Employee Forum Minutes

January 8, 2004

2^nd Floor Training Room

Town Hall

 

Members Present:  Than Austin, Felix Bloch, Charles Bynum, Lisa Edwards, Dorice Johnson, Chelsea Laws, Mona Nazir, Iris Schwintzer, Deborah Squires, Jackie Thompson, Wes Tilghman, Susie Whaley, Mary Jean Williams

 

Members Absent:  Jonathan Bell, Chris Blue, Ann Brown, Maggie Burnett, Wille Quick, David Sassar, Kelly Stokes, Traval Watkins

 

Ex-offico Members Present:  Carol Abernethy

 

• The minutes from the 12/11/03 meeting were approved with minor changes.
• Items for discussion today were approved.

      Felix mentioned the memo sent out regarding the EF meeting with the manager on 1/13/04 at 9:00a.m. , and that     he hopes everyone can make a point to be there.

      Susie mentioned that Maggie Burnett received acknowledgement that the Manager had received the memo   regarding extended leave and health insurance coverage and that he would be commenting on it during the            scheduled meeting if not sooner.  She also mentioned that Maggie was on leave until mid-February due to     surgery. Felix suggested that when someone in the EF is out for an extended period should we send a ‘Get-Well’   card.  Mary Jean Williams said she thought the Communications group should do that. It was agreed that she        would assume this responsibility on behalf of the EF.

      Susie also asked if the WG chairpersons could give her a brief synopsis of what their group discussed at the end      of the meeting it would be most helpful. 

• Election Process Changes/Improvements:  Response from nominees’ variable between departments. -Make nominations form anonymous. Possibly have the bottom half a ‘tear off and return’ type form. – Getting election results to employees difficult. Some suggestions for getting the word out were: webpage; posting a department specific memo announcing results; a possible EF (periodic) newsletter; article in ‘The Communicator’ (if still in existence); send out a notice to individual departments for bulletin boards, flyer for handing out at EAD noting accomplishments of the EF; identify other occasions where we may want to promote the EF; Mona Nazir stated that if anyone has suggestions for the web page to let her know.
• EF Representation:  -This is an item we may discuss with the Manager at our meeting.  –MaryJean spoke with folks in Finance and Parking Services and they think it is a good idea to have a Parking Services representative on the EF.  –It has also been proposed that the Maintenance Division of Transportation have a representative on the EF because the people in Transit Operations don’t have the opportunity to interact with people in Maintenance. –Talk with the manager about the proposal and get his feed back. –To select representatives, look at lists of nominees that were voted on and select the ones from within those divisions with the highest votes.  At the next election those two divisions will select reps. by the voting process.

      The use of alternate representatives was brought up because of lack of some departments being represented.           This is another issue that can be raised with the Manager.  It was mentioned that when we talked about this last        year that we had decided that the reps. would find someone to come in their place if they could not make a   meeting.  It was noted that it obviously takes an effort to plan and schedule to be at a meeting and that the   problem is not completely clear.  It was suggested that the attendance spread sheet be shown to the Manager.

·         Felix suggested that members who are willing to present certain items in preparation for our meeting with the manager would be helpful. 

            Iris or Lisa – policy issue with health insurance

            Felix Bloch - Division representation & proposing changes to Town policies

            Than Austin- Attendance/Alternates

            Status of issues that have been previously presented

·         Work Group Designation for New/Current Members:  Presently there are 5 standing WG’s and one ad hoc group;       Elections.  Felix suggested that each group consider if the WG needs to be reconfigured or possibly eliminated.       New members were asked to go to a WG of their choice. Than Austin proposed merging the Benefits WG with the       Hiring/Promotion WG.  This was agreed upon by members present with the possibility of reforming the WG at a        later date and possibly renaming the combined WG. New members will be given the choice of which WG they will      serve on as well as designating who will lead the lead the WG at our February meeting.

 

Work Group Discussion

 

            Benefits:

Ø       The Benefits WG merged with the Hiring/Promotions WG

Ø       Reviewed the goals and objectives for the WG established at the beginning of last year

 

Ø       Discussed a draft proposal for an Employee Wellness Program.  The proposal will be re-drafted for the next meeting.

Ø       Discussed requests form other WG’s including expanding funeral leave for personal leave and community service activities.

 

Town Policies:

Ø       Reviewed Health insurance premium coverage during leave with out pay after FMLA 12-week coverage.

Ø       Looked at specifics on leave with out pay and gained clarification from Personnel Policy Section #2, Policy #7

 

            Education/Training:

Ø       Covered past proposals that have been submitted.  Will discuss the status with Cal in the upcoming meeting to see if these proposals will be covered in the next budget year.

Ø       Discussed the fact that a Wellness person will not be hired for the Town.  Is it possible to have an HR person or one of the safety people in Transportation or Fire to coordinate some of the training proposals?

Ø       New issue of educational reimbursement tier proposal. The amount of $500 per fiscal year is given to Town Employees for educational reimbursement.  Lisa Edwards has asked if it is possible to tier this amount according to the type of degree an employee is trying to obtain.  Lisa will be handing over information she has obtained from HR to show what other municipalities are contributing to their employees. 

 

Communications/Employee Relations:

Ø       Need to request information from HR about numbers of employees with 5 years or more of service who did not receive service certificates the first time around in December, 2003.

Ø       Employee Appreciation Day- Employee Forum PR Table Information about the EF and the accomplishments.  Request other representatives to volunteer.

Ø       Communication Group will be responsible for mailing cards to EF members who are out of work sick, new baby, or other extended leave of absence reasons. Other representatives will notify communications group leader of person on leave.

Ø       Recommend diversity speakers to discuss diversity issues with the EF.

 

Items for next meeting:

Ø       Election of new officers; members can email nominations to Deborah. It was suggested that HR (Anissa Graham-Davis) help with ballots.