The Q&A session for the Great Expectations Agenda meeting for the 1st Council District started off with a bang asking the councilmen whether or not they supported spot zoning. The questioner wanted the councilmen to deny all spot zoning requests until a full plan was in place. The 1st District's Councilman Frank DiCicco took to the mic first. He said that he views all zoning requests on a case by case basis and to deny all spot zoning requests between now and the finalization of a zoning plan is too broad a move to make. At-Large Councilman Bill Green said that it would be great to be able to hold everything until a plan was in place, but it's just not feasible. He pointed out to Miami's recent new zoning plan; it took them 3 years to finalize and their city is 1/5 the size of Philadelphia. Green gave a drop dead date of 2011 (the same year as his re-election bid) for a plan to be in place. If a new zoning plan which pleased the majority of Philadelphians were in place before the elections, I foresee a slew of re-elections - zoning is at the top of people's minds all across the city.
Continuing with zoning issues, the next questioner asked whether or not the councilmen would agree to limit 10 year tax abatements strictly to LEED certified projects. DiCicco (at left above) questioned whether limiting the abatements like that were actually legal and deferred to Green, a lawyer, to answer the question. Green said that Philadelphia has had a hard time attracting developers as of late and it has been the 10 year abatements which have slowly started to get developers back into town and willing to build. To limit the abatements to LEED-only projects would slow the stream. He did note that LEED projects could be given extra considerations in the review process. It's been mentioned at previous Great Expectations events that LEED projects could be bumped to the front of the approval line among other things.
The conversation swung to schools and an attendee asked about the role of council for safer schools; expanded after school, non-sports, activities and schools used as a community resource. DiCicco noted how schools are presently closed during the summer. A great resource to the community could be school buildings available for use through the summer months. Green said one possibility to make schools safer would be to place police academy cadets inside schools. In regards to more programming, expanding the existing beacon programs between 3p - 6p would be great, but the money isn't there now. He urged the attendees to vote for a Democrat for president. He said that Clinton and Obama would bring more attention to schools. Green added that he's an Obama supporter to which DiCicco added that he's a Clinton supporter. Green said that if the U.S. were to get out of Iraq, all that money being poured into the military could be used to fortify the public education program. To see how the money going into military spending could further be divvied up, please watch this True Majority animation with Ben & Jerry's Ben Cohen using Oreos to visualize the billions in spending.
The talk of finding extra money reminded DiCicco of the $100M+ owed to Philadelphia by the state for costs incurred by the court system. Apparently, under a PA Supreme Court ruling from 10 years ago, the state is to pay the costs of the court system. Green knew of this and asked for DiCicco's support in denying funding for the court system in the next budget. This would force the court system to go to the state and demand the funding. DiCicco said he (or the council) tried this avenue in the past, but would back another attempt should Green go for it.
The councilmen were asked if they use SEPTA on a regular basis. DiCicco said that for the last 4 years, he hasn't used a City car, but 2 weeks ago, he started to do so once again. He was using his privately owned car and had his staffers borrow it when necessary. His district, stretching from Oxford Circle to Oregon Ave, is a mighty distance to cover at all hours of the day. He said the City should adopt a stipend program like the state legislature has. He put out a random number of $500/mo for city employees which would result in $6k/yr; currently, the City pays $20k/yr for employees using city vehicles. Satullo asked whether PhillyCarShare was an alternative. DiCicco noted how his office was the first to put up money for the program over 5 years ago (I'll let DiCicco and Rep. Babette Josephs (D-182) fight out that distinction). Green said that he owns a Zone 2 SEPTA pass and does not use a City vehicle full time, but does use a pool car when necessary since his At-Large status has him covering all 135 square miles of Philadelphia. He said that PhillyCarShare could save the city $4M - $8M per year through a more aggressive partnership. He said that he's met with the higher ups at PhillyCarShare exploring ideas and that the last administration rejected a more aggressive partnership than which currently exists. Green hopes that Mayor Nutter will reconsider. Having worked at PhillyCarShare for a year, I know that the partnership has saved the City over $6M to date and has replaced over 300 city vehicles. Philadelphia was also the first City to share vehicles with the general public and more typically progressive cities like Berkeley and Minneapolis have sought guidance to do the same from Philadelphia.
I'd like to add that without taking SEPTA on somewhat of a frequent basis, there is no way for council members to truly understand how hard it is for most people in Philadelphia to get around. Imagine the issues the regular worker has when she gets up in her 1st District home in Queen Village and then commutes to West Philly to work for her 9a - 5p. Let's say she hops on the 47 bus up 7th St to hop on the Market Street line at 8th St. Over to City Hall she rides where she transfers to the 34 trolley. 45+ minutes later, she's at work. On her way home, she remembers she wants to attend an anti-casino rally down by Wal Mart. Back on the 34 to City Hall where she transfers to the Broad Street line (if she didn't have a TransPass, she'd need an additional 75¢ transfer). Four stops down to Tasker Street where she climbs the stairs to hop on the crosstown 29 bus to Delaware Ave. That should take an hour or more. After the rally, she walks over to 3rd St where she catches the 57 bus back to Queen Village. Most likely 2.5h to 3h of travel that day alone. I'd like to see council members and our mayor pledge to take SEPTA for a full day twice a month. Let them pick the date ahead of time, but make them stick to it. Perhaps after a year of this, they'd get to know a little better the situation of Philadelphia's mass transit.
Piggybacking on the previous question, the next query was how can Council improve the situation of mass transit in the city? Green said with only 2 out of the 17 or so votes on the SEPTA Board of Directors, Philadelphia does not have a strong voice. He said the City must be more efficient and responsible in how it handles money from the state to demonstrate that the City can manage money well. Green said that Philadelphia's taxes make up for about $86M of the SEPTA budget while the ring counties chip in about $10M a year. Doesn't the money put into the system seem out of line with the number of votes and increased vested interest Philadelphia has? DiCicco noted that the suburban counties are using mass transit more and more as traffic becomes worse and worse. This will force the ring counties to look at mass transit more closely.
The final question of the night came from Bill Marston of Neighborhood Networks. He asked about the most effective way and the most likely way to deal with the ever growing city pension issue. Green pointed to Mayor Nutter's pension bond plan to reduce the burden to $300M within 3 years and extend the plan out 30 years. Satullo brought up the issue of redoing contracts. DiCicco pointed to Nutter's mandate that the magic number be $440M for the year and to have the budget audited for any extra money and if found, to allow it to be added to the $440M number. Satullo pressed on to ask of the role of Council in contract negotiations. Green said that the Council's role is to defer to the Mayor in all cases.
I've been a fan of DiCicco's for awhile now after seeing and meeting him at many neighborhood forums. Seeing Green at these forums and hearing his insightful comments has started to win me over as well after disliking him purely on the basis of my dislike of nepotism in politics. It was a long night which went overtime as usual. But even at close to 10p (the events officially go to 9.30p), there was a line of attendees wanting some one on one time with the councilmen. Below is the interaction with the first one to the front table presented without commentary.
Until next time.
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