270 Policy Amendment For Cause TerminationCITY OF YELM
RESOLUTION N0. 270
PERSONNEL POLICY AMENDMENT - "FOR CAUSE" TERMINATION
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF YELM AMENDING THE
PERSONNEL POLICIES FOR THE CITY OF YELM BY PROVIDING FOR NOTICE
AND A STATEMENT OF CAUSE PRIOR TO TERMINATION OF CERTAIN
EMPLOYEES.
WHEREAS, the City of Yelm seeks to avoid political patronage in
selecting employees;
WHEREAS, the City Council finds that it is in the best interest
of the City and will be supportive of recruiting and retaining
high quality employees for the City to provide notice and a
statement of reasons prior to terminating regular employees; and
WHEREAS, the elected officials of the City require broad
discretion and flexibility in selecting and retaining the City
Administrator, department heads and other policy-making
employees.
NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF YELM DOES RESOLVE
THAT THE YELM PERSONNEL POLICIES SHALL BE AMENDED AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1.
That the first sentence of section 1.1(b) shall be amended to
state:
Except as otherwise stated herein, these personnel policies
apply to all City employees.
That section 1.1(c) shall be replaced in its entirety and amended
to read as follows:
Unless otherwise expressly provided by law, ordinance, civil
service rules or regulations, or by written contract, the
City Administrator, all department heads, all temporary
employees and all employees who have not completed their
trial period are considered at-will employees and may be
terminated from City employment at any time, with or without
cause and with or without notice. Except as expressly
provided otherwise by law, ordinance, civil service rules or
regulations, or by written contract, all other regular
employees will only be terminated by written notice and with
an opportunity for a hearing as set forth in Chapter 10 of
these policies.
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RESOLUTION N0. ~~n PAGE 1
That the following definition shall be added to section 1.5:
Regular Employee: A full-time or part-time employee who is
not a temporary employee and who has successfully completed
a trial period.
That the definitions of Regular Full-Time and Part-Time Empoloyee
shall be deleted and replaced by:
Full-Time Employee: An employee wha regularly works an
average of 145 hours per month (35 hours per week} on a
continuing basis.
Part-Time Employee: An employee who works fewer hours than
a full-time Employee.
That section 3.3 shall be amended by the addition of a new
subsection (d}:
Temporary employees are at-will employees. They may be
teminated without the hearing and notice provided for by
section 10.3.
That section 10.1(d) shall be amended as follows:
The following are examples of the types of behavior which
may result in discipline, including possible_termination:
That the first paragraph of section 10.3 shall be amended as
follows:
In the case of termination of an employee, other than a
trial or tempara.ry_employee. the City will conduct a pre-
termination hearing.
That section 10.3(a) shall be amended to read as follows:
In the event a department head or the City Administrator
desires to terminate a regular employee, the department head
or City Administrator shall provide a written recommendation
for termination to the Mayor and shall give a written notice
of termination to the employee. Both the recommendation and
notice shall include an explanation of the basis of the
recommendation for termination. The upon receipt of such
recommendation the Mayor will schedule and shall provide
written notice of the time, date and place for a pre-
termination hearing. Unless the employee consents in
writing to an earlier time, the peemination hearing shall
not be held earlier than fourteen (14) days following
delivery of notice of the hearing to the employee. At the
discretion of the Mayor, an employee may be placed on
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RESOLUTION N0. 270 PAGE 2
ti
administrative leave while awaiting the hearing.
The notice to the employee shall be delivered by certified
or registered mail, return receipt requested, or by personal
service in the same manner as service of process. Notice by
mail shall be deemed delivered three days following deposit
in the United States mail to the employee's last known
address. The City is not obligated to make other attempts
to notify an employee. After the City has given notice by
one or more of the described methods, the hearing may be
held as scheduled. If the employee refuses or fails to
appear at the scheduled hearing, at its discretion the City
may proceed with the recommended termination in the
employee's absence.
That section 10.3(d) shall be amended by adding the following
sentence:
Any cause, charges or grounds found by the Mayor or a
designated representative to be credible and to support
termination pursuant to a pre-termination hearing shall be
presumed to be valid.
That section 10.4 (Layoff} shall be amended by the addition of
section 10.4(e) to read:
Except as required by budgetary restrictions, no employee
will be laid off without at least two (2) weeks written
notice.
That section 10.5 (Resignation) shall be amended by replacing the
words "four (4) weeks" with "two (2) weeks."
Section 2.
Unless expressly stated in this resolution, nothing herein is
intended to amend or supersede Section 1.2 or other existing
general policy statments or personel polcies of the City of
Yelm.l These policy amendments shall be effective immediately.
ADOPTED th i s 14th day of October 1992
Rober A. .
ATTE T:
Shelly A. adger, City lerk
PASSED and APPROVED: 10-14 1992.
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