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City releases AB 2561 vacancy report showing ~18% average vacancies in 2025; unions urge action
Summary
Human Resources reported an average 18% vacancy rate for calendar-year 2025, with 91 hires and 6,000+ applications processed; SEIU and the Richmond Police Officers Association told the council vacancies are straining services and requested clear hiring benchmarks and bargaining outcomes to improve recruitment and retention.
Human Resources Director Sharon Taylor presented the city'required AB 2561 report for calendar-year 2025, summarizing recruitment and retention data requested by state law.
Taylor reported that, as of Dec. 31, 2025, the city had an average of 802 authorized full-time equivalent positions (different reporting bases were used for legislative and fiscal reporting), with 739 budgeted full-time positions and 659 positions filled. HR said it processed over 6,000 applications during 2025, conducted 68 recruitments and hired 91 people. Taylor described the vacancy trend as averaging about 18% across the year, with the largest vacancies in middle-management classifications.
Union representatives made presentations under Government Code provisions: Kevin Tisdale of SEIU described how vacancy savings have been booked in the budget and said the union's 2025 vacancy rate is about 19% for SEIU positions, urging the council to set hiring priorities and benchmarks. Ben Terrio of the Richmond Police Officers Association highlighted sworn staffing shortfalls in patrol, saying only about 106 officers are active in patrol functions compared with 147 authorized positions and pointing to independent studies recommending a much higher authorized total (the Matrix Consulting and civil-grand-jury benchmarks cited figures near 179—85 sworn officers).
Councilmembers asked for more transparent crosswalks between position-control lists, fiscal-year budgeted positions and actual filled headcount and directed staff to return with a clearer multi-year position and vacancy report. HR said some reporting differences arise because the AB 2561 requirement uses a calendar-year snapshot while the budget is fiscal-year based.
