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08-28-1985 ~ u CITY OF EDGEWATER MERIT BOARD MEETING August 28, 1985 7:00 p.m. MINUTES The Merit Board Meeting was called to order at 7 :00 p.m. in the Corrmunity Center by Mr. Gold, Olai'rman. ROLL CAlL Russell Gold Walter Gross Gwynne Turner Mrs. Stevens Mrs. Kuhbander Present Present Present Present Present Also present: Mrs. Martinez, City Clerk/Administrator. Mr. Gold welcomed new rrembers Mr. Turner and NITs. Kuhbander. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A IlDtion was made by Mr. Gross to approve the minutes of the last rreeting, seconded by Mrs. Stevens. CARRIED 5-0. OID BUSINESS Approval of Minutes, June 26th and July 1, 1985 A rmtion was made by rvlr. Gross to approve the June 26, 1985 minutes, seconded by Mrs. Stevens. CARRIED 5-0. A IlDtion was made by Mrs. Stevens to approve the July 1, 1985 minutes, seconded by Mr. Gold. CARRIED 5-0. Review Merit Board By-Laws Mr. Gold read the Merit Board By-Laws. Mrs. Stevens stated the meeting date is still to be held the fourth Thursday of the month, but the Safety Committee rreeting was changed to the Wednesday before the fourth Thursday of the IlDnth. rvlrs. Stevens read that no other watter except as specified on the A08nda shall be taken up at such rreeting. Mrs. Martinez stated that again, you have a loophole with 1liscellaneous. 1rr. Gold stated for clarification, not change, on his part, Article V, Officers, second paragraph, "Chairman shall transmit all reports, plans and recorrmendations to the Board to ' City Council.". Regarding the July 1 special meeting, I didn't know anything about that . . . " Another section was that the Chairman was to report any vacancies to Council immediately upon resignation but they get the letter informing them. 1lrs.Martinez said she probably did handle i~,tlien ~xplained proced~es used by the other boards;_ , the correspondence from this meeting tonight, generated to the Council of any discussion you wish Council action on, is done in letter form signed by you, through the secretary, who does the Boards' minutes. That way, it has been coming througl,! me. Mr. Gold said he thought Mrs. Martinez had been taking care of that because of his absence. 11rs. Martinez said she really shouldn't be doing it. Mr. Gold stated he has never done it, as at his first and second rreetings he was unaware of the procedures. Mrs. Martinez said that is one of the reasons for going over this this evening. r/lr. Gross then asked if a letter is to be sent to Council, should the Chairman write that letter? 11rs. Martinez said no, the secretary writes it and contacts ~1r. Gold when it is ready, etc. After it is signed by },lr. Gold, it goes to rI.rs. Martinez. ~1rs. Martinez then discussed the' proced1fie p'y State Statute for vot'iqg, ahd stated it has been recorrmended to all the Board Chainren that to be uniform, a minimum of three u u persons 'must unanirrDusly approve. This_change QaIre about because State Statute CaIre down with ,some zoning and planning prOblems, code enforcement problerns,etc. If only three merribers show up at a meeting and two vote for it and one votes agtinst it and it passes,. it is not" a majority of the Board merribers, it is a majori ty of those there. If the Board wishes, that could be a recornrrendation to the Council. It was decided that this has been changed and no further action is needed. Mr. Gross then asked that when a merriber is appointed to the Board, where can he find out when his turn runs out. Mrs. Martinez stated it is in her office and either she or her secretary can give him that information. Mr. Gold stated as there were no corrections to the Merit Board By-Laws, no motions would be necessary. Merit Increases Month Of July Mrs. Martinez explained the Merit Board Increases, how many applied and how many were given, and just what the nurrbers meant on the list. Mr. Gross asked if the increases were published, and Mrs. Stevens stated we are given this with the packets every month. There was a discussion as to when the increases were given, and this had been discussed before and is listed in the minutes. Police Department Evaluations Mr. Turner discussed several employees who were evaluated and were reviewed by the SaIre person who was not their immediate supervisor for the period of time the evaluation covered. An example; a low patrolman working for a shift supervisor whether he be one of the designated supervisors or a sergeant, would do