Recording started right now.

Thank you.

Welcome to the Civil Service Commission meeting.

Commissioner President Nico Mortio.

We are going to do roll call to confirm commissioner attendance.

When I call your name, please say present.

Commissioner Freeman present.

Commissioner Merrill.

Present.

Commissioner Moore.

Present.

Commissioner Fan is absent today.

And I am present.

Thank you.

Your attendance has been noted.

Also joining us today our personnel director, David Dallagar, Assistant Personnel Director and Lehman Allen.

Senior Deputy City.

There are two items on this morning's closing session agenda.

Are we gonna jump into those?

There's a conference with uh labor negotiators pursuant to California government on section 54957 uh six.

The purpose of this closed session is to review the city's uh position and instruct the design median representatives for labor negotiations regarding proposed revisions to the personnel manual index code D three.

Uh also of appointment, appeal of employment disqualification pursuant to California government code section 549571.

Nicosia S.

Williams, cleaning their conviction record disqualification for the position of recreation leader one, and Elton L.

Wilson, uh appealing their conviction for record disqualification their conviction record disqualification for the position of heavy drug trial one, and if there is anyone who wishes to make a make a public comment on an item on the closed session agenda.

Any um isn't there around one?

Hello, anonymous.

Do you have public comment?

Yes.

Uh go ahead and share your public comment.

I can share it right now.

Uh is it regarding um uh something on the closed session agenda?

Yes.

Okay, yeah, go ahead.

Um, I know that he's not changed.

And I think that it would be a big mistake if the city hires him because he will most likely end up in trouble working for the city.

Okay, um, actually, uh is it this is uh Elton is this in regards to Elton Wilson?

Yes.

Okay, uh we'll go ahead and wait.

Um you can okay, all right.

Go ahead.

I should state our name.

No, no, it does not need go ahead.

Yes.

Um, I know for a fact he's still involved with doing what his criminal record says he did.

I helped him pass his drug test because he was dirty for cocaine.

And like I said, I know for a fact it would be a big mistake for the city to hire him.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Uh are you gonna stay on for the um she did this last closed?

Oh, it's closed session.

Okay, thank you.

We'll take your uh statement into account.

Thank you.

Anybody else?

So do I stay on or do I leave?

Um you can leave.

Uh the meeting will go into closed session, and the regular session will open up at 1 p.m.

Okay.

Yes, he's he's still dealing with drugs, so you guys don't want to deal with him.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

There's no other public comment on Zoom.

Okay.

Uh we will now adjourn.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Um, yeah, we will now adjourn the public session and go into closed session.

Regular business meeting will uh begin at one.

Exactly.

Thank you for coming in.

Oh boy, I'm gonna call the meeting to order.

Recording started ready to begin.

Okay.

Uh welcome to the civil service commission meeting.

I am Commissioner President Luco Bortio.

We are going to do roll call to confirm commissioner attendance.

We'll call you APC present.

Commissioner Freeman.

Present.

Uh Commissioner Merrill.

Present.

Commissioner Moore, present.

I am present.

Thank you.

Your attempts has been noted.

Also joining us today.

Personnel director David Dallager, Assistant Personnel Director again, senior deputy city attorney dean currently assistant to the personnel director, Saba O'Neill.

Um item two is the report of closed session.

I'll call on Saba to read out the report.

I will now report the actions of closed session.

Number one, conference with labor negotiators pursuant to California government code section 54957.

The purpose of this closed session meeting was to review the city position and instruct its designated representatives for labor negotiation negotiations regarding proposed revisions to personal manual index code D3 addendum.

Nothing to report.

Number two, public employment, appeal of employment disqualifications pursuant to California Government Code Section 54957.

A Nicosha S.

Williams appealing their conviction record disqualification to the possession of recreation meter one.

Motion to deny the appeal, passed four-zero.

Commissioner Fan Oxen.

B Alton L Wilson appealing their conviction record disqualification for the position of heavy truck driver one.

