It is 532 on Wednesday, June 8th, 2026.

We're gonna call the meeting of the Spark Civil Service Commission to order.

Um Madam Clerk, would you please do a roll call?

Present.

Dr.

Spark?

President Alice Memorial Marcella present.

We have a quorum.

Thank you.

Item three is public comment.

Madam Clark, do we have anybody wishing to make public comment?

None of the time.

Thank you.

Item four is the approval of the agenda, which is for possible action.

Looking at an approval for today's agenda.

I can move to approve.

Thank you.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Thank you.

With that, we have a motion and a second.

All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, nay.

Motion carries unanimously.

Item five is approval of minutes.

This is for possible action.

We have consideration and possible approval of the minutes of the Spark Civil Service Commission meeting from April 8th, 2026.

Any comments on the minutes.

Hearing none, and can I get a motion to approve the minutes from April 8th, 2026?

I wasn't in attendance.

Can I still move?

I believe so.

I think it's as a sitting commissioner, you're approving that the minutes were accurate.

Uh so moved.

Thank you.

And I can second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second.

All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, nay.

There was no little oh, okay.

I'm doing it on my end.

Um my computer is having a big up bit of a lag.

So I'm unless it's as long as you got it, we're good.

With that, the motion carries unanimously.

Item six is announcements, presentations, recognition items, reports, and items for special interest.

No action will be taken.

Item 6.1 is the report concerning the City of Spark Civil Service Employee Actions from March 2026 through May of 2026.

Presentation by Ashana.

Good evening, Commission members.

Item 6.1.

Let me go to that, is one of our standard reports that we provide to the commission on a quarterly basis.

This item shows the different employee actions that occurred within the quarter.

Employee actions involve new hires or rehires.

Anytime anybody completes probation and employment in terms of resignation, retirement, or termination, or a position change, such as a promotion, reclass, or a series classification.

Employee actions for the last quarter are on the screen.

We had actions from community services, police, and fire, and all of the details regarding these have been provided in the confidential packet.

Um do you have any questions about those?

The commission any questions on this?

No questions from me.

No.

Okay.

With that, we'll move to item 6.2, which is the report concerning City of Sparks recruitment advertising for vacant city positions from April 2026 through June of 2026.

All right.

Thank you.

Item 6.2 is a summary of advertising for vacant city positions within the last quarter.

We had a total of seven postings for the police department, one for fire, two for community services, and two for Chunky Meadows Water Reclamation Facility.

The emergency communications dispatcher and police officer positions remain open today, and I can answer any questions that you have about those.

I just have a question on the reporting date.

So for item 6.1, it was March through May, and then for this item it's April through June.

Uh board clerk, for the record, I can answer that.

So the way we report our employee actions, um, it's part of what we do to close out a pay period.

Um, and because that's on a little bit of a delay, it made the most sense to cut it off right at May.

It was like a very clean cut with the way our payroll um calendar worked.

Okay.

So at the October meeting, um, when your board clerks and we present the employee actions at that meeting, it will start for the full month of June.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah.

Thanks, Casey.

That is it.

Any questions from the commission?

Well, thank you.

Nope.

Hearing none, we'll move on to item 6.3 report concerning the City of Spark Civil Service candidate testing completed from April 2026 through June of 2026.

All right, item 6.3 reports on candidate testing for some of the positions previously mentioned in item 6.2.

When we recruit for a civil service position, we provide an examination opportunity, which allows candidates to test and be placed on the eligibility list to be considered for the vacant position.

In the last quarter, staff has been very busy.

You can see the number of positions up there.

We've done police officer recruit, police officer post, emergency communications dispatcher recruit, emergency communications dispatcher supervisor, property evidence technician, property evidence supervisor, fire apparatus operator, cruise supervisor, equipment mechanic, and wastewater plant operator one two.

The numbers here show those who were invited to test, and it reflects candidates who meet the minimum qualifications and were invited to participate in the civil service exam.

This number does not reflect the total number of applications received.

It's just those people that met the minimum calls and were moved forward.

Passed and completed.

Those categories are certain civil service positions, such as police officer recruiter lateral, may require multiple stages of the civil service exam, for instance, a physical and then a written, and you know, there are many steps involved.

The numbers provided for completed means the candidates have completed and passed the first stage of the civil service exam, but have not completed the civil service exam in its entirety.

Those reflected in the past mean they have passed all stages of the civil service exam.

Not yet tested is data specific to police and emergency communications dispatching candidates, as they have 365 days from the date of application to complete the testing in order to move forward.

