CLEVELAND, Tenn. - Cleveland has made major revisions to its personnel policies, including the removal of a longstanding internal employee appeals process for disciplinary actions, after several months of review.
On Monday, the Cleveland City Council voted 7-0 for ending the appeals policy, which still leaves employees the right to challenge disciplinary actions in Chancery Court.
"I'd rather see the appeal outside the city totally," Councilman Bill Estes said.
Also Monday, City Manager Janice Casteel announced she will retire on May 31 to spend more time with her family. Casteel has worked for Cleveland for more than 40 years and served as its manager since 2009. Before that, she served for several years as the city's financial director.
"I want to retire while I'm young enough to enjoy the other things that I love: my family, camping, and my church," she said.
Law enforcement consultant Larry Wallace made a recommendation to the City Council to end the internal appeals process based on research and discussions with city staff.
Janice Casteel"After working here since March, my professional opinion is that an appeals process, at this current stage, does not really help the City of Cleveland and its employees," Wallace said. "In fact, it unintentionally provides very little procedural protection for the city and the employees."
According to proposals presented to the City Council, that body also had the option of retaining a recently adopted internal appeals policy in which the process is administered by a third party attorney.
That policy, adopted in late September, replaced a 22-year-old policy that called for the city manager - who also serves as the disciplinarian of city employees - to serve as hearing officer.
The previous appeals process has played a key factor in a number of lawsuits involving former and current employee challenges to terminations or other disciplinary actions. This summer, a chancery court ruling involving a former Cleveland firefighter basically declared that the city manager cannot be both disciplinarian and appellate hearing officer.
A number of department heads shared their concerns with the City Council before the vote.
Fire Chief Ron Harrison expressed concern about removing an internal appeals process all together, but said that it might best be reserved for employee terminations and not include lesser disciplinary actions.
Employees within the police department have cited worries that future leadership might simply decide to "clean house" without an internal appeals process in place, Chief Mark Gibson said. However, the current appeals is flawed, he said.
"What we have now in place is too expensive for the taxpayers," he said.
Councilmen did not say much about Casteel's retirement, but confirmed that she told them of her plans to retire during one-on-one meetings during the city manager evaluation process in August.
"Now's not the time [for comments]," Estes said. "She's going to be here through spring and we'll have plenty of time to speak of her accomplishments, her character, her integrity and what's she's done for the city."
Estes asked that the city consult with the Municipal Technical Advisory Service about best practices for a new city manager search.
Paul Leach is based in Cleveland. Email him at paul.leach.press@gmail.com.