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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/18/2022 08. Mentorship-Internship Program 5l BUSINESS OF THE CITY COUNCIL YAKIMA, WASHINGTON AGENDA STATEMENT Item No. 8. For Meeting of: October 18, 2022 ITEM TITLE: Mentorship-Internship Program SUBMITTED BY: Sara Watkins, City Attorney SUMMARY EXPLANATION: As part of the settlement of the Montes and Arteaga v. City of Yakima, et al., the City of Yakima created a Mentorship-I nternship program for selected high school students from the Yakima School District. The program was approved by Council in 2017 and started thereafter. It is funded through the settlement of the lawsuit and provides a mentorship opportunity for high school students with councilmembers, as well as a paid summer internship opportunity. For the Council's review is the report regarding the 2022 Program and the overall information about the Program from its inception. The funding for the program set aside as part of the settlement has been fully expended. ITEM BUDGETED: Yes STRATEGIC PRIORITY: Public Trust and Accountability APPROVED FOR SUBMITTAL BY THE CITY MANAGER RECOMMENDATION: ATTACHMENTS: Description Upload Date Type d Summary Memo of 2022 Internship Program 9/30/2022 Co r Memo 2 w�'vati'434 �gn?§ ak P d +° 44114W �¢ d d¢ 0 aae ' Office of the City Attorney City of Yakima MEMORANDUM September 30, 2022 TO: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council Robert Harrison, City Manager FROM: Sara Watkins, City Attorney Kimberly Domine, Financial Services Manager Lt. Chad Janis, Yakima Police Department Moraima Verstrate, Police Services Supervisor Tony Doan, Supervising Code Inspector SUBJECT: Summary of 2022 Internship Program Background: In 2016, the Yakima City Council established a mentorship and internship program for students in high school in coordination with the Yakima School District. The program is an opportunity for students to learn about and increase their knowledge of government. We believe this has been a beneficial program for the students and for the City. In 2022, seven high school students started the mentorship piece of the program from the Yakima School District. The students were selected by the Yakima School District, and the students were from Davis High School, Eisenhower High School, and Stanton Academy. Each student was paired with a City Council member for the mentorship part of the program in the 2022 school year. When the students attended three Council meetings or activities and completed the mentorship component of the program, the students had the opportunity to apply for a paid summer internship with the City of Yakima. Of the seven students, five students applied for an internship and worked at the City during the summer. One student worked with the Codes Division, two students worked with the Yakima Police Department, one student worked with the Finance Division, and one student worked with the Legal Department. Interns generally attended meetings and worked alongside City employees. The interns also were able to tour City buildings, meet staff from other divisions, and shadow City employees 200 South Third Street,2nd Fl. I Yakima,WA 98901 P:509.575.6030 I F:509.575.6160 3 Honorable Mayor& Members of the City Council Robert Harrison, City Manager September 30, 2022 Page 2 during the summer. Below is a brief description of the services the Interns provided to the individual departments in which they worked during the 2022 program. Codes Division Internship: The Community Development Department hosted an intern for the summer internship program. The intern jumped right in from day 1 and was a joy to have in the office and out in the field. They did ride-alongs with Animal Control and Code Compliance Officers learning about enforcement of the municipal code and what processes need to take place. It wasn't very long before they were learning how to use SmartGov, entering notes and workflow steps and even creating case requests as needed. The intern was then taught how to utilize the templates we use for notices and orders. This was a huge help to our Code Compliance Officers. They learned a lot about Animal Control and what case types and procedures the officers follow. They worked with the Planning Division as well, learning about the history of the division and some of the type of land use reviews they process. The intern assisted with business licenses and filing to help out the Permit Technicians. The intern was also instrumental in some bigger projects that Glenn and I had going. They did some research and redlined some important IPMC changes for our new adoption. The intern impressed everyone they worked with and will be missed. We were happy to host! Yakima Police Department (Police Services) Internship: The intern arrived to work on time and always with a cheerful disposition. Their attire was appropriate for modern office practice. When needing an adjustment to their schedule they approached me or Supervisor Kelsey Donaldson to make the request. The intern has good communication skills, and is clear and well understood. The intern was always polite with both internal and external customers. At the beginning they were shy