It might be the second-biggest leadership challenge in New York state government ”“ revitalizing a department the governor calls “a vital agency” that has recently faced layoffs, budget cuts and a leadership vacuum.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo nominated Joseph Martens as commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation, an agency wracked in recent years by cuts to personnel and funding at the same time it is facing perhaps the most daunting economically related environmental challenges in recent memory.
“Joe knows how to strike the critical balance between defending our natural resources from pollution and destruction while at the same time fostering a climate of economic renewal and growth,” Cuomo said in making the appointment. “His experience and record as a competent and productive manager will breathe life into this vital agency.”
Perhaps as a sign of how deep a challenge Martens faces, there is no statement by him available on the DEC website, nor did the agency press office return a call seeking comment or a statement.
The agency has been a punching bag in recent months suffering a disproportionate share of layoffs and budget cuts, say DEC advocates who see the agency as vital to not just environmental health and safety of New Yorkers, but to its business climate as well.
According to the DEC response dated Dec. 29 to a FOIL request, there are currently 3,158 employees working for the Department of Environmental Conservation, down from a high of more than 4,000 employees in the 1990s. In 2000, the DEC had 3,708 employees, in 2005 that number had shrunk to 3,262, and has continued to decline.
Among those who lost their jobs was the former Commissioner, Pete Grannis, who was fired Oct. 21 after the leak of an unsigned DEC memo protesting Gov. David Paterson”™s demand that the department lay off 209 employees by the end of 2010.
The memo says DEC”™s work force would be reduced to 2,926 full-time positions, down from 3,775 in April 2008, a 22 percent decrease. It said the agency has absorbed 10 percent of state layoffs so far, although it is only 2.5 percent of the state work force.
The result is an agency unable to do its job properly, said Erica Ringewald, communications director of Environmental Advocates, who said that the problems extend past concerns about health and safety and encompass the state”™s economy.
“The term for what is going on would be ridiculous,” she said. “Projects have been sidelined awaiting completion of one permit because DEC staff are too busy to get to it.”
It isn”™t just workers that are being cut. According to a financial analysis done by EA fiscal policy program director Alison Jenkins, the DEC has had funding cuts totaling 15 percent at the same time as total state spending grew by 5 percent. The only agency to suffer a higher budget cut was the Office of Parks Recreation and Historic Preservation, which had budget cuts of 18 percent.
The cuts come at a time when the state is seeking to implement smart-growth principles that will require additional attention to the cleanup of toxic urban sites and remediation of brownfields, but Paterson had issued orders de-emphasizing those activities by DEC personnel. Additionally, with potentially huge fields of natural gas thousands of feet underground, a new drilling method called “fracking” is creating a controversy between energy companies and those who fear the procedure could harm the state”™s drinking water and foul the air. The DEC is statutorily responsible for deciding what is safe.
The D.E.C needs to be able to carry out it`s mission statement. Yes there is some dead weight with in the department. But, that is clear across the board with other state departments. STOP with the lay offs of the workers that work.