Public Employee Press

POLITICAL ACTION 2012
Latino summit honors DC 37

DC 37 members and leaders got together with legislators and community activists in Albany March 23-25 to discuss issues relevant to the state's Latino community at the Somos el Futuro conference, which celebrated its 25th anniversary this year.

"The conference makes elected officials more accessible to the community," said Brooklyn Assembly member Felix Ortiz, who chairs the State Assembly Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force that founded the annual summit meeting.

The theme of this year's conference was "Expanding our horizon and strengthening our communities."

DC 37 Associate Director Henry Garrido discussed the city's economic future on a panel that included Ron Deutsch of New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness and New York State Budget Director Robert Megna.

Garrido said that with funding problems threatening public services and jobs, government revenue is an important issue. He questioned the decision to close the Off-Track Betting parlors and called for them to be reopened. "Why would you close them when they collected almost $650 million?" he asked.

He also pointed out that the Bloomberg administration had laid off auditors who help bring the city millions of dollars in taxes.

Deutsch called for a serious discussion on the increasing inequality in income, an increase in the state minimum wage and creating a prevention program to reduce the record number of foreclosures.

After a day of workshops several elected officials held evening receptions for conference participants. At his reception, City Comptroller John C. Liu honored Garrido, Ortiz, State Senator Adriano Espaillat, Wilfredo Laracuent of UNITE HERE and Emma Mehmedovic from SEIU Local 32BJ for their contributions to better city government.

"The work done by DC 37 was a major factor in uncovering the CityTime scandal," said Liu, who played a key role in reining in the Bloomberg administration's vast waste of taxpayers' money on the corruption-riddled contracted-out payroll project.

At the closing reception, Ortiz honored DC 37 and labor leaders, including DC 37 Political Director Wanda Williams.

—Alfredo Alvarado