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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRes2021-030 PULLED PULLED FROM AGENDA Sponsored by: Regis Postponed: March 8, 2021 CITY OF SEWARD, ALASKA RESOLUTION 2021-030 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SEWARD, ALASKA,AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO ESTABLISH THE NEW POSITION OF PARKS MAINTENANCE TECHNICIAN IN THE PARKS & RECREATION DEPARTMENT, AND APPROPRIATING FUNDS WHEREAS, a 2017 mid-cycle budget adjustment amended the Parks Maintenance Technician full-time year-round position to become a summer seasonal position; and WHEREAS,there still exists a critical need for a full-time year-round Parks Maintenance Technician; and WHEREAS, this need is overwhelmingly supported by historical labor data, increasing workload demands, cost-benefit analysis, and staff observations; and WHEREAS, establishing this position will help us meet the public's demand for more park amenities, well-maintained facilities, and timely service; and WHEREAS, this position will help reduce the substantial costs associated with high seasonal worker turnover. NOW,THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SEWARD, ALASKA that: Section 1. The City Manager is hereby authorized to establish a new full-time position titled Parks Maintenance Technician (Grade 5) in the Parks & Recreation Department. Section 2. Funding in the amount of $86,154 is hereby appropriated from General Fund reserves account no. 01000-0000-3400 to Parks and Recreation Department salaries&benefit account nos. 01000-1410-6XXX. Section 3. This resolution shall take effect immediately upon adoption. PASSED AND APPROVED by the City Council of the City of Seward, Alaska, this 22"d day of March, 2021. THE CITY OF SEWARD, ALASKA PULLED FROM AGENDA Christy Terry, Mayor CITY OF SEWARD, ALASKA RESOLUTION 2021-030 AYES: NOES: ABSENT: ABSTAIN: ATTEST: Brenda J. Ballou, MMC City Clerk (City Seal) Agenda Statement Meeting Date: March 8, 2021 To: City Council Through: Norm Regis, Acting City Manager From: Tyler Florence, Director of Parks & Recreation Agenda Item: Establish New Position of Parks Maintenance Technician in the Parks & Recreation Department BACKGROUND & JUSTIFICATION: The 2017 mid-cycle budget adjustment amended the Parks Maintenance Technician full-time year- round position to become a summer seasonal position and the Campground Coordinator summer seasonal position to become a full-time year-round position with benefits in order to provide more consistent training and supervision of the growing campground operations in the summer. While this action achieved the desired effect of improving campground operations, there still exists a significant need for a full-time year-round Parks Maintenance Technician. This need is overwhelmingly supported by historical labor data, increasing workload demands, cost- benefit analysis, and staff observations. For an equivalent amount of seasonal labor, the estimated additional cost of a Parks Maintenance Technician is $36,499 $50,399. This amount will be partially offset by significant savings from reduced staff turnover, which costs an estimated$27,276—$46,038. These estimates are explored in depth below. Labor data reveal that park maintenance operations have consistently required labor in an amount commensurate with supporting a full-time year-round Park Maintenance Technician. For reference, a full-time year-round employee typically works 2,080 hours annually (40 hrs/wk x 52 wks). The Parks Maintenance division has averaged approximately 6,000 worker hours annually over the past 4 years (2016-2020) with minor deviation. Roughly 4,000 of those hours were incurred during peak summer seasons (Apr. 1 —Sept. 30), and the remaining 2,000 hours were incurred during winter seasons (Oct. 1 — Mar. 31). Of those 6,000 hours, our sole full-time year-round park maintenance employee, the Parks & Campgrounds Supervisor, spent approximately half of their time working on park maintenance,or about 1,000 hours annually (the other half spent mostly on campgrounds,and a minor amount of time spent supporting other department functions, e.g., parking, special events, youth programs).Those 1,000 hours spent on park maintenance were distributed evenly throughout the year, or about 500 hours worked each summer and winter season respectively. Excluding the hours worked by the Parks & Campgrounds Supervisor, Park Maintenance operations require staffing to cover 3,500 hours each summer and 1,500 hours each winter. This workload is sufficient to support a full-time year-round Park Maintenance Technician without risk of overstaffing. Moreover, Park Maintenance's workload is set to increase with the rezoning of the Jesse Lee property to become a park and the likely addition of new facilities on-site, the restroom facility planned for Williams Campground, and growing campground and