Recommendation to declare ordinance making findings and determinations regarding contracting for work usually performed by City employees and authorizing City Manager to negotiate and enter a contract with Managed Health Network for employee assistance services, read and adopted as read.  (Citywide)
Item 18, which I believe will require two motions. Report from Human Resources and Financial Management. Recommendation to award a contract to a managed health network for provision of employee assistance services for a total amount not to exceed 101,161 per year for a period of three years and declare Proposition L ordinance read for the first time and laid over to the next regular meeting of the City Council for Final Reading Citywide. Sir. Staff Report. Mr. WEST. Yes. Vice Mayor, this is our director, Debbie Mills, and new manager Michelle Hamilton. Vice Mayor and members of the council. This item requests authorization to contract with Managed Health Network MH and to provide employee assistance services to our city employees and their families. It also includes a propositional ordinance that makes findings and determinations in accordance with the city charter. An Employee Assistance program is designed to provide counseling services to employees and their immediate family members and or to refer employees to professional counseling for a variety of issues, including things like family problems, work related problems, health and wellness issues, work life issues, as well as individual and group grief counseling as part of a budget recommendation. A couple of years ago, management partners was asked to evaluate the city's in-house employee assistance program as compared to best practices in the marketplace. They compared our plan to other peer agencies, and they found that only one other agency had an internal ERP program like ours. They also determined, after several interviews, examination of documents looking at business practices and processes, that an external ERP program would be more well-received by our employees and also a more utilized. A request for proposal was developed and the top four firms were interviewed by an expert panel. The panel unanimously selected Managed Health Network MH N, which is a subsidiary of HealthNet, Inc.. They have provided EAP services for over 38 years and they provide services for about 350 government agencies. The financial management and human. Resources departments have determined that the services MEITUAN provides are actually superior in scope and breadth as compared to those of our former in-house program. Also, the cost of the contract is estimated to be $101,161 per year and would be funded from the appropriation that is currently budgeted for the in-house ERP program. After the program is fully implemented in FY16, the insurance fund would realize some savings and there would be some offset and there would be some reallocation to other funds that you would see as part of the budget process. It's anticipated an ongoing citywide savings of about $136,000 would be part of the FY16 budget. It's important to note that no city employees will be displaced of the two employees that were formerly providing in-house services. One employee has transferred to another position in the city and the other employee has retired. Lastly, I wanted to take the opportunity to introduce Michelle Hamilton. She's new to human resources and is going to be in charge or is in charge of our employee benefits division. So you'll see her face. She came to us from the chancellor's office with a wealth of knowledge and employee benefits. She'll be responsible responsible for implementation and management of this new ERP program. And we'd be happy to answer questions. Thank you, Miss Mills. Councilwoman Mongo. Yes. I want to think the H.R. department, IAP programs are crucial to the health and vitality of a workforce. And I think that those of us who sit on it enough and do some of the settlements know that the EAP programs can really be a mitigating factor in getting us through some of these. So I really appreciate your work on this and I'm excited that we're moving in this direction. I know that our internal staff are always capable. There's always just that perception from city staffers that if an outside organization is handling it, that it's it's a little bit different for them, their own H.R.. So I'm very supportive of this. Councilman Austin. Yes. Thank you. And as somebody who works in the labor relations field, I can tell you that EPA is is is a valuable tool for. For our city employees to utilize when in need. I did have a couple of questions regarding the the 2.5 FTC. What are what's happening with the city employees who were involved in that program? Yes. One employee has taken transferred to a job at the Health Department and the other employee has retired. The the half time was a part time clerical person that hadn't been used recently. Can't thank you enough. I just also like to just comment that this will save us and your savings of $136,000. And it's great to see that our man management partners have actually saved us some money finally. Council member Urunga. Catch your sarcasm there. Councilmember Alston Having been involved with the AP to a certain extent, when I was at the Health Department, I was aware of those employees that were working there in that capacity at that time, also had other affiliated responsibilities with our police and fire departments. And in terms of being members of the Met team, I think it was the mental evaluation team. I'm not sure if that's the correct acronym for that. But when there was a situation in the community or or a response necessary, that would require a team of professionals to evaluate a resident or a citizen in in distress or some kind of emotional disorientation that this team would go out there, make the evaluation to ensure that the that the situation was either one that was controlled. Bottom line, is this contract going to be able to address those issues? Is there another alternative method that the police and fire departments will be able to use to address such situations when there is a resident or citizen in distress on the community, whether it's a fire issue or a police issue. Yes, Councilmember, I did. I believe that most recently. The police met team is operating a little bit differently that maybe it was in the past and they are not requiring any assistance from the city EAP program, although you know, of course we know that they're there, that they're a resource that we could use. So if if the city needed them or they needed us, we would certainly. Make sure that our ERP provider would be aware of any, if any assistance was needed. Which raises the question, turning to our the employees who used to who did provide the service, they were required to maintain their licenses and their status as bona fide counselors. Is there a method for us to ensure that these consultants are going to be duly licensed and capable of doing these jobs? Yes. Immigration is a nationally a national company. So they are required to. Have licensed clinical. Technicians. That will be. Servicing. Clients such as the city of Long Beach. So that is a requirement and that would also be part of the contract as well. I thought I had some thoughts, but I'll let it go. Thank you. Councilwoman Gonzales. I'm also glad to see that we're we're relooking at this, reviewing it and seeing what else we can do. What type of outreach right now is being done for to let employees know that this program even exists? I'll take a try at that one until the council approves this. We have not done any outreach. However, that would be something that Michel would handle. There would be a timeline, an implementation timeline. And, you know, our goal would be to get it implemented as soon as possible. Great. I would love to see more. I know when we hopefully pass this. I'd love to see this pass that we do have more outreach for our employees to know what specific resources are available to them because this is such a valuable program. I can imagine that a lot of employees didn't know that this even existed, so it'd be great to have that more, you know, out in the in the public realm. I can tell you that in her short time here, Michelle has already done a lot of work in communications. Recently there was a seminar given on cancer awareness. She has another one scheduled on. Elder care and there's also some wellness thing. So I think this will be a great partnership with from the employee benefits side where there'll be a lot of synergy and you know, they can. The goal certainly is to communicate more with our employees. Great, wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any member of the public that wish to address the Council on item 18? Singing None on the first motion. Mr. City Attorney, is it to approve the recommendation? Yes, it would be to approve the recommendation. Adopt the specifications. Thank you. Okay, members, cast your vote. Please. Motion passes nine zero and. The second motion. Mr. City Attorney. We need a motion to declare properly ordinance, read for the first time and lead over to the next meeting. Okay. It's been a motion and a second. Is there any member of the public that wish to address council on the second motion seeing none. Members, please cast your vote. Motion carries nine zero. We have already addressed item 19 and item 20, item 21.