Today's meeting of the City of Houston Labor Committee.

The meeting is called to order uh at on Thursday, September 18th at 1031 a.m.

Today we have two presentations.

One uh from our uh human resources department.

It's wonderful to have you both here, and I'll do introductions in a moment.

Uh but HR will be providing an update on revisions to the City of Houston's administrative policies.

These are the policies that govern um all of the employees at City of Houston.

And then we're gonna hear from our friends in labor, um Texas Gulf Coast, um AFL CIO, but we're also joined by a host of locals that I want to recognize IBW, IATSE, our heat and frost insulators, plumbers, uh our elevator constructors, and am I missing anyone right now?

I think I got it all.

Um we're also joined by uh my colleague, Councilmember Ramirez, and I believe we have Councilmember Peck online as well.

And we have staff from uh Vice Chair Martinez's office, Mayor Pro Tem Castex Tatum, uh Vice Mayor Pro Tem Peck's office, Councilmember Alcorn, Councilmember Castillo, and Councilmember Jackson.

I believe I recognized everyone.

A few housekeeping items.

Um we will, as always, take questions at the end uh from the horseshoe after each presentation, and then we will have uh our public speakers following both presentations.

Uh so I have I do not have an expectation uh for HR that you all remain here, but we will relay, of course, any questions if they are directed towards the department.

Before we start, um, I do want to take a moment to recognize we have had some very big losses in our City of Houston family.

So, in addition to our firefighters that were injured um responding to a fire several days ago.

Um, we also lost Sunday um HFD firefighter paramedic Stephen Scott from Station 102, who passed away following an on-duty medical emergency.

Uh then yesterday we lost HPD senior officer Alex Roberts from our traffic enforcement division, who was killed uh in a vehicle crash uh also in the line of duty.

Then we also, and this is the sad part, right?

I'm running through names that normally we go years without having to go through this, and in one week we've lost three individuals.

Uh Dante Swanks, who was with our ARA department, passed away last Thursday while participating in an activity at Fondee Community Center.

Uh so these losses are impacting and having an impact not only on the families and our hearts are with them, but on our City of Houston family as well.

Um I would ask everyone to keep them and their loved ones and all of our departments in your thoughts.

Uh but with that, I'd like to take just a very quick moment of silence just to recognize them if you'll join me.

First, uh we will have uh at this time the chair recognizes uh director cheeks as well as uh director, our director's chief of staff and senior division manager.

I wanted to make sure I got it right, Elisa.

Uh Ms.

Franklin Brox.

Uh please proceed with your presentation.

So, first of all, I think I got it on.

So, first of all, I'd like to thank you, uh Councilmember Cayman and also Vice Chair uh for having us here today.

Uh as you are well aware, um the policies and procedures of the city of Houston is something that human resources holds near and dear uh to our heart, and uh the updating of those policies uh fall under our preview.

Um I will like to say that we appreciate the support of you all as council members, but also of the administration.

Uh the policies that my chief of staff are about to talk about, the accommodations policy and the civility policy are two policies that we have been able to pass because of the support of the UAL and the administration.

Civility is something that as council and as administration, you all have talked about in detail from a labor perspective, and then also to us as directors as we govern our departments.

So today we hope that this comprehensive uh overview of the last two policies that were just updated and just put out in the last month or so.

Uh, we will be able to uh give you a great overview and understanding uh for not only you all here, but those individuals that are listening.

So I will now turn the um the the it over to my uh chief of staff, Alisa Franklin Brock, who will take it from here.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Director.

Good morning, Council members and staff, and thank you for your time today.

Our agenda this morning will consist of next slide, please.

Will consist of an overview of administrative procedure 3-34, which is our reasonable accommodation for employees and job applicants, and executive order 1-20, our new policy, standard of conduct, professionalism, and civility.

I will begin with AP 3-34.

Next slide, please.

The Americans with Disability Act of 1990 and the amendments of Act 2008 is also known as the Federal Law ADA and RADAA.

The federal law requires an employer to provide reasonable accommodation to a job applicant or an employee with a disability, unless doing so will cause an undue hardship on the employer.

HR proposed adoption of AP 3-34 in 2017.

The original policy focused on the requirements of the law, as well as how the city will comply with such law.

HR in consultation with members of our laborer department's labor, employment, and civil rights division, reviewed the current policy and recommended revisions to the administration to include the requirements for accommodations under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, the Pregnancy Workers' Fairness Act, and religious accommodations required under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as well as other policy enhancements.

Next slide, please.

Next slide, please.

The policy applies to all city departments and employees.

Next slide, please.

This over the next couple of slides, I will uh provide some highlights of definitions that's currently in the policy.

So a disability is defined as a physical or a mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities or a record or past history of such an impairment.

Major life activities include, but it's not limited to caring for oneself, standing, sitting, thinking, walking, breathing, concentrating, performing manual tasks, seeing, learning, and interacting with others, et cetera.

No limitations of physical or mental condition related to, affected by, or arising out of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions that the employee or the employee's representative has communicated to the employer whether or not such conditions meet the requirements as a disability under ADA.

Religion includes uh our definition includes sincerely held beliefs in traditional organized religions such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, etc.