Meeting Information

• Date: September 3, 2024
• Title: Regular Budget Committee Meeting
• Present: Elliot Payne, Robin Wonsley, Michael Rainville, Jeremiah Ellison, Jason Chavez, Emily Koski (Vice Chair), Aisha Chughtai (Chair), Andrea Jenkins, Aurin Chowdhury
• Absent: LaTrisha Vetaw, Jamal Osman, Katie Cashman
• Guests: Deb Krueger (Director of HR Operations)
• Votes: 0

Highlights

• Review of Mayor Frey’s 2025 Recommended Budget timeline
• Presentation of Biannual Personnel Report
• Discussion on vacancy savings and long-term vacant positions
• Request for additional information on department hiring plans

Discussion

Mayor Frey’s 2025 Recommended Budget Timeline

Vice Chair Koski provided an overview of the budget adoption process timeline. Key dates include:

• September 9: Budget Director’s overview of the 2025 Recommended Budget
• September 23 and a date in November: Public hearings on the proposed budget
• December 6 and 9: Budget amendment considerations
• December 5: Final public hearing and potential budget adoption

Council Member Palmisano inquired about the Board of Estimation and Taxation’s levy-setting process, which was clarified to have a public hearing on September 11.

Biannual Personnel Report Presentation

Deb Krueger presented the Biannual Personnel Report, highlighting:

• 4,195 City Council-approved and funded FTEs in 2024
• 89% of regular positions are filled
• 133 full-time, permanent, general-funded positions are vacant and not in an active hiring process
• $19.7 million budgeted for overtime expenses in 2024, with $10.3 million spent through July 31

Council members expressed concerns about long-term vacancies and the use of vacancy savings. Council Member Wonsley stated:

“For far too long it felt as if the Mayor’s administration did not provide it to Council to have that information. So this legislative directive really puts us in a place to basically examine, you know, where there’s gaps, where there’s discrepancies around staffing changes.”

Vacancy Savings and Long-term Vacant Positions

Council President Payne raised concerns about the use of vacancy savings:

“I’m curious if you could give an insight into how departments are leveraging vacancy savings. Are they doing it in a consistent way across departments? Is there something that we should be looking at from a policy perspective around vacancy savings to have how they’re used in practice to align with the goals of the institution?”

The discussion revealed that departments use vacancy savings in various ways, including hiring temporary workers, contractors, or reallocating funds to different projects. The committee requested more detailed information on positions vacant for one year or longer and how the vacancy savings were utilized.

Request for Additional Information on Department Hiring Plans

Vice Chair Koski requested more information on the 60 roles that have been vacant for a year or longer with no documented hiring plans. She expressed concern about reconciling these vacancies with the Mayor’s request for 75 new FTEs in the upcoming budget:

“I think as we go through our process and kind of figure out what we need to do in – as we move forward here, how do we reconcile the fact we have 60 FTEs with no plan and that’s what we see but we want 75 new roles.”

The committee agreed to request more detailed information from departments during their budget presentations and to receive a memo from HR with additional details on long-term vacancies and hiring plans.

Public Comments

There were no public comments during this meeting.