| Body | What it does |
|---|
| Board of Pensions and Retirement | The board that runs Philadelphia's municipal pension system and invests its roughly $10 billion fund, which stood at 67.7 percent funded in the latest preliminary valuation. |
| Board of Revision of Taxes | The independent board that hears appeals of Philadelphia property assessments and certain tax-exemption and abatement disputes after the Office of Property Assessment sets values. |
| Chief Administrative Officer | The Mayor's senior official for internal government operations, overseeing HR-related, technology, procurement, records and service-design functions across Philadelphia city government. |
| City Treasurer | The City Treasurer's Office safeguards Philadelphia's cash, issues and manages its debt, runs the Sinking Fund Commission and works to maintain the City's credit ratings. |
| Civil Service Commission | The Charter-created panel that hears city employee appeals, approves civil service regulations and pay plans, and rules on exemptions and residency waivers. |
| Commerce Department | Philadelphia's economic development department, which supports small businesses, commercial corridors and large projects and houses the Office of Economic Opportunity. |
| Commission on Human Relations | Philadelphia's civil rights enforcement agency, which handles discrimination complaints under the Fair Practices Ordinance and Fair Chance Hiring law. |
| Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services | DBHIDS, the city department that oversees mental health, addiction and intellectual disability services in Philadelphia and funds Medicaid behavioral health through Community Behavioral Health. |
| Department of Human Services | Philadelphia's child welfare and juvenile justice services agency, led by Commissioner Kimberly Ali, working through contracted Community Umbrella Agencies. |
| Department of Licenses and Inspections | Philadelphia's code-enforcement agency: building, zoning and trade permits, inspections, licenses, violations and the appeal boards that review them. |
| Department of Planning and Development | The Philadelphia city cluster that houses the Planning Commission, Zoning Board of Adjustment, Historical Commission and housing agencies, and leads the mayor's housing plan. |
| Department of Public Health | Philadelphia's city-county health agency: disease control, health centers, environmental health, air quality and the Medical Examiner, led by Health Commissioner Dr. Palak Raval-Nelson. |
| Department of Public Property | The City department that operates and maintains municipal buildings, manages City leases and real estate planning, and deploys security equipment for large public events. |
| Department of Records | The City agency that records deeds and other land documents as Philadelphia's Recorder of Deeds, runs the City Archives and publishes official records and regulations. |
| Division of Housing and Community Development | The City of Philadelphia's housing funding agency within Planning and Development, which distributes federal and local money for repair, affordable housing and neighborhood programs. |
| Fair Housing Commission | The five-member city commission that enforces Philadelphia's Fair Housing Ordinance, holds hearings on rental complaints and verifies landlord licensing and suitability certificates. |
| Finance Department | The Office of the Director of Finance, the City of Philadelphia's chief financial office, which runs the budget, accounting, payroll, risk management and oversees Revenue, the Treasurer, OPA and Pensions. |
| Fleet Services | The Department of Fleet Services buys, fuels, repairs and disposes of Philadelphia's roughly 7,000 City vehicles and equipment, from police cars to trash compactors. |
| Free Library of Philadelphia | Philadelphia's public library system of 54 libraries, funded mainly by the city and led by President and Director Kelly Richards. |
| Law Department | The City of Philadelphia's in-house law firm, led by the City Solicitor, which represents the City in court, drafts contracts and legislation, and collects unpaid taxes and fines. |
| Managing Director's Office | The Charter-created office that supervises most of Philadelphia's service departments, from streets and fire to health, prisons and libraries. |
| Mayor's Cabinet and Offices | How the mayor's cabinet, senior staff and mayoral offices are organized, which posts the Charter creates, and where to find the current roster. |
| Medical Examiner's Office | The city office that investigates sudden, violent and suspicious deaths in Philadelphia: legal duties, leadership, caseload, and the public record of its leadership turnover and challenges. |
| Office for People with Disabilities | The Charter-created city office, housed in the Chief Administrative Officer's portfolio, that houses ADA compliance and the Mayor's Commission on People with Disabilities. |
| Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy | The former name of Creative Philadelphia, the city department for public art, cultural funding and the city's first Cultural Plan, led by Chief Cultural Officer Valerie Gay. |
| Office of Children and Families | The Parker-era city office that aligns policy and services for children and families, overseeing the Department of Human Services, out-of-school time, PHLpreK and Career Connected Learning. |
| Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity | Philadelphia's designated Community Action Agency since 1964, running BenePhilly, Financial Empowerment Centers and anti-poverty programs; led by Executive Director Orlando Rendon. |
| Office of Economic Opportunity | The Commerce Department office that certifies minority-, woman- and disabled-owned businesses and monitors their participation in Philadelphia city contracts. |
| Office of Emergency Management | The city office that plans for and coordinates responses to disasters, severe weather and large events, and how residents can sign up for alerts and prepare. |
| Office of Homeless Services | The city office that runs Philadelphia's homeless crisis response, shelters, prevention and HUD Continuum of Care, led by Executive Director Cheryl Hill. |
| Office of Human Resources | The City office that runs civil service hiring, testing, job classification and workforce policy for Philadelphia's roughly 31,000 active municipal employees, under the Civil Service Commission. |
| Office of Immigrant Affairs | The mayoral office that promotes immigrant integration, language access and two immigrant commissions in Philadelphia; led by Director Charlie Elison. |
| Office of Innovation and Technology | Philadelphia's central technology agency, responsible for City IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, 311 technology, GIS, digital equity programs and AI governance. |
| Office of LGBT Affairs | The city office, now styled the Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs, created by executive order in 2008 and written into the Charter in 2015; led by Executive Director Tyrell Brown. |
| Office of Property Assessment | The City agency that determines the market value of every property in Philadelphia, the base for real estate taxes that fund schools and city services; includes how to appeal a value. |
| Office of Sustainability | The Philadelphia city office that leads climate action, carbon-neutrality goals, energy efficiency and resilience planning, including the Climate Action Playbook. |
| Office of Transportation, Infrastructure and Sustainability (OTIS) | The Philadelphia mayoral office that coordinates streets, transit, water and climate policy; it traces to the Kenney-era Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems. |
| Office of Violence Prevention | The city office, now part of the Division of Safe Neighborhoods under the Office of Public Safety, that funds and coordinates community-based anti-violence programs. |
| Office of Worker Protections | The City of Philadelphia Department of Labor office that enforces paid sick leave, fair workweek, wage theft and domestic worker laws, strengthened by the 2025 POWER Act. |
| Office of Workforce Development | The city office created in 2018 to coordinate workforce programs, later folded into the Commerce Department's Office of Business Development and Workforce Solutions; works with PhiladelphiaWorks. |
| Office of the Inspector General | Philadelphia's Office of the Inspector General investigates fraud, waste and misconduct in mayoral agencies and city contracting; learn its history, powers and how to report. |
| Parks and Recreation | Philadelphia's department managing city parks, recreation centers, playgrounds, pools, trails and the urban forest, including Fairmount Park. |
| Philadelphia City Planning Commission | The charter-created commission that writes the city's comprehensive plan and capital program, runs Civic Design Review and registers community organizations. |
| Philadelphia Department of Prisons | The city agency that runs Philadelphia's jails: facilities, leadership, population trends, oversight, and the public record on deaths, escapes and staffing. |
| Philadelphia Fire Department | The city's fire and emergency medical service: structure, leadership, staffing, how residents use it, and its history, including the 2022 Fairmount fire. |
| Philadelphia International Airport | PHL, the city-owned airport run by the Division of Aviation, a major American Airlines hub that has served more than 30 million passengers a year. |
| Philadelphia Police Department | The city's municipal police force: how it is organized and led, how it is funded, how residents interact with it, and its record of reform and controversy. |
| Philadelphia Water Department | The city utility that supplies drinking water, treats wastewater and manages stormwater, with rates set by an independent Water Rate Board and assistance through TAP. |
