City leaders describe staffing crisis: 153 vacancies, frozen positions and pay study under way

City leaders told the council that vacancies and compensation lag are affecting service delivery across multiple departments and that staff are preparing targeted actions to address the problem.

Pamela Williams of human resources said the city has 153 vacant positions, 103 of them full‑time, producing a 7.8% full‑time vacancy rate; some departments show much higher vacancy or turnover rates (IT reported a ~30% full‑time vacancy rate in a departmental briefing). Williams said the city has issued an RFP for a comprehensive compensation study and plans a phased approach to implement pay‑plan changes.

“Compensation lag has become an operational capacity issue,” Williams told council members, noting longer hiring timelines (average time‑to‑hire up from 29 to 44 days) and increased use of outsourcing and overtime to maintain services.

Directors from public works, building inspections and parks described localized impacts: building inspections has seven openings and uses third‑party contractors to maintain inspection throughput; public works streets crews reported roughly 10 vacancies and 11 frozen positions in streets maintenance affecting patching and alley work; parks management reported reduced staffing (31 FTEs vs. a 52–53 benchmark) that limits maintenance and programming capacity.

Council members asked staff to provide a prioritized list of the most urgent vacancies and positions to restore so that budget decisions can be targeted. Staff said the FY27 proposed budget will include placeholders for reinstating frozen positions and that final pay‑rate adjustments will be reconciled with the compensation study results.