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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda Packets - 2005/04/04 CITY OF MOUNDS VIEW CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION AGENDA Monday, April 4, 2005 7:00 p.m. REVISED AS OF Monday, April 04, 2005 @1030am ROLL CALL: Marty, Stigney, Gunn, Flaherty, Thomas PUBLIC COMMENT Citizens may speak to issues not on tonight’s agenda. Before speaking, please give your full name and address for the minutes. Also, please limit your comments to three minutes. Agenda Items Discussed by Consensus _______ 1. Public Works/Public Building and Facilities A. City Hall Rehabilitation Project B. Rice Creek Watershed District Discussion (B. Haake) C. Discussion of proposed Audio-Visual Improvements for City Council Chambers _______ 2. Finance A. Discuss Long Range Financial Plan ______ 3. Ordinances and Code Enforcement A. Discuss Tree Preservation Ordinance _______ 4. Administration A. Sick Leave Donation Policy B. Non-Union Salary Survey C. Possible Names for County Road 10 D. Review the Executive Summary of the 2005 Leadership, Planning, Team Building Retreat E. Town Hall Meeting April 30, 2005. Next Council Work Session: Monday, May 2, 2005 Next City Council Meeting: Monday, April 11, 2005 Item No: 04A Meeting Date: April 4, 1005 Type of Business: Work Session Administrator Review: _____ City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: Desaree M. Crane, Administrative Assistant Item Title/Subject: Sick Leave Donation Policy Background: City employees recently expressed an interest in donating sick leave to employees who have expired their sick leave as a result of a catastrophic illness or because they have not yet accrued enough hours to cover an extended sickness or non-work related injury. On April 7, 2003, Staff presented to City Council at a Work Session, a draft of a policy to allow for donation of accrued sick leave to other employees. Discussion: On April 7, 2003, the City Council had requested comments from the League of Minnesota Cities and the City’s labor consultant, Labor Relations Associates. Labor Relations was concerned that such a policy should be negotiated under the terms of the City’s labor agreements. The League of Minnesota Cities responded with concerns as well which were addressed on the April 7, 2003 Work Session, which are as follows: “While we understand and respect the city’s desire to help employees in these difficult situations, following are some serious issues that the city should address before adopting such a policy – some of these considerations could be addressed with a very specific and restrictive policy, others may be more difficult: 1. Employees who abuse sick leave are left with little incentive to save their sick leave for a “rainy day” if they have a sick leave donation policy to fall back on. 2. The city would need to address some serious data privacy issues in order to administer such a policy – i.e., medical data on employees is private data. At minimum, the city would have to require the employee to sign a release prior to soliciting donations on behalf of the employee. Also, any medical data needs to be protected under state privacy laws (and possibly federal privacy laws-- the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act may be applicable, but it’s difficult to determine as the regulations have not really been tested yet.) Although it is tempting to have the employee solicit donations him/herself in order to avoid these privacy issues, the city should probably not handle solicitations in this manner. It could cause co-workers to feel coerced to donate and in the case of a supervisor soliciting donations from a subordinate, the coercion would potentially be even more problematic for the city. 3. As currently written, the proposed sick leave donation policy appears to allow an employee to use donated sick leave for care of their children, and other family members and for common illnesses and doctor’s visits. Most cities use sick leave donation only for catastrophic illnesses such as cancer and for disabling injuries and usually only for the employee’s own personal use. Consider an example where an employee goes to a psychiatrist complaining about depression due to disciplinary action taken against her by her supervisor and receives a doctor’s statement saying that she should be off for work for six weeks. If the policy denies use of sick leave donation for psychiatric reasons, the city may be subject to lawsuits. Consider a real life example from another city where an employee’s psychiatrist recommended a vacation due to depression related to a death in the family and the employee used donated sick leave for this purpose. Co-workers, upon learning of this use, were upset with the city because they felt they had been “duped” into donating sick leave. 