Need seen for human resource person

CELINA - As most big companies have a human resources person, so too should a city boasting a $50 million budget, city councilman Jeff Larmore argued this week.

Larmore led the charge at a personnel and finance committee meeting at which city officials revisited a long-dormant discussion of adding a human resources position to the city's administration. They'll reconvene for another round of talks at 6 p.m. Monday in council chambers on the second floor of the city administration building.

Such a person could handle personnel issues as well as payroll, health care and other functions for a workforce of about 100 employees, Larmore said. The duties today are scattered among auditor Betty Strawn, safety service director Tom Hitchcock, department and union heads and consultant Clemans Nelson & Associates.

"It's not so much as trying to take things away (from other departments), it's just trying to get things organized a little bit better," Larmore said, adding that for years officials have tended to matters outside the city administration. "Now we're in a situation where we can look at some of this with collective minds around the table, all get on the same page, all understand what a human resources person is supposed to do for us and decide collectively if that's the direction we want to go."

In late 2011, then-planning and community development director Kent Bryan pitched the same idea, saying an HR position could pay for itself in potential health care and consultation savings. He had anticipated the addition would cost just over $150,000 for salary, benefits, travel, legal consultation, communication services and supplies.

But a few months later, the new administrative team of mayor Jeff Hazel and Hitchcock shot down the proposal, saying they would continue to address health insurance and personnel issues with the current staff while trimming expenses from the budget.

"It went dead for whatever reason," Larmore said about the push for an HR position.

Hazel, though, now signaled he's amenable to considering adding HR in some way to the administration, whether council members opt for a part-time or full-time position.

"HR's pretty in-depth. I think it's been piecemealed over a number of years," he said, pointing out he's learned that other towns have either a full-time HR person, split the duties up or rely entirely on a consultant.

On the personnel side of HR, officials said employees take concerns to their department head or union representatives, ultimately ending up before Hitchcock.

"He ends up being the judge, the jury and the executioner of all of it, which is not normally how I would think things would run," Larmore said. "Usually if somebody (elsewhere) has an issue they'll go to a human resource person that's a separate entity."

Employees may be less inclined to go directly to the top of the chain of command with sensitive issues, he said.

"You want them to have an open-door policy where they can come in and talk about something that might be happening even with a fellow worker, that we don't know about that could be a liability for the city," Larmore said.

Larmore likened an HR person to an island.

"Everybody knows if they have a question on anything, they should be able to come to this person, the door goes shut and they can talk about anything they need to talk about," he said. "That person is qualified and experienced to be able to direct them the way they're supposed to be directed."

Councilman June Scott agreed, saying they would be more likely to take up issues with a fellow employee rather than a higher-up.

Hazel, too, echoed those thoughts to the newspaper later in the week.

"There really needs to be an intermediary in there … to take the edge off, give them a safety zone," he said.

Hazel said no specific personnel issues had sparked the renewed talks on HR.

Consultant Clemans Nelson & Associates would continue to aid the city with more complex matters, such as guiding negotiations with unions, Larmore said.

Other duties of HR, according to a position description template referenced by councilors, could include processing payroll records; data entry; tracking of leave time, sick days and holidays; medical documentation; and tax paperwork, among many others.

"This is everything that the auditor department does today," Strawn noted.

The two entities would work in tandem, Larmore said.

"If this person does some of these tasks, which a lot of HR people do this part, it still needs to be checked by the auditor and audited so it's done right," he said. "There's got to be checks and balances."

Scott then pressed Strawn for her thoughts of divvying up duties.

"We have a payroll system, and that tracks all of the accruals on the holidays, the sicks days, the vacation days," she said.

Strawn said she interpreted the Ohio Revised Code to require that all money to be paid out by warrants issued by the auditor, though she asked law director George Moore for his opinion.

"That's why it's important that we have these meetings so we can work through and get this massaged so when we put this together we're not making things worse, we're making it better," Larmore said. "And we don't want redundancy."

Councilman Mike Sovinski asked his colleagues to consider whether to add a full-time or part-time position and whether such a person should focus exclusively on HR or take on other duties.

Larmore said he feels HR demands necessitate a full-time position. The city would also be able to attract more-qualified candidates with a full-time position, he added.