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03-27-1991 THE CITY OF EDGEWATER MERIT BOARD REGULAR MEETING WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 1991 7:00 P.M. CITY HALL CONFERENCE ROOM MINUTES CALL TO ORDER: The Regular Meeting of the Merit Board was called to order at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 27, 1991, in the Conference Room of City Hall. ROLL CALL: Members present were: Ms. Cece Stevens, Ms. Karen Grasberger, Ms. Jan Morris, Ms. Shirley Roberts, and Ms. Doris Patterson. Also present were Acting City Manager Fred Munoz, Karen Rickelman, Karl Looney, and Debbie Sigler, Recording Secretary. Chairperson Patterson stated she was going to try and address everyone by their last name. She stated some of the members asked her why they were able to vote on the minutes the very first time. She stated on May 23, 1990, which was her first meeting she did vote. She stated the approval of minutes is a routine thing and when she knew she was going to be a member of the Merit Board, she took it upon herself to familiarize herself with the recent activities of the board so she had some idea of what she was voting on. Chairperson Patterson stated on Page 192 of Roberts Rules it says in regards to voting for yourself when you are nominated within the board yet this does not prevent a member from voting for himself for any office or other position as voting for a delegate or member of a committee nor from voting when other members are included within the motion" and that would apply to voting for yourself. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Mrs. Roberts stated on Page 2 there should be quotation marks in the fifth paragraph around there is nothing in the description that says and other duties as assigned. She also stated on Page 5 in the seventh paragraph there should be quotation marks around this came to our attention through a request from Mrs. Karen Rickelman for a review by the Merit Board of the denial of her grade reclassification. She also stated, in the next paragraph should have quotations marks around this has become a problem due to the fact that the Merit Board was in existence prior to the City Manager form of government. There is also the consideration that the City Manager serves as the Personnel Officer. She also stated in the next paragraph there should be quotation marks around this has become a problem due to the fact that the Merit Board duties as outlined in Attachment A were in existence prior to the City Manager form of government. Chairperson Patterson asked Mrs. Roberts if she received a copy of the draft that went to the City Attorney. Mrs. Roberts stated yes she did. Ms. Grasberger stated on Page 5 in the fifth paragraph it should read Ms. Grasberger stated he didn't reject Mrs. Rickelman's he rejected the recommendation of Mr. Munoz. Chairperson Patterson stated she was not clear on paragraph 15. Ms. Grasberger stated they were discussing the lack of number grades on the three positions that had been presented to them. She stated she would like it to read Ms. Grasberger made a motion to request further clarification regarding the numerical grade classification of the specific grade classification of the specific grade assignments for each position description, seconded by Ms. Stevens. Ms. Grasberger made a motion to accept the minutes as corrected, seconded by Mrs. Roberts. Motion CARRIED 5 -0. UNFINISHED BUSINESS: Request for Legal Clarification of Merit Board Duties Chairperson Patterson stated there has been none so this will remain on the agenda until such time as we hear. Pro - Tempore Chairman Election Chairperson Patterson read the Pro - Tempore section in the by- laws. She stated they do need a Pro - Tempore and asked the board to think about it for the April meeting when they would vote. Chairperson Patterson stated it is a very rare thing for the Pro - Tempore to have to run the meeting. Mrs. Roberts stated if in fact Ms. Morris did not want to do it she would volunteer to do it. Ms. Morris stated it might be best because she has family emergencies that could take her away at any time. Chairperson Patterson asked if there is a motion on the floor to vote. Ms. Stevens so moved, seconded by Ms. Grasberger. Motion CARRIED 5 -0. Chairperson Patterson stated let it be noted that Mrs. Roberts is the new Pro - Tempore Chairman. Review of New Position Descriptions Chairperson Patterson stated in reference to this, she pulled out page 6 and 7 of the Cody Report and as an example, she looked at the class description of the Fire Chief and she looked at these items to go by in conjunction with the memo. Mrs. Roberts stated one of the questions was that there were no credentials required of the Police Lieutenant or education and she thought that they were going to send the board members another copy. Chairperson Patterson stated she did not request any because of the changes with the City Manager. Mrs. Roberts stated after reviewing this she is sure it was just an oversight because every other position has some sort of credentialing or education requirements. Ms. Morris stated it looked like they just forgot to give them the second page. Ms. Grasberger stated there still was no numerical grade. Chairperson Patterson asked if there was a motion on the floor in regards to the numerical grade. Ms. Grasberger stated she thought they had to go back to whatever was said last month and hold