Planning Commission - Special Meeting

We're live. It's It's so You start it. Okay. We'll call to order this uh special meeting discussing the Town of Atlanta employee handbook. Uh working our way through this uh kind of preliminary uh composition of this thing and I believe we're at 405 unless uh

anybody else has a different recollection. at 4:05.

Yeah. And Kathy did say she is available by phone tonight. So, if you have any questions or if you something that we've already went over and you have questions concerning that, she said we could just give her a call.

405 seems pretty straightforward. I don't know if anybody has any other considerations there. I do. Yeah. The problem we got into with Andy and the 409, was that what it was? That you had to redo. How do we prevent that from ever happening? You are allowed by law to change your tax withholding at any time. I don't think I don't think she's talking about I think she's talking about more like when I paid him out. Yeah. And and the attorney said I did the right thing because I talked to Alex and he said you have to pay them out by law on the next paycheck. And so I went ahead and that's how we got it kind of got in the mess because I paid him out but then

then you guys kind of changed it and then Yeah. So that's I think that's what you're more talking about. So how do we prevent that mess from happening again? I don't know. But it was a mess. I say that. Can we come up with uh just some kind of a form that if somebody were to separate for whatever reason, how do you want your last paycheck? Are there any alterations before we send you your last check? There you go. I think that'd be a really nice Yeah. And it could be just a simple form. It could even have some otherformational things on there about if there are insurance options going forward or what, you know, separation, a separation form of some kind makes some sort of sense. So, I don't know,

right? Just so you don't have to redo what you've already done again. Any other considerations on that? Okay. Administrative pay corrections.

That makes sense. Mhm. I wonder how many of these things it would be useful to have some kind of a form for because it seems like if somebody wants to dispute their pay then being able to put it in writing would be helpful for everybody to be on the sign page there too. Dated everything official document there's no letter. Okay. So, the form or any kind of a maybe there could even just be some kind of a more generic form that's a dispute form of some kind that could have pay and other things on it, right? That way we don't have to have a hundred forms. Okay.

One form with possibly a checklist at the top, a dispute, uh, last pay. Yeah. you know, or even or even a you know, any other work complaint or something like that. My hours are wrong or Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Little check box and then an explanation at the bottom.

That's good. Okay. 410. Oh, here at the bottom, employees may contact for additional information regarding pay deductions and how they are calc. I mean, again, it's another form,

part of the form that I think. Yeah. So, yeah, this kind of makes sense. We're kind of identifying some of the other documents that could be helpful. Yeah. Documents, forms, informationational packets, whatever. Can they uh do we have I'm sure we do. Do you have like an employee onboardingformational packet that goes through all this stuff? It um just it gives them your your tax with Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, we could make something to where that is in that packet if if we end up looking at something like uh UKG or Cronis. Yes. U you can do a lot of that HR stuff through there.

Okay. And uh like I just did it a month ago. Our open enrollment for the benefits for next year is all on there and there's clear instructions for everything. You can change your tax withholdings on there and all that stuff. That's nice. So, um I don't know what that would cost, but the less paper you can have laying around, right?

You know, they they do whatever they do on there and you just get something that's really easy to decipher on your end of what's being changed or what's being requested or whatever. That seems like that could be pretty easy way to conduct business. Okay. So then we're okay with 405 and 409 once we put that little thing there about you know former in writing

and 410 we're okay with that then yeah I think so I think yeah maybe allude to If we do create a form, yeah, that you know, whatever that official channel for disputing something or for requesting a change should probably be identified in our handbook, right? But that's as simple as adding a sentence. But and also we have to create the okay

501 safety. I think we need to take out that you're required to wear a lifting belt.

Where's that? Maybe we could encourage the use of a lifting belt. It's uh second one. Okay. They must wear a backup supported belt. They are encouraged. Yes. And hopefully that's not something that's an OSHA requirement. I know the way we handled it at school that we handed everyone out a belt. Said here's this belt. Yeah.

And it's up to you to wear it or not. I think most of OSHA's concerns, as far as I'm aware, have to do with like respiratory eye protection, hearings, and visibility. Um, but that could be something. Maybe it is a requirement. I That's one of those that I'm not going to ask the No, no, I'm not going to ask the question because I I me if I'm out there in a hole that's going to get in my way. Sure. You know, very important. She'll tell me if it is. She'll tell me if it's a requirement that needs it needs to stay. they'll ask about but then if we specific but then we would be better off probably not even mentioning it right

because I don't want to say you have to do this and then in practice we don't do that and now we're putting them and us in a bad position

I don't Um, I would like probably on this list here says airborne debris, eye protection. I do think uh the town having some sort of respiratory protection available, you know, some sort of a particulate mask uh would be good. And then hearing protection. I'm I've you guys see me with my earphones on all the time. Sure. Uh you know, if I don't think about it, I don't hear the ringing in my ears. counseling and destroyed years.

It's a small thing that we, you know, a $30 set of cans can can protect somebody for the, you know, the rest of their life. So,

um, if we could add something about hearing and and respiratory protection, I think that'd be a good idea and at least have those things available. What's your current practice? If someone needs to go get checked out, where would they go? The emergency room or

uh Yeah, that's where I went when I got hurt and then they refer you from there. Jennifer has all the work comp stuff, but wasn't familiar with that duty assignments probably needful in the event that we have a situation to where they're they're given restrictions.

Bottom of the page Didn't mean to jump over the uh drug and alcohol test. Employee on the job may be subject to that. Yep. That's I think that is I know the insurance company likes to see those every now and again anyway, right? So we've conducted them in the past at their prompting and then also at our at our own just hey it's a good idea. Let's go get this taken care of today kind of a thing. So, Mhm. Um, but yeah, certainly in the case of an injury or or some kind of damage to property, both of those. Mhm.

Which I don't know that we're I'm sure we talk about damage to property at some other point here. We'll see. 508 talks about u accidents. In the event of an accident, Um, I know that we require I think it's 25 lb. You can't be below 25 pound weight restriction to and drive any kind of piece of equipment um for the city of Noblesville or certainly for the fire department and that was an insurance motivated thing. Um so if there was an injury that had a and you were going to do light duty, you're still that's a potential limitation. I don't know if maybe we need to find out from our insurance company some of those kind of details. Um, you know, if they give you a 5 pound weight restriction, you're basically you could do some office work, I guess, maybe.

Um, and that's about it. 25. Maybe you can run some errands and drive a a truck or something. I don't know. So that would be weight restriction. Let's find out about that. Okay. Anything other than what we talked about for 501? Does anybody else have any considerations there? Hey, 502 work schedule where it says full-time employees are expected to work at least 36 hours.

