Present | Present | ||
President Corey Mathisen | X | Director Justin Kraus | X |
Vice President Dan Sullivan | X | Director Mike Kruse | X |
Past President Forrest Hasty | X | Director Blake Nelson | X |
Treasurer Laura Lyons | Director Sam Padelford | X | |
Secretary Benton Campbell | X | Director Jason Radde | X |
Director John Dalton | X | Director Mark Trogstad-Isaacson | X |
Director Kevin Joyce | X | Executive Director Dana Wheeler | X |
Director Mary Kloos | X | Administrative Assistant Donna Blackwell | X |
Others in attendance:
Jim Michels, Board trainer – Only attended Board training portion;
Nathan Anderson, MnDOT;
Roger Thompson, MnDOT; and
Jeff Weiss, DNR
Welcome participants & guests (Corey Mathisen)
Began training at 3:35 PM.
Board Training (Jim Michels)
Second half of training on corporate board activities and ethics was conducted by Jim Michels. Topics included the form minutes should take, grievance procedures,
Call the Meeting to Order (Corey Mathisen)
Meeting called to order at 5:00 PM
Review & Approve Agenda (Corey Mathisen)
Blake Nelson adds Insurance Coalition Bargaining update, Past President will have an additional update, Bargaining will meet on 3/3. Corey Mathisen adds MGEC Building access to president report.
Forrest Hasty moves, Mary Kloos seconds, Motion Passes Unanimously.
Open Forum (from non-board members)
Nathan Anderson: No questions
Roger Thompson: No questions, curious about the contract
Jeff Weiss: No questions, curious about the contract
President’s Report (Corey Mathisen)
Meet with MGEC Report
Several board members attended as well on 2/14. Approx. 100 people attended members and represented non-members alike. Fairly representative cross-section of overall representation. Quarterly was the most popular frequency for meet with MGEC, that will be the planned schedule going forward.
Board Training Report
Corey Mathisen provided feedback to Jim after day 1, he incorporated comments into today’s training. Corey Mathisen will collect more feedback and provide it anonymously to Jim.
Setting Annual Meeting Date
Corey Mathisen proposed not setting an annual meeting date yet. People will be most interested in the contract/arbitration info, and without knowing exactly when that will finish, we may want to plan for late summer/fall. No specific date settled upon, but planned for after contract negotiations complete. Goal is at least after arbitration award, depending on SER or Legislature timing may be before that. Last arbitration, contract was finally ratified in October. Blake Nelson requests that we do schedule a specific date if we will have it in person. Jason Radde asks if we have decided to do it virtual or in person, and whether or not we can cancel the golf outing.
MGEC Staffing Update
Included reports of hours of sick and vacation leave.
Dana Wheeler-Executive Director
Pay Period End Date | Hours Paid | Ending Sick Balance (hours) | Ending Vacation Balance (hours) |
1/14/2022 | 88 | 218.25 | 843 |
1/28/2022 | 87.75 | 222.25 | 852 |
2/11/2022 | 85.75 | 221.25 | 861 |
Donna Blackwell-Administrative Assistant
Pay Period End Date | Hours Paid | Ending Sick Balance (hours) | Ending Vacation Balance (hours) |
1/14/2022 | 45.93 | 9.59 | 30.79 |
1/28/2022 | 44.31 | 8.19 | 35.34 |
2/11/2022 | 52.5 | 10.79 | 39.89 |
Leave balances prior to 2022 have not been verified. Jason Radde asks about Dana Wheeler working over 80 in the tables. Corey Mathisen has recently spoken about this with Dana Wheeler. Moving forward, over/comp time must be approved in advance. Jason Radde asks if Donna Blackwell is comfortable with the slightly over 40 hours per pay period. Hopefully when Tony starts he will be able to take that load off and bring her back to 40 hours.
Tony Kelly will be a new staff member starting in March. His contract will be sent to the board once signed. Donna Blackwell completed the background check and there were no flags or concerns.
Committee Reports
Committee Name | Committee Members (chair in bold, new members highlighted) | Role & Agenda |
Bargaining Team | Dana, Blake, Mohammad, Victor, Jason R., Kevin, Corey, Forrest, Jeff, John, Tom, Dan, Fernando | Create bargaining proposals and implement bargaining.
