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HomeMy WebLinkAboutR-1990-D5818 Fact SheetRESOLUTION NO. 5 8 1 8 A RESOLUTION providing for the submittal to the electors of the City of Yakima, Washington, at a special election to be held in conjunction with the State General Election to be held November 6, 1990 of a proposition as to whether Article XVI, Sections 2 and 6, of the Yakima City Charter shall be amend- ed. WHEREAS, Article XVI, Section 2 of the Yakima City Char- ter presently reads as follows: "SECTION 2. The following terms, whenever used in this Article, shall be construed as follows. (a) 'Commission' means the civil service commis- sion herein created, and 'Commissioner means any one of the three members of any such commission. (b) 'Appointing power' -- Appointing power means the officer or person, board, or committee who is empow- ered to make appointments for employment in the city civil service. (c) 'Appointment' includes all means of se- lecting, appointing, or employing any person to any office, place, position, or employment in civil service. (d) 'City' means the City of Yakima, Washington. (e) 'Employees' means all persons regularly employed by the City of Yakima, Washington, either on a part-time or full-time basis with the exception of those persons listed in Section 6." WHEREAS, Article XVI, Section 6, of the Yakima City Charter presently reads as follows: "SECTION 6. The classified civil service and provisions of this Article shall be applicable to and shall include all employees of the city except the fol- lowing. (a) Officers elected by the people and persons appointed to fill vacancies in elective offices; (res/election.jv) (b) Members of boards and commissions and the City Manager; (c) Employees under civil service coverage within the police and fire departments; (d) All department heads; one confidential secre- tary and one administrative assistant for the City Manag- er; (e) Judges, City Attorney, and all assistant city attorneys; (fl Persons employed in a professional or scien- tific capacity to make or conduct a temporary and special inquiry, investigation, or examination on behalf of the City Council or a committee thereof, or by authority of the City Manager." WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Yakima proposes to the electors of the City of Yakima that such Article XVI, Sections 2 and 6, of the Yakima City Charter be amended to read as provided hereinbelow, so that trainee, technical, and professional employment would be exempt from civil service coverage; and WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Yakima desires to call a special election, to be held in conjunction with the State General Election to be held November 6, 1990, for the purpose of submitting to the electors of the City of. Yakima, for their approval or rejection, a proposition as to whether or not Article XVI, Sections 2 and 6, of the Yakima City Charter shall be amended as provided hereinbelow; and the City Council hereby finds and declares an emergency to exist so as to authorize such special election to be called; now, there- fore, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF YAKIMA: Section 1. That the City Council of the City of Yakima does hereby propose to the electors of the City of Yakima that Article XVI, Sections 2 and 6, of the Yakima City Charter be amended to read as follows: "ARTICLE XVI "SECTION 2. The following terms, whenever used in this Article, shall be construed as follows: (a) 'Commission' means the civil service commis- sion herein created, and 'Commissioner' means any one of the three members of any such commission. - 2 - (res/election.jv) 4 (b) 'Appointing power' -- Appointing power means the officer or person, board, or committee who is empow- ered to make appointments for employment in the city civil service. (c) 'Appointment' includes all means of se- lecting, appointing, or employing any person to any office, place, position, or employment in civil service. (d) 'City' means the City of Yakima, Washington. (e) 'Employees' means all persons regularly employed by the City of Yakima, Washington, either on a part-time or full-time basis with the exception of those persons listed in Section 6." (f) 'Trainee position' shall mean employment lasting no longer than three years, the primary purpose of which is training for other employment with the City of Yakima. Service in a trainee position shall not entitle any person to other employment with the City of Yakima. (g) 'Technical position' means employment re- quiring specialized training or schooling in scientific subjects and the application of the same scientific subjects to such employment. (h) 'Professional position' means employment requiring specialized knowledge and experience together with extensive academic preparation including instruction in skills and methods of such profession as well as the scientific, historical, and scholarly principals underly- ing such skills and methods. SECTION 6. The classified civil service and provisions of this Article shall be applicable to and shall include all employees of the city except the fol- lowing: (a) Officers elected by the people and persons appointed to fill vacancies in elective offices; (b) Members of boards and commissions and the City Manager; (c) Employees under civil service coverage within the police and fire departments; (d) All department heads; one confidential secre- tary and one administrative assistant for the City Manag- er; (e) Judges, City Attorney, and all assistant city attorneys; (f) Persons employed in professional, technical, and trainee positions." Section 2: That a special election be held in conjunc- tion with the State General Election to be held November 6, 1990 at which special election there shall be submitted to the (res/election.jv) electors of the City of Yakima for their approval or rejec- tion, a proposition as to whether or not Article XVI, Sections 2 and 6, of the Yakima City Charter shall be amended as pro- posed by Section 1 of this resolution. Section 3: That the ballot title to be so submitted