1 in 5 budgeted city of El Paso jobs are unfilled, impacting services

From El Paso Matters:

The city of El Paso continues to grapple with COVID-era disruptions as nearly one in five budgeted positions remain vacant citywide, which the city manager says is impacting the ability to provide basic services to residents.

While keeping the equivalent of 1,400 full-time positions unfilled has saved the city and taxpayers millions, it has also impacted basic city services from public safety to street maintenance.

City Manager Dionne Mack, who began in the position in September, has been reviewing vacancies and working with staff to find ways to address hiring and retaining employees.

“I can talk about these big goals and objectives, but at the end of the day, if I’m not providing the basic (city services), then we’re missing the mark, and then people do not see value in their tax dollar, and so they’re never going to trust us to be able to deliver anything else,” Mack said in an interview with El Paso Matters at City Hall Friday.

She said many of the vacancies have been a deliberate choice to keep down expenses in order to meet the City Council’s call the past two years for a no-new-revenue tax rate – the rate needed to raise the same amount of tax revenue from the same properties from the previous year. The general fund budget calls for keeping vacant $23.5 million in positions – or about 558 full-time equivalent jobs, records provided by the city show.

Prior to the pandemic, the city had about 800 vacancies, but those numbers have not fallen below the thousand mark since. During the pandemic, the city implemented furloughs and layoffs and temporarily reduced some employees’ salaries as it underwent budget cuts.

K. Nicole Cote, managing director of management and budget, will brief the El Paso City Council Tuesday on the issue of vacancies during a budget presentation.

Vacancies are particularly acute in positions that provide direct services to taxpayers. More than one of every four budgeted positions in the city parks and streets departments currently are unfilled, according to city data.

“I put in so many complaints through 311,” Far Eastside homeowner Victor Mendoza said, referring to the city’s hotline that allows residents to report problems with services.

Mendoza said he has called about cracked sidewalks, potholes, trash in the alley behind his home and excessive tumbleweeds blocking sidewalks. But the complaints are often never addressed, he said.

“You see tires, trash – it’s bad for the city,” he said.

The 60-year-old federal investigator said he would be willing to pay higher property taxes for the city to hire the people it needs if he knew that’s where the money would go.

Mack said the city has had difficulty hiring employees to fill some of those vacancies.

“We’ve changed processes, we’ve done hiring – different types of hiring (events), we’ve changed the process in terms of how we onboard people – none of those things have really changed those numbers,” she said.

She acknowledged there is a long way to go before city staffing is where she would like it to be – starting by filling about 500 of the vacancies to stabilize key departments that provide basic services such as street maintenance and trash pick up.

Those 500 positions are funded under the current fiscal year budget but remain unfilled, according to the first-quarter financial report that will be presented Tuesday.

Hiring more employees in the next year could mean higher property taxes, Mack said.

Northeast El Paso homeowner Cheryl Blum said she wouldn’t mind paying higher property taxes if it meant improved services, particularly keeping streets, sidewalks and medians clear of trash.

“I had a family member come in from the airport, and he says, ‘Oh, so this is where plastic bags are growing,’” Blum said of trash on some streets in the area.

Blum said she picks up trash in her neighborhood every weekend, but trash on roadways like Fred Wilson Avenue and Alabama Street is unsightly. While she believes the city is doing the best it can, she would like to see improvements.

City Manager Dionne Mack discusses her role and her goals as she settles in to the first week of her new position, Sept. 6, 2024. Corrie Boudreaux / El Paso Matters

Mack said she plans to work with the City Council to identify efficiencies and savings to minimize the tax impact of filling critical jobs.

“What I’m hoping happens is I get some sense from the council about what it is that we’re trying to achieve for our community. If we’re really talking about stabilizing those core programs, and that is the priority, then it might mean that we’re talking about some increases.”

In the meantime, Mack said she’s looking for ways to hire staff now within the current fiscal year budget, and noted that not all of those positions are immediately necessary.

“Even if we had every single solitary position filled, there is no way that I could (fill) 1,300 vacancies,” Mack said. “From my perspective, I think that that’s going to be a concern for me as we move into next year, when I actually have retention.”

Mack listed key service departments such as streets and maintenance, parks and recreation and environmental services where community members see some of the biggest impacts.

“(In) streets and maintenance, (we) have painters and plumbers and our street stripers and engineers are all vacant, so they can’t keep up the work orders, and we’re seeing a lag in the way we’re able to address some of those,” Mack said.

The Streets and Maintenance Department has 128 vacancies.

Mack said she is constantly monitoring the status of employees and nearly 87% of the current workforce was hired after the pandemic.

The city’s jobs website lists openings in 42 job categories ranging from positions at the zoo, city attorney’s office, police trainees and fleet service workers.

One of the hiring strategies has been to increase the city’s starting pay and offer incentives such as job training, tuition assistance and assistance for obtaining commercial driver’s licenses.  and offers promotional opportunities.

“I started with the city of El Paso in 2011 and in 2021 we still had the same minimum wage of $10.36,” Mack said.

The City Council in January approved an increase to the city’s minimum wage for non-uniformed employees. About 1,490 employees’ salaries will go up to $15.75 beginning Feb. 23. The hourly minimum wage for non-uniformed employees is now $13.61.

Mack said every city position hired is now under a 10-city market pay rate review as part of an effort to address the wage compression that was created when the city was doing piecemeal pay increases as it did for lifeguards and positions in animal services. Mack said the result was that by not taking an overall approach and raising everyone’s pay accordingly, some employees were nearing the pay of their management.

The El Paso Police Department has also struggled to grow and maintain staffing levels for years despite an initiative put in place by former City Manager Tommy Gonzalez called the 2015-16 hire 300 Plan.

The city has increased pay through the collective bargaining agreements, including the recent 2023 plan that included a 13% pay increase for entry-level positions, and additional training academies.

EPPD’s 138th police academy began Monday, while the 137th class graduates in spring. Last week, 20 police cadets graduated from the 136th academy class.