June 28, 2021 at 11:17 a.m.
City clarifies pre-employment drug
Interim fire chief expresses concern about org chart
City clarifies pre-employment drug
Vruwink addressed the drug testing issue during the Common Council's June 14 meeting, in response to a question from alderperson Eileen Daniel who noted that Bloedorn had spoken out concerning the policy during the panel's May 24 meeting.
According to Vruwink, while museum workers were once strictly volunteers they are now city employees and the city is required to treat all employees "indiscriminately, equitably and consistently across the board."
"All of our new hires must go through the same pre-employment background check, drug screen and other components," he said.
Human resources generalist Doreen St. Onge also noted that the employee handbook designates that the city's work zone is to be drug-free.
"(This) isn't anything new but for some reason we weren't following the current policy," she said. "It's doing what we've always said we were going to do, but we weren't doing it."
Daniel noted that the museum workers are "seasonal" and asked if that would trigger any type of accommodation.
"(The museum workers) have to reapply every year, so are they are going to have to go through a drug screening every year?" she asked.
Mayor Chris Frederickson responded in the affirmative. He noted that a person could be drug-free one year and in the throes of active substance abuse the next. Also, "you're not guaranteed to hire the same employees back" every summer, he added.
Ultimately, according to Frederickson and St. Onge, it's a matter of "due diligence" and protection of the public, as museum workers, like other city employees, have access to children and vulnerable adults.
City finance director Wendi Bixby also noted the city is due to receive approximately $800,000 in "fiscal recovery funds" through the American Rescue Plan and one of the stipulations to receive the funds is maintaining a "government-wide drug-free workplace."
"So the federal government also upholds that we should have a drug-free workplace," she said.
As the discussion wound down, Daniel thanked the administrative team for providing clarity.
"I appreciate everything that you guys have said and I'm glad to have it out there so that everybody understands why we're doing it," she said. "It's not that we're picking on the museum... it's just a matter of keeping consistency across the board."
Another topic raised during the June 14 meeting was the city's updated organizational chart. Vruwink passed out a draft of the chart for council review.
In discussing the chart, Vruwink noted that one of the changes the city is looking at is to hire a standalone "city engineer" rather than a public works director. However, he noted that the position would not necessarily oversee the water, wastewater and street departments.
The "public works director" position has been vacant since May 2019 when the council voted to terminate the employment of former public works director Tim Kingman.
Kingman later filed a lawsuit against the city related to his termination. That lawsuit is still pending in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.
As the discussion moved to other departments, interim fire chief Josh Schmitz raised concerns about the deletion of the assistant fire chief position from the chart.
"That's a necessary job that is needed just like the captain's job in the police department," he said. "You can't just cut it without discussing with us at all. I'm totally blindsided by this."
Vruwink explained that he did not want to include that position in the draft organizational chart because the city is not actively recruiting for it and the budget has not been established.
"What I'm saying is the position is currently vacant and the idea is we'll still develop the updated job description and then bring the org chart back through once the justification has been made for the filling of the position," he said.
"This doesn't mean that the position will never come back," St. Onge stressed.
After hearing from Schmitz, alderman Tom Barnett suggested the council postpone approval of the chart.
"He seems pretty upset about this and I don't have enough information to decide whether he should be upset about this or not," Barnett said, referring to Schmitz.
Barnett suggested the city try to put Schmitz's "mind at ease" that this is the proper thing to do.
"He seems really confused and blindsided by this and that's not what we want either is it?" he asked.
Alderman Tom Kelly seconded Barnett's motion to table.
The chart was scheduled to be revisited as part of the council's June 28 meeting, according to the agenda posted by the city. That meeting took place after deadline for this edition.
Comments:
You must login to comment.