Let's take a quick look at the news that isn't connected to the State of the Union Address, Teddy Kennedy's choice for President or the latest Phillies move to "grade" (not upgrade, not downgrade, just grade) at third base.
3-1-1 is coming to town! The system that has revolutionized the way city services are delivered in cities like New York and Chicago may actually be making its way to Philadelphia. Managing Director Camille Barnett returned to town and laid out a bold plan to bring 3-1-1 and CitiStat (sort of like "Second Life" for filling potholes and towing abandoned cars) by the end of the year! No word on what City Council members will do with all of the free time after "constituency services" is removed as one of their core functions... perhaps legislate? KYW, Inky and Metro coverage. WHYY coverage (via Redlasso) here.
In today's Daily News, Dave Davies reports that Mayor Nutter is creating a commission (a blue ribbon commission?) to "assess ways to increase diversity in the construction industry as part of a plan to get the Convention Center expansion moving." Council, meanwhile passed an ordinance requiring the unions to give demographic data on their membership and promise to be more diverse at the Convention Center. Council would then give an ok to the unions' diversity plans but those plans could be changed depending on what the mayor's commission discovers.
Councilman Wilson Goode, who has been championing efforts to get more inclusion of minority and women workers at the Convention Center seems to be a little... meh... about the whole thing:
"This is an attempt to reverse what was done in ensuring economic opportunity in the ordinance passed by Council in December, and to provide cover for the building and construction trades not submitting diversity plans to the Council," Goode said yesterday.
"It is what it is," Goode said, "and anybody who says it's not is a liar."
On the education front, the mayor brought in what he calls "the dynamic duo of education" to make sure that the really big thing known as the city government is playing nice with the really big thing known as the School District of Philadelphia. One of the appointments, Lori Shorr, will serve as director and chief education officer of the Office of the Public School Family and Child Advocate, a position created through a charter change in last November's election (and I believe, one of Councilwoman Campbell's lasting contributions to city government). Inky, DN, WHYY, Metro and KYW.
And finally, in a letter to the Daily News, AFSCME District Council 33 president Pete Matthews, takes the next step in the public portion of contract negotiations between the city and the municipal worker unions. You may remember from last week when we wrote about a Pew Study on the city's financial future that warns about the enormous cost pressures faced by the city for funding employee health and pension benefits. That study refers to the cost of health benefits as "the unaffordable cost of good intentions" and points out that Philadelphia's costs are higher than every major city except Detroit (thank goodness for Detroit) and come to an average of $13,030 per worker ($374 million total).
The authors of the report say that they could find no recent analyses that suggest that Philadelphia is a particularly high cost market when it comes to health care. So they conclude that the reason for the high cost has to do with how the city pays for health care for its employees:
One potential answer towers above all the rest: the city funds its health care plans by negotiating a flat amount per employee with its unions, and then turns over the lumps sum for the unions to administer. Result: the city is unable to compel any changes in health care coverage or fully undertake cost-saving measures that have been put in place elsewhere.
This may become a sticking point in the coming negotiations if the city is determined to get more control over these costs. In his letter, Matthews counters:
Since 1996, when I took office as president of District Council 33, our union has been managing our health-benefits fund responsibly and with a sharp eye on cost control.
In fact, we are already doing what General Motors and the other big auto makers are proposing to the United Autoworkers Union in this year's negotiations - turning over the responsibility for buying a benefits package to the union.
District Council 33's Health and Welfare Fund currently receives markedly less than the funding received by other city workers unions, and yet we have been able by careful stewardship to maintain, and in some cases improve, health benefits for the members of our union.
Both sides make good points and this is only the beginning of what we can expect to see as the negotiations heat up. Stay tuned.
Well, I have meeting out of the office today so posting will be light. In fact, this is probably going to be it. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves.
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