June 12, 2012
Around Town By Neal Tepel
Testifying before the New York City Council Wednesday, June 6, DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts and Associate Director Henry Garrido criticized Mayor Bloomberg for “relentlessly privatizing public services and City programs.” The Mayor’s 2013 Budget “contained bad news for thousands of hard-working public servants and vital City programs including our public libraries, our cultural institutions and the thousands of children depending on City funded day care,” they charged.
Roberts called the budget “anti-family” citing proposals to cut 14,000 day care slots “meaning thousands of working parents will face an agonizing dilemma – needing to work but unable to afford safe, affordable child care that the City has funded.”
Lashing out at the impact of a number of recent budget actions, Roberts noted that the October 2011 layoff of 642 School Aides and Parent Coordinators, hurt minority school districts in some of the City’s poorest neighborhoods, and itemized other recent budget actions, including:
While thousands of public servants lost their jobs since 2009, the Mayor continued to pursue a policy of privatizing public services.
DC 37 Associate Director Henry Garrido noted, that $580 million was defrauded from the City. NYC Comptroller John Liu’s recent audit of the City’s 911 call system provided yet another example of the waste and fraud that can result from unchecked contracting out.
