10/14/1996 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING OCTOBER 14, 1996 Mayor Landers said that he is not totally convinced that a letter of reprimand should be placed in Supervisor's file for the first offense. He said he had a hard time accepting a letter of reprimand. Mayor Landers said that legally a motion has to be made to tighten polices dealing with this type of situation. Mr. Hawkins was asked a question regarding the matter. He explained that he had to withdraw from comment on this situation because of his personal affiliation with staff. Council Member Bergeson said that there are letters of reprimand and then there are letters of reprimand. He noted that there are letters that go into a personnel file without reprimands stated in them. Supervisors are responsible for the work place environment and they do have some responsibility to correct the environment. However, sometimes the supervisor does not know there is a problem. Council Member Bergeson said that a letter could be drafted noting that at least one person feels there is a problan. Council Member Lyden asked if the Council is saying that this is the first time you are aware of an environmental problem. Council Member Bergeson said no, this is the first time that the Council is aware of sexual or gender discrimination. This is the basis for retaining a special investigator. If there were no gender laws the City Council would have to deal with the matter differently. He suggested that if there are non -gender issues, they should be dealt with separately. Vernon Reinert, said that he understands that outside council had been retained to deal with the matter. He asked how much time has been spent on this issue and what did it cost. He asked where was the City Council, they should have been on top of this long before outside investigators were hired. Mayor Landers explained that one Council Member was told that there was a problem and this Council Member asked for an investigation. Most Council Members learned of the problem when they were asked to retain the investigator. Council Member Kuether noted that the matter would eventually cost between $20,000.00 and $30,000.00. Mr. Reinert felt that an investigation initiated by one Council Member and one staff member was uncalled for. He said someone "slipped a cog". Mr. Hawkins explained to Mr. Reinert that one staff person made allegations to one Council Member who then talked to him. He told the Council Member that he would contact an investigator because he wanted to make sure that the City was protected and would not become embroiled in allegations and accusations. Mr. Hawkins said that the investigation was not started by the City Council. Mr. Reinert said that staff did not fulfill the City Charter requirements. Ms. Kim Sullivan, 7132 Whippoorwill Lane spoke regarding letters of reprimand. She said that it is not unusual for letters of reprimand to be placed in an employees file on the first offense. She felt that the letter has to be made strong enough to make sure that the activity does not continue. PAGE 2