Public Employee Press

How to save
Dump contractors, hire Job Training Participants

Only 90 minutes after DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts unveiled the new white paper about the $9 billion “shadow government” of consultants and contractors, a City Council hearing explored the union proposal to replace outside custodial contracts with workers from the city’s Job Training Participant program.

The city could save over $14.3 million a year by terminating its custodial and cleaning contracts, the DC 37 investigation says. The proposal is one of 10 examples cited in the union study, “Massive Waste at a Time of Need,” which describes how the city could save about $130 million by assigning civil servants to work now contracted out.

Six years ago,DC 37 won a court case to represent JTP workers, and the union has worked with the city to find full-time jobs for the participants.

But Roberts pointed out at the Feb. 25 hearing that only 15 percent of the JTPs are placed in jobs with the city or the private sector. Most individuals who did notreceive job placement returned to welfare, “perpetuating a vicious cycle with no end in sight,” Roberts said.

DC 37 Assistant Associate Director Henry Garrido, author of the union’s new white paper, cited an example of the city paying a contractor $30 an hour for custodial services that can be done by city Custodial Assistants for up to only $21 an hour, including fringe benefits.

Save by eliminating profit
By eliminating the contracts, the city could cut its hourly payments and save more by eliminating the cost of funding the JTP positions and the 15 percent profit margin given to the contractors, Garrido said.

DC 37 Blue Collar Division Director José Sierra testified at the hearing along with Gladys Perez, who described how she moved into a position as an Assistant Gardener after being a JTP worker, and Susan Harper, a former JTP employee who so far has been unable to find a regular job.

Bill De Blasio, who chairs the City Council Committee on General Welfare, pressed city officials at the hearing to study DC 37’s proposal and to provide the City Council with a formal response.

— Gregory N. Heires