Minutes for November 2007

Thursday, November 15, 2007, Noon
Recreational Sports Game room 3.120

Members Present

Timothy Barber, Sharon Bernard, Denise Berry, Benjamin Bond, Steven Brahm, Linda Breining, Gus Castellanos, Johnnie Conley, Lara Eakins, Danielle Fournier, Lisa Gentry, Chrissi Guerrero, Bretna Hackert, Martha Harrison, Bob Hemby, Troy Johnson, Rebecca Ledbetter, Richard Lee, Debra Madden, Gary Martt, Jennifer McClain, Rita Moreno, Joyce Moyer, Linda Overton, Pamela Owen, Eric Patkowski, Monica Pena-Mercado, Elaine Rafferty, Martha Ramey, Janet Reed, Ben Rodriguez, Mark Smyth, Allison Supancic, Barbara Thompson, Mindy Thompson, Robert Walker, Erin Waneck, Leigh Ashley Williams, Brittany Wilson

Members Absent With Notification

Drew Carls, Vickie Drake, Nelson Fahlund, John Goutier, Phillip Guerrero, Janice Hejl, Sarah Hickey, Sara Jackson Watson, Vicki Kullberg, Michael McFarlin, Domingo Morales, Dixie Terry, Blake Willms, Denise Zuniga

Members Absent

Joe Barroso, Craig Blaha, Layne Brewster-Smith, Greg Browning, Tommy Downey, Dreya Johannsen, Emil Kresl, Shelton Lewis, Cindy May, Felix Sanchez Jr., Christopher Scherer, Meredith Taylor, Evan Turner, Henna Tayyeb, Helen Wormington, Vicki Nguyen-Student Rep.

Doug Burger, Chair of the the university Faculty Council, joined us for lunch, but could not stay for the meeting.

Meeting commenced at 2 p.m. with quorum present.

Chair, Erin Waneck::

• Thank you to everyone who helped setup.

Introduction of Julien Cater, Assoc. VP for Human Resources, discussing the university Staff Excellence Awards

Julien Carter:

Thank you for inviting me to share your potluck. Please keep in mind that the Outstanding Supervisor/Employee Awards (AKA Staff Excellence Awards) are starting earlier this year. Sharon Bernard is your Rep. on the board.

• Q: What is the selection process procedure?
  A: First, the Board is made up of the winners from last year and people from HRS (Julien) and UTSC(Sharon). They each use a scoring system to score each individual that is nominated. Those scores are tallied and the highest tally wins.
• Q: Is there a way to notify those who have been nominated?
  A: Julien will look into doing so.
• We are very close to launching the Employee Discount website. 4 years in the making, currently 67 vendors from 3000 mailings. We will be making business size cards to hand out to your favorite vendors.
• Q: Debra Madden; are there only local vendors or are there also national vendors?
  A: HR sent out to local vendors only, but some are also national. There is work being done for recruiting more national vendors.

The Chair made a change in the agenda and moved procedures requiring a quorum for voting, to the top of the agenda: Issues, Bylaws, Minutes approval.

