Human Resources Committee

City of Charleston HR Committee Meeting 23 April 2020 Minutes The HR Committee held a meeting this date, beginning at 3:03pm virtually, via Zoom. Notice of this meeting was sent to the media. Committee Members present: Councilwomen Carol Jackson (Chair), Marie Delcioppo, Councilmembers Kevin Shealy (Vice Chair) (arrived at 4:03), Karl Brady, William Dudley Gregorie, Mayor John Tecklenburg (arrived at 3:45 p.m.) Staff members present: Kay Cross, Director of HROD; Heather Pope, Deputy Director of HROD; Ryan Landry, Amy Wharton, CFO, Susan Herdina, Corporation Counsel, Mallary Scheer, Assistant Corporation Counsel, Rick Jerue, Senior Advisor to the Mayor; Jennifer Cook, Assistant Clerk of Council, Velvett Simmons, Clerk of Council’s Office, recording. Chair Jackson called the meeting to order at 3:03 pm and opened with the invocation. Approval of the 28 August 2019 Minutes A motion to approve the minutes for the 28 August meeting was made by Councilwoman Delcioppo and seconded by Councilmember Gregorie. The vote was unanimous. New Business A. Update on the City’s response to COVID-19 Kay Cross said the City’s Family First Coronavirus Response Act Leave Program is a federally mandated program. It requires municipalities and private sector employers to provide 80 hours of paid sick leave to employees who have had to quarantine as a result of sickness from COVID-19. The Act would be used for child care services. However, child care is only two-thirds of the salary. The program further goes to provide an additional ten weeks for FMLA leave for employees who have issues related to daycare and school closures. The employees who utilize these benefits can take up to twelve weeks of leave at two- thirds of their pay. In the first two pay periods, there have been 54 employees who used emergency paid sick leave for a total of 2199 hours. Even though mandated by the Federal Government, the City is paying these benefits out of pocket. It will not be reimbursed for the payouts. Meanwhile, private-sector employees will. Municipalities were excluded from being reimbursed for tax credit. Ms. Cross said various lobbying took place with Human Resource groups from Washington in the hope that things would change. In the first two pay periods, the cost of emergency paid sick leave was $41,388.81. Besides having to pay out of pocket, Ms. Cross ensures the City is happy to provide emergency paid sick leave for employees because employees are in difficult situations such as those with underlying health conditions. The leave is available to employees through the end of the year. The Department of Labor provided guidance to employers on how to make the workplace safe and what kinds of benefits to offer so employees may have access to several options. Mass mailing was sent to all employees to provide information to those that may be at risk or with underlying medical conditions. Ms. Cross said spouses would read the information and encourage employees to consider taking leave or looking at other options that best suit them. Councilmember Gregorie asked Ms. Cross if 2199 hours is a full staff year. Ms. Cross said a full-time employee generally works 2080 hours a year.  Human Resources Committee Meeting Minutes 23 August 2020 pg.2 Councilmember Gregorie asked Ms. Cross if there were any projections of how many employees would utilize this the emergency paid leave benefit. Ms. Cross said there were no projections at the moment, but it depends on how many daycares and school programs would open during the summer months because a lot of the employees depend on those programs for child care so they can work. If these programs don’t reopen, there may be a lot more employees who would depend on the FMLA leave for childcare. Ms. Cross said Charleston had passed the peak for active cases of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), and the City prepared for employees already working and returning to the workplace during the pandemic, requiring everyone to wear masks, and distributed hand sanitizer to all departments. There should be fewer people needed to take leave for contracting COVID-19 in the workplace. Councilwoman Jackson said she appreciated the City’s effort in providing benefits to employees. She asked Ms. Cross to explain what was meant when saying the City has to pay $41,388.81 out of pocket for people who decided to take advantage of this leave. If they took leave and earned a salary, they’re getting paid the salary while home, how many temporary staff personnel have employers had to hire? Ms. Cross said the City has not had to hire anyone due to office closures. However, there could be a cost for the Police and Fire Departments. They are impacted by this because their positions would be filled with overtime need anyone to be out for some time. Meanwhile, other offices have been closed to the public, so there is no need to hire substitutes to fill positions. The City would be paying their salary. Councilwoman Jackson suggested it would be great to track how much of the funds are the same money for payouts for people to earn their salaries. A paid leave benefit is the same formula as people who aren’t being to be replaced, but still earning a salary. Ms. Pope said people who are out for the childcare issue would have used annual leave, and that has a cash value that is accrued and payable at the time of separation. Councilwoman Jackson said there is a lot to learn during this crisis season. Ms. Cross said in addition to the COVID-19 update, the City is incurring additional cost. Sixty-eight unemployment claims have been received since March 