jeopardy and wheel of fortune will not be seen at their regular time tonight so we can bring you this special presentation. this is "action news": vote 2015. the the philadelphia democratic mayoral primary debate. tonight's debate is brought to you by six abc along with the league of women voters of philadelphia. and now from our six abc studios in alphabetical order the candidates are lynn abraham, nelson diaz, jim

kenny, and doug oliver, milton street and, anthony hardy williams. our panel for today's debate are uni vision 65 anchor and senior producer ilya gar see a inquirer reporter chris hepp and now your moderator "action news" anchor jim gardner. >> hello, thank you for joining us for this debate among the six democratic candidates running for mayor of philadelphia. a quick note about our format tonight, each candidate will have 45 seconds to answer the question posed to them by myself and our two pap he-- panel list. if we feel a issue bears furnished der discussion we can continue, and each candidate will have an equal chance to weigh in. the candidates will also answer some questions sent to us, by way of six abc.com and facebook, and twitter. at the end of the debate, each candidates will have one minute to make a closing statement, so let's begin.

folks, i'm sure it is fair to say that every mayor in america has been laser focused on the situation in baltimore. i think, voters of philadelphia would be eager to hear how you would respond to the following unhappy scenario. as mayor your chief of have staff burstness to your office and informs you that an african-american teenager has been shot and killed by a philadelphia police officer and initial reports are that the teenager was unarmed. i want to know what you would do the first three things, that you would do and would have to to after getting that information. by random drawing we will begin with nelson diaz? >> speaking spanish. >> i want to thank you for that question. it is very important for us that we realize that philadelphia is just one

incident away from a similar situation. what we have to do is what we have not provide. we have not provided jobs. we have not provided education. we have not provided police community policing, which is tan amount to being able to provide an opportunity for police, and the community to know each other. this has been a terrible activity. since 1981 i have been working the in the area of making sure that there is desegregation in the police department. i served on three other commissions. all my life i have work for civil rights. >> mr. diaz, mr. diaz, what are the first three things that you would do after being told about that scenario. >> first thing would i do actually is make sure that we have all of the information necessary, so that we can tell the parent what they didn't do in baltimore. we have a video. we should show the video to the parent. we should have police reform. they have to form a relationship with the police. if there is no police

relationship there is no way that there is a combination. this strikes from the background of big opportunities of lack of police reform. the daily news just said yesterday... >> sir, i have to interrupt thank you. president williams. what are first three things you would do after getting information like that. >> get the facts as we understand them. then go to the scene where family is. report out facts to the family. provide information to the entire community about the set of circumstances that are evolving as we understand them. >> mr. oliver, three things that you would do. >> first thing would i do is get in touch with the police commissioner, and the head of the fop . i would want to find out exactly what happened to get as much information as possible, before reaching out to the family, and let them know that someone is watching. someone is understanding what is going on. we will get back in touch with them. the third thing would i do is reach out to faith leaders in the community, community leaders, to make them aware of a situation happening and let them know when we will be in

touch with facts as we know them. >> mr. street? >> first thing would i do is go out in the community myself, as mayor and talk to the community people. then i would have my police commissioner along with me. we would talk with the the community people and the police officer. if the facts presented themselves that it looked like it was an unprovoke shooting would i take the police officer into custody and continue to communicate with the community people. >> miss abraham. >> well, if i have done my job right this would have been prevented in the first place. it should not happen. i would immediately sum on my police commissioner, city council leader, clergy, faith based across the city and speak to the community leaders on the ground to see what is happening. then i would go on television and speak to the community and ask the community for calm. i would then, involve the district attorney and the federal authorities to make sure that this investigation is launched immediately then

would i speak to the family and assure them that i was there for them and we will get to the bottom of this quickly andcorrectly. >> mr. kenny? >> would i get a full briefing making sure we have all of the information possible. would i also reach out to faith based leaders and community leaders. we would then share whatever information we had with the family, what that is police reports or whether that is video. we in must make sure that families are feeling involved and make sure there is no misunderstanding of any type of hiding of any information. then we would move forward with the community together hopefully, the young man, would have have survived. we would make sure that the family has everything that they need. we would move forward in a positive direction, open and transparently. >> thank you. our next question comes from ilya garcia of uni vision 65 and it goes to anthony williams. >> yes mr. williams, do you believe that there is racial profiling in philadelphia that is happening and if so what is your plans to combat

this practice? >> it clearly is occurring in philadelphia. stop and frisk is evident of that. 95 percent of those who are stopped and frisked are people of color and most of them clearly 95 percent have been involved. clearly profiling has been establish. department of justice has provided understanding of how it is occurring and i in turn will provide a 91-point plan offered by the the president of the you had that would change and remove stop and frisk. i would go further. that means hate speech from police officers. those police officers would be fired from the department as we understand it. the person who is the person that used stop and frisk the mess the the current commissioner. we have to change the commissioner in philadelphia. >> mr. oliver? >> yes, i do believe racial profiling occurs in the city of philadelphia. i think that we, as a city, need to recognize it so we can fix it. stop and frisk is one iteration of that type of profiling but beyond just

talking about stop and frisk we have to talk about the attitude that under lies stop and frisk. we can do away with the nomenclature and still have it impacting communities across the city. we know it impacts african-american and latin o community far more than anyone else. for that reason we would want to spend more time working with our police department, understanding the communities they are serving community policing, community relationships, creating those relationships even as early as elementary school between young kid and police officers, things like police athletic leagues and others are how we solve that problem. >> thanks mr. oliver. mr. street? >> i'm so glad entered this race. prior to me none of these candidates talk about stop and frisk. none of them were talking about community policing. i put together a four-point, a plan, to stop the violence. i have had that plan out there. if i was not in this race, there wouldn't be discussed. is there community profiling?

