City staff propose narrow waiver to six-month post-employment contracting ban

Staff presented a revision to city code section 2-668 that preserves the existing six-month restriction on city officers and employees holding an interest in city contracts after separation but adds limited waiver authority for the city manager.

"We just took the current code and kept the entire paragraph in its entirety on section in paragraph a and added those 10 words in bold unless waived in writing by the city manager or designee," said Nathan Jones, procurement supervisor, explaining the proposed change would permit the city manager to waive the restriction when doing so serves the city's interests.

Terry Velasquez, addressing a practical example, said the waiver would allow the city to re-engage retiring staff who have been critical to the ERP conversion as contractors immediately after retirement without waiting six months. She clarified that rehired retirees typically will not participate in the city's defined-benefit pension; instead, they would usually be brought back under contract through a third party and pay into Social Security or the third-party employer's plan.

Committee members asked for examples and pension-impact details; Terry said most rehire arrangements are as contractors and thus do not re-enter the city DB plan. The chair said he was "okay moving this forward" to the next step of consideration; no formal roll-call or adoption was recorded in the transcript.

If the council advances the change, the code text would retain the six-month restriction as the baseline but create a written waiver path for the city manager to address operational needs on time-sensitive projects without a lengthy pause.