Updated AACRMF model county personnel policy released

By Colin Jorgensen, AAC Litigation Counsel

When I joined the Association of Arkansas Counties (AAC) as a litigation attorney for the Risk Management Fund (RMF) in summer 2017, we did not have a full litigation caseload for me to attack on day one. I quickly discovered that AACRMF and the Rainwater Holt and Sexton law firm agreed the AACRMF Model County Personnel Policy was in need of a comprehensive review and update. This sort of project takes a considerable amount of time — each topic in a personnel policy requires research and thoughtful crafting of language.

After I completed a first draft, I sent the draft to Mike Rainwater and his team at the Rainwater firm. We updated some more. AAC Executive Director Chris Villines and I sat down with Rainwater for several hours and combed through every section of the updated policy. We updated some more. I chased down a few final sources, and we updated some more. Finally, in October 2017, we arrived at a new model policy that was updated to address changes in the law and emerging employment trends, while retaining the basic outline of the former policy for ease of transition and practice. Most importantly, everybody agreed the new model policy was ready for release.

I spoke about the new policy and provided copies to the county judges at Lake DeGray in October. I spoke about the policy and provided copies to county officials at the Human Resources Seminar held at the AAC in December. I cannot begin to estimate the number of phone calls and emails I have received from county officials with intelligent questions and comments as counties have commenced updating their personnel policies. Please keep the inquiries coming. And let me know if you’d like an electronic copy of the policy; I can even send it to you in Microsoft Word format for ease of plagiarism. My email address is cjorgensen@arcounties.org.

Below is a summary of the major changes in the updated AACRMF Model County Personnel Policy, as compared to the prior version of the model policy circulated among the counties for years. Topics not addressed below are substantively similar to the prior model policy.

• Equal Employment Opportunity (3C): Expanded to include new protected classes required by law and language automatically incorporating any protected classes announced in the future.
• Anti-Harassment Policy (3D): More robust to emphasize that counties will not tolerate harassment, and harassment should be promptly reported so it can be addressed.
• Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Policy (3F): New; required by law.
• Political Activity (3H): New; Arkansas law prohibits political activity by government employees during work time. This is important to note both to ensure the county will not be accused of promoting or allowing political activity on the clock and to alert employees about the prohibition.
• Social Media Policy (3I): New; not required by law but a helpful policy in the age of social media, to make clear that employees should refrain from improper conduct on the internet.
• Freedom of Information Act (3J): New; not required by law but helpful to assist with FOIA compliance.
• County Property (3K): New; standard language addressing employer property.
• Background Investigations (4D): New; background checks are not required, but if a county wishes to conduct background checks, we recommend limiting them to certain positions, including governing language in the county personnel policy, and adhering to the policy to ensure equal treatment.
• Drug-Free and Alcohol-Free Workplace Policy (4E): Updated to comply with federal testing regulations and state laws such as the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment.
• Employee Classifications, Compensation, and Attendance (5A-C): New sections outlining standard language for counties about topics typically addressed in personnel policies — counties should feel free to adjust details about office hours, pay periods, and the like.
• Group Insurance Programs, Holiday Leave, Vacation Leave, and Sick Leave (6A-D): New sections providing standard language about topics typically addressed in personnel policies — counties should feel free to adjust details about insurance benefits, leave accrual, carryover hours, and the like.
• Leave Without Pay (6F): New; if a county allows leave without pay, such as when an employee seeks leave but does not have paid leave available and does not qualify for Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave, this should be addressed in the personnel policy to ensure consistent and equal treatment of employees.
• Military Leave and Jury Duty Leave (6G-H): New; required by law.
• Mediator Role of County Judge (8F): The only significant change to the grievance procedure is this optional provision allowing a county judge to serve as mediator in an attempt to resolve disputes by agreement before a formal hearing.
• Issues Not Addressed in the Personnel Policy (10): No matter how great the personnel policy may be, you will encounter issues that are not addressed in the policy. This provision allows county elected officials to interpret the policy and issue memorandums to address questions/issues not covered by the policy.