Council hears City employee satisfaction survey results at July 11 meeting

Members of the Globe City Council: Mayor Al Gameros, Vice Mayor Mike Stapleton (District 4), and Council members Freddy Rios (District 1), Mike Pastor (District 2), Jesse Leetham (District 3), Mariano Gonzalez (District 5), and Fernando Shipley (District 6). All members were in attendance at this meeting.

City employee satisfaction survey shows issues with communication

Council heard about the results from the 2023 Employee Satisfaction Survey that was administered in March and April by LaCoya Shelton with HR Revolutionary Consulting and Megan Tormey, a consultant working with Shelton. Shelton said 78 of the City’s 109 employees responded to the survey.

• The overall favorable score was 67%, neutral was 21%, and unfavorable was 1%. Compared to last year, favorability decreased by 10% and unfavorable increased by 6%. 
• By department, favorability was highest for administration and lowest for Public Works. The largest drops in favorability since last year were for Police and Fire.
• By job role, the highest favorability scores came from directors and assistant directors, and the lowest favorability scores came from individual contributors. There was a huge drop in favorability since last year at the individual level.
• By tenure, favorability is highest among people who have worked for the City for less than one year or more than 15 years, and lowest for people who have worked for the City for between 11 and 15 years.

The two highest-scoring questions on the survey were:

• “I respect and value the members of my team and their contributions.” (92% of respondents agreed)
• “The success of my department and division is important to me.” (91% of respondents agreed)

The lowest-scoring questions were: 

• “In my division, hiring and promotion decisions are fair and equitable.” (30% of respondents disagreed)
• “The City of Globe cares about employees.” (26% of respondents disagreed)
• “I feel that I can share my ideas and opinions without fear of negative consequences.” (23% of respondents disagreed)

In their comments, respondents tended to focus on the City’s strengths being people/employees, and areas for improvement being compensation, leadership/management and communication.

In their key findings, Shelton said employees indicated employees desire more communication (both frequency and content), and that there are concerns about how pay increases were handled. Shelton said the Fire and Police departments were both open about challenges with recruiting, retaining, and training employees, as well as issues with old equipment.

The responses also showed that the reasons employees work for the City are shifting from a concern for community and mission/vision to a paycheck and benefits.

Councilmembers and the City Manager will be receiving a full report that gives details and can help explain why changes occurred. 

Shelton recommended that City staff develop action plans by identifying areas to focus on, developing goals, and assigning people to develop and implement the plans, as well as creating a communications strategy for the action planning process.

Public comment

During public comment, Ann Rickett described finding several articles online that said Globe is the worst or second-worst place to live in Arizona. From there, Rickett researched and found startling statistics about crime, poverty, and lack of growth. She said she has had personal experiences with crime. Rickett said she doesn’t feel this is only a problem for the police but feels there should be efforts to involve the community in protecting people from crime. 

The rules for public comment don’t allow Council to respond to comments, but City Manager Jepson said he would like to see Council present and discuss the topic and a path forward.

Motions approved

Council also approved motions for the following:

• Accounts payable in the amount of $1,168,703.74
• Nomination of Debbie Cox to the Planning and Zoning Commission
• Approving Field Use Memorandums of Understanding with Globe Unified School District, Destiny School, American Youth Soccer Organization, Copper Cities Youth Basketball League Inc., Pinal Mountain Little League, and Tri-City Fast Softball
• Approving State of Arizona funding intergovernmental agreements between the Arizona Department of Transportation and the City of Globe accepting appropriations as follows:

  • $632,500 in additional funding for the Cottonwood Bridge Replacement and Improvement Project
  • $643,200 in additional funding for Jesse Hayes Road Bridge Replacement and Improvement Project (Connie’s Bridge)
  • $3,501,100 for sidewalk construction along Jesse Hayes Road and Six Shooter Canyon Road and approve a contingency match for $158,000

• Amending a contract with the Pinal-Gila Council for Senior Citizens (PGCSC), allowing the City of Globe Active Adult Center to receive $93,000 in reimbursements for FY2023-2024 to provide meals both on-site and Meals on Wheels deliveries. City Manager Jepson explained that this is an annual item that is crucial to the operation of the Active Adult center.
• Approval of a contract for on-call engineering survey services with Sunrise Engineering in an amount not to exceed $80,000, with possible WIFA reimbursement and/or grant reimbursement.
• Approval a contract for on-call civil engineering and professional support services with EPS Group in an amount not to exceed $80,000 with possible WIFA reimbursement and/or grant reimbursement.
• Approval of a contract for on-call civil engineering and professional support services with EUSI LLC in an amount not to exceed $80,000, with possible WIFA reimbursement and/or grant reimbursement. Within this contract is included $54,000 for WIFA and CIP project management.

Public Works Director John Angulo explained that these on-call contracts will allow the City to move ahead with sidewalk, bridge projects, cemetery expansion, and upcoming downtown projects without going through the procurement process each time. Jepson said $80,000 will come from the general fund, $80,000 from water, and $80,000 from sewer. He also clarified that this doesn’t mean there will be $80,000 of work for each vendor; instead, there is $80,000 of work that will be split among three possible vendors. These contracts all went out to bid, Jepson said.

To view this meeting online, visit HERE. 

Full minutes can be found by going to the City Hall website .

The Globe City Council meets every second and fourth Tuesday of the month at 6:00 p.m. at City Hall. The meetings are currently open to the public at 50% capacity. Members of the public are requested to wear a mask except when seated. Seating is limited to allow for social distancing.

Public members can also participate in City of Globe public meetings by viewing the meeting live on YouTube.  

To speak to agenda items before or during the meeting, call or text (928) 200-0154 or email council@globeaz.gov. If you desire to speak to the Council during an agenda item.