HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-08-04 Personnel & Finance eonOnittEE E12,O'Lt O f ti2E
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The September 8, 2004, 2004 meeting of the Personnel and Finance Committee was
called to order by its Chairperson, Council Member Derek D. Dieter at 4:00 p.m. in the Council
Informal Meeting Room.
Persons in attendance included Council Members White, Varner, Kelly, Kirsits, Kuspa,
Dieter and Puzzello Mayor Stephen J. Luecke,City Controller Frederick B. 011ett III,Director of
Budgeting & Financial Reporting Tom Skarbek, City Clerk John. Voorde, Human Resources
Director Janice Hall, Director of City Finance Liz Rowell, Benefits Manager Susan Wallace,
Safety & Risk Manager Keegan Rauen, Human Rights Director Lonnie Douglas, Information
Technologies Director Bob Allen and Kathleen Cekanski-Farrand,Council Attorney.
City Clerk Fund#101-0201 2005 Proposed$302,973 -2.642 %Decrease
City Clerk John Voorde made the presentation. He noted that the proposed budget is
similar to last year's with minor decreases to the budget overall. It incorporates the mandated
increases to PERF which will increase from 4% to 4.25% in 2005. An increase in legal
advertising is proposed to attempt to meet the increasing costs in this area.
Department of Administration and Finance Fund#101-0401 $1,587,918
Internal Service Fund(Self-Funded Employee Benefits) Fund#711
2005 Proposed$11,583,109 0%Increase
City Controller Frederick B. 011ett III and his staff and representatives of Gibson
Insurance then provided a powerpoint presentation to the Committee. A ten-page handout
entitled"Administration&Finance Budget 2005" was then reviewed with the Committee (copy
attached) which focused on the primary responsibilities of the department, namely: Benefits
Management, City Finance/Budget & Reporting, Information Technology and Human
Resources. An 8-page handout entitled "City of South Bend - 2004 Group Health Plan
Utilization"was then the focus of the presentation(copy attached). Mr. 011ett noted that the city
had experienced three (3)back to back years of large claims which totaled approximately $ 3.5
million.
In response to a question from Council Member Puzzello, it was noted that there are
1,209 city employees on the insurance plan, and 131 employees who are not.
Benefits Manager Susan Wallace noted that they are continuing to look at plan changes.
City Clerk John Voorde inquired whether the city had ever looked into joining forces
with the county for purposes of insurance coverage. It was noted that they had not and that the
city has a plan design which maximizes significant discounts and that adding additional persons
to that would not necessarily result in lower premiums or discounts.
Personnel and Finance Committee Meeting of September 8, 2004 Page 1
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Council Member Kelly commended those administering the city's insurance and the fine
job that they do.
Council Member Kirsits inquired about whether there would be an expansion of the
network for retirees. It was noted that there are two (2) providers locally which act as regional
networks. Ms. Wallace stated that it was a"quality of life" decision for a retiree to move away
of this area., noting that there are seventeen(17)retirees who live outside of this region.
Council Member Kirsits stated that he had previously requested from the
Administration a breakdown by department of the insurance claims and again requested a
copy of this information.
Ms. Wallace stated that she thought this information had been provided,but would do so;
and added that in late October early November they would be coming back to the Council to
give a presentation.
Safety a d Risk Management Fund#226
Safety&Risk Manager Keegan Rauen made the presentation. He noted that there was a
benchmark study of worker's compensation claims. It showed that South Bend had more claims,
noting that this may have resulted because 5-10%of the claims are informational claims only.
Council Member Coleman asked about the other cities in the study. Mr. Rauen stated
that they are communities with a similar payroll size as South Bend. Council Member
Coleman asked for a copy of the breakdown of these cities and their payrolls.
In response to a question from Council Member Dieter,Mr. Rauen stated that there were
fifteen (15) claims of at least $25,000 each which totaled $1.1 million. Mr. Rauen stated that
209 city employees, other than police and fire department employees, have been trained in
CPR this year. Council Member Dieter inquired about how this compares to other cities.
Mr. Rauen stated that next year they plan to work on pre-work screenings and
re-organizing new hire training, as well as working on work place violence programs.
In response to a question from Council Member Coleman, Mr. Rauen stated that 70% of
the claims are sprain-type injuries.
Council Member Dieter inquired how many city employees go to the O'Brien Fitness
Center. Mr. 011ett stated he would get that information.
