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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCommittee of the Whole Minutes 04.13.1994MINUTES CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE APRIL 13, 1994 MEMBERS PRESENT: Chairman - Chuck Ron Marshall Gay Easton John Minch Donna Kilpatrick OTHERS PRESENT: Don Hackmann Richard Larsen Jennifer Draper OF THE WHOLE 6:08 P.M. Rodgers Chuck Dickerson. Bob Graham Lonnie Kellogg Vicki Metzger (Laurel Outlook) A special meeting of the City Council of the Whole was held for the purpose of reviewing Richard Larsen's proposal, for the preparation of Job Descriptions, a City Policy Manual, and a City Procedures Manual. Chuck Rodgers mentioned that some of you had questions and Mr. Larsen is here to discuss his proposal with you. Chuck Dickerson said that he got the proposal Tuesday night before the Council. meeting and lie did not have a chance to read through it. Alderwoman Kilpatrick was not here the 0 night it was voted an and Chuck felt it was important that all. aldermen be able to vote on this. Not having a chance to read through it, Chuck said he had some misconceptions about it. One of his concerns was that Laurel is a very unionized town. If you sit down and go through job descriptions with the current employees, both full-time and part-time, and you end up drawing up a job description manual, what are the chances of this being challenged by the union? Maybe this employee who is sitting down with Mr. Larsen knows what they are doing and the responsibility involved, but their duties may overlap into other areas. Chuck is concerned about paying the consultation fees and then have a problem where you have to take everything back to the drawing board because now, the union is challenging what the City has come up with or what has been done. Richard Larsen said that when you have a labor contract, everything that pertains to wages, hours, and working conditions, which includes job descriptions, personnel policies and procedures, is negotiable. He said that within the labor contract, you would negotiate the policy and procedures manuals, adoption by reference, where they are not in conflict with the labor agreement. You would also have that in your policies and procedures. The labor agreement would prevail on those that are different. Page 2 Council of the Whole, April 13, 1991 The same thing is very similar when you come to job descriptions. Job descriptions are written on the things the employee is doing, not only the things they say they are doing but, the things that the Council believes 'they should be doing. The Council directs what the work is and you have a management right to say "here is what. I expect" and you draw up the job description. The job descriptions themselves are developed by the expectations that the Council and Mayor set. The Council sets the criteria of service. That, is a management right under Montana Statutes. However, the employee participates and says, here are the different, things we are doing. The City's labor contract is written in such a way that job descriptions are a part of the contract. So you would negotiate the new job descriptions into the contract. Generally speaking, the nature of the descriptions are not negotiable, but the rate of pay for that job becomes a negotiable item. The Council has a management right to say here is the job description but the employee has the right to negotiate how much they will be paid. In .response, Chuck Dickerson said he can see where this might come to a head to head situation at the time of negotiations. If the City tells the employees what we expect and we negotiate on the salaries, can it be a binding thing to where the City can force the employees to go out and work? Richard said basically the City can say, here is what we expect and here is the description of the job. We are hiring a person for this job. But in the labor contract, the union will say, "that's fine, you tell us what you want and we will negotiate the wage that you are going to pay us to do this job". Chuck said he has sat in on negotiations before and he can remember that not only are the salaries negotiated, but also what that person's job is going to entail. Richard said that depends on the nature of it. There is an inherent management right to direct the work, to select and to assign, and all those types of things. The Montana Statutes identify that management has a very clear right to direct, assign and identify the wotxk that has to be done. Most unions, including AFSCME, say that you draw up the job descriptions, but we are going to negotiate what you pay. If you add requirements, skills, certain types of work elements and/or gtialifi.cations, you're going to pay for it. That is inherent in the labor process. Page 3 49 Council of the Whole, April 1.3, 1994 Richard said that when you put now is the time to determine if separate or combine jobs. It is vacancy in an area. You need to to redefine the remaining jobs This provides the opportunity to job descriptions together, you want to modify', adjust, 'the same as when you, have a determine whether you want or just fill the vacancy. look at it. In regard to problems with job descriptions at the bargaining table, Richard said the only instance he recalls personally is when a supervisory responsibility has been placed upon a bargaining unit employee. Something like this has to be worked through and a decision has to be made. Chuck asked Richard