Chair Salaam questions OPHC on staffing, civil service titles, and committee membership
Chair Salaam asks about OPHC staff titles, expansion plans, and who sits on the Interagency Committee. Ramjatin reports three staff (Executive Director, Deputy Director, Senior Programs Manager), plans for borough-based liaisons, and that all OPHC staff participate in the Interagency Committee meetings.
And moving to resources, we heard in the budget hearing that OPHC currently has three staffers.
Are there plans to increase that number of staff?
I know you probably answered that before, but like how much?
I want to answer that again.
That's important.
Please.
We want to be in Carnassi.
We want to be in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
But, you know, we can only do so much with what we have.
I, again, want to reiterate with the increased funding to our office and the commitment from this mayor and this administration to hate prevention, we definitely plan to increase our office's staff and to make sure we can do this work in the most coherent way.
Yes.
What are the civil service titles of OPHC's current staff, and are there any you are looking to have added?
So at this point, you have my...
who's the executive director.
You have a deputy executive director and you have a senior programs manager.
We do plan to, you know, in collaboration and discussion with the new Office of Community Safety to have borough-based liaisons and to have, you know, because again, this work cannot be done from our office.
It has to be done on the ground in the community.
So we feel having more eyes and ears on the ground in each borough, we can meet the needs of New York City.
Are staff dedicated to specific initiatives or do they work across multiple programs?
For example, are there dedicated staffers for the path forward that are different than those for 7 on 7 or the Youth Leadership Ambassador Program?
Yes, so the way how we organize the work in the office is the staff members have a portfolio of different programs, but again, it's a holistic approach, so all of us know what's happening at all times across different programs.
And lastly, who from OPHC sits on the Interagency Committee on Hate Crimes, and what are their titles?
So interestingly, all my staff sits on that.
We all sit there.
Of course, I lead the meetings.
My deputy director, Ms.
Erica Ware, she also is the one organizing the meetings and having different speakers come to different meetings.
But all our staff are part of those meetings.
Thank you.
I'll pass it back to Councilmember Mealy.