Today Today Today When you meet that certain someone You've been searching hard to find It's a new love full of passion That can sometimes make you blind I don't mind being swept away If I know right from the start So before we go much further, girl, can I trust you with my heart? In the time we've spent together, I have learned to trust in you. So many things you've given before I even asked you to. But reality and romance I sometimes fall apart So what I really need to know is Can I trust you with my heart? Can I cast my cares upon you? Can you stand the heavy load? And I count on you to walk me down that long and wide road If you promise me these simple things I can guarantee You can always count on me Yeah Oh Oh guitar solo That long and wide and run When two hearts Solely surrender And are sworn to Understand It completes a perfect union Between a woman And a man So please don't Misunderstand me I don't want to go too far Without knowing Just an answer Can I trust you with my Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, let's get started. First, I want to recognize and welcome back our colleague, Siobhan Akers. She's been out and has this most beautiful little girl. I keep telling her she needs to bring her to the council meetings, and then we wouldn't get anything done. Welcome back, and also I want to welcome a new council office employee today. She started this week. Her name is Kendra Thompson, and she's our council staff specialist. Welcome today to the meeting. And after that, then we'll get started. In your packets today, you have the July 5, 2016 summary. Are there any questions about the summary? If not, is there a motion to approve? Second. Second. All right. Motion by Council Member Bledsoe, seconded by Council Member Akers. Is there any discussion on the motion? There being none, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. That passes. So the first item we have is the minority recruitment and retention, and it was placed in the committee by Council Member James Brown, and I will ask Council Member to introduce it. All right. Thank you, Chair. First, I would like to start off by thanking Commissioner Bastin and all the chiefs and division leaders for taking their time to meet with us to talk about the issue of minority recruitment and public safety in the different divisions. As a fairly new council member, a lot of the questions that I asked was just for information. And I think everybody was patient with me and the questions that I had because this is actually an issue that I know it's at the front of everybody's, all the divisions are concerned about minority recruitment. I think they're working hard to do everything they can to bring minorities into public safety. It's just a hard nut to crack. And the reason that we asked to put it in this committee instead of public safety is because we think some of the answers or some of the things that we can do to address helping these efforts may be budgetary. It may take some money to help this problem. Then it may be some changes in the way we go about the hiring process through HR as well. So with that being said, I'll go ahead and turn it over to Commissioner Bastin. We can go through the presentation. And today's presentation is just information. It's just FYI. We're going to go through some of the efforts that each division are doing and then talk about some of the barriers and then even talk about what public safety is doing as a whole to address minority recruitment. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Brown. and thank you for your interest in this very important issue to all of us. I don't think anyone minded the questions you asked. We were very interested in having that discussion with you in conversation. Let me begin by saying that I know I have 15 minutes. I can barely say hello in 15 minutes. And to talk about all of the things that each of these divisions are doing to attract minorities and to increase diversity in the workplace, We could probably spend two hours on each one. So I'm only going to be able to hit the highlights. I'm not going to be able to go into a lot of real specific details. But I do have all the experts from the divisions here. If you have questions after we're finished or as we go along, just stop me. We'll keep it real informal. But we can get into as much detail as you want and as you have time for because I promise you the individuals here understand what they're doing. And, Commissioner Bastin, I will just say if you need more time, Clearly, we have the two items on the agenda, and I don't think that anybody in this committee would be against you having as much time as you need for the presentation. So clearly, if you need more than 15, don't cut anything short because of that. Okay. Each division sent me a bunch of information, a bunch of slides, trying to keep it to 15 minutes. I tried to limit it to no more than two slides per division, so it's really a condensed version. But let me go ahead, and we'll get started. We'll talk about what we're going to talk about today. I'll start with police recruiting, fire recruiting, community corrections recruiting, and retention, which has been a big issue with corrections. And we felt like it was important to talk about some of the new efforts and ideas we have for that. E911 recruiting. And then we'll talk about, in general, some barriers that we see across public safety with recruitment efforts right now. and then have time for any questions that you might have about any of those divisions' efforts. First, we'll start with police. And, you know, police have done an outstanding job, I think. They reach out in so many directions to try to partner with folks within the community. They have had, I know in the past, focus groups. They've brought in experts to talk about what they can do and help with some of the planning for recruiting and minority recruitment especially. They attend a plethora of career fairs. They hold hiring symposiums, which is something that's a relatively new concept. We've only done the last three years, I guess, two or three years. And those actually target specific groups. And I remember the first one we had was a female symposium where we advertised everywhere we could to try to get folks to come in. We had free babysitting, and we had refreshments, and we did it on a Saturday morning. And we brought people in just to talk about and try to generate interest in the career and to try to encourage folks who maybe thought that that wasn't something that they could do, that it could be a career that they could do. And have people there, a lot of females within the agency were there to talk about their experiences and things that they had experienced as becoming a police officer and then throughout their career and the things they liked about doing that. But those symposiums seem to have done very, very well. And I know FIRE is doing a relatively similar concept now, and they're seeing great interest in those. So I think that's a good step. Lexington Bluegrass Minority Business Expo, we always register, have tables there. We try to be there and be involved with that to try to see if we can get referrals or talk to people directly. or maybe someone we have a conversation with will have a conversation with a relative or friend that they know that might be interested. They post job openings on historicallyblackcollegeuniversitycareers.com, which is a website. I have an example of that if anyone would like to see it. The front page, when you go to that website this morning, actually has Lexington Police Department is now hiring for police officers right on the front page of it. So we try to take advantage of as many of those kinds of opportunities as we can. Saludos.com, which is a website that's primarily aimed at recruiting Hispanic Latino folks, Spanish-speaking folks. So we advertise on that to try to get the word out that we are interested in diversity and inclusion. Partnerships with colleges and universities. We have a list that's very long of colleges and universities that we send flowers out that we actually physically attend. We go to minority colleges and universities to try to really increase our representation there and get the word out that we have opportunities. We welcome diversity at our agencies. We advertise through media outlets, and there's a long list of those that I don't really have time to go through here, But Spanish radio, just all sorts of different publications, and the list is long. Partnerships with military units, local churches, NAACP, those are all things that we work with routinely and frequently. Our folks are on all the military websites, and we post openings and so forth for people who are getting out of the military, just so that they