Committee advances ordinance to align personnel code with charter, change probation and civil-service tie rules

A Cuyahoga County Council committee advanced an ordinance that updates county code to align the Personnel Review Commission’s (PRC) duties with the county charter, removes a prohibition that prevented probationary employees from being promoted, and changes the handling of tied civil-service exam scores.

George Vaughn, manager of employment testing for the Personnel Review Commission, told the committee the ordinance updates code sections to reflect changes adopted in the most recent charter review and to harmonize the county code with the PRC’s administrative rules. "This was to clarify the responsibilities and authorities of the personnel review commission," he said, noting the change replaces outdated text and restores consistency between the code and the employee handbook.

The ordinance proposes three principal changes described to the committee: - Clarify that the PRC’s role is to review, audit and report on human-resources processes while county Human Resources remains responsible for ensuring compliance with local, state and federal employment laws. - Remove code language that prohibited probationary employees from being eligible for promotion; the county’s employee handbook already allows promotions for those employees. - Change how tied scores on civil-service exams are handled: instead of applying sequential tie-breakers (military-credit then earliest application), the code would treat identical exam scores as tied and certify the entire tied group when names are certified to appointing authorities.

Council members pressed for operational detail. Director of Human Resources Sarah Nemestal explained that when an employee is promoted they enter a new probationary period for the promoted position. "Anytime you enter into a new position, the county, including a promotion, you're in a standard 6-month probationary period, which can be extended by management up to a year," she said. Nemestal said collective bargaining agreements may include specific protections; in many bargaining agreements employees who do not pass promotion probation can bump back to their former position if contractual language provides that protection. For non-bargained positions, she said, returning to the prior job is not automatic and is treated case by case.

On civil-service ties, Vaughn said military service credit (an upfront 5% of the maximum exam score, as described) remains intact but the ordinance removes later use of military credit or application timestamp as a tiebreaker. In practice the PRC would certify the top 10 names for eligibility lists of 40 or fewer, or the top 25% for lists of 41 or more; if the cutoff falls within a group of tied scores, the entire tied group would be certified so that no applicant with the same score is excluded at certification time. Vaughn described that approach as intended to treat candidates who performed equivalently on exams fairly in downstream hiring steps.

Committee members asked about eligibility-list expiration and removal. Staff said eligibility lists generally expire after about a year but can be modified to meet county needs; the PRC would only alter a public list to correct errors such as score-entry mistakes, misspellings or incorrect dates.

After extended discussion and clarifying remarks from staff, the committee moved the ordinance to the full council under second reading. The vice president of the council asked that her name be added as a sponsor when the item moves forward.

Why it matters: The ordinance changes administrative procedures that affect county employees and hiring operations. Making probationary employees eligible for promotion and certifying tied groups could increase the number of candidates an appointing authority must consider. Clarifications about probation windows and collective-bargaining protections were highlighted by committee members as important to employee protections and implementation.