REMARKS
OMB's overreach in city hiring process raises concerns
0:35:23
·
3 min
Council Member Julie Menin and Henry Garrido discuss the unprecedented level of involvement by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the city's hiring process. They express concern over OMB's interference in agency-level hiring decisions and the resulting delays.
- Menin, a former commissioner of three NYC agencies, states she has never seen OMB interview candidates before
- Garrido, with 30 years of experience, confirms this level of OMB involvement is unprecedented
- Both argue that OMB's actions are slowing down the hiring process and overstepping boundaries
Julie Menin
0:35:23
I really wanna highlight something you said about OMB because I couldn't agree more.
0:35:29
And I I just for the record, I mean, I think what you're saying is so important that New Yorkers understand.
0:35:35
I served as commissioner of 3 different New York City agencies.
0:35:38
Not a single time did OMB ever interview a candidate that that I, as agency commissioner, was interviewing?
0:35:46
The fact that OMB, who does not have subject matter expertise in these various agency operations, is inserting itself and slowing the process down is honestly appalling and shocking.
0:36:00
I and I think you said it best.
0:36:02
You said, is OMB running the city?
0:36:04
I mean, it it's it's it's who wants to serve as commissioner when their judgment is constantly being questioned and they can't even hire the people that they wanna hire.
0:36:15
And then OMB inserts itself not having subject matter jurisdiction on this.
0:36:20
So you mentioned you haven't seen this before.
0:36:23
Could you really talk about that that in past administrations, this was not I mean, that was certainly my experience.
0:36:28
I've never seen anything like this.
Henry Garrido
0:36:30
Yeah.
0:36:30
So I I have the I have the the privilege.
0:36:34
I haven't been here for almost 30 years, 29 and a half to be precise.
0:36:39
DC 37 in various capacity.
0:36:41
I worked, before that as an auditor for the city of New York 2 years.
0:36:46
And even then, I have not seen this.
0:36:49
An example of, the work that we've done together, council member, we fight, many.
0:36:54
We fight really hard to create an office of health care accountability because we felt that I could save on health care.
0:37:00
Since the city workers are paying twice as much of the average annual health care, cuts across for 13,000,000,000.
0:37:10
So even 1% or 2% could have saved a lot more money that we could use for health care for active retirees.
0:37:16
And OMB refused to fund the positions until we fought really hard to do it.
0:37:20
And even then, it was a struggle for something that was gonna generate more revenue, more savings.
0:37:27
That is something I've never been privy to.
0:37:29
And I understand that there was some concerns about OMB always being the gatekeeper of the budget.
0:37:36
Right?
0:37:37
We we've always known that.
0:37:38
There's always a balance of power.
0:37:40
But if there's an agreement with the council, for instance, or early childhood education.
0:37:45
Right?
0:37:45
We have negotiations to early childhood education where we're having a tough time recruiting teachers who on the early childhood education because they're getting paid 10, $12,000 less than teachers in the U of T.
0:37:57
So anybody with a certification is gonna go work for where they get paid more.
0:38:01
Right?
0:38:02
And so we we had discussions and the struggle of having negotiations that are done.
0:38:07
We we worked really hard with the Office of Labor Relations till we come up with something that's sensible.
0:38:13
And then have to say that we're not tying the policy recruiting early childhood education certified teachers that we need to run the programs that are negotiated to the budget because OMB has a different opinion about what is worth, you know, what a teacher should be worth.
0:38:29
That to me is unconscionable and is outrageous.
0:38:32
And he challenges the balance of power that has been established between the power of this council and its capacity through its committee, through budget negotiations, and and and OMB, which has been part of it but never been the catalyst of it.
0:38:48
They've gone from gatekeeper to, kin maker.
