ANNOTATION

• Sources: Act of June 25, 1919, P.L. 581, Article XVI, Sections 2 and 4, as amended.

• Purposes:
  1. Provision is made for a Council Consisting of Councilmen-at-large and of district Councilmen in order to assure a more representative legislative body. It is expected that Councilmen-at-large will not be bound by sectional considerations in acting upon legislation. Yet sectional representation is preserved through the provision for district Councilmen.

  2. A Councilman elected to fill a vacancy is to serve only for the balance of the term of the Councilman whose office he fills.

ANNOTATION

• Sources: Act of June 25, 1919, P.L. 581, Article XVI, Section 2, as amended.

• Purposes: This section provides for the manner of electing Councilmen. Each of the districts specified in Section 2-102 elects one Councilman. Councilmen-at-large are elected by all the voters of the City. Minority representation is assured by the requirement that no more than five candidates may be elected for Councilmen-at-large by any one party or political body. Should a vacancy occur in the office of a minority representative, it is not required that the vacancy must be filled from the minority party as such a requirement would prove to be impracticable.

• District No. 1--26th, 36th, 39th and 48th Wards.

• District No. 2--1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th and 30th Wards.

• District No. 3--27th, 40th, 46th and 51st Wards.

• District No. 4--24th, 34th, 44th and 52nd Wards.

• District No. 5--20th, 28th, 29th, 32nd and 47th Wards.

• District No. 6--16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 23rd, 25th, 31st and 45th Wards.

• District No. 7--33rd, 37th, 38th and 43rd Wards.

• District No. 8--21st, and 22nd Wards.

• District No. 9--42nd, 49th and 50th Wards.

• District No. 10--35th and 41st Wards.

It shall be the mandatory duty of the Council to redistrict the City within six months after the publication by the United States Census Bureau of the population of the City at each decennial census. Each district shall consist of a ward or contiguous wards containing as nearly as possible the population factor obtained by dividing the City's population at the preceding decennial census by ten. At the expiration of the six months period, if the Council shall have failed to redistrict the City as herein required, the councilmen shall not receive any further salaries until the Council shall have passed and the Mayor shall have approved a redistricting ordinance as herein required or until such ordinance shall have become law without the Mayor's approval.

ANNOTATION

• Sources: Act of June 25, 1919, P.L. 581, Article XVI, Section 2, as amended.

• Purposes: This section specifies the ten councilmanic districts and requires redistricting following the Federal census every ten years to assure equal district representation on a population basis. The provision as to the withholding of councilmanic salaries, should Council fail to redistrict as required by the Charter, was inserted in lieu of an earlier provision providing for a mandamus procedure since it appeared to be a more effective means of accomplishing the results sought.

ANNOTATION

• Sources: No specific source.

• Purposes: This section specifies qualifications of Councilmen. A councilman must have reached the required age at the time of his election to office rather than when he takes office. The last sentence follows similar provisions in the Federal and State Constitutions

ANNOTATION

• Sources: Act of June 25, 1919, P.L. 581, Article XVI, Section 5.

• Purposes: This section provides for the administrative organization and operation of the Council. It gives official status to the chief clerk. Employees of the Council need not be civil service employees, and the Council determines their compensation. A Finance Committee is specified because it is provided in Section 3-500 that in case of a vacancy in the office of Mayor, the President of Council resigning or being unable to act as Mayor, the Chairman of the Finance Committee of Council shall so act.

ANNOTATION

• Sources: No specified source.

• Purposes: The Law Department is designated as counsel for the Council as well as for the executive branch of the government. However, provision is made for Council obtaining its own counsel in the event the Law Department declines to act or whenever Council is making an investigation of the executive branch of the government. Under such circumstances Council is assured independence from the executive branch in order to enable it to function properly.

ANNOTATION

• Sources: See the Administrative Code, Act of April 9, 1929, P.L. 177, Article XXIV, Section 2406, as amended.

• Purposes: The Charter seeks to centralize procurement and maintenance of City property and records in the interests of greater economy and efficiency. This section makes clear that Council is subject to such provisions of the Charter. The right of Council to decide which of its records are to be disposed of remains a councilmanic decision.

ANNOTATION

• Sources:Act of June 25, 1919, P.L. 581, Article XVI, Section 6.

