In late summer of 2002, the City Council decided to review the City Manager’s Contract. After agreeing on a number of changes to the contract, a subcommittee was appointed to finalize those changes. The subcommittee has worked with the City Attorney to incorporate the changes the Council agreed to. The City Manager has also reviewed the changes and is in agreement with the proposed changes. The contract is attached with the recommended changes explicitly noted as well as a clean copy. The Subcommittee recommends that the City Council approve the revised contract and direct the Mayor to sign the contract on behalf of the City Council.

In June 1997, the Sunnyvale City Council entered into an employment agreement with Robert LaSala. The employment contract has remained essentially unchanged since that time. In 2002, the Sunnyvale City Council decided to review the City Manager’s contract to determine if any changes were required to bring the contract in compliance with existing City policies or to better reflect the Council’s desired relationship with the City Manager.

The Council had several meetings to review the Contract and discuss potential changes. The Council ultimately decided to revise and clarify a number of existing clauses to the contract. The Council then appointed a subcommittee consisting of Mayor Miller and Councilmembers Howe and Walker to incorporate the changes and present them to the City Manager.

The subcommittee held a number of meetings and worked with the City Attorney to implement the desired changes. In addition, Joesph Shepela, the consultant who is working with the City Council on the revised Performance review procedure, reviewed the contract. Some of his recommended changes were also adopted.

The revised contract was presented to the City Manager and he has indicated that he finds the changes acceptable.

The Sunnyvale City Charter contains language discussing the employment relationship with the City Manager in Article IX:

The Charter also provides additional conditions of employment in Article VIII:

The Charter also contains some discussion of the City Manager’s Compensation:

Removal of the City Manager is specified in Article VIII as well:

The employment contract itself contains the balance of the conditions of employment between the City Manager and the City Council.

The majority of the changes to the contract involve removal of a number of conditions that were in effect only at the initial employment of Mr. LaSala or for a short time thereafter. These included conditions related to relocation expenses and carry over of existing insurance policies. Those that are no longer in effect have been removed. Others have been updated or revised to reflect changes that may have occurred in City Policies since the original contract was signed.

There were also a number of dates and cash benefits specified that are no longer applicable and they also have been either updated or removed entirely.

The only substantive change that the Council authorized the subcommittee to make was to the Termination process in Section 3. The language here was revised to clarify that after an involuntary termination, the City Manager will continue in his position by mutual agreement and not at the sole option of the City Manager.

An additional clarification was added to section 2, paragraph E that notices of termination of the contract by either party needs to be in written form.

There is no direct fiscal impact in adopting this contract.

Public contact is through the posting of the Council agenda on the City's official notice board, posting of the agenda and report on the City's web page, and the availability of the report in the Library and the City Clerk's Office.

The Subcommittee recommends alternative 1.

Prepared by:
Jack Walker
Councilmember

Reviewed by:
Julia Miller
Mayor

John Howe
Councilmember