themselves to it. She stated they were requesting further clarification regarding the numerical grade of the specific three assignments that they have been asked to review. She stated she doesn't know that they want to proceed until they get them. Ms. Grasberger made a motion to postpone the omitted job descriptions until they receive a numerical grade level and classification. Chairperson Patterson stated according to Roberts Rules of Order that she read when discussion starts the motion died so they are back to square one. Page 2 Merit Board March 27, 1991 410 4i1 Chairperson Patterson asked if they were going to make a motion to vote on one position tonight and to postpone the remainder until they can get the numerical information. Ms. Grasberger asked if there will be any delay on getting the other two if they vote on this one. She asked if they will get them more expediently if they delay voting on any of them. Mr. Munoz stated the fact that they vote on one and not the others shouldn't slow things up and by the same token not voting on any of them should speed them up. Chairperson Patterson asked if they entertained a motion from the floor on voting or is someone going to present a motion. Ms. Roberts moved that they write a memorandum to the appropriate person requesting this information for the next meeting, seconded by Ms. Stevens. Motion CARRIED 5 -0. NEW BUSINESS: Memo of invitation to interim City Manager Chairperson Patterson asked if there was any discussion, comments, motions to invite him. Ms. Stevens stated he was there. Chairperson Patterson stated she is glad he is there, but is there a motion to invite him in a formal memo. Ms. Stevens stated she hopes he doesn't feel he has to be invited to come. She stated they all wish he would come often. Mr. Munoz stated he does receive an agenda and if he sees something of interest and he thinks he should be there he will make himself available. Chairperson Patterson stated in view of the fact that Mr. Munoz is there tonight, the memo may seem redundant but she would like it to go down as a fact that the invitation is open. Ms. Grasberger stated she would like to move that they formally thank him and extend an open invitation in writing, seconded by Ms. Stevens. Mrs. Roberts asked if his presence at the Merit Board would be in any conflict with all of this if there was something that came up that they needed to discuss. Mr. Munoz stated he didn't know. They are recorded so anything that is said or that is on the agenda can be heard on the tapes. Chairperson Patterson stated in the Roberts Rules of Order, if there are people present who are not members of the board and they have expertise that the board needs, members have a right to ask for their comment on a specific issue. Chairperson Patterson stated the motion for the memo would have to be remade because it died when they asked the other questions. The Secretary reread the motion. The motion was to formally thank Mr. Munoz and extend an open invitation to the Merit Board meetings, seconded by Ms. Stevens. Motion CARRIED 5 -0. Ms. Grasberger asked Mr. Munoz if he is not by virtue of the position he is in now as Interim City Manager a member of each and every board within the City. Page 3 Merit Board March 27, 1991 1110 41100 Mr. Munoz stated he was not sure. He stated he is available to attend any of the meetings just like the public is. DISCUSSION ITEMS /CORRESPONDENCE: Police Lieutenant job description Classification of specific grade assignments for each position description Chairperson Patterson stated they already, by virtue of their previous discussion, took care of the above items. Ms. Stevens stated last month there was a big discussion about whether or not Ms. Rickelman was allowed to talk during a meeting. She asked Chairperson Patterson what she found out about that. Chairperson Patterson stated it says in Roberts Rules that with all do respect, they are not participants of the board and should not speak unless they are specifically addressed. There was some discussion at that time as to whether board members and Council members vote at their first meetings. NEW BUSINESS: Union contracts and how they relate to Merit Board functions and duties Chairperson Patterson stated this came about at the last meeting when we were talking about drug testing and she believes the reason everyone wanted to discuss these things was to further understand the contracts and how they relate to the City. Ms. Morris asked if one of the Merit Board's functions or duties is to be there for those who are not a member of the union in order to appeal someone's decision or grievance. Chairperson Patterson stated yes. Ms. Roberts stated in an agreement between the City of Edgewater and the Volusia County Public Employees Association it does list management rights. She asked if an employee belonged to a union wouldn't they take their grievance to the union prior to bringing it here. Ms. Grasberger stated they do not take it to the union prior to the Merit Board, they take it to the union or to the Merit Board. Ms. Grasberger asked Chairperson Patterson if she wanted to get back to the drug testing issue. Chairperson Patterson stated not tonight, that issue was tabled. She stated the reason the union issue came up was because they found out they have three different contracts and non -union employees and the situation with the City Manager /Personnel Director conflict