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Item # 7.2. <br /> City of <br /> Elk <br /> River <br /> MEMORANDUM <br /> TO: Mayor and City Council <br /> FROM: Lori Johnson, City Administrator <br /> DATE: June 7, 2010 <br /> SUBJECT: Discuss Staffing/Personnel Items <br /> At Monday's meeting I will be prepared to discuss with the Council a plan for addressing the <br /> vacant department head positions. In addition, I am bringing forward a proposal for <br /> Council consideration that would help alleviate the difficulty that the elimination of overtime <br /> and mandatory use of compensatory time have created. <br /> The first and most important item is determining how to proceed with the open department <br /> head positions. It takes a minimum of three to four months to fill a department head <br /> position;therefore,making a decision soon is critical to getting someone hired before the <br /> end of the year. These department head positions are important leadership roles that <br /> provide decision making,guidance,and policy direction to departments to improve our <br /> delivery of services and to provide creative and efficient, economical solutions to the <br /> difficult decisions that are ongoing with the severely limited budgets under which we all <br /> function. Unfortunately, our budget situation does not allow us to fill all department head <br /> positions at this time. However, assuming that there are no additional revenue reductions in <br /> 2011,which is reasonable because there is no longer any state aid included in the budget, <br /> two of the positions can be filled within the existing budget. In addition,if the positions are <br /> filled at an entry level,there will be a budget savings of around$15,000 for each position. <br /> Second,there were several steps the Council has had to take to balance the budget that have <br /> affected staff and staff's ability to provide the same level of service as in the past. One such <br /> item is the elimination of overtime for all employees except police public safety response and <br /> the overtime required to be paid by policy or contract. Employees are still required to put in <br /> extra hours,but those hours must be taken as compensatory time off. This places an <br /> additional burden on affected departments because in many cases their staff has already been <br /> reduced and now there are fewer employee hours available to do the work because of the <br /> requirement to take compensatory time off in lieu of pay. One way to ease this burden <br /> without affecting the budget is to allow additional vacation carry over for non-union <br /> employees and union employees whose contract does not contain specific vacation carry <br /> over language. Currently,employees are allowed to carry over as much vacation as they can <br />