County Communicator 06/09/23 Edition

COUNTY COMMUNICATOR JUNE 9, 2023

IF YOU HAVE INFORMATION FOR FUTURE COUNTY COMMUNICATORS: EMAIL HANNAH STACHNIK

WELCOME NEW HIRES Neal Wilds Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Preston James Seasonal Deputy

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Upcoming Events JUNE

9-11

Wolverine Weekend is back at Grand Traverse Resort and Spa! Get ready to bleed maize and blue June 9-11, 2023.

Learn more!

JUNE

10

Learn more!

JUNE Learn more!

Wolverine Weekend

14

Leland Wine and Food Festival 2023 Leland Wine and Food Festival and experience the best of what Leland has to offer! With our convenient 'Come & Go' re-entry wristbands, you have the freedom to explore Leland's breathtaking beaches, unique shops, captivating galleries, and the iconic Historic Fishtown, all while enjoying the festival.

Traverse City Spring Horse Show II Don't miss the opportunity to experience the grace, power, speed and artistry of world-class equestrian competition a this year's TC Spring Horse Show.

myGTC RESOURCES

myGTC

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GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY UNIVERSITY Have you checked out GTCU? County employees now have access to a wide variety of training materials for onboarding, Microsoft 365 and myGTC. GTCU is housed in SharePoint, and can be accessed here. Your login will be the same as your Outlook email login and password.

Other ways to access SharePoint: 1. Browser Outlook(Email) 2. Desktop Outlook (Email) Watch a tutorial on how to access SharePoint here.

PERSONAL TIME CUT-OFF: A MESSAGE FROM HR As you plan your summer vacation, please keep in mind that the personal time cut-off this year will be November 19, 2023.

GTC EMPLOYEE SURVEY PARTICIPATION “Thank you for your engagement in our strategic planning efforts with 354 of you taking the survey! That is remarkable participation! We don't have the results yet, but the numbers show that collectively you are interested in having a voice in our future and I am excited about that. I appreciate your help and look forward to the next steps.” – Nate Alger, GTC Administrator

Having over 350 surveys completed means we are raffling 7 half days off in total!

Our final 2 raffle winners are: Alyssa Nerone from the Health Department Katherine Harris from Animal Control

myGTC RESOURCES

myGTC

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MERS BENEFIT PLAN ADVISOR MERS Benefit Plan Advisor, Debbie Rochester, will be on-site at three locations June 14 and 15. If you are interested in meeting Debbie to discuss your MERS account or retirement planning, she will be available at the following locations with the dates and times listed below. You may schedule a time with Debbie by clicking on the following link: MERS Retirement Scheduler.xlsx

Wednesday, June 14 Governmental Center – Conference Room 301 - 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Sheriff’s Office LEC – Lower-Level Training Room – 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Thursday, June 15 Health Department – Training Room – 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

If you are having difficulty with accessing the scheduler link, please reach out me. Thank you.

myGTC RESOURCES

myGTC

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EMPLOYEE SHOUTOUT: JEREMY TRAVER We wanted to take the opportunity to recognize Jeremy Traver in IT. He consistently goes above and beyond to make sure that our IT issues are resolved quickly. As soon as a ticket is submitted, Jeremy immediately calls or comes to our office to assist.

Thank you for your dedication and hard work. We appreciate you!

NEW 2023 TAX PARCEL IMAGE “We have 2023 aerial imagery now available on our tax parcel viewer! The imagery was obtained mid-April this year. You can now use the swipe tool to compare our 2016, 2022, and 2023 Imagery. Come over to our site to check it out! Click here.

HELPNOW SOFTWARE SYSTEM The HelpNow software system (desktop gun icon) is being removed from County and City staff computers this week by IT, as the software is no longer supported or maintained. The most reliable means of getting immediate help in an emergency is to call 911, or text 911 if you’re unable to call.

“Employees should feel confident that when they dial 911 from their office landline phone that our Dispatchers are automatically provided the building name, floor number, and general area of that floor that they are calling from, i.e. NE corner, SW corner, etc. When calling 911 from a cell phone, we often get very reliable "plots" that generate a pin drop on our mapping system to alert us to the location of the caller. However, calling 911 from a cell phone does not provide building name, floor #, or any other pertinent details. We often determine that information through the call taking process. Finally, if employees find themselves in a position where they are unable to call (the preferred method), they can always text 911.” – Jason Torrey, GTC 911 Central Dispatch Director

GT 9-1-1

CA LL , IF YO U CA N

When texting 9-1-1 is helpful If the caller is deaf, hard of hearing, or speech disability

Language barriers Medical emergency when the caller can not speak If caller is unable to freely speak on the phone

TEXT, IF YOU CAN'T HOW IT WORKS Enter 9-1-1 into the "To" field Make sure to include your location and type of emergency Send the message Answer questions and follow instructions Clear concise messages. No pictures, emojis, or abbreviations

GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY

TIME CLOCK POLICY UPDATED The Time Clock Policy has been updated for clarity purposes so that employees understand that the sevenminute rule applies to all punches that an employee makes during their workday. Please see the attached updated policy.

