CLASSIFIED EMPLOYEE PERSONNEL ADVISORY COMMITTEE

From Staff Senate Minutes, 10/22/08 - Michael Dean reported on an emergency meeting on October 2nd to address a pine bark beetle infestation. Facilities Services has determined that spraying and other deterrents are ineffective and infected trees must be removed. It was reported that infestation occurs before trees look diseased, and good communications about the removal program will be important. Tree replacement is integral to the program.

From Staff Senate Minutes, 9/24/08 - Michael Dean reported on OFSAC's first meeting of the year, including employee recruitment issues (City and County experiencing problems similar to MSU, but seeing some increase in locally available workers, coinciding with recent economic events).

Fall, 2007 Jennifer Joyce appointed to the committee. Jennifer's first meeting will be during Fall semester.

January 25, 20007
Members Present: Bruce Morton, Chair, Allen Bertelsen, Jeff Butler, Robert Carson, Heidi Gagnon, Rick Hixson, Jim Rimpau, Ed Sondeno, Melanie Stocks
Members Absent: Sandy Gagnon, Chris Jenkins, Carol Shannon, Sandy Sward
Others Present: Sue Becker, Jeff Davis, Jon Ford, Carmen Fike for Sandy Sward

1. Approval of Minutes – November 30, 2006
The following corrections were noted to the Minutes:
• Item #3, bullet #3 should read: “Long Range Building Program (LRBP) – We are always asking for $400-600k. If the University or State does not fund something (e.g. wage increase), it can impact major maintenance.”
• Rick Hixson should be shown as “Present”. Rimpau moved to approve the Minutes of the Meeting held November 30, 2006, with the corrections as noted. The Motion unanimously carried.

2. Introduction of New Facilities Budget/Fiscal Manager
Butler introduced Sue Becker as the new Facilities Budget/Fiscal Manager. Becker joined Facilities in November, 2006.

3. 2008-09 LRBP
Butler distributed and discussed a handout showing MSU State funded appropriations that have the “go-ahead” as of 1/19/07.

4. White Paper and Cardboard Recycling
Since the core members of the Recycling Club have graduated and the club now appears to be defunct, the Grounds crew has taken over the collection of white paper for recycling. Ford is currently gathering information on the costs associated with this collection and will be returning to OFSAC members for ideas on how to proceed in the future.

Ford has purchased 3-6 yd. Containers for cardboard recycling. A company located in Four Corners will pay $40/ton delivered and we can use our backup garbage truck for compacting. Ford will also track costs associated with this program for future reporting to OFSAC.

5. ASMSU Auto Shop
Facilities staff recently held a “Brainstorming” session to discuss possible options for use of the (former) ASMSU Auto Shop building. Many suggestions were brought forward and options were narrowed down to two or three. Facilities senior staff will now make the determination on the best possible use for the building based on what makes the most sense and the cost involved.

6. Key Distribution/Management
Facilities is seeking a recommendation from OFSAC regarding management of key distribution. Currently, Facilities manages security and provides keys to University Police, where keys are tracked and distributed. Facilities proposes assuming the full operation and creating a “check-out” station. The biggest concern is availability. Although the bulk of the keys are handed out from 8 am to 5 pm, keys can be checked out 24/7 at University Police. Facilities cannot provide that time service although it may be possible to set up special expanded hours at the beginning of school.

Carson moved to recommend that the management of key distribution be moved to Facilities Operations and Maintenance. OFSAC members unanimously approved the recommendation.

7. Custodial Issues
Ford provided a handout outlining the proposed changes in the custodial service levels. With the current custodial staff vacancies at 25 to 30%, Facilities is planning to expand custodial work areas. Custodians will be expected to complete core tasks of their entire work area on a daily basis. Once these tasks are accomplished, they are expected to rotate back through the expanded area assignments, taking care of non-core duties. As a result of covering more ground, there will be a reduction in frequencies of non-core tasks. As vacancies are filled, expanded work area assignments will retract to their original sizes.

8. Major Maintenance List
Butler advised that the year end major maintenance functions will be started soon (usually in April). More information will be forthcoming.

9. New Maintenance Vehicles
Butler reported that Facilities is in the process of rejecting the new (smaller) maintenance vehicles due to a problem with the brakes. Facilities is not rejecting the idea of the smaller vehicles for the future. The Committee adjourned to inspect one of the vehicles.

The meeting adjourned at 4:50 pm.

