PERSONNEL APPEALS BOARD

REGULAR MEETING

TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2007

6:00 P.M.

 

 

1.         Roll Call:  Mr. Sells called the meeting to order at 6:04 p.m. with the following members present: Mr. Wagner, Mr. Sells and Ms. Hymes.  Others present were: Linda Fersch and Stacey Bashore.

 

2.         Approval of Minutes:

           

                        A.        APPROVAL OF MINUTES of February 27, 2007 Regular Meeting.  Ms. Wagner moved to approve; Ms. Hymes seconded the Motion.  Roll call was taken with Ms. Hymes, Mr. Wagner and Mr. Sells voting "Yea." Motion passed, 3-0.

 

3.         Employee/Community Comments: None

 

4.         Secretary's Report- Mr. Wagner stated the two issues to be discussed were the update on Administrative Clerk I for Parks and Approval to advertise for Dispatcher testing.

 

5.         Staff Report

           

            A.        Employee Manual- Mrs. Fersch stated that she and the City Manager went over the rough draft and we tweaked a few things and we still have the other half to go over.  She continued that before the next meeting we will e-mail the Board a copy of the manual and we will also send copies to the Unions so they can review it before we present it to Finance Committee.  She further stated our goal is to present it to Finance in April, but if it doesn't happen it would not be until May, so there is no rush or urgency.  Mrs. Fersch stated there will be a summary of the items changed and the items that were changed are highlighted in yellow.  She added it was updated with the current law and some things that we wanted to do, and Finance Committee may want to change some of the items related to monetary issues.   

 

            B.         Revision of PAB Rules- Mrs. Fersch stated she talked to Mark Lucas this afternoon and she gave him some information and he will be at the next meeting.  She stated he should have a sample proposal of the PAB Rules.  She continued he incorporated some new Civil Service laws and some other items.  Mrs. Fersch stated it may take a couple of meetings and wanted to know how much time the Board wanted to spend each meeting on it.  She stated that he will come out to each meeting and she was proposing an hour for each meeting.  Mr. Wagner asked if the Board would see it ahead of time and Mrs. Fersch stated they would and the finished copy would also be e-mailed to the board.   Mrs. Fersch stated that nothing had been changed in the rules since 1992, and a lot of the laws have changed, so we need to update it.

 

6.         Employment

 

            A.        Administrative Clerk I for Parks-  Mrs. Fersch stated we interviewed six applicants and Christa Tuttle has agreed to accept the position and she will start on April 2nd.  Mrs. Fersch continued we have interim people that cover the front desk and a lot of times when we have a list established we ask those people to see if they are interested in interim.  She stated we have several names from this list as well, so we have more to choose from, and those names are Vickie Cordle, Elizabeth Monroe, Katherine Winwilbur, Donald Miller, and Lori Axline.  She added these were names taken from the eligibility list and they had agreed if we needed someone to fill in they would be interested.

           

7.         Eligibility Lists

           

            A.        Approval to advertise for Dispatcher testing to establish eligibility list-  Mrs. Fersch stated the Police Dispatcher list was extended last year for another year because we had a dispatcher that was promoted and they found someone that consented to be part time and that was Davida Willis.  She continued that although the list would not expire until July, we wanted to start establishing an eligibility list.  She stated right now there were no positions open, but since this is done through a formal testing procedure, we are asking for approval to advertise for this testing.  She continued after the grading we would form an eligibility list, and if a position opens up we would have this list of people to choose from.  Mrs. Fersch stated in talking with Chief Dispatcher, Carolyn Sharp, she said that we charge $10.00 for the Police tests but not for Dispatcher, and other communities charge as well when they have to purchase formal tests. She stated that we felt by charging a minimal fee they would show up for the test, so we will be charging $10.00 for this test.  Mrs. Fersch further stated the tests in the past have all been written multiple choice tests, and in talking with other communities, we found that they are going with a more interactive test with some audio situations.  She stated she checked with IMPA and gave Ms. Sharp a copy to see if she would like to add this component to the test.  She continued this adds 20 extra questions to the test, but from her understanding this helps in weeding out the appropriate people for the position.   Mr. Wagner asked if there would be a scoring legend that goes along with the audio scenario questions and Mrs. Fersch it would be multiple choice with a scoring sheet.    Mr. Wagner clarified there would only be one acceptable answer.    Mr. Wagner asked what the City was charged for each test and Mrs. Fersch stated she believed it was $12.50, but this test would have an extra charge because of the video.   Mrs. Fersch stated the Senior Center allows us to use the room and we have the test there on a Saturday, so this may not be coming back until May.  Mr. Sells asked if there would only be a certain number of applications accepted and Mrs. Fersch stated as far as she knew there has never been a cut off.  Mr. Sells stated he would hate to see us not have enough room to test all the applicants.  Mrs. Fersch stated she would have to check with Ms. Sharp on how it was done before.  Mr. Wagner asked when the video would be shown and Mrs. Fersch stated the test is timed, but we could probably do the video first so everyone sees it at the same time.  Mr. Sells asked if a certain number of typing words per minute was required and Mrs. Fersch stated she hadn't seen that in prior tests for dispatchers.  Mr. Wagner moved to approve advertising for testing to establish a Dispatcher Eligibility List; Ms. Hymes seconded the motion.   Roll call was taken with Mr. Sells, Ms. Hymes, and Mr. Wagner voting "Yea."  Motion passed, 3-0.   

 

8.         Other Business-  Mr. Wagner asked where the City advertised for positions and Mrs. Fersch stated we have to advertise in the Lancaster Eagle Gazette and we also advertise in the Suburban News, as well as our website.  She further stated she wanted to put a check box to find out where they heard about the position, so we know where people are getting the information from.

 

9.         Adjournment- There being nothing further, Ms. Hymes moved to adjourn; Mr. Wagner seconded the motion.  Mr. Sells, Mr. Wagner and Ms. Hymes voted "Aye." Motion carried 3-0.   The Personnel Appeals Board adjourned at 6:25 P.M., March 27, 2007.

 

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

 

 

                                                           

Stacey L. Bashore

Deputy Municipal Clerk

 

 

                                                           

Linda Fersch, Interim Personnel Director