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1998-11-04 Regular Meeting MINUTES Personnel Advisory Board 4 tit Quarter Regular Meeting November 4, 1998 5: 15 p.m. I. CALL TO ORDER The Personnel Advisory Board fourth quarter regular meeting of November 4, 1998, was called to order by Chris Nielsen, Chairman, at 5: 17 p.m. in the borough conference room. II. ROLL CALL Present Staff Chris J amin Warren Russell Chris Nielsen Dorothy Weeks Bud Cassidy Tom Dunham Linda Freed Chris Lynch Sharon Kennedy Tom Manninen Kaye R. McClain Mary Munk Eileen Probasco James A. Skog Tina Seelinger Paul VanDyke David Weinand Linda Moore- staff support (Note: a vacancy on the board has not yet been filled since resignation of Craig Fanning who moved from Kodiak.) A quorum was established. Ill. ACCEPT ANCE OF AGENDA The agenda was accepted as submitted. IV. MINUTES OF PREVIOUS REGULAR MEETING The minutes of the third quarter meeting of July 22, 1998 were approved unanimously. V. ITEMS OF BUSINESS a) Ordinance 98-23, referred to Personnel Advisory Board August 6, 1998 Mr. Nielsen read aloud Ordinance 98-23 and opened the floor to discussion. Ms. Jamin asked about the need for a decision. Mr. Russell read from the minutes of the Assembly, dated August 6, 1998, which stated they were looking for the advisory board to review the ordinance and make recommendations to the Assembly. Ms. Jamin stated that items a-e of202.1 were in the Personnel Manual with paragraph item "f' being the item added for approval within Ordinance 98-23. This new paragraph would give the Borough Assembly the additional responsibility and authority to establish Borough policy regarding personnel matters including: "f Approve, by ordinance, additions and/or changes to position descriptions, position classification plans and salary schedule." She added that the duties were now under the new P~rsonnd Advisory Board Page 1 November 4, 1998 .JIll manager's job description. Members indicated that they had read the Manager's memo dated November 3, 1998. Mr. Nielsen agreed that paragraph "f" was the only item to be addressed and that it appeared the Assembly wanted to take responsibilities away from the Borough manager, and return it back to the Assembly. Ms. Jamin suggested referring to the Personnel Manual, Section 304, Position Descriptions, stating that the Borough Manager, " shall analyze and evaluate the duties and responsibilities of each position description to assure that it reflects the tasks that are needed to meet the goals and objectives of the Kodiak Island Borough. Upon the Manager's approval of the position description, it shall be reviewed for proper placement on the salary schedule. The Manager will recommend any new or revised salary range placement to the Personnel Board". Before voting it was agreed that the new manager should be introduced. Public Comments: Mr. Tom Manninen referred to his memo expressing his strong feelings of where the manager should be and the existing duties of the position. He stated that it was not necessary to change the ordinance to accomplish goals and objectives of the assembly since basically the assembly appoints the Personnel Advisory Board, the assembly approves the budget, hires the manager and controls the entire system. He stated that administering a personnel pay plan has the potential to open up the Borough to some litigation and should be handled in a confidential manner as in the past. He did not think it should be a political decision but an administrative decision. He felt defensive about writing a memo so early in his short tenure but saw it as an important critical core management issue. He concluded that he appreciated the consideration and recommendation of his memo to the assembly. Mr. Nielsen opened the floor to discussion of paragraph "f". Ms. Tina Seelinger, Child Care Assistance Administrator, stated that she agreed with the Manager's memo. Mr. Manninen added that his memo was given to employees after the Board had received the memo. Since it was a public meeting he felt they were entitled to receive that information. He felt that staff members were present because they had their own concerns. Linda Freed, Community Development Director, stated that previously job descriptions were taken before the assembly during regular meetings and usually amended without administrative input. She felt the process became political and placed an unnecessary liability burden on the Borough. She added that in the past, due to this ordinance procedure to the assembly, job descriptions were not updated and were inaccurate which resulted in an out of date personnel system. Dave Weinand, Maintenance worker, liked the thought of working for the Manager. He felt it would be less intimidating to file a complaint to one person rather than several. James Skog felt that the personnel policy was fine and the Manager should be allowed to do his job. He didn't feel that the Assembly had time for extra meetings. Bud Cassidy, Resource Manager and Shop Steward, said he was not formally representing the union, as they had not taken a position on this ordinance. He appreciated hearing Ms. Freed's history since it was prior to his being hired. He stated Personnel Advisory Board Page 2 November 4, 1998 I . that they hired a manager to do whatever was necessary to achieve their goals and objectives and they should allow the manager to perform his duties. Mr. Cassidy stated that the salary schedule and process were adopted by the assembly with a position given a numerical rating through a mathematical function depending on the responsibility level. He concluded that the process may not be the best system but the Personnel Advisory Board should look at changing the process if necessary and support the Manager. In response to Mr. Nielsen, Mr. Cassidy answered that the personnel policies accepted by the Assembly were a part of the two-year old union contract. Mr. Nielsen asked if this was a negotiable issue or cause for a grievance. Mr. Cassidy answered that the wage and salary schedule was set by the manager and certainly wage considerations were a mandatory item. In response to Ms. Jamin, Mr. Cassidy answered that there were personnel, primarily department heads, that were not covered under the contract and, theoretically, changes could be made to the policy that would effect them as non-union people. Mr. Cassidy further stated that union employees were protected under the contract to a certain extent; however, the Borough Assembly could eliminate positions. He added the assembly budgeted for human resource training and felt they would want to use those experts to keep the Borough out of