HomeMy WebLinkAbout6.a. Accept Resignation of Deputy Registrar Clerk/Discussion of Status of Deputy Registrar Office ME
MORANDUM
DATE: May 2, 1995
TO: Mayor and Councilmembers
FROM: Thomas D. Burt, City Administrato /
SUBJECT: Council Agenda Item 6.a.
Limited Discussion
City Attorney LeFevere and Administrative Assistant Walsh agreed that the personal
information provided for in the memos attached to Item 6.a. should not be "public
information." It is confidential family information that should not be shared or
discussed during the meeting tonight or anytime.
For this reason the memos and resignation letter were pulled from the public copy and
newspaper copies in the roorn tonight. The deputy registrar transaction counts
remained attached and the following message put on the cover sheet:
Referenced memos are not
provided for public review
due to their confidential
contents.
� CITY OF ROSEMOUNT
" - EXECUTIVE SUMMARY'FOR ACl'ION
CITY COUNCIL MEETING DATE: May 2, 4995
AGENDA ITEM: accept Resignation of Deputy Registrar AGENDA SECTION:
'Clerk/Discussion of Status of Deputy Registrar Office New Business
PREPARED BY: Jeff May, Finance Director AGENDA 1�i�C�A � � �
1 I C!Y!
QTTACHMENTS: Memo to Council and Administrator, _ APPROVED BY:
Memo to Administrator, Resignation Letter, Speed Memo
Relating to Transaction Counts and Revenues
Attached for your consideration is a mema expiaining the events that have occurred relating to
the Deputy Registrar office for the City. Included are possible alternatives and the impact they
will have on the City and especially on the Finance Department. As outlined in my memo, I feel
that the City has two choices: 1) Close the Deputy Registrar office
2) Advertise for a replacement fo� Nancy and keep the
Deputy Registrar office open
1 believe that closing the Deputy Registrar office is the decision that makes the most sense for
#he City at this time. The services does not pay for itself and even though we have grown
tremendously the last few years, the nurnber of our citizens taking advantage of the service has
actually decreased. Cutting a service may not be a popular choice but one that I believe, in this
case, makes the most sense looking at the overall operations of the City and of the Finance
Department.
' Referenced memos are not
provided for public review
due to their confidential
' contents.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Motion to accept the resignation of Nancy Vandergon, Deputy Registrar Clerk.
Motion to close the Deputy Registrar office run by the City of Rosemount effective Friday,
June 2, 1995, and to notify the State of Minnesota of this decision and to notify the citizens
of Rosemount through newspaper releases and posting of the decision at City Hall.
- OR -
Motion to authorize the posting and advertising for the replacement of the Deputy Registrar
Clerk.
COUNCIL ACTtON:
MEMORANDUM
DATE: Aprii 26, 1995
TO: Thomas D. Burt, City Administrator
E.B. McMenomy, Mayor
Counciimembers Anderson, Busho, Staats and Wippermann
FROM: Jeff May, Finance Director -
SUBJECT: Discussion on the operations of the Deputy Registrar
On March 6th, I sent a memo to Tom(attached) talking about Nancy Vandergon, the
Deputy Registrar Clerk, and the adoption process she was going through. On March
21 st, Nancy gave her resignation to the City, effective Aprii 4th. in her resignation,
she asked that we keep the position open if at ail possible until after April 25th, the
date of the final adoption hearing. She had to leave employment prior to the 25th
because the birth mother requested that Nancy and her husband take the baby prior
to the final adoption. it was an awkward position to be put in, but Nancy had little
choice but to comply with the mother's wishes. Because of`hesitation on the part of
the birth mother and her parents, Nancy requested to leave the position open so that
she could retum to her former position if the adoption did not go through. There was
no hesitation on my part to do this as ! value Nancy as an employee very highly and
wanted to be able to retain her services if things did not work out.
