(A) (1) No elected or appointed official shall issue directives individually to department heads or city employees. Complaints about an employee’s job performance are to be directed to the City Manager. Complaints about the City Recorder or City Manager’s job performance are to be directed to the Personnel Committee.
(2) The City Manager and City Recorder are the Council’s only links to operational achievement and conduct; all authority and accountability of employees, as far as the Council is concerned, is considered the authority and accountability of the City Manager. Accordingly:
(a) The Council will not give instructions to persons who report directly or indirectly to the City Manager;
(b) The Council will not evaluate the performance of any employee other than the City Manager and the City Recorder; and
(c) The Council will review City Manager and City Recorder performance annually and will consider City Manager performance as identical to city performance. This includes achievement of the strategic direction policies, and financial performance as identified in the approved budget.
(B) No department head or employee, with the exception of the City Recorder and Municipal Judge, shall present requests to elected or appointed officials except in an emergency. All nonemergency requests are to be submitted first to the appropriate department head before submission to the City Manager. The City Manager shall determine which requests are forwarded to the City Council. This division (B) shall not pertain to grievance or “whistleblowing” concerns, which shall be subject to the processes described in the Employee Handbook and any relevant union contract.
(Prior Code, § 30.46) (Ord. 1256a, passed 8-1-2011)