Vacancies, COVID-19 lead to headaches for some Boise city departments. Here’s where
Staff shortages at the city of Boise are starting to create hiccups in services for residents, as the city and employers across the Treasure Valley struggle to fill vacant positions while managing an increase in COVID-19 cases.
The city announced Tuesday that the City Clerk’s walk-in services — which are used to provide such services as paying parking tickets and obtaining various licenses — would be canceled for Tuesday and Wednesday, as the office did not have enough staff members to meet demand.
Deputy Clerk Jaime Heizerling said the walk-in office typically has four clerks, but has only one as of Wednesday.
“We’ve just had a lot of turnover,” Heizerling said by phone. “Just like everybody else, it’s challenging to find individuals who have the qualifications for those positions.”
As of Thursday, about 50% of positions the Clerk’s Office front office and support teams are vacant, said city spokesperson Justin Corr. COVID-19 infections worsened that gap.
Heizerling said those vacancies also include an office supervisor and an administrative assistant position.
This comes as businesses and organizations, including the city of Boise, struggle with high numbers of vacancies across the workforce. The most recent vacancy numbers provided by the city in November show around 165 empty slots across all departments, although the number has likely changed since then.
In addition, at least one of the city’s libraries is having to reduce hours in the face of increased COVID-19 cases and exposures among staff members.
The Cole and Ustick library is running on reduced hours for the rest of the week, closing two hours early at 6 p.m., and will only offer curbside services Saturday, library spokesperson Lindsey Driebergen said Thursday.
Direbergen said she didn’t have a specific number of employees who are unavailable, but that the library hopes enough employees will return next week to resume regular day-to-day operations.
Mayor Lauren McLean issued a requirement in December mandating that new employees at the city be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
This story was originally published January 20, 2022 at 1:21 PM.
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