park visitation and its attendant impacts on infrastructure. Based on the wage study, the estimated salary(Grade 5 $21.63) and benefits for a full-time year-round Park Maintenance Technician is $72,254—$86,154, with health insurance as the major deciding factor (depending on single or family coverage). At first glance, a direct cost comparison between a full-time year-round position and an equivalent amount of seasonal labor(2,080 hours x $17.19 seasonal rate= $35,755) would suggest that the latter offers significant cost savings over the former in the range of $36,499--$50,399. However,this calculation fails to take into account the less visible, less tangible, and yet still very real costs of over-relying on seasonal workers in lieu of investing in full-time year-round workers. Analyzing labor trends from 2018 and 2019 helps illustrate some of these less visible costs. For each year, Park Maintenance employed roughly 10 seasonal employees. About half of these employees worked for the department previously, while the other half were entirely new hires. In 2019, seasonal staff worked an average length of 18 weeks. Using this information,here are the some of the estimated annual costs associated with seasonal worker turnover: Onboarding Costs: $2,000 - $4,000 Recruiting, advertising, interviewing, background checks, drug testing, hiring paperwork, employee supplies, etc. ($200-$400 per worker X 10 workers). Training Costs: $4,630 . $6,410 A study by Training Magazine found that companies spent an average of$1,286 a year on training per employee in 2019($1,286 x 5 new seasonal hires),while Bill Bliss of Bliss&Associates Inc.estimates training accounts for 13%of a position's base salary(13% x $35,755).t1112I Lost Productivity: $20,628—$35,628 Weeks Productivity Cost 1-4 25% (5 new seasonal hires x $17.19/hr x 160 hrs) $10,314 5-8 50% (5 new seasonal hires x $17.191hr x 160 hrs) $6,876 9-12 75% (5 new seasonal hires x $17.191hr x 160 hrs) $3,438 12+ 100% TOTAL 1 $20,628 According to Bill Bliss, the employee is only 25% productive for the first four weeks; 507, productive for weeks 5-8; 75% productive for weeks 9-12; and will finally reach full productivity after week twelve.'-Based on this model, our average seasonal worker is fully productive for only 6 weeks. Other research suggests full productivity can take 1-2 years to achieve.3 I.Freireld,L.2019 Training Industry Report.Training.November6th,2019 hups:rYtrainingmag com12019-training•industry report/ 2,Bliss,B.The Business Cost and impact of Employee Turnover.ERE Recruiting Intelligence.2000.hops llwww cre.net/the-business-cost-and- impact-of-employce-lumover/ 3.Bersin-J.Employee Retention Now a Big Issue:Why the Tide has Turned.Linkedin August 16,2013. MI�IIr.•.I•'uxu.IlflVii:I lrl.ii1l:wn:lltiLi'�4"11 ZI%41F'�tllll�3-I iIL}�l-L']ll�Il7k'�L° rk lc fllli}fr-fl.�l\k' ^-}11� 75SWCWtf�tI1L'�1(IL'_Il�S il�r[I�.I Further productivity is lost in a myriad of ways: supervisors spending additional time reviewing work and correcting mistakes; lack of concentration from soon-departing workers; separation paperwork; loss of job experience and institutional knowledge; remaining staff filling in for departing staff. The cost of making mistakes when maintaining expensive facilities and equipment can add up quickly as can other personnel costs. In 2019 alone, 6 non-park maintenance staff members from other areas within the department directly supported Park Maintenance operations, 3 of whom contributed 150+ hours each.These factors not only negatively impact the bottom line, they are also detrimental to staff morale and organizational effectiveness. --$5,000 in lost productivity costs. Task inefficiency due to high turnover can also incur significant costs,especially in Park Maintenance. After the Director, the next highest compensated position within the department is the Parks & Campgrounds Maintenance Supervisor. This position has historically incurred significant amounts of overtime, and while progress has been made to reduce that overall figure by prioritizing workload, it is hard to envision substantially cutting that rate much further without appropriate staffing support since park maintenance is responsible for so many health safety and property protection tasks. For example, if there is an emergency water leak late at night at the campgrounds and designated seasonal staff fail to respond to the call-out,or if a seasonal employee fails to show up for snow clearing while we're low on staffing, the Parks & Campgrounds Maintenance Supervisor has no choice but to fill in the gaps. A full-time year-round Parks Maintenance Technician could easily offset several thousand dollars in OT costs by reducing the overall amount of OT needed and by shifting the OT incurred to a lower wage rate. —$10,000 in lost productivity/inefficiency costs. In total,the estimated cost of seasonal staff turnover is$27,276—$46,038.This