I know that I can say to them or for what I essentially responded that I've raised it because we were told that they have to base and never actually notice from our piece of go all the way down to their section Lincoln. Yeah, I'm going to hold strength because they're Okay. and then we'll first have that. Okay. We have which prizes. And then we moved to spring. Oh, I was going to read right now. Oh, thank you. I just see. So it is amazing. All the way down. That's just what's all right. Okay. You know, Oh, Jimmy on blogging here. So there's a. It's that I've probably been meeting at least for a moment, trust around. Okay. It's recording and it's in fine. I don't know details about that. What? Something. Good choice to that. What? Right. That's right. That's why it's not. Okay. That was a good thing. Yeah. Yeah, that was a lot of it. Yes, we made it. Absolutely. No, it is. I'm going to do a muppardus. I have a great meeting tonight. Okay. Okay. That was a good thing. Yeah. That was a good thing. Yes. Yes. Yes. I appreciate it. No, it is. I appreciate it. I have a great meeting tonight. I don't know how many. Well, I'm sure you've ever seen this before. Yeah. So. I was growing up. Do you know, I'm getting a chance to learn more. and have just the last life that I've been through. Thank you for your pardon. Thank you. Good morning. Welcome to New York. We've got hops. It's been 2.30 in It's April 23rd, 2025. Thank you for your patience. Our mayor's meeting ran a slight bit long. So thank you for joining us, Sally and Richard. Richard is at Richard Klein. Let me start by taking role council member now. Now Council member Flynn here Council member party here. And so I'm your chance with God here. And we also have sitting in the chair HR director and assistant manager and our attorney. Thank you all for joining us this meeting. The expenses review or HR update and the first time you you've joined us for this. So we have tried establishes that's kind of a quarterly routine just to make sure that we cancel, congratulate you with full council where we stand on vacancies, how we can help and it's intent really to tell how we can best help support you visit, what are our challenges, what are our obstacles to hiring or retaining staff in the city? And I just want to make sure that that's data front. That's our goal and our intent of having this. We need sports where we help. So a few would walk us through that as well as I understand a regional comparison, salary comparison. And then we didn't talk about this. So So this is just an add-on to the agenda, but my understanding is that I'm going to made some good progress on ARs, so if you could also just maybe get us out, 30,000 foot glossier we are, ARs, could we talk to that about that probably about a year ago now, long before you could continue going back I'm not sure if you can bring it to the ERs. Oh, they're just ARs. And my brain, my brain, I remember. So we have all essential goals, all these, which would include return to work, which I know we talked about. And we talked about, and there's some progress being made. And that's so you can just give us some you know high level updates on that would be fantastic. Any other opening comments from many members or. I'll make just an open and common so great to have a sharing that I genuinely and I are just so relieved that have a share on here with the city with her great expertise and sort of calm demeanor and always a smile. If we work through, you know, HR is such a crucial function for the city and also, you know, kind of always is dealing with sort of some of the more difficult issues of any organization. And so, one of the things that Sharon said when we were interviewing her is like, who looks out for HR? HR looks out for the whole organization. But it's just great having her leadership here with the city. Yeah, that's me. So let's start with the big concern requirements where we sit as of right now. Just use. So I think it's these are. Sure. Sure. So I can see these are not. Share. Is. And first, it's like you can. So before I go through the actual list that I have, I want to mention that we have about three positions either in the offer stage and negotiating start dates. So we have a transportation position and an engineering position at DPW. We have a meetings assistant, a listening assistant position that's reflected on the page, but we actually have passed the interview stage and actually have extended and offer. So currently, we have this sorted by departments, and we can see within each department the total number of agencies within CPES there are currently four positions. Two of them we have an even started the process to interview or select. One is in the interview stage and the other is screening applications and the screening applications is housed with HR. as we those that we received a determined on their qualifications for the position. So for CPES is a total of four current vacant FTEs. Going to legislative department, one public meetings assistant position, but they we are past the interview stage and have extended an offer and looking to start within the next pay period. That's actually going to be staffed in the executive area in the area of technology. There's the systems technician position. Bajar is currently screening those applications or resumes and then we have an applications project manager. There is an update to this note here. The classification for the position has been completed and we actually are able to move forward with advertising that position. And so there are two current vacancies in the executive area. business auditor no process has been initiated for that position at all. That is with the completion of a revenue. And human services, they are two residential council positions. We've actually made offers to fill those. And one of those is a recent separation site. They think our time to fill those pretty quick in regards to that. So currently the spreadsheet shows as open positions but we actually have been the offer to close that out by the end of the week. Library is system position. This is a vacancy that's going to be created as a halftime internal applicant was selected for a full-time position. So eventually, this position will more than likely remain open until a determination is made if they're going to actually staff it internally. Public safety, there are six, oh we have 5.75, one of them is a 0.75 position. Unfortunately I didn't include, I think it would be helpful as I'm having this conversation. Moving forward, since it sort of indicate how long the position is open? I just heard. I actually started the process. If there were any re-advertisements, a couple of these have been open for a while. And we may have gone through a couple of cycles of recruitment. And I think that will transition immediately to that point. There's where the support is needed. So I anticipate if there's a desire to actually build these positions, you should not have much of an issue. The professional standards manager position is a new position. The classification has been completed. There will be a determination at what point to move forward with actively recruiting for that. And that's the one we talked about the other night, right? The chief was advocating for us. So, make sure I understand what that's like. Correct. Public works. So, do you have four current vacancies? Again, where I can would be helpful to show when we actually initiated the recruitment for the principal engineer and the maintenance worker. There's been a couple of re-abritagements due to candidates declining the offer and then HR having to go out and