In order to establish an equitable and uniform procedure for dealing with personnel matters; to attract to municipal service the best and most competent persons available; to ensure that appointments and promotions of employees will be based on job-related merit and fitness; and to provide a reasonable degree of security for qualified employees, the following personnel system is adopted and repeals all ordinances and provisions of ordinances inconsistent herewith.
(Prior code § 16-1)
A. 
The city manager shall be the personnel officer.
B. 
The city manager may delegate any of the powers and duties conferred upon him as personnel officer under this chapter to any other officer or employee of the city included in the management personnel system, or may recommend that such powers and duties be performed under contract as provided in Section 2.56.120.
(Prior code § 16-2)
The personnel officer shall have the following powers and duties:
A. 
Attend all meetings of the personnel board and serve as its secretary;
B. 
Administer all the provisions of this chapter and of the personnel rules not specifically reserved to the council or the personnel board;
C. 
Prepare and recommend to the council personnel rules and revisions and amendments to such rules;
D. 
Prepare or cause to be prepared a position classification plan, including class specifications and revisions of the plan. The plan, and any revisions thereof, shall become effective upon approval by the council;
E. 
Provide for the publishing or posting of notices of tests for positions in the classified service; the receiving of applications therefor; the conducting and grading of tests; and the certification to the department head of a list of all persons eligible for appointment to the appropriate position in the classified service.
(Prior code § 16-3)
Personnel rules and regulations for the classified service shall be adopted by resolution of the council after notice of such action has been publicly posted in at least three public places for at least five days prior to council consideration. All amendments and revisions shall be processed in a like manner. The rules and regulations of the classified service shall apply to all full-time permanent, probationary and transitional status employees, as provided for therein, except those personnel specifically exempted or included in the management personnel system. The rules shall establish regulations governing the classified service personnel system, including:
A. 
Preparation, installation, revision and maintenance of a position classification plan covering all positions in the classified service, including employment standards and qualifications for each class;
B. 
Public announcement of all tests and acceptance of applications for employment;
C. 
Preparation and conduct of tests and the establishment and use of resulting employment lists, containing names of persons eligible for employment;
D. 
Certification and appointment of persons from employment lists, and the making of provisional appointments;
E. 
Establishment of probationary periods;
F. 
Evaluation of employees during the probationary period;
G. 
Transfer, promotion, demotion, reinstatement, disciplinary action and layoff of employees in the classified service;
H. 
Separation of employees from the city service;
I. 
Establishment of adequate personnel records;
J. 
Establishment of appeal procedures concerning the interpretation or application of this chapter and any rules adopted hereunder.
(Prior code § 16-8; Ord. 1012-08 § 3)
A. 
A central management personnel system shall be adopted by resolution of the city council, after notice of such action has been publicly posted in at least three public places for at least five days prior to council consideration. All amendments and revisions shall be processed in a like manner. The central management personnel system shall apply to all specified positions as so designated at the time of their creation or as may from time to time be amended by resolution.
B. 
The central management personnel system shall be designated to isolate key positions in the city service from undesirable participation in the labor relations process and from personal interest in the outcome of labor disputes over working conditions. The central management personnel system shall also be designated in such a way as to facilitate central management responsiveness to the direction of the city council, create a system of accountability to the city council and city manager, and provide a reasonable degree of security to central management personnel. The central management system shall also be designed to enable the city to compete with other organizations for high-quality personnel within the labor market.
C. 
The central management personnel system shall, as applied to certain designated positions, supersede all and any provisions of the rules and regulations of the classified service, unless otherwise specified in the central management personnel system. The city manager, with concurrence of the city council, shall have responsibility for interpreting and determining the applicability of the provisions of the central management personnel system.
D. 
The city manager shall have the authority to appoint, promote, discipline, demote or remove designated central management personnel, as provided in Section 2.08.090 of this code, as such section may be amended from time to time.
