Personnel Committee - Regular Meeting

All right. It is 05:32, and I will call the personnel committee to order. First up is roll call. It looks like the entire committee is present this evening. Move on to public comment. Is there anybody from the public that wishes to address the personnel committee this evening? Anybody from the back? Anybody from I wanna address the personnel committee this evening. Is there anybody on Zoom?

There's not.

Okay. Well, then I will close public comment. We will move on to the consent agenda. Is there any item from the consent agenda that a committee member wants to have removed?

I'll make the motion to approve the consent agenda.

Second. There's a motion and a second. There is no discussion on consent. So all those in favor?

Aye.

Aye. And opposed? Alright. That is approved. We'll move on to our first discussion action item versus up is request to approve reclassification for our West Art Museum visitor center clerk and place current. Rob West Art Museum visitor services clerk in new grade. Greg? Jesse? So essentially, this just basically codifies what we just did in the budget?

That is correct. So yeah, in budget discussions, the mayor and I talked about our visitor services clerk. They work on weekends at the Rar West Art Museum. They work pretty much on their own on weekends. And we determined that at this point we want to make sure that they are adequately compensated for the work that they do both from a security standpoint being that they are all given you know the security code and keys to the museum and are entrusted with the security of the artwork on weekends and their visitor services capabilities.

They are the first person that most people see when they come in the museum on weekends. They also work occasional nights and special events through our West Art Museum. We want to make sure that we are compensating those who are working for us at a solid level. And we also want to be able to attract new employees that would be able to be working at a high level.

Okay. Thank you. Jessi, you have anything to add?

Just that tonight, we would look for approval on both the updates to the compensation structure, the job description, and then also able to move the current employees in that position over to $15 an hour as of the first of the year.

Okay. So simple motion approve as presented would work for. Is there any questions on it? Obviously, we just passed the funding mechanism for it and justification in the budget. So unless we want to make a motion to amend the budget, we will look for a motion to approve as presented.

I'll make the motion to approve as presented.

Second. Motion and a second. Discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor? Aye. And oppose? All right. I will pass this for signatures. Thank you.

Then we'll move on to the request to eliminate unfunded job positions at the City of Manitowoc, including assistant city attorney, staff engineer, and DPI business manager. This is something I had requested during the budget process to kinda clean up our org chart positions that we had in the org chart that were no longer funded in the budget this year and previously. So we just need council action to approve it as it is a resolution to vacate those positions. Any questions on that?

So you just seen a motion to adopt or lose?

I need a motion to adopt. So moved. Second. Motion and a second to adopt. Discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor. Aye. And opposed? Okay, that passes. I will pass that for signatures. Next up we have request to eliminate training membership and tuition reimbursement policy Jessie

yes thank you I did include a memo on this item as well our tuition reimbursement program went into effect in '26 January 2016, so it's almost ten years that it's been in in play. And each year, we have seen a slight decline. Then starting in 2022, there was a pretty program. And since 2022, also, it's only been employees from one department. So based on the administrative work involved program between HR and the finance department, we are recommending that at this point we eliminate the Trojan reimbursement policy program.

In the policy, there were actually discussions on both membership and also on some training. Those items were actually put into the employee policy manual, the items that we're gonna keep as part of that policy so that we don't have a standalone policy for just a couple of minor things, which will be the next item on the agenda. So any questions, I'm happy to answer.

Sounds like a successful program that just ran its course. Any questions from the committee? Otherwise, I would look for a motion to, I guess, approve the elimination.

I'll make the motion to approve the elimination.

Is that motion? Is there a Motion and a second discussion. All those in favor? Aye. And opposed?

Alright, that passes. If there's no objection, we'll just put that one on consent. Okay. Next up is the employee policy manual revisions for December. Jesse, do you wanna take the committee through some of those changes?

So a couple of the highlights. As I said, we're incorporating some language from the training policy. And then the the second item is an addition to some language. And, my recommendation is that we include language that would support, awarding additional PTO to employees, and this would be something department heads would be able to do at their discretion with some parameters in place. And I would be reporting on that quarterly.

Just another way to kind of retain employees to also reward them for performance that's above and beyond or doing things that maybe are outside of their scope of work because we have vacancies. So I did add some language to the policy manual, which is tracked in the attached policy manual.

Any questions from the committee on that? And that's something that between Jesse, the mayor, and I, we kind of tweaked the language, went back and forth on that, and came up with that policy.

I'll make a motion to approve the requests for policy changes.

There's a motion. Is there a second? Second. Second discussion?

I'd just like to make a comment. Yes. Thank you. Mr. Sikowitz. So I would say thank you for keeping some sort of tuition or some sort of training. I'm a huge proponent of that. I think, yeah, the policy doesn't stand on its own anymore, but having it here I think is a great way to still allow individuals to grow in their roles. I'm supportive of that. And I like the language you put in about the PTO. I think that's a good way to handle it. So thank you very much.

Okay. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor?

Aye.

Aye. And opposed? Okay. We'll pass that for signatures. Our last item does require a closed session.

So notices hereby given that the above government body may adjourn into a closed session during the meeting as authorized by section 19 dot eight five one e of Wisconsin statute which authorizes the governmental body to convene into closed session for the purpose of deliberating or negotiating the purchasing of public properties the investing of public funds or conducting other specified public business whenever competitive or bargaining reasons require session. Specific subject matter that may be considered a closed session is 250352 teamsters local number 662 transit contract negotiations. The motion to convene in a closed session was made by Alder person.

So moved.

Cummings and second by. Second. Norell. Aye. Norell. Yep. Aye. Bieben. Aye. Cummings? Aye. And Dunbar? Aye. Alright. We are in closed session.

Alright. Are we ready? Alright. We are back from closed session. The only document we had discussed was twenty five dash zero three five two. There is no update at this time. So with that, that does exhaust our agenda. So I would look for a motion to adjourn. So moved.

Second.

Alright, we are adjourned. Thank you. No one jumping in on a second on that one.