Loading...
CC - Item 4I - Accessibility & Technology Reimbursement PolicyE M F S Q. O -dam POR ATF 0 ROSEMEAD CITY COUNCIL STAFF REPORT TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNC FROM: ANDREW C. LAZZARETTO, CITY MANAGER DATE: MAY 8, 2007 SUBJECT: ACCESSIBILITY & TECHNOLOGY REIMBURSEMENT POLICY SUMMARY Under current practice, Council Members are eligible to have the City pay their cell phone provider up to $80 per month for service. Periodically, staff is also reimbursed for cell phone expenses incurred. However, these practices are not currently being carried out based on any specific policy, a situation which has made it difficult to determine exactly what constitutes a reimbursable expense. Furthermore, not all members of the City Council and management team are accessible via cell phone. Given the nature of the responsibility placed on those filling these positions, it is important for these individuals to be accessible 24-hours a day. To address this situation, it is proposed that the City Council adopt Administrative Policy 20-03 (Attachment A) relating to accessibility and technology reimbursement. Under the provisions of this policy, members of the City Council, the City Manager, Department Heads, and Division Managers would be eligible for an annual one-time reimbursement of no more than $300 for the purchase of eligible electronic devices. In addition, participants would also be able to receive a reimbursement of up to $150 per month to pay for on-going costs such as a wireless data plan. Staff Recommendation Staff recommends that the City Council approve Administrative Policy 20-03. ANALYSIS Anticipated Annual Cost For Implementation There are 15 positions that would be eligible to participate in this program, including all five members of the City Council; the City Manager; Deputy City Manager; City Clerk; Parks & Recreation Director; Community Development Director; Public Safety Services Director; Chief Financial Officer; Redevelopment Administrator; Economic Development Administrator; and Planning Services Administrator. If approved, the maximum annual cost per participant in this reimbursement program would be $2,100 (calculated based adding the annual one-time $300 reimbursement for the purchase of an electronic device with the monthly reimbursement of up to $150 / month). With 15 participants, this program could potentially cost up to $31,500 to implement. APPROVED FOR CITY COUNCIL AGENDA:"' 0 • City Council Report May 8, 2007 Page 2 of 2 One-Time Reimbursable Expense To determine an appropriate amount for the annual one-time reimbursement amount of $300, staff compared the cost of a popular smartphone known as the Palm Treo. In addition to acting as a cellular phone, these smartphones give users constant access to their e-mail, their schedules, the internet, and a variety of other computer-based functions. The cost for the Palm Treo ranged from $399 - $648 (Attachment B). Staff therefore felt it would be appropriate to set the reimbursement amount at $300. Monthly Reimbursable Expense Staff also took time to research the cost of purchasing a voice and data plan to operate a smartphone with. We examined the cost of Verizon Wireless plans, which ranged from $79.99/month to $169.99/month (Attachment C). Based on these cost figures, staff felt it would be appropriate to set the monthly reimbursement amount at $150/month. LEGAL REVIEW The City Attorney has reviewed and approved Administrative Policy 20-03. PUBLIC NOTICE PROCESS This item has been noticed through the regular agenda notification process. Submitted by: Oliver Chi Deputy City Manager Attachment A: Administrative Policy 20-03 Attachment B: Palm Treo Smartphone Cost Attachment C: Verizon Wireless Voice & Data Plan Cost T - AI F • -a CITY OF ROSEMEAD i ATTACHMENT A Policy Number: 20-03 Date Established: May 8, 2007 Date Revised: May 8, 2007 0 Administrative Policy Manual City Manager Approval: SUBJECT: ACCESSIBILITY AND TECHONOLOGY REIMBURSEMENT POLICY PURPOSE: To establish an accessibility and technology reimbursement policy for City Council Members, the City Manager, Department Heads, and Division Managers. GENERAL POLICY Due to the nature of their responsibilities, it is important for the City Council, the City Manager, Department Heads, and Division Managers to be able to access one another 24-hours a day. In order for this to occur, these individuals must have the tools that will allow them to be reached at all times, and as such, it is appropriate that the City provide these individuals with the appropriate technology to maintain communications. PROVISIONS A. To be available 24 hours a day, the City Council, the City Manager, Department Heads, and Division Heads must have access to