Laserfiche WebLink
Ms. Piercy commented that it might be a matter of formalizing the existing process. She said it would be <br />helpful to obtain information about complaints that had been filed in order to fairly assess the current <br />situation and determine what course of action to take. <br /> <br />Ms. Bettman said her research had indicated that many communities had whistleblower ordinances and <br />protections and those programs were useful resources for developing a local ordinance. She described <br />various approaches used in other communities. <br /> <br />Mr. Zelenka asked for five items from staff to inform the council’s discussion and decision: <br /> <br />? <br /> A description of the State process, how onerous it was and how it actually worked <br />? <br /> Proposed language for the policies and procedures manual describing State and federal laws and the <br />process for filing complaints <br />? <br /> Statistics on complaints filed with the State from Eugene City employees over the past decade or <br />two <br />? <br /> The language proposed by the charter review committee and a summary of the committee’s discus- <br />sion rationale <br />? <br /> Information on ordinances from other communities <br /> <br />Mr. Poling agreed with the need for clear language describing existing protections and the process for filing <br />complaints. He did not want to downplay the importance of whistleblower provisions, but felt the State and <br />federal protections currently in place were sufficient, otherwise the council would be hearing from <br />employees and unions about problems with the complaint process or retaliation. <br /> <br />Ms. Solomon arrived at 6:20 p.m. <br /> <br />Ms. Bettman cited a 2007 report by the Ethics Resource Center that concluded government employees were <br />working in environments that were conducive to misconduct and intervention programs to improve ethical <br />behavior were uncommon. She said local governments had the highest levels of observed misconduct and <br />experienced the lowest level of reporting. She asserted that there was a perceivable culture of not feeling <br />safe in the City organization according to some people and that meant efficiencies went unreported. She <br />thought the State probably had a very high threshold for what counted as malfeasance. She did not think <br />statistics or the lack thereof was an accurate indicator of whether or not there was a problem. <br /> <br />Ms. Walston maintained the City had a strong ethics ordinance and the union had an active grievance policy <br />and those could be emphasized in the employee handbook. <br /> <br />Ms. Piercy said the information requested by Mr. Zelenka would be very helpful to the council. <br /> <br />Mr. Ruiz said the agenda item summary represented neither support nor lack of support for an issue; he said <br />staff was not always certain what information the council desired or what outcome was intended for a work <br />session and the new form would help avoid that in the future and assure that staff did not spend time on <br />research that was not of interest. He said there was value in having a formal policy related to whistleblower <br />complaints. As City Manager, he would see that one was established if it did not already exist and share <br />that information with the council. He remarked that there were differences between illegal activities and <br />inefficiencies and if an inefficiency was reported it would be investigated because what was perceived as <br />inefficient by one person might be perceived as a legitimate way to do business by another and it was <br /> <br /> <br />MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 27, 2008 Page 4 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br />