Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutBoard of Commissioners - Minutes - 07/15/2004-. MINUTES OF THE • -OTTER TAIL COUNTY LABOR/MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE Government Services Center Otter Tail Lake Room Thursday, July 15, 2004 1:00 p.m. Call to Order Jodi Wentland called the Labor/Management Committee meeting to order at 1 :04 p.m. Attendance: Tonya Anderson, Dwight Serven, Tim Brand, Karen Cannell, John Dinsmore, Mark Englund, David Hauser, Karan Johnson, Larry Krohn, Sydney Nelson, Heather Severson, Tina Tungseth, Jodi Wentland, and Sharon Wicklund. Excused Absence: None. Unexcused Absence: Brian Armstrong and Rick Denzel. Review of Mission and/or Norms of Behavior Tonya Anderson read the Mission Statement and Sharon Wicklund read the Norms of Behavior. Review of Minutes Committee members approved as presented, the minutes of May 20, 2004 by consensus. • Review of Agenda Committee members approved as presented, the agenda of July 15, 2004 by consensus. • Discussion Items A. Inability to Donate Sick Time Versus Vacation Time Dawn Godel and Mike Hanan presented an overview of the Vacation Donation Program. • The original Vacation Donation Subcommittee members were Mike Hanan, Dave Jennen, Michele Petterson, and Rick Sytsma. • As listed in the Personnel Rules: ► Sick leave is earned at the rate of eight (8) hours permonth, and accumulates up to the total of nine hundred and sixty (960) hours. It is accumulated ona pro-rated basis for regular part- time employees working less than 40 hours per week. ► An employee who has accumulated 960 hours of sick leave may bank an additional 240 hours to be used only in the event that the 960 hours ofsick leave accumulated has been exhausted. Sick leave in the 240 hour bank cannot be used to replenish the maximum accumulation of 960 hours. • The Vacation Donation Program is intended to cover an employee from the time an employee no longer is receiving compensation (including having exhausted all sick leave and vacation) until long term disability or some other substitute compensation kicks in or the employee returns to work. This time frame is typically 12 weeks or less. • Since January of 2000 to present, a total of 10 employees have used this program. • The Vacation Donation Program covers employees from the time an employee is unable to work until long-term disability begins; which is a 12 week timeframe. • All employees that have used the program, have received enough donated time to meet their 12 week term or until they were able to return to work. In some cases, more vacation time was Labor/Management Committee Minutes July 15, 2004 Page 2 of 5 . ' donated then needed; so when employee returned to work, the other employees that donaed limo had it returned to them. • The reasoning for using vacation time for the Vacation Donation Program is that vacation time is employee's time earned and can generally be used for whatever purpose the employee sees fit. Sick Leave as being time that can only be used for purposes specified by either the Personnel Rules or the employee's union contract. Further, employees have no expectations of receiving compensation for all sick leave earned unless that employee uses it for purposes specified by contract. Generally at the time of termination of county employment, an employee will lose at least 25% and as much as 100% of sick leave accumulated. The original subcommittee felt strongly that use of sick leave for other than purposes specified in the existing employment contracts could be an added expense for the county and could jeopardize the possibility of implementation of any leave donation policy. Tina Tungseth reviewed existing donation programs from other entities including Otter Tail Power, Fergus Falls School District, and the State of Minnesota. Tina presented the proposed Sick LeaveNacation Donation Policy as listed below: Purpose: To establish a procedure through which eligible employees may voluntarily donate a portion of their accrued sick leave/vacation balances to be converted to cash to financially assist another employee who has exhausted sick leave and vacation hours due to his/her extended illness or disability. Employees may transfer a portion of their accrued sick /eave/vacation to a fellow employee experiencing catastrophic or extreme emergency situations. The determination of whether a situation is catastrophic or extreme will be determined by the Otter Tail County Coordinator or his/her designee. Provisions in this policy will also allow individual application to the Otter Tail County Coordinator or hislheo designee for use of the Otter Tail County Employee Protection Bank for a terminal illness of a spouse 01 children of a county employee who has exhausted