citymeetings.nyc

Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.

Q&A

CCHR's competitiveness with private sector and other city agencies

0:47:35

·

173 sec

Council Member Williams raises concerns about CCHR's ability to compete with the private sector and other city agencies in terms of salaries. Commissioner Palma and Deputy Commissioner Salazar explain the challenges and differences in pay models.

CCHR, like other city agencies, struggles to attract legal talent due to salary constraints
The agency is more comparable to the nonprofit sector than the private sector in terms of compensation
CCHR attracts employees who are mission-driven and believe in upholding the rights of New Yorkers
Salaries at CCHR may be lower compared to some other city agencies, depending on the specific civil service titles used

Nantasha Williams

0:47:35

with We have heard previously and it comes up every hearing that one of CCHR's issue is the fact that the commission is not able to follow-up to follow-up to the competitiveness of the private sector?

0:47:51

This question is worded so weird.

0:47:53

Yes.

0:47:54

So essentially you guys are compete are not able to compete with the private sector.

Annabel Palma

0:47:58

I think that that's not I think it's not unique to CCHR, right?

0:48:03

I think every city agency has struggled with with attracting, right, talented legal staff the team and so we continue to post.

0:48:19

We continue to be part of job fairs.

0:48:22

We continue, you know, to to work with with, you know, bar associations and law schools to ensure that they know what positions we have available and and that we're always actively trying to recruit talented individuals to come work at CCHR.

Mariela Salazar

0:48:44

And just to add to that, the pay models of the private sector are very different than government.

0:48:52

I think as most of our deputy commissioners have mentioned through their responses, we are more of a commission mission driven agency, so a lot of the people that come to work with us is because they truly believe in upholding the the rights of all New Yorkers.

0:49:10

We're more comparable to the nonprofit sector than the private.

Nantasha Williams

0:49:14

Yeah I also and I think this came up in a hearing last year that like the private sector is one thing but also compared to agency attorneys at other city agencies, the salaries sometimes are a little lower.

0:49:30

So I don't know how you've worked to address that like I've saw agency salaries for other city I've saw attorney salaries for other city agencies and they were much higher than like the average salary at CCHR?

Mariela Salazar

0:49:47

Thank you for that question.

0:49:48

It really varies by agency because every every agency is using a particular civil service title.

0:49:56

For us as agency attorney or exec agency counsel, those salaries have a salary band from a minimum to an incumbent salary to a max.

0:50:05

So it really depends on who is applying for those positions, do they have prior government experience or city experience and then obviously our budget if they already have let's say more than two years of city experience, you offer them more you know a higher salary, but that depends then right on our budget and then ultimately we get OMB approval.

0:50:28

Why do you

Nantasha Williams

0:50:28

have to use those civil service titles?

← Previous Chapter

Average length of employment for CCHR attorneys

Next Chapter →

Use of specific civil service titles at CCHR