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To amend City Code §§2-1301.4, concerning the City’s rights and authority, and 2-1301.14, concerning labor-management dispute and impasse resolution, to modify collective bargaining procedures.
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THE CITY OF RICHMOND HEREBY ORDAINS:
§ 1. That sections 2-1301.4 and 2-1301.14 of the Code of the City of Richmond (2020) be and are hereby amended as follows:
Sec. 2-1301.4. City’s rights and authority.
(a) This division shall not be deemed in any way to limit or diminish the authority of the City to manage and direct the operations and activities of the City to the fullest extent authorized and permitted by law. Thus, unless the City elects to bargain regarding the following matters, the City retains exclusive rights:
(1) To determine the type and scope of work to be performed by City employees and the manner in which services are to be provided;
(2) To direct the work of employees;
(3) To (i) hire and classify all employees in accordance with applicable law; (ii) to [promote, transfer] assign day to day tasks, and schedule all employees, except that [the] a system for determining which employees will fill each schedule and procedures[related to such decisions] for determining who will fill job vacancies and promotions shall be negotiable; and (iii) to suspend, demote, discharge, or take other disciplinary action against employees for just cause in accordance with applicable law and regulations, except that procedures to challenge such decisions shall be negotiable to the extent consistent with state law;
(4) To relieve employees from duties by layoff or other reduction-in-force due to lack of work, budget limitations, changed working conditions or requirements or for other reasons in the City’s reasonable business judgment and not prohibited by law, except that the implementation procedures to be followed, notice, and alternatives to layoff shall be negotiable;
(5) To contract for, expand, reduce, sell, transfer, convey, or eliminate particular operations or services of general government, as well as any department, office, or part thereof; except that the alternatives to contracting and impact on employees shall be negotiable; and
(6) To establish and change standards of behavior or performance, job qualifications, and job descriptions, except that the impact of any changes on employees and performance evaluation procedures will be negotiable.
(b) The City retains the right to take whatever actions may be necessary to carry out the City’s mission during emergencies. If a collective bargaining agreement includes procedures for how the City and its employees will respond to a specific type of emergency situation, then the terms of such agreement shall govern the response to that specific emergency. Otherwise, the City shall meet with the exclusive bargaining representative at the earliest practical time following actions taken in response to an emergency to discuss the effects of such emergency actions on bargaining unit employees as they pertain to matters within the scope of bargaining under this division and to bargain in good faith over any supplemental collective bargaining agreements that are proposed to address the effects of such emergency actions.
(c) In accordance with Code of Virginia, § 40.1-57.2 and other applicable law, nothing in this division, any provision of this division, or the terms of any collective bargaining agreement shall impair or restrict the authority of the City Council to establish its budget and appropriate funds in its discretion. Any collective bargaining agreement reached under this division shall be subject to the appropriation of funds by the City Council.
(d) The City shall not negotiate as to:
(1) Matters controlled or preempted by any federal or state constitutional provision, law, rule or regulation;
(2) Any provision relating to the composition, duties, or powers of any civilian review board applicable to police officers;
(3) Any previously rendered decision of any civilian review board applicable to police officers or of the Personnel Board; or
(4) Any decision to retain the City’s existing retirement plans as set forth in Chapter 22 or to replace any or all of such plans with the retirement plan of the Virginia Retirement System.
Sec. 2-1301.14. Labor-management dispute and impasse resolution.
(a) Impasses in negotiation.
(1) Mediation: In the event that the City and the bargaining agent are unable to reach a collective bargaining agreement within 120 days after their first meeting or September 1, whichever is earlier, an impasse may be called by either party and resolution may be sought by submission of any unresolved issues for mediation by the administrator or a mediator selected through procedures established by the administrator. The parties shall jointly request mediation within five days of a declared impasse. The administrator or other mediator shall set reasonable deadlines for all steps of the mediation process. Negotiations on all matters shall continue throughout impasse procedures.
(2) The mediation process is advisory only, and the administrator or other mediator shall have no authority to bind either party.
(3) The mediation process and any comments, statements or suggestions from the administrator or other mediator or the parties and any documents evidencing the same made or created during the mediation process shall not be disclosed except as required by law.
(4) The parties shall share the costs of mediation equally.
