Tuesday, April 18, 2017 10:30 A.M
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Committee Of The Whole April 18, 2017 Page 1 COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, April 18, 2017 10:30 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT DARRELL L. CLARKE COUNCILWOMAN CINDY BASS COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE L. BLACKWELL COUNCILMAN ALLAN DOMB COUNCILMAN DEREK S. GREEN COUNCILMAN WILLIAM K. GREENLEE COUNCILMAN BOBBY HENON COUNCILMAN KENYATTA JOHNSON COUNCILMAN CURTIS JONES, JR. COUNCILMAN DAVID OH COUNCILMAN BRIAN J. O'NEILL COUNCILWOMAN CHERELLE L. PARKER COUNCILWOMAN MARIA D. QUINONES-SANCHEZ COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN COUNCILMAN MARK SQUILLA BILLS 170195, 170196, and 170197 RESOLUTION 170213 - - - STREHLOW & ASSOCIATES, INC. (215) 504-4622 Committee Of The Whole April 18, 2017 Page 2 1 2 COUNCIL PRESIDENT CLARKE: Good 3 morning. 4 (Good morning.) 5 COUNCIL PRESIDENT CLARKE: This 6 is the public hearing of the Committee of 7 the Whole regarding Bills No. 170195, 8 170196, 170197, and Resolution No. 9 170213. 10 Mr. Stitt, please read the 11 titles of the bills and resolution. 12 THE CLERK: Bill No. 170195, an 13 ordinance to adopt a Capital Program for 14 the six Fiscal Years 2018 through 2023 15 inclusive. 16 Bill No. 170196, an ordinance 17 to adopt a Fiscal 2018 Capital Budget. 18 Bill No. 170197, an ordinance 19 adopting the Operating Budget for Fiscal 20 Year 2018. 21 Resolution No. 170213, 22 resolution providing for the approval by 23 the Council of the City of Philadelphia 24 of a Revised Five Year Financial Plan for 25 the City of Philadelphia covering Fiscal STREHLOW & ASSOCIATES, INC. (215) 504-4622 Committee Of The Whole April 18, 2017 Page 3 1 4/18/17 - WHOLE - BILL 170195, ETC. 2 Years 2018 through 2022, and 3 incorporating proposed changes with 4 respect to Fiscal Year 2017, which is to 5 be submitted by the Mayor to the 6 Pennsylvania Intergovernmental 7 Cooperation Authority (the "Authority") 8 pursuant to the Intergovernmental 9 Cooperation Agreement, authorized by an 10 ordinance of this Council approved by the 11 Mayor on January 3, 1992 (Bill No. 12 1563-A), by and between the City and the 13 Authority. 14 COUNCIL PRESIDENT CLARKE: 15 Thank you, Mr. Stitt. 16 Today we continue the public 17 hearing of the Committee of the Whole to 18 consider the bills read by the Clerk that 19 constitute proposed operating and capital 20 spending measures for Fiscal Year 2018, a 21 Capital Program, and a forward-looking 22 Capital Plan for Fiscal Year 2018 through 23 Fiscal 2023. 24 Today we will hear testimony 25 from the following departments: Police, STREHLOW & ASSOCIATES, INC. (215) 504-4622 Committee Of The Whole April 18, 2017 Page 4 1 4/18/17 - WHOLE - BILL 170195, ETC. 2 Fire, and Prisons. 3 Mr. Stitt, the first person to 4 testify today is? 5 THE CLERK: Commissioner Ross. 6 COUNCIL PRESIDENT CLARKE: 7 Thank you very much. 8 Good morning. 9 (Witnesses already seated at 10 witness table.) 11 COMMISSIONER ROSS: Good 12 morning, Council President and 13 distinguished members of City Council. 14 It is my honor to testify before you 15 today. I am Richard Ross. On behalf of 16 the Police Department, thank you for this 17 opportunity to discuss the status of 18 policing in Philadelphia. 19 COUNCIL PRESIDENT CLARKE: 20 Commissioner, hold on one second. The 21 mic is... 22 COMMISSIONER ROSS: Joining me 23 today is First Deputy Police Commissioner 24 Myron Patterson and Deputy Commissioner 25 Christine Coulter. We also have here STREHLOW & ASSOCIATES, INC. (215) 504-4622 Committee Of The Whole April 18, 2017 Page 5 1 4/18/17 - WHOLE - BILL 170195, ETC. 2 today Deputy Commissioner Joe Sullivan 3 and Dennis Wilson and Robin Wimberly, 4 along with other esteemed members of our 5 finance staff. 6 There is much to discuss 7 regarding the challenges and 8 opportunities that my department is faced 9 with with building a strategic plan that 10 deals with crime prevention, building 11 community trust, traffic safety, 12 counterterrorism, employee wellness, and 13 technology. I will begin with comments 14 on our Fiscal Year 2018 budget request. 15 The Philadelphia Police 16 Department's Fiscal Year 2018 total 17 Operating Budget request is $686,928,944, 18 650,176,870 in the General Fund, 19 36,752,074 other operating funds, grants 20 reimbursables and from the Airport. 