ST. LOUIS — A city panel voted to give the mayor authority to appoint an interim personnel director, a move that could bolster the mayor’s influence on the city’s employment system, including hiring, firing and salaries. The vote passed despite objections from several of the city’s most powerful unions.
The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Civil Service Commission voted 3-0 Friday afternoon to change how vacancies are filled for the personnel director, a low-profile, yet powerful city post that does not answer directly to the mayor’s office. The Personnel Department oversees standards for hiring, firing, payment and promotion of the city’s more than 5,000 civil service employees and also handles union negotiations.
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The vote on Friday will allow the mayor to appoint an interim personnel director of his or her choice when there is a vacancy, as there is now. Previously, the commission, a three-member panel that oversees the Personnel Department and the city’s merit system, was required to appoint a current department employee as interim director.
In December, the commission appointed Sylvia Donaldson, a longtime Personnel Department human resources manager, as interim director to replace Richard Frank. He retired after serving in the role since 2004 and was only the fourth person to hold the job since 1942.
Some Personnel Department employees were briefly locked out of their offices while documents were secured amid a whistleblower investigation.
Commission member Steve Barney argued Friday that the vote could help make the Personnel Department less insulated from the agenda of the rest of city government.
“It’s a most unusual organization in the city to have one department head ... have literally no accountability to the mayor once the mayor has appointed that person,†said Barney, a commission member for more than 12 years. Barney added that he’s watched as three mayors, including current Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, struggled to get cooperation from the department on their agendas.
Several major union representatives argued Friday that the vote could allow mayors to keep interim directors on indefinitely, making a job that has often served as a check on mayors more political.
Jeff Haantz, a representative of the Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council, argued that the move could make the Personnel Department “beholden to political influence†with impacts for years to come.
Emily Perez, an attorney for the International Association of Firefighters Local 73, representing many of the city’s fire and EMS workers, said before the vote that the union would pursue legal action if it passed.
“I understand you all might view this as: ‘Oh it’s just a temporary appointment; it doesn’t really matter,’†Perez said. “But the reality is that these sort of appointments never happen on the schedules or time frames that are contemplated.â€
Jeff Roorda, business manager of the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Police Officers Association, the police department’s bargaining unit, also argued against the change, citing concerns that city jobs may become patronage positions.
“I know the urge to comply with the mayor’s desires is strong,†Roorda said. “And the mayor wishes to have expanded control over the department of personnel and the civil service commission, but that’s not a good thing.â€
Two unions representing the interests of Black and minority members of the police and fire departments, the Ethical Society of Police and the Firefighters Institute for Racial Equality, spoke in favor of the change.
“We’ve seen the effects of past directors and things that have been questionable,†said ESOP president Sgt. Donnell Walters.
The vote comes as the Personnel Department is in the midst of trying to manage a widespread labor shortage, and is also heading up the selection of finalists for the role of city police chief.
Jones’ administration has clashed with the department, including over the chief search. Jones said the department’s application process needs to “start over†after it eliminated all but two internal candidates.
The Personnel Department has a degree of insulation from the mayor’s office — a vestige of a 1941 reform effort to reduce employee churn from patronage and machine politics.
Unlike most other city department heads, whoever fills the permanent director role can’t be ousted by the mayor without formal charges of malfeasance.
The mayor will pick a permanent director from three candidates forwarded to her by the Civil Service Commission, which chooses the slate after competitive testing.
The commission is made up of three mayoral appointees who serve staggered six-year terms. Jones has appointed one new member, Dean Kpere-Daibo, an attorney at Constangy Brooks, Smith & Prophete; and reappointed Barney to the panel. Chair Bettye Battle-Turner was appointed by Mayor Lyda Krewson.
Barney said Friday that the city has other measures in place to prevent city employment from become a patronage system.
“I think it’s a stretch,†Barney said, adding that he didn’t think the rule change would upend the city’s civil service system. “I think if they were speaking in 1941 when the initial charter was cast, they were against the background of a very different world.â€
Battle-Turner said commissioners were not voting as they did simply to comply with the mayor’s request.
“You need to know that each of us on this board have a sense of our own independence,†Battle-Turner said, adding: “We’re not going to let anyone shove something down on us if it’s not in the best interest of the city.â€
