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Public Works reports hiring gains but hiring freeze clouds vacancy figures
Summary
Human Resources Director Karen Hill told commissioners Public Works exceeded its hiring goal for FY 2023–24, promoted staff internally and is preparing for retirements; a mayoral hiring freeze issued Jan. 9 made current vacancy rates unavailable and complicates planning.
Karen Hill, Director of Human Resources for Public Works, presented an informational update on recruitment, retention, attrition and retirement eligibility at the Feb. 27 Public Works Commission meeting.
Hill said the department exceeded its FY 2023–24 hiring goal to fill 350 positions, reporting 495 positions filled by June 30, 2024, with an additional 66 hires from July 1 to Dec. 31, 2024. Between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024 Public Works promoted 169 internal staff; from July 1 to Dec. 31, 2024 another 83 promotions occurred, for a total of 252 promotions reported across the period Hill presented.
Hill said the department ran two mass hiring events that produced 25 junior engineer hires, adopted 12 eligible lists to convert provisional employees to permanent civil service and expanded apprenticeship and intern programs. The report also noted training activity: 558 employees received training during the prior year and 112 completed a supervisors academy.
Hill also outlined challenges. A mayoral hiring freeze announced Jan. 9, 2025, set all positions back to proposed status and prevents the department from producing an accurate current vacancy rate; Hill said the vacancy rate as of July 2024 was 14.7% and that as of Dec. 31, 2024 the department had 1,570 positions filled (154 provisional, 377 exempt, 1,039 permanent). She said the hiring freeze harms applicant confidence and constrains managers’ ability to plan operations.
Hill reported separations: 100 separations in fiscal year 2023–24, with 39% due to transfers or promotions to other departments and 28% to retirements; between July and December 2024 there were 36 separations with 12 transfers/promotions and 12 voluntary resignations. On retirements, Hill reported 242 employees (15.3% of the workforce in her dataset) eligible to retire under city tiers (either age 60 with 10 years of service or age 50 with 20 years of service); of those, 125 are in operations and 117 are non‑operations.
Commissioners asked for further breakdowns by unit (engineering, streets, sanitation, arborists) and for comparison to other large city departments; Hill said the department can provide a breakdown and that Public Works typically carries a higher number of vacant project‑based positions because it holds them for funded projects. Chief Financial Officer Bruce Robertson said Public Works and HR collaborate on budget forecasting and track retirements to anticipate payout liabilities and backfill needs.
Hill said the department will revisit exit interviews to obtain better separation data and is partnering with workforce development to prepare succession plans and to provide training for retention. Public Works and commissioners agreed to follow up with more detailed breakdowns by division.