21 That's where that total of $686 million 22 that I alluded to. 23 The proposed Fiscal Year '18 24 budget funds a sworn head count of 6,525 25 and current civilian positions totalling STREHLOW & ASSOCIATES, INC. (215) 504-4622 Committee Of The Whole April 18, 2017 Page 6 1 4/18/17 - WHOLE - BILL 170195, ETC. 2 7,974. The FOP contract wage increase 3 award for FY18 is still unknown, so in 4 the event that a pay increase is awarded, 5 we would need to amend our request. 6 Just to talk about some 7 accomplishments. You know the City 8 hosted the Democratic National Convention 9 last year. Because of the great 10 coordination with all City departments, 11 along with our state and federal 12 partners, the convention was largely a 13 success. I could not have been more 14 proud of the work done by the men and 15 women of this department. They kept the 16 City safe while handling multiple 17 protests in stifling heat. In addition 18 to showcasing the City in a positive way, 19 the officers likely saved the City money 20 from costly lawsuits that can often 21 result from multiple demonstrations. 22 In the way of collaborative 23 reform -- and I'll mention several 24 items -- obviously we were very happy 25 with this. The first thing that we're STREHLOW & ASSOCIATES, INC. (215) 504-4622 Committee Of The Whole April 18, 2017 Page 7 1 4/18/17 - WHOLE - BILL 170195, ETC. 2 happy about is the fact that the 3 Department has completed 95 percent of 4 the recommendations suggested by the 5 Justice Department, which is fantastic. 6 The remainder is largely recommendations 7 that will need to be addressed through 8 collective bargaining. 9 From that was also a suggestion 10 about an Officer-Involved Shooting Team. 11 The Justice Department made a suggestion 12 that there should be the formation of a 13 separate unit to investigate the criminal 14 aspect of police-involved shootings. 15 This year the Department formed our IOS 16 team -- IS team to investigate the police 17 shootings in the City, and that's 18 composed of a lieutenant, a sergeant, and 19 six detectives. The unit deals 20 exclusively with the District Attorney's 21 Office. The administrative aspect of the 22 officer-involved shootings are 23 simultaneously investigated by Internal 24 Affairs for departmental violations. 25 Reinvesting in what has been STREHLOW & ASSOCIATES, INC. (215) 504-4622 Committee Of The Whole April 18, 2017 Page 8 1 4/18/17 - WHOLE - BILL 170195, ETC. 2 working: Reality-based training is the 3 training whereby officers are going 4 through a multitude of dangerous 5 encounters that they may face on the 6 street. They go through these real-life 7 scenarios which are aimed at improving 8 the safety of the public and our 9 officers. The feedback on this training 10 has been absolutely great. We made a 11 commitment to this training and doubled 12 the number of training officers. This 13 will enable us to get more officers in 14 this invaluable training. 15 In fact, just to share a little 16 brief story with you, the end of last 17 year we actually had a veteran reporter 18 go through this training so that they 19 could get a sense for what that was like. 20 And this was actually filmed. And the 21 individual -- I'll tell you, it was Walt 22 Hunter, who has been here forever 23 covering crime beats. And Walt went 24 through this training, and despite 25 knowing that it was training, he said STREHLOW & ASSOCIATES, INC. (215) 504-4622 Committee Of The Whole April 18, 2017 Page 9 1 4/18/17 - WHOLE - BILL 170195, ETC. 2 that his heart is beating out of his 3 chest, and unfortunately for Walt he shot 4 the person in the back four times, 5 because this can be some very serious 6 training, and when you go through 7 something like this and even veteran 8 officers will tell you, it almost feels 9 like you're going through the real thing, 10 because once you get caught up in it, you 11 really start to adapt and have to do the 12 necessary training that takes place to 13 save your life and also to prevent 14 potential shootings. It has been an 15 enormous undertaking, but is one that is 16 worthwhile and we're very happy with it. 17 We have well over 1,000 officers that are 18 trained thus far. 19 By doubling down on that 20 commitment, we have been able to 21 introduce a 4:00 to 12:00 tour, which 22 will expedite the training of the 23 remaining of the Department, particularly 24 those that work the streets. So we're 25 real excited about that. STREHLOW & ASSOCIATES, INC. (215) 504-4622 Committee Of The Whole April 18, 2017 Page 10 1 4/18/17 - WHOLE - BILL 170195, ETC. 2 Another thing that we've been 3 doing that we're excited about is human 4 trafficking.