[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.

Cleveland Heights Special Council Committee of the Whole February 17, 2026

Transcript