Public Employee Press

Political Action 2005
Six big reasons to re-elect Mike

As millions of New Yorkers go to the voting booths on Tuesday, Nov. 8, District Council 37 strongly urges its members to help re-elect Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

On Oct. 6, the DC 37 Political Action Dept. kicked off a Get Out the Vote campaign to reach out to DC 37 members who remained undecided as Election Day approached. But tens of thousands of DC 37 members were already planning to proudly pull the lever for Bloomberg. Here are some of their reasons:

• Contract: Mayor Bloomberg has been willing to listen to union proposals and has kept his promises at the bargaining table.
  
  
• Health care: Mike Bloomberg has added $200 million to the Health and Hospitals Corp. budget, committed $1.2 billion to capital improvements such as a state-of-the-art birthing facility at Harlem Hospital, and restored money to city clinics for cancer screening and prenatal care. He has done more than any other mayor to protect the health of New Yorkers and of the health facilities where over 15,000 DC 37 members work.
  
  
• Jobs: Mayor Bloomberg paid attention to DC 37’s White Papers, which exposed wasteful contracting out and overpaid consultants who were doing the jobs of municipal employees. Bloomberg canceled hundreds of outside contracts and gave the work back to city employees. He has also begun civilianizing desk jobs in the Police Dept.
  
  
• Housing: This mayor listened when DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts called for more affordable housing and created the city’s most ambitious affordable housing program in 30 years. In an unprecedented move, Bloomberg agreed to set aside a share of the city’s 68,000 new or renovated housing units for city workers.
  
  
• Economy: Bloomberg is the force behind the city’s post 9/11 economic resurgence that, for the first time, extends to the outer boroughs and neighborhoods in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and upper Manhattan.
  
  
• Crime: Citywide, crime is at a 40-year low, leading the Federal Bureau of Investigation to label New York as “the safest city in America.”

“We need to do better for our seniors and for our active members who have to live in this city,” said Sandra Rivera of SSEU Local 371. “I want a mayor who is honest, who will make a difference and not just talk. That’s why Bloomberg deserves my vote.”