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Meet and Confer Minutes - 09/10/2020 MEET AND CONFER CITY OF WICHITA FALLS & WICHITA FALLS FIRE DEPARTMENT SEPTEMBER 10,2020 Attendees: City Administration Int'l. Ass'n. of Firefighters, Local 432 Darron Leiker, City Manager Randal Reel Ken Prillaman, Fire Chief Joe Morris, Fire Captain Kinley Hegglund, City Attorney Bruce Deeb, Fire Lieutenant Julia Vasquez, Deputy City Attorney Alfonso Vitolo, Fire Lieutenant Christi Klyn, HR Director/Civil Service Director Jody Ashlock, Asst. Fire Marshal/FEO Brian Lester, HR Supervisor/Recording Secretary Brandon Wright, Firefighter Peyton Macklin, Intern 1. CALL TO ORDER Darron Leiker called the meeting to order at 2:32 P.M. 2. WORKERS' COMPENSATION ISSUES Randal Reel stated that Bo Simpson from the Plano Fire Association was going to forward additional documentation to him. Reel stated that there is frustration and a subsequent request that the ODG guidelines for occupational injury and recovery be submitted to the membership in the event of a Workers' Compensation claim. Christi Klyn stated that the City does not have a copy of the guidelines, but that the third party administrator for Workers' Comp (CCMSI)would be able to provide that information. Reel said they understand that most of the problems are legislative from Austin, but providing additional information and a timeline would ease much of the frustration. Christi said that she would reach out to the HR Director of Plano to request additional information on their Worker's Comp program. Randal said that the process is much slower for a workers' comp injury than a personal injury, and that the extended time costs additional money and the wait creates expense for hiring back that could be used elsewhere. Randal says that Bo from Plano said their City has an underwriter in their policy that allows the City to override a denial with a cost of up to $500,000. Darron and Christi cautioned that would be a challenge since they are not medical experts, and Christi said that the policy shouldn't have an underwriter's clause since they are self-insured. MEET&CONFER—CWF&WFFD SEPTEMBER 10, 2020 2 Randal said that it would be advantageous to allow the City to override denials from the TPA to allow the employee to return to work faster. Darron acknowledged that long term outages for staff generated additional cost since there are minimum staffing requirements for Fire. It was agreed that additional review was warranted. 3. POST COVID-19 STEP PLAN Bruce Deeb thanked the Administration for implementing the 8 step pay plan for Fire fighters, allowing them to reach the maximum amount sooner. Bruce said that the Association was not going to request additional funding this year, but wanted to make sure that Administration knew the association was still wanting to pursue the flat step plan with a 10% pay increase between the steps. Bruce also said that he wished for additional scrutiny on the membership's pay when steps become reactivated to watch for employees being "stepped over" once pay increases were back in effect. Christi acknowledged that it had happened back in 2011 during the last pay freeze, and confirmed the future plans for the advanced rank step plan. Jody Ashlock reiterated the cost associated with the transition to the new plan, and that the "Step-Up" pay is unbalanced and creates a difficult circumstance with those who are at a lower step earning more in a backfill situation than a more senior member. Christi informed the Association that there is currently a compensation study being conducted by Management Advisory Group International Inc. She also said that all groups will be looked at and additional recommendations to all pay plans will be made. Darron said that all changes requested will have to be congruent with the changes and parallel the organizational recommendations. Darron went on to discuss the difficulty of the recently approved budget, and that all revenue sources have been negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. He also anticipates a reduction next year on property taxes, resulting in additional conservative measures being taken. Darron stated that the budget was making additional sacrifices to prevent premium increases on benefits to protect employees' pay, and that it is an ongoing focus to allow pay raises next year. He noted that sales tax payments for July in September was down 3 percent, and is anticipated to be down further due to lost revenue from large community events that normally take place in August. Jody Ashlock said the membership reported there were millions of dollars in grants given to the City by the Federal Government, and that the City also had a "Rainy Day" fund that could be used to cover the lost revenue. Darron explained that the reserve fund was a best practice, and that limits had to be placed on the usage of the funds to preserve the City's credit rating and that the City's reserve is MEET&CONFER—CWF&WFFD SEPTEMBER 10, 2020 3 20% of the City's overall operating costs. Those reserves are also to be used for singular emergency expenses, not payroll increases. Darron also went on to explain how grants work, and that the $5 million in grants available to be used by the City have very tight restrictions on what they can and can't be used for. The money cannot be used to supplant the budget or replace lost revenue. There is 75% of the grant that can be used to cover a narrow list of specific problem, and 25% that can be used for public assistance grants. He estimates that there is less than $500,000 in eligible expenses that can be covered. The cities and counties larger than 500,000 in population were able to draw directly from the treasury, but smaller counties cannot. He will continue looking for additional grant sources. Julia stated that legislators are denying additional grants that aren't being used. Jody asked how long the City would have to spend the funding. Darron stated that we initially had until the end of the year to use the funds, but since the emergency declaration has been extended by the governor, the grant deadline has been extended as well. Chief Prillaman said that a way the department has utilized the grant funding is by purchasing additional PPE for specific COVID-19 related use. Darron said that the Finance office is continuing to look for eligible expenses, and that there is additional legislation that he is watching in order to find ways to spend the money. Jody thanked Darron for the work done on the budget. Darron stated that it was the first time in 11 years that no kind of pay increase was issued, and it will be a priority in the upcoming budget. Bruce asked if additional funding might be available to hire Fire employees from the grant. Christi and Julia stated that it would only last until the emergency declaration was closed. 4. ADJOURN Darron thanked everyone for their time and work. The meeting adjourned at 3:23 P.M.