start another solicitation. Can I interrupt you for a second? Do we know is it a salary issue? Why would people have been declining that position? I don't have that information capture. Okay. But moving forward, that's something we would want to assess, whether it's salary, whether it's location, whether it's benefits, what made the city not as attractive an author as a competitor. Yeah, I mean, obviously looking at the compensator, but to me that seems slow, but I don't, I mean, it's just, I've all ended up no information to compare to, but that would be great for us on City Council to see if you see a being like this, because it keeps being turned down and that big salary issue. And that's exactly the point. I know we made changes to what we paid our DPW hourly rate about a year and a half or two years ago. We do have to do just that two or three adjustments, why over the past four years, says we were finding good and retain and then we're being hired for our sick and late. So exactly to your point and to tracking, what can we do? I don't know, try and start here. That's obviously if you have to re-appertize those people across the country. That's right. Part of our staff. That's right. Yes, and also helping to sort of build a more robust applicant pool. So with one candidate, the clients, we have the potential section on the footer of much spending or not sort of build a more robust applicant pool. So with one candidate, the clients, we have potential section of our Twitter box, then we're not sort of losing time. I started to recruit my process from the beginning, right? Any other questions, comments or concerns about the public board's vacancies? And this relatively good compared to our historical DQW vacancies. So I think in a few days to you all for getting it, getting the salaries more competitive and getting a higher staffing rate. And we talked about some Monday night but also the police, regionally police vacancy rates are significant and laying higher and other jurisdictions than they are in foster. So, overall we can see rate 21 over 240. Oh, 21, 21, 20.75 divided by 240. We found funded in the budget version. Yeah, 215. 9, 1, 240. So we just have 15, 240. 8 points. 8 points. So we better than 1.4. That's great. Yes, add on the comments. Be helpful to look at this as we get more to discipline with managing our big and see report the trends every time they'll like to vacancy bench marking like he presents better than where we were a year or two ago. But it'd be nice to know regionally like is this we're not an outlier and then understand the reasons why something is big for so long especially where council can take more action. The competitiveness it's the job scope is too big and this really is more like a two person job, which is a one person job, like hearing that would be helpful. And then looking to you sharing with the right cadence for our state of engage on this line, is this a one-start order or is this a one-start free six months, once a year? How can we meet most helpful to you in looking at this so that we can then take action whether it's budget cross-ass or a policy perspective. That's really, really helpful. I know for a lot of the DPW positions as the city has been recruiting simultaneously Arlington and Fairfax are recruiting for the exact same position. Fairfax exact same time. So that's always a challenge. And then on public safety, you know, Fairfax County is starting to offer sign on bonuses on individuals' private is to attract perhaps individuals who may be impacted by what's going on in the federal sector. So really kind of want to look at it. I don't always necessarily feel like, you know, money is or salaries always that you issue. I think in area of support what we'd be looking at, moving forward is our recruitment budget. We need to expand our outreach. Certainly there's some things we can do at no cost and what are those things. But there are some perhaps targeted publications, websites that require most of them are pretty expensive. So really looking at that and seeing what's the best return on investment for the city, even the criticality of the importance of the position. So that's what I'll be looking at moving forward. I think as we build this process and enhance our communication, they start initially quarterly. Certainly would be helpful to have these touch points and provide sort of the feedback and give updates on some benchmarking that we may have been able to do that information to you. And I'm hearing this in what you're saying too, right? That there's also the sort of exit side of things, right? So I don't know how much right now that we have, an approach to exit interviews, or if you're handling exit interviews, like if they're separate in a part from a department head, because sometimes someone who isn't as close to the employees like daily work, right? Is able to get better information when it's a dark person asking about, you know, why is it that you're leaving, right? So as recruitment measures and small organizations, you're often able to say like, well, this is great. And it's a small organization and you get a lot more exposure and we get a lot more substance and responsibility. But then our people finding that they're like professional growth opportunities, the thing way that there may be in larger organizations like those sorts of questions, I would also be interested in in terms of like how we, you know, if we see we're having problems or we're losing people more like the retention piece of things in terms of having your insight or HR, it's a ability to help in some of those questions. What are your control factors? Yeah. Control having a large organization or not. What can you do? I think the right great points. So we do have an opportunity to enhance our exit interview process. we do that something in place, but sort of those follow-up questions that really gather more data, particularly as it relates to our salary and benefits and sort of what was the initial reason for you looking? Is it culture and concern? Is it a platform professional development? Is it salary? Is it benefit? So really enhancing what we're trying to do is so we can get that type of data. I feel good. On the additional funding or future funding for the supports and recruitment, I think that, you know, kind of always have this ROI in mind, brain. Like, it redemonstrate that it takes, you know, if we have to read file for four or five times to bring somebody in, they expensive doing that to the staff versus paying for more, you know, enhancing the recruitment process up front. I think that's a really good financial model saying why. It's then we're not just, oh, it'd be nice to advertise. But here's why in that data that you're collecting on how long things are open or how many times you have to re advertise those costs are reduced by doing it at front, I think that would be a solid budget argument moving forward. Just throw that in and then it's an idea and when you're thinking about that or the next, for the next budget cycle or budget amendments, that's a helpful way of looking at it. Probably. So, and well one thing I was thinking of is, you know, we did this community survey and so, you know, one of the things that people are most interested in is sort of the public works piece, paving, walkability, all that, and then also all the cut through traffic and all that. And so, you know, that's one of the things that, you know, I look at it, if you're going to get public safety and public works, those are two areas with the higher pickings. So, I don't know why I did, in January, it's a question for you, but, you