Personnel Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the June 11th regular personal commissioning meeting. The personal commission is now holding in-person meetings at City Hall, Conference Room 2A. Members of the public can now attend meetings in person or virtually via Zoom. Now, please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. Let's stand.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Let's get started. Candy, would you please call or take the roll?

Yes. Good evening, commissioners. As I read your name, please respond with here. Chair Gruelneff.

Yes.

Commissioner Parr. Yes. Commissioner Melnikoff.

Yes.

Commissioner Moore. Commissioner Tendencia. Commissioner Varlack. And Commissioner Diaz.

Yes.

Thank you. I turn it back to you, Chair Gruelneff.

Thank you, Candid. Next, we have the AB2561, Vacancy Report Presentation. Presenting this item is the Human Resources Manager, Selena Flores. Selena?

I'll give a quick intro to it. So thank you and good evening, Chair Grunup and Commissioners. Selena and I will be presenting this item. Selena Flores is our HR Manager at Open Work Connect. This item on vacancies was presented to City Council on February 24th, 2026 as a public hearing in compliance with Assembly Bill 2561. As some background, if we can go to the next slide, please. AB 2561 was signed into law on September 22, 2024 and effective January 1, 2025. The City's first public hearing in compliance with AB 2561 occurred on June 3, 2025 and presented to City Council. Assembly Bill 2561 requires public agencies to hold a public hearing prior to adoption of the budget to report long staffing vacancies, recruitment efforts, retention strategies, hiring challenges, and if a bargaining unit has a vacancy rate over 20%, upon request by the union, public agencies will provide additional data specific to that bargaining unit. AB 2561 also provides bargaining groups with the opportunity to present their input No bargaining units elected to present on February 24th, 2026. Tonight's presentation is a copy of what was presented to council on February 24th, 2026, and as it was in compliance with AB 2561 for this fiscal year. For purposes of this recording, this presentation captures a snapshot in time of the vacancies. created from layoffs, separations through the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program and other separations during the fiscal year and are included as part of the vacancy rate calculations since these positions are still part of the current fiscal year's adopted budget. Permanent changes will be considered as part of the budget bridging process and proposed for adoption in the future. As presented in February, part of tonight's presentation will include information above and beyond the requirements of Assembly Bill 2561, where data will be shared related specifically to vacancies resulting from the layoffs, separations, as well as vacancy numbers within the general fund. All data used to inform tonight's presentation is from July 1st, 2025 through January 30th, 2026. And with that, I will hand over to HR Manager Flores.

All right. Good evening, Commissioners. I'm Selena Flores, the HR Manager of Over Recruitment. Before we begin reviewing the data in this presentation, I would like to clarify a few key definitions that the city uses when calculating vacancy rates. Next slide, please. These terms on this slide are referenced in the table before you and are also outlined in the AB 2561 First, budgeted FTEs or full-time equivalents represent the total number of regular FTEs adopted in the current fiscal budget. Second, total number of positions refers to the total number of regular full-time and part-time positions allocated to approved authorizations. And then, a viable vacancy is defined as a funded, authorized regular position that is currently vacant and available to be built. Finally, the vacancy rate is calculated by dividing the number of viable vacancies by the total number of positions. And then we'll speak to the separation data listed below in just a moment.

Okay, thank you. The bottom portion of this slide showcases data above and beyond the requirements of AB-2561 for separations through layoffs, the voluntary separation incentive program, and other separations are shown. You'll see these numbers as a result of each of those items in the table.

Well, I'm very late. I had a last-minute work thing happen.

Thanks for bringing it in.

Yes, let me do this. Okay, in addition to the separation data, I wanted to explain the workload activity that we see on the screen as well from July 1st, 2025 through January 30th of 2026. The city maintains 956.3 budgeted full-time equivalents. We have a total of 977 authorized positions. And at that time, we had 135 viable vacancies. Also during this reporting period, the city hired 26 new employees, promoted 39 employees, and experienced 93 separations. And as a result of the workforce activity, the city's overall vacancy rate as of January 30, 2026, was 13.82%. Next slide, please. Excuse me. All right, the following table provides a breakdown of viable vacancy data by a bargaining unit. So it's viable vacancy data by bargaining group.

Maybe it's the speakers.

