We have um counselor Hudson, Counselor Joan Rowser, Councilor Nave, myself, Councilor Shida Kawa, President, Rita Padiawa, Rick, and I'm sorry, Mike here today.

Okay, let's go.

All right.

Well, good afternoon, Council.

Um for the first time I didn't actually prepare an entire speech because we've always derailed right before I got to it.

So as far as this year, um, we the budget put in front of you is to um essentially maintain our status quo as an HR department um and provide the services at the level that we are now.

You stay pretty flat, right?

Yeah with your budget.

So um let me get down to a real question that was brought to me about an HR position for health specialists.

Okay.

So is that something that you were looking for?

Need a health insurance specialist for HR?

And how we do have one Grace Dwyer right now is our is helping us with benefits.

Um I think the big issue that is probably what they were referencing is the retiree health care um and assisting retirees with benefits once they leave the organization.

That's where we struggle.

Oh retiree.

I didn't get your name.

Uh Mike Messer Smith.

Sorry, this is Mike Messer with you.

Mr.

Smith, my assistant director.

Mike, your assistant director.

So can you tell us about it a little bit about that need?

Because we've been hearing, we've been receiving calls and hearing from different departments.

And when we went to that meeting, remember with the labors and the unions, it that was something they stressed, you know, that they had they don't have a point in person to go to when issues arise in with with medical and processing insurance stuff.

Yep.

So um we don't have a dedicated retiree person in our office right now.

So anytime there is a retiree call-in or concern or issue with benefits, they get put into the mix with everybody else.

Um and we triage accordingly.

Um the issue that we've seen and and most recently in our labor management meeting was that retirees tend to have more severe issues when they do have issues.

Um they are not getting the treatment they need, or they're not getting something approved as fast as they need it to.

Um, and they are usually at the point where that's becoming catastrophic.

Um, and so not having a dedicated person has led us down a few paths of some issues with retirees and the president's and unions that uh represent them.

Um they bring that to our attention in that labor uh labor management meeting.

So um that's the big issue at this point is that once they leave our care, um, they're still under our care, but we don't have anything.

It's part of the package we owe.

Correct.

Yep.

Yeah.

Okay.

So and what would that mean financially if we were to consider that?

Um to pull in somebody to just assist and answer the phones.

Um that position would be in line with um the folks that are in the grade 40 um on our budget sheet, but to pull in somebody that truly understands and and is able to take off um the work that Mike and I are doing on top of answering the phones.

Um you're looking at closer to um like a grade 80.

80 80, sorry, yep.

80k.

Okay.

So where are we?

We're like, oh, go ahead.

I was just gonna ask like, what is your turnaround time from with like um the like grievances and arbitration?

Like what's the time frame in which someone's you know, either you guys submit in or they're submitting, and then you're they're getting to a final decision.

Related to benefits?

Yes.

Oh, okay.

I was thinking grievances on the labor side.

Um ideally we're trying to get it to get to it in 72 hours.

That's our goal, yeah.

Okay.

And some of them, I mean, some might can attest to this better than I can.

Um, since he's come on board last June, May, he's been handling almost exclusively uh benefits stuff.

But our goal is 72 hours.

Some, I mean, we've talked about this in labor management.

Some of these issues take hours upon hours to resolve.

Some are simple.

It's just getting somebody a phone number.

There's a whole array of issues, but um, regardless of the severity, if you will call it that, our goal is at 72-hour turnaround.

And some of those folks that have the easy questions get lumped in and so HR is I mean, you guys do the help piece, you do some of the other discipline pieces.

So fire needs an HR person to help them with theirs.

It's a little different, right?

Police already has one.

How do you guys three?

Yeah.

Two or three.

Two or three.

And fire has none.

Correct.

Um which is we didn't interest it.

Well, they need it.

That's a lot, right?

Um, how do you guys work in relations with that?

And how would that how do you see that being a benefit to helping you guys?

Because I mean it gotta be that the chiefs are working with you guys to really get the answers because that's not they're not HI people.

Correct.

Yeah, so right now we support them to the best of our ability.

Um, but same with police, even though they have a dedicated team, we're you know, we still handle the grievances, we still handle leave, we still handle all of the bigger issues that that come up in the police department.

So, what about labor negotiating uh negotiation?

How's that going?

Good question.

Um so we are currently um we've settled middle managers for three years, so um we're good on that front.

We are still in negotiations with um 47 400, the labor class, 1773, which is the crew leaders, CSEA, um with that is like a little baby asterisks with um crossing guards, they're part of that contract.

Um and then fire and fire chiefs expire in June.

So we're prepping to meet with them, and we are in the middle of skilled trade negotiation as well.

So quite a bit.

And then PBA comes up, uh PBA expires uh 1231 27.

So they'll be next year.

Whoa.

27.

And you guys handle the residency um letters, compliance letters.

