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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01/23/1995 City Council00555z MINUTES OF THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON ~' January 23, 1995 1 The Special Session of the City Council of the City of The Colony, Texas was called to order at 7:00 p.m. on the 23rd day of January, 1995, at City Hall with the following Council roll call: William W. Manning, Mayor Present Mike Lynch, Mayor Pro-tern Present Toby Pollard, Councilman Present Kay Hardin, Councilman Present Rob Burchard, Councilman Present John Dillard, Councilman Present G. David Heiman, Councilman Present and with seven present, a quorum was established and the following items were addressed: 1. PLEDGE OF A! Jl JEGLANCE 2. CONSIDERATION OF A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING PARTICIPATION IN THE DENTON COUNTY DRUG TASK FORCE; PLEDGING PAYMENT OF THE LOCAL SHARE OF THE COST OF THIS PROGRAM ----~ Johnny Smith said the Chief of Police was asked to look at the costs of the program. He noted that if we stay in the program we should stay within the budget as planned. Mr. Smith said the Council will have to determine in the next budget process the best way to address the issue. Chief Stewart agreed and stated the money is in the budget this year and as much as he would like to have more officers, that he thinks we should stay with the budget as planned until October 1, 1995. Councilman Lynch asked when the Chief will be asking to add officers to the force and Chief Stewart said he could use them now, but the time to address more officers would be during the next budget process. Mr. Smith said after we look at the mid year budget status, staff may bring a request to the council at that time. Councilman Lynch said it will cost us $25,000 to have two officers on the task force for a full year and if we bring one officer back, it would cost us approximately $3000.00 for the year. He went on to say that he does not agree with having two officers on the task force and said he believes that unit 845 is an available vehicle. Chief Stewart said unit 845 was replaced last year and has been re-assigned to another department. Councilman Lynch advised that the report of vehicles must not be correct because it shows 845 as available. Mr. Smith reminded the Councilman that an updated report has been given to them and is with their packet of information for this meeting. Councilman Dillard asked Lt. Carroll to explain what the Task Force does for The ----~ 2 Councilman Dillard asked Lt. Carroll to explain what the Task Force does for The Colony. Lt. Carroll said the Task Force is a grant funded, multi-agency unit comprised of officers from The Colony, Flower Mound, Denton, Highland Village, Denton and Denton County. He said they conduct overt and covert operations primarily narcotics related. Lt. Carroll said last year approximately $18 million in drugs was taken off the street, noting that was unusually high due to one large confiscation. He said the normal amount per year is about $2 million. Councilman Burchard asked what Lt. Carroll's role is and the role of the other officer. Lt. Carroll explained that he is the commander, overseeing administration, assignment of cases, grant preparation and helping in the field. He said the other officer is primarily in the field. Councilman Lynch asked if the two officers are to stay the same and Mr. Smith advised that Lt. Carroll and Lt. Mills are supposed to switch. Councilman Burchard asked why they would switch, noting that if Lt. Carroll is already the commander, it seems his experience would be good for the task force. Chief Stewart said this is an undercover operation and the agreement was to stay on the task force only two years, noting that Lt. Mills can use the experience of the task force. Councilman Lynch said if we are considering pulling out in October 1995, we might be better off not to switch for only 4 months. Chief Stewart said he is not in favor of pulling anyone off the task force. Councilman Lynch said we only have two on the task force because one is an administrative position. Continuing, Councilman Lynch said he would like to see a policy stating that if an officer is sent to the task force, his job is guaranteed when he returns to the department. Mayor Manning said that would require budgeting for the position each year. Councilman Lynch asked if that could be in the agreement. Mayor Manning advised that the agreement is with Denton County and they (county) doesn't care if our officers have a job when they return or not. Councilman Lynch said again he wants us to have a policy to that effect. Chief Stewart agreed this needs to be addressed. Mayor Manning said the only problem is there are not enough positions authorized right now and that would have to be addressed. Motion to approve the resolution authorizing participation in the task force with two officers in an amount of $'25,062.00 - Lynch; second - Burchard, carried with a unanimous roll call vote. 3. WORK SESSION TO DISCUSS PUBLIC SAFETY PAY PLAN, VEHICI.P~ TAKE HOME POLICIES, AND CITY LIABILITY FOR OFF DUTY PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICERS Johnny Smith said this work session is a result of the Personnel Committee recommendation to aut. horize a 3% across the board increase for public safety employees effective January 1, 1995. He said as a spin off of that issue, the vehicle policies and insurance liabilities are to be discussed as well. Mayor Manning said this is a work session and will be an informal discussion between the cOUncil, Mr. Smith, the two chiefs and Ms. Burkett. Johnny Smith said the council has received a request from an officer representing The Colony Police Association to address the council. Mayor Manning and council agreed - to receive the input. Officer Bill House, introduced himself as a 5 year resident of The Colony, and president of The