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5.5. ERMUSR 11-13-2008/j Elk River Municipal Utilities 13069 Orono Parkway • P.O. Box 430 Elk River, MN 55330-0430 November 5, 2008 To: Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission Jerry Takle John Dietz Jerry Gumphrey From: Troy Adams Subject: Staff Restructuring Phone: 763.441.2020 Fax: 763.441.8099 In October, the Utility Commission directed staff to revisit the staff restructuring that had been implemented the previous month. The staff restructuring involved re-allocating the job duties then held by lead lineman Mike Thiry and then moving Mike into the lead lineman position that became vacant after the recent line superintendent retirement. To revisit the staff restructuring, it was important to identify the problems prior to and after the restructuring. Once the problems were identified, a solution could be implemented that would benefit both the company and the employees directly involved. To achieve this, management met with Mike Thiry and then later met with all parties involved. (Refer to the attached written account of events.) One of the original reasons for the restructuring was the sudden increase in workload for the linemen. After the restructuring, a number of issues were discovered; the obvious being the other parties involved could not take on the additional workload without compromising something else. Another issue discovered was the lack of backup or redundancy in job duty training. Also, there were safety concerns about performing some of the Transformer PCB work without a second employee present. Through the previous process of restructuring, there have been procedural inefficiencies that will also be addressed. The solution that addressed all the issues was to move Mike Thiry back into his previous position with some changes. The biggest change would be that Mike's primary responsibility would be as a floater. Through morning linemen tailgate meetings, Mike can be directed to assist a crew or work on a specific project. The second change is to have job duty backup. The meter shop will backup and assist Mike as needed with all the working of the transformer PCB testing and documentation. Steve Ziemer will serve as backup to Mike for the building safety inspections and tool repair. This re-restructuring of job duties was implemented by management immediately following the second staff meeting. Elk River Municipal U~~tes 13069 Urono Parkway P.O. Box 430 Elk River; MN 55330-0430 phone: 763,441.2020 fax: 763.441.8099 October 15, 2008 2:OOpm at ERMU Conference Room Written Account of Event -Meeting to Revisit Staff Restructuring Those in Attendance: Troy Adams, Engineering Manager; Mark Fuchs, Line Superintendant; Theresa Slominski, Financial Director; and Mike Thiry, Lead Lineman. At the September Utilities Commission meeting during the Staff Updates, Glenn Sundeen prior to retiring as Line Superintendent, proposed some staff restructuring to the commission. The proposed restructuring involved moving Mike Thiry from his position back to the being a Lead Linemen filling the vacancy left by Mark Fuchs promotion to Line Superintendant. The job duties that were currently performed by Mike Thiry were then to be reallocated to other departments. The Utility Commission directed Glenn Sundeen and General Manager Bryan Adams to bring Mike Thiry to the next commission meeting prior to acting on the restructuring. The staff restructuring occurred in mid September. At the October Utilities Commission meeting, the Commission directed staff to revisit the staff restructuring. On this date and time, a closed door meeting was held to revisit recent staff restructuring and workload reallocation. Two items to be address in this meeting are realities of reallocating job duties and identify deadlines for current projects. The goal of the meeting was to establish a plan to implement the re-restructuring of workload and job duties. Also, the plan needed to provide the employees and the company with the greatest chance to succeed while respecting the rights of those involved. One issue addressed was current workload. There are a number of projects with deadlines approaching. Also, the available line crew to work these projects is temporarily reduced. Mike Thiry may very well be needed to help with the line crew to finish these projects. Mike Thiry understood this but asked the management staff to be honest with him. The proposed solution was to reallocate to Mike all (or most of) the duties that he was previously responsible for. Mike would then be utilized as. the floater in a more scheduled basis to assist with the line workload. Through the staff restructuring a number of procedural shortcomings were identified. First, Mike Thiry had no backup assigned for many of his duties. Second, Mike often performed tasks alone when a second employee should be present. These two issues could be solved by cross training the meter shop to assist and backup some of the duties, in particular the PCB duties. The possibility of assisting with the inventory system was also discussed. The meeting concluded at 3:30. Management committed to work out a more detailed plan and timeline in agreement with what had been discuss. Then in the near future, all parties affected by the work reallocation would meet to review the plan prior to management implementation. Troy Adams Engineering Manager ~7 - ~ ~ ~~~.~~ /i ElkRiver = - Municip al Utilitie s 13069 Orono Parkway P.O. Box 430 Elk River, MN 55330-0430 phone; 763.441.2020 fax: 763.441.8099 October 20, 2008 1:OOpm at ERMU Conference Room Written Account of Event -Second Meeting to Revisit Staff Restructuring Those in Attendance: Troy Adams, Engineering Manager; Mark Fuchs, Line Superintendant; Theresa Slominski, Financial Director; Mike Thiry, Lead Lineman; Michael Price, Meter Technician; Adam Freiberg, Utility Worker; Steve Ziemer, Utility Worker; and Chris King, Laborer. Those Absent: Wade Lovelette, Line Foreman. This closed door meeting regarding staff restructuring was held as follow-up to a meeting held on October 15, 2008. The purpose of the follow-up meeting was to communicate job duty changes to those parties involved. Also, the meeting served as a venue for open discussion for all parties involved to voice concerns and ideas about the job duty reallocations proposed. The proposed solution was to have Mike Thiry move from Lead Lineman working on a crew to putting him back into his old position with slight motification. As part of this move; the job duties Mike was previously responsible that had been passed on to other departments would be transferred back to Mike. These duties would include: permitting documentation, MSDS documentation, subcontractor field support inspection, transformer testing for PCBs, plant safety inspections, and tool repair. To address the issues of current workload in the line department, Mike Thiry would assume the role of Floater, working with the line crews as workload dictates. This being the primary responsibility, Mike would be scheduled by Mark and/or Wade to fill in as need be. Mike's remaining responsibilities would be secondary. An issue found with previous processes for Mike Thiry's position was lack of trained backup for key responsibilities. The proposed solution was for the Meter Shop to serve as Mike's backup for work and documentation pertaining to the transformer testing of PCBs. By having the Meter Shop trained as backup also provides qualified personnel to assist when a task requires two or more people, such as stacking or moving transformers within the storage building. For the plant safety inspection and tool repair duties, Steve Ziemer would serve as Mike's backup. Mike Thiry made a request to have his job position description revised to reflect the current job duty responsibilities. A "Service Lineman" job description had been written when Mike had originally moved into that job. All parties involved where agreement as to the discussed proposed solution. The re-restructuring was implemented management effective immediately. Troy Adams Engineering Manager ~~'~` ~~ ~~~~ ,~- _ q~ ~~ ,~; ~~~