List final positions for arbitration |
Communication & Social Committee | Donna, Gene, Heather, Corey, Mary, Dana | Draft communication, ongoing review of MGEC mass communication and website.
Review |
Constitution Committee | Laura, John, Forrest, Mark TI, Jason R., Dana, Corey | Considers topics related to constitution, by-laws and policies.
Lost Time |
Education & Technology Committee | Mary, Corey, Blake, Kevin, Donna, Dana | Review PE reimbursement requests, Select scholarship winners. Consider and update MGEC technology applications.
Up to date |
Finance Committee | Laura, Gene, Corey, Blake, Jason R., Dana | Advise Treasurer, review budget, make recommendations regarding assets and dues to board.
1. Consult a Professional Advisor 2. Building 3. Asset Investment Plan |
Legislative Committee | Laura, John S., Forrest, Mark TI, Jason R., Corey, Dana | Draft legislative positions and lobby. Update of MGEC policies, by-laws, and constitution.
|
Membership Advocacy Committee | Dana, Forrest, Blake, Mark TI, Corey, John D. | Consider grievances for arbitration and offer input when needed in grievance process.
No issues to consider currently |
Nominations Committee | Hannah Braatz, Mohammad, Dana | Identify individuals to nominate for board positions.
Nomination process resumes in late summer |
Promotional & Membership Recruiting Committee | Kevin, Corey, Blake, Justin, Donna, Dana | Consider promotional and membership recruiting activities.
Contact new hires non-members. Set up meeting with grads |
Tellers Committee | Review & certifies election results
Up to date. Tellers report after 1st week in November |
Check-in – do we want to follow up on tasks listed for each committee? Add to or drop those tasks?
Bargaining: Dana Wheeler – Meeting for certification of issues is Thursday 3/3.
Communications: Donna Blackwell – Committee met 2/2. Will meet prior to any member update being sent out to membership, or as needed. Donna Blackwell was nominated to chair position. Facebook group was proposed. The group would be private, and members would request to join. MAPE has a similar group. Kevin Joyce suggests Yammer, he personally doesn’t like having his personal information tied with membership the way Facebook would work.
Do we want some portion of the MGEC website to be sign-in only? Donna Blackwell will look into the site’s video hosting capabilities. Jason Radde suggests not posting the actual meetings, members can refer to minutes.
Constitution & Legislative Committees: Proposal to merge into the “Legislative Committee” by Jason Radde. Jason Radde stated he’s going to be on and chair this committee. It’s an issue for the Executive Board to decide (By-Law 5), historically, at the recommendation of the President.
Education and Technology Committee: Met 2/7, Mary Kloos is the chair. Will meet as needed. Every year scholarships will open 3/1, close 6/30, winners decided in July, announced in August. Jason Radde asked the tech committee to go through various web hosting and communications to ensure no redundancies. John asks if we have considered OneNote for tasks and follow-ups. Mary Kloos will look into it.
Finance: No meeting, no updates.
Membership Advocacy Committee: No meeting, grievance and investigation activity updated in Dana’s report.
Promotional/Recruiting Committee (Corey Mathisen): Met on 2/7, 10 new grad engineers, 2 are already full members. Developing google doc to track and record non-full members, and establish who has been contacted already, figure out where efforts are best focused.
MGEC Building Access: Corey Mathisen will work with the executive committee to make sure building access issues are resolved.
Review & Approve Past Minutes (Benton Campbell)
January 24th Meeting
Amendments included removing vote totals from motions or informal polls. These totals were removed.
Jason Radde motions to approve as amended, Blake Nelson seconds. Motion passes.
Treasurer’s Report (Laura Lyons – will not be at the board meeting)
Finance Committee Report
Jason Radde asks about line 41, repairs, which did not have a note or description. Dana Wheeler does not remember specifically what it was. Donna Blackwell thinks it may have been the copier. Dana Wheeler: 2 issues with heating system. Condensation was not being expelled into drip fan, but rather into motor compartment. $120 was paid to Genesis Heating and Air Conditioning.
Jason Radde Line 72: $12,587 instead of usually ~$11,500. This is due to more than 80 hours worked in each pay period (this work occurred before directive from Corey Mathisen)
Jason Radde Line 76: Workman’s comp cost? This is the insurance, not a filing by an employee. Lost time must be included in workman’s comp. Does not account for new employee, so it may go up.