4. The policy, as written, allows an employee to donate sick leave with only 40 hours remaining for him/herself. The city should consider a significantly higher limit; a bad bout with the flu could cause the donating employee to exhaust his/her own sick leave shortly after the donation takes place, then asking to recover the donated sick leave. 5. Someone in the city has to make the call on who can use the program and when it can be used. This puts the city administrator in the position of saying “yes” to Employee A and “no” to Employee B. In some cases, the employee who is denied may see this as discriminatory and file a grievance or lawsuit. 6. Since co-workers are the source of sick leave donations, what if employees decide to donate to a white, male co-worker and not to a female, African- American co-worker? This could generate lawsuits for the city as well. The city may want to consider implementing a short-term disability and long-term disability group plan at the employee’s own expense rather than a sick leave donation program. This would cause no extra expense (other than some administrative work) for the city and could meet the same needs for employees. I hope this information is helpful. If the city does decide to go forward with this policy, I would strongly suggest making it more restrictive and building in some protections to address the issues cited above. Staff believes that protections can be built into the policy to address these concerns. Staff believes that employees are probably aware of another employee abusing sick time than would his or her supervisor, and toward that end, someone who abuses their sick leave would get little sympathy from his or her coworkers. In addition, any abuse of sick leave policies is a disciplinary issue. The policy should only apply toward catastrophic illnesses or injuries for the employee, or would be used for taking care of an employee’s spouse, child, sister, brother, mother, father, mother-in-law, or father-in-law who has a serious health condition. Employees who would like to donate sick leave to another employee, must have at least 80 hours of banked sick time to ensure that the employee donating the sick time is not put in a position where he or she would need to borrow for their own benefit later on. In response to the League’s concerns on number 5 and 6, Staff would be inclined to think that discrimination claims and/or grievance would be unlikely if the policy is properly drafted. Labor Relations was concerned that a policy should be negotiated under the terms of the City’s labor negotiations. Many of the City’s Union contracts expire on December 31, 2005, to include AFSCME, Public Works, and the Police Officers (LELS). Staff could have either these negotiated into the next contract, or draft a memorandum of understanding could be presented to all Labor Unions. Staff made inquiries by e-mail to other cities to see if other cities had a Sick Donation Policy. The City of Little Canada was the only City that responded, and their policy allows for sick leave donations, however, all sick leave donations must be approved by the City Council on a case-by-case basis. The City Council could consider approving all sick leave donations to add another “check and balance” to ensure that this new policy is not being abused in any way. Recommendation: Please review the attach draft of the Sick Donation Policy. If the City Council is in favor of such a policy, then Staff will proceed to draft a policy addressing the concerns expressed by the League of Minnesota Cities and present this at a future City Council Meeting. Respectfully submitted, Desaree M. Crane THIS IS A DRAFT Policy: SICK LEAVE -- Section 3.35 D. Sick Leave Donation Upon review of the City Administrator and approval of the City Council, city employees may transfer sick leave to another employee who is eligible to utilize sick leave under the conditions set forth in Section 3.35, Paragraph C “USE” when all other available leave time has been depleted, subject to these restrictions and conditions: • The recipient has suffered a major medical condition requiring hospitalization, surgery or extended recovery time. • The recipient wants to participate. • No employee will be able to receive more than thirty days of donated sick leave in a twelve-month period. • Employees may only donate sick leave if the donating employee will have a remaining balance of at least eighty (80) hours of sick leave remaining after the donation. • The value of the donated sick leave will be prorated, and credited to the recipient at the donor’s rate of pay. The recipient may only receive thirty days of donated sick leave after the value of the donated sick leave has been calculated and adjusted to the recipient’s rate of pay. • If the recipient separates from city employment before using all donated sick leave, the remaining donated sick leave may not be converted to severance pay, and will be credited back to the donors on a prorated basis. • Donation of sick leave by city employees will be completely voluntary. No city employee shall pressure or otherwise attempt to influence