The Cleveland City Council voted in favor of a resolution to remove the appeals process for terminated city employees at Monday’s council meeting.
Larry Wallace, former director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, spoke on behalf of the resolution to amend the current appeals process. He said the city has always been an at-will employer. However, a ruling earlier this year from a chancery court authorized third party hearing officers to oversee employee appeals.
Mr.
Wallace said that, though he was not uncomfortable if the city voted for the appeals process, it did not help the city or employees. If a department makes the decision to hire its employees, it should certainly make the decision to terminate them, the argument went.
It was stated checks and balances are important, but to appeal every step in the termination process is cumbersome, costly, and inefficient.
Councilman David May discussed the importance of giving an employee who has been terminated a fair review of why he or she has been terminated. He said it can be difficult for an employer to take the different personalities of certain employees and give them the same review as everyone else. Councilman May said the city needs to make sure everyone is looked at equally.
City manager Janice Casteel and the city HR director serve as the third party that signs off on the termination decisions recommended by department heads to ensure the grounds for termination are just.
Councilman May said the appeal process gives employees the chance to tell the city manager why they should not have been terminated. He said he promoted a system that kept personalities out of the decision-making process.
“I’m all about checks and balances,” he said.
It was stated that department heads should have more say in the firing of individuals. A lieutenant of the Cleveland Fire Department opposed the fact that the city manager gets recommendations from the department head, yet she controls the firing. Let department heads run their departments, the lieutenant said.
He explained how employers keep track of their employees who display bad work behavior, such as tardiness, through verbal and written warnings. If the employee has not corrected his or her behavior after so many chances, that employee is subject to termination. The lieutenant stated it should be up to the department head at that point whether or not to terminate the employee.
“If I get paid to be a lieutenant, I should be paid to be a lieutenant.”
Mr. Wallace said five out of seven department heads are in favor of getting rid of the appeals process.
Speaking in opposition of the resolution, Councilman Bill Estes said, “I don’t want to constrict the hands of the city manager now or in the future by keeping the city out of (the appeals process) because it will weaken the city.”
The city manager suggested that council members agree on reviewing this resolution within a year. But Vice Mayor George Poe made a motion to go ahead and eliminate the appeals process, stating that, if need be, the process could be modified at the yearly HR review in February.
At the end of the discussion, Councilman Estes agreed along with the rest of the council members to remove the process of appeals. However, he said he still wanted checks and balances outside of the department head.
In addition to the resolution to remove the appeals process for city personnel, a resolution was adopted to keep the city manager and HR director up-to-date with special training.