(Prior code § 16-9; Ord. 503-85 § 1; Ord. 539-87 § 1; Ord. 630-89 § 1; Ord. 638-89 § 1; Ord. 747-94 § 1; Ord. 774-94 § 1; Ord. 854-98 §§ 1, 2; Ord. 877-00 § 1; Ord. 1012-08 § 3)
The provisions of this chapter apply to all offices, positions and employees in the service of the city, except:
A. 
Elective officers;
B. 
Members of appointive boards, commissions and committees;
C. 
Persons employed by independent organizations under contract to supply expert, professional, technical or any other services;
D. 
Volunteer personnel;
E. 
City attorney;
F. 
Emergency employees who are hired to meet the immediate requirements of an emergency condition, such as extraordinary fire, flood or earthquake, which threatens life or property; and
G. 
Employees, other than those listed elsewhere in this section, who are not regularly employed in full-time positions.
(Prior code § 16-10; Ord. 1012-08 § 3)
A. 
It is the policy of the city to determine employment eligibility without regard to race, color, creed, sex, national origin, religion or political affiliation or lack thereof, personal sponsorship or any other factor which is not related to the satisfactory performance of a particular job. It is also the city's employment policy to comply with all provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act as amended by the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, and any subsequent amendments thereof. Additionally, all due consideration shall be given to guidelines set forth by the Fair Employment Practices Commission of the State of California and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance.
B. 
No provisions of this chapter or the personnel system shall be construed to preclude any affirmative action plan or amendment thereof which may be adopted by the city.
(Prior code § 16-11; Ord. 1012-08 § 3)
The city manager shall consider and make recommendations to the council regarding the extent to which the city should contract for the performance of technical services in connection with the establishment or operation of the personnel system. The council may contract with any qualified person or public or private agency for the performance of all or any of the following responsibilities and duties imposed by this chapter:
A. 
The preparation of personnel rules and subsequent revisions and amendments thereof;
B. 
The preparation of a position classification plan and subsequent revisions and amendments thereof;
C. 
The preparation, conduct and grading of competitive tests;
D. 
The conduct of employee training programs;
E. 
Special and technical services of advisory or informational character on matters relating to personnel administration.
(Prior code § 16-12; Ord. 1012-08 § 3)
A. 
The council reserves the right, prior to making any determination to recognize or decline to recognize any employee organization or employee bargaining unit, to formally determine and adopt appropriate guidelines for organizational recognition and unit determination. In no event shall management personnel (whether or not a part of any management personnel system), supervisory or confidential personnel be permitted to be members of a bargaining unit which has as any part of its membership nonsupervisory or nonconfidential personnel.
B. 
In establishing rules and regulations for the administration of employer-employee relations, the rights of the city shall include, but not be limited to, the exclusive right to determine the mission of its departments, commissions and boards; set standards of service; determine the procedures and standards of selection for employment and promotion; direct its employees; take disciplinary action; relieve its employees from duty because of lack of work or for other legitimate reasons; maintain the efficiency of governmental operations; determine the methods, means and personnel by which government operations are to be conducted; determine the content of job classifications; take all necessary actions to carry out its mission in emergencies; and exercise complete control and discretion over its organization and the technology of performing its work.
C. 
Employees shall not be obligated to join or participate in any employee organization, and no employee shall be interfered with, intimidated, restrained, coerced or discriminated against by the city or any employee or employee organization for exercising his or her right of participation or lack thereof.
(Prior code § 16-13; Ord. 1012-08 § 3)
A. 
It is the policy of the city to favor the employment and the utilization of physically and/or mentally permanently disabled employees who are injured as a result of their duties and responsibilities as employees. The city reserves the right to make available a permanent light-duty position to any employee who may be determined to be permanently disabled from performing the functions and duties of such position which such employee may occupy at the time of a work-related injury.
B. 
The duties and responsibilities of the permanent light-duty position shall be such that the disabled employee will be capable of performing them, notwithstanding such employee's disability. Such light-duty position may be made available in any department of the city and need not be in the particular department in which such employee worked at the time of the work-related injury. Such position shall be termed a "permanent light-duty position" and may be created or modified at any time, including, but not limited to, subsequent to the occurrence of the work-related injury of any particular employee.
