3 days ago
Costly Baltimore City job vacancies addressed during budget negotiations
Baltimore City leaders are figuring out ways to address hundreds of vacant jobs that are costing the city millions of dollars.
Those unfilled positions are a concern as council members work to approve the Fiscal Year 2026.
"We have several hundred vacancies in the city of Baltimore," said Faith Leach, the Baltimore City administrator.
Leach told WJZ the city is aiming to reduce the number of vacant jobs, and it starts with competitive wages.
"We know wages are a big part," Leach said. "It's just one part of what we can do to recruit new people into our fire and police department, as well as the city department."
Exceeding overtime budgets
WJZ previously reported that Baltimore City has paid millions of dollars in overtime costs, with some agencies outspending their budgets.
"That ultimately winds up to about $33 million that is going to go into overtime within these city budgets," Baltimore City Council President Zeke Cohen recently told WJZ.
City leaders said there are more than 2,700 vacant positions, and 530 of those positions have gone unfilled for at least 18 months. The city is still down 20% when it comes to job vacancies compared to 2024.
"As long as there's a vacant position in the city, there's an opportunity for someone to be hired," said Baltimore councilmember Jermaine Jones.
City Administrator Leach said hundreds of the vacancies are within the police, fire, and EMS departments. And, oftentimes, those departments rely on overtime pay to get by with officers and first responders working extra shifts.
"As people work longer hours, the quality of work goes down, so I think this isn't a sustainable approach as we continue to fill those vacant positions with overtime hours," councilmember Jones said.
Impact on the police department's shortage
City Council President Cohen told WJZ during a recent hearing that one option, dissolving vacant city jobs, could put more pressure on the already short-staffed police department.
The police department remains under a consent decree following the in-custody death of Freddie Gray. One of the mandates is to hire more officers.
"But there are certainly other agencies, including the fire department, where we're not under a consent decree, where I certainly think there could just be a more honest accounting of what's going on within the agency," Cohen said.
City agency needs
Cohen said this budget season allows the city council to see what each city agency needs.
"Making sure that we have enabled each city agency to fulfill their mission to do what they need to do to provide great services for the residents of this city but that they are being honest about their needs and that they're not coming back six months, a year, two years later and asking the council to approve supplemental budgets that they've already spent," Cohen said.
