"Monterey Peninsula Airport board approves job security ordinance"

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Airport board approves job security ordinance
By LARRY PARSONS 
The Monterey (CA) Herald


Two top employees of the Monterey Peninsula Airport will receive a little
more job security under a move approved Wednesday by a divided airport
board. 

After five months of batting the matter around, airport directors voted 3-2
to approve a new ordinance covering how the airport general manager and
district counsel can be dismissed from their jobs. 

The measure, which also lays out strict rules to prohibit individual
directors from interfering with the manager or giving orders to subordinate
airport workers, needs to be voted on a second time before it can take
effect. 

Directors Dana Petrak and Richard Searle voted against the measure that was
criticized by several members of the public. 

District critic Dan Presser said the measure was unnecessary and would
"build a wall" between elected directors and the airport staff. "They are
supposed to work with you," he said. 

Tim McCormick of Laborers International Union Local 270A, which represents
airport administrative assistants, said the measure would have "a chilling
effect" on potential communications between employees and district
directors. 

David Willoughby, district counsel, said federal and state laws provide
protection to "whistle-blowing" employees who report internal problems or
wrongdoing. 

"It deals with board members' conduct ... not with employees' conduct," he
said. 

District officials said the measure makes only minor changes to the
district's 47-year-old rules governing board-management interplay. 

Casting majority votes were Directors Leonard McIntosh, Carl Miller and
Robert DeVoe. They modified one section that would have required four of
five directors to vote to dismiss the general manager or counsel. 

They kept the "super-majority" four-vote requirement for dismissals "without
cause," but left unchanged the current simple-majority rule requiring three
votes for dismissals for cause. Willoughby said Monterey uses the same
process for its city manager. 

At Miller's suggestion, directors added a section to prevent the dismissal
of either of the top employees within six months of an election or the
appointment of new board members. 

"You need that six months to get some education," said Miller, who was
elected to the board in November. 

In another change, the board dropped a penalties section that specified that
violations would be misdemeanors punishable by fines up to $500 or six
months in jail. Though unstated, the penalties for violating the ordinance
would be the same as those for breaking other district laws, Willoughby
said. 

"I think the changes are very good," DeVoe said. 

But Petrak said she didn't like the super-majority rule for dismissing the
top employees without cause or the six-month moratorium when new directors
join the board. 

"We're an at-will employer, and it's important we keep that," she said.
"Sometimes there are things that come up quick."

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