REMARKS
Council Member Carmen De La Rosa's opening remarks on city workforce vacancies and civil service challenges
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172 sec
Council Member Carmen De La Rosa, chair of the committee on civil service and labor, opens the hearing by addressing the current state of the city's workforce. She highlights the ongoing challenges with municipal vacancies, the recent changes in hiring policies, and the barriers faced by potential applicants to the civil service.
- De La Rosa emphasizes the need to lower barriers for New Yorkers seeking to enter the municipal workforce, including issues with exam accessibility, fees, and language access.
- She notes that while progress has been made since previous hearings on city vacancies, there is still more work to be done.
- The council member acknowledges the collaboration with the committee on government operations and thanks the staff involved in preparing for the hearing.
Carmen De La Rosa
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Lincoln has me blushing this morning.
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To be on the Lincoln wrestler good list is thumbs up.
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Good morning.
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I'm council member Carmen Dela Rosa, chair of the committee on civil service and labor.
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I'd like to extend my thanks and gratitude to chair wrestler and the committee of government operations, state and federal legislation for convening this hearing on the state of the city's workforce.
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The city's workforce continues to grapple with substantial numbers of municipal vacancies, driven by elevated levels of of employee attrition and constraining hiring due to budget limitations.
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As of February 2024, the administration lifted the citywide hiring freeze that had been placed since October of 2023 and implemented a 2 for 1 hiring policy under which agencies hire 1 new employee for every 2 employees who depart.
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At the last month's as of last month's data, the TLC, the finance division, and the department of probation have the highest vacancy rates and 100 of positions left vacant.
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This persistent vacancy rate this pers persistent vacancy rate hinders the city's ability to effectively deliver essential services to New Yorkers.
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This hearing provides the opportunity for us to explore meaningful strategies to lower barriers for New Yorkers seeking to enter the municipal workforce.
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The current system excludes applicants who may not have the time, freedom of mobility, access to Internet, or adequate information about testing opportunity or digital exams.
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Additionally, exam fees pose a financial barrier to many potential applicants who do not have the flexibility in their budgets to cover their applicant costs.
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Applicants who face financial hurdle hurdles are at a disadvantage compared to other civil service candidates who can afford the costly prep courses and study materials to take the same exams.
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Moreover, applicants are subject to extraordinarily long times to receive their results, followed by additional delays for interviews and job offers.
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Language access is another obstacle, deterring many prospective workers from whom for whom English is a second or third language, who are nonetheless qualified to serve in the city's workforce.
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Today, the committee hopes to learn what DCAS is doing to address these challenges so that we can work together towards eliminating the barriers to civil service entry and restore a robust staffing level across the municipal workforce.
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I must say, this isn't our first hearing on city vacancies.
0:03:43
We've made progress, and it is important to note that that progress has made, But as always, there's more work to do.
0:03:49
I'd like to thank our committee staff, senior policy analyst, Elizabeth Arts, our legislative counsel, Rieh Asawara, for their hard work in preparing for this hearing, and also my chief of staff legislative direct my chief of staff James Burke, legislative director Keanna Diaz, and comms director Frey Familia.
0:04:06
I'll now turn it to chair Ressler for his remarks.
