NiLP Latino Datanote

Latinos and New York City Government Employment

Update

By Angelo Falcón

The NiLP Report

"We want to make sure that we have a government that looks like New York City, and that means a strong Latino representation."

"We have some really substantive positions, and obviously there's always room for improvement, but as a Latina who has advocated for greater diversity, I'm really heartened by the level of access that my community has had."

"Our communidad must be respected. Latinos must be at the table, and not just on the menu."

A review of the most recent data available on New York City government employment reveals that in the first two years of the Mayor de Blasio Administration, the problem Latino underrepresentation in city government employment has not improved despite significant increases in city employees. While making up 27 percent of the city's overall labor force, Latinos have remained stuck at 20 percent of the city government workforce.

Unfortunately, efforts to bring this problem to the attention of the Mayor have been unsuccessful. From the beginning of his Administration, groups like the Campaign for a Fair, Latino Representation have repeatedly requested meetings directly with the Mayor to discuss solutions, but he has consistently refused to do so.

This report is based on the latest data available in the NYC Government Workforce Profile FY2015, as well as the city's 2015 EEO-4 report. A more extensive analysis had been conducted by us in 2014 based on the 2013 workforce profile produced by the Bloomberg Administration.

By Agency

When looking at Latino employment by New York City government, there is a wide range of representation by agency from a low of only 3 percent (Office of the Actuary) to 45 percent (Office of the Bronx Borough President). Most of the city agencies employ Latinos at less than the 20 percent citywide average. Of the 72 agencies listed in the city's 2015 workforce report, 51(71 percent) had fewer than 20 percent Latino employment.

Please note that some these agencies are not under the hiring authority of the Mayor, such as the Borough Presidents' offices, the Offices of the Comptroller and the Public Advocate, and the District Attorneys' offices, which are discussed seperately below.

Worse Agencies with Latino Employment. The agencies with the lowest percentage of Latino employees are:

• Office of the Actuary: Only 3 percent Latino of its 37 total employees
• Office of the Staten Island Borough President: Only 4 percent Latino of its total 52 employees.
• Landmarks Preservation Commission: Only 6 percent Latino of its total 73 employees
• Financial Information Services Agency: Only 7 percent Latino of its total 429 employees.
• NYC Employees Retirement System: Only 8 percent Latino of its total 430 employees.
• New York City Tax Commission: Only 9 percent Latino of its total 45 employees.
• Department of Law: Only 9 percent Latino of its total 1,571 employees.
• Department of Cultural Affairs: Only 10 Latino of its total 69 employees.
• Department of City Planning: Only 10 Latinos of its total 287 employees.
• Independent Budget Office: Only 11 percent Latinos of its total 36 employees.

City Hall. Despite Mayor de Blasio's public statements about his commitment to diversity in this Administration, only 14 percent of the employees in his own Office of the Mayor is Latino. This is in comparison to 15 percent of the Office of the Comptroller, 24 percent of the Office of the Public Advocate, 25 percent of City Council staff, and 38 percent of the Office of the City Clerk.

Citywide Offices. Latinos made up 24 percent of the staff of the Office of the Public Advocate, but only 15 percent of employees of the Office of Comptroller. Latinos also make up 17 percent of the staff of the Board of Elections and 14 percent of that of the City Clerk.

City Council. The City Council's staff is 25 percent Latino. This is in contrast to the Office of the Mayor with only a 14 percent Latino staff.

Borough Presidents. Of the Borough Presidents, these are the percentages of their staff that are Latino:

• Bronx: 45 percent Latino employees with a 55 percent Latino borough population.
• Manhattan: 25 percent Latino employees with a 26 percent Latino borough population.
• Queens: 11 percent Latino employees with a 28 percent Latino borough population.
• Brooklyn: 10 percent Latino employees with a 20 percent Latino borough population.
• Staten Island: 4 percent Latino employees with an 18 percent Latino borough population.

The Borough Presidents of the Bronx and Manhattan have the best representations of Latinos on their staffs, while in Staten Island, Queens and Brooklyn, Latinos are significantly underrepresented on the Borough President staffs.