Colony Police Association. He said 17 of the 23 sworn eligible officers are members of the association. Officer House then read a prepared statement (See Attachment "A"). Officer House's statement addressed the issue of the proposed merit payroll increase for the police and fire departments, stating reasons why the merit system will not work in those departments. His statement asked the council to consider the long term effects in terms of hiring and training in comparison to the effects of an across the board raise for police and fire personnel. He said the association supports the 3% across the board increase and stated that sometimes, the "oottom line" is not clearly in black and white and that people cannot be reduced to numbers on a piece of paper. Councilman Hardin said Officer House should address his concerns to the person who recommended the merit plan and asked how staff thought the plan would work. Continuing, Councilman Hardin asked who recommended this plan. Mayor Manning said the Council chose to move from a step plan to a merit plan for non-public safety personnel and then last year public safety was included. He said now staff has found the plan difficult, if not impossible to administer. Mayor Manning said the Association recommends the across the board increase because of difficulty in administration. Ms. Burkett said council had wanted to put public safety on the same plan as everyone else. Councilman Heiman said it seems the main objection is that the evaluations are made on a subjective basis and then asked if that isn't the way evaluations are done in non-governmental businesses. Officer House said in other businesses evaluations are based -~- on numbers, etc. Councilman Heiman said we should be able to reward those long time employees for their dedication and good service and not just dole out money equally to all employees. Officer House said that would be a good idea, but not since the last cost of living increase was 4 years ago. Councilman Burchard said he understands why the merit plan may not work for fire personnel, because much of their responsibilities are a team effort. He went on to say that he does not think our officers are underpaid when compared to other cities. He said under the merit plan, each employee has a job description and they are evaluated based on how they meet that job description. He agreed that evaluations should not be based on number of tickets written, calls responded to, etc. Councilman Burchard continued, stating other employees evaluations are based on how they perform their job, whether they are excelling or not and asked why officers cannot be judged in the say way. He said good officers should be rewarded and if they are not good officers they should not be rewarded. Councilman Burchard said with the step plan, everybody gets rewarded and went on to say that exceptional officers should not have to share the money with officers who are not exceptional. Mr. Smith said our city is unique because we have 24 hour shifts with a supervisor on each shift. He said when there are several people performing evaluations and not using the same standards, there can be problems, noting that all supervisors should be using the same standards, but with this many people and levels, that would be hard to insure. 4 Councilman Burchard said large corporations have many supervisors and multi- departments and they do this, so our police department should be able to do it. Mr. Smith said he the private sector usually has various ways to give rewards and they not based only on merit. He said the City has only one way for employees to get rewards. Councilman Bm'chard said most businesses live with a merit system and the employees are happy with 3% or 4%. Mayor Manning said we have to try to stay focused on the issue at hand, which is how to distribute increases within the budget as approved. He went on to say we can't possibly decide tonight whether to go with a merit system and how it should be implemented. Mayor Manning said the council has to decide how to give raises with thls budget and if the departments can give a 3% across the board increase. Councilman Burchard stated that the merit system was approved with the budget. Mayor Manning said that is correct, and theoretically, we are on the merit system but it was not implemented and whether that is right or not is irrelevant at this time. Ms. Burkett said public safety employees are not on the merit system as far as money goes, but they have always been evaluated. She said they have been in the step plan for years. Councilman Burchard asked why public safety was separated from everyone else and Ms. Burkett said after the budget was approved this year, the public safety departments expressed concern with the merit plan and asked if they could go back to council for a change. Councilman Lynch said we used an average of 4% for budgeting purposes and some may lose money if we approve the 3% across the board. Officer House said the employees would rather have a guaranteed 3%. Councilman Lynch said some will make less if the 3% is approved. He went on to say the council approved the merit for others last year and then included public safety this year, noting that this had been known about for a year, and asked why the problem was mentioned a week after the budget was approved. Continuing, Councilman Lynch said a bad evaluation can be appealed. He went on to say that he understands using the anniversary date may not be just, because a short tenured employee may get a raise before a long tenured employee. Councilman Heiman suggested using a merit system with one date for all evaluations. Councilman Lynch said he would agree with that if it meets the budget. Mayor Manning asked the Chiefs if there is or is not a merit system in place to give 3%, 4%, or 5% increases. Both Chiefs said the evaluations have been done and could be used for that purpose. Mayor Manning asked