There is no doubt that keeping tabs on city personnel and vacancies is a fluid proposition, but there should be a better way for budgeting so that funds meant to fill positions simply are not siphoned off for other uses.

A bill advancing in the City Council aims to transfer nearly all city vacancies into one provisional account within the office of Managing Director Ember Shinn, under Mayor Kirk Caldwell. The idea is to tighten the rules for filling vacant job positions so that city agencies cannot spend the money on other, unintended purposes.

More honesty in budgeting is the goal here, and it’s worth attempting in order to keep better track and use of taxpayers’ money.

As it is, too much is being diverted for items such as mileage expenses and cashing out unused vacation pay for retiring employees, says Councilman Ikaika Anderson.

"I would say that prior administrations have treated funding from vacant positions as though the fund was a slush fund," he said.

Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi candidly says the Council needs "a better handle on how the money is being spent." The purpose, she explained, is to tighten up how the unspent salary money can be used.

The plan for the 2014 budget would cut in half the amount set aside for filling vacant positions, to about $27 million. Anderson noted that agencies usually are able to fill just one-fourth of funded vacancies in any given year, so the cushion for hiring as needed seems to be there. Such a move would provide for truer accounting within the various departments, based on actual labor needs, allowing millions of dollars to be freed for targeted uses on the books. Council Chairman Ernie Martin suggests that some of the money for vacant positions could be used for priorities such as road improvements, for which Caldwell unsuccessfully sought a nickel-per-gallon fuel tax increase.

Though the proposal would centralize vacancy funds under his managing director, Caldwell opposes it, noting the need for departmental flexibility and pointing out that the 10,000-employee city government "will always have people coming and going. There are people retiring, people are being promoted from one position into another, people who are leaving for other jobs, and sometimes people are terminated."

The mayor contends that Council members are not left in the dark now about how the extra money is spent. He pointed out that the Council is sent regular reports on which vacancies are filed and which remain. Salary-earmarked money that is used for other purposes "can be traced so you can show how it’s been used," he added.

While Council members do receive regular reports, Anderson disagreed: "What you won’t find on those reports, and what is extremely difficult to find, is how much money is being spent on other purposes besides filling vacancies."

Rather than exerting too much control over the administration, this proposal makes it easier for the managing director and administration to look at funding vacancies in a more global, efficient fashion, he said. Indeed, that seems to be "a good thing."

Lengthy job vacancies should not be maintained as a source of extra money, to be freely spent by city departments without accountability. The Council is right to raise questions about whether some empty jobs could be eliminated and money saved. The mayor’s office should take more accurate stock of which positions are essential, and then fill them.