Suffolk council set to approve changes to personnel code

SUFFOLK

Affirmative action is out. Equal employment opportunity is in. And "reduction in force" has joined the glossary.

Those are just a few of the changes the City Council is set to approve Wednesday in a 48-page overhaul of the personnel chapter of city code.

The council is scheduled to vote on the revisions as part of its consent agenda, a list of items that generally passes without discussion.

City Manager Selena Cuffee-Glenn did not respond to an interview request about the changes, but city spokeswoman Debbie George responded to questions for Cuffee-Glenn by e-mail.

George wrote that the review was "housekeeping and making sure the chapter content was in line with federal and state laws."

Yvonne Manning, Suffolk's former human resources director, said she worked on the revisions with the city attorney's office before she left in August to become human resources director for the city of Newport News. The personnel chapter hadn't been overhauled since 1998.

"I think it was done as professionally as it could have been done, and for all the right reasons," Manning said.

Portions of the new chapter emphasize the city manager's authority over personnel issues. Cuffee-Glenn, the city manager since February, has earned a reputation as an administrator with high expectations who stresses accountability.

Manning said the city manager always had the authority as defined in the revised policies. The role is just more clearly defined now, she said.

The revised chapter also includes an entirely new section titled "Separations" that says all employment with the city shall be at-will. It says the city "may terminate an individual's employment relationship, with or without cause, upon reasonable notice" unless the employee has a written agreement with the city manager.

The new wording provides clarity but doesn't represent a substantial change to employees' status, George said.

One of the most extensively rewritten portions of the chapter deals with a source of frustration for former employees in recent years: the grievance procedure.

The provision, which is required by state law, explains how workers can challenge disciplinary actions, discriminatory practices or the application of a personnel policy. The process can lead to a hearing before a three-person panel.

Several former workers have won cases before their grievance panels only to have the city refuse to follow the decisions. In some cases the panels ordered the city to reinstate the workers with back pay.

When it lost, the city argued that the panel overstepped its authority, so it didn't have to follow the orders.

The rewritten chapter is more specific in explaining what the hearing panels cannot do.

George said the procedure was amended to fully comply with state law. Some of the changes were made in response to the city's recent experience with grievance cases, she said.

A change to the sick leave policy will please longtime, healthy employees. Under the old chapter, workers who retired could receive up to $1,500 for unused sick days, at $5 a day.

The new policy will pay retirees 25 percent of their unused sick leave balance, up to $7,500.

Elsewhere, a former section titled "Affirmative action" no longer states that it shall be the policy of the city to "practice, to the fullest extent permitted by law, affirmative action in its personnel operations."

The section is now titled "Equal employment opportunity." The policy is stripped of references to affirmative action and refers instead to the importance of promoting a diverse work force and prohibiting unlawful discrimination.

George said the city never formally established an affirmative action program, so the new wording is more appropriate.

It's not unusual for organizations to make the switch, said Susan Grover, a law professor at the College of William and Mary. Grover said one of her first recommendations upon becoming the school's equal opportunity director in 2002 was to do the same thing.

Controversy over affirmative action has made the term so loaded and prejudicial that it can be counterproductive in a personnel policy, Grover said. "Equal opportunity employment" also covers a broader range of activities, she said.

Councilman Charles Parr said he expected the ordinance for the proposed changes to be pulled from the consent agenda so city staff can explain them to the public before they're approved.

"I think they're going to do all that out front," he said.

Dave Forster, (757) 222-5563, dave.forster@pilotonline.com