DANIEL DROMM, Democrat for City Council

The city’s budget cuts are coming but now you can have a say – real input – in what services and programs get cut to close the budget gap and what proposed cuts get restored. All of this, thanks to City Councilmember Daniel Dromm of the 25th District, representing Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, East Elmhurst, LeFrak City, Corona, Rego Park, and Woodside.

Dromm has committed to protecting and maintaining the essential services and functions that we all rely on including fire, police, education, libraries, senior centers, health care, parks and so much more. The City Council plays a key role in negotiating the city’s final budget, and before he takes on that task, he wants to hear from you by having you go to www.surveymonkey.com/nycbudget25 and take a few minutes to express your choices that the city should make in these tough economic times.

Dromm wants your ideas on making cuts and raising revenues.

Labels: Budget, Press

We all know that this is a tough time financially for our city and our state. This year’s budget is likely to be one of the leanest in recent memory, with many services and institutions on the line for potential cuts. As your City Council representative, I am committed to protecting and maintaining the essential services and functions that we all rely on including fire, police, education, libraries, senior centers, health care, parks and so much more. It is our responsibility to explore options for increasing revenue to maintain essential services and a strong city for our families.

The City Council plays a key role in negotiating the City’s final budget, and before we take on that task, I would like to hear what you have to say. Follow this link www.surveymonkey.com/nycbudget25 to make your voice heard on the choices the city should make in these tough economic times.

LINK
www.surveymonkey.com/nycbudget25

I am working with my colleagues in the New York City Council Progressive Caucus to gather input from everyone. Your input can be a valuable part of this process – and we want you to weigh in on the options we have for making cuts and raising revenue. I hope you will join up with interested New Yorkers from around the city to fill out this quick survey www.surveymonkey.com/nycbudget25. And once you are done, please forward the link to your friends.

Thanks for your participation, and look out for a report back on what we learn from this survey in a few weeks.

Labels: Budget, Progressive

From The Epoch Times: By Jack Phillips

Labels: Budget, Education, Press

From Times Ledger: Anna Gustafson

Labels: Budget, Press, Seniors

Labels: Budget, Education, Press

From Gotham Gazette: By Gail Robinson

Class size in New York City public schools could increase by as many as five students across the city if Gov. David Paterson’s proposed budget cuts — largely echoed by the State Senate this week — take effect, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein told the City Council Education Committee this morning. Klein used the grim forecast to urge council members to not only support him in trying to get some of the state funding restored but also to endorse some of his long-held goals, including lifting the limit on the number of charter schools in the state and ending the requirement that any teacher layoffs protect more senior teachers.

According to Klein’s calculations, the array of cuts in Paterson’s budget mean a total of $600 million less for the city public schools next year — and that does not include the effect a possible elimination of student MetroCards would have on the system.

In January, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that the governor’s proposed budget would force the city to lay off some 8,500 teachers. Yesterday city budget director Mark Page asked the department to cut its spending by an additional 2.7 percent in case the “worst case” scenario materializes.

The school district has a budget of about $22 billion, but Klein said half of that is “locked down” in debt service, pension costs and other expenses that the city cannot cut. Some $8 billion goes directly to schools, largely for teacher salaries.

Calling the worst case “undeniably severe,” Klein told council members it would force the city “to lay of 15 percent of our math, English, science and social studies teachers.” While the cuts would be spread throughout the city, he said, they would be particularly harsh in some areas such as Community School district 7 in the South Bronx, which could lose 21 percent of its teachers, and district 2 on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, which could lose almost a fifth of its teaching force.

That could mean that, when school opens in September, the average elementary school classroom could have 26 students while middle school class size would be around 30 or 31, and high school class size would be over 30. Klein said he doubted classes in the city had been that large since the 1970s.

Making matter worse, in Klein’s view, is a state requirement that the department lay of its most junior teachers first. Not only does that ignore the expertise and skill of individual teachers, he said, but “last out, first out also creates the potential for downright education chaos: layoffs would trigger a chain reaction of seniority based ‘bumping’” throughout the system.

Councilmember Lewis Fidler, though, expressed concern that, if senior teachers did not have protection, their higher salaries could encourage principals to fire them first. “We shouldn’t punish people for seniority,” Fidler said. “You’re incentivizing [principals] to get rid of the most senior teachers.”

Klein also called for changes in the way the teachers deal with teachers who spend years in the Absent Teacher Reserve Pool, not teaching but continuing to draw a alary. In particular he proposed allowing teachers without assignments to draw pay for no more than a year.

Councilmember Danny Dromm, a former teacher, reminded Klein that the city agreed to some of the protection for teachers without classes in earlier contract negotiations. “What you’re trying to do is privatize public schools and do some union busting,” Dromm charged.

While several council member denounced charter schools at a hearing last week with Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm, Klein got off fairly easily on that count. In his testimony, the chancellor said the state had to raise the limit on the number of charters so it could receive as much as $700 million in federal Race to the Top education funding.

But, while promising not to revisit the charter school issue, once member — Fidler left no question of where he stood, telling Klein “I’d sooner leave Race to the Top money on the table in Washington that raise the cap on charter schools.”

What to do then? Councilmember Mark Weprin had one suggestion for Klein, asking the chancellor “Have you thought of having a bake sale?”

