Q&A
Updating stormwater management standards and capacity
1:36:52
·
6 min
Council Member Jim Gennaro and DEP officials discuss the process of updating stormwater management standards, particularly the potential increase in the design criteria for the 5-year storm from 1.75 inches per hour to 2.1 inches per hour.
- DEP plans to conduct a detailed study to determine the appropriate new level of service for the 5-year storm
- Recent data suggests the 5-year storm is closer to 2.1 inches per hour than the current 1.75 inches per hour standard
- The study will consider various factors, including confidence intervals and affordability of implementing new standards
- Gennaro expresses concern about the impact of the mayor's rental payment practice on DEP's ability to finance necessary infrastructure improvements
Kathryn Mallon
1:36:52
Well, it's one of the early tasks of the stormwater management plan, you know, subject to appropriation, will be to do a detailed study on the appropriate level of service to get to a new 5 year storm.
1:37:05
So, more recent data has suggested that the 5 year storm is closer to 2.1 than the 1.75 design criteria that we have.
1:37:13
But, there's new data out there, there's a variety of studies, and we need to look at, the confidence interval that that we want to achieve with those numbers.
1:37:24
So that'll be a a really important first step of the of the the plan.
Jim Gennaro
1:37:29
Yeah.
1:37:29
And and and I think the commissioner himself, Well, you know, I better watch it.
1:37:38
I'm not sure if I heard this publicly or privately.
1:37:44
So how do I proceed now?
1:37:45
I don't wanna betray any confidence.
1:37:47
Let's just say it seems to me that DEP is going to embark upon an approach, as to the capacity that it ultimately builds out is going to be, you know, like a very big coefficient in that equation is going to be what it can afford.
1:38:13
I think this is a consideration no matter whatever anybody is doing in city government.
1:38:20
And, and so, you know, so rather than necessarily getting, you know, everything we might otherwise need, it's gonna come down to what we can afford.
1:38:37
You gotta go to the bond markets, you gotta borrow money, you know, you gotta pay that debt service, and I guess my comment on that, like, wouldn't that be nice if the mayor wasn't stealing between $3,400,000,000 a year?
1:38:54
Legal stealing, because he's allowed to do it.
1:38:58
But it used to be in the old days that the rental payment would go to payback pre 1985, you know, DEP, capital, g o debt, and that number is now 0.
1:39:13
And it was never intended, for the rental payment to go into the general fund, but now the mayor at his suite well can ask for rental payment of up to 15% of the debt service of the Water Finance Authority, which he funnels directly into the general fund, and it's kind of like a, you know, secret regressive tax.
1:39:41
I'm not even sure he's so much aware.
1:39:42
I think this is more like a budget director thing.
1:39:46
I used to work for OMB in the capital division, and budget directors are well known to grab whatever money they can grab.
1:39:55
That's part of the job description.
1:39:57
But, you know, but this, you know, intersectionality of DEP trying to plan how many inch, how many, you know, inches of of stormwater capacity it can process, and the money it's gonna take to do that, and to and and to borrow to do that, and to pay it back is, you know, severely inhibited by the mayor going in and taking money, directing it to the general fund, when that money could be going to debt service for, you know, bonds that the city has to flow in order to, you know, through the water finance authority, to do this.
1:40:40
So I'm I'm I'm grateful to the, you know, water board for being on board with the end of the rental payment.
1:40:47
Very difficult for the city council once the mayor puts a number in the budget of 440 $1,000,000 of us to get that number out of the budget, because if we have to come up with $44,440,000,000 worth of cuts, or in the next budget year, being that he can only he's limited by 15% of the Water Finance Authority debt service in any given year.
1:41:10
So in the upcoming budget year, it will be, you know, somewhere, like, in the mid 300,000,000.
1:41:17
And that that money that could be going towards debt service, So it's a real shame, and I'm gonna continue to sort of, bang that drum.
1:41:32
And I know you like me banging that drum, but you don't have to say it.
1:41:35
You don't say it.
1:41:49
We have a lot of questions at my Oh, okay.
1:42:04
There is a resolution in the package, calling upon the state to create a permanent citywide voluntary buyout program.
1:42:15
And, you know, I I I know, that that the administration doesn't testify on resolutions, but there's a, like, a question buried in there that that that gets to plan yc, which is relevant.
1:42:29
And so, here it is.
1:42:32
In the 2023 plan yc, the administration stated that it would propose a voluntary land acquisition program to assist residents who live in areas at severe risk of repeat flooding.
1:42:48
What progress, if any, has the administration made towards this Plan YC initiative?
1:42:54
Is there anybody that could speak to that?
