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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06.01.11 Work Session Minutes Council Workshop Minutes Human Resources / Information Technology Budget June 1,2011 Mayor Larson called the workshop to order at 3 :05 p.rn. Present: Absent: Also Present: Larson, Bartholomay, Fogarty Donnelly, May Brenda Wendlandt, Human Resources Director; Cynthia Muller, Executive Assistant Human Resources - The majority of the Human Resources budget is data processing and professional services. Professional services covers a labor attorney if necessary, legal fees for the City Attorney, and money to cover drug testing. The City is a member ofMMUA for drug testing. Professional services also covers Citywide training and the Human Resources Director does a lot of this herself. Most of the safety training is free because we are a member of the Safety Assurance Program through the League of Minnesota Cities. The majority of safety training is online. Citywide training was cut for 2011, but Human Resources Director Wendlandt would like to put some back in the 2012 budget for wellness initiatives and other training such as the fish philosophy which has to do with attitude, leadership, and team building. For 2011, $3,000 was cut and staff would like to put at least half of it back. Data processing covers the HR Payroll system. Human Resources Director Wendlandt would like to add an employee self-service program. Employees would be able to use their computer to enter their time worked, submit it to the supervisor, the supervisor approves it and submits it to payroll all through the computer. It does not save payroll time except for data entry, but we would not use paper to print timesheets, we would not have to track people down for time sheets. Once payroll is fmalized, employees could see their leave accruals, amount of their check, etc. so we would not have to print payroll advices. This would cost $3,000/year to add this function. As it grows, staff would like to do online enrollment for benefits and not have to use so much paper. This would be rolled out one department at a time and the Police Department has volunteered to be first. The HR Payroll software is purchased through LOGIS and is connected to the financial package. A major upgrade was done recently which is paid for through the monthly maintenance fee. These two items would add $6,000 to the HR budget. Miscellaneous covers employee recognition. The school district is working with a company, NeoPath, that opens on-site clinics within organizations. These clinics have a doctor, a nurse, and the school district has also chosen to have a physicians assistant. The school district will have it open a couple days a week to start. This is for school district employees and their dependents who take their insurance. This would be located at Farmington High School. This saves employees time taking a half day to go to the doctor. Medica will be the insurance provider for the school district and they are contributing over $100,000 to help fund the clinic because it helps to keep insurance rates reasonable. The 14 Council Workshop Minutes June 1, 2011 Page 2 clinic is a cross between a Minute Clinic and your regular doctor. The cost of the clinic, because of adding the physicians assistant, is approximately $4200/day. However, the school district predicts they will have healthier employees and less usage of sick time. The clinic will also focus on wellness. The school district has asked if the City is interested in partnering to use the clinic. Staffhas decided to let the clinic get up and running and then discuss partnering. The school clinic wants to supplement the local clinics and not replace them. The clinic does not accept insurance; they are paid by the school to operate. The City has also discussed partnering with the school district for staff. If both need a part time person, can it be the same person. Information Technology - The plan to replace computers has been revised to replacing computers as needed. Newer computers go to those who need more computing power and their computer goes to someone who has a computer with less power. Staff has worked to make sure people have the computing power they need. There was a server due for replacement this year that was not replaced. All servers will eventually need to be replaced. All of the switches that allow us to talk between buildings, to run our fiber, and run the network all come due in 2014. Staffwill recommend replacing some sooner than needed rather than all at once to avoid the costs being all in one year. A fund balance was created specifically to have money for the unforeseen such as the redundant fiber cut. There is money in the IT fund balance to pay for those things. Part of that comes from the charge back from the departments. IT services are charged to each department. If the money is not all spent, there is an internal service fund balance. For the fiber cut, there will not be a negative hit because it comes out of the fund balance. The cost to fix the fiber cut is approximately $10,000. The City leases the phone system for $26,000. The analog lines cost $24,105. Next year the IT budget will be close to 2011 except we do need to add the server back in that was cut. Previously it was discussed to add wireless access points at the arena and Rambling River Park. At that time it was decided not to because of the cost. Staff asked if Council was interested in pursuing this. Council noted there are several places in town that offer wireless service. There is wireless service at City Hall. The capital acquisition plan for 2012 will show $20,000 for servers. In 2014, there is a plan for redundancy for the fiber loop with the County. Staff is putting numbers together. We do have conduit on Elm Street to TH3. Councilmember Fogarty asked that the graphic of the fiber connections be given to Councilmembers May and Bartholomay. There are a couple black and white printers that need to be replaced, however we have been utilizing the copiers to do a lot of the printing. As technology gets better and we have more opportunities to keep things online we may move away from printers. Rather than buying new equipment, staff is looking at how to better utilize what we have. Council has been considering a per diem amount for laptops or Ipads for Council packets and going paperless. This would be a one time per diem for four years. Councilmembers would own the laptop and take the liability off the City. Councilmember Bartholomay asked ifwe could go paperless sooner than 2012. If Council wants to start this sooner, staff felt there would be money available if we replace the money next year. Councilmember Fogarty suggested putting an IT line in the Council budget for a per diem for laptops and Council would buy their own. This will be discussed further at the Administration budget meeting. 15 Council Workshop Minutes June 1,2011 Page 3 The equipment maintenance in the IT budget covers the agreements for software. As part ofthis the City receives upgrades and support for various software packages. MOTION by Fogarty, second by Bartholomay to adjourn at 4:20 p.m. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. Respectfully submitted, Cynthia Muller Executive Assistant 16