Res. No. 62 Title Resolution calling upon the City of New York to maintain the wages of 3,500 Parks Opportunity Workers at $9.38 an hour, with benefits, instead of transferring them to a program with wages of only $7.95 an hour, and calling on the appropriate committee of the Council to hold hearings on the implementation of a welfare-to-work program in City agencies at a living wage, with benefits. Body By Council Members Foster, Addabbo Jr., Baez, Barron, Comrie, DeBlasio, Jackson, Perkins, Recchia Jr., Reed, Rivera, Sanders Jr., Serrano, Vann and Brewer; also Council Members Monserrate, Seabrook and Clarke Whereas, 3,500 Parks Opportunity Workers were employed by the Department of Parks at wages of $9.38 an hour, with benefits, but are in danger of losing their wages and benefits and being transferred to a program with wages of only $7.95 an hour; and Whereas, There is a proposal to refer the Parks Opportunity Workers to Tempforce, a private temporary employment agency with a $75 million federally funded contract to find jobs for up to 10,000 people in the welfare-to-work program who have reached their welfare time limits, which would result in their being placed in a program where the salaries of Parks Opportunity Workers would be reduced to $7.95 an hour, and people in the welfare-to-work program would be placed in clerical, food service, custodial, and other unskilled jobs at $7.95 an hour; and Whereas, The organization, Community Voices Heard, is calling for the City "to stop the firing of over 3,500 city employees and allow the current Parks Opportunity Workers to finish their eleven-month contracts with the city working for the New York City Parks Department; continue to place the 10,000 people who will be getting jobs through the city's welfare to work program in city agencies; immediately hold public hearings on the effectiveness of the current Parks Opportunity Program, the use of temporary employment agencies to hire welfare recipients in these jobs, and the current way that these contracts are being assigned; and ensure that temporary employment agencies which are contracted by the city to place welfare recipients in jobs that pay a living wage with benefits;" and thus, there should be a hearing on these proposals to determine their benefit for the City of New York; and Whereas, Mark Rosenthal, the President of Local 983 of District Council 37, which represents the parks workers, stated that the proposal is unfair to Parks Opportunity Workers who have contracted to work in their present program for eleven months; and Whereas; The Parks Opportunity Workers are part of a career ladder program set up by the Parks Department to provide training and employment for welfare recipients to become independent and productive citizens, and, thus, should be continued; and Whereas; The Parks Opportunity Workers make up two-thirds of the Parks Department's staff and three-fourths of its maintenance staff, and the employment of Parks Opportunity Workers has allowed the City to maintain our parks at a reasonable level of cleanliness and repair, despite the dramatic drop in Parks Department staff from nearly 5,000 in 1986 to 1,900 at present; now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls upon the City of New York to maintain the wages of 3,500 Parks Opportunity Workers at $9.38 an hour, with benefits, instead of transferring them to a program with wages of $7.95 an hour, and calling for the appropriate committee of the Council to hold hearings on the implementation of a welfare-to-work program in City agencies at a living wage, with benefits.