i think it is a little will bit. i miss read that. i think it is a little bit. i don't think it is overwhelming. i'll talk about that a little bit later on. but, it can be stopped easily. >> miss abraham? >> i think the first one to solute fine men and women of the police department who do their job appropriately. but it is clear from the evidence that read across the the country that racial profiling is a reality. so obviously i support implementation of the 91 points on the presidential commission, which our chief ramsey has participated in. second of all i would look at recruiting and training of police officers and make sure they are sensitized to what need to be done on the street, in the street. third of all, we want to make sure our community and police work together harmoniously which is the case in many instances in philadelphia. we want to make sure stop and frisk as we know it in philadelphia is put to the

end. that would be a tremendous advance in the perception and reality of racial profiling. >> mr. kenny? >> yes there is racial profiling in the city. that is why i sponsor legislation to decriminal ice the possession of small amounts of marijuana. 4200 young people a year were being arrested in our city, because of stop and frisk and 83 percent were african-american or people of color. we were putting young people in the criminal justice system for an activity requiring them to be handcuffed, transported fingerprinted, photographed and given a criminal record. it also was terrible relationships between police and our communities when these young people are stopped at random and arrested for a small violation which is now a fine in philadelphia and not an arrest. >> mr. diaz. >> there are 200,000 arrests in stop and frisks and out of that only 47 were justified 47 percent are justified. they only found one in 400 guns in the entire process. the problem is that policing hasn't change.

you have to change it back to community policing. the problem that we have is that daily news said yesterday that jim kenny and lynn abraham have been on the wrong side of reaching the police. >> by the way, forgive me chris is mr. williams the only candidate here who would want to replace commissioner ramsey. >> absolutely not. nobody wants to replace him until i said that he had to go. i mean that is a fact. mr. williams said he was going to keep him. mr. williams said in a meeting last week that senator street was right. he was wrong. >> do you want to respond to that. >> i absolutely want to respond. it wasn't milton street that decide that had, countless numbers of mothers and young men across philadelphia said we appreciate your perspective of stop and frisk which i start well before this campaign. it was said to me if you don't replace the person who is greatest dependent and executor of stop and frisk it does not mean. word are hallow.

axis most important issue in this particular space and time. >> mr. oliver, i'll follow-up. would you keep the commissioner, and if so, why so. if not why not. >> i think the police commissioner is one of the most important hires that a mayor will to have make. but it is one of many. i think it is inappropriate to have a personnel conversation on six abc before anybody is in office, but i can tell you that i think the leadership necessary to lead our police department is here in philadelphia. whether that is police commissioner ramsey or anybody else, it is a conversation that we will have as time moves forward. most importantly though, it is that they have the mind set that we need to continue community policing, that we have a another just situation that we need to repair. even just yesterday conversation with fourth and fifth graders shows that the seeds of bad relationship between the police department and communities are already in young kid. we have a lot of work to do and long way to go and i will need my police commissioner to

understand that. >> it seems like we have an opportunity for rest of you to talk about keeping commissioner ramsey, or easing the tension between the minority community and the philadelphia police department. how would you go about doing that? >> if you in fact think it exists -- >> it is easy. way i would go number one commissioner ramsey is out of here. number two, we will hire somebody from within the police department that has compassion, who was born and raised in philadelphia. number three, you have a police and community review board in each district. you have to reestablish the trust between the community and the the police. let me just say this in my last 15 seconds you can't believe a word senator williams says. he is controlled by the millionaires out there at 555 they have brought him, they have purchased him and they

are spending millions of dollars trying to get the the voters to deliver him. you don't need to listen to him. those people will call the shots. >> miss and ham. >> i have work with commissioner ramsey at least two years bring left the commissioner office. he is a fair minded police commissioner. it was he who called in report of excessive use of force and asked just advertise department to do the evaluation of how the police department handled force. i like him. i would keep him. question is would he stay, he and i discussed this as mayor and i asked him to say and he decline, would i consult him as to who in the department he thought, would be worthy. i know all of the top commanders in the police kept. i necessity them well. i have worked with them for over 20 years. many fine examples. would i cast a wide net making sure that the person who will lead the the police department would have the the same mine set, about police reform, recruiting and training police making sure our community need are met. >> thank you. mr. kenny. >> apparently the president of the you had has a a lot of

