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HR and department heads seek reclassifications and new positions as council weighs vacancy savings
Summary
City HR and department leaders outlined an organizational realignment and requests for reclassifications and new positions to support operations; council discussed timing and the budget impact amid a hiring-freeze decision.
City Human Resources and department leaders presented a set of organizational adjustments and staffing requests during Edmond’s third budget hearing, while council debated whether to prioritize vacancy savings to meet reserve targets.
Caroline Pierce, the city’s HR director, described a series of internal realignments completed after the departure of the community image director and summarized new position requests and reclassifications proposed for FY26. Pierce said many changes involved moving functions to more appropriate departments; for example, “we moved urban forestry under planning so that urban forestry can be more involved with planning and new development.” She added: “There’s no cost associated with any of this restructure or alignment.”
Staff summary of position requests and reclassifications - Engineering: reclassification to create a construction manager / inspection supervisor role to preserve institutional knowledge and provide succession planning. - Electric: creation of a lead substation technician and a second distribution design engineer as workload grows. - Fire: request to add a business manager to focus on forecasting and budget planning; department leaders said the fire budget is currently handled by the chief. - Police: request reduced from three new officers to one officer plus an additional lieutenant position to support day-shift operations and school resource officer oversight. - Water resources: request for a second general maintenance position and an additional water well operator to support planned expansion and operations.
Costs and clarifications - Pierce and staff presented a consolidated estimated cost for the new positions and reclassifications affecting multiple departments; some itemized figures in the meeting were not fully specified in the transcript. For example, staff referenced a combined dollar figure for reclassifications but the exact amount for several line items was not clearly audible in the record and was described by staff as subject to confirmation. - Finance director Kathy Panas summarized that only a subset of the proposed changes would affect the general fund and that internal service fund allocations were calculated at roughly 24% charged to the general fund for the purpose of the presentation.
Council concerns and direction Councilmembers emphasized caution about canceling offers or rescinding interviews for candidates already in background checks; HR said vacancies are a moving target and estimated the city typically hovers between 40 and 50 vacancies across departments. Several council members said they supported preserving core services and high-performing staff while acknowledging the need to capture vacancy savings to bolster reserves.
Next steps Council asked staff to track vacancy savings and to treat hiring exceptions carefully under the hiring-freeze policy. Departments were directed to coordinate with the city manager, HR and finance when requesting exceptions to ensure both operational continuity and fiscal discipline.
No final personnel reductions or permanent hiring cancellations were ordered at the meeting; proposals remain subject to budget adoption and the follow-up Labor Day review.
