HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Minutes - City Council - Meeting Date: 4/18/2017City of Glendale
5850 West Glendale Avenue
Glendale, AZ 85301
Meeting Minutes - Final
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
1:30 PM
Workshop
Council Chambers
City Council Workshop
Mayor Jerry Weiers
Vice Mayor tan Hugh
Councilmember Jamie Aldama
Councilmember Joyce Clark
Councilmember Ray Malnar
Councilmember Lauren Tolmachoff
Councilmember Bart Turner
City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes - Final April 18, 2017
CALL TO ORDER
ROLL CALL
Present 6 - Vice Mayor Ian Hugh, Councilmember Jamie Aldama, Councilmember Joyce Clark,
Councilmember Ray Malnar, Councilmember Lauren Tolmachoff, and
Councilmember Bart Turner
Absent 1 - Mayor Jerry Weiers
Also present were Kevin Phelps, City Manager; Michael Bailey, City Attorney; and Julie
K. Bower, City Clerk.
WORKSHOP SESSION
1. 17-138 PRESENTATION ON THE ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING (ERP)
SYSTEM SELECTION PROJECT
Staff Contact and Presenter: Vicki Rios, Director, Budget and Finance
Staff Presenter: Tom Duensing, Assistant City Manager
Staff Presenter: Lisette Camacho, Assistant Director, Budget and Finance
Mr. Duensing said the request was to replace the ERP system. The new system would
replace several outdated systems currently in use and would make data easier to access
by staff and Council. It would be easier to make data -driven decisions and to be proactive
on financial issues. He said a consultant was hired to determine what the City's needs
were and the process had been ongoing for several months.
Ms. Camacho said representatives from Tyler Technologies and Berry Dunn were in
attendance to answer any questions. She said the ERP was a financial system that
recorded revenues, tracked expenditures, issued purchase orders and paid vendors. The
ERP system was also the Human Resources payroll system, which recruited, tracked
and paid employees. The ERP system also was used for reporting and would provide
information for decision-making and compliance with regulatory requirements.
Ms. Camacho said the current ERP system used by the City was Peoplesoft. There
were several other systems also used by staff to capture data which did not integrate with
Peoplesoft.
Councilmember Clark asked if all the systems shown did not interface with Peoplesoft.
Ms. Rios said each system did not integrate directly with Peoplesoft. She explained
there were some file upload options available, but those were manual processes.
Councilmember Clark asked which of the systems required manual upload.
Ms. Rios said they all required some type of manual intervention, although some had a
file upload option such as the budget system. Neogov had no upload option into
Peoplesoft. The CAFR was a download from Peoplesoft to another database.
Ms. Rios said the budget CIP system was a separate Access database, which was
developed by staff who were no longer working for the City. The system could not be
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accessed by multiple users and the report from the database could not be changed or
modified, nor could a year -by -year comparison be done.
Ms. Rios said the Employees Relations database tracked matters affecting employees,
and maintained information regarding investigations involving employees. The P -card
system did contain a file upload to Peoplesoft, but when the file was uploaded it did not
contain the vendor and other important information. If a purchase had been created for a
vendor, a P -card could not be used to pay the vendor without manual input by staff.
Ms. Rios said the Sage Fixed Asset System was used to track major assets for the City
and record asset disposals. The information had to be manually re-entered into the
Peoplesoft system. The Sage Fixed Asset System was purchased as an interim
solution due to audit findings about the inability to determine depreciation correctly. The
City did not have a database that tracked contracts, expiration dates or terms of
contracts. She explained the new contract manager had created some systems in
Sharepoint to track the data in the larger City contracts, but it was still a manual process
and there was no integration with Peoplesoft for the system.
Ms. Rios said the budget system was an Access database and the information was used
to produce the budget books. It was very difficult to make changes in the system and the
system had to be manually reconciled. The supplemental budget process also did not
work within the database and a separate form had to be created in Sharepoint to capture
the information. She said the database did not produce charts or graphs and had to be
manually produced in Excel.
Ms. Rios discussed the cost of the inefficiencies with the processes. Several City
departments were asked to quantify any savings they would see with the new ERP
project. She provided examples of the costs incurred. She also explained the lengthy
process of billing for vendors.
Mr. Duensing had asked the departments how much time and effort was spent working in
all the various systems. He did not know what the exact time savings would be or what
functions the employees would be able to eliminate with the new ERP system. He said
with a robust ERP system, staff could produce monthly reports that could be used by
Council and staff to determine any issues that needed to be addressed. The new ERP
system would be much more proactive than the systems currently in use.
