Civil Service Commission

Office of the Clerk of Council City of Gahanna 200 South Hamilton Road Gahanna, Ohio 43230 Meeting Minutes Civil Service Commission Paul Leithart, Chair David Schroeder, Vice Chair Paul Bittner Judith Glenn Mark Foster Donna L. Jernigan, MMC, Sr. Deputy Clerk of Council Tuesday, March 6, 2012 6:30 PM City Hall Committee Rooms 1. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Present 2 - David Schroeder, and Judith Glenn Absent 3 - Paul L. Bittner, Paul L. Bittner, and Paul L. Bittner ADDITIONAL ATTENDEES: Isobel Sherwood, Sue Wadley, Chief Dennis Murphy. 2. ADDITIONS OR CORRECTIONS TO THE AGENDA: None. 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES - February 7, 2012 Regular Meeting Chairman asked if there were any corrections; being none the Chairman said the minutes would stand approved as written. 4. HEARING OF VISITORS: None. 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS: 2011-0060 Leithart said Paul Bittner was unable to be here tonight but does have some proposed changes to Chapter 149 of the code; with regard to 149.01 the last sentence Bittner has proposed; "The City may, from time to time, contract the services of the Commission." Sherwood said City Attorney Ewald did not like that wording and would prefer to put it back to something similar to what we had; "The City may from time to time, contract with other public entities." Leithart said the next proposed change is to 149.05(a) more of a clarification than anything; "The party filing an appeal/grievance is the appellant. The party against whom a grievance or appeal has been filed is the appellee." Leithart said I like that change; any comments. Schroeder said it looks good. City of Gahanna Page 1 Civil Service Commission Meeting Minutes March 6, 2012 A motion was made by Glenn, seconded by Schroeder, to recommend to Council approval of Chapter 149 of the code as proposed. The motion carried by the following vote: Yes: 4- Leithart, Schroeder, Glenn and Foster Absent: 2- Bittner and Bittner 2011-0066 7.10 Leithart said this is similar to what we just discussed about the names of the parties and is consistent; "The party filing an appeal is the appellant. The party against whom a grievance or appeal has been filed is the appellee." Leithart said the only comment I have is if we should say, "The party filing an appeal/grievance is the appellant"; that is what the language is in the code. It was agreed to go with what Leithart suggested. Leithart said in 7.11 you have to read it carefully; with the changes from Bittner it reads; "The hearing shall be opened with appellant being allowed 30 minutes, appellee 30 minutes.", and the rest would stay the same. Leithart said also 7.15 Bittner has proposed different language. Sherwood said that Ewald did not like that language and is proposing; "If not submitted prior to the hearing parties shall provide the Commission with nine (9) copies of any exhibits at the hearing." Sherwood reminded Commission that everything prior to the hearing was put into code; this is for things at the hearing. Leithart said I would prefer to put the burden on them to bring the nine copies of the exhibits; decent lawyers will review these rules and comply with them; parties are not going to do either one; but I would rather give the burden to them; language can be presented during the hearing, just make it clear they need to have nine copies of it available. Glenn asked in Article 5.12 there is no reference to Approval of Minutes. Sherwood said I made changes to the rules based on what we were putting in code; if you are only going to meet as needed you can't approve your minutes because you would be having meetings just to approve minutes; BZA does not approve their minutes. Glenn said in 11.11 should a time frame be stated in that. Sherwood said that went into code Section 149.30; this is just saying that after you have made your decision we are going to put it in written form. Schroeder questioned 7.17 and Glenn said she had question with that too. Sherwood said this is giving us the prerogative to call the Commission chair and say we would like to change the meeting, is that alright with you, and we would make sure there would be a quorum present. Schroeder said concerning 12.13, I am glad the Commission has legal counsel; my concern is in any of these codes/rules does it indicate that when someone comes before our board that the City Attorney will represent that part of whatever agency is involved, so we do not have a reoccurrence of the last time; the HR Director is a very knowledgeable