It’s getting a little easier for the City of Powell to fire its employees.

While workers hired prior to this week will continue to enjoy some protections — needing to be fired “for cause” — new hires will be strictly “at-will” and can be terminated at any time.

As City Attorney Scott Kolpitcke explained, “it can be for any reason or no reason.”

The change was unanimously approved by the Powell City Council at Monday’s meeting, though not before Councilman Geoff Hovivian posed a hypothetical.

“So if I didn’t like you, I couldn’t fire you? Or I could fire you?” Hovivian asked Kolpitcke.

“You could,” the attorney confirmed.

The lone caveat, Kolpitcke noted, is that the city still needs to comply with federal law, so it can’t terminate or discriminate against an employee based on their sex, race, religion or disability.

Though the city has used the “for cause” standard for decades, City Administrator Zack Thorington said most of the state’s municipalities — including Cody and Lovell — have moved to at-will employment in recent years.

“Administratively, it makes any employer’s job a little easier if you don’t have to prove cause and go through a hearing process,” Kolpitcke said.

Under the prior procedure, full-time employees who clear a probationary period have the ability to appeal a demotion or firing to the city council. The council then schedules a hearing in which the employee must show that their discipline was arbitrary and capricious, unsupported by evidence or clearly erroneous.

Rarely used

However, the process hasn’t been used in decades. Thorington noted that, “major discipline that can lead to an appeal is very rare.”

Councilman Zane Logan, who served as city administrator from 2005 to 2019, told the Tribune that no appeals were filed during his tenure. The entire process, he added, was fairly cumbersome.

City employees generally had to make it through six months of employment before qualifying for the protections, while police officers needed to complete a year of probation. Those probationary periods are now being scrapped for new hires, as they’ll always be at-will employees.

Mayor John Wetzel noted the change “does not mean you can’t be sued for wrongful termination.”

In 2023, former Powell Police Officer Ryan Davis asserted in a suit that he was wrongly fired and discriminated against. Davis had been terminated the prior year, after Covid complications left him unable to work for several months. However, a judge tossed Davis’ suit earlier this year. The officer had still been a probationary, at-will employee at the time of his separation and that fact played into the judge’s ruling.

Multiple changes

While the most significant, the change to at-will employment was among a number of revisions to the 68-page book of “Personnel Policies & Procedures” drafted by City Clerk/Human Resource Manager Tiffany Brando and Koplitcke.

As just a few examples, the definition of employee misconduct has been expanded, the administrator has been given more time to investigate harassment complaints and the city has agreed to reimburse employees up to $180 a year for protective footwear (if it’s needed for their job).

Employees will continue to receive annual performance evaluations that factor into whether they’ll be recommended for a raise. The revised manual also makes clear that any pay adjustments hinge on budget constraints and council approval.

As of Monday’s meeting, the city had roughly 65 full-time employees, who will all retain their “for cause” status.