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Trust Fund an amount equal to the unemployment benefits paid to its former employees. The city should consider this ongoing cost when conducting the financial aysis of how many employees at ghat salaries need to be laid off in order to make the budget balance. It is Vmportant for the city to understand that laying an employee off will not immediately save the city that employee's fu11 salary. B. Estimate your employees$ potential benefit. weekly benefit amount is calculated by first deternining the base period of employment. The base period is typicality the first four of the rust five completed calendar quartm preying the week in which are individual filed for unemployment benefits. The weekly benefit amount is the higher of 50% of the individual's average weekly wage during either the high quarter of the base period or the total base period. In general, the maximum amount of benefit is the lesser of 26 tunes the individual's weekly benefit amount or 113 of the individual "s total rase period wages. For more information, cities should consult the Minnesota Employer's Unemployment Handbook available at www . or contact the Minnesota Department of Economic Security. What else should the city consider at this time? A. Build a record. Layoffs will inevitably result in reduced service levels. For cxannple a city may no longer have the staff to inspect city sewers with the same frequency; or the ability to plow snow or sand streets with the same regularity. These reductions in service may well result in an increase in accidents and claims made against local governments. In order to help insulate the city from potential liability, state law provides cities with statutory discretionary immunity for many of these types of decisions. In the case of an employee layoff (and corresponding reduced service levels), it is important for the city to create and preserve a good discretionary immunity record. This can be accomplished in a number of ways. For instance if the city is no longer going to inspect sewers at the same frequency, the city may want to adopt a revised sewer inspection policy that sets forth new inspection procedures based on a reduced number of public works employees. Similarly, if the city is going to change its snow plowing practices so that it initiates plowing after 4 inches of snow rather than 2 inches, it should change its snowplowing policy and explain how the budget and sta mg considerations have resulted in the reduced service level. If an actual policy decision is made, a resolution setting forth the policy or plan can be prepared. The "'whereas" sections of such a resolution should document some of the social, Political, economic, or other factors supporting the council's decision. Similarly, accurate and complete minutes are also excellent records for showing a city council's exercises of discredon. More information on building the statutory discretionary immunity record can be found in the LMIT Risk Management formation: Exercising Discretion: Keeping Records to Support Yminuuity. 5 {11