The Human Resources and Information Technology Committee met 05/24/2023. The meeting was on the shorter side at only 15 minutes, and they had only one action item and then a couple information items.
I’ve prepared a complete transcript of the meeting for download.
The action item was a request to approve changes to how Police Lieutenants and Captains were compensated when performing duties outside of their normal job scope. Lieutenants and captains are salaried employees and so do not typically receive over-time pay when they add hours onto their schedule; however, they are compensated at a time-and-a-half rate when they take on additional responsibilities outside of the set duties of a lieutenant or captain. Currently, that time-and-a-half payment is calculated off the base hourly pay for a top Senior Sergeant which is a position lieutenants and sergeants supervise. The change would allow them to be compensated at time-and-a-half of the base hourly pay for their own positions. The proposed changes would also add prisoner transports, time in court, and prisoner guard duty to the list of duties lieutenants and captains could be compensated for at time-and-a-half.
In some respects, this was a minor issue, but it was one that seemed to bother the lieutenants and captains, and both Human Resources Director Jay Ratchman as well as Police Chief Polly Olson believed the changes would increase the incentive for an officer to step outside the union contract into a non-represented supervisor role. Director Ratchman also thought that it would have a positive influence from an employee relations standpoint.
They had conducted a 12-month look-back and estimated that the changes would have resulted in $9,200 of additional costs, $5,600 which were reimbursable activities covered by grants, leaving a total cost to the Police Department of just over $3,600 during that timeframe. Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) asked if that figure was per employee, but was told, no, it was the total cost to the Police Department Budget. He was surprised by how nominal the cost was.
He wondered if such a small increase was going to change much from a recruitment standpoint in making people want to apply for supervisory positions. Police Chief Olson didn’t know whether it would result in much change, but she believed it would correct a perceived inequity. Whether it would incentivize officers to seek lieutenant and captain positions remained to be seen.
Alderperson Patrick Hayden noted that they had done a good job of adding additional officers to the police force. He wondered if the increased officers reduced the need for senior officers to do those tasks in the coming year.
Police Chief Olson said that overtime opportunities were structured in such a way that those with seniority got priority when they signed up for them. Newer officers would not necessarily be the first selected unless nobody more senior than them signed up.
The committee voted 3-0 to approve the changes.
They moved on to the information items.
Director Ratchman reported that they had updated the Police Department’s fringe benefit policy to clean up language. They wanted to clarify that lieutenants and captains who were required to work minimum staffing on particular holidays had to work a minimum of 8 hours and would only receive $100 bonus compensation but could not take off an alternative day. The language in the policy that stated otherwise had been old language.
Finally, Director Ratchman reviewed the most recent recruitment status report.
They were still trying to fill the HVAC Technician position and had refreshed their ad in an attempt to get it to the top of the search. They also extended the deadline through 06/18/2023.
The Traffic Engineer Specialist position was still under and active process, but they were considering moving it to being a position on hold. The department was looking at the structure of that position and how it was defined as they tried to fill it.
There were still 8 bus driver positions open, but they were doing interviews. The openings were not static and they had hired individuals, but they also had retirements.
The HVAC Building Inspector had been on the recruitment status report for a while and they had another interview scheduled for early June.
They had extended an offer for the ERP Specialist position for the IT Department and were hopeful they would be able to wrap that up and the IT Department would be fully staffed.
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) asked about the note at the bottom of the recruitment status report which read “Note: Per Recruitment Policy, part-time non-benefited positions do not require authorization outside of the department. The Mayor has asked departments to scrutinize.”
Director Ratchman said that statement should be removed from the report because it referred to an old process in which requests to fill minor positions such a library shelvers had to come through the Human Resources Department, the Mayor, and to the Chair of the Human Resources Committee.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1104143&GUID=66D74288-1247-4362-9923-C6A4696EADCF
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