The Human Resources and Information Technology Committee met 03/08/2023. As was the case for most of the committee meetings that week, it was a short meeting. It consisted of one action item and two information items.
I’ve prepared a complete transcript of the meeting for download.
ACTION ITEM: REQUEST FOR OVER HIRE OF RESIDENTIAL BUILDING INSPECTOR POSITION
This over hire would only last for a week it not only a couple days, and the reason for the over hire was for customer service and training purposes. The cost was estimated to, at most, be $1,919 and would be covered with unused salary dollars.
Customer Service – A residential building inspector works very closely with all of the local home builders for issuing permits and performing inspections for new homes. The builders understand the soon-to-be retired inspector’s system and expectations well and they have a very good relationship with him. They wanted the new inspector to work with the retiring inspector so that he could at least get an idea of how the old guy worked and let that inform his interactions with builders.
Training – The new inspector is from North Carolina. He is qualified and has multiple certifications, including certification in the International Residential Code. Every single state in the United States has adopted the International Residential Code…except Wisconsin. Wisconsin uses the Uniform Dwelling Code which is very similar, but there are subtle differences. Staff would like to work with the new hire on some of those changes ahead of time before setting him loose.
The plan was that the new employee come to Appleton later this month during the last working week of the retiring inspector. This would give him an opportunity to work with him and get some of this training done. Then he would return to North Carolina and work on moving up to Appleton with his wife. He would start work in late April after the move was completed.
The committee was supportive of the over hire, and actually expressed concern that one week was not enough time. Inspections Supervisor Kurt Craanen agreed that more time would be nice, but realistically they only had a short window of time before the retiring inspector’s last day on 03/24/2023.
INFORMATION ITEM: TYLER ERP MOVED TO SAAS 2/10/23
This was an update on the city’s move from an in-house computer system to a cloud based system for their business processes. Information Technology Department Director Corey Popp reported that the move went very smoothly. They had been worried about how payroll would go the first time after the move, but that ended up working out fine. The first time, they had to manually download the file from the timekeeping system and manually upload it into the payroll system, but since that first time everything from timekeeping has automatically come over.
INFORMATION ITEM: RECRUITMENT STATUS REPORT
The city recently rolled out an incentive program for HVAC Technician positions. Employees who referred a recruit would be a $2,500 bonus, and new recruits would get a $2,500 sign-on bonus.
This program has already been helping and resulted in a current employee recruiting a candidate the city is very excited about.
There had also been some recent internal promotions. Peter Neuberger, a city engineer, was going to be promoted to a Deputy Director position, and David Kress, a Principal Planner, was recently promoted to being the Deputy Director of the Community And Economic Development Department.
There were currently 6 positions open for Valley Transit Bus Drivers. There was one pending hire so that could decrease to 5. They were reviewing applications for those positions two or three times a week as they came in. They did also have a bonus program, but it continued to be a struggle to fill those positions.
There had been a number of retirements in the Fire Department, but they had also brought on 6 new people who would be starting 0/22/2023 which would put the department back at full staffing.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1086317&GUID=B10FA3DD-3D6E-477F-965B-787B9DC19103
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