TOPICS DISCUSSED
Everyone can access the minutes via the Internet. Just go to the CWU home page; click on "Administration", then on "VP Business and Financial Affairs", then on "meeting minutes." From here you will see a list, click on "Employee Council." (Past and present minutes are listed by date.) The minutes have recently been added to the Human Resources web page. If you type in www.cwu.edu/~hr/minutes, you will immediately be at the Employee Council Minutes.
EMPLOYEE OF MONTH BULLETIN BOARD
A glass case just inside the main
door to Boullion Hall holds a bulletin board display of all the Employee
of the Month winners for the past year. Judy Paul (Student Financial Services)
was selected as the new Employee of the Year, and the award year is now
over. Ann Arango and Leona Johnson volunteered to create a new display
for the 1999-2000 year.
EMPLOYEE OF MONTH / NEW COMMITTEE
& CHAIRPERSON
Kari Taylor & Kim Thomas reviewed
the duties, procedures and membership of the selection committee. Last
year’s committee consisted of Kim Thomas, Steve Johnson, Marilyn Thompson
and Keith Jones. The committee for next year consists of Marilyn Thompson
(chair), Karol Barker, Judy Paul, and Rob Lowery. Kim Thomas will be the
publicity person who arranges for the "surprise" presentations.
Past committee members, Paula Moffatt, Kim Thomas, Marilyn Thompson, and Barbara Hodges will meet to review the procedures, criteria and guidelines used by the selection committee and bring a written report to the full employee council.
Kari described the public "Employee of the Year" presentation to Judy Paul at the Honors Convocation ceremony. The award was made in the same sequence as the distinguished faculty awards. Kari’s only suggestions for future presentations were that the recipient should sit on stage with the other honorees (would this require regalia?) and that the employee have the opportunity to address the audience with a few words. Council members reported favorably on the publicity given to CWU and Judy Paul in a taped interview for the 11 o’clock news on KIMA –TV.
PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION COMMITTEE
– UPDATE
Seventeen members from all groups
of the campus are currently meeting to plan the inauguration of Jerilyn
McIntyre, our new CWU president. "Inaugural October: A Celebration of University
and Community" has been selected as the theme. The actual ceremony will
be on the afternoon of October 5, but celebratory events will be occurring
throughout the month. Everyone on campus and in the Ellensburg community
is welcome at all of the festivities! Barbara Hinchliff (1831 or hinchlif@cwu.edu)
and Kari Taylor (1218 or taylork@cwu.edu)
are committee members representing classified staff. If you have ideas
to put forward, please contact them.
PARKING & TRAFFIC APPEALS BOARD
There is a classified staff vacancy
on the Parking Violation and Appeals Board. Doug Ryder was the previous
classified member, but was recently hired into an exempt position. Elaine
Long (Student Financial Services, 2225) volunteered to fill the vacancy.
Marilyn Thompson and Lorraine Chavez will continue to serve as civil service
alternates. The Appeals Board reviews written and verbal information with
regard to parking violations and decides to uphold the ticket, dismiss
the ticket, or reduce the fine. This is an active board, meeting every
Thursday or every other Thursday as needed.
NEW COUNCIL DELEGATES & ALTERNATES
Kari announced the employees selected
in the recent elections. We welcome Kim Thomas (Delegate) and Nancy Bradshaw
(Alternate) from Business and Administrative Support: Unit A;
Karol Barker(Delegate) and Karen Rowe (Alternate) from Dining Services; Shelly Voshal (Delegate) and Pedro Garcia (Alternate) from Housing and Residential Services; Kari Taylor (Delegate) and Gene Wilson (Alternate) from Instructional Support: Unit B; Leona Johnson (Delegate) and Kerry Slaughter (Alternate) from Library Services; Rick Gilson (Delegate) and Al Edler (Alternate) from Plant and Facilities. These new delegates, as well as all the old delegates, will all attend the September meeting.
Terms on Employee Council are two years, so each spring half of the council is up for re-election. Since the University is currently looking at reorganization for some areas and departments, the council will be looking at final configurations to decide if reallocation of groups and delegates is appropriate.
NEW CIVIL SERVICE SALARY SCHEDULE
Ona Youmans discussed the salary
schedule that will take effect July 1. All classified staff will get an
approximately 3% raise. It becomes effective July 1, and will appear on
the paycheck that we receive July 25. We will all get letters sometime
between the July 10 and 25 indicating our new salary. Each department has
received a memorandum listing the new rates. (Temporary/hourly employees
do not receive an automatic increase.)
