REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Report on City Vacancies and Recruitment Efforts, Pursuant to Assembly Bill (AB) 2561
Report
BACKGROUND
Effective January 1, 2025, Assembly Bill 2561 (“AB 2561”) added Government Code section 3502.3 to the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (“MMBA”) - the body of law that governs collective bargaining and labor relations at the local government level. GC 3502.3 requires public agencies to present the status of vacancies, recruitment, and retention efforts before their governing body at least once per fiscal year. If the governing body is adopting an annual or multiyear budget, the presentation must be made prior to adoption of the final budget. Public agencies must identify obstacles in the hiring process.
Whenever the vacancy rate reached or exceeds 20% of the total number of authorized full-time positions within a single bargaining group, the law requires local government agencies to provide additional information on the number of job vacancies within the bargaining unit; the total number of applicants for the vacant positions within the bargaining unit the average number of days to complete the hiring process from when a position is posted; and opportunities to improve compensation and other working conditions.
DISCUSSION
The City of Santa Clara has eleven (11) bargaining units totaling approximately 1,194.5 Full Time Equivalents, or FTE’s. This excludes the 9.0 elected official FTEs, 2.0 Council Appointee FTE’s, and approximately 796 as-needed (or temporary part-time) employees. As positions are added to the budget or become vacant, the City prioritizes recruitments to fill vacancies.
Classified Positions
Classified positions make up approximately 82% of the FTE’s within the workforce and are generally considered non-exempt hourly positions. The City of Santa Clara’s classified positions are governed by the Civil Service Rules and Regulations (CSR) pursuant to the City Charter. CSR are interpreted uniformly and cover appointment, promotion, and discipline for the following bargaining units: the Santa Clara Firefighters IAFF Local 1171 (Unit 1), the Police Officers’ Association (Unit 2), the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245 (Unit 3), the Engineers of the City of Santa Clara (Unit 4), the City of Santa Clara Employees Association (Units 5/7/8), the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Local 101 (Unit 6), and the Public Safety Non-Sworn Employees Association (Unit 10).
The classified recruitment process pursuant to the CRS consists of multiple steps to ensure appointment is based on merit and fitness. The hiring process involves administering an announced examination and applicant ranking which is included on an eligible list for consideration by the hiring City Department. To ensure selection and consideration is based on merit and fitness, the CRS ensures a number of assessments, including but not limited to: any the following: confirming applicant(s) meet the minimum qualifications of the classification, consideration of whether applicants possess additional desirable qualifications, confirming applicant(s) possess required certificates or licenses, screening supplemental responses to the questions on the job announcement, written examination, performance examination, oral board interview(s), and City Department interview(s).
Once an eligible list is established, the eligible list is active for different durations, including 6 months for entry level Police Officers, 1 year for non-sworn positions, and 2 years for sworn-promotional positions in the Police Department. As positions become vacant for classified positions and if there is an active eligible list, Departments must refer to an existing eligible list for the classification, including conducting interviews. If candidates on the eligible list are determined as not viable for the position (including a candidate declining the interview or position with the department that has the vacancy), the City will need to wait until the eligible list expires or bring the request forward to the Civil Service Commission to abolish the list, unless it meets the threshold for an administrative abolishment (by requiring less than 5 names on the eligible list); accordingly, the department with the vacant position is precluded from hiring for such position outside of the eligible list. Only once the list has expired or is approved to be abolished (which the Civil Service Commission might not approve), a recruitment for the position may begin again; otherwise, it remains vacant.
Given the steps in the classified recruitment process to ensure selection and hiring is done based on merit and fitness under the CSR, a recruitment may take on average anywhere from 3 to 6 months from posting the job to extending an offer to an applicant. In some instances, the recruitment process may take longer if it is a specialized position and the applicant pool is small or not competitive, or requires a more intensive background process (typically required for positions in the Police Department), or requires additional steps in the recruitment process (such as written examination or performance examination).
It is worth noting that any changes made to the CSR, including revisions to the recruitment process, may be subject to meet and confer with each of the City’s unions which represent classified employees.