Yesterday, Nancy called me to let me know that the adoption went through with no
problems and their little daughter is truly theirs. This brings me to the discussion on
the Deputy Registrar office. ln normal times, I would probably just ask that Nancy's
position be replaced. But there are other circumstances that I believe warrant further
discussion. First, as 1 discussed in my March 6th memo, Diana will be (eaving on a
parenting leave sometime at the end of May or the beginning of June(she is due June
3rd). Diana and Denise are the only two City employees who have the ability to
handle the Deputy Registrar responsiblities. With Diana leaving, Denise wi(1 be the
only employee capable of handling those responsibilities in addition to her other
responsibilities and some of Diana's as well(in her absence). 1f we do hire a
replacement for Nancy, we are looking at a training period of 4 to 6 months unless we
can find someone with prior Deputy experience. When Nancy was hired Denise
worked with her almost exclusively during her training period as did Diana work with
Denise back in 1989 when Denise was hired. With Diana being gone, it just isn't
going to work having Denise training exclusively with a new pe�son. Denise will be
busy with all of the utility billing responsiblities, all of the office supply responsibilities,
most of the insurance responsiblities, and a great deal of the accounts payable
responsibilities. These are the main reasons, along with the monetary issues that I
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presented in my March 6th memo, that l am recommending to ciose the Deputy :
Registrar window.
Since the time of my original memo, Jane Giib, our payroU cierk, has given her
resignation(effective May 12th). The Council authorized the replacement process for
that position and we hope to have a candidate for hiring back to the Council on May
16th, but probably more realistically, June 6th. Assuming a two to three week
termination notice being given to that candidate's former employer, we couid be
looking at being without someone in that position from May 15th to as long as the 1 st
of Juiy. This is going to push additional duties towards Denise, further restrictin her
9
abi(ity to perform: Deputy Registrar duties, much less train someone in to Ieam those
duties.
With Nancy being gone, Janie leaving May 12th and Diana possibly leaving anytime
between now and the beginning of June, our department is looking at going from 4 1/2
employees(including myself) to 2 for a period of a month to a month and a half. I
have discussed with Tom the possiblity of hiring a temporary person to fill in for a
short period of time and I am looking into that possibility right now. l am not a big fan
of temporaries, especially because of our accounting differences in govemment, but at
this point I do not see a lot of other options. rwill be assuming some of Janie's and
Diana's responsibilities, but with my work on the 1994 audit and on the 1996 budget,
my time wiil really be limited.
The reason I brought up the issue of Janie leaving is to further reinforce my
arguments for closing the Deputy Registrar window. Granted, we are looking at a 2 to
3 month period of time, but what if Diana takes her parenting leave, comes back and
gives her resignation so that she can stay home with her new baby. It has already
happened once here in the last year so it is not unrealistic to think that it could happen
again. 2 to 3 months could tum into 5 to 6 months. Ultimately, our department would
survive, but I do not think that it is fair to Denise or to myself to go through something
that may be unnecessary.
Two years ago, when Nancy was hired, much discussion took place regarding the
Deputy Registrar office and its operations. It took over 6 months for the Council to
agree to hire Nancy and then only if we opened the Deputy window on Saturday
momings for a trial period. After 3 months and virtually no Saturday customers, we
went back to our normal City hours. I have attached for you a speed memo that
Denise gave me showing our transaction count and #he doltars it translated into for the
City's General Operating Fund. We have the lowest transaction count of any Deputy
Registrar office in the metropolitan area and our transaction count has actually
decreased over the last few years even though our population has increased greatly.
This is really not our fault, because most every other office has at least one or two
auto dealerships to draw from that drastically increases their transaction counts, and
ultimately, their revenue. We provide a limited service to our citizens that is costing all
Page 3 : :
of the taxpayers money even though they do not receive or take advarrtage of the
benefit being pravided.
One additional thing that l have not discussed is 'Nancy's fixed assets responsibilities. :
Nancy was the person that was primarity responsible for taking care of all the duties
pertaining to fixed assets. Those responsibiiities wilt now have to be shifted to an
already thin staff. I have looked into the possibility of contracting with the firm that did :`
our original inventory and who supplied us with our software to assume many of the
fixed asset responsibilities. This is something else that I wiil bring to the Councii at a
future date that certainly merits serious consideration. If this is not an option that the
Council would consider, it means that if we did hire a repiacement for Nancy that that
person would have to be hired to do fixed assets as well as Deputy Reigstrar. Nancy
was an outstanding employee who could handle both duties but we may not be so
lucky the next time.
Also, I had mentioned in my March 6th memo that 1 would look into the possibili�ly of
suspending the operations of the Deputy Registrar for an extended period of time. We
contacted the State about this and were told that it would not be an option. We were
told that we must maintain our current hours of operation or close the office
completely. Closing the office would be a permanent move as the State would not :
allow another office to open in Rosemount because of the locations of other offices in
the immediate area. This also has been discussed in the past and at the time it was
feit that the service was one tha# should not be cut. I feel that the situation has
changed and tha# naw may be an appropriate time to consider the closing of our
Deputy Registrar office. _
The following are the options as I see them, with my recommendation being the first
listed:
1) Accept Nancy's resignation and do not replace the position, rather close the
Deputy Registrar office effective one month from today on Friday, June 2, 1995.
