Editors Note: This article was originally published in the Jan. 31, 2024 issue of the Chronicle Progress. Some information may be outdated.
City scratches idea to let workers formulate own personnel code
Backstabbing, animosity and plain confusion among Delta City employees led city council members to hire a third party professional to help the city revamp its personnel policy.
The decision was made after a lengthy discussion took place among council members and some city workers during the council’s Jan. 17 regular meeting.
At the heart of the matter lies an apparent personnel issue, or series of issues, about which city officials are unable to speak about in public.
The problems with the city’s current personnel policy first surfaced publicly when Delta City Fire Department Chief Lynn Ashby announced recently that he was stepping down after about two decades of service.
The fire department’s volunteer staff then elected Travis Stanworth to replace him. Problem is Stanworth is a full-time employee in the city’s public works department. Because the fire chief is also a city employee, it means Stanworth would be wearing two hats and potentially collecting two paychecks at the same time, something the city’s current personnel policy appears to prohibit.
A casual observer might’ve believed this was the only reason the city was embarking on a personnel policy rewrite, but the conversation on Jan. 17 quickly dispelled that notion.
Dent Kirkland, the city’s public works director, first highlighted the behind-the-scenes struggles when he spoke out against allowing a non-city employee to represent the fire department on a city-appointed, employee-run personnel policy committee the city council authorized during an earlier meeting about the subject.
He said he wasn’t in favor of allowing someone on the employee committee to influence a policy meant for city personnel if they were not a city worker themselves.
“I personally have some real concerns about that. Because you are having a representative, you’re having an employee committee, and now you are having a representative that’s not an employee of the city, has no skin in the game, of what affects them,” he told council members. “And most of the policy, in my opinion, what 10 percent of that policy is even going to be directed toward them (the city fire department)? I have some real concerns about that.”
Kirkland said he was in favor of the city allowing a third party, outside the city’s employ, to draft a revamped personnel policy if that was the case.
“Our employees, we already have enough animosity that I don’t know how we are even going to get through this,” he told council members. “It was a suggestion from one of my men that we go third party because of all the feelings that we have.”
Council members seemed to support going outside the city once Kirkland supported the idea.
Councilman Kelly Carter, a new member of the city’s legislative body, said he was in favor of the idea. He said he’d read the current personnel policy three times and came away confused. He also said it seemed the policy contradicted itself over and over. Putting himself in a city worker’s shoes, he said he wasn’t sure how the policy was supposed to help city workers navigate problems among themselves.
“To Dent’s point, with what’s going on, would it be wise to look at a third party to make personnel policy? Because I, personally, when I read that last week, I struggled a little bit with that (current) policy,” he said.
Councilman Kiley Chase reiterated as much. In fact he said he believed the city council had far over-stepped its role in crafting policy for the city and felt more than just the city’s personnel policy should be inspected by an outside party.
“I believe it’s time for Delta City to go outside on a lot of things,” he said.
Chase particularly took issue with employees writing their own personnel policy—a former employee-stacked committee revamped it just in 2019.
Stanworth, who attended the meeting, responded that the city’s personnel policy matches what numerous other Utah municipalities have already codified, but Chase said he didn’t think that meant much.
“It doesn’t matter. You are still employees writing your own policy. And there’s animosity right now amongst a lot of employees and that will show in the (new) policy,” the councilman said.
Councilwoman Betty Jo Western, who was appointed to assist the employee-led committee earlier, said she was fine with a third-party professional crafting a new personnel policy, but wanted to allow for some employee input regardless which direction city officials chose to go.
She also said the behind-the-scenes “animosity” among employees was worse than she’s witnessed in 19 years on the council.
“I feel like as a council, we’ve never had so many meetings, we’ve never had so many of this or that. We’ve had these personnel issues… this is my 19th year and in 19 years that I have been here this is really probably the most difficult time I’ve ever seen with our personnel,” she told the council. “And it’s very concerning to me. It really is. I have to tell you, I’m losing nights of sleep.”
The Chronicle Progress at one point sought clarification during the Jan. 17 meeting—it was apparent the conversation was being driven by much more than the fire chief issue given Western’s comment. Asked point blank whether a different personnel problem was driving the council’s effort, council members reluctantly confirmed there was.
City Attorney Todd Anderson then reminded council members and employees that personnel issues were private and not up for public discussion beyond the most general terms.
Eventually, the entire council shifted from supporting an employee committee working toward a new personnel policy to allowing Anderson to hire an outside expert to craft a new draft replacement policy.
Chase said just because an outside party would lead the effort didn’t mean the city had to adopt the new policy blindly.
“We don’t just have to blindly accept it. We can still have a committee that can go over it and say this doesn’t pertain to us, this does. It can be changed before it’s finally adopted,” he said.
Councilman Nick Killpack said he expected any third party crafting a new policy would likely want feedback from the city and its employees on what changes were contemplated.
Council members later agreed to give department heads a week to come up with any suggestions from their employees and themselves and pass those along to Western. Those would then be given to the outside party, an attorney Anderson recommended who is an expert in employment law.
That attorney works for Salt Lake City firm Manning Curtis Bradshaw & Bednar. His name is Mitch Longson. He was mentioned throughout latter part of the city’s lengthy discussion as someone expert in municipal human resource issues across the state.
Anderson said he would not be part of the city’s effort because any new policy would not affect him—he’s an at-will city employee who bills hourly for his legal work—and because he’s not an employment law expert. Later Anderson confirmed that any engagement with Longson would be done through Western on behalf of the city. Western confirmed as much on Monday.
Councilman KC Bogue said he thought the council should move quickly on the matter, that the city had already drug its feet long enough. He also didn’t favor allowing much employee input since the employees already had their input by writing the current policy.
“They’ve already had their input, right?” he said. “For me, we need to go all third party or not. That’s just me though. I am ready to move this forward.”
Killpack said he still thought the employees should be involved.
Bogue urged quick action and said he expected department heads to step up in the future and show more leadership.
Finally, council members voted to authorize Longson’s hiring as well as give employees one week to provide input on any new policy.
The council is expected to hold more discussions, maybe even host a special meeting, when a draft policy is complete.
By going to an outside party, the city expects to spend about $3,500 on the effort, officials confirmed.
