Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration announced Wednesday that a recent hiring freeze across city government would not apply to police and fire employees, following backlash and confusion from pro-law enforcement aldermen.
Johnson’s budget team spokesperson, LaKesha Gage Woodard, told the Tribune in a phone call that public safety positions are in fact exempt from the hiring freeze enacted Monday but maintained that was always the plan.
“No, it wasn’t a reversal. Absolutely not,” Gage Woodard said.
The mayor’s office had sent out a statement Monday saying, “Effective today, we are enacting a series of budgetary restrictions, including a citywide hiring freeze, and stringent limitations on non-essential travel and overtime expenditures outside of public safety operations.”
The statement did not elaborate on whether that applies to rank-and-file Police Department and Fire Department positions, but Budget Director Annette Guzman sent out a memo to commissioners and department heads detailing that all city government departments and positions would be included.
The move came ahead of Johnson’s upcoming 2025 budget plan that he has previewed as one that will entail “sacrifices” to close a nearly $1 billion shortfall, along with a new projection of a $223 million budget gap at the end of the current year.
Some aldermen pushed back on the freeze, citing staffing levels they said are already too low.
Now, the Johnson administration says including first responders was never in the cards despite officials not answering repeated questions about that Monday.
Pressed to elaborate on the parameters of the freeze, Gage Woodard on Wednesday quoted segments of Guzman’s Monday memo saying consent-decree required positions are exempt, as are “revenue generating positions.” The memo defines revenue generating positions as those “whose work activities result in the direct and measurable collection of revenue by the City.”
It was unclear how that language translated to an across-the-board exemption on police and fire personnel, and Gage Woodard did not answer further questions.
Some City Council members also said they got no communication from the mayor’s office on those specifics.
“I didn’t know whether the hiring freeze applied to our first responders, our Police Department and Fire Department,” Ald. Chris Taliaferro, 29th, Johnson’s handpicked Police and Fire Committee chair, told the Tribune. “I did tell (the Johnson administration) I think it would be a bad decision for us to not exempt our police and fire, because we are constantly losing police officers and we can’t keep up with attrition.”
Ald. Matt O’Shea, 19th, who represents a cop-heavy Southwest Side ward, said he too was left in the dark but reacted to the developments on Wednesday with: “That’s great news to hear. I think it’s important that we hear from the mayor declaring that police and fire are exempt.”
In 2019, former Mayor Lori Lightfoot also implemented a citywide hiring freeze ahead of her first budget plan that faced a looming deficit. At that time, the Police Department was staffed with about 13,400 total officers, the largest roster since the 2000s. That number has dwindled to 11,700 as of this July, however, following considerable police attrition starting around the COVID-19 pandemic.
Johnson’s budget team added on Wednesday that about 3,500 vacant positions are expected to be affected by the hiring freeze, saving approximately $100 million.
That, of course, only makes a dent in the 2024 and 2025 deficits that will be sure to require further belt-tightening or revenue-generating solutions.
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