estimate is conservative and is based on historical patterns and averages. While a full-time year-round Parks Maintenance Technician would not eliminate all of these costs,it would substantially reduce them as well as the less tangible costs. Speaking to the less tangible costs, here are some observations from our Parks & Campgrounds Supervisor: The maintenance side of the Parks & Rec Department is unique in the overall scope of service provided to the city and citizens. In a sense, the position requires one to be a "jack of all trades." Our maintenance employees provide a variety of services, including but not limited to, plumbing, electrical, painting, cleaning, lawncare and landscaping, mechanic work and maintenance on light equipment, snow clearing, installation and maintenance of playground equipment and associated safety inspections, maintenance of ball fields, maintenance of buildings to include restroom facilities, Parks and Rec Warehouse,TYC, providing logistical support for Sports and Rec, maintenance of trails, maintenance of First Lake Weir operations,maintenance of 2nd lake for skating and recreation, maintenance of all campgrounds, etc. I feel this broad scope of work necessitates and would benefit from a full-time employee for a number of reasons. First and foremost, for ownership and accountability. We have been fortunate, overall, to have had good seasonal maintenance employees. However, seasonal employees tend to not care as much for equipment and other resources knowing they will likely not be employed for longer than 9 months. We also see a lot of employees come on board hoping to use the position as a stepping-stone to obtain a permanent position within the City. This creates a revolving door so to speak. Important information and processes get lost in translation and transfer when employees come and go. This creates loss for the city due to mistakes made, lost time in repeatedly training new employees, and an overall lack of efficiency. Prior to retiring from Law Enforcement in 2018, I was recognized by two statewide agencies in Kansas as a subject matter expert in the operation of small Police Departments. Those agencies were the Kansas Association of Chiefs of Police and the Kansas Peace Officers Association. I include this information to note having extensive experience and training in the area of recruitment and retention of employees in a municipal setting. As a Chief of Police, I recognized the importance of not only recruiting quality employees, but more so the retention of quality employees. The cost of retaining employees is always of less expense than the constant recruitment and training of new employees. A dollar value cannot truly be placed on an employee who has invested the time to fully know their position and is able to effectively and efficiently perform their duties. A certain amount of pride and ownership also naturally accompanies employees committed to the vision of their employer through long-term employment. I say all of this also with the understanding of the impact the last year has had on the City's budget. However, I believe the overall benefit and cost is in the favor of a full- time, committed maintenance employee to help the Parks and Recreation Department provide better overall service to the City and the citizens we serve. Respectfully, Adam Sayler In summary, the need for a full-time year--round Parks Maintenance Technician is clear as are the benefits to be gained. We have taken many actions as a department to operate as efficiently and effectively as possible; this past year alone we slashed Parking expenses by $140,485, and we cut $89,615 in programming expenses through strategic partnerships while simultaneously achieving an even greater level of service.These savings are also largely independent of pandemic-related decreases in expenditures. These initiatives were put into motion prior to the pandemic. Investing in a full-time year-round Parks Maintenance Technician will allow us to operate more efficiently and effectively, and will enable us to provide greater and more consistent service to the public. INTENT: Authorize the City Manager to establish the position of Parks Maintenance Technician CONSISTENCY CHECKLIST: Yes No NIA Comprehensive Plan (2030, approved by Council May 30, 2017): 3.6.1.1 Improve existing and develop additional recreational X infrastructure. Strategic Plan(Approved by Council Resolution 99 043): Provide diverse,year-round,indoor and outdoor recreation X facilities...{ .3) Other(list): FISCAL NOTE: Funding for this position will come from General Fund reserves and then factored into future budgets. Approved by Finance Department: ATTORNEY REVIEW: Yes No Not Applicable RECOMMENDATION: Approve Resolution 2021- authorizing the city manager to establish a new full-time position titled Parks Maintenance Technician in the Parks & Recreation Department.