Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
Q&A
Council Member Diana Ayala questions Board of Correction on staffing and budget needs
4:25:52
ยท
4 min
Council Member Diana Ayala engages in a detailed discussion with representatives from the NYC Board of Correction regarding their staffing shortages and budget requirements. The conversation covers current vacancies, funding needs, and recruitment efforts to address the Board's understaffing issues.
- The Board of Correction reports being significantly understaffed, with only 12 monitoring staff and several one to three-person units.
- They estimate needing about 60 staff members to be sufficiently staffed, with a request for $2.3 million and 20 positions for FY 2026 as an incremental step.
- The Board is actively working to fill vacancies and has made efforts to widen their recruitment outreach.
Diana Ayala
4:25:52
Thank you so much for that testimony.
4:25:55
The the board has consistently testified that it's been understaffed, but the preliminary plan only included funding, additional funding for one person, an EEO officer.
4:26:07
How many positions would you need to be filled in order to be considered sufficiently staffed?
Jasmine Georges-Yilla
4:26:15
Are you asking if we didn't have any limitations or were asked to just I I think 60 staff members to start with, we really require a lot more monitors to be in the jails.
4:26:31
Like I said, we only have 12 monitoring staff.
4:26:34
We also require staff for the research unit, for the appeals unit.
4:26:39
Just across the agency, we're very limited.
4:26:41
We have one to three person units across our agency compared with the department's billion dollar budget.
4:26:50
It's it's really inadequate in terms of the money that's given to the mandate for transparency and accountability that we have.
Diana Ayala
4:26:58
You mentioned that you have seven vacancies as of today.
4:27:02
How long have those vacancies been open?
Jasmine Georges-Yilla
4:27:04
I'm gonna pass it to our our deputy executive director of administration.
Danielle Ortega
4:27:10
Thank you.
4:27:12
So the board's vacancies, the seven vacancies are a mix.
4:27:16
The board had some attrition last year, roughly six separations, but we were able to rebound and so we only had one this year.
4:27:25
We started FY '20 '5 with three additional positions.
4:27:32
Part of the funding that we received which we allocated to the special investigations coordinator, the research and compliance associate, as well as the standard specialist.
4:27:42
And so part of those vacancies were new as part of the July '1, and then another one of those vacancies is the EEO officer.
4:27:51
So at least four of those vacancies are new to FY twenty five.
Diana Ayala
4:27:55
I ask because I you know when we bring this up to OMB, they'll I want to make sure that they don't come back and say well they've had vacancies that haven't been filled for however long.
4:28:07
Okay and how how much funding do you estimate you would need to hire these new positions?
4:28:14
I think you mentioned a couple of numbers in the report.
Danielle Ortega
4:28:20
We did mention a couple of numbers.
4:28:22
So overall from the FY21 preliminary plan in January, we have a million dollars of unmet needs which supports a number of issues, a number of initiatives including nine positions.
4:28:36
For the executive plan itself, we asked for sorry, I'm just having numbers $1,300,000 and 11 positions as essential.
4:28:46
So for us, as a incremental stepping stone, 2,300,000.0 in 20 positions in FY twenty six would get us on the way and ultimately the 60 positions overall that our executive director mentioned would help us really reach our goals.
Diana Ayala
4:29:09
Perfect.
4:29:11
In the last year the board has received restorations and enhancements to fund at least three additional positions in fiscal year twenty five.
4:29:17
What is the status of those positions?
Danielle Ortega
4:29:19
Sure.
4:29:20
So those positions are part of the three positions I mentioned that we started with in July.
4:29:26
One of those positions are filled.
4:29:27
That's a special investigations coordinator.
4:29:30
And then, you know, happily we were talking about hiring an additional six by the
Gale Brewer
4:29:35
end of the
Danielle Ortega
4:29:35
year.
4:29:37
Two of those positions, the standard specialist and a research and compliance associate will be onboarded in the next two months.
4:29:46
And so those positions are just about almost filled.
Diana Ayala
4:29:50
Okay perfect.
4:29:52
The preliminary plan also shows that the board is currently budgeted for 33 full time positions in fiscal year twenty five, yet the actual headcount in December was 25.
4:30:02
Is there any other reason other than funding that you know that the board has had a difficult time recruiting staff to fill these positions?
Danielle Ortega
4:30:10
So the board has paid more attention has made additional efforts to filling these positions.
4:30:15
We have heard the council talk about our vacancies in OMB as well.
4:30:20
And so the really major push we have, those six additional staff that we anticipate coming on, are part of the efforts for the board to fill our vacancies and get us to where we need to be.
4:30:32
The board has made efforts including posting postings on Idealist, Indeed, and looking for other measures to widen our outreach in terms of recruitment.
Diana Ayala
4:30:45
That was my next question.
4:30:49
Thank you so much for that.