all accrued sick leave/vacation time. Only those County Employees who contribute to the bank may draw upon the bank. Policy: All full-time or regular part-time employees who have completed their probation period will be considered eligible to participate in this program. All employees who wish to participate will be assessed one day of sick leave. All assessed days will be accumulated from year to year in a bank where they will be available to county employees who have used all their accrued sick leave/vacation days and qualify for use of the County Protection Bank. When all the days in the bank have been exhausted, all County employees in the bank will be reassessed a sick day. The Otter Tail County Employee Protection Bank will not be used when an employee qualifies for disability income insurance. • An employee may withdraw from the "Otter Tail County Employee Protection Bank" in January of each year. In case of withdrawal, an employee's contribution stays in the "Otter Tail County Employee Protection Bank". • Application for use of the Protection Bank is to be submitted to the Otter Tail County Coordinator's office. • The employee will be required to submit a medical certificate from a physician verifying the severe or extraordinary nature and expected duration of the condition. He/she may be required to produce additional certifications to verify the continued catastrophic or emergency situation to the Otter Tail County Coordinator, with whom the Leave Donation Request has been submitted. The requesting employee must sign a release for medical information disclosure for the County Coordinator or his/her designee so a determination can be made if the requesting employee qualifies for leave donations from the Otter Tail County Employee Protection Bank. The County Q Coordinator and his/her designee will sign an agreement to keep all such information confidential. · • Additional donations of accrued sick /eave/vacation will be in whole hours, with a minimum of 8 hours per donation and a maximum of 20 (8 hour) days per year. The donating employee may • • • Labor/Management Committee Minutes July 15, 2004 Page 3 of 5 specify the employee to receive additional hours donated beyond the one sick day assessed each year. • The donated leave will be converted to dollars by multiplying the number of hours donated by the donor's hourly base pay rate at the time of processing. The resulting amount, fess mandatory withholding (specified below), will be paid to the designated recipient. • The IRS has ruled that these payments are to be considered wages, and therefore taxable income to the recipient. As a result, the payments will be included in the annual Form W-2 prepared for the recipient, State and Federal income tax, FICA/Medicare tax and Supplemental Retirement contributions depending on the eligibility of the recipient, will be withheld by the County at the time of payment. The IRS has also ruled that the donating employee realizes no income and incurs no tax-deductible expense or loss, either upon donation or payment to the recipient. • The County will not inform the recipient of the names of those donating hours or the number of hours donated. • The donations processed for a recipient each pay period shall be limited to the amount equal to that individual's regular gross earning per pay period (i.e. his/her current hourly base rate multiplied by his/her schedule hours of work per pay period). In the event donations exceed this limit, they will be processed in order of the date on the donation authorization form, with the earliest date processed first. Excess donations will be held until the following pay period(s) and processed at that time. • Once a donation has been processed, neither the donor nor the recipient may revoke the transaction, even if it has not yet been paid. • Any leave that remains unused if donated to a specific employee, and is not needed by Ital employee shall be returned to the donating employee if they did not indicate that it should remain in the Otter Tail County Employee's Protection Bank. • The exclusive representative hereby warrants that it will defend, indemnify and save Otter Tail County harmless from any and all actions, suits, claims, damages, judgments, and executions or other forms of liability which any person may have or claim to have, now or in the future, arising out of the administration of the Otter Tail County Employee Protection Bank as specified by the exclusive representative as provided herein. Any Otter Tail County Employee Protection Bank challenge shall not be subject to the grievance procedure. The Labor/Management Committee used the following format to evaluate this topic 1. Analysis: • Employee friendly. • Manage cost to county/public. • Creates another use of sick leave other than employee's own illness. 