know, internally, is there ever sort of a, you know, it's hard to give us a lot of vacancies to try, but maybe we, you know, focused on these aspects to really put, okay, now with that, those, you know, I'm just thinking more of that public facing things that are taxpayers notice, you know, if it's maybe just like, let's focus on getting these down, you know, versus some of the more internal positions. Just a thought, I don't know. But again, I guess that's what sort of struck me was, the areas that the public is most interested in are the ones we have the higher maintenance rates. And then the other thing I just wanted to say was, I know we've been talking about the budget. And so, and you know, are there any ways we can cut back? You know, not that we want to cut back, but we're looking at the, I'm not saying this, but I'm just throwing this out there. So like looking at the business auditor for a commissioner revenue, that's a high salary. Is that something like do we look at contracting that out? maybe I don't know anything about how that works. Yeah, I can't comment too much on the commissioners operations. Yes, let's say this we you know Jenny and Andy are working with our commissioner and our treasure to make sure that all of our systems are serving them well so they can do their job well. Right. And that's the text assessment function is one that we've said that auditor is the one who makes sure that the people licenses are correct for anal sex. They do sort of this statistical spot checks to make sure that that's happening correctly. I'd I'd be that pretty important position. Right. Just as somebody put it in. I'm not saying I'm saying. I'm not saying. I'm not advocating for that. I was just throwing it up. Are there, are there sometimes to contract next? I was just using that as an example, but to contract things out sometimes is through less cost, cost, the question up to you for benefits and all that, but just something that... Yeah, and it's real expensive when you contract about it. No, is it? It's super expensive, but the good thing about contracting is if you need to stop doing it, you can without a whole lot of them... So more like a project that makes it like the firm start and that's when you would contract. It's not a permanent masterpiece. Right, right, right. So that makes sense. So I would say for contracting, that has been implemented in the case of public works with the engineering. And then also to your point about focus on particularly public safety and public works, I would say we are down to, and this is due to a focus in the last few months. We were up, I think, I have 16 vacancies and we're now down to four. Wow, that's true. I know. I'm going to focus on the last four, but I'm going to post to each R team and her, that's very Andy and Tara in looking at use and how to improve. I'm being a new customer, but that's a context I don't have, so that's a gift hunt to know. Thank you. And then probably we'll see you have the tracking over time to let you know that insurance point. Right. And you're going to think they did it. It gives you that full. No, that's very different. And that's reasonable. 30% they could see why that's term coded. Yeah, that's a point high. That's true. And I would say for folks, sorry, just for public safety, certainly you can speak more to that and will. I think they are very focused and that's been a particular focus of Captain Chetry and or the agent is a major and he is. I think there's there could be something and historically. and I think you spoke about this like a less constant meeting that or in one of her meetings, they're opening together, that there was a point in time where they like, regional, like everybody was having difficulty you know, refreshments. And so I think still some recovery from that as well. Thank you for that background and context for me. And if you knew that's really helpful, thank you. That's fine. I was just going to say, and I mean, yeah, right. It's an organizational decision, but I would also still be interested in having more insight into the CPEHDS director and just that, you know, planning and economic development sort of in your mind organizational structure going forward because when I look at large salary kind of items and also not necessarily wanting redundancy or people to get very under too much hierarchy. That's like a place that comes to my mind just thinking about is to do something different like going to the world. Especially as we have to have two WCN managers. Yeah. That's right. That's something about too. So plus one of the comments about like when you think about the full HR life cycle, we're focusing a lot on the recruitment side, but I think Aaron's point about wanting similar information on the nutrition and exit side and in the middle, the retention part of it, right? So I think we need to admit it as an organization that we would do a community survey every two years and an internal survey every two years. So we'll probably do for the internal one this coming year now. It'll be in February of 2026. And so this has been a council that has shared a lot about how we're doing, you know, before you leave the organization as well. And so maybe in future times you can talk about, you know, how the trends are looking internally and how we can support you. Because ideally we should do a better job. And for the team, people are not just looking at exit survey data then. They think that would help us again and form budget and policy decisions on how we can be a great place for people to work. You like to do the chain, bringing in people here and knowing why and what it is. And I think that was a plus to contracting with Fervolski, is that the community survey is every other year and then what you started with the Fervol The confidence survey is then on the off-hairs. And so we're gonna start to get longitude and all data of both of those because they are scientific, the, that's just a six-significant surveys. And so we have one year of the data so far. So building that data pool and then building the longitude. Yeah. And again, building that kind of like discipline. I think we said we'd also commit to doing salary benchmarking every ice years. And so I don't know where we are on the cycle. We probably lasted that 18 months, two years ago. And so I don't know what the right frequency is. You're a very sharp professional, but I want to get and I have it where our discipline and doing this, and we're not playing catch up in fighters, like oops, we did benchmark ourselves, and now we have a big salary gap. Of course, we're a playing catch up in fighters. Like oops, we did benchmark ourselves and now we have a big salary gap. Persuporting competitors are right. So that's the end of establishing how often you want DevOps involved, how often you should be looking at this data and then making sure we're disappointed, maturing at an organization and focusing on the full age or life cycle. In the last market assessment was two years ago, so we got the report from the work was done and you've done half-years ago. So it was that the one we did sort of make conjunction with the schools. Now we've sort of done one. I hope they did it. They made some of you to take this thing. They were simultaneously. Different contracts. And they were done. It was around the same time. That was on school, but everybody's city was doing it too. There's still some longer history of doing that. Is that every benchmarking just probably because there was bigger, there were bigger discrepancies and people not coming. So I think they have, they have more longitudinal data that have