DEP Environmental Protection Invoices, 1999-2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

February 28, 2001

The Honorable Joseph J. Lhota Deputy Mayor for Operations City of New York 100 Church Street - 20`" Floor New York, New York 10007

Dear Deputy Mayor Lhota:

I met with Adam Barsky and his staff this afternoon to discuss the Department of Environmental Protection's Personal Service budget shortfalls and headcount constraints. These issues were detailed in my February 5th letter to Adam (copy attached).

OMB and DEP budget staff agree that the Agency has a FY2001 PS deficit of $16 million at Adoption should it be at full headcount. In the FY2002 January Plan, OMB approved a DEP proposal to transfer $7 million of baseline OTPS to the PS budget. While this provides some breathing room, we believe the remainder of our existing PS shortfalls and some of our headcount needs must be addressed at this time due to:

• The magnitude of the remaining shortfall

• Our inability to hire/promote critical staff in those areas which remain underfunded

• Our inability to fully implement new or expand existing critical programs

At the meeting we requested approval of the following proposals:

• Use recurring OTPS surpluses to self-fund the PS shortfall. We would transfer S10 million ($8.7 million from recurring sludge disposal contract surpluses and $1.3 million from other recurring surpluses). This would cover $7.4 million of the remaining PS shortfall and $2.6 million to effectuate the proposal below.

A headcount increase of 51 positions (with an associated $2.6 million increase in PS expense funding) to restore the headcount that was approved in the FY01 Executive Budget, as you and I discussed

We believe the abovementioned proposals will resolve most of our existing PS budget and headcount problems, providing the Department with renewed ability to effectively fulfill its mandates.

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NYC-WTC 000137866