Two members wanted to know why the new health plan will not be in effect until April 2008 yet premiums will increase effective October 1.
Response: The Commission recommended moving the date to April, but that is not final. The standard practice in the past has been to increase the premium at the same time as a salary increase is made. If flex spending accounts are introduced they must be scheduled at the beginning of the calendar year. The Mayor asked Paul Boyd to investigate why this decision was made.
An employee wanted to know why the Health Department will begin the smoking ban on October 1, and hospitals will not start until November.
Response: Information related to the Tennessee law banning smoking was posted on the myShelbyCounty. It is not clear if sidewalks around the worksite are smoke-free sites. Since many employees do not have access to the intranet, Marcia Boyd was asked to arrange for hard copies to be distributed to the work area explaining how the new law affects employees.
An employee discussed that there are no computers in her area and work that could be automated is still performed manually. This includes using carbon paper for reports for restaurant inspections, and manually inputting permit fees and scores. The area is under a state contract and budget restraints have prevented upgrading.
Response: This will be investigated.
The Mayor was asked to discuss his veto of the Porter Leath contract approved by the Commission to take additional Head Start students
Response: The Mayor explained that Head Start had been brought in-house a few years ago to save the grant. At that time the County began looking at alternative providers for Head Start services. In the interim, a new director was hired and Head Start has been stabilized and the children are getting good scores compared with other agencies. The contract that was approved by the Commission was the result of negotiations taking place on the Commission floor and the final contract did not resemble the original contract. Disturbingly, the amount of money Porter Leath had expected to raise to expand services to more children decreased from $5 million to $2500. It is possible that this will be opened up again in the future. However, there are misperceptions about what Head Start really is. It is much more than a daycare service. The agency must meet strict federal guidelines, provide matching funds, provide education, provide social services such as eye care, literacy training, etc., and produce positive outcome measurements. Therefore it is difficult for most daycare centers to meet the specification.
There was a question related to Head Start social workers getting salary increases when they have a degree.
Response: This will be investigated.
The Mayor discussed the report from the Blue Ribbon Panel formed to consider the future of the MED. He stressed that there are no plans for any employees to lose their jobs. One of the main focuses will be to determine what services the MED should be providing and how to provide the capital needs.
An employee expressed thanks for elevating the counselor C's to B's at the Division of Corrections.
The Mayor talked about the number of letters and emails that he gets daily about the excellent work from Shelby County Government employees and expressed his appreciation.
Paul Boyd was invited to the meeting to discuss questions related to pay-for-performance and no longer using the "step program". Both issues had been brought up at the previous meeting.
Paul explained the 2003 Efficiency Study had identified the need to revamp the compensation program and move to a method to reward top performers. The plan is to introduce pay-for-performance in July on 2008. This would mean that there would be a differentiation in pay related to those who are top performers and those who are "just getting by". Human Resources will be running scenarios of performance appraisal scores from the past year to determine score ranges. It will be necessary to properly train managers and supervisors to be able to defend scores and provide meaningful feedback to employees. Additionally, they will evaluate fairness and equity in the method managers use to measure performance. The definition of exceeds and achieves will be better defined in the future. He explained that "one size will not fit all", for example in some areas, productivity measures can be used to look at performance while in other areas those types of measurements are difficult. There are no set percentages at this time. Bargaining employees will not be included in the pay-for-performance program.
Council members voiced concerns that managers are sometimes requested to change scores by upper management even though upper management has not worked with the employee on a daily basis. There were also concerns that some managers may show favoritism toward some employees. There was a question if the employee will be able to contest their salary if they do not get the raise they think they deserve.
Paul also discussed going to a minimum, mid, and maximum points for salaries. The mid point should equate to the salary market value for that particular job. This is a more traditional approach to compensation and will help make Shelby County more competitive with the private sector.
There was a concern that some employees still think they missed out on receiving a salary increase during the interim of changing compensation policies. Response: Specific examples should be sent to Paul.
There was a question about salaries for correctional officers and deputy jailors being different.
Response: They now are hired at the same salary. There are a group of deputy jailors that because of an action by the Commission a few years ago are on a different scale.
There was a question about having jobs reviewed.
Response: This must be approved by the director and administrator or initiated by HR.
An employee wanted to know if an employee left and returned with an advanced degree in the job area, would they still start at the minimum level.
Response: Additional education will be taken into consideration to determine salary entry level.
Council members wanted to know the status of alternative work schedules, i.e. four-day work week.
Response: The presentation by the I-team was approved and HR was asked to develop a policy. The policy is being finalized and will be presented to administration in the near future.
Responses to Issues/Concerns Presented July 24, 2007
Because of a lack of time, the Council members were given a handout with updates to previous issues.
There was a question that since all the hospitals in Memphis will become smoke free environments (throughout the total facilities), could the Health Department do the same.
Update: Yvonne Madlock reported that the Health Department plans to join the group of healthcare providers who are establishing smoke free campuses starting on November 15, 2007. Great American Smoke Out Day Policy has been drafted, an employee committee is planning a couple of focus groups (week of 10/1) to get input to be used for implementation and cessation recommendations.
A member wanted to know if there had been any changes to how tuition reimbursement is handled. In the past it has been the responsibility of the departments to budget funds and because of cut backs this is not done throughout the Administration. This results in some employees being able to apply for reimbursement and others do not have the benefit.
