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| Thursday, September 2, 2010 |
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Commission tends to not use recommendations
Published June 27, 2009
In 1989, the Jackson County Commission spent $15,000 in taxpayer money to obtain Auburn University's help in creating a new personnel and hiring policy for county employees.
At the time, both Commission Chairman Houston Kennamer and Personnel Director Liz Johnson said the county needed a comprehensive personnel policy to ensure against any possible employee lawsuits.
Exactly 20 years later, in May of this year, the current county commission voted to do away with that personnel policy resulting in two resignations on the personnel board in the process.
An investigation by The Daily Sentinel reveals that there's more to the story than that. In April, 2000, the county commission approved having Auburn University update the personnel policy at an agreed upon cost of $10,000.
Personnel and Compensation Manager Maria T. Folmar of the Center for Governmental Services (CGS) at Auburn said in an e-mail that the money was paid to update job descriptions, compensation system (classification and pay plans), personnel policies and procedures and a personnel system manual.
"The project was completed, and the hard-copy manual with all project components was sent to Jackson County in October, 2000," wrote Folmar.
Records show CGS received payment, in full, by check on Nov. 1, 2001.
However, from that time in 2001 until May, 2009, when the commission chose to eliminate at least parts of the personnel policy, the updates recommended in the latest Auburn were never approved despite the cost of $10,000 in taxpayer money and several recommendations from the county personnel board.
Lawsuit
According to a source close to the Sentinel, who did not wish to be quoted, the commission chose in the late 1980s to implement the original study by Auburn following a lawsuit by a county employee against then-Commission Chairman Sam Gant and the county.
Assistant Administrator Tillie Nicholson filed a lawsuit against Gant individually and the county after Gant fired her for political reasons, she claimed.
According to the lawsuit, then-Commission Chairman Lawrence Sebring, who was seeking re-election against Gant, directed Nicholson to read a prepared statement at a political rally prior to the election supporting Sebring's bid for re-election.
Nicholson expressed her desire not to read the statement. At that point, Nicholson claimed Sebring responded by saying he would have to "look into" the jobs of both Nicholson and her son, who was employed by the Jackson County Public Works Department.
Nicholson read the statement at the rally, favorable to Sebring and unfavorable to Gant, who was present at the time.
Gant defeated Sebring in the 1980 election. On Jan. 20, 1981, his first day in office, Gant reportedly called Nicholson into his office and verbally terminated her.
On June 7, 1985, a jury in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, returned its verdict in favor of Nicholson. She received $100,000 in compensatory damages against the county and $35,000 in punitive damages against Gant individually.
On Dec. 16, 1985, the court ordered that Nicholson be reinstated as deputy chief clerk of the commission at her former rate of pay.
Rating system
Records indicate the Jackson County Personnel Board was established in 1981 by the commission to hear employee grievances. The personnel board's responsibilities grew once the commission implemented Auburn's recommended system in 1989.
The hiring policy used by the county for 20 years included a rating system. The process began with a department head sending a personnel request to the county personnel director. The director would then initiate action to advertise the position.
No application was accepted by the personnel director unless the county was actively seeking applications from individuals.
After the closing date for receiving applications, the personnel director convened the personnel board to review the applications.
The board ranked all qualified applicants based on his/her possession of the job related qualifications for the position.
Applicants could receive a maximum of 140 points. The points included veteran or spouse of a deceased veteran (five points), high school diploma (20 points), Tech School certification (10 points), Associate Degree (10 points), four-year degree (20 points), 10 points per year for job related experience for the last five years and also points for supervisory experience.
The purpose of the point system, according to former Personnel Board Chairman Steve Kennamer was "to have standards that had nothing to do with politics, age, race or gender."
Kennamer said the personnel board graded applicants usually without ever knowing the names.
Once grading was complete, the names of the top five applicants were sent to the department head for interviews.
Qualified applicants remained on an established eligibility list until being hired by the county or until the list expired, whichever occurred first.
Personnel board recommendations
On April 28, 2009, during a meeting, the personnel board had several recommendations to submit to the county commission for consideration and approval.
Recommendations included a new handbook, which would implement the second Auburn study and also a recommendation that applications be kept confidential through the grading process.
This included commissioners not attending job interviews. And also, a commissioner may grade applicants as long as the commissioner signs the grade sheet and the applications were kept anonymous.
The board also recommended a separate grade sheet for each job description in which the point system for each job description would be implemented by an assigned committee consisting of a combination of county employees, commissioners and personnel board members.
On that date, the personnel board consisted of Chairman Steve Kennamer, Kathy Burgess, J.D. Stevens, Ray Keller and Marcelle Edwards, who was absent from the meeting.
Two weeks later, at the commission meeting on May 11, the personnel board's recommendations never made it to the table for a vote.
Hiring policy changes and lawsuits
During that May 11 meeting, commissioner Jack Smith requested to be added to the agenda to discuss his concerns with the county's hiring policy. Smith said he believed it was unfair for the personnel board to score applicants on a point system.
"Anyone with a college education will score high," Smith was quoted as saying that day. "I feel that is discrimination. It doesn't take a college degree to sling garbage or use a shovel."
Smith wanted to see the policy changed to allow department heads to take the applications, choose the ones they wanted to interview and make up a set of the same 10-15 questions to ask each applicant during an interview with at least two commissioners present.
Commission Chairman Sadie Bias disagreed, saying commissioners should not be present during interviews "because that places unfair pressure on department heads to choose the candidate the commissioner wants to hire."
Despite Bias' arguments, the commission voted 3-1 in favor of Smith's plan. Smith, Commissioner Gaylen Stone and Commissioner Jack Allen voted in favor, while Commissioner Horace Clemmons voted against.
The commission's new plan changes from the existing point system utilized in ranking job applicants, allows department heads to first review employee applications and two commissioners may sit in on interviews.
In writing the new policy, County Attorney John Porter said nowhere in the written policy does it direct that the personnel board be involved in the process or that the specific "point system" be utilized.
"However, in practice, the personnel board has acted as the committee appointed by the personnel director," wrote Porter. "And the personnel board has utilized the point system as evidenced by the existing score sheet.
"The use of a review committee, such as the personnel board, and a ranking system, based upon a point system, provides the county with a measure of protection against claims of bias and discrimination. However, a system utilizing sufficient objective criteria involving standardized questions and the grading of responses, will also provide a significant measure of protection to the county and to prospective employees from any kind of bias or discrimination. It is unlikely that the county would see a significant rise in claims of employment discrimination with the change in the process, so long as the process is carried out in accordance with the policy."
DeKalb County Administrator Matt Sharp said his county does not have a written hiring policy, and it has worked out fine, to the best to his knowledge.
"Each department head is responsible for recommending hires to the commission," said Sharp. "The commission may take an active role on employees in their work district."
Sharp said commissioners in DeKalb County might sit in on interviews.
"We've not had any lawsuits over nepotism that I am aware of," he said.
Changes in the hiring policy have caused two resignations on the personnel board in the past month. Board Chairman Kennamer and member Stevens have both resigned.
Kennamer said the previous hiring policy had been most fair, enabling the best qualified candidates to be hired into the county.
The new policy gives him great concerns, which led to his resignation from the personnel board.
"The potential for lawsuits is very real," said Kennamer, who also serves as the city attorney in Scottsboro and for other municipalities in the county.
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