Editor’s Note: The following is an extended version of the story that appears in our latest print edition.

 

City Councilman Eric Dinowitz (C.D. 11) gave a budget presentation to district residents on Wednesday, Aug. 2, highlighting some of the local initiatives that will benefit from funding, following the adoption of the City’s $107 billion budget for the 2024 fiscal year. The councilman went over the city budget process, discussed the major highlights from the latest adopted city budget, and broke down some of the $30 million plus in discretionary funding for capital projects and other funding secured for C.D. 11, in conjunction with Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson.

 

Around 30 residents of City Council District 11, which includes some or all of the neighborhoods of Norwood, Bedford Park, Kingsbridge, Van Cortlandt Village, Riverdale, Wakefield and Woodlawn, attended the presentation. It was prefaced by a short video overview, and held at Mosholu Montefiore Community Center (MMCC) in Norwood.

 

“One of the really important things for me is really hearing from all of you, and making sure you are as informed as possible,” the councilman said. “We are getting out into the district once a month,” he said in part, adding that his office has held community forums on various issues, including coyotes, rats, anti-Semitism, Local Law 97, ranked choice voting, fire safety, public safety, and redistricting, among others.

 

Local Law 97 is one of the most ambitious plans for reducing [greenhouse gas] emissions in the nation, according to City officials, and was included in the Climate Mobilization Act, passed by the City Council in April 2019, as part of then-Mayor Bill de Blasio’s New York City Green New Deal.

 

The councilman said to stay connected with his constituents, he regularly participated at Bronx Community Board board meetings, attended various civic group meetings like one recently organized by the local Bangladeshi community, and other events like National Night Out. “One of the most important things is all of you are informed about all sorts of issues about my work and the work that is impacting your lives,” Dinowitz said.

 

He went on to explain that the City’s fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30, and that the City has to have a balanced budget. “We’re not federal government,” he said. “We can’t borrow money, we can’t print money, we can’t invent money. So, there are a few things we do throughout the year to make sure our budget is balanced.”

The councilman said the budget process comprised various discussions with the mayor and his administration on what the priorities were across the city and then hearings were held, the councilmembers presented something to him, the mayor presented something to them, and the budget was finally agreed and voted on. He said budget modifications were then sometimes made over the course of the year.

 

He said one way of finding out what funding was needed at a local level was asking the local community boards. He gave examples of capital investment requests for things like the fencing outside the Williamsbridge Oval Park in Norwood, and for lights, turf or “hard items, that last a long time” like buildings. He contrasted this with “expense items” like MMCC needing more money for their senior center, for example. He said another way of obtaining feedback was through community surveys.

 

During the budget process, the councilman said the mayor had proposed a 3 percent cut to NYC Department of Education (DOE) and to the City University of New York (CUNY), as well as a 4 percent cut to all other city agencies. He said the 3 percent proposed cuts were part of the mayor’s mandatory citywide “program to eliminate the gap” (PEG), announced in September 2022, whereby city agencies were instructed to reduce Financial Year 2023 (FY23) City spending by 3 percent, and Financial Years 2024, 2025, and 2026 by 4.75%,

 

Dinowitz said agencies couldn’t fire staff but services had to be reduced if the previous year’s allocated budget for such services had not been used, for example. “So, a lot of the savings that were realized in the city budget were done through what are called efficiencies or vacancy reductions,” he said. However, he said council members argued that in some cases, the budgets of certain city agencies should have been fully used, and therefore shouldn’t be cut.

 

He said NYC Department for the Aging (DFTA), for example, needed more funding for all their programs for Older Adult Centers, NYC Department of Buildings (DOB) needed more inspectors, the Human Rights Commission (HRA) needed more people to deal with housing discrimination and so on. “So, a lot of our fights and one of our wins, dealt with restoration of cuts,” he said. “Without the council’s advocacy, we would have seen significant cuts in every agency, and to a lot of the services that we’ve come to rely on.”

He said there were disagreements with the mayor on what he described as “fiscal values” and over what “efficiency” meant to each party to the discussion. He added, “Every administration is always more conservative. They say we’re going to have less money so we can spend less, and what’s tough is it’s also before we release all this information, before the State budget passes. So, we don’t always know how much the State’s going to give us, and the State budget was late this year.” He said concerns were identified during various hearings and agencies, constituents and advocates testified and in the end, there were some wins and losses on both sides.

 

He referenced his role on the education committee and said as the council funds the Urban Debate League and the American Debate League, he talked to some students from a local Kingsbridge school to hear directly from students about the impact of a specific debate program it hosted. On the topic of school budgets, he said there was a “big fight” last year, because a lot of schools were told they were going to start the year with much less money.

 

He said COVID had had an impact on that but in general, there was going to be much less money and a lot of schools opposed this because they said they had a higher enrollment and therefore should get more money. “So, what we did this year, citywide, we got the DOE to commit to freezing school budgets, the initial school budgets,” Dinowitz said. “So, schools, at least, had a little more wiggle room and comfort if they knew that a lot of kids were coming in, whether they were students who lived here, or migrants coming in.”

