Budget Committee October 31, 2023   10/31/2023

Good afternoon.

My name is Emily Koski.

I'm the chair of the Budget Committee.

I'm going to call to order a regular committee meeting for Tuesday, October 31st.

Wonsley is absent.

Osman is absent.

Jenkins is absent.

Chavez?

Present.

Chibte?

Present.

Johnson is absent.

Chair Koski.

Present.

Let the record reflect that we have a quorum.

We have four items on our agenda today.

A report on personnel related actions and the establishment of three appointed positions.

We will begin with item number one which is a report on personnel related actions.

I will invite our interim, no, not our interim.

I'm sorry.

Our Chief Human Resource Officer Nikki Odom to give that presentation.

Welcome.

There are slides somewhere Were they submitted?

Can we take item two first?

So, sorry, you're working on getting, okay, we'll just hold that because it won't be long, am I assuming?

Apologies.

No worries.

Madam Chair, Council members, good afternoon.

I have been asked in my role as Chief Human Resources Officer to present a job vacancy report.

Before I get started, I think it's important to point out the following.

First, these numbers were pulled as of October 9th, 2023.

Some changes since then may not be reflected in these slides since vacancy numbers literally change on a daily basis.

Second, the vacancies are expressed as full-time FTEs or full-time employees.

Third, the length of vacancy number is based on a 12-month timeframe from last October to this October.

As of October 9, 2023, there were 762 vacant FTEs, which is a 17% vacancy rate for the city.

The majority of positions are vacant three months or less, with the exception of MPD positions, seasonal positions, and the Minneapolis Convention Center recovery hires.

By contrast, the average time to fill a vacancy in 2023 has been 89 days.

With the exception of MPD, 35% of vacant positions are in an active hiring process.

The following slides are a high-level overview.

These numbers change daily as employees leave and are hired.

Therefore, if there are questions for a specific department, I will have to refer the council to that department for further detail.

First is the Office of Community Safety.

For OCS, there is an average vacancy rate of 24% or 414 FTEs These numbers are greatly impacted by MPD, which has a vacancy rate of 33% Although there are other departments with seemingly high vacancy rates, this is mitigated by the size of that particular department And so that is generally for the Office of Community Safety again looking at a 24% vacancy rate

and it's broken down by department, by vacancy length, whether it's zero to three months, up to a year, and then the number of positions that are in an active hiring process right now.

Next, the Office of Public Service.

Here, I think the thing to point out is that the Convention Center is still kind of in a recovery phase.

They have a vacancy rate of 24%, and I think that's probably one of the things that stands out most on this slide.

Again, we've provided the same numbers for each particular department, and each one is called out here.

and this is the second half of the Office of Public Service.

For public works, some of these vacancies are seasonal or are capital construction related vacancies.

Next, Office of City Attorney looking at a 5% vacancy rates.

The city auditor has no vacancies.

Mayor's Office, no vacancies.

City Clerk has a vacancy rate of 13%.

A few other quick notes.

I think it's worth mentioning that there have been 13 department head changes in the past 12 months.

This has caused a domino effect.

Often departments will hold on to fill vacancies until the department head is in place.

and is stabilized, the department is stabilized.

So that person can have input into their deputies and their managers.

Then once the deputies and managers are put in place, their direct reports will be hired and so on.

This is partially due to the government structure change.

and department reorganizations, as I can attest.

While departments are organizing, sometimes positions are purposely left vacant for a time to evaluate talent, to combine positions, or to let the desk settle on a reorganization before beginning another one.

Finally, well, Deb, our HR business partners operations director spoke directly with almost all of departments and or HR business partners.

I will note that if there are some discrepancies between the vacant position information on this report compared to a department's budget presentation, it is likely due to a gap in position cleanup efforts from HR comment or HR comment system and reconciliation of that data is occurring at this time.

Thank you, Ms. Odom.

I am not seeing any questions at the moment.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

In your table, the section that covers the number of vacancies that are currently in the process of hiring, is it

can you give us any details about how long any given department and any given number of vacancies, so like let's take the Office of the City Clerk as an example, right?

One is in the process, one FTE is in the process of hiring, would you be able to tell us how many, how long that position has been in the process of hiring?

