The Human Resources and Information Technology Committee met 04/27/2022. One of the items they took up was the request to approve the addition of a Safety and Compliance Specialist position to the Table of Organization at Valley Transit.
Valley Transit General Manager Ron McDonald explained to the committee that Valley Transit had been talking about this position internally for a while now. The catalyst that prompted them to finally move forward with making the request to add the position was the federal mandate regarding Entry Level Driver Training Requirements that became effective 02/07/2022. This mandate required new standardized training curriculum throughout the country. Valley Transit had been hoping to utilize Fox Valley Technical College to do this training, and FVTC had agreed to do so. However, when Valley Transit got some candidates who needed the training, they called up FVTC who told them that their first opening was in September. That didn’t work for Valley Transit because they are short 9 out of 36 drivers right now and needed to get drivers out on the road as soon as possible.
He said that there had been some additional federal mandates like the Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan that came through last year and several others that exceeded the capacity of Valley Transit staff to manage. They didn’t feel like they could continue to pile on work like that.
Finally, the new Bipartisan Infrastructure Law required that transit agencies spent 0/75% of their federal grant money on safety, which, for Valley Transit, amounted to a minimum of $85,000.
They thought that creating this new position was a good way to meet their safety initiatives. They worked with finance and determined that the position would be a grade L salary and if someone took the position and opted to take the entire compensation package the full cost of the position was projected to cost $106,700, although not every employee takes the entire compensation package. After breaking that cost down between the federal and local portions, the impact on the City of Appleton specifically would be around $7,200. In 2022, Valley Transit had enough salary dollars left over that they could cover the position with their current budget. In 2023 they would budget for the position and obtain federal and state grant dollars for 60% of the cost and the remaining 40% would be covered by local municipalities. The item had already been approved by the Finance Committee, so he asked for the HRIT Committee to also approve it.
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) wanted to know if the grants which covered 60% of the cost would be ongoing, or would be end up creating the position and then having to foot the bill in future years.
General Manager McDonald answered that that was Valley Transit’s standard annual operating budget. It’s an annual grant that they always receive.
Alderperson Kristin Alfheim (District 11) tried to weigh the benefit of having the position versus not having the position. It would cost Appleton $7,200 annually. She wondered how often they would be able to train a new employee so that that new employee could get on the road sooner as compared to using FVTC as originally planned.
General Manager McDonald said that he had been at Valley Transit for 5 ½ years and during that time he had a full slate of drivers for about 15 minutes. They have had somebody in training almost at all times.
He also noted that there were going to be a lot of other duties that this individual would be able to take on. Right now, supervisors were spending an extreme amount of time investigating incidents. If somebody says they slipped on a bus, a supervisor needs to review video and try to find out if the person really fell on a bus or if they were just trying to file a claim. So instead of being out on the street monitoring the system where the greatest liability exposure exists, supervisors were now behind their desks watching videos, filling out forms, filing reports, conducting training, etc. Some of those tasks could be offloaded to this new position, allowing supervisors to get back to what they are actually supposed to be doing, rather that pushing paper.
Alderperson Maiyoua Thao (District 7) asked if staff were currently trained by FVTC, and if FVTC didn’t have availability did we do it in house or send employees somewhere else to get training.
General Manager McDonald said that Valley Transit has been offering that training since they first began. They had been planning to move that training to Fox Valley Technical College because of the change in laws that recently happened. There were 245 areas they had to train drivers in now. That included things like how to load a luggage compartment if they were driving a Greyhound-type bus which was something they would never do when working for Valley Transit, but they still had to train them to proficiency in that regardless. The trainer also had to be a registered trainer by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and their curriculum had to be certified. They had been planning to send drivers to FVTC to get all the theory training covered, but that wasn’t working out. Thus, the request to add this new position.
Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) asked how long it would take to find a person to fill this role, assuming the position was approved by Council.
Human Resources Director Jay Ratchman said that was a tough question to answer because there was a huge demand right now for someone who simply had a Commercial Driver’s License much less was qualified to train others. He thought that if they had some existing staff members who were interested, that there would be the option to put them through the training so that they could become a trainer. If they didn’t have an internal candidate, he thought it would be a minimum of 60-90 days to find someone, but it was hard to know for sure because they had not filled a position like this before. HE said that they had reached out to other municipalities and they were all also struggling. It was going to be a competitive market to try to fill this position.
General Manager McDonald added that Valley Transit prepared to move forward with internal staff almost immediately because they had to be able to get people on board and keep service on the street. They had already gotten registered and ordered curriculum. The problem was that wasn’t sustainable in the long term due to the workload, so the sooner they could bring in another person to take on those tasks, the greater relief they would get.
There were no further questions or comments and the committee voted unanimously to approve the creation of the position.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=958514&GUID=D076C15E-810B-4AF9-B4E8-EA475AD376CC
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