Bayfield County Administrator 117 E 5 th Street, PO Box 878, Washburn, WI Ph: Fx:

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1 Bayfield County Administrator 117 E 5 th Street, PO Box 878, Washburn, WI Ph: Fx: Mark Abeles-Allison, County Administrator Kristine Kavajecz, Assistant BAYFIELD COUNTY PERSONNEL COMMITTEE MEETING Brett Rondeau, Chair Tom Gordon, Vice Chair Tom Snilsberg Dennis Pocernich Harold Maki Dear County Board Members: This letter is written to inform you of a Bayfield County Personnel Committee Meeting scheduled for, Thursday, March 7, 2019 at 4:00pm, in the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), Bayfield County Annex, Washburn, Wisconsin. Notice is hereby given that a majority of the Bayfield County Board may be present at the meeting to gather information about a subject over which they have decision-making responsibility. This constitutes a meeting of the Bayfield County Board pursuant to State ex rel. Badke v.greendale Village Bd., 173 Wis. 2d 553, 494 N.W.2d 408(1993), and must be noticed as such, although the County Board will not take any formal action at this meeting. 1. Call to order AGENDA 2. Public Comment 3. Discussion and Possible Action Regarding Approval of Minutes of February 14, Discussion and Possible Action regarding Teamster Health Plan for non-union employees. 5. Discussion regarding EMS / Fire Volunteer Work Policy 6. Discussion and Possible Action Regarding Part-Time Jailer wage plan. 7. Discussion and Possible Action Regarding Part-Time staff to serve multiple departments.

2 8. Reports a) Part-Time Retirement Options b) Personnel Financial c) Health Insurance Reports 9. The committee may enter in and out of closed session pursuant to Wisconsin Statutes: a (1)(c, e) to approve Closed Session Minutes of February 14, 2019 b (1)(c) to consider employment, promotion, compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility, to review recent exit interviews. i. Highway Department Patrolman Wage Request ii. Reclassification Request c (1)(g) (g) Conferring with legal counsel for the governmental body who is rendering oral or written advice concerning strategy to be adopted by the body with respect to litigation in which it is or is likely to become involved. i. Wisconsin Fair Employment Act Complaint ii. Unemployment Claim 10. Adjourn Should you have any questions in the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact my office. Sincerely, Mark Abeles-Allison Mark Abeles-Allison Bayfield County Administrator MAA/kak Enc. Any person planning to attend a Bayfield County meeting that has a disability requiring special accommodations should contact , 24-hours before the scheduled meeting, so appropriate arrangements can be made. cc: Mr. Scott Fibert, Bayfield County Clerk Bayfield County Board of Supervisors

3 The County Journal, via The Daily Press, via

4 Personnel Committee Narrative, March 7, 2019 Item 4: Bayfield County currently has two health insurance plans. We have a Teamster Union Plan and a plan for all other employees. The Teamster plan is currently one rate for all groups. The Courthouse plan has single, E+1 and Family Plans. There are four non-union positions (Office Manager, Shop Superintendent, Patrol Superintendent, and Highway Commissioner) all of these are eligible for the county health insurance plan. At present the Office Manager position is vacant. Two of these four non-union employees do not take the insurance. This is a savings to the Highway Department. Allowing all Highway Department Employees to the Teamster plan will cost an additional $32,000 over 12 months ($26k over 10 months) The Highway Committee recommended that Personnel consider changing our current policy. I recommend that we do not make any changes in 2019 for the following reasons. Instead I recommend the process outlined below. 1. Additional cost of $32,000 for the 2019 year. 2. Changing policies mid-year will be complicated in calculating HRA and Deductibles. 3. FSA elections made at the beginning of the year are based on current plans. 4. Treating highway non-union different from other non-union employees may be seen as unfair. 5. The current Highway Insurance plan is a mandatory one as opposed to voluntary, this may be an approach for the county to consider as a whole. Before including more employees in this group, I would recommend we study and consider this. 6. The Teamster health plan is largely County HRA dependent. Employees pay 11% of the premium, $1782 a year, in return they receive $5350 in HRA dollars that can be spent at any time on any medical related expense. Any future changes to the HRA will be met with strong resistance. HRA utilization by highway employees is 80%. HRA utilization by other county employees is 50%.