Mr. Phelps had been involved in an integrated ERP update in his prior position. The new
system was more user-friendly and it was easier to become a data -driven organization.
He said staff was able to query the kind of information that allowed departments to make
course corrections on a real-time basis. He explained there was potential for error with
every manual input into any of the shadow systems.
Ms. Rios said so many different systems created inefficiencies. Although there were
dollars in the budget for a new e -procurement system and a grants management
systems, as well as several other systems, the new ERP system was an opportunity to
gain new functionality with system enhancements. She said the future of Peoplesoft was
unclear and it was no longer being actively marketed or sold. A recent upgrade of the
human management side of Peoplesoft was completed in 2015. Oracle had indicated that
it would not be enhancing or upgrading Peoplesoft after January 2018, and the Human
Resources side would be out of support in March 2021.
Ms. Rios said several options were considered, which included maintaining the status
quo with an unsupported system. The City would not get any security updates or any
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type of tax, legal or regulatory updates. An unsupported system would lead to an audit
finding by the external auditors, which would lead to bond rating downgrades.
Ms. Rios said a second option was to migrate the financials to version 9.2. The quote to
migrate the financial system was $1 million and would require the same staff resources
and time as implementing a new system because it was a major migration. The City
would receive little or no benefit from that migration. The system would be supported, but
the City would get nothing new and would still have to implement a new ERP system at
some time in the future.
Ms. Rios said a third option was to replace the ERP system for an integrated system
that would allow the City to streamline processes. The system included budget,
procurement, capital assets, as well as grant and project management functionality. She
said there were benefits in having a cloud -based system. She said the City would have
the benefit of upgrades without any additional cost. She said with the software as a
service system, if software was identified that might be useful, the vendor updated the
software and all the users gained that functionality. The vendor completely supported the
software and there was no need for IT staff to support the software. If there were issues
with the software, a user would contact the vendor's help desk, not the City's help desk.
The data was backed up and stored regularly in the cloud to ensure a smooth recovery if
there ever was a disaster.
Ms. Camacho said the total budget for the project was $6 million over a two-year period,
and the project was planned for and budgeted. The project would be cash -funded. The
implementation services cost included software configuration, data conversion, interface,
report development, testing and training. Ms. Camacho explained there might not be a
need for the full-time project manager, business process consulting and change
management consulting. Other items in the budget included subscription maintenance
and support, project management, backfill, and contingency. She said the project
manager cost was $150,000, which would be expended in FY16-17.
Ms. Camacho provided an annual cost comparison between Peoplesoft and Tyler Munis.
She said several projects were put on hold when the City began the ERP system project.
If Council decided to stay with Peoplesoft, it would be purchasing a budget system, an
e -procurement and bid management system and a grant management system at a cost
of $182,000 annually. She explained the City was currently paying for Neogov, capital
assets and accounts receivable in Quickbooks and if a new ERP system was approved,
those costs would be included in the price, for a savings of $64,000. She said the City
would also gain additional functionality with a new ERP system that it did notcurrently
have, including employee management and expense reimbursement, P -card
reconciliation, contract management, project accounting, CAFR builder, analytics and
reporting.
Ms. Rios said the new functionality of an ERP system included real-time access to
information across all modules, electronic routing and approval, multi-year budget
projections and what -if scenarios, ability to forecast future salary and benefit costs,
awarded bids that could be converted into purchase orders or turned into contracts,
tracking of budgets, expenditures and revenues for capital improvements, tracking of
grant applications, funding, expenses and reimbursements, billing and collection of
miscellaneous invoices and analytics and reporting.
Mr. Duensing said it was important to be able to complete a five-year financial projection
to plan effectively. The Tyler Munis system allowed cities to forecast revenues as well as
budget and forecast salaries and related costs. He said Tyler Munis was an intuitive
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product by allowing a view of funding sources and vendor payments. Accessing that type
of data in the Peoplesoft system was a much more complicated process. The City
currently had a lack of good financial reporting and Tyler Munis allowed monthly financial
reporting for both revenues and expenditures.
Ms. Rios said the Tyler Munis system had an integrated P -card reconciliation that
included the ability to import transaction details from the bank, electronic receipt
attachment and tracked expenditures against a vendor or a contract. The system also
had an employee expense reimbursement function which allowed travel request and
approval. The process eliminated paper receipt storage and allowed the ability to create
expense reports and view status of pending requests.
Ms. Rios explained that in the Peoplesoft system, the financial system and the payroll
system were not integrated. An upload was required from the payroll system into the
financial system.
