Council committee reviews expedited transfer portal as city departments report vacancies and Workday issues

Los Angeles — City personnel and department leaders told a City Council committee on an ongoing effort to move employees out of positions slated for elimination and into funded vacancies through an expedited transfer process, while also warning that data and technical problems in Workday complicate the calculations used to determine potential layoffs.

“The expedited transfer team continues to work with the departments to fill their special funded positions,” Steve Rivera with the Personnel Department said, reporting updated counts of available positions and applicant activity.

Citywide numbers cited at the meeting showed the pool of positions available for transfer had increased to 332, applications received totaled 1,647, unique employees referred numbered 1,213 and total applications referred were 2,847. Personnel also reported 38 conditional job offers (CJOs), with roughly 19 recorded in Workday so far.

Why it matters: the city’s layoff calculations use Workday employment records and a run done by the City Administrative Officer and Personnel Department. Until vacancies, internal transfers and accepted job offers are recorded in Workday, departments remain on lists of positions “still filled” and therefore within the pool that could be eliminated — which officials said risks overstating the number of people subject to layoff.

Context and departmental reports

Melissa Velasco of the City Administrative Officer’s (CAO) office said the budget process originally identified 614 positions on the potential layoff list; as of a July 1 Workday run that list contained 595 positions still filled.…