Budget Committee - October 16, 2024   10/16/2024

Roll Call

• • SPEAKER_02
  • 00:00:11
    St Paul, City Council, Budget Committee
• • 00:01:27
    St Paul, City Council, Budget Committee
  • 00:01:50
    City of St Paul, City Council
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 00:02:42
    St Paul, City Council, Budget Committee
• • 00:03:14
    City of St Paul, City Council
  • 00:04:27
    St Paul, City Council, Budget Committee
  • 00:04:51
    St Paul, City Council, Budget Committee
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 00:05:42
    St Paul, City Council,
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:05:59
    Good morning, everyone.
  • 00:06:01
    I am excited to call this next meeting of our Budget Committee to order.
  • 00:06:04
    This morning, we're going to hear from a couple of our internal service departments.
  • 00:06:09
    So first, we're going to hear from our Director of Human Resources, Toni Newborn, to talk through the human resources proposed budget.
  • 00:06:16
    She's going to be presenting virtually, so thank you to our staff who helped set that up.
  • 00:06:20
    And then we are also going to hear from the Office of Technology and Communications on their work to provide technology services throughout our city.
  • 00:06:29
    So with that, I will pass it over to Director Newborn, who I believe is online and ready to go.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:06:35
    I am ready to go.
  • 00:06:37
    I just want to do a technology check.
  • 00:06:39
    You all can see me and hear me?
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:06:41
    We can.
  • 00:06:42
    Yes, we can.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:06:43
    OK, awesome.
  • 00:06:44
    I'm going to share my screen, making sure that that's going to work as well.
  • 00:06:49
    And while I do that, just want to thank you all for allowing for me to present
  • 00:06:57
    virtually part of that reasoning is because I'm on maternity leave.
  • 00:07:01
    I just had baby Chu and she is today exactly a month old and she was born on September 16th and so she is doing well keeping me up late at night so probably like three hours worth of sleep that has happened and I am ready to go for this presentation so again thank you all for allowing for the
  • 00:07:26
    the opportunity to present this and virtually.
  • 00:07:31
    So as was mentioned before, Toni Newborn pronouns she or hers, the Director of Talent and Equity Resources slash Human Resources.
  • 00:07:40
    We are in the process of making some name changes to reflect the work that we're doing.
  • 00:07:47
    I know that you all have your copy of the presentation and have it possibly digitally as well.
  • 00:07:56
    We made sure to stay in alignment with the format and the structure that you all laid out for the presentation.
  • 00:08:03
    But I would like, in some shape or form, permission to skip through some slides and the reason for that is because I know that there's been some discussion around
  • 00:08:13
    Every year we have discussion around vacancy reports.
  • 00:08:16
    Every year we have discussion around one of our main data points, which is time to hire for human resources.
  • 00:08:26
    And so we have covered that in our presentation.
  • 00:08:30
    The first probably seven slides are just kind of giving you an overview of our mission, vision, values, what our strategic plan format and structure is, and then the number of FTEs that we have in our department.
  • 00:08:47
    And I would like to skip to slide seven, which starts with the labor market state of the city.
  • 00:08:54
    Does that work for you all?
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:08:58
    Yep.
  • 00:08:58
    And then as per usual, if there's questions along the way, I'll just pause you so I can make sure council members have a chance to do that.
  • 00:09:05
    Um, all right, we can keep it moving.
  • 00:09:07
    Thanks.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:09:08
    Great.
  • 00:09:09
    I also want to lift up, uh, in person is, uh, my two deputies, uh, Abigail Gadea and Jason Schmidt.
  • 00:09:15
    They are in the chambers as well.
  • 00:09:18
    And so in the event something happens to me on this virtual call, they will be able to, to answer questions and to take over as well.
  • 00:09:26
    So I want to start with the state, the labor market state of the city.
  • 00:09:30
    For the past probably two or three years, we've had a similar slide in this presentation, both to you all and to the mayor.
  • 00:09:39
    And it's important, we update it every year, so it's not the same slide.
  • 00:09:42
    And it's important to talk about where we're at when it comes to the labor market.
  • 00:09:45
    So we have two slides, one that says the state of the city, larger big C city, and then the state of our city as an enterprise.
  • 00:09:55
    A few things to note, and I won't cover everything that's on the slide, but as far as who's in the market for a job, employees are seeking opportunity to grow and be a part of a positive culture.
  • 00:10:09
    They want to grow in the work that they're doing or seek opportunities elsewhere to grow in the work.
  • 00:10:14
    The desires of the workforce to have flexible schedules is still prevalent.
  • 00:10:22
    Obviously, there are things that are changing as more companies are having a more in-person presence in the office and calling employees back down.
  • 00:10:32
    Unemployment still remains relatively low from a national standpoint at 2.7, but still higher for people of color.
  • 00:10:41
    It's an insufficient labor pool with necessary skills for some of our jobs.
  • 00:10:47
    We need to be more creative around how we hire, who we're looking for, how we attract them, how we reach out to them and communicate.
  • 00:10:55
    And then we need to make some structural changes and rule changes when it comes to our hiring process and jobs.
  • 00:11:01
    We need to pay people more for the jobs.
  • 00:11:04
    And we're seeing that with our comparators and our competitors within the public sector.
  • 00:11:11
    The public sector, we're competing with our partners.
  • 00:11:14
    It used to be everybody was kind of the same and we all had the same sort of salaries and job descriptions and that sort of thing.
  • 00:11:20
    We're seeing Ramsey County, Hennepin County, City of Minneapolis, State of Minnesota offer more amenities, changing their salaries and with the lifting of the governor's, that cap on the governor's salaries.
  • 00:11:34
    especially the suburbs, they are really ramping up when it comes to increasing salaries.
  • 00:11:40
    As we should, outside of inflation and all those type of things are up, we should be doing that, but obviously we have to have the money to do that.
  • 00:11:49
    And last, our candidates as well as employees have identified some barriers to the workforce as it relates to housing, training, and childcare.
  • 00:12:03
    I'll move to the next slide if there's no questions there and I'm sorry I didn't skip to slide number seven here.
  • 00:12:11
    I'm moving to slide number eight, going to the state of our city.
  • 00:12:16
    and again, won't cover everything in here, but want to highlight as far as our city workforce, including our permanent and temp employees, a little under 5,000 employees total, so 4,394.
  • 00:12:29
    A little over, close to 3,000 are permanent employees and for a little over 1,400 are temp employees.
  • 00:12:39
    residents.
  • 00:12:40
    As you all know that we're tracking the number, we'll continue to track the number and percentage of residents that are working in our enterprise and the mayor has an interest in increasing that that number and or percentage and doubling that.
  • 00:12:56
    So it's important to note as if we look at all of our employees including permanent and temporary, 52.9% are of our employees are residents of St. Paul,
  • 00:13:08
    85% of our temp workforce are residents.
  • 00:13:12
    So it's obvious that our temp workforce is a pool of candidates to reach out to and get into our permanent workforce.
  • 00:13:24
    Overall, a little under 31% of our permanent employees are residents.
  • 00:13:33
    So as I mentioned before, and I know that you all are interested in this as well,
  • 00:13:37
    the mayor would like for us to double that percentage.
  • 00:13:42
    And so we have put in some resources, requested resources from this body in the past to increase our efforts around recruitment and in particular recruitment of our residents.
  • 00:13:56
    Employee satisfaction in two years ago, we had an employee poll survey, and we haven't had an updated survey as of yet.
  • 00:14:03
    We hope to in the near future, but these stats remain the same.
  • 00:14:08
    We had a 56% overall satisfaction response.
  • 00:14:13
    Folks, our employees said similar to what the larger workforce is saying, higher pay, flexible schedules, and they love working in the public sector.
  • 00:14:24
    and the City Council.
  • 00:14:25
    Folks are looking for increasing amenities around parking, community, child care and other discounts for city employees.
  • 00:14:33
    From a development and retention standpoint, finding that traditional methods of finding talent are ineffective.
  • 00:14:40
    And they have been for a while for government.
  • 00:14:42
    We can't just go out and
  • 00:14:43
    and set up shop at a job fair and expect that we're going to get, you know, a bunch of folks applying for our jobs.
  • 00:14:49
    And oftentimes we don't have a ton of jobs that we're looking for unless we're talking about our Parks Department.
  • 00:14:55
    And so, hence why we asked for the resident workforce consultant position, which was granted in our budget for this year, and looking at those innovative and creative ways to reach out to our residents and larger community.
  • 00:15:14
    Turnover is high, relatively high for what we've seen in the past.
  • 00:15:19
    Highest with women and people of color.
  • 00:15:21
    And I don't just have to say that and brush over it.
  • 00:15:24
    It's something that we have to work on and ensuring that we're keeping our folks who want to stay here and we're not losing them to other jurisdictions.
  • 00:15:34
    We're not losing them due to antiquated policies or processes.
  • 00:15:39
    and I'll talk a little bit later about some of the ways that we are addressing that.
  • 00:15:45
    A systemic change, you're going to hear me talk a lot about systems change and as we think about time to hire, how long it takes us to get folks into the door and into our workforce in general.
  • 00:15:57
    It's one thing to ask for, you know, I could ask for
  • 00:16:01
    10 people to work in our consulting services division, which manages our hiring department.
  • 00:16:07
    But if we don't make the changes to the systems, the rules, the policies, the procedures, the antiquated practices that we have in our department and just kind of a part of our infrastructure, then those 10 people are going to keep doing the same thing and we're going to continue on this sort of status quo standpoint.
  • 00:16:27
    and so there's a strong desire for that system change not just within from me or my department but our employees want to see the system change.
  • 00:16:38
    They're tired of you know being of coming up or butting up against these these rules that don't benefit them.
  • 00:16:45
    We've been working on with our Deputy Director Jason Schmidt, a strategic plan for negotiations and compensations.
  • 00:16:54
    We have to have a strategy and build a strategy for negotiations in a way that we can anticipate some of these changes, the labor market changes, and we can address the issues that our union partners and our employees are facing as well.
  • 00:17:08
    I've talked about the antiquated systems and rules.
  • 00:17:10
    We're going to talk a little bit more about that as we proceed in this presentation.
  • 00:17:14
    and then I want to lift up one of the things that the mayor was really focused on and wanted us to address is to ensure that our jobs don't, we're not posing any barriers by having a lot of our jobs and job positions that require a college degree and that being a barrier.
  • 00:17:34
    So we do allow for work experience to substitute for that degree.
  • 00:17:40
    and it's in alignment with what the state has done and some of our other jurisdictions have done.
  • 00:17:44
    We've been doing this actually for a long time.
  • 00:17:46
    It just hasn't been framed in the same way that the state did but this is something that has been in place.
  • 00:17:51
    One of the things that we have to do in human resources to make sure people know about it and that they don't see, oh well you're still going to be looking at my degree.
• • Anika Bowie
  • 00:17:59
    No, we are looking at the work experience as well.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:18:04
    So moving to our next slide here, I talked about the key performance indicators.
  • 00:18:11
    This is something that we've been focusing on in talent and equity resources and that you asked for as well.
  • 00:18:17
    And so did the mayor.
  • 00:18:19
    If I had a highlighter here, I would say, you know, our main one is time to hire.
  • 00:18:23
    But we also look at degree requirements.
  • 00:18:24
    Of course, we've talked about turnover, the diversity, racial diversity, gender diversity, age diversity of our workforce, in addition to residents.
  • 00:18:33
    are from a processing standpoint, an operations standpoint, looking at onboarding and payroll processing timelines is important.
  • 00:18:42
    And our trainings, how we're growing our staff, workplace conduct investigations, you know, that ends up, we're tracking that number as well as the results of those.
  • 00:18:53
    And then of course, employee satisfaction.
  • 00:18:56
    but again, we're gonna spend a lot more time on the time to hire.
  • 00:18:59
    So time to hire here, oops, let me move back.
  • 00:19:06
    Time to hire here is, in most human resources department, it's one of the main KPIs, key performance indicators.
