HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-028 Ordinance amending the City of Yakima Municipal Code Chapter 2.24.010 Longevity PlanORDINANCE NO. 2022-028
AN ORDINANCE amending the City of Yakima Municipal Code Chapter 2.24.010 Longevity
plan —Eligibility --Restrictions
WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Yakima finds it is in the best interests of the
City and its residents to amend Chapter 2.24.010 regarding the longevity plan for management
group employees; now, therefore,
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY OF YAKIMA:
Section 1. Chapter 2.24.010 of the City of Yakima Municipal Code is hereby amended to
read as follows:
2.24.010 Longevity plan —Eligibility —Restrictions.
A. For all employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement, the city shall
provide longevity pay in the amount required in the applicable collective bargaining
agreement for which this benefit has been included.
B. All management employees shall receive longevity pay, in addition to their
regular salary, according to the following schedule, to be paid on the first applicable
day following the thirty-first day of December and the thirtieth day of June of each year.
Municipal judges shall not receive longevity pay.
Years of Percent of Base
Service Pay
5 2.5
10 4.0
15 5.5
20 7.0
24 10.0
C. Upon termination of employment of anyone entitled to longevity pay, except upon
the seasonal termination of seasonal employees, such person shall receive a longevity
payment, according to the above schedule, for the number of months of eligibility served
by such employee from the date on which the immediately previous longevity payment
was made. Such payment shall not be made for fractions of a month, and if termination
of employment occurs on or before the fifteenth day of any month, that month shall not
be counted as one for which longevity pay is to be made, and if termination of
employment occurs after the fifteenth day of any month, that month shall be counted as
one full month for which longevity pay is to be made.
D. No longevity pay shall be paid to any employee who is discharged from
employment for disciplinary reasons, or who terminates his employment without giving at
least two weeks' notice in writing of such termination.
E. Employees covered by the Washington State Law Enforcement Officers' and
Firefighters' Retirement System who terminate their employment after disability leave
and placed on disability retirement shall receive longevity pay for the period of disability
leave as provided in Chapter 41.26 of the Revised Code of Washington. (Ord. 2014-023
§5 (part), 2014; Ord. 2021-41 § 1, 2012; Ord. 2005-85 § 2, 2005; Ord. 2001-63 § 1,
2001; Ord. 95-16 § 1, 1995; Ord. 94-83 § 5, 1994; Ord. 3403 § 5, 1991; Ord. 2384 § 1,
1980; Ord. 2275 § 2, 1979; Ord. 2265 § 3, 1979; Ord. 2153 § 4, 1978; Ord. 2051 § 2,
1977; Ord. 1910 § 1, 1976; Ord. 1474 § 2, 1972; Ord. 748, 1965; Ord. 583 § 2, 1964;
Ord. 85 § 1, 1960).
Section 2. This ordinance shall be in full force and effect January 1, 2023, after its
passage, approval, and publication as provided by law and by the City Charter.
PASSED BY THE CITY COUNCIL, signed and approved this 4th day of October, 2022.
ATTEST:
Sonya CI'- a . Tee, City Clerk
Publication Date: October 7, 2022
Effective Date: January 1, 2023
,JarriCe Deccio, Mayor
U
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BUSINESS OF THE CITY COUNCIL
YAKIMA, WASHINGTON
AGENDA STATEM ENT
Item No. 12.
For Meeting of: October 4, 2022
ITEM TITLE: Ordinance amending the City of Yakima Municipal Code Chapter
2.24.010 Longevity Plan (non -represented employees)
SUBMITTED BY: Robert Harrison, City Manager
SUMMARY EXPLANATION:
Reestablishment of longevity pay benefits and 3% deferred compensation for non -represented
employees has been recognized as a competitive necessity to increase the City's ability to attract
and retain experienced management employees. This recognition has been coming slowly over
the last decade, but has accelerated dramatically since 2020 with global changes in workforce
availability. The recruitment and retention of qualified employees has become increasingly
difficult across all fields and employers, and it has been especially challenging to attract and retain
highly specialized, experienced employees. Many of these technical, professional, supervisory
and/or management positions are not covered by collective bargaining groups; and therefore, fall
into the "non -represented" employee group within the City of Yakima.
The City's wage and compensation packages have progressively fallen behind compared to
other comparable agencies, resulting now in substantial hiring challenges. Many advanced
recruitments have been unsuccessful or produced extremely limited candidates. This combined
with employers offering opportunities for 100% remote work, has increased our competition and
further harming the City's recruitment and retention efforts. Compression issues between the non -
represented group and those they supervise have also become significant, negatively impacting
employee morale and retention.
Currently, employees hired after 2012 are not provided the same benefit package as their peers
who were hired prior to 2012 causing a contentious split within the same group. This causes both
discontent and conflicts with the Yakima City Charter, which outlines the tenets of "equal work for
equal pay." Also, due to the compression issues created by PACA (pay and adjustment
compensation) being cancelled over the years, some of the management team receive total
compensation packages that values less than those of their subordinates who are in represented
groups. Realigning the benefit packages to ensure all members of the non -represented group
receive equivalent benefits will not only improve employee equity, moral and most importantly,
retention; but, it will also enable the City to be far more competitive with other employers when
trying to attract experienced candidates to accept hard -to -fill positions. This change will currently
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impact nine individuals with an associated cost of approximately $26,500 in 2023.
ITEM BUDGETED: Yes
STRATEGIC PRIORITY:
APPROVED FOR SUBMITTAL BY THE CITY MANAGER
RECOMMENDATION:
Pass ordinance
ATTACHMENTS:
Description Upload Date Type
D ord redline 9/16/2022 Cotter Memo
D ord clean 9/16/2022 Cotter Memo