February 9, 2025 • 15 mins
Original Air Date: February 9, 2025
Former DSNY Supervisor Eddie Panz is on a campaign to get legacy credits on exams to join The Department of Sanitation NYC for children who lost DSNY parents in line of duty deaths or due to 9/11 illnesses. These credits make it easier to move up on the list to join the DSNY.
Former DSNY Supervisor Eddie Panz is on a campaign to get legacy credits on exams to join The Department of Sanitation NYC for children who lost DSNY parents in line of duty deaths or due to 9/11 illnesses. These credits make it easier to move up on the list to join the DSNY.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, conversations about issues that matter.
Here's your host, three time Grasie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I want to reconnect you with a longtime listener who
I actually met during our early morning shout outs for
those of you who are not awake very early morning
with our Jim Kerr Rock and Roll morning show at
five point thirty five in the morning, we have Shelley
(00:32):
shout outs, and it's shout outs to our early morning friends.
Some of them are just wrapping up work and others
are just beginning their day. And one of them was
Eddie Pants of Howard Beach and I've come to well
connect with him as a friend. He actually joined Team
(00:53):
Q one oh four point three on the Tunnel to
Towers five k run walk and I'm still you haven't
done the tower climb yet, right, Eddie. I'm still waiting
for you to join our Tower team climb, which is
up the World Trade Center one hundred and four stories.
But Eddie, Eddie has an interesting story because he is
(01:17):
now a retired DSNY supervisor and actually it was about
a year or two ago that he texted me or
emailed me on September eleventh and told me he was
on his way to a memorial for DSN wires sanitation
(01:39):
workers who lost their lives due to nine to eleven illnesses.
And I said to him, I had no idea any
members of the DSNY lost their lives to nine eleven illnesses.
We hear about other first responders, and I consider the
DSNY to be first respond and we're going to get
(02:01):
to that in just a second. But you know, we
know about police, we know about firefighters. And by the way,
with the firefighters, with the FDN Y, we lost three
hundred and forty three on nine to eleven and we're
now up to number three hundred and eighty nine. Eddie,
that we've lost to nine to eleven illnesses. It's insane
(02:22):
and it's it's you know, it just is never ending.
But tell us, Eddie, Eddie Pans of Howard Beach, why
you have joined us this morning because you're on a campaign.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
So first off, let me just say that my heart
goes out to the FDNY because my father is a
retired firefighter.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
He passed away in two thousand, but he always spoke
very highly of his job.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
But basically I'm here because there is something called the
legacy credit, which is for people first respond is that
it started as first responders who died in the line
of duty, then they extended to died in the line
of duty at nine to eleven. They actually raised the
point value because of nine to eleven, and then they
(03:12):
extended even more because they of all the people that
lost their lives due to nine to eleven illnesses, So
it wasn't just people.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Who died in the line of duty, it was now
people who died of nine to eleven illnesses.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
And what the legacy credit is is that if a
immediate family.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
Member passes away.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Brother, sister, mother, father on the job, if you then
take a city as a civil servant test, you gain
ten points. The city is giving you ten points because
of your loss. This goes to or first responders. Unfortunately,
except for sanitation, and they actually found that out on
(03:56):
nine to eleven. This passed nine to eleven. Shelley mentioned
that I do the services, and I have the honor
and privilege of reading the names of the sanitation workers
that passed. A lot of them were personal friends, all
of them are co workers, and all of them will
be loved.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
And by the way, how many have we lost from
the sanitation department to nine to eleven illnesses overall?
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I believe the number is one hundred and thirty six
now and it is growing as we speak. I have
friends now that are gravely ill, and with God's will,
they will recover.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
And explain what the Sanitation department did in the days
following nine to eleven, Well.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
First, they did call us there on nine to eleven
because we have the.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
Equipment to clear the streets. We're the only ones, the
only city agency.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
That has that kind of equipment, So we were there
pulling stuff out of the way so.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
That the other city agencies can do their job.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
And in after nine to eleven we had to go
there and do the cleanup we needed to open up
the city to the city could get back to normal.