Motion to grant the appeal cost four to zero with Commissioner Pan Oxford.

Thank you, Saba.

We will now move on to non-agenda public comment.

Is there anyone who wishes to make a public comment on an item not on the agenda that is within the purview of the civil service commission?

We will take um in-person public comment first and move to public comments via Zoom second.

Anything on Zoom?

No public comment on Zoom.

Okay.

Uh we are going to go ahead and uh make a motion to approve the consent agenda.

So we have a second second.

All right, we have the motion and a second to approve the uh consent agenda.

Uh we'll go ahead and vote.

Commissioner Freeman.

Commissioner Merrill.

Yes.

Commissioner Moore.

Yes.

I am A, yes.

I think uh motion of motion to pass the end of this.

All right.

And we will now move on to our discussion items.

Next is item nine.

Is it good afternoon, commissioners?

Rachel McDonald Hernandez for staff.

Item nine is a review of the fiscal year 2027 salary proposal submitted for study.

For charter section 130, each year the commission submits a report to the city council identifying classifications of employees in the classified service, which merit special salary consideration because of recruitment or retention problems, changes in duties or responsibilities, or other special factors the commission deems appropriate.

Also within the commission's purview is the creation of new classifications, deletions of classifications, and any change in classifications title.

At the February 6, 2025, Civil Service Commission meeting.

The Commission approves staff's recommended salary review process and schedule for the fiscal year 2027.

On February 7th, 2025, staff sent out a request for departments and employee organizations to submit their salary proposals by June 16, 2025.

We received a total of eight proposals.

Staff has conducted a preliminary review of these proposals and recommends that all proposals submitted be approved for further study.

Personnel department staff has also proactively conducted initial analyses and identified 18 classifications that we are recommending for further study.

Staff recommendations are indicated in attachment two of this item.

For those directed by the commission to be studied by staff, we anticipate presenting our recommendations during the October, November, December, February, and March meetings.

Any additional classifications which may be impacted as a result of our recommendations will be agendized at the subsequent meetings.

Staff and their requesters are available in case the commission has any questions.

Thank you.

One note for the commission is item 22 has been withdrawn.

Subitem 22 has been withdrawn from by the fire department.

It's been withdrawn, or are we calling?

Right, thank you.

I had a good question.

Okay, go ahead.

So I was trying to add up eight proposals and 18 classifications.

There's too many states, but that's not the case.

Is there some kind of overlap?

There's the number of classifications, not the number of proposals.

So there's an overlap in there.

Yeah.

Got it.

Okay.

Okay.

That was it.

Okay.

And maybe one may go.

Okay.

Second.

Okay.

We have a motion and a second to approve the review of the um salary study for the fiscal year 2027.

Um, go ahead and vote and vote.

Go ahead and vote.

Uh Commissioner Freeman.

Hi.

Uh, Commissioner Merrill.

Yes.

Commissioner Ward.

Yes.

And I am a yes.

The motion passes me at the C.

Okay, item 10 is next.

Good afternoon, Commissioners.

Darren Keenahan for staff.

The Civil Service Commission has directed staff to provide regular EEO reports as a result of the Equal Employment Opportunity Program adopted by the City Council in 1991.

Item 24, item 24 is the 2024 Equal Employment Opportunity Annual Report, which compares calendar year 2023 data against 2024 data.

First, I'd like to thank everyone who worked to produce this report, especially Brandon Virgin and Christia Davis.

To briefly summarize the report, as of December 20th, 2024, the total number of employees increased from 12,823 to 13,372, equating to 549 additional employees across the city.

By comparing the city population availability on page six of the report to the city representation on page seven, you can see that all of the category all of the categories showed increases in the number of individuals in them, and overall the city met or exceeded city population availability in almost all categories.

As you continue through the report, the citywide representation by occupational category table beginning on page eight shows the city has made slight improvements but still indicates work needs to continue.

