OMB and HR say hiring freeze would slow services; pay‑equity study nearing finish, implementation choices still to come
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Summary
Office of Management and Budget Director Daniel Ramos and Human Resources and Talent Director Sekita Grant told commissioners that a countywide hiring freeze is a viable short‑term lever but would require careful exemptions; HR said its countywide pay‑equity study is near completion and that implementation and an automated compensatio
Office of Management and Budget Director Daniel Ramos and Human Resources and Talent (HRT) Director Sekita Grant discussed the county’s hiring‑freeze proposal, vacancy savings and the countywide pay‑equity study during Sept. 2 budget hearings.
Ramos said OMB proposed a partial hiring freeze to capture approximately $25 million of the county’s $46 million in vacancy savings this year, leaving “green grass” for strategic exceptions. He said OMB would recommend exempting certain core public‑safety functions (law enforcement, jail, district attorney, public defender, assessor‑collector and county clerk) and that departments could request targeted exceptions through a fiscal review process. Ramos described the hiring freeze as a tool that could be less disruptive than large across‑the‑board position eliminations but said it would affect departments differently depending on their vacancy rates and service needs.
HRT Director Sekita Grant said HRT is leading a multiyear transformation that includes standardizing recruitment processes, advancing an employee engagement program and completing a countywide compensation and pay‑equity study. Grant said the pay study is near finalized; the county set aside $50 million in the FY26 budget framework for pay equity, and HRT will need implementation guidance about prioritization and sequencing once the study’s recommendations are presented. She said the $2,500 county‑wide adjustment earlier this year addressed low‑wage employees in the short term but did not replace a comprehensive comp‑structure fix.
Grant described work already underway: a bilingual‑pay program that has driven higher enrollment in language testing and certification, a manager‑focused HR boot camp, wellness and benefits modernization and a recruitment “full‑cycle” model aimed at reducing time‑to‑fill and improving candidate experience. She said an HR suite (learning management system and other HRIS modules) is in procurement and that Universal Services, OMB and HRT have coordinated technical planning.
Both Ramos and Grant said a hiring‑freeze policy requires a clear SOP to avoid disrupting critical services. Ramos said he had heard concerns from departments about late adjustments to their budget submissions and underscored that OMB had held town halls and individual department meetings to vet proposals. Grant said HRT will need additional systems and some budgetary support to automate pay‑equity maintenance and to implement training and retention measures recommended by the study.
Speakers quoted: Daniel Ramos (Director, OMB); Sekita Grant (Director, Human Resources and Talent).
