Fort Walton Beach Council agenda — 12-11-2007 regular agenda — reading text

J the salary. She said in her opinion the evaluation can be done by the City Manager in her opinion \; J because that is an administrative duty. Clarification was requested whether the recommendation would reflect as it is in the Charter and not be a change to the Charter. The City Attorney did not see it as a change to the Charter and it also would not change the fact that Council appoints that position. She said the procedures in the Charter are regarding finance procedures and those are all conducted under the supervision and direction of the City Manager. She said the Charter says Council sets the salary of the four Charter Officers, it does not go any further than that and it is very open. Special Council 11- 26- 07 223 STUDY cont. The City Attorney said her concern when the motion was made was it says as a direct report and what that really means, and she took it that the City Manager knows that means an administrative and reporting because she does it with 13 other departments. She said if Council is comfortable with that then it will be the City Manager' s determination of what that means. The City Manager commented it is clear what the direct reporting relationship is in that the Charter says that the Finance Director works under the supervision and control of the City Manager; and it goes further to say that issues with policy and financial policy are still subject to the City Manager' s review and approval. It was further commented that the motion reflects what is in the Charter and if Council wants to change the charter, they can change it, but the relationships as pointed out in the Charter need to be clarified now. The Mayor called for the vote on the motion and it carried by a vote of 5 to 2 with Holmes, Reeves, Garvie, Hartwell, and Minich in favor and Miller and Pullen opposed. Recommendation # 3 - create an Administrative Services Department comprised of Human Resources, Information Technology, Purchasing and Public Information. ( City ManafJer agreed) The question was asked if the three positions, human resources, information technology, and purchasing would be full- time positions. Dr. Long replied in a municipality this size that is a reasonable conclusion. The question was asked if there would be another position for the administrative services department head. Dr. Long replied the treatment of that would be a matter of making that as an additional responsibility of one of the current individuals in those departments that will be combined. The question was asked if the individual who becomes the department head over administrative services would be able to speak on behalf of the two technical jobs or whether they would need to be called in to speak to the City Manager, and whether anything would be saved because they are very technical positions. Dr. Long replied that typically when that kind of reorganization occurs, the players know their strengths and communicate with each other and overall there are certain administrative issues that the department head can carry forward more effectively. He said the intent is to try to relieve the City Manager of the time required to manage those functions independently. Mr. Hartwell moved to re- evaluate the recommendation with the FY 2008- 09 Budget. Dr. Pullen seconded motion. During an exchange of views in support and in opposition to the motion comments included concern with the impact of career progression on those positions that would be combined under one new department and the impact needed to be evaluated; all other options need to be looked at in the re- evaluation; that although the department heads answer directly to the City Manager, there has to be a level of trust that the department heads are the experts, and the department heads have more autonomy in a flat organization; disagreement with taking away positions, payor benefits it was assumed would be received and have been received over previous years, and that a manager should only have a certain number of direct reports; there was lack of sufficient backup of financial information and no cost impact on the recommendations; that the motion would allow the organizational structure to remain as it is without implementing anything now; that the motion would allow time to re- eva1uate the impact; and that the motion did not close the door on considering other alternatives to evaluate the span of control. The Mayor called for the vote on the motion and it carried by a vote of 5 to 2 with Holmes, Miller, Garvie, Pullen, and Hartwell in favor and Miller and Minich opposed. 2. 