if this type of proposal has been implemented in Billings or any other municipality where they have the council type government and a union type labor :Force? He would like to visit with others who have implemented a plan similar to this. Richard said he has done work for Livingston and Hardin who are about our size and many other cities and counties. The format he uses is called the Modified Hayes System. As City Manager of Billings, he introduced. this systems for job descriptions in 1978-79. The process of this system is what most people with job descriptions utilize today. It identifies very closely with todays ADA requirements. Richard said Billings is currently going through the process of writing job descriptions as well as a wage program. Problems have arisen and he said he has a problem with the wage survey part of it. They are doing a wage classification with it which is where the challenge comes from. You need to make sure you have verifiable job descriptions if you are going to have a wage classification with equal pay for equal work concept. The survey utilized both public and private sector wages but they did not do the benefits comparison until. later. Richard said you cannot do this later. You have to equate all t:h.e benefits to a cents per hour scale to make an accurate comparison. The consultants are working this through now. Richard stressed the importance of interviewing every employee to come up with a verifiable job description, otherwise it will not stand the test of verifiability on the first: challenge. John Minch questioned how much input the employees of the City will- have in this process? Richard said the job descriptions start with the employees. He passes out a survey for each employee to fill out. Some employees will be very specific and others will be very Page 4 Council of the Whole, April 13, 1994 brief. Then he will spend approximately 30 minutes interviewing each employee and find out exactly what it is that each person does. Richard said it all starts with these two areas. Then, the job description is built; around what they do. At this point, there is a second questionnaire that supervisors have 'to fill out which states what they expect the job to consist of. If there are any changes that they or the Council would like to see made, this is the time to do it. A job description is now put together and sent back to the employees and the supervisors. They are asked to review it and add to it, modify it or do whatever needs to be done. Richard said there is one potential conflict that does come and it is a natural thing. The council says this is what we want you to do and the employee says, no, that is not what I do. The council has to determine that this is now what they will do because this is the way they want to modify it. It will now come back as a labor contract issue which. will involve salaries. 41 The next step is an all da department heads. Richard all employees if possible. that are happening and the through to implement their y session with the Council. and all suggested that this also include They know the day to day things procedures that they have to go personnel policies. Richard related his experience in working with Belgrade. He said the employees were a part of this all day session and things came out that surprised even the management part of the city. This has to be customized to fit your town. You are the ones who have to live with the results of what is adopted. In response to a question about overlapping jobs, Richard said you would write this into the job descriptions. He gave an illustration of how this works and said it comes down to an issue of how you pay them. Do you pay them out of streets, water, sewer, etc.? Richard said this is a matter of assignment and allocation of their working hours. This is not a matter of description separation. It is all within the same description and it does not become a conflict. John Minch said we have 11 employees on the crew and not everyone is qualified to do every job. He gave an example where some are required to have certain qualifications and others are not. Page 5 Council of the Whole, April 13, 1,994 Richard said for those who have to have certain qualifications, this is a part of their job descriptions and for the others who do not have this, it is not a requirement in their job description. Richard clarified that the policies and procedures apply to all. employees, part-time or full-time, all, volunteers, the Council and the Mayor. They do not, get into what the person actually does, that is the function of the job descriptions. Personnel policies govern the perso everything from wages and hou,Vs to processes that you go through. John Minch clarified the situation that and said that there is not a follow up something is done incorrectly by an creates disgruntled employees. nnel functions of benefits and the he spoke of before by management when employee and this Richard said 'that if the employee does not have the qualifications to operate a piece of equipment, it is the respnnsibil_ity of the supervisor to follow through on the matter and carry out the terms of the description. Just by adding something in the policy or job description, does not mean that it will work. It sets the rules, but it has to be applied and followed up by the supervisors. If the problem is that the supervisor needs some training in how to handle it, that is another issue. Donna Kilpatrick commented that she appreciates