Can you all hear me? Yes. OK. So if you look at the table from left to right, it displays the bargaining group listed, the number of budgeted full-time equivalents, total authorized positions, and the number of viable vacancies. The corresponding vacancy rate for each group as of January 30, 2026, is shown on the right. Next slide, please. This table presents viable vacancy data for the city's unrepresented employee groups. Similar to the previous table, it displays the employee group on the left, followed by the budgeted FTEs, full-time equivalents, total authorized positions, and the viable vacancies. The corresponding vacancy rate for each group is shown on the right as of January 30, 2026. And the combined vacancy rate across these two groups is 13.2%, as we noted in the previous slide. At this time, we're also in the AB2561 presentation. We'll let you know if a representative group has reached a 20% vacancy rate and none of our groups have during this reporting time. Next slide, please.

Okay, this table showcases data above and beyond the requirements of page 2561, where vacant positions funded either in part or in whole by the general fund are listed by bargaining unit. As of January 30th, 2026, there were 105 vacant positions. 94 are funded either in part or in whole through the general fund. So if you're looking for what's impacting the general fund at that point in time, this is a visual for you of those vacancies.

All right, next slide please.

So this slide reflects our recruitment activity and efforts during the period of reporting from July 1st, 2025 through January 30th of 26. During this time, the city initiated 37 recruitments, including seven promotional opportunities, and we received and processed 2,564 applications. These efforts resulted in the establishment of 62 eligible lists, and we filled 65 vacancies. These vacancies were filled through open and promotional recruitments, as well as utilizing our already established eligible lists. During this period, the city also implemented a number of series of targeted recruitment strategies that address staffing needs and improve the overall hiring outcomes. And we would like to highlight some of these key recruitment efforts and challenges for you this evening. As part of our efforts to remain competitive in a challenging labor market, Hiring incentives were utilized to fill public safety classifications. However, effective January, 2026, these incentives were discontinued to support expenditure reductions efforts for the city. We also focused on streamlining recruitment efficiencies by implementing more fiscal checks and balances throughout the recruitment process and hiring workflows to ensure that our financial review of vacancies was done prior to advertising positions, and this helped align hiring activity with budgetary oversight. The City also continues to focus on elevating the candidate experience by strengthening communication, improving transparency, and streamlining our recruiting and onboarding processes. Efforts include providing timely status updates to our candidates, setting clear expectations at each stage, and identifying opportunities to reduce delays. This ensures that candidate experience is more efficient, responsive, and welcoming from the initial application through processing and onboarding. In addition, we regularly assess job classifications and compensation structures to ensure each position remains competitively benchmarked and that duties are accurately aligned with appropriate job titles. and market conditions. As part of our ongoing recruitment strategy, we continue to build strong community partnerships to expand our talent pipeline. We engage with local organizations, schools, and universities through recruitment events, career guidance, and candidate preparation support. Most recently, we participated at the library in a program called the Community Hub. It was offered as a full-service, one-stop resource center for members of the public to come in and access the City of Hayward and community partner services. Recruitment staff participated by providing general advertisement and guidance with resume reviews, job search support, and navigation through the City's hiring website and process. And with respect to recruitment challenges, public safety positions continue to require extended hiring timelines due to mandated public background investigation, as well as medical and psychological evaluation, and academy training requirements. While these processes lengthen time to hire, they are essential to ensure that we're meeting regulatory and compliance. In addition, public safety agencies are competing statewide with increasingly limited candidate pool and factors that are adding to that are retirements, evolving workforce expectations, and heightened qualification standards to that gives us a more narrow candidate pool. And next slide, please. Okay, that concludes our presentation tonight of AB 2561. We'll hand it back to Chair Wright and we'll just have to have me back. Oh my goodness.

We're going back in time. I have a long hair.

It's a reflex.

Thank you.

I think I was so used to doing presentations for him.

Thank you, Salina. Are there any questions or comments from the commissioners?

Well, this isn't working, so in case anybody actually, okay, what's this? commissions, because you can't hear. Turn, by the way. Well, this one does, but I said you can't hear the presentation.

So it's green?

Yeah. Okay. The presentation, just for edification, if you're watching this or watching this video, you cannot hear if people are not using the mic. Okay. In this room, it's really bad sound, if you call it. Okay. You mentioned that the presentation was given to the council on February 24th. And why is this just being brought to us now?

So this is typically presented to the governing body as part of the requirements of the assembly bill. It was requested to come to this body for informational purposes.

Okay. So, but we did have a March meeting. So I'm trying to figure out why this was not at the March meeting.

Yeah, we did have a March meeting and we had an agenda scheduled for March. So I think for the next year, we can talk about how to better coincide the dates. We're open to that feedback.

Okay, thank you. And I know this isn't required by state law, but I was just wondering if for your own purposes, if you ever, I mean, I know this has been, especially now in the past, The fiscal year, but the past 12 months have been unusual. But do you ever compare the statistics from one year to previous years? And is that information available? I'm not asking you to prepare another report. I know you guys are really busy. I'm just wondering.

