04/20/1983 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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e e e Ms. Beck said that overall coordination of affirmative action would be transferred to the City Manager's Office, with Personnel Services and the executive managers continuing to be involved in planning and implementation. Referring to statements made at the April 13 council meeting by Ms. Bunnenberg regarding City liability for favoring protected class members under the existing affirmative action plan, Ms. Beck asked Mr. Sercombe to respond. Mr. Sercombe said that the report of the task force implied an outstanding liability on the part of the City. He said that the City had been operating under an adopted affirmative action plan that met all the regulations for such plans. He agreed that the City had a duty to develop a new plan using recently available current data. He reiterated that the existing City plan had been reviewed by the Federal government and found acceptable. Ms. Bunnenberg said that Ms. Beck had done a good job of outlining the points of disagreement between staff and the task force in the past. Ms. Bunnenberg said she felt the focus should now be on future action. She said that the primary recommendations of the task force were that responsibility for affirmative action be centralized and that the City finish updating its goals and develop an implementation plan for problem areas. Ms. Bunnenberg felt that moving affirma- tive action responsibility to the City Manager's Office was a positive step. She urged that the new implementation plan and goals to be developed for the City strive to do more than meet Federal minimum guid~lines. Ms. Bunnenberg urged that career tracks be developed for existing City employees and that efforts, such as the training program described by Ms. Beck, be fostered to move protected class members beyond top professional and mid-management positions. Mayor Keller thanked Ms. Beck and Ms. Bunnenberg for their reports and said the City should be proud of its accomplishments to date, especially in recent years. Councilor Holmer agreed with Mayor Keller about the need for a vigorous and effective affirmative action and equal employment opportunity program. He expressed concern with transferring the responsibility for this program out of Personnel and felt that as a permanent arrangement this was not a good administra- tive practice. Councilor Ball responded that one of the traditional problems with affirmative action programs in the past has been their captivity within personnel departments. Councilor Wooten supported placing affirmative action responsibility in the City Manager's Office. Mr. Gleason commended the efforts of City staff members Gary Long, John O'Connor, and Cathy Briner and recognized their role in the City's affirmative action accomplishments. He noted that while the direction for affirmative action would now come from himself and Ms. Beck in the City Manager's Office, the umachinery" would still be housed in Personnel. Councilor Ball urged that protected classes other than women, that is, handicapped, seniors, veterans, and racial minorities, be included in the City's efforts. Res. No. 3769--A resolution concerning the Affirmative Action Task Force and amending Resolutions 347 and 3751. MINUTES--Eugene City Council Apri 1 20, 1983 Page 6