24 stats? We have the written testimony, 25 but could you highlight. Strehlow & Associates, Inc. (215) 504-4622 8 1 4/9/14 - WHOLE - BILL 140144, etc. 2 COMMISSIONER RAMSEY: With our 3 crime numbers? 4 COUNCILMAN JONES: Is crime 5 down? 6 COMMISSIONER RAMSEY: Well, so 7 far this year, sir, we're down in every 8 category of crime. We have a slight 9 uptick in homicides. We have a 10 10 percent increase over last year, which is 11 six more murders this year than we had 12 last year. And as you recall, last year 13 was a record year in terms of the number 14 of murders, the lowest number since 1967. 15 We had a very unfortunate set of 16 circumstances to start us off. We had 17 one triple homicide. We had, I believe, 18 four double homicides. But things have 19 slowed down a bit, and we'll continue to 20 push forward. 21 Our shootings are down. 22 Burglary, robbery, every other major 23 category of crime, Part I crime, down I 24 believe 8 percent over this year -- last 25 year rather and shootings down some 12 Strehlow & Associates, Inc. (215) 504-4622 9 1 4/9/14 - WHOLE - BILL 140144, etc. 2 percent. 3 So we're continuing to make 4 progress. If you compare fiscal year, 5 our numbers are actually down from the 6 fiscal year of last year 10 percent, what 7 it was in FY13. So we're continuing to 8 make progress. We're not satisfied 9 obviously, but we're continuing to push 10 forward. 11 COUNCILMAN JONES: So I'm going 12 to yield to Councilman Greenlee and then 13 come back. I have a series of questions 14 just on the drilling down into the 15 details. 16 Councilman Greenlee. 17 COUNCILMAN GREENLEE: Thank 18 you, Mr. Chairman. 19 Good morning, everyone. 20 (Good morning.) 21 COUNCILMAN GREENLEE: 22 Congratulations on all you've done and 23 continue to do in fighting crime in the 24 City. 25 As far as recruitment of Strehlow & Associates, Inc. (215) 504-4622 10 1 4/9/14 - WHOLE - BILL 140144, etc. 2 officers, have you seen any changes in 3 how you're approaching that or how has 4 that been generally going, particularly, 5 say, reaching outside? 6 COMMISSIONER RAMSEY: We have 7 seen changes, sir, and we've been 8 struggling. I've been in touch with 9 police chiefs across the country and 10 we've had a lot of discussions around 11 recruitment, and everyone seems to be 12 struggling. Baltimore was with us last 13 week for a couple of days visiting our 14 crime briefing and our Realtime Crime 15 Center and the like, and they're having 16 problems as well. 17 We're trying to get to the 18 bottom of what exactly it is that's 19 causing the problem.