City Council Updates Personnel Code: Gender-Neutral Language, Leave Policy Clarity

The Fresno City Council approved an ordinance overhauling Chapter 3, Article 1 of the municipal code — the section governing personnel rules for city employees — on January 16, 2020. The changes update decades-old language, replace gender-specific terms with neutral ones, and clarify provisions on leaves of absence, outside employment, overtime, and who holds appointing authority.

The Personnel Services Department recommended the changes after determining that many sections hadn’t been reviewed or updated in decades. All bargaining units signed off on the amendments before Council approval.

Key shifts: gender-specific terms throughout the code now read as gender-neutral. The Chief Administrative Officer can now designate someone to act in their place. References to “City Manager, City Attorney, City Clerk, or Retirement Administrator” replace blanket “Chief Administrative Officer” language where appropriate. The ordinance also adds a new Section 3-127 addressing annual leave.

The Breakdown

• The ordinance amends FMC Chapter 3, Article 1, which governs city personnel rules — leaves of absence, holidays, separation pay, and related employment terms.
• Changes include replacing gendered language (“he,” “his”) with neutral terms, updating who can act as appointing authority, and clarifying leave-of-absence rules that hadn’t been touched in decades.
• The Personnel Services Department initiated the review; all city bargaining units approved the amendments before the Council vote.
• Council approved the ordinance as amended on January 16, 2020.

What This Means for You

The City Council — the body Fresno voters elect to set policy and manage operations — voted to modernize the rules governing thousands of city employees’ work conditions, from leave time to overtime to outside employment. The changes include provisions for who can act when a manager is out, through the Chief Administrative Officer designation authority.

What to Watch

City employees gain clearer, modernized rules — less room for disputes over gendered language or ambiguous leave policies. The material offers no cost estimate for implementing these changes — no figure for staff time spent on the review, no projection of savings from reduced disputes or clearer policies.

One unanswered question: why did it take decades for anyone to review this code? Outdated, unclear personnel rules are a liability. If the city waited this long to clean up Chapter 3, Article 1, what other sections of the municipal code are still sitting untouched with the same problems? The answer to that determines whether this was a one-off fix or part of a systematic review process that should have been standard practice all along.

Related Coverage

• Fresno City Hall erupts as councilmember and city attorney threaten to investigate each other over botched candidate arrest
• Fresno Council Candidate Cleared After DUI Arrest Sparks Calls for Independent Investigations Into Police, City Attorney
• Fresno Gets Extra $186K in State Wage-Theft Enforcement Money