a rough evaluation and present it to the Chief or officer in charge. Then it CaIre back out as a smooth evaluation. The nurribers are all changed without the officer in charge consulting with the supervisor. In other words, what we use to callan arm chair evaluation. We have had three or four cases of this wi thin the last three months in my department. This is very unfair to the employee, that he gets evaluated by a person who has not first-hand observed his performance and has ignored recorrmendations of the supervisor who had supervised this employee for that period of time. Mr. Gross asked ~10 signed the evaluation, and rAr. Turner pointed out there was a place for rater I s signature and then reviewer's signature. He also went on to describe the procedure of a certain employee to whom this has happened and believes they are not being fairly evaluated. This employee had brought a grievance but it was not brought out that the rater was not her supervisor. Mrs. Martinez stated she has had quite a discussion of this, subject with the Chief and they are aware there has been some unrest. The Chief told her that as an inrnediate solution to this entire thing,' ~o one is to do evaluations in the Police Department other t:J.an the Chief. Mrs. Martinez believes the rater and the reviewer should be one and the same. Vu-. Gross then used as an example, a garbage man being reviewed by Mr. Copeland. Mr. Copeland knows nothing of this man, what his performance is, etc. Mr. Gold stated there is no, supervisor on a garbage truck and it reverts back to what Mr. Turner was saying in the first place, that the person who rated the employee in the first place did not know the circum- stances they were rating her for, and the SaIre thing would be in order with the driver of the truck, as their is no supervisor on a garbage truck. rv'lT. Turner then explained that in his oranization they now have four shifts wi th t\\D men on each shift; every three months they shift from day shift to night shift. Mr. Turner then stated he had lived under evaluations for the last 29 years. He believes to have a workable evaluation system you have to have input to your department head before that evaluation can be a fair and just evaluation. An arm chair evaluation is not a good evaluation. If the Chief asks my shift sergeant to give a rough evaluation of Mr. Turner, he will discuss it with the sergeant and then do his own. He has no problem with this. Mrs. Martinez stated she believes that is what is tak.ing~place now. Merit Board Meeting M~nutes August 28, 1985 -2- ~ ~ Mr. Turner stated he believes their situation is being corrected; that they should not have to be subjected to what has been happening in the last five or six rmnths, and that they can clean their own departrrent up. There may be arm chair evaluations in other departrrents, and he will be ITDre than happy to talk with other people and get a feel of this. Mr. TurnEr suggested the agenda for the next rreeting contain a review of the evaluation format. Mr. Gross related an incident when he worked in the' shipyards, an incident which led to a change in the rreri t system of that company. Miscellaneous Mr. Turner went into a discussion of the garage rrechanic and rrechanic assistant. He explained the scope of a rrechanic, grade 10, with knowledge factors required being so high, what the procedure would be to make a recorrmendation of an ' increase of this person's pay, which would change his step, ~'=i the overall scope of what's required of a rrechanic does not justify the pay he is getting. This is one reason why they have had problems keeping a good rrechanic in the garage. He would like to review the job of a rrech an ic , update his job description with the departrrent head, have it reviewed by the Board, and also talk with the man who is currently holding that position to filIus in on the overall responsibilities of that job. Mrs. Uartinez stated Mr. Turner is doing an excellent job bringing these grievances before the Board. Mr. Gold suggested the Dictionary of Occu- pational Title be used, and perhaps one could be borrowed, as far as qualifications, etc. are concerned. This will be talked about next ITDnth, under the title flMechanic Upgradefl. There being no further business, Mr. Gross made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Mr. Turner. Tne rreeting was adjourned at 8:03.P.M. ~linutes submitted by: Dorothy C. Garrity Meri t Board Meeting !vlinutes August 28, 1985 1-' -3-