CITY MANAGER’S REPORT

Week ending August 31, 2004

Benefits Committee Update

Wording was included in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), approved by the City of Lawrence and the Lawrence Police Officer’s Association (LPOA) for 2005 and 2006, acknowledging completion of a comprehensive study of the employee benefits plan during 2004.  Additionally, the MOU provided that an employee committee will be established to undertake this study and make any appropriate recommendations to the employee benefits plan.  Similar wording was included in the MOU approved by the City and the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF).  Since July, 2004, the aforementioned committee, which includes LPOA and IAFF members, has met almost weekly to accomplish the following tasks:

• Development of a benefits policy for the employee benefits plan;
• Comprehensive review of the City’s employee benefits plan and comparison with plans from market cities established during the comprehensive review of the City’s compensation plan;
• Development of recommendations that would place the City’s employee benefits plan in a competitive stature with the market cities.

The committee is in the process of finalizing the report that will include all the aforementioned elements, including recommendations.  The schedule is for committee review of the report on September 2^nd with the goal of presenting those recommendations to the City Manager and City Commission in order to meet the timetable set forth in the respective MOUs.

6^th Street Project Update

The attached memo from Terese Gorman, City Engineer, provides an update on project activities as well as a tentative schedule for future work. 

FLSA Update

Frank Reeb, Administrative Services Director, updated senior City staff from all departments this week on the new FLSA regulations which took effect August 23, 2004.

LMH Report

The attached report from Lawrence Memorial Hospital highlights hospital activities as of the second quarter, 2004.

Busy Month for Solid Waste Employees Photos

The following photos illustrate the level of effort necessary to provide solid waste services to our citizens during the month of August.