Yeah, that's interesting. Should that be 40? I think 36 like the state minimum or something like that to maintain a Yeah. the status. I see. Cuz we ran into that with the sheriff's office when we got our parts. Okay. When kicked in,

that was insurance. That was a restriction because well they still allow us part-time to work overtime and then we ran into an issue where it's like all right can't work 40 hours and then commissioners council had a meeting they're like well state 36 hours still full time status so that means they had to drop us and they like the cap 32 Then it lists the departments here. It lists the clerk's office from 8 to 2 and the utilities department 8 to 4. other on call considerations or is that covered in another

I don't know. Yeah, I will have to maybe get over here and uh compens compensatory time. I don't know. Yeah,

that's definitely possibility. Yeah. Do we need to clarify or change anything with 502? I believe so. It states the hours. This there is a paragraph in here right below that that discusses uh lunch breaks. is at the discretion of the town. Non-exempt employees may be authorized to take a rest break and or unpaid meal period during each shift.

So, we have to give them two 15 minute breaks, right? You have to give two 15 Yeah. minute breaks and non-exempt again would be like somebody who's not a salary, right? Isn't that what we determined at the last meeting? There was a question about that or am I mixing it? I might have it reversed. No, it's exempt. Um like Luke is exempt. We determined. Okay. We felt like he was exemp

Luke. Uhhuh. No, he's he salary. It's based on an hourly calculation, which means he's required to work a certain that 40 hours. That was one of the things, right? And then there's also comp time. Yeah.

Instead of like Matt, if he were to work more than 40 hours, he gets paid overtime. We're nonexempt as a salary with no overtime. Am I correct? I know that you need to call her and you guys can and she can kind of explain the and then that way if you have questions she can answer that question for you guys. because I know the school gradually started changing everyone to and I can't think I was salary. I no longer got overtime. My son is salary even though he's not in a supervisory position currently. They made him a I want to say a non-exempt employee where he gets a salary.

Okay. Okay. So, I might have them backwards and but I and I could too, Murray. I I I'm confused on it. Yeah. I was listening to the tape before the meeting. And on the tape, you guys had determined that Luke was exempt. Now weather. So that means he gets paid the same. And with the municipality for budgetary reasons, that's why they do it because they know what what that pay is going to be regardless of if you work 20 hours or if you work Yeah. 60 hours.

As long as you're not getting in the in the hole on your house. Right. Right. You're, you know, you're always going to have the same pay for on call though. Does he get better more compensation? No, no, you just come out. No overtime. No, just you just work less some other time. You compensate your hours, right? That COB time is, but you can definitely get you can accumulate that uh fairly quickly depending on what's going on. So, the plow hours he will just take off extra time.

Yeah. And I think he he also adjusted like he didn't work 8 to 4 any day that he's plowing. He come in and if you come in and plow for eight hours overnight then maybe you just don't work the next day if there's if you're not record you know there's not something pressing. So who takes care of the routine stuff then like checking the making the rounds? Well you would have to do that. Say for example, okay, say for example, if that was his primary responsibility, if we had an employee that their responsibility is to do the ramps, that takes about hour and a half, two hours, two hours at the most. Okay. Say you plowed all night. Mhm.

And you know, you got down at 8:00 in the morning. Well, you could choose to go home and go to bed and maybe sleep for five or six hours and then go do the rounds. or you could do the rounds at the end of your shift and then either way there's no getting around that being done, right? And at some other point in time, you'd get some time off work. Try to, you know, it's it's a it's a trust situation. I mean, from employee employer, it's

I think the employee employer and employee both have to take some responsibility and make sure Okay. I just I don't know if the uh distinction here it's important then on this paragraph it says at the discretion of the town non-exempt employees may take a rest break and or unpaid meal during their shift. Uh and then later it says if they're if you're basically if you're working and trying to eat you get paid. Um, but whether you're exempt or not exempt, you ought to be able to take a 15-minute break and you ought to be able to eat.

Exactly. Mhm. And so then the question is, I guess, paid or unpaid. And other than if we're not going to specify that, which maybe we should, I don't know. But if we're not going to specify that, it shouldn't say non-exempt employees. It should just say employees. And we need to understand too, this is a policy, man. I mean, in the event that you have a an employee that is just, you know, lazy, doesn't want to work, you got it in writing here. Hey, look, this is,

you know, and they'll sign this. I mean, upon hire, they'll read over this and sign it that they've read it and understand it. protects us as an employer as employees just employees. Yes sir.

That way there's no Okay. 504 phone and mail. Mhm.

You know, it's kind of that that first paragraph is kind of dated, isn't it? It is. I mean we don't have really I guess you can make is there's not even long distance call I don't think so they don't make a distinction between even on a landline they don't distinguish between maybe I don't know that's actually a really good question and far between every once in a while with sheriff's office I mean do you ever make a longdistance phone call landline phone does bill ever no you know that's all kind of usually 1800 numbers for me is use are personal calls addressed in here somewhere just generally speaking. Um I don't know.

It should not phone. Yeah, I would think so. Like you said, there's going to be employees that may push the limits and want to sit on the phone, you know, right?

Just saying. Okay. You want to leave 504 as it is for now? Yes. Yes.

All right. 505. I don't have issue with folks down a ditch or something and sure light a cigarette. I mean that's if someone smokes that's a you know uh I know in a public building town hall actually state law is 8 ft away from the door obviously that's those lines people are sometimes but I suppose we leave that policy there

sure you can't smoke in the truck can't smoke in the building and you know but and if you're directly bothering somebody whether it's somebody you're working with or somebody from the public which is what this says you're directly bothering somebody stop helping out, but I used to so I know how it was. Okay. 507. Here's we did some of this last time, right? Or we talked about it a little bit. Yeah, we talked about overtime compensation for all nonexempt. So, that kind of describes Okay.

non-exempt So is eligible for overtime, right? In overtime for Wait a minute.

But comp time, the town of Atlanta encourages the use of comp time in lie of overtime for non-exempt employees. nonexempt overtime focus. So I think this first section here if if we're operating under the premise that A non-exempt employee is getting the same check all the time and they're operating off a comp time. Generally speaking, that mean that this first couple the the part talking about compensating an employee, it should be for exempt employees, right? if they're not the ones that are have the comp time available.

Would you like for me to call Kathy? If you if you brought somebody in for extra help, they're just getting paid straight up for their hours. And if it's over 40, you get paid overtime. Call her and ask her clarification. Yes. Clarification. Exempt and non-exempt. Mhm. Who gets overtime? Who does not? I'm I'm confused. I want to say that. And then we find out, we'll write it down. Yes.

Maybe that would be useful if this is a term that's going to continue to come up through here. I'm guessing to have a definition section of this policy handbook. Yeah, 2011 kind of spells it out too if you look back at 2011. I remember going over it. I just couldn't find where it was. Maybe. Hang on.