Mr. Duensing said the positives of the proposed system included integrated systems
including budget and e -procurement, paperless electronic routing and approval of items,
tracking multi-year capital projects, contracts and grants and an integrated P -card
module that captured expenses by vendors. Other positives included paperless
employee expense reimbursement, electronic receipt and storage, collection and billing
of miscellaneous invoices, as well as tracking job applications and employee's
employment history, managing employee professional development and performance
evaluations, and CAFR builder, dashboards, analytics and reporting. There was no perfect
software system out there and staff might have some integration issues.
Mr. Duensing said negatives of the new ERP system included the initial up -front
investment, a change in business processes, users must learn a new system and
unknown integration.
Mr. Phelps said it was a significant capital investment, but it touched every single
function and every employee in the organization and having software to manage the
people and finances would never be obsolete. He explained the cost of the project had
been built into the five-year forecast and did not take away from attaining the $50 million
fund balance goal. He said there would be efficiency gained for employees and the
access to good data in a timely manner made it worthwhile and the right investment for
Glendale.
Ms. Rios said the project was in the recommended budget and the item would come
forward once contract negotiations had been completed.
Councilmember Tolmachoff asked when the Council would know the actual cost of the
project.
Ms. Rios said the contract would have the final costs when it was presented for approval.
She said staff was still discussing the costs for the full-time project manager, business
process consultant and change management consultant to determine if those
responsibilities could be handled by City staff.
Councilmember Tolmachoff said it was still a $1 million difference in cost for the project
and asked what the timeline was to determine actual costs.
Ms. Rios said staff would come forward with the contract for the project at the May 23rd
Council meeting and staff would know the final costs well before that date.
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Councilmember Tolmachoff asked if the City of Gilbert managed its own conversion
Ms. Camacho said Gilbert was still in the process of implementation, but was moving
from a Tyler Munis product to another Tyler Munis product. She said Gilbert was not
using the full-time project manager, business process consultant or change management
consultant and their transition would be much easier than Glendale's project.
Councilmember Tolmachoff asked if Scottsdale only converted their Human Resources
systems to Tyler Munis.
Ms. Camacho said that was correct.
Councilmember Tolmachoff asked if anyone knew what system Scottsdale was using for
their financials.
Ms. Camacho believed they were using a home-grown system for their financials. She
said Scottsdale had not identified funding for their financials system, but was planning on
replacing that system in the FY17-18 budget.
Councilmember Tolmachoff asked if it was possible to make the transition in a two-step
process.
Ms. Rios said generally it was done in a two-step process, with the human
resources/payroll side completed first. She said they were electing to do the financials
side first because of the timeline from Peoplesoft.
Councilmember Tolmachoff asked how saving so many staff hours with implementation of
the new system would translate to benefit for the taxpayer.
Mr. Duensing said staff did not currently know whether it could reduce costs or increase
service levels. He said his department had so many financial reporting needs that had
gone unmet, the time they saved would be redeployed into providing information and
actively managing the financial reporting. They would not know what the impact would be
until the system was implemented and up and running.
Councilmember Tolmachoff asked if the system would be able to provide information on
whether they had more employees than they actually needed. She was looking out for
the taxpayer and asked how the new system would help them.
Ms. Rios said with the type of project, it was difficult up front to say positions could be
eliminated, however, it would allow the City to grow in the types of functionality and the
things it could do without adding staff. She said by automating processes, staff might be
able to grow service levels without adding more staff. She said the system would be
more efficient and staff might be redirected to other functions which better served the
taxpayers. She would like to be able to do the reporting that the Council expected and
deserved in a more timely manner.
Councilmember Malnar said it was just the type of information he needed to analyze the
project. He asked if the existing hardware would integrate into the system, or if additional
hardware would be necessary.
Ms. Rios said it was a cloud -based system and no additional hardware would be needed.
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Councilmember Malnar liked the idea that no IT staff would be needed to support the
project.
Ms. Rios said that was correct. She said it was becoming harder and harder to find
people who support the Peoplesoft system because Peoplesoft was not marketing and
selling the systems any longer. She said service was very expensive. She said the new
system would be supported entirely offsite by the vendor.
Councilmember Malnar asked how the cloud -based system worked now and what
efficiency would be gained ensuring the system was properly backed up.
Ms. Rios said they did have data backups through IT, but with the new business model,
the information was stored in the cloud.
Councilmember Malnar asked if it would be more automated.
Ms. Rios said yes, the vendor would do that.
