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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-11-2004 Meeting ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES AGENDA COMMITTEE ROOM - February 11, 2004 11 :30 A M. 1. Consider a request from Dr. Johnathan R. Gore regarding the placement of PowerSouth Gyms on the list of gyms utilized by county employees. 2. Add one new representative to the Downtown Advisory Panel who would represent the rentersllessees on the panel and not add two recommended commission appointed representatives. 3. Approve signature authorization for Mayor for Programmatic Agreements for the mitigation of historic properties at the Savannah River Site. 4. Consider a request to reclassify an Investigator position to that of Chief Iovestigator in the District Attorney's Office. 5. Approve 2004 Cost-of-Living Allowance for retirees. 6. Recommendation from the Planning Commission to approve the final version of the Augusta Richmond County Comprehensive Plan. 7. Discuss department heads' evaluations. (Requested by Commissioner Williams) 8. Discuss Administrator's goals and objectives. (Referred from February 4 Commission) 9. Discuss bid protest. (Requested by the Attorney) - - I ADDENDUM ADMINISTRATNE SERVICES AGENDA February 11, 2004 11:30 A M. ADDITIONS TO THE AGENDA: 1. Consider salary increase for the Board of Elections Executive Director. 2. Approve City's participation in a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) among the Augusta Housing Authority, Medical College of Georgia and Augusta, GA through the Augusta Housing and Neighborhood Development Department. 3. Discuss the creation of an inclement weather policy for employees. (Requested by Commissioner Hankerson) 4. Discuss employee compensation for the January 26-27 ice storm. (Requested by Commissioner Hankerson) I ... - I ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES COMMITTEE COMMITTEE ROOM - February 11, 2004 11:30A.M. PRESENT: Hons. Hankerson, Chairman; Grantham, Co-Chairman; Mays, member; Steve Shepard, Attorney; George Kolb, Administrator; David Persaud, Finance Director; Fred Russell, Deputy Administrator; Peggy Seigler, Asst. Administrator; Chris Naylor, Main Street Director; George Patty, Planning Director; Paul DeCamp, Planning Commission; Warren Smith, HND Director; Geri Sams, Purchasing Director; Danny Craig, District Attorney; Brenda Byrd-Pelaez, Human Resources Director; Lena Bonner, Clerk of Commission. ABSENT: Hon. Cheek, member. Also Present: Stacey Eidson of the Metro Spirit, George Eskola ofWJBF Television; Hons. Smith, Beard, Williams and Colclough, Commissioners. 1. Consider a request from Dr. Johnathan R. Gore regarding the placement of PowerSouth Gyms on the list of gyms utilized by county employees. Dr. Gore was asked to meet with Ms. Sams regarding the placement of PowerSouth Gyms on the list of gyms utilized by county employees. I ADDITIONS TO THE AGENDA: 1. Consider salary increase for the Board of Elections Executive Director. 2. Approve City's participation in a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) among the Augusta Housing Authority, Medical College of Georgia and Augusta, GA through the Augusta Housing and Neighborhood Development Department. 3. Discuss the creatioo of an inclement weather policy for employees. (Requested by Commissioner Hankerson) 4. Discuss employee compensation for the January 26-27 ice storm. (Requested by Commissioner Hankerson) Mr. Grantham: I make a motion that we accept the addendum agenda. Mr. Mays does not give unanimous consent to add Addendum Item #2. He noted that there should be some time allowed for further discussion about this item Mr. Grantham: ['11 make the motion that we accept items 1,3 and 4. I Mr. Mays: I'll second it. Motion adopted unanimously. I Mr. Grantham asked if it would be possible for those commissioners who were not familiar with the matter to see the presentation regarding Item 2 within the next two weeks. Mr. Mays asked that stakeholders such as residents and neighborhood associations who may be involved in the situation also be allowed to hear the presentation when it is discussed. . 2. Add one new representative to the Downtown Advisory Panel who would represent the renterslIessees on the panel and not add two recommended commission appointed representatives. Mr. Naylor: The Advisory Panel met and discussed the recommendation to add two commission appointed representatives and they decided that renters or lessees should have a representative on the panel and would agree to add just that one seat. A notice would be published about the seat and the renters would come in and elect their representative out of the group that attended that meeting. If you wanted to consider the appointment of a commissioner to this group, you might want to do that with the member serving in an ex-officio capacity as we have in groups similar to this. After further discussion, Mr. Mays: I move that we approve the residential part of it with the renter or lessee involved and we hear the rest of it when it comes to the Commission and by that time Andy will be there and if he wants to discuss the other part, I think we will be open to add the ex-officio member in whatever capacity it's on. I Mr. Grantham: I'll second. Motion adopted unanimously. 3. Approve signature authorization for Mayor for Programmatic Agreements for the mitigation of historic properties at the Savannah River Site. Mr. Mays: So move. Mr. Grantham: Second. Motion adopted unanimously. 