Megan Peterson of DC 37 on water ecologist pay and OMB hiring delays
Megan Peterson, president of DC 37 Local 3005, testifies that water ecologist salaries start at $52,000—too low for NYC living costs. She criticizes OMB for delaying hiring over a year, using slow hiring as a budget savings mechanism, and excluding staff from flexible work pilots.
Next is Megan Peterson.
You may begin.
My name is Megan Peterson and I'm the president of DC 37, Local 3005.
We represent scientists, including water ecologists at the health department.
I am testifying about labor issues that are impacting recruitment and retention of inspectors, which are longstanding and predate the present administration.
The city could not recruit a full headcount of water ecologists because the salaries are too low to live on in New York City.
As of July 15th, the city was advertising level one positions for a starting salary of $52,000 per year.
These staff are told that they should serve New York when they cannot afford housing costs in the city.
While the union was recently awarded equity funds to modestly increase the salary, water ecologists have expressed to me that they are worried that new hires will leave.
Staffing problems will persist so long as the salary is not competitive.
Secondly, OMB delays prevented timely staff recruitment.
OMB regularly takes over a year to approve candidates.
This was a best-case scenario with media attention from last summer's outbreak.
Still, the Monday after the outbreak was announced, a group of water ecologists were finally approved for onboarding by OMB.
Dragging out hiring is often used by the city as a mechanism to save costs, and it must end.
For instance, the fiscal 2027 executive budget plan includes savings of $2.5 million in FIS.
2026 due to slower than anticipated ramp up of Legionella prevention funded in November 2025.
The agency stated these savings would not result in any programmatic impact.
However, we saw this was not the case.
Using drawn out hiring timelines as a budgeting trick is harming our neighbors.
OMB delays are also a major reason for the privatization of city services.
As the agency will hire contracted services to circumvent hiring delays.
Third, water ecologists level two and below have been left out of the flexible work pilot that was bargained in 2023 between the city and DC 37.
Flexible scheduling and benefits.
Thank you.
Can you summarize the rest of it and then submit it and submit whatever else you have?
Thank you.
Yeah, the summary is that these staff were left out of the flexible work pilot.
They could increase the number of inspections that they're doing in a week.
If they had flexible scheduling from 10 inspections to 12 per week, which would really increase the amount.
We need labor relations to seriously talk with us in the union in good faith about working conditions in the position.
I'll forward the rest of my testimony.
All right.
Thank you so much.
Really appreciate it.
William McQuaid.
You may begin.