Adopt Resolution #14-08-158 to Update the Personnel Policy

The purpose of this case is to approve the updated Personnel Policy.   

At the July 22, 2014 work-session staff presented the following information and responded to all Council Member questions.  Councilmember Tossey was not able to attend during the discussion.  The draft/unapproved work-session minutes are attached for review, case 3, page 5.

Work-session case:
 

Purpose/Background:

The purpose of this discussion is to begin reviewing the City's Personnel Policy, resulting in an updated Personnel Policy, ready for distribution in the coming weeks. Staff anticipates this discussion to be the first in a series of discussions with the City Council. Personnel Policy discussions are not necessarily linked to the budget process and are not intended to change total compensation. The discussions are intended to result in an updated Personnel Policy which has been identified as Strategic Imperative IV: An Effective Organization; to update and distribute the Personnel Policy. The current Personnel Policy was adopted in 2006. Since then, individual policies that were approved by the City Council have been added; however, the policy in its entirety has not been thoroughly reviewed or updated by staff, legal counsel, or the City Council, until now. The focus of the updates are primarily driven by the following needs: 1) the need to have a legally compliant policy--reducing risk to the City, 2) the need to have a policy that reflects the the Strategic Plan as it relates to the City Council's direction to modify the City Administrator's authority -- streamlining work processes, 3) the need to provide consistency with the City's labor agreements, where appropriate, to promote fairness among employee groups, 4) the need to provide a means for those facing a real, potential, or perceived conflict of interest to identify and disclose said situations, and 5) the need to have a defensible reference to which applicable employees and others shall be held accountable. The scope of the Personnel Policy generally applies to all City employees, including probationary employees, elected officials, and appointed officials. Certain provisions of the policy may be inapplicable to the following individuals: Elected officials; Appointed personnel; i.e. City Attorney and Health Officer; Members of City boards, commissions, and committees; Paid-on-call Firefighters and volunteer personnel; Emergency employees who are employed for emergency work caused by natural disaster; Other employees working temporarily and/or less than 14 hours per week. Any employee included in a collective bargaining agreement entered into in accordance with the Public Employment Labor Relations Act shall be exempt from any provision of this policy that is inconsistent with such agreement. To date, the policy has been reviewed by the following groups: 1) The Human Resources Manager 2) The Police Chief 3) The Finance Director and the Assistant Finance Director 4) City Attorney Langel's partner -- specializing in employment law 5) The Management Team 6) The Labor Management Committee 7) The City Administrator and the Assistant to the City Administrator Upon legal advice, certain sections of the policy, especially the recruitment and selection section, were replaced with content from the League of Minnesota Cities template policy. Also upon legal advice, the City's mission, vision, core values and guiding principles will be provided to applicable individuals in the form of a summarized version of the Strategic Plan rather than including said content within the Personnel Policy. Summary of Draft Changes Nearly every area of the draft policy has been updated, removed, revised or edited based on the above mentioned groups‘ professional review and needs. The attached draft Personnel Policy is included for your review. Due to the number of revisions and the potential difficulty in reading the marked-up document, staff will be prepared to discuss each revision, page-by-page, if the City Council so desires. Upon legal advice, much of the detail regarding various state and federal law, benefits, compensation, etc. have been removed. This was done in order to reduce the need to re-update the policy when specific details change in the future; as an alternative, the policy refers individuals to the applicable source, such as to state statute or to the Human Resources Manager. Key revisions include: City Administrator authority, additional definitions, addition of a data practices advisory, updates to Affirmative Action, the Recruitment and Selections section, removal of the former section 2 - statistics, organizational chart, etc. (not policy related), changes to the FMLA, addition of familial status as a protected from discrimination, removal of the vacation donation policy and the extended LOA policy, and revision to the light duty policy related to the ADA In general, the following areas have been revised: Into letter Scope Data Practices Advisory Background Information Probation Performance Evaluations PERA Additional Compensation Comp time as time worked Eligibility for sick leave (added safety leave per state statute) Funeral Leave Dress Code Employee Parking Conflict of Interest and divided allegiances Travel credit Tuition reimbursement Smoking Policy Inclement weather policy Municipal Center Severe weather Plan Telecommuting Policy Note: Staff understands that any and all revisions are subject to the City Council's authority. All draft revisions are presented as staff and attorney recommendations only.

There is no additional funding required to approve the updated personnel policy.

Motion to adopt resolution #14-08-158 to approve the updated Personnel Policy.