Public Employee Press

The value of public services

HENRY GARRIDO
Executive Director, District Council 37, AFSCME, AFL-CIO

As the city debates Mayor Bill de Blasio's proposed $78.3 billion budget for next year, this is an opportunity to reflect upon the value of public services and the positive role of government.

While the mayor's budget is generally progressive, we are distressed by its underfunding of the city's three public library systems and its proposal to contract out 57 community and senior centers at the New York City Housing Authority.

The library cuts and NYCHA privatization undermine two fundamental purposes of government: providing services for the general pubic and helping the needy. We will be making that point this month as the City Council evaluates the budget and considers making restorations.

On the positive side, we applaud the de Blasio administration for working with the union on an agreement to insource information technology work.

The city's experience with farming out computer work to consultants - especially with the troubled CityTime automated payroll project that resulted in tens of millions of dollars in theft and cost overruns and to the conviction of more than 10 consultants - demonstrates how contracting out is too often associated with corruption and inefficiency. We are pleased that outside work will be reassigned to civil servants, who unlike consultants aren't motivated by profit but rather their desire to protect the city's interest and do the job well.

So, as public service workers, we shouldn't be bashful about saying that we believe in expansive government. In an era when public public employee unions, public services and the women and men who provide them are under assault around the country, we can't afford to be on the defensive.

Decades of attacks

And why should we be on the defensive? Public school teachers educate our kids. Sewage Treatment Workers ensure that our water is clean. State workers protect renters from discrimination and other landlord abuses. School Crossing Guards make sure our children cross the streets safely. When disaster hits, government is there to protect the public.

Remember, it was EMS workers represented by DC 37 who were among the first responders to the attack on World Trade Center. A team of Local 375 technical and professional workers ran the nine-month cleanup.

DC 37 members staffed the shelters for people uprooted by Superstorm Sandy. The public libraries provided refuge for communities devastated by the storm. Workers represented by DC 37 helped homeowners obtain state assistance for home repairs.

Public services touches us at almost every moment. Think about the mother who studied accounting at a public university. As she leaves her apartment in the morning to take her two children to school, a street cleaner drives by. She drops off her bills in a post box on the corner.

She and her children walk a couple blocks before arriving at the neighborhood public elementary school. After leaving off her children, she then takes the subway to the Dept. of Finance, where she works.

As the protector of the safety net and as the provider of a pathway to the middle class for minorities and women (like our accountant), government plays a crucial part in the maintenance of our standard of living.

Unfortunately, government's role as the provider of social services and the great equalizer has had to endure attacks for decades.

Columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. put it well in an article defending government, saying, "Opposition to government isn't the solution. Opposition to government was and remains the problem."