Pulaski County officials added some finishing touches to the newly revamped 60-page policy manual that applies to the county's approximately 1,250 employees.
On Tuesday, the Quorum Court's agenda committee approved the updated personnel policy, which has been in the works since April. It is the first comprehensive review of the county's personnel policy manual in the past 20 years.
Under the guidance of Kelly Carney, who works in the human resources department at Delta Dental of Arkansas, and the legal consulting firm Cross, Gunter, Witherspoon & Galchus, a special task force composed of representatives of many of the county departments spent several months ensuring the manual was current with federal and state laws. In April, the county hired the consulting firm for $3,700.
"We really went through every word of the county handbook," Carney said. "There was a lot of wordsmithing, a lot of cleaning up, of streamlining the formatting, things like that."
Among the new components the task force implemented are policies and guidelines related to social media use. New guidelines bar county workers from posting pictures of county employees wearing distinguishable uniforms, or any markings that identify them as county personnel.
In using personal social media accounts, employees who identify themselves as county personnel must disclose that they are not spokesmen for the county.
"We want to make sure everybody understands that the county's message it puts on its website, they can specifically control that," said Jess Sweere, an attorney with Cross, Gunter, Witherspoon & Galchus.
"We want to makes sure that all their policies are up to date, because we want employees to understand what their rights are and what their limitations are," Sweere said.
The handbook also expanded the number of places where county employees should seek medical care for work-related injuries. Authorized medical providers now include two regular locations, in Little Rock and North Little Rock, and two after-hours locations, in Little Rock and Sherwood.
Department heads have expressed dismay over some changes. County Clerk Larry Crane noted one change that prevents employees from reusing a vacation day if it lands on a day when inclement weather closes county offices.
"Previously they could have taken back their vacation day and [taken] a snow day like everybody else. Now they can't," Crane said. "There are little things like that."
The current draft of the policy was approved unanimously by the Quorum Court's agenda committee and will go before the full Quorum Court at its next meeting.
Metro on 02/15/2017