Getting Personnel Policies Right
When it comes to our employees, we want to get it right.
By Henry A. Alvarez III
SAHA President and CEO
If you’ve been waiting for action to come from our compensation and classification study, I’ve got good news and not so good news. The good news is we believe we have created a new compensation system that is fair and equitable for all SAHA employees.
The not-so-good news? It’s not quite ready yet.
SAHA’s Board of Commissioners has asked our human resources folks to look into some matters relating to the management and implementation of the new system, and we hope to take it back to the board within the month.
The Board has also asked us to revisit some of the personnel policy revisions, including proposals affecting tuition assistance, our tobacco policy, short-term disability insurance and our vacation and sick leave system.
It’s not that the Board doesn’t support these proposals. They simply want to ensure SAHA’s policies are not only clearly defined, but fair and reasonable. We hope to go before the board again on these policies in the next 30-60 days for approval.
For nearly a year, we’ve worked to create a new, equitable, pay structure for all SAHA employees. It was born out of a desperate need to put balance back into our pay system and create clear career paths for our employees. We believe we have created that system, and now we must fine-tune it to meet the Board’s high standards.
Our other policies deserve the same scrutiny. All aspects of our personnel programs should receive intense scrutiny if we expect them to meet the needs of the SAHA workforce. SAHA is a top-flight organization with highly competent, motivated and expert professionals. Your pay, benefits and the policies that guide your employment should be equally professional and thorough.
One final, personal note about the compensation system --- Some media reports have indicated that I would benefit from the implementation of this system. I want all of you to know from me that “I have not and will not be asking our Board to give me a raise.” My pay is established in my contract with the Board and our Board and myself have not discussed any increase in my compensation. Like each of you, I will have a performance appraisal in August or September. In any discussion concerning my compensation, I will ask the Board to consider a contract extension or longer term contract, in lieu of any increase in my compensation. My hope is to make San Antonio my home for years to come as we have much more work to do together here at SAHA and I think the most important thing for all of us is the time to get the work done.
San Juan Demolition Begins
Another sign of SAHA's commitment to revitalization.
The first stages of demolition of parts of the San Juan Homes community began in June as SAHA continues its focus on modernizing its public housing inventory. San Juan is one of several efforts using replacement housing funds (RHF) to create better public housing for our community.
At present, SAHA has approximately $14 million available to invest towards the replacement of public housing units; and will receive an additional $14 million in RHF Funds over the next six years, in annual increments.
SAHA is working with the Local HUD Field Office on several development proposals, which will allow SAHA to use RHF to acquire or construct public housing replacement units. SAHA projects already in the pipeline and other projects approved for negotiations by the Board include:
² Alhambra: Senior
Total Number of Units: 140, 14 Public Housing
Total Development Cost: $14 M
² San Juan Homes Phase I: Multifamily
Total Number of Units: 143, 46 Public Housing
Total Development Cost: $15 M
² Rosemont at Highland Park (Clark Pointe): Multifamily
Total Number of Units: 252, 52 Public Housing
Total Development Cost: $24 M
² Rancho Sierra: Multifamily
Total Number of Units: 280, 56 Public Housing
Total Development Cost: $13.5 M
² Primrose at Monticello: Senior
Total Number of Units: 248, 50 Public Housing
Total Development Cost: $21.9 M
Wellness Tips
Change your metabolism to lose weight.
Wanna lose fat? You gotta supercharge your metabolism!
There are two key training avenues to raising your metabolism, and neither of them involves marathon crunch sessions, tricep kickbacks, or those worthless hip adductor machines. So let’s get one myth out of the way real fast. You cannot spot reduce. Yes, that means you cannot simply choose a part of your body from which to lose fat and simply peel it off that area.
It doesn’t matter how many crunches you do - they will only work the muscle and do nothing for the overlying, jiggly fat. It’s like if you wear a thick coat while you work out - exercising your muscles below will compress portions of the coat, but that coat isn’t getting any smaller, because it has no real connection to the muscle. And neither does fat.
One of the two methods for raising your metabolism involves weight training exercise. However, it’s the kind that attacks a great deal of muscle at once, not the kind that isolates the body muscle by muscle. To raise your metabolism, you need to attack a lot of muscle at one time, which will force your body to repair all that muscle during recovery. And guess what, repairing muscle costs energy - fat energy! In other words, you’ll be burning increased fat all day long (not just for the hour you performed your long, boring walk on the treadmill).
So how do you attack all that muscle with weight training? Easy, just use the major lifts. These include squats, lunges, leg presses, bench presses, incline presses, shoulder presses, rows, pull-ups/downs, bicep curls, and tricep extensions. There are plenty of others, and you’re cool as long as they are multi-joint movements (for example, the bench press requires operation from the shoulder, elbow, wrist, and some back joints). You can still throw in some isolation movements, but only after you’ve sufficiently worked yourself with the compound motions.
(All information courtesy GNC Heath News)
Upcoming events
This month's HAMA luncheon meeting will be held on Thursday, July 27 in the central office boardroom at 11:45 a.m. Guest speaker will be Patrick Bourcier from SAHA's Procurement department. Free for HAMA members and guest cost $5 each. All attendees please RSVP to Patricia Ruiz at patricia_ruiz@saha.org no later than July 24. If you have any questions or need more information please contact Patti Earnest at 477-6170.
The Employee Association is selling Santikos theatre movie passes. This great deal is for ALL SAHA employees. Ticket cost are $5 each for EA members and $6 each for Non-EA members. To purchase your tickets, please contact Ernest Cano 477-6933 or Diana Riojas at 477-6223.
