Joel's Red Budget

[tomac]

I received the following note in my in-basket this morning.

ERIE COUNTY 2004 RED BUDGET

Erie County Department of Public Works
Commissioner’s Office

MEMORANDUM

To: Erie County Legislature
From: Maria Lehman, PE
Date: November 17, 2004
Subject: Implications of Erie County 2005 Red Budget

C: Erie County Local Officials
Erie County Police Agencies
Erie County Emergency Services Agencies
Erie County Public Works offices
Erie County Consultants, Contractors & Suppliers

There has been a lot of public information on the potentially devastating effects of a red budget on the Erie County Library system and the Western New York Cultural Institutions. What has not been publicized, are the many services that are essential to running Western New York’s economic engine and providing for public safety.

The fiscal crisis facing the County will stop all but mandated services on January 1, 2005. Even mandated services such as snowplowing and code compliance will be greatly reduced. Public Works is very heavily impacted and thus it is important to get the facts out. Without the additional revenue, Public Works can not meet its public safety mission. I am very proud of the work we have been able to accomplish together in the past 5 years and want to continue on that mission. It is very important that you are fully aware of the consequences of the red budget. I am attaching a list of impacts to EVERYONE in Erie County.

RED BUDGET IMPLICATIONS – PUBLIC WORKS

CAPITAL PROJECTS:

All professional staff is eliminated under the Red budget. With no staff to do code compliance oversight, contract compliance, EEO compliance, construction site safety review, etc., I will have no choice but to issue stop work orders on December 8, 2004. This will give the staff time to process final payments prior to their release. Notices are being sent out to all Contractors today informing them of this very real possibility. That will impact 56 current building projects and 63 current road and bridge projects. If the budget is reinstated, and projects restarted to completion; we will pay delay claims in the millions for the hundreds of outstanding, incomplete projects. Delay claims will be paid 100% with County funds.

Although the red budget includes capital work, deployment of this work is impossible without a critical mass of in-house professional staff. The Department is lean and mean in its Capital staffing and is barely keeping up with the workload. With the sheer volume of roads, bridges, and buildings, it is impossible to have Jerry Sentz, Bill Thornton and myself, run the amount of facilities that are comparable to some States. We will only be able to deal with the most dire of emergencies. The word is already out on the street that our experienced and talented staff may be laid off. I, as well as several members of my staff, have been called by Executive Search firms. We do not want to have any of our employees leave to pursue employment elsewhere.

The economic impact of infrastructure to the economy is measured by a 3 to 6 multiplier, thus the economic impact of not doing the capital program will be a $0.25 to $0.5 Billion impact to Western New York. Many small businesses on the edge, will be put out of business and many private employees, including various construction union members and merit shop workers will be out of work. The progress that has been made in improving the condition of Erie County infrastructure conditions will be lost.

BUILDING CAPITAL PROJECTS:

Many high-profile, much needed projects will come to a halt such as the Courthouse renovation; the Public Safety campus; ECC City renovations; EC Holding Center renovations; ECMC renovations; Central Library Master Plan Construction; various County building security projects, various County Asbestos Abatement projects, Ralph Wilson Stadium, Dunn Tire Park, and Zoo renovations; School 84 roof renovations; Botanical Gardens Master Plan implementation; and many others.

We have 3 Professional Engineers, 3 Registered Architects, 1 Architect, and 3 additional Code Compliance Officers that oversee hundreds projects. The total working staff will be gone with the red budget.

HIGHWAYS:

Snow Removal – Erie County snow removal operations will be cut back and the quick recovery time from Western New York’s infamous snow storms will be increased. This in turn will affect private businesses and schools, as road conditions may dictate reduced operations and closures.

Local communities plow approximately 200 miles of County roads; the County plows the remaining 1,000 miles. New York State pays Erie County to plow 400 miles of State owned roads. Municipalities will continue their contracts through the 2004/5 plowing season. Under the staff and revenue reductions in the red budget, we will need to:

· Notify NYSDOT by December 1, 2004 that we will be unable to plow half of their roads. In initial conversations with NYSDOT, this additional burden on NYSDOT plowing operations will place an added strain on their load. Thus, State roadways as well, will not be cleared in the timely fashion that we are used to.
· Four sub-plants will close: Tonawanda, Angola, Protection and Collins. Harlem is the only sub-barn to stay open. Three “main” plants will become sub-plants (Clarence, Hamburg and Concord) to Lancaster and East Aurora.
· Response time will be significantly increased to the far reaches of the county. With the increased response time, and minimized staffing in the other locations, roads will not be plowed as quickly as in the past. During “heavy” snows, we will be closing roads and having more snow emergencies.

