Council committee presses personnel on transfer portal as layoffs loom; departments ordered to submit vacancy reports

The Budget and Finance Committee continued its special meeting on citywide layoff management and ordered a series of written reports from departments after hearing updates on an expedited transfer portal meant to reduce layoffs.

The committee’s chair, Chair McCosker, opened the single-item special session and asked city personnel, the Chief Administrative Office and multiple departments to brief the committee on vacancies and transfer opportunities. “As of this week we have identified 246 positions that are available to be filled,” a Personnel Department representative told the committee, adding that the 246 figure represents proprietary- or special-funded positions and is up seven from the previous week.

Why it matters: Council members sought to ensure the transfer process prioritizes employees who may face displacement while matching skill sets to available vacancies. CAO staff said updated payroll data taken on July 1 reduced an earlier estimate of potentially affected filled positions from 614 to 595, a change CAO representative Melissa Velasco described as the result of positions that were eliminated in the adopted budget but became vacant by the start of the new fiscal year.

Details of the portal and numbers

Personnel staff described the portal as an expedited matching process that accepts applications from employees who could be affected by layoffs; the department is reviewing applications and helping departments identify candidates who fit open classifications. The committee was told there are roughly 2,400 applications in the system, and that some applicants have applied to multiple jobs. “That’s part of the delay with some of the conditional job offers and some of the transfers,” the Personnel Department representative said.

Officials emphasized the uncertainty inherent in layoff calculations: departments will not know which individual employees are ultimately displaced until formal displacement calculations are run, so the portal has been opened to any employee who could be impacted. Personnel staff said the portal review is intended to speed matches by screening applicants before departments interview.

Department reports and staffing challenges

Several departments gave short overviews of their vacancy and transfer situations. Patty Santos, interim City Clerk, reported that four City Clerk positions targeted for elimination had been resolved: two employees transferred to other departments through the expedited process, one was reassigned internally and one termination occurred for reasons unrelated to the layoff process. The City Clerk’s office reported an 8% vacancy rate and said it would work with personnel to fill common classifications through the portal.

Barak Vaughn, interim managing director for the City Attorney’s business finance and operations, and Chief Deputy Assistant City Attorney Denise Mills told the committee most of their openings are for work that requires experienced attorneys and specialized staff. The city attorney team said many positions are functionally unique and may require lateral hires, but agreed to let personnel analyze whether any positions could be filled via the transfer portal.

General Services Department (GSD) staff said they identified 22 filled positions that could lead to layoffs and nine additional common-classification vacancies appropriate for the portal. GSD noted a number of unique classifications (helicopter mechanic, materials testing) that likely will not be filled from other city departments. The Controller’s office and the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment each reported their vacancy counts or constraints: the controller identified common accounting and analyst classes and said it would begin portal outreach; Neighborhood Empowerment said it had zero vacancies to offer and four exempt positions that lack civil-service status and likely require different placement options.

Exempt employees and special cases

Personnel staff and committee members discussed exempt positions (those not in civil service). Neighborhood Empowerment and the City Attorney’s office both have exempt employees whose placement will require different handling, since they have no displacement rights under civil-service rules. Personnel said it will pursue targeted support for exempt employees and explore available exempt-authority openings in elected offices.

Timeline and next steps

CAO staff said the office’s goal is to complete a first pass of position-by-position plans by the end of the next week and to run updated headcount reports at the end of each pay period to refine the tally of potentially affected positions. Personnel said departments will interview transfer candidates rather than requiring classification tests because applicants already hold status in the classifications for which they apply.

The committee did not take a formal vote. It continued the item and directed that the following five departments appear at the next committee meeting with written reports to the committee and to the Personnel Department on vacancies, transfer opportunities and classifications: Housing, City Planning, Building and Safety, Transportation and ITA. The committee further requested, for the subsequent meeting, written reports from Contract Administration, Engineering, Sanitation, Street Lighting, Street Services, Harbor and Airport.

What committee members pressed for

Council members repeatedly urged speed and clarity in the portal so that employees who face displacement can see potential placements quickly. One member asked whether the expedited process might be overwhelmed by applicants from outside affected groups; personnel answered that the portal must be open to all who could be impacted because displacement rights are not yet fully calculated and an internal transfer can create a cascade of additional openings.

Looking ahead

Officials said they expect conditional job offers to begin within weeks as departments complete candidate screens and interviews. Personnel and CAO staff promised periodic updates and committed to returning to the committee with the department-level written reports ordered by the chair.