Get a flu shot at a worksite vaccination clinic — free for most employees

Worksite vaccination clinics will make it convenient for employees to get a flu shot in the coming weeks. No reservations are required; all clinics are on a first-come, first-served basis.

Employees on the City’s health insurance plan receive free flu shots at the worksite vaccination clinics. Just attend a clinic and show your City health insurance card from Medica (or a photocopy of the card) and a picture ID, such as your driver’s license or employee ID badge.

The clinics, which are offered through Medica and the Minnesota Visiting Nurse Agency, are open to all employees. Employees not on the City’s health insurance plan may bring proof of coverage under other insurance plans accepted by the Minnesota Visiting Nurse Agency to pay for the flu shot. Without an insurance card, the on-site fee for the flu vaccination is $35. Read more.

‘COMET’ wins naming contest for City software system

Diane Gross, senior training consultant in the Human Resources Department, won a $100 Visa gift card for submitting COMET as the new name for the soon-to-be upgraded City software system for human resources, financials, and business information reporting and analysis. COMET stands for City of Minneapolis Enterprise Technology.

City employees submitted 107 ideas for a name for the new system. A team responsible for helping the City get ready for the software system upgrade (the organizational readiness team) reviewed all of the submissions and recommended the choice to the steering committee who then selected COMET as the winning name. 

The COMET software system is scheduled to go live in June 2015. It will give all City employees easier access to their payroll, benefits and timekeeping information, and their learning and development opportunities. It will also make day-to-day work easier for more than 700 City employees who work in Finance. Read more.

Diane Gross, senior training consultant in the Human Resources Department, won the naming contest for a soon-to-be upgraded City software system.

Enjoy singing? Join the City-County Chorus

The City-County Chorus welcomes all singers to join the group for its 2014 season. Rehearsals begin Tuesday, Sept. 9, in preparation for a series of holiday concerts.

Any City, County or State employee who enjoys singing may join the chorus. There are no tryouts, and the ability to read music is not required.

This marks the 40th year that City, County and State court employees will come together to sing for the holiday season. The chorus’ repertoire includes holiday, seasonal and patriotic songs with piano accompaniment. Read more.

#FollowThe
FireDepartment

The Minneapolis Fire Department is now on Twitter. Start following them today for the department’s latest news, updates, safety messages and other items of interest. Find them at @MinneapolisFire.

What you need to do to prepare for the City’s new online hiring system

The City’s new online hiring system, Team Minneapolis, will go live this October. Here’s what you need to know to prepare for the change.

If you aren’t looking for a new job in the City

If you aren’t looking for a new job in the City and you aren’t a hiring manager, this change won’t affect you right now and you don’t have to do anything.

The next time you apply for a City job

If you are looking for a new job or the next time you apply for a position in the City, you should know that your account in the current online hiring system will not automatically transfer over to the Team Minneapolis system. There are three ways to get an account set up in Team Minneapolis. Read more. 

Welcome aboard

To recognize new employees and to keep existing employees up to date on staffing changes, Minneapolis Matters is launching this new feature to introduce new employees. Please welcome the new employees who recently joined these City departments:

311
Ryan Franson, customer service agent
Timothy Galatowitsch, customer service agent
Tyler Schaubschlager, customer service agent
Maypangdhei Vue, customer service agent

911
Jenna Bixby, dispatcher
Brian  Freedman, dispatcher
Kaleigh Loiselle, dispatcher
Sarah Lopez, dispatcher
Rachel Pond, dispatcher
Jena Scurry, dispatcher

Finance and Property Services
Mary Kay Heinen, accountant

Information Technology
Tamara Bredemus, senior collaboration architect
Sriganesh Selvaraj, database engineer

Police
Donald Banham Jr., management analyst
Daniel Boody, administrative analyst

Upcoming events

Sept. 5 Flu shot clinic: Minneapolis 311/3rd Precinct
Sept. 9 Flu shot clinic: Public Works Fleet Services and Police Special Operations Center
Sept. 9 City-County Chorus rehearsal
Sept. 9-11 Bicyclist and pedestrian count
Sept. 10 Cinema in the Cemetery: The Blob
Sept. 10 Flu shot clinic: Police Special Operations Center
Sept. 14 Open Streets: Nicollet Avenue
Sept. 16 Flu shot clinic: Police Special Operations Center
Sept. 17 Tools for Managing FMLA Leaves
Sept. 18 City retirement seminar
Sept. 18 Flu shot clinic: Crown Roller Mill Building
Sept. 20 Open Streets: Lowry Avenue North

