‘There’s only bad options’: expert says city hiring freeze is the best of the worst

(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A municipal finance expert says Mayor Brandon Johnson's plans for a citywide hiring freeze could go a long way towards closing an expected billion dollar budget shortfall, especially this year.

Professor Justin Marlowe heads the University of Chicago's Center for Municipal Finance, and he said when cities face a budget deficit like Chicago's, all options are bad. However, a hiring freeze is probably the least bad.

''I mean, Chicago has roughly $4 billion a year that it spends on personnel at any moment, if you think that somewhere in the neighborhood of about 5% to 10% of that $4 billion is positions that are open or positions that are in the process of being filled.

“That gets you to, you know, somewhere in the neighborhood of about $400 million worth of personnel spending throughout an entire year that could be, could be mitigated or could be scaled back.''

And, he said, even for the partial year from now through December, the amount saved is about equal to this year's shortfall.

But, council members may balk at continuing to freeze public safety hiring through next year. Marlow noted that plans to limit overtime do not include police and fire, so will be less effective, though he admits every little bit could help.

Marlow said looking at previous COVID-19 spending could help as well.

Patrick Cleary, President of Chicago Firefighters Union - Local 2 said including the police and firefighters in the freeze is wrong.

He said the fire department is so understaffed now, that paramedics are being forced to work extra days on overtime.

“Think about the service they're going to provide when they're completely exhausted. They're on their 30th run for the day, and they're working an additional day, and they're treating one of your relatives,” Cleary said.

Cleary said there isn’t anything in the collective bargaining agreement to protect his members.

“I'm gonna go to OSHA and just explain to them what they're doing to us and how they're overworking us, and see where that goes. I'm trying to negotiate with them to hire more paramedics.”

OSHA is the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

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