had success in closing a lot of the gaps and then city camp and then didn't some of our so I wish I'd be great. I need to do a lot of things on the charts. Is that everybody have this particular any other questions or this is great. I think I'm going to put this in for the council or friends question about the question about the CPES on the director position. It is one where we've had a lot of conversations internally with our planning staff, economic development staff, building safety staff. Just to think through what is the best organizational structure for that. What are our needs, how can we best meet those needs? That CPETS position is currently sort of envisioned as a general manager type of position. And that I don't think is a need and the team doesn't think that's really a need. Where strategically, kind of my views are what the city needs is some of the very strong action on development skill set and focus. The kind of how that then fits with the existing economic development office, we're kind of working through that. The bottom line is that when we discuss budget gap closing measures, that position is going to be part of the discussion. I just really encourage the Councillors for thinking about that to be thinking strategically about what we need to grow the commercial tax base. That is just a crucial thing for us to do. And how we best meet that strategic imperative, you know, five-year timeframe. So it is a lot of money and so it is something that we're thinking about in terms of how we deal with our current fiscal situation. But it needs not be divorced from where we do you know it's. So it's. I just was saying to you can tell it's point when we hired in that role, we didn't have to deputy state managers and with Jenny and these very able leaderships put that, I think a lot of that management has been distributed differently than it was before. Successfully, successfully and having just heard a new director that we've been able to handle out Monday night and then hiring a planning director and bringing in also two various concepts of skills to take on a lot of that work as well. So I thank you for taking a serious look at that because I think staffing models should change based upon our needs and the growth. And I'll have to make you for addressing that and thank you for strategy and leadership. And I support and all support that none development that's going to be crucial to especially remedy growth and challenging times. I think it's something. So it is possible in the next quarterly to add in the data on how typical that is to on the length of position or number of times, then things then have ties and then over time tying into regional data. So maybe two steps, maybe in a quarter you have, we have what our own data is on length of time positions are open and then we can add in a regional comparison in terms of just maybe vac maybe vacancy rates. I think that the helpful, I don't know how probably available that information is or how difficult it is to get, but take your advice on how we make the best comparison is originally to understand how we can get a better landscape of firing for these competitive decisions. Good news bad news is that there are more people available to take on these roles that might have something similar at a federal level. Any other questions? I'm not. So then can you just talk us through between the two of you talk us through where we are and AR3, if you actually started to get ARs just broadly, generally. That was a big focus of both HR and we were going through management as well on the personnel side. So I think we're on track for completing 22 ARs by the end of this year. The ones that are currently in review are fellow work, retirement, sick leave, femla, leave, and I think also travel to name the highlight ones where we're closer to getting to the finish line, hopefully, is telework and retirement. And we also are doing a really deep dive in the compensation AR that will may take a little bit more time. We're trying to incorporate some of the things that we talked about here in terms of, you know, what can we do either through compensation or some non-compensation in this initiative? In this initiative to really kind of build and expand the employee work experience internally. So that's the goal 22 completed by the end of this year. I don't know if there's any that you have a particular concern or interest in How many do we have in total? So 22, 82. And so we've 60 more to go up to that. So see what I go. But I think it's none of them have been redone there. Yes, it's not all. I think that's not that long. Yeah. Not all of the same. Right. The first one. That was it. And I think the remaining will be easier to get through. I just laid compensation, I remember me. Those are... Yeah, and I think the remaining will be easier to get through. I just laid compensation, I remember me, I believe those are tablework, those are really that heavy lifting ones I want to end there most important to the staff. So I wanted to kind of move those along. And so I think we're making the upfront investment in the time and those. And I think others will get through a lot quickly. Did you address on telework? You know there's been a lot of buzz just regionally about federal return to work and what's the right balance of, you know, in person, not in person, and I know you just address like what direction you're heading and how you're working with the staff to find right balance and recommendations for the residents and answer. So the telework ARs, I think, been out for employee comment previously and then I sort of pulled it back. So I wanted to add some more things to it. I believe you click me if I'm wrong. The cities. comment previously and then I sort of pulled it back so I wanted to add some more things to it. I believe, click me for Ron, the cities position on telework for individuals below the director level is, is it two days a big period or a week that they're in eligible cell It's really, it's a fine job description. So first determine whether you're eligible for telework and your job description. And then the mandate is really on the, for the work unit that the office needs to be 50% staff. So there are some members of accounts payable who haven't been in the office really, you know, more than three days, so the last six months. And that's fine. And then there are others in that office are here every day. The department head has some flexibility to work with staff on that. that we can, that has worked for us pretty well. I think, you know, for us to oppose for people who are just like doing accounts payable or a GIS manager, we're just working out a computer telling them that they must come in three days a week or two days a week. One, we don't have a workstation form and two, we don't have a very good rationale as to why. When they ask us why you're making us do this, it's not particularly clear why. So that's my personal views of it. But I haven't really pressed on that point. And we do have a in CPEDs and planning in particular and finance still usher degree. We don't have the work stations because we brought. So, so, so, so, there's because they're not public facing positions. That's correct. Okay. So, what about for all of our, as we bring on new people? What, I mean, what do we tell people in terms of that? A beneficial policy. Very clear in the job description, as to whether it is eligible or not, and there's needs to be a very clear conversation. So what the expectations and the onboarding process. Yes. Can I ask you something? I've been through multiple iterations of like different telework