person who can certainly portray whatever is going on however if the appellant has an attorney she can't represent herself, the attorney should do that. Leithart said she can actually now by our rules. Sherwood read part of 149.05(i), "Employers shall appear through a designated representative or an attorney"; what we are talking about is whether that would be Ewald and then he would have someone else sitting in the City Attorney's chair for the conduct of the meeting, or City of Gahanna Page 2 Civil Service Commission Meeting Minutes March 6, 2012 whether we contract with outside legal counsel. Schroeder asked why she was not allowed to do that at our last hearing. Leithart said because I made a ruling. Schroeder said I think the City Attorney should represent the City. Leithart said isn't the City Attorney the legal advisor for the entire City, so why is it necessary to have this in the rules. Sherwood said she was asked to put it in at some point. Foster said I feel like if I am an appellant and I am representing myself and the appellee is represented by the City Attorney and the Civil Service Commission is supposed to have an unbiased opinion and it says the City Attorney is our advisor, there is a conflict. Leithart said that is a conflict, and Schroeder said I think that conflict should be deleted. It was agreed to take out Section 12.13. Leithart said until I saw this I would have regarded us as independent from everybody in the hearing and if Ewald was representing the City I would have no problems with that; once you put this in the rules and I see the City Attorney representing the City in the hearing; he's our advisor; so I think taking it out might help. Wadley said what if we are in the middle of a hearing and the Commission decides you need some legal advice, and Ewald is representing the City. Leithart said I think the legal advice would come from within ourselves. Schroeder said we do have attorneys on the Commission. Glenn said that may not always be the case. Jernigan said since 1983 there has been an attorney on the Commission each year. Leithart recessed the meeting at 6:55 p.m., and said we will reconvene the meeting after the State of the City address by the Mayor. Leithart reconvened the meeting at 7:36 p.m. with all members returning to the table. There was discussion about when the Rules of Procedure and the Code would go into effect. Sherwood said the Rules of Procedure go into effect as soon as they are approved; the code has to be adopted by Council and that should be on April 2nd. After question Leithart said my belief is that both the Rules of Procedure and the code would apply at the upcoming hearing however I would probably give some slack there given the time frame. A motion was made by Glenn, seconded by Foster, to adopt the Civil Service Commission Rules of Procedure as revised tonight and dated March 6, 2012. The motion carried by the following vote: Yes: 4- Leithart, Schroeder, Glenn and Foster Absent: 2- Bittner and Bittner 2011-0064 Sherwood said that she, Wadley, Jernigan and Cochran will meet to go over the Rules & Regulations and make proposed changes and hope to have them ready to pass out at the next meeting for discussion in May. 6. NEW BUSINESS: 2012-0007 City of Gahanna Page 3 Civil Service Commission Meeting Minutes March 6, 2012 Sherwood said that Wadley will be out of town for the April 3rd meeting with a long standing commitment so we would like to move the meeting and the hearing to April 10, 2012. Commission members agreed April 10th was fine. A motion was made by Foster, seconded by Schroeder, to suspend the Rules of Procedure to allow the Civil Service Commission meeting to be held on April 10, 2012, the second week of the month. The motion carried by the following vote: Yes: 4- Leithart, Schroeder, Glenn and Foster Absent: 2- Bittner and Bittner 7. CORRESPONDENCE AND ACTIONS: Sherwood said we will email Paul Bittner about the meeting and appeal being moved to April 10, 2012, and notify Scott Shepard. 8. OFFICIAL REPORTS: a. Director of Human Resources Wadley said we have made conditional offers to two police officer candidates. Sherwood said it has been requested that they be sworn in at the March 19th Council meeting. Foster asked what would happen if we would vote to put Scott Shepard's name back on the police officer eligibility list. Wadley said he is in the second group of 25 candidates; the two officers to be sworn in are from the first group of 25. b. Chairman 9. POLL COMMISSION FOR COMMENT: 10. ADJOURNMENT: 7:52 p.m.; Motion by Schroeder. City of Gahanna Page 4