19th, where there would normally be six (6) reported during the same time frame. The City is a reimbursable employer, which means self-insured. All of the unemployment claims are paid dollar for dollar, and there is no insurance for that. Benefits get billed once a quarter and write a check for payouts. Since the City is a reimbursable employer, people who leave the City a few months ago, to take a more lucrative private-sector job, when they file for unemployment, they return to the City, being a reimbursable employer, the City has to pay the claims even though these employees were no longer working for the City. There have been some claims where full-time employees who have been laid off from their second job file for unemployment, the City plans to fight those so there won’t be payments made. There is no said projection where these cases can go, but it will cause an expense and will keep members up to date. Councilwoman Jackson asked Ms. Cross if there was a statute of limitations for people who are no longer employed with the City or those laid off from second jobs, who file for unemployment, put in place, so the City doesn’t have to pay those unemployment claims. Personnel from the unemployment office have been hard to get in touch with. Ms. Cross asked Ms. Pope if the statute of limitations was six months based on the information she was given. Ms. Pope said she didn’t recall the exact formula, but claims have come from people who have not worked for the City for more than six months. For example, an ex-employee who went to work for MUSC  Human Resources Committee Meeting Minutes 23 August 2020 pg.3 a year ago, left the City voluntarily, then was laid off, and now the City has to pay that unemployment claim because we are a reimbursable employer. Ms. Pope said she learned that if an employee works for the City full time, it makes them ineligible to receive claim payouts, but the claims still continue. Some claims have had to go through the appeal process, and these have turned out to be a higher cost than usual because the claims are at an unprecedented number and continuing to grow. Councilwoman Jackson asked Ms. Pope if there was a percentage formula that is the same for a legitimate claim, and if so, what percentage of unemployment benefits does that employer have to cover? Ms. Pope said there is a max weekly benefit that would be paid back. According to the unemployment website, the additional $600 is being federally funded, but the weekly benefit of $296 would be the responsibility of the City. Councilwoman Jackson said she wasn’t aware the full amount had to be paid. Ms. Pope said the City is a government bodyand does have to pay the unemployment claims. There are no unemployment insurance payments because the City is a reimbursable employer. Councilmember Gregorie asked what is there in reserve for unemployment compensation during this period if we anticipated six claims, but have 68 claims and could expect continued numbers. How much of a deficit is there already? Ms. Cross said the dollar amount is unknown until the bill comes because the City is only billed quarterly. A list of names and how much money has been awarded to that claimant is provided as well. It’s budgeted by experience based on the last calendar year. Councilmember Gregorie said, that is something that would be taken up at the AD Hoc meeting. He said he didn’t believe the peak level has already peaked because not enough testing had been done within the City, particularly in the areas of lower-income families. Councilmember Gregorie said we don’t know how many people are asymptomatic. Ms. Cross said she agreed. The peak dates are inconsistent, but according to most sites, the City is either peaking or close to peaking. No one knows that answer for sure. Councilmember Gregorie asked Ms. Cross if there was consideration put in place for testing all employees who are returning to the workplace. Ms. Cross said there are talks in the weeks of getting those tests, but costs are unknown. We have reached out to our insurance carrier, Blue Cross Blue Shield about this. If this option was available, we would want to first test Public Safety employees, i.e., Police and Fire.. Councilmember Gregorie said other people on the front line like the Environmental Services people that should be tested as well as they have been risking their health. He said he felt there isn’t enough attention given to them. First responders such as the Environmental Service people should be considered. Ms. Mckee said the testing that is being looked into is called the serology test. It tests for the antibodies, not necessarily whether someone is COVID-19 positive or not. Councilwoman Jackson asked Ms. McKee if the serology testing is coming soon. Ms. Mckee said MUSC is working out the details, so there will be something to share soon.  