Wednesday, March 5, 2025

County Supervisors Seek More Detailed Plan on Hiring Freeze

CITY NEWS SERVICE

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Tuesday asked CEO Fesia Davenport and the County Counsel’s Office to provide it with a more detailed plan on a hiring freeze.

The January wildfires destroyed thousands of structures, affecting property tax revenues, and recovery efforts have led to higher spending, forecasted to also affect the budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year.

To protect the limited financial resources, County Counsel’s Office offered two recommendations to the board on Tuesday:

• a hard hiring freeze, excluding critical health, safety and other necessary positions; and
• freeze on non-essential purchases of services, supplies and equipment to reduce expenditures.

A similar freeze had been implemented during the Great Recession in 2008 and COVID-19 pandemic.

Davenport was assigned responsibility to administer the hiring freeze and spending as necessary.

Supervisor Lindsey Horvath questioned the hiring freeze and how it would affect those seeking employment in the county.

Davenport said the hiring freeze would only affect new contracts and controlling spending was necessary due to the large amount of uncertainty in the county budget.

Davenport said her office was taking a more “thoughtful process” on implementing the hiring freeze, than following prior efforts when non-sworn in county employees were impacted.

She also reassured Horvath her office would take time to put together a plan and classify the jobs that were being affected. Davenport stressed the move was not immediate.

Supervisor Janice Hahn joined in on the criticism, stating the plan needed more detailing and that ongoing fire recovery efforts were facing staffing issues.

Davenport disagreed with Hahn stating the freeze wouldn’t directly affect the first responders and those working towards fire recovery.