• Purposes: All legislation enacted by the Council is required to be in the form of ordinances. Councilmanic inquiries and investigations may be authorized and personnel engaged for such purposes by resolution. Sections 2-400 and 2-403. Otherwise the present confusing practice of having some kinds of legislation enacted by ordinance and others by resolution is abandoned.

1. Every proposed ordinance shall be introduced by bill. Every ordinance, except annual budget ordinances and general codifications and revisions of City ordinances, shall contain not more than one subject which shall be clearly and adequately expressed in its title.
2. Before a bill shall be considered by the Council it shall be referred to a committee, considered at a public hearing, reported by the committee, printed as reported, and distributed to the members of the Council and made available to the public.
3. No bill shall be so altered or amended during its passage as to change its original purpose. Bills amended shall be printed as amended for the use of the members of the Council and for the information of the public.
4. After its printing, either as reported or as amended, and its distribution, every bill shall lie over for at least five days before the final vote is taken.
5. Notice of public hearings on bills and notice of bills reported from committee shall be given by advertising in the three daily newspapers of the City having the largest paid circulation, the title of the bill, and in the case of a public hearing, the time and place of the hearing, not less than five days before the public hearing or before the bill comes up for final consideration, as the case may be. In addition, such other notice may be given as will bring public hearings or reported bills to the attention of interested citizens. There need be no advertisement of ordinances after their passage.
6. When any bill is on final passage, votes shall be taken by ayes and nays and the names of the councilmen voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of proceedings.
7. No bill shall become an ordinance unless a majority of all the members of the Council be recorded as voting in its favor.

ANNOTATION

• Sources:Act of June 25, 1919, P.L. 581, Article XVI, Section 6; Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Article III, Section 3.

• Purposes:
  1. One of the main purposes sought to be accomplished is to prevent the hasty consideration and enactment of ordinances before citizens and the members of Council themselves have had an opportunity to be heard on the subject matter and to consider the wisdom of the proposed legislation.

     Thus, upon its introduction, a bill must be referred to a committee, considered at a public hearing, at which citizens may testify, reported out by the committee, printed as reported, distributed to the members of the Council and made available to the public. At least five days must elapse following the reporting out or amending of a bill before a final vote is taken. Notice by newspaper advertising must be given of public hearings on bills and of bills reported from committee. Ordinances need not be advertised after their passage.

  2. The one-subject limitation follows the comparable provision in the Pennsylvania Constitution. Article III, Section 3.

  3. No bill can be finally passed without recording the names of each Councilman who voted for and against it.

  4. Advertising is required only of the titles of bills on which hearings are to be held and which are reported out from committee. This will give adequate notice of pending legislation since the subject matter of every proposed ordinance must be clearly and adequately specified in its title. The Act of 1874 (May 23, P.L. 230, Section 5), requiring the advertising of the full text of all ordinances enacted, is superseded. This does not prevent the Council from continuing the practice should the Council deem it still to be necessary.

ANNOTATION

• Sources:Act of June 25, 1919, P.L. 581, Article XVI, Section 6.

• Purposes:
  1. The approval or inaction of the Mayor is required before any ordinance enacted by the Council may become law. The Council may override a veto by the Mayor, as at present, but a vote of two-thirds of its members is required. Unless the Mayor returns an ordinance with his veto, the ordinance becomes law without his approval.

  2. The Mayor is given the power to veto items in appropriation ordinances so that he will not be forced to accept appropriation items, which he deems unwise, because they are tied in with other necessary appropriation items. He may not veto item appropriations to the Auditing Department for its auditors or to the Personnel Director in accordance with the requirement elsewhere in the Charter (Section 2-300) for assuring funds for their work.

ANNOTATION

• Sources:Act of June 25, 1919, P.L. 581, Article XVI, Section 1.

• Purposes: Any question as to the right of any administrative officer or of the Mayor to appear before Council or any of its committees is removed. The Mayor may appear to express his views on any matter before the Council, as at present, but administrative officers of the City may appear upon their own initiative only for the purpose of testifying on matters relating to the functions of their offices, a limitation that is necessary for effective harmony in the executive branch.

ANNOTATION

• Sources:Act of June 25, 1919, P.L. 581, Article XVI, Section 7.

