February 20, 2024
City Attorney's Office
DATE: February 20, 2024
TO: Mayor Martinez and Members of the City Council
FROM:
Dave Aleshire, City Attorney
Heather McLaughlin, Interim Senior Assistant City Attorney Nickie Mastay, Deputy City Manager
Subject:
City Manager’s Amended and Restated Employment
Agreement
FINANCIAL IMPACT: The estimated additional fiscal impact is as follows:
October 1, 2023 – $5,667.69/estimated total for three
months (October through December 2023)
January 1, 2024 - $23,804.29/annually
January 1, 2025 - $24,994.51/annually
January 1, 2026 - $26,244.23/annually
January 1, 2027- $27,556.45/annually
PREVIOUS COUNCIL
ACTION:
April 5, 2022, and December 20, 2022
STATEMENT OF THE
ISSUE:
On April 5, 2022, the City Council approved an
Employment Agreement with City Manager, Shasa Curl.
On December 20, 2022, the City Council approved an
amendment regarding deferred compensation. The
proposed action will restate the agreement and extend the term of the agreement for two years, amend the
compensation provisions by providing at least five percent increases, and provide detail on the performance
evaluation process.
AGENDA
REPORT
February 20, 2024
RECOMMENDED
ACTION:
APPROVE the amended and restated City Manager
Employment Agreement that extends the term of the
agreement for two years to April 5, 2027, amends the
compensation provisions by providing at least five percent increases, and provides detail on the performance
evaluation process – City Attorney’s Office (Dave Aleshire 510-620-6509/ Heather McLaughlin 510-620-6509/Nickie
Mastay 510-620-6609).
DISCUSSION:
On April 5, 2022, the City Council approved a City Manager Employment Agreement (“Agreement”) with Shasa Curl (Attachment 2) for a three-year term, April 6, 2022 through April 5, 2025. On December 20, 2022, the City Council approved a First Amendment to the Agreement (Attachment 4). The First Amendment did two things: i) clarify the timing of the City deferred compensation contribution and increase the City contribution to match the then-current IRS annual contribution limit; and ii) provide the City Manager an annual nonpersable lump sum retention payment of $7,850.
Following these City Council actions, agreements have been reached between the City Council and various labor groups, leading to increased stability within the organization.
Granting the City Manager a similar increase and extending the term of her agreement will reduce compaction between the City Manager and other employees. The proposed changes to the City Manager Agreement are outlined below:
TERM (Section 1.01)
Previous: April 6, 2022 – April 5, 2025 (3 Years)
Proposed: April 6, 2022 – April 5, 2027 (5 Years)
COMPENSATION (Section 2.01B)
Note: Increases are from the pay period that includes the listed date. As of January 1, 2023, base compensation is $312,700.
Date Original Agreement Proposed Change
1-1-2023 5% or CPI whichever is higher Same None
10-1-2023 None 5% +5%
1-1-2024 4% or CPI whichever is higher 5% or CPI whichever is higher +1% 1-1-2025 4% or CPI whichever is higher 5% or CPI whichever is higher +1% 1-1-2026 N/A 5% or CPI whichever is higher +5%
February 20, 2024
1-1-2027 N/A 5% or CPI whichever is higher +5%
EVALUATION (Section 3.01)
The Agreement provides for an annual review within 60 days of April 6 each year. The changes here provide more detail for the evaluation process and provide for a new 360 evaluation process for the City Manager on April 6, 2026. Other new details include:
Use of a facilitator unless the parties agree otherwise; A competitive process for selecting the facilitator which will require starting the process at least 120 days before April 6;
The agreement with the facilitator may be a multi-year agreement; Human Resources will give all the applications for facilitator to the City Council and the City Manager;
Human Resources will make a recommendation about which facilitators the City Council and City Manager should review;
City Council and the City Manager will agree on who will be interviewed for facilitator;
o City Council may delegate its reviewing and interviewing duties to an a subcommittee;
The process, criteria and format of the evaluation will be consistent with prior evaluations and the facilitator shall help develop this. It will include:
1) Rating Form – The ICMA City Manager Performance Evaluation Form is to be completed by each Councilmember;
2) Assessment of the accomplishment of prior goals and objectives; and 3) Establishment of goals and objectives for the coming evaluation period. A seven-step process for the Council and City Manager to meet and discuss goals and objectives (both past and future) (See Section 3.01D). These steps set forth an interactive process between the Council and City Manager and use the facilitator to consolidate individual evaluations into one final written evaluation.
The 360 evaluation will happen April 6, 2026. This will allow time to implement any ideas from the 360 evaluation. The 360 evaluation will consider the teamwork, communication, leadership, and management skills of the City Manager by soliciting input from the City Manager’s direct report management employees, other employees selected by the City Council, and community stakeholders. It is the goal to have 360 evaluations for all managing and supervising employees.
TERMINATION BY EMPLOYER (Section 4.02D)
February 20, 2024
This is a new section that would prohibit the City Council from terminating the City Manager within ninety (90) days following an election, but only if at least one new Councilmember has been elected.
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
Attachment 1 – April 5, 2022 Staff Report
Attachment 2 – City Manager Employment Agreement
Attachment 3 – December 20, 2022 Staff Report
Attachment 4 – First Amendment to City Manager Employment Agreementi Attachment 5 – City Manager Amended and Restated Employment Agreement i No signed copy.