Highway Emergencies and Traffic Safety - Downed stop signs and other emergencies that we routinely get calls out on from the police departments, will be delayed due to reduced staffing. These situations remain dangerous until Highway personnel respond and mitigate the situation. We have very serious accident liability and traffic safety issues without a Traffic Engineer on staff. The Traffic Engineer is responsible for speed limits, signage, pavement striping, sight distance issues, and traffic signal permitting.

Outside Funding - We are jeopardizing additional funding from various sources. With limited staff and resources, we will not be able to accomplish work that could be eligible for outside funding. One such example is FEMA. I would expect that we would default on a number of the proposals they have written for us or we will incur significantly higher costs if we start utilizing outside contractors to do all the work. Also, I have real concerns about how the NYSDOT will view this in the context of locally administered federal-aid projects. Federal funds for projects, for Erie County staff reimbursement, and the deployment of consultants are in jeopardy without an in-house staff to administer them.

Highway Capital Projects:
· We have 10 Professional Engineers and one Professional Licensed Surveyor that oversee 26 Federal Aid projects and a total of 63 overall projects. The total working staff will be gone with the red budget. The 26 Federal aid projects for highways, bridges and trailways are worth $52 million. We receive between 80% and 95% of the project value ($49.4 million) in Federal and State Aid.
· The Project Managers receive up to 80% of their salary from Federal and State funds to administer these projects. The dollar value that we receive in salary reimbursements is currently $350,000.
· The North French Road (Sweet Home to Transit) Federal Aid Project is currently a $2.6 million project. With the recent announcement of GEICO establishing a Corporate Center off of North French Road, ECIDA added $2.5 million of development funds to address GEICO/North French transportation needs, as a term of the GEICO transaction. This project will stop.
· Numerous high profile projects will be impacted by these cuts including: Sheridan/Kenmore Intersection, Wehrle Drive (Ellicott to Transit with numerous developments and business growth opportunities currently underway), Glen Avenue Bridges (Village of Williamsville), Maple Road (Niagara Falls Boulevard to Flint), Lake Shore Road Bridge (Evans), Youngs/Aero Intersection (Amherst), Colvin/Brighton Road Signals, Elmwood Avenue Corridor Signals, and our Capital Overlay Program (various locations – 120 miles +.

BUILDINGS & GROUNDS:

The red budget has the following impacts:
· Eliminates the integration of DPW into Facility Management segment of SAP, work orders, inventory control, and cost accounting. This was to streamline operations while providing more accountability as recommended in the grand jury report.
· Eliminates custodial, except for lavatories and common area cleaning in all County buildings except courts. All trash will need to be brought to lobbies at close of day, in plastic bags for disposal by each working employee. All hire workers will be laid off/prior to any AFSCME employee, thus the County will loose thousands of work hours from this elimination.
· Eliminates the centralization of security monitoring and HVAC control & monitoring for the County.
· Eliminates night security in all County buildings except courts.
· Eliminates any type of Homeland Security “First Preventor” protection for County buildings.
· Severely limits snow removal capacities (sidewalks, stairs) for all County buildings.
· Will require extensive use of outside contractors for emergency & life safety concerns, at a premium cost.
· Eliminates Building Guards, Engineers, and a Control Technician at the Public Safety Campus, thus we will be unable to open the building.
· NYS Department of Labor, PESH – We are already being challenged regarding Life Safety issues.
- - - Continued next thread

[tomac]

-- -- Continued from previous thread -- --

These are all very serious issues. I implore you to add the supplemental revenue and return the DPW function to some level of normalcy. The future of Erie County and thousands of people is in your hands.
The public does not deserve what would result from this red budget.


There you have it. Upon taking office in 2000, Giambra took a large surplus left to him by Dennis Gorski, and after a token give-back to the taxpayer (his ill-advised Property Tax reduction), he proceded to loot the County Coffers until there is nothing left. The politicians knew that the Welfare/Medicaid Black Hole was bad and is only getting worse. They have known this since 1960. For giambra to use it as an excuse now is a red herring. He stole the County Treasury and gave the bulk of it to his friends.

He will lay off all those evil civil servants and shut down all those "unneeded" services like the library, Sheriff's road patrol and road and bridge repair.
Fine - but what will he do next year when the budget is still empty and Welfare/Medicaid is still demanding to be fed?
Joel Giambra's past term of service has been marked by incompetence at best and criminal theft of services at worst.

