Du Quoin council parks mayor's no-nonsense hiring policy for second time; can't hire family member and still sit on council

"It needs to be tough," said Mayor Rex Duncan who for the second time in two years broached the subject of a no-nonsense city hiring policy that would allow the city to hire an immediate relative of a sitting council member or the city administrator only IF the council member resigns his position first.

"There is a public perception out there that needs to be respected. I'm more of a purist. This needs to be tough," Mayor Duncan said.

"What I'd rather not do is water this down. This thing (hiring problem) doesn't raise its head often. From my perspective, I'd like to act on this."

Duncan asked commissioners Kathy West and Yvonne Morris to draft a hiring policy two years ago that was defeated when John Rednour was mayor.

"I keep going back to it in my mind," said Duncan. "The policy requires us to have a qualified pool of applicants and a council member has to sep down if we hire a council member's or public city administrator's family member," said the mayor. "I still think this is the right thing to do."

The policy would also dictate that any employee terminated for cause can't be considered for rehiring within five years.

Commissioner Kathy West seemed to be on the mayor's side. "We don't necessarily agree. It's not a perfect policy, but we need to implement it."

Police and Fire Commissioner Josh Gross, whose department largely operates under a merit system, was opposed before and stays opposed to the policy.

"I don't think it;s necessary. We've never had a problem with hiring family members. I would vote for it if we included a 'no direct reporting' provision." By that, he means you could hire a family member into a department so long as the employee does not report to the family member on the council.

Commissioner Morris said, "We may be limiting our ability to hire the best person. I'm more of a fan of hiring the best applicant," she said. "I trust (city administrator) Brad Myers to hire the best person."

The hiring policy presented is a draft proposal and commissioner Don Kunkel suggested that city attorney Aaron Atkins take the draft and turn it into an ordinance to be voted on at the next meeting.

The draft is essentially the ordinance buried for the second time in procrastination.

The draft is several pages long and talks about hiring based upon qualifications. The policy says that supervisors and department heads who need to fill a job opening shall submit a request to the city administrator. The role of the council would be to see that the city policies are carried out.

It addresses the issues of part-time employees who aspire to become full-time employees, etc.

But, the meat of the policy is in these paragraphs:

The Council shall not otherwise bring to bear inappropriate, undue, partisan, political, or similar considerations that would detract from or demean the intent to hire the best person for a job;

When possible, at least two finalists will be interviewed by the City Administrator and the relevant department superintendent. The relevant City Commissioner may participate in interviews for entry-level positions, at the discretion of the Commissioner. The relevant Commissioner shall participate in the interview and selection of all management positions;

A member of a City Council member's immediate family will not be considered for permanent or permanent part time employment by the City. This policy will also be applied when assigning, transferring, or promoting an employee. For purposes of this policy, "immediate family" includes: the Council member's spouse, brother, sister, parents, children, step-children, and any other member of the Council member's household. Immediate family members of City Council members, the City Administrator, and/or the relevant superintendent(s) may apply for positions. Should that applicant be offered a permanent position as described in the section above, the relevant Council member, Administrator, and/or relevant superintendent(s) shall be notified and be allowed to determine if they will resign or the immediate family member will decline the offer of employment. This shall not preclude nor apply to immediate family members hired through a competitive merit process ;

Former employees who left the City in good standing may be considered for reemployment. Former employees who resigned without written notice or who were dismissed for disciplinary reasons may not be considered for reemployment within five (5) years. A former employee who is reemployed will be considered a new employee from the date of reemployment unless the break in service is less than thirty (30) days, in which case the employee will retain accumulated seniority. Length of service for the purposes of benefits is governed by the terms of each benefit plan. Employees who retire may be eligible, in certain circumstances, to be considered for rehire.

In other action, the council let last year's Street Machine Nationals "sunset" or expire and they will be replaced by the lone ordinance that does not allow camping in the city limits during the three-day event in late June.