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Chapter 3.07
Payments to Employees and ApplicantsSections:
3.07.010 Travel Reimbursement to Nonresidents Authorized.
3.07.020 Regulations Governing Nonresidents’ Reimbursement.
3.07.030 Deposit of Salary Warrants.
3.07.040 Reimbursement of Expenses – In General.
3.07.110 Use of Personal Automobiles.
3.07.120 Personal Automobile Allowance.
3.07.130 Reimbursement of Expenses.
3.07.150 Rules and Regulations.
3.07.160 Credit Card Allowable Expenditures.
3.07.200 Indemnification Policy.
3.07.210 Persons Indemnified.
3.07.220 Scope of Indemnification.
3.07.230 Exempt Employee Personal Service Contracts.
3.07.300 Repealed.
3.07.310 Nonrepresented Employee Pay and Benefit Adjustments.
3.07.320 Salary Compression.
3.07.010 Travel Reimbursement to Nonresidents Authorized.
A. The reimbursement of nonresident applicants for City service for reasonable travel expenses, and the reimbursement of nonresident appointees to City service for reasonable travel and moving expenses, are declared to be in the best interests of the public. Necessary funds shall be appropriated and surplus moneys in the salary account shall be available for this purpose.
B. Nonresident applicants for an appointment to positions in:
1. the classified service certified by the civil service commission and approved by the mayor, and
2. the exempt service approved by the mayor, as being eligible for reimbursement, shall be reimbursed for reasonable travel and/or moving expenses.
[Ord. C32755; Passed: 12/4/2000]
3.07.020 Regulations Governing Nonresidents’ Reimbursement.
Each reimbursement shall first be specifically approved by the mayor. The amount of reimbursement may not exceed two months’ salary for the position. The mayor may adopt further rules to carry out this chapter.
[Ord. C32755; Passed: 12/4/2000]
3.07.030 Deposit of Salary Warrants.
An employee of the City may in writing authorize and direct the accounting department to deposit his or her payroll warrant directly to his or her financial institution account. The division director of finance has authority to prescribe the regulations and arrange the agreements with the financial institutions to accomplish direct deposit of warrants under the section.
[Ord. C19751]
3.07.040 Reimbursement of Expenses – In General.
The mayor is directed to adopt and promulgate from time to time policies and procedures whereby officers and employees of the City are reimbursed for travel and other expenses necessarily incurred in performance of City business. All policies and procedures established to regulate the reimbursement of expenses to City officials and employees incurred while in performance of City business shall comply with the following guidelines, which shall supersede all City or department policies and procedures. For the purpose of this section, references to City employees shall include all employees, officers, elected or appointed officials, and members of City boards and commissions.
A. Meal Reimbursement. The City shall provide reimbursement on a per diem basis to City employees for reasonable and necessary meal expenses incurred when traveling on City business or while engaging in City business while within the city so long as the meal expense was reasonable and necessary to the performance of the employee’s official duties. Meal reimbursement shall only be provided when the expense is incurred while engaging in City business. Meal reimbursement shall be pre-approved by the appropriate department head or division director. The City shall not reimburse an employee of any expenses associated with the purchase of alcohol.
B. Travel Reimbursement. The City shall provide reimbursement to City employees for reasonable and necessary expenses incurred for travel by the employee in the course of the employee’s employment. Any travel on behalf of the City shall be pre-approved on the appropriate travel authorization form by the appropriate department head or division director.
C. Guest Meals, Travel, Lodging and Entertainment Expenses. The use of City funds for the purpose of providing meals, travel, lodging, beverages or any forms of entertainment for other persons, whether City employees or not, is prohibited and will not be reimbursed with the exception of nonresident applicants and appointees under SMC 3.07.010.
D. Credit Cards. Credit cards issued to the City of Spokane may be used for reasonable and necessary travel expenses and must be returned to the City immediately upon return from travel. City employees, officers, and elected officials are not authorized to retain or use credit cards issued to the City of Spokane except for reasonable and necessary expenses incurred during the course of travel on official authorized City business.
E. Record Keeping. To claim reimbursement for authorized expenses, the employee shall be required to submit all required documentation demonstrating the cost and nature of the expense to be reimbursed. All records related to reimbursement expenses shall be regarded as public records, and are subject to recording keeping and auditing procedures. Payment of reimbursable expenses shall be paid only after the expenses have been approved by the director of finance or his or her designee. A designee for the director of finance may include the City employee’s department head or division director.
F. Accounting Rules and Regulations. The finance director shall be responsible to establish accounting rules and regulations pertaining to the procedures for reimbursing City employees for travel, meals, lodging and other related expenses associated with the employee’s performance of official City business. All rules and regulations shall additionally comply with the guidelines prescribed by the State Auditor.