August 31, 2006
Members Present: Allen Bertelsen, Jeff Butler, Robert Carson, Heidi Gagnon, Chris Jenkins, Carol Shannon, Ed Sondeno, Sandy Sward, Jim Rimpau
Members Absent: Bruce Morton, Chair, Carina Beck, Rick Hixson, Sandy Gagnon
Others Present: Jeff Davis, Jon Ford, Leslie Schmidt, Robert Lashaway
In the absence of the Chair and Vice Chair, it was suggested and agreed upon that Butler conduct the meeting.

1. Approval of Minutes - June 29, 2006 - Bertelsen moved that Minutes from the Meeting held June 29, 2006 be accepted with no corrections or additions. The Motion was unanimously approved.
2. Introduction of New Members - Heidi Gagnon, office of the VP, Administration & Finance was introduced as the new member representing that department. Chris Jenkins of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering was also welcomed as the department head representative.
3. Election of Vice Chair - Carson nominated Sward to the position of Vice Chair, replacing Kerry Evens. Bertelsen seconded the nomination and Sward was unanimously elected as Vice Chair.
4. Off Campus Mail Service Update - At the April OFSAC meeting, the Committee discussed the matter of mail services to off-Campus locations. The issue was the request by departments located in the VLC Building for campus mail delivery. That request was granted, however it raised the question of how far campus mail delivery should be extended to off-campus sites.

   Ford presented a handout outlining considerations and a recommendation for language to be inserted into the Mail Services Guidelines. In principle, the suggested language recommends that "mail is delivered within the University to other departments and the residence halls (not including married student housing) without additional postage costs. Delivery to programs that reside in facilities off University property and outside the contiguous central campus property line will not receive Mail Services delivery and pick-up. However, any program that operates out of a facility located outside of the contiguous central campus property line but immediately adjacent to the contiguous campus may request consideration for normalized campus mail delivery services on a case-by-case basis."

   Bertelsen moved to endorse the recommended language to be added to Mail Services Guidelines. Carson seconded the Motion and it was unanimously approved by the Committee.

   Ford also provided an updated to the discussion pertaining to the Mail Services Contract Station (June 29, 2006 OFSAC Minutes). Facilities continues to work out detailed operating costs for the Contract Station. Ford will pursue a request for additional support from the Federal side.

5. Facilities Campus Customer Service Program - Butler provided results from the Facilities Campus Customer Service Program. In FY06, with the endorsement of OFSAC, Facilities began an experimental program to provide free-of-cost service to state-funded entities for work requests under $200. The program began with an $80,000 budget. During the first year $50,431 was spent, which will allow some room to grow the program. Butler provided a handout showing a summary of jobs per department and indicated that there were only a couple of departments where several calls were made to complete one big job.
6. Request by VMB to Obtain State Custodial Services in the Tech Park - Ford reported on a recent request by VMB to obtain campus custodial services. VMB (located at MMEC), had a contract with Service Master in which Service Master opted not to renew. A request for bids resulted in only one with prohibitive cost. Unfortunately, Facilities Custodial Services has never raised staff levels from the 1987 and 1992 cutbacks and now is currently operating at a 25% vacancy rate. If it were possible to maintain staff even at the "cutback" levels, Facilities would consider providing services to VMB, however higher paying competition has resulted in the inability to bring in applicants for the custodial positions. These shortages are being experienced all across campus.
7. Billing Rates - Butler distributed a handout showing Facilities' current billing rates. Although some rates have risen slightly, they are still lower than "downtown" rates. The Campus Stores markup has been reduced to 23% (it has been as high as 31% in the past), and the cap has been reduced from $1500 to $500. These reductions are due to changes in the business plan as well as increased volume at Campus Stores. There has been a considerable amount of feedback regarding the reductions.
8. Facilities OandM/Auxiliaries/OFSAC "Billing Discussion" - Butler advised that Facilities is putting together a presentation and discussion session with Auxiliaries to explain the Facilities business and billing process. It is anticipated that this will be a valuable learning process for both entities. OFSAC members will be advised when the presentation is to take place and are invited to attend.
9. Scheduled Maintenance - Butler provided a handout showing the Scheduled Maintenance budget. This year's budgeted amount is $546,000. Although these numbers are guidelines and are adjusted during the year, we do not overspend the budget. A considerable amount of thought and energy goes into this budget but of course, there are always more requests than money.

April 27, 2006. Items discussed included:
Review of outgoing OFSAC members and subsequent vacancies.

Frequency of meetings: the committee decided to leave monthly meetings on the calendar, but will likely only meet every other month, unless there is an issue that cannot wait for two months. A notice will be sent out to committee members approximately one week prior to meeting dates to let them know if there are agenda items, or if the meeting will be cancelled.