(5) [At the request of either party, and not later than September 15, impasses not resolved through negotiation or mediation shall be submitted to non-binding fact-finding. The parties shall jointly select a fact-finder or, if they are unable to agree on a fact-finder, they shall request a list of seven arbitrators from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service or American Arbitration Association. Each party in turn shall strike a name from the list until only one name remains. Negotiations shall continue throughout the impasse procedures.] Arbitration: If the City and the bargaining agent are unable to reach agreement in mediation to resolve any impasse regarding any negotiable terms and conditions of employment other than wages or economic fringe benefits, such impasse shall be submitted to final and binding arbitration pursuant to procedures adopted by the labor relations administrator, which shall at a minimum require the parties’ joint selection of an arbitrator. The parties shall share the costs of arbitration equally.
(6) Fact-Finding: At the request of either party, and not later than September 15, impasses as to wages and economic fringe benefits shall be submitted to non-binding fact-finding. The parties shall jointly select a fact-finder or, if they are unable to agree on a fact-finder, they shall request a list of seven arbitrators from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service or American Arbitration Association. Each party in turn shall strike a name from the list until only one name remains.
In making any decision under the impasse procedure authorized by this division, the fact-finder shall give weight to the following factors:
a. The lawful authority of the City;
b. Stipulations of the parties;
c. The interests and welfare of the public;
d. The financial ability of the employer to meet the costs of any items to be included in the agreement;
e. Comparison of wages, hours, and terms and conditions of employment of the employees involved in the arbitration proceedings with the wages, hours, and terms and conditions of employment of other persons performing similar services in the public and private sectors, if applicable;
f. The average consumer prices for goods and services, commonly known as the cost of living;
g. The overall compensation presently received by the employees involved in the arbitration;
h. Changes in any of the foregoing circumstances during the pendency of the arbitration proceedings; and
i. Such other factors that are normally or traditionally taken into consideration in the determination of wages, hours, and terms and conditions of employment through voluntary collective bargaining, mediation, arbitration, or otherwise between the parties, in public service or in private employment.
(7) The fact-finder’s decisions shall be provided to the Chief Administrative Officer and the bargaining agent not later than October 15 and, to the extent permitted by law, shall not be made public for a period of 14 days. During this 14-day period, the parties shall meet and attempt to negotiate an agreement based on the fact-finder’s recommendations. By mutual agreement, the 14-day period may be extended.
(8) At the conclusion of the 14-day period (or longer period agreed to by the parties) period, the Chief Administrative Officer shall submit the last written bargaining position of the City and of the bargaining agent on each issue that remains in dispute with a copy of all of the fact-finder’s recommendations to the City Council.
(9) At its next meeting, the City Council shall provide 30 minutes to each of the parties at impasse for the purposes of explaining and justifying its last offer and thereafter render a decision on the matters subject to continuing impasse. The City Council’s decision shall be final and not subject to further review.
(10) The expenses of the fact-finder shall be borne equally by the parties. The fact-finding and binding arbitration procedures may, if the parties agree, be considered into a single proceeding before one person acting as fact-finder and arbitrator.
(b) Labor-management disputes other than impasses in negotiation.
(1) The City and a bargaining agent shall discuss the feasibility of resolution of labor-management disputes informally by discussion between the parties’ designees before resort to formal mediation or arbitration. Failure to actually engage in such informal resolution prior to submitting a labor-management dispute or prohibited practice claim for mediation or arbitration shall not be a ground for dismissal of a claim under this division. In the event that the City and the bargaining agent are unable to informally resolve a labor-management dispute if and when engaged, either party or the parties jointly may submit the dispute to the administrator for mediation or arbitration, if applicable, pursuant to procedures instituted by the administrator.
(2) If the City and the bargaining agent are unable to reach agreement resolving any labor-management dispute submitted to mediation as provided for in this division by any deadline set forth in procedures provided in this division or adopted by the administrator, the labor-management dispute shall be submitted to final and binding arbitration pursuant to procedures adopted by the administrator which shall, at a minimum, require the parties’ joint selection of an arbitrator. The parties shall share the costs of arbitration equally.
§ 2. This ordinance shall be in force and effect upon adoption.
DATE: March 31, 2026
TO: The Honorable Members of City Council
THROUGH: Reva M. Trammell, 8th District Council Member
THROUGH: RJ Warren, Council Chief of Staff
THROUGH: Will Perkins, Senior Legislative Services Manager
FROM: Steven Taylor, Council Policy Analyst
RE: Amend City regarding scope of collective bargaining for city employees, arbitration, fact-finding.
