Mayor Brand Johnson enacts city-wide hiring freeze in ‘all departments’ — even police and fire — to confront budget crisis

[Sugar Cookie]

So to all the people losing their shit over my comments about a parade if your city is facing a budget crisis - guess what you don't need a damn parade and that is any parade.

And Adams was saying the same thing about budget cuts in NYC.

Mayor Brandon Johnson on Monday froze hiring and travel in all city departments — including police and fire — and eliminated overtime “not directly required for public safety operations” to begin to confront Chicago’s burgeoning budget crisis.

Johnson is not the first mayor to freeze hiring and restrict overtime to solve a budget crisis.

But most past hiring freezes have been confined to “nonessential” positions. Public safety jobs in the Chicago Police Department and the Chicago Fire Department have routinely been exempt.

Johnson doesn’t have that luxury at a time when he’s refusing to rule out the property tax increase he campaigned against.

He’s got just four months to fill a $223 million gap in 2024 caused, in large part, by the Chicago Board of Education’s refusal to absorb a $175 million pension payment for nonteaching school employees. After that, Johnson faces a $982.4 million deficit in 2025.

The mayor has warned “sacrifices will be made.” Those sacrifices will include freezing hiring at a $2 billion-a-year Chicago Police Department that already is roughly 2,000 sworn officers short of the strength it had just a few years ago.

It also means no new hires at the $663.8 million-a-year Chicago Fire Department, which is so short of paramedics and ambulances, the 80 ambulances it does have are “running night and day,” according to Pat Cleary, president of Chicago Fire Fighters Union Local 2.

“It’s ridiculous. How do you do that? How do you run a police or fire department with a hiring freeze? ... It’s gonna get bad. Crime is gonna get worse, and you’re gonna have more overworked employees who are gonna be disgruntled,” Cleary said.

“We’re already short-handed. Why would you short-hand us even more? You’re letting budget people make tactical decisions for police and fire departments. Employees on those ambulances are gonna be even more overworked. Will they make mistakes? I don’t know. Will they get in more accidents? I don’t know. We’ll find out.”

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Mayor halts hiring in ‘all departments’ — even police and fire — to confront budget crisis

Mayor Brandon Johnson isn't the first Chicago mayor to tackle a budget crisis by freezing hiring and restricting overtime. But typically the police and fire departments are exempt.

chicago.suntimes.com

I am sure they will find it in the budget to make sure the illegals are getting sheltered, fed and pregnant on our dime.

 

[Josh P]

Seems like a lot of indicators that a recession is on the horizon, and for lower income people they are already feeling it. Truck driver know cause when people quit buying stuff, we're out of work, and work is extremely thin right now.

 

[BuffettGirl]

So to all the people losing their shit over my comments about a parade if your city is facing a budget crisis - guess what you don't need a damn parade and that is any parade.

Bu... bu... but that's how they feel good about themselves! You can't take their faux superiority out of play. Who knows what kind of unhinged response you'd be dealing with then?