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Q&A
Impact of reduced staffing on Law Department's efficiency and city government operations
2:56:54
ยท
3 min
Council Member Restler expresses concern about the impact of reduced staffing on the Law Department's efficiency and its consequent effect on city government operations. He inquires about any analysis conducted on this issue.
- Reduced staffing in the Law Department can slow down the functioning of other city government agencies.
- The Law Department has ongoing discussions with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) about staffing needs.
- There's a challenge in quantifying and communicating the impact of reduced legal staff on overall government efficiency.
Lincoln Restler
2:56:54
It's just, you know, 400 fewer staff, right, from just five years ago.
2:57:01
The reason I get so upset about this is because when you all are not properly staffed, it slows down the functioning of everything else in city government.
2:57:09
I mean when I worked on the other side of City Hall, I was always kind of shocked by how much had to go through Cheryl's desk or Eric's desk or Amrita's desk.
2:57:20
And when you don't have the staff there, it just means that the build up of things that you have to process is going to take longer and longer and longer.
2:57:29
And so every other agency can't do their basic jobs.
2:57:32
They can't enforce effectively without guidance on on how to do it or they can't address labor policies without guidance on how to do it.
2:57:40
I realize your portfolios are bigger now.
2:57:41
I just previously.
2:57:45
So are you in conversations with O and B about lifting the two for one restriction?
Muriel Goode-Trufant
2:57:55
We are always in conversation with o and b on a number of topics.
Lincoln Restler
2:58:01
That was artfully said.
2:58:04
Okay.
2:58:11
Have you just conducted any sort of analysis on how the decrease in headcount has impacted the law department's ability to operate efficiently?
2:58:19
Is there anything that you've looked at that you can share with us or that you've shared with OMB to help make the case for why two for one should be lifted and why we need significantly new headcount?
Muriel Goode-Trufant
2:58:30
Our discussions have not squarely been around two for one per se, but about where increased resources are needed to meet the needs of the agency.
2:58:46
So for example, if you look at cannabis, which we have new heads, there was a review done as to what work would be needed and what types of staff were needed to do that work.
2:59:04
And so those are the types of conversations we have with OMB.
2:59:08
They're around the work.
Lincoln Restler
2:59:10
Right.
2:59:11
I just okay.
2:59:14
I mean I think that we just have to I understand that it's easy to make an argument to the public and to the budget director when we don't have enough staff to process food stamps applications public assistance applications and that it's slowing up people accessing critical benefits.
2:59:32
And you can make that direct correlation a lot more easily.
2:59:36
But when we don't have people in the environmental division reviewing things, it gums up the works of city government in all kinds of critical ways that can be a little bit harder to neatly synthesize.
2:59:49
And I just wonder if what kind of analysis you've done of how the staffing impacts over a period of time where we've just the agency shrunk so much, how we can better make that argument together to the budget office that we need for the resources we need.
Muriel Goode-Trufant
3:00:06
We continue to speak with OMB about all of our staffing needs.
Lincoln Restler
3:00:13
Fair.