Monday's FRAC meeting, complete with active public-attendee chat.
City government still has 112 full-time non-cop vacancies — while the city’s revived fiscal watchdog commission still has three empty seats — as the Elicker Administration continues to struggle to fill job posts so that overtime doesn’t spike and current workers aren’t overly stretched.
The city’s top financial officer, Mike Gormany, offered that data and perspective Monday during the latest monthly online meeting of the Financial Review & Audit Commission (FRAC).
The Zoom-assisted meetup marked the first time that FRAC had gathered since late March 2022, when the then-chair announced his resignation before moving out of state.
FRAC is an independent financial body whose members are appointed by the mayor and whose charter-mandated mission is to provide recommendations and guidance on city finances.
After not meeting for nearly 10 months, only two of FRAC’s three current members — Jennifer Walker and Erin Reilly — showed up online for Monday’s meeting. The city’s website states that FRAC still has three vacancies.
Walker filled in as chair for the meeting, which featured presentations by city Budget Director and Acting Controller Mike Gormany as well as comments from members of the public, including Democratic mayoral challenger Shafiq Abdussabur, Westville budget watchdog Dennis Serfilippi, and former Downtown Alder Abby Roth.
“It is disappointing that for 10 months there hasn’t been a FRAC meeting,” Roth said during the public comment section of the meeting. “This is a really important commission. The budget is complicated. [FRAC] plays such an important role to ask important questions” and “give guidance. Its absence is felt.” Some of the issues FRAC can and should be weighing in on, she continued, are all of the federal pandemic-era aid the city has received, the expired labor union contracts currently being negotiated, and the upcoming fiscal year’s budget.
It’s been a “void of not having the commission be a voice,” she said. “I’m glad it sounds like it’s trying to get back up to speed.”
“You both got left holding the ball,” Abdussabur said to the two FRAC commissioners present Monday. “There should be board members on this, and it really has to be a challenge for you, Ms. Walker,” he said to the acting chair. He added that, “When FRAC is not operating, it’s violating the charter.”
During his presentation to the board members on the city’s latest monthly financial report, which covers city finances through the end of December, Gormany said that the city is currently projecting a roughly $474,000 surplus for the fiscal year that ends June 30. “These are snapshots in time,” he cautioned. “Anything can swing the pendulum in any direction at any time.”
Some of the financial-report numbers that Gormany drew the board’s attention to were those that reflected just how many city jobs remain vacant.
Gormany said that, according to the city’s December monthly financial report, New Haven city government currently has 112 vacancies among “nonsworn” (that is, non police officer) full-time positions. It also has eight vacancies among part-time city jobs. Added on top of those latest “nonsworn” vacancy numbers are 51 empty police officer jobs (not including cop positions budgeted at only $1 each) as of the end of December.
In comparison, at the start of the current fiscal year in July, the city had 111 nonsworn full-time vacancies, eight part-time vacancies, and 68 empty police officer jobs (not including $1 positions).
“We still do have a ton of vacancies, which is the primary reason that’s driving overtime” in the police department in particular, Gormany said about the projected $4 million more that the city expects to spend on police overtime this fiscal year than was budgeted. But, he added, “one of the areas that we’re able to cover that additional overtime with are the vacant salaries that we have.” That is, the city expects to spend $5 million less on police salaries this year than budget — because of those vacancies.
“The city does have a ton of vacancies out there that we are looking to hire for,” Gormany said about the city empty job posts more broadly.
The city has more than 1,400-plus budgeted non-sworn positions. Click here to read an Independent article from April 2021 about the city’s struggles with vacancies then. Click here to read a list of jobs the city is currently looking to hire for.
Roth asked if the city is trying to keep government jobs vacant in order to save on salary expenses.
“We have not put a freeze on any positions,” Gormany said. “I think we’ve been very clear, when looking at union contracts and other standards, we’re trying to fill these positions because” not having as many workers as budgeted for puts an onus on current staff to “do double duty.”
“Employees can get burnt out because the work has to get done at some point,” he said. He repeated: “We do not have a freeze on positions. We are advertising positions. There’s only so much manpower in the city, only so many manhours to get these advertised.” He also said that many of these empty jobs are “civil service positions. They have to be tested.”
He then circled back to directly answer Roth’s question once again. “No,” he said. The city is not intentionally keeping jobs empty. “We are actively trying to fill positions because that can only improve city services” and help out “our current workforce. The work has to get done. The work can’t just sit there.”
I asked Mr. Gormany 2 very important questions.
I asked several times and several different ways, and never received an answer.