Tough issues await Philadelphia City Council

City Council returns from its summer recess Thursday with more than a third of its members about to exit public life and facing an agenda packed with difficult issues.

Foremost, Council must redraw the city's 10 political districts to account for population shifts - a process that has been ongoing for weeks and could get combative once a potential new map is unveiled.

Members spent most of Wednesday shuttling in and out of Council President Anna C. Verna's office as they tried to hammer out a first draft in time for Thursday's Council session.

While reportedly close to a redistricting agreement, Council leaders gave up at 8 p.m. and said they would resume work Thursday.

"We have nothing. We'll see you in the morning," said Councilwoman Marian B. Tasco.

While redistricting promises to dominate the early part of the fall session, Council also has to juggle the revamping of the zoning code, which could have far-reaching effects on every city neighborhood.

The Nutter administration supports replacing the current code, which is so outdated that 40 percent of the projects in the city require a zoning variance, a process that gives Council members great say over development in their districts.

A zoning code commission worked for four years to draw up a preliminary report delivered to Council in the spring. The goal was a modern and uniform code that would encourage development and limit the need for variances.

"The reason to do this is to create predictability," said Deputy Mayor Alan Greenberger, who chairs the zoning code commission. "Lack of predictability is a disincentive to business investment."

But several Council members - led by Bill Green and Brian J. O'Neill - have raised concerns about the new code's "unintended consequences" on neighborhoods. They argue that neighborhoods need more say in zoning to preserve their characters.

Green sent his colleagues a list of 10 recommendations Wednesday to allay concerns about "noxious uses," such as methadone clinics, seeping into neighborhoods.

A hearing on zoning revision is scheduled for Wednesday.

Behind the scenes this fall also looms the politics of electing the next Council president; Verna is among the six members serving their final terms.

"It's like the elephant in the room," said Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown.

The top candidates jockeying for support are Tasco, the Democratic floor leader, and Democratic Whip Darrell Clarke, but there is room for a compromise candidate if neither is able to secure enough backing.

Other major issues this fall include:

Votes to override two vetos Mayor Nutter made after the end of the spring session - one killing Council's revision of the DROP pension program and the other requiring some businesses to provide paid sick leave to employees.

The DROP bill passed by a comfortable margin, 14-3. Council needs only 12 votes to override the mayor's veto, and its unlikely the mayor has convinced enough Council members to switch their positions.

Nutter prefers to end the DROP program, which he says has cost the city millions, rather than trying to change it. Nutter's campaign recently e-mailed supporters, urging them to push their Council members to preserve the veto and end DROP.

"The mayor knows there's always next year," said Nutter spokesman Mark McDonald. "He's still going to be seeking the demise of that program and he's hopeful that the next Council might see the wisdom of that approach."

The paid-sick-leave bill, however, barely passed, with a 9-8 vote. It's not clear Council would even attempt an override vote, and Councilman W. Wilson Goode Jr. already has drafted an alternative.

Goode's bill would be an expansion of his 2005 living wage and benefits law and would require city-supported businesses to provide paid sick leave equal to what was in the original bill.

Drafting a new curfew law.

After a series of random attacks this summer linked to roving gangs of young people - so-called flash mobs - Mayor Nutter lowered the city's weekend curfew for minors to 9 p.m. in Center City and University City.

The previous curfew had been 10:30 during the week and midnight on weekends for teens 13 to 17.

Nutter said he would work with Council to devise a comprehensive curfew bill to replace the current law, which is more than 50 years old.

"We've heard positive feedback from parents, saying they like being able to tell their kids that there is a city curfew," said Lewis Rosman, the mayor's director of legislative affairs.

Deputy Mayor Everett Gillison has been working on a curfew proposal, but the administration said no details were available.

Several Council members plan to introduce bills designed to jump-start job creation and the city's economy.

Councilman James Kenney has a bill that would exempt new businesses from paying a variety of taxes and fees for the first two years of operation.

Green and Councilwoman Mària Quiñones Sánchez have a bill that would give businesses an exemption from business privilege taxes on the first $100,000 earned.

Both bills hope to be "revenue neutral," but Rosman was skeptical.

"What is to one person a stimulus could be to another lost revenue to the city," he said.

Green acknowledged that the proposed tax cuts in his bill aren't fully paid for, but he said, "We're open to alternative ways to pay for them, if the administration has any suggestions."

"We think it's important to send a message that Philadelphia realizes the tax code is not conducive to keeping our businesses," he said.

At the end of the fall session, as Council does every four years, all outstanding legislation will be wiped from the slate, so a new Council can start fresh in January.