Government at all levels in New Mexico has seen unprecedented money flow in (thanks to both the oil and gas industry’s largesse and federal stimulus and bailout $$). Simultaneously, employers face real challenges filling jobs to perform essential services including right here in Albuquerque where the City’s police department remains woefully understaffed while the City continues to break crime records.
A new audit of the City of Albuquerque (find the ABQ Journal story here) found that one place that is not struggling to find workers is the bloated city government which has seen an explosion in hiring of “unclassified,” or appointed jobs. Among other things the audit found over half of the jobs it reviewed lacked job descriptions and that some high-level workers have been getting raises without documented justification or changed job responsibilities.
The audit also found that the number of unclassified positions had nearly doubled in the time between FY15 to FY22 going from 314 to 620. During the period, 83 employees moved from classified to unclassified positions, receiving salary increases between 22 and 368 percent!
Of the “unclassified” hires studied in the audit “only 21 percent of positions tested had an application and/or a resume on file related to the position, and only 13 percent had evidence demonstrating verification that the applicant met the minimum requirements.”
The following chart is taken directly from the audit. Clearly, the Keller Administration needs to be held accountable for this by City Council, the media, and the public.
This is why I left the city because of the corruption that is within the city. The city thinks about only them and the bottom dollar and they don’t care and forget about the public and everybody else. Personally I think all of them should be hell liable and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. But we know that will never happen they will always get away with it.
Money is to politicians as chum is to sharks…
I’m not sure if the definition of unclassified here is correct. The reason that I say this is because there are jobs posted with the City of Albuquerque that are unclassified that anyone can apply for, that do have qualifications listed, and that do ask for resumes. I believe that an unclassified position can have someone appointed to it, but it can also be filled by an applicant. So the numbers given here of unclassified positions filled does not say whether those unclassified positions were filled by applicants or by appointees. This chart could just be the number of such positions filled by either. I think a further distinction needs to be made. Thank you.
I am just using data revealed in the City’s own audit, but thank you.
When you demonize the very people who try to protect us, this is what happens shame on the democrats for letting violent criminals have a revolving door so they can get back out on the streets to make things worse. We need a RED WAVE at election time!!!
Thank you Sir!
Where is the newspaper?
Where’s the TV stations?
You are , unfortunately, a lone voice in the wilderness!
Thank you!