  • 00:19:13
    For us, I wanna spend, as I mentioned before, I wanna spend that time on why, when we say to you all, it's overly complicated, right?
  • 00:19:24
    It's complicated.
  • 00:19:25
    as it relates to our timeline.
  • 00:19:28
    And I know that we met with each one of you over the last quarter two and quarter three to talk about our efforts around amending our civil service rules.
  • 00:19:38
    And our civil service rules
  • 00:19:40
    is the outlines, is the main body, so to speak, or rules that dictate our hiring process.
  • 00:19:50
    So when we say, oh, we have to post this for 20 days, all of those things are outlined in the civil service rules.
  • 00:19:56
    There's some practices and procedures that go along with that, with those rules that we can change at any point in time, but the core sort of black and white letter of the law, so to speak,
  • 00:20:09
    when it comes to hiring is outlined in the civil service rules.
  • 00:20:13
    So a few metrics that I want to lift up.
  • 00:20:16
    is overall time to hire is it's taking us roughly you know this is we took this snapshot at the in mid-year so June or July of this year but it's roughly taking us 4.25 months to from from A to Z so from when we submit the requisition into our system so to speak until we make until the person starts it's taking us for 4.25 months
  • 00:20:45
    I'd like to get us down to two and a half months.
  • 00:20:48
    And again, we're going to talk about the strategy of how to do that.
  • 00:20:52
    And when I was, the first time I was in HR, we were able to do that.
  • 00:20:56
    Our time to hire at that point in time was an average of six months, which was crazy to think about, but we also had low, didn't have adequate staff and a lot of different system changes needed to take place in order for us to make those changes to reduce our timeline.
  • 00:21:14
    And we did.
  • 00:21:15
    The labor market has changed, COVID has had an impact on us now as of 2024, so it's going to look a little different as far as how we make those changes, but I'd like to get us to two and a half months average time to hire.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:21:32
    and we'll talk more I'll talk more about thank you director I didn't mean to cut you off just the virtual nature here because I see a couple council members in line so we'll go to councilwoman Jost and then I saw councilman Naker go ahead miss Jost okay perfect thank you council president
• • SPEAKER_00
  • 00:21:49
    I have two questions.
  • 00:21:54
    The first is, so from the time that the interview process starts for candidates and the time between that and their start dates, kind of the second half of this diagram, can you talk about
  • 00:22:11
    about what that average timeline is.
  • 00:22:14
    And then my second question, this is semi-related, does the city have any incentives for referrals for hiring?
  • 00:22:24
    So if there's a current city employee that knows a good candidate and refers them to apply to one of our positions, are there any incentives around that to try to help get more folks hired into our positions?
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:22:41
    Yes, Council President and Council Member, thank you so much for both of those questions.
  • 00:22:48
    So I'm looking at my notes here.
  • 00:22:50
    I don't have the timeline between interview and the actual hire.
  • 00:22:58
    Here's what I do want to note.
  • 00:22:59
    And some of the information I provide may be somewhat antiquated from when I was initially working in HR.
  • 00:23:06
    But there's two
  • 00:23:08
    There's a time passing process that happens.
  • 00:23:10
    There is when the time frame from when HR is responsible for the work.
  • 00:23:16
    So when we submit that when the requisition is submitted to when we meet with the departments to post a position and talk with them about, you know, the posting and we create what's called the eligible list.
  • 00:23:27
    And you all may be familiar with those terms.
  • 00:23:29
    And if you're not, please let me know.
  • 00:23:31
    That there's a time frame for that.
  • 00:23:34
    and then usually it's roughly most of our positions we're posting for 20 days it's a 20 day posting and then we have the time that it takes to meet with the departments and that's usually about a couple of weeks as well so we're looking at like a month of just like prep and then posting and then creating the eligible list may take another two weeks as well so possibly a month and a half or so for that that time frame maybe two months
  • 00:24:02
    from there the remaining time so if we're looking at and this is average time so this is not exact for every department but this is the 4.25 is average time once we create the eligible list and you know this is this is highlighted here on this slide we then pass the baton over to the departments the departments then take there and working with their HR liaison the departments then take that eligible list and determine who they want to interview and that is HR is not as
  • 00:24:31
    involved in that process as we were at the first half of it.
  • 00:24:34
    And so it really depends on the department.
  • 00:24:36
    An opportunity for us in working with our departments is to reduce that timeline of when they have, once the eligibility is sent over to them by doing some prep and working with them from a training standpoint.
  • 00:24:51
    to get it already set up, the process set up for them so that they're not, once the baton is passed over, they're not starting from scratch and like, oh, we got to set up interviews.
  • 00:25:00
    And all of those things could take very easily two months, a month to two months to do that with people's schedules and getting people, the candidate, the interviewers, all of those things happening.
  • 00:25:12
    So I would say roughly you just split it in half.
  • 00:25:15
    HR's responsibility for the work is about two months, maybe a little bit over that.
  • 00:25:20
    and then the department's responsibility once the eligible list is created.
  • 00:25:24
    It's roughly like a month and a half or so.
  • 00:25:27
    On both ends with two different, slightly two different strategies, we need to reduce that timeline so that we're not spending a lot of time waiting and having the candidates wait on us to
  • 00:25:41
    to reach out to them because we potentially and have lost some candidates because of that timeline.
  • 00:25:49
    Did that answer your first question?
• • SPEAKER_00
  • 00:25:50
    Yes.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:25:52
    Okay.
  • 00:25:52
    And then the second question around do we offer incentives?
  • 00:25:56
    We have not done that yet.
  • 00:25:58
    And one of the reasons why we've hired Heidi Lee, who is our resident workforce consultant, is to build a strategic plan and a process on how we can make those, offer those type of incentives.
  • 00:26:11
    We've seen other jurisdictions do it.
  • 00:26:14
    And what their success has been, I don't know.
  • 00:26:18
    And so, you know, Heidi is
  • 00:26:21
    is in the process and will be in the process of working with them on, you know, what results have you seen?
  • 00:26:26
    Have you seen a change in people's interest in working the job with or an employee staying and being involved in those type of incentives once they're offered?
  • 00:26:34
    So we want to dig into that and don't want to just offer an incentive just because it sounds good.
  • 00:26:39
    We want to see what the potential impact will be.
  • 00:26:41
    But those are some of the innovative
  • 00:26:43
    recommendations or processes that we want to employ and implement so that we can engage both the current employees with the process and potentially once we hire in whoever they refer, then they can be a part of the process as well in helping us to recruit.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:27:07
    Did that answer your question, Council Member?
• • SPEAKER_00
  • 00:27:09
    Yes, thank you.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:27:10
    Thank you Director.
  • 00:27:12
    I believe Ms. Naker is next.
  • 00:27:14
    Go ahead Councilwoman Naker.
• • Rebecca Noecker
  • 00:27:15
    Thanks so much Council President and thanks Director Newborn and congratulations.
  • 00:27:19
    Really, really exciting.
  • 00:27:20
    I wanted to go back I think to Councilmember Joe's question.
  • 00:27:23
    I just want to make sure I understand.
  • 00:27:25
    So the time to hire that we're seeing in front of us, the 4.25 months in 2024, that's from what part of the process to what part of the process?
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:27:34
    So it captures the entire process.
  • 00:27:36
    So when a requisition is submitted, so and this is getting to kind of like inside baseball, when a department wants to hire and fill a position, they have to submit a requisition into our system.
  • 00:27:51
    So that's when the time starts ticking with the time to hire.
  • 00:27:56
    So this 4.25 captures the when the requisition is submitted to when, I believe, to when the person is, when the offer letter is offered, to use a backward letter, better word, to the candidate.
• • Rebecca Noecker
  • 00:28:14
    And I am looking forward to hearing, Director, how you're planning on addressing some of the issues that you're describing.
  • 00:28:20
    I know we added significant staffing to the department in this past year to address just these issues.
  • 00:28:25
    So I know you'll be talking about that, and I look forward to hearing it.
  • 00:28:27
    I just want to come back to the employee satisfaction rate of 56%, which is really alarming, and I'm curious.
  • 00:28:37
    did we disaggregate between frontline staff and not frontline staff?
  • 00:28:41
    I know a lot of us have been hearing from frontline staff in particular some serious concerns.
  • 00:28:46
    Is that a good number?
  • 00:28:50
    Is that comparable with other public sector jobs?
  • 00:28:52
    It seems to me, looking at that, that that is a real cause for concern, and I'm curious how you're seeing it.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:28:59
    Yes, you don't see a frowny face on my face because we actually exceeded the average for these type of surveys.
  • 00:29:08
    So usually a response rate on average is 42%.
• • Rebecca Noecker
  • 00:29:13
    Sorry, not response rate, but satisfaction rate.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:29:17
    Oh, I'm sorry.
  • 00:29:18
    Oh, sure.
  • 00:29:21
    Let me get back to that one because I think I'm confusing both of those two.
  • 00:29:26
    The satisfaction rate wasn't too, if I remember correctly, the satisfaction rate wasn't, it was more than the average deal.
  • 00:29:37
    but we had, this was the first time that the city did this.
  • 00:29:41
    So in talking to the two long-term standing employees in my shop and then talking to some other employees, this was the first time the city had actually did a poll survey.
  • 00:29:52
    And we also did it at the end of, kind of in the midst of COVID.
  • 00:29:58
    So there was some folks were suspicious about like how this was gonna be used, how this is gonna work and I think
  • 00:30:06
    The opportunity that I'm looking forward to in offering a second employee poll survey is to increase that satisfaction rate, get more people involved.
  • 00:30:16
    So if you go, if you look through the numbers, and I'm going to get to your question about did we disaggregate, the larger departments, so if we look at police and fire, white percentage number,
  • 00:30:28
    of the city of St. Paul.
  • 00:30:47
    It's not just a survey so that we can just gather data.
  • 00:30:50
    We need to implement some of the changes that they have requested and that they've lifted up in that survey.
  • 00:30:57
    And we've done some of that, but I think there's an opportunity for us to improve that so that we can increase the trust from employees about participating in the survey and just with the city as a whole.
  • 00:31:09
    So yes, it's not like we shouldn't go around dancing around about that number.
  • 00:31:15
    but we can't let the first this is the first time that the city has done something like this and you know arguably so decades we need to have a second and third survey to build upon so that we know and again build trust with the employees but also start to see some of those changes take place and then your council member Naker in your question about did we disaggregate between frontline staff and
  • 00:31:44
    and non frontline staff.
  • 00:31:45
    No, we did not.
  • 00:31:46
    One of the things that
  • 00:31:48
    The consultant that we worked with was very careful about was making sure that we didn't delve down too deep into the data because then we could start to identify folks, meaning individuals or folks would start looking into the data and trying to see, well, who said this and who did, who said that?
  • 00:32:05
    So we were careful about that.
  • 00:32:06
    So we did some disaggregation of data, diversity data, age in the workforce, that sort of thing, but we didn't necessarily divide out frontline staff and non-frontline staff.
• • Rebecca Noecker
  • 00:32:19
    just as a quick follow-up Council President I just I really hope I totally understand you director and I think it's important that we definitely establish a baseline and go forward I I guess I think if I'm reading this right 56% satisfaction seems even as a baseline seems low and concerning but I hear you that we need to make changes based on this and then have people see the results of that and then do this again but I do think
  • 00:32:40
    the experience that at least I'm hearing about and I think others at this table from frontline workers differ so drastically from other workers in the city just in terms of what they're seeing at libraries and rec centers and the requirement that they be physically at work every day which is not required of everybody in the city right now I think there's real tension and discontent building around that that I'm hearing and so I do think it's important obviously not to disaggregate to the point that we know who said what
  • 00:33:09
    But that data point of frontline versus not does seem important for future surveys.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:33:16
    Council President Jalali and Council Member Naker, absolutely.
  • 00:33:20
    The experience of our frontline staff is different from those who I heard that were called the suits.
  • 00:33:26
    and the folks who are working at a desk.
  • 00:33:29
    Absolutely, the experience is different.
