Council members hear Nutter's budget-cut scenarios

City Council members yesterday learned of the real-life consequences of cutting city department budgets as much as 30 percent, at least as the Nutter administration sees them.

Take away 10 percent of the Fire Department's budget, and you lose three engine and two ladder companies, and three medic units - and 163 of 2,157 uniformed firefighter positions.

Reduce the Free Library's spending by 20 percent, and watch as 23 of 54 branches close, while 26 others trim service to five days a week.

Make a 30 percent gash into the Police Department budget, and the city sacrifices 2,598 of 6,624 sworn-officer positions - and likely loses a strike force, police specially assigned to handle accident investigations, and other units.

"If we have to shrink the department, specialized units would be the first to go," Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said last night.

Those and other unpleasant scenarios were presented to Council at a briefing in a Municipal Services Building conference room last night, marking the first public discussion of what could happen if city departments were forced to cut their budgets by 10 percent, 20 percent or 30 percent.

Nutter asked his department heads to illustrate the impact of such reductions last month when he announced that the city faced a new $1 billion budget shortfall. Three months earlier, the city had just closed a separate $1 billion hole.

Judging by the scenarios described last night, the impact this time will be far broader, affecting many more programs and services than the libraries, fire companies and swimming pools that were at the center of discussion last fall.

For instance, the number of homeless people on the street is almost certain to increase if the city's Department of Supportive Housing is cut.

"Unfortunately, there is no way of avoiding that," said Dainette Mintz, director of the department.

Given the options he faces, Fire Department Commissioner Lloyd Ayers told Council, "We believe there would be a decrease in the ability to reach locations on time." He did not elaborate.

Prisons Commissioner Louis Giorla said that under some scenarios the city would have to find beds within its crowded jails for inmates that it now pays millions for other municipalities to house. The problem, as he put it, is that the city's jails are "topped out."

"It will take a lot of work and open-mindedness," Nutter told the 13 of 17 Council members who sat with him and his top aides for nearly four hours at a U-shaped table reviewing page after page of unwanted possibilities. The four members who did not attend were Blondell Reynolds Brown, Jack Kelly, Frank Rizzo and Joan Krajewski.

As they ate Girl Scout cookies and drank coffee, tea or water, Nutter expressed hope that discussion could take place without anyone getting "flipped out."

"These are all options, ideas, proposals and scenarios," the mayor stressed. "No decisions have been made with regard to any of them."

Still, the administration took some pains to emphasize that even an across-the-board 10 percent cut of city departments would not be enough to close the deficit. By the administration's calculations, that would still leave a gap of $108 million.

Toward that end, Nutter also outlined the implications of raising particular taxes.

A 0.1 percent increase in the city's 7 percent sales tax, for example, would generate an additional $12.8 million a year. What's more, raising the sales tax requires state approval.

Hiking the 3.305 percent real estate tax by one mill would result in an extra $10.8 million.

But nothing alone, it seemed, would be enough.

Nutter warned against relying on President Obama's economic-stimulus package for relief. "I have no reason to expect that any of those dollars can be used to plug a budget hole," he said.

There was palpable tension in the room at times.

Councilman Darrell L. Clarke, the majority whip, suggested that Nutter follow the rules for a full public budget hearing in City Hall, with advance notice and open to anyone.

"Once you say it's public, then have it over there in Council Chambers and have the Council president preside over it," Clarke said in an interview after the meeting.

And at the end of the meeting, Nutter took subtle aim at those who have opposed him on budget cuts thus far.

"I want to make sure that we're all living in the same reality," said Nutter in response to a question from Councilman Bill Green, who has publicly challenged Nutter's budget decisions and projections more than any other member. "We need to be prepared and be mature enough to make some very tough decisions."

The briefing, which was open to the public, marked a turnaround from last fall in the administration's approach to balancing the city budget.

Faced with making $108 million in immediate cuts, the mayor barred reporters - an armed guard was posted - from discussions he held with Council members in early November. Though ultimately unsuccessful, the owner of The Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News sued to prevent future closed-door meetings.

Nutter's self-built image as the leader of an open and transparent government was further tested when residents at "town-hall" meetings reacted angrily to being informed of budget-cutting decisions after they occurred.

By contrast, the mayor in recent weeks has publicized his attempts to gather residents' input during visits - some just 15 minutes long - to hair salons, diners, and a home in Juniata.

"He clearly made a mistake in the first phase of this budget cutting, and the administration recognizes that," said Zack Stalberg, president of the watchdog group Committee of Seventy.

The carefully orchestrated effort will culminate in two events later this week.

At 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Nutter is expected to chair the first of three "PhillyStat" meetings on the budget that will be shown on the city government-run Channel 64.

Then, at 7 that night, the first of four community budget workshops will take place, in which residents will have an opportunity to consider actual city budget data for the 2010 fiscal year.

Hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Project for Civic Engagement, the forums will be run as workshops, and residents will be able to comment on the budget decisions facing department leaders.

"We have interactive small-group exercises for citizens to work together to figure out what they are and are not willing to live with, and what we learn from that will become the advice we give to the city," said Harris Sokoloff, director of the Project for Civic Engagement. "We'll see what happens."

Philadelphia residents can participate in four community workshops on the Nutter administration's plans for balancing the city's spending plan for fiscal 2010. The workshops, which are also designed to gather input on program cuts, run from 7 to 9:30 p.m., with registration beginning at 6. They will be held:

Thursday at St. Dominic's School, 8510 Frankford Ave., Upper Holmesburg.

Feb. 18 at Mastery Charter School, Pickett Campus, 5700 Wayne Ave., Germantown.

Feb. 19 at St. Monica's Catholic School, 16th and Porter Streets, South Philadelphia.

Feb. 23 at Inn Memorial Baptist Church, 2251 N. 54th St., Wynnefield section of West Philadelphia.