Councilmember Malnar asked what the timeframe was for implementation
Ms. Rios said implementation of both phases was a two-year project.
Councilmember Malnar encouraged staff to keep track of what it was gaining from the
system and how the hours were being reallocated to improve services. He asked staff to
let Council know how those extra hours were being used within the departments to make
services better.
Councilmember Malnar asked how long the City has had the Peoplesoft system
Ms. Rios said the City has used the Peoplesoft system about twenty years.
Councilmember Malnar asked if the new system was expected to last about twenty
years.
Ms. Rios thought that was correct.
Councilmember Malnar calculated a payback rate of eight years based on the numbers
provided. He liked the monthly reporting and thought it would be beneficial to the City to
stay on track with revenues and expenses.
Councilmember Malnar asked if the $6 million fee included the maintenance fee of
$998,000.
Ms. Rios said the $6 million included the first two years and the $998,000 cost would
begin in year three and beyond.
Councilmember Turner said change was inevitable and the question became what did
they go to and the timeframe for the change. He was happy there were cash reserves to
make the change. He asked if the cost for the project was spread out over two years or if
there was some benefit to spreading the cost over more than two years.
Ms. Rios said the project cost over two years was to get the software up and running.
She said the project would be depreciated over a longer period of time and they expected
to expend the funds for the implementation of the project over that two-year period.
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Councilmember Turner asked if the City had the option of taking a longer payment
schedule, but still receiving the implementation on the front end.
Ms. Rios did not believe that was an option. She explained initially staff thought it would
be a three-year project, but said it would all be expended in the first two years.
Councilmember Turner asked if the payments were phased with the installation and
training for the program.
Ms. Rios said that was correct and payments would be made as certain project
milestones were met.
Councilmember Aldama said Council didn't know what the benefit was to the citizens, but
did know where they could put $6 million. He did understand the inefficiencies of the
current system. He was uncomfortable with the comments about audit findings and bond
ratings and felt it strong-armed the Council to move the item forward. He said the
capacity for error in manual inputting would not make the bond rating go down.
Councilmember Aldama asked if there were any positives in staying with the current
system.
Ms. Rios explained the audit findings and downgraded bond ratings would be if the City
continued with an unsupported system. The City would have to do an upgrade in order to
remain in compliance. That was anticipated and had been budgeted.
Ms. Rios said the positives were that users would not have to learn a new system and
would not have to change the way they did business. She said the implementations were
a great deal of work and employees would be asked to test the new system. She said it
was a difficult and time-consuming process to test a new system. They did feel that staff
time and the investment were worth the positive outcomes that were anticipated.
Councilmember Aldama understood staff wanting to bring in a system that would make
them more efficient and said he would like staff to quantify the savings if the project was
implemented. He was also glad staff was looking at eliminating some parts of the project
to save money.
Councilmember Clark asked how long Peoplesoft would provide support with an upgraded
module.
Ms. Rios said if Peoplesoft was upgraded, they would have support until 2027
Councilmember Clark wanted to make it clear there was an option to upgrade Peoplesoft
and there would be continued support for another ten years. She was concerned that the
City spent $1.5 million to upgrade the Peoplesoft Human Resources system in 2015,
which was supported through 2021. She asked if the current Peoplesoft system could be
used to recruit employees.
Ms. Rios said the current Peoplesoft system did not have a recruitment function. She
said Neogov was used for that process and it did not integrate at all to Peoplesoft.
Ms. Rios said Peoplesoft tracked employee wages, salaries, benefits and position
numbers, but did not track employee performance, certifications and training. She said it
also did not track any type of disciplinary action an employee might have received.
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Councilmember Clark asked if Peoplesoft had the ability to pay employees
Ms. Rios said Peoplesoft did have the ability to pay employees.
Councilmember Clark asked why the Fire Department staff hour inefficiencies were so
high.
Ms. Rios said the Fire Department used several spreadsheets with data obtained from
Peoplesoft, including training records, security card information and contracts for
purchase orders. There were estimates of 80 hours per week by staff who worked on the
various spreadsheets updating real-time information. She said the Fire Department also
tracked the PA system and the drop program on the spreadsheets.
Councilmember Clark said the Police Department was a much larger department and
required 1,000 hours less than the Fire Department. She was not opposed to financials
moving toward the new system, but was not sold on immediately implementing the
Human Resources portion of the ERP system because of the upgrade on the system
less than two years ago.