  • 00:33:31
    It'll be interesting how there's the perception around the remote workers, people who can work remotely and not, and then there's reality around the
  • 00:33:42
    the experiences that both sets of employees are having.
  • 00:33:46
    And with the changes that the mayor has made around having a office first posture where folks who haven't regularly been in the office during the last four years are now being asked to come back into the office.
  • 00:34:00
    It would be interesting to see how that changes that perception and the reality.
  • 00:34:05
    But just overall, the experiences are different.
  • 00:34:08
    Safety comes up quite a bit with our frontline staff.
  • 00:34:12
    and we need to work to address those issues.
  • 00:34:17
    And I don't need a survey necessarily to tell me that.
  • 00:34:20
    I already know it because we're seeing that in our union negotiations, we're seeing that in some of the incidences that are happening and that our employees are telling us.
  • 00:34:28
    and the City Council.
  • 00:34:29
    So I think that's something that we can definitely work with the consultant on when we do the survey.
  • 00:34:34
    Again, I'm hoping we're not going to be able to do it in 2025, which was initially planned, but I hope that we'll be able to do it in 2026 and be able to build upon that.
  • 00:34:43
    But in the meantime, we work to address those issues that our employees are bringing up and those experiences.
  • 00:34:51
    And I do believe that
  • 00:34:53
    hiring and promotion.
  • 00:34:54
    When I talk about those systemic changes that need to take place, I think our frontline staff are going to feel that and not think I know that they will.
  • 00:35:03
    And that's one of the reasons why it's so important for us to make those changes because the majority of our workforce are frontline staff, people who have to be
  • 00:35:12
    in person in some shape or form, not necessarily tied to what it does, who are working with our community, who are maybe experiencing some of the both highs and lows of working in community.
  • 00:35:24
    And so we want to make sure that these institutional systemic changes will impact in a positive way our frontline staff.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:35:35
    Thank you, Director.
  • 00:35:37
    Just a time check for everyone.
  • 00:35:38
    This is a very worthy conversation, so this is not in response to that.
  • 00:35:41
    I just think that it can become easy to get immersed in these very relevant topics.
  • 00:35:46
    So we're about 30 minutes in, and we are working through the rest of this presentation and also to make sure OTC can present.
  • 00:35:52
    So I'll go to Ms. Kim and then Ms. Johnson, and then I think we should keep moving from here knowing there's much to unpack in this topic alone.
  • 00:36:01
    I'm actually holding back my own questions and thoughts so we can also do our budget.
  • 00:36:05
    Go ahead, Ms. Kim, and then Ms. Johnson, you're up next.
  • 00:36:06
    Thanks, Ms. Kim.
  • 00:36:07
    Go ahead.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 00:36:07
    Thank you.
  • 00:36:08
    So if the majority of our workforce is frontline, I'd be interested then in learning what percent of our frontline staff are BIPOC and are women, because the satisfaction of
  • 00:36:20
    of the City Council.
  • 00:36:40
    and the City Council.
  • 00:36:42
    There are clear connective points that get at who is satisfied with their working conditions here at the city.
  • 00:36:51
    So that's sort of one that doesn't need to be answered now, but I would be very interested what percent, if it's true that the majority of our workforce is front line, what percent of our front line staff are BIPOC and women?
  • 00:37:02
    Because then you can fill in the blanks otherwise.
  • 00:37:10
    If this is the first time we've done it, how have we measured this in the past?
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:37:18
    Council Vice President Kim, I will say formally, we haven't.
  • 00:37:26
    It's mostly been anecdotal.
  • 00:37:29
    It mostly has been what has come out of the labor negotiations.
  • 00:37:35
    and so it's been word of mouth.
  • 00:37:37
    It's been, you know, Deputy Director Jason Schmidt and his team learning from both the union side and the employee, you know, union member side what's going on across the board in our workforce.
  • 00:37:54
    Some of our departments have labor management committees so those
  • 00:38:02
    issues have come out and then also I could see you know not again all of this sort of informally and informal data that we can put together to to say you know employee satisfaction but our workplace conduct investigations also blend towards like what's going on what are some of the issues that are popping up
  • 00:38:20
    and across the board in our department and how are we addressing those.
  • 00:38:24
    So in answer to your question, Council Vice President, there's been no formal, to my knowledge, and again, I have about 20, maybe closer to 40 years worth of information from my own employees, but there's been no formal employee satisfaction survey prior to the one that was done last year.
  • 00:38:43
    It's mostly been anecdotal word of mouth coming out of labor negotiations and possible workplace conduct investigations.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:38:51
    Thank you Director and just on that point too, I am just wanting to echo that I think that we should continue as we keep doing this and starting what I think is a best practice going forward among more things we should do to tackle the question of what level of data can we get without compromising anonymity so we can really look at this from a racial equity lens and be clear on systemically how we're supporting all our workers.
  • 00:39:14
    So appreciate the conversation surfacing and I'll go to Ms. Johnson now who's in line.
• • Cheniqua Johnson
  • 00:39:22
    Thank you, Council President, and thank you, Tony, for joining us on your leave.
  • 00:39:27
    And just congratulations, super excited for you.
  • 00:39:31
    I'm kind of coming into this from a question of we've had a lot of discussion around just what
  • 00:39:38
    is not available, but I am curious if we don't really have identifiers embedded into how we currently track life satisfaction across the city, then are we able to at least then hear about
  • 00:39:54
    it are we able to see it by like departments are you able to like other pieces that you can pull form like if we do have areas where departments differ in that percentage and as well as like on the flip side turnover as well I'm just kind of curious if we are seeing differences by department in those percentages overall
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:40:18
    Yes, of course.
  • 00:40:19
    Thank you for the question.
  • 00:40:20
    Council President Jalali and Council Member Johnson, yes, we do have the data broken down by department.
  • 00:40:28
    and that is data points that we can provide to you.
  • 00:40:33
    Beyond that, and we also have the diversity, racial diversity, gender diversity data and the age and the workforce data by department as well.
  • 00:40:42
    And then beyond that, things get a little tricky and we actually don't have the data the consultant has, may have that information, but we can provide the department by department data point.
• • Cheniqua Johnson
  • 00:40:53
    okay that would be really great just to kind of see from a glimpse of getting a sense of what the state of our city is if it does differ and when it comes to you know just I for me I'm just more so just curious and also you know wanting to see just kind of how we're doing by departments because we know that those jobs are so can vary greatly and I think that gets to my other like my like follow-up which is like who are our city comparables like who are the
  • 00:41:18
    like who do we kind of look to in regards to how we're paying and like if we do a market study of like a position and when it comes to salaries and when it comes to those spaces or how we're tracking where folks go after they're leaving like how who are our kind of city comparisons
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:41:39
    Great.
  • 00:41:40
    Council President Jilali, Council Member Johnson, our comparators are other public sectors and jurisdictions.
  • 00:41:47
    That means the other city, Minneapolis, Ramsey County, Hennepin County, and then we get into our suburbs too, so City of Golden Valley, City of Roseville, those folks.
  • 00:42:00
    Those are our comparators and I just want to lift that up because oftentimes
  • 00:42:04
    folks, and especially at a staff level, folks will come to us and say, Target's paying this much for this similar title.
  • 00:42:11
    Target is private sector.
  • 00:42:13
    They have a complete, you know, some of the aspects of their workforce has unions, some don't.
  • 00:42:18
    Like there's a whole bunch of things that make, and they're profit generating.
  • 00:42:22
    So there's that, which is a different piece from the public sector.
  • 00:42:27
    So we don't, we're not going to do a market study with Target.
  • 00:42:30
    or McDonald's or Travelers.
  • 00:42:34
    But our market study will be with other jurisdictions.
  • 00:42:38
    Usually we go directly to the City of Minneapolis because they also have civil service rules.
  • 00:42:43
    They have almost as many unions as we do.
  • 00:42:46
    That's our direct comparator.
  • 00:42:48
    And then beyond that, we get into Ramsey County and of course the state and Hennepin County.
• • Cheniqua Johnson
  • 00:42:55
    Okay, thank you.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:42:58
    Great, so I'm going to move to, so here's, this is a good, I'm still on this slide about the time to hire, this is a good overview of our process and how things can get complicated, how things are simple, can be simplified, and the opportunities for innovation in that space.
  • 00:43:15
    I do want to move to the next slide here, which is
  • 00:43:20
    We were asked to talk about challenges and opportunities, and just from a time standpoint, I won't go through all of them, but if you all have questions, feel free to jump in.
  • 00:43:29
    Challenges are changing labor market conditions and we are tracking those as best as we can but it's varied and coming from a public sector standpoint and what our confines are with our labor and negotiations and contracts and all those sorts of things.
  • 00:43:48
    There are things that we can do and be innovative in and then there's things that can be kind of challenging.
  • 00:43:55
    or department hiring needs.
  • 00:43:56
    And you, well, some of you may have heard me say this before.
  • 00:43:59
    Each one of our departments could be its own business, could set up, have its own shingle, right?
  • 00:44:04
    And that can be difficult when you're having a, you know, as far as the team, my team that handles our hiring process, it's about 13 people who handle the hiring for all of the city, all 3000 employees, all 15, 16 departments.
  • 00:44:19
    and so our hiring needs can vary.
  • 00:44:21
    So, you know, getting into the kind of staffing support, you know, do we have enough staff to address all of the varying hiring needs?
  • 00:44:30
    The answer to that is no, but also, as I mentioned before, the systems piece is also factors into those, the challenges as well.
  • 00:44:42
    And so our onboarding timelines, it's taken us too long, it's too long.
  • 00:44:46
    to get folks in and people get frustrated by that.
  • 00:44:49
    I get frustrated by it.
  • 00:44:50
    We have to put some process improvement in place to be able to do that and when I think about from a staffing resources standpoint there's two divisions that well from from my standpoint I always will ask for additional staffing resources.
  • 00:45:04
    It's our hiring team and our payroll team.
  • 00:45:06
    Both of them deal with hiring to some shape or form and and they are involved with our onboarding of of staff.
  • 00:45:14
    and so but we also have to work my staff and I need to continue to work on process improvement so that we're not I'm just asking for more staff to continue to do the status quo and continue to upload a system that doesn't work for us.
  • 00:45:27
    But we're alleviating and eliminating some of the issues or challenges with the with by changing our processes so that makes it better for our overall timelines.
  • 00:45:40
    implementation and operation of paid parental leave and earn sick and save time you know as those continue to change those are great things of course so not talking about it from a negative standpoint it's great and when we think about racial equity this is this is amazing work and gender equity this is amazing efforts the implementation of that when we factor in the work that has to be done in partnership with our unions and just kind of like the operations of it
  • 00:46:07
    We're challenged by that.
  • 00:46:08
    Not impossible, but it's a challenge.
  • 00:46:12
    moving to our opportunities partnership among divisions to apply for grants with the new grants division and OFS is amazing.
  • 00:46:22
    I think the work that we're doing you all have heard me say HR work is equity work.
  • 00:46:26
    I think as we continue to frame that up and make this work not just like a fitting into one box around human resources the human resources industry we can start applying for some of those grants that will help us with those systemic and institutional changes.
  • 00:46:42
    There's opportunities for continued community engagement and our resident workforce consultant is and our staff member is helping and initiating that work.
  • 00:46:55
    Leveraging technology.
  • 00:46:56
    We have Open Sesame now.
  • 00:46:57
    I don't know if you all have used that platform as of yet that has been led and been sort of implemented by our Deputy Director Abigail Gadea, who leads our training and learning and development efforts for the city.
  • 00:47:13
    We just have a ton of opportunity to continue leveraging our technology to grow our employees.
  • 00:47:19
    I've talked a lot about revamping traditional hiring processes.
  • 00:47:22
    Just a level setting.
  • 00:47:23
    You all have heard me say this in our individual meetings.
  • 00:47:26
    The civil service rules were created in 1914.
  • 00:47:30
    We actually have the book that has the leather bound book that has the rules from 1914.
  • 00:47:36
    And I would argue that none of us in this space here, both me virtually and you in the space here, would have probably been allowed to work in the city in 1914 or been offered a job in 1914.