2. Brainstorm Solutions: • Establish a Bank for lost vacation time. • Coverage for immediate family; catastrophic/emergencies (current Vacation Donation Program already includes this coverage). • Stay with current policy. • Eliminate policy. • Allow unlimited sick leave donation. 3. Recommendations: • Leave it the way it is . • Research brainstorm solutions. • The committee suggested to leave the Vacation Donation Program as is and to possibly revisit issue in approximately six months to review the process. Labor/Management Committee Minutes July 15, 2004 Page 4 of 5 • Committee members requested 'that Dawn Godel contact the committee if an individy~ receiving the Vacation Donation Program does not meet their hours needed. With tL___} agreement, the Labor/Management Committee would be able to review this topic at a future date. The Labor/Management Committee was unable to reach a consensus on this discussion item. B. Antibacterial Hand Sanitizer Dispensers-John Dinsmore John Dinsmore reported to the committee that he has discussed the antibacterial hand sanitizer dispensers with Rick Sytsma. The Human Services Department has purchased handiwipes and has them at numerous locations within their department· Human Services is also putting handiwipes in their County vehicles. John stated that if a department is in need or would like more information regardingantibacterial hand sanitizer dispensers, please contact Rick Sytsma. (Updated Problem Solving Form attached.) C. Quality of Drinking Water at the New York Mills County Office Building-Tonya Anderson Tonya Anderson informed the committee that she has gotten price quotes from Sears, Fleet Farm, and Home Depot on reverse osmosis systems; the prices range from $140 to $270. Tonya also mentioned two other water filtration options which included purchasing a refrigerator with water filtration priced at $1500 or possibly a pure water filter to connect to the water faucet. The water quality is still a big issue at the New York Mills office building. The Labor/Management Comm_ittee discussed the following: 1. Solution: • Bring your own water. • Leave water as is. • Install a water cooler. • Purchase a $1500 refrigerator with water system. 0 • Install a water purifier for faucet. • Have Facilities Operations install a reverse osmosis system as they did at the Government Services Center. 2. Recommendation: • Have Facilities Operations install reverse osmosis systems in the New York Mills office building, Detention Facility, and Courthouse. Consensus was reached by the Labor/Management Committee for Larry Krohn and David Hauser to revisit this subject at the next County Board of Commissioners meeting. D. Child Care Facilities Update-John Dinsmore/Karan Johnson John Dinsmore and Karan Johnson distributed a draft copy of a Child Care Survey for the Labor/ Management Committee to review. The Labor/Management Committee discussed the following: • Clay and Kandiyohi Counties have had on-site child care programs in the past. • If Otter Tail County developed on-site child care, would it have an adverse effect on the local daycare providers? • Discussed putting the Child Care Survey on our County website for employees to complete. • Work with Scott Backstrom and Tim Brand in setting up a link on our County website for the survey. Q • Email Child Care Survey to employees with link to the County website for ease in filling out survey. Labor/Management Committee Minutes July 15, 2004 Page 5 of 5 • Consensus was reached by the Labor/Management Committee for John Dinsmore and Karan Johnson to work with Scott Backstrom and Tim Brand on putting survey on County website. This survey will be used as an assessment to determine if employees have an interesUneed for child care. E. New Labor Co-Chair At the close of the Labor/Management meeting, Labor members remained to discuss and determine who the new Labor Co-Chair will be. Next Meeting The discussion items for the September agenda include: • Child Care Survey • New Member Training • Quality of Drinking Water at the New York Mills County Office Building Adjournment At 3:05 p.m. Jodi Wentland declared the meeting of the Otter Tail County Labor/Management Committee adjourned until 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 16, 2004 . . , Atlad'lmen1 • • • • PROBLEM SOLVING FORM Subcommittee Formed: D Yes Identified Issue: Request for antibacterial hand sanitizer dispensers available in county offices where soap and water is often not close at hand. The concern was expressed with the increase of cold and influenza being spread within offices through contact with the general public, that it may decrease the spread of germs and possibly decrease sick days used. Description