Membership Report (Donna Blackwell)
Membership Update:
5 less full, 7 more represented non-members
Loss of full members have been promoted out of MGEC, retirement, etc. Nobody has downgraded their membership. Benton Campbell asked Donna Blackwell to include any of those in the report, she agreed.
MGEC Representatives List:
Are these the right people? What areas are we missing?
What role do we want for these positions versus the role of board members? Suggestions included: Contact new hires & communicate with DB, inform local members of upcoming MGEC events. Membership lists created for representatives/board members are outdated within a month. What does the rep./board member do and how quickly are they acting?
Donna Blackwell asked about new employee in Mankato and having Forrest Hasty complete outreach. He said yes.
Confusion about multiple reps in districts.
Nathan Anderson asked about $54,000 payment to executive director in December. Per Corey Mathisen, Dana Wheeler had over 500 hours of comp time and this was cashed out. Nathan also asked about how overtime/comp time/vacation worked for the executive director. As Corey Mathisen mentioned earlier, an hourly rate is being paid. Each of first 3 pay periods, Dana Wheeler had more than 80 hours. He will be working a maximum of 80 hours per pay period going forward unless he receives pre-approval for over/comp time.
Vice President’s Report (Dan Sullivan)
No updates.
Past President’s Report – (Forrest Hasty)
Principal Engineers working out of class, seniors working out of class as principals. All were told they did not qualify for sup differential. MMB interpretation is work out of class is still in your original classification. Forrest Hasty will provide a list to Bonnie Wahlberg (Central Office HR) so she can resolve them. Forrest Hasty spoke with each District HR, 2 in District 7 have been resolved. A few didn’t end up actually qualifying. Deb Allen will be reached out to. If Forrest Hasty does not like results, will go back to Bonnie. He encourages people who hear of work out of class to reach out to him to ensure the resolution is satisfactory.
Executive Director’s Report (Dana Wheeler)
Member Advocacy Update: MGEC is currently working with 2 employees, potentially a third upcoming.
Bargaining Update (Forrest Hasty)
Mediator on military leave, we have certified our issues. Meeting on Thursday will finalize issues, then MGEC has 15 days to determine exact asks (specific ATB % etc.). List of 7 arbitrators from BMS, each party strikes 3, then a date is set with the one remaining arbitrator. Late April or Early May it begins. Call witnesses, bring data, make presentations, MMB makes counter presentations. Each side writes up briefs, sent to Arbitrator within 2-4 weeks, once they get to Arbitrator, they have 30 days to determine the award. MMB sends award to SER if leg. Is not in session. Subcommittee on Employee Relations ratifies contracts, can say no.
MMB Meetings
Office reopening plans have been sent out – many agencies ended mask policies, including MDH, MPCA, MnDOT. Dana Wheeler is planning to field calls from members concerned about return to work.
Insurance Premium Holiday – March
No premiums for health. Clearly beneficial to MMB as their share of premium is larger. MMB will not return funds to any employee. Per MMB, the employee “earns” the insurance and not the contribution, so MMB payments do not specifically address these.
State employees Sick/Vacation Leave Balances:
MGEC has the highest avg. vacation or sick.
Job Postings as part of MGEC email:
Forrest Hasty and Corey Mathisen both agree no need to include those posts in the email. MGEC did not have newsletters as frequently as state job postings came out in the past.
MGEC member running for political office – board has no issue with his informing others he’s a member of MGEC, but makes clear it’s not an endorsement.
Other updates, comments, questions, suggestions
Blake Nelson: Tuesday had 11 bargaining units. Big topic was pilot program on infertility which will be offered only through HealthPartners. State will commit 2 million to program. Risk of multiple births through this method, which may cost more to the plan. Will have a $30k max lifetime benefit. Information coming out soon to state employees. 2 cycles of treatment will be covered. Assuming ¼ of 1% usage rate on this benefit. Other info on the well-being program came out on Friday, mindfulness for $70 off on premiums. Appeals process for people who forget to do their open enrollment, etc. Many appeals are approved. 267 cases, ~60 were granted.
Adjourn
Jason Radde motions, Forrest Hasty seconds. Meeting Adjourned 6:57 PM.