- Chip Weiner
- Dana Young
Last month the Hillsborough County Commission voted unanimously to reduce the Civil Service Board's involvement in classifying workers and setting pay scales. However, because the board was created by the state Legislature in the 1950s, it's up to Tallahassee to change the way the system works in the county.
Enter Dana Young.
The Tampa Republican says she will sponsor the bill in the House (Jeff Brandes will do so in the Senate), and spoke enthusiastically to CL on Tuesday about paring down the county agency, a move that is strongly supported by most of the government establishment in the Hillsborough, but not by those in the Civil Service Division, who think it will be bad for county employees and county taxpayers.
Like the more controversial Public Transportation Commission, Hillsborough's Civil Service Division is the only one of its kind in the state, which means any changes to it must go through the Legislature. Coincidentally, Brandes and Jamie Grant are teaming up on a bill that would eliminate the PTC next year.
"The Constitution officers [such as Craig Latimer with the Supervisor of Elections, Bob Henriquez with the Property Appraisers, and Pat Frank at the Clerk of the Circuit Court's office] want some flexibility," Young says. "They don't want to classify every employee, they don't want to have to use somebody else's screening process. They know who they need to hire, what type of person, what type of position...I just feel the county needs to be in charge of the county hiring decisions."
Twenty-one different public agencies utilize the board's services. In addition to the constitutional offices, it also works with agencies like the Aviation Authority and the Environmental Protection Commission. The Civil Service Board includes 30 employees who post job listings and screen applicants. It also establishes job descriptions and sets pay ranges. And it hears workplace grievances, a role which Young says will remain in place regardless.
The bill that has been drafted by County Attorney Chip Fletcher would allow county agencies to have the choice of "opting-in" to defer some of the responsibilities regarding personnel decisions to the Civil Service Board.
Not surprisingly, the head of the Civil Service Board, Dane Peterson, is not okay with the proposal. He says that the purpose of the Civil Service Act is to provide a fair and consistent system for county employees, as well as to create transparency for citizens to provide equal access to county jobs. "Nowhere in the Act does it say it's to benefit the elected officials of Hillsborough County," he says. "The whole premise of the bill is that they want more freedom and less oversight."
Young says she's spoken to him about making the organization work more efficiently.
"I said, pretend you're a Kforce [a staffing company based in Tampa]. You are a corporate employment firm and you want to make people want to come to you. Do what you need to to make your services more attractive."
A factor working against Petersen is a lack of a bully pulpit. His efforts to hire a lobbyist have been stymied; an appeal on whether the board can hire one has gone to Attorney General Pam Bondi's office, but that decision isn't expected to come down for months. Meanwhile, the delegation will decide whether or not to take up the bill in session in just a few weeks.
A recent article in the Tampa Tribune quotes County Tax Collector Doug Belden saying that the Civil Service bureaucracy has "hindered" his efforts to make the Tax Collector’s Office more efficient.
But Petersen says that in fact Belden and his Human Resources director reached out to the Civil Service Board earlier this year about finding a way to stop the attrition rate of customer service representatives in his office. Petersen said an extra row of supervisors would be created there to give reps an opportunity for advancement, and thus a reason not to quit.
Representative Young did not express a strong opinion on the Brandes/ Grant legislation to eliminate the PTC. She says her paramount concern is that all vehicles continue to be regulated with proper background checks for drivers so that passenger safety can be guaranteed. "Beyond that, I'm generally open to any conversations," she said.
Both bills will be discussed when the Hillsborough County Legislative delegation holds it annual meeting to review upcoming legislation on Monday, December 2 at 9:00 a.m. The public is invited to attend. The meeting will be held at USF at the Marshall Student Center, Ballrooms A & B, 4103 Cedar Drive in Tampa.
