Joint Services Study Group

CITY OF NORWALK JOINT SERVICE STUDY GROUP BOARD OF ESTIMATE AND TAXATION - BOARD OF EDUCATION REGULAR MEETING SEPTEMBER 22, 2011 ATTENDANCE: BET: Fred Wilms, Chair BOE: Glenn Iannaccone, Dr. Susan Marks, Superintendent of Schools, Jody Bishop-Pullan STAFF: Thomas Hamilton, Finance Director; Bob Barron, Finance OTHERS: James Haselkamp, Personnel Director CALL TO ORDER Mr. Wilms called the meeting to order at 5:40 p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 10-21-2010 ** MR. IANNACCONE MOVED TO APPROVE THE MINUTES OF OCTOBER 21, 2010 AS SUBMITTED. ** THE MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY. NEW BUSINESS Employee Benefits Administration Dr. Marks said that there were a number of staff reductions in the Central Office and it is important to insure that all employees are enrolled. With the staff reductions, it is difficult to keep up with providing service to families. Having self service and other avenues of getting the information out would be helpful. At one point having an employee who would work for both the City and the BOE had been discussed. Mr. Haselkamp said that he has several concerns about this and went on to give an overview of the differences. He noted that the City has about 600 employees and approximately 300 retirees. His department basically has two people working full time on the benefits. The BOE is more twice the size of the City in terms of employees. Mr. Haselkamp did not think that an additional employee would be enough to handle the increased work load. City Of Norwalk Joint Service Study Group Board Of Estimate And Taxation - Board Of Education Regular Meeting September 22, 2011 Page 1 The BOE has a totally different system for handling their benefits. Dr. Marks then gave a brief overview of how the benefits are overseen in the BOE. She said that the staff frequently directs people to call Anthem or the other providers for information. Mr. Hamilton pointed out that many of the changes came when the BOE chose to change providers from Cigna to Anthem. Mr. Haselkamp said that many municipalities are changing their plans from Anthem to Cigna because of the cost savings. Discussion followed about various plans, contracts and other issues. Dr. Marks said that it was clear to her that the BOE needs to have a Benefits Coordinator position to handle the benefits in the upcoming budget. Mr. Iannaccone and Ms. Bishop-Pullan agreed. Discussion followed. Joint Employee Training Dr. Marks said that she was not necessarily aware of all the training that the City does for the employees. She said that if there were joint opportunities for the BOE staff to join in, she felt it would be good for communication. Mr. Haselkamp said that the City side does not do much training and that it has been some time since computer training was held. Mr. Hamilton said that it would be worthwhile to look it, but that there was no funding. Mr. Haselkamp said that CIRMA does training for the City and it might be good to open it up to the BOE. Discussion followed. Mr. Haselkamp said that he would be willing to sit with the BOE counterpart at the beginning of a year to discuss potential training programs. He said that the BOE had MUNIS come in for training. He added that there were portions of MUNIS that were not activated and this makes the employee folders bulge because of additional paper. Energy Efficiency Mr. Wilms said that he understood that the recycling program had been implemented at all of the schools. Dr. Marks agreed and said all the schools were involved, some to a greater degree than others. The discussion moved to the savings that the City realized with the phones and whether or not the City computers should automatically go into sleep mode after a period of inactivity. Electricity and other energy purchasing has been done in coordination with the BOE. Dr. Marks said that she would like to get the students involved. She said that she was open to new ideas to save on energy Other Financial Operations Mr. Wilms said that he remembered back in March when it was stated that the financial system was broken. He said that it would be important to have a functioning financial system. Mr. City Of Norwalk Joint Service Study Group Board Of Estimate And Taxation - Board Of Education Regular Meeting September 22, 2011 Page 2 Wilms said that he believed that the problem was not necessarily MUNIS but the flow of information. It was pointed out that there were a number of expenses that were not reported until the invoice came in rather than when the contracts or agreements were initiated. This is important in terms of reserving funds to pay these obligations. Mr. Hamilton said that he felt that this was more of an issue regarding processes and procedures. He then gave an illustration of this. Discussion followed about the financial allocation process. Dr. Marks said that the BOE is in dire need of a job reclassification for the secretaries. Mr. Haselkamp then gave his views on it and explained how he handled the issues. He pointed out that now there are no real secretaries, but offices now have administrative assistants to do analysis and deal with details. TAKE ANY ACTION, AS NECESSARY, ON ABOVE AGENDA ITEMS There were no issues to take action on at this time. ADJOURNMENT Mr. Wilms adjourned the meeting at 6:45 p.m. Respectfully submitted Sharon L. Soltes Telesco Secretarial Services City Of Norwalk Joint Service Study Group Board Of Estimate And Taxation - Board Of Education Regular Meeting September 22, 2011 Page 3