know that we have opportunities and when our next process will be. So those are but just a few things that police are doing. Fire recruiting. Fire has a new plan that they have recently developed and have put a lot of work into that, a strategic plan for recruiting, a diversity recruitment plan. And they have a dedicated personnel for recruitment, minority recruitment. So they're really taking a whole new approach to how they're doing this. They benchmark best practices, looked at that, did their homework in coming up with this plan, and then tried to tailor it to what they felt like would work locally and with the partners that we would have here locally. They, too, go to career fairs at a lot of places, Kentucky State, Fayette County Public Schools, the Carter G. Woodson Academy, Richardson Heritage. They are now hosting, as I mentioned, gender-specific recruiting events. They're advertising at a lot of different venues, TV, newspaper, radio, Spanish newspaper, radio, African-American newspaper, flyers, word of mouth, churches, anywhere that they feel like they can get the word out to let it be known that we're interested in hiring people. corrections corrections as you know has been a challenge for us to hire to fill our vacancies in general 15 new positions were approved a couple of years ago and we've never actually been able to fill those 15 that were authorized so we've traditionally since i've been commissioner and before i got here had 50 or 60 vacancies within corrections so this has been a big priority. We've talked about it, and we're really working hard on it now. We're working three times harder, I think, than we were. We're actually handling multiple classes at a time, as opposed to hiring a class, waiting six months, starting another class, and going through that process. We're having sometimes two or three classes in process at the same time, so we're not waiting to get a large number to start a class. If we get 10 or 15 people, we're beginning a new class with that. We have some new advertising strategies that seem to be working for us. We've divided it up into recruitment teams within internal teams within the agency. And so we're getting buy-in from some of the line level staff, getting them involved in what interested them about the career, what continues to interest them about that, and to reach out, come up with new strategies. And I have to tell you, I think it's working. In talking with Director Haney, we have, I'll get all these dates messed up if I try to say it, but we have the class in now. We have another one that backgrounds have been completed on with 25 potential folks that we feel good about the backgrounds. That group would graduate December 9th based on a projected start date we have here later this month. If we had them on today and we had no attrition, we would have virtually zero vacancies come December 9th. We will have attrition. We know that. But we're coming down off that 60 number. We're going to be down hopefully in the teens at least by December 9th, which is going to be a tremendous victory and a great tribute to what this team's done. They have revamped almost everything they've done with recruiting. They're partnering with churches, NAACP, going to colleges that they hadn't gone to before, expediting the process. HR has been very good about working with us on making some improvements to the process, making it more user-friendly. And so we feel like this is going in a great direction for us right now. Some of the things that affect retention, though. Retention is something that we knew we were going to have to have an effect on if we ever get a handle on this whole vacancy issue at the detention center. Director Haney has recently made some promotions with several females and diverse candidates. one of the new promotions, new major promotions, staff level promotion, has kept, well, Major Morgerson is heading up a female focus group. And what they're doing is looking at the survey that was done by EKU that you all had a presentation on. And they're looking at one of the issues in that was that females felt differently or that they were treated differently. So that's a great concern to us. And we asked them if they could put together a focus group, look at the survey, try to come up with some of the issues, identify them in more detail, and then come up with some practical recommendations on what we can do to intervene to change those perceptions by female employees at the detention center. So I'm real excited about that. I'm optimistic. The survey, we're continuing to work with that. And you all had, I think, Council Member Lamb, you asked for an update on that. So we were already in process with that. Director Haney is keeping a list of all the things that we're doing that have a direct, we feel like have a direct impact to the survey, things that were pointed out. And we'll be ready to come back to you, hopefully, after the first of the year, if that's when you want it, and give you a more comprehensive rundown of where we've been over the last six or seven months with that. But another thing that's been key, I think, that I thought was a good idea that they came up with and are doing, is they're not waiting until people leave to find out why they're leaving and how they feel. They're scheduling, commanders are scheduling interviews with staff who've been there within their first year to find out how it's going, how are you feeling, are you liking it, what's of concern, those kind of things, so that we really identify maybe what's going on before someone makes a decision to leave. And we hope that will have some impact as well. E911. E911 is working within the system, within our government system. They've made some improvements recently. Generally, they have good representation within their division. One of the areas where they had some need was with Hispanic Latino individuals and the ability to speak Spanish. So I know Director Stack has reached out to Isabel Taylor and working with some possible referrals for that. have been advertising in Laveau's and Spanish radio and all sorts of different venues to try to attract some more folks who have different language skills that they can bring to the table for us in E911. We know that's very important. It has been a hard thing historically for us to accomplish. They're advertising local newspapers. They attend community events. And then they have a sit-along program. I didn't know when I saw that I had to read a little bit more, but what they do is they encourage people to do like police do a ride-along program. They invite people who think they might be interested to come in and watch for a shift or four hours or however long they want what is involved in that job. They just come in and sort of shadow a person to see. And so we think that's a good idea. We would like to make people aware of that. So the sit-along program is running strong right now. Okay, a few of the barriers that we see. Some of these are more specific, but some are in general. I don't think it's any surprise that nationwide the social and political climate concerning policing has hampered the interest in the profession. And that's understandable. We've seen these cycles occur before. but we're trying to do all we can to represent what we stand for here in Lexington, what our department is all about, and that we're different, that we're a part of community, and we want to build strong relations with community, and we work very hard to be the best we can be. If you really want to make a difference in the community, what better way to do that than to join a public safety agency? So that's the message we try to get out. Another barrier that we have, though, and this is no surprise, has never been a surprise, police statistics show that more female candidates fail the fiscal test than male candidates, and it's the same for fire. We have state standards for police fiscal standards. That has been an issue. We actually challenged that in mid-2000s and worked on getting some of those things changed. At one time, one requirement was a 16-inch vertical jump. And that's from as high as you could reach. Then you had to jump up and touch a spot on the wall 16 inches higher than that. We were losing most of our candidates. Unless you'd been an athlete and had refined the technique of jumping like that flat-footed, you just weren't going to pass it. So we were successful in getting that replaced with another test that had less adverse impact. But it is a challenge. And what police, I know, have done is since we had the standard and it was mandatory, we worked with candidates to try to get them to develop the technique. And we worked with them for a few weeks to try to, you know, get them to where they could