Title
Adoption of Resolution Amending Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Alameda and the Management and Confidential Employees Association Effective June 18, 2024 to Add Four Classifications to Assigned Standby and Provide Compensation to Information Technology Personnel Required to Participate in the Department’s Standby Program to Maintain Service and Security of the City’s Information Technology Network. (Human Resources 10025060)
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
From: Jennifer Ott, City Manager
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The City of Alameda (City) Information Technology (IT) Department provides Citywide technology support not only during normal business hours but nights and weekends as well. On July 1, 2022, City Council adopted a resolution approving Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the City and the Alameda Management and Confidential Employees Association (MCEA). The MCEA MOU provides, in section 12.6 Assigned Standby Pay, for the accrual of leave for specific Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) exempt positions who are required to remain ready and available for work after hours and on weekends.
None of the positions currently listed in this section of the MCEA MOU are in the IT Department. In addition, the current agreement does not include a standby provision applicable to hourly non-FLSA exempt employees. In March 2024, the City began meeting with MCEA to amend the contract to include IT Department staff in the current MOU Section 12.6 Assigned Standby Pay, and to add additional sections to provide compensation for non-FLSA exempt employees assigned to standby outside of normal working hours.
BACKGROUND
The IT Department provides support services including: computer support, application support, end-user training, network administration, cybersecurity management, telecommunications and GIS to approximately 700 City user and approximately 1,000 endpoints (i.e., computers, servers, mobile devices, etc.). Service is provided both during normal business hours, as well as after hours on weeknights and weekends. After-hours support is especially critical for the Police and Fire Departments for which the IT Department provides support to critical systems including Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD), vehicle technology, Emergency Operations Center technology, and Records Management Systems (RMS), among other systems needed to run the Departments and serve the community efficiently and effectively. To provide these critical services and respond to requests for service, the IT Department is staffed with nine employees, including two non-FLSA exempt Computer Services Technicians and five FLSA exempt positions.
To provide support services on weeknights and weekends, the IT Department initiated a standby rotation. At the moment, only three of the IT Department FLSA exempt staff members are qualified for the program and currently rotate to provide coverage 52 weeks per year. Each member of the rotation is assigned standby for a one-week period at a time. During the assigned week, the staff member is on call each night from 6:00 PM to 7:00 AM the following morning, and all-day Saturday and Sunday. When assigned to standby the IT Department members must remain available, ready to work, and cannot be out of reach, all of which limits their off-work activities. The on-call member of the IT Department monitors the Service Desk for requests and triages the incoming requests by determining the severity, and immediately addressing critical or urgent issues. For example, the assigned member is responsible to resolve critical issues such as the Police dispatch system going down or an issue with a server. These three members are assigned to standby approximately 17 weeks per year, without additional compensation. The Computer Services Technicians are non-FLSA exempt and cannot participate in the IT Department standby program. Between April 2023 and April 2024, IT responded to 292 after hours requests for service, an average of 5.6 requests per week with staff taking an average of an hour to resolve each request.
Generally, when the City limits an employee’s off-work activities that employee is compensated for their time. However, the MCEA MOU does not currently provide any form of compensation for the IT Department members assigned to the standby rotation. Nor does the MOU provide for compensation for non-FLSA exempt employees, limiting the IT Department’s ability to add members of the Department to the standby rotation. The MCEA MOU does currently provide compensation for some FLSA exempt bargaining unit members; however, the IT Department positions are not among those listed in the MOU.
The most efficient means of ensuring the City receives necessary IT service after hours during the week and on weekends, and to properly compensate employees providing these services, is an amendment to the MCEA MOU adding the IT FLSA exempt positions to the already existing MOU Standby provision, as well as adding two additional provisions to provide compensation for non-FLSA exempt position. This ensures both an available and ample workforce to provide service and the proper compensation for that workforce.
DISCUSSION
To compensate FLSA exempt IT Department employees required to participate in the IT standby program, three classifications, Technology Services Coordinator, IT Analyst, and IT Manager, will be added to MCEA MOU section 12.6 Assigned Standby Pay. This section provides accrual of leave at the rate of 1.5385 hours per pay period up to a maximum of 40 hours per fiscal year. No other compensation will be paid to these employees. For Fiscal Year (FY) 2024-25, it is estimated that three employees will receive this accrual. The total accrual for all three employees will be approximately 120 hours resulting in an approximate cost of $10,000 for FY 2024-25.
To allow additional staff to participate in the standby program rotation, two additional provisions must be added to the MCEA MOU to allow for the non-FLSA exempt Computer Services Technicians to be placed on standby and be compensated for their time. The first section being added, section 12.11 Standby, adopts the standby provision from the Alameda City Employees Association (ACEA) MOU providing 0.1875 hours of straight time pay for every hour an employee is on standby. This provides employees with 4.5 hours of straight time pay for every 24 hours they are on standby. The second section being added, section 12.12 Call Back, adopts the call back provision from the ACEA MOU providing for a minimum of two hours of pay at time and one half when an employee is called back to work at the worksite. This provision is updated to state that should an employee be able to complete the necessary work remotely, they are paid only for hours worked and not for the minimum of two hours. Adding these sections and the two non-FLSA exempt positions to the rotation results in a cost of approximately $30,000 for FY 2024-25.
ALTERNATIVES
City Council may consider a number of alternatives, including:
• Approve the resolution as recommended. This action would provide compensation to employees currently providing IT services to City Staff and City Council on nights and weekends and would allow the after-hours work to be spread across a larger number of personnel within the IT Department.
• Deny the resolution. Staff does not recommend as this would result in lack of necessary support to the City Departments, especially the Police and Fire Departments, outside of normal business hours.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
There are sufficient funds in the IT Department’s FY 2024-25 proposed budget to implement the amendment to the contract and standby program. The total approximate cost of the program under the contract amendments is $40,000 per fiscal year.
MUNICIPAL CODE/POLICY DOCUMENT CROSS REFERENCE
This action is in conformance with Alameda Municipal Code Section 4-60.40. This action relates to Strategic Plan Priority to Practice Fiscally Responsible, Equitable & Inclusive Governance.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
This action does not constitute a “project” as defined in California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines Section 15378 and therefore no further CEQA analysis is required.
CLIMATE IMPACT
There are no identifiable climate impacts or climate action opportunities associated with the subject of this report.
RECOMMENDATION
Adopt a resolution amending MCEA MOU (June 18, 2024) to add four classifications to Assigned Standby and provide compensation to IT personnel required to participate in the Department’s standby program to maintain service on and security of the City’s IT network.
Respectfully submitted,
Jessica Romeo, Human Resources Director
Financial Impact section reviewed,
Margaret O’Brien, Finance Director
Exhibits:
1. Exhibit 1 - Redline Amended MCEA MOU 7/01/22 - 6/30/25
2. Exhibit 2 - Clean Amended MCEA MOU 7/01/22 - 6/30/25