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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-07-22 Admin. Com. MinutesDUBLIN CITY COUNCIL ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE Tuesday, June 7, 2022 4:00 p.m. 5555 Perimeter Drive Council Chamber Meeting Minutes Vice Mayor De Rosa called the June 7, 2022 Administrative Committee meeting to order at 4:00 p.m. Committee Members Present: Vice Mayor De Rosa, Ms. Kramb, Ms. Alutto Staff present: Mr. Rogers, Ms. Miglietti, Ms. Weisenauer, Ms. Rose Also present: Jeffrey R. Sturm, The Spark Creative, LLC Approval of Minutes Vice Mayor De Rosa moved to approve the May 3, 2022 minutes of the Administrative Committee. Ms. Alutto seconded the motion. Vote: Vice Mayor De Rosa, yes; Ms. Alutto, yes; Ms. Kramb, yes. Moving Council Initiatives Forward Vice Mayor De Rosa introduced the first item and Mr. Jeff Sturm, The Spark Creative, LLC. Mr. Sturm shared that he met with some staff, the Committee Members, and the Mayor since the last Committee meeting (May 3, 2022) and that process went well. Staff created a ClearPoint document that was very helpful. He shared the overall summary of the proposed process with a single page document. The initial stage is where ideas are percolating. At some point, an incremental need occurs where there is no process already in place. The next step would be to take the idea and find the “what, why, and what is next” in order to share with the balance of Council. This step further defines the idea, explains why more resources should be allocated to the idea, and determines next steps. From there a decision needs to be made. The decision would be one of the following: to affirm, adjust, pause, or link the idea to an existing process. The updated one-page document further lays out what has been learned. Mr. Sturm believes the next step for the Committee is to get broader feedback from Council. Ms. Kramb stated that her thoughts were captured and she likes the simpler approach. Ms. Alutto concurred. Vice Mayor De Rosa stated that now with ClearPoint there is a repository for information because as Councils move on, there are ideas that are not new Administrative Committee Meeting June 7, 2022 Page 2 and now it can be documented. Council can regularly go through these and review them at regular intervals. If an idea ends, then documentation can be provided as to why. She thinks this is a very nice format. She asked Mr. Rogers if this is a process that Staff feels would work. Mr. Rogers answered affirmatively. Vice Mayor De Rosa asked the Committee for their preference on bringing this before Council. Ms. Alutto stated a concern of taking it to Council at a regular meeting is that committee reports are intended to be brief. She would prefer to bring it back to a work session. This is a tool we can hopefully use that is meatier than an update. Vice Mayor De Rosa asked Staff to place the item on a work session for further discussion. CPI Work Plan Ms. Weisenauer provided a brief update on enhanced public engagement efforts on behalf of City Council. Staff has been working with this Committee for two years on the plan and action calendar. The plan was developed in collaboration with Scott Light Consulting and is intended to provide communication and engagement support for Dublin City Council to ensure and elevate Dublin’s status as a model democracy. The plan includes a list of methods for Council to engage with various audiences. The methods were developed to support Council’s communication goals for 2022. Those goals are: 1. Increase meaningful engagement between City Council and Dublin residents and businesses; 2. Ensure residents know what is happening in the City; 3. Increase visibility of Council members; 4. Engage under-represented communities. Ms. Weisenauer stated that in response to the Committee’s request, Staff has added a column to the Communications Plan snapshot showing corresponding goals. Ms. Weisenauer shared an update on the website design. Staff is making final design revisions based on feedback from the Committee and the new website is on track to launch later this month. The website will be shared with Council prior to its launch. Vice Mayor De Rosa stated that Committee spoke about resident engagement and review of the website. The Committee requested testing. She asked if that is on the schedule. Ms. Weisenauer stated that Staff is engaging with a third party as well as some internal focus groups such as the Community Inclusion Advisory Committee as well as Christine Nardecchia’s team. Vice Mayor De Rosa stated that she thinks the Citizen U group would be an excellent group that would yield worthwhile feedback. She would like to reaffirm that suggestion. There is also some outstanding follow up with Legislative Affairs from a Council perspective. Ms. Weisenauer stated that will be done once the suggestions from this Committee are implemented. Administrative Committee Meeting June 7, 2022 Page 3 Ms. Weisenauer shared that Staff continues to evaluate emerging technologies such as QR codes for public signage and video tours. Ms. Weisenauer provided an update on the podcast recently launched by the City. They contracted with Scott Light Consulting to produce a City podcast that launched in April. The podcast is named Link Ahead as a nod to the City’s forward thinking as well as the bridge. 