Now, is that you are being informed or aware, made aware of someone, or is that like uh use so you send it out, or is it someone request?

Both.

Um so we do the investigation piece if there is a complaint, but we also do our annual residency check where we send a form to everybody, all city employees, and if they are exempt from residency, i.e.

police um or um sanite, anything like that, we use it as just a confirmation of their address so that we have an accurate address on file.

Um, but for everybody that is required to meet the residency, um, that's how we do it.

So with these negotiations with the um, which is um what's by now we're typically ready to go, like what's holding them up?

Um what you can tell me.

So we came to the table um February of last year and said we're ready to negotiate.

Um we started with a handful of them, came to the table right away.

And we the city, we take the stance that we will negotiate whenever the union is ready.

Um so there was a request to essentially caucus um until the fall.

We picked up negotiations again in the fall for those for the handful.

Um, and now we're just it's a long long process, so we're we're kind of delayed.

Because they all all of those contracts except for fire um expired at 1231 of 25.

So they're all out of contract.

That's what I'm saying.

Like we're we're way out of contract.

Yep, and the city was ready to negotiate in February of last year.

So we were done, we're out of contract in 25.

We're halfway.

No, sorry, we 26.

Correct, yeah.

12.

That's what I'm gonna say.

You got me saying 25.

Yeah, 26.

And we're about to, we're halfway through 26, going in at 27.

So how does that um it makes it a little more painful to be behind the eight ball?

Um, it makes negotiations harder.

Um, but it also usually entails some sort of retro payment or retroactivity for um the the time that they missed.

So if there's any wage increases, we can negotiate retro payments um back to one one.

But essentially the the retroactive piece is is painful to not only the union members but to us as well.

So without I don't know if you can answer this question, but is part of the issue, the dollar amount that they're having a hard time negotiate with certain departments.

Yeah, because I'm hearing from people in the community, you know, they're like, we need more, you know, and I and don't get me wrong, you do, right?

But I know we gotta have it too.

So is that holding up some of the um like the local 400 ones and essentially uh right now, yes, that's the biggest issue with the majority of them is the the general wage increases and or adjustments to specific grades or or whatever the proposal is.

So if they don't have a contract, they typically just they're working, but they're working based on the previous 2025 contract.

Okay.

Anybody got any other questions?

You have anything for us, right?

Nope.

Uh like I said, we will just continue to provide the best service we can to our customers, which are constituents and employees.

So and when do you prefer foresee being able to get someone to handle the retiree benefits?

Uh that's a good question.

I think we will continue to try to reallocate our team the best we can to cover what we can to try to make room internally for that um without any adjustments to our budget.

That's the goal.

Um, but 2300 employees plus 3,000 retirees is a lot of people for 12 people to handle.

Right.

So that's what I was saying in the foreseeable future.

Yeah.

Our immediate goal, uh, so we have two vacancies currently.

Um one we made an offer today, so we're in we anticipate um somebody starting in the next couple weeks.

The other one was vacant for about 60 days.

We made an offer.

Um, the person had some personal things come up, so we went went back to the market and we anticipate um in uh and excuse me, an offer going out in the next week or so.

So um the goal is to bring them in, shuffle our workload again, and then see if we can we won't be able to dedicate somebody entirely to retirees, but um somebody spending at least a quarter or a half of their week doing that.

Oh, Rick, go ahead.

If someone is working in under one um grade, but they're also doing a position of another, it that don't aren't they supposed to receive out of title pay.

If it's above, yes.

Yeah, we don't pay for work below, but we pay for work above.

Okay.

So uh just to give an example, like if Mike quit, Mike's job is my job now.

I don't get paid extra for that.

But if I quit and Mike stepped in, Mike would be compensated for uh doing work above his class.

Work above, okay.

And if you're doing more work, you don't get classified for doing somebody else's position.

No, like when Tracy left, Margaret left, and all that it all flows uphill.

We quit and so your position, right?

That makes no sense.

Sorry, one more time.

If you retired, Mike took your position, he's had a higher grade, right?

No, he well, he would move up a grade, yes, if he took my position.

Yes, more work means more work.

Yeah, so the other thing, this safety officer and state what what is that?

Is that the safety officers?

So those are our folks um under Lisa's purview that are out in the field, they're doing training, they're doing spot checks with like anytime there's some uh a major job, they're out on the job site, um, educating our folks, they're doing the um stop the bleed training, defensive driving, all of our regular reoccurring trainings.

Um her folks are handling that.

So they handle through the whole city, yep, or just city hall, because the other departments have their own.

Well, Byron Police have their own safety programs, so it's everybody outside of public safety.

So um DPW, parks, water are the biggest uh users of okay.

You don't have any, just so I didn't see it, but just to clarify, you didn't have any positions under the Sarah budget, right?

Besides this one.

No, we don't.

Okay.

Okay.

Anybody have any questions for your help?

Yeah, of course.

Yeah, I just want to mention all the questions.