faith in chief ramsey because he had has tapped him to run that large group to review police nothing america. he is a decent man. he had has done his best in this job. one thing about him that he didn't like marijuana decriminalization either and said he would not enforce it. when we passed the bill he called me personally on the phone and you of the civilian government, we are police department, we will enforce the law as you have passed it. if he stays or if he goes, the new commissioner of my administration would be within the the police department currently. >> mr. diaz? >> i agree with jim kenny that there is a need to make sure that we respect a man who is the president has asked to have his opinion stated. i would speak to him. but i want to make sure that he understands that there is a need for community policing which is that the community should know police and police should know the community. it is really important because most kid you only thing that you see is violent behavior,

when a child sees a person being arrested or put in a pad i wagon. they don't see the beat cop. they don't see relationship. they don't play with them. they have no power sense around them. you need that kind of rich relationship in order to make sure that the powe lease and the the citizens have a good relationship. >> thank you mr. diaz. mr. williams? >> i think that i have led in this area clearly led conversation obviously. first by rolling out the plan. then by talking to the community. talking about hate speech, removing hate speech which the head of the fop has said a decent amount of police officers in philadelphia would be fired if the zero tolerance standard was applied. i think that should send chills up the spines of parents, mothers and fathers and people on this stage should understand that there is no pandering this moment. it is about action. so for me, the police commissioner is a fine man.

but people, need to be replaced when they stand for a policy that people in the community simply don't trust. those three things, the plan authored by president of the you had, zero hate speech and replacing the police commissioner are all part of me. >> we have been over the last number of days soliciting questions, from some of our viewers, on facebook, and on six abc.com and on twitter and we have a question from lauren, and it is very direct, very simple, and very important. how would you resolve the school funding crisis in philadelphia, and we begin with milton street. >> you have to resolve that -- two types of taxes there is inn tax and there is indirect tax and a direct tax. we have to have a direct, indirect tax, 75,000 students in the philadelphia school district is black, 25,000 is hispanic 19,000 are caucasian. we have a my north school

district. it will be very, very difficult to get middle class and lower middle class to use their tax dollars for it in a minority school district. what we have to do is go to harrisburg and ask them for enabling legislation let an independent, an indirect tax sort of like gaming, sort of like lottery where we can have enough money to fund the schools and we don't have to ask any legislators to -- >> thank you for being so disciplined and appreciated. >> lynn abraham. >> well, we are hopeful governor wolf has put for the a very bold plan about recognizing the need of philadelphia has had. we have been cheated in philadelphia out of our fair funding form lah for children for too long. we have suffered consequences of the children not getting a first class education they deserve. governor wolf promised 160 million-dollar to philadelphia, plus an

additional fund for prek education. now there is still is about 105 million-dollar short fall. so, i would propose a use of 88 million-dollar, in tax lean sales, plus 12 percent raise in the use and occupancy tax which will raise another 17 million-dollar, and then going forward, making sure that those, those monies were recurring and regular, because that is what we have to do once city puts money in the school budget, it has to be there on a regular and recurring basis. >> mr. kenny? >> i agree, we have a good partner in governor wolf and governor wolf is doing his best to provide more funding for schools across the state. fair funding formula is important but reimbursement for charters in philadelphia is immediately more important because that is set up the tension between charter schools and the the public schools. so, i have been able to find in my career times when i had to make hard votes difficult choice toes vote for real estate tax in an election year to keep schools from closing. there are many things i have laid out in my plan to provide

money necessary to get that 105 million-dollar gap filled, but in the meantime ultimate solution has to come from the constitutional responsibility of harrisburg to fully fund all schools in pennsylvania but we would never allow in my time in council never allow schools to go closed or half days. >> are you suggesting you would support mayor nutter's proposed nine and a half percent property tax increase. >> i'm not a pledge signer. i have voted for taxes before. i would think i would find out what we are getting from the commonwealth first. i think wolf has a plan forsch extraction tax and other money for schools. lets see what he can get and then we will worry about how to raise taxes if we need to. >> mr. die as. >> i will have a plan which raises 300 million immediately for school system which is what doctor hite has questioned. that is an eight-point plan which philadelphia inquirer said was best plan for school funding and provides 600 million over the next five years. it is composed of tax reform. we tax the wrong people, in

the wrong place. we should be taxing, the the commercial real estate taxes we should be reducing our wage taxes which would be good for business. and we should also make sure that we get our tax abatements correctly. we have to go after the delinquent taxes. we also provide an opportunity to get a 150 million from the pension fun by reorganizing and managing the the pension fund appropriately as i have done in other situations when i was in the corporate board. >> mr. williams. >> the young laid hoy ask the question. >> lauren. >> lauren, i hope you are listening in intently to this answer. i'm not raising your taxes. certainly i will go to harrisburg. quarter billion dollars of public schools has been offered by me to provide public education. i will continue to do that. i will work with the governor and republican controlled legislature to provide that tension that my opponent talk about . hundred million-dollar in charter school reimbursement.

and a graded funning formula. we have to be smart about what we do locally. we will manage our assets so we don't to have raise your taxes f we do that we will close pension obligation, fill out our budget, provide more money for public schools in philadelphia then we ever have before without raising taxes. >> mr. oliver? >> ladies and gentlemen, are you as tired of all this as i am. what you have just heard is political answers to an issue that requires a different perspective. we can raise taxes, we have already done sales tax, we have already done cigarette tax, we have already done, we are proposing property tax but the better question is for what. does anybody think if we had all of the money in the world we would have a school district that would educate our children. we can talk about governing we can talk about funding but until we talk about curriculum and stem and making sure our kid have what they need to live the lives that they want, until we figure out what is going on in the homes across this city, we will keep on having this conversation about raising taxes. i'm tired of it.

