Transcripts For WPVI Inside Story 20150920 : vimarsana.com

Have we scared them to death . They are gonna turn out. Its going to be successful. The messaging, i think, was lost from the getgo. You know, we talked about Economic Development and logistics and security. Pope francis is bringing a spiritually uplifting message. Thats what this is about. The metric that were going to use is how many people showed up. But how many people are gonna watch on television . How many people are going to have on their Facebook Page share a message . How many people are going to tweet something . And when we would otherwise measure virtually every other event by the numbers of shares and likes and tweets . So, i think this is gonna be a huge success. And its gonna be successful not because of how many people show up or how well we perform, but because of how pope francis presence makes us feel. And it certainly is a wonderful and unique experience in the u. S. Hes never been to this country. Hes coming to d. C. , new york, and philadelphia is his main stay for the world meeting of families, of course. Yeah, and i think if you look at the broader context, i think we in philadelphia should be proud that were the only city that hes gonna be doing large outdoor events. The events in washington are gonna be in the cathedral and before Congress Large events, obviously, but not outdoor. And in new york, st. Patricks cathedral. So, we have two large outdoor events, and that shows that theres a lot of confidence that the city can handle those kind of things. And i feel along with sam and i presume everybody else that the city is gonna do a good job with this. Weve already had one scare that, at least, weve been alerted to a 15yearold young man whos isis inspired, had allegedly been plotting something. It was foiled. He has been arrested. They said it was not an imminent threat, but nonetheless at least illusionary threat on his end. There must be other things, though. Do you think that we have done enough . Certainly the secret service has been working very hard. Well, that particular incident says more about the state of the world than it does, i think, about the papal visit. Thats the kind of thing that could have happened anywhere. Theres been a lot of criticism and concern about the organization of this event, and i have great sympathy for the citys leaders and the organizers of this event. Its kind of a damned if you do, damned if you dont. If you overprepare and close roads down and set up security gates, people say, well, youre scaring away people, you know . Thats not what you want to do. But if you dont do it and you end up with gridlock or worse, youre gonna be condemned for that, too. Or, god forbid, an injury to a prominent world figure. I think the citys doing a good job. Better to be overprepared than underprepared. And the world meeting of families is going to be going on all week and being covered all week. And the anticipation, i think, will drive away some of the negatives that have come out of the messaging about, you know, the legitimacy of peoples concerns about their parking or access to food. And i think the week, as we progress, will create momentum and excitement and inspiration. And is it just typical of philadelphia people that a City Council Person off the record said to one of our reporters, if it goes well, im gonna say, hey, what a thumbs up. I was in with them. if it doesnt go well, im gonna, you know, throw blame and toss my hat just like everybody else. I mean. Well, look, i dont know what that particular Council Person who that person was. But what ive been hearing from people is, number one, initially, i think we were sort of thinking that this was 1979. Its not. Its 2015. And the world has changed since that time. Were talking about a twoday event. Were talking about security being absolutely critical and important to this kind of outdoor event. And so, i think people have been, like, a little nervous about they werent quite sure exactly what it all was and what it was all gonna entail. But im starting to see people feeling more excited. When they announced aretha franklin, my, you know, Facebook Page blew up. Well, a lot of us wanted patti labelle. [ laughter ] we love both of them. Absolutely. I mean, a friend of mine who is an opera singer in philadelphia just got notified this week that shes gonna be a part of the effort. So, again, i think its starting to sort of, like, filter down to everyday people that there are some interesting things that are going to happen. Last comment on this. Go ahead. I attended the Democratic Convention in boston in 2004, and all the locals were saying, its gonna be horrible, and we got to get out. We got to go to cape cod. Its gonna be just a nightmare. It turned out it was great. It was wellhandled, it was fun, and the people who stayed the locals who stayed later said, boy, did we exaggerate that. They enjoyed it. Good. All right, lets move on to talk about a pushpull between the School District and city council over funding. This is nothing new, but what is new is what appears to be sort of a standoff or maybe even a personality conflict between Council President Darrell Clarke and either secretary excuse me School Superintendent bill hite, maybe michael