the Council if they wanted to authorize the 3% across the board increase or to use the merit system. Mr. Smith noted there is very little difference in the fiscal impact between the two. Councilman Lynch said he thought when the merit was approved that the step plan was done away with and Mayor Manning agreed, but stated that we (council) did not look at the impact on public safety and went on to say that cannot be done tonight. Councilman Pollard said the numbers show that the 4% is more costly. He said the merit plan was mandated, but was not implemented and went on to say that he understands they have special circumstances. Councilman Pollard said he cannot say the merit system is not a good system, and went on to say there should be some objective ways to measure performance of public safety employees. Mr. Smith said the merit system was discussed at budget work sessions and advised that the Chiefs did express concern, but the council decided to stay with the merit system. Mr. Smith said we would like to implement the merit system and between now and the next budget year bring an entire pay plan to the council for approval. Mr. Smith said right now, we want permission to allow the Chiefs to give raises as they see fit for this year, because the instrument (merit system) as it is now is hard to work with. Mr. Smith said in his 22 years of experience he has implemented several pay plans, using several sources based on the community. He said the pay plan needs to be defined and that he can bring it to the council in 6 months for review. He said this recommendation will work for now. Mr. Smith said there are a lot of morale problems in the city due to having to fight for everything, even when it is approved in the budget. Mr. Smith said he just had a new pay plan approved in Copperas Cove before coming to work for The Colony. Councilman Pollard said there are two issues; allowing the 3% effective January 1, 1995 and continuing to pursue the merit system. Mr. Smith said we will continue to work on that system. Mayor Manning said one problem is that the council has not studied the merit system. Coundlman Burchard said employees have known this was coming and evaluations have akeady been done and asked if those evaluations are now meaningless. He said a merit increase is not a bonus at the end of the year. Continuing he said it should be based on whether an employee is doing a good job or not. He said there is no reason why public safety can't go to the merit system now, since the evaluations are already in place. Mr. Smith said the Chiefs can be requested to do that. Councilman Burchard said he had not seen a valid reason why public safety should be treated differently. Chief Morrison said when he came to The Colony there was a struggle between the fire and police departments. He said we have finally achieved parity in pay between the two departments and there have been no problems in a long time, noting that all the employees are close, like a family. He said he thinks Mr. Smith has a good idea for the future, but noted that Lewisville went to a merit system two years ago and are now struggling because of the problems it caused. Councilman Dillard said we formed a task force of council and employees to address this problem, noting that merit is a dangerous word. He said we need to examine this very closely and come up with a good plan. He said the longer this is discussed the more confusing it is. Coundlman Dillard said we need to re-task staff with this and then come up with the best plan for everyone. Councilman Lynch agreed for the long term, but said the evaluations are done and the Chiefs are now recommending a straight percentage. Councilman Lynch recommended going with all the evaluations effective January 1, 1995, but rewarding as 3%, 4% or 5%. Mr. Smith said we don't know what impact that would have on the budget. Councilman Hardin said that would remove parity and cause morale problems. Councilman Heiman said it is not reality to think that everybody makes the same amount of money. Councilman Lynch said a blanket increase could muse problems also. Mayor Manning reminded everyone that the Association said that is what the employees want. Chief Stewart said regardless of which way we go, some will benefit more than others. Officer House said we want 3% guaranteed rather than wait on a "maybe" of 4% or 5%. Councilman Hardin said 6 it sounds like the employees are afraid it might be "0". Officer House agreed, stating the longer this is drawn out that seems a possibility. Councilman Burchard said other employees may resent this action and Officer House said police and fire employees meet special requirements before they can even be hired. He said complaints against public safety employees are followed up on by supervisors and poor performance is not tolerated. He said the employees are not opposed to a merit increase but since they have received no increase in 4 years, they don't want this increase to be based on merit. He said if this was on top of a cost of living increase, there would be no problem at all. Officer House said the Association receives information from the Combined Law Enforcement Association, that says departments who have gone to merit systems are trying to back out of them because they have mused turmoil. Councilman Burchard asked if that information could be made available to the council. Mayor Manning said we need a consensus on how to handle this issue. Councilman Lynch said he has a problem with evaluations being done for a zero increase, noting there may be officers who have been evaluated and would receive 5% under the merit system, but with this recommendation will only get 3%. Chief Stewart said the evaluations done since October 1, 1994 were geared to the merit system and that problem does not exist at this time. Councilman Pollard said we have an opportunity to go from 4% based on anniversary_ date to 3% effective