TESTIMONY
Ralph Baselice, Vice President of Local 983, on Staffing Shortages in NYC Parks Enforcement and Maintenance Roles
5:27:38
·
3 min
Ralph Baselice expresses concerns about staffing shortages in various parks roles in NYC.
- He details the responsibilities of park rangers, city seasonal aids, associate park workers, highlighting their importance for maintenance and public safety.
- Baselice emphasizes the high attrition rate for park enforcement officers and the need to significantly increase staffing levels across parks, beaches, and recreational facilities.
- He states that in the 1990s there were up to 450 park enforcement officers citywide, but estimates thousands are needed for adequate coverage.
- The current headcount of around 300 park enforcement officers is described as not enough to keep parks safe and properly maintained.
Ralph Baselice
5:27:38
Good afternoon, everyone.
5:27:39
I would like to thank you for hearing us today.
5:27:41
My name is Ralph Bassley.
5:27:43
I'm a vice president for local 983.
5:27:45
Joe Pulio more or less, spoke about all the titles we covered.
5:27:49
One thing I noticed is the city council's questions, majority, if not all of them, for Parks Administration, cover just about every title.
5:27:57
Joe, myself, and the local handle, the park rangers, extensive background checks, They do enforcement.
5:28:03
They also do free pop up educational programs for the people of the city of New York.
5:28:08
Our city seasonal aids are assigned to the tennis courts.
5:28:11
They help keep clean.
5:28:12
They regulate who's playing on them.
5:28:14
They're also assigned to the closed sections of Beach where there are no lifeguards to make sure swimmers don't go in.
5:28:20
Where they can't be rescued in the event of a drowning.
5:28:23
Our APSWs associate park workers keep all these facilities clean.
5:28:28
They operate the heavy duty equipment which is CDL's condition of their employment to operate beach rakes, payloaders.
5:28:36
Joe and myself were at 3 of the 5 4 beaches, Midland Beach, Kony Island Beach, Rockaway Beach, Equipment's down.
5:28:42
They have one beach lake at each location.
5:28:45
They have 1 thirty yard garbage container roll off truck at Coney Island for the start of the season.
5:28:50
That's like 1 busy day's worth of garbage.
5:28:52
As Joe said, our urban park range is park enforcement.
5:28:55
There's a very high attrition rate.
5:28:57
You have to maintain a special patrolman throughout your entire condition of employment.
5:29:01
I've been a soldier for 20 years.
5:29:04
The background checks are getting more and more involved, more and more extensive.
5:29:08
You need to drive his license.
5:29:09
As soon as they've been cleared, 2 or 3 years down the road, and other city agency picks them up, we need to maintain them.
5:29:15
Those numbers parks gave 59 per barrel, Those are beautiful day numbers where there's 59 park enforcement officers per barrel.
5:29:23
Those numbers are nowhere near that.
5:29:25
Joe, myself, the local.
5:29:26
We need at least 300 of them city wide, per burrow, per park, per beach, per mini pool, per rec center, They're everywhere.
5:29:33
I heard someone mention the tennis courts.
5:29:35
Von King, we have park enforcement officers there.
5:29:38
We have them in the rec centers.
5:29:40
So we need more than 1%.
5:29:42
But again, thank you all for hearing me, everyone have a good day.
Justin L. Brannan
5:29:46
What was the last time you felt you had that level of headcount.
Ralph Baselice
5:29:54
I'll put it to you this way.
5:29:55
When I Joe can answer that.
5:29:57
When I started in 2005, there was about 5 of us per barrel.
5:30:00
Scott, Joe.
5:30:01
I'm sorry.
Joe Puleo
5:30:01
Okay.
5:30:02
At a maximum back in the nineties, we're up as high as 400 Again, that doesn't mean to scratch the surface.
Justin L. Brannan
5:30:08
In the 90 0 400 per barrel?
Joe Puleo
5:30:10
No.
5:30:10
No.
5:30:10
No.
5:30:10
400 total.
Justin L. Brannan
5:30:11
Total total.
5:30:12
Yeah.
Lincoln Restler
5:30:12
I mean, sorry.
Joe Puleo
5:30:13
That that that was I believe we may have gone up to maybe 450 at at at one peak.
5:30:18
But the thing is we don't even scratch the surface.
5:30:21
In order for them to really be effective, throughout the city.
5:30:24
We would need thousands of them.
5:30:25
Again, we're we're just going for the scrapings to to keep it, you know, going as is.
5:30:30
And to do so, We we would probably need a 175 additions to what we have now.
5:30:37
They leave at a rapid rate.
5:30:39
They are pre employment for all these other law enforcement agencies.
5:30:44
You know, we keep in order to have we we need to really beef up the numbers to keep people safe throughout the city.
Justin L. Brannan
5:30:50
And just for the record, what's the head count right now?
5:30:52
Is it today?
Joe Puleo
5:30:52
On the 300.
Justin L. Brannan
5:30:56
Catherine, Krishna.
Shekar Krishnan
5:30:57
Thanks, Trevor.
5:30:58
And I just wanted to say thank you, Joe, Dilsey, Ralph, we see you.
5:31:04
We hear you and your members.
5:31:05
We know the work that you do to keep our parks clean, safe every day.