Time Clock Policy PURPOSE It is the policy of Grand Traverse County to streamline the timekeeping and payroll process, as well as ensure consistency of treatment for employees. The law requires that all non-exempt personnel record daily hours worked. These hours are recorded in myGTC, which is the County’s cloud-based enterprise resource planning software developed by Workday. The purpose of this policy is to establish guidelines for hourly employees to have a record of hours worked using myGTC. SCOPE This policy covers all non-exempt hourly employees.

POLICY Employee Clocking Responsibilities It is a job requirement that non-exempt employees must “clock in” at the beginning of their shift and “clock out” at the end of work each day. Additionally, employees are to “clock out” at the beginning of lunch breaks or when they leave the job site and “clock back in” when they return from lunch or when they return after being away from the job site.

General Information “Authorized hours” are work hours that a manager assigns to complete a task. The “workday” is defined as eight hours of authorized work between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 pm. Employees may also be assigned to alternative schedules to include flextime or compressed workweeks with the authorization of their supervisor.

"Employee” as used in this policy, means a non-exempt hourly employee.

A “work hour” is any hour of the day that is worked and authorized to be worked and should be recorded to the nearest tenth of an hour.

The “workweek” covers seven consecutive days beginning on Sunday at 12:00 AM and ending on Saturday at 11:59 PM. Alternative workweeks may be established for specific projects or departmental needs with the authorization of the County Administrator. The usual workweek period is 40 hours.

Overtime Overtime is defined as authorized hours worked by an employee in excess of 40 hours in a workweek and should be recorded to the nearest tenth of an hour.

Overtime must be approved in advance by the employee’s supervisor; if not, an employee is not authorized to work the overtime and documented in the system.

• Overtime will be calculated based on the actual hours recorded and credited to the employee and approved by management.

• Overtime is earned on a weekly basis and is only earned after forty (40) hours of actual work hours have been accumulated during the established work week.

• Disagreements on work hours contained in the detail record shall be reviewed with the employee’s supervisor (and, if necessary, Department management) who will resolve the issue and authorize any changes to the timekeeping data.

Absent An employee is deemed absent when he/she is unavailable for work as assigned/scheduled and such time off was not scheduled/approved in advance as required by department notification procedure.

Tardy An employee is deemed to be tardy when he/she: • Fails to report for work at the assigned/scheduled work time. In these instances, supervisors may replace the tardy employee for the full shift.

• Leaves work prior to the end of assigned/scheduled work time without prior supervisory approval.

• Takes an extended meal or break period without approval • Arrives to work past his/her scheduled start time may be replaced for the full shift at the discretion of his/her supervisor.

Departmental Notification Procedure Employees are expected to follow departmental notification procedures if they will be late for work, will not be at work, or are requesting planned time away from work. Employees must request in advance to their supervisor or designee and in accordance with departmental procedure if they wish to arrive early or leave early from an assigned shift.

At the time of notification/call, the employee must notify their supervisor when an absence is due to a documented/approved leave of absence (e.g., Military Leave, FMLA) to ensure appropriate tracking of leave utilization and absenteeism.

An employee who fails to call in and report to work as scheduled for three consecutively scheduled workdays will be viewed as having abandoned their position and employment will be terminated.

The supervisor should consult with Human Resources if this situation occurs.

PROCEDURE The following regulations will apply: 1. Employees are required to clock in prior to their assigned start time and must clock out when they go off duty.

2. Employees are responsible for entering accurate information in the time clock on a consistent basis.

3. Employees are required to clock in and out for lunch.

4. Unless permission to do otherwise by the employee's supervisor, no employee may clock in more than 7 minutes prior to, or 7 minutes after, the start of their shift. Employees may not clock out more than 7 minutes prior to, or 7 minutes following the end of their work time.

5. Clocking in within the timeframe specified in item four, will be calculated as an on-time report for duty.

6. Employees will be paid from time that they enter into myGTC. 7. Any adjustments to the recorded time must be approved by the employee's supervisor.

Employees will be accountable for any manual changes submitted.

8. Employees should remain clocked in for mandatory meetings.

9. Hourly employees who have actual working hours in excess of 40 hours per week will be paid time-and-a-half for all time exceeding 40 hours.

10. Except in emergency circumstances, prior permission to work overtime should be approved by a supervisor.

11. All exempt employees will be required to enter their hours worked along with scheduling time off in advance into the Workday system to get paid.

Only your supervisor or authorized staff in the Human Resources Department may edit employee punches or add compensable days. Employees must notify their supervisor immediately if they fail to punch in/out or have any difficulties using myGTC . Approved corrections/adjustments will occur in the following pay period if an employee fails to notify his/her supervisor immediately of a problem.

