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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_GGAF_05.07.2009Notice of Meeting of the General Government and Finance Advisory Board and the Governing Body of the City of Georgetown, Texas Thursday, May 7, 2009 The General Government and Finance Advisory Board will meet on Thursday, May 7, 2009 at 02:00 PM in the City Hall Main Conference Room, located at 113 East 8th Street, Georgetown, Texas. If you need accommodations for a disability, please notify the city in advance. General Government and Finance Advisory Board Members: Keith Brainard-Chair, Patty Eason, Dale Ross General Government and Finance Advisory Subcommittee meets at least quarterly or as needed at the request of the Chair Agenda Welcome/Call to order Approval of minutes from April 29, 2009 meeting Follow up regarding the CIS/AMR/Technology discussion 2009/10 Compensation and Benefits presentation Adjourn Call to Order at 02:00 PM Board may, at any time, recess the Regular Session to convene in Executive Session at the request of the Chair, a Board Member, the City Manager, Assistant City Manager, City Council Member, or legal counsel for any purpose authorized by the Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code Chapter 551, and are subject to action in the Regular Session that follows. Certificate of Posting I, Jessica Hamilton, City Secretary for the City of Georgetown, Texas, do hereby certify that this Notice of Meeting was posted at City Hall, 113 E. 8th Street,a place readily accessible to the general public at all times, on the _____ day of _________________, 2009, at __________, and remained so posted for at least 72 continuous hours preceding the scheduled time of said meeting. __________________________________ Jessica Hamilton, City Secretary Minutes of the Meeting of General Government and Finance Advisory Board and the Governing Body of the City of Georgetown, Texas Thursday, May 7, 2009 The General Government and Finance Advisory Board of the City of Georgetown, Texas, met on Thursday , May 7, 2009 presiding. Board Members Present: Keith Brainard-Chair, Patty Eason, Dale Ross Board Members Absent: Staff Present: Micki Rundell, CFO, Paul Brandenburg, City Manager, Laurie Brewer, Kevin Russell, Chris Foster, Leticia Zavala Minutes Regular Meeting MINUTES GENERAL GOVERNMENT AND FINANCE (GGAF) ADVISORY SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE CITY OF GEORGETOWN, TEXAS The General Government and Finance (GGAF) Advisory Subcommittee met at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 7, 2009, in the City Hall Main Floor Conference Room, located at 113 East 8h Street, Georgetown, Texas. Keith Brainard welcomed everyone to the meeting and called the meeting to order at 2:00 p.m. Approval of minutes from the April 29, 2009 meeting. The minutes were approved. Follow up regarding the CISFollow up regarding the CISFollow up regarding the CISFollow up regarding the CIS////AMIAMIAMIAMI////Technology discussionTechnology discussionTechnology discussionTechnology discussion.... Micki introduced Chris Foster. Chris presented an overview providing background information and answered questions raised at the previous meeting regarding the CIS/AMI/Technology project. Chris explained that his role was to assess the IT department and to discuss different technology with various departments. He noted that the IT historic structure has no in depth planning or vision for future plans or goals. Our current network is made to adapt to individual departmental software needs/requests as they come up. Chris also showed a diagram of the City’s network and noted that we do not have a Network Access Control Program, which is something that we really want. An IT Steering Committee was formed and members were chosen to help evaluate the CIS/AMI Request for Proposals (RFP). All involved in the selection process are “heavy” users chosen to help come up with a plan to develop a system that will work faster and be more productive. Chris showed a grading matrix of the RFP and explained the selection process. TMG Consulting was actually the lowest score (being the most favorable for all team members), but their costs were determined to be too expensive for this project and not recommended by the team. Interview –Langham •Langham Consulting –Mentor project management methodology –Focus more on change order avoidance •Not IT or GIS focused •Simplistic approach –Providing enhancement suggestions not included in RFP •Contract negotiations Discussion followed the presentation. After the project is up and running, Leticia Zavala will coordinate the project and Finance will oversee the project. The IT Steering Committee will be very involved as well. It was noted that it has a very ambitious timeline. Keith asked for clarification that we are using the potential availability of federal monies as the initial funding source as a City-wide IT reconstruct, including components that have nothing to do with utilities or energy. Micki responded that we could not use the money for anything that doesn’t pertain to things that are in the Department of Energy, but at least a portion could be funded through the grant. Most all of the current data will be converted into the new system, and the remainder will be archived after running parallel for a while. Because of the timeframe, this request needs to go on the Council agenda next Tuesday, May 12th. The item going to Council will request authorization to proceed with the contract for $1.4 million, (with the potential of ½ of the funds comi ng from the grant). $3.5 million is already in the budget, and it is necessary to go forward with this project even if we don’t get grant funding. Keith said he will support this on Tuesday, but would like to have a meaningful schematic of “where we are” and “where we would like to be”. 