another city employee to donate sick leave. Item No: 04B Meeting Date: April 4, 1005 Type of Business: Work Session City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: Kurt Ulrich, City Administrator Item Title/Subject: Non-Union Salary Survey Background: On the March 1, 2005, Work Session Staff presented to the City Council a Non-Union Salary Survey (report attached). Staff was directed by the City Council to provide additional information, including a list of the cities are in the Stanton 6, New Brighton’s Pay Plan, and other potential groupings such as market value. Discussion: Stanton Group 6 According to the Mounds View Personnel Manual, Section 3.01, the Stanton mean for each position is to be adjusted in order to remain consistent with the fluctuations of the Stanton Group 6 Mean and each position’ s professional comparison. Attached as Exhibit A is the listing of all cities in the Stanton. Mounds View (population 12,865) is in Stanton Group 6, which encompasses cities with populations between 10,000 to 25,000. New Brighton Pay Plan Staff was directed by the City Council to research the City of New Brighton’s Compensation Policy. The City of New Brighton hired an outside consultant by the name of Riley, Dettman and Kelsey. New Brighton’s compensation plan placed each position in one of 16 pay grades. Each pay grade then has a salary range with steps. Attached is a list of New Brighton’s positions and pay grades. (Exhibit B). Staff spoke with Rod Kelsey from the firm Riley, Dettman, and Kelsey. Mr. Kelsey stated that it would cost between 400-450 dollars per job classification. In addition, according to Mr. Kelsey, the firm must do all job classifications and not just non-union job classifications due to pay equity laws. This would cost the city around 15,000 dollars to do this study. Comparable Assessed Value Cities Staff was requested to consider the impact of a pay plan that would take a City’s total market value into consideration. Selection was based on inner suburban cities plus or minus $150,000,000 of Mounds View’s market value and cities with population between 10,000 and 17,500. COMPARABLE ASSESSED VALUE CITIES Stanton Market City Group Value Population Arden Hills 7 875,171,453 9,457 East Bethel 6 676,847,767 11.500 Forest Lake 6 1,283,199,081 16,000 Ham Lake 6 1,092,526,993 13,500 Hopkins 6 1,175,598,947 17,200 Lake Elmo 7 791,984,078 7,666 Little Canada 7 670,884,453 9,890 Mahtomedi 7 681,227,615 8,050 Mendota Hts 6 1,386,998,010 11,434 Mound 7 812,429,373 9,630 Mounds View 6 698,255,387 12,865 North Oaks * 817,016,700 4,082 North St. Paul 6 669,769,547 11,929 Robbinsdale 6 762,823,680 14,123 St. Anthony 7 563,514,633 8,012 Stillwater 6 1,381,036,087 15,143 Vadnais Hts 6 1,125,939,317 13,500 * North Oaks was not listed in any of the Stanton Lists. Below is a comparison between Mounds View’s current non-union job classifications and the cities listed above. Staff will not include North Oaks because no Stanton classifications were found. Position: City Clerk/Administrator Mounds View Current 2005 Pay (Step 5): $45.55/hr COMPARABLE CITY COMPARABLE POSITION 2004 STANTON MEAN PAY Arden Hills City Administrator $37.66/hr East Bethel Director of Finance Admin. $35.07/hr Forest Lake No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Ham Lake Administrator $40.32/hr Hopkins City Manager $48.52/hr Lake Elmo No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Little Canada City Administrator $42.81/hr Mahtomedi Administrator $33.79/hr Mendota Heights City Administrator $38.25/hr Mound City Manager $45.05/hr North St. Paul No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Robbinsdale City Manager $48.07/hr St. Anthony City Manager $42.47/hr Stillwater No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Vadnais Heights Administrator $32.43/hr Total Average Hourly Salary $40.40/hr Position: Police Chief Mounds View Current 2005 Pay (Step 5): $38.80/hr COMPARABLE CITY COMPARABLE POSITION 2004 STANTON MEAN PAY Arden Hills No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton East Bethel No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Forest Lake No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Ham Lake No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Hopkins Police Chief $41.69/hr Lake Elmo No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Little Canada No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Mahtomedi No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Mendota Heights Police Chief $36.24/hr Mound Police Chief $33.51/hr North St. Paul No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Robbinsdale Police Chief $40.86/hr St. Anthony Police Chief $33.66/hr Stillwater No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Vadnais Heights No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Total Average Hourly Salary $36.39/hr Position: Public Works Director Mounds View Current 2005 Pay (Step 5): $40.35/hr COMPARABLE CITY COMPARABLE POSITION 2004 