pass, learn the technique and pass that particular standard. FIRE has found the same thing to be an issue. and under Chief Chilton's leadership, I'm proud to say that during the next process, that FIRE is going to implement a similar program where they're working with candidates to work on specific techniques to prepare for those fitness issues that have been barriers in the past. So the standards we don't control, but we can help people prepare to be successful, and that's what we're committed to do. Another issue that has traditionally shown adverse impact within testing for police on Hikon Fire 2 has been written testing. And what I will say is that all the agencies within public safety are aware that that's a potential. They're constantly looking at where we lose candidates in the process and working very closely with HR to ensure that we have the very best and latest materials that we can to try to minimize impact. So I talked a little bit about community corrections. They're taking smaller groups, and they're working their training staff to death, but that's just the way it's got to be right now until we get some of these vacancies filled. I already mentioned those other two things. One thing that we want to try to do is get the message out about public safety and opportunities within public safety. When I came in as commissioner, one of the things that I noticed was police and fire had a lot of presence within the community. And if you probably went out on Main Street and stopped the first 10 people that came by and asked them what public safety was, they might either mention police or fire or maybe both, but they might not get beyond that. So we're trying to come up with a marketing plan to lift up all the agencies within public safety and let people know that you may not want to be a policeman or a fireman, firefighter, but you could still be part of public safety, and you could still be part of an important team that responds when seconds matter. You know, someone may not have the physical makeup or ability to pass some of the fitness testing for a firefighter or police officer, But, you know, they could work in E911, and that's where everything starts. You're talking to the person in crisis, and you're supplying the resources or getting the resources they need to help them in a time of need. So I don't think people think about that always. So there may be a lot of people that would like to be a part of that very important team, but for some reason never really thought about it seriously because they felt like they couldn't do it. Well, there is a way that you can be part of that team. And we want to lift that up, and we want people to know about all of the agencies in public safety and what they do. Sherelle Roberts has done some work, I know, specifically with corrections, with some marketing. I don't understand all the technology with it, but, you know, data mining with the Internet and all this other kind of stuff that's really exciting to learn about. All I know is when I click on jobs on my phone or do a search, then the next 10 times I go to search something, something about a job or community corrections pops up. Well, she's figured out how to do that. We want to bring that to all public safety and get the maximum exposure that we can for the money that we spend. In terms of money, Council Member Brown had mentioned this and he was interested in this as we went through the process of meeting with him. And the only agency that has a specific recruitment budget, dedicated recruitment budget, is fire right now. Others have, you know, looked for other line items to try to find extra money or whatever to do what they could. And that would be something that would, I think, Council Member Brown would agree. could be a consideration for the future is to have some dedicated funding to be able to to even do more than we are and maximize our exposure and with that i don't know how long it took me it probably took me longer than 15 minutes but i'm ready for any questions that you might have or have for any of the folks that are here with me today Thank you, Commissioner Vaston. I appreciate that. I will recognize Council Member Henson. Thank you, Chair. I was actually, I'll have a comment later, but I, Council Member Maloney's monitor's not working, and he has a question. So I signed in so he could speak. I don't think it's as funny, you all. Not funny at all? Gotcha. I just hit a button and everything went blank, okay? Excuse me. I do contend. Question is, and I appreciate the presentation and all the trouble that I see, what it takes to recruit all these physicians and all that. But we've got a tool here that I think if there's some way that we can utilize that, and that's the people that work in those positions and how we can give them incentives because, to give you an example, you've got the fire department that work out in the community. They have mentors for kids and all that that come up. And I want to try to get as many recruits as we can, not only for the minorities, but also people that live in Lexington. And we have this great bunch of groups. Fire has a great connection. Police has PAL, which they kids grow up. Corrections, I think probably with the people working there. have we ever thought about giving them incentive because if they recruit somebody and they stay here for a year and go through all that, that we should reward them for going out and doing a job that HR is not doing a very good job with. And I don't mean not coming, but they have a hard time finding people because they can't find, but these guys here can find talented people. I think they're the best at finding these folks because they picked a profession they love and the last thing they're going to do is put somebody in there that's going to do a half job because they're going to have to protect this, someday protect them. And to me, has anybody ever looked at that, to try to give in-house some kind of incentive to bring those recruits on? I mean, I think it's against the law. I think it's wrong. I think these are your best recruits, are the people that work here. Let me assure you that we do try to utilize our current employees. They're our best ambassadors, people that they know from church or from a business that they attend or somewhere. We try to do what we can to get them involved. They certainly understand that the person that they're going to be working next to, it's important that they get a quality person to be side-by-side with them. I will say, back many years ago, when you remember the—I was with police then, the law enforcement appreciation weekends we had out at Fayette Mall, you remember when we did all the displays and all that, there was a concept then of I think the mall wanted to give a prize to the police officer that got the most applicants or people to take the test. And I don't think we were able to do that. This was many years ago. I remember them saying that there was an issue with that, with giving money for being able to do that. So that's the only history that I know about that, Council Member. I'm open because it seems like we're having a hard time with corrections, as you all can see, and it seems like we're having a hard time keeping folks here. But we've got a lot of talented people here that want to hire people they've watched grow up, kids have grown up. And to me, if they end up getting any of these kids to come work for us, we ought to give reward to people for training. They look like a mentor. So to me, I would ask that, I don't know if collective bargaining has something to do with this or somebody, but I think we ought to give incentives for anybody that goes out there and recruits, especially in their department, because they're going to recruit the best because they want to be sure they're going to be safe. We'll investigate that and certainly follow up on the idea and see if it's something we can do. Well, I will help you, whatever it is, because I think it's not working what we're doing now. So I think we need to try something different. So I'll be on board to help out any way I can on that. