Employee Forum Minutes
May 12, 2005
Library Conference
Room
Members Present: Maggie Burnett, Charles Bynum, Norman
Clark, Beth Dean, Terry Gearhart, Lee Harris, Amy Harvey, Ceberettia Hinton, Dorice
Johnson, Chelsea Laws, Kristi McClellan, Jerry Neville, Will Quick, Deborah
Squires, Jackie Thompson, Wendy Walsh, Traval Watkins
Absent: Jon Bell, Chris Blue, Ann Brown, Donnie
Rhoads, Wes Tilghman,
Guest: Lisa Edwards, Human Resources
Opened: 9:10 am
- Correction to April Minutes- The Forum was asked to get
feedback from employees in their departments regarding budget
subcommittee’s recommendations and the potential changes HR will propose
to the Council regarding health insurance. The original minutes stated
that the Forum members were asked to poll employees. The minutes have been
changed to reflect this.
New Items:
- It was suggested that the Forum invite Catherine Lazorko
to the next meeting. It is still unclear what her requirements are
regarding the Employee Forum submissions to Town Talk. The goal is to
clarify what types of information should be included and in what type of
format. The Forum would like to have more effective representation in the
Town Talk publication.
- Proposal to request payroll deductions for Dell Computer
purchases and AFLAC supplemental insurance was presented. Clarification is
needed on several things before presenting to the Town Manager:
1. Correct
that the deductions for computer purchase are not done on a pre-tax basis.
2. Clarify
if employees will still get discounts if they opt for pay roll deduction and
not full payment up front.
3. Find
out if Dell is still offering this discount and get specific details on the
offer.
4. What
will happen to debt if employee is terminated or quits? Who will be responsible
for the remainder of the monies owed?
Follow up on May 9th meeting:
- The employee forum has agreed to support all of the
proposed changes that HR has presented regarding raising health insurance
deductibles to keep premiums down, eliminate new employee probationary
salary increases after 6 months and offer the full salary up front,
eliminate the probationary period for promotions, and increase life
insurance. All of these issues are explained further in the documents HR
handed out at the presentations conducted last month.
The Employee Forum has agreed to
remain neutral on the proposal that employees paid weekly must move to a
bi-weekly pay cycle because of mixed feelings. This proposal has been given to
the Manager, but it has not been presented yet. It has been suggested by the
BRAC for the Council to consider. It will be presented possibly at the May 18th
Council meeting. The Forum decided to have one representative present employee
concerns to the Council during that meeting. It was also identified that the
Ordinance states that some employees are paid on a weekly basis. The Forum
feels that the Ordinance must be changed before the Council decides whether or
not to move all payroll cycles to bi-weekly. The Forum members are encouraged
to seek employee turnout at the May 18th public hearing as a show of
support and presence.
Regarding annual pay raises: The
presentation made last year to the Council was read aloud to the Forum. Many of
the concerns last year reflect the concerns of this year regarding the decision
for the Council to approve pay raises for employees. Maggie Burnett has
volunteered to speak on behalf of the Employee Forum and all employees
regarding this Council issue. Other employees were encouraged to speak if they
felt that they had an issue to bring before the Council as well.
Work Group Summaries:
- Benefits: Group will contact Dell computers to find out
about a discount program. Group will also continue to research the
Employee discount program and what other municipalities are offering.
- Education: Discussed Spanish classes again. Identified
that there is a need, but there is no money in the budget. There is no
easy way to compensate teachers and find a good way to balance times to
implement the classes. Lisa Edwards agreed to meet with work group to
discuss issues and ways to come up with a training program. The group also
started to discuss diversity training for employees, and Lisa agreed to
work with the group on this topic as well.
- Communication: This group also discussed diversity
training. Will meet with Lisa Edwards regarding this topic. In the IT
Committee meetings, there has been discussion about changing the 3 year
computer rotation to 4 or 5 years. This will not only affect the employees
scheduled to receive new computers, but it will also affect the Employee
Forum computer loan program. The group will discuss this further. The
group also discussed finding ways to promote the Forum web site as a
communication tool since we have been having difficulty communicating
through the Town Talk publication.
- Policy: Will continue to compile information regarding the
Shared Leave Policy ie: Sick time to sick time. With this being
a particularly difficult budget year, we have decided not to make a
presentation to Mr. Horton until after the budget has been approved.
Preliminary indications from Mr. Horton have been implementing this policy
would be at a significant expense. For this reason he has expressed
considerable reservations about having such a policy.
Town Talk:
No topic discussed this month. Next month we will invite
Catherine Lazorko to the Forum Meeting to discuss what information we are able
to put in the publication and what format is needed.
Agenda Items for May:
- Invite Catherine Lazorko to the Forum to discuss Town Talk
- Utilizing 1 hr per day for fitness activities for all
employees
Adjourned: 11:00