Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCommittee of the Whole Minutes 03.17.1994r ? MINUTES SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MARCH 17, 1994 7:00 P.M. COUNCIL CHAMBERS MEMBERS PRESENT: Chuck Rodgers - Chairman aonna Kilpatrick Albert Ehrlick Gay Easton John Minch Lonnie Kellogg Chuck Dickerson OTHERS PRESENT: Vicki Metzger Cathy Gabrian The Mayor stated that we have Richard Larson with us tonight. He is currently Mayor of the City of Billings and runs a private consulting service. We have given him copies of our Personnel Manual and our Union Contract and asked him to review them and give us some direction. Richard stated that he met with representatives of the City hwhat two weeks ago and we expressed our concern over ave direction we should take regarding the vacancy we now in the engineering department. • By way of his credentials, Richard passed around two handouts which listed his experience and background. He spent 16 years as a city manager and four as the Mayor of Billings. He runs a private consulting service and covers states throughout the northwest. Most of his consulting work relates to personnel matters which include fiscal assessments in both the public and private sectors. He has done a lot of work in the past few years, trying to help communities meet ADA regulations. To help understand where he is coming from, he explained that in 1982, when he started doing more work in labor relations, he went to Helena to the Human Rights Commission and looked at files. He wanted to see what kind of charges people were making against employers. He found that in 100% of the cases that were before the commission where the employers lost, they had combined policies and procedures in the same document. In 60% of the cases that employers won, the policies and procedures were separated. He questioned why, and was told that the commission makes it's decision based on what is in front of them. Richard said he is from the old school where the policy is on the top and the procedure follows and it is all in one neat package. The examiner stated that when both are in one document, it is easier for them to see the violations. It is so simplistic in logic. .1 n Y Page 2 Special Council of the Whole, March 17, 1994 • Since 1984, Richard said he has been separating policy and procedure for cities, counties and private businesses. He said he doesn't really get into the procedure manual to much in the private sector unless there are many different divisions or stores within. a company. Procedure is making sure that all departments are operating on the same frequency; police, fire, public works, utilities, office staff and such. He has discovered that city policies should not be more than eight or ten pages long. They should be put in sentence form. Often times we say to much. We. need to say it and put a period on it. The procedure manual may be a different story. This would identify how you go about the hiring process and all the particulars involved with it. This needs to be a uniform process or you will get hooked very quickly by ADA and the EEOC and you will lose. The American Disabilities Act has been in place since 1990 and places requirements on employers. It states that the "essential, job function must be identified. The job cannot be preformed without this specific task being accomplished and it has to be spelled out. An employee must be able to perform this essential function but may be able -to get help or farm out others aspects of the job that:, are not essential to the base job. By doing this, a person looking at a job description can say whether or not they are capable of preforming the job. Richard said that since 1992, ADA has also required employers to have separate personnel files which c.ontai.ns medical information on each employee. These files must be kept separate and away from the regular personnel files, under lock and key and with limited access. These kinds of things must be followed because if you are found in violation, it is very expensive. Some of the expense can be in the form of fines, sanctions or withholding of grant money or state and federal money. They seem to tie a lot of things to highway money also. In looking through our Personnel Manual, Richard said the City has done an outstanding job and it is an excellent base on which to start. The problem is that we have policy and procedures mixed throughout the manual. There are also things that need to be addressed regarding disability issues. Page 3 Special Council of the Whole, March 17, 1994 Richard looked contract and s some of them, function. We needed for the through the job descriptions in the labor aid they are a good base to start with but in it is hard to identify the essential job do show the physical requirements that are job. Richard was asked to look at our wage processes and he said some of the job descriptions are spelled out in our codes and that is fine for the code books but we need a much more detailed description to refer to that meets ADA requirements. The City asked him to look at our wage structure and with a very quick overview, he doesn't think we are too far off. On the issue of job parity, we have done a good job. From the City's standpoint, he does not see this as an immediate priority to address. In regard to our questions about what positions are recommended for a city the size of Laurel, Richard said he cannot answer that without a lot of input from everyone. What is right for another city our size, may riot be right for us. It needs to be customized for our own needs. He would be doing us a disservice, as an outsider, to tell us what we need unless he gave a recommendation based on input and interviews with employees. Through an interview/ questionnaire process, he could identify the areas of need and find out what is or what is not working and make recommendations based on this. He found out a long time ago that the employees are the ones who are closest to the work and they probably have the greatest knowledge of what is needed and what is being done. It is a two way street and the employees need help from the policy making body to identify the main emphasis. They have to work together. Richard feels the place the City of Laurel needs to start is to get job descriptions together that meet ADA regulations. The second thing is to make sure that our policies and procedures meet the test and they are separated. Out of these two functions, he would be able to make an assessment of what direction the City should take. Richard strongly recommended that every supervisor and all the employees or as many as possible, be involved in the process of developing policies and procedures. Richard outlined the process he would go through in achieving this goal. First, he would hand out questionnaires that are filled out by both the supervisors and employees. It asks you to state what it is you do and this will very greatly among different people. Some go into 40 great detail and others sum up their job in short order. 