Not yet tested numbers do not reflect, do not include police officer candidates who have been invited but not have not yet completed part one of the civil service exam, as they also have 365 days in which to do so.

And there are two pages of these I can show you.

So we have police officer, recruit lateral, the physical exam, the written exam, emergency communications dispatcher and supervisor, property evidence tech and supervisor.

Some of these were internal, like the two supervisor ones.

That's why there's fewer numbers for the invited to test and passed.

Then we have fire apparatus operator again, that's an internal recruitment.

Uh cruise supervisor was internal.

Wastewater plant operator one two and equipment mechanic were external.

Any questions on those?

Yeah.

I noticed under, I think it was 6.1, there were four police officer retirements in the period May, March to May.

Have they been filled?

We fill as academies open.

So they usually have two to three academies.

We just graduated.

Ooh, I want to say five.

Five or six in the last academy.

So then they start, and now we're prepping for the next group.

Uh we are cycling them through as fast as we can because we do anticipate some more retirements.

There were a lot of people that kind of started about the same time and they're hitting that 20-year mark.

So yeah, we had four leave.

We did a few promotions.

Uh, when people leave, they kind of leave some positions.

And then we did just start some new ones about what, a week ago?

Two weeks ago.

Yep.

Yep.

Thank you.

I think I know the answer to this, but those that don't show up, do you guys reach out to them or do you just let it go as the honor system they chose not to show up for whatever reason?

Yeah, they don't show up, they don't pass the test.

So yeah, they can reapply in 365 days.

Okay.

Or for another position.

Any other questions?

Nope.

Nope.

Okay.

Thank you.

We will move to item seven, which is our general business.

7.1 is consideration discussion and possible approval of Steve Bessow's request to be placed on the police officer assistant reemployment list in accordance with civil service regulation 9, section four, reemployment.

This is for possible action.

Thank you.

Item 7.1 is a request by a previous employee, Steve Stevie Besso to be placed on a police office assistant reemployment list per civil service regulation 9 section 4 reemployment.

An individual who has resigned in good standing from a classified position may request to be placed on a reemployment list.

With that, I can answer any questions.

What's the reemployment list mean?

It means that if there is another position available that this person would be on a list, then they wouldn't have to do the whole retesting of everything.

Why would anybody not request that?

Sometimes they're moving out of state.

Um they have to be in good standing also.

Um if they left not in good standing, they might not request that.

But sometimes they're leaving to go out of state.

They just know they're not going to be coming back to the area.

Any other questions?

None from me.

If not, um I am interested in entertaining a motion.

I can make the motion.

Thank you.

Um I move to approve Stevie Besso's request to be placed on the police office assistant reemployment list in accordance with civil service regulation nine, section four reemployment.

I will second the motion.

With that, we have a motion and a second.

All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, nay.

Motion carries unanimously.

Item 7.2 is consideration and discussion and possible approval from uh Michael Bartelheim's request be placed on the police officer reemployment list in accordance with civil service regulation nine, section four, reemployment.

This again is for possible action.

This item is similar to the previous item.

It is a request made by a previous employee, Michael Bartelheim, to be placed on police officer reemployment list per civil service regulation nine, section four reemployment.

An individual who has resigned in good sign standing from a classified position may request to be placed on a reemployment list.

Any questions for that one?

No.

With that, I um am interested in answering your motion.

Uh I move to approve Michael Bartelheim's request to be placed on the police officer reemployment list in accordance with civil service regulation nine, section four, reemployment.

And I will second.

We have a motion and a second.

All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed nay.

Motion carries unanimously.

Item 7.3 is consideration, discussion, and possible approval to remove names from the firefighter recruit eligibility list in accordance with civil service regulation for examinations and eligibility lists.

Section 13, removal of names from eligibility list.

This is for possible action.

Shauna.

Okay.

This request is to remove names from the eligibility list.

Generally, these generally occur after a job has been posted.

Candidates have tested and interviewed, and they have either decided not to move forward or have failed some part of the background or were no longer list interested.

Those are the reasons why we we would remove names from an eligibility list.

And this is uh requesting that we move names from a firefighter eligibility list for those three reasons.

Question for this specific listing.

Did we exhaust all of the extended options of extending the posting?

I'm I'm not sure what you mean.

I believe in the past we've been asked to extend the post.

Oh, to extend lists.

And have we done that with this particular on this particular list?

I do not, I don't know.

Do you know if we have exhausted extended that list in the past?

Firefighters are firefighters are good for two years anyhow.

