I just want to reiterate one thing that may have been left out, that stressed on briefly the laborers. I 61 think Councilwoman Blackwell mentioned the laborers. When the laborers are going to be hired by the City, it's labor lottery. A labor lottery initiates maybe 5,000, 10,000 different applications. How do you distinguish from a labor lottery, which is one piece of paper people fill out? They line up. They go to all these recreation centers, libraries, to pick up applications. That's a big process. Thirty-five dollars for all of those is quite a lot of money if that is going to come to fruition. What do you do with those people? How do you identify who is qualified and who is not qualified when they're talking about cutting down on workload, cutting down so they can do this more efficiently and run more smoothly? I just wanted to make that point, that laborer is a big problem when it comes to that. They do have to hire laborers. That's what I wanted to add. That's all.
Mr. Ferris, Madam Orfanelli is still here, the Personnel 62 Director. Madam Orfanelli, do you have an answer to his question about the situation with the laborer's application?
The laborer exam is not going to be held until next year. We have such a large list that we don't exhaust it. It's two years, every other year. It's something that we actually starting talking about, whether we should reduce the actual fee for the laborer because more low income people apply for it. We also expect that there will be a lot more people who will get waivers for that particular test.
I don't understand the difference. You said there are waivers for some positions. Are there waivers because of the lottery situation?
I'm talking about waivers because of income, income waivers, because laborer doesn't require a lot of skills or education, and we have huge numbers of people who apply for it. Many of the people are low income people, very many, so 63 there will probably be a lot of low income waivers for that exam. But we're considering reducing the actual fee for that particular exam.
Again, Mr. Chairman, it all seems so arbitrary. It's so unfair. Perhaps if we could get a list of every job available and mention specific instances, we can get waivers for everything. (Applause.)
Thank you, Mr. Ferris and Mr. Bobby Davis. Thank you, Lynda Orfanelli, Director of Personnel for the City of Philadelphia. Can you please call the next witness?
Can you please state your full name and your occupation for the record?
I'm here basically to speak for the unemployed, the low income and the mother that Councilwoman Blackwell spoke about who told her child to get out there and get a job. It upsets me tremendously that a $35 fee is applied to anyone in the City of Philadelphia. We must live here to even work for them, and on top of that, pay them to get a job. To be tied down in this City because of that -- just to have a job, be tied down, pay you to make you stay here, and then if I don't have any income at all, I'm not even considered. I have to borrow the money from a parent, a friend or someone just to put in an application. Not even to get a job, just to put in the application. Now, I just heard Ms. Orfanelli state about the laborer position, and maybe those who have lower education or less income would apply for the job. I looked on the Web site and the Clerk is open right now. As a 65 1 matter of fact, there's more jobs opened on that Web site now than there has been in quite a very long time. And there are now open competitive positions. I do believe it's about the money. To be a Clerk 1, all you need is a high school education. That's no skill. That's all you need. But yet we're going to have to pay $35 just to put in the application. I'm not sure what the reason is. I'm not even understanding, which is why I don't agree, because it hasn't been brought out probably why $35 is required. But it seems to me that if you need more personnel to process those applications, then you should get more personnel. You should not charge the person who doesn't have the job or may not even get the job the money to process an application. If it costs $39, it's not $39 per person. It's broken up through civil service employees who are already getting paid. If you need more employees to process them, then do that. Don't charge the City of Philadelphia residents. 66 I find it to be completely unfair and totally unnecessary. Thirty-five dollars? So for some reason in the last three weeks, three positions have opened up for my son who has nothing but a high school education. Semi-skilled worker, I always thought that was if you came in as laborer it was promotional only. Now it's on the open competitive. It has to be about the money. I don't live in Philadelphia because of the money; I live in Philadelphia because I love Philadelphia. But I cannot afford to stay here or even have my children, who I raised here, to stay here and get a job for the City, be proud of what you do, if you're going to charge any fee just to put an application. I have not seen yet where the job specs says, we have three positions open. It just says, open competitive. It doesn't say how many positions are open. So you're going to get 1,000 people who have a high school education to put in for that application. It makes sense. It's the only thing you may get 67 living here. And competition comes through the knowledge of which circle you fill out, whether or not you get it correctly. That's fair. But to exclude me because I'm not on welfare, because I'm not on unemployment, social security, and because I don't have any money at all I can't even get in? What is low income? Low income is not having enough to meet your bills. The gas company does that for us right now. I don't need the City of Philadelphia to say my income is not low enough that I have to give you $35. It's totally unfair. It is not about the people. It's about possibly politics, which I don't understand completely. It may be about the system, but it's not about the residents of Philadelphia. This is the first time I've actually been here for a good cause, I must say. " What kind of decision-making is that? It seems so confusing even on the part of personnel, as if it has not been even thought about. Then you should not be charging right now. There's an exam that's closing on Friday. We're having this today. That money must be in in order for some people to be considered. And again, I'll say my son included. He's a bum.
