06-25-18 Personnel and Finance - Laserfiche WebLink

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CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK Clark was instrumental in assisting with these changes but I want to, again, commend and thank everyone particularly Councilmember Davis and Bob Palmer who were joys to work with. Bob Palmer, Council Attorney with offices on the 4th floor of the County-City Building, stated, I would like to commend Aladean and Kyra. As I've learned many times,the more eyes looking at a subject, the better the product. Many of the changes, we found if we changed one (1) word, we had to go back and change two (2) or three (3) paragraphs to accommodate what we did with changing that one (1) word. So between the three (3) of us, I think we put together a cohesive ordinance. It may not be perfect but it goes a long way toward getting to perfection. The changes were largely practical. As an example we eliminated appointed volunteers. We don't want to discourage people from volunteering to serve on the boards, however, we did believe that if you got paid for that position that we had the right to ask for you to participate in the training. We also thought the rank and file, so to speak, and the non-supervisory employees did not have to deal as much with the complaints of harassment as the supervisory employees did. Their training was sufficient being once a year for one(1)hour.That could be put together however Human Resources wants it to be. That could simply be a video tape or something to that effect. Supervisory employees, we felt, needed at least two (2) hours every other year of interactive training so that they actually get involved and they have some response to situations that involved the training program. Kyra Clark, Director of Human Resources with offices on the 12th floor of the County-City Building, stated, This is really great timing. This is something that shows the City Administration is certainly in line with the wishes of the Council and we are excited you brought this forward. It was a pleasure working with the Attorneys. Committeemember Regina Williams-Preston stated, Thank you everyone for your good, hard work. Councilmember Jo M. Broden stated, I do have a couple questions. First of all I have some comments. Thank you everyone for your hard work. I do want to ask a couple questions just to make sure I am understanding this correctly. The supervisory employees have a minimum of two (2) hours of interactive sexual harassment training every two (2) calendar years. So that could happen two (2) hours over the course of two (2) years, correct? So there is not a requirement anywhere within this to have a minimum annual training? Ms. Clark replied, Yes, you are correct. Councilmember Broden followed up, Ok, so yet, the non-supervisory full and part time are required annually, correct? Ms. Clark replied, One (1)hour, correct. Councilmember Broden went on, Alright. Having understood that I guess I would want to know the rationale for not having an annual requirement for supervisory individuals. So that is one (1) question. And then if someone could define, and I understand we delineate out the topics, one (1) through ten (10), but we use the word `interactive' in section C and I would like some help understanding what interactive means. I think from at least the remarks that were just made here today, my takeaway would be that section D's participants, the full or part time non-supervisory EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1227W.Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 I TTD 574.235.55671 www.southbendin.gov 3