Board of Representatives Personnel Committee - Regular Meeting

The time is 2 p.m. on Monday, August 17th. This is the meeting of the Personnel Committee of the 32nd Board of Representatives. My name is Carl Weinberg. I'm the committee chair. I'll call the meeting to order. Christina, can you call the roll, please?

Yes, I can. Representative de la Cruz.

Present.

I don't see Representative Gross.

He just texted me and said he is a few minutes away. Okay. We'll announce his arrival when it happens.

Okay, great. Representative Hill.

I believe he is excused.

Okay. And you said Vice Chair Bivia will be late?

That's what he said, yes.

Okay.

He's a man of his word.

Okay, and Representative Pollack? Present. Representative Salas?

Present.

And Chair Weinberg is here.

Present, thank you. We have four members present out of seven with two on the way. but four out of seven is a majority, and therefore I declare that we have a quorum. The first item of business is P... Well, the first item of business is in deference... We have two guests here, Luke Buttonweiser from... Is it Weiser or Weiser? It's Weiser. Luke Buttonweiser of... I always think of you as Liza. I don't know. And no one else does. Luke Buttenwieser of the Transportation Department and Catherine Lovalvo of the School Construction Project. Luke has some pressing business off-site. City business. City business off-site. So in deference to him, I'd like to entertain a motion The items that he's here to speak on are number one and number three on our agenda. So I'd like to entertain a motion if someone will do that to take up item number three before we take up item number two.

So moved.

Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Any discussion? Okay. Before we vote, and we'll do this by voice vote, it does require a two-thirds vote. May the record reflect that Representative Gross, in beautiful sartorial state, has joined the meeting, has arrived and has joined the meeting. So please mark him present. So we will vote now. All in favor of the motion to take up item number three before item number two, please say aye. all opposed please say nay abstentions the motion carries thank you thank you okay uh so we will first take up item number one p32.012 approval of a clerk of the works to contract with uh mr orasio sirelli um Luke, you have the floor.

So thank you. So as the recent reorganization of the transportation department, as well as a recent ordinance passed to kind of enhance and strengthen the road opening and road excavation permit ordinance, we are bringing this clerk before you today, Orazio Cerulli, to act basically as the permit inspector for road work that's happening by utility companies. Currently, we don't actually have any utility companies doing work that's digging up the road or they close the road or they don't put the road back properly. I don't think I have to explain to everyone that this is an important initiative for the city. We're currently, as part of this reorganization, all roadway construction has been kind of consolidated, including utility work, consolidated under one division, the Planning and Engineering Division within the Transportation Department. So Orazio is going to be a key component of this group, kind of being our eyes and ears out in the field, keeping track and monitoring. um active construction work um restoration work for utility companies and things like that um we are we do have some abilities of actually getting his cost paid back for by utility companies through the course of the permit process and um you know emergency work through the new ordinance so um you know we think this will be a very helpful position for the city it is a clerk short two positions so there are no benefits associated with it um it is just paid out

for Lou. Representative Pollack.

You answered a lot of them. Currently, right now, I preface that this is overdue and needed and I support it. I've had quite a few issues where utility companies currently come out and we have ordinances where they're supposed to repay the sidewalk with the same material and they're not. So this role will be the eyes and ears who will be able to say,

it's not and then what are some of the consequences is it retroactive or yeah um so for instance like this is not like my division of my responsibility uh this clerk but also the two uh the associate engineer permit clerk so the four of us together we're really cracking down on this um essentially as part of the new ordinance we're able to go in and do that work ourselves and then see cost recovery um anything that's been through through you chair um anything that has already had a ceo and close out and there's problems where it and then bill um it's hard to also like when you say ceo that usually implies like suddenly build a house and there's like different work happening um but generally speaking the utility companies are required to put back what was there before and we're working also tightening our restoration requirements as well i support this thank you thank you uh other questions from from the committee

Questions from the committee members online? If so, please raise your hand or speak up. Okay, I have two questions. First, will Mr. Cirelli be working on utility roadway construction projects only or will he also be working on

roadway construction projects that are strictly city. His primary role is going to be utility work, but we are building in that flexibility to have him support city construction work, such as our normal pitting program, sidewalk program, things of that nature. But his primary role will be inspector for utility work.

