Reporter's Notebook | When City Council is in session

When Council chairwoman Anna Verna brings down her gavel, the Philadelphia City Council hearing is in session.

Council hearings allow members to ask questions of the mayoral departments regarding the budget on which they will ultimately have the final vote.

And with the current state of the City's finances - a $1-billion budget deficit in the midst of a global economic downturn - this year's hearings are especially tense.

Seated in the center of the semicircle of desks this time was Labor Relations director Joseph Tolan, who is responsible for negotiating city contracts with the unions.

As Verna spoke, council members continued to mutter to each other animatedly, though leaning down behind their desks to avoid her stare.

Negotiations, which are never straightforward, Tolan said, inevitably result in binding arbitration, costing the city tens of thousands of dollars in fees.

With the present economic conditions, Tolan's team will be reduced from seven to six.

The City and the unions each pick an arbiter and the third is agreed on from an approved list. The arbiters' decisions are final.

And if that doesn't work, he added, and no new contract is agreed upon, then it will take about three months to start laying people off.

As Councilman Frank Rizzo, Jr. said, with a smile, "it is going to be a tough couple of weeks."

Councilman Bill Green asked why there is this "binary choice" between cuts and revenue increases. "Why is there no talk of efficiencies and technology?" he said.

Efficiencies and technology are interpreted quite differently by the unions, Tolan said, and they have to be asked about their anticipated effects on labor.

Other councilors seemed more concerned with how Tolan was running his small team than with what the union negotiations meant for the City.

"Do they look like Philadelphia?" asked councilwoman Blondell Brown, "women, people of color - of all stripes." Tolan told her yes, they do.

She continued her interrogation. "Have you employed a law firm of color or female law firm in recent years?" Again, Tolan told her yes, he has.

The cross-examination was not over, however. Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez wanted to know if the outsourcing of municipal work to private firms was being monitored for good-practice principles.

Tolan said individual departments are responsible for the extent that they monitor wage fairness, working hours and workplace discrimination in companies receiving the City's tax dollars.

Councilman Curtis Jones asked, "are we selling off government without an eye on whether or not it's getting bigger or smaller?"

No one could answer one way or the other.

Though questioning continued, sometimes bluntly, the public servant did not flinch as his statements were carved up by the members of the elected body.

Tolan responded to all the councilors' questions, but his answers did not seem to provide them with a clear course of action.

Summarizing this perspective, councilman Green said, "Governing is about choosing between competing ideas of good," and left it at that.

* This article was edited at 12:56 p.m. on April 10 to reflect Frank Rizzo, Jr.'s correct job title.

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