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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/27/1987 Council Minutesoao WAYS AND MEANS COUNCIL MEETING APRIL 27, 1987 The Ways and Means Council meeting was called to order by Mayor Benson at 6:08 P. M. Council Members present: Marier, Bisel, Bohjanen, Reinert. Council Members absent: None. City Administrator, Randy Schumacher and Clerk- Treasurer, Marilyn Anderson were also present. Mayor Benson stated the purpose of this meeting is to consider employee evaluations. Mr. Schumacher asked to update the Council on two matters of interest to the Council prior to presenting his evaluations. 4th Avenue Improvement Project - As the Council is aware the County will proceed with upgrading Main Street from 4th Avenue to 35W start- ing in June. As part of that project the County has agreed to clean the ditch just east of 4th Avenue from Main Street south to where the City cleaned out the ditch for the 4th Avenue project. This means the entire ditch from Main Street south to Lilac Street will be cleaned and restored to the original condition. The City must get permission from the property owners on the east side of 4th Avenue so that equip- ment can entire on their properties to perform this work. The County will provide the City with names and addresses of the affected property owners. Circle Pines Gas Franchise - Circle Pines City Council will give final consideration to the Gas Franchise tomorrow evening at their regular council meeting. They are looking forward to extending gas service into Schilling's Lino Industrial Park. Employee Evaluations - Mr. Schumacher noted that at the last Ways and Means Committee meeting the Council discussed Comparable Worth and asked him to put together some ranges for employees who were out of sequence based on the Comparable Worth study. Two positions are out of sequence, the City Clerk and Administrative Assistant. Mr. Schumacher has put together a range for these two positions and the Council now should deal with how to get them into the range. Mayor Benson noted that this does not mean that they must be brought into range right now but only show how this will be done. This plan must be submitted to the State by August, 1987. Mr. Marier asked if he started working at the City today, where would he start in this range. Mr. Schumacher said at the bottom and then work up as tenure and knowledge of the position increased. Mr. Schumacher explained the procedure he used in preparing these evaluations. PAGE 1 IChief of Police, Dean Campbell - The Council read the evaluation of Mr. Campbell.. Mr. Bisel asked if the evaluation was based on what he accomplished in 1986 or what his goals are for 1987. Mr. Schumacher explained that he could not evaluate on the goals but only on performance. Mr. Bisel asked if the goals for 1987 are the same as goals for 1986. What is the correlation? Mr. Schumacher said this was explained under the comment section of Mr. Campbell's evaluation. Projects not completed that should have been completed were also noted in the comments section. 081 COUNCIL WAYS AND MEANS MEETING APRIL 27, 1987 Mr. Schumacher noted that Mr. Campbell has kept in contact with his office and has done a good job of stablizing his department which can be difficult to keep on the straight and narrow. He has also instituted some good programs. Public Works Director, Don Volk - Mr. Bisel asked what was meant by "outside interests ". Randy explained that Mr. Volk had started a business in Lino Lakes and that did take some of his time from the job. Mr. Schumacher did talk to Mr. Volk about this concern and as of late the problem has ceased. Mr. Schumacher noted that there was some projects not completed in 1986, most noteably the Seal Coat Program. This was an oversight on Mr. Volk's part. Mr. Bisel asked why Mr. Volk does not do written evaluations on his employees. Mr. Schumacher explained the evaluations are performed orally because Mr. Volk does not have the time to spend on administration type duties. He spends about 25% of his time in the office. He should really spend about 75% of his time in the office. Mr. Bohjanen asked if Mr. Volk has anyone who can work as a lead person to do some of the field work that he presently does. Mr. Schumacher said no. Mr. Marier suggested that since one or two of his men are retiring, he should hire replacements with some experience or capability in this area. Mr. Volk's goals for 1987 were discussed. Mr. Bisel questioned the Disease Tree Program and asked if this project was in form. Mr. Schumacher said some of it was and explained that Lino Lakes is a target area for the DNR demonstration project. Building Official, Pete Kluegel - Mr. Schumacher explained that Mr. Kluegel's work load has increased significantly. This growth is both in the area of building inspections and in planning. Mr. Schumacher explained that he is placing emphasis on establishing a Planning Program and is working on a joint planner program with White Bear Township. He has met with the Town Clerk and one member of the Town IBoard. One member of the Board was hesitant and wanted to hire a firm PAGE 2 O32 COUNCIL WAYS AND MEANS MEETING APRIL 27, 1987 rather than one planner. Mr. Hawkins is now in the process of preparing a joint agreement. Since the planning area is so important to Lino Lakes at this time, Mr. Schumacher felt that Mr. Kluegel was not the person for this position. The work load in inspections has increased significantly and since this is the area Mr. Kluegel is most familiar with he should not be asked to expand. Also Mr. Kluegel does not like to take responsibility and finds it difficult to make some decisions. Mr. Kluegel would like to get out of the planning area and concentrate on the inspections area. He will still have to enforce the ordinances and he will have to get tougher. He does work better if he has direct supervisions but will have to take the initiative to solve problems as they occur. Clerk- Treasurer, Marilyn Anderson - This is one of the two positions that are out of sequence in the Comparable Worth study. She does work a lot of overtime, does a good job, knows the position quite well and has worked for the City