001call to order this m special meeting of the city council at 4:30 p.m. Council Chambers. >> No, sir. >> Item three, discussion on propos proposed changes to the employee handbook. Mr. Ham. >> Yes, sir. Mayor and Council. Um got uh two items on the agenda that I did. One PowerPoint just to kind of go through the uh they are somewhat related. The employee handbook and then the travel policy. And uh and so you have the um draft documents in the packet. And I did a little PowerPoint just to kind of highlight uh the the changes and the proposed wordings. and then we can look specifically at the documents if if that's necessary um or answer any questions uh that way. So, we'll uh we'll just kind of run through the the purpose obviously was uh
002for for tonight was to provide an overview of those proposed revisions and what uh we are uh requesting is an updated standalone travel policy so that as we make updates to the travel policy, it doesn't require amending the full employee handbook. it's a separate standalone policy that we can uh manage a little bit more efficiently. Um and to to modernize the documents, clarify the policies and the language therein. Uh align them with state law where necessary with best practices that have been identified and um in some cases just align them with what we're how we're currently conducting operations. Um, and we want obviously to support a fair and consistent administration of the policies uh and requesting that uh that if you do so choose to adopt them, we make them effective uh January 1st. So,
003um we kind of broke down the the proposed changes within the employee handbook to uh three different uh tiers. um or three different levels if you will of changes. U tier one are really just housekeeping updates, structural uh grammatical kind of things. Tier two are uh policy clarifications or compliance updates. And then tier three, there are a couple that are a little bit more substantive. their actual operational adjustments uh that we'll go through one by one and make sure that uh that we're all uh in agreement with the the way those are are written. Most of them are just um refining our existing policy uh rather than creating new rules or or uh new ways of doing things. The travel policy uh isn't really much of a change from the way we are currently doing
004business, but it's just being pulled out of the handbook. Um, and there are a couple slight adjustments uh to to the way we've been currently uh operating that we'll talk through when we get to that portion of the uh of the PowerPoint. And so a as we go through the uh the structural or housekeeping updates um you'll you'll see that what was a welcome and a background section uh we just organized into one consolidated welcome section welcoming the new employees um to the uh to the organization. uh removing the organizational chart from the employee handbook simply because we maintain that separately as a part of our annual budget adoption and if we do make changes we don't want to have to go back and amend the employee handbook. Um so we just we're we're going
005to just manage that u or the proposal is to manage that uh during our annual budget process and it will always be included as a part of uh the annual budget adoption. We did a very again minor grammatical change. We renamed automotive services to fleet services to align with the way we've set up our maintenance services division. Uh just industry standard technology. Uh we've removed uh at the end of the document the uh outdated employee assistance program or EAP form. Uh that was an appendix in the back. We no longer use Dear Oaks and so we removed that out. We have a separate EAP provider through our insurance. Now, uh we also updated the employee acknowledgement form um and put it in there as an an appendix so that we know what that prescribed form
006looks like and we will make sure that we acquire those from all uh employees when they get their employee handbook. Uh and then again just some formatting and readability uh improvements that you can identify with the redline document that was in the in the packet tonight. Going to more of policy clarifications uh or compliance updates. Um the the uh one of the discussions that occurred with our strategic plan was to uh remove the word the the year 2027 from the vision statement just to make it uh evergreen and to not tie it to uh a 2027 time frame just to say um you know Navasota what America wants to be rather than just 2027. Uh we want to be that without a year associated with it. Um, we've updated our job application process allow to
007uh allow electronic signatures signatures in the online system. Uh, whereas the wording was kind of prescriptive to a uh a wet signature or hard signature. Um, and then we uh we changed a little bit in the orientation section. We've clarified that the hand handbook in most cases is distributed electronically, but employees can have a hard copy uh if they choose. Um, and all employees sign the acknowledgement form saying that they do have access to uh the employee handbook. Continuing on, we've updated the nepotism chart uh within the document. That was something that the uh legal council kind of brought to uh to our attention that it wasn't really in compliance with the latest attorney general's rulings. Uh and so the new chart in there uh is has been verified to be compliant with the uh
008government code. Uh we've uh clarified also in there that performance evaluations will occur uh on the employees anniversary date rather than all employees getting done on the same day of the year. Uh which is pretty much an administrative nightmare to try to have all managers evaluating every single employee in the organization all on the same day. would, you know, if we spread those out, align them with their uh anniversary dates. Number one, it's not quite an administrative burden at one time on the managers, but also it allows us to align as we do considered later this fiscal year adopting the uh defined step pay plan that we've talked about that that will come after we do the uh uh employee I'm sorry, the compensation analysis. um that gives us an opportunity when they get their
009annual performance evaluation, that would be the opportunity to move them to the next step in the pay plan as well. So, we're just getting that set up and uh prepared. And then with retirement, um the retirement section, we did update to the 6% TMRS contribution that you all uh approved in the in the budget and also at the last council meeting approved uh by ordinance those changes with TMRS. Uh we also modernized some of the terminology and references in that section and clarified um that that city vehicles are designated as smoke and tobaccof free just like city others other city buildings. Um >> I have a question about that. >> Sure. >> Um I don't know how many folks in the use chewing tobacco or something like that but this means that they would not