STANTON MEAN PAY Arden Hills O & M Director $32.12/hr East Bethel Public Works Director $35.07/hr (Non-Exempt Employee-OT) Forest Lake Director of Public Works $30.13/hr (Non-Exempt Employee-OT) Ham Lake Public Works Supervisor $34.31/hr Hopkins Public Works Director $43.32/hr Lake Elmo No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Little Canada Public Works Director $35.26/hr Mahtomedi No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Mendota Heights No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Mound Director of Public Works and Engineering $33.11/hr North St. Paul No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Robbinsdale No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton St. Anthony Public Works Director $31.39/hr Stillwater No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Vadnais Heights Public Service Director $33.65/hr Total Average Hourly Salary $34.26/hr Position: Finance Director Mounds View Current 2005 Pay (Step 5): $37.85/hr COMPARABLE CITY COMPARABLE POSITION 2004 STANTON MEAN PAY Arden Hills Finance Director $31.83/hr East Bethel No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Forest Lake No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Ham Lake No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Hopkins Finance Director $39.28/hr Lake Elmo No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Little Canada No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Mahtomedi No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Mendota Heights Finance Director $34.89/hr Mound Finance Director/Treasurer $39.71/hr North St. Paul No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Robbinsdale Finance Director $41.88/hr St. Anthony Finance Director $31.16/hr Stillwater No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Vadnais Heights Finance Director $34.67/hr Total Average Hourly Salary $36.20/hr Position: Community Development Director Mounds View Current 2005 Pay (Step 5): $37.74/hr COMPARABLE CITY COMPARABLE POSITION 2004 STANTON MEAN PAY Arden Hills No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton East Bethel No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Forest Lake No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Ham Lake No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Hopkins No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Lake Elmo No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Little Canada No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Mahtomedi No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Mendota Heights No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Mound Community Development Director $35.38/hr North St. Paul No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Robbinsdale Community Deve Coordinator $31.57/hr St. Anthony No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Stillwater No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Vadnais Heights Plannning/Community Deve Director $31.74/hr Total Average Hourly Salary $32.89/hr Position: Deputy Police Chief Mounds View Current 2005 Pay (Step 5): $34.72/hr COMPARABLE CITY COMPARABLE POSITION 2004 STANTON MEAN PAY Arden Hills No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton East Bethel No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Forest Lake No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Ham Lake No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Hopkins Captain $39.28/hr Lake Elmo No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Little Canada No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Mahtomedi No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Mendota Heights No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Mound No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton North St. Paul No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Robbinsdale No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton St. Anthony Captain $30.48/hr Stillwater No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Vadnais Heights No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Total Average Hourly Salary $34.88/hr Position: Public Works Supervisor Mounds View Current 2005 Pay (Step 5): $27.70/hr COMPARABLE CITY COMPARABLE POSITION 2004 STANTON MEAN PAY Arden Hills No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton East Bethel No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Forest Lake No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Ham Lake Maintenance/Parks Supervisor $24.06/hr Hopkins No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Lake Elmo No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Little Canada No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Mahtomedi No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Mendota Heights No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Mound No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton North St. Paul No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Robbinsdale