CB6 Chief Talks Community Board Budget Cuts

Last weekend the Times had a piece about the big budget cuts the Bloomberg administration is looking to impose on the city’s 59 community boards. The article points out that CBs may have to try to rustle up private funding to compensate for the funds shortage from their already anemic budgets (most get about $200,000 a year, the majority of which goes to the boards’ salaried employees). Close to home, the cuts will hit Community Board 6—which serves Carroll Gardens/South Brooklyn, Cobble Hill, Columbia Street District, Gowanus, Park Slope and Red Hook—hard, says CB6 District Manager Craig Hammerman. “It’s not possible for us or the majority of community boards to absorb these cuts without them affecting our personnel,” says Hammerman, who notes that for the 18 years he’s served on CB6, the board has gotten no budget increases from the city, and that the only extra cash they’ve seen came out of collective bargaining agreements. The city wants each board to cut approximately $16,000 from its fiscal year ’09 budget, which amounts to “around $944,000 from a $61 billion budget,” says Hammerman. “The only thing I can speculate is that the mayor doesn’t like us,” says the district manager. Hammerman, who is running for the City Council spot Bill de Blasio is vacating, concedes that it’s high time for a reconsideration of how communities are represented in city government, since the current community board model hasn’t been tweaked in 20 years. “I don’t pretend that community boards are the end all be all, and the system certainly has its problems,” he says. “But community boards provide one of the only means of checks and balances for the executive branch of the city and help people who are affected by what the administration decides.” The community board budget cuts will be considered by the City Council when it reviews the budget, but with a leaner, meaner budget on the table this year, the Council is going to have to make tough decisions about the magnitude of funding cuts facing many agencies, including the Dept. of Ed and the FDNY. “The Council needs to decide whether the community boards rank high enough on their radars, and they’ve got a lot of pressure from other agencies on them this year,” says Hammerman. A letter regarding the cuts that Hammerman has just sent to the borough president and Councilmembers is on the jump.
Community Boards Face Big Budget Cuts [Brownstoner]

Dear Borough President Markowitz, Council Member Barron, Council Member Eugene, Council Member Felder, Council Member James, Council Member Nelson, Council Member Stewart and Council Member Vann:

Thank you all so much for taking the time out of your busy schedules to attend the afternoon meeting today at Borough Hall with the Brooklyn Community Boards’ Chairs and District Managers to show your support for the Community Boards during this difficult budget process. As you know, on top of the 5% budget cut already taken from our next year’s FY 2009 budget, the Mayor has set aside an additional 3% PEG cut for a grand total of 8% to be eliminated from our budgets beginning next year.

In rough figures, each Community Board’s $200,000 budget will be reduced by $16,000. In our City of 59 Community Boards, that means the total “savings” to our $61 billion City budget will amount to $944,000. This equates to a 0.0015% “savings.” This statistically insignificant “savings” to the City comes at the expense of your Community Boards – the volunteer members you appoint to represent your communities. No Community Board will be able to absorb such a cut without it impacting critical community support services.

As discussed at our meeting, there are many reasons not to cut the Community Boards. Some of them include –

1) CB’s have traditionally been held harmless from Citywide agency budget cuts. For what it’s worth, there is a precedent that’s been established.
2) CB’s lack elasticity in their budgets to absorb cuts. It is easy to track and see where every dime is spent in a CB budget. Look for yourselves. There’s no fat to trim.
3) CB’s have never had a budget increase to keep pace with the increasing costs of doing business. Postage, supplies, equipment and other expenses increase and we have never received any corresponding cost of living adjustments to compensate. The only increases the CB’s have received are salary increases that result from Collective Bargaining and Managerial increases. Our Other Than Personnel Spending has never been increased. Never.
4) Every CB can offer some anecdotal evidence of savings they’ve helped the City achieve by doing our jobs day-in and day-out. Whether it’s organizing public review and planning for our communities, coordinating the construction impacts of Capital projects in our communities across agencies, assisting agencies with public outreach to extend vital services to our communities or shedding light on wasteful agency practices, it’s our job to promote the efficient and effective use of municipal resources. We do our share every day even though we know that can make us unpopular at times, especially with the powers that be.

Bottom line, it would be unacceptable to settle for a retraction of the 3% PEG cut. That would be a tremendous blow and crushing defeat for us. That’s no victory to celebrate. Nothing short of a full restoration of the entire 8% figure would be an acceptable outcome. In fact, we need to keep the pressure on to increase the Community Boards’ budgets to compensate for the rising costs of doing business, and the expanded role the Community Boards have been expected to play. Had our budgets been adjusted over time we would no doubt have a proper baseline budget of roughly $275-300,000, a target we must pursue with zeal and rigor.

The truth is that when times were good for our City government coffers, we’ve never been able to share in those good times with every other City agency. So why should we have to suffer a debilitating budget cut now when the budget projections for City government turn grim? Especially when such crippling cuts would not contribute anything statistically significant toward closing the City’s projected budget gap. That’s patently unfair. The City can’t have it both ways.

Some of you have generously supplemented Community Board budgets with discretionary funding over the years. Those of you who’ve already put your money where your mouth is recognize the value we add as the decentralized non-Mayoral public agencies of City government. Since we may not say it as often or publicly as we should, thank you for your past support. But unless the City Council is prepared to take on more and more of a share of the Community Boards’ baseline budgets coming out of discretionary Council spending, you’d probably want to hold the line now and actively oppose the Mayor’s proposed cuts.

Now is the time to push back. The battle lines have been drawn. And the Administration has drawn first blood. We appreciate those of you who took the time to meet with us today and offered to stand with us and by us. We welcome the support of the entire Brooklyn delegation and full City Council. Together we can continue to achieve wonderful things for our great borough and City.

Thank you for your attention.

Respectfully yours,
Craig