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Financial Meltdown
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This just in from Alan Butkovitz, who has yet to meet a statistic he won't press release:
PHILADELPHIA â City Controller Alan Butkovitz today released his monthly economic report that focuses on Philadelphia's new poverty rate of 25% that outpaces the poverty rates of the nation's largest cities.
Philadelphia, the sixth largest U.S. city, has a poverty rate above Chicago, 21.6%; Houston, 20.6; Los Angeles, 19.58%; and New York City, 18.7%. Detroit, the 11th largest city and about half the size of Philadelphia, has a higher rate with 36.4%.
While the current 2009 rate is below the City's 2006 rate of 25.1%, it was 18.5% in 2000. Philadelphia's poverty rate has seen steady increases the last two years.
Along with a look at poverty rates, the Controller's economic report includes City tax revenues for August totaled $177.3 million, a slight increase from last month's collections. Monthly sales tax collections were $23.4 million, making it the highest monthly collection since the 8% sales tax increase was implemented.
The Controller's economic report is compiled on a monthly basis and includes an Economic Snapshot and Forecast, as well as real estate information and other local statistics. These reports are circulated every month to assist key decision makers in understanding and anticipating local and national economic trends. Both of these documents are a useful tool for policy makers and analysts in understanding our regional and local economy.
To view the Economic Forecast and Monthly Snapshot, please visit the City Controller's Web site at www.philadelphiacontroller.org.
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Rather than make you wait until this Thursday, we decided to immediately publish Ralph Cipriano's story on the city's long-awaited Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP) report — which will supposedly be released sometime this week. If you recall, Cipriano wrote a cover story in April about the program that has needlessly cost the city $1 billion.
In this week's piece, he writes about the failings of the city-commissioned report on DROP by Boston College:
The contract between the city and Boston College was supposed to go into effect May 12, 2009, but because of disagreements over several key issues, the contract did not get signed until Dec. 18. Initially, city officials wanted Boston College to be liable for gross negligence or willful misconduct up to $1 million, but wound up settling for a liability cap of $500,000. The college professors doing the study also sought performance evaluations from the city of Philadelphia employees — such as satisfactory and superior — so they could study DROP's effect on each category of worker, but the city was unable to provide such records.
According to a "scope of services" document, Boston College said it needed those records because, "We seek to understand the human behavior behind the decisions individuals make so that we can focus on solutions that work in practice, not just in theory. ... Once we have identified who is actually working longer due to the DROP, we can then analyze whether or not the program is achieving its goal of retaining highly valued employees."
Read the rest of the article here.
[...] and Committe of 70's Sean Scully on this morning to discuss the political hot potato in the wake of Boston College's long-awaited DROP study (read it here). Particularly entertaining is the Scully's response to Council's call for more [...]
looks like Rubin got it right! Report is woefully inadequate!!!
Last summer, I threw upon the Clog what I thought was a casual question: is canvassing exploitative?
You know who we're talking about: the youngish, idealistic, earnest folks asking if you've got "a minute for the environment," or somesuch, that you see all over Center City — especially during the summer.
The origin of the question was a personal experience with a friend who had moved to Philly to work not as a canvasser herself, but as a manager of other canvassers. Her work stories were eyebrow raising, to say the least: she'd work 60, 70-hour weeks; she'd work weekends; she was required to put in what she characterized as mandatory "volunteer" time; she'd get sent out of town for trainings and have to sleep on a colleague's couch.
The little post drew considerable response, including a links to a veritable mountain of writing on the topic, ranging from worker treatment issues to the canvassing model of fund-raising itself and the companies and organizations behind it.
It being about as summer as summer gets right now — I thought it high time for some follow-up.
So I'm putting out the call: canvassers, field managers, directors — former, current, friends-of, and especially those of you based in Philadelphia — lend me your tips, tell me your stories.
Comments are always welcome below (don't mind our troll — it's harmless, and amusingly incoherent), but also feel free to contact me directly by email, especially if you have a story worth a little chat time.
To those currently employed and a little nervous: we can certainly talk about anonymity.
wow, inappropriate much?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/katine-chronicles-blog/2010/jun/29/just-give-money-cash-transfers
Poor guy in the photo - on crutches so he had no chance of getting away!