010be able to use it in a city vehicle. >> That is correct. Is that setting some folks up for >> That's how it's been in every city I've been employed and I would prefer to keep it that way. >> So what do you So if somebody violates that then you take >> disciplinary action. >> Okay. I'm concerned about that. >> Okay. >> You can move on then. Yes. >> Mhm. So, as we get into more um substantial or operational type changes, um we're going to go a little bit slower on these because these are um again, I want I want to make sure that that we talk through them. the uh leave definitions and the approval processes are really the clarification really isn't much but vacation for vacation leave um rather than it acrewing uh
011all at one time per month we've um the proposal is to set that up for a bi-weekly acral which is much more standard most employers uh it it happens uh with their bi-weekly pay periods um it does propose a slightly enhanced acral rates. We did not have uh a an increased um acrual rate for employees, non-firefighting employees uh from the 15 I'm sorry, the 10 to 20 year range. It adds just adds another step in there. Um I the chart I'd have to pull up the uh the chart to to get to the specifics. It is in the document, but it's there was a slightly um enhanced cruel rate there, but separate keeping the separate acrruel schedule for 24-hour shift firefighters like you like we've had in the past. We did not change that. Uh
012we did also um currently in the document have the maximum vacation acrruel equal to one year of acrruel. Um, and we're still kind of going through best practices, what that looks like, um, for how much an employee should be allowed to go. We want we want to encourage the employees to use their vacation and take it. Um, and we also at the same time want to limit the city's liability exposure. uh so that we don't have employees banking a whole lot of vacation hours and then that becomes payable at separation and we end up in a budget crunch uh or crisis because you know several people have built up very high balances. >> Yeah. So um but at the same time the the discussion that we've been having in the in the leadership team is
013uh maybe we limit the exposure like it is now to one year of acrruel but we allow the employees perhaps to build up more than that so that if they wanted to build it up almost like a catastrophic leave bank of their own that they're in control of and that they can make sure that if later in their career they have a a catastrophic illness or a family member needs some attention they would have some extra leave that they could lean on. And so, um, I I think that we may be, um, coming back pretty quickly with with an adjustment to, uh, to try to make sure that we, uh, we give as much flexibility as we can to the employees without creating an undue liability for the for the city. And so, um, I
014think that probably would. And then what that the way that is is structured is when you do get to whatever that maximum acral is, then the um the leave just simply stops acrewing or pauses acrewing until some is used and then it picks right back up. So each twoe pay period is a new opportunity to acrue uh leave and if they're at the maximum for that twoe period, it just does not acrew. And if they're below the maximum, then it does acrue. Um so it's it's pretty straightforward from there. We just are still having an internal discussion on um kind of that balance of limiting the city's exposure but also giving flexibility to the employees. We did also um a much more standardized approach. Um, and really the way we've been conducting business is part-time
015employees do not receive uh holiday or vacation leave. That's very standard in most employers do not extend those benefits. We had some ambiguous wording in our current handbook that said a part-time employee that works 20 hours a week is eligible for um paid holiday leave and vacation leave. But it didn't say is that they work 20 hours one week and that gets it for them forever or is there some milestone of how many weeks is it across a whole year if they average 20 hours and so really we just felt like a more appropriate way. Uh the directors all confirmed that we've not had any part-time employees receiving those benefits. So it's not like we're taking something away that people have grown to expect. Um, we just wanted to make it clear and it does
016seem to be much more standard for most employers to not extend those benefits to part-time employees. It's oftent times part of the justification for making a position part-time is so you don't have the benefits costs associated with that position. And so, um, we're just trying to standardize that on on what is, uh, generally offered. um they do um they are eligible in c certain circumstances. The handbook was a little bit more clear on the pro-rated sick leave that they could earn. Um again, I don't know that that's really the standard, but we just didn't this wasn't intended to be a full scale frontto back change of all of the employee handbook. We just had a few things we wanted to get in place for the upcoming year. And then uh the directors and I have
017already discussed about you know even taking a little bit deeper dive into the handbook next year and coming back to you all with some some other thoughts uh after a more thorough review. Um but this does you know like I said the the removing part-time holiday and uh vacation uh is more typical of municipal practices and it simplifies our payroll and benefits administration. We uh we did add Junth into the handbook. You all had adopted Junth as a city holiday, but it had not been incorporated officially into the handbook. So, we did add that in. And then also uh we we did some clarification wording in there about when holidays are are uh observed. So for most employees uh that are that most of our employees work Monday through Friday. So we will always recognize
018holidays during the Monday through Friday stretch. If it happens if a holiday falls on a Saturday, we recognize it on Friday. If it happens on Sunday, we observe it on Monday. However, we also have some departments that are that work seven days a week. The police department and fire department in in particular. And so we clarified that for those departments that do have 7-day operations or at least the divisions within those departments that have 7-day operations, the holiday is observed on the actual holiday. So that you know if you have a patrol officer working on Saturday, but well, we moved the holiday for our convenience. We moved the holiday to a Friday and now the person who's actually working police patrol on the holiday is not getting holiday pay. That didn't seem fair either. So
