City of Stillwater continues new city hall hours under pilot program

Aug. 17—When the City of Stillwater struggled to attract applicants for job openings, the organization began looking at the usual things: pay and benefits. But then, staff looked at what other cities have been able to do with modified work schedules. In February, they discussed launching a pilot program to try adjusting office hours at City Hall.

Chief Performance Innovation Officer Brady Moore, gave the City Council an update Monday on the pilot program that beginning in June and continuing through the rest of the summer, adjusted work schedules and gave employees at City Hall Friday afternoons off.

He said many employees have indicated they would not like to go back to the old schedule. Most of them said it gave them a better work/life balance, time to schedule appointments and run errands and more time to spend with their children.

He said recent hires had said the alternative work schedule influenced their decision to work for the city.

"The professional positions in some of our departments that we were really hurting on, we've been able to fill ... and I think this has had an effect on that and being able to retain some," Moore said.

The schedule was also seen as providing advantages for residents who have business at City Hall because having offices open 7:30 a.m. — 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday gives customers who work standard business hours time before and after work to come in. City offices are open 7:30 — 11:30 a.m. on Fridays.

Moore said the schedule was adapted from one used by Edmond. Owasso and Mustang had also modified their hours, he said, and since Stillwater implemented its pilot program Woodward and Glenpool have done the same thing.

Moore said camera footage taken outside City Hall on Friday afternoons was reviewed to see how many customers came after closing time.

It showed 108 customers on the first Friday it closed early, with an average of 48 on subsequent weeks. The lowest week showed 29 people. But out of those people, 25% used the outside payment box, leading staff to improve signage for the box and ensure payment envelopes are available, he said.

Staff was more surprised by the number of people who took advantage of the earlier and later hours to access City Hall, he said. Utility billing averaged 68 customers per week and Community Development averaged 82 per week, he said.

Moore shared some comments from city employees, both positive and negative, about the change in hours.

The longer days have been an adjustment.

Some whose jobs don't allow much mobility or who spend all day looking at a computer screen said nine hours feels like a long time.

Others had concerns about not having enough time to get caught up if they miss work on Thursday, others had concerns about how holidays are calculated and some said there was a learning curve for asking for time off.

But Moore said the vast majority of comments were favorable.

Employees who said they like the change cited increased productivity from having more hours to work on projects Monday-Thursday, better work/life balance, only needing to use four hours of leave when they take Friday off and a general enjoyment of leaving early on Friday.

Employees who would not want to go back to the old schedule also said they provide better service to the public under the new operating hours.

Moore noted that many departments outside City Hall were already working four ten-hour days.

He told the councilors his goal in speaking with them was to find out about any feedback they have gotten from the community.

Councilor Kevin Clark said he had heard negative comments from some residents about the new hours.

Mayor Will Joyce — who noted that he hears from people about almost everything — said he doesn't recall receiving any emails about the issue but he did talk with some people early on who hadn't known about the change.

Vice Mayor Alane Zannotti asked what was being done during times like Oklahoma State University move-in days, when City Hall would normally be very busy.

Moore said City Hall had stayed open several Friday afternoons to accommodate the students but hadn't publicized it, to avoid confusing residents who had just been told it would be closed.

On those afternoons, staff found that there were actually few utility activations, because in many cases, the utilities are already on in a rental property and the service just needs to be switched into the new account holder's name, he said. City staff is also looking at how that could be done online in the future.

Moore said he's been pleasantly surprised that there were very few customer complaints.

A number of employee comments expressed concern about processes and how to serve other departments, but he said he's confident leadership can figure out how to address those issues. The pilot program appears to be a success to this point, based on response from a majority of the public and employees.

"I think the fact that I haven't heard a lot of negative feedback is a good sign," Joyce said.

The plan is to continue the pilot program through at least Sept. 7 and then have the City Council officially decide whether to make the change permanent.