A discussion of techniques for how to nurture the relationship between the administration of the town and the elected governing body. All too often, the administration of the town and the expectations of the governing body do not match up. Discussion points will include Agenda creation, communications with the governing body as well as the public, discussion of community communications including social media and thereafter management of Public Records that are often overlooked and certainly misunderstood. Once projects and priorities are established, setting the goals and deadlines for the project is essential. Staff directions, status reports and when to take items to the governing body are all part of completing a project efficiently. As with many projects, the time it takes to complete is never as one may expect. This workshop will discuss aspects of managing a project and setting – as well as adjusting – expectations.

This is a multi-faceted Workshop that will cover three key issues: Insurance (Property, Casualty, comp, and Liability), review and key points for understanding the annual municipal audit; and an overview of ethics requirements for municipal officials including requirements for recusal and annual financial disclosure forms.

Typically, 85% of full-time employees are subject to collectively bargained agreements between the town and its employees. Those agreements cover many aspects of the cost of labor including salaries, work schedules and benefits. Construction of this agreement is vital to having a cohesive and cooperative workforce. During this session, we will talk about the typical provisions of an agreement and how best to interpret and ensure that that agreement is clear, concise, and comprehensive. Discussion of methods to prepare for negotiations of a collectively bargained agreement will be covered. Certain steps that can easily be taken will help to ensure that the negotiations go well, thoroughly discussed, and how to anticipate those negotiations whether you use a labor attorney (recommended) or not. Labor negotiations are not something that can be done quickly. Oftentimes, management does not allow enough preparation time in order to have successful negotiations. We will discuss an approach to preparing for negotiations.

Discussion will be on health insurance as it relates to labor agreements and the various programs available. The discussion is required as an isolated part of an agreement since I have seen many labor agreements binding municipalities to this singular, most expensive part of the cost of labor for a municipality. Certain aspects of health insurance and how it is written into an agreement are vital to ensure that employees maintain good health insurance but allow for flexibility for the administration to make changes that will potentially save tax dollars for this exponentially growing cost. Discussion of Retirement benefits, and how to manage them is the frame of this part of the workshop. Retirement benefits, such as Health Insurance is a changing environment as well as the cost.

While having a good labor agreement is essential for the efficient operation of any organization, there are times when reaching agreement or disputes over what the agreement says can lead to arbitration or grievances that must be handled properly in order to come to a resolution of the dispute. In the workshop on arbitration and grievance arbitration, we will discuss methods to evaluate, prepare and conduct arbitration meetings/hearings that includes contract, or interest arbitration as well as grievance arbitration or grievance hearings.

here are various forms and levels of disciplinary action that necessarily take place in any organization. In New Jersey, municipalities are divided into civil service communities and non-civil service communities. When an employee violates work rules and must be disciplined it is important to evaluate that discipline as compared with other disciplinary action within the organization. There are steps that an administrator should take in order to prepare for the action, judge the severity and how to properly impose discipline on the employee. We will cover those steps depending on whether the community is governed by Civil Service regulations or those towns that do not fall under those rules. How to properly conduct discipline and disciplinary hearings, both formal and informal, are critical to personnel management. Typically, labor attorneys hold formal hearings. However, this workshop will provide methods for preparing for a hearing. We will also discuss disciplinary action and steps to implement such action. Lastly, we will discuss last chance agreements and how they can be structured.