District Council 37, the city's largest municipal employee union, today issued White Paper III (PDF format*), "Building Better Schools for Less," at a news conference at City Hall. The report showed how over $200 million (FY2003) could be saved at the Department of Education's School Construction Authority (SCA) and the Division of School Facilities. Members of DC 37 locals called on these agencies to stop proposed layoffs and implement the report's proposals to use cost-effective civil servants with an unparalleled knowledge of the system rather than high priced private consultants.

"We believe that there is up to $3 billion in fiscal waste in the city's business dealings with consultants and private companies," said Lillian Roberts, Executive Director of DC 37. "Our third White Paper offers more specific examples of how the city wastes taxpayer dollars to pay the private sector more for work our civil servants can do better and for less money.

"SCA's policy of hiring high-priced consultants and contracting out to private firms amounts to misspending hundreds of millions of public dollars. For example, projects fully designed "in-house" cost on average $340 per square foot to build while projects designed by private firms cost on average $430 per square foot. Our report reveals tremendous financial waste by consultants in cost overruns due to inferior designs and excessive profits. It shows unnecessary layers of management as well as errors in design by consultants often leading to orders that must be changed. Each change order is an additional expenditure that adds up to fat profits for private contractors during construction.

"Our members have an expertise with the school system and a knowledge base no outsider can match. Our White Paper shows dollar-for-dollar just how valuable our members are compared with the inefficiency of consultants and management."

Claude Fort, President of Local 375 Civil Service Technical Guild, said, "This report shows conclusively that the city should be eliminating costly consultants and assigning more school design to in-house engineering and construction supervision staff, who have repeatedly proven that they can save the city millions of dollars on school construction projects. This report compares costs of in-house personnel with consultants. The savings are there for all to see. With the facts in front of them, how can SCA propose layoffs of close to 160 city architects, engineers, and project managers? This report documents what a terrible insult that would be to taxpayers and to our experienced, professional, knowledgeable and cost-saving employees."