Bills would help city residents get city jobs

[raider.adam]

Bills would help city residents get city jobs

Best part:

Brian Abernathy, chief of staff to the managing director, wasn't sure whether contractors were hiring residents above or below the proposed goal. No data have ever been collected.

In other words, they propose legislation without any idea of what it would actually do.

Of course not even counting that, it is a bad idea. I mean seriously, forcing a private business to interview people City Hall determines?

[kalashnikitty]

I work with the city and we were already told to hire people in the city when we can i dont understand how it changes things. wasnt everyone told this?

[raider.adam]

I work with the city and we were already told to hire people in the city when we can i dont understand how it changes things. wasnt everyone told this?

The law is no longer "when you can". They are saying you have to have 50% of your workers from Philadelphia. (or it is possible you are in an industry that already had this rule). They are expanding it to all non-professional services.

Also, you will be required to interview 10 people from a list of names they give you (a binder full?) before you hire someone.

[billy ross]

This may be a backdoor way to increase the city's contracting out work. Right now city workers need to be city residents. If the work is contracted out, it only makes sense to ensure that the work is still largely performed by Philadelphians. It is illogical for the city to send its money over its borders any more than is necessary. When a dollar enters the city of Camden, how many times do you think that dollar is spent before it leaves Camden? Once. That's why they're poor. In healthy communities that dollar bounces around a bunch of times before it leaves the community. That's what we have here in Roxborough/Manayunk/East Falls, and that's why we're not poor like Germantown is. Here the auto mechanic patronizes the banker who patronizes the realtor who patronizes the barkeep who patronizes the auto mechanic, and the money just keeps bouncing back and forth in our community. In Germantown the business owners generally live in the suburbs and they take what little money is in Germantown over the county line when they go home at night. In EF business owners live above or across the street from their businesses, so the money isn't going so far.

[Naveen]

It's things like this that gives me pause about Bill Green.

[kalashnikitty]

Also, you will be required to interview 10 people from a list of names they give you (a binder full?) before you hire someone.

So the city is goin to give me binders full of women? Liking this already haha

[billy ross]

It's things like this that gives me pause about Bill Green.

?

Open your mind. This is exactly how the city got Comcast to relocate into the city from Bala Cynwyd way back when. Want a piece of our market? Then set up shop here. Watch Adam call the city's move a blunder. When you have market power you should use it to make yourself stronger. Losers whore themselves out to the lowest bidder in exchange for trinkets, then when they finally realize they're just spinning their wheels they complain that the deck is stacked against them.

My contractors rent spaces from me. It's good business sense. They pay me and I pay them. That way neither of us gets beat for our money.

[kalashnikitty]

This may be a backdoor way to increase the city's contracting out work. Right now city workers need to be city residents. If the work is contracted out, it only makes sense to ensure that the work is still largely performed by Philadelphians. It is illogical for the city to send its money over its borders any more than is necessary. When a dollar enters the city of Camden, how many times do you think that dollar is spent before it leaves Camden? Once. That's why they're poor. In healthy communities that dollar bounces around a bunch of times before it leaves the community. That's what we have here in Roxborough/Manayunk/East Falls, and that's why we're not poor like Germantown is. Here the auto mechanic patronizes the banker who patronizes the realtor who patronizes the barkeep who patronizes the auto mechanic, and the money just keeps bouncing back and forth in our community. In Germantown the business owners generally live in the suburbs and they take what little money is in Germantown over the county line when they go home at night. In EF business owners live above or across the street from their businesses, so the money isn't going so far.

All neighborhoods in this city used to be like that when i was a kid. I wasn't for these stores near my house with the trashy parking lots the city put up a wall called 95 so i woudlnt have to look at it but stores near me closed when they put the wal-mart in and the target. The corner stores here sell almost everything that comes from BJs on the other side of oregon and I see some of the same store owners at BJs during the week restocking their stores.

[raider.adam]

Billy does have a point that it may be a pre-emptive move to privatize something like trash collection or water treatment. That may mean that the "registry" would be the laid off city employees who were performing the functions.

The trick will be to see how many current contracts they have over $150K that would be impacted.

While it is obviously good to have money remain local, you also have to be concerned about the trade off of having qualified people to do the work. Government jobs and contracts aren't "jobs programs" with the goal of just hiring bodies (well, they shouldn't be). You should be trying to get the best product for the best price as the priority.

Now if this is in partnering with privatizing services that can be privatized, then yeah, going from a 100% to a 50% residency requirement allows more flexibility for the company to hire whoever is best for the job than the City had.

The other thing to keep in mind is that Philadelphia is supposed to be (and act) like the regional hub and a variety of money earned by people living outside of Philly should still help the health of the City.

[Cro Burnham]

Billy does have a point that it may be a pre-emptive move to privatize something like trash collection or water treatment.

Not a chance that the City, particularly City council, is thinking pre-emptively. I know Billy Ross likes to look on the bright side, but that is an extremely contrived rationalization of what is obviously just another brain-damage afflicted move by our inept local politicians to add some new compliance bureaucracy and appear like they are boosting the chance for underqualified city residents to screw up stuff the city needs (or maybe doesn't really need) done.

The City would need to create a compliance office to maintain a decent register of potential of employable people, and to track and enforce compliance. We can't do something as simple as collect back taxes from thousands of deadbeats, and you expect they'd be able to carry this out competently? Look at the storied success of the Minority Business Enterprise Council for an answer that question.

This would achieve two things, and two things only:

1) add more pointless, zero value-added compliance officers to the City's payroll;

2) by adding more onerous procurement requirements, give decent, competitive service companies one more reason why it is not worth bidding for City of Philadelphia jobs.

