Transcripts For WTXF The Race For Mayor Democrats Debate 20150423

Colleague lucy noland. applause . Thank you. Thank you all very much for joining us. We are thrilled to have you here iain thank you so much as well. You know the primary for philadelphia mayor is now less than one month away. Time flies. Only one republican is in the race but the field of democrats its a crowded one with six candidates all vying for their partys nomination. We have all six candidates with us for this debate. And a quick reminder for our audience please refrain from any applause in the end of our debate. We of course are very happy to have you here and weve dot to keep things moving of course. So now on to our candidates. We begin with Lynne Abraham. She served as Philadelphia District attorney for 19 years. Lynne abraham has 40 Years Experience as da, judge and head of philadelphias Redevelopment Authority. Next to her former Municipal Court judge nel see diaz. He serve as the judge for the Philadelphia Court of common pleas from 1981 through 1993. He has served as City Solicitor and was appointed by president bill clinton to be the General Council for the Us Department of housing and urban development. To his left, we have state senator Anthony Hardy williams. Anthony williams was first lecked to the Pennsylvania House in 1989. He won a senate seat in 19 nate representing the states eighth district. Next to him we have former tee council jim kenney. Becoming the first in his family to graduate from college jim kenney went on to become the city councilman at large where he represented the entire city for 23 years. And to mr. Kenneys left we have former state senator t milton street. Milton street was first lecked to the Pennsylvania House in 1978. He then wouldnt leck to the state senate in 1980. Our sixth candidate is doug oliver. Former press secretary for mayor nutter. Mr. Oliver was recently senior vicepresident of marketing and Corporate Communications for philadelphia gas works. Now, since we do have a variety of former and Current Office holder we will refer to you simply by name instead of title i hope works for you. For those of you at home we would absolutely love to hear your comments on twitter just use the hash tag its very seize see fox 29 dems debate. All right. Now on to the panelists we begin with Bill Anderson bill reports for fox 29 news and anchors saturday and sunday mornings on fox 29 weekends. Next to bill is 900a wurd morning host Solomon Jones. Solomon is weekly contributor to fox 29 weekend a columnist for the daily news an blogger and commentator for whhy. Shannon mcdonald to his right. Shannon is the Community Manage for for billy penn new mobile website. Next to her is max max is a night fellow and reporter at aldi ya news he covers City Politics business and social justice issues. So tonight the rules now. Well have six rounds of questions, one each from our panelists from two st. Joseph students. Eve candidate will have a minute and 15 seconds to answer. The first candidate in each round will then have a minute rebuttal. After those first six rounds well do a lightning round of questions that ill ask. And well finish up with brief final remarks from each candidate, and if time allows, well have one more round of student questions. The orders in which the candidates will respond to questions theyre positions on this stage right here and even the order in which they will deliver their final remarks were all selected completely randomly randomly. All right. Now that youve heard the rules its time to get underway. Our first round zeros on policing and Community Relations. The question from Solomon Jones answered first by nelson diaz. Solomon. Thank you lucy. Id like to thank all the candidates for being here. This Summer National protests erupted over Police Shootings of unarmed civilians but been on here in philadelphia since 2012. When 52 Police Shootings and 15 deaths prompted commissioner ramsay to seek help from the justice department. The subsequent review found insufficient training, inadequate oversight even shoddy handling of crime scenes and investigations. Perhaps worse it found public distrust of police who are rarely prosecuted even in questionable shootings. Given those realityies, should there be an independent review of Police Involved shootings and Excessive Force claims . The answer is yes, there should be a review. I believe there should be a civilian review with subpoena power so that they can get the information necessary and the report goes on to talk about the fact that theres a necessary element of having Community Policing. Community policing provides an opportunity for the community and the individuals to have a Good Relationship not only doing with the community having beat cops around but having children also have a relationship with the Police Department. That way they can be relateed situation. My own situation when i was arrest the as young kid it was the pal director who said, thats a good kid. And let me out. Otherwise i would have continued to be on the wrong side of the street. Having that relationship is important. The other thing i believe is the mistrust relates language like the language that kenney used, for example in the city council where a person had his hands shot off and they should cut his hands off or he said that a person that is in custody they should be no oversight over the police in terms of police abuse. And hes also said that hes criticizeed madam District Attorney Lynne Abraham has the most mr. Diaz, i hate to interrupt. But your time is up. So we move on now to milton street. Answer the same question. The same question. Yes we should have my campaign is based on community policeing. I formed a 414 the only people that will be able to stop the crime in the community are the people that live there. However, i disagree with the findings of the report that came from washington, d. C. There were there are 6,525 Police Officers on the police force. If you read the report there were little over 400 that were participating in the shootings which means we have over 6,000 Police Officers who are good Police Officers who tried to the right thing. I believe that and what i would do is have a Community Relations in each district. Not a Community Review board but each district has to have a direct relationship with the Police Officers who are in charge of that district. 19 districts, you have 19 people from there. Next thing i do is get rid of stop and frisk. Id get rid of commissioner ramsay and i would um, stop the violence in our schools. Milton street, thank you very much. Anthony williams. Certainly there should be an oversight independent oversight review process. But i understand theres a District Attorney in philadelphia who has the responsibility elected to do that first initially. We should compliment one another rather than butt heads. The second thing ive enrolled in a plan that comes from our commissioner ramsay as well ated president of united states. It encompasses all the things well talk about community policeing, technology, diss verse Police Department. Our last police force coming out of the academy had one africanamerican of color. It is declining rather than growing the last thing i suggest and i said this fortunately unfortunately many times without response that those situation that is we see which occur across america unfortunately human beings shooting another human being um, means that human being doesnt see that person as another human being. We should allow the next contract with fop a clause, character clause which says hate speech will not ab loud when you say words that we all know are dee inflammatory, n word, b word you get fired you dont get arbitration to come back you get fired and no one should allow to you come back. You shall not be allowed to carry a gun and hate me and police me at the same time. Time now yours jim kenney. Thank you very much. Let me just comment on mr. Diazs initial comment in his opening. 20 years ago i said something unfortunate related to a murderer who had killed an eightyearold boy in a Grocery Store buying a bag of cookies. That gentleman also, gentleman loosely that man also killed latino grocer and he is now doing live plus 200 years. It was unfortunate thing i said and i regret i said it. Swine it now. But that was the emotional position i was in in the death of that eightyearold. Lets go back what ive done in my career instead of what ive said 20 years ago. I think we need to continue diversify our Police Department. We need to create better Community Relations with our people that we police and we protect and serve and ive done that. I stopped ice holds. No longer happen. Weve did he criminal arrived Marijuana Society kids dont have to get into the criminal Justice System for making a simple mistake. And we will continue to do those things as mayor and i will continue to go out recent cute people who are diverse from start black colleges and universities and other opportunities to bring people in to make our force the most diverse and educated and well meaning as possible. All right. Jim kenney. Lynne abraham. Thank you very much. Thank you to this wonderful college for inviting us here. Im the only one on this stage who has actually prosecuted for over 19 years Police Officers and others but specialsly Police Officers for use of force and use of Excessive Force as well as corruption, brutality and other offenses. So i know exactly what the community is going through. And its very very regrettable. However, i do believe that we should have a civilian review of whats happened in our Police Departments across this country. I think its healthy and i think its time. Having read the report from the department of justice i agree that the Police Department training and recruitment needs vast improvements. The training manual is confusing, its repetitive officers that dont know whats expect evidence them. Theyre not taught how to resolve conflicts peacefully. They dont theyre not taught to use pepper spray or less than lethal means. Therefore, they think they have only to resort to firearm. This is wrong. And it tears at the fabric of the community. I think we have to cast a wider net when we say the Police Commissioner said he cannot recruit more minority officers. That is very very regrettable but not unexpected in todays time. But its still unacceptable. We need to do more to make sure that the police lynn bray ham i apologize. Thats okay. Ill finish. Thank you. Thank you very much. Doug oliver. Good evening. Its a pleasure to be back here on home irv are turf hawk school of business. