Philly Council members and activists want to restore funding to enforce labor laws | City Council roundup

It was just a few months ago that City Council members voted in favor of a budget deal that slightly cut funding to the city’s Office of Worker Protections, which enforces Philadelphia’s relatively progressive labor laws like banning wage theft.

They did so despite a push from the body’s progressive members to increase funding to the office by $2.6 million.

Now, a majority of Council members say they agree the office needs more money — and they may press for it as soon as this fall.

Also this week: Council wants the administration to delay the property tax appeal deadline to next year, and there were dozens of electricians in City Hall on Thursday. Let’s break it down.

Support for worker legislation and more funding: Eleven Council members representing a majority of the 17-member body joined the Pennsylvania Domestic Workers Alliance on Thursday to express support for forthcoming legislation bolstering protections for workers facing retaliation.

The legislation, which is being authored by Councilmember Kendra Brooks, of the Working Families Party, will be introduced in the coming weeks. But Brooks said the city’s labor laws are toothless without an adequately funded office to enforce them.

Typically, adjusting funding for Council’s priorities happens every year in the spring around budget proposal time. But Brooks said “this fall is our chance to make things right,” suggesting she will push to add funding to the office during what’s called the midyear transfer process.

» READ MORE: Advocates worry that Parker’s labor budget will hamper investigations into workplace violations

The show of support Thursday for Brooks and the domestic workers was notable because it came from members beyond the progressive cohort. Danny Bauder, president of the influential Philadelphia AFL-CIO, was also there.

“I’ve been with you before. I’m with you now,” Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr. said. “I’ll be with you in the vote in the future.”

Council wants to delay property tax appeal deadline: Lawmakers are urging Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration to delay the deadline for homeowners to appeal their 2025 property assessments. Currently, the deadline to file an appeal is Oct. 7. But notices of new assessments were sent in August, months later than is typical.

Council’s resolution, championed by Councilmember Rue Landau, wants the administration to accept late appeals through March 31.

A new initiative to ensure vote-by-mail access: Philadelphia is launching a program to ensure voters who live in nursing homes have access to vote by mail this November. Councilmember Nina Ahmad, who represents the city at large, introduced legislation recognizing the “Platinum Voters” initiative that she’s leading in partnership with the city commissioners, who oversee elections.

Through the program, the city commissioners will work with Ahmad and district-level Council members to distribute mail ballot applications directly to nursing homes and long-term care facilities in their areas. Commissioners will then coordinate with nursing home staff to collect the applications.

A sea of electricians: The proposed 76ers arena wasn’t on the agenda Thursday, but dozens of union workers packed the galleries overlooking Council’s chambers anyway.

By the start of the meeting, just 12 hours after Parker held a high-profile town hall about the arena, members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98 had packed the chambers. Their business manager, Mark Lynch, sat in the front row alongside a handful of the union’s top leaders.

» READ MORE: Sixers arena town hall: Chinatown feared for its survival, union leaders touted jobs

Local 98, long one of the most politically powerful unions in the state, is a key supporter of the arena project.

A handful of opponents of the Sixers proposal, wearing “no arena in Chinatown” T-shirts, were also in Council on Thursday. The dueling displays are likely to be mainstays in Council this fall as lawmakers prepare to consider legislation enabling the controversial project.

That was City Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, who spoke in Council about her takeaways from a recent hearing on improving access to addiction treatment beds in the city. She introduced legislation Thursday to reconvene Council’s Special Committee on Kensington to study best practices in substance-use disorder outreach and investigate the current outreach models the city uses.