Beginning on page 10, the city department by occupational category detail tables also indicates the potential underrepresentation relative to the county labor force availability and city population availability does exist in various categories across various departments.

City and the personnel department is committed to continuing efforts to match city labor force availability and city population availability in all occupational categories.

As you're aware, this report is a snapshot in time.

When we reach our when we had our recruiting section, the personnel department had been able to significantly increase our reach across all council districts in the city and increase our applicant pool.

This resulted in an increase of applications across all categories.

Going forward, our ability to attend recruiting events around the county will be reduced.

However, the overall goal is still to have a city workforce that is an accurate representation of the community it serves.

Regarding the individual department information, staff will provide provide each department director with a copy of their own data and offer assistance and guidance to facilitate securing a diverse workforce.

This includes increasing access to training for interview panels and encouraging a broader advertising approach.

And in other cases, data for the previous year but not the current year.

This is due to the creation of departments and consolidation of other departments in fiscal year 2025.

Staff recommends the commission accept this report and will be happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Um if there are going to be the recruiting efforts are going to be lowered from personnel department, where is the commitment from the departments to have some type of recruitment efforts or presence in the community?

Where's the commitment to increase the numbers still, even if personnel just can't be present?

Uh some departments do have their own recruiting sections.

It is very sporadic, but uh I'm not aware of their plans to make up those uh that shortcoming from the personnel side.

Um I know we will be working with departments as much as we can, um, but obviously the budget restraints are gonna cause issues there, yeah.

With his underrepresentation, I like to see I like the follow-up just to see which departments we see those under representation memo, and then maybe they can tell us if somebody can tell us whatever we may be privately made or not.

Okay, we can follow.

I I will ask you, Commissioner Merrill.

I know Darren's probably gonna say this as well.

We've also reached out to the independent budget analysts.

Uh as we all know, Dre has moved underneath that.

So we've reached out to Charles as well as Kim Desmond, who's back as deputy directory.

So this year, what we're gonna do different is we're gonna also work with them on the letter that we send out to try to give the departments of additional support.

So just know we are shifting to that to kind of loop them in and see what they can do to help as well.

But we'll definitely get you your information requests.

I see the fire department and police they have their information in their back.

So maybe in the future we can invite them to come and explain highlights what's been going on.

Absolutely.

No, no, if the work needs to be done now.

Um, because uh is there a way for us to also know those that are applying?

So it's it's easy to say we're unrepresented, but if they're not applying, we can't select.

So I think that will also tie a thread to the department's commitment to recruit.

Um if we see that you're under served, but they're not even applying whatever whoever they are that population that's under served, it's not being selected because they're not applying because they don't know about it, or you don't have access to apply.

So I think that will also help.

I don't know if we need to do the work to get to that number.

We actually say we actually do have that number.

We did see an increase from 2023 to 2024 across all categories in applications, about a third uh more than the prior year.

So see a parallel in selection, and not to say just because they apply to the selective.

Not necessarily.

Uh it's relatively stable in in most areas in the categories, but um, but like I said, with our recruiting department, we've been able to reach out or had been able to reach out and broaden our applicant pool to increase the opportunity to everybody across the board.

As a direct result of the personnel's recruiting?

Yes.

We went to uh over 200 events last year.

Um and uh every every council district and I think almost every library branch and some park and rec uh centers.

Any more public copies?

I have a couple comments.

Um I see that we have uh it does seem fire and bigger flags pretty badly in categories.

Um but I don't see lifeguards in here as a separate thing.

I know they're under fire because they're figuring out classification and other protective service workers or something like that.

Uh yes, I believe they fall under uh yeah, protective protective service occupants.

So other protective service workers?

Yes, we're gonna contain lifeguards, pool guards, uh lifeguard sergeants, marine safety captains.

Okay, because those seem like they particularly stand out as places that we have major deficits, and we can kind of tell life coming very similarly.

Um so that's the uh I'm glad that's broken out separately.

