Unions warn of understaffing as HR data show county vacancy rate near 9% for 2025; psychiatry vacancies highlighted

Santa Barbara County’s human resources department presented its annual AB 2561 vacancy report on May 5, telling the Board of Supervisors that calendar‑year 2025 averaged a 9% vacancy rate across roughly 4,732 funded full‑time equivalent positions. The hearing, required by state law, reviewed recruitment, retention and vacancy metrics and included union testimony urging the board to avoid layoffs that would compound understaffing.

HR Director Schmidt and Talent Acquisition Chief Natalie Alvarado walked the board through recruiting steps, average timelines and causes of vacancies, including voluntary separations, retirements, fiscal holdbacks and the county’s merit‑based civil‑service hiring process. The department reported it filled 650 vacancies in 2025 from over 15,400 applications; average time from posting to offer is 96 days, and from requisition to certified list about 46 business days. Schmidt said departments sometimes hold vacancies to manage budget uncertainty.

Unions and frontline staff framed the vacancy numbers as an operational crisis. SEIU Local 721 and SEIU Local 620 representatives described prolonged understaffing in social services, public health and sheriff’s civilian roles and said that eliminating positions ‘‘on paper’’ does not reduce work for residents. Bargaining unit 10 (physicians and psychiatrists) had the highest vacancy rate, 38.23% as of Dec. 31, 2025, with psychiatry positions particularly hard to fill: Alvarado reported continuous recruitments for psychiatrist and staff‑physician roles yielded only a handful of qualified applicants during 2025 and long fill times (236 days measured from opening to offer; 71 days from application to offer).

Union speakers recounted concrete service impacts — longer waits for pharmacy services, overloaded custody records teams, and IT staff covering multiple roles — and urged the county to preserve positions and use non‑recurring funds or voluntary separation incentives to reduce layoffs. County staff said they will run internal job fairs, expand internal job‑matching and pursue classification and recruitment improvements; HR also noted a classification update plan and civil‑service rule changes to accelerate hiring.

Board action: The board received and filed the report. Supervisors and union leaders agreed on the need for more data transparency and targeted recruitment strategies; the board directed HR to continue work on classification updates and internal placement supports for employees affected by anticipated budget reductions.

What’s next: HR will hold internal job fairs for employees affected by position eliminations, present classification‑spec updates at later hearings and return performance metrics in post‑election or pre‑budget reports.