Councilmember Clark was not sure there was a benefit to the taxpayer, although she did
see the benefit for staff. She was pleased to see consideration of eliminating some costs
that might be incurred for the project. Another concern was that Council would not learn
about the final cost of the project until the end of May. She thought staff might have a
pretty good idea of the final cost of the project since it had been working on the project for
a year. She would have liked to have received the PowerPoint information last week,
rather than just prior to the meeting. She supported moving forward with the financial
module, but did not see the need to move forward with the Human Resources module.
Councilmember Tolmachoff asked what the cost was to implement the project in a
two-step process.
Ms. Rios said the costs had been separated out by module, but if only the financial
module was completed, staff would need to create an interface with the new financial
system and the Human Resources system. She did not know what that cost would be.
There would not be a complete integration of all the other systems that were being used
outside of the Peoplesoft system and it would be necessary to keep several systems,
including Neogov, the retiree database, the risk management database and employee
relations.
Councilmember Tolmachoff asked if all of those databases were already being kept
separately now.
Ms. Rios said that was correct.
Councilmember Tolmachoff said the bulk of the problems seemed to be with the
financials and she wasn't sure it was worth it to proceed with upgrading the Peoplesoft in
light of the investment the taxpayers recently made into the system. She also asked if
the recent upgrade made the Human Resources system more user-friendly and more
easily integrated with a new financial system.
Ms. Rios said an upgrade was done to the Peoplesoft system in 2015 but it did not
include any additional functionality except for a couple of things. She said those few
improvements did not have any impact on the ability to integrate with the financial
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system. If the financials were upgraded at this time, staff would have to go back to
Oracle and Peoplesoft and determine what the cost was to do an integration to the new
system.
Mr. Phelps said staff could work with the vendor regarding a two -phased approach,
including costs regarding licensing fees. Staff would come back to Council with the
additional information.
Councilmember Turner asked what the compelling arguments were to move to upgrading
the Peoplesoft system in 2015, since the larger upgrade project was in the works at that
time.
Ms. Rios said the Human Resources version was very old in 2015. It was important to
have an updated and supported version of Peoplesoft to get the required IRS tax table
updates to be in compliance for payroll and reporting. She said the Peoplesoft financials
upgrade was budgeted for the year after the Human Resources upgrade. At that time,
Finance and IT staff had discussions about the difficulty in supporting Peoplesoft in
general, including increased costs and the lack of support staff.
Ms. Rios said staff discussed whether to make an investment to purchase additional
functionality for outside systems to integrate into the Peoplesoft system which was going
away in 2018. Later, staff received information that the Peoplesoft system would be
extended, but did not have that information at the time the decisions were made.
Councilmember Clark said based on when the announcements by Oracle were made, if
staff hadn't known about the continued support, IT should have known about it.
Vice Mayor Hugh said there were no other comments.
2. 17-142 CIOSI: CREATION OF A TEMPORARY CITY COUNCIL AND BUSINESS
LEADER SUB -COMMITTEE
Staff Contact and Presenter: Sam McAllen, Director, Development
Services
Mr. McAllen said the Council item of special interest was to create a temporary one-year
City Council and business leader sub -committee. He said the sub -committee would
review City processes and City codes, make policy recommendations to Council
regarding improvements to make it easier for businesses to get started and grow within
the community. The goal was to make Glendale more business -friendly and enhance
Glendale's reputation for supporting job attraction, creation and retention. Staff was
asking for policy direction on the item.
Councilmember Clark said since 1992, there had never been a review of the codes and
policies regarding regulation of businesses in Glendale. The sub -committee would
provide an opportunity to review all of the items for the purpose of recommending to
Council the removal of outdated, ineffective and redundant business regulations. It would
send a positive message to all businesses that Glendale was serious about improving the
business timate. She said business participation on the committee was critical. She
had intentionally proposed it as a short-term committee to help Glendale become more
business -friendly.
Mr. McAllen explained the committee would be made up of three Councilmembers and
four business leaders. He identified six steps that would need to be followed, including a
mechanism to create the sub -committee, authorizing the sub -committee, forming the
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sub -committee, forming the internal staff support team, convening the sub -committee and
reporting to Council.
Mr. McAllen said the goal of the sub -committee was to make Glendale even more
business -friendly and enhance Glendale's reputation for supporting job attraction, creation
and retention. There would be a staff team consisting of approximately ten staff
members, averaging two to three hours a week during the one-year time period. He said
the estimated impact would be 1,040 to 1,560 staff hours. Staff was seeking policy
guidance and direction from the Council.
Councilmember Malnar said the recommendation was for only three business owners and
one design professional on the committee. He recommended increasing the number of
members because there were commercial, residential and design and suggested
including a commercial developer, a residential developer as well as an engineer on the
sub -committee.
