Q&A
Discussion on parks department hiring policies and attrition
6:54:32
·
130 sec
Council Member Krishnan raises concerns about the parks department's inability to hire as people leave, unlike other agencies. He emphasizes the impact on workers and park maintenance, and asks if the administration would consider allowing parks to hire again.
- Krishnan points out that the parks department cannot hire to replace departing staff, unlike other agencies
- He stresses that cuts to parks directly affect workers' jobs and park maintenance
- Jiha explains that while there is a 2-for-1 hiring policy, certain parks department titles are exempt from this policy
- The OMB director commits to working with the parks department and the council, acknowledging resource limitations
- Krishnan concludes by urging the administration to do more to fulfill the mayor's campaign promise of increasing the parks budget to 1%
Shekar Krishnan
6:54:32
And the other the other question I I'd I'd, ask you is, you know, the the cuts to parks, the the parks department is also uniquely to your point, you mentioned the attrition peg before.
6:54:45
They have not been able to hire as people are leaving, whereas other agencies don't have that policy.
6:54:52
The challenge there is if we're considering and and, you know, we all understand the importance of the 2nd shift program, the parks department isn't gonna see any increase in headcount if they can't actually hire once people leave.
6:55:04
And fundamentally, cuts to parks affects the parks' workers, right, which affects people's jobs as we saw, you know, in the past with the POP program.
6:55:12
It also directly impacts maintenance and cleaning.
6:55:15
I mean, really, when we talk about funding parks, we're talking about funding maintenance and cleaning of parks.
6:55:19
So is the administration willing to consider, allowing parks to, hire again?
6:55:26
Because other in other if we don't do that, whatever gains we see on one side, we're losing on the other side, and it becomes a zero sum game at the end of the day.
6:55:33
But if we wanna look at increasing headcount, we've gotta make sure parks as an agency can do what the other agencies are doing and hire according to that 2 for 1 policy at the very least.
Jacques Jiha
6:55:43
Yeah.
6:55:43
As you know, we have a 2 for 1 in place, but parks has certain titles that are excluded, that are exempted from the 2 41.
6:55:50
And I believe, the all the seasonal aids, city park worker, urban park rangers, all of these stat again, we'll work with you, we'll work with the park department again as, you know, against the question of, as I said to folks, resources.
6:56:09
Okay?
6:56:09
We try to do our best with the limited resources that we have, and we're gonna try to maximize as best as we can how we're gonna use those limited resources.
Jeffrey Shear
6:56:19
We'll look forward to hearing more.
Jacques Jiha
6:56:20
So we're looking to forward to work with you, y'all, and look for you to comprehend exactly where we are, the challenge we're dealing with, and we'll work together.
Shekar Krishnan
6:56:27
I look forward to hearing more.
6:56:28
And again, I would just say the administration has to really do much more here after the mayor campaigned on 1% for parks to be increasing the parks budget, whereas they're going backwards.
6:56:38
And that's both funding programs and allowing them to hire.
6:56:41
Thank you very much.
6:56:41
Thank you, chair.
Justin Brannan
6:56:42
You're welcome.
