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City manager previews broad personnel manual updates including bereavement, sick‑leave changes
Summary
Riverside city manager presented a first look at proposed updates to the personnel manual that would change bereavement and vacation accruals, adjust sick‑leave payout on retirement, add paid parental leave and tighten several administrative processes; council asked for financial context and follow‑up language.
The City Manager previewed a package of proposed updates to Riverside’s personnel manual at the Sept. 2 City Council meeting, saying the changes are intended to simplify existing language, align non‑bargaining benefits with collective bargaining agreements and improve employee recruitment and retention.
The proposed changes include increasing paid leave for bereavement (funeral leave) for immediate family members from three to five days, adding one day for relatives not in the immediate family, aligning some non‑bargaining vacation accruals with existing CWA (collective bargaining) tiers, clarifying how part‑time service counts toward full‑time accruals (using a 2,080‑hour year to compute full‑time equivalents), and changing the sick‑leave retirement payout formula to match bargaining units (from a 1:3 payout to a 2:1 payout).
The manager said the manual “has been a work in progress ever since I’ve been here and requires substantially more updates aside from the ones that I’m bringing you this evening,” and described the package as a staged set of changes rather than a single large rewrite. The manager added these changes are intended to be fiscally manageable within the current budget and to preserve parity with terms already in collective bargaining agreements.
Council members pressed for additional detail on several items. Council Member Fry asked about the payout cap and how the city would ensure the manual stays aligned with future bargaining agreements; the manager said the administration would produce a memorandum or appendix to document annual payout caps and would return with specific language. Fry also urged the administration to provide historic payout numbers to inform council deliberations: “Can we have the financial repercussions… look back over how many times we’ve paid out sick leave and what those balances were?” the council member asked.
Council Member Frey sharply criticized the concept of large sick‑leave payoffs on retirement as potentially counterproductive, saying in part: “I can’t stand this. I hate sick‑leave policies that incentivize employees to maintain a balance in the hope of a financial payout.” The manager said the intent is to reduce disparities between bargaining and non‑bargaining employees and that additional analysis would be provided.
Other substantive elements in the preview include: clarifying injury‑leave procedures to avoid acting ahead of Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) determinations while describing interim steps the city will take; a rewrite of FMLA sections for clarity and compliance; a proposal to reduce the threshold for sick‑leave counseling from seven occurrences to four; and a new paid parental leave benefit (two weeks, or up to 112 hours for alternative schedules).
HR staff members April Davis and Ashley Couch were named as the staff leads working on the changes; the manager said clean, redlined text will be distributed to council early next week for further review and formal adoption at a later meeting.
The manager asked council to view this session as a preview and to direct staff to return with precise draft language, financial analyses and proposed implementation language. The council did not vote on any manual changes at the meeting.
