On the Ballot: Measure JB promises to speed up hiring in Long Beach but opponents are sounding the alarm

About one in five Long Beach jobs sit vacant, according to city officials, and a proposed charter amendment put on the November ballot by the City Council earlier this year is the city’s plan to speed up hiring but it will require voter approval. 

Long Beach has struggled for years to fill vacant positions in a timely manner with city officials saying that Long Beach positions are taking an average of seven months to be filled. 

Measure JB proposes merging the city’s Civil Service Department and Human Resources Department to remedy its glacial hiring process. 

The measure would also add hiring preferences for Long Beach residents, students from local universities, part-time city employees and interns, which could give them a leg up in the hiring process if voters approve Measure JB in November. 

Currently, the city only gives additional preference points to veterans and wounded veterans. 

Long Beach and San Diego are the only two cities in the state that still use a dual-hiring process with some employees being hired through Human Resources and others—the majority in Long Beach—being hired through the Civil Service process. 

If Measure JB passes it would put Long Beach on similar footing as other cities in the state, many of which still struggle to fill positions as quickly as the private sector. 

The proposed charter amendment has been the focal point of a heated fight between city officials who are backing the changes in an attempt to speed up hiring and Civil Service employees, commissioners and others who claim Measure JB could tear down the firewall between merit-based hiring in the city and corruption. 

Measure JB would transfer many of the hiring functions currently held by the Civil Service Department to Human Resources, something the city says could cut its hiring time down to about 90 business days, which is about four and a half months. 

But opponents of Measure JB claim that doing away with the Civil Service Department, which is independent of city management, could open the city’s hiring process up to nepotism and corruption. 

Supporters of Measure JB include Mayor Rex Richardson, the Long Beach Police Officers Association and other groups like Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy and the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. 

They say that Measure JB would not only speed up city hiring and fill positions critical to carrying out vital city services but the new preferences would open up pathways to valuable city jobs for residents and area students. 

“Long Beach’s 100-year-old hiring practices are failing our city departments and job seekers,” supporters wrote in an official argument for Measure JB. “Veterans, young workers, seniors, and families who are eager to join the city’s workforce are being let down. Measure JB offers hope.” 

Opponents of the measure include the city’s Civil Service Commission, which unanimously voted to oppose the measure this year as well as former commissioners, elected officials and the Long Beach Reform Coalition, a neighborhood advocacy group. 

They say that handing over hiring powers to Human Resources, which is under the City Manager’s jurisdiction, would strip away the independence Long Beach’s hiring process has enjoyed for decades. 

“This would eliminate the intended checks and balances and allow crony appointments of friends, family members, and campaign donors to politicians,” opponents wrote in an official argument against Measure JB.

Measure JB needs a simple majority of voters to approve it to pass. 

To read the full proposed Measure JB charter amendment click here.