Board of City Service Commissioners Hears 15-Day Suspension Appeal, Approves Minutes — September 15, 2026

The Board of City Service Commissioners met on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, in City Hall Room 301-A and via Microsoft Teams (public access was also available by phone and City Channel 25). The agenda scheduled the meeting for 9:00 a.m.; it was called to order at 9:09 a.m. Present: President Frank Bock, Vice President Marilyn Miller, and Commissioner Janet Cleary. Excused: Commissioners Steve Smith and Heidi Wick Spoerl. The board unanimously approved the September 8, 2026, meeting minutes, then conducted a quasi-judicial appeal hearing on the 15-day unpaid suspension of Skylar Wilkerson, Equipment Operator 1, Department of Public Works (Operation Division, Sanitation Section).

Consent Calendar / Routine Approvals

• Approved the September 8, 2026, meeting minutes (File 260715). Motion by Commissioner Janet Cleary, seconded by Vice President Marilyn Miller. Vote: 3-0 (Bock, Miller, Cleary); Smith and Wick Spoerl excused.

Suspension Appeal Hearing — Skylar Wilkerson (File 260714)

• Legal basis. Under state statute and CSC rules, an employee may appeal a second unpaid suspension imposed within six months of a prior unpaid suspension. The suspension before the board was a 15-day unpaid suspension signed July 16, 2026, following a May 12, 2026, accident involving the city garbage truck Wilkerson was operating.
• The city's position. The department's witness testified that the city had cause to issue the 15-day suspension and that it was appropriate discipline. The witness described the suspension as addressing three infractions and emphasized the work rule requiring employees to contact fleet services as soon as practical — "if possible at the scene" — so an accident report can be generated and the scene preserved so evidence is not altered. The city's rules on preventable accidents, including reporting duties, were entered into the record.
• Prior discipline. The city presented Wilkerson's prior disciplinary history (including memos, performance improvement plans, and a one-day suspension) as background. A commissioner noted that the department had jumped from a one-day to a 15-day suspension, and asked how often the city had made such a jump; the witness responded that it had occurred in the past, but usually for "a much more dramatic problem than this."
• The appellant's position. Counsel for Wilkerson argued that the suspension letter's explicit reasons were the three stated infractions; that Wilkerson's manager — not Wilkerson — placed the call reporting the accident; that the May 12 incident did not fit the patterns of Wilkerson's prior incidents (e.g., a prior fuel-overhang incident involving turning too sharply or failing to notice small things); and that no cost assessment for the damage had been completed, with prior incidents used as a stand-in for the cost estimate during the city's review.
• Testimony details. The witness could not recall similar prior incidents to the May 12 accident, testified that comparable remedial training for such incidents typically ran 16 to 24 hours (a practice the witness said the department does not use), and acknowledged that the city cannot be aware of an accident unless it is notified.
• Board deliberation. The board questioned the proportionality of the discipline, what records the decision-maker actually relied on, whether similar incidents had drawn similar discipline, and the fact that the suspension notice did not, by practice, recite the employee's full disciplinary history.

Key Outcomes

• Approved the September 8, 2026, meeting minutes (File 260715): carried 3-0.
• Moved into closed session (motion by Commissioner Cleary, seconded by Vice President Miller; carried 3-0) to deliberate on the suspension appeal under the state open-meetings exception for discussion of a specific employee's discipline, which "if discussed in public, would be likely to have a substantial adverse effect" on the employee.
• The open session was adjourned by motion after the closed session. The excerpted record provided does not include the board's final written determination on the 15-day suspension appeal.