Q&A
Discussion on challenges in filling revenue generating positions in city government
0:23:00
·
3 min
Council Member Restler and Henry Garrido discuss the difficulties in filling revenue-generating positions in city government, despite their importance for funding other services. Garrido explains the unusual practice of not exempting these positions from budget cuts and hiring freezes.
- Garrido highlights examples such as assistant assessors for property tax assessment and nurses for Medicaid services in schools
- He criticizes the city's approach as 'penny wise and pound foolish,' emphasizing missed opportunities for revenue capture
- The discussion touches on issues with parking meters, traffic enforcement, and the public perception of government inefficiency
Lincoln Restler
0:23:00
You know, we looked at the Department of Finance and and also found overall city agency wide, their headcount is down 20% since pre pandemic.
0:23:09
And I think you're really right and smart to highlight the revenue generating positions that are so critical to allowing us to invest in all of the other services that we we need to support New York City.
0:23:22
So could you break down for us, even for these revenue generating positions, you would think OMB would want them filled.
0:23:31
Why is it not happening?
0:23:32
What is stopping us from actually getting even I mean, the revenue generating positions filled in city government?
Henry Garrido
0:23:40
Yeah.
0:23:40
Thank you.
0:23:41
So, it's always been a long term practice that when you issue a pay, a program to eliminate the gap, you exempt revenue generating positions because mixed essential.
0:23:51
You're sort of cutting your nose to spike your face.
0:23:53
Right.
0:23:54
For the first time, finance was not exempted from that.
0:23:58
So you're cutting position across the board.
0:24:00
I don't know where the thinking is.
0:24:02
But we made an, in the past administration prior to this one, we had made an an agreement to bring in assistant assessors to, for instance, review vacant lots that have now been turned into actual buildings that are still listed as vacant.
0:24:18
Right?
0:24:19
We did that by comparing the tax roll with the Department of Building Permits and determined there was a number of properties are now being captured.
0:24:26
And, therefore, their tax is 0.
0:24:29
And we could be capturing that because there being constructions are there all over the city.
0:24:34
We highlighted this to the finance commissioner, and said, look.
0:24:38
If we hire people to go after those properties, that's revenue that you will be capturing because there are actually buildings in there.
0:24:46
But on the law, you need a physical inspection of that.
0:24:48
You can't do it through vision or whatever the model is that they have sitting somewhere, Department of Finance.
0:24:56
You need to physically be there to issue a tax bill.
0:25:00
And the Department of Finance Commission at the time said, it's out of my hands.
0:25:04
You need to talk to OMB about releasing these positions.
0:25:08
Again, follow-up with the the director of OMB, and we were told the city's on a crunch because of the migrant situation.
0:25:15
So, therefore, we cannot exempt finance or anybody for that matter over the hiring freeze.
0:25:20
Because if we do, then it starts a domino effect that everybody wants to be exempted.
0:25:25
I don't believe that to be the case.
0:25:27
I think this is penny wise and pound foolish that you're not invested in capturing the revenue that you could that the city needs desperately right now.
0:25:36
And across the board, I can give you examples on nurses that capture Medicaid services for school children that are not there to do so right now.
0:25:45
I can give you examples of billboards that we have issued and cell phone antennas that are millions in New York that we're not capturing because we don't have the engineers of 375 to go and do the physical inspection that is required to issue the RUC because it's a non owner system and people who are not onerous, or whatever the term is, are not reporting that because they only report it when they get captured.
0:26:12
That that makes no sense.
0:26:14
The parking meters that we talked about, the attendance, that is a no brainer.
0:26:18
Right?
0:26:18
You could fix them, and it's also bad for the public because you issue the meters go down.
0:26:24
The their traffic enforcement agency show a fine, and then the people appeal it.
0:26:28
Then we gotta go to an appeal that makes no sense.
0:26:31
It annoys the public and the constituents say the city doesn't work and government is not working for us.
0:26:36
Right?
0:26:36
Right.
0:26:37
We need to fix this.
0:26:38
And to fix it, we need to have a sensible approach of bringing back those robust positions in the revenue generating, revenue capturing to be able to do the job right.
Lincoln Restler
0:26:48
Yeah.
