Four City Council members didn’t make it to the mayor’s budget briefing yesterday, where the 10, 20, 30 percent budget cut scenarios were presented for the first time. Council members Frank Rizzo, Blondell Reynolds Brown, Jack Kelly and Joan Krajewski were all no-shows.

So PhillyClout called them up today to find out why they didn’t attend.

Kelly was tied up with meetings as well as a viewing, said his acting Chief of Staff John Cerrone. No one from the office attended in Kelly’s place, but Cerrone stressed that Kelly has received briefing data, which he is reviewing.

Krajewski also could not attend due to a viewing – like Kelly, the viewing for Howard Conway, a Mayfair resident whose son is a deputy managing director – said aide Patty-Pat Kozlowski. She did not send a staffer in her place.

Rizzo told us that he had prior commitments and didn’t know Nutter was personally running the briefing, but he sent a staffer.

“My guy was there and I got a full report on the whole thing,” Rizzo said.

»  More Where Were Council Members Who Missed Budget Briefing?

City Councilman Jim Kenney posted several times on the Young Philly Politics website today, where he put the city's budget hole at $1.5 to $1.8 billion.

The administration has not put a new number on the five-year budget gap in some time, just saying it was over $1 billon. We just spoke with Kenney, who said the number was his best estimate based on conversations with insiders -- but that it didn't come from the mayor.

"That’s my guess. I know it’s more than it’s projected," Kenney said.

 Kenney told us he was frustrated by the protests against library closings, saying he feels residents don't understand the extent of the city's budget woes.

"I’m shocked that people just don’t understand the depth of this problem, some time over the years we’ve become complacent and expect certain entitlements that can’t be paid for," Kenney said. "Do these people think that [Finance Director] Rob Dubow and his staff haven’t looked at all these issues? The bottom fell out of the economy. I don’t think the city is going to implode with the closure of 11 libraries."

Kenney also said that he believed the Court of Common Pleas ruling that Mayor Nutter could not close libraries without Council approval would be overturned. On YPP he writes:

»  More Councilman Posts On Website, Says Budget Hole has Grown

This just in from Councilman W. Wilson Goode:

Councilman Goode will introduce New Philadelphia Jobs Tax Credit Bill

(Philadelphia, January 8, 2009) – City Councilman At-Large W. Wilson Goode, Jr. will introduce the “New Philadelphia Jobs Tax Credit Bill” on Thursday, January 22 at council’s first session after winter break. The legislation establishes a two-year employment stimulus program under which a credit against the City's business privilege taxes will be given to businesses that create new jobs within the City of Philadelphia. The businesses will receive a $3000 credit for each new job created for tax years 2010 and 2011. The new credit is patterned after the New American Jobs Tax Credit proposed by the Obama campaign during the presidential election.

Councilman Goode said, “This legislation will help to attract and create jobs within Philadelphia. As we work toward economy recovery on all levels, business and job growth will require the right kind of financial stimulus. Objective analyses suggest that the federal New Jobs Tax Credit of 1977-78 was crucial to recovery from the economic recession in the mid-1970s. Our goal must be to maximize our competitiveness as the Obama Administration steers us toward economic recovery. This stimulus bill would expand upon the 3000-plus jobs already slated to be created under my existing program which was enacted in 2002.”

Councilman Bill Green has sent Mayor Nutter a letter asking him to get City Council approval before closing 11 library branches. In the letter, Green references an ordinance in the Philadelphia Code which states that city facilities will not be closed, abandoned or allowed to go into disuse without approval from Council.

A group of Philadelphians are threatening to sue Nutter to keep the libraries open, based on that same section of the code. Green is not part of that lawsuit. City Solicitor Shelley Smith said yesterday that the administration holds that the ordinance is invalid.

To read Green's letter click here.

The proposed American Commerce Center.

City Council this afternoon gave final approval to zoning legislation needed to build the American Commerce Center, a 1,510-foot tower proposed for 18th and Arch streets.  Mayor Nutter, who has supported the skyscraper, is expected to sign the zoning changes into law.

Next question:  Can developer Hill International Real Estate Partners scare up the money to build the $1.1 billion project while the national economy is tanking?  Peter Kelsen, an attorney for the developer, acknowledged the "challenging times" but said HIREP would not have sunk millions so far into the project if the firm was not committed to seeing it built.

"We feel cautiously optimistic that even with these economic times we can bring to bear this project and we have the resources to do so," Kelsen said.  The project includes a 1,210-foot office tower topped by a 300-foot spire and a 477-foot adjacent hotel, attached by a sky bridge over a public plaza below.

