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Q&A
DOT vacancies and hiring challenges
1:44:00
·
3 min
Council Member Carmen N. De La Rosa questions DOT officials about the agency's 630 vacancies and the challenges in filling these positions. The discussion covers recruitment strategies, the two-for-one hire policy, and specific issues related to engineering positions.
- DOT is subject to the two-for-one hiring policy for non-engineering positions
- Engineering positions are exempt from the hiring freeze due to recruitment difficulties
- DOT has implemented various strategies to attract talent, including partnerships with colleges and internship programs
Carmen N. De La Rosa
1:44:00
Thank you chairs and thank you commissioner and team for being here.
1:44:04
My question is around the vacancies at the agency, 630 vacancies.
1:44:10
What are the challenges for filling those vacancies at this time?
1:44:14
Is DOT subject to the two for one hire policy that was instituted across the board?
1:46:03
So what is the main challenge for the vacancy?
1:46:06
And are you subject to the two for one hire policy?
Ydanis Rodriguez
1:44:20
Yeah.
1:44:21
The numbers of vacancy that we have is equal similar to the pre pandemic in number.
1:44:30
There's always gonna be challenge with the vacancy.
1:44:33
I we work hard and we appreciate as a chairman of labor that also we you work.
1:44:38
So be sure that the unions also and and through DICAS, we've been holding Jafir.
1:44:44
And we have a great plan.
1:44:46
First of all, when I was a as immediately as I became a a commissioner, I asked the agency, do we have a memorandum of understand or agreement between DOT and the school of engineer that graduate the larger numbers of black engineer in the nation, which is City College.
1:45:02
The answer was not.
1:45:04
We have some level of going to the job fair, you know, doing some participation.
1:45:09
But under our time, we signed a memorandum agreement that now we work with city college.
1:45:15
And we not only work with a student from city college, but we other student having close to 300 students from college doing internship at DOT.
1:45:24
So we had a good plan from recruiting.
1:45:26
We used our resource in our board shelters around colleges and around common work at DOT.
1:45:33
We highlight the work at DOT.
1:45:35
Margaret started as an intern.
1:45:37
And she moved from there to be the Manhattan Borough Commissioner.
1:45:40
Mhmm.
1:45:40
To be in charge operation.
1:45:42
And now she run the six operation at DOT.
1:45:45
So one is recruiting through DOT.
1:45:47
Mhmm.
1:45:47
Creating pipeline.
1:45:49
And you know, and increasing the salary.
1:45:51
You know, the starting an affair is a typical sample.
1:45:54
Like those workers, they were there with contract for twelve years.
1:45:58
And it was on the Mayor Adams administration that we signed a new contract.
1:46:01
So we were very close on recruiting.
Paul Ochoa
1:46:09
Yeah.
1:46:10
Thanks for that question council member.
1:46:11
And we really appreciate the council making sure that we have the right levels of staffing.
1:46:16
We are subject to the two for one hiring on non engineering positions.
1:46:21
Okay.
1:46:22
I think right before our preliminary budget, we came to an agreement with City Hall and OMB that engineering positions would not be subject to the hiring freeze.
1:46:31
This is obviously very important.
1:46:33
It's those engineer positions, those planner positions that are harder to recruit.
1:46:37
This is not just a DOT issue.
1:46:39
This is a city wide nationwide issue.
1:46:42
Our field staff is is fully staffed.
1:46:45
It's sort of our planning division, I mentioned engineers that are harder to recruit.
1:46:52
The commissioner mentioned all the good initiatives we're doing to try to fill those positions, but there is a shortage of all types of engineers in the nation.
1:47:00
So hopefully we'll get more and more graduates to come or join our ranks.