St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones' announcement last month of a city-wide hiring freeze was met with confusion and criticism from members of the Board of Aldermen, highlighting a split between the two branches of city government that has become apparent in recent months.
Details shared at the Budget and Public Employees Committee Wednesday suggest that this may not be so much a hiring freeze, but is rather a hiring frost and doesn’t impact as many positions as one might expect.
Jones announced the freeze on March 29, the day after aldermen overrode her veto of the firefighter pension bill. The changes made by the bill could cost the city an initial loss of $10 million a year and only “increase over time,” she said. Her office also pointed to state legislation that could harm the city’s finances, including threats to its earning tax.
Ward 8 Alderwoman Cara Spencer invited Jones to answer questions about the hiring freeze at the Budget and Public Employees Committee Wednesday but Jones declined the invitation.
Spencer finished second to Jones in the 2021 mayoral race and is a likely contender in 2025 — and neither Spencer nor Jones has minced words when discussing each other lately.
“As chair I invited the CEO, the chief of our city, our mayor, who made that decision unilaterally — or at least without consulting the Board of Aldermen — to come before our committee to discuss it,” Spencer said at the meeting. “I have to say I have never experienced a mayor refusing to come before an aldermanic body, especially as an issue as important as this and I am dismayed by that. I think it’s very worrisome.”
Instead of Jones, City Director of Personnel Sonya Gray answered questions from the committee.
Much of what Gray told the committee was already outlined in an online statement from the city and indicates that while the term “hiring freeze” is being used, the city will continue to hire for all currently posted positions, seasonal forestry positions and essential positions including those with the airport, public safety, and those relating to the collection of trash and maintenance of the city’s water systems.
The city will also consider some new positions on a case by case basis.
Gray said the hiring freeze was implemented as a proactive measure to avoid potential layoffs of city employees.
“We are still pursuing or actively hiring for requisitions that have already been submitted to the department of personnel,” Gray told the aldermen. “Until the hiring freeze is lifted we are just not accepting new requisitions that are being submitted by operating departments.”
The Department of Personnel is not processing any pay increases for employees with the exception of advance starting salaries for individuals currently in the hiring pipeline, Gray said. Another exception to this is the 1.5% raise employees receive on their employment anniversary.
The city currently has 1,807 vacancies, Gray said. This number may change as departments evaluate what positions that have been open for a long period of time are actually necessary.
Spencer was frustrated because she says she learned about the hiring freeze from local news and not from communication between the mayor and the Board of Aldermen.
“It’s my understanding that many people also — including directors of departments — learned about the hiring freeze from the news,” Spencer said. “I also know from all the employees I’ve talked to that they learned about the hiring freeze from the news. That’s a very worrisome method of communicating official business and it’s certainly demoralizing to our city employees.”
Gray said the mayor communicated information about the freeze to all directors of departments at an emergency meeting.
Jones has argued that the freeze should not have surprised aldermen.
“We have been able to be candid on the topic of attacks on the earnings in the Missouri legislature. I hold monthly meetings with alderpersons to brief them on an array of City matters, and to create an opportunity for them to elevate constituent concerns and questions directly to me and my office,” Jones wrote in an email response to Spencer’s invitation. “It is unfortunate that you, among other alderpersons, make a practice of not participating in said meetings.”
There is currently no end date for the hiring freeze.
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