RICHMOND — Filling vacancies and hiring more staff who provide direct services to residents was a top priority for Richmond councilmembers who adopted a new balanced budget Tuesday.
Of the 800 employees the City Council has said can be hired, only 662 positions are filled. The goal for fiscal year 2025-26 is to get to 700 with a priority on public safety employees, gardeners, groundskeepers, tree trimmers and facilities, park and construction and other maintenance workers.
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At Tuesday’s meeting, councilmembers reiterated their eagerness to see more employees hired. They argued that having more city employees means there’s a greater likelihood of more or improved services for the community.
City Manager Shasa Curl said the city’s hiring process requires a substantial amount of work and that those efforts must be balanced with staff’s responsibility on other projects.
A lot of work has already been done to increase staffing, Curl noted. Fire Chief Aaron Osorio hired eight new firefighters and 51 positions have been filled since the 2021-22 fiscal year, Curl said, calling the progress a “really heavy lift.”
“We’re really proud of that accomplishment,” Curl said. “You have to have grit to work here. You’ve got to really be passionate. You’ve got to want to serve the community, so not everyone makes it.”
Reaching a goal of 700 employees will depend on the number of current staff who may retire or opt to leave the city for other reasons, Curl said. Surpassing that goal is also possible if federal funding that impacts the Richmond Housing Authority or the Employment and Training Department is not pulled back, she added.
To remain up-to-date on the city’s staffing levels, Councilmember Sue Wilson asked that the council receive quarterly reports from the Human Resources department.
“I do think it’s really important for at least the next few years that we keep a closer and more frequent eye on the discrepancy between those two numbers,” Wilson said, referencing the city’s goal vacancy rate of 6.7% and actual rate of 18%.
Though Curl said those reports will pull staff time away from other important work, councilmembers agreed with Wilson and backed her proposal. Curl requested there be a corresponding decrease in requests for new programming in response so staff can focus on hiring.
All but Councilmember Soheila Bana voted in favor of adopting the budget, which projects general fund revenue to be $308.5 million and expenditures to be $260 million. Staff recommended the council not allocate the $48.5 million fund balance until they return from break in the fall, giving staff time to observe the federal, state and local economic picture.
City staff salaries, wages and benefits account for the largest general fund expenditure at $170.9 million.
Bana’s no vote came after she requested funding for a new bathroom at La Moine Park, known as Cheese Park, and for El Sobrante Stroll, a festival held just outside of Richmond in unincorporated El Sobrante.
Neither proposal was funded after it was noted that more preliminary work needed to be done before a bathroom project would be ready for funding and that El Sobrante Stroll is not a Richmond event.
“I really can’t believe this. District 4 has always been an unloved stepchild of the city,” Bana said.
Other council initiatives did receive funding in the adopted budget. Among them is Councilmember Doria Robinson’s Black Resiliency Project and Fund, with $1.5 million coming for the city’s fleet budget. Another $100,000 from the fleet budget will go toward funding a gender-based violence initiative championed by Bana.
That budget typically sees a rollover of between $2 million and $6 million annually and can be replenished later in the year, Curl said.
Funding for the Harbour-8 Park project, brought forward by Councilmember Jamelia Brown, was also identified by reallocating $3 million set aside for various heating, cooling and ventilation system projects which are currently part of a facilities conditions assessment due by the end of 2026.
More than $9.4 million has also been allocated to the city’s Reimagine Public Safety budget, funding unhoused interventions, career readiness programming for people ages 16 to 24, the Community Crisis Response Program, and the Office of Neighborhood Safety.