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Chair. I'll just, I appreciate the presentation, Commissioner, and I'll just highlight some things that came out in the interview process with the different divisions, and it may spare some questions from other council members. But some of the things that we found that were barriers to recruiting in the hiring process, and the commissioner touched base on it, it's not all departments have a budget to recruit, to use to recruit. And I know the whole department, I know police and fire and corrections all said it. They're all ambassadors, and they're all always recruiting. So I think they're doing a good job of doing that. But not all of them have a dedicated recruiter to whether that's that person's sole responsibility. So there's some inconsistencies across the board there. Another thing is the recruiting and the hiring process. I think the hiring process for police takes somewhere between four to six months to get, you know, from the start of application to when you get hired and next to start getting paid. I think fire, I think when you submit your application to fire, I think that's a nine-month process to go through that. And then we found with E911, once you do get hired, you're required to go to EKU for five weeks overnight. And for somebody with a family or with some responsibilities, that's a barrier. That's something that's not easy for everyone to do. So there are some things in each division, each department, that are barriers to recruiting and to hiring. So what my thought was is today, this would be a presentation that we have some questions, try to get some answers to some things and then come back more than likely after we make the hire for the diversity and inclusion officer, which I think will be a valuable tool to help address some of these challenges and barriers, but come back with some recommendations. And I don't want to speak out of turn for the commissioner or any of the department heads, but I'm pretty sure that they're open to meet and talk about some of their challenges that they have with recruiting and hiring. because I know when we interviewed, I think some of them went for two hours, and we had pretty lengthy conversations about the whole process. But another thing that kind of came out was the application process. Some applicants didn't know where to go from there. They didn't receive a confirmation that their application was received. They weren't sure they filled it out correctly. So I know that some money has been allocated to upgrade PeopleSoft to improve the application process. I think that's also going to help the whole hiring process because that came up across the board was the application process. And then another thing was testing locations. Some divisions were testing here. Others were testing there. it might be something to look at to have one central testing location that is in line with public transportation to ensure that everybody can get to the testing location at various times. And maybe public safety can look to recruit across the board together. Because you come in thinking you want to be a firefighter, but then that might not be the best fit. you might be better served as a police officer or corrections officer. So if public safety has the capability to recruit across the board, then I think that will improve our pool of applicants and get more minorities into public safety. So I'll end with that. And then I guess if any other council members have any other questions, then maybe we can see if we can't get them answered. Thank you. All right. Council Member Henson. Thank you again, Chair. We received these stats. Do we know how this compares with Lexington's population? We do have that information. I didn't put it on the chart. Okay. We still have some work to do, obviously. Okay. We still have work to do. That would be, you know, we could measure our progress as we go along. And I do appreciate everyone's efforts on this. And I know you've been in my neighborhoods and trying to recruit. And I appreciate Councilmember James Brown for his efforts in diversity, because I think it should be throughout government. and the new position will certainly help with that. One population that I always mention is individuals with disabilities. I consider E911 and emergency management probably could certainly benefit from contacting vocational rehabilitation or, you know, when you have physical restraints, it's obvious that you cannot serve on fire or police or corrections, but you certainly could serve in those areas. So I just wanted to throw that thought out there, and I do appreciate these efforts very much. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Akers. Thank you, Chair. Thank you for this presentation. I think it does highlight some efforts that I know that you all have been working on. Social media has really changed your all's face the last year or so, so I commend everybody that's working on that. And then I think it also highlights improvements that we have to work on. And I wanted to ask, talking about barriers, Are there different educational requirements for police or fire? I mean, is there any college required, I guess, or post high school? There's no college required for police. In fact, one of the great recruitment tools that we have is the partnership with BCTC. And so they have looked at the curriculum that's taught there. They actually, if you're successful graduating the academy and going through the FTO, you can get an associate's degree awarded for that, credit for that. We actually increased the academy three weeks in order to incorporate the general education requirements in the academy that are needed for the associate's degree. And we may be the only agency in the country that I'm aware of doing that. That sounds like a great benefit and something we should really be marketing. And so all three or four, even E911, all of them only require high school diplomas for the entry level. There are different positions within public safety that require more. Sure. The first thing I can think of would be some that Pat Duggar might have in emergency management, some real specialized type things. So entry into that position obviously would require some specialized education and training. But just entry level for police, fire, 911, and corrections. I don't think there's any college requirement. That's good. Certainly something that's considered in the hiring process, but it's not a requirement. I went to EKU for a little while, a really long time ago. And so I remember I used to live near some of the police dorms that were there. So I wasn't sure if they had to have those classes before even becoming an officer. I guess it's a lot of once you're an officer, then you take those continuing ed classes and that sort of thing. That provides a good background in theoretical and philosophy. But, you know, we've always said that we want good people, good, solid people that have the right character to serve in public safety with a desire to serve. And then we'll teach them what they need to know to do the job well in the way that meets the expectation of our citizens. And once they attain this, associates from BCTC, or if they do, is that a pay increase from entry level, like if they come in? There's some level within the contract for educational attainment. You get paid certain amounts, yearly amounts, based on the amount of education you have up through a master's degree. Okay. And lastly, just out of curiosity's sake, for the ride-alongs or the sit-along, is there a minimum age requirement? There are, and I can't speak to that with each individual division, but we can certainly get them to come up and tell you what those are. I was just thinking really about high school students and potential, you know, if there's a senior or whatever that's interested in this, you know, if we're recruiting on high school campuses or even, I mean, certainly I'm sure 18 and up, but I was just thinking about potential recruits in high schools and how they, maybe not a ride-along, but the sit-along I thought might be interesting to potential recruits. That might be something we can do. 18 seems to be a pretty important number for some of the kinds of things, especially in police, fire, and corrections that they might be exposed to. Right. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Councilmember Evans. Thank you, Chair. I'll go along the same line as Councilmember Akers was going. I think you mentioned that you're reaching out to different institutions. I was curious to know what some of those were because I think there is a misconception that, especially for police, that you need a degree and you've got to go to EKU to do it. We certainly value education, but I was just curious as to what other schools are being reached out, I guess, for all of the areas. And then I think Council Member Brown had kind of hit on an idea as well about just having a collective public safety fair. I would hope that you all are talking to each other about that and working together to figure out how to do that. Because you're right, someone might walk in the door thinking they want to be a police officer and then say, no, I like that emergency management. And then, so I guess I would continue to encourage that, but I was curious about the different schools that you've seen. Sherelle just handed me a list here from fire just to give you an example. Career Affairs Ball State, Eastern Kentucky University Fire Science Program, BCTC, Moorhead, Western Kentucky University, Tennessee State, Vincennes University, Kentucky State University, Ohio State University at Newark, a fire science program there, Central Ohio Technical College fire science program, Elizabethtown Community College, Campbellsville University, Center State College, University of Cincinnati at Blue Ash, Indiana University, Central State University. Okay, I'll stop you. You don't have to go there. Council Member Evans, I think you're right. There is a perception that people just don't know sometimes the extent that these agencies are going through to get the word out. They're really working hard. Yeah, and it's regional, so I eventually stopped at the list. But, yeah, I was interested to keep going because you are making it very regional. So that's appreciated as well because we do have to branch out. We don't, as much as we want everyone to be here, we do have to branch out. So thank you for that. It was just a curiosity question. Thanks. Council Member Maloney, do you want to? Yeah, I have something to say. I want to, first of all, want to make a clarification. I want to clarify that I apologize if I said something about HR. They do process. What I was meant to say is they only can find what they've been handed and go down and give it. What I want to do is get you guys, give them a better chance to get better recruits in there. So, anyway, I want everybody to understand that HR needs help finding the best recruits, and you guys have that talent, and I don't want HR to come out of here thinking that I think they only get what they get. And to me, that's what I meant. And I don't mean HR to say that I mean anything what I meant by that. You only get what you can give. So I want to go on record to let you know if we know what we get, we have to give it to the police. But I do ask that you all step up to help HR to bring in the best recruits, and I think you all can do it. and then you know the folks that you work with and grow up, they're going to save your life one of these days, or they're going to save somebody's life. And they're giving people down there they don't know and you don't know, but we want to have people we do want to know. So I want to just clear that up before it goes any farther. Thanks. Sorry about that. Council Member Bledsoe. Thank you, Chair. I just want to say how much I appreciate the presentation, how much work I feel like you all have done to be ahead of the curve. And this is great stuff. You should be very proud. of how hard you are working to have minority recruitments in our department, that you're being strategic and thoughtful about it. And I appreciate it's recruiting all over. I'd like to recruit our own, that we're raising up junior high school students to have dreams of working and serving in Lexington, that we're not going all over the world, that we have Lexingtonians serving Lexingtonians. Absolutely. Nice thought. Thanks. And I've saved my comments for after all my colleagues asked. I think this is a correct statement, but correct me if not. But don't you get points for higher education on your application? Like if you... We really don't have... I'm not aware of a point system for initial hires. Oh, okay. You know, they're either qualified to meet the minimums or not. Right. And then there's a combination of some other scores that go into it. Okay. Okay, well, that's fine. I was just thinking, I mean, obviously, I'm the perfect example, I think, of not having to have a major degree to be able to work through and work up in government, and I'm very proud of that. But, you know, I just don't want to deter people from being able to apply to work in public safety or government, period, if you don't have a degree. It's something that if it's the right fit for you, then the shoes will treat you well. But anyway, the other thing is just for the public's knowledge, I don't know how many people really know that we have our own training for all these areas. Other cities who hire their public safety, they have to go. I think they go to EKU and other places. And I thought maybe if you might want to expand on that, I think that is pretty exceptional that we have that. It is something we're all very proud of. You know, with policing, folks have to go to EKU. With fire, I'm not as certain how that's done. I know there's a state fire school, and our folks actually, we host it. People come here from all over the state to get training in smaller departments, and we host it, offer expertise, share resources, you know, and people are here for a week while they're going through that. The only issue that we still have or where we have people that we're sending is with E911, and the state does control that. There have been no other academies that have been authorized to do that training. So that's what Council Member Brown alluded to with the five weeks, and that can be a barrier. You know, if you have someone who wants to be a dispatcher or call taker, and they're hired, and then they suddenly have to go away for five weeks and live away from home, there's a residency requirement for it, and then come back. That can be a barrier sometimes. So we'll continue to work with that and lobby at the state level and see what we can do. But I think citizens should be proud of the fact that police, fire corrections, we do our own training. And it's not because we do that because it costs less money, because sometimes it doesn't. It takes extra resources for us to do that. But we feel strongly enough about it that we want our people that are going out to provide the services to do it the way that our citizens have come to expect. And the only way I think you control that is by doing that training, getting to know the people while they're on probation. And if they're not cut out for it, then you make a decision early to not go forward. So we're doing what we believe to be the best we can to put the best people out on the front line for public safety. Well, and I think we have a really good example of that in our community, too, because we do have an outstanding Division of Police and Division of Fire and community corrections. I've seen a major change there, and I look forward to many more higher expectations. I think we're raising the bar there, E911. I know there was a time where you couldn't keep people in those seats. That's a tough job. And I know Pat has done an exceptional job in DEAM. I still call it DEAM, in emergency management. So I think we do a fine job. The other thing, we used to have safety officers, and safety officers back in the day were different than they are now. And I thought maybe it might be advantageous if you would touch on the standards for the safety officers as they are today so that the public could know. I mean, I feel like this is an educational time for the public as much as it is for us as well, so that people know. Absolutely. I'm going, this is a newer concept, the redesign. I know there was a lot of thought put into that. I had conversations with Chief Barnard and others in police, and we tried to look at the historical perspective and try to see what we felt like we could make improvements on or change to best fit our needs today. And so a lot of thought went into that. And I'm going to ask Commander Holland, who's in charge of training for the police department, to come forward and get more specific with that. I don't know all the requirements, and I'm sure he will. So as with this regular training, we conduct the training in-house. It's part of Bureau Special Operations, the traffic section is in charge of that currently. It's all housed and monitored and managed through training. Currently, it's a seven-week process that come in, and then they do on-the-job training just like a regular police recruit would do out in the field. This is only the second class that we've had come through, so we're constantly evaluating that process. Again, it's a high school diploma in order to go through the application process right now. Cool. Well, I mean, I know that can lead into a police officer position, I think, sometimes. But it's also a very important position that we've started again with in our community, too. So I think this is outstanding information. I appreciate all the information. The questions have been great. And Council Member James Brown, do you have anything to close it out? I appreciate everything. Thank you, Chair. I'd just like to thank Craig Bentz and Tiffany Tatum for their help with working on this. I really appreciate the time and effort they put forth, as well as the time the departments took to meet with us and talk about recruiting. Thank you. All right. We appreciate