A new employee handbook in Ansonia bars city workers from talking to the press and warns them posts on social media could come back to bite them.
Also — no “loafing.”
Those rules are among a handful of proposed items to be included in an amended personnel handbook. The new rules were discussed at an Aldermen meeting July 14.
The handbook, given to employees when they’re hired, sets down rules and expectations for city workers. The rules haven’t been updated since 1983.
Many of the rules are common sense. Screaming at fellow employees or members of the public is a no-no in 2015, just as it was 32 years ago.
But the revision adds important protections for workers against things like bullying and sexual harassment, and spells out the city’s policy on everything from computer use — FYI, don’t read ValleyIndy.org from a city computer during working hours — to the federal Family Leave Act.
Who Doesn’t Love A Gag Order?
The proposed social media policy for city employees includes a line that instructs employees to “not speak to the media on the City’s behalf without express consent of the Mayor.”
The policy further orders that “all media inquiries involving official responses by the City should be directed to him/her, or his designee.”
OK. Everyone hates reporters poking around.
But what about the First Amendment, and a Supreme Court ruling saying governments can’t retaliate against employees for speaking their minds on matters of public concern?
Does the new policy mean a disheveled reporter who dares to ask for a public document in Ansonia City Hall can’t get the document until someone lets the mayor know a reporter is asking for the document?
If the last question makes you chuckle, check out the video below from the New Haven Independent.
In the video, a reporter can’t get access to a public document — election documents, no less — because of a department head’s newly-instituted press policy.
The clerk rescinded the policy after it was exposed.
Also in New Haven, a contractor with the New Haven housing authority filed a “whistleblower complaint” with the state’s Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities when she was demoted.
Her alleged transgression? She was quoted in a story talking about conditions inside a public housing complex.
Is this what’s coming to Ansonia?
Not at all, according to John Marini, Ansonia’s corporation counsel.
The language in the handbook simply spells out that views expressed by an employee do not represent the official stance of the city.
“On management issues the mayor, of course, is the chief executive officer and he has the right to represent the city,” Marini said. “Employees taking the position that they represent the city, on behalf of the city, that is prohibited.”
Marini said the rules don’t interfere with free speech.
“Of course employees are completely free to express their opinions, their viewpoints, whether they be positive or negative, on behalf of themselves or on behalf of say a political party,” Marini said. “But not on behalf of the city, that’s the mayor.”
Marini also said reporters won’t get treated like they have the chicken pox when asking for public documents.
“(The rule) has to do with representing the city in terms of making public statements to the media, not presenting facts that are open and available,” he said.
The goal is efficiency, Marini said.
Dan Barrett, the legal director of Connecticut offices of the American Civil Liberties Union, said such “delineation” may be a good idea in light of a 2006 Supreme Court decision.
It held that speech by a public official is only protected if it is engaged in as a private citizen, not if it is expressed as part of the official’s public duties.
“It’s probably a good idea for an employee to say ‘Hey this is just my own opinion,’” Barrett said.
The amended Ansonia policy also “encourages employees to report all perceived or actual violations of City policies, including violations of the City’s Social Media Policy.”
Employees “can report actual or perceived violations to their supervisor, department head, the Mayor, or a member of the Board of Aldermen.”
Is the city indirectly asking its employees to snoop on their co-workers?
“It’s not saying ‘snoop,’ it’s saying share information,” Marini said. “I don’t think it’s intimidating.”
What Happens Now
The draft of the new rules is just that, Marini told Aldermen last month — a work in progress that will be changed.
To that end, Marini suggested the Aldermen’s salary/personnel committee ask department heads to read and comment on the new rules over the next two months with a view to making changes based on their input.
Then the Aldermen may adopt the new rules at their regular meeting in September.
Click play on the video above to see Marini discussing the new rules.
Copies of the city’s current personnel rules and the new proposed draft are posted at the bottom of the story.
Other changes include the following, according to a memo Marini wrote to Aldermen:
- Info on the city being an Equal Opportunity Employer, Family Medical Leave Act, and disability accommodations;
- Policies prohibiting sexual harassment and other unlawful discrimination;
- A conflict of interest policy incorporating rules from an ethics ordinance on the city’s books;
- Anti-nepotism policy;
The changes also include an “expanded list of offenses that will result in employee discipline;”
Included in those new offenses, besides the “no loafing” prohibition:
- Walking off the job without permission;
- Not returning to work from medical leave after being cleared to do so by a doctor;
- Workplace violence, threatening, bullying, or harassment;
- Misusing, defacing, or destroying city property, or failing to submit an accurate and timely accident report;
- Failing or refusing to take a drug test;
- Conviction of any felony, or any crime involving “moral turpitude” — the old handbook listed only “a crime involving moral turpitude;”
Other items on the list expand or clarify items previously in the handbook.
For instance, “the use of abusive language to a supervisor or to the public” has always been prohibited, though the new draft adds “shouting or screaming,” includes fellow employees, not just supervisors, and adds “during work hours or in the workplace.”
Mayor David Cassetti said after Tuesday’s meeting the update wasn’t prompted by any loafing or property-destruction epidemic among city employees, but has been in progress since he took office in December 2013.
“When I came in I said ‘This is an antiquated document, we need to update it,’ so I said ‘Let’s update it,’” the mayor said.
The new rules would affect non-union and union employees differently, since union employees have separate contracts.
The city has 143 employees.
The documents are below.