019we we just clarified and we handle them slightly different which again is that's that's very standard in in most municipal operations. Um and we also uh changed the holiday pay structure and this is this is a little bit of a of a substantial change. I think the police and fire department have already discussed it with their personnel and had very favorable uh feedback for it because the reality is right now we're giving holiday time off as a leave that gets acred and then sometimes they get to take it, sometimes it expires, sometimes it just goes away and it's always a burden on the workforce when they do take it off. Now we've got to back fill and we have overtime. Um it it seems like a um much more efficient operation to do away with
020that leave and simply pay a premium pay time and a half for hours that are worked on the holiday. So employees that have to work on a holiday would get paid um time and a half for any hours they actually work on that holiday and all full-time employees would get eight hours of holiday pay. uh for for the holiday. So those of us who work, you know, in the office Monday through Friday and we get a holiday off, we get eight hours of holiday pay as if we worked that day just like we are now. But we would extend the same to those departments that do have to work during the holidays. Obviously, we need firefighters here. We need police officers on patrol. We need folks answering 911. So those personnel would get their eight
021hours of holiday pay, but then they also would get time and a half for any hours that they actually worked uh on the holiday. And again, that's that's pretty standard. Most most municipal uh operations are are doing that nowadays. Um and then again, part-time and temporary employees don't receive paid holidays, but they do get time and a half for if they worked on a holiday. Um so again, it's it's a slight change to uh to our operation. Um but I think it's going to be um very beneficial to the employees. And then couple other operational items. Uh the travel, like I said earlier, the travel um and subsistence section is removed entirely from the employee handbook being maintained or proposed as a separate standalone administrative policy. Pay at the time of separation is also changed
022simply because we no longer have the holiday leave that we need to maintain for police and firefighters. So now all employees are um their their payout rules are the same. Uh and we just removed the language that treated police and firefighters differently. Uh and we also by doing so we've improved the consistency allowing the handbook to be um administratively uh the same across all departments and all levels. uh so that uh again we're not trying to keep track of different divisions, different rules to follow and all of those kind of things. So the idea here is for us to uh make this again the request would be to make it effective January 1st. We would spend the rest of this month making sure that uh we get the word out, we get the a new
023copy of the handbook uh to the employees, we get the the acknowledgement form signed. uh the department directors would have you know staff meetings with their various departments to kind of talk through these uh these things make sure that everyone is aware of it. Again it's not tremendously impactful on day-to-day operations but we do want to make sure that the employees are aware of the changes that that are coming. And uh so we would take that after tonight if it gets approved. We we'll make sure that it's formatted properly. It's all the pages are numbered properly, get it to final um distribution format. Um make sure that we get it electronically out to all employees that have that or paper copy. Get the employee acknowledgement forms. Uh and the department heads, like I said, would
024uh will have those staff meetings throughout the day. Uh so what we're requesting with regard to the employee handbook is for you all to um consider approval of that tonight. Um and then authorizing I believe the uh the way the resolution is written uh much like has been done in the past is to adopt this to replace all preceding employee handbooks and then giving uh authority to the city manager to administer it to to manage it and if there are future amendments to uh communicate those back to the council so you're aware if there are any administrative changes um it doesn't get done without um full knowledge and disclosure and then uh and then we'll take take it going forward from there. And then as I mentioned the uh the other item on the agenda
025is the the travel policy. We want to make sure that we're reimbursing um employees or any travelers for that are traveling on behalf of the city. Uh they're reasonable and necessary work workrelated travel expenses. Uh it does emphasize in the standalone policy um the uh uh lowest reasonable cost, avoiding uh impropriety or appearance of impropriety, making sure that we are good fiduciaries of the taxpayers's money, aligning with city expenditure rules and audit ready documentation. We only reimburse for those expenses that aren't covered by other sources. Uh and um when in doubt, the employees are instructed or the travelers are instructed to follow the most conservative uh course of action. So the the policy kind of sets up that um travel has to be pre-approved either by the a department director or the city manager if
026it's up a higher level. Uh there's a process for having that. We don't just go off and leave our workplace. We make sure that our supervisors have approved it just like it is now. uh expense reports are due within seven calendar days after we return from travel if we want to get reimbursement for those. And the signatory requirements if it's greater than $1,000 uh in expenses, it gets signed by the city manager or assistant city manager. If it's less, it can be signed by the department director unless it is the department director and then it gets signed by the city manager or assistant city manager. Um, and so the, uh, whoever is responsible for signing them has the authority to, uh, to review them fully, make sure they're appropriate, and to withhold, uh, reimbursement for
027that while that review is done. God bless you, whoever that was. Uh, and then exceptions do require written request uh, and approval uh, prior to to being reimbursed. We do author authorize or yeah we do allow prepayments of certain expenses so that the employees aren't necessarily out of pocket. Airfare, rail, rental vehicles, uh conference fees, uh pdium can be advanced to employees. Um and the reason that's important is is again the directors and I have had these conversations. it. We we don't know the financial situation of all of our employees and we don't want to be an undue burden when they are traveling for work for a class or a conference uh that is for the benefit of the city and the residents. We don't want to be a burden on their household by making
028them front money where we can you know and so we do authorize some things to be to be handled separately and even pdeium uh to be done through a travel advance. uh they are expected to secure the lowest uh available airfare or whatever the accommodations are. Uh travel advances if necessary are are required to be submitted 14 to 28 days. So 2 to 4 weeks before travel. Um and then that expense report is due within 7 days after they return to reconcile uh the travel advance. Travel advances aren't required if some employees choose. Uh generally when I travel I I front the money. I put it on my own card and then I fill out the the documentation after the fact and get reimbursed afterwards. Uh but again I'm not going to make the assumption
