YELM — At its Jan. 6 study session the Yelm City Council received staff briefings on personnel policy changes, internal and external committee assignments, the process for naming a mayor pro tem and preliminary retreat planning.

Personnel policy: Staff said the personnel manual updates are largely language modernizations and compliance updates and include roughly 10 proposed edits. Speaker 1 summarized the scope: "we came up with about 10 edits that we will need to make along with revisions that include general language corrections," and said the updates add lactation accommodations, formalize a telework policy and align paid family‑medical‑leave language with state law.

Committee assignments and mayor pro tem: Staff circulated committee lists and asked councilors to email first/second/third choices for internal and external committee appointments by Friday. The mayor pro tem selection was described as a council vote rather than a mayoral appointment; staff explained nominations will be taken and a majority vote will select the mayor pro tem, who serves a two‑year term acting as chair when the mayor is absent.

Retreat planning and facilitator: Councilors discussed holding a spring retreat (April–May window) and debated on‑site vs. off‑site locations and whether to hire an external facilitator. Several councilors supported an off‑site, multi‑day retreat to reduce distractions and allow staff presentations and department briefings; staff said training funds could be used to retain a facilitator and suggested the administration will return with options and cost estimates.

Next steps: Staff will circulate the redlined personnel packet and seek council feedback; committee preferences will be collected by Friday; the mayor pro tem nomination and vote will be scheduled for the next regular meeting. No formal policy adoption or personnel votes occurred at the Jan. 6 study session.