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Panel weighs proposal to remove department heads from civil service and add noninterference language
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Summary
Staff recommended moving department heads to at-will executive status to give the city manager more administrative flexibility; committee members, staff and union representatives debated the trade-offs between managerial agility and protections against political interference and asked staff to draft noninterference language and performance standards for follow-up in January.
Staff presented Item 6b, a proposal to convert department heads from classified civil-service positions to at-will executive appointments reporting to the city manager.
City counsel and staff said many peer cities treat department heads as at-will executives, and argued the change would allow the city manager to "make course corrections" more quickly when a department head's performance or alignment with administrative goals is deficient. The staff memo recommended that, if adopted, any change apply prospectively (not to current incumbents) and include charter language clarifying the split between council policy-setting and city-manager administration.
Concerns raised: Several committee members and bargaining representatives warned the change could reduce due-process protections, increase the risk of political influence and remove insulation that allows department heads to push back when a manager or council asks them to do something they believe is improper. Members emphasized the need for guardrails: performance agreements, noninterference language preventing council members from directly ordering staff, and clarity about whether police and fire chiefs should remain covered by civil service.
Bargaining groups told the committee they oppose removing civil-service protections for department heads as a group and asked the committee to consider carve-outs carefully or retain protections for public-safety chiefs. A bargaining representative said, "We would be against removing civil service protections for department heads as a whole... I want them to have the protections to do those things correctly." (public comment)
Why it matters: Changing department-head status affects how quickly the city manager can reorganize the executive team, the job security and bargaining posture of senior managers, and the balance of political accountability and administrative independence.
Outcome and next steps: The committee did not vote. Members agreed to continue the discussion in January, asked staff to draft example employment-performance indicators and suggested inviting the city manager and affected department heads to the next meeting. Staff also recommended adding a noninterference clause to the charter to clarify that council members may not give direct operational orders to department staff.
Quote: "This proposal related to removing the department heads from civil service has some pros and some cons," the city attorney told the committee, summarizing that the move is "intended to remove politics from the administrative day-to-day administration of the organization."