| Philly311 | Philadelphia's contact center for non-emergency City services and information, reachable by phone, web and mobile app, with interpreters in over 200 languages. |
| Procurement Department | The City agency that buys goods, services and public-works construction for Philadelphia government through formal bidding, and the rules vendors must follow to win City contracts. |
| Revenue Department | The City agency that bills and collects Philadelphia's taxes, water bills and other charges, runs the Philadelphia Tax Center and administers tax and water assistance programs. |
| Streets Department | Philadelphia's department for trash and recycling collection, street paving, street cleaning, snow removal, traffic signals and the public right of way. |
| Body | What it does |
|---|
| Center City District and Business Improvement Districts | How Philadelphia's property-assessment-funded business improvement districts, led by the Center City District, supply cleaning, safety and planning services. |
| Community College of Philadelphia | The city's public, open-admission community college, sponsored by the City of Philadelphia and led since October 2025 by President Alycia Marshall. |
| Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority (PICA) | The state-created authority formed in 1991 to help Philadelphia out of a fiscal crisis, which reviews and approves the City's Five Year Plan each year. |
| Philadelphia Gas Works | The nation's largest municipally owned natural gas utility, now regulated by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission rather than the Philadelphia Gas Commission. |
| Philadelphia Housing Authority | The state-chartered public body that owns and manages public housing and administers Housing Choice Vouchers in Philadelphia, funded largely by HUD. |
| Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation | The nonprofit that runs the City's home-repair and housing programs and staffs the Land Bank and Redevelopment Authority. |
| Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation | The City's nonprofit economic development corporation, founded in 1958, which manages industrial land such as the Navy Yard, provides business financing and supports job-creating development. |
| Philadelphia Land Bank | The city-created public body that controls and sells tax-delinquent and city-owned vacant land, subject to Council approval, to support housing and neighborhood projects. |
| Philadelphia Parking Authority | The state-created authority that manages on-street parking, enforcement, garages and lots, taxi and ride-share regulation, and airport parking in Philadelphia, and shares revenue with the city and School District. |
| Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority | The state-law public authority with power to condemn and assemble land and manage redevelopment areas, now staffed through the Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation. |
| Port and Bridge Authorities | PhilaPort, the Delaware River Port Authority and the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission: the regional bodies that run the Delaware River seaport, bridges and PATCO. |
| SEPTA | The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, the five-county regional transit agency whose buses, subways, trolleys and Regional Rail serve Philadelphia, and its recent funding crisis. |
| School District of Philadelphia | The city's public school system, the largest in Pennsylvania, governed by a mayor-appointed Board of Education and led by Superintendent Tony Watlington. |
| Body | What it does |
|---|
| Adult Probation and Parole Department | The First Judicial District unit that supervises adults sentenced to county probation or parole in Philadelphia: structure, caseloads, rules, and reform debates. |
| Court of Common Pleas and Municipal Court | The two trial courts of Philadelphia: which cases each handles, their divisions, how a case moves through them, and where landlord-tenant and small claims cases are heard. |
| Defender Association of Philadelphia | The nonprofit public defender that represents most people in Philadelphia who cannot afford a lawyer in criminal and juvenile cases: history, structure, funding and role. |
| Eviction Diversion and Landlord-Tenant Court | How eviction cases are handled in Philadelphia: the pre-filing Eviction Diversion Program, the Right to Counsel program and the Municipal Court's landlord-tenant process. |
| First Judicial District of Pennsylvania | Philadelphia's unified state court system, covering the Court of Common Pleas and Municipal Court: how it is governed, funded and staffed, and how judges are chosen. |
| Legal Aid and Public Interest Law | The nonprofit law offices that provide free civil legal help and impact litigation in Philadelphia, including Community Legal Services and the Public Interest Law Center. |
| Philadelphia Department of Prisons | The city agency that runs Philadelphia's jails: facilities, leadership, population trends, oversight, and the public record on deaths, escapes and staffing. |
