City Council Minutes 05-09-2005 SpecialMINUTES
SPECIAL MEETING - MONTICELLO CITY COUNCIL
Monday May 9, 2005 - 5 p.m.
Members Present: Clint Herbst, Wayne Mayer, Tom Perrault, Glen Posusta and Brian Stumpf.
Members Absent: None
Staff Present: City Administrator, Rick Wolfsteller; Economic Development Director, 011ie
Koropchak, MCC Director, Kitty Baltos; Public Works Director, John Simola;
Parks Superintendent, Adam Hawkinson; Street Superintendent, Roger Mack;
Sewer and Water Superintendent, Matt Theisen; Deputy Registrar, Diane
Jacobson; Community Development Director, Jeff O'Neill; Street
Foreman,Tom Moores and Liquor Store Manager Joe Hartman.
1. Call to Order.
Mayor Herbst called the workshop meeting to order at 5 p.m.
2. Discussion of goal setting process and development of preliminary mission statements.
Glen Posusta gave a brief summary of a meeting held with some city employees to get their
comments about a proposal to establish an employee bonus program. The idea of the bonus
program was to encourage employee involvement in coming up with cost saving ideas and
methods of improving efficiency. It was also hoped this would help create a more cohesive
work force. A number of interesting ideas came from this meeting which included the cross
training of employees. If the City would go to four 10 hours days the cross training would
prove helpful especially in Public Works in being able to adequately staff departments.
Rick Wolfsteller stated that although the proposal for four 10 hours days has been discussed
for union members, making that switch would impact other employees such as the clerical
staff and supervisors. He added that the union has not agreed to the proposal. Glen Posusta
asked if there were any concerns about interdepartmental training.
Jeff O'Neill reviewed a power point presentation he had prepared regarding the goal setting
process and the development of mission statements. Jeff O'Neill stated that money is not the
motivating factor for most employees. Employees want a sense of achievement from what
they do.
Jeff O'Neill said the Council should prioritize what it is they want staff to accomplish. Each
department would need to design their mission statement and need to set performance
standards and a criteria to measure if the standards are being attained. Once each department
has set up their mission statement, goals and measurement criteria, it will come back to the
Council for their review and comment. Once the staff knows what their directives are, it will
be better for the employees. He said the strength of the organization comes from the people
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doing the work and that staff has to work together to be as efficient as possible.
Some questions to be considered are: What training is needed? Do we need a budget for this?
What is the time frame to accomplish this?
Clint Herbst stated his goal is for government to be more efficient. He said when people call
they don't want to hear staff say they will do something when they get around to it. He
doesn't want to see people standing around waiting for service. Clint Herbst said the
perception of the City is at the point where people think the staff is not trying to serve the
public. The City needs to do a little bit more for the customers. Clint Herbst said he wants
to try to shed the image that the City is difficult to work with.
Glen Posusta stated that the Council is not telling the staff that they are worthless nor is the
Council trying to disrupt staff procedures. The Council is trying to tell staff that the City can
improve. Clint Herbst added that the Council is not responding because of one single
complaint but rather when they have a series of complaints about either an individual or a
procedure. The concern is that there is a real problem that needs to be addressed.
The Council feels there is a need for more cohesiveness among staff. They also felt that
employees should feel comfortable about coming forward with ideas or suggestions and not
feel that if their suggestion is critical of current practices that they will suffer for it. Clint
Herbst said if the supervisors don't get the feedback from employees it is difficult for things to
change. Clint Herbst felt there were some problems as the Council was hearing about it, but
the Council doesn't know if the problem relates to an individual or an existing practice.
There was a brief discussion on the use of complaint forms, follow up service and suggestion
boxes. Clint Herbst said it is important to meet periodically to revitalize staff and to look at
ways to get feedback. Clint Herbst felt that some of the best comments and suggestions come
from the employees and not Council. Kitty Baltos said the MCC had some success with
having MCC personnel survey users of the Community Center in a non -obtrusive way. The
response from the users provided a good form of feedback.
Jeff O'Neill suggested a meeting with the developers outlining the City's development
process so that everyone is on the same page as far as knowing and understanding the
requirements.
Glen Posusta said there was some apprehension on the part of the employees since they didn't
feel their suggestions were taken properly by the supervisors. Clint Herbst suggested that
upon receiving suggestions maybe the Council could sit down with supervisor and ask them if
the suggestion could be tried. He felt there needs to be a focus on communication between
staff and supervisors. Kitty Baltos- stated that some times the issues are personal but the
supervisors have to wade through it. Roger Mack felt that may be the suggestions should go
to Rick Wolfsteller or to the Personnel Committee so the supervisors don't know where the
suggestion came from and can't retaliate against the employee.
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It was also felt the City needs to get away from "this is the way it was always done" mentality.
Glen Posusta cited the policy at Public Works about taking breaks on site rather than coming
back to the Public Works Building. The fact that not all departments observed that policy
created animosity between departments. Brian Stumpf felt if it was a policy the supervisors
should be taking care of it. Wayne Mayer felt that meeting with the supervisor should be
done first before it goes to Rick Wolfsteller or the Personnel Committee, which consists of
Clint Herbst, Glen Posusta and Rick Wolfsteller. Clint Herbst felt it should go directly to the
Personnel Committee.
John Simola stated that before each snowplowing season, the staff goes through all the
complaints and suggestions received from the previous season. This helps by refreshing
procedures that are used and perhaps refines some of the procedures. Tom Perrault explained
the procedures Wal-Mart used for employee suggestions.
Clint Herbst said he wants to see the employee suggestions. He said he wants to put
something together having employees listing what is good and bad about their department and
this listing will go to Rick Wolfsteller and then to the Personnel Committee. Clint Herbst
stated the form from the developers will be done first.
Joe Hartman and Diane Jacobson said they didn't know for sure what the Council wanted
from them. They stated because their revenues are customer generated, everything they do is
set up to serve the customer.
The direction was to have department staff work on their mission statement, their goals,
objectives and means for attaining them and have them ready by the first week of July.
3. Adjourn
Mayor Herbst closed the workshop meeting at 5:50 p.m.
Recording Secretary
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