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OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD

Record of Proceedings

Oversight Hearing on Municipal Recruitment and Civil Service Pathways - September 22, 2026

City Council — Tuesday, September 22, 2026

BodyNew York City, New York

SessionCity Council

DateTuesday, September 22, 2026

StatusFILED

Video Record

0:00 / 1:59:34

Transcript — VerbatimClick a timed line to jump · ⧉ to share it

0:11

Good morning.

0:12

Welcome to today's New York City Council hearing for the Committee on Civil Service and Labor.

0:17

At this time, please silence all phones.

0:20

If you wish to speak in today's hearing, please fill out one of the parents' cards with one of the sergeants.

0:26

Moving forward, no one is to approach the day.

0:29

Chair, you may begin.

0:34

Good morning.

0:36

And welcome to today's hearing of the New York City Council's Committee on Civil Service and Labor.

0:42

I'm Councilmember Shirley Aldball, Chair of this committee.

0:45

Today we would will be discussing municipal recruitment and pathways to civil service.

0:51

In April, this committee held a hearing on rebuilding the municipal workforce where we discussed the new administration's hiring strategies and heard from DCAS Commissioner Kitase about how the new administration planned to advance the municipal workforce.

1:06

These discussions touched on several different strategies to expand pathways into civil service.

1:11

Currently, the administration operates several programs aimed at recruiting talented candidates to serve the city they love and ensuring that they are equipped with the information they need to successfully find a position that suits their skills.

1:26

The Civil Service Pathways Fellowship, which is administered by DCAS in partnership with CUNY, focuses on recent graduates and offers participants a two-year full-time job with city agencies and a chance to take civil service exam after the first year of completed service.

1:44

DCAS also offers the Public Service Corps program, which facilitates internships with the administration through a work study program for applicants who are currently in their undergraduate or graduate degree programs.

1:58

These initiatives are offered alongside regular outreach and recruitment events through the Civil Service Ambassador Program.

2:07

These programs are designed to provide applicants with the skills and information needed to navigate the application process into the municipal workforce, with particular emphasis on increasing equity and representation within civil service.

2:22

DCAS also has a dedicated office of citywide recruitment, which is tasked with building partnerships with educational, institutional, and community-based organizations to promote city government jobs.

2:36

These efforts are reflected in the 308 outreach events that OCR participated in fiscal year 2025 that were conducted across the city.

2:46

Furthermore, we want to highlight that OCR has recently expanded the types of pathways at which they are holding these events, including increased outreach at foster care programs and juvenile justice facilities.

3:00

Yet, despite these efforts, the city still has a vacancy rate of nearly 5% overall, with some agencies seeing vacancy rates in the double digits.

3:10

The Department of Social Services, for example, whose staff support some of our most vulnerable New Yorkers has a vacancy rate of 15 of almost 15%.

3:21

And the Human Rights Commission has a vacancy rate of nearly 20%.

3:26

Civil service vacancies have remained persistent, and we have heard from municipal workers, union representatives, and advocates that hiring delays can take over a year.

3:36

When that timeline is paired with non-competitive salaries, inconsistent training, and limited upskilling opportunities, the civil service becomes unattractive to many highly qualified potential employees.

3:50

Moreover, while we understand that these existing timelines mean that the new administration's expanded strategies will not show measurable results yet.

4:14

Ask about how new initiatives such as the youth apprenticeship title and delve into how this administration plans to focus its efforts to ensure a fully staffed municipal workforce.

4:27

Before we begin, I'd like to thank committee staff, senior policy analyst Nina Rosenberg, and senior legislative counsel Rie Ogasuara for their hard work in preparing this hearing.

4:40

I'd also like to thank my chief of staff, Sophia Brown and my district 13 team for the work that you do to serve the Bronxite District 13 constituents.

4:51

At this point, I would like to recognize that we've been joined by council members Frank Morano, Chris and Crystal Hudson.

5:00

I will now hear testimony from representatives of uh DCAS, and I'll turn to committee counsel to administer the oath for this panel.