nutter, the mayor. A few sort of threeway push here is causing 1 million in flux to be argued over, and 25 million could be held up because of it. There is something in the clause that the money the city gave to the School District 100 million that they allotted that said, a quarter of that, 25 , we still get to make the decisions on. If you dont use it directly for children, were holding back our money. Now there could be some money withheld. Talk about a bad message at a bad time. While the state legislature is navigating a budget crisis, and where the central issue is funding education, philadelphia is considering not funding because of some personality issue between the president of city council and the superintendent of schools . This is how philadelphia gets a black eye in harrisburg with respect to our own taking care of our problems. And i dont know what this is about. Ask yourself the question, how could we do better than bill hite . I think the guy is a superb manager and leader, and hes been through not a really good experience in philadelphia. From the day he arrived, hes just been in a crisis mode. And the money went to hire four higherlevel managers within the department. He said there was money wellspent, even though it wasnt directly a book or a pencil. Do you agree with that, jan . Well, i think the more criticism the superintendent gets, the more concern there is about his ability to stay on, particularly when the change of administration occurs in january. It looks like forces are aligned that are critical of the superintendent and the job that hes been trying to do. And, as sam says, if we lose this guy, who do we have . Who better . Where do we go . Well, i do want to say, though, that i had an opportunity this week to be in a meeting with Council President clarke, and he announced publicly before members of the state legislature that they had reviewed the 25 million request and that they were going to release those funds. He then went before the tribune Editorial Board and said, this is not a personality conflict. Its not about that. We just believe that we have done our job in appropriating money at the local level. Its really about whats happening at the state level thats causing a problem. And i think there is no secret that city council and president clarke are absolutely against the src model and want to try to figure out a way to reorder and rethink how you ultimately lead the School Districts. And lets talk about another possible change of leadership at l i. The head of l i, the l i commissioner, Carlton Williams, being criticized by mr. Butkovitz, Alan Butkovitz, who has been reviewing the money there and saying that they dont close down abandoned houses very quickly. It costs a lot of money to seal them up and make them at least safe until they get demolished or bought by a new owner. So a lot of heavy criticism calling for Carlton Williams to be fired or step down. A new administrations coming into the Mayors Office and probably he may not be kept anyway. Do you think, again, this is a tempest in a teapot, there, jim . No, i think there are serious questions about l i, just by the collapse just that one collapse. And theres been others, but people died. But one of the things i thought that was extraordinary about that was the public spat between mayor nutter and Alan Butkovitz and the personal comments that mayor nutter made about Alan Butkovitz. Because mayor nutters backing Carlton Williams. I thought that was pretty extraordinary and something i hadnt really seen before. I dont think there are questions about l i. With all due respect, i think l is a disaster. And it has been a disaster for a very, very long time. And you think about the kensington fire and the Salvation Army collapse and the buildings that have collapsed all over the place, and then the corruption. The place stinks from the top down. And its embarrassing and its an outrage for philadelphia not to have a cleanoperated, efficiently operated, and confidently operated department thats involved with public safety. I mean, theyre saying that the computers are antiquated. We wouldnt accept it for the Fire Department or the Police Department. Its kind of surprising. The mayor, mayor nutter, is in his last three months, and its his last chance to do something with l i, and hes passing on it. Hes saying, im not gonna do anything. Now, that was my point, that it is such a problem, and that the mayors reaction would be to insult Alan Butkovitz, as opposed to saying, we need to fix this. I mean, theyre saying uncertified workers are going out to check a building, going, eh, its fine, and letting a building stand. But carltons response to that was, look, we havent seen the report. We would have loved to have been able to respond to the report, that the press conference was held prior to us being able to at least respond specifically. When you look at the list of dangerous properties that the city has been able to close, they have been able to get to about 2 3 of the list of those that are on their list. So the issue is a little bit more complicated than it looks. In three months, were gonna have a change. Theres a city council report. Theres a report from the controller. There are certainly reports from the Mayors Office. I think the real push needs to be to make sure that we start off in january with a new administration with a solid plan and not to have just a political argument, a political discussion. 