This will give us the opportunity to post the announcement at City Hall for one
month and also to get some kind of announcement into the local papers for
publication before the closing date.
2) Accept Nancy's resignation and move to authorize the replacement process for
her position. I am strongly opposed to this option for the reasons listed
previously in this memo and in my prior mema I believe that by keeping the
Deputy Registrar office open and hiring a replacement for Nancy will put
extreme hardships on the operations of our department which will utimately
affect alt other departments. If this option is the chosen course of action, I
believe the only way we will be able to complete the absoluteiy minimum
amount of work necessary would be to hire additional temporary staff.
. � . . . .. . . .. F
MEMORANDUM
DATE: March 6, 1995 :
TO: Thomas D. Burt, City Administrat+or
FROM: Jeff May, Finance Director
SUBJECT: Deputy Registrar Office
As you are aware, Nancy Vandergon is in the process of adopting a baby. The birth
mother fias had the baby and Nancy and her husband could receive the baby in as
little as three weeks if everything goes as scheduled. Final adoption is a couple of
months away right now, which means that nothing is absolutely guaranteed until that
time. Nancy has indicated to me that if everything goes as planned, she will probably
take at least a year off from working. If this happens it puts my department in a real
dilemma as we will be short Nancy and Diana will also be leaving on a parenting leave
sometime around the end of May or the beginning of June when she has her baby.
If everything works out for Nancy, I would like to look at the possibility of closing the
Deputy Registrar office run by the City. Finding an experienced replacement for
Nancy would be almost impossible and expecting Denise to train in a new employee
while already being asked to picic up additional responsibilities of Diana's while she is
gone is not fair to Denise or to our department. The Deputy Registrar position is a
very detailed, technical position that takes someone who has no exposure to the
responsibilities a minimum of 4 to 6 months to pick up. Nancy had no Deputy
experience but did have the luxury of being able to work extra hours and have both
- Denise and Diana available to train with.
The Deputy Registrar office does not make money or even break even. The City
takes in approximately $25,000 a year in revenues that pays for a 1/2 time position
and part of Denise's salary in addition to other miscellaneous expenses. The office
does not pay rent or other overhead costs, but if thase kind of things were factoned in
the losses would be even higher. The last time these issues were discussed was
when Nancy was hired. At ihat time, the Council felt that the service provided to the
citizens should not be discontinued, no matter what the cost. I feel that Nancy's
possible departure brings up an opportune time to revisit the issue and a critical time
for our department's operations.
_
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IfAy recommenda�ons at this time are as follows:
_ t) If Nancy does not leave, operations stay just as they are. :
2) ifi Nancy does leave(and only aiter the adoption is fina�, the Deputy Registrar
office shouid be closed as soon as legally possible gnring the public ample _ :
notice of our closing, but especiatiy before Diana leaves on her parenting leave.
It is importarrt to note, that because ofi the rules of the State regarding
operations ofi Deputy Registrar offices, if we ciose our office we wouid never
. qualifiy to reopen the office at a later date.
,3) If closing the Deputy Registrar office permanently is not acceptabie to the
Council, we could look into the possibii'ity of suspending operations for an
extended period of time. We checked with the Sta#e an this and were told that
it has never been done before and probably would not be an option, although
they will discuss the issue further.
D�ID
Date: March Zl, 1995 . �
. To: Jeff Ma.y , - _
From: Nancy Vande=gon
Subject: Resignation
With this memo I am giving my two week notification of
termi.nation of my employment with the City of Rosemount. My ].ast
day of work will be April 3, 1995 .
As you know, the reason for my leaving is for the adoption of a
baby. This adoption will not be fina.l until after the court date
on April 25, 1.995 . For this reason, I would appreciate it if my
position could be held open until April 25th. I wi1l notify you
immediately after that d.a.te whether the adoption has gone
through.
If the adoption does not work out, I would like to retain my
position and have my longevi.ty kept intact.
Thank you.
`f� G(,ILGt,
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SIGNED DATE
SENO PARTS i AND 31NTACT. CARBOhI�ESS SPEEL?ISET
REDIFORM, PAQT 3 WILL BE RETURNED WITH REPIY.
4S472/4P472 POLYPAK(50 SETS) -�---•--