Since the reporting requirement is new as of last year, we would only have two data sets at this point for it. So that's something that we can consider. We also invite you to go to the actual public hearing so you can see it live as opposed to seeing a copy of the report afterward.

Okay. Thank you. And under the separation data, you had voluntary separations broken out from layoffs. Were these buyouts? The 12 voluntary separation.

The what's listed there is we set the 12 voluntary separations of the program. Yeah, that was a program that was run by the city to try to decrease the number.

Okay, so these 12 are bias. Okay.

There were incentives for the separation.

And now I'm guessing on this, but I don't like to guess, but under the citywide employee group vacancy information, under unrepresented employees, the last line it has is that the FTEs were budgeted and the total number of positions is 12, yet there's one viable vacancy. Is that because you have two part-time people filling one full-time equivalency?

Are you looking at the last line? Yes. I believe there is one vacant executive position that will not be backfilled at this point.

Okay. All right. So in this, okay, so maybe that's why it's a little skewed because it says, you know, you have 12 bunched positions, 12 filled, and you have one viable.

Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah, I believe that is a typo there.

Okay. And On the last page, I was just curious, you said that you had 37 job postings. Where do you post these? I mean, you obviously are getting great response.

Yeah, so they go on our website for applicants to apply for the positions. They go on governmentjobs.com. It's powered through NeoGov. And then that's where they apply. And then we do various marketing on different websites to attract candidates.

Okay, so marketing, by marketing you mean like, can you give me an example of what website that you would use, I guess, advertise on?

Yeah, so it depends on the position and if it's a hard to fill position. We work with the third party to identify certain websites that would be related to the job that we need to fill. Organizations, networks, associations that are related to the position. So for example, if there's an engineering job There may be engineering networks, engineering associations, and then we would do targeted specifically to those websites.

Okay, thank you. Now, you mentioned that the hiring incentives in the police department have been eliminated to help with budgetary expenses. And I don't know if you have this data or not, but I was just wondering, since you've stopped those incentives, if you notice any difference in the number of applications you're getting. If you don't have that, it's fine. I was just curious.

Yeah, we haven't tracked... If it's related to the incentives or not. I think our numbers fluctuate. It is very competitive. And we're still getting applicants coming out. We do testing every five weeks. Hopefully, we have these lots of training testing.

Yeah, I was just, I've always been curious about these incentives of if there's actually data backing those up, or if they make a difference. And I know several cities instituted them for different, I've never seen any data whether those were effective or not. But again, if you're not tracking it, that's no problem. I was also curious under this. It's just me. I apologize. Elevated candidate experience. I wasn't sure what you meant by what that means.

Okay. So it's basically improving candidates. the candidate experience from the start to finish, making sure that the candidate feels like they're supported, we're providing good customer service, and we're having them get excited about starting with the city and partnering with them in that way. Okay, great. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Oh, that's very good. That's a political corrective word. You know that, right? What? Elevate. Kindly. I have a question.

I have a question. Yep. But this vacancy rate of over 10%. 13%. Yeah, it's over 10%. Yeah. But have there been any complaints about the quality of services and jobs that have been provided? Having these vacancy rates and lack of additional resources or sources that you checked to meet?

So I would say anecdotally that we're always open to feedback on what our services look like. I can't speak for the rest of the city, but I can share that the relationships and partnerships that we're building, we're building them in collaboration. So there's an understanding that there may be a delay in service time. Some things might take just a little bit longer, but I can't say that we've, in our department, have received full complaints on service yet.

Can I give some examples just reduce one of our library days because of the vacancies for example another is the frequency of maintenance services typically we've been through resident complaints within 48 hours we've had to extend that to 72 hours rather than 48 hours so we're still getting to these maintenance complaints in under you know five days but it's just a slight because there's less bodies that are able to be applied. So we're trying our best to not remove any services, but services may take a little bit longer or be slightly reduced. So those are some direct impacts that we're seeing so far because of the vacancies we've had.

Thank you. How do you determine the under five days response?

I'm going off the numbers that were shared from the director of our maintenance department, who the app where you can report issues. They're tracking how quickly they close those tickets. And so they shared that their goal is to try to have 48 hours or below, but because of the reduction in staff, it's closer to 72, maybe a little bit above 72 now.

Any other comment or questions? Okay. Commissioner Diaz.

Hi. You have to put this a little closer. Thank you. In regards to the benchmarking data, I remember from last meeting, we were asking about how you compare to similar cities. Is there, is this like publicly available or is there a chance we can have a little more information on what comparisons? And as we were discussing kind of like budgets or like a little bit of reduced services, has this been considered as well when you're doing the benchmarking?