Unclassified Positions
Unclassified positions are not governed by the CSR. These positions are considered at-will and the recruitment and hiring process does not include all of the steps required in the recruitment process for classified positions. Depending on the unclassified position recruitment, the classification may not require all of the assessment points in the classified position examination process. For example, in unclassified recruitments, there may only be an oral board interview. Additionally, when conducting recruitments for unclassified positions, the appointing authority has the discretion to determine the steps or phases of assessment and or to make a direct appointment into these positions. Bargaining units that are NOT covered under the CSR include the Unclassified Miscellaneous Management (Unit 9), Unclassified Police Management (Unit 9A), Unclassified Fire Management (Unit 9B), and Unclassified Electric Utility Management Employees Association (Unit 9E).
Recruitment Activity
Since the beginning of the current fiscal year (July 1, 2025 - May 11, 2026), the City filled approximately 204.0 positions as outlined in Table 1. This number is comprised of new hires and re-hires. In addition, the City has also hired/rehired approximately 166 As-needed positions.
As shown in the chart below, of the 204 positions filled, 133, or 65.1% of the recruitment for full time positions, were new hires. The Table below shows the City promoted approximately 71 employees in full-time positions since the beginning of the fiscal year. The City places an emphasis on developing, retaining and promoting internal employees as demonstrated by the 8.3% turnover rate. The promotion of a classified employee into an existing vacant position thus creates a vacancy in their former position, requiring the City, under the CSR, to conduct a new recruitment for the vacated position. Although the City has demonstrated the ability to develop internal employees and retain them within the organization, it does not contribute to the reduction of the Citywide vacancy rate.
Table 1: Summary of Recruitment Activity from July 1, 2025 - May 11, 2026
Vacancy Rate
For the FY 2025/26 budget, Council approved an additional 21.0 FTE’s. During FY 2025/26, 6.0 FTE’s were added totaling approximately 27.0 new vacant positions that must be recruited for in addition to those vacancies which previously existed. For FY 2026/27, the City is proposing to add 24.25 FTE’s. With the addition of these new positions, it is anticipated the vacancy rate will rise to 14.09% at the beginning of the fiscal year to account for these new position additions.
The City’s Human Resources Department (HR) is consistently working on recruitments in order to outpace attrition (separations by resignation, termination or retirements), keep up with the pace of the newly added positions in the workforce, and also fill as-needed positions which requires additional recruitment resources and staff time.
Table 2: Vacancy Rate by Bargaining Unit as of May 11, 2026
|
Bargaining Unit |
Budgeted FTE |
Filled FTE |
Vacant FTE |
Approximate Vacancy Rate |
|
Santa Clara Firefighters (Unit 1) |
145 |
127 |
18 |
12.41% |
|
Police Officers’ Association (Unit 2) |
147 |
139 |
8 |
5.44% |
|
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (Unit 3) |
89 |
78 |
11 |
12.36% |
|
Engineers of the City of Santa Clara (Unit 4) |
53 |
41 |
12 |
22.64% |
|
City of Santa Clara Employees Association (Unit 578) |
337.5 |
290.5 |
47 |
13.93% |
|
American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (Unit 6) |
134 |
121 |
13 |
9.70% |
|
Unclassified Misc. Management (Unit 9) |
151 |
127 |
24 |
15.89% |
|
Unclassified Police Management (Unit 9A) |
5 |
5 |
0 |
0.00% |
|
Unclassified Fire Management (Unit 9B) |
11 |
11 |
0 |
0.00% |
|
Unclassified Electric Utility Management Employees Association (Unit 9E) |
50 |
44 |
6 |
12.00% |
|
Public Safety Non-Sworn Employees Association (Unit 10) |
72 |
62 |
10 |
13.89% |
|
Elected and Appointed Positions |
11 |
11 |
0 |
0.00% |
|
Total |
1,205.5 |
1,056.5 |
149.0 |
12.36% |
One Bargaining Unit with Vacancy Rates of at Least 20%
As shown in Table 2, there is one bargaining unit with a vacancy rate of at least 20%, the Engineers of the City of Santa Clara (Unit 4). This is down from two bargaining units at the end of FY 2024/25.
