FY 23 Budget Q&A #014: Can you provide the fiscal impact if the City were to fund hiring bonuses ($3,000/$5,000/$10,000) to recruit Police Officers, Sheriff’s Deputies and Firefighters with active certifications and credentials?

Page updated on September 20, 2024 at 11:13 AM
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Budget Question # 014: Can you provide the fiscal impact if the City were to fund hiring bonuses ($3,000/$5,000/$10,000) to recruit Police Officers, Sheriff’s Deputies and Firefighters with active certifications and credentials? Please include analysis as to whether this one-time expense would be eligible as an expenditure of American Rescue Plan Act funds. Can you provide the fiscal impact if the City were to fund language access bonuses (1K) or relocation bonuses (1K/3K/5K) to recruit Police Officers, Sheriff’s Deputies and Firefighters with active certifications and credentials? (Mayor Wilson, Councilwoman Gaskins)

Response:  The following fiscal impact estimates for bonuses and pay incentives are based on a targeted number of recruits per year as well as the number of leadership positions that were recruited in the last year.

Hiring Bonuses

Table 1 below shows the fiscal impact of a hiring bonus for new Police Officer, Sheriff’s Deputy and Firefighter recruits:

FY 23 BM 014 Table 1.png

 

Staff recommends that hiring bonuses have a retention component of at least one year or a portion of the bonus should be returned given the significant investment by the City to train public safety recruits.

Relocation Bonuses

Table 2 below presents the fiscal impact of a relocation bonus for new Police Officer, Sheriff’s Deputy and Firefighter recruits based on the actual number of recruits who relocated in the past year:

FY 23 BM 014 Table 2.png

 

Similar to hiring bonuses discussed above, staff recommends that relocation bonuses have a retention component.

Language Pay

Table 3 below presents the fiscal impact of a $1,000 stipend and a $1.15 per hour worked language access incentive for Police Officers, Sheriff’s Deputies, and Firefighters:

FY 23 BM 014 Table 3.png

 

The City currently has a pilot multilingual pay program in the Department of Community and Human Services with the original intent of a City-wide implementation. This program provides $1.15 per hour worked (not applied to leave, holidays, etc.) and is calculated at 1.5x for overtime hours worked. The fiscal impact estimates in Table 3 are based on the percentage of employees (15 percent) who currently meet requirements in the existing pilot program for multilingual pay in DCHS.

The fiscal estimates for recruits only are based on targeted number of recruits per year. All staff estimates assume that a language pay program would be available to all public safety employees of the departments in question and that approximately 15 percent would qualify.  This number would differ based on actual participation and qualification, which would require employees to be certified as meeting demonstrated proficiency levels in non-English language skills and/or American Sign Language (ASL) by an approved City vendor.

Providing funding for these one-time bonuses would be eligible for ARPA funding under the Revenue Replacement/Provision of Government Services expenditure category as outlined in the Interim and the Final Rules provided by Treasury.  While these could be effective strategies, the City Manager is looking at the overall compensation approach for employees, including public safety and these are the types of considerations that will be evaluated during that process starting this year. In addition, the city is embarking on the collective bargaining process now and these issues are potentially topics of discussion and negotiation in that effort.

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