to the electors shall read as follows: PROPOSITION Shall the City of Yakima Charter be amended to exempt from civil service coverage persons employed by the City in professional, technical, and trainee positions all as more fully provided in Resolution No. D- of the City of Yakima City Council? FOR CHARTER AMENDMENT / / AGAINST CHARTER AMENDMENT / / Section 4: That the Auditor of Yakima County, Washing- ton, is hereby requested to submit the aforesaid proposition to the electors of the City Of Yakima for their approval or rejection, at a special election to be held in conjunction with the State General Election to be held November 6, 1990, all in accordance with applicable laws; and the Clerk of the council is hereby directed to notify the Auditor of Yakima county, Washington, of the passage of this resolution and to do all other things necessary in the time and the manner required by law to the end that the proposition set out here- inabove shall be submitted to the electors of the city of Yakima, Washington, as aforesaid. ADOPTED BY THE CITY COUNCIL this !Sfk day of 1990. Mayor ATTEST: City Clerk (res/election.jv) BUSINESS OF THE CITY COUNCIL YAK IMA WASHINGTON AGENDA STATEMENT Item No. ri Meeting of September 4 1990 ITEM TITLE: Proposed Charter Civil Service amendment. SUBMITTED BY: Dick Zais, City Manager CONTACT PERSON/TELEPHONE: Dick Zai:,7hty Manager/575-6040 SUMMARY EXPLANATION: This is a request to the Council for authorization to change City law to allow a wider class of exemptions from civil service em- ployment coverage. Currently the City Charter exempts a few posi- tions from civil service coverage. It is suggested that the exemptions be expanded to cover professional, scientific, techni- cal, and trainee positions within City employment. Currently Article XVI, Section 6 of the City Charter reads as follows: 'The classified civil service and provisions of this Article shall be applicable to and shall include all employees of the (continued on page 2) *************************************************************************************** * RESOLI7ION * NCTIFICATICW * * * APPROVED FOR SUBMITTAL: * ORDINANCE CONERACT MLNINES * PIAN/MAP * ** * * X "on of City Attorney dated 4/28/87 CITY MRNAGER * * *************************************************************************************** * STAFF RECOMMENDATION: Direct staff to prepare the appropriate election resolution and ballot proposition. BOARD/COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION: COUNCIL ACTION: (state/csarrend) AGENDA STATEMENT Page 2 Item No. Meeting of September 4, 1990 SUMMARY EXPLANATION: (continued) City except the following: (a) Officers elected by the people and persons appointed to fill vacancies in elective offices; (b) Members of boards and commissions and the City Manager; (c) Employees under civil service coverage within the police and fire departments; (d) All department heads; one confidential secretary and one administrative assistant for the City Manager; (e) Judges, City Attorney and all assistant city attor- neys; (f) Persons employed in a professional or scientific capacity to make or conduct a temporary and special inquiry, investigation, or examination on behalf of the City Council or a committee thereof, or by authority of the City Manager." With few exceptions most City employment is covered by pne of three civil service systems: Charter, Police and Fire. The recurrent employment problem is the inability of the current civil service system to meet present employment needs in a timely manner. Recently, the critical position of wastewater engineer went unfilled for months because the salary was too low to attract candidates. Reclassification of that position was subject to further delay due to priority of existing reclassification re- quests and the time involved in a formal reclassification study. It is not legally permissible under the Charter to avoid civil service through the use of a personal service agreement. The first sentence of Article XVI, Section 6, which is written above, prevents this. Independent contractor services only apply to situations where there is not employment relationship. In those situations, the City bargains for a particular work product, such as a report or test, and the person performing the services is not subject to day-to-day supervision and direction by the City staff. The problem is not new. I have attached City Attorney's memoran- dum to Jerry Copeland dated April 28, 1987 which states that the City's street inspector must be hired through Charter Civil Ser- vice. The suggested solution is creation of a larger exemption covering trainees, technical, scientific, and professional positions with- out any limitations as to length of employment found presently in Article XVI, Section 6. These are the types of positions which the City has the most difficulty in recruiting and for which it needs the greatest flexibility. The amendment would only affect -2- (state/csamend AGENDA STATEMENT Page 3 Item No. Meeting of September 4, 1990 SUMMARY EXPLANATION: (continued) employees hired after the effective date of the Charter amendment and would not serve to deny civil service coverage to present employees. The City Charter may only be changed through amendment. Amend- ments to the Charter must be submitted to the voters in the form of ballot propositions. The proposition must be passed by the Council and forwarded to the auditor no later than 45 days prior to the election date selected. It is suggested that the proposi- tion be placed on the November 6 ballot meaning that the last day the City Council could pass an appropriate resolution would be at its September 18, 1990 meeting. Tentatively the ballot proposition would read: "Proposition No. Civil Service Exemptions Shall the City of Yakima Charter be amended to exempt from Civil Service coverage persons employed by the City in pro- fessional, scientific, technical, or trainee positions all as more fully provided in Resolution No. D- of the City Council? For the proposition Yes / / Against the proposition No / /"