The management of the Time Clock app will reside within the Human Resources and Finance Departments. Any requests for modifications must be made to the Human Resources Department.

Violations of these procedures may result in disciplinary actions, including oral or written warnings, suspension without pay and/or termination. Under no circumstance may one employee clock in or out for another employee or falsify time records. Any employee participating in these types of violations will face immediate termination.

Each supervisor is responsible for: • Ensuring that employees reporting to him or her have the correct project/departmental codes, overtime or premium codes and overhead codes for their assignments.

• Ensure that all employees maintain accurate time records.

• Providing approval for overtime or premium pay.

• Approving time records and submitting them to payroll.

• Is responsible for the daily oversight of this policy.

Enforcement Employees who are found to be offenders of this policy will be subject to disciplinary action at the discretion of their supervisor as follows: • First-time offenders will be: ▪

Counseled to ensure that time reporting requirements are understood.

▪

Advised of the consequences of further infractions.

▪

Provided with a copy of this policy and acknowledgement receipt that it has been communicated and understood.

• Second-time offenders will: ▪

Receive a written warning in their personnel files.

▪

Be subject to spot checks by their supervisor during the 30-day period following the infraction.

The Seven Minute Rule Grand Traverse County tracks work time in 15-minute increments for all punches including lunch. The cutoff point for rounding down is 7 full minutes. If an employee works at least 7 full minutes, but less than 8 minutes, the county can round the number down to the nearest 15 minutes.

Note: This policy may differ for those employees who are members of recognized unions, organizations, or associations. Any questions related to the content of this policy, or its interpretation, should be directed to Human Resources.

Approved: Board of Commissioners 2022

WELLNESS

BE A PART OF THE COMMUNITY PARADE! Thursday, July 6 at 6:30 pm Grand Traverse County is entered in this year’s Cherry Festival Community Royale Parade! Come join us, it’s always a great time! We chose to try the community parade on Thursday evening this year, rather than Saturday’s longer parade, in hopes that more staff will be able to participate, and the smaller community vibe will be a good fit to represent our services. Estimated time on the parade route is 35 minutes. The Sheriff’s Office, Commission on Aging, Animal Control, and Parks & Recreation will have vehicles, and all County staff and friends & family are welcome to join to walk in the lineup. Sign up here and select your t-shirt size to wear in the parade!

WELLNESS

JOIN THE RAGNAR RELAY TEAM Are you adventurous? Can you run? Are you free June 23-24?

THE RAGNAR TRAIL RELAY TEAM NEEDS YOU! Our relay team is currently down 2 people, come join us! Our start time is 10:30am Friday, June 23, and we should finish around 3:30pm Saturday, with plenty of fun to be had at basecamp before and in between. Each participant runs 3 times on the picturesque trails at Hanson Hills in Grayling. Spoiler alerts: there will be a lot of walking on those trails, and a lot of laughs along the way. Email Jenny McKellar if you’re interested!

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

SESAME CHICKEN SCHNITZEL BOWLS WITH FETA TZATZIKI Chicken Schnitzels 3/4 cup flour kosher salt and black pepper 2 cups Panko bread crumbs 1 cup sesame seeds 1 tablespoon smoked paprika 2 teaspoons garlic powder 1 teaspoon onion powder 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper 3 eggs, beaten 4-6 chicken cutlets, or 3 boneless chicken breasts sliced in half horizontally avocado oil, for frying Bowls 2 Persian cucumbers, chopped 1 avocado, diced 1 Serrano or jalapeño, seeded and chopped 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1/4 cup fresh dill, chopped 6 ounces crumbled feta cheese 1-2 cups Tzakiki sauce lettuce, peperoncini, and pitas, for serving garlic tahini, for serving

Directions 1. Add the flour to a shallow dish. In a separate dish, combine the Panko, sesame seeds, salt, and pepper. Crack the eggs into a separate bowl, then beat.

2. In a small bowl, combine the paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, and a pinch of salt. Set the seasoning aside.

3. Working in an assembly line, dredge the chicken through the flour, then the eggs - allow the excess to drip off into the bowl, then dip through the Panko crumbs. Place on a plate and repeat.

4. Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Add the chicken and cook until golden brown, 3-4 minutes. Flip the chicken and cook until golden brown on the other side, about 3-4 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board and immediately sprinkle on the seasoning, using to your taste. Thinly slice the chicken. Season with salt.

5. In a bowl, toss the cucumbers, avocados, peppers, lemon juice, and dill. Add the feta and toss.

6. To assemble, add lettuce and peperoncini to a bowl. Top with chicken, and cucumber/avocado salad. Add a few dollops of Tzaziki sauce. Drizzle over the tahini (homemade recipe in notes).

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