Okay.

Now, I did not see in the list of projects that he was working on and expects to work on, don't believe I saw uh well it's they're kind of open-ended so we're not specific specific roadways um will he will one of the projects that he will be inspecting is the restitution of high ridge road um at the conclusion

responsibility of the Connecticut Department of Transportation.

So because it's a state road, they'll be doing the inspections.

Correct. And of course, WPCA and their own internal team will be doing that. But since it's a state-controlled roadway, the state inspectors will be handling that process. Okay.

All right. All right. I understand.

Yeah.

And then the last question I have is, if you could turn to Article 2 of You'll see in the second line of 2.1, it says, based on a 40, parens, eight-hour workday, and a 40, parens, 40-hour workweek, you may want to do some conforming work. We'll tighten that up.

Yes, so he'll be working definitely eight hours a day, but maybe eight days a week, we'll see.

Yes. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Obviously, we have three different contracts before us today. I'm trying to just get a sense of the reasoning for the difference between the salaries for each of them and the wages. Is there an advertised wage range for these sorts of positions? Do they vary based on the projects that they're assigned? Or is it mostly experience?

detail on the clerks work three have benefits and usually a higher level more technical side um part of the works too um arazio is um new in this position uh you'll see paul montanaro's gonna have a higher rate he's been here i think for almost eight or so years so he's just been here longer so his contracts are for renewal so he's getting raised part of Um, I know the, I can tell you the three, cause I just had that up today. And then the two ones actually still posted on the website. Um, yeah. So the minimum for clerk of the work one, sorry, actually I have it right here. So for clerk work two it's $85,902 to $128,853 clerk works three. The minimum is 109,920. The maximum is 164,883. Right.

And for this candidate in particular, I see he has, he's worked with the city in, I guess, different capacities.

I do have one other question. I noticed this with all three of these, all three of these employment agreements, that they're all for three-year terms, which I know is standard. But we often, in these employment agreements, see that the city has the option to extend for an additional up to two years, a total of five. But these contracts do not contain that. Was that

terms of them. I know Paula, again, we're coming up for renewal. I think sometimes capital projects, maybe just, you know, ours, I think, have a longer lifespan. Sometimes maybe the original ones, I really can't speak definitively. There's no extension on Paula. It looks like she's on.

Yeah.

Forget everything I said.

HR. HR. You'll be fine.

You were fine. No, clerk of the works contracts, they run a little bit differently as opposed to the pay plan and the unclassified. So those clauses are not usually in there with giving the city the options to extend for an additional year. Hence why Paul's contract is up for renewal. So they get renewed. They don't get like optional one-year extensions.

Got it. Okay.

All right. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Paula, anything that you want to add to Luke's comments?

No, he covered it beautifully.

All right. Seeing no hands, we will take this to a vote. So if there's a motion to approve. I move. Motion to approve. Thank you. Second? Second. Um, and, uh, Christina, you're still there.

Yes.

Oh, okay. Great. Uh, can you, um, can you, uh, do the button please?

Sure.

This is on, excuse me. This is on P 32.012 approval of a clerk of the works to contract with Horacio Cirelli.

Motion for voice vote. Do the timing.

there a second thank you okay i don't think that requires a vote so we'll take it we'll try it we'll try it as a voice vote um all in favor say aye aye aye all opposed abstentions okay the motion carries Okay, with that, we'll move on to what was formerly item number 3, P32.014, approval of a Clerk of the Works II contract with Paul Montanara.

And with that, Luke. So this is, as mentioned, a renewal for Paul's contract. rails, various projects, as you can probably see. Anyways, he's been working on this for many years, as if they are eyes and ears in the field, making sure our various contractors are upholding city standards and implementing work as directed by us, kind of the engineering planning staff. So, yeah, again, this is just a renewal

Questions or comments from committee members?

Representative Gross. I'm sort of just curious. So this would be his sort of fourth contract renewal, I guess, is my calculation.

