By LILLIAN ROBERTS
Executive Director
District Council 37, AFSCME, AFL-CIO

New York City Comptroller John Liu has stood up for DC 37 members in the most important ways. He used the power of his position to fight the vast waste, fraud, and destruction of public service jobs in the current administration's contracting out. As guardian of city pension funds and a trained actuary, he fought benefit cuts. His wage studies raised the pay of thousands of union blue collar workers, and if he becomes mayor, he plans to negotiate on retroactive pay increases for the workers who keep our city running.

In my experience, John Liu doesn't just promise, he takes action. And we in DC 37 are standing up for him, doing all we can to help him to victory in the September 10 mayoral primary.

When he addressed our Delegates June 25 - at our first meeting back in our home on Barclay Street - I was proud that he went far beyond our own issues and talked about being a great mayor for ALL New Yorkers. After suffering for 12 years while government favored business and the rich, we desperately need a mayor for ALL the people of our city.

• We need a mayor who will lead the way to strong public services - libraries, clinics, good public transportation at reasonable prices - for ALL the communities of our city. We need a leader like John Liu who went to public schools and will improve our educational system so parents of all races and cultures can count on their children getting a fair start in life.
• We need a mayor who will stand up for all New Yorkers who need quality public health care, instead of contracting out lifesaving treatments like dialysis to facilities that care more for profits than people.
• As hard-working, taxpaying New Yorkers, we need a mayor who knows how to protect the public's money as John Liu has. We know he will end the profligate policy of handing billions to the private sector and allowing endless delays and gigantic cost overruns that scream out loud of waste and fraud.
• We need a mayor like John Liu who will end the use of contracting out to undermine city workers' unions, a bold leader who will strengthen the civil service system that offers minorities and women a bias-free route to decent jobs as it provides carefully screened and tested public employees to serve all New Yorkers.

Saving services and jobs

Liu's audits fearlessly uncovered billions of dollars of corruption and waste on projects like CityTime and the new 911 system - and nobody ever challenged the truth of his audits. The money he saved went into preserving community services and preventing more layoffs.

They couldn't beat him with the facts, so they tried to smear his record by investigating him for two years - but they never found one bit of wrongdoing to charge him with. After three terms of anti-worker and anti-community policies, John Liu represents a complete turnaround. Wall Street profiteers, real estate moguls and media elites are doing fine, so they want to make sure he doesn't get elected. No major newspaper ever supported him for City Council or Comptroller, but he won anyway with strong support from average citizens and unions like DC 37.

We deserve real change, not just a new face on the same old policies. We need the competence, honesty and strength of John Liu. And we need his kind of change.

I ask you to work with me to elect John Liu as mayor for ALL the people of our city. If you want to help make a better New York for ALL, call 212-815-1550 to volunteer.