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CC Minutes - 10/27/08 Work Session
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CC Minutes - 10/27/08 Work Session
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City Council Minutes
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10/27/2008
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or if that was not feasible, higher in the chain of command or directly to the personnel office. He said at <br />whatever point a complaint was filed there was an obligation to investigate it. <br /> <br />Ms. Bettman asked if there was any record of complaints of retaliation being filed with BOLI. Mr. Ruiz <br />said there would be a record of any complaints filed with the City, but he was not certain what obligation <br />BOLI had to report to the City and complaints filed directly with it. <br /> <br />Mr. Poling was also interested in the number of instances of employee whistleblowing and any instances of <br />retaliation. He asked how a local ordinance would be administered. Ms. Walston said that would be an <br />issue for the council to discuss if it wished to pursue an ordinance. <br /> <br />Mr. Poling asked if there was any information on the cost to Seattle to administer their program and whether <br />a local program would be able to remedy a complaint any more quickly or efficiently than the State or <br />federal process. Mr. Ruiz felt that it would be more efficient for the City to investigate and act on a <br />complaint, with or without an ordinance, than for an employee to go through the State or federal process. <br /> <br />Mr. Poling asked if there was anything preventing a City employee currently from bypassing his or her <br />supervisor and taking a complaint to the department head or City Manager. Mr. Ruiz said that option was <br />open to employees and he had a responsibility to investigate complaints. <br /> <br />Mr. Poling felt that the current whistleblower provisions were adequate and employees could circumvent <br />supervisors if necessary. He did not want another layer of government to clutter up the system when what <br />was already in place was working. <br /> <br />Mr. Zelenka said the City’s policy and procedures manual for employees should, at a minimum, reiterate <br />State law and describe the procedure an employee should follow if he or she felt one of the violations had <br />occurred. He did not think most employees would have any idea what to do with that information. Mr. Ruiz <br />agreed that if the subject was not covered in the manual it should be, whether or not there was an ordinance. <br />He said that retaliation should also be addressed. <br /> <br />Mr. Lidz noted that there were two different issues: one was related to employees feeling comfortable <br />raising an issue of mismanagement or abuse of authority and how to do that; the other was how to deal with <br />retaliation as a result of raising an issue. <br /> <br />Mr. Clark agreed with Mr. Poling that unless there was a compelling shortcoming in the State statute that <br />was not being addressed, there was no need for a municipal ordinance. He concurred with educating <br />employees to ensure they understood the process for filing a complaint, but was not certain about whether <br />the City needed to further address retaliation. <br /> <br />Mr. Pryor said his concern was whether there were any gaps in the current system that the City needed to fill <br />with local provisions. He said identifying gaps could be part of the charge to staff if the council decided to <br />move forward on the issue. <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor supported the concept of a local ordinance and pointed to the renters’ rights program as an <br />example of how local ordinances provided people better access to a complaint process. She said that <br />retaliation was often difficult to prove. She asked to see a copy of the 2002 discussion on whistleblowing. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 27, 2008 Page 3 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br />
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