Okay, but it's not a clear progression. No, it doesn't. It's not structured that way. Actually, that's like the pay structure is kind of promotional scale. That's what we're going to do. Clerk order three, they're going to have to go more detailed, especially technical, more office-based, paperwork-based. These are much more in the field.

Well, clerk order three actually is also in the field. They don't need as much oversight as the other two. So they're both in office, in the field, QA, QC. They can provide, for example, There's also the experience benchmarking that we're looking for in critical work three, where they have either construction illustration, architectural, or engineering background. It's a different role.

Right, I see.

OK, that makes sense. What is happening in critical work two is not necessarily what's happening in critical work three. And we also have critical work one, which I just want to talk to you about also, so you know all of it.

Right, sounds good. OK, I'll yield to that.

Thank you. OK, thank you. Other questions, comments from other members of the committee? Committee members online, if so, speak up or raise your hand. Okay. I do have a question. Luke, so for Mr. Montanaro, is he now at the

Yes, he is at the top step 440 hours a week.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Yep. So future increases will not come because the structure moves up.

Right. Unless there is a change in classification. Or it's a structure. It's all right. But no, it looks like he is at the top step 440 hours a week.

Okay. All right. Thank you. That was it for me. Any other questions? Okay. I'm a slow learner, but nevertheless, we will take this up. If there's a motion to approve, we'll take it up by voice vote. But is there a motion to approve? Second. Second? Second. Thank you. Okay. So the motion before us for a vote is P32.014, approval of Clerk of the Works II contract with Paul Montanaro. We'll try this as a voice vote. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, say nay. Abstentions? The motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Luke can be gone.

Bye, Luke.

We're going to, Representative Pollack has stepped out of the room. So we're going to just take a very brief recess for a minute or two. If no one has an objection.

Did you hear how it went? I haven't. I don't know. I don't know the weather. Yeah.

I thought I would have. The senator just made a recent trip to

The Senate just passed their Russia sanctions bill a couple weeks ago before they wrote for August recess.

That was big news. Right. And he's on the Armed Services Committee. Armed Services and... The Judiciary. The Judiciary.

And he's head Democrat on Veterans Affairs.

Well, I'm sure all three of those assignments are keeping you busy.

Yeah. Do you follow the contrarian?

It's put out by, mostly by Jennifer Rubin and Norman Eisen.

Welcome back.

We're ready to resume. We're ready to resume. So we will pick up P32.013. approval of a clerk of the works three contract uh with larry ho uh we have uh a guest of the committee uh catherine labalbo who's in charge of the school construction project and i apologize you're about full of the title oh the director of school construction