Councilmember Aldama wanted to add members of woman -owned and minority-owned
business organizations, as well.
Councilmember Tolmachoff had a concern about staff administratively proceeding with
some changes without consent of the Council.
Councilmember Clark said her original intent was that the sub -committee be advisory
only.
Mr. Bailey said any recommendations of the committee would have to come before
Council for discussion and approval.
Councilmember Tolmachoff asked if it would be brought back for a vote of Council. She
did not want the committee to make decisions and implement changes without Council
approval.
Councilmember Turner said prior to implementing the sub -committee, he would like to
see the Chamber survey its members regarding existing issues, solicit feedback from the
service counter to see what issues patrons might have and the establishment of a hotline,
monitored by the City Manager's Office regarding issues. He would like to do this for one
year before committing staff time and effort to the sub -committee.
Councilmember Clark said a committee reviewing City codes took many hours and lasted
much longer than a year. She said all the suggestions received were welcome and
doable and she thought Council could achieve consensus.
Vice Mayor Hugh liked the idea of putting more people on the committee. He asked what
the next step would be and what staff was looking for from the Council.
Mr. McAllen said two items were under discussion. The first was moving the committee
forward and the second item was a recommendation not to move the committee forward,
but to gather background data. He said adding additional members and clarifying the text
were things that could be easily done.
Councilmember Aldama asked how much money would be involved in the staff hours
necessary for the committee.
Mr. McAllen had broken down the departments that might be responsible, but was not
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sure at what level in the organization the participating individuals would be. Staff would
need about 2 to 3 hours per week during the one-year period. He said staff could provide
an estimate of the dollar amount involved.
Councilmember Aldama said whatever policy the committee created could generate
revenue in the future so the staff costs would be recovered.
Mr. McAllen said the goal of the committee was to improve how the City did business
with its customers.
Councilmember Tolmachoff liked the idea of moving both proposals forward and would like
to establish the committee as well as having a hotline and a counter survey to get a
bigger picture of some of the issues businesses were having.
Vice Mayor Hugh said that was a good suggestion and it could all happen
simultaneously.
Mr. McAllen said he would combine the data -driven process with the sub -committee and
would proceed with expanding the sub -committee to about ten individuals.
Councilmember Clark would like to the committee to stay at an odd number because it
might end up trying to achieve consensus or taking a vote.
Councilmember Aldama asked to include his suggested business organizations.
Mr. McAllen said he had included that in his notes and there would be between 11 and 13
individuals, inclusive of what was recommended.
Councilmember Malnar suggested combining the woman and minority requirement into
some of the other members of the committee.
Mr. McAllen said staff would continue with the data -driven process, moving the committee
forward as outlined by Council comments.
3. 17-148 COUNCIL ITEM OF SPECIAL INTEREST: CREATION OF A DIVERSITY
AWARENESS AND HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION
Staff Contact and Presenter: Nancy Mangone, Assistant City Attorney and
Staff Contact and Presenter: Jim Brown, Director, Human Resources and
Risk Management
Ms. Mangone explained Council was transforming the current Commission on Persons
with Disabilities to a more robust Diversity Commission. She said in her research, she
had found there was a common language in diversity and it included characteristics that
made people different from one another. There were primary or internal characteristics of
diversity, which people could not change, which might be protected by state or federal
law. The secondary characteristics were external dimensions, such as work experience,
socio-economic status and religion.
Ms. Mangone said diversity commissions had a definition of diversity as well as goals or
a priority statement. She found nine Arizona cities and towns that had boards and
commissions addressing cultural diversity issues. She said four of the communities had
generic language in their ordinances that generally posed a goal, but did not identify the
characteristics that made members of a community diverse. Three of the cities identified
some characteristics that would make members of their community diverse. Phoenix
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and Tucson each had a very long list of characteristics that defined diversity in their
community.
Ms. Mangone also looked at what the City's business partners were doing to define
diversity, such as the United Way, National Football League, the NCAA and the U.S. Air
Force. Ms. Mangone also reviewed the Council and City's prior actions regarding the
issue. In 2014, the City signed the Unity Pledge, and since February 2015, City
contracts included a non-discrimination provision.
Ms. Mangone said in drafting the ordinance language, she tried to create an overall goal
for the commission. The proposed language eliminated prejudice and discrimination in
Glendale and promoted equal opportunity, tolerance, mutual respect, understanding,
awareness and unity among all citizens who lived, worked and spent time in the City.
