Agenda - Council Work Session - 02/13/2007

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In 2005, an extensive review and revision of the City's personnel policy was conducted. The culmination of this process was the dissemination of the policy to all City staff in early 2006 and meetings with each department to review the significant provisions of the policy. Also in 2006, Springsted, Inc. was hired to conduct an organizational study on behalf of the City of Ramsey. The goal of the study was to provide the City of Ramsey with a roadmap to attain ideal service delivery and organizational structure models based on anticipated increases in population, changing demographics and commercial, industrial and residential development. For a number of reasons, Springsted was not able to fully assess the needs of the City rela~ive to service delivery. The result of the study was a series of recommendations from Springsted, Inc. that will enable the City to identify future service delivery needs. Springsted's recommendations were reviewed with the City Council at the January 2007 Strategic Planning Session. Staff will periodically bring forward the recommendations to provide the City Council with updates and/or to request direction relative to the recommendations. The City is fast approaching Stanton Group 5 status (suburbs with populations over 25,000) and will need to hire additional staff to keep up with the service needs of this growing community. The need to attract and retain highly qualified staff makes it imperative that the City assess its salary and benefits packages to ensure that they are competitive with cities of similar size and growth patterns. As Ramsey continues on its path of growth and development, it will be important for the City to reconsider conducting the Classification and Compensation study in the near future. During 2006, the City entered its third year with Blue Cross Blue Shield as its health insurance carrier. For the first time, in addition to the cadillac plan (Aware Gold), the City was able to offer a high deductible health plan with a health care savings account attached. The overall increase in premiums for both plans was 11 %. Of the 56 employees enrolled in the City's health insurance program in 2006, 43% were enroW:d in the high deductible health plan and 57% were enrolled in the cadillac plan. For 2007, the City experienced a 3% overall increase to health insurance premiums. With respect to dental and life insurance, 2006 was the second year of a three-year rate guarantee. In November 2006, the City held its first Health and Wellness fair for employees. The, Fair was a half day event that consisted of the typical open enrollment meeting, as well as a presentation on personal finance by the City's employee assistance program and the following break-out sessions: blood pressure screenings, flu shots, 10-minute chair massages, and one-on-one sessions with TEAM, the City's employee assistance program. The feedback from staff and department heads was very good and staff looks forward to conducting a wellness fair in 2007. At the end of 2006, staff had settled contracts with LELS Sergeants and LELS Patrol. . Staff is still negotiating with the AFSCME bargaining unit. 2006 Annual Report -4-