3.79.130 Compensation and benefit policy

3.79.130 Compensation and benefit policy.

The city’s compensation policy is set forth herein. The city’s pay plan will be adopted annually by the city council.

A. Responsibility for Salary and Benefit Administration. The city manager or his/her designee is responsible for developing, interpreting, and administering the city’s compensation programs, maintaining records of employee time worked, calculating, adjusting and paying compensation earned, calculating the accrual and paying paid leaves of absence, determining amounts of deductions and contributions for employee benefits, paying benefits, conducting the prepayment audit of all expenditures, and developing and implementing rules and procedures necessary to carry out these functions.

B. Adjustments to Employee Compensation. The city manager may adjust employee compensation and/or benefits when this becomes necessary in order to carry out sound personnel management, and to accomplish objectives within the city’s defined commitments. However, the city manager may not adjust the salary or salary range for the city manager, nor may he/she adjust the compensation and/or benefits of bargaining unit employees as established by existing labor agreements, except in accordance with procedures established in collective bargaining; or in order to bring compensation and/or benefits in line with other bargaining units or unrepresented employees; provided however, such modifications may not exceed an annual cost to the city of $50,000 in the aggregate for any bargaining unit. The city manager or his/her designee shall develop and implement rules for correcting over/underpayments of salary or other forms of compensation.

C. Garnishment. The city of Bellevue will deduct a processing fee for the first payment made pursuant to a garnishment order or assignment of wages. If the garnishment or assignment is a continuing lien or charge on earnings, additional deduction may be made for the second and any subsequent payment under the garnishment or assignment.

D. Merit Increases. The city manager or his/her designee shall develop necessary or appropriate rules for timing of receiving merit increases that are consistent with this code, the adopted pay plan and budget constraints.

E. Special Recognition/Alternative Rewards. The city manager or his/her designee may approve implementation of other pay and benefit delivery systems within budget limits, such as gains sharing plans, small group incentive plans, and skill/knowledge-based plans; special recognition awards; service awards; reimbursement for training; professional memberships; licenses and certificates; clothing allowances; and tuition reimbursement programs.

F. Paid and Unpaid Leave Programs. The city manager or his/her designee shall develop and implement necessary and/or appropriate rules for the accrual and use of sick leave including maternity/paternity leave and bereavement leave, and all other paid and unpaid leaves, including family leave, military training leave, active military duty leave, jury duty, other civic duty and administrative leave, consistent with this code.

1. Holidays Observed. The following are paid holidays for all fully benefited employees of the city, with exception of those employees in the J pay plan:

•New Year’s Day (January 1st)

•Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday (3rd Monday in January)

•Presidents’ Day (3rd Monday in February)

•Memorial Day (last Monday in May)

•Juneteenth (June 19th)

•Independence Day (July 4th)

•Labor Day (1st Monday in September)

•Veterans Day (November 11th)

•Thanksgiving Day (4th Thursday in November)

•The day immediately following Thanksgiving Day (4th Friday in November)

•Christmas Day (December 25th)

2. Floating Holidays. Fully benefited employees assigned to work as a full-time equivalent of 1.0 or 40 hours a week will receive 16 hours of holiday credit on January 1st of each year, in addition to the 11 designated holidays listed above. Fully benefited employees assigned to work less than a 1.0 work schedule will receive a prorated number of hours to reflect his/her normal scheduled work week, rounded to the nearest one-tenth hour. The city manager or his/her designee shall develop and implement all necessary or appropriate rules regarding holidays and floating holidays.

a. Accruals. Each fully benefited employee will accrue vacation leave time at the following rate based upon his/her continuous length of service from his/her most recent service credit date as a fully benefited employee. A full-time benefited employee working a 1.0 FTE schedule or assigned to work 40 hours a week must be in paid status for at least 90 hours in a calendar month to earn vacation credit for that month (calendar month of service); a fully benefited employee who works less than a 1.0 FTE/40 hours a week must be in paid status for at least 75 percent of his/her regularly scheduled work in a calendar month to earn vacation credit. Accruals are credited and posted to the employee’s account at the completion of each calendar month.

i. A fully benefited employee will accrue vacation leave according to this schedule, prorated to reflect his/her normally scheduled work week as compared to a full-time work week of 40 hours. Prorated accruals are rounded to the nearest one-tenth hour.

Length of Service	Hours of Leave Accrued Per Calendar Month of Service
0 – 4 years	8
5 – 9 years	10
10 – 14 years	12.7
15 – 19 years	14.7
20 years or more	16.7

ii. Employees in the fire department who work 24-hour shifts will accrue vacation leave according to the schedule specified in the firefighter’s bargaining unit contract, whether or not they are covered by that bargaining unit contract.

iii. A regular status employee reinstated from a layoff will begin at the same vacation accrual rate he/she was earning prior to the layoff.

iv. The city manager or his/her designee shall develop and implement necessary or appropriate rules for vacation including the accrual and use of vacation and payment of vacation upon termination, consistent with the adopted pay plan.

b. Accelerated Vacation Accruals for Exempt Level Employees. In order to ensure the city is competitive in hiring and retaining the most qualified employees in exempt level positions, the city manager is authorized to agree to an initial lump sum and specific monthly accruals of vacation time which exceed the schedules of earning contained in subsection (G)(3)(a) of this section, Accruals.

a. Each fully benefited employee assigned to work a full-time equivalent of 1.0 or 40 hours a week will earn sick leave at the rate of eight hours for each calendar month of service completed since his/her most recent service credit date as a benefited employee. A full-time benefited employee working a 1.0 FTE/40 hours a week must be in paid status for at least 90 hours in a calendar month to earn eight hours of sick leave for that month.

b. A fully benefited employee assigned to work less than 40 hours a week will earn a prorated number of sick leave hours which reflects the proportion his/her regularly scheduled work week is to a full-time work week of 40 hours. A fully benefited employee working less than a 1.0 FTE/40 hours a week must be in paid status for at least 75 percent of his/her regularly scheduled work in a calendar month to earn the prorated number of hours of sick leave for that month.

c. Provided, however, any fully benefited employee who does not meet the eligibility criteria for earning sick leave hours under subsection (G)(4)(a) or (G)(4)(b) of this section shall be entitled to accrue sick leave at a rate of one hour per 40 hours of compensated time.

d. The maximum amount of sick leave that may be accrued at any time shall be 1,440 hours, except as otherwise required by law.

e. Payment for Sick Leave Accruals at Time of Retirement. With the employee’s written consent, upon retirement or 20 or more years of service, a regular status employee is entitled to receive a cash payment equal to 10 percent of his/her current total unused sick leave hours to a maximum of 144 hours (i.e., 10 percent of 1,440), multiplied by the employee’s current base hourly rate.

f. Bonus for Nonuse of Sick Leave. The city manager or his/her designee may develop and implement a bonus program for nonuse of sick leave within the city’s budget constraints.

a. Partially benefited employees earn sick leave as provided by law as now or hereafter amended.

H. Unpaid Leave Programs. Holidays of faith, conscience or organized religious activities: To the extent required by RCW 1.16.050, as now or hereafter amended, employees are entitled to unpaid holidays for reasons of faith or conscience or for organized activity conducted under the auspices of a religious denomination, church or religious organization. The city manager or his/her designee shall develop rules for administering this benefit. (Ord. 6654 §§ 1, 2, 2022; Ord. 6391 § 3, 2017; Ord. 6162 § 1, 2014; Ord. 6153 § 5, 2014; Ord. 5325 § 1, 2001; Ord. 5263 § 1, 2000; Ord. 5094 § 2, 1998.)