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you. To answer the question y i think we should accept the recommendations from the department of justice and their task force. I do support the independent review board for shootings. Any time theres that type of activity i think a fresh set of eyes on it outside set of eyes if nothing else so people know someone at the meal wheel and watching and i think a lot of folks believe the fox watching the hen house and to just reverse that perception i think independent review board including civilians is a appropriate. Beyond that, though the idea of Community Policing and having Police Officers walk their beats get to know people, thats part of where we start to fine the solutions. Broken windows theory, finding trash on streets and starting to address those even before they become bigger challenges are part of the solution. Sensitivity training, cultural training and even helping officers understand why our neighborhoods are the way they are is part of the solution. If they start asking whats going on here, rather than whats wrong with you, all of a sudden, we have a different relationship. But lastly, in the big picture education and jobs much thats how we make our Community Safer and make it easier for the relationship between Police Officers and the communities they serve. Doug oliver thank you very much. Nelson diaz the first person to answer the question. You have the rebuttal. Thank you very much. As i was saying, kenney then called and criticizeed Lynne Abraham as deadliest da in america. I think he was her biggest cheerleader. 20 years ago i was fighting for civil rights. I was involved in performing the courts. 40 years ago i was fighting police abuse in the city. So i know where i was 20 years ago. I havent changed in 20 years. Ive been fighting for the people and the communities of this city to better and open opportunities and to make sure that there is no police abuse. I was part of that civil rights report that was done a little over 30 years ago where we had to look at or what was happening in the city police abuse. I protected them. I was part of the Bar Association with a committee to protect people who been abused by the police and i got to tell you which kenney you have the 120 years ago or the one today . Why is it convenient today to say the right thing because hes run fog mayor. What was he saying 20 years ago . Which kenney are you electing . Electing one had has absolutely no regard for human beings or otherwise . Thank you very much, for your rebuttal. We move on now. Candidates thank you for round one. Round two focuses on education. Lets go to fox 29s Bill Anderson. Milton street will get the first response. Bill. Thanks lucy. Once again the philadelphia schools are in need of Public Schools in need of at least 100 million. Thats just to provide basic services. Excuse my to our city School Children. Mayor nutter reviewed the proposals you put out there and he called them bogus. So my question, do you have a plan that will fund our schools and meet the following criteria . It has to be recurring funding. It has to be a plan that you can achieve in your first term. It cant be just raising our property taxes each year. Thats my question . That is your question, sir. Yes. I have a plan. But let me tell you something about funding the schools. Youre never going to fun the school properly until we create the violence the schools. People who have money to vest in the schools including the legislature if theyre perception of philadelphia schools is students dont want to learn its a Violent School district and people in that School District are of the pin the funders of the pin and i know ive been there that were not going to throw good money at bad money. You have to stop the violence. You just absolutely unequivocally have to stop the violence watch we need is an independent Funding Source an indirect tax. 32 years ago i made a statement and im not clairvoyant i put in video bingo, we were going to put it all over the city and at that time i was relying to buy everybody who didnt want gambling okay, but we would have raised 100 million on the low side and 360 million on the high side and it was defeated. But we will never fund our schools through taxes or through anything. Why . Because we have a minority School District. 75,000 blacks, 25,000 hispanics 19,000 caucasians. We have a minority School District isnt your time is up milton street. I apologize. We must move on. Can i borrow some of his. No. But thank you. You can barter later maybe. Anthony williams. I think that the mayor observations and four out of his born out of his frustration we have not taken this seriously i respect him for it. I think we have an understanding that he and i both look to the governor to provide 79 billion in my case 100 million contribution toward removing the tension between Charter Schools and traditional Public Schools. And in my case 50 million grant over three years from sustained funding last part and he and i differ upon the 50 million i talk of property shift locally we move from 55 to 60 contributing towards Public Schools. I guess his opinion is that were not sure we can find those savings. I think i can find those savings but with that said im more than willing to take on the challenge the mayor presented to us finery occurring funding fix our fiscal house, fix out pension problems allow our general fund no longer to be couldnt tricked and allow to us support Public Schools. Anthony williams, thank you very much. We move on to you jim kenney. Thank you very much. I do believe that the real solution to schools is going to come from harrisburg in fair funding formula. I think as importantly and as doable sooner is reimbursement for Charter Schools and i do believe Governor Wolf had get that accomplished in this next go around we dont know what the hole will be until we see whats coming from harrisburg but theres things we can do here in the city to change the way in which we do business. By zero based budgeting what Montgomery County did and saved 3 of their budget over three consecutive years. We can do real time reverse auctioning for procurement which will also save us 40 million or so. In the first year. That is recurring savings. We also can secure ties commercial leans property tax leans, water and leans and secure advertise them the way mayor bloomberg did in new york and thats onetime shot but 20 40 million also. And again it sends out the message were serious about collecting our taxes. Serious about the money thats owed to us and then well see whether or not im not ever ruling out attacks increase, but i dont want to do it the first step. All right. Thank you very much mr. Kenney. We move on to Lynne Abraham. Yes, i do have a plan and ive publish a plan my edge paying indication plan rye inspect physical degree with our mayor about property taxes many i think this is a regress seive tax that hurts the middle class and theyre frightened about following falling out of that middle class. So heres what we have to do. Obviously people at this podium have referred to Governor Wolfs plan. This is a solid plan which will put back into our covers about 160 million for Education Plus money for pre k. Search ingredient for our children which have been deprived of the first class Educational Programs that they deserve everyone of them. Is that we havent had a full and fair funding stream from harrisburg very long time. Didnt get this way overnight and its not to be cured overnight. We have to have university of universal pre k and head start. I support superintendent hites 3. 0 plan for Educational Opportunities turning the schools around. I know that we can have several economies in this, n our budget. We are a wasteful government. We are a diss joined government and sometimes we are dysfunctional government. So i propose among other things reviewing everything in the department of revenue to find out how are operating how they collect and in our case dont collect or monies. This has to be a technologically advanced so that Everybody Knows the minute they owe a bill im sorry the light is red. Its yellow. We must move on. Its yellow. Well it was yellow but its red now. It was red when i said i know the difference between yellow and red. I promise. There was no orange there at all. I promise you. Move ton doug oliver. I agree with mayor nutter we need to fund our schools. We disagree on the approach and the timing of what hes proposing. I think before we even talk about funding though we need to zoom out and look at what were funding. Even if we had all the money in the world the question is, would the system work . Would we be educating our kids and preparing them for a future that allows them to live the lives they want to live . I suggest the toons that question is no. But to answer specifically when we talk about funding i agree with some of the other comments that um, supporting our governor and his efforts to get full and fair funding out of harrisburg is a starting spot. We should at least let that budget process run its route before implementing a permanent tax and we know they dont go away once they come in. Payments in lou of taxes work wig our post secondary educational institutions to find funding or services. Talent time those types of things can be um vehement in getting our School District where it needs to be. Pursuing delinquent taxes 500 mel i dont know dollars and feign we cant get it all get what we can. That just makes sense. Tax eye abate the manies how and where theyre applied letting the city stay open past 2 00 a. M. And using liquor tax for schools. None may get us all the way there together they just may. All of these things should happen before we Start Talking about selling any city assets or raising anyones taxes. All right. Thank you very much, doug oliver oliver. Nel diaz. Thank you i put together a budget that shows about 300 million which is what dr. Hite had asked for and the Philadelphia Inquirer says i have the only sound Budget Proposal in philadelphia for funding the School Systems. I also continued to fund them over a longer period of 600 million. Eightpoint issue, 10 page plan you can find on my website nel see diaz for mayor. Com. I also understand part of the problem is also the src. The src needs to be abolish. We need to have local control. You need to have the mayor be the one that provides leadership and then begins to develop what i believe to be is a School System that gets the required education necessary. That required education requires a wrap around system around the kids to give the education for the needs of those kids. It requires art gym and all of the amenities in that all the other schools have they went do have to go to lower merion seen kids with