She had tried to create a commission that was consistent with the other commissions
already in place in the City.
Ms. Mangone said the Diversity Commission would be an advisory board to promote
diversity, cultural awareness and inclusion. The commission would also expand the role
and amend the language of the City's existing Commission on Persons with Disabilities,
and work with the City's Diversity and Inclusion Network to plan educational and cultural
events and host dialogues to build community relationships. The commission would have
no independent authority to act and would make recommendations to Council.
Ms. Mangone explained the commission's role would be to give citizens a permanent
forum to engage City staff and Council on diversity issues and bring information and
programs to Council for consideration. The commission would allow for public input on
issues of concern to individuals or groups of diverse backgrounds who might feel
excluded or marginalized by others in the Glendale community. Further, individuals and
groups were identified in the language, so they knew they were welcome to participate
and take advantage of the commission's efforts.
Ms. Mangone said membership on the commission was set at 14 members and
members were appointed by each Councilmember, Vice Mayor and Mayor. Members
must be residents of Glendale and could have special dedication to and knowledge of
diversity issues. All subcommittee members must be members of the commission and
the subcommittee would have no authority to act independent of the commission.
Ms. Mangone provided a draft of proposed language and said most of the language came
from the policy currently adopted by the City of Scottsdale and City of Chandler. She
had also used the language that was used in the City's contracts and added several more
characteristics or dimensions of diversity which would be covered by the work of the
commission.
Councilmember Aldama said the City already defined itself as a city that celebrated
diversity. He said it was a position the City believed in, being inclusive, diverse
community in all that it did, for those who lived, worked and did business in Glendale.
Councilmember Turner was happy with the proposed language and that the City was
following the lead of high profile partners in the community. He said it would provide
opportunities for all people, economic development and future Glendale businesses. He
supported the language wholeheartedly.
Councilmember Malnar asked what was the purpose for establishing the commission and
asked what problem it was resolving.
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Ms. Mangone said her job was to do the research.
Councilmember Malnar asked what was the reason the matter was brought forward
Mr. Brown was not aware of any problems or issues that would make the commission a
necessity. He said community meetings and some outreach had been done and there
hadn't been any issues. He said Glendale had consistently been rated low in the
municipal equality index because of a lack of language in contracts and a commission.
He said Council has had some discussions about it in the past.
Councilmember Malnar had thought about the issue and spoken with his constituents.
The commission idea did do something good for the community. He provided alternative
language for the ordinance.
Councilmember Malnar had problems with the language regarding the differences in
people. There were 23 differences identified in the proposed ordinance. He had always
tried to recognize the things people had in common. The ordinance seemed to segregate
people rather than bring them together as a whole. He was proposing more generic
language which did not include a forum for the community to express concerns to the
commission. He believed the role of the commission was to make recommendations to
the Council about what the City could do to welcome all people and discourage
discrimination. He recommended that his version be approved, rather than the version
presented by staff.
Councilmember Aldama said Councilmember Malnar's proposed language wanted to
remove the word community and he did not feel that was appropriate and believed the
Diversity Commission was a segue to bettering business in Glendale. If Councilmember
Malnar wanted to change the language, he also might want to go back and repeal the
language in the Unity Pledge and the language in City contracts. Those documents
contained the same language as the proposed ordinance. He did not understand how
Councilmember Malnar could support those documents, but not the proposed ordinance.
Councilmember Clark said of the nine benchmark cities, seven of them used the title
Human Relations Commission, which was all-encompassing. Diversity was an
opportunity to point out differences in people, and she was not sure that was the direction
the Council should go. She supported Councilmember Malnar's version of the proposed
ordinance and a Human Relations Commission. It did recognize the goal of eliminating
prejudice and creating mutual respect and understanding, which was what she would like
to see the commission do.
Councilmember Malnar said the current ordinances did apply to the City as the City did
operate as a business. He said the issue reached out to the entire community. He said
the ordinance was for the entire City and had implications for all residents and
businesses within the City.
Councilmember Tolmachoff said some categories of persons from other ordinances were
not included in the proposed language. She agreed with the other comments that they
might end up not listing some group that should be on the list and the list could go on
forever. The Human Relations Commission and the language proposed by
Councilmember Malnar covered everyone. She supported the changes proposed by
Councilmember Malnar.
Councilmember Turner acknowledged that Glendale was a forward -facing community and
the future was important. He said prejudice and discrimination had existed and did still
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exist in Glendale. He said Council should call out that prejudice and the draft ordinance
provided by staff did exactly that. He suggested peoples' differences were not
weaknesses, but were strengths. The ordinance proposed by Councilmember Malnar
was described as generic, but no one preferred generic. He said the citizens and the
community in Glendale was not generic and each and every one were special and the
differences should be highlighted.
