[0:11] I'm calling this meeting good evening. 
Uh this meeting of the Cleveland Heights  
[0:15] City Council committee the whole and we have 
one item on our agenda this today and that's  
[0:20] a confirmation hearing for the mayor's 
pick for human resources director. So,  
[0:25] I'm going to let you take it away. If you want 
take a short introduction and then Miss Weber,  
[0:29] if you would just do a real short introduction 
because we we Madam Vice President,  
[0:32] we got to do roll call. Oh, sorry. Cobb 
here. Larson here. Posh Ditfoy here. Cohen  
[0:42] here. Huda here. Thank you for keeping me 
honest, Clerk Ballister. Appreciate it.  
[0:51] Thank you, Vice President Larson, and thank 
you, President Cuda, for agreeing to schedule  
[0:56] today's hearing. I am pleased to nominate Dber to 
become our next director of HR. As residents may  
[1:03] remember, when they passed the recent charter 
changes that created a department of human  
[1:07] resources here at the city of Cleveland Heights, 
and as you saw from De's resume, she is eminently  
[1:13] qualified for that position. I am so grateful that 
she accepted my offer and I look forward to taking  
[1:19] questions from you all. Miss Whmer. Thank you. 
Thank you everybody and thank you for this um  
[1:26] opportunity uh to give you a a brief overview 
of my background. Um perhaps to sum it all up,  
[1:34] I'm a cycle breaker. Uh and what I mean by that 
is I was born and raised in the Middle East.  
[1:41] Uh come from very humble beginnings. My family 
migrated when I was a little girl. Uh grew up in a  
[1:48] um we I grew up in Detroit and we moved to Toledo 
where I spent the rest of my life. Uh went to the  
[1:56] University of Toledo uh for both my graduate 
and undergraduate degrees. um had to uh pretty  
[2:05] much prove myself throughout uh my career 
simply because in my ethnicity women are not  
[2:12] um viewed as being capable of getting to that 
next level. And that essentially became my mission  
[2:20] uh to make sure that I'm breaking that cycle. 
Uh began my career at McDonald's Corporation.  
[2:27] um did that because they had a great tuition 
reimbursement program. Uh great experience,  
[2:34] had an opportunity to work with both company-owned 
restaurants as well as uh franchised restaurants.  
[2:41] Uh a great culture that teaches you to be 
efficient, gives you self-confidence, um and  
[2:47] it teaches you the value of having integrity 
and a sense of urgency. Uh from that I have  
[2:53] had the opportunity to work in health care for 
several years. Um in my career I have progressed  
[3:00] through the ranks. So I have been an HR assistant, 
a payroll clerk, a benefits specialist, a manager,  
[3:08] director, and finally a vice president. Uh I've 
been married for 38 years. And in fact, this  
[3:15] evening, we're celebrating our 38th uh wedding 
anniversary, which is why I wore the green, cuz  
[3:21] I have a jacket on top of it. Um we uh raised our 
kids in Cleveland. Um I have a 34 year old and a  
[3:30] 30-year-old. My husband is um a veteran. He um had 
signed up uh through ROC in college and continued  
[3:41] uh to become a member of the Ohio Army National 
Guard. He now serves as the assistant director of  
[3:46] the Cleveland uh Department of Veterans Affairs. 
Um I um wanted to move back to Cleveland for  
[3:54] several reasons. Professionally, I felt it was 
time for me to give back. Um and um I wanted to  
[4:02] be able to end the rest of my career here back 
uh close to home. Um I had watched from behind  
[4:11] the scenes uh the issues that had been ongoing. I 
had admired um our mayor and felt his vision was  
[4:20] phenomenal. What he intends to do or what he hopes 
to accomplish whether it's for the ci for the  
[4:26] citizens or for the employees and the environment 
and the culture were all very much aligned with my  
[4:32] own personal professional vision. So I applied. 
I was fortunate enough to get an opportunity to  
[4:39] come in and interview and then was offered the 
position. So, I'm extremely excited to be here.  
