Paladino presses for EMS pay parity and asks about out-of-service ambulances

Thank you, Chair.

Yes, we will yield now to Council Members Shulman, then Brooks-Powers, then Epstein, Palladino, and Brewer.

Can I yield to Palladino because she has to leave?

Most certainly.

Okay, thank you.

Good morning, everybody.

First off, let me say this.

We have fought very hard for pay parity for the EMS workers.

It was one of our top priorities for the fiscal budget of 27.

We raised this issue repeatedly during the delegation meetings, formally submitted it as part of our budget priorities, and pleaded with the Finance Department to address the compensation disparity.

We warned that if EMS workers were not paid the wages that they deserve, the city would continue to lose experienced personnel to better-paying jobs, making it increasingly difficult to maintain

adequate staffing, and timely emergency responses.

Unfortunately, we are now seeing the consequences of those concerns.

EMS workers are being overwhelmed by call volume, and response times are increasing.

This is not simply a workforce issue.

It is a public safety issue.

New Yorkers are calling 911.

Should they not wonder whether or not an ambulance will arrive when they need it?

Our EMS workers provide life-saving care every day, often under extraordinary demanding conditions.

They deserve fair compensation, and the city must treat EMS staffing and pay parity as a public safety priority that they indeed are.

You know, we're listening to you guys get kind of crucified here at the whys and how comes and what fors.

When you receive the amount of calls that you receive every single day, and you do not have the amount of

emergency vehicles that you need to respond, nor do you have the personnel that you need to respond to these calls, everybody's sitting here and wondering, why?

How come?

Well, we need more people.

We need to hire the people to do these jobs.

They're moving on because their pay is not significant.

The speaker came in, and that's the first thing she rattled off, and she's 100% right.

I'd like to know, on an average, how many ambulance tours are out of service at any time?

What are the reasons that the ambulance might be out of service?

So in a 24-hour period, we're averaging over 90 ambulances off service per day, and that is overwhelmingly due to staffing.

Staffing.

Again, staffing.

Not enough people to sit in the cars, in the emergency vehicles, and take them where they're needed.

So would you say that...

At least 85% of what you heard here today, had this budget

been met to your needs and you were funded as you should have been funded, would you say some of these problems would not even be existing today?

Because you would be able to get to point A to point B to point C in a timely fashion.

We believe that solving the pay issue is the first step to getting everything back on track.

100%.

So this $126 billion budget that this city passed, none of it went to you.

And what you guys actually need to do your jobs so that the people, that young kid at St.

Francis Prep,

And to the speaker's point, the emergency that she faced, your ambulances would have been able to get there in a timely fashion had they been staffed properly and if these people were paid properly.

Is that correct?

We could never make a guarantee, but we don't think we'd be holding calls as frequently as we are now.

So once again, I call upon New York City's Budget Committee and New York City's mayor, and I want to know why the funds are not appropriated as to where they should be appropriated to.

We are facing a public safety issue here, and you guys are on the front line, and you're sitting here at a dais today being asked all these questions that basically can be fixed.

You know, there's problems, but there's solutions to every single problem that this city is facing.

And all we need to do is put the money where the money belongs.

Thank you very much.

That's all I have to say.

Thank you.

Councilmember Shulman, the gracious Councilmember Shulman.