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Employee Forum Minutes April 24, 2003 Library Meeting Room
Members Present: Than Austin, Felix Bloch, Maggie Burnett, Brigid Cox, Amy Edwards, Lisa Edwards, Amy Harvey, Chelsea Laws, Mona Nazir, David Sasser, Iris Schwintzer, Deborah Squires, Susie Whaley, Mary Jean Williams
Members Absent: Ann Brown, Jeff Clark, Bernard Leach, George Long, Leanne Mikels, Kelly Stokes, Traval Watkins, Rodney Watson,
Ex-officio members present: Lindsay Wallace; Human Resources, Sabrina Farrar; Housing
v Minutes from the 4/10/03 meeting approved v EF members added to Working Groups (WG) Amy Edwards- #3 Education/Training Chelsea Laws- #1 Communication/Employee Relations Iris Schwintzer- #5 Town Polices v Felix Bloch and Than Austin will work on a plan for communicating with the Town Manager; it was suggested that the WG leaders could represent the particular issue presented or discussed and that the EF as a whole would approve the idea or suggestion before it is presented v Felix Bloch will draft an article about the EF for the Communicator to be presented to the EF for comments before submitting to Lindsay Wallace by May 1st v There was a concern brought forward that departments that have only one representative in the EF are not being represented when they are absent. Discussion revolved around reasons for absences such as work related issues, family responsibilities, possibly not taking the EF seriously, etc. Felix Bloch asked the secretary for a list of who has been absent and dates. There will be further discussion next meeting looking at the possibilities of an alternate representative. v Work Groups met individually to discuss how they would work on their goals/issues and progress was discussed with the plenary group before the meeting adjourned. Reports from WG’s were as follows:
Communication/Employee Relations: · Decided that #13 (Study the current performance evaluation process for improvement and assurance of equal treatment by supervisors.) and #22 (Specific departments that may benefit from work force sensitivity training.) are issues that the Education/Training WG should look at. And #15 (Seek out ways to provide open communication at all levels without retaliation throughout the Town.) and #20 (Making an “open door policy” a reality.) are issues the Town Policy WG should work on. · Made #1 (Look for ways to improve communication at all levels.) our mission statement. · Look at diversity survey results for insight into what employees are feeling regarding communication. · Set up a web page for the EF to communicate what we are doing and provide a vehicle for employees to give their input in a non-threatening way · Added the words ‘and regular staff meetings’ to #21 (Hold department or division retreats to increase team building and to air issues.) because some departments/divisions do not have regular staff meetings
Promotion/Hiring: Did not meet due to 2 of 3 members absence
Education/Training · Come up with a list of different options to compile a survey to present to Forum member, who in turn will present to their departments to complete – come up with survey by June · The work group would like to do as much of the leg work as necessary to assist whoever will be setting up the Educational/Training sessions. We will get contact persons and numbers and even set up time and date if necessary to assure the sessions are followed through · We would like to establish Spanish classes at different times and days so that all the employees have an opportunity to take advantage of these classes · We would like to see some sort of Educational session offered once a month to Employees on various topics – to be established from survey · No mission statement was established during this session, however will work on one in next meeting
Benefits: · Look into other municipalities' programs for Town-provided home buyer assistance for Town employees to enable more Town employees to live in Town · Investigate providing additional transit services to Town employees living outside Chapel Hill, including shuttles to outlying areas, encouraging carpooling, survey of Town employees, communicating with Transit about possibilities · Look into providing better dental insurance for Town employees, including Town-paid coverage for employees, and other carrier options · Look into providing a Town identification card for all Town employees, could be used for discounts around Town and for general safety · Look into providing better financial advising/counseling for Town employees · Look into ways of promoting health for all Town employees, including discounts at health clubs, on-site exercise/shower facilities at Town buildings (new Public Works/Transit facilities especially), allowing/encouraging exercising during long lunch or other times · Relate ideas about holiday hours and inclement weather policies to the Town Policies Workgroup
Town Policies: · Looked at Leave Donation policy and dissected it to find uniformity between the Employee Handbook and the Payroll and Benefits Reps. Manual. Overall summary was that the policy is somewhat vague and certain wording should be changed or cleaned up to remove confusion. · Next meeting we will discuss the Holiday Pay policy. We hope to have some departmental policies to use as well.
Next meeting is on May 8th at 9:00a.m. at the Police Department Headquarters
Proposed agenda items: · Alternates for departments with one representative (Administration, Engineering, Finance, Housing, Human Resources, Information Technology, Inspections, Library, Parks and Recreation, Planning) · Establish location for dept that is hosting the monthly meeting, to insure that we have the Library, etc reserved ahead of time. · Break into Work Groups
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