05-11-2020 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday,May 11,2020 6:00 o'clock p.m. Crosby asked for a clarification,noting Printup said he does not want to increase Staff but he is for the hire, which would be increasing Staff. Seals indicated the position is a headcount they already had for the woman that retired last year. Johnson noted the City outsourced some of the functions of the job. Walsh indicated some was being done with Paychex. Johnson noted it sounds like half of the person's job was eliminated by outsourcing, so instead of a part- time position it would be a full-time position by providing extra support,which was not there prior,to Public Works. With respect to Public Works,what hasn't been getting done will start getting done now because the position is there. To him, a half-person is being added because the other part is outsourced. Rief stated the payroll portion of the position was about 25%. The backfill being taken is from the Management Assistant position.Part of the challenge is that it is a Grade 7 position and a front-line position so they are first to answer the phone, whereas the previous position was a back office position because of the nature of payroll and the HR-related duties. They have rearranged how it works and were able to reduce the responsibility level of the position,which is where some savings came from. When the whole package is looked at,part of the data that is not presented in the Memo but that the committee was aware of is the amount of backlog on daily tasks; for example,recently they had 1,300 open tasks in Public Works. A majority of their Administrative support is reliant on the working supervisors. His and Edwards' intention was to get them back in the field more and shift some of the administrative work away from there and the other position and combine it into one position so everything Public Works-related is in one position. Right now, it is supported by 3 positions, plus the extra time taking supervisors off the street to complete some of the work. The Management Assistant position will now be able to support part of the communications portion. The City does gain value. Currently he is not able to get what he would expect from his Management Assistant because that position has to answer the phones because of the way it was set up.The majority of calls are either Planning or Public Works-related. The call would go to the front desk, and the Management Assistant is able to help support all of the department heads on projects and those kinds of administrative tasks.He said that she will be able to manage better without the primary group of phone calls hitting her desk; she will be a second-tier rather than a first-tier phone answerer. Printup moved,Seals seconded,to approve the Revised Public Works Support and Utility Billing Specialist Position and initiate the recruitment process to fill the position.Roll Call Vote: Ayes 4 (Crosby,Printup, Seals,Walsh),Nays 1 (Johnson). Johnson noted the wrong time to hear about shortcomings is when they are asking to fill a position. The City Council has to have better visibility to where their shortcomings are so they can work together to solve them. He wants to get away from hearing about the backlog of Public Works at the time a position is being added, because the City is reacting and they need to be proactive. Rief is seeing the challenges, shortcomings, and where the City is falling short on customer service to its citizens. If Staff gets information to the Council,there will be tremendous support. He has a difficult time with the way it is presently being done. He values Printup and Seals' position on the issue. It was not a vote against what he thinks they are doing; his vote was against how it is being done. Seals stated she agrees with Johnson. She was a"no"until last week because how things are being done is the exact opposite of a"best practice."It is not smart and there are so many things where the City is Page 12 of 22