policies. So it's been deployed for 14 years. Like would we move down to the telework enhancement act from like a zero-tellor to having telework, alternate work schedules, then what flexible options look like when we included things like lighting, you know, staff meetings wise, like, you know, are they in person and you have some remote people who come in, you know, like, bug a bean, that bean man, but like, uh, join remotely. I mean, first, first, you know, versus having, even if the majority of your people are in the office having virtual staff meetings, so that the participation of the remote or teleworkers, you know, you can have people engage in a staff meeting in a different way than if they're like the singular person on the telephone line or on the screen versus everyone else sitting in the room. But in terms of sort of when you're thinking about the telework AR, are you thinking both, it makes sense right? Eligibility in terms of sort of job duties and responsibilities, but then sort of default what you are or aren't able to do with subject to like the supervisors approval. And then you know at like routine telework and then also then also like ad hoc and situational, that will work like are all three of them addressed in the AR. And then beyond that sort of, you might say like, oh, it's fine for a person to be remote for like six months and accounts payable, but then like what does it mean for coverage of a team member? Does it mean that the person who's sitting in the office every single day gets their work like interrupted that much more? Because they're the point of contact for everyone else in the organization who's like showing up. And so one person gets like an uninterrupted eight hour work day and another person spends 10 hours doing their work every day, right? So some of just, I think having the employee feedback would be helpful and it's not to say that people should be mandated or coming to the office, but in terms of thinking about coverage or thinking about, you know, growth opportunities or kind of planning for who steps into what roles, which pieces the tie. Like those are also important considerations for like why the telework policy is what it is or why you structured in a way that you may have more flexibility as managers to require certain things. Even if it's not a default for people to be in as often like just because. Yeah. And I think that's where the, so after the AR is finalized, I think that's where the education piece comes in, is the feedback from employees. It's really not understanding that distinction, you know, the position and responsibility role that I have, as well as the requirement of your director, based on business needs, to have someone on site or off site and kind of what that looks like. So I think there's a real opportunity that we have to educate in not just the city's classroom but what it looks like. We don't really specify situationally at all. It's more the general umbrella in terms of, you know, the flexibility and department demands, and that it's really contingent upon, you know, business needs, right? And so what does that look like? Because it can look different for each department. And I think that's where employees maybe don't understand why it looks different. It's not something specific. It's It's placed on the functional. And that's the thing, right? But it just doesn't seem arbitrary or like, I have a certain manager. And so their preferences that I were sitting here every day, you know, I mean, we went through this right with the, as everyone did with the pandemic where I had a fellow manager who was just like, no, I don't understand. I take the train every day. well, I get into the office five days a week, people should just be here and like get over it. And then we, you know, the pandemic hit and they were like, oh, wait, like, actually, this is something a lot when employee satisfaction and some, you know, both like balance issues and I can understand, you know, pep infertual meetings, doing this this way for these reasons and so also, you know, making sure that you don't have those just like personal preference style, right? criteria among your managers, right? The description, rule, journey, yeah. I mean, I could look right about, yeah, making it not personal preference and making it standard space. The hang up was that that AR is staying on my desk to review and it's I hope you did like last November and it disappeared for a while like it disappeared for a while and then when I got it the second iteration back it had been completely rewritten and so now I have to like reconcile the comments from the first and kind of see what changed in the second and then and anyway. So it wasn't a simple it was not a simple review just because it had changed because it changed so much. So I'm trying to put those pieces together. And it is on my list for actually this week. So, and then you sometimes act like the telework. And then I don't know if you have an office-based policy, or not, but where they kind of go and stand on. Because you say, like, you know, inches and hello work, if you, you know, if you are out of the office or you're only in the office, you know, one day a week or two days per pay period, than like your expectation of having a workstation. Those should just like really be there. You're gonna be hotel or whatever it is. We're going to set aside this area for people. So another thing to think about. And then expectations in your, you are the virtual employee. You know, expectation isn't that you have a, like a full set of a printer, a manager, a computer, you know, desktop here and at home. Like, so we're not doubling the cost by having somebody be hybrid. This came up a lot during, obviously, when teachers had to teach remote, they were like, well, I need this setup and I need three monitors. I mean, like, just whatever we make a decision at, just making it clear and equitable as well. If you're a hybrid worker, or if you work solely at home, you're in accounts payable, then you have a lot of time, you have a monitor, you have whatever. That's the kit that you get, and you bring that with you when you come into the office. Like, just making sure that those things are clear, because we did have some challenges on them. And that particularly, I'm, hopefully, went off situation, just sort of be clear. I mean, you know, what their're set up, sorry, when they're tired or like, I don't think I really guess. Okay, and he said that timing's roughly by the year end. That's one of the air. We hope to have done by all of that dot. We did. Meaning they've been reviewed between HR, the city attorney they've gone out out for the 30-day employee comment review, we finalize them, they have the appropriate education to staff, and they're posted. Okay. And then obviously in their, you know, in the expectation from the resident's size that there are, you know, the handful of deaths that are always available and facing like, whatever, treasure, you know, you guys know what they're just to make sure that we can, if anybody asks us, then making a back and say, well, we have a policy based upon job definition, and these five offices will always be available during working hours with the only exceptions being emergency situations which happen in life. Just so that we can go back out to residents who have comments and say, this is what the policy is, since how it's being implemented and here's why. I think it's great. So we can help the education on the residents side as well. Any other questions on any of those AR? I know we added ARs to this, so thank you for being bringing with us on that one. Any