Finance, IT and HR describe staffing shortfalls, technical debt and rising costs in biennial briefings

Directors from the finance, information technology (IT) and human resources (HR) departments presented biennial strategy briefings to the Albany City Council on Jan. 8, emphasizing workforce turnover, recruitment challenges, technical debt and rising costs.

Gina Yeager, finance director, said the department has 16.6 full-time equivalents and a $6.3 million budget but is operating with two vacancies and a backlog in financial reporting. Yeager said auditors have the city’s fiscal 2023 trial balance and staff expect audit numbers by March. She outlined ongoing federal reporting responsibilities and noted that recent changes mean the city must track retainage for all construction projects. Yeager told the council the department is using new tools, including Debtbook and a digital budget platform, to increase efficiency and transparency.

Sean Park, chief information officer, described IT’s 12 FTEs, roughly 3 petabytes of stored data, and a 24/7 help desk that averaged 30 daily tickets in 2024. Park warned of “technical debt” from deferred upgrades and higher vendor costs as software moves to cloud services. He said IT had 99.9% core uptime in 2024, resolved 6,500 help-desk requests and mitigated a cybersecurity incident tied to the Linn County Sheriff’s Office without service disruption. Park said grant funding will be used in 2025 to bolster network security, device management and automation to reduce manual work.

Human resources Director Holly Roten said HR is a seven‑FTE operation covering recruitment, benefits, bargaining-unit negotiations and compliance with statutes such as Oregon’s paid family and medical leave. Roten said 40% of city staff have been hired since 2023 and described a “wave” of recent retirements and future eligibility that will affect succession planning. She said process automation and an administrative assistant (temporarily assigned to HR) are addressing workload but additional capacity may be needed to support citywide workforce development.

During the staff-reports portion of the meeting the council approved a finance personnel reclassification: converting an unfilled grants-coordinator position into a budget manager role to separate budget functions from accounting. Staff corrected a packet typo and said the biennium impact is $8,507 for the remainder of the biennium. Council moved and seconded the reclassification and it was approved by voice vote.

The presentations underscore recurring themes across departments: constrained budgets under Measure 5/Measure 50 property tax growth limits, higher operating costs from inflation, and the need for investment to modernize systems and retain staff.