2,s4cial Council 11- 26- 07 STUDY cant. Recommendation # 5 - revise departmental performance measures to ensure consistency with the Strategic Plan goals and initiatives. ( City Manager agreed) and Recommendation # 7 - Human Resources should add efficiency measures by adding the element of time to existing performance measures. ( City Manager agreed) Dr. Pullenmoved to approve the City Manager recommendations to revise departmental performance measures to ensure consistency with the Strategic Plan goals and initiatives; and that Human Resources should add efficiency measures by adding the element of time to existing performance measures. Mr. Reeves seconded motion and it carried unanimously with Holmes, Miller, Reeves, Garvie, Pullen, Hartwell, and Minich in favor. Recommendation # 8 - change the City' s contribution percentages for medical insurance premiums for employees to 900/0 and for dependents to 500/0. ( City Manager agreed) The City Manager stated currently the City pays 750/0 of the employeH only and 750/0 of the family coverage. She mentioned Dr. Long found that paying 750/0 of the family coverage is above the norm of what other local governments, those in particular in this area, are doing so the recommendation is to phase in a declining increase for how much the City will participate in family coverage. She said it has been discussed with Council in the past about increasing the employee only coverage to 900/0 and decreasing the family coverage to 500/0 in a 3- 5 year period. She suggested, rather than implement it in the February 2008 plan year, that Council direct staff to return with a methodology to phase it in over a 3- 5 year period beginning with the 08- 09 budget. Discussion included concern expressed for the younger, lower paid employees with families who could not afford it; and whether a two pronged approach could be used with one contribution level for current employees and the new contribution level for new employees. The City Manager acknowledged that could be done and it has been done with other benefits where current employees were grandfathered in and then changed it for all new hires. Mark Wiltsie, Human Resources Director, mentioned that Dr. Long had put in the report to provide for all new hires after a certain period of time to receive a different benefit. He said personally and professionally he is opposed to that because employees working side by side would have two different benefits and it could be an equity issue. It was questioned whether it would be inequity since the employees would know their benefits when hired. The Human Resources Director replied it is a major benefit and one of the reasons the employees come to the City for employment. He said it is talked about and there will be employees working side by side with two different benefits. He had concern it would cause dissention in the ranks. He did not know of another city that has two sets of groups where current employees have one benefit and new hires have a different medical insurance benefit. Dr. Long was unaware of any cities that had a two tier approach and said the more consistent assignment and payment of benefits would be more along the lines of the 90/ 25 in terms of the market competitiveness. He acknowledged there are many sides of the issue; one is that it is an attractive benefit for an employee and on the other hand the reality of the cost is that it has been averaging 11- 120/0 for a number of years and is putting cities in a difficult situation. He did not know of any cities that have a two tiered approach but many policies are implemented by grandfathering employees. He said the City is taking on a lot with the health insurance payment and as an outsider looking in they see what is being done on the outside is more along the lines of 90/ 25 or even no dependent coverage. He said they would like to see the City move in that direction; their intent is to try to save the City money and to be more consistent with the market.  Special Council 11- 26- 07 225 STU DY cont. It was questioned if other organizations such as the County, the School Board, Sheriff's Office, have been approached to partner on insurance to increase the population base and reduce overall cost. The City Manager said a couple of years ago there was a push to try to have a consolidated effort with the County, the School Board to have a unified plan but it did not get any where. She explained the issues are that each plan has its own benefits, its own timetable renewal, and of individuals. She said the cost group may be shared but the risk is also increased. The Human Resources Director mentioned about three years ago the City Manager' s in the area and the County Manager met to try to develop a consortium to market medical insurance and one of the stumbling blocks was that there were six different plan years of the different agencies and the biggest hurdle was to get all the agencies together under one plan design and to agree on the features of the plan. Mr. Minich moved to approve the City Manager' s recommendation to change the City' s contribution percentages for medical insurance premiums for employees to 900/0 for individual and for dependents to 500/0 to phase in over a period of five years starting with the 2008- 09 budnet year. Dr. Pullen seconded motion. Further discussion included concern expressed with taking away a benefit and the impact to the lower salaried employees. The Mayor called for the vote on the motion and it failed by a vote of 1 to 6 with Minich in favor and Holmes, Miller, Reeves, Garvie, Pullen, and Hartwell opposed. Recommendation # 12 - conduct an annual performance evaluation of the City Clerk position. ( City Manager agreed) Mr. Minich moved to approve the City Manager' s recommendation to conduct an annual performance evaluation of the City Clerk position. Mr. Hartwell seconded motion. The City Manager noted that Council would make the evaluation. Some discussion