i think you're tired of it. on may 19th you take an opportunity to do something different and have a different conversation. >> let's begin the next question with lynn abraham and we have already heard mentioned made of pension situation. >> um-hmm. >> i'm not sure that philadelphians really understand the death of the pension fund crisis and how it makes it impossible for philadelphia to adequate thely fund public schools. philadelphia has to make a deposit this year of over 600 million-dollar to the pension fund because philadelphia's almost $6 billion late with its pension fund payments. that is 600 million-dollar that will not go to the schools or will not be going to tax cuts. what needs to be done to fix this pension crisis, and what will you do as mayor to fix the pension crisis. >> well, there will be no way you can fill a

5 billion-dollar plus pension hole by doing efficiencies. what has to be change is the the whole way that we're funding our pensions. first of all pensions have been decided by our courts to be contracts that cannot be violated unless we go bankrupt. i will in the let philadelphia go bankrupt. what we have to do is go forward and make sure that the people who come into the employee as a city of philadelphia pay a bigger share of money in to the pension plan. currently city employees pay 2 percent. it has got to be 5 percent. we have to get rid of the fat cat money managers making millions of dollars when we're going down the tube. third thing stop giving out bonus toes people just because they have been retired for a long period of time without considering the the health of the pension fund . fourth we have to make sure that we do what warren buffet says, stop making promises we cannot keep president this has got to stop. blanket 401k or ira or combination of all of them have to be considered. i don't care what we have to do. we have to fill that pension hole. that money should go to the schools and not to the pension

hole. >> mr. kenny. >> all of the changes we need to do in the pension fund need to be negotiated with our employees. it is something we need to sit down and talk reality to them making sure they understand the the differences things we can do, to improve the fun. city has to put more money in the fun. i also believe that there is this under current of loss, and costs, in the waste our fund is manager. is there 108 money managers that took about 32, 33 million-dollar out of the pension fund in actual bonuses, last year. they have done that for years, even at times when pension fund is not doing well, when it went off fiscal cliff in the economy's melt down. we have to look at that. we have to negotiate with our employees. we have to figure out a number of different choices hybrid pensions and the like, and we will talk about increasing the age of retirement. we need to negotiate it. >> mr. diaz. >> jim, i have done it, i have done it as a director of excel on. we had a pension that is 65 percent funded. by two years by changing management changing oversight, we have got to an

85 percent funded projects. we have to make sure just like jim was talking about how they mismanaged it, you have to manage it appropriately. you have to bring the appropriate management and oversight and appropriate professionals to make sure they do it. it is not happening in our city. we need to make sure that happens immediately and that will be one of the first things would i do is put professionals who have that background into the pension fund. >> mr. williams? >> this is the one issue that bankrupted detroit. we are right next to it. understand that i have a plan. we have to use our assets much differently. a public/private partnership allows to us draw down billions of dollars and fill in that pension hole. we can use concept of indexes as my friend josh shapiro has used in the counties. i will not continue to play cruel jokes on hard working pensioners yes you've got 31 million-dollar worth of bonus money.

you are promised another 62 total next year. understand something majority of philadelphians don't that have benefit. those that currently do, you are being destabilized. that money will run out. >> thank you mr. williams. >> mr. oliver. >> once again, we have a hundred years of experience up here and we keep having the same pension conversations again, gain and again. at some point you have to realize that you will have to change the pension formula. it was based on how long would you live and how market performed. people are living longer, market is more volatile than ever. we have to change the pension plan. we have to grow our tax base. 50,000 new philadelphians, they come here to learn they come here to play, we have to get them to live here. we have to find out what will keep them here and deliver that to them. we have to change the way we approach these problems. new perspective is what is needed. i hope you consider that may 19th. >> mr. street. >> i have an idea, why don't we ask the millionaires that is supporting senator williams and spending a hundred dollars to buy the mayor's office to

pay down the pension fund. that might work. that is a better idea then what he has offered. he talks about management, and he could not manage a 800 student charter school. charter school. he could not manage it. i raised this before. he said that is in the true. i did some research. it is not true. not only could he not manage it but financial difficulties with the school. so for senator williams to stand up here and talk all these different fantasies, it is just not true. he could not manage a school. he cannot manage the city. >> thank you sir. we will go to ilya garcia, question for mr. kenny. >> mr. kenny, you talk a little bit on charter schools when you were answering about funding the schools. with education reforms lacking in philadelphia's public schools, charter schools are financial strain to the city school system. sort of you keep believing one patient to help another

patient live, eventually the first patient will die. as mayor would you support charter schools and what steps would you take to address this issue. >> well, charter schools are here to stay. i was on the initial board of the charter school, independent charter school, which is doing very well but i'm a fan of the public schools. i'm a supporter of the public schools. we need charter school reimbursement. what caused the problem is during rendell years we were reimbursed for every child who left public school to go to the public charter school. in the corbett years he cut that out and commonwealth citizens cut out governor corbett. he is no longer there. we have a governor that understands dynamic and i trust he will come up with a form lah to get us a charter school reimbursement whiz will kind of calm down that argument that goes on all the time. i think public schools primarily need to be fully funded. >> nelson diaz. >> i'm not against charter. charters work. but charters that are bad should be closed. we should look at what the governor asks, let's stop opening charters until we fully fund schools. that is what is important.

