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<br /> i <br /> <br /> ' Glen Svendsen, Facilities, noted that, due to a budget committee process, and under agreement with <br /> AFSCME, there was a review going on to assess initial cost assumptions for custodial services at the <br /> Library. He said the data would be available in February. He said the next step would be to discuss how <br /> to proceed with the analysis. <br /> <br /> ~ In response to a question from Mr. Ollek on how costs were coming along, Mr. Svendsen said costs were <br /> lower than expected. <br /> In response to a question from Mr. Ollek regarding council direction for contracting out services, Mr. <br /> Svendsen said the City Council was aware of the agreement to review the performance, and do data <br /> analysis, of the custodial staff before taking up the issue of contracting services. <br /> Mr. Chouinard said he had gone before the citizen budget subcommittee and had been asked about <br /> contracting out services. <br /> There was general discussion of contracting services. <br /> Mr. Chouinard said decisions to contract out did not rise to the level of the City Manager. He said those <br /> issues were left to department managers. He said there was no overall tracking other than the City <br /> recorder or the purchasing department. <br /> Mr. Sinniger questioned whether the current practice of contracting was the best way of comparing <br /> contracted services versus in-house work. <br /> Ms. Towle noted that most of the things being contracted were unique services. <br /> Mr. Chouinard said stressed the value of knowing exactly how much AFCME related work was being <br /> contracted out so the policy could be made the most effective. He noted that it would be labor intensive <br /> to get that data and suggested using a student intern. <br /> B. Report on Dispute Resolution <br /> Denise Smith, Performance and Development Manager, distributed a handout on the Dispute Resolution <br /> Work Team Summary Report. She said the conclusion was that the time was not right for the <br /> organization to,pursue this work further but staff did not want their work to just sit on a shelf. She said <br /> she was bringing the report to JLMRC and the Diversity Advisory Committee. She said the team <br /> reviewed a lot of the national best practices and outlined what they felt would work within the City <br /> organization. She outlined three levels of response to conflict situations. The first level is one where we <br /> could use internal resources. The second is a shared neutrals program that some agencies are using. She <br /> said the agencies that had the service available had reported that there was positive response to it but the <br /> service was not used very often. She said the third level for more complex issues would be done by <br /> outside mediators. She said this was the chosen model but noted that the budgetary reality did not allow <br /> for this choice. She said there were other options to pursue like using mediation agencies in the <br /> community. She added that there were ways to build mediation skills within the organization. She said <br /> staff was looking at ways to add mediation skills to supervisor education. <br /> Ms. Smith said she had talked to union leadership about training for stewards. <br /> Ms. Towle noted that some stewards had received mediation training but noted that there had been some <br /> employee turnover since that time. She noted that sometimes AFSCME stewards could work with co- <br /> <br />