By Amira Van Leeuwen
KYLE — The Kyle City Council reviewed changes to a proposed Personnel Improvement Policy (PIP) on Oct. 3.
Initially brought forward by council member Yvonne Flores-Cale, the PIP was approved after a lengthy discussion during the Sept. 6 meeting.
“My goal is that we interview anybody that separates with the city,” Flores-Cale said.
She said she would like the first sentence of the Exit Interview part of the policy, “upon separation of employment with the City, each employee shall be eligible to receive an exit interview” to be changed to “will receive an exit interview.”
She also wanted to remove the part of the Exit Interview policy that reads, “If deemed appropriate by the HR Director and/or appropriate department head.”
Mayor Travis Mitchell said it was “okay” to strike that part of the policy but wanted to add, “The HR Director does have discretion on whether it’s in-person or electronically.”
Flores-Cale also wanted to add “unless terminated” to the final sentence of the policy and “final pay will be paid per Section 61.014, the Texas Payday Law” section.
Human Resources Director Sandra Duran asked if she could add that the exit interview be offered since there are times individuals refuse to accommodate, which was granted.
Other than the changes she had made, Flores-Cale said it was a “great document” and acknowledged that she could see why a personnel improvement policy might be a “chore.”
“But my whole point is that we don’t have to put anybody on a PIP, but if the city is gonna make an effort to do that, I do appreciate the policy you put together,” Flores-Cale said to Duran.
Duran’s exit interviews take an hour, and she has had discussions last up to an hour and a half. Duran says it will take a lot of staff time and suggests doing both face-to-face and filling out a link.
“I like to interview face-to-face because I like to get more information out when scoring something lower to get details on why they feel a certain way,” Duran said.
Mayor Pro Tem Robert Rizo said he liked the option of an electronic interview.
“If somebody leaves under bad circumstances, I don’t want to put any of our employees in any kind of bad circumstances,” Rizo said.
Council member Michael Tobias thanked Duran for responding to his email referencing an update on the definition of harassment.
“I think we’re gonna look at updating the policy itself, not just for harassment, but also for anybody that’s getting harassed politically or whether it’s race or any other thing,” Tobias said.
Duran said she had several edits through the entire personnel policy they will be introducing, and the term “harassment” is one of them.