computers and here we cant even get paper. We have to change that scope. My three children went to the public School System gone a good education. So im the only one on this panel that has had kids that have graduated from the public School System. And i believe that we should do that. Nelson diaz the light is red. Thank you very much. Milton street you were the first to answer in that round so therefore the rebuttal is yours. The American Heritage dictionary defines fool as an individual or a group of individuals pursuing a course contrary to knowledge. Senator williams think that is he can do everything he said then qualifies. Senator williams couldnt successfully manage an 800 student Charter School. Under his management the School Children performed below no child left behind bench marks. Then he appointed his executive assistant the school did worse. Finally it had to be taken over by mastery. How is he going to fix the pension fund . If you cant manage an 800 student Charter School you cant fix the pension fund. He offered no solution for funding the schools and hes talking about beer tax. He brought in money. Its going to fall cigarette tax is going to fall far below the projections. Senator williams needs to stop talking about the money that was projected thank you very much. The light is red. I appreciate your rebuttal and well move on thank you candidates all. Now that completes our second round of panelist questions. Lets head over to my coanchor iain page with the st. Joseph University Student. Iain. Lucy thank you very much. Im here with peter born a sophomore here at st. Josephs university. Hes majoring in mitt cal science and hes also a member of the state student senate. Hes going get some experience next semester and head over to brussels intern at the european union. He also wants to gain experience which domestic politics and intern in washington d. C. At the next Mayoral Debate he attends he as spires to be the one answering the questions not answering them. Peter, your question. Hello my question is how would you incentivize outside companies to help bolster philadelphias economy . Anthony williams you go first this round. I apologize. Im writing notes can you say it again. Yes, of course. How would be incentivize outside companies to help bolster philadelphias economy . Were on well several ways ways. Obviously one lets welcome them make a business friendly city. Outside companies have with l and i we need to fix immediately and unfortunately l and i today we dont use technology. People are there not necessary addly trained. We dont use access to multiple languages so therefore you dont have an appointment. You wait in line. You have to run to different entities and find your information from different departments. As a former Small Business owner myself i would stream line it. I would provide the technology. Support those who are working there. Have an appointment that you when you arrive at a certain time that the person on the other side of the wall or benches is well prepared most importantly all information is consolidated. Tax, the tax policy in philadelphia clearly were all talk about is very broken. And very discouraging. To any company that wants to land here those two i would do. Thank you very much Anthony Williams. We move on to jim kenney. Thank you very much. Since 1998, under the Rendell Administration weve been reducing both wage and businesses taxes albeit very small amounts p amounts and its going in the right direction. In order for to us accelerate those tax reductions we have to grow our economy and have to perhaps pursue the sweeney levy plan touted about relative to changing the uniform will the clause allowing to us to tax real estate commercial real estate different than reasonable real estate. You raise up the tax on the commercial building you take the proceeds from the revenue there and plow it back into accelerate accelerating both wage and business tax reductions. If a in fairness thats going to be three or four year effort because we have to go through a constitutional change but certainly worth pursuing it and certainly worth investigating the other thing the city has immense amount of land. We could put land into deals as our equity in having a Warehouse Company Distribution Company or someone else blue collar jobs come into the city to build on that land and we put the land in the deal as part of our equity. All right. Jim kenney, thank you very much. Lynne abraham. Thank you. Thats staggering good question. First thing you need a strong mayor. A strong mayor who has a fulltime commerce director who fulltime job to attract and grow and to maintain job that is are already here and then go out and recruit job jobs for philadelphia all over the country and all over the world. One of the things that i would do is have a fully Trained Work Force as part of our overall educational plan. Because many businesses say one of the drawbacks of philadelphia is the lack of Trained Work Force and the other is a tax policy. The next thing i would do is make sure that our airport is up and running and accelerated. We have 7 billion worth of infrastructure which will be built very very quickly under my administration as mayor. We have an energy hub that is really ready to go online and produce jobs and Economic Growth and the company that is will come in and use our energy resources. We can import many many things and export even more with that energy hub within that airport. In addition to that, tourism and travel. We have thousands of people in the travel tourism and hospitality industry. That can be dramatically increased by these infrastructure changes and third of all infrastructure. We need to make sure our roads and our bridges and our highways are absolutely in pristine condition because its a matter of safety. Lynne abraham the red light is on. Thank you very much. I know. I hate to do it but i have to. This one says red. This one says yellow. Theyre not time. Its a little confusing up here. I think theyre timeed. I saw them flashing red. Its okay. Luckily were not at a traffic stop that could be problematic. Doug oliver the time is really yours. Thank you. Heres how we bring business from out side to the city of philadelphia. First we fix our schools. We always talk about tax structure and suggested thats the reason businesses dont come come. They dont come because theres employers dont want to stay because they cant educate their kids. Fixing our schools is the biggest thing we can do to attract other businesses to the city of philadelphia. With that said our tax structure is tal l challenging and something we need to address. Slow reduction of business and wage tax and our property tax changes the dynamics see were not taxing things that like to leave the city helps us a tract more. Also provides revenue to fund schools all a system. Tax incentives. Bringing the businesses that we want to see in the city of philadelphia and giving them incentives is one way of doing it. General things. Access to capital helps businesses come. Access to land as weve heard already. Access to business acumen for many they know what to do and how to do it but they dont necessarily know how to get it done in philadelphia. We can make that easier by helping solve the problems at l and i. But last i want to pivot. We can brag everything is not wrong with the city. We got a great city. Access to planes, trains, automobiles and boats. You can do a lot right here in the mayor i dont says job is to could be a cheerleader and get those businesses to come. Doug oliver. Thank you. Nelson diaz. One of the things that is a burden on city all you have to do drive up city line avenue. On one side city line avenue youve got sacks and all the other great businesses on on the other side you have shops that dont require as much cost and burden. We have to make sure that we change the wage tax and make sure we reform the tax system. Im very happy that my some of my colleagues finally thought about what ive been talking about we need constitutional change so that we change the uniform system because we tax the wrong people at the wrong place. We should be taxing commercial real estate. Which is what most cities do. 23 20 too to 42 is a commercial and the real estate taxes together and the progressiveness of doing attacks for all people that is progressive and not regress seive as we have right now is what prevents us from growing our businesses thats the first thing. The second thing we have to do is essentially is no question. That schools are important but we also have to be able to develop a system in which we can develop businesses more in the neighborhoodsneighborhoods not only center city. We have to use what pi d. C. Which is a government nelson diaz that red light is on. I apologize. And we must move on now to milton street. There are two reasons why businesses wont come to the city. One is high crime. Second is inability to hire a Productive Work force. I met with a person just last week who wants to bring a snack shop a Snack Company to philadelphia. And he says, street, stop the crime in north philly, south philadelphia and ill set it up there. And win two years ill have three, 400 people on the ill hair entry level people. People who can come in and take jobs now. I agree. That we need education but education isnt a long process. Its a period of evolution what we need to create to get businesses in here now is revolution not long gradual change but quick change. So you go into the community and you stop the crime and you how many people here have 100,000 you want to invest in high crime area . Not many. So you have to stop the crime before you Start Talking about changing the airport and doing all that other stuff, you know, stop the crime in your community. Bring in some businesses that are ready to establish now and you can get them started. Guaranteed. Doesnt take much to do that. All right. Milton street, thank you very much. Anthony williams you were the first to kick off this particular round. Therefore you get the rebuttal. Good. Ill use my time to respond to something else. That Charter School that the gentleman was referring to Hardy Williams Charter School academy of which many children have graduated and gone ton to extraordinary careers in their life. Second of all if youre going to state facts know what the schools are. That school did make nyp more than one time. The young perp he talk about volunteer without pay doesnt deserve to be a part of this conversation. Shes not running for mayor i am. We partnered with mastery not because it was failing because we were not satisfied with average. Average in the status quo bring the Public School down. We need to