City Workers Fear Layoffs Are Coming

Does City Manager T.C. Broadnax believe that Austin is employing too many workers? Carol Guthrie, a longtime leader of the union representing the city’s employees, AFSCME Local 1624, fears he does. 

Guthrie told the Chronicle last week that she is in communication with a city employee who said that Broadnax expressed this opinion during a meeting in the fall with the leaders of the city’s 45 departments. Guthrie said the employee, who wishes to remain anonymous, told her that Broadnax made the comment as he discussed the city’s ongoing effort to consolidate the services offered by different city departments, known as the Shared Services Optimization process. 

“First, he said there won’t be any layoffs,” Guthrie said. “Then, in this meeting, he said that the city is bloated. They have about 1,500 to 2,000 too many employees.” 

The city of Austin employs about 13,500 people. If the allegation Guthrie relayed is true, it would mean that Broadnax believes that one out of every nine city workers is unnecessary. 

A city spokesperson told the Chronicle that the city manager denies describing the city workforce as bloated, but that he “has said in various meetings that the city has 1,500 to 2,000 more employees than peer cities of similar size.” The spokesperson added that the city manager has also said that “the city is not an employment agency and that we are a customer service organization.”

City Manager T.C. Broadnax Credit: Katherine Irwin

Broadnax described the Shared Services Optimization process and other city initiatives promoting efficiency in a memo last November. The goal of the project, led by the department of Budget and Organizational Excellence (BOE), is to reduce the duplication of services in different departments so that the services can be delivered, in the words of Broadnax’s memo, in a “more consistent, customer-centered, and cost-effective” way. Broadnax added in the memo that BOE will examine the services offered by departments like Human Resources, Development Services, Financial Services, Fleet Mobility Services, and others. 

Regarding the possibility that the process could lead to future layoffs, the city spokesperson said that BOE is committed to keeping the initiative transparent and inclusive. “No decisions have been made about roles, reporting lines, or organizational structure,” the spokesperson said. “This is a collaborative improvement process focused on understanding what is working well and what can be done better. There is no predetermined outcome. Any changes that emerge will be based on what best supports departments and improves service delivery.” 

As the Shared Services Optimization process proceeds, a parallel effort is focused on the Austin Technology Services department, which provides IT services for the city. ATS was renamed and reconfigured last year as a merger of two departments – Communications and Technology Management, which has long been the subject of criticism, and the Information Security Office. In his memo, Broadnax said the city began examining its IT services this past May, writing, “A recent assessment found that Austin has nearly twice the number of IT staff and double the technology spending compared to similar cities, yet most of this investment is spread across individual departments rather than centralized.” Broadnax said the city will consolidate the city’s IT staff into ATS, estimating that the process could take up to three years. 

“We’re not buying that people aren’t going to lose their jobs. And we think this approach is much like the DOGE approach. It’s very top-down.”

AFSCME Local 1624 Rep Carol Guthrie

Guthrie said the consolidation efforts have workers on edge. “They’re talking, gossiping with each other, consoling each other,” she said. “We’re not buying that people aren’t going to lose their jobs. And we think this approach is much like the DOGE approach. It’s very top-down.”

To address the workers’ concerns, City Council Member Mike Siegel announced last week that he will introduce a resolution on Jan. 22, Council’s first meeting of the year, directing Broadnax to meet with AFSCME members to develop a policy allowing the union to hold consultations with the city. Siegel already has four co-sponsors for the resolution: Council members Vanessa Fuentes, José Velásquez, Krista Laine, and Zo Qadri. If approved, it will require the city and AFSCME to deliver a consultation policy for the approval of Council no later than Feb. 26. 

Siegel’s resolution explicitly refers to the consolidation effort as a reason to give AFSCME the right to consult with city leaders, saying it will “impact the employment and working conditions of City workers.” The resolution adds that consultations would be “a way to ensure efficient operations and fair and balanced decision-making when a local government takes actions that substantially impact the jobs and working conditions of its employees.”

The consultation policy Siegel envisions would allow AFSCME members to represent city workers at regularly scheduled meetings with the city manager’s office, on a committee chosen by both sides. The workers and the city would address “employment policies and procedures; working conditions; and future City actions that may require departmental reorganization, departmental restructuring, and/or reductions in force.”

The topics discussed by the committee would also include “new information that substantially impacts the workforce, such as budgets, budget revisions, budget forecasts, market studies, or changes in policy; changes to employee benefits; changes in working conditions; consideration of future reductions in force and whether they might be avoided,” and more. If the new policy is approved, the first meeting between workers and the city would occur within 30 days of the February vote. 

Brydan Summers, the president of AFSCME, said he is grateful to Siegel for sponsoring the resolution and that the union is fortunate the current City Council is pro-worker. He believes that closer relations between workers and city management would benefit both parties and the residents of Austin in general. 

“I think it goes without saying that workers just generally deserve a seat at the table whenever there’s these big organizational changes being decided upon,” Summers said. “As workers, we’re the people who are closest to the operations. We’re the ones who really understand where the inefficiencies lie. And being able to relay that information to the city manager as they’re trying to make organizational decisions, I think that really will be good for all of us.”

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