certain communications devices that they may not have otherwise purchased for personal use. Such devices shall include a cellular phone and access plan, and may also include a personal data assistant or a portable electronic device capable of receiving and sending messages. B. Because these technologies are required to maintain contact with one another, the City will provide the City Council, the City Manager, Department Heads, and Division Heads an annual technology reimbursement that includes the following components: Once per calendar year, participants will be qualified for a one-time reimbursement amount of no more than $300 for the purchase of eligible electronic devices. In order to be eligible for the reimbursement, receipts must be turned in. ii. Beginning in the month in which participants sign-up for this program, eligible employees shall also receive a reimbursement of up to $150 per month for applicable technology costs such as a voice and data plan. In order to be eligible for the reimbursement, receipts must be turned in. C. To qualify for the technology reimbursement, eligible participants must complete a self-certification form (Exhibit A). D. Participants in the program are required to submit copies of all eligible technology- related receipts to the Finance Department for reconciliation, and all reimbursements shall be made in a manner consistent with this policy. Page 1 of 2 Page 2 of 2 • • Policy 20-03 Accessibility & Technology Reimbursement Policy CITY OF ROSEMEAD TECHNOLOGY REIMBURSEMENT SELF-CERTIFICATION FORM Name: Date: During this upcoming year, the following technologies will be used to remain accessible to the City Council, the City Manager, and City staff. (include a brief description of the equipment to be used, purchased, service plans, etc.) ITEM(S) TO BE PURCHASED NOTE - $300 MAXIMUM ONE-TIME REIMBURSEMENT AMOUNT FOR THE CALENDAR YEAR. RECEIPTS MUST BE TURNED IN TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR THIS REIMBURSEMENT. ESTIMATED MONTHLY REIMBURSEMENT ITEMS & AMOUNTS NOTE - $150 MAXIMUM MONTHLY REIMBURSEMENT AMOUNT. RECEIPTS MUST BE TURNED IN TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR THIS REIMBURSEMENT. THE UNDERSIGNED HEREBY CERTIFIES THAT THEY HAVE READ ADMINISTRATIVE POLICY NO. 20-03 AND HEREBY STATES THAT REQUESTED EXPENSES FOR REIMBURSEMENT SHALL FALL WITHIN THE PROVISIONS OF THE POLICY. FURTHERMORE, THE UNDERSIGNED AGREES TO PROVIDE EXPENSE RECEIPTS PRIOR TO GETTING REIMBURSED. Signature Date City Manager's Signature Date • 0 0 4,x,1 a 0 3 1 o ('V to n W :5, II to W N O O J .w 0 w < ~ a 0 0 ATTACHMENT B ❑ 00 3 < < ~3 t3 d < 5, (D 0 O O i i A V o io i d 0 F ~ s O ~ 0 7 ~ 7 ~ o L ? C~ O G 3 '1 ° ~ O ~ w < rn D O o A 9 Ln 0 0 7 A 7 to c o~ (D W co A C a 3 O A 1 D QI 5O 3 l 0 D O N A w 3 a 0 ro u, A Q c a 00 O f 7 2 O ro rD N N N ro m rD La 0 cD 0 y dQ CD O N ti 0 • V) 0 Q N r 0 E S S tos 0 A O ! 3 Ln a mo rD N 11 n O ~ 00 ~ d m H ~ 0 n R° p~q I I to w N O O J 1-1 A O d f~D G mH w ~ 0 n 0 ro r. 0 0 a c~ cn QQ (D N C i N PDA/Smartphone Voice & Data Ch~e Bundle Calling Plans - Verizon Wirelgss Page 1 of 3 r ATTACHMEW C wireless Location: Rosemead, CA I Coverage Locator PDA/Smartphone Voice & Data Choice Bundlesm A bundled package with voice and wireless data for quick and easy Coverage Maps: remote access to email and attachments. America's Choice Map • Data usage from within the National Enhanced Services and the National Enhanced Extended National Enhanced Services Rate and Coverage Areas Services Map • Unlimited IN calling • Unlimited nights and weekends Brame included_features View all cal_I_ingplans Select Monthly Plan Monthly Minutes Access Additional Minutes NightslWknds 0 Core Choice $79.99 $0.45 per Minute After Unlimited 450 1' Allowance Q Extra Choice $109.99 $0.35 per Minute After Unlimited 1350 0 Allowance Recommended Q Max Choice $169.99 $0.25per Minute After Unlimited 4000 i'1 Allowance Read Additional Calling Plan Information Important Calling Plan Information Anytime Minutes, National IN Calling, Night & Weekend Minutes and Per-Minute Rate are for use from within the America's Choice Rate and Coverage Area. Data usage is for use within the National Enhanced Services Rate and Coverage Area. • Unlimited Push to Talk (for One-to-One and Group Calling) • Unlimited Domestic Long Distance. (Airtime applies.) • No domestic roaming charges. (Coverage not available in all areas) • Unlimited Night & Weekend Minutes Night Hrs: (M-F) 9:01 p.m.-5:59 a.m. Wknd Hrs: 12:00 a.m. Sat.-11:59 p.m. Sun. International Roaming Make or receive calls while traveling internationally with rates starting as low as 69¢/minute. While at home, some international destinations can be reached using 10-digit direct dialing; international long distance rates apply in addition to airtime charges. Please visit www.verizonwireless.com/international for a list of North American Dialing Pattern countries and rates. 