of Current Situation: The county employee that expressed the concern to me indicated that they did not have hand sanitizer dispensers available in their office and needed to continually use the restroom down the hall when they felt the need to wash their hands. I indicated that this was available at the jail and felt that it was a very effective tool to prevent the transmission of germs and this could easily be made available in other offices. Recommended Options: Recommend that after costs are verified, and if not prohibitive, that a memo be sent out to all offices in the county that would like to have this option available to them to be able to place a request through the maintenance department. Form Completed by: Tina Tungseth -------"'---------------Date: 01/13/04 Comp I et e d forms should be routed to: LMC Representative Date Reviewed by LMC: 01/15/04, 07/15/04 Action Agreement by LMC: 01/15/04 Discussed the possibility of the Wellness Committee getting funding for hand sanitizers. • Problem: To prevent illness. • Problem Analysis: 1. Cost 2. analysis 3. Accessibility of Sinks 4. Responsibility (who's) 5. Location for Hand Sanitizers • Solution: 1. Employees can buy their own sanitizers. 2. Each department could decide, based on work duties/locations. 3. Refer to Wellness Committee. 4. Have Facilities Operations make hand sanitizers available. Consensus reached by the Labor/Management Committee that if a department feels the need for hand sanitizers necessary or beneficial, they should contact Facilities Operations. Consensus was also reached that John Dinsmore will contact Rick Sytsma on this issue and report to the group at the March 18, 2004 Labor/Management Committee Meeting. 07/15/04 John Dinsmore reported to the committee that he has discussed the antibacterial hand sanitizer dispensers with Rick Sytsma. The Human Services Department has purchased handiwipes and has them at numerous locations within their department. Human Services is also putting handiwipes in their County vehicles. John stated that if a department is in need or would like more information regarding antibacterial hand sanitizer dispensers, please contact Rick Sytsma. @ticirorf.Jewell .-tMC.Child_Car~ ~u~eyFo~mat-FIRSTDRA~"f • • • From: To: Date: Subject: Sharon, John Dinsmore Jewell, Sharon 7/15/04 12:42PM LMC Child Care Survey Format -FIRST DRAFT I've attached the survey that will be distributed at today's LMC meeting. After input and modifications, we will be using this tool to survey employees. Please note that I've "cc'ed" a copy to Scott in GIS. I'll be following up with Scott to find out if we can create a page on our website through which employees can "click on" a link and complete this survey on-line. Thanks! john d. John W. Dinsmore, Director Otter Tail County Human Services Government Services Center 530/535 West Fir Avenue Fergus Falls, Minnesota 56537 218-998-8172 (Direct Dial) 218-770-8627 (Cellular) 218-998-8213 (Facsimile) jdinsmor@co.otter-tail.mn.us www.co.otter-tail.mn.us/humanservices CC: Backstrom, Scott • • • U I 11'..K I A.IL LUUJ" I I LAUUK Jl'IAl'IIIA\..ol'..ll'll'..I" I LUIYl!l'II I I !'..I'.. CHILD CARE SURVEY DRAFT I. If a center based child care services were made available at your worksite location, would you use these services? D Yes CJ No D Not sure If you answered "No" to question I, click on the "Submit" button below. You do not need to a11swer questions 2 -8. 2. My work location is nearest to which county office location? D Government Services Center in Fergus Falls D County Court House D New York Mills County Building 3. If you were to utilize center based child care services, what hours of the day would you need for such care to be available (check all that appM D 6:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon D 12:00 noon to 6:00 p.m. D 6:00 p.m. to 12:00 midnight D 12:00 midnight to 6:00 a.m. 4. If you were to utilize center based child care services, please list the number of children by age category that would use these services: __ Infant (6 weeks to 16 months) __ Toddler ( 16 months -33 months) Preschool (33 months -kindergarten) __ School age (kindergarten through age 12) 5. What is the amount per child that you are currently paying for child care? Amount per child per week OR Amount per child per hour 6. Would you be willing to pay more for center based child care services if made available onsite nearest to your work location? D Yes □ No D Not sure 7. How many miles would you be willing to travel to transport children to use child care services offered onsite nearest to your work location? D 1-5 miles D 6-I0miles D 11-15 miles D 16-20 miles D 21 or more miles 8. The Fergus Falls School District is researching the possibility of offering center based child