The City of Philadelphia should not strive to be the employer of last resort for the least skilled, lease employable people in the region. We need to get this through our politicians' Neanderthal-thick crania: the the mission of the City is not to be an employment program, it is to provide its citizens the most effective services for the least tax burden.

We would be far better served channeling the resources that this program would suck up to improving educational opportunities and skill development for Philadelphians most vulnerable to struggling through lives shaped by low employability and bottom rung job skills.

Really, our council people should be focusing on the bigger picture - bloated government spending, ass-backward tax structure, low-level public service delivery - rather than this kind of mind-numbingly trivial and diversionary minutia.

It is amazing how bad our Council is. If our dip**** US Congress somehow was made to look like an Apple product, our City Council would look like a rusty, squeaky Rube Goldberg machine by comparison.

[billy ross]

This could be a dig at the union contractors in the construction trades. What percent of their employees are city residents? What labor pool do they hire from? I think Green is being very clever here. That's why Nutter is going along without a peep.

Who should the city get to do work? Nonunion contractors that employ city residents? Union city employees? Union contractors that employ nonresidents? The city probably faces this choice every day, and they're looking to go in the direction of contractors, but they need political cover. This bill exposes the union contractors as frauds, if indeed they are fraudulent Philadelphians. Watch them fight against revealing exactly where their 'community' is located. This bill will most likely force unions to employ more Philadelphians, which is something Council has been banging its head against the wall about for years now, and with zero traction and much frustration to date. No more.

[raider.adam]

This could be a dig at the union contractors in the construction trades. What percent of their employees are city residents? What labor pool do they hire from? I think Green is being very clever here. That's why Nutter is going along without a peep.

I believe construction jobs with the City already have these requirements (or something similar).



On a side note, I wonder about privacy concerns. Obviously to track this effectively, employers would need to supply names and addresses of their employees. Should someone working for a private company that has a government contract have to have their employment publicly disclosed?

Also, if this is an existent company and they don't have the 50% mark, that theoretically means that they would have to fire existing employees to reach the mark.

Finally, what happens to an employee hired in Philly who then moves and changes their numbers? Do they fire that person to then rehire someone else? Do they tell their Philly employees if they move out of the City, they lose their job?


I'm going to ask Green for the bill numbers so I can see the exact wording.

[Jelly Roll]

This could be a dig at the union contractors in the construction trades. What percent of their employees are city residents? What labor pool do they hire from? I think Green is being very clever here. That's why Nutter is going along without a peep.

Who should the city get to do work? Nonunion contractors that employ city residents? Union city employees? Union contractors that employ nonresidents? The city probably faces this choice every day, and they're looking to go in the direction of contractors, but they need political cover. This bill exposes the union contractors as frauds, if indeed they are fraudulent Philadelphians. Watch them fight against revealing exactly where their 'community' is located. This bill will most likely force unions to employ more Philadelphians, which is something Council has been banging its head against the wall about for years now, and with zero traction and much frustration to date. No more.

The 50% rule already applies to construction and this would not impact them.

[annie]

I'm going to ask Green for the bill numbers so I can see the exact wording.

October 19 – Councilman Bill Green: “A Course for Growth: Turning the Conventional Thinking re Tax Reform on Its Head” |

If you hurry, you can ask him at lunch but it'll be $25.

[raider.adam]

October 19 – Councilman Bill Green: “A Course for Growth: Turning the Conventional Thinking re Tax Reform on Its Head” |

If you hurry, you can ask him at lunch but it'll be $25.

Work in NJ.

[bootsywannabe]

Funny, I never hear City Council talk about downsizing City Government. Just making it bigger. And raising taxes. And cutting services.

When are we going to cut the fat on our bloated city payroll?

[annie]

Work in NJ.

Still? Pity.

[seand]

Funny, I never hear City Council talk about downsizing City Government. Just making it bigger. And raising taxes. And cutting services.

When are we going to cut the fat on our bloated city payroll?

Actually to hear Bill Green talk about using technology to get more city services out of numerically fewer clerks he sounds to technology-euphoric you would think he works for Google or something from the speeches I've heard from him.

[raider.adam]

Still? Pity.

Don't get me started. The resume and interviewing is good enough to always get to the final round. I just keep losing out to the guy unemployed from larger companies.

[sharkey]

?

Open your mind. This is exactly how the city got Comcast to relocate into the city from Bala Cynwyd way back when. Want a piece of our market? Then set up shop here. Watch Adam call the city's move a blunder. When you have market power you should use it to make yourself stronger. Losers whore themselves out to the lowest bidder in exchange for trinkets, then when they finally realize they're just spinning their wheels they complain that the deck is stacked against them.

My contractors rent spaces from me. It's good business sense. They pay me and I pay them. That way neither of us gets beat for our money.

Billy, you really don't understand free market economics, hidden costs, and unintended consequences. First, ask why (if it is even the case) that the contractor is not already hiring Philly residents. We have to asume the contractor just wants the best workers at the best (for him) wages. If you force the contractor to hire less desireable workers if he wants to get city business, you are imposing a cost on him. If he still wants to go after the City business, he will impose his higher costs on the city.. This is the same for every restriction the City puts on its suppliers, trying to use its buying power to achieve a goal "without cost" to the City. Using you analogy, if your contractors found your garages to be inferior and overpriced to the competition, but rented from you because it was a condition to doing business with you, then they would figure that into their cost of doing business with you and the prices you received would not be as good as they otherwise would be. A beter analogy would be that you demand that your contractors replace some of their normal crews that they use with some friends and relatives of yours that you would like to help out.