Human Resources Committee Meeting Minutes 23 August 2020 pg.4 Councilmember Gregorie asked Ms. Mckee if the City is going to go beyond serology testing. Ms. Mckee said for employees who are returning to work, and their temperatures are being checked as the first indicator that something could be wrong. Temperature taking has been implemented in several departments, including Environmental Services, Stormwater, the Fire Department, and more. It is a good indicator and if they need to go to MUSC for being asymptomatic, and they would be first in line to be tested. Councilwoman Delcioppo said for clarification to Ms. Cross that the federally mandated program runs through the end of the year, paying two-thirds of the employer’s current salary. Ms. Cross said its two thirds if the employee is taking leave for childcare reasons. There are 80 hours available for paid sick leave, which can be used if someone is sick, or if they’re quarantined because of COVID related issues. That leave can also be used for caring for someone who is sick and child care but only at two-thirds pay. People who have child care issues can then use an additional ten weeks of FMLA leave, also at two-thirds of pay. Councilwoman Jackson asked Ms. Cross if any of those hours count against normal leave. Ms. Cross said no, it does not. Councilwoman Delcioppo asked Ms. Cross if that 80 hours is used because you have COVID symptoms, it would be the full amount unless its childcare related, then it’s two thirds the amount. Ms. Cross said, yes. The 80 hours can also be used if you are in one of the high-risk groups. You don’t have to be sick, but you could be diabetic, and your doctor recommends you to not work because you are in a high-risk group, then you could also use the 80 hours of leave at full amount paid. Ms. Pope said the other two thirds would be if you were caring for an individual who has contracted the virus or with a compromised immune system, then you would be eligible for it as well. Councilwoman Jackson asked Ms. Cross if there is a track of people who are taking leave for these reasons. Ms. Cross said, yes. They self-identify or provide documentation from a physician. There is an extensive log of everyone who claims this leave because there is a cap on it. Once that leave is exhausted, and their sick leave can be used, then annual leave. Councilwoman Jackson asked Ms. Cross for information on the current year that revenues are going to be short due to the pandemic. Ms. Cross said there is not a lot of items in the budget. The healthcare budget is huge, but the discussions had not been had yet. The budget will be presented at August’s meeting once discussed in May. There had been no discussion in reducing benefits, pay reductions, but there is a 90-day hiring freeze except for sworn positions. There will not be a freeze on sworn positions. If other departments feel their positions are essential, a written justification must be provided and sent to Amy for consideration. It could be extended, but it’s not the call of the Human Resources. Ms. Cross called on Ms. Wharton to confirm the exact date the hiring freeze was announced. Ms. Wharton said she would look it up but reiterated that the hiring freeze did not include sworn police or fire. Councilwoman Jackson said of the ones that it does include, is it about 60 positions?  Human Resources Committee Meeting Minutes 23 August 2020 pg.5 Ms. Wharton said that it was just the new positions that were budgeted for 2020, but it applies to any current vacancies. Councilwoman Jackson asked if there was an estimate of jobs that won’t be filled for at least 90 days. Ms. Pope said the number wasn’t present, but she will get that information to present. Councilmember Gregorie asked Ms. Wharton to confirm because of natural attritions, and there will be no new hires. Ms. Wharton said that is correct. If it is a critical position, the department head must provide written justification for reason needing new staff members. Ms. Cross commended Jan Parks, RN for her work on the COVID issues. She has been a valuable resource in contact with those who have been tested, those with positive cases, and she has reached out to those who have been in contact with others that may be affected and have been really involved with members as a medical expert. Ms. Wharton said the hiring freeze went into effect on April 2nd, 2020. Ms. Pope said while looking at the spreadsheet that there had been 65 positions that have been requested for filling so far. B. Discussion: Commission on Women’s Resolution on Paid Family Leave Care Councilwoman Jackson said the Resolution on Paid Family Leave went through Council in January. The actual Resolution had been sent to everyone after Council adopted it on January 28th. Also, an excerpt of the verbatim minutes had been included. The Mayor is opened to adding items to Council Communication on the Council agenda, which are more discussion-oriented. The most recent information of the municipalities and what we are doing in the state have been included. The list is inaccurate because South Carolina is not represented. Rockhill, for sure, has an active Family leave benefit for their employees since 2017. Ali Titus, one of the Women’s Commission members, had done additional research where she surveyed the Bloomberg cities and compared some to Charleston and the competitors. The Charleston Region Development (CRD), keeps track of soliciting economic development and new businesses moving to the region in order to cultivate new business enterprises. Ms. Cross said Mr. Landry, had already done a lot of the number crunching and created charts on leave costs. The numbers came from all of the Family Leave that was used in 2019. Mr. Landry shared his screen with the team and began presented his research. Mr. Landry said while looking at the 2019 Family Medical Leave usage and categorized them into four leave categories; maternity leave, parental leave, caregiver leave, and self-leave. Caregiver leave meant leave taken for those that take care of other family members, and self-leave was leave taken for those out on serious health conditions. Maternity leave was the smallest group leading through parental group and caregiver, and then self-leave was the biggest group. Self-leave in total was 14 % of the City’s employee population. Between maternity, parental, and caregiver leave, it was 5%. Employees took longer amounts of leave for maternity, followed by parental, self-leave, and caregiver leave being the least at a little under two weeks overall. Councilwoman Jackson asked Mr. Landry to clarify the definition of parental leave. Mr. Landry said parental leave was the non-primary giver or a parent not giving birth.  