Fairfax council reviews vacancy levels on town staff

The Fairfax Town Council is divided over staffing levels.

The frictions emerged during the council meeting on Feb. 4, when it received a routine report on vacancies that also framed ongoing budget talks for the fiscal year starting July 1. The report listed eight vacancies.

“Is that a wish list?” Vice Mayor Frank Egger said.

“We have a lot of redundancy in our town, in our positions, more than I’ve ever seen from 20 years ago,” said Councilmember Mike Ghiringhelli. “I ran on trying to be more efficient.”

“We’re not campaigning, Mike,” said Mayor Stephanie Hellman. “Stick to the agenda item.”

“What is before us right now is just reviewing this vacancy report,” said Councilmember Lisel Blash. “It’s not a decision about how many staff to have.”

Fairfax has a balanced $15 million budget. Slightly more than half of revenues come from property and sales taxes. Nearly 60% is spent on public safety. As of December, the town had 38 budgeted full-time employees.

“In 2025, our annual average vacancy rate was 4% and that’s actually a great improvement over last year when 2024 data was 7%,” said Town Manager Heather Abrams, presenting the report. “So we’ve actually filled some positions.”

The report noted 10 employee promotions. The eight unfilled positions, for which no funds were budgeted, are administrative. They include building inspectors, planners, an accountant, a management analyst and assistants.

Abrams said the unfilled posts were retained so the council could expeditiously hire people if it chose to do so.

The brief report exposed simmering political divides. During public comments, longstanding critics accused the council of mismanagement.

“Why are we not looking at reducing or freezing any hiring?” said Todd Greenberg, who said the town has an “operating deficit.”

“The town used to look over at UC Berkeley and get grad students to do internships here, which was an incredible cost savings,” said Mark Bell.

Guy Norenius, a public works employee and local shop steward for the Service Employees International Union, said the department is understaffed, overworked and “the lowest paid in the county.”

“I’m here tonight to stop the overspending when it comes down to what the Town Hall decides versus what the actual union workers require,” he said.

Councilmember Barbara Coler said Norenius “raised some good points” that should be discussed in future budget discussions.

“I want to say, though, for some of the other commenters … we’re not in a structural deficit,” she said. “Every time we try to do … a simple public hearing, somehow it goes off track.”

“There’s no positions being added or discussed at this time,” said Abrams. “It’s simply a vacancy report.”

On Friday, the council will have a budget workshop starting at 9 a.m. Among the items to be discussed are traffic safety improvements and legal bills, Egger said.

“We’ll probably hit $1 million in legal expenses this fiscal year,” he said.