other questions? In terms of, so let's set some time and then the summer for the next quarter of the end of July, you can look at good countering that. Then go about the Govoss group, you guys would say for a little bit, so we can talk through plans for our annual reviews for three employees, but then you all don't need to say it. Thank you so much for taking your time, hopefully. It's effective and that we continue to communicate that we see the job of council that's supporting you and having successful relights from the cycle. So that's our goal. That's why we lot of key things on a quarterly basis. It's super-signing to see the progress made. I think when we add that tone, it shows decreasing vacancies and hopefully decreasing the time from job opening to job, you know, to hire somebody. It's decreasing. Those are all just great signs that have the city. So, do you have a question? I mean, sharing your better insight into this. A clinton bargain, obviously, is a regional trend. Do you need data on how those where people are in their very cycles? I think we asked about fire fires coming up in Arlington, at the end of their three-year cycle. Do we know what are we benchmarking kind of what percentages will click across the vision? benchmarked but it seems a significant number of folks are either at the beginning stages or have some actual finalized collective bargaining agreements. but I certainly can pull that data and summarize. I know we were seeing that with Arlington, Alexandria, urban fairfax as well, not sure about the NASA's, but it seems to be going in that direction and more jurisdictions are in that process of having like other rumblings in the general government employee base about wanting to organize? Not that I've heard. I haven't heard anything, but I think that speaks to your earlier comment about the experience that folks have in the city and how we are addressing their needs and their telework is important. Compensation always comes up in terms of keeping pace with this. If you may, that I've seen the majority of them, the initial basis is compensation to some degree. So whether it's an overall adjustment or there's an increase to the retirement contribution or there's an established longevity pay, like $1,000, I think, what jurisdiction has that? So I think those are the things that people are most concerned about and when they feel like they're not getting it through the employer, they look for that independence for it. So I think we have an opportunity to really look at where do we fall along those lines? Is there anything that we can do proactively that make this competitive, that sort of speak to those issues? And so those are things that I'm looking at through the compensation AR. One of the things that we're also looking at is I think we have a promotion standard of 10% if someone is internally promoted. What we're saying that's not necessarily competitive with other jurisdictions. And so what is that number? What should that number be? So those are the things we're trying to look at to be proactive and addressing some of the maybe unheard comments or concerns that employees may be And I think that's where we look to your expertise. I think that's excellent. And how much does a salary study cost us? Like generally is it? It's $50,000, $250,000. I'll just sort out there. I don't know, is it more than that? Like $100,000? No. I don't know how to do more of that, like 100%. No, I don't know. I just like, what is 16? 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, I'm sorry, that's another vlog on my debit. But to me, that's a worthwhile expense, you know, especially if it makes sure that, I mean, I went through the collective bargaining process when I was on school board. And I can tell you stories, but anyway, My point is that I think it's a worthwhile expense. And maybe we talk about doing a salary study literally every other year to keep pace with the salaries so that we don't... NASA shows we're doing well. Right. It's the same Right. And the R2. But you know, not all just gaps. Generally, as you said, generally collective bargaining. That whole process starts because it. Complaints. He meets with with salaries is mostly soldering benefits. Sass action with work plus environment to but mostly salary. So if we can really every other year make sure and it's easier for us to every a year, maybe bump up, then all of a sudden we realize four years from now we're really behind and how we're going to bump up our own solar. That would be something I would suggest is that every other year we do a salary study. But and also to your getting your expertise, when you said the thing about the longevity bonus, it reminded me on the school side, when people top out at the salary scale, When I was on the school board, we decided to give, so I'm here, those individuals get a $1,000 bone, like bonus, I don't know what we call it, but it's now. Because they're maxed out. So that is something too, like that we should think about. If there are people who have been here a number, you'd like, it's a lot more expensive to try to go out and find new people right that they keep people. So I mean, anything creative that you can come up with, you know, thinking, again, looking at your expertise, giving us recommendations. Yeah, I don't interrupt one of the other things is so that it's not always like if you're in difficult budget circumstances and then like, oh, it's always, you know, a monetary bonus, but I don't know how often, or if we're currently doing, you know, your vacation, your annual leave differs based on-old Eve differs based on years of service, right? So that plunge until the time, right? Are uncrowling and different rates based on years of service? If we've already incorporated that, or there are adjustments we could make to make it more beneficial, or also, what's that effect? Do you want to explain? You I know that we have this kind of unofficial policy where we have parity in the salary increases across general government schools. Yeah. So you know, that's kind of been an unofficial policy. I mean, I go the long way, right? Because then they don't see the need to organize because they're like, wait, we're the schools of organized and we're trying to keep pace with that. And they get the benefits of it that actually having to be in to it. It really kind of grew Dr. Nunez. Senior here, we've had a roady sharing agreement and a lot more communication over dawn conversation. I've tried to let employees know in every discussion that those that dialogue constantly happens and that we seek to have buried and up. You know, with but you know, there does have to be some understanding of employees. It's two different organizations and some respects to different market cops and that there may be times when there would be some diversions. But generally, we're trying to achieve courage. That's the way I try to. I think the spirit of that's really important for employees to hear that. And for council to be continued to express that. It's important too. Okay, great. Thank you. Okay, so, thank you, Val and you just made a wish for one moment. Thank you, much. Thank you all very much. I'm back in because I had promised last time a bit. I'll close this out. Close everything out. I'll be the I'll do it. I'll tell you if I don't do it. We're all for better. Okay, check on me. You can touch. Trust me. Really just wanted your time. And I'll send this email to Celeste to talk about a to talk about the 360 reviews. And you would each provide us a list of potential review ease for our 360s. And I think we we had a variety of numbers but at