Redlands receives AB 2561 staffing report; police association warns of high vacancy, recruitment steps outlined

The Redlands City Council on Tuesday received and filed the city’s first annual report under Assembly Bill 2561 describing job vacancies, recruitment and retention efforts across city departments. Human Resources staff said all bargaining units were below the 20% vacancy threshold that would trigger additional reporting, but the Police Officers Association told the council the department’s vacancy rate is nearing critical levels.

Human Resources Manager McDonald (presenting under the direction of the Human Resources and Risk Management director) summarized the AB 2561-mandated data. As of the reporting date, the Redlands Police Officers Association (RPOA) vacancy rate was reported at 19.8% (18 vacancies of 91 authorized sworn positions at the time of the report). Other bargaining units were lower: management employees, middle management, fire associations and others ranged from 0% to roughly 12.7% in the Civil Service Employee Association. Staff outlined recruitment strategies including continuous job postings for hard-to-fill positions, boosted social-media outreach, career fairs, onboarding improvements, tuition reimbursement and wellness programming.

Representatives of the RPOA made a formal presentation to the council describing operational effects of the vacancies: reduced patrol teams (the department moved from seven to five patrol teams in 2023), minimum-staff increases per team, rising overtime for special events, and a high background-failure and withdrawal rate among applicants. The RPOA asked the city to keep lateral recruitment open continuously, accelerate background investigations (including hiring additional retired-annuitant investigators), consider a targeted recruitment budget funded in part by salary savings from unfilled positions, and allow more training-division autonomy to schedule and run physical and interview processes.

Human Resources and police management said several steps are underway: HR is conducting a comprehensive class-and-compensation study to measure competitiveness with comparable jurisdictions; the city has added background investigators and solicited supplemental background vendors; lateral recruitment was reopened as a continuous listing at the time of the meeting; and staff is tracking vacancies and will provide monthly updates on staffing, with quarterly review expected for retention work.

At the end of the hearing the council moved to receive and file the AB 2561 report; the motion passed on a recorded vote. Councilmembers and the public stressed concern about workforce burnout, public-safety impacts from sustained vacancies and the need for faster background processing so conditional hires are not lost to other agencies. Several commenters urged creative outreach to community colleges, the academy programs and to expand the explorer program pipeline.

The council directed staff to continue monthly vacancy reporting and to return with updates on recruitment and retention outcomes. Human Resources said it will continue work on the class-and-comp study and on targeted recruitment measures for the police department and other hard-to-fill roles.