3. 1 million, though, to clean and seal 2,100 properties. Its a heavy price. With a commissioner who knows the business, who understands how to be a commissioner of licenses and inspections. But at least, again, and i havent heard from mrs. Bailey, but i do know that at least the democratic nominee has already said hes definitely gonna make a change at l i. So i dont think theres any question about the fact that theres gonna be someone new. I think we really want to dig in, though, to figure out how much money do we really need and which of all of these there are a lot of recommendations on the table. Which one of these are gonna be a priority, and what can we ultimately afford . All right, lets talk about city workers. There have been some complaints that the workforce in philadelphia, at least at the higher income levels and earning levels, is not reflective of the population at large. And we have a couple of graphics we want to show you, sort of the specifics of how it all plays out within the city of philadelphia. We do have 60,000 jobs mostly going to whites in the city of philadelphia. Africanamerican, black people making at the 49,500 level for similar jobs. This is the average salary for Philadelphia City workers. Obviously a 10,000 pay gap, plus. And heres the diversity issue. Hispanics make up 13 of the city, but only 5 of the city workforce, so not a reflection there. Asians similar at 7 of the population, only 2 of the workforce. You can go on and on. The number of White Police Officers is predominant versus the population of whites in the city of philadelphia. There were a lot of complaints and some room for change and diversity. What else can the city be doing here, jan . What else can the city be doing . Theres a list, but start with your favorite two. Well, this is a tough one. I think the Police Department is a good place to start. And i think we need to change this rule of two. Part of the problem is in the Civil Service, that we have this rule of two that you can only select from the top two scorers on the Civil Service exam. That could be expanded a little bit. If you made it a rule of four, if you made it a rule of five its a leftover from the 1970s. It would give you more choices in terms of hiring. It would give the city more flexibility, i think. But, you know, monica, as sam has so brilliantly shown in his documentary series on the city, weve had a 200year history of racism. Not just in philadelphia, but in the nation. And yes, things have gotten better. Things have gotten vastly better than they were 50 years ago. But that legacy is still there, and it still has an effect, in my opinion. And things like jans talking about, trying to be more aggressive in recruiting minorities and mentoring minorities and moving minorities forward for jobs is really the only answer. And its not just minorities. Females, as well, dont play a role in the higherlevel paying jobs. Its actually majorities. Right. We should be talking about. You have a Civil Service system and union rules that mitigate against flexibility but for management and trying to make major policy changes such as changing the demographics of the city workforce. And it is, i think, a factor that undermines confidence, particularly in police, that so many communities end up interacting with people who are not of them and like them. To change the rule of two, though, sharmain, you have to get a charter changed, and thats had a success when weve asked for other charter changes through the years. That happened to be the only one that didnt go through last time that we put it but we have heard from councilwoman sanchez and also councilwoman Blondell Reynolds brown that they are willing to take this on and that they are going to move for the charter change. I mean, i think its important that we count. People honestly really hate to count. They believe it goes back to the whole idea around the part of affirmative action that people feel uncomfortable about. But its not until we keep track of these things and really think about them do we really ultimately work on them. So weve got to continue to count, and weve also got to sponsor. I agree that mentoring people is important, but a lot of times when you see someone in a department or in an organization that could move ahead when we had the women here from the womens conference, they said its really about sponsorship, whether its in the private sector or in government. That makes a huge difference as to how do you get people into leadership. Right, you got to get them in the pipeline. Got to get them in the pipeline and support them. Itd be good if we started to think about the city charter, which was a document created in the 40s and 50s. Its outdated. Instead of oneoffing charter changes, perhaps its time and maybe the next mayor will take the lead in developing a charter assessment. So whats the 21stcentury version of government versus the 20thcentury . And the Civil Service commission has codified so many laws and rules and regulations that maybe dont help philadelphia today. All right, were gonna