So Catherine, the floor is yours. So Mr. Ho comes to us with about 20 years experience with a nationally recognized construction firm. His experience spans academic and municipal buildings, new construction and renovation work. As a clerk of the work three role. He acts as technical administrative anchor on a job site who coordinate between owners, architects, subcontractors, review schedules, and make recommendations with input from his director, but without needing a day-to-day touchstone oversight. This is incredibly important as we're moving into As you know, this is the summer of construction for our large projects. We have West Hill High School and Roxbury K3, which have both built ground effectively and are still breaking lots of ground as we speak. And then we have some larger projects that have also been awarded grants, including the Julia Stark project, which is a renovation dealing with abatement exterior envelope improvements. It's approximately a $14 million project. And so we need a strong clerk role that can see it from its conception through execution. We also are looking forward to clerk three roles where they are not just our eyes and ears, but they're able to capture efficiencies and recommend process improvements that we can keep as lessons learned for the school construction department. We have a clerk of the work three currently who serves as our lead for FF&E. They have experience or have experience with Ford University and with your hospital. They have a strong interior and background. We will be purchasing about, I think it's $11 million in furniture. And we want to make sure that we have parity across our district, or recommendations, that we aren't working in silos when we look at Roxbury Elementary, West Hill High School, and the upper school, the lower school, that we are, and any other interior project across our district, that we're starting to create a framework moving forward to be better standardization. So the clerk three role is more than just, I just want to say it's an elevated role beyond just eyes and ears or regurgitating something that they see, although our And our clerk two roles, we have a lot of very strong clerk twos who we live by, particularly when we have GCs that are running job sites. They help ensure that there's coordination with the building department. Anything in construction is very mother dependent. Today it rained all day, so something that was planning on getting done might not be done. An inspection that was supposed to show up, maybe that person doesn't show up. Materials are not on site. And especially right now as we're five days before school, before school opening, all of these things are critical paths and it's really important for us to be communicating back to our principals and the central office. You know, if something's gonna run over or something's not finished or something looks, and it's not even just from the construction side, it's if a layperson maybe looks at it and says, that looks unfinished, we wanna make sure that we're communicating out so that people know why or know that we know. In terms of the contract itself, this does come with benefits, although I think we have HR here that can probably explain that a little better. It comes with some vacation days and health. It does not come with a pay into, it does not have a pension plan or a pay into a 401k. So kind of drop off there. If you have questions about that, I'm sure Paula can help answer them for you. Mr. primary will be this Julie Stark project, which I mentioned, but also Roxbury Elementary School, which currently doesn't have a clerk dedicated to it. And he'll be supplemental to West Hill High School, which is 450,000 square feet. We have Raquel there now. We have one other clerk, too, from engineering there now. But obviously, if somebody has a sick day, we don't have a stand-in. We do also have our representative teams on site. We have a construction manager. I drive by in the mornings and the evenings almost every day right now and pop in. So we have a lot of eyes and ears on it, but it's a big network and these are big projects. They need these dedicated roles. Ms. Herman's background is specifically also in mechanical systems engineering. We've done a number of IAQ projects and mechanical ventilation, and we're going to continue those projects forward. We've commissioned quite a few of them. We're still doing some now, including Newfield, which is a project that has 60% reimbursement. Newfield Elementary School, where we're going to bring in the units this fall and commission next summer. So he also has, in addition to just overall role on a construction site, you know, and in the construction field. He has a technical specification that is dedicated to mechanical insulation, which is an electrician, so it's important. It's something that the system is incredibly important when it's out of tune with our envelopes, or like my background is mostly in envelopes as an architect. When those things are out of tune with each other, then we can get often used for problems. So that was a lot fast, but I'm happy to be here and for the benefit before i will come to the floor to the members for questions uh for the benefit of the non-architects on the committee uh what's the ffe oh uh uh furniture fixtures and equipment uh so so technically also yeah okay thank you yes so chairs tables

Sure. Help me understand if you don't mind. I know I've sat through a few meetings with you and explaining clerk of the works. So for three and for these projects, if there's numerous clerk in the works, who is the main point of contact when you have numerous people on a project?

Yes, we determine one dedicated lead. So in the case of West Hill High School, Raquel Anderson, who's our other clerk three, Raquel Anderson is the clerk three. She's a lead at West Hill. where Larry will be her supplement if she's out for that day. And at Roxbury, Larry will be the lead. So we determine a lead and a supplement based on experience for each project. He'll be the lead on all the roles you see here.

He'll be a lead on all of these and Westfield will be a supplement. Westfield will be a supplement. Okay.

All of those don't occur all at the same time. It is a clear contract. Yeah, they don't occur all at the same time. So they're all sequenced, so to speak.

And only because I was asked previously, how is that communicated? Do they email both people and one person as a primary who responds? Because I've had in the past people say, we can't get in touch with people. I know not many charge projects.

So who try to get in general? Constituents in general? No.

General contractors who are working on projects, when there's numerous people on the project, they have a difficult time figuring out who to bring up with, who to reach out to. Yes.

So for the school construction program, we have a kickoff meeting where everybody's roles and responsibilities and the point of contact is outlined. We also have a construction administrative software called TorCore, which has everybody's email addresses and phone numbers. We go through with our general contractor how to use it if they don't. It's a pretty widely used program. But we, in the initial kickoff meeting, dedicate the point of contact. Some larger projects might have a project manager from engineering. And then, again, there's a determination made between the project manager and the clerk who will be the direct point of contact, if it's going to go to the clerk first or if it's going to go direct to the PM and copy Yeah. My last question, thank you for answering this.

