2015-01-28 Merit Appeals Board Minutes

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Merit Board of Appeals January 28, 2015 Under the "Internal Complaint Procedure" it's one County -wide human resource complaint procedure. All specific department procedures will become null and void upon adoption of the Rules. This is something that the Merit Appeals Board appreciated, based on earlier comments. Ms. Rabago referenced "Chapter 1, Subchapter 2, Definitions"—"Definition deleted"—the definition of "Termination" was deleted (SEE ATT. B). Ms. Toriano commented that depending on the division and which County policy and procedure, the terminology and definitions weren't consistent. They worked on the inconsistencies, which went to the unions in anticipation of the Rules being adopted. She's comfortable that there are consistent definitions and we would be utilizing them moving forward. She directed the Board's attention to Nick to provide further explanation. Mr. Hermes stated that they're substituting the term "termination" with the term "discharge". The Civil Service Reform Act incorporated the term "discharge" applying to all separations—administrative or disciplinary. The County, up until now, never really incorporated that change in the law, and kept the traditional terms of "dismissal" for disciplinary separation and the term "termination" for "non -disciplinary" separation. Many of their policies incorporated those terms before, but there was no reference to those terms in law, so we're making that transition to be in harmony with the law. So, the term "discharge" can be used for disciplinary or non -disciplinary (administrative) reasons. (A this time, copies were made of the summary sheet, "Rule Amendments Summary, for the Board Members (SEE PREV. ATT. B).) Ms. Toriano thanked Chair Kuewa for attending the public hearing. Chair Kuewa replied that he saw it on the front page of the newspaper, but when he arrived, the public hearing was already done. Ms. Toriano stated that there were two who attended from the public, not including lube. Mr. Hermes stated that he and Sharon were undertaking a continuous review of their policies and procedures, many of which weren't touched for over a decade, so it begged the question of—does it need to be reviewed? Mr. Hermes proceeded to explain the amendments in the Rules: First and foremost they looked at their definitions. They did notice in their former rules and the various policies and procedures that the definitions were all over the lot, while they generally were directed toward the same thing, some of the terminology was really different. Page 12