Okay.

Um, they're all automatically to your lists, unlike the others that are a year, and then you can add two six months extensions.

Um, but these are generally people who send us an email saying I'm not interested after all, or they failed the test.

Okay.

And that's why we're removing them from the list.

Even if the list remains active, just they're not on it anymore.

Okay.

Chair, I have a question.

Yes, please.

Um, Elise Monroy for the record.

So okay, so I understand that people are removed from the list if they write us an email and say, I'm not interested, love you bye.

Or if they say, or if they fail the test.

But does the fact that they become removed from our eligibility list?

Like if they went to, let's say Utah and applied for a job with the fire department there.

Would the someone in Utah see that they're on their ineligible from our list?

And would that impact their employment?

They're just an ineligible for our list here.

No, we don't share candidate information.

Okay.

However, there is sort of an exception.

So police officers, when they are applying someplace else, they'll send us a request, and the candidate for that agency will authorize this.

And they'll ask us did they apply?

Did they pass?

You know, so we don't give them a ton of details, but we will give them that basic information.

And that's really only police that ever requests that.

But there's no coordination between agencies otherwise where we say, no, we took them off the list, and here's why.

Um that information is in our confidential packet too, because it's just not something that we should.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion.

Um, I can move.

If I can get back there, I clicked out of it.

Um, okay.

Um, I move to approve the removal of names from the firefighter recruit eligibility list as outlined in the confidential candidate section letters and in accordance with civil service regulation four examinations and eligibility list section 13 removal of names from eligibility list.

Thank you.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

We have a motion and a second.

All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Nay.

Motion carries unanimously.

Item 7.4 is consideration discussion and possible approval to make an exception to the civil service regulation three, section two, nepotism to allow the potential hire of a water wastewater plant operator one slash two at the Truck E Meadows Water Reclamation Facility.

Where their brother is currently employed as a wastewater plant operator too.

This is for possible action.

Okay.

And I just realized I never said who I am for the record, not once.

Shauna Halterman, I'm the HR director for the record.

Uh, this item is to request to approve an exception to the civil service regulation three section two on nepotism to allow the potential hire of a wastewater plant operator one slash two at the Trucky Meadows Water Reclamation Facility, also known as Tomorf, where their brother is currently employed as a wastewater plant operator too.

Both would report to different supervisors, and neither would be in a position of supervising, reviewing performance or giving work direction to the other.

Any questions on that?

I just want to make note that the director of the wastewater reclamation facility is in support of this.

Yes.

I just want I just want to make that known because it's on our document, right?

I believe that's what I read.

I don't know if it's on there, but he is in support of it.

Okay.

Um the candidate has gone through the interview process and is in background right now.

So thank you.

Is um is this a difficult to fill position, so to speak?

Um we have a lot of candidate supply.

It's an entry-level position.

Um I wouldn't necessarily say it's difficult to fill.

It's probably difficult to retain.

It is a position that requires working 24 hours a day, 365.

Um, and that's not always work that everybody loves to do.

Um, so yeah.

It's difficult to retain, but not necessarily hard to fill initially.

Great question.

Any other questions?

I have I think I have two questions on on this one.

So can you um explain the I guess the process of like the hiring and then when things come to us?

What I'm my question is is this person's start date delayed because of our quarterly meeting?

In this particular case, no.

Could it be it could?

Um, or we could host a special meeting.

Um, we just found out we did the interviews this last week on this and found out that this person was one of the chosen candidates and stuck it in at the last minute.

So we were good on this time.

If it had been two weeks from now, we would have probably asked to hold a special meeting just to approve this.

Okay, okay.

Yeah, yes.

Okay.

Yeah, okay.

The last two it was 2023, if I'm not mistaken, but yeah, we would call a special meeting.

Okay.

Um later on down the line with things passed background.

Okay, helpful.

Um, so good to know, because I was so I I'm not a lawyer.

I don't see how this meets the reg of nepotism.

Like if that's what's written here, and I haven't looked at the reg.

So my concern was that if they're not the reporting to the same supervisor or in the same line of like um supervision, I don't see based on what's here.

I don't see how this meets the requirement of what we would need to decide for on reg.

So I was concerned that possibly we're just being uh out of a good good governance, abundance of cautious caution putting it on the agenda, and then their employment was delayed.

But I'm glad that's not the case.

Uh as the serval civil civil service regulations are written now, it says they can't work together in a department at all without this board's approval.

Okay.

Um could that be revised maybe in the future, perhaps?

Uh but if they were in direct line, that that wouldn't happen at all.