face the fact you can argue with a personality all day day. It doesnt fix the thousands of children confronted with inn adequate Public Education across the board. Candidates, all, thank you very much. That is round three. Round four now. The spotlight is on Affordable Houseing and development. Max with aldea news media has the question with jim kenney answering first. Max all yours. Thank you for all being here. Neighborhoods across the city long time owner and rents are being displaced just the a fact at this point. We have new studies that say African American population in neighborhoods across the city gone down by 29 in the last 12 years. We have programs like loop and homestead youve all shown support for but i want to know what your longterm plan is for Affordable Housing and creating equitable communities that we can all share and all philadelphians have access to. When everybody neighborhoods again to jent forty three if i theres the conflict between the older residents and new people come in exacerbate the by the 10 year tax abatement folks feel thats unfair they get and long term residents dont. I want to point to community that has gentrified in a good way there was a strong Cdc Community Development Corporation in that neighborhood in south philadelphia south of south neighbors where kenney gamble and islam put together universal homes they were able to coordinate a large grouping of houses they kept under their control and kept the prices affordable. So as the neighborhood began to have an increase in price assessments in real estate value value, those houses stayed the same and stayed affordable. If you go into that neighborhood and go to the ymca for example on christian street you will see people of all different diversity and different ages and i think i think we need to do that to make sure that people feel secure to that theres not conflict push out of their homes. I think thats a very important way to let to see neighborhoods begin to improve but also allowing the people have lived there long determine to take advantage of the improvement. Thank you jim kenney. Lynne abraham. I think every person deserves a wonderful home an wonderful neighborhood. And for those people have who have lived in philadelphia for very long time and want to stay in their homes they should permitted to do that. In addition to what we are seeing as this great gentrification we have a chance to make sure theres a good mixture of market rate housing low Income Housing housing for the dissable, house fog the formerly homeless and other groups that have been overlooked in this process. I believe that one of the ways we do that is provide longterm home occupants with a greater loop benefit in other words doubling the loop benefits. A longterm Owner Occupied homes have a benefit of a longer tax abatement. In addition to that, there are other issues that bring up 10 year tax abatement is great for center city but i propose extending it to 20 years and those areas which have been formally um pour rigid and seeing a development of millennials and other people coming in. That 20 year tax abatement will allow that older person to stay in their home and have the benefits of seeing a vibrant community. In addition to that, we have to do more to make sure that our commercial corridors are rebuild rebuild. When commercial corridors are rebuilt it brings more business, more people, more taxes more benefits to the community. I do this with extreme trepidation. Its okay. The light is red. Its okay. All right. Doug oliver the light is green for you. As they say the most as i say the most officer of Affordable House is the one you already own. The city has an obligation to protect longterm homeowners. The analogy i use is, for businessperson who would typically understand this. If you buy a stock 400 inter gross to be worth a thousand do you pick up the phone call and your stock broker and give him 900 more. Do you complain about Capital Gains tax . If the answer no those things you dont call your stock broker undont like Capital Gains tax and you ex the value of that house a crews to the owner and just because the development is occurring around that homeowner and Property Value increases they must be protected until they choose to cash out. For that reason i think development is something a mayor must focus on must spend his time making sure as he thinks about what makes for an of a fondable community hes looking at strong business corridors Affordable Housing low income income low income houseing, Sustainable Housing transitional housing open spaces and all of these things can be done in a accomplished by working with local cdcs develop a plan were not doing this case by case basis. Doug oliver. Nelson diaz. Ive done it. Ive createed Community Development corporations that have housing in the Community First one was a 202 program essentially an Elderly Program with Episcopal Hospital ive done it in the National Community as the general counsel of huhd i was able to develop market rate housing with public house carries my name the diaz pin you can read about it on any web that you want to see website that you want to see. And the program that mr. Kenney talked about is program developed because of my opinion because of my capabilities to be able to reform Public Housing throughout the country. So ive done Affordable Housing. There are 40,000 vacant units here in the city. We have elected officials who have had abilities to move them along and they have not moved them along. I would take immediately 7,000 units that are available to put right into the Public Housing authority because theyve lost 7,000 units. I would continually do some more partnerships with the private and Public Ventures and begin to develop housing wherever and green space so that people can also enjoy the environmental opportunities of having green in their apartments and in their housing. All right. Nelson diaz. Milton street. Its yours. Gentrification is a difficult issue and you have to understand the underlying purpose for it. The gentrification means bringing back the Young Professionals who have a higher income and it puts month money in the city covers so you have more money to operate the city. You go into the community and ask you poor people not toeshoe sell their homes and the developer comes along and offers them three times more than the home is worth because project tiffly theyre going to build houses and theyre going to put apartments any other rent out to College Students then jenn tri indication will continue. You cant stop it that way. I was in politics with housing okay. And when it comes to the Poor Community the mayor has to take a position, sit down with the Community Find out who actually wants to stay and who actually is just holding tout get the price theyre asking so they can move out that will further advance jenn tri forty three fief indication. Do we need money to operate the city . Absolutely. Is there any new construction going on . Its by our universities. Thats where knew construction is going on. So the red light is on and im going shut up. Its almost on. You actually had two or three more seconds. But thank you very much for abiding by the rules. Anthony williams. The city has several programs which are under subscribe. Loop is wound. Housing trust fund is another one. Providing education to seniors they know what he can quell of their property. With that said they will not get us there. The bottom line is the Community Block grants that provides for public Housing Housing housing and to have forwardable housing is in sufficient decline. Federal government trying to cut it do you 4 this year. So while we can do a lot of things here locally the truth is we need to have organized delegation in washington d. C. That speaks loudly and boldly about the fact that youre starving off cities and specifically starving off people who have lived there for a long time. The last thing i will say kenney cam gel and raheem islam im proud their supporters of mine. That area they keep describing as this nest of protection and non gentrification is gentrified gentrified. Great pressure upon them to figure out how to do it. And balance those longtime homeowners first by the way the area they own how to protect those long time folks have been there. They are not immune to this particular moment gentrification is threatening people across the city of philadelphia. Jim kenney you have the rebuttal. No need to rebut. Ill save you some time. All right. Well move on. Our fifth round devils into all that trash that you see on our city parks and our sidewalks. Of course in our streets. The question is from Shannon Mcdonald of billy penn. Com with Lynne Abraham answering first. Shannon. Thank you lucy. Candidates councilman blondel Reynolds Brown introduced two bills that would require food Business Owners and some landlords to provide on site trash and recycling bins as part of a citywide effort to reduce litter. These would require more legislation a penalty system and it hasnt yet passed passed at mayor would you support legislation like that and what more would you do specifically to address the citys litter problem . Having lived in the in philadelphia all my life i can tell you that we are a magnificent city a beautiful city. Marched by trash and garbage. We have these Community Development programs and we have our Center City Business districts and Business Improvement district all over the city. And what they do is pick up trash and them go back and pick up the trash all over again. I think the important thing for philadelphia is that those who sell fast foods and other things should have trash disposal right on the premises and i think the city has to do a better job of putting out more trash receptacles. Emptying them more frequently and making sure we have more than enough people going up to the our citizens and saying, please dont litter. I know we have a Litter Campaign but its not been effective to date. I think well be a great help for communityies to have these programs. I do not subscribe to a penalty. I think Small Businesses have a tough time enough paying their taxes, paying their wage earners a living wage, keeping up with all the problems of l and i and Everything Else. To impose another tax on a business which is struggling to survive and since 95 of our economy is based on Small Businesses its a mistake. I think education and making sure people clean up after themselves and have good manners and respect for others is a better way to go and i think thats thats the proper way to address this issue. Thank you lynn abraham. Lets head over to doug oliver. I was driving down the street and i saw someone roll down