The Bakersfield City Council on June 11 heard public testimony and staff presentations on the proposed fiscal year 2025–26 budget, including a statutorily required vacancy report under Assembly Bill 2561 and a wide-ranging public comment period calling for greater investment in housing, mental-health services and community programs.

City Human Resources Director Christy Tenter told the council the city’s point-in-time vacancy rate is 7.64%, representing 155 open positions. "We are at 7.64% citywide vacancy rate, and that's a 155 vacancies," Tenter said during her presentation, adding that the figure reflected a May 5 data snapshot and that vacancies are concentrated in police and public works. She described the public-sector hiring process and said average time-to-fill varied by classification but that the city had completed 220 recruitments to date with an average 81.4 days to fill a position.

Tenter outlined recruitment and retention actions the city has pursued — job fairs, expanded outreach, compensation adjustments, digital hiring tools and wellness programs — and said none of the city’s bargaining units exceeded the 20% vacancy threshold that would trigger additional AB 2561 reporting.

Why it matters: The vacancy report and budget proposal frame staffing levels for public safety, infrastructure and service programs across Bakersfield. Residents and advocates said the proposed spending priorities do not match public needs, particularly on homelessness and housing.

Public testimony focused on housing and policing. Emma De La Rosa of Leadership Council for Justice and Accountability and other speakers called the presentation "extremely inadequate" and criticized the proposed $500,000 allocation to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund as insufficient. De La Rosa noted that the proposed total operating and capital budgets exceed $852 million and contrasted that with the smaller local housing allocation.

Multiple speakers urged the council to redirect funds from policing to housing and social services. Ash Huang, a fellow at the ACLU of Southern California, said Bakersfield’s unhoused population has more than tripled since 2018 and urged stronger investment in permanent housing and eviction prevention. Several speakers noted that the Bakersfield Police Department (BPD) will receive a larger share of general-fund discretionary dollars under the proposed budget and urged the council to preserve or expand funding for housing, mental-health crisis response, youth programs and parks.

Open Door Network (speaker identified in the record as "Miss Skidmore") asked council to support a new family homeless campus scheduled to break ground this summer and planned to open in 2027. The speaker said the campus would expand shelter capacity for families and provide on-site childcare, mental-health and job-training services.

Council response and next steps: Councilmembers acknowledged gaps in outreach and hearing timing and said they would provide more detailed follow-up materials. Councilmember Gonzales asked staff for clarification about police staffing and mental-health co-responder coverage; Police Department leadership said Kern Behavioral Health clinicians work with the city and that three full‑time mental‑health clinicians are stationed in the 911 communications center with roughly 18 hours-per-day coverage on most days, resulting in 70–80% of appropriate crisis calls being resolved without a police response when the clinicians are available. The chief described other co‑response efforts (MET team, field co‑response with Kern Behavioral Health) but also noted limited MET availability at times.

The hearing closed; the council will consider final budget adoption and any amendments at its June 25 meeting. Several council members said they would pursue referrals to explore increasing the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and moving more budget hearings to evening hours to improve public access.

Ending: Staff and council members said they will return with additional detail before the final vote on the budget and that the midyear review offers another opportunity to adjust allocations if revenues permit.