Warren ― The Warren City Council on Tuesday overrode Mayor Lori Stone’s veto of an update to the city’s Civil Service Ordinance.
The council passed an ordinance on April 14 revising Warren’s Civil Service Ordinance, which governs the city’s civil service system. Stone then vetoed it because she was concerned about its impact on the civil service system and its “misalignment” with Warren’s city charter, she said.
But Jeff Schroder, an attorney for the city council, said at Tuesday’s City Council meeting that the veto wasn’t received and filed by the city clerk until after the deadline to do so. He told The News that the council “put the issue to bed” on Tuesday.
“The mayor may have wanted to go to court to argue that she filed it on time, and the council would have argued it wasn’t on time,” he said, adding that the council is trying to save a legal dispute by “just simply overriding it and clearing the record.”
The council voted unanimously to override the veto.
Stone said in a statement that the city clerk verified that the veto was received and filed.
“At Tuesday’s meeting, the City Council voted to override my veto,” she said. “Regardless of any discussion about the process, their actions clearly acknowledged it as a veto. If they truly believed it was not a veto, there would have been no reason to act on it. I continue to note instances where Council’s words do not align with their actions.”
The mayor and the City Council have clashed over several issues since Stone was elected in 2023, including the creation of a land bank authority and the mayor’s decision to not appoint members to the city’s Elected Officer Compensation Commission.
More on the ordinance
Schroder said previously that the council last June directed a “full rewrite” of the Civil Service Ordinance after realizing it’s “out of date.” He said in a letter to the council in March that the proposed revisions represent “the most significant update” to the city’s civil service framework since its adoption in 1967. He added that the update is “long overdue.”
But Stone has argued that the ordinance would remove the city’s Civil Service Commission’s “core functions and responsibilities.” The Civil Service Commission, which consists of several members appointed by the mayor, administers the merit system for city positions not exempted by ordinance, according to the city’s website.
Stone said last week that the Civil Service Commission only addresses personnel matters that involve full-time union employees. She said the council’s changes to the Civil Service Ordinance exclude full-time union employees from the commission’s purview.
“So, even if there is a ‘civil service commission’ that meets twice a year, NO employees are actually subject to their body,” she said in a statement.
However, Schroder said union employees are still part of the city’s civil service system, even though they aren’t under the commission’s purview. He said the civil service system approved their job descriptions.
Other council action
The City Council also voted on Tuesday to direct Schroder to create a resolution to implement the civil service exemption rules.
Schroder told The News that under the amended Civil Service Ordinance, the council has the authority to determine which employees are exempt from the city’s civil service system. All 39 political appointees in the city are currently exempt from it. The vast majority of these individuals are mayoral appointees, but a few aren’t, such as the deputy clerk and deputy treasurer.
Schroder said the council wants the city’s Human Resources department to do a study and recommend which political appointees should be converted to the civil service system. He said these would be individuals “farther down the organizational chart” who don’t report directly to the mayor, clerk, treasurer or the City Council. The council will ultimately decide which positions will become part of the civil service system.
Stone said the city of Warren employs roughly 812 full-time union members, about 50 elected or appointed personnel, and about 400-500 seasonal or temporary employees.
asnabes@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Warren council overrides Mayor Lori Stone’s veto in civil service spat
Reporting by Anne Snabes, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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