TO:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
Talyn Mirzakhanian, City Manager
FROM:
Lisa Jenkins, Human Resources Director
SUBJECT:Title
Conduct Public Hearing and Consideration of an Informational Report and Presentation Regarding the Status of Vacancies and Recruitment Efforts, Pursuant to AB 2561 (No Budget Impact) (Human Resources Director Jenkins).
(Estimated Time: 15 Mins.)
A) CONDUCT PUBLIC HEARING
B) RECEIVE AND FILE
Body
_________________________________________________________
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council conduct a public hearing and receive a presentation regarding the status of vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
There are no fiscal implications associated with this report and presentation.
BACKGROUND:
The Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (MMBA) governs labor-management relations and collective bargaining for many public agencies in California, including for the City of Manhattan Beach. Effective January 1, 2025, Assembly Bill 2561 (“AB 2561”) amends the MMBA to add Government Code Section 3502.3, which requires that public agencies present the status of vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts during a public hearing before the governing board at least once per fiscal year, prior to the adoption of the final annual (or multi-year) budget.
DISCUSSION:
The stated legislative intent of AB 2561 is to address vacancies in local government as a widespread and significant problem that impacts occupations across wage levels and educational requirements, given that high job vacancies impact public service delivery. In addition to the immediate impacts to public service delivery, employees who pick up the additional workload due to vacancies experience burnout and increased turnover, which further exacerbate staffing challenges. The bill establishes that there is a statewide interest in ensuring that public agency operations are appropriately staffed so that high vacancy rates do not negatively impact public service or employee relations. As such, in addition to the required annual presentation on vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts, if the vacancy rate for a particular recognized employee organization (“bargaining unit” or “labor association”) exceeds 20%, the public agency shall, at the request of the bargaining unit, also present on the number of vacancies, number of job applicants, number of days to complete hiring process, as well as opportunities to improve compensation and other working conditions.
Within the public sector as a whole, some agencies have grappled with vacancy rates exceeding 20% in the past several years. There are many factors that are involved with the state of public sector hiring, including public sentiment about public employees, in particular police officers, competition with private companies regarding compensation, benefits and the work environment, availability of labor, especially in high demand professions, and various economic factors, such as inflation and unemployment rates.
While the City initiated an early retirement incentive during the pandemic, resulting in reduced full-time headcount, the City has since increased staffing in order to meet the demands of the community, with the vast majority of new positions approved being in the delivery of core services, including public safety (both sworn and not sworn), Public Works, and Community Development, as well as a number of positions that provide internal support to all City departments. Some of these increases are related to the insourcing of work previously performed by an outside contractor in a more efficient, effective, or cost-conscious way, such as the insourcing of pressure washing services in Public Works and additional ambulance rescue in the Fire Department.
The number of full-time positions filled by City recruitment efforts has significantly increased over the last three years. This is due to overlapping factors, including the addition of new full-time positions, and an increase in both voluntary resignations and total separations (which includes retirements, voluntary resignations, and involuntary separations). The following captures an overview of key hiring, recruitment, and retention trends over recent years for full-time employee (FTE) equivalent positions.
Hiring, Recruitment, and Turnover Statistics for Full-Time Positions
(2018/19 - 2024/25)
|
|
FY 25* |
FY 24 |
FY 23 |
FY 22 |
FY 21 |
FY 20 |
FY 19 |
|
Total FTE |
353 |
333 |
318 |
305 |
309 |
307 |
306 |
|
New FTE |
21 |
15 |
13 |
(4) |
2 |
1 |
4 |
|
Positions Filled (Total)+ |
71 |
62 |
83 |
69 |
31 |
24 |
31 |
|
New Hires |
35 |
36 |
40 |
36 |
19 |
14 |
18 |
|
Separations (Total) ++ |
34 |
23 |
29 |
42 |
31 |
24 |
18 |
|
Voluntary Resignations |
17 |
15 |
22 |
29 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
|
Time-to-Recruit |
30 |
32 |
28 |
31 |
63 |
82 |
61 |
*Represents Year-to-Date in Fiscal Year 2024-25
+ Positions Filled (Total) includes new hires (captured on row below), as well as promotions, internal appointments, and transfers
++Separations (Total) includes voluntary resignations (captured on row below), as well as retirements, and involuntary separations
The following are the current vacancy rates as of May 21, 2025, broken out both by employee bargaining unit and by department.
