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Q&A
Current staffing levels for PEP officers, urban park rangers, and forestry staff
3:18:34
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133 sec
Council Member Krishnan highlights the low staffing numbers for PEP officers, urban park rangers, and forestry staff per borough. Commissioner Donoghue explains how the department manages with these staffing levels.
- The Parks Department has approximately 70 PEP officers, fewer than 20 urban park rangers, and 40 forestry staff per borough.
- Commissioner Donoghue explains that PEP officers are deployed based on equitable distribution and areas of greatest need.
- The department maintains a roving crew that can be deployed to different areas as needed.
- There is an important partnership with the NYPD to enhance safety in parks.
Shekar Krishnan
3:18:34
Right.
3:18:36
Now even if the one shots were restored in the executive plan, the Parks Department only has 70 PEP, fewer than 20 urban park rangers and 40 forestry staff per borough.
3:18:48
Let me repeat that again.
3:18:50
70 PEP officers, fewer than 20 urban park rangers, and 40 forestry staff per borough in the city.
3:18:58
The investments we called for in the budget response were only partially a fraction of them met because our response and our vision was much more expansive.
3:19:08
And the real the reality of all this is that we need far more staff and we need permanent staff.
3:19:14
What would be the impact of funding or not funding the council's requests?
3:19:19
We call for permanent baseline positions.
3:19:22
We call for a much greater expansion of each of these roles.
3:19:26
What would be the impact?
3:19:28
And if you don't have those numbers, how do you all move forward with the operations as a city given these numbers per borough?
Sue Donoghue
3:19:36
Thank you council member for the question and I appreciate it.
3:19:40
So we agree that our PEP officers play such a critical role in helping to enforce park rules and to be a visible presence in our parks.
3:19:53
And what we do, the way that we deploy our PEP staff that we do have is based on where is to do it as equitably as we can per borough and to identify areas of greatest need.
3:20:07
We also have a roving crew that we can deploy to different areas across the city when and where they're needed.
3:20:17
We're incredibly proud of how dedicated our PEP officers are and the work that they do in our parks.
3:20:23
We also maintain a very important partnership with PD.
3:20:27
So it's always a combination of our PEP officers and NYPD that is helping us to enhance safety and ensure that they have a feeling of safety in our parks.
3:20:37
So it's a very important partnership, that role of keeping our parks safe, and we'll continue to do that with this this staff that we have.