City Council Meetings

CITY OF GREEN RIVER CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP PROCEEDINGS December 11, 2012 The Governing Body of the City of Green River met in workshop session at 6:30 pm in the City Hall Council Chambers. Mayor Castillon called the meeting to order. The following Council Members were present: Gene Smith, Tom McCullough, Adam Copplo, Gary Killpack and Lisa Maes. The following were present representing the City: City Administrator Marty Black, Chief of Police Chris Steffen, Fire Chief/Emergency Services Mike Kennedy, and Parks and Recreation Director Allan Wilson. Prevention Management Organization of Sweetwater County Ms. Zambai-Robert said this is a newly formed organization tasked with providing preventive education in Sweetwater County in regards to tobacco, other drugs, and suicide prevention. Part of the process is the completion of two needs assessments. One on suicide prevention is completed. The other is on alcohol, tobacco and other drugs which is currently in process. They are conducting town hall meetings with the Green River High School students and with the city council in Rock Springs. Ms. Zambai-Robert asked what are the primary drugs and alcohol related problems in the community. Council Member Coppolo said the youth abusing drugs and alcohol. Ms. Zambi-Roberts asked if they had any ideas or thoughts on the factors that are causing some of these issues. Council Member Coppolo said parents that just give their kids money to go do something is a problem. Council Member McCullough said peer pressure can contribute. Educating the students and the parents is important. He does not think there is a big problem here. Council Member Smith said the problem is not limited to the high school. Some adults are an issue. The number of drug addicted and alcohol addicted babies that are born here is higher than other areas. The city is right along I-80 and drugs have been brought through town by it. The Mayor said there is a problem here. He thinks stress on kids such as being from a single parent home and peer pressure are factors. He is concerned with the legalizing of drugs in Washington and Colorado. Council Member Coppolo said another common abuse is prescription drugs. Council Member Maes said we have a lot of good kids and parents in the community, but she thinks there is a lot of meth use in the county. Council Member Killpack said you cannot legislate values. A lot of the abuse comes from the people you are around. The best way to help is to have a no tolerance policy. If the kids know what they are facing they will choose not to. Council Member Elect Mark Peterson asked if the city still has the D.A.R.E. program. The Mayor said no. He asked Chief Steffen if there has been an impact since the program was discontinued. Chief Steffen said it is hard to report on the effects of the program. The School Resource Officers have done a great job picking up the slack, and they have started new programs to educate the kids. Council Member Elect Brett Stokes said working together as a whole with the county, and both cities to try to manage the issue is very important. Ms. Zambai-Robert clarified they are part of the Prevention Management of Wyoming. They are City Council Workshop Proceedings December 11, 2012 Page 1 of 4 based out of Buffalo, Wyoming and they are now overseeing the program state wide. Sweetwater County is one of five counties that have three prevention specialists assigned to them. Fremont, Natrona, Laramie and Campbell are the others. The Mayor asked if they had spoken with the county or the school districts. Ms. Zambai-Robert said they are open and want as many people and voices they can get to address these issues. She has spoken to members in both cities, police departments, and other local agencies. She asked if they could come and give an update when the assessments are completed. The Mayor said they would be interested in the results. Code Red Notification System Fire Chief Kennedy said the current outdoor warning system needs updated and expanded in order to be functional after January 1, 2013. Our system has not been functional for two months. They have done research on other options, and the Code Red System seems to be the most complete and well used. Casper and Cheyenne are currently using the program. He said this system can be used for any message that needs to be sent out. He said people will be able to sign up for how they want to be notified by email, phone, or text. Council Member McCullough asked if they have talked with the City of Rock Springs and the county about this. Chief Kennedy said they have spoke to both, but they have not committed to using the program. The price could change if all entities participate. Council Member McCullough said it seems to be a great program and would work the best if everyone participated. Council Member Coppolo said this should be looked at by everyone across the board. Jim Erickson from the Emergency Communication Network gave a brief overview of the program and how to use it. Mr. Black said they will assess the community and how many minutes we will need and then assign us a certain amount. If we go over those minutes then we have to pay for them. He said we need to make sure we are comfortable with the system before we present it to council for approval. Employee Paid Time Off Benefit and Personnel Policy Changes Mr. Black said, per