Labels: Budget, Education, Press

From Queens Chronicle: By Willow Belden

After a four-alarm fire tore through a commercial strip in Jackson Heights on Saturday, destroying eight businesses, local elected officials are denouncing the mayor’s proposal to close 20 fire companies across the city.

The blaze, which began in a furniture store on 37th Avenue between 84th and 85th streets, appears to have been caused by a malfunctioning boiler, according to the FDNY. No one was killed or injured, though dozens of people were evacuated from an adjacent apartment building, and nearby businesses sustained damage.

The fire started around 10 a.m. and burned for more than three hours, with some 200 firefighters working to contain it.

It took the FDNY three minutes to get to the scene. If it had taken any longer, many say, the damage could have been significantly more devastating and likely would have resulted in fatalities. That’s why some are calling on the mayor to rethink his plans to downsize the Fire Department.

“For a fire of this scale, you need manpower, and you need it here quickly,” said Leroy McGinnis, Queens trustee for the Uniformed Firefighters Association. “Seconds matter.”

In his proposed budget for the 2011 fiscal year, Mayor Mike Bloomberg called for 20 fire companies to be closed — a measure he says is necessary to help close the city’s $4.9 billion deficit.

Bloomberg hasn’t specified which companies he would close, but McGinnis and various local politicians say it doesn’t matter; any closures would affect the city as a whole. That’s because engine and ladder companies are routinely taken out of commission for training sessions, parades and other events — leaving neighborhoods with fewer vehicles and staff than usual, and forcing firefighters to come from farther away to respond to emergencies.

If the city eliminates 20 companies more, neighborhoods would be stretched even thinner, and response times would increase, according to critics of the mayor’s plan.

“Any closing of a fire company has a ripple effect,” McGinnis said, adding that if firefighters had had to come from farther away to reach the Jackson Heights blaze, the fire would likely have consumed adjacent buildings.

City Councilman Danny Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) and Assemblyman Jose Peralta (D-Jackson Heights) held a press conference on Monday, calling on the mayor to reconsider his plan.

“We need to ensure the safety of our residents,” Dromm said. “We cannot afford to risk peoples’ lives with these closures.”

The Bloomberg administration contends that the city can’t afford to keep all its fire companies running. “In tough economic times, every agency has been asked to do more with less, including the Fire Department,” Jason Post, a spokesman for the mayor, said in an email.

Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village), chairwoman of the Fire and Criminal Justice Committee, said the city’s financial woes don’t justify the cuts.

“Fires don’t care about budgets,” Crowley said, adding that downsizing the FDNY could cost more in the long run than maintaining the Fire Department’s current numbers. “We cannot shift the costs from the city to the citizen,” she said. “We cannot shortchange our safety by forcing these cuts upon our New Yorkers.”

Trimming fire companies isn’t a new strategy to deal with deficits. In 2003, Bloomberg closed six engine companies, and last year he proposed cutting 16, though the City Council blocked the measure.

In December, the city reduced the number of firefighters in each unit from five to four, though the positions were restored the following month, amid strong criticism from the firefighters’ union.

Dromm said he will urge colleagues in the City Council not to approve a budget that includes cuts to engine companies for FY 2011.

Labels: Budget, CommunityOrganizing, Fire, Press, PublicSafety

From Queens Gazette: By John Toscano

Two Jackson Heights lawmakers, joined by area Fire Department officials, cited a devastating fire in their area to emphasize demands that no firehouses be shut down because of anticipated budget cuts.

The massive fire destroyed a commercial strip on 37th Avenue between 84th and 85th Streets.

City Councilmember Daniel Dromm (D–Jackson Heights) declared:

“We cannot afford to lose any firehouses anywhere in the city. If one firehouse closes, firehouses in other communities will be called upon to cover those other communities. That will leave everyone short of firehouse coverage if an emergency occurs.”

Joining Dromm, Assemblymember Jose Peralta (D–Corona/Jackson Heights) stated he would work closely with Dromm “to ensure that the businesses affected by this devastating fire receive the resources and assistance they need to recover and rebuild”.

Then turning to the firehouse closing issue, Peralta said, “This weekend’s fire further reinforces the critical need to keep all firehouses open. We cannot afford to have less fire protection in our neighborhoods: Our lives and our businesses depend upon it.”

Dromm, a former school teacher said something must be done to correct “the false impression that response times [in fires] are down.”

The freshman lawmaker noted: “Response times are now calculated in a different way. These changes are troublesome.” He explained,

“Response times are now calculated not to include the time a caller spends making the emergency call to 911. This creates the false impression that response times are down. Also, response times only consider when the fire engine arrives on the scene. It does not take into account the amount of time it takes to stretch hose lines, get water on the fire or administer EMS. Providing services could take another 10 minutes or more.”

Dromm also praised the firefighters for doing “an excellent job here in Jackson Heights over the weekend”.

Labels: Budget, CommunityOrganizing, Fire, Press, PublicSafety

Labels: Budget, CommunityOrganizing, Fire, Press, PublicSafety

City Council candidate Daniel Dromm attended the Citizens Budget Commission event last night (March 3rd) which emphasized the great work that CBC does for our city. The Citizens Budget Commission is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civic organization devoted to influencing constructive change in the finances and services of New York City and New York State government. The CBC is a watchdog. The Commission's scrutiny of the efficiency and fiscal standing of government provides a continuous and reliable presence. To learn more about the Citizens Budget Commission, click here.

Labels: Budget, CommunityOrganizing