029that every employee would like to do that. And so uh we've got to offer both uh options there. Uh we do have mileage uh if if they're traveling outside of the boundaries there 35 plus miles from city hall in a state straight line radius. And again, that's kind of the same radius that generally allows us to offer overnight accommodations. There are certain exceptions if someone's going to a location that, let's just say, is about 25 or 30 miles away from in that straight line radius, but they have to be there real early the next morning. Well, I certainly might authorize, yes, go ahead and go. I don't want you having to get up at 4:00 in the morning to get to an early meeting. Go and stay in a hotel the night. Then the next
030day, you're fresh. you're not, you know, tired from having to get up early and and drive. So, there are exceptions or if they're going to be there very late into the evening for uh a late meeting or something along those lines. So, there are some exceptions uh that allow uh consideration and we do expect uh to try to get the lowest rate just like with airfare government or conference rates on hotels or those kind of things. >> Who makes the arrangements on on the travel arrangements? For the most part, the uh the employees make the the arrangements themselves. There are certain times that you know that like for us when we go to TML, oftentimes the city secretary's office uh handles a lot of those things. So, it just really depends on their department. Some
031departments have an admin person that that kind of does that and is attuned to getting those rates and so they do it for all of the employees and then sometimes the the employees, it just depends on the makeup of the department. Some departments have that administrative support and some don't. >> Do we do we have enough of those that it would be reasonable or feasible to have one office make lawyer arrangements? >> I don't believe so. It would be an extra person that we would have to hire and I just don't I don't know that we have that much travel that we would justify another employee. >> Yeah, I don't think we should add add another person just to do that. right just to centralize it. Um so the pdium and meals um that we
032do offer it's this is a slight change uh in in the proposal to to the way we've been doing it still using the GSA benchmark but um what what this proposal would be is that we use the GSA standard rate instead of um looking up the individual city and say, "Well, I'm going to Fort Worth, where TML was. We were we're going to Fort Worth. We have to look up in the GSA schedule, find that specific dollar amount." Uh the challenge with that, there's a couple reasons. The standard rate is the lower of the two in all cases. And so that allows us to set up our forms so that they have a set dollar amount for PDM that we know we are going to give to all of our travelers. It standardizes it, gives
033consistency across the board, and it also allows us to set the forms up so that that dollar amount doesn't have to be we can lock that that for U cell in the spreadsheet so that we don't have the chance of putting the wrong dollar amount in there. Someone looked up the wrong city or they didn't realize the city was listed and they used the county as opposed to the city. uh the GSA uh website can get sometimes can get a little confusing when you have a lot of different options. It also then becomes an administrative burden on the the supervisor, the manager, and the city manager's office who have to at each level go back, look it up, verify, yes, they went to the right spot, they picked the right city, they used the right
034dollar amount, and the form is all been kept uh the the integrity of the form and the formulas uh are all intact. Whereas, if we lock that down and we have a form that just says, you know, right now the standard rate, I think, is $68, which is $60 for meal and $8 for incidental expenditures. That's very easy for us to say, okay, we we've plugged that in. We can do all our formulas based on that. And when they come across, you know, a manager's desk or my desk, it it's always the same. And I can quickly say, okay, yes, that's all correct. rather than having to take additional time to go to a website, look it up, make sure that it's the right, go in, recalculate, make sure that all the formulas were still
035intact. And so again, it's it's a little lower dollar amount than we were previously authorizing for some PDM travel. Some of them were using the standard rate, but some cities we were allowing a a more premium. Um the more standard operation for most cities is to use the standard rate, not to do the city specific rates. Um that's a federal government thing that they they're really into using all those. Um nothing wrong with doing it that way. I just felt like the administrative burden that it was putting on us and having to be able to manage the system wasn't really worth the extra um the extra few dollars for for the travelers. Uh, and and I think it's still reasonable. I don't think anyone's going to go hungry uh getting $60 as opposed to $72
036or something along those lines per day for um per DM. Uh so, and then it still does keep the the same true with God bless you. Um meals that are provided by the conference or by a vendor or the hotel or some other source are supposed to be subtracted out. uh we don't get both a pdeium allowance and get our meal taken care of by some other source. One thing I noticed and I don't know if I'm reading into it or assuming something and it maybe an employee would on that section where meals perdem and then it says perdem allowances are reimburseable for overnight travel and then it lists the perdm is intended to cover meals as well as incidental expenses including items such as laundry, dry cleaning, cleaning and customary services and tips. You
037flip the page. Nonreimburseable travel expenses, laundry and dry cleaning is listed. >> Okay? >> I mean, do you see what I'm talking? Because one section it says it's a reimburseable and then the other says, >> well, it's it's reimburseable as a part of your incidental expenses, >> right? can use that >> if you choose to use it as a part of your incidentals then. >> But >> yeah, we we could certainly clarify if if we need to. We can we can go in and clean that up a little bit. >> If you were traveling, you were going to be gone for a week or maybe longer or something and then have to have some clothes cleaned or something while you I don't know. >> That was just something. But I can see where understandably that