He's a bum. This is one way for me to get him to recognize that he can be gainfully employed. But that means I have to pay his way. I don't want to pay his way. That's the point of me telling him to go get a job. Why do you have to pay to put in an application? He is not the smartest nail in the box. He does not interview well, but he can take a test. But what about those who cannot? I am so angry. I do not remember all that I wanted to say, but I want to get this point across 69 here. Ya'll wrong. You are so wrong. )
Whatever works in another city or state is fine. Find out what works in Philadelphia, for Philadelphia, for Philadelphia's residents, for people who want to come live in Philadelphia. You always see that, "Come to Philly." Philly is not great anymore. Why should the City of Philadelphia make it worse for us? We've got enough problems. We've got enough. If you want more people to take $39 worth of processing fees, then ask whoever, City Council, whoever, to get you more employees to do that. Don't take my money out of my pocket and act like the person that's actually doing the processing is getting a raise because of what they're doing now. That's not true. It's not like they're going to get more money because we're giving them $35. It doesn't make sense. Don't pay, then you don't get a job with the City of Philadelphia. At this point, that sounds like a 70 really good idea because you're hurting us. If you're going to hurt us, why would we want to work for you in the first place? Truly, it's supposed to be about uplifting your City and the City residents. That's not happening with this fee. I don't care if it's $3.00 or a dollar. It's wrong, and I don't want to pay it. My family doesn't want to pay it. People in my neighborhood don't want to pay it. Even City workers who have money don't want to pay it. (Applause.)
If you want to weed out those who are serious about taking a City exam, then I must say one of the major reasons that I found with people I've spoken with who did not show up for the City exam is because you take so long telling us when the test is that we have sat out there and made plans for our lives. And the day that we're going to Wildwood or Atlantic City or wherever is the day of the test. And you have to be there. You can't always show up. But for those who don't show up, if you want to reprimand them 71 in some way, if you want it to come out of their pockets, fine. Let it come out of their pocket. Let there be a fee for not showing up, although I think that's kind of stupid too, but it's better than charging everyone. Reprimand those who are not showing up, not those that do. And me paying you $35 doesn't mean I'm going to show up if I have something more important to do, and no one can determine that. So it's not a guarantee at all. I think it's ridiculous. I think it should be looked at. I hope to all heavens that it is really looked at, that all the questions that were put here are answered properly, that the public has the opportunity to hear those answers before a decision is made. And for whatever reason that you started, it would be so nice if you stopped taking our money right now until you get your affairs in order. (Applause.)
Thank you, Miss, for your testimony. For being here for the first time, you did very, very well. You 72 expressed yourself very well, and we got your message. We sure hope that the Administration -- and they're listening because they're here -- that they also heard you loud and clear. Any questions for the witness? (No response.)
Thank you for coming down to speak out and speak up for others.
We have no other scheduled witnesses. Is there anyone here that wants to testify on this resolution? (No response.)
Not hearing any, I thank you, all those that testified. There has been some requests made to the Personnel Director. Please, as expeditiously as possible, get that 73 information to me so I can share it with my colleagues on this Committee. This hearing is recessed to the call of the Chair. Thank you all for being here, and also my Committee Members. (Council adjourned at 12:42 p.m.) - - - - 74 C E R T I F I C A T I O N I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of Wednesday, October 20, 2004, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. RE: COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND CIVIL SERVICE _________________________ Lisa C. Bradley, RPR