their window and dumb app mcdonalds trash bagful bag just right out on the ground i said to the person next the person next to me said to me, they just dirty. I started to agree but then i thought, no, because if they were dirty they would have left it right there next to them. In the car. What it is they have a narrow perspective of ownership. They only saw ownership to the car seat next to them and they did not see the street that they were driving down as part of the their street. I would also argue that had they been driving through Chestnut Hill they wouldnt have felt it appropriate to throw their trash bag out of the street. Trash generates more trash and for that reason i think the city must invest in getting trash off the streets. I know sometimes we cut back on costs and mechanical street sweeping are some of the things that fall by the way side but the Million Dollars lets say we spend on mechanical street sweeping is dwarfed why the 3 million well spend in the Water Department to clean that same trash. Part of the thing the city needs to do is understand the balance and stop looking at budgeting through one Agency Versus another and just look at it as all of our collective money in the in meanwhile mechanical street sweeps more trash cans in commercial corridors and broaden the Perspectives Office people who live there. Nelson dee as. Trash is been a tremendous issue in our city for awhile. One of which is not enough not enough garbage cans around four people to be able to put the trash in and there should be more trash cans around that they can can happen because ive pick up ive had to walk a block to find a trash can. In addition to that we have to make sure that we look at making the trash thats around thats recyclable. We continually have these plastic bags which essentially have considerable danger with regard to the lack of recyclable and we right now are known as the 11th dirty yesterday city in the country and the dirtiest city in pennsylvania. Part of it has to do with all the emission that is we get. So people get sick as a result of that trash also that goes up into the air. We have to make sure that even when you try to develop this energy hub that you have a center in which do you not increase the emissions of the co2s in our commune at a time because that causes more asthma and more injuries to our children. All right. Nelson diaz. Milton street the time is now yours. One of the reasons we have a lot of problems is because the people in the community that have this problem dont have access to the system. Now ive gone down and complained to my Council Woman then put me on the list. You know, youre on list. You get somebody come out and move trash and help you out youre put on the list. You get no services. I have road into the 414 community to stop the violence in the community all of these issues. The people that we will hire in the community to deal with the crime will also be cleaning up lots, also be cleaning up trash and they will also be working with the Police Department to develop a relationship between the Police Department and the community. All of the issues that we are talking are rolled into this one program, and it costs 40,000 a year absent prosecution to keep a person in prison. I am going to hire people in the community where they live to solve all of these issues. Right now were going to teach people how to put the trash in the trash can. Because theres going to be people on the streets every day in uniform talking to these people throwing trash when they throw trash, hey you dont do that here and put them in the trash cans and clean out lots and clean out all the raccoons and possums and kangaroos and all those things running around the community right . Were getting rid of them. Kangaroos come with their own trash bin i think. Anthony williams. Any ways were on a tangent. Any way my kangaroo friends out there we meant no harm. We meant no harm. Exactly. Filthy delphi ya reality we have disseminateed our street departments. Cut half the personnel for minor increase of 5 to your vehicle registration well reconstitue the streets department. Were going to do baltimore did in front of us that embarrassed us. Well clean the streets a minimum of one time each week. So that means that those short dumping will have cops patrolling those areas. We do have people currently doing that. Theyre under contract. They get paid to do this. But well give them the dignity of what their contract should be but have more of them. Well replace the broken down vehicles that are part of the what they have to operate in. If we do that philadelphia moves itself not from the bottom but to the top of big cities in america that remain clean all the time because we maintain them once a week. All right. Anthony williams. Jim kenney. Thank you. I introduced Legislation Co sponsored legislation in the past to ban plasmas tick bags period and also styrofoam. Type of material that ned never goes away. We werent successful in getting those bills passed but well take a shot at that again and try to get those things done as you know theres neighborhood tumble weeds that blow down the street and wind up hanging in the industries and tough stuff. No need for them and we should ban them out right. The other thing i want to extent whats called the Community Life Improvement Program which is now in northeast philadelphia extent it citywide. Tom connelly who runs that operation and his people are very dedicateed to keeping our streets both clean and orderly and i want to take the housing code the housing maintenance code and turn it over to cliff as opposed to doing it l and i who are over burdened with lots of projects they need to inspect and people need to cite f we put that into their hands theyre on the streets every day. They see the high weeds. They see the graffiti. They get it off but also can write the citations directly and i think thats the most effective way to do it. Jim kim kenney thank you very much. Lynn abraham you get receipt but tal. Thank you very much. District attorney i prosecuted short dumpers for almost 19 years. This is probably one of the biggest Horror Stories in philadelphia. Our beautiful parks along Pennypack Creek above the Frankford Creek in every vest pocket park in our Fairmount Park people engage in short dumping of construction debris and other refuse and garbage. It was absolute amazing amount of trash and garbage. Including stolen and abandon vandalized cars. Ive also work for the cliff program in the northeast for several years. And know that program well. It doesnt substitute for a Good Department which cleans our streets on a regular basis. I would suggest putting more trash cans at our near transportation stops like bus stops. Theres almost no trash lee september tables at all and i also think we have to increase our trash collection because more often than not residents take their household trash and garbage punt in it in the trash lee september tackles which is another way of disrespecting their own neighborhoods. Lynn abraham thank you very much before we head back over to over to iain page. Everybody realizes you can follow the debate by using fox29demsdebate on twitter. Wed love for to you join the conversation. All right. Back over now to iain page my coanchor with another Saint Josephs University Student. Iain. Lucy thank you very much. Im here with Kristen Harper a senior shes getting ready to graduate soon much shes also majoring in Political Science and she is very busy and active. She is the president of the College Democrats and shes also very active in politics. Shes currently interning right now in the office of u. S. Senator cory bookie from new jersey. Before we get to your question can i ask what you got so interested in politics. I took American Government class when i was a freshman in high school. And ever since its just something ive been passionate about. So i try and immerse myself in politics to, you know, utmost degree. Terrific. Kristen wants to pursue a career in politics and Public Policy in washington, d. C. All right. Kristen, your question. Hello. What is the most effective way to create jobs in philadelphia . Doug oliver the question is yours. When i think about job creation in the city of philadelphia i think of it in two categories. First big business the other Small Business. For big business, again focusing on our schools to make sure the big businesses see an environment that is rich that has a lot of Economic Activity a place where they see they can make money. But also i think our tax rate is uncompetitive and i dont believe we necessarily have to be the lowest tax structure but we do have to be a little bit more competitive than the way we are now. When i think about Small Businesses theres 93,000 Small Businesses and those businesses employ more than 54 i think 55 of any philadelphia who has a job has it because of a Small Business. Growing them we have to stop taxing them before they can grow from small to large. We have to make it easier for them to start and stabbing growth. Tech Community Talks about scale or bail if they cant bring their product to market theyre going to bail. Theyre going to leave town. So growing businesses keeping our young College Students who are here who are interested in starting businesses make making easy for them to do so. Taking people from our community who want start businesses allowing them to do so and create an environment through and i where those businesses can grow. Thank you very much doug oliver. Nelson diaz. Obviously education is the only equalizer in life. It is the most important civil right that we have in our city. And once you educate someone thats something you can never take away from them. You have to begin the education education, education. Most people should have at least computer slithery skills. Everybody can learn from a google process they have the skills to get or have at least reading skills. We have to develop a Work Force Development program work with the Business Community let the Business Community know that these are the jobs thats right available. You cot comcast coming in with new building. Why you got to bring all the people from outside. We got 28 poor people in the city who have to be employed if we dont bring them up the ladder then were going to continue to have a city that does not grow and does not develop. Thats primary issue. The second issue we have to do essentially is once you do that, you continue to nurture and develop those folks so that theyre not discriminated. All my life, my civil rights life people have been discriminateed because theyre a woman and dont get equal pay or because theyre minorityies and thrown out of