C. 
The permanent light-duty position need not have the same or even substantially similar duties or responsibilities to the position held by a permanently disabled employee at the time of a work-related injury, but shall be a position which provides substantially the same salary and benefits provided by the position held by the permanently disabled employee at the time he or she sustained a work-related injury.
D. 
Failure of a permanently disabled employee to accept a permanent light-duty position within thirty days of its tender to him or her shall constitute an absolute waiver and forfeiture of any right to disability retirement, including, but not limited to, such right which may be provided by the Government Code, and shall constitute a ground for termination of such employee.
(Prior code § 16-14; Ord. 1012-08 § 3)
A. 
Definitions.
"Relative"
means spouse, child, stepchild, parent, grandparent, grandchild, brother, sister, halfbrother, halfsister, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, first cousin, parent-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, or any other person or individual related by blood or marriage.
"Employee"
means any person who receives a city paycheck for services rendered to the city, and whose position is included in the city's classified service.
"City official"
includes all elected or appointed individuals serving the city of Lawndale on any permanent standing board, committee or commission, whether compensated or not.
"Central management employees"
includes department heads or other central management employees as designated in writing by the city manager.
B. 
General Restrictions.
1. 
The city shall not hire the relative of a city official, but the fact that a person shall become a city official shall not cause a change in the employment status of any employee or prevent the future advancement of such employee after the election or appointment of the city official.
2. 
Central Management Employees.
a. 
Spouses. For business reasons of supervision, safety, security and morale, spouses of central management employees may not be employed anywhere in the city organization where such employment results in placing one spouse under the direct supervision of another spouse or where the work involves potential conflicts of interest or other hazards greater for married couples than for other persons.
b. 
Other Relatives. All other relatives of central management employees may not be employed anywhere in the city organization.
c. 
Consequences. If the advancement of an employee to a central management position or the marriage of a central management employee with another employee would be contrary to subsection (B)(2)(a) or (b) of this section, then in the case of an advancement, with the approval of the city manager, department head and both affected employees, the advancement may be made and the nonadvancing employee shall be discharged in a nondisciplinary separation, or if such consents are not received, the advancement will not be made. In the case of a marriage, if one of the employees does not voluntarily resign, the less senior employee shall be discharged in a nondisciplinary separation.
C. 
Department Restrictions.
1. 
Spouses. For business reasons of safety, security and morale, spouses may not be employed within the same department where such employment results in placing one spouse under the direct supervision of another spouse, or where the work involves potential conflicts of interest or other hazards greater for married couples than for other persons.
2. 
Other Relations. The employment of other relatives within the same department is prohibited when they:
a. 
Perform joint duties;
b. 
Share responsibility or authority;
c. 
Function directly in the same chain of command;
d. 
Work on the same shift at the same work site unless such is approved by the city manager in writing.
D. 
Marriage. When two employees marry:
1. 
If such marriage results in a violation of subsection (B)(2)(a) or (C)(1) above, the personnel officer will attempt to arrange a transfer to a similar position in another department for one of the employees, ordinarily the one in the more junior job classification. There is no guarantee that the new position will be within the same classification or at the same salary level.
2. 
Where a transfer, as provided in subsection (D)(1) above, cannot be arranged or is not accepted by the employee(s), then one of the affected employees shall be separated from city service. Such separation shall be accomplished either by voluntary resignation of one of the affected employees or, in the event neither of the affected employees voluntarily resigns, by the termination of the less senior employee through a nondisciplinary separation from city service.
E. 
Grandfather Clause. The provisions of this section shall only apply to changes in employment status or marriages occurring after the effective date of the ordinance codified in this section.
F. 
Interpretation. The city manager shall have the authority to make decisions regarding the interpretation and enforcement of this section of the municipal code.
(Ord. 748-94 § 1; Ord. 1012-08 § 3)