New personnel policies on tap for Hamlet

HAMLET — Sans council members Abbie Covington and Jesse McQueen, the Hamlet City Council held their first meeting of the new fiscal year.

For current and prospective Hamlet city employees, after conferring with city attorney T.C. Morphis, Jr., several personnel policy amendments were codified by the council.

Probationary period

According to city documentation, “An employee serving a probationary period following initial appointment may be dismissed at any time during the probationary period.”

Furthermore, “upon successful completion of the prescribed probationary period, a new employee will be eligible for a 2.5% probationary pay increase,” but, “a new employee dismissed during the probationary period, shall not be eligible for terminal pay or accumulated vacation leave.”

Interim Assignment

Hamlet defines interim assignment as, “a temporary assignment a current employee takes on which is a different role. An employee is asked to temporarily assume the duties of a higher graded or same level position that has fallen vacant or whose incumbent is on leave.”

Mayor Bill Bayless lauded the city’s decision to adequately compensate employees who take on additional responsibilities. The verbiage reads, “A temporary increase to a staff member’s pay may be provided for taking on an interim assignment: however, it is not required.”

Travel Reimbursement

“City employees traveling on official business will be reimbursed for all actual expenses paid by them from their personal funds as per prior agreement with the City Manager.”

Sick Leave Transfer

The city of Hamlet will allow an unlimited transfer of sick leave based on the following criteria:

• Service was with NC state government agency, NC municipality, or NC county government

• Employment with previous prescribed agency immediately precedes employment with Hamlet

• Letter of record from prior agency penned and submitted to Hamlet HR within six months of employment

Bereavement Leave

“An employee may have up to three consecutive days leave at full pay granted when attending the funeral of an immediate family member.”

Reasonable Suspicion Testing

The city has adopted a policy delineating when and how mandated drug and alcohol testing is conducted. “The city shall require an employee to submit to an alcohol or a controlled substances test when the city has reasonable suspicion to believe that the employee has violated the prohibitions of this article.”

Observations of reasonable suspicion must be made by a supervisor or city official trained in specific indicators of impairment based on 60 minutes of training on alcohol misuse, and an additional 60 minutes of training on controlled substance use.

Social Media Policy

“Employees are expected to act responsibly and exercise good judgment when interacting with social media resources. When using social media resources for personal and private reasons, employees must ensure a distinct separation between personal and organizational views and must not speak as a representative of the city. Employees are not to speak on behalf of the city unless authorized by the Manager or City Council to do so. Any public statement about city business or other business must be readily verifiable by means of a link to a reliable, neutral source with a reputation for fact checking and accuracy.”

Following the passage of new personnel policies, city manager, Matt Christian, thanked the public for turning out to the July 1, Independence Day celebration. “We had a great turnout, great feedback, we had a couple other minor changes, but we are just trying to adapt and make sure that we are providing good quality events for the folks to attend,” Christian said.

Council member Eddie Martin reminded the council and the public that the American Legion Post 49 baseball team is playoff bound. Given their solid play throughout the regular season, the team secured a first round buy and will be traveling to Carteret County for the first two games of a five game series, followed by a return to Hamlet for game three on Friday, July 14.

The next Hamlet City Council meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 15.