and how everything fits in. She stated this is a discussion to study how these things tie in, how they effect the Merit Board and how they effect the things they can and can not do. She stated the reason they are on the agenda is for the board to do their homework. She stated they can get copies and they should study them. Ms. Roberts stated if in fact they do get the City Attorney to come one night and speak with them, could she give them some guidelines. She stated she would like a copy of the contracts so she can review them. Page 4 Merit Board March 27, 1991 Chairperson Patterson stated the Secretary could get them copies of the contracts. Ms. Grasberger stated she didn't think the City Attorney would be coming, she would just respond to them. Ms. Morris stated the Personnel Manual covers a lot of this. She stated there are procedures set down for all employees, union and non -union to follow. Chairperson Patterson stated the reason for bringing this up is because the Merit Board usually gets involved in the heat of the battle and they want to know what is coming. She stated in order to do that they need to understand how the contracts work, how they fit into the system and how the Merit Board fits into the whole picture so they don't give erroneous advice to people. Ms. Roberts stated she feels like the more they know about what is going on, including the employees handbook, the better they are going to do their job. Ms. Grasberger stated it is important for the new members of the board to understand and get it clarified enough that they know they have a description of what the board is supposed to do but there is that gray area that still exists. She stated once that is clarified they will be able to move forward. Ms. Grasberger made a motion that the members receive copies of the employee handbook and the contracts for their perusal and for the issue to be tabled temporarily with the possibility of future motions with regard to the same, seconded by Ms. Roberts. Motion CARRIED 5 -0. CITIZENS COMMENTS Mr. Munoz stated the Merit Board is an important part to the employees. There are two mechanisms to which an employee can have a grievance settled. That is of course, the Chain of Command through the union contract whether it is PRA, PEA, and SPEA and of course the Merit Board. Some things can be settled routinely through the Chain of Command. Some are more suitable through the union and others, not addressing the union, must be addressed through the merit system, a Merit Board. The union represents all employees even those who are not members, even non -union members vote on the election. Ms. Rickelman stated they vote on the contract. Mr. Munoz stated they vote on the contract but if they have a grievance and he's not a union paid member then of course a union is not ready to give them legal counsel. He doesn't know what services the union provides other than allowing them to vote. Basically if none they don't pay they are basically getting a free ride on all the efforts of the dues paying people. Ms. Grasberger asked what they vote on. Mr. Munoz stated they vote on the acceptance of the contract. Mr. Munoz stated unions are usually the result of management failure. At some point a union came in because management failed. In this type of environment, you never know who you are going to have; you may have a very benevolent manager and you say well we don't need a union, just about that time you lose that person and you don't know who you end up with. The union does provide important functions. Mr. Munoz handed out an article to the members. One of the functions the Merit Board is under Section 13.22 Organization for Personnel Administration and Page 5 Merit Board March 27, 1991 460 kil (c)(7) which is hold and conduct hearings involving appeals of any classified employees from a decision made by supervisor affecting his employment or terms and conditions hereof. From this particular article it seems this board would be ideal to do the predeprivation hearing. You'll notice when you read it that most people think this sort of hearing is only for someone who is fired, but the law and the statutes have expanded so it could be a suspension. If someone gets suspended with no pay for a week, they could come before you to hear all the facts and make a determination. A layoff or abolishing of a job is one way to fire someone. A loss of status could be another thing that is brought to you. The employees will make a determination where he is going to have the most chance of success. If he thinks the chain of command is going to work for him he is going to use that. If he thinks the union can represent him and they can do the best job for him then he will elect that avenue. If not he might come through you. The Merit Board and the City Manager, the City Manager is the Personnel Officer as assigned by the Councilmembers. All of the personnel decisions like classifications have to go through you. You sign off on it, you review it looking for this equity, review and recommend policies for safety. Review and recommend a position classification plan to all merit system employees with the consideration of the City Manager. So you review and you provide feedback to the City Manager and also to the councilmembers. In some situations, the City Manager has a different view than the conclusion of the Merit Board. The Merit Board presents their finding to the Councilmembers and then