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Q&A
Discussion on Special Commissioner of Investigations (SCI) staffing and budget concerns
1:47:07
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Council Member Brewer raises concerns about the Special Commissioner of Investigations' (SCI) staffing and budget in relation to its workload. DOE officials respond, explaining their limited involvement in SCI's budget process due to its independence.
- SCI handles 11,874 complaints with only 55 staff members and a $6.3 million budget
- DOE officials clarify that SCI manages its budget independently, dealing directly with OMB
- Council Member Brewer indicates she will advocate for increased funding for SCI
Gale A. Brewer
1:47:07
Special commissioner of investigations, I head up the committee that looks at these things, and I wanna say that you have your own independent oversight agency, which is called special commissioner of investigations, not part of DOI.
1:47:20
It's responsible, as you know, for criminality, corruption, and wrongdoing.
1:47:24
It serves as also the inspector general for the teachers retirement system, the board of education retirement system, etcetera.
1:47:32
And what I'm concerned about is that there were 11,874 complaints in calendar year two four for all these different issues.
1:47:43
They only have 55 staff members and DOE of course has about, you know, better than a 40,000.
1:47:50
So their budget is really small.
1:47:53
It's 6,300,000.0.
1:47:54
It's a pass through line of DOE's overall budget of 40,000,000,000, which you mentioned earlier.
1:48:00
So my question to you is, since they have such a small staff and so much work to do, are there, I believe only four staff members for every 10,000 DOE employees?
1:48:11
Do you have any notion of increasing their funding?
1:48:15
Do you think those ratio ratios are appropriate?
Daniel Weisberg
1:48:19
Thank you, council member.
1:48:21
By the way, that district seventy nine superintendent, Glenda Esperancias, thank you so much for shouting her out and her team.
1:48:28
They do an amazing job.
1:48:31
So SCI performs a critical function.
1:48:33
You're 100% right.
1:48:35
We, although we're the pass through, we don't dictate their budget.
1:48:38
That's something that I believe
Gale A. Brewer
1:48:40
Advocate for more money for them?
Daniel Weisberg
1:48:41
We certainly could
Gale A. Brewer
1:48:43
I didn't hear it in your testimony.
Daniel Weisberg
1:48:45
It was not in our testimony.
1:48:47
We did not touch on SEI.
1:48:48
You're 100% right.
1:48:51
You know, we are always open to conversations from the commissioner should she want our help in increasing the budget.
1:49:00
So we're there to collaborate and talk to our friends from city hall and OMB about it.
1:49:07
But typically involved in those conversations, and I could imagine some reasons why.
1:49:13
Liz, did you wanna add something?
Liz Vladek
1:49:15
I did.
1:49:16
Thank you, First Deputy Chancellor.
1:49:18
I actually asked about this, I think about a year ago, council member, and my colleagues who actually manage our finances should please jump in and correct me if I was misinformed at the time.
1:49:31
My understanding is that SCI does not discuss their budget with us.
1:49:36
They don't engage with us on that.
1:49:38
They speak directly to OMB, and obviously we respect that.
1:49:42
We absolutely respect their independence, but we also agree that their ability to conduct high investigations on a timely basis is incredibly important.
1:49:54
So if they want to have that discussion with us, we're obviously open to it, but we respect their prerogative whether
Gale A. Brewer
1:50:00
to do Well, because they have complained to us.