2009200920092009////10101010 Compensation and Benefits presentationCompensation and Benefits presentationCompensation and Benefits presentationCompensation and Benefits presentation Kevin Russell presented the Compensation Philosophy on Merit Based pay. He explained the differences between attracting and retaining employees. The City has worked for years on compensation for employees. We previously compared ourselves to Cedar Park, Temple and Round Rock for competitive pay. We really found out that our real competitor was Round Rock and made a concerted attempt to start focusing on efforts to make sure that we are competitive with Round Rock. The decision was made to try and be 95% of employee compensation with Round Rock, and base our pay scale on that. Six or seven years ago, the City eliminated including performance-based pay into employees’ base salary. Eliminating that process actually created another problem. We now do COLA adjustments, but this does not allow employees to move through the pay grade…they basically stay the same. When we hire someone new with experience, we recognize the value of their experience, so we hire them in the higher quartile, thus causing problems for employees who have been with us for a longer period of time because we have no mechanism for recognizing the same experience for the tenured employee. Micki and Kevin explained that the difference between merit-based performance versus the “bonus program”. “The City of Georgetown seeks with its compensation strategy to: attract and retain competent employees through market sensitive pay and benefits reward employees based on individual and team performance in order to achieve our business goals and to provide quality services to our customers”. The “bonus program” is one-time money that measures and rewards performance for that past year. In order for us to retain our employees, we want to recognize years of experience. Adding a merit component so that employees are actually able to move through the pay range would allow employees who have been with employed with the City of Georgetown for 5 years to be placed in the pay range that recognizes a person with that type of experience. Kevin explained past procedures of mitigating the problem and not having the pay range movement and how that has occurred The recommendation is to add a merit-based pay element to the City’s pay plan that will value experience by measuring and recognizing performance, based on a matrix format. Keith would like to see this implemented with a couple of other reforms, including one to longevity pay. He would like employees to be recognized for actual longevity, rather than supplying them with a check just for showing up. He would also like to see the opportunity to be a little more flexible regarding performance adjustments, making it a little more frequent and flexible rather than only once per year. The committee also agrees that just being here should not entitle an employee to a Cost of Living Adjustment. If an employee doesn’t meet standards, then they shouldn’t automatically receive the COLA The committee supports the proposal of adding a merit-based component to the base pay so that we are recognizing our existing employees for the added years of experience working for the City of Georgetown. Meeting adjourned at 3:59 p.m. Board may, at any time, recess the Regular Session to convene in Executive Session at the request of the Chair, a Board Member, the City Manager, Assistant City Manager, City Council Member, or legal counsel for any purpose authorized by the Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code Chapter 551, and are subject to action in the Regular Session that follows. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 03:59 PM. Approved :Attest: _______________________________________________ Board Member Name Secretary L:\Division\finance\Share2\GGAFSub\GGAF Meetings\2009\5.7.09\Minutes 5.7.09.doc MINUTES GENERAL GOVERNMENT AND FINANCE (GGAF) ADVISORY SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE CITY OF GEORGETOWN, TEXAS The General Government and Finance (GGAF) Advisory Subcommittee met at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 7, 2009, in the City Hall Main Floor Conference Room, located at 113 East 8h Street, Georgetown, Texas. 1. Keith Brainard welcomed everyone to the meeting and called the meeting to order at 2:00 p.m. 2. Approval of minutes from the April 29, 2009 meeting. The minutes were approved. 3. Follow up regarding the CIS/AMI/Technology discussion. Micki introduced Chris Foster. Chris presented an overview providing background information and answered questions raised at the previous meeting regarding the CIS/AMI/Technology project. Chris explained that his role was to assess the IT department and to discuss different technology with various departments. He noted that the IT historic structure has no in depth planning or vision for future plans or goals. Our current network is made to adapt to individual departmental software needs/requests as they come up. Chris also showed a diagram of the City’s network and noted that we do not have a Network Access Control Program, which is something that we really want. Members Present: Keith Brainard, Chair, Patty Eason, Dale Ross Members Absent: None Staff Present: Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer, Laurie Brewer, Assistant Director of Finance and Administration, Leticia Zavala, Special Projects, Finance and Administration, Chris Foster, Chief Utilities Analyst, Finance and Administration, Kevin Russell, HR Director