BERKELEY — More than a year after an audit found substantial staffing shortages were having negative impacts on city services, Berkeley has made progress addressing the issue but still has a ways to go before all recommendations are fully implemented.
A July 2023 report on staffing shortages by Berkeley City Auditor Jenny Wong detailed 25 recommendations. So far, three have been implemented, 13 partially implemented, seven started and two have not been started, according to a staff report.
Staffing shortages have plagued the city for years and made it challenging for employees to provide services. When compared to eight other Bay Area cities with available vacancy rate data, Berkeley as of 2022 had the second-highest rate with about 19% of its 1,792 funded full-time positions unfilled.
“Employee retention is important in government organizations to ensure there are enough staff to deliver services and programs effectively,” the staff report says. “City staffing challenges can therefore impact almost everyone who lives in, works in, or visits Berkeley.”
Retention among leadership has also been an issue. Former City Manager Dee Williams-Ridley left her post in July, a year after Berkeley Health Officer Dr. Lisa Hernandez left to fill the same role for Santa Cruz County.
Another Berkeley health official, Dr. Lisa Warhuus, the city’s former director of Health, Housing, and Community Services, also left in February to lead Marin County’s Health and Human Services Department.
Berkeley also lost its Public Works Director Liam Garland and the department Deputy Director Farid Javandel in 2023. Four different people also served as director of the city’s Human Resources Department as the audit was being conducted, according to the audit report.
Councilmembers Rigel Robinson and Kate Harrison also stepped down at the start of 2024. Robinson cited burnout and harassment as his motivator and Harrison pointed to frustrations with government processes as her reason.
“Leadership turnover can lead to organizational instability, lower employee morale and productivity, and decrease employee retention,” the report stated.
Much of the work to address staffing instability has already begun with the assessment of hard-to-fill positions, setting retention goals, reviewing high priority job descriptions to ensure they accurately reflect duties and improving trainings and reviews.
Work on other recommendations to conduct a staff analysis and collect, store and monitor data on staff satisfaction and workforce trends have not yet been started.
“As the city moves forward with this initiative, our focus remains on enhancing employee satisfaction, retaining valuable staff members, and refining our hiring processes,” City Manager Paul Buddenhagen said in the staff report. “It is clear that a dedicated and motivated workforce is crucial to the successful functioning of the organization and the delivery of quality services to the Berkeley community.”
The Berkeley City Council is slated to receive an update Tuesday on the city’s progress implementing audit recommendations. Also on the agenda is a presentation to update the council on a separate audit from 2022 regarding overtime and security work for outside entities by Berkeley police officers.
Of the 12 recommendations made as part of that audit, only two are not yet fully implemented: one calling for necessary vacancies to be filled or for staff to be reassigned to fill those vacancies and another suggesting the department document updated staffing assessments and use that information to adjust staffing projections in future budget cycles.
Implementation of both recommendations have been started as part of a Workload Organizational Study conducted by consulting firm Citygate Associates, according to the staff report.
The study, completed in September and presented to the council in October, also called for staffing up the department, including by adding additional non-sworn positions in alignment with a years-long city process to reimagine public safety.