minimum of three your choice however you think you know but hopefully some of yours closely with obviously you know you understand it you guys get it. What I'll do is I'll reset out to you two and select the the original reviews our discussions from December and then if you could give us the names or give me names and we'll start setting up. That's all I think. And then for the committee, if you guys have any time, they know just absolutely won't work between now and see. I have to review June. You know, second. Yeah, June, second and over, finally, the views of council, 20. So, um, want to jump on this. I know there's some. I guess your vacations are after. Yeah, three of your air fun after the second, right? Now if you could just email any gossip time that you know we're bad, I would like to do it after the mayor's meeting possible. That doesn't work for your manager. That's just once. That every week, every two weeks, every two weeks, but it's not always every two weeks. We'll do it some of the ways that we did last year. And that's there's any other objections. I think we have some good working twice for the each one to discuss and we've ordered an amendment there and sorry, the team had to deadline you that three and a second. It's on your delivery month. So we backwards from that. And we spent about 40 minutes to an hour with each person. So we had 12, roughly 12 people to talk to. We did it over a course of three days. That's in just four hours. They were long days. They were long days. But super helpful. So if we get, but are any Wednesdays. One off. So when I introduced 360, like, three years ago, we had done up in person because they were new for the organization and it felt like it's a thing that people weren't used to. People couldn't write written 360s. And so, and they don't need to come into the meeting. Well, they got to you all how you feel about it. But most organizations will write 360s rather than come in and do verbal language. that might be a lot of time intensive, but I can ask you, I would or though, would people feel less is fine to be for the coming if it's in writing? Well that's why we made them in the lesson because it was a new thing. I would rather do it. I think that's not a good start. have any questions? What has I done with an outside consultant? It was a set list of questions, but it was. Right. It should be a simple. And of course. And anyway, we'll get you names that some so we need us. But in the week it should be great. Sure. That means start schedule. Yeah, I think it needs to be a set list a set list, started set list of questions. So we keep it, but it's also good opportunity for me, because I don't know as many statutes to get to do. Want to solve other questions? Five. All the ways. Awesome. Maybe you guys. Aaron and let you guys have feedback. I'm gonna look to the, I think it was helpful the way we did it. They were all looked back at our post action comments. I don't think there were many. There were one or two things I think we wanted you differently, but it wasn't significant. So I can send you, you'll, I'm gonna get it right. You may always strike by opportunities for me what's supposed to be full people are specific. And I'm like, sounds really great to work with. I'm like, I know that, but like tell me specifically like three projects where she demonstrated that. Like that is actually still for me. The management. that's supposed to be full of people are specific. And I'm like, that was really great to work with. I'm like, I know that. But like, tell me specifically like three projects where she demonstrated that. Like that is actually useful for me as a manager to get specific behavioral examples. Right. And I think that's something that, yeah, if we want to be efficient about time in terms of, I think people can deliver that more easily sometimes like also in person if we're all able to hear them, but to even send like the questions to the people. We are speaking to it. And if you're coming, and please think about two examples. Like one, they're this worked really well and all the kind of qualities of a manager really like we're shining through in your interactions and then another concrete example of where something could have gone better or where it kind of illustrates maybe areas for improvement or something like that. That's good. Anything else? And then again, we never did a formal 360 of the council but also want to make sure that that towards always open to you all and mentioned again in terms of feedback for us, the somehow we can do this process more efficiently or more helpful to you all or be supportive and professional group as well, because it's intended to not just be one direction from council. The 360 is really intended to be 360. So as you continue to think about this profit, then what's useful to you all in professional development? I mean, that's just a tick-a-box thing. We're doing it. That's none of us have time for box-ticking and it needs to be intentional. So, okay, great. Then I will send out the last ones and the questions that we used and we've got the names for that in the week and then we clean it. Anything else? I do have one thing. We're gonna go about So just for your awareness that we are having an all-hands meeting tomorrow down the road for a mission vision and values work out with staff. The goal of this is to have an organizational articulation of what our mission vision of values are. We refer to the City Council's adopted vision very freeway in terms of how we've overcome things, but this would certainly be nested within that, in terms of how the workforce defines it. We're going to be working with the University of Virginia's Weldon Cooper Center to facilitate it. They have a good process. They're going to work us through. I think a lot of good energy is going to come out of it. A lot of good alignment that will help us with their, you know, wrapping up burden-ministered regulations, how we get things done around here. And so that's what that's about. The building will be open, but we're going to have many people in the building for that, for the most of the day tomorrow, because it's not mandatory, but it is highly encouraged that everyone can just say. I think that's excellent. I would suggest you emailed full console 11, not the building, but just know that you're doing this, because I think that's a lot of times we get so busy running around doing our jobs. We don't take that time to really think about vision and long term planning and that sort of things. It would be great if you could let the whole council know that you're doing that. Yeah, I'm glad you're not signing it. That's all right. What are you talking about? Also, the employees in the employees survey, then five is as a need. No, that's a good signal. I'm not a good person. You going to be back. So we won't accidentally run into you. So I'm not in crash. Well, he's going to be running by. Not to run by. I don't know. I know. I was just going to say, so turn me, just look at, I know you have said out to the mayor's meeting, but if we're talking about chunks of time, like, are we talking about you? Yeah, like three, three hour chunks to where it's like, ever it is. Be back on the timing is great. Yeah. Okay. So we're doing this three per person. So we need to schedule nine. But I said, may I have more theory? I'll do three. I will do three May 14th. May 7th, we have office hours. Do after the mayor's meeting May 14th. Buncham because I can do that. I'm not sure if I can do that. I'm not sure if I can do that. I'm not sure if I can do that. I'm not sure if I can do that. I'm not sure if I can