A City Council committee considering a cable television franchise for Verizon has faced an odd time-line today.  The public hearing, due to start at 9 a.m., didn't being until almost 11 a.m.  Reporters wandering City Hall learned committee members were gathered in Councilman Bill Greenlee's office.  Staffers there denied that such a meeting was going on.  But then, after nearly an hour, most of the Council members on the committee emerged.

What gives?  Why did a public hearing start with a secret meeting?  Councilman Darrell Clarke, chairman of the committee and the sponsor of the legislation for the Verizon franchise, said he and his colleagues needed to speak with staff attorneys about the issue. "We were discussing some procedural issues as to what the committee will do," said Clarke, adding that he didn't think the meeting violated the state's Sunshine Act, which sets out which municipal meetings must be conducted in public.

The Committee started its hearing but then adjourned to allow Council's regular Thursday session to start, with the invocation and the reading of resolutions honoring some guests.  Council then adjourned to let the committee continue with Verizon.  Council will resume its regular session when the committee is finished with Verizon.

As Verizon argues its case for a cable franchise television franchise today in a City Council committee hearing, another company is tuned in, looking for a piece of the action.  Wilco Electronic Systems Inc., a minority-owned firm based in Fort Washington, wants Council to push for their inclusion in the Verizon franchise.

Brigitte Daniel's, Wilco's executive vice president and daughter of founder Will F. Daniel, said her firm met with Verizon in February to talk about working together.  "I think they were chewing on it," she added.  But Wilco found out about the proposed Verizon franchise -- negotiated over five months by the Nutter administration and submitted to Council about a month ago -- from newspaper stories.

According to federal law, the city can't require Verizon to include a minority firm in the franchise.  "They can encourage it," Daniel said.  Wilco's founder was an investor in one of the city's first cable television franchises.  The firm now serves about 6,000 properties for the Philadelphia Housing Authority.  Wilco has hired Sharif Street, son of former Mayor John Street, to lobby Council.

Councilman Darrell Clarke, who sponsored the legislation for the Verizon franchise, said he encouraged Wilco executives to attend today's hearing.  "I get a sense that Verizon is interested in providing some opportunities to Wilco," Clarke said.

The State Office Building at Broad & Spring Garden streets.

Tower Investments Inc. took a step closer this morning to converting the State Office Building at Broad and Spring Garden streets into an apartment building with first-floor retail shops.  City Council's Committee on Rules gave the OK for a zoning change that is expected to also get the nod next week from the City Planning Commission.

Developer Bart Blatstein told the committee the area, with the Philadelphia School District just to the south and the Community College of Philadelphia just to the west, is hurting for shopping areas.  "They is very, very little retail," he said. "North Philadelphia needs a huge amount of retail to service the community."

One thing the area isn't lacking is parking.  The building already has 127 underground spaces, a parking lot across the street and is served by a very busy Broad Street subway station.  Blatstein said car-sharing programs are also creating less need for parking.

Tower placed the winning bid in January, $25.2 million, to take over the 19-story building.  Blatstein said the conversion plan will take about 18 months from when the state finishes moving out.  He also plans to build another tower on the property closer to North 15th Street within five years.  The existing building will have about 290 apartments while the new building will have about 185 apartments.  Blatstein said an 800-square-foot apartment will rent for $1,200.

City Councilman Darrell Clarke introduced legislation this morning that would change the city's 10-year property tax abatement on new residential, commercial and industrial housing and offer a rebate on the city's real estate transfer tax for people who buy existing homes.  Clarke proposes to keep the property tax abatement at 10 years but reduce the amount from 100 percent of the tax to 80 percent.  He also wants buyers of existing homes to get a rebate -- a set dollar amount still to be determined -- on the city's share of the real estate transfer tax.  That rebate would only be available during a 12-month period.  Home buyers would receive the money across five years.

Clarke said his proposals are designed to bring more money into the city as it experiences serious budget trouble.  He considered other ideas for changing the property tax abatement, including reducing the number of years available or having it decrease several times over the 10-year period.  He decided to use the 80 percent figure to give home-buyers a consistent number to count on.  "I think at this point it could probably withstand some level of tweaking," Clarke said. "While we want to alter it, we don't want to see it go away." 

Clarke said he had brief discussions with Nutter's staff about the real estate property tax rebate but not about the proposed change to the 10-year tax abatement. "I anticipate I will be getting a phone call," he joked to reporters.