District Attorneys. Among the District Attorneys, Latino representation on their staff is as follows:

• Bronx: 29 percent Latino of 853 total staff.
• Narcotics: 20 percent Latino of 201 total staff.
• Brooklyn: 16 percent Latino of 1,103 total staff.
• Manhattan: 16 percent Latino of 1,360 total staff.
• Queens: 16 percent Latino of 653 total staff.
• Staten Island: 11 percent Latino of 104 total staff.

By Job Category

Very few Latinos are in Manager (14 percent) and Administrator (14 percent) positions. Latinos are mainly concentrated in Paraprofessional (34 percent), Building Services (33 percent), Personal Services (31 percent), Guards (29 percent) and Food Preparation positions (28 percent).

Discussion

1. Despite Mayor de Blasio's statements in support of diversity of city hiring, Latinos remain underrepresented in city employment at the same levels as when he took office in 2013. There hasn't been any special effort on the part of his Administration to address this problem.

2. This problem has been exacerbated by the failure of Latino elected officials in the City Council, including Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, to support Latino community efforts to bring attention to it directly to the Mayor. In fact, it appears that the Council Speaker and Latino Councilmembers went out of their way to minimize the problem in defending the Mayor.. The result was that Mayor de Blasio did not seem to see the need to address this issue in any serious way.

3. While the de Blasio Administration ignored this issue, other city officials were able to find and hire qualified Latinos on their staff at more appropriate levels. This includes the Bronx and Manhattan Borough Presidents, the City Council and the Bronx District Attorney.

4. The city agencies most responsible for diversity hiring, the Human Rights Commission and the Office of Citywide Diversity and Equal Employment Opportunity, both have poor Latino representation on their staffs. As the standard bearers of diversity for the city, it would be assumed that they would have among the best records of Latinos hiring, not among the worse.

5. The de Blasio Administration has failed to address the problem of the extreme racial-ethnic segregation of city agencies, where agencies can be described as either primarily Black agencies versus White ethnic agencies (None are primarily Latino or Asian).

Most White agencies:

Landmarks Preservation Commission (74 percent)

Office of Collective Bargaining (71 percent)

Fire Department (70 percent)

Conflicts of Interest Board (67 percent)

Independent Budget Office (69 percent)

NYC Emergency Management (63 percent)

Most Black agencies:

Department of Parole (67 percent)

Agency for Child Services (66 percent)

Department of Homeless Services (65 percent)

Department of Correction (63 percent)

Human Resources Administration (58 percent)

6. In addition to the problem of racial-ethnic underrepresentation, there is the issue of the lack of upper mobility of city workers of color. Two extreme examples come from two departments of uniformed officers: the Police and Corrections. Although Latinos are well represented in the ranks of these two agencies (23.7 percent of the Police Department and 17.9 percent of Corrections), Latinos in leadership positions in both departments are almost nonexistent.

Of the NYPD's top leadership of commissioners and chiefs, Latinos make up only 13.3 percent, and among the 77 local precincts, Latinos are only 11.7 percent of the commanders. In the Bronx police precincts, the one borough with a Latino population majority, Latinos are only 16.7 percent of its precinct commanders, while in Queens where Latinos make up over 28 percent of the population, there are no Latino precinct commanders.

The situation is much worse for Latinos in the Department of Correction. With Latinos making up about a third of inmates in the city jails and 17.9 percent of Correction employees, there is a lone Latino in the department's leadership, which ranges from commissioners to assistant chief. The agency's watchdog, the Board of Correction, also has no Latino representation among its eight members.

9. The failure by the de Blasio Administration to more fully include Latinos in its government is harmful to the Latino community in a number of ways. First, Latinos are not fully involved in decionmaking by city government at all levels. Second, the Latino community is deprived of meaningful work and the income that public sector employment can bring to it, supporting the development of a strong middle class. Third, Latinos are deprived of networking and other experiences as civil servants and policymakers that foster increased community civic participation.

8. By branding himself a political progressive, Mayor de Blasio raised expectations in the Latino community. Instead he has earned the title of being the practitioner of a "progressive trickle- down" politics when it comes to Latinos.

Angelo Falcón is President of the National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP). He is the co-editor of the forthcoming book, "Latinos in New York: Communities in Transition", 2nd Edition, to be published in June 2017 by the University of Notre Dame Press. He can be reached at afalcon@latinopolicy.org.