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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Civil Service Board - 03/14/2008 (2) • RECEIVED MINUTES 536TH CIVIL SERVICE BOARD MEETING FEB 1 8 2010 1201 LEOPARD ST., CITY HALL HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT March 14,2008 CITY SECRETARY'S OFFICE BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT CITY STAFF PRESENT John P. Silvas,Member Cynthia C. Garcia,Director of Eileen Butler, Member Human Resources Deanna Galan, Human Resources Analyst Cynthia C. Garcia states it is 2:20pm and the first item on the agenda is to review and approve the minutes for the last board hearing held on February 22,2007. Item#1 Review and approve the minutes of the 535th Civil Service Board hearing held on March 14,2008. Member John P. Silvas notes a minor correction on the spelling of his name on the last page of the minutes. Cynthia states the correction will be made and asks for any other corrections.None were given and Cynthia asks for the board members to sign one copy for the record. Cynthia reads the next item on the agenda: Item#2 Designate the City Secretary as the Public Information Coordinator for the Civil Service Board. Member Silvas makes a motion to designate the City Secretary the Public Information Coordinator for the Board. Member Butler seconds the motion. Cynthia reads the next item on the agenda: Item#3 Review the rules and regulations of the Civil Service Board. Deanna Galan states the next appeals are scheduled for April 9th and April 28th. Cynthia states the board asked for a review of the rules and regulation . Cynthia states the board was created by the City Council to set rules and regulations for how we hire, discipline, and promote employees. We will focus on disciplines at this point. Article two is how the City hires, three is how we appoint. We are working on additions to the Civil Service rules, once they are complete,we will bring them to the board and ask the City Council to adopt them. We will wait for that to be done before going over articles one,two,three. We'll talk about article four (disciplines). We have non-exempt group of employees who have property rights to SCANNED their positions. They are entitled to due process. They are given a letter stating issues and given a chance for a rebuttal hearing. This is taken under advisement before the department head makes the final decision concerning the discipline. The boards decision will determine the truth of each charge. If there is a tie vote, the ruling goes to the employee. The City has the burden of truth. All appeal decisions shall be final. There is an appeal to the City Council. But, Legal looks to see if there were any discrepancies, if the Board went outside the scope that would have caused due process not to occur. We haven't had a hearing before the Council. The Board is authorized to decide reinstatement and pay accordingly. The Board may uphold,modify, or nullify the action imposed by the disciplinary authority. The Board may reduce the discipline,to a lesser discipline, or may overturn it completely. Hearings may be recessed by the Board. The board will swear people in. If one side wants to invoke the rule,the presiding officer will swear them in and ask them to wait outside. Hearings are open except during deliberations. Evidence in different than in the court of law. The board will decide what they want to see/hear. Presiding officer will consult on any rulings made. Board can decide there is no relevance to witnesses/evidence and the board can limit the number of witnesses. If the board feels something is inappropriate,they can take objection without one of the sides doing so. The hearing will be recorded. Board can decide to have a court reporter and they may talk about this between themselves. If at the end of hearing,the other side wants a copy of the tape, the City will provide it. Exhibits—the Board usually allows a wide array of evidence. The board can deny exhibits. The board can choose to redact information. The Board wants the record to have all exhibits but may allow exhibits in after the proceeding. Oral arguments may be allowed by the Board and they are usually done at the beginning/end of the hearing. The board can request a brief be written by both sides. At conclusion of testimony,the Board will base decisions on findings on evidence presented. There are many causes for discipline, The City has policies and they may be violated by employees (33 violations in the rules regulations). The board will receive the Board letter disclosing what was violated by the employee. Cynthia summarizes the discipline chain-of-events beginning from the phone call from the department. Details the responsibilities of the Human Resources employee conducting investigations for City departments. City departments normally conduct their own preliminary investigation to be looked at further by the HR dept. HR will recommend a discipline that Legal has agreed upon. Many times the department and HR will disagree. Member Silvas: If the City department head and the HR department disagree on a discipline, is that noted anywhere? Cynthia: No, it is not. I will sit at the hearing as the Board Secretary and the department head and Legal will sit representing the City. The Legal department will still represent the City. We don't take these personally, we do the best job. We want outsider's opinion of the matter and we try to learn from different viewpoints to apply next time. Next issue - rules & regulations are temporary and outside employees. Temps are not covered by the rules & regulations. Most requests to change information in these are by Legal and Human Resources. There is an old performance evaluation article that is outdated. The duties of HR director— take home and read to make sure you agree with these duties and give any input as to any changes you think are necessary. Purging records are the City Secretary's responsibility. Rules may be amended by Board and adopted by majority of board and may be adopted by City Council. 72 hour advance notice of hearings by law. HR will subpoena all witnesses. Classification & Compensation plan is adopted by City Council. Member Silvas: Presents a print out of procedures for hearings. Cynthia: 3`d item-need to appoint Chairperson — only has to be done once a year. We wanted to wait until the 3`d person is appointed to the Board—or at next meeting we will appoint one. Cynthia reviews procedures on print out. Cynthia points out the Board must give permission before evidence is admitted. The City will number exhibits for easy referral.Reminds the Board they don't have to make a ruling at the end of the hearing. Cynthia states the City will try to maintain order during hearings. Asks Joan and Deanna if there is anything to add. Member Silvas: Wanted to make sure of procedures. Cynthia: Reminds the Board they can always ask for a break. They can call Cynthia or another lawyer in closed session for questions. Cynthia•a jrm]sr oLlths. J., Cynthia C. Garcia, Director of Joit P. Silvas, ber Human Resources C 1 Service Board Eileen Butler, Member Civil Service Board