Civil Service Board Special Meeting – August 17, 2020: Closed Session Actions and Future Meeting Schedule Discussed
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Civil Service Board Special Meeting – August 17, 2020
This special meeting of the Sacramento Civil Service Board, held teleconference-only due to the COVID-19 pandemic, focused primarily on closed session discussions of three employee discipline/dismissal appeals and a brief open session to report out those actions and plan future meeting schedules. The meeting was adjourned to closed session early, and the open session was resumed only for the closed session report and board discussion. The record does not indicate that the board considered or voted on the consent calendar items (approval of March 3, 2020 minutes, and specification revisions) or the six individual appeal disqualification items listed on the agenda during the open session portion captured in the transcript.
Consent Calendar
- The meeting transcript does not include discussion or action on the consent calendar items (Items 1–5: approval of March 3, 2020 minutes, Pick-up Driver, Junior Plant Operator, Property Assistant, and Senior Property Assistant classification specifications). It is not possible from the available record to confirm whether these items were approved.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were made during the open session portion of the meeting.
Discussion Items
- Closed Session Report (Items 14–16): The board reported out the following actions taken in closed session:
- Item 14 (Public Employee Discipline/Dismissal): The committed moved to continue the matter to a future meeting, with city staff directed to provide the full transcript to the board in advance.
- Item 15 (Public Employee Discipline/Dismissal): The committee passed a motion adopting the arbitrator’s proposed decision to sustain the originally imposed discipline of an 80-hour suspension without pay.
- Item 16 (Public Employee Discipline/Dismissal): The committee moved to adopt the administrative law judge’s proposed decision denying the employee’s appeal of release.
- Future Meeting Schedule: Board members discussed the need for a regular meeting schedule. The board agreed to hold monthly meetings to avoid backlog, and staff will compile potential dates (using a survey tool like Doodle.com, pending Brown Act compliance) and communicate them to the board.
Key Outcomes
- Closed Session Actions: The board continued one discipline appeal for further review, sustained an 80-hour suspension without pay for another employee, and denied an appeal of release for a third employee.
- Meeting Schedule: The board expressed preference for monthly meetings and directed staff to propose a set of regular meeting dates for adoption at a future open meeting.
Note: The agenda listed 13 items for open session action, including five consent calendar items and six individual appeal disqualifications. The available transcript covers only the concluding portion of the open session (closed session report and scheduling discussion). No votes or decisions on the listed open session agenda items are recorded in the transcript.
Meeting Transcript
Any more items um or questions from the board? Okay, hearing none. Um do we need a motion to adjourn? Does this have to be reported out into public session? Yeah. Yeah, we'll have to adjourn to closed session and then we can be in open session. Thank you. So I move to adjourn closed session. I second that. Okay. All those in uh actually uh with the clerk actually do I don't believe we even need a motion because it's uh we have no other business, right? You don't have yeah, you don't have to move to adjourn. Okay, good. Thank you. So yeah, we'll go ahead and adjourn and um we'll resume an open session shortly here to go ahead and close it or to reopen it or not to move to the next meeting. Okay, okay, the meeting is reopened. Okay. So the time 316 on the and open session is now re being resumed. Um are you now go ahead and uh if you want to are there any comments and questions by the board at this time at this time. Um I did want to ask about the schedule of our next meeting. Um I I know since this emergency um started, um it it seems like light years away from when we last met. I believe March 3rd was the last time. Um so and if I recall, I I think the board decided initially that we'll be meeting every month. That was the uh the uh approved schedule. Unfortunately, with that schedule, this uh the council chambers which is used to televise this meeting is as you know, council is during on Tuesday, so we cannot meet. So it we would have to uh create a new schedule for that. Okay. Um is there um my my preference is to just schedule the meetings as as needed. Um I I don't know how this um uh you know we we haven't met in a long while, so obviously the the um the caseloads um fairly large for this meeting. Um any any thoughts from the rest of the board. Um this is member more. Um I if we could, I would prefer to have a schedule um so they are so I can put them on my calendar. It's hard when because I won't I won't know when the next meeting is and I I just prefer to have some type of a consistency and a schedule of meetings if we can it is um everyone's preference still to meet every month or just schedule it as needed. What is the workload dictate at this point? Um it is hard to say to be honest. There um at this, I mean this was three months. This meeting was three months worth of uh material. Um I suspect that as things continue with this pandemic, the workload will can will increase. Um but that is hard to say. Um this is a manual. Uh we should have a schedule and as consistent as possible, possibly like every month, once a month. Um, just so that we're uh trying to adjust to this new normal until things possibly change. So my recommendation is to continue doing it at least once a month so that we don't have anything lagging. So we're being consistent. Um I know sometimes we're thinking that we have things changed, but to adjust with the new normal. Um, I think the consistency is very important. I I did want to ask uh Luby, is is there a reason why we have to use the council chambers? Right now the this uh the council chambers the only uh room in the in the city hall that can actually televise uh the meetings on the Brown Act. It has to be a public meeting. So we have some members of the public have to be able to see this.
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