Maybe we'll have a definition. Hang on. Yeah. An employee is designated as either non-exempt or exempt from federal and state wage and hour laws. Non-exempt employees are entitled to overtime pay under the specific provisions of federal and state laws. Exempt employees are excluded from specific revisions of federal and state wage and hour laws. Exempt employees are paid on a salary basis that does not vary week to week based on the quality of work performed. In other words, exempt employees are paid to get the job done. Thus, exempt employee pay

will not be reduced in any fact fashion for partial day absences. So, so is EB. Okay. So, the distinction between an employee that gets overtime versus one that gets comp time is us then in our salary orbits saying that this person is or not exempt?

No, because they would both be non-exempt the way I read this because look at this right here. It says overtime and comp time is for non-exempt employees. Both. So, how do we decide whether Luke's getting paid overtime or whether he's getting paid comp time? 507.

Well, it just described in that. So, we just decide who's so if it's a part-time or extra help or Like how how do we distinguish between Matt and Luke? Let's say even if Matt started working 40 hours here or do you? Yeah. Even if Matt worked 40 hours, I mean he's but he wouldn't start acrewing over comp time, right? No. So because he's getting paid hourly. Sure. Luke is getting paid a salary and that's the difference. So salary versus hourly still not exempt.

So we need to define then we need to differentiate those two. A non-exempt salary position gets comp time. A non-exempt hourly hourly position as we would define it in our salary ordinance I guess would be overtime. Anything over 40 is that would then be like the person whether short, medium, or longterm we hire for extra

help or a special project or something. Hey, the next couple weeks we got this special thing going on. We're just going to pay somebody by the hour and they end up working 350 hour weeks. They would get 10 hours of overtime each week instead of comp time. Does that make sense? Non-exempt employees are entitled to overtime pay under the specific provisions of federal and state laws. That's a 2011. Yeah. Exempt employees are excluded from specific provisions of federal and state, right? Wage and hour laws.

But it looks like exempt would be if the job requires you to be here for 60 hours or for 20 hours. You're getting paid the same no matter what. Exactly. Which would then bias somebody towards potentially being here quote budging down their hours worked. Well, you've got your because they're going to get the same check no matter what. But you've got your back, but they don't no benefit for them staying longer in the form of comp time. And you've got your you've got your that's why that's in there about your set work hours. You know, we want you to work eight hours a day normally. On a normal day, we want you to work eight hours.

Thus, an exempt employees pay will not be reduced in any fashion for a partial day absence except when permitted by law, such as unpaid intermittent FMLA leave. confused. So what you're saying in essence is that you have an employee that's that is uh non-exam

he says I'm only going to work 30 hours just I mean he's not allowed to do that correct unless you know the previous week he had Right. An 80 hour week, right? You have 70 time there of some kind to cover that.

Right. Just trying to think how you differentiate it because I think they both the way I'm reading this they're both non-exempt because it says overtime and comp time both in reference to non-exempt. So then how do we differentiate who gets what? Is there a difference one to two when it comes to compound pay

time? Correct. So here's so this is a thing here. So comp time shall be taken during the quarter of the year that it's earned regardless of the time of year. VA carry over a maximum of 20 hours so you can bank some comp time uh for the next quarter. Um but and we might need to adjust these hours. There is a certain point where you're supposed to get paid out if you've not been able to use that time. Yes. For a certain amount of time for the county it's 36 hours currently.

But that's something that we can change because it was like 60 hours when I first started then they bump it to 30 36. I definitely think people should be able to bank some time and that makes it easier for us to manage uh budget and things as well I suppose because it's more consistent pay something else with us like for a couple when we build that comp time up we can we can ask for permission we have to go to a commanding officer for it but we can like pay I take 10 hours of that pay it out like that

so compens compensory time is just straight time paid Yeah. If you take it if you take it as as pay out instead of time off, it's just straight pay, right? Or or do you take compens compensor, take time off? If you take time off, it's considered regular time. If you're working your hours and have it paid out, then it can be

that's where you get the overtime. Because for usually it's you work your required hours and then I want to take additional money out or additional hours out cash amount it's paid out right really well that's under special circumstances you have to ask permission it falls under but when it as it comes from that it's all budgetary as well it's like do we still have are we still good on time budget if not it's like we're not able to do that right and I hate to keep referring into the school, but they've eliminated all overtime. They can do that.

All nobody works over time. They just have to figure out a way to, you know, I think with certain positions, it's a great idea, but it's one of those like if you're not if you're not staff heavy, you cannot do that. Well, and that's the thing with like this situation. So like you get multiple like we get a severe winter storm where it's they're constantly out there. I mean, you can't expect people to work from nothing else gets hurt. Right. Exactly. You're down the line. Yeah. Because like for us, I think it's either five or 10,000 they budget out for each officer overtime status.

Once you reach that, it's like it's all right. This officer can't get any more overtime unless special approval. quite a few all should hit that middle year income. Okay. Over time and then at the bottom it goes into the town may at any time choose to pay out all compens. So is it and then it's talking about at at the regular hourly rate. So,

so is this maybe we're looking at this all wrong. Maybe it's at the option of the employee whether they want to use comp time or whether if they were over on their hours, they just want to pay for it. set of comp. No, this she actually got this from our comp time policy that we have right now. This um the 20 hours and

Yeah, she that's the um Yeah, it definitely needs to be higher than 20 hours. Yes. Yeah. Chris 40. I was thinking like 80 is probably a good place to start. That gets you a couple weeks off. Yeah. And if you're if you're real busy through a special project or something like that, but you you were you know there's a slower time of year somewhere else where you only take a couple weeks off. That seems reasonable. I don't know. Cap 36 and I think 36.

Yeah. Because you get into certain things special detail or something like that you you think you can put some serious time in. Yeah. So, do you want to change the maximum 20 hours to I think it should be 80, but I do still think that we need to figure out how to differentiate. Is it at the option of the town? Is it at the option of the employee? Is it if somebody's just working part-time for you, but they end up exceeding a certain number of hours, do they start accumulating somehow? So then they just have a they would get a you know those hours on a get paid up to 40 hours and then get the next 40 on the next check or whatever.

I say part time you know I mean I say parttime is they can it's paid out unless they're full-time where they can accumulate it. Yeah. But is it a can or is it shall accumulate? That's what we need to answer for a full-time employee. And how much can they carry over? Can they carry over 80 hours from from one quarter to the next or? Yeah, I would think so. But I think having a reasonable cap makes sense. Just a total cap. So maybe it's not even a maybe we even get rid of the carry from one quarter to the next and just say at any time not to exceed x number of hours.

Okay. without and and maybe there should be something in there that allows for the possibility of more if you have to. But it has to be with approval. Does that make sense? Like if the town got in a jam, right? That's what I was thinking. You know, let it be at the town's discretion once we hit that 80 hours. like Jennifer needs to be saying to the council, hey, we're, you know, they're there and then a decision needs to be made of. Do we let this person keep working or do we make them start taking some time off? Or do we just pay him out and say

or just pay them off, pay him out, wipe that, knock that back down some? Yeah. Depending on circumstances, pay it out or, hey, you need to take some time off. Time's getting up. Okay. We do that as well. So, we need to figure out overtime versus comp time. So, who's making that decision? Who does it apply to?

