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Budget committee approves NeoGov HR renewal as staff outline shift to Workday and vacancy review
Summary
The Budget and Finance Committee approved a roughly $79,021 renewal of NeoGov HR software on the consent agenda and heard staff say the city plans to migrate hiring functions into Workday next year; staff also outlined a plan to evaluate vacancies after eliminating 35 positions.
The Budget and Finance Committee on Wednesday approved, by voice vote, a consent ordinance authorizing the mayor or designee to renew a contract with GovernmentJobs.com Inc., doing business as NeoGov, for human-resources software for the Department of Human Resources at a confirmed cost of $79,021.28.
Director of Human Resources Montrella told the committee the request is a renewal of a system first contracted in 2019 that the city uses for job postings on governmentjobs.com and for tracking hiring requisitions. "The piece before you is for renewal of our NeoGov software," Montrella said, describing the platform's role in recruitment and applicant tracking.
The request was placed on and approved from the consent agenda without recorded roll-call tallies. The chair said no members opposed.
Why it matters: City staff told the committee this will likely be the last year the city uses NeoGov for the functions being requested. A budget staff member said the city is implementing similar functionality in Workday and that the transition reduced the NeoGov cost from what staff said had been roughly $120,000 down to about $70,000 for this renewal. "This will likely be the last year that we have NeoGov in place," the staff member said, adding that portions of the recruiting and training workflows will move into Workday.
Staff also briefed the committee on the upcoming schedule and staffing decisions tied to the operating budget. Budget staff said hearings are scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and that a comprehensive list of questions from "Mister Dyer" has been circulated and is being answered for presentation at those hearings. Staff said they will deliver a summarized goals-and-objectives document with departmental metrics to council around noon the next day, separate from the line-item budget, so members can begin review sooner.
On staffing, committee staff described an internal review process involving HR, finance, the chief of staff and department directors that screens open positions. The staff member reported the budget already reflects the elimination of 35 positions and said vacancies will be evaluated "on a case-by-case basis" to determine if roles should be backfilled or permanently eliminated. "We're going forward, as those positions become vacant, we'll be evaluating some of those and probably eliminating some of those positions that are currently in the budget," the staff member said.
Councilwoman Linda Mobian urged caution. "I just want us to be careful, and certainly I don't want you to have positions on staff that you don't need, but don't cripple yourself," she said, noting technology and AI may help but should not replace essential support staff.
Another council member asked that council be notified when a cut would mean a service is not going to be replaced — for example, the loss of an animal warden — saying ward representatives deserve notice when constituent services will be affected.
The meeting concluded with the chair noting plans to follow up on income tax projections during the week. With no further business, the committee adjourned; the clerk stated the full council will meet in regular session at 6:30 p.m.
Next steps: The ordinance was approved from the consent agenda and staff will present detailed answers and the goals-and-objectives document during the budget hearings scheduled for the coming week.