5 episodes have been released so far and have received more than 2,000 listens since the launch. It is Staff’s belief that Council’s participation in the Link Ahead podcast would help further the goals of this plan by increasing resident and business engagement; ensuring that residents are informed about what is happening in the City; engaging with under-represented communities; and raising Council visibility. A process is outlined that states each Council member would be offered one appearance per year. Topics would be determined collaboratively with staff and each individual member based on interest and priorities. A tentative content calendar is included in this plan. Podcast opportunities would be offered first to the Mayor, then the Vice Mayor, and then in order of tenure. Questions would be provided ahead of time. Edited episodes featuring Council members would be shared with all of Council prior to distribution. Ms. Weisenauer shared a tentative podcast topic calendar and noted that it is subject to change. Staff is requesting input on forwarding pages 9 (Podcast Process) and 10 (Podcast Topics) of the plan to Council for consideration. Vice Mayor De Rosa asked for clarification. Ms. Weisenauer stated that Staff is looking for thoughts on the process outlined here and feedback on any topics. Ms. Alutto stated that the process seems fine. Having Council Members once a year. Sharing the edited episodes with Council is important. She would like to see some legislative topics of interest to residents of Dublin such as items that get hidden in the State budget, short-term rentals, and things that impact home rule. People will latch onto those types of topics but they are often unaware of them until they are so far down the legislative path that any action might be ineffective. Ms. Kramb stated that the process is fine. She likes that episodes would be one per person (including staff members) so that more people are exposed. The topics provided are great topics that are very socially oriented. She asked how long the episodes are. Ms. Weisenauer stated that they are between 15 and 20 minutes which is best practice in the industry. Ms. Alutto stated that they are commute-sized. Ms. Kramb suggested two-thirds of an episode be light-hearted and one-third be used on something serious like legislation, budgeting, etc. Ms. Alutto stated that it could be an explanation of upcoming projects after the Capital Improvement Project budget is passed. That is a big policy document to refer people to. Ms. Kramb suggested 3-5 minutes on the City’s latest initiatives with the rest on social, fun topics. Vice Mayor De Rosa agreed. She suggested topics like statistics on census data, change of ward boundaries, the 4 Council goals that were approved at the last meeting. She asked Staff to incorporate the suggested additional topics. Ms. Alutto noted that the list is not exhaustive. Ms. Kramb suggested adding the length of the podcast episode in the show notes. Vice Mayor De Rosa suggested thinking about the new Council website, linking this and topics to that. Administrative Committee Meeting June 7, 2022 Page 4 Vice Mayor De Rosa stated the podcast will be presented to Council in the Administrative Committee update Monday evening. HR Benefits Update Ms. Miglietti provided a Human Resources update on different HR measures such as staffing levels and benefits with data shared from ClearPoint. Permanent Workforce Turnover: Dublin’s goal is to have turnover be at 10% or less which is excellent in terms of industry standards. There has been higher than average staff turnover which was influenced by the pandemic. Many more people have retired. There have been a number of resignations. Most people that are leaving are not leaving for like positions. . Last year there was only one termination. There are 414 total staff members. 8 people have left in the first quarter of 2022. There was higher turnover in the first part of 2021. In prior years, Dublin has sustained a 6-6.5% turnover rate. This fall (2022) they will be looking at compensation for non-union employees. They will be negotiating with the United Steelworkers as well as the Fraternal Order of Police this fall. Ms. Alutto stated that these numbers are incredibly good compared to what is in the market now. A lot of people retired because they did not want to be out in the pandemic. If you exclude the retirement numbers from 2021, Dublin is well below the 10% mark. Ms. Miglietti stated that they have projections for when people will retire based on information from the Ohio Public Employee Retirement System (OPERS). Mr. Rogers stated that some other cities have had a turnover rate at 20% for the last couple of years; these are solid numbers. Vice Mayor De Rosa asked