Supervisor $28.50/hr St. Anthony Public Works Supervisor $25.37/hr Stillwater No Position Listed in Stanton No Position Listed in Stanton Vadnais Heights Public Service Supervisor $25.15/hr Total Average Hourly Salary $25.77/hr Golf Course Manager, Grounds Equipment Manager, Clubhouse Manager/Instructor According to a memorandum from Labor Relations dated February 17, 2005, the golf course position are at market value and do not require a salary adjustment. Since none of these three job classifications are listed in the 2004 Stanton Survey a job assessment was requested from Labor Relations. Parks Supervisor On February 23, 2004, the Public Works and the Parks Foreman were reclassified to the Public Works and Parks Supervisor positions. Both positions were compared to the Stanton job category of Maintenance Supervisor for Stanton Group Six. Typical duties are described as assigning, supervising, and directing the work of the crew, inspecting work, and keeping records of time and materials used. Based on the fact that the job has less responsibility and duties, the Parks Supervisor portion has been targeted at an annual salary of 5% below the Public Works Supervisor position, or $26.57/hr ($55,265.60/yr). Assistant to the City Clerk/Administrator There is no Stanton Job Classification directly matching the duties and requirements of the Mounds View Assistant to the City Clerk/Administrator position. Consequently, the Assistant to the City Clerk/City Administrator job description was sent to Labor Relations for an assessment. The results of that assessment indicate that the position was scaled at a recommended 385 HAY Points, with a maximum (Step 5) wage of $55,500 a year. The current market rate for the position that was vacated in 2003 (Assistant City Administrator) position is $33.49/hour or $69,659.20/year according to the 2004 Stanton Survey. Engineering/Information Systems Tech Staff requested that a job evaluation be done for the Engineering/Information Systems Technician from Labor Relations, Inc., since there was not an updated assessment available for the position. In addition, there is no Stanton Classification relating to this position. It was the recommendation of Labor Relations that this position have 342 HAY points with no increase in salary. According to Labor Relations this position is currently at market value. Payroll/Utility Billing Technician The Payroll/Utility Billing Technician in most cities (according to the Stanton Book) are separate jobs and normally there is someone who is assigned as a Payroll clerk and another is assigned for utility billing. In addition, this job classification has taken on Human Resource responsibilities. Staff requested the assistance of Labor Relations to assess this position. It was recommended by Labor Relations that the HAY Points increase from 177 to 183 with a maximum (Step 5) wage rate of $43,500/year. Recommendation: Staff recommends that each non-union position be adjusted in order to remain consistent with each position’s professional compensation comparison per Mounds View Personnel Manual, Section 3.01. By implementing a plan that consists of using only cities in the market value parameters would not be consistent with Section 3.01 of the Personnel Manual (attached). In addition, many cities do not have the same job classifications as Mounds View, so averages are misleading. This is especially apparent in Stanton Group 7 cities. Most of the current non-union employees were hired under the current policy referencing Stanton Group 6 as the benchmark for compensation. Consequently, continuing that policy for existing employees is the approach recommended to best retain those employees. As indicated in the March 1, 2005, Work Session Staff Report, it is recommended that the adjustments for non- union positions made in a maximum of 5% “steps” (in addition to the scheduled salary adjustments) every six months starting January 1, 2005, and continuing until the dollar adjustment is achieved as indicated in the chart for each position (please refer to attached March 1, 2005 Work Session report for the chart). Note, this will continue the adjustments to the Assistant to the City Clerk/City Administrator position into budget year 2006. THIS IS ONLY A DRAFT CITY OF MOUNDS VIEW TOWN HALL MEETING MOUNDS VIEW, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE SCHEDULE 9-930am Registration (Coffee and Cookies will be served) 930am-12pm History of Mounds View Video (playing continuously) Picture Exhibit • Tornado Pictures • Pipe Line Fire Pictures • Aerial Photos of Mounds View • Antique Fire Truck Display Department Exhibits • Mounds View Police Department • SBM Fire Department • Public Works • Community Development • Finance • Golf Course • YMCA • Canyon Grille • Festival in the Park 930-1030am Community Survey Results Presenter: Kurt Ulrich, City Administrator 1030-1045am Break 1045-1200pm Vision and Goals Speaker: Mayor and City Council