We have no idea what's recently driving Senator Jenkins, nor why he's come to the neoCON forefront. Maybe it has something to do with Mr. Jolley, the Ogden City Council
At any rate, suburban Senator Jenkins still has another bill on the table which is designed to foul up the proper function of our city. Here's a link to his SB 229, which is a true marvel of "intelligent" neoCON draftsmanship. What Senator Jenkins did, in all his brilliance, (with the helpful assistance of Ogden City's Mark Johnson, we understand) was to take a magic marker to an existing statute, and cross out a word or two.
The purpose of this bill, of course, is to punish firefighters and police officers, the people upon whom we depend most primarily for our safety. The object is to remove an objective civil service board from public safety employee protection, and to reduce elite firefighters and police to "employees at will," just like the employees who cut the lawns in the parks... or the employees in the Ogden City recorder's office. What this bill will do, if enacted, is to give tyrannical Utah city administrators unrestrained hiring and firing authority over our professional and primary Ogden City public safety employees. If all goes well for the aparatchiks in the Ogden Administration, Public Safety employees will be grovelling VERY SOON.
I talked with Republican Utah Legislative District 8 Representative Joe Murray today. He knows more than a little bit about the firefighters, having served for about thirty years with the Ogden City Fire Department, before being elected to the state legislature. He's sympathetic to the firefighters, and also VERY sympathetic to the Ogden City Police Department, and their impending plight.
He pledged to me today, that he'll fight with all his effort to kill neoCON Senator Jenkins' ill-conceived SB 229, and to prevent the neoCON drones from reducing our Ogden City Police and Fire Departments to the equivalent of "parks" employees. Joe Murray understands that the layer of protection afforded by a civil service commission is essential to preserving high quality and professional public safety in larger Utah cities; and I'm assured he will not let our firefighters and police down on that.
Please email Rep. Joe Murray at this address, and offer your support for his efforts in this regard.
You can also email your other legislators from these sites:
State Senate
Utah House of Representatives
Let's stand up for the men and women who risk their lives every day to protect our freedom and safety.
Tell your legislators to vote "NO" on neoCON Senator Jenkins' radical SB 229.
Reader comments are welcome as always
12 comments:
abolish the civil service commission. they upheld harmon's firing. they deserve to go.
Maybe Harmon should have been fired if he is doing the naughty stuff they accused him of? Even more so if he lied to his boss about it.
What do the rank and file of the fire department think of this Harmon situation?
my understanding is that the rank and file support him. godfrey's minion, mathieu, did a headhunt in this case. he was looking to make an example out of someone because there was all kinds of questionable shit going on in the department. so he was trying to make up for his own mismanagement.
The Civil Service Commission was introduced many years ago to help curb unfair hiring practices in the public sector. The Commission monitors the testing process of the particular jurisdiction that they serve. They make sure that the testing was done in a fair and impartial manor so that the most qualified candidates are chosen for the positions that are being tested.
The commission also is in charge of the promotional processes, to make sure that all testing and qualifications are adhered to through out the process. This is to insure that no favoritism is involved in the process. It helps to insure that the most qualified person is promoted to the position, not the best friend with the most brown on their nose.
The Commission also is the avenue for employees to appeal or grieve any unfair punitive actions taken against employees. The Commission is an impartial board of people who listen to, and review evidence in the matter. They then make a decision based on the information given to them by both sides. EMPLOYEE and EMPLOYER.
The commission is an insulation device for the Employer to help from being accused of unfair practices. It is also an insulator to help the Employee in the times when the employer had made a bad decision. The commission helps to reduce the number of wrongful termination suits brought by employees who was terminated.
Ogden City is saying that the Commission is burdensome and cumbersome process in the hiring of employees.
The City says that because of the Civil Service Commission, many prospective employees are being poached by other cities with out Civil service.
None of the accusations of Ogden City are very realistic.
Most prospective employees do a circuit type of testing, this means that they travel throughout the intermountain region testing for all departments, and then choosing to be hired by the first City to offer them a position.
Each City’s testing process is conducted at different times through out the year; all the city needs to do is schedule the testing process to coincide with the Civil service commission meeting. The commission meets on a monthly basis.
After the list is certified by the commission, it is a viable list for one year or longer if the Chief chooses to have the civil service extend the list.
The big reason that employees are leaving the employment of Ogden City is because of below market pay. BOTTOM LINE. Why stay in Ogden if you can go thirty five miles south, do the same job, and get paid more money? We all have families to provide for, and it is a matter of economics. The City administration chooses to spend money on high paid administration positions and severance packages for those administration positions, while taking the employees for granted. They choose other whimsical schemes to invest the city’s money, instead of placing some value on the employees.