You're referring to vacancy rates for other cities?

Particularly for the classification and compensation reviews for the staff. But then given that there might be some reduction, would that be also taken into consideration? So it's kind of like a two-part question. Is this data available that we can at least access it or just look around and make a comparison? And has this analysis considered that reduction or the current state of the CDO payment, particularly?

Yeah, so I can speak generally from a compensation survey perspective. When we do those surveys, they're based off of the duties and functions performed versus the workload performed. So we're not looking at volume. If we partner with a consultant, they're not looking at volume of work. They're just looking at the overall scope of the duties. So I think generally that wouldn't be part of that. That wouldn't be part of that study. Okay.

Thank you.

Yeah.

And then your other part of your question is... And then this information available wouldn't be available for us to... I kind of like nerd out a little bit on classification. We compare cities between one and the other. So it would be helpful for me to have a better understanding of where we're in the city.

Like where do we fall in our market?

Titans, yes.

Just minutes ago, we had something similar.

Yeah, I believe so. I think it's building up off of that.

Yeah, we did have, in one of our meetings, we did have a market study compared to other CVs. Yes. And it was provided to us just before your time. Maybe at a time that one of those nights that you didn't go.

Okay, we'll look back to see what we have. I think it's building off of that actually, so yes.

Because then we have the same questions that you did.

And I do think it's building off of that, but particularly for some of the recruitment strategies that were presented today.

And that's what drove whatever we're doing now, all that study.

Okay, so what we'll do is we'll take a look at some of the older meetings to see where that was mentioned and if we can find it.

And I think I... Can also be done.

Yeah, that would be helpful because we have a reference point. Yeah.

Yeah. Another question. I'm just thinking when you mentioned all the maintenance. 2 hours. Are there any, like, apprenticeship program partnerships that the city has contemplated? Because. As our workforce gets older, we're going to have to bring in from the other guys. Younger people to take over these positions. And how do we get that started? Because the rate killer experience is going to be a lot more competitive. Yeah. And if, let's say we fund an apprenticeship program and find some types of contractors, well, I guess you're going to stay here the next number of years. Is that being considered?

So we're fortunate to be surrounded by a lot of labor unions that provide paid programming. the trades. They're incredibly competitive because of the job market and white collar jobs being eviscerated by AI. We're seeing actually a massive uptick in people applying for the trades to the point that some of these apprenticeship programs are more competitive than IDB colleges now. So the demand is very high. Something that we can do to help facilitate youth and to spin the trades as a pathway, which may be separate from the city's There are programs like Cypress Mandela and Rising Suns that partner with youth specifically to help them find the pathway to the trades if academia or a four-year college might not necessarily be the best fit for them. So there are options and relationships to build there, absolutely. And there are programs that definitely exist. I don't think the city is necessarily leading the charge on any of those direct trade connections or if we've done something like that in the past. That's the best of my knowledge.

Okay. I didn't even recruit from those programs, right? How do you know if someone's viable or available if someone else is doing it?

From my understanding, these unions have strong relationships with not just the council, but with the city in different projects. And so as one of the conditions, I don't know about maintenance per se, but let's say a construction project, we have a relationship with the trades that says projects over a certain cost must use union labor. And as part of that agreement, we also want to make sure that the union labor is hiring locally to ensure that the local workforce is getting jobs with the appropriate protection. So we do have some policies in place and relationships with unions to facilitate those kinds of connections.

So to just add on to that, in terms of our workforce that we employ here with the City of Hayward, That would be part of the, we call it marketing, but it's not technically marketing. It's just figuring out what are the best audiences for that recruitment. So as those positions come up, we work with our partners in the field to say we're the best places to advertise this recruitment. So that's, they're using their connections with their local union. They're using their connections with the trades and training organizations. for that as well um so there are no city-wide programs that I can name off the top of my head that are contemplating that but that is a that's a challenge for every industry right now is the turnover of the the institutional knowledge and how we pass that knowledge down to said anywhere okay thank you any other question or comment

Okay, seeing no more questions, we will now move to the next item. It's now the time for public comments. The Personnel Commission welcomes your comments and requests that speakers present their remarks in a respectful manner. Speakers wishing to address the Personnel Commission should limit their comments to ten to three minutes. Now, I will ask Candy Jackson to moderate the public comment portion of the meeting. At the end of the public comments, we will address any questions that come up. Candy?