two of my collogues both senator williams and councilman jim kenny have both voted for vouchers. that is not going to help the school system. that will take the cash out of the system and we, again rob from peter to pay paul. >> mr. williams? >> i'm finally glad we're having this conversation, everybody agrees we should talk about charters in some format. i'm only one who delivered on my commitment toward public education. quarter billion dollars. i want to remind my dear teacher friend out there those with a pft endorsed candidate represent same value with regard to charters but i have done one more thing he has in the done. i delivered on my commitment to public schools. i'm referencing the governor hoist a friend of all of ours. hundred million-dollar, in terms of the charter school reimbursement will happen in philadelphia because i know as a mayor how to work harrisburg with relationship that are not simply democrat but also republican. >> doug oliver. >> i think the conversation about charter schools verse district schools is the wrong

argument. i think it needlessly divides us. better conversation is high perform schools verse under performing schools f i asked but that we can all agree nobody wants a under performing school in their neighborhood. unfortunately under performing schools are the biggest drain on the school district's budget. i see, to work through the src or whatever governing body is called to work to close down, or reform those under performing schools. making sure that they don't take dollars and not educating our children. but again, we can talk about funding, we can talk about charter, district and all of those things but what are we funding in what are we teaching our kid? that is most important thing. >> milton street. >> we need public education quality public education across the board. across the board. we're not going to get that if we let the millionaires out on city line avenue buy the mayor's office. they are charter school people. they are voucher people. i am passionate about this. i am going to keep saying it.

i don't want voters to miss this. senator williams has sold his soul to the the millionaires. he has been purchased packaged and he is depending on the voters to deliver him. the millionaires can this is deliver him but they are doing everything they can to get these charter schools and these vouchers, by buying the mayor's office. we got to go people, for quality education across the board. >> lynn abraham. >> i'm glad doug is watching my commercial because in my commercial i say public schools, charter schools it is wrong argument. it is educating all of our children. charter schools and public schools have an important role to play. i support superintendent height height's plan 3.0 to make sure our schools, all of our schools are delivering on the promise of making sure our children have a first class education. i can tell you something our teachers wonderful people. their contracts have to be respected, but they have to take ownership for the results of their teaching. and they need to be led in

turn by first class principals. principals as leaders. principals who can guide them and make sure they are doing the right thing. but principals don't come just from schoolteachers who have been around a long time. you have to be specially train. you have to have leadership quality. that is what you need in our schools to make sure every child has a first class quality education. >> chris hepp you have a question for mr. diaz. >> may i respond to the constant refrain with regard to me that the senator has provided, am i able to respond to that. >> you have 15 seconds. >> i want voters to know that i have consistently taken these positions since i hit the general assembly well before i met anybody who supports my campaign. people support mize campaign because i have taken a broad step of providing quality public education regardless of the political consequence of that. difficult that even when my dear friend was changing parties in supporting the same views. >> thank you sir. >> mr. diaz, i would like to stay on the subject of school funding. one of the things the src is

trying to do is extract contract concessions from the teachers. particularly changes in work rules, and asking the teachers to contribute more to their health care. you support those efforts? would you ask more or less of teachers going forward. >> i think that the teachers have been mistreated in the school system. they have not been given the respect necessary. also they have had problem of not having all of the necessary opportunities that if you go to lower merion. the kids have a computer, lap tops, whatever the science of today may have. but, in our system we don't even have a piece of paper. what we have to do essentially is make sure that we give them what is known in the science as a wrap around system, the social services, the necessary nursing, the gym, the art, all of the qualities that every other school has and a play ground for them to be in. we shortchanged our teachers, and as a result, they are working harder then they need to to go to that issue.

>> excuse me. >> do i understand you would not ask concessions of them in contract time? >> i do not think it is necessary. what you have to do is hold them accountable and make sure that you have an accountability system and that you have a principal who is entrepreneurial and goes out and works with the school system and brings those opportunities of rap around to be able to make the kid be able to learn in school. that was the the problem i had. >> mr. williams? >> my apologies there is some news in the audience. i'm sorry. of course, i would support teachers paying for their benefits. everybody else does, in society who is current liz working. what i would do is fight for increases in their salary. i also provide stipends so they don't have to go to their pockets in providing utensils and et cetera. there is a fair way to trade off and fair way to represent the impact through a true negotiation that represents the benefit respect of those

teaching. recognize they don't get paid enough. so that is a hardship when we talk about benefits. there is an appropriate place to have this conversation at the negotiating table but certainly we should start with increased salaries but also, trade off with regard to paying for some portion of your benefits. >> mr. oliver. >> when i was growing up, i went to school and got educated. they sent me home where i got more education. they sent me back to school and i got more education. i was ping-pong back and forth from school to home. that is where i got to be where i have choices. i think this system is now broken. we send our kids to school unprepared to learn. the teachers do the the best they can. they send their kid back home teaching them to read. they go home and they don't have there people reading. we ask a lot of our teachers. we will have to do more to support our teachers. again, what are we funding though. i need to make sure that everybody is aware that this isn't always just a money issue. when we talk about what the teacher contributions is we must first ask what they are asking them to contribute to a system that works and