And we worked tirelessly, twelve hour shift, seven days a
week for over a year to clean that up and
still going on at fresh Kills where people are still
(05:21):
going over everything to find all the remains.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
And that was considered one of the most toxic areas
to be assigned because basically you're dealing with all of
the debris, which included human remains, and thus you know
the identification process, but it's also all these toxins in
(05:50):
the debris and dealing with that. So the sanitation workers
were physically taking this every single day of fresh kills.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Well, we weren't worried about that, like all the other agencies.
We just wanted to get the job done and get
people back to normal. And what also people don't know
about sanitation is that since we have some of the
biggest trucks in the city, we were called upon to
do all the blockades. We were blocking gracy Manor, we
(06:23):
were blocking the United Nations, all the memorials, there were
sanitation trucks in front of them. And it wasn't the
National Guard, and it wasn't the police department that was
in those vehicles. It was sanitation workers that were in
those vehicles, manning those vehicles and trying to do their
best to keep New York safe.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
So where are we with the legacy proposal?
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Okay, as of right now, there is a bill in
the Assembly that was introduced by Sam Berger.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Let me go about how I even found out about this.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
So, like I was saying, after the ceremony, I went
down to ground zero to catch the closing ceremony there
and young man walked up to me and said, I
want to thank you, and I looked at him. I said, okay,
four He said, I was at the ceremony. You read
(07:23):
my father's name, which literally broke my heart. And I said,
I'm very sorry for your loss.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
I said, did you.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Think about coming on sanitation? He goes, yes, Actually, he
goes I took the exam. He goes, I'm on the list.
I said great. I said, it's one of the best
jobs in the city. What's your list number? He said, well,
it was fifty six. He says, but it got pushed back.
I said, why would he get pushed back? He said,
because they took away my legacy credit. I said, what
(07:54):
do you mean? He said, I got a letter from
DECATS saying that sanitation workers who passed don't their family
members don't qualify.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Said, I just read your father's name. What do you
mean you don't qualify? He said, they don't qualify. They
took away the ten points.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
And wait a minute, So they had been qualifying for
legacy hiring and then and then it was taken away.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Yes, they DECAST does an investigation. What is the tast
the cast runs all the city tests. They're the part
of the city. They put out all the tests and
all that stuff. They do an investigation and they determine,
you know, your qualifications, and they felt that sanitation doesn't
(08:46):
qualify for legacy credits, so they took his ten points away,
which immediately drops you ten points on a city exam
is a huge amount. That could drop you from fifty
six to ten thousand. Wow, it's those ten points. And
I told him, I mean, my heart was broken. I
couldn't even speak. I said, listen, I'm just a supervisor,
(09:11):
I said, but I'm going to do everything I can
to fix this and make this right because this isn't fair.
I went to the memorial the museum, sat down, pulled
out my phone, and right then and there, I started
writing letters to every politician I could think of.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
And I reached out.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
To Counselwoman Vicky Palladino, and I also reached out to
assembly Woman Stacey a Motto and they were very interested.
Some Councilwoman Palladino reached out to Assembly Minberger who he
wrote the bill, and assembly Woman a Motto sponsored it.
(09:52):
So it's in the Assembly right now. But it also
has to go to the State Senate of the state legislation.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
And that's right, passes right, and.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
That's where I need to support because the Assembly looks
like they could be behind it. So I put out
a partition, a petition for people to sign. It's on
my Facebook page, which is Eddie pans E D d
I E P A n Z. There's a link to
that on my Facebook page. I'm just trying to get
as many sigments as possible. I've never Are you the.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Only Eddie pans on Facebook as far as I know?
Speaker 4 (10:28):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Okay, so again, let's do that slower. That's Eddie E
D d I E pans P like Peter A n Z. Okay,
pans p A n Z. So go to Eddie's Facebook
page and join the campaign. What else can people do?
