Civil Service Commission Meeting

MINUTES CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION MEETING MARCH 3, 2021 12:30 a.m. A meeting ofthe City of Madeira Beach Civil Service Commission was held at 12:30 a.m.. March 3. 2021. in the Patricia Shontz Commission Chambers at City Hall, located at 300 Municipal Drive, Madeira Beach. Florida. MEMBERS PRESENT: Robert Preston Judithanne McLauchlan Gene Embler MEMBERS ABSENT: Michael Cavallaro.Chair Linda Hein CITY STAFF PRESENT: Robert Daniels.City Manager Clara VanBlargan. City Clerk Sean Lilly. Human Resources Director Attorney Rob Eschenfelder.Trask Daigneault. L.L.P, 1. CALL TO ORDER Robert Preston called the meeting to order at 12:37 p.m. 2. ROLL CALL City Clerk Clara VanB|argan called the roll. She reported Chair Michael Cavallaro resigned and that a new Chair and Vice-Chair needed appointing. 3. PUBLIC COMMENT Robert Preston opened to public comment. There were no public comments. 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. 2021-01-12, Civil Service Commission Meeting Minutes Judithanne McLauchlan motioned to approve the meeting minutes for January I2. 2021 Civil Service Commission meeting. Gene Embler seconded. ROLL CALL: .ludithanne McLauchlan “YES" March 3, 2021. Civil Service Commission Meeting Minutes Page 1 of5  Gene Embler “YES” Robert Preston “YES” The motion carried 3-0. 5. APPOINTMENT OF VICE CHAIR Gene Embler motioned to appoint Robert Preston to serve as Chair. Judithanne McLauchlan seconded the motion. ROLL CALL: Gene Embler "YES" J udithanne McLauchlan “YES” Robert Preston "YES" The motion carried 3-0. J udithanne McLauchlan motioned to appoint Gene Embler to serve as Vice Chair. Chair Robert Preston seconded the motion. ROLL CALL: J udithanne McLauchlan “YES” Chair Robert Preston "YES" Gene Embler "YES" The motion carried 3-0. 6. Rewrite of employee personnel manual by the Labor Attorney and recommended changes for adoption Robert Daniels, City Manager — Chair Robert Preston said each member reviewed the draft personnel policy and submitted their comments for the packet. He welcomedthe new part-time Humans Resources Director, Sean Lilly. He commented that a good HR Director is a mediator between the administrationand employees. City Manager Robert Daniels suggested that each member read their comments into the record since they were prepared at home and submitted for the packet. The Chair said they could read them as they review the handbook. The City Manager said the new HR Director, Sean Lilly, had an opportunity to go through the old handbook and the new policy that the Civil Service Commission has been working hard on and made changes. Director Lilly comes with a lot of experience and certi?cations, so he values his opinion. It's like when E.F. Hutton talks, everyone listens. Director Lilly said the purpose of having a new handbook had not been communicated to him. The currentpolicy is much clearer and precise, whereas the new one is much detailed and less easy to read. The new one is from Manatee County, which has 2,000 employees. They are much larger March3, 2021, Civil Service Commission Meeting Minutes Page 2 of 5 than the City of Madeira Beach. There are policies in the current handbook that need updating and some in the new one that seems overkill. They need ?exibility and not be locked in. The handbook is supposed to re?ect the City's practices, and he is not sure of what that is yet since he has only been with the City for two and half weeks. He suggested slowing down and ?guring out what is needed. Chair Preston said the City Charter requires the Civil Service Commission to meet four times a year to review personnel policies and procedures. The Board of Commissioners directed the Labor Attorney to come up with something different and workable. Director Lilly said policies are constantly rewritten and updated. The handbook is supposed to be understandable to all employees. Attorney Rob Eschenfelder said the project started because of a discrete issue. Their law ?rm inherited the personnel policy when they took over as the City Attorney's office. He has done labor and employment law since 1994 for cities and counties in Florida, both in-house and ?rm- based and has litigated probably 80 cases in state and federal court, so he has lots of experience. In discussion with City Attorney Trask and the Mayor, the suggestion was to bring their concerns to the Board of Commissioners. The Board voted unanimously to instruct their ?rm to set aside the old policy and start writing a new one from scratch. There needs to be more coordination between their of?ce and the City's management before appearing before the Civil Service Commission, and that should have been done before having this meeting. It is the first time hearing there is a new HR Director. He has never met the HR Director nor spoken to him. He has no idea what the HR Director's granular concerns are. Now that they are probably 60% through the process, they are to go back and scrap the new draft policy and tweak the current policy, which he does not recommend, and it is not what the Commission voted. If the City Manager and the