Sarah King, director of Human Resources, presented the HR office's FY2027 priorities, staffing and technology investments. King said HR is seeking a 1% overall increase and described a major procurement: TrueComp benchmarking and labor-costing software intended to support bargaining and provide real-time cost modeling during negotiations.

King and labor relations manager Nick Carrell said the software will allow the city to compare compensation to peer communities and to test negotiated changes in real time. HR plans a comprehensive compensation study and updates to the compensation schedule last revised in 2022.

Training and workforce development were a major focus: HR has instituted supervisor leadership training, conflict-resolution sessions (which drew about 90 attendees in one session) and an expanded e-learning library. Joe Egan, training and development specialist, has launched new supervisor programs with 24 graduates.

Councilmembers pressed HR on vacancies and hiring timelines. King said citywide vacancies were changing but cited 35 vacancies as of December; timelines for filling positions typically run about a month from posting to candidate selection but can vary. Questions about remote work preferences, sharing benchmarking data with unions and time-to-hire were addressed: staff said benchmarking uses public comparables and that the TrueComp vendor can obtain public data and that HR will work with corporation counsel on negotiation protocols.

No formal personnel policy change was enacted in the workshop; staff said they will proceed with software implementation and follow-up reporting.