City Finance:
Director of City Finance Liz Rowell, noted that she has been with the city for 23 years,
and then passed out a one-page handout entitled "Administration & Finance" (copy attached).
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Her operations include accounts payable, payroll and business licensing. In October a new
module for business licensing will be developed.
Information Technologies:
Information Technologies Director Bob Allen stated that he has worked for the city for
17 1/2 years. He has six (6) staff members who are cross-trained. They oversee networking,
voice mails, AS400, web development,and telephone service among sixteen(16)buildings and
fourteen (14) file servers. One of the projects they are working on includes business licensing
and"Click to Gov".
Council Member Dieter inquired about tracking forms to which Mr. Allen stated that
you would be able to submit documents. Document imagining will help in the standardization of
forms.
Mr. 011ett stated that document imaging will provide the city with a 4th form of
maintaining documents.
Council President White inquired about web design, noting that both the Park
Department and the Morris use outside vendors. She asked how many city operations use
outside vendors for web design and maintenance.
Mr. Allen stated that alot will change in the months ahead because of document
management and each department will be able to manage. Their goal is to have a consistent
look and consistent navigation.
Council President White stated that she believes they need to look at additional staff and
more depth in order to properly prepare for the demands and challenges of the 21st century. She
further suggested that there needs to me more on-site assistance and that the entire system needs
to be more user-friendly.
Mayor Luecke stated that he hopes that expertise would be developed within each
department in this area.
Council President White stated that IU tried that concept and it resulted in a lack of
consistency.
Discussion then took place on GIS capabilities. In response to a question from Dr.
Varner, Bob Allen stated that they are on their own. Mayor Luecke stated that they utilize
MACOG information and then build their own layers.
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Council Member Dieter had questions about services to the various fire stations
including emails and internet access, which the Administration stated would be detailed in
the upcoming meeting to the Council.
Mr. Allen stated that there are 16,000 emails daily and that they filter out 3-4,000 emails
daily. They deal with 180 viruses per day.
Human Resources:
Human Resources Director Janice Hall noted that she had been in this position for
approximately one(1)year. She provided a 3-page handout entitled "City of South Bend Human
Resource Department 2004-2005". She then provided a summary of the city employee
workforce. Some of this data included the fact that 77% of the city's workforce is male and
23% is female; 987 males to 298 females, along with ethnic breakdowns. There are 1,285
full-time employees,and 1,380 part-time employees.
Council President asked her to put this city employee workforce data in writing for
the Council. She also asked for a breakdown of the key leadership positions to be broken
down in each department by male/female, ethnic backgrounds. Ms. Hall stated that
compensation,job analysis and job descriptions are all ongoing projects for FLSA standards.
Ms. Hall stated that are looking to centralize the hiring process, since it is now
decentralized. Postings are on the internet and there is a high volume of applications. Ms. Hall
then highlighted the training and development programs she plans for 2005, updating the
personnel policies and procedures and facilitation(see handout).
Human Rights Commission(General Fund# 101-1008) $285,169 3.2% increase
Human Rights Commission (Fund#258-1008)Equal Employment Opportunity
$104,300
Human Rights Commission(Fund#258-1009)Dept. of Housing&Urban Development
$113,000
Human Rights Director Lonnie Douglas noted that he has worked a total of 19 years with
the city, from 1980 to 1986 and then the last 13 years. They currently have seventy-three (73)
case under investigation. They focus on claims in employment, education, housing and public
accommodation. All intakes are confidential. They hope to close a case within six(6) weeks to
three (3) months. They review whether their is a "finding of merit" to a claim and there is a
ten(10)period to appeal. The Human Rights Commission is composed of nine(9)members who
make the decision. Ray Thomas is the Chairperson of the Commission, and was here earlier but
had to leave. If cause is found then they go into their conciliation mode, with approximately
50%of the cases being settled at this stage.
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Mr. Douglas stated that the Commission is pro-active. They have education and outreach
programs, with the chair of this committee being Gail McGuire. They are also required to train
twice per year. The average "charge age" is 245 days. Staff time average per case is 170 days.
They attempt to close those without merit as quickly as possible.
Council Member Dieter inquired whether they have enough staff. Mr. Douglas replied
"No", noting that his ultimate goal has always been to work himself out of a job. Each
investigator averages thirty (30) cases with forty (40) cases being the maximum. There are
currently eight(8)cases on appeal.
