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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-HRC-2003-11-24DRAFT HUMAN RESOURCES COMMITTEE Regular Meeting November 24, 2003 Members Present: Alderperson Peterson, Alderperson Blumenthal, Alderperson Hershey Members Excused: Alderperson Mack, Alderperson Cogan Staff Present: Schelley Michell-Nunn (HR Director), Steve Thayer (Controller), Allen Green (Youth Bureau Director), Thys Van Cort (Director of Planning), Rick Ferrel (Asst Superintendent – S&F), Denise Malone (Administrative Secretary) Others Present: Members of the Media Chairperson Blumenthal called the meeting to order at 7:15 p.m. Alderperson Blumenthal will chair the meeting tonight due to Alderperson Peterson not feeling well. A. Agenda Review, Approval of Minutes & Announcements Chairperson Blumenthal stated that New Business Item I.2 – Sick Leave Donations has been added to the agenda. The Committee reviewed the minutes from the October 2003 meeting. Alderperson Hershey made a motion to approve the October 27, 2003 meeting minutes. Seconded by Alderperson Peterson. Motion carried 3-0. B. Employee Comments & Common Council Response. None. C. Chairperson’s Report. None. D. Affirmative Action Advisory Committee Update. None. Human Resources Committee November 24, 2003 Page 2 E. Sub-Committee Updates. None. F. Personnel Items 1. Youth Bureau a. Request to Amend Personnel Roster The Youth Bureau requested to amend the Personnel Roster by adding one (1) Youth Program Coordinator – 35 hours and one (1) Recreation Assistant – 25 hours. After discussion, Alderperson Hershey made a motion to approve the request. Seconded by Alderperson Peterson. Motion carried 3-0. 2. Department of Public Works (Streets & Facilities) a. Request to Amend Personnel Roster The Department of Public Works (S&F) requested to amend the Personnel Roster by adding one (1) Truck Driver – 40 hours and deleting one (1) Maintainer – 40 hours. After discussion, Alderperson Hershey made a motion to approve the request. Seconded by Alderperson Peterson. Motion carried 3-0. The Committee agreed that this item would be put on consent agenda. b. Request to Hire Above the Minimum The Department of Public Works (S&F) requested to hire an Automotive Mechanic above the minimum salary, at the rate of $10.50/hour. After discussion, Alderperson Hershey made a motion to approve the request. Seconded by Alderperson Peterson. Motion carried 3-0. The Committee agreed that this item would be put on consent agenda. 3. Mayor’s Office a. Request to Amend the Personnel Roster The Mayor’s Office requested to amend the Planning and Development 2004 Personnel Roster by deleting one (1) Director of Economic Development – 40 Human Resources Committee November 24, 2003 Page 3 hours and to amend the Mayor’s Office 2004 Personnel Roster by adding one (1) Director of Economic Development – 40 hours. The Mayor stated that economic development is clearly one of the areas of utmost concern to the community. It is an area that the Mayor, typically, runs on a platform, incorporating economic development principles. By having the Director of Economic Development position as part of his office, this would give the Mayor direct access to the person most involved with implementing whatever the Mayor’s economic development platform is. Alderperson Peterson spoke against the request. Alderperson Hershey spoke in favor of granting the request and asked that the request be moved to the full council. Chairperson Blumenthal spoke against the request. Chairperson stated that the Planning Director Thys Van Cort should participate in this discussion and asked Mr. VanCort to come forward. Planning Director Thys Van Cort thanked the Committee for allowing him to speak. Mr. Van Cort spoke against removing the Director of Economic Development position from the Planning Department. Mr. Van Cort spoke on the following points: 1. A brief history of the current situation; 2. The City of Ithaca’s history regarding the development function; 3. How other governments and non-governmental entities are structured; 4. Confidentiality; 5. Communication; 6. Staff support for the Director of Economic Development; 7. The added work put on the Mayor if there were another direct report the Mayor had to supervise; 8. Whether this council should be the one making this decision; 9. Brief statement regarding the communication between the Planning Director and the Economic Director. HR Director stated that her background is in organizational restructuring. Typically when you are going to make a decision like this there is a process Human Resources Committee November 24, 2003 Page 4 that you go through that requires an in depth analysis of the organization. You look at the position. You look at all of their interfaces and you can actually draw a picture of what it would look like. And, usually based upon that, you make decisions about what is the appropriate alignment for functions or whatever it may be. Can’t say what the value is of having this position in one department or another. Actually is a process to go through to make that determination and have concrete information and logic that you can put on paper. Please think about that. Sure everyone wants to do what is best for the organization. The