Greetings from new City Coordinator Spencer Cronk I hope each of you had a nice, relaxing Labor Day weekend. Last Thursday, I was honored to be sworn in as the next City Coordinator, and I want to begin my first full week here by letting you know how much I look forward to working with each of you in building a city that runs well and effectively serves all of its citizens. It will take all of us — working together — to achieve our vision for the city: Minneapolis is a growing and vibrant world-class city with a flourishing economy and a pristine environment, where all people are safe, healthy and have equitable opportunities for success and happiness. Minneapolis has a long, proud history of running well through strong enterprise coordination, and I am thrilled to join you and champion efforts that strengthen the City’s management systems. Over the next few weeks, I will make an effort to meet as many of you as possible. Whether you see me on a walking tour in your area, or you just happen to pass me in a hallway (I’m 6 feet 6 inches tall and hard to miss!), I encourage you to take a second and introduce yourself. In addition, I expect to do a lot of listening during these first months of my transition. I hope that as we meet each other, we also begin to develop a culture of candor and feedback. I want to set a tone where you feel comfortable sharing your ideas and concerns with me. I also want to begin my tenure by thanking you for the work you are doing, as well as thank you in advance for the work that we will do together. City employees often have thankless jobs despite the good work they do, and I want to change that. I believe that we are all dedicated professionals and should be treated with dignity and respect. It is important to honor and applaud all the work that we do throughout the City.  Again, I am excited to meet each of you in the coming weeks and to join you in service to the great City of Minneapolis. Sincerely,

Spencer Cronk, City Coordinator Learn more about Spencer Cronk.

Ballot recount

The Elections and Voter Services Division conducted a recount of the ballots cast in the primary for the “School Board Member At-Large” position for Minneapolis Public Schools on Tuesday, Aug. 26. The recount was requested by candidate Doug Mann. A total of 10 recount teams made up of election judges and staff counted all 29,129 ballots from the 125 precincts in Minneapolis.

Convention Center receives worldwide recognition

The Minneapolis Convention Center recently received worldwide recognition for its excellent management and operation. It was the only convention center in the world to receive the honor this year from the International Association of Venue Managers, which represents public assembly venues from around the globe. 

The convention center was awarded a Venue Excellence Award for Convention Centers for exceling in:

• Operational excellence, which includes sales and marketing, customer satisfaction, sustainability and financial integrity.
• Teambuilding and professional development.
• Safety and security.
• Service to the community.

Jeff Johnson, executive director of the Minneapolis Convention Center, accepts the Venue Excellence Award for the convention center's excellent management and operation from Michelle Johnson, chief information officer at Freeman Audio Visual Solutions.

City's annual count of bike and pedestrian traffic set for
Sept. 9-11

Minneapolis Public Works will hold its eighth annual bicyclist and pedestrian count Sept. 9-11. During the event, volunteers count the number of bicyclists and walkers at locations throughout Minneapolis to help give the City a better understanding of daily nonmotorized traffic.

The City uses the information from the counts to track changes and trends in biking and walking and understand how to plan and build for bicyclists and pedestrians. It also helps the City see what’s working and what should be done differently.

On the three days of the event, approximately 100 volunteers will be stationed around town from 4-6 p.m. to count bicyclists and walkers. Volunteers are still needed. Read more.

City print center first in U.S. to win Forest Stewardship Council certification

The City of Minneapolis’ Document Solutions Center has earned a “chain-of-custody certification" through the Forest Stewardship Council, which makes it the only internal City print center in the country to have received the certification. In order to be certified, the print center was required to demonstrate that the materials it uses comply with the highest social and environmental market standards. With this certification, the City’s print center can offer the assurance of Forest Stewardship Council-certified products to all City departments.

The certification aligns with the City’s goal to focus on the well-being of people and our environment. The use of renewable materials from preferred vendors guarantees that paper products are sourced from healthy forests and strong communities. City departments using the services of the Document Solutions Center can choose to incorporate the Forest Stewardship Council certification mark on production jobs as a public indication that the materials comply with these internationally recognized standards. Read more.

Getting results for the City and its residents: Communications Department

The Communications Department tells the stories of Minneapolis City government, gathering and distributing information about City policies, programs and services. One way the Communications Department informs the public of the City’s work is through proactive media relations. This involves pitching news stories to the media and creating easy opportunities for reporters to cover the stories by using press releases, media advisories and news conferences. These proactive efforts lead to media coverage that is worth millions of dollars each year in advertisement value. For example, in 2013, the media coverage of City government had a value of more than $26 million.

Since 2008, social media has been another channel the Communications Department uses to inform the public of the City’s work. The department has grown the City’s social media reach dramatically in the last four years. The number of Twitter followers has increased more than eightfold since 2010. Today the City has nearly 40,000 Twitter followers.

Aliens invade at Cinema in the Cemetery A trio of terrifying creature features is coming to the Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery. The Friends of the Cemetery in partnership with The Trylon Microcinema and All-Star Productions will show: The Blob Wednesday, Sept. 10 Plan 9 From Outer Space Wednesday, Sept. 24 The Thing From Another World Wednesday, Oct. 8 Movies start at dusk (approximately 7 p.m.), and gates open at 5:30 p.m. Read more.