Personnel Committee Meeting Minutes
Thursday, January 10, 2002
The meeting was called to order at 5:20 p.m. Committee members present were Alderman Kopplin, Alderman Rudebusch, and Alderman Lampe. Also present was Robert Kufrin, RoseAnn Underberg, Pam Bauer and Jerry Hammernik.
Item 1. Roll Call
Item 2. Approval of minutes of September 19, 2001
Alderman Kopplin indicated that the September minutes show that the committee approved the tuition reimbursement requests of Brian Satula subject to funds available. In November the committee indicated that they wanted more information from Chief Hammernik regarding Satula’s reimbursement request. Bob indicated that Jerry has not provided any additional information.
Jerry indicated that at this point he has $5,000 allocated for the whole union and he has allocated $2,000 for Satula. The requests he has submitted for this meeting will take him to about $1,600, so he will have about $400 left, so he will get less than one course the next time.
Alderman Lampe moved to approve the minutes of September 19, 2001. Alderman Rudebusch seconded. All aye; motion carried.
Item 3. Review and consider approval of tuition reimbursement applications
Bob explained that the prior Personnel Committee looked at Master’s program classes for individuals who have the potential of ultimately being promoted to department head. If you’re a police officer or a firefighter, your odds of being promoted to department head or chief are pretty slim. But if you’re a fire lieutenant, fire commander, assistant fire chief, a police sergeant, lieutenant, captain, you have the potential. The odds may be slim as a sergeant or a fire lieutenant, but in part the committee’s view was that we want to try to create a pool of candidates, we get a good return on the investment because by the time those individuals have reached those ranks they’ve been here 10-12 years. They’re probably not going to leave. We will get a return on our investment in terms of them being better midline supervisors and as they are promoted through the ranks they will apply those skills to the other positions that follow. They looked at who has the potential for a leadership role in the department and if they do, then the City would consider it. Alderman Lampe asked if the committee would take into consideration what degree they are attempting to obtain. Bob said yes.
Alderman Rudebusch was unclear about the intent of the memo. Was it to alert the Committee of the upcoming request with more information and actual tuition reimbursement requests to follow? Bob indicated yes, the request was to find out if the City was willing to help in obtaining a masters degree. Bob was relating to the new committee the discussion that the previous committee had in that there’s a difference between an associate degree and a bachelor’s degree for the average departmental employee versus a masters for the senior individuals. Alderman Kopplin asked for the minutes from the previous Personnel Committee’s discussions regarding masters degree courses. She felt that if an employee wants to obtain a masters degree, they should be willing to put some of their own money toward the degree. Alderman Lampe added that if there’s only so much money available in the pool, they’re only going to get a part of it anyway, so they would have to make up the difference. Bob stated that the discussions occurred over 3-4 meetings regarding Berglund and that the committee wrestled with that issue. Berglund realized that the tuition reimbursement amounts would not cover the class.
Jerry added that his department is running into issues at the bachelor level. Satula was probably close to $10,000. The committee wondered how Satula managed to take so many courses. Jerry indicated that it was an accelerated program, which seems to be the trend in health education. When Jerry went, he was going 4½ hours per night. They figure adults know how to get down to business and they move quickly. Concordia is one of the most accelerated in terms of time frames. Bob will get the minutes from the different discussions, which occurred over 4-5 meetings.
This year, Jerry received $16,800 in requests and right now he has $5,000 to allocate, so not everybody’s going to get what they want. It has been staff policy that the department head decides on the allocation. Jerry gives priority to those employees who have already started a degree program and then to those who have to establish a certain educational level to either receive or hold a promotion. For example, the Lieutenant candidates who were approved now have until 2004 to have an associate degree or they won’t hold the position. Then he considered seniority since they may be in the promotional pool next.
The committee discussed if any senior employees have masters degrees. Right now a Fire Chief is not required to have a masters degree. It is a goal, but it is not a requirement right now. Bob explained that in most of the departments in city hall it is an expectation that we try to find someone with a masters degree.
At the time Tom Bauer and Jerry Hammernik were promoted, the issue of a masters education for employees was not there. Since that time, both the Police and Fire Departments have put a big push on education and may change their job descriptions to require more education for the senior individuals. More Police command staff are being sent to college level training academies all with an attempt to improve education and related skills. The masters degree came up subsequent to that.
Alderman Lampe asked if the committee approved the requests of Jendusa and Satula, will there be enough money for Rosandich? Jerry indicated that there is additional funding beyond the $5,000 available in the budget, which is subject to the union coming up with some trade offs.
Alderman Lampe made a motion to approve the tuition reimbursement requests for Jendusa, Rosandich, Satula and Carter. Alderman Rudebusch seconded the motion. All aye; motion carried.
Alderman Rudebusch added that the committee would not make a decision on Lt. Bolender’s request without additional information – the exact amount being requested, the degree (courses) being attempted, and what school he plans to attend. Alderman Kopplin added that she would like to see information on the upper command staff, how long they’ve been with the City.