Issues Committee: Debra Madden, Chair

• Issue 2007-9: Request for UTSCrepresentative on President Power’s Advisory Council since budget issues affect staff. President Powers stated that this is not a static committee and he selected the members and wishes to keep it small so they can truly focus on the work to be done.
• Move to write letter to President Powers expressing that we would like to be represented on this committee.
• Do we know how often the officers will rotate? Can we have Dr. Latoya Hill come talk to us?
• Motion to accept and write letter
  Motion; 2nd
  Motion passed
• Issue 2007-10: Create a Campus Work Climate Survey. This will allow staff to express issues in their work environment that they may not feel comfortable expressing otherwise.
• Issues Committee voted to create an Ad Hoc Committee to handle this issue.
• Danielle requested we not work with HRS with this matter. Would prefer we work with Public Affairs like the faculty had with their survey.
• There was an inquiry into having this done by a third party. However, we don’t want to have this survey snuffed due to cost. How much would it cost to have this done by a third party since this will be a one-time cost?
• Erin would prefer not to create an Ad Hoc and thinks this needs a letter to the president stating the need to survey staff the same way Faculty were. Would like to see the Faculty’s survey reworded to fit the Staff.
• Danielle suggested to send to Grievance Committee
• Motion to send to Grievance Committee, for them to look at the Faculty survey, and modify it appropriately for a Staff Work Climate Survey
• Dee Dee Berry suggested looking into copyright issues before we use Faculty’s survey.
• Once done, UTSCcan write a letter to President Powers
• Have the reworked Faculty survey by Dec 7th.
  Motion; 2nd
  Passed
• Issue 2007-11/13: Loss of Sick Leave Hours at Retirement. Would like to have Hours applied to Healthcare costs like ERS is able to do.
• Issues Committee voted to validate and send to Retirement Committee.
• This would take an act of Legislation.
• Would like to see if the Texas State Employees Union would like to partner with the university Admin and Faculty on this issue since they can lobby the Legislators.
• Motion to send to Retirement Committee with the idea to work with Admin/Faculty and TSEU.
  Motion; 2nd
  Passed
• Issues 2007-12: Flex Time Hours. To give staff a chance to travel during non-peak traveling hours. Change from 7-9am/4-6pm to 6-9am/4-7pm
• This policy is currently under review in HRS. Julien is promoting this; however, it is up to the department to approve.
• Issues Committee voted to validate and inquire with Julien about the status and outcome.
• Motion to pass
  Motion; 2nd
  Passed
• Issues 2007-14: To give sick time to those in need
• Issues Committee voted not to validate since this has come up in the past and there is the sick pool.
• Motion not to adopt
  Motion; 2nd
  Passed not to validate

CHAIR

Executive Committee recommends adding three "at large" representive positions. They will be selected from a pool by the Executive Committee. The idea is to give all able staff on campus a chance to run/serve. This will require a change in the Bylaws Committee.

Motion to send to Bylaws and Procedures Committee
Motion; 2nd
Passed

Bylaws & Procedures Committee: Eric Patkowski, Chair

Please read over the hand out on the historian position and send any questions, comments, changes to the Bylaws Committee no latter then a week before our next meeting, so we can vote on it in December.

CHAIR

Asked if we would like to have our Thanksgiving Pot Luck at the same place next year so we can reserve the room.

Motioned to have it so
Motion; 2nd
Passed

Welcomes new Rep. Kim Montroy, Dist. 550 (not present)

Recorder/Secretary: Ben Rodriguez

• Approval of the October Minutes
• Motion to Pass
  Motion; 2nd
  Passed

Vice-Chair Report: Danielle Fournier, Vice-Chair

Introduces the Chairs of the Working Committees
First would like to state that we are working on getting better communication between Chairs leaving and those coming in so time is not wasted figuring out what was completed and what is yet to finish. There is hope that the new Historian position created under the Recording Secretary will help in this transition. The committees are all currently working on resolving old/past issues.

Committee on Committees: Barbrah Thompson, Chair

Committee on Committees Members:
Chairperson: Barbara Thompson
Blake Willms
Erin Waneck

At the current time, we are working on guidelines for future committees and making sure new members are assigned to a committee.

Compensation & Classification Committee: Lisa Gentry, Chair

Committee Report

Issue Submissions with missing paperwork:

• 2001-9 Study and recommend a Living Wage for all UT employees
• 2003-19 Limited Expansion of Sick Leave Pool Uses
• 2004-1 Revise Employee Evaluation Process
• 2004-14 Online Separation Form
• 2006-9 Evaluations: ability of staff to add a letter with comments to employee file

