Monterey Board Rare For Employment Decisions

Monterey is one of few municipalities in the state that has a Civil Service Board.

The board decided to fire Police Chief Bill Randolph last week after his indictment on multiple counts. Monterey Attorney Evan Wright said in 2001 the General Assembly passed a special legislative act that created the Civil Service Board specifically for Monterey. Wright said the Civil Service Board’s responsibilities vary depending on each municipality. Wright said, in Monterey’s case, the board governs the town’s employment decisions.

“Obviously the city code plays into this and there is a great amount of interaction between the city code and the town of Monterey’s employees,” Wright said. “But also I think the Civil Service Board is you know, going to be the book-end for any decision involving an employee.”

Wright said the board is comprised of three members with those members being one appointed by the mayor, one appointed by the aldermen, and one appointed by the employees themselves. Wright said he is not sure why the general assembly adopted a Civil Service Board specifically for Monterey.

“If I were to speculate having been around several of these smaller towns it would be probably to protect against situations where you have an election and then you have a widespread dismal of employees after an election,” Wright said.

Monterey Mayor Alex Garcia is not allowed to be a part of the board. Wright said the board does not make the mayor powerless but makes it a process to go through for employment decisions.

“Well of course the mayor has to have some measure of control over the day-to-day functions of the city,” Wright said. “But what it would do in reality at the end of the day is not allow one person to just make decisions without it going through several layers.”

Wright said the board acts as a human resources department for Monterey.