The Clearwater City Council Monday adopted a new policy allowing staff members to telecommute.

 

Administrator Kevin Kress said the policy would most likely be limited to a few people.

 

“For the most part, this would be the three of us - potentially four, and the fourth would be the public works supervisor, depending on if he’s running reports like water supply or things like that,” said Kress. “Otherwise it would be basically limited to the office. It would be myself, Deb (Petty)  and Joni (Larson).

 

Councilman Wayne Kruchten asked if the office staff had the capability to work from home.

 

Kress said yes, they could connect to the city’s main server to do things like utility bills, accounts payable and payrolls.

 

Kress said he sometimes works from home.

 

“I have to do it on occasions. I bring my laptop home,” he said. “The difference is I don’t get penalized for doing that.”

 

He said he would probably use telecommuting when there is a snowstorm, and he didn’t believe the other staff would use it often.

 

Under the policy, employees are required to follow all procedures relating to telecommuting established by the city. They must report all time away from their alternative worksite to the supervisor (Kress).

 

He said even during telecommuting, staff can remain in contact by phone or email.

 

Councilman Richard Petty said a concern would be not having enough personnel at city hall.

 

“...as long as we maintain the integrity of city hall. We are a three-person staff. We don’t want to have a situation where someone comes in and the person there can’t answer a question,” he said. “If it doesn’t work we can always change it.”

 

 

“If I start to realize it’s not working because we need them here to answer the phone, I have the authority to say come in,” he said.

 

Petty said it’s a good idea as long as the work gets done properly.

 

“Anytime you have the ability to work from home, it requires more monitoring to make sure the work gets done in a timely manner and it’s not taken advantage of,” he said.

 

“If there was an issue, I’d be able to tell,” said Kress.

 

“I think it will be used sparingly with the current staff. If the staff changes, I’ll have to see how responsible each person is.”

 

The policy became effective with the council’s vote Monday.

 

 

The council set a special workshop and meeting for Monday (Feb. 25) to discuss a parental leave/sick leave policy, a personnel committee, the fire contract and to appoint park commission members. The workshop starts at 5 p.m.