Chattanooga Council members passed a final rule book for city employees Tuesday after weeks of debate and a final attempt last week to remove specific harassment protections for gay and transgender city employees.
This means all personnel rules in the city will ultimately be stripped from city code and replaced by a single handbook, which will can be amended in the future by the city administration with permission from the council.
The council voted 7-1 to pass the final reading of the handbook ordinance. Only Councilman Larry Grohn voted against the rules. Councilman Yusuf Hakeem was absent.
Chattanooga City Council member Chris Anderson
Chattanooga City Council Chairman Carol Berz listens during a council meeting Tuesday, July 7, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn.Last week, Councilman Chip Henderson asked that the city adopt verbatim language from a federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rules, which didn’t specifically protect employees based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, but covered the categories under protections based on sex.
That effort failed for lack of a second last week.
On Tuesday, Councilman Chris Anderson, who drafted protections for gay and transgender employees, said he was “happy to close the book” on the new rules.
Meanwhile, Council Chairwoman Carol Berz asked city human resources staff in an earlier meeting to make sure future employees are fully informed of city rules, especially those that cover harassment and political activity.
That’s after City Attorney Wade Hinton said Tuesday Grohn didn’t break any rules when he suggested that the council’s legislative analyst, Thomas Tansil, should go to a Ted Cruz rally on Aug. 10.
Tansil attended the event and led the Pledge of Allegiance to Cruz’s more than 900 supporters.
Councilman Moses Freeman asked last week that Hinton to look into the matter.
Tansil said last week Grohn asked him to go, and he would request leave for the time to avoid running afoul of rules prohibiting political activity on city time.
Grohn said all he did was connect Tansil to the Cruz campaign, because Tansil served at the U.S. Naval and Marine Reserve Center on Amnicola Highway that was attacked on July 16, where five U.S. service members were killed.
Hinton said Grohn’s suggestion was not inappropriate, but he should have been more clear.
“My basic conclusion (was) that there was no coercion or order to attend a political event. It was a request,” Hinton said.
That means no city codes were broken, but Hinton cautioned council members and all supervisory city staff to be careful when making requests of employees.
“When we request things [employees] may feel like they have to go,” Hinton said.
Berz said the city human resources staff should also make those rules more clear for employees from the start.
“I think there are certain items like harassment, like political activity. I just think there are some things that stand out. Maybe this is a hint that we need to talk about political activity,” Berz said.
Contact staff writer Louie Brogdon at lbrogdon@timesfreepress.com, @glbrogdoniv on Twitter or at 423-757-6481.