Other Open Issues

• 2004-4 Code 1000 Employees Lack of Job Security
  This issue was investigated by the previous Comp & Class committee with HRS. See attached recommendation. The official notice of appointment discloses information about code 1000 status. What action should we take at this time?
• 2004-2 Notification of Nomination for Award; Previous Comp & Class committee made a recommendation.
• 2004-7 Recommendation for a University Time Reporting Compliance Officer
  No backup documentation available.
• 2006-6 Required training designated by code, rather than across the board
  No backup available
• 2005-15 Annual Staff Reappointment Timing Issues
  Per information from Erin Waneck, this may have been taken care of by the new Position Management Program. Is this correct? Any information on discussions with Payroll and HRS?
• 2005-16 Improve Salary Increase Procedures
  Open records request was made by Alan McKendree and was rejected. Was this the end of the Road for this issue? Comp & Class believes that perhaps the request was not done properly and we should try again.
• 2005-22 Effects of Outsourcing on Employees and the University
  Per C&C, facts and figures are not enough for us to make a qualified recommendation. Need breakdown by department. Are people arbitrarily let go?
  Can anyone laid off be trained for positions that are hard to fill? Is educational training or technical training, or DEFINE training available (not just the classes that we have available now). Recommend that an outside company be hire to evaluate this information due to the volume of it and our lack of expertise on the current system

Resources Committee: Gary Martt, Chair

The Resources Committee met by teleconference on October 5, 2007. They experimented with this format because it has been very challenging finding the time & space to meet with our busy work schedules. Other committees may wish to try the same.

Resources committee officers include:

• Chairperson: Gary Martt
• Vice-Chairperson: Sharon Bernard
• Associate Vice-Chair: Dee Dee Berry
• Assistant Vice-Chair: Philip Guerrero

Topics they hope to inform the UTSCabout, include:

• Group Email System & University Email Lists - Gary Martt
• Robert’s Rules of Order - Dee Dee Berry
• The Issues Process for Reps - Sharon Bernard
• Working with Committees - Dixie Terry
• Orientation of Newer Reps - All committee members

Resource discussions include:

• Possible conference calls with newer reps. They also discussed the possibility of brown bag lunches with the newer reps. Sharon will find out what meeting spaces are available at the Texas Union. They have tentatively reserved a room on November 7th, however ran out of time to get this organized; hope to do this later.
• The idea of a UTSC"open house" for people to learn more about us - one at PRC and one at the main campus. They contacted Julien Carter at HRS to see some funds could be provided for this purpose; also met with the Communications Committee to discuss this idea.
• Ways of improving communications between committees and the Council. Since then they've created an email mailing list of the UTSCCommittee chairs to use, and a special web page for the Resources Committee with helpful tools for committees to use: https://webspace.utexas.edu/gem/www/resources.htm
• Conducting exit surveys of those who are no longer representatives to solicit any valuable feedback that could be used to improve the UTSC.
• Another issue that has recently come up is the distribution of up-to-date UTSChandbooks. Up to now, HRS has been responsible for providing these materials, which the Resources Committee has helped distribute. The Resources Committee hasn't had a chance to discuss our handbook procedures yet, however Gary has recommended to Erin Waneck that the Council consider all new handbooks for the beginning of the 2008 season - with less information - and put more effort into keeping our web pages up to date. The UTSCshould also plan on retiring the old handbooks next spring and issuing completely new ones for ALL UTSCrepresentatives. These newer handbooks should require less work for HRS and be more helpful for the representatives.

Gary has also offered to assist the Facilities Committee by providing contact information for their committee members and by helping them organize a committee meeting. Resources will be glad to work with any other committees that are interested in our assistance.

