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Q&A
Council Member Avilés questions MOIA on budget, staffing, and hiring processes
4:06:22
·
5 min
Council Member Alexa Avilés engages in a detailed Q&A session with officials from the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA) regarding their budget allocation, staffing structure, and hiring challenges. The discussion covers the insufficiency of allocated funds for immigration legal services, MOIA's current vacancies, and the lengthy hiring process for new staff.
- MOIA officials reveal that $42.6 million was added to the city's executive plan for immigration legal services, with $12.2 million allocated to MOIA.
- The agency currently has 13 vacancies, with 5 candidates in the pipeline for over a month, some waiting 6-8 months for approval.
- MOIA's staffing structure is split between the Mayor's office, Department of Social Services, and DCAS, with vacancies across these departments.
Alexa Avilés
4:06:22
Okay, just I think we've certainly belabored the point, but as you are aware, the council requested a hundred and $9,000,000 increase for the immigration legal services enhancement and but was only granted 4,400,000.0.
4:06:44
Do you think 4,400,000.0 addition is sufficient to address the current need?
Manuel Castro
4:06:56
Like I I shared earlier, the demand exceeds the need in DC.
4:07:04
Sanchez described the total amount that the city allocated for this.
4:07:08
Again, it's not just to Moya, but other agencies as well.
4:07:12
If DC, you wanna add to that.
Jasniya Sanchez
4:07:17
No, the only thing that I will add that in the executive plan there was a total of $42,600,000 added to the city's executive plan for immigration legal services.
Alexa Avilés
4:07:36
Give me the breakdown of where that's going to, the 42.6.
Jasniya Sanchez
4:07:41
That I will have to get back to you.
4:07:44
I don't have that specific breakdown other than just Moyes' portion, which is the $12,200,000 that we discussed earlier.
Alexa Avilés
4:08:10
Great.
4:08:11
Okay.
4:08:11
We're almost wrapping up here.
4:08:13
In terms of budget and staffing, you mentioned earlier that you currently have 13 vacancies.
4:08:21
When we last met, you mentioned you had 11 vacancies, so you have increased.
4:08:28
Are you having challenges getting lines hired?
Jasniya Sanchez
4:08:36
Well, unfortunately, since the last time that we're here, we had a couple of attrition added, so that's why we have now more vacancies.
4:08:48
We also have now five candidates that are in the pipeline that are moving through the approval and onboarding process.
4:09:01
Last time it was four.
4:09:04
So that's sort of what we currently are at and we're gonna continue to work with, you know, OMB to get those approvals.
4:09:14
And we're also posting some of these vacancies.
4:09:21
Currently two positions are posted and a few more will come online in the next couple of weeks.
Alexa Avilés
4:09:28
So the five candidates you have are for the two posted it positions or they're for other positions?
4:09:34
For other positions.
4:09:35
Okay.
4:09:36
And how long is it taking, how long have those candidates been in the pipeline for?
Jasniya Sanchez
4:09:41
It varies.
4:09:43
Some of them have been there for almost a little over a month.
4:09:50
Recently others have been there you know between you know six more, six to eight months at the very least.
Alexa Avilés
4:10:00
Wow, that is a lot.
4:10:01
So have you experienced to your awareness candidates that have withdrawn because of that lengthy hiring?
4:10:09
Six to eight months to get hired is enormously long time.
Jasniya Sanchez
4:10:15
Currently, we're very thankful and lucky that all of the candidates are still very interested.
4:10:23
Holding on.
4:10:23
Holding on.
4:10:24
Again, you know, this is on a case by case basis.
4:10:29
And you know, in terms of the onboarding process, and again, we continue to work very closely with our partners at OMB and and you know, to be able to get those approvals.
Alexa Avilés
4:10:39
Do you know do know why it's taking so long, six to eight months?
4:10:43
I do.
4:10:44
Or waiting.
4:10:44
They're still waiting.
4:10:45
It could take effectively longer than that.
4:10:47
Do you have any awareness what that what's contributing to that length?
Jasniya Sanchez
4:10:53
I do not have specifics unfortunately.
Alexa Avilés
4:10:56
Is this typical?
4:10:57
Have you seen this before?
4:10:58
Is this kind of what it is?
Jasniya Sanchez
4:11:02
It depends.
4:11:03
Right?
4:11:03
I mean to be onboarded to the city on average, you know, it takes a few months.
4:11:09
So yeah.
4:11:12
But, yeah, we continue to work with OMB and other folks to get these folks on board as soon as possible.
Alexa Avilés
4:11:19
Right.
4:11:19
So currently Moya's staffing structure is you have five in your your agency, and then everybody else is in different agencies?
Jasniya Sanchez
4:11:31
Correct.
4:11:31
We have sorry.
4:11:34
Yes.
4:11:35
Five lines under the mayor's office, and then the remainder are split between the Department of Social Services as well as DCAS.
Alexa Avilés
4:11:49
And are the vacancies, are they concentrated on one or the other?
4:11:53
Are they across both DCAS and DSS?
Jasniya Sanchez
4:11:56
Both.
4:11:57
DCAS and DSS.
4:11:59
It's a bit of
Alexa Avilés
4:12:00
a mix.
4:12:01
Got it.
4:12:03
And you don't know to this point whether or not you're gonna absorb any of Owasso's staff?
4:12:09
Not yet.