City officials question plan
to eliminate vacant positions
The long-standing practice by city departments of using funding for vacant positions to cover budget shortfalls will become a challenge next year when $33 million -- or just less than 1,000 vacant positions -- will be cut from the budget.
"They've been using the vacant funded money not for vacant funded positions, but to cover other costs," City Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said. "Every year it's been getting worse, and every year the departments suffer because they're not allowed to hire more people."
Kobayashi's committee handled requests yesterday for funding transfers within several departments with the source of those transfers being money budgeted for vacant positions.
In the process:
>> The Fire Department delayed training for a new batch of recruits in order to use the savings to pay for costs related to retirements.
>> The Corporation Counsel's Office will not be hiring at least five attorneys needed to provide the city with advice on lawsuits and other legal claims.
In a rarely seen move, 17 Treasury Division employees from the Department of Budget and Fiscal Services came out publicly yesterday against a move by their boss, Budget Director Ivan Lui-Kwan, to transfer $136,000 budgeted for vacant positions in their division to cover salary shortfalls in other divisions.
In their letter, the employees -- whose primary responsibility is to collect taxes and other revenue for the city -- said they have one-third fewer employees from six years ago, yet they have increased responsibilities and efficiencies.
They said that approving the transfers would reward waste and mismanagement while penalizing diligence and conscientiousness. "We worked hard to save taxpayers' money only to have it squandered by others," the letter said.
Four of those employees appeared before the Council Budget Committee yesterday and explained that vacant positions have become a way that their division has sought to gain efficiency and savings for taxpayers.
"What upsets us is that other departments, they go their merry way -- Stone Age -- they don't think of ways to get more efficient. They're wasting taxpayers money," accountant Stephanie Hokushin told the committee.
"We should be the role model, not be penalized for doing a good job."
Kobayashi wondered how the administration is going to do it.
"It's going to be tight but I think we'll make it," Lui-Kwan told the Budget Committee. "Based on past performance, the records of the departments and the moneys that they've had ... they can do it."
The Budget Committee deferred taking action on the measure. But the situation is expected to get even tighter next year with the loss of the vacant positions and potentially up to $15 million more in budget cuts.
"We're doing some of the cuts, and then we're going to do percentage cuts to current expenses to departments," Kobayashi said after the meeting.
