The city council recognizes that the City Code creates a distinction between the city manager's office, department directors and other city employees. This distinction is predicated on a number of factors, including selection, terms of employment, modes of separation from employment, appellate rights associated with separation, and employee benefits. The city desires to remain competitive in attracting high-quality executive personnel and respond to the market factors in the private executive work force. The city council wishes to encourage faithful performance on behalf of all city employees and, by enactment of this article, is striving to treat city employees and department directors in an equitable fashion, while at the same time recognizing the differences between the terms and conditions of employment of the two employee groups. The following provisions are intended to effectuate the intent of council in this regard. (Ord. No. 96-44, § 4, 10-7-1996)