Thank you, Chair Groll-Neff. If you wish to speak and you are using the Zoom application, please click the raise hand button and your name will be called. If you are dialing in, press star nine to raise your hand on the phone and press star six to unmute yourself. Please mute all other audio before speaking. Your area code and last three digits of your phone number will be called when it's time for you to speak. If there is disruptive feedback or excessive noise during the meeting, your audio will be disabled. When called to speak, please begin by stating your name and limit your remarks to three minutes. There are no public comments received, Chair Gulnuff. I turn it back to you.

Thank you, Candy. Let's move on to reports. Item one is an information item. In your packet, you have the proposed 2027 fiscal year agenda planning calendar, which lists the items that staff plans to bring to the commission. Are there any questions?

OK, this is just, I'm just Here is and we need clarification, but I noticed that the end Saturday when he said Saturday and that's a big man is on the agenda for every meeting and just wanted to elaborate on the reason for that.

in in real time online with those other dates so for 20 26 yeah let me make sure hold on one second are you just stating that the title of it under each of the meetings it says fiscal year 2027

Well, I think the question is why is it listed as 2022 for each one of those occurrences?

That is the correct fiscal year. It is a standard placeholder for every meeting. But if we don't have any salaries to bring to the commission, then we remove it from the agenda planning calendar. But it's a standard item, just like the minutes are a standard item, as well as the agenda planning calendar. So those are like the three things that you'll see for every meeting. Yep.

Thank you for that clarification. I have another question. I see that it's still under unscheduled, a nepotism policy update. I was wondering, is there at some point where it's going to be scheduled?

No, that's going to remain right there under the unscheduled items until that becomes a priority for the city. So unfortunately, it's just that is where it goes right now.

We don't know what to do.

That placeholder has to move. Yeah, we can move it off.

Now, I mean, we do want nepotism policy.

I will say nepotism policies exist inside the charter. There's a statement about nepotism. There's a nepotism policy that exists for our police department. But what I understand from this commission is that you're looking at a citywide nepotism policy.

And it has to be a little bit more comprehensive.

Yeah.

And it can be happening.

there is a draft there is a draft of it but i will say you will see with our item tonight um there's a lot of corrections that we're making to things that are live so as we're caching other items they take priority for us to to fix them and bring them to to this body we've got a limited number of um support and bandwidth for that can we try to make

for a very long time at a minimum, you know, reporting on what does the police baptism policy look like, what's in the charter, maybe what's in the draft, just for an initial round of feedback. It doesn't necessarily mean it's going to result in a new policy being written that night, but I think there's just general interest to see where the city's at and get some input from our commissioners here. um i understand that we're in the middle of now i know with anyone director texan yeah i'm trying to give them to now to meet this deficit but i do think what i'm hearing is the desire to find a time to put this on the agenda what would be reasonable with this d six months with this i mean i just want to make sure we're not just kicking the can down the front but we can look forward to it yeah so that that is the challenge um as soon as we hit a low there are things that come up where we have to start planning for the next round so just for example we will be entering contract negotiations for four of our bargaining events

is going to be dedicated to planning for that. On top of reviewing each one of those contracts, and related policies that are existing that that needs revision. So I think we can dedicate to sharing with you what currently exists. And then if you have feedback about how you would like to incorporate that into a potential city one policy, but I cannot, I don't feel comfortable making a promise that it's going to come to you this year. A new policy.

Not a new policy, but you are bringing what we currently have. At least a draft.

So I can commit to speaking with a city manager about where that falls in her priority of creating policy. There's a number of other policies that need to be drafted and updated.

What I'm hearing is we could hypothetically agendize what we currently have to at least show them commission. Yes, we do. Okay. And did that happen this year, that presentation?

Not a new draft, but what we currently have. So we can share with you what exists. But in terms of a draft policy, I do not feel comfortable sharing that with you until it's fully vetted. We've got some prioritization.

In lieu of a draft policy, can we get a high-level executive summary, a couple of pages showing what's the overall skeleton for the policy and not the minute details? Just something that we can think about.

Yeah. What we can do is we can also share with you what practices, checks and balances exist in our hiring process to check for those things. Although it's not an official policy, it's part of our process that we carry through. So we can share that as well. Yeah, I'm not trying to hide anything. It's just that we have bandwidth issues. So it'd be very unclear. Yeah. So we can do that this year? So our next meeting is scheduled for September.

Or could it be a memo sent to the Commission instead of having it be a presentation? Yeah, would the Commission be open to receiving a memo with this information rather than it being a presentation? Yeah, hang on. I just want to review some ideas. Maybe straight to the dog.

Yeah. If you're from November, you can email us something.