CNL-2026-0039
PURPOSE: Amend the City Code that established collective bargaining so as to confirm and clarify that bargaining units may negotiate over systems for promotions, filling vacancies and promotions and the like and that such subject matters shall not be excluded from good faith negotiating in collective bargaining agreements.
And to amend the City Code to allow:
1. The City or Union to request that impasses on benefits and wages be submitted to non-binding fact-finding; and
2. To provide binding arbitration procedures for all non-economic subjects which would be a more efficient use of City Resources and promote both parties to agree on compromises. The parties would also agree to a joint selection of the arbitrator and to share costs of arbitration equally.
BACKGROUND:
Ord. No 2022-221, adopted July 25, 2022, the Collective Bargaining Ordinance (“CBO”), established Collective Bargaining in the City of Richmond after the passage of HB 582 (2020) by the General Assembly. Section 2-1301.4 (a) et seq reserved certain management rights to the City that were heavily negotiated. The resulting agreement specifically provided an exception that would permit Unions to negotiate over the processes of transfers, promotions and the like very similar to what exemplar jurisdictions in Virginia had previously included. City Council members were involved in the final negotiations over the CBO and understood that processes were negotiable, as did the Unions.
In the first collective bargaining negotiations between the general City government and Police Union represented by RCOP in 2023, the City claimed that the CBO in fact excluded such subjects as being negotiable. The parties sought the ruling of the City’s Labor Relations Advisor, who after a hearing concluded that transfer and promotion process matters were non-negotiable under the circumstances. That ruling diverges from other rulings from Arlington County on similar challenges based on similar ordinance wording holding that such employment processes are subject to good faith bargaining and appears to sidestep the direct language of the CBO and why it was included.
In light of the circumstances, this proposed amendment seeks to accomplish two things.
1. To clarity and confirm the intention (and proper interpretation of the language) of the CBO to bring the City in conformity with other Virginia jurisdictions - as well as elsewhere - that systems, processes and impacts of transfers and promotions are subject to negotiation in good faith, and by doing so to correct the erroneous LRA ruling that was at odds with the understanding and intention of the parties.
It is important to note that a Union’s right to negotiate in good faith over transfer, promotion and the like systems does not mandate that any particular person(s) be hired or infringe upon material management selection rights. It would require all the parties to engage on what the process or system will be and in that manner will benefit employee morale, a fairer workplace, and address long-standing ad hoc, highly subjective or preferential practices that have long been, second only to wages, regarded as the highest complaint of rank and file City employment.
2. To make certain changes to how impasses in coming to agreement are handled, the highlight making non-economic matters subject to binding arbitration.
As adopted, the CBO provides for a number of methods to resolve impasses, such as mediation, fact-finding and arbitration. However, the CBO’s arbitration language makes the arbitrator’s decision on non-economic subjects only advisory and calls for a special meeting of City Council to make the final decision.
In the case of the Police Union, impasses over the first agreement did result in an arbitrator’s decision that was referred to City Council in accordance with the CBO. Though the issues were resolved without the required meeting, the widespread opinion of the parties and all Council members leading up to it was that the advisory nature of the arbitration for “non-money” issues was unwieldy, complex and unduly expensive. Note that monetary/economic issues always are subject to Council approval.
The proposed amendment addresses those concerns and should better promote compromise and agreements versus excessive proceedings and drama before Council over a multitude of day-to-day issues such as dress, seniority, special events staffing process, and other details.
FISCAL IMPACT: None. No impact is expected from the procedural changes.
DESIRED EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon adoption
REQUESTED INTRODUCTION DATE: April 27, 2026
CITY COUNCIL PUBLIC HEARING DATE: May 26, 2026
REQUESTED AGENDA: Consent
RECOMMENDED COUNCIL COMMITTEE: Government Operations
AFFECTED AGENCIES: All city employees in each bargaining unit.
RELATIONSHIP TO EXISTING ORD. OR RES.: 2022-221
ATTACHMENTS: City of Richmond v. Richmond Coalition of Police, LRA Case No. 2023-ND-D1
STAFF: Steven Taylor, Council Policy Analyst, (804) 646-2780