The Soldotna City Council passed an ordinance that would amend municipal code to create a new category for on-call employees. The city has utilized on-call employees to help augment the workforce when the workload temporarily requires additional help and to relieve employees during absences, which has been especially helpful for the City Library over the years. On-call positions are similar to temporary positions, but the main difference is that on-call employees are employed for fewer hours over a longer period of time, according to the city’s HR manager.
Acting City Manager Kyle Kornelis told council:
“This is a housekeeping ordinance that would update our municipal code. We currently have temporary employees as a type of employment. Temporary employees are typically not employed for more than six months and work many hours. A good example would be in the Parks department in the summer. This ordinance would add another type of regular employment called on-call employees. These employees typically work fewer hours but could be for greater than six months. It’s best practices and has been primarily useful in the library department over the years. This change won’t have any operational or budgetary impact as on-call employees are already included on the city’s staffing schedule. It would add a type of employment to our municipal code. We did consult with the city attorney in developing that language so that it fits with our other types of employments, but at this point, I believe our primary use of the on-call position would be at the library.”
On-call positions were added to the city staffing table and have been budgeted for since implemented under prior city management but adding the language to the personnel code would formalize the employment type and clarify the intention of this position type.
The ordinance passed the Soldotna City Council.