02 04 MacArthur Memo to Council RE Personnel PolicyMemo
To: Otsego City Council
From: Andy MacArthur, City Attorney
Date: February 3, 2015
Re: Personnel Policy Revisions
The City Council has authorized changes to the City Personnel Policy as recommended by myself and
the City Administrator. The City Council approved hiring Attorney Soren Mattick of Campbell Knutson
to make proposed changes and present recommendations and options to the City Council at a special
Council meeting scheduled for February 4.
Mr. Mattick's firm represents several municipalities from suburban cities such as Plymouth and
Lakeville to smaller cities such as Monticello and Zimmerman. Due to this broad range of
representation, it is anticipated that his experience with a number of Personnel manual reviews would
be most cost effective for Otsego.
The City Administrator and I have provided written and oral comments to Mr. Mattick regarding issues
that have raised concerns in the past. These comments have been incorporated into the draft Policy
that will be presented to the Council for review on February 4. The purpose of that meeting is for the
Council to have a discussion related to the Policy prior to it being put into final form.
Some issues that will be addressed in the proposed revisions and related discussion are as follows:
1. The current personnel policy provides for a probationary period. The personnel policy also clearly
indicates that all employees are "at will" and can be discharged by the City at any time for any or
no reason. There is an inherent contradiction between these provisions in that the probationary
period implies that there is some change in status once the probationary period is over. It is
recommended that the probationary period section be eliminated.
2. The current personnel policy provides for termination by the Council after the employee is offered a
"hearing" before the Council to address any charges or reasons for termination. As public
employees, City employees are due certain due process rights prior to termination but those rights
do not need to include a hearing in front of the Council. It will be recommended that this process
be changed so that any required hearing be in front of Administrative staff instead of the Council.
Additional changes will also be proposed to the discipline and termination sections of the policy.
3. There are proposed changes in the definition sections of the policy clarifying hours to qualify for
different defined employee statuses and some changes in those definitions.
4. Changes are proposed in the section regarding PTO to clarify when and how these benefits can
be utilized.
5. The policy has been generally reviewed and any required changes in the law have been
incorporated.
6. It is anticipated that there will be some discussion regarding City Council input into employee
matters and how best to deal with Council input and related issues.
Attorney Mattick will be available at the meeting to present proposed and discussed changes and
related issues, to provide input on legal issues in general as well as how personnel issues and
personnel policies are dealt with in other Cities, and to answer questions and provide
recommendations.
Please feel free to contact myself, Soren Mattick or the City Administrator if you have any questions
regarding this matter prior to the meeting.
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