a job because of discrimination. We have to make sure that we have jobs nelson dee as, i apologize. I hate doing this. I hate interrupting but we must move ton milton street. Your time was up. Milton street its your turn. Its interesting to me when we talk about jobs and federal taxes and all that. I got 5,000 pay all the tax you want give them job. All they want is a job. The only people thats complaining about the taxes and the payroll the people thats working. Okay. So we have people in our district i can have young people right here looking for a job. Come here. Can i have a job. Can i have a job . Can i have a job. The way we do that in terms of getting businesses and the way we get more income is create jobs. If you understand where the unemployment is, its in the middle of the Poor Community where do we need entry level jobs in the middle of the Poor Community you have a lot of violence. So you must stop that violence and then you can get people to come service oriened jobs. I have a manufacturing company. You can get those people to come in if if theyre not afraid to theyre going to get robbed or the place is going to get burglarized and you create an atmosphere people, where people want to invest and come in and put money. Thats the answer right there. Greatest resource that we have is people. Milton street thank you Anthony Williams. As far as a Business Owner identify where growth is to create jobs. Identify three areas in philadelphia. Small business, technology and energy hub. Ive laid out a municipal plan Municipal Bank plan that allow to us take small loans to Small Businesses and communities across philadelphia. Allow them to put people back to work. That means in neighborhoods neighborhoods higher people from neighborhoods. But we have to identify the fact that big banks will not provide those loans so well give a small loan to a Small Business. Allow them to hire people reentering Society High School drop route, there be high school. People have had these businesses 25 years and weve overlooked them. They can ab part of our economy. Technology in the city. The city has done a pretty good job of a identifying jump start programs to support technology. We have to do more to get them act cities cap t energy hub i talk. Energy hub turn Houston Texas from dirt town to one of the biggest cities in america. It can do the same thing for philadelphia put people back to work and put people to work in the neighborhoods. Thank you. Anthony williams. Jim kenney. Thank you. Two levels. One on the neighborhood level where we need to really expand and bolster our neighborhood business strips. I was involved in project on East Passyunk avenue. Its came from kind of a sleepy ethnic style shopping strip into something thats a second highest ranked food area in the country and it really has created jobs but also created housing above the stores. We need to be able to have that in the neighborhoods. Weve built two convention centers. Weve built two Sports Complex complexes. And we can invest city dollars in the port of philadelphia down at south philadelphia at the packer of a Marine Terminal a project the state wants to do along with private sector the city can participate putting capitol dollars in to double the size and pat that is of the container arrived port those jobs are for people who dont have the College Education or Even High School education can be trained to drive a forklift latch containers work in a warehouse. Theyre union jobs that pay 40, 50 with health care and benefits i think its direction we should be going to try to address our poverty issue. All right. Jim kenney. Lynne abraham. I already talked about the airport expansion the 7 billion project plus the jobs that will create permanent as well as construction. The energy hub our Infrastructure Structure and so forth. Also something we can do and should do and thats putting job readiness programs in our schools so that children at the age of 14 or 15 are already being trained for jobs in Work Force Development with a coop programs offered by business,. But most importantly we have to concentrate on our Small Business associations our Small Businessmen are really and women are the life blood of this city. 95 of our commerce directed by Small Businesses. The other day i was up in fishtown. And saw young entrepreneur who opened a diss till reup there and across the street was a coffee grinding company and roasting company. This is the life blood of the city but they all told me that what is the biggest diss incentive for them coming to philadelphia is the welder of regulations. Going through l and i to get a permit was a nightmare. It was confusing. The tax structure a horrible. Information sharing is impossible. There isnt access to good capital threw cdfis there is info sharing with the entire city of philadelphia. There are lots of programs but no information sharing red light is on. Thank you very much lynn abraham abraham. Doug oliver you kicked off this round. Thereof you have the rebuttal. Happy to get the rebuttal on this one something i didnt get a chance to talk about. When off city with 28 poverty you cant forget that 28 poverty isnt distributed equally across the city. So many under represented groups and two i want to take a mention on right now. One is the 300,000 people in the city of philadelphia living with arrests and convictions. They cant find a job. If we think were ever going to have a safe city and a growing city when you take a whole population and discriminate against them you have a problem. So Training Programs for those groups. We know whose in jail. We know when theyre coming coming out we can prepare them for the jobs there are here. When we talk about businesses we often forget about minority businesses in the construction and trade industry. How can we talk about all the development in the city of philadelphia but we dont see jobs foy minority businesses. Id like to see investments made in that area but in addition teeth put into the contracts when its not respected theyre recourse for the city of philadelphia. All right. All of you thank you so much for that. Lets head back over to my coanchor iain page with yet another st. Josephs University Student or two. Or three. Iain. Lucy thanks a l of course weve met two fine Young Students from st. Joes. We at a its want to take time to introduce here. Young people of our future. Lets good to meet some of them right now. Appreciate your participation. Whats your name and tell us about you. My name is Thomas Jackson im a freshman here at giant joes commute. Im Political Science manager and i got interested in politics because of the opportunities it could give me to make an impact in the community as best as i can. Im the new secretary for the College Democrats im also the v vp of the bridging the Gap Corporation here on st. Josephs campus and i also have a strong interest in becoming a member of the clergy as well. Congratulation. We dont have time for questions. We get to know some of you. Very impressive background. A freshman majoring in Political Science. Congratulations. What about you whats your name and tell us about you. Hello my name is katie and im a junior history and Political Science major. Actually a native philadelphian from northeast philly and i just came back from semester a broad in ireland and this summer coming up i will be actually interning with the mayors Internship Program with the office of the inspector general. So ing. Congratulations. Very impressive you are all very active in politics. Tell us about your background. Thank you a cary advance im a sophomore Political Science major german honor always Philadelphia Resident of germantown. I am interested in politics basically because of the same reasons everyone else is because we want to see significant change in our communities. And through the political severe we see that very often. So thats really why im a Political Science major and thats why im here. Terrific. Thank you for being here. Another Political Science major tell us about yourself and your background. Hello. Im meghan fry. Im actually from maryland but i wanted to come because i go to school in philadelphia. Obviously and if i find it very important even if i cannot vote for this election. Im a sophomore Political Science major. I have a minor in Asian Studies and i intern at the council of philadelphia. And i will be sudden studying a abroad in china this summer. All of our students very active, you know, all working interning all over the world all over the country that is terrific to see. We got time for one more. Can you tell us about your background please. Yes. My name is mary lavery im a sophomore Political Science major. Im from harrisburg pennsylvania pennsylvania. But ive always had a love for philadelphia. Ive always been interested in law and government and hope to continue a career in that. And im very active in the womens Leadership Initiative here on campus. Terrific. Thank you guys all for being here. Terrific. Youre our future. We go back over to lucy noland. I dont feel worthy i feel like an under achieve at this point in time. Fantastic stuff. All right. Its time now for our quick fire round im asking a series of six questions. Each candidate will have a chance to answer with just a one or two word response. Please with sugar. Candidate order drawn completely randomly im just going to say it one more time. One or two words. Throughout this debate you know weve developed into heavy duty very real issues were talking about education and poverty and taxes and crime and even we were hitting jobs and such. And speaking of jobs, right now this is basically a job interview, right . And for philadelphians and they want to get to know you. They want to know to get to know you we but they would do something and talk about some things near and dear to philadelphian hearts. So the first subject is going to be about chip kelly. laughter . You guys have any thoughts over here about chip kelly . You mute have some thoughts about chip kelly. Here we go. Two words only. Chip kelly. Mad man or Mad Scientist . Groupy. Linea bra had a ham. Mad scientist. All right. Anthony williams. Genius. Nelson diaz. A winner. Okay. Jim kenney. Mad scientist. Milton street. Goofy. laughter . All right. And doug oliver. Jury is out. All right. But did you stay win one or two words just not the words we were choosing but thats good. Keeping with sports for a minute our second quick fire question 76er fans have been well theyve been shaking their heads for many years right . Whats your take. Sixers rebuilding or ridiculous . One word answer and lets begin with nelson diaz. Id rather to go to college sports. Temple. St. Joes. Okay. All right. So if its rebuilding or ridiculous. 