The City of Santa Monica reported a 6.1% overall vacancy rate among its workforce as of December 2024, with 124 unfilled positions out of 2,037.55 budgeted full-time equivalent positions, according to a mandatory public hearing held by the City Council last week.
The report, presented by Human Resources Manager Michael Arnald, fulfills new requirements under Assembly Bill 2561, signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom in September 2024. The legislation requires public agencies to hold annual hearings on job vacancies and recruitment efforts before adopting their final budgets.
The city's vacancy rate falls slightly above the national average of 4.6% for public sector agencies, excluding educational institutions. No bargaining units reached the 20% vacancy threshold that would trigger enhanced reporting requirements under the new law.
Vacancy rates varied significantly across departments, ranging from 0% for the Public Attorneys Union and Santa Monica Firefighters Local 1109 to 10% for confidential unrepresented employees. The largest bargaining unit, Municipal Employees Association with 440.45 positions, reported a 7% vacancy rate.
Throughout 2024, the city filled 293 permanent positions, with 70 filled through internal promotions and 223 through external recruitment. The Human Resources Department identified several strategies to address recruitment challenges, including monitoring compensation trends, extending application periods, and implementing targeted outreach campaigns.
The city experienced 124 employee separations in 2024, including 59 voluntary resignations and 32 retirements, resulting in a 6.1% turnover rate.
While the city is generally in good shape, it sufferers from a perpetual inability to fully staff its Police Department.
Police Officers Association representative Cody Green presented concerns about long-term staffing issues within the police department, revealing that the department has been fully staffed only once in nearly 24 years.
He said the current shortfall is about 18 officers with others in roles that make them ineligible for patrol duties.
"The police department is funded currently for 232 officers. The [Police Officers Association] currently has 214 officers," Green told the council. "Seven of those members are in some type of training process and not independently able to operate."
Green attributed chronic understaffing to what he called an "unrealistic funding model" that forces management to hold positions vacant to ensure adequate budget reserves for unexpected expenses. He said the hiring process is simply inadequate to address current, and future, staffing shortfalls with the department facing losses from retirements and poaching.
The police department has more than 30 officers currently eligible for retirement. Within two years, approximately 50 officers will reach retirement eligibility, representing about 25% of the association's membership.
"Another 118, or 55%, are ranked police officer with nine years of service or less," Green said. "These are the crop of officers that could get recruited away by other departments."
Filling those vacancies is made more difficult by the lengthy hiring process taking 12 to 24 months from initial hiring through field training and probation completion. The cost to train each officer to independent operation is conservatively $150,000, Green said.
The department has already lost four officers to lateral transfers to other agencies within the past six months, representing a $600,000 investment in training.
The staffing shortages have created significant overtime demands. Green reported that more than 300 uniform overtime shifts are available in June 2025, not including investigative positions.
Green clarified that overtime budgets are "much more complex" than simple additional patrol coverage, as they include guaranteed compensation and address seasonal staffing needs that historically required more officers during busy summer months.
However, the system is just unfit to address modern policing needs.
"We've come to see that it's busy all the time now," Green said. "So we're applying an old staffing model to a situation that's not always as accurate as it used to be."
Green said increased funding to meet what he estimates as a need for 300 officers based on current workload demands is the only real solution and while there may be some number slightly lower than 300 that could work, it has to be significantly higher than the current authorization of 232 positions.
No action was taken during the discussion but at the same meeting, Council authorized a citywide hiring freeze to address its budget problems, including the elimination of funding for what would have been five new police officers.