By Jonathan Friedman
Associate Editor

January 20, 2015 -- The City Hall workforce will soon get a little larger following last Tuesday’s decision by the Santa Monica City Council to create nearly 32 full-time equivalent jobs. 

These new jobs will replace some City work that is contracted out or done by “as-needed” employees.

Workers enjoyed the news that their jobs would soon become permanent positions with full health care, vacation time and other perks. But they also learned the less-exciting information that there was no guarantee they would be the people filling those positions.

Human Resources head Donna Peter told the council these workers would have to apply for the newly created positions through the complex civil service process just as everybody else would.

Among the people who would have to do this are nine beach custodians, who were the main focus of the council discussion. Many of them have done work for the City for a long time.

Although things could be done to give the current workers an advantage, such as making the tests for the jobs tailored to those who have experience, Peter said nothing could be done to guarantee the openings would go to existing workers.

“I would warn you that when you make an exception, you have to understand, that we have other as-needed employees who also might want an exception made for them,” Peter told the council.

She added, “We’re opening up a situation where others say ‘I should have an exception made for me,’ and I think when you do that, you start down a slippery slope, and the civil service process becomes very delicate to maintain.”

This situation did not sit well with some people, including many of the workers, union leaders and activists who addressed the council. 

Others agreed the civil service process was the best because it prevented the old method of people getting government jobs based on favors and cronyism.

“Civil service is not the enemy here,” Mayor Kevin McKeown said. “Civil service is one of the great progressive levelers of opportunity for all people ... where the best applicants get the jobs.”

He continued, “Please don’t ask the council to take a step backward from progressive values.”

This issue came to the forefront last August when several people addressed the council about what they said was a City Hall where in-house jobs were disappearing and outsourcing was becoming too common.

Among those who addressed the council in August and again last week was Marcy Winograd, a left-wing activist who has run for the U.S. House of Representatives twice and has been in the news lately for her fight to get pony rides banned at the farmers market.

Winograd wrote opinion pieces about the Santa Monica government worker situation for at least two websites, including the Huffington Post, in the days leading up to last week’s meeting.