Update: Human Resources reports that there are no changes anticipated in the tuition reimbursement process.
In the past employees used to get free quarterly blood pressure checks in 160 N. Main, and there was a question if that could be brought back.
Update: Personnel are not available at the current time to provide this service. However, County employees can get their blood pressure checked during working hours at Employee Health at the Health Department.
A Council member requested that the pot holes in the parking lot next to Juvenile Court be repaired.
Update: The Road Department has been made aware of the problem and expects to have the repairs completed pending funding arrangements.
An employee suggested that because of the constant moving of departments and work areas in the Peggy Edmiston Building (East) a map be prepared and updated quarterly. This could be placed on myShelbyCounty intranet and displayed in the building. This is particularly important for customers and other employees coming into the facility and not being able to locate specific areas.
Update: The Print Shop reports that there are good maps of the floor plan with office locations. These can be put into PDF format for the intranet. They can also print a large version and frame it for the building.
There was a question if the County Attorney's Office would move east.
Update: Brian Kuhn reports that there are no plans to move east.
An employee suggested adding the son-in-law and daughter-in-law to the immediate family list for bereavement leave.
Update: Human Resources reported - As we began review of our bereavement leave, we found that there was some inconsistency between the Employee Handbook and the Policy Manual. The Handbook includes great grandparent and great grandchild, while they are excluded from the policy manual. We have on occasion, made an exception by approving bereavement leave for son or daughter-in-law and will consider making it an addition to the policy when the manual is updated.
A Council member reported that some employees are having trouble getting reimbursement for travel. He reported on one employee who had funded four trips on his own and had still not received reimbursement. There seems to be inconsistency in the way employees are reimbursed. Some employees are reluctant to use the County credit card and prefer the old system to get 80% advance before the trip.
Update: Finance reported that they talked to the State and several local businesses before deciding to use travel cards. Requiring the use of travel cards is consistent with these entities. The Health Department has also indicated they prefer the continued use of travel cards as it is more efficient and effective. For those concerned about their credit rating, having an additional credit card should not affect their credit rating as long as they are paying their credit card bills timely. Also, employees are welcome to use their own credit card rather than have a travel card if that is their preference.
With respect to reimbursements, three factors determine when the reimbursement check is issued:
1. How soon after traveling the reimbursement request is submitted.
2. Timeliness of approval and submission by the department.
3. Timeliness of processing the payment by Finance.
The Finance Department can only control the third item and their records indicate that they are very consistent in processing travel reimbursements and making payment in less than 5 working days from the date they receive the request for reimbursement.
There were concerns that because of discontinuing the step plan for compensation, some employees who were promoted did not get their expected increase at 6 months.
Update: Human Resources responded - This last year, Human Resources began one of the most significant changes to our existing policies and practices by redirecting and positioning our compensation programs to better address our current as well as future strategies. It is imperative that Shelby County Government better position its competitive position relative to our compensation programs. This cannot be accomplished using the old step plan concept. By implementing salary ranges, enhancing our performance appraisal programs and ensuring our management is effectively trained relative to basic supervisory and appraisal skills, we will be able to establish pay-for-performance programs that reward employees for superior performance.
Regarding employees receiving 6-month increases and additional step increases; this was communicated last year county-wide with the introduction of the new compensation policy. HR has consistently applied the same policies and practices to all employees of Shelby County and to-date, the majority of changes due have been received. Others are not scheduled to occur until a little latter.
There was a complaint that parking at the Health Department has become a greater problem with the addition of several reserved spaces assigned to managers. This has resulted in too many spots that are now empty every day that can not be used by the non-management employees who do not have reserved parking. The suggestion is to not have any reserved parking.
Update: The Health Department continues to investigate optional parking opportunities for employees and will continue to review employee suggestions. This is a problem that is not easily fixed, but is one that continues to be of concern to administration.
There were questions about the salary for Counselors that are now in Care and Custody at the Correction Center and those at the Jail. In the past the Correction Center Counselors made higher salaries and now they are the same. Update: Human Resources responded - Counselors in the Jail did not have the advantage of Care and Custody Pay (this is true for Counselors in Juvenile Court, Crime Victims Center, etc.). Counselors in Corrections had Care and Custody Pay . The salary difference between the Jail Counselors and Corrections is approximately $2,000.
There were concerns about going to a pay for performance system for raises. The concerns included the inconsistencies of managers and their ratings with some being hard raters and others too easy. Another concern was having administrators return evaluations to supervisors to make changes after they had completed their evaluation. The employees felt that the immediate supervisor knows the status of the employee’s performance better than the administrator. Update: Human Resource Administrator, Paul Boyd, will be on the agenda for the September meeting.
An employee described the situation that some employees work for Shelby County for a number of years then leave for 4-5 years and come back. He wanted to know if there will ever be any consideration given to letting the employee buy back his/her time lost to enhance the pension benefits.
Update: The Retirement Board discussed the purchase of prior service at its September 4th meeting. The Board after careful consideration which included the cost of purchasing back prior service decided that it was an issue that they did not want to investigate further. Frankly, the actuary looked at three different ways to calculate the purchase of prior service and the two calculations that would have been cost neutral to the Plan; the cost was going to be extremely high for the employee.
The next meeting will be December 5th at 3:00 PM.
