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09-28-1983 r ~ o o ~ . CITY OF EDGEWATER MERIT BOARD MEETING September 28, 1983 The meeting of the Merit Board was called to order at 7:00 P~M. in the conference area of City Hall. ROLL CALL Others Present: Betty Billups Robert Bates Dr. Roland Bazin Debbie Sigler Connie Kinsey, City Clerk Present Present Excused Present George Hodges Present APPROVAL OF MINUTES Mrs. Billups made a motion to accept the minutes of July 27, 1983, being seconded by Mrs. Sigler. Motion CARRIED 3-0. COMMUNICATIONS The first communication was a memo from the City Council commending the Merit Board for the work done on the proposed Merit Plan. City Clerk Kinsey assured the board members of the positive remarks regarding the plan. There is only one area that seems to be a problem, which is the paragraph on longevity. The Council feels this should be more specific. The board members discussed the longevity item. Mrs. Sigler read what is presently in the plan. After discussing the evaluation system that we are trying to deve1o~ it was realized that it is possible for an employee to never actually reach the last step on the proposed pay scale. An employee could do a good job working for the City for many years, however not be considered outstanding. It is important that longevity not be confused with merit. An employee who has been with the City for many years is as valuable in his own way as a new out- standing employee. There was discussion at this point about what kind of figure should be put on the longevity increase. It was the overall consensus of the board that if we get the basic wording down for longevity, the City Council will be able to fill in the figure according to budget consideration. There should be a fixed amount for all longevity increases, rather than any percentage of salaries or something like that. The figure of $5.00 per week after each five years served was discussed, then the board decided to break this down and show actual per hour increase in the individuals pay checks, (12.59). After lengthy discussion regarding the cost to the City to add a longevity increase to this plan and the need to have a longevity program, it was agreed on a new wording of the paragraph. The figure of 159 per hour increase was agreed upon. Mrs. Sigler is to type this up and submit it to the Personnel Officer for Council consideration. (\ o o ~ Another correction that needs to be made to the proposed plan is the grade scale for the evaluations of supervisory personnel. It has been brought out that the grade needed to determine a merit increase for supervisory personnel should be higher than 85 since they are graded on more items and can obtain more points than the regular employees. The figure of one hundred f6urteen (114} was determined to be the same percentage as the 85 for the lower scale. The board members worked on the rewording of the paragraph regarding the evaluation and the merit increase. Mrs. Sigler is to retype this page of the plan and submit it to the Personnel Officer for Council consideration. The second memo under communications is from Mrs. Kinsey regarding a promotional examination program. She showed the board members a package that Councilman Wargo brought to her. The board agreed that this would be an excellent idea, they reviewed the different examina- tion booklets. Mrs. Kinsey explained that the Merit Ordinance states that the Merit Board will help establish any examinations for hiring and promoting. She would like the board to help her come up with some type of pro- gram. She suggested perhaps we contact other cities to find out what they use, or we could send off for a catalog from the company where these booklets came from. It was agreed that Mrs. Sigler would call the Personnel Officer in New Smyrna Beach before the next Merit Board meeting and find out what type proqram they use. It was suggested that if in the near future an update of all the job descriptions is going to take place, this could be added for the department heads to review. In the future when someone comes in to apply for a particular job, they should be able to look at the job description they are applying fo~ as well as) take a particular test for that position. There was discussion at this time with the City Clerk about perhaps holding a special meeting with the Council regarding the proposed Merit Plan. OLD BUSINESS None NEW BUSINESS Mrs. Sigler stated that reading over the by-laws she discovered that several things have changed since the by-laws were typed. An old ordinance was referred to, the time of the meetings was changed and several small items like these. She read all the updates that need to be made in the old set of by-laws. It was agreed that these by-laws be retyped and brought back to the Merit Board at the next meeting. Mrs. Sigler stated that the only other item she has to bring up is the vacancy on the board, and the Council is doing everything they can to get board members. Mrs. Kinsey explained that ads have been put in the paper, they even put the notice on the water bills this month. -2- ,~ o Q , PUBLIC COMMENTS Mrs. Kinsey went over a correction that is going to be made in the Code of Conduct. On page 10 under Group III Offenses the penalty was obviously erroneously left out. As Personnel Officer she wrote to the union association regarding this, and they agree that this was a clerical error and administratively it is going to be corrected. Mrs. Kinsey brought a matter up to the board which she would like to have some help with. It concerns the vendor machines that are located in various locations of the City. The City Attorney and the City Auditors both have stated that we can not leave the handling of the ,-' money the way it is. This is a benefit for the employees and it is their money,we really should not put this money in a City account. She stated that during the discussions with the Council members, the suggestion was made that perhaps the Merit Board representative, as a representative of the employees could be appointed by the board to take care of this money. She added that another suggestion is that the representative be the one to handle the money in all the machines, bring a report back to the Merit Board each month. It is not the idea to take this away from the employees, after all they use this money for Christmas parties, for flowers to employees who are hospita1ized,etc. There was discussion regarding a "Sunshine" group being formed by the employees at which time various expenditures could be considered and reporting on the funds be done. Mrs. Kinsey explained that she can not be the one in charge, nor could she or the Council appoint anyone because then it becomes a City matter. The idea of the Merit Board and the representative was a good one because this is an employee matter. Mrs. Sigler added that if this is the person who will handle the money one good thing to remember, it will not always be the same person. Every year the employees will vote and, .; one of the repre- sentative's functions will be to take care of the employees' vendor fund and report to the Merit Board. There was further discussion of an inventory being taken sometime in the near future and the representative start keeping a record of the monies from all of the machines. This is to come back to the board for discussion to see how the system will or will not work. There being no further business, Mrs. Billups made a motion to adjourn, being seconded by Mrs. Sigler. Meeting adjourned 9:00. Minutes submitted by: Debbie Sigler -3-