take a break. More inside story coming your way right after this. Stick around. Inside story is presented by temple university. Temple fuels students with academics and opportunities to take charge. Plugged into the city, powered by the world. Temple. Edu takecharge. More kids are suffering from asthma and we still have no limits on Carbon Pollution which can lead to more asthma attacks in children but senator toomey has voted repeatedly to let polluters keep releasing unlimited Carbon Pollution into the air. And took more than one Million Dollars from the polluters. Tell senator toomey to vote for the clean power plan, because unlimited pollution shouldnt be a right. But playing outside should be. Welcome back to inside story. Lets get an update on the budget stalemate. Governor wolf has given a little bit of ground, it sounds like, on the pushpull with republicans on how to pass a budget so that the state isnt going broke or at least being held hostage by the budget offerings. Wolf has said he would hire a private manager for the wine and Liquor Stores while they disagree on privatization. He also said that he would limit how much of a persons salary can be counted towards a pension to try to reduce the pension quality issue. Are either of those gonna be enough . You think the republicans are gonna move on that . They say no, he says no. Still stalemate. It appears as if there is still a stalemate. I mean, hes saying, look, this is what ive offered. Ive made some concessions. Im willing to look at these issues. The legislature was in philadelphia full force this week, members of the house and senate, meeting with nonprofits, meeting with leaders, saying, look, we are trying to compromise. Its people on the other side of the aisle who just will not move whatsoever, and we are not going to make decisions that we think are in the not in the best interest of our communities. One of the issues, again, around state stores is that minority legislators are really specific not just about the jobs, but they are really concerned about a new rash of stopandgo type stores back into minority communities. So, they are not gonna budge on the state stores. Theres an 11 billion offer on the table, though, a stopgap measure, and you run a nonprofit, sharmain. Wouldnt you like to see some interim money here . I would love to see it. Id love to be considered an essential service. I think im as essential as any other members of the house and senate who are currently still getting paid. But again, you know, youre sort of caught in a really tough situation where we also need to make sure that we have the right funds in place to be able to operate the people are ongoing. I agree with you. I think that what im hearing in harrisburg is that both sides feel that theyre at the moment of maximum leverage. And that means that the willingness to compromise actually goes down a bit. Im on the board of a nonprofit that provides social services in the latino community, and people are getting hurt. Weve eliminated our afterschool program, were closing down other programs, violence against women programs. Weve furloughed a number of our staff. These people are getting no salaries. Its really a crisis, and were not the only one. The irony is everyone knows what the ultimate compromise has to be. Both sides have to get a victory out of this. The governor campaigned on the issue of a severance tax. He has to get the severance tax. Hes not gonna get the other taxes, but he needs to get that. And the republicans need to get some big victory. They either need to get the state store issue addressed, which theyre probably not gonna get, or they need to get pension reform. Big pension reform, not little pension reform. Big pension reform isnt on the table for anybody. Right. And the most interesting part of this is how many democratic members of the house and the senate are gonna vote for the wolf budget. And weve never heard anything about that. For western pennsylvania democrats to be on record for this level of tax increases is, in many cases, to put at risk their return to the legislature, so i dont know how many votes the democrats can produce. There are 80some in the house. If they cant produce 78 or 79, there are not gonna be 30 republicans in the house that are gonna to sacrifice their careers. Their careers would be over. But you still have property tax reduction on the table. That was supposed to try to balance the whole issue for other parts of the state to say were cutting on the property tax side if we do marcellus shale, and we ultimately direct that back into education so we can lower taxes at the local level. All right, lets quickly move to Kathleen Kane before we finish up. Its sort of a back and forth, hard to keep up with which side of the fence everybodys on, especially the attorney general. But she has now gone before the Commonwealth Court to fight the release of some of the pornographic emails, the very ones that she said she wasnt allowed to release. Now they could be released, but she went to court and said, nope, please dont release them. Her attorneys say theres a whole list of reasons why. Whats up with this . Youre an attorney, jim. Well, you know, i am an attorney, but i look at this whole situation as alice in wonderland, and