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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Meghan Peterson, Representative from DC37 Local 3005
4:46:12
ยท
153 sec
Meghan Peterson, a research scientist from DC37 Local 3005, testified about the challenges faced by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene due to budget cuts and hiring delays. She highlighted how these issues are impacting the department's ability to carry out its mission effectively and called for robust funding.
- PEG budget cuts, OMB delays, and threats to federal funding are disrupting work and making it difficult to hire and retain talented staff.
- Privatization of services and inefficiencies in procurement are affecting the department's ability to provide essential public health services.
- Peterson urged the council to provide robust funding for the health department and medical examiner's office to continue their critical work in public health and safety.
Meghan Peterson
4:46:12
Hi, my name is Megan Peterson and I am a research scientist in the Bureau of Hepatitis, HIV and STIs at the health department.
4:46:23
Today I am here on behalf of DC thirty seven Local three thousand and five, representing scientific and technical titles across the health department and medical examiner's office.
4:46:35
I am incredibly proud to work at the health department where we have made progress ending the HIV epidemic and creating accessible treatment for all New Yorkers.
4:46:47
However, recent program to eliminate the gap or PEG budget cuts, OMB delays, and threats to federal funding have created an environment that makes it difficult to complete the innovative work for which we are known.
4:47:04
For the past few years under this mayoral administration, I have heard constantly from our union members about disruptions because of funding.
4:47:15
When a colleague leaves and we cannot hire a replacement due to peg cuts, teams are restructured, interrupting work.
4:47:23
Hiring new workers can take up to a year as OMB will delay most actions unnecessarily, time that the most talented scientists who we should be hiring will not wait.
4:47:38
As a result of this, hiring managers will instead often opt to contract out work to privatized non city line positions where workers can be hired more efficiently.
4:47:50
This austerity has downstream effects.
4:47:53
We cannot stay up to date on developments in our field because the public health library is closed.
4:48:00
Members are routinely paid incorrectly because so few people work in the payroll office at this point.
4:48:09
In my own bureau, we nearly ran out of condoms that we distribute to the community, something we can all agree we want people to use more of because of procurement issues with OMB.
4:48:20
So recent federal budget cuts, privatization of mission driven services, and censorship have been jarring but these are only more recent developments in a slow gutting of public services that we have seen for years under the Adams administration.
4:48:36
I ask you to robustly fund the health department and the medical examiner's office so that we can continue our work impacting public safety and health.