[4:46] Thank you and welcome. Um, we have approximately 
15 minutes for qu questions and answers today and  
[4:52] then we'll hold a short executive session for 
considering your appointment. To my council  
[4:57] colleagues, we'll each ask one question. If we 
have time, we'll ask a second round. So, who wants  
[5:01] to start? Go ahead, councelor Cohen. Yes. Um, as 
you know from uh having some exposure to our city  
[5:10] uh culture in our workplace is something that we 
definitely want to improve and create not only a  
[5:18] welcoming city for all but a welcoming workplace. 
What are your thoughts on how you will start  
[5:23] that process and continue that process in this 
role? Absolutely. Um I think culture is the most  
[5:31] important element in having a committed workforce. 
Um I my thought would be to begin by meeting  
[5:38] leaders and line staff. Uh I'd like at some point 
to be able to meet with focus groups to understand  
[5:44] from their standpoint what are the pain points, 
what is working, what is not working. Based on  
[5:51] that information, I'd like to compile a list of 
items that our employees are asking for. uh meet  
[5:57] with the stakeholders and come up with a plan 
of what can and can't be accomplished. Perhaps  
[6:02] the most critical component in all of this is open 
honest communication. Uh if people are asking for  
[6:11] for something that we can't accomplish, I think 
I owe them an explanation of why and how. Uh  
[6:18] but most importantly I want to create venues for 
people to express their thoughts, their opinions,  
[6:24] to be heard uh and to be able to help them feel 
valued. Uh in my mind simple things, basic things  
[6:34] uh walking around and talking to people uh 
greeting them, understanding what is working  
[6:41] within the schedule, within the shift, what is not 
working. That would be a start. Um at some point  
[6:47] it would be great to do an employee commitment 
survey to understand from employees what they feel  
[6:54] and what they think and based on that come up with 
action plans that are driven by the employees and  
[6:59] the leaders themselves. Thank you. Sure. Um you 
have a very impressive resume. Um thank you for  
[7:07] uh wanting to come to work in Cleveland Heights. 
Um how much uh experience do you have working um  
[7:15] in a union environment? The majority of the city 
employees are union members here. Yeah. Um I've  
[7:22] I've worked with unions for 20ome years. Um at 
the current health system, we have four different  
[7:28] union uh bargaining union union agreements. In 
fact, prior to this meeting, I was talking with  
[7:35] April and we talked about when is the next when 
are the contracts going to expire. Uh, so I'm  
[7:41] very comfortable with that. I've sat as a chief 
negotiating officer. I have held management and  
[7:46] labor relations monthly meetings. I have attended 
grievances. I have attended arbitration. So,  
[7:53] I have a pretty solid comfort level with unions. 
Thank you, Councelor Dewitfoy. Thank you. Uh first  
[8:02] off, happy anniversary. Thank you for spending 
it here with us tonight. We won't keep it too  
[8:08] long. Um your background uh looks primarily in 
healthcare and hospitals and I'm wondering what  
[8:15] if any challenges you foresee transitioning to 
municipal government. Yeah. Uh I think any new  
[8:22] beginning presents challenges. Um while I I 
will tell you um HR is HR no matter where you  
[8:30] go. I have counseledled physicians and I have 
counseledled line line staff. People issues are  
[8:37] the same. Um I think if there is going to be a 
challenge, it's understanding the culture. It's  
[8:45] understanding what motivates people in this kind 
of a setting and being able to relate to people.  
[8:52] And I intend to remedy that by spending time with 
the people here with the departments, attending  
[8:58] meetings, um asking to be invited so I can share 
with folks what my vision is, how we're going to  
[9:05] help them um in responding to their questions and 
their needs. Um and I intend to stay very close  
[9:14] to members of the leadership team to seek their 
guidance. Um and um I think I will go in it with a  
[9:21] mindset of um I will be vulnerable knowing that as 
a new person there's a lot I don't know. So I will  
[9:30] focus on building relationships with people so I 
can navigate my way. Thank you. President Cuda.  
[9:39] Hi. Thank you. And uh Miss Weber. I'm really glad 
that you're here today in front of us. This is a  
[9:45] very uh big move for Cleveland Heights and a much 
needed move. We have a lot of employees for over  
[9:54] 400 and and and we need you in this position. 