• Purposes: Legislative deliberations are made public to apprise citizens of pending legislation and the views thereon of their Councilmen.

1. It shall be the duty of the Council, at least thirty days before the end of the fiscal year, to adopt the annual operating budget ordinance for the next fiscal year; The consideration of the operating budget ordinance shall begin forthwith upon the receipt from the Mayor of his annual operating budget message and the proposed annual operating budget ordinance, both of which shall be submitted in printed form. The proposed budget ordinance shall be regarded as having been introduced immediately upon its receipt.
2. The annual operating budget ordinance shall provide for discharging any defecit and shall make appropriations to the Council, the Mayor, and all officers, departments, boards and commissions which form a part of the executive or administrative branch of the City government, and for all other items which are to be met out of the revenue of the City. All appropriations shall be made in lump sum amounts and according to the following classes of expenditures for each office, department, board or commission:
   1. Personal services;
   2. Materials, supplies and equipment;
   3. Debt service;
   4. Such additional classes as the Mayor shall recommend in his proposed annual operating budget ordinance.

   Expenditures for the repair of any property, for the regrading, repaving or repairing of streets, and for the acquisition of any property or for any work or project which does not have a probable useful life to the City of at least five years following the time the expenditure is amade for it shall be deemed to be ordinary expenses to be provided for in the annual operating budget ordinance. Appropriations for the use of any departmental board or commission shall be made to the department with which it is connected.

3. The Mayor's estimates of receipts for the ensuing fiscal year and of surplus or deficit, if any, for the current fiscal year may not be altered by the Council.
4. In every annual operating budget ordinance:
   1. An amount at least equal to one-half of one per cent of the aggregate of all appropriations for compensation to City employees in the civil service shall be appropriated for the work of the Personnel Director and the Civil Service Commission;
   2. The amount appropriated to the Auditing Department shall be adequate to enable the City Controller to perform the duties of his office and of the Auditing Department. Should the Council fail to make an adequate appropriation to the Auditing Department, the City Controller may petition any Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County for a mandamus to the Council to perform it duty under this section;
   3. Provision shall be made for the payment of compensation to certified public accounting firms for consulting services which may be rendered to the Auditing Department with regard to the manner in which the affairs of the various offices, departments, boards, commissions and other agencies receiving appropriations from the City are audited by the Auditing Department;
   4. Provision shall be made for the payment of compensation to a firm of certified public accountants to make an audit of the expenditures of the Auditing Department. The Council shall, by separate ordinance, name the firm of certified public accountants to be engaged for this purpose.

5. At least once in three years provision shall be made for the payment of compensation to a firm of certified public accountants to make an examination of the manner in which the Auditing Department performs its auditing duties. The Council shall, by separate ordinance, name the firm of certified public accountants to be engaged for this purpose.
6. The annual operating budget ordinance may be after its passage to authorize the transfer of items but the aggregate of the appropriations made by it may not be increased and transfers of budget items may not be made during the last four months of any fiscal year, except upon the recommendation of the Mayor.

ANNOTATION

• Sources:Act of June 25, 1919, P.L. 581, Article XVII, Sections 1 and 2.

• Purposes:
  1. This section requires the annual submission by the Mayor of a consolidated budget of all the operating expenditures of the City and its enactment by the Council at least thirty days before the end of the fiscal year. This will fix by one legislative act the expenditures for each ensuing fiscal year. To expedite the budget process, it is required that the Mayor, who is responsible for preparing the annual operating budget ordinance in the first instance, shall submit it in printed form and that the budget ordinance shall be regarded as having been introduced upon its receipt. The Mayor is to submit together with the budget ordinance his budget message which will justify in general terms his proposed budget. He may also submit with these two documents a detailed breakdown of the appropriations requested.
  2. This section, by prohibiting the line type of budget ordinance heretofore customary, is intended to prevent the Council from assuming through its appropriating power the administrative functions of City government. All appropriations are to be made in lump sum amounts according to certain fixed broad categories and such additional categories as the Mayor may indicate. Appropriations are to be made by such categories to offices, departments, boards and commissions which will, subject to the direction and control of the Mayor and the Director of Finance (Section 8-102), decide how money within any category is to be spent for the purposes designated by that category. How many persons are to be employed, how many automobiles are to be purchased, and similar questions of administrative policy will be determined within overall appropriation limits by the executive branch and not the Council.
  3. Certain types of so-called capital expenditures are of a recurring nature and have in the past come out of capital funds. This has resulted in unnecessarily increasing the debt of the City. The Charter requires that such expenditures shall be met, as they should be, out of annual operating appropriations and thus out of current revenues.
  4. Appropriations are guaranteed for certain important purposes. In view of the inadequate appropriations heretofore made for civil service purposes, a minimum amount is required to be appropriated annually to the civil service so that this work may be properly planned and staffed. For comparable reasons, the Auditing Department is guaranteed such funds as are to be adequate for its work; it was not deemed practicable to state an amount in terms of a percentage of the annual budget as in the case of the civil service. However, should Council fail to provide an adequate sum, the Controller is authorized to mandamus Council to give it to him.

