Perry City Council adopts updated policy and procedure manual, removes automatic retirement enrollment and Pioneer Day as added holiday

Perry City Council voted unanimously to adopt Resolution 2025-03, approving an updated Perry City policy and procedure manual that reorganizes personnel rules, incorporates state-mandated policies and clarifies disciplinary and benefits procedures. The council removed a proposed automatic retirement enrollment provision for new hires and did not add Pioneer Day as an additional paid holiday.

City human-resources staff said the manual will be posted on CivicLink, an online code and policy-hosting platform, and will include a separate chapter for state-mandated policies. The update changes the document title from “personnel policy” to “policy and procedure manual” so it can cover elected officials and others the city supervises. Staff said they also cleaned up language to align with federal and state law, including references to the Civil Rights Act, the Equal Employment Opportunity Act and the Utah Antidiscrimination Act.

Key changes highlighted by staff include:

- Benefits and eligibility: The policy clarifies that part-time employees working 25 hours or more receive paid time off (PTO) and are eligible for retirement; full-time status is defined as 35 hours or more and PTO accrual language may be prorated for part-time versus 40-hour employees.

- Retirement and retirement match: The city currently offers a 2% employer match when an employee contributes 4% to retirement. The update allows the employee 4% contribution to go into different Utah Retirement System (URS) savings vehicles (401(k), 457, IRA) while preserving the city’s 2% match, subject to contribution limits.

- Automatic enrollment: Staff presented automatic enrollment language proposed by the Utah Retirement System to automatically enroll new hires at a 4% contribution with an opt-out. Council removed that chapter from the manual after debate; the final motion directed staff to keep the current opt-in approach.

- Disciplinary process: The revised manual assigns disciplinary investigation and initial decision authority to designated managing officers (department heads) rather than requiring the mayor to make termination decisions. The procedure requires legal counsel review and establishes an appeal authority for contested terminations. Staff said the change was intended to make the process clearer and remove an administrative burden from the mayor.

- Drug and medical-cannabis policy: The update aligns the drug- and alcohol-testing policy with recent state statute changes on medical cannabis and updates the city’s testing provider and procedures.

- Grievance and administrative updates: The manual allows grievances to be filed by email (previously required in writing), clarifies final-pay procedures consistent with state law, and removes a prior internal recycling requirement for employees.

- Holidays: The council considered adding Pioneer Day as a thirteenth paid holiday but elected instead to keep the current structure of 12 holidays plus floating days; staff said Pioneer Day rarely was selected as a floating holiday in employee surveys.

Motion and vote: A council member moved to approve Resolution 2025-03 with edits removing the automatic-enrollment provision and removing Pioneer Day as an added holiday; another council member seconded. The council proceeded to a roll call vote and the motion passed unanimously.

Staff told the council the manual will include appendices such as the compensation schedule and the updated drug-testing policy and that employees will be required to review and sign the new policy appendices once posted on CivicLink.