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Committee backs standard department-director employment template with six-month severance; moves to council
Summary
City Administrator Parks presented a proposal to standardize department-director employment agreements and to set a six-month severance for not-for-cause separations; the Budget & Finance Committee voted to forward the template to the March 18 City Council meeting with a recommendation to approve and authorize the mayor to execute agreements.
City Administrator Parks presented a proposal at the Feb. 28 Budget and Finance Committee meeting in Tumwater to standardize employment agreements for department directors and to give the mayor authority to sign future director contracts substantially in the approved form.
Parks told the committee there are 10 department director positions in the city; seven currently have employment agreements and three — including parks and recreation, community development and the new information-technology director — do not. The proposed template would make the term indefinite and at-will while standardizing separation provisions. "In the case of the existing, various employment agreements, that severance package...varies anywhere from 2 to 4 to 6 months. And the proposal in this template is that that severance would be standardized to a period of 6 months," Parks said.
Parks described the template's separation provisions: the city can terminate for cause (defined in the agreement) without severance, for reasons such as disability or resignation the agreement sets out the handling of leave and final pay, and in not-for-cause terminations the employee would receive six months' pay plus unused-leave payouts. Parks said the proposal aims to give directors "some measure of safety net" and to standardize terms across jobs whose duties and market demand vary.
Committee members asked several procedural and substantive questions. Councilor Myers and others noted the template resembles existing contracts for other directors and agreed it would be appropriate to send to the full council for consideration. Councilor Gabby asked whether directors would have an opportunity to correct performance issues before termination; Parks replied that the decision about addressing performance concerns versus terminating for cause is generally within the mayor's authority and the agreement defines cause. "If there is cause, are you talking about...if the city determines that there is cause?" Parks said the mayor would decide and that termination for cause does not carry severance.
Parks recommended placing the template on the March 18, 2025 City Council consideration calendar and leaving it on the consideration calendar rather than consent so the full council can discuss the policy. The committee unanimously moved and seconded the recommendation and approved forwarding it to the March 18 council meeting with a recommendation to adopt the template and authorize the mayor to execute director employment agreements substantially in that form. Committee discussion clarified that the council's role arises because the template establishes contractual terms and that three director positions require council confirmation under city code; the template itself does not change the confirmation requirement.
Less critical details: Parks said the template would be used to replace existing agreements over time and to put future hires on the same standardized template. The staff report will appear on the March 18 City Council agenda under consideration with a recommendation to approve; the staff report date in the packet was corrected from an earlier, earlier date in the draft.