That would be a reasonable figure, actually. Yeah, I think we can do that. So what I just want to confirm, we're going to give you what currently exists. So whatever exists in the charter, we're going to showcase the section and we're going to give you the language that we're also going to give you what exists in our close department policy. And then the key points of the processes that we have in our hiring process of how we check for those things, even though those are unofficial policies, it's just part of our process. We'll share that information with you. And then the portions, high-level portions of the draft policy we can share in concept with you.

That's acceptable.

Okay. Good job, everyone.

Thanks for pushing.

All right.

Okay, now. Okay, let's move to the consent items. The next item in the agenda is the consent calendar. Commissioner Park has a request to pull the minutes for questions. Commissioner Park. Thank you.

And the minutes are as wonderful as always. I do have a question. It's under attendance. Next to my name, there's two asterisks, and it says I'm vice chair. I don't recall. The other question, and this may not be the appropriate time to ask this. The minutes are fine, but at the very end, the last paragraph before adjournment, that their personnel commission subcommittees and people were assigned. Have any of those met? No.

None of the subcommittees have met yet. We'll have some announcements towards the end, which is really good.

That's it.

Thank you. That's it? That's it. Okay. I was getting ready for something else. Sorry. All right, the public is now invited to comment on this item. Please raise your hand if you wish to speak. Are there any speakers who wish to speak in this consent item?

There are no public comments for this item, Chair Grona.

Thank you, Candy. Will we have a motion to approve the minutes from March 18 special meeting?

I move.

Thank you. Did I hear that correctly?

Did Commissioner Moore make the motion?

Oh, Commissioner Park. Thank you.

Thank you. I will move to a roll call vote. When I read your name, please respond with I or no. Chair Grohl-Nef. Aye. Commissioner Parr.

Aye.

Commissioner Melnikoff.

Aye.

Commissioner Moore. Aye. Commissioner Varlap. Aye. And Commissioner Diaz. I thank you a motion to approve the minutes of the special meeting on March 1820 26 was made by commissioner part and seconded by commissioner of our lack the motion carries with 6 eyes. I turn it back to you chair go now.