new HR Director would like to take that to the City Commission and get a different direction from them, they can. He is only present to give advice. Attorney Eschenfelder said speaking to complexity and length; he only advises from experience to try putting the things in the policy that generallydo not come up. When the issue does come up, they have it in writing. The new policy is something he produced, and they have been going through it, making tweaks at the Civil Service Commission meetings. Now that they are 60% through the process, he is being told they will tweak the old handbook. To address the comment about having ?exibility instead of being locked in, it would help to know what ?exibility is needed and what City management fears being locked in. From his experience as a litigator, many lawsuits and grievances come because management wanted ?exibility. Flexibility can morph into unequal treatment and inconsistency between departments. It is legally important for him to tell his clients that things must be done in a certain way or open themselves up. It is important to put in the policy things that do not usually come up, not just things that generally happen, to have something in writing when they do come up. Consistency and certainty are essential. If there are speci?c things that the HR Director felt are too locked in, it would have been helpful to have been told that. It should have been worked out before the meeting. Both management and the legal counsel need to agree. Now that management's recommendation is to go with an entirely different document, he cannot talk about the one he produced. He apologized to the Civil Service Commission that they had to go through that. March 3, 2021, Civil Service Commission Meeting Minutes Page 3 of 5 Chair Preston said the new document did seem to have more guidelines and stricter rules. There should have been better communication between the attorney and management. Things should have been worked out before bringing the document to them. The Labor Attorney is the expert that defends the City, and the HR Director is the mediator between the City and the employees. Most attorneys do not make it easy for the employees. They want to protect the City at all costs. Understandably there is litigation, but there must be some fairness. The meeting should be postponed until the Labor Attorney, new HR Director, City Manager, and possibly Karen Paulson, the former HR Director, meet and come up with something agreeable before bringing it back to the Civil Service Commission to review. City Manager Robert Daniels said there was a freshlook at everything by the new HR Director. He did not mean any disrespectto the Labor Attorney or the Civil Service Commission. He is only wanting the best product to protect the City and the employees. With Mr. Lilly's expertise, he hit the ground running. Gene Embler said their comments submitted could be helpful, and they should go through them before adjourning so everyone is on the same page. Chair Preston said their comments could be incorporated into the new document, but now some comments may no longer be valid, so it would not be worth the time going through them. There is not a deadline to come up with a new document. In the meantime, they continue using the current policy. Judithanne McLauchlan asked why there had been a sense of urgency to rewrite the document. Attorney Eschenfelder said there are things in the current policy that are not legal that should not be in there, along with other things that should not be in there. In terms of urgency, he does not want it done piecemeal. There should be a completely new product asap. His role is to worry about the worst-case scenario, and he is concerned about a few things if they should come up and they are not prepared. It would be more productive to come to the committee with a workable and agreeable document. In terms of employees being used to something, change always happens. It is the responsibility of management to ensure the employees understand the policy and what it does. Vice Chair Embler said she would like a sense of urgency placed on it because she shares the concern that there are things in the current policy that put them at risk. Even if they do not have an official date to meet, she would like them to act as if they did to move the process along. The Chair said the timeframe would depend on the City Attorney, City Manager, and the HR Director. The City Manager said he planned to meet on it next week and move things around on his schedule if he must. The goal is to develop the best policy to work with to tweak as they go and not overhaul it. He can update the Board of Commissioners in the City Manager's Report for the March 10, BOC Regular meeting. The next Civil Service Commission meeting was scheduled for Monday, April 12, 2021, at 10:30 a.m. 7. ADJOURNMENT Chair Preston adjourned the meeting at 1:26 p.m. March 3, 2021, Civil Service Commission Meeting Minutes Page 4 of 5  - ATTEST: (//g4.['[,/W Q04; 1_:,-1b/_,;y/ lwzgsx Cl21ra\V§nBl\argan, City Clerk/Secretary E ?clo March 3, 2021, Civil Service Commission Meeting Minutes Page 5 of5