(10:49):
Eddie pants this Legacy Point Award for those children who
have lost their ds N Y FOB or mothers to
nine to eleven illnesses. And again we're talking We're not
talking about a handful of people. We're talking about over
one hundred people who have died of nine to eleven
(11:11):
illnesses and they never get recognition for this. You're never
on these lists. The DSN one. No, and it's not
just you know. I mean that's where everything shows up,
is nine to eleven. That's what everybody thinks of. But
also for line of duty deaths.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
I just had a very close friend of mine get
run over by his own truck a fle months ago, right,
and that goes.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
For his kids too. His kids decide to take a city.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Exam, they don't qualify for the legacy credit, even though
their father was killed in a line of duty.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Yes, people only.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Think about sanitation when they put out their garbage Sunday
night and when they come home Monday morning from work
and see their garbage gone, that's the only time they
think about us. Or when they turned down the wrong
block and see a truck in front of them.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
And then they're yeah, they're pissed off. Eddie, you said
it's one of the one of the best jobs in
the city. Why I know you love.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
It, Yes, I do.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
It's a lot of camaraderie. The job was always there
for me. You know, it's people. It's a family. They
all work together.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
You know, when one person has a problem, everybody gets
behind it.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
I had some setbacks when I was working and people came.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
To my aid the chiefs the department.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
I even became friends with the former commissioner, Eddie Grayson,
who's also very interested in this. But everybody backsh you
when you work for sanitation, you know this people the
city doesn't understand this. The city thinks of us as
a stepchild. So we're there for each other and that's
(12:56):
why it's one of the best jobs in the city.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
And to me, it's one of the best jobs in
the city because you never have to go to the gym,
because your whole job is a workout, no matter the elements.
I mean, really, see that's the obsessive gym rat in
me that's talking now. But again, we're talking about getting
(13:21):
the dsn Y. Those family members who have lost family
either to nine to eleven illnesses on the DSNY or
have lost their lives because of line of duty deaths,
their children should get that extra ten points that's called
(13:42):
the Legacy Award on the civilian test. That's what we're
talking about. The dsn Y does not now have that.
The NYPD has it, the FDNY has it, and Eddie
Pant's former supervisor, retired Supervisor DSNY is on a campaign
to get this also extended to the children of DSN
(14:06):
wires who have died of nine to eleven illnesses or
died in the line of duty. So go to Eddie
Pans's Facebook page. He has a petition and spread the word. Please,
because I believe in our listeners when we try to
get something done. I mean I just put out the word.
We all put out the word, and we know our
listeners care, and so I'm counting on you. I'm counting
(14:30):
on the listeners listening now to just swamp Eddie's Facebook page.
That's Eddie Pans pa n Z. He's the only one
on Facebook, Eddie Pans pa n Z, and he will
be updating us on how they're doing with that.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
You've been listening to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, a production
of New York's classic rock Q one O four point
three
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, conversations about issues that matter.
Here's your host, three time Grasie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I want to reconnect you with a longtime listener who
I actually met during our early morning shout outs for
those of you who are not awake very early morning
with our Jim Kerr Rock and Roll morning show at
five point thirty five in the morning, we have Shelley
(00:32):
shout outs, and it's shout outs to our early morning friends.
Some of them are just wrapping up work and others
are just beginning their day. And one of them was
Eddie Pants of Howard Beach and I've come to well
connect with him as a friend. He actually joined Team
(00:53):
Q one oh four point three on the Tunnel to
Towers five k run walk and I'm still you haven't
done the tower climb yet, right, Eddie. I'm still waiting
for you to join our Tower team climb, which is
up the World Trade Center one hundred and four stories.
But Eddie, Eddie has an interesting story because he is
(01:17):
now a retired DSNY supervisor and actually it was about
a year or two ago that he texted me or
emailed me on September eleventh and told me he was
on his way to a memorial for DSN wires sanitation
(01:39):
workers who lost their lives due to nine to eleven illnesses.
And I said to him, I had no idea any
members of the DSNY lost their lives to nine eleven illnesses.
We hear about other first responders, and I consider the
DSNY to be first respond and we're going to get
(02:01):
to that in just a second. But you know, we
know about police, we know about firefighters. And by the way,
with the firefighters, with the FDN Y, we lost three
hundred and forty three on nine to eleven and we're
now up to number three hundred and eighty nine. Eddie,
that we've lost to nine to eleven illnesses. It's insane
(02:22):
and it's it's you know, it just is never ending.
