City of Sacramento employees have a COVID-19 vaccination rate of 79%, according to data collected and verified by the City’s Human Resources Department.
City employees were required to report their vaccination status by Oct. 15. Of the City’s 4,494 employees, 3,537 have been confirmed as vaccinated and 849 have reported as unvaccinated.
Overall, just 72 employees have not submitted their status. The majority of employees who did not submit their status work part time or seasonally. An additional 36 employees have a status that remains in the process of being verified, or they are on approved leave*.
“The City thanks its employees for participating in this process and for helping us to collect this important data,” said City Manager Howard Chan. “We now will use this information to continue negotiations with our labor partners about an employee vaccination policy, which is expected to include a testing component.”
The 79% vaccination rate takes into account employees whose status has not yet been confirmed. If those 108 unconfirmed employees were subtracted from the total number of employees, the City’s vaccination rate would be 81% (3,537 vaccinated of 4,386 who have submitted and been verified).
Of the City’s public-safety departments, the Sacramento Fire Department reported a 76% vaccination rate, and the Sacramento Police Department reported a 73% vaccination rate. All of Sac Fire’s 648 employees reported their status. Of its 1,117 employees, Sac PD has 13 employees who have not reported their status and 10 employees who are in the process of being verified, or they are on approved leave.
The City’s Youth, Parks and Community Enrichment Department (YPCE), which also interacts with the public regularly, reported an 80% vaccination rate, with 26 of its 703 employees not reporting their status and 12 employees who are in the process of being verified, or they are on approved leave.
The City’s reporting process required employees to upload photos of their vaccination cards, which were then verified by the City’s Human Resources Department. Employees who did not report their status by the Oct. 15 deadline will be put on unpaid leave, a term that was agreed to by the City’s labor partners. Employees can use vacation time or other approved accruals, except for sick leave, as part of this process.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg and the City Council in August directed City staff to begin the collective bargaining process with its labor partners to establish a COVID-19 vaccination policy. The direction followed Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement regarding a vaccination and testing policy for all State of California employees.
The table below shows vaccination data for each City department:
* Approved leave includes both leave of absence and leave related to reasonable accommodation.