County human resources outlines personnel rule updates; board asks for wider feedback

Barb McIntyre, Director of Lincoln-Lancaster County Human Resources, presented proposed updates to Lancaster County personnel rules at the May 7 staff meeting and asked permission to circulate drafts to agency heads and the employee roundtable for feedback.

Key revisions McIntyre described include adding explicit corrective-action language to Rule 11.2 regarding accessing or sharing confidential personnel or public information without a business need; modernizing overtime policy language and providing a new chart aligned with union contract provisions; and changing reduction-in-force procedures to permit, in rare appropriate circumstances, placing employees on paid notice without requiring them to work during the notice period. McIntyre also proposed defining confidential information in Rule 1 to align with Rule 11.2 and clarifying release procedures for probationary employees under Rule 8.10.

Commissioner Matt Schulte favored retaining stronger language that overtime "must" be approved in advance or restructuring text to clearly assign approval responsibility to agency heads or designees; Commissioners Vest and Flowerday noted real-world examples such as law-enforcement scenes where immediate approval may not be feasible. The board agreed to gather further feedback and return refined language for a future board decision.

McIntyre said she will circulate the proposed revisions for review and return with refined versions for future board consideration; no final policy change was approved at the meeting.