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Council debates scope of third-party review and employee-handbook overhaul after Sept. 23 personnel hearing
Summary
Council discussed commissioning an outside review to examine discrimination claims arising from a Sept. 23 personnel hearing and heard the city attorney say he had prepared a privileged memorandum for the city manager; staff outlined plans to modernize the employee handbook and review internal procedures.
On Dec. 18 council spent substantial time discussing how to handle claims of discrimination that arose during a Sept. 23 personnel hearing and whether to hire an outside investigator.
City Attorney advised that he had prepared a privileged memorandum to the city manager detailing his review of the events and recommended that any outside review be supervised as attorney work product to protect privilege. He also said the city is undertaking an overhaul of its employee handbook and internal review procedures to modernize policies and clarify timelines for hearings and submissions.
Council members asked staff to prepare an RFP/RFQ draft for an outside investigator so council could consider scope and timeline at the next meeting. Several members also requested a clear chronology of the prior process — what the charter requires, what the employee handbook says, what actually happened, and what should change — before commissioning external work. Staff and the city attorney affirmed constraints on communications with the affected employee while proceedings are pending and said they would return with proposed RFP language and timeline.
