QUESTION
What is the current staffing level for Department of Finance employees assigned to SCRIE applications, and is it sufficient?
5:32:06
·
136 sec
The Department of Finance has 27 active employees for SCRIE applications, with efforts to fill 9 vacancies and improve processing efficiency.
- The current active headcount is 27, with an additional 9 vacancies being actively filled.
- Prior year vacancy reductions and staff reductions have impacted application processing times; filling vacancies is a focus.
- A hiring pool for principal administrative associates, who will partly join the exemptions division, is underway.
- Department efficiency is increasing, with current cycle times for applications being under 5 days, attributing success to recent process improvements and automation.
Justin L. Brannan
5:32:06
According to the mayor's preliminary management report, the increase in processing time for screen injury applications is due to decreased staffing levels.
5:32:18
So what can you tell us what is the current budgeted actual headcount for DOF employees that are assigned to the screen injury applications.
Preston Niblack
5:32:26
Let me ask a supervisor slider to address that one.
Deirdre Snyder
5:32:32
So currently, for specifically screen 3, our current active head count is 27 in the unit.
5:32:39
We also have another 9 vacancies we're trying to fill.
Justin L. Brannan
5:32:44
And is that about standard in the 30s?
Deirdre Snyder
5:32:49
I think that with prior year vacancy reductions and things, we have vacancies to fill, which will have help with application processing timelines, but we're also, as an agency, clearly dealing with, you know, less staff from before.
5:33:04
So really the focus is is to just fill the existing vacancies that we have.
5:33:08
We have a hiring pool this month for
Justin L. Brannan
5:33:11
Hiring haul?
Deirdre Snyder
5:33:11
Yeah.
5:33:12
Hiring haul, excuse me.
5:33:13
For principal administrative associates.
5:33:16
A big chunk of those are for exemptions division.
Justin L. Brannan
5:33:19
And do you think Obviously, you'd always love to have more staff, but do you think 30 something people is enough to handle all screen injury applicants?
Preston Niblack
5:33:27
I I I think so.
5:33:28
We as we talked about last year, I think we had a kind of artificial backlog because we held open cases renewal and initial application cases during the pandemic for longer than we normally would.
5:33:45
It turned out to be almost 3 years.
5:33:46
So that that we've now closed that caseload.
5:33:49
Our cycle times right now as of February are under 5 days for everything.
5:33:55
In fact, 4 days or less for for everything pretty much.
5:33:58
So we are currently, and this is heading into the peak season, the applications, our final applications are finally due March 15th.
5:34:09
So we're I think we're doing very well right now.
5:34:12
And we've made a number of process changes and and, you know, additions of automation where we can to help make the process more efficient.