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City reports high vacancy rate, police recruitment challenges and ongoing union negotiations
Summary
City human-resources staff reported 27.82% vacancy rate for January, recent turnover and recruitment challenges for police and fire; councilors and staff discussed recruitment, recent joint testing, and ongoing negotiations with the police union.
City HR staff told the committee the city had an estimated 625 employees on the payroll window reported, with January showing 18 new hires, 11 promotions and 22 separations (one retirement). HR reported a vacancy rate of 27.82% for the period and a month turnover rate of 2.88%.
Why it matters: Committee members expressed concern about staffing levels in public-safety departments and the city’s ability to compete for recruits; staff said recent joint testing for police and fire yielded candidate pools but that competition with state agencies and pay differentials remain a challenge.
Details: HR reported payroll counts (622 paid employees for the pay period cited, 625 total employees on the roster). Staff and councilors said the city lost two patrol officers in the reported period and that recruiting remains difficult because state agencies can offer higher increases. The committee heard that the fire department reduced overtime and redirected some funds into salary increases to improve retention; several councilors and staff discussed compressing long salary-step tables to make step increases more meaningful.
Union negotiations: staff said the police union requested to open negotiations; city negotiators described a collaborative tone and said the negotiations will continue through the budget cycle. One staff member said state statutory timing constrains negotiation schedules and that some bargaining will extend later into the year.
Training and safety metrics: the Risk/Safety presenter reported 24 incidents in January (11 third-party caused), two property-damage reports, 10 motor-vehicle accidents (five third-party caused) and 13 injuries/illnesses (seven third-party caused). Training hours reported were 907 hours delivered to 268 employees and worker’s-compensation recoveries of $16,431.39 for the period.
Next steps: councilors asked HR and public-safety managers to continue recruiting, to share candidate pipeline metrics and to bring back negotiation updates as bargaining progresses.
