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Request for Action <br />ver <br />To <br />Item Number <br />Mayor and City Council <br />9.2 <br />Agenda Section <br />Meeting Date <br />1july16, <br />Prepared by <br />Work Session <br />2018 <br />Cal Portner, City Administrator <br />Item Description <br />Reviewed by <br />Chief Cunningham Severance Request <br />Peter Beck, City Attorney <br />Reviewed by <br />Action Requested <br />Provide staff direction <br />Background/Discussion <br />Attached is a letter and backup information from former Chief Cunningham requesting additional severance pay <br />due to the amount of time he served as the On Call Duty Officer early in his career with the City of Elk River. <br />Former Chief Cunningham has engaged an attorney to represent his interests. <br />A couple of items to note: <br />1) The fire chief position is a salaried FLSA Exempt position, i.e. non -overtime earning position. <br />2) When he was hired we had a policy in which exempt employees accounted for their hours after 40 hours per <br />week and could take up to 8 hours off once per week. Due to staffing levels and workloads, very few took <br />time off and we generated large accruals which were never utilized. I ended the program shortly after <br />beginning work here because I find it inconsistent with FLSA which may have created legal liability and I <br />thought it was a drain on morale. <br />3) The fire chief salary was reviewed before going to market to test for competiveness as are all wages before <br />we open a hiring process for his recruitment. <br />4) In our compensation plan, the directors fall into different pay bands. While the fire chief pay grade isn't in <br />the highest director band, it isn't in the lowest pay band. <br />5) The management reorganization I put in place did add additional personal/programs for the fire chief to <br />oversee. However, I feel his supervisory span of control is well within reason in comparison to his peers. <br />Compensation plans generally provide for increases for authority/ accountability changes and do not <br />measure how busy one becomes. <br />6) As the department director, he was responsible for his own programs, policies, and scheduling. We had <br />multiple conversations regarding the program during my first 9 months here. He also indicated he had <br />previous conversations with the former administrator and the interim administrator. I didn't find the duty <br />officer program as important as he did and his feelings of necessity didn't drive him to incorporate changes <br />to require duty officer shifts. <br />The Elk River Vision <br />A welcoming community with revolutionary and spirited resourcefulness, exceptional <br />service, and community engagement that encourages and inspires prosperity <br />P ��,,a gg w E a E o 6 Y <br />11A V <br />