038would be general expenses that you incur. Yeah, that's on this this slide actually covers that what you just uh brought out. So, it does say um what are non-reimburseable? Um I don't see that. I probably just didn't include it on here, but we we'll make sure that that's clarified in there. >> What page is that on? >> What's that page number in there? >> Uh page six and nine. and then page eight. Okay. Okay, that's the end of my presentation. If we have any further questions or discussion, um while you all are thinking of questions, I will offer uh Mr. Cox and I had a little bit of a communication confusion. Um he thought he was on the 6:00 agenda tonight, so he's on his way here. He thinks he'll be here by 5:30. So,
039if we wrap it up, maybe we'll take a brief recess while he gets set up. Um, but uh just wanted you all to know that's why he's not here yet. He's on his way. >> On page four, um the employee handbook or travel policy. >> The employee handbook. It says city council serves two terms three. I think it needs to change. Ah, >> okay. I noticed there was comments about direct depos I'm sorry about a check and getting a check and how we're going to pay you but I don't see anything that talks about direct deposit um or if there's any difference in what that may look like if it's a direct deposit versus a check. I wrote that down on page 29. Okay. And then I had a question about uh maternity leave and
040or paternity leave. Feel like we had that in there when we when we looked over this the last time. Um but I didn't maybe I just read over it really quick, but I don't >> I Well, I can tell you in in all three items that you brought up, I didn't make any change. there's no proposed changes. So, what we should be seeing is wording that's already in the handbook. Um, not to say they shouldn't be updated and corrected like the terms of the of the officials. So, if maternity leave and paternity leave is in there, it should still be in there. I didn't remove anything >> separate policy that we >> It's a separate policy. >> They're they're referred to, but I don't think it mentions paternity or maternity, but it talks about it.
041>> Paid parental leave. >> Yes, that's what it is. because I know that we added some some wording the last time and I like I don't see that >> it's a separate policy. >> Okay. Is >> we could add that to the handbook. >> Well, I have a little bit of concern with removing policies out of the handbook because then we have three or four different policies that we then I don't I don't know that there's any real confusion with going back and changing the entire thing. I mean, especially if we're going to do it electronic now, why would it matter if it's a standalone policy or not? just in general as you think about travel and >> yeah it's I think it's just the course of the the employee handbook the the general feedback
042that you get from human resources professionals is the employee handbook should be limited to things that deal with the employees employment and the travel policy is really only some employees will ever use it and it it just applies to certain circumstances where an employee is traveling on behalf of it's really not employment related this and so there are and and really the the recommendation that we've been that we've received from that there was a review apparently done even before I was hired and there's a there's a recommendation that quite a few other things get removed from what is currently in our employee handbook so that it would be more of a standardized best practices employee handbook from a human resources perspective. But again, we're not proposing any of those changes tonight. This was >> we
043we meant for it to be a a small because we wanted to get the the travel policy in place, wanted to get the vacation I mean, sorry, the holiday pay in place so that we could have a January 1 kickoff and and start a fresh with those. And then we've we've talked about taking, like I said, a deeper dive into the handbook next year and and doing a more thorough review for things like you're bringing up the the things that might need to be addressed uh in there that have been in there for >> maybe many years. I'm just >> suggesting that as as I just had that question, why wouldn't it be in the employee handbook? Why is it in a separate policy than >> what we're looking at? So, >> I I don't
044I don't disagree. So that that one fit and actually the paid parental leave um does seem to be employment related and and might very well go in there. I can't answer why it wasn't put in there. I wasn't here then. >> It was noted as exhibits. They were added at the end of the handbook. >> Not in the handbook I was given when I was hired. Yeah, they um after the handbook was approved, my understanding is they went back because they had recently passed four different policies. The uh certification policy, tuition reimbursement, catastrophic leave, and um paternal um sorry, leave policy. And so they added them as exhibits to the back of the handbook. Um I don't know that they were necessarily in the handbook when it was approved, but just to have those available
045for employees at the time. I don't there was a version that had them as exhibits. So it keeps you from probably keep changing the index and everything if they're exhibits, but they were part of the book. on page four in the description of the various departments. Uh I wonder if we shouldn't add on the parks and recreation that uh he's talking about the care and maintenance of parks and facilities owned by the city including the municipal swimming pool. Just to clarify this, what is the policy on on call or standby time as far as pay is concerned? There any stipen or anything for stand being on standby? on call or standby. >> Isn't it like 200 or something? >> 5050. >> Okay. I didn't see anything in in there. That's on page 24 in the
046index, but I don't know. >> Well, it's on 23. >> Okay. >> They talk about on both standby time, but I didn't see anything about talking about a pay scale on it. >> Yeah, I wouldn't expect the dollar amount to be in there because again, it it changes probably from time to time and you don't want to amend the whole handbook. So, you >> just like an hourly rate for >> employees pay. On page 27, it talks about But he didn't have the money. >> It doesn't even say anything about him being about there being any pay for it. >> Yeah, that's that's the existing handbook. We're not proposing any changes to that. >> Right. >> Just to clarify what you two are talking about, he's in the handbook, you're in the draft. So, if
047you're going to compare number page numbers, they're different. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> I'm I'm reading what's in the book here, though. >> There's two copies in our book. One is the draft and one is the one that's already written. >> Okay. >> Or approved. Go back to that one. You can't He looking at the draft or the the original. >> Was he looking at the original? >> He's in the clean version of the proposed. >> Yeah. >> I think what he's saying there's just it doesn't mention anything about pay on standby. >> Yeah. it that's not changing from what is in the current handbook. We appear to have to have moved the faxes out of out as a means of communication. But on the press conferences on page 62 talking about making advisory invitation
