Order requesting certain information under Section 17F relative to the Personnel Review Committee and personnel vacancies.
Numbers 0640 Council of Reading off of the following order for a hearing on appropriating federal relief funds to stabilize and expand public sector personnel capacity beyond pre-pandemic levels in dark number 0641 Council of after the following order requesting certain information under Section 17 F relative to the Personnel Review Committee and personnel vacancies. Thank you, Mr.. But she recognizes counselor Brad. And Counselor Brad. And you have the floor. Thank you, Mr. President. These are two dockets related to our personnel capacity across city departments. As we work our way through the budgeting process, we hear from departments across the city about their personnel and their difficulties with vacancies within their departments, etc.. The first docket is a hearing order on the use of ARPA funds for pandemic recovery. And the second docket is a 17 F information request related to the Personnel Review Committee and Human Resources Practices for posting and filling vacancies. For generations, public sector jobs have been a lifeline for working families in our city, providing secure employment for women and workers of color with better and better benefits, greater job security and opportunities for nonunion from union representation and full time work. Across the country, local government public sector employment did not recover from the Great Recession of 2008 and until 2019. And then we were hit by. Since the onset of the pandemic, the private sector has regained 93% of their jobs lost since 2020, while the public sector has only recovered 53% of the jobs. Looking at our city's recovery since the recession over the past 15 years, not all departments gained back their personnel full time equivalent levels of 2008, supported by the General Fund. Inspectional Services has not fully reached their 22,000 needed staffing levels yet. Year after year, they took on more responsibilities and when the council and mayor passed new ordinances. And we're pretty good at that. We've added a lot of work to their workload. In the last past past few years, public facilities and property management are staffed below 2008 levels, while facilities, maintenance and capital projects are stalled without without needed project managers. B Cyf has more than 60 permanent full time equivalent positions below their 2008 levels, and Public Works has 80 full time equivalent position deficit compared to 2008 permanent staffing. All of these departments are front lines for city services and meeting residents needs. An excerpt from the Municipal Research Bureau's 2014 Transition Report spells it out Through the Great Recession of 2008, the personnel reductions of the three largest departments of school, police and fire have been less than proportional to their share of the total city employees. The greater burden experienced by the other 42 departments and the reduction of employees over 11 years is also evidenced by the fact that the police, school and Fire Department represents 77% of city funded payroll in 2013, but experienced 36% of the employee layoffs since 2002. The remaining 44 departments are 22% of the workforce, but have had a 63% reduction. The US Treasury Department determined that ARPA fund relief may be used to bolster local public sector personnel capacity to restore pre-pandemic 2020 staffing levels or expand up to 7.5% beyond the pre-pandemic baseline. I hope to explore this in the the committee hearing. We have heard throughout the budget hearings that department after department is struggling to hire and fill vacancies. It's an incredibly competitive job market at the moment. The Position Review Committee manages the approval process for posting and filling vacancies since 2017 financial year 17. The city has also eliminated 190 long term vacant positions. But we must understand why those positions were left vacant for so long. What functions they served were the essential and are they currently being contracted out? The 17 f order is intended to provide the counsel insight into the personnel processes in the context of fiscal management and recovery policies over the span of multiple mayoral administrations going back to 2008. Not just what is in front of us right now. And in this moment, we have a responsibility to look at the human resources situation holistically and use any and all tools at our disposal to help recruit and retain personnel for our city workforce so that we can continue to sustain and deliver good quality constituent services across all departments and unleash the power of municipal government. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, counselor Braden. On on docket 0640. Would anyone else like to speak on this matter? The chair recognizes Councilor Bach. Council. Bach. You have the floor. Thank you. And thank you to counsel Braden for filing this. And please add my name. I think it's been the most frustrating thing for, I think many of us about budget season. But for those of us who are here last year, the number of things where we approved new positions last year and they haven't been filled because of this hiring situation. I mean, if you think about like Whitey, which we had up, we had approved them for for new people and said they lost people with the speed humps. We had approved a whole second team so we could parallel process. Instead, public works is down to one engineer. I was working with property management around graffiti busters yesterday and they've got to like a third of the team's vacant. So I just think like again and again, this council is seeing the limitations of like the appropriation power is nice, but if we don't have the staff in place, then the money doesn't move and the work isn't done on behalf of the residents, the city. And so I have appreciated the administration's references to their plan to kind of do comp and class analysis and try to raise salaries appropriately to be competitive. But I just think this is a critical issue and it's becoming critical in every department. And so I really appreciate Councilor Great. And bring it forward. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Counsel Buck. The chair recognizes. Councilman here. Councilman, here. You have the floor. Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you to Councilor Reinhardt, even though I wasn't here for the hearing. I did hear that a line item that we fought for and approved last year, which was workforce development for 19 to 24 year olds, that a position wasn't filled. And as a result of that, that that line item has yet to be tapped. So when we fight for things on the council to serve our constituents and then we don't have the personnel to do the work, it impacts all of us. And so I really do appreciate you bringing this hearing and this request to the council, and I look forward to the conversation. Please add my name. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman here. The chair recognizes Councilor Baker. Councilor Baker. Thank you, Mr. President. Being someone that was laid off during that. I was laid off in 2010. Department people know about it still would never be able to figure out how much we're spending in the city on printing that department had to go away with. But what I wanted to focus on was what Kensi had spoke about. It's the people that are doing the work. If you look in the policy rooms, they're all full. All the nerds are all clicking away on their computers. All the policy rooms are filled. But the people that are doing the work, that are filling the potholes, that are mowing the grass, we don't have them there. We need to focus on that. The people that are actually doing the work, our constituent service sort of stuff. So I just wanted to add my $0.02. Thank you. And please add my name. Thank you to both. Doggett. Yeah, thank you. Councilor Parker. Anyone else looking to speak on the matter? The chair recognizes Council Fernandez Anderson. Council Fernandez Anderson. Do you have the floor? I rise in support to my council colleague. And to quote my angel, still I rise. That's the last what I promise. So I think this idea is genius. And speaking of nerds, thanks, Wayne. Now we've got a lot of work to do. I wholeheartedly support this. I think it's brilliant. Looking forward to it. Thank you. Council Fernandez Anderson. Anyone else like. Would you like to add your name? Please raise your hand. Mr. Clarke, please. Council and Royal Council of Baker, Councilor Bach, Council of Britain. Council of Fire City Council Council Fernandez Anderson Council at Lara Council Region Council me here. Councilor Murphy, please add the chair. Dakar 0640 besides the Committee on Boston's COVID 19 recovery. Councilor Braden also seeks suspension of the rules and passage of dockets. 0641. All those in favor say I am opposed to any this have it docket zero six for one has been passed. We're on 2.0642. Mr. Clark, please read that. Docket number 064 to cancel on me here or for the following order for a hearing on government accountability, transparency and accessibility of decision making protocols in city government.