the opinion of others that we need an engineer quickly but, she does feel we need to go through this process first to identify our needs so we don't wear out our next engineer. She feels this process would really help. Richard said part of his charge or what he was suppose to do is to help the City determine what type of person will. best fulfill the needs of the city before someone is hired. He understood that during this interim period, we still have the services of Jim Worthington on a limited basis. If there is a need for an engineer, that will come out during this process. This will give you the sound basis to make a decision. Chuck Dickerson said that if we go through this whole process at a cost of approximately $ 7,100.00, does Richard foresee anything happening or arising that could possibly escalate the cost to the taxpayers? Page 6 Council of the Whole, April 13, 1994 Richard said no, that if it takes twice the amount of time than he anticipated, the cost will not change. Chuck was not 'thinking in terms of additional man hours but rather if another area comes up over here that needs to be addressed either by the union or if there is something that we possibly did not foresee, could there be additional charges? Richard said certainly this is possible. Maybe after you have done the job descriptions, you may want a wage classification which is not a part of this proposal. Richard commented on the different ways he goes about writing job descriptions and said it is based, on what may already exist or he may start from scratch. After the policies are all done and ready to be adopted, he will meet with all employees and introduce the policies so he can answer any questions that they may have. Chuck Dickerson said he feels uncomfortable spending any more of the taxpayers money but it has been pointed out to him that no one within the City has the expertise or the time to bring the City into the realm of compliance. When he compares the cost of getting nailed on a compliance issue and having 'to pay a fine verses 'the cost of having this done, it is easier to justify having this done. Richard said he is very sensitive to the point Chuck was trying to make about mushrooming costs. What you see here is your, proposal. It is not to say that at some point in the future, you may want to go to another form of government and need help restructuring. That cost is not in his proposal, his proposal is to identify our structure as it is today. It was stated that this is the year that the citizens of Laurel will vote on the form of government they want. John Minch asked Richard if this type of work has created a better working relationship between the employees and management in other cities where this has been done. Richard said that in the process of involving the employees, they have a say in the solution and the solution is partly theirs. That is why he encourages you to involve as many of the employees in the policy/procedures discussion. When they have input, it becomes theirs as well and they have an interest in the outcome. It has been very positive in the cities he has worked with and made the relationship better. In Livingston, the employees even contributed ideas and Page 7 a Council of the Whole, April 13, 1994 suggestions to help balance the budget, which is something that had not been done in a very long time. Chuck Dickerson asked if Richard has ever run into the situation where unions have offered opposition to the employees sitting with you and answering these types of questions and putting this 't'ype of information down? Richard said he has never run into this type of problem. He has had union officials from Helena join in on discussions to see what is happening. The Mayor commented that Lonnie Kellogg feels we need an engineer or public works director immediately. Lonnie also mentioned that we have a manual of ADA regulations and he suggested that each-department head take the manual and come back with the recommendations. The Mayor said they may be able to help in -this area but he feels we need more expertise, The Mayor showed a copy of a sample job description that the City Clerk received from MMIA and it was several pages long. Lonnie Kellogg asked if this is a part of an organization called Crosswalk and Dori Hackmann said he did not know. Lonnie said that the descriptions from this organization will not be too dissimilar and the majority of them will be is a single Don said each one MMIA and pages. that the page. he went to a workshop on job descriptions where was very lengthy. He then received the ones from they are shorter but they still involve several Bob Worthington, MMIA Insurance Co-ordinator, stated ones from MMIA do meet the ADA requirements. More discussion on the time factor involved in getting this done and how this will fit into Richard schedule. It was stated 'that this can be brought up for another vote but it must come from a person who voted "NO" at the last meeting. Chuck Dickerson said he feels that if it is brought up, the whole Council needs to be present to vote on it and Alderman Ehrlick is not here tonight. It was decided to make. a motion to put this item on the agenda for the April 19th Council meeting. Motion by Alderman Dickerson to place this issue on the agenda for the April 19th Council meeting, seconded by Alderman Minch. Motion carried 7--0. The meeting was adjourned at 7:05 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, Don Hackmann, City Clerk