Days after Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi proposed balancing a tight city budget by cutting the funding set aside for open positions, department heads lined up to explain their high vacancy rates — and some asked to be the exception.

When Blangiardi and his budget director Andy Kawano unveiled the plan last week, they said the $50 million in vacancy budget cuts would fall across the board. They avoided going into detail at the time, but public budget documents posted since then show which departments got big cuts and which got out scot-free.

That money often does get spent, department directors told the City Council this week – just in roundabout ways, such as temporary work, overtime pay and vacation payouts for retiring employees. Currently 1 in 5 city positions are open.

At the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, which prosecutes people arrested by the police, 48 vacancies are targeted by the budget trim. While these positions aren’t technically filled, the money budgeted for them instead pays people who work on temporary contracts and cover some of those duties. 

“What this means is real people are currently working for our department performing mission critical work,” the department’s administrative specialist, Noble Ah Choy, told council members.

In all, 14 of the city’s 25 departments and offices are slated for vacancy-related reductions. The mayor proposed cutting $17 million from the police department and a little over $5 million from the Department of Facility Maintenance, which handles projects such as storm drains and road maintenance. He proposed zero vacancy cuts for the fire department and the new Department of Ocean Safety. 

All departments retained some funding in the proposed budget in case a job posted now is filled later, and the mayor has made it clear that the positions themselves will not be sunsetted, just their funding.

Hiring is chronically slow at the city, due to typically lower salaries and Honolulu’s high cost of living as well as an antiquated but improving hiring system. Some positions sit empty for years.

An open accountant position at the budget department that pays $61,284 was last filled in December 2009. It pays about $10,000 less than what a similarly experienced city accountant would make in Portland, Oregon, but on par with private local salaries. A construction equipment operator position in the road maintenance division hasn’t been filled in almost 27 years. 

“We’re reducing our vacancies,” Kawano told council members on Monday, “but not as quickly as we want to.” 

How Vacancy Dollars Get Spent

About 2,000 positions remain empty out of a county workforce of roughly 10,000, with a lot of money allocated each year for them just in case it is needed. With revenues projected to be flat as costs keep going up, that unspent money represented a lifeline for the mayor.

Cuts were not solely based on a department’s size but instead on a variety of factors, including recent history of lapsed salaries and whether the number of vacant positions is trending up or down.

To plead their case to the council, department and agency heads outlined how they use the money.

Alm, the city prosecutor, said his team not only uses vacancy funding to cover temporary contract workers who perform the same duties listed in the vacant positions’ job descriptions, but does so in hopes that some of those workers might join the staff. He cited recent law school graduates, for instance, who may not qualify for jobs until they pass the bar but may stay on if they like the work. 

In addition, Alm uses vacancy funding to cover vacation payouts when employees retire, although Kawano said he took that into consideration in proposing cuts since a lot of departments do the same thing.

Even seemingly small cuts can mean a lot in some situations. Honolulu Ethics Commission Chair Shelton Jim On told council members that the approximately $36,000 cut from the vacancy budget for staff at the volunteer commission could make it harder to retain existing staff.

Four out of a staff of 11 left recently, Jim On said, and losing the funding to fill those positions would likely hurt the commission’s ability to assess financial disclosure forms, American Disability Act requirements and lobbyist registration sheets, not to mention their regular duties of evaluating complaints.

“We’re asking the council members – each and every one of you – to not apply the vacancy cutback to this small commission,” he said Monday. 

Not all departments asked council members to oppose the mayor’s vacancy defunding plan. 

Out of 220 openings at the Department of Facility Maintenance, 88 would not be funded under the plan. Director Gene Albano did not ask the council to amend the plan, noting that he will still have budget to fill more than 130 other openings by next year.

The Honolulu Police Department gets a steady stream of recruits but struggles to retain existing employees. At more than $17 million, it would receive the largest cut in vacant position dollars.

But Chief Rade Vanic told council members his department would be OK. “It’s going to be tight,” he said, “but we’re going to make it work.”