Beautifully.

Okay. It's a little, you know, we have to customize it, right? Yes. We've got $400 million projects and we have $500,000 projects or even $100,000.

Mr. Ho, I saw the questions in the interview. He has not applied or worked for any city of Stanford jobs previously, correct? Is that? she's not to my knowledge yet did we have other applicants who have applied um who've worked in the city of stanford before that's my last question i don't know if you don't know i don't know i'm sorry i don't know if paula's on or she knows but it's okay if you don't know it was it just struck me um hiring within or somebody who hasn't worked before but i again support and approve i just had to ask a question

Thank you. Yeah, I'm sort of, I'll start with, I noticed like between these three contracts and this sort of difference in the work week, like 37 and a half hours a week versus 40, is there like a, is that just based on the projects that they're assigned to, or is there like a sort of rationale behind that?

Yeah, so usually construction projects, well, construction projects are like a 72-30 shift typically. Also, I don't know why transportation shows the 40 hour period, but 37.5 is pretty typical. It's pretty standard, yeah. It is, at least in the Office of Operations. So we want to make sure that we're standardizing across all our positions.

OK. And then, because I'm wondering, since in the, oh, actually, wait. I think I actually misread this. But in the employment application where it says minimum compensation, that's their preference. It's not actually. what's in the contract, but that makes sense. Okay.

Thank you. Questions or comments from the representatives on the online? Okay. I have a couple of questions. Paula, are you still there?

I'm still here.

Oh, great. So I have a couple of questions, which I think probably you can answer better. First has to do with the 37 and a half hours work week. Do I understand correctly that overtime, time and a half, will not trigger until he's in excess of 40 hours in a calendar week? Is that correct?

I think it's 37 and a half. So I will admit I was not involved in this creation of the contract. I covered only because Rose was on vacation. She is on, but I think she just needs to be promoted to panelists. Christina, she's the 203 number. Can you promote her, please?

Sure. No problem. Thank you.

If I might, it is in section 2.2. That's in excess of 40 hours.

Yes, typically.

Excess of 40 or 37.5?

I missed that one. Okay. That's what I figured.

Okay.

Thank you. Thank you. And can you just explain which employee benefits a clerk of the work three is eligible for and which ones A clerk of the works three is not eligible for.

Just health and leave. Everything else they're not eligible for. So that includes pension, like Catherine mentioned. So just health and leave. That's all they're eligible for.

Okay. And leave includes vacation, bereavement, et cetera.

Yes. Sick. Yes.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Then a question for Catherine. Is that just a redundancy?

It was. I don't know why, but I think there was a moment where in the original copy, Rogers Elementary School didn't pick the list. And so I said, please add Rogers Elementary School, because there's a solar project there. And for some reason, I'm sure that Excel had a mind of its own. projects because I also had one where I thought, oh, is Rogers not on here?

Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Well, if Excel has a mind in some, then it's probably qualified to serve on the board of representatives.

It's probably in 20 AI. I'm scared. All right.

Thank you. That clears that up for me. Okay. Any other questions or comments?

Can I just ask one more question?

Yeah, please.

Do they have health benefits? Do they also have dental and vision or no?

So health benefits includes dental and vision, yes.

Great, thank you.

So just to be clear, Paula, a clerk of the works is eligible for the health insurance program that the city has for pay plan for employees, period.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes, I do want to say for the record that all these, the clerk of the work contracts, they are eligible for the Connecticut state paid sick leave that just so we go on record with that compliance with that. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you for joining. With that, do we have a motion to approve? Thank you. Thank you. Any discussion? We'll try this by voice vote. All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? Representative de la Cruz, are you still with us? Yes. Okay. And I just didn't hear your voice. Oh, yes. All right. Thank you. Opposed? Abstentions? Okay. The motion carries unanimously. There being no other business before this committee at this time, I adjourn the meeting at 7.43 p.m. Good night, everyone.

Good night, everyone.