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Item No: 07C Meeting Date: July 25, 2011 Type of Business: Council Business City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: James Ericson, City Administrator Item Title/Subject: Resolution 7805 Approving Revisions to Section 4 the City’s Personnel Manual Pertaining to “Separations” Introduction: The City Council first reviewed Section 4 of the Personnel Manual, relating to “Separations”, at the May 2, 2011 Work Session. Staff had indicated at that time that the City Attorney’s office was reviewing the policies to ensure consistency with other policies, consistency with state and federal laws, and to suggest logical revisions to improve procedural understanding and application. The attorney’s revisions were presented to the City Council on June 27, 2011, however more questions were raised which necessitated further refinement. The version presented for Council action at this time should address the Council’s questions. Discussion: As was indicated at the June 27th meeting, because the policies have been rearranged, combined and refined, it would be impractical to show all the revisions in typical underline and strike-out fashion. Instead, I have again summarized the changes for your reference and review, with any changes subsequent to the version reviewed on June 27th noted for Council’s reference. The Council asked whether the attorney reviewed the League’s model policy when the revisions were prepared. The attorney’s response is as follows: “The League's personnel policy template does not have comparable provisions for separation. The template only has two provisions relating to "Resignations" and "Severance Pay". Mounds View has one of the most extensive policies dealing with separation of employment, procedures and ongoing benefits. My revisions were intended to orgainize the policy a bit for clarity and also confirm conpliance with regard to Minnesota law and ongoing benefits. I DID review alot of the provisions from the League's HR Reference Manual for purposes of determining the City's obligations with regard to continuation of benefits.” Summary of the Original Changes The original Section 4.01 relating to Employees with Disabilities has been removed, due in part to its unclear purpose and potential overlap with Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requirements. Individual sections in the existing document dealing with the various types of separations (such as discharge, retirement, resignation, death, etc.) have been reorganized into one section entitled “Separation of Employment”. Subsections within this section have been summarized where appropriate. Section 4.10 originally entitled “Insurance Continuation” has been renamed “Continuation of Insurance and Benefits” and instead of articulating very specific provisions of coverage that are addressed in state and federal law, these policy provides more of a summary of the relevant provisions. The bottom line is that the City will comply with all applicable state and federal laws.