General Counsel Commission

MINUTES GENERAL COUNSEL COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING OF JUNE 21, 2023 Present: Council Member Carta, Council Member Nocera, Council Member Blackwell, and Council Member Salafia. Staff: Deputy General Counsel, Kori Wisneski, Director of HR, Justin Richardson Public: None 1. Call to Order: Meeting was called to order at 5:33 p.m. 2. Public Comment: None 3. Approval of April 19, 2023 Special Meeting Minutes Council Member Nocera made a motion to approve the minutes and Council Member Blackwell seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. 4. Old Business A. Residency Ordinance Discussion Council Member Nocera kicked off the residency ordinance discussion. He explained that the Democratic caucus was divided and majority want to leave the ordinance as is. Council Member Salafia spoke for the Republican caucus and stated that they are ok with leaving the ordinance as is as well. More discussion ensued. B. Fair Rent Ordinance – Current Draft and Discussion Council Member Nocera started the discussion, but was having connection problems. Council Member Blackwell recommended that in section 14-73B the language regarding having knowledge of the residential real estate market in the City be removed from the paragraph. Council Member Blackwell also questioned how certain aspects of the ordinance would be operationalized. More specifically, how the payments that will go into the escrow account will be set up. Attorney Wisneski suggested working with the Finance Department and Liberty Bank to set up an account specifically for the commission. Also, the commission would have to set up an order and process. More discussion ensued regarding the Mayor’s discretion on term selections. Council Member Salafia suggested that under section 14-74A of the ordinance, there should be language that mentions to work with the Finance department to establish and maintain an escrow account, and authorize withdrawals. Attorney Wisneski came up with language that states to work with the Finance department to establish and maintain an escrow account with a local bank or financial institution into which it shall deposit all rent charges or other funds paid to pursuant to section 14-77 herein and in accordance with city financial policies. Council Member Blackwell brought up another question regarding the line stating that members of the commission shall serve without compensation, but may be reimbursed by action of the common counsel for reasonable expenses incurred in the performance of their duties in this commission. She suggested that this language be removed. Attorney Wisneski explained that she recalled this language came from Anti- Racism Co-Chair Sacha Armstrong Crockett and that this language was not part of the model ordinance. More discussion ensued. Council Member Nocera made a motion to remove the sentence pertaining to having knowledge of the real estate market and Council Member Blackwell seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Council Member Salafia made a motion to add the language regarding Finance establishing the escrow account and Council Member Blackwell seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Council Member Blackwell made a motion to remove the language in section 14- 73B regarding compensation of commission members and Council Member Nocera seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Council Member Blackwell made a motion to approve the ordnance with the changes and Council Member Nocera seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. 5. Other A. Recruitment Efforts Director Richardson introduced the outreach efforts made by the HR division. He explained that on June 2nd, HR was at the 75th Anniversary for the Little League Baseball. Cayla Jones and he also staffed the Middletown Pride event on June 3rd. HR also held some outreach events at the Library and Cayla attended the Juneteenth Liberation Day festival at Harbor Park on June 19th. Director Richardson also updated the commission on the give-aways that we bought with the new budget. More discussion ensued regarding the different ways that jobs are posted. Council Member Blackwell raised the idea of different universities having their own way to link up with other universities and organizations. Director Richardson explained that HR used a program called Handshake, which is a community and state college network for posting jobs. More discussion ensued on what HR is doing to get people to apply for jobs regardless of whether they 2 feel they are qualified or not. B. Onboarding Discussion Council Member Blackwell started the onboarding discussion. She suggested that the city come up with either a handbook or some sort of materials to give to onboard new employees. She also asked the question of what directors have to do or what do new employees have to receive when they are being onboarded to a new division. Director Richardson explained that they are redesigning their onboarding process to make it digital. He explained that there is a checklist of things that need to be filled out such as payroll documents, and insurance documents. There are policies that new employees need to be aware of and sign off on, such as the Personnel Rules, relevant Union contracts, Affirmative Action policies, and Zero Tolerance policies. He further goes on to explain that they have been in talks with the Mayor regarding succession planning and making sure there are SOPs for each department. More discussion ensued. Attorney Wisneski further explained that the talks with the Mayor have been to get department heads to work with their employees on plans when people retire and leave. Manuals should be made and by people within those departments. She explained that we are starting to tape our trainings and may start to have quarterly meetings with new employees and bring in Payroll, IT, the Equal Opportunity and Diversity Management Office, Risk, and HR to do introductions. Cayla started to reach out to new employees to ask what worked or what didn’t work when starting, and what training was needed. More discussion ensued. 6. Adjournment: Council Member Nocera made a MOTION to adjourn and Council Member Blackwell seconded the motion. The meeting adjourned at 6:33 p.m. 3