Personnel Committee

1 PERSONNEL COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES 2 Wednesday, June 4, 2025 3 (Approved) 4 5 1. Call to Order 6 The June 4, 2025 meeting of the Personnel Committee was called to order by Chair Louise Howson at 7 11:00 A.M. 8 9 2. Roll Call 10 Present: Chair Howson and member Kurt Harff. 11 12 Staff: Village Administrator Julie Schmelzer, Administrative Assistant Sarah Bertges and Clerk Heidi Teich 13 14 3. Approval of the Agenda 15 A motion was made by Harff seconded by Howson that the Agenda for the June 4, 2025, meeting of the 16 Personnel Committee be approved as presented. Motion carried – all ayes. 17 18 4. Approval of Minutes 19 A motion was made by Howson, seconded by Harff that the minutes of the May 13, 2025, meeting of the 20 Personnel Committee be approved as presented. Motion carried – All ayes. 21 22 5. Comments, correspondence, and concerns from the public 23 No correspondence was received for this meeting. Howson asked if anyone wished to offer any 24 comments and no one responded. 25 26 6. Discussion/Action Items 27 a) Contracts for Supervisors 28 Over the past months, the committee has been discussing the option of utilizing an employment 29 contract for newly hired department heads/supervisors. President Bell was not present to share the 30 samples he had collected, but Schmelzer did obtain a sample supervisor contract from her administrator 31 network. The members reviewed the sample and suggested revisions to make it fit the Village of Sister 32 Bay. Howson reminded the group that any revisions made today should be reviewed by legal counsel 33 before implementation. The committee suggested the following revisions to the sample draft provided: 34 • Item 3 – compensation would be per the adopted compensation schedule for the Village of 35 Sister Bay 36 • Item 4 – should reflect the procedures of the Village of Sister Bay 37 • Item 5 – vacation would be per the procedures of the Village of Sister Bay, including the 38 payment of any earned PTO to a beneficiary in the event of death, also known as a death benefit 39 • Item 10 – the timeline for notice of non-renewal should be amended to 30 days’ notice 40 41 Schmelzer noted that everything included in items 1-10 of the sample were items that were already part 42 of the employee Handbook, so there is no incentive for an individual to sign it. She also shared that the 43 90 days’ notice required for a party to terminate the contract was a non-starter for the current village 44 supervisors, noting a new employer likely would not wait three months for a new employee to start 45 work, and, such provision may only benefit a person who is closer to retirement rather than leaving to 46 go to another position. She proposed the contract include language protecting an employee from being  Minutes of the June 4, 2025 Meeting of the Personnel Committee - approved 1 terminated when an election occurs to avoid new trustees with a ‘grudge’ from terminating good 2 employees. The group continued their discussion on suggested revisions, including: 3 4 • Item 10.a – should specify that no termination can take place within six months of an election 5 where trustees or the village president is elected 6 • Item 10.b - it was noted that Sister Bay employees are all at-will. The inclusion of this clause 7 protects anyone who signs the employment contract agreement as termination then cannot be 8 at-will, and a valid reason or termination must be established. 9 • Item 10.d – needs to clarify what “just cause” for termination would be, and be specific to the 10 employee’s position/role with the village 11 • Item 12 – The use of a village phone should be offered to the employee, but not required 12 • Add an item to state that if a personal phone is used in lieu of a village phone, a stipend should 13 be offered to the employee 14 15 It was the consensus of the committee that the revisions discussed today would be made and brought 16 back to the committee for further review. 17 18 b) 2025 Administrator Evaluation Form & Process 19 A tentative draft of an evaluation form specific to the Village Administrator’s annual evaluation was 20 included in the meeting packet. During review of the draft, it was noted that additional formatting 21 would be applied to make more space for hand-written comments (assuming they would be completed 22 on hard copy). 23 24 A note was made to change the “Supervisor Signature” line to “Supervisor/Trustee Signature”. 25 26 It was the consensus of the committee that the administrator evaluation form be revised as discussed 27 and sent out to the trustees and village supervisors immediately. The deadline to return the form is July 28 2, 2025. 29 30 c) Bonus Wages for Covering Administrative Duties 31 With the departure of Administrative Assistant Janal Suppanz in April, the Personnel Committee has 32 discussed offering a stipend to staff who took on Suppanz’s duties while the search for a new 33 administrative assistant took place. Schmelzer shared that she and Teich, who have been completing 34 those tasks, had discussed the offer and felt that no compensation was necessary as they were working 35 as expected to ensure that the work got done. Therefore, the committee agreed that nothing additional 36 be provided for those covering extra administrative duties for the past couple months. 37 38 d) Budget: Compensation Schedule & COLA 39 A copy of the approved compensation table for the Village of Sister Bay was included in the meeting 40 packet. Schmelzer described the history of the schedule and how it provides a guide for employees to 41 know what to expect in wages, and the potential for additional increases for longevity. The committee 42 who approved the table three years ago intended for the schedule to be reviewed annually, which is the 43 purpose of this discussion today. The current committee members agreed that this method of 44 incentivizing employee wages was appropriate. 45 46 Schmelzer proceeded to discuss the option of including a cost-of-living increase (COLA) to employee 47 wages for the upcoming budget year. In the prior year, staff were given a 2.75% COLA based on the 48 Consumer Price Index (CPI) in place at the time last year’s budget was set. The April 2025 CPI report was 2  Minutes of the June 4, 2025 Meeting of the Personnel Committee - approved 1 included in the meeting packet for reference, and Schmelzer noted that it will be updated again in mid- 2 June. The current CIP is roughly 2.3%, and Howson believes that that number will remain fairly steady in 3 the coming year. She felt that keeping the same rate of 2.75% for budget planning for 2026 would be 4 appropriate. 5 6 It was the consensus of the committee that the 2.75% rate would be reviewed after the June CIP report 7 becomes available. 8 9 e) Staffing Updates and Job Description Discussion 10 Schmelzer explained that the duties currently being undertaken by the Village Clerk include some tasks 11 that would be better suited for a Deputy Treasurer, which was a role held by Suppanz prior to her 12 retirement. The position of Deputy Treasurer is not in the current compensation schedule, and 13 Schmelzer proposed that is be added as the new administrative assistant would be taking on those tasks 14 as a back-up/support to the Finance Director/Treasurer. This would help ease his workload and provide 15 a second set of eyes on documents for checks and balances. 16 17 It was the consensus of the committee that a new line item be added to the compensation schedule for 18 Administrative Assistant/Deputy Treasurer, with a wage to be determined. 19 20 Agenda Item No. 7. Matters to be placed on a future agenda or referred to a committee, official or 21 employee 22 It was the consensus of the committee that the following items be addressed at a future meeting: 23 24 • Review revised draft of the supervisor contract 25 • Discussion on the potential creation of a separate handbook just for supervisors defining tasks 26 that general workers are not responsible for (i.e., filing incident reports) 27 • Review of policies and procedures that are not formalized at this time for possible inclusion in 28 the employee handbook and/or board bylaws 29 • Discussion on a starting wage for an Administrative Assistant/Deputy Treasurer 30 31 Agenda Item No. 8. Next Meeting Date 32 33 The next meeting of the Personnel Committee was scheduled for Wednesday, July 9, 2025, at 11:00 A.M. 34 35 Agenda Item No. 9. Adjourn 36 At 12:22 P.M. a motion was made by Harff, seconded by Howson to adjourn the June 4, 2025, meeting of 37 the Personnel Committee. Motion carried – all ayes. 38 39 Respectfully submitted, 40 41 Heidi Teich, 42 Village Clerk 3