care services to families whose children are enrolled in School District 544. Would you utilize this service if it became available? D Yes □ No D Not sure Thank you/or taking the time to complete this survey! Your responses will be summarized with other respondents and presented to the Oller Tail County labor Management Committee on September 16, 2004 (Submit Button) • • • Proposed Sick Leave/Vacation Donation Policy for Otter Tail County County Employee Protection Bank · PURPOSE: To establish a procedure through which eligible employees may voluntarily donate a portion of their accrued sick leave/vacation balances to be converted to casb to financially assist another employee who has exhausted sick leave and vacation hours due to his/her extended illness or disability. Employees may transfer a portion of their accrued sick leave/vacation to a fellow employee experiencing catastrophic or extreme emergency situations. The determination of whether a situation is catastrophic or extreme will be determined by the Otter Tail County Coordinator or his/her designee. Provisions in this policy will also allow individual application to the Otter Tail County Coordinator or.his/her designee for use of the Otter Tail County Employee Protection Bank for a terminal illness of a spouse, or children of a county employee who has exhausted all accrued sick leave/vacation time. Only those County Employees who contribute to the bank may draw upon the bank. POLICY: All full-time or regular part-time employees who have completed the probation period will be considered eligible to participate in this program. All employees who wish to participate will be assessed one day of sick leave. All assessed days will be accumulated from year to year in a bank where they will be available to county employees who have used all their accrued sick leave/vacation days and qualify for use ·or the County Protection Bank. When all the days in the bank have been exhausted, all county employees in the bank will be reassessed a sick day. The Otter Tail County Employee Protection Bank will not be used when an employee qualifies for disability income insurance. • An employee may withdraw from the "Otter Tail County Employee Protection Bank" in January of each year. In case of withdrawal, an employee's contribution stays in the "Otter Tail County Employee Protection Bank" • Application for use of the Protection Bank is to be submitted to Otter Tail County's Coordinators Office. • The employee will be required to submit a medical certificate from a physician verifying the severe or extraordinary nature and expected duration of the condition. He/she may be required to produce additional certifications to verify the continued catastrophic or emergency situation to the Otter Tail County Coordinator, with whom the Leave Donation Request has been submitted. The requesting employee must sign a release for medical information disclosure for the County Coordinator or his/her designee so a determination can be made if the requesting employee qualifies for leave donations from the Otter Tail County Employee Protection Bank. The County Coordinator and his/her designee will sign an agreement to keep all such information confidential. • Additional donations of accrued sick leave/vacation will be in whole hours, with a minimum of8 hours per donation and a maximum of20 (8 hour) days per year. The donating employee may specify the employee to receive additional hours donated beyond the one sick day assessed each year . Page 2. Proposed Sick Leave/Vacation Donation Policy for Otter Tail County Employee Protection Bank • The donated leave will be converted to dollars by multiplying the number of hours donated by the.donor's hourly base pay rate at the time of processing. The resulting amount, less mandatory withholding (specified 1:>elow), will be paid to the designated recipient. • The IRS has ruled that these payments are to be considered wages, and therefore taxable income to the recipient. As a result, the payments will be included in the annual Fann W-2 prepared for the recipient, State and Federal income tax, FICA/Medicare tax and Supplemental Retirement contributions depending on the ·. eligibility of the recipient, will be withheld by the County at the time of payment. The IRS has also ruled· that the donating employee realizes no income and incurs no tax-deductible expense or loss, either upon donation or payment to the recipient. • The County will not inform the recipient of the names of those donating hours or the number of hours donated. • The donations processed for a recipient each pay period shall be limited to the amount equal to that individual's regular gross earning per pay period (i.e. his/her current hourly base rate multiplied by his/her schedule hours of work per pay · period) .. In the event donations exceed this limit, they will be processed in order of the date on the donation authorization fonn, with the earliest date processed 0 first.