  • 00:47:49
    and so there's just I say that and it's dramatic but I say that because of the need for us to make those changes and we have we are in the process of doing that and have talked with you all individually about what that process is going to look like for us to make those changes hopefully by the end of next year.
  • 00:48:05
    Enhancing our benefits our employees said that in an employee poll survey
  • 00:48:11
    and that they want to have more amenities and other jurisdictions are offering that.
  • 00:48:17
    So when we talk about parking, when we talk about discounts, when we talk about child care and gym membership, all of those things, it's an opportunity to both attract and retain talent.
  • 00:48:28
    And we are actively exploring opportunities to do that.
  • 00:48:32
    Over this next year, I'm excited about the opportunities and also the plans that we're going to put in place for that.
  • 00:48:39
    and then collaborating with departments on creating career pathways.
  • 00:48:43
    Because we can operate as individual businesses, sometimes we get into our silos to where oh this public works has a great pathway program or fire does or police does, but it's not centralized in a way and with that resident workforce recruiter position that we have filled for this year,
  • 00:49:00
    We're going to collaborate in a way that we haven't done before and expand our recruitment efforts as well as career pathways so that folks when they think about like, hey, I want to work for the city.
  • 00:49:11
    What's the pathway there?
  • 00:49:13
    It's on our website.
  • 00:49:14
    We've talked about it.
  • 00:49:15
    We've got a brochure about it or it's on social media in some shape or form.
  • 00:49:19
    But also I want to add that we want to establish career pathways for our own employees.
  • 00:49:23
    you can go the fact that you can go and work in you started out in fire and you now want to work in human resources or in OFS we need to make sure that folks know that there's a pathway for that and so it'll be both internal career pathways for our own employees as well as external bringing in folks our residents into our workforce and enterprise as well.
  • 00:49:49
    updates on recent initiatives.
  • 00:49:51
    So this is what I call our return on investment.
  • 00:49:54
    Yes, we human resources, talent and equity resources received a huge investment last year.
  • 00:49:59
    So excited about it.
  • 00:50:01
    I want to point out that we that's the first time in like 20 years that the HR department has received that that type of investment.
  • 00:50:09
    And in fact, over the last 20 plus years we have been cut
  • 00:50:13
    and so while very excited, I want to see that continued effort and energy to invest in our Human Resources Department as an internal service provider and I want to see that happen across the board for all of our internal service departments, OTC, Procurement and HERO, OFS and our City Attorney's Office.
  • 00:50:36
    that continued investment, financial investment is going to help us level set from what has been taking place and decisions that have been made over the last 20 plus years, but also help us to address some of the changes that are taking place in the labor market now.
  • 00:50:51
    And so what we've done around the, we asked for seven positions
  • 00:50:57
    and we were granted those seven positions last, I keep saying last year, but we made the request last year and have implemented it for this year.
  • 00:51:05
    And what we've done for that, we've had 900, you know, close to 1000 employees who were trained last year.
  • 00:51:10
    More courses have been offered, 20% increase from 2022.
  • 00:51:15
    Open Sesame, which I've talked about, is growing.
  • 00:51:17
    More employees are using those resources.
  • 00:51:22
    Payroll, we asked for a new payroll specialist, which is important.
  • 00:51:27
    We have had a lot of challenges with processing and payroll.
  • 00:51:33
    and just the changes with the labor contracts that have taken place over the last couple of years.
  • 00:51:38
    And so we've needed additional investments and there's lots of opportunity for our payroll department to work with Bright Track and work with parks and making sure that their onboarding process is smooth.
  • 00:51:51
    Elaborating with OTC to pilot and improve onboarding process is currently taking place.
  • 00:51:57
    We have a payroll tech working in partnership with our HR liaisons to help clear up some of those process issues that take place when bringing in new employees.
  • 00:52:07
    We have our equity dashboard that was launched this year.
  • 00:52:13
    We continue with undoing racism training where we had an increased number of employees go through that training.
  • 00:52:19
    Our resident recruitment, we call it our resident workforce recruiter,
  • 00:52:25
    We've launched resident engagement and community engagement events.
  • 00:52:32
    We continue to build partnerships with organizations in St Paul and neighboring communities.
  • 00:52:39
    And so we're taking that information to help improve our hiring process and we're getting that information from our residents, which has been really important.
  • 00:52:51
    The hiring that has said, I know there's been question around, you know, from a vacancy standpoint, you know, have we utilized the positions?
  • 00:52:57
    Have we hired into the position?
  • 00:52:59
    The answer is largely yes.
  • 00:53:00
    There's only one position that we have not filled as of yet that we received in our 2024 budget.
  • 00:53:08
    Most of the positions were hired in the second quarter of this year.
  • 00:53:13
    and the last position which is our human resources administration position.
  • 00:53:22
    That position hasn't been hired because we had, there were some questions around or some challenges that we had around making sure that we had the right role and job title for that and so there were some changes that we made internally to
  • 00:53:37
    that job title and that position.
  • 00:53:40
    And we look forward to hiring, filling that role definitely before the end of the year, but probably within the next month or so.
  • 00:53:49
    I think I'm still good on time, but the remaining slides are just capturing what has been asked of us, like looking at the historic budget to actual and over the last two to three years and some changes that have taken place there with 2023 or 2024 obviously being a big, will show a big change in our budget with the additional investments.
  • 00:54:14
    This slide is just showing composite budget summary here, an average.
  • 00:54:20
    We don't have special funds or that sort of thing in HR.
  • 00:54:24
    Most of our budget is staff to be able to continue to do the work that we're doing.
  • 00:54:32
    Some activities, as I mentioned before, 80% of our budget is salaries.
  • 00:54:37
    The remaining 20% goes to trainings, recruitment events, civil service rule, and mineral qualification revisions.
  • 00:54:44
    And we've hired consultants to help with that, but also we've, you know, have hired additional staff.
  • 00:54:51
    to help with that work as well.
  • 00:54:54
    Market study, this is something that we've talked to you all individually about.
  • 00:54:58
    This is really important as we continue to develop our efforts to both attract and retain employees.
  • 00:55:05
    We have to study our positions so that we can raise salaries.
  • 00:55:08
    and I know that there's a simple statement and I know that that takes money and lots of different steps that are going to help us get to that place, but the study has to take place so that we know where to go and that we can communicate that to our employees and let them know like, hey, we know that we may not be competitive in this position or this industry and we're making
  • 00:55:31
    and we're starting with a market study.
  • 00:55:35
    And with the hope within the next couple of years, we'll be able to implement that study and implement, not only implement the study, but implement the changes to the salaries.
  • 00:55:45
    And this market study is going to, I believe, and hopefully, and I believe that Jason Schmidt and Ryan Gruber who are helping to lead that effort and my team, once we implement this market study, as far as like frontline staff, they're gonna feel that change.
  • 00:56:01
    of the City Council.
  • 00:56:05
    We are anticipating seeing a significant change in salaries for our frontline staff that I think will go a long way in building trust as well as retaining our employees.
  • 00:56:19
    And as you all mentioned earlier in our discussion, a large part of our frontline staff and
  • 00:56:24
    and temporary workforce, which is also could be labeled as frontline staff, are people of color and women.
  • 00:56:31
    And so this market study, and not to say it's gonna solve all world problems, but it's gonna put us on the track to build trust, to address some of the disparities and to address some of the changes with turnover and just transition that's taking place with our women and people of color.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:56:50
    Thank you, Director.
  • 00:56:51
    I saw a question from Ms. Naker.
  • 00:56:53
    Go ahead, Councilwoman.
• • Rebecca Noecker
  • 00:56:54
    Thanks so much, Council President.
  • 00:56:55
    And Director, it's really great to hear that almost all of the positions have been hired, and I'm sure that you're seeing the effects of having that extra capacity, which is really great.
  • 00:57:05
    Two questions, one related to the market study that you just mentioned.
  • 00:57:08
    It sounds like what you're saying, if I'm understanding correctly,
  • 00:57:12
    one of the first steps to addressing some of the concerns we heard from employees and especially frontline staff is to do that market study to understand how our salaries and benefits and other working conditions compare to our peers in the public sector and to assumedly raise wages and benefits accordingly based on what we find.
  • 00:57:29
    That makes sense to me.
  • 00:57:30
    I guess I'm just wondering, you said we're not budgeting to do that market study next year.
  • 00:57:34
    You didn't give a timeline for when that would happen.
  • 00:57:36
    I'm curious why we wouldn't be moving quickly to do that market study because that seems like just the first step in
  • 00:57:43
    making the significant improvements that we want to make.
  • 00:57:46
    That's one question.
  • 00:57:47
    And then my unrelated question, but while I have you here, you had mentioned the office first posture that the mayor described in his budget address, which I was really glad to hear about as well, because as you know, downtown is really struggling with not having folks returning to work, and we can be a huge part of the solution.
  • 00:58:03
    Can you describe a little bit more about what the office first posture entails, what the rules and guidelines are from HR in terms of departments returning to work?
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 00:58:12
    Yes, absolutely.
  • 00:58:14
    I had to write down both of your questions so I didn't forget them.
  • 00:58:17
    Council President Jalali and Council Member Naker, as far as the market study, if I misspoke by saying that we are not moving forward with the market study, I apologize for that.
  • 00:58:27
    We are moving forward with the market study.
  • 00:58:29
    We asked, we carved out funds for out of our budget for this year and also are working with
  • 00:58:36
    and the Council's office on this study.
  • 00:58:42
    So we have moved forward with that work.
  • 00:58:44
    We carved out, because we can't, we have too many positions, we have
  • 00:58:49
    over 600 or close to 1000 titles of the city so we can't do a full-fledged market study with all of our positions because it would be impossible doing it all at once and it also is very expensive and just to note Ramsey County did something similar with theirs spent over half a million dollars just studying the positions but haven't
  • 00:59:09
    and are currently working on implementation.
  • 00:59:12
    And so it's a huge task.
  • 00:59:14
    And so what we did is we took 100 or so positions that we're going to study first.
  • 00:59:18
    We asked each of our departments to lift up a certain number of positions from there that's housed in their department to study.
  • 00:59:28
    And that's what we've sent over to the consultant to study.
  • 00:59:30
    So we've already selected the consultant to work on the market study and the study is currently happening now.
  • 00:59:39
    So we have moved forward for that.
  • 00:59:41
    As far as next year, what I believe is that part of the money that we carved out for this year will be used for this year and the remaining funds will be carried over into next year.
  • 00:59:53
    Again, it's not a lot of money, but at least we can keep the momentum going with studying the positions.
  • 00:59:59
    City Council.
  • 01:00:16
    While I'm still here in this position, this will always be an ask in our budget, is the monies and funds towards the market study because it's definitely important.
  • 01:00:25
    So I just wanted to clarify that.
  • 01:00:26
    And if I said that we weren't moving forward with the market study, I apologize for that because we are.
  • 01:00:30
    At least for this year and for next year, we have funds covered for that.
  • 01:00:35
    So for 2026, we'll be making another ask for that.
  • 01:00:40
    And then as far as the office first posture, the mayor asked for Human Resources to put together a strategy and plan to have to bring folks back into the office on a more regular basis and having a more, you know, in person and office presence.
  • 01:01:02
    And so that's why we're not calling a return to the office because people have already returned
  • 01:01:06
    in some shape or form, but having a more office first presence is what the mayor was interested in for the same reasons that you mentioned, Council Member Naker, is making sure that our downtown remains vibrant and active.
  • 01:01:23
    The office first posture entails, and at a very high level, we rolled out initially that folks would start coming in, if you're not already, come into the office on a weekly basis, one day a week.
  • 01:01:38
    Now again, a lot of departments are already doing this, but it's more so about all employees are going to be into the office, let's say, for talent and equity resources, HR,
  • 01:01:48
    Our day is Wednesday.
  • 01:01:50
    Everyone's coming in on Wednesday.
  • 01:01:51
    We'll have an office and we do a series of trainings and meetings and all these things.