76ers. Right. Were talking about the nba. Lets go to you Anthony Williams williams. You havent watched us perform before. Believe me ive watched. Somebody should award you. Rebuilding. Okay. Jim kenney. Rebuilding. Milton street. They dont have clue. laughter . Maybe ridiculous on that one. Doug oliver. Rebuilding. Lynn abraham. Pathetic. laughter . Well go with that. All right. Thank you very much. Howard eskin would probably agree with you on that one. Howard eskin. Round three. Of course ride share programs like uber and lyft have been exploding. Cab companies you probably although very well they are not happy. So the question here would you ride share or would you cab it and well go with Anthony Williams first. I walk a lot. Okay. Im not answering that question. I like cabs and i like uber. Jim kenney. Both. Milton street uber. Doug oliver. Ride share. Lynn abraham. Competition good. You are correct on that one. Nelson diaz. Public transportation. Public transportation. Okay. Were a little loose at the rules. Thats all good. A quick fire round. What do you want . Now in philly these days. Possessing a small amount of marijuana will get you just a ticket. Jim kenney you know that well. Should philly take the leap and just legalize it . Yes or no . Please. We start with jim kenney. Yes. Milton street . They cant. Its a state issue. Doug oliver . Yes. Lynn abraham. State issue only. Nelson diaz. I want some, yes. laughter . Do we have another reporter in the house i think ive got a news story right now. laughter . You realize youll be Solomon Jones guest tomorrow morning. Anthony will jumps . State issue. Okay. Quick fire round five. Philadelphia minimum wage is 12 i dont want any. laughter . Philadelphias minimum wage 12 an hour, yes or no . Should it be 15 an hour . Milton street . Yes. Doug oliver . Yes. Lynn abraham. 15. Nelson diaz. I join the 15 coalition. Anthony will jumps. Yeah. Jim kenney. Yes. All right. Our last quick fire. You got to listen to me on this one. Not vote for yourself. Which of your opponents would you vote for or there is an or would you vote for fox 29s very own mike jerrick . Doug oliver . Mike jerrick. laughter . Lynn abraham. Ditto. Okay. Nelson diaz. I would not vote for anybody up here but me. Against the rules. Anthony williams. I would be committing suicide suicide. Anthony williams. Thats a stolen question i was outside the day he campaigned on april fools day. I was the only one that went there with my own poster and say i was for mike jerrick. Mike jerrick. You committed yourself. This is old news for you. Jim kenney. Doug oliver. Milton street . I vote for mike. If theres any expert staffers around mike might need to get on board real quick and get his campaign rolling i suppose right . All right. Lets head back to iain page right now. Youve got some more folks to talk to. I think we do. We check in with a lot of them here. I think we got more on the end. Tall guy here. Might be a basketball player tell us about your background and why youre here. Sure. Im matt sophomore Political Science major and i actually made a drastic change this year i used to be a chemistry major. I originally took an required class i was originally regretting doing but i dived whole hour hardly into the issue and have been very excited do i get to ask you a question . Just doing bios. I dont know. Do we have time for question . I think we might. Yes the go ahead. Thank you. You have to time. Please ask your question. Id like to return to the question about education we talk about a little bit earlier. How do the act em dem mick achievements of the Charter Schools and growing number of applications to them affect your views on Public Education and your assessment of durability of create morgue of them . Lynn abraham well start with you. I think the argument of Public Schools versus Charter Schools is a false and a wrong argument. Every child in philadelphia deserves a first class quality education and dr. Hites new plan 3. 0 plan will marry both public and Charter Schools. I think thats a good out come. I believe that our children need the best Educational Achievement achievement. They need nurses, they need counselors. They need pre k. They need libraries libraries and librarian and the best way to do that make sure they have their full and fair funding share from harrisburg that we chip in in philadelphia what we owe them and we make sure that we celebrate education. It is the future of the city of philadelphia. When those children come out of school job ready or college ready, Everybody Wins in including them they take their place in society. They work their way up the latter of success. They produce income their happy. Theyre wonderful people. They contribute to the wealth and the breath of this countrys diversity prone duce for us what we know as the american spirit. The spirit of intern jew were the of and the business of america is business and educateed work force does it. Nelson diaz. This is the founding of our nation. Public education was a right ever since we have gotten this s src we have lost 50 of many of the children. 85 who are minorityies are being violated because they do not get a quality education. I am not against Charter Schools schools. They work. You got to get rid of the bad ones and put the good ones but you got to fully fund the Public Education system until you fully fun the Public Education system you are neglecting a Large Population of the city. Because when you get,ing when they get rid of them in the Charter Schools where do they go. They go back to the Public Schools and i dont want money to be continueing to taken out of the Public Schools. Vouchers or privatization with some of the candidates up here believe in. Nelson diaz. Anthony williams. I think i would support obviously believe charters have value in this process. I treat them the same way i treat masterman. I treat masterman the same way i treat math. Which is a Charter School. It provides value and quality education we should support it and provide money for it. By the way the public believes that. 60,000 families have 60,000 charge 30,000 on waiting list in Public Schools. 40,000 people want to find a Public Education space even Charter School or special Missions School or Neighborhood School i think we shall support that. I think the governors recognition of 72 million contribution towards relieving the tension between the funding issue and Charter Schools rei women us many indicates they have value and we should support those that work in philadelphia as we shall support any Public School that works in philadelphia. Jim kenney. Charter schools are here to stay. No doubt about it. Some are good, some are not so good. Some Public Schools are good and some not so good. We need to improve our Public Schools and eliminate the bad charters. We absolutely need reimbursement from harrisburg hearing on charter if were going to have additional charter expansion the money needs to be replaced. Money should not follow the child to the Charter School. It didnt under ed rendell it did under tom corbett and hes no longer government the people have spoken about that. They can live side by side together. Play by the same rules. We should continue to support our Public Schools every possible way we can. Thank you jim kenney. Milton street. The only issue here is fund funding. Everybody is for Charter Schools for Public Schools quality education. The issue is where do we get the funding . How do we get funding . Thats the issue. I can stand here and say is a whole lot of things. Bottom line is, how do we get the funding . Harrisburg hasnt funded us. The city doesnt have enough money to fund this. Thats the bottom line question. Quality education across the board for everybody. But how do we get the funding . All right. Doug oliver. The charter School District School Debate rage is on. I think unnecessarily so. I think the real debate is always High Performing School versus under performing school. If we change that, then we can all agree we want to remove or eliminate the under performing schools thats where the money is. Being dumped into programs that dont work. I dont have a problem with Charter School expansion or District School expansion but i dont want them expanding wherever they want. I want them expanding into neighborhoods that dont already have a good school. Once we have a Quality School in every single neighborhood, then we can relax the rules and let people expand the way they want to. Thank you dug oliver. Thank you candidates. Lets head back to iain page and another question from another st. Josephs University Student. Iain. Im hear with mary before i a sophomore from harrisburg. Thanks for being here. Whats your question tonight . So politics involves making tough decisions. Im just wondering as mayor how you would manage knacking these unpopular policies . All right. Mr. Oliver well start with you this time gone back the other way. I didnt hear the whole question. Politic involves making tough decisions. How will you as mayor enact these unpopular policies . Again doug oliver well start with you. Sure. Youre right. The job of a mayor is to be a vision setter. A team builder. A cheerleader and a communicator and i think inn hernia in that question is the team building. Making sure that everybody at the table that needs to be there is there. Think does it helps you make better decisions. Being a strong communicator means even on the tough decision that is you have to make people arent left in the dark. One of things that is frustrateed parents all cross the city when a Charter School closes with no notice and they wake up one morning and no place for their child to go. We can solve those sorts of things and thats one of the biggest skill sets that you need in your chief executive for the city of philadelphia. Somebody who understands how to communicate their vision. Setting a vision is just one part of it. Communicating that vision is another. Thats an area where i think i bring tremendous skill sets and one of the reasons i hope you all consider me on may 19th. Thank you dug oliver. Milton street. There are no tough decisions. Theres just decisions. And you make them. If you run for office, you make the decisions. Period. All right. Milton street. Thank you very much. Jim kenney. You have to look at a person careers and what hard decisions theyve made already. I was sporting lbgt rights in the 90s when it wasnt popular as it is today. I went after ice holds with Council Person sanchez. Decriminalized marijuana i was on the vote in council to eliminate the drop he pro many gram for everybody. I got no support from unions and almost lost. I would do that vote again. I cannot take drop. I wont take drop. I voted to eliminate for everybody. That was a tough decision behind to stand 16one wasnt easy to do and i had a near death experience in the next election here i stan. All right. Jim kenney. Anthony williams. Ive acted independently. When we started this race, the number one poling issue is Public Education. The papers are written about me consistently but the charter guy. I stand on the stage today where everyone openly supports charters. Because ive lead and ive driven the conversation to where it should be. Thats about children. Getting a quality Public Education and we should fund it. Find a way to do it. With all due respect i have different perspective on people leading these conversations. 