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File #: 221035    Version: 0 Name:
Type: Resolution Status: ADOPTED
File created: 12/15/2022 In control: CITY COUNCIL
On agenda: Final action: 12/15/2022
Title: Authorizing the creation of a "Special Committee on Retention and Recruitment of Municipal Workers" to analyze and recommend ways to modernize the City's hiring procedures; recommend strategies to retain current City workers; and recruit new workers by, to the greatest extent possible, hiring City residents.
Sponsors: Council President Clarke, Councilmember O'Neill, Councilmember Driscoll, Councilmember Gauthier, Councilmember Gilmore Richardson, Councilmember Vaughn, Councilmember Bass, Councilmember Squilla, Councilmember Harrity, Councilmember Brooks, Councilmember Phillips, Councilmember Thomas
Attachments: 1. Signature22103500
Date Ver.Action ByActionResultTallyAction DetailsMeeting DetailsVideo
12/15/20220 CITY COUNCIL ADOPTED   Action details Meeting details Not available
12/15/20220 CITY COUNCIL Introduced and Moved to Be Placed on This Week's Final Passage Calendar - Rules Suspended   Action details Meeting details Not available
Title
Authorizing the creation of a "Special Committee on Retention and Recruitment of Municipal Workers" to analyze and recommend ways to modernize the City's hiring procedures; recommend strategies to retain current City workers; and recruit new workers by, to the greatest extent possible, hiring City residents.

Body
WHEREAS, Philadelphia is facing staffing shortages across departments, with particularly concerning shortages in public safety departments like Prisons and Police; and

WHEREAS, The City has made efforts to increase recruitment for these two departments by working through the arbitration process on bonuses and other incentives for current workers and new hires. Still, the City of Philadelphia is increasingly noncompetitive with the private sector and other municipalities on both incentive and compensation packages, particularly for public safety professionals; and

WHEREAS, Changes are needed to Civil Service guidelines to allow a more flexible approach to filling vacancies and retaining talent in key positions in many City Departments including, most critically, Police and Prisons; and

WHEREAS, Even when the City can find qualified candidates, new police recruits must still go through state-mandated training. So, assuming each police cadet cohort is as large as the most recent cohort of 72, with 3 cohorts graduating each year, it will take three years to train enough recruits to bring the Police Department up to its authorized staffing level of 6,522; and

WHEREAS, The Department of Prisons currently has 858 unfilled positions and has only graduated about 100 new correctional officers per year. At this rate, it could take about 9 years to train enough recruits to make up for the current shortfall; and

WHEREAS, Across all City Departments there are currently about 4,000 unfilled positions, and about 20,000 city-resident applicants for those jobs. Nevertheless, these positions go unfilled because the City's hiring procedures are inadequate t...

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