Last one out of the area, please turn off the lights!

[Deerhunter]

Joel created this situation. With Republicans not on board as far as raising taxes, Joels budget may end up kicking him , right in the Curm.

[WNYresident]

I think they are departments that would be much better to cut and I know you all hate to hear it, pay cuts across the board. Perhaps WNY is the first place in the USA that is going to prove our government class of workers are over paid. It's one of the causes (no the only) which is making us uncompetative in the USA.

[concernedwnyer]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by tomac
[B]-- -- Continued from previous thread -- --

Tomac very interesting reading but be careful about posting in house memorandoms around especially on the open Internet.
Some people look for this kind f stuff and then shoot their harpoon gun at you.

Anybody in the department want some Tomac served up piping hot. Get it over here while there is still some left.

[WNYresident]

in house memorandoms

I thought they worked for us? Is it a closed government or open ?

[tomac]

Originally posted by WNYresident
I think they are departments that would be much better to cut and I know you all hate to hear it, pay cuts across the board. Perhaps WNY is the first place in the USA that is going to prove our government class of workers are over paid. It's one of the causes (no the only) which is making us uncompetative in the USA.

Normally I'd argree with you about job cuts, but I read the following on Joe Illuzzi's Politics WNY Website at http://www.illuzziletter.com/. There are more comments on this fine budget submission to be read there.

LEGISLATORS MARINELLI AND DEBENEDETTI WANT YOU TO KNOW WHAT IS REALLY IN THE RED BUDGET

On November 5, 2004 Erie County Executive Joel Giambra sent to the Legislature what he calls the “scorched earth” budget. This “red budget” is the only budget officially before the Legislature and the only budget the Legislature can legally consider.
You have probably heard that the County Executive’s proposed budget cuts over 1,000 jobs, closes libraries and parks, and puts an end to other essential county services. However, you may not be aware of several items the County Executive chose to include in this budget. Legislators Albert DeBenedetti and Lynn Marinelli, Chair and Vice-Chair of the Legislature’s Finance and Management – Budget Committee, want you to know the truth.

Did you know…The 2005 Budget Red Budget continues to include:

Budget Resolution # 61 - Which allows for Giambra Appointees to carry over vacation credit balances and gives Giambra Appointees 4 weeks of vacation effective January 1, 2005?

§ First, it would take any other employee 9 years of service to earn 4 weeks of vacation in one year.

§ Second, all other County employees must accrue vacation time througout the year, rather than have it all available January 1st

§ Third, all other employees are limited on the number of hours they can accumulate.

Did you know...The budget includes a $17,168 raise for an appointee in the Budget Department (increasing the salary from $74,408 to $91,570)?

Did you know...This budget includes a $9,000 raise for an appointee in the Social Services Department (increasing the salary from $91,570 to $100,506)?

Did you know...This budget creates a new $80,929 appointee job in the Social Services Department – Special Counsel to the Commissioner?

Did you know…This budget retains a non-mandated position of Director of Fleet Services at a salary of $81,316?

Did you know…This budget includes $135,947 for Out of Area Travel?

Did you know...This budget includes $58,460 for Office Furniture?

Did you know…This budget includes $4 million in the Capital Budget for SAP Functionality Expansion (Computer System Upgrades)?

Did you know…This budget includes $3 million in the Capital Budget for Phase III of the Parks Master Plan when all County parks will be closed?

Did you know…This budget includes $275,000 for Grover Cleveland Cart Path Installation when Grover Cleveland Golf Course will be closed?

Did you know…This budget includes over $14 million for library books, media and capital projects when all Libraries will be closed?

Think about this.

[tomac]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by concernedwnyer
[B]

Originally posted by tomac
-- -- Continued from previous thread -- --

Tomac very interesting reading but be careful about posting in house memorandoms around especially on the open Internet.
Some people look for this kind f stuff and then shoot their harpoon gun at you.

Anybody in the department want some Tomac served up piping hot. Get it over here while there is still some left.

What's the worst he could do? Give me the Silkwood treatment? That doesn't scare me, and "the people have a right to know"

As I overheard today, "Joel has learned well from "The Godfather" in the art of extortion, not that the patsy can no longer pay up, you threaten to break his legs. He has cleaned out the County Coffers over the past five years and now that the pantry is bare, he is threatening to politically break our legs by shutting down the County Services.

So after the County shuts down with this budget and the Welfare/Medicaid continues on unaddressed, what will he do next year?

[Deerhunter]

An FOI could get that memo. No prob, more sensitive info has been broadcast on TV.