everybody that's here today, too. I know your time is very precious. So we'll go on to the next item. and this is an item actually I put into committee and it has to do with the human resources audit. And as I understand, Ms. Beth Belden, who is the human resources manager, is going to present today. Welcome, Beth. Thank you. I am Beth Belden. I hope I won't take until 3 o'clock. I can't make any promises, but Council Member Maloney, please don't take me to 3 o'clock today. As you all know, we underwent an audit. It was conducted by the NOVAC group. It started last year. It went into this year, and we got the results, the recommendations in May. We started the project in June. The NOVAC group had provided 13 recommendations. We've been at this project for just over three months, and I'm glad to report and happy to report that we have implemented 10 of the 13 recommendations. So we're excited about that. I'm going to talk to you today about four major points, why we are implementing this audit, what it means for our employees. First, it'll be reduce the time to hire. We're going to improve our efficiencies, increase our transparency, and we'll provide better communication across the government. so how do we reduce the time to hire we are working on streamlining our processes the major point of the novak group's recommendations was to combine our class comp section with our talent acquisition section currently or previously they were two different sections and there was a lot of overlap a lot of working together they were highly contingent on each other, so we combine those two areas. What that means for our employees and our hiring managers is that instead of having one, two, three people to go to, they now go to one person. Anywhere from the P3 process, which is the form, I'm going to talk about that in just a minute, the form that initiates the process all the way to new employee orientation. So they'll have one point of contact instead of having two or three, perhaps four people to talk to. We've established condensed timelines for each stage of the hiring process. The NOVAC group found that it took approximately 134 days to hire somebody. The entire onboarding process took 134 days. We now have set a goal for 70 days, and that is aggressive, but we feel like that is very attainable for us. We have tightened up some of our processes internally, how we track jobs, and some other of other measurements we've tightened up on. We've also rolled out some divisional policies that will hold our divisions accountable to report back to HR with throughout the hiring process. So that has went well, and we saw immediate results from that. Another way we're going to streamline the process is to automate the P1 form. This slide isn't up here so you can squint and see what's on there. It's just very recognizable. It's one of our two forms in HR that people are aware of. This is the P1 form. So any kind of personnel action from step promotion to suspension, even address changes on here, that comes through the P1 process. And that will come either currently in our office mail or email, and that will be automated through PeopleSoft. DS will start their requirements after the first quarter or during the first quarter of next year. We're going to improve efficiencies throughout this audit once we implement it. We provide professional development training to our employee relations staff. We have already done this and training will continue, not just initial, but we will continue to provide that. Our management training from what the NOVAC group suggested is we've already done that. We started a new program called LEAD, and that stands for Leadership, Education, and Development. That will be through our directors' meetings. So any deputy director, director, commissioner, higher-level administration will attend these director meetings. Our first one will be October 14th. So we are excited about that, and that will happen on a regular basis. HR analyst position and benefits, we have posted that. That's in this budget, and we start interviews on that next week. Job descriptions, we've sent out 200 job descriptions to the HANA Resource Group. We have received 166 back, and we continue to work on those. And again, combining the class comp and the talent will improve our efficiencies. How are we going to increase our transparency? Currently, or previously I should say, an applicant will apply for a position. HR will go in, look at the applicants, decide who meets the minimums and who doesn't meet the minimums. We would send those who met the minimums to civil service. They would certify the list. We would send that along with the applications to the divisions. What we have changed is we go through, just like normal, and decide who meets the minimums, but at the division's request, we will also sit down with them and go through those who didn't meet the minimums. So if they are aware of something maybe we missed or they want to be heard on something, they know the job better than we do, maybe, then we will hear that out. It's really a win-win for both sides, HR and the divisions. It increases the transparency and it also increases the communication between the two parties. Speaking of communication, we have used the PIO office, Stacey Diamond and her group, on communicating versus changes and updates throughout HR. This has been a great resource for us, and we appreciate their efforts. Those are the ten recommendations that we have implemented. When we first started this project, Sally had challenged us to not just stop by the recommendations of the Novak group, but what can we do better as a division besides those recommendations. So we have further developed three other areas in HR, and I'm going to speak to that for just a minute. So this is the other infamous form, the P3 form. This is what starts the hiring process. So when there is a vacancy in the division and the division is ready to hire, they submit this P3 to HR. It starts with a hiring manager, and then it goes to the director, to the commissioner to sign off on, to HR. Once we certify the list, it goes back to the division. We do a salary rec. They send it back with who they want to interview and then who they choose. So it goes throughout the government, a lot of different hands, a lot of different places. There's no workflow that's being tracked. Unfortunately, a lot of times it's through inter-office mail, sometimes email. So I'm happy to report that this will be automated and this will be in PeopleSoft. And we will start this training with hiring managers, divisions, payroll coordinators by end of year this year. So that's a big win for everyone. So training, the Novak group had suggested that we provide training to our employee relations staff. but we said why stop there when everybody in HR could stay in some training. So this is just a snapshot. We're scheduled for 49 trainings through the rest of this year, and that's both classroom and webinar trainings. And this will go on. This is just, like I said, a snapshot for the rest of this year. Back to training again, why stop at HR. So we looked at what we offer our current employees citywide. I've already talked about the LEAD program, where that would be the hire administration, the hire management. But another new program we are implementing is the management orientation. So this will be mandatory for all new managers, whether it's internal promotion or external hire. They will be required to go through this orientation. This will be similar to like a management 101, if you will, where our course material will be based on communication, supervisory, 101 things. But we are excited about that. The academy and the workplace development, we currently offer those. We're just putting some new breadth in it, getting some new course material, and adding some new life to that. Any questions? Well, I appreciate this. I will go ahead and recognize my colleagues. Councilmember Henson. Thank you, Chair. Beth, thank you for the presentation, and thank you for the work that's being done. I want to make a comment, and I don't want to make it as a criticism of our HR department. But I guess if you were in the private sector, 70 days would be very extreme. And that would be, it's like time is money. You have to have people in those positions in order for the business to be successful. And so I see government as being the same way. So can you provide me with a breakdown of every step from the time the person applies, what takes place next and next, every step they have to go through and show me how it comes out to 70 days. Can you do that? Because I know that government is different than the private sector, and I understand and realize that. But maybe even an application pool that we can pull