MNIT meet and confer minutes Aug. 1, 2018

MNIT / MAPE Meet and Confer Minutes – Aug. 1, 2018

Attendance

Management

• Johanna Clyborne – CIO
• Jenna Covey – Deputy Commissioner
• Brian Fitch – Labor Relations
• Nicole Schultz – Labor Relations
• Sarah Herder Lewis – Affirmative Action
• Yia Her – HR Consultant
• Kris Stiebler – HR Supervisor

MAPE

• Jed Becher – DNR M&C Chair
• Nic Frey – MAPE Business Agent
• Tyrone Plunkett – DHS
• Deb Bergeron - DOT
• Greg Naumann – PCA
• Gary Wass – DOT

Guest

• Kassie Church – DHS

Old Items
Affirmative Action Plan – Kassie, Sarah
The Affirmative Action Plan has been completed and submitted to MMB for final approval. Listening sessions have been held. The report will be published once MMB approves and it will be communicated internally and externally via the MNIT external website, MNIT intranet, and email. Physical copies will also be available. Sarah reviewed some of the plans goals and the currently underutilized categories. Details will be published in the report. Veterans were not previously tracked. MNIT is looking at becoming a yellow ribbon company. The commissioner is briefed on the action plan quarterly.
Follow-up item – The commissioner will decide how to include MAPE in the affirmative action plan updates.

Metro Pass Subsidies – Deb, Jenna
Management is proposing one rate across the board at the Admin rate for the capital complex. The financial steering team has approved the recommendation. Awaiting on approval from the executive steering committee.
Follow-up item – Look into the possibility of a subsidy for outstate (greater Minnesota) transit systems where they are available.

Brown and Bigelow – Kassie, Johanna, Jenna
White Noise
Clarifications provided by management via email after the June meeting minutes were published.

Can we install white noise? If so, how much would it cost?
Answer: Of all the DHS buildings, Andersen is the only building with white noise, so I understand that staff who came from Andersen would notice the lack of white noise. The following was provided by the building management.
“At Brown & Bigelow, the mechanical noise in the building creates a natural sound masking system that would lesson’s the effectiveness of a installed sound masking system. Sound masking also can cause problems for staff who are hypersensitive to certain sounds, or staff with sinus problems and with certain hearing aids. They also don’t always work well with Video Conferencing systems.”

Can the building owner provide picnic tables somewhere in the green space? Would MNIT bear any cost?
Answer: For security and employee safety purposes, the landlord will not be installing picnic tables at Brown & Bigelow. We are seeing a lot of transient camping activity in downtown St. Paul and picnic tables – while nice initially for employees – are used as sleeping areas and hang out spots. In the past, we have found used syringes and broken beer bottles on and around picnic tables. We have also had to remove panhandlers and intoxicated and belligerent members of the public from picnic tables during day and evening hours.

MAPE informed us that visitor’s driver’s licenses and/or other forms of personal identification are being held at the front desk of the Brown & Bigelow Building for the duration of the visitors stay. Some visitors have stayed after hours and were not able to collect their ID from the front desk because the front desk person had left for the day. This is causing both concerns and consternation. Will you please look into this as well and give me the rest of the story. I would like to get back to them about what I have learned.
Answer: The background here is that Brown & Bigelow is a Federal Tax Information (FTI) building, which means staff and visitors who do not have badge access to the Brown & Bigelow building have to follow an FTI-sign-in/sign-out process. The FTI process includes signing in and out at the FTI log and showing the desk a government-issued ID. The government-issued ID is secured and kept as collateral to ensure that the visitor comes back to sign out on the FTI log.

The Information Desk staff are at the desk until 4:30 p.m. and the security officers are at the desk until 10 p.m., so they should be able to retrieve the ID up to 10 p.m. The Information Desk transfers any ID badges to the Security Desk after 4:30 p.m.

A question from management was: How late are the non-badged visitors staying in the building? If staff are going to be in Brown & Bigelow past 10 p.m. on a regular basis, it makes much more sense for them to request badge access to the building. We do not want anyone having to drive around without a license.
HR director Thuet said he would follow-up on the white noise issue and his findings were given below at August meeting.
At the August meeting, management stated:
DHS does not own the building. Installing white noise in a building we don’t own may be cost prohibitive and could cause more problems than it will solve. DHS reviewed the noise complaints and concluded that the majority of issues were caused due to a noisy work environment and loud cubicle conversations. Recommended to take a look at the work environment and that loud conversations take place in meeting rooms rather than in the work area. Asked MAPE to identify individuals who are requesting white noise and management will take steps accommodate on an individual basis.

ID’s and the security desk
Response from Jennifer Smith @DHS Security: “Yes, standard practice at the Information Desk is to post the security number after the Information Desk closes at 4:30 p.m. This way staff (and visitors) have this number to call and the security officer is free to leave the desk to do rounds and respond to issues without having to first remember to put the sign up. The security number is also permanently posted on the front exterior window of the Brown & Bigelow building. They have the security number on the back of their badge, at the desk, and on the front of the building.”

Bidding and Applying for Jobs – Greg, Kris
(Discussion about the difference between job titles and job requirements. Reach out with individual concerns to HR staffing reps for now. Job option definitions can be updated. Regarding working titles, qualifications are what’s looked at, not the title.) MNIT does not switch a job option just to allow someone to bid on another job. The reasons MNIT has done/would switch one’s job option is because it learns that someone has the same PD working next to them in the same work unit but for some reason they have different options. In those circumstances, MNIT HR would review the situation and work with management to make sure the most appropriate option is assigned and makes the change(s) accordingly. If an employee feels the option they are assigned is not accurate, HR would review those as well.
Employees may contact Kris Stiebler to review their job option if they believe it is not accurate. Job options are on HR’s radar for further review and updating.

Service Desk Consolidation – Greg, Johanna
No timeframe for remaining service desk consolidations right now. The Commissioner is working on a strategic plan and will vet with Agency leadership. The strategic plan is separate from an optimization plan. Bill Poirier (CTO) is acting project manager for Service Desk consolidation.

Phased Retirement Option – Jed, Kris
Phased retirement FAQ has been written and is being vetted by MMB and MSRS before publishing. Communication will be ready in the next week or two. Reminder that phased retirement is only available to MNIT staff who work @ Agency that participates in phased retirement.

New Items
Emergency Phone Tree Exercise – Jed, Nick, Johanna
Discussion around removing the language that MAPE agreed to the exercise. There was a previous agreement to have the language removed. The Commissioner stressed the importance of safety and security and asked MAPE to come to an agreement about the exercise. MNIT and MAPE will work as a partner around safety and security and management will share proposed language with MAPE prior to the next exercise. A new safety officer was hired at MNIT.

Listening Sessions – Jed, Johanna
Seventeen listening sessions were held so far. Ten more to go. The Commissioner shared common themes that arose from the listening sessions which included modernization and knowledge transfer. Jed asked if minutes from the listening sessions could be shared with MAPE so that the M&C committee would not need to follow-up with management on each individual item reported back to the committee from the listening sessions? The Commissioner will consider how to disseminate notes from the listening sessions.

Legislative Audits – Jed, Johanna
MNIT is currently undergoing several audits. The Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor website has a list of the current audits and the due dates.