Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Bortnick, I only heard bits and pieces of one of the responses to questions raised by Councilman Rizzo, and I got a little lost in some of your response about the Secretary of Boards, Authorities and Commissions and something about City Council. And then I thought there was some other issue about who provides computer services to us. And then there was some discussion about the help desk. I mean, it all just some kind of started running together, and I lost track of some of the components of it. 698 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET Could you unwind it a little bit, and in a short version, tell me what you were trying to say.
Yes. There were actually three questions that were posed. In relation to the City Council support, a number of years ago, the Council determined that it was best served by having the purchasing of its PC's within its own budget and also its support through a contractor. The City of Philadelphia has other departments also that purchase desktop support through contracts.
Right. And in our situation, I mean, I recall that we used to call the help desk -- I forget what the number is, it might be 8260 or 8200 or something like that. And now we have the Kimmel Group which, as I understand it, interacts or interfaces with MOIS, but they are dedicated to City Council. They work with us, they serve us, and then whatever the nature of the relationship is between them and MOIS, that kind of takes place however it takes place. But it was my impression in previous 699 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET years that one of the problems was MOIS, for whatever reason, may have found it somewhat difficult to have regular dedicated people to city Council because you have to serve the entire City government and a whole lot of people. And quite honestly, we're -- in comparison to some other places, we're actually a relatively small place. That's the present case, right?
Yes. The present case is that a person makes call to 8213 and we dispatch the Kimmel Group for supporting to Council.
It's 1916, I think. What was the things about boards, commissions and agencies, the Secretary?
There is actually a fifth cluster of departments called Agencies, Authorities, Boards and Commissions.
And the City Council 700 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET participates in that cluster under the Secretary, Augusta Clark.
Attends meetings that are held by that secretary and works with the other members of --
Computer stuff is one of the topics that I discussed with them at a previous meeting that was held some time ago.
Okay. I mean, there are meetings all over the government so, you know, I don't know about every meeting. Who goes on behalf of Council?
I will have to get back to you with the exact name of the person. I don't want to misstate the name. It's a young man with dark hair and glasses.
Dark hair and glasses, I believe out of the President's office. 701 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET
A young man with dark hair and glasses. Charlie McPherson, do you qualify under that category? (Laughter.)
All right, we will conduct an intensive search for that person, believe me, and we will find them.
Right. We're just in the process of forming these clusters.
I mean, my experience has been -- I mean, with all due respect to the -- to MOIS, I have enjoyed a great response. I mean, I didn't have any problem with the help line making the decision to go to an outside vendor. That's certainly within the President's purview.
And that decision 702 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET having been made, I mean, I've had very good experience and success with the Kimmel Group. They're always responsive, they've solved every problem that I've presented to them. And some days, I make up some problems just to kind of keep them on their toes. Thank you very much.
Madam President, do you know who this -- what was that, glasses, dark hair?
No, I certainly don't know who it is. We have never been informed of anything, and I guess we won't be in the future, but that's okay. Thank you, gentlemen. The last department is the Records Department. 703 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET (Witnesses come forward.)
Sure. This will be very quick. My name is Joan Decker, Commissioner of the Records Department. I have with me today Jean Reedy, Administrative Services Director; and Larry Bay, a supervisor in the Mapping and Coding Unit. Just a couple of comments. In the past year, the Records Department collected $95.8 million. We recorded 194,000 documents, and we made 50,000 copies of traffic accident reports available to the public. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Our backlog has been eliminated. It is now three years. We return documents to our customers between three to five days, depending upon our incoming volume. 704 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET
The staff is to be commended. They're all working very hard and we're very proud of them.
'Cause we used to sit here and hear nothing but complaints many years ago about the backlog and how long people had to wait. So we certainly commend all of you for doing such a wonderful job.
This committee will stand in recess until Friday, February the 16th, at 9 a.m.. 705 2/14/01 - FY '02 OPERATING BUDGET (Adjourned 6:15 p.m.) 706 C E R T I F I C A T E WE HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of Wednesday, February 14, 2001, were reported fully and accurately by us, and that this is a correct transcript of same. RE: COUNCIL COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE BILL NO. 010005 __________________________________, DEBRA WHITEHEAD, Registered Professional Reporter __________________________________, JOSEPHINE CARDILLO, Registered Professional Reporter