from, or, you know, I just think to me 70 days is still extreme. And I have looked at, and we do have this, because I have looked at this, and you're right, Council Member, numerous times on how you get to that 70. You've got a couple of constants that just kill you. And one of them is that has to go back to the Civil Service Commission to certify that list. So you're going, and then you have council approval. So you can easily, and they'll show you how, we'll show you how all that goes. But you've got about 30 that you can't do anything about. They're just sort of stuck in there. But I want to show it to you because it's interesting because I said the same thing you did. I said, this is an improvement, 70 days. But after I've seen this track back and forth, and the civil service is state law. I mean, we have to have them to certify. And you'll see that process of how it goes back and forth. But it's a good question. Thank you, Sally. And, you know, I think anything that we could do to simplify it or whatever, I know that you all are looking at it. But it just seems. Yeah, and that's one of the major reasons. But it's really interesting. You know, after we started all of this and sort of said to the directors, you know, you're going to have to move on hiring your job. You cannot sit there on them. You've got to do it. You can't believe all those positions that we funded in the budget, they're all in process now. They've almost moved a little too fast. I mean, they are really moving, and we're beginning. There are some of those jobs that were approved in the budget that you're going to see on the docket, and you just can't get here any faster than that. But one thing, if I could mention before I leave this podium, is the thing, and I think Council Member Maloney brought it up and Council Member Brown brought it up, the biggest thing we need to fix is that application process. That is the killer. If you've ever used it, it is really difficult to understand. It gives you no information. It's really hard. Tammy can tell you we've made some improvements to it that won't let somebody accidentally not get to the end, you know, some issues. But that is very expensive to try to fix out of PeopleSoft. I have priced this thing and got two prices going from $50,000 to $770,000 to do all of this. If we can get PeopleSolfe updated, which Aldona is doing now, we can get this in the system itself for not all this money. But we've got to have this PeopleSolfe system updated and not take it out of PeopleSolfe. So that is the next big, big project because that is a key to so many things is that application process. Thank you. And, you know, I think it would help us, give us a better understanding if we had that timeline. We'll get you that timeline. We'll get that for you in a very simplistic manner. Yeah. Okay. That would be great. We'll send it out to everybody. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Cool. Hey, Sally, real quick, and this might be for Aldona, too. the upgrade that we had already approved for PeopleSoft, that includes what you're talking about? That will make that, and I'm not going to answer this as accurately as she is. Okay. This is what Jamie did one time ago. I just want to make sure that we clarify from that conversation. I'm going to let her do it. But what she's going to do, she's building this perimeter in-house that we can do this in. Okay. You know, through the budgeting process, you approved a good amount of money to help us upgrade PeopleSoft. So let me just take you back in history for just a minute. PeopleSoft implementation was done in 2008. And after that, basically, think of that system as staying static. Not much was done. In fact, we did not even do Oracle licensing. we kind of kept it in that static state without upgrading anything, primarily for budgetary reasons. And it was sort of a haste to try to implement what we could so that we would have an HR system and a financial system. Well, what has happened, and it is now 2016 over that time, is the whole computing environment around PeopleSoft changed. It got all upgraded, it got all renewed, and PeopleSoft stayed as an old static system. So what we're doing right now, and in fact some of these changes are taking place as we speak, we were able to make a few improvements to the application process so that it doesn't crater, it doesn't kick you out, and all of that, which, by the way, was very frustrating because I experienced it myself. So I knew exactly what they were talking about. But the major stuff, we can't do until we actually upgrade the system. So what are we doing? We're upgrading the foundation right now. Some of the security stuff, some of the things that will make it easier, the tools that we use. We hadn't even upgraded what was known as people tools. So that is going on right now. And during that process, one of the things that happened is actually we had folks in here, We had contractors in here who mapped all the HR processes, correct? They did everything. In fact, went back to HR and validated. Here's what we do. Here's how the process goes, et cetera. So that when we upgrade, we will be able to do that and pay a heck of a lot more attention to that front end. To do that separately in today's environment, as Sally said, makes no sense. It would be buying a separate system or looking at a separate system, then trying to integrate the data into PeopleSoft. That would be, frankly, not a good use of your money, not a good use of tax dollars. So we need to live a little bit longer. We're trying to make it so that I guess that doesn't crater, but at the same time, we're going to have to live with it. I appreciate that. I just wanted to make sure that when Council Member Henson was asking about the application process, if that was going to be included in the upgrade and not have to worry about an added expense. Council Member Maloney. Thank you. Thank you, Beth, for a good presentation. Question, how far along are we in this when we had the audit done? So how far in the process? Just three months. We're three months in. Three months in. Okay, good. But anything new takes a while to make it? Do you have a go? How long do you all think this would take? Well, the longest is going to be the P-1, automating the P-1 process. The P-1, the personnel action, not the P-3, that's going to be this year. But the P-1 is going to take a while. The longest, everything else will be completed. That's going to be an outlier. And DS will start that requirement gathering in January or February. Let me ask you this question. This is going to be an ongoing process. Right. And the example I brought up a couple times when I was in Frankfurt with housing building construction, we had the same similar problem. We had to go through the cabinet to get our employee, and I had to have fire marshals out there as soon as possible, and it took me 80 to 100 days to get a turnaround. So what they did is they were able to bring in-house an HR person in-house that we have a budget that we set with that HR person start to understand what everybody was, would that turn into a two-week turnaround period? And that's why I'm asking, as you go forward with this, that you look at other places to look at the options out there because you look at correction, you get a big, huge turnaround. Maybe we ought to put an HR person out there permanently for the many turnarounds we get. Police, fire, streets and roads. we have a lot of turnaround, especially in the winter months. We want to make sure that we have the drivers out there and also sanitary sewers and solid waste. They have too many turnaround. I just think with you all, your hands are forward. You've got everything coming to you. And I'm just trying to make it simple that a department understands their budget better than anybody's and that they can hire somebody that starts to understand their department that you can change that 70 days into two-week turnaround so when you do need somebody out there to start doing road resurfacing or anything important, you've got somebody there that has that background. So I'm hoping that you all go through this, and I'm not saying you have to use this idea, but it did work. And I had the same problem with the state with turnaround from 70 to 120 days, and I needed somebody. So hopefully that as we go forward that we look at these other options, and I commend you all for what changes. Understand I'm not mad at you now. I've been mad for the last 20 years with HR, 30 years. This is a broken record for me. It's been going on for years and years and years because employees come to me and complain. I'm glad we are changing, and I commend you all for taking that because it's hard to change. but I still think we still have other