In an unusual move for labor, District Council 37, New York's largest municipal union, offered proposals yesterday to reduce the city's budget deficit by more than $600 million.þþThe union's leaders gave Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg a long list of proposals, among them placing civilians in all Police Department desk jobs done by officers and hiring 100 more tow truck drivers, which the union said would increase revenues by $20 million.þþAsserting that nobody knew the inner workings of city government better than its employees, union officials also proposed using lower-paid city engineers rather than higher-paid private consultants to do design work, at an estimated annual savings of $76 million.þþMany of the proposals were self-serving — they would use the union's lower-paid members to do work now performed by higher-paid members of other unions, like teachers and sanitation workers. Nonetheless, several lawmakers praised the district council's proposals, predicting that the City Council and the mayor would take them into account as they sought to narrow the city's estimated $5 billion budget deficit.þþChris Policano, a spokesman for the City Council speaker, Gifford Miller, said, ÿWe should pay attention whenever the men and women of the municipal work force present ideas that save the city money.ÿþþIn addition to its proposals for savings, District Council 37 called for the city and state to re-establish the commuter tax, which would produce more than $400 million in annual revenues. City Council members who support such a tax increase, which Mayor Bloomberg opposes, are counting on a major lobbying effort by District Council 37 and other unions.þþCity Hall officials said they welcomed the union's proposals, noting that Mr. Bloomberg has repeatedly said that he would listen to anyone who has better ideas on the deficit. The mayor has also said that he needed the cooperation of the municipal unions to tackle the deficit.þþÿWe will review their proposals,ÿ said Edward Skyler, the mayor's spokesman.þþIn presenting the proposals at a news conference on the City Hall steps, Lillian Roberts stepped into the center of a public debate for the first time since she was elected the district council's new executive director two months ago.þþShe said the union's proposals aimed to help the city save money in part to reduce the likelihood that Mr. Bloomberg will seek to lay off municipal workers, especially after the union's contract and its no-layoff clause expires on June 30.þþÿIt is not the city work force that built the budget crisis, and we do not believe the budget should be balanced on the backs of our 125,000 members,ÿ Ms. Roberts said.þþThe union's proposals emphasized placing civilian workers in desk jobs done by uniformed workers in the police, fire and sanitation departments. While Mayor Bloomberg has proposed saving $44 million next year by moving 800 civilian workers into Police Department jobs now done by the police, District Council 37 proposed placing 3,500 civilians in the department. That, unions officials said, would save the city $127 million next year and would enable the city to move many police officers onto the street. With benefits, the compensation for many police officers comes to more than $60,000 a year, while for the average District Council 37 members, compensation including benefits comes to about $40,000.þþThe union, part of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, also made numerous proposals to reduce contracting out work to private companies. It said $20 million could be saved by having city workers deliver food and other commodities to schools rather than using many private delivery companies.þþClaude Fort, president of the union representing city architects and engineers, insisted that contracting out often cost the city more than having municipal workers do the job, partly because of the profit margins demanded by private contractors. He also said it cost the city money to prepare contracts for bidding and to have city engineers and often a second group of consultants review the work done by the consultants that won the bid.þþþ
Source: NY Times