[Ord. C32964; Passed: 12/17/2001]
3.07.110 Use of Personal Automobiles.
A. Whenever it appears to the satisfaction of the mayor that in any particular case it is less expensive to pay an employee an allowance in money for use of a private automobile than to provide such employee a City-owned automobile, then such employee may elect to use his own automobile instead of a City-owned automobile in connection with officially assigned duties.
B. Because the purpose of this section is reduction of the City’s costs of fleet services, the personal automobile allowance is offered to only those employees who have, or would be eligible to have, a City car assigned for their use as provided in SMC 12.07.020 and 12.07.030.
[Ord. C32755; Passed: 12/4/2000]
3.07.120 Personal Automobile Allowance.
A. The amount of the personal automobile allowance in each case is based upon the established costs of use of the fleet automobile which would otherwise be furnished.
B. The director of fleet services from time to time determines and reports, to the satisfaction of and in accordance with the rules prescribed by the mayor, the cost of each fleet vehicle. Such cost schedule includes fixed and capital costs, averaged as necessary, as well as maintenance and operating expenses, expressed as a cost per mile driven, based on recent mileage records.
C. The amount of an employee’s personal automobile allowance is determined by the mayor as provided in SMC 12.07.020. The allowance may be computed on a mileage rate, may be a fixed dollar amount on the assumption that the number of miles driven on official business will continue to be the same as shown by the records maintained for the City vehicle being replaced, or may be calculated by some other appropriate method. As prescribed by the division director of finance, each employee receiving a personal automobile allowance records actual business miles driven, or files a verified claim, or submits such other documentation as required by the method used to determine the amount of the allowance.
D. The amount of any personal automobile allowance is subject to adjustment by the mayor as warranted by change in extent of use, cost of operations, assigned duties, applicable state or federal laws or regulations, or other causes.
[Ord. C32755; Passed: 12/4/2000]
3.07.130 Reimbursement of Expenses.
The personal automobile allowances provided in SMC 3.07.120 is in lieu of any claim for reimbursement of expenses as provided in SMC 3.07.040 as any such claim would relate to ordinary in-city transportation. Out-of-city travel is reimbursed as provided in SMC 3.07.040 whether or not the employee receives a personal automobile allowance.
[Ord. C26893 § 4]
3.07.150 Rules and Regulations.
The mayor from time to time promulgates rules and regulations regarding the availability, payment, accounting and conditions of personal automobile allowances in the administration of this chapter in accordance with law.
[Ord. C32755; Passed: 12/4/2000]
3.07.160 Credit Card Allowable Expenditures.
A. In addition to requests for travel advances or reimbursement for lawful travel expenses, the city council by resolution may authorize the issuance of commercial credit cards to City officers and employees on official business. Such credit cards, upon issuance, may be used only for the payment of allowable expenditures, as defined in this chapter and elsewhere in this code, which an officer or employee of the City may incur while on City business.
B. The director of accounting is custodian of the commercial credit cards. The division director of finance shall adopt rules and regulations for use of the cards.
C. All City officials or employees using such credit cards shall retain and turn over to the director of accounting expenditure receipts for all expenses which are charged under the credit card. The official or employee shall remain personally liable for all allowable expenditures for which he does not have receipts and which expenditures have been charged under his signature.
D. Upon loss of a card, the City official or employee shall immediately notify the director of accounting as well as the credit card company.
[Ord. C26997 § 1]
Cross Reference: RCW ch. 42.24; WAC ch. 82-28.
3.07.200 Indemnification Policy.
A. Whenever a claim is made against an agent of the City for monetary damages arising from such agent’s performance of duties as an agent, the mayor or a designee, in consultation with the office of the city attorney and the office of the risk manager, conducts an investigation to determine whether the acts or omissions of the agent upon which alleged liability is predicated were within the scope of the policy set forth in this chapter. Until it appears to the contrary, the City assumes that the predicate acts or omissions were done in the good faith belief that they were necessary or proper to the performance of the functions for which the agent is responsible and the City provides defense and legal representation to the agent. The decision to indemnify in each case is made by the city council.
B. When the possibility exists that the City will disclaim responsibility for the conduct of the agent, the City so advises the agent and recommends that the agent retain his or her own legal counsel.
C. Unless and until it is determined that the City is not responsible for the agent’s conduct, the City defends, settles and pays on behalf of the agent any amounts for which the agent is liable to the extent the liability arises from acts or omissions within the scope of this chapter.
[Ord. C32711; Passed: 9/11/2000]
3.07.210 Persons Indemnified.
A. For purposes of this chapter, “agent” means:
1. an employee, including:
a. a volunteer,
b. a part-time employee,
c. an employee for a limited period of time or for a specific function (sometimes referred to as “contract employee”);
2. an officer of the City as described in SMC 1.02.080(C);
3. a person acting on behalf of, and whose act is the act of, the City, either individually or in concert with other members of a body having the power to take action having legal effect; whose actions are subject to control by City government by way of Charter, ordinance, resolution, contract, or direct supervision.
