What Philly’s Two Yes Votes Actually Change
Philadelphia voters said yes to both charter questions on Tuesday, and both cleared the two thirds approval the Charter requires. The results are still unofficial, with the formal canvass starting Friday, but the margins are wide. What matters now is what each yes vote actually does, and what still has to happen before anything changes on the ground.
Start with Question 1, the contracting question. The city spends more than $1 billion a year on goods, services, and construction. Under the old rules, the lowest bidder generally won. The amendment opens a window for contracts worth $75,000 to $500,000, where the city can choose a small or local business even when it is not the cheapest bid. It also gives the Procurement Department and the City Solicitor discretion on bond requirements for certain construction projects, so a small firm is not shut out by a bond it cannot afford.
The change has a backstory. Last year, the nonprofit America First Legal sued Philadelphia over contracting preferences that set a goal of 35 percent of city contracts for businesses owned by people of color, women, or people with disabilities. Mayor Cherelle Parker responded with an executive order that shifted the preference to small businesses instead. Question 1 writes that approach into the Charter, where an executive order cannot be undone by the next mayor.
But a yes vote does not set the new rules by itself. It gives the city the power to set them. City Council still has to pass ordinances that spell out how the preferences and set asides work, who qualifies as a small or local business, and how the bond discretion gets used. No implementing ordinance was on the public record as of this writing, and Council’s first session after the election is November 12. For Northeast small businesses, that is the date to watch. The window covers mid size city jobs, the kind of street work, repairs, and services that local contractors already do.
Question 2 is simpler. It makes Creative Philadelphia a permanent part of city government, written into the Charter and headed by the Chief Cultural Officer. The office runs grant programs, expands public access to art and arts education, and supports the creative community, and all of the city’s art related programs will now be consolidated under it.
Until now, the office existed only because a mayor said so. The arts office was created by Mayor Wilson Goode in 1984, closed by Mayor John Street in 2004, and revived in 2024 as part of the mayor’s office under the name Creative Philadelphia. A future mayor could have ended it with a signature. The charter change takes that option away.
The office has 10 people today and can grow to up to 15, including the Chief Cultural Officer. Valerie V. Gay holds that role now, and the amendment makes the position a member of the mayor’s cabinet. Her salary stays at $205,000, the same as today.
One thing the vote does not do is add money. The amendment defines what the office does and caps its staff. It does not set a budget for the office.
What happens next: the formal canvass begins Friday, November 6, at the Election Warehouse, and the certified results will follow. Council returns November 12. The exact date the amendments take effect is still to be confirmed, and Philly Rhino will update this story when the certification lands. For small businesses, the real change starts when Council writes the rules. For the arts office, the change is already written in.
