Civil Service Commission

MINUTES OF THE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION MEETING June 13, 2018 - 8:00 A.M. Members Present: Chairman Jan Naso Commissioner Tom Kot Commissioner Christine Higham Non-Members Mayor Dave Kline Present: Police Chief Ron Williams Assistant Director of Law John Scavelli Director of Public Service Mike Rorar Fire Chief Mike Passarelli ______________________________________________________________________________ The June 13, 2018 Civil Service Commission meeting was called to order. Minutes of the May 16, 2018 meeting were approved as published. Chairman Naso spoke briefly concerning the probationary period for the newly-hired person for the position of Police Department Records Manager. Chief Williams requested that it be for six months. Mr. Naso stated that he has no problem with that, especially since she was a previous employee for the City ten years ago and asked if anyone had any issues with that. There was no response. Mr. Naso: I’ll make a motion to make the probationary period for the Records Manager position in the Police Department to be six months commencing on her date of hire (June 11, 2018). Mrs. Higham seconded the motion. Mr. Kot asked what the normal probationary period would be. Mr. Naso answered that probationary periods can be no less than 60 days, no more than one year. Motion was carried and passed. Chairman Naso talked about the response Mr. Scavelli had received from Mr. Briton, attorney for the Board of Education which was also emailed to the Commissioners. He asked if there were any questions concerning this issue and that he would like to get this matter resolved one way or the other. Mr. Scavelli spoke concerning this issue with the Board of Education. He drafted a sample ordinance that is not ready for distribution. He said that what it comes down to is what we said in the past which is, that they have effectively opted out of most Civil Service that applied to Collective Bargaining Agreement. He stated that they’re able to do that, we really can’t stop them. But there remains eligibility lists and pre-hire that we still have that they can’t collectively bargain out of. So, the option that we have is either to leave that the way it is or to go ahead and to just exclude school employees from Civil Service altogether. We’re able to do that. We were actually way ahead of them on this as to how the process works. They’ve cited a case that we talked about, six, seven months ago, the Twinsburg Case where Twinsburg basically said we’re not in any part of the schools anymore and they were allowed to do so. Basically, that’s the type of step that we need to take. Some of the sample ordinances that they sent to us about the way that other communities, I believe Medina have done it with basically to just say that we’re not considering them in our Civil Service Rules as Civil Service employees under the Revised Code. And that would take care of everything. That would even take care of the outlying people that were basically end up with no real Civil Service protection, so if he’s saying that, well that’s like three employees that are covered under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, so that’s kind Page 2 June 13, 2018 of where we are at. We just have to make that call. But that’s what we want to do, that’s what they want to do. I think that he is right that it is common. I don’t know if it’s the majority of the way it is, but I’ve looked at a few around here and it’s not something that’s uncommon. So, I don’t think that it’s something that would be necessarily a situation where we’re leaving much of these people in the lurch. Mrs. Higham: The three employees that are not covered under Collective Bargaining, so if we exclude them from our, so would they then go to the State at that point if they have any objections…. Mr. Scavelli: At that point, their still covered with the Civil Service Laws, but the Schools wouldn’t have a Civil Service Commission to go to, so they would have to, basically, what would happen is the Tallmadge Schools would have to find a Civil Service Commission to handle it because we would be excluding them, which is what happened with the Twinsburg Case. Whatever the Tallmadge City Schools would decide to happen. We would be out of it. One of the things they say in the Twinsburg Case is that there are other Civil Service Commissions that they can pay to use their services; they could use the State, they could contract with another municipality, however they want to be. For the most part, those would be the only ones that that would apply to at that point. Mr. Naso: These three non-bargaining employees that they mention, their like assistants or secretaries to the higher-ups there, so are they classified? Scavelli: Currently, I believe that they are, yes. Mr. Naso: Cause in my tenure I’ve never run across those three positions. If they were not classified, it doesn’t matter. From what I’ve read in their collective bargaining agreement, the only thing that we would have any jurisdiction over would be lay-offs. Mr. Kot: What benefit is there to the City to say, “okay, we’ll adopt legislation.” Mr. Scavelli: The benefit would be in my understanding is that they should be paying us for services and they haven’t been for a long time. Mr. Naso: They let us use their facilities as long as we need them for testing purposes which has happened on a few occasions. I assume there’s no issues with this being that the School District covers Portage and Summit County. Mr. Scavelli: There can be if you have multi-jurisdictional, but since it’s all within the City, I don’t think that there is. Mayor Kline: I’m surprised at all this and wonder what happens to the pre-existing employees, I feel for them. We’ve done the School District extremely good by doing this, free for them. It’s a hiring mechanism that takes all the stuff off the table. A group of people, you guys do a great job. My question to John, I guess would be, what happens if Council says no, we don’t accept that, or you guys say no. Will they take us to court to say we don’t want you guys, do they have that right? Mr. Scavelli: I don’t think they do. I don’t think they have the right to do that. I don’t think they can sue us or make us pass an ordinance. I don’t think they have the authority to do that. Mrs. Higham: Has the Board asked us for this or is the Administration