City Council

Mayoral Veto  CITY OF MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. Mayor Office SHAWYN PATTERSON-HOWARD City Hall, One Roosevelt Square MALCOLM CLARK Mayor Mount Vemon. NY. 10550 Chief of Staff (914) 665-2362 - Fax: (914) 665-6173 January 5, 2024 2:: m C, g2) Honorable City Council City Hall, One Roosevelt Square Mount Vernon, Ny 10550 Dear Honorable City Council Members, As the city moves in the direction of implementing and performing annual employee reviews, it is important that certain factors are considered as we embark on this venture. My initial thoughts of the policy itself, clearly reflected and complements the Employee Performance Program that was shared. However, as with any policy, it is important that we understand how the city positions itself to result in adoption vs. contention. Pursuant to Article V50-2 Employee MeritAward Board from the City Code, it is the City's intent to recognize and reward those employees whose performance has been exemplary. Therefore, the Employee Performance Evaluation should not read as punitive or intimidating to the employees, but rather seen as the first step to the 2"d step of employee merit award. From the view of showing employees when they perform at their best in their roles, they can be rewarded, this could in turn gain their support and buy in of the program, which opens the Unions to this implementation. The policy itself reads fine, it would need to support legislation so the legislation itself would need to be written with clear definition and purpose to show the relationship between this implementation and the existing Employee Merit Award policy. I believe that an opportunity has been identified to connect the two policies which would work seamlessly and starve off negative point of views. Regarding rolling out the program itself, I do believe that trying to implement this instantly would not work best administratively, as there are known and unknown variables that could interrupt smooth implementation and contribute to negative response. Therefore, it would be recommended that steps be taken to roll out this program in a way that affords Executive leadership, employees, and unions the opportunity to prepare and understand the purpose, reason, and results. Steps for consideration: 1- Thoroughly reviewing and revamping with appropriate leaders the program, the guiding policy and the legislation to be created, to ensure that it has no punitive nature and is structurally and operationally functional. 2- There would need to be training of the Executive Leaders and Supervisors/Manager who will be performing these appraisals. 3- The employees in general would need to be made aware of this program and its purpose and the end goal of its implementation.  CITY OF MO{JNT VERNON, ISJ.y. Mayor Office SHAWYN PATTERSON-HOWARD City Hall, One Roosevelt Square MALCOLM CLARK Mayor Mount Vernon. NY. 10550 Chi4 of Staff (914) 665-2362 - Fax: (914) 665-6173 4- With the employees being aware, this will also afford the unions the opportunity to warin up to this implementation and understand how their members can benefit from it. Estimated Timeline: January- February - finalization of the program, policy, and the legislation to ensure cohesiveness. March -April - Training of leadership on how to manage tlie program, how to execute the program, how to prevent biases or influences and other skill-based tips to be able to navigate the program. May- Employee Awareness, discussions, either by departments or by roles, but a clear presentation that allows the employees to better understand purpose and result. June - Prep for implementation for the 4' quarter as the city workforce overall will be ready for implementation of the program and expectations are clearly understood. By this point the unions would have been able to voice any concerns and to understand this policy will become a City-wide implementation. As of right now, I veto the policy but ask that the Human Resources Chair meet with the HR Commissioner as well as the Chief of Staff to further discuss the needed tweaks, policies, and a roll out plan. In Service, Shawyn Patterson-Howard, MPA Mayor - City of Mount Vernon, NY CC: Human Resources Comptroller Chief of Staff