06-23-2021 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

MINUTES CITY COUNCIL DUNE 239 2021 EMPLOYEE WORKFLEX POLICY The City Administrator explained that the current Personnel Policy has no language related to workflex or working from home. He stated that after staff has been working from home for the past year, this has created a need to put some language and parameters in place to officially continue allowing flexible work schedules. He noted this policy would be good for staff morale and help with keeping and recruiting staff. He explained that the policy lays out a few different options for a flexible schedule, and proposes a limit of 24 hours per pay period for working from home. The City Clerk stated that staff does a good job keeping in contact with each other even when not together in the office, and things have continued to operate very well over the last 15 months, even when the City Hall building was closed to the public. Fischer stated that he is supportive of allowing flexibility, but noted that Little Canada has always provided exceptional of customer service, and he is concerned that since there is only a small staff, having too many staff out of the office could lessen the level of service, along with putting an extra burden on the staff who are in the office. He stated that the policy currently states that up to 30% of an employee's work time could be done remote, and he mostly concerned by that number because of the impact of other people getting their work done. He stated maybe we start smaller and work our way up. Torkelson suggested having discussions about how to make Little Canada a family - friendly place to work that would not tax the other employees. Fischer suggested that the amount of time allowed to work remotely should also address the regular part-time employees, so maybe there should be a percentage of time also. Fischer suggested starting at a maximum of 20 hours or 25% of regularly scheduled hours can be done remotely, and we bring it back in six months to review. Fischer introduced the following resolution and moved its adoption: RESOL UTION NO. 2021-6-82 — APPROVE THE ADDITION OF THE NEW WORKFLEX POLICY INTO THE PERSONNEL POLICY WITH THE STIP ULA TION OF CHANGING THE REMOTE WORK TO A MAXIMUM OF 20 HOURS PER PAY PERIOD OR 25% OF THE HOURS REGULARLY WORKED The foregoing resolution was duly seconded by Keis. Ayes (5). Nays (0). Resolution declared adopted. EMERALD ASH BORER UPDATE The Parks & Rec/Community Services Manager reviewed what Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) is and how it is affecting trees in Little Canada and across the country. He stated that the EAB problems have come on fairly quickly here and there are many trees already past the point of being able to treat and save them. He explained there are trees that need to be removed and some are treatable. He stated that an arborist did an inventory of the Ash trees in parks and public property to rate if they are treatable or not. He noted that staff has not yet looked at the trees in the right-of-way, but it is estimated that there are 8,000 trees in the right-of-way. He stated that an option is to send out a Request for Proposals to tree companies for the treatment and removal options for the residents if they choose to deal with their ash trees. He explained that the idea with an RFP is to have tree 3