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8.f)2) City Office Hours Meeting Date: 07/19/2011 Agenda Item: `� �i J �� °� l/ ��� � City Council Agenda Report City of Scandia 14727 209th St. North Scandia, MN 55073 (651) 433-2274 Action Requested: Discuss the City's office hours. Deadline/Timeline: N/A Background: • Councilmember Swanson has requested a discussion of the city's office hours. There is a concern that the hours may not be convenient for all residents, particularly those that commute to jobs outside of the city. • Common office hours kept by many cities are 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday(42.5 business hours each week.) Some have extended hours once or twice a week as a convenience to citizens who are not able to visit during normal office hours. • Some cities have adopted alternative schedules. Newport, for example, is open Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (Their full-time employees work fourl0-hour days per week.) There are some cities that close on Friday afternoons but stay open additional hours Monday through Thursday, or something similar. For example, the City of Columbus has "summer hours": 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 Monday through Thursday, and 7 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Fridays. • Staff contacted several neighboring small cities to collect information on how they handle receptionist duties during their open office hours. Cities vary quite a bit in their staffing and office arrangements so it is difficult to say what is typical. The cities we contacted generally have two support staff inembers who work full time hours corresponding to their open office hours. They often share the receptionist duties, staggering lunch breaks (so they don't need to close at midday, like Scandia does) and backing each other up during absences. • Scandia's office hours are 9 a.m. to Noon and 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. We have one position (the Deputy Clerk) that works that schedule, 30 hours per week. The other positions who share the duty of greeting the public are very part- time positions (the Treasurer, about 8 hours per week, and the Office Assistant, about 12 hours per week.) That means that for one-third of the open hours, there usually is just one person available to staff the office. The Deputy Clerk needs some uninterrupted time for certain tasks (such as writing minutes, Page 1 of 3 07/07/11 accounts payable and payroll) and time to meet other needs. It is important to have backup for her and some time when she can work with fewer interruptions. • While the 2 full-time employees working in the office(the Administrator and Building Official/Maintenance Supervisor) do answer phones and greet visitors when necessary, it can and does negatively affect our ability to perform other aspects of our jobs. When none of the support staff are available, we must leave our desks to cover the reception duties, making it very difficult to accomplish other work. • Staff make many informal accommodations to be accessible to the public. We often respond to requests to stay open late or over the lunch hour for someone who is running late or has a special request. The Administrator and Building Official/Maintenance Supervisor have flexibility in scheduling their full-time office hours to fit in evening meetings and appointments outside of regular office hours. A drop-box was installed so documents and keys can be securely received outside of office hours. Staff has not received complaints about office hours. • The City I worked for previous to Scandia had a concern about office hours, as many commuters had difficulty visiting during regular office hours (8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) We found that because many commuters had left the community by 7:00 or 7:30 a.m. they would find office hours later in the day to be more convenient. The solution was to extend office hours to 6:00 p.m. one day a week. Tuesdays were chosen as more desirable for the public than some other days, and it was already a meeting night for many of the staff inembers. We found that traffic during the added hours was generally quite light (even after many years) so staffing was kept at a minimum, generally one person at each public service counter. The staff inembers who volunteered to staff the extra hours on Tuesday were allowed to take off the same amount of time on Friday afternoon. Because there were enough staff available. and this was seen as a"perk"by some,the extra hours were easily added to the schedule without increasing staffing costs. Recommendations: Because Scandia has a small staff, expanding office hours to be more comparable to those of many other cities (42.5 open hours vs. 30 hours) would not be possible without a significant increase in staff. At a minimum, the Deputy Clerk position would need to be expanded to full-time and some additional hours added to the other two positions to make sure breaks and absences could be covered. While we believe there is enough work to justify additional office staffing, the Council may not wish to increase the budget. At the same time, we are sensitive to the concern that our citizens who commute may have difficulty with the current office hours. One option would be to extend office hours to 6:00 p.m. one day a week. Page 2 of 3 07/07/11 Most Tuesdays, the Deputy Clerk is required to work in the evening to take minutes at Planning Commission or City Council meetings. Her shift on Tuesdays could be changed to 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., or until the end of the meeting on those evenings. We believe this could work if the Office Assistant is available to cover the 9:00 a.m. to Noon shift. The staff cost should be negligible, as the extra afternoon hours would be offset by reduced morning hours and the city is already paying the Deputy Clerk for time spent at meetings. We would be increasing the number of hours the office would have a single person on reception duties, but there could be some off-setting benefits. The 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. period would probably be fairly quiet. On meeting nights, the Deputy Clerk would be working for a half hour or full hour prior to the meeting with privacy to do other work and to prepare for the meeting. Having the morning off on such days would also be desirable for personal reasons, and would shorten what can be a long work day when there are evening meetings. The additional office hours could be offset by a reduction in hours on some other days, if the Council wanted to make sure there would be no additional staff cost. However, we believe this might be more confusing for the public. Staff also has discussed whether some alternative schedule (such as the four 10-hour days as practiced by Newport) could help improve service to the public. The office would be open fewer days, but for longer hours. In Scandia's case, we believe this might actually result in a reduced level of service to the public and increased costs. The typical day to close (Friday) could also cause difficulties for people who using the Community Center on weekends. We also tend to get a lot of requests for burning permits on Friday afternoons. and visits from other folks who may have that day off work. Attachments/ • None Materials provided: Contact(s): Prepared by: Anne Hurlburt, Administrator (city office hours) Page 3 of 3 07/07/11