If you’re like me, then you were probably looking forward to the web broadcast of this afternoon’s PhillyStat session like it was the season finale of Gossip Girl. Alan wrote earlier that our own Chris Satullo would be facing down Philadelphia’s City Council as he delivered the results of the citizen budget workshops that WHYY and the Penn Project for Civic Engagement held over the last couple weeks.  I twittered throughout the webcast so you can check out my thoughts, unvarnished and in real time.

I tuned in out of curiosity.  What would City Council do with the information that they were given?  What would their response be to such direct feedback and expressions of values by their constituents?  And what kind of questions would they ask in an attempt to get deeper into the short and long term concerns brought up by the citizenry?  Finally, would they be ready to take the advice of our colleagues at It’s Our Money and reform they way they handle the budget process?

In some cases I was encouraged.  In others, well, let’s just say Council lived up to my expectations.

It’s pretty clear that apart from Councilman Green and possibly Councilman Goode (who we know actually played along with the 100 point, balance-the-budget simulation) and Councilwoman Sanchez no other members took advantage of the fact that the report they were being presented has been available on this website since Monday.  Council members asked at least two or three times whether they would be given the full report with the details underlying the slide presentation (.ppt) given this afternoon.

Perhaps it’s a good thing that most hadn’t read the full report yet because it allowed Satullo to be very diplomatic in what information he presented.  For example, he steered away from the negative feedback that people heaped on City Council for the members’ budgets, vehicles, drivers, etc.  Probably a good thing since it would have been tantamount to being invited to your buddy’s house for dinner and complaining about the cooking, insulting his wife and saying that his kid is ugly.

What struck me the most were the things that weren’t said, the things that weren’t talked about or acknowledged.  Councilman Goode, Councilman Green, Councilman O’Neill all did some wandering pretty deep into the weeds over the possibility of raising the millage rate on property taxes.  And every time property taxes were brought up, Satullo and Sokoloff reiterated the big picture - people won’t buy into paying more in property taxes until the long run problems of inaccurate assessments and uncollected taxes as well as a rethinking of the tax abatements.  Satullo repeated that the people at least want to know that these big problems are actively being worked on and not punted down the road.  The fact that no one would go on the record and talk about these big problems, preferring instead to quibble over discrepancies in the costs of raising the millage rates or focusing on the breakdown between the City and School District, displays just how willing they seem to be to lace up the sneaker and punt away.

So here are the questions that should be considered very early on in the upcoming budget process and considered long term as we think about whether this government needs to be reorganized.

Exactly how much does each councilperson spend and on what?  Where are the details of their budgets and will they be made available to the public, including details on what they spend on personnel, services and supplies?  Perhaps they could put the information here.

How many days does Council spend in session?  How do they spend the rest of their time?  And how many of them have jobs in addition to their $100k+ per year council jobs?

Additional notes:

In the course of questioning Deputy Mayor Rina Cutler about various proposals to institute charges for sanitation services, Councilman Bill Green emphasized his concern for the city’s environment (and his own political future) when he said - to some laughter - “nobody wants a green city more than me.”

Councilman Brian O’Neill, a longtime veteran of city policy noted that the Philadelphia’s history with tax rates could be characterized with very gradual reductions or very large increases.  He warned that when Council and the Mayor have talked about increasing taxes in the past, they tend to go for very large increases with the philosophy that since they’re going to get a lot of flak anyway and might not be able to raise taxes again for a long time, they may as well go for a big payoff.  He said this as if he were an outside observer and not a sitting Councilmember who therefore could be part of the process that would raise taxes very slightly and by just enough to balance the budget.

Councilwoman Sanchez noted that there were no citizen workshops in North Philadelphia which Satullo acknowledged and then caused him to pause as he tried to determine which workshop - Northeast or Germantown - would be closest to her farflung, ridiculously gerrymandered district.  There was some laughter and though her mic was off so I couldn’t hear exactly what she said, Councilwoman Sanchez seemed to indicate that a workshop could be anywhere in the city and at least be a little close to a part of her district.

As Alan wrote, Finance Director Rob Dubow indicated the resistance to a wage tax increase from a state government that is not to keen on Philadelphia.  Later he mentioned that many in the groups that he sat with indicated that they would need the city’s state delegation to fight for them in Harrisburg.  A brief pause was followed by guffaws from the rest of the room.  Apparently, respect for the political abilities and influence of Philadelphia’s state legislative delegation isn’t very high.  To folks working in city government, the delegation is that crazy uncle who they send to the supermarket for food only to have him come back with three boxes of ice cream cones and some scented candles.

At some point today’s PhillyStat session will be available for viewing on the city’s website at the PhillyStat Library.  It’ll probably end up at the bottom of the page under “Budget Crisis - State of the City.” Check it out for a little entertainment.