5:08

Thank you, DCAS.

5:24

All right, good morning.

5:26

We will now hear testimony from the administration.

5:28

Before we begin, I will administer the affirmation.

5:30

Panelists, please raise your right hand.

5:32

I will read the affirmation once, then call on each of you individually to respond.

5:36

Do you affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth before this committee and to respond honestly to council member questions?

5:42

Deputy Commissioner Porter.

5:44

Yes.

5:44

Thank you.

5:45

Commissioner Utar.

5:46

Yes.

5:47

Thank you.

6:03

Good morning, Chair Aldabaugh and members of the City Council's Committee on Civil Service and Labor.

6:09

My name is Katrina Porter, and I proudly serve as Deputy Commissioner and Chief Human Capital Officer for the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, more commonly known as DCAS.

6:20

I'm joined today by my colleague Katie and O'Tar, Assistant Commissioner for Workforce Operations at DCAS.

6:27

We are grateful for the opportunity to be here with you today to discuss the vital city civil service career pathway programs overseen by our agency.

6:37

Each program has its own distinct qualities, but together they create pathways into public service for a wide range of talent from those just beginning their careers to those looking to advance and grow, as well as professionals with highly specialized skills and expertise.

6:54

What connects them all is a shared interest in serving government and making a difference for New Yorkers.

7:01

Together, these programs are part of our broader efforts to bring top talent into city agencies.

7:06

And most importantly, offer New Yorkers opportunities to build meaningful, long-term, and life-changing careers in public service.

7:15

To achieve this, DCAS supports agencies by employing strategic, targeted, and ongoing recruitment efforts as well as creating spaces and forums for professional development.

7:26

It gives us great pride to say that DCAS is often there for municipal staff from their very first government application to their first day of work all the way through to the day they retire.

7:39

We also share the council's interest in ensuring that there are ample pipelines into city service and that those pathways are strong, robust, and continue to evolve to meet the ever-changing workforce landscape.

7:53

Recognizing how the way people find, access, and engage with information has changed, and we've invested in new ways to make civil service more accessible.

8:03

Starting this past July 1st, 2026, civil service exams are now free for New York City high school students and first-time test takers.

8:13

This includes all of the city students, those attending a public school, private school, charter school, parochial school, or homeschool.

8:22

This has also afforded us an opportunity to potentially reach millions of first-time test takers.

8:28

This initiative was undertaken as part of our compliance with local law 57 of 2005.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting

Personnel Matters████████████████████████████████████████40%

Workforce Development█████████████████17%

Labor and Workforce Development████████████████16%

Public Engagement███████7%

Civil Service Reform███████7%

Veterans Services████4%

Youth Programs███3%

Procedural██2%

Public Health█1%

Summary of Proceedings

Oversight Hearing on Municipal Recruitment and Civil Service Pathways - September 22, 2026

On September 22, 2026, the New York City Council Committee on Civil Service and Labor, chaired by Councilmember Shirley Aldebol, held an oversight hearing on municipal recruitment strategies and civil service pathways. The hearing examined the city's ongoing vacancy crisis—with an overall 5% vacancy rate and double-digit shortfalls at agencies like the Department of Social Services (15%) and the Human Rights Commission (20%)—and explored DCAS-led initiatives to expand access to civil service jobs through fellowships, internships, fee waivers, and outreach. DCAS Deputy Commissioner Katrina Porter and Assistant Commissioner Katie O'Tar testified for the administration, and four public witnesses offered recommendations for systemic reform.

