Minutes of the Personnel/HR Committee meeting 12/19/13

MINUTES

FOR THE PERSONNEL/HUMAN RESOURCES COMMITTEE

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

IRONHOUSE SANITARY DISTRICT

DATE:      December 19, 2013

TIME:       Meeting start time 9:25 a.m.

PLACE:     Ironhouse Sanitary District Office

450 Walnut Meadows Drive

Oakley, Ca. 94561

ATTENDANCE:  David Huerta, David Contreras, Tom Williams

A.      Roll Call.  All present

B.       Approval of the Agenda.  M/S David Contreras, David Huerta

C.       Public Comments.  No public comment

D.      Approval of meeting minutes of December 5, 2013 for the Personnel/Human Resources Committee Meeting.  Due to a technical error, the correct meeting minutes were unavailable and no action was taken.  Staff indicated the meeting minutes for the December 5^th & 19^th, meetings will be presented for approval at the next meeting. 

E.       Discussion with General Manager regarding the need for a permanent Electrical/Instrumentation Technician and Committee recommendation to the Board.  Mr. Tom Williams presented the Committee with the Electrical/Instrumentation Technician follow-up information (prepared by Mr. Joe Mueller) requested at the previous meeting.  Mr. Williams discussed the information and how Mr. Mueller determined average per hour consultant costs, cost anticipated if consultants did all the 1500 hours of recurring O & M activities, as well as cost savings if permanent in-house staff performed the recurring O & M activities.  The Committee understood the information but requested further submittal of consultant costs and activities in spreadsheet format.  The Committee requested at the next meeting they see a breakdown of the Electrical and Programming consultants used over the last year, the projects each worked on, the hours for each job, the project costs, the cost per hour, and the overall average cost per hour.  The Committee felt this information will help make clear, and validate, the average per hour consultant cost used in the analysis, as well as assist the Committee and the Board in better understanding the need for creating a permanent position in-house.

Mr. Williams wanted to make clear the outside consultants, and the costs associated with their work, have been for needed repair work, and not the 1500 hours of recurring O & M work staff needs to perform year-round.  So, the information the Committee is looking for from staff only validates the average consultant costs per hour.  Then, the consultant cost per hour can be used to perform a cost savings analysis of consultant vs. permanent ISD staff in performing the necessary recurring O & M work.  The committee understood.  

F.       Review and discuss CSDA’s “Organizational Health Assessment and Planner for Special Districts” publication.  The Committee reviewed and discussed the CSDA publication and, overall, the Committee liked the document.  The Committee asked Mr. Williams to thoroughly review the document and then distribute it, including the survey portion of the document, to staff and the Board for review and comment/feedback from all.  Once feedback is received, the Committee would like to go over the information with Mr. Williams and develop a plan for improving the organization based on the comments received.

G.      Discussion of future Items for the Personnel/Human Resources Committee and proposed meeting dates.  The next meeting was scheduled for Monday, December 30, 2013 at 9:00a.m.

H.      Adjournment.  The meeting adjourned at 11:45 a.m.