Um like that to be more so you can tell if you kind of know what you're leaving that it's the lifeguard department, okay.

Um yeah, I think those those that's the one that jumped out and had me as the department of the most specifically the life record.

And we do work with police and lifeguards uh on their recruiting events to assist that outreach.

But police officer numbers were actually better than I thought it was better.

NPD has uh an extensive recruiting division that works very closely with us.

Any uh cover I think.

All right, I think that the item is eleven.

I will uh good afternoon commissioners, David Alligator for staff.

Item 11 is a request for me to update the commission on various personal government related items.

Today I'll share updates that highlight both the improvements we've implemented and our ongoing commitment to continuously recruiting or continuously enhancing the way we hire.

Uh, first, back in December of 2023, my first meeting here, I reported that we expanded our pre-implan medical evaluations to include the current mixa or the concentric facility in Chula Vista, giving our candidates a second option beyond the current makes the definition.

At the time, this was an important step forward in making the process more accessible and convenient to candidates, and I shared our commitment to continuing to improve this process.

Since then, we've made even greater progress as of July 1 of this year.

All non-Torn candidates have access to any of the 13 consensual locations across San Diego County.

This expansion has significantly improved convenience and flexibility for applicants by allowing them to choose a site that better works for their location or scheduling.

It's also helped reduce barriers to completing this critical step in the hiring process.

In addition to expanding facility access, we introduced a live electronic scheduling system.

Previously scheduling required us to block out time for a double vote, and only one person at a time can manage events.

Now the system allows multiple staff to schedule appointments simultaneously, whether they're in the office or an off-site one-stop shop, all with the same real-time information.

This is streamlined operations for staff, eliminating scheduling conflicts, and made the entire process more efficient.

We've also partnered with Concentra to give them direct access to the system.

In the past, we would email them schedules three different times a day before the appointment, which was inefficient, error-prone, and often resulted in multiple call calls back and forwards and declared.

With this new approach, consenture can log in directly and see who is scheduled at which location in the real time.

This shift has eliminated confusion, reduced administrative workload, and improved communications between our teams.

Taken together, these changes have not only made the process more convenient for candidates, but also more efficient and accurate for staff and conceptual.

Even when we make a significant enhancement, we'll always continue to try to make it better.

Building on that same philosophy, we also launched, as you all know, a pilot program with validation requirements.

On January 2nd, we began testing the process enhancements with the six departments.

The timing was both a challenge and an opportunity.

The city's strategic hiring went into effect just before launch, which limited our ability to gather the data.

However, it also gave us time to train departments and staff and work out system issues without the high pressure of high pressure volume hire.

While we weren't able to measure any impact immediately, the extra time allows us to strengthen the foundation of the program.

So with the FY26 budget adoption in the higher entries lifted in July, we're now in a much better position to evaluate the pilot.

Working with NEA as well as city administration, we extended that pilot through the end of the year to ensure sufficient time and volume to make solid data-driven decisions about a city library.

Together, these two efforts reflect our broader commitment to removing barriers for candidates, improving efficiency for staff, and making decisions based on data.

Each initiative builds on the idea that better processes not only improved the candidate experience, but also help departments fill positions more effectively, which is critical to the city's ability to deliver key services.

We'll continue to monitor the progress closely and keep you updated on both uh programs as we move forward.

With that, I'm happy to hear any comments or answer recognition.

Has the personal department had any focus on the hiring or promotional process?

That's from that from the beginning of forming a uh interview panel to selection to feedback.

Have you guys looked at that at all?

Yes, so that's part of the pilot.

Is that's what the house station is going to be doing or is doing already?

Is they're actually driving the departments.

So they hold a bi-weekly meeting with the executive leadership of the department, and then make the funding authorities make the decision on the spot.

Are you gonna fill the position?

Are you holding it for budget savings?

Are you looking to reprocess?

Once that decision is made in that meeting, the analyst then goes back and they're wanting to fill the position.