if this would look different by department. Ms. Miglietti stated that there is nothing that stands out. Permanent Workforce Vacancies: The goal for permanent workforce vacancies is less than 15 across the organization. The chart shared may be skewed because in includes police and communication tech vacancies which can be 4- to 6-month processes. There are 20 vacancies right now. Vacancies typically start higher after the budget is passed because of new positions created. Ms. Alutto asked if the time to fill vacancies has increased over the last year and a half. Ms. Rose stated that there has been no increase in that. Candidates are being lost as quickly as they are interviewed. Candidates are on the market from an average of 10 to 14 days. Ms. Kramb confirmed that these numbers apply to full-time employees only. Ms. Miglietti answered affirmatively. Seasonal Update: The service center is doing well with vacancies; better this year than last year. Recreation is having a lot harder time keeping people and maximizing hours worked. Many workers are young people who only want to work 8-10 hours. Weekends and early shifts are a hard time to get that demographic to come. Staff has talked to many surrounding areas and they are limiting pool areas and hours. Ms. Miglietti stated that Dublin is trying to market to the younger demographic with things they are interested in, like having WiFi. The City had to cancel some camps due to not being able to recruit enough people. Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Usage: Administrative Committee Meeting June 7, 2022 Page 5 FMLA is leave that an employee may use if they have to be off of work for an intermittent or continuous reason; i.e., surgery, birth of a child, care for family member. Dublin maintains even numbers. There has not been an exorbitant increase in FMLA usage. Current numbers represent typical usage for the organization. Ms. Alutto asked what percentage is due to workers’ compensation injuries. Ms. Miglietti responded very little; less than 5%. Health Insurance: Ms. Miglietti shared the per employee, per year cost for health insurance. Expenses have continued to increase year after year. The chart goes back to 2016 and shows the trend line continuing to rise with no anticipated decrease. At the end of 2021, there were 8 stop loss claims. Stop loss is the insurance that kicks in after a certain dollar threshold; Dublin’s is $175,000. That was changed in 2021 from $150,000. The highest claim the City had was $670,000 for one individual. In response to a question from Ms. Alutto, Ms. Miglietti stated that out of the 8 stop loss claims, 3 are ongoing. There have been 3 stop loss claims so far in 2022 and 4 high claims costs. High claims cost claims are those that fall between $150,000 and the $175,000 stop loss threshold. Another trend is the amount of money of the stop loss and high cost claims continue to rise. This directly impacts premium costs for stop loss. Vice Mayor De Rosa asked if that $175,000 is a true stop loss. Ms. Miglietti and Ms. Rose answered affirmatively. Ms. Miglietti shared the stop loss paid versus reimbursement ratio. Right now the stop loss is 56%. Last year, Dublin finished out at 114% stop loss ratio which is good for the City but may cause those that insure the City to look closely at raising rates. Rates have increased year after year. Vice Mayor De Rosa asked about the jump between 2016, 2017, 2018 to 2019, 2021, and 2022 and asked if it is Covid-related. Ms. Miglietti stated that there have been very minimal Covid expenditures. There have been around $300,000 in Covid related claims. Ms. Alutto posed the idea that there could have been 3 people who have a very expensive illness that are ongoing. Ms. Miglietti stated that the per employee per month stop loss premium has risen significantly. Currently it is $425.99 per month which is up from $179 in 2016. The rate went down in 2021 because the stop loss point was raised from $150,000 to $175,000. The City has absorbed the cost of insurance as it continues to go up. That is something HR uses when recruiting people. It is very expensive. Staff does plan to bring a proposal to Council early fall 2022. The proposal would consider what the City’s threshold is for absorbing those costs versus passing some off to employees or finding some other creative solution. Vice Mayor De Rosa asked if that proposal would come before the Administrative Committee first. Ms. Miglietti responded that is still to be determined. Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Usage: The City of Dublin has good utilization of the EAP. This program is available to all employees and their families. A person has access to 6 visits per year. Many of the services engaged in through the EAP can be then covered under regular benefits. Numbers increased during pandemic. Staff has done great campaigns sharing the benefit. 53 was the total number of cases at the end of 2021. Mr. Rogers stated that the City pays a flat fee per employee for the program. It is good thing to have more people