litigation. Ms. Kaye McClain, Project Assistant, urged the board to support the manager and vote against the ordinance. Board Member Comments: Ms. Jamin stated she agreed with most of the discussion and felt the assembly as a policy making body did not need to get involved in the day to day management of personnel issues or micro-managing. She added that since the manager was willing and able to manage that this policy should not be changed. She stated that she would vote against it. Ms. Weeks agreed with Ms. Jamin and said it sounded like there was a breakdown in the lines of communication between employees, the manager and the assembly. She felt that getting into everyday issues could cause real problems. She stated she would vote against the ordinance. Mr. Russell was disappointed that there was no one present to represent the other side to find out their rationale. He added that just on merit alone, the points brought up were valid and made good managerial sense. He stated that these points were the reasonable person's standard that he liked to base his decisions on. He noted that in the minutes from the regular assembly minutes, former Mayor Selby also stated that the change was ill advised and that lawsuits had developed from this type of issue. He wondered if those issues were even considered by the person that brought them out and did they think about what they were doing. Director Freed clarified that Assemblymember Arndt was on the Assembly in the early 80's when the ordinance procedure was used. Mr. Cassidy added that the personnel minutes from the last meeting gave a fairly good discussion of why this issue was presented. The Board expressed that this was only one person's view. Personnel Advisory Board Page 3 November 4, 1998 L Mr. Nielsen read aloud from page three of the Personnel Advisory Board meeting minutes of July 22, 1998 in which Mr. Arndt indicated that it was his intent to bring job descriptions back to the assembly. It was noted that Mr. Arndt was not present to give them more background. Mr. Nielsen asked if there was any further discussion. Discussion was held on language for the motion. Mr. Russell made the motion, with a second by Ms. Jamin, '''that Ordinance 98-23 be accepted by the Personnel Advisory Board and be forwarded to the Assembly for adoption". The motion failed with all members voting nay. b) Personnel Status Reoort Ms. Weeks asked about any suits or grievances against the Borough. Ms. Moore indicated that there were none within the personnel area of the Borough. Mr. Nielsen and Ms. Jamin added that they liked having phone numbers with the list of the employees. Ms. Weeks stated that there had been an exceptional amount of new hires and terminations and wondered if this had to do with the changes in the borough. Ms. Jamin stated that there were a lot of temporaries. Ms. Moore indicated that there had been the normal summer turnover but there also was extraordinary changes made in personnel. She indicated that there did not seem to be any particular reason with some. resignations due to family changes with spouses relocating but none appeared to be associated with the change in management. Ms. Weeks noted that there were forty- one persons now with the Borough which seemed low. She was reminded by Ms. Jamin that the staff of mental health was now with the hospital. Ms. J amin asked if the Personnel Manual would be changed to reflect the revised wording from Mayor to Manager. Ms. Moore indicated that that the' manual language had been changed and the copying process would begin next week. A copy of the Personnel Manual changes would be sent to each Board member. Mr. Nielsen asked about the special meeting mentioned. Ms. Moore indicated that a date for a special meeting of the directors was needed to address the job description changes and to approve the job/salary placement for the Clerk's department for the new position of Assistant Clerk. She indicated that the items to be addressed were in the Personnel Status Report. She stated that all materials would be distributed to each member for review of the recommendations and determination factors prior to the meeting date. Ms. Weeks asked if someone should go to the Borough Assembly meeting to answer any questions. Ms. Moore confirmed that a copy of the minutes would go to the Clerk's office. Director Freed stated that the Assembly had a provision on the agenda for committee representatives and that the committee could decide if the action was significant enough to have a representative present. PenOlUlcl Advisory Board Pap 4 Nowmber 4, 1m t Ms. Weeks stated that a representative from the advisory board should be present if the Assembly was discussing the ordinance and had any questions. It was suggested that they all could attend the next Assembly meeting as they had once done in the past. Mr. Nielsen asked for clarification about the changes being made in the Clerk's office. Ms. Moore indicated there was no new position at this time and that the Board's approval of the position and salary placement needed to be made. She suggested that a possible meeting date could be set while all the members were together. She stated that the Clerk was anxious to have these changes addressed; however, not everything was finalized. She felt the documents would be ready within a week or two. Brief discussion to set a date. She stated that the Clerk would like to be present and asked that the date not conflict with an assembly meeting but there was no rush to do it immediately. Mr. Russell and Ms. Jamin indicated that they would be unavailable during the weeks of November 16th and 23rd, respectively. Mr. Manninen suggested that the board delay their meeting until after the next regular Assembly meeting scheduled for December 3rd in which the Assembly would address Ordinance 98-23. Ms. Jamin suggested Monday, December 7, 1998 for a special meeting to address the one issue. The group agreed on that date and set a time of 5:15 p.m. Ms. Moore said that she would have all materials out to the members in advance of the meeting. In response to Mr. Russell, Ms. Moore indicated that the PC Technician I to LAN Administrator was a promotion and the new employee would start November 9th. Vf. COMMENTS Ms. Weeks extended her thanks to all employees for coming. She indicated that she was glad to meet the new Manager and see all the folks there. Mr. Cassidy thanked her and the board for being volunteers. VII. ADJOURNMENT The fourth quarter regular meeting was adjourned at 6:02 p.m. Respectfully submitted by: +.ul~' Lmda oore Secretary Chris Nielsen, Chairman APPROVED: Personnel Advisory Board Page 5 November 4, 1998 J