The following is a NY Post article:

City government is going to get a lot smarter and leaner to cope with crushing financial challenges next year—so FDNY company closings are again on the table, and fees for residential sanitation pickups can’t be ruled out, Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith said yesterday.

In his first major speech since taking office last month, Goldsmith told business executives at a Crain’s New York breakfast that he’s rushing to re-engineer as much of government operations as practically and politically possible to prepare for the fiscal 2012 budget year, when the city faces a $3.3 billion deficit and the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal stimulus funds.

“You name an expense item and we’ve got a working group attached to it,” he said.

“I can figure out how to set a path with this mayor and his leadership . . . that makes New York a stronger and leaner place five years from now. Can I get there 10 months from now [at the start of fiscal 2012] is a more problematic question.”

Goldsmith achieved a national reputation for innovation as mayor of Indianapolis from 1992 through 1999, including for privatizing some city services.

But such wholesale changes aren’t in the cards here.

“I think the opportunities for public-private partnerships here are probably more discreet and they’re embedded in the city agencies. It’s not the wholesale privatization of an agency,” he explained.

One possibility: contracting out some of the city’s 80 computer data centers.

“I can think of 1,000 innovations,” said Goldsmith. “But generally it’s against the law for this worker to do this job and narrow-banding of the workforce makes innovation inside the government very difficult. I have not yet had an innovative idea in any meeting that was legal.”

Goldsmith offered few specifics, except when asked a direct question about whether the administration would seek next year to shut some FDNY engine companies.

Two previous closure attempts were short-circuited by the City Council.

He predicted the council wouldn’t be able to ride to the rescue for the third year in a row because the city’s finances will be too precarious and because “the resources don’t support the size of the department.”

Goldsmith was especially careful in answering a question about whether the city is considering charging residents a fee to pick up their garbage, a common practice in many other municipalities.

“We’re looking across a range of issues,” is how Goldsmith answered, refusing to rule out a possible trash tax and mentioning the need to establish “pricing signals” to motivate behavior.

Goldsmith drew an attentive audience of more than 300, eager to get a close-up view of the new man responsible for the day-to-day operations of all city agencies.

In opening remarks, Goldsmith made it clear that he realizes he has a boss—Mayor Bloomberg—and that it would be impolitic for him to announce policies before getting clearance from the mayor.

“His desk is here,” Goldsmith said, describing his position in the City Hall bullpen. “My desk is here. If he leans back he hits me in the back. So saying something I’m not authorized to say would be really painful.”

(Source: NY Post)