5 RECOMMENDATIONS: 1. That research currently underway for employees to move to the Teamster plan continue. 2. That Teamster representatives and County Health Insurance Consultants come to the future Personnel meetings to discuss how a transition might occur to the Teamster plan. At this meeting topics could include: a. A financial comparison of the current arrangement vs. future. b. A qualitative comparison of the plans be made for committee members. c. A discussion on future HRA funding. 3. If the Committee feels this is a viable option, that employee meetings be scheduled with Teamster Plan representatives. 4. In August the Personnel Committee makes a recommendation for the 2020 budget. Item 5: We have discussed the possibility of providing incentives for County employees to be volunteers on fire and EMS services. We have researched this and received feedback from 10 other counties. Here is what we found: A. State Law (2) provides: ABSENCE FROM WORK PERMITTED. An employer shall permit an employee who is a volunteer fire fighter, emergency medical services practitioner, emergency medical responder, or ambulance driver for a volunteer fire department or fire company, a public agency, or a nonprofit corporation to be late for or absent from work if the lateness or absence is due to the employee responding to an emergency that begins before the employee is required to report to work and if the employee complies with sub. (3) (a). This subsection does not entitle an employee to receive wages or salary for the time the employee is absent from work due to responding to an emergency as provided in this subsection. I have highlighted the word before. I recommend we incorporate this state law into our personnel policy so all employees are aware.

6 B. In researching other county provisions, I found the following notable terms to consider. Leave permitted per departmental approval, except Sheriff personnel Require employee to make up time or take vacation/comp time. Employee shall return to work upon completion County reserves right to deny leave based on county needs. C. Not required by State law. One County provides employees with up to six paid hours per week. Here is their policy, I have highlighted in yellow several words. a. Emergency Responders Leave. Employees who are emergency responders (e.g., active Emergency Medical Technicians or volunteer firefighters) may be granted leave with pay to respond to emergency calls and attend emergency responder training, subject to the approval of their immediate supervisor. Employees shall provide their supervisors documented evidence of their current status as an emergency responder in order to participate. Not more than six hours of such leave may be provided each month unless the County/Town Board Chairperson or his/her designee has declared an emergency as provided in Par. G above. Dispatchers, while on duty, shall not be permitted to leave their position to respond to emergency calls. Supervisors are encouraged to support employees who are emergency responders and their requests for time off to the maximum extent practicable. While on such leave, employees are deemed not to be acting in their official capacity as an employee of the County/Town, and the County/Town is not liable for any damages or injuries the employee may sustain or cause while taking such leave. D. The policy above was shared with other major employers in that particular county, with the county encouraging other employers to adopt this same policy. Recommendation: Bayfield County has an extensive emergency response volunteer network. Anything we can do to support volunteers in the county is important. I would recommend we develop a specific policy for Bayfield County and bring it back to the Personnel Committee in April. I would recommend including some paid leave. A half day a month could be a good starting point.

7 E. I have shared this with departments for their input as well and will bring to the meeting. Item 6: At the last meeting we discussed a part time wage policy. A recommendation was made to specify this for jailers. Attached is a summary of the issue and proposed language allowing for step increases when a part-time jailer goes over 975 hours (half time) worked in a calendar year. Item 7. Report: Many older Americans take part time jobs after retirement. In anticipation of a workplace shortage in the years ahead we are considering the possibility of a Bayfield County retiree, part time work program. We are just starting to think about this and would like your input. A personnel financial report will be shared for the month of February: average overage is 2%. Health Insurance utilization reports for February will be shared at the meeting.

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