Thank you can be let's move on to action items. Just a reminder to the commissioners that staff will begin by presenting the agenda item. Once they are finished, if commissioners have a question or comments on the item, please raise your hand. I will then call on commissioners. Let's get started with our only action item this evening. Item number three. Recommend to City Council adoption of the revised salary plan for fiscal year 2027. Presenting this item is Annie Hsiao. Her name is Hsiao. Acting Human Resources Analyst. Annie, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair Grothneth. Good evening, commissioners. My name is Annie Hsiao, and I'm the acting HR analyst. And tonight, I'll be presenting the fiscal year 2027 salary plan. Next slide, please. Tonight, I'll be presenting the first revisions of the salary plan, which consists of the cost of living adjustments. The City of Hayward and Haim, SEIU Clerical and Local 21 have entered into separate side letters of agreements, recognition of the city's significant fiscal challenges and the needs to preserve public services while supporting the long-term financial stability of the organizations. As part of these agreements, the respective bargaining units have agreed to defer the 3% wage increase for the represented employees in those classifications that are not entirely funded through enterprise funds. These agreements reflect a shared commitment between the city and its workforce to navigate the current economic challenges collaboratively while minimizing the impacts to public services. and positioning the organization for greater long-term financial sustainability. Pursuant to the negotiated terms of the MOUs between SEIU Maintenance, Local 21, and Hain, they will receive a 3% COLA cost of living adjustments effective June 29, 2026. There are no fiscal impacts as they are included in the fiscal year 2027 proposed operating budget. Please note that these COLA adjustments for HANG and Local 21 will only apply to Enterprise Fund classifications only. The COLA adjustments for SEIU Maintenance applies to all classifications. In addition to the COLA adjustments, the following salary adjustments are related to contractual obligations in the respective MOUs. Pursuant to Section 8.0 of the HPOA MOU salaries, the salaries for police lieutenant shall be increased by 1.25%, effective June 29, 2026, which is included in the fiscal year 2027 operating budgets. Pursuant to Section 7.18 of the HAME MOU salary surveys, a salary survey was recently conducted and identified that the senior utilities engineer was below the market and met the criteria to receive equity adjustments. The salaries for the senior utilities engineer shall be increased by 11.03%. retroactive to June 30, 2025. The fiscal year 2027 fiscal impact is approximately $65,000 annually shared between the Water and the Sewer Enterprise Fund. Please note that there are no impacts to the General Fund for this update. Pursuant to the section 9.02 of the SEIU maintenance MOU for the lead and senior differential pay, the wage rates for the lead classifications shall be set 10% above its highest paid linked classifications. The salaries for the utility worker in water shall be increased by 5% retroactive to July 29, 2024. The salary adjustment increase that was previously applied to the utility leader in water and senior utilities leader in water classifications and to maintain an approximate alignment with the utility worker classification. The fiscal impact to fiscal year 2027 is approximately $40,000 annually to the Water Enterprise Fund. Please note that there are no impacts to the general fund for this update. In the next slide, we will provide a preview of the salary comparison. Next slide, please. Based on the feedback that we have received from commissioners, we have incorporated a comparison preview of the new salary plan, comparing to the current salary plan for an easier comparison and review. The top snapshot with the yellow highlights contains of the new salary information. The bottom snapshot contains of existing salary plan information, as well as the retroactive numbers for both the senior utilities engineer and the utility worker in water. The salary plan for a police lieutenant is at $110.05 at step D and $115.41 at step E. The salary range for senior utilities engineer is at $92.30 at step A and $112.18 at step E. The salary range for the utility worker in water is at $50.93 at step A and $59.34 at step E. Next slide, please. The living wage ordinance was established in July 1 of 1999 and was designed to upwardly adjust and reflect a change in the Bay Area Consumer Price Index, known as the CPI. The salaries for the intern classifications, administrative intern, information technology intern, and technical intern. all fall under Section 2, Article 14 of the City Charter regarding on the living wage ordinance. Based on the April 2026 CPI data available, the salaries for administrative intern, information technology intern, and technical intern shall be adjusted 3.8% effective June 29, 2026. The 3.8% salary adjustment to the administrative intern for the fiscal year 2027 Budget impact is $1,507.50 to the water fund. There's no impact to the general fund. The 3.8% salary adjustment to the information technology intern for fiscal year 2027 budget impact is $1,507 to the IT fund. There's no impact to the general fund. The 3.8% salary adjustment to the technical intern for the fiscal year 2027 budget impact is $1,507.50 to the water fund. There is no impact to the general fund. In the next slide, we will provide a preview of the salary comparison. Next slide, please. The top snapshot with the yellow highlight contains the new salary information. The bottom snapshot contains the current salary plan information. The salary range for the administrative intern is at $19.79 at step D and $25.05 at step E. The salary range information for information technology intern is at $19.79 at step D and $25.05 at step E. The salary range for a technical intern is at $19.79 at Step E. This concludes my presentation for tonight. I will turn it over to the commissioners for any questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Annie. Are there any questions or comments from the commissioners?

I have a question. Thank you for your presentation.

Yes, thank you. So just out of curiosity, I was just wondering why the technical intern doesn't have a, why is he or she only an E?

Why isn't there a step before like the other two interns?

That's a more historical thing. So the technical interns have very, I believe we use those in the trades. So if there's an intern in the trade, there's just going to be one salary for them.

Okay, thank you. What is your question? Remember you said earlier? They're all vacant though.

All the intern positions are vacant, right?

$41,000. Thank you. Thank you. Now, you mentioned in here that there are some

deferred 3% wage increases. Will the people in those unions at some point receive the money retroactively? So defer may be the wrong term. I don't know. To me, if you say I'm deferring this, I'm going to get this, but at some point in the future. So they have they're not, they've agreed to not have a 3% increase until at some point, and that some point is when.

Yes, so that will be effective at the end of the next fiscal year. So for the unions that came to the table were greatly appreciative for their collaboration. The city would not have been able to come through this current financial fiscal year without, or the next financial fiscal year without that collaboration with those bargaining groups. So those that have agreed have agreed to defer their COLA that was originally effective in July from the end of June to the end of the next fiscal year. So they will receive that increase, I believe it's June 28th or June 29th of next year, 2027 versus this year. Thank you.

The comment questions. The public is now invited to comment on these items. Please raise your hand if you wish to speak on this item.

There are no public comments for this item, Chair Groll-Nest.

Thank you, Candy. Seeing no more questions or comments, May I have a motion to recommend to City Council the adoption of the revised salary plan for fiscal year 2027? A motion. Commissioner Moore? Second by Commissioner Melnicka. Sandy, please call for roll call vote.

Thank you. I will now move to a roll call vote. When I read your name, please respond with aye or no. Chair Gruelner. Aye. Commissioner Parr. No. Commissioner Melnikoff.

Aye.

Commissioner Moore. Aye.

Sorry, Commissioner Moore, is that an aye?

Aye.

Aye. Thank you.

