WORK SESSION OF THE GREENBELT CITY COUNCIL held Monday, January 7, 2008, for the purpose of receiving a briefing on the FY 2008 Compensation and Classification Study.

Mayor Pro Tem Roberts called the meeting to order at 8:15 p.m. It was held in the Council Room of the Municipal Building.

PRESENT WERE: Councilmembers Konrad E. Herling, Leta M. Mach, Edward V. J. Putens, and Mayor Pro Tem Rodney M. Roberts. Mr. Roberts said Mayor Davis could not attend because of illness.

STAFF PRESENT WERE: Michael McLaughlin, City Manager; Consuella Harris, Human Resource Officer; David Moran, Assistant City Manager; and Kathleen Gallagher, City Clerk.

ALSO PRESENT WERE: Jill Pylant, Slavin Management Consultants; and resident Joan Falcão.

Mr. McLaughlin introduced Jill Pylant to Council. He said she had met with department heads today and would meet with employees tomorrow for an overview of the study.

Ms. Pylant then gave a short slide presentation, which she said was designed for employees for the purpose of showing them each step of the process of both the classification and compensation parts of the study.

Ms. Pylant said the jurisdictions proposed for comparison to Greenbelt would include College Park, Bowie, Prince George’s County, Laurel, Gaithersburg, Takoma Park, and Rockville. She said in the meeting with department heads, M-NCPPC had been mentioned as another possibility relative to the Recreation Department. She noted that in her opinion there was really no single municipality that was a good “comparable” for Greenbelt.

Mr. Putens sought clarification on several points. There was some discussion of the Factor Evaluation System(FES) of classification. Ms. Pylant said the City’s existing system is clearly FES-based with some deviations. She said what she would propose would be more closely FES-based.

Ms. Falcão asked several questions. It was clarified that the police officers who are covered by the collective bargaining agreement do not fall under this study. Ms. Pylant also said that the federal government was not included as a comparison group but could be if the City wanted it.

Mr. McLaughlin thanked Ms. Pylant and said the City had been very pleased with her proposal and looked forward to working with her.

Other Business

Following a break of about 20 minutes, the meeting continued at 9:15 p.m. with two informational items. Councilmember Herling had left the meeting.

Charlestowne North: Mr. McLaughlin described the response that had been received from Realty Management Services, Inc. He said he believed the tenants’ association was going to meet on Wednesday night. Councilmembers agreed they had no immediate response and preferred to wait until after getting a report on the tenants’ meeting. Mr. Putens raised a concern regarding protection for tenants who may have signed contracts at higher rents prior to the City’s intervention.

Visioning Meetings: Mr. McLaughlin distributed a draft list of questions for facilitators. Mr. Roberts said he would like to see a response from the groups specifically evaluating the services provided in each area. He said he wanted to be sure that the discussions would get into how the City can improve services in specific areas. Ms. Mach replied that she thought the questions listed should elicit that type of response. She also commented that the areas were all being discussed separate from one another without comparison.

 Draft letter to the Gazette regarding reporting on Spellman Overpass: Council was okay with the draft letter Mr. McLaughlin had distributed earlier.  

MML Legislative Reception: Ms. Mach asked Mr. McLaughlin to get clarification on whether this reception is to be limited to the MML board only.

 The meeting was adjourned at 9:35 p.m.

 Respectfully submitted,  

Kathleen Gallagher
City Clerk

City of Greenbelt, Maryland
City Offices, 25 Crescent Road, Greenbelt, MD 20770
Phone: 301-474-8000 FAX: 301-441-8248