council’s request, he has looked in to the personnel policy and manual, specifically, the benefits and accrual levels. When an employee leaves service, the current practices and policies provide certain payouts of accumulated time off and a portion of their sick leave. For some employees the payout is sizeable and can impact the department’s ability to fill the vacant position. He said this has been seen twice in the past few months. As a result, he is suggesting a few changes to reduce the future liabilities. Right now the system grants time off for many reasons such as, vacation, sick, personal, and holiday. He said he has focused on three key elements personal, vacation, and sick time. He will combine them into a proposed unified system of Paid Time Off. It is intended to provide flexibility to employees. Studies show that it will reduce unscheduled absences, and reduce future payouts. He said roughly half of the city’s workforce is eligible to retire in the next five years. So it’s a good time to migrate to a new benefit program when new employees come in. He said it would be a huge morale buster to introduce a change to existing benefits that current full- time employees receive. At this point, the obligation is shown as a value of $1 to $2 million. Currently employees receive: Personal day = 8 hours annually Sick Time = 3.70 hours per pay period (96.2 hours annually) City Council Workshop Proceedings December 11, 2012 Page 2 of 4 Vacation time: Beginning with Ending with 0 years 3 years 80 hours per year 4 years 9 years 120 hours per year 10 years 19 years 160 hours per year 20 years and over 200 hours per year The maximum vacation accrual is the employee’s annual accrual rate plus eighty hours. Under the proposed Paid Time Off accrual rates: Beginning with Ending with 0 years 2 years 144 hours per year 3 years 5 years 160 hours per year 6 years 10 years 176 hours per year 11 years 15 years 192 hours per year 16 years 19 years 208 hours per year 20 years and over 224 hours per year There will be a maximum carryover of 80 hours. This will send a clear message that when the time off is given, the intent is for employees to use it in the current year. He said the current policy for voting time is not consistent with state statutes. He said the change will correct it. Currently, when an employee leaves employment with the city and then comes back within a year, they are hired back at the same rate and benefit. This will change. It will be up to the discretion of the City Administrator on what they will be hired back as. Council Member Killpack asked if this would only affect new full-time hires and not current full -time employees, how will it affect part-time employees. Mr. Black said it will not affect part-time employees because they do not accrue any time off. The voting will apply to all employees. Council Member Coppolo said he would like to see the changes take place across the board. He suggested looking into some sort of a payout system to pay employees for the time they have accrued. Council Member Maes said employees that have earned these hours could end up needing them at some point. She said it should only be for new hires and not current ones. Council Member McCullough said he agrees current employees should be grandfathered in and it should only apply to new hires. This will address the problem the city has and stop it from continuing. He said nothing is guaranteed. Council Member Smith said it does not make any sense to continue the way it is, but it also does not make sense to take the accruals away from employees who have them now. He would suggest looking into the total liability and how much it could cost the city to buy back the accruals. Council Member Killpack said he will not support this if they do not grandfather the current full- time employees in. He asked if the change takes place, how is it going to affect a part-time employee who is working now, and has for a while, and goes full-time. Mr. Black said they would go under the new system accruals. Council Member Maes said these accrual policies have been in place for over thirty years. The council has only changed the pay scales and health insurance benefits. She would like to know how many employees have large amounts of leave. The Mayor said when individuals with large amount of accrued time leave the payout for benefits hurts their department. He agrees with the change to the policy. City Council Workshop Proceedings December 11, 2012 Page 3 of 4 Mr. Black said the city needs to stop what they are doing now. The city can look into a conversion at budget time. Jamie Green, a part-time city employee, asked if council would consider putting something together for part-time employees. She said it would be nice to get some paid time off even at a lower accrual amount. City Administrator’s Report Mr. Black reported the sales tax receipts for November 2012 are up to $1.2 million. This is better than expected. If the numbers go back down, the city will need to consider cutting back on services. The Mayor asked if he would provide more details on how it affects the whole county. Mr. Black said he would at the next meeting. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 8:40 pm. ______________________________ H. Castillon, Mayor ATTEST: _____________________________ Jeffrey V. Nieters, City Clerk City Council Workshop Proceedings December 11, 2012 Page 4 of 4