I heard you talk about benefits and your uh  
[10:02] experience with that and um I am deeply concerned 
about the cost of the benefits and and how you  
[10:11] might be able to help us. So, if you could give 
us some insight into how into your background with  
[10:17] benefits and and how you think you would approach 
uh helping us save money with that. Certainly. Um  
[10:27] I mean, realistically speaking, benefits, the cost 
of benefits is escalating throughout the nation as  
[10:33] you very well know. Uh really the highest cost 
of benefits is the pharmaceutical aspect of it.  
[10:41] Um, and there are things employers can do. Um, 
and really to begin with, I think for me, I would  
[10:49] start by understanding the history. What have been 
the annual increases? What has been the wellness  
[10:54] program? And how how are the brokers advocating 
for the benefits? Um, you know, I will tell you  
[11:04] typically from my experience, uh, the initial bids 
come in and you can expect the brokers to come  
[11:10] back with a 20 30% increase. You know, that that's 
just not going to happen. Um, so I will work very  
[11:18] closely with the finance team to find out what 
the budget is and then from there I will hold the  
[11:25] um, brokers accountable. Um I will also look at 
the plan tiering and the plan structure. There are  
[11:33] things uh that if done proactively they will be uh 
very helpful in uh reducing some of the costs. For  
[11:43] example, and again not knowing what our benefits 
are. Um, if you can encourage employees to do  
[11:52] mail orders, 90day supply for the same cost as 30 
days, that's a great costsaving. It is also very  
[11:59] convenient. Uh, if you can structure the plan so 
the first line when the employee goes to pick up a  
[12:06] prescription is a generic versus the brand, great 
cost savings. These days uh some manufacturers  
[12:15] with uh high price tags for some medication 
because they don't want people to do the generics,  
[12:22] they will do an incentive. Uh so you get a 
rebate. Those rebates I would hold again the  
[12:30] um brokers accountable to make sure that those 
rebates are applied to the plan. In addition to  
[12:37] that, um I think I would focus tremendously on a 
wellness program that addresses the chronic care  
[12:45] conditions in the plan that cost the plan the 
most. When a health care plan is being renewed,  
[12:52] 75% of the premium is based on the past 12-month 
experience and then the remainder is on the  
[13:00] previous two years experience. If for example 
uh the city were to have god forbid a couple of  
[13:07] really expensive situations and they happen if you 
have someone with cancer, if you have someone with  
[13:13] you know a transplant those are very costly then 
as a cost measure uh we can work with a a health  
[13:22] care provider. we can work with the brokers to 
laser those so you buy additional insurance just  
[13:28] on those high claims so you can manage the rest 
of the claims and not have a pretty substantial  
[13:34] increase. Having said that um I think our 
employees need to be aware of the costs that  
[13:44] the city is paying for their benefits. Uh again 
pay is one base pay salary is one component of the  
[13:53] total rewards package you know. So if employees 
understand what the big picture looks like. I used  
[13:59] to always do um an an employee not a payub but we 
would call it comprehensive statement where they  
[14:07] would see everything. They would see how much 
um you know the organization has contributed  
[14:14] to their tuition reimbursement to their workers 
comp insurance to and those things add up to the  
[14:20] total rewards package and that becomes another 
tool that helps uh improve the environment and  
[14:27] also aid with retention. So while there is 
no magic bullet or you know a quick solution,  
[14:34] I do believe a comprehensive approach of all 
those different u methods will absolutely make  
[14:42] a tremendous impact. Well, thank you for providing 
examples. I appreciate that. Absolutely. Um I'd  
[14:50] like to know Mayor Petrus has often expressed his 
intentions to establish a practice of evaluating  
[14:57] staff. That's so what first steps would you take 
to move towards having that necessary component in  
[15:05] built into our employment of all of our employees 
here in Cleveland Heights? Absolutely. Having a  
[15:11] a structured performance appraisal uh process 
is critical. Uh it is uh both legally helpful  
[15:20] um and it's also a tool to help develop 
staff. It's a tool to help people  
