Philadelphia's mayor wants citizens to understand the magnitude of the economic crisis and see his fiscal strategy as a survival plan for the city

Library closings were the dominant theme at the third town hall meeting held last night in West Philadelphia’s Parkside section. But Mayor Michael Nutter also used the night to make his point that this is a serious fiscal crisis and immediate spending cuts were needed. The mayor has been criticized over the past few weeks for not allowing for more public input before the department cuts were announced last month.

Nutter spent a little extra time explaining the budgetary process from the city’s point-of-view. His main point was trying to get folks to view $108 million as a big budget gap even for a large city like Philadelphia.

The mayor said the city annually spends about $4 billion.  That’s the total budget. But he said 58% of this spending is made up of fixed costs. Things like pension payments, health care benefits, debt service on outstanding bonds, which he said were contractual obligations that the city must pay.

So what’s left is $1.7 billion. But here’s what a lot of us probably forget: the mayor said we’re half way through fiscal year 09, which runs from July 1, 2008-June 30, 2009. So half of the $1.7 billion has, in-effect, has already been spent.

What’s left? Nutter says that means he had to cut $108 million from $850 million.  About 13% of discretionary spending had to be cut right away. Hence, closed libraries, pools and salary cuts. With that sober explanation, the mayor then opened the floor for questions.

Free Library of Philadelphia Director Siobhan Reardon explains how branch closings were decided

Protest over the city’s plan to close 11 library branches dominated last night’s town hall meeting. Many residents are not satisfied with the city’s explanation that after the cuts everyone will still have a library within two miles. A few residents challenged the mayor and his staffers to come out to their block and walk the distance to library. Library Director Siobhan Reardon walked us through the choices she faced. She said one option was to reduce all library branches which is more than 50 down to three days a week while keeping the Central Library fully operational. But she says, that leaves the entire library system closed more than half the time while still be responsible for the maintenance and security of all locations. That’s when they decided to close 11 branches that she said were not yet identified. Reardon says that leaves a large portion of the library system operational six days a week and that was the best model to cut costs.  She said it was only then that they began to craft the two-mile criteria which is designed to ensure that every citizen has a library within that radius.  She says the library will layoff 111 staffers under this plan.

West Philly residents lined up for nearly two hours to both protest budget cuts but also to complain about specific problems like poorly paved streets or an abandoned site being used as a trash dump

One of the things that these town hall meetings appear to be accomplishing is to act as a steam valve for the public’s anger over the budget cuts. There have only been three with five more to go. For those who are angry about a library closing, there’s only so many times you can hear the city say “tough choices had to be made” before resigning yourself  to buying some good walking shoes. I say this only because compared to Kensington, the tone of last night’s town hall meeting was much more respectful and the event which was scheduled to run from 7:00pm to 9:00pm actually was shorter than this. The mayor arrived late and things were done by 9:00pm.

Also, not everyone last night had the budget cuts on their mind.  Nearly 25% of the citizens at the microphone had other things on their mind. Many of the residents used their time at the mic to gain attention for a local problem. Several residents protested a plan to build some type of prison facility in West Philly, while one lady said that people were using a lot near her house as a trash dump and she and her neighbors were getting fined by the city for the mess. Another woman said that under Mayor John Street, her street was “ripped up” by city crews and the repaving was substandard. She wanted to know when her street was going to be properly repaved.

City Councilman Curtis Jones Jr. won applause when he said he cut his salary weeks ago

A few final notes, Councilmen Frank Rizzo and Curtis Jones Jr. were on hand. Also, former mayoral candidate Queena Bass was seen in the lobby but she didn’t get in line for the microphone.

The town hall meeting was the third in a series of eight, which will all be televised on the city’s cable access channel 64, with videos made available on our website. About 200 people turned out at the School of the Future for the event.