Looking back on Philadelphia City Council’s work and accomplishments from April 2016:
Legislative Efforts
Philadelphia City Council’s legislative efforts from April included:
- FY2017 Budget Hearings continued in City Council. All city agencies and departments came before Council’s Committee of the Whole to discuss their operations for the coming fiscal year. Council also held a Neigborhood Budget Hearing on April 12, 2016 at Concilio to hear input on the proposed budget from the community. | Watch video of Neighborhood Hearing | Watch Playlist of all FY2017 Budget Hearings
- Council’s newly established Special Committee on Criminal Justice Reform held its first hearings, which included an overview of the Philadelphia criminal justice system and public testimony from key stakeholders. | Watch videos
- Councilman Derek Green (At Large), Chair of Council’s Committee on the Disabled and Persons with Special Needs, held two days of hearings to examine ongoing efforts by public and private organizations in the City to meet the demand for services among children and adults with autism. | Watch video Day 1, Day 2
- Councilman Al Taubenberger (At Large) introduced a resolution calling for Council to to study the feasibility of expanding vertical farming and urban agriculture in Philadelphia as a means of creating jobs, butter vacant warehouses to better use and reducing fresh food deserts. | Watch video
- Council President Darrell Clarke (5th District) introduced legislation that would require safe storage of firearms in households with children. The bill follows reports of several tragic incidents across the nation wherein young children obtained access to firearms resulting in deaths or severe injuries to themselves or others. | Read the resolution
In the Community
- Councilman David Oh (At Large) kicked off a series of seven community meetings throughout the city to get public input on the heroin and opioid epidemic. Oh said the community meetings we designed to help gather information from Philadelphia communities in advance of Council’s hearings on the crisis scheduled for May 20, 2016 | More on this from NBC Philadelphia
- Also in April, Philadelphia received a $3.5 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation to fund its plan to reduce its prison population by 34 percent over three years and address racial bias in the criminal justice system. Council President Darrell Clarke hailed the grant as evidence that Philadelphia’s city agencies are “collaborative” and will work together to achieve reform. | More on this from Newsworks
- Council members joined with the Veteran’s Advisory Commission to honor Philly’s Veterans and connect them with needed resources at the Annual Veteran’s Resource Fair, held on April 20, 2016 at the Municipal Services Building.
- In a move that made national headlines, Councilwoman Helen Gym (At Large) submitted a resolution, later approved by all members of Council, apologizing to baseball legend Jackie Robinson for the treatment he endured when playing here as Los Angeles Dodger in the 1940s. Later in April, Gym and Councilman Derek Green attended the Jackie Robinson Day celebration in the Philadelphia Stars Negro League Memorial Park to talk about the importance of the resolution. | Watch video | Read the resolution
More Monthly Reviews
January 2016 | February 2016 | March 2016 | May 2016 | June 2016
