|
|
|
Squilla wants to boost Council's budget clout - and maybe use it on nuisance properties
The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.
Squilla wants to boost Council's budget clout — and maybe use it on nuisance properties
Anyone who sat through budget hearings this spring observed a lot of frustration on the part of City Council over the budget proposed by the administration. So Councilman Mark Squilla in Council this morning said he has an idea of how to alleviate some of that: Legislation that "will allow Council members to write about 10 percent of the budget and thereby mandate the administration to spend in a way that Council sees fit." He added, "since people come to us all the time [with requests] ... this would now allow us to be able to" accommodate some of them.
Among the hypothetical examples of how Council could use that money, Squilla mentioned kicking "a couple extra dollars" to the District Attorney's Office to fund "legislation for, say, nuisance properties."
But that's not exactly a hypothetical. In fact, Squilla is currently working on legislation with fellow Councilman Bobby Henon (who has taken up turning around problem properties as one of his pet causes). Squilla told CP, "We're looking to be able to redefine the nature of nuisance properties: What makes a nuisance property? If we have residents that require multiple police attention, what process do we need to do to maybe start forfeiture or at least be able to go after them, in that they're using so much of the city's resources."
Currently, properties forfeitures are commonly associated with drug dealing. Squilla thinks the DA should be able to cast a wider net. "In other words, if you don't sell drugs out of your property, and the police go there 50 times in one year, you're still not deemed a nuisance property. That's something we have to change." He says similar legislation in New York has effectively reduced crime there.
Councilman Henon says he's been working with both the District Attorney's Office and the Department of Licenses and Inspections, as well as studying best practices from across the country and what's possible under current state law, to craft a plan. He's also creating a problem property advisory council in his district, and working to improve collaboration between the Streets Department, L&I and police to improve tracking of complaints associated with given properties across departments. And he says he plans to call more problem landlords before Council to explain themselves: The last time he did so, the councilmanic shaming worked, he says, and two landlords with some 800 properties between them cleaned up their properties and paid much of their back taxes. "This is going to be an open-ended hearing where I can bring people in as needed."
Henon says any new forfeiture program (which is, after all, a way of taking someone's property away from them) would be implemented with care. He envisions "nobody being kicked out without it being justified and their rights being protected. But nobody will hide behind the system anymore."
- ActiVman
- adventures
- Arts
- Ask A Man-About-Town
- Award Tour
- Awards
- Bad Idea Factory
- Beer
- Below the Curve
- Bikes
- Booze
- Brian Hickey
- BRT
- Budget
- Budget Fuss
- Business
- Casinos
- City Council
- City Hall
- CouncilMANIC
- CP Abroad
- CP in the Community
- Criminal Justice System
- Day Tripper
- Death and Taxes
- Delaware River
- Design
- DROP
- Drugs
- Dubious Distinction
- Elections
- End of Days
- Environment
- Fashion
- Film Fest
- Financial Meltdown
- FrackTrack
- Free Library
- Gambling
- Gay Stuff
- Get Lit
- Greenstorming
- guns
- Hall Monitor
- Health
- Health Care
- Hello, Kitty
- Holidays
- Ice Cubes
- Iggles
- Immigration
- In Memoriam
- Labor
- Lawsuits
- Letters
- LGBTQ
- Maps
- Marcellus Shale
- Media
- MMA
- Mummers
- Music
- MUST READ
- Mysterious Mysteries
- Nation
- News
- Non Sequitur
- Opinion
- PA politics 2010
- Parking Wars
- Parks and Recreation
- People Send Us This Stuff
- Philadelphia Police
- Philadelphia Union
- Philaphemera
- Philly From Scratch
- philly madness
- Photos
- Poverty
- PPA
- President Obama
- Print Edition
- Prisons
- Protest
- Readers Write
- Real Estate
- Rock Bottom
- Schools
- Science
- Screwing Philly
- SEPTA
- snow
- So Lush
- Soccer
- Sporting Life
- Sports Complex
- State Politicians
- State Politics
- Street Art
- Strike
- Stuff We Like
- Taxes
- Taxi Drivers
- Tech Fetish
- television
- The Budget Crisis
- The City Paper
- The CLOG
- The Human Condition
- The Mayor
- The Phightin Phils
- The World
- Things that make you go hm
- Tinfoil Hats Off
- Under the Table
- Under the Tables
- Urban Development
- Urban Planning
- urban wildlife
- Video Poker
- We Call Shenanigans
- Weather
- Web Junk
- Weekend Omnibus
- White House
- What We've Found
- Women's Issues
- Flyered Up!
- How 'Bout That Weather?
- it's always sunny in philadelphia
- Stu!
- Shopping
- get out
- 10-track mind
- ArtsFlash
- Bloggity
- Bruce Being Bruce
- Colleges
- Comedy
- Gigantic Surprises
- Hello Canary
- Hello Puppy
- errata
- get lost
- Inside The Fishbowl
- Library Closings
- Local Support
- Movies
- Murder
- Night Moves
- Recycling
- radio
- Scientology
- Sex
- Sixers
- Skeeze Police
- State Politicians Screwing Philly
- That's a cool stencil!
- Theater
- Things We See
- This Week
- This Week in Oates
- University City
- WIN
- What we don't heart
- trailer!
- what we heart
- Feeling Guilty
- Askadelphia.
- Broke in Philly
- Contest
- Dance
- Dear Paper Doll
- Do A Good Thing
- Education
- Film Fest Schism
- G20-20 Vision
- Goodbye
- Gossip
- Great American Heroes
- PATCO
- Pearl Jam Week
- Puppy
- Stars of the Photostream
- sustainability
- Lower Merion Webcam-Gate
- The Cycle
- Equality Forum
- Bureaucrat of the Week
- Animals
- ElectionEar
- Photostream
