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From
AM-NY:
As civil servants continue to illegally park personal vehicles on city streets unticketed, Mayor Bill de Blasio renewed a vow Thursday that he made last May: “We’re going to crack down.”
Safe-streets and good-government activists have long objected to how the vehicles park daily and dangerously around the five boroughs — on sidewalks, in front of hydrants, at curbs, in restricted zones — a practice especially acute near courts, firehouses and police precincts.
“The message is very clear: we’re coming for anyone who violates the rules relating to a placard, or anyone who has an inappropriate placard,” he said Thursday at an unrelated news conference.
Across the city, department-themed hats, vests, union calendars, union-issued placards — which confer no legal status — and handwritten notes are placed on dashboards and amount to impunity to traffic agents and cops, who refuse to ticket brethren.
De Blasio said Thursday that the NYPD’s top transportation cop, Thomas M. Chan, would soon be providing an update of the department’s enforcement efforts.
After de Blasio spoke, his spokesman Austin Finan reissued a statement he gave amNewYork for a story published earlier in the week: that there were 41,931 placard summonses issued last year, compared to 28,269 in 2016.
From the
Daily News:
Thanks to a surge in tax revenues and a boost in state funding, Mayor de Blasio has added more than 3,000 people to the municipal workforce since taking office in January, new records show.
There were 274,447 full-time municipal employees as of Sept. 30, up from 271,296 on Dec. 31, a 1.16% increase.
Two-thirds of the new workers — about 2,000 — were hired for the mayor's universal pre-kindergarten program, plus new special education teachers, both funded by the state, officials said.
De Blasio has also added about 200 civilian employees to the NYPD in an effort to shift cops in desk jobs to the street, and he's added traffic enforcement agents for his Vision Zero push to cut pedestrian deaths. The Department of Transportation's staff has also grown by more than 140 for the Vision Zero effort, and the Health Department has added more than 230 workers to inspect pre-K classrooms, provide health programs for new moms and their kids, and combat rats.
While many companies in the private sector face relentless pressure to slash jobs, the trend in city government has been steadily upward — the workforce has grown under each of the last five mayors, increasing when tax revenues rise and falling only in tough economic times.
The city has added nearly 80,000 workers since 1980, an increase of more than 40%, according to data reviewed by the Daily News.
From
NBC 4:
More than 100 former police officers, firefighters and other city workers faked mental disabilities in order get tens of thousands of dollars in Social Security benefits a year, NBC 4 New York has learned.
But an investigation has revealed the former city workers were pursuing other activities that appeared to negate their claims. One police officer who claimed he was so mentally disabled was allegedly working as a martial arts instructor, officials said. Another who claimed he could not work was allegedly flying helicopters.
One got benefits because of a fear of crowds and yet was found to be selling cannolis in Little Italy during the San Genarro festival. And another went on to allegedly run a private security company.
Many allegedly claimed to be affected by their efforts on 9/11, yet investigators found many were not even near ground zero that day.
All allegedly got help gaming the system from the same two lawyers, ages 89 and 83, and two former police officers who in exchange allegedly took cash payments.
Investigators said one of the attorneys who helped run the scheme is Raymond Lavallee, who worked as an FBI agent in the 1950s and '60s. Calls to Lavallee’s home and law office were not returned Monday.
The criminal charges expected to be announced Tuesday will include 106 people in all.
The more than 100 workers were allegedly taught how to claim they were mentally scarred on SSID applications in order to collect $30,000 to $50,000 in benefits annually.
Investigators said Lavallee would receive thousands in cash payments from successful applicants that were at times left for him in paper bags on a park bench near his office.
From the
NY Post:
Bowing to union pressure, legislators are proposing a sweeping pension bill that would allow thousands of state and city government workers to retire early with full benefits — at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars to taxpayers, The Post has learned.
The early-retirement push clashes with Gov. Cuomo’s drive — backed by Mayor Bloomberg — to scale back pension costs.
The Assembly measure would allow public employees, including city teachers, to retire with full benefits at age 55 with 25 years of service.
Many public employees have to work at least 27 or 30 years before earning full retirement benefits. Others have to work until age 62 to qualify.
The bill’s sponsors admitted it would increase the state pension system’s cost by $167 million and boost city pension costs by tens of millions of dollars.
From the
NY Post:
The unions may be dead set against it, but New Yorkers overwhelmingly support a new pension system for future government employees.
That’s according to a new Siena College opinion poll, which found that New Yorkers, by 69 percent to 28 percent, wholeheartedly agree with Gov. Cuomo’s proposal for a new pension tier.
And that support is seen across the board — in every demographic, geographic and political group.
Even 56 percent of those in union-member households agree with a plan that would “save money for government employers going forward and have employees make a larger contribution toward their retirement plan.”
From the
Daily News:
...it's hard to find a vehicle without a placard in the area around Newcomers High School at 41st Ave. and 28th St.
Most of the placards, which allow drivers to park in certain restricted areas, are issued to employees of the Department of Transportation and the NYPD School Safety Division.
Some of the vehicles are even left in crosswalks and at meters, causing problems for residents and business owners.
"It's like private parking for the people who work for the city," said Joseph Conley, chairman of Community Board 2, who has lobbied for better enforcement of the parking rules.
During a recent visit of the area, the Daily News saw several expired placards or placards that were partially hidden on dashboards. One placard was simply a laminated photo of the Department of Transportation logo with no numbers, signature or identification.
Conley and Stamatiades pointed out that offices for both the Transportation Department and School Safety are in nearby Queens Plaza.
From the
NY Post:
Assembly Democrats have quietly advanced sweeping legislation -- already being called the "Rubber Rooms for All Act" -- to extend tenure-like job protection to all public workers, countering efforts to roll back rigid regulations like those that keep hundreds of failed teachers on the city payroll.
The bill, introduced by Governmental Employees Chairman Peter Abbate Jr. (D-Brooklyn) -- who proudly proclaims himself "the unions' bulldog" -- would nix in-house disciplinary proceedings for all state civil servants accused of wrongdoing by their employers.
Instead, workers would be entitled to a binding ruling by an "independent" arbitrator approved by both the employer and the employee.
The bill makes no provision to break a stalemate, suggesting a dispute could drag on indefinitely.
The legislation would also ban state and local governments from suspending workers without pay while the arbitration process plays out. An exception would be made only for those accused of sale or possession of drugs.
The provisions mirror the state's "rubber room" law, which makes it nearly impossible to fire tenured teachers and has led the Department of Education to warehouse some 675 unwanted teachers in so-called reassignment centers daily at a cost of $40.5 million last year.
From the
NY Post:
...some 275,000 retired NYC employees — including 69,775 teachers, 44,290 cops, 17,404 firefighters and 13,664 others — cost city taxpayers $6.7 billion this year, as officials dipped into the general revenue to make up pension-investment shortfalls. That’s up from only $703 million in 2000. By 2016, taxpayers will be on the hook for $12.3 billion.
Pension losses from last year’s economic crash have hit New York taxpayers like a fiscal stealth bomb.
The city has to pay its employee retirement funds an extra $30 billion to cover last year’s huge investment losses, plus interest and higher benefit payments, The Post has learned.
The city’s five pension funds plunged in value from $101.9 billion to $79.5 billion in fiscal year 2009, according to city Comptroller Bill Thompson’s new Comprehensive Annual Financial Report.
The five funds — covering cops, firefighters, teachers, transit, sanitation and other workers — lost about $20 billion in stocks and other investments in disastrous FY 2009, which ended June. 30.
Since, by law, the city has to increase assets by 8% a year, that adds $8 billion to the shortfall, plus $2 billion from increased benefit payments.