Mr. Douglas stated that "Study Circles" are currently being conducted by Glenda Rae
Hernandez where many topics of interest are discussed in groups of 12-15 people.
They have signed a contract with a partnership center in Kalamazoo, Michigan which
will assist in developing training tools, tests etc. HUD will approve a grant of $40,000. Mr.
Douglas then passed out 2-page handout (copy attached) which provided more information on
this partnership grant request with Patia Translations (Spanish translation & editing), the
University of Notre Dame and Indiana University.
Budgeting&Financial Reporting:
Director of Budgeting & Financial Reporting Tom Skarbek then addressed the
Committee. He noted that he has been with the city for the past thirteen (13) years. He then
highlighted some of his duties and responsibilities from his one-page handout (copy attached)
which include preparation of the comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR), preparation of
the performance based budget,and budget duties in general.
In response to a question from Dr. Varner, Mr. Skarbek and Mr. 011ett stated that they
strive to have no comments during the yearly audit which takes place three (3) months after the
end of the fiscal year. They noted that there is no requirement for the city to respond to such
audit comments.
Council Member Puzzello inquired about fines and where they are tracked by type of
fine. Mr. 011ett stated that he would provide that information.
Neighborhood Code Enforcement (General Fund# 101-1201) $1,268,269
Weights&Measures(General Fund# 101-1202) $ 43,000 2% increase
Code Hearing Officer (General Fund#101-1203) $56,976 0% increase
Unsafe Building (General Fund# 101-1205) $ 195,000 8 % increase
Personnel and Finance Committee Meeting of September 8, 2004 Page 5
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Junk Vehicles (General Fund# 101-1204) $ 70,064 1.9%increase
Animal Control (General Fund#101-1207) $454,756 5.2% increase
At approximately 6:35 p.m., Neighborhood Code Enforcement Director Catherine
Brucker and Administrative Services Director Gary Libbey joined the Committee meeting to
review their various budgets. Ms. Brucker stated that there are thirty-six (36) full-time
employees and three (3) part-time employees in their operations. She provided a 48-page
handout to the committee which was highlighted during the presentation(copy attached).
The Weights & Measures budget reflects the contractual agreement with St. Joseph
County. There are no major changes for the Code Hearing Officer.
Ms. Brucker stated that 30% of amount collected are paid to credit bureaus for their
collection efforts pursuant to an ongoing contract. They are currently working with the Legal
Department to see if they can get a better rate. She noted that the average cost for a house
demolition is $3,500. The city utilizes Southside Auto for storage at the cost of$500 per month.
Council Member Dieter noted that he believes that this should be a city operation, noting
that Ms. Brucker has spoken with Chief Fautz with regard to the storage yard concept.
Dr. Varner inquired whether the city should look into having animal control services
provided by the Human Society, and inquired if they have been asked to submit an RFP.
Ms. Brucker stated that they have had communications with the new director of the
Human Society of St. Joseph County. She expressed concerns over possibly losing control over
the response time, noting that the city has five (5) employees on the road. Ms. Brucker stated
that there is a growing pit bull problem in the community. She also noted that the veterinarians
will now only provide spay/neutering services at a discount.
Administrative Services Director Gary Libbey stated that the animal control division is a
24/7 operation, with eight (8) full-time employees. Running-at-large letters are sent and appear
to work initially. They are requesting that two (2)part-time employees be added to this division
for next year. They have partnered with Pet Refuge and Pet Connect.
Council Member Kelly stated that this area is a tough operation and that they do their
jobs well.
In response to a question from Council Member Dieter, Mr. Libbey stated that they need
a new shelter which would have a projected cost of$1.5 million. Ms. Brucker stated that their
long-term goal is the possibility of having one(1)unified shelter.
The Friends of South Bend Animal Control, a 501 C(3)is looking into grant possibilities.
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In response to a question from Council Member Puzzello,Mr. Libbey noted that they can
only assist with wild animals when they are sick or injured accordingly to DNR.
Council President White inquired into the future of the Animal Control Board. Ms.
Brucker stated that she has talked with Dr. Ecker and that she did not like the idea of eliminating
the Board. Ms. Brucker stated that they are also brainstorming the idea of privatizing animal
control.
Council Member Dieter thanked everyone for their presentations, and then adjourned the
Committee meeting at 7:13 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Council Member Derek D. Dieter, Chairperson
Personnel and Finance Committee
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Attachments
Personnel and Finance Committee Meeting of September 8, 2004 Page 7