Under fire from first responders and their City Council champions, Mayor Brandon Johnson said Wednesday his hiring freeze will not impact the city’s police and fire departments.
“It’s one of those, to quote the NFL, `Upon further review,’ “ Public Safety Committee Chair Brian Hopkins (2nd) said Wednesday.
“Initially, we were told it’s an across-the-board hiring freeze. … They rushed the announcement on a Monday morning without fully vetting it, not realizing that it was something they would have to walk back. There was pushback from the aldermen. They went back and realized there were positions they really needed to exempt from the hiring freeze.”
On Monday, Johnson froze hiring and travel and eliminated overtime “not directly required for public safety operations” to begin to confront a burgeoning budget crisis that will force him to close a $223 million budget gap by Dec. 31 and a $982.4 million shortfall in 2025.
Budget Director Annette Guzman’s memo to city department heads made it appear the hiring freeze would apply to a $2 billion-a-year Chicago Police Department that already is roughly 2,000 sworn officers short of the strength it had just a few years ago. The only exception appeared to be police positions mandated by a federal consent decree outlining terms of federal court oversight over CPD.
It also appeared to mean no new hires at the $663.8 million-a-year Chicago Fire Department that already is short of paramedics and has ambulances “running night and day,” according to Pat Cleary, president of Chicago Fire Fighters Union Local 2.
Police and fire unions condemned the across-the-board hiring freeze. So did their Council allies.
“How do you run a police or fire department with a hiring freeze? … It’s gonna get bad. Crime is gonna get worse, and you’re gonna have more overworked employees who are gonna be disgruntled,” Cleary told the Sun-Times.
Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara was equally incredulous.
“ It’s gonna be devastating because we were barely treading water as it was with retirement,” Catanzara said.
On Wednesday, Budget and Management spokesperson Lakesha Gage Woodard “clarified” Guzman’s memo and said police and fire would be exempt.
“It’s not a change. This has always been the plan. But it clearly didn’t come through the way it was intended to. … … Public safety employees are exempt from the current hiring freeze. This is because we are ensuring that essential services, particularly in public safety, remain fully supported,” Gage Woodard said.
“ We are also working with CPD and CFD to oversee the recruitment and hiring of new classes as well as the use of overtime to balance the staffing needs. ”
Ald. Matt O’Shea (19th), the mayor’s hand-picked Aviation Committee chair, represents a Far Southwest Side ward that is home to scores of Chicago Police officers and firefighters. This is no time for a hiring freeze affecting police and fire, he said.
“We are down more than 2,000 officers from where we were. We’re woefully short on ambulances in our city right now where the majority of the calls come from. And our medics are working too many hours. The overtime costs and the burn-out is becoming a real problem,” O’Shea said.
“The response time for calls for ambulances and police officers cannot be extended, particularly in neighborhoods that have seen this absolutely-out-of control gun violence. ”
Police Committee Chair Chris Taliaferro (29th), added: “ We’re having longer response times. We’re having officers not even able to respond to low-priority calls within three, four, five hours sometimes. … I had a burglary that they never responded to. If we continue to lose police officers and not supplement them through hiring, it’s gonna be bad.”