Human Resources Committee Meeting Minutes 23 August 2020 pg.6 Mr. Landry said from those estimates he was able to develop cost estimates, focused specifically on direct costs. The Direct costs included the costs of previously unpaid leave used that would now be paid. The 2019 data allowed him to see the unpaid leave that people used, which a new cost was incurred because they were out on unpaid leave, and no salary was paid to them. The second cost was of agency temporary employees based on 2019 utilization rates and an increase in work hours missed due to leave. The agency temps were looked at based upon positions needed to be filled because of Family and Medical Leave purposes. Realistically, that rate is expected to rise since there is a low average of leave used. For example, if someone is going to be out for parental leave under five weeks, then it would be unlikely to hire a temporary agency employee. The more the time length is increased, the more likely a temp was needed to fill that position. The final part of the direct costs, was overtime in the Police and Fire Departments for current sworn staff covering work hours missed. Those are the two departments where not just anyone can be hired, or an agency temp can replace. Staffing levels in the Fire Department dictate firefighters per truck, on station, and per shift. If a firefighter goes out of work for any purpose that is time the department has to cover via overtime. Projected overtime for how much leave was used in 2019 was factored in and provided was only an expected increase. The leave categories were projected in two-week increments to show what every two- week increment would be. Each two-week increment was worked up to the twelve-week time frame that the Council agreed to increase. Maternity leave was the lowest category at $106,193.09, followed by caregiver leave at $382,980.47 because of its high usage. There usually isn’t a need for higher-paying positions. There would be a higher usage in parental leave because there were about five fewer employees using it that were higher-paid employees at $446,212.28. For example, Police and Fire use a lot of parental leave. Finally, the self-leave at $1,361,937.65 because there was a large volume of those with health conditions. The information is based on numbers that are known, and there may be employees that took leave and did not report their reasoning. The third table showed direct costs by combining the leave categories. Maternity, parental, and caregiver combined were discussed in Council and matched the Resolution. At the twelve-week length, the estimated cost was $935,385.84 included the previously unpaid leave, projected increase in agency temps, and Police and Fire overtime. Other indirect costs were excluded from this estimate to show what was actually spent out of pocket. Councilmember Gregorie asked Mr. Landry, based on actual costs from 2019’s leave, what is currently paid for paid leave. Mr. Landry said the numbers were based on the leave that they used and what employees currently accrue. Councilwoman Jackson asked if this was after personal leave was used. Mr. Landry said it was based on the actual use of leave. Human Resources receives notice when employees use the Family Medical Leave Act to go out for qualifying events to ensure that the City applied the correct job protection to them. During the time of leave, employees are using their leave accruals, and it could have been combined with their sick leave accruals as well. Councilwoman Jackson said, for example, the dollar amounts for maternity leave it is assumed that the 11 employees that were out for three or four weeks used two weeks of sick leave accrued and annual, the number that reflects the $9,726.87, this was not taken from personal leave accruals. It would be new money that the City would pay. Mr. Landry said that is correct. It was set up so that the numbers reflect an increase in the amount of leave that was actually used. Any annual leave and sick leave used for a given purpose was already included in the number. Using maternity leave, for example, if there were two and a half weeks of sick  Human Resources Committee Meeting Minutes 23 August 2020 pg.7 and about one week of annual and there would be a spike around the six to eight-week costs. From two to four weeks there was only an increase of about $10,000 and it doubles by week four to six. Councilwoman Jackson asked if the combined leave categories include self-leave. Mr. Landry said the self-leave was included in the All category. Of the 33 municipalities/ counties surveyed that offered some form of paid family leave: birth was the highest category at 100% where agency temps were needed to fill positions, adoption was extended to 97% of circumstances, foster parenting at 76%, guardianship in 30% of cases, family caregiver in 18% and 0% of employees own health condition coverage beyond existing leave accruals. Generally, there was a full wage replacement that covered 100%. During the survey, four of the 33 agencies offered a full twelve weeks, and the average amount of leave is about 5.9 weeks total paid leave. Councilwoman Jackson said the numbers of weeks seemed to be all over the map. Mr. Landry said a number of exceptions of different policies had been noted, especially the ones that do offer