Commissioner Varlack? Aye. And Commissioner Diaz? Aye. Thank you. A motion to recommend to City Council the adoption of the revised salary plan for fiscal year 2027 was made by Commissioner Moore and seconded by Commissioner Melnikoff. The motion carries with five ayes. Yes, five ayes. Thank you. I turn it back to you, Chair Grohl.

Thank you, Candy. Let's move to announcement by staff and the commission. The first report is from our city council liaison council member.

I know it's been a while since you've seen me. I apologize for my recent absences. Sometimes the city's budget and finance meetings get scheduled at the same time as these meetings. And as you can tell from everything we've discussed tonight, the budget is very much front and center with what we're now getting together as a city, in large part with Anthony. approved a balanced budget this year in large part due to the concessions that were made by our labor partners. We are also in the process of putting a business license tax on the ballot for this November. It will be the first time in about 50 years that we've updated this business license tax. So we really haven't touched these numbers for a very long time, and we've designed it in a progressive way, meaning that it's really the largest corporations that will pay impact on smaller businesses. So I'm happy to answer any questions about this measure that will be on the ballot this November. Beyond that, we have our iconic downtown Hayward Street parties. Our first one is next Thursday, downtown at 5 p.m. till 8 or 9 p.m., I think. We usually have attendance upwards of 10,000 people. So if you're around, please come out. It's always a good time. And anybody in the public who's listening is invited as well. And beyond that, I'm happy to answer any questions you might have about council business at an afternoon meeting. Thanks.

I do have a question. For the business tax, I attended one of the meetings where there was a yes vote for one of the cannabis businesses. Do they have a different structure of how they're paying their taxes versus regular business owners?

Cannabis businesses, I believe, are subject to a specific cannabis tax in the city of Hayward, but they would also be money they're making in gross receipts. So every $1,000 they make in gross receipts would be taxed at a certain amount. And if they make, let's say, over $25 million, that amount would be slightly higher. If it was over $15 million, that amount would be slightly higher. Yeah. So there's maybe two taxes that are being applied to the cannabis industry. Thank you. Yeah.

Any other questions for Council Member Searle? Thank you, Council Member Searle. The next report is from the Director of Human Resources. Ian, I turn it over to you.

Thank you, Chair. Cool enough. So just heads up, Thursday, June 18th, we are celebrating the Pan-African flag raising at 12 p.m. in honor of Juneteenth. You can join us here in the plaza for that celebration. And then the commission recruitment efforts that are currently ongoing, the city is currently accepting applications for all five commissions. So that's either to build a list of people who are wanting to join commissions or fill current vacancies on those commissions. The deadline to apply is July 31st. We encourage you to share with your community and connections for those who are interested to apply. And then I do want to share the subcommittees for this commission. There was a survey that was sent out, I believe it was last week. So that is a survey, which is a remake of the retreat survey. So we want to capture your input on that. So there's a deadline to respond by the end of the month on June 30th. And then after we capture that feedback, we'll see if anything needs to be adjusted with the work that we currently have going with the subcommissions. And then we'll most likely provide an update after that if there's any changes.

Do we need to do a survey again? Because I did the first one, but if you need us to do it, let's do it.

Oh, no. So just making sure the link works for everyone now.

Yes, now it works.

Yeah, we sent out a second link just in case the first link wasn't working for everyone.

Thank you. Okay, so if you already took note, you're going to have your feedback.

Thank you. Any questions for Director Ian? HR Director?

No?

Okay. Well, thank you, Ian. Now, are there any announcements from commissioners? But I can tell you one thing. I'm a little small business owner. I threw the HR hat. No more. I opened my agency for pharmacy insurances right over here on Haysbury. So I'm driving on it. Okay, so you'll be affected by the business tax? Yes. Okay. And I understand that those business around the airport because my office is in the airport Plaza. Yeah, contribute to the well being of the airport. So I'm a contributor to the regulations. Yeah. So is this really as often since May 1. So it's been very, very busy.

What sort of business did you say?

Insurances. All sort of insurances. Even umbrella for you. I guess I could say it's probably been noted. First, Bishop retired.

All right. About legacy, that's one of the things Bob was bugging me about. Like, well, you know, call me in a year, and I'll think about it. Enjoy it. Yeah.

Sit back, relax. It's a adjustment, right? It's a good one.

He's into it.

Okay. So our next calendar meeting for the Personnel Commission is on September 10th. Unless otherwise, no advice. Thanks, everyone. No, I was saying thanks. With no other comments or questions, this meeting is adjourned at 6.36 p.m. Thank you. Thanks, everyone.

Bye, everybody. Hope to see you. Okay. Bye.