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Starting today, the City of Houston will begin a hiring freeze as part of the effort to trim down the $350 million projected budget shortfall. According to the mayor, this is also a major step towards streamlining city efficiency.
Mayor Whitmire spoke with KTRH about the hiring freeze, saying it was a "necessary decision, based on the facts." He went on to point out that Houston has more employees than any other major city per capita, and he also says that around 40% of city supervisors only supervise three or fewer people.
Houston currently has around 5,000 open city jobs, but more than half of those are inside the police and fire departments. So how will this hiring freeze affect them? According to Whitmire, the city will continue working to recruit first responders.
He said, "Our first responders, police and fire, we have a very aggressive recruiting effort. We're increasing the numbers in police and fire." He went on to say that while public safety continues to be a top priority for his administration and they won't be interfering with the police and fire departments, there are still thousands of vacancies that just don't need to be filled at this time.
According to Mayor Whitmire, this hiring freeze will actually benefit the police and fire departments in the long run, because money saved during this hiring freeze can then be invested back into those departments.