     The Auditing Department is given the right in the Charter to engage certified public accountants to advise it. Section 6-403. The requirement is imposed that provision shall be made to provide compensation for such services to make certain that the Department shall be able to exercise this right.

     The budget must also provide funds for the auditing by independent accountants of the expenditures of the Auditing Department. The auditors for this purpose are to be appointed by the Council by separate ordinance.

  5. At least once in three years Council is to provide funds and to name by separate ordinance a firm of certified public accountants to examine the manner in which the Auditing Department performs its duties. It was deemed too expensive and unnecessary to require that private certified public accountants must annually audit all the agencies of the City. Yet experience has shown that some amount of independent auditing procedure is necessary. A triennial audit of the way the Auditing Department is performing it functions, was deemed minimal to meet the need. In the course of such an audit, if the independent certified public accountants find it necessary to see the books of any particular agency, authorization is found for such examination. See Section 6-404.
  6. Subsection (6) is intendent to serve as a check on the present practice of transferring items of the budget at the end of the fiscal year. Some agencies, finding at the end of the fiscal year that they have surplus funds left under certain items, have from time to time requested and received authorization from the Council for spending those surpluses for other purposes. This sub-section prohibits such transfers during the last four months of any fiscal year except upon the recommendation of the Mayor.
  7. Subsection (3) is intended as an aid to balancing the budget. It prevents a situation whereby the Council and the Mayor differ on receipts for an ensuing fiscal year, and surpluses and defecits for a current fiscal year. Under this sub-section, the Mayor's estimate would be binding upon the Council. With these estimates fixed and with appropriations determined, Council will know what amount must be raised to balance the budget.

To meet emergencies which could not be anticipated when the operating budget ordinance was passed;
1. To pay the expenses of holding recall and special elections and elections on proposals to amend this charter;
2. To pay such salary as the Civil Service Commission, pursuant to the provisions of this charter, may have awarded to a Managing Director whose dismissal by the Mayor the Commission found unwarranted;
3. To pay the costs of councilmanic investigations and inquiries and the compensation of attorneys retained by the Council as authorized by this charter.

Unless paid for out of current revenues, all amounts appropriated under this section must be included as liabilities of the City in the next succeeding annual operating budget ordinance and except to meet emergencies, operating expenses shall neither be appropriated nor paid out of loan funds.

ANNOTATION

• Sources: No specific source.

• Purposes:
  1. Limitations are placed upon appropriations in addition to those contained in the annual operating budget in order to prevent the incurring of deficits. The exceptions listed are emergencies and other situations which may not have been foreseen at the time of the enactment of the annual operating budget. It is required that such appropriations be made up out of current revenues or taken care of by the next operating budget.
  2. The limitation that operating expenses shall not be appropriated nor paid for out of loan funds ties in with the scheme of treating certain recurring capital expenditures as operating expenditures and preventing the use of capital funds for such purposes. Section 2-300 (4).

ANNOTATION

• Sources:Act of June 25, 1919, P.L. 581, Article XVII, Sections 3 and 4.

• Purposes: To assure a balanced budget Council must when it passes the annual operating budget pass such revenue measures as will, in the opinion of the Mayor, balance the budget. The revenue measures which Council may enact are not limited to the real estate tax or to any other particular tax but lie solely within the judgment of the Council. To prevent over-optimistic estimates by the body which must impose taxes as to the amount of revenue that will be yielded, the Mayor's estimate of revenue yield is made binding upon the Council. Until the budget is balanced, no money may be spent under the annual operating budget.