about using their bilingual skills, but by the end of the internship they gained confidence and used them to the best of their ability. The intern sought guidance from teammates or from supervisorial staff when they did not know how to respond to questions from community members. The intern split their day by working the first half of the day at the front counter and the second half of his day working on our"Destruction Project". At the front counter the intern assisted community members in person or on the phone, learned the application process for Concealed Pistol Licenses and was able to assist walk-in customers. The intern also would use Spillman to research cases to see if a report could be released via a records request or a PRA request and, once determined, would provide the appropriate forms for the submittal of a request. While working on the destruction project, the intern's ability to follow direction was evident—they quickly jumped into the destruction project and deciphered cases for retention or destruction. The intern created a list of the cases that were destroyed by utilizing Excel. The intern's inquisitive nature and positive personality assisted in establishing rapport with fellow teammates. On a personal note I could see that this internship helped the intern gain more confidence in their abilities. The intern was exposed to so many of life's experiences that I am confident they will use this knowledge to make wise decisions in the future. In this short time the Intern has been such a great asset to our Division and they will be truly missed. 4 Honorable Mayor& Members of the City Council Robert Harrison, City Manager September 30, 2022 Page 3 Yakima Police Department (Domestic Violence Coalition) Internship: The intern initially expressed an interest in domestic violence and social media. This made them a good fit for working with the Yakima Police Department, through Lt. Janis, as it is the unit responsible for a collaborative and robust domestic violence intervention as well as the public information office. The intern hit the ground running. As a recent graduate of a local high school and soon-to-be college student, we asked a lot of our intern. The speed and pace of work in this unit can be overwhelming at times, and the intern did a great job keeping pace and understanding what we were asking. The following is a list of some the duties assigned: - Social media at police department events, such as Coffee With a Cop and National Night Out - Content development for SunComm 911 call center social media project - Assisting the Public Information Officer with 2022 Officer Memorial Event - YPD Domestic Violence Dashboard data entry - Attending monthly domestic violence coalition meetings - Ride-alongs with on-duty officers - Role player at police training - Assisting property and evidence section - Assisting Police Services Division with lobby contacts These are just a few of the many things the intern was able to assist the Yakima Police Department with during the internship. The intern also became familiar with several data base programs which helped with assigned duties. We have been very fortunate to have the intern's assistance this summer and they were an absolute pleasure to work with. The intern has a wonderful demeanor and will do great things in the next chapter of their journey. Finance Division Internship: The Finance Division was pleased to work with an intern this summer. The intern was instrumental in helping move the division towards being paperless by scanning and indexing all the purchase card reconciliations into our financial software. The intern also worked closely with one of the accountants to develop a new procedure of validating the bank deposit slips against the Utility Divisions daily deposit reports and documenting the procedure which included scanning everything into a database. This required compiling daily deposit slips and departments' backup from the beginning of the year until mid-year when the new process was implemented. The intern worked closely with another one of our accountants learning the daily fuel upload. She verified the fuel files that Equipment Rental uploads on CitylCE, corrected vehicle odometer errors, uploaded the fuel files into Cayenta, and verified the fuel uploads were accurately completed when we completed the monthly fuel reconciliation. The intern also attended audit and budget meetings, which emphasized the close relationship that Finance must have with the 5 Honorable Mayor& Members of the City Council Robert Harrison, City Manager September 30, 2022 Page 4 departments that we serve. The intern provided administrative support that included mailruns, document research, data entry as well as many other various tasks. Legal Department Internship: The intern was very professional and a pleasure to work with over the summer. The intern was a quick learner and very efficient in the projects that were given to her. The intern took on every task given with enthusiasm and confidence. The intern learned and used many programs that the Legal Department staff uses on a daily basis, and became very proficient in them. They include: Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel, JustWare, JABS, Spillman, and