some sort of family coverage. Almost every plan defined family a little differently than the other. In policies with adoption and foster coverage, there are many more specific guidelines. About 11 of the 33 organizations, there was also a change to the number of weeks provided depending on the type of leave taken. In one case, three weeks for maternity or primary caregiver, two weeks for non-caregiver leave for the birth of a child, and one week of paid leave for family. The numbers did seem to be all over the place, but the average is about six weeks in total. Councilwoman Jackson thanked Mr. Landry for his research and encouraged him to send the information out to the Council Committee and Commission on Women’s Paid Family Leave Care. Mr. Landry said in final, projection to do indirect costs was projected where there was expected to be a potential loss, decrease in productivity, delay in projects, or any of the indirect costs that were not spent out of pocket but due to someone not being present. Employees’ salaries were taken based on the value of 2019 leave usage that was loss. The maternity and caregiver policies currently written for the twelve weeks would estimate $500,000.00 indirect costs based on employee valuation. Overall, employee valuation and indirect costs will always be higher. Councilwoman Jackson opened the floor for questions. Councilmember Gregorie thanked Mr. Landry. Councilwoman Delcioppo said Mr. Landry’s presentation was extremely helpful. Mayor Tecklenburg thanked Mr. Landry for the presentation and thanked Human Resources for the work the department has done. Councilmember Brady also commended the Human Resources Department for putting the numbers together. He said, moving forward, he would like to see what leave policies across the country, specifically in the South. The South’s State Legislatures are reluctant to act and push down to the local levels throughout South Carolina. Ms. Cross said Rockhill is the only municipality in South Carolina that has a Family Leave Policy that provides four weeks of maternity leave (two weeks medical and two weeks of family leave) and two weeks of bonding leave. They also provide two weeks for adoption and fostering as well. Ms. Herdina asked Ms. Cross if Rockhill offered free short term disability benefits.  Human Resources Committee Meeting Minutes 23 August 2020 pg.8 Ms. Cross said there was no other municipality in South Carolina that offered employer-paid short term disability. The City pays $300,000 a year for employees to utilize the Short Term Disability benefit, so Charleston is very proud to offer a service as such after conversations with the Commission on Women. Councilwoman Delcioppo asked Ms. Cross what would be the difference if she took ShortTerm Disability versus the Family Medical Leave Act. Ms. Cross said FMLA is for job protection and requires an employer to hold that position for the employee while out on leave. Family and Medical Leave can be paid or unpaid. She said an employee could use their paid, sick, and annual leave while they’re on FMLA, or those with no leave accruals can use FMLA without pay. Short Term Disability is for employees who don’t have leave, enough leave, or have depleted their leave. It is a 60% salary benefit that is better than not getting anything at all. Councilwoman Delcioppo asked Ms. Cross if there was a time limit on how long the Short Term Disability can be used at 60%. Ms. Cross said it would pay up to sick months of leave subject to physician documentation, and then it can go on to Long Term Disability if you cannot return after six months. Councilwoman Delcioppo asked if jobs are also protected like FMLA. Ms. Cross said Short Term Disability could be used concurrently with FMLA. FMLA is twelve weeks of job protection, whether it’s paid or unpaid or whether Short Term Disability. The City then takes a further step once FMLA is depleted. Ms. Cross said if employees still can’t return, the physical disability leave is offered, but there is no job protection there. Ms. Pope said the City would also try to match employees to different positions if their position had been filled based on necessity after their six months of leave. If one desires not to return, the City does help with Social Security applications and applying for disability retirement. Councilwoman Delcioppo asked if there was a take it and leave policy. Ms. Cross said when employees use their own leave, it is always at 100%, and Short Term Disability is at 60%. Other municipalities do provide FMLA, but the amount and time is capped. Councilwoman Jackson said she agrees the City has a competitive benefit package, and other employers don’t have anything that is as robust. Councilmember Gregorie asked Ms. Cross if there was a use or lose policy, and can it be provided how many employees leave banks are forfeited because that costs money. Ms. Cross said there are maximums that can be carried over depending on how many years employees have worked for the City. There was no known dollar amount for the forfeited leave banks, but the research will be done and presented at a later date. There is a Donated Annual Leave Program that once an employee exhaust all their leave and they’re on leave without pay status, they can have leave donated to them. Councilwoman Jackson thanked the staff and encouraged all to continue sharing helpful information. There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 4:29 p.m. Submitted by Velvett Simmons Clerk of Council’s Office  Human Resources Committee Meeting Minutes 23 August 2020 pg.9 Note: Copies of handouts from this meeting are on file.