Madam chair council members the departments could so the you know office of city clerk could specifically answer that question They're going to be in different stages Of hiring so it could be you know where they are but it means that they're actively hiring so typically it means that there is a wreck And that they are in the middle of the hiring process know whether there's an offer whether somebody is accepted

You know, I know for instance in our department we put out an offer so one of our vacancies we put out an offer somebody to climb the offer So we had to start all over again So where the stage is not represented in this these particular charts, but I would say that

That is correct.

And I know, for instance, some offers have been accepted since this report, since we gathered the data on this report.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I was curious if you saw any underlying themes, particularly the vacancies that have been open for more than a year.

Madam Chair, Council Members, I don't think that there is any one particular reason.

As I mentioned, you know, some of it I think is restructuring and just really trying to figure out where talent lies, where you can combine positions, where if a position is even really needed.

I think that's true of a lot of the new department heads who have just started within the last year.

I think also MPD.

Obviously, a lot of those positions have been open for over a year.

And then for some of the newer positions, you know, we have the whole deputy layer underneath the Office of Public Service.

I don't know if I saw on the table where some of those positions exist.

Madam Chair, Councilmember Payne, they have been vacant a while.

I would say that we actually are in the offer stage on one of those positions and in the final interview stage as on the second.

And then the third position is filled.

Okay, I'm not seeing any further questions.

I do note that this information brought forward looks a little different than what was like the chart is a little different from the original information brought forward at the first time the legislative directive came.

So I just want to go back and look at both of those two, but I really appreciate you bringing this forward today.

So thank you so much.

Seeing no further discussion, I'll direct the clerk to file this report.

Next we have items number two through four on our agenda are the establishment of three appointed positions.

Welcome.

Good afternoon Chair Koski and members of the committee.

I'm Ricka Stenerson, Director of Total Compensation in Human Resources and I'm filling in today for Brenda Miller who

just got called to jury duty so normally she'd be here but I'm here today so we are asking for approval of three appointed positions who that which all meet the appointed criteria as defined in section twenty ten ten of the Minneapolis Code of Ordinance and we ask for your approval and to forward them to council for final approval

The first position that we will review quickly is the Deputy Director of Performance Management and Innovation.

This is a new position.

It was evaluated at grade 12, reports to the Director of Performance Management and Innovation.

The salary schedule for this position is a minimum of $113,000 and a maximum of $134,000.

The position is being paid for by repurposing money from the Chief Resiliency Officer role which will not be filled and it is reflected in the 2023 budget.

and I believe we have Kira here if you have any additional questions on that.

The next position is the Director of Health Policy and Community Programs.

This also is a grade 12.

This position reports to the Deputy Health Commissioner.

It will provide strategic guidance on department initiatives and policy and programming related to public health policy.

and Advocacy, the salary schedule minimum $122,000, max of $145,000.

This position is being paid for by a local public health grant from the state and is also included in the 2023 budget.

The third position is the Director of Community Safety Design and Implementation.

This new Director of Community Safety Design and Implementation is in the Office of Community Safety and it is also evaluated at grade 12.

The position reports to the OCS Chief of Staff and will focus on strategic direction and coordination of community safety, including evaluation, innovation, and implementation of programs.

The salary schedule is $119,000 to $141,000, and this position is being paid for by savings from existing FTE positions within the department and is also included in the 2023 budget.

As you're aware, Section 2010-10 of the Code of Ordinances have criteria which all three of these positions do meet.

They all report to a director or deputy director level position.

They're part of the department's management team.

They will lead the development and implementation of city goals, policies, and strategic planning.

All three positions require leadership, vision, team building, strategy, implementation, and progress evaluation, and all must establish policies, goals, and strategy that are consistent with the goals and priorities of the mayor, the council, and department directors.

So that is

Thank you, Ms. Stenerson.

Appreciate the information.

I am not seeing any questions from colleagues, so I will go ahead and move approval of items 2 through 4 on that motion to approve.

All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay.

Any abstentions?

The ayes have it and that motion carries.

With that we've concluded all business to come before the committee today and without objection we stand adjourned.

Thank you so much.