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Council members press administration for written report after debate over visas used to fill city technical jobs
Summary
Members demanded a written report and postponed action on a Clark Hill legal-services amendment for immigration employee sponsorships after staff said about 17 foreign nationals are covered and that most fill engineering or IT roles; members questioned why the city hires foreign nationals before exhausting local talent pools.
Council members pressed administration officials for a written report and voted to return a contract amendment on immigration sponsorship legal services to the next internal-operations session in January.
Line item 8.6 (Clark Hill PLC) would extend time and add $50,000 for legal services related to immigration employee sponsorships, bringing the contract total to $255,000. Member Callaway pressed staff for details: how many sponsorships exist, where sponsored employees are placed, residency and whether the city used local talent first.
Darryl Conrad, the city's chief recruitment officer, said the law firm manages roughly 17 foreign-national sponsorships, including some Canadian TN visas and H‑1B positions, with the majority working in the Department of Public Works as engineers and in information-technology roles. "These positions are limited to engineering or technology-driven positions," Conrad said, adding that the city had conducted extended recruitments and advertising but had not found qualified local candidates for those highly technical roles.
Conrad also said many sponsored hires already live in the United States; some Canadian hires live in Canada. He said the firm Clark Hill assists with transferring H‑1B status and completing I‑9s and related intake work.
Member Callaway asked for a written report with specifics — number of sponsorships, where the employees are based, pay levels, positions filled and documentation of recruitment efforts — and requested the item return at the committee's first meeting of the year. "I requested this a year ago and never got it," she said.
The chair and members agreed to bring the contract back in January to allow staff time to produce the requested written report and recruitment documentation. No vote to approve the contract increase took place at this session.