16one assault weapons ban mr. Kenney voteed against. Voted against. All right. Anthony williams. Nelson diaz. To keep that theme along im not for vouchers and both kenney has voted for vouchers and so has senator williams, and that takes money out of the public School System but to answer the question i have to tell you that i was on the board of Excelon Corporation forced the company to take on the pension fund that was 65 funded. Use Management Change. Make sure the Management Change occurred. Changed the program in terms of the responsibilities and we went to 85 in two years. Thats a company that has over 30 billion in sales. Ive done that. As a housing general counsel at hud and i was able to reform public houseing throughout the country. I have the executive experience. Ive done it as the City Solicitor and ive also done it as the important administrative judge of the courts of philadelphia when people said i couldnt do it, i did it. You have to have the executive experience to be able to make things happen in politics. Your time is sup. Thank you nelson diaz wrapped just in time. Lynn abraham. The city of philadelphia government when i was head of the Redevelopment Authority wanted to shut down the Science Center because had he hadnt fulfill their lease. They didnt build the whole science sent in a few years and i defied the entire City Government and said no, im going to extent their lease. And since i was head of the redevelop authority, i did it. Of course i was fired for it but look at the Science Center now. An engine of technological development, a job creator a just benefit to philadelphia of unmatched proportions. Thats the kind of decisions you have to make. Sometimes this happens. A true leader after consultation and thoughtful process cease has to sometimes stand alone and i know how to do because ive done it. A trusted leader means that youre trusted by the people and that means you have to trust the people in return. I will do that as mayor. I will tell the people of philadelphia we have to make some difficult and tough choices. And im going to explain why we have to make those tough choices. The people will understand they may not love it, but they will understand if youre heart is true and the reasons are good, and the thinking is clear and thats what i bring to this office. Morning you lynn abe happen. The time now for each of our candidates to directly address you. Each has one minute. The order of course as with Everything Else selected pleat completely randomly it just happens to go down the line. Lynn abraham youre up first. The floor is yours. Thanks to st. Joes its a Great University and happy to be here. Just a few weeks ladies and gentlemen you the people will go out to the polls and elect the next mayor. You and only you not the special interests you you have the power. You will vote for the neck mayor. I hope i find favor and i ask you for your support as mayor. I can tell you im the only one in this stage hes had the executive experience that worked efficiently with budgets that hired thousands of people created jobs and saved jobs. Ive worked with all branches of the government. I know how to be a leader because ive been a trusted trusted and proven leader who has the experience to take over the job of mayor on day one. Im asking for your vote because together not just i you and i together, will have seat at the table and bring philadelphia into the next great ranks of american cities. I ask you for your vote. Im an independent think kerr but a collaborative leader. Nobody mayor but yours. Lynn abraham mayor may 19th thank you very much. Thank you lynn a abraham. Nelson diaz. Thank you viewers for watching and as a parent of three children, in the public School System im the only one up here who has that and ive been fight fog equal rights my whole life. I have the executive experience. You can tell from my corporate background from my activities where president clinton asked me to work to reform Public Housing. Where the Supreme Court asked me to reform the court system. As a corporate director you heard that i was able to reform the pension fund in a corporation. A Pennsylvania Fund of over 30 billion. I intend to be your mayor and i hope that you understand that we have to create a good School System create good jobs and lower the prime rate. Crime rate. If you stand with me, if you dream with me, if you fight with me i will fight for you every day. God bless you and god bless philadelphia. Thank you nelson diaz. Milton street. Mr. Diaz milton street, jr. Is out there. He graduated from strawberry mansion. My other children graduated from public School System, too. I have will stop the violence violence. Get rid of stop and frisk. Will reestablish a trust between the police and the community. Will organize a Community Surveillance team that is connected directly to the police to serve as a Quick Response and prevention tool. We go to prevention of crime not punishment. Punishment is too costly. I will address the problem of our veterans. Address the problem of our homeless. Address the problem of those people who up until now have not had access to the system. I will get rid of that putting people on the list. We have 400,000 poor people in this city. Thats the group of people that need desperate representation and thats the group thank you milton street. Your time is up. I appreciate it. Jim kenney. Well,a long career in city politic ive seen what works and what doesnt work. I have the courage to make hard decisions. Throughout this campaign i developed a wide range of support. From labor unions to environmental groups to all types of people throughout our city. And diverse opportunity for us to move together as a city into the future. Ive made hard decisions on things in the past. I can make hard decisions Going Forward in the future. I know what works. I know what doesnt if you i was allow me the opportunity to become your mayor ill make sure i follow through and make you proud. Jim kenney on may 19th. Thank you. Thank you very much jim kenney. Doug oliver. Thank you all for watching. Im run fog mayor because i seek to bring a different perspective to the challenges that have faced our city for decades. Decades. Up on the stage with me we have more than 100 years of elected office experience. I ask the question what that is a delivered for us . I do not come from the mayor manufacturing farm. I come from a different perspective and i think those different perspectives will bring new ideas in and new energy to the Mayors Office and we need it owe so much. I disagree that i dont have executive experience. Eight of the last 11 years ive served a senior capacity of pgw. But i bring my empathy my life experiences, my education including that nmb awry got at st. Joes all my my Work Experience to bear for the future much our city. If were not focusing on schools and jobs were focusing on the wrong thing. 100 years of experience have not solved those core problems i ask you to do Something Different on may 19 many may name is doug oliver i respect physical ask for your consideration. Annal knee williams. Thank you all for watching. Im running for mayor because the status quo has brought to us point in philadelphia where the problems are insurmountable. You hear from candidates i want to fix schools but. I want to bring jobs to philadelphia and reduce poverty but and most importantly i want to provide trust between Police Departments community but. I make no apology. For the dramatic and bold changes that are required at this moment in time. Im a person who has built couldnt says suss and knows how to build relationships im the person who has worked across the entire city of philadelphia my entire mitt cal life. Im a person who has the only person on this stage who has relationships in harrisburg. Much needed relationships in harrisburg to bring home what is needed in terms of resources for philadelphia. Tonight is a very important night. When you pick the next mayor of philadelphia, one who believes in the ability to of all philadelphians, whose able to reconcile the person reentering, the person whose wearing a double breast suit, single mom to the one Anthony Williams, i apologize apologize. Thats all right. The red light is on. Thank you very much. May 19th. I appreciate it. And candidates and our audience here in the studio and for all of you watching right now, thank you so much for being a part of this important look at the issue that is matter most to philadelphians and of course we all want to thank all of our panelists and our students who are amazeing and off the hook and brilliant and make me feel like i need to accomplish a little bit more and a very special thank you goes out to st. Josephs university for hosting todays debate. We so appreciate your generosity generosity. Now remember, of course, primary election date is may 19th. It will creep up on you like that. If you want to see change in the city you know what youve got to do. Youve got to get out there and youve got to vote. And we thank you so much for joining us. applause . 14 irresistible flavors. One for the mood. One for the moment. Each one can make every day more delicious than the last. The taste could only be baileys. The experience could only be yours. Baileys coffee creamers. This is the one. bird chirping groaning hm. Hmm . lisa wants a dotdotdot guinea pig . Mm. humming happily curious grunt yells homer smacking and chewing gulps, swallows curious grunt hey, homer, did you know that guinea pigs are selfgroomers . And when the get excited they jump straight up. Its called popcorning. Lisa got to you. I dont know how but she got to you. phone buzzing chiming emojis. Now shes gone too far. Lisa, your father and i are very concerned about all this hinting. groans ive never had a pet of my very own. My clock is ticking. I dont want to be one of those girls who waits till shes 16 to decide if shes ready