Part-time versus full-time employee. I'm assuming full-time employee is we want some kind of language limiting it to them. But then is it a shall or is it a may as far as does a full-time salary employee or non-exempt or however we're classifying that does it will they be operating under comp time or do they have the ability to just say pay me to overtime? We need to answer that question. If we do if we do a payout then we'll then that we will run that through payroll. Sure. So then we have to accommodate that in our budget time. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So we'd have to work on

what I've been through a couple budgets. I don't know that we've ever we have we've never budgeted for overtime. It's always comp time. But if we if we decide to pay it out, then we'll we need to budget for Yeah. somehow or another. We need to put a provision or something look at something over time or whatever. Okay. Taking time off or something like that. I'm seeing if they take a couple days off or something. When they take time off like that, are they getting paid? Yes. The time coverage those hours. Okay.

So, if I take like a couple days off, my comp time of my education. So, we're paying that comp time whether Well, you're not. No. If you take time off, it's being paid at regular hours. That's extra money, right? But that's the beauty of comp time for a a employer. Doesn't cost me any extra money. It just mean it just cost them It cost them labor. There's nobody there to do the service. If I work, let's say we were doing a two-eek pay period, which a lot of places do. If I work 30 hours this week and 50 hours next week, or flip them, if I work 50 hours this week and 30 hours next week, I still worked 80 hours over two days.

It doesn't matter that I didn't work 40 hours next week. My checks, both checks are still 40 hours, right? The problem is you can get behind them if somebody never takes any top time, right? And you end up with the It just builds up. So it you it needs to be kept for sure. That's you know 80 hours is two weeks. Yeah. And Yeah. And see that's what because um with Andy having so many that this job requires them you know

and that's where we paid his comp time. And so you know the crazy thing too is there's all kinds of stuff that was not on his time card that he go out and do too. That's just the nature of the job it is. just end up. I mean, it was a I I remember when I went on salary at work, it was the greatest thing that ever happened to me because I didn't have to worry about clocking in and out anymore. Sure. I just did the job. If I had to go in at 3:00 in the morning for a snow event, I went in at 3:00 in the morning. And if it come 1:00, 2:00 that day and and everything was smooth, I'd go home. If not, I'd stay. I was going to say he didn't come home very often. He was always like,

like you said, there's just the nature of this thing is it's not it's not the same as working in a in a cubicle or you know retail or retail or whatever. It's it's a it's a fluid situation. Yes. Just like your final work. I mean, you might go in on a 24-hour shift and maybe have two runs Yeah. on 24 hours and go in the next day and be out the whole 24 hours. Yep. I'm on about an hour and 15 minutes sleep right now. So Mhm. in the last 40 hours.

Okay. So we'll we'll work on Yeah, we'll work on the comp time. Yes. Okay. Okay. All right. Flex time. In certain situations, non-exempt employees with the permission of clerk, treasurer, or the president of town council may work an adjusted or flexible work schedule. Okay. So, this is basically saying 40hour week, but if they wanted to work 410s versus 58s would be a good example of that. I don't care if somebody does that as long as they're productive. Yeah,

that actually I've worked, you know, my schedule is very unconventional, but I have spent periods of time working 40hour weeks instead of my 56 with the 24s and all that. And I was allowed to do that. And that was really nice because I could work I mean when I work I'm working but I could go in and work 31 12 and a half day and then have a real long weekend or something like that. Um and the same amount of work is getting done.

There is a reasonable expectation that people be available during normal business hours around here. I will say that for sure. Um, but I think in the in the long term, if we get uh, you know, if we get to where we have a couple full-time people again, if one of them needs to be flexible in their week and still work the same amount of hours, I don't care. I think that makes sense. Yeah, it does.

Definitely does. Okay. It even says don't exceed 40 hours of work week. We already know though that sometimes you will you're going to go home and then two hours later somebody's going to call me something.

508 use of equipment, machines, tools, and vehicles. I think this second paragraph it would make sense to simplify it and say Employees are responsible for the equipment assigned to them. Employees should immediately notify their direct supervisor if there's a problem.

Sure. Because I think it muddies the water if you say you can go to the town superintendent or the current treasurer. And right now we don't have a town superintendent either. And so for something utility related, it needs to be a council member that knows if something's broken because they're answering to us right now. Exactly. We get supervisor. Yes. Yeah, I agree.

Makes sense. This next one too, we could probably simplify that. Yes. And say

they must notify their supervisor if they have a medical condition that's going to affect their ability to use equipment. Since we talked about town superintendent and striking that wording, can we go back and look at 501 real quick? Because it talks about it should refer to the town superintendent again. Probably their

employees must report any unsafe condition. that part uh the bottom of the second paragraph where it says PPE, they're required to believe refer to the town superintendent, their immediate supervisor. Yeah, that could make sense. Okay. Okay. Sorry. So, we should probably actually make that a blanket thing in here unless it needs to be specific is references like that should probably be changed to supervisor. Does that sound fair for this entire book?

Y. Sorry.

Good call. There's a typo there under vehicles. Check oil, water, fuel. Should be tires, I'm assuming. their supervisor.

second paragraph from the bottom of page 27 and the IRS and how that goes with providing a vehicle. Do we the annual amount to be reported to the IRS on each employees W2? What do you do with that? Or or do you do anything with it? But if it's in here, we got to do something with it. Right. Because we've always I'm not against them using it. I'm just I'm just wondering they're talking about Yeah. And that's always been kind of a The difficult thing is so practically speaking

you out. When's the difference? Practically speaking, like these big police departments where everybody gets a car, what's the likelihood you're actually going to be called in when you're off shift, it's going to be very, very slim. If like Fisers, Noblesville, any of these that are big departments that everybody gets a car, usually the only time you call it is if you're on call, part of a special. There's an expectation. So, it's So, then it's considered a perk, though. Basically, for all intents and purposes, it's considered a perk. you get to drive this thing around when you're off duty, in which case it is a personal benefit.

I think the way that I've always looked at ours, and obviously there's the potential for abuse, and we've got to keep our eye on it, and there has to be limits, but the way I've always looked at it is if you have to travel around here, you work for the utility department, you're on call, right? So I and and there's a reasonable expectation that you would need to be in your work vehicle with the appropriate tools or whatever you would have to be able to respond to that call.

And so um to me it's less of a perk. So, if you need to run to the hardware store in Noblesville for something personal after work, uh, you know, and there's a 20% chance that you're going to get you might have to go on your way back home, go do something for the town, that's not as much of a perk. That's not that's not a here's a car for you to drive however you want. Yeah. The way I always considered that, it was a responsibility. Yeah. I mean, yeah. You know, I mean, with your job, I mean, having that vehicle actually didn't make your life easier. It made it more difficult.