recognizes that the work they do is important. we have to start with what we're funding and then figure out who can contribute what. >> forgive me you have not addressed the question, should pft be making some concessions. >> i believe some concessions are probably necessary and i'm specifically around health care pensions and health care costs. that is an area where we might to have revisit but again, how much we don't know until we figure out what we are funding. >> thank you sir. >> mr. street. absolutely not. you cannot ask teach tours give back what they have negotiated down through the the years when they go in the pockets a lot of them and pay and buy their own supplies. we don't have supplies in some of the schools. we have some good teachers because i know of teachers every payday that go through one of the stores and they used their own money to buy supplies, and now, we're going to ask them to give money back for their benefits. until we secure adequate funding sufficient to offer a quality education then the

teachers are not the subject. the teachers are not the subject here. it is the inadequate fund ago this we have been unable to provide for the the schools. the teachers have done everything that they can using their own money to let them educate the children. >> lynn abraham. >> i certainly believe teachers in the next negotiations session has to bargain for more in the way of what they have to give up. either they will to have pay more in terms of what they buy into or have different contract terms, with regard to how many benefits they get and how long they get them for. lifetime pension benefit is in good. having said that, i have bought school supplies for thousands of kid under my tools for schools programs. i even bought a library for philadelphia public school because our school system was failing our children which they still are failing. i believe that teachers have to teach, they have to teach well, but they have to be responsible for outcomes. i solute all of our teachers. i don't think we should have schools with no librarians, no

counselors, no aid no janitors and no support for our teachers. we have to do better. we have to take care of our children first. >> jim kenny? >> in this country we have labor/management relationships. most of our employees in the city and school district work under a contract. that contract is negotiated. if you are willing to negotiate something different in the contract you have to sit and do it. to litigate it to try to dictate it, just doesn't work. we have to sit down and it is more difficult for a mayor because src is in the way. they are ones negotiating the contract. so mayor's office, office of the mayor has to be a person that is in the room or near the room to have these facilitate these conversations. i do believe unless we negotiate in good faith and we have give and take on both side nothing will ever get done. >> in our search for dollars for philadelphia schools let me ask about tax abatements. center city philadelphia -- you know what, we will do viewer question first and then i'll get to the tax

abatement. i want to thank dave, our producer for letting me know that, kindly. michelle says and gave us this question by way of twitter. michelle says that you have 45 seconds to convince a ceo who is thinking of relocating his company or her company to philadelphia. you got 45 seconds to pitch philadelphia to the individual. ready, set go. who is first here dave? anthony williams. you have 45 seconds to pitch the ceo to move to philadelphia. >> michelle, we're in the elevator and i want you to understand. i come from the business background. former mid level executive at a large corporation. i have owned my own business. first we need to make philadelphia business friendly. for departments like l and i will change. technology will allow for

experienced no longer drug out over hours and hours and run from different department to different department. we will have go to one apartment, have an appointment, use technology to officially get your paperwork. that is first thing people do. second thing is we will have a growth strategy around a economy, and industry that grow. so that we will be able to cut wage taxes in philadelphia. we will also give you a rational business schedule. you don't have 12 different tax toes figure out what to pay. you will know what you will pay. we have a long term strategy in harrisburg where we will uncouple the uniformity cause allowing commercial properties to be taxed at one level and reduce property taxes. >> that is it. >> is that effective everybody? >> i think michelle likes it. >> rest of you have 30 seconds to make your pitch mr. oliver. >> fair enough. first, we will fix our schools. you can bring in business here and don't have to worry about where your employees will educate your kid. second finally city council and mayor's office get along. we agree that we want you

here, we want your business here, we will do everything we can to make it work for you. number three we will revise our tax structure so you can grow your business and we won't snatch your profits before you get a chance to do anything with it. lastly michelle, you know you want to be here. you like our planes, trains, automobiles and boats. you like our arts, culture and our open space. we have a lot for you. we want you here. >> milton street. >> i would first stop the the violence. i would stop the violence. i would convince michelle that you will be able to bring your business and your employees here and you won't have to worry about the violence. the violence that we are going to stop. we will put you in i don't know what type of business you have but if you have entry level people, we will put new an area where you have entry level people that can be safe, and send their kid to school. if you have high tech areas, then we will put you in an area where you can have your high tech people and they can be safe. >> lynn abraham. >> in michelle, welcome to the greatest sit it in world

philadelphia, the city of my birth. i'll tell what you we will do we will put new charge of everything here that you need. i will have our director walk you through everything that you need. we will have a a navigate or take you through l and i to get you permit and licensing. all streamline. we have a simplified tax structure that will make you love the way do you business. we will lower your employee wage tax an "s". we will make sure that the mayor will be at your beck and call to make sure you are happy. you grow your business. hire our people. of course, greatest museums least living expenses and greatest amenities for all of your employees, and we have the best universities and eds and medicines any where. >> take you a little longer. >> i'm sorry. >> a lot to get through. >> first of all, 30 seconds 45 seconds is not enough time in a time to sell the city to you. may i have your business card, go back, do some research, and find out what you do how you do it, what your need are and put a package together with our commerce folks and everything else who needs to

