For City Council Meeting [January 26, 2021]
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council
APPROVAL: Sean Grayson, Acting City Manager
FROM: Eric Vail, Interim City Attorney
Title
Request the City Council Approve Acting Pay for the Position of Acting City Manager in Fiscal Year 2020-2021.
Body
BACKGROUND
On September 22, 2020, Rialto’s City Manager announced his retirement. In order to provide for a transition of leadership the Rialto City Council appointed the City’s Fire Chief Sean Grayson to the position of Acting City Manager effective September 25, 2020. The City Council will be determining the process for the appointment of a new permanent City Manager in the future. Upon the appointment of a permanent City Manager Sean Grayson will return to the position of Fire Chief. The City has established acting pay criteria for other positions in the City but there is not an established provision for an Acting City Manager.
ANALYSIS/DISCUSSION
The acting pay criteria applicable to the Rialto Fire Management Association is, “After eighty (80) consecutive working hours in a higher classification, an affected employee shall be compensated for working in the acting classification at a rate that is the lowest step of the higher classification that pays more than the employee currently receives in the lower classification. Such increase must be at least five percent (5%) above the employee’s current pay, retroactive to the first date of the acting status. At such time the employee no longer works in the acting assignment, he or she shall be compensated at his or her regular rate of pay for his or her pertinent classification.” If applied to the Acting City Manager position this would move Acting City Manager Sean Grayson to the City Manager pay scale effective September 27, 2020, the beginning of the pay period starting after his appointment to the position. The acting pay will stop effective the day that Sean Grayson is no longer the Acting City Manager or June 30, 2021 as the end of the fiscal year, whichever comes first. All other salary and benefit provisions would remain unchanged with this acting provision.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
The request is not a Project as defined by Section 15378 of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines. A “Project” means the whole of an action, which has a potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment. Pursuant to Section 15378 (b)(5) a project does not include organizational or administrative activities of governments that will not result in direct or indirect physical changes in the environment.
GENERAL PLAN CONSISTENCY
This action is consistent with Guiding Principle 3A in the General Plan:
Our City government will lead by example, and will operate in an open, transparent, and responsive manner that meets the needs of the citizens and is a good place to do business.
LEGAL REVIEW
The City Attorney has reviewed and supports this staff report.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
The net costs to the City from applying acting pay to the Acting City Manager position is the difference between Sean Grayson’s annual base pay of $211,328 and the Acting City Manager annual base pay of $240,000 as applied to biweekly pay periods for the total time of the Acting City Manager assignment. The maximum cost for fiscal year 2020-2021 would be $20952.62. There will be savings in the 2020-2021 fiscal year budget from the vacancy of the City Manager that will be greater than the additional cost of the Acting City Manager pay.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that the City Council approve acting pay for the position of Acting City Manager in fiscal year 2020-2021.