4. Consider a request to reclassify an Investigator position to that of Chief Investigator in the District Attorney's Office. Mr. Craig: I had a chief deputy who served our office from 1978 until he retired two years ago. By virtue of his tenure in the position he had moved through the various salary levels and was paid sufficiently more than those he supervised that classification I 2 I I I just wasn't an issue and no one really cared what his grade level of compensation was. Glenn Rowland took over that position. We have five county paid investigators and one state paid investigator and our state paid investigator over the last ten years has received much more regular and larger increases than the other people in the office. I am now in a situation where in the next two years she will soon be paid more than my chief investigator. Mr. Rowland is being paid at a grade level 51 and I would like to restructure this position so that there is a difference in the pay between the Chief Investigator and those others that he supervises and also that there is some recognition of the services that he provides and the responsibilities that he has on a daily basis which would be at least equivalent to that of a Major in the Sheriff's Office and that he would be paid accordingly. Ms. Beard: What would be the percentage of the raise? Mr. Craig: It would be about a $7,000 raise as best I can tell which would be about a 12% increase. Mr. Chairman: Where would the funds come from? Mr. Persaud: You will not be able to salary savings because we've used almost $4 million dollars from the manpower management plan to balance the current budget. The only remaining source would be General Fund Contingency and you have approximately $588,000 there. Mr. Williams: I think you will soon be getting several more requests similar to this. After further discussion, Mr. Craig: I will be able to cover this in my budget this year. Mr. Chairman: What was the pay grade recommended by the Carl Vinson Institute for this position? Ms. Pelaez: A pay grade 53. Mr. Chairman: And what is being requested today? Ms. Pelaez: Pay grade 55. Mr. Chairman: We need to stick to the study if at all possible and we will be looking at all the reclassifications in Mayor June. Mr. Mays: At some point I think we will have to look at some of these reclassifications individually or at least in smaller groups and also look at what savings department heads have been able to accomplish in order to justify some reclassifications in their departments. 3 Mr. Persaud: In order to keep our budget in balance we will have raise approximately $4 million in total in the next twelve months. I Mr. Grantham: I'm going to make a motion now that we. take this to Commission and that it be discussed on the open floor at our meeting next week. Mr. Mays: I'll second that and I would ask the maker of the motion to accept one friendly amendment that if there is money within a budget and there is another source other than general fund contingency then staff needs to be able to prepare to tell us where that money is and if there is a different source. Mr. Grantham: I'll accept that. Motion adopted unanimously. 5. Approve 2004 Cost-of-Living Allowance for retirees. Mr. Grantham: Motion to approve. Mr. Mays: Second. Motion adopted unanimously. 6. Recommendation from the Planning Commission to approve the final version of the Augusta Richmond County Comprehensive Plan. I Mr. Mays: I move we approve. Mr. Grantham: Second. Motion adopted unanimously. 7. Discuss department heads' evaluations. (Requested by Commissioner Williams) Mr. Williams: I had asked about evaluations for our department heads. The Administrator sent me three reports and I do not think these are actual performance evaluations. Mr. Ko1b: These are performance evaluations. The first step is for department heads to explain to us what they've accomplished during the year. I have previously explained that you have to have an agreement of what you're going to do before the evaluation can be done. We have begun the process of entering into performance agreements with department heads and at some point in time they will have strategic initiatives with measures that we can actually measure the performance of the department I 4 I head in any given area. Until we get that perfected and on line, we asked them to tell us what they have accomplished during the year and we have an opportunity to discuss this and tell them whether we agree with those accomplishments or not. Weare in the process of doing that and have done that with the three reports you have. Mr. Williams: We had asked the Administrator to come back with some procedures in place. Mr. Shepard: The next item concerning the Administrator's goals and objectives is due by next month and it seems to me that a part of that ought to be a schedule for the administration to have these in at a certain time in the year. He needs to know his due date from a time1ine perspective and a goal objective. I think this is a policy decision that needs to be made. Mr. Williams: Would you consider these documents as evaluations? Mr. Shepard: I haven't looked at them, but I will review them if you would like. After a lengthy discussion of the matter, Mr. Mays: I make a motion that we receive this as information. Mr. Grantham: Second. I Motion adopted unanimously. 8. Discuss Administrator's goals and objectives. (Referred from February 4 Commission) Mr. Kolb: We are working with department heads to develop some strategic objectives that we will be presenting shortly. We hope to have this completed by late February or early March. Mr. Shepard: We had previously appointed a sub-committee late last year to discuss this and we had set the first full Commission meeting in March as the date to receive this information. Mr. Chairman: I'll entertain a motion to receive this as information and I'd also like to reappoint a sub-committee to discuss the development of these goals and objectives by the first meeting in March. 