Somebody was on to this a long time now!

Raping New York City Taxpayers
Date: August 1, 2008

Rarely does the Apathetic Voter receive communications from our “dedicated” public servants. I’m sure that fear of retribution silences most employees while they watch their co-workers and superiors gorge themselves at the public trough.

We have all heard or been informed by our friends and associates and the occasional media outlet “news bites” of the callous attitude government employees have about spending taxpayer money, but the Apathetic Voter passes on those infrequent letters from government employees for your consumption.

The following is a letter the Apathetic Voter received from an employee of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection. Although this individual’s documentation of waste may seem miniscule in comparison to the massive waste and corruption we have documented over the years, multiplying these typical abuses that are witnessed on a daily basis times the thousands of government organizations quickly adds up to a waste of billions upon billions of dollars of your hard earned money each year, with little service to the people in return.

Let us remember that these abuses would never be permitted in the liberal-maligned private sector because the private sector’s objective is to run an efficient operation and turn a profit and not to pocket taxpayer money for their own personal gain.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MISMANAGEMENT @ NYC DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION'S HAZARDOUS MATERIALS RESPONSE UNIT



I work in the same office as Moustafa Fawzy and must say the major portion (>60%) of overtime incurred by Mr. Fawzy is by being on-call at home. Most City Agencies have directors/supervisors who are available after-hours to dispatch emergency personnel to jobs. These directors/supervisors are in a managerial position so they are not paid any overtime.



Mr. Fawzy is Director of the Hazardous Materials Response Unit, but he is not in a managerial title as most Directors are at DEP. Mr. Fawzy alternates the monthly on-call schedule with his Deputy Director, Innocenzo Catanzaro (if you look closely, Mr. Catanzaro’s overtime amount is close to that of Mr. Fawzy). How the on-call schedule works is that from 6:00 PM – 8:00 AM weekdays if no emergencies come in the on-call supervisor gets paid one hour overtime for every two hours not called; therefore, it amounts to 7 hours of paid overtime if there are no emergencies. If an emergency does occur, the supervisor gets 4 hours of paid overtime and dispatches one of his inspectors to respond. On weekends, the supervisor is on-call 24 hours/day. Note: if there are no emergencies on a weekend, the supervisor earns 24 hours of overtime pay. That means for the month of June the supervisor would have made 255 hours of paid overtime if NO EMERGENCIES were called in.



Additionally, Moustafa Fawzy has not been seen at work for quite some time, he calls in from time-time to see how things are going. The functions of DEP’s Hazardous Materials Response Unit are to support those of the First Responders in NYPD’s Hazmat Unit & FDNY’s elite Hazardous Materials Unit. Someone should seriously investigate DEP’s Hazardous Materials Response Unit to combat this abuse of fraudulent overtime, especially now that they have received Homeland Security monies. One can guarantee that the overtime will increase dramatically for both Director Fawzy & Deputy Director Catanzaro.



One can eliminate all this needless overtime waste by making Mr. Fawzy & Mr. Catanzaro managers, and implement shift-work for the rest of the staff (8-4, 4-12, 12-8, 7 days/week). If shift schedules were implemented, the overtime abuse which is a recurring expense (and partially offset with Homeland Security money) could be reduced significantly.

Mr. Fawzy & Mr. Catanzaro also refuse to use the city’s CITYTIME system and instead input their own times for the payroll department, thus making them accountable to no-one.



Most City Agency employees (except NYPD & FDNY) have a 20% overtime cap, but DEP’s Haz Mat Unit has a 50% cap for the responders, but an UNLIMITED cap for Mr. Fawzy & Mr. Catanzaro. Last year each of these two individuals earned over six figures. This not the first time that Moustafa Fawzy was listed in the Top Ten City Overtime earners. Mr. Fawzy has also had raises totaling over 50% since 1997.



Members of DEP’s Haz Mat Unit are NOT First Responders, ONLY NYPD & FDNY are. Meanwhile, DEP’ Haz Mat employees (including support personnel & recently hired college graduates) are all driving brand new unmarked vehicles to and from home which are equipped with emergency lights & sirens. Nobody knows why their vehicles should be unmarked.



DEP’s Haz Mat Unit also sets up its own around-the-clock Command Center for the US Tennis Open. Last year at the US Tennis Open, they spent the day eating and drinking on City time. The US Tennis Open is just a few minutes away from their Lefrak City offices, so it was not necessary to have a Command Center setup in the first place. Meanwhile, DEP’s Upstate Hazardous Materials Response Unit in charge of safeguarding the reservoirs and water supply are short staffed and their overtime has been reduced to <10%, even though the Water Supply is known to be a top terrorist target.



Someone should derail the “gravy train” that Mr. Fawzy and his staff have been riding for years; costing the City tens of thousands of dollars over the years. This unit functions with little to no oversight thus creating a blank check for overtime/stand-by. Mr. Fawzy reports directly to Assistant Commissioner Bob Avaltroni who does nothing more than sits in his office all day allowing this blatant abuse to continue. At the same time, the Agency’s gross mismanagement by focusing its efforts on this one Haz Mat Unit has placed its other systems in jeopardy.