  • 01:01:56
    In addition to that, there's already a schedule set up for staff to come in on the other days of the week.
  • 01:02:03
    Moving into the second, first or second quarter of 2025, staff will be required to come in, unless they have some arrangement with their director or their supervisor, staff will be required to come in three days a week.
  • 01:02:19
    So they get to pick those days and two days there will be allowed to work remotely.
• • Rebecca Noecker
  • 01:02:27
    Thanks Director, so just as a quick follow up, so starting January 1st, all employees in the city will be required to be at work in the office three days a week.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 01:02:36
    first quarter of the year, not necessarily January 1st.
  • 01:02:39
    So first quarter of the year.
  • 01:02:41
    So I think we said by the end of March, which is the end of the first quarter, that this will be put in place.
  • 01:02:48
    So we didn't set a timeline for January 1st for rolling in three days, starting the three days, two days out, but the first quarter of the year.
• • Rebecca Noecker
  • 01:02:58
    OK, thanks, Director.
  • 01:02:58
    And I would just say as much as we can push that sense of urgency, I really
  • 01:03:04
    I think it matters a lot and as you know it's just we are a huge part of the answer here so I appreciate the fact that we're moving towards that I hope we can do it even more quickly and then just one final note on the market study thanks for correcting me I'm glad that we are doing that now I guess maybe my question was just since I didn't really see much of an increase in the budget or budget ask if there is I think would be helpful for us to know what more investment would be needed to advance that market study more quickly so that we can get through more of the positions more quickly
  • 01:03:33
    I imagine these probably get out of date fairly quickly as well.
  • 01:03:38
    And so it would be good to be able to do a significant chunk of our positions, have those analyzed, and be able to make changes before those are already out of date.
  • 01:03:46
    So if you can let us know what the cost is.
  • 01:03:49
    $500,000 is a lot of money, but it's also the amount of money we're talking about studying a little more than studying snow plowing.
  • 01:03:56
    And this is talking about every single employee in the city of St. Paul and their working conditions.
  • 01:04:00
    So it does seem like a worthwhile investment to me.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 01:04:03
    Council President Jilani, Council Member Naker, yes, definitely a worthwhile investment.
  • 01:04:09
    I would like to take the opportunity to get back to you on the amount.
  • 01:04:14
    I think that we are moving relatively quickly for this first phase, but more money would be nice to have towards that.
  • 01:04:24
    But we also need to make sure that we have, it's the implementation piece, and I want to make sure
  • 01:04:29
    that we are doing both, that we're carving out time and staffing resources or whatever big R resources for both, not just to study.
  • 01:04:39
    Because we all have experienced shelving work, right?
  • 01:04:42
    We study something that's like, oh, that was nice, and it goes on a shelf.
  • 01:04:45
    I need the implementation money too.
  • 01:04:47
    And that may look like, and I don't know if John, I see Madeline there, I don't see John.
  • 01:04:51
    You look furious.
  • 01:04:57
    Just kidding.
  • 01:05:06
    Sorry, John.
  • 01:05:08
    He's heard me say this before.
  • 01:05:10
    But we also need, you know, we have to make some decisions about the money.
  • 01:05:15
    And it's going to be challenging.
  • 01:05:17
    I know that we're faced with a lot of different things and it affects our residents, right?
  • 01:05:21
    When we talk about property taxes and levies and that sort of thing.
  • 01:05:24
    But
  • 01:05:25
    We're going to need the money to be able to do that.
  • 01:05:28
    And so that's, when we respond back to you Council Member Nanker about like what that financial investment will look like, I want to make sure that we factor that in too.
  • 01:05:38
    It's not just like the decision, it's not just a study or the decision to do the study and you know the money to do the study, it's the implementation of that and that implementation means raising salaries and having the funds to be able to do that.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 01:05:53
    Thanks.
  • 01:05:54
    Director, I know we're kind of coming to the close of your presentation, just for my own understanding.
  • 01:05:58
    So for your 2025 proposed budget, just at a high level, and again, I'm asking just to make sure we're understanding this correctly.
  • 01:06:04
    Are you asking for any new funds for new initiatives, or is it more that you're letting us know how we put these recent funds in action?
  • 01:06:11
    Here's some work underway to enhance that work, and then we'll keep having this conversation in a future budget cycle.
  • 01:06:17
    What's the summary of your proposed changes?
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 01:06:20
    Yes, we are not making an ask for additional funds for this year that wasn't approved for this year.
  • 01:06:28
    And so we will continue implementing the funds that we received for 2024 and continue with the resources that we currently have.
  • 01:06:41
    I will lift up, and the mayor told me to say this as well,
  • 01:06:45
    for you know for 2026 we're going to continue to make these asks and we think that these investments are going to help us recover from what you know kind of the disinvestment and the investment of what has taken place over the last 20 plus years but also help us to address the issues that we're that are at base with us right now with the labor market and those systemic changes the systemic changes cost money and I don't mean just staffing so we're going to continue to make that ask and I can't echo enough
  • 01:07:15
    and say enough that an investment into the internal service providers on a regular basis is going to go a long way for the enterprise.
  • 01:07:26
    My interest is in making sure not just for human resources but for OTC, for CAO, for procurement, for OFS that those investments continue to happen because you are going to feel those changes.
  • 01:07:37
    and then we won't get continue to get the complaints.
  • 01:07:40
    There'll be new complaints but at least we can address some of those issues that have historical issues that have taken place in the past.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 01:07:48
    Thank you.
  • 01:07:48
    Thanks Director for helping us understand that and appreciate the evolution we've been able to see having been through the last few years of budget presentations and being part of those investments being made.
  • 01:07:59
    It's heartening and encouraging to see the progress.
  • 01:08:03
    I'll go now to Ms. Kim and then I think we should start our transition to the next department, but we'll allow another final thoughts and then we'll head to OTC.
  • 01:08:10
    Go ahead, Ms. Kim.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:08:10
    So I'm looking at your historical budget to actual and it's not every day that we get departments come roll up and they have their budget to actual is actually negative and so I'm wondering about like strategies and tactics that your department is deploying maybe at a manager level but like how you're incentivizing cost savings in your department I think that I'm very curious about that because other departments roll up they have a budget and they're way over what they had been budgeted to the actual
  • 01:08:39
    So I'm just wondering, are there incentives or strategies or tactics that your department is using to incentivize cost savings?
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 01:08:49
    That's a great question.
  • 01:08:51
    We're trying to do regular checks in our budget to make sure that we are staying in alignment with what's been allotted to us and given to us.
  • 01:09:03
    We also have been, depending on our strategy on how we utilize our employees, we've been able to bring in some temps when needed.
  • 01:09:15
    And I think it's just been more of like a strategy of like, okay, here we're going to ramp up.
  • 01:09:19
    Here's the task that we're working on.
  • 01:09:21
    We're going to ramp up in this space.
  • 01:09:22
    and then we're going to do that for a certain period of time and then stop so that we make sure that we are staying in alignment with what's been allotted to us.
  • 01:09:33
    We also are doing a lot of work around, and I know this is kind of simple, but it's important.
  • 01:09:39
    HR has a lot of papers flying around.
  • 01:09:41
    We've got files, I told you about the 1914 booklet and all these things.
  • 01:09:45
    I'm sure we have a ton of those papers rolling around in our office.
  • 01:09:49
    I need space.
  • 01:09:50
    I actually have outgrown my space on the second and third floor in the annex.
  • 01:09:56
    So we're digitizing our files.
  • 01:09:58
    We're not utilizing paper in the same way that we have.
  • 01:10:02
    And is that going to be like a huge cost saving?
  • 01:10:05
    Not necessarily, but it is a strategy that we put in place for in HR to help to repurpose those funds.
  • 01:10:18
    Other than that, Council President Jalabi, Council Vice President Kim, nothing comes readily to mind.
  • 01:10:25
    It's just being good stewards of the money.
  • 01:10:28
    And I'm not saying other folks are not because there are larger departments that are going to have major issues taking place.
  • 01:10:35
    Our major issues look different and it's usually another department's major issue that we're helping but it's mostly just tracking the funds and being strategic in how we ramp up and use those funds and then putting measures in place so that we can repurpose the money in other spaces where it's needed by digitizing our files, by doing some of those process improvement work so that we are not continuing to waste
  • 01:11:02
    funds.
  • 01:11:03
    So I'm sure both Jason and Abby, if that's a question that I can take back to my team here and we can provide some additional information, but those are the things that come readily to mind.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 01:11:16
    Great.
  • 01:11:17
    Thank you so much, Director, for being present with us on your maternity leave virtually.
  • 01:11:23
    I just want to recognize the commitment, and I know that that was at your request, but I just, again, want to appreciate that that's a sacrifice and we are wishing you the best in this personal time with your family.
  • 01:11:35
    Heartfelt congratulations from all of us again.
  • 01:11:37
    Are there any other questions or comments at this point for our partners at HR from Council members?
  • 01:11:43
    Okay, so I know we'll continue this conversation.
  • 01:11:45
    Thank you for taking on the deep work that does transform this institution over time.
  • 01:11:51
    We really appreciate it.
  • 01:11:52
    We'll continue to partner with you.
  • 01:11:54
    Great.
• • SPEAKER_04
  • 01:11:54
    Have a good rest of your day.
  • 01:11:56
    Yes, thank you all so much for the opportunity and I appreciate the time.
  • 01:12:00
    Have a great day.
  • 01:12:01
    Good luck, Jamie from OTT.
  • 01:12:03
    Carry the flag of the internal service providers.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 01:12:06
    Y'all have a good day.
  • 01:12:08
    Thanks, Director.
  • 01:12:09
    And very fitting and appropriate that our next presenter also helped the previous presenter present virtually in the chambers like this and continually helps us innovate our work so that everyone can access it.
  • 01:12:21
    So I welcome up Director Wiskalas from the Office of Technology and Communications.
  • 01:12:25
    I want to make sure people know that we can go until 12 if we need to, but I do think we should stop at 12 so that we can
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:12:32
    Thank you so much Council President Jilali, Council members, my name is Jamie Waskalis, I am the CIO and Director of the Office of Technology and Communications and it is a privilege to be here in front of you today to highlight the work of our dedicated Technology and Communications staff and our partnerships across the city to create a city that works for all.
  • 01:13:05
    I'm sure you're well versed in the agenda we'll be covering today.
  • 01:13:07
    Some of the agenda items don't quite apply to us in OTC.
  • 01:13:10
    I'll try to make a note of that as we're going forward.
  • 01:13:13
    Before we jump in though, based on what I just heard in the last presentation, I am going to jump to the end and just tell you we do not have any asks today.
  • 01:13:23
    We do not have any new budget asks.
  • 01:13:25
    We did bring forward some asks.
  • 01:13:29
    They were not selected for funding for 2025, which is something that we understand the city has a lot of challenges.
  • 01:13:35
    and opportunities ahead of them and we are going to continue to do the great work that we do but we are not going to be asking for any FTEs or any additional funding for 2025.
  • 01:13:48
    So that being said, I do have a couple stories to tell.
  • 01:13:51
    We'll start running through.
  • 01:13:52
    Of course, interrupt when you have questions, and we'll continue moving forward.
  • 01:13:57
    So I'm going to start today with OTC's vision, mission, priorities, and values, just to give a sense of who we are and what we're doing.
  • 01:14:07
    We envision a future where all St Paul data is secure, where all St Paul stories can be told.
  • 01:14:14
    St Paul government speaks with one voice.
  • 01:14:16
    using the power of technology to create a city that works for all.
  • 01:14:20
    Our mission, which is really what we do, is to tell our city stories, secure a city's data, and to maintain and strengthen our technical infrastructure that all city services depend on.
  • 01:14:32
    Our priorities are honoring our people, powering city services, and safeguarding city data.
  • 01:14:37
    You're going to hear a lot about safeguarding about city data, about cyber security.
  • 01:14:41
    I'll talk a little bit more about those priorities in the next slide.
