Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
Q&A
Current state and challenges of DSNY's lot cleaning program
2:02:04
ยท
4 min
Council Member Shaun Abreu questions DSNY officials about the current state of the lot cleaning program, which has seen a significant reduction in capacity due to budget cuts. The program's staffing has been reduced from 76 to 15 positions, resulting in a large backlog of cleaning requests.
- There are currently over 1,900 outstanding lot cleaning requests
- Only 26 lots were cleaned in the first four months of FY25
- DSNY is prioritizing areas with the greatest need and using TNT resources where possible
Shaun Abreu
2:02:04
Lot cleaning.
2:02:06
DSNY's lot cleaning program has played a critical role in maintaining public health and cleanliness by ensuring that vacant lots do not become hazardous dumping grounds.
2:02:15
Despite continued high demand, the number of lots cleaned has declined each year with DSNY attributing this to budget cuts and staffing reductions.
2:02:26
As the program faces ongoing funding challenges, it is essential to assess the impact of these reductions and the city's plan to address the growing backlog.
2:02:34
With fourteen sixteen lot cleaning requests received in the first four months of FY twenty five, but only 26 slots cleaned in that period, what immediate steps are DSNY taking to address the widening gap between service request and completed cleanings?
Javier Lojan
2:02:53
So chair that that is something that was impacted by cuts previously.
2:03:00
I believe our head count before the cuts were 76 positions, and we're down to 15, so there is an impact there.
2:03:10
We wherever we can, we try to bridge that gap with some of the resources, whether it's sometimes TNT that are adjacent areas, but there you know, I can't sugarcoat it.
2:03:22
There was a cut and there was an impact and we try to prioritize you know areas where we know we know we're seeing that either aging complaints or bigger complaints so love to work with the administration council on that.
Shaun Abreu
2:03:35
What's the headcount at now?
Javier Lojan
2:03:37
It's 15 senate positions, 15 sanitation workers.
Shaun Abreu
2:03:42
And what's the outstanding number of lot cleaning request at the moment?
Javier Lojan
2:03:48
I believe it's a little over nineteen hundred nineteen hundred and eighteen lots.
Shaun Abreu
2:03:51
And how many have been completed?
Javier Lojan
2:04:01
I'll I'll get that back to you.
2:04:03
I'll get back to you on that chair.
Shaun Abreu
2:04:05
Is it is it more than the 26 lots cleaned from the f y?
Javier Lojan
2:04:10
Yeah.
2:04:10
I believe it's definitely more than the 26.
2:04:12
I just have to get that number.
2:04:13
Okay.
Shaun Abreu
2:04:14
I would definitely like to have those data points.
2:04:19
Does what are operational changes or efficiencies that are being explored to increase productivity despite these budget constraints?
Javier Lojan
2:04:27
Productivity in terms of sorry just
Shaun Abreu
2:04:30
In terms of being able to address more of the cleaning requests, how are you sort of operationally dealing with addressing this given the cut in number of headcount?
Javier Lojan
2:04:45
Right.
2:04:46
So depending on what area you're referring to, I think one of the things that we try to do is shift the way our operation, which you're familiar with chair, you know we shift personnel from district to district.
2:05:00
So wherever the need is, that's that's evaluated on a week to week basis by our cleaning office and the borough chiefs all have, you know, requests and depending on where the bigger need is we reallocate where necessary.
2:05:14
So that's one of the ways where we use to, you know, bridge some of those areas that we had cuts in.
Shaun Abreu
2:05:19
Does the SOI believe that its current staffing levels are sufficient to meet the demand?
Javier Lojan
2:05:32
I mean, we can always do more with more.
2:05:35
I think right now with our current headcount, you know, we we're we're addressing the areas that are in greatest need, but we'd love to work with council wherever that need is, where we need to increase that.
Shaun Abreu
2:05:48
And you may not be able to say it but it sounds like head count going from 75 to 15 is not enough to address the outstanding request for cleaning, service requests.
2:06:02
So sounds like it's not enough to meet the demand based off of at least the numbers we have in front of us.
2:06:08
Without a full restoration of the program, what alternative measures is the SNY considering to prevent vacant lots from becoming public health hazards?
Javier Lojan
2:06:19
So I think in areas that are becoming really public health hazards, think we utilize some of our TNT resources and that's where we try to mitigate some areas.
2:06:32
And and we also we have the 15 positions that we shift around as well.
Shaun Abreu
2:06:36
Does DSNY have an estimate of how much additional funding will be required to restore the program to precut levels and eliminate the backlog of lot cleaning requests?
Javier Lojan
2:06:53
Approximately 9,500,000.0.