048should be faxed to the media. I was wondering if >> Yeah, I think that's that's probably something that that should get updated in the when we do a thorough review and update to the >> to the employee handbook >> because it may need to say emailed, it may need to say faxed, it may some may still use fax machines, some may, >> you know. Yep. anything else? If not, you can I would just communicate to Robert, if there's something that you catch later after reading it, and I've definitely made note of the ones that you guys have already brought up that from the thoughts tonight to make sure that we get those incorporated into the into the next review. I'm waiting on Mr. Cox for item five. We'll just go into recess for the moment
049and uh guess it gets back we'll resume. >> I'll let you introduce Mr. Cox. >> Yes, sir. Mayor and Council, uh we we uh did have several planning sessions that went into the development uh and updates to our uh strategic plan. Um there's been meetings with staff, meetings with council, and meetings with staff and council combined. And uh our uh our consultant, Ron Cox, is here tonight to uh present those results to you and offer um a uh a final strategic plan for adoption. Thank you, Robert. Thank you, mayor. I'm so sorry for the miscommunication. Uh, I was going to be early and it didn't quite work out that way. So, thanks for waiting on me. I appreciate very much. We u we have worked together uh very well since uh since the 1st of
050September uh September 12th and 13th. Well, actually de December. I'll get I'll get my date straight in a minute. Uh here in December, but since September, we've been working together. And uh I appreciate all of the the work that you all do as elected officials, council members on behalf of of this community. And I appreciate the fact that you all want to come together and look at how can we anticipate uh the needs uh and and direct our strategies toward uh facing those needs and uh becoming uh very very proactive in that regard. I appreciate also the staff coming back and working with us uh when uh when we came back in in November to uh to visit with them and develop an action plan based on the strategies that you all prepared. So they've
051done a great job uh doing that. Process-wise, we're ending ending this process. We did uh our sessions in October and and the uh staff implementation workshop in November. And here we are 1 of December uh through this uh process. Our agenda for that day or for really two different sessions uh together. The first uh session was uh on governance and that sort of focused on you all as uh as a group together and how you best function and can best function together. And then we came back in in October, later in October, and worked with the council and the staff together uh as uh as a body to to do that uh strategic planning through the process. So I want to go through just a little very quickly the governance model that you all established
052and uh you all did establish your original governance model in 2019. And so this was a both a review and an update to that since you had uh a new council member. One council member rolled off and came back, but uh but you had a new council member in the process. Probably been a while since you'd talked about it. I'm sorry, not 2019, 2021. uh as we uh work through this process. Uh we started off talking about what our individual attributes are and and uh and why you all ran uh for the positions that you did and uh and in that regard it's it's the process of you come independently. uh you you have your circles of influence, you come independently, but then when you get behind the deis, uh you're you're one vote out
053of the five and and uh you have to end and you have to run uh uh you you have to work together uh through these processes. So, we talked about why you ran uh and um and in 25 here, those those things in red are what you added here in 25. Um the great thing about it is that all of you came here to serve. Uh you came to serve and and to assist in the in the betterment of the community. uh as you work uh through these as you go through these processes uh you bring u various backgrounds you bring your own expertise your own uh as I said circle of influence uh and you bring those things to the table uh and then you're asked to work together so the question is how
054do you work together uh through this process of governance and the best uh organizations the organizations that work best together, make those processes more predictable and consistent. U I'm not going to I'm not going to worry you with this cartoon again. Uh but um we talked about leadership, we talked about communication, talked about understanding our roles and responsibilities and then fulfilling expectations and then we focused on what is the vision that you have for Navasota and then ultimately developed the strategic plan. So this whole process uh began in that in this first session. Uh we talked uh all of these are ingredients of good vision, visioning and planning, vision, mission, values, comprehensive plan, annual strategic plan. And you all have all of those things uh all put together and uh and and the the importance
055is to review and refresh those things, make sure that that they are consistent with what the real the community really needs and wants and then move uh on into the planning process. Uh so your vision uh and and and mission were things that we talked about. We talked about the key elements of the of the vision that you have for this community. Uh to be a role model, to be clean, safe, friendly. Uh to acknowledge that it is a historic community, beautiful, manicured, successful, sustainable, full of opportunity, innovative, and charming. And each of us can find ways that that fits the community. But it also we also can find ways that we need to improve those things. So those are vision elements. Those are what we want Navasota to look like uh when we grow
056up. And and in 20 and and most recently, you wanted it to be financially stable, that products and services for citizens are in this city and you don't have to go out of town, that everyone uh citywide is included, that the the citizenry is engaged. It's a great place to live, work, and play. A thriving downtown, and people are happy and content. So those are those are things that you want this community to look like. They may not all we haven't attained all of those things but we certainly want uh to look like these things and be known for these kinds of things as we move through. So looking at the vision elements, then we looked at the vision statement that you all looked at and and developed in 27 uh Navasota, what Americans want