 

In reference to the citywide lifeguard shortage, and displaying photos of the swimming pool at Bedford Park’s DeWitt Clinton High School in a poor state of repair, he continued in part, saying, “For a long time, the Clinton pool has been unusable. It’s been a mess. I saw the Parks’ committee and we had a lot of discussions. Students at Clinton had no access to a pool to even try to become lifeguards.” He said through public hearings, the council was able to get the School Construction Authority to renovate the pool.

 

He said rallies were also held to build public support for the restoration of proposed cuts like a $36.2 million proposed cut to libraries which was restored, for example. In terms of clean-up efforts, he said there was a reinvestment of $22 million for twice-a-day litter and basket pick up, $40 million restored for around 30 citywide cultural institutions like the Botanical Garden, Bronx Zoo and Wave Hill, and $2 million for tree stump removal. He acknowledged it was not enough but said it was a start.

 

The councilman said the Adams administration also proposed cutting funding for senior centers. “Now, we, unfortunately, weren’t able to win every cut that was made. DFTA did suffer a loss, but there were some policy wins that we got.” He gave one example in the form of a higher rate of reimbursement to senior centers which provide meals to older adults. He said for a meal which might cost $18 per person, the centers were receiving $11.78 per meal. They now receive $12.78 which he said makes a big difference when thousands of meals are involved. He also referenced a “groceries-to-go” program, which provides a discount on groceries to certain residents who meet certain criteria.

 

On the topic of homelessness, he said for him, this began with keeping people in their homes and referenced funding of $46 million for the “right to counsel” to help people fight their cases in court. He said $300 million was also allocated for housing and tenant assisted programs like CityFHEPS, a housing voucher used to help pay rent. The councilman also spoke about a package of three housing-related bills passed by the council.

 

He said prior to their passage, residents had to be in a shelter for 90 days to qualify for a CityFHEPS voucher. The new law eliminated the 90-day rule. “Instead of waiting ’till you’re at a shelter, if you’re facing eviction, you can get temporary help with the CityFHEPS voucher,” he said, adding that help with utilities like water and electric was also included in the law. He said the mayor later vetoed the package but then the council over-rode the veto.

Dinowitz said the council backed up the bill package with a budget of $3 million to cover the housing voucher cost and accelerated capital funding for “things like NYCHA,” although he added that since city redistricting took place, he no longer has any NYCHA buildings in District 11. He went on to talk about transportation, highlighting that the fair fares program was different from the senior program. “We provided $95 million so people can affordably take the subway and the buses,” he said.

 

He said $11 million was allocated to the Student Youth Employment Program, $22.5 million for a workload and growth program to invest in and to allow people to work and educate themselves. He said education was the biggest component in the city budget. “As a teacher, myself, I know there are efficiencies that can be found,” he said. “I know.”

 

He said the council had the DOE adopt a budget of $31.5 billion, an increase from last year. He referenced support for Promise NYC, a child care assistance program for low-income families previously ineligible due to their immigration status, and said the Adams administration had proposed cuts to the Pre-K program as not all the seats were being filled. However, he said the council opposed this, adding, “We’re still on the path of universal childcare.” He said adult literacy programs got $6.7 million.

 

He went on to talk about the fair student funding formula, saying, “Each student gets a certain amount allotted for them to the school. The more students that are in a school, the more funding that school will get because it’s per student.” He said more funding was awarded to those schools who had more English language learners or students with disabilities, depending on their IEPs [Individualized Educational Programs]. He didn’t have time to discuss it but said there were some problems with the way this money was allocated.

 

The councilman said a new funding category was also created for schools which had many students who were living in temporary housing, because, “students in temporary housing typically have more needs.” He went on to day that the Adams administration dug their heels in on CUNY, saying they cut the CUNY budget by $41 million. Through hearings, however, he said it was revealed that certain CUNY programs actually brought money back to the city. “It’s a return investment of between $2 and $3, to $1, for every dollar invested in programs like ASAP [which covers student counseling, wraparound services, MetroCards, etc.],” he said.

 

“Students save thousands of dollars, and the City makes more money by having students graduate on time, so we were able to win back a lot of the cuts [to such a program],” he said, adding that the program has been modeled across the country due to its success. He said in addition, some educational programs were baselined, meaning they now form part of the budget and don’t have to be renegotiated every year.

 

“CUNY Reconnect is a program that finds people who have some CUNY credit, and affirmatively acts, goes out and gets them and brings them back to college,” he said. He said it was projected that tens of millions of dollars in tuition would be attained by the City for what was a $4.1 million investment in this program.

 

He said eventually the City budget was finally passed with a vote of 39 to 12, which he said was a significant majority. He then talked about wins in terms of “units of appropriation” and “terms of conditions,” which basically obliges City agencies to provide the council with more transparency on how each unit of their budget is being spent. “I’ll just tell you one of the terms and conditions last year that we got in the budget was reporting on sick time that correction officers were taking,” he said. “That was, and still remains, a big problem as part of the staffing crisis at Rikers.”

 

He said he also pushed for reporting on bias incidents on CUNY campuses, adding that there has been a recurring theme of anti-Semitism on college campuses generally. Another was charter school rent. “The city spent $187 million on charter school rent, and when we got them to report how much each school is spending on rent, it’s exorbitant,” he said.