[15:25] uh become aware of their opportunities as well as 
recognize their hard work. I would begin um and  
[15:33] we had a brief conversation about this. There are 
extremely robust tools out there. Um I don't know  
[15:41] that I think it makes sense to start with that. I 
would start with a simple process. I would begin  
[15:47] by talking to the departments to understand if 
certain departments are doing something, what's  
[15:53] working, what's not working. I would probably 
suggest a one and a half page basic performance  
[16:00] appraisal tool. I would initially suggest it's 
done one once a year, but really best practice out  
[16:06] there is it's done two times a year, midyear and 
annual. And if you really want to be innovative,  
[16:13] uh, where we're at, where I'm at now in the health 
system, we do one at 90 days at the end of the  
[16:19] orientation or the, um, uh, introductory 
period. The objective is to be able to sit  
[16:27] across the table from someone, have a face-to-face 
conversation. You could even have the employee do  
[16:33] do their own self assessment and talk about, let's 
talk about the past 6 months or 12 months. Uh,  
[16:40] here are the areas I've seen you do extremely well 
in. Here are the areas that I have concerns. And  
[16:46] by the way, let's focus on goals for next year. It 
is a collaborative effort. Um, and you just simply  
[16:54] can't go wrong with it. Prior to rolling anything 
out, I think it's just as critical to make sure  
[17:00] that the leaders have training and they understand 
how to do it and that HR acts as an advocate.  
[17:07] Uh we all know there are difficult employees 
um and there are folks that will challenge  
[17:13] everything. So if a leader anticipates this is 
going to be a difficult conversation, I would  
[17:18] absolutely offer to be part of the conversation. 
Uh we would probably rehearse before anticipate  
[17:25] what might be some of the issues that come up um 
and be part of the conversation and help make sure  
[17:32] the conversation stays on track. Thank you very 
much. Anyone else have any questions? Councelor  
[17:39] Cobb. Sure. There are, and this is sort of a a 
followup to uh council member Dwit Foy's question,  
[17:45] there are some specific nuances to public sector 
and civil service laws. Yes. Um have you sat down  
[17:53] and charted out um how you're going to go about 
becoming familiar with those nuances? Indeed. Um,  
[18:00] just so you know, it's not on my resume, but I 
did attend law school. Uh, I am not licensed to  
[18:08] practice in Ohio, just to be clear. Um, but I have 
sat through law school classes. I am very familiar  
[18:14] with the Ohio Administrative Code. Um, I am very 
familiar with due process. Um, I think I would  
[18:21] initially lean on some of the HR staff, April, 
those folks that are um experienced for procedural  
[18:28] purposes. Uh, from that point on, I would take the 
time to understand, read, review, um, memorize,  
[18:37] uh, do whatever it takes to become familiar with 
them. So, they're second nature to me. Okay. I  
[18:43] was just quickly looking the Ohio Personnel 
Board of Review has a lot of great resources  
[18:48] and um I would look to try and attend one of their 
seminars. Agreed. Or some other uh public entities  
[18:55] seminars on this. Yeah, it's a great point. Yeah. 
Absolutely. President Cuda, anything? Okay. Um so  
[19:09] nobody has any further questions. I do appreciate 
you coming today. We are going to go into  
[19:15] executive session to discuss this appointment and 
so um for clarification, would you like D to stay  
[19:22] for that or no? No, that would depend on whether 
anyone has any questions they'd like to ask her in  
[19:32] confidence or anything she wants to share with us 
and confident. I don't I don't either. President  
[19:39] Cuda, I don't have any of those kind of questions. 
No. So, we're good. Okay. Which is a good thing,  
[19:45] right? Yeah, absolutely. All right. So, I do need 
a motion to go into executive session. I'd like to  
[19:50] make uh a motion to go into executive session 
to uh consider and discuss the appointment of  
[19:55] a public official. Need a second. Second. 
Okay. Um any discussion? Clerk Ballister,  
[20:03] please call the role. Cobb. I. Larson. I. 
Ditfoy. Yes. Cohen. Hi. Cuda. Hi. All right.
[20:25] All right. We're back out of our executive 
session and at this point in time,  
[20:29] we're going to adjourn adjourn this special 
committee of the whole and move on to our  
[20:33] regular committee of the whole in the 
other room. So, thank you for watching.