Employee Forum Minutes

July 8, 2004

Police Station Investigating Conf. Room

 

Members Present: Jonathan Bell, Felix Bloch, Ann Brown, Maggie Burnett, Charles Bynum, Lisa Edwards, Amy Harvey, Chelsea Laws, Mona Nazir, Willie Quick, Iris Schwintzer, Deborah Squires, Jackie Thompson, Traval Watkins, Susie Whaley, Mary Jean William

 

Members Absent: Than Austin, Chris Blue, Dorice Johnson, Norman Clark, Kelly Stokes, Wes Tilghman

 

•The minutes from the June 10, 2004 meeting were approved.

• The Cell Phone usage Policy was put on the “House Cleaning Issue” list to be revisited in the August meeting

•The issue of the Computer rental arrangement was discussed in length.  Ten Computers will be used as rental computer with Windows 2000 only on them. Employees who meet the criteria will be eligible to participate in the Lottery Drawing.  The criteria are as follows:

Employee must be permanent – full or part time

Employee must be off of probation and in good standing

If select to take home a computer after your year in rental you have to wait a year to resubmit you name to the lottery. If the computer fails within the first 6 months of rental you may resubmit your name in the following year.

IT will not support/repair/maintain any of these computers while the employee has them for a year.  If the computers are damaged extensively or returned late a fee will be issued.  Once returned the computers will be cleaned off.  If they are still in good shape, they will be made available again, or they may be auctioned off.

It was brought up to investigate if the Employee at some point will be able to purchase the computer after the rental period.

A sign up list will be provided to each Representative to place in their departments.  The list will be brought back to the August meeting and the 10 Employees will be drawn out of a hat at that time.

•Lisa briefly went over the meeting with Cal concerning the selection for the new Public Works Director.  She stated that Cal appreciated our concern and interest on this issue and implement our suggestions.

Mary Jean suggested some additional location that might be helpful in the search for Director to create a diverse group of applicants.  It is the Forum’s hope that the “net will be cast” to broaden the spectrum of area of search.  The Forum was interested in where the advertisements had been placed for this position and hoped that HR could provide this information.

•During the discussion for the Computer Lottery several other past issues were brought up that have yet been resolved.  A “House Cleaning” list was then drafted up. These issues will be discussed in the next meeting with the objective to resolve as many as possible before new issues are brought to the table.  The list is as follows:

Computer Lottery drawing

Employee ID badges

Employee Discount Card

Extending Health Insurance to employees on extend leave from the Town

Cell Phone Usage Policy

Adverse weather police due to lack of new generator at Town Hall

Diversity Issues

Supplemental Insurance

Spanish Classes

Donated time policy – sick leave to sick leave

Public Works Director Search Committee

Tuition Reimbursement

 

It was suggested that Anissa Graham-Davis attend the next few meeting to assist in clearing up some of these issues.

 

•On July 20, a few of the Forum members met with Catherine Lazorko to discuss the Town Newsletter.  It was decide the newsletter would be done monthly to go to the employees with the last bi-weekly pay check of the month.  It would be ledger size and folded in half to be 4 pages of information.  Catherine will discuss with the Department Head at their weekly meeting the need for each department to have a representative to submit information to her. The Forum will have a section to keep the employees informed on what we are doing.  The first newsletter will be in September.