be in this conversation. we will take a a trip out to see you. we will come to your office and talk tour top level staff and figure out how to make a case for you to the not only bring your business here totally but bring a portion of your business here to get started to grow another satellite office. >> nelson diaz. >> i know you won't come here unless we have a world class school, where it is controlled by parents and not src. we will bring small businesses back to the city because we will reform our tax system and put a burden where it belongs in the commercial real estate area so you can compete and you don't have to have burdens of all of those stupid taxes that you get given to that you need an accountant to do we will have a great transportation system. you will have a clean city. not the number one dirty city in pennsylvania. >> thank you sir. >> now lets talk about tax abatements, and if there is money in there for other need for the city of philadelphia.

center city, university city in the formative stages of another huge building boom and my question would be are the tax abatements in significant part responsible for that or abatement just draining the city, out of tens of millions of dollars a year? is it time to let go of tax abatement programs in philadelphia, is it time to get that money and use it for schools and other much needed services, we will begin with doug oliver. >> i think tax abatement is a very useful tool. when we have seen ate replied we have seen development. we can look at the history. we see what center city looks like now. we see what queen village looks like, we have seen what northern liberties look like and manayunk. around the city we see crane and neighborhoods developing. is what missing is how it ace replied and how long it ace replied. we need to take those same abatements and push them in neighborhood where development would not otherwise occur.

that is the key. we cannot confuse the crutch with the leg. at some point our developers are starting to look at it as an inherent built in benefit and it shouldn't be. unless it is spurring development that would not otherwise occur. would i like to see along with those tax abatements protections for those people in the neighborhood seeing the growth in their neighborhood. >> milton street. >> i had my career fighting tax abatements because money that was to have gone in the community went in the gallery. we, as a community activist at that time was quite upset about it. what would i do with tax abatements. they are useful. but there has to be employment to them. we have the gallery right now that is getting 52 million-dollar i understand tax abatement. would i negotiate and say you want this tax abatement you will create some jobs, from community where people need it the the most. not only are you going to do that you will make business opportunities available to them after the process is

completed. >> lynn abraham. >> i think the evidence is quite clear jim, tax abatements have energized center city philadelphia and brought thousands office people to center city philadelphia that wouldn't have come there as well as empty nesters that moved from the suburbs and millennials who have have come to philadelphia finding it so appealing. i support the ten year tax abatement. i think tax abatement has to be used in communities where redevelopment has not yet occurred. sometimes people call it gender, blight removal sometimes redevelopment redevelopment is called redevelopment. i think those neighborhood could benefit from a 20 year tax abatement because it will encourage building and construction which will keep people in the neighborhood who live there for a long time. i'm sorry. >> thank you. >> jim kenny. >> i'm in favor of tax abatements and i have watched them effect neighborhood outside center city. center city grew because of the abatement but queen village and northern liberties and fishtown, and now kensington is beginning to

pop. i think that we can continue to do that. but i want to make sure that people are ironed up for long term occupant program so there is not that kind of tension between older residents and newer residents. thirdly i would reassess the london which tax abated properties sits because they are under assessed and we could raise more money for the schools on a base business that kind of reassessment. >> mr. diaz? >> jim, you are right tax abatement is no longer necessary in center sit the eye. >> i didn't say that sir i just posed the question. >> that is a good question. it is no longer necessary in center city. it should be in the neighborhood. what they have done with the navy yard where they were able to restructure and redo the navy yard is what is needed in a number of neighborhoods and tax abatement should only be given in the neighborhood. center city is doing well without another neat of more tax abatement. >> mr. williams. >> tax abatement argument is a false argument.

the tension exist because people want to make sure is there affordable housing around tax abatement. pha will continue to prosper. it comes to who is building what where. that is the issue that exist. for me i create a program called diversity program. no one has talk about this issue. people of color in neighborhood african americans are not majority. they have a majority ethnic group in philadelphia. we see people from new jersey, delaware and others working in trade that are not diversified. my position on this is if the abatement program is to go forward, we will work to restructure who gets to build where and when. that is what will drive at bait. process to have full promise for all philadelphians. >> we only have have a minute and a half left before we go in closing arguments. we can do real quick thing here. 15-dollar an hour minimum wage milton street yes or no. >> yes. >> miss abraham. >> if bee can get it from the state, absolutely yes. >> yes. >> you cannot live on $15 an how but yes.

