ST. LOUIS — A hiring freeze imposed by Mayor Tishaura O. Jones after aldermen overrode her veto of a pension bill will be less extensive than previously indicated.
The city is still hiring for more than 100 jobs posted prior to the freeze announcement, including many for positions other than first responders and others initially deemed “essential†and exempt from the freeze.
The freeze, said Jones spokesman Conner Kerrigan, means that the city will not post any new, “non-essential†jobs requisitioned after March 29 without special approval.
The administration initially responded to the override of the pension bill, which aldermen passed on March 29, by announcing a “hiring freeze for all non-essential employees.â€
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Jones said she had warned aldermen that passing the bill, which will make it easier for city firefighters to push for benefit increases, would lead to ballooning costs down the line and presented the freeze as the consequence. She also cited looming threats to the city’s earnings tax from lawsuits and the state Legislature.
At first, supporters of the pension bill, including Aldermanic President Megan Green, cast the decision as premature and unwise. The bill wouldn’t increase any benefits on its own, they said, and a hiring freeze could exacerbate the city’s longstanding trouble with filling its ranks and make it even harder to deliver services.
Alderwoman Cara Spencer, who chairs the board’s budget committee, asked the mayor’s office to come to a meeting and discuss the freeze further.
But by Friday, the aldermen greeted the administration’s elaboration with bemusement.
“That’s not a hiring freeze,†Green said.
The pension bill still needs approval from state lawmakers, because the firefighter pension board that it empowers is a creation of state statute.
State Sen. Steve Roberts, D-ºüÀêÊÓƵ, is sponsoring the companion bill.