411 Connect@ $1.49 per call plus airtime. http://www.verizonwireless.comlb2clstorelcontroller?item=planFirst&action=viewPlanList&sortOption=pric... 5/3/2007 PDA/Smartphone Voice & Data Choice Bundle Calling Plans - Verizon Wires Page 2 of 3 0 Detailed Billing $1.99 per month per number. Required Equipment Verizon Wireless PDA or Smartphone device. Minimum Term, Activation and Early Termination Fees • One- or two-year minimum term required per line. • Activation Fee/line: $35 • Activation fees may vary or be waived for business customers that have a Major Account Agreement with Verizon Wireless. • Early Termination Fee: Up to $175 per line. Taxes, Surcharges and Fees • Tolls, taxes, surcharges and other fees, such as E911 and gross receipt charges, vary by market and as of April 1, 2007, add between 4% and 34% to your monthly bill and are in addition to your monthly access fees and airtime charges. • Monthly Federal Universal Service Charge (varies quarterly based on FCC rate) is 11.7%. • Monthly Regulatory Charge (subject to change) is 40 per line. • Monthly Administrative Charge (subject to change) is 70¢ per line. • The Federal Universal Service, Regulatory and Administrative Charges are Verizon Wireless charges, not taxes. For more details on these charges, call 1-888-684-1888. IMPORTANT INFORMATION For more information, refer to the Customer Agreement or speak with a Sales Rpresentative. Service is subject to the Customer Agreement, which you should read before activating service. Calling Plans not available in all areas. Credit approval required. Billing, shipping and end-user address must be within the Verizon Wireless licensed and service areas where the wireless phone number is issued. DATA PLANS AND FEATURES Data Plans and Features (such as NationalAccess, BroadbandAccess, GlobalAccess, Push to Talk, and certain VZEmail services) may ONLY be used with wireless devices for the following purposes: (i) Internet browsing; (ii) email; and (iii) intranet access (including access to corporate intranets, email, and individual productivity applications like customer relationship management, sales force, and field service automation). The Data Plans and Features MAY NOT be used for any other purpose. Examples of prohibited uses include, without limitation, the following: (1) continuous uploading, downloading or streaming of audio or video programming or games; (ii) server devices or host computer applications, including, but not limited to, Web camera posts or broadcasts, automatic data feeds, automated machine-to-machine connections or peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing; or (iii) as a substitute or backup for private lines or dedicated data connections. This means, by way of example only, that checking email, surfing the Internet, downloading legally acquired songs, and/or visiting corporate intranets is permitted, but downloading movies using P2P file sharing services and/or redirecting television signals for viewing on laptops is prohibited. A person engaged in prohibited uses, continuously for one hour, could typically use 100 to 200 MBs, or, if engaged in prohibited uses for 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, could use more than 5 GBs in a month. For individual use only and not for resale. We reserve the right to protect our network from harm, which may impact legitimate data flows. We reserve the right to limit throughput or amount of data transferred, and to deny or terminate service, without notice, to anyone we believe is using an Data Plan or Feature in any manner prohibited above or whose usage adversely impacts our network or service levels. Anyone using more than 5 GB per line in a given month is presumed to be using the service in a manner prohibited above, and we reserve the right to immediately terminate the service of any such person without notice. We also reserve the right to terminate service upon expiration of Customer Agreement term. Data sessions automatically terminate after 24 hours of activity. Data session is inactive when no data is being transferred. Data session may seem inactive while data is actively being transferred to device, or may seem active when it is actually cached and not transferring data. You MUST press or click END or DISCONNECT button to ensure that session disconnects and charges cease. Thirdparty applications may automatically reinitiate data sessions without you pressing or clicking SEND or CONNECT button. For the Palm@ TreoTM 650, the only way to disconnect your data session is to press the home key