January 1, 1995, which will not effect the budget adversely, and will probably save money on a two year basis, but he doesn't want to give up on the merit without having seen the parameters upon which it is base0,. He said the Chiefs should give the increase effective January 1, 1995 based with a 3% total in each department, based on evaluations. Coundlman Pollard said some may get less than 3% and that some ma_v get mor~ than )~, but that the Chiefs should be allowed to manage their own departments and keep working on a merit plan. Councilman Lynch said that is not a straight 3% across the board and the Chiefs have asked for 3% across the board. Chief Stewart said he recommends approving the 3% across the board or staying with the merit system, but no other variation of the two. Chief Stewart said that will fix the current problem and they could take a crack at merit next year.(%vould look at the merit system again.") Councilman Heiman said we have already approved the 4% merit plan, and asked why we couldn't use it and allow Mr. Smith to develop a pay plan. He said this will give us some experience with how it will work. Mayor Manning said that might not be fair to all employees. Councilman Burchard said whatever is done with public safety, he wants that done with every other employee. Mayor Manning said it is too late to make that kind of change. He suggested approving the Chief's recommendation and to let the departments work with Mr. Smith on a new pay plan which includes employee participation. H, (Mayor Manning) went on to say that council should learn and understand the nuances of the plan to be developed and that we (the council as a body) are perhaps r~mi~s for not reviewing the plan before now. Ms. Burkett advised that the last increase in public safety was an across the board increase three years ago and that two years ago, employees were cut. Ms. Burkett said last year, all other employees got an increase but public safety did not receive anything. 7 005556 Councilman Lynch said if the Chiefs agree and the Association agrees to go with the 3% as recommended by staff, then he agrees with that. He said he would like to see a fair system established. Mayor Manning said we need a consensus so we won't have to discuss this at the next meeting. Councilman Burchard asked when Mr. Smith would have a pay plan ready for review and Mr. Smith said based on his experience in bringing plans to the council, he will try to have a draft to them for review with 60 days. He said he will have the employees involved in this process. Mayor Manning asked for a consensus on the 3% across the board increase. Councilman Pollard said the 3% increase is fine, but he wants to Chiefs to have the final decision of giving the percentage they see fit to each employee. Councilman Lynch said that is not an across the board increase. Coundlman Heiman agreed that is two different things, one is across the board, the other is discretionary. Mayor Manning said the two chiefs are going to give the increase across the board. Both chiefs agreed with that statement. Councilman Pollard said he can live with the 3% effective January 1, 1995 but the raises ~h0uld be at the discretion of the Chiefs for whom the employees work. He said that if they choose tO evaluate every_one equally that would be their own decision. Mr. Smith said he could word the consent agenda item to satisfy_ the council various coundl views. There was a general consensus to authorize the 3% across the board increase. TAKE HOME CAR POLICY: Mr. Smith advised that the latest version of the policies, includes the council suggestions. Councilman Hardin referencing page 4, item 8 said she thought only family members could ride in the patrol cars, while off-duty. Mr. Smith said that could be changed. Chief Stewart said they have added item 17 which addresses that problem. Councilman Lynch suggested using the term "legal dependent" instead of family members. After brief discussion, that change was approved by all council. Councilman Lynch referenced the Fire policy, page 16, item 60 and suggested re- wording it to match the police policy item II B(7). Mr. Smith advised that staff is attempting to write the two policies alike. Councilman Lynch noted that item 10 of the Fire policy regarding waivers, should match item 16 of the Police policy. He also suggested that both departments use radio and telephone range and response conditions instead of a particular mileage. Councilman Lynch also asked that the Fire Department provide monthly reports like the Police Department does. Councilman Lynch asked who pays for damage to the city vehicle if it occurs while the vehicle is being driven off-duty. Mr. Smith advised the vehicle is covered under the city's TML liability policy. Councilman Burchard said when the vehicle is damaged while being used for personal business, the taxpayers should not have to pay for it. Mr. Smith said the vehicle is covered if it is being operated within city policies. Councilman Burchard said right now, the vehicle is covered whether it is operated within city policies or not. He went on to cite an example; suppose an officer is at home watching T.V. and runs out of beer, he decides to drive the (police) car to the store to pick up some more beer, and has an acddent. Chief Stewart advised that the officer would not be operating the vehicle within policies in that instance. Councilman Dillard said we approved the take home policy so we have to live with it. Mayor Mat~nlng said we have hired trustworthy people and we must trust them to drive responsibly. He said we can't possible cover every incident. Mayor Manning asked City Secretary, Patti Hicks how long the policy had been in effect and how many incidents of the nature Councilman Burchard cited had occurred. Ms. Hicks said the policy had been in effect about 13 years and there had never been an incident of that nature. Councilman Heiman said