  • 01:14:44
    And we value partnership, trust, innovation, equity and stewardship.
  • 01:14:51
    A little bit more about our strategic priority areas here.
  • 01:14:55
    I started with honoring our people.
  • 01:14:57
    Honoring our people is about investing and entrusting our amazing technology and communications experts.
  • 01:15:03
    We are creating new career pathways to advance careers and finding ways to bring new future technologists into our field via internships and apprenticeships.
  • 01:15:11
    Really wanting to focus on the rich diversity of our community and reflecting that in OTC.
  • 01:15:16
    We'd love to find pathways to bring other department staff into OTC, which is something that we are working with HR to do.
  • 01:15:22
    You've heard about the challenges that HR has with our antiquated systems.
  • 01:15:27
    And we are working in partnership with them to find ways to diversify our staff.
  • 01:15:32
    I want to mention that some of the metrics that we have, hiring, retention, employee satisfaction on the hiring front.
  • 01:15:40
    I think that we are in a ten year low of open positions right now.
  • 01:15:44
    When I started in 2022, we had ten open positions.
  • 01:15:47
    When I was in front of you last year, we had an additional different set of ten open positions.
  • 01:15:52
    I believe right now we have three open positions.
  • 01:15:55
    How we've gotten there, really close partnerships with our HR partners.
  • 01:16:00
    We hired a new HR liaison for OTC who is doing fantastic work partnering with HR.
  • 01:16:07
    One thing that Director Newborn had mentioned was the department's internal processes for hiring.
  • 01:16:13
    That is something that our HR liaison has been working on, and so we've really been able to narrow that time to hire and to get people in seats.
  • 01:16:24
    I think we're doing really good on retention.
  • 01:16:26
    I think we have three people who have left this year of retirement, someone whose family had moved out of state, and then we did recently lose somebody who was able to find a full-time remote position.
  • 01:16:39
    I really quickly also wanted to talk about demographics because that's something Director Newborn talked about.
  • 01:16:43
    In 2022, when I came in here to the city, OTC had about 30% BIPOC staff.
  • 01:16:50
    We increased that to 35% in 2023 and now we're at 40% in 2024.
  • 01:16:56
    So again, I really appreciate being here in the city and having the opportunity to diversify what it means and what it looks like to be in technology and communications.
  • 01:17:06
    One other thing quickly to add, our employee satisfaction rate when we did that employee pulse survey in OTC was 73%.
  • 01:17:13
    So we were far above the average of city workers there.
  • 01:17:20
    The next strategic priority area for us is powering city services.
  • 01:17:24
    That's really about taking the enterprise services that we have and making sure that we are investing enough and across the city so people can use these systems to help make the city run.
  • 01:17:36
    We are in the middle of organizational and portfolio realignment to ensure that we have the right support for our core city services.
  • 01:17:44
    We continue to take on more, but we don't have more resources.
  • 01:17:48
    We're just making sure that we're allocating our resources in the right place to support city services as much as possible.
  • 01:17:55
    We have a lot of metrics that we're tracking with that service desk tickets.
  • 01:18:00
    Our service desk, our customer support is primarily three front line workers.
  • 01:18:05
    They field close to 20,000 service tickets per year.
  • 01:18:09
    We're on track right in 2024 to see about 70 or so service tickets come in a day.
  • 01:18:16
    and we are working to improve those systems so that we can take advantage of some automation and really have those frontline staff working at their highest ability and having just the repeat, the password changes, the accessibility things that come in, have those being taken care of proactively so we can really work at our highest level.
  • 01:18:37
    and then finally safeguarding city data continue to be a big area for us as it is for municipalities across the country.
  • 01:18:49
    We have an amazing Chief Information Security Officer, Steph Horvath, who has been working with our teams to incorporate security operations
  • 01:18:56
    of the City of St Paul.
  • 01:19:24
    I'd like to cover some key highlights and accomplishments from 2024.
  • 01:19:28
    And I'll just run through these very, very quickly.
  • 01:19:32
    We negotiated a new Microsoft Enterprise Agreement.
  • 01:19:35
    Microsoft kind of runs our entire city, right?
  • 01:19:37
    So our email, our productivity, many of our systems.
  • 01:19:42
    We did this in a way that streamlines our licensing to ensure cost sustainability.
  • 01:19:48
    What former Deputy Director Drew Nelson took on was a very convoluted and complex system and we've turned it into something that works in our favor.
  • 01:19:59
    What he did and his team did was negotiate the highest level of security for the majority of the 3,000 city employees that we have full time.
  • 01:20:07
    Prior to that, there were about 30 to 50 of us who had that highest level of security, which just isn't good enough, right?
  • 01:20:13
    Everybody is online every single day and we all need to be secure, so that's been a great improvement for us.
  • 01:20:18
    We are supporting the implementation of the Tyler platform, a very close collaboration with DSI, with Poly, and we are going to continue to partner with them over the course of this implementation and the sustainability of it.
  • 01:20:33
    We are working on infrastructure modernization.
  • 01:20:36
    We completed an RFI this year.
  • 01:20:39
    Our infrastructure modernization is really about our network and then our hardware that helps support all of the work we do here, our compute and our storage.
  • 01:20:48
    These are systems that do need to be refreshed every six to ten years.
  • 01:20:52
    We are on the end of that cycle right now.
  • 01:20:54
    There is going to be some big investment coming up, but we're doing our due diligence right now.
  • 01:20:59
    funding an RFI, funding an RFP with our current funds so we can gather the right information and really make a great plan for a years-long roadmap to modernize the city and secure the city.
  • 01:21:12
    We have a lot going on in our communications and digital media side of the house.
  • 01:21:17
    There's stpaul.gov modernization efforts happening, and this is really so we have the right amount of material in front of our constituents so they can communicate well with the city.
  • 01:21:27
    They understand what we do, who we are, and how to communicate with us.
  • 01:21:31
    That group also launched a digital accessibility working group with HERO because we want to make sure that we are being fully accessible for anyone to come to the city.
  • 01:21:41
    That group is also working on some accessibility rule changes that are coming into effect in April 2026.
  • 01:21:47
    And we need to make sure that all of our materials, our online materials, our digital assets are ready for that.
  • 01:21:55
    There's a lot going on.
  • 01:21:56
    Maybe I'll just quickly, the last one, the phishing campaigns.
  • 01:22:00
    So our security team is really focused on training and education about how prone we are to cyber attacks via our email.
  • 01:22:09
    I think the percentage is between 80 or 90% of all cyber attacks happen through email.
  • 01:22:15
    When we first started doing these trainings, these simulated phishing emails, we were seeing close to 7% of employees click on them.
  • 01:22:23
    And that is not a good thing.
  • 01:22:25
    And when we did our last campaign in July, only 1.5% of employees clicked on the nefarious link.
  • 01:22:31
    That is huge.
  • 01:22:32
    That is way below the average.
  • 01:22:34
    I remember walking into City Hall.
  • 01:22:37
    I also want to mention our communications and digital media team, our local award winners for the Minnesota Association of Government Communicators annual Northern Lights Award.
  • 01:22:57
    So we have Mike Papadook, who won for a video about multi-factor authentication, which seems super boring, but he made the most amazing, interesting video.
  • 01:23:07
    Josh Wiederin won for a video about discharging racial covenants.
  • 01:23:12
    Nico Curtis won for his Common Sense branding that he recently did.
  • 01:23:15
    I think he was on the job for like three months or something, and he won an award.
  • 01:23:18
    So we have amazing people here.
  • 01:23:20
    And then Nick Nelson won for Get Your Laser Loon library card, which I think all of us really, really appreciated.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 01:23:27
    I'm kind of uniquely obsessed with that exact topic, so that's amazing.
  • 01:23:32
    And before you move on, I wanted to also just, I guess a thought I had that I would share is I do think one area of evolution that I've observed over six years now being here is that we have evolved in what public data sets are available
  • 01:23:48
    and we have a housing dashboard now that the community can go and look at.
  • 01:23:53
    We have the climate equity dashboard for our sustainability work with indicators and information.
  • 01:24:00
    I think we at least internally had our community safety presentations that would come and bring forth a dashboard of where the community first public safety work is happening and I believe there was some version of that online.
  • 01:24:19
    While it can seem boring, it's actually important to have public data sets on core areas of work and that I think OTC has played a pretty big role in helping StPaul.gov go from being
  • 01:24:30
    just a regular website where you just click on links and it's just there's not much interactivity to it to this front door to the city in a way around really core topics that are vital and essential for the city's future so I just want to appreciate your collaboration and the department's collaboration on that with different departments because I think it matters a lot and it helps us do our work better so just a point I wanted to make.
  • 01:24:54
    I know we're early in the presentation I'll let you keep going but that's what that made me think of.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:24:59
    thank you council president and council members and I'll just say that our very very small but mighty data team has such big plans for us here a lot of that core work that they're doing is really focusing on one specific area but what we would really like to do is focus on the entire entity of the city and how can we bring impactful data to everybody so it's easy to use and you have what you need and you don't have to come directly to us so big dreams there
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 01:25:24
    I welcome the big dreams.
  • 01:25:27
    Another example is community safety advocates in the past have asked for public data around police department activities.
  • 01:25:35
    And there's so many applications for the relevant use of public data and I'm excited to hear that your team is thinking big.
  • 01:25:42
    So we can keep moving, I just wanted to make that point.
• • Rebecca Noecker
  • 01:25:44
    I just really wanted to also applaud you, Director, for the key highlights and accomplishments being really outcome-oriented.
  • 01:26:02
    I know this is something that Council Vice President talks about a lot, the sort of outputs versus outcomes, all the work we're doing versus what's actually happening as a result of it, and seeing
  • 01:26:12
    our fish prone percentage dropping to 1.5%.
  • 01:26:14
    That's a significant outcome, and it's different from just saying we educated people about fishing.
  • 01:26:21
    And so I really want to thank you for being, and also the employee satisfaction so far above city average in your department.
  • 01:26:28
    I think those are things that really point to the accomplishments and the work that your team is doing under your leadership.
  • 01:26:35
    So thanks for painting the picture of that specifically for us.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:26:40
    Thank you Council President and Council Member.
  • 01:26:42
    I appreciate that and it is obviously a group effort and I just want to acknowledge Deputy Director Drew Nelson who is leaving his position and our new Deputy Director here Mary Gleich Matthews.
  • 01:26:52
    Deputy Director Nelson when he was in my interim role started a lot of this work.
  • 01:26:57
    He really did.
  • 01:26:57
    He believes in people.
  • 01:26:59
    He understands what we need to do to make progress in the city and I have this new amazing Deputy Director coming on board who is fully on board and pushing me
  • 01:27:09
    on these items.
  • 01:27:10
    And then we have, of course, our team, our amazing team who is behind us as well, so thank you.
  • 01:27:16
    All right, on to the fun stuff.
  • 01:27:18
    Here is our org chart.
  • 01:27:20
    These are our current numbers.
  • 01:27:21
    Right now we have 72 total FTE.
  • 01:27:23
    We're going to have 72 total FTE next year.
  • 01:27:27
    Nothing new to add there.
  • 01:27:28
    We support our teams across network and security, server and storage, enterprise resource planning, information systems, customer service, technology, business management, digital solution services, and their communications and digital media team.
  • 01:27:43
    Our FTE summary, also probably a little bit boring here, no changes.
  • 01:27:47
    We're going to be staying at 72.
  • 01:27:49
    I have to mention that this does present challenges to us as we continue to support a number of large scale implementations that are coming into the city while responding to the increasing number of cyber events that are hitting the public sector.
  • 01:28:08
    Okay, we have a couple of revenue slides here, and I have three funds to highlight.
  • 01:28:15
    So this first one, the government funds, the general fund.
  • 01:28:20
    The majority of it is our cable TV franchise fee.
  • 01:28:23
    That fee is decreasing in what we're seeing coming in due to residents moving away from traditional cable service.
  • 01:28:32
    This primarily funds SPIN, S-P-N-N, really the public side of communications to our constituents.