Ona Youmans was questioned about the requests for higher salaries that were submitted for certain civil service classifications that the University has difficulty filling or retaining. CWU, EWU, WWU, UW, WSU, TESC, and the community colleges submitted requests to the state Department of Personnel and the Washington State Personnel Resources Board affecting four different groups. The trades group statewide did not show a significant enough recruitment/retention problem and so did not make the final list of classes to be considered. Three groups: campus police, computers, and accounting are still "in the hopper" for consideration. The next step is for the Legislature to decide next spring if they will fund them. The soonest that possible salary increases could be seen here would be July 1, 2001.
VOLUNTARY EMPLOYEES BENEFIT ASSOCIATION
(VEBA)
Wendy Rittereiser, Human Resources,
presented materials about a possible upcoming benefit for employees retiring
from the university. Currently, employees who retire cash out their sick
leave balances at 25% of value. Income and Social Security taxes are withheld,
and the difference is paid to the employee on their last check.
Under the VEBA plan, sick leave would still be paid at 25%. However, the cash-out would not be subject to any taxes and the full amount would be deposited into a special account in the employee’s name, to be used to pay medical expenses. Money in the account could be used to pay insurance premiums, deductibles, co-pays, or other reasonable medical costs. Depending upon the individual’s tax bracket, this could mean a total saving of over 35%.
This plan is only voluntary on a group basis, not an individual basis. If a group elects to participate in the plan, the IRS requires that all members of that group participate. That is, no members of a participating group could receive their sick leave cash-out on their last check. It would have to be deposited into a medical spending account.
The first step in implementing the plan is to determine interest among employees. Employee Council unanimously endorsed the proposal and indicated we would like Wendy to continue to pursue the plan. The second step is to work out details such as determining employee groups, voting procedures, plan start dates, etc. VEBA will not be offered before January 2001 at the earliest. People retiring prior to that would not be eligible. The third step is to have employees vote for or against having their group part of the VEBA plan. If majority of a group votes for the plan, it would be adopted for all employees in that group.
Your Employee Council delegate has some information on VEBA, or you may contact Wendy Rittereiser at 2279.
HOLIDAY SCHEDULES FOR NEXT FISCAL
YEAR
Just which day is that holiday this
year? The following list gives the answers.
| July 4, 2000 | Tuesday | Independence Day |
| September 4, 2000 | Monday | Labor Day |
| November 10, 2000 | Friday | Veterans’ Day |
| November 23, 2000 | Thursday | Thanksgiving Day |
| November 24, 2000 | Friday | Thanksgiving Holiday |
| December 25, 2000 | Monday | Christmas Day |
| January 1, 2001 | Monday | New Year’s Day |
| January 15, 2001 | Monday | Martin Luther King, Jr. Day |
| February 19, 2001 | Monday | Presidents’ Day |
| May 28, 2001 | Monday | Memorial Day |
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 3:50 p.m.
NEXT MEETING
The next meeting is scheduled for
2:00 p.m., July 20, 2000, in Barge 201. All delegates need to attend, alternates
are always welcome. If you are a delegate and cannot make the meeting be
sure to let your alternate know so that he/she will attend.
Present:
Kim Thomas, Business & Admin
Support: Unit A
Elaine Long, Business & Admin
Support: Unit A
Paula Moffatt, Business & Admin
Support: Unit B
Karol Barker, Dining Services
Marilyn Thompson, Housing & Residential
Services
Kariann Taylor, Instructional Support:
Unit A; Chairperson
Leona Johnson, Library Services;
Secretary
Ann Arango, Library Services
Absent:
Karen Simmons, Instructional Support:
Unit B
Debbie Nethery, Instructional Support:
Unit B
Dorothy Tenney, Plant & Facilities
Vernon Bier, Plant & Facilities
Jeri Francisco-Porter, Plant &
Facilities
Pat Devlin, Plant & Facilities
Ginger Linnell, Enrollment Management
& Marketing
Shirley Hood, Enrollment Management
& Marketing
Carola Alden, Student Services &
SUB
Celia Johnson, Student Services &
SUB
Also Present:
Ona Youmans
Wendy Rittereiser
Colleen Rose