options and opportunities out there and I think with you all being open-minded I hope that you do look at other options and make those 70 days and departments that can have them in two weeks for emergency backup so I'm just glad you're going that way and I commend you and your staff to make no changes because it's hard to make changes but I think you're all on the right track and I appreciate all your hard work so thank you and we will You say, when is this going to be implemented? When's the deadline? This is a work in progress and will always be a work in progress. We will always continue to look back to see if it works, what will work better. We'll always provide training. The implementation will be done, but it's a work in progress. We'll always continue to look to see how we can make improvements. All right. Council Member Evans. Thank you, Chair. And first of all, I apologize for stepping out on your presentation. And I'm sorry if this is duplicate, but I guess understanding that this is a long-term kind of process, but then going back to the presentation that we had previously, hearing that citizens still need some kind of contact or would like some kind of contact to get questions answered, Is there some way, and I don't know if it is, hiring a specific individual in HR or designating someone in each department or division to kind of be that contact person that maybe you all can explain where the process is. I don't know if that's feasible, but it seems like that might be helpful just to create better communication, even if there's nothing to report, but to have someone that an applicant can call, like I said, whether in that division or whether someone in personnel, so they don't give up and do something else or go somewhere else. Is that something that's being discussed or being trying to figure out since it is going to be long-term? Well, they normally will contact HR. So we're assigned, part of the audit was to assign portfolios to certain analysts, and they will be working, for example, public safety is assigned one analyst, and that same analyst will be working with the hiring managers. And so normally the applicants will contact HR, and it will be the same person that they contact. So there is that side of it. They usually don't contact the division. They will contact HR. and we can even update on wherever we are in the process. And that does happen. Do you want to add a minute? And then along with that, in the police and fire, those specific bigger recruiting processes, they also designate recruiters that the applicants have contact with as well and that they're along with them every step of the way. So we partner with the divisions. So they may contact them to find out about a position, but they come to us when they're ready to apply and get that information. I'm going to do budget. Thanks. I have a couple of just comments, I suppose, and I appreciate this information. I think that every place in government needs to always know that we can always look for better ways to do our jobs and to make things more transparent to the public. I think it's very important that we always keep our eyes and ears open and, well, at least listen to ideas. you were talking about this lead new lead training and you said that it would include deputy directors directors and and up has there been any discussion to allowing certain level managers to attend something of that nature so that we can to use that training to develop them if they so choose or to be able to move up and learn from that same skill set. So traditionally I think those that attend the directors' meetings are the deputy directors, directors, and commissioners, but I don't think we would shut the door on someone if there was a request to go. Go ahead. I think that's a good suggestion and one we have talked about because we have a tendency, state government, do the exact same thing. It's just here, you're a manager. And nobody told anybody. They were skilled in how to do the job, but they were not skilled in how to manage people. And that's where you run into all your personnel problems. So I think we may need to incorporate that idea in the days of our director's meeting in which we do these trainings, in which we do these trainings. We tell those directors that they're invited to invite other people that might benefit from this that are having management. I think that's a good idea. I think that also it's not, I don't think it needs to be a mandatory thing because not every manager wants to grow with a position. That's exactly right. But certainly to make sure that all are aware of it if they are interested and make sure that it's an open door. And these were just at director's meeting in our session, so it doesn't mean somebody's got to be off of work a half a day or more. I think it's a good idea. I mean, I remember the director's meetings that I attended for years, and I really felt that they were valuable in most situations, and I think it's a good learning tool. And it also is a morale booster to people that want to move into a director's or deputy's position as well. The other thing, you talked about the P1 and P3 making them an electronic format. There are several things on the P1, if I remember everything that's on there, that are already electronically handled with the PeopleSoft. Some of them are. The form, to be perfectly honest, isn't up to date. And there's a lot of line items that we don't use anymore on that form. So we could potentially cut the form in half if we weren't going to automate it. So there's a lot of it that's already through PeopleSoft, but the rest of it, the other data entry where it's step promotion, suspensions, all that is still done on the P1 form. We process a lot of P1s. I bet. I remember the day of seeing those. And I'm all about making things electronic because it makes it so much easier to handle. The other thing is, just for knowledge, and I don't know if you even have this figure, but do you all have an average of how many positions you all are processing, not including police and fire and the large classes that I believe? Don't you all have a separate group that handles that? I mean, just the government positions alone, what's the average number of how many you process? Service and public safety, we do take them out. Do you know? We have about 20 advertisements that are running at any given time for different positions that are open. And we do still post our police and fire recruits through PeopleSoft, but even not including those, we have, I guess, on average, probably 20 at least at any given time. Okay. And then one other question is how many, and I've forgotten the position title, that goes and pulls the applications and actually measures those or looks into them and sees them? How many positions do you have? How many folks do that work in our division? We have four analysts, two generalists, and a manager. Okay. All right. I just want people to understand the numbers. And about 16,000 applications per year. Okay. All right. It's just good to know. I mean, you know, we just need to understand that this is what you all do and with the number that you do it. So I appreciate this information. And are there any other questions of my colleagues? No? No? All right. Well, thank you all for this presentation today. Thanks. Thanks. Council members, we, as you all knew, there were security cameras were supposed to be on today's agenda. But Council Member Fred Brown had asked to push that into the next meeting. So that means our November 1st meeting is going to pack, jam, full. So we're going to have our roller skates on as we go through that meeting and try to get through as much as possible, knowing that there might be some things that end up having to be held over to the first of the year. So, Council Member James Brown, it's my assumption that you want to leave the minority recruitment and retention item in committee. Is that a fair statement? Okay. All righty. And what are your thoughts on the HR management audit? Do you all see any value in having an update on that, or do you think that what we've been provided today is sufficient, that we could remove that from committee? Are there any points on that? If not, I would entertain a motion to remove it from the committee. Thank you. Second? Is there? All right. All right, there's a motion and seconded by Council Member Henson to remove that item, HR management audit from the committee. Is there any discussion on the motion? There being none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, thank you. I guess that is it. Is there a motion to adjourn for the day? All right, let's go. Everybody's for it, so. Thank you. And I've been working like a dog. It's been a hard day's night. I should be sleeping like a love