Q&A
OMB's role in hiring process and potential solutions for improving the system
0:27:52
·
4 min
Council Member Restler and Henry Garrido discuss the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) role in the hiring process, its impact on filling positions, and potential solutions to improve the system.
- Restler highlights the long waiting periods (6-9 months) for OMB approval of new hires, even when positions are budgeted
- They explore the idea of allowing agencies to hire up to a certain percentage of their allotted headcount without OMB approval
- Garrido explains the historical context of OMB's role and criticizes its current overreach in the hiring process
- The discussion touches on the frustration of agency commissioners and the need for a more efficient hiring process
Lincoln Restler
0:27:52
I wanted to just circle back to something in your testimony that I thought was particularly salient, and it's something that chair Delaureaus and I have been talking about for for over a year.
0:28:02
You know, we pass a budget with the mayor that sets headcount, full time and part time per city agency.
0:28:09
And yet every single time an agency wants to bring somebody on board, they go to OMB and they wait and they wait and they wait 6 months, 9 months.
Daniel Pollak
0:28:20
I'll
Lincoln Restler
0:28:20
tell you, I head of a a PhD in my who lives in my district in Greenpoint.
0:28:24
Latino guy, recent PhD graduate, got a great job at the health department, was so excited to be a part of public service, and after waiting 6 months had to accept a new job.
0:28:33
Because who can afford to not work for that kind of extended period of time?
0:28:39
And so we were exploring we've been in conversation about could we explore ways to mandate that OMB allow agencies to hire up to a percentage of their allotted headcount, 90% of their allotted headcount, without having to secure OMB approval.
0:28:55
Do you think that a proposal like that you know, and if there was a fiscal emergency or any kind of, you know, change in the fiscal dynamics, of course, that could be, prevented.
0:29:03
But do you think that some sort of policy along those lines that we is worth exploring to ensure that agencies actually have the discretion to bring people on board and fulfill their mandates and responsibilities with the headcount we allot them?
Henry Garrido
0:29:15
Yeah.
0:29:15
I think I think we'd have to look at it.
0:29:17
But I think since the time of the fiscal crisis in New York, part of the process of OMB approving this position was you did not see the agencies to exceed budget because in the end, you had to balance your budget.
0:29:29
Right?
0:29:30
And we've had cases in the seventies where that happened, especially in social services.
0:29:35
But I think the practice of having that check and balances has gone so far ahead that OMB now is dictating staffing and interviewing people and demanding qualifications.
0:29:48
And I'll give you an example.
0:29:49
Right?
0:29:50
Agencies have discretion if you have a BA or an associate's degree with experience to hire people or if you have relevant experience that doesn't necessarily match what's on the job specs.
0:30:02
That is the latitude given and DCAS encourages agencies to do that.
0:30:07
And then to submit a proposal to a prospective applicant and say, here's your position.
0:30:14
Here's the salary.
0:30:15
Only to be told by MBs that we're rejecting it because the person doesn't have a BA when the interview and the agency already determined that to be, I think it's utterly ridiculous.
0:30:26
But taking it further to say, well, we're gonna invent view to see if in fact this person is owed I mean, is entitled to be higher.
0:30:34
It's way in overreach of that balance.
0:30:37
And so I don't know how the mechanics through legislation would work, but I will say this to you.
0:30:43
The agencies, and I talk to commissions all the time, as are frustrated by this as we are because they need to get the job done.
0:30:52
Right?
0:30:53
And so they get constantly pressure from everybody to say, well, you're not you know, we're not dealing with widgets.
0:30:59
We're dealing with human beings here.
Lincoln Restler
0:31:00
That's right.
Henry Garrido
0:31:01
People are online.
0:31:02
Like, I talk to Molly Parks from DSS all the time and say, what's the holdup of 100 of thousands of people who have not been certified?
0:31:11
And where's the 2 for 1 hiring to alluding to you?
0:31:14
And and she would say, well, I've been giving ladder to up to a certain amount, but I need OMB approval.
0:31:19
So even when you have qualified candidates and we gave those workers $5,000 retention bonuses just to stay on the job.
0:31:27
And we successfully so it's not an issue recruit.
0:31:30
It's an issue o and b then saying to DSS, no.
0:31:33
No.
0:31:33
No.
0:31:33
No.
0:31:34
We got migrant situations.
0:31:36
That has become the culprit for everything now.
0:31:39
And I think it has to stop.
0:31:41
And whatever processes we establish, whether it's legislation or holding OMB accountable in their process of what they call the PARPs, which is this process of hiring positions that every agency has, needs to be changed and looked at from the government operation point of view because it doesn't make any sense to me.
Lincoln Restler
0:32:01
Well, I I know a number of my colleagues wanna ask questions.