While the people outside Whole Foods are annoying - and I have admittedly been suckered into joining Greenpeace by them - the thing that really upsets me are canvassers who knock on doors. First of all, I thought soliciting at people's doors was illegal. From what I remember, they put a ban on that after suburban kids realized it was no longer safe to knock on doors selling cookies. When someone unexpectedly knocks on my door at night, it's either a canvasser or a crazy person looking for money. Knocking on someone's door at night isn't safe for the resident OR the canvasser. Plus, telemarketing calls are bad enough. Do I really need someone interrupting dinner/sleep/work/sex/TV or waking my baby? It's appalling and needs to stop. And yes, I have contacted the environmental organizations about this because I think they are giving a very worthy cause a bad name.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Philly City Paper, Philly News Now. Philly News Now said: Are canvassers exploited? 2010 update and call for tips!: Last summer, I threw upon the Clog what I thought was... http://bit.ly/9TjKAt [...]
[...] else in the daily homeless/insane/religious street parade. But City Paper has a curious question: Are these kids being exploited? Probably, but sympathy is tempered here by the fact that A) you’ve gotta be stupid to take a [...]
get over it ya crabby old bag people are just trying to make a few bucks go to wal-mart buy a $2 no soliciting sign problem solved, and trust me no one is interrupting YOU from sex with your dusty ol' snatch that hasn't been touched by a man scine the great depression.
It works like this - if you suck at it you're "being exploited". If you're good at it, it's a fun, well-paying job.
oh, and i know because i was a canvasser for four years.
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| Illustration: Evan M. Lopez |
Charles McPherson, City Council's chief financial officer since 1991, retired a little over a year ago wherein he got a $528,000 payment from the city's deferred retirement option plan (DROP), as well as a $113,500 annual pension.
Thing is, he only kinda retired.
He's been working for the past 14 months without a salary, with an office and everything. But that may soon change. According to the Inquirer, he's rumored to be the favorite among applicants for Council's $150,000-a-year financial consultant adviser position, which is a contracted job. If he lands it, that mean's he'll be getting $263,500 a year from the city and that says nothing of the sweet DROP payment he received upon retirement.
Some other lovely facts about McPherson:
He was integral to Council's rejection of Mayor Nutter's proposed citywide trash-collection fee and sweet-drinks tax this year. Council instead raised property taxes 9.9 percent and hiked the commercial-property trash-collection free from $150 to $300.
Ah yes, bring back the guy who's responsible for this year's stellar budget. Oh, and also, he loooooves DROP:
McPherson has been perhaps city government's most ardent advocate for DROP, which he says keeps valuable employees in government. He is adamant that he would have left his post in 2005 if DROP had not been available to him. Council members who have joined DROP drawing public outrage at their large payments have often echoed McPherson's argument that the DROP payments represent their money.
PREVIOUSLY>> The Billion Dollar Boondoggle: DROP is bleeding us dry.
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| Click for video |
Not quite sure how to put into words how bizarre this is, but there's a news segment on tv-tokyo.co.jp that appears to be about the recession's effects on the wealthy in the U.S.: There are shots of empty stores for lease on Rodeo Drive, a behind-the-scenes report on how pawn shops work, and then, 3:00 in, out of the blue, you see Lenny Frakking Dykstra, looking like some kind of high-class hobo, pawning his World Series and All Star rings.
Dykstra and the Telly Savalas-looking pawn shop guy's conversation is drowned out by the Japanese overdub, making it impossible to hear what they're saying. Dykstra, whose financial problems are well known and myriad, almost certainly appears caught unawares.
Any Japanese speakers out there able to translate what exactly is being said in this segment? Please share in the comments section.
Please enjoy the babelfish translation of the text that appears below the video:
American prominent high-class residential town [bibarihiruzu]. The wave of recession had done wealthy layer direct bomb hit. The high-class clock and the treasure ornament item pledge were done in the pawnbroker which continues 30 year coming business. Recently it means that the enterprise manager increases. Furthermore the Motohiro league member it appeared while collecting materials with the token of self active age.
[...] after baseball. Last year’s stock market crash hit him hard. It’s come to this: Not quite sure how to put into words how bizarre this is, but there’s a news segment on [...]
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