  • 01:28:45
    And we also have a couple with Ramsey County and then some transfers that are now in our central service fund.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 01:28:51
    can I just ask a question on that director and it is related to SPNN.
  • 01:28:56
    SPNN is in my ward and they also do city wide communications as you know.
  • 01:29:00
    They have a TV studio, they host community forums, they really are like ultra local television for our residents.
  • 01:29:06
    And I guess are you involved with and could we continue maybe policy conversations around that like as that revenue stream.
  • 01:29:14
    goes down and it impacts a public news organization.
  • 01:29:18
    I'd like to figure out better what role our city can have in solutions and I'm just wondering if that's a topic that you've been aware of or involved with.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:29:26
    Yeah, Council President Jalali, that is something that I know that there are ongoing conversations right now.
  • 01:29:32
    I'm not directly involved in them.
  • 01:29:34
    We are in the process of renegotiating our franchise agreement with Comcast as well as I know statewide they're talking about this and the reduction of those fees and how we can continue to support SPNN and organizations like SPNN.
  • 01:29:49
    So I'll have to take that back and just get back to you on what that looks like.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 01:29:55
    Committee.
  • 01:29:57
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:30:15
    All right, moving on, our enterprise funds, our council chamber technology fund.
  • 01:30:23
    We contribute to this as well as Ramsey County, and these funds really allow us to host these types of meetings.
  • 01:30:36
    and then our final is our Enterprise Technology Fund and this really funds our devices that are used across the city, certain software that is used across the enterprise and it gets adjusted just based on demand that we have.
  • 01:30:53
    So if we hire 10 or 20 new staff, then you need that many more devices.
  • 01:31:01
    Okay, challenges and opportunities.
• • Rebecca Noecker
  • 01:31:04
    Sorry Director, I saw Ms. Naker with a question.
  • 01:31:06
    Go ahead.
  • 01:31:07
    Thanks, Council President.
  • 01:31:09
    This is a weird question.
  • 01:31:11
    I will own that and I'm outing myself a little bit by asking it.
  • 01:31:14
    But I just had my phone replaced, my desk phone.
  • 01:31:21
    I don't think I've touched the last desk phone ever.
  • 01:31:25
    because I don't use a phone, I use my computer.
  • 01:31:27
    I'm just curious, similarly I had a filter in my room in my office for COVID and I think that those have since been, those haven't really been getting used and I don't know what's become of the one that used to be in my office but I'm just curious what kind of auditing function do we do, evaluation do we do to make sure that
  • 01:31:48
    the technology that we are investing in is needed, is being used and just that we're being streamlined and not necessarily just sort of re-upping the lease on things that may or may not be of use to employees and maybe I'm the only one who doesn't use her desktop phone and like I said I'm fully I'm outing myself when I say that.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:32:05
    Council President and Council Member Nieker, I also do not use my desktop phone.
  • 01:32:11
    I use my computer for everything.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 01:32:13
    This is a brave conversation happening right now.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:32:15
    I answer my phone on my computer.
  • 01:32:21
    That's what you're talking about.
  • 01:32:24
    That's a really great question.
  • 01:32:25
    We do try to get ahead of trends when we can.
  • 01:32:27
    I know that the phone's replacement is something that was started before I came to the city in November of 2022.
  • 01:32:35
    so I don't know if we did do our due diligence to right size that at that time or just weighing the cost of doing that kind of survey versus going ahead and replacing the equipment.
  • 01:32:46
    We do need to do our due diligence with that for sure.
  • 01:32:48
    and I can come get back to you on just a little bit more information on how we decided to replace those devices.
  • 01:32:56
    But those are questions that I have as well as we're moving forward.
  • 01:32:59
    We do want to make sure that we're using our resources wisely.
  • 01:33:02
    I do know that there are a lot of preferences still for people using their desktop phones.
  • 01:33:08
    So I think sometimes we make decisions in the city that help us streamline service.
  • 01:33:14
    So for instance, we try not to support Mac devices because we only have a very small number of people who can support the 3,000 to 5,000 devices that we have at any one time.
  • 01:33:27
    And so the balances are kind of weighed when we're making those types of decisions.
  • 01:33:32
    But I can get back to you on that piece.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 01:33:40
    I see a question from Ms. Bui.
  • 01:33:41
    Go ahead.
• • Anika Bowie
  • 01:33:42
    I have also kind of a unique, I don't want to call it a weird question, but I'm just curious about for the franchise fees, I see there's a fluctuation of how much we bring in revenue for these franchise fees.
  • 01:33:59
    How do we quantify these fees, and does our viewership have anything to do particularly around
  • 01:34:07
    like the revenue we bring in.
  • 01:34:09
    I know now in this new era of technology, live streaming is a quantifiable sense of revenue.
  • 01:34:21
    I'm just wondering in terms of just how we evaluate is live streaming working?
  • 01:34:30
    Who's our viewership?
  • 01:34:32
    How does that impact particularly our cost of recording?
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:34:40
    Council President, Council Member Bui, that's a really great question.
  • 01:34:44
    I don't have an answer for you on that.
  • 01:34:48
    These funds, we manage them alongside OFS, and so I don't actually have a ton of insight on how those pieces work.
  • 01:34:58
    But I can get back to you.
  • 01:35:00
    I do know, though, I think that, yeah, I'm not even going to attempt to answer that.
  • 01:35:05
    I'll get back to you.
• • Anika Bowie
  • 01:35:06
    No problem.
  • 01:35:06
    Thank you.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:35:13
    All right.
  • 01:35:16
    Let's go ahead here with our challenges and opportunities.
  • 01:35:20
    And I'll just kind of
  • 01:35:23
    I'll move through these rather quickly.
  • 01:35:26
    So like many city departments, we do have challenges with hiring and promoting staff.
  • 01:35:32
    I was very overwhelmed when I first started in November 22 by the rules that govern our hiring and promotions.
  • 01:35:40
    And like Director Newborn said, some of those are from 1914 when I would never be standing here in front of you.
  • 01:35:47
    Director Newbar talked about her antiquated systems and I'm really excited for and hopeful for her plans for the city.
  • 01:35:55
    When I came here in November of 2022 I came from the University of Minnesota that had a very robust HR presence and in my first couple of months I was a little bit disappointed by how much support it seemed we have.
  • 01:36:09
    of the City of St. Paul.
  • 01:36:11
    However, within the next six months, I really saw the efforts that Director Newborn and her team were making in terms of training and supporting promotion and development here in the city, and to the point where I am super proud of the work that they are doing, and I think they're doing great things for us.
  • 01:36:29
    So I just wanted to mention that.
  • 01:36:31
    But we do have these systems that make hiring and promotion somewhat difficult and challenging.
  • 01:36:37
    Like I said, we only have three open positions right now.
  • 01:36:41
    We've also really been focusing on promoting and developing our staff.
  • 01:36:46
    One of the things that I learned when I first came in is that we have staff who have been in positions for five, ten.
  • 01:36:50
    I have one staff member who's been in the same position for 25 years.
  • 01:36:53
    His job has changed drastically in those 25 years.
  • 01:36:57
    But because of the systems that we have set up here, it is not easy to find pathways to promote him based on the work that he has done.
  • 01:37:04
    So we're working and partnering with HR on that, but again,
  • 01:37:07
    they have rules and guidelines that they have to work by which makes things from my point of view and my career just the most challenging kind of environment to work in to really honor your people.
  • 01:37:21
    I also put potentially retaining staff.
  • 01:37:27
    I firmly believe that we as a city staff should be here in the city supporting our city but also I am a technologist and technologists have had a lot more opportunities for remote work.
  • 01:37:43
    And so as we are transitioning into our office first policy, we have already lost one very key technologist to a fully remote position.
  • 01:37:53
    We've done surveys internally.
  • 01:37:55
    My first survey indicated that potentially 50% of staff would consider leaving if we're coming back more in the office than we are remote.
  • 01:38:05
    So that's just something that we're navigating and weighing.
  • 01:38:09
    The people that support technology and communications here
  • 01:38:12
    like across the city we have more than one job.
  • 01:38:15
    One person has five or 10 or 20 jobs, essentially.
  • 01:38:18
    And so when you lose someone, it can be really difficult, especially when they have a lot of historical knowledge.
  • 01:38:23
    But we're working to really improve the culture, take advantage of our in-person time.
  • 01:38:28
    So far, they've been really great days.
  • 01:38:30
    And I hope that we can continue to retain those staff.
  • 01:38:35
    The rest of the challenges really involve around resources and cybersecurity.
  • 01:38:39
    So supporting and maintaining legacy technologies
  • 01:38:42
    we have over 1600 applications and platforms that we manage while continuing to take on new technologies and to do that with the same number of people while we are securing the city can be quite challenging.
  • 01:38:55
    Wanting to make sure we're allocating resources to proactive city support so our police, so our firefighters can get what they need and just get outside and doing their work versus dealing with increasing security challenges.
  • 01:39:09
    and then finally securing the city within aging physical infrastructure and network that aren't up to date to today's security challenges.
  • 01:39:16
    I can also say that's an opportunity because that's something that we're working on an RFI and then an RFP next year to really solidify and modernize those systems.
  • 01:39:28
    opportunities.
  • 01:39:29
    We have a lot of opportunities as well.
  • 01:39:32
    Developing our talented staff as technologies evolve at a rapid pace.
  • 01:39:35
    I was at a CIO conference last week and a ton of my colleagues, one of their biggest challenges is having staff who aren't interested in learning and growing and taking on new technologies.
  • 01:39:46
    I don't have that issue.
  • 01:39:48
    I have an infrastructure manager who has been here for 38 years, managed multiple email systems when email first came out.
  • 01:39:55
    and he's leading the charge with our infrastructure modernization.
  • 01:39:57
    I'm so thankful for the teams that we have here.
  • 01:40:01
    Expanding our city's reach via storytelling, we have an amazing communications team.
  • 01:40:05
    They revamped our city's Instagram account this year and went from basically zero to 2,500 users within mere months and it's just awesome to be part of that and see what they're doing to support the city, to communicate what we're doing and I think that's a really great avenue for us to really support the city.
  • 01:40:25
    Enterprise opportunities to harness the power of communication and technology.
  • 01:40:29
    This is really just, we need to support our enterprise applications and platforms in a way that helps everybody do their work.
  • 01:40:38
    Our Microsoft platforms, the platforms that we use for hiring, for tracking our time, for enterprise resource planning, things like that.
  • 01:40:46
    And so we're investing more in there.
  • 01:40:48
    re-imagining how OTC supports the city again as we continue to take on more and we have all the systems that we've been managing for sometimes 25-30 years we need to make sure that we're balancing our resources in the right way so that we're protecting the city and advancing our services.
  • 01:41:06
    as we move forward.
  • 01:41:08
    And then my last bullet point, exploring generative AI-based tools to enhance public sector services.
  • 01:41:16
    I'm part of a national group called the GovAI Coalition.
  • 01:41:19
    We are dedicated to responsible and safe AI adoption in the public sector.
  • 01:41:26
    We aren't doing a ton right now in terms of bringing Gen AI.
  • 01:41:30
    We want to make sure that any services that we are looking at are going to truly enhance and add value to the city.
  • 01:41:37
    But that's something that we're looking forward to and really we're partnering with a lot of entities across the country to see what they're doing.
  • 01:41:44
    What are they doing to show that there's value and then we can adopt those that we think are really going to be important to us.
  • 01:41:50
    We don't have to be first at the table with those.
  • 01:41:55
    One more thing, and I didn't have it on here, but HR's presentation reminded me an opportunity.
  • 01:42:00
    Again, our OFS grants team is amazing and stellar.
  • 01:42:04
    So glad that we have that grants team created.
  • 01:42:06
    We just met with them yesterday and we're working with them for additional funding for certain initiatives that we have.
  • 01:42:13
    And especially when it comes to internships and apprenticeships and really opportunities for us to bring in
  • 01:42:19
    new technologists to really diversify our tech talent here in the St. Paul City.
  • 01:42:29
    All right, updates on recent initiatives.