057to be, a beautiful, progressive, vibrant, serviceoriented, close-knit community filled with historic charm and promise for people and business. That's the that all of those key elements then were rolled into one statement. and and and so as we looked at these, we wanted to make sure that the vision statement that you all created in 27 was still accurate and it was consistent with the elements that you all were talking about as key elements for the vision and you concluded that that in fact that those that there is consistency in that regard. And as you work through these elements uh of the vision elements and the mission elements and as you develop those strategies then there needs to be a consistency between those strategies and and the vision statement. It sets the base. The vision element the
058vision statement sets the base for everything else that you do as as you work through this process. And where the vision is what you want to look like. The mission is how you're going to get there. The methods that you're going to get there, you're going to be committed. You're going to be focused. You're going to be dedicated. Uh you're going to do the proper planning. Uh you're going to communicate that vision to others. Provide exceptional customer service in the process. Uh be clear and consistent and understand and define our responsibilities. Flexible understanding. We're going to promote Navasota to others. plan for the rehabilitation of the downtown buildings and uh and and ensure that the downtown remains a vibrant uh community. I've anecdotally uh I've been I was in another city not long ago and
059they talked about what Navasota used to look like uh many many years ago and and had been through recently and and were very uh uh uh not appreciative but but they acknowledged uh you the work that you all had done in that regard. And it was it was great to hear that particularly after having been here and having uh heard what I heard from from you all in this process. Uh so the mission statement then is to guide Navasota's growth in a way that maintains our heritage, culture, culture, and uniqueness while maximizing our economic and social development. That's how we're going to do it. Key values that you all have developed in the past uh were acknowledged and solidified. Teamwork, honor and integrity, resilience and adaptability, inclusivity and diversity, vision and progress, empowerment and engagement,
060leadership values that thrive. And that that is an action word. Thriving is an action word that leads this community. So again, we talked about effective leadership, meaningful communication, understanding roles and expectations, and then visioning. Uh and and in your report, you'll see the details to those uh to to those leadership values, the the how you will lead, how you will communicate. We talked about expectations, but I did want to uh take your time with that since it's in your report. But our planning session, shifting to the planning session, we we went through a SWAT analysis to analyze the strengths the of the community and the organization, the weaknesses of the community and the organization and then identify opportunities. What what is it we can do to overcome those weaknesses? How can we use our strengths
061to overcome our weaknesses? And then we talk about threats. So uh there are uh five strategic focus areas that you all developed as you talked about these weaknesses. Those were had already been somewhat developed and then we confirmed those uh through this process. But as we talked about those weaknesses, we identified those within what I call focus areas and then those became larger strategic focus areas. marketing comm and communications, infrastructure, facilities and buildings, community and economic development, and organizational excellence are the five key focus areas. Some organization call those pillars that we're going to we're going to breast our our processes and our projects on these pillars, but I like to see them as focus areas and we're going to strategically look within those and identify strategies that will help us to address the weaknesses
062that we found in those five areas. uh in the process uh of that of developing that SWAT out of that out of those opportunities then then came what we what we call objectives with the goal being uh improving our marketing and communication. How are we going to do that? Those objectives then became the action items in the strategic plan. Uh and you can see there are seven or eight of those here. and uh uh to to update and revise the website content as as an example to update the new resident packet of information. Those uh objectives uh work toward overcoming the weaknesses uh that were identified in the marketing and communications areas in uh infrastructure. Uh complete and implement the instruct the infrastructure capital improvements plan. continue to pursue grants of and alternative funding. Establish
063encourage water conservation programs are examples of the kinds of things uh that you all talked about and identified as ways to further strengthen the infrastructure of the community. Uh strategic focus area number three was facilities and buildings. Uh establish a facilities replacement and maintenance master plan. plan and provide technology including safety cameras at W and Wi-Fi at parks. Improve fleet management services, expand grant opportunities here as well, and identify and improve parking in key public use areas. um those four facilities and plans, you all have done a tremendous amount of work and there are uh there were some uh very um important objectives in the earlier strategic plan uh that you're continuing to work on as well. Number four was community and economic development. uh improve the railroad crossing safety and convenience, enhance uh uh
064and beautify the city's entryways and gateways. Those kinds of things make the community more presentable, uh and establish more robust and safe. Uh establish a more robust code enforcement uh program. Continue economic and workforce development with your partners. update the uh onboarding for new residents uh and and and include in that ways for new residents to become more uh more closely tied with the community become residents and community members as as uh as they come and live and work here in in Navasa. Number five, uh, organizational excellence, uh, employee, uh, establish a employee engagement, recognition program, uh, improve training, development, uh, skills, uh, and develop succession planning. Recruitment and retention uh, is always an important thing. Uh, sometimes, especially in police departments, we become smaller cities become the training ground for the larger cities. And
