Flint, MI– At the Flint City Council meeting Jan. 25, Chief Financial Officer Amanda Trujillo said that many City departments are understaffed.
It came up as she was briefly discussing the City’s budget to actuals report.
“We’re doing what we projected we would be doing at this stage, at halfway through, so that’s a very good sign for us,” Trujillo said. “ Right now our expenditures, wages, we’re only down on that because many departments are understaffed right now.”
The budget allocated money to pay wages for positions that are currently vacant. Trujillo said if the City had hired people to fill those positions, they would be at budget.
“There’s many positions that have been open, like police has many, my office, I have some open,” she said.
There are 21 City of Flint job postings which can viewed at www.cityofflint.com/jobs. They include positions in Administration, Department of Public Works, Finance, Law Department, Police Department and Economic Development.
According to the City’s Director of Communications Marjory Raymer, vacancies are common and “the number fluctuates all the time based on new hires and new retirements/resignations.”
“The City of Flint has made significant progress in filling vacancies over the last year,” Raymer said. “Our efforts have been somewhat hampered by COVID-19, but the City plans to continue filling vacancies as much as possible.”
Chief of Staff Brian Larkin submitted his resignation on Jan. 1, effective Jan. 4, and Deputy Chief Devon Bernitter will retire from the Police Department at the end of the month.
During the meeting, City Administrator Clyde Edwards also announced that the City was looking to hire a new Director of Public Works as Rob Bincsik was no longer in that position.
According to the City, Bincsik retired in September of last year, and the job posting for his position “has been up for some time.” Raymer said his position had previously gone unfilled for more than two years after the previous director resigned in November 2015.
Edwards said that with Bincsik no longer in the position, he was “operationally that person filling in the gap,” and working closely with all DPW sites. In the council meeting on Jan. 13, Edwards said he was also “your person when it comes to blight.”
At the last council meeting, Edwards said that since the DPW job posting has been up, “there have been pretty much, almost zero…qualified candidates that would be able to serve in that capacity.”