>> would i issue an executive order for all contracts with the city and $15 an hour, should be the beginning. >> mr. williams. >> yes. >> you said yes. >> yes. >> mr. oliver. >> yes. >> yes. >> that was brilliantly condense appreciate that. that is the time that we have for the question and answer part of our debate tonight it is now time for closing statements from each candidate in the order that was determined by a random drawing prior to the debate and we will begin closing statements with nelson diaz. >> we need to have a city of opportunity. we need to fix our schools, so that our kid can get an education. we need to create jobs and we need to lower crime. i have the the executive experience to get those things done. two presidents, three presidents have hired me and

supreme court hired me to do a tough job and i was able to do those tough jobs. i'm asking you to hire me, just like the presidents have. i also ask you that you understand that we have an opportunity to make our city better for all of the people of the city. if you stand by me, if you work with me, and if you dream with me, and if you fight with me i will fight for you until the end of the day. >> speaking spanish. >> milton street you are next for closing statements. >> i have spent my entire political career fighting for poor people. i will guarantee you that if i am mayor stop and frisk will stop. we will establish a relationship between the community and the police. we will address the issues of the reentry commission.

i will establish a community policing force and i have talk about it where i will hire people from the community where they live to patrol community where they live so that we can have peace and get rid of this random violence. you can trust me. i have been fighting for you, poor people, all of my life. milton street, ballot number 67. >> doug oliver your closing statement. >> philadelphia, we have a unique opportunity in front of us now to do something we have never done before. by now you have heard a lot of different ideas that you have been following this campaign you have heard a lot of things. the question is what do you believe? it takes more than just ideas it takes a certain amount of independent to implement those ideas. i couldn't seed i don't have 25 years of elect experience but i argue that there is a big difference between elect experience and executive

experience. i have more executive experience then anyone you have heard here tonight. more than anyone you have heard here tonight and that takes to move the city forward. i recognize i don't have 30 years of history and i ask that you overlook that, and trust me and in the let other folks escape their 30 year history. what has that gotten you. what has hundred years of experience brought to you that you are satisfied with? i'd like you to take this opportunity in this election, we don't have to have wait four years. four years from now we will have first graders that are now fourth graders that if they are not educated properly jails will be built for them. we will do something now. i encourage you all my name is doug oliver, candidate for mayor and i request your vote on may 19th. >> lynn abraham. >> ladies and gentlemen of philadelphia, i ask you for your vote on may 19th as mayor. as your district attorney for 19 years i made tough decisions have every day. as mayor of philadelphia, i will to have make more tough decisions every day. full funning for our children so they have a first class education.

putting the economy in over drive so we have a first class working structure that we need and jobs jobs, jobs. making sure that our city is safe, it is prosperous and peaceful. but you cannot dot tough jobs, and to make the tough decisions if you are in the hip pocket of special interests. tony williams campaign is supported by billion air and millionaires of wall street who want to take over our schools. jim kenny's campaign is funded by the special interest in the union movement who want to take care of take over everything. and anybody knows that you cannot be a mayor who is for sale to the highest bidder. as you mayor you will have lynn abraham who has leadership that has trusted tested, and proven passionate, courageous experienced, not for sale. ready to lead on day one. nobody's mayor but yours. lynn abraham mayor may 19th, thank you very much. jim kenny. >> running a city like philadelphia is a very difficult job. it takes hard choices and hard

decision toss run the city properly. through my career i have had courage to stand up on issues that weren't popular at the time that i took the stan. lgbt rights and civil rights, in the 90's. immigrant civil rights recently. recent decriminalization of marijuana keeping 4200 kid out of the criminal justice system. we can do these hard things. we can provide prek, for the 4,000 kid in our city who don't have access to it. we can provide and expand blue color jobs for people instead of making 15 doll are a an hour making 40 and $50 an hour in industrial jobs. i'm going to seriously take on the problem of represidentry make sure we are prepared for people coming back from the community. making sure we know what their problems are what issues are need to be dealt with, what training they need and take away stigma of having been in prison. make sure they have an opportunity for a job that will help them turn their own lives around. i can do this. i have done it. these kind of issues my entire career. i represented the entire city as council member as large as i want to represent the entire city as your mayor. thank you for watching this

evening. >> mr. kenny, thank you. >> anthony hardy williams. >> let these word ring in your ear may 19th. we go backwards in the city. compromised by practices of special interest in the past, and do we build upon growing prosperity of philadelphia, we need to go across the entire city itself. tough choices will be made. improving schools certainly. but improving all of the schools, in all neighborhoods for all families is essential. economy that is great. that will be allowing a ph.d. and ged to prosper. most significant can'tly respecting our police officers. but listening to the cries and demand of moth's cross the city of philadelphia that believe their sons should be respected as well. for those who believe that this is impossible dream that my vision just cannot happen, i believe differently. i see on may 19th we can prove, that we, as a city, a caring city, are one city, and i believe on may 19th, i'm asking you for your support

and your vote. thank you very much. >> and that conclude tonight's debate, we would like to thank the candidates for appearing here tonight, we'd also like to thank you for watching. also, thanks to our panel ill why garcia of uni vision 65 and chris hepp of the philadelphia inquirer. i'm jim gardner for "action news". we will leave you tonight with these final word from the league of women voters, of pennsylvania. >> i'm angela levin from the executive board of the league of women voters of philadelphia on behalf of the league i would like to thank you for watching tonight's debate. by taking time to learn about the pertinent issues that will affect our great city, you are helping preserve and protect our democracy. with this information presented here tonight it is our hope you will make an informed decision when you go to vote on tuesday may 19th. polls are opened from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. make your vote count. for more information on voting visit us on line at lwv philly.org.

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