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 spokeswoman 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 sent a statement Monday saying: “Effective today, we are implementing a series of budget restrictions, including a citywide hiring freeze and strict limitations on non-essential travel and overtime spending outside of public safety operations.”
The statement did not specify whether that applied to basic positions in the police department and fire department, but Budget Director Annette Guzman sent a memo to commissioners and department heads specifying that all departments and positions in city government would be included.
The move comes ahead of Johnson’s upcoming 2025 budget plan, which he has touted as one that will involve “sacrifices” to close a nearly $1 trillion deficit, as well as a new projection of a $223 million budget deficit at the end of this year.
Some city councilors opposed the freeze, citing staffing levels they say are already too low.
Today, the Johnson administration says involving first responders was never considered, though officials did not respond to repeated questions about it Monday.
Pressed to clarify the parameters of the freeze, Woodard on Wednesday cited excerpts from Guzman’s memo from Monday, which said positions required by consent decree 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 would translate into a blanket exemption for police and fire personnel, and Woodard did not respond to further questions.
Some city council members also said they had received no communication from the mayor’s office about these details.
“I didn’t know if the hiring freeze applied to our first responders, our police department and our fire department,” Rep. Chris Taliaferro, D-29th District, chairman of Johnson’s police and fire committee, told the Tribune. “I told (the Johnson administration) that I think it would be a bad decision for us not to exempt our police officers and firefighters because we’re losing officers all the time and we can’t keep up with the attrition.”
Rep. Matt O’Shea, of the 19th District, who represents a neighborhood in the southwest part of the city with a heavy police presence, said he too had been left in the dark, but responded to Wednesday’s developments: “This is great news to hear. I think it’s important that we hear the mayor say that police and firefighters 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 had about 13,400 officers in total, the largest workforce since the 2000s. That number, however, dropped to 11,700 by last July, following significant attrition from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Johnson’s budget team added Wednesday that about 3,500 vacant positions are expected to be affected by the hiring freeze, saving about $100 million.
This will of course only start to eat into the deficits of 2024 and 2025, which will certainly require further austerity measures or revenue-generating solutions.
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