Item 4. Update on health insurance
Bob sent out a memo to the Committee members on the upcoming health insurance Committee meeting on January 21st. The Personnel Committee members are welcome to attend. The meetings will be monthly on Monday mornings unless we need to meet more often. Bob expanded the size of the committee to include people outside the union leadership ranks. We’ve had good participation from some of the non-leadership people. The intent of the first meeting will be to set some goals and objectives for the year.
Bob also volunteered to serve on a League of Wisconsin Municipalities SEME committee looking at broader health insurance cost issues and he wanted the Committee to see that he will be attending the meeting in West Bend on January 17th.
Item 5. Update on wellness program
Marie had the first meeting of the Wellness Committee today. There were two spouses, multiple employees. It was a very good meeting. There was one of the EAP providers there to generally explain how the program works. Marie has been working with Jerry and his staff on the Fire component and there are still questions on services and costs there. The Wellness Committee is intending to send out a survey next week to try and find out how much interest there is and where that interest lies. That program is going to start up and the Personnel Committee will see some specific reports in February as to the feedback. The Personnel Committee asked who the members of the Wellness Committee were and suggested that a retiree member be included. Requests for funding and a layout of the program for the year will be submitted to the Personnel Committee.
Item 6. Discussion of non-union annual adjustment for 2002
No discussion took place.
Item 7. Discussion on Library salary adjustments for 2002
Ross submitted a memo to Bob dated January 9, 2002 regarding the health insurance co-pay issue for Library staff members. As far as a subsequent adjustment for full time Library personnel, that’s contingent on the percentage increase granted to the non-union employees for the annual increase. Bob believed that there was a misunderstand on how Ross was looking at those numbers and then when RoseAnn and Bob sat down and talked with him, they understood each other and what was intended.
When the non-union employees started paying the health insurance premium copayment, they received a larger percentage increase (3.9%), which was slightly less than what the Police Supervisors (Sergeants) got, which was 4%, and made the same health copayment. Last year when the Library did their adjustments, the subsequent action to have a slightly higher wage in lieu of paying the health insurance payment came after and the Library never went back and adjusted for it. Their adjustment would have been 2.9%.
Bob presented several options for non-union wage adjustments for 2002 in a memo dated January 9, 2002. The budget includes 3.9% for 1/1/02 plus 1% as of 7/1/02.
Jerry reminded the Personnel Committee that department heads are the people that save the City money and don’t have a say in their wages and benefits. This adds to the difficulty of getting union employees to want to leave their bargaining group and become management. He added that there is no profit sharing or bonuses with City employment. His retirement plan is something that he has earned over 27 years. He and his assistant chiefs are required to work overtime. Jerry indicated that it is the department’s policy that when an "all hands" call goes out, that means everyone must respond and there have been more and more all hands lately. That means he must respond. Over the Christmas holiday, the only day he did not work some period of time was Christmas Day. The only ambulance crew available in the City at one point on Christmas Eve was Jerry and Mike Rutz because everyone else was committed to call. If he hadn’t come in, there wasn’t an ambulance available. The Fire Department is understaffed and the only way they keep the system working is because the command staff is responding to calls and working overtime.
Bob added that it took two years to fill positions in Engineering because employees were afraid of not being treated fairly as they would if they stayed in the union. One of the discrepancies between union and non-union employees is that the union employees have set wage scales and are given step increases in addition to their annual contract increases. Non-union employees have no progression through their pay range over time. There are no criteria established for how to reach the top of the range.
Although many years ago people may have taken lower wages for a City job, Alderman Kopplin could not recall any employees being laid off in the past 48 years.
Bob hoped that the Personnel Committee wasn’t looking at creating disincentives for people to either leave or move back into union positions because they’re much better off financially. Over the next few years we will lose a lot of good people as the group that came in 20-30 years ago are retiring. You don’t necessarily replace those skills with someone with 15 years of experience. Every year this has been a controversial issue. He hopes that the committee not only looks at the issues now but what the impact will be. When the Committee hasn’t made adjustments, catch up adjustments need to be made. The same percentage does not have to be set for all non-union employees, but typically it has been the same. The Committee and the Council have the prerogative to do whatever they want.
Item 8. Discussion on comments received on performance evaluation process
Bob distributed comments that were received as well as our existing procedure and forms. He hoped that the Committee could look over the information and discuss it at the next meeting.
Alderman Rudebusch also wanted to discuss the City Administrator’s role as Project Manager for the new Police Station and his other duties. Perhaps the committee could come up with a realistic timeline or at least benchmarks for what would happen this year so this committee can then monitor that it’s on schedule. Bob distributed a list of his ongoing projects on Monday. She also wanted a list of the projects that were on his plate for this year. One other suggestion was to identify what issues could be delegated to other people to make sure they get done.
Item 9. The Committee went into Executive Session at approximately 6:20 p.m. pursuant to Wisconsin State Statutes Section 19.895(1)(c) and (e) for:
a. Discussion on status of labor negotiations with Police Clerks
b. Discussion on status of fire arbitration, other grievances and other issues
c. Discussion on status of negotiations with Local 133
Item 10. Consider a motion to reconvene into Open Session at 7:30 p.m. to take action on any or all Executive Session items
a. No action was taken.
b. No action was taken.
c. No action was taken.
The meeting adjourned at 8:00 p.m.