 

“It’s a State law that says the city has to provide space or reimburse charter schools for rent, but we actually now have transparency under it.” He said this year, the council got more transparency on things like spending for asylum seekers and emergency contracting, and also early childhood centers.

An overview of the budget breakdown, including some of the local highlights, can be found below, based on the slides shared during the presentation:

• $7 million for older adult meals, including $4.5 million for home-delivered meals, baselined, $2.5 million for older adult center meals, a higher reimbursement rate to such centers of $12.78 (up from $11.78) on the cost per meal, and $5.6 million for the groceries to go program.
• an increase of $46 million for right to counsel,
• $300 million for Housing and Tenant Assistance Programs like CityFHEPS (linked to the mayor’s veto)
• $4 billion in capital funding for HPD and NYCHA, with an additional accelerated $175 million.

 

Units of Appropriation

The FY2024 budget adopted 11 new units of appropriation, prioritized by the council, including:

• NYC Department of Correction (DOC) – Transportation (2)
• NYPD – Community Affairs Bureau (1)
• Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) – Office of Neighborhood Safety (2)
• The Mayor’s Office Criminal Justice – Criminal Justice Programs (1)
• Human Resources Administration – Food (1)
• NYC Department of Buildings (DOB) – Administrative Policy and Enforcement Division (2)
• NYC Department of Correction (DOC) – Non-Capital Eligible work (2)

 

Discretionary Funding – $800K

• $10,000 to Kingsbridge Historical Society
• $18,200 to new trees and tree guards
• $20,000 to Mindbuilders Creative Arts Center for youth empowerment programming in Wakefield
• $10,000 to Bronx Arts Ensemble for music concerts in District 11 parks
• $10,000 to LINC for early literacy programming

 

[It was not 100 percent clear where $5 million for the renovation of the athletic fields at John F. Kennedy High School and $25,000 for Friends of Mosholu Parkland comes from. We have asked the councilman for a copy of the presentation to double-check this.]

 

Discretionary Funding / Member Designated Initiatives

Citywide initiatives with a specific purpose and guidelines that are equally split and designated by each council member

• Digital Literacy & Inclusion $90,000
• Cultural After School & Adventures (CASA) $340,000
• Cultural Immigrant $145,000
• A Greener NYC $100,000
• NYC Clean Up $280,000
• Park Equity $90,000
• Support our Older Adults $150,000
• Neighborhood Development Grant $50,000
• Domestic Violence & Empowerment $195,000 (Tier 2)

 

Discretionary Fund /Citywide Initiatives – Local Highlights

• Mosholu Montefiore Community Center (MMCC) – $286,516
• Emerald Isle Emigration Center (EIEC) – $315,851
• Lehman College – $1,000,000
• Montefiore Medical Center – $1,150,151
• Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition – $334,924
• Van Cortlandt Park Alliance – $50,000
• West Bronx Housing Neighborhood Resource Center – $293,960
• $60,000 for Hebrew Home for the Aged
• $181,636 for Riverdale Mental Health
• $243,057 for Riverdale Senior Services
• $50,000 for Wave Hill

 

Discretionary Funding – Capital

Each council member receives $5 million in discretionary capital funding to meet the needs in each council district. Through his advocacy and work with the Bronx borough president, the councilman said he secured nearly $30 million in capital projects funding for District 11.

 

Discretionary Capital Funding for District 11 [by Category]

• Parks – 51%
• Schools – 33.6%
• Public Buildings 6.2%
• Hospitals – 4.5%
• Economic Development – 3.7%
• Older Adults – 1%

During his presentation, and in the context of the awarding of $25,000 to Friends of Mosholu Parkland, the councilman commended the group’s work including their clean-up efforts, saying they did “incredible work” in the community.  Elizabeth Quaranta, executive director of FOMP, voiced her disappointment, however, with what she felt was a very large funding allocation to Williamsbridge Oval, at the expense of other local projects.

 

“It was never disclosed to us that this money was being considered for the Oval despite the advocacy for other playgrounds in the council district that are in desperate need of a renovation,” she said. “It’s great that the council gave this money to the Oval, but the council could have budgeted so that the Oval and playgrounds, Mosholu Playground, Knox Gate Playground, and French Charlie, could have also benefited.”

 

She said $10 million was a lot of money and had she had had the chance to discuss it with the councilman, she said the group would have proposed allocating $4 million to the Oval playground and $2 million to each of what she said were the “crumbling playgrounds in his district.” She added, “Mosholu Playground, the only playground in Bedford Park, was on the top of the list for us.”

 

Norwood News has reached out to the councilman for comment and will update this story upon receipt of a response.

 

There were some questions raised from some audience members on the night of the presentation around the status of benefits for retired City workers, and other social security concerns, which the councilman addressed. Speaking to some residents after the event, most said the presentation had been informative and they appreciated the updates shared.

 

Call (718) 549-7300 to reach the councilman’s office at 277 West 231st Street, to find out about mobile office hours, which are currently being held at local district libraries.