Public Comments & Testimony

Michael Hickey (Chief of Strategy and Operations, Citizens NYC, former NYC public schools leader) described his direct experience as a hiring manager: he was never trained on civil service, faced year-long waits for hiring lists, and was forced to use a cumbersome “rule of three” process. He urged practical training for hiring managers and better alignment between OMB and agency hiring authority.
Rebecca Haywood (former DCAS employee, now government modernization consultant) highlighted findings from a 2019 citywide hiring assessment that has never been made public. She noted that exam schedules (offered every five years or more) and opaque language exclude candidates without insider knowledge, and recommended plain-language standards, continuous recruitment, and agency candidate-sharing mechanisms.
Catherine Vaughan (Co-founder and Co-Executive Director, Abundance New York) emphasized that the largest cost to applicants is time—months of waiting for exams and up to nine months of unpaid onboarding. She called for reducing time-to-hire, eliminating exams for already-licensed roles (e.g., engineers, nurses), adopting banded scoring, and publishing agency-level hiring timelines.
Amari Dujardine (Public Policy Manager, Citizens Union) urged replacing the “rule of three” with banded scoring, asking the state to waive exams for licensed professions, and developing a transparent, plain-language job search tool. He also suggested creating a labor-management committee to advance reforms during contract negotiations.

Discussion Items

Opening remarks by Chair Aldebol set the context: despite DCAS programs (Civil Service Pathways Fellowship, Public Service Corps, Civil Service Ambassador Program, fee waivers for high school and first-time test takers), persistent vacancies and hiring delays (often over a year) undermine the city’s ability to staff essential services.
DCAS testimony (Deputy Commissioner Porter and Assistant Commissioner O'Tar) reported:
- The Civil Service Pathways Fellowship doubled to 400 slots in August 2026; 75% of graduates transition to full-time city jobs.
- The Public Service Corps placed 122 interns across 13 agencies in FY2026, up from 106 across seven agencies in FY2025.
- Over 900 interns were hired through the Summer Internship Program in 2026.
- 1.8 million applications were submitted via the NYC Jobs website in 2025, leading to 20,000 hires (for non-exam positions).
- Free civil service exams for high school students and first-time test takers began July 1, 2026; since then, 2,000 first-time fee waivers and 57 high school fee waivers were requested.
- Social media outreach saw an 251% increase in impressions year-over-year, but DCAS could not yet correlate this with actual hires.
- The median time from exam administration to list establishment is 101 days (down from 158 days).
- Minimum qualifications reviews have covered 116 titles, with requirements amended for 69 titles, impacting thousands of positions.
Councilmember questions covered:
- Veteran recruitment (Morano): DCAS relies on partnerships with the Department of Veterans Affairs and fee waivers, but does not track hires from specific outreach events.
- Urban Fellows retention (Hudson): Retention dropped from 77% (2024-25) to 38% (2025-26), partly due to factors like relocation and available vacancies; many former fellows are still in the interview process.
- Hard-to-recruit titles and emergency hiring (Hudson, Restler): DCAS can shift exam schedules and share applicant pools with agencies, but does not independently track hires at the agency level.
- Fee waiver usage and veteran credits (Narcisse): Approximately 25-30% of exam applicants use fee waivers; veterans’ credits are promoted but no specific usage data was provided.
- Youth apprenticeship program (Aldebol): DCAS helped create the title but does not manage or track the program (run by Mayor’s Office of Talent and DOE).
- Collaboration with Small Business Services (Aldebol): DCAS amplifies hiring hall events but does not centrally manage or evaluate them.
- Global accountability from exam to hire (Restler): DCAS is in early stages of developing a system to track the full timeline, acknowledging challenges due to the decentralized hiring environment.

Key Outcomes

The hearing was held and filed by the committee; no votes were taken.
Chair Aldebol committed to following up on data requests (e.g., veteran outreach events, time-to-hire breakdowns, fee waiver trends) and to using recommendations from public witnesses to pursue reforms.
Councilmembers urged DCAS to improve transparency, publish agency-level hiring timelines, and work with City Hall to mandate agency cooperation in data sharing.
Public witnesses offered a shared “spreadsheet” of actionable, low-cost city-level reforms (plain language, continuous recruitment, band scoring, training for hiring managers, workforce planning) and called for the committee to press for implementation.

