LANSING, Mich. — Stan Shuck has no problem speaking his mind. We first heard from him last week when he was talking about peeling gravel on his street. But Shuck is not just a Lansing resident, he also worked for the city for over 30 years.
“I started as an on-call custodian, cleaning up, then moved into a custodial position that was part time, and then, that elevated to the seasonal level,” he said.
With that experience, we wanted to get Shuck’s opinion on the employment vacancies in Lansing.
According to a third quarter vacancy employment sheet, the city currently has more than 140 open positions.
Shuck said those vacancies impact city residents, the taxpayers.
“Those are eight-hour days that those positions are supposed to be providing in some capacity,” he said.
The openings include police officers, code compliance workers and more, and some of the positions have been vacant for years. I found an electrician technician position that was dated back to 2006.
“I think its priorities on the department on who they hire and who they don’t hire,” said Lansing City Council member Patricia Spitzley.
Spitzley said to help solve this problem the hiring process needs to be sped up.
“It takes too long from application, to interview to job offer,” she said. “That on an average takes months. We need to make that faster, so we’re not losing applicants to competitors.”
Lansing Mayor Andy Schor provided us with a statement saying his administration is recruiting and has updated contracts to reflect competitive pay, great health care and some of the best retirement benefits.
Residents like Shuck are hoping that pitch can help the city find some help.
“What exactly are they doing on a daily basis for the city of Lansing and taxpayers because it's obvious they are not filling positions we paid for,” Shuck said.