Our analyst creates a certification and approves it for the cells.

The old process was the department would tell a payroll specialist or an analyst or an HR analyst or a program coordinator, whoever it may be, to go put in a cert, it would come to our analysts, our analysts will review it, make corrections, work back with that person who submitted the cert to make sure they were in line with the corrections, and then that cert would then go to the appointment authority for approval.

Now, if you were anything like me as an appointment authority, I would then have to be paying by my employees seven times before I go back.

So what we're doing now is we go in, we create the cert, we cut out all that time, and we also drive that process so they aren't waiting to do it.

In addition to that, once the cert is created, or as the cert is being ready to be promulgated or sent over to the department, we're also driving and having meetings with the department to get their interview questions together, get the screening criteria together, come up with the letter to candidates explaining what the job is, where the job is, what time what the hours are.

So now we're taking that approach to drive that part of the province.

And to recall, we had um the audit showed that it took 100 nine days for departments from time of vacancy to requesting a sort of 100 nine days.

So our goal by driving that portion is to really chop that down to hopefully two weeks if we're doing it iteratively every two weeks.

So to cut out 90 plus days on that platform.

The other big chunk was the part from certification to uh interview, those 97 days.

So that's where our focus comes in on also driving them once they get the list to try to get the interview actually completed in a timely manner.

So we're we're hitting the two biggest numbers because that seems to be where the most need is on the phone at the moment, and so that's what we're really focusing on as we go through the pilot.

So that was a long way of saying yes.

Okay, okay.

I mean, you know, doing the pay study uh issues that were brought up, you know, the concerns are about second interview processes that were in place, and we form interviews and the feedback to candidates, that kind of stuff, which is sort of on the lower end, you know.

But still it's not, it's very important, and so that is another thing that the outstation people are doing.

Is what they're calling it is ghosting.

Yeah, so it's like when a candidate applies and is not applies and just goes in the void and is never contacted back, right?

They didn't get an interview, nobody closed the loop.

Yeah, it's also working with the departments to close the loop.

Hey, thank you for applying.

If you weren't offered an interview time, or if you're interviewed, you weren't selected to keep trying.

So that is one of the things that also focuses on.

Uh I still get feedback from some employees or potential employees or people who try to get the motive that they never got being bad, you know.

Somebody got hired, they never heard bad.

Not all the time, but when it happens to you, it's important.

No, absolutely, that's that's been feedback we've received a lot.

Yeah, um, so we're definitely working hard on that with our outstation pilots.

It's a slim number of departments at the time at the moment, but that is our goal to stop that.

Okay, are we still um are we under neocard?

Yes, is that has that where's that contract at?

Like or is it something that have robot?

Yes.

We are currently in negotiations, so we have to go, we're looking to expand the scope of what our API can do, and so we are currently in negotiations.

I do believe that it can track some of this and make some of this automated through training and all the things.

So it's a matter of more work on the front end, we'll cut these numbers out.

Have we looked at alternatives to or joint responsibility and can be having dates and interview dates pre-selected and identified, so we're not figuring that out.

And once again, it's selected, and then we're sitting here farming out looking for dates.

Like have we looked at when you move and progress people forward through a system neo go?

There are ways for some of that to be auto-triggered, so we're not having candidates not know their status.

You might run out of people, the bandwidth for people to keep calling back because we're doing other things, but the system can do some of this.

Where are we maximizing the system?

Yes, and so I will double check with our outstation staff and have them make sure they are testing that out.

Uh, I will say, as far as NeoGu or the RFP that we're currently in negotiations with, one of our requirements was the expanded um applicant um possibilities that you talked about.

We actually put that in our RFP asking for like onboarding what the onboarding is, what recruiting is so we went forward with trying to get the most use out of the system, whatever our app contracting system will be, which has not historically been done.

So we've kind of got the pair of bones.

Now we're trying to go for something that actually has more use, more life cycle of data.

That's what we have now, or that's one of the things we're initiated.

