PEP, April 2007: Budget battle at the City Council

By ALFREDO ALVARADO

Budget battles raged in Washington and Albany over President Bush’s plan to shift funds from health care to the war in Iraq and Gov. Spitzer’s drive to provide adequate financing for New York City’s public hospitals. And closer to home, leaders from numerous DC 37 locals appeared before City Council committees to press for increased funding in the 2008 budget to provide better services for city residents.

DC 37 and Local 372 President Veronica Montgomery-Costa has been in the vanguard against contracting out by the Dept. of Education and once again stressed the issue in testimony presented to the Education Committee March 19. Calling contracting out “the fleecing of New York City,” she recommended that the DOE review its practices. “It must not be our city’s mission to make outside corporations richer,” she said. Citing the increase of high-paying administrative jobs at the DOE, she recommended that funds be used instead to increase support staff, such as School Lunch Workers, School Aides, Parent Coordinators and Family Paraprofessionals.

Health issues were also a major concern at the hearings. Moira Dolan,assistant director of research and negotiations, addressed the Health Committee on behalf of DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts. She called on the Council to restore $21.7 million in City Council-funded programs to the Health and Hospitals Corp., including $6.1 million for Mental Health and Substance Abuse programs, where members from Locals 768 and 371 are employed as Social Workers and Counselors. “The outpatient treatment they provide is cost-effective for clients who desperately need services and do not need to be hospitalized,” said Dolan March 12.

In his testimony to the Health Committee, Ralph Palladino, 2nd VP and Hospital Chapter chair for Local 1549, advocated for services at HHC to be expanded, “not freezing or cutting budgets.”

Funding for services
Also speaking before the committee was Judith Arroyo, president of the United Federation of Nurses and Epidemiologists Local 436. She strongly recommended that the Council find $6 million for Child Health Clinics and $5 million for Infant Mortality programs.

Lt. Thomas K. Eppinger, president of the Uniformed Emergency Medical Service Officers Union Local 3621, pressed the Committee on Fire and Criminal Justice Services March 13 for funding to promote more EMS officers. He said the ratio should be one EMS Lieutenant to four ambulances and one EMS Captain to four EMS Lieutenants. He also requested funding to upgrade their equipment.

During the hearings several presidents also addressed the issue of drastic staff reductions caused by attrition. According to Local 154 President Juan Fernandez, from the early 1990s to 2007 the Human Rights Commission has lost more than half of its staff. By 2002 there were slightly more than 120 employees working at the commission, and since then the agency has lost 40 staffers, including many Human Rights Specialists. Currently 80 employees work at the commission. “At this pace, the commission is destined to close its doors or to become an ornamental presence,” Fernandez told the Civil Rights Committee March 15. “One of the best human rights laws in the country can only be effective with support and a full mandate to enforce it.”

The Human Rights workers provide workshops on the human rights law,assist people with disabilities in obtaining accommodations, provide workshops on employment rights to immigrant communities and train high school students in peer mediation and conflict resolution.

David Moog, president of Assessors, Appraisers and Housing Development Specialists Local 1757, testified before the Finance Committee March 2 and recommended that the Dept. of Finance fill those positions that have been lost due to attrition. “When I first testified during the summer of 2001 there were over 190 Assessors and Assistant Assessors at the Finance Department,” said Moog. “Now our ranks have dwindled to 120.”

Delivering testimony on library needs at the budget hearings were local presidents Cuthbert Dickenson of Quasi-Public Employees Local 374, Margalit Susser of Queens Library Guild Local 1321, Eileen Muller of Brooklyn Library Guild Local 1482 and Carol Thomas of New York Public Library Guild Local 1930.