LITTLE ROCK — The Pine Bluff Civil Service Commission was officially abolished Thursday, allowing the city to be responsible for creating and enforcing rules and regulations for police officers and firefighters.
From now on, the police and fire chiefs, under the supervision of the mayor, will be responsible for appointments, promotions and disciplinary actions of uniformed employees. The City Council will have ultimate approval.
Appeals will be handled by a three-member review committee made up of an assistant city attorney, a randomly selected city department head and a randomly selected city employee.
Before, residents who were appointed to the Civil Service Commission made such decisions.
The Southern States Police Benevolent Association sued Pine Bluff after the City Council passed an ordinance to dissolve the Civil Service Commission in April 2007. A judge ordered an injunction on the abolishment of the commission until the lawsuit ended.
A four-year legal battle ensued while the city and the association ironed out the rules and regulations for police officers and firefighters.
In June, all five Civil Service commissioners resigned because the members didn’t feel support from the community, former commissioner Richard Borgman said.
On July 18, as the city and the police association neared an agreement, the City Council passed an ordinance outlining the new rules and regulations to be enforced by department heads.
The plaintiffs, defendants, mayor and Jefferson County Circuit Judge Rob Wyatt Jr. signed the settlement to the lawsuit Thursday.
The City Council ordinance gives the Police and Fire departments a new set of policies and procedures, many of which are similar to the old rules created by the Civil Service Commission.
Mark Hayes, the Arkansas Municipal attorney who represents the city, said Pine Bluff will cut out bureaucracy by eliminating the commission.
“The city is thrilled to have the litigation behind it and is looking forward to functioning under this new ordinance, and believes it is in the best interest of the taxpayers and the uniformed employees,” Hayes said.
“The city feels comfortable that they put together a policy and a program that will inure to all uniform employees and, in the long run, they will all be very happy to have.”
Hayes said the city has spent about $104,000 on copying, deposition, transcript and attorney fees.
Marjorie Rogers, a Little Rock attorney who represents the Southern States Police Benevolent Association, thinks the new arrangement will satisfy the interests of police officers and firefighters.
“There are definitely some changes that [have been] made in the rules and regulations,” Rogers said in an interview last week. “It’s a very fair settlement.”
Mayor Carl Redus said he’s glad a settlement has been reached, and he is excited to move forward.
According to the settlement, the City Council cannot approve the revision of rules and regulations for six months and cannot abolish the ordinance for one year.
During litigation, the Southern States Police Benevolent Association was concerned about uniformed employees’ rights to legal counsel during a disciplinary appeal process and about policies for just-cause termination, Rogers said.
Under the settlement, the disciplinary appeals process will no longer be similar to a trial proceeding with legal counsel speaking on behalf of employees, although attorneys may be present and advise the uniformed employees, Rogers said.
The settlement says uniformed employees can be dismissed only for just cause.
“We just hope that as hard as we have worked to come to this agreement, that they don’t take it away in a year,” Rogers said.
Arkansas, Pages 14 on 07/29/2011