until you see "All" or "System," then select the "Prefs" icon, then select "Network" from the drop- down list, and then "Disconnect." You may be able to send or receive voice calls when your data session is inactive. When http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controller?item=pIanFirst&action=viewPlanList&sortOption=pric... 5/3/2007 PDA/Smartphone Voice & Data Ch,* e Bundle Calling Plans - Verizon Wireless Page 3 of 3 this occurs, charges apply simultaneously for voice calls in accordance with your Calling Plan. You are responsible for maintaining virus protection when accessing service. PDA/smartphone and BlackBerry® Plans: These VZEmail plans cannot be used: (1) for access to the Internet, intranets, or other data networks except as the device's native applications and capabilities permit, unless you subscribe to BroadbandAccess Connect; or (2) for any applications that tether your device to laptops or personal computers other than for use of the Wireless Sync or the BlackBerry solution, unless you subscribe to BroadbandAccess Connect. PDA/smartphone and BlackBerry Megabyte Features: Megabyte allowance and charges for kilobytes over the monthly allowance apply to 1xRTT and EV-DO data sessions, which are rounded to next full kilobyte at end of each billing cycle. Only total of kilobytes transmitted above allowance each billing cycle may appear on bill. You are responsible for all charges, including all data sent and received and "overhead" whether or not you or your recipients actually receive the data. Overhead is all data that is in addition to user-transmitted data, such as control, operational and routing instructions, error-checking characters as well as retransmissions of user-data messages that are received in error. Any unused portion of the megabyte allowance is lost. Wireless Sync: Compatible wireless device required. The monthly allowance applies only to 1xRTT and EV-DO data transmissions, not to voice or other (Quick 2 Net or dial-up) data transmissions. When traveling outside of the National Enhanced Services Rate and Coverage Area, you may be charged at the "other data" rate for data calls. Customers with devices that support Quick 2 Net service will be billed minutes of use or "other data" rate according to their Calling Plan. In order to use Wireless Sync, your PC Monitor or Wireless Sync Enterprise Server must be on and in a condition to receive your corporate email. Wireless Sync software updates will be sent to your device and will be charged as a data call. The BlackBerry Solution from Verizon Wireless: The wireless data capability of the BlackBeny device functions only within the National Enhanced Services Rate and Coverage Area. Verizon Wireless NationalAccess service is not available with the BlackBery solution. With the BlackBerry solution, the first 2 kilobytes (KB) of each email are initially received on the BlackBerry device and you can simply request to receive additional 2KB increments. Some email attachments (Microsoft@ Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint®, Corel@ WordPerfecK Adobe@ PDF, and ASCII text) are delivered to the BlackBerry device when requested by the end user. ZIP file browsing is available with BlackBerry Device Software v3.7. With BlackBerry Device Software v4.0, an HTML Internet browser has been added to the service in addition to full wireless PIM (Calendar, Contacts, Notes&Tasks) synchronization when using the BlackBerry device with a BlackBerry Enterprise Server. TM Graphics in emails and attachments are not delivered to the BlackBerry device. When the BlackBerry device reaches its memory storage capacity, email stored on the device will automatically be deleted from it, starting with the oldest emails first. BlackBerry Desktop Software using BlackBerry Desktop Redirector only supports Microsoft Exchange environments. Up to ten POP3/IMAP and ISP email accounts are supported through use of the BlackBerry Internet Service. TM Verizon Wireless Calling Plans, Rate and Coverage Areas, rates, agreement provisions, business practices, procedures and policies are subject to change as specified in the Customer Agreement. Connecticut Customers: If you have any questions about your bill or concerns about your service, please call Customer Care at: 1-800-922-0204 or dial '611 from your wireless phone. If you are a Connecticut customer and we cannot resolve your issue, you have the option of contacting the Department of Public Utility Control (DPUC): Online: www.state.ct.us/dpuc Phone: 866-381-2355; Mail: Connecticut DPUC, 10 Franklin Square, New Britain, CT 06051. Last Update 04/15/07 http://www.verizonwireless.comlb2c/store/controller?item=planFirst&action=viewPlanList&sortOption=pric... 5/3/2007