MPS Senior Staff Notes 2-12-14

MARYLAND PARK SERVICE

SENIOR STAFF MEETING NOTES

February 12, 2014

ATTENDEES: Nita Settina, Chris Bushman, Gary Burnett, Amanda Mock, Daryl Anthony, Mike Riley, Peyton Taylor, Diane Feheley (Guests – Dan Hudson, Mary Owens, Amy Lutsko) – (next meeting’s manager-of-the-month – Central Region)

SUPERINTENDENT UPDATE

·       State of the State Parks presentation – Senate Budget & Taxation Committee – Held on January 14, 2014

o   Briefing went smoothly

o   The committee chairman (Senator Kasemeyer), in reference to the General Assembly and Administration, stated that all have failed the State Parks in their collective inability to provide adequate funding

o   Friends of State Parks (Tim Casey and Chuck Hecker) and other advocates (John Slater – Patapsco Heritage Greenway) spoke about the lack of funding and other resources, as well as the need for an adequate law enforcement presence in the State Parks

·       Property Acquisitions

o   Reminder to be proactive about bringing potential acquisitions to the attention of MPS leadership → Land Acquisition and Planning

§  For example – the lot immediately adjacent to the Jones Road parking lot at Gunpowder

·       MPS Employee of the Month

o  Based on feedback from MPS staff, this is being tabled

o  Employees indicated they preferred more informal individual recognition on an ongoing, case-by-case basis

·       Employee Viewpoint Survey

o  Working to develop an overall score and scores for individual sections, in order to be able to easily track progress (Mock and Melton)

o  Will continue to encourage participation of all employees in future surveys (next one in June 2014)

o  Upcoming supervisor training (3 sessions, once a week, for 3 weeks)

§  Melton circulated outline to senior staff

o  Clarify holiday / weekend scheduling direction

§  Emphasize need for classified staff on duty in parks during peak periods (e.g. holidays and weekends)

§  Does NOT mean that every employee must work every holiday / weekend day

o  Notify / remind employees of any upcoming cost of living raises and step increases (salary increments) - (Mock)

o  Operational Housing

§  Reinforce that this is a DNR policy

§  Clarify that it is long-standing MPS policy to give preference to MPS employees before offering operational houses to other DNR employees (e.g. NRP officers, some of whom have been in operational houses for many years)

o  Working on visits by CFO Liz delCastillo and her team to meet with administrative staff and/or attend regional meetings

·       Recent initiative by senior staff to study administrative staff classifications and functions, to improve consistency and adequately compensate staff for their hard work, was successful in obtaining reclassifications / upgrades / salary increases

·       Superintendent’s Town Hall Meetings are scheduled for March / early April

o  Senior staff to attend as available

·       Budget hearings are scheduled for February 20 and 21

·       Park Technician Annual Salary Review (ASR) meeting set for senior staff and Assistant Secretary Hoffman

o  Effort initiated by senior staff to seek sorely needed reclassifications

o  Still pending with DBM / General Assembly

·       Potential impact of minimum wage increase and Affordable Care Act (health care law) on contractual / seasonal budgets

o  Considering whether / how to survey our seasonal workforce this summer to gauge their potential interest in obtaining health care through the State and, therefore, the potential future impact to the MPS contractual budget

·       Funding Study needs to be updated on an annual basis to reflect progress made and/or adjustments

o  Perhaps present this update at each November Managers Meeting

·       Land Use Designations (handout)

o  Regional Managers to work with Managers to review list of DNR-owned properties in their region

§  Feedback to Settina within next 2 weeks

§  Each property in the Regional Manager’s region is to have a comment (even if the comment is “leave as is”)  

o  Consider whether property should be added to list of State Parks in Use of State Parks chapter of COMAR / deleted from list?

o  Consider whether there should be changes in designation of properties (e.g. Cedarville StateForest → Cedarville State Park)

o  How does this affect management of the property?

DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENT UPDATE

• Crime Statistics
• Question received from DBM after State of the State Parks briefing in Senate, asking for crime statistics for State Parks
• Numbers collected from DNR Communications Center (CAD system) for 2009 through 2013
• Graphs of criminal violations for 10 selected State Parks were created and forwarded to DBM
• Generally show a decrease or stable
• Gunpowder and Patapsco saw an increase
• Graphs shared with Regional Managers
• Attendance Reporting
• MPS visitation numbers are used on a very frequent basis, for a variety of purposes (e.g. justifying budget request to DBM and General Assembly)
• The credibility of the DNR / MPS, and ability to receive requested funding, are on the line if we are not able to confidently report and demonstrate the integrity of our attendance reporting procedures
• Regional Managers to confirm with Managers, in writing, that ALL attendance reporting procedures are being followed
• Managers to confirm that they have current numbers (e.g. visitors per vehicle / turnover coefficients)
• Any parks not in compliance / without current numbers must develop those numbers ASAP using the attendance reporting procedures (remember to utilize volunteers as available)
• As per the attendance reporting procedures, new numbers are only required to be developed if there has been a change in visitation patterns or other reason to believe that the numbers are out of date
• Criminal History Records (NCIC)  / Driver’s Records Checks (MVA)
• Civilian State employees may not access these law enforcement databases, as they are strictly regulated and audited to ensure that they are used for legitimate law enforcement investigations only
• Criminal History Records Checks
• Use established CJIS fingerprint process coordinated through Cindy Hawkins
• 24 to 48-hour turnaround time
• Cindy will advise of any issues (must be provided names submitted, so she can contact the appropriate manager) and/or the manager can follow up with Cindy on any particular employee

