11-13-2002 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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HUMAN RESOURCES & DATA PRACTICES 2 3 Human Resources 4 5 Issue: Many state laws increase the cost of providing city services to residents by 6 requiring city governments to provide certain levels of compensation or benefits to public 7 employees, by specifying certain working conditions, or by limiting city governments' ability to 8 effectively manage their personnel resources. For instance, existing state laws limit 9 governments' ability to effectively address incompetence or misconduct of city employees 10 specifying certain procedures to be followed or standards of conduct. Several laws are potentially 11 contradictory and force local governments to choose which one to follow. 12 13 Response: The state must refrain from passing laws that regulate the public sector 14 workplace, and must repeal or modify problematic existing laws and regulations to 15 encourage full local accountability. 16 17 The League proposes the following initiatives and reforms: 18 19 HR -1. Preservation of Local Decision - making Authority on Employment 20 Related Issues 21 • The League supports local decision - making authority and opposes legislation intended to 23 interfere in local decisions. 24 25 HR -2. Veterans' Preference 26 27 • Minnesota's veterans' preference protections were created at the turn of the 19th Century. 28 These protections were designed to assist veteran employees at a time when Minnesota's and 29 the federal government's labor and personnel laws were in their infancy. The Legislature 30 must conduct a study of Minnesota's veterans' preference law to determine its effectiveness 31 and efficiency in light of today's employment laws, statutes, and regulations. It is likely that 32 the Legislature will find parts of the law need modernization. 33 34 HR -3. Compensation Limits 35 36 a The Legislature must acknowledge that all state and local governments, not just school 37 districts, must be competitive in recruiting and retaining upper level management employees. 38 In addition, there is no correlation between the compensation of citizen volunteers and career 39 public sector professionals. Additionally, a state- imposed salary cap on local government 40 employees undermines marketability of a community during competitive national recruiting 41 efforts and undermines local authority. Therefore, the state must repeal or modify laws limiting the compensation of a person employed by a statutory or home rule charter city to the governor's salary. Local elected officials should determine compensation for their 44 appointed officials. 35