Committee discussed the request. After discussion, no motion was made. Chairperson Blumenthal thanked Mr. Van Cort for his comments. G. Directors’ Reports HR Director Michell-Nunn reported that a sub-committee consisting of City Clerk Julie Holcomb, Manager of Organizational Development Leslie Moskowitz, Alderperson David Whitmore and other individuals has been working on putting together an orientation program for the new Common Council members. The orientation session for the new Common Council members is scheduled for December 1 and 2. Ms. Michell-Nunn stated that this is the first full structured orientation for elected officials. Alderperson Peterson stated that this orientation program could also be used for committee members and board members. H. Mayor’s Report Mayor Cohen reported that he had been involved in lobbying efforts with the Conference of Mayors. Spoke about over a year ago. Pension reform with the NYSERS. The conference of mayors has been very aggressive to its credit. As a result, press conferences done throughout NYS. More discussion. State Comptroller and the governor are supporting the Conference of Mayors proposals. Proposal to take a look at the actuarial accounting methods of the system regarding the determination of what is necessary. Example the fund used to be funded at 132 billion dollars, it lost 133 billion dollars in assets in one year. What is actually needed for the fund to be fully funded according to the state comptroller, he only needs additional 12 billion dollars. The funds right now are only at 104 billion dollars. Gone up about 5 or 6 billion dollars coz the markets were covering it. We are asking them to look at that and as a result in the future make a determination of what needs to be paid into the system. We are paying very high rates as you know in this year’s budget. That is part of it. Part of it is a law that would actually allow municipality to legally create retirement reserves. Right now, the only monies that we have technically set aside are the monies we have booked for retirement expenses, like a Human Resources Committee November 24, 2003 Page 5 payable. But, we are not allowed to have a separate retirement reserve. Have a separate health care fund reserve. It would be very beneficial if we did to absorb a situation like this in the future. The system already accepted one of our proposals to establish a minimum payment, which had to 4 ½ percent. The System would actually develop a reserve specifically to buffer us again in the future if something like this happened again. Most importantly, is a proposal to change the payment date from December 15 to January 15. It only pushes back the payment date for municipalities by 30 days. So, it is not a significant money loser for the Retirement System. They would lose one months of interest for one year and then after that the payment date would be on January 15 of each year. The significance of that, if in fact the legislature is called back into special session and approves this or might do so in the spring, is that the monies that we have allocated in our 2004 budget for retirement would not have to be paid out to retirement because there would be no retirement in 2004. The monies would go to the fund balance. A payment would be made in 2005 and we would have built into our budget that same amount of money for the payment for 2005. What it would do is restore our fund balance to what it needs to be and then some. The budget deficit we had forecasted for 2005 and 2006 would be covered. We could draw on fund balances for those two years and not have to worry about an absorbent increase in taxes. Will know when the legislature passes it and the governor signs it. I. New Business 1. 2004 Health Insurance Rates for Retirees The Human Resources Department and the Controller’s Office requested approval for an increase in health insurance rates for retirees. The rates would be increased as follows: 1. Effective July 1, 2004, the 2004 monthly rate of health insurance coverage for retirees and those employees on leaves of absence be established at $213.93 for individual coverage and $489.84 for family coverage, which represents a 25% increase over the current retiree health insurance rate charged; 2. Effective January 1, 2005 – 25% increase over 2004 rates; single monthly coverage $267.41, family monthly coverage $612.30; 3. Effective January 1, 2006 – 30% increase over 2005 rates; single monthly coverage $347.63, family monthly coverage $795.99. Human Resources Committee November 24, 2003 Page 6 After discussion, Alderperson Hershey made a motion to approve the request contingent on language being added that references the clauses in the January 1998 resolution and that there would be automatic annual adjustment. Seconded by Alderperson Peterson. Motion carried 3-0. 2. Sick Leave Donation City Attorney Norma Schwab requested to donate a portion of her sick leave to Legal Assistant Dawn Tordel. After discussion, Alderperson Hershey made a motion to approve the request to transfer up to sixty (60) days of sick leave to the Sick Leave Bank. Seconded by Alderperson Peterson. Motion carried 3-0. J. Old Business. None. K. Adjournment With no further business and on a motion by Alderperson Hershey, the meeting was adjourned at 9:13 p.m.