Mayor's Employee Council
August 22, 2006
Meeting Summary
 

Members Attending:  Taft Bradley, Carol Boyd, Tarrus Crew, Beverly Crockett, Deborah Davis-Williamson, Errol Edingburgh, Gary Fama, , Erma Holmes, Debra Louis, Bill Robilio, Della Sheffield, Anthony Smith, Stacy Taylor, David Thorpe, Tonia Wright

Members Absent:  Michelle Stuart, Ron Benson, Donna Henderson-Braden

Staff Attending:  Mayor AC Wharton, Jr., John Fowlkes, CAO, Marcia Boyd, CAO's Staff, Gwen McClain, Communications & Public Affairs, Charlie Sims, Compensation, Paul Boyd, Human Resources, Mike Lewis, Human Resources

Charlie Sims, Manager of Compensation, Human Resources, opened the meeting with a presentation explaining the changes that are planned for the coming year to the compensation system.  Changes will relate to a plan for "pay for performance" beginning in July 2008.  Questions by Council members related to the presentation included:

• How will pay for performance tie to the performance appraisal system?  Increases will be directly related to the performance appraisal score.
• Will veteran employees be compensated more?  Not in the beginning but this would occur over time as new employees come to work for the County.
• How will Compensation work with management to make changes?  Compensation will work as a partner with management to determine what work the employee performs and will seek input from management to determine grade and pay changes.  It will not be Compensation telling management what to do, but will be a team effort.
• How will recommendations made by officers at Corrections for pay parity with the Sheriff's Department be addressed?  Differences in pay in the Jail and Corrections are based on the Memorandum of Understanding for each group.  In the previous administration, increased pay in the Jail was mandated by the County Commission, but not funded.  The Mayor is committed to closing the gap between the salaries over time.
• How far is the County into the new compensation process?  It will start October 1.  Communication to the departments will begin the second week in September.  New job titles will be job functional titles.  For example the PAS title will be replaced with a title that describes what the employee does.  This will make it easier to compare to jobs outside of the County when salary surveys are done.  

The Mayor expressed his appreciation for the continued good attendance by the Council members.  He explained that it sometimes takes time to work through the Council members' suggestions.

There was discussion on the differences in employee performance and the inequity when salary increases are the same for top performers and low performers.

The Mayor explained that because of the hard work by management and employees, the finances are sound, and there are no discussions of layoffs.  The employee pension fund is sound.  He commented that the Pension Board meets the first Tuesday of each month and they are open meetings.  The Mayor will be working again next year in Nashville with the legislature to try to find other revenue sources other than property and sales taxes.  The administration will continue to evaluate services provided and will eliminate those that the County should not be providing.

There was a question about how the County will be addressing the loss of institutional knowledge in the next four years as more employees retire.  John Fowlkes explained that the Division Directors have been addressing the issue and have been charged with developing succession plans.  Additionally, data has been collected to identify potential losses over the next few years by job classifications.

The Mayor explained that the process of establishing more delegating agencies for Head Start had been put on hold because of the agencies' demands related to not recognizing the union.  Although this has since been removed from the negotiations, it is too late to make any changes for the current school year.

The Mayor assured the Council that he will be as aggressive or even more aggressive during the next four years and will continue seeking input from the Council.

John Fowlkes reviewed the follow-ups to the suggestions made at previous Council meetings: 

•  No progress had been made related to increased parking for the Health Department.  A group is looking at all of the parking issues at the medical center and BioWorks has surveyed the various organizations in the area.  It is expected that this will lead to solutions later.  Negotiations are underway to secure approximately 100 parking spaces at the Convention Center.  This will be a cost to the County and employees wishing to use the parking facility may be required to pay a reasonable fee.
• The suggestion that Fleet Services be allowed to work on employee vehicles can not be allowed because of a conflict of interest and it would be prohibited based on the Ethics Policy.
• Although a group was established to look at the possibility of a 4-day work week, work on the issue has not progressed.  The issue will be revived in the next few weeks.
• WellWorx and YMCA were selected as fitness centers to provide services to County employees.  They were available both downtown and east to provide information during the week of August 14.  Employees are being offered special rates and will be able to use payroll deduction for their monthly fees.
• No Council members submitted suggestions for ways to distribute FedEx Forum tickets as incentives since the last meeting.  Members are to send any suggestions and the committee will review them and make recommendations at the next meeting. 
• Regarding employee and family get-togethers, the County wide picnic was held in June 3.  It is anticipated that there will be another holiday celebration later this year.
• Human Resources will be working on leave policies.  A committee composed of employees throughout the County from the Mayor's Administration and Elected Officials' offices are working on reviewing policies and leave is one that they will be focusing on in the future. 
• A group is reviewing what Spanish language classes are already available in the County and will be developing a plan to provide training that will be job specific. 
• Changes were made to the Performance Appraisal system for the 2006-07 cycle.  Supervisors and employees will determine the three major job functions/duties for the job classification and this will be added to the Performance Expectations section to make the evaluation more meaningful for the specific job.  Additionally, there are a few job classifications approved by the PA Team for no goals and objectives (SQIs).
• Human Resources formed a County wide Training Delivery Committee composed of employees from the Mayor's Administration and Elected Officials' offices.  They are determining what training is needed and identifying qualified trainers within the County.  It is expected that training classes will be available this fall.
• Security changes continue to be implemented in 201 Poplar, 160 N. Main and the Courthouses. 
• Consideration will be given to removing the salary postings on the Web site, or only listing job positions and not names.
• Because of abuses in the past, the request that employees at Corrections be allowed internet access cannot be granted at this time.

New Issues/Suggestions Discussed:

• An employee had concerns about the restrictions on prescriptions available through Express Scripts.  There was no information on how the approved list of drugs can be amended.  This becomes a difficulty when the employee has to return to the physician to change the original prescription, etc.  Response: This will be investigated further.
• An employee suggested that the County consider providing on-site daycare or at a near-by site for employees.  Response:  This was discussed in a previous meeting, but can be investigated further. 
• An employee suggested allowing employees to donate days to a sick leave bank to be used by employees who do not have sick leave.  Response: John Fowlkes commented that this had been allowed in the Federal system.  Employees could donate annual leave days into a bank or specifically to another employee that did not have accumulated time to take off.  Paul Boyd commented that the Employee Policy Committee will be looking at all leave policies and this can be considered.
• An example was reported of the performance appraisals of an entire section being returned to the supervisor with the request that scores be lowered.  Response:  An explanation for this is the attempt to get supervisors to be more consistent with the way they score.  It is unfair to employees in other sections when their supervisor consistently scores all employees low while a supervisor in another section consistently scores employees high.  More consistent scoring will be very important with pay for performance.  Additional management training will be necessary to help managers develop good quantifiable performance appraisals.  
• An employee commented that some employees are anxious about changes in the compensation plan.  Response: As adjustments are made, employees' salaries will not be lowered.  Compensation will be working closely with the departments to make changes.
• An employee complained that the Goals and SQIs were changed a month before the final review.  Response:  Employees should know their Goals and Objectives (SQIs) at the beginning of the review process and there should be meetings throughout the year to follow progress.  There should be no surprises at the end of the year for the final evaluation.
• An employees suggested that the performance reviews be conducted at the anniversary date rather than all at one time.  Response:  There is greater consistency when appraisals are conducted at the same time.  This is, however, more time consuming for a supervisor who has several employees reporting to him/her.
• There needs to be a better system of identifying inmates associated with specific gangs.  Response: More information is needed on this and there will be follow-up. 

The next meeting will be October 24, 2006 at 3:00 p.m.