No one in public service has ever entered the profession with the idea of getting rich; they do it because they love the job.
SB229 is just one more way for the City administration to take a DUMP on the employees, they take away merit increases; they take away health benefits, now they want to take away sick leave earned by the employees, and while they rub our noses in the excrement they call a good law.
Please call your Legislative Rep. and tell them to vote against SB229. The City Council has already made a statement against the bill.
The above "anonymous" appears to have the facts straight and justifiable reasons for supporting SB 229, whereas the first "anonymous" just shoots his mouth off -- we need to ignore him.
The firemen and policemen of Ogden City are against SB 229 and say it is a bad bill. I will believe them long before I believe anything Mark Johnson and Godfrey say. In this case, actions speak so much louder than words. How many times has Godfrey lied to us? The last time was over the Council's actions with Ernest, and just 6 weeks before that when the chips were down, who gets stuck with financing the rec center? Didn't he tell us, that the taxpayer's wouldn't be held responsible for the funding? So why is the revenue from BDO being used as collateral to guarantee the bonds for the rec center? We can't believe ANYTHING Godfrey tells us! SB 229 is just another attempt of a very vindictive Mayor to get even with the firefighters for backing the new council members, and our policemen, who didn't take a stand, will be innocent victims. Another clue into the kind of person who leads our city.
The firefighters and police put their lives on the line for us EVERYDAY! When they ask for our support to get this SB 229 killed, I don't think that is an unreasonable or too big of a request of us. The least we can do is call/email our Legislators and ask them to defeat it. I've already done it, and I hope you will also. I also emailed everyone I know and asked them to contact their Legislators and ask them to vote against it, please do the same. There is power in numbers. THIS IS A BAD BILL AND MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO PASS!!
Harmon had, what, 2-4 years of due process. The CSC merely upheld his firing and as Ozboy suggests, maybe where there was smoke there was fire. Who knows, but the CSC is fair and impartial and I'm comfortable that Harmon got a fair shake. The CSC is definitely needed, however, regardless of how one views this situation.
It appears that Rudi is getting impatient with the new council, as it was elected to "clean-up" the mess at City Hall. Having watched the City Hall process for some time now, it's apparent that things grind at a snail's pace and therefore, Rudi's Rome will not be re-built in a day or two. Things are moving in the right direction, I'm told, but the new council should be given some time to find their way (nobody is showing them much of anything and it is they themselves who have to (1) figure out the system and then (2) use that system to make those changes. Both (1) and (2) take time and the resistance needs to be factored in.
One interesting question with this bill is whether it would not be appropriate to return the decision about whether to have a civil service commission to the local level. The bill would not abolish the csc, it would merely give the council the choice, and the current council likely would keep it. So ultimately we are talking about an issue of local control.
Local control is generally desireable.
However, it can be very detrimental to public employees when petty tyrants like Godfrey gain control locally.
ah, but godfrey is not the one whose decision it would be. it would be the council's.
Once again, this bill, like many other changes we've seen lately, is an attempt to concentrate power in a very few hands. And that is why I object to it.
Even if the process that the Civil Service Commission works under is thought to be burdensome by the city, the fact is that we are all fortunate that there is such a process and that such processes exist in our society.
Saddam Hussein, for instance, probably felt no need for a civil service commission. Totalitarian regimes generally don't. And this is one reason we should want ours to continue.
I was at the Capitol today. I met with Senators Dave Thomas, Ed Mayne and Scott Jenkins. My companion spoke with Christiansen.
Mayne, of course, is against SB 229...Thomas said he would study it...I hope he'll vote no, and Jenkins was the biggest disappointment. I asked him WHAT he was told that made him sponsor this bill....a lot of arrogant remarks followed. He thinks it's just fine, and he's 'been a mayor' and he 'understands' how a city is run, etc'....he told me that he's spoken to several firefighters about this bill. 'How many want it?' NONE!!! I reminded him that he's to listen to and serve his constituents, but that fell on deaf ears. I found him intractable and arrogant. Sound like someone else we know??
Rep. Hansen and Shurtliff are on our side. Sen Christiansen is another Jenkins.
Well, elections always come around, don't they?
Since our council sent word that they do not support SB 229, I think we should contact all city councils and ask them to do the same. Continue to contact your legislators ASAP.
Thanx, Rudi, for running this story.
As an "old school" republican, I must admit that Scott Jenkins (and other "republicans" of his ilk) are a disgrace to the Republcan name!!
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