Off Campus Mail Services: Steve Albert (WTI) and Scott Keller (Dept. of Transportation), both of whom are housed in the former VLC building, were present to join the discussion on mail services to entities that fall outside the traditional mail services boundaries. The committee discussed various methods for establishing clear criteria regarding where mail will be delivered to at no additional fee, possibilities of nominal fees in cases where criteria aren’t met, etc.

Recycling Club: The Recycling Club notified Facilities that they will not be able to pick up white paper in the summer months; Facilities recommended that the Recycling Club notify all building occupants of the interruption in service.

March 30, 2006: Agenda items included the following:

• Facilities Reorganization/Active Recruitments: Jeff Butler is now Director of Operations & Maintenance, and Walt Banziger is Director of Planning, Design, and Construction. Current open recruitments include two Associate Planners, a Facilities Analyst, Estimator, and several Custodial positions.
• Annual Building Supervisor Meeting: Building Supervisors work closely with OFS to ensure that pertinent information regarding power and water outages, major building maintenance, etc., are conveyed to building occupants in a timely manner. Annual meeting will be held April 12.
• Recycling Club Meeting: Several departments, including the SUB, Library, and the President's Office, contributed funds to hire student employees to continue the recycling program. Currently, there is minimal pick up being done. The Club would like to secure permanent funding for several positions; OFS suggested they seek assistance in developing a business plan to present to those they would like to have as supporters.
• Campus Mail Service to VLC: discussion on how OFS/Mail Services might establish reasonable criteria for boundaries of where mail service would be provided, whether those outside the boundary might be willing to pay a fee for service, etc.
• Light Duty Vehicles: Facilities has done research on various types of light duty vehicles to purchase as current vans need to be replaced. Vehicles are smaller and lighter, less obtrusive, and would have less impact on the environment.

OFSAC did not meet in February, 2006.

January 26, 2006. Agenda items included the following:

• ASMSU Representative on OFSAC – OFSAC’s charge and examples of issues the committee has dealt with were shared with ASMSU President Blake Rasmussen; ASMSU reviewed the information and decided to opt out of having an ASMSU representative on OFSAC.
• Update on Interview Process for OFS Director Positions – Search is currently underway for the Director of Operations & Maintenance position. Three internal candidates, Jon Ford, Jeff Davis, and Jeff Butler, will go through the interview process the week of January 30. The Committee further discussed whether it was necessary to set aside time for OFSAC members to meet with each candidate, or if attending the open Campus Forums for each would suffice. The Committee felt attending the Campus Forums would provide adequate opportunity for members to get an overview of each candidate and provide feedback to the Search Committee. Upon conclusion of the Director for O&M search, the Search Committee will then focus on the Director of Planning, Design & Construction search.
• Long Range Building Plan (LRBP) Update – a preliminary prioritized LRBP list for 2008-2009 was distributed.
• Status of Refuse Collection Issues – OFS provided a preliminary list of refuse collection needs to a private supplier, and was provided a cost figure. (Note – this was not a bid proposal, simply an estimate.) OFSAC will continue to discuss the issue in future meetings.

December 8, 2005 - PAF Reorganization - the A and F Division has undergone a reorganization. Bob Lashaway has been appointed Associate VP for University Services (University Police, Safety and Risk Mangement, Campus Mail, Operations and Maintenance Services, and Architectural and Planning Services) and Laura Humberger has been appointed Assistant VP for Financial Services (Accounting Services, Accounts Receivable, Capital Program Services, Purchasing, and Financial Systems Support Group). This reorganization will reduce the number of direct reports to the VP, and follows a more strategic model.

1. Facilities will now have two distinct divisions, Operations and Maintenance Services (Budget and IT Services, Mail Services, Campus Maintenance, Environmental Services, and Engineering and Utilities) and Architecural and Planning Services (facilities Planning and Mangement and Architectural Services), with a Director of each of the two main divisions. OFSAC discussed whether they wanted to serve as the actual search committee for these positions, or simply have the opportunity to participate in some part of the search process. The committee decided to be involved in the process, but not serve as the actual committee (although a few OFSAC members volunteered to serve on the search committee).
2. OFSAC Oversight - OFSAC discussed whether this reorg would/should cause the scope of OFSAC to change as well, ie should it now serve in an advisory capacity over Saftey and Risk and University Police. OFSAC felt the scope of the other departments is so different from that of Facilities that it was not appropriate to fold these departments in under OFSAC.
3. Long Range Campus Development Plan – Walt Banziger, University Architect, presented information on the Long Range Campus Development Plan. The Plan will establish the principles and guidelines that campus will follow as it grows in future years. While the Plan will not necessarily determine specific placement of future buildings, it will address issues such as will campus be condensed vs spread out, and may include graphic designs with potential future building placement.
4. Update on Refuse Collection Issues – While residents can still use the Bozeman Landfill for the near future, MSU has had to haul all trash to Logan. BFI will do an analysis based on MSU’s needs and present information on what kinds of services they could provide to address those needs. This is not a bid, simply an information gathering processes.

