Minutes and Agenda for January 15, 2008, DHS Meet and Confer
Present: Alice Percy, Bruce Anderson, Chris Cachuela, Jill Hiatt, Ken Bearman, Paul Farseth, Paul Wehrmeister, Jonathan Monsma, Tim Wilkin, Tudy Fowler
- Security at 800 Minnehaha. The Ramsey County East Side Service Center is moving to the first floor in 800 Minnehaha in April. Obviously, the public must have access to that office. Currently, access to the 1st floor provides unchallenged access to the elevators, stairwells, and fifth floor restrooms. We are concerned about security for the people in our building.
- Who are the clients that will be coming to that office? People on probation, parolees, sex offenders, etc.
- Will there sufficient signage to direct their clients to the appropriate entrances and inside doors?
- What will DHS do to address the safety issue? Is it now time to require the building with the greatest security risk to have on-site security, cameras, prohibited access areas, etc. as the other buildings?
Tudy sent email to Linda Nelson. There is currently no good information from the landlord on this issue, waiting for findings. Linda Nelson is working with the landlord to resolve questions about security, access, guard presence, and parking-lot escort issues . ACTION ITEM: Tudy will communicate to Paul F. when there is better info.
- FMLA Policy application for parenthood leaves. Wrong information has been handed out to employees from HR reps. Employees are following the directions given to them only to be penalized later for doing so. There needs to be training of HR staff and clear information on this policy publicized.
This was a single issue and the case is resolved. But policy remains confusing: Can employees use sick leave? HR internal meetings have clarified . According to Tudy, there is now a single understanding of the issues among HR staff. The problem of Q&A "FAQ" documents rests with the Department of Employee Relations (DoER). We could suggest an FMLA Q&A from DoER, we could suggest language for this. ACTION ITEM: Paul F. will contact Carolyn Trevis at DoER about getting DoER to publish a clear FAQ to guide employees about Family Medical Leave and Parental Leave and their interactions.
- Web-based remote access. Will there be information published regarding how time spent using this access affects work time, sick time, overtime, etc.? We’re (both HR and MAPE) concerned about employees working more than 40 hours, thinking that using this technology to read email isn’t considered “work”.
The Web-based-remote-access trainers were clear that using this system is work time. Current telecommuters already have access. Web-access is a work in process – HR may need to educate supervisors. Clear understanding that there are potential FLSA and core hours issues. Employees may need to know about possible consequences of extra undocumented time spent working. FLSA issues might be troublesome if there were an FLSA audit again. One solution here might be to offer web-based remote access to DHS network services only during core working hours, maybe longer for persons who are FLSA exempt. ACTION ITEM: HR and MAPE will each report back at next meeting.
- We would like to see information on job audit requests and job audit appeals processes on the DHS Infolink.
The information is there on the website (see handout). Tudy suggest going to <DHSToday>/<Employee Resources>/<HR>/<EmploymentInformation>/<Reallocation>. The Section is called “Reallocation” and should also pop up if that term is used as a search argument. Information is also provided on the process of an appeal in a letter sent to the person appealing. ACTION ITEM: HR will arrange to have someone add info on job audit appeals to the existing “Reallocation” section in InfoLink, plus searchable metadata tags linking "Job Audit" to the "Reallocation" article. The materials will need to include information about how quickly appeals must be filed in order to be considered timely. Ken B. noted that it would be helpful if the HR entries on InfoLink could have a table of contents page and a glossary page to get around the limitations of the online search engine. Paul F. suggested that with new public web staff and philosophical views, perhaps most of InfoLink could be moved to the DHS public web site, where it could be more efficiently indexed by Google, particularly given that almost all of the data on InfoLink are legally public anyway; non-public data would be excluded from the public site, if there are any such non-public data in InfoLink. Ken B. also suggested that DHS purchase the Google or another good search engine to install in InfoLink.
- Disputes over Position Descriptions. We’d like to begin meeting on formalizing and publicizing the process for resolving disputes regarding the accuracy of a Position Description, per Article 6 in our contract.
Where is info? This was taken to Bonnie Wohlberg (and Craig) to have info/plan for next meet and confer. ACTION ITEM: HR to develop, updates (if not implementation) and will bring them to the next Meet and Confer.
- Does DHS have any info that could be shared on DHS Today about signing up with WellDyne for mail order prescriptions? It appears that some employees are having trouble with the process. The information from Navitus is far from complete about this process
There is a two-step process as WellDyne site. Prescriptions were supposed to be transferred to WellDyne, but they were in the process of doing this. It is an “unobvious” process. There are also cost issues: Told something was tier 1 on the phone, told tier 3 at the pharmacy. ACTION ITEM: HR will contact Bruce Yurich at DoER to see if they can do a Q&A or similar on process. HR will mention cost discrepancies to Bruce which may need to go to the Health Care Coverage Coalition. HR will report at next Meet and Confer.
- Recycled parking tags with other employees' photos and names on them. Will there be an announcement on DHS Today to advise people using a card with someone else’s picture on it to turn it in for a new card?
ACTION ITEM: HR to talk with Linda Nelson, to see if someone can contact current cardholders.
- Update on email archiving project. (Tudy and PF)
Final roll-out of the e-mail archiving and automated file purging after 90 days have been delayed because deletion of items from Retention Archive requires 2 deletes, this tech problem is holding up final implementation. PF noted (briefly) that in the long haul there may be less cost to universal e-mail archiving than to trying to explain why e-mail records of interest were deleted or in trying to search backup tapes for deleted e-mails which should not have been deleted.
- Martha Watson's Replacement. How’s the job search going for Martha’s replacement?
Nationwide job posting ends 2/15. There will be an interview with a panel of Senior Management. Wendy Dwyer has come over to DHS to smooth the transition to expanded HR roles following the dissolution and dispersal of DoER.
- Other Opportunities for Collaborations between DHS Mgmt. and MAPE in preparation for the legislative session. Are there any DHS labor/management legislative priorities that we could work on together?
Paul F. encouraged DHS management to bring its concerns and dreams more to the MAPE Meet and Confer sessions and to the inter-union Meet and Confers so as to enlist union help in fashioning a collaborative, creative, motivated and disciplined work force to serve the public’s needs. We also encourage DHS management to give even more attention to rewarding supervisors and managers for developing their subordinates to where the subordinates could successfully be promoted, even if into other parts of DHS. Tim Wilkin noted that DHS is trying in some ways for this with the Emerging Leaders Institute, for which there is very strong demand to participate.
- Pine Building air quality. ACTION ITEM: Update on Pine Building air quality by HR issue at next meet and confer.