It should be noted that, at the end of FY 2024/25, the Public Safety Non-Sworn Employees Association (Unit 10) had an approximate 20.00% vacancy rate. The Police and Human Resources Departments have been working expeditiously to fill vacancies in this work group and piloting different methods to streamline the recruitment process. Since the beginning of the fiscal year, the City has hired:
§ 1.0 Fire Prevention Specialist I (Job Code 489),
§ 1.0 Jail Service Officer (Job Code 353),
§ 6.0 Police Records Specialist II (Job Code 643),
§ 1.0 Public Safety Dispatcher I (Job Code 339), and
§ 3.0 Public Safety Dispatcher II (Job Code 340).
As of May 11, 2026, the Unit 10 vacancy rate has been reduced to 13.89%.
Engineers of the City of Santa Clara (Unit 4):
As outlined in Table 2 above, the Engineers of the City of Santa Clara (Unit 4) have an approximate 22.64% vacancy rate as of May 11, 2026. This is down from 30.00% in June 2025.
In the current fiscal year, the City promoted:
§ 1.0 to Associate Engineer (Job Code 321),
§ 3.0 to Senior Engineer (Civil) (Job Code 322), and
§ 1.0 to Senior Electrical Utility Engineer (Job Code 730).
Additionally, the City hired:
§ 3.0 Associate Engineer (Job Code 321),
§ 4.0 Electric Utility Engineer (Job Code 428), and
§ 1.0 Senior Electric Utility Engineer (Job Code 730).
The City has also added approximately 8 FTEs in Unit 4 in the last two fiscal years:
§ In FY 2024/25, Council approved the addition of 6.0 FTE’s in Unit 4,
§ In FY 2025/26, Council approved the addition of 2.0 FTE’s in Unit 4.
In addition, the FY 2026/27 budget is proposing to add another 4.0 FTE’s in Unit 4.
The addition of these positions, when added to existing vacancies, increased the vacancy rate for the bargaining unit; however, the departments and Human Resources have been working diligently to fill these positions.
As of May 11, 2026, 1.0 Associate Engineer (Civil) is scheduled to start with the City on May 26, 2026. Additionally, there is 1.0 Assistant Electric Utility Engineer, 1.0 Associate Engineer (Civil), and 1.0 Senior Civil Engineer that are in the conditional offer phase. With the addition of the new Unit 4 position adds and the candidates in the conditional offer phase, we anticipate the vacancy rate for Unit 4 will be at approximately 21.05% on July 1, 2026.
There are currently 12 engineering positions vacant. Given the competitiveness of the market, particularly with private sector companies for engineering positions, there have been challenges filling these positions. The current recruitment timeline for Unit 4 positions typically range from 4 - 8 months to complete given the specialization that typically comes with these positions as well as the generally limited candidate pools. In some instances, the City is regularly recruiting for the same engineering positions each year. As of May 11, 2026, the following classifications within Unit 4 are currently in recruitment: Assistant Electric Utility Engineer (1.0 FTE), Associate Engineer (2.0 FTE’s), Electric Utility Engineer (3.0 FTE’s), Senior Engineer (1.0 FTE),and Senior Electric Utility Engineer (4.0 FTE’s).
The Assistant Electric Utility Engineer recruitment is a continuous recruitment and was posted to attract students preparing to graduate from college in Spring 2026. As of April 25, 2026, 197 applications have been received. The department is currently interviewing the top 13 candidates for this position to be ranked on the eligible list. One candidate is in the conditional offer stage. Since this is a continuous recruitment, the department will regularly go back to review candidates from the candidate group in order to interview for placement on the eligible list. The department may also elect to underfill current vacancies at the Electric Utility Engineer level with this position in order to train candidates up for future promotional opportunities.
