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B12 z THE NEW YORK TIMES NEW YORK MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1992 New York Parks Contest ,� Fights Publ Job Image � k fJ� ) °t y g r 3 fify p q xj'a # 3Yxr, By MICHAEL JANOFSKY 1 Special to the Nor York Times ^s NEW YORK, Nov. 15 — George M ar• a savings of $8,044. In the Bronx, work- £ � these and two co-workers needed less ers removed 37 trees, for a projected ., - %?. , than 90 minutes the other day to cut savings of $2,578.y ;�� down and remove a dead silver maple City officials are wary that without tree in front of Teresa Mele's house in guarantees that performance will re -,.- Bensonhurst. Two men would return main high, the program cannot justify y, , y /- 4 later to remove the stump and fill the rehiring laid -off workers or expanding \ hole with soil. Before this month, as the approach to other agencies. many as seven workers might have "There are benefits, but it's a tricky 4 done the same job. thing," said Philip R. Michael, the While it hardly mattered to Ms. Mele city's budget director. "We have to be how many people disposed of her 50- very cautious that there is true produc- r3. foot eyesore, how a tree goes in Brook- tivity. Unless there is measurable im- lyn and elsewhere in the city is vitally provement, its not worth it." �•' important to the Parks and Recreation But if the experiment succeeds, he t, Department, other city agencies and said, the concept could be "selectively union workers who lost their Jobs after applied" to other city agencies. recent cutbacks In the city budget. The program grew directly out of Mr. Marchese and his crew are part citywide budget reductions two years •,, of a two-month test by the department ago, which caused most agencies to lay - 1 to learn whether employees given new off workers and reduce services. At the 3 , a freedoms to set their own working con- Parks and Recreation Department, for § ditions, like planning their own routes example, a $4.8 million budget for 104 and workloads, can improve perform- climbers and pruners like Mr. Marche. ance and save the city money. se was cut to $840,000, forcing layoffs of Attack on a Stereotype 84 people. , Stretched for resources in recent Tree Averages 7 Years years, New York and other cities have Climbers and pruners, who make increasingly used private contractors about 833,000 a year, cut down dis for jobs traditionally done by public eased, dying or dead trees with chain saws and use wood chi ppers to turn > , . them to mulch. The workers also re _ Y t • move the tree stumps and fill in the :. +�' Public workers holes. The life expectancy of city trees �� r , " is only seven years, a result of abuse 1 �P• Andreo Makin/The New York are try to from sources like dogs, car fumes, oil seepage, collisions by vehicles and in- A test is being conducted by the Parks and Recreation Department to learn whether employes given new, prove that private sufficient drainage. working freedoms can improve performance and save the city money. Don Jayson worked in Queen,. C With 700,000 street trees to care for • in the five boroughs, plus two million i not better. more in city parks (which are outside have saved money and reduced back• would never Jeopardize safety, saying flexible. If al not included in the s t r t a w I n the scope of this test), the department logs, but will also have made a case for smaller crews were more fl faced an overwhelming backlog of. bringing back more laid .off workers the worker sawing branches grows Brooklyn, crews of three take down the allowed to plan their own strategies. In employees. The theory is that private work even before the budget cuts. Peo like Mr. Marchese. He and his crew tired, he can switch jobs with a co contractors are more efficient, and Ple like Ms. Mele, with trees not in were rehired when the budget was in worker feeding fallen branches Into the tree and remove the debris; the same cities can save money by cutting immediate danger of lolling, routinely creased chipper, or with the worker directin crew or another later removes the less productive or higher paid workers waited three years for service. The Union Eager to Restore Jobs traffic out of the way. g cr and fills cut the down hn t e and de- from the public payroll. cutbacks added at least two more; He acknowledged, crews of four cut down trees and de "We welcome the competition," said B however, that the liver the branches and trunk to &mita- But the Parks Department experl• some stumps have waited almost a men[ is a bold attempt to show that the decade to be removed. George Tangel of the Lewis Tree Serv• chance that more back oft city workers floe Department trucks. On Staten Is- i ice in Holbrook, N.Y., one of the city's mght be taken back if the program land, crews cut trees down and repeat 1 proves more efficient than outside con- Year restor • e par s department's wor ng so a . " tracting, the department could cut allowance for climbers and pruners to as we as anybody. That sdhoweJwe Motivations aside, if the experiment debris. fast back hire back contractors laid off workers. At 81.5 million, to solve severaliproblems op- came low bidders for the job." pal workers with plot j shows that municl Workers were also allowed to the same time, ft could help break a once. First, she persuaded Mr. Mi- The union, meanwhile, !s so eager [o more autonomy can do the Job as well the day's schedule, another big change. common stereotype of public workers chael's office to let her split the money, try [ restore Jobs that it agreed to or better than contractors, It might Often in the past, Mr. Marchese said, ' as lazy and inefficient. sleet. using half to ay for outside contras- waive the time-honored use of larger shake a common perception that gov- crews were forced Into a haphazard "1f we're successful, the Mayor tors and halt for the existing 20 climb- crews. Frank Edwards, president o ernment cannot work as efficiently as, route because local pond get or should Jump on this," said Betsy Got - ers and pruners, plus 22 others who had the Climbers and Pruners Local 1506, private business. friends of a supervisor would get pre[- baum, the Parks and Recreation Com- lost their jobs. said the city employed 366 people in "For almost 50 years out of the de- erential treatment. Or maybe a well- missioner, who designed and champs• Then, she devised a competition of those Jobs a decade ago. pression, the feeling was government connected citizen needed the crane to oned the program. "We're now reshap- sorts to measure the performance of But while he hailed the greater au- could solve everything," said Steven flag before holiday. oned the tall or raise a ing how we can deliver services." the city's workers, with their new re- tonomy, he questioned whether some of who teaches c a e at management Columbia a expert g Y Though officials acknowledge that sponslbJtlties, against two outside con- the smaller crews, in their eagerness to who teaches at Columbia University. "Or we would take care of the early totals may reflect a "gung -ho tractors being paid per tree, as they Justify more Jobs, might sacrifice safe - Then Vietnam the began out an era of anti. ton " You kno know, the who c alls said. start" that workers might not sustain, have been since the city began using ty measures to work faster. In more whichn said governments out sf can't so lve i mes a d the person who calla up 10 Ms. Gotbaum said she was "absolutely them in 1988. To determine costs for its flush economic times, a crew of four or which said governments can't solve times a day." blown apart" by the results. workers, the department established a more would take down a tree; later, anything. The trop is in d peen. It re Mpoll- Preliminary results show that for dollar value for all parts of the Job, another crew would remove the stump, s. Gotb um and her colleagues met tics, no favors,, no flags favors, put up. And the first week, city workers in Queens including each worker and piece of and a third would fill the hole with soil. with climbers and runers in devising gutters. We plan accord- cut down 51 trees, for which the coo' equipment. "When crews were five and six the test, pruners g we don clean [rectors would have charged 510,688. It the city workers show they can peo- tug to the parking, the pro ix mity of one The city's projected costs were E2,844, remove more trees, they will not only pie It was a lot safer," he said. In a major departure from tradition, tree [o the next and the size of the Mr. Marchese said that his crew Workers in four borouphs — Manhattan trees.' • •