That's well, no, it's part of our RIP.

Okay, so we just we have to go to count, we have to get through the negotiations and go to council for it to be official.

But one of our requirements was these were the additional features, additional features for that contracting system.

There's train is there training for those that are going to be conducting the interviews.

Yes, there's an AIT training.

Okay.

In that AAIT training, like how many days that can it be expanded or added to where there's if you're going to be on an interview panel or if you're a hiring manager, you have to have mandatory NeoGov training so you know how to use it, maximize it.

If you input letters, there are templates when you move people through, letters are happening, like making sure that there's a mandatory training component to that AAIT training, not exhaustive or whatever, something that's reasonable, people have things to do, but that's going to help in that turnaround time, and it's going to help in who we're losing.

So we're also might be losing qualified individuals that they need a job, and we're sitting here, we're applying, but now our numbers are looking off because I don't have seven months to wait for people to get back to me.

I have to accept this offer.

We're not even giving people the opportunity to work for an amazing agency because we're too we're not moving fast.

So the answer is now is no, but that is something we're moving to.

I've had uh um conversation with city administration, right?

Because that's going to be a weak confer issue.

So I've had conversations with them.

We want to utilize NeoGov the way it is, and we want the way it shouldn't utilize, not the way it currently is.

And on top of that, we need the city administration to help us with the hammer to make sure people are using it correctly.

And with that, when we get that locked in, the goal is to have people to have to take the mandatory training to be able to utilize all the functions of NeoGo prior to them being able to get on the search.

So you have to know how to use the system prior to you getting on the search.

We aren't there yet, but that is our long-term goal.

So we um so I hear hiring pedals, um, it's usually a different thing.

So a hiring penalty includes um, is it does it include the analyst uh from personnel in that in that hiring panel, or is it just the manager and the uh the hiring manager or a manager there?

How does that work?

So generally speaking, the three-person panels is not generally included for personnel or HR, it tends to be whoever the appointing authority who's responsible for the interview wants to be on the interview panel.

Generally speaking, you'll have at least two technical people, so there can always be a third one for other reasons.

Um it's so they like you're gonna expect them to be the training.

Absolutely.

Okay, they they have to now.

So in order to sit on it to be a chair of an energy panel, you must take 20 authority interview training, okay, which is a one-day class.

Um and to that point, uh, we also are working on updates to the point authority interview training where we are lessing the burden on staff to make it easier and quicker and more efficient for the staff performing interviews.

So you'll have well I'm I'm talking about people that that are gonna be interviewed to have the uh you know um interface with NeoGov or probably just that time, right?

This is when they're when they're when they're uh during the interview time, and then you're definitely the personnel like will have something designed to help them when they're when they do have the interface after the interview.

Yeah, so so we do we do have a new government section here as one person, maybe half a brand as well.

Um so yeah, we we definitely do have that interface.

Um, but that's what we're working on right now, is getting our liaison analysts up to speed on how to use the system fully, right?

Because we can't expect the departments to be able to use it fully until we know how to use it.

Once we get them training up, and then hopefully we're able to roll out these features citywide with or without allocation, then they're gonna have the direct contact to be able to reach out to the personnel to walk them through step by step.

And what we found with other things we've um put online and made workflows with they generally in the beginning, it seems like you're doing all the work, right?

As they're learning, but as you get a month, two months out, they then know how to do it themselves and they can handle themselves.

So we're gonna expect when we do make the change that there will be a spike in need that will slower over time.

So we are working on a bunch of different trainings and videos, and we are gonna be reaching out to the to see what they have as well available that's already can training, but we're trying to get a training basis and workflow so people also have that as a tool if their liaison analysis isn't available at that point.

So we're we don't want to uh let uh perfect be the enemy of better here, but we also want to make sure we're set up resistance.

Uh any more public comments?

Okay, uh item 12.

Do you have more in?

Nothing today.

Nothing today?

All right, let's adjourn.