§  Can also use any publicly available resource

·       Judicial Case Search website

·       Sex Offender Registry

• Driver’s License Record Checks
• The MVA has a system in place – they waive the usual fee for state agencies – this process has been shared with Regional Managers

§  If out-of-state resident, prospective employee is to request driving record and provide an official copy (not photocopy)

§  As per DBM Rules for Driver’s of State Vehicles, employee must have a valid license (not suspended / revoked / canceled) and no more than 5 current points in order to be eligible to drive a State vehicle

• Policy Review / Suggestions
• Form will be created to provide opportunity for all employees to suggest adjustments / amendments to MPS policy on an ongoing basis (Taylor and Mock to develop form)
• Form will include employee information, section of policy to be considered for adjustment, suggested change and justification
• Mock will coordinate collection of forms
• Senior staff will discuss / consider the suggestions (during Regional Report portion of senior staff meeting) and modify policy if appropriate
• Amendments to policy will be distributed in a timely fashion and then incorporated into the MPS Policy Manual during the annual update

TRAIL PRESENTATION (Powerpoint by Dan Hudson)

• Training materials on trails to be developed by Hudson and Lutsko
• Hudson to provide presentation to managers and other MPS staff

REGIONAL REPORTS

• Southeast
• Janes Island playground in disrepair
• Funds for replacement not available until 2015
• Riley to have an inspection performed
• If beyond repair, it will be removed to eliminate appearance of dilapidated park facilities
• Housing inspections
• Must be done by qualified Maintenance Supervisors and/or certified professional inspectors (at tenant expense)
• Burnett / Suydam to follow up to ensure that all tenants are forwarding heating plant inspection (includes wood stoves, etc.) and chimney sweep inspections to Lipphard
• Progress of capital projects / critical maintenance projects
• Suydam to create a tracking form, similar to hiring process form created by Knisely, to track progress – will coordinate with E&C to provide updates
• Central
• Gunpowder – Jones Road Parking Lot
• Taylor met with Senator Jennings, community representatives, NRP and Baltimore County PD to discuss implementation of seasonal closure plan
• Meeting with Delegate Impallaria and SHA representatives to discuss opposition to proposed Gunpowder trail system (due to significant environmental impact / alterations to extensive wetlands areas)
• Potential lead contamination to site at Soldiers Delight (currently owned property and potential acquisition)
• Working with MGS and MDE to investigate
• Regional project at Rocks involving multiple parks (parking lot clean up and tree work) – great team project
• West
• Cabin furniture replacement plan (New Germany and Herrington Manor)
• Deep Creek Lake State Park – “Loyalty coupon” suggestion to offer discounts for frequent visitors
• Park concessions / Discovery Center
• Rocky Gap has been experiencing significant porcupine activity (chewing on camper cabins / campsite posts)
• Working with WHS on protection measures
• Resource management guidelines
• MPS will explore following NPS model to create plans to be used by managers as a reference / guide
• Settina to check with Catoctin Mountain Park Manager Mel Poole as to availability to attend March senior staff meeting, as he had previously presented this information to the Park Advisory Commission
• Seasonal Hiring
• Mock to check with HRS to ensure that we can consider an applicant for additional positions if they didn’t indicate interest in all positions on the JobAps supplemental questionnaire
• Friends Groups
• Not all organizations have Affiliated Foundations agreements and/or proper IRS certification – may not solicit funds on behalf of the MPS / park without this
• Anthony / managers to follow up ASAP

SUPPORT SERVICES

• Annual MES meeting scheduled for March 25
• Burnett will send calendar appointment
• Vehicles
• State contract is being disputed and has to be re-bid (error by DBM)
• May be mid-summer before vehicles will be received
• Ranger School
• Going well
• Made arrangements for impending storm event
• Solar Training
• Solar panel installations
• Regional Managers to send recommendations for attendees to Burnett
• ~ 5 days training, plus some computer time

ADMINISTRATION

• JobAps / Seasonal Hiring
• Friday is halfway point of recruitment period and first set of passwords is to be provided to managers
• Have received ~ 1,000 applications thus
• CJC recruitment will likely require an extension, as we have not received sufficient applications to date
• Park Managers need to be tracking / reporting any issues
• Will need to contact all applicants to determine viability prior to end of recruitment period (~ 2-3 days prior)
• May send email to all applicants to confirm their interest, with a deadline to respond – If they don’t respond, indicate that on the tracking sheet
• Succession Planning / Hiring
• Hecker is now serving as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) with HRS and reviewing applications – things are progressing more efficiently
• Sharing our weekly tracking spreadsheet with HRS to highlight our priorities
• Seasonal Hiring Best Practices Manual
• How can we make it more helpful?
• Forward content and process ideas to Mock, who will be working with Melton to update the manual
• FY 2015 Budget (handout)
• Draft update shared with senior staff – will be forwarded electronically once things are finalized
• Good news overall, pending approval by General Assembly