if the City Manager feels otherwise, he can make his presentation and the ultimate arbitrator would be the Mayor and Council, who will decide whether your justifications are a more persuasive argument than my argument. They basically make the final decision. I wanted to respond to the issue in reference to Mrs. Karen Rickelman; whether I should have been the one to come to the Board as the Finance Director. This developed when Mrs. Rickelman noticed a discrepancy between her job title, her function, her grading. These are other people who do not supervise the number of employees that she has on a daily basis, do not fulfill all the functions that she does on a daily basis, and there was a discrepancy between her grade level which is 17 and the grade level of other people of grade 19. She came to me and presented those facts and I reviewed the material. I felt yes and then I criticized myself for not having investigated and pointed this out earlier. One of the problems was that the Cody Study was not presented to the department heads for review before it was given to the Merit Board so we had basically no input. Ms. Grasberger asked if they can clarify something. Can it be noted here that you are speaking now, as the supervisor, you are not speaking now as the Acting City Manager. Mr. Munoz stated right. He continued, we did get the package. Initially, in his department, he passed them out to let his people see what their job description was. Mr. Munoz stated department heads did not have an opportunity to review the final report. Chairperson Patterson reiterated that input was not asked for from the supervisors before presenting the final Cody Report. Mr. Munoz stated he remembers quite clearly receiving it and making copies of each individuals, gave them a copy of it and shortly within less than an hour he came back and picked them up and he turned them back. Once we got it back, it was as an accomplished fact. At any rate, once Mrs. Karen Rickelman made the assertion 1 looked at it, it made sense. No action was taken on the initial memo I sent so I made my memo a little stronger Page 6 Merit Board March 27, 1991 the second time and no action was taken on it. By her statements, Karen Rickelman was getting kind of frustrated, she was waiting to go to the next step, which was to come to the Merit Board and of course we have been frustrating that process. Finally I sent my last memo and I thought was going to get reaction because I made it a very strong and persistent memo. It needed to be that way to bring it to a head, and of course, a decision was made not to reclassify. I told Mrs. Rickelman we went through the process and it is a no. Now if she is still unhappy with that then she can appeal to the Merit Board and that is what she did. I don't think you have received it yet, but now as Acting City Manager, I am sending that request for your consideration. I think all of the documentation I have provided makes a very strong case for her to be reclassified. You'll be getting that because 1 have given it to the City Clerk already. I feel that I worked at that particular time for the City Manager, I made my presentation to him, if he disapproved it then I let my employee know and if they are not happy with that, then they can appeal because it is the employee appealing. As a department head I don't have to appeal to you unless it is something that effects me. I don't have to appeal to the board for my employees because I work for the City Manager. She has a chance to come here; you are here for to protect their interests to make sure the employees are treated fairly. The Merit Board is a mechanism to take care of some of their grievances. If they didn't have that I think a lot of them would be very frustrated. If someone has any questions for me I will answer them to the best of my knowledge. Ms. Grasberger stated a question arises whether we need to send a follow up letter to Acting City Attorney Nikki Clayton because your comments now create another situation that we need clarification on. He is in fact the Supervisor who made the recommendation initially which was overridden by the then City Manager. He now, as Acting City Manager, wants to override that. Are we in a position to then get caught in that. I think we are going to have to follow up on this. Mr. Munoz stated he didn't know if he was overriding it because as you know Mr. Johnson said in his memo that he would consider it again at the next budget. Chairperson Patterson stated when she spoke to Mr. Johnson in his office getting information he also pointed out that comes up in July anyway and we are getting close to that time of year. Ms. Grasberger's concern about the procedure that we are in the middle of now is understood. We are waiting for an update from the City Attorney based on the Code Section and facts that were stated in our minutes, that the City Manager position came after the Merit Board was established. Although many cities operate with both concurrently their charters address that situation. Ours does not so that is something that we cannot proceed with until we hear from the City Attorney. Perhaps we could get some feedback from her and meet again before our regular meeting. Mr. Munoz stated he thinks the Merit Board can make a decision with respect to a City Managers decision. You study the facts, you come up with a determination and, as I said before, when the City Manager is of a