PEF E-Board approves 2nd phase of $1M effort
Go Public campaign gaining ground

By SHERRY HALBROOK
PEF’s Go Public campaign to restore accountability in the funding and provision of state services made a pit stop at the PEF Executive Board meeting in March and drove away with a full tank to tackle the second and steepest phase of its uphill climb.

SPEAKING OUT — PEF Vice President Ken Brynien with PEF Director of Legislation Brian Curran testify on public authority reform. — Photo by John Epting 

“PEF is putting its money where its mouth is on an issue of the highest importance to our entire membership,” said PEF President Roger Benson. “The $850,000 approved by the board in March brings PEF’s total financial commitment to $1 million since November, and that is a very clear indicator of just how dangerous we feel the giveaway of state services to contractors and shadow agencies has become.”

The campaign’s goal is enactment of state legislation to:
• Require cost benefit analysis before state agencies hand off their work to contractors, consultants or shadow agencies;

• Require all state agencies to disclose how many contract employees they use and how much it costs;

• Restrict or regulate gift giving and lobbying by contractors; and 

• Reduce the number of shadow agencies, public authorities and public-benefit corporations and increase their accountability.

GO PUBLIC — Key frames from the dvd show a variety of PEF members in the line of duty.

Legislation in the works
Go Public has already covered a lot of ground in its journey to achieve these legislative reforms.

“The state comptroller and members of the Legislature proposed legislation last year to address some of the abuses,” said PEF Legislative Director Brian Curran. “While none of these bills were enacted in 2004, some are being reintroduced now and new bills are being added.”
The union, Curran said, is studying each bill as it becomes available to try to determine which of them match PEF’s goals most closely. It’s complicated and confusing, he said, because just when they decide to get behind a particular bill, a new one may come along that could be better.

The fact that bills on these issues keep coming, Curran said, means state leaders are starting to recognize how impatient New Yorkers have become with reports of scandal, waste and corruption, and that new laws mandating transparency and accountability are required to restore the voters’ trust in government and their elected leaders.

PEF is supporting or closely evaluating the proposed 2005 legislation. This includes:
• A.1259 would require state agencies to analyze and compare the cost and benefits of contracting work out, versus having state employees do it, before awarding it to a contractor. 

• S.1920/A.6542 would require reporting and public disclosure of information about state contracts, including the names of the contractors, the total cost of the contracts, the number of contract employees and how many hours they are working. 

• A.5626 would establish a new state commission to review shadow agencies and decide which ones should continue, be merged or eliminated.

The governor announced in March that he would propose legislation to regulate lobbying and gifts related to the award of state contracts. The Assembly has passed a bill that deals with that issue. Whether a compromise can be reached on these two proposals from opposite sides of the political aisle remains to be seen.

PEF is taking advantage of every chance it gets to raise these issues. 
In March, PEF Vice President Ken Brynien testified on the issues at a legislative hearing in Albany. And The Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester modified its position after meeting with Benson and joined PEF’s call for transparency and accountability legislation in a March 14 editorial.

Go Public picks up speed
PEF made great headway in the first phase of its Go Public Campaign, training hundreds of activists and leaders, launching its print ad campaign and producing a video focusing on the need to restore transparency and accountability in public services by returning them to the expert hands of career public employees.

The video, being produced in DVD format, features interviews with Benson, state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, state Senate Civil Service Committee Chair Joseph Robach and Pace University professor Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“This video is a very effective and polished effort that was produced by Globalvision Inc., using producers and cameramen with Emmy Awards and Oscars to their credit,” Benson said. “This video is about professional quality and integrity, so we looked for that in the people to help us make it.”

PEF has also launched a special Web site at www.stopprivatization.com to educate the public online about these issues.

Steepest climb still ahead
While clearly PEF has managed to get its foot in the door, actually getting the legislation enacted to fundamentally change the way the state does business is far from assured.
The biggest challenges remain ahead. That’s why PEF leaders have committed the union to its biggest non-budget and non-contract campaign yet.

The Executive Board has authorized phase two of the campaign. Among other things, this will include:

• Regional forums — PEF will hold regional forums to show and distribute the Go Public DVD. The forums may involve state legislators, PEF members and the public in discussing the need for legislation to restore transparency and accountability. 

• Advertising — PEF will step up its advertising campaign to include a multi-media campaign to heighten awareness among state policymakers and the public of the need for legislation to stop the corruption, sloppy oversight and loss of quality control that have occurred when public services were outsourced to shadow agencies or the private sector.

• Direct mail to policymakers — PEF and its members will send state policymakers materials highlighting the most recent information and statistics from studies of privatization and the waste of tax dollars.  

• Mobilizing members — PEF will mail campaign materials, including postcards of its media ads, privatization information and information about the Go Public campaign events and activities to its division-level leaders, delegates and stewards to share with their members.

• Online education — PEF will continue to expand its www.stopprivatization.com Web site.

• DVD distribution — PEF will send media kits with copies of the Go Public DVD and a brochure explaining the need for legislation to policymakers, as well as to PEF board members and council leaders.

• Rally — A statewide rally in Albany is planned for early June.

• Independent research — PEF will support an independent study of privatization by the Fiscal Policy Institute to gather more facts and insights into these issues.

“The PEF Executive Board is investing $1 million of our members’ hard-earned dues into this effort,” Benson said. 

“And the union’s leaders and staff are investing many hours of hard work to get this landmark legislation passed. But it still won’t happen, unless enough of our own members recognize how powerfully this issue threatens us, our services, our clients and our families. 

“We all have to invest our time and energy to demand laws to stop the corruption, waste and abuses, and stop them now.”