| Philadelphia District Attorney's Office | The county prosecutor for Philadelphia: structure, leadership under Larry Krasner, the Conviction Integrity Unit, the 2022 impeachment fight and how residents interact with it. |
| Philadelphia Sheriff's Office | The elected Sheriff's role in court security, prisoner transport, serving court orders and sheriff sales, and the 2026 audit and court-supervision dispute. |
| Political Corruption Cases in Philadelphia | Summary of documented public-record political corruption and election-fraud prosecutions involving Philadelphia officials, with charges, verdicts and outcomes stated neutrally. |
| Register of Wills and Clerk of Orphans' Court | The elected office that probates wills, grants letters of administration, issues marriage licenses and serves as clerk of the Orphans' Court Division in Philadelphia. |
| U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania | The federal prosecutor's office covering Philadelphia and eight nearby counties: its role, leadership, priorities and notable public-corruption and civil-rights cases. |
| Body | What it does |
|---|
| 2025 DC 33 Strike | The eight-day strike by Philadelphia's blue-collar city workers in July 2025, which suspended trash collection and ended with a three-year contract. |
| AFSCME District Council 33 | The union of roughly 9,000 blue-collar and related City of Philadelphia employees, led by Greg Boulware, which struck for about eight days in July 2025. |
| AFSCME District Council 47 | The AFSCME council for Philadelphia's professional, technical, administrative and supervisory city workers and employees of nonprofits, universities and courts, led by April Gigetts. |
| Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 | The Philadelphia police and sheriff's deputies union, led by Roosevelt Poplar, which bargains with the city under Act 111 binding arbitration. |
| IAFF Local 22 | The union of Philadelphia firefighters, paramedics and EMS personnel, which bargains under Act 111 and was reported in July 2026 to have received a two-year arbitration award. |
| IBEW Local 98 | Philadelphia's electricians' local, with James Foy as president and Mark Lynch Jr. as business manager, and the federal convictions of former leaders John Dougherty and Brian Burrows. |
| Labor and Politics in Philadelphia | How Philadelphia's unions shape elections, budgets and policy: endorsements, political money, building trades influence, police and firefighter unions, and the Dougherty-era prosecutions. |
| Organized Labor in Philadelphia | An overview of Philadelphia's labor movement: public-sector, building-trades, transit, health care and service unions, their councils, and how they interact with city government. |
| Philadelphia AFL-CIO Council | The Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO, the central labor body of more than 100 local unions representing over 150,000 workers, led by President Daniel Bauder. |
| Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council | The umbrella body of Philadelphia's construction trade unions, led by business manager Ryan Boyer, and its role in development, public works and politics. |
| Philadelphia Federation of Teachers | The union of more than 14,000 Philadelphia public school teachers and staff, led by Arthur Steinberg, and its 2025-2028 contract with the School District. |
| Prevailing Wage and Project Labor Agreements | How prevailing wage rules and project labor agreements apply to public construction in Philadelphia, who enforces them, and the policy debate over their costs and benefits. |
| Public Sector Bargaining in Pennsylvania | How Act 111 (police and fire) and Act 195 (other public employees) govern collective bargaining, strikes and interest arbitration for Philadelphia's city workers. |
| Service and Health Care Unions | Unions of hospital, nursing home, building service, hotel, retail and communications workers in Philadelphia, including 1199C, SEIU Healthcare PA, 32BJ, UNITE HERE Local 274 and CWA. |
| TWU Local 234 and SEPTA Labor | The Transport Workers Union Local 234, the union of SEPTA's transit operating and maintenance employees, its reported December 2025 contract and the history of transit labor disputes. |
| Teamsters in Philadelphia | The International Brotherhood of Teamsters' Philadelphia-area locals, including Locals 107, 623, 830 and 502, covering warehouse, delivery, transit and school-administrator workers. |
| The FOP Contract and Police Discipline | How the police union contract and Act 111 arbitration shape discipline of Philadelphia officers, including reinstatement rates, the 2025 award and oversight disputes. |
| Worker Centers and Labor Advocacy | Community-based worker centers, immigrant organizations and advocacy coalitions in Philadelphia that help workers outside union contracts, including Juntos and domestic worker groups. |