  • 01:42:33
    I had a slide that really showed the highlights from 2024, so I didn't add anything here other than to say that we do have really close partnerships with a lot of departments across the city.
  • 01:42:43
    And as they are prepping for ARP roll off, we're ready to support the continued use of those systems and sustainment of them.
  • 01:42:53
    and we are supporting our departmental partners with that.
  • 01:43:03
    Updates on our recently authorized FTEs.
  • 01:43:06
    So for 2024 we did ask for two FTEs and we were granted them.
  • 01:43:11
    We asked for an enterprise applications developer.
  • 01:43:15
    This really supports our HR and finance systems and we have recently hired someone who is taking on that role.
  • 01:43:22
    and then we also asked for a security analyst.
  • 01:43:25
    This hiring is in process.
  • 01:43:27
    We do hope, probably, hopefully within a month to have that one.
  • 01:43:31
    For both of these, there was a lot of kind of back and forth work to do, not only with HR but for us.
  • 01:43:37
    For the enterprise applications developer, there just was not a lot out there for us.
  • 01:43:44
    So when we asked for somebody who had specific
  • 01:43:47
    and the City Council.
  • 01:44:05
    the technology piece is the easy part and this is somebody who we know is going to thrive in supporting us there.
  • 01:44:11
    On the security side, we've had some back and forth with HR on just what level of security analyst are we looking for and I think we've found the right mix for us and now we are reviewing, I believe, lists and interviewing people from lists to continue that hiring process.
• • SPEAKER_02
  • 01:44:34
    All right.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:44:37
    Our historic budget actual here
  • 01:44:41
    We do normally run a little bit conservative.
  • 01:44:48
    We don't want to overspend.
  • 01:44:50
    For FY 2023, that variance is a bit larger because we were kind of stockpiling money for our infrastructure modernization.
  • 01:44:59
    We thought we were going to be investing in 2023, but we ended up moving that money into 2024 to help us fund the RFI and
  • 01:45:08
    We will likely see additional savings in 2024 to self-fund some of those investments and will continue working with OFS as we move into the RFP phase.
  • 01:45:38
    and see the needs for more investment.
  • 01:45:43
    We really have no additional spending outside of our salary increases for the general fund, and like I said, enterprise technology, central service funds have adjusted to match demand.
  • 01:45:53
    And then finally, one of the questions that was asked in this slide is are there any external factors that we should know about?
  • 01:46:01
    Technology unemployment is very low and both with that, the state of Minnesota and the University of Minnesota are within the top ten tech employers in our state.
  • 01:46:14
    both of them offer generous benefits both of them offer full-time remote positions in fact the state of Minnesota has posted 62 technology positions in the last 30 days the majority of them are fully remote we did lose one of our technologists to the state of Minnesota higher salary and full-time remote so that's just kind of like
  • 01:46:34
    We have been focusing on developing our people and promoting them
  • 01:47:01
    and so as our employee costs go up we do see our professional services budget shrink and so you know we just want to be really cautious about our spend but again you know we we try to be pretty conservative providing the the best value that we can for the city while being really physically responsible.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 01:47:19
    I see a question from VP Kim.
  • 01:47:21
    Go ahead Ms. Kim.
• • SPEAKER_08
  • 01:47:22
    It's not often that we see a bullet point that says you'll see additional savings in 2024 to self-fund infrastructure investments in 2025.
  • 01:47:32
    There aren't that many departments that sort of generate revenue that they're then able to use.
  • 01:47:37
    They're not revenue, I guess, resources.
  • 01:47:39
    Can you say a little bit about what does that look like to self-fund infrastructure investments in terms of your department?
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:47:46
    Yeah, in partnering with OFS, where we have typically historically had salary savings because we've had vacant positions, that's how we were able to take some funds and say, hey, can we take a chunk of these funds?
  • 01:48:00
    Because I believe a lot of those funds, when you have salary savings, kind of go back to the core city to make up for budget deficits and things like was gas more expensive last year, things like that.
  • 01:48:12
    And so that's primarily how we're doing it.
  • 01:48:15
    with the state that we're in now, where we only have three open vacant positions, we might not see quite as much of a savings.
  • 01:48:21
    But that's really what we're trying to do is take those salary savings and save them for the rainy day.
  • 01:48:27
    And we know that rainy day is coming up.
  • 01:48:33
    Thank you, council member.
  • 01:48:40
    proposed changes for 2025.
  • 01:48:42
    We really don't have proposed changes because we don't have additional FTEs.
  • 01:48:46
    We don't have additional funding.
  • 01:48:48
    But I just put on here just things that we're really going to be focusing on in 2025.
  • 01:48:52
    Like I said, our infrastructure modernization, RFP.
  • 01:48:56
    We have a major system replacement of TAS, which is our timekeeping system.
  • 01:49:01
    We're looking at engaging with vendors to re-implement our ServiceNow system.
  • 01:49:07
    Again, that's kind of our customer support system.
  • 01:49:10
    We want to take advantage of automation and really help our staff work at their best ability, their top ability.
  • 01:49:17
    We are investing in our enterprise data ecosystem.
  • 01:49:22
    Again, Microsoft expansion, we have a lot of new capabilities and platforms that we want to be able to expand across the city to meet city needs.
  • 01:49:30
    And then at the end of the day, it's really about cyber security and making sure that we are doing our due diligence to protect the city and the city's data.
  • 01:49:41
    And that is all I have.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 01:49:42
    Any last questions?
  • 01:49:46
    Any other questions right now from Council members or thoughts or comments?
• • Anika Bowie
  • 01:49:52
    or needs around your
  • 01:50:13
    I personally have just reached out for certain needs whether it's going to festivals or promoting certain initiatives that's specific to Ward 1.
  • 01:50:22
    Can you speak of just is this position, is that the person that can potentially respond to some of our digital marketing needs and where have you seen
  • 01:50:35
    pretty much the uptick and like increase for more engagement coming from the council and have you considered in terms of like the this budget also you know doing a good job on like making sure you're saving costs but how like the council can you know be more supportive when it comes to like the digital marketing needs
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:50:57
    Council President, Council Member Bui, those are great questions and I will be honest that this is just this I wasn't here when this little this position was tacked onto our org chart but I've always just it's it's in the mayor's office we don't have any visibility into the work that they're doing it's just on our budget and so that yeah I don't even know exactly the work that they're focused on right now so you'd have to talk to the mayor's office about that one
• • Cheniqua Johnson
  • 01:51:27
    I see Ms. Johnson, go ahead
  • 01:51:32
    I think to that end, and thank you Jamie for going through the presentation.
  • 01:51:36
    I think to that end, there seems to be, I will say from my experience and being able to contact the communications department a few times just as well to take pictures while we were out at events and to be there and film things or live stream things for us to take a few photos of things that we've had has been really, really helpful.
  • 01:51:59
    I think from my end it would be really great to just kind of over the next few years and especially as we continue to have these know where we fit into that where the council fits into the storytelling and to some of your mission work and mission drives because that has been one thing that's been really helpful like
  • 01:52:16
    having Mike and Michael you know be a part of some of my events and take pictures with and just be able to tell what we also do in our work has also allowed for like us to have that opportunity to you know have just that updated marketing piece all the way down to like when we do have festivals we do have events like we as a council were just able to obtain tablecloths and like brandy things and so I just know that there's like a lot of like
  • 01:52:45
    for Council and Communications Partnerships that I'm still figuring out what it actually looks like because we aren't always included in that.
  • 01:52:58
    And so it would be great to kind of know where the seven council members who are also a part of that story really actually come in alignment with.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:53:09
    Thank you, Council President, Council Member Johnson.
  • 01:53:13
    I am not 100% well versed in this, but I do know that there is, you know, written in like city code or in, I don't remember where it is, but there's like a certain subset of the work that we are like allowed to do for city council.
  • 01:53:29
    And I've gotten that on my desk.
  • 01:53:31
    I know my team will be able to get that to me right away so I can share that with you to just, you know, so you can see kind of where that relationship is within whatever that, I don't remember if it's policy or what it is.
  • 01:53:42
    because they are an amazing team and we would love to support as we can within the boundaries of where we're chartered to provide that support.
• • Cheniqua Johnson
  • 01:53:54
    Yes, and having opportunities to work with several of the communication staff, it's been really genuinely just helpful.
  • 01:54:01
    So shout out to them, but also really, really looking forward to just continuing to work on that.
  • 01:54:06
    As somebody who, I like to say that I try to be as active on social media and spaces, but I do not have necessarily a communications background.
  • 01:54:15
    It's always helpful to be able to lean on the experts.
  • 01:54:18
    I'd say the same for cybersecurity.
  • 01:54:20
    I'm in multiple conversations right now where folks are talking about the tech industry and I'd really I know we're not necessarily in them some of the leading conversations are regarding AI but right now there are robots at the University of Minnesota delivering food so I'm just kind of wondering like right like where we where we on that
  • 01:54:47
    on that conundrum of like how we're actually investing and preparing and especially if there's talks around staff coming back next year or potential implementations of like three-day weeks like that to me is where I would actually like to see what we're proactively doing to prep for that and you know not to wait until something happens but actually you know if we've seen anything in the last year including like things like
  • 01:55:14
    who would have thought that the airports would have had a major outage this year.
  • 01:55:19
    And I think that those are certain things that as we are thinking about the future, I actually think I'm looking forward to hearing some of the staffs in OTC really shine in this capacity and talking about AI, chat GBT, and other opportunities to invest heavily in cybersecurity over the next few years.
  • 01:55:38
    So I'm on the other side of just like,
  • 01:55:40
    I do really want to hear what the city of St Paul's plans are regarding that.
  • 01:55:44
    So I know that that's a big space and it gets real technical.
  • 01:55:49
    But I know that there are a lot of community partners that are talking about this.
  • 01:55:52
    And I know that some of your staff team is a part of those.
  • 01:55:56
    And so I actually am hoping to dive into that with you guys in the future.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:56:03
    Wonderful.
  • 01:56:03
    Council President, Council Member, I'm happy to talk more.
  • 01:56:07
    We are leading pretty conservatively just again because we don't want to do anything that is going to cause our security to be compromised or to introduce bias or anything like that into the city.
  • 01:56:22
    But we do have our AI guidelines that have been published.
  • 01:56:26
    They were published earlier this year and then right now we're working
  • 01:56:29
    to create a small group that's really going to be helping lead AI across the city.
  • 01:56:33
    So it's just not an OTC thing.
  • 01:56:37
    It is a business wide, it is a worldwide thing.
  • 01:56:40
    I'll say we do have one pilot going on in a small group.
  • 01:56:45
    Right now they're using ChatGPT teams to write grants and to write training materials.
  • 01:56:51
    and what we've been finding is that they have been saving a ton of time by just having those first drafts written for them and then they can go through and tailor them and compare them to their old.
  • 01:57:01
    So things like that, we're really looking for mostly internal use cases that can really help people save time and be more efficient.
  • 01:57:11
    And again, the goal is to have people working at their top ability.
  • 01:57:14
    So I would like to see the machines take over the work that
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 01:57:17
    and the City Council.
  • 01:57:38
    a public listening session on our budget that's part of our annual process and really just see the ways that OTC comes out in the field to do work with us in the community and helps people access this conversation, right, that we are having every Wednesday, but in a way that's democratized, accessible, based in their neighborhood and just continues to improve over time.
  • 01:57:59
    So just thank you for that being an example of how your team shows up.
  • 01:58:03
    We really do appreciate it and appreciate you being the second of two presentations today of departments that do foundational work, internal services for all the public service we do.
  • 01:58:12
    So, deeply grateful to you and if there's nothing else to come before us, I think in a moment here I'll adjourn.
  • 01:58:18
    I just want to flag that our
  • 01:58:19
    1 p.m. closed door is a topic on our cybersecurity risk management and so that is due to the inherent sensitive nature of that work and the need to safeguard our systems the reason for the closed door but more to come in that at the one o'clock and until then if there's nothing else to come before us we excuse me we are adjourned thanks