The Civil Service Commission voted 2-1 today to allow police officers to right to the same disciplinary appeal process that all other city employees have.
The decision adds a twist to what Mayor Francis Slay’s office and the police union had proposed to the commission – that the police department keep its own internal hearing process when employees appeal discipline or corrective actions. Both the mayor and union opposed the commission’s decision today.
Longtime commissioner John Clark argued against that proposal, saying that it would keep the police department separate from all other city departments despite now having local control of the police.
“How can we manage a city with two different discipline systems?” he said in his comments at the commission meeting held today at the Carnahan Courthouse. “If we pass this rule, we will have no control over 98 percent of the discipline cases of the police department.”
Since the city gained local control of the department last year, the department has continued to operate internally. An internal “summary hearing board” listens to the officers’ appeals to discipline. In this process, the board cannot question the validity of the employee’s charge, which comes from the police chief. Board members can only modify the discipline to a lesser degree if they believe it’s warranted.
When Missourians voted for local control in November 2012 through a ballot initiative, the commissioners thought they would gain the authority to hear appeals from police officers. However in the fine print of the local control state law, it says that the commission only has the authority to hear appeals of those who face discipline of more than 15 days. Yet, most of the department’s discipline measures are for minor offenses with punishment of less than 15 days.
At a public hearing yesterday, the commissioners voiced that they never saw this passage in the ballot initiative. Commissioner Steven Barney said it makes him question the process of how the initiative was drawn up. In 2012, the local control initiative faced much criticism for being a closed-door process between the police union, Mayor Francis Slay’s office and Rex Sinquefield’s employees at A Safer Missouri.
At the hearing, Mary Ellen Ponder, representing Mayor Slay’s office, said the commission is also tied to follow the police’s collective bargaining agreement. Under the recently agreed to bargaining agreement, the police have voted to approve the current discipline hearing process.
At the meeting today, Clark proposed an amendment that keeps the police’s summary hearing board intact, but also allows employees to come before the commission if they do not get relief. Yesterday, Police Chief Sam Dotson said that would be like giving police officers “another bite at the apple.”
“How many bites at the apple do you allow employees to have?” Dotson asked the three-member commission. “We have a process. The process works and the employees agreed to it.”
However, Clark questioned whether the police would have agreed to having the option of appealing to the commission if it was presented during the bargaining agreement process. Ponder said the officers undoubtedly would have agreed to it.
The city counselor’s office advised against passing the amendment today, but Clark and Commissioner Stanley Newsome Sr. voted for it regardless.
“If this is a problem, let it be a problem,” Newsome said. “We should have a system where any city employee has a chance to correct any kind of problem.”
Barney voted against it, pointing to questions of legality. The city counselor’s office has not yet responded to the American’s inquiry about whether it plans to take legal action against the commission’s decision.
Clark said he does not expect to have many people use the option of coming before the commission. However, he believes having two separate systems compromises the integrity of the commission. Clark is the longest standing member of the commission and has served under four mayors, he said.
“They want to keep it all internal,” Clark said in an interview with the St. Louis American. “I’ve got a union background, but I don’t think you can collectively bargain away their rights to appeal.”
He said the other piece is public disclosure. He believes the public will have more access to records of appeals under the commission, where the police department acts like a “closed society,” he said. In meeting minutes, the commission must post their decisions and how the commissioners voted on discipline appeals. However, they do not post employee names or case records, according to the city counselor’s office.
Days before the Wednesday public hearing, Slay’s office asked Clark for his resignation, Clark said. He suspects it’s because he’s been so vocal on this issue. Slay appointed Clark to the position.
“I can leave and he can appoint someone who will do what he wants,” he said. “But I’m not going to do what he wants. I told him that.”