Minutes - Council Work Session - 03/12/2024

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Councilmember Riley asked why they are talking about changing this when they are not talking about negotiating it into a contract. Administrative Services Director Lasher explained that the personnel policy is for non-union employees. She said that this is more of a gesture on the City's behalf to move this policy in the direction of being competitive with other area cities. Councilmember Musgrove asked if this personnel policy was strong enough if people would not want to be a part of a union. Administrative Services Director Lasher explained that supervisors, anyone involved in labor negotiations, and any professional employees are not in unions, and they do not have a choice in that. Councilmember Musgrove asked why the severance amount is at 40% after five years. Administrative Services Director Lasher shared that this seemed logical to her based on what comparable cities are doing. Councilmember Howell said it would have been helpful to have the handout ahead of time as it is difficult to make a quick decision on this. She said she is not sure if the City would be competitive to other cities in the north metro area. She suggested starting the severance percentage lower at five years and bumping it up after 10 years and beyond. Administrative Services Director Lasher explained that this is an ongoing process and there is still time to make decisions on this policy. She added that they can also drop the first tier lower if that is the request of the Council. City Administrator Hagen cautioned against dropping the after five years percentage. Councilmember Riley reiterated that this is just for non-union employees, and they have no intention of making this a global decision for the City. Administrative Services Director Lasher said this would be a part of the negotiations process for the unions. She stated that the employees that will fall under this personnel policy are the 31 non- union employees out of the 111 total employees. She added that when she surveyed other cities, a lot of them had a sick leave severance death benefit, which would pay out the employee's sick leave to their beneficiary. She said it would be more beneficial to add a death benefit to the sick leave severance than to pay more money for life insurance. She moved on to review the changes to Section 6, Leave. Mayor Kuzma asked if they were to change the vacation accrual to five year increments from the current structure that starts at year seven, what it would do to an employee who had been with the City for seven years. City Council Work Session/March 12, 2024 Page 4 of 9