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Q&A
Council Member Restler questions DSNY on federal funding and composting program
1:14:05
·
5 min
Council Member Lincoln Restler engages in a Q&A session with Department of Sanitation officials, focusing on two main topics: federal funding for the department and the citywide composting program. He inquires about the status of federal grants and expresses concern over the pause in implementing fines for the composting program.
- Restler learns that federal funding, which accounted for about 10% of the FY25 budget, will not be significant in FY26.
- He questions the impact of pausing fines on composting collection rates, expressing worry that this might undermine progress in the program.
- DSNY officials provide data on recent composting collection amounts, showing some fluctuation but generally maintaining high levels.
Lincoln Restler
1:14:05
Great.
1:14:05
I want to thank chair Abreu for his great leadership of this committee, and I think that I feel like we're starting our executive budget hearings with sanitation because it's chair Brannan's favorite committee.
1:14:16
There's nobody who's more obsessed with how clean our city is than chair Brennan, so I am grateful for that and grateful for the leadership of the Department of Sanitation.
1:14:26
I just want to ask a few questions.
1:14:28
Firstly on federal funding.
1:14:30
So according to our review, about 10% of the FY twenty five budget the Department of Sanitation is federally funded.
1:14:37
Is that right?
1:14:37
$200,000,000?
1:14:41
Right.
1:14:42
Have we received have you all received any guidance from the Office of Management in the budget or city hall on the status of federal grants?
1:14:50
Are these all confirmed and received?
1:14:53
Right.
1:14:53
You have
1:15:03
None of the federal grants applied to the second half of fiscal year?
1:15:06
Correct.
1:15:06
Because that
1:15:11
And you've been reimbursed for all of that funding?
1:15:20
You're not anticipating any significant federal funding for your FY twenty six budget?
1:15:24
No.
1:15:25
What percent of your how much funding in FY twenty six are you anticipating as federal funds?
1:15:40
And it's been nearly completely reimbursed?
1:15:43
Okay.
1:15:44
Great.
1:15:45
Composting.
1:15:46
So I've been troubled that the really great work that has been done by the Department of Sanitation to help ensure that we have curbside composting citywide has been undermined by the leadership at City Hall.
1:15:59
It's been reported that Disney collected two and a half million pounds of compost during the first week of April after fines went into effect.
1:16:08
Last week, how many pounds of compost did we collect?
1:16:12
Now that the City Hall has prevented you from implementing all of the fines that New Yorkers, you know It was more than earned?
1:16:52
Yeah.
1:16:53
No.
1:16:53
No.
1:16:53
Positive.
1:16:53
I mean, progress, but down.
1:17:13
But a modest decline all the same as a result potentially of city hall's decision to not implement fines?
1:17:19
Well,
1:17:24
I I just meant the 5.3 down to 5.2, and then last week, it sounds like just over five.
1:17:27
Well, we we may be trending in the wrong direction.
1:17:35
Look.
1:17:36
I do you have any timeline horizon from city hall, any direction whatsoever on when these fines are gonna be back fully in effect?
1:17:59
And does the Department of Sanitation think this is the appropriate policy to not implement fines after years of education and outreach for curbside composting?
1:18:43
Yeah.
1:18:43
Look, I think that we obviously passed this law.
1:18:46
We care deeply about it.
1:18:48
I know that the Department of Sanitation does as well.
1:18:50
We saw a major increase in the amount of pounds that were being collected, in the compost that's being collected, when the fine started to take effect.
1:19:00
And I'm concerned that an eight month plus delay in implementing this policy is going to move collection in the wrong direction.
1:19:07
And our you know, the rat conditions in our city can't wait.
1:19:10
Our climate goals can't wait.
1:19:12
We have the infrastructure to be able to collect more compost.
1:19:15
The way we will do it is to ensure there's some accountability, and and we tell New Yorkers that these are the rules and they have to follow them.
1:19:20
So I hope that this pause will not be as extended as as city hall anticipates, and and we should push for speedier implementation.
1:19:27
Thank you for the extra time.
1:19:29
Thank you.
Joseph Antonelli
1:14:39
Yeah.
1:14:40
That's approximately correct.
1:14:41
Yes.
1:14:54
So the the funding that you're referencing is all for activities that already happened prior to the end of last calendar year, so it only covered the first half of this fiscal year.
1:15:06
was all American Rescue Plan funding that went towards waste export and litter baskets.
1:15:13
I don't know if we've received I'd have to check to see if we've received the amount, but the service period was during last calendar year, so it's not impacted.
1:15:29
I mean, less than a percent, not anything of any sort of significance.
1:15:34
Our budget is almost entirely city funded.
1:15:37
That federal funding that you're referencing was kind of one time federal funding.
Javier Lojan
1:15:43
Yes.
1:16:22
up.
1:16:22
Yeah.
1:16:23
So the pause happened in the April, so approximately April 16.
1:16:32
So for that week, we collected £4,500,000.
1:16:36
The following week, which was the first full week on the pause, we collected which was the record setting was £5,300,000.
1:16:44
The week after that, which was the week of April 28, we collected 5,200,000.
1:16:49
So it did go down?
1:16:50
So it went slightly down, but it's still one of the highest weeks.
1:16:55
Yeah.
1:16:55
And then this week, we're I we still have to reconcile the numbers, but it looks like it's over 5,000,000.
1:16:59
It's gonna probably be a lot higher.
1:17:01
So we haven't seen a big decline, because previous to April the April, we were at, like, two and a half million.
1:17:09
So we we have seen those the numbers stay in the 5,000,000 mark, which is really promising.
1:17:20
no.
1:17:21
The third week was one of the highest weeks ever.
1:17:29
Well, we're not sure about last week because we still have to reconcile the the lows that we offload by the end of of last Saturday.
1:17:35
Okay.
1:17:43
So right now, we anticipate that this will be until the end of the year, but we are
1:17:48
Calendar year.
1:17:49
Wow.
1:17:49
So but we're still able to and we are intend on writing violations to some of the buildings with 30 plus units.
1:18:10
Yeah.
1:18:10
So one of the things I meant to mention council members that we've shifted into that outreach and education.
1:18:16
And I mentioned previously that we've conducted outreach to over 3,200 locations citywide.
1:18:22
And we are seeing them to be very productive interactions.
1:18:27
So our field supervisors that are assigned to these geographical areas are trying to make contact with anybody that lives at that building.
1:18:35
And we are finding that some of them are still a bit confused about the program and we're just explaining it to them and it is being helpful.
1:18:42
So they're being very productive.
Joshua Goodman
1:16:20
More than that, the council member.
Shaun Abreu
1:16:22
It's gone
Althea V. Stevens
1:17:47
calendar year?