different opinion than the Merit Board, the final arbitrator is the City Council. So I think your decision should not be completely influenced by the City Manager. You would have to look at the fact and decide what determination you make and that determination may be the same as the City Manager, but it doesn't necessarily have to be. You may come to a different conclusion, so I think it is well within your power to evaluate it and evidently that wasn't done last time because there was a question of jurisdiction. Page 7 Merit Board March 27, 1991 Chairperson Patterson stated that has not been answered and they can't proceed. To be fair they have to hear from her on that. The other issue you brought up tonight in the discussion will be in the minutes for our review next time. We will try to get the minutes as soon as possible. Chairperson Patterson asked if there were any other citizen comments. Ms. Stevens asked if there were supposed to be two City employees on the Merit Board. Chairperson Patterson stated that has not been voted on. It is coming. Ms. Stevens asked if that will be decided after the Charter is voted on? Mrs. Rickelman stated the board made reference to the fact that the Merit Board was in existence prior to the City Manager being in Edgewater. She stated we did have a City Manager when this was on the Charter ballot. This was voted on in November of 75. We had Dale Bryant as City Manager prior to that. Ms. Grasberger stated you didn't have a City Manager /Council form of government. Chairperson Patterson stated it was the City Manager /Council form of government that was not in place at the time. That is causing us this conflict and we needed to get clarification. The Chair recognized Mrs. Roberts. Mrs. Roberts stated she's not sure if she understands all of this. What she heard the Acting City Manager say was that one of the functions of the Merit Board was to hear a grievance and then decide. If we are in disagreement with the City Manager, as Personnel Officer, then the two of us go to Council and they decide. Mr. Munoz stated that is what his envision is. The final arbitrator of all of these is those members of the Council. Just like everything else any decision the LDRA board decides on they can override, they can change or they can concur the decision. Mrs. Roberts stated in that case we don't really have a problem. We should hear and make a decision. Chairperson Patterson stated she agreed with her in the beginning until she read Mr. Johnson's memo which stated basically if we weren't careful and didn't do it properly it could be thrown out on a technicality. We have discussed this at great length and looked at all of the code items and found that we needed the legal clarification so as soon as she gives us the staff of approval we will be happy to decide. Mr. Munoz asked thrown out on a technicality by who? Chairperson Patterson stated if you read the language it does look like a two way meaning and we need a black and white answer. Ms. Grasberger stated prior to your being an employee of the City or Elly Johnson being an employee of the City, a long time ago Ms. Rickelman came before this board. In fairness to her even though we are delaying this I'd like to see when we make a decision this time that it has some validity. The last time a decision was made by this board in relation to Ms. Rickelman we came to a dead end. We made a decision and it was overridden and we are trying to avoid that same type of thing again. She stated she would like to see some legal clarification come once and for all. Page 8 Merit Board March 27, 1991 lio Ms. Rickelman stated the Charter says the decisions and recommendations of the Merit Board shall be final unless appealed to the City Council which may reverse such decisions or recommendation only by unanimous vote of the City Council. The first problem I think we had was that we sent it to Council for a vote. It should have been sent to Council with a memo saying the decision of the board is this. If I didn't like your decision than I could appeal to the council. I was happy with the decision of the board but it went to Council in the form of do you agree or disagree. That was not the question. It should not have been a question to the Council. It should have been this is what the Merit Board did. The second problem was it was put into the City Attorney's hands to get legal clarification. That was done years ago and still has not been clarified. My jacket is still the way it was even though the board made a recommendation to put all the data in in order to kind of negate those two negative evaluations done on me. My personnel jacket is still like it was with those negative evaluations. Mr. Munoz came on board. Mr. Powers was eliminated from his position. I was reevaluated by my new supervisor and I got my retro merit pay or whatever as the board recommended. This board I feel is for the employees. It is not in conflict with the Personnel Officers duties and responsibilities. That is the purpose of putting this in the charter so we have some place to go. Because of City Manager's who performed in ways that employees were biased we started a union. 