The Associate Engineer recruitment yielded a total of 40 applications, of which 15 candidates were placed on the eligible list. One candidate is scheduled to start on May 26, 2026 and the other candidate is in the conditional offer phase.
The Electric Utility Engineer recruitment is a continuous recruitment and was reposted in February 2026. The City has received 30 applications. The department is preparing to schedule first round interviews for these positions.
The Senior Engineer recruitment was posted May - June 2025. The City received 37 applications of which 12 candidates were placed on the eligible list. The department is conducting their department interviews prior to making a final selection from the eligible list.
The Senior Electric Utility Engineer recruitment was posted in December 2025 as a continuous recruitment and the City has received 27 applications. There are currently 7 candidates on the eligible list. One candidate is in the conditional offer phase.
The Water and Sewer Utility Department is not currently recruiting for the 1.0 vacant Assistant Engineer (Civil) because they are undergoing the department organizational review to determine if this is the appropriate classification level. Upon conclusion of the organizational review and depending on the result, the department will recruit for this vacancy at a later date.
AB 2561 requires, at the request of the impacted bargaining unit, that the City report on opportunities to improve compensation or other working conditions. Both matters are subject to meet and confer and were considered and discussed during collective bargaining for Unit 4 in 2025- 2026. The result of that process was an agreed upon , successor Memorandum of Understanding with a 4-year term which was ratified by membership and approved by City Council on December 17, 2025. As part of the terms of the approved agreement, effective December 21, 2025, all Unit 4 classifications salaries were increased by 4.0%. Effective the first pay period after July 1, 2026, all salary ranges for employees holding positions in the Senior Electric Utility Engineer will be increased by approximately 4.5%, and all salary ranges for the remaining classifications assigned to Unit 4 will be increased by approximately 4.0%. Additionally, effective December 21, 2025, the Senior Civil Engineer salary range was adjusted by approximately 4.0%. Employees in Unit 4 also received a $5,000 lump sum upon approval of the agreement. These increases place Unit 4 competitively amongst our peers and the City has been able to fill 8 positions and promote 7 Engineers during the current fiscal year.
Recruitment Challenges and Efforts
The CSR are in place to ensure selection and hiring is based on merit and fitness. Generally, there are various assessment points in the process that could impact efforts to fill highly sought skills or experience, specialized positions, and positions which attract few or large amounts of applicants. There are a number of factors to consider when reviewing recruitment challenges, and every position or classification in each bargaining unit requires individualized considerations and strategies. Some recruitments face challenges in retaining applicants through the assessment steps. Other recruitments face challenges in the length of time it takes to complete required background checks or pre-employment reviews. Other recruitments face low applicant response to announcements of open positions. In a continuous effort to streamline the recruitment process, the City is consistently reviewing the SR and making the determination if there are areas to improve or areas to expedite the process, while still adhering to the CSR.
As noted above, during the current fiscal year, the City promoted 71 employees. Although the City prides itself in the ability to promote and train employees, this creates a workload capacity issue by creating an additional vacancy in the promoted employee’s former position, which does not contribute to the reduction of the vacancy rate. The City is currently working to keep up with the demands of staffing through attrition and maintain staffing levels as new positions are added annually. All Departments are at full operating capacity and prioritizing or expediting the recruitment process due to competing priorities may be challenging and lead to further delays in the recruitment timeline. In particular, HR utilizes its management staff to conduct recruitments (in addition to their other designated duties) to assist the 3 full-time recruiters in order to fill vacant positions as quickly as possible, subject to the CSR, as well as using outside firms to also conduct recruitments on behalf of the City. Currently, there are approximately 60 classifications, impacting approximately 108.5 FTEs, that have so far been assigned for recruitment; for example, 1 Citywide classification may result in 1 recruitment for 5 vacant positions across multiple departments.
The City is working to address the workload capacity and several departments are undergoing an organizational assessment. Recommendations from the assessment will be reviewed to determine workload capacity and any recommendation to add more staffing to assist with capacity will be brought forward through the normal budget process.