That would not be allowed even with your approval.

But the fact that they work in the same department needed approval.

Okay, cool.

Yeah.

Historically, when this has come before us, we've been told that conversations were had with both parties, letting them know has this been the case with these two individuals that if one promotes the other or what that looks like, or does that happen when and if that situation comes up?

It that would happen when that situation comes up.

That is also spelled out, I believe, in both the admin rules and the civil service rules that you're gonna have to somebody's gonna have to make a choice if you want to promote in this position because you can't oversee a family member within those degrees of relations.

Okay.

I think to Casey's point, our last one was actually the police chief former police chief son that we had to review.

And he was retiring, so it was nonsensical, but yeah, in that sense.

Yep.

I'm glad to hear there's a process for holding a special meeting.

So employment's not delayed.

That's good.

Yeah.

And this just the timing worked out well.

Yeah.

We put it in there thinking we could always pull it at the last minute, but he made it through the process.

So yeah.

Any other questions?

Okay.

With that, I will entertain a motion.

I'll uh move to approve to make an exception to civil service regulation three, section two nepotism to allow the potential hire of a wastewater plant operator one slash two at the Truckee Meadows Water Reclamation Facility, TMWRF, where their brother is currently employed as a wastewater plant operator too.

Have a motion and I will second the motion.

All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Nay.

Motion carries unanimously.

This is the one I've lost sleepover, because I am gonna butcher a name by apologize ahead of time.

7.5 is consideration discussion and possible approval of a seniority lot draw for Benjamin Bowers, Charles Brown, Paul Hamlin, Hector Jimenez, S2Pen, and Austin Paulis hired on June 29th, 2026, the position of police recruit with the police department.

This is for possible action.

Great.

Item 7.5 is again one of our standard processes when we have multiple hires that are hired into the same position on the same day.

This item is to request to draw names to determine seniority.

These are the five police officers we were talking about just a little while ago that just started uh last week.

And for a point of clarity, they were hired at the beginning of the academy, and then does their job title change?

They're brought in as recruits when they're starting the academy, and then they flip to police officers.

Okay.

Um wait a minute.

Is that like a year probation?

After a year.

Or upon completion of the academy.

Um so they come in as recruits, they go through the academy once they graduate academy, they become police officers, and then once they become police officers, that starts their one-year probation.

Okay.

As a police officer.

So these five are they the current academy attendees or are they the ones that just graduated?

These are the ones that are starting the academy.

Okay, beautiful.

Thank you.

That's it.

Any other questions?

Okay.

Not I.

These are my favorite.

I think I've uh the last two times probably the gun.

All right.

Charles Brown.

Not Charlie Brown, Charles Brown.

I'm gonna start bringing a nice letter opening.

Paulus.

Benjamin Bowers.

And our last poll is Cole Hamlin.

Thank you.

Um I will take that in the form of a motion.

There are second to the motion.

Uh second.

Thank you.

With that, we have a motion and a second.

All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, maybe motion carries unanimously.

Thank you.

Um, item eight, announcements from staff and commissioners.

Are there any announcements from the staff or commission?

The only thing I have is that Elise completed her oath of office just before our meeting.

Welcome back.

Thanks for another term.

I still have one vacancy if you know of anybody that would like to join us.

Um, and um, there was a question, I believe that you had asked um at the last meeting about presentations by department heads.

So I did a little research on this, and there was a time a few years ago that the department heads went to every single commission, committee, and did presentations.

Um right now, with the many vacancies that we have in our department head crew, there's no plans to do that right now.

We just had two retirements in the last week.

Okay.

Um, so yeah, that's that's what that came from was years ago.

I guess they were going to every single commission.

And I think we serve at the pleasure of the council, so if they want us to have them, they'll send them.

But I can respect the position you're in.

Yeah, it's kind of kind of busy.

Thank you.

Any other announcements from staff or commission?

Oh.

Okay, we will move to item nine, public comment.

Madam Clerk, do we have anybody wishing to make public comment?

Question around public comment.

Since we're streaming, do people have the ability to like chime in, ding, zoom, or is it more of a one-way dialogue?

Uh public comment is a one-way dialogue, so um it's not a place for whoever's on the dais to engage in discussion.

Um, people can either come to the meeting and do it in real time, or they can email us um beforehand.

We give a deadline.

I believe we give them until noon, the business day before the meeting.

Um, and then if we ever get any of those, they would be presented to you and added to the agenda once it's posted.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

With that, it is record time 601, and we will adjourn the meeting.