1. Prior to the passage of the annual operating budget ordinance, the Council shall adopt a capital program and a capital budget.
2. The capital program shall embrace all physical public improvements and any preliminary studies and surveys relative thereto, the acquisition of property of a permanent nature, and the purchase of equipment for any public improvement when first erected or acquired that are to be financed in whole or in part from funds subject to control or appropriation by the Council. It shall show the capital expenditures which are planned for each of the six ensuing fiscal years. For each separate purpose, project, facility, or other property there shall be shown the amount, if any, and the source of the money that has been spent, encumbered, or is intended to be spent or encumbered prior to the beginning of the ensuing fiscal year and also the amounts and the sources of the money that are intended to be spent during each of the ensuing six years.

   The Council may delete projects from the capital program as submitted to it, but it shall not otherwise amend the capital program until it has requested through the Mayor the recommendations of the City Planning Commission. The Council shall not be bound by such recommendations and may act without them if they are not received within thirty days from the date they were requested.

3. The capital budget ordinance shall show in detail the capital expenditures intended to be made or incurred in the ensuing fiscal year that are to be financed from funds subject to control or appropriation by the Council, and shall be in full conformity with that part of the capital program applicable to the year which it covers. Amounts specified as intended to be spent out of new appropriations shall, upon enactment of the capital budget ordinance, constitute appropriations of such amounts.

   The Council may amend the capital budget ordinance but no amendment shall be valid which does not conform to the capital program.

ANNOTATION

• Sources: No specific source.

• Purposes:
  1. For the first time a definite budget procedure is established for the orderly planning and making of capital improvements. Two types of legislation are contemplated in the field of capital finances to make possible long range planning and current authorizations in accordance with such planning. The capital program is a blue print of capital expenditures for the ensuing six years. The capital budget shows in detail the capital expenditures to be made or to be incurred during the next ensuing fiscal year.
  2. The capital program will be prepared initially by the City Planning Commission whose special function is capital planning. The Mayor will submit it with his recommendations to the Council. Since the Mayor is ultimately responsible for the financial condition of the City, he is free to say he approves or disapproves of the program, in part or in whole; but he must forward to Council the Commission's initial recommendations.
  3. The capital budget ordinance will also be prepared initially by the City Planning Commission and submitted with the Mayor's recommendation to the Council. The capital budget and amendments to it must conform with the capital program applicable to the year in question so that long range planning will not be upset. The capital budget encompasses funds appropriated by the Council as well as funds which the Council may control such as grants from the State and Federal governments.

ANNOTATION

• Sources: No specific source.

• Purposes: At present City ordinances are compiled in the order in which they are enacted and annually a volume of the ordinances is published. From time to time an index of City ordinances by annual volumes has been prepared and published by non-City agencies. Under these conditions it is a very difficult task to find ordinances and amendments thereto dealing with a particular subject matter. Yet such ordinances are the basic laws of the City.

  To remedy this condition provision is made for a codification and revision of the effective general ordinances of the City. The Law Department must under Section 4-400 (e) prepare within two years after the effective date of the Charter such a comprehensive revision and codification of all the general ordinances still in effect. Council is required to consider and to act upon such a codification and revision. Thereafter all ordinances of general application are to be enacted as amendments to the code. This section follows the better practice prevailing in many municipalities.

ANNOTATION

• Sources: No specific source.

• Purposes: The enlargement of powers and duties of the agencies designated by the Charter in the executive branch of the government is provided for to take care of new duties and powers which might have to be exercised and performed in the future by the executive branch of the government. Thus, although new departments may not be created (Section 1-102), room is left for existing agencies to exercise additional powers and duties. The only limitation imposed is that new powers and duties shall be added in a manner consistent with the scheme of this Charter. Thus powers and duties to be added to any department, board or commission are to bear some relationship to the powers and duties already vested in such an agency. It should be noted that under Section 1-102 new boards and commissions may be created. This section would permit the distribution of new powers and duties upon City-County consolidation to existing departments, boards and commissions and, if necessary, to new boards and commissions.

