Personnel Committee

1 PERSONNEL COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES 2 Wednesday, January 8, 2025 3 (Approved Version) 4 5 Agenda Item No. 1. Call to Order 6 The January 8, 2025 meeting of the Personnel Committee was called to order by Chair Louise 7 Howson at 11:05 A.M. 8 9 Agenda Item No. 2. Roll Call 10 Present: Chairperson Howson and members Nate Bell and Lilly Orozco. 11 12 Staff: Village Administrator Julie Schmelzer and Clerk Heidi Teich 13 14 Agenda Item No. 3. Approval of the Agenda 15 A motion was made by Bell, seconded by Orozco that the Agenda for the January 8, 2025 meeting of the 16 Personnel Committee be approved as presented. Motion carried – All ayes. 17 18 Agenda Item No. 4. Approval of Minutes 19 A motion was made by Bell, seconded by Orozco to approve the minutes of the December 17, 2024 20 meeting of the Personnel Committee as presented. Motion carried – all ayes. 21 22 Agenda Item No. 5. Comments, correspondence, and concerns from the public 23 No correspondence was received for this meeting and no additional comments were shared. 24 25 Agenda Item No. 6. Discussion/Action Items 26 27 a) Personnel Committee Bylaws 28 The committee proposed language for bylaws specific to the personnel committee at a prior 29 meeting, and that language was included in the packet for additional discussion at this meeting. 30 During discussion, the committee agreed that item no. 2 should be revised as follows (bolded 31 text added): 32 33 2. Review and establish employee recruiting, hiring, and retention procedures, including review of 34 resumes, observation of interviews of department heads by a member of the committee (typically the 35 Chair) or their designee, and above, and participating in all Department Head Exit Interviews. 36 37 It was decided that item no. 4 of the proposed bylaws be amended as follows: 38 39 4. Develop, approve, review and annually update personnel policies in the Personnel Handbook 40 annually, as needed. 41 42 Regarding the proposed updates to the committee description, the committee determined that 43 item (b) will need to be discussed further after the Personnel Handbook is reviewed and a final 44 procedure for addressing grievances is set. It was clarified that the only time the board would 45 be the first contact in a grievance would be if the grievance was with the administrator. All 46 other grievances will be addressed by the supervisor, if among general employees, or the 47 administrator, if the complaint is with the immediate supervisor.  Minutes of the January 8, 2025 meeting of the Personnel Committee - approved 1 The committee discussed their authority regarding requests for new positions, as set forth in 2 item (c) of the committee description. They agreed that any recommendations that come from 3 their review should be referred to both the Finance Committee and the Board of Trustees, and 4 that language should be added to the committee description. 5 6 b) Personnel Handbook 7 Schmelzer prepared a tentative draft of the Personnel Handbook which was included in the 8 meeting packet for the members to review. She explained that after this committee has agreed 9 on a good draft, it will be reviewed by the HR consultant for legal issues. 10 11 During the review of Schmelzer’s edited handbook proposal, the committee determined that the 12 following changes be made: 13 14 • “Stand-by Duty” shall be removed completely. 15 • Compensation for “Call Back” shall only be offered for weekends (Friday, Saturday, 16 Sunday) and holidays. In the event the scheduled On Call employee is not able to report 17 and another employee covers that duty, the responding employee shall be entitled to the 18 Call Back pay. 19 • The maximum accumulation cap on Compensatory Time shall be no greater than 80 20 hours. 21 • The offer of a Flexible Spending Account option shall be removed completely. 22 • Payments in lieu of benefits for employees who are Medicare-eligible shall cease as of 23 December 31, 2025. 24 25 Additional research on the legality of requiring medical examinations and drug testing will be 26 done. Schmelzer will also research the current social media laws to ensure that the handbook 27 contains the most relevant information. In a future draft of the Personnel Handbook, Schmelzer 28 will also provide a hierarchy to follow regarding employee terminations for the committee to 29 review. 30 31 In reviewing the Grievance Procedure in the draft handbook, the committee requested that the 32 first paragraph of item no. 4 conclude with the following (bolded text added): 33 34 “…-in such case the 7 workday filing may not be possible and a special exception may be made by the 35 Administrator, or Personnel Committee Chair, if the matter has been referred to them.” 36 37 Discussion on the proposed Personnel Handbook will continue at a future meeting. 38 39 c) Update: Code Compliance Officer 40 An offer has been extended, and approved, to hire Carla Heck, a resident of Ephraim, for the 41 Code Compliance Officer position. Ms. Heck will begin work on March 17, 2025. 42 43 Agenda Item No. 7. Matters to be placed on a future agenda or referred to a committee, official 44 or employee. 45 46 It was the consensus of the committee that the following items be addressed at a future meeting: 47 2  Minutes of the January 8, 2025 meeting of the Personnel Committee - approved 1 • Continued discussion on revisions to the Personnel Handbook 2 • Discussion on new formats for general staff, supervisor/department head and 3 administrator performance evaluation forms 4 • The Personnel Review of the Village Administrator shall be referred to the Village Board 5 for their January meeting. 6 7 Agenda Item No. 8. Next Meeting Date 8 The next regular meeting of the Personnel Committee will take place on Wednesday, January 29, 9 2025 at 2:00 P.M. 10 11 Agenda Item No. 9. Adjourn 12 A motion was made by Orozco, seconded by Bell to adjourn the January 8, 2025 meeting of the Personnel 13 Committee at 12:50 P.M. Motion carried – all ayes. 14 15 Respectfully submitted, 16 17 Heidi Teich 18 Village Clerk 3