Citywide Vacancy Rate (by Bargaining Unit)
|
Employee Group |
Budgeted* |
Filled |
Vacancies |
Vacancy Rate |
|
Unrepresented Employees |
31 |
26 |
5 |
16.13% |
|
Firefighters Association (MBFA) |
30 |
30 |
0 |
0.00% |
|
Mid Management Association (MBMEA) |
59 |
51 |
8 |
13.56% |
|
Police Management Association (PMA) |
7 |
7 |
0 |
0.00% |
|
Police Officers Association (POA)** |
64 |
58 |
6 |
9.38% |
|
Teamsters** |
157 |
141 |
16 |
10.19% |
|
TOTAL |
348 |
313 |
35 |
10.06% |
Citywide Vacancy Rate (by Department)
|
Department |
Budgeted* |
Filled |
Vacancies |
Vacancy Rate |
|
Community Development |
39 |
34 |
5 |
12.82% |
|
Finance |
21 |
17 |
4 |
19.05% |
|
Fire |
41 |
40 |
1 |
2.44% |
|
Human Resources |
8 |
8 |
0 |
0.00% |
|
Information Technology |
11 |
10 |
1 |
9.09% |
|
Management Services |
10 |
8 |
2 |
20.00% |
|
Parks & Recreation |
21 |
21 |
0 |
0.00% |
|
Police** |
120 |
109 |
11 |
9.17% |
|
Public Works |
77 |
66 |
11 |
14.29% |
|
TOTAL |
348 |
313 |
35 |
10.06% |
*This number does not include elected officials, although these positions are counted as full-time equivalent positions in the budget.
**Police Academy Trainee positions are technically part of the Teamsters union during the academy, but not budgeted Teamsters positions. Because they are for the purpose of eventually filling sworn Police Officer positions, Police Academy Trainee positions are not considered when calculating vacancy rates. The three employees currently in the academy do not reduce the vacancy rate for either POA or Teamsters. They also do not reduce the vacancy rate for the Police Department as a whole.
Despite the increased volume of position vacancies, the City has taken various steps since 2020 to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of recruitment processes and keep up with the increased demands for recruitment while keeping the vacancy rate as low as possible. At the end of 2020, the City began using the NEOGOV applicant tracking system to automate recruitment processes, allowing for online applications and an easier management of applicants throughout the recruitment and selection process. While staffing in Human Resources remained static for full-time FTE’s, the addition of a part-time HR Manager in 2021 to oversee recruitment and selection has been instrumental in keeping up with the volume of recruitments and vacancies in the past several years. Under this direction, staff has reevaluated recruitment processes, including streamlining and consolidating testing components, scheduling continuous testing with greater frequency, and reevaluating the type of testing used for specific City positions. Further, the City has developed programs to enhance our recruitment pipeline into City employment. Specifically, the City has created its own “temporary Office Assistant pool”, creating our own pool of temporary employees who have substituted in for employee vacancies or leaves to provide extra administrative help. Many of these employees have transitioned into other positions with the City, including different part-time assignments as well as full-time employment. The Fire Department has civilianized the Fire Prevention bureau and created Fire Apprentice positions, and the Police Department has revamped its Police Explorer and Police Intern programs, which have yielded a pipeline of future Police Officers and support staff.
The City Council has also authorized creative recruitment and retention benefits within the last several years. The recruitment bonus for Police Officers has been reviewed and addressed multiple times, and the City Council also previously expanded the ability to provide monetary recruitment incentives for other demonstrated hard-to-fill positions in the City. Additionally, the referral bonus for Police Officers was expanded to allow any City employee the ability to receive a referral bonus for the referral of a successful Police Officer. The City Council has also approved creative retention strategies, such as adding a birthday holiday for City employees, providing a half-day holiday for Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve for non-sworn employees, and adding other wellness benefits, such as the Calm App and Active and Fit memberships for City employees.
While the recruitment and retention efforts of the City have been largely successful, this does not negate the fact that significant challenges exist in the labor market, especially as to the recruitment and retention of highly qualified individuals in certain positions, such as Police Officer and highly skilled or specialized positions like Civil Engineers and Plan Check Engineers. Successful negotiations with the four labor associations with expiring contracts provide an additional avenue for recruitment and retention efforts, addressing compensation gaps in the surrounding labor market and historical inflation concerns over the last few years.
This report meets the requirements of Government Code 3502.3 for the agency’s annual report on vacancy, recruitment and retention efforts. Additionally, representatives from all City bargaining units were notified of the public hearing and their option to make a presentation, in line with Government Code 3502.3(b).
Going forward, staff will return at least annually for updates to the City Council on City vacancy rates, recruitment and retention efforts, or more frequently if warranted or if requested by the City Council.
PUBLIC OUTREACH:
A Public Hearing notice was published in The Beach Reporter on May 22, 2025, for this item in conjunction with the adoption of the Budget and Capital Improvement Plan.
LEGAL REVIEW:
The City Attorney has reviewed this report and determined that no additional legal analysis is necessary.
ATTACHMENT:
1. PowerPoint Presentation