Meeting Transcript

Good morning. Welcome to today's New York City Council hearing for the Committee on Civil Service and Labor. At this time, please silence all phones. If you wish to speak in today's hearing, please fill out one of the parents' cards with one of the sergeants. Moving forward, no one is to approach the day. Chair, you may begin. Good morning. And welcome to today's hearing of the New York City Council's Committee on Civil Service and Labor. I'm Councilmember Shirley Aldball, Chair of this committee. Today we would will be discussing municipal recruitment and pathways to civil service. In April, this committee held a hearing on rebuilding the municipal workforce where we discussed the new administration's hiring strategies and heard from DCAS Commissioner Kitase about how the new administration planned to advance the municipal workforce. These discussions touched on several different strategies to expand pathways into civil service. Currently, the administration operates several programs aimed at recruiting talented candidates to serve the city they love and ensuring that they are equipped with the information they need to successfully find a position that suits their skills. The Civil Service Pathways Fellowship, which is administered by DCAS in partnership with CUNY, focuses on recent graduates and offers participants a two-year full-time job with city agencies and a chance to take civil service exam after the first year of completed service. DCAS also offers the Public Service Corps program, which facilitates internships with the administration through a work study program for applicants who are currently in their undergraduate or graduate degree programs. These initiatives are offered alongside regular outreach and recruitment events through the Civil Service Ambassador Program. These programs are designed to provide applicants with the skills and information needed to navigate the application process into the municipal workforce, with particular emphasis on increasing equity and representation within civil service. DCAS also has a dedicated office of citywide recruitment, which is tasked with building partnerships with educational, institutional, and community-based organizations to promote city government jobs. These efforts are reflected in the 308 outreach events that OCR participated in fiscal year 2025 that were conducted across the city. Furthermore, we want to highlight that OCR has recently expanded the types of pathways at which they are holding these events, including increased outreach at foster care programs and juvenile justice facilities. Yet, despite these efforts, the city still has a vacancy rate of nearly 5% overall, with some agencies seeing vacancy rates in the double digits. The Department of Social Services, for example, whose staff support some of our most vulnerable New Yorkers has a vacancy rate of 15 of almost 15%. And the Human Rights Commission has a vacancy rate of nearly 20%. Civil service vacancies have remained persistent, and we have heard from municipal workers, union representatives, and advocates that hiring delays can take over a year. When that timeline is paired with non-competitive salaries, inconsistent training, and limited upskilling opportunities, the civil service becomes unattractive to many highly qualified potential employees. Moreover, while we understand that these existing timelines mean that the new administration's expanded strategies will not show measurable results yet. Ask about how new initiatives such as the youth apprenticeship title and delve into how this administration plans to focus its efforts to ensure a fully staffed municipal workforce. Before we begin, I'd like to thank committee staff, senior policy analyst Nina Rosenberg, and senior legislative counsel Rie Ogasuara for their hard work in preparing this hearing. I'd also like to thank my chief of staff, Sophia Brown and my district 13 team for the work that you do to serve the Bronxite District 13 constituents. At this point, I would like to recognize that we've been joined by council members Frank Morano, Chris and Crystal Hudson. I will now hear testimony from representatives of uh DCAS, and I'll turn to committee counsel to administer the oath for this panel. Thank you, DCAS. All right, good morning. We will now hear testimony from the administration. Before we begin, I will administer the affirmation. Panelists, please raise your right hand. I will read the affirmation once, then call on each of you individually to respond. Do you affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth before this committee and to respond honestly to council member questions? Deputy Commissioner Porter. Yes. Thank you. Commissioner Utar. Yes. Thank you. Good morning, Chair Aldabaugh and members of the City Council's Committee on Civil Service and Labor. My name is Katrina Porter, and I proudly serve as Deputy Commissioner and Chief Human Capital Officer for the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, more commonly known as DCAS. I'm joined today by my colleague Katie and O'Tar, Assistant Commissioner for Workforce Operations at DCAS. We are grateful for the opportunity to be here with you today to discuss the vital city civil service career pathway programs overseen by our agency. Each program has its own distinct qualities, but together they create pathways into public service for a wide range of talent from those just beginning their careers to those looking to advance and grow, as well as professionals with highly specialized skills and expertise. What connects them all is a shared interest in serving government and making a difference for New Yorkers.

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