MGEC Board Minutes 11.28.22

	Present		Present
President Corey Mathisen	X	Director Mike Kruse	X
Vice President Dan Sullivan	X	Director Blake Nelson	X
Past President Forrest Hasty	X	Director Sam Padelford
Treasurer Laura Lyons	X	Director Jason Radde	X
Secretary Benton Campbell	X	Director Mark Trogstad-Isaacson
Director John Dalton	X	Executive Director Dana Wheeler	X
Director Kevin Joyce	X	Administrative Assistant Donna Blackwell	X
Director Mary Kloos	X	Labor Relations Specialist Tony Kelly	X
Director Justin Kraus	X

Others in attendance: Chelsey Brummer (MnDOT), Carroll Aasen (MnDOT), Nicole Madison (MnDOT), Mike Rude (Military Affairs), Mathew Selin (MnDOT) 

 

Agenda 

Welcome participants & guests (Corey Mathisen) 

Open Forum (from non-board members) 

Guests introduced themselves 

Call the Meeting to Order (Corey Mathisen) 

Meeting called to order at 3:42 PM 

Review & Approve Agenda (Corey Mathisen) 

Chelsey Brummer’s presentation moved to after minutes review. Blake Nelson moves to approve as modified, Forrest Hasty seconds. Motion passes. 

Secretary’s Report – Review & Approve Past Minutes (Benton Campbell) 

October 24 Minutes. Laura Lyons moves to approve with 2 edits: Mike Kruse attendance corrected and “annual” added to describe the large MGEC event. Mary Kloos seconds. Motion passes. 

Guest Insurance Proposal Presentation 

Miscarriages, Stillborn Births and SIDS (Chelsey Brummer) 

Currently, most employers do not allow parental leave to families who experience miscarriages, stillborn births, or infant death. FMLA often does not cover these losses either. MGEC may ask Chelsey Brummer to give the presentation to the insurance bargaining coalition. Chelsey Brummer is more than willing to talk to state employees who experience any of these losses or know someone who may want to talk to her. 

President’s Report (Corey Mathisen) 

1. Staffing 
2. Reviewed staff hours for the past month. 
3. Committee Reports 
4. No committee meetings in the month 

Treasurer’s Report (Laura Lyons) 

1. Monthly Financial Report 
2. Dana Wheeler sent out the previous month’s finance spreadsheet. No updates or questions. 

Executive Director’s Report (Dana Wheeler) 

1. Contract Implementation 
   • Range reassignment issues, backpay issues, floating holiday issues were prevalent for members this last month. MGEC has almost stopped hearing from members, so assumes most issues with implementation have been resolved. Dept. of Public Safety employees are still not seeing their floating holiday. Laura has used her floating holiday with no issue. 
2. MGEC Staff Planning Calendar 
   • Staff have developed a planning calendar identifying tasks to be completed as the year progresses. Repeating daily, weekly, monthly tasks are also included. This will help ensure work is done in advance and inform newer staff of what’s to come as well as help with coverage during staff vacations and staffing changes. The calendar will be sent to board members for their review and comment. 
3. Life Members who return to work 
   • Review of a prior MGEC decision. Should we ask for a new membership when a prior member returns to a position covered by MGEC, or resume their prior membership? The board agrees we should ask the employee to renew their membership. The employee still benefits from the terms of the MGEC contract and this additional step is important post-Janus.
4. Pension update 
   • Public Employees’ Pension Committee (PEPC) have begun meeting to formulate 2023 legislative session lobbying. Potential issues include reducing employee contribution, eliminating state income tax on benefits, and increasing the annual COLAs. 

Communication & Membership Report (Donna Blackwell) 

1. Membership Update 
   • Board reviewed numbers. 7 new hires on 11/28’s report but didn’t want to include them for today’s meeting as they weren’t in the board packet, so will be included in next month’s meeting. 
2. 96% open rate on November email update. 

Labor Relations Report (Tony Kelly) 

1. Tony Kelly is spending time putting together site meetings, with reps from various offices. Tony would like to see more clarity and consistency enterprise-wide. 

Vice President’s Report (Dan Sullivan) 

1. Met with Tony Kelly, Dana Wheeler, Corey Mathisen, and Fernando Nacionales on the transition and onboarding for Fernando. Discussed plans for next year and Corey Mathisen’ s experiences this year.

Past President’s Report (Forrest Hasty) 

1. No updates. 

Other updates, comments, questions, suggestions 

1. Jason Radde asks about elections and discussion of results. 2/3 teller committee members reviewed the numbers. 282 members voting seemed low. A possible reason for low turnout was the lack of competitive races. No reminder email was sent but the members had prior by email and on the website. 

Adjourn 

Forrest Hasty moves to adjourn. Mike Kruse seconds. Motion passes. Meeting adjourned 5:14 PM.