i looked at that press conference where she seemed to beg the court to allow her to release them, and turns out the court says, we never said you couldnt release them. And the media files motions to get them and she fights them. So, i dont know what her Strategic Mission is there. The other thing i thought was very interesting this week is that a search warrant was executed on her office. As a former prosecutor, i can tell you to have a search warrant executed after you are charged is very, very rare, and what does it tell you . What are they looking for . Well, one of the few reasons that a prosecutor would do that is the fear that theres obstruction of justice occurring. Mm. Im speculating, but thats, in my experience, one of the reasons that a prosecutor would do something that is rather extraordinary. And, jan, what does all this mean in the macro sense . It cant be good for the state of pennsylvania and running business in the state of pennsylvania. No. I do think, you know, looking long term, it would be a good thing for the principal to be out there that all emails sent on state servers are discoverable, inappropriate circumstances, and let everybody be aware of the fact. Maybe that would put an end to pornography circulating on the state email system. You know, under certain circumstances, this is all discoverable, so be careful what you put out there. All right, were gonna leave it at that. Inside stories are coming your way right after this. Stick around. Hush my darling. Dont fear my darling. The lion sleeps tonight. [snoring. ] hush my darling. [snoring. ] dont fear my darling. The lion sleeps tonight. [snoring. ] take the roar out of snore. Yet another innovation only at a sleep number store. And we still have no limits on Carbon Pollution which can lead to more asthma attacks in children but senator toomey has voted repeatedly to let polluters keep releasing unlimited Carbon Pollution into the air. And took more than one Million Dollars from the polluters. Tell senator toomey to vote for the clean power plan, because unlimited pollution shouldnt be a right. But playing outside should be. Inside story is presented by temple university. Temple fuels students with academics and opportunities to take charge. Plugged into the city, powered by the world. Temple. Edu takecharge. Time for inside stories of the week, and lets start with jan. Just as donald trump has introduced illegal immigration as an issue in the president ial campaign, hes now doing the same thing for tax reform, taking on the carried interest loophole that allows Hedge Fund Managers like mitt romney to pay a lower tax rate on their earned income than a lot of middleincome tax payers like the people gathered around this table. So, even hes forcing other candidates to take positions on these issues, and even jeb bush now says, oh, yeah, me, too. Im for closing that loophole. All right, sharmain. Well, monica, you know that we fought really hard this summer to try to get jobs for teens who wanted them. The good news is, is that the mayor announced that we met our 10,000job challenge. The better news, though, is that the democratic nominee for mayor, jim kenney, says by the end of his first term, well be at 16,000 jobs for the summer. Im excited about that. Wow. Thats incredible. That is great. Lets take it over to sam. Well, tuesday night, channel 6 will broadcast urban trinity the story of catholic philadelphia, which will cover the history of catholicism in this city. By 1930, philadelphia was 40 catholic. Cardinal dougherty was probably the most powerful man in the city and arguably the most powerful member of clergy in america. And this is a great story of immigration. And if you projected in 1844 when the bible riots occurred and 20 50 people were killed to a day in 1962 when there would be a catholic mayor, james h. J. Tate, maybe we look at the story today of immigration and can project out 100 years a very different outcome. 7 00 p. M. , 6 abc, urban trinity the story of catholic philadelphia. All right, well check that out. Jim . Dvr alert. Monica, last night i attended my 40th Highschool Reunion up in bucks county with William Tennent high class of 1975. Great to see everyone, and the funny thing is not a Single Person looked any older. [ laughter ] at least thats my story. Okay, you got new glasses. We all want a pair. All right, thats inside story for this week. Thanks to everybody for watching. Hope you have a great week ahead. Well see you right back here next sunday morning. Coming up next on action news popes message to philadelphia, what he is saying ahead of this historic visit. Plus thousands Office People turned out for the pontiffs mass in havana a we will take through. Camden police are investigating after a man is killed in the motorcycle accident. Those stories and accu Weather Forecast and more next up on action news. Good afternoon, it is sunday september 20th im nydia han with eva pilgrim. Here are stories we are following on action news. Parking restrictions for papal visit go in effect in a matter of hours. We are live with the details. Eagles have a tough test today against dallas we have preview live the home opener. Home in Delaware County goes number flames and crews are still looking for a cause