Sure. And I, you know, I I don't know if there's ways to define what kind of use is appropriate. Maybe you do a radius without uh a radius should probably exist and without further approval. So, it's reasonable to go to uh you know within a 30 mile radius or something like that to go to the utility pipe or utility supply or something like that or the hardware store or the town uh and then anywhere driving within there as well. But if you're going to go on a trip with your family, you don't take our town. No, because then you aren't available on call. That's right.

No, it's just like as you said with some of the apartments, it is perfect. They get to pick the vehicle, but there's restrictions on some it's incap, some it's state within the state of Indiana and that's it. And even then depends on how long you're going to be gone. Yeah. And then and then how do you even cap that or regulate it at

Sure. I I I would be I I think our my personal belief is our intention should be that if somebody needs to run an errand and they do it in the town truck, I have zero problems with that as long as they're willing to respond from where they are at the drop of a hat to deal with something for the town. What I don't want them doing is going and doing a side job with the town truck on Saturday or going and uh you know my my my basically using it as a you're talking about my concern was the daily value for this as reported on the W2.

Yeah. I don't we don't if if well and and I will say this, we've always wondered about because we've had this in our class many times that they should be if they have a take-home vehicle, they should be taxed on it. And then but one way we always felt like and I was telling Kathy this, one way we felt like we got around that was because um you know it is considered an emergency vehicle for our town.

Yes. She kind of questioned that and she said, "If I were you," she said, "I would I would um I might ask your attorney about that." I haven't asked him yet, but that's one I mean, that's been for years. That's how we always kind of got around that because we have our emergency lights if we need them. We have our our logo on there and that is our considered emergency vehicle as she said, but it's not emergency emergency vehicle. So, the town has an emergency, it's an emergency. It is. But she was saying it wasn't like a police car. Sure. Sure. Sure.

Or a fire truck or, you know, and so but no one's ever said anything about it the way we've done it. I mean, you know, we've had audits and nothing's ever been said. Right. Right. But I'm saying if we're going to put this in the book, are we going to back it up or are we going to Right. Are we going to strike this or Yeah. You know what are we getting? It just says it say it just says it may be subject. So okay I think it's one of those if something does come up later one of those it can't be it's in there and we need to do it. That's fine. I just Yeah.

That IRS Oh, I agree. Yeah. Oh, I know. I know, man. Yeah, I agree. If something does come up, it's one of those like it's great. It's good to have it in there. I think employees should be under the understanding that if they drive a town vehicle somewhere, they are agreeing to be available at the drop of a hat. Yes. And if you aren't willing to do that, you need to drive something else. So, kind of keep it the way it is and then we'll decide on that. Yeah, it's fine to ask the question, I suppose, but I don't I don't see a problem with how we're doing it as long as it's there's not complaints of abuse or we're not seeing evidence of abuse.

Yeah. And that's just a case by case basis. Sure. Yeah. But if there are if there are allegations, what are our recourses? Is that spelled out in here, too? Well, it says vehicle usage is not to be for personal use unless approve the council approves it. Right. Right. Right. And so I'm saying that uh if Luke takes his kid to a baseball game in the town truck. Yeah. That's personal, but he's also willing to be on call during that time. Yeah. So is it It's not strictly personal then.

Whereas the cop who takes his whole family in the cop car out to eat is probably not responding to a run with his whole family from the restaurant in that cop car. So Luke would leave Luke would leave his kid at the ball game to to come out on a run if he was called possibly. I'm just saying if he took his ball game and then he got a call, does he leave his kid there in I think it's the I think it's the likelihood of the I think it's the we both the implicit expectation of a potential call out or something like that versus we're giving you this as a perk to use because a lot of the time too but people give you a car they're going to pay you less.

Oh, okay. Mhm. But you get to use the car for whatever you want. It's just like a little statement. I'm just playing Denver's advocate here. No, it's good to play out all the angles here. It is. It is. You definitely That's a psychological deal to think by talking. So, let's talk it out. Would you use your personal vehicle to go to conference? Are you paid? I'm paying mileage. Mileage.

Yeah. Common price. So on 508 will change like supervisor. Yeah, those are the biggest things that I'm seeing really. Okay.

Um there are limit this fourth paragraph from the bottom where it's talking about drug and alcohol testing after an accident. Um, I'd be in favor of maybe shrinking some of those limitations down some. It says, uh, they may be tested following an accident that has a fatality, an accident in which the driver receives a citation. Um, uh, or where else does it say? Uh, something Oh, where the vehicle is towed from the scene. Oh, or if there's an injury treated away from the scene. I

do you have to have all those limitations or is it fair to say that the town may require the town shall if there's a serious accident but may in any other circumstance or actually we should probably get to 70 what's it reference here? 702 is drug and alcohol use and testing. Maybe in there it gives some more leeway for testing. Mhm. It says refer to 508. Is it really? Yeah, it does.

I know that's been brought up. I was I think in the case of an accident, you do it. I think just just in general accident. Yeah. Mhm. Without you know just do it because of the insurance purposes and everything like that. It's going to be called into question. So So do we want to change may both drug and alcohol testing may to should or will? Certainly in the circumstances listed, there should be in my opinion, yeah, a serious accident or an accident involving a where there's a citation issued Yeah.

afterwards, which means you're I know our employees do not have CDL licenses, but with a CDL, if you're involved in an accident and a vehicle is towed, you're automatically right. Automatic. Yeah. We're involved in action. We are to be a federal law federal license. Sure. Yeah. So, so both alcohol and drug testing will be performed instead of may be performed. I think that maybe we leave this list here and and go shall. Yeah. Instead of may. Okay. Uh Texas.

Mhm. And if no, you know, no one has anything to hide, they just anything involving a municipality anyway. Right. Accident is defined as an incident involving a vehicle where there is a fatality, an injury treated away from the scene or where a vehicle is towed from the scene. Maybe these first two sentences here could be cleaned up and kind of combined too because it says the first one says an accident involving a futality or an accident in which the driver receives a citation under state or local law for a moving violation arising from an accident.

That's pretty much standard. But what if there's an injury treated away from the scene or the vehicle is towed but there is no citation. This first one the shall may or shall this first sentence here makes it look like to me fatality or any other accident where there's a citation. I think it just accident it just needs to be accident. I don't care if the cops Right. Yeah. Right. circumstances down the road could arise. Yep. And just so um or any other So an accident

uh following an a maybe you just do following an accident. End it there and then it says and then start back up where it says an accident is defined as an incident involving a vehicle in which there's a fatality, an injury treated away from the scene or where the vehicle is towed from the scene. Okay. Is that exhaustive enough? Yeah, sounds good. My fear with that is even like even if both vehicles are driven, I still think there should be testing. Sure.

