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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPersonnel Committee - Minutes - 6/5/2014Minutes of the Bayfield County Personnel Committee Meeting 4:00 PM, June 5, 2014 Emergency Operations Center, Bayfield County Annex Building, Washburn, WI Members Present: Brett Rondeau, John Bennett, Dennis Pocernich, Harold Maki, William Bussey Members Excused: None Others Present: County Administrator Mark Abeles-Allison, Kristine Kavajecz-Assistant, Marco Bichanich, Kay Cederberg, Fred Strand, Beth Bichanich, Kevin Susienka, Heidi Danielson, Coni Wickingson, Craig Parks, Amanda Bresette, Thomas Toepfer, Susan Butterfield, Jody Heffner, Denise Tarasewicz, Brenda Spurlock, Zack Radzak, Martin Skaj, Jacob Brandis, David Renz, Jeff Oveson Meeting called to order at 4:00pm by Chairman Rondeau. Motion Bussey, Pocernich to approve minutes of the May 1, 2014 Personnel Committee meeting. Motion Carried. Health Insurance Policy and the Affordable Care Act Research: Abeles-Allison provided a summary of how and why the lookback policy must be established. Employees that work on average, 30 hours per week during the lookback period are considered full-time employees and are eligible for health insurance. Proposal is to set a timeline for measurement, administrative, and stability periods. Abeles-Allison recommended a Lookback Period of Oct-Sept, Administrative Period of Oct-Dec, and Stability Period of Jan-Dec. Motion Bussey, Pocernich to establish a lookback period of 365 days running Oct 1-Sept 30, with 90-day administrative period Oct1 through December 31. Motion Carried. Reports: • Health: Abeles-Allison reviewed current policy with regard to part-time employee health insurance, which is to offer pro-rated insurance to those working over 50%. Implications for part-time employees with regard to ACA tax incentives were reviewed. Recommendation is to implement a policy of eligibility for part-time employees following the ACA guidelines, but to grandfather eligibility for existing part-time employees. This item to be added to the next meeting agenda for action. • Retiree Health Insurance: At the request of the Health Insurance Company, parameters must be set: a. Length of service requirement b. Age that coverage ends. c. Any requirement for how long an employee must have been on the plan prior to retirement. Teamster retiree coverage parameters were reviewed. Abeles-Allison recommends the following parameters: Work for the county for a minimum of 10 years. Qualified for Retirement under WRS. Coverage end at age 65 (medicare). Question was presented from the committee asking if an employee should be on insurance prior to retirement for a certain period of time in order to be eligible. Sick/Vacation Accruals: Abeles-Allison explained the current accrual process for sick and vacation benefits, based on the number of hours the employee is scheduled to work in a year. Employees working 1950 hours receive 37.5 hours of vacation after one year. Employees working 2080 hours receive 40 hours of vacation after one year. Jailers and CCOs work 1950 hours per year, but work 8 hour shifts on a 5-2, 5-3 rotation. Their concern is that they only get 37.5 hours of vacation, which does not over a full 5-day work rotation, which is 40 hours. Motion Pocernich, Maki to suspend the rules and allow public comment. Motion Carried. Heidi Danielson: Read a statement. Works 40 hour work weeks. 5-2, 5-3 work scheduled. Nights, weekends, holidays, 1 weekend off per month. Accrued sick time was also impacted. Regularly work additional hours for various reasons. OT are nearly never paid due to the 86 hours per pay period guideline. Request to reinstate 8 hrs sick leave per month, 40 hours vacation, and overtime as was previously in the union contract. A copy of the written statement is included with the minutes. Sheriff: While he understands the reason for the policy change, he supports the employee’s concerns. Maki asked for figures related to these requests to be brought back to the committee next month. Numbers should include what the cost would be with and without the change to the accruals. Dental Insurance: Labor-Management Committee reviewed a possible voluntary dental plan. Copy of the plan was included in the packet. The consensus of the committee was to offer the insurance option if there is no cost to the county and no minimum enrollment required. Freedom from Religion Foundation: The web site was changed to correspond with county policy, Spring Holiday addressing concerns in the letter sent to the county. New Social Worker I Wages: Review of discussions the committee has had on this topic. Abeles-Allison provided a couple of additional wage comparables from surrounding counties. Several options were reviewed. • Start new employees at a higher percentage within the existing range. • Adjust the range for the position. Bussey suggest that employees should progress to the mid-point of the wage schedule after 2 years rather than 4 years. Also suggest move SWI from Level 12 to level 11. General wage schedule discussion on 2 year vs 4 year progression to be added to the next agenda. Reclassification: Previous policy stated that an employee could not be reclassified if they had not progressed through the max wage at their existing level before being eligible for reclass. Abeles-Allison asked for clarification on this issue. Highway Office Manager Reclassification Request: Rondeau suggest