do that. I'm not sure if I can do that. I'm not sure if I can do that. I'm not sure if I can do that. I'm not sure if I can do that. which will be back to back days 13th and 14th. And then that would give us time the week of the 19th for the kind of incorporate and think through right reviews. Probably want to give ourselves two weeks of time for that because in the past, I've written a draft, I sent out the council for a review for a week and then we get together and talk about it. So that's the last two weeks, you know, so all of that pattern. So I really was like a week to digest and then come. Yeah, Maas, because I the June second work session, when we're in that closed session, that that was our council conversation based on. You know, the draft and salary action. Yeah, yeah, but we can deliberately, deliberately reviews after that on the 16th, right? Yeah, or find separate time to do that. We have find that. June 2nd, yeah, it's a salary action. And then council has all the input. It can be provided, but I'm the written reviews and then participate until those. I don't know if you want to set dates. I know you're kind of busy. That'll stretch of time. Maybe beginning of June. June graduation and wedding. We can't do it. She and then you guys are. Yeah. stretch of time, maybe beginning of June. June graduation and wedding. Don't begin to admit to you and then you guys are. Yeah, we kind of let her out. Dr. So June 2nd is just council internal work session. That's just salaries that won't be good to my return salaries. Under the second. The internal review, right? That's one as a counsel we talk about. We talk about the feedback we are all, you know, okay, we're having the draft draft review, potential compensation changes. And then we still need to have the conversations to give your actual reviews. And we can deliver something to deliver before June 23rd. June 23rd is when we give the rest of the Tri-C conversation resolution. Sorry. That would be helpful to finance to do it on the 16th of April. No, I was here. Sorry. Back to schedules. So we do May 13th, 14th as to the 60 days. A lot of the time now. Yeah, I think they'll work as such. But often for me, you can do like 9 12 and both those days. and we'll post those as closed sessions. To be 9 to 12 on the May 13th and it's probably 14. That was. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And the schedule that we can think about 30 minutes, but then schedule people every 40 minutes, five minutes minutes, a little longer. Yeah. So Celeste, did you hear the request for five and the week to have three folks who you didn't see? Celeste is going to know a file. I did. Three is probably three. Sorry, I've been lurking. I didn't realize I was a lurker. That's great. You can save some track going into your hands. So, okay. So made 13 and 14, 9 to noon, gobops meeting with closed sessions for the 360s, correct? Correct. And then we'll discuss on June 2nd. We'll be a collective discussion. So well, the goal is to have draft all council members each of these by June 2nd, or yes, we've discussed it in close position. I don't think it can be completed by managing through discussion document, draft document, and then tap and complete it. Valerie, second, that's council second. But you're said to last to have them for finance by the 16th. So we can then, um, it would be, um, it would be, um, the 23rd. Yeah. It'd be nice just for them to be able to process it if you can do it on the 16th, but it's not. We'll figure it out. And then, um, the last meeting to deliver each of them would be we spent. We do another three hour block it back to block out three hours of time to do it to deliver them. So, um, you all can't be there when you're. What are the windows that the opportunity to do that? Is there a day that we can schedule the three of you and the four of us that works to deliver and answer what was that time frame read and I may or may not be can talk about sort of doing if you difficult for me or there I would be here or just have a forum without earlier. Yeah. Yeah. So you'll have to look at your calendars and by who I'll need seven of you, about when you're back in June and did it have to be delivered before? Maybe I'm ideal to have in the old group before then, but there's nothing in our chart or anything that says when they have to be delivered by. Is there a big sense of give a review of it before you talk about the comp? Right. Well that's saying, but if there's no, there's no available in June to do that. Well, I just understand why we have to do four June 16th because right now it's a salary compensation on the 23rd, resolutions on the 23rd. So that gives ourselves another week. And that totally works. Yeah, that does work. I think we need that. This means if you're out town. Yeah, I would say if we can keep to the comp resolutions on the 23rd, then we can use the week of the. Up to 16th. Find three hours to deliver the reviews. Okay, so my request to you all. If you would look at your calendars and give me, if you know what I do right now, give me a suggestion of what would work to do. Let's start with the three of you. When you're here in June, because if you're not here, if there's nobody to give you a few of you would let me know. Could you coordinate between three of you and be a good day to do that? that and then we'll or what several options are and you can see that we have a form. Sure. We'll all look down and written in and discussed it. Yeah, so is it? I don't necessarily have to be here. I mean, I want to be a part of it. I don't know. Just because what. Yeah, my schedule will be. Right. So it's the week of the 16th. You can let us know availability. Sure. I'm definitely available after the marriage that week. So maybe that'll work. Yeah, Lady gets married on June 14th. So then you'll be totally rested. But it is that it's a busy spring as Debbie mentioned. We've got a couple of family events and so I'll send out the scheduled counsel because there's going to be a series of family events. And so I'll send out that schedule to council. I thought there's gonna be a series of weekends where I'm gonna ask for some additional time on. Isn't that great to have WD City managers? It is. Not worried about it a bit. That's awesome. One thing that we talked about, just in remembered, we've asked during the mayor's meeting is the smart growth. Then it's able to award the two award things. Can you, um, what's that? So, that's it. So, tax comparison. I don't have the burden. My invested thing was pretty well resolved. That was resolved, I think. The name first. The other one is the commercial meeting you have a table or some is attending then support. Yes, back you would organize it. Okay. I just got a little update on that. I think. And then this proletarian proletarian. CSD is on. What's that? I don't know. He gets all that doesn't show the coalition. You can. You can. I don't know either. No, but I have. It's me 14. If you can firm on they're beginning to have a support, have a table. It's not a table thing, I think it's or attendance attendance. And it's here, right? It's like, oh, so it's actually like a, it's a Martin Luther King Memorial Library. in DC. What? I have no idea. I have to give speech. Oh no, no. Definitely. Thank you. Thank you. So if you can confirm that, then just communicate to Council. We can talk about that on Monday. That's it. Any here? We officially adjourned and got last meeting. Thank you. I'm going to stop recording and I'm going to thank you I'll log out. Okay cool. Oh, you're out for this computer. you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you