065so you don't want to be training others, training your best employees to just leave. And so how do you recruit but not but more specifically how do you retain uh and then uh overall team building wellness to strengthen relationships that we have all with the objective of uh or with the goal of improving the excellence in the organization itself. Once we've completed that part of the process, we talked about threats. What would keep you from uh accomplishing the goals? Um used to legislative mandates were kind of down low. uh somebody thought would think about them as a but now that's almost the first thing I hear in most every city that I that I work with and that legislature has uh steadily um um identified ways to reduce the flexibility of cities in my opinion
066and those mandates are often uh things that you could do at one time that you can't do now and so we have to we have to learn how to deal with those we have to work our way through those uh mandates that come come by from time to time and along with that lack of funding. Often times these are big goals, big objectives, big ideas that would take a lot of money. And if we just said, "Oh, well, it's going to take a lot of money. I guess we can't do that." Then that's a threat. What we do is we we bite that apple a little bite at a time uh in order to be able to accomplish ultimately what you want to do. Sometimes there's lack of buy in. If you don't have good
067communication and marketing of of what needs to be done, then you don't get the buyin that you need from the community. So those things need to be addressed, anticipated, and ultimately addressed. And you can see uh the kinds of things on that list that you all talked about. So we we came back uh you you see the uh the the strategic plan, but we came back and prepared an implementation plan. And do we do you have that example uh that you can put that up right quick? I I I'm not going to go through it in detail. I haven't gone through this this report in detail but I wanted I wanted to show excuse me I wanted to show you uh what the staff has done how the staff has taken those uh overall broad
068objectives and put meat meat on the table if you will. So in the left hand column you'll see the strategic focus area in this case marketing and communication. You'll see a goal statement, the overall the broad goal, and then you'll see the objectives that we've talked about in that third column already. From the fourth column on to the right, and I know this is small for the audience to see, but from the fourth column on, you see detailed action steps that the staff believes that they can take to help the council uh uh accomplish those particular objectives. And not only that, but they've identified some budget responsibilities. Uh they've identified a timeline when they would be working on that and bringing those things back to you. They've identified a lead person on the staff who
069will take responsibility. It's not that that person has to to accomplish that task or those action steps, but that that person is responsible for that. And then finally that that uh that there are others out there in the community that and around in in the region who are partners and can be partners in the accomplishment of these objectives. And so the staff worked uh really hard on this on the one day that I came. I know they worked hard but they worked hard in subsequent days to kind of package this in such a way that it made sense to you. You'll see in the final column on the right a column called reporting. And so the staff will uh through Robert will will report on the status of these goals and objectives and action items
070uh and on a regular basis. And in the uh in the report I think uh he's indicated there will be some uh some reporting on a quarterly basis and maybe an annual I may be I may be a little more aggressive may have decided to do something a little different. >> Yeah. So what we discussed is we will incorporate this into our annual budget workshop just just like we did this year. We had we touched on it uh but we will make sure that we do uh an update as a part of our annual budget workshop. And then about six months later, about this time of year, November, December time frame, we will plan a formal presentation by the responsible directors where they'll come up and give an update each year so that we get
071uh an update to the council uh formally at this time of year and then also about six months later in the budget process. Uh we'll do a we'll do an update as we're working through the budget each year. And and so that that um that's the process that we started with back in September when we did our interviews. Uh we had our sessions in October and we had our staff session in November and here we are 1st of December and and it should be something that you all can um wrap your arms around. Uh it's something that the that that the count that the staff will probably come back in either in the budget work sessions or sometimes you'll see those in agenda items say mayor and council this is an agenda item related to
072uh one of the objectives in the strategic plan so that you kind of keep that alive and keep that in front of you uh as you work through this process. I appreciate uh having been asked uh to come back uh for the second time uh from 21 now to to 25. I appreciate working with Robert and all of the staff and each of you uh to to be able to pull this together. Uh it's it's uh it's making sausage, but I hope the sausage tastes good when you get through. I'll be glad to answer any questions. I think we'll probably also have that plan in our each of our agendas so that we kind of see it >> all the time and always have a kind of an eye on it to keep up with
073it. >> Well, thank you, Ron. Thank you so much. And >> thank I think you didn't really say anything out here as far as your what um gives you a lot of experience and what what your what you helped us with, but uh you might want to just tell everybody what your kind of your background is because u you bring a lot to the table. >> Well, um I'm just a worn out city manager. That's about all about all it amounts to. I was a city manager in four different cities here in Texas over a 28-year period. And my my first job out of college was with the Brazes Valley Cog in in Brian College Station. So, this is always like coming home when I come back this direction. Uh but four cities uh in
0742006 doing consulting work and um and thought I would give that a try a while. That was almost 20 years ago. So, I think I think we've been okay in that regard. And um in January I will be working with my 95th city uh all across that'll be in the city of Brownsville. So all across the state of Texas I've had the opportunity to work with councils uh like like you all and uh let them give them an opportunity give you all the opportunity to talk about what your needs are and how you can accomplish those needs. I don't bring the solutions. you all always have a solution to the problem. It's just being able to allow you the opportunity and the time to to talk together and uh and work as a team with
075each other as well as your staff. So, I I appreciate you're letting me come. >> Thank you very much. >> You're welcome. Thank you. If we will adjourn the special