But tell us, Eddie, Eddie Pans of Howard Beach, why
you have joined us this morning because you're on a campaign.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
So first off, let me just say that my heart
goes out to the FDNY because my father is a
retired firefighter.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
He passed away in two thousand, but he always spoke
very highly of his job.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
But basically I'm here because there is something called the
legacy credit, which is for people first respond is that
it started as first responders who died in the line
of duty, then they extended to died in the line
of duty at nine to eleven. They actually raised the
point value because of nine to eleven, and then they
(03:12):
extended even more because they of all the people that
lost their lives due to nine to eleven illnesses, So
it wasn't just people.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Who died in the line of duty, it was now
people who died of nine to eleven illnesses.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
And what the legacy credit is is that if a
immediate family.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
Member passes away.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Brother, sister, mother, father on the job, if you then
take a city as a civil servant test, you gain
ten points. The city is giving you ten points because
of your loss. This goes to or first responders. Unfortunately,
except for sanitation, and they actually found that out on
(03:56):
nine to eleven. This passed nine to eleven. Shelley mentioned
that I do the services, and I have the honor
and privilege of reading the names of the sanitation workers
that passed. A lot of them were personal friends, all
of them are co workers, and all of them will
be loved.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
And by the way, how many have we lost from
the sanitation department to nine to eleven illnesses overall?
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I believe the number is one hundred and thirty six
now and it is growing as we speak. I have
friends now that are gravely ill, and with God's will,
they will recover.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
And explain what the Sanitation department did in the days
following nine to eleven, Well.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
First, they did call us there on nine to eleven
because we have the.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
Equipment to clear the streets. We're the only ones, the
only city agency.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
That has that kind of equipment, So we were there
pulling stuff out of the way so.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
That the other city agencies can do their job.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
And in after nine to eleven we had to go
there and do the cleanup we needed to open up
the city to the city could get back to normal.
And we worked tirelessly, twelve hour shift, seven days a
week for over a year to clean that up and
still going on at fresh Kills where people are still
(05:21):
going over everything to find all the remains.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
And that was considered one of the most toxic areas
to be assigned because basically you're dealing with all of
the debris, which included human remains, and thus you know
the identification process, but it's also all these toxins in
(05:50):
the debris and dealing with that. So the sanitation workers
were physically taking this every single day of fresh kills.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Well, we weren't worried about that, like all the other agencies.
We just wanted to get the job done and get
people back to normal. And what also people don't know
about sanitation is that since we have some of the
biggest trucks in the city, we were called upon to
do all the blockades. We were blocking gracy Manor, we
(06:23):
were blocking the United Nations, all the memorials, there were
sanitation trucks in front of them. And it wasn't the
National Guard, and it wasn't the police department that was
in those vehicles. It was sanitation workers that were in
those vehicles, manning those vehicles and trying to do their
best to keep New York safe.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
So where are we with the legacy proposal?
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Okay, as of right now, there is a bill in
the Assembly that was introduced by Sam Berger.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Let me go about how I even found out about this.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
So, like I was saying, after the ceremony, I went
down to ground zero to catch the closing ceremony there
and young man walked up to me and said, I
want to thank you, and I looked at him. I said, okay,
four He said, I was at the ceremony. You read
(07:23):
my father's name, which literally broke my heart. And I said,
I'm very sorry for your loss.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
I said, did you.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Think about coming on sanitation? He goes, yes, Actually, he
goes I took the exam. He goes, I'm on the list.
I said great. I said, it's one of the best
jobs in the city. What's your list number? He said, well,
it was fifty six. He says, but it got pushed back.
I said, why would he get pushed back? He said,
because they took away my legacy credit. I said, what
(07:54):
do you mean? He said, I got a letter from
DECATS saying that sanitation workers who passed don't their family
members don't qualify.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Said, I just read your father's name. What do you
mean you don't qualify? He said, they don't qualify. They
took away the ten points.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
And wait a minute, So they had been qualifying for
legacy hiring and then and then it was taken away.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Yes, they DECAST does an investigation. What is the tast
the cast runs all the city tests. They're the part
of the city. They put out all the tests and
all that stuff. They do an investigation and they determine,
you know, your qualifications, and they felt that sanitation doesn't
(08:46):
qualify for legacy credits, so they took his ten points away,
which immediately drops you ten points on a city exam
is a huge amount. That could drop you from fifty
six to ten thousand. Wow, it's those ten points. And
I told him, I mean, my heart was broken. I
couldn't even speak. I said, listen, I'm just a supervisor,
(09:11):
I said, but I'm going to do everything I can
to fix this and make this right because this isn't fair.