· Excess donations will be held until the following pay period (s) and Q processed at that time. • Once a donation has been processed, neither the donor nor the recipient may revoke the transaction, even if it has not yet been paid. • Any leave that remains unused if donated to a specific employee, and is not needed by that employee shall be returned to the donating employee if they did not indicate that it should remain in the Otter Tail County Employee's Protection Bank. • The exclusive representative hereby warrants that it will defend, indemnify and save Otter Tail County harmless from any and all actions, suits, claims, damages, judgments and executions or other forms pf liability which any person may have or claim to have, now or in the future, arising out of the administration of the Otter Tail County Employee Protection Bank as specified by the exclusive representative as provided herein. Any Otter Tail County Employee Protection Bank challenge shall not be subject to the griev.ance procedure. 0 • • • LABOR/MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE ATTENDANCE/SIGN IN CHECK SHEET MEETING DATE: July 15, 2004 ..--,- Tonya Anderson -~{~~-°'-~~~~~~~~------ Brian Armstrong Dwight Serven Tim Brand Karen Cannell Rick Denzel John Dinsmore Mark Englund David Hauser Karan Johnson Larry Krohn Sydney Nelson Heather Severson Tina Tungseth l.f_ /2,,()._, f ~ Jodi Wentland 2¥ i.. !J~N Sharon Wicklund ~~,,,..c::....,,.,),c_ _____________ _ Joanne Derby Merl King Lori Morrell James Moore 1. Sharon:JE:W.eU~ ~e: Review.of Your Va_catioil Donation Preseritation ···• • • • From: To: Date: Subject: Sharon: Mike Hanan Dawn Godel; Sharon Jewell 7 /30/04 3:05PM Re: Review of Your Vacation Donation Presentation Here are my comments in regard to the LMC Minutes: --The original Vacation Donation Subcommittee was; Dave Jennen, Michele Petterson, Rick Systma, and myself. --On about the eleventh line down you have a discussion of what the Vacation Donation program covers. I would suggest the following changes. "The Vacation Donation Program is intended to cover an employee from the time an employee no longer is receiving compensation (including having exhausted all sick leave and vacation) until long term disability or some other substitute compensation kicks in or the employee returns to work. This time frame is typically 12 weeks or less." --On about the fifteenth lin down, starting with "Abuse of sick leave" and ending with "Limit the amount donated by an individual". This just kind of hangs out there and doesn't say anything. I know that the committee discussed these items. But in this format it doesn't really say anything. -Starting on line seventeen and ending on line nineteen I would include the following phrase after "employees time earned"; "and can generally be used for whatever purpose the employee sees fit." would then go on to describe "Sick Leave as being time that can only be used for purposes specified by either the Personnel Rules or the employees union contract. Further. employees have no expectations of receiving compensation for all sick leave earned unless that employee uses it for purposes specified by contract. Generally at the time of termination of county employment an employee will loose at least 25% and as much as 100% of sick leave accumulated." I would add that "The original subcommittee felt strongly that use of sick leave for other than purposes specified in the existing employment contracts could be an added expense for the county and could jeopardize the possibility of implementation of any leave donation policy." --Beginning on line nineteen with "Discussion of employees ... " Could this just be left out since it is listed below under "Brainstorming"? I think that it is confusing where it is. --Beginning on line twenty two I would state, "The labor/Management Committee used the following format to evaluate this topic:" --On line twenty seven the reference to "Research 1 and 2 I think refers to the first and second items listed under Brainstorm Solutions. I do not remember what order these were originally listed in. --Also on line twenty seven, "Allow a portion of sick leave donation." just kind of hangs out there and doesn't seem to relate to anything. -In the end, I don't think that consensus was reached on anything so maybe that should come as the last statement rather than on line twenty eight. Thank you for letting me comment on the minutes. I know that my comments are long and complicated. Could you please let me see your changes before you finalize them. Mike • Pag_~ 1 I