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Q&A
Council Member Brannan questions Commissioner Niblack on auditor pay, retention, and tax enforcement
4:34:04
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4 min
Council Member Justin Brannan engages in a Q&A session with Commissioner Preston Niblack of the New York City Department of Finance, focusing on auditor pay adjustments, retention rates, and the Office of Tax Enforcement. They discuss the challenges in retaining auditors, the civil service hiring process, and recent involvement in Operation Padlock to Protect.
- The executive budget includes pay scale adjustments for auditors, with the goal of attracting and retaining talent.
- The Department of Finance faces a 30-40% turnover rate for auditors in the first two years, often losing them to private sector firms.
- The Office of Tax Enforcement has been involved in Operation Padlock to Protect, leading to significant overtime expenses.
Justin Brannan
4:34:04
Talk about auditors.
4:34:05
The executive budget includes about $935,000 in f y twenty five, '3 point '7 in f y twenty six in the out years for the auditor pay scale adjustment.
4:34:17
How much is the adjustment per auditor per year?
4:34:19
And is the pay scale adjustment uniform across all titles?
Preston Niblack
4:34:24
Well, we're setting a new salary schedule for each level.
4:34:29
So we have four levels of city tax auditor, one through four, as well as a group chief designation.
4:34:35
And then we have four levels of administrative tax auditor.
4:34:39
We have set a new scale for each one of those titles, again, with the goal of both attracting more talent new talent as well as retaining the experienced auditors that we have.
Justin Brannan
4:34:55
What's the retention rate of auditors?
Preston Niblack
4:34:59
The retention rate in the first, I would say, two years, we lose something like 30% to 40% of our tax auditors.
4:35:09
We've become a bit of a training ground frankly for accounting firms across the city.
4:35:14
So people come into city tax auditor positions at DAF.
4:35:20
They get some experience.
4:35:21
They become, you know, valuable to other outside private sector firms and they get hired away at at better salaries.
4:35:29
So part of our goal here is to make it more attractive and competitive to come to DAF and to
Justin Brannan
4:35:35
stay at DAF.
4:35:36
I wish City Hall would do the same thing for EMS and FDNY.
4:35:41
How many applications did DOF receive in FY twenty four for the role of city tax auditor?
Preston Niblack
4:35:49
City tax auditor is a civil service position.
4:35:53
So the process is that there's a list.
4:35:56
People take an exam.
4:35:57
There's a list that's established.
4:35:59
When we need to hire, we have to call contact every person who's on the list and essentially invite them to a hiring hall.
4:36:08
I'll have to get back to you with exactly how many people showed up at the hiring hall.
4:36:11
In the past year, we've hired 54 auditors.
4:36:14
We have a new we have a sorry.
4:36:18
Upcoming hiring hall in July with about 60 vacancies to fill.
4:36:23
So, you know, we have so far successful at filling our vacancies for the most part.
4:36:30
When we've held hiring halls, the retention continues to be a little bit of an issue, but, hopefully, it's honestly slowed down a little bit with the new federal administration.
4:36:45
And we've actually been able to hire back about a dozen or so auditors, senior especially senior auditors who had left to go to the IRS who are now coming back to the Department of Finance who we welcome with open arms.
Justin Brannan
4:37:00
The Office of Tax Enforcement, that's the sheriff?
Preston Niblack
4:37:04
No.
4:37:04
The Office of Tax Enforcement is part of the division of audit excuse me, division of audit and tax enforcement.
4:37:14
It's essentially when there are audit cases that reveal evidence of possible criminal fraud, then they get referred to Office of Tax Enforcement.
4:37:26
They also do their own investigations and enforcement activities.
4:37:32
More recently, they have been quite involved with Operation Padlock to Protect as part of the Sheriff's Joint Task Force.
Justin Brannan
4:37:38
Okay.
4:37:38
Is that why they've gone over their budgeted overtime amount by 2000%?
Preston Niblack
4:37:45
Yes.
4:37:46
The the the nature of the inspections on the task force has been that they are frequently involved over time.
4:37:57
Yes, we've been sending tax enforcement in addition to their regular duties, we've been sending them out to participate in those.
4:38:04
And often you end up working past your normal scheduled shift if you've made an arrest or if you're in the process of processing evidence after an inspection or, you know, things of that nature.