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Q&A
Discussion on federally funded city employees and potential funding loss
2:04:41
ยท
83 sec
Council Member Lynn Schulman inquires about the number of city employees funded by federal money and the plan if federal funding is lost. Director Jacques Jiha explains that some employees, like those at DOHMH, were federal employees working for the city. He discusses the challenges of backfilling cut positions and the need to assess each case individually.
- Jiha emphasizes the importance of not sending the wrong signal to Washington by automatically backfilling cut positions
- The discussion highlights the complexity of managing federally funded positions in city agencies
- The need for careful assessment of each case is stressed to make appropriate recommendations
Lynn Schulman
2:04:41
OMB assessed how many city employees are federally funded and what's the plan for these staff if federal funding is lost?
2:04:47
Specifically, one of the things that came up in my hearing last week about public health emergencies is that there are seven vital DOHMH employees who are funded by the CDC and who are gone now.
2:05:01
So that was but I wanna know the answer to that question.
Jacques Jiha
2:05:06
Yeah.
2:05:07
Note that these were not city employees.
2:05:10
They were these were federal employees that basically work at UHMH.
2:05:16
But, again, it's a larger question.
2:05:18
Mhmm.
2:05:21
What do we do?
2:05:22
Do we send signal to Washington that they could cut with impunity if we said every time they cut, we're gonna backfill?
2:05:29
Okay.
2:05:29
This is the larger question that we have to deal with, or do we take each one of these things at a time and do an assessment, how critical it is, if it is very critical, what decision we're gonna recommend to the council and the mayor in terms of advocacy going forward.
2:05:44
But again, this is this is the assessment that we do.
2:05:49
You don't want to send a wrong signal either.
2:05:50
That everything you cut, we're gonna backfill it.
2:05:53
Everything you cut, you're inviting people to cut.
2:05:56
So again, these are the things that we have to assess one case at a time and make the appropriate recommendation.