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10-24-1984 , .-. o o CITY OF EDGEWATER MERIT BOARD October 24,1984 7:00 P.M. The meeting of the Merit Board was called to order at 7:00 P.M. in the Council Chambers of City Hall. ROLL CALL Betty Billups Walter Gross Cecelia Stevens Anthony Fanale Debbie Sigler Present Present Present Present Present APPROVAL OF MINUTES Mrs. Billups made a motion to adopt the minutes of the August 22nd meeting, being seconded by Mrs. Stevens. Upon roll call vote the motion CARRIED 3-2. Mr. Gross and Mr. Fanale voting No, they were not present. Mrs. Billups made a motion to adopt the minutes of the September 24th meeting, being seconded by Mr. Gross. Upon roll call vote the motion CARRIED 5-0. COMMUNICATIONS None OLD BUSINESS Election of Chairman and Vice Chairman Mrs.Stevens nominated Mrs. Billups for Chairman, Mrs. Sigler seconded the nomination. Mrs. Sigler made a motion to close the nominations, being seconded by Mrs. Stevens. Upon roll call vote the nominations closed 5-0. Upon roll call vote to elect Mrs. Billups Chairman, the motion CARRIED 5-0. Mr. Fanale nominated Mr. Gross for Vice Chairman, Mrs. Sigler seconded the nomination. Mrs. Sigler made a motion to close the nominations, being seconded by Mrs. Stevens. Upon roll call vote the nominations closed 5-0. Upon roll call vote to elect Mr. Gross Vice Chairman, the motion CARRIED 5-0. NEW BUSINESS Chairwoman Billups asked if there is any New Business. Mr. Gross stated there is no agenda here this evening. Chairwoman Billups stated there is an agenda, there were no com- munications brought in. She read the agenda to Mr. Gross. Mrs. Sigler stated that Mrs. Gross picked up Mr. Gross' paperwork, ,with the agenda items attached. Mr. Gross said he has all of it. o o New Business cont. Mr. Gross asked the feelings of the board about having the Safety meetings and the Merit Board meetings like we did in ~~ ~g the beginning; at the same time, one right after the other. Cnl~ I~ ' He commented that we should especially get Mr. Sheridan's ~~ feelings on this, since he is the Safety Officer for the City.~ a There was discussion among the board members about this. It was agreed that Mrs. Sigler would get a letter typed up for all the members of the Safety Committee asking them to attend the next Safety meeting because we want to discuss changing the time of the meeting, and we want all their input. Mr. Gross said he has another matter to bring up. He still has questions about the merit system. He suggested that we consider having the Merit person from the City of New Smyrna come to one of our meetings and explain a little about their system to us. He passed out an article that was in the newspaper, pointing out that it shows each employee is evaluated individually for a merit raise at different times of the year by the merit system of the City of New Smyrna. Mr. Gross went on to explain the different job titles that New Smyrna has, which the City of Edgewater does not have. He filled the board members in on the past experience the City had when a City Manager and an Administrator were paid by the City. Mrs. Stevens asked if we could get back to his suggestion of having someone visit our meeting from the New Smyrna Merit System. Mrs. Sigler informed the board members that several cities were contacted when the Merit Board started working on our merit plan package. Mr. Lary from the City of New Smyrna was spoken to and we did get a lot of our ideas from their plan. We have an evalu- ation system the same as theirs. Mr. Fanale commented it would be repetitious, since this has already been done. Mrs. Stevens noted that this is all in our packages. Mr. Fanale added if we have already gone through the motions and we know what the intentions are he does not see any need to go outside the City, until such time we run into a problem. Mr. Gross said the problem you have now is the 90% of the re- classifications which the Merit Board sent to the Council and it has been tabled because we sent it at the same time there are union negotiations going on. We sent it as a package and not as individual merit raises. We should review individual situations and recommend raises on the basis that the person is doing the work and has earned the increase. Mrs. Sigler tried to explain that we did not reclassify individuals; we recommended upgrading the classification schedule. If a man was a Repair Worker I before, he is still a Repair Worker I. This is an amendment to the basic plan the Council passed a year ago, which oecurred while the department heads were attempting to update the old job descriptions. The largest percentage is in the Public Works Department where the title of Service Worker was upgraded which does affect several employees. Mr. Fanale said this is why you have to pick up all 70 or whatever there are, because they are all behind and in that job position. -2- o o Mr. Gross stated the raises were not the question, the reclas- sification of employees that we changed is the question. He ~ ~ explained how Mrs. Kinsey went through her department reclassi- ~~. ~ fying employees. Most of the people at the meeting did not know . the work classifications that we were changing, except that they were doing more than the required work they were in at the time, and they would receive more money. He added that the union nego- tiations are not settled yet, and he doesn't see how the union negotiator can negotiate salaries with these classifications going through the Council at the same time. Mrs. Sigler said if the Council had made the classification decision before they went into negotiations, they would have the figures to work with. Mr. Gross agreed that this should have been done before they went into union negotiations. Mr. Fanale added since we have to wait for the Council's decision he doesn't see any reason for getting outside help, after all the work that has already been done. Mrs. Sigler went over the evaluation system and how it works, explaining that if there is a complaint by the employee regarding his evaluation, he can come to the Merit Board with a grievance. At this time she went over the forms included in the merit plan package, which would be used for evaluations. Mr. Gross asked Mrs. Sigler if she feels the Merit Board should have a part in her evaluation to recommend an increase in pay? Mrs. Sigler answered no, Mrs. Stevens and Mrs. Billups both com- mented that they wouldn't know how Debbie works or what she does at her daily job. Mr. Gross commented we have a City Administrator who evaluates a ~g City Engineer and a Police Chief, he asked if the board feels this/IV" lady knows how those men work anymore than we know how Debbie works?~ If we don't know how to evaluate these people how could we sit here and reclassify people like we did? The majority of the board members agreed that the individual evalu- ations should not come to the board, and that until there is a com- plaint about the merit system not working, we don't have a problem. Mrs. Sigler added again, that this is the first plan we have had and there are going to be amendments needed; the updated classifi- cation schedule is the first amendment that we have recommended to the Council. If there are other areas where improvements need to be made, perhaps we should look at the specific wording and make a correction for the Council to consider. Mr. Gross asked if we think the union negotiations have any inter- ference with the merit plan, or if they should both work at the same time? He added it has been said that we should do away with the merit system and let the union bargain for the employees. Mrs. Sigler stated she does not see where one has anything to do with the other. There is a merit system because it is a Charter referendum and to change this would take a vote by the people of Edgewater, the employees having a union contract can not eliminate the fact that there is a merit system in the City. Mr. Fanale said we don't have any control over the Council doing something with our recommendations, and he made a motion to adjourn, being seconded by Mrs. Stevens. Meeting adjourned 8:10. -3-