my name is angus mccarthy. i would like to thank the madam chair for giving me my opportunity to come and talk. i would like to be here to show our support for the staff, for the many years they have been keeping the department going. the budget before you today, i believe this task -- the staff asked for a 4% to 5% increase. i believe that the budget analysis is coming back with 1%. i am here to reinforce one very important factor. we have seen a lot of major changes in the city. the big department is an important part of that change. but the growth happening in the town, one of the things that we have right now, which worries me, going forward in the budget, we have a lot of positions we are trying to fill. we are learning, very lately, how hard it is to fill these positions. lots of stones from the department need to be met to meet these positions. this year alone i believe we will have almost seven new staff that are badly needed. you will hear testimony from the different department heads on the kind of vo

angus mccarthy is more than willing to work with you or anyone who is interested. he is the only person from the city who has come out and spoken to me without me going to them first. he asked me to come to speak at a dbi hearing. they are a department that raises its own funds, they may have resources to address this, we can put a line item into the budget for next year and that is something we can discuss but you will have to put the resources, have outreach field workers, have staff that can address this issue and so we have the resources available and give assistance as needed so we do not have this situation to occur again and again. supervisor cohen: i have a question for virginia. doyou -- do you feel the city has set you up for failure? >> i do not the city has set up for failure. there could be -- there is definitely more resources that we need to apply for outreach. supervisor cohen: how many are in your pot -- in your department? >> there is five. we have counter hours monday through thursday 8-5. supervisor cohen: how many folks do you envision needing