Grievance Committee: Pamela Owen, Vice-Chair (Janice Hejl, Chair, was out sick)

Committee Member Introductions (ask them to stand if they are present) Steve Brahm
Mindy Thompson
Janice Hejl, Chair
Robert Walker
Dreya Johannsen
Denise Zuniga
Pamela Owen, Vice Chair

Two issues with committee for review/action:

2006-10: Grievance Process and Dispute Resolution Office Survey:

• Survey launched October 18, 2007 with response period designated October 18-November 5, 2007.
• Sam Echevarria-Cruz with HRS Services designated to collect weekly survey response data and send to Janice Hejl to share with Grievance Committee.
• Early data includes the following (rec'd 11/13/07):
  Survey response rate stands at 35%.
  701 respondents who either partially or fully completed the survey.
  Roughly 55% of respondents expressed an awareness of the Dispute Resolution Office.
  17 respondents indicated that they have filed a complaint and/or grievance with the Dispute Resolution Office.
  18 respondents indicated that they are supervisors who are/have been involved in the complaint and/or grievance process.
• Committee will:
  inquire about % of complaints/grievances (both resolved and unresolved) that elevated to VP level, and
  examine whether there are trends in the types of complaints/grievances filed with DRO
• All GC members have copies of the DRO survey distributed. Contact any GC member if you are interested in receiving one.
• Final analysis and report expected to be completed in early December (Sam will send to Janice)
• Survey launch concludes the committee's immediate work on this issue w/exception of review of final report.

  2006-13: Employee Relations Procedures Published (Information below was retrieved from historical emails from previous Grievance Committee)

  • Issue includes suggestion that Employee Relations draft a procedure for the process by which an employee would request a facilitated discussion and outline of what that procedure would look like.
  • Questions of privacy of meeting and confidentiality of discussion need to be addressed.
  • Initial review of previous Grievance Committee includes suggestions that this procedure should definitely outline:
    the role of each person involved in the procedure
    the parameters of those roles and assert that the people involved in the procedure should:
    abide by the parameters of their roles
    be held accountable for the action

  (The Grievance Committee will begin review of this issue upon receiving from Issues Committee; with any additional details to review)

  Retirement Committee: Bretna Hackert, Chair

  Introduced Members:
  Domingo Morales
  Joe Barroso
  Johnnie Conley
  Neal Fahlund

  The Retirment Committee is currently investigating 3 issues from previous years and should have them resolved soon.

  Nominations & Elections Committee: Linda Breining, Chair

  Nominations and Elections has been exploring the possibility of re-districting. They are requesting every representative to check their constituents. The reason for redistricting is to make sure that each district is compromised of approximately 100 people and that there seems to be a reason why the constituents are grouped together. Please report your findings to this committee.

  Communications Committee: Ashley Williams, Chair

  Introduced Members:
  Henna Tayyeb
  Meredith A Taylor
  Bretna M Hackert
  Linda K Overton
  Allison C Supancic
  Felix N Sanchez Jr.
  Emil Kresl
  Ashley Williams

  The Communications Committee’s main goal is to finish the UTSCbrochure. They are also working with HRS and TRECS to improve the UTSCWeb site. They have rearranged some information to a more logical placement. Look for our new logo to be added to the home page soon. They are also looking for more ways to get the word out about UTSC-to get more staff to visit the meetings and learn what we are about and how we can help them with any issues.

  Parking and Transportation Committee: Mark Smyth, Chair

  P&T currently has no standing issues.

  Miscellaneous and Benefits Committee: Evan Turner, Chair (not present)

  No report

  Insurance Committee: Vickie Drake, Chair (not present); update given by Danielle Fournier

  • Introduced Martha Harrison, other committee member present
  • Informed council of the committee’s last meeting in October
  • Beginning our research into Issue 2007-7
  • Plan to meet with Jim McElroy and Kelly Lomasney, from the university HRS Benefit Services
  • Vickie attended UTSWIAC in October and will give an update at the January general meeting

  Chair

  We are working on combining/renaming some committees. Please make sure all Committees have a Chair and Co-Chair

  Our Campus first issue is out and we are mentioned in it. So if you have any topic that is staff related; get the word out this is a good free source.

  Vice-Chair

  Even if you do not see a vendor on the new Employee Discount Program Web site, always ask for a discount as a higher education employee. Many local retailers offer them but don’t advertise.

  Meeting adjourned at 2 p.m.

  This meeting was not recorded.