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Council Member Shaun Abreu's opening remarks for the FY2026 preliminary budget hearing on sanitation and solid waste management
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3 min
Council Member Shaun Abreu, chair of the sanitation and solid waste management committee, opens the fiscal year 2026 preliminary budget hearing. He outlines the Department of Sanitation's budget, discusses key topics for review, and emphasizes the importance of transparency and accountability in the budgeting process.
- The FY2026 budget for the Department of Sanitation totals $1.9 billion with 9,478 full-time positions.
- Key topics for discussion include containerization of waste, commercial waste zones, lot cleaning, litter basket service, and staffing concerns.
- Abreu stresses the need for the budget to reflect the priorities and interests of the council and the people they represent.
Shaun Abreu
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Good afternoon, and welcome to the fiscal twenty twenty six preliminary budget hearing for the committee on sanitation and solid waste management.
0:00:34
My name is Sean Abrau, and I am the chair of the sanitation and solid waste management committee.
0:00:39
This afternoon, we will be discussing the department's 1,900,000,000.0 fiscal 20 20 6 budget as presented in the preliminary financial plan and the preliminary capital commitment plan for DSNY for fiscal twenty twenty five twenty twenty nine, which totals $2,200,000,000.
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I would like to begin by thanking the members of the sanitation department for their hard work over the past year.
0:01:02
The frontline responses of sanitation workers have been on full display throughout the year and because of their actions, our city is a cleaner place.
0:01:10
The sanitation department members are known as New York's strongest and I believe that nickname is aptly given.
0:01:17
The sanitation department's fiscal twenty twenty six budget totals 1,900,000,000.0 with 9,478 full time positions.
0:01:27
The fiscal twenty twenty six budget as presented in the preliminary financial plan is 15,400,000.0 less than the fiscal twenty twenty five budget at adoption.
0:01:36
Budget actions in the preliminary plan increased DSNY's budget by 46,400,000.0 in fiscal twenty twenty five and 07/2011 in fiscal twenty twenty six when compared to the November plan.
0:01:50
The department had three new heads for fiscal twenty twenty four totaling 45,900,000.0 for higher than projected PS and OTPS spending across multiple program areas and a new mobile battery drop off program.
0:02:04
The department's fiscal twenty twenty five twenty twenty nine capital commitment plan totals 2,200,000,000.0 and supports 196 distinct capital projects.
0:02:13
The committee has held oversight hearings on various topics the past year about the city's containerization of refuse and organic waste and commercial waste zones.
0:02:23
The committee would like to revisit these items and others including lot cleaning which has not seen a full restoration, containerization and how costs are being potentially shifted to community organizations, litter basket service, preliminary mayors, management report indicators among other things.
0:02:41
I would also like to discuss headcount and the increasing reliance on overtime to alleviate these decreases.
0:02:47
It is the council's responsibility to ensure that the city's budget is fair, transparent, and accountable to New Yorkers.
0:02:55
As the chair of this committee I will continue to push for accountability and accuracy and ensure that the budget reflects the needs and interests of the city.
0:03:03
It is essential that the budget that we adopt this year is transparent, accountable, and reflective of the priorities and interests of the council and the people we represent.
0:03:12
This hearing is a vital part of this process and I expect DSNY will be responsive to the questions and concerns of council members.
0:03:19
I look forward to an active engagement with the administration over the next few months to ensure the fiscal twenty twenty six adopted budget meets the goals the council has set out.
0:03:28
I would like to thank our committee staff for their hard work, financial analyst Tanveer Singh, unit head Aliyah Ali, committee counsel Morgan Barrett, policy analyst Ricky Challa, and my deputy chief of staff Jalisa Quigley.
0:03:42
I'd like to welcome and thank acting commissioner Javier Lohan, our sanitation workers, and the department's civilian staff for the work that they do.
0:03:52
I look I'm looking forward to hearing from the commissioner the committee council announce where you at.