There have also been challenges, not unique to the City, recruiting for specialized positions (such as Engineers or Dispatchers), where the competitiveness of the candidate pool is not strong or there have been a low number of applications received. In these instances, the City is exploring alternative advertising methods to reach a broader candidate pool. However, this problem is not unique to our agency.
Finally, there are additional delays and candidates may be screened out to more stringent backgrounding process, particularly in the Police Department backgrounding. Where possible, the Department does try to expedite the backgrounding process.
Although the City has challenges in recruiting, the City has expanded their recruitment and outreach efforts, including but not limited to:
• The Human Resources Department has 3 full-time recruiters who are operating at full recruitment capacity (approximately 10 to 15 assigned recruitments at any given time), in addition to other responsibilities of the position; HR management staff also conduct recruitments to alleviate the workload. The FY 2026/27 budget also has a request to add 2.0 FTE Human Resources Technician (Job Code 508) and 1.0 FTE Management Analyst (Job Code 008) to assist with recruitment efforts.
• The City is continuously evaluating how to streamline the recruitment process in alignment with the CSR, as applicable.
• The City has reviewed and made revisions to class specifications by updating minimum qualifications that may be outdated or inadvertently narrow candidate pools. It should be noted that revisions to class specifications are subject to meet and confer with the appropriate bargaining unit, and subject to approval by the Civil Service Commission, and City Council, prior to becoming effective.
• The City also reassesses the weighting plan/testing process with the Departments before recruitments begin and bring revised recommendations to the Civil Service Commission for approval in order to further expedite the process.
• The City has focused on additional advertising efforts to broaden its reach to a larger candidate pool; these efforts include but are not limited to:
• During the current fiscal year, the City attended eight (8) career fairs at local colleges and universities.
• In addition to the City sponsored career fairs, the Fire Department, Police Department, and Silicon Valley Power expanded their recruitment efforts and attended other career fairs for their hard to fill positions (specifically for Engineers and Dispatchers).
• The City was approved and is in the implementation and testing phase of “Attract,” a NeoGov module to assist with targeted advertising and proactive outreach to candidates. NeoGov is an online tracking and recruitment system primarily used by multiple public agencies, including the City.
• The City partnered with Mission College for the first Summer Internship Program in 2025 and will continue to do so in 2026. This opportunity is a great gateway to engage and encourage students to apply for a career with the City of Santa Clara.
• The City previously contracted with 6 recruiting firms who are retained to assist in filling executive level or hard to fill positions. The City recently reopened this bid and is reviewing additional recruiting firms to assist with filling vacancies.
The City will continue to work on filling positions in an effort to lower the Citywide vacancy rate and retain employees. In addition, the City will continue to assess challenges or barriers to the recruitment process and consider alternative ways to expedite recruitments. The City will also continue to update outdated class specifications to ensure they are current and eliminate outdated requirements in an effort to expand candidate pools.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The action being considered does not constitute a “project” within the meaning of the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) pursuant to CEQA Guidelines section 15378(b)(5) in that it is a governmental organizational or administrative activity that will not result in direct or indirect changes in the environment.
FISCAL IMPACT
This report is for information purposes.
COORDINATION
This report has been coordinated with the Finance Department and City Attorney’s Office.
PUBLIC CONTACT
Public contact was made by posting the Council agenda on the City’s official-notice bulletin board outside City Hall Council Chambers. A complete agenda packet is available on the City’s website and in the City Clerk’s Office at least 72 hours prior to a Regular Meeting and 24 hours prior to a Special Meeting. A hard copy of any agenda report may be requested by contacting the City Clerk’s Office at (408) 615-2220, email clerk@santaclaraca.gov, or at the public information desk at any City of Santa Clara public library.
RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
Note and File the Report on City Vacancies and Recruitment Efforts, Pursuant to Assembly Bill (AB) 2561.
Staff
Reviewed by: Marco Mercado, Acting Director of Human Resources
Approved by: Jovan D. Grogan, City Manager
ATTACHMENTS
1. Civil Service Rules and Regulations