Philadelphia City Council’s Fall Priorities
While it is difficult to pinpoint the priorities of the Council for the fall session, I believe its priorities will be focused on the following: housing, opioid epidemic & safe injection sites, public safety, and reentry programs & initiatives. It is also imperative that we keep a keen eye on the Council President's agenda as he departs office. I believe we'll see more programs funded or a greater allocation of funding through the Neighborhood Preservation Initiative ("NPI"). NPI is a $400 million plan approved by the City Council in 2020 that provides massive, citywide investments in affordable housing production, home repairs, small business revitalization and neighborhood preservation. To date, $53.3M has been spent through NPI.
Additionally, this fall will also lay the landscape for the next four years as the Council leadership swings in the balance. Majority Leader Jones and Councilmember Johnson are the top two contenders for the Council presidency. Committee assignments will likely not be complete until February 2024; but it is also important to note the deals being made for the position of Appropriations Chair. The prospective downtown Sixers Arena will also be relevant but the report will likely not be released until later this year with potential legislation introduced in the early part of 2024.
Thursday, September 14th
At today's meeting of the PHL Council, the first meeting of the fall session, the Council voted to (14-0) override the Mayor's veto of Bill 230448 that seeks to prevent the transformation of medical marijuana facilities to recreational sales. Despite the illegality of recreational marijuana in Pennsylvania, people who have a medical license can purchase the drug. The bill states that medical marijuana dispensaries “shall not include a person authorized to dispense marijuana for recreational or other nonmedical purposes.” The Kenney administration claimed that the veto was warranted as the bill only applies to a specific section of the city that includes the 4th and 10th councilmanic districts, and that the bill is premature as recreational marijuana remains illegal in Pennsylvania.
Additionally, the Council voted (13-1) to approve Bill 230410 that seeks to prohibit supervised drug consumption sites. The Kenney Administration has historically voted to endorse supervised drug consumption sites as a strategy to prevent overdose deaths. The Council was met with fierce opposition as proponents of supervised drug injection sites claim the sites are a way to prevent drug-related deaths, which reached a high in 2021 with 1,276 people in the city fatally overdosed. Councilmember Lozada, who drafted the legislation, stated that the bill only applies to 9 of the 10 councilmanic districts, and that the bill does not permanently ban supervised drug consumption sites, but is intended to guarantee community input in any effort to open one.
Introductions:
Councilmember Thomas introduced legislation titled, "The Exonerated Justice Package." The legislation package seeks to provide support for Philadelphians who have been cleared of crimes they were wrongfully imprisoned for, it provides education, housing, and employment resources for those individuals.
Councilmember Jones introduced Resolutions 230590 and 230591 that:
Supports the National Minority Business Development Agency and recognizes October 2 through October 6, 2023 as Philadelphia Minority Enterprise Development (MED) Week, which provides critical information, resources, opportunities, and inspiration to the minority business community; and
Authorizes the City Council Committee on Public Safety to hold public hearings examining "three strikes you're out laws" and to understand their potential impact on retail theft in Philadelphia.
Councilmember Vaughn introduced a solution that authorizes the Committee on People with Disabilities and Special Needs to hold hearings regarding the issues, challenges, and misdiagnoses for children and their families dealing with Ehlers-Danlos syndromes.
Councilmember Brooks and Bass introduced resolutions:
Declaring Philadelphia's commitment to protecting and expanding access to abortion and reproductive healthcare through the establishment of a Reproductive Rights Taskforce in the wake of increasingly severe attacks on the fundamental right to bodily autonomy; and
Calling on SEPTA to investigate and create a public plan for addressing the SEPTA Key Card System's numerous issues, including the compromising of the Kiosks which allows for the theft of riders' funds who attempt to purchase Key Cards.