City reports 6.3% vacancy rate in AB 2561 hearing; no bargaining unit exceeds 20% threshold

Kristin Smith, director of human resources, presented the city’s annual AB 2561 report on vacancies, recruitment and retention, saying the city began 2025 with 127 budgeted full-time positions and an overall vacancy rate of 6.3 — below the 20% threshold that triggers enhanced reporting requirements for bargaining units.

Smith provided monthly vacancy-tracking data, noting an average end-of-month vacancy rate of 8.4% for 2025 with a peak 13.4% in July tied to newly funded positions. She said the city received 2,472 total applications in 2025 (2,083 for full time; 389 for part time/seasonal) and noted different fill-time averages: about 102 days for ongoing recruitments and up to 134 days for internal-only recruitments.

Smith reviewed hiring steps (recruitment review, eligibility lists, panel interviews, conditional offers and background clearance), and summarized retention measures: implementation of a classification and compensation study for some employee groups, bilingual pay, educational pay for sworn staff, reinstated reserve officer programs, and a youth cadet program to build a law-enforcement recruitment pipeline.

She said specific vacancy counts as of the meeting included one IPOA police vacancy and several Teamsters and unrepresented positions; the city swore in a new police recruit the same day, keeping reported vacancies low. No council action was required; the public hearing satisfied the city’s AB 2561 annual reporting obligations.