1 am the one that started the union for the City because we had an employee who came into work one day and was fired. Plus I had to take him to the Merit Board over giving one employee a certain percentage of pay but there wasn't anymore for the rest of us. I took him to the Merit Board and I won that decision also. That is the purpose of this board, so the employees have some place to go and in that instance we didn't have a union so 1 brought it to this board. I brought this grievance to this board because in our union contract it does not discuss the merit. It does not discuss classification. That was taken out. So my recourse was here and that is why I came here but now we are having this controversy over his duties, your duties. I still don't understand the conflict. Ms. Roberts stated she had to agree with Ms. Rickelman. She doesn't understand the conflict either. If in fact it is the boards duty to review what you've written to us to make a decision and then present our decision for the Council's decision. It is just the board's duty to review and come to a conclusion. That is the way I would interpret it. Chairperson Patterson stated that is the way it would have been in the old way but with the City Manager /Council form of government that changes the rules of the game. We need that clarification. The memo has been gone for a week and a half and it is coming soon, the best thing we can say is we are going to move forward with this. We are not worried about making a decision, that is not the issue. Ms. Stevens stated she guesses they were anticipating that if Mr. Johnson was still the manager, there would have been a problem.. We were just trying to make sure we had full legal ground to say o.k. Mr. Johnson if you are going to give us a problem, well have the Attorney settle it. Ms. Roberts stated then what we are really asking the Attorney to do is tell us if we make a decision the only people who can rule it is the City Council. Chairperson Patterson stated, yes, then we can proceed with our job. Page 9 Merit Board March 27, 1991 Mr. Looney stated he didn't understand any of it. Mr. Munoz is the City Manager. He is recommending giving it to her so I can't see why you need all this clarification. Ms. Grasberger explained that he was also the supervisor who made the recommendation. He also now is wearing several hats and even though it takes a little longer to do, we don't now just say alright, fine we'll forget this and make a decision based on what he has said tonight because he is the Acting City Manager. I think we need to protect the decision that is made by the board with regards to Mrs. Rickeiman. Mr. Munoz stated that is why it shouldn't be just based on the City Manager's recommendation. All the documentation that you see there is quite clear if you look at the job descriptions of the other people who are grade 19 and you look at the job functions they fulfill and the job functions of Mrs. Rickelman. You take in the supervision of seven employees, the evaluation of seven employees on an annual basis and everything else that goes with supervising seven people verses someone who doesn't supervise anyone but themselves. That position holds a grade of 19 you take away the ball bat I think the only conclusion is that she should be a 19. If the Councilmembers had it before them I feel certain that they would approve my recommendation. Chairperson Patterson stated and you understand Ms. Grasberger's point as well as the circumstances that have led you to be in this wearing several hats. The decision that we are asking for is not only for today's problem but it's also to secure the board's position for future cases. After all we have to remember that we serve the public and we serve basically all employees and everyone has the same right. We need to know what that specific right is once and for all and then we would be delighted to do our job as a board having some kind of clout in making recommendations. Chairperson Patterson asked for any other citizen comments. Ms. Rickelman stated you made reference to the rules and regulations. Are we talking of that manual that certain departments worked on? Chairperson Patterson stated she is talking general terms. All of the things that the Code of Ordinances and Charter and everything that effects what we do. She stated we are supposed to be getting a copy of all of it. Ms. Rickeiman stated you will review it and send it on to Council. Ms. Grasberger stated they need to be cognizant of everything that pertains to employees. We can only make a decision based on the information we have. Ms. Rickelman, showing the board the Employee guidebook, stated this is what we used to have and this has been replaced by something else. She stated she read in the minutes that you all had changes to the proposed new one of these. Chairperson Patterson stated this is what we are talking about. We made our changes and we don't even know what has been incorporated that we submitted. Just as you would not prepare a financial statement without getting your ducks in a row we are not going to assume a body of knowledge we do not have. We are going to have at least the reference materials we can refer to to do a good job. Page 10 Merit Board March 27, 1991 Ms. Rickelman asked if the new one has been accepted by the board yet. Ms. Grasberger stated it is in it's final state for presentation. There was further discussion about the present whereabouts of this manual. There being no further business to discuss, Ms. Grasberger made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Ms. Morris. Meeting adjourned at 8 :25 p.m. Minutes submitted by: Lisa Kruckmeyer Page 11 Merit Board March 27, 1991