1'11 appoint Ms. Beard, Mr. Grantham, Mr. Williams and Mr. Cheek as Chairman to serve on this sub-committee. Mr. Mays: I so move that we receive this as information. I Mr. Grantham: Second. Motion adopted unanimously. 5 [MEETING RECESSES] I 9. Discuss bid protest. (Requested by the Attorney) Mr. Shepard: This item can be deleted, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman: All right. Addendum Item 1. Consider salary increase for the Board of Elections Executive Director. At this time Mr. 1. C. Miles, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Elections, appeared before the Committee asking that the salary increase for the Board of Elections Executive Director be approved and referred to the Commission. Mr. Russell: This was included in the reclassification request and it really should have been considered separately. Mr. Colclough: Where would the money come from? Mr. Kolb: It would come out of contingency. Mr. Grantham: I will make the motion that we do give her the pay raise that they're requesting from the Board of Elections. I Mr. Chairman: I second that. After a discussion, Mr. Mays: Could we check and see ifthere was any increase given to this individual about two years ago other than a cost of living increase? Ms. Pelaez: Yes, r believe that there was some change about three years ago. Mr. Chairman: I want to request a salary history for Tuesday's meeting. Ms. Pelaez: Yes, sir. Motion fails with Mr. Mays voting "Present". Addendum Item 3. Discuss the creation of an inclement weather policy for employees. (Requested by Commissioner Hankerson) Addendum Item 4. Discuss employee compensation for the January 26-27 ice storm. (Requested by Commissioner Hankerson) I 6 I Mr. Chairman: Do we have a policy in place for inclement weather for essential and non-essential personnel? Some people were unclear about that and if we don't have such as policy, I think we should. Mr. Kolb: No, we do not. In talking about essential and non-essential employees we're referring to people who would be necessary to assist us in dealing with any type of emergency. That would include police, fire, public works, utilities, those major departments in the field. People really didn't understand what we were talking about so we have instructed HR and the Emergency Services Department to put together such a policy and then the department heads will determine who is essential and who is not. Mr. Chairman: We need a policy in place with a number that people can call to find out information as to when they need to report to work. Mr. Kolb: We do agree with you on that. In the future I will be the one who makes a notification about a closing or it will come from my office. We have a telephone number that employees can call in inclement weather and nobody thought about it until everybody had already left. Most people had probably forgotten about it and this is something that will go in the policy. Mr. Chairman: I'd like to see the policy presented back to the committee so we can look at it. I Mr. Kolb: We will do that. Mr. Chairman: I do not think people should be penalized for not coming to work. Conditions worsened after they got home on Monday and some people were unable to come in for work. Mr. Kolb: Ifwe have not announced that the building is being shut down, and an employee does not come to work, then to be consistent the official policy is that they use vacation time. We can't be responsible for personal situations that come up. After further discussion, Mr. Mayor: I would suggest that in the absence of a clear, written and understood policy for the emergency weather situation that this Commission authorize payment of employees for the Monday and Tuesday of the ice storm. Mr. Mays: I'm going to go ahead and make the motion that what the Mayor said in reference to the second half of that conversation that it be done in that order. Mr. Chairman: Would you accept an amendment from the Chairman that those individuals that did work would receive the comp time? I Mr. Kolb: What do you do with the people who showed up for work on Tuesday? That is the real issue. You should just assume that you're open because some people will 7 show up, others won't and you're giving them a free day off or paying them and the others are getting nothing. Mr. Chairman: That will be clarified when you write the policy. I Mr. Ko1b: But you're setting a precedent now. Mr. Mays: It won't set a precedent if your policy doesn't take until next year to get it written. Mr. Grantham: The policy should precede it. Mr. Mays: That won't take very long in order to get that done if you've got one and you put it in place. I think it needs to be corrected and 1'11 accept your amendment to do it. Mr. Grantham: 1'11 second. Ms. Pelaez: I know that we're talking about giving a comp day for those individuals that reported but we do have two classifications of employees, exempt and non-exempt, is that going to apply to those individuals as well that reported on that day that they will get a comp day or is it only for the non-exempt personnel? Mr. Chairman: Essential employees knew that they had to come. I Mr. Pelaez: I understand that but some essential personnel could be in either category. We have not identified exactly who is essential and who is non-essential. Mr. Shepard: Could we also entertain another friendly amendment that I take a look at that before Tuesday before we do anything? Mr. Mays: If that will give you time to work that out administratively, then I don't have a problem with that. Mr. Chairman: You can tell us if there is anything that needs to be adjusted on it. Motion adopted unanimously. ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. Lena 1. Bonner Clerk of Commission nwm I 8