B. For purposes of this chapter, “agent” does not include:
1. an independent contractor;
2. a person acting, or purporting to be acting, on behalf of the City but whose acts do not have any legal effect beyond a recommendation to an “agent,” or whose purposes, functions and modes of operation cannot be determined by reference to the Charter, an ordinance, a resolution or some other instrument embodying official City action.
C. Indemnification of persons described in subsection (A) of this section extends, as necessitated by the circumstances of the particular claim, to a spouse, marital community and estate.
[Ord. C31066; Passed: 2/21/1994]
3.07.220 Scope of Indemnification.
A. Having indemnified an agent against a claim for liability, the City may prosecute in its own name any counterclaim, setoff, cross claim, third-party claim, or other right of subrogation belonging to the agent.
B. The City does not pursue any subrogation claim it may have against its agent.
C. The City does not pay the agent compensation for direct losses occurring in the course of performance of duties but only for liability claims.
D. The City reserves the right to decline to indemnify or assume financial responsibility for acts or omissions which the City determines to be not necessary or proper to the performance of the function for which the agent is responsible. Specifically, the City does not indemnify an agent against claims:
1. arising while the agent is in transit, or
2. based upon intentionally wrongful or criminal acts.
[Ord. C31066; Passed: 2/21/1994]
3.07.230 Exempt Employee Personal Service Contracts.
All personal service contracts for nonrepresented employees shall either be subject to final approval by the city council or negotiated within the parameters set forth by the city council by ordinance or within existing personnel procedures adopted by the city council.
[Ord. C33353 § 1; Passed: 12/15/2003]
3.07.300 Repealed.
Repealed.
[Ord. C33382 § 1; Passed: 3/1/2004]
3.07.310 Nonrepresented Employee Pay and Benefit Adjustments.
A. This section shall apply to nonrepresented employees in the exempt-confidential pay plan, including both uniformed and non-uniformed.
B. Beginning calendar year 2004 and continuing thereafter, non-uniformed employees shall receive a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) identical to the COLA received by the managerial and professional association exempt-A bargaining unit. All additional benefits including, but not limited to, medical, dental, personal leave, deferred compensation, vacation and sick leave accruals and payouts, will also be in accordance with the managerial and professional association exempt-A bargaining unit.
C. Beginning calendar year 2005 and continuing thereafter, the uniformed fire personnel shall receive a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) identical to the COLA received by the Spokane association of fire officers. The uniformed police personnel shall receive a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) identical to the COLA received by the lieutenants and captains association. Beginning calendar year 2005 and continuing thereafter, the uniformed employees shall receive the applicable bargaining unit benefit package for all other benefits including, but not limited to, medical, dental, deferred compensation, vacation and sick leave accruals and payouts.
D. The city council may authorize additional or different pay and/or benefits pursuant to SMC 3.07.230.
[Ord. C33382 § 2; Passed: 3/1/2004]
3.07.320 Salary Compression.
To ameliorate the effects of salary compression in the uniformed departments of the city, the following shall apply to the police and fire chiefs, their deputy chiefs and assistant chiefs:
A. The total economic value of employee compensation and benefits for the police chief and fire chief shall be a minimum fifteen percent more than the total economic value of employee compensation and benefits paid to their assistant and deputy chiefs. The total economic value of employee compensation and benefits for the assistant and deputy fire and police chiefs shall be a minimum ten percent more than the total economic value of employee compensation and benefits paid to fire battalion chiefs and police captains, respectively.
B. The fifteen and ten percent differentials established in subsection (A) of this section shall be achieved over a five-year period as follows: First, the fire deputy and assistant chiefs’ total employee compensation and benefits shall be raised to equal the total employee compensation and benefits of a fire battalion chief, and police deputy and assistant chiefs’ total employee compensation and benefits shall be raised to equal the total employee compensation and benefits of a police captain. Second, the ten percent differential will be achieved by adding to the total employee compensation and benefits of each of the assistant and deputy chief positions two percent per year for five years. Third, the fifteen percent differential will be achieved by adding to the total employee compensation and benefits of each of the chief positions up to three percent per year for five years. This salary compression adjustment is in lieu of any pay and compensation adjustment provided elsewhere in this chapter. The chiefs, assistant chiefs and deputy chiefs may not receive pay increases under this section related to compression and under the PACA sections above.
C. The salary compression adjustments set forth in subsections (A) and (B) of this section shall terminate December 31, 2004, at which time this section shall be repealed.
[Ord. C33382 § 3; Passed: 3/1/2004]
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