Public Employee Press

New DC 37 budget ­provides for improved services

By MAF MISBAH UDDIN
DC 37 Treasurer

Our new budget lays the foundation for membership growth and greater services while also keeping the union in good financial health.

On Dec. 6, the District Council 37 Executive Board, which also serves as the union’s Budget Committee, approved a $39.9 million operating budget for 2008.

The budget plan calls for a 4.5 percent increase in spending over last year’s budget.
On the day of the budget vote, the board also approved an $894,400 capital budget for 2008.

The board voted on the operating and capital budgets after the union’s division and department heads worked diligently for about a month, under my direction and guidance with the support of the accounting staff and executive office, on the budget preparation process. I appreciate their effort, which will enable us to continue to improve vital services for members while controlling costs.

Each year, it is my intention to improve our budget practices and policies. This year, for the first time in the council’s history, we have identified our fixed assets, which include capital items such as furniture, computers and photocopiers, and other major equipment. With this inventory, we will be better able to keep track of depreciation, hold departments and divisions accountable for maintaining and safeguarding capital items, and project expenses down the road, thereby avoiding the need to make costly unforeseen purchases.

New services and projects
The budget process that we have installed will help to bolster our short-term investments. Since I became treasurer in 2004, our short-term investments have grown from $12.5 million to $23.4 million. This practice is very important because it guarantees that the union’s financial foundation is strong and allows us to meet unforeseen but vital expenses.

Now, I would like to describe a number of new services and projects in the 2008 budget.

• Organizing Dept.: The budget allocates $309,000 for this new department, which includes the director, three organizers and a secretary. Our national union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, is sponsoring the director’s position this year.
  
  Establishing the department represents an important step toward fulfilling AFSCME’s 21st Century Initiative, which calls on affiliates to shift greater resources into organizing and aims to establish a nationwide army of 40,000 union activists to help elect union-friendly politicians.
  
  
• Job Training Participants Unit: The budget dedicates $218,000 to this new unit, which will help the 3,300 members on average who work in the city’s JTP program at any given time. The unit will be dedicated to assisting the JTP workers to find permanent jobs and utilize union services, including workplace protections.

The budget also funds a mammoth scanning project. This involves computerizing our records. You may recall that a couple of years ago, the union, together with the benefits funds, undertook a $5 million, three-year project to scan documents throughout the building. The goal is to ensure better recordkeeping and improved services.

The capital budget includes a giant color copy machine in the print shop, upgrading clerical workstations in the divisions, and computer upgrades in Information Technology, which services both the union and the funds.

Auditing process
The budget includes $1.6 million in post-retirement liabilities for our employees in 2008. Outside of the budget, our auditing firm prepares a financial statement that accounts for an additional, one-time cumulative post-retirement liability of $5.5 million. This accounting technique meets a change in the Financial Accounting Standards Board disclosure requirements.

Finally, the budget provides the council with funds to audit local unions with fewer than 2,000 members. This practice meets a new requirement of the AFSCME Constitution to improve the financial integrity of the union and provide members with greater transparency. We have already engaged two outside independent auditing firms, which have started auditing nine locals this year alone.

The budget anticipates that the union will conclude the year with a net gain of about $150,000 after accounting for income and expenses.
The bottom line is that we have adopted a very responsible budget plan for 2008. It ensures that DC 37 will continue to provide improved services while remaining on solid financial footing now and in the foreseeable future.