Citizen blogger Albert Yee took part in the May 7 "A City That Works" Forum in Northeast Philadelphia. He writes:
It's time for another set of Great Expectations forums! This time around, it's a set of forums called "A City That Works" held, once again, in each of the 10 City Council districts. At each stop, a set of city officials from the Mayor's Office, Performance Office and Budget Office will be present. A post from the first forum in South Philly is already here on the G.E. blog. About 50 people were on hand for last night's forum (including about 10 staffers). The Inquirer's Chris Satullo told the crowd that this was approximately the 100th forum and the fourth one at the John M. Perzel Community Center in the Northeast. Satullo polled the sizable crowd to see how many had been to previous forums, and you can see above that most of the crowd knew the drill pretty well; I saw a lot of familiar faces from previous forums.
Assistant Budget Director Julie Wertheimer went straight into a slideshow presentation on the 2009 budget. Not the most engaging stuff (numbers, numbers, numbers), but learning where our tax money goes and where the rest of the money comes from and where it's all spent is very important. For the number crunchers out there, a .pdf of the FY09 Operating Budget, the FY09 Budget in Brief and the Five Year Plan. The second half of the slideshow was condensed to a business-card handout: the plan for Philadelphia to be all that it can be and improve the customer-service aspect of governance in Public Safety, Education, Jobs, Healthy & Sustainable Neighborhoods, and Ethics. The larger group was split off into groups with those categories serving as topics. I tagged along with the Public Safety group; being a Center City resident, I was very interested to see what residents of the NE were concerned with.
The Public Safety group was lead by Beth, who kept the group moving very well (an incredibly hard task from what I've experienced in the past). The first step was for the group to identify certain things that are problematic and what success would look like for the problem. The group had some of the typical crime-related requests - overcrowded prison/jail system, assault weapons ban, better/updated police equipment, more police on streets, police around schools. But the group also had some requests that weren't at the top of my list - bring back horse-mounted police for parks, a citywide sound ordinance for car radios like there is on South Street, rehabbing dilapidated rec centers. (The Perzel Center is top notch.) Bob, from the Upper Holmesburg Civic Association (which was well represented with three members in the group of eight, simply wanted to be able to go outside of his house at 3 a.m. and not expect to be mugged.
It was great to have the three city staffers going around to listen in to each of the groups. They offered first-hand insight to certain issues. Above is Deputy Director of Performance Management Patrick Morgan discussing the 311/PhillyStat program, which is to launch by 12/31/08. One concern people had was the cost of 311 calls. A group member noted how 911 used to be free; now, it costs $1/call. Would 311 be free or how much would it cost? Morgan later said that the system would be free for the foreseeable future. (I'm assuming it'll be taxed.) The group also wanted increased transparency within the workings of the city's public-safety program: progress reports from the police on crime issues and a published historical graph of crime from the last three years to witness progress toward the mayor's goal of 25% fewer homicides. Morgan said that the police department is currently working on an online system of crime statistics, which should be online in the next few months. Susan from NE Philly was concerned about those without internet access; Morgan said that with so much information going into databases, this was an immense first step and that publishing data in the papers would hopefully follow down the line.
Morgan dropping into the Neighborhoods discussion, held down the hall from the rest of the groups, in what seemed to be a computer lab.
Before reconvening as a large group again, UPenn's Harris Sokoloff asked that everyone go around the room to see what the other groups had come up with. Above are Sokoloff, Beth and Satullo looking at the extensive notes from the Public Safety group.
An attendee basking in the glory of some notes from the Ethics group.
The panel of three city reps were seated up front with Chief of Staff Steven Kennebeck at the first seat. New to the city (he's been here for all of three weeks after moving from D.C. for the gig under Nutter), this was his first Great Expectations forum. The group was asked what they noticed from looking at one another's notes. 311/PhillyStat was on every single sheet in the room. Why? The personal contact, the convenience (there are currently 300+ numbers to call for issues), the accountability via ticket system. An attendee wanted to see a public face to go along with the 311 number; a person who would be in the neighborhoods and would be held responsible for the success of the program.
Satullo asked the panel what struck them about what they saw in this forum and the others they'd been to. Wertheimer said she was particularly struck to see how each neighborhood behaved like a family (in a good way!): caring for each other, organizing and taking care of problems.
Morgan took this time to explain the PhillyStat program a bit more. The PhillyStat meetings, held every Monday and Wednesday at 1 p.m. at 1515 Arch St., 18th floor, are completely open to the public, which is different from other cities with a PhillyStat-like program where meetings are closed. Morgan was hopeful that down the line, there would be more interaction with the public, which is unheard of in previous incarnations of the system. The meetings are broadcast the night of each meeting at 8 p.m. on channel 64; the city hopes to be able to stream it live off of the Web site at some point. As for the call center itself, it will be housed in Room 153 in City Hall. There are even plans for a walk-in desk. (I can't imagine what the waiting room will look like.) Alan asked about the transparency of the 311 statistics. Morgan said that some of the software automatically spits out good raw data that can be worked into publicly available databases, but that's down the line. Not all service requests will be available at the 12/31/08 launch, but by Spring of 2009, more software will be purchased and put into place. Every single other PhillyStat-like program has strategically rolled out services, and Philadelphia will do the same. Skip asked if 311 would have an online presence as well - currently, no. But down the line, people will be able to go online and submit requests like over the phone. Finally, Morgan added that when PhillyStat goes live, there will be a citywide education program and hopes that the Great Expectations project will be integral in getting out the message.
Kathleen, from right around the Perzel Center neighborhood, wanted to know if other areas of the city felt left behind as people do in the NE, even with their mini City Hall. Wertheimer said that's common for every party of the city to feel that way, but they're all treated the same. One attendee enthusiastically reeled off several neighborhoods and said they were all treated equally poorly in the past.
Kennebeck's pet project will be the mini City Halls. He recently visited the NE Philly MCH as well as the one in North Philly. (The only two in existence.) He said the North Philly site had a lot to improve upon and that NE was performing it's duties well. Morgan added that what the MCHs are being asked to do haven't changed since they were created, and it may be time for an overhaul of the services provided. Kennebeck added that one idea being kicked around was a mobile City Hall, which would stop at congregation areas to perform basic duties on the go.
Bob asked the question that got the crowd clapping in support: What is this administration going to do about collecting monies due to the city from PGW and the water department? Wertheimer said that she knows there are plans in place, but didn't know the specifics and unfortunately couldn't comment futher.
Another great forum came to and end, and the group quickly broke into pairs to brainstorm ideas which came up during the course of the evening. I can't wait until the next two events I'll be covering in this leg of the Great Expectations project.
A flickr set of 44 shots from the forum. As a slideshow.
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