But it is but I do at the same time um what if somebody scuffs the paint on something? So that's that's that that's an incident that should be known about by supervisor that should probably even be written up or go in somebody's record or something like that but doesn't necessarily arise to yeah test right I think what a caveat this is coming from personal experience because my dad was a police officer if there's any accusations as well because so 700s has reasonable suspicion or something like that as Well, as a drug testing thing, so you can, you know,

Okay. For example, can I can I give an example? Sure. Uh I'm in town. I'm in the town truck and uh I cut a corner to close over here and I clipped the fender of a car parked over here. No major damage done, but damage was done. Sure. So, I go into the music hall and I find the owner and we exchange information and Yeah. Does that rise to the Yeah. Does that rise to an accident? Yeah. I mean, did we put it as like a dollar amount or something like that? Possibly.

You won't even necessarily know that while I'm saying that report is to be filed. Yeah. If it's severe, if it's severe enough that a police officer has to come to the city. That's why I'm saying maybe maybe It shouldn't be there are certain circumstances where it shall be performed, right? I think we're all clear on that. But I think that it should also be at the discretion of the council or the supervisor of, hey, let's go ahead and get this done even if it is mine. And that gives you some leeway with uh applying judgment in a situation. right?

Oh, this is clearly an accident or clearly the other guy is the one that scraped you and you know, so we don't even need to worry about this versus you caused a thousand bucks of damage to this car. Uh, but you were kind of acting strange earlier anyway. I didn't I wasn't quite sure, but now I'm wondering even more. Yeah. Like, oh, they were probably drunk or something like that. And that's the other thing, too. It protects them, too. It does. It does. That's what I'm saying. can't go out and just have a test performed because an accusation gets made like somebody say, "Oh, you can't drunk."

Is it worth putting language in there, too, where an employee could in a circumstance request a test for themselves, too? I don't see why not. I mean, I'm okay with the town paying for that. Covering yourself. I think it covers them. It covers us as well. So there should be shells, but there's also a may from a supervisor or from the employee and then the time frame. There's a time frame. has to be within. Yes, it has to be within 8 hours of the incident for uh

breath or urban going to be sober 8 hours. 8 hours breath or blood 32 hours for urine. Does that make sense? That's what it says. Yeah, it said 32. If no alcohol testing may be made within 8 hours, attempts to collect a breath or blood sample will cease. Yeah. Yes. Mhm. And if no urine specimen may be obtained within 32 hours, attempts to make such collection will cease. Right. Yeah. So, okay. 8 hours. I don't know if those numbers are right or not. I'm assuming there's some kind of a standard. Yeah.

So, keep keep that.

Sure. So, so just some kind of language. Here's there's certain circumstances where it's happening no matter what, but then the town still needs to be able to say we want this done in this case regardless of whether it meets those standards or not. And the employee after an incident should also be able to request themselves being tested. So may for supervisor and employee Okay. 509. Call out.

Okay. I'm not sure this really applies to us, but I don't know if it's bad to have that there. Okay. Yeah, I agree.

I mean, is it What's your question, man? Does it even apply at all? Other than that, there will be times when people will be called out. This is trying, but this seems like this is trying to address I don't understandable. If we had if we had 10 employees. Yes. Yes. We were a little bigger. I mean, this would be Yeah. You're not the only one getting overtime. He gets some, too. And that's that's where the list comes in. Mhm. Oh, keep in

this is a this is a guide. I mean, it's okay. Something that have in here is going to apply to everything we do. Better to have it, not need it, than need it, not have it.

Okay. Okay. 510 emergency closings. I don't I I think that's all right.

Okay. 510's good. 512 business travel expenses. Travel expenses. We do not have a predium rate as defined in the 10 council salary.

Is that where it would be? Yeah, that's where it would be. Um, some core treasures the council set you you're allowed like $20 for a meal or whatever. We just use the credit card and we're very reasonable with Yeah. So, some

I think that's fair. I don't know if there's a way to do it. Maybe you just handle it on a case by case, but like let's say um you had a conference somewhere um but you wanted to use that as an opportunity to um attend the conference but maybe stay somewhere quite a bit nicer. Maybe you want to get a Airbnb instead of a hotel and you're gonna have your spouse come up halfway through and you're going to stay an extra day or whatever. Like, how do we figure out what's reasonable for the town to pay of that? Because you wouldn't be going on that trip in the first place if it wasn't for doing something for the town, right?

So, the town ought to pay what's a reasonable amount per night for lodging. I will say the the um the ILMCT, they choose the hotels. You know what I'm saying? Sure. They choose the hotel and I would say you look at the um what the price of the hotel that they chose would be. I said the price of the hotel and like the surrounding area or something like that.

Look, you can't just be like we're going to set a set rate and then depending on what city you go to. like you set this rate and it's like we're setting it for here and then you go here and that like that rate's double or triple what this rate is because I go to trainings constantly and it's like oh this hotel night's $100 and then I go to this one for training I'm looking at $2 $300 a night. Yeah. So it's one of those I'd say it's reasonable within the area or something. Yeah. Maybe I'm not down to it yet. Um it's I'm fine with all that. I'm fine with not defining it as long as there's a reasonable

way to approve it ahead of time where somebody says, "Hey, here's what I'm going to do and it's going to cost this much." You say, "Well, is there not a cheaper hotel?" "Well, yeah, there is, but this one's way nicer and I don't like the other one." Okay, well, we'll pay this much of that. You know, something like that. Like, can you have the conversation ahead of time? because you did get in a situation where oh we got the suite because you know whatever or well I think we were going to the the Fairfield in but the JW Marriott's right there and

in our situation though utilities included and and with with us going to conference they I mean they block out Sure and and they give us they give us those rates so I mean you And your conference is there in the hotel? Conference is there. But that's not necessarily the only travel situation we could ever have either. That's that and that's a little more um of a structured sort of a travel thing than you could potentially have. I mean, there's other trainings that exist that may or other town business that could conceivably exist at some point that may require lodging

um that are less structured and and so how do you I guess I guess it does say it has to be approved in advance. So maybe that's your That's how we do it with the sheriff's office won't do. We submit all of what the cost of the hotel. Sure. Any other expenses. I'm just saying like if I want to if I want to stay somewhere super nice.

The town was going to buy me a $200 hotel room a night and I want to stay somewhere that's 500 bucks. How do I turn in something that still lets me get paid 200 bucks back? or how do I turn in something that doesn't obligate the town to pay the 500?

Do I cap it at a pdume or something like that? Be like, "All right, you're a lot at this point." Or we could leave it again, we could leave it undefined and just trust that people are reasonable in this circumstance and we talk this through before we go. The conferences a lot of times, like you said, I know the utility ones are the same way that they're at a resort hotel that has a conference center and they've booked up rooms at a certain rate and you could find other lodging but it's probably not worth it. I think something like that it's just like you submit it in a timely manner and then it's able to be reviewed because we do that we have so much time where we have to get approval from so many supervisors. Yeah.

