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County reports 9% vacancy rate; HR outlines recruiting innovations while unions press for frontline staffing
Summary
Human Resources reported a countywide vacancy rate of 9% (251 vacancies of 2,783 positions) on April 28 and described new outreach and retention tools — community workshops in Spanish, social-media recruiting, targeted headhunting and hiring incentives — while SEIU urged the board to prioritize frontline staffing and questioned growth in analyst/manager classifications.
Human Resources Director Aja Patel reported to the Board of Supervisors April 28 that as of April 10 the county had 2,783 budgeted positions and 251 vacancies (approximately a 9% vacancy rate). The general-representation bargaining unit had 1,892 budgeted positions and 192 vacancies (about 10%).
Patel and Employment Services Manager Aaron Morimoto described recruiting and retention initiatives: virtual and Spanish-language community workshops to demystify county hiring, a Santa Cruz County Jobs Instagram account for outreach and employee spotlights, targeted headhunting for difficult-to-fill roles, relocation assistance and recruitment/retention incentives (class-specific payments of $10,000–$25,000 for designated hard-to-recruit positions). They also highlighted operational tweaks to shorten hiring timelines such as using the minimum seven-day filing window when applicant pools warrant it, pilot promotional-only recruitments to support internal advancement, examination-practice and interview coaching, and a hiring tracker and reference-check toolkit in development.
SEIU 521 chapter president Max Ocowski urged the board to prioritize frontline staffing and raised concerns about a reported increase in analyst and management positions compared with frontline job cuts in recent budget cycles. He asked the board to provide staffing transparency and to prioritize funding frontline services (roads, health clinics and direct-service staff) in the budget. HR staff said vacancy and budget tables are public and that departments can request recruitment support; they also offered to supply more granular vacancy data (geographic breakdowns, classification counts) on request.
Supervisor Cummings moved and Supervisor Hernandez seconded acceptance of the HR recruitment report. The board voted 5–0 to accept the report and invited HR to provide further data and to coordinate outreach with supervisors’ newsletters and district events.
