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HUMAN RESOURCES & DATA PRACTICES <br />HR-1. Personnel Mandates and <br />Limits on Local Control <br />Issue: Many state laws increase the cost of <br />providing city services to residents by <br />requiring city governments to provide <br />certain levels of compensation or benefits to <br />public employees, by specifying certain <br />working conditions, or by limiting city <br />governments' ability to effectively manage <br />their personnel resources. For instance, <br />existing state laws limit governments' <br />ability to effectively address incompetence <br />or misconduct of city employees by <br />specifying certain procedures or standards of <br />conduct that cities must follow. Several laws <br />are potentially contradictory and force local <br />governments to choose which one to follow. <br />Response: Any new legislation and <br />changes to existing legislation should meet <br />the following goals: <br />a) Recognize the need for local decision - <br />making authority by local elected <br />officials with regard to the terms and <br />conditions of employment for local <br />government employees (e.g., allow <br />local elected officials to determine <br />employee compensation, employee <br />recognition, and to make employee <br />benefit decisions about domestic <br />partner benefits and coverage of <br />extended family by sick leave policies). <br />b) Provide funding that pays the full <br />costs of any mandated employment - <br />related expenditures. <br />c) Avoid and eliminate expensive and <br />time-consuming duplicative legal <br />protections and processes for public <br />employees. <br />d) Eliminate contradictory existing laws <br />regarding public employment. <br />e) Eliminate mandates for local <br />government employers that are not <br />imposed upon the state as an <br />employer. <br />f) Use the collective bargaining process <br />established by state law, rather than <br />legal mandates, to determine benefits <br />for employees covered by collective <br />bargaining agreements. <br />HR-2. Firefighter and Ambulance <br />Payroll <br />Issue: Traditionally, many volunteer and <br />paid on -call fire departments have issued <br />paychecks only once or twice per year. <br />Payroll checks in these types of departments <br />would be quite small if issued biweekly or <br />even monthly so employees prefer to receive <br />larger checks once or twice per year. Issuing <br />checks less often saves time and money for <br />administrative staff who prepare the <br />payrolls. However, Minn. Stat. § 181.101 <br />specifies that wages must be paid at least <br />once every 31 days, regardless of whether <br />the employee requests to be paid at longer <br />intervals. <br />Response: Minn. Stat. § 181.101 should <br />be amended to exempt volunteers and <br />paid on -call employees of fire and <br />ambulance services from the requirement <br />to be paid every 31 days. <br />HR-3. Pay Equity Compliance <br />Issue: In 1984, the Legislature passed the <br />Local Government Pay Equity Act to <br />eliminate sex -based wage disparities in <br />public employment. The Act requires each <br />local government to submit reports of its pay <br />structure to the state's Pay Equity <br />Compliance Coordinator within the <br />Department of Management and Budget. <br />League of Minnesota Cities <br />2015 City Policies Page 73 <br />