In an attempt to improve the City of Soldotna’s ability to attract, hire, and retain a high quality workforce, the Soldotna City Council unanimously approved Ordinance 2023-009 amending the various sections of the Personnel Code for the City of Soldotna.
Outgoing Soldotna City Manager Stephanie Queen explained the necessity for the revisions to Chapter 2.28 of the Soldotna Municipal Code.
“This ordinance provides authorizing language for several of the recruitment and retention strategies that were previously discussed and approved as part of that strategy. For example, there’s new language in the code that is proposed to authorize the Hiring Bonuses, Relocation Assistance, and Employee Referral Programs to assist with our recruitment efforts. As well as some of the retention focused efforts such as paid parental leave and use of administrative leave for salaried employees.”
Queen also commented on the length and the amended Chapter 2.28 of the code.
“It’s a very long ordinance. This ends up amending about half of the sections in our Chapter 2.28, which is our personnel code. And so the memo that’s in the packet starting on page 19 does a deeper dive than we usually do in terms of explaining those changes. So the sectional analysis. In the memo goes through each of those sections and provides additional explanation and clarification about the proposed amendments.”
The Soldotna City Manager and Human Resources Manager identified several minor amendments which will add clarity and better align the code language with current practices.