Government of the District of Columbia

DC Department of Public Works

Testimony of
William O. Howland, Jr.
Director

Fiscal Year 2013 Proposed Budget and Financial Plan for the Department of Public Works

Committee on the Environment, Public Works and Transportation

Councilmember Mary M. Cheh, Chairperson

John A. Wilson Building
Room 500
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20004
Wednesday, March 28, 2012

TESTIMONY OF WILLIAM O. HOWLAND, JR.
DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS
ON THE
“FISCAL YEAR 2013 PROPOSED BUDGET AND FINANCIAL PLAN FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS”
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON THE ENVIRONMENT, PUBLIC WORKS AND TRANSPORTATION
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28, 2012/11 AM

Introduction
Good morning, Chairperson Cheh, members of the Council and staff.  I am William O. Howland, Jr., Director of the Department of Public Works.  Thank you for this opportunity to present Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s FY 2013 Proposed Budget and Financial Plan for the Department of Public Works.

Our proposed budget is aligned with Mayor Gray’s budget development principles of fiscal responsibility and living within our means.  

I would like to highlight the services DPW provides that this budget will support.

In FY 2013, DPW will deliver our core sanitation, parking and fleet services to achieve our mission of providing environmentally healthy municipal services that are both ecologically sound and cost effective.  

To that end, DPW serves all District residents, businesses, visitors and commuters by:  

• Collecting trash and recycling from almost 105,000 households, which translates into 250,000 collections per week.  
• Promoting efficient traffic flow along the District’s commercial corridors to support our retail and other business establishments.  
• Assuring residents’ access to neighborhood on-street spaces by enforcing parking regulations.
• Clearing streets of snow and ice.
• Maintaining 3,000 vehicles, and fueling more than 6,000 DC government vehicles, including those for MPD, Fire/Emergency Medical Services, DC Public Schools and the Water and Sewer Authority.  

In FY 2011, we:  

• Collected about 99,000 tons of trash and 28,000 tons of residential recyclables.  
• Recovered 89 tons of e-waste and 98 tons of shredded paper.
• Composted about 4,000 tons of leaves.
• Made more than 49,000 bulk collections.
• Collected more than 2,000 tons of trash, debris and pollutants by sweeping District streets
• We removed more 19,000 vehicles that impeded rush hour traffic flow.

Proposed FY 2013 Budget
The proposed FY 2013 budget for DPW is $133,541,305, which represents a 6.1 percent increase over the current fiscal year budget of $125,806,560 and reflects 37 additional FTEs for a total of 1,377 FTEs in FY13.

The proposed FY 2013 budget consists of:

• $104,047,190 in Local funds.
• $7,105,367 in Special Purpose Revenue funds, and
• $22,388,747 in Intra-District funds.

The DPW budget remains essentially the same as that of FY12, except for the addition of 37 FTEs due to the restoration of 32 FTEs to the Solid Waste Education and Enforcement Program and transfer of two FTEs from the Department of Parks and Recreation and three FTEs from the Department of General Services to the Street and Alley Cleaning Division.

These additional FTEs increased DPW’s budget by $2.5 million for the SWEEP employees and by $274,945 for the DPR and DGS employees.

Another technical adjustment to the proposed FY13 budget is an additional $2 million for the trash hauling and disposal contract.

In conclusion, the Department of Public Works is prepared to do its part to fulfill Mayor Gray’s commitment to sound financial management.

Thank you.  I am prepared to respond to your questions.