the City's retention log files. The intern assisted the department with a huge project of closing out cases and destroying a full year's worth of files in our JustWare system. This enabled us to free up a lot of space. The intern also organized the evidence repository and assisted in transferring the evidence to the storage annex. The intern entered new referrals, updated attorney designations, and entered setting slips into the database system. The intern also worked the Legal Department front counter, answered phones, and learned many of the administrative tasks that make the office work. When not doing all of those things, the intern was able to observe how municipal court cases work, attend the Domestic Violence Coalition meetings and the Gang Reduction and Intervention Task Force meetings. The intern also reviewed police reports for a project to pull out necessary information, as well as worked to update the list of stakeholders and their programming for the Gang Reduction and Intervention Taskforce. The intern's hard work, interest in the law, positive attitude and ability to grasp concepts quickly made the intern a pleasure to have in the Department and an asset to our team this summer. We were also excited to see that they were appointed as a youth representative to the City's Parks & Recreation Commission. Summary of Program Since Inception During the four years the City ran the mentorship-internship program' there were 26 participants in the mentorship program. Of those participants, 19 decided to advance to the paid summer internship. Interns were placed in a variety of divisions of the City: Legal Department (2017, 2018, 2019, 2022) Codes Division (2022) Planning Division (2017) Yakima Police Department (2022) Yakima Police Services (2022) Fire Department (2019) Finance Department (2022) Information Technology Department (2018, 2019) Refuse Division (2018) Utility Services Division (2018) Yakima Air Terminal (2019) 1 The program did not run during 2020 or 2021 due to COVID. 6 Honorable Mayor& Members of the City Council Robert Harrison, City Manager September 30, 2022 Page 5 Those interns attended trainings, participated in coalition meetings and stakeholder meetings, did field work for various divisions, and generally learned how the City operates "behind the scenes" in the divisions and departments doing the day-to-day work of the City of Yakima. You have been provided information each year on the activities of the interns and the trainings they have attended. In 2022, the interns participated in a wide range of activities and were placed in divisions for which they showed interest. For example, one intern was placed in the finance division who was attending WSU in the fall and majoring in accounting. She was interested in municipal accounting with the goal of working in public accounting. Another intern in 2022 was very interested in becoming an attorney, so she was placed in the legal department and able to shadow prosecutors in court, meet other attorneys, and see what a day is like for a government lawyer. The City was pleased to work with an amazing group of students each of the years of the program. The 2022 summary provides a good example of how the student interns were assets to the City, and also exposed to a wide range of activities, events, and programs that gave them an idea of the work it takes to run a City. Summary on Use of the Funds: The Interns' salaries were funded from a donation from the ACLU as part of the settlement in the redistricting case. $75,000 was to be used for the mentorship — internship program of the City of Yakima for Yakima School District high school students. The Finance Department has reported the below information on the wages and benefits of the Interns during the program. The benefits were for required Social Security, Medicare, workers' compensation and unemployment insurance. In 2017, $10,289.38 was expended for wages and benefits of the Interns during the summer of 2017. During 2018, $21,631.21 was expended for wages and benefits of the six Interns during the summer of 2018. $43,079.41 of the $75,000 remained for the subsequent years of the mentorship — internship program for high school students. In 2019, $19,383.13 was expended for wages and benefits of the five Interns during the summer of 2019 through September 30, 2019. $23,696.28 of the $75,000 remained for the subsequent year(s) of the mentorship — internship program for high school students. In 2020 and 2021, due to COVID-19, no money was expended for wages and benefits of the students for the mentorship — internship program. Therefore, $23,696.28 of the $75,000 remains for the subsequent year(s) of the mentorship — internship program for high school students. In 2022, in excess of$23,696.28 was expended for wages and benefits of the five interns during the summer of 2022. The City expended an additional amount of $1,709.57 of general funds to make sure that each of the interns had a full 8-week 40 hour/week internship experience. A total of $25,406.30 was expended in 2022 for wages and benefits for the five interns. There are no funds remaining for this program from the settlement of the ACLU lawsuit.