As the state Human Services Department tackles lowering its future budget through Medicaid redesign, the agency is also looking to cut some of its long-vacant positions.
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HSD spokesman Matt Kennicott says there are currently 250 vacant positions, 108 of which Secretary Sidonie Squier is deeming unessential.
"A good number of these positions have been vacant for well over a year and are no longer needed," Kennicott tells SFR.
The 250 positions aren't currently funded; Kennicott says they've been kept on the tab in past anticipation of expansion within the department. The jobs are mostly clerical: project managers, office clerks and management analysts, for example. Kennicott says the vacancies were mainly coming from the replacement of a 25-year-old computer system within HSD.
"Operations are getting a lot more efficient technology-wise," he says.
HSD will ask the Legislature to eliminate the 108 positions during the upcoming session beginning in January. HSD employs roughly 2,000 people. In the Department of Health, vacancies are more widespread.