asking us. Do the elected board members know that this request is in front of us? Mayor Kline: Clearly the Board of Education would have to make a vote on their own board. I can’t believe this is just coming from the administration. That’s a valid question. Mr. Naso: The Board had to have accepted the collective bargaining agreement, so from that standpoint, they read the contract, they should be Page 3 June 13, 2018 aware of it. I would like a letter from the Union’s President just acknowledging all this and that even though they have accepted the agreement, I want something in our file from their president saying, yea, this is good. Down the road, some employee’s going to come back… Mayor Kline: And I would think a resolution or ordinance, however the school boards do their stuff. Mrs. Higham: I would think a conversation between you (referring to the Mayor) or a member of this Commission and the School Board President to make sure we understand what their intent is and why they are asking for this. It raises a lot of questions for me as far the reasons why. Mr. Naso: My biggest concern is the employees; if there’s discipline or terminations, we were their next step and we’ve had hearings in the past that ruled in favor of the employees. Now they must go to Common Pleas Court, they can grieve it, but the court is the next thing. I don’t know if they understand it. Mr. Scavelli: Do you want me to request that Briton get us a letter from the union president or did you want to just reach out or how do we want to approach that? Mr. Naso: What do you guys think? (question directed to the other two commissioners) Mayor Kline: Well I think you’d want a letter from the Union and I think that I would like to see our Council a resolution and an ordinance from their Board passed on the floor requesting City of Tallmadge to abolish the Civil Service Commission for them. I just take this to our Council and first thing they’re going to say is “why” and do we need our Civil Service Commission here in Tallmadge, which we do and that’s not going to happen. I’d rather have this Board just do the work. Mr. Naso: Could the City do the same thing? Mr. Scavelli: Could the City exclude its own Civil Service? Mr. Naso: Could they get rid of Civil Service and do the same thing the School is doing? Mr. Scavelli: I doubt it, but I have not researched that and with the fact that there’s not a lot on this issue, my guess is there aren’t a lot of cities that have even tried that. I’m not sure there’s a legal answer to that; there may be, but I have not researched that issue. Mayor Kline: I guarantee our Unions would not allow us to abolish you. Mr. Kot: I don’t think the State’s statutes would allow us to bar Civil Service from any government situation. Mayor Kline: But their letting the School Districts, which is a governmental agency. Mr. Scavelli: Here’s what I’ll do if you want me to. I’ll communicate with Briton that we would like two things: we would like a resolution from the School Board stating that they want us to do this and then also a letter from the School Board President stating that he understands that that’s what they want to be done as well. We’ll see how long it takes them to get back. Mr. Naso: They’re going to probably want to hire people within the next month or so. Mr. Kot: You got to have three readings, you got to have discussion, I don’t know, I’m kind of bristling about this. It would take a little bit, the collective bargaining agreement, I need to take a closer look at this letter. Page 4 June 13, 2018 Mrs. Higham: I just feel like a conversation with some member of this Commission with those entities making sure that they understand all the nuances of what their handing over; I’m just concerned with their attorney going to them and asking them for a letter to sign and send to us; we still don’t know the answers to our questions; that they understand the prehire and the eligibility lists and the what their letting go of. I would feel more comfortable if there was a conversation that was had in addition to just a letter. Because again they could say, “we agree to relinquish Civil Service Commission from supervising the schools hiring process. Do they understand the losses of that? Mr. Scavelli: Would you like me to request that they attend the next meeting? Mrs. Higham: I’d rather Jan just have a conversation. Mr. Scavelli: I’ll call the president. I will also request someone come to our next meeting. Mrs. Higham: I’m okay with the collective bargaining process, that doesn’t bother me. That’s their right, they can do it. The thing that concerns me is what they can’t collectively bargain is the pre-hire exam and the eligibility lists. So, by them supporting removing the Commission from the school’s process, that’s what I want to make sure that they understand that now the Commission will not be overseeing or regulating these tests and these eligibility lists and how they’re handled. I’m totally fine with what they bargained and that’s their right and they did that, but where it concerns on the part that they didn’t collectively bargain and that now we’re being asked to turn over control from the Civil Service Commission. Mr. Naso: Basically, they’ll be able to hire anybody they want as opposed to now the format they have to follow, the lists. I don’t know if the Union is going to care about that. But we need to find that out. Mrs. Higham: And if they don’t, that’s fine. I just want to make sure that everyone understands what that means before we make a decision. Mr. Kot: How often has it been where someone they wanted to hire didn’t make the list. I guess is a good question. Two upcoming exams were mentioned: Property/Evidence Room Technician Assistant on July 18 and Part-Time Records Clerk on August 15. Both tests are being held at the Community Center at 6:00 p.m. Chief Williams stated that the new Records Manager person started Monday and is doing great and thanked the Commission for their help with that. Chief Passarelli requested a test for Part-Time Firefighter sometime in mid-summer. Mr. Rorar stated that he will be requesting a test for Part-Time General Laborer. Chairman Naso said that the current list will have to be terminated. Meeting adjourned at 8:24 a.m. An audio file of this meeting is available in the Civil Service office. Jan T Naso, Chairman Civil Service Commission TALLMADGE OHIO JTN:asi