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Council Discourse

NYC Council meetings, chaptered and linked by time.

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Q&A

Abreu asks about enforcement tools and collection staff sufficiency

New York City Council · Aug 11, 2026 · starts 0:50:52 · 1 min 41 sec

Abreu asks about DOF collection FTEs and whether the number is sufficient. Deputy Commissioner Hill reports five current staff with plans to reach 12. Lee says DOF will work with available resources and use new staff for one-on-one outreach through the Alternative Enforcement Unit.

Shaun Abreu

And my last set of questions are on enforcement tools, and then I'll have exhausted my questions, unless someone else has any other questions.

Shaun Abreu

DOF mentioned the use of several enforcement tools in the past to collect on ECB debt currently.

Shaun Abreu

How many DOF-employed collection full-time equivalents are on staff?

Richard Lee

The full-time equivalents, could you give that?

Annette Hill

There are currently five full-time in our account executive unit.

Annette Hill

As I mentioned before, we have vacancies and postings, so we expect to have 12 by the time we do a hire.

Shaun Abreu

And do you consider that to be a sufficient number?

Richard Lee

We're going to work with the resources that we have.

Richard Lee

It is an increase for us, and we're going to use those staff to do the one-on-one expanded sort of outreach, especially for our AEU unit, our alternative enforcement unit,

Richard Lee

that will talk to and guide the highest violations.

Shaun Abreu

Considering the amount...

Shaun Abreu

Oh, my volume went up.

Shaun Abreu

I know.

Shaun Abreu

That's why I caught myself in the middle.

Shaun Abreu

It kind of surprised me.

Shaun Abreu

Considering the amount...

Shaun Abreu

the amount of debt outstanding and other resources like the marshals and sheriff's office, I guess I am repeating the question.

Shaun Abreu

Do you feel like you have sufficient DOF collection staff and you say you work with the resources you have?

Richard Lee

Yes.

Shaun Abreu

Spoken like a true politician commissioner.

Richard Lee

We believe it is sufficient and we're going to work through and improve all the ECP collections.

Richard Lee

To make them be more respondent.

Shaun Abreu

And I'm sure you can do more with more, right?

Richard Lee

I think everybody would say they can always do more with more.