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Youngstown council approves formal policies on workplace behavior
YOUNGSTOWN
City council approved ordinances that formally create policies to protect whistle-blowers, address violence and bullying in the workplace and detail the improper use of city-owned cellphones and computers.
“These are general workplace policies that the private and public sectors have,” said Mayor John A. McNally, who sponsored the four ordinances. “Employers need to have them to protect employers and employees. These are good governance accountability tools that need to be in place.”
Council had postponed votes on the issues Jan. 21 after some members had questions. Council unanimously approved the ordinances Wednesday.
The whistle-blower policy protects employees from retaliation if they report suspected or actual wrongful conduct by other city workers.
The policy against violence and bullying protects those victimized by those practices.
The policies on the improper use of cellphones and computers owned by the city spells out for city employees the restrictions on both.
“They are using city equipment and need to treat it properly,” McNally said.
The cellphone policy is the same as the one enacted in December 2013 by then-Mayor Charles Sammarone, now council president.
It came after the city received a $450 bill as the result of a public-works employees using a city-owned cellphone to make private calls and text messages on city time.
Council’s vote codifies the policy.
The lawmakers also voted to permit the board of control to seek proposals to complete a long-delayed downtown sewer project on North Phelps Street between West Federal and West Commerce streets.
The proposal is estimated to cost $1.8 million.
The replacement work came to a stop a few months after it started in February 2013.
Contractors discovered numerous utility lines — most notably AT&T wires and telephone conduits — underground that weren’t on any maps.
The work will start in the summer and take about a year to replace. That section of Phelps will be closed to vehicular traffic while the work is done.
That work includes replacing a 24-inch sanitary-sewer line, splicing 20,000 AT&T fiber-optic lines and consolidating telephone conduits.