for a number of years. He recommended a commendable evaluation. Mr. Schumacher asked for direction regarding the Comparable Worth study for this position since he will be sending a report to the state and a plan to rectify this position is needed. Mr. Bisel said he was having touble with this concept. Mr. Schumacher said with this in mind he checked several other communities to see what they are doing with this issue. Almost all communities are addressing the issue in one manner or another and there does not seem to be any protest as to whether or not the mandate should be met. Mr. Marier asked if any communities were not taking action. Mr. Schumacher said he knew of only one. Mr. Marier said he would like to make a concerted effort to rectify this matter somewhere down the line. He said he had a problem with those employees who were overpaid but did not believe that any salary could be taken away. He would like a plan that would reward employees for what they do. He would like to make a good honest effort but not do it helter, skelter. Mr. Schumacher said he would like to see the salaries in line once and for all and not have to continually upgrade the system every year. Mr. Marier felt that there is no easy way, however he felt that realistic ranges have been established. Mr. Bisel said he had a problem with the legislature saying what the positions were worth. Mr. Marier said he did not totally agree with the outcome. Dan Tesch, Administrative Assistant - This is the second position that does not fit in the sequence in the Comparable Worth study. Mr. Schumacher explained that Dan has been with the City three and one half years and has more responsibility for completed projects. He does a lot of assistance on projects, has good ideas and is satisfied with Dan's performance. If this City is going to strive for more professional and quality employees, the City will have to upgrade its wage scale or there will be constant turnover in positions such as PAGE 3 1 083 COUNCIL WAYS AND MEANS MEETING APRIL 27, 1987 Ithis one. Mr. Marier noted that he had attended a school on motivation and salary was only a temporary motivator. Other factors were work atmosphere and appreciation by the boss. He felt there was no way the City could buy an individual, the other factors were important. Mr. Schumacher felt Dan was not disgruntled and noted that the City has not paid wages for Dan until this past year. He was on several work programs. Mr. Bisel noted that even then the salary did come out of tax dollars. Josephine Goodwin, Police Secretary - Mr. Bisel noted that Jo was in line with the Comparable Worth study. Mr. Schumacher noted that she was in the right sequence as far as salary was concerned. He also noted that she is a dedicated employee and does a good job dealing with reports and especially the public because it is not a pleasant job at times. Mr. Marier asked about her attendance and Mr. Schumacher explained that she had an accident and did have back surgery. However, since that time there has not been a problem with her attendance. Randy Schumacher, Administrator - Mr. Schumacher said he did not do an evaluation for himself. However he did list his accomplishments for 1986 and his goals for 1987. He asked the Council how they would like to handle his position. He feels the emphasis for his position has changed to become more of a planning and economic development position for this community. He is allowing the department heads to accept more of the actual operation of their departments and he is available to them for administrative assistance. He noted that the Council had put together an aggressive program in December and he has put a good size dent in it as far as getting it on board. However it will take a real education of the public to implement all the aspects of the program and he would like to dedicate more time to being an administrator. Mr. Bisel asked how Mr. Schumacher perceived his role changing. Mr. Schumacher said before he was a finance director, personnel director and planner on specific individual projects. Now he would like to be more of an administrator working with department heads in different areas and setting up more policies rather than dealing with problems. Part Time Secretaries - Mr. Schumacher noted that the secretaries have not had a salary adjustment in the last two years. In the past they were primarily responsible for answering telephones and typing. However, the telephone calls have become very heavy and a survey performed earlier this month indicates the secretaries are handling about 600 calls per week. Since most calls involve gathering information for the caller, there is little time left for routine Ityping and tasks. There is no slack time at all. He is considering PAGE 4 084 COUNCIL WAYS AND MEANS MEETING APRIL 27, 1987 adjusting their salaries by fifty cents per hour. Mr. Bisel asked if this would take care of their backlog. Mr. Schumacher said no. Mr. Bisel asked if there was a lack of continuity in this position. Mr. Schumacher said no since each secretary has specific responsibilities of her own. Mayor Benson told the Council that they now have Mr. Schumacher's evaluations and recommendations before them. Last year the Council promised to have evaluations finalized before April 1st and this deadline is already past. He asked if there was additional input from the Council. Mr. Marier said he would like to have some time to write his own recommendations. He did not totally agree with the whole concept. Mr. Bohjanen said he would like to study the recommendation and felt that since salary increases would be retroactive to the 1st of January this should not be a problem. Mr. Reinert felt it was very difficult to make a decision on what Mr. Schumacher has presented, it was meaningless to him. He felt he could not make a decision on what had been talked about and the recommendations that were before him. Mr. Bisel said he would like to do as Mr. Marier has suggested. Mr. Marier moved to adjourn at 7:03 P.M. Mr. Bisel seconded the motion. Aye. These minutes were considered and approved on this the 27th day of April 1987. dinA , Ade MAR),e LY -G. ANDERSON B JAM N . BENSON Clerk - Treasurer yor PAGE 5