Councilmember Turner said the suggestion which would not allow public input was a
serious mistake. He said efforts had been made to include everyone from the past
discussions Council had had about the ordinance. He encouraged Council to add to the
language if it felt someone had been left out and said there was a process to amend the
ordinance at a future date, if necessary.
Councilmember Turner supported the draft language in the proposed ordinance. A great
deal of thought had gone into its preparation and there was nothing in it that was a
citywide mandate for anyone. It created an opportunity for the commission and the
Council to do the right thing. He said it was an advisory commission to the Council, just
like many of the other boards and commissions. He supported the draft ordinance
presented by staff.
Vice Mayor Hugh said all Council could try and do was discourage prejudice. He trusted
the Council to be fair and just in how it handled the citizens. He would like to see
something move forward to a vote.
Councilmember Aldama would like to see the item move to a voting meeting to be
passed. He asked what part of the original proposed language the Councilmembers
would like to see removed. Council should set forth in the ordinance what they supported
and what they wanted to include. He asked the Council what parts of the original
ordinance they didn't support and to consider passing the ordinance proposed by staff.
Councilmember Clark did not support the spaghetti bowl language in the original
ordinance and didn't like pointing out specific groups, because someone would inevitably
be missed. She liked the language in Councilmember Malnar's proposed ordinance and
it stated specific goals, including encouraging mutual respect and understanding among
all people.
Councilmember Aldama took offense to the words "spaghetti bowl." Glendale was a
diverse community with many unique individuals. He said what Councilmember Malnar
and Councilmember Clark were saying was the Unity Pledge supported a bowl of
spaghetti and the contracts supported a bowl of spaghetti. He did not define the
members of the community as a bowl of spaghetti. If Council did not approve the original
ordinance language, he would expect them to repeal the Uriity Pledge and remove the
ordinance which added the language to contracts.
Councilmember Malnar did not have any intention of repealing any ordinance already in
place that protected individuals who worked for the City or were employed by the City as
subcontractors. The language he proposed was a compromise and brought together the
language he felt was appropriate. It would help Glendale be a better community for all
people. He asked if there was consensus to move his proposed language forward.
Councilmember Turner said there was some discussion that income was not included,
but he said the staff proposed language did include the words socio-economic condition,
which covered far more than income. He said the language was expansive and inclusive.
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Councilmember Clark supported Councilmember Mainar's version moving forward.
Councilmember Turner said Councilmember Aldama had worked hard on his item of
special interest and Council should consider his proposal first.
Councilmember Aldama said he had asked for a consensus prior to Councilmember
Malnar asking for a consensus.
Vice Mayor Hugh asked if there was consensus to move the staff version of the ordinance
forward.
Vice Mayor Hugh said there was no consensus.
Vice Mayor Hugh said there was consensus to move Councilmember Malnar's version of
the ordinance forward.
CITY MANAGER'S REPORT
Mr. Phelps had no items to report.
CITY ATTORNEY'S REPORT
Mr. Bailey had no items to report.
COUNCIL ITEMS OF SPECIAL INTEREST
There were no Council items of special interest.
MOTION AND CALL TO ENTER INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION
A motion was made by Councilmember Turner, seconded by Councilmember
Malnar, to enter into Executive Session. The motion carried by the following
vote:
Aye: 6- Vice Mayor Hugh, Councilmember Aldama, Councilmember Clark, Councilmember
Malnar, Councilmember Tolmachoff, and Councilmember Turner
Absent: 1 - Mayor Weiers
EXECUTIVE SESSION
ADJOURNMENT
The City Council entered into Executive Session at 5:01 p.m.
A motion was made by Councilmember Aldama, seconded by Councilmember
Malnar, to adjourn. The motion carried by the following vote:
Aye: 6 - Vice Mayor Hugh, Councilmember Aldama, Councilmember Clark, Councilmember
Malnar, Councilmember Tolmachoff, and Councilmember Turner
Absent: 1 - Mayor Weiers
The City Council adjourned at 6:07 p.m.
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I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct
copy of the minutes of the meeting of the Glendale City Council
of Glendale, Arizona, held on the 18th day of April, 2017. 1
further certify that the meeting was duly called and held and
that a quorum was present.
T/+
Dated this cJ day of ! 2017.
Julie K. er, MMC, City Clerk
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