I went to the memorial the museum, sat down, pulled
out my phone, and right then and there, I started
writing letters to every politician I could think of.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
And I reached out.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
To Counselwoman Vicky Palladino, and I also reached out to
assembly Woman Stacey a Motto and they were very interested.
Some Councilwoman Palladino reached out to Assembly Minberger who he
wrote the bill, and assembly Woman a Motto sponsored it.
(09:52):
So it's in the Assembly right now. But it also
has to go to the State Senate of the state legislation.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
And that's right, passes right, and.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
That's where I need to support because the Assembly looks
like they could be behind it. So I put out
a partition, a petition for people to sign. It's on
my Facebook page, which is Eddie pans E D d
I E P A n Z. There's a link to
that on my Facebook page. I'm just trying to get
as many sigments as possible. I've never Are you the.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Only Eddie pans on Facebook as far as I know?
Speaker 4 (10:28):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Okay, so again, let's do that slower. That's Eddie E
D d I E pans P like Peter A n Z. Okay,
pans p A n Z. So go to Eddie's Facebook
page and join the campaign. What else can people do?
(10:49):
Eddie pants this Legacy Point Award for those children who
have lost their ds N Y FOB or mothers to
nine to eleven illnesses. And again we're talking We're not
talking about a handful of people. We're talking about over
one hundred people who have died of nine to eleven
(11:11):
illnesses and they never get recognition for this. You're never
on these lists. The DSN one. No, and it's not
just you know. I mean that's where everything shows up,
is nine to eleven. That's what everybody thinks of. But
also for line of duty deaths.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
I just had a very close friend of mine get
run over by his own truck a fle months ago, right,
and that goes.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
For his kids too. His kids decide to take a city.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Exam, they don't qualify for the legacy credit, even though
their father was killed in a line of duty.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Yes, people only.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Think about sanitation when they put out their garbage Sunday
night and when they come home Monday morning from work
and see their garbage gone, that's the only time they
think about us. Or when they turned down the wrong
block and see a truck in front of them.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
And then they're yeah, they're pissed off. Eddie, you said
it's one of the one of the best jobs in
the city. Why I know you love.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
It, Yes, I do.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
It's a lot of camaraderie. The job was always there
for me. You know, it's people. It's a family. They
all work together.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
You know, when one person has a problem, everybody gets
behind it.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
I had some setbacks when I was working and people came.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
To my aid the chiefs the department.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
I even became friends with the former commissioner, Eddie Grayson,
who's also very interested in this. But everybody backsh you
when you work for sanitation, you know this people the
city doesn't understand this. The city thinks of us as
a stepchild. So we're there for each other and that's
(12:56):
why it's one of the best jobs in the city.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
And to me, it's one of the best jobs in
the city because you never have to go to the gym,
because your whole job is a workout, no matter the elements.
I mean, really, see that's the obsessive gym rat in
me that's talking now. But again, we're talking about getting
(13:21):
the dsn Y. Those family members who have lost family
either to nine to eleven illnesses on the DSNY or
have lost their lives because of line of duty deaths,
their children should get that extra ten points that's called
(13:42):
the Legacy Award on the civilian test. That's what we're
talking about. The dsn Y does not now have that.
The NYPD has it, the FDNY has it, and Eddie
Pant's former supervisor, retired Supervisor DSNY is on a campaign
to get this also extended to the children of DSN
(14:06):
wires who have died of nine to eleven illnesses or
died in the line of duty. So go to Eddie
Pans's Facebook page. He has a petition and spread the word. Please,
because I believe in our listeners when we try to
get something done. I mean I just put out the word.
We all put out the word, and we know our
listeners care, and so I'm counting on you. I'm counting
(14:30):
on the listeners listening now to just swamp Eddie's Facebook page.
That's Eddie Pans pa n Z. He's the only one
on Facebook, Eddie Pans pa n Z, and he will
be updating us on how they're doing with that.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
You've been listening to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, a production
of New York's classic rock Q one O four point
three
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