40 Page 4 Special Council of the Whole, March 17, 1994 The second thing is an interview with every supervisor and employee in the City. In a 30 minute interview, he is able to identify exactly what that person does. Richard said he understands the job function of every job in the city and most of them within the county. He has gained this knowledge through practical' experience which came from starting at the bottom and working his way up. Richard said that from his practical experience, there are very few people who have ever conned him about what they are doing. Through this process he finds out just what it is the City needs. He will take 'this information and make draft descriptions. These will be given to each employee to make corrections and comments. Richard will then review these copies and put together the final,. descriptions. Out of this process comes a lot of information that is used in the other issues we are talking about. Regarding policies and procedures, Richard will, use our Personnel Manual as a base. We would spend a 1-0-hour day collectively with as many employees as possible, to include the City Attorney, and identify every policy and procedure that we have or need to have. It is a very hard day but you get a break at noon. It is then Richard's task to put together two documents, a policy manual and a procedures manual. He will then bring these back and we will spend another 10-hour day going over the documents word for word to make sure everything is where we want it to be. Some things can be similar to other cities but you want it customized to meet your specific needs. This will identify our needs. Sometimes we over organize ourselves and have "too many, chiefs and not enough Indians". Sometimes the people in the trenches can supervise as well as the supervisor who sits in the office. The Mayor said he feels the City needs to proceed with this study and look at our entire structure. Richard said Laurel is in an ideal situation to take a look at what we have. Right now we have a major potential player vacancy. The time to make a decision is before we take action on this position. So many cities hurry to fill the position and find that they have made a mistake. He encouraged us to take our time, if we have the resources to do so, and find out our needs before filling the position. 0 Page 5 Special Council of the Whole, March 17, 1994 In regard to a question about the time frame for this process, Richard said it would be a 3 to 4 month process. Some of this depends on the availability of the city employees. Once the questionnaires are given out, he gives about two weeks for them to be returned. He then schedules interviews for each employee which last approximately 1/2 hour. Some may take longer but, he has found, through his experience, that he can get all the information he needs in this amount of time. He then draws up the job descriptions. In regard to a question about the fee, Richard said it depends on what we want him to do. He would submit a proposal to the council. His fee is based on the number of hours it takes and he knows, to within a few hours, just how long something like this will take. He would also provide us with a compliance manual which has the rules and laws pertaining to hiring applications. He was asked to help proof this document when it was being put together and he now has access to it. The Mayor and Council would, like to see a proposal from Richard on the steps outlined here tonight. It was stated that there would be around 40 employees involved in the process. We would also want to include job descriptions for the Ambulance and Fire Departments, the City Attorney and the Fire Inspector because they fall under worker's compensation. Richard will have a proposal to the Council by next week and will wait to hear from us. Richard commented on an interesting option that is being worked on. He said the League of Cities and MACO asked him to put together a proposal for circuit writing city or county managers to help them in personnel manners. This would help to have services available on a contract basis. It will be a service offered in Montana that has not been before. The meeting adjourned at 7:59 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, ?4V . / Cathy Gabrian Richard Larsen & Associates, Inc. 1733 Parkhill Billings, Montana 59102 Consultants (406) 248-4252 PRINCIPAL: Richard L. Larsen BACKGROUND AND EXPERIENCE: . B. A. Degree, Economics & Business Administration, Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri . Graduate Study, Public Administration, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 26 years municipal experience in Engineering, Fiscal Management, Research Associate and top level management, (16 years as a City Manager and 4 years as Elected Mayor) . Extensive involvement in economic development; community and subdivision development; training, personnel and labor relations; State & Federal Coordination and legislative relations; Fiscal, Budget and growth management processes. . Since 1979 Consultant to local governments and private businesses providing services ranging from growth management, personnel management, supervisory and management training, fiscal and rate management, result oriented Goal Setting, and labor relations. Assist in identifying private enterprise alternatives to public facility development, operation, and management. Areas of general business consulting include financial management, prospectus development, industrial development, personnel and labor relations, supervisory and management training, goal setting, facilitating change, leadership, and general management development. AWARDS AND HONORS . Public Administrator of the Year - State of Utah (1976) Recipient: L. P. Cookingham Career Development Award (1974) and Clarence E. Ridley Outstanding Training Award (1979), each from the International City Management Assoc. Citizen Award, U. S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Reclamation (1977) Service Above Self, Rotary, Billings, Montana (1988) District Scouter of the Year (1993) District Award of Merit, Boy Scouts of America (1993) Who's Who in the West . Currently serving as Mayor of Billings - Montana's largest city Richard Larsen & Associates, Inc. 1733 Parkhill Billings, Montana 59102 Consultants (406) 248-4252 OVERVIEW OF RICHARD LARSEN & ASSOCIATES, INC. RICHARD LARSEN & ASSOCIATES, INC. is a Montana Corporation established in August 1979 in Billings, Montana. Richard . Larsen is the sole owner. The Principal services provided: BUSINESS CONSULTING that includes, but is not limited to Supervisory, Management, Personnel and Labor Relations; Fiscal Analysis; Training of Management, Supervisory and front line employees to increase productivity, customer service skills and overall job performance; Development of Personnel Policy Manuals; Salary and Benefit Analysis including Job Descriptions; and Result Oriented Goal Development providing the client with the tools necessary to achieve unrealized expectations. Additionally, extensively involved in the Economic Development processes which provides an insight that brings to the Client an advantage in the competition of the market place. LOCAL GOVERNMENT CONSULTING that includes, but is not limited to Supervisory, Management, Personnel, and. Labor Relations; Fiscal Analysis and Budget Development; Training of Management, Supervisory and front line employees in productivity, customer service and performance expectations; Development of Personnel Policy and Procedures Manuals, Job Descriptions, Salary and Benefit Analysis; and Result Oriented Goal Development providing the tools necessary to provide the ultimate in service to the citizens of their jurisdiction; and provide the full range of services as an interim City/County Manager in the operations of their governmental unit.