he was satisfied with the policy as it is. Councilman Burchard said if the decision is to live with it, then he will go along. Mayor Manning, Councilman Dillard and Councilman Heiman said they are satisfied. Councilman Pollard said he understands the vehicles are fully covered for anything and that the only risk is the deductible. Councilman Heiman said they look like good policies and agreed it is important to enforce them. he said he sees very little risk to the City. Lengthy discussion followed regarding insurance coverage. Councilman Dillard again stated we approved the policy and we have to live with it. Further discussion regarding the liability of officers if they are in an accident while off-duty and on personal business. Councilman Burchard said he wants to require officers to carry a 5-11 rider on their personal policies, which only costs about $20.00 a year. Chief Stewart said his insurance agent told him he could purchase that coverage but it is not worthwhile because it would be secondary coverage and that TML would be the primary coverage. Councilman Burchard then said he wants the officers to be asked to reimburse a portion of the $1000.00 deductible if they have an accident while on personal business. Mayor Manning disagreed, stating this will make the policy so difficult that the officers will not want to have a take home policy. Councilman Dillard reminded everyone that the citizens have said they want a take home policy and that the policy saves us money and helps with response time. Councilman Burchard said citizens who have called him want a take home policy but they do not want any personal use of the vehicle. He said he wants the officers to be responsible. Mayor Manning suggested Councilman Burchard bring in his recommendation in the form of a resolution. Councilman Burchard said his recommendation is to require the officers to carry 5-11 and to pay the first $250.00 of the $1000.00 deductible. Chief Stewart said the reason you approved the take home policy was to benefit the city and the officers. He said if one officer makes an arrest or intervention and doesn't get paid for it, the cost of the insurance coverage is more than paid for. Chief Stewart said that he is not willing to buy insurance on a city vehicle and he does not think other officers will either. Councilman Lynch said he also wants to discuss expanding CID coverage and assigned "on-call". Mr. Smith said it is not feasible to administer assigning on-call. Discussion followed. Chief Stewart said they have always been able to get an adequate number of people in when they need them. These items will be discussed at a later time. 9 0055oe With no further business to address, Mayor Manning adjourned the meeting at 9:45 William W. Manni;g, Mayor Patti A. Hicks, TRMC, City Secretary NOTE: The underlined portions of these minutes was drafted by Councilman Pollard and added to the text at his request exactly as presented to the City Secretary. 10 Attachment "A" My name is Bill House. I have been a resident of The Colony for five years and I am currently the President of The Colony Police Association. I would like to address the council about the proposed merit payroll increase for the police and fire departments. I am curious as to how police officers and fire department personnel would be rated for merit type increases? Are fire personnel rated on whether they respond to fires or how quickly? Or possibly on the number of calls they respond to? What about police officers? Would their performance be evaluated based on how many tickets they write? If that be the case who would you hire to patrol the residential streets or the businesses at night? Because I assure you that if the officer's raise is based on how many tickets he writes he will be on Main Street and Highway 121 not in the neighborhoods and patrolling the alleys. And I don't think the public will be very happy with the police or the council as a result. You might consider that if the police are doing their jobs correctly they are not taking reports because as has been brought to this council's attention before when the officers are visible in the neighborhoods there are likely to be fewer crimes to report. So in that case less is more. How do you measure that? How much is it worth? That only leaves a subjective rather than an objective form of evaluation. Which would allow a supervisor to color the evaluation either for or against the employee whether that employee is doing an effective job or not. Making the evaluations a personality contest. We at the Police Association, feel that basing an increase on a merit system is a poor policy for a city who has had their employees on a fixed income for the past 4 years while surrounding communities have been able to at least attempt to keep up with the increase in the cost of living. I fear that trained employees will begin to look elsewhere for employment considering the fact that they can drive 10-20 minutes in almost any direction and perform the same work for more pay. It is common knowledge that surrounding agencies such as Addison, Carrollton, Farmers Branch, Lewisville, Carrollton, and Frisco are on a higher pay scale. I am also afraid that The Colony Police and Fire Departments will simply become a training ground for the surrounding municipalities. I personally am committed to this community but younger officers who are just beginning their families and careers are not committed to staying any one place. Especially if that place is not offering competitive pay and benefits. They must consider what is best for themselves and their families. Please consider what the long term effects in terms of hiring and training would be in comparison to the effects of an across the board raise for Police and Fire Personnel. Sometimes the "bottom line" is not clearly in black and white. People, after all, are people and can not be reduced to numbers on a piece of paper.