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Council moves to align personnel manual with city code; parental leave deferred for policy review
Summary
Councilors directed staff to revise the personnel manual to mirror city code on appointments, discipline and discharge of department directors, and to remove the parental leave change from the immediate update for separate policy discussion with affected departments.
Staff proposed a set of personnel manual updates to resolve conflicts between the manual and city code—chiefly whether the council or the city administrator appoints, disciplines or discharges department directors. The item also included numerous housekeeping edits to probationary wording, performance evaluation cadence, telecommuting language and clarification on sick‑leave payout.
Staff framed the matter as straightforward: "Code trumps policy set by resolution," and asked council where they wanted the manual to align. Several council members said they preferred to retain the council’s appointment and discharge authority for department heads while delegating practical screening and recruitment tasks to staff and HR. Councilor Fitzgerald and others recommended preserving council oversight for department‑head level hires but allowing HR and the city administrator to manage preliminary recruiting and vetting.
On paid parental leave, staff proposed reducing the city‑provided portion from 12 to 8 weeks and making that leave concurrent with FMLA to improve staffing predictability; several council members urged a separate, department‑level policy discussion rather than approving the change at this meeting. Council agreed to mirror the code in the personnel manual and to pull the parental‑leave change for a future, more in‑depth policy session that includes affected departments and HR.