each of the departments that have Bookkeepers get together to discuss this topic and make a recommendation. Toepfer stated that he has had an issue with the Office Manager internal equity analysis since the beginning of the wage study and felt it was not done correctly from the start. Butterfield stated that the title Confidential Secretary/Office Manager was what was used in the wage study and this does not accurately reflect her duties. Butterfield stated that there are 3 accountants in Bayfield County: Accountant in County Clerk’s Office, Financial Manager in Human Services, and Butterfield. Butterfield expressed that she feels that her wage should be at one wage level below the other two accountants. Bussey request to see internal equity scoring as completed by Abeles-Allison and Toepfer when the wage schedule was created. Bussey also requested to see wage comparables for other highway department personnel in Butterfield’s position. Highway Committee recommendation is to move the position to a higher wage. Abeles-Allison suggested that the wage can be increased within the existing level, or could be accomplished by moving the position to another wage level within the wage schedule. Recommendation by Toepfer to change the title and choose a different wage level on the wage schedule per the recommendation of the Highway Committee. Motion Bussey, Maki to postpone this item to the next meeting, to review equity score sheets for the Highway and other two similar positions from Abeles-Allison and Toepfer, and to review the best comparables for wages of persons in this position in the northern part of the state. Maki suggest amending the motion to state that action will be taken at the next meeting. Maki withdrew the amendment because it is understood that the original motion implied that action will be taken at the next meeting. Motion Carried.( 4-1), Pocernich opposed. Pocernich voted no because he feels that action should be taken today. New employee requests: Request from Criminal Justice to convert RRTC Case Manager from a contract position to an employee position. Brenda Spurlock provided a summary of what Karen Johnson does and her rationale for wanting to make this an employee position rather than a contractor. Contract employees have a tendency to move employment once they have established their experience. Spurlock explained that converting the position to an employee would break even with current costs as a contract employee. It is anticipated that an extension of the grant that Johnson currently works under will be received. The committee reviewed the financial risks with regard to a regular employee vs a contract employee. Recommendation by Abeles-Allison is to approve this request, contingent upon continued grant funding. Wage would be comparable to mid-point of Social Worker II. Maki questioned if the position should be advertised if it is going to be made a county position rather than a contract employee. Motion Pocernich, Bennett to offer Karen Johnson a Limited Term position consistent with the terms as proposed by Spurlock. Maki asked why we would take action on this when action was not taken on the Highway Office Manager request. Motion Carried. (4-1), Opposed by Maki. Kay Cederberg requested a 10hr/week part-time employee to complete ongoing scanning duties in the Clerk of Court office. Work Study students have been used for the last 9 years, however, this is not available at this time. Request is for $8.50/hr , 10 hrs per week. Cederberg provided summary of the number of documents scanned in the recent 4.5 years. Cederberg reported that there is not funding available for this position in the current Clerk of Court budget. Motion Maki, Pocernich to appove hiring this position as presented and forward to Executive Committee for budget approval. Motion Carried. District Attorney Part-Time Special Prosecutor: Abeles-Allison reviewed the state-determined staffing needs in the DA office and the request from the DA. Request is for 1 day per week at $40/hr. $5400 approximate total cost. Reimbursement would be through grant funding in the Criminal Justice Program. Motion Bussey, Bennett to approve the request as presented. Pocernich commented on his hesitation to approve based on the platform that the DA ran on, touting a more efficient office, now requesting additional assistance. Maki commented that problems should not be allowed to fester, they should be addressed in a more timely manner. Bussey comment that this is a state elected official. Comment that the DA should have been here to support this request. Motion Carried.(5-0) Comment by Bennett, going back to the retiree health insurance issue, that he would like to ensure that if employees are grandfathered, that county elected officials also be included in this provision if they are eligible for insurances. A short break was observed at 5:38pm. Motion Bennett, Maki to enter in and out of closed session pursuant to Wisconsin Statutes §19.85(1)(c, e) for Discussion and Possible Action Regarding: Approval of closed session minutes of May 1, 2014, Teamster Negotiations, and regarding employee specific performance issues. Motion Carried. Entered closed session at 5:45pm Motion Bennett, Maki to return to open session. Motion Carried. Returned to open session at 6:12pm . Next meeting scheduled for Tuesday, July 8 at 4:00pm. Meeting adjourned at 6:14pm. Respectfully submitted by Kristine Kavajecz, Assistant to the County Administrator.