2008/02/06 Council Agenda Packet

--- et/ dowx.dii , d 5)."19)/ em-,u).(714L_. ESOLUTION 216/0 8 Following last week's vo e by the Council, there has been further discussion regarding the interpretation of the City Charter governing the effective date of the,new salary schedule adopted by the Salary Commission last spring. § 2.8(f) of the Charter states that any new salary schedule adopted by the Commission "shall become effective ninety (90) days after filing" with the City Clerk. A review of the ten year history of the Salary Commission reflects inconsistent answers to the question of whether the term "salary schedule" means the salaries themselves, as is the approach of the Washington State Salary Commission upon which Everett's was modeled, or refers to a plan which may have different dates of implementation. The language of the Charter does not leave the issue of effective date to the discretion of the Commission. To conclusively resolve the question today and to provide guidance for future salary commissions, I move that the City of Everett engage , ,,,d the outside legal services J. Robert Leach to examine this question. Gielevv�;we Referencing only the,Piistorical records pertaining to the 1996 Charter Review process which adopted the Salary Commission language and , , the official records of the Salary Commission, we are asking Mr. ,3\A,I . Leach to provide us his professional legal opinion on or before kU '' k,S February 29, 2008. Mr. Leach is a highly respected Everett attorney who has previously provided legal representation to the City and has recently been appointed to the Washington State Court of Appeals.