ANNOTATION

• Sources: No specific source.

• Purposes: The creation by the Council of rate commissions, similar to the Gas Commission, is authorized should any utilities presently operated by the City' be operated by or leased to private operators by agreement with the City and should the creation of any such agencies be deemed desirable at the particular time.

ANNOTATION

• Sources: No specific source.

• Purposes:
  1. This section is one of a number in the Charter which seeks an orderly method and plan of City development. Legislation on matters affecting City development, such as zoning, street plans, land subdivision, and the acquisition or sale of City real estate, may be enacted only after the Council has received the recommendations thereon of the City Planning Commission unless the Commission fails to submit recommendations within the required time. The Council may then act as it pleases on such legislation. This will tend to prevent hasty and ill-advised legislation adversely affecting City development. It will assure that the Council will receive the expert advice of the Commission whose special function is the planning of City development.
  2. The chief clerk of the Council is required to send to the City Planing Commission any bill introduced dealing with the enumerated subject matters so that the Commission will have immediate notice that a matter is pending before the Council on which its recommendations are required.

ANNOTATION

• Sources: No specific source.

• Purposes: Present municipal pension funds have been subjected to the criticism of not being comprehensive and of not being actuarially sound. the Charter (Sections 6-600 and 6-601) requires a Board of Pensions and Retirement, created by it (Section 3-100), to prepare a fair and actuarially sound pension and retirement system covering all City employees. This section requires Council promptly to consider and act upon such a system when it is submitted to it by the Board. Existing pension and retirement rights are expressly preserved and special provision is made to protect and maintain police and firemen's pension funds as long as the Commonwealth's contributions to them render it desirable.

ANNOTATION

• Sources: Act of June 25, 1919, P.L. 581, Article XVII, Section 7.

• Purposes: This section continues comparable provisions of the Charter of 1919. It permits the City to enter into long-range contracts which may be of advantage to it. See Section 8-200(3).

ANNOTATION

• Sources: No specific source.

• Purposes: This section and the succeeding sections in Chapter 4 make explicit the power of Council either as a body or by committee to conduct investigations and inquiries in the aid of its legislative powers and functions. It enables Council to obtain information which it may need in order to legislate.

ANNOTATION

• Sources: Act of June 25, 1919, P.L. 581, Article XVI. Section 8.

• Purposes: This section retains with full force and effect the above section of the Charter of 1919 for the purpose of preserving the power of the Council to subpoena witnesses, documents, and other evidence. A new provision on the subject was not written into the Charter because the enabling Act did not vest in the Charter Commission the power to impose upon the courts the duty of enforcing subpoenas issued by the Council.

ANNOTATION

• Sources: United States Code, Title 2, Section 191.

• Purposes: The administration of oaths to witnesses appearing before the Council or its committees is necessary to assure truthful testimony or else the risk of prosecution for perjury.

ANNOTATION

• Sources: United States Code, Title 2, Section 196; Title 29, Section 194.

• Purposes: The employment of personnel by the Council for any of its committees conducting inquiries and investigations is authorized for the regular staff of Council will frequently be inadequate for this special work. Thus the Council will be able to engage lawyers, accountants, scientists, and additional clerical help to meet the needs of any particular investigation or inquiry. to prevent the incurring of unlimited costs, Council is required to set a limit of the total expenditures to be made for any investigation or inquiry. This limit may be increased from time to time by the Council. Personnel and facilities of administrative agencies may be utilized, but only with the consent of the head of the agency.

ANNOTATION

• Sources: No specific source.

• Purposes: The right of the public to attend councilmanic inquiries and investigations is fixed by this section. It could not be made an absolute right because some councilmanic sessions must necessarily be executive.

ANNOTATION

• Sources: No specific source.

• Purposes: This section protects the rights of witnesses appearing at councilmanic inquiries and investigations. It also affords an opportunity to be heard to persons whose characters may have been impugned in the course of such inquiries and investigations. It thus seeks to avoid some of the injustices which have in recent years resulted from legislative inquiries and investigations elsewhere.

ANNOTATION

• Sources: No specific source.

• Purposes: Council is empowered to prescribe rules of procedure to assure the orderly and fair conduct of councilmanic inquiries and investigations.