October 27, 2005 - The October 27 OFSAC meeting was cancelled due to lack of agenda items. Due to the holidays, the Nov. 24 and Dec. 29 meetings will be cancelled; instead, the group will meet Dec. 8.

September 29, 2005 - Kerry Evans reports:

• Dean Sara Jayne Steen presided over first meeting as new Chair of OFSAC
• Discussion on composition of OFSAC - the ASMSU representative slot has never been filled; committee recommended that examples of topics discussed at OFSAC be shared with ASMSU, and discuss with ASMSU whether they would like to have a rep on the committee.
• Garbage - further discussion on how garbage pick-up and disposal might be handled in the future.
• Cardboard Recycling - committee discussed the pros/cons of cardboard recycling, and whether cardboard recycling should continue to be pursued given the cost.

1. OFS Budget Status Report
2. OFS Rates/Charges – discussed future presentation to Auxiliary Services (a major OFS customer) regarding services, billing rates, fees, etc. Will plan to notify OFSAC members as well, so they can attend the meeting.
3. Trash Collection – discussed possible impact of whatever decision the city makes regarding trash collection, and how that might affect campus trash collection. Very preliminary discussion.
4. Sara Jayne Steen, Dean of Letters and Science, will assume the role of OFSAC Chair.

May 26, 2005 - Kerry Evans reports:
Topics of discussion included:

• Chemistry Building Update – the new building will be 4 stories tall, approximately 90,000 sq. feet, will be dedicated to research, and have room for 100 grad students.
• Campus Banners – Facilities is currently researching campus banners that could hang from light posts (similar to the ones you see in downtown Bozeman). The first banners would likely be installed in the center of campus along the mall.
• Facilities Services Space Plan – due to increased workload and staffing issues, the current space configuration is not adequate. They are developing plans to make the available space meet their needs with minimal cost.

April 28, 2005 - Kerry Evans reports:
Results of the 360 review that OFSAC members and select others recently participated in were shared with the group.

The MSU Recylcing Club gave a presentation to the committee. Short-term goals include establish a work-study position at Facilities Services that would focus on campus recycling; long-term goals include the possibility of establishing a permanent part-time position for a reclucling program coordinator, likely housed at Facilities Services. White paper recycling will be the initial focus.

HB5 Appropriations – a list of potential projects was shared with the committee and discussed

March 31, 2005 Kerry Evans submitted these notes:

• Secondary electrical service upgrades to buildings – will be discussed more at April meeting
• OFSAC 360 review – currently developing the list of questions that will be used in the web-based survey. OFSAC members, Facilities managers, and Craig Roloff will be asked to participate in the survey.
• Public Area Bulletin Boards – while the IBC and NFPA are a little more lenient about bulletin boards in corridors, there is a desire to develop a policy/guidelines to address what’s acceptable. This issue will go to the Facilities Planning Board for further discussion on policy development.

February 24, 2005 Kerry Evans submitted these notes:

• Facilities discussed their on-going recruitment problems with their Custodial positions.
• Lashaway provided committee members with updates on the LRBP items before the legislature.
• Diana Cooksey, GPS Mapping Instructor, has proposed to have students in an advanced GPS mapping course create a georeferenced map of the campus.

January 27, 2005 . Kerry Evans submitted these notes:
360 Review - committee members will be asked to participate in a 360 Review of the Committee; this will likely happen in the next few months.

Air Conditioning Policy - has been through the public comment process; going through final review and will then be officially adopted.

Romney Lockers/H and PE Fitness Center - we had further discussion on the concerns voiced by faculty/staff about having common locker facilities with students. Under the current plan, lockers will be provided in the new facility for all user groups, including faculty/staff. Contact was made with several other similar institutions; none of the other institutions provided separate locker room facilities for faculty/staff.

December 2, 2004. Kerry Evans, the CEPAC-nominated representative to OFSAC was unable to attend the December meeting. Next report available in February.

OFSAC met on October 28, 2004. Craig Roloff was present to discuss the Admin and Finance Strategic Plan, which details how the various departments within Admin and Finance can contribute to MSU's 5 year plan. Bob Lashaway presented a revised version of the "Project Fee Assessment Policy" and asked the committee for feedback. The revised policy, which also conforms to the current policy format, will be posted on Legal Counsel's website for review and comment.

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