6.2. ERMUSR 06-12-2018 Elk River
Municipal Utilities UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING
TO: FROM:
ERMU Commission Wage & Benefits Committee
MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER:
June 12, 2018 6.2
SUBJECT:
Wage and Benefits Committee Update
ACTION REQUESTED:
No action required
BACKGROUND:
Per the Governance Policy G.2g1 Wage &Benefits Committee Charter and consistent with
Governance Policy G.2g Commission Committees,the committee shall meet on a quarterly
basis. The committee met on May 30.
DISCUSSION:
The primary focus for this meeting was routine review of staffing levels,personnel projections,
and succession planning. Additionally,the committee discussed vacant budgeted positions.
Discussion included: vacant budgeted Specialist positions; vacant budgeted Information
Technology(IT) Technician position; changes to the Executive Administrative Assistant
position; retirement notice for Foreperson position and related succession planning. Staff has
worked through these four staffing items and has developed a number of optional plans that are
still being explored. It is anticipated that the proposed plan has a net zero effect on the 2018
budget and potentially a net zero effect on the 2019 and future budgets.
1. Vacant budgeted Specialist positions—There are five different Specialist positions that exist
within the current organizational structure,two of which are currently vacant.First,the Key
Accounts Specialist position which has been vacant since March 2017. Second,the
Purchasing Specialist position which has been vacant since February 2018.Both of these
positions' essential job duties need to be reviewed.
The Key Accounts Specialist performs essential duties related to the load management(LM)
programs,the conservation improvement program(CIP)rebates,customer high bill
discussions,Connexus territory transfer account preparation,marketing materials related to
LM and CIP,and key account engagement. Many of these duties and much of this work load
is going away with the transition in wholesale power providers.In 2017,the committee had
recommended to the commission that the consideration for the filling of this vacant position
be put on hold for re-evaluation in July 2018 after the implementation of multi-billing cycles.
Staff is currently exploring the work flow impact on this position,as well as the entire office,
as a result from the implementation of multi-billing cycles.
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Similarly,the Purchasing Specialist position duties are in flux,mostly this is related to the
overlap in duties with the Inventory&Procurement Foreperson.
The other three Specialist positions are due to be evaluated for essential duties,cross training
and backup,and work flow.
Staff discussed a number of options with the committee including the possibility of combining
the two vacant full time positions into one full time position.The committee had consensus for
staff to re-evaluate all five Specialist positions concurrently for essential duties and work flow.
The results of the evaluation will be discusses at a follow up committee meeting.
2. Vacant budgeted IT Technician position—A full time IT Technician position was approved in
the 2018 budget starting January 1. The filling of this position has been on hold as staff works
through a cyber security assessment initiative with the city.Additionally,staff has done
research on electric industry best practices regarding IT positions and proposed changes to the
approved yet vacant position.
Staff proposed the redevelopment of this position as an Operational Technology(OT)
Superintendent rather than an IT technician.This position would report to the Technical
Services Superintendent similar to an assistant supervisor. Currently there are two
manager/superintendent positions in ERMU's organizational structure which are assistant
positions to other manager/supervisors.These assistant positions are the Assistant Electric
Superintendent position which is a direct report to the Electric Superintendent position and the
Customer Service Manager position which is a direct report to the Finance&Office Manager
position.The committee discussed this proposal.The designation as OT rather than IT stems
from industry best practice and Homeland Security recommendations to other municipal
utilities.In this case,the difference between IT and OT relates to focus of expertise on utility
specific operational technology including but not limited to: Supervisory Control and Data
Acquisition(SCADA),National Information Solutions Cooperative(NISC)software,meter
reading software and related hardware, Geographic Information System(GIS)mapping
technology,Automatic Meter Reading(AMR)and Advanced Metering Infrastructure(AMI)
technology, Outage Management Systems(OMS),load management(LM)control software
and hardware, and mobile workforce device implementation.
The reason to change from a technician to a superintendent is justified through required level
of decision making authority and accountability needed from this staff addition which includes
decision making authority regarding cyber security. And,this proposed change in position
helps define how this addition would be a compliment to contracted city IT services rather
than in competition with those services.
The committee had consensus for staff to continue with the proposed redevelopment of this
position as an OT Superintendent by developing a new job description and working with the
city on a memorandum of understanding for contracted IT services.A progress update would
be discussed at a follow up committee meeting.The proposed timeline for hiring would place
onboarding into September 2018.
3. Evaluate changes in essential job duties and responsibilities for the Executive Administrative
Assistant—This position has grown since created. The commission adopted a data retention
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schedule per state statute.This position has been assigned additional responsibilities similar to
those typical of a city clerk as related to data retention.The employee in this position has also
recently completed a three year program to be certified as a municipal clerk.Because of the
assigned responsibilities,this certification should be a minimum requirement of the position.
Staff proposed to the committee that this there should be a re-evaluation of the position
description,the essential job duties,the position minimum requirements,and the position
paygrade points.
The committee had consensus for staff to conduct an evaluation of this position and report
back a follow up meeting.
4. Retirement notice for Foreperson and related succession planning—One of the forepersons
has given advanced notice of retirement at the end of 2018.This employee has been with
ERMU for approximately 35 years.The advanced notice allows the opportunities to
succession plan and transfer institutional knowledge during the 2018 construction season.The
leadership team has had numerous discussions regarding succession planning and replacement
of this position.
Currently,the two lineworker foreperson positions have the same job description;however,
these positions have developed into drastically different positions over the years. Staff
proposed to the committee that these two foreperson positons be re-evaluate and split into two
different foreperson positions: a Line Crew Foreperson and a Field Foreperson.Additionally,
it was recommended to the committee that this be implemented as soon as possible and the
replacement be hired this June allowing for months of training before the planned retirement.
The committee discussed and gave consensus to the development of the two job descriptions
for the two foreperson positions.The committee discussed the budget impact of an advanced
hire of the replacement foreperson to train with the employee who had given notice.The
committee recognized the additional costs resulting from the proactive replacement hire fall
within the defined spending authority delegated to the General Manager.And the committee
discussed and recognized that in this instance,those additional costs would be covered by
recognized savings from three vacant positions. The committee had consensus for the General
Manager to hire the replacement foreperson in June to take advantage of the training
opportunity.
Staff then provided a high level overview on budget impact;and as proposed, itis anticipated that
these changes would have an approximate net zero impact to the 2018 budget.Additionally,these
proposed changes would have an approximate net zero impact to the budget going forward into 2019
and beyond.This is possible due to recognized savings while the positions have been vacant and the
potential savings if there is a contraction from five Specialists to four.A follow up committee meeting
has been scheduled for June 27.
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