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Police and fire unions urge proactive recruitment as Palo Alto reports lower vacancy rate under AB 2561
Summary
City HR staff reported a citywide vacancy rate of roughly 10% and faster onboarding; police and fire union representatives warned of operational stress, high training failure rates in police field training and a statewide paramedic shortage for fire services, urging cooperative recruitment and retention measures.
The City of Palo Alto presented a statutorily required public hearing May 4 under AB 2561 on city vacancies and recruitment efforts. HR Director Sandra Blanch and Manager of Labor and Employee Relations Tori Post told council the citywide vacancy rate in April 2026 was about 10 percent, onboarding time has dropped from over 60 days to an average of 23 days from offer to start, and Phase 2 of a recruitment strategic plan is underway.
"We have a citywide vacancy of approximately 10%," Post said, and she highlighted steps to shorten hiring timelines, relaunch the internship program and formalize workforce-continuity planning.
Labor groups were invited to present. Palo Alto Police Officers Association sergeant Chris Correa described continuing operational strain: he said only about 68% of sworn personnel were available for full duty because of injuries, training status and other absences, that the department faces a 12.8% vacancy rate and that, since January 2024, about 44% of new officers have failed the field-training program. Correa warned that freezing a special-operations sergeant position would reassign duties and likely increase overtime and urged reconsideration of rank structure and training investments.
"Maintaining adequate coverage between now and mid-2027 will be extremely difficult," Correa said, highlighting training, mental-health and retention pressures.
On behalf of Local 1319, union president Joe Panko thanked staff for recent hiring gains but warned of a statewide shortage of paramedics. Panko said Palo Alto is now below its target percentage of paramedics and urged a cooperative effort across the city and department to recruit and retain paramedic-certified staff.
The council received the report (no vote required) and asked staff and finance committee members to continue examining vacancy distributions by department and consider targeted recruitment and retention investments during the budget deliberations.