And it's all for budgetary purposes like this. Oh, it's a great train for you to go to. However, this is how much it'll cost unless it's a into something that's mandatory. I guess we just leave it at that, but need to get approval for

pending a review or something. It's a little chill in here.

It is chilly. Just leave that as is. I totally agree. My toes will credit cards and business accounts.

That sounds pretty familiar from my experience. Sounds pretty straightforward. We're tax exempt, right? On our purchases,

how's that work when you go to When you go to tractor, how is that tax exempt? We're set up there. Okay. Yeah, we're set up. So, we're set up as tax exempted or normal. Yes. Yes. Okay.

Gotcha. Does it need to say that other employees may also be issued a a credit card? It only talks about the clerk and then talks about signing out a card for other uses. I don't think it's reasonable that well

this says any employee this one says any employee who has a town issued credit card. So are we viewing that like the council could direct that other specific employees may be issued a card. somebody purchases something. Do you do you hold the cards when they come here and you get the cards or this? Well, like Okay, so Andy had a um couple credit cards and um and Luke does not like I just keep it.

I keep it. He needs something he If he needs something, he comes in gets I need the flight card or I need the

Well, tractor supply. He could just go and have to use a car. And that's how it used to be at Lowe's, but now Lowe's wants a bid, right, to carry the credit. So if he needs something, Menards is on an account, you know, so it's usually mainly um Lowe's or um and then our then the regular as far as But yeah, I just keep I definitely think that when we do have a town superintendent, they should have a there available fixing things when you're not necessarily here and may have to go get something that may not be available somewhere that we have a

um so I just want to make sure we don't box ourselves in to it being you having one and then being able to hand out in specific circumstances, but I think I don't know that this does that. So, I don't know that we need language to explicitly allow for the issuance of a card. I don't think so. This is spelled out. Okay, you can have it.

All right, we'll roll with it. visitors 5:14. Who is an who's an authorized visitor? And who authorized it? Again, I think that is a policy that we can have in place. I think it's more in the event

that it's some kind we have a disgruntled citizen that constantly I also I so I wouldn't want I would want um if Luke goes out and plows snow and his wife wants to sit in there and visit with him while he's doing it. I think that's perfectly fine. If somebody's working working but they're really just hanging out with somebody for an hour a day or something like that while they're doing it. That's not okay, right? And so I don't think that we should say no visitors, right? No. No.

I So interpreting this as strike this the allowance of But well, it says there it it says employees should limit visits from family and friends while on duty. It doesn't say you can't have them. Um, it says that any visitors have to go to the main entrance, blah blah blah blah blah, which is probably alluding to trying to limit inappropriate behaviors and things like that. So, that's fine. And then, uh, it all it talks about an unauthorized individual. So that would potentially be somebody that there's either been a legal issue with or u somebody that's hostile that had to be removed by police or or something like that. Or

in the case of an employee that does have their girlfriend over to the and they're becoming a distraction or something like that. Hey, you can't have visitors when you're working. So I don't know. Maybe it's fine how it is. I think it's fine. I think so. Mhm. Okay.

I know I've mentioned it many many times, but I think that uh Facebook is a very useful tool for disseminating information. I think our town Facebook page though should post and ghost. We should put up that information and it should not have comments enabled on it. Exactly. I do think that people should be able to message through there to ask questions, but we don't need comments on any of our posts. Nope. And you actually can get into major trouble, too. There's actually been lawsuits about it that towns have lost where they've left comments open. People have posted nasty things. I don't

Somebody from the town deletes those posts because they're nasty and now you've infringed on somebody's right to free speech. Whereas if you don't even allow the possibility of dialogue in the first place, you're just presenting information, you avoid that whole problem. Yeah. And there are other plenty other sites that do exactly that. Correct. I don't think any allows our town. Oh yeah, you can comment on over on the town of Atlanta. Yeah, we Yeah. Atlanta Facebook post you can comment. Yes. I know that Atlanta I don't know how you Yeah. Yeah. We have nothing to do.

It's after you post it. You can limit who who can comment on it. Okay. So, you probably have to do it for each post. Post you have to. But I think that needs to be something that we write in here. I don't think we should have any public. And see, we really don't have a social media policy. Well, talk to Yeah. This would since we're creating since we're creating one. Let's say no no uh post should not enable should not have comments enabled or should have comments disabled or something like that. See how it actually we should probably also say we should probably also say in here that the town does not conduct business via social media. Yeah.

So, if somebody asks a question through private message, it's okay to provide them an answer if there is an answer, but that's the end of it. You can't We're not solving problems through here. We're disseminating information. That's it. This isn't the same as it used to be. So, I think that may be something that you have to set up. It It's not The posts aren't coming up with the same where you can limit the comments afterwards. I think it's going to be something you have to do on the the page through the business part of the page. Maybe you could come in one day and you and Annie could

could figure that out. Yeah. Yeah. Because it used to be on every post. Used to be on every post you could check those three little dots at the top and then tell it who could comment. But it doesn't do that. Who can comment on your I just did it on one of mine. Who can comment on your post? Public friends and establish all friends of friends or at profiles and pages you mentioned. So I'm not seeing that on mine anymore. But I don't see anything that says no comments. Well, if you if you use the one where where you say only profiles that are mentioned, that pretty much limits the comments because you didn't mention any, right? Okay, fair enough.

Okay. So, as long as you're not tagging somebody. Yeah, right. Okay. But mine aren't mine aren't even saying that anymore. So, that's weird. Oh, it's because I'm looking at it. That's not the Yeah, never mind. I I understand now switch. Okay. So, it looks like you can turn them off. It's just going to be after the post is made. Yes. You have to go to the options on that post and uh I can come up and go over that with Annie. Okay. Yeah, please do. Okay. So, no comments.

Yeah, I don't know if we need any changes other than that to social media. Um, oh well actually I think is it fair to say the town does not conduct business via social media or outside of a council meeting.

Okay. I've actually been we can actually go through um the state for um our website and I've actually seen where a lot of other treasurers are liking that. So, I was thinking about having Annie look into that. Our site sucks. Yeah, we have been wanting to do something with it for a long time.

Yeah, because they've been they've been saying that you can go through the state, they'll set it up, blah blah blah, and they've been to our conferences before. But I'm just I'm kind of thinking I'm like you. I'm kind of like thinking ours is kind of stale. It is, you know, maybe. And I don't know what they have too, but like um yeah, it could be way better organized. It could have a better look, a little cleaner, a little more modern, a little easier to find certain things. You're talking about our website? Yes. Yes. Yes. It it needs a revamp. Yes.

Okay. Computer and email usage. I'm glad this is in here. Employee may only use town issued email account assigned to them when engaging in or conducting town related business. Yes. I think employees should notify the clerk treasurer and the president of the council if they know violation. So I think it'd be fair that or

where you which paragraph are you down at the very bottom of the Okay, got it. Okay. And what did you say employees should notify? You should know somebody from the council should know too. I think that should be an and instead of an or. Okay.

How long you all willing to almost till 8? till 8 probably. Okay. Do another 14 15 minutes and then do we want to schedule another one to finish this up before the end of the year? Okay. I can go ahead and and was hoping to be able to be done today. Well, I mean I don't have anything else I could stay unless we just

This would take another hour and a half. 517 internet usage. Let's scan through that real quick. That should be

Mhm. Seems like boiler plate

stuff there. Mhm. 518 workplace monitoring. Fair enough. I think we should be able to investigate,

I guess, complaints of verify first off that somebody is is doing what they're supposed to do with or without a complaint. But especially if there is a complaint, it'd be nice to have the ability to monitor our own systems or how they're being used by an employee.

Only through designated spokespersons speaking to the media. 519. That's good. Yes. Mhm. So goofy that workplace violence is something we got to include in here.

Yep. 22 Okay, they've made a wrong reference. It should be at the top of page 36 in the first paragraph. It says refer to policy 708 problem resolution and 708 is resignation not problem resolution.

Okay. So that should be yeah I I don't know whether where the other problem resolution may be I don't I'll put a question like Oh, it's a 718 instead of 708.

With that change, does that section look okay? I think so.

I do too. And I think this section might be one that it's actually I think we should know about problems, but I do think that it would be okay for somebody to go to their supervisor. I I think this language isn't necessarily bad. Report to the town superintendent, the clerk treasurer, or a member of the town council, which would be depending on the circumstance, you should the expectation should be that you go to your supervisor. But if they are if they're source of the problem or if they don't take it seriously, right,

you have you have other options there. Yes. Yes. And so I don't know if that needs a rewrite to make that more clear, but I think that's okay actually having that language there that you're not limited to just going to your direct supervisor. Kind of gives you the steps here. The chain of command start with the person that doesn't work. Go to your next and then to your next. Yes. So on the on the second paragraph in that place violent prevention. So am I allowed to bring my gun up here? I don't care. It says firearm, weapons, and other dangerous or hazardous devices are prohibited being brought into the facilities without unless without proper

authorization. Authorization too authorized. Thank you. She probably when they're talking about this in the context of violence, more violence than it is protection. It's probably one of those like we said it, you know, uh you're not you're not bringing a gun with the intent of committing violence. You're bringing it for protection, which is a different orientation. Okay.

526 mobile devices. Do we want to stop here? I know you guys have talked and talked about this. You want to talk? You want to wait on this one? Let's go through this one and we can revisit it next time if we need to, but I'd like I personally want to get to 600

and stop before 6. Let's finish the fives here. That'll work. That's fine. That's fine. Okay. Paragraph three deals with excessive use during working hours. Occasional brief personal mobile device usage is permitted within reasonable limit. Employees urged to keep their conversations emailing text and data usage activity brief. Only urgent manners refused during working hours. Employees should conduct lengthy conversations andor emailing, texting or data using their lunch break or during nonwork. So basically, as long as it doesn't interfere with their job,

daily job, the town of Atlanta reserves the right to ban all mobile device usage during working hours if usage becomes problematic. That's another thing that I was thinking makes sense. And so I'm glad that's in. But if they're using their personal phone, how do we ban that? You can't have it while you're at work. We could say that. We can. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I didn't realize we could be that. As I said, they could do it with the fire department. They could do it with us. Like we some Yeah. If you're if it's getting in the way of you doing work. You're here to work.

I know a funny story. Not a funny story. It's a true story down in our kitchen. Cafeteria manager had the girls, it just got so bad that they bring their phones in and set them on her desk during work hours just because they got them. Mhm. It just got to be an issue. Oh, send one of the supervisor cafeteria managers. Yeah. Restricting access if they had to use it, you know, if it rang or you know, right. And that that took care of I don't think that's one of those there's an expectation if you have something going on. Sure. But it's one of those like if it's we can if need be. I don't think that we would ever say

you can't use your phone and then you come in a week later and you have, hey, my mom's in the hospital. Can I keep it with me? Nobody's going to say no. No. Right. Exactly. We're going to say absolutely you can have it today. Well, and where we're at in our situation, our employees use their personal phone to take. So, that's something that with apps and I think we continue to talk about or maybe we I I don't know much about it, but I know there's people that have two numbers on a phone. You can somehow assign a second number to a phone, and maybe that makes sense. Maybe the town gets a cell phone number for whoever works for the utilities that then you could set up the call for boarding to the

phone or the second number or however that works. And then pay a, you know, $20 stipen to them or something like that. So you don't have to work all day. I wouldn't care. Oh, I know. That's Um I I also think though that we shouldn't require you have to be able to get in touch with your people, right? But I don't think that other than communication or general communication. I don't think you should you can't I can't I wouldn't say you can require somebody to use their personal device that they pay for to conduct town business.

You should be able to get in touch with them at all times. But you they shouldn't have to use their device for town business. And so I don't know if we need to make that more explicit in here as well at the at the option somehow at the option of the employee. You can use your device for this or we can issue you one if you're the per if you need to have a device for town business. But either way, and if if you have downloaded any apps that are applicable to town business on your personal phone, when you leave, we have to be sure that you have cut off access.

Sure. And actually, we should be able to handle that on the back end anyway. So, like what's his name? Can shut off Outlook and all, you know, shut off all the Right. Yeah. I emailed you guys this from Kathy, right? And it was town owned phones versus personal phones. I have a vague memory of that. I don't remember where to say. But anyway, I think that's something that we could examine as sure moving forward. And I think now is probably the time to at least understand what the options are there and try to spell it out.

So, keep 526 as it is right now. Yeah. I think so. Maybe, and we'll see what this looks like as we go through it. Maybe we add to it, but I wouldn't take anything away from it. I think it's it's good. Maybe we add to it something about employees who are required to be available 24/7 or to conduct town business. um you know something about either issuing a phone or issuing a forward number to their device with a sniper something like that. Okay. Can I make a motion that we adjourn?

Please do make a motion that we adjourn the meeting. Can we set another one? Yeah, that's a good idea. Next Monday the 22nd. It's a regular town board meeting. No, it's not. That's right. That's right. That's right. Okay. Yeah, we can do that. 6 o' for you, Murray. No, that's fine. I only work 300 hours a month. It's okay. Don't take your Don't take your youth for granted. Don't do it.

Hey, sunshine tickets. Yeah. For granted, buddy. Well, maybe if we can get this wrapped up next meeting though and get all the changes to her and she can get, you know, everything um act on it by the end of the last meeting. Okay. Yeah. So, we're saying the